Featured Couple: Naruto Uzumaki / Sasuke Uchiha

Genre: Angst/Romance

I have twice as many reviewers for this fic than for any other! Do you guys just like to wallow in misery or something? Or are you sadistic bitches like me? Anyways this isn't going to have very much angst…I may have to change the genre…

Love Is Infinite

Sasuke had run all day without rest, using chakra to move at high speeds; he'd almost collapsed, but had persevered with an almost suicidal stubbornness, because he had to get to Naruto as fast as possible. But eventually, exhaustion had beaten him. Finding an uninhabited cave, he used a fire jutsu on a dead log he had dragged inside, curled up in his sleeping bag and slept the sleep of those who have lost their meaning.

oo dream oo

A boy, he dances and jumps around the field like he is without a care. A smile, affectionate and honest graces his tan face. Blonde hair, so golden and soft it was as though sunlight had become tangible. Blue eyes, so warm and open like a Mediterranean ocean, but with hidden depths that no one could reach. And he'd bathed in them, let them heal his wounds, and now he was alone, forsaken in this desolate plateau of pain and abandon.

"Why did you leave me Naruto? Why?" Sasuke murmured to the space he'd left. "Maybe it's because you didn't love him enough." A voice from the darkness whispers. Sasuke spins searching for the bodiless voice in the shadows. "Who are you? Show yourself!"

"Why not…after all it wouldn't hurt." It says, then from the darkness, a figure steps forward on to the barren hill, a boy the same age as Sasuke, wearing only some black gi which contrasted starkly with his white skin. Short white hair flopping over the eyes, the only colour on him; rainbow eyes, shifting, adjusting, varying in colour from black, so dark it seemed to absorb the little light there was, through all the colours of the spectrum; reaching a pure white that threatened to blind him with its clarity. "Be grateful I'm talking to you stupid human. If this was true life you would be made sightless by my supremacy." Sasuke scowled. No-one talks down to an Uchiha. "True life? What is this then?" he demanded sceptically.

"Simple dreams, nothing more, see how easily the shift is between your dream and my domain. Your pain made it effortless for me to convey to this place." The apparition waved his hand through the air causing multicoloured ripples to appear, they twisted and writhed into a shape, a long tail, a velvety paws, black fur that flowed in sync with the powerful muscles underneath. The silhouette solidified into a panther that stretched itself and yawned. It regarded Sasuke with the air of something that was waiting for something then looked away and head butted the white haired boy's thigh making him smile. Sasuke was not impressed and gave him the trademark Uchiha glare, weirder things had happened in his dreams, a panther was nothing.

"You never answered my question. Who are you?" the spectre smiled at him, "It was you I believe who told the Hyuuga boy that you should give your own name before requesting someone else's." grimacing at having that bit of history being thrown back in his face again Sasuke answered "My name is Sasuke Uchiha, now what is yours? Or are you just some stupid part of my psychosis?" the pale boy chuckled and gave Sasuke a look that could only be counted as pitying, so maybe this was a dream but this guy was driving him up the wall! "I am an anthromorphic personification of an all-powerful force older than any gods or world. I chose who gets born, and who dies. I am what crushes civilizations, defeats warriors, defies all laws and eventually will destroy everything. I am luck both good and bad, the roll of the dice, the final destiny, and the wheel of Fortune. In other words, Fate." To emphasize this statement some colourful baubles of light thronged around his head and torso giving him an ethereal backlight. An effect that was completely wasted on Sasuke Uchiha, master of looking unimpressed. "And I'm meant to believe that you; a short ass kid is Fate. With a capital 'F'" The panther settled down and laid its head on its paw, studying them in a manner that suggested amusement. "Yes." the boy replied eyes flashing the red of fresh spilled blood.

"You could just call him Murphy," A female voice said from somewhere near. It sounded like wind through the trees, water bubbling in a brooks and the crackle of a camp fire. "I do, after the creator of the Law. You know the one that says 'anything that can go wrong will go wrong.' I think it suits him."

"I have nothing as pathetically human as a name. I have risen above such things." The boy, Murphy, hissed at the panther which raised its head off its paws to look him in the eye. Sasuke realized dully that it was the panther that spoke. "Of course, oh Mighty Master of Fate. Let me go fetch your sceptre and crown." It said slowly and more sarcastically than should be physically possible.

Then it turned back to Sasuke and said "As it is, he doesn't control everything. He can only nudge people in directions not guide them to the end of their journeys. Humans are amazing creatures, they can dream, hope, wish, imagine. Mortals have more power than they know what to use. At points it is their decisions that maps out the future." The panther rose to her paws, and circled Sasuke as she spoke; every now and then brushing his leg with her tail. "We have deigned to help you retrieve your lover, the one known as Naruto Uzumaki. However only one of us can be present with you at a time, which of us do you wish to accompany you?" Her speech finished, she sat on her haunches next to the boy who was called Fate.

Sasuke Uchiha last but one of the Uchiha clan a prodigy of ninjas, sat down in the dirt and laughed; he had finally lost it and he was so pathetic this is what his mind came up with. The village would be better of without him anyway. And Naruto, he didn't want him anyway. At this thought Sasuke's demented laughter cracked and broke into sobs that rocked his dream self. Everybody left him, his parents had never paid any attention to him, always trying to make Itachi better instead, and then Itachi had left him with no one. He was worthless all he did was bring pain and suffering to everyone.

"Is that really what you think of yourself?" the panther asked "If you are nothing then why do people care about you?" images moved through the air in font of him. Sakura attempting to stop him leaving the leaf village, Kakashi training him to use chidori and Naruto smiling, his true smile, just for him.

"I don't know…maybe…"

"You are being foolish, and I have no time for fools. If you do not want our help we shall depart." The boy said coldly.

"Why would I need your help anyways?" he snapped at the two composed figures.

"A vital event in history shall soon take place, it must happen, and you are linked with it; irrevocably so." The panther's voice echoed solemnly in the quiet. "But what does that have to do with Naruto?! Is he in danger?!" Sasuke asked franticly, his memory kicking in. The panther looked away delicately as though it didn't know what to say, and the boy scowled "Not yet but he will be." It was a statement that hung heavy in the air as Sasuke though over the possibilities. The silence was broken by an impatient growl from the panther "We must assist. Chose."

Sasuke considered the options, the boy was full of him-self and didn't look like much of a fighter, "Fine, this is only a dream…the panther."

"Why not me?"

"Because the panther insulted you and you didn't come up with a good retort. Therefore the panther is smarter than you."

"…smart ass human."

"Better than being a dumb ass figment of delusion." Sasuke reasoned that even if this was a dream he still had to maintain his dignity. "You have made your choice I have no reason to remain here and be insulted by a mortal!" Murphy snapped, the air surrounding both of the strangers twisted and swallowed them, then spread leaving Sasuke in darkness.

oo end of dream oo

A thunder clap shocked Sasuke out of his sleep, looking around the cave he saw the fire on the log had died out and there was a storm raging outside. Scowling, he relit the log with another fireball jutsu and sat staring into the flames thinking over the dream, and then jumped as a voice from the back of the cave said "Am I intruding?"

He jumped to his feet and pulled out several kunai, mentally berating himself for allowing someone to sneak up on him. A shadow from the rear of the cavern peeled away from the rest and formed into the panther from his dream. It sat on the opposite side of the fire and regarded him with golden eye's that seemed to suck him in. Into an endless void where there was nothing. Sasuke shook his head to clear it. "You thought we were just a dream." she said accusingly. Sasuke decided to ignore her remark, and got out his map to calculate how far it was to the mountains. The first indication he got that the panther had moved was a hot breath on his shoulder as she looked over at the map. "It'll take five hours of chakra-boosted running to reach the edge of the mountain range. How fast can you run?"

"Faster than light. But I will remain at your speed."

"We leave when I've packed."

"No"

"Why not? I have to get to Naruto!"

"Because you are still exhausted, and will do permanent damage to your leg muscles if you continue at the speed you did. Naruto is in the same location and will remain there. And so shall you." The last part was spoken in a gentle rumble that sounded suspiciously like a purr, it wrapped around Sasuke like a soft blanket and he collapsed onto his sleeping bag and went into a deep dreamless sleep.

The panther padded to the mouth of the cave and lay down watching the wilderness. A dark sentinel for the sleeping adolescent.

Damn…that was longer than I thought…

Do you enjoy warping everything to your whims?

Yep. Hey…how'd you get in my author's notes?

By manipulating the space-time continuum and casting myself into the cybernetic matrix in the form of a recombinant data stream.

… (blank expression)

Magic!

That's what I thought you said. Please review.