Thank you for reading and thanks to Nivell, BlackFireXD13, CrimsonDarknessPhoenix, Samairi, Magical Reality, LovelySpiral Sour Queen, xXMewzikLuverXx, unique94chick, narusasu3194, and SkywardShadow for reviewing.
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Chapter Six
The voice was at faint at first, a dull throbbing in the back of Sasuke's head, and the muddled sound of someone calling his name was no more than a whisper in his mind. Like the feel of tiny fingers brushing against his palm, it tingled. Tingled like the warm air blowing into his ear, the steady breathing disjointed by hastily drawn out syllables, and the small hand pulling on his arm that finally took Sasuke from the vestiges of sleep.
It was Hotaru.
That much Sasuke's foggy mind could supply, and as tired as he was, Sasuke resigned himself to the inevitable. He knew that he would have to get out of bed eventually in order to take Hotaru to the bathroom, which may or not lead to a trip to the kitchen because Hotaru had cravings in the middle of the night, as well, which, regardless of what Naruto said about it, Sasuke didn't think he indulged Hotaru in.
Naruto wouldn't do it. If the snoring Sasuke heard on his left was any indication, Naruto wasn't going to be waking up anytime soon. Most of the time, waking Naruto wasn't the problem. It was preventing Naruto from going back to sleep. Sasuke would turn the light on, and Naruto would open his eyes, mumble something incoherent that Sasuke wouldn't even attempt to interpret and fall into a semi-conscious state until Sasuke turned the light back off. But tonight, Sasuke really didn't want to expend energy trying to keep Naruto awake.
Being tired wasn't a regular occurrence. However, the lethargy Sasuke had been feeling lately was becoming more difficult to combat. It came in sporadic but progressive intervals, beginning the Saturday Hotaru first appeared on the other side of the door, and while Sasuke could push it aside at home, he wasn't certain what he would do when he didn't have the opportunity to rest whenever he felt the need to.
So far, the intermittent bouts of exhaustion hadn't necessarily affected Sasuke to the point where he was incapacitated. He could force himself awake and could withhold from giving into the urge to express his more frequent outbursts of irritation that came as a side effect of being so tired, but it was unrealistic to assume it wouldn't affect his ability to carry out his upcoming mission in some way. Fainting on his way to deliver a scroll to Kusagakure or disrupting any diplomatic proceedings that were to take place when he arrived there wasn't the first impression he wanted to make after being reinstated as a ninja.
He pinpointed it on the stress from taking care of Hotaru, coupled with readjusting to his former lifestyle. Apart from the training regime he recently began, he'd spent the majority of the time following his release from house arrest being with Iruka and the kids Iruka taught at the Academy.
Lack of sleep wasn't the issue. Sleep didn't seem to be helpful. He wouldn't refer to himself as an insomniac, but he could get by on a few hours of sleep a day, less than that if necessary, and despite the amount of rest that had replaced most of his former training schedule because his responsibility for Hotaru hadn't yet allowed for it, the excess sleep wasn't doing much to make up for the lethargy.
Even Naruto had brought it up, making an offhand comment about Sasuke being tired two days ago. When they were outside, before Naruto and Hotaru went off to chase fireflies, Sasuke had all but fallen asleep on the blanket. Naruto hadn't said more about it since that Tuesday, but Kakashi said something similar that same night. Though, Kakashi was a discerning person by default and knew Sasuke almost as well as Naruto.
The exchange then hadn't improved much after Kakashi mentioned knowing more about the scroll than he was willing to tell Sasuke. It deviated even further when Kakashi made a remark about the pronounced bags from beneath Sasuke's eyes, immediately leaving afterwards and giving Sasuke no time to retaliate.
In general, it was one of the least productive conversations he'd held with Kakashi, undeniably one of the more curt ones, and Sasuke wasn't looking forward to revisiting the subject when he returned from his mission. Unfortunately, it was the kind of subject Kakashi would be persistent about, and Sasuke was only marginally surprised Kakashi hadn't come back to house.
"I have to go, Sasuke."
Without opening his eyes, Sasuke turned his head to the right, to the sound of Hotaru's voice, and sighed when he felt Hotaru's hand playing with his hair.
Hotaru called for him again, delving into a litany that consisted solely of Sasuke's name. Initially, it was jarring to his ears. Yet, his head was becoming heavy, and his body felt as if it was growing heavier with every utterance of his name. Each one sounded louder than the last, but it was when the touch of Hotaru's fingers was gone that Sasuke opened his eyes.
The incessant chorus of his name followed, waning into nothing. Save for Naruto snoring, it was quiet again.
Sasuke sat up quickly. Grunting at the recoil from the movement, he struggled to stay upright, waiting for the dizziness to subside. He blinked. A negligible amount of light was coming from the window, but it took a few seconds for his pupils to adjust to the dark. The blur of colour dissipating at the edge of his sight, blindly, Sasuke felt around the bed. His hand moved absently, past the empty space between himself and Naruto where Hotaru had been sleeping, and unintentionally hit Naruto in the face.
Unperturbed, Naruto grunted and turned away.
"Na…ruto," Sasuke tried to say, rubbing his throat at the scratchiness of his voice. It came out as a strained murmur, his next attempt not much different, and it was as if he lost the capability to speak completely.
"…Sasuke."
Sasuke turned his head sharply at the voice, nearly falling over in the process. He was able to tell that it was coming from somewhere inside the room, but Sasuke couldn't see Hotaru. He would have felt any movement from beneath the bed, and there wasn't enough room inside the closet for even someone Hotaru's size to hide.
"Wh…ere?"
His voice sounded hoarser than before, a wisp of air out of his mouth barely distinguishable, and Sasuke wondered if wasn't dreaming. Gradually, he draped his feet over the bed, arms resting over his legs as he took the time to catch his breath.
"Sasuke."
Sasuke stood cautiously, not wanting to fall as he worked through the haze that was his mind. He tried to trace Hotaru's voice again. It was coming from outside the room this time, a mellowed sort of yell that sounded as if Hotaru was speaking with his mouth covered.
"I want to show Sasuke something."
He almost jumped when the door to the bedroom creaked. The noise sharp and deliberate, it cut through the sound of Naruto's snoring as it opened, and Sasuke noticed the soft light peaking through the bottom. It was too muted to be from the hallway, and Sasuke could only think of the flashlight Naruto had lost a couple of months ago.
He took a tentative step forward, taken back by how much effort he was making to walk. The clock read a little before one when he stood and read a quarter after two when he was half way from the bed to the door.
"Come on, Sasuke."
Sasuke reached for the switch in the room, intending to turn on the light to see. Hand nearing the toggle, he staggered through the doorway instead, hissing when he hit the wall in the hallway. The resulting thump resonated throughout the house and was marked pointedly by the soreness in Sasuke's side. He pressed himself hard against the wall as he tried to keep from falling.
Hearing Hotaru call out his name again, Sasuke choked on the attempt to reply. The light he'd seen beneath the door earlier wasn't from a flashlight. It coursed down the middle of the floor in the hall, beginning at the bedroom door, a faint and thin stream of light, tinged with yellow that went toward the direction of Hotaru's voice.
"I'm scared, Sasuke."
Sasuke grimaced as he placed a hand on the wall in the living room. He knew he was getting closer. He knew he was almost there. He just needed a little more time, a little more—
"Sasuke doesn't..."
"Hotaru," Sasuke managed to gasp when he reached the end of the light. It stopped right at Hotaru's heels, leading to the entryway. Hands clasped behind his back, Hotaru was facing away from Sasuke and standing in the middle of the doorway. The light narrowed, disappeared into nothing, and Sasuke couldn't prevent the involuntary shudder that escaped him. Cold air was creeping into the house. It wrapped around him, dousing him with sharp pricks on his skin that permeated through his t-shirt and shorts.
But dressed only in his pyjamas, Hotaru didn't seem bothered by the cold. He turned around slowly, wearing an awkward sort of smile, a wistful expression that was out of place on someone like Hotaru. Even more so by the nearly iridescent quality shrouding Hotaru's facial features, and Sasuke's breath hitched when Hotaru extended his hand for Sasuke to take.
"I'm home, Sasuke."
Sasuke had that funny feeling in the pit of his stomach again, the one that emerged when he first met Hotaru, but it was distorted, a fleeting sensation. He opened his mouth to urge Hotaru to come back inside, but the words were unintelligible even to his own ears, garbled sounds that were no more than babble. He reached to grab Hotaru's hand, intending to pick him up and pull him away from the door, but small fingers wrapped around Sasuke's right wrist, tightening around his skin before he had the chance to act.
Stomach lurching, Sasuke bit back a gasp. It was that lethargic feeling. The impact hitting him without warning, and it was as if all his chakra was being drained from him, as if the air was being forcibly removed from him. He hunched over, his eyes painfully wide as he crumpled to the floor.
"Does Sasuke want to know, too?"
Sasuke was panting harshly. Trying to intake as much oxygen as his lungs would allow, his chest heaving up and down, he was barely able to use one hand to prevent himself from sprawling on the floor.
Hotaru tilted his head to the side. Softly, he asked, "Does Sasuke want to know where the fireflies go?"
After a moment of pause, Sasuke felt the grip Hotaru had on his wrist loosening, fingers carefully pulling away until he had completely let go. A jolt went through Sasuke as he gradually regained the ability to move, but when he looked up, Hotaru was gone.
Gritting his teeth, Sasuke clutched his head. His vision was hazy while Hotaru's words were a clear mantra reverberating in his mind, but it hurt to breathe when his upper body felt so constricted. It hurt to think when there was an insistent throbbing in the back of his head. It hurt to stand on legs that were unsteady because they were numb. It hurt to remember the expression on Hotaru's face. It hurt to recognise that he didn't know what was happening, to acknowledge this sudden debilitating fear of knowing that Hotaru was no longer there.
And Sasuke ran.
...
It was the taste of turtle that woke him up.
It was the taste of cotton strands on his tongue along with whatever else plush toys were made of that brought Naruto to a coughing fit because Hotaru's stuffed animal was apparently trying to choke Naruto in his sleep.
He didn't know how it got in there. He didn't want to know why he could feel a black bead that was supposed to pass as one of the thing's eyes pressing against the back of his front teeth. Kame, as Hotaru had decided to fittingly name the turtle, was just there. Naruto needed it not to be.
Two days after Naruto had bought the toy for Hotaru and he'd already seen it in almost every place he didn't want to see it. On the kitchen floor, lying under the table and against that little corner he and Sasuke only now started bothering to clean because Hotaru liked playing hide and seek beneath the table where he liked to sit and draw crooked little stars on the underside using the black marker he'd found in Sasuke's desk.
The stars scribbled beneath the table stayed since they wouldn't come off no matter how hard Sasuke made Naruto scrub, unlike the ones on the wall in the hallway by the door, which Hotaru tried to justify by saying the wall was already blue. According to the logic of a three year old, drawing thirteen stars (because Hotaru was proud of the fact he could count to thirteen) and a moon on an incredibly visible area that would have made Hotaru's recreation of the sky at night the focal point of the entire house only made sense. But Naruto took some satisfaction in the fact that Sasuke made Hotaru help him that time, and Naruto taught Hotaru how to count to fourteen when they were forced to clean the pictures off the wall.
The turtle made an appearance then, too. Being held by Hotaru in one hand, Kame was still drenched in the fluid from the bottle of cleaner that trailed down Hotaru's arm as Hotaru helped Naruto wipe away the traces of black ink that came off with surprising ease.
Naruto had also seen the turtle stuffed in one of Sasuke's shoes when Hotaru thought it was a good idea to walk around in Naruto's. That didn't work out as well as Hotaru probably wanted it to, resulting in Hotaru tripping over his feet and crying for no more than a few seconds before he focused his attention on trying to fit into Naruto's jacket that almost covered him completely. But it wasn't until after he and Sasuke caught Hotaru trying to teach the turtle how to swim in the toilet bowl yesterday morning that Sasuke decided to do something about it. Naruto would have done something about it himself if Hotaru wasn't so hell bent on not letting the turtle out of his sight.
And though Sasuke had assured Naruto that he washed the turtle, Naruto was wary about the effectiveness of washing something without a washing machine. He'd taken the extra care to make sure Kame was positioned on the other side of Hotaru, on the side where Sasuke slept when Hotaru climbed into the bed, even if it wasn't that much further away from Naruto.
However, apparently, it wasn't that much of a precaution anyway.
After spitting the turtle out of his mouth, Naruto grabbed it and threw it somewhere on the other side of the room, letting his hand flop onto the bed as soon as he heard the turtle hit the wall with a soft thump. Licking his lips, he tried not to think of all the other places Hotaru's toy had been. Unfortunately, real or otherwise, the taste was still there. He was sorely tempted to brush his teeth but really didn't feel like getting up any time soon, never mind opening his eyes since he just woke up.
Not that Naruto needed to open his eyes to notice that he wasn't the only one awake. He stretched his arm to the side, feeling across the empty space to his right where Hotaru had fallen asleep last night.
It was a given that Hotaru wasn't in bed. By association, neither was Sasuke. The sheets still felt warm against Naruto's skin, which meant they'd gotten up only a few minutes ago. The lack of light blaring on his face told him it was still dark outside, and Naruto didn't even need to look at the clock on the nightstand to know it was probably somewhere around two in the morning. It was better not to look and easier to accept that Hotaru getting up in the middle of the night—morning—was going to be the norm for a while because Hotaru didn't like going to the bathroom by himself and wanted someone to hold his hand while he peed.
Literally.
Naruto had found out the hard way when Hotaru refused to let it out and silently threatened to urinate on the wall until Naruto grabbed the hand that Hotaru wasn't using to hold his…
He couldn't even say it in his mind. Childish of him maybe, but it was more than a little weird considering the only…one Naruto had willingly been that close to, and closer, was Sasuke's, which was in a purely sexual context. Sasuke's was an exception, and the desire to go near another guy's family jewels hadn't and wasn't going to come across. But this was different. As awkward as it was, Naruto had been willing to suck it up if only for Hotaru's sake and made sure he'd washed both of their hands thoroughly afterwards. And although he was glad it was Sasuke's turn to hold Hotaru's hand this time, Naruto still felt somewhat uneasy knowing that after tomorrow, he was going to be alone with Hotaru without Sasuke nearby.
There was this idea of togetherness that he had already formulated in his mind, the idea of the three of them being in the beginning stages of becoming something more than just Naruto, Sasuke, and Hotaru, and Naruto was reluctant at the thought of this pause in their relationship, even if it was only temporarily.
Of course, they'd already talked to Hotaru about Sasuke's mission. They couldn't not talk to him about it, and Naruto wasn't sure if Hotaru fully comprehended the meaning behind the words Sasuke and leaving, but he was surprisingly understanding about the fact that Sasuke was not going to be here. And considering how Hotaru still clung to Sasuke, although it wasn't a bad as it was those first two days, Hotaru being understanding was an understatement. He just smiled a little, decidedly more calm about the situation than either Naruto or Sasuke expected Hotaru to be, and was satisfied with Naruto's explanation of the inner workings of a society of ninja and the importance of delivering a secret scroll only Sasuke could read.
Hotaru had summed it up with a slow raise of his head and an exaggerated expression of awe on his face when he figured out how many days were in a week. But, completely ignoring Naruto's attempts to explain and Hotaru's revelation that a week was the same as seven days that overwhelmed the seriousness of the conversation, as long as Sasuke promised to see Hotaru before he left, Hotaru took it pretty well.
Still, Naruto wasn't looking forward to the moment when Sasuke being gone for a definite amount of time finally sank in for Hotaru. Being solely responsible for Hotaru for an entire week was kind of more than a little daunting. Sasuke was the one who was good with kids, the one who had the patience for this kind of thing, and those initial apprehensions about taking care of Hotaru were coming back when Naruto realised Hotaru wouldn't be the only one affected by Sasuke's absence.
Catering to Hotaru in the middle of the night, for example, was something that was alternated between the two of them. Sometimes, using the bathroom extended to having a snack, and he and Sasuke had already established some semblance of a routine to ensure at least one of them was able to sleep through the night. Although it was more for Sasuke's sake than Naruto's since Naruto was selective in his sleeping habits.
He was neither a light nor heavy sleeper, falling somewhere in between depending on nothing in particular, and it aggravated Sasuke that Naruto could be sensitive to the slightest noise some nights and be dead to the world every now and then. So much that the standard nudging, pinching, kicking and love taps that were more like punches to Naruto's shoulder would range from Naruto waking in time to catch Sasuke's hand or foot from making contact with one of Naruto's body parts to Naruto being completely oblivious to the fact that Sasuke was trying to get his attention.
Once, two months after they'd moved in together, Naruto had woken up on the floor. Sasuke admitted to pushing him off the bed because Naruto wouldn't wake up, and when even that didn't work, Sasuke resorted to turning on the light, which was actually more effective than the other attempts short of using excessive force.
And it wasn't the light from the lamp, either. It was the room light, right above their bed, and no matter how many times Sasuke tried to deny it, Naruto knew Sasuke had recently been buying a higher wattage in light bulbs thinking Naruto wouldn't notice. Because the light had an odd effect on Naruto, like a persistent itch that burned through his eyelids that wouldn't leave him alone until he forced himself awake. It was that vindictive part of Sasuke's personality that reasoned Naruto wouldn't get any sleep if Sasuke couldn't. Now, Naruto was building a resistance to it for the most part, but ever since that fateful night when Sasuke discovered how light could influence Naruto's ability to sleep well, Sasuke always turned it on whenever he woke up before Naruto.
The only exception was that first night they had Hotaru, which Naruto had slept through, when Sasuke had been tired enough to fall right back asleep the next morning, even after Naruto's continuous prodding and poking and failed attempts to persuade Sasuke about the relevance of the homecoming sex that Hotaru's presence prevented from happening, but usually—
With a start, Naruto opened his eyes.
He was the only one in bed, but the light wasn't on.
Sasuke was a creature of habit. In all honestly, Naruto believed doing things like that was more of a subconscious effort on Sasuke's part to make up for all the instability in his life when Sasuke was younger than Sasuke actually being so vindictive. Naruto only joked about it because he knew why Sasuke took it so seriously. It wasn't just an attempt to wake Naruto up, and the deeper meaning to why Sasuke left the light on for Naruto before leaving the room wasn't something that went unnoticed.
It was a habit nearly two years in the making. The mere fact the light was off while Sasuke wasn't in the room didn't sit well, and Naruto instinctively knew something was wrong.
He detangled himself from the sheets and fell out of the bed with a loud thud. Ignoring the slight pain in his wrist, he cursed as he picked himself up, stumbling over his feet before rushing out of the door and into the hallway.
He turned on the light in the room, flipped the switch in the hall, tried to squash those doubts he managed to put aside that were starting to resurface—the reality that Hotaru wasn't really theirs, that he and Sasuke had taken Hotaru in without so much as a second thought to the consequences simply because Hotaru had nowhere else to go. They didn't know where Hotaru came from, why he was even here, but everything seemed fine. Everything was fine, and for a moment, it was okay to forget the peculiars of the situation. It was okay to let Hotaru into their lives and let the consequences fall to the wayside.
But the bathroom was empty. Hotaru's room was empty, and for the sixth time, Naruto told himself that he wasn't going to panic. It wasn't like he and Sasuke ruled out the possibility of an ulterior motive to Hotaru being here. If anything, they acknowledged that Hotaru's sudden appearance was suspicious, and even though they weren't the only ones who were swayed to think of Hotaru as the kid who happened to look like Naruto, they still should have known better.
And it ate at Naruto that he wasn't prepared because there was no way that Sasuke would have left voluntarily. Naruto had made sure to give Sasuke more than enough reason to stay. Either whatever was behind Hotaru's showing up in front of their house had something to do with Sasuke's disappearance or someone was using Hotaru as leverage against Sasuke.
Those were the most plausible scenarios in Naruto's mind. Why he wasn't involved, Naruto didn't know, but by the time he got to the kitchen, all the lights in the house were on, and Naruto was no closer to finding Sasuke and Hotaru. There was nothing to say that Sasuke and Hotaru had been taken away. No sudden spike of chakra, familiar or otherwise, that Naruto would have noticed regardless of how he was sleeping, and the fact that he couldn't pick up on Sasuke's only fed into his growing sense of paranoia.
Naruto backtracked, head peering into the entryway area that was normally hidden from view from the rest of the house. There was a light hitting the wall, near the corner by the threshold of the front door that Naruto realised wasn't coming from the bulb in the hallway.
Softly, he said Sasuke's name, his voice loud in the small house that suddenly seemed so much bigger, and shouted for Hotaru with the knowledge that neither would answer him.
The front door was wide open, and Sasuke's shoes were still by the wall, stacked neatly right next to Hotaru's smaller ones. Sasuke wouldn't go outside without wearing any shoes. Sometimes, he liked to gripe to Naruto about his feet getting dirty, occasionally making funny faces at the feel of anything between his toes despite the kind of sandals ninja wore, and as much as Naruto liked to tease him for it, there was nothing remotely funny about knowing Sasuke was without them.
His mind was racing. There were too many what-if scenarios to shift through, and the air that hit his face when he ran out the door was a cold reminder that any one of them was possible.
They lived on the edge of Konoha, close enough to the boundaries of Fire Country, and damn it if this wasn't the one instance Naruto wished he'd taken Iruka's advice to live closer to the village. He didn't know long how the door had been open. Dawn wouldn't be for a few more hours, and time was a factor that wasn't on Naruto's side, but—
There it was. A slight tingle, it was a flicker of something familiar hitting Naruto the instant he stepped outside of the house.
It was Sasuke's chakra, weak and growing increasingly fainter. It didn't do much to reassure Naruto about Sasuke's state of being, but it meant something that he could at least pick up on Sasuke. It meant something that Sasuke wasn't too far away. Yet it was comparatively more assuring when it was Hotaru's chakra, what little Hotaru had, that Naruto couldn't feel at all.
Following the pull of Sasuke's chakra, Naruto ran around the side of the house, heading toward the dense patch of forest.
A sharp rock was ledged in the bottom of his foot, embedding itself in his skin. Naruto hissed at the pain and almost lost his balance when he nearly tripped on another rock. The grass was still slippery in the morning, and while he knew it would have been more practical if he'd taken the time to put on his sandals before he rushed out the door, he didn't have the luxury to be in the practical kind of mood.
He picked up speed as he travelled deeper in the forest, catching a glimpse of someone up ahead. It was vague at first, a shape Naruto could barely make out, but he didn't need to see clearly to know who it was.
Getting closer, he called out Sasuke's name, anticipating a response that didn't come. His voice echoed into the woods. It was a desperate sound that faded into nothing, stringing Naruto along as he jumped from branch to branch.
Further up below, he could see Sasuke standing in the middle of a large clearing, and Naruto landed on the ground right before reaching the open space.
He started running as soon as his feet touched the dirt, a snarl in the back of his throat that formulated into Sasuke's name. But he couldn't run fast enough, couldn't get to Sasuke quick enough. The more he ran, the longer it was taking to get to Sasuke, and the small gap between them was as agonising as the distance that had separated them five years ago.
Because those five seconds it took to reach Sasuke felt like five years, but when he stopped just short of running into Sasuke's back, the little relief Naruto expected to feel at finding that at least Sasuke was okay wasn't there.
At first glance, Sasuke did seem okay. Although he was standing still, Sasuke didn't look hurt, but when Naruto narrowed his eyes, he noticed that something was off. He didn't know what to call it. There was Sasuke, and there was this yellowish light. Dim to the point of being nonexistent but still visible because it was dark outside. It enveloped Sasuke, like an outline of some unnatural glow around Sasuke's body, and then it disappeared. Unsure of what to do, Naruto watched as the light dispersed into a cluster of tiny lights. They wavered in front of him and scattered into the forest, fading away in the time it took Naruto to blink.
Hesitantly, he extended his arm toward Sasuke. He was almost afraid to touch him, almost afraid that Sasuke would disappear like that light, and wanted nothing more than for Sasuke to turn around and tell him that nothing was wrong. For Sasuke to look at Naruto with one of those knowing smirks and say that it was all some joke Sasuke and Hotaru were playing on him.
Letting his arm fall back to his side, he whispered Sasuke's name from under his breath, still unable to come to terms with what he'd just seen. Thinking Sasuke didn't hear him, even if they weren't really that far apart, louder, Naruto said, "Where's Hotaru, Sasuke?"
When Sasuke remained quiet, he tried again, and when Sasuke didn't answer for the third time, Naruto growled. He pushed aside his momentary fear of touching Sasuke and the blatant disbelief about the light around Sasuke's body that he couldn't explain. He grabbed Sasuke, turning him around with a terse jerk. Somewhat because Sasuke was ignoring him but mostly because Hotaru wasn't with Sasuke, and since Sasuke was his best chance of figuring out why Hotaru was missing, Naruto couldn't afford not to know what happened. Neither of them could.
Assuming the worst, that someone had taken Hotaru, they had a small window of opportunity to catch up with whoever took Hotaru. The earlier Naruto knew what was going on, the faster he could try to make things right. He needed Sasuke to snap out of whatever trance he was in, and if it took Sasuke yelling at him because Naruto had to knock some sense back into him, Naruto was fine with that.
But Sasuke didn't lash out at him like Naruto was expecting him to, like Sasuke did whenever Naruto was right about something and Sasuke refused to admit he was wrong, and the scowl on Naruto's face was gone as soon as Naruto took in Sasuke's appearance.
Sasuke looked too pale, sickly with his hair matted over his forehead and wet spots on his t-shirt sticking to his skin. But it was Sasuke's eyes that caught Naruto's attention, eerily vacant and not focused on anything. He gaze was directed past Naruto, as if Naruto wasn't even there, and it scared Naruto to see that empty of an expression on Sasuke's face.
He wanted to say Sasuke was in shock, but it was more like Sasuke was devoid of any sense of being. The only reason Naruto thought otherwise was because while Sasuke's gaze was blank, his body was trembling. On the verge of collapsing, Sasuke was barely able to hold himself up. Despite how cold it was outside, there were beads of sweat forming down the side of Sasuke's face. He was shivering, too, taking a tentative step back, away from Naruto, and Naruto felt his knees hit the ground before he saw Sasuke's legs buckle beneath him.
Sasuke slumped on top of Naruto, his head falling on Naruto's shoulder as Naruto repositioned himself to accommodate the sudden deadweight. Sasuke felt hot in his arms. Whatever was bare felt clammy, and the sweat that passed through his drenched t-shirt was leaving a damp residue on Naruto's skin.
Naruto swallowed hard, heart hammering in his chest, and tried not to think of what could have happened in the time he'd been separated from Sasuke and Hotaru and why he hadn't been there to stop it.
Softly, Naruto whispered Sasuke's name. He gripped Sasuke's sides a little tighter when the sound of Sasuke's harsh breathing was the only response, a painful sounding noise that Naruto could feel against his chest.
"Stay with me, Sasuke." Naruto took a long and shaky breath. "I need you to tell me what happened, okay?"
He raised his head, searching around frantically for any sign of Hotaru, but couldn't see anything past the tall trees that surrounded them. Naruto wasn't the best at tracking chakra. Though, there wasn't even a trace to follow. It was like Hotaru was never there, but he wasn't going to think about what the implications of that meant. An abrupt cut-off to the flow of Hotaru's charka…no, Naruto would have picked up on something like that. Hotaru was still out there, somewhere, but Naruto didn't want to leave Sasuke by himself. Not like this—
Stupid, he was so stupid.
Pulling Sasuke closer, Naruto rested his arms against Sasuke's back. He let his fingers perform the familiar motions of the jutsu that was second nature. Telling himself that the slight quivering of his hands as he rushed through the movements was because Sasuke was still shaking, Naruto created enough shadow clones to cover the span of two kilometres in a few minutes.
"Come on, Sasuke. Don't do this to me, now."
Sasuke started to mumble something into Naruto's shoulder, a series of words Naruto couldn't make out. He repositioned Sasuke in front of him, holding him at arm's length to keep Sasuke from sagging against him so he could understand what Sasuke was saying the next time he spoke.
"I need you to stay with me." Naruto patted the side of Sasuke's face, trying to grab his attention. "Because you have to tell me what happened to you and Hotaru, all right?"
Sasuke moaned and would have fallen if Naruto wasn't holding him upright. He blinked, his eyes wide for a moment, and Naruto could read the signs of recognition on his face.
"Naru…" Sasuke's voice was scratchy, like he hadn't used it in a while, but anything was better than that daze he was in earlier.
Naruto sighed, giving into a feeling that was somewhat close to relief, but then Sasuke's eyes lost focus again. He was staring at Naruto with that vacant gaze.
"No—no, don't do this to me. You can't do this to me, Sasuke." Fingers squeezing hard at Sasuke's sides, Naruto began to shake him. Desperate to get Sasuke to say something, he shook Sasuke hard enough to wake him and then some, but he could only watch as Sasuke's eyes rolled to the back of his head.
"Sasuke!