Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Sorry it took so long to update. I got lost on the road of life. Plus, other stories and shit got distracting. Anyway, I'm back on this story now.

Onwards with the chapter!

Sasuke was beginning to loathe the rain.

He knew that it was going to rain today; Kabuto had even said that today was going to be the worst of it and Sasuke had even paid attention to the pony-tailed annoyance.

Although the Uchiha knew that today was going to be the worst day of the storm, he still hated the rain.

Because of the rain, Sasuke's training was canceled. Orochimaru did not want to go outside, and instead, thought it to be more fruitful to make the experiments use the training grounds in an attempt to sort out the weak ones.

That annoyed Sasuke on many levels. Not because of the experiments, though, he agreed to some degree that they were beginning to cost more than they were worth. They were inferior, and had done nothing to earn any of the Uchiha's pity.

The experiments were getting more aggressive. Normally—or 'normal' for Orochimaru's standards at least—that would be a good thing, as the experiments nowadays were little more than pawns. By that logic, the more aggressive the pawns were, the more useful they were. But now the experiments were getting too belligerent, and were not only causing problems down in their holding cells, but were attempting to either escape or kill their wardens too often.

Sasuke hardly cared about them. They were failed test subjects and only useful to him as living targets for his training.

They did, however, consume a lot of meat, and thus Kabuto arranged for more meat than what could properly be kept track of. That made it easy for Sasuke to swipe a few meals' worth now that he had discovered that the beast-like Naruto enjoyed eating the meat. Less subjects living meant that there would be less meat; nothing to worry about, but annoying nonetheless.

Something else that annoyed Sasuke about the test subjects using his training time was that it would be harder for him to sneak away to the waterfall clearing. Orochimaru would not be directly observing them kill each other because of the rain, and would surely notice if Sasuke was not in the hideout.

Aggravating.

Overall, Sasuke was in a bad mood.

He did, however, still make sure to swipe some more meat before breakfast. Kabuto had grumbled that he suspected the experiments of stealing more food, so Sasuke knew that he would not be suspected.

Sasuke would not admit it out loud, but he was anxious to see the beast-like Naruto during the afternoon.

Part of the reason was because his plan of how to leave needed to be changed. The original strategy was to stick to his routine of training, then going on his usual walk to the clearing by the waterfall. It was safe and there was little chance of him being followed since it was expected of him to cool off with a walk. But because of the torrential downpour along with the lightning and wind outside, he was expected to stay inside. Orochimaru did not care enough about the experiments to do much other than provide shelter for the winners of the brawl scheduled later, but the Uchiha was a special case.

Because of the snake's plans for taking over his body later on in about a year and a half, Sasuke and his body were forced to be under special protection. The Uchiha was still allowed to roam wherever he pleased and was allowed certain freedoms, he still understood very well that his 'freedom' was dependent on Orochimaru's lenience.

Sasuke knew that just as Orochimaru was avoiding the storm outside, the snake expected Sasuke to do the same lest he damage his body in some way with disease or other form of accidents that were common for such torrential storms. So he needed a new plan of escape.

The other reason Sasuke was anxious—though he would not admit it—was because of the beast-like Naruto itself.

So far, every time Sasuke had gone to the clearing, the animalistic version of Naruto had attacked him. The Uchiha did have food with him to bring, but he was not sure if it would be enough to keep the other from attacking nonetheless.

But still, Sasuke was going to that clearing today.

He needed to know more. He suspected that Naruto was being affected somehow by the demon the Uchiha had just recently learned the usurato—NARUTO was host to, but he had no idea why Naruto was being affected to such a degree. The only memories of Naruto being affected by the demon chakra Sasuke had was when the blonde was in battle.

But Orochimaru had said that Naruto was under Jiraiya's protection, and from what Sasuke understood, this Jiraiya was a powerful and feared ninja, so there should be no reason that a no-talent ninja like Naruto would need to join in battle.

Naruto was always a headstrong idiot, though. So maybe he joined in whatever battle may or may not have happened, or even INITIATED such a battle in the first place.

That made sense…to a point…

The times Sasuke could remember Naruto being affected by that red, demonic chakra, the blonde had only been under its power for a short period of time. And there were still traces of Naruto in those red, terrifying eyes.

THAT in the clearing was very different than the two other times in Sasuke's memory; and Sasuke did not know what to make of it.

He wished that there was some way that he could know what happened to his usurato—TO NARUTO. Sasuke was ready to accept that his former teammate was a Jinchuuriki, host to the very same demon that had plagued Konoha fourteen years ago, but he was not ready to accept that the demon had taken over Naruto's mind and body.

Sasuke would never admit it, but he just wanted to know what had happened to his friend.

Wild Beast

A couple of hours later, Sasuke found himself observing the experiments decimating each other from the comfort of a jutsu-built cave by one of the wardens. It was really just a structure with three walls with one open space where the fourth wall would be for observation of the experiments along with an underground pathway to the hideout. It reminded the Uchiha of a mausoleum.

Sasuke had cleared the wardens out a while ago so that he could be left alone.

"Well, if it isn't Sasuke,"

Sasuke refused to acknowledge Orochimaru and Kabuto entering from the stairway behind him. So much for being left alone.

"You are a hard one to find, you know," Orochimaru drawled from besides Sasuke. Both of them were facing where the experiments were fighting.

Sasuke did not answer.

"I was going to send Kabuto to your room to see if you were there, but for some reason, he refused," Orochimaru continued despite Sasuke's lack of response.

Sasuke internally smirked. It seemed like Kabuto had learned his lesson to not wake Sasuke.

"I also had someone search near the sparring area inside, but you were not there."

'Obviously,' Sasuke thought to himself, though he said nothing aloud.

"But lo and behold, here you are."

"Is there a reason you were looking for me?" Sasuke asked lowly, simply to end the conversation as soon as possible.

Orochimaru continued to observe the experiments mauling each other and said in a passive tone, "Call it, curiosity."

"You know what they say about curiosity and the cat," said Sasuke in response. He was not in the mood to deal with the snake or his pet.

Kabuto snorted from behind them and said, "As if Lord Orochimaru would—"

He was cut off by a flippant look by Orochimaru.

Orochimaru then turned his attention back to the battling experiments and said, "Curiosity can get the best of us. It can even lead us down slippery slopes of our pasts if we are not careful."

Sasuke glared ahead of himself. This was why he did not want to deal with the snake.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted. If responding was what it took to finish the conversation faster, then he was all for it.

"I rather thought that you would be inside, avoiding the rain," Orochimaru commented in a tone that suggested he was merely making small talk, but after over a year with the snake, Sasuke knew that the conversation was anything but small.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted again.

"I should have known, though," Orochimaru continued in the same tone of voice, "since after all, you seemed to have developed quite a liking for the rain this week."

". . ." Sasuke did not answer.

"I guess even you are not immune to curiosity," Orochimaru said with a sidelong glance.

Sasuke glared back at him, stood up, and then left to go outside. He decided that it was safe to do so without suspicion since it was what he did after every conversation with the snake.

He was drenched in rain water within half a minute walking outside, but he did not care. He was going to that clearing.

Wild Beast

It had taken longer than Sasuke had expected to get to the clearing. Not only had the storm hampered his speed tremendously, but had also blown over a number of trees. The Uchiha was forced to use his Sharingan to find the proper way through all the debris.

The rain was harder to see through than the fog from earlier in the week. At least with the fog, Sasuke could keep his eyes open, but the rain kept forcing him to squint like a certain usurato—FORMER TEAMMATE so he would not get water in his eyes.

Sasuke never had any feelings or preferences towards the weather, but this storm was seriously making him hate the rain in general.

He was also annoyed since he had to climb over a fallen tree at the edge of the clearing.

When he arrived at the edge of the clearing where he usually met the beast-like Naruto, he found himself tense at the prospect of having to deal with the animalistic Jinchuuriki with a soaked bag of watery meat and with hampered vision and surfaces too slippery for comfort.

He had come with a goal, though, and Uchiha were not cowards.

With that in mind, Sasuke expanded his chakra like he had every other day he had been here. He had little to no sight range, and the rain drowned out the sounds of everything, including the waterfall. He hated to admit it—and would not admit it out loud—but he had to rely solely on his sense of touch as well as expectation of repetition to deal with the beast.

He found the mass of demonic chakra where he guessed was in its usual spot of by the bushes; at least, it was around the same distance as before.

Unlike before, though, the mass of demonic chakra was not dormant. It seemed agitated. If Sasuke had to take an educated guess, he would say the agitation was from the storm.

For the first time, the chakra responded to Sasuke. Usually, it ignored him as if he was nothing worth fretting over until Sasuke had physically invaded its territory. But this time the chakra stirred when it came into contact with Sasuke's chakra.

Sasuke tensed and immediately withdrew his chakra.

The action did little good as through the rain, he could see a dark figure approaching him from the ground.

Sasuke backed up and waved an arm behind him until he located a tree. The bark was wet, but at least with enough chakra he could be able to climb it to safety.

With his Sharingan, he was able to see the figure he knew to be the beastlike-Naruto approaching slowly, almost cautiously. He then felt immense chills down his spine because he saw the figure crouch down with their face to the ground, most likely sniffing for his scent.

His first instinct was self-preservation and to climb the tree; he had been training with Orochimaru, but Sasuke would only admit in the cover of the storm and faced with the vessel of a true demon that he did not feel prepared.

Sasuke then disciplined himself. He had wanted to come to the clearing to see this beast again, and he would not be a coward. Uchihas were NEVER cowards. Plus, his training would have seemed unproductive if he could not at least hold his ground while a beast was merely searching for him.

If worst came to worst, then Sasuke would implement his Chidori to at least stun the Jinchuuriki so he could escape.

With that in mind, Sasuke took his hand off of the tree and grabbed the soaked bag of meat. His intention was to get the animalistic version of Naruto to get used to him, and using meat seemed to be the best way to do it. At least, it seemed to be working yesterday.

The figure was close enough that Sasuke could see the orange of Naruto's ripped jacket, and the Jinchuuriki was no longer sniffing the ground, but rather glaring at him with those red eyes.

Hesitantly, Sasuke held up a large sausage in front of him, hoping the beastlike Naruto would remember from yesterday that Sasuke had brought him food.

Red, demonic eyes followed Sasuke's hand with hunger. Naruto raised his nose in the air, probably to sniff for the sausage's scent, but immediately got a face full of rainwater.

The beastlike Naruto had automatically shifted backwards, shaking his head vigorously.

When Naruto opened his red eyes again, Sasuke decided that it would be better if he tossed the sausage in between them.

When he did, Naruto did not automatically attack him like he had the day before. Instead, he watched the sausage fall in between them, and approached it cautiously as soon as it landed. He circled it only once, glaring at the mud the sausage had fallen in. Then Naruto poked it with his nose, and then shook his head in an attempt to shake the water off. Then Naruto ate the sausage, but not completely; he avoided the dirtiest part.

Sasuke observed this with his Sharingan. So when he took out a second sausage, he waved it slowly so that Naruto could see what it was.

The Jinchuuriki saw the offered meat and watched it with interest. Naruto probably assumed that it would be thrown to him, so Sasuke gestured with the sausage to come closer.

Naruto's eyes seemed to darken as he glared and even growled at Sasuke.

Sasuke held up the other harm holding the bag in a gesture of surrender. He then made exaggerated throwing motions, before finally tossing the meat into the air.

Naruto caught it with his elongated fangs, needing to step closer to Sasuke in order to achieve this feat. Sasuke would have found playing fetch with his former teammate amusing if it were not for how his former teammate was currently in the mindset of a wild animal who had expressed his desire to eat Sasuke more than once.

Since the beastlike Naruto was closer, Sasuke's Sharingan caught a few things that he had missed before because of the rain: Naruto had bags underneath his red eyes and he was shivering slightly.

Now that Sasuke had thought about it, he was cold as well because of the rain and the cold wind.

While the Jinchuuriki chewed on his food, Sasuke looked around the clearing. He could not see much, but from what he remembered, there was no feasible shelter for Naruto to use out here. The best there could be would be in the bushes, but Sasuke had his doubts about that judging by how cold Naruto seemed to be and by how agitated his demonic chakra was. He probably could not get any sleep last night, and that could be another reason for the agitation as well as the bags underneath his eyes.

That would not do.

Even if they were currently enemies since Sasuke defected from Konoha, and even though Naruto was not in his current mind, Sasuke could not let his crus—FORMER TEAMMATE stay out in the storm without any shelter.

Sasuke shifted so that he could get branches from the tree he had climbed over at the edge of the clearing, but as soon as he did, Naruto tensed.

Naruto had finished the sausage, and was crouched, ready to pounce at the slightest movement.

Hesitantly, Sasuke reached into the bag and grabbed a few pieces of bacon.

Naruto's red eyes brightened at the sight of the meat he had been fed the day before, but his overall demeanor was still tensed.

Sasuke lightly tossed the pieces of bacon, which Naruto readily went after instead of Sasuke, and turned around to quickly get a few braches.

He chose thick ones first. If he was going to make his usuraton—NARUTO a shelter, then he was going to do it right. He had his katana with him, so separated the branches from the fallen tree was no problem.

By the time he returned to where he was previously standing, Naruto was crouched and waiting for him again. So Sasuke dug out another sausage—with a piece of bacon—and tossed it to Naruto.

Like before Naruto went after the meat, but not before sending Sasuke a distrustful glare.

Sasuke quickly went over to the bush where Naruto usually was whenever Sasuke arrived in the clearing. Just as he thought, there was barely any room under the bush, so Sasuke confirmed to himself that he would have to make the shelter himself.

He heard growling behind him, and as he whipped around, he saw the beastlike Naruto stalking towards him. Sasuke quickly grabbed a small steak from his meat pouch and threw it in front of Naruto.

As Naruto ate it, Sasuke worked quickly to make the shelter. He decided to use the back of the rocks creating the side of the waterfall so that he would only need to make two walls along with the roof. He decided that he should make it wide enough so that Naruto could get comfortable.

Sasuke worked quickly, occasionally tossing more meat to Naruto. He needed to make a second and third trip to get more wood. On the second trip, Naruto had glared at him with hunger still in his eyes, so Sasuke had tossed him two more steaks. The third time, Naruto was still knowing away at the second steak, but he followed Sasuke's movements with somewhat interested eyes.

Finally, Sasuke had finished. It was not spectacular, but it was a sturdy, and more importantly, sufficient shelter.

Sasuke made it wide enough so that he would wait there as well since he was very cold at this point. The rain felt like ice and the wind was only getting stronger.

The Uchiha gathered some smaller branches he ripped off of the larger ones and created a mound for a fire to warm himself up.

Placing the bag of meat next to himself, Sasuke sat down and implemented a small fire jutsu on the pile of twigs. He tended to the fire a bit, so that it could sustain itself for a long while without spreading or burning out on him.

He was about to declare to himself that the fire was perfect, when he noticed Naruto walking on all fours towards him and the shelter.

Sasuke tensed. Every time the two had been close to each other for the past week, Naruto had tried to attack him and most likely eat him. And every time that happened, Sasuke was able to escape in the open forest. But this time, he was cornered in the shelter.

He unconsciously held his breath as Naruto got closer.

Naruto glared at him at first—though without the same level of malice or hunger as earlier—and went on to inspect the shelter for himself. He slowly went around the outside of the shelter before going into it.

As soon as he was inside, Naruto shook his body free of excess water, unintentionally spraying Sasuke.

The blonde jinchuuriki then began to sniff the area, and perked up when he caught the scent of the bag of meat.

Immediately, as if Sasuke was not there, Naruto headed over to the bag of meat and promptly stuck his head inside of it to eat the remaining bacon.

The action surprised Sasuke. He was still tensed; not allowing himself to put his guard down around the demon vessel.

While Naruto ate, he was unintentionally sticking his behind in the air, making Sasuke need to remind himself that currently, Naruto was in the mindset of a feral beast, and that the action meant nothing more than convenience. The Uchiha could not help himself, however, from imagining a tail wagging by the way Naruto would sway his body.

Then Naruto changed positions from supporting himself on his arms to crouching in a sitting position. The bag was still on his head.

Sasuke had to hold himself from smirking.

Naruto shook his head, much like when he was shaking excess water from his face earlier, until the bag fell off.

When his head was free, Naruto paused as he sat on his legs with his arms in front of himself like the animal he thought he was.

Sasuke was about to wonder what the beast was going to do when Naruto yawned widely, showing off his elongated canines.

The jinchuuriki then spotted the fire. Red eyes stared at the flames in wonder and suspicion.

Naruto cautiously approached the fire, ignoring Sasuke.

The blonde crouched on the ground, and crawled closer to the fire, sniffing along the way.

Sasuke watched the beastlike Naruto as he approached the flames. The Uchiha stayed still, hardly daring to breathe.

While he watched Naruto, he marveled to himself how tame the beast was at the moment. Sasuke was almost tempted to pet his blon—NARUTO, but remembered how when he tried yesterday, the animal tried to bite his hand off.

Naruto was getting too close to the fire, though. Sasuke took a moment to debate, but as Naruto continued to sniff closer and closer to the flames, Sasuke knew that he needed to stop him.

The Uchiha poked the back of the neck and immediately withdrew his hand.

Naruto looked up at him curiously with his demonic eyes, and a little sleepy.

"Too close to the fire," said Sasuke, as if Naruto could understand him in his current mind. To illustrate his point, he shook his head.

Naruto looked between Sasuke and the fire. He then straightened up on all fours, and circled the fire as well as Sasuke with the Uchiha watching his every move.

When Naruto reached where he began his circle, he crouched down to the ground, and laid on his side.

Sasuke watched Naruto's red eyes droop. Hesitantly, and ready to pull back immediately, Sasuke reached over to run his fingers through Naruto's hair.

Naruto's eyes flew open, making Sasuke freeze.

Naruto looked up, and saw that it was Sasuke, and then let his head fall back to where it was on the ground.

Sasuke was still frozen. Then, tentatively, he ran his fingers through blond hair.

Naruto did nothing to stop him.

As Sasuke and Naruto warmed up by the fire, Sasuke noticed how Naruto's eyes drooped more and more as the Uchiha continued his ministrations until finally, Naruto was asleep.

Sasuke stayed where he was, keeping his hand on Naruto's head, simply enjoying being close while he could.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Sasuke could not tell, the winds began to die down, signaling that it was probably time for him to go back.

He stood up and made his way out of the shelter.

As Sasuke reached the edge of the clearing, he turned around.

He needed to know more.

He wanted to know why Naruto was in such a state. He had his suspicions, but they were guesses at the most.

He wanted to know if there even was a way for him to find out. A way for him to read Naruto's mind, or see what was going on in that blond head. Was there anyone who could find out?

He wanted to know how much Orochimaru really knew. The snake kept making snide comments, but it was almost impossible for Sasuke to tell if these comments were said to simply garner a reaction from the Uchiha or if there was something more to them.

Sasuke needed to know more.

And that was the chapter.

Fun lesson: 'Dobe' actually means dead-last, and is mentioned in only a few episodes. The REAL pet name Sasuke uses for Naruto is 'usuratonkachi', which is the basic equivalent of 'idiot' to English.

A recent pet peeve of mine is when people equate 'Teme' to 'Bastard'. That is the incorrect way to translate that. 'Teme' is a rude form of 'you'. Literally translated, 'Teme' is 'You bastard'. So whenever people say 'You Teme', they are saying 'You, you bastard'. Naruto can say 'teme' to Sasuke, since he is essentially saying 'you bastard', but he can NOT refer to Sasuke as 'The Teme' to other people since he is saying 'The You Bastard'.

Ever since it was pointed out to me in my own writing, the curse of this pet peeve has been passed onto me. So I guess I'm passing onto you, so sorry! But if this stops at least one person from saying 'the teme', then it is ineffective as I want MORE than one person to stop.

So spread the word!

Thanks to those who follow/favorite! And an extra special thanks to those who review! Again, I'm so sorry that this took SO long!