Chapter Three

Naruto lay awake, staring up at his ceiling. Or at least staring at the parts of it he could see. Inside his head his mind was a mass flurry of conflicting thoughts; positive and negative arguments slamming against each other as his overall emotion, confusion, swirled in and around them like some kind of all encompassing, mucky water.

'I almost lost you.'

Sasuke had been serious when he'd said that. Naruto wasn't supposed to have heard it, he was sure of that; Sasuke didn't really know how good Naruto's hearing was so he couldn't possibly have intended for Naruto to hear it.

'I almost lost you.'

And really, Sasuke wouldn't have revealed that much emotion willingly. He'd sounded so…so…. Hurt, terrified, sick.

Naruto buried a hand in his hair, gripping the blond strands hard as he tried to make sense on his thoughts. It wasn't working. He'd been trying to come to grips with what he'd heard since Sasuke had left the clearing and that had been nearly two days ago. Somehow he'd gotten home, he didn't remember the trip, and he'd spent the entire day just sitting; sitting and trying to get his thoughts to go in a straight coherent line. Half of him said it was a trick. That Sasuke was just trying to con him into letting him close to the power the Kyubi promised. The other half denied that completely. Sasuke had come out right and said they were friends, he'd actually said it. Sasuke wouldn't lie to him; he never had and Naruto doubted he ever would. So what did that mean?!

He'd fallen asleep at some point and woken up half sprawled across his kitchen table. For once he'd escaped dreams of the Kyubi, probably from pure exhaustion, but that hadn't stopped the events of the previous day assaulting him the second he awoke. Again he'd spent the entire day inside, but he'd had the sense to actually go to bed once it started getting dark so he wouldn't spend another night using a dirty spoon as a pillow.

He was probably making too much of this. What Sasuke had said, it had probably meant something else completely from what Naruto thought it might mean. Really, since when would Sasuke be afraid to lose the friendship of someone like Naruto? That guy, he had everything, didn't he? He had his pick of anybody he wanted to be his friend so losing Naruto would be a blessing, right? Right?

That's the path his thoughts would have taken six months ago, before the jutsu that had sealed Naruto's consciousness outside his body and almost killed him. Six months ago he would have brushed off Sasuke's odd words in an instant, not once believing them to be anything except a misunderstanding or a mishearing on his own behalf.

That was six months ago. A lot had happened since then.

Sasuke had saved him from that jutsu, driving himself dangerously close to complete exhaustion to figure out how to cure him. Despite the fact that in the end it had been Kakashi who preformed the final jutsu that had finally allowed Naruto to wake up, Naruto hadn't been nearly as mad at Sasuke for running out of energy and collapsing as he had acted. It was later on, because of a chance conversation with the old-hag-Hokage, that Naruto had come to realise just how close Sasuke had come to doing himself permanent damage with the amounts of Chakra he'd been burning to keep moving and keep his Sharingan active so that he could keep an eye on Naruto; not to mention all the fighting he'd been having to do almost completely solo over the course of the entire mission.

And after that they had become closer. They still fought, but not as much as they had, and with nowhere near the amount of emotion behind it that there used to be. Naruto had gained a friend. A real friend; one that looked out for him no matter where he was and no matter what he was doing. From then on Sasuke had always been around, maybe not being sociable, or friendly, but always there.

But that meant…what? Naruto hadn't even thought about why Sasuke suddenly didn't mind being around him so much, he'd just latched onto the proof that he and Sasuke had been friends all along and stuck to it; taking it for granted.

What Sasuke had said…did that mean Naruto was as special to him as he was to Naruto? Did he consider Naruto a precious friend that he didn't want to lose? That fear that Naruto had felt when he'd thought Sasuke would hate him…did Sasuke feel that too?

Naruto went cold. Sasuke had almost killed him in that fight with Itachi and he'd been dwelling on it, too; Naruto had only to mention it and the black-haired boy would clam up, his eyes turning inward. Was that because he was afraid of what he'd almost done?

Naruto rolled over and buried his head in his pillow. Sasuke had said he'd only been thinking about training since they got back. Training to defeat Itachi, to destroy the man who had taken everything he had once held precious from him. And Itachi had been trying to get a hold of Naruto and the Kyubi for years.

Naruto groaned. This was too complicated! If he thought about it like that then the words Sasuke had muttered could very easily have applied to the fight against Itachi, or to the argument over training with the Kyubi's power. Or both.

What the hell was he supposed to do?! He couldn't avoid Sasuke forever, he didn't want too, so he had to come up with some kind of solution. But what?

This was ridiculous! Naruto suddenly pushed himself up so he was kneeling, grabbed his pillow and hurled it across the room. What the hell was this?! Ever since that moment in the forest when Sasuke had almost hit him with his Chidori, Naruto's emotions had been slowly turning upside-down. He'd discovered the truth behind Sasuke's past and why he was trying to kill his brother, he'd actually told Sasuke about the Kyubi and over all he'd been dithering around like a scared little girl, afraid of losing a friend and getting hurt. Their friendship had been fine before this! Sure sometimes it was stressing, and it could be hard not to just lash out and wipe that stupid smirk off of Sasuke's face sometimes, but it had been fine. Now he didn't know if he should run away to stop from getting hurt, cling to stop from getting hurt, or just pretend like nothing was happening. His decision the other day to stay away from Sasuke had seemed to be the right course of action at the time…but if Sasuke was just as afraid of losing Naruto's friendship as Naruto was of losing Sasuke's then that would just be stupid. If that were the case he should just march himself around to Sasuke's house now and sort things out.

"Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!" Naruto gasped back his breath from yelling and then flopped onto his back, spreading his arms so they hung off either side of the bed as he, once again, stared up at the ceiling. The source of all this was Itachi, Naruto decided. If Itachi hadn't have been there then Naruto never would have accidentally gotten in the way, Sasuke wouldn't have missed his opportunity, coming a hairs breath from killing Naruto in the process, and Naruto never would have been impelled to tell Sasuke about the Kyubi. Then Sasuke wouldn't even have considered asking Naruto to help him train to defeat Itachi.

And Sasuke wouldn't be obsessing over training to defeat the person that threatened to take away another one of the things he held precious.

Sighing, Naruto pulled himself off of his bed and retrieved the thrown pillow, patting it back into shape absently as he climbed back into bed. There was only one thing for it really; he didn't know what was going on in Sasuke's head, and he wasn't likely to find out, but that didn't really matter. Sasuke was his friend and it was time Naruto stopped running from that, afraid for himself. His options were fairly simple, help Sasuke train to defeat his brother, or not.

He couldn't say 'no', Sasuke needed him, and that was what friends were for.

Sunlight. It was warm.

Naruto kept his eyes closed as he lay back on the soft grass around him, arms pillowed behind his head comfortably as that warm sunlight glowed down at him, warming him onto a state of complete contentment.

There was a slight hint of wind, a warm breeze that stirred the air enough to keep things from getting too uncomfortably warm, and he could hear it as it flowed around him, caressing the longish strands of grass, the leaves of nearby trees and bushes and making his fringe brush across his face, tickling his nose and almost making him want to sneeze. The breeze also carried scents; the scents of summer, warm smells; freshly crushed grass from where he'd been training earlier, pollen from the various flowers that were coming to blossom, and the natural smells of the forest.

He dozed lightly in the warmth, a small smile on his face as he allowed himself to relax into his surroundings.

It felt good.

Okay. Naruto was officially nervous.

Fiddling with the zipper on his jacket, he stared at Sasuke's front door and contemplated knocking on it. He hadn't even thought about what he was going to do when he'd woken up that morning, he'd simply gotten dressed, eaten breakfast and powered onwards, determined to get to Sasuke's house, get over the awkward conversation that was bound to ensue when Sasuke opened the door, and then get to training.

That had been before he got here. Now he was here and had been staring at the door for a full five minutes, trying to figure out what on earth he was going to say to smooth things over.

It really wasn't like him to be this indecisive. It was annoying and, damn it, it was all Sasuke's fault.

Growling, Naruto lifted his hand and banged on the door, glowering at it until it finally opened.

The second it did, revealing a startled Sasuke, Naruto pointed a finger at him. "This is all your fault!" he exclaimed. "Do you have any idea how long I had to stand out here because of you?!"

Sasuke looked completely confused. "If you had have knocked earlier then I would have answered the door sooner," he said.

"That's not the point!" Naruto's voice got louder. "The point is that because of you I couldn't knock because I was to nervous over what I was going to say to you and so I had to stand here looking like an idiot!"

Sasuke's expression, if possible, looked further confused, then shifted to startled, then understanding. And then he smirked. "You are an idiot," he said.

"I am not, bastard! You are! It's your fault!"

Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest, "I don't see why I'm to blame because you can't figure out how to knock on a door."

And Naruto punched him.

It wasn't a hard punch, not by his normal standards, but it was enough to knock Sasuke's head to the side and stagger him back a step or two. Oops…

There was a moment of silence and then Sasuke turned his head back to look at Naruto, an eyebrow lifted.

"Do you feel better now?" he asked quietly and Naruto felt his face heating.

"Errr…yeah. A bit. Yes."

Sasuke actually, for a split second before his typical uncaring mask took over his expression, looked relieved, "good. Is that all you wanted?"

"…No."

Sasuke looked at Naruto impassively, waiting for him to go on.

Naruto briefly considered explaining his decision then threw the idea away, it'd be easier to just do it instead of explaining it. That way Sasuke couldn't argue again.

"Can we train?" he asked and tried to ignore the twisting feeling in his stomach; it was implying he was nervous about Sasuke's answer, which was ridiculous.

Sasuke's uncaring mask flickered for a moment and he lowered his head. "Of course," he said softly, "I'll get my things," and he turned and walked away, leaving Naruto to wait at the door.

Naruto was stunned. That brief expression before Sasuke had looked away, that reaction to a simple question about training…. Sasuke had looked relieved. Beyond relieved.

Naruto shook his head and snapped out of his unfocused stare at the empty doorway. That can't have been right. Sasuke, mister 'I've-got-a-stick-up-my-arse-and-it's-made-of-ice' does not get emotional when someone asks him to train with them. Come on, it was Sasuke.

"Let's go, dobe," Sasuke appeared back in the doorway, now wearing his weapons and forehead protector, and pushed Naruto out of the way so he could step out and lock the door behind him.

See, that was the Sasuke that Naruto knew, Mister 'I-don't-give-a-damn-and-you're-a-dobe', back in action.

Wait a moment…

"Don't call me that!"

"Hn, whatever. Dobe."

"Bastard!" Naruto growled and chased after Sasuke who had marched off down the street, regardless of if Naruto was following or not.

They argued all the way to their favourite training area. Or rather, Naruto argued, Sasuke ignored him except for a few insults here and there; it was almost as if the passed few days hadn't happened. Almost.

As they got closer to the training grounds what Naruto was about to do loomed bigger and bigger in his mind and by the time they reached their destination his subjectless arguing trailed off until he was completely silent. Sasuke cast him an unreadable look at the silence, but didn't say anything, Naruto was glad for that.

This part he actually had planned. Compared to smoothing things over with Sasuke, planning out how to train against him with the Kyubi's power was child's play. Naruto immediately moved to the centre of the clearing and looked down, closing his eyes to concentrate.

"Come at me," he said.

Sasuke paused in checking his weapons again and stared at him. Naruto could feel the other's eyes burning into him, "what?"

Naruto let a smirk creep onto his face and began to gather his Chakra, first his own, then the Kyubi's; mixing it slowly to create the right amount of power. It was harder then it sounded.

"I said, come at me. I'm not going to move from this spot." He slitted one eye open and cast a superior look at Sasuke, "if you don't think you can beat me you can feel free to give up now, though."

Sasuke didn't rise to the bait; instead his expression was riveted to the whisker marks that were growing more pronounced and the single eye that was slowly turning red. "Naruto…"

Naruto shut his eye again. "My choice," he stated simply.

"But…" Sasuke was really being annoying over this.

"You're not afraid are you?" he said tauntingly, "I can defeat you easily like this, you know; so you should be."

He could positively feel the glare that was suddenly being directed at him. He knew Sasuke to well. His eyes would have narrowed and he would have gotten that calculating look he got whenever he was about to face a real challenge.

"Come at you?" he said at last and Naruto nodded, still not opening his eyes.

"Your goal, Sasuke, is to see if you can get me to move from this spot," he smirked; Sasuke would not like such a simple sounding task.

He didn't. When the boy answered his voice sounded well and truly pissed off.

"Fine, are you ready?"

Naruto smirked wider, "I'm ready, start any time you like."

Sasuke growled and Naruto felt it. The chakra of the Kyubi now sang through his body and everything around him seemed amplified ten times over. When Sasuke growled he felt it in his own chest, and when Sasuke finally turned and disappeared into the trees Naruto felt the impact of his footfalls in the ground beneath his own feet. He might only have been using a filtered version of the Kyubi's chakra for this, but Sasuke wasn't going to have an easy time of it.

Naruto moved his head slightly to the left as a kunai whizzed passed his head and lodged in a tree behind him. Sasuke was starting out by testing him. Naruto stayed relaxed, letting his instincts read the signs of attack around him.

Left. Naruto leaned backwards a little, then to the left again. Shuriken. Kunai. They made different sounds when moving through the air; he could tell the difference.

This testing, it wouldn't last long, Sasuke hated fighting like that. Lifting his left arm, Naruto blocked the punch that came at him, right on time. Physical attacks now, but Sasuke was still only testing him, seeing if Naruto could block his attacks, like he'd boasted. To Naruto it felt like Sasuke was moving in slow motion, he sort of hoped that Sasuke would hurry up and get serious instead of all this testing and warming up.

Naruto got his wish a second later as Sasuke threw a punch at his gut, moved with Naruto's block so that he had extra momentum when he spun and aimed a kick at Naruto's head, ignored the fact that Naruto simply moved his head slightly to doge it and back flipped, trying to hit Naruto in the jaw with both his feet as Naruto recovered from the first dodge. But Naruto was faster than that and the kick missed him by mere centimetres, eliciting a growl from the black-haired boy that seemed to echo through Naruto's rib cage.

The fight was fast and furious after that. Sasuke didn't stop attacking even once, not even pausing for breath as he struggled to get Naruto to move from where he stood. After a while though, he struggled simply to land a clean hit.

Sasuke was breathing hard and his sweat damp clothing was sticking to him uncomfortably by the time Naruto frowned and turned his head in Sasuke's direction. Naruto didn't even have to try to figure out where Sasuke was now, if the sound of his breathing didn't give it away, the smell of sweat did.

"Are you using your Sharingan?" he asked.

Sasuke paused for a moment to recover his breath. "Yes!" he snapped.

"Oh," Naruto finally opened eyes he hadn't needed to open for the whole fight and scratched the back of his head, "then I think I used to much of the Kyubi's chakra; I was aiming to be stronger than you, but only enough so that you had a chance. This holding back thing is tough."

Sasuke was half doubled over, his hands resting on his knees as he struggled to get his breathing back to normal. He was a mess, Naruto realised, filthy and soaked through with sweat. He looked up at Naruto and glared.

"You're holding back?" he demanded.

"Of course! I don't want to kill you by accident!" Naruto snapped back and then dropped to the ground, sitting cross-legged as he released the Kyubi's chakra. His eyes faded back to blue immediately and his whisker marks went back to normal. "Well at least I'm going to be learning something from all this, normally I just activate as much of the Kyubi's chakra as I can; I'm not used to holding it back at a certain level."

"Just how strong is the Kyubi's chakra?!" Sasuke demanded and finally managed to stand up straight.

"I don't know," Naruto answered honestly. "Very, I think. It's stronger every time I use it."

"As far as we know, there's no limit to the Kyubi's power," a third voice said and both Naruto and Sasuke snapped their heads around to stare at the white haired man sitting calmly in a nearby tree, a book resting in his hands as if up until that moment he'd been comfortably reading.

What the hell?! Naruto hadn't sensed anyone else around them at all, not even when he'd been using the Kyubi's chakra.

"Kakashi…Sensei?" Sasuke said, the tenseness in his body relaxing slightly. "You know…?" he looked at Naruto questioningly.

"Errr…yeah," Naruto said and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "I think just about anyone who was about twelve when the Kyubi attacked knows."

"…Everyone?" Sasuke said slowly, then nodded in understanding and turned his dark eyes back to Kakashi. "Unlimited power?" he asked intently.

Kakashi lifted a hand and slowly rubbed the side of his nose through his mask. "Pretty much," he said carefully. "When it attacked, there was nothing we could do to defeat it. A lot of people died attempting it. We're only here today because the Fourth somehow managed to seal the demon inside of Naruto." Kakashi's eyes flickered to Naruto, "technically it wasn't defeated; but at least it's no longer a problem."

Naruto grimaced. "When did you get here?" he asked, diverting the subject.

Kakashi shrugged and went back to his book, "a while ago."

"Why are you here?" Sasuke demanded.

Kakashi didn't bother looking up. "It seemed like a nice place to read my book," he answered.

Naruto winced. Right. Like that was the truth. Kakashi was here because he had felt the Kyubi's chakra and, since he was still technically Naruto's instructor, it was his responsibility to check up on him and why he was using that power. Naruto had forgotten about that, perhaps he should have warned someone.

"I gather," Kakashi broke the silence that had descended on the clearing as he turned one of the pages in his book, "that you two plan on training like this from now on." A statement; not a question. "In future don't start until I've arrived."

Naruto blinked at the man. Until he's arrived? But Kakashi hadn't overseen their training for nearly a year now. Despite the fact that team seven were all still Genin, they had the power and experience of Chuunin, if not Jounin, so Kakashi had begun to spend more and more of his time doing missions instead of training his pupils, who were more then capable of training themselves.

"Why?" Sasuke asked, and glared up into the tree Kakashi was perched in.

The man finally looked up from his book and looked down at Sasuke speculatively. "This is a dangerous way of training," he said finally. "You'll need someone to make sure you don't overdo it. Plus," he added the last slightly more cheerfully, "the Chuunin exam is coming up again. Sakura needs to take it and pass if she wants to complete her training and it's about time you two got a better rank on you."

"You're just trying to get rid of us," Naruto accused.

"Yes," Kakashi agreed.

"How long till the exam?" Sasuke asked. "I hadn't heard there was going to be another one yet."

"Two weeks," Kakashi answered. "There are a lot of Genin coming out of the Academy soon so Tsunade-sama requested the next exam be moved closer so we can clear some space for them, free up instructors so they can take new teams."

"Oh." Naruto stared down at the blades of grass between his feet. Another Chuunin exam; he'd already taken five over the years and, though he'd failed them, it hadn't exactly bothered him much. He had plenty of time before the old-hag was ready to give up her position as Hokage and really, being a Genin wasn't as much as a handicap as he'd first imagined it would be. Tsunade gave them missions they could handle, which these days was between B and A-class, and Naruto didn't particularly want to find himself in charge of groups bigger than he and Sasuke, and occasionally Sakura.

Still…it was a good opportunity, for a lot of different things.

"Well," Kakashi put his book back into his weapons pouch and stood up, "be here at the time you normally show up, tomorrow. Naruto, think up some things that might help you control your ability to mix your chakra. You kept it fairly steady this morning, but you need to be able to manipulate its level a bit better."

And he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Chi'."

Naruto turned his gaze from the now empty tree to Sasuke.

"Now we'll spend all morning waiting around for him to show up," Sasuke said with annoyance.

"Probably," Naruto agreed and eyed Sasuke warily. Now was when he found out how pissed off Sasuke was that he'd had his arse kicked. He hadn't intended to beat the other boy so badly; Sasuke should be ready to glare at him any second.

Naruto waited with muscles tense as Sasuke stared off into the trees, his eyes dark with thought.

Finally the other boy turned to him, but it wasn't with the annoyed expression he was expecting. "I need a shower," Sasuke said, "and then we can have lunch."

Naruto gaped at him, "a…shower?"

Now Sasuke looked irritated, "yes. I'm not going to lunch until I've had one."

"But…aren't you mad?" he asked tentatively and it was Sasuke's turn to look confused.

"Why?"

"Well you normally get all uptight when I kick your arse," Naruto said defensively, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Oh," Sasuke paused and then he smirked. "I'm not mad," he said and began to walk towards Naruto until he was standing over him, forcing Naruto to crane his neck to see the other boys face. "Training like this, it'll definitely make me stronger."

"Oh," Naruto looked away from Sasuke in favour of studying the ground and the grass he was now methodically ripping up and shredding into tiny pieces, "of course." Of course Sasuke wasn't mad, he was getting what he wanted, a new tool to give him strength.

Naruto blinked suddenly as Sasuke crouched down beside him and grabbed his chin, forcing the blond to look at him. "Thank you for doing this," he said, his eyes intent and deadly serious. "I know I gave you no reasons to do this for me, so I'm grateful that you are…and I'm also grateful that you didn't leave. I wouldn't have blamed you if you had, I probably would have if it had been me."

Naruto stared at Sasuke, stunned, "I…I wouldn't leave."

Sasuke rubbed his thumb against Naruto's chin. "Good," he said softly then cleared his throat suddenly and stood up. "Let's go."

Naruto shook his head and then grinned and wrinkled his nose. "Right! Cause you know what? You really need a shower."

Sasuke cast a half glare at him, "baka."