The Sound of Dreams

AN: Happy Holidays to everyone!! One more chapter after this one until the smut!! ;-)

To My Rabid_Fangrrl: Yes, I have read Everybody's Got Secrets by Erisabesu and really enjoyed it!! The thought of Sasuke in those tight leather pants is very drool worthy! I don't mind you reccomending the story on LJ as long as you either post a link in review or email it to me (not sure what AFF's policy on posting links is.) My E-mail is Warhaven22@yahoo.com Anyone is welcome to e-mail me if they have questions, etc about the story.

A quick welcome to my new readers!! Thanks for the reviews and thanks to everyone for reading!! :)


CHAPTER 15

It was night again. He could only assume it was the next one. After he had been fed and watered like some kind of pet, his gag had been replaced and the bag pulled back down from his nose to be retied around his neck. About an hour after that he had felt a sharp pinch in his arm and everything faded away.

This night was pretty much like the last. He had awoken and the female took him into the woods a short ways so that he could relieve himself. This time however, she didn't seem inclined to stop her touches. He angrily pulled away from her but knew that tied and blindfolded like he was, there wasn't much he could do to escape. He couldn't form seals even if he had wanted to since his arms had long gone numb from the chakra reinforced rope. He could only move away from her gropes as she laughed at him.

"Takako, bring the prisoner back and secure him. You can be a whore on your own time," an authoritative voice barked.

"Yes, Captain," she grumbled. She grabbed his arm roughly and quickly dragged him back to camp.

After he was fed, the camp settled back down and watches were resumed. He tried not to jump when he felt a small cold nose against his fingertips. A tongue quickly passed over them before the tugging started on his bonds. He wished he could tell the little animal that chewing on the ropes was probably not going to do much good. But as long as it didn't get caught, it made him feel like at least something was being done for his release. He couldn't help but wonder where the dobe was currently. He hoped the idiot made it out of the lair and away from Oushi's goons.

He twitched in surprise as he felt the ropes loosen slightly. Did the damn thing have serrated teeth or something? To cover the movement, he stretched his legs out in front of him. Those sharp little daggers continued to work the bindings, only pausing for an apologetic little lick when they accidentally scraped flesh. They stilled long enough for the watch to change. The other male taking over said nothing to the prisoner as he settled himself in to survey the surrounding area. It seemed the female had first watch while he was usually asleep. So, the other two weren't completely stupid it seemed.

He felt the ropes part but the little nin-dog didn't stop there. He felt two small paws on his back shoulder, barely out of sight since Sasuke didn't hear a cry of alarm from the guard. Two swift tugs and the cowl loosened around his head. The paws dropped off his back and receded.

Taking a deep breath, Sasuke prepared himself for the blinding light of the fire and jerked his hands free. Pulling the bag from his head, he immediately located and locked eyes with the male jounin guard. His Sharingan flared to life and the other male froze in place, limbs trembling in fear. Sasuke held his gaze, keeping him in the genjutsu as he quickly moved to the other man. Placing his hands on the man's head, he ended the other's life with a swift twist.

Spotting his katana in amongst the equipment pile, he quickly grabbed it and headed into the trees. A few moments later, he heard sounds of pursuit begin.

He had no idea which direction he was heading. Clouds covered the stars and the time spent within the darkness of his hood threw off his senses. He could feel the two shinobi following behind him as well as something pacing him from the side. He could probably examine the sense closer and get an idea of who or what it was, but he didn't have the time to spare. He assumed it was the nin-dog however since it never tried to converge on his path.

Making a decision, he quickly moved toward the parallel signature. He didn't want to leave it behind until he found out more, but he had to get away from his pursuers. As he approached however, the creature slowly pulled in another direction. He grit his teeth in frustration then raised an eyebrow as it straightened out its path. Perhaps it was leading him somewhere.

Putting aside his doubts for the moment, he moved toward the creature again only to find a snow white fox with brilliant blue eyes leaping from tree to tree. He could tell it was a henge form. "Naruto?" he questioned as he scooped up the fox. It gave a happy little yip as it snuggled into his arms. As soon as it was settled, he poured on the speed, leaving the other nin far behind.

*************
Naruto breathed a sigh of relief as he felt his clone closing the gap between them. He only hoped that Sasuke was with it, but he didn't want to risk dispersing it until it came into visual range.

It was late the next day when he felt the clone nearby. He didn't want to think about the speeds it had to have been traveling to get that far that fast. He frowned as he heard someone approach through the trees. It was either a very tired or a very poor ninja. He heard the sound of bark giving way and the faint outline of something falling. Surging forward, he caught Sasuke just before he hit the ground from the forty-foot drop from the scraggly canopy above. As it was, they ended up in a tangle of limbs in the wet snow from the impact into each other.

"Dobe," the voice said in a soft, breathless tone.

It was indeed Sasuke, but his chakra reserves were very low. He was also shaking with the beginnings of exhaustion and fever. The white fox kit disappeared in a puff of smoke and Naruto received visions of their race through the treetops as well as the brief captivity. Naruto felt a surge of fury as he "remembered" how that dark-haired bitch had touched Sasuke uninvited. He briefly considered leaving his friend tucked safely away while he went to express his displeasure with the Cloud-nin. Preferably with a Rasengan.

A shiver within his arms brought his attention back to more immediate concerns. His friend was wearing the remnants of the clothes he had on from the fight in the lair and his shoes, but that was it. No coat, nothing else to keep him warm from the frigid air. Naruto quickly pulled out his friend's coat from his pack and dressed him in its warmth.

He then quickly formed another clone to carry the four packs (which it naturally complained about) while he lifted Sasuke over his shoulder. He had seen a perfect spot to take shelter while they recovered from their respective flights.

A few hours later they were ensconced in a small cave with a narrow opening. While Naruto settled his friend in, trying to warm him up, he sent out a couple clones to gather firewood and enough water for a few days. He sent the clones back outside after they brought back their supplies and spiked a blanket over the entrance with a few kunai, making sure leave a large enough gap that smoke could escape from a fire. Once the blanket was in place the two clones disguised the entrance of the cave with limbs and snow, masking its presence as best they could. They then erased any tracks around the area before dispersing.

The next few days Naruto tended to his ill friend. He had to balance keeping him warm enough not to exacerbate the sickness but cool enough to keep the fever down. So he rotated between bathing his forehead with a cool rag, piling the blanket and coats on him and loosening his clothes to regulate his temperature.

On the afternoon of the third day a tired voice interrupted Naruto's doze. "I knew you would find a way to fuck things up," it groused.

Naruto gave him a weary smile and he opened sleep caked eyes. "That's one of my talents. You should know that by now."

"Hn."

"You feel up to traveling?" he asked quietly.

Sasuke eyed the exhausted form of his companion. "Tomorrow morning. Is there something decent to eat around here?"

"Well, it isn't ramen, but there's food," he said with a tired smile.

"Tch."

Naruto leaned over and started digging through their packs. "Oh, there is something that I wanted to ask you about, teme."

Sasuke glanced over as Naruto pulled out a corner of a very familiar looking orange jacket. It was still shredded and bloodied from the fight with Orochimaru. "Che. Don't ask me why you pack the shit you do." He turned away and shut his eyes, signaling the end of his interest in the matter.

Naruto smiled warmly at his friend and tucked the jacket away. It was too tight on him now anyway. He pulled out some rations and rice then started boiling some melted snow.

Not too long later, Sasuke was awakened by his companion to eat. A part of him felt like bringing up the subject of Naruto's idiocy again and beating the hell out of him on principle alone, but decided that he was just too exhausted to engage the moron in an argument.

"So, where are we going now?" Naruto finally asked, bored with the silence.

"Grass Country," came the short reply.

Sasuke settled down into his blanket again after eating. His chakra had recovered along with his health now, but it wouldn't hurt to rest while they could. Naruto sat against the wall alternately nodding off and jerking awake. He spotted the second blanket over the entrance and realized he was lying on top of the floor tarp for the tent and his own coat.

"Hey, baka," he said as he held up the corner of the blanket. Naruto started slightly as he broke out of his doze. "Come get some real sleep so you won't slow us down in the morning."

The other young man hesitated a moment then crawled over, peeling off his coat. He scooted down into the blankets and unabashedly cuddled into Sasuke.

Fighting down the pink tinge that must surely be on his cheeks, Sasuke covered them both up and settled down to sleep.

****************************
Trying to avoid ninja patrols, it took a little over a week to reach Grass Country. They stayed to the northern countries, avoiding Fire Country. Neither of them wanted to be found on the wrong side of the border by Leaf nins. The snow had melted after five days into their travels. However, the ground was wet and muddy, the trees were slippery and both terrains took imprints too readily for their comfort.

They pushed on as much as possible each day. At night Sasuke would activate his Sharingan and Naruto would channel some of the fox's chakra to his eyes so they both could see into the darkness. Naruto would keep a close eye on his friend and when Sasuke started looking tired, Naruto would start whining that he wanted to stop for the night. It protected Sasuke's pride and allowed them to get the rest that they needed to continue on in the morning.

Their routine fell into their usual patterns as if it had never been interrupted. They shared bedding for warmth at night, took turns cooking and every morning Sasuke would bitch and complain as he was "forced" to fix Naruto's hair.

They avoided all but the smaller villages where Sasuke would henge into someone else to buy supplies. He didn't trust Naruto with the shopping after the first time the blonde came back with a dozen packs of ramen. Besides if the henge dropped for some reason a pale, dark-haired, dark-eyed man would be harder to remember than a blonde, blue-eyed, whisker marked one.

*****************
The next day they would be at the main Grass Country lair according to Sasuke.

"Do you want me to pretend to be Orochimaru again?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke shot him a look before stopping to actually consider the question. "The Grass lair is pretty small. They probably know nothing about what happened yet." He shook his head. "They know me. That will be enough. Just follow my lead and try to repress your "save the world" tendencies."

"Bastard, if someone needs help and we are in a position to do something about it, then we should!" he protested angrily.

Sasuke growled in frustration. "There shouldn't be anything like that at this facility. It was more of an information center for the spies he had around the area. Plus he did some scroll research there, which is why we are going."

"If he has someone locked up experimenting on them, I'm not gonna leave them that way," Naruto said adamantly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"If there is, let me handle it discreetly."

Naruto thinned his lips angrily, then finally nodded.

Sasuke felt himself relax slightly. 'Like a bull in a china closet,' he thought with a shake of his head. "Hey, dobe."

"Don't call me that, teme!" came the knee jerk response.

"Why exactly did you collapse in Lightning Country?"

"Oh, ummm..."

"Ummm...?"

"Well, I got really mad and Orochimaru tried to get out. He took control of his chakra enough to activate the curse marks."

Sasuke recalled feeling drawn to the blonde at that time. "I guess we should be glad that Oushi was the only one there that had one," he murmured.

Naruto nodded his agreement.

"Let's not use his chakra again unless we absolutely have to. We don't want him getting loose again." Sasuke didn't want to think about losing Naruto again to that snake.

Naruto readily agreed, thinking almost the same thing about his friend.

********************
"One last thing," Sasuke was saying as they approached the entrance to the lair. "If I am in charge of this one, you will call me either Sasuke-sama or at least Uchiha-san."

"Fuck you, teme! I will not!"

"Dobe, it's what everyone here calls me," Sasuke gritted out. "I just want this to go smooth."

"Fuck you," Naruto repeated. "I'm not calling you "san" and I'm sure as hell not calling you "sama." Stoke your ego on your own time, bastard!"

"Pain in the ass," Sasuke muttered. He had hoped by putting Naruto in the position as a subordinate that the idiot would go to him before doing something stupid. He should have known better.

Sasuke opened the entrance and a wave of warmth hit them. They both gladly shed their coats as the door closed behind them. A late middle aged man met them in the hallway as they walked deeper into the lair. Brown hair greying at the temples and chocolate brown eyes almost painfully reminded Naruto of Iruka for a moment.

"Sasuke-sama." The man bowed formally. "We are honored by your presence."

'Oh my god,' Naruto thought. 'Here is a serious booty kisser.'

"And who is your guest, Sasuke-sama?" the man asked politely. Naruto saw his eyes rake over him almost dismissively.

"Yes, Sasuke-sama," Naruto found himself saying as he stepped up to Sasuke's back. He nuzzled the dark hair affectionately and snaked a hand around his chest to run it over suddenly tensed pecs. "Introduce us."

Sasuke snapped open his eyes that had somehow closed to half-mast without his permission. He saw the disapproving look on the steward's face at Naruto's display. "This is my guest...Oturan," he managed to get out in a relatively normal tone.

A hot breath caressed his ear. "How original," it whispered, then followed with the wet tip of a tongue along the lobe. Sasuke tried to suppress a shiver.

"Yes, well." The older man gathered his dignity. "Allow me to show you each to a room where you can rest and freshen up."

"Oh, we don't need separate rooms. Do we, Sasuke-sama?" Naruto protested lightly as his hand started sliding down from the pecs to the abs.

Sasuke quickly captured the wandering hand and drew Naruto out from behind him. "Just the room I usually use, Kyoshiro."

Kyoshiro's mouth tightened almost imperceptibly and started leading the way. Naruto immediately followed with a deliberate sway to his hips. The impulses telegraphed to Sasuke's brain screamed at him to do naughty things to his friend as he watched him walk away.

The blonde paused and looked over his shoulder. "Are you ...coming, Sasuke-sama?"

The pale skinned young nin swallowed with difficulty. Desperately ignoring the hardening within his pants, he caught up to the unpredictable menace to his sanity.

TBC