Finally, Chapter Seven is done. This took me longer than I expected, but then again, most of the chapters have. Anyways, I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters from said anime/manga. I do, however, have ownership of this story.
Naruto's eyes grew comically wide as Sasuke leaned closer. His cheeks burned and his mind raced. Something soft and textured touched his cheek and he froze. Realizing that it was a wash cloth, he let out a sigh of relief. A soft chuckle turned his attention back to the raven. "What did you think I was going to do?"
The blush deepened and Naruto swatted the wiping hand away. "N-Nothing, you pervert." He turned away from Sasuke and desperately tried to stop blushing. "Stop treating me like a kid, I can take care of myself!" He growled out, trying to change the subject.
"Oh, really?" Sasuke's voice was mocking and sarcastic. It grated at Naruto's nerves and he growled softly. "Yeah. Now, I'm going to take another nap. Thanks for the food." He returned to the couch and cuddled into the cushions. A dip in the couch alerted him to someone else sitting down. He turned his head to see Sasuke sitting at his feet. "Move your feet, dobe."
"Why? I'm comfy." Naruto retorted, glaring at the raven, who rolled his eyes. "It is my couch." Naruto stuck his tongue out and then sat up as Sasuke turned on the television. Naruto's eyes widened when he saw what the channel was on. "Uh...Sasuke, can you change the channel?" He swallowed hard and tried to ignore the scene on the television. He really did hate horror movies. "Why, dobe? Scared?" Sasuke sneered as he glanced at the blond. "N-no! I just thought we could watch something different." Sasuke raised an eyebrow and the smirk grew wider. "I don't want to watch something else."
Naruto's hands clenched into his fists and he tried to hide his fear. "Fine then. Be a jerk!" He huffed and turned to the television to prove that he was n't scared. However, within ten minutes, he was shaking and his eyes were as wide as saucers. He was terrified that the woman was going to go in the basement. He knew what was in that basement! He whimpered as she put her hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it. With each step she took down the stairs, his body grew more tense and he gripped his pants tighter. He pulled his legs to his chest and whimpered softly as the woman stepped on the basement floor. There was an ominous sound from the other side of the basement.
"Dobe..." Naruto screamed as the quiet voice spoke in his ear. He turned to the snickering raven sitting on the couch beside him. If he had not been scared out of his wits, the sight of the Uchiha laughing would have shocked him. "TEME!" He squealed out in a 'manly' way. "You sound like a girl," came the sputtered reply to his squeal of indignation.
Naruto pulled his legs closer to his chest and pouted. "I do not...Anyways, it isn't my fault that you made me watch this stupid movie!" Sasuke's snickers faded and the raven sobered, moving closer to the blond. A warm arm slipped around Naruto's shoulder, causing a surprised squeak to escape his lips. "It is just a movie, Naruto, and a predictable one at that."
He grumbled under his breath and then gasped as a scream echoed through the room. The monster had gotten to the woman. Suppressing a scream of his own, Naruto leaned into Sasuke without realizing it. He was too focused on the television to notice the smirk on the raven's lip and the tightening grip on his shoulders. As the movie turned bloody, Naruto buried his face in the nearest warm surface. Naruto was appreciative of the following commercial break; it would give him time to calm down a bit.
The warm surface moved and Naruto moved back in alarm to find himself cuddled into Sasuke and not the couch. Naruto's brow furrowed in confusion. He had been sure that he had cuddled into the warm cushions of the couch and not Sasuke. The realization caught up to him and he blushed. "S-sorry! I...uh...yeah..." He moved away from Sasuke and sat on the other end of the couch.
A deep chuckle reached his ears, surprising him. He glanced at the other boy and his eyes widened. Sasuke was watching him with almost amused eyes. The boy's lips were turned upwards slightly and the warm chuckling that was leaving the boy's throat added to the picture of amusement. Naruto felt an odd sensation in his chest and his heart rate increased. He found the edges of his own lips turning up, before he turned back to the television. The movie was back, not that he wanted to watch it, but it would distract him from the odd feeling he was experiencing.
When the movie was finally over, Naruto was happy to find himself not touching Sasuke in any way and that he was reasonably calm. He yawned widely and blinked slowly. His calm behavior disappeared, however, when Sasuke loosely put his arm around his shoulders. His eyes widened and he tensed. The other boy started to slowly move his hands against the tense muscles, massaging. Naruto slowly started to relax. Wow, he is good at this! He sighed quietly and unconsciously leaned back into the touch. His eyelids fluttered and started to slide shut. He yawned again and then laid his head against Sasuke. Before he realized what he was doing, Naruto fell asleep. He was unaware that Sasuke stopped massaging him and was wearing a smirk.
Naruto breathed deeply, in and out, relaxing against the warmth beside him. He smiled slightly as the warmth enveloped him and he burrowed his face into the soft warmth that was Sasuke's shoulder. His dreams stayed pleasant for longer, but when the warmth left him, he started to whimper.
"Ru-ru, come here." The small blond child hurried to the man's side on the front step, nervously looking up at the man's smiling face. "Are you going to help me today?" The child nodded rapidly and then took the man's outstretched hand. "Good, fishy." They walked beside the busy street, acting like any normal father and son would. Only when they stopped beside a run-down apartment building did the child's nervousness reappear. The man seemed to notice it and he knelt beside the blond, smiling. "It is okay to be nervous. Do not worry, I will be there the entire time and we can help each other. Alright?"
A quick nod and squeeze of a hand and they were off, heading into the building. As they approached a back room on the first floor, the boy became aware of the muffled sounds of a woman crying. He looked at his father in alarm, but found that the man was not looking at him, but rather at the door before them. A tan hand turned the knob and light flooded the passageway. The blond child swallowed hard as he took in the sight before him. A tug to his hand within the man's caused him to turn to his father. "You can do this, Ru-ru. You want to make me proud, right?"
The boy smiled slightly and hurried forward. As they stood before the gagged woman, the boy swallowed back the nervousness and took a hold of the knife that his father held out to him. A small pale hand raised, brandishing the sharp weapon, blue eyes stared into the hazel eyes of the woman, and suddenly the knife lowered, sinking into flesh. The boy glanced at his father and took in the proud expression the man was wearing. A warm feeling bubbled within his chest and the knife raised again, as if in slow motion.
Naruto jolted upright and almost head butted Sasuke, who was leaning over him with an almost frantic expression on his face. He slowly became aware that he was covered in a cold sweat, his breath came out in pants, and his clothing was twisted. He gasped as he felt something wet sliding down his cheeks and realized that he was crying. Naruto suddenly felt sick and scrambled off the bed, vaguely wondering how he had gotten there as he raced to the bathroom to lose everything that he had eaten earlier.
His mind was still in the memory and he shuddered as he leaned against the cool porcelain basin. The confusion and fear that he had seen in that woman's eyes had haunted him for years, and it had not been the first nor the last time he had seen that look in someone's eyes. He clutched at his chest as he started to sob. Loud, shaking cries that echoed through the bathroom and down the hallway. Warm arms hesitated before taking him into a rough, yet gentle, embrace. When he had calmed down, Naruto pulled away from the embrace with embarrassment. Sasuke had seen him in a very weak position. He had been crying and throwing up. He wiped his eyes and rinsed his mouth out with the offered glass of water. Standing up on unsteady legs, Naruto flushed the toilet and made his way to the living room. Managing to get to the couch before he collapsed, Naruto curled into a ball on the cushions and tried not to think of the memory.
The cushions dipped inwards slightly, alerting him to Sasuke's presence on the couch. "W-what did-d I say in my... my sleep?" He asked in a cracking voice. There was a long pause before Sasuke's quiet, gruff voice replied, "You were screaming, 'Don't take the knife. Don't believe him.' Then you started crying about your papa."
Naruto bit his lip and swallowed hard, "Weird..." He whispered, not wanting to give Sasuke any clues as to what he was dreaming about.
"You have yet to hold up your end of the deal for convincing Tsunade to let you out early. Your dreams are connected to this stomach pain and I want to know why." Sasuke replied before Naruto could brush off the subject.
Staring at the carpet and finding it to be rather fascinating, Naruto tried to think of some way to get out of talking about his past. A rather potent glare and a growled out threat of 'dobe' made him reconsider his actions, however, and he took a deep breath, sitting up on the couch. "It's a long story, and I'm not sure how much I am actually ready to tell you. I'll try with the basics, but...but, you have to promise me something, Sasuke." He turned his blue eyes on the raven and stared into the obsidian pools with a desperate look in his eyes. He received a mute nod as encouragement to continue. "No matter what I say, you won't completely flip out." Sasuke raised an eyebrow, but replied in a calm manner, "I promise. Talk."
Naruto looked back at the carpet and nervously wrung his hands. "Well, I guess I should tell you that my parents were very special to me and I never had better friends than them. I was little when...my mother died. My father raised me until I was ten, and then pervy sage took me away. My father disappeared and I was moved to a new town, this town, Konoha. I was born here, but after my mother died, my father moved me to a different city." He paused, taking a deep breath before continuing. "My father...was...different. He wasn't the best parent, but I loved him, nonetheless. I was in bad shape when Jiraiya took me, and the aftermath of the first ten years of my life are the stomach pains and nightmares that I suffer from now." Naruto rubbed his arms, suddenly feeling cold.
He could feel Sasuke's intense gaze and he nervously glanced in the other man's direction. He could see many questions in the onyx eyes, questions that he knew he could not answer. "I said I would tell you part of my past, not all of it." Turning his gaze to stare at the carpet once more, Naruto took a deep breath. He stood and moved away from the couch, towards the hallway. "I'm going back to sleep." Naruto muttered, purposely avoiding any eye contact with Sasuke as he walked away. Naruto knew that he could not tell the raven any more about his past without the man judging him. Not even Jiraiya or Tsunade knew the extent of what had happened before his father disappeared. No one knew exactly what Naruto had done.
As he slipped beneath cool covers, Naruto swallowed hard and tried to force the acidic taste of bile away. He burrowed beneath the blankets and shut his eyes tightly, hoping and wishing that the memories would not return for the rest of the night. Naruto slowly relaxed and just before he fell asleep, he felt a hand lightly touch his hair, and his lips pulled up in a faint smile.
Please Review! Keep an eye out for Chapter Eight. :)