Passion and Tears

Naruto's POV

My heart nearly froze at the sight of Sasuke lying in a pool of blood. Panic siezed my being as I ran up to him and fell to my knees.

Is he dead?!?

Checking for his pulse, I placed two fingers on his neck. There were so many loud noises: my blood pounding in my ears, the light breeze sounded like a vacuum, and Rock Lee's excited chatter of finding Sasuke.

"Shut up!!" I shouted.

Then it seemed that all the noises stopped. Underneathe my fingers, there was a slow faint thump. I didn't realize I was holding my breath until I let it out in a sigh of relief.

He's alive

"It's okay, Sasuke. I'm here," I whispered.

Sakura fell to her knees next to me, while the others stayed where they stood. We both turned him over gently and I heard Sakura take a sharp intake of breath. There were all sorts of slashes on his chest with blood pouring from each of them. But the nastiest wound was his shoulder, which looked like a bear decided to take out a small chunk of skin. From the look of things, if we had arrived any later it would have been too late to save him.

I glanced over to my left to see Sakura crying. "What are you doing? Heal him!"

Sakura quickly nodded and placed her shaking hands on the his chest. Her hands began glowing as she fed chakara to them. Time passed slowly, while Sakura closed up his numerous wounds.

I brushed a lock of Sasuke's hair frm his face and waited patiently.

Several hours later, the sun had already set and everyone was asleep except for Neji and me. Neji was on guard duty and I just couldn't sleep because I felt I had to watch over Sasuke and make sure he was alright. So we both sat in silence. I gazed at Sasuke, who was lying on a makeshift bed of grass and leaves. His skin was no longer a pasty white, but now had almost returned to its milky color. He looked aboslutely beautiful in the moon's pale light.

A gasp escaped from Sasuke as he figited in his sleep fitfully. "Suigetsu," he sighed then became peaceful again.

A mixture of ice and heat ran through my veins that could best be described as jealousy.

Who's....Suigetsu?

I watched as Neji noticed Sasuke's little episode, but when he saw me looking at him he turned away.

He probably wasn't important. It's hard to get close to Sasuke...nearly impossible.

I nodded reassured and suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion sleep upon me. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

***

We trekked through the forest slowly heading to our destination: the Hidden Leaf Village. Sasuke was draped on my back and was still unconcious. The rest of us were walking silently except for Rock Lee.

"This is quite an accomplisment. Only a week and a half to retrieve Sasuke. I did not think that we would find him at all. And if we did, we would have had to subdue him but not without many many injuries. And-"

"How do you deal with him?" I hear Shikamaru ask Neji.

"I just nod every couple of minutes so he'll think I'm listening."

Head bent towards the ground, Sakura walked next to me. I could feel Sasuke's slow, steady breath on my ear. In. Out. In. Out. In...

I stopped walking when I didn't feel him exhale. Then there was also the fact that Sasuke's body became rigid all of a sudden.

Sakura stopped walking as well and turned to look at me. "Naruto, why did you....?" Her eyes widened almost comically.

The other three also stopped when they noticed that we had halted.

"Well, well. It looks like sleeping beauty has awakened," Shikamaru drawled.

Sasuke said nothing. In fact, even after the surprise of him being awake wore off, he didn't say anything. He had to know where we were taking him. After a little while, Sasuke's body relaxed a little bit and I felt his steady breathing start up again. I knew he wasn't asleep, though. We continued walking until dusk , then stopped for the night in a small clearing. I slowly lowered Sasuke on to the ground and when we locked eyes, my heart gave a lurch. He looked exactly like he did the last time I saw him, when he had tried to kill me. His gaze was so intense that I had to look away before I decided to satisfy my growing needs by having my way with him.

"Okay Sasuke, I have to change your bandages," Sakura said timidly.

From my periphial vision, I saw Sasuke's eyes slide from looking at me to Sakura, who was knelt beside him. Her cheeks were slowly turning red as she pushed down his kimono. I rolled my eyes and distracted myself by helping Neji, Shikamaura, and Rock Lee prepare dinner. After everybody had eaten the fish that I caught from a near by river, everyone got ready for sleep.

"I'll take the first watch," I told Shikamaru.

He nodded and then jumped into a tree. Rock Lee yelled a loud 'goodnight' to everybody and curled up under a tree. Sakura took one last look at Sasuke and did the same.

"Make sure he doesn't do anything funny," Neji said softly then followed the example of his fellow teammates.

I looked at the object of our mission, who was sitting across from me staring at his lap. It was very silent besides the rustle of Rock Lee turning in his sleep. Seconds passed into minutes, minutes into hours. It had to be about 2 in the morning. The small clearing would have been pitch black if the moon had not been shining through the trees. So I was succesfully able to see Sasuke's shadowed form and it seemed he was still staring at his lap.

I wonder if he's asleep? That must feel really uncomfortable. Maybe I should....No, what if he's still awake.

"You're staring dobe," a smooth voice said.

I could feel my cheeks burning from embarresment. "Sasuke?"

Sasuke raised his head and once again I was struck by his intense gaze. "Who else would it be?"

"I thought you were asleep."

A little smirk appeared before he said, "...That doesn't make it any better."

Let it be known that darkness was my new best friend since it covered my flaming cheeks.

How does he do this to me?

Silence encased us for a while.

"Let me go..."

I looked up at him. "No," I replied fiercely.

"Why not?" he asked almost exasperated.

"Because, Sasuke, I promised I would bring you back and you belong

with me

at the Leaf because it's your home. You didn't need to leave with Orochimaru for power. If you had wanted to become stronger, you could've trained more but no you just had to up and leave. You have people who care about you Sasuke and they want to see you back home."

"That's false."

"No it's not!" I yelled.

"Name a person besides the fangirls."

"...Me," I said softly, "I cared, which is why I am taking you back."

Through the dim darkness, I saw Sasuke give me a glare and I matched it with one of my own.

"I'll go ahead and take the shift now, since you've woken me up with your shouting," Skikamaru half yawned, half mumbled.

Sasuke turned away and I nodded at Shikamaru. I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

***

The next morning, Sasuke didn't look or speak to me at all. I was slightly hurt, but I spoke the truth the last night. I picked him up and placed him on my back, then we all set off. We set off at a faster pace this time, since we didn't have to worry about Sasuke's wounds bleeding. I watched as the sun moved across the sky and it seemed that dusk was already approaching again.

"Guys look!! We're home!" Rock Lee shouted.

And in the distance there was the Hidden Leaf Village.

Sasuke can be happy here. I'll make sure of that.

A/N: Hey, all I have to say is that junior year sucks...alot. There's so much woooorkk, which is why I haven't been updating lately. There is a good chance that I'll be updating every two months or it may be sooner or it could just be super sporadic, BUT just be reassured I am NOT dropping this story. I've already got the whole thing planned out and I'm not stopping it now. Ummmm....sorry if this chapter seems a bit rushed, becasue it is. Uhhhh what else? oh I apologize for spelling, sentence, structural, and grammatical errors. REVIEW! You may send me a virtual slap for making you wait a long time, if you wish, lol.