Chapter 26: Lightning Answers

Inevitably, Sasuke had fallen asleep. After wiping away the cold sweat on his chest and neck, he's stayed awake for about an hour before dozing off. Each time he reached the brim of consciousness, though, he'd flinch from the remaining memory of his dream and ended up panting for minutes at a time.

He was thankful that Naruto hadn't woken—that he was such a deep sleeper and loud snorer. Sasuke didn't wish to speak about anything at all, at least not yet. He tucked one of his hands under the pillow and the other on top.

At this moment, he felt like a wimp. One bad dream and he came running to Naruto—there was nothing satisfying other than the comfort to him, and maybe this was the only time it had happened, but it was still aggravating. Sasuke should have just stayed in his room. He should have calmed himself down, turned on the lights, and read something until he could fall asleep properly. But instead, his logic flew out the window and within the few moments he'd submitted to his emotions, he'd ended up with Naruto.

This couldn't always happen, Sasuke thought. He couldn't be the weak one. Neither of them could be the weak one, and neither of them ever were. But it was frightening to be so vulnerable and volatile and be so subject to another person.

At the same time… he often overlooked the benefits, didn't he? That talking to Naruto brought peace to his stability. That being with the person he loved and knew loved him back was a luxury in this world. Never, ever did he want to lose Naruto. Sasuke couldn't scare him or chase him away, or neglect him so badly that their new relationship fell apart. It was true that he didn't know exactly what he had gotten himself into, but that was the thing about learning, wasn't it? To make mistakes. To accidentally (or intentionally) make Naruto upset and have to carefully conduct a proper conversation or apology. He would learn from and with Naruto, especially when the other didn't quite understand him.

But Sasuke… he could manage this all on his own. He had always been an independent person, and he would stay like that. Slowly but discreetly, he'd work on his own issues apart from Naruto. It was a sound plan.

Naruto sniffled beside him and shifted. A hand grabbed at his face and fingers patted around at his features before Naruto ran his hand from his face to the back of his head, petting it over his hair.

"'Sas?" he asked drowsily, voice hoarse. He cleared his throat and spoke again. "What're you doin' here?"

Sasuke pressed his lips together. "Trying to sleep."

Naruto let out an unamused grunt and rolled over, propping himself up on his elbows to squint in Sasuke's face. "How'd you get in?"

"I didn't steal a couple of hair clips, if that's what you were wondering," he said. "But I really think that you should lock your door."

A confused look washed over Naruto's face. "But I did lock it…" he glanced back to the door, giving it a contemplative look. He shrugged.

Sasuke toyed with the idea of replying, but he chose not to. He turned and closed his eyes, hoping that Naruto would just get the message and leave him alone.

Although the other did lay back down, he did so that his chest was pressed against Sasuke's back. He could tell that Naruto was waiting for him to explain why Sasuke was in his bed on his own. He feigned to be asleep, breathing a bit more deeply and relaxing his shoulders.

"What're you really doing here?" Naruto asked, placing a palm on his forehead. "You were all sweaty earlier."

"Nothing," he grumbled. "Just a bad dream."

Naruto rested his head on his hand behind him, moving his hand from his forehead to run his fingers through Sasuke's bangs. He was quiet for a few seconds. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"You wanna tell me about it?" Naruto asked softly, tucking his bangs behind his ear. Most of the unreasonable anger he held towards Naruto dissolved away with the action, and he leaned into the caress.

Sasuke shook his head, knowing that Naruto could feel the movement under his hand. He felt the other shift to predictably ask him what was so wrong that he didn't want to talk about it, and Naruto rolled him onto back.

Sasuke frowned as Naruto's concerned face hovered over his. "Was it really that bad?"

He didn't know how to answer that. He reached up both of his hands to run them through Naruto's bright hair, pulling out a few small tangles along with the action. "Maybe a little."

"Well, I'm glad you came," he murmured. Naruto leant down to plant a kiss on his forehead and rest on his side to face Sasuke. He patted his chest in a comforting manner, offering Sasuke a friendly smile.

Then, Sasuke felt lightheaded and nauseated and any of the anger he'd held against Naruto completely alleviated. He shut his eyes tightly as Naruto ran a firm circle with his hand over his chest.

He wanted to tell Naruto to shut up. He wanted to shove Naruto out of the bed and smother him with a pillow. He wanted to turn his head and kiss him breathless, hold him closely and more.

The corner of Sasuke's lip tilted up and he leaned forward to kiss Naruto softly, setting a hand on his cheek. When he pulled away, Naruto regarded him with curious and somber eyes.

"You sure you don't wanna tell me?" he murmured. "It'll make it a lot better."

Sasuke pursed his lips as Naruto ran a thumb over his collarbone, his hand resting right on top of his heart. He swallowed roughly and outlined his dream as of a few hours ago, very much skipping most of the part where he'd almost cried because he got lost in the woods.

When he finished, he closed his eyes as Naruto wrapped his arms around his waist and hugged him tightly for a while. He kept on murmuring Sasuke's name into his ear, petting down the back of his hair. Sasuke rested his arm over Naruto's shoulder and played with blond hair again, too.

"I wonder what that means," said Naruto absently.

"It was just a bad dream."

"Yeah," he replied. "But I think dreams are supposed to mean something, y'know? With all that repressing you do…" Naruto caught himself and gave him a bit of a cautious look. "Eh, I mean… dreams are supposed to tell you stuff you don't know about yourself."

"I don't see how this tells me anything about myself," Sasuke deadpanned.

Naruto huffed and furrowed his brow, searching for the right thing to say. "Don't get mad?"

"If you have to ask me that before you tell me something, you'd best not even say it."

"I'm just giving you my two cents on it," Naruto tugged at the collar of his shirt. "Sorry, I hope it doesn't come off like I'm not taking this seriously enough. I don't want you to get upset over it."

Sasuke untangled his fingers from Naruto's hair, moving it down to squeeze his shoulder. "It's fine."

Naruto twisted his lips to the side and continued to play with the collar of Sasuke's shirt. "It's kind of like Neji and them are the bad guys now, so… they've lost their way. The light to their path? Itachi was kind of blinded by all of the hype about the military bases…" Naruto bit his lip and glanced at Sasuke's face. "Like he lost sight of his right path."

Sasuke saw what Naruto meant, actually, and wondered why it didn't make him angry as it probably should have. The other could be surprisingly smart when he wanted to be, no matter how much the discredit from Sasuke. "That's interesting."

"You're not mad?" Naruto rested his hand on his chest. "I wasn't trying to insult him…"

"I see where you've gone with it," Sasuke replied softly. "You're always so straightforward."

He gave Sasuke a curious look. "Is that good or bad?"

"A bit of both."

"You think so?" Naruto glanced away for a second. "When is it good?"

Sasuke paused. This must be another sharing moment between them, he thought, one that was important to their relationship. "Hm… when you stand up for your friends. Or when you make something clear. Like the way you stood for the camp to Neji and Kabuto. And at times like…" he hesitated for a moment, clutching Naruto's comforter in his fingers. "The other night. When you give me no other choice but to listen to you."

Sasuke eyed the light flush in Naruto's cheeks, wondering if he was thinking about the night they'd gotten a bit intimate. He hoped Naruto did the math and understood that was after all of that was what Sasuke was talking about. The way Naruto had so stubbornly drilled it into his head that he loved him.

"Are we having a contest here?" asked Naruto. "About the things we like about each other?"

"We could," Sasuke replied, rolling over onto his side so that their chests were inches away from each other. "But I wouldn't blow up your ego so much that you attract unwanted attention."

Naruto grinned. Was Sasuke instigating that he liked a lot of things about him? Just how many, and exactly what? But if he'd get anything from Sasuke, it surely wouldn't be a barrage of continuous compliments. "Okay. Just one more."

When Sasuke stared at him expectantly, he realized that he was supposed to go first this time. "Ah, okay. Well…"

"Is it really that hard?" Sasuke asked boldly, his eyes focused somewhere on Naruto's stomach.

"Kami," Naruto said. "Of course not. Just gimme a few seconds to get my words together."

Sasuke raised his eyes back to his face. Naruto thought he looked kind of vulnerable right then, and he felt lucky that he'd be the only person to see it. "You really try to cover it up, but you're really… loving. From what I've heard about you when you were little, you were always really caring. I think you're more sensitive than I am," he knocked his forehead lightly against Sasuke's. "'Cause you listen to everything and anything and then you go and overanalyze it. Maybe even fit in some broodin' and moodiness, but that's just who you are."

Sasuke frowned, feeling like the compliment had gone awry after that last part. He opened his mouth to say something, but Naruto interrupted him.

"You do take care of me, and the same with the people you like. Kind of like a mama bear, but not really. You just care a lot more than you let on."

Sasuke swallowed roughly with the accuracy of that. He'd only ever wanted the best for Naruto and his friends, but for some reason—be it the fact that he'd lived in the middle of nowhere for 10 years and was subjected to multiple traumatizing experiences—he never found the correct way to express it. Sometimes it felt as if his emotions weren't his own, and he wasn't allowed to tamper with them. But just being here was exhausting and sending his emotions (hormones) into a wild roller coaster of conflicting thoughts and self-destructive attitudes.

And all of this trying Naruto was doing right now… he didn't care if it made their little compliment scale tip out of balance, but it was worth seeing a flustered grin burst onto that face.

"See?" Sasuke murmured, covering Naruto's face with his hand. "This might go along with straightforward, but you're always so… passionate. You have a very strong will. It's contagious."

He removed his hand from Naruto's face only to be greeted with another goofy smile and a sappy look in his blue eyes. When he tried to put that hand back over Naruto's face, he grabbed his wrist and tugged Sasuke on top of him, wrapping his arms around him and squeezing the breath out of him.

Sasuke winced and pushed at Naruto's shoulders to get him to let up, but if possible, the arms around him squeezed him even tighter and rocked them back and forth a bit. He sighed and rested his chin on Naruto's shoulder, tapping his arm to let him know that he'd seriously better stop.

Sasuke breathed in deeply once Naruto let him go, rolling away from him and fixing his tangled shirt. Naruto kept one arm around him, though, his eyes shut and his lips tilted upward.

"You're dumb," Naruto told him.

"That is rich coming from you," Sasuke replied.

Naruto leant forward and kissed him hard, something that took Sasuke a few moments to process because of the sudden change in mood and force. He could feel their teeth pressing through their lips with the reckless force Naruto was using, opening his mouth against Sasuke's and prodding his tongue inside. It wasn't a change in mood that Sasuke actually minded, but it was a bit surprising nonetheless. Feeling like getting caught up with something, he kissed Naruto back with equal fervor as their teeth clanked against each other slightly and he sighed into Naruto's mouth.

Naruto moved to straddle him on the torso, placing his hands on either of Sasuke's cheeks and tucking his hair behind his ears to keep it out of their kiss. Sasuke moved his arms to wrap around Naruto's waist and grip the back of his neck, running his thumb over the thick hair at the nape. He already felt a bit lightheaded and breathless from the kiss, so he broke it only to have Naruto tug a bit roughly at his earlobe, making a shiver run down his spine.

Sasuke grunted as Naruto pressed their hips together harshly, rocking them once or twice before locking their lips again. He must have been frustrated, Sasuke thought, since things were moving a bit quickly. He had certainly been a bit excited when they'd woken up together for the last couple of mornings.

He sighed shakily into Sasuke's mouth and rubbed their crotches together some more, nibbling at his top lip before gently sucking it into his own mouth and releasing it. Naruto's heavy breath against his lips was more than a little distracting, and as he kept dominating the kiss, Sasuke couldn't help but moan and run his hands over Naruto's bare back. He lifted his hips to meet Naruto's, but not with the intention to get himself some friction - he wanted this time to be all about Naruto.

Sasuke reached around and grabbed his butt, pulling the cheeks apart and squeezing them into his hands just as Naruto had done to his own. He used his grip as leverage to get Naruto to grind a bit further away from his own growing arousal, pulling away to dazedly watch a string of saliva break between their swollen lips.

Bravely, Sasuke licked all of Naruto's full lips, sucking on them harshly before he tried to take the kiss over again. He hooked his leg around Naruto's hip and rolled them over, resting on his side and burying his face in the crook of Naruto's shoulder. It was extremely satisfying to see the bulge in Naruto's pants, the semi-hardness he knew was all for him and only him. Sasuke snaked his hand down to grope roughly at the outline of his erection, rubbing his palm over it.

Naruto let out a broken moan, reaching his hand out to tug at Sasuke's waistband. He batted the hand away and used his free one to pin it to the bed, knowing that Naruto was eyeing his state of mild arousal.

"Sa-" Naruto started, but bit back a groan when Sasuke laid hot, opened mouth kisses on the sensitive juncture between his shoulder and neck. He tugged on Sasuke's bangs when he palmed him through his pants a bit more roughly.

Sasuke pushed his left hand into the slit of Naruto's pajama pants and wasn't extremely amused to find that he wasn't wearing any underwear. He gripped the base of Naruto's almost fully erect cock in his hand, giving it an experimental squeeze. Naruto's breath hitched above him and it made Sasuke doubt his self control.

He made quick work of taking his hand out and urging Naruto to push his hips up with a quiet groan, pulling his pants to bunch around his thighs. Sasuke eyed the trail of golden hair leading down from his navel to the base of his cock hungrily and wrapped his fist around the head of Naruto's cock, pulling the foreskin down with his hand slowly. The smooth, flushed head peeked out and the boy above him sighed in pleasure. He immediately hardened in his hand when he gave him a long, firm stroke.

Sasuke gasped when Naruto turned his head to kiss at his neck, sucking gently. He twisted his fist as he got to the head of Naruto's cock, squeezing roughly when he got closer to the base. Naruto didn't complain, and it seemed like something he liked judging by the moan muffled into his neck. He thrusted into Sasuke's grip.

Sasuke pulled the skin up with him as he went, running a fast fist over the tip of Naruto's cock. The other's mouth fell open as he fell into a pleasured daze, his toes curling into the bed sheets. He dug his thumb into the slit and rubbed the pre-cum around the head, gently pulling at the foreskin while he was at it.

"Fuck!" Naruto gasped. "Yeah… just like that."

Sasuke tilted his head back as Naruto kissed and licked at his neck hotly, his arm already growing tired as he picked up the pace of his strokes. He let Naruto fuck his hand for a few moments, biting his lip as he watched the jerky movement of hips and the tensing of the muscles in his abdomen. Naruto panted heavily against the side of his neck, short and low groans escaping his mouth. To take a break, he let Naruto's cock bob heavily above his lower stomach in favor of lightly squeezing his sac and rolling one of his balls in his fingers, gently tugging at the loose skin for a few moments.

Naruto grunted and sighed above him, gripping his shoulder harshly as his face flushed deeply and his eyes fluttered shut. The sounds his lover made were more than incredibly arousing - his own cock twitched inside of his pants every time Naruto moaned. Sasuke kissed him passionately as he returned to pumping his girth, drinking down the groans and curses Naruto spilled into his mouth. The side of his palm pressed into those thick blond curls as he pumped him quickly and roughly. Their tongues tapped against and licked at one another, shamelessly exchanging and swallowing each other's spit.

He tugged at Naruto's foreskin again and he came with a loud moan, some of the cum spurting onto his stomach, but catching most of it in his hand. Sasuke milked him through his orgasm, continuing to slowly pump him even though the last diminishing dribbles of cum had fallen over his hand, coating his palm and leaking onto his thumb. Naruto whimpered when he let his softening cock fall back onto his stomach.

Sasuke carefully watched Naruto's eyes squeeze shut again, relaxing back against his pillows in the pleasant aftermath of his climax. He eyed the semen coating his palm and, not so discreetly, raised it to his mouth to lick the salty liquid away. The taste wasn't unpleasant, nor was it appetizing, either. It was slightly bitter.

He raised his eyes just after sucking the last of Naruto's cum off of his thumb, meeting unfocused blue ones.

"Shit," Naruto rasped.

Naruto pushed him onto his back and kissed him hungrily, their swollen lips rubbing against each other and his tongue probing at the roof of Naruto's mouth. His hand kept trying to trail down to the waistband of his sweats, but he kept pushing it away, redirecting it to squeeze at his own shoulder or side.

Naruto pulled away to stare down at him, panting and looking a bit frustrated. "Why the hell won't you let me get you off?"

"Just you," Sasuke murmured, eyeing Naruto's wet lips. It didn't sound like a horrible idea at all, actually, it sounded like a perfect one. But it was true, he had just wanted to get Naruto off tonight, and he did.

Naruto pressed his lips together and leant off of him, though he kept their foreheads pressed together. "Is that what you really want?"

"Yes."

Naruto let out a slightly disapproving grunt, sitting back on his knees so that he could pull his pants back up and tuck himself away inside of them. He gave Sasuke one last aroused, irritated look and rolled to lay down beside him, eyeing him suspiciously.

"No means no," Naruto said, pressing a kiss against his shoulder. "But why?"

Sasuke wondered why he seemed so perturbed over this. There wasn't anything obvious showing through his pants, and with a few select thoughts, he'd be fine. "I just feel like it."

Naruto pressed his lips together. "Is this because of what I said?"

Sasuke shrugged with one shoulder and covered his eyes with his forearm.

He grunted beside him, grabbing the hand closest to him. It happened to be the one hovering by his face, and he gave Naruto an irritated glare when he pulled it away.

"Thank you, though," he said, pressing his lips to the back of Sasuke's palm. It wasn't exactly a kiss, but Sasuke guessed he could interpret it as one. "But I'll get you back."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow but let that comment slip. Naruto let go of his hand to rest his forehead against his shoulder, sighing deeply against it. Sasuke could feel his breath running down his arm.

With thoughts and wonderings of just exactly how Naruto was going to pay him back, he drifted off to sleep.

Sasuke had risen earlier than Naruto, his inner alarm clock reminding him that he had a meeting with the other members of speed. He noticed that Naruto had replaced his alarm clock and that it had begun blinking in the middle of the night again, stuck at the time when the power had gone off.

From what he'd observed, the power was still off, and they seemed to be relying on the red emergency lights above their head. Warning cones had been placed around the elevator when he'd surfaced from Naruto's room, and someone had scribbled a note on the paper that there was a Sector-wide brownout. The arrow on it pointed in the general direction of the alternative stairs.

Once he'd entered the lobby, a moderate amount of his colleagues had formed in the far corner. Most of them had been disgruntled about the loss of power, and others seemed to enjoy the lack of it.

Sasuke reluctantly took a seat with Suigetsu and Sai, who seemed to have grown a bit closer over the time he'd ignored them. For a few moments, he wondered why Tenten seemed so fixed on avoiding them and socializing with the other members around their age before remembering that, of course, they were Suigetsu and Sai.

It took about thirty minutes for the other members to trickle in before Temari herself wondered into the lobby, for once not hounded by her brother. It was new to Sasuke to see her clad in their own protective suits, wearing a dark pair of pants over it. Instead of her usual hairstyle, she had her blond hair pulled back in one tight ponytail, something that looked familiar to him.

Temari didn't even greet them, instead standing at the head of their table with a large tablet in her hands. Her fingers slid across the screen as she looked for something, speaking as she did so.

"I remember we've talked about organized intrusion," she announced, squinting down at the screen before angrily swiping at it again. "And I've already outlined the newest plan with intelligence, so they should be getting back to me pretty soon…"

An awkward silence filled the room as Temari trailed off and typed something into her tablet. "According to the Sectors' weather reports, we should have thunderstorms for the next week or so. As you can see, their power has already gone out, and their security is awfully easy to breach."

She placed the tablet face down on the table, finally looking at them all. "Along with the power goes the electric fences, most of their identification systems, and nearly all of their security. The citizens have already taken advantage of this-"

"Excuse me," a man spoke up near her. "Are these citizens our allies?"

Temari frowned and glanced back down at her tablet. "They're not. I think they stand alone as some sort of rebel group. That's just exactly what I wanted to show you…"

"They're protesting again?" someone else interrupted, and Sasuke was confused by the blotchy information. "I thought One-"

His full attention was immediately caught.

"I thought I already filled you all in on the evictions in One?" Temari turned to the person who had asked that question.

"Only the SPI groups," they replied.

Temari pursed her lips. "Well," she said. "I have their news reports right here." She turned her tablet over so that they could all see. A few of his peers shuffled closer and surrounded to read the header of a newscast from One. He was just too far to read the summary, but he could definitely make out the title. Violent Protesters Strike Again.

Temari tapped the play button and the video loaded for a few moments before going full screen and zooming in on a pale woman's face.

"Welcome back to the seven o'clock news." The woman held a short conversation with the tanner man next to her about the rainy weather that was due.

"I actually bring breaking news about a group of protesters that has made their presence known again," she paused and stared at the screen for a minute, obviously drinking in the information a telecaster spurted out for her. "For the second time this week. We first heard of them about a year ago when president Orochimaru's evictions begun to take place again. Presuming that they were upset by his actions, a crowd formed downtown-" a short clip of a rather large crowd clogging the traffic in the middle of a street was shown. Authorities had surrounded them and the bright blue lights of officials' alarms washed out most of the image, only allowing a couple of small bursts of fire to be shown at the end of the clip. "I think we all remember the aftermath of that. This particular group is in no way peaceful or kind - the last we saw of them, they injured over twenty people, five of which were children, burned part of the city hall down, and spray painted graffiti on a great deal of the buildings downtown." A few more snapshots of blurry and pixelated photos popped onto the screen, showing a crudely painted message on a brick wall. It read "End Orochimaru" and right under it "THIS IS NOT RIGHT!"

A few more photos popped up, some of the words in them censored as the woman and the man discussed these actions. "We will be back!" One read. He spoke up, "Citizens of sector One, if you notice any strange or suspicious behavior, notify the authorities immediately. President Orochimaru's safety is in our hands and this group of dangerous people is hostile in every which way. Do not be afraid to speak up."

With a horrified look on her face, the newswoman turned to the man and they began to discuss their disagreement with the rebelling group's acts. To Sasuke, most of it sounded very shallow and ignorant. They seemed old enough to have witnessed the mass evictions over ten years ago, and it angered him to know the only reason they were taking it so lightly was because they were sheltered and safe.

Transfixed, they watched a few more minutes of citizens' daily life in a Sector. Dates and guidelines for evictions rolled onto the screen and the newsman scoffed when he read a couple of them aloud. Sasuke skimmed his eyes over some of them, catching that anyone with a lower income than what was displayed on the screen would be evicted, and that the jobless and already homeless would be escorted out as well.

"All those affected by AIDS and terminal illnesses are being asked to leave?" he asked incredulously, turning to the woman next to him. "Why, it's about time, right? They don't have much longer to live and we could do without some diseases."

A cold silence ran over their whole group as the woman agreed with him and they dove into another shallow conversation about transmitted diseases and what proper hygiene meant to them. They reminisced to when the citizens hosting new viruses were evicted about two years ago, as well. It was all obviously staged - their fake pity, monotonous conversation, and concern - as a recommendation for doctor's offices and medications appeared on the screen.

After that, Temari clenched her jaw and exited out of the video, turning the tablet off and pressing it to her stomach. "There you have it."

"I don't think I want to hear what else they have to say," Tenten mumbled.

Sasuke agreed. He was glad that he preferred living away from the Sector - for someone who had been without education for so long, it was ironic that he was more knowledgeable about the world around them and the people in it. He knew how to face the fact that the world didn't revolve around him and only him, and the way those newspeople had spoken so narrow-mindedly about ill people…

Orochimaru hadn't changed at all. He had a death wish for both himself and the citizens of his own sector, and they all blindly followed him without question. Sasuke felt a small inkling of connection with the protesters (who had been a relatively large group of people; they'd overfilled an intersection in the road) and suspected that he knew where Temari was trying to go with this.

"I have intelligence working on breaching their systems again," she said tightly. "You and strength's job is to make sure this protesting is under relative control. Of course we're recruiting, but make sure that when you do, not everyone travels in a whole mob back to the Center. Intelligence already worked out a path underground that we can easily take. I'll give you more details tomorrow morning when you're briefed."

"So this was an outline…?"

Temari ignored whoever asked that question and wiped a bit of sweat off of her forehead. "Some of you've gotta help me prepare to drain the water once it starts raining. It's for days this time, too. Don't forget to remind your buddies." With that, she sauntered away, leaving behind a confused force.

Sasuke's first mission? Now he felt useful. He was reminded of why liked this community—everyone gave in this environment, not just selfishly took. It was an intricate system that he appreciated. Albeit Temari and her brother didn't have to go so far as to enforce roles and amateur military rankings on them, he knew that they themselves had been in the military for years before their eviction. It was probably all only instinctual to them, and he knew Temari couldn't see it working any other way.

Naruto sat drowsily through his own meeting, keeping his cheek tucked into his palm as he kept nodding off. Suna had been holding a boring and droning conversation about the Sectors' government with one of the women in his platoon for the past few minutes, and to say he wasn't interested was an understatement. Karin shook him awake every now and then, and he was thankful for the effort. It was honestly just too early in the morning for him.

Once that conversation grew and the adults put in their own opinions and rumors they had heard of, he rested his head on the table and wrapped his arms around his head, blocking out most of the sound like that.

Naruto fell asleep again, all through the meeting. He wholeheartedly ignored Karin as she pinched his bicep rather painfully and the patronizing kicks directed to his shin. From what he understood, a couple of his other peers had fallen asleep all throughout the meeting as well.

"I can't believe you slept through all of that," Sakura snapped once the meeting was called for a finish, moving to their normal table for breakfast. "This was seriously important-"

"He'll hear about it sooner or later," Kiba chimed in, lazily throwing himself back onto the bench. Most of his weight nearly pushed Naruto over, and he scowled and elbowed the other boy in the ribs.

"If it's so important, why don't y'all just fill me in instead of getting after me?" Naruto grumbled, sending Karin and Sakura wary looks.

"We could," Karin agreed. "But I don't feel like it."

"This can't happen in the future, Naruto," Sakura said, slowly taking a seat across from him. She crossed her arms.

He pursed his lips. "I was just up late, okay?"

"I"m not always going to be around to remind you about this stuff," she replied in a hushed tone, eyes serious.

Naruto's eyes widened for a few seconds and then a fresh wave of… sadness washed over him. Sakura continued to summarize the whole meeting for him as if she hadn't even said anything in the first place. It seemed Kiba or Karin hadn't caught that comment, and Ino had just appeared in the line of his sight right after she'd said that. Why did Sakura always have to be so serious sometimes? Maybe this was just the guilt card, but geez, that was harsh.

He didn't want his friends to get hurt. He didn't want his friends to die. He didn't want to even think about his friends getting hurt or his friends dying. They all seemed so invincible to Naruto, shielded with the armor of the time they'd stuck around with him. It was amazing that they'd come this far in the first place, but Naruto would like to keep that streak going.

Naruto slumped his shoulders and the fleeting expression on Sakura's face let him know that she found his mannerisms endearing. Pressing his lips together, he watched Kiba and Chouji play a couple of quick rounds of rock, paper, scissors.

Whatever tomorrow had coming, and if their predictions were right, Naruto hoped that the outcome of it all would be good. He wondered what the citizens in One were really thinking, and whether or not they were happy in their homes. Were they really as materialistic as Sakura had said they were? Hopefully, it couldn't truly be that way. He wondered if the state of One had been about the same when Sasuke had lived there, and whether or not his young self had noticed any disarray around him. Naruto's thoughts took a bit of a turn when he wondered about what park Sasuke had played at, what his childhood home had looked like, and if he'd ever spent his time looking for his favorite toy. He knew Sasuke'd had very few friends (if he and Sasuke were both being honest, none—maybe he'd speak a few words to the arranged playdate his mother and a friend had agreed on) because he spent most of his time bonding with Itachi.

The thought of Sasuke's brother made his chest tighten, but not with hatred. Itachi's previous wishes had been for his little brother to live safely. Within that brotherly connection, Naruto could see no hatred whatsoever, only what he'd witnessed on a constant schedule. Disguised affection, subdued playfulness and banter between the brothers (something that'd surprised him at first; they were both so stoic), and unadulterated care for one another. It stressed him out, almost nearly as much as Sasuke probably was, but he couldn't shake the feeling that their connections with Gaara, Neji, Kabuto and Itachi had completely severed yet.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when Kiba grabbed him into a chokehold and rubbed the top of his head, laughing heartily and pushing at the other.

Naruto just really hoped it would all work out.

A/N: What a coincidence that a bunch of violence has broken out in America by the time I've gotten to this part of the story. I hope to give you all some insight on the more… cruel part of what's happening to the citizens. You'll definitely see outside of our own sheltered and safe world, that's for sure. The streets are tough. Thanks for all of the follows/favs, reviews, kudos. Don't forget to leave some, I love it. This story may go on a small break as I venture out of this universe again and hopefully start on a little story of the boys in high school. We'll see.