A/N: I'm... on schedule? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE! OO; Okay, so I'm off by roughly one day, that's still better than I thought it was!
I'm having some slight difficulty concentrating on one topic for a long period of time as of recently, so my chapters may be a bit jumbled. ; I actually had an outline for this chapter too, so maybe that'll help make traveling interesting, as well as working as a comfortable source of together-ness for my jumping thoughts.
Anwayz, this chapter's a little... angsty, but it's necessary and such. I'm not great at angst, humor is more my forte, I think.
May I remind you all of something that some of you know and others may not?
When forming couplings in the Naruto Universe (or any universe for that matter, but we're just looking at Naruto's right now), the usual labels are a combination of the names of the couple. for example.
LeeSaku.
Obviously, the story that mentions LeeSaku is going to have mentions of a relationship between Lee and Sakura, right? Well here's something you should know.
Lee, in this case, is the one coming on to Sakura, therefore, he is the one courting her.
Not the other way around.
THEN it would be SakuLee. In this case, Sakura would be the one courting Lee. See?
IN THE TERMS OF HOMOSEXUAL COUPLINGS---
AKA, SasuNaru.
The order of the names, determines their positions, Seme (top, or 'dominant') and Uke (bottom, or 'submissive'). The seme is first. Hence, if the coupling of a story is 'SasuNaru', Sasuke is the Seme, and Naruto is the Uke. 'NaruSasu' means that Naruto is the Seme and Sasuke is the Uke.
THIS IS VERY A IMPORTANT DISTINCTION!
However, if someone mentions something like 'NaruSasuNaru' it means that both Naruto AND Sasuke play BOTH parts.
Sorry, it's just a little pet peeve of mine when someone says that their story is "sasunaru" and Naruto is the seme, it's just BOTHERSOME!
Anyway... A refresher of this story's couplings...
SasuNaru
LeeSaku
KibaHina
NejiGaa
ShikaIno
KakaIru
So... Now that we're clear on that...
Onwards!
Day Four--
Sun peered into the wooden rooms through the cracks in the shutters on the glass-less windows. Naruto shivered slightly in his sleeping bag and opened his crystalline eyes.
"Ne... Sasuke. Why is it so cold?" He asked, sitting up, noting the absence of a fire. He looked over to his companion, only to find him still sleeping.
"Eh?" He muttered, crawling over to him.
That's weird. Sasuke always gets up before me. Naruto layed his chin on his folded hands on the floor, and stared at Sasuke. Whatever, we made good time yesterday. He can sleep in a bit.
Naruto hoisted himself off the floor and set himself to re-light the fire for warmth. He couldn't stand the cold. Never could, be it those stares of the villagers, or the ice coating his window after a winter rain. Yet, no matter how much he disliked the cold, his thoughts began to drift towards on of the coldest things he knew.
Sasuke... He spared another glance at the last Uchiha before scooting over to his sleeping form.
"If I didn't know better, I'd have thought you were a statue..." Naruto chuckled to himself with a sigh.
"...do...be..." Sasuke muttered. Naruto froze, staring at him as if any minute Sasuke was going to jump up and tease him about being so cheesy. When the expected didn't happen, Naruto let out a breath of relief. He felt a small smile creep upon his face.
Heh. He's dreaming of me... Naruto lifted his hand, moving it slowly like the faintest hint of wind would wake him when suddenly--
BAM!
Naruto snapped his hand back at the sudden sound when another came.
"DAMN IT'S BLOODY COLD OUT THERE!"
Whack!
"Of course it's cold, idiot! It's the snow country!"
"Aww, shut it!"
"What'd you say!"
What the hell! Bandits! OH SHIT! He nudged Sasuke who was somehow still sleeping.
"Sasuke... Sasukeeeeeee..." Naruto whispered urgently. He got a slight groan in response. Naruto could hear footsteps coming down the hallway growing closer, and closer, and closer...
Oh, fuck it.
"SASUKE!" Naruto screamed into his ear. Sasuke shot up.
"WHAT THE HELL, NARUTO!" Naruto pointed towards the doorway where a huge, very angry man clad in furs was standing, staring at them in a predator kind of way.
"Shit." Sasuke hissed through clenched teeth.
"Sasuke! This way!" Naruto hand curved in claw-like curves. He pulled it back, nails elongating and lighting on fire, then thrust it forward, shattering the entire wall, and engulfing what was left in flames. Sasuke scooped up the blankets, and bolted for the fiery wall.
"GET THEM!" The burly man bellowed, pointing a directional finger at them. Within a few seconds, the entire band of men was after them.
"What the hell, dobe! Why were you shouting at me! You gave away our position!"
"You wouldn't wake up, you bastard! What the hell else was I going to do?"
"You could have hit me!"
"GLADLY!" Naruto shouted, "But later! They're catching up to us!" Sasuke looked behind them, and sure enough, the bandits were close at their heels.
"Shit! How are they going so fast over all of this ice!"
"Chakra?" Sasuke shook his head.
"Bandits can't use chakra very well! That's anbu level control!"
"No, I mean, let's use ours! We'll go faster!"
"Idiot! We'll waste too much energy. We need to get rid of them quickly..." Sasuke's eyes darted around, and when they didn't find the blonde idiot, he skidded to a halt.
"NARUTO!" He dashed in the opposite direction where Naruto had been caught, and was currently holding off twelve bandits with limited success. Dashing forward, Sasuke activated his sharingan, whipped out a giant shuriken, and threw it at the mob. It successfully sliced through four of the men, and they fell, staining the white snow with their blood so red.
"Sasuke!" Just then, the Sharingan showed Sasuke the most painful sight he could ever see--but to hell if he would let it come true!
"Naruto! Duck!" And the blonde did, avoiding a lopping strike from a very sharp katana.
"Ah!" Quickly, Naruto preformed the kata for a jutsu he had learned while traveling with Jiraiya in the Lightning country.
"LIGHTNING HAMMER NO JUTSU!" Naruto screamed, jumping into the air and hurled a giant ball of electricity at his attackers.
"AUUUUUUUGGHHHH!" Ten or so men screamed as the shocks fried their bodies over and over.
"Ugh!" Sasuke winced in pain. He had barely missed the attack, and he knew that if his Sharingan hadn't been activated he would have been caught in it.
Naruto landed lightly, darting over to where Sasuke was.
"Sasuke! You okay?" His voice dripped with worry. Sasuke fought back a groan, and stood up.
"Yes. I'm fine."
"Ah. Good. Let's get out of here then." Naruto smiled, genuinely happy that Sasuke was all right. The other nodded, and off they went.
------------
"Dobe..." Sasuke said, a few hours after their battle.
"Yeah?"
"Let's stop for a while." Naruto stared at his partner.
"EHHH! Sasuke! Stopping!" The raven-haired male gave the other the infamous 'Uchiha death glare'
"For lunch, dobe. Lunch." This made the younger jounin smile.
"Ah! Okay!" Their pace slowed considerably while they looked for a relatively warm spot to stop. A single snowflake fell from the sky and landed on Naruto's nose causing him to laugh. Soon, the air around them was full of snow, whirling and swirling around them, sending chills throughout their bodies.
"Brrrrr! This is like a blizzard!" Naruto said, teeth chattering. Sasuke attempted to nod, but found himself unable.
"Eh? Teme? SASUKE!" Naruto shouted catching his collapsed friend. His eyes were wide with worry, but that soon changed to shock when he noticed the huge bleeding burn on his partners back.
"Sasuke..." He whispered. "You did get hit! You weren't okay, you jerk!" Tears threatened to fall from Naruto's eyes, but he was too worried to care.
"Shit... I've got to get you to safety!" The snow was coming down in relentless sheets, and visibility was low, but Naruto's kyuubi eyes were still able to spot a splotch of black.
"A cave! Hold on, Sasuke!"
"Unnn..." He cast one more look at his companion, then dragged him into the inky blackness.
------------
"Unnhh...?" Sasuke woke up to the smell of freshly cooked meat and burning logs. "Naruto...?" He whipped around at the sound of his name, smiling when he saw that Sasuke had awakened.
"Sasuke!" He breathed, relieved that his friend was okay, but his smile quickly turned into a frown and his brow furrowed.
"You bastard!" He shouted; Sasuke winced.
"Urusai, Naruto. You're too loud." Something caught his eyes. Were those... tears?
"Jerk..." The blond whispered, his face hidden from sight by his bangs. He had removed his head protector. His whole body was shaking.
"You didn't tell me you got hit!"
"It didn't matter--"
"BUT IT DOES MATTER!" Naruto almost screamed, looking up at Sasuke with that pained expression. Tears were freely flowing down his face.
"It does..." He wiped the salty liquid from his eyes and spoke again.
"Those who sacrifice their missions are trash, but... those who sacrifice their teammates are worse than trash." Sasuke remained silent. "I think... that those who'll sacrifice themselves for the sake of the mission are even worse than that." Sasuke closed his eyes. The words bit deep into his flesh, stinging like saltwater in a paper cut.
"I didn't want you to worry..."
"AND YOU THINK I'M NOT WORRIED NOW!" Naruto was crying again.
"Shit.." He said wiping his eyes once more.
There was an uneasy silence between them while Naruto stoked the fire and checked the meat.
"You.." The sound echoed eerily off of the cavern walls. "You don't have to be strong all of the time, Sasuke."
"Hn..."
"You don't have anything to prove to me. I know you're strong." Sasuke almost smiled at that statement.
"Here, eat." Naruto held out a platter of meat and some sort of green. Sasuke sat up, wincing. "And careful of those spell tags. Don't let them fall off."
"What're they for?"
"Sakura gave them to me for injuries. it's 'her way of making sure I stay alive since I can't use medical jutsus' she says."
"Dobe, you should save them for serious injuries--"
"Oh? And your injury isn't serious? Sasuke, the whole left side of your back is covered in third degree burns, and there is a two inch hole above your hip. HOW IS THAT NOT SERIOUS!" Naruto's rage was building again, but it stopped short at the occurrence of one small action.
Sasuke smiled.
Not a smirk, not a grin, and not one of those small smiles. This was a smile that was so wide, his dimples showed, but his teeth were still hidden behind pink lips. Naruto's heart skipped a beat.
"Arigato, dobe." He ruffled Naruto's hair in a playful manner, smile never wavering. The blonde couldn't contain his blush, and opted to hide it behind his long bangs instead. The exchange went on for a few more minutes before the younger jounin reluctantly pushed Sasuke's hand away and bid him goodnight.
"Get some sleep, teme."
"Hn... you two, dobe."
And they both fell asleep smiling.
Vocab:
Sharingan sha-reen-gahn Sasuke's bloodline jutsu, the "mirror wheel eye". It allows Sasuke to see through the opponents jutsus, copy them, and see a few seconds into the future in a fight.
Urusai oo-roo-sah-ee literally, "you're loud", but it's usally used in context when someone wants to tell someone else to shut up.
Arigato ah-ree-gah-toh Thank you.
Note: 'Lightning hammer no jutsu' doesn't exist. I made it up on the spur of the moment. ;