I Need You To Need To

Part IV

Naruto woke up later in darkness once more. But this time it was the regular sort of night time darkness with stars and some light from a small campfire not too far away. He was tied to a tree about twenty feet from the main camp, on his knees and facing the firelight. He could see Sasuke tied similarly on the tree next to him. Sasuke was watching two men talk not too far away. Naruto couldn't hear them talking but he knew Sasuke could tell what they were saying just by watching their lips move. He did nothing to break Sasuke's concentration and merely watched him as he watched the two men.

It had been three months since Naruto had last seen Sasuke. Three months and four days since Sasuke had taken him from the Village Hidden in the Shadows. Not that he'd been counting. And while they'd just spent time together in the blackness of the temple, Naruto hadn't seen him at all. Had only felt him and heard him and was surprised at just how relieved he was to now be able to see him properly.

He looked no different than the last time Naruto had seen him. Same milk pale skin, same raven black hair, same slightly bored, slightly annoyed look that seemed to be his default expression. Naruto couldn't see too much but he didn't seem to have any new scars or wounds. He looked just as good as before.

The men finished their conversation and moved off. The red faded from Sasuke's eyes and he looked around to find Naruto staring at him.

"Have a nice nap Dobe?"

"Bite me Sasuke."

There was that arrogant little smirk. He never thought he'd enjoy seeing it, but it was so distinctly Sasuke and he was just happy to be able to see again.

"I would if I could. But it might have to wait a little while."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "What were they talking about?"

"They were deciding whether to kill us now or keep us around for questioning. Apparently after seeing your headband and knowing where you come from they're a little reluctant to kill you. Making an enemy of a powerful neighbour like the Fire Country is not a good move for them. They're going to wait till their Master comes and let him decide. Meanwhile they've taken the Orb out of my things. I suggest we take it back when the opportunity presents itself."

Naruto knew Sasuke wasn't just talking himself up. He himself had a way to free himself. They'd tied his hands behind his back so he couldn't make signs, but that didn't mean he couldn't cut the rope with his wind element when he wanted to. These ninja had obviously underestimated the pair of them.

In a way, how they had been caught was good for them. Well as far as being caught could be. As it turned out neither of them had been injured in an all out fight and neither of them had been killed yet. All they had to do was wait it out, take the Orb back and hightail it. Once he was back in the temple village he was safe, the Rain ninja couldn't afford to be seen there if they didn't want to risk retaliation from the Fire Country.

"Do you know how long it's been?" Naruto asked Sasuke.

"Just one night in the temple. This is the night of the second day. Or early morning of the third probably. Why?"

Naruto did a bit of adding in his head. "Sai is coming for me not this coming day but the day after," Naruto replied.

He hadn't realized just how much time had passed. He was a little ambivalent about it. Sai coming meant he would be able to return home soon. Then again Sai coming meant that he would have to return without Sasuke. Again.

"Sai?" Sasuke asked as if trying to remember the name. Then he seemed to remember and frowned. "Oh, my replacement."

Naruto was a little annoyed at Sasuke's reaction. "Yeah, your replacement. What, did you think the world stopped turning just because you deserted us? We still have missions to do whether you're there or not. He's a good guy. You'd like him actually, he doesn't have any emotions either."

Naruto didn't know why he'd snapped at Sasuke. Sasuke's reaction to Sai had been part of it, but he knew that the frustration of parting ways again was the main reason. Sasuke was just an easy target to vent those frustrations on, especially when he was being a jerk.

"You take things so personally Dobe. I'm sure the rest of your team aren't as upset at my leaving."

"Yeah right. Sakura loves you, you know."

Sasuke didn't look impressed. "She only thinks she loves me. She doesn't know me at all. Nobody who really knows me ever really…" Sasuke stopped and shook his head. "Never mind."

"That's your problem. You don't let anyone get to know you."

"You don't think you really know me by now?"

That gave Naruto pause. Sasuke hadn't exactly shared much with him as far as Naruto could tell. He didn't for one moment believe that his relationship with Sasuke was anything special for the other man. It wasn't exactly a sharing of feelings kind of thing.

"I know as much about you as you let me know." Naruto replied carefully. "You choose what you share, so I only know as much as you choose for me to know. That's not really the same thing."

Sasuke smirked. "It's nice to know you think I have that much control over myself when I am around you. I'm usually careful around everyone. With you, sometimes being careful doesn't always work."

Alright so maybe they were sharing a little. It was kinda weird. "I suppose that's sort of flattering. It would have been better though if you didn't feel the need to be careful at all. What's wrong with just being yourself?"

"That is being myself. It's just the way I am. You actually get me to not be my usual self mostly."

"Is that better?" Naruto asked confused.

"It's…singular."

"I'm confused."

"That is distinctly not singular."

"And now you're teasing me again." Naruto glowered.

"I like teasing you. With words and…other ways. I'm happy to give you the choice of whichever one you'd prefer."

Naruto scowled even more. "Why do you say things like that? Why do you like teasing me so much anyway? Why do you like doing anything with me? You don't like me at all. I always thought that you had to like someone to have sex with them. You don't even think of us as friends. But you don't have to like them. You treat it like…entertainment,"

"It is entertaining." Sasuke told him. "You were bored in the temple so then I diverted you and you weren't bored anymore. Doesn't it feel good?"

"That's not the point." Naruto said sourly.

"It is the point. Isn't it good enough to feel pleasure and have fun?"

"It's good but it shouldn't be enough."

"But it is, right? That answers your other question, 'why you?' You do know me better than most people do whether I care to admit it or not. You don't expect things from me that you know I can't give. You accept it and you accept me. Well, most of the time anyway. You might ask questions, you might second guess your own actions but only because of who you are. I suspect you're not doing this to prove your point anymore. At least not totally, because there's more than a small part of you that enjoys what we do and because there's no hardship involved in it you're wondering what your motive is now."

Naruto swallowed. "Okay, assume, maybe, that there is some truth to that. What do you think I should do about it?"

"Nothing." Sasuke replied simply. "Why bother to overanalyze it. Just accept what is in front of you, do what makes sense to you at the time. You can't get too involved because you don't know what might happen in the future. It was three months before we happened upon one another this time, Next time it could be years. Why bother yourself over it too much?"

It was a simplistic way of looking at things, but he made a good point. Live in the now and accept things for what they were. Well, he already lived most of his life that way anyhow, it should be easy enough to do.

Naruto thought it over for a moment. He still wondered about a few things though. "If you came back to the village and we saw each other every day, would you still want this," Naruto wondered aloud. "We would see each other every day and have a real bed for once with sheets and pillows instead of dirt and stone. But would it be the same. Would you even like that? Would I?"

When Sasuke didn't respond Naruto looked over to see him scowling down at the grass in front of him. At first he thought he'd made Sasuke angry by bringing up the village again but this was apparently not the case.

"It wouldn't suck."

Naruto's eyes widened. "What if I could promise you that? If you came back you could have whatever you wanted, however you wanted."

"Such ego," Sasuke scoffed. "You think I would give up my mission just for a hot fuck?"

Naruto's face reddened at that. "No I guess not. But when you're done with your mission do you think you might want to come back?"

"Like I said, the idea doesn't suck."

It was hardly a definite answer, but he didn't see the point right now of pushing the issue. But…

"Wait did you call me hot before?" Naruto asked.

"I said you were a hot fuck. The fucking is hot, not you."

"I can't even tell if you are being mean or not, Teme."

Sasuke gave him that arrogant little half smile. "Just because I meant it one way, doesn't necessarily discount the other way either."

"What does that mean?"

"Dobe."

Sasuke didn't seem to feel up to explaining himself and they fell into silence for a few moments.

"I think they're asleep now. Should we escape?" Naruto asked.

"Yes."

It took barely any effort at all to escape their bonds. The idiots only posted one guard for the camp and he was too busy watching out for outside threats than the two apparently well tied prisoners in camp.

Naruto crept up on him and knocked him out while Sasuke went as silently as a ghost through the camp and took back the Orb.

Together they left the camp behind and when Naruto got his bearings, headed back towards the Sun Village.

After only about twenty minutes or so though Sasuke stumbled a little almost falling. The only thing that stopped him from dropping was Naruto grabbing his shoulder and steadying him.

After a moment of standing still Sasuke brushed his hand away and turned to begin running again without comment. Naruto just shrugged and started off after him. It lasted only about ten more minutes and in this instance Naruto wasn't close enough to stop the fall and Sasuke pitched forward. He was already starting to get to his feet when Naruto stopped beside him with a concerned look. Naruto grabbed his arm to help him up and Sasuke brushed him off again but this time he turned his head to glare fiercely at him too.

Now Naruto had been on the receiving end of Sasuke's glares before and this one lacked the heat he was used to. And now that he'd had a chance to see his face Naruto noticed how flushed he looked, how sweaty and out of breath.

"What's wrong with you?"

Sasuke turned his face away and got fully to his feet. He swayed a little and Naruto grabbed his shoulders and steadied him. He could tell Sasuke was about to try and get rid of him again so Naruto redoubled his grip.

"Seriously, you were fine back in camp. What happened?"

Sasuke looked up a little but he seemed so exhausted that even that was an effort. He was still trying to glare, and didn't seem about to answer.

"Sasuke,"

Sasuke blew out a breath of air and glared some more. "I was fine back in camp, but I was resting. I don't know what that light attack was in the temple but it did something to me."

Of course Sasuke was probably using his Sharingan when the attack had happened but he'd been using it back in camp so Naruto assumed at the time that no damage had been done. Obviously that wasn't really the case.

"What did it do?"

"It's alright for you, you slept it off. I couldn't, I woke up just after they tied us. My head feels like it's about to explode as soon as I try to run. I don't know what's happening, but something is wrong."

"Um, normally I'd tell you to take a break and sit down but we probably have at least a dozen pissed off ninja after us by now."

"You think I don't know that?"

Naruto thought for a moment. "I'll carry you," he decided.

"No."

"Fine," Naruto let go and turned away. "Start running then."

He walked a few paces and looked back. Sasuke was still standing in the same place, still trying to glare, but hadn't moved one step. He was trying to make it look like there wasn't anything wrong and he was fine. Except for the part where he still wasn't moving.

There was a small part of Naruto that wanted to just take the Orb back and leave him here. Sasuke was being stubborn, prideful and was really beginning to piss him off. A larger part of him just couldn't leave him behind.

He stalked back, turned his back to Sasuke and went down on one knee. "Climb on."

"Where have I heard that before?"

"You ever wanna hear it again? Get on, I'll carry you."

"I'll take my chances with the ninja. I'm not asking you to hang around. We're out of the temple, we can go our separate ways now."

Naruto turned and drove his shoulder into Sasuke's midsection doubling him over his shoulder and hoisted him up. Sasuke either couldn't or didn't stop him and Naruto set off again.

It was going to be a while before they got back to the village. The Rain ninja had traveled many hours away from the temple carrying the unconscious Sasuke and Naruto probably taking turns carrying them in order to keep traveling as fast as possible. After all they had the Orb and they were heading home and there was no reason to dawdle in enemy territory any longer. Naruto didn't have the luxury of passing carrying duties off to anyone else and while he was still strong and fit, the pure fact of it was that he was traveling at half speed after already carrying Sasuke for an hour and was only going to slow down further the longer he went without rest. The night was starting to give way to the first sign of light when he forced himself to stop for a while to catch his breath and drink some water from a nearby stream.

There was no easy way to put Sasuke down because at some point during their travels, Sasuke had passed out. He woke up as Naruto unceremoniously plopped him down onto his butt underneath a nearby tree. He'd tried to make it gentle, but it was still enough to wake the sleeping ninja.

Sasuke blinked a few times in the pre-dawn light and said, "Ow."

"You're welcome," Naruto replied harshly.

"Whatever. I told you not to, you're the one who wouldn't take no for an answer."

"Yeah, sure. Carry you or leave you to die. That's not a lot of options."

"Two is enough. Why bring me along anyway? We aren't allies anymore, we should have gone our separate ways the moment we left the camp."

Naruto knelt down by the stream and splashed some water on his face. "The Sun Village is our best bet. It's the closest place where the Rain ninja won't come after us. Besides," Naruto added quietly, "you still have the orb."

Sasuke snorted, "I see."

"Don't say that like you know it's the only reason. You were so weak back there I could have taken it back and you know it."

"Hnn."

"Teme, a three year old could've taken the Orb back there and you've been unconscious for almost an hour."

"Whatever. How much farther?"

Naruto came and sat down beside Sasuke and leant back against the tree. "If we could both run we'd be there in about an hour. It's not real far now. But if I gotta carry you…"

"I can walk. If there were anyone after us they would have caught up to us by now," Sasuke told him simply. "We can afford to slow down a little. Besides, I feel a lot stronger now."

He didn't look a lot stronger as far as Naruto was concerned. Even after being carried, in the new light Naruto could see deep dark circles under his eyes and he was sitting hunched over like it was too much effort to even sit up straight.

"Alright we can go slow." Naruto grinned, "And if anyone catches up I can protect you."

"I don't need anyone to protect me, least of all you."

That wiped the smile from Naruto's face. "You must hate me a lot."

Sasuke looked over at him with some surprise at the statement. "What, why?"

"That's pretty harsh. I'm a lot stronger now, you don't even know what I can do. But you just say that sort of stuff to be mean to me. You must really hate me."

Sasuke looked away and closed his eyes for a moment. "Hate is a bit strong. I say what I say, I don't do nice."

"I noticed."

Sasuke smirked at him. "It's not like I really mean it. What's with you anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

"You being sullen. Why aren't you ranting at me or trying to tell me how fantastic you are like you usually would?"

"Right, so you can be a jerk again? Yeah, I don't think I'll bother." Naruto grumbled closing his eyes and resting his head back against the tree trunk.

They sat for a few moments in silence before Naruto felt soft touch on his hand. His hand was resting on the ground between them and he could feel the lightest touch of a finger stroke his little finger before he felt Sasuke's finger twine with his. Naruto was too stunned by the random act of uncertain affection to make any kind of movement or sound. It was weird really, Sasuke must have touched close to every part of his body even sometimes with his tongue, but this slight touch seemed altogether move intimate than anything so far. How could that be? Whatever was happening though Naruto didn't want to do anything to disturb this sudden development. He remained unspeaking and unmoving except to coil their fingers ever so slightly but more firmly together.

"Do you know how many people I've told that I trust them?" Sasuke said after a moment more.

"No."

He heard Sasuke sigh. "None."

In Sasuke speak this was as close to a heartfelt apology as Naruto figured he'd ever heard. Knowing that he was the only one that Sasuke trusted was a bit of a mind blower. The fact that Sasuke admitted it to him, actually shared it with him was even more of a shock. He made extreme effort to show that what Sasuke had said didn't really impact him too much though. He often found that reacting to things like this with Sasuke was like spooking a horse. If you let him know he'd said something nice, he'd retreat from it and never go there again.

A sudden noise caught Naruto's attention almost too late and he reached out and caught a kunai inches from Sasuke's face. His eyes then snapped open and the pair of them spent a few surprised moments staring at the kunai still tightly gripped in Naruto's hand. Of course the shock only lasted a second and they moved before more thrown kunai could hit them.

Sasuke had moved quickly at first, but he was still slow getting to his feet. Naruto didn't wait for him and took off in the direction of the thrown weapons. When he caught up to the enemy he found only two of them waiting in ambush for him. His lack of forward thinking meant he got hit in the leg with a shuriken but he ignored the pain only stumbling slightly and hit the ninja who'd thrown it hard enough to break the man's jaw. He turned, summoning clones to run at the last ninja while he and another created a Rasengan. By the time the enemy had done away with the clones, Naruto was ready and waiting for him with his attack. The force of the Rasengan took the man off his feet crashing him into the tree behind him. Neither ninja got back to their feet and Naruto went over to check them thinking to restrain them so he and Sasuke could make their escape. But when he checked them over he found that they were both dead. The whole thing had lasted barely a minute and he'd only hit them once each, he couldn't work out what had happened. Sure they weren't the hardest competition he'd ever faced but to hit them that hard…

"Dobe, I'm impressed. I didn't think you had it in you." Sasuke didn't sound very impressed though for some odd reason.

He had followed Naruto to the scene of the fight and was crouched down over Naruto's second victim. He looked up as Naruto came toward him.

"What's wrong with your eyes?"

Naruto stopped. "What?"

Sasuke straightened and walked the rest of the way toward him. "You've got fox eyes." He touched the side of Naruto's face and frowned. "And now it's gone."

Naruto hadn't even noticed what had been happening and that was bad. What had triggered it anyway?

"You know", Sasuke continued, "You saving me and running off in a rage to slaughter my would be killers would be terribly romantic if I were say, a woman." Sasuke told him sarcastically.

Sasuke was just being a jerk again and making jokes but Naruto had to wonder if there wasn't some truth to what he said. Someone had ruined their moment and almost killed Sasuke, then he had run off after their attackers and killed them both without thinking. That was taking protective to a whole new and very uncomfortable level.

"I think being in that darkness did some good. Did you see that catch with the kunai?" Naruto asked with false excitement, desperately trying to change the subject. "My eyes were closed but I heard the movement."

Sasuke smirked and leaned in close. "I know it did me some good."

His eyes closed and he waited to feel those cool lips press against his but the kiss never came. He opened his eyes to see Sasuke still smirking at him.

"I think the hero can wait till we get back to the village where we're less likely to be attacked by ninjas, don't you?"

Sasuke started walking off and Naruto watched him go with a perplexed look. Which lasted only a few moments.

"Jerk!" Naruto called after him.

It took them the better part of the day to get back having to walk at such a slower pace. Sasuke looked a lot better now and Naruto was relieved to see that whatever had happened to him had been a temporary setback and he would be fine again soon. It was then, walking down the main street in the village that Naruto realized he was going to have to report in to the monks before finding somewhere to stay for the night. The only problem that remained was that while Sasuke had the Orb, he didn't have anything good to report.

They stopped in front of the most affordable looking hotel in the village and Naruto turned to Sasuke with an unhappy expression.

"Do we have to fight over the Orb now, cause-"

Sasuke stopped him midsentence by taking Naruto's hand and dropping the small Orb into his waiting palm. Once he did that he turned and headed toward the hotel entryway.

"You owe me Dobe. Come find me later."

Ready for a drawn out argument or possible fight with Sasuke, Naruto did nothing but gape at Sasuke's back till the other man had disappeared from sight.

"Oh-kaaaay."

Naruto then turned and headed to the New Temple to report the good news to the monks.

He returned to the hotel and after a few inquires and found Sasuke's room on one of the upper levels. The monks had offered him board, but he had refused stating that he already had a room here. After all, he had a debt to pay.

As soon as he opened the door to the room, he was dragged inside by his jacket and the door kicked closed behind him. Sasuke kept dragging him across the room by his jacket till they got to the center of the room and he was turned and pushed down. His back landed on a spread futon.

Sasuke, dressed only in his pants followed him down, bracing himself up with a hand on either side of Naruto's head. There was that smirk again.

He looked a lot better than before. Apparently the rest had done him good. And apparently made him horny.

"We have a night together in a real bed for once with sheets and pillows instead of dirt and stone. Well, do you like it?"

Sasuke was just teasing him because of what he'd said the night before. Actually Sasuke had repeated to him almost verbatim. Sasuke probably hoped to get a rise out of him about it, but he was about to be disappointed.

"The idea doesn't suck."

Sooner or later they might get annoyed at each other using their own words against them. It seemed to happen a lot. But not tonight. Tonight debts would be settled in comfort. Tonight they needed more than fighting because tonight couldn't last forever and tomorrow it would be time to say goodbye again.

Maybe knowing this was what caused Sasuke to go a little slower than usual, be less brutal and more involved. But Naruto knew that Sasuke shouldn't feel the need to because he shouldn't have cared. So maybe he was only imagining it. Either way, he didn't feel cold as he eventually went to sleep in the early hours of the morning. Sasuke had moved away from him like usual, but he still had a loose hold of his hand, fingers only just touching. That little contact was enough to make Naruto feel warm.

Today Sai was coming so Naruto gathered together all his belongings and made ready to leave. Sasuke was still sleeping and Naruto was wondering whether to wake him up or not. He decided he wouldn't, why bother? It wasn't like there was going to be some sort of heartfelt goodbye he would miss out on. Sasuke would probably just say something mean, or try to tempt one more fuck out of him. Like he said before, Sasuke was unpredictable like that. Naruto could do without either today. He didn't feel like taking the verbal abuse for one thing. If Sasuke tried the other well, the monks knew where he was staying and if Sai arrived early, he might decide to come find Naruto and then he would see something he really didn't need to see, And just saying 'no' to Sasuke would never work. Naruto knew that he wouldn't be able to.

He did find himself just sitting and watching Sasuke sleep for a little while though which was an odd thing to do. He'd spend two intense days in darkness with him, he guessed he just liked being able to see him fully again. He kept telling himself that it wasn't because he liked looking at Sasuke. They were friends more or less, but he wondered that if that was all there was to it, why then was he sitting here, admiring the way he looked, calm, relaxed and beautiful in a way that he never looked while he was awake? It was probably stretching the definition of friendship a little far. Was it that he liked him more than just a friend?

Finally he had to speculate whether that would be such a bad thing if he did. Surely he couldn't feel bad about sleeping with someone he really cared about. Really it should disturb him more if he didn't care. Ordinary friends didn't do the things they did together. But no matter what reason he gave himself to think that it would be alright to feel something more for him, he just couldn't get himself to admit that he did in the end.

It might have had something to do with knowing that Sasuke would never feel the same way, that he was protecting himself from feelings that would never be reciprocated. Sasuke would probably laugh at him if he even had an inkling that Naruto was even thinking about it.

After a while he got up and grabbed his pack. He might as well leave now while he had the chance. He managed to find a few more procrastinations to do around the room but eventually he did leave without one single backwards glance.

When Sasuke heard the door bump shut behind Naruto, he opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling for a while. He'd been awake the whole time but hadn't let on. He hadn't wanted to say goodbye. Or rather he had, but he knew he shouldn't. He would have kissed him and he would have known that it might have been the last time and then he might have said something very stupid.

He might have admitted to something he didn't want to think about.

Naruto might have wanted Sasuke to come back. He might have wanted Sasuke to want to come back like he said. But Sasuke felt that if this kept going on he might soon need to. And until Naruto needed him too, his feelings could be kept to himself.

The End... Probably...

Notes:

And so we come to the end. I realize I wrapped it up a little quickly but I like the ending being a little sweet but not too soppy.. I know it probably isn't enough of an ending either and I haven't decided whether to end it with this fic or not. Either way I'm gonna take a bit of a break and see what happens. But I just hope it eased your boredom every now and then by reading and I hope you all enjoyed it!

Thanks for all the reviews and fav story picks from everyone I really appreciate it.

Also special thanks to Kashana my beta for sorting through my intensely bad grammar and spelling to make readable chapters - you're so awesome.

Later,

Dash.