" " speaking; ' ' thinking
((DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or any of it's characters.))
- Naruto's Rough Night -
It was late into the night when Naruto laid in his bed, patiently waiting for Sasuke to go to sleep. Never before had Naruto realized how late Sasuke stayed awake; in Naruto's case, he was usually out before his head hit the pillow. The two shared bunk beds, with Naruto on the top and Sasuke on the bottom. Sasuke's insomnia was beginning to grind on Naruto's nerves; what good could he be at training with such little sleep?
"N-Naruto?" stammered Sasuke's small voice. "Are... are you awake?"
Naruto tensed, but he did not answer.
"Naruto?" Sasuke repeated, a bit louder.
Still no answer.
Naruto was worried that maybe Sasuke was going to come up and see if he was awake or not, and he feared getting caught, but Sasuke didn't look for any proof that his teammate was sleeping. Beacuse he could not see Sasuke, Naruto listened as carefully as he could.
At first, he believed his ears decieved him, but as he listened a bit more, he knew he was right.
Sasuke was crying.
Not only crying, but he was weeping. Although Sasuke was trying to be quiet, Naruto felt as though he could hear every tear. Silently, Naruto inched his way to the edge of his bunk so that he could see over the side but Sasuke couldn't see him. Slowly, Sasuke's hand appeared from his bunk, reaching into the drawer of his nightstand and pulling out a kunai.
Naruto placed his hands to his mouth to stop any of his gasp from reaching Sasuke's ears. It seemed that Sasuke was too involved in what he was doing to notice Naruto. Still listening intently, Naruto heard Sasuke draw in a quick, shallow gasp, as if he'd just felt pain.
Naruto's eyes widened. He wanted to move, to speak, to do anything that would stop Sasuke from doing what he was doing, but he was frozen and could barely breathe without concentrating on each heave of his chest.
Naruto heard Sasuke let out three of these pained breaths before he actually heard Sasuke speak...
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: How cruel. A cliff-hanger. I hate to be mean like that, but it has to be done! This feels like a very short chapter, but I like it. You'll all live! Some of you are wondering what poor little Naruto-kun is going to do. Well, I'll just tell you that you should really look out for chapter five. But, I've already said too much. Sorry for the shortness of the chapters, but I like to segment off the events. At least I update fairly quickly!