Darkness

A/N: Hey all, thanks for the reviews that I had gotten from you all. I think that what you have all written, especially two of you, has made me think over what I had said before. Though the two that I like the most, are basically contradicting each other (One says to literally slow down on posting, while the other one says to keep going or at least encourages me to constantly post.) Yet I feel I can comprimise with that all. Instead of 5 chappies per day, most likely I'll be doing 5 every three days or something like that, to at least give more time for people to read the current ones and to get situated with out all of that. So it's the best of both worlds, slowing down but also keeping up my constantly flowing thoughts.

Also, there is one last thing to state. For the next few chapters, my mate (Jintanuki in the furry world) is helping me with the writing. He may not be as much caliber of a writer as I am, but he is a natural artist in the picture world. A writer and a drawer, nice pairing, ne? And if you haven't guessed by now, both me and my mater are being portrayed in this story by Sasuke and Naruto. (NO mateship is complete without a little reference point or their fighting.) Anyways... with all that said.. onto the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Naruto based characters, but I do own Fayne Hinota, Raiku Yamagawa, Yuki Kimura, and the Fate Ninjas that are present in this story. So yeah, no bitchin' cause you think I stole it, cause any coincidence of them being like some char in Naruto is seriously not my fault nor is it my fault that they represent some other character (Cause well they are each part of my personality) Well, enjoy the writing all. Thiss will most likely be my only one for this log in session, but meh.. I might write another one now.


Chapter 10: Flight of the Pink Petals

Finally she found her way into Naruto's house, almost breaking the door as she collapsed through, from the cold. "NARUTO! SASUKE!" She yelled, as she got to her feet, not caring what she would have walked into without knocking.

With her body still shivering from the cold, she tried to shift positions a bit, to allow herself to close the door, and stop the raging blizzard outside from entering the room. Yet, even as she did that, she could still feel the coldness in the room, as it seeped through the shattered window by Naruto's bed. Tattered clothing, of what looked to be one of Naruto's jackets and undershirt, laid all about the room, along with some scalding marks of an overbearing chakra seeping out in the middle of the room.

Naruto heard Sakura plow through the door and fall to the ground, making himself shift positions from where he was with Sasuke. Pulling the covers up to his neck, he tried to hide his bare chest,leaving the fact that his arms were totally bare of clothing. Teal eyes spotted the blonde ninja, as she walked closer to them.

"Naruto! Where's Sasuke?! We need to talk. Kakashi is..." She broke off in midsentence, her face a bit cringed with anger, fright, and embarassment. "N-Naruto...did you and Sasuke do something?" Sakura asked as she looked at Naruto's bare arms and Sasuke's relaxed body next to him.

"SAKURA! NO!" His eyes seemed a bit shifty as he pushed the covers away from him, revealing that he still had pants on even underneath the covers. Walking over to her, he laughed nervously. "What would give you a silly idea like that?"

Sakura just stared at Naruto, blinking silently as she tried to gather the right words for the situation. Her mind flashed back to earlier that day when Sasuke erupted at her, telling her to not reveal the fact that he and Naruto were lovers. Thinking of that, her eyes stung from the excessive crying that she had done for most of the hours that she was home alone.

"It's...It's nothing..." Sakura finally forced out of her lips, feeling them quiver again, as if she was still going to break down and start crying again, but she let the feeling pass, wanting to convey what she came here for. "Kakashi is sick!" She finished what she had started before. "He collapsed at my door, telling me...telling me this, 'sleep illness...snow...'"

The blonde ninja couldn't help but blink at the way Sakura was acting. Usually she had a reason for what she had said, even if she never told them, yet recently she kept being this weird. Even as he started to think of all this, Sakura's words broke him out of thought. "KAKASHI-SENSEI!?" He yelled out, still blinking in confusion, yet showing a small bit of anger with his shaking voice.

Changing his attention back to Sasuke, he tried to wake his lover. "U--Sasuke! Wake up! Kakashi is sick!" The slowly moving chest just continued to raise and lower with no change, as if Sasuke didn't hear him. "SASUKE! WAKE UP!" Naruto was already hopping back over to his Usa-kun, shaking him a bit. "DAMN IT SASUKE!" The fox ninja yelled into Sasuke's ear. Even with the loud and annoying screams into his ears, the Uchiha boy continued to sleep, continued to dream of his lover.

"No..." Sakura muttered. "He can't be falling down with the same thing that Kakashi-sensei has, can he?" Rushing over to her fellow teammates, she began to shake Sasuke. "Come on Sasuke. Stop joking around. Wake up already." Yet, he still stayed in the same position, with his chest slowly rising and falling. Looking at Naruto, she gave a serious look. "Naruto-kun. Can you help me?" His blue eyes stared into her teal ones, as he saw determination and fear swell up.

He seemed to understand her emotions that relected into his eyes. He had those same emotions right now. If he lost Sasuke tonight, he would surely take his own life, since the darkness would be in the waking hours along with his dreams. It was only recently that he had experienced a nice and sweet dream, a dream in which he shared his love with his mate, HIS Sasuke. "Yes I will." His voice did not faulter, nor did it waver in any bit. Naruto was ready for this, more ready than almost anything that he had ever done in his life.

"Then get me a bowl. I need to mix together some herbs." She looked back at Sasuke. "And please hurry, I believe I know what can wake him up from this 'Eternal Sleep'" Naruto nodded to what she had said, and ran into his kitchen. As normal for Naruto, it seemed that dishes were piled high in the sink, along with ramen bowls strewd all over the table. Looking in all of the cabinets above the sink, Naruto scrambled to find a clean bowl in which he could give Sakura. Glasses clinked in the cubbords, as Naruto's small fingers traced along everything, until he found an old bowl. He frowned as he remembered why he had kept it there, but right now, the past didn't matter. All that really mattered now was Sasuke, awake and alive.

Almost tripping on his way back into the bedroom, Naruto managed to get back to Sakura with a bowl, totally intacted. Pink flowers decorated it, surrounding the whole circomference of the bowl, as Sakura investigated it. The blonde ninja blushed, and chuckled nervously, before looking at Sasuke. He returned to a more serious state of mind. "Please...Sakura...Make him better..." Naruto began to fret over his unconsious mate, before he looked at the window. He remembered what Sakura had said when she talked about Kakashi. "Wait.. you said that Kakashi told you something about the snow and the illness being connected?" Sakura nodded as she put a few herbs into the bowl that she had in her pack. "What if... what if he meant that the snow was the cause. That because one would be exposed to it, one would.. would.."

"Contract the disease?" Sakura finished, as she began to crush the herbs with her bare hands. "I already connected it." She looked at the window that Naruto had been looking at. "Has.. Sasuke been his usual self?"

Naruto blinked a few times. "What do you mean 'usual self'?" He asked her.

"I mean, has he been training recently outside, because well the amount of exposure you would need, wouldn't come from that small of a window." She pointed to him. Naruto nodded and frowned.

He winced a bit, before he remembered a bit of what happened after he was looking for Sasuke. He had seen himself running, though it was not him controlling his body. It was his Kyuubi. "I...I..." Naruto let his head fall into the palms of his hands, tears streaming down his face. Knees failing him, he fell onto the ground, kneeling by Sasuke. "...caused him... to be this...sick..." Through sobs and whimpers, he finished what he started to say.

Sakura just looked looked at Naruto as she continued to crush the herbs. "NARUTO!" She yelled. "WILL YOU GET YOURSELF TOGETHER?!" She became a bit flustered as her hands nearly broke through the bowl beneath them. "This is Sasuke we're talking about. He... he can't die... Not like this anyways." She, herself, fought back tears of rage and sadness. "He is stronger than this... You will see."

Naruto nodded to her, as he continued to cry, though his hands not hiding his face. Yet, it felt good to cry. Because this time, he wasn't crying over his own woes. He was actually crying over someone elses. The thought of losing Sasuke was enough to make him break. Soothing tears continued to fall down his cheeks, highlighting his whiskers that seemed to be a bit more thicker than usual. Taking another look at Sakura, his tears seemed to blur the vision a bit, or at least add something different.

He had never seen Sakura so beutiful and strong as she looked now. Her hands quickly making the herbs into smaller and smaller pieces, as her eyes watered a bit. However, she didn't let herself cry. Sakura was bound and determined to make Sasuke better, make him alive again. He smiled at her, for the first time dealing with her strength and wisdom. Always before, he had just swooned over her because of the fact that she looked sexy to him. Yet now it seemed that he saw the inner beauty of her. The inner facets that usually never showed themselves, unless it was this kind of situation.

Anothe gust of wind blew in through the window, casting Sakura's hair a bit back. It was the first time he noticed it, but it seemed that when she was thinking of Sasuke, thinking of the group in general, her eyes glowed like seedlings. While the wind in her hair made it look like the Sakura petals that floated in his dream. "The flight of the pink petals...." Naruto mumbled, though it seemed to come out a bit louder than he wanted it to.

"What are you talking about Naruto?" Sakura asked, breaking the image that he had seen of her. "What is 'the flight of the pink petals'?" Naruto blushed and shoke his head as if it was nothing. She looked back down at the bowl with a bit of a smile on her face. "Ok, now I just need a little water, Naruto. Just so I can make Sasuke take this stuff."

Naruto nodded to her, before he disappeared and reappeared with the cup from the bathroom with some water in it. Sakura smiled at him and mixed the water in with the herbs, before lifting the bowl near Sasuke's head. "I need your help one last time, Naruto-kun. Hold his head up for me, please." The blonde ninja nodded as he lifted his Usa-kun's head, letting it seem like he was just sitting up. Pushing the bowl to his face, Sakura started to unload its contents into Sasuke. With her free hand, she massaged his throat, making him swallow what was in his mouth, though it would have tasted weird if he was conscious right about now.

After a few mechanical gulps assisted by Sakura, Sasuke began to drink the stuff on his own accord, before coughing a bit back up. Drawing up one of his eyelids, Sakura looked into Sasuke's crimson eyes. They seemed to sparkle a bit in this light and with his condition. Sighing a bit happily at the sight, she noticed that the pupil started to dilate a bit, before the eyeball moved around.

Spooked enough, she flung the bowl up, flipping over it's contents onto the bed. Sasuke began to cough a bit more, before he opened his eyes with his own strength. His vision was extremely blurred, not only from the fact that he was in a deep sleep, but because of the antidote that Sakura had given him. "I...hope it works totally..." Sakura said to herself.

"K...Kitsune-kun?" He questioned the air in front of him, before Naruto leaned over and smiled at him, his eyes still reddened from his own crying. "K...Kitsune-kun?" Sasuke asked again.

"I'm right here, boku no Usa-kun..." Naruto stated happily as he grabbed one of his mate's arms. "And I won't leave you." Sasuke could see the faint image of Naruto above him, with the tanned chest. He hadn't realized it, but that tanned chest suited Naruto a lot. Suited him beyond normal comprehension.

Yet, even though he was overwhelmed that his love was back awake, he turned to Sakura, who had frowned. Leaning over just a bit, he kissed her on her lips, before pulling back with a blush.

"N-NARUTO!" She screamed a bit, while she blushed as well. Sakura had felt a bit of a connection between herself and Naruto, yet she didn't want to admit that. Nor did she want to see...see Sasuke mad again. She shivered at the notion, and continued to look at Sasuke, before hitting Naruto softly on the back. "I'll...deal with that later... Naru-kun."