The Sound of Dreams

AN: I’m so glad everyone is enjoying these last few chapters. I hemmed and hawed quite a bit, trying to make sure that they said what I really wanted them to say!

Allys: As for channeling into Kishimoto’s brain… well, you do realize that what you are reading was probably written about a month ago? /grins Lol, I do so love Pinky and the Brain!! Narf!

Vivi&Venny: I am gonna assume that there are actually two of you and I am not talking to Sybil. That being said, don’t worry, you will have some interesting smut coming up in the future. Some in the near future and some in the further future. Viva la Smut!!

Anonymous English teacher: Thank you so very much for correcting my mistake. I had a feeling that I was off, and I hate to admit that even though I took advanced English courses in High School that the lie/lay thing always gave me a hard time… /sigh But don’t feel shy if you see any other errors! The only way I can improve is by correcting my mistakes. I will be reposting the corrected chapters shortly!

Iiskola: Thanks for dropping me a review! I am glad that I have been able to entertain you this entire time!! Feel free to email me any pics if you would like. I am glad your drawing is improving, much like my writing skills, lol!

Here’s a little piece of useless trivia for you about last chapter. I actually had a smut scene involving Naruto and Sasuke. I even had it all written out, but then I thought… nah… The last time Naruto had Sasu was because he walked into the shower and there was temptation. Naruto would try to fight something like that in my mind if he had a chance. So, I moved the smut scene, twisted it even more and made it… different… Look for it in chapter 45! (That’s the teaser that I am going to leave you!)

Many thanks for reading and many hugs to those who have reviewed!!

Chapter 41


With the arrival of the workers, Sasuke had taken anything of value that belonged to the two of them and promptly sealed it into their private chambers. He gave only one warning to the foreman to keep anyone away from the room unless they wanted to be missing body parts.

Currently he was leaning against a stone wall, watching workers scramble to and fro with a scowl on his face. He didn’t enjoy having so many people around him; too many opportunities for the enemy to infiltrate their domain.

He felt eyes on him and glanced over to see bright blue orbs tracing over his body. He mentally smirked as he caught the dobe ogling him once again. Since the Fuuma’s seemed to be so concerned as to how he dressed around civilians, he had once again donned on the black pants and blue muscle-tee.

A small flare of desire made itself known as he thought back to earlier that morning.

Waking up next to the blonde always seemed to have a soothing effect on him and was something that he made sure happened every morning. He enjoyed being able to watch the other sleep. He seemed so peaceful and innocent when his lips weren’t constantly flapping. He sometimes eased out of the bed and got ready for the day, being careful not to wake the other boy. Once he did, the yakking would start and it would ruin the mood.

Of course this morning he had found another way to occupy the blonde’s mouth.

Blue eyes finally lifted to meet black and Sasuke let a slow smirk form on his face. Almost immediately pink lightly flushed the tanned cheeks even as the pupils in those blue eyes dilated slightly.

A familiar head of orange-red hair bobbed into view and Sasuke had to repress a growl. That was the other thing that had shown up with the workers. Supposedly here to be a liaison between the hidden village and the town, Sasame had shown up with a bag full of gear asking which room would be hers.

Sasuke had been half a step away from tossing her out when Naruto had grabbed her bag and started to happily show her around. The damned idiot. If anyone besides himself even thought about touching the blonde…

It wouldn’t be pretty.

She gave Naruto a happy look with those big chocolate eyes that Sasuke would just love to stab out with a kunai at the moment and tugged the blonde’s hand to get him to follow her. Ignoring her babble, Sasuke watched the orange-headed girl lead his lover off down the hallway.

Wait a damn minute.

Orange hair.

Naruto likes orange.

Did Naruto find her hair pretty perhaps?

Scowling even more fiercely, the raven-haired teen pushed himself off the wall and made to follow the two discreetly. He remembered how the dobe had practically fallen over himself trying to get Sakura to go out with him. He’d be damned if he was going to allow history to repeat itself. The girl needed to learn once and for all that Naruto was taken.

He found the two sitting on a slightly battered sofa in the lounge/sitting room. They had dragged it in there as well as a few other items into their own rooms shortly after the workers had arrived and started clearing out debris that had covered heretofore unexplored rooms. Sasuke moved over and perched on the arm behind Naruto, making sure that his sword didn’t gouge the couch.

Naruto smiled up at him and shifted slightly so that his back leaned into the side of Sasuke’s chest and his forearm rested along the length of his black-clad thigh. Sasuke could have started purring contentedly as a tanned thumb traced small designs on his knee.

The pale ninja settled himself in a little more comfortably and allowed his fingers to toy with blonde strands of hair at the nape of Naruto’s neck. He smirked as his lover shivered slightly under his touch.

He glanced over at the orange-haired nuisance and saw that her smile was still upon her lips. He also noticed that, after a first glance, she never lifted her eyes to meet his. He tuned out their discussion of the plans for the base, but never let his awareness of his surroundings falter as he continued to twine strands of soft hair around his fingers. Why had he never done this before? He found it very relaxing as apparently did the dobe since his words trailed off at times as he rubbed his head against Sasuke’s fingers.

“Oi, bastard,” Naruto finally said as he sat up straight. “Let’s go make lunch before you put me to sleep.”

Sasuke stood and stretched his shoulders. “It’s your turn to cook,” he announced.

“What?! I cooked yesterday!” he protested loudly. “I made sushi!”

“That was the day before. I made eggplant yesterday,” Sasuke reminded him.

Naruto made a face of mild disgust. “Oh, yeah. That’s right.”

“Shut up, baka. It’s good for you.”

“Still tastes nasty,” the blonde grumbled. He looked over at Sasame. “Want to join us for lunch?” he asked brightly.

Ignoring the warning glare shot her direction from dark eyes, she smiled brightly and nodded. “Sounds great!”

The three made their way to the kitchen where Naruto started digging around, looking for ideas for lunch. “How does rabbit stir fry sound?”

“Don’t forget the vegetables this time,” Sasuke said as he started pulling out the tea kettle. Without missing a beat, he added, “Don’t stick it out unless you plan on using it.”

Naruto quickly pulled his tongue back into his mouth, wondering if the Sharingan had suddenly developed 360 degree vision like the Byakugan. Shrugging, he turned on the stove and started lunch. A few moments later, he almost jumped when he felt a pair of arms go around his waist. Sasuke wasn’t usually one for public displays.

“You’re awfully touchy feely today,” he murmured as he leaned back against the strong chest.

“Hn,” was the reply as a nose gently nuzzled into the crook of his neck. “Just proclaiming my territory,” he whispered into his ear before nipping it.

Naruto let out a snort. “You gonna hike your leg on me next?”

“No,” Sasuke said with a smirk. “But I might just mount you.” He emphasized his words by lightly rubbing himself against the tight ass in front of him.

“Teme!” Naruto yelled, half scandalized, half amused. Had they been alone, he would have shoved the food aside and jumped his dark-haired lover. However, they had an audience at the moment and Naruto couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed by Sasuke’s advances. He should have realized that two and half years of training under a Sannin had to have left some kind of perverted mark on a person.

He paused as he realized that he fell into the same category. Oh well, his perversion could be summed up in one word. Clones. And Armguards. And tight, form fitting clothes. And… Fine, he had a lot of perversions, dammit. Sasuke’s seemed to have fallen into exhibitionist at the moment.

He idly wondered what Sakura’s kink was. He snickered to himself as he ran a few guesses through his mind. His strongest, or rather he thought funniest, was B&D. He could just picture her in a dominatrix outfit. Of course the image would have been hotter had Fuzzy Eyebrows not been tied up in front of her. He might have just scarred another part of his brain with that mental picture.

Sasuke had moved aside to watch Naruto’s face when it became evident that his friend’s brain had just taken a side trip somewhere. By the expressions that flowed one into another, however, he was quite sure he didn’t really want to know where it had gone.

“Usuratonkachi,” he called out.

Naruto jumped slightly and glared over at him. “What do you want, bastard?”

“They call it stir fry for a reason.”

Naruto let out an “eep” as he quickly stirred the contents of the pan around. It didn’t smell burnt at least. Maybe a little too well done on parts of it, perhaps.

“Should I set the table?” Sasame finally spoke up after silently witnessing their interactions.

Sasuke didn’t respond since he knew that anything he said would likely piss off Naruto. She was the blonde’s problem, so he could deal with her.

“That would be great!” the younger male chirped up. “Plates are in the second cabinet there and chopsticks and other utensils are in this drawer here,” he said while indicating the two locations.

Lunch continued without further incident until Naruto and Sasame started going over plans for infiltrating and disabling the lab sites. They agreed that no matter what the daimyo had to say, the labs needed to be eliminated whether or not a new Otokage was elevated.

Sasuke listened with seeming disinterest as the two lined out their ideas. It was half way through the discussion when he realized that the girl was including herself into the operation.

“Who decided you could come along?” he asked coldly.

“Hanzaki decided that having an extra ninja would be of benefit,” she replied with a frown. He could tell that she was offended as if he had called her skills into question.

“Naruto and I work alone. I don’t know you and I can’t trust you in a battle. Besides, most girls are totally worthless when it comes to actual fighting.” He said the words emotionlessly, not showing anger or derision; just an icy resolve that his words were true and would be heeded.

Sasame gasped as if she had been slapped in the face. Her cheeks reddened in anger and she stood up, glaring down at the unperturbed shinobi. “You know nothing about me! And it isn’t my fault if you never fought with a real kunoichi instead of some fluff-brained ninja-wannabe!” she yelled down at him. “I am going with the two of you because it has already been decided by our leader.”

“He’s not my leader,” Sasuke cut in bluntly.

“He became your leader when you agreed to work for us,” she retorted angrily. “And instead of making presumptions, why don’t you spar with me and find out exactly what my skills are?”

“Hn,” came the reply which was Sasuke-speak for “Fine, we’ll see how you do.”

Unfortunately, Sasame wasn't fluent in Sasuke-speak and threw her chopsticks down on the table in a fit of anger. “Are you too-“

“Sasame,” Naruto cut in abruptly. He didn’t want her to screw up the concession that Sasuke had just made through ignorance. “We’ll spar outside in an hour.”

She looked from one man to the other and when no contradiction was made, nodded assertively before leaving.

“She reminds me of you,” Sasuke grumbled after a moment.

“You mean how she stands up for herself and won’t back down until she’s proved herself?” Naruto asked with a grin.

“No, how she’s a pain in the ass,” he explained, standing to take his dishes to the sink.

“Bastard,” the blonde muttered.

**********************
An hour later the three ninjas were outside a short ways from the base. Sasuke hadn’t really liked leaving the workers there unsupervised by someone they didn’t trust, so Naruto had left a clone there to allay some of his friend's paranoia. He had wanted to make sure that he was present at the spar as well to make sure that Sasuke didn’t return alone. He didn’t want to have to go find where the older teen had buried the body. He was only half joking when he’d had the thought.

Sasame had her ninja mask on so that only her eyes and her topknot were visible above her shoulders. She faced off with the Uchiha and crouched ever so slightly, prepared to attack or defend either one.

Sasuke started out with his shuriken, throwing the weapons with deadly accuracy. As Sasame dodged adroitly, he had already started in on his next move. Naruto recognized the hand seals for a katon jutsu right before Sasuke blew out a large fireball at the area in which the girl stood. She jumped up, flipped and came down right beside the Uchiha.

The two dropped into a spurt of taijutsu with quick hand strikes and kicks, but it seemed as if Sasame was coming out the worse for it. Naruto frowned as she made several hits that were in not only non-vital areas but seemingly non-crippling as well. After a particularly hard kick sent her back several meters, she pulled herself to her feet and set herself in a slightly different stance.

Sasuke gazed at her with his dark eyes for a moment, not considering her enough of a threat to activate the Sharingan. He then boosted his speed with his chakra and charged straight at her, deciding to finish her off once and for all and prove his point. The girl made a slight hand gesture and the most graceful shinobi that Naruto had ever seen (even counting a naked Hinata dancing under the moonlight by the waterfall) fell flat on his face.

Sasuke quickly regained his feet and the red of the Sharingan flared to life. He narrowed his crimson eyes at her and moved to attack again. As he neared her, his hand reached back for his katana; but as soon as he grabbed the hilt, his hand opened again, releasing it.

The avenger lifted his leg as if to kick, when he suddenly switched feet, hoping a few times to regain his balance. He stepped back to make a hand seal, but one of his hands miscued and made the wrong motions. Frowning, he jumped in with a swing of a fist, but the hand missed. However, the other hand that he had moved a split second after the other did connect and knocked the kunoichi backwards into a tree.

“You can only control one limb at a time,” Sasuke said with absolute certainty.

“It’s enough to keep you from using ninjutsu,” she said confidently.

Naruto bit his lip to keep from commenting on that. She would find out the hard way.

Sure enough, Sasuke dove in for another attack, a kunai appearing almost miraculously in his hand. Sasame hastily diverted his hand away from her face, but at the same time the shinobi was making one-handed seals with his other hand.

Not able to stay put, Naruto dove in to remove the girl from the path of the flames. “You’re supposed to spar with her, not barbeque her, bastard.”

“Flames never stopped you before,” Sasuke said with an unconcerned shrug.

“How did you do that?” Sasame asked in genuine interest as she got back to her feet.

“How were you controlling my movements?” he countered.

“With chakra threads. Our clan specializes in their use,” she answered readily. “I tied them to you while we were in hand-to-hand. You honestly didn’t think my fighting skills were really that bad normally, did you?”

His raised eyebrow told her clearly that he had indeed thought that she was just a poor fighter.

She made a little “hmph” sound to show her displeasure.

“I learned how to use my fire techniques one-handed,” he said as if he could care less if she knew or not.

“So, does she pass your test, bastard?” Naruto asked with a grin.

“Hn,” he grunted with indifference. “You better not have to save her during the attack.” If Naruto ended up putting his life on the line to save a helpless damsel in distress, then that damsel was going to get her ass handed to her the first spare moment he had.

**********************
Katsuro sat across the low slung table from his father upon the beige, comfortable cushion. None of the daimyo’s guards were in attendance. His father sat there unconcerned even though his son plotted behind his back and had made an unprecedented request see him alone. He wondered if his father actually knew of what he did when he made his many trips away from their home.

“Orochimaru has been defeated,” Katsuro said without ceremony.

He watched as his father’s eyes flickered with thoughts and suppositions. He saw situations and actions being weighed and measured. He saw pros and cons being considered. He knew that any other person would probably have seen none of these things, but when he was younger, he had known his father well. And while he may not spend as much time with him now, he was still able to see his mind at work through his dark eyes.

It had been his mother from which he had inherited his exotic eye color. When he was much younger, his father had told him that it was the first thing that caught his attention about his mother. However, he had received his brunette hair color from his father, not his mother’s silvery moonlit locks. He had never gotten a chance to know her well as her death had occurred during the early years when the wars were just skirmishes and the fighting hadn’t been as fierce as it had been right before Orochimaru had shown up.

“You obviously have a proposal or you would not be here like this,” his father finally said in his deep baritone voice. It had been that wonderful sound that had chased away many a childhood monster from under beds and in closets. Now he was old enough to know that most monsters wore the faces of men.

“We need Otogakure to keep our enemies at bay,” he began calmly and quietly. “We need to keep our image strong so as not to tempt them to test us. A new Otokage needs to be appointed and we need to demonstrate our strength to quell any doubts from within as well as without.”

“What demonstrations do you have in mind?” his father asked in the same collected tone, as if they were merely talking about the weather or what crops should be planted in the family fields.

“There are several locations that are under the leadership of those with dubious allegiance. I would say that we go in, remove the possible trouble makers and show our people as well as our enemies that we mean business,” Katsuro said with quiet determination. He wasn’t sure how much his father actually supported what Orochimaru did or whether he just tolerated it.

“Do you have someone in mind for Otokage?” his father asked with mild curiosity.

“One of the stronger members of our own Fuuma clan. It is about time that Rice Field’s shinobi were once again led by our own countrymen,” Katsuro said with conviction.

“Don’t always think that since someone is not from our own country that they are not qualified or worthy. Some are and some are not. Just as some of our own are and some are not,” his father told him almost gently.

‘You were wrong before,’ Katsuro thought to himself, but held his tongue. “Do you have someone else in mind?” he asked, trying to keep his anger from his voice.

His father was quiet for a long time. “No one that I would trust at the moment,” he admitted without inflection. “Do this and we will see what becomes of it,” he finally instructed.

“You are putting me in charge of this?” Katsuro questioned with mild disbelief. Then he realized that his father was probably doing so in case Orochimaru showed back up. This way he could claim plausible deniability. He was offering up his own son so that he wouldn’t take the fall.

“You are going as my representative,” his father corrected him. “This elevation must be supported by me so that the other Sound-nin will accept it and come into the fold. If you were doing this on your own, it would be seen as an attempted coup.”

Katsuro had never been so glad that he had been wrong as he was then. His father wasn’t setting him up to take the fall. It helped restore some faith that, perhaps, his father hadn’t been a willing participant in all of the snake Sannin’s atrocities.

Katsuro bowed lower than he had in a long time before exiting the room.

TBC