The rest of the month passed quickly for Naruto. He felt himself fighting his thoughts on the daily, exhaustion nearly consuming him.

He felt himself falling behind in class as he began to fall asleep during his lectures and slacking on his homework.

Furthermore, he tried his best to hide his exhaustion from the raven, but Sasuke was quick to catch on that something was wrong with the blonde. A week before Naruto's next appointment with Danzo, Sasuke confronted the blonde after their classes. He spotted the blonde lounging on the couch, TV on a low volume.

"Hey," Sasuke walked into the living room and sat himself down next to Naruto, casually throwing his arm over the back of the couch, behind the blonde.

Naruto took the opportunity to lean into Sasuke's body, snuggling his head into the crook of Sasuke's neck. Sasuke brought his hand to the blonde's head and began to trail his fingers through golden locks. Cerulean eyes fluttered closed and Naruto let out a soft hum. "Hey."

Sasuke stayed silent, watching the blonde carefully. "How are you doing?" He finally asked.

Naruto opened his eyes to stare ahead of him. "Just tired."

Sasuke let his finger softly trail a path down the blonde's temple. "What's going on?"

The blonde stayed silent, enjoying the raven's gentle touch. It wasn't very often that Sasuke was so gentle, he wanted to soak it in as much as possible. "I-" he paused, unsure how to explain what was going on in his head. "I'm just having some difficulties with Danzo's assignment. I'm just not sure how I'm supposed to feel."

Sasuke took in his words and brought his fingers back to Naruto's hair. "I don't think therapy is something that's so black and white. Especially in the beginning. It's something new that you're experiencing, I wouldn't expect all your problems to be solved right away."

Naruto let out a huff. "You trying to say I'm bad at therapy?"

Sasuke snorted and rolled his eyes, lightly tapping his knuckle on the blonde's forehead. "Idiot."

Naruto sat up, glaring and rubbing at his forehead. "Bastard!"

"You can't be bad at therapy, unless you're not trying."

Naruto's glare withered. "Well, it sure feels like it."

Sasuke placed a kiss on the top of Naruto's head. "It'll get easier. Patience is a virtue."

"I sure hope so."

The day of Naruto's next therapy appointment, Naruto was dragging his feet out of the university building. He opened the doors to see Sasuke and Sakura already standing at the bottom of the staircase. Despite him feeling exhausted, Naruto took in a deep breath and placed the biggest smile he could muster on his face as he jogged down the steps. "Hey guys!"

Both heads turned to see him, and Sakura smiled brightly at him, waving her arm frantically. "Naruto!" She wrapped him up in a hug, laughing. She pulled him away gently, looking him over. "You look so much better than these past couple weeks."

Naruto laughed, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "I ended up taking a personal day the other day and sleeping in. Best decision I've made so far."

Sakura nodded. "It's good to take the time to take care of yourself. You have therapy today, right?"

Naruto nodded.

"How are you liking him?"

Naruto gave a glance to Sasuke, who stayed silent throughout the discussion. He focused his gaze back on Sakura. He gave her a shrug. "He's okay, I guess, it's just hard work."

Sakura nodded. "It is, but his methods work wonders. You'll just have to stay on it, and Sasuke is always here for support, right Sasuke?"

"Hn."

Sakura rolled her eyes at the response as Naruto snickered. She ruffled the blonde's hair before taking a step back. "Okay, I'll leave you two be, I got a paper to write!"

The couple watched her walk away toward her dorm. Naruto let out a sigh and turned to face Sasuke, his smile still plastered to his face. "Ready to go?"

Sasuke stayed silent, studying the blonde. Naruto nervously shifted his weight from one leg to the other. Finally, Sasuke gave a nod before reaching for a tan hand, gently grasping it and tugging the blonde to his side. "Yeah, let's go."

They walked to Danzo's office and checked in. They took a seat, waiting for Danzo. They waited patiently, Naruto's head resting on Sasuke's shoulder. Soon enough, Danzo's office door opened and he called the blonde into his office.

Naruto reluctantly stood up from his seat and walked into the office, taking his place in the seat in front of Danzo's desk. He watched as Danzo made his way to his desk. He gave the blonde a friendly smile and got out his notebook from his desk drawer.

"Hello Naruto, how's it been going for you since we last spoke?"

Naruto let out a shaky sigh as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Uh, not too good."

Danzo's eyes widened for a brief moment, and he quickly wrote in his notebook. He then gave his attention back to Naruto. "Would you care to elaborate further on this?"

"Well," the blonde started, fidgeting in his seat to get more comfortable. "I did what you said to do, you know, journaling and telling myself that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was."

Danzo gave an understanding nod, encouraging him to continue.

Naruto shook his head. "I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but, it's not working."

Danzo once again nodded, leaning back in his chair. "I admit, I should've warned you before just telling you to go ahead with this assignment."

Naruto tilted his head in curiosity, awaiting Danzo's words.

"These assignments that I'll be giving you, they aren't cure-alls. It'll be tough, and you'll feel like you may be taking steps backwards instead of forward. Therapy is a lot of work, and it's not going to cure you overnight."

Naruto frowned. "That's what a lot of people say."

Danzo lightly chuckled. "They're right. Especially with this being your first time doing stuff like this, I'm not surprised you're having trouble with this. But the more you work on it, the easier it'll get. You just can't give up."

Naruto let out a tired sigh before running his hand through his hair. "I guess it makes sense."

"If it becomes too much, we can always look into additional help, such as medicine, to help you get some sleep."

Naruto studied Danzo. He heard about people taking medicine for mental issues, and he had to admit, the thought scared him. He's heard about people starting to feel like a zombie, not feeling like themselves. He shook his head. "I'd rather not take that path, to be honest." He let out a sigh. "I just feel so confused." He ran a hand through his hair.

"That's a good sign." Danzo commented. The blonde perked up, looking at him with a curious gaze.

"It is?"

Danzo nodded, an encouraging smile on his face. "It means your mind's trying to heal itself."

Naruto sat up straighter in his seat.

"What I want you to do," Danzo leaned forward in his seat, causing the blonde to lean forward as well. "Is when those opposing thoughts enter your mind and try telling you they're real, I want you to tell yourself that you know the truth and these fake memories are making it worse than it seems."

Naruto nodded his head, going along with Danzo's words.

"Now, let's try practicing this out loud so that you'll know how to deal with it when the time comes."

The two practiced Danzo's advice, with Danzo giving him praise for every convincing mantra. By the time the alarm went off to signal the end of their session, Naruto felt confident in being able to tell himself that his memories were tricking him.

He walked out of the office with a new sense of confidence. Sasuke raised an eyebrow as the blonde walked out with his chest practically puffed out. He smirked as he stood up to walk over to him. "Seems like the session went well."

Naruto threw himself into Sasuke's chest, wrapping his arms around the raven's waist. He smiled up at him, his chin resting on his chest. "It did. I feel like my next exercises, that Danzo assigned me, are going to do wonders."

Sasuke gently ran his fingers down Naruto's back, smiling softly. "That's good to hear." He waited until Naruto released his arms from around him, to wrap his own arm around the blonde's shoulders, walking the two of them to the front desk to check out and make the next appointment.

They walked out of the building, hand in hand, before Naruto stopped the two of them. Sasuke looked at him, a questioning look on his face. "What's wrong."

Naruto stood still, his hand still clasped in the raven's pale one. A big smile slowly spread over his face. "I'm just really happy."

Sasuke let out a snort, his lips twitching in his own smile. He was happy that the blonde seemed to be returning to his old self. He couldn't deny how worried he was becoming. In his free time, he was talking to Sakura, venting his concerns about the blonde.

Luckily, Sakura was very reassuring in telling him that this was a normal process through the therapy process. He knew, logically, that this was exactly what was happening to Naruto, but still, he couldn't help but worry. But after this therapy visit, he was more than convinced that Naruto was healing.

"I'm glad you're happy, dobe." He took a step closer, moving Naruto's hand towards his back, letting go and placing his own hands on Naruto's hips. He pulled the blonde in for a soft kiss.

Naruto relaxed into Sasuke's touch, moving his arms up to wrap around Sasuke's neck, pushing his lips firmly against the raven's.

The two stood in the middle of the street, engulfed in their own world as they kissed each other, tasting each other.

Naruto reluctantly pulled away, panting. "W-we should go home."

Sasuke rested his forehead against the blonde's. A smirk slowly spread on his face as he stared into cerulean eyes. "We should, so I can ravish you all over our bed."

Naruto's cheeks turned red, and he leaned forward, pressing his lips against the raven's. Before the kiss could get too intense, Naruto pulled away and started to drag the raven with him.

It wasn't long before they reached the apartment. As soon as the front door closed, Sasuke grabbed the blonde's hips, pulling him closer to him.

Naruto let out a squawk at the quick movement, but it turned into a moan as Sasuke's tongue invaded his mouth, tasting him. He began to tug at the shirt that was covering the pale chest.

Sasuke reluctantly pulled away from the delicious taste that was Naruto, and let the blonde pull his shirt up and over his head before going back to the blonde's mouth.

Without pulling apart, the two of them made their way to the bedroom, where Sasuke roughly pushed Naruto onto the bed.

"Uh, bastard." Naruto managed to mumble as he landed on the sheets.

"Hn." Sasuke responded with a smirk before straddling himself on top of the blonde. He leaned down and grasped Naruto's head in a kiss. He then reached down with one hand in between then, starting to unbutton Naruto's pants.

The blonde began to pant into the raven's mouth as Sasuke began to grope him through his underwear. "Ngh, Sasuke." He moaned.

Sasuke began to kiss along Naruto's jaw as he drew out more moans from those beautiful lips.

"Pl-please," Naruto breathed out.

Sasuke froze at the desperation he heard in Naruto's voice, and that's all it took. He quickly stood up and began to undo his own pants. When Naruto realized the raven stood up, he kicked off his own pants and then tossed his underwear somewhere far off into the room. Just in time for Sasuke to lift him and push up further along the bed.

Sasuke began to kiss along his collar, and Naruto let out moans as he began to nip at his skin. He desperately reached for the nightstand on the side of the bed, pulling the drawer open and searching for the lube that they kept in there.

Once he found it, he nearly dropped it as a shiver and a groan came out from him. Sasuke bit him, hard, right at the junction of his hip. An intense wave of pleasure and pain washed over him. He quickly handed the lube to Sasuke, who took it gratefully.

He generously lubed himself up and then proceeded to teasingly finger the blonde's entrance with his finger.

Naruto squired impatiently, waiting for the intrusion. He lifted his head to give a glare to the smirking raven. "Are you going to finger me, or do I have to do it myself?"

Sasuke's smirk only seemed to grow at Naruto's aggressiveness. He didn't need to be told twice, without any further hesitation, he inserted a finger inside the blonde, who let out a satisfied groan.

Sasuke soon then inserted another finger, prepping the blonde. It wasn't long before he found that sweet spot that had Naruto bucking his hips and moaning loudly.

"Sasuke," Naruto groaned out, wanting more. "Just put it in already, please."

"Whatever you say," he removed his fingers, and Naruto sighed at the feeling of emptiness. Though the feeling of being full quickly replaced it as Sasuke, not-so-gently, shoved his cock inside the blonde.

Naruto clenched his teeth tightly at the pain. He opened his eyes and nearly froze as he saw Sai above him. He quickly closed his eyes, hoping to get rid of the image.

"Are you okay? Was I too rough?" He heard Sasuke's voice. He opened one eye cautiously to see that Sasuke was looking down at him with concern.

Naruto opened his other eye, beginning to relax. "Ye-yeah, it was just a little unexpected."

"Sorry." Sasuke muttered, barely restraining himself inside the blonde. "You need a minute."

Naruto snorted and then gave him a smirk. "Please, you can barely control yourself as it is. Just," he paused. "Just go a bit slower, okay?"

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, slowly pulling out. He let out a shaky breath before thrusting into the blonde, who responded with his own moan. At the sound, Sasuke quickened his pace and soon found a steady rhythm.

Naruto closed his eyes in pleasure as he soon was overwhelmed by the sweet pleasure of Sasuke hitting that spot that his eyes rolling back. He grasped onto Sasuke's arm, needing to feel grounded.

"You like that, huh?"

Naruto's eyes snapped open, and he once again saw and heard Sai above him, a condescending smirk plastered on his face. "Stop!" He shouted, letting go of Sasuke's arm and beginning to push himself away.

Sasuke let out a frustrated groan but quickly pulled himself out of the blonde, getting off the bed. "Naruto?"

"Why is this happening?" Naruto sat up against the headboard, pulling his knees to his chest and tugging on his blonde locks. "Get out of my. Fucking. Head!"

Sasuke looked on in concern before sitting on the edge of the bed. He gently placed his hand on the blonde's leg but Naruto moved it away.

"Please, Sasuke." Naruto's voice was soft and filled with exhaustion. "I,-" he swallowed, before looking at the raven, his eyes beginning to water. "I just need a minute."

Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows before nodding, getting up and dressed. After finishing putting on his shirt, he gave Naruto one last look before walking out o the bedroom, not saying a word.

oOooOooo

Hey, hope everyone is doing good and having a great 2025! I know it's been a minute since there's been an update. Life happens, ya know?

As always, if you liked it, please favorite and review!

~taciequilsluv