Fate's Garden

Part 1 - Anomalistic

Chapter 6 - It churns it up, makes it light, and frothy!

"Boys! I'm home!" Naruto's head snapped up from his pillow. His eyes turned blearily towards the door.

He was lying on his belly with his face down on his half of the pillow. His left arm was laid at his side and his right arm was thrown over Sasuke. The duck-butt in question had been lying on his back. But at the obnoxiously loud greeting from their father he'd rolled onto his side facing Naruto and wriggled closer. Now his neck was under Naruto's arm, and his head resting on Naruto's shoulder. Sasuke's arms had also somehow snaked around his upper torso. Naruto was extremely comfortable. But the voice was getting closer and closer, climbing the stairs, and approaching their bedroom door. There was one knock before the door was thrown open. Naruto was quite shocked at how little his father's appearance bothered him.

Standing in the doorway, having somehow lost his official robes on his way up the stairs, was their father. He casually pulled off his forehead protector, giving Naruto a rather questioning look. Naruto wasn't really sure what his father wanted him to say, or do. At the moment all he wanted was to go back to sleep and relish the fact that his Sasuke was snuggled against him. Not some other universe's Sasuke, but his. So, not seeing any further clues as to what he should be doing, Naruto let his head fall back onto the pillow. Sasuke sighed and pressed the tip of his nose into one of the many dips and curves of Naruto's ear. His breath tickled. His arm was getting numb, the left one. He lifted it up and laid it down above his head on the pillow.

"Alright, I get it, let you nap. But, I do expect you downstairs for dinner in an hour or two." Minato chuckled as he padded out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Naruto had every intention of resuming his nap, and he would have, if the door shutting hadn't woken Sasuke up. Duck-butt's breathing paused as he shifted and leaned up on one of his elbows to inspect the position they were in. Then, he stared at him. Naruto could feel Sasuke's eyes on the back of his head. He was probably trying to figure out whether or not Naruto was asleep, and if he could detach himself and pretend it hadn't happened. Technically this time it could be construed as Sasuke's fault, as it was his arms that were securely around Naruto. If Naruto found out, too, then he could give Sasuke all kind of shit, not that he would anyways. That would discourage him from ever allowing it to happen again. But Sasuke never was the most logical, contrary to popular belief.

He couldn't help it. Turning his head to the side he gazed up at Sasuke and smiled lazily. Sasuke froze, leaving Naruto to take advantage of it and bring him back down onto the bed with his right arm. With it still looped across Sasuke's neck it brought him right back down into the position they were before. Naruto sighed contentedly and murmured, 'G'morning Sasuke'. To this, Sasuke growled that it was afternoon, dobe. Whatever, Naruto mumbled.

They laid there a while, neither saying anything; Sasuke, because he probably didn't know what to say, and Naruto because he was comfy and sleepy. That's when Sasuke told him about the 'visions'.

Sasuke felt very childish. Naruto had practically herded him up the stairs like a three year old and put him to bed. Now, the dobe was climbing into his bed on the other side of the room, ready to go to sleep as well. He sighed, facing the wall, glaring at it. He felt so…detached. It was odd to sleep in the same room as someone else, but not be close to them. Whenever they'd gone on extended missions back when they were twelve they would often times have to campout. Sasuke and Naruto would share a tent with Kakashi, and Sakura would get her own tent because she was the only girl. Back then, as they'd always been Sasuke supposed, he and Naruto fought nearly all the time. To prevent this during the night time, Kakashi would sleep in the middle and keep them apart. Needless to say, their poor ass selves were sleeping in a tiny tent. During the colder months they would be pressed up against Kakashi for warmth under one big blanket. Their sensei never, ever forgave them for that. Sasuke had always wondered how Sakura had managed to fare under those conditions, sleeping all by herself.

He'd gotten quite used to that, and then the other extreme of sleeping in one of the abandoned houses in the Uchiha clan district all alone. This strange in between was awkward. Sasuke didn't like it. But he couldn't just find a tent to set up in the middle of the room and shove Naruto into it. He couldn't really explain to himself what he wanted. He didn't necessarily want to be close to Naruto, but he wanted Naruto to be close to him. Just to know he was there. Sasuke rolled onto his stomach and then propped himself up on his forearms. He peered over the headboard at Naruto's bed across the room from him.

As was usual when dealing with awkward, unexplainable situations, Sasuke treated it like a mission. He separated it into various facts and details. If he tried to sneak into Naruto's bed, and the dobe woke up, that could look like something it wasn't. Sasuke wasn't looking for anything like that. What was that supposed to mean? He shook his head. If he went over there, acting the tough guy maybe that could work…maybe it would look like his bed was uncomfortable or something like that. If he was acting that way it could be interpreted as not something he necessarily wanted to do, but was doing as a last resort. Hah. He'd figured out a plan. Sasuke slid out of his bed and nonchalantly strode over to Naruto's bed. He reached forward and shoved Naruto into the wall his bed was pressed against. Before the dobe could turn around and yell at him for it, Sasuke climbed into the bed and stayed on the very edge. He could feel Naruto's eyes drift onto him. He waited for him to say something about it. But, surprisingly he didn't. Naruto even let out a sigh that seemed…relieved? Happy? Then he went back to sleep. For the sake of his sanity, Sasuke chose not to dwell on Naruto's lack of a reaction.

Sasuke raised his arms high above his head and yawned. Hmm, that was good nap. Mid-stretch his eyes widened. Gazing around the room he was in, he noticed he was not at the house. He was in one of those visions again it seemed. He wasn't sure he could call this cavern a room. The ceiling was high but there were thick roots coming out of it, and the floor underneath his feet was made of dirt. Candles hung from the ceiling's roots by pieces of gnarled rope, and fireflies flitted through the air. A large table taller than Sasuke was in the middle of the room. A chair that's seat was at his chin was right in front of him. Finding that he could move in this vision he shuffled nervously towards it. Placing one foot on a bar connecting one leg of the chair to another he clambered up onto the seat. Once there he peered over the top of the table. A large raccoon was staring at him. It was rather portly, but not in a morbidly obese way. It had one long bushy tail which twitched about in the air as its golden eyes bored into Sasuke. Lying on the table in front of the raccoon, sleeping peacefully was Gaara. Sasuke started at that, his eyes widening. Carefully measured footsteps echoed in the hallway leading away from the room Sasuke was currently in. The footsteps soon manifested themselves as a large nine-tailed orange fox. The fox turned its gaze on him too and stopped.

"What are you doing here, mortal?" The fox asked.

"I don't know!" Sasuke answered honestly.

"Isn't this the soul mate of your childe, brother?" A sultry voice rasped. Sasuke realized it had come from the raccoon.

"I believe so, though how he ended up in our realms I don't know." The fox answered her.

"Wait…you mean Naruto! He's your son? Who are you?"

"My name is Kyuubi."

Sasuke blinked, but how then were there multiple worlds with multiple Kyuubis?

"I am a god. I have the power of omnipresence." Kyuubi responded to Sasuke's thoughts smoothly, "Though that is not exactly why I am in so many different versions of your world."

"It's actually father's fault you know." The raccoon chuckled roughly, her voice resembling the sound of dead leaves blowing down the street.

"Yes I am aware." Kyuubi sighed, "Sometimes I bother him about that. And since you mentioned him, he would like to see you Shukaku."

"Oh yes I'm sure he would like to see me. His grandchilde's time in the mortal realms has ended and he may join us now. I'm sure he would like to see him."

"Ah, is that him there?" Kyuubi questioned warmly.

"Your nephew, little brother. He will come into his form splendidly." The husky rattle that was the raccoon's tone filled with the love of a mother as she gazed fondly down on Gaara.

"So does this mean that all Jinchuuriki are just the children of gods? What about the others that had theirs extracted?" Sasuke blurted out.

Both gods turned to face him, clearly perturbed at having been interrupted. Neither answered him and instead conversed amongst themselves. Sasuke sighed and climbed up onto the table. He walked over to where Gaara lay, content in his sleep for probably the first time in his life. The red head shifted as Sasuke knelt down beside him. He reached out one tentative hand towards his face, but Gaara woke up before he could make contact. The sky blue eyes stared up at him unblinking before a gleam of recognition overtook them.

"Sasuke-kun…what are you doing here?"

"I don't know…but I think that Naruto…"

"Oh, I suppose he's to be my cousin here soon." Gaara smiled warmly at that. It was odd to see such affection upon the face of someone Sasuke had always known as a sociopath.

"Kit, you know this mortal?" 'Shukaku' questioned.

"I've known him throughout my different lives, but my most recent had a version of him that became a missing nin. Naruto was a very good friend to me in this life, and Sasuke-kun is a very good friend of Naruto's."

"Wait, Gaara, you've been to multiple universes?"

"I guess you could call them that, yes."

"How long do they last? You see, Naruto and I just were thrown into this new world where everything is so weird and everyone's different-"

"Different." Gaara nodded calmly, "You will grow to see though that they are not very different at all. Varied circumstances make them appear different, or act differently on the surface. But deep down they are always the same."

Sasuke eyed the red head with a new appreciation. Their world that they had 'started' in had been Gaara's last. He'd had no one to go through the different worlds with. But how could the psychotic Gaara that Sasuke knew be this calm one sitting before him?

"Ah, I did not come into your world until after you had run away." Gaara answered his thoughts, much in the way that Kyuubi had. "I had eight lifetimes before that one, so I guess the change in personality is quite the shock for you, isn't it?"

Sasuke nodded. It was a shock. He wanted to ask more but Shukaku swatted him off of the table like he was a gnat. Before he hit the wall of the burrow there was the sound of a door slamming and he opened his eyes, his real eyes, he supposed. He was back in the house, with Naruto. Sasuke realized that he was staring at the side of Naruto's head. Wait a second…He tried to sit up but Naruto's arm was laid over his neck as deadweight. And Sasuke's right arm was under Naruto. Hoping that he wouldn't wake up the dobe he pulled his arm out from under Naruto's chest and propped himself up with it. They'd been…he'd….great, just great. Maybe if he was really careful he could sneak back to his own bed without waking the dobe up. Then, then he could just pretend this hadn't happened. Sasuke turned his eyes onto Naruto again, who was lying belly down with his face down in the pillow. He wasn't snoring though so Sasuke couldn't really be sure…

"G'morning Sasuke." The words terrified him, but not as much as that easy smile that lit up Naruto's face. Sasuke froze, and before he could get away Naruto had dragged him back down to the bed again.

To shake off his anxiety at being found out he muttered, "It's afternoon, dobe."

"Whatever."

Sasuke turned his head to shoot a look over his shoulder at Kyuubi. The fox was lying languidly in his usual corner at the base of a tall bookcase spilling over with books. That idiotic demon smirking at him again. He settled in for a long talk as he managed to get Naruto's wakeful attention.

"Um, dobe…there's something I need to tell you…"

TBC...