The Sound of Dreams

AN: Hi there!! It's Tuesday!! Just a few simple notes to some questions asked in reviews. If you want to skip over my ramblings, please feel free to do so! :)

Allys: Now, now I didn't say the denial would be over in 4 more chapters. That is just until the full on man-sex! I wondered if anyone caught on to Sasuke picking up the lube!! Sorry to say that not even full on man sex can break poor little Sasuke out of denial (though it helps a helluva lot.) No, you still have about 9-10 chapters of slowly corroding denial to deal with :(

Ching1: Exactly why he left!! I agree!

Rabidfangrrl: Here's where I shock you all. Yes, there is a plot!! When I got this idea in my head, I sat down and wrote out the basic idea behind it as well as how I wanted to see it end. I wrote down a few different ideas that would help bring about this conclusion and fleshed it out a bit.

After I let that simmer, I wrote an overall outline of all the major events that I wanted to see happen in the story. THEN, I make a sub-outline about 5 chapters at a time that includes at least 2-3 points that I want to occur within that chapter. This last outline is very flexible in that unexpected scenes or unexpectedly longer scenes sometimes push points into a later chapter (the reason why I only do 5 chapters at a time.)

My basic idea has never changed, but a few of my major points got switched out with a few better ideas as I go along. That is also why I write about 10 chapters ahead of what I am posting. I have literally gone back and added something in a chapter that would post in a day or two to give a foreshadowing of something that will occur later.

There are things that have been mentioned in previous chapters that, while seemingly unimportant now, will have an impact much later in the story. So, Yes!! There is a plan!


So, enough of my rambling! Thanks so much for reading and welcome to my new readers! Thanks for taking the time to post, you guys are awesome!!

Chapter 24


Without hesitation, the two ninja jumped up and bolted for the tent flap. Sasuke paused long enough to grab his katana on his way out before joining his friend. While he then stopped to survey the situation for the best plan of action, Naruto charged straight in.

There were about six men that he could see from first glance. One had the still, crumpled form of Ryou at his feet. Sasuke knew that Ryou had been the one on watch. ‘Civilians,’ he sneered to himself. Two other men were hauling the merchant and his wife out of their tent. He didn’t see the children right off. Perhaps they were still inside the tent.

Naruto was currently flying through the air, feet aimed to take out the man currently dragging the merchant’s wife across the ground, not waiting for her to stand properly. Sasuke let the Sharingan flare to life and sped to intercept the dagger that was racing towards his scantily clad companion. There was a metallic “clang” as his blade deflected the throwing knife just as there was a meaty “crack” of foot hitting face. Not even pausing, Naruto was in mid spin of a round house aimed at the second bandit as his other foot touched ground.

The other bandit threw the merchant into the oncoming path of Naruto’s foot as he dove to the side. Eyes widening, Naruto made the familiar cross-shaped seal and a shadow clone appeared, tackling the old man to the ground and taking the hit. The clone vanished in a cloud of smoke. The blonde vaulted over the prone merchant and went after the thug.

Sasuke blazed through the enemy like a fire through dry grass; swift, deadly and leaving nothing alive behind him. Two of the bandits were down before they even knew he was there. He stood, katana held lightly in his right hand with blood dripping down its length, sheath gripped in his left. There was a man missing. Two down by him, one just dropped by Naruto. One fighting the blonde while the other stood by Ryou, who was waking up, over at the fire.

Sasuke’s eyes widened a fraction before he was suddenly leaping and twisting in the air. The area he had just vacated was littered with senbon. ‘Why is it always needles?’ he thought with a grimace. Landing facing the opposite direction, his toes barely had time to tap the ground before he launched himself airborne again. His enemy leapt backwards to keep distance between them.

Needles streamed at Sasuke continuously, forcing him to dodge and deflect the thin weapons. He was beginning to seriously hate senbon. The enemy ninja made a few hand seals and the needles split to either side, tripling their numbers. The man smirked in triumph as the thin projectiles buried themselves into the nearly nude shinobi. The smirk faded as the figure vanished to leave a pin cushioned log.

The man before Naruto seemed to know some earth jutsu and kept the blonde on his toes dodging crystalline shards and mud balls. It was pure luck that the blonde saw a man creeping to the back of the merchant’s tent as he fought his second opponent. He feared for the kids that were undoubtedly still inside the tent. He made several shadow clones and allowed them to get impaled by the shooting crystal shards. Under the cover of the resulting smoke, he made his move.

The canvas of the tent made a loud tearing sound as the knife sliced through the back wall. The two children huddled under the blankets, trying to make themselves invisible to the intruder.

A head was stuck into the tent followed by shoulders and a body. The slim man looked around, trying to spot where the valuables might be kept. He frowned as he saw a glow forming under a blanket where two suspicious lumps quivered. He jerked the blanket away from two small children who had their hands cupped around a strange glowing light. Both the boy and girl leapt to their feet and charged the surprised bandit with a yell before thrusting the ball at him.

“Rasengan!”

The man was propelled away from them, spinning and twirling in mid-air, ripping the lines out of the ground and taking the tent with him. The two kids grinned at each other and then ran to join the fight.

Naruto delivered an uppercut to the large man in front of him and watched as the lights went out behind his eyes. He looked over to where Sasuke was fighting with what appeared to be a somewhat skilled ninja. Knowing better than to be worried, he left Sasuke to his own battle and ran toward the man that was easily holding off a struggling Ryou. He came up behind the thug and delivered a kidney punch without hesitation. During the moment that the other was gasping, he pulled Ryou back out of the way.

The two kids ran across their encampment, having spotted their mother and father. Their path took them close by the two fighting shinobi. Unable to pass up the perfect hostage opportunity, the senbon wielding ninja grabbed the young girl and held a deadly needle to her throat. “Back off,” he warned. “We just want your valuables. Give them to my partner,” he indicated the man that Naruto had just punched, “and we’ll be on our way. Otherwise, the pretty little girl here dies.”

Everyone stopped in surprise as Sasuke suddenly jumped into the air, coming down with his sword straight at the other shinobi. Unable to react in time with the girl clinging to his arms, the other ninja took the blade at an angle from his collar bone . The mother’s scream could be heard as the weapon continued through the body, catching the girl’s torso in its path.

There was a moment of pure silence. A moment in which time itself seem to hold its breath. Then the man was falling backwards, blood pouring from his wounds and the body of the girl disappeared into smoke.

Naruto immediately stepped forward and caught the last remaining bandit standing in a powerful hit to his diaphragm, causing him to collapse, gasping for air. A heel to the back of the head finished the job, dropping him unconscious.

The blonde stepped over to Sasuke who was cleaning his katana. “It’s a good thing that you recognized the kage bushin,” he said with a smile.

Sasuke lifted dead, bottomless red eyes up to Naruto as he resheathed his weapon. Silently, he turned and walked away.

Naruto felt an icy chill run down his spine.

A replica of Naruto, complete with only boxers covering him, fell easily from a tree, landing on his feet. He set down the two kids that he was carrying and they immediately ran toward their parents. Letting all of the clones go, Naruto began to truss up the enemies that were still alive.

Ryou watched the whole scene with some confusion. “Who are you?”

“Who, me?” Naruto grinned. “I’m the one that has been pretending to be the stoic bastard’s sister.”

“Ah.” There was a pause and then Ryou’s face went bright red. “I’ve been flirting with you!” he blurted out.

“Yeah,” Naruto said with a grin. “You've been doing a pretty good job, too.”

Ryou looked him up and down. “You’re a ninja!”

“That’s right, one of the best!” Naruto secured the bindings on the last bandit and stood up to see where Sasuke had gone. He spotted his companion over on the other side of the encampment dragging the dead bodies just into the tree line. The merchant was gathering up his family’s belongings and loading them onto their cart.

“You might want to get your stuff together. Looks like we're going to be traveling tonight,” Naruto informed the artist.

He walked over to the woman where she was still hanging onto her children, afraid that if she let go they would disappear. The two kids smiled up at Naruto as he approached and wiggled out of their mother’s embrace. The two then latched onto Naruto’s waist with cries of “Nii-san!”

He gave the kids a squeeze and looked up at the worried face. “Are you okay, obasan?”

She hesitated, almost looking up at him fearfully. Her eyes then relaxed and she nodded a little shakily. “Thank you. Thank you for my children,” she whispered.

He smiled and ruffled the little girl’s hair. “It was my pleasure.” He looked over at her husband. “He plans on traveling tonight?”

“Hai. He doesn’t think this area is safe. He wants to get to a town as fast as possible. Will you travel with us? To protect us?” she asked hopefully.

Naruto glanced over at Sasuke who had just ducked into the tent to get some clothes on. The blonde blushed when he realized that he was conversing with a married woman in his boxers. He cleared his throat nervously and scratched at the back of his head. “Y-yes! Of course! Umm, excuse me!” He peeled the kids off and hurried back to his tent.

He entered the tent to see Sasuke quickly packing their blankets away. He was already dressed and took a moment to gesture to Naruto’s clothes laying on the tent floor.

“Thanks,” Naruto murmured as he hurriedly dressed. “Let’s leave the tent up. We can put the bad guys in here until the authorities show up.”

“They don’t need a tent.”

“Well, I’m not going to drag them with us and I’m not going to leave them here to freeze to death,” he protested.

“Why not?” Sasuke asked coldly.

“Why not? Teme, you just can’t leave someone to die like that! That’s just wrong.”

“What they did is wrong. They should have thought of that before attacking people on the road.” He finished with the last blanket and stood, ready to leave the tent. “If you feel that letting them freeze is wrong, you can always have mercy on them.”

“That’s why we’re leaving the tent,” Naruto said in confusion. He blinked as he realized what Sasuke was implying. “Teme! It’s not our job to kill them. You never know what kind of reasons they may have for what they’re doing. We leave them here and let them be arrested.”

“Is that what you’re going to say when we go after my brother, Naruto? That we should bring him back to Konoha to be tried? You know what my vengeance will end in. Nothing will satisfy it short of his head. Your pity for these people will be your downfall,” he predicted contemptuously.

Naruto bit back his initial scathing reply about where Sasuke's revenge had gotten him so far and took a deep breath instead. “I promised you to help avenge your clan. I didn’t say get justice for them. I didn’t say capture your brother. I said avenge your clan. I understand-“

“You don’t understand shit, Naruto, so don’t even try-“ Sasuke interrupted angrily.

“Shut the fuck up, teme, and let me finish,” Naruto growled. “I understand that revenge is what you need. I understand that that’s what it will take to help make you whole again. I’m not doing it because of your clan or because it is right, but because it’s what you need.” He lifted his hand up and gently brushed back the dark bangs hanging in his friend’s eyes. “I would do anything for you.”

Sasuke lifted his head up and met the blue eyes searchingly. “We’re shinobi. We’re tools. We don’t have the time nor the luxury for emotions.” The way he said it, the way his breath was unsteady told Naruto that Sasuke wanted him to prove him wrong even if he didn’t believe it was possible.

“You’re not an emotionless tool, Sasuke. I’m sure that’s what you want to be. I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt so much if you were. But that’s not what you are.” He let his hand drift down and placed his palm over Sasuke’s heart. “This is what we are. Shinobi is just what we do. It may be our life. It may be our everything. But this is who we are.”

Naruto carefully stepped forward and embraced his friend. He waited for the tensing, waited for the rejection, but it never came. Sasuke hesitated for a long moment, then slowly brought his arms up and around the firm body in front of him. The older ninja realized that though they had kissed and shared pleasure, this was the first time they had really held each other like this. It was warm and comforting. It felt like home.

It was then that Naruto realized that Sasuke had indeed known that the little girl was a clone. But it had still troubled him all the same when he had attacked. He did have a heart, he just wanted to deny its existence.

“C’mon. We better get moving or they will leave us behind,” Naruto urged quietly.

“And that’s a bad thing how?” Sasuke questioned.

“Heh, c’mon, bastard. I want to make sure those kids reach the town alright.”

Sasuke reluctantly let go and stepped away from the blonde. “You and kids,” he murmured but without his usual rancor. He sighed and looked around. “Finish getting dressed. I will bring the prisoners in here. We’ll let the family send someone to get them when they get to town.”

Naruto nodded and finished pulling on his clothes. Once he had his poncho on, he stepped outside of the tent, stretching and glad to be a male once more. He glanced over at Ryou and what he saw made him wince. He looked around hurriedly for Sasuke, hoping his companion didn’t see the look on Ryou’s face.

“I always wanted to be a ninja,” the young man said in a tone bordering on hero worship. "But my dad wouldn't let me."

‘Sasuke’s going to kill me,’ Naruto thought despairingly.

********************
A few explosive tags would do it, Sasuke decided. A few strategically placed tags around the annoying jerk's tent set to trigger when said annoying jerk stumbled off to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Or better yet.... an explosive tag placed in his boxers. Yes, that would be better. That way when the tag went off, he wouldn't have his second brain to flirt with anymore.

Maybe he should just break all of his fingers. Especially the fingers that kept brushing up against his blonde. He had touched that attractively tanned body seventeen times since breakfast that morning. Sasuke would be perfectly justified in the homicide.

Naruto once again threw a slightly pale look in his direction, but he ignored it. If the blonde was so concerned with his new friend's life, then all he had to do was move away from him and stop talking to him.

"The town is just ahead," the husband announced with relief evident in his voice. The sun was just an hour from setting and it was apparent that the man didn't want to camp outside again.

"Dobe," Sasuke said quietly. "Disguise."

Naruto nodded and made a few quick hand seals. His form immediately shifted into that of a beautiful young girl with physical characteristics very reminiscent of Sasuke. The little girl giggled from her mother's side and he gave her a wink and a grin. The annoyance also known as Ryou dropped his jaw in amazement and reached out a hand to touch that smooth pale skin.

A hand reached out and gripped his wrist in a painful hold. A pair of graphite grey eyes glared into his, daring him to try it again. Ryou tugged his wrist and, after a moment to ensure that the young man understood he was only getting his hand back because Sasuke allowed it, rubbed his arm gingerly. Without missing a beat, Sasuke stepped up to Naruto and laid a protective arm around "her" shoulders.

Ryou at first considered himself warned off of the other shinobi's sister. Then he seemed to remember that it wasn't a girl and it wasn't his sister. His eyes widened slightly as they jerked up to the dark-haired warrior's. Seeing that he understood, Sasuke nodded almost imperceptibly, acknowledging his own claim. Ryou's cheeks reddened slightly at the implications and looked away.

Naruto, totally missing the byplay, gave Sasuke a rather confused look when he felt the arm go around his shoulders. He didn't mind the touch by a long shot. However, he was aware that Sasuke wasn't exactly the most demonstrative person he knew. Suspicious, he glared up at his friend, trying to figure out what he was up to. Sasuke caught his eye and tried to look as stoic and nonchalant as ever.

"Hmpf." Naruto shrugged the arm off and walked up to the merchant family. He could almost feel the amusement radiating off of the shinobi behind him.

They entered the town just after sundown and were directed to a decent inn by the town guards. Sasuke stopped at a different inn (probably the only other one in town) and Naruto bid a quick farewell to everyone as his friend unceremoniously walked into the building. After a hug for the kids and a quick bow and goodbye to the others, he followed his socially impaired partner inside.

tbc