Restless

Important time frame AN: Please note I will be recapping events from right before the Chuunin events until the current manga chapters (and projection of what will happen beyond current manga chapters). This story is supposed to be fairly close to what has actually happened in the manga and anime. It’s kind of like the cut scenes or thoughts you didn’t see the characters having during the time. Also, I will not be recapping all the events that took place because that would take forever.

This chapter has been edited. That being said, it may still need editing done to it. If you see any mistakes e-mail, leave a review, or personal message me about it. :-)

Restless

Chapter 2: Restless Conscious

Sasuke stood hidden in a small ally, watching as Naruto sat down at Ichiraku ramen.

"I was just about to close up," Sasuke could hear Teuchi, the ramen storeowner, say brightly to Naruto.

"I figured as much! We got back just in time. The mission was sooo boring. Nothing happened at all," Naruto whined as he waved his arms for dramatic emphasis. Teuchi laughed, obviously used to Naruto's antics, and amused by them, rather than exasperated.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was furious at the remark. Nothing happened? What did Naruto mean, nothing happened? Something had happened between him and Naruto, and he was brushing it off? Even if he hadn't remembered what had happened the previous night, he didn't even mention the fight that the two of them had had that morning. Sasuke shook his head, and breathed deeply. He was over reacting. Why on earth would Naruto mention something like that to Teuchi even if he did remember it? ‘Calm down, Uchiha,’ Sasuke thought to himself.

"What did Sasuke and Sakura think of this mission?" Teuchi asked, as though he was relaying Sasuke's message for him - though Sasuke probably would have left out the part about Sakura.

"Sakura has started to warm up to me! I think she'd actually think about it before turning me down now," Naruto said happily, not even realizing that he had just insulted himself, nor how somewhat pathetic that sounded, "as for Sasuke-teme..." Naruto trailed off, his face becoming a mask over his emotions, something that only happened when he was truly serious. Sasuke's ears perked up, hoping to figure out what Naruto thought about him. "...something's wrong with him. But that's not unusual!" Naruto began to laugh at his own joke. Sasuke fumed.

"And what exactly is wrong with me?" Sasuke demanded, as he walked out from his hiding spot, and coolly sat down in the stool next to Naruto. Naruto jumped up and pointed an accusing finger at him.

"What's wrong with you is that you show up when I insult you, bastard!" Naruto hollered.

"Hmpf." Sasuke didn't look at Naruto, but rather occupied himself with the menu a bemused Teuchi had just handed him. Sasuke knew that his cold mask was flawless, but inside he was raging. He wanted to deck Naruto across the side of the head - wanted to do anything to make the strange feeling in the pit of his stomach go away. "I'll have this," Sasuke had randomly pointed to the most expensive item on the menu in his anger, and noted with a slight frown that it really was more expensive that he had expected from Ichiraku. He idly noted, as he looked down at the menu, that the prices at this shop weren't really cheaper than other ramen stores. He had assumed that Naruto only came here because it was cheap, but now that he thought about it, Naruto did tend to spend a lot of his precious money at the stand.

Sasuke had never really stopped to wonder about how Naruto got his funding, or why he lived where he did. Naruto lived in his own apartment. It was not a nice place by Sasuke's standards, but at the same time, it was bigger than he would have expected. He'd never really thought about how Naruto managed to get by, and he wondered if Konoha’s government helped him with any of his expenses. 'Great,' Sasuke thought to himself 'more things I need to talk to the dobe about.'

"Itadakimasu!" Naruto exclaimed happily, purposefully ignoring Sasuke as he began to happily slurp up his ramen. Sasuke received his order, and began to eat his own meal - and with much more dignity. Sasuke smirked to himself when he remembered being in the Country of Wave, and the two of them trying to scarf down as much as they could in order to out do the other. Sasuke was half tempted to instigate a match again, but then an image popped into his mind, one that he didn't want to remember.

FLASHBACK

"Ni-chan!" Sasuke greeted happily to his older brother, Uchiha Itachi. "I bet I can eat more bowls of udon than you!" Sasuke taunted giddily. His eleven-year-old brother, who had always managed to look and act much older than all the other eleven-year-olds that Sasuke knew, gave him a searching look.

"I'm sure you can since you seem to waste your time doing such foolish things instead of training," Itachi had chided harshly. Sasuke stepped back as though he had been slapped.

END FLASHBACK

That had been the first time that Sasuke noticed the changes in Itachi from the older brother he had admired to the older brother that would eventually murder his entire clan. Sasuke slammed his fist against the counter.

"Sorry," Sasuke apologized to the slightly startled Teuchi. Sasuke cursed inwardly. Every now and then he let flashbacks of Itachi get the better of him.

"No need to slam the counter for more service," Teuchi said, sounding quite unabashed, misinterpreting Sasuke's fist slamming as he smiled at Sasuke kindly. Teuchi was used to having some of his regulars bang on his counter for attention - Naruto being one of them - so didn't think anything of it. Naruto, on the other hand, had seen that look before. Sasuke only looked the way he did when Sasuke was talking about or thinking about his brother.

Naruto looked at Sasuke as Sasuke reluctantly ordered another bowl of ramen. Naruto looked down at his hands as if they were the most interesting thing in the world, before he looked sideways at Sasuke again.

"Oi, teme. What's going on? You've been acting even more un-normal than you usually do," Naruto observed.

"Un-normal? You mean unusual?" Sasuke corrected Naruto's grammar.

"Che. Whatever. What's going on? It's really starting to become bothersome." Sasuke paused before answering.

"Can we go somewhere else and talk?" Sasuke asked. Naruto shrugged. They finished eating in silence. It was awkward for both boys as they left Ichiraku walking aimlessly away from the stand as many of the lights of Konoha began to flicker out as more and more people went to bed for the night. Naruto was awkward because he didn't know what to make of Sasuke's attitude, and he almost felt as though Sasuke were going to trick him. Sasuke was awkward because he didn't know how to begin the subject of the “incident” as Sasuke was coming to think of it, aka, their physical grinding the previous night.

"Last night, do you remember what you were dreaming about?" Sasuke asked. Naruto's face turned bright red because he did indeed remember what he had dreamt about. Naruto had wondered earlier in the day if he had said something in his sleep, and now he was positive that he had.

"Heheheheh…About that. Don't worry about it. It's nothing at all to think about. Just ignore whatever I may or may not have said. Nothing special, you know? Just happens sometimes. Hahahahaha!" Naruto laughed off nervously. He wondered what he had said in order to make Sasuke seem so off kilter.

Sasuke, for his part, still didn't think Naruto realized what happened last night, but considering how nervous he felt, he decided not to press the issue.

"Hn," Sasuke said, before abruptly turning about, and walking away. Naruto could do nothing but watch as Sasuke left, his face a bright red.

'What do I do if he thinks I'm hitting on him? What will he do if I dream about it again?' Naruto said. He bit the inside of his cheek. Naruto didn't know what to think. What if he had said something that had really been inappropriate to make Sasuke so angry with him? He felt like he and Sasuke had just started to sort of act friendlier towards each other. Naruto walked home, dejected, feeling guilty at unintentionally offending him. It wasn’t like he wanted to be dreaming about Sasuke, right?

"I shouldn't feel guilty! I can't help what I dream about!" Naruto yelled out angrily.

“That’s a good attitude Naruto,” a voice from behind him said cheerfully. Naruto may have been dense, but he was still a shinobi. Instincts kicking in, he grabbed a kunai from his belt and swung it towards the general direction of where the voice was coming from. His attack was blocked easily.

“Now, now Naruto. You need to be more aware of your surroundings and less willing to barrel down a familiar voice,” Kakashi said, the obvious owner of the voice.

“Yes, Kakashi-sensei. Sorry. I’m just annoyed at Sasuke-teme. He’s acting weird, and I think I did something to upset him, but I don’t know what, and Sasuke, being the bastard that he is, won’t just tell me.”

“I had a feeling he wouldn’t tell you,” Kakashi sighed. Naruto looked at him funny.

“What are you talking about?”

“That’s something you need to figure out on your own. Just don’t let it interfere with your duties as a ninja,” Kakashi said, before waving a hand and vanishing with a poof.

“Is it so hard to just tell me what I said?” Naruto grumbled angrily.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Uchiha Sasuke prided himself on, well, his pride. He was not one to normally put himself in awkward situations, but he happened to have found himself in the most compromising position when his teacher had happened to show up at his house early the next morning. For one who was normally late, he had to show up at 5:37am without even bothering to knock?

“I see you’re trying to relieve a little tension, ne Sasuke?” Kakashi grinned evilly (or at least, that’s what Sasuke assumed considering he couldn’t see his sensei’s face due to the mask that he wore.) Sasuke swore as he quickly covered himself up from his experimentation with masturbation.

“You don’t just come barging in a person’s house!” Sasuke yelled, completely flustered and embarrassed.

“It’s perfectly normal for boys your age to begin experimenting with such things. I have a feeling from what you did, or rather, didn’t say to Naruto last night that you have no intention of telling him what happened, do you?” Kakashi accused. Sasuke glared darkly at his teacher.

“Listening in on all our conversations now?” Sasuke growled.

“I need to keep up my practice!” Kakashi brushed off merrily, but his tone became more serious. “You really don’t plan on filling Naruto in, do you?” Sasuke merely shrugged.

“If he ever asks ‘Did you and I ever have any sexual experiences together?’ then I’ll answer truthfully. Otherwise, no,” Sasuke grunted. Kakashi rolled his eyes and sighed.

“You do have a sense of humor. A morbid one,” Kakashi muttered to himself. Sasuke looked at him.

“What did you say?” Sasuke asked.

“Nothing, nothing,” Kakashi waved his hand in dismissal.

“Kakashi-sensei,” Sasuke started, not sure how to ask the question, because he knew it was none of his business, but still wanting to know anyway, “what happened to Naruto’s parents? Did they leave him money to help him with his finances? Or does Konoha help him out?” Kakashi scratched the back of his head.

“If you want to know about Naruto, ask Naruto,” Kakashi said firmly. Sasuke nodded. “I’m torn at the new attitude you seem to have taken towards him. I’m glad you seem to want to get to know him, yet there’s something a little unsettling in how you’re going about this. If it weren’t for the fact that I don’t think Naruto would like me telling you what to do, and that I believe Naruto can take care of himself, I would probably stop you from whatever it is you are thinking about doing or not doing. If you plan to continue this, fine. If not, fine. Just don’t let it affect you on your next group assignment. Both of you will need to be alert if you want to survive,” Kakashi warned. With that morbid message he left with a poof. Sasuke growled.

“Be more cryptic, why don’t you?”

- - - - - - - - - - - -

That afternoon Sasuke figured out just what Kakashi had meant about being more alert. Kakashi had nominated Team 7 to enter the Chuunin exams. If they wanted to pass, both of them needed to be alert and ready for anything.

The entire process the following day was quite annoying, yet strangely exciting to Sasuke. He had met many new possible rivals, yet had been beaten by that green-spandex wearing Lee. That had been quite degrading.

Naruto had been having a rough time himself. First that fuzzy-eyebrows kid had thrown him against a wall, and then he had to take a written exam, and then that crazy Psycho examiner had licked him, and now they were heading into the Forest of Death. Yippee.

The first two of the five days in the Forest of Death did not go well by any means for Team 7. It started with the incident with Orochimaru and then the Sound ninjas. Having to be semi-rescued by other teams was also rather humiliating.

Whatever poisonous seal Orochimaru had placed on Sasuke had done a number on his body and his mind. There was a slight fog looming in his thoughts as though the poison had penetrated his psyche rather than his neck. He was grateful for Sakura’s annoying voice that had brought him back to reality. She was his teammate, and as much as she did get on his nerves, he was beginning to respect her more and more. Idly he realized he was beginning to feel like an older brother to her. Sasuke wanted to have a younger sister because his Mom had once expressed her desire to have a little girl in the house. Sasuke remembered scrunching up his nose at the prospect of a baby sister, but since that had been the second to last conversation he had had with his mother, he felt as though it was his mother’s dying wish.

Sasuke decided when he saw how the Sound ninjas had treated Sakura, saw how she had fought to protect him – and Naruto – that Sakura was like that younger sister: which was both comforting and disturbing at the same time. He would protect her, but he realized he couldn’t come to love her. That was the moment that Uchiha Sasuke realized he didn’t find any interest in girls.

As team 7 went about searching for food on the morning of day three, Sasuke looked over at Sakura, whom he had finally been able to categorize officially as his adopted, albeit, annoying, younger sister.

Naruto, on the other hand, was a different enigma to Sasuke all together. He still didn’t know where he classified the loud mouth ninja, but he had a feeling it didn’t fall into the sibling category.

Sasuke watched Naruto all day, noting the problems that he had as a shinobi, and recalling how he had acted when his fellow teammates had been in danger. A side of Naruto that Sasuke never knew existed had emerged. Sasuke both loathed and loved it.

He loathed it because he knew that Naruto had come off better in the fight than he himself had. Naruto had managed to keep his head, whereas Sasuke had felt as though he had completely fallen apart. Sasuke vowed never to let that happen again. On the flip side of it, if Naruto got stronger, it meant that there would be more competition for Sasuke to fight. The stronger the people he fought against – and won against – Sasuke would become stronger and closer to defeating him. Uchiha Itachi.

Night fell with an eerie hiss of nocturnal life in the Forest of Death. Team 7 decided to do shifts of who was to keep watch. Sasuke would take the first watch, Sakura the second, and Naruto the third.

Sasuke decided to take a post in the tree above where their hideout was. They had managed to find a dugout in the earth, probably from some large animal that had resided there, and sleep in that. It was well covered and hidden, but it held the problem that if an enemy were to attack, they would not be able to get out unless there was ample warning. So Sasuke made sure to sit high enough in a tree as a lookout in order to warn his teammates.

Nothing happened during Sasuke’s allotted time as look out. After his time, he entered the makeshift sleeping camp and woke Sakura. She woke up groggily, and only managed a mumbled okay when Sasuke told her about the good lookout spot he had found. Sakura climbed out of the dugout, and re-covered the entrance with makeshift leaves.

Sasuke fell down beside Naruto, exhausted, ready to sleep, until Naruto’s hand accidentally brushed against Sasuke’s arm. Sasuke’s body felt like it had been put on fire with that simple touch, and he lay staring at the ceiling of the dugout trying to will his body to behave and his mind to stop thinking about what had happened less than a week before.

Even though his body already felt like it was on fire with desire, Sasuke felt anger well within him. Anger at Naruto because Sasuke felt that it was somehow Naruto’s fault that Sasuke felt like this; anger at Naruto for coming off better in the fight against that snake man than himself; anger at Naruto for being so completely unaware of what he was doing to Sasuke. So, Sasuke decided to take out his anger on Naruto.

- - - - - - - - - - - -


Naruto found himself having another dream with Sasuke in it. This time, it felt more realistic than the last time. He, Sakura, and Sasuke were in the middle of the Chuunin exams, and Sakura was out on watch. In his dream, Sasuke had reached over and slipped his hand down his pants, and began to massage his member until he became erect. Naruto moaned slightly, and foggily wondered why, since this was a dream, he could feel Sasuke’s hand so clearly. Naruto knew this had to be a dream because why in the world would Uchiha Sasuke be reaching down into his pants and jerking him off?

Naruto began to feel more and more awake in this dream, and he half stopped his moans because he wasn’t sure anymore that this was a dream. Naruto could swear his eyes were open, and that Sasuke really was pressed close against him. He could smell the Forest of Death around him, and he could smell another scent that he couldn’t quite name, but oddly realized was something he associated with Sasuke.

Sasuke’s hand moved faster and Naruto found himself clutching at Sasuke’s shirt, willing dream Sasuke to both continue yet stop. Naruto let out a groan of pleasure as he came, feeling pleasured, bewildered, and slightly scared as Sasuke moved his hand away from his manhood, wiping the cum that had spilled onto his hand onto the inside of Naruto’s pants, and then removing it. Sasuke rolled over as though nothing had happened.

“Go back to sleep dobe,” Sasuke’s quiet voice came from the body next to Naruto. Naruto stared at the ceiling, knowing he hadn’t been dreaming, knowing what Sasuke had just done, but not knowing what the hell to do about it.

“Was the other night not a dream?” Naruto whispered. His question went unanswered as he heard Sasuke’s breathing become slower. Sasuke had fallen asleep. Naruto wasn’t sure if he fell back asleep, though he hoped that he hadn’t been awake at all, in between the time that Sasuke had woken him and when Sakura came into the dugout to fetch him for his watch.


Next chapter: Restless Dreams