Dreams Aren't Real
Part 1
Chapter 2
Dreams about Fish in Reeds
Tonight, Naruto thought that his forest dreaming was finally over. While he slept this night he dreamed of a small sandy beach around a huge clear watered coastal inlet. His forest was gone and so were his flowers and frogs. He still wore the same pants but they were slightly more gray than white this time round. But instead of the forest there was just the white sand of the beach in the little cove he found himself in. The little beach was bordered by high rocks that went right out into the water, curving around and shielding the little inlet from the wind and the rougher water that Naruto could just see out beyond. The water wasn't exactly blue and not exactly green either but a strange sort of mixture of the two but very clear at the same time. He was only a few feet from the shoreline but he could see brightly colored fish swimming around in the shallow water just off the shore.
The sun was warm on his face, chest and arms but not scorching. All in all it was pretty perfect. Who knew that such beautiful places lurked in his subconscious?
But the dream wasn't totally different, not in all ways. When he raised his eyes to the top of the tall rocks on his right he saw a figure standing up there, looking out across the water beyond the cove and very resolutely not looking at him.
"Sasuke?" Naruto whispered to himself.
All of the things to follow him from the last dream to this, he would never have expected it to be Sasuke. Wasn't he done with this little delve into his mental frame of mind with Sasuke, why the hell did his mind want to keep drawing him back to it? And why now of all times were they in a new setting if this dream was going to be just like the last ones? Did something happen in the last dream that was so different from the ones before? Well, yeah, he and Sasuke had had a relatively civil conversation for a change, but had that been the catalyst? And if that was all his mind wanted to do about Sasuke, why was Sasuke still in his dreams now?
He heaved a sigh and sat down in the warm sand by his feet and continued to stare up at the stubborn Uchiha. The wind was blowing the other man's hair back and whipping the black, no dark gray pants around his legs. Apparently it was a lot more breezy up there than down here but Sasuke didn't seem cold and gave no indication that he was going to come down from there anytime soon. Naruto thought about going up there and saying 'hi' but rejected the idea almost immediately. Sasuke may have been the one to come and talk to him last time, but if Naruto went up there after him he would probably just run away like he always did.
So Naruto continued to watch him until morning in the real world when he woke up.
Sakura for once was speechless when he told her about this latest development. Apparently this change of scenery didn't fit into her master plan, especially when it seemed as though nothing was resolved from the forest.
"Why a beach?" She asked for maybe the sixth time as the three of them walked up the path back to Konoha after delivering yet another message.
"I like beaches," Naruto offered.
"It's not enough that you simply like beaches," Sakura told him as though she suddenly knew more about him than he did. Seriously lately she seemed to think of herself as some sort of dream expert. But it was evidently really irritating her that she couldn't work this one out. "It must mean something."
Sai broke the ensuing silence. "At the moment Naruto is in a relatively peaceful place like this inlet. He is protected from outside dangers but he knows these dangers are lurking just outside of this protection. You said the water looked rough and the weather was very windy outside the inlet, right?"
The pair of them looked at Sai with open mouths for a while.
"Wow, Sai. Maybe you're getting better at interpreting this bullshit that Sakura is!" Naruto exclaimed with a big smile once the shock had worn off. Sakura didn't seem half as amused though. But she still seemed impressed.
"That's brilliant Sai. Good catch," she told him.
Sai continued. "Either that or you are scared of facing the outside world, I haven't decided."
Naruto frowned. "I take it back, you're way worse."
"The fact that you are still dreaming about Sasuke-kun leads credence to the possibility that you are obsessed with him too. The clothes you both wear or are not wearing, more to the point, is almost homoerotic."
"Sai!" Sakura exclaimed.
"You think I have subconscious problems? You're the one always talking about dicks!" Naruto told him hotly.
"Not with other people," Sai explained. "You're the only one that I seem to need to have that type of conversation with."
"Shut up Sai."
Naruto spent the beginning of that night's dream on his beach staring up at Sasuke. Sasuke had moved only once to sit down in the entire time. Whether it was because he knew Naruto was watching him or hadn't even noticed he was there or not, Naruto couldn't decide, but he still wouldn't turn around. Eventually Naruto got sick of trying to figure him out. It was his dream after all and Sasuke was only acting in the same way Naruto was expecting him to act. So not expecting Sasuke to come down from his perch any time before hell froze over, Naruto decided to explore his new surroundings just like he had in the forest.
The rocks to each side of the inlet were pretty interesting. The rock platforms near to the water were dotted here and there with little pools filled with the odd little fish here and there. The fish were always brightly coloured and always different. He even saw a few starfish.
After having a look around on the rocks, careful to keep his distance from Sasuke, not wanting him to run off, he sort of ran out of places to explore. If he left the beach and went inland he came eventually to a tree barrier that cut him off from going any farther.
Oh well, there was only one last place to explore. He shrugged and dived off the rock he was standing on and into the water.
The water was beautiful and clear, it was so warm it was almost like diving into a bath. When he surfaced he looked down and he could see his feet moving, keeping him afloat. A few dark blue fish swam by further down near the bottom.
"Wow."
He heard a rock come loose from above and saw a few stones skidding down to plonk into the water a few feet away from him. Looking up he saw that Sasuke had come over to watch him in the water. He'd probably wondered where that splash had come from when Naruto had dived in. Sasuke was standing very close to the edge on an obviously unstable ledge, judging from the small rockslide.
"Careful," Naruto called up before he realized what he was doing. "You might fall."
"This is a dream dobe, I can't get hurt. Not really."
"Oh, yeah." Naruto realized. "Well you might not die, sure. But you might still be able to feel pain."
"Like I care."
Typical Sasuke response, he really should have known better. Even though he had expected it, even though it was just the way Sasuke always spoke to him, it still annoyed him somehow. Sakura was the one that had told him that Sasuke was only acting this way because this was a reflection of the real Sasuke Naruto's mind had conjured up for him. He couldn't expect this dream Sasuke to be any different than the real one because deep down he knew that Sasuke just wasn't any different than how he was acting now. Sure it was a realistic reflection, and that was nice in a way. But at the same time he was deeply annoyed that Sasuke couldn't even be nice to him in his dreams, realistic or not. His subconscious just seemed intent on making him suffer.
"Jump off then, if you don't care."
He couldn't see from here, but he knew the smirk must be there. "I don't need to prove anything to you."
"You don't need to, but you always seem to want to," Naruto muttered to himself.
Sasuke couldn't have heard him, but he seemed to know he'd missed something said about him.
He watched Naruto for a few moments longer with a blank face before turning and disappearing from Naruto's limited view.
Naruto didn't see him again for the rest of that night's dream.
Actually he didn't see him again the next night either. Naruto had dreamt of the same beach, the same fish but no Sasuke. When he still hadn't seen him after a while of exploring and swimming he went in search of him. But this location wasn't like the last and it was pretty limited area wise. There was really nowhere Sasuke could have gone where Naruto would not be able to find him.
Did this mean Sasuke would not be coming back in his dreams? That would be strange after all this time. It wasn't like he had resolved anything in his mind about the Sasuke, but why else would Sasuke just suddenly not be a part of it anymore. Was his mind just sick of him internally bitching about Sasuke's attitude and punishing him? Would Sasuke's absenteeism really be like a punishment anyway? Yes, he realized it would be a punishment.
Naruto had been almost irritated by his presence the entire time, but being irritated by Sasuke was still better than not seeing him. Even Sasuke just being Sasuke, cold, hateful and all was better than no Sasuke at all. He found himself missing him that night. Even if Sasuke hardly said anything to him most of the time, just seeing him there up on his rock and watching the turbulent waters outside their cove had a calming effect on him he hadn't realized he'd been feeling until it was suddenly gone. He couldn't enjoy his dream tonight no matter what he did to amuse himself. Every so often his eyes would be drawn back up to the empty rocks and he'd feel a little pang of loss at the sight.
Every time he looked up there expecting to see that familiar raven dark hair being tossed by the wind, the straight set of his shoulder, face serious and contemplative. But when he looked now there was just…nothing.
The very next night he thought he was going to spend alone again but after checking out the sandy bottom of the inlet he surfaced again to find Sasuke standing up on his usual perch, but watching him instead of the water outside.
"I thought you weren't coming back," Naruto called up to him.
Sasuke took a step back from the edge and Naruto thought he was going to disappear again but he didn't. He stepped forward quickly and dove off the edge of the rocks. Naruto gasped when his feet left the rocks and he found himself holding his breath throughout Sasuke's long dive down to the water. It was a graceful dive too, he held his arms out in front of him, his legs straight out behind him. He arced his body slightly and sliced into the water with barely a splash.
Naruto didn't breathe out again till he saw Sasuke resurface a few moments later.
"I thought you were gonna crack your head open on the bottom," Naruto admitted to him.
"Then why did you dare me to do it before?"
"You were pissing me off!"
Sasuke actually had the faintest traces of a smile touch his lips at that and Naruto noticed something for the first time since looking into his eyes in the forest. That crazy hate wasn't really there anymore. Maybe dream Sasuke had been doing a lot of thinking up there on the bluff the last few days and managed to clear his mind a little. He looked better, refreshed and way more like the old Sasuke. It made his heart ache to see Sasuke as he had been before his mind had gotten all twisted up by revenge. This was the Sasuke he wanted back.
Daringly, Naruto swam a little closer until they were only about five feet away from each other and stopped. Sasuke didn't try to move away.
"I thought you weren't coming back."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed a little. "How did you even know I was gone?"
"Because I was here and you weren't," Naruto replied obviously.
"That's creepy," Sasuke said slowly.
"How is that creepy?" Naruto asked thoroughly confused.
"Whatever, it's not like it matters."
Naruto was about to ask him another question when he felt something brush against his bare side. It was so sudden and unexpected he couldn't help but yelp.
"What is wrong now?"
"Nothing," Naruto answered mildly embarrassed by his reaction. "Just a fish. They're really friendly. Especially the blue and yellow ones."
"What fish?"
Naruto realized that Sasuke had never paid much attention to the water here before being on such a high perch most of the time. The amount of coloured fish in the water should even impress him a little.
"Follow me," Naruto instructed.
He didn't wait for a reply but simply dove underneath the water toward the reeds at the bottom of the deepest section of water where most of the fish could be found. He turned when he got there and saw that Sasuke had indeed followed him and was watching him. He held up a hand for Sasuke to stay put, turned and swam through the reeds. Usually when he did this he upset the fish lurking in the reeds and they would all go swimming up and away from him. It should give Sasuke a good view of them all. When he emerged from the reeds he swam to the surface for a much needed breath of air. Sasuke surfaced a moment later.
"Well?"
"Pretty nice." Sasuke told him in a voice that didn't really convey any wonder. But his eyes did look pretty bright telling Naruto that he was more amazed than he was willing to let on.
Over the next few nights Naruto took the opportunity to show him around the little inlet, climbing onto the rocks and looking at the pools and the little worlds contained within them. They swam down to the bottom of the inlet where Naruto collected a few brightly coloured shells to show Sasuke when they surfaced.
Sasuke followed him around, looked at everything Naruto showed him. He seemed mildly interested but not really amazed by most of it. But then, Naruto didn't really expect him to be. It wasn't until Naruto took him back down into the reeds to give Sasuke an opportunity to send the fish scattering himself that he got any idea that Sasuke was finding any of this in the least bit enjoyable.
On the first pass through the reeds, he managed to lose Sasuke somewhere amongst the swaying green leaves. He kept swimming trying to find him again. But Sasuke found him first. He practically ran into Naruto, grabbing his waist and because he was going faster out of the two, sent them both tumbling through the reeds. Thinking Sasuke had decided to attack him after all, Naruto put a hand on Sasuke's chest ready to push him away when he caught sight of Sasuke's face. He was actually smiling at him. He stilled his hand on Sasuke's chest, palm flat and watched the amazing sight of Sasuke smiling. He felt Sasuke's hands slide down a little until both hands rested on his hips and wondered at the touch. Well he wondered until he realized that if he didn't surface soon he was going to drown himself. And yeah, this was just a dream and he probably couldn't drown, but his lungs still screamed for air and it was enough to compel him to resurface.
Sasuke's smile slid a little as he realized Naruto's problem and still with his hands gripping his sides, he boosted Naruto up toward the surface.
Naruto sucked in a breath when his head hit the surface and Sasuke did the same a few seconds later.
"Having fun trying to drown me?" Naruto asked him even though he wasn't in any way upset by being grabbed.
"I am actually," Sasuke wasn't smiling anymore but then he gave him that smirk. "By the way, I've been meaning to tell you this but thin light coloured pants are probably not the best thing to wear swimming."
It took Naruto a few moments to catch on, but when he did he couldn't stop his face going a little red.
"Well it's not like I have a lot of clothing options! Why the hell were you looking anyway?"
Naruto expected some sort of smart-ass reply or even a cutting insult, but Sasuke didn't do as expected. He just frowned at him and said, "Why not?"
Naruto couldn't really come up with a good argument against that. There was no reason to think Sasuke had been ogling him or anything. If the pants were really that see-thru it would be hard not to notice he supposed, no matter who it was. But he couldn't quite shake Sai's impression of the clothing option from his head and it annoyed him.
"Because I'm a guy?" Naruto offered lamely.
"What does that have to do with anything? This is a dream right, and if you aren't going to waste all your time trying to lure me back to the village or remind me how we were friends once what are you doing here with me? Is this whole thing about showing me frogs in flowers and fish in reeds cause that seems like a big waste of mental energy to me."
That was a good point. So what? Was dream Sasuke trying to tell him that maybe Sai had been right and this was trying to show him a different side of his obsession with a certain Uchiha and what that really meant? That couldn't be it. If that was true then he imagined his dream Sasuke would have been a lot nicer to him. And besides, he liked Sakura and she was most definitely a girl.
"I like girls," Naruto told him.
"So? You think the two are mutually exclusive? Besides, who said this had anything to do with you?"
That threw him for a moment. "Well I know that you don't have a thing for me."
"Really, how?"
"Because you're an asshole to me!"
A small smile ticked the corner of Sasuke's mouth. "Oh, that's cute," he said mockingly. "You think that just because I have some underlying feelings for you that you should get special treatment."
"Well, if that was the case then, yes!"
"You do, you know."
"The way you act towards me is special treatment? How do you figure?"
"You aren't dead yet are you? Who else gets to me like you do? I try to ignore you, but you are so persistent. Despite what you think I can never seem to get away from you, you always find me and you're always trying to tell me that I'm so important to you and we share some great bond. And that annoys me, but at least I don't deny why it annoys me. It's the reason why you so persistently chase me and why you and no one else thinks that I am worth anything more to them than my talent and my clan."
"It's because I'm your friend," Naruto said stupidly.
"Whatever dobe, as if you could even tell me the real truth. This is a dream, nothing is real here."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I can watch you in your see through pants all I want and it will have no ramifications in the real world."
What was Sasuke saying? That because this was a dream he could do whatever he wanted and it didn't matter because this wasn't real anyway? Well he had a point, he supposed. But that didn't mean he would do anything he could just because it wasn't real. Sasuke wasn't real here, but Naruto would still remember.
"Is that what you've been doing this entire time up on that rock, thinking about ramifications and the meaning of dreams?"
"Yes, actually. I ran from you in the forest because I was looking for a way out and I did not want to deal with your dogged persistence for me to be someone I am not anymore. But you stopped chasing me and started ignoring me and I figured that's not what you were here for. So if not that, then what? Is it possible that I could relax around you now? Was it a chance for me to be here with you without having to consider real life implications anymore or how admitting things to myself might make me vulnerable to you?"
"That's some pretty in depth thinking for a dream," Naruto said after letting that sink in. "Are you trying to tell me that all you want is a friend at the moment that wont judge you or try to persuade you to do something for a change?"
"That's part of it. But I think we both know that that friend just couldn't be anyone. The last person left in the world that still thinks I'm worth being friends with. It had to be you."
"Why?"
"If you don't get that by now, you're never going to."
For the first time since this had all began, Naruto didn't share every part of his dream with his teammates the next day. He told them about part of their conversation about the possibility that all Sasuke really wanted was a friend right now, but he steered clear of most of the other stuff lest Sakura, but mostly Sai, get the wrong impression about it all.
Sakura was quiet for a long time after he told her and when she did speak it was with a little sadness. "You know, you're mind could just be preparing you for the worst. Maybe these dreams are about saying goodbye to Sasuke. I think now that you have set yourself up to fight him maybe you're just giving yourself an outlet to set things right before saying your goodbyes."
"You think I've resigned myself and him to die?" Naruto asked soberly.
"In a way, yes. Even if you both don't die, maybe you know deep down that things can't end well for him now. Maybe you just wanted a chance to be friends again before the end."
"That's pretty morbid."
"But reasonable," Sakura gave him a sad smile. "You never know, this might be a chance to make peace with him, a chance that you might never get in real life."
"But it's not real. It doesn't count."
"It counts, Naruto. To you at least it will."
He was already sitting on the sand and looking out at the churning water outside the inlet when Sasuke came and sat beside him. He sat so close that their arms momentarily brushed while he was getting himself comfortable. Naruto didn't look at him at first.
"I want to be your friend again. I don't want to think about the real world for a while."
"It seems I'm not the only one who's done some thinking," Sasuke observed. "Did it hurt your fragile brain?"
"Teme! I'm being serious here. If one or both of us are going to die I want a chance clear the air between us."
"Is this the part where you tell me that you really love me and that's why you've been stalking me all these years?" Sasuke asked mockingly.
"I haven't been stalking you! Believe it or not, sometimes there are more important things at stake than running after you. Why do you have to be so difficult here?" Naruto asked finally looking at him. "You said so yourself, this isn't real life so you don't need to act all cool towards me. You said you don't hate me, so what gives?"
"I never said I didn't hate you. I do hate you because of what you do to me. You make me second-guess myself just when I think I have everything worked out. That eager optimism and misplaced trust you have in me drives me nuts."
"Really, cause I think you're doing fine on that score without me."
"You get to me, and that makes you a bit extraordinary to me for reasons I can't fathom."
"You don't want me to have faith in you?"
"Why should you when no one else does. What else do I have to do that would make you think I'm no longer worth saving?"
"Nothing I think you're actually capable of."
"There you go again! Where is this trust coming from?"
Naruto shrugged. "You and I were team mates. Sure, maybe rivals is a better word than friends, but I knew I could count on you. You risked yourself for me a lot even when I was being an idiot and not thinking things through. You were the first one that acknowledged me as something more than just a screw up and a demon vessel when no one else did. How can you be surprised when I see more in you than other people do as well?"
"Because that would mean you felt some kind of affection for me."
"Of course I do. I do love you. You are my best friend, even if you don't act like it."
"I suppose I must too," Sasuke responded after a moment, surprising Naruto greatly with the admission. "Like I said before, why would I let you get to me if you meant nothing to me."
"Because I'm loud and aggressive about what I want and it's real hard to ignore?" Naruto joked.
"There is that."
Naruto grinned and bumped shoulders with him. "You weren't supposed to agree."
Sasuke looked at him but he wasn't smiling. He just leaned in and before Naruto could register what was happening he was being kissed. The shock of it woke him up and he found himself lying in bed staring up at his ceiling, very awake. He swore he could still feel those cool lips on his as though it had really happened.
He sat up slowly and tried to calm his breathing. "What he hell was that about?"
Well, he sure wasn't going to tell Sai about that one.
TBC.
Ah, finally I hear you all gasp. Well we all knew it was going to happen and I thought it might be novel for me to build up the feelings before we got to the kissing parts. But hopefully it was worth the effort to get this far. Please review.
Dash.