Disclaimers: Naruto is someone else's, this is purely a fanfic using someone else's characters.

Warnings: This story includes strong language, graphic adult themes, violence, angst, a good friend, and eventually yaoi love.

Hard to Read:

Chapter 4

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Naruto stared, completely taken aback. "What're you saying, Sasuke?"

"I'm taking you with me."

A flash of fear showed in Naruto's eyes, surprising the rogue ninja, but he watched the blonde quickly hardened them. "I won't be turned over to the Akatsuki."

Sasuke studied him for a moment. "I have no intention of taking you to the Akatsuki." Yet, he thought. "You will come with me to one of my hideouts."

Naruto stared at him in confusion. "And why the fuck would I do that?"

"Because I'm not giving you a choice."

Naruto gritted his teeth, anger pulsing through him. He could feel his canines stretch, piercing the inside of his bottom lip- his eyes flickering, red and blue, red and blue- as the nine tail's chakra started to slip past his control.

"It's too late to pretend you care, Sasuke", the jinchuriki snapped, his voice razor sharp.

Sasuke clenched his jaw, but stayed silent. He was not going to play into Naruto's hands.

Instead, he watched carefully as Naruto absorbed more of the fox demon's chakra, while still fighting to keep himself in control. I might have to incapacitate him to take him.. if that's still what I intend on doing. He had been just as surprised as Naruto when he said it. But now that it was out there, he knew that it was what he wanted. And Sasuke was now accustomed to just taking what he wanted.

"No.. I'm not going with you, Sasuke." Naruto stated, "But I am taking you back to the Leaf. Because I actually care... I have never stopped caring."

Then Naruto pulled his head back and bashed his forehead as hard as he could into Sasuke's. The impact was jarring, and did exactly what Naruto wanted it to. Hands free, he quickly summoned multiple shadow clones. Their whisker-like scars were stretched taut across their cheeks, canines elongated, eyes still flickering between red and blue. They snarled in unison and started to close in on the bent over Uchiha.

But Sasuke had his own plan.

He moved fast, appeared in front of original Naruto and grabbed the back of his head, pulling him close. "Mangekyo Sharingan!"

"No!!" Naruto screamed, but he was already being pulled away from reality.

Sasuke stood in front of him in a forest clearing not unlike the one they actually stood in, minus the colors. Everything was various shades of grey, lines blurred, like someone had sketched the trees and halfheartedly tried to erase them.

Someone else liked making these greyscale prisons too.. and Naruto wasn't ready for the reminder.

"Sasuke.. please- stop."

Sasuke was surprised to hear the fear in Naruto's voice. Why is he so afraid of me? he wondered. He's never been afraid of me before.. and he's a lot stronger now. And, like he said, we haven't seen much of each other in years. It just doesn't make sense.

"You seem nervous, Naruto. Is there a reason you're so worried about the Mangekyo?" He was asking mostly out of curiosity, but it came out as a vicious sneer- far more callous than he had meant to be.

Naruto pressed his hands together and worked on clearing his mind and focusing his chakra, desperate to get out, to break the illusion. Sasuke stormed up to him, grabbed him, and forced his head up. Huge horrified eyes looked back into blood red ones that quickly filling with anger. "Why are you suddenly so fucking afraid of me?" Sasuke growled. "This isn't like you."

"I'm not afraid of you, Sasuke."

"Then who are you afraid of?"

Naruto clenched his jaw, eyes sliding to the side to avoid letting Sasuke see anything else. He kept his mouth shut. The fist in his hair tightened and Naruto groaned in pain as his head was forced back up. "Nnnn! Sa-Sasuke- stop!"

"Tell me what's going on with you!"

"I can't!!" Naruto screamed.

Sasuke was taken aback. Not knowing what else to do, he slowly loosened his grip on Naruto, pulling his hand back by his side. He watched a tear slip down his whiskered face just before he turned away to hide the rest. "Please" Naruto choked out, "just leave it alone, Sasuke.." he said, his words drifting away as all the fight slipped out of him.

"Why can't you tell me?" he asked, clearly ignoring the blonde's request.

Naruto gritted his teeth as he whipped his head up, glaring at the raven. "I'm done talking. Do what you want. I have nothing else to say to you."

Sasuke smirked. "So done with me all of a sudden. Now that's surprising. Wasn't all that long ago that I couldn't get you to give up on me."

Naruto stared in silence.

"Though you seem to have given up on yourself too." Naruto swallowed, but still said nothing. "Whatever it is, it must be bad for you to give up on your dreams of being Hokage, of "rescuing me".. and you are so desperate to stay away from the Akatsuki.." Sasuke could tell by the fear in those huge blue eyes that he was getting closer to the truth.

"What did they do to you, Naruto? Is it really bad enough to end your life over?"

Naruto clenched his jaw and looked away.

The Uchiha snarled, tired of being ignored. Of not getting what he wants, what he's demanded. His sharingan spun, and the landscape around them changed. They were in a dry dusty plain, with huge boulders and rock walls at their side.

Sasuke suddenly grabbed Naruto by his jacket, gripping the top of the partially zipped sides, and threw him against the wall. "Nnnn!" Naruto groaned as his spine made contact with the rough rock behind him.

"Answer me, Naruto!" Sasuke screamed in his face. The blonde simply shook his head, mouth firmly pressed shut.

It changed again, and Naruto was kneeling in the middle of a cell, arms stretched wide, chained to the walls on either side of him. The blonde hung his head, waiting for Sasuke's next move. He could see that he was getting more and more agitated, and he knew being powerless and trapped with an enraged, and obviously unbalanced, Sasuke was not going to be pleasant.

Naruto knew he had no other choice but to just keep focusing his mind on breaking through the illusion, and bearing through whatever else he threw at him.

He could feel Sasuke step up behind him. Just focus on your breathing. Slow down, breathe, pinpoint your chakra. You can break out of this, Naruto told himself. You have to.. before it gets worse.

The Uchiha grabbed him roughly by the hair again and jerked his head up. Naruto groaned, wincing at the sudden pain. He opened his eyes and pure terror washed over him. Sasuke had conjured all of the Akatsuki into his world of illusions.

All of them.

Naruto couldn't take his eyes off of him, though he never wanted to have to see him again. The memories of what happened slammed into his mind, violently. He wanted to be angry, violent right back, but he couldn't get past the fear, the horror, the revulsion as it all replayed over and over..

"No..." he breathed, "don't.. please..." he yanked against the chains, shaking his head, trying to recoil.

The group took a step closer and and panic seized him. "NO!! Let me go!!" he screamed, pulling against the chains. They cut into his wrists, but he didn't even register it. He just kept fighting his restraints. He could feel his arms pulling out of their socket, but he didn't care. He would do anything to keep him away.

"Stop! Stop!! SASUKE! LET ME GO!!"

The Uchiha was shocked to see Naruto like this. He looked from the terrified blonde to the group advancing on him. He had conjured up all of them- past and current members. He even included Itachi- though it broke his heart all over again to do it. He still hadn't forgiven himself for killing him, especially after hearing the truth from Madara.

He tore his eyes away from his brother and back down to his friend. The one he was torturing..

You stopped him from killing himself only to what- give him another reason to? Clearly something horrible happened to Naruto, and all you're doing is making him relive it.

Sasuke swallowed back his guilt as he removed the Akatsuki from the illusion. He removed the chains, and watched Naruto fall forward onto his hands. He hung his head, keeping his face hidden. Sasuke brought them back to the forest clearing, this time in its natural color, and dropped down to his knees in front of the tormented blonde.

"Naruto.." he started, hesitantly.

"How could you do this to me..." he said quietly.

Sasuke looked down and let the Mangekyo fade away, bringing them back to a bitter reality. Naruto fell to his hands and knees in this forest too, his legs too unsteady to support him.

Sasuke dropped down next to him. He ran his hand through heavy onyx hair, shame burning through him. "I'm sorry-"

But before he could say more, Naruto punched him across the face. Sasuke's head jerked violently to the side, the momentum slamming him down to the ground. His jaw throbbed.

"Ok.. I deserved that", he admitted, pushing himself back up.

Naruto slowly got to his feet, and took a step back. He closed his eyes against a rush of haunting memories, then opened them to find Sasuke studying his pained face.

"I have never been cruel to you, Sasuke."

Sasuke met his eyes. "I know."

Naruto didn't see the shadow clone coming until it was too late. He felt a sharp jab on the pressure point at the base of his neck, and then he felt nothing else for a while.

Sasuke watched sad cerulean eyes roll back, revealing a clean white canvas, a chance for him to see something new. Then his eyelids fluttered shut and he collapsed. Sasuke leapt up in time to catch him, and for a while he just held him, wondering if he would be the one to save his friend, or if he was the final piece to his destruction.

Author Note:

Dark personal stuff in this note. Don't read if you don't want to know- I just really need to be able to say it out loud to someone.

I'm sorry that I haven't done as much updating. This is a really rough week for me every year. Anniversary feels like a gross word to use for it, but I can't think of a different one. Anyways, it's the anniversary of the day my best friend killed himself in our home. I actually started writing this story thinking it might help to just take some dark bits of my reality and a lot just from my own dark imagination, and put them together in a story with my favorite characters. I don't know that it actually helps, but it is a creative outlet. Felt necessary to have one.

I'm sorry if that was too much information. Probably not appropriate for a short little author note, but I appreciate you reading it anyways. I don't talk about it.. but I'm glad I could tell you.

Take care~