I do not own these series, nor do I make any money off of this.

"talking"

'thinking'

Chapter 80: Nightmare Breathing - Travelers' Bet

"Sasuke? Sasuke," Naruto called as he shook Sasuke slightly. "Please, wake up." His eyes moved to Sasuke's chest where he saw no movement. "No!" He began to give the raven mouth-to-mouth, pleading for him to awaken. But his cries died as Sasuke's heart beat fully disappeared. "No! Sasuke! SASUKE!" Naruto began to scream before he sat up in bed.

"Kit, it was just a dream."

Naruto's body shook as a hand moved to his chest, clenching at his shirt. It took several minutes for him to calm down, tears slowly coming to a stop. He still shook slightly, but Kurama knew he'd be ok. "It wasn't just a dream." From inside him, Kurama raised an eyebrow. "It happened, back in that world with those titans. Sasuke died."

"You managed to get him to start breathing again. He's alive."

"But it happened again!"

"Kit, the Uchiha is fine."

"Kurama, I… I'm scared. What will I do if I lose him?"

Kurama thought back to what he said to Sasuke about killing him. "He'd get over it." It had been said out of anger yet filled with an unfounded confidence. Kurama had to admit that it was such a foolish thought. Sasuke meant the world to Naruto. Without Sasuke, would there even be a Naruto? He had seen their bond in the past worlds and he doubted it. "You won't lose him." That was all he could say. Those words lacked conviction, and he knew Naruto could see through them, but his Host accepted them anyway. He had to.

"I'm going back." Naruto slipped out of the bed and headed for the shower. "I can't leave Sasuke behind." Kurama could only nod as Naruto removed his clothes before stepping into the lukewarm water. It didn't take long for Naruto to get clean. He took out a clean change of clothes and quickly got dressed, sealing his dirty clothes away. A knock on the door stopped him as he threw Sasuke's backpack into a scroll. Walking over to the door, he opened it.

"Hi," Tanjiro said with a bit of hesitation. He was carrying the box with Nezuko on his back. Zenitsu and Inosuke stood behind him. "We were concerned about you and Sasuke."

Naruto gave him a confused look. "Sasuke? He's not with you?"

Tanjiro frowned. "No, he left about an hour after you. He was headed this way and…" He trailed off and Naruto quickly ripped out a piece of paper from his bag.

"Come on," Naruto begged. "Please tell me he's ok." Naruto impatiently waited until the map was completed as his eyes quickly scanned what he could see. When his eyes fell on Sasuke's name, he let out a sigh of relief. He then raised an eyebrow before walking towards the window and looking out into the alley. It was empty. He looked at the map then at the alley. The map claimed that Sasuke was right there. 'Did he set up a Genjutsu or a barrier? Why?'

"Naruto?" Tanjiro asked. "What's wrong?"

"I-it's nothing," Naruto said, hiding the map. He didn't want to explain how he got it, nor did he think it was a good idea to show it to Tanjiro and the others. He made sure to deactivate it with a whisper of "mischief managed." Zenitsu gave him a weird look, but he remained silent. "Sasuke is nearby."

"Naruto, can I ask you something?" Tanjiro asked. Naruto nodded. "You and Sasuke are clearly close, but there is something keeping you apart. Whatever it is seems to be…" He paused. "I don't really know how to put it, but I can tell that it's hurting you."

Naruto took a deep breath before he sat down on the bed. Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke took that as a sign to get comfortable. Inosuke remained standing, his back against the door. Tanjiro carefully put the box down and sat in front of it while Zenitsu sat down next to him. Naruto started telling them about how he and Sasuke grew up in the same village together, how they met, became a part of the same team, and how they became friends. "But things changed after our village was attacked. Sasuke was reminded of his past and his goal. He left the village to gain the power needed to achieve it." He rubbed at his chest. "We fought and I lost. We both trained to get stronger. I wanted to bring him back home. He accomplished his goal, but it left him full of regret. This regret turned into hatred and now he wants those responsible to die."

"What happened?" Zenitsu asked.

"The elders of our village ordered the death of all of Sasuke's clan members by the hand of Sasuke's brother," Naruto said. Tanjiro and Zenitsu gasped. Inosuke's boar mask slipped off his face and hit the floor. Naruto wasn't surprised at seeing his face. "Itachi, Sasuke's brother, took the mission, but left Sasuke alive. Not knowing the truth, Sasuke killed Itachi."

"He knows the truth now though," Tanjiro stated. Naruto nodded. "If he wants to kill those elders, what do you want? I'm guessing you don't want that?"

Naruto looked down. "I do think they deserve to be punished. But he's dragging the rest of the village into it. I can't let him do that." The others didn't know what to say to that. "I was once asked what I would do if I ever had to choose between Sasuke and the village. I said I'd protect the village and save Sasuke. My friends want me to give up on Sasuke, but I can't."

"It sounds like you're in love with Sasuke," Zenitsu said offhandedly. Naruto smiled sadly. Zenitsu's eyes widened slightly. A cough from Tanjiro grabbed their attention.

"I think the two of you really need to talk," Tanjiro said.

"Talking isn't something we do," Naruto admitted. "At least not with words." His hand went to his chest again. Tanjiro was beginning to wonder why Naruto kept repeating that action. "Our actions seem to be more truthful."

"But the words still hurt," Taniro stood up, walking over to the bed and sitting down next to Naruto. "I already told you that Muzan killed my entire family except for Nezuko, whom he turned into a demon." Zenitsu and Inosuke looked at Tanjiro in surprise. He gave them a look that meant they'd talk later, one even Inosuke understood. "I can't tell you exactly how Sasuke feels, but I do know that the hurt and pain he is feeling won't just go away. He needs time." Tanjiro blushed slightly. "And maybe someone who can walk by his side through it."

The dark part of Naruto did not like that insinuation, but he had a feeling that wasn't exactly what Tanjiro meant. Inosuke felt the rise of jealousy in Naruto, reading it as killer intent, and readied himself to protect Tanjiro. But Kurama spoke up first. "He's here." Everyone froze at the voice that slipped from Naruto's mouth. Naruto on the other hand walked over to the window, opening it.

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Sasuke felt a slight stinging in his back which caused him to shift before waking up. Sleeping in the alley wasn't comfortable. His eyes adjusted to the dining light of day. "Good evening Sasuke-sama," Zephyra said.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted. He stood up and stretched. "I must have been out for a long time."

"Nearly eleven hours, Sasuke-sama," Zephyra answered.

"Too long," Sasuke frowned. He looked around, noticing the barrier that Zephyra had set up. He looked at her with his sharingan activated. "I've kept you too long. Your chakra is nearly depleted."

"It is alright," Zephyra said. "I shall go rest now." Sasuke nodded. Zephyra vanished in a puff of smoke, the barrier dropping. Luckily, no one had seen Sasuke suddenly appear in the alley, not that Sasuke really cared. His eyes moved to Naruto's room. He could still sense him, but there were others there. From what he could sense, it was Tanjiro's group. Grabbing his sword, Sasuke sent chakra to his feet and walked up the wall. He was about to kick through the glass window, when Naruto opened it. The blond didn't say anything and just took a few steps back. Sasuke took that as a welcoming sign and jumped into the room. He saw Tanjiro's group ust as he predicted, though there was something off about them. He could see pity in Tanjiro's eyes, more clearly than in Zenitsu and Inosuke's, but it was still there. Not wanting to get into it, Sasuke instead turned to Naruto.

"You took my stuff," he glared.

"I thought you wouldn't need it anymore," Naruto said, his anger rising.

Anger was something Sasuke was used to and he could deal with it. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Since you are so high bent in killing yourself…" Naruto yelled.

"I'm not killing myself!" Sasuke yelled back. "I was just meditating! Sometimes when I meditate I lose focus of my surroundings."

"And how would I know that?" Naruto cried. "We've only been back together for about five months, most of which we've been fighting. How would I know that while you were gone with the Snake Bastard that you'd…"

"Have you asked?" Sasuke interrupted. "You haven't asked me anything about my time with Orochimaru."

"Because I'm too afraid to!" Naruto slumped onto the bed, his head going into his hands. "Everytime I think of you and that bastard, all I can think of is what he might be doing to you, what you were allowing him to do. I spent those three years with Ero-sennin, so I know what Orochimaru was like, even back when he was a kid. Ero-sennin told me everything. And I can't stop thinking about it, even now."

"We spent a lot of time increasing the amount of times I could use chidori," Sasuke said. "We also had to move a lot. He didn't spend a lot of time near me as he was too busy with his experiments. I spent more time with Kabuto who taught me some healing jutsus, mostly because he was sick of healing me every time I went too far. I went on a few missions for them, but I never killed anyone. Orochimaru said I was too soft, but there was only one person that I wanted to kill."

"Itachi," Naruto said.

Sasuke nodded. "Scrolls, training, missions, and learning some jutsus, that's all I did. As strange as it may sound, I think Orochimaru was too afraid to spend a lot of time around me, especially since my sharingan had gotten stronger in our fight. As for the meditation thing, it was a way to calm me down and not think about Itachi. Ironically, it was Suigetsu that helped me with it. He spent a lot of time in one of Orochimaru's test tubes, so he knew how to 'let things go' as he put it."

Naruto felt his jealous spike again at the mention of Suigetsu's name, but he buried that feeling. It would get him nowhere right now. "Ok." He nodded. "Just promise me that the next time you meditate, it won't be until you stopped breathing. I don't like seeing you like that."

"I promise," Sasuke said.

A growl allerted Naruto and Sasuke to Inosuke's presence. Tanjiro looked at Inosuke then Naruto and laughed. "I think some of us are hungry." Naruto's stomach gave a grumble of agreement. Sasuke shook his head until he realised that he too was hungry. Naruto handed Sasuke his things and the group left the room to go eat in the inn's restaurant.

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During the meal, Tanjiro told Naruto and Sasuke about the mission they'd been sent on. It seems that a demon was killing people in the next town, and they'd be heading there next. They separated with Tanjiro promising to see them again. Naruto didn't have the heart to tell him differently. Naruto and Sasuke returned to Naruto's room in an awkward silence. When they got to the room Naruto instantly went to the bed and began to pull a scroll out his bag. It contained the list of everything they needed to replace.

"We'll have to go shopping in the morning or hope that we can buy things in the next world," Naruto began. "The problem is that we don't have a lot of money left. There was a casino of some sort down the street from here. We could use a henge and go there."

Sasuke sat down next to Naruto and looked over the list. "We'll need to at least triple our money to get the more important things. But gambling won't guarantee that we'll make it. We could lose all of our money."

"That's why I think we should split the money three ways," Naruto said, holding up three fingers. He put a finger down each of the next statements. "One for me, one for you, and one for keeps."

"That may work," Sasuke said. "Just don't lose all of your money on the first game."

"Teme!" Naruto yelled then laughed. Sasuke smiled. They stood back up. Waving the familiar signs Anko and Kakashi looked at each other. "Kakashi?"

"I couldn't henge into Itachi," Sasuke said. "Why'd you pick Anko?"

"A woman would be the best, but the thought of being Tsunade or Shizune didn't seem right," Naruto said. "She's the only female adult I've spent a lot of time with."

Sasuke felt a pang of pain at that, but he ignored it. "Lets go." The two jumped from the window, not wanting to alert the innkeeper. Upon arriving at the casino, they separated. Sasuke looked around, not sure which game to play. His sharingan was activated behind the contacts Lord Death had given him. His eyes landed on a game that seemed easy. The person responsible for the game explained the rules. Sasuke nodded, taking a seat. He decided to test the game by placing a coin on the black betting square. He watched the wheel continue to spin until it landed on Black 19. He was given his winnings so he decided to continue playing this way, betting on the color only. Betting this way in roulette didn't give him a lot of money, but it was better than losing it. When he got tired of using his sharingan, he lowered his bets to only two chips. He lost a few times, but it didn't matter, he had made more than four times what he wanted. Thanking the host, he got up to cash in his chips. He waited for Naruto, only to frown when the blond didn't show up ten minutes past their agreed time. "Dobe," he muttered before going on what he called a 'Dobe hunt.'

When the violet hair of Anko finally caught Sasuke's eyes, he rolled them. Naruto was sitting at a pachinko machine. Pachinko machines were more luck based than Sasuke was comfortable playing. He walked towards Naruto, ready to chew him out for gambling so stupidly when a bucket came into few. His eyes widened when he realized there was more than one bucket there, all of which were filled with pachinko balls. A few people were gathered around Naruto as he played, including two hosts, one of which was clearly a higher up. They watched Naruto in amazement as he let another ball loose into the machine. Sasuke's sharingan instantly activated as it watched the ball move. His jaw would have dropped at its movements if he hadn't already seen the buckets. Still, it was amazing to see just how lucky Naruto was.

Naruto was about to put in another ball when Sasuke walked right up to him, lowering his mouth to his ear. "Dobe, you have an audience."

Naruto flinched slightly, blushing. He looked around. "Did someone else want to use this machine?" A bunch of men fought over it while the higher-up host told people it was being shut down for inspection. Naruto followed the female host in confusion as another host appeared to help carry the buckets. They were led into a back room where the female host offered them drinks. They accepted, but neither drank. The buckets were taken by a short man, who quickly left with them.

A tough looking man walked into the room, smoking. Naruto frowned as he nearly gagged at the smell. Sasuke was more used to it, but he too showed some displeasure on his face. The man ignored them, taking a seat in front of them, the female host standing behind him. "We've checked the machine. It seems to be working fine."

"Ok?" Naruto tilted his head. "Then why are we here?"

"No one has ever won so much from one machine," the man said. "So I want to know, how did you cheat?"

"Eh?" Naruto looked at the man with clear confusion. "You can cheat at pachinko?" The man stared at Naruto, trying to get a reading on him. When it became clear that Naruto wasn't lying, the man sat back and let out another puff of smoke. Naruto coughed. "You know, that's a bit rude."

"What?" the man asked.

"The smoke," Naruto pointed at the man's cigar. "It's gross. Can't you wait until we're gone before doing that?"

The man looked at Naruto as if he had grown two heads. Sasuke had to hold himself back from laughing at Naruto's stupidity or bravery at nagging a man that clearly wants to kill him. Somehow, the man remained calm. "What I do in my place of business is…"

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto interrupted. "Can we go now? The smell is making me sick. I'm sure my throw up might smell better than that crap, but I enjoyed my dinner and really don't want to waste it."

The man looked at Naruto stupefied. The host behind him laughed. "You sure have guts," she said. "Honey, I have to agree. It is rude to smoke in front of our guests." The man growled before taking the cigar from his mouth and putting out the smoke. He sat back and crossed his arms, glaring at the table. The woman rolled her eyes. "Since there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the machine, we though you cheated somehow. But it is clear you have no idea what we're talking about. We also know it couldn't have been him since he was too busy at the roulette board. However, due to the amount you've won, we will have to ban you from coming here again. Your winnings are yours though. I'm having someone count them. Since we have to do this in secret…" She pulled out what looked to be a menu. "...please pick out what you want to get from here. We can't give you money for the pachinko balls, but we can give you prizes." A few seconds later, the short man came in with a piece of paper. The woman's eyes widened before she showed it to everyone. "This is how many balls you had. Please pick your prizes accordingly."

Naruto and Sasuke looked at the 'menu' both wondering what to get. They saw a lot of things on there they really didn't need. Seeing a few things they did want, Naruto asked for a pen and a piece of paper. He wrote some things down, getting extras of them just in case. The woman looked at the list the two were making and frowned. She didn't understand why they were picking such common things. Naruto had won enough to pick more than one of the trip prizes. She looked towards Sasuke, but he wasn't trying to get Naruto to pick something more expensive. She wondered just what the two were really after, even more so when Naruto put down the pen.

"Is something wrong?" the woman asked.

"There isn't really anything else we need," Naruto said, showing her the list he'd made.

She looked at it and noticed again that everything listed was common and cheap things. She came to a conclusion that made sense since she had never seen these two before. "Are you travelers?" Naruto looked at Sasuke before nodding. "Then I suppose you need things for your travels. We have food and drinks as well. But even a month worth of supplies for the both of you won't cover all of the winnings. I suppose you could get some of the more expensive things and sell them back to us next door for money…" She trailed off.

"Can we do that?" Naruto asked. "Can we get a month worth of supplies along with this list and then you can pick out what to sell back to you for money?"

The woman looked at her husband who nodded. "I can do that. You may have some left over though."

"That's fine," Naruto said. "You can keep the rest."

The woman nodded before adding to Naruto's list. She handed it to the short man who bowed and left. She finally took a seat next to her husband as she grabbed a drink and took a sip. Naruto started up a conversation about a painting that was hanging in the room. The woman was happy to talk about it. She went into great detail about some other works of art she owned. It was about an hour later when the short man walked back into the room. A few other men were behind him, bringing in what they'd asked for. "I'll have it delivered to where you are staying." Naruto gave her the name of the inn he was staying at as well as the name he had used. Sasuke was a bit surprised that he had given them a fake name. The short man and the others took several boxes and left, leaving behind four boxes. "These contain items you can sell back to us next door. I'm sad to see you leave, but I do hope we meet again." She led them to a door that led to an alley. She pointed to a building a little ways down the street. "That's where you can sell that stuff. They already know you're coming. Have a good one, my dear." She leaned over and kissed Naruto on the forehead. "Safe travels." Naruto smiled before catching up to Sasuke who had already started walking away. "Such a nice couple. Too bad we'll probably never see them again."

"You don't know that," her husband said. "The doctor could be wrong." The woman just smiled at her husband, her eyes staring after Naruto and Sasuke.