Title: Parallels
Authors: Questofdreams and Lazuli
Rated: R
Comments: Huge thanks to our beta, proud snapist.
Disclaimer: Yep, they apply.

Chapter 3

"Shit," he said aloud.

"Yeah, 'shit' is right," the Yondaime said, rubbing his face. "Ok, so you don't remember me" --he was Hokage but it was difficult even for him to hide the pain at that thought-- "then how could you have grown up without a parent?" he asked reasonably.

Naruto's face closed off at that. "I didn't have any," he said softly. "All I was told was that my parents died when I was born, and that no one wanted to take care of me. The Sandaime looked in on me every now and then but..." He shrugged, surprised to note that it still bothered him, long after he thought it shouldn't. "I can't remember who cared for me when I was a baby, but for as long as I can remember, the entire village loathed my existence, so I raised myself." His eyes were defiant. "See why I didn't need anybody?"

The Yondaime had gone silent, his eyes widening at the truth in Naruto's face, the lingering bitterness that echoed in his voice. The man truly believed he had grown up without a father, without love, without anyone. And the Yondaime would have truly believed his son had lost his mind if not for the fierce glint of a stable mind behind those haunted eyes.

"They never said who my father was," Naruto offered softly. "For all I know, you could be my father. I think I always wanted that." Bile rose in his throat as he realized he was almost taking it as fact that this person was real--as real as delusions could be. "I guess I'm not acting a whole lot like your son. I'm sorry for that." He ran a hand over his face, wishing for the stability of his memories, of his familiar apartment, his life. "Going to lock me up now?" he joked.

"Of course not," the Yondaime said, beginning to clear away the plates, needing something to keep his hands busy. "Whether you remember it or not, you're still my son."

Naruto watched him clean up, wondering whether or not he should help. Looking at the older man hurt his heart and his head, so he stood and left the room, slumping onto the sofa in the living room. He looked around, noticing for the first time the modern features of the house he was supposed to have grown up in, a house he might have grown up in had his life been different.

It wasn't his place, though; he couldn't feel comfortable here, he didn't know how to react. He stood and started pacing again, needing to do something--occupy his hands, his mind--block out the weirdness of what was going on. He was starting to doubt his own memories, but it wasn't as if that overwhelming loneliness he'd felt his entire life could be made up. This was the dream; he needed to wake up from it.

He clenched and unclenched his fists, a sob rising in his throat. It wasn't fair--it was like someone was having sadistic pleasure out of taunting him with what he could have had his entire life. His gaze was suddenly caught by a picture on a table.

Swallowing thickly, he reached out, lifting the frame and cradling it in his hands. A slightly younger version of the man moving about in the kitchen was smiling from behind the glass. Perched on his shoulders was a young child with messy blond hair, blue eyes glittering with laughter, and marks on round cheeks that Naruto had always wondered about as a child. Draped over the child's small shoulders was the Yondaime's cloak. It trailed down the backs of the two figures, the flames catching the light behind them.

Naruto swore suddenly and turned, punching the wall hard enough to leave a dent and set other items hanging there shaking wildly, a few falling to the ground. He collapsed to his knees, hugging the frame and what it represented. Some part of him--a large part of him--wanted to never wake up from this dream.

As he stared at the floor, his head throbbing with the implications of everything around him, the front door opened. Sasuke walked in, followed closely by Sakura.

Naruto stood from his slump on the floor and looked at her closely, scrutinizing her appearance, searching for a sign that this was the Sakura he had known since childhood.

She smiled cheerfully at him. "Sasuke says you might have a bump on the head, Naruto." She grinned. "I've been telling Sasuke for years that there was something slightly off in there."

He gave her a dumbfounded stare. He and Sakura had become closer since Sasuke had run off that one time, but she was never quite so cheerful and nice to him--well, not like this. She'd never treated him as if they'd been friends for ages even though, technically, they had been.

He sat down warily, eyeing her. "I was hit by a jutsu yesterday," he said carefully. "I think it may have made things a little... off."

She continued to smile, mischief dancing in her eyes. "I'm not so convinced it was the jutsu but let's have a look, hm?"

Naruto sat up straighter as she took a seat beside him. She reached out to touch his face and he stiffened his spine against the urge to lean away. Warm hands, heated by the chakra at her fingertips, brushed his temples, moving back into his hair and down to the base of his skull.

She frowned lightly. "Things seem ok..."

He perked up a little, Sakura sounded unsure. "What do you see?" he asked eagerly. "There has to be something off." He pointed a finger at Sasuke. "Everyone is acting weird, but they all say that I'm acting weird."

"He says he was hit by a poorly performed jutsu yesterday." The Yondaime had entered the room, leaning against the back of the sofa, watching Sakura work.

"Well, his chakra system seems to be a little overactive at the moment," Sakura said, confusion in her voice as her warm fingers skimmed Naruto's skin.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"Were you in a big battle yesterday, Naruto?" she asked, hands dropping.

"No. I'd hardly even call it a skirmish."

"Well, your chakra system is telling me it's recovering from a huge use of chakra, and it's not only yours--the kyuubi's as well."

Naruto's eyes went wide at that, one hand automatically dropping to his stomach. "I don't know what it could be doing... unless..." His face looked reflective as his mind frantically tried to think of a reason behind what was going on. "I..." Would dream people know they were dream people? he wondered to himself. "I think I'm dreaming," he finally said. "Trapped... trapped in a genjutsu."

There--easy enough to lay out. They shouldn't get too worried over something like that, and the dream people would have a solution, wouldn't they? After all, it was his imagination and surely, his mind would want to help himself out, he thought, paying no heed to the fact that his thoughts made no sense.

Sakura gave him a funny look and Sasuke would have slapped his head if he wasn't afraid it'd damage Naruto's brain further.

"Naruto," Sakura said, humoring him, "you know how to get out of a genjutsu. Just fuse some chakra through your body. And if that doesn't work, then someone outside of the illusion only has to touch you with their chakra. Don't you think if you were in a genjutsu, someone would have broken you out of it by now?"

Naruto chewed on his bottom lip, not quite ready to accept that explanation just yet because of what it would imply otherwise.

"Maybe no one else is around. I do live alone," he pointed out, not responding to the surprised look that Sakura shared with Sasuke and continuing. "And I'm not the greatest at it," he added softly. "Especially if it's..." He suddenly jumped up, shaking his head and pacing again. "But that'd be impossible. He's dead and the only other one would never do that to me..."

"Naruto, who are you talking about?" Sasuke asked, crossing his arms and frowning at Naruto's behavior.

Naruto only spared him a quick glance as if unable to look at him. "No one; it's nothing."

"Tell us, Naruto. Please," Sakura said, reaching out to touch his arm. He stopped pacing and sighed.

"The only person I know strong enough to create so convincing a genjutsu and who would want to do this to me..." He gave Sasuke an apologetic look. "...is Itachi. And he's dead."

Sasuke's eyes smoldered at that. "Yes, he is dead, Naruto." He shook his head, trying to control his own temper at the mention of his brother. "Then, stupid, if he's dead, there's no one else that could do this to you." He frowned and turned to Sakura. "What is wrong with him?" he demanded. "He doesn't even remember his own father!"

Sakura shook her head. "I don't know. Unless the jutsu yesterday messed around with your memory—which it didn't because the chakra channels surrounding that part of your brain aren't damaged—I can't explain it."

"Well then, what the hell is going on? I can't think of any of this as real. I'm still hoping to wake up and find things normal again."

Sasuke reached out to Naruto, who had begun pacing again, and grabbed two fistfuls of his shirt, staring straight into Naruto's eyes. "Look, Naruto. You're not going to tell me that my entire life has been nothing but an illusion from your demented head. My memories, my feelings, don't you dare try to tell me they aren't real!"

Naruto shoved at Sasuke, turning his anger and frustration on the only person that ever understood him. "Are you telling me I'd make up an entire life of having Konoha wish that I was never born?" he hissed out. "To walk down the street and hear whispers all the time?" He shook his head, eyes stinging. "To have my only friend want to kill me for power?" He let his head fall on Sasuke's chest. "Tell me, Sasuke... don't you think I'd rather have this life?"

Sasuke looked over to the Yondaime, not knowing what to say anymore.

"You guys remember one life; I remember another. It's like...two completely different worlds!"

The Yondaime started at Naruto's outburst, a crease forming between his brows. Sasuke raised an eyebrow in question but the man remained silent.

Naruto rubbed his cheek against Sasuke's shoulder. "Sasuke." He opened his eyes and suddenly felt the room tilt and blur.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Naruto?" Sasuke demanded, pushing at Naruto. "You've been acting weird all day, even for you. Haven't you gone to see Tsunade-sama yet about what the hell is wrong with your brain?" He snorted. "I'm sure something that's rattling up there has come loose."

Naruto, barely hearing Sasuke's scalding remark, looked around the room...his room, or rather, his apartment. The broken window where some idiot children had thrown a rock through it; the pile of shuriken cluttering his one and only desk; and Sasuke who was stiff in his arms, his biting words coming back to jar his mind out of its sudden stupor.

He made a face, rubbing a hand through his hair. "What...why...?" he asked, brow creased in confusion as he tried to process what had just happened. "I'm not the one acting weird here! Is it my fault the entire world decided to go postal?" Wait, it was only a genjutsu after all! Was Sasuke the one who put me under, or did he bring me out of it? Judging by the way he's acting, he probably brought me out of it. "So you're the one that touched me!" he exclaimed, latching onto Sasuke in a grateful hug.

Sasuke abruptly pushed Naruto away and glared at him. Whoa, Naruto thought, now there's a familiar sight. "When I came to check up on you earlier, you tried to molest me and demanded I take you home!" Sasuke looked incredibly pissed and Naruto could probably guess that it was because he was confused. Sasuke hated being confused.

"I...Sasuke, tell me something," he asked experimentally. "When did you find out I could use the rasengan?"

Sasuke's brows drew in, confusion momentarily overriding his anger. "What the hell are you on about now?"

"Just answer the question!"

Sasuke looked dubious. "When you came back with that pervert teacher of yours and decided to show it off? Or on the hospital rooftop?" He wanted to shake Naruto. "What the hell is up with you lately?"

Naruto had stopped breathing, relief like nothing else shuddering through him. But along with that relief came the sharp and rather painful awareness that as confusing and troubling as the day had been, he would sincerely miss that warm smile from the man who could have been his father.

"I... Sasuke, thank God it's you. I've been...wait, huh? I've been acting weird all day? I haven't even been here!" And if it was a genjutsu, I would have just been... standing around or something. Not acting on it. Somehow his theory of a genjutsu was falling through rather quickly.

Sasuke snorted. "You haven't been here?" he demanded. "Then was it one of your clones that decided to jump all over me or try to pin me to the door?" His eyes were narrowed in anger. "You've had some really stupid pranks in the past, Naruto, but I think you really need to get your head checked for this one."

Naruto's heart sank at the biting tones that were familiar, but when he knew what it could be like. "I tried to...jump on you?" Naruto asked tentatively, one eyebrow raised in uncertainty. "What else did I try to do?"

Naruto found the day had just gotten stranger when something that might have been a blush (although it was well-masked behind a death glare) darkened Sasuke's cheeks. "I'm not going to repeat it just for your sadistic pleasure, Naruto. Now have you gotten over your most recent bout of stupid yet or what?" He snorted and shook his head in exasperation. "Going on about a father. Idiot."

Naruto froze and pulled away from Sasuke, eyes wide and that pain in his chest blossoming again. "A father?" He gave a nervous laugh and tried to hide how shocked he was. "Now I know you're making things up, Sasuke. I don't have a father, remember?"

"I know you don't have a father," Sasuke said, controlling his impatience at seeing the effect the mention of a father had on Naruto. "You're the one who was asking me where he was and why you were here...your own apartment!"

Naruto's head spun. "That can't be right..."

"Look, I don't know what's wrong with you today, but go talk to the Hokage or something." Sasuke shifted on his feet, having never been very good at reassuring people. "I'm sure she can figure it out."

Naruto rubbed his head, turning away from Sasuke and shuffling through his things on the table. "I already had a talk with one and he was convinced I was nuts," he muttered under his breath. "Look, I'll go talk to the old hag." That was at least reassuring. He knew the Yondaime had died and this Sasuke was a bastard. He shook his head free of the lingering feeling of warmth the dream Sasuke provided him. His hands shook and he avoided looking at Sasuke. "I think you should get your head examined too. Honestly... me talking about having a father." One hand closed around the hilt of kunai and he slammed the point into the wood. "Dreams don't come true."

"Naruto," Sasuke said, his voice low but rough with the attempt at trying not to sound like he cared too much. He frowned at the droop in Naruto's shoulders and sighed. He reached out to Naruto.

Naruto gripped the edge of the table as a warm hand touched his shoulder...and once again, his vision blurred and the world tilted.

He was staring into the dark, concerned eyes of Sasuke and he yelped and fell backwards, landing on his behind. "D... don' t surprise me like that!" he shouted, eyes flicking around the room. He was dreaming again. But he realized that it couldn't be a dream, not after seeing... He felt everyone looking at him, and he couldn't meet their gazes. Maybe they finally figured out what was going on, too.

"Naruto," Sasuke said, looking bewildered. "You..."

Naruto looked around, noticing Sakura's confusion and the Yondaime's equally puzzled look. "What?" he asked, somehow feeling as if they knew something he didn't.

"Naruto, don't you know what you just did?" Sakura asked softly, her green eyes staring at him, searching for affirmation.

Naruto shook his head, dread pressing down on him.

"You were acting like yourself again," Sasuke said bluntly. "You looked around the room then launched yourself at me and begged me not to push you away again. Then you threw yourself at your father."

Naruto looked over to the Yondaime to find that he was now standing beside Sakura.

"But—" Sasuke's eyes were concerned and he hauled Naruto against him. "—now you're acting like you're scared of me again." He glared at Naruto, shaking him by the shoulders. "Just what is going on here?" he demanded. "You're bouncing around like a damn ping pong ball!"

"I..." Naruto looked around the room again, waiting for the room to blur back into his apartment, for the Sasuke shaking him to suddenly push him away and tell him to go to Tsunade-bachan and get his head checked. He waited, and nothing happened.

He heard the Yondaime straighten away from the couch behind him. "Look, everyone, we're all a little confused."

Sasuke threw him a glare. "A little?"

Naruto couldn't help but share the look, a small laugh issuing from him. "I think I want to go back to bed and wake up in the morning where things are normal," he muttered weakly. But at the same time, he didn't want to give up the thought of having a father. That brief sliver of time back in his apartment and the unavoidable fact that in his reality, the Yondaime was dead...had left him vaguely empty.

"Sakura, there's nothing wrong with his memory, right?" the Yondaime asked, ignoring the twin glares directed at him.

"Nothing. Except for that his system is still recovering from whatever it did, everything is in tact." Sakura let her worried gaze fall on Naruto.

"Alright then. Let's just go to sleep and we'll try to sort this all out again tomorrow. Agreed?"

Sakura nodded and stood. She gave the Hokage a deferential nod and turned to the two men beside her.

Naruto bit his lip, unable to meet her gaze, but still giving her a gentle hug. She had been a support for him for a short while, both of them trying to deal with the loss of Sasuke, of working together with Kakashi, devoid of the third member of their team. "Thank you for trying," he whispered.

She nodded. "Take care of yourself, hm? I don't like being invited over just to check up on your health."

He forced an apologetic smile. "I promise to invite you over for dinner next time." Regardless of where he was at the time, here in this...illusion or whatever it might be...or back in his own familiar, safe world, he swore to himself to keep the promise.

She gave Sasuke a fleeting look and giggled, patting him on the head. "I think someone would get jealous if you paid so much attention to me again," she teased him. "But I'll come by again, Naruto." She bowed once more to the Yondaime and said a quick good-bye to Sasuke. Soon Naruto was left alone with just the Yondaime and Sasuke and he wondered what they were going to say to him next. Maybe they knew he was an imposter of ... just... whatever he was.

Instead of an interrogation, however, the Yondaime pulled him into a hug. "No matter what happens, Naruto, you will always be my son. Don't forget that."

Naruto blinked away the annoying sting at the back of his eyes and barely registered nodding in reply.

"Will you be staying here tonight, Sasuke?"

Naruto blanched and turned from the man's embrace. Sasuke looked like he was actually considering it.

The Yondaime looked thoughtful. "It may be for the best," he said, not releasing Naruto. "Naruto doesn't seem to act as confused around you." He absently ran his hand through his son's hair, noticing how he unconsciously relaxed, and smiled faintly. Some things didn't change, at least. "We'll sort this all out in the morning; I'm going to do some research."

He let his son go with a brief, "Good night" and turned away, disappearing upstairs.

Naruto glanced over at Sasuke. "You're sleeping on the sofa."

Sasuke looked affronted. "Like hell I am. You didn't seem too adverse to me sleeping next to you earlier. Or on top of you."

Naruto made a choking sound at the back of his throat, unable to come up with a proper rebuttal. "I...we...you started it!"

Sasuke smirked and leaned over Naruto, effectively pinning him to the wall. "You didn't seem to mind," he murmured into his ear. His hand cupped Naruto's cheek. "Naruto." His voice was almost pleading as warm breath ghosted across Naruto's ear, making him shudder. "I missed you."

Naruto felt the heat in his cheeks and wondered when he'd turned into a blushing teenage girl. He furiously stamped down on the blood rushing to his face. And then the blood rushed to an altogether different area of his body as Sasuke's tongue traced the shell of his ear. He closed his eyes and for a moment, he saw the Sasuke he knew, eyes dark and cold, so afraid to show any emotion that might lead to weakness.

He gulped and clung to this Sasuke, some part of him whispering that in dreams, it was okay to hold on to what you always wanted for so long. He felt Sasuke stiffen briefly in surprise as his fingers dug into Sasuke's shoulders. He didn't push him away this time, letting Sasuke trail one hand down his side, rough fingers sliding up under his shirt. He took a deep breath and Sasuke took that chance to kiss him.

Naruto closed his mind off to all the doubts screaming to be heard, and lost himself in the feel of Sasuke's mouth against his. He was eighteen but he had only ever been kissed twice, excluding that incident with Sasuke at the academy when they were twelve. Once was with Sakura during the years Sasuke had been gone...and once with Neji because they'd nearly died on a mission and they hadn't really known what they were doing anyway.

He found that kissing Sasuke was entirely different from kissing Neji, and their first 'kiss,' if it could even be called that, never prepared him for the way Sasuke's body pushed him into the wall, the way his hands moved so assuredly over his body, the way his own body responded to Sasuke's caresses. He found himself kissing back, not caring for the moment.

He opened his mouth, Sasuke's tongue immediately pushing in to stroke his own. Strong hands smoothed down his sides and slid around to cup his backside, squeezing gently. Naruto groaned and pressed harder into Sasuke body.

"Take it upstairs, boys," the Yondaime said, passing them by and disappearing again out the front door.

Naruto's face flushed and he was about to pull away, but Sasuke's grip on him was too strong. Sharp teeth nipped at his ear. "You heard what he said, Naruto," he murmured. "We'll be more comfortable upstairs, anyways." One hand moved around to ghost along Naruto's erection. "Or do you really want to stop?"

Naruto bit the inside of his cheeks, stifling a moan at Sasuke's light touch. He shook his head.

Sasuke smirked. "Then come on." He grasped Naruto's wrist and pulled him along behind him as he made his way upstairs, back to Naruto's room. Pushing Naruto into the bedroom, he kicked the door shut and closed in on Naruto, who had moved to stand beside the bed.

Naruto stared, transfixed as Sasuke pulled his shirt off over his head, watching the muscles in his pale chest shift and ripple with the simple movement.

Maybe I've died, he thought dazedly, eyes darkening as he unconsciously licked his lips. This was what he'd wanted for at least the last year, and it wasn't as if it was going to happen in reality. Maybe I've died and this is my reward for putting up with all that shit when I was alive. He decided that it didn't matter if he was dead, and he wound his arms around Sasuke's neck, returning the kiss to where they left off, arms tightening around Sasuke. He wanted this, needed this... this reassurance, this stability. Even if Sasuke wasn't acting like himself, it was Sasuke and that was special all on its own.

Sasuke pushed him back into the bed and he went willingly, his fingers clinging hard enough to Sasuke's arms to leave bloodless marks on the alabaster skin. Sasuke crawled up onto his knees, hands fumbling with Naruto's clothes.

Naruto lifted his arms and Sasuke slipped the dark shirt off. Naruto opened his eyes, gazing up into Sasuke's flushed face, the anxious heat in his dark eyes.

He squelched the insane urge to laugh at Sasuke with a flush on his face--Sasuke never blushed, never let his emotions get the better of him like that. Of course, Sasuke was also more inclined to beat Naruto into the ground instead of pushing him into a bed.

He wondered briefly why he was thinking about such things when a warm mouth was sucking gently on the thin flesh over his collar bone. Sasuke slid his lips lower, tongue laving down his chest to whorl around a hardened nipple.

Naruto groaned, hands clutching at Sasuke's hair. "Sasuke," he whispered.

Sasuke paused and looked up, smiling tenderly at Naruto's expression. "I'm glad you still respond to me the same." He didn't know what was going on, why Naruto remembered things completely different from things Sasuke remembered, but for now, for that moment, Naruto was looking up at him the way he had always looked at him, and that was good enough for Sasuke.

Naruto tried to growl at him, but it was lost in a groan as warm hands moved down his sides again, slipping underneath him and caressing the muscles of his back. "Sa..." Naruto closed his eyes and arched his back, wanting more of this rare opportunity Sasuke was presenting him with. He wanted to respond back, wanted to do something other than squirm in Sasuke's embrace.

Naruto slid his hands down Sasuke's bare back, gently kneading the muscles there before swallowing his reserve and slipping his hands into the top of Sasuke's pants, cupping a firm backside. Sasuke smirked against Naruto's skin.

Naruto wasn't certain what he was doing, half afraid he'd turn clumsy and bite Sasuke...although maybe that wasn't such a bad idea.

He tugged Sasuke's head up, meeting his mouth again as he pushed Sasuke's hips into his, grinding against him. He couldn't help gasping at the sensation he initiated, but was gratified at Sasuke's reaction. Naruto took control of the kiss, treating it like it was just another facet of their rivalry. "Aren't you supposed to be beneath me, Uchiha?"

Sasuke roughly grabbed a fistful of blond hair and jerked back Naruto's head, dragging his tongue up Naruto's cheek to his jawline. "What's that, Naruto?" he breathed into the Naruto's ear.

Naruto smiled, tensed his muscles and lurched sideways, easily trapping Sasuke underneath him.

"I think," Naruto whispered with smug grin, "I like this better."

Sasuke bucked against the body on top of him, but in terms of brute strength, Naruto had always been stronger.

Naruto let his mouth barely ghost over the strong line of Sasuke's jaw, breathing in the man's scent, his muscles relaxing at just the presence of Sasuke. He moved his mouth to Sasuke's collarbone, teeth closing over the muscle there as his free hand cupped Sasuke's erection. Part of Naruto was astounded that Sasuke reacted this way because of him, and the other part of him just wasn't thinking.

Sasuke arched into his touch, a low breath hissing past his teeth. In all the years he'd known the stubborn Uchiha, Sasuke had never submitted to him. Even after Naruto had thoroughly beaten him into the ground, he had still refused to bow beneath him. Naruto wondered if touching Sasuke like this, feeling the proof of Sasuke's arousal straining beneath his pants against Naruto's palm, would evoke a similar response in the Sasuke he knew.

He had always dreamed about the day he would become Hokage, and having Sasuke kneeling at his feet. Somehow that image took on a different view, and he imagined both of them like this, Sasuke's hands wrapped around his hips and his mouth.... Naruto groaned and his fingers tightened almost painfully into Sasuke's skin. His hand on Sasuke's length remained gentle, fingers exploring in growing confidence.

Sasuke gripped the waistband of his pants and jerked them downward, momentarily startling Naruto. Sasuke smirked up at him, tugging Naruto's pants down until they caught at his spread legs. "You going to keep staring at me or help me out here?"

Naruto looked away from Sasuke's suggestive smile, and made quick work of his pants, throwing them aside to join his shirt. Sasuke grinned and took hold of Naruto's boxers next.

Without warning the door was thrown open, the Yondaime standing there with his eyes closed, but still grinning. "Get dressed boys, playtime is over."