What Dreams Are Made Of (SasuNaru)

11.

Naruto appeared back in the dream after only being gone for about two hours or so. So after making sure nothing was following him he found the tree they had using as a hide out and slipped inside.

Coming in from the dim light outside into the darkness inside caused him a few blind moments wherein something grabbed his arm tightly and whispered, "Naruto?"

The relief he felt was like swallowing something warm and sweet and then that feeling spread out through his belly and the rest of his body just from hearing that voice in the darkness. He had been more than a little worried that Sasuke might take it into his head to do something stupid. "Yeah, it's me. You okay?"

He felt the grip relax and Sasuke's other hand came up to rest against the side of his neck.

"Yeah, you?"

"Better than I was. Did you know that if you get hurt and then wake up you don't come into the dream again with the same injuries you left with?"

"Ah no," Sasuke said slowly. "What injuries?"

"Well um, the thing sort of caught me."

There was definitely a pissed atmosphere in the air now as Naruto struggled to explain. "Well not really caught me. I got raked by the thing's claws and I hit my head, but nothing major. It didn't really go after me much after that. It just sort of talked to me."

"Fucking idiot!" Sasuke hissed at him. He shoved him backwards causing Naruto to land on his butt with his back up against the inside wall of the tree while Sasuke held him in place with a palm to his chest. Naruto was just starting to be able to make out more of their surroundings as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, but even he could see how livid Sasuke looked. "I told you to run. What did I say, 'even you can run without getting caught can't you?'"

"I was more concerned with not tripping over tree roots I couldn't see and having the thing pounce on me, than running as fast as I could."

"And here you were so worried about me, when you clearly should have been more concerned about your own inability to stay away from the monster!"

Naruto wished he knew whether Sasuke was venting because of concern for him or whether he was just pissed that Naruto had failed in his simple task.

"What did it say to you?" Sasuke asked him.

"Not much, it was just trying to get me to turn against you. It didn't work."

"Obviously."

Naruto failed to mention that the thing had only seemed interested in finding Sasuke. There was no way Sasuke could be more wary of the monster so Naruto didn't see the point in making him even more anxious about it.

He felt rather than saw Sasuke's forehead hit his chest lightly and he reached up to run his fingers through the silky black hair.

"I'm okay now, by the way."

Sasuke muttered something that was unintelligible from his position but Naruto thought he heard 'idiot' repeated in there somewhere and figured he probably didn't want to hear the rest anyway.

"Have you come up with any brilliant ideas to free yourself yet?" Naruto asked pointedly.

Sasuke didn't reply which usually meant Sasuke didn't want to admit defeat about something.

"Sasuke, it's almost been two days. You can't go on like this."

Sasuke raised his head and sat back. "Thanks Captain Obvious, I needed the reminder," he said sarcastically.

"Well, just think fast okay?"

"Why do you think my abilities were blocked and not yours?" Naruto heard a speculative voice ask from the darkness in front of him.