The moon was shining brightly, its rays casting a shadow over the leaves of the hollow trees, while the stars were trying in vain to destroy the full circle's already diminishing presence. A pair of pale hands reached out towards the moon as though they were going to touch it if their owner tried hard enough. Pretty soon, however, those fingertips went as far as they could and soon withdrew; the arm sliding down until it was back beside the body of the dreamer, while his other hand was holding the window. Dark locks were swung back and forth by the peaceful wind as the cold night air touched the dreamer's pale cheeks. He sighed as he closed his eyes, while bringing his hand up and brushing some of those bangs out his face. He held some of them in his hand as he opened his eyes and watched the moon sliding back and forth from the world of the shadows back to those of the living and then returning to that of the shadows. It seemed that tonight the full circle was not going to enter the world of the dead for which the dreamer was grateful.

He then heard a door opening behind him and sighed before breaking the spell he had willingly put himself under. He then let go of the locks he had been holding and turned around. With a small smile his eyes met with shining sapphires. The owner of those jewels complained about how he had not been able to buy the chocolate he had wanted because some whiny girl had beaten him to it. The dreamer ignored his lover's grumbles. Instead he smiled as he beckoned the small light in his life to come closer and illuminate further into his life, successfully destroying all the shadows the dreamer had surrounded himself with.

The free spirit rolled his eyes, grumbled about how his lover was not listening to him, but complied with the dreamer's request, nonetheless. The dark-haired man smiled warmly when his arms encircled the familiar waist and his chest connected with that of the blond-haired boy. The dreamer buried his nose in the crook of his lover's neck, inhaling the alluring scent that made him dizzy on most days. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax, while he listened to the familiar heart beat drumming against his chest.

Sasuke's eyes shot open. He was breathing heavily as he sat up in his bed. He put a hand on his forehead in order to convince himself that the dream had been the product of an unexpected fever. His eyes had been closed, while he tried to calm down and checked his body temperature. With a barely suppressed growl he released his forehead and reopened his eyes. It seemed that he did not have a fever, but then what could be the cause of the strange dream he had had? He continued breathing in and out as he desperately tried to calm his raging heart. His mind was fogged with so many questions he did not even know where to begin. He brought his hands up and began massaging his temples. He then closed his eyes and forced himself to relax. Once he was certain he had calmed down his eyelids let go of the black depths and allowed them to come face to face with the first colours and rays of a new day. Sasuke cringed slightly as the bright light started invading his hospital room. He brought his hand up to shield his eyes from the treacherous thing, but it seemed that the sun had other plans for him. Instead of letting him be like the star should have done, it decided to keep pestering him. Soon Sasuke was fed up with his useless attempts at keeping his face safe from the evil thing. He instead decided to focus his whole energy on glaring at the offending rays, while he crossed his arms, as though that would help him not lose focus of his current goal.

"You know, you never were a morning person." Kakashi said as he yawned.

Sasuke did a double take. His perfect form was ruined. Instead he was now a panting mess, his eyes were wide, his hair was more disheveled than usual and his heart seemed to have decided to keep running inside Sasuke's lungs until it made him suffocate. The Uchiha brought a hand up and held his chest tightly, while he closed his eyes and tried to calm down. Once he was certain his chest was not going to explode and his heart had reduced its race tracks to that of only one of his lungs, Sasuke straightened his spine so much a crack was heard, crossed his arms, despite Kakashi's chuckle, and closed his eyes, a scowl marring his otherwise grumpy features. Kakashi only laughed some more, went up and ruffled some of Sasuke's locks once more. The Uchiha huffed, swatted the offending limb away and glared at Kakashi, who not only ignored the razors that had chosen him as their current target, but had also laughed. Not chuckled. Laughed. He had actually had the audacity to laugh at Sasuke right in front of the Uchiha's face. Sasuke's eyes twitched, but he soon sighed and decided to wait for Kakashi to calm down. Later rather than sooner Hatake finally regained some ounce of his sanity, while Sasuke's eye began twitching again.

"Oh, only one eye is twitching. You must be getting better at controlling that tic now that you're older." Kakashi noted before he got up and went to get his belongings.

"I do not have a nervous tic." Sasuke spat before his other began twitching as well. He noticed it and immediately covered it with his hand, which only made Kakashi laugh harder. The Uchiha's face turned slightly red. He only sighed, while he withdrew his hand from his right eye. He huffed before he reestablished two rules for the umpteenth time – rule number one – Never waste time denying the obvious. It will only prove to be futile. And rule number two – never argue with Kakashi, while he is in mood for teasing his 'favourite' Uchiha. Especially if you are said Uchiha because not only will it prove to be futile and a complete waste of time, it might actually lead to driving you crazy or crazier than you were before Kakashi got his hands on you.

"I am going to head home now. I trust you will be okay without me during the day?" Kakashi uttered as he went to grab his coat.

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly. Kakashi actually trusted him enough to leave him alone. The Uchiha could not help the small smile that formed on his face when he nodded. Kakashi smiled as well before he winked, while waving at Sasuke. He then left, ignoring the disbelieving look Sasuke was giving him.

After the door closed, Sasuke simply brought his head down and chuckled lightly, while he said to the walls:

"You know, Kakashi, I may not be a morning person, but you sure know how to handle me when I'm in my 'grumpy ass state'."

Sasuke chuckled, then smiled sadly, remembering the nickname Itachi had given him one morning when the older sibling had tried waking Sasuke up only to get a dozen pillows thrown at his face. Needless to say that was not a very pleasant experience, especially if you were sick and had barely slept a wink all night.

Sasuke's expression then became somber as he unconsciously brought the tips of his fingers up and touched an all too familiar place on his forehead, trying desperately to remember as much detail as he could about what the feeling of having Itachi's fingers there was like.

Another day at school and no Sasuke turned out to be far too unpleasant for one Naruto Uzumaki. You see, at first he had been hoping that today would be a good day. He had been hoping that his gym teacher Maito Gai would for once take it easy on them and not push every last one of his students to exhaustion once more. Naruto could swear he had seen at least two or three people collapse from fatigue, while others needed at least ten minutes or more to be able to breathe erratically again. As for himself, all Naruto could say was that he thought he was going to die at least a dozen times. Quite frankly, at least fifty percent of his muscles were dead, while others were in the process of deterioration.

Literature had been a slightly different story. It had not been hell like Naruto's previous class, but it had been exceptionally boring and that was saying something, considering their teacher, Jiraya (yes, he was a director and still had time to 'teach'. Great for the students, ne?), had not brought some of his books to class today to read it to the students. And, just for your information, when Naruto said his books, the boy meant his books as in he had written them and had decided to bring them to class and let the students see and he was quoting the pervert now 'what real modern literature was about'. If Naruto had to be honest, the books were not half bad. The only problem was that the topic they revolved around was not to his liking. After all, he never had been a fan of porn. Erotica was a different story, however.

This is getting ridiculous.

Naruto thought as he walked down the hallways.

Why must all history teachers I get despise their students and give them tons of homework?! God, and here I was looking forward to having a homework free weekend!

Normally Naruto would not be too worried about homework, but considering he was going to apply for universities soon, he needed to focus more on schoolwork and as much as the boy hated to admit it, that included the godforsaken crap also known as homework. The only thing that had kept Naruto from breaking a window was the fact that he was going to have Math now and as much as he hated the subject, he did like the way his teacher looked.

A small sigh escaped Naruto's lips as he noticed that he was nearing the corner after which was none other than Sasuke's classroom. His blue eyes were different today. Even he had noticed it, even before his mother had commented that they were not as bright as usual. The boy rolled his eyes. Of course, they would not be 'as bright as usual' when he had not slept a wink all fucking night and the stupid dog that had decided it would be a good idea to start howling just when Naruto had fallen asleep had not helped him either.

I wonder what happened to him. I know it's none of my business, but since when was I one to follow the rules?

Naruto thought as he rounded the corner. He was just about to leave the physical world and go back to that of his thoughts when his friend Kiba came running out of nowhere and ended up colliding with Naruto, successfully knocking them both down. Naruto winced as his back hit the ground and a bruise that had no doubt been formed during gym class screamed at the blond idiot for having disturbed its peaceful slumber.

"Sorry man, I didn't see you there." Kiba said as he got up and dusted himself off.

Naruto merely rolled his eyes and ignored the small fire that was starting to form in his chest. The blond closed his eyes as he counted to ten and reminded himself that this was not some stupid teacher that had decided to punish their students just for the fun of it. No, this was not someone who had intentionally done him wrong. This was Kiba. This was one of his best friends. Unfortunately, no matter how much he tried, he could not ignore the snake that had burned its way across his chest and was now wrapping its cold body around the boy's neck, suffocating him.

"It's alright. Shit like this happens." Naruto said through gritted teeth as he rose from the floor and walked past Kiba, bumping the boy's shoulder with his.

"Wait, wait, wait," Kiba began as he immediately turned around and ran towards his friend. Once he was in front of Naruto, he put both of his hands up and said, "What's got you so riled up? Normally you don't cuss at all and today I even caught you glaring at Miss Kurenai's (their history teacher) back."

Naruto sighed and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Naruto realised with a pang of guilt that Kiba did have a point, but as much as the blond-haired boy wanted to act like he usually did and just grin at his friend and tell him that there was nothing to worry about, he just could not. It was far too tiring to always be the cheerful one, to always be the one to pull the others back up together, to always be the one who would smile and wave your problems and harsh words which were a result of those damn problems off, to always care, to always be there for the others, while on the inside you were burning as well. Naruto knew that most of the time he ignored his pain for the sake of others, but he was able to do it simply because that was just the kind of person he was and plus, the pain probably had not been that great, but today, today was just different. Today he had had it with everything and everyone and all he wanted to do was just ignore everything, go home and lie in bed all day, doing absolutely nothing.

"You're right." Naruto said as he sighed and closed his eyes. He cringed when an all too familiar memory flashed in front of his eyes. The boy shook his head and resisted the urge to grab it with one of his hands. Instead he simply inhaled and exhaled before he reopened his eyes, brushed off Kiba's worried questions, gave him a small smile, told him he was alright and went straight into Sasuke's classroom, hoping that his favourite teacher would distract him.

Suddenly Naruto stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes widened. He could not believe it. He just could not fucking believe it.

He isn't here? Why isn't he here? He's supposed to be here. He's never missed a class, he's always been on time so then why had he missed yesterday's classes and had not bothered to come in today as well? Just what the fuck is going on here? What is wrong with him?

Naruto's eyes widened slightly. He subconsciously brought his hand up and rested it on his chest. His eyes widened further. His heart was beating erratically. He felt an unfamiliar tug inside, as though a chain was being tightened without his permission. He trained his worried gaze on the empty space before him where he would normally see a slightly annoyed Sasuke either grading tests or preparing something for his upcoming classes. He was always there. He had been something Naruto's had grown accustomed to, even though it had only been a few weeks since Sasuke had become Naruto's teacher.

I shouldn't be reacting this way. I'm getting far too attached to him way too fast.

Naruto breathed in again. His eyes widened further. He needed air. His brain was screaming at him to get out. He needed out. He needed to be outside. He needed Sasuke. He needed to see him. He needed to…. He did not know why, but he needed to breathe again, but not the suffocating air of the empty classroom, but that of the classroom that was filled with Sasuke's presence. That was the reason why, without too much thinking, he snuck out of the classroom, ran through the hallways and exited the school.

Naruto ran. That was the only thing he could register. He did not know where he was going. He did not know why he was running in the first place. He did not even where his legs had decided to take him, why and whether they would be able to last long enough in order for the boy to reach the unknown destination.

The wind was rustling through the streets as Naruto tried in vain to catch his breath. Pants were resonating throughout the empty park as the sun was shining down upon the trees for one last time for the day. Blond locks were being thrown to and fro as the wind mercilessly bit at them. Naruto's cheeks were flushed as sweat trickled down from his temple and burned a path down the boy's cheeks, jaw, and neck and then disappeared behind layers of clothing.

Never thought I'd live through a day that would turn from ridiculous to ludicrous.

Naruto thought as he regained his normal breathing pattern. He sighed in contentment as he walked down the familiar paths of the park. His blue eyes returned to their usual vibrant shade as a grin made its way across his face. He could not believe it was possible, but it seemed that he had managed to calm down. He had even accomplished the impossible – made himself happy once more and he had not even needed Sakura or Kiba or any other friends. He had not even needed his mother or….

Sasuke?

A/N: Obviously I don't own Naruto or else it would've turned into one crappy show and would have had such success.

Anyway, this is chapter six… obviously: D

Please review. You have no idea how happy it makes me to read your thoughts (if they're positive, of course). Negative tend to draw me back, but if it is criticism and if it does seem logical to me, I will take heed of your advice and go back and revise a certain part or chapter of the particular story.

So uh… yeah, please review: D

If you do, there is something I will try to always give you.

An interesting rhyming pattern at the end.

That will be a promise I will try to keep my friend.

Good night!

Sleep tight!

May tomorrow shine upon you just as bright!

Until next time I update and/or post a story, my fellow readers,

~ QueenofRhymes ~