Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me, just this fic. It is enough. Naruto/Sasuke pairing yaoi Rated: R By: Sunstrike

Chapter Two Absorbing The Demon

A young boy lay in the sand panting. The sun shone on his golden hair and sparkled off of salt-water drops as he shook the excess sea out. When he had finished shaking his head he flopped down with a sigh of satisfaction. He raised a hand up to his eyes to look at the sky that was bright blue, like cornflowers; and then covered his face with his arm. The soft thunder of small waves hitting a shoreline filled him with peace, and the loose soft ground beneath him began to shift as he relaxed slowly, making an imprint in the sand.

Naruto had been training all day along the same beach and had completely worn himself out. As he lay there he grinned. He had accomplished a lot that day, probably more then he had when he was around the others. He found that the restlessness that he felt around his teammates abated when he was alone. The need to stand out goes away when there's no one around to impress or act the fool for. That was how he became clumsy, made mistakes. He had been surprised at how much he actually hadn't needed them this whole time. He didn't even miss them. Well, he corrected, maybe a little.

Suddenly he heard footsteps crunching towards him interrupting his thoughts. Naruto slowly eased his arm off of his eyes and peered in the direction the sound was coming from. A tall silhouette of a man stood there with his head tilted to the side. He was standing with the sun to his back so Naruto couldn't see any features, to the young boy the guy looked like an upright shadow that had taken leave of it's previous owner.

"This is a nice dream." Said the man.

"It's more of a memory." Naruto answered back casually, going back under his arm. He didn't know why he felt so calm about all this, usually when strangers approached he was careful to keep his guard up. And he was fairly certain that this man hadn't been there when he was training. But he felt absolute calm, as if it weren't a stranger at all but an old friend come to visit.

This whole situation was amazingly surreal, as if this all actually was a dream and he had never actually been to this peaceful place. He thought, strangely enough, that he should be remembering something important.

The sand crunched even more and stirred close to his body, telling him the man had sat down next to him. Somehow the day seemed to get a bit warmer as

Naruto could almost feel the soft breathing of the quiet stranger.

"Then it's a nice memory." Naruto took his arm away again to stare at the figure next to him. His breath caught in his throat. Bright red hair floated softly around the man's head, constantly moving with some hidden breeze. It looks like he has tails attached to his head. At the ridiculous thought Naruto laughed softly. A face turned to him and grinned. The boy gulped. His canines showed plainly, they were very pointy. What was that story? 'The better to eat you with.' Two blood red eyes stared into his own, 'The better to see you with.' There wasn't any emotion within them that Naruto could read. The man was also dressed in just a pair of black pants and had bare feet. He was lean, but muscular and very dark tanned skin with a terra cotta tinge to it. Naruto had to stop himself from drinking the view.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked curiously, interest over this beautiful person next to him was seething through his body. Not to mention other things.

Now it was the stranger's turn to laugh and for no reason whatsoever Naruto felt a bit stupid. They both lapsed back into silence. It was a long time before the man spoke again and it was something just as cryptic as before.

"When I'm free, I think I'll keep this memory." Naruto blinked as once again the blood eyes found his cyan. He felt very young all of a sudden.

"Would you like to stay in it?"

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Naruto awoke a second time to warmth and a soft light touching the front of his eyelids. He was so comfy and peaceful and; wait, where was he? He heard soft breathing next to him and opened his eyes very slowly only to come face to face with a sleeping Iruka. Oh shit.

They were so close that Naruto could see every detail on the man's face clearly from each strand of brown hair that fell on his face to the deep scar that ran deeply along his nose. Naruto began to panic. His head began to hurt again. Why was it always him in these situations? I have to get out of here.

So as not to disturb the sleeping teacher he began to inch away slowly, then he paused. He knew for a fact that Iruka had no interest in him in that way, and the feeling was mutual, the man was probably worried that he'd stop breathing at some point in the night and had decided to sleep with him and watch over. And yet, he wondered.

Going against his better judgement he gently reached out a shaking hand and moved a finger slowly down the length of Iruka's tanned jaw line, running it over soft lips, and that same deep scar. Then he let the hand fall loosely onto the bed. He stared wide-eyed at the person next to him. Why the hell had he done that?

'Because he looks so cute just sleeping there,' Naruto blinked thoughtfully, continuing the study of his guardian. It was bizarre how emotions changed over time, especially Naruto's own feelings towards those close to him.

Iruka had always just been like a big brother or a parent to him, and truthfully he didn't feel any different now. It's just that he'd always been curious as to what Iruka felt about everything. The days he was teaching Naruto, taking him out, and talking to him, must have been like a punch in the face everyday, and yet, here he was, mothering after Naruto as if the demon inside of the boy wasn't there. Although he appreciated everything that the man had done for him, the whole situation still confused the hell out of Naruto.

Iruka had greatly disapproved of his little jaunt out of town, saying Naruto shouldn't isolate himself from others. But Naruto needed to go, desperately wanted to leave. To get in the way would have crushed the boy, and the thoughtful sensei had managed to pick up on that, although he could find no real reasoning behind the move. Truthfully, Naruto wouldn't have been able to give him any good reason anyway. It was just way too personal to be telling Iruka those kinds of things, and the boy wasn't sure he'd really understand.

Being away for this long, maybe Iruka had been lonely without him? Nah, he had his students all day and was probably glad of the extra money he saved by not having to take Naruto out for ramen.

The boy sighed softly and began to get out of the bed, his head and hand were still hurting and he wanted a shower. Halfway up Iruka grabbed him. Naruto's face was comical as the still sleeping sensei dragged him back into the bed and cuddled up, hugging him from behind and mumbling softly.

"No, please, don't go. It's so cold. You always leave." One arm circled around Naruto's chest and the other around his stomach. He could feel Iruka's lips brush a kiss along his shoulders. He had also managed to tangle up both legs in a vice like grip. Shuddering slightly at the heat running through him, Naruto craned his neck around. Was his teacher still asleep? Compared to Naruto, who couldn't breath at all for fear of feeling more skin, Iruka's breath was the slow and steady movement of one that's deep asleep. He's dreaming. Suddenly, curiosity vaguely found it's way to the surface of his scattered mind and Naruto wondered whom his teacher was dreaming about. That was a rather odd thing to say. He jumped as what felt like a drop of water ran down his shoulder. Iruka?

Hoping he wouldn't regret this Naruto slowly semi disentangled himself, enough to turn around and face his teacher, who was crying in his sleep. The site of tears on an otherwise peaceful face grounded the young boy. He raised his wounded hand gingerly and put it around Iruka's bare shoulder, then carefully wedged the other one around to meet it. Then he hugged Iruka, ignoring the blush that was spread over his face. He stayed like that for the better part of an hour, just holding his guardian and protector, amazed at the whole situation and one question throughout. Who was his teacher so heartbroken over?

When he was pretty sure that Iruka was deeply asleep and wouldn't do anymore disturbing things he gently substituted himself with a pillow and went to the bathroom. When he got there he locked the door and turned the shower on full blast and cold. Careful of his injured hand he stepped into the stream of ice-cold water gasping as the full force hit him. He then slowly pressed his back against the wall and let his legs relax. He sat in the corner, shivering from more then just cold.