"I'm going after them right now!" Naruto growled and pulled away form Sasuke, feriocity like the raven haired boy had never seen gleaming in his eyes.

"Naruto!" Sasuke yelled as the blonde dug the keys out of his pant pockets and rushed twards the car.

"Stop it! Your can't be stupider!" Sasuke grabbed onto his arm tightly. "Leggo', asshole!"

Sasuke let him go and stared at Naruto for a while before shaking his head storming out into the car.

But Naruto didn't care.

"I'm leaving, you jerk!" Sasuke shouted through the open window. He revved the engine, but waited.

Naruto smirked slightly. He's not even pretending to leave

Sasuke watched Naruto slowly, not sure when he would decide to go after Iruka, but he suddenly found himself

fatigued.

Sasuke rested his chin on the open window glass and watched Naruto until the snow got heavy and his vision was blurred and he fell soundly asleep.

Naruto saw Sasuke finally fall asleep and he had smiled, knowing he was basically tied to the boy.

It would be quite cruel to leave him without keys in a car in the middle of winter, wouldn't it?

He sighed, wanting only despratly to go and find the bastards who had taken Iruka from him.

He wiped the snow off of his bare, slightly numb arms, and dragged his feet through the snow to the driver's seat and turned on the heat immidiatly. He found himself slightly concerned; the blonde placed a hand over Sasuke's forehead. He was cold.

Sasuke was still asleep, and Naruto grasped his hand, but this time he was the one to pull away at the first warm touch.

Was he in love with Sasuke?

No, it was impossible. He remembered the very heated moment in the freezing rain as he turned the corner on Unoichi Street and shuddered. Sasuke was just his friend...right?

Sasuke felt the same way...right?
Yes, Uzuimaki Naruto was usually right, but this was somthing he couldn't be wrong about. Never.

Naruto felt a strange, unconfortable sensation as he lifted the raven-haired boy out of the car, bridal-style, up the steep stairs into his small flat.

He put the very light boy onto the couch gentily and took three blankets from his bedroom and wrapped the around Sasuke.

He found himself cupping his hands around Sasuke's cold face and kissing his forehead. Naruto wiped the silky black strands from his eyes and stared at Sasuke for a moment before leaving the apartment:

"Sasuke...you bastard." Naruto smiled. "I think I'm in love with you."

Not to far from where the two boys had been in Naruto's apartment, seven men sat around an eighth man, wepons in hands.

"You will tell me..." A tall, burly man growled. "Where the Uchiha is!"
The man in the middle whimpered softly, blood staining his usually cheerful expression. Hot, Fresh Tears streamed down his face and entwined with's the fresh red liquid on his cheeks, creating a surplus of bloddy tears.

"So, you chose not to speak?" Iruka Umino stood up slowly, quivvering where he stood, but a deffiant look gleamed in his eyes.

"I Think this one will not be enough to lure the Uchiha here, sir." Sweat formed on Iruka's face.
What can they possibly meen?

"Agreed. I believe there is another, one much more important to the Uchiha than this one." He used the sharp toe of his shoe to kick the man in his side. He coughed up blood on the floor.

"Yes. Can you tell us the name of this man?"

The leader, a shadowy, tall man with a face hid by darkness, nodded.

"Kakashi Hatake."

Iruka's heart skipped a beat. Two. Three. Four. Kakashi! I have to warn you!

"No!" Iruka hissed. "Don't hurt him!"

One of the men grasped Iruka by the chin and thrust his head to face his own.
"Why? Are you in love with this man named Kakashi?"

Iruka stiffened.

"I...I..."
"Don't worry, you'll see him again." Iruka blinked and stared up at the man loading a gun. "In Hell."

He pulled the trigger and fired, just as a blonde boy wearing an orange sweatshirt burst into the room.

Sasuke didn't know Naruto would leave. He kept focusing on the fact that, though the window was open (thanks to a not-so-bright blonde baka who wanted fresh air but then never bothered closing the window) and cold air had to be gushing through the heated apartment, he felt warm.

He felt loved. Sasuke never bothered to close the window either. He figured it could wait until morning.

Sasuke awoke startled, another dream, sweat beading on his forehead and seeping through the roots of his thick black hair. Snakes.

They had been everywhere, sinking cold, icey fangs into the flesh of his friends. There blood was allover Sasuke's hands.

Sasuke got up, quickly changed cloths, and shut the window, shivering.

"Naruto, do we have anything for breakfast?"
No answer.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and opened the door into Naruto's bedroom. He wispered:

"Dobe, C'mon. It's 9:30 already. Get up!"

No answer.

Sasuke sighed and threw the covers aside, hoping to see a blonde boy soundly asleep, but instead found nothing. "Naruto, you're not funny." But Sasuke was really starting to worry.

He went into the living room, and noticed the the coat rack was empty of his jaket and the key ring was gone.

No...He went after Iruka!

In a pair of blue slippers and matching blue flannel pajamas he had bought yesterday with clouds and moons and stars printed on the pants, (He had yet to show these to Naruto) and opened the door. Damn, he wished he had bought a jaket.

But what he would see would be unlike anything he had seen before.

Naruto lay on the ground, his head bleeding, the warehouse empty.

The bullet had simply grazed him, probably ment to scare Iruka, not kill him, but now he was gone. Naruto had blew it. He remember regetfully when the bullets-he swore there were 5 or 6, had flew past him.

Words swam in his head. Kakashi...Iruka...in Hell...Sasuke...Sasuke...Sasuke...

"But why Sasuke? He wouldn't lie to me!" Or would he...

Naruto hoped into his car and winced as the blood gushed from his shoulder and cheek. Fresh wounds, threee slashs on either cheek and another graze on his leg, bled profoundly.

He drove home, in pain, but despite that worrying about Sasuke the entire time.

Sasuke had waited for an hour outside in the freezing cold and snow. When he finally watched Naruto get out of the car and watched in horror as the boy bled out onto the pavment.

"Naruto!" Sasuke grimmanced and ran so he could support him.

"I'm fine Sasuke! But look at you! Your shivering." It was true and uncontrollable, but Sasuke didn't care. Tears swelled in his eyes.

"I don't care, Naruto!" He choked. "Your hurt!" And it's all my fault!

"I failed, Sasuke. I couldn't get him back. I'm a failure. I couldn't save him."

"Oh Naruto you're not a failure! Your the bravest person I know!" The much shorter boy threw his arms around Naruto's neck.While I'm just a coward!

"They got away. He's still alive though, I took the bullet."

"Naruto, you ass!" Naruto blinked and looked at him, getting his old spirit back for a moment.

"What! How is this my fault!" Nothing's your fault. You're perfect compared to me!

"Because!" The tears were flowing freely now. The spilled out onto his shirt and Naruto's and all over his reddened face. The tears of self hatred.

"Because why, koishii?" He stroked Sasuke's hair slowly. "Why do you care?"

"Because!" He sobbed. "I need you!" Without you I am nothing

Naruto held Sasuke in a protective embrase. Naruto somtimes wished he could stay like this forever-with the one he loved-but time moved so fast. I need you to stop all the sadness.

"Sasuke..." Naruto said after a while. All the hate..

Sasuke looked up at him, and the tears ceased to flow. "I like your pajamas."

Because I love you.