Got to Get You Out of My Mind!
Summary: It all started with a jutsu gone wrong… and Naruto and Sasuke find themselves in a stressful and decidedly awkward situation. A light-hearted and kinda stupid story that takes place sometime before Sasuke goes all power-hungry and follows Orochimaru… Seriously, I can't handle deep stuff like that…
Pairing:Eventual SasuNaru or NaruSasu, maybe more later…
Rating: PG-13 or T for yaoi, language, and stupidity.
Disclaimer:I lay no claim to any of the Naruto characters; I'm merely borrowing them for my own entertainment, and (hopefully) the entertainment of those who read this.
Note: I've decided that this takes place after Tsunade's assumption of the Hokage title, but before Sasuke leaves Konoha. So… circa episode 101 (the pointless but hilarious filler episode revolving around what lies beneath Kakashi's mask.)
Muchas gracias to my beta, Commander Ander!
Chapter One: Bad to Worse
"Sasuke."
Silence.
"Saaaasuke…."
Once again, silence.
"Uuunghh…. I'm huuuungry…"
"I don't care!" Sasuke snapped. 'Although I'm pretty hungry myself, actually…'
"Then why don't we go someplace to EAT?" Naruto whined, stomping his foot rather childishly.
"I'm not hungry." Sasuke replied in his best 'I-don't-give-a-shit-about-whatever-it-is-you're-telling-me' voice.
"But you just said you were!" The blonde ninja scrunched his face up and glared angrily at his rival's profile.
Sasuke blinked and stopped in his tracks, momentarily baffled by Naruto's comment.
"…I really fucking hate you." he finally growled, before shooting a death glare at an innocent dandelion on the side of the path and trudging onward.
The two young ninjas were walking back from the training fields, side by side, each boy occasionally sneaking furious glares at the other. Though they had been walking along the same path for nearly a quarter of an hour, their conversation, if it could even be called that, was admittedly rather strained.
It took what seemed like an eternity to reach the center of the village – where in order to get to their respective homes the two would have to part ways. Naruto slowed his pace to a stop, glancing at Sasuke questioningly.
'So, what now?'
Sasuke continued walking forward, ignoring his teammate and heading down the path that eventually lead to the Uchiha manor.
'Oh fine!' Naruto's voice screamed in his head, 'Just walk away from me, like nothing's wrong here! You complete bastard!'
Sasuke increased the speed of his gait. He'd just spent twenty minutes (or rather, an eternity) of walking side-by-side with the number one loudest ninja in Konoha, having to listen not only to his words but his thoughts as well. This gave him plenty of time to ruminate in the misery of the situation. During this time, he finally came to one logical conclusion.
There was not going to be an easy way out of this.
However, any semblance of a plan to solve the mess would simply have to wait until tomorrow, Sasuke decided. At the moment he wanted nothing more than to bury his head under his pillow and fantasize about killing his brother, among other such comforting things.
'No! No, no, no, no, NO! I will NOT wait till tomorrow! We're going to fix this NOW!' he heard Naruto's voice shriek. Whipping his head around he saw that Naruto was trailing him by no more than a dozen feet.
Yes, Sasuke concluded, Itachi-killing fantasies definitely sounded very good right about now. With a sudden burst of speed he sprung up onto a rooftop and raced towards the mansion, leaving a pissed-off Naruto coughing in the dust he kicked up.
'That arrogant, selfish asshole!' The blonde boy thought angrily. His stomach chose that moment to remind him with a loud growl that he was in fact quite hungry. 'Ahh, after such a trying day, I might as well reward myself with some ramen!' He thought to himself, his mood brightening instantly.
'Idiot,' Sasuke's familiar voice rang in his mind. 'You do that after every training session.'
Goodbye, good mood… Naruto fancied he could almost see Mr. Good-Mood flying away, just out of his reach.
'Am I really hearing this right? Are these the kinds of thoughts that fill your petty brain day in, day out?' Sasuke's voice sneered.
"Gyahhhhh!" Naruto screamed, clutching his head and pulling at his hair. A few villagers walking by jumped slightly with alarm at the unexpected shout from the Kyuubi-holder.
'I can't...take…this…' He mourned, clenching his teeth and still grasping his head fiercely.
'Oh, you think it's bad for you – at least you don't have to listen to a never-ending monologue about the joys of ramen and other mind-numbing things. My head's about to explode from overexposure to stupid.'
Naruto growled. 'You don't have to listen, bastard!'
'Yes, I do.'
'So just go to sleep or something!' Naruto thought vehemently.
'It's not even dark yet, you complete moron.' Sasuke's voice echoed.
'Well… after I get my ramen, I'm taking a nap and forgetting about all of this!'
'Good for you.' came the deadpanned reply. 'Although if I recall correctly, weren't you the one who whined and moaned about not waiting until tomorrow to fix this?'
'Shut up and let me eat in peace!'
'I could say the same to you.'
Naruto paused for a moment. '…You're eating, too?'
He could hear Sasuke's derisive snort. 'Yes, what of it?'
'I knew you were hungry.' Naruto smirked, an action that he realized immediately afterwards was pointless since Sasuke couldn't see him.
'…Shut up, dobe.'
Nighttime finally came, and Naruto was bored. He'd been lying in his bed since he arrived home from Ichiraku's several hours earlier, and sleep had thus far evaded him. He hadn't even heard any of Sasuke's thoughts through their newfound psychic link. He idly wondered if this was because his teammate was asleep or because Sasuke was just that dull.
'Sasuke.' Naruto sent a mental whisper through the link. 'Sasuke, are you awake?'
'Mmm…Naruto?' he heard Sasuke's voice ask sleepily.
'Who else could it be, you idiot?' Naruto rolled his eyes at his ceiling.
'Naru...to...? What are you doing here…? Where's Aniki...?'
'Is he dreaming…?' Naruto wondered.
'Dreaming?' Sasuke's voice sounded bleary. 'Maybe I am… I was watching Aniki during his training… but now you're here?'
Definitely dreaming. Naruto had to restrain himself from cackling aloud with malicious glee. If he had known this mind-link mess gave him the chance to screw with Sasuke's dreams, he wouldn't have been so eager to get rid of it! He shut his eyes and prepared himself for an entertaining time.
'Why are you laughing…?'
Ok, so not laughing out loud clearly didn't prevent him from laughing mentally. Naruto chose to ignore the minor blunder and grinned cheekily.
'I'm here to make your dreams interesting, Sasuke-chan!' Naruto thought, mockingly emphasizing the "chan".
'Oh, that's good. Naruto dreams are nice.'
Naruto's eyes shot open. What did that mean?
'It means shut up and make me feel good, dobe.'
Naruto blinked once, twice, as he lay on his bed, his confusion growing.
'Nnhh…Naruto…'
Naruto frowned in confusion. Shit, the way Sasuke sounded, it almost seemed like he was –
'Ohhh… God, Naruto…ahhh!"
Oh, crap. It couldn't be, could it? Was it one of those dreams?
Another breathy moan from Sasuke confirmed his fears. With a jolt of mortification Naruto realized that his body, relaxed from lying on the bed for so long, was reacting to the sounds the other boy was making.
'Sasuke!' He thought, panicked, 'This is weird! Wake up! Sasuke!'
He heard Sasuke moan his name with abandon, and then there was silence.
'Sasuke…?'
There was no answer. Sasuke appeared to have finally fallen into a dreamless sleep, and Naruto wasn't sure if this relieved him or annoyed him. What the hell was Sasuke doing, dreaming about him in that way?
Much to his horror, Naruto felt another wave of arousal rip through his body. He gritted his teeth. No way was he going to jerk himself off because this. That would be admitting that Sasuke had affected him. Which he hadn't.
Naruto sighed with frustration and forced his hands, which had been gravitating towards the elastic band of his pajama pants, to remain still.
Needless to say, he didn't get much sleep that night.
The next morning Naruto awoke to a loud rapping on his window. Glancing at the clock, he saw that it read seven o'clock. Wonderful, that meant he'd managed about two hours of sleep, tops.
Grumbling sleepily to himself, the blonde boy kicked off the covers and rose from his bed to investigate the source of the tapping sound.
…And promptly reeled backwards in shock at the sight of the reason for his lack of sleep crouching outside his window, rapping his knuckles against the glass.
'What're you standing there for, idiot? Let me in!' Sasuke's voice snapped in his mind.
Shaking himself out of his stupor caused by waking up to Sasuke first thing in the morning, Naruto moved to open the window. The other ninja nimbly swung himself into Naruto's room, landing silently on the wooden floor.
Having gathered his wits back about him after his initial shock, Naruto grinned cheekily at his friend.
"Morning, Sasuke!" 'Sleep well last night?'
Naruto's grin widened when he caught the telltale blush that crept onto the normally pale boy's cheeks.
Sasuke mumbled something that sounded like "fine, thanks" but could also have been "fuck you" before giving a quick shake of his head and turning to face Naruto.
"Ok, time to fix this mess you caused." The dark-haired ninja stated plainly.
"I caused!" Naruto burst out, "This is clearly all your fault!"
Sasuke let out a short bark of laughter. "I wasn't the one inventing stupid jutsus and experimenting with them on my teammate."
"If you hadn't copied the technique while I was trying it out, none of this would have happened!" Naruto protested
Sasuke arched one slender eyebrow. 'Oh, so I was just supposed to let you hit me with it?'
"That's exactly what you were supposed to do!" Naruto replied, while thinking, 'Well, it would made it much easier for me to beat you…'
"You really are an idiot." Sasuke said, face-palming, "Don't say something different from what you're thinking – I can tell, you know."
Knowing he was beaten in this particular argument, Naruto crossed his arms glared at his rival through squinted eyes, scowling petulantly.
"So," Sasuke began, taking a seat on the edge of Naruto's bed, "What do we do?"
"Hell if I know." Naruto mumbled, still scowling.
"Should've known you'd be useless."
"Oh, like you're any better. Do you have any ideas?" Naruto snapped.
Sasuke smirked. "Yes, actually, I do."
'Damn you, I hate you.'
'The feeling is mutual.'
Naruto grinned suddenly. '…Or is it?' He thought slyly.
'"What!" Sasuke exclaimed out loud.
The blonde ninja didn't stop grinning as he sat on the bed next to his teammate. 'Oh, nothing.'
Sasuke glared at Naruto suspiciously for a few moments. Then, tossing his head, he continued, "Anyway, this all happened because we both did the jutsu at the same time, right?"
Naruto nodded.
"Ok, so I suggest we try something along the lines of a reverse jutsu." The Uchiha explained.
"You mean like… do the hand seals backwards?" Naruto asked, frowning slightly in thought.
"Something like that." Sasuke shrugged.
Breaking into a grin that threatened to split his face in half, Naruto jumped up off the bed energetically and punched the air.
"Let's do it, then!" the hyperactive blonde cried, spinning around to face Sasuke, his impossibly blue eyes sparkling with the thought of a new challenge.
'God, could you get any cuter?' Naruto heard his friend's voice echo in his mind.
The blonde boy stopped short, hardly able to prevent himself from choking on his own breath in his surprise. He stared at Sasuke with eyes as wide as saucers.
…Who stared right back at him challengingly. Finally the stoic boy scowled and averted his eyes.
"What the hell are you staring at, dobe?" he grumbled.
Suddenly Naruto grinned again, eyes glinting mischievously. "Ne, Sasuke, I never realized you thought I was that cute!"
Sasuke's head snapped up. "Why would you ever think that, you moron?" he said.
"Kyekekeke… well I can read your thoughts, Sasuke-chan." Naruto sniggered.
Sasuke's eyes widened slightly. "I thought no such thing!" he hissed. Frantically, he thought, 'I didn't think that, did I!'
'Believe it, you did!'
'I did not, you dunce, I think I'd know what I did and did not think!'
Another snigger, 'Obviously you don't, bastard.'
Sasuke growled aloud. 'I don't know what you heard, but didn't think that, and I would never, ever think it! I can't stand your stupid ugly face!'
'Well then, I suppose it's just your subconscious that thinks I'm hot stuff.' Naruto pressed, knowing he was driving the other boy crazy.
Sasuke rose from the bed, willing himself to stay calm and not beat the shit out of the annoying, hyper, idiotic dobe standing in front of him.
"We don't have time for this idiocy." He stated angrily, glaring at Naruto, "So stop making up stupid things and help me get us out of this fix."
Naruto, true to character, immediately shifted his focus, previous topic of conversation completely forgotten for the moment. Sasuke couldn't stop himself from shaking his head slightly at the energetic boy's amazingly short attention span.
"Ok, ok, ok, so, the hand seals for the jutsu were rat, tiger, horse, dragon, and boar, so that means we do…" Naruto stopped and scratched his chin.
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "We do boar, dragon, horse, tiger, and rat."
"I would have gotten it if you'd given me two more seconds!" Naruto shouted.
"Hn."
Neither spoke for a few moments, opting instead to glare venomously at each other.
"Right, let's do it then." Sasuke said, finally breaking the silence
Naruto's eyes bugged slightly. "Now!" 'I haven't eaten breakfast yet!'
Sasuke snorted. 'It's always about food, isn't it?'
'A shinobi must always eat well first!' Naruto gave his trademark foxy grin and darted towards the doorway leading into the small kitchen.
"Not when he's stuck in a mind-link with his idiotic teammate who can't even fathom reversed hand seals." Sasuke spoke, grabbing Naruto by the collar of his shirt and dragging him away from the refrigerator.
"Fine, fine," Naruto grumbled, "But afterwards you'd better let me eat all the ramen I want."
"Afterwards, I won't be here anymore because I won't be stuck with you in my mind! I'll long be out of here and you can eat whatever the hell that little pea-brain of yours desires." Sasuke snapped.
'Bastard!' Temper flaring, Naruto lunged at the other boy. Sasuke easily dodged his assault and Naruto landed face-first on the bed.
'Come on, idiot, let's get this over with.' Sasuke thought.
Naruto pulled himself up from where he was sprawled across the bed and gave Sasuke the thumbs-up. 'Ready when you are!'
'Ok, we do it at the same time, just like before.'
'Roger! I can't wait to have my mind back to myself.'
Both boys stood up straight and closed their eyes, meditating and preparing themselves for the jutsu.
Sasuke's voice sounded in Naruto's head, 'Ok, ready! Five… four…'
Rat, Tiger…
'Three…'
Horse, dragon…
'Two…'
Boar…
'One…'
Two sets of eyes snapped open.
'Now!'
"REVERSE! MIND READING NO JUTSU!"
For the second time that day, there was a blinding flash of pale, pink light, and both boys' worlds went black.
To say that Naruto felt strange when he came to, several minutes later, would have been a severe understatement. Much like before, he felt groggy and had quite a headache, but something was different this time. Slowly turning his head around to take in his surroundings, he saw that he was still in his bedroom. Sasuke was some feet away from him, slumped against the bed like a rag doll.
Naruto leapt up, ignoring the bolt of lightening pain that split through his head as he did so. Something was definitely not right. He felt… claustrophobic. It was almost as if his mind and his soul no longer had as much space inside his body. Yeah, that was it. His consciousness was being smothered. Smothered by…something.
His alarm growing, he stepped over to where Sasuke's unconscious body lay awkwardly against the bed. Grasping his friend's shoulder roughly, Naruto shook, frantically attempting to wake the other boy.
Sasuke finally groaned and batted at Naruto's hands irritably. The blond shinobi thought he heard something along the lines of, 'Get away, stupid bugs', but didn't stop to taunt the other boy. He hurriedly pulled Sasuke, whose eyes were still shut, into a sitting position.
Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed, and his eyes fluttered open. "What the hell, dobe? Stop prodding me in my sleep!" He said, eyes narrowing.
Naruto suddenly, inexplicably, felt an immense wave of irritation flood his consciousness. He staggered slightly, his mind reeling at the sudden onslaught of emotion. Something wasn't right here – he wasn't angry! Why was he feeling like this?
Sasuke, put out at being ignored by the boy who was normally so easy to provoke, opened his mouth to say more, but snapped it shut when he was suddenly overcome by panic and confusion.
Sasuke grabbed at his chest, his mind screaming, 'What in the world is this? Where is this panic coming from!'
"Sasuke…" he heard Naruto grind out, his voice strained. "Sasuke… what is this feeling? Why am I feeling like this?" 'I woke up feeling confused and scared… but now I'm suddenly furious for some reason… I don't understand! What's happening?'
Sasuke gritted his teeth. 'Heh… it was the exact opposite for me… I wake up, pissed off at you, and then for no reason at all I start panicking and freaking out.'
'Calm down, Naruto, calm down, calm down, calm down…' Naruto's chanted it like a mantra in his head. He felt his pulse start to slow from it's erratic beating, and sighed as his body started to relax again.
Naruto's sigh was met with an equally relieved one from Sasuke, whose panic had suddenly resided. However, the question still remained. What was that? Glancing at Naruto, he found himself staring into a pair of blue eyes wide with bewilderment.
'No.,' he thought, as a horrifying idea struck him, 'It couldn't be…'
'Couldn't be what?' Naruto asked, his questioning eyes still locked on Sasuke's.
'Let me try something, and tell me if you feel anything.' Sasuke thought. Without waiting for an answer, he shut his eyes and concentrated on calling forth the memory he often looked upon for comfort. He allowed himself to relax as he pictured his mother, smiling fondly at him. She looked beautiful, as always. For a few seconds Sasuke reveled in the feeling of peaceful happiness that enveloped him, before slowly opening his eyes again.
He was met with the sight of Naruto, hand clutching his chest, gazing back at him with a look of dazed pleasure on his face.
"I felt…" the orange-clad boy started, eyes still somewhat hazy, "I suddenly felt so incredibly… happy. I don't know why, I just –"
Sasuke groaned audibly. 'Oh no… This can't be happening…'
Finally snapped out of his stupor, Naruto frowned at his rival in confusion. 'What is he talking about…?'
Sasuke walked to the edge of the bed and allowed himself to flop down onto it dejectedly. After a few moments of staring grumpily at the ceiling, he finally spoke.
"We can hear each other's thoughts."
Naruto face-faulted. "Of COURSE we can! Because your stupid plan didn't work!" He shouted.
"I wasn't finished." Sasuke snapped. '…dobe.'
"Fine, be my guest, jerk!" Naruto retaliated.
"We can feel each other's emotions." Sasuke stated, as calmly as he could manage.
The Uchiha was suddenly struck with an intense bolt of shock and disbelief. 'WHAAAAT!' Naruto's voice screeched in his head.
"Just what I said – I can feel your emotions and you can feel mine. I'm not happy about it either." Sasuke snarled.
"So you mean, just now, when you – and I was – all…happy and stuff –"
"Yes, that was my happiness, which you then felt." The dark-haired boy explained. He was barely able to keep himself sitting up straight as a jolt of anger and indignation that was not his own shot through him.
"THIS. IS. COMPLETELY. YOUR. FAULT!" Naruto's shrill voice exploded.
"Idiot!" Sasuke hollered, "Control your emotions! What kind of a shinobi are you? Getting angry like that will affect both of us now, not just you!"
"You're telling me not to be pissed off after you went and made things even worse?" The hyperactive ninja cried.
"I'm telling you to control it, for both our sakes!"
Naruto clenched his teeth and forced his anger down slightly, though Sasuke could still feel it simmering on the surface of both his and Naruto's consciences.
The two boys stood in Naruto's bedroom in silence for a long while, staring at anything and everything except for each other, both keeping their minds carefully devoid of active thoughts. Finally, Naruto spoke up, rather loudly.
"Well, it didn't work this time, we'll just have to try again, right?" He grinned cheerfully, his eyes squinted shut.
Sasuke shook his head, trying to ignore the rush of enthusiasm he felt through the link with Naruto. "And risk things getting even worse?"
'I am not just going to accept this and spend the rest of my life with YOU in my head!' Naruto grimaced.
Sasuke winced at the thought.
'Oy, I'm Uzumaki Naruto! You should be thankful to have me in your head!'
'You really are a moron, moron.' Sasuke thought, allowing himself to feel exasperated, knowing that Naruto would feel it too.
'Oh, you wanna fight, bastard?' Naruto challenged.
'Wasn't a fight what got us like this in the first place?' Sasuke scoffed. He spoke out loud this time, "No more fights, and no more trying to fix this ourselves. We're going to see Kakashi."
"What's he gonna be able to do?"
"He's one of the villages best Jounin."
"Yeah, he's also a ditz and a pervert." Naruto griped.
"He'll figure out something." Sasuke argued. Without another word he leapt onto the sill of Naruto's still-open window and launched himself onto the neighboring rooftop, knowing the other boy would follow. As they dashed in the direction of their sensei's apartment, the dark-haired ninja couldn't help but let his mind wander. He had to get out of this… Having Naruto hear his thoughts was bad enough, but the blonde dobe being able to feel his emotions was just dangerous.
'What, does the genius Sasuke have a deep, dark secret he doesn't want me to know?' Naruto's voice sniggered in his mind. The Uchiha could clearly feel his teammate's amusement.
'If only you knew…' he mused.
'What was that!' Suspicion came barreling through the link they shared.
Mentally kicking himself, Sasuke thought vehemently, 'Nothing that concerns you, idiot.'
'Right, you liar.'
'Shut the fuck up.'
'I'm not actually talking.'
Growling to himself, Sasuke sped forward as Kakashi's apartment came into view. The sooner he got out of this, the better. Or else he'd owe some embarrassing explanations to his hyperactive teammate.
'Please, PLEASE, let Kakashi come up with something, quickly!'
Next chapter: Enter Kakashi! Hope you all enjoyed – please review!