Fish Bird
魚鳥
For a moment Naruto did nothing, he just breathed and blinked. Wondering if all of this was a bad dream. That it wasn't happening that somehow this was a mistake. That the image of the person before him simply could not be real.
Through the bubbles of incoherency in his brain he felt himself shivering from shock, he squeezed his eyes closed and fell forwards to his knees. All the blood in his body seemed to gush just behind the artery in his ears, pounding 'thump-thump-thump' like thunder across his skull. Beneath him his hands curled up into the cool earth and he inhaled the damp smell of crushed grass and soil, lurching for something to centre his existence on.
Naruto gently let his forehead rest on the hard indents of his knee caps and pulled numb fingers towards his lower wrist, forefinger and thumb closing together like a vice, checking this wasn't all a dream.
"Ouch!" He muttered to himself, "That hurts."
So it's not a dream.
He kept his eyes closed for a moment. Surely the key is not to panic. He has a wistful thought that maybe when he looked up again it'll be someone or something else.
Maybe it was just a hallucination brought on by food he stole out of Kiba's pack. The odd tasting liver and kidney biscuits or whatever the hell it was… it might be having repercussions now and just playing with his senses.
It really can't be Sasuke… not now, not ever. It's not allowed to be.
Naruto Uzumaki stood up, the motion itself happening a little too fast as everything swam blotchily, an awful bitter taste of acid gargling at the back of his throat.
He bit down hard on his lip, trying to ignore the shaking feeling in his legs.
"Okay Naruto," he said quietly to himself, "you can do this."
He took a small tentative step forwards, almost avoiding looking at his surroundings.
When he did allow himself to look back at the figure lying on the ground and hoping against all hope that it's not what it first seemed to be, no cigar.
Life is cruel and cynical in ways that laugh at him and threaten to break him. Reality for a moment, the careful reality he has constructed for such a long time seems cracked, holding itself together with duct tape, paper clips and gum.
But it is still holding… barely.
That face is burned into his memory, etched into his DNA, scrawled across his marrow. He would never forget that face, even smothered in dirt and globules of blood; it's burned into his brain, he sees it in his dreams, the imprint of a ghost haunting him.
"Sasuke Uchiha…" he breathed slowly on the out breath hardly realising his diaphragm had been tensed this whole time. The air whistled out his lungs, almost a sigh, pitching and undulating like a musical refrain. He found his hands to be numb as he pressed them against his eyes, hardly aware of the sensation in his fingertips.
"What am I supposed to do?"
Bile crawled up his throat and for a moment he was lost in fighting it down the overwhelming wave of nausea that accompanied it. Half coughing and stomach wrenching from the bottom of his gut as he took in the surrounding smell, carpeting the inside of his lungs and throat. Metallic laced with ammonia and blood, his eyes burned and he winced.
Naruto inhaled, steading himself he placed his shaking palms together and gritted his teeth. This is a mission, treat it like mission. It's just something on a piece of paper. Totally meaningless. A set of rules and obligations to be followed.
Naruto was not twelve anymore, he can look after himself. Of course, he can do this he's more than capable of it.
The blond squared his shoulders a second's hesitation before he moved forward cautiously.
The stippled light glanced across the Kitsune's skin casting deep dark shadows around his eyes as he tentatively he walked the earth.
This after all could be some sort of an illusion, a trick, an imposter pretending to be Sasuke.
The ground creaked beneath his foot, rocks rubbed against the rough skin of tree roots that penetrated this place like huge dark creepers. The grass was withered and burnt in a rough circle around the body, little blackened stumps peeping out of the scarred soil here and there.
Frowning whilst the hairs prickled at the back of his neck Naruto pressed forwards, biting his lips as apprehension bubbled up inside of him. Slowly he leant down.
For the first time in years he was face to face with Sasuke Uchiha.
His hands fumbled clumsily like a child as he remembered what to do, straight to standard procedure.
Sasuke's head lay at an odd angle, his eyes closed and his skin terrifyingly pale. Too pale: almost bloodless underneath all that muck and grime.
Maybe he's dead- God is he dead? Is he?
Naruto clumsily tried to move the head so it was at a less jarring angle from the rest of his body, his fingers skimmed the pale man's jaw line. Sasuke was cold and Naruto began to feel sick again from panic, breaking out in a cold sweat as he fumbled for a pulse.
The seconds ticked away like hours as he waited for it… for a long time there was absolutely nothing… and then… something, very faint, almost non-existent. Like movement in a spider's web: a slight twitch and then a release as Naruto freed the breath he had been holding onto, air rushing out cold and fast in sudden glorious relief.
It's there at least.
He couldn't stop himself from grinning, an expression that travelled all the way up to his eyes. A light sparkled behind the cornflower irises while subconsciously his hand travelled up to span the rest of Sasuke's face, taking in the changes that time had woven into his features.
His hair was still raven black, so dark that the falling light turned it indigo blue; the face had changed slightly. Older, longer perhaps, more angular: but still beautifully formed. His mouth was the same as it ever was, at least as Naruto recalled it. It was slightly parted, flushed, full and pouted as his body slowly drew in air. Naruto felt a stab of something sharp in his chest thinking the face inhabited a space of melancholy beauty.
Absently he moved his fingers to brush the dark strands of hair away from Sasuke's forehead, his digits rubbed against cuts and bruises that curdled angrily red against the milky flow of Sasuke's skin. He leant down a little, his middle finger tapping gently against Sasuke's cheek, as if in wonder. Naruto wanted him to open his eyes, to look at him, to say something.
Naruto opened his mouth, words forming and falling on his tongue; he shook his head feeling foolish. If Sasuke really did wake up, what on earth was he going to say? As if Sasuke would care? He'd already left him once. What would stop him from doing so again? What if this was some sort of very ill spirited practical joke?
He… Naruto could walk away now, leave him here, go back to Shikamaru and Kiba and pretend that nothing had happened. That the person was lying in so many pieces there wasn't even any point in them going to check. Case closed, life moves on.
He'd probably die if he did that….
Probably… most likely….
Definitely.
At this precise moment Naruto longed for his bed so he could pretend that this was a really, really crap dream. Sure, he would wake up shivering as half formed visions danced in front of his eyes only to be chased off by the rays of the sun, but he was used to that.
Reality, he realised as he opened his mouth to say something, anything… Reality sucks.
So perhaps he was afraid. Unsure of what to do. He found himself absently stroking Sasuke's hair and biting his cracked lips; tasting the sordid salt of his skin rough and bitter against his tongue.
A long time ago he used to dream of this. He had in his head rehearsed so many lines, so many actions. Practised entire speeches in those timeless hours of the night, when only the walls and moon could hear him. He had planned it all, actions and words. How it would end happily-ever-after, and everything, finally… everything would be back to normal.
A child's ideal, a child's game it is not in his fate to live happily ever after, life had shown him that.
Naruto wondered briefly at the chasm that has laid out between them, Sasuke and he. Deep, dark and bottomless. How was he supposed to breach it? Even back in the days when he was willing, now it's a concept beyond the impossible, living in the absurd.
Naruto found himself smiling for little to no reason at all, his head tilted slightly to the left, dusty blond trails of hair falling across his forehead.
But he's here, tangential, mortal even and beneath his fingertips.
He blinked quickly through his long lashes, a habit he has formed when nervous, unwittingly it made him look like a child to the casual observer. The action both stubborn and oddly attractive. Strangely disarming.
He took a deep breath in, his eyes resting somewhere between Sasuke's neck and his ear.
"Fancy seeing you here."
Kiba and Shikamaru had been standing in the same position for what seemed like hours.
In reality it had only been ten minutes and thirty seconds, but part of the reason it felt like an eternity was the fact that Kiba had been trying to remember something for these past ten minutes, and this was slowly driving Shikamaru crazy.
"Will you just spit it out?" Shikamaru muttered between clenched teeth, his dark brown eyes alert and watchful.
Kiba ignored him, face pensive. There was definitely something familiar about this, something ominous. And it wasn't just the smell of blood, it's the type…. He had smelt it before, and there was something nagging at the back of his mind. Something assuring him that this just wasn't natural, that it wasn't right. A bitter taste of acid on the air, a little ammonia maybe? Making his nostrils sting and his eyes water.
Kiba's had been taught from birth to always trust his gut feeling: "It's a sign," he had been warned, "You'd be a fool to ignore it." Only he can't work out what the sign is….
"He's been gone too long," Shikamaru continued speaking more to himself than to anyone else. "I think we should move closer in. I don't like the fact he hasn't reported back yet, it's not that far ahead—"
Shikamaru never had the opportunity to finish this sentence however, as a proverbial lightning bolt fell from the sky, lifted levers of realisation and swung open a door in Kiba's mind. In truth this realisation is not quite so holy; more the sort that rams its foot right up your arse .
"Shit!" Kiba yelled suddenly, and Shikamaru nearly fell out the tree in surprise as Kiba jumped on him, shaking him by the collar.
"Stop that!"
"Shikamaru, I'm an idiot, I know that. I know that."
Shikamaru stared at Kiba in some shock as Kiba Inuzuka tore off in the direction Naruto had formerly vanished in.
Shikamaru allowed himself to sit up and muttered "I've been lumped with the village idiots." Before he got slowly to his feet and dusted off his arms. He sped after Kiba, making sure to keep a safe distance between himself and the running nin.
They moved fast, terrifyingly so in fact as Shikamaru was only a few paces behind Kiba as the wolf-man stumbled into the clearing, almost tripping on the vast wedges of tree roots that snaked out of the ground.
Shikamaru looked around for a moment, not quite understand what was wrong until his eyes fell on the person Naruto was leaning over.
That person is supposed to be dead.
Shikamaru didn't even bother to yell at Kiba who had rushed blindly over to Naruto's side.
There could be traps, there could be landmines, there could be anything.
The whole situation reeked of something abhorrent and intangible. Like walking straight through death and staggering right out the other side. This just isn't supposed to happen, not now, not ever.
Kiba's was already there, shaking Naruto gently by the shoulders; trying to snap the Kitsune out of his reverie. He noted the bloody hand print on Naruto's face and dried drops of blood in his hair. But the blood on his face and clothes wasn't Naruto's, it belonged to the person lying next to him. The person with their eyes firmly closed and mouth slightly parted, the way that you do only if you're…
"He's not dead." Naruto said suddenly, his voice was hoarse against the soft flesh of his mouth. "I don't understand why he's bleeding, there's blood everywhere…" he rubbed his nose against his wrist without looking up at either of them.
Kiba was sending Shikamaru one of those looks that communicates that he understands nothing of what is going on and that Maru should do something… now.
Naruto turned to Kiba saying something which Shikamaru presumed to be mildly frenzied because Kiba had that snarling confused look plastered to his face as if to say, "What the hell?"
The world could have opened into the mirror universe and things would have made more sense.
Shikamaru did not like this, not one bit. The whole scenario seemed to stink of being set up. Images reigned crystal clear in his mind last time he was involved with the Uchiha prodigy. People had ended up hurt… and hurt badly.
"We have to get him back, now." Naruto was saying, standing up and turning to Shikamaru; his blue eyes wide and pleading.
"Fast Maru, I can't seem to get him warm again, and I'm afraid if he stays that cold for much longer… he's going to die, so you're gonna have to help me carry him back."
"No." Shikamaru blurted out unthinkingly, staring at Sasuke as he said it his own face pale. He was unaware of the frantic hand gestures Kiba was making behind Naruto's back.
Naruto, who was now facing him, all broad shoulders, muscle and arms crossed with a disbelieving look on his face, as he looked from Kiba to Shikamaru, and back to Kiba.
"I could have phrased that better." Shikamaru muttered to himself.
Naruto tilted his head mimicking a politely enquiring position – his mouth a thin and uncharacteristic line. Shikamaru noted the soft danger in his mind and subconsciously found himself locking his own jaw. In the background Kiba shuffled nervously looking from one of his best friends to the other and looking highly uncomfortable.
"What the fuck?"
"You're not deaf, you heard me."
There was a narrowing of those pure blue eyes and an uncharacteristic twist of Naruto's generous mouth.
"What do you mean 'no'?"
"No is a complete sentence."
Naruto's face contorted in anger; he never could stand being mocked, not when he was trying to protect something important to him.
"Don't play games!" he snarled, "What does that mean? 'No' you're not going to help me? Or 'no', you're not allowing me to take him back with us? 'Cause you better think again before you say that Shikamaru, because hell will freeze over before I just let you leave him here to die."
Shikamaru looked undaunted by the sudden burning anger radiating out from his friend, his dark angular eyes looking at Naruto from head to toe assessing the situation while Kiba glanced back and forth anxiously between them. He was kneeling by the unconscious Sasuke, thumb feeling the unconscious nin's carotid. Slowly his eyes moved, frowning at the strange metallic object in Sasuke's wrist.
"Is your headband cutting off blood supply to your brain? Did you forget what happened last time?" Shikamaru bit back, hands in pockets, jaw muscles flexed, eyebrows raised as he kept his face completely impassive. "People died. You nearly died, I nearly died, Kiba nearly died, we all nearly died, and some weren't that lucky. Because of him, Uzumaki! I'm not willing to risk my life for someone who betrayed us for their own personal gain; or yours for that matter. It's not worth it, he's not worth it."
"I'm not leaving him here!" Naruto snarled back. He was smaller than Shikamaru by about three inches, but it was amazing how anger had seemed to give him an extra foot in height. "He'll die."
"Let him then." Shikamaru snapped back.
Naruto blinked at him as if the Jonin had stuck him across the face. Kiba vigorously shook his head behind the Kitsune's back, begging Shikamaru with his eyes to 'back the hell down' a bit.
Shikamaru took a deep steadying breath, centring himself somewhere between his feet. "How do we even know it's him anyway? It could be an impostor for all we know-"
"It's him alright," Kiba interjected quietly not looking at either of the nin for fear of causing an even greater argument. He was rubbing a red sticky globule of blood between his fingers. "You can't fake the smell of a person's blood. Not when there's this much of it."
"I think he's going to bleed to death if we leave him here much longer." Naruto said desperately, finally turning his attention away from Shikamaru the fox's ferocity diminishing somewhat. The look that ghosted across his face was the sort that arose when he and Sakura where arguing: lonely, lost and slightly bewildered.
"Kiba, you agree with me don't you?"
"Naruto…" Kiba's warm dark eyes were strained, he cocked his head to the side in a canine like manner and looked pleadingly back at his friend. "I don't know, even with some blood pills there might not be enough time to-"
"But you agree with me," Naruto cut in hotly taking a step towards Kiba. He angrily ignored Shikamaru's derisive snort of disgust.
"Kiba please, don't you?"
Kiba looked like someone had turned a spotlight on him and he had found himself to be accidentally naked.
"I..ugh…well."
"Please Kiba!"
There was a lot of emotion in those two short words, Kiba Inuzuka's eyes darted to Shikamaru for reassurance and then back to Naruto's again. He opened his mouth and shrugged his shoulders not knowing what to say.
Naruto glowered at him, "So that's it then? You won't help me?"
"Of course I'll help you you moron!" Kiba responded so fast he seemed to do it without drawing breath, "But I think this might be a bad idea, but we aren't going to leave you alone in this, are we Shikamaru?"
"Excuse me?" Shikamaru interjected, raising both his eyebrows so high they were in danger of flying straight off his face. "No we aren't, I'm certainly not helping him to hurt himself again."
Naruto rounded on Shikamaru. Kiba, read warning sparks and darted up to be ready, just in case things became physical.
"What the hell gives you the authority to just tell me what's going to happen?" Naruto's tone, low and angry: "This isn't a foregone conclusion, the past is behind us."
"Oh, don't be a fucking idiot Naruto." Shikamaru snarled back.
Naruto swore at him, "You know I'll do it anyway. Why are you even bothering to argue with me about it?"
"No, you won't." Shikamaru stated softly, his brown slanted eyes narrowed dangerously. A worried Kiba began nibbling his thumb in an over enthusiastic manner.
"What do you mean?" Then recognition dawned in those pure blue irises. "Shit! Shikamaru, stop that!"
"We're walking all the way back alright, and when we get back then we can tell Tsunade about this and she can send a group of ANBU here and they can take care of him." Shikamaru jerked his head towards Sasuke's prone body. His whole body tensed he took a step forwards watching as Naruto shaking with rage and gritting his teeth did so too.
"Stop it Shikamaru. I swear- I told you. I'm not… stop it! I'm not leaving him!"
Shikamaru took another five steps forwards and Naruto, cursing and yelling, followed.
Kiba had a the cold trickling feeling that his team-mates had gone insane. "What is going on?" He asked politely, staring at Shikamaru whilst his golden haired friend seemed to be fighting a heated battle with his feet.
"Shadow bind technique." Shikamaru said between his teeth, "We are going. Come on."
"Maru," Kiba said softly, getting to his feet and looking between his two best friends with worry deeply etched into all the lines of his face. "If you do this, he'll never forgive you. Even if he's still alive when they find him again." Kiba nodded towards Sasuke's still form, "It'll be the end of your friendship."
"Well at least the stupid idiot will be alive to hold a stupid grudge."
Kiba chewed the inside of his cheek again as he looked from Shikamaru's stubborn face to Naruto who was glowering heatedly at both of them, beads of frustration working down his forehead as he fought to break the full body bind.
Placidly he put forwards, "Hey, a lot's happened between then and now. He's got older and matured a bit you know? I mean that's what happens when people grow up right?"
"Kiba," Shikamaru bit out between clenched teeth, "I can't risk it, we can't risk it. We lost too much last time."
Slightly side tracked by this piece of information Kiba faltered, allowing Shikamaru to plunge on, "If he got hurt, because I allowed him to do this, I'd never forgive myself. I swore I wouldn't let this happen again… I swore it. Not after last time, I don't want to make the decision that will lead to the biggest mistake he ever made."
"To be fair he's got a very thick skull."
"I can hear you, you idiot! And it's not up to you to decide my so-called 'mistakes' for me!" Naruto snapped at both Kiba and Shikamaru, his eyes dancing a furious dazzling blue.
"Shikamaru you know leaving him here is a death sentence, he was a fellow leaf village ninja."
"An ex-leaf village ninja, let's not forget that."
Kiba held his hands up, palms open, "A fair point, but you can't protect people from themselves, no matter how hard you try, you know that."
Shikamaru released his grip a little, begrudgingly the words were knocking to some effect on the inside of his skull. He ran his tongue over his teeth and met Naruto's gaze head on for the first time throughout the entire argument.
"You have to promise me… if I let you do this Naruto, you have to do everything I tell you to? I want you to swear to me, that you will."
For a moment Naruto didn't say a word, ragged snippets of hair trailing messily across his eyes in a ringing silence… and then, "I swear."
Nothing happened.
"Maru," Kiba said in a hoarsely audible whisper, "you're supposed to let him go now."
Shikamaru glowered at the both of them and then gazed up into the canopy above thinking about the troubles that had been forced into his head because of these two twits; gently, inch by inch, he let the jitsu slide.
Naruto fell to the ground massaging his neck and trying to work out the kinks that seemed to have formed in his spine. He was still furious, anger bubbling throughout his nervous system and popping in hot little bursts.
Furiously he wondered why everyone felt they had to protect him in some way or another? Hadn't he proven himself enough times now?
"You never know," Kiba said helpfully to both of them, grabbing Naruto by his shoulders and yanking him up, "it might all work out happily ever after."
Shikamaru's voice was laced with icy sarcasm as a tick pulsed under one eye, he responded icily to this zealous statement, "Of course it will, you know just after Akamaru grows wings."
"Help me get him up," Naruto said hoarsely his voice caught painfully in the back of his throat, "I'll carry him over my shoulder; I don't care about the weight-"
But Shikamaru cut across him with a brusque "Don't be ridiculous." He inclined his head for Naruto to come and help him, he murmured: "We'll both carry him; I'll show you how we can make a stretcher."
The room was cold, in the background an endless thrumming of machines whirring against white-washed walls seemed to dig right into the back of Naruto's molars as he stood against the glass panel looking down into the room below.
This is his fourth cup of coffee in an hour; the beans had mixed with the aroma of his own sweat, and were now curling nauseatingly up his nostrils as he sipped. He grimaced at the taste washing down his tongue.
"N…Naruto?" Softly spoken words made him jump. Such is his surprise he spilt most of the coffee onto the floor, narrowly missing his shirt.
"Naruto, I-I'm sorry!"
He laughed, that easy smile sliding easily across his face almost like a mask as he stepped away from the dark brown puddle on the floor.
"No, I'm sorry Hinata. That's completely my fault."
He turned and grinned at her, watching as she flushed, her long dark hair being drawn like a curtain across her face as she looked down, bashful and anxious as she always was around him.
"Hmm, Naruto, don't you think you ought to get some sleep? You haven't slept in... sometime. Well not since you brought Sasuke-kun back."
"Three days yeah," he stifled a yawn, still smiling it's not a false smile, just a habit to put other people at ease. "Did Kiba tell you to come and gently chastise me?"
He had never been able to hold a grudge against Hinata.
"Chastise you?" she looked puzzled, blinking her large eyes and biting her lower lip, "I wouldn't ever dream of… I didn't mean that…"
Naruto just continued to smile at her, his elbows propped up on the metal bar that ran before the glass panel. He stole a glance down checking everything was the same as before then turning to wink at Hinata. She flushed this time down to the roots of her hair
"Excuse me," he murmured strolling confidently to the other side of the room before pausing before the door handle. Then in one violent movement he yanked the door wide open.
Kiba fell forwards, glass held to ear; Shikamaru standing behind him looking guilty as Naruto glared at both of them hands on hips.
"You could at least have the guts to come do it yourselves!" he snapped irately at Kiba who was fumbling to hide the glass in his trousers. He nodded his head in the direction of Hinata, "That is not fair."
"Look," Kiba began, shoving the glass at Shikamaru having given up trying to stuff it into his underwear. " Desperate times call for desperate measures. We've tried asking you nicely, we've tried not asking you nicely, we've tried forcibly removing you, thanks to which I now have an extremely painful bruise on my arse. You need to sleep."
"I'm fine."
"No, no you're not, you're insane, you can't keep going like this. Eventually you'll snap."
"Hinata," Shikamaru interrupted before Kiba and Naruto came to blows, "could you help me grab some more coffee? I think this might just be another long night."
"Shouldn't… shouldn't he have woken up by now?" Naruto asked, more to himself than the others. Kiba was snoring loudly in his sleep, sprawled across three collapsible chairs; Shikamaru was glaring with intent hostility at him as if seriously considering ripping off one of his socks and stuffing it down his throat.
It was late: the light from the window was hazy moonlight, flowing and ebbing between gaps in the clouds. It fell on sterile hospital floors, dipping into the cracks between the slates. Naruto's eyes were still locked on the glass panel before them, looking down into the room below where somebody was lying still, chest slowly rising and falling with the movement of the ventilator. There were lines in his neck and arms reading the variance between his blood pressure and oxygen saturations, every now and again his blood pressure dipped and the lights became red alerting the medical staff to swarm the bed. This had happened on and off regularly for the past two days, slowing down to just a few alerts today. Naruto's palm was riddled with crescent marks of where he had kept digging his nails into his skin every single time the alarm went off.
On a smaller screen little numbers danced up and down indicating the ion content of his blood, people kept standing by it and nodding for reasons that completely eluded him. It was all very much a foreign language to Naruto who is just concentrating hard on the constant 'bip, bip, bip,' of the cardiac monitor. 'Spikey line good' Shikamaru had explained to him earlier, 'flat line - shit yourself'.
"He lost a lot of blood; besides we don't know how long he was out there for."
Naruto yawned again, the fifth time in the past five minutes. He can feel his conscious friend's penetrating stare boring into the back of his skull.
"Go to sleep right?" he said, playfully, although in truth he didn't feel much like being cheerful. His stomach was clenched, doubled up and knotted tightly in figures of eights inside him.
He was not sure he could sleep even if he wanted to. Whatever this was was something bordering on obsession, and he just couldn't let go.
"Why…don't you just rest your eyes for a moment?"
Naruto found himself smiling despite himself, you had to give Shikamaru credit for persistence alone. He nodded, he was so undeniably tired that his only other option was to prop his eye lids open with match sticks anyway, at least if he fell asleep he'll still be here. Sasuke Uchiha would not get away so easily this time.
"I'll watch, alright?"
Naruto allowed himself to slip down in the chair.
"Thanks Maru." There was a pause. "For the other day…you kn-"
"Naruto, just stop babbling. Go on, go to sleep before I knock you out myself."
His eyes skated closed before he was even aware of it, his head rolled back and his breathing slowed down becoming rhythmic… and he began to dream.
Here it's ice cold, a pressing black against his eyes and yet someone's fingers smooth and supple lead him forward. He's moved forwards by a strong grip on his wrist and spun round. Spun hard and fast so he falls, and the world is still black. Because he can't, won't, open his eyes. He's been here before… he knows this dream too well.
Someone is laughing at him, just above him, standing over his body, looking down. Through the blindfold he raises his head and clenches his jaw, exposing his throat to the predator, and it is a predator because it stalks all the way around him, assessing him from every angle. It doesn't miss an inch, it never does.
He waits for it to settle over him, straddling his hips as it always does. He doesn't fight it, he's done so before of course, but to no avail. It only laughs, resistance amuses it, it makes it rougher, harder, faster, until he's spent, broken and shattered.
Besides, he knows it wants that, but he's not going to pander to its pleasure today. It starts slowly, teasing down from his collar bone, hot tongue trailing up his neck to his ear, tracing the outer shell. He can feel it breathing, hot against his skin and he fights to suppress the quickening of his own heart as it nips the lobe of his ear, applying pressure to his lower abdomen with its body.
The mouth trails across his face, tongue hot and sweet, he swallows and feels fingers trace the movement of his Adam's apple, drawing the shape of his jaw. He knows it grins against his skin, and murmurs, "Naruto," that voice so similar and yet so alien, "come love… stop resisting me."
He turns his head away from it, his own fingers raking into the ground beneath him as the mouth travels down, whispering incoherencies against his skin. He bites his tongue to stop the sound that tries to burst forwards when it leaves a trail of hot saliva down to his navel, sticking its tongue directly into the small hole. He gasps, he can't stop himself. It laughs again, hands against his hips, this is stupid, where are his clothes? Why does he feel so naked? Why does he always feel so naked?
Teeth grate teasingly against the lower part of his abdomen tasting the skin, Naruto can smell beeswax, citrus and salt. Again, there's the pressure, hot and grinding this time, edging between his legs and spreading them.
It's getting much harder to think now, as the mouth comes to capture his own and against his better judgement he's letting it, it sucks at his lower lip, hot tip of the tongue tapping against his teeth, as it kisses his lips, then his eyes, his cheeks, following the line of his jaw. Its head moving to his neck again, nibbling the skin lightly at the junction of the collar bone, kissing, worshipping the hollow there and Naruto hears the small moan from his own lips as it does so.
When did it get so hot? He can feel teeth again against the place where his shoulders meet his neck, sharp canines in a human mouth, bruising as they rake painfully over the tender skin that resides there, tongue sucking the slight blood spill the sharp teeth leave greedily, until there isn't enough blood left and in hunger it bites down. Down into his flesh, piercing skin, he screams and arches and it's pressing down onto him hard, so there's more pressure and this delicious feeling of being possessed. He pants and writhes beneath it, hating himself but wanting more.
Its teeth leave his shoulder, gentle words spoken into the bone like a prayer and Naruto is whispering thoughts as they come to him, incoherent praise mixed with insults. It moves to his mouth, plunging in through slightly parted lips, no longer shut, hot, wet and trembling, sucking on his tongue and filling him completely. It pulls back, to gaze at him, hands firm and hard against his shoulders, holding him down beneath it, applying pressure between his legs so hot white shoots of sensation sizzle up and down his lower abdomen, settling almost agonisingly in his groin. His toes curl and his body keens.
For some reason Naruto despite his better judgement opens his eyes, he looks up into the face he knows will be staring down at him, eyes dark and insatiable. Neither inky black or smoky grey. And suddenly the 'it' has a name, and is no longer so alien or frightening, and-
"Sasuke…" Naruto says breathlessly almost helplessly from between his parted bleeding lips before the other head lowers, swallowing the sound completely. Sasuke begins to demonstrate what a prisoner Naruto's body really is to him.
"He's extubated himself!" Someone yelled as Naruto's chair was tipped over in their sudden haste to get up; coming to and finding himself sprawled on the floor. He looked around dazed half drunk on sleep deprivation and the dream. Dimly he wondered why was there was so much noise around him?
Where even was he?
It took a few seconds for Naruto to begin registering reality again. Was someone yelling his name?
From down below Naruto could hear screaming and the sound of something being broken and hurled onto tiles. The blond scrambled to his feet finger tips first, almost ripping muscles in his haste to get towards the window; tripping on his own feet.
What he saw made him feel as though somebody has knocked a hole in his stomach.
The room had been smashed, broken glass and equipment lying scattered across the floor, the bed was empty, sheets tossed, ripped and thrown half way across the room. The occupant now stood some feet behind it, back to the wall, three masked men facing him down; needles in his neck and a thick trail of blood across his body dribbling into a shiny pool by his feet. For a second Naruto's eyes find the foreign objects in Sasuke's arm; the flash of something dark and metallic looking.
Sasuke's face was shadowy and dangerous looking as his eyes darted about the room scanning for an exit, one of the men moved and out of reflex Sasuke hurtled the bed at them, the object splintering and catching one of the men off guard, colliding with his chest and sending him slamming to the floor.
Sasuke stood breathing heavily, above him Naruto could hear his own blood rushing tempestuously in his ears like a river. The movement of the dark-haired youth below was slightly jagged, as if his fine motor control was not at his best, slightly jerky movements in stark contrast to the way Naruto remembered Sasuke moving in their youth. But Sasuke's eyes are pitch black as he looked to either side of him judging the distance to the door or window.
One of the ninja's move and Naruto without thinking shouted Sasuke's name. The blow connected with Sasuke's spine and the dark-haired man dropped to the floor, his own hands catching himself just in time. The next movement was beautifully fluid, as Sasuke's foot connected with the ninja's head. Naruto forgot himself, lost in the vision of Sasuke and only dimly registered that there were hands on his own shoulders and around his waist, dragging him backwards and away from the ledge.
For some reason he yelled Sasuke's name as Sasuke stood there breathing heavily; his beautiful face savage as he faced down the last man. Not noticing the one he knocked down before is getting up and moving behind him.
An arm encircled Sasuke's neck, driving his vision sharply upwards so he gagged and gasped for air. His eyes finally caught sight of the panel of glass with the silent watchers looking down on him. At the opposite ends of the room the two young men are both being forcefully restrained, both pulling forwards as if to get to each other. Pressure forced Sasuke to his knees and he buckled, but somehow, he managed to keep his vision locked on the panel as he was pressed forwards. Sasuke can hear someone yelling for the doctor and the sedative. He doesn't want to go back to sleep again because then there will be more of the nightmares. A sharp a jabbing pain makes itself known on his thigh but he does not stop staring desperately up.
There is no way out, not really, not anymore. From the word go, he knew he'd end up in this situation, stuck between the sulphur pits of hell and the bottomless abyss of space. His fate was sealed as his eyes lock into Naruto's, turbulent blue meeting shores of burnt ash and both of them can feel it, the connection. It's a sharp jolt of electricity. For Naruto, it's the beginning of something, something long coming. But for Sasuke it's the very end of hope.
The world blurred and slipped and now the nightmares will come.