The Sound of Dreams

AN is at the end of chapter

Chapter 73


Naruto felt his heart constricting in his chest as he slowly walked down the dimly lit corridors of the Hokage’s tower. Sasuke kept pace with him like a silent shadow, quietly waiting while Naruto’s mind tried to work out all of the possible repercussions of the meeting.

“I won’t run away from it,” Naruto suddenly growled. “They can’t make me.”

Kakashi’s head turned just minutely in their direction, indicating that he had overheard. “I’m glad to hear that, Naruto. You would disappoint a lot of people if you let anyone start intimidating you after all these years.”

Gai spoke up from beside Kakashi. “There are many that are impressed and inspired by your youthful spirit and determination, Naruto-kun. Don’t let those that don’t understand take that away from you.”

“You inspire others,” Sai added seriously from behind him. “You guide them from their darkness with the light that is inside of you. With proper training and experience, you will make a good Hokage.”

Naruto felt the beginnings of tears forming in his eyes at his friends’ sentiments, but blinked them away, feeling embarrassed enough as it was.

“Just don’t drop your drawers in front of them,” he added cheerfully.

There was a short sound of something thumping against flesh and Sai staggered a few steps under Shikamaru’s glare.

“Knock it off, penis boy,” Shikamaru growled. He straightened his jacket before adding in a mutter. “Besides, it would be too troublesome to go and hunt the two of you down. Again.”

Letting out a small laugh, Naruto felt the apprehension caused by the meeting lift slightly, replaced by the knowledge that his friends still stood by him.

The sentiment was further reinforced as they entered the restricted area below the hospital. They could hear the sound of voices down the hallway and, after rounding a corner, they saw the rest of their classmates as well as Gai’s team and Iruka gathered before them.

“Chichi!” a small voice cried out as a small blur hurled itself at Naruto’s waist.

Naruto laughed and picked Hiroki up as their friends greeted him, and to whatever extent his lover would allow, Sasuke.

Sakura smiled at both of them. “I hope you don’t mind. We were thinking about doing this tomorrow in your new apartment, but nobody wanted to wait that long!”

She led them into the circular room where they had previously stayed, but the seals were not reactivated. They had apparently moved some makeshift tables and cushions into the room to accommodate everyone.

On the table was a decent sized spread of food. Naruto immediately zeroed in on the ramen.

“Enjoy it while you can,” Sasuke said with a slight frown. “Tomorrow you go back to eating balanced meals again.”

Naruto shot him a frown and stuck his tongue out, displaying his feelings on the subject.

Before Sasuke could lean forward and whisper to him what he could do with that agile, pink appendage, Kiba came up and threw an arm around Naruto’s neck. Hiroki squirmed until he was let down so he could go pet Akamaru. The dog helped soothe him when there were this many people in one place.

“So, you guys are here for good now, right?” he asked with a sharp smile. In his eyes however, was genuine concern of which the majority was directed at Naruto.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Naruto said firmly with a slightly feral smile of his own.

As Naruto was dragged into the thick of the crowd, everyone wanting to welcome him back at once and rather loudly at that, Sasuke drifted over to where Kakashi stood an informal guard with Gai near the door.

“Sasuke,” Kakashi nodded as his eye scanned over the next page of his book.

After taking one look at Sasuke’s face, Gai drifted off a little ways so that he could give them some privacy but still be within reach if something went wrong.

Sasuke hesitated a moment, unsure of how to start the conversation.

Kakashi knew what the younger man wanted to talk about but was content to let him broach the subject as he continued to read.

“The Mangekyou,” Sasuke finally said in a low, firm voice. “I need you to teach me how to use it.”

Kakashi lifted his visible eyebrow as if in surprise. “I thought that you had it now,” he said thoughtfully.

Sasuke scowled. “My eyes have the ability,” he said flatly. “And every night the scene that caused their development plays out in my mind with a few substitutions. But I need to know how to control it. I need to develop the necessary triggers within my own mind to use it safely.”

Kakashi flipped a page. “And somehow you believe that after what occurred when I taught you the chidori that I am going to teach you how to use something even more powerful and dangerous?”

Sasuke’s look became darker as frustration boiled behind his eyes. “I would prefer that you taught me rather than me going blind by it activating without my control.”

“Am I to believe that you really can’t control your Sharingan, Sasuke?” Kakashi drawled in amusement.

Sasuke shifted uneasily. “It happens sometimes when I dream.”

Kakashi’s head lifted from the book to glance at Sasuke’s face and then lowered once more. “Tsunade said something about you having convulsions in your sleep, but that they seemed to have faded.”

“Kyuubi killed Orochimaru and received the Mangekyou. In my dreams, I am in his place and the one I am killing is Naruto.” Sasuke paused as something dark moved behind his gaze. “Then usually something reminds me that he is near. His scent or his body heat and the dream goes away.”

Kakashi was silent a long time and Sasuke watched Naruto and his friends laugh and talk amongst themselves. He found that a part of him wanted to be within that crowd. Perhaps not acting like a buffoon as Kiba was, running his mouth a mile a minute like Ino and Sakura or gorging himself like Chouji, but at least there. Perhaps like Neji who was watching everything with an amused tolerance, satisfied to be within everyone’s presence.

“I don’t trust you, Sasuke. Not yet. You prove that you truly belong to Konoha and aren’t just here to wait for your brother to show up for Naruto and then we’ll talk,” Kakashi said smoothly and returned his full attention to his book, clearly dismissing the other shinobi from his thoughts.

Sasuke’s jaw tightened at the answer, but he forced himself to relax. What had he expected to happen? Kakashi welcoming him back with open arms with absolute faith in him?

Naruto was the only one worthy of that honor.

After taking one more glance at his precious person surrounded by his warm and loving friends, Sasuke stepped out of the room, unimpeded by Kakashi. He had perhaps made three paces into the hall when a small hand wiggled its way into his larger one.

He glanced down to see Hiroki gazing up at him with depthless, vivid green eyes. The boy slowly smiled at him and tightened his grip. Sasuke found himself returning the smile without conscious thought.

“It’s a little crowded and noisy in there,” the boy whispered.

Sasuke nodded in agreement. “I’m sure there is another room that we can sit in for a while.”

They had only made a handful of paces more when a voice rang out in the hall. “Wait up!”

They both turned to see Naruto run up to them. “You’re not allowed to sneak off without me,” he said with a smile and a questioning look in his eyes.

“It was a little noisy for us,” Sasuke said shortly. He realized with some surprise that he was a little jealous of Naruto. Jealous of the ease with which he associated with others and pulled them into his warm sphere of friendship and camaraderie.

“Then you should have said something,” Naruto said lightly, “and we could have told them we were taking a break.”

“Why don’t you go back, dobe?” Sasuke said with an odd emptiness to his tone. “We’ll be fine.”

“Because my place is beside you,” he answered simply.

Sasuke opened his mouth to encourage Naruto further to stay, but he was interrupted.

“Naruto? Sasuke?” a feminine voice asked.

They both turned to see Sasame standing there with Izumo as an escort. She turned to the dark-headed man with a smile. “Could you give us a moment, please?”

He hesitated and then nodded, moving down the corridor a little ways.

She stepped forward slightly until she was within their personal space. Sasuke resisted the urge to forcibly move her back out of it as the look she had indicated she had something that she saw as important to say.

Hiroki moved back around behind Naruto.

“I know that you two are in some trouble even if I don’t know all of the details. I just wanted you to know that you are more than welcome at Sound at any time and under any circumstances. You helped us out so much.”

She took a breath, glanced out of the corner of her chocolate eyes towards Izumo and continued in a lower voice. “Ren-sama has not recovered nor has he given any indication that he will do so any time soon. If you should decide you need to relocate, you would be welcomed in any position that you would choose.”

She took in Sasuke’s immediate comprehension and Naruto’s dawning realization. “We are in a state of turmoil right now and are weak,” she said honestly and bluntly. “You are both very powerful, known to our people and are trustworthy. We respect this and would place our lives in your hands.”

Naruto took a shaky breath as everything that he had wanted from childhood was handed to him on a temptingly shiny platter: recognition, respect and trust.

However, the one thing that was missing was the place. He understood Sound’s plight and sympathized with it. He wanted to do something for them so that they could stand on their own and become both stable and a power in their own right. However, he could do the same as a shinobi of the Leaf. He was finally home and with his people, no matter if they loved or loathed him.

Sasame took a step back as she read Naruto’s decision in his warm, blue eyes. “I’ll do everything within my power to push the Hokage to help Sound. I’ll do everything I can to be one of those that are sent to help you recover. But Konoha is my home, my dream while Sound is yours, Sasame. I will help your dream come true, but I can’t be the one to make it come true for you.”

She nodded reluctantly. “I will have your things sent back to you. What you left behind at the base. If you should ever change your mind…”

Sasame turned and walked back down the hall to Izumo and they both made their way out of the hospital.

There was a moment of silence between the three before Sasuke finally spoke up. “You almost sounded grown up there, usuratonkachi.”

“Shut up, bastard, and stop calling me that!”

“Obviously it was just a passing phase.”

As Naruto opened his mouth on a retort, Sasuke snaked a hand behind his head and jerked him forward. Their lips met clumsily before they both adjusted slightly, turning it into something that wiped their minds clear of all other thoughts.

A tug on Naruto’s sleeve brought his attention back to the small boy that was watching them both with avid curiosity. “I want a kiss, too!” he proclaimed loudly.

Grinning, Naruto hefted the boy up on his hip where he gave him a big, wet noisy kiss on his cheek.

Hiroki squealed gleefully even as he tried to wiggle away.

Naruto looked back at the room where his friends waited. He looked over at Sasuke. “Together?”

Sasuke nodded. “Always.”

*******************************
Itachi walked gingerly through the remains of the last base that the snake Sannin had used. His body was still a little sore from his encounter with his little brother, but in good working order.

His thoughts turned inward as he remembered his fight with Sasuke. Even without the Sharingan, his brother was a powerful shinobi. However, it was most imperative that he reacquire it to be able to defeat the one that truly needed to be killed.

He followed a set of stairs downwards and found an open door with the remnants of a seal placed upon it. Shoving it open cautiously, he found the trashed out remains of what appeared to be someone’s living quarters. Visually sifting through the debris, he found what appeared to be a corner of a book poking out from under a turned over mattress. Pulling it out, he examined what could possibly be a diary. More than likely a woman’s by the flowing script.

Itachi knew that there would come a day when Sasuke would kill him. He was counting on it. He had known it the day that he had let the boy live that he was setting the wheels in motion for his own demise. But he had also hoped that the boy would become more powerful than he so that he could kill the one that Itachi knew that he himself couldn’t.

He continued to walk down the halls, dead Sound-nin littering the place. Strangely enough, there were no signs of any enemy. Everybody that he encountered had the musical note symbol upon its brow. Perhaps a rebellion? Maybe between those who wanted to continue to serve Orochimaru and those he believed the tales of his death? It would have bore further investigating had he truly been interested.

He stepped into the infirmary and found more shattered furniture and blood smeared over various surfaces. He walked over to a refrigeration unit and glanced over the scattered contents. His family name caught his eye.

Lifting up an intact tube, he saw his little brother’s name written on a label alongside the words semen sample.

Sasuke had always been the little part of his conscience that he had left alive. He had tried to corrupt it, had tried to change it and make it like him, but it had finally grown up into the voice that it was supposed to be. It gave him hope that things that had been wrong for so very long could finally be made right again.

The tube was empty.

~owari~


AN:Yes, that is the end! Now, before you grab the nooses and pitchforks and other violent instruments of Zrina-destruction, let me assure you that there is a sequel!!

“Dreams of Fire” will start posting at the beginning of the year. I’m going to take a short break and write some of the other things that have been sitting on my plate for a little while. Most of them will be one-shots until Blackmail and Betrayal is finished. Only want to write two multi-chapters at a time, lol.

Dreams of Fire will take place three to six months into Naruto’s and Sasuke’s punishment. It will address several things from Sasuke’s reintegration into the village, Hiroki’s reintegration into society in general, the plans of the Akatsuki, Itachi and his involvement with the massacre of the Uchiha clan. There will be full out battles, political intrigue and assassination plots. In the midst of all of this, Sasuke and Naruto further develop their relationship and try to make their little family work.

I want to thank everyone once again for their continued support of this endeavor. The wonderful comments and reviews have kept me sane throughout this whole process!! You guys have been awesome and I sincerely hope that you will enjoy the sequel as much as you have enjoyed “The Sound of Dreams.”

Much Love, Zrina

The Sound of Dreams:
Times New Roman 12 pt font
550 pages (less AN's)
248,054 words (less AN's)
Permission granted for translation into: Italian, Russian and Chinese

If you wish a reply to any comments or questions, I will update this one week from now to respond as best I can!