Merry Christmas everyone. I feel that I should give some people a nice
Christmas gift, and so here's the explanation of Naruto's dreams. The next
chapter should be posted Sunday. Enjoy.
Title: Jaded
Series: Naruto
Rating: PG-13 (Will go higher later on)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Romance, Humour, Horror, Tragedy, Supernatural, Fantasy, etc. (pretty much all)
Summary: For most of his life, Naruto has had one dream (becoming Hokage) and one love (Sakura), but as he grows up he realises not everything is as easy as he wants to believe it is, and his romances are not as simple as getting the girl, but finding a love that's not bound by superficial reasons, and that's when he realizes he had his priorities mixed up all along. (Eventually it'll be SasuNaru)
Pairings: Some SakuNaru development along with some SasuNaru friendship vibes. Once again, nothing 'serious'. However, this is all stuff needed for later on. You know... the real shounen ai. How else was I going to keep it in character... not that I'm doing that very effectively now...
Chapter Title: 6. What Do You Dream?
Sasuke shoved his hands in his pockets furiously. He was seething now that Naruto was avoiding him like the plague, *AGAIN*. For the last six hours he had tried everything he knew to get the boy alone or at least far enough away from Kakashi and Sakura to be able to get some semblance of what was wrong. No such luck and his patience was starting to wear thin. Then an opportunity presented itself to him. Kakashi was beginning to slow down.
"Let's stop here for an hour and have something to eat." Their sensei exclaimed, sitting down on a nearby rock and pulling out a small bag of food. "We aren't too far from the field where the herbal plant grows."
"You never told us what this stuff will be used for, anyways." Sakura piped up when they all sat down. Kakashi smiled and pulled something from one of his scroll pouches. All three of them looked at it with confusion. It was a small number of berries and leaves. Kakashi continued to look at them, expecting them to know what the herbs in his hands were. Sakura moved closer to study the berries.
"Wu Wei Zu?" she asked.
"Bless you." Naruto muttered grumpily, still not understanding what they were supposed to know. Sakura turned around to glare at him.
"No, Wu Wei Zu."
"You don't expect me to say it again, do you?" Naruto retorted. Sasuke slapped the blond on the head.
"No, dobe, that's the name of the plant." But the tap had a different meaning, as Naruto saw when he looked into Sasuke's eyes. He ignored the look and returned his attention to Kakashi.
"Hai!" Kakashi grinned. "It's also known as Schizandra Chinensis." Naruto rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, so?" He asked bluntly. He recognised the herb from his lessons back in the academy, but they had never actually told any of them exactly what it did.
"So, it's a very valuable herb." Sakura piped up, but didn't know anything else aside from that. Kakashi nodded.
"The berries are said to make one look more radiant and youthful. It's also supposed to improve short and long term memory, as well as strengthening and quickening your reflexes. It can also help you deal with the stress of shinobi fighting. It's a balancer. Like the Yin and Yang put together. Plus, it makes a most relaxing tea." The group nodded.
"So..." Naruto exclaimed, putting a finger to his head in thought. "This is like... a miracle plant!!" Kakashi sweatdropped.
"Ano... sure." He grinned, not caring to correct the boy. Naruto returned the smile and pulled out his cup ramen, preparing it faster than normal. He looked up when he had finished one cup within a minute of it being ready to find himself the attention of all sets of eyes.
"Nani?!" He yelled, wondering what they were all staring at.
"Ano..." Kakashi answered. "Why are you rushing?" Naruto relaxed a bit, laughing through his full mouth.
"I want to get there as soon as possible! YATTA!" He cheered enthusiastically. Kakashi shook his head bemusedly.
"Hai, demo we're staying here to camp for the night. Tomorrow we'll head out to the Wu Wei Zu field."
"NANI?!" Naruto cried out, dropping his second ramen cup. He looked at Sasuke for a split second and saw something like victory flash across the other boy's face, sending a shiver down his back. "But we're so close! It's so early! I'm not tired in the least!" Sasuke grunted.
"You might not be, but some of us have just gotten over a rough battle." He muttered. Naruto knew he was lying and that two days was more than enough, but no one made to support Naruto's argument so he slumped his shoulders in defeat.
"Fine, sure." He mumbled, unhooking his bag from his back. He knew he was beaten, but this time he would make sure Sasuke couldn't figure anything out. No sleep at all! That and avoiding the dark-haired genin as long as possible.
"Because I'm stuck here, I demand that Kakashi take my shift!" He yelled, unfurling his sleeping bag immediately. Maybe if he went to bed quicker, they would leave him alone.
"Iie!" Kakashi exclaimed. "I'll take a shift, demo you still have to keep watch. How bout me, then Sasuke, followed by Sakura and Naruto, okay?" He proposed. Everyone shrugged. Naruto grumbled, but had to follow his previous actions or else look stupid, something of which he was trying to stop. He climbed into his sleeping bag and snuggled deep into the warmth of the blankets.
"Naruto?" Sakura asked, but the boy ignored her, feigning sleep. "Ne, it's not even ten minutes past dusk yet, baka!" They left Naruto alone until they decided to go to sleep, starting with Kakashi's night shift.
***
Kakashi let out a yawn. He'd been up for three hours since the other two went to sleep and it was about time to wake Sasuke for his turn. Standing up silently, he glanced to the still form of the blond genin and sighed to himself. Naruto may be good at illusions, but it was obvious that the boy was still awake. He walked over to Sasuke's bed to wake him up. He placed a hand over the boy's shoulder to still him for a second, knowing that he would awake quickly. Sasuke's eyes slowly fluttered open, but he remained motionless.
"Keep an eye on him." Kakashi whispered into the boy's ear. "He's just about ready to fall asleep, and I'm worried about him." Sasuke was stunned at the confession, but nodded, sitting up in his sleeping bag.
While the silver-haired jounin went to his own sleeping bag, Sasuke got up and moved to sit by Naruto's head. He looked down at his rival and noticed the tell-tale twitching of his head that made it obvious the boy was fighting off the inevitable sleep. He smirked to himself, knowing it was only a matter of minutes before he'd fall asleep.
He sat back against the nearest tree and folded his arms against his chest, making sure to follow Kakashi's advice. He was curious to know just what it was that was keeping Naruto's dreams in such a state. He'd just have to wait until morning, when they were alone.
It wasn't until almost ten minutes before the end of Sasuke's shift that Naruto's nightmare came back. Sasuke had been snoozing lightly, but the sound of whimpering quickly woke him up. He looked down at the boy to find his normally peaceful features knotted with fear and pain.
'Baka, Naruto!' He thought to himself. 'Why did you have to wait until the end of my shift?!' But Naruto couldn't hear his thoughts and continued to fight off his dream.
***
Naruto could feel the same dream closing around him as the scenery turned from bright blue to a horrible sickly red and black. He knew what was going on, he knew it was just a dream, but the harder he fought it, the harder it was to wake up.
"Naruto..." A voice hissed from within the shadows. He shivered, tensing up. "You're nothing but a bastard child. The demon fox. You need to be tamed." Naruto turned around to face the voice but it suddenly came from a new direction.
"You need to be purified." It hissed. He shook his head, trying to ignore the voice. "You've hurt me. You've hurt everyone. I will make you pay for that. You are just as horrible as the demon. You, Naruto. The boy, not the fox. You are on my list." Naruto was shaking, but he pulled out a kunai to defend himself with.
"I will kill you." The dark voice hissed right behind him. "You are a loser, a dimwit, an idiot."
"Baka!" Naruto screamed, trying to calm himself down. "You could never defeat me. You tried that already once, never worked. Onegai, stop this." His voice began to become more intimidated. Suddenly a sharp pain hit him in the side and the inky red darkness began to swirl in an all too familiar symbol. He staggered to one knee, holding his side.
"Kakashi!" He cried out for help.
"Your friends cannot save you from this nightmare; it's just you and me, now." The voice laughed and finally came into view in front of him. Naruto knew already who it was, regardless of the long dark cape wrapped ominously around the figure.
"Onegai, please don't do this. Sakura!" He tried again. His friends would help. They'd save him from his nightmare, wouldn't they? "Onegai... Sasuke... please stop this... itai... Sasuke!" He whispered calling out to his friend. The voice laughed again.
"I don't see anyone coming to get you, Naruto-chan." The voice sneered, stepping closer to Naruto and kneeling in front of the boy. He lifted the blond's chin with his finger and smirked. "I have sworn to kill you, dobe." He hissed, his eyes flaring a bright Sharingan red, face almost unrecognisable by the curse seal. Almost. A stabbing pain shot through the blond's heart as a kunai lodged itself into his back. Naruto screamed.
***
Sasuke stumbled back when Naruto began screaming, and only quick thinking got him to silence it with his hand, roughly shaking the boy by his shoulders. The blond's eyes shot open and he looked at Sasuke for a fraction of a second before going completely ballistic.
Sasuke still had one hand covering his mouth and one hand firmly holding down his shoulders and his face was barely visible in the flickering light of the fire. Naruto fought with the hands and tried to bolt again, but was tackled from behind before he could get anywhere.
"Sasuke, get off me!" Naruto hissed angrily, trying to fight off the hands that secured his wrists above his head in the dirt.
"Not until you tell me what the hell is going on in those dreams of yours." Sasuke retorted in an equally low voice. Naruto refused to give up the fight, being as stubborn as he was, but Sasuke was not going to move until he got his answer. He sighed, letting his muscles relax a bit.
"Tell me." Sasuke demanded. Naruto looked away, frowning. "What do you dream about? What are you so afraid of?"
"I dream about..." Naruto trailed off, before looking Sasuke in the eyes. "You."
~~~~~~~
Wahaha... it took me so long to get into the mood of this chapter. Very well, then. That's it for now. See ya Sunday!
Title: Jaded
Series: Naruto
Rating: PG-13 (Will go higher later on)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Romance, Humour, Horror, Tragedy, Supernatural, Fantasy, etc. (pretty much all)
Summary: For most of his life, Naruto has had one dream (becoming Hokage) and one love (Sakura), but as he grows up he realises not everything is as easy as he wants to believe it is, and his romances are not as simple as getting the girl, but finding a love that's not bound by superficial reasons, and that's when he realizes he had his priorities mixed up all along. (Eventually it'll be SasuNaru)
Pairings: Some SakuNaru development along with some SasuNaru friendship vibes. Once again, nothing 'serious'. However, this is all stuff needed for later on. You know... the real shounen ai. How else was I going to keep it in character... not that I'm doing that very effectively now...
Chapter Title: 6. What Do You Dream?
Sasuke shoved his hands in his pockets furiously. He was seething now that Naruto was avoiding him like the plague, *AGAIN*. For the last six hours he had tried everything he knew to get the boy alone or at least far enough away from Kakashi and Sakura to be able to get some semblance of what was wrong. No such luck and his patience was starting to wear thin. Then an opportunity presented itself to him. Kakashi was beginning to slow down.
"Let's stop here for an hour and have something to eat." Their sensei exclaimed, sitting down on a nearby rock and pulling out a small bag of food. "We aren't too far from the field where the herbal plant grows."
"You never told us what this stuff will be used for, anyways." Sakura piped up when they all sat down. Kakashi smiled and pulled something from one of his scroll pouches. All three of them looked at it with confusion. It was a small number of berries and leaves. Kakashi continued to look at them, expecting them to know what the herbs in his hands were. Sakura moved closer to study the berries.
"Wu Wei Zu?" she asked.
"Bless you." Naruto muttered grumpily, still not understanding what they were supposed to know. Sakura turned around to glare at him.
"No, Wu Wei Zu."
"You don't expect me to say it again, do you?" Naruto retorted. Sasuke slapped the blond on the head.
"No, dobe, that's the name of the plant." But the tap had a different meaning, as Naruto saw when he looked into Sasuke's eyes. He ignored the look and returned his attention to Kakashi.
"Hai!" Kakashi grinned. "It's also known as Schizandra Chinensis." Naruto rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, so?" He asked bluntly. He recognised the herb from his lessons back in the academy, but they had never actually told any of them exactly what it did.
"So, it's a very valuable herb." Sakura piped up, but didn't know anything else aside from that. Kakashi nodded.
"The berries are said to make one look more radiant and youthful. It's also supposed to improve short and long term memory, as well as strengthening and quickening your reflexes. It can also help you deal with the stress of shinobi fighting. It's a balancer. Like the Yin and Yang put together. Plus, it makes a most relaxing tea." The group nodded.
"So..." Naruto exclaimed, putting a finger to his head in thought. "This is like... a miracle plant!!" Kakashi sweatdropped.
"Ano... sure." He grinned, not caring to correct the boy. Naruto returned the smile and pulled out his cup ramen, preparing it faster than normal. He looked up when he had finished one cup within a minute of it being ready to find himself the attention of all sets of eyes.
"Nani?!" He yelled, wondering what they were all staring at.
"Ano..." Kakashi answered. "Why are you rushing?" Naruto relaxed a bit, laughing through his full mouth.
"I want to get there as soon as possible! YATTA!" He cheered enthusiastically. Kakashi shook his head bemusedly.
"Hai, demo we're staying here to camp for the night. Tomorrow we'll head out to the Wu Wei Zu field."
"NANI?!" Naruto cried out, dropping his second ramen cup. He looked at Sasuke for a split second and saw something like victory flash across the other boy's face, sending a shiver down his back. "But we're so close! It's so early! I'm not tired in the least!" Sasuke grunted.
"You might not be, but some of us have just gotten over a rough battle." He muttered. Naruto knew he was lying and that two days was more than enough, but no one made to support Naruto's argument so he slumped his shoulders in defeat.
"Fine, sure." He mumbled, unhooking his bag from his back. He knew he was beaten, but this time he would make sure Sasuke couldn't figure anything out. No sleep at all! That and avoiding the dark-haired genin as long as possible.
"Because I'm stuck here, I demand that Kakashi take my shift!" He yelled, unfurling his sleeping bag immediately. Maybe if he went to bed quicker, they would leave him alone.
"Iie!" Kakashi exclaimed. "I'll take a shift, demo you still have to keep watch. How bout me, then Sasuke, followed by Sakura and Naruto, okay?" He proposed. Everyone shrugged. Naruto grumbled, but had to follow his previous actions or else look stupid, something of which he was trying to stop. He climbed into his sleeping bag and snuggled deep into the warmth of the blankets.
"Naruto?" Sakura asked, but the boy ignored her, feigning sleep. "Ne, it's not even ten minutes past dusk yet, baka!" They left Naruto alone until they decided to go to sleep, starting with Kakashi's night shift.
***
Kakashi let out a yawn. He'd been up for three hours since the other two went to sleep and it was about time to wake Sasuke for his turn. Standing up silently, he glanced to the still form of the blond genin and sighed to himself. Naruto may be good at illusions, but it was obvious that the boy was still awake. He walked over to Sasuke's bed to wake him up. He placed a hand over the boy's shoulder to still him for a second, knowing that he would awake quickly. Sasuke's eyes slowly fluttered open, but he remained motionless.
"Keep an eye on him." Kakashi whispered into the boy's ear. "He's just about ready to fall asleep, and I'm worried about him." Sasuke was stunned at the confession, but nodded, sitting up in his sleeping bag.
While the silver-haired jounin went to his own sleeping bag, Sasuke got up and moved to sit by Naruto's head. He looked down at his rival and noticed the tell-tale twitching of his head that made it obvious the boy was fighting off the inevitable sleep. He smirked to himself, knowing it was only a matter of minutes before he'd fall asleep.
He sat back against the nearest tree and folded his arms against his chest, making sure to follow Kakashi's advice. He was curious to know just what it was that was keeping Naruto's dreams in such a state. He'd just have to wait until morning, when they were alone.
It wasn't until almost ten minutes before the end of Sasuke's shift that Naruto's nightmare came back. Sasuke had been snoozing lightly, but the sound of whimpering quickly woke him up. He looked down at the boy to find his normally peaceful features knotted with fear and pain.
'Baka, Naruto!' He thought to himself. 'Why did you have to wait until the end of my shift?!' But Naruto couldn't hear his thoughts and continued to fight off his dream.
***
Naruto could feel the same dream closing around him as the scenery turned from bright blue to a horrible sickly red and black. He knew what was going on, he knew it was just a dream, but the harder he fought it, the harder it was to wake up.
"Naruto..." A voice hissed from within the shadows. He shivered, tensing up. "You're nothing but a bastard child. The demon fox. You need to be tamed." Naruto turned around to face the voice but it suddenly came from a new direction.
"You need to be purified." It hissed. He shook his head, trying to ignore the voice. "You've hurt me. You've hurt everyone. I will make you pay for that. You are just as horrible as the demon. You, Naruto. The boy, not the fox. You are on my list." Naruto was shaking, but he pulled out a kunai to defend himself with.
"I will kill you." The dark voice hissed right behind him. "You are a loser, a dimwit, an idiot."
"Baka!" Naruto screamed, trying to calm himself down. "You could never defeat me. You tried that already once, never worked. Onegai, stop this." His voice began to become more intimidated. Suddenly a sharp pain hit him in the side and the inky red darkness began to swirl in an all too familiar symbol. He staggered to one knee, holding his side.
"Kakashi!" He cried out for help.
"Your friends cannot save you from this nightmare; it's just you and me, now." The voice laughed and finally came into view in front of him. Naruto knew already who it was, regardless of the long dark cape wrapped ominously around the figure.
"Onegai, please don't do this. Sakura!" He tried again. His friends would help. They'd save him from his nightmare, wouldn't they? "Onegai... Sasuke... please stop this... itai... Sasuke!" He whispered calling out to his friend. The voice laughed again.
"I don't see anyone coming to get you, Naruto-chan." The voice sneered, stepping closer to Naruto and kneeling in front of the boy. He lifted the blond's chin with his finger and smirked. "I have sworn to kill you, dobe." He hissed, his eyes flaring a bright Sharingan red, face almost unrecognisable by the curse seal. Almost. A stabbing pain shot through the blond's heart as a kunai lodged itself into his back. Naruto screamed.
***
Sasuke stumbled back when Naruto began screaming, and only quick thinking got him to silence it with his hand, roughly shaking the boy by his shoulders. The blond's eyes shot open and he looked at Sasuke for a fraction of a second before going completely ballistic.
Sasuke still had one hand covering his mouth and one hand firmly holding down his shoulders and his face was barely visible in the flickering light of the fire. Naruto fought with the hands and tried to bolt again, but was tackled from behind before he could get anywhere.
"Sasuke, get off me!" Naruto hissed angrily, trying to fight off the hands that secured his wrists above his head in the dirt.
"Not until you tell me what the hell is going on in those dreams of yours." Sasuke retorted in an equally low voice. Naruto refused to give up the fight, being as stubborn as he was, but Sasuke was not going to move until he got his answer. He sighed, letting his muscles relax a bit.
"Tell me." Sasuke demanded. Naruto looked away, frowning. "What do you dream about? What are you so afraid of?"
"I dream about..." Naruto trailed off, before looking Sasuke in the eyes. "You."
~~~~~~~
Wahaha... it took me so long to get into the mood of this chapter. Very well, then. That's it for now. See ya Sunday!