The Sound of Dreams

AN: I’m glad everyone liked the last chapter! It was really fun to write and I’m glad I was able to carry it off like I wanted! Not a whole lot to say this time around, except thanks for all the reviews both new posters and those of you who have been with me for a while and welcome aboard to all the new readers!

And now… what you have alllllll been waiting for… (besides the smut)!


Chapter 44


“I thought this place was abandoned,” Kiba said with a scowl as he watched the activity around the Sound Village base.

“It had been,” Shino said quietly. “But apparently someone decided to move back in.”

“Let’s go say ‘Hi!’” Sai said while starting to stand up from the covering foliage. Two male hands grabbed his shoulders from either side and pulled him back down.

“We really should make sure who they are first, Sai-san,” Hinata said hesitantly.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to run into the son of a bitch that had burnt themselves a new forest clearing back there and find out it’s a bad guy,” Kiba agreed.

Shino looked over at Hinata. They had both seen someone deforest an area to that extent when they had been here previously, but the manner in which it had been done looked different.

“She’s pretty,” Kiba whistled through his teeth quietly.

Shino looked back over toward the base to see a young woman about their own age standing on the first step leading down into the lair. She looked the area over as if searching for something, ignoring the few comings and goings of what appeared to be both civilians as well as one or two ninja. They noticed that none of them were wearing a hitae-ate.

Her eyes came to rest in the direction in which they were hiding.

“Well, they’ve spotted us now,” Sai said almost happily. “Nothing to do but go introduce ourselves.” He stood up and casually started walking over to the girl.

Shino looked like he wanted to heave a sigh, but was too reserved to do so. Hinata stood up and followed the mission leader out of the woods. Kiba glanced over at Shino, shrugged and fell in behind her, Akamaru at his side. Shino shook his head but stepped out as well.

A few other individuals had stopped when they had stepped towards the base and stood behind the girl as if waiting for orders. She said something and one of them immediately turned and ran down the stairs.

Kiba and Hinata stopped a comfortable distance away from the girl. Shino reached out and caught Sai’s arm to make sure he did the same.

“What do ninja from the Leaf want here?” she asked boldly.

Sai looked over at Shino and smiled, waiting in amusement. “We’re wondering what you are doing here at a known location for the Sound Village,” Shino stated in his unaffected tone.

“Since we're not in Fire Country, I do not believe that it's any of your business,” she retorted shortly.

“We are enemies with Sound, that makes it our business,” he contradicted.

“I would think that would make it even less your business,” she scowled.

“On the contrary, one should always know what one’s enemies are up to,” he disagreed.

“Do you think that we are your enemies then?” she asked condescendingly.

“While this is interesting and all.. well, actually it isn’t, what we are really here for is to see Uzumaki Naruto,” Sai interrupted.

“I don’t know who you're referring to,” she said coldly.

Akamaru barked and growled. Kiba grinned at her. “Short, blonde hair, blue eyes, scrawny and has an obsession with orange and ramen. And his scent is all over this place.”

“Perhaps he had been through here before we started renovating. We’ve only been here a few weeks,” she suggested.

“Sorry, it’s more recent than that,” Kiba informed her with a half-feral grin.

Sai lifted his head slightly and tilted it. Then he grinned at the shinobi around him. “Excuse me, I need to go take a leak.” With that, he pivoted on his heel and walked back toward the woods.

As soon as Sai was several meters away, Shino said very quietly, “Hinata.”

The girl nodded, turned to face the direction that Sai had gone and activated her Byakugan.

Sai stepped into the woods and glanced around casually. “How have you been, Naruto?” he asked casually.

There was a quiet moment, followed by someone heaving a sigh and then Naruto dropped out of a nearby tree. “How did you know I was here?” the blonde grumbled while readjusting a simple sling holding up his right arm.

Sai pointed up to a blackbird resting on a tree branch. “I had him spying on the area, looking out for you. Once he saw you, he flew over head to alert me then led me back here.”

“You and your damn inks,” Naruto grumbled. “So, are you here to finally try to take me back to Konoha?”

Sai took a moment to look the other young man over. “Not unless you’re wanting to go back. You’ve gotten taller, but have you gotten any bigger?”

It took Naruto a moment to figure out to what his friend was referring. He blushed slightly. “You pervert! As if I’ll ever let you find out!”

Sai grinned. “I’ll just have to get you into another hot spring.”

Naruto gave a snort, not deigning to reply to the comment. “What are you here for then?”

“We’re here to take you back to Konoha,” Shino said from the tree line. Team Eight stepped into the woods and joined the other two boys.

“I hate to disappoint you, Shino, but I’m not ready to go back yet,” Naruto drawled.

“It's in your best interest, Naruto,” the bug user explained. “There the Hokage-sama can extract your other resident and then you can go back to being a ninja.”

“I’m a ninja whether I am in the Leaf or not. The only difference is that in Konoha I wouldn’t be allowed to go on any missions,” Naruto countered with a slight narrowing of his eyes.

Akamaru gave a slight whimper. Kiba gave a big stretch and spoke, interrupting the other two. “Hey, let’s talk about this later. Right now I’m sore, hungry and tired.”

What he didn’t mention was that, according to Akamaru, there were other ninja out in the woods around them and he didn’t feel like getting into a pitched battle when they could just talk things out.

Kiba walked up and threw an arm around Naruto’s shoulders. He was slightly surprised when he had to lift his arm up rather than drop it down. “Wow, what are they feeding you around here? You’re no longer the runt of the litter!”

Naruto made a face as he started leading them over to the entrance of the base. “Veggies and vitamins. That bastard Sasuke won’t let a day go by without shoving several of each down my throat.”

The blue eyes missed the startled looks as his friends took in the fact that the cold Uchiha was making an effort to take care of the blonde. Sai, of course, merely looked smug.

Naruto glanced over at Sasame and gave her a small nod to let her know that everything was alright. She nodded in reply and went back inside ahead of them.

Hinata finally gathered up her courage to speak out. “What h-happened to your arm, N-Naruto-kun?”

Naruto lifted the arm in question. “Oh, this? It’s nothing,” he demurred. “I just hurt myself messing around with my new jutsu. It’ll be better in a day or so.” Naruto hated to hide the truth from his friends, but until he knew what their intentions were, he didn't want to reveal more than was necessary.

He led them down through the halls with ease. Most of the traps had been removed or disabled since there were currently a lot of civilians around. As soon as the repairs were completed, Sasuke intended on resetting their defenses. Naruto knew he would have to "remind" his dark-haired friend to tell the other shinobi that shared their home when he did so.

Naruto led them to two decent sized spare rooms that were next to each other where he told them that they could stay the night. After they had deposited their gear, he then led them to the kitchen. "If you guys are hungry, I can see if there is anything left from lunch or throw something together."

"As long as it isn't ramen," Kiba muttered.

"Heh, I'm lucky if I get to see a bowl a week. Damn bastard," Naruto grumbled.

Kiba snickered. "He's got you pretty whipped, huh?"

Naruto flushed slightly. "He does not! He just wants to make sure I eat right. I have to keep this sexy body of mine in top shape, you know." He grinned over at the Inuzuka while he flexed his left arm.

Hinata giggled softly with a bright blush.

"They say that sex is great for a cardiovascular workout," Sai volunteered cheerfully. "And if you really want to multitask, you can get some stretching exercises in as well."

"Sai!" Kiba, Hinata and Naruto exclaimed simultaneously.

"Fucking pervert," Naruto added.

They entered the kitchen to find Sasuke leaning against the corner of the cabinets where they curved around. He had his arms crossed over his chest and he glared at the four newcomers balefully.

Naruto gave him a concerned glance, wondering if the other teen should even be out of bed yet. He had been healed by a moderately skilled medical-nin but still had some healing to do on his own. He sported bandages wrapped around his lower torso under his shirt and, if you knew him well, was standing a bit stiffly.

Sai gave him a quick once over before giving that vacant grin. "Nice outfit. A definite upgrade from the gay pirate look."

Kiba snorted, Sasuke narrowed his eyes dangerously and Hinata took a discreet step away from Sai. Shino was busy getting a feel of the power level of the shinobi before him, his insects whispering of his potential chakra level.

Kiba, feeling a little giddy on the apparent success of their mission, couldn't help but get a jibe in as well. "Damn, Uchiha, you've gotten downright pretty for a guy," he said with a fanged smirk.

Naruto, who didn't missing the further tensing of Sasuke's body, shot his lover a playful look that agreed with what the dog-boy had said. Sasuke met his eyes for a moment, understood that Naruto didn't want him to start killing off the Leaf-nin, and gave a "Hn."

"Have a seat, guys. Let me see what's available," Naruto said while gesturing toward the table. "Have you eaten yet, bastard?"

"Not hungry," Sasuke said quietly, his eyes remaining on their new guests. He watched as everyone but Shino sat around the four-person table. As Naruto started to walk past him to check the fridge, he nudged his arm and held out his cupped hand. Naruto frowned for a second then saw the two medium sized pills resting in his palm.

His lip curled in distaste, but he grabbed them and tossed them back dry. He made a worse face and ran his tongue up against his pallet a few times like a dog that had just licked a skunk's ass.

As he searched the fridge for something easy to throw together, Sai started telling them of their search for the two young men. Between him and Kiba, they managed to make it sound like a grand adventure. Shino was quietly observing everything around him and Hinata was trying to fade into the background, sensing a slowly building tension from certain members in the room.

Naruto was hoping that things wouldn't get violent between his various friends. He didn't want to go back yet. He couldn't go back yet. Not until he had fulfilled his promise to Sasuke. In addition to that, he really wanted to help Sound get back on its feet under the right leadership. The things that he had seen lately made him even more determined to help out in any way he could to liberate the country out from under Orochimaru's remaining influence.

He set a small plate with a couple of rice balls on it next to Sasuke and started piling the table with various leftovers and finger foods. "Dinner will be better," he promised. He took the last vacant seat and piled up his own plate even though he had eaten not too long ago. There was always room for more in the black hole that was Uzumaki Naruto's stomach.

Shino slid over to where Sasuke was standing. The other teen eyed him with arrogant wariness as he came into range, as if saying that he knew the bug user couldn't hurt him but he would watch him just in case he wanted to be annoying. Shino figured it must be a genetic trait to allow someone to make an art form out of looking down their nose at a person. After all, the Hyuuga's were distantly related to the Uchiha's and Neji possessed the same ability.

"It would be best for him if you convince him to come with us," he said quietly, not wanting to interrupt the rather loud banter coming from the table.

"How do you figure that?" Sasuke returned just as softly, but somehow still made it sound condescending.

"If he comes back, we can remove the snake so that it won't take control of him again," Shino pointed out.

"The snake is sealed and is being guarded over by the fox. I don't think he'll be visiting us any time soon," Sasuke sneered derisively.

"If he comes back willingly, Tsunade-sama will keep him safe from the council; will keep him as an active ninja. If he has to be dragged back, they will take away his status for sure," Shino said, trying to reason with the other teen. "If he has to be dragged back, he will never have the chance to become Hokage. Are you willing to sacrifice his dreams for your revenge?"

Sasuke leveled a glare on the other boy. "Don't presume you know anything about his dreams or mine."

"You've already chosen the life of an outcast, Uchiha. Don't drag him down with you."

"You know that is the one thing that I have learned to find so amusing about the ninja of Konoha," Sasuke drawled as he watched the others at the table. "You are so impressed with yourselves and your village that you don't realize that there is a whole world out here besides you. Perhaps Naruto doesn't need the Leaf as much as you would wish him to."

"Everyone needs a home to return to," Shino pointed out.

"Yes, but the location of that home can change."

"For us, that's called a nuke-nin and they are generally hunted down," Shino said calmly.

"Orochimaru and the Akatsuki have shown just how well the Hunter-nin do their jobs." Sasuke pushed himself away from the counter and slowly and gracefully moved through the kitchen. He was trying not to favor his side so as to not display any weakness, so he made up for his usual confident stride by a casual pace.

He dropped a hand on the back of Naruto's neck, thumb unconsciously rubbing against his nape. "Want to move this into the room? It will be a bit more private there and you can discuss what needs to be said."

Naruto nodded, noticing that his friend was a little paler than usual. He knew that Sasuke more than likely needed to sit down to rest for a bit, but had too much pride to say so. "Sure, we'll meet you in there in a sec."

Sasuke nodded and left the room, certain that as soon as he did so, the conversation topic would swing to him. It was better that they got it out of the way now so that they could be sent on their way at the first opportunity. Then he and Naruto could disappear from Sound.

Sai watched Sasuke exit the room and turned toward his blonde friend. "So what were you guys doing that got the both of you injured? And don't tell me a training accident. I've seen enough injuries to tell the difference."

Naruto squirmed for a moment as all eyes focused on him. "You see, now that Orochimaru has been taken care of, Sound is trying to gain control over itself and set itself up as a real Hidden Village. But to do that, they need to get rid of the shinobi that are die-hard Orochimaru fans." He gave a shrug. "We've been helping out by shutting down some of the research facilities that were operating in Rice Field Country. In the next day or two we have to go and hit the last one that we are aware of. The last one we attacked," he paused and shuddered. "Let's just say that I won't leave a lab standing if I can help it."

"Why are you doing this? Sound is our enemy," Kiba protested.

"No," Naruto contradicted. "Orochimaru was our enemy and the village as it was ran under him was our enemy. Without him, they have a chance to make things right now. They can actually protect their people instead of using them."

Hinata spoke up in a surprisingly sure, albeit soft, voice. "If you think they are good people, then I think it is a wonderful thing that you are trying to help them."

"I agree," Shino said, "and I think that the Hokage would also agree and would encourage a mission to make Sound into an ally instead of an enemy. However, I think she would support it more if you came back and got an official mission for it."

"Shino, I can't go back until I finish what I started here. If I go back, there is no guarantee that I will ever be allowed to leave again. I overheard the council talking to baa-chan. They want to prevent me from ever leaving the village again. They wanted to put a Hyuuga curse mark on me so they could kill me if they needed to. I won't go back to that!"

A silence fell over the group as they absorbed the information. Hinata's eyes were widened in shock, perhaps knowing better than all of them what the seal fully entailed.

"You overheard them actually saying this?" Shino finally said in a low tone.

"Yes," Naruto said, hanging his head. "'They... they don't even see me as human."

"They see you as the Kyuubi," Kiba stated quietly. "They can't see Naruto."

Naruto's head jerked up, looking at them in surprise. "You know?" he asked, panic rising in his tone.

"Shino and Hinata saw your fight with Orochimaru when you used the fox's powers," Sai told him. "Kiba was told later after we started this mission because I felt he had a right to know what we were up against. And because I knew he was your friend, and friends don't judge each other." He put on a smile. "I read that in a book!"

"We've known for awhile now, Naruto-kun. We've had time to get used to the idea," Hinata assured him. "We know that you are still you."

"Yeah," Kiba said. "And it kinda explains a lot about you that was confusing. Things that Akamaru would sometimes sense, the way your face would sometimes change when you were backed into a corner by some opponent." He hesitated a moment. "You are still you when it comes out, right? Kakashi and Sakura both kinda warned us to stay away from you when your eyes turn red. Is that when it comes out?"

Naruto swallowed with difficulty. It would be such a relief to tell his friends everything, but would they stay his friends if he did?

"Let's take this somewhere more private," Sai suddenly suggested.

Naruto nodded, grateful for the reprieve, and gathered up their dishes to stack in the sink. He then led the silent group down to the bedroom he shared with Sasuke. The door could be sealed and everyone knew better by now than to try to open it. Plus there was a small sitting area where they had dragged some furniture in when their home had been invaded by strangers.

Naruto gave the knock that indicated that he was here with people. A few moments later the door was released. Naruto pushed it open and gestured everyone inside. "Have a seat." He stepped in and closed the door behind him then turned to reseal it.

Sasuke watched from where he was propped up on the bed, ostensibly studying a scroll of some type. Truthfully, he was both resting his body and keeping his ears on the rest of the room's occupants. He watched Naruto draw a deep breath and move over to where everyone else was seated on a couple of plush chairs and a sofa. Shino was in the process of sitting in one of the chairs as Sai, Hinata and Kiba commandeered the sofa. Naruto flopped down in the comfy chair and dragged the ottoman over to prop his feet up.

Once comfortable, Naruto started talking in what was apparently a continuance of a conversation. "It depends on the level of power that I'm using. If my features just change a little, then I'm still me. Once the red aura surrounds me, then I start losing parts of me. I keep control until four tails manifest."

"Five," Sasuke interrupted from the bed. "The last time you went up against Orochimaru you were still in control with four tails."

"Barely," Naruto muttered.

"Barely still counts, dobe. You didn't attack me and you didn't attack anyone that you deemed an innocent bystander," Sasuke pointed out, standing up for his friend, even against himself.

"Bastard," he said, but the insult sounded affectionate even to the others in the room.

"Usuratonkachi," Sasuke replied calmly and without inflection. It still caused Naruto to smile.

"What's the word? What's the word?" Sai said to himself with a look of concentration. "Oh yes!" he brightened. "Are you two snogging now?"

"Sai!" Naruto protested with a blush.

"Yes," came the calm reply from the bed.

"Sasuke!"

"What, dobe?" Sasuke had no problems with letting the others know that he was involved with Naruto. He knew that given half a chance Sai would probably try to jump the blonde and, if she ever grew a backbone, Hinata would be right behind him.

"Do you mind!?"

"Not at all," he said, looking up from his scroll. "Want me to go into details?"

"No!" Naruto yelled out in a rather high pitched tone.

"Yes!" Sai contradicted.

"No!" Kiba yelled desperately. "I don't need to know about my male friend doing the nasty with his boyfriend."

"Mate," Sasuke corrected. "That is the term you used, right, Naruto?"

"Bastard!! You are so going to pay for this later!" Naruto threatened.

Sasuke smirked back at him. "I look forward to it."

"What's the difference between the two?" Sai asked, still sporting a gleeful smile on his face at the chaos he was causing. Chaos always led to much more human interaction and gave him many opportunities to observe individuals and their emotions.

Shino and Kiba were both still, seeming to innately understand the nuances of what Sasuke was implying while Hinata sat staring straight ahead as if trying to decide whether to hyperventilate or pass out.

"It depends on the species," Shino answered slowly. "For some species there isn't much difference. Their allegiances change at their whim."

There was a sudden frigid feeling of icy fire coming from the bed. "Some just have priorities," Sasuke said coldly.

"And just which is higher on your list? Your vengeance or your mate?" Shino asked with a seemingly mild curiosity. He held up a hand. "Wait, you don't have to answer that. I remember what happened over three years ago."

Naruto kicked the ottoman out of the way and stood. "That's enough, Shino," he growled.

Before, Naruto had always had a strong, feral presence when he had wanted. Now, with the added physique and experience in his eyes, the presence took on a more powerful, dominant note; one that commanded attention. The blue eyes burned into Shino's even through the sunglasses and the other boy knew that now would be a good time to back down because Naruto certainly wouldn't.

"You know everything that you need to know to report to baa-chan," the teen growled out. "Kabuto is dead, Orochimaru is sealed and I am not coming back until Sound is free to rule itself and Itachi is dead. You don't need to know anything else other than by the time you report these things that Sasuke and I will be gone from this place."

Sasuke looked onto the scene with both smugness and something else that he couldn't quite put his finger on. It was possessive, proud, impressed and excited all at the same time.

"Well, there's only one problem with that, Naruto," Sai said after a brief moment.

"And that is?" the blonde's voice practically rumbled with displeasure.

"We were told that if we couldn't bring you back, we were to stay with you," Sai answered with a delighted smile.


TBC