AN: Wow…I don't even know what to say about this other than it was inspired by a film that I can't remember the name of about lucid dreaming. The idea was pretty realistic, that the guy in this dream world was only sometimes aware that what he was experiencing wasn't real. Then there's this bit where he's with this hobo in a soap kitchen talking about it and the hobo says that the way he sorts out what's real is to turn a light off in the room every time he exits so the guy goes to leave and flicks off the switch but the light stays on regardless. He turns back to the hobo who just shrugs with a huge grin on his face.
Warnings: Implied Sasunaru in some places.
Also, just to make this author's note even longer, the title 'Eleventh Hour' was something I got when looking up synonyms for the 'last minute'.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
First Hour
Naruto's leg bounced frantically up and down as he sat rigidly upright in the hard backed chair he had come to familiarise himself with over the school year. His teeth scraped over his bottom lip in a repetitive fashion, the pressure of his canine just shy of drawing blood.
His hands were balled in the hem of his school shirt which was un-tucked, hanging in rough reams around his school trousers. Sweat was seeping into the thin fabric from the palms of his hands and soaking through until a cold wet patch clung to his concave naval. His skin was pale in the half light still filtering through the dusty school windows and his eyes were fixed on the scene playing out below him in the courtyard between Sasuke and his wayward brother.
His heart beat out a magnified rhythm, so powerful that it seemed to distort the air. It was completely out of synch with the clock above the blackboard and the overlapping tick made it seem like his heart was working twice as hard as it might need to.
From his position up on the second floor, Naruto could see that Sasuke was trying desperately to keep himself together; his face contorted into a dynamic mask of hatred. The expression was so intense, so absolute that Naruto's breath hitched in his throat as he watched the two of them exchange a few words.
It was too strong.
The expression on his face was too strong.
Even after all the time they had spent together, after the rivalry, the hesitant friendship and the things they had eventually, grudgingly shared with each other, Naruto had never seen such a strong expression on the face of his now best friend.
It just didn't seem real.
How could anyone hate another human being so much?
When he shifted, the sound of his clothes rustling against the silence was as loud as a thunder clap and Naruto winced involuntarily, irrationally afraid somehow that he would draw attention to himself sitting in the classroom alone after hours as he was. He was afraid that Sasuke would look up and see him, fixing him with that infinitely dark gaze, turning his hatred on the blonde idiot unlucky enough to get a detention on this particular evening.
Saliva pooled in his throat as the voices outside rose in volume.
"You're the only one that can save me Sasuke."
"Why the HELL would I save you? After what you did? What you took from me?"
"I didn't exactly expect you to be willing."
Naruto knew that he wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the drawer, was constantly reminded of how stupid he tended to be but even he could discern the true implication of those words and it was like the spell of immobility that had fallen over him was broken.
The silence became so powerful that it turned into thick, static noise and then suddenly, that static was interrupted with the harsh scrape of his chair on the linoleum. His breath whooshed out of him in short sharp bursts, cutting the air in two as he broke into a sprint. His feet clapped on the floor, each reverberation sounding out like canon fire as he shot down the empty corridor just outside his classroom and took the stairs at the end of the hall two at a time. On the last step, his foot faltered and he was subjected to the unpleasant, stomach dropping sensation of freefall for a moment before impacting the hard ground.
A sharp pain through his shoulder.
Adrenaline dulling out the pain to a barely discernable ache though he was aware that his arm was now hanging at a sickening angle.
Thoughts of Sasuke and his brother.
He heaved himself up and continued to sprint recklessly, skirting around the corner and using his good hand to throw open the main doors of the school. His mind seemed to have scrambled, coherence being lost to an overlay of white noise, the sound of pure panic. He was able to register that Sasuke was still alive, standing in front of his brother with a look of the utmost shock before Itachi turned to face him.
Itachi, the brother that Sasuke said had ruined his life.
Itachi, the reason that Sasuke was forced to see a multitude of shrinks.
Itachi, the reason that Sasuke was unable to let out more than the barest flicker of a smile.
Itachi.
His eyes were red.
Soft light filtered through the leaves of the oak tree he was lying under, warming his body and playing over his eyelids as a light breeze tossed the thinner branches of the tree and made the leaves dance. Naruto let out a soft sigh, appreciating the feeling of being somewhere so serene, allowing his eyelids to flicker but not wanting to open them just yet.
He could feel someone beside him, one of his arms pressed against warm solidity. Concentrating on the connection, he felt the small thrill of a pulse as that someone shifted slightly, adjusting themselves. There was a slight rustle as the page of a book was turned.
Naruto inhaled deeply, appreciating the crisp smell of the fresh air before letting his eyes fall open. For a few seconds, he simply allowed himself to focus on the interweaving leaves in the wind above him before letting his head fall sideways, his eyes catching on the distinct form of his master Jiraiya.
The old man seemed to be engrossed in his book and Naruto could feel a tugging, sluggish thought in his mind, a notion that tainted the serenity of the moment just a little.
Jiraiya is going to make me proof read those new pages later.
As if sensing his eyes on the side of his face, Jiraiya let his own gaze wander from the words he had just written until he met Naruto's, smiling a satisfied smile at him. The wind tugged at the sharp white strands of hair falling down his back, obscuring his face for a moment and Naruto only realised that Jiraiya had started speaking when the wind had died down once more.
No sound left the old sage's lips.
Naruto focussed on his moving mouth, watching the formation of words without being able to decipher the meaning. He frowned lightly, bringing a hand up to his ears, feeling for any obstruction but when he let his finger fall away, he could only hear the strange rhythmic tick of something that was completely out of synch with his heart beat.
"What?" he asked, trying not to become unnecessarily alarmed by the fact that he couldn't hear his mentor and friend.
Jiraiya paused, closing his mouth and allowing his grin to widen as he showed Naruto what he had been so intent on instead. Naruto let his eyes sift down to the paper, expecting to see a myriad of complicated characters but what he saw was a single sentence written in such a large font size and in such dark ink that it took up most of the page.
'Where is Uchiha Sasuke?'
He found himself wandering along a familiar corridor though he was hard pressed to remember how he had gotten there. Something urgent was prodding the forefront of his memory but he was unable to get a fix on it and automatically became suspicious, only comfortable in thinking that this must be some form of genjutsu and that he needed to break it as soon as possible.
The problem with this revelation was that he had no idea if he had come with any comrades and of course, the golden rule of genjutsu was to have a comrade help you out if you found yourself caught within one. Since he'd been travelling with Jiraiya, it had become rare for the blonde to be caught in such illusionary techniques so his second logical assumption was that he had come face to face with Itachi, the only person other than Sasuke that could do something like this.
The appearance of the crows lining the corridor confirmed his theory, each of them sporting the trademark red gaze of the sharingan and Naruto felt the breath freeze in his lungs as he took in the particular black details like an intricate tattoo on the red canvas of Itachi's eyes.
"Alright, you have my attention," Naruto muttered, reaching into his pouch and allowing his fingers to brush the edge of his kunai. Dropping into a more defensive stance, he concentrated on trying to see anything out of the ordinary, un-focussing his eyes and trying to catch a subtle distortion on the air or a whispered sound that might connect him to reality. A single bead of sweat trickled out from under his hitae-ate, running down the length of his face to hang limply from his angular chin.
A laugh broke the silence and the crows lined before him in the corridor opened their beaks as one. As the laugh stretched on, Naruto was unable to tell if it was truly a laugh he was hearing or simply the jumbled caw of the creatures facing him. His eyes fixed on the webbed feet of the nearest black bird.
"I didn't exactly expect you to be willing," Itachi's voice said, ringing out over the top of his laughter and Naruto found himself struggling to push his hands up over his ears. He clenched his teeth as the laughter became invasive, trying in vain to suppress a migraine growing up and out of the centre of his skull. It felt like his brain was engorging and that the bone cap was crushing the expanse, causing agony like never before.
And through that pain, Naruto was only able to register the set of glowing red within the eye of the closest un-feeling crow.
There was a pause.
The pain in his head was gone.
Naruto blinked and scanned the line of crows.
Except there were no black birds standing where they were a moment before, only the emptiness of the corridor and a single figure standing before him clad in bright orange. The eyes of the boy were downcast and his posture was defensive, angled away from Naruto like he might bolt if Naruto tried to step closer. Naruto simply stared at him, trying to figure out if he'd entered a genjutsu within a genjutsu – multi-layering of such a thing wasn't unheard of but it was tricky and Naruto chastised himself for falling for such a possibility.
The boy's breathing was slightly laboured, breaking the silence of the corridor as Naruto continued to fix him with an unflinching gaze. He was clearly distressed though the set of his jaw and the way he clenched his teeth, baring them, made it look like he was struggling to calm himself.
Naruto took a deep breath in, vastly uncomfortable with the apparition before him.
The boy represented a part of himself that Naruto wasn't entirely sure he wanted to remember, a time before he was truly acknowledged amongst his friends and comrades. He remembered looking into the mirror in the bathroom of his ramshackle apartment and seeing the hostile glint of a hardened survivor. Over the years and with acquiring some good friends, this glint had changed into something more positive – the depth in his eyes had transformed.
Naruto took a hesitant step towards the boy.
"Hey," he said softly, pulling a face when the kid flinched. "I don't suppose you could tell me where we are, how to get out?"
The younger Naruto met his eyes, blinking incredulously as he regarded the older. Naruto tried to put on his best disarming smile but this hardly seemed to placate the boy before him.
"You're like them aren't you," the kid bit out angrily, his eyes flashing red for a moment, the whisker marks on his face deepening and becoming elongated on his face.
Naruto knew what he was referring to and huffed unhappily – not particularly keen to relive the negative aspects of his past and filled with angst-ridden empathy for the boy fixing him with such a haunted gaze. He tried shaking his head to disagree with the boy's accusation but knew it would do no good.
"Guess I was more like Sasuke than I thought in the beginning," he muttered to himself.
Interestingly, it was like a light switch had been flicked for the boy in front of him, his eyes clearing of malice for a moment as he regarded the older Naruto.
"You know where Sasuke is?"
Naruto frowned, of course he knew where Sasuke was, why the hell didn't this kid?
Sasuke was sitting next to him in class working diligently through his math test with apathetic eyes. One of his elbows was resting on the desk; the sleeves of his school shirt were pulled up so far they were covering the pale palms of his hands. His head rested on his partially closed fist, a dark bang falling forward to trail along the delicate line of his jaw as he wrote out the answer to the next problem with practiced ease.
Naruto eyed him warily in his peripheral vision, feeling his chest constrict as he watched Sasuke's biro moving fluidly across the paper. He had never had much luck with maths. He'd heard maths being called the universal language, something everybody could understand but whoever said that must have been bullshitting because to Naruto, it just seemed like gobbledygook.
He chanced reading through the first problem on his own paper but the words churned through him uselessly until all he was left with was a further devolving panic. He pulled at the collar of his shirt and ran a hand through his blonde tresses.
He tried again.
"Oi dobe," Sasuke's hissed voice startled him and he jumped in his seat, only realising that he'd practically bitten through the plastic of his own biro whilst freaking out about the first problem when the pen clattered to the floor by his feet. He smiled at their maths teacher, Kurenai, before bending down, retrieving the pen and straightening.
A few seconds passed as Kurenai watched him through waspishly sharp eyes before she returned to reading her book while the class continued to work.
"What?" Naruto muttered out of the side of his mouth.
Sasuke let his head roll off of his partially closed fist, a movement that made it seem like he was about to stretch out stiff joints. At the same moment, he edged his own paper slightly with his elbow, turning it so it was at a better angle for Naruto to read. Naruto couldn't quite believe it. Sasuke Uchiha, the school's most popular pretty boy and genius was offering to help his number 1 loudmouthed rival out of a fix?
He must have been freaking out worse than he thought.
He threw Sasuke a suspicious glance, allowing his eyes to narrow at the boy beside him before leaning in to take a peek. If he didn't like what he saw or he suspected anything funny, he could always go back to having a panic attack after all.
His eyes widened when he saw the answer to the first problem.
His heart turned over painfully in his chest.
The problem read:
'A squared + 325 divided by 3/50 = Power'
Naruto's breaths were short and sharp as he turned his full attention to Sasuke's paper, quickly skim reading through the next set of problems. The blood coursing through him seemed to become prickly as he realised that Sasuke had put the same answer for every problem.
Feeling a bizarre mix of outrage and serious concern for the boy beside him, he opened his mouth to confront his rival but the look in Sasuke's eyes as vibrant blue met emotionless black stopped him cold.
Power is the answer to all problems.
He didn't think he would ever get over the sheer, wonderful smell of ramen and Ichiraku's was the best. Kakashi sat beside him, the one treating after their most recently failed mission to bring Sasuke back to the Hidden Leaf. Sakura sat on his other side, dejectedly lost in her own world. The mood of the meal was a little too sombre for Naruto's tastes – they'd failed a mission, it wasn't like someone had died.
"Itadakimasu!" Naruto called out in a sing song voice before digging into his noodles, slurping contentedly whilst Sakura simply stared into the depths of her bowl.
Naruto spared her a glance as he relished his first few bites and then turned to Kakashi, wanting to voice something that had been bothering him for the past few minutes.
"Kakashi-sensei…do you…have you ever had a lucid dream?"
Kakashi had been lazily regarding the girl behind the counter at Ichiraku's as she boiled the next pack of noodles but at the strange question, allowed his one visible eye to drop down to his puzzled student.
"Oh?" Kakashi said by the way of urging Naruto to continue.
"It's just because…" Naruto set his chop sticks over his half finished bowl of ramen, contemplating the egg that sat just below the viscous surface of the broth. "I think I might be trapped in a genjutsu but honestly, it doesn't feel right. I know the idea of genjutsu is that you're not supposed to be aware of the illusion but once you realise it, you generally realise it for good right?"
He glanced up at Kakashi to make sure his teacher was following him, feeling vaguely embarrassed at voicing what could be just his own stupid musings. Though he didn't mind being called an idiot for the idle comments that passed his lips, he didn't appreciate it for the more perplexing thoughts he sometimes had.
"I think I keep forgetting that this isn't real…and if I keep forgetting that, then this can't be a genjutsu can it? Even Itachi can't make you forget once you realise it, right?"
Kakashi's eye had widened in thoughtful surprise and, to Naruto's delight, he seemed to take a moment to consider his answer. Beside him, Naruto felt as Sakura leant forward slightly, waiting for their mentor's response.
"That's a tricky one," Kakashi admitted. "Itachi's abilities are somewhat unknown so I honestly couldn't tell you if he could make you forget. The truly terrifying thing about a well executed genjutsu is that it can warp a person's true sense of reality. In extreme cases, people can't find their way back to what is real and even if they do, they can never be sure that what they're experiencing isn't another genjutsu."
Naruto took a moment to absorb this information, his lips pulling down at the corners as a niggling feeling of not quite panic bloomed in his gut.
"Hm…I'm pretty sure this isn't real."
"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked, giving Naruto a confused look. "How can this not be real?"
Naruto simply shook his head.
"Don't know, but it's not."
These were corridors that he knew well. He knew the chipped metal walls and placements of the grates above him. He knew the slowly turning extractor fans set into the walls ahead of him, allowing a trickle of harsh yellow light to filter through from the outside world to illuminate his path. He knew the narrow windows set up high in the building allowing more of that disconcerting light in. He knew the feel of the water around his ankles as he waded into the main room.
The back wall was still set up with the formidable iron cast bars of the Kyuubi cage, the air beyond those bars was still pitch black. Naruto could feel the presence of the demon fox's malevolent chakra and as always, he felt himself start to react with the maddening desire to take flight and run until he could run no more. Of course, being Uzumaki Naruto, he was never one to give in to cowardly instincts. He glared defiantly at the flimsy looking piece of paper stuck fast to the bars of the cage, reading the word 'seal' in bold characters and unfamiliar hand-writing.
A low chuckle escaped from somewhere deep within the darkness of that cage, a colossal, rumbling sound that made the hairs on the back of Naruto's neck stand on end. He took a purposeful step forward, unable as always to acknowledge his own fear of this legendary apparition and watched warily as the Kyuubi's distinct red chakra began to leak outwards, turning the water flooding the floor of the room into a heat trap.
The fluid lapping at his ankles began to bubble.
"I don't want to use your power," Naruto said stubbornly, unable to quite recall why he would need to use the Kyuubi's power in the first place but then why else was he here? He only ever came here if he was in some sort of mortal peril. Abruptly, the chuckling ceased and Naruto felt the sudden pressure change in the air as the free-flowing malignant chakra leaking out from the cage condensed, being pulled rapidly inward until he was looking into the gargantuan face of the fox wearing it's usual devious grin. It's red eyes reflected madness, fire and vengeance as Naruto scowled.
"I should have known that the Uchiha brat would be the one to cause a disturbance," the kyuubi said, it's voice old and arrogant. The certainty with which he spoke made Naruto balk – it was always weird to hear the voice of a timeless monster, so knowledgeable, so intimidating.
Naruto didn't care.
"Sasuke? What are you talking about?"
He wondered if he was engaged in battle with Sasuke at the moment, if they'd finally met to have a re-match after all the years that had passed since the Valley of the End. He wondered why he couldn't remember. Had Sasuke knocked him out again? Was he here seeking out the demon's power so that he could prevent his best friend from disappearing again?
If possible, the grin on the face of the grinning demon widened. It's eyes flashed with sick excitement. Just as Naruto was about to demand to be let in on the secret, there was another pronounced pull on the air and the chakra condensed further. The face of the fox melted before him, reforming into something smaller in the depths of the cage.
Naruto felt the water around his ankles start to solidify as the heat from the Kyuubi's chakra left it. He edged forward to escape being frozen in place, squinting through the darkness to try and make out the distinctive features of this new Kyuubi.
Worryingly, as Naruto's eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see the edges of the paper seal plastered to the bars of the cage start to fray.
"As much as you want to deny it, you and I have always been the same boy."
The Kyuubi's voice still echoed across the vast expanse of the room, still sounding as though it belonged to an elephantine creature. It didn't fit the silhouetted, humanoid image that Naruto could just make it shifting in the depth of the cage. He felt a surge of petulance somewhere deep in his gut as the demon accused them of being the same, a bitter, warping sense of disgust and anger clouding his judgement.
"I'm nothing like you! I'm not a monster!" he spat, drawing back on one foot and snarling openly.
The Kyuubi's answer was to step into the dim pool of light as the shadows in the room shifted.
Naruto suppressed the whimper climbing up through his throat.
He was looking into the wide, blank eyes of his 4 tails form, watching the jagged grin splitting the Kyuubi's mouth in half, staring at the red and black energy skittering frantically across the Kyuubi's skin.
"Who am I to argue with the likes of Uzumaki Naruto?" the fox questioned in a mocking tone, baiting the boy before him. Naruto winced at the sound of his name and dropped into a defensive stance as the 4 tailed apparition began to pace slowly behind the bars. The seal on the cage was starting to appear more weathered and Naruto tried to think frantically of something that would re-enforce the demon's imprisonment.
The demon paused as Naruto reached into his pouch for one of his kunai.
"I think I'll enjoy living your life for a while before I set about destroying the world."
An unnerved shiver ran along the length of Naruto's spine, causing the small of his back to tingle in discomfort as he digested those words. Just as he was about to ask the fox to elaborate, the 4 tails seemed to shed it's demon skin, the red and black peeling away in tiny flurries to reveal tan flesh beneath, familiar whisker masks, tufts of blonde hair…
Naruto watched in horror as the Kyuubi became himself, standing on the dark side of the cage grinning his insane grin with eyes the reeked of death and hopelessness.
The Kyuubi laughed and Naruto made the mistake of blinking.
When he opened his eyes, he was the one standing in the cage, feeling the weight of seal pressing into him while the Kyuubi, still with the appearance of Naruto himself, stood outside it triumphantly, a few wayward chakra tails swishing agitatedly behind him.
"Who's the monster now kit?" the fox asked rhetorically through a barely suppressed chortle.
The sun beat down over the school yard like the fire of an unrelenting Furness. Naruto was pretty certain that if he had an egg on him right now, he could crack it and fry it on the metal piping of the air vents jutting over the school roof where he was currently sat picking his way through a few plain rice balls. Below, he could hear the sounds of the sports clubs as people shouted urgent instructions to each other in whatever game they were playing and the leaves of the trees rustled as a light breeze wafted past, cooling the sweat underneath Naruto's plain head band.
He lay back in his singular shaded patch, using his back pack as a pillow and contemplating taking a brief nap as he watched the marshmallow clouds breaking up the endless blue of the midday sky. For once, he agreed with Shikamaru, cloud watching was bliss.
Just as he was angling his head slightly to better see the outline of a fox in the clouds, the door to the roof swung open and light footsteps started towards him. Naruto smiled easily as Sasuke's irritable face loomed above him, appreciating Sasuke's appearance against the serene back drop of the clouds above him.
"Hn, dobe, it's your turn to clean up the art room today," the pompous older boy explained starkly, his trademark broodiness completely unaffected by the beauty of the day.
Naruto yawned lazily, throwing his arms out beside him so he could maximise the surface area available to feel the breeze. Above him, Sasuke's eyes darkened subtly.
"You're such a useless slacker, you're worse than fucking Nara," the Uchiha complained.
Naruto ignored him, frowning as he realised that Sasuke was still wearing his school jumper and not sweating at all. Did the guy not have glands? His hair was still perfectly soft and smooth, glinting like onyx in the glaring light of the noonday sun with a subtle under hint of blue.
"What are you staring at?" Sasuke's stand-offish question cut through his revelry and he blinked to clear the haze that settled over his eyes, allowing his smile to turn cheeky as he observed Sasuke's uncomfortable posture.
"Just wondering how you can be so damn miserable on a day like today," Naruto said, breathing in the deep, rich scent of heat on the air. He enjoyed watching the flash of real pertinacious anger on the face of the stuck up Uchiha and almost laughed when Sasuke let out a feral growl.
"Idiot," he ground out, pivoting in his smart school shoes and making to stalk back inside. Normally, the familiar word would have gotten a rise out of Naruto but he just laughed gleefully, in too much a good mood to let Sasuke's attitude get to him today and on a whim, he reached out to clasp Sasuke's hand before he could leave, pulling the prickly bastard down with him until the taller boy was laying with his head on his chest.
He felt Sasuke stiffen and before his rival could make a big deal out of it, he threw his tanned arm around the rigid shoulders, holding him in place.
"Lighten up k? Forget everything for a moment and just let the world revolve around you," Naruto said sleepily, turning his attention to the clouds once more.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. Sasuke remained as still as a statue and despite how relaxed he felt, Naruto's heart pounded oddly against his rib cage. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the top of Sasuke's head, the individual strands of dark hair that made up that impressive duck butt style.
"I-idiot," Sasuke repeated in a barely audible mumble but he made no move to get up and break the contact.
Naruto let out a single laugh and re-focussed his attention on the feel of the breeze as it travelled over his skin, tousling his hair. After a few minutes, he felt Sasuke relax in his grip and he shifted himself, looking down to catch a glimpse of the expression on the bastard's face.
He wasn't expecting to see the look of awed contentment on the face of the older boy, wasn't expecting him to close his eyes as the breeze brushed his bangs from his face, revelling in the feel of the wind on a hot day. His eyes almost popped out of his skull as Sasuke let out a tiny, crooked smile when he heard a couple of students hanging out by the wall below them, talking fondly about the antics of one of their delinquent friends.
When the bell sounded to signal the end of lunch period, Naruto made to get up, surprised that Sasuke had stayed with him for the whole hour even if it had been silent but when he made to move, he could feel Sasuke's limp head against his chest and when he glanced down to check on his rival, he found himself looking into the serene face of sleep.
He couldn't believe it at first, honestly couldn't believe it.
Sasuke had fallen asleep on his chest.
Sasuke who was haphephobic most of the time, who didn't let anyone touch him for more than a few minutes had fallen asleep on the chest of Uzumaki Naruto.
His mischievous mind whirled with the tantalising thought of black mail material but as he really looked at the vulnerable face of the older teen, he could see the black bruises discolouring the rim of his eyes and all thoughts of causing trouble just seemed to fall away.
He probably hadn't been getting enough sleep recently.
Sasuke made an involuntary noise as Naruto moved back down, settling himself as he had been before with his bag under his head but didn't wake. The steady rise and fall of his back beneath Naruto's fingers lulled him into a docile state and he stayed like that until the end of the school day when Sasuke was finally roused by the shouts of the kids starting to make their way home.
At first, Sasuke was disorientated but when he realised where he was, resting with his head on Naruto's warm chest, listening to the steady thrumming pulse of his heart, he drew back as though realising he'd been asleep in a forest fire.
Naruto simply watched him out of curious eyes, wondering how he was going to handle the realisation that he'd been there almost all day. If this situation was even slightly different, Naruto would probably tease him to increase his embarrassment but something in the way Sasuke was obviously freaking out stopped him.
"We…were…we were-…Naruto, you…"
"You alright?" Naruto asked warily, heaving himself up into a sitting position and massaging out the crick in his neck. "You slept for a long time, we missed 5th period."
Sasuke froze in place, an ominous air swirling around him as Naruto stood, dusting himself off. Usually, he would try to match Sasuke's intimidation with his own defiance but today, it hardly seemed to be affecting him. He felt no need to respond to Sasuke's distress.
"You…let me sleep there through 5th period? You didn't wake me?" Sasuke asked in a menacing voice, his eyes promising death and destruction as he watched Naruto bend down to pick up his back pack. Sasuke was a stickler for the rules and took his education way too seriously. As far as Naruto was concerned, it was only healthy to bunk once in a while.
"You looked like you needed the rest more than you needed whatever mind-scarring Kakashi was gonna inflict on us," Naruto said with a small shrug. When Sasuke refused to drop the 'I'm going to kill you' glare, Naruto simply waved and started on his way to the stairwell. A few seconds later, he heard the off kilter rhythm of Sasuke's slightly longer strides as he too decided that it was time to get off of the roof.
As Naruto's hand gripped the handle of the door, he felt the light touch of Sasuke's fingers on the back of his palm and the shiver that ran through him had nothing to do with the colder air of the coming afternoon.
"You will tell no-one of this," Sasuke hissed darkly in Naruto's ear as he pushed open the fire door and strode passed Naruto, shoving his hands into his pockets as he descended the first set of stairs. Naruto was left staring after him, his eyes wide as he tried to ignore the phantom feel of Sasuke's breath on the ridge of his ear.
Below him, Sasuke was just turning to start down the next stairwell when he glanced up, catching Naruto's eye. He opened his mouth once and then closed it again, his dark eyes hesitant. Eventually, he seemed to succeed in mustering up some kind of courage because he let out one tiny, cautious smile and said:
"Thank you Naruto."
He stood against the waterfall at the Valley of the End, beneath the shadow of the 1st Hokage wiping at the trail of blood that ran down his chin, splattering on the surface of the water like oil before dissipating.
Sasuke stood across from him, balanced on the water with the red sharingan spinning wildly. Despite the killing intent radiating off of his rival, the words he had said reverberated through the caverns of Naruto's mind, making him more determined than ever to match him, to beat him.
"You are my closest friend."
Naruto made a hand sign and allowed his chakra to disperse to the shadow clone that appeared alongside him. Holding his hand out behind him, he began gathering the spinning chakra whilst the clone handled the directional push and pull needed to create a Rasengan. Opposite him, he watched as Sasuke clutched his outstretched hand and as lightning started crackling along the length of his arm, running through the conductive surface of the water.
This was going to be a clash like never before – something that Naruto had never foreseen happening when he'd finally joined the ranks of Konoha shinobi. He had developed this technique to match Sasuke's chidori and to protect himself from the brother that Sasuke had almost been crushed by when he'd started his journey with the legendary Jiraiya. Never in a million years had he ever contemplated the idea of having to use it on Sasuke to drag him away from the edge of all encompassing darkness.
The flash of static blue light alerted him to the fact that Sasuke's attack was ready and his shadow clone disappeared in a whiff of white smoke. Angling himself back, he felt the build up of momentum in his limbs and charged forward with a strangled battle cry, pouring his feelings into this moment, the need to bring Sasuke back for both Sakura and himself, the anxiety he felt when he pictured the consequences that could arise if he failed, the belief that Sasuke could be saved even if it was against his will.
He didn't count on Sasuke veering himself to the side at the last moment.
He barely had time to react before something…
Painful, explosive, eruptive agony.
Comprehension of major life threatening damage, his organs threatening to shut down from the shock alone and then all-encompassing agony. Agony so profound that it seeped into the air, tainting it, making it difficult to breathe, to exist.
He hung limply from Sasuke's jutting fist, his eyes wide, unseeing for a moment.
The attack had pierced his rib cage on the right side, had penetrated his lung and had slipped through sinew and bone until Sasuke's hand met fresh air through his back. Blood did not flow freely from the gaping hole, Naruto's world went a brilliant white and something violent surged up from within him. In a moment, he was vomiting thick, tar like blood. It dribbled down his chin into the collar of his jacket.
Only then did the wound in his chest start bleeding.
Sasuke's expression had hardly changed and the tomoe of his sharingan were hard in cold eyes. He looked like he was expecting something to happen, like he was waiting to be praised for killing the monster of the Hidden Leaf but…he had called Naruto his closest friend…
How could he honestly try to kill him like this?
Naruto was only able to grasp onto a single thought as his mind threatened to shut down permanently and he held on to it with everything he was worth as his hand shot out to grip the arm still protruding garishly from his chest, covered in his quickly oxidising blood. Red chakra started to pool around him as he inadvertently called on the Kyuubi's power to help him because…
This just wasn't Sasuke.
Sasuke may have been his rival, may have found him nothing but an annoyance but he would never ever try to kill him.
He obviously wasn't in his right mind at the moment.
And Naruto would be damned if he failed in saving his friend.
There was a shock wave, a momentary silence and then a boom blasted out from the hot spot of chakra that was the damaged Naruto. Sasuke felt an intense, maleficent pressure on his system but before he could get a good grip on the dobe, the epicentre, he was blown backwards across the water, his arm slipping out of his rival's chest with a sickening squelch.
When he managed to right himself, he found himself looking at an entirely different ninja. Naruto who was standing with his feet wide on the water and his arms crossed in front of himself. Naruto who's fingernails had suddenly grown in hyper drive, who's eyes were as red as his own and had narrowed into cat-like slits. Naruto who's canines seemed longer when he bared his teeth at his opponent, who's whisker marks seemed to have become much more prominent.
The excess chakra seemed to form a physical shield around him and Sasuke could do nothing but marvel, watching in something akin to fright as the loose muscle tissue, sinew and bone in his chest began to sew itself back together again in hyper speed.
He'd known that Naruto was a quick healer but this…
This was hellish.
"What are you?" he blurted out, sensing the chakra around his rival starting to move by itself. It appeared to be entirely separate to Naruto himself who was standing stock still in the middle of the turmoil. Was this some sort of twisted blood-line limit that the village had overlooked because Naruto was known to be such an idiot?
Naruto's fire red eyes found his and for a split second, they reverted back to the deep blue that Sasuke knew.
"I'm your friend," Naruto said simply and with that, he released the power he'd been holding back and darted forward.
"Sasuke-teme, why did you try to kill me?"
"…I don't know."
"Was it for power?"
"…Hn."
"Why is power so important?"
"…because I need it to kill him."
"I don't think I like that answer."
…
"It doesn't matter what you think."
"…I know."
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