A/N: Because I'm a first time idiot still figuring out exactly how to work , bear with me. Sorry for the short 2nd chapter. Still working out the kinks in my writing style, I write slowly and like to meander. It's about trying to get the damned Sasuke-Naruto relationship out of my head. Reviews more than welcome. Even the bad ones, I think. Thanks to all who've reviewed so far! Uhm, will work on making longer chapters... and action is coming soon, I swear! (in the next chapter, it's already in the works)


Disclaimers: Naruto and its characters are all owned by Kishimoto.

(forgot to put this in my first chapter, but better late then never! Don't sue! The intentions are good...)

Setting: Well, Sasuke hasn't left Konoha yet. We're all just waiting for the other shoe to fall really I guess. Team 7 has an independent mission that they're now preparing to go on. Not sure how it pans out, but if you've got plot devices you would like to see immortalised, by all means, review!


3. Interlude - Only in Dreams

Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me. I could feel your warm arms around me. Hugging me gently, cradling me lovingly. Your rough but comforting touch smoothed away my hair from my eyes, and your low voice cooed meaningless words that sounded nice. Good. It was soothing away all the aches and pains of the day, and we could rest peacefully, contentedly, basking in our bond.

What bond? Bonds make us weak. We hurt because of our bonds. If we lived just to make ourselves happy, maybe the world would be a simpler place. But it isn't that way. I hate you and love you at the same time.

Sasuke woke with a start. Damned dreams. He could never figure out who was holding him so preciously in his dreams. It didn't feel like his mother, and it scared him to think that it could be Itachi or even Naruto. He hated his dreams. It wasn't a means of subconscious escape for him. Only a place where his feelings decided to come out. And he didn't like it one bit. There was no control over his dreams, no control over his feelings.

Good thing there was the mission starting tomorrow. He'd like to pound the shit out of someone else to make himself feel better. It gave him a measure of control. Sasuke was twisted that way, and Naruto always bore the brunt of it. Sasuke didn't give it any other thought as he fell back to sleep. The fact he was going to kick Naruto's ass was an oddly comforting one, especially after disturbing dreams.


"Only in dreams, we see what it means."- Weezer

Naruto always slept restlessly, although no one knew it. He seemed like the oblivious kind of guy who could sleep through earthquakes. The truth was that he slept fitfully, in bursts between the agony of waking and deep unconsciousness.

So he dreamt patches of bloody red dreams, of Kyuubi taunting him in mocking tones from behind the gates of his own mind, of the villagers scorning him with hateful stares, even of pink haired Sakura continually rejecting him. He also dreamt of the blissful empty darkness, alone together with Sasuke.

But he never remembered any of his dreams the next morning. He was just himself when the sunlight came to chase away the dark dreams. He was just loud, irrepressible, eternally cheerful Naruto. And sometimes, in the quiet moments alone in his head, he wasn't sure which Naruto he preferred being. At least there was honesty in his dreams...

It was good that they had an independent mission tomorrow. He needed to become Hokage one day, and independence was definitely the first step. (Although the fact that he'd generally been independent since day 1, he didn't consider living alone and fending for yourself as independence. It was just something that he had to do because no one else would do it for him. This was shinobi independence we were talking about now.) He actually didn't mind spending time alone with Sasuke and Sakura. They were a team after all, and they were almost friends, sometimes more, sometimes less. They were the closest thing he had to a family after Iruka sensei. After becoming Hokage and kicking Sasuke's ass along the way, he wasn't sure, and he never thought that far ahead anyway, was his last conscious thought as sleep claimed him for the night.


"Cos I don't want to wake up sad" - Speedstar.

Sakura didn't usually dream at all. She surprisingly didn't dream of a white picket fence and Sasuke, she just didn't dream at all. She wasn't an overly ambitious person, and there wasn't any real driving force in her life. Sakura was one of those people that just was.

But tonight she dreamt. She dreamt of watching her two team mates die before her eyes, and she was powerless to stop it. It felt like she was back in the Forest of Death, helpless and weak again, dependent on good luck and Rock Lee to jump in and save the day.

She felt the same agony of seeing Naruto beaten and battered as he fought for their lives and their dignity. She felt the same pain of seeing Sasuke bitten by Orochimaru (and suppressed an unconscious shudder) and those evil snake eyes taunting her. She felt the same fear of Sasuke giving into the darkness. She felt the atmosphere of evil swirling around in her head. She felt useless and small and just a girl. She felt like the third wheel, the one that they had to carry along as they struggled to complete this new independent mission in her dream. She felt like she was weighing them down from what they could achieve without her.

Sakura hated that feeling. She was the smartest girl in class, and on one of the strongest Genin teams in the Leaf. She was one of the team, one of them, yet she could not even save her own team mates.

She tossed uncomfortably in her bed, feeling like she was missing something very important. After all, her intelligence told her, weren't dreams like premonitions? Your subconscious is trying to tell you something Sakura. Don't let history repeat itself...