Believe it or not, I actually forgot to edit this. I need to work on my time management. I've actually been in a little bit of a writing dry spell recently, which is why this wasn't on my mind, but when I was making a writing playlist today, I thought "Oh hey, I have to edit that chapter. Whoops!"

IMPORTANT: Seriously. I'm thinking of changing the title to this story. I was never really happy with it to begin with. It conveys the humorous tone that I feel is important to the telling of the tale, but as we start (yes, start) to reach the heart of the story, I realize that the title just isn't clicking.

So, new title: The Mythologist. You'll see why soon. I will be changing the title a day or two after I post this chapter so everyone knows about the change.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any affiliated characters, settings, etc. The plot and details of this story are property of EverPlotting.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

And It All Comes Tumbling Down

As Sasuke started from his sleep and the world seemed to rush by him, he felt as if he had been a drowning man coming up for air. Drowning seemed to be an appropriate word too; he felt as if he was suffocating under Naruto's presence.

This was the fifth night in a row Sasuke had dreamt of blond locks and blue eyes that flashed red in the heat of passion. The dreams always ended the same way – erotic fantasies turned into nightmares.

Every night Naruto killed him; differently each time. Though he knew they were only dreams, Sasuke was finding it harder each night to forgive Naruto when he finally awoke. It didn't help that Sasuke hadn't seen the real Naruto in a week; it didn't help that the last memory of his best friend had been violent and inexplicable; it didn't help that Naruto's cell phone number seemed to no longer exist.

Sasuke had never felt as close to another human being as Naruto. Not having him around was like a season or a month had suddenly gone missing; something that gave meaning and shape to his life was gone.

Sasuke glanced at the clock. Angry red numbers flashed back at him. Too early. He wondered, as he pulled open his curtains to see the dark outlines of baby-leafed trees against the watercolor sky, if Naruto, who had so willingly abandoned him in reality, would ever leave his dreams.

Sasuke rubbed the purple bags that were clearly forming under his eyes, as he tried to focus on the numbers being scribbled onto the blackboard in front of him. For once, Sasuke was glad he had been placed in the back row – the teacher sat students according to need – because now it went practically unnoticed when Sasuke's was just a few inches away from hitting his desk.

"Oi. Uchiha," Shikamaru hissed from a foot away.

"Hm?" Sasuke responded, too groggy to compose anything close to a proper sentence.

"Have you been getting enough sleep? This is the third time you've looked like you were going to pass out in this class. I know it's boring at shit, but still…"

Sasuke rubbed his hands over his face to try to wake himself up a little. He released a small yawn as well for good measure.

"Yeah, Shikamaru, I'm fine."

"Convincing," Shikamaru concluded, his tone laced with sarcasm.

"I've been having nightmares, okay?" Sasuke huffed.

"Nightmares?" Shikamaru asked, raising an eyebrow. "Nightmares about what?"

Sasuke sighed. "About Naruto."

"What, like, him being dead or something? I know he hasn't been in school, but he's probably just sick. I'm surprised you don't know the exact date he's coming back."

"That's just the thing! I'm completely out of the loop! I tried calling him and, at first he just didn't pick up, but now I get that obnoxious woman-robot voice telling me my call cannot be completed as dialed. I'm actually considering going to his house to demand some sort of explanation."

"Do you even know where Naruto's house is?"

"Yeah. I've been there a load of times. Hasn't he ever invited you over?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "Not everyone's as close to Naruto as you, Sasuke."

"But I thought… huh." Sasuke turned to stare back at the board. Factorials. Exciting. Sasuke had never thought that he might be the only one Naruto spent time with outside of school – excepting of course, that one time with Sai. Sasuke knew, though, that despite Naruto's exuberant personality, the blond was actually a very private person.

It was then that Sasuke realized how little he actually knew about his best friend.

Sasuke tugged on his ear buds as the taxi slowed to a stop. Sasuke knew that the driver wouldn't take him any further. After paying the man and uttering a few quick words of thanks, Sasuke slipped from the vehicle and found himself at the edge of a familiar line of trees.

Suddenly, Sasuke felt himself become hesitant. He had never gone to Naruto's house without Naruto. Not to mention he wasn't sure how Naruto would feel about Sasuke showing up at his doorstep unannounced. It was rude, sure, but Sasuke still felt that he needed to confront Naruto. Their… whatever they had was more important than formalities.

Taking a deep breath, Sasuke pushed past the think green arms and made his way toward the thin dirt path he knew wound just a few yards in front of him.

When he found the slightly thinned out area, Sasuke put his iPod back on. He needed something to distract him from his thoughts and entertain him on the twenty or so minute walk he had before him.

He wanted to think of Naruto and what Sasuke would say when he finally came face to face with his best friend. He wanted to think what Naruto would say. He needed to resist the temptation to try to figure out the puzzle that Naruto represented.

Of course, at that moment, what song should come up on Sasuke's shuffle but the first song he had ever heard Naruto play on the guitar. He had downloaded it not too long after he heard the blond play it. Clearly his quest to rid his thoughts of Naruto was a hopeless one.

Sighing, Sasuke paused for a moment to wrap his headphones around the sleek black device and slip it in his side bag with the books he had been planning to bring home that weekend. When finally satisfied he moved to continue down the path, but he stopped when he noticed a wild dog sniffing its way toward him.

Unsure of how to react, and not wanting to become lunch – Sasuke had no idea if wild dogs hunted in packs or anything about them at all really – he made a quick decision to stray from the path. He figured he would walk parallel with it for a while and then just continue on his way.

Approximately five minutes later Sasuke realized what a terrifically horrible idea it was to stray from the stupid path. The forest was denser than he had expected and he was struggling to see more than a foot in front of him, let alone see through the trees to where the path was.

Sasuke was lost.

"Damn it," Sasuke hissed as he tripped on a root, earning himself a face full of rotting leaves and dirt. "Of course," he sighed, as when he noticed a rather visible tear in his pants. "Naruto better be pretty damn happy to see me," he muttered.

Just then, Sasuke heard the rustling of what he assumed to be an animal just a few feet away. Unsure of what to do, he stayed on the ground and kept as still as possible. Emerging from the brush, Sasuke saw a familiar-looking dog – he could have sworn it was the same one he saw before. How many white dogs were there in this forest after all? It was sniffing the ground as if tracking, then suddenly looked up at Sasuke and began barking.

"Oh shit," Sasuke yelped as he quickly pulled himself off the ground and away from the animal. The barking didn't seem to die off though – a quick look over his shoulder informed Sasuke that the dog was chasing him. "What the fuck?"

Then Sasuke bumped into something and fell flat on his ass.

"What the…?"

Looking up, Sasuke found it was not a something, but in fact a someone – a fairly angry looking someone.

"Um … hi." Sasuke said from the ground.

"What are you doing in this forest?" the man demanded. His voice was not raised, but in his tone was the hint of a threat.

Sasuke quickly examined the person before him. He seemed tall from where Sasuke was sitting, but he imagined that the later couldn't have been much taller than Sasuke. His skin was tan – it seemed more like his natural skin tone than the result of too much sun. Tussled brown hair fell to his eyebrows. He would have seemed almost normal – his clothes weren't anything out of the ordinary – except for the two curved red triangles traveling from his cheekbones to his jaw.

"What is your business here?" the mysterious man questioned again.

"Well," Sasuke began finally composing himself, "I came here to see a friend of mine – his house is at the end of this path, but I left the path and then I got lost and then I got chased by a dog and now I really don't care if I see my friend or not because this is so not worth it.

"So," Sasuke said, pulling himself off the ground, "if you could just direct me out of this god forsaken place, I would really appreciate it."

"Nice try," the man sneered. "Pretty convincing, but I don't buy it. There is no one you could know who lives in these woods. Besides, you don't smell quite like the innocent human you're playing. You're under arrest. Follow me."

Sasuke figured following strange people was not a good idea, so he decided to run in another direction. Any other direction. He got about three feet before a growling white dog intercepted his path.

"Nice try," the man's voice came from right behind him. "If that's the way you want to do it, then that's how we'll do it." Something metallic was attached to Sasuke's wrists, and he suddenly felt himself grow dizzy.

He and this random guy who now had him shackled – he was so killing Naruto if he ever saw the stupid blond again – walked for another half hour at least before the woods began to clear.

That's when Sasuke passed out.

"How was I supposed to know?"

"Hn. If stupidity were a sport, Enzera would be handing you a gold medal right about now."

Sasuke was still pretty groggy when he woke up, but he noticed that he wasn't shackled anymore. He was, however shirtless, and something on his chest was itchy. His bare torso didn't bother him all that much, though, in comparison to his throbbing head. He felt like he had been hit repeatedly in the head by a cinderblock.

It was amazing to Sasuke that he could still manage to be curious about the voices talking around him. He could have sworn he heard Enzera's name…

"Shut up! Like you've never made any mistakes in your life."

"Aren't you a tracker? Doesn't that mean you're supposed to be good at, oh I don't know, tracking?"

Sasuke didn't recognize the bickering male voices, though one sounded slightly familiar. He did recognize the next voice that sounded through the room:

"Both of you are idiots. Fighting like wet felines isn't going to help."

Enzera. Sasuke opened his eyes to slim crescents. He could make out the familiar woman's silhouette. Standing looking rather ashamed of himself was the brunette who had dragged Sasuke through the woods. Beside him was a figure he didn't recognize, a man with dark red hair, who seemed to be unshakably serious.

"Okay. Plan of action," Enzera began. "Kiba."

"Yes?" The brunette stood more rigid at Enzera's commanding tone.

"Congratulations, you've just been promoted. Go guard the prince's door."

"What!? I thought Gaara was doing that? What do I do if he wakes up?"

Enzera just glared. "Deal with it."

Looking very much like a dog with its tail between its legs, the man named Kiba trotted out of Sasuke's line of vision. He heard what sounded like someone going up a long flight of stairs, before Enzera turned to look at Sasuke and sighed.

"What on earth am I going to do?"

The redhead replied: "He's been okay these past few days. Restless mostly. He let's me check the seals and he wears the collar, but…" He paused. Enzera looked at him questioningly. "It seems to me like he's growing more and more uneasy. Maybe you should just let him–"

"No," Enzera cut him off. "I'm not going to force someone into that situation. Not to mention his own feelings. When he snaps out of it, if he knew that he… He would hate himself." Enzera's eyes looked sad and distant as she stared at Sasuke.

"Is that what happened? With you and – "

"Now's not the time. Sasuke will wake up soon. I've been trying to work out what to say to him, how to make it make sense… Nothing seems like a good explanation."

"The truth?" the redhead suggested.

Enzera gave a dry chuckle. "The truth sounds the worst of all."

"Well you had better think fast."

"Why's that?"

"He looks pretty awake to me."

Enzera's attention was suddenly focused completely on Sasuke. She was at his side faster than he had ever seen her move before.

"Sasuke? Are you awake?"

"Yeah," Sasuke muttered.

Enzera breathed a sigh of relief. "I was hoping you would wake up soon. I was so close to castrating Kiba when he walked in toting you like a carcass." She shook her head as if annoyed. "Okay, you're going to be a little sore, but I need you to sit up. Whatever you, don't smudge the ink on your chest."

Enzera helped Sasuke into a sitting position. Her eyes darted back and forth across the elaborate black pattern. "I kind of rushed it," she said sheepishly.

"It looks fine to me," the redhead supplied.

"Gaara can you get me the blue book from my desk upstairs. It's old. Leather bound."

"They're all old and leather bound," Gaara replied dryly.

"It's right on my desk. I was looking at it yesterday," Enzera insisted.

"Fine, fine."

Sasuke followed the redhead with his eyes as he moved out of the large room in which he sat to a wide half-circle staircase. The stairs looked like marble and the banister was some type of dark wood, elaborately carved into what appeared to be pictures – too small for Sasuke to see from his distance.

Looking around to examine the rest of the room, found his self in what appeared to be a ballroom. It was huge. There was an identical staircase on the other side of the great space and above his head he could just make out the railing of an open hall. A large elegantly set table ran almost parallel to the staircases. He noticed a fairly sizable bookshelf behind him stacked with familiar old authors – Shakespeare, Plato, Homer -- and before him, on the other side of the room, facing the impossibly soft couch he was sitting on, was a vast fireplace.

What intrigued Sasuke the most, however, was the elaborate tapestry that hung above the ashen hollow. It depicted a coiling serpentine dragon, cowering before a fox, not half it's size, covered from head to tail in tongues of flame. The dragon's teeth were bared but the fox looked serene, regal even. The dragon took up most of the cloth; the fox only a corner, yet it was to the absurdly orange animal Sasuke felt his eyes being drawn.

Enzera followed Sasuke's gaze and then smiled when she say where his vision lay.

"You like it?"

"Huh?" Sasuke asked snapping out of his stare.

"The tapestry? It's French, but it's originally based on an ancient Japanese painting stolen by explorers. I'm always keeping my ears open for news of the original, but it seems to be lost to the ages forever."

"The dragon does look more like one I've seen in Eastern than in Western art."

Enzera nodded. "There's much evidence to support the designs origins. Unfortunately it doesn't match up well with many of the Japanese legends," Enzera concluded with a slight edge of annoying in her tone.

"But enough about art. How are you feeling Sasuke?"

"Like a strange guy knocked me out in the middle of the woods."

"In Kiba's defense, he's an idiot, so he didn't realize you would pass out."

Sasuke was quiet for a moment, trying to account for all the facts rushing about in his brain.

"Where am I?" Sasuke finally asked.

Enzera took a deep breath. "Sasuke, I know you have a lot of questions, but I can't really–"

"I was kidnapped, knocked unconscious, brought to this … palace of some sort, and you expect to not question what in the world is going on? What should we talk about instead the weather!?" Sasuke could feel his voice rising as he spoke.

Enzera's eyes shot up quickly to the ceiling, as if looking for something. "I need you to keep your voice down."

"Like hell I'm go—"

"This is for your safety," Enzera hissed.

Sasuke glared. "Can you tell me where I am?"

Enzera looked apologetic. "Not exactly. No."

Sasuke felt his teeth clench. "Can you tell me why you drew crazy designs on my chest?"

"Definitely no. Look, now that I know you're not hurt, I'm going to take you home, okay? Just try to forget this day ever happened."

"What? No! I'm tired of being lied to. First Naruto attacks me, then he won't answer my calls, and now you're telling me that I need to just move on and ignore everything!? I'm not stupid!" Sasuke stood up.

"I never said you were," Enzera said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Which is exactly why I need to take you home Sasuke. There are some things about me, about Naruto, that you just can't know. You'll eventually reach a point where today won't matter anymore, where Naruto won't matter anymore."

Like Sasuke said, he wasn't stupid.

"Are you telling me," Sasuke said slowly, "that I am never going to see Naruto again?"

"Sasuke—"

"God! I am so tired of all of these secrets!" Sasuke threw his arms in the air.

"Look," Enzera said, trying to stay calm, "some secrets are just not meant to be shared."

"Forget it. I just want to see Naruto. Now."

"Your wish is my command," a deep voice sounded from above.

Sasuke looked up and behind him. Naruto leaned over the banister, looking far too pleased with himself; like a cat that just cornered a canary. Sasuke didn't miss the fact that Naruto was shirtless, but he was far more distracted by the subtle changes in Naruto's features. The normally blue eyes were scarlet flames and the usually thin lines on his cheeks seemed thicker and more pronounced. Then, of course, there was the small detail of what seemed to be several long orange and gold tails that swayed casually around the blond.

"N-Naruto?"

"Hi Sasuke," Naruto said, a suave smile making it's way across his face.

"You smudged the seal," Enzera said, sounding more afraid than anything else.

The next thing Sasuke knew sound of shaking silverware tinkled lightly through the air and Naruto was crouched in front of him. Standing erect, Naruto appeared to have grown and inch or so and seemed to leer over Sasuke in a discomforting way.

"Did you miss me?" Naruto asked. His voice was deeper too, Sasuke noticed. It was … darker.

"Yes," Sasuke stated, though he took a step back reflexively.

"I missed you too. More than you can ever know." Sasuke took another step back. "Don't run away Sasuke. You may be my prey, but I'm certainly not going to eat you."

Sasuke felt the backs of his knees hit cool leather as he fell rather ungracefully onto the couch. Seeing the surprise in Sasuke's face as he collapsed, Naruto chuckled.

"I would much rather we do this upstairs, but if you insist."

Naruto climbed on top of Sasuke, and his mouth immediately found the mark he had left on Sasuke's neck from the last encounter. Only this time, when Naruto's teeth tore into Sasuke's flesh, Sasuke felt as if his neck was on fire and his groin, as if it had a mind of it's own, sprang to life. It wasn't a pleasant feeling either. It hurt. A lot.

Sasuke screamed.

Whoa! Intensity! We're finally getting to the good stuff folks. Also: if you did not read the Important Bulletin at the beginning, TITLE CHANGE COMING VERY SOON. Scroll up for details.

Peace Yo.

-EverPlotting-