The Sound of Dreams

AN: Wow, last chapter got some amazing responses! Over 850 hits and 16 reviews!! Woot! I feel like an author!! Further notes at bottom to keep the nuisance factor to a minimum! Get ready, cause we are starting in on the Naru-Sasu interaction!!

BTW, just a reminder that I update twice a week since some were asking! Usually Sat/Sun and Tues/Wed


CHAPTER 11


Tsunade stared at the reports in front of her without really seeing them. After Jaraiya's carefully worded message, she had sent a three-man team of shinobi to investigate the area he was in, trying to find some clue to Orochimaru's whereabouts. What had both alarmed and gave her hope was the one line from the message: '..the snake ate the fox, but his meal keeps coming back up.'

The newest report in front of her informed her that the team eventually had found the snake's lair. However, there were signs of a bloody struggle and the remnants of a large fire in the training area. An analysis of the ashes indicated there had been bodies burnt. There were a few other details that had garnered her attention. A discarded blood stained shirt with an uchiwa fan on the back, chakra scorch marks on a floor leading to a blood covered bed and the signs that someone had left in a hurry.

If she were to add to the facts what Anko had reported once she had returned from her mission, it became either a hopeful picture or a very grisly one.

****** FLASHBACK *******

Anko, flanked by Shizune and a masked ANBU entered the room at her permission. She noticed that both her assistant and the ANBU were watching the mesh-wearing jounin carefully. Anko was holding her curse-marked shoulder apprehensively.

"Hokage-sama," Anko began in her usual tone. It was a voice that some of Orochimaru's veiled arrogance and impatience had rubbed into in the years that she had served as his student. "I was a day outside of Konoha returning from my mission when the curse seal activated."

"Activated?" Tsunade's felt her eyebrows climb toward her hairline.

"Yes, Hokage-sama," she replied, her tone overlaid with anxiety now. As Tsunade rose and came around the desk to examine the seal, she continued. "I could tell he wasn't near and usually it only flares by his close proximity. However, I could feel it pulling me to the northeast. In fact I had actually turned and stared heading that way when my team had to forcibly stop me."

Shizune nodded in affirmation. "The seal had started spreading across her skin. I was lucky to get a needle in her with a paralytic, she took off so fast."

"The impulse lasted about fifteen to twenty minutes then it just as suddenly went away," Anko continued, her voice once more curt and to the point.

Tsunade probed the seal, but it remained dormant and unresponsive to her chakra. "Make sure you aren't alone for the next few days. If you feel even a flicker, you immediately come to me."

*********** END FLASHBACK *************

So either Naruto was fighting Orochimaru or Orochimaru now had access to Kyuubi's chakra, which would increase his powers tremendously. As Hokage, it was her duty to prepare for the worst, even if she hoped otherwise.

Tsunade pulled out a bottle of sake and poured herself a drink. She was beginning to think that it was her lot in life to lose anyone she cared about.

She walked into her sitting room and stared at the fourth picture in the line of Hokage portraits on the wall. '...his meal keeps coming back up.'

If anyone had the strength and determination to withstand Orochimaru's jutsu, she reminded herself, it would be Konoha's number one most surprising ninja.

***************************
Naruto sighed in annoyance. While it was a bright winter's night outside with a full moon, the inside of the two-man tent was dark and while maybe not warm, it was at least comfortable. He scowled as he heard teeth chatter again.

"Che, Sasuke, will you freeze to death a little quieter? I'm trying to sleep!"

"Usuratonkach-ch-chi." A shiver rippled the blanket next to his.

Naruto heaved another sigh and sat up. "I knew you were an icy bastard, but this is ridiculous." He leaned over and grabbed his friend's blanket, pulling it off and over to his own.

"What the f-fuck are you doing, moron?!" Sasuke protested as what little warmth he had acquired dissipated into the cold air. He felt a hand grab his arm and he was unceremoniously yanked over closer to the blonde.

"Just shut up and get under the covers." Naruto finished layering the blankets and laid down on his side, facing away from Sasuke. He knew the proud bastard wouldn't lie down if he was watching him.

Sasuke scowled darkly, contemplating kicking the dobe's ass until another shudder wracked his body. He quickly climbed under the blankets and lay with his back against Naruto's. Immediately warmth started seeping through his tense, chilled muscles.

'Does he have a heater shoved up his ass or something?' the dark-haired body thought in irritation. After one or two more shivers, his body relaxed into the heat behind him and sleep slowly claimed him.

**********************
The screaming wouldn't stop. No matter how many times he killed them, they wouldn't stop screaming. He felt the blood flowing over his hands, wet and warm, comforting. But still the screams echoed in his ears. He loped through the halls on all fours, chakra pouring from his body as naturally as sweat. He chased them down relentlessly, bouncing from walls and ceiling. It didn't matter, any surface was fair game. Sometimes it was fun to see them look behind them in confusion, not knowing he had been running along above them until he dropped down to shred their frail flesh.

He ran along a wall and rounded a corner by bouncing to the far side of the hall. He stopped abruptly when he came face to face with a young woman wearing plain, simple clothing. She cowered before him, the stench of her fear wafting towards him like some aphrodisiac. 'She's innocent! A servant,' a part of his mind yelled out to him. He stared at her unblinkingly as he contemplated her fate. After a long moment, he pulled his tails close to his body so as not to burn her. "Go," he growled out. "NOW."

Eyes widening in disbelief, she edged around his crimson figure until she was past him. She backed away slowly, probably saving her own life in the process. It wasn't until she was around the corner that he heard her footsteps start running.

He quelled the impulse to give chase and instead whipped his head around as he felt a brief, insignificant pain in his arm. He plucked the shuriken out and grinned malevolently down the hall at the group of ninjas. Letting out a roar, he ran at them in a bloody red blur. And then the screaming started again.

***************************
Awareness slowly filtered through the layers of sleep, causing Naruto to grumble. He vaguely remembered a nightmare but his mind shied away from it when he tried to concentrate on it. More vividly he remembered dreaming about Sasuke again.

He blinked his eyes open to see the ceiling of the tent, which wasn't unusual for him. He normally slept on his back. However, what was unusual was the feel of another body curled into his, a head resting on his shoulder. It was a unique feeling. One that he believed he could get used to fairly quickly. One that had no doubt caused some of his more interesting dreams last night. Growing up alone with no parents, touch was something that Naruto savored when on the rare occasion he could experience it. However, he knew that if Sasuke woke up like this, it would be the last time he got to experience this comforting closeness. The bastard was too damn uptight for his own good.

Besides, he had to go piss.

*********************
Usually the slightest movement or noise was able to wake Sasuke to full consciousness. It was essential to the survival instincts of a shinobi. Which was why it irritated him that his first thought of the morning was that at some point his heater had gotten up and left. By the lingering warmth in the blankets, he knew it couldn't have been long ago. But, that wasn't the point. The point was that the clumsy idiot should not have been able to put his sandals on and leave the tent without waking him. Although he had to admit that he hadn't slept so well in a long time.

While internally arguing with himself over the pros and cons of either resting well and being in top form for the next day but leaving himself vulnerable versus sleeping lightly but safely, he decided to pull on his own sandals and coat to take care of business.

The first step outside brought an even darker frown on his face as his toes encountered the cold, wetness of snow. He had forgotten how frigid it got in winter the further north they went. He should have thought to pack socks, but he consoled himself that he had been in a hurry at the time.

He passed the blonde coming back into camp and would have kept walking except for the tug on his poncho. He glanced back with a lifted eyebrow to indicate he was listening.

"I'm hungry. You want breakfast?" Naruto asked quietly in the hushed morning air. His breath puffed out in front of him in a white cloud. He paused and breathed heavily into the air, then chuckled at the vapor.

Sasuke actually checked his first biting remark when he remembered why the blonde ate so much. However as the idiot kept trying to blow smoke rings into the cold air, he couldn't help but mutter, "Baka."

"Don't be such a tight ass. You need to learn how to relax and have fun." Naruto grinned and blew more vapor into Sasuke's face.

Sasuke didn't dignify that observation with an answer. Instead he turned and continued walking toward the trees. "Make breakfast," he called over his shoulder. "And don't burn it this time." He could almost feel the middle finger that was undoubtedly directed his way.

Once past a tree or two, he came to an abrupt halt. His first thought was to berate the idiot for leaving such an obvious sign of their passing. His second was to wonder if it was some of the fox carrying over that made him mark his territory. The third, as he eyed the yellow spiral in the snow, was that the idiot was just being an idiot.

Sasuke glanced over his shoulder, then pulled himself from his pants and decided he couldn't let the challenge stand. It took a little maneuvering but once done, he shook himself and retied his pants, surveying his work. He had made sure the Uchiha fan was a bit bigger than the Uzumaki spiral. It was a good thing he had drank a lot of water before going to bed. He had briefly thought about overlaying the spiral with the fan, but realized it would have looked like a lollipop. While he might secretly admit he was a sucker for the imbecile, he really didn't want to go around advertising it.

As he stepped back out of the trees, he tilted his head casually to the side, neatly dodging the snowball. He heard a muffled curse and then another snowball came winging his way. He let it impact his gloved hand and returned fire with a shuriken. There was a yip, a thud of a body hitting the snow covered ground and a thunk as the projectile imbedded in a tree.

"Jackass, I was just having fun!"

"So was I," came the deadpanned reply.

"Eep! Cold snow!" Sasuke glanced over to see the idiot shaking snow away from the mesh panels of his pants.

"Hn. Next time bring some real pants."

"Actually it's not that bad," Naruto shrugged. "Except that my nuts have permanently crawled up into my pelvis."

Sasuke sat down on a log next to the fire, eyeing the rice that was cooking. "I really don't want to hear about your nuts, baka."

"Yeah, well at least mine's dropped," he angrily retorted.

In one swift movement, his katana was out and flying through the air. Naruto dived at the last minute with another yelp as the sword drove into the tree. At this point any normal, sane person would get the hint and shut the hell up.

Bright blue eyes gawked at the still quivering sword blade that had come within centimeters of his head as he stood. "That was cool! Where'd you learn that?"

Sasuke took a deep calming breath and closed his eyes.

"Oh, yeah. Right." Naruto easily pulled the sword out with a flex of muscle and examined the weapon. He tried twirling it in his grasp. "So when are you gonna show me how to use one of these?" His hand slipped and he had to jerk his other arm out of the path of the sharp blade. He then quickly spread his feet as the tip impaled the ground where his toes had been.

"Dobe, you're dangerous enough with small pointy objects without arming you with big pointy objects." He pulled the rice from the fire and began to spoon it into two bowls.

"Bastard! My small pointy object's just as good as your big pointy one!" the blonde yelled.

Sasuke tried not to choke on his mouthful of rice. "Then why do you have your hands all over mine?"

"Because it looks cool and I wanted to play with it." Naruto, mercurial as ever, gave the katana another experimental twirl.

'Kami-sama, he can't be that oblivious.' Sasuke smirked over at him. "Be careful, if you don't know how to handle it, you could hurt yourself."

"I can so too handle it!" the younger shinobi protested indignantly.

Sasuke set his bowl down and practically sauntered over to Naruto. He put his hand over the other's on the hilt and leaned in ever so slightly. "So, do you really want to learn how to handle my big pointy thing?"

Naruto blinked once. He then blinked twice. "Ecchi!" he suddenly accused as red flooded his face.

Sasuke sighed as he pulled his katana out of unresisting fingers. "It was a joke, dumbass. You're the one who said I should lighten up." He turned and walked back to the fire. "Get your ass over here and eat. We have a lot of ground to cover today. And don't forget to take your vitamins."

Naruto hesitated before following him. 'Smooth, real smooth, Naruto. Here he was practically handing himself to you on a silver platter and you freak. But...he said he was joking. If I had hit on him when he wasn't serious, he would have ran me through with his 'big pointy thing.' And NOT the one I wanted.'

He felt his face flush again as he sat down to eat. 'Fucking dreams.' It was one thing to acknowledge from a safe distance how he felt about Sasuke. He wasn't totally stupid. He knew what his dreams meant. He knew that he found his friend attractive just as he knew that the cold bastard had a place in his heart that no one else could fill. And not the place the jerk had tried to put his hand through. It was just that it was totally different when the person you were infatuated with was standing right next to you, flirting with you. Kami, now he knew how Hinata felt.

After inhaling his food, drinking some tea and taking his vitamins (under Sasuke's watchful eye) Naruto began to try to unknot the cord from his hair. Sasuke gave a put-upon sigh and quickly pulled out a brush from his pack. He began to straighten the snarl that was a tangle of Naruto's hair, beads and an orange cord. Once done, Naruto carefully strapped on Orochimaru's Kusanagi and looked over at Sasuke.

"Besides," he said picking up the earlier conversation, "I already have a big pointy thing. I just need you to teach me how to use it." He gave a mischievous grin.

"Hn," was the non-committal response.

"Plus, I have an advantage with blades," Naruto persisted smugly.

"Hn." Naruto interpreted the slightly questioning tone and walked over to a rock that was roughly one meter in diameter. He pulled out the sword and concentrated. His control over the wind element was far from perfect but he was sure with some training he could progress.

Sasuke watched in interest as the snow kicked up about the other boy's feet before settling back down. He let his eyes turn crimson and was able to see the swirls of air revolving and counter spinning along the blade. 'What is it with him and spirals?' he thought dimly. The whorls spun faster and became more precise, giving a shimmer to the air around the blade. Then in one fluid motion, Naruto brought the sword around (too much like a baseball bat in Sasuke's professional opinion) and through the rock. After a split second in which gravity seemed suspended, the rock slid apart with a grating sound.

‘Impressive,’ Sasuke admitted to himself. "Not bad for a dobe." He smirked as the blonde hair practically bristled in anger. "It would figure you could use air so well. You have enough of it in your head."

"BASTARD!"

"C'mon, dobe. Daylight is wasting."

****************************
Two days later they were in Lightning Country close to where Sasuke claimed the first batch of scrolls were located. Once they had crossed the border, they traveled hard through both day and night, only stopping long enough for short rest breaks.

As they approached the lair, Sasuke started to remind Naruto how he should act and what he should say. "I spent six months in the bastard's mind, Sasuke. I have a clue," Naruto finally growled.

"I spent three years with him, usuratonkachi. I think I might have some insight as well." Sasuke knew, just knew, that the baka would mess this up somehow. "Use henge for the eyes but be careful. There are a few ninja here that can spot it if they are looking. This place is much bigger than where you were before. There are a lot more people here."

They stopped before the entrance so that Sasuke could form the seals to open the door. He knew that they had already been spotted, but no one dared to stop them as of yet. As the door slid back, a chill went up his spine and its source was the younger ninja behind him. He turned and suddenly grimaced in pain as his curse seal came alive. It felt as if the damn thing was trying to crawl off his skin.

The blonde haloed head lifted and he met slit-pupil yellow eyes. A glance confirmed they hadn't been altered by a transformation jutsu or illusion. He felt something cold grip his chest as the voice spoke.

"Come, Sasuke-kun," it commanded in a sibilant hiss. "We have something to attend to."

TBC

Author's Notes:
As always, thanks so much for the reviews and reads! Just wanted to drop a few notes in response in no particular order.

Ladygizarme: Thank you so much for catching my spelling errors! I can only claim a blonde moment as defense. Now, if only I were really blonde.... I should have them all corrected now, but if you spot anything else, please tell me!! As for Naruto's outfit, thanks...I thought he really looked hot in it, too! And he was able to keep his colors!!

Esaure: I think it is really cool that you got referred to my story! I am glad that you are enjoying it! Although I will admit now that there is some smut coming up. Chapter 17, chapter 18, chapter 21, chapter 23... ummm *cough* anyway.... I will say that one of those ISN'T Naru/Sasu/Naru !

KaraQ: Be prepared to see quite a bit of Sasu/Naru interaction coming up. Poor boys are getting stuck with each other practically 24/7 now!

Featherededge: ROFL on the fashion comments!! I will say that by chapter 23 (which I just finished, my muse was visiting me big time this week, got 4 chapters written! A first for me!) I have finally gotten rid of the ugly ass purple bow. Now, just need to work on the rest of his outfit…

Rabid_fangrrl: Woot, I can honestly say I have a rabid Fangirl now!! heheh Seriously, thanks for the compliment on the fight scenes. I always worry about them. I am always asking my beta: Is it believable? Is it long enough? Did it go too fast? Should there be more? Was it too long? ..... Oddly enough, I ask him the same questions when he is reviewing a smut scene...

Nomme de Plume: *cough, cough* /tries to look innocent...

Anna: Just wanted to give you /hugs for hanging in there with me and for your reviews!!

Thanks to Dark Toy, TheDeviant, Rasengan22, Anon, Kirai, Nyuchan, emdog, meemei, Aidis, Krystal J., Ching1, Sunset Serenity, Eiennoren, claire, redtatsu, lo, Naru-seme (yeah, baby, yeah!!!), yaoigoddess, Tepee712, kim, Dirtyangel, Katie, Ana La Pana83, Kim, mscs3, Cindy, Passing Reader, yumemi, conquerors star, and wendyghost...

It means a lot to me to see your comments and to have your support!! I hope I can keep you entertained with my meandering!!

Many Hugs ----Zrina