Disclaimer: Naruto, anime, manga and all affiliated merchandise are owned in some way or form by its creator Kishimoto Masashi and all those other companies that have a hand in producing and/or spreading Naruto. There is no intended copyright infringement.

QY- This was supposed to be posted yesterday... but this didn't exist yesterday, lol. Anyway, this is the first of, I believe, 10 fanfics written to celebrate my apparent joining of ff.n's community that fateful day of 12-05-01 even though I didn't use it till the beginning of this year. Stretching to Christmas Day, the running theme is overall, winter. This does not mean all of them will be for Naruto ::sweat drop:: As much as I love the series, I would go insane. So the next nine will be written for those series that I feel I know the most of. All of them will definitely be from an anime/manga, except for Harry Potter- which I will post tomorrow. So I hope you enjoy this little series-thingy and comment on whatever you feel like commenting.

-A note for those waiting for chapter 8 of DR, it's coming along, but since I want to get the "past" over with, I'm putting all three remaining days in one chapter. So even though I am working on it- have no fear- it won't come out for another few days or so. Please be patient. I'm doing this for your benefit... really.-

Warning: Although I feel there shouldn't be a need to put this, there is also a running theme of yaoi/shounen-ai/slash/boyxboy love in my stories. So just avoid anything that has my name on it, including this one, if the thought of it offends you. Please, I just traumatized one of my friends (male), I don't want any crap about it.

P.S. There are seriously a lot of synonyms for quiet. (Before you say anything... yes, I know the beginning is ridiculous, deal with it.. please?) And one more thing, this does, for once, take into account what has happened in the latest manga chapters. So if you haven't read them, beware of spoilers. Although I haven't read the last two...

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By Your Side --- QianYun

He sat quietly in the tree, wondering silently to himself of the still nature around him.

Everything was just too... docile.

Shaking his head to rid of the thoughts that seemed to be revolving a little too much on his subdued surroundings, he stood with a reserved motion, ears twitching to catch a noise in the forest. A noise of any type...

But there was only a void. There existed an oblivion of sentience, no stories of life to be told by those of the forest, nothing that could tell him that he hadn't lost the one of the few things he still had left. His senses failed him as he detected naught but the faint breeze of the wind.

At least he could still feel that, the cool wind that brushed by every part of his body. Unfortunately, that cool wind turned deadly, the chill becoming a deadly freeze that threatened to turn him into a simple frozen human. That is.. if he was still even human.

Thoughts turned from a light distracted tone to morbid thoughts of his humanity, or lack thereof.

Jumping swiftly across the tree to reach the neighboring one, he carefully exerted his chakra to keep his balance on the iced branch. Sighing briefly at the rush of adrenaline that came from something so simple, he continued his journey through the trees, searching for his original resting area. Embarking on a slight clearing that was nevertheless covered in snow, branches and looming, naked trees, he skidded to a stop before a tent that was set up, what appears to be, mere moments before.

Picking up his head to observe his surroundings once more, an exhale was heard once more, and with it a slight tension was released from his shoulders.

"Yo, ero-sennin, come out of the trees already. I haven't traveled with you for the last two years to get defeated this easily."

An echo that would have normally been muffled by trees and leaves resounded through even this small clearing, causing the chuckle that came soon after to seem larger than life.

"I would've been severely disappointed in you if you weren't able to detect me. I was, after all, barely trying." The man speaking these words jumped down from what appeared to be the middle of nowhere.

Rolling his eyes, the boy said sarcastically, "You weren't trying, of course. Which is why you completely smothered your chakra even when you knew that it would've hurt you if I didn't notice you for some time. And please don't even try to tell me that--"

"My complete faith in your abilities prodded me to take this chance. As your teacher..." He broke off, making a face when he heard the echoing words sounding from the teenager's mouth. "There's no need to mock me," he pouted, a sight quite common, if you knew what you were looking for.

An amused laugh escaped the blond teenager, "Don't pretend you, old man, you know you like it when I repeat after you. Makes you feel important enough to have your words remembered."

Said white-haired old man rose one of his eyebrow, glancing at the boy before turning his face out to the sky as the other had done moments before, "There are things in life that come to you unsuspectingly. It's not until they're gone that you realize how important it was," he paused, thinking further on his words. "One day, when you've left, I'll remember this as something that was purely for us. But until then..."

Trailing off, the kid accompanying him blinked curiously, but even though he was looking at the old man, he just barely realized it when his teacher moved abruptly to come a mere feet away from him.

"Now, see, Naruto. What if I was an enemy? Then you would be-" He was interrupted by the teen named Naruto, a sly grin growing on his face as he spoke.

"I would be completely safe while you bled to death, Jiraiya-san."

Swiftly ducking his head, he noticed that indeed, he would've bled to death probably even before he would've been able to push the kunai he held into Naruto's heart. For in Naruto's hand, there was a senbon of a wicked length and equally wicked curved end positioned above his heart. His other hand held a double-bladed kunai, poised and ready to thrust into Jiraiya's thigh, near the line of nerves that controlled his lower leg.

Eyes widened in shock before closing to curve in amusement, Naruto only looked on as Jiraiya threw his head back to laugh rambunctiously.

The trails of his laughter lingered through the air, pushing the atmosphere into one of cheer, erasing the thoughts that had plagued Naruto before he entered the clearing.

Hiding his own reaction to Jiraiya's laugh, he gave a mock scowl and said, "What's so funny?"

Jiraiya shook his head in amazement before brushing off the event and turning to walk into the small tent. "You'll find out when you get your own student. Haha, really, imagine this of all..." His voice slowly disappeared as he walked into the tent, voice lowering in volume with each step he took.

Furrowing his brows, Naruto stood at his spot thinking for a moment before he realized what Jiraiya did.

"Hey! What happened to my tent?! You were supposed to set both of them up!" Naruto scowled at the tent in front of him and was then greeted by a white head and a grinning face.

"I'll tell you what happened with your tent if you tell me what happened to the wood you were supposed to get." A smile stretched across his face and the red marks blurred as the smile grew even larger when Naruto was only able to make an 'o' with his mouth.

"Hehe," lifting his hand up to scratch the back of his head in a nervous gesture, Naruto merely replied with a simple, "I expect an explanation when I get back, ero-sennin!"

Almost expecting a shaking finger to accompany the statement, Jiraiya only chuckled as he watched Naruto sprint to the trees to jump up and out. "I don't think you'll remember to ask me for that explanation, Naruto." With a knowing smile, he turned back into his tent and prepared to write the night away.

After all, he still had fans waiting for his next book.

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Re-entering the forest, the shock of the silence approached Naruto once again, causing worry wrinkles to appear on his young face. Scars folding, he tried to sniff the air, but found nothing out of the ordinary. On the other hand, he couldn't find anything ordinary either.

Cautiously advancing further into the forest, his eyes darted even while his body moved at a calm, steady pace. Something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out what it was.

However, even though he felt something was wrong, even though he knew something was wrong, he couldn't get rid of the feeling that it was...

A pleasant type of wrongness, if such a thing ever existed.

Restraining his urge to sigh (he wasn't sure if that tale of sighing causing a person to remain short was true, but he wasn't about to take the chance), he glanced around lazily before shaking it off and jumping towards a slightly more sheltered area. Sliding off the tree branch to land on the ground with a slight 'whomp', he frowned at the noise before getting up and searching for wood.

"I don't know why we need wood anyway," he muttered, continuing his search as he spoke to himself, "It's not like we're going to make that big of a fire. Assuming of course, that the stupid wood even lights up." A scowl crossed his face as he thought of all the times during their traveling that they encountered places that became too cold during the night and sometimes day. "Konohagakure was never this cold."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the earth, seeming to be distracted by his own grumbling. This pretense was quickly erased, however, when he spotted a few fallen branches that appeared dry.

Sprinting the short distance, he was unable to stop from running into the body that appeared out of thin air. Stumbling back a few steps, he teetered on the edge of his sandals (urgh, sandals in the snow, why couldn't he have normal boots?) before a strong hand reached out to grab his arm.

Being pulled too hard, or perhaps, just the right amount, he was pushed against a warm chest that was only slightly higher than his own. For a moment, he relished in the warmth - it had been too long since he was in a warm environment - but quickly his mind returned to him and he frantically pushed against that which held him.

He pushed, and pulled a little, until he recognized the scent that enveloped him. A dark scent, one that was made not of nature or food, or anything of that sort, but rather, a scent of colors. A deep red color, embraced by a darkness that could not be called black, but could not be called brown either. A dark blue tinge that lightened off into a sky blue before changing abruptly to a bright yellow. Scents he connected with those colors came rushing and those colors were replaced with nature. The sun, the night, the sky, everything around him, everything natural. All wrapped up in one package, one body

A body that he had not seen for two years.

Naruto's breath became shallow, his breathing becoming a bit too paced. He pushed lightly against the body in front of him and the arms that had at sometime wrapped themselves around him loosened, only a tiny bit, and with great reluctance.

Pushing insistently, yet lightly, the arms loosened little by little until they finally fell away from him. Backing away slowly, not yet willing to pick up his head, he looked at the only things his eyes could see at the moment.

Legs encased in a dark blue cloth and surrounded by a red that he could only compare to Kyuubi's chakra greeted him. The silence that had bothered him before slowly came back as seconds, then minutes ticked by; Naruto remaining unwilling to pick his head up.

There was a hope, no doubt about it, but there was also anger, a fierce anger that he had only experienced a few times in his young life, all within a select few years of his life. All somehow, one way or another, related to one person.

The same anger rose up again and it was only when that anger was securely in his grasp to use as he would did he look up.

And it was just as he anticipated, yet at the same time, completely out of his realm of thought.

For the person that he expected stood before him, there was no doubt of that.

But he had changed.

Naruto expected him to have changed, but not like this, in his wildest dreams, and once, in his wildest nightmares, this was never expected.

Because Sasuke, Uchiha Sasuke, stood in front of him with a smile on his face. A genuine, happy, smile that spoke of all the positive emotions a person could have in this day and age rested upon the face of a boy who abandoned his village so he could have his revenge. A boy who left all that he knew to follow a man that offered nothing but power, sorrow, and evil stood there... smiling. At him. At Uzumaki Naruto.

"Why?"

Naruto didn't realize he spoke until Sasuke answered his question, his smile diminishing, but not gone.

"Because I tried and I failed. I failed in the one thing that should've been my dream all along."

Mind whirling at the sight that he would forever commit to memory, he stumbled over the word 'should' and exclaimed, "You lost against Itachi?!"

Sasuke's smile grew once more, "I'm glad to know that you had such faith in me, Naruto."

Face flushing, he brushed off the statement and backed away. "What do you want?"

"My friends."

A simple statement, but unfortunately, as Naruto was wont to do, he misunderstood the other boy's meaning - it was a bit easy to do so - and yelled, "You can't have us. No... you don't have any people to call your friends. You abandoned us, don't you remember?!" In a state of confusion, and shock at seeing his former teammate sooner than he expected, he forgot the promise that he made to himself that day when Jiraiya first spoke to him after his fight with Sasuke. He promised, didn't he? That no matter what, he would get Sasuke back, even if it meant walking the path of a fool? So why was he reacting this way?

Naruto was startled out of his thoughts by the sight of Sasuke's smile disappearing. A frown replaced the happy face that he had moments before, a shade less anger and a shade more sadness than the face he donned the years after his parents were murdered.

He wanted to say so much, but if Naruto believed it... then he really had no choice, did he? "I... I didn't expect such a reaction from you of all people, Naruto. I guess that if even you can't accept me back, then I suppose it's best that I continue to walk the path I willingly stepped onto two years ago."

Sasuke took a step back, but it was his turn to be startled when Naruto grabbed his arm in an attempt to keep him from leaving. A frown crossed his face before he shook Naruto's hand off.

"I don't have time to play games with you, Naruto. Let go."

"No." Forgoing his usual reaction which involved a lot of firm demands, he started with a tactic that he learned to use wisely in his journey. A sincere apology.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke. It's just... I never expected you to be here. I was all set on meeting you after three years, but here you are, two years later, standing in front of me... different." A pleading expression crossed Naruto's face, "What? What happened?"

Cocking his head, Sasuke replied simply, "I spend too much time with Orochimaru and too little with my family."

"Your... family?" Naruto spoke with a bewildered face, Is there something I don't know about?

"My family," Sasuke said with a assured tone, "Konohagakure. My friends, the people who spent time with me, wanting me for... more or less me. Not the people who wanted me as a tool." He shook his head, "No, beyond a tool. I was ready to be one if it meant avenging my family. A tool is what a shinobi is to their village. I was less to Orochimaru." Sasuke paused, drifting his eyes toward the sky. "I don't expect to go back into open arms. I'm not even sure if I want to go back. But I do know one thing that I have to have."

Selfish bastard... Naruto narrowed his eyes, waiting for his answer, not expecting the one he received.

"I have to be by your side." A smile, one different from the one that had settled upon his face earlier, rested onto Sasuke's lips, relaying a feeling of hope.

"By... my side?"

"Whether you wish to admit it to yourself or not, we work well together. We balance each other out. But while you probably don't need you, I do need you. I need you to a certain extent. Not to the point where I can't live or anything without you. But to the point where... the world seems much better with you around. I meant it when I said that you were my closest friend. Even without you trying, even with me pushing you away, you became a part of my life. An important part that was not missing until it was found."

Sasuke turned to look back at Naruto, "Even if Konohagakure refuses to accept me again, I know that if you were by my side, even if things will not be the best, everything will feel much better."

"How do you know?" Naruto spoke in a harsh whisper, trying to contain his emotions and trying to get the truth.

Sasuke brought a hand to his chest, "I know in my heart. I know just as my mom had told me, that even though my dad never gave me a second glance, appearances can be deceiving. And just as he placed his hopes onto me, I'm placing mine on you. But in the end... it all depends on you. I failed my dad in the beginning, I'm hoping that you won't fail me."

"I don't know if I can do what you want me to."

"But you can try, can't you, Naruto? I need you to try..." Sasuke trailed off, the hope in his eyes slowly dieing.

Seeing this, Naruto frantically waved his hands, "No, no, I'll try, I'll try! I promised I would bring you back, and if this is what it means to bring you back, I will do whatever it takes! That is my ninja way!"

A smile brightened Sasuke's face before his eyelids lowered, "Whatever it takes, Naruto?"

"Eh, uh... what?" Naruto stuttered and backed away, unfortunately, he forgot he was standing near the pile of sticks and he tripped right over down on his behind.

Sasuke followed him down, leaning his body over Naruto's. "Whatever it takes..." he whispered, before leaning down to catch the blond's lips in a kiss.

Then, in that moment, Naruto heard again. He heard the sounds of nature going on its merry way. The birds chirping as they searched for shelter. The shifts of the ground as the four legged creatures returned to their homes for the night. The hibernating creatures shifting in their sleep.

And most importantly, he heard the heartbeat of his precious person.

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On the other side of the trees, Jiraiya cackled as he thought of all the material he could come up for special editions of his books with Naruto and Sasuke traveling together. I have a feeling the fangirls will finally get their fill.

Owari

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QY- Done. Finished. Over. Let's go to sleep.

Well, I am, you should go and review. And sorry for typos and the like, too tired to check with my awesome editing powers… ::blink blink:: I need sleep…

Written: 12/06/04 7 p.m. to 10:31 p.m. (With a half-hour break for dinner)