Sasuke had frequent night terrors. They weren't anything like nightmares at all, happening in the early morning. Instead, he got them from the moment he couldn't keep his open anymore, usually around 12:00, until he woke up. Due to the terrors, Sasuke typically didn't sleep very much. It was usually a broken-up sleep schedule of ten-minute increments, how long the terrors usually lasted, and then he would calm himself again, barely, before he would fall back asleep and the terrors would repeat. His only reprieve was 2:00, a magical time when his terrors started ending.

The thing that scared Sasuke the most was what the night terrors did to him, and what they made him do. He could remember each terror very well, after all, it had been the same one for many years now, and Sasuke's eyebags were barely contained.

He always dreamt of Itachi. The same thing, over and over, always starting with Itachi, always ending with Itachi. It always started with Sasuke on Itachi's back, bonding over shinobi work.

"Please practice throwing shurikens with me!" Sasuke pleaded, now back as a child. Reaching up and flicking Sasuke, Itachi gave him his usual words.

"Not now Sasuke, I've got work to do."

Sasuke, both aware and unaware that this was a dream, let himself soak in the pleasant brotherly bonding moment. 'Worst part comes next,' a part of his mind told him, though Sasuke's brain chose to shut that part down. It came with almost instant regret as the dreamscape smoothly changed into Sasuke walking home after a long day, just wishing he could practice with his big brother.

Sasuke, trapped in his own body, his mind blank of the real world, saw something flash in the corner of his eye. 'It's not real! It's not real, wake up!!' His own thoughts warnings were not enough to stop him as Sasuke brushed it off and looked back at the road he walked, only to be met with the dead bodies of the Uchiha clan and everyone else who was there. Little Sasuke screamed, tears starting to run down his face. He sprinted to his house, reaching for the door handle…

"Don't come in," came a voice, and to Sasuke's horror it was the sound of Itachi. Regardless, small Sasuke flung open the door to see the bodies of his parents. Sasuke screamed, moving towards his parents before hesitating. 'Run! Run and don't look back! Get out of there!' The small part of Sasuke that was aware it was a dream futilely tried to warn himself once again, but it was far to late by the time Sasuke looked up at Itachi.

"I told you not to come in," his older brother scolded.

"W…Why would y-you do this!?" Sasuke wailed, now covering against the wall. Itachi crept closer to Sasuke, an overpowering aura taking over the atmosphere. Sasuke trembled, chancing a glance at his brother. He regretted it the next moment when he was forced to relive literal pain. Of course, in reality it had been the events prior, but given that this was already a night terror, his brain seemed to want maximum suffering. "Ahh! Please stop!" Sasuke sobbed, choking on his saliva and tears.

"I'm doing this to test my capacity," Itachi said, finally releasing Sasuke. "If you want to kill me, settle for hating me instead." With those words, Sasuke regained not his consciousness, but older self's body and mind. Itachi was a mere two feet from him, and Sasuke would be damned if he didn't kill him now.

In the middle of the night, Naruto woke up to cut. He wasn't planning on it, but when he woke up, his mind started running through scenarios in which someone came in and got suspicious as to why he was awake. Naruto didn't really have a good reason for that either, and most likely no one would question a simple 'I couldn't sleep', but all that was irrelevant to Naruto's brain. Sitting in the bed with Sasuke in the same room, all in the middle of the night, plus Naruto's mind was running rampant, was easily enough to pile on the anxiety. The next thing he knew, Naruto was digging through his bag for a kunai.

Naruto was quick about it this time, as he needed the light on, so he didn't accidentally nick a vein again. He stuffed a towel under the door to help keep the light from getting to Sasuke, but the anxiety of the situation was still extremely unpleasant. With only three cuts, half of what Naruto wanted at least, the whiskered boy bandaged up again. He was very thorough with the cleaning as he was paranoid as hell that someone would see a stray drop of blood, a trace of bandage… He once again cut up the old bandage with his kunai before flushing it with the toilet paper he used to stop the bleeding. After all that was taken care of, Naruto double, then triple checked his bandage before slipping out of the bathroom.

Naruto didn't expect to see Sasuke shivering in his bed, curled up and breathing heavily.

"Sa…suke…?" he asked hesitantly, slowly approaching the boy after putting his kunai away. As Naruto drew nearer it became clear that Sasuke had tears in his eyes. Naruto hated seeing people in pain, not unless they were bad people, and definitely not if they were the people closest to Naruto. "Sasuke," he said more firmly, shaking the boy. Sasuke didn't respond, so Naruto shook him harder. "God damn it Sasuke, wake up! It's just a bad dream!" Naruto knew it wasn't just a bad dream, after all, how could something as trivial as that possibly provoke such a big reaction in Sasuke. Continuing to shake Sasuke, and getting nowhere, Naruto contemplated getting Kakashi. 'If I get Kakashi there's a chance he'll ask me why I was up, but if I don't, Sasuke might stay like this for a while…' Ultimately, Naruto decided to get Kakashi. He placed a comforting hand on Sasuke's head, mumbling some soothing words before walking to the door.

Naruto was only a few feet from the door when Sasuke woke up, and Sasuke was terrified. All that could remember was that he was in an unfamiliar room, there was a faint scent of blood in the air, and Itachi was standing by the door. It only took a moment for Sasuke to leap out of bed and tackle Itachi, squeezing his arms hard. Itachi let out a screech of pain as Sasuke twisted his arms behind his back.

"Sasuke-!!" Itachi tried to say, cutting off as Sasuke squeezed tighter on his arms. Sasuke folded Itachi's arms on his back before placing his knee there to hold them down. With his hands free, Sasuke wrapped his fingers around Itachi's neck and squeezed…

Naruto was in an extreme state of confusion. Sasuke was trying to kill him. Waves and waves of pain rushed through Naruto as Sasuke squeezed his forearms, at least missing his slit wrist. Naruto really didn't want to deal with that cut opening and bleeding out for the third time, right at it was actually starting to close up. Naruto's initial screams of agony turned to groans of pain as Sasuke replaced his squeezing hands with a blunt knee. Regardless, nothing here changed the fact that Naruto's friend was actively trying to kill him. His blood froze as cold, trembling hands wrapped around his neck, cutting off his air.

'He's afraid,' Naruto realized, his senses coming back. Yes, he was still panicking, but Naruto was starting to understand the situation, not to mention the paralyzing shock had left him. Trying to speak but unable to force any air through his windpipes, Naruto focused on drawing out the demon fox's chakra. With one push, Naruto heaved the disheveled and confused Sasuke off of him.

"Sasuke-" he rasped with a hoarse voice. Naruto fought to avoid a coughing fit, settling to cough while maintaining his posture. He gripped Sasuke's shoulders and gently pressed his back to the foot of his bed. "Please calm down Sasuke," Naruto said in the most soothing voice he could manage. Naruto still felt like shit, blood loss, the extreme anxiety, exhaustion… It was all still affecting him horribly and he just wanted to either cut or sleep. Naruto really didn't want to be dealing a friend who wasn't acting mentally sound.

As Naruto held Sasuke back, speaking with soothing words, Sasuke's reality slowly returned.

"Naruto?" he asked hesitantly, receiving a nod.

"Yeah. Do you care to explain what that was about?" Naruto asked.

"No. I'm going back to bed." It wasn't his place to pry, Naruto knew that, and he wouldn't push it if Sasuke really didn't want him to know, but Naruto wasn't quite ready to let Sasuke go.

"Hang on Sasuke," Naruto said, walking up to his friend. As Sasuke turned to face him again, Naruto wrapped Sasuke in a hug. Naruto found the situation quite awkward as he hugged his rival. Sasuke clearly did too, but Naruto knew that feeling someone else's body heat was the most calming thing out there. "Sleep well," Naruto whispered to Sasuke before reluctantly climbing back into bed, Sasuke doing the same. Though Naruto hugged Sasuke to help the boy, Naruto ended up taking comfort from it as well. 'Ah, I'm really selfish, aren't I… Oh well, can't be helped, I guess… I wish I had more arm space…'

Sasuke never would have dreamed of being hugged by Naruto, and probably would have pushed him away if he hadn't been caught unexpectedly and if he hadn't been lost in thought. Not only that, but by the time Sasuke came to his senses, Naruto's warmth had seeped into Sasuke's cold soul. In all honesty, Sasuke had felt remorseful when Naruto pulled away. Not that Sasuke would ever say that of course. With one final thought, Sasuke managed to drift into a relatively peaceful sleep for the rest of the night. 'I wish you would hug me with bare arms. The sleeves aren't as nice as your warmth.' When Naruto had hugged Sasuke, he felt like he was being held by his brother before… everything happened.

When Sasuke woke up, he glanced at the clock, expecting to see the time showing the middle of the night, so it was a pleasant surprise to see that it was six in the morning. Turning to face Naruto's bed, Sasuke could tell that the boy had left at least an hour ago, which, to Sasuke, seemed like quite the strange thing. 'Shit, I forgot to tell him not to tell anyone!' Jumping out of bed, Sasuke ran out of the room to find Naruto.

Sasuke eventually found Naruto in the dining space, stabbing food before letting it fall back to his plate. Had Naruto seriously been here for an hour? Sasuke silently walked over and took a seat opposite Naruto. The atmosphere of the table was extremely awkward, last night's hug the most prominent thing on either's mind.

"Naruto," Sasuke began, tempted to look away, but instead sprung for glaring at Naruto with an intimidating gaze. "sorry for what I did last night. It was just a nightmare. I'm fine now so you shouldn't worry or bring it up."

'Fair enough,' though Naruto. He wasn't planning on telling anyone anyway, not unless it became a serious problem… as if he was one to talk.

"Yeah, sure," Naruto said, leaning back in his chair. He saw Sasuke looking at his plate with a curious gaze, so Naruto stuffed some food in his mouth. "I'm uh… going back to the room," Naruto muttered, abruptly standing up and leaving. Naruto had left his plate on the table, but that minor detail was far from his mind.

Once Naruto was back in the room, far away from Sasuke to his knowledge, Naruto locked himself in the bathroom. Naruto typically cut to ease anxiety. It had been a while, almost a week, since he had cut because of depression. Naruto allowed himself to collapse against the ball and let the tears flow freely, a choppy symphony of his pain. With trembling, scared and sad fingers, Naruto pulled out the kunai knife he had snagged. He touched the blade tip to his skin, his trembling increasing along with his tears. Naruto hurt. He hurt so bad. Hugging Sasuke last night… It brought back all the pain he fought so hard to bury over the past few days. Naruto wanted a family…

One cut, a few drops of blood. Two cuts, a slow stream. Three cuts, flesh tearing and blood flowing out.

Naruto continued like this, digging harshly into his skin until his arm was once again a bloody, fleshy mess. The blonde-haired boy sighed as he finally finished, his arm burning too bad to tolerate another cut. He banged his head against the wall, swallowing back a sob. After a minute, Naruto stood up, wiped his tears, and begun his well-practiced bandaging and clean up routine.

It often surprised Naruto how fast he could dry his eyes. One moment he could be sobbing his heart out, but in just a moment his eyes could be totally dry and the only evidence he had been crying in the first place would be his runny nose and slightly red eyes. His face, however, would be completely straight.

Cleaning up took longer than usual; Naruto needed to clean the small pool of blood from the floor where he had sat as he cried. The thing was, when Naruto was cutting because of depression rather than anxiety, he always cut more and deeper. He also tended to sit somewhere with a bleeding out arm while he sobbed and screamed, wanting to rip his skin to shreds and just end the pain.

Naruto reached up to the door handle when his arm seemed to turn to lead. This was a normal occurrence for Naruto. After he blew off steam or calmed down the harsh pain of depression, Naruto was left as a hollow shell. His limbs just kind of… stopped working. His mind and body were filled with an infinite exhaustion and all he wanted to do was cry himself to sleep but no matter how hard he tried, no matter what horrible things he thought of, Naruto couldn't summon the tears. No matter which emotions Naruto tried to feel, he was still hollow.

It was hard for the whiskered boy to say what feeling, or lack of, he hated the most. Perhaps it was the intense anxiety? No, that definitely wasn't as bad as the heart wrenching pain of depression. Ok, so maybe it was that pain? The pain that Naruto couldn't describe in words, and only someone who had experienced it could understand? That was not only a miserable feeling, but he knew that even if he told someone who didn't judge him, unless they had experienced it, they wouldn't be able to help him. To understand him. Perhaps that was the worst pain then… but Naruto couldn't forget the simple lack of pain, of emotion. It made Naruto feel more like the demon fox inside him than ever. It made him feel more demonic than even using the damn fox's chakra itself. To Naruto, emotion defined being human. If Naruto didn't feel emotions, then he just… he…

It was all too much for Naruto. He wanted to just curl up on the bathroom floor and die, or at least sleep, but if he were to do that, Naruto would be caught for sure. Instead, Naruto sighed and forced himself to exit the bathroom.

He almost didn't make it to his bag. That bag was miles away from where he had exited the bathroom, but with one final step, Naruto fell to his knees. He carelessly placed his kunai in his weapons pouch, glanced at his sleeve to make sure no blood was seeping through, and crawled into bed. It didn't take long for sleep to catch him and snag him into its depths, though Naruto wished it was death instead. He wished he could fall asleep with tears pricking his eyes, even if they were fake or a result of exhaustion. Alas, Naruto got no such reprieve, and when his consciousness drifted away, his eyes were completely dry.