SasuNaru - Living With Worry

Sasuke was finally home from the mission he had been sent on, and all he wanted to do was go home and go to sleep with Naruto resting beside him. Yes, the Uchiha and Uzumaki were together and had been for some time; however, it didn’t happen instantly. Sasuke had betrayed the village, and by doing that he had also betrayed his friends. Sure, Naruto fought tooth and nail to get him back, but that didn’t mean that he would so easily forgive him for leaving in the first place.

He remembered the months that Naruto had refused to say more than a single word to him, and even then that was only if there was no other way of communicating. It was during the silent treatment that Sasuke realized that if anyone else had ignored him, he wouldn’t have cared, but since it was the blonde…it practically broke his icy heart. There was nothing he could think of to repair their past relationship, and there was nothing he could do…but eventually as time went by Naruto slowly warmed back up to Sasuke and eventually they were on good terms with each other again. It wasn’t too long after that, when the guys were all out drinking, Naruto made his drunken confession. Apparently he was in love with him and the fact that Sasuke continuously refused to come home was a repeated broken heart for the blonde. That explained the months of silence around him. That night Sasuke took Naruto home—since he was too drunk to get there on his own—and slept on the couch to tell Naruto his own feelings when the blonde woke up and was sober enough to remember.

That’s how it all went, and now when Sasuke would leave the village on missions, he hated parting from Naruto, especially when he noticed the flicker of uncertainty in Naruto’s eyes…as if he was afraid that he would decide to run off again. He hated that he was the one who put that suspicion in his mind, but the only way he could work toward curing that was to come back home to his blonde every time.

Seeing that it was extremely late, and Tsunade was likely to be away from the office, Sasuke figured that he could just go in the morning and report to Tsunade.

Upon getting to the house that he shared with his lover, Sasuke went to the bedroom only to find that Naruto wasn’t there.

“Hmm…must be on a mission. I’ll ask Tsunade about it tomorrow.”

With that Sasuke undressed, deciding to just leave his things packed up and scattered since he was too lazy at the moment to care about putting everything in its proper place.

~*~*~*~

The next morning, Sasuke found himself in Tsunade’s office, giving her the report of the mission, but throughout the entire thing he noticed that she seemed to be apprehensive about something.

“Lady Tsunade, may I ask where Naruto is?” he questioned when his report was finished.

The look that he got from her made him freeze. It was pretty obvious that something was wrong…but what? Naruto couldn’t be dead…no, there would be tears and hysterics since the old woman was rather fond of the blonde.

“Follow me….”

Giving her a confused look, Sasuke obeyed the order and followed Tsunade. It didn’t take him long to realize that they were headed to where people were contained either for questioning or to be imprisoned. What the hell happened while he was gone?!

“This is the only place we could keep him in his…condition,” Tsunade informed him.

“What happened?” he demanded from her. “Why the hell is Naruto here of all places?!”

For a moment Sasuke wondered if he would even get a reply.

“Take a look for yourself….”

Snapping his gaze over to where Tsunade pointed, Sasuke peered at the figure huddled in a corner behind the bars.

“Naruto? Naruto what are you doing in there?”

At first he got no reaction from the blonde, so he was about to repeat his words, only to then have Naruto turn to face him. It was then that he realized what was wrong. Sasuke had always loved Naruto’s bright blue eyes, but at the moment those eyes were gone and replaced with Kyuubi’s. This was that fox’s fault.

“What happened to him?!” Sasuke demanded as he spun back toward Tsunade.

“We don’t know…he just started to get more aggressive in the first few days while you were gone making everyone think that it was your absence that was the problem…but then he snapped and lost control. Thankfully it seems that Naruto’s there enough to prevent Kyuubi from completely taking over…but…it’s likely that it’s only a matter of time before he can no longer keep the demon from destroying whatever it wishes.”

Staring back at Naruto, Sasuke sat down in front of the barred enclosure hoping to get Naruto to come to him. He couldn’t be that far gone…right?

“I wouldn’t do that, Sasuke.”

“What else can I do?” he hissed at Tsunade. “He’s stuck in here because the damned fox is taking over, so I should do whatever I can to get him to regain control, right? So I’ll r- Dammit!”

Ripping his arm away, Sasuke glanced down at the gash that had just been placed there while he had his guard down. Then, looking at Naruto, he saw the feral look in the eyes that belonged to Kyuubi. Obviously the fox was going to make this hard for him.

“I told you not to,” Tsunade reprimanded as she pulled the Uchiha’s arm toward her.

He glared at the woman but said nothing as she went about healing the injury. It seemed that he would have to be more careful when trying to get through to his blonde lover.

Sasuke had an idea.

Activating his sharingan Sasuke looked into the demonic eyes and found himself at the cage that contained Kyuubi…but he couldn’t find Naruto. Glaring at the fox Sasuke knew that it was the demon’s fault for Naruto’s containment.

“Where is he?” he hissed.

The low chuckle that came from the depths of Kyuubi’s cage enraged him. The damned fox found all this amusing!

“He’s safe enough….”

“I want to see him.”

For a moment Sasuke thought that Kyuubi would deny him that much, but soon enough he saw the shadows in the cage shift. Finally when he could see something other than darkness, he saw that Kyuubi was cradling Naruto like a child while the blonde was either asleep or unconscious. It was strange to see the enormous demon holding a human so much smaller as if he were its child.

“What did you do?!”

“I did nothing more than protect this one from more pain.”

“Protect him? You’re not helping him at all!” Sasuke shouted. “All you’ve done is make people believe that he’ll lose control to you and kill everyone.”

“But it’s the truth.”

This forced Sasuke into silence. Kyuubi could do that? Would the demon do such a thing? Of course…the past will only repeat itself.

“He’s fighting against me, so I don’t do what I want, but there’s only so much a pathetic human can do. He’s getting exhausted, and once his control finally fades away, I’ll be free to take out revenge on this village.”

“Revenge? Most of the people who were around when you were sealed have died since then or are getting too old to do anything. Why would you want revenge for nothing?”

“Oh…this isn’t for myself…” Kyuubi informed. “I’m doing this for him. He doesn’t realize it, but once all of his pain is erased from the world then he could be happier. And the one I’ll start with once I get that control will be you.”

It felt as if ice had pierced through his heart. Him? Why would he of all people be at the top of Kyuubi’s list to get revenge on for Naruto? Sure, he had left the village years ago, but he eventually came back and reestablished a relationship with him. The blonde was happy with him…at least…he thought so.

“I think that’s why he’s fighting so hard to prevent me from taking complete control. He loves you, but deep down he knows there will be a time that you will not come back.”

“What?! I gave him my word that I would always come back to him, why would I break that promise?” Sasuke demanded.

“Death tears everyone apart,” Kyuubi hissed with a glare.

So…that’s where Kyuubi was getting…the demon was trying to justify getting rid of Sasuke because death would take him from Naruto…proving his fears to be true.

“But if you would kill me, you’d be the one that would hurt Naruto.”

“At least he would have the certainty of you being dead and unable to come back rather than always worrying about a mission gone wrong. Whether or not an enemy captured you, was torturing you, or if you were killed. He has enough faith in you that you won’t run away again….”

Glaring at the fox, Sasuke had heard enough from the demon. Obviously it had a twisted way of thinking about things, but he wasn’t going to give up so easily. He wanted his Naruto back, not some demon controlling his lover’s body.

“Naruto! Naruto, you better be able to hear me!” he yelled at the body in Kyuubi’s arms. “I know I can’t promise that I won’t go unharmed or that something won’t go wrong on a mission…but neither can you! Don’t you dare think that you’re the only one who worries. Every time you leave on a mission and I’m left at home I worry about the capabilities of your teammates since you’re the kind of blockhead that would jump in front of them if they were about to take a hit. Damn you…you always leave me worried sick! And now…now I can’t even go on a mission without thinking you’re in danger because of that damned fox! It’s that demon’s fault that you’re being taken away from me!”

Staring at Naruto’s form in Kyuubi’s hold, he thought he saw a shifting, but he couldn’t be completely sure.

“Get out of here!” Kyuubi shouted.

After simply blinking, Sasuke found himself back in front of where Naruto was being contained, those demonic eyes glaring back at him. Kyuubi was going to stand up to him it seemed.

“Sasuke…you should probably go home,” Tsunade stated.

To tell the truth, the Uchiha had forgotten that Tsunade was still there; however, he didn’t react immediately to her words.

“No, I’m staying here with him.”

He heard a sigh and then the retreating steps of Tsunade. Obviously he was going to be allowed to stay. Sasuke wasn’t stupid, the woman could force him out of there if she really wanted to, but under the circumstances he was more than grateful that she didn’t use force to get him out of there.

Once he was completely alone with Naruto, Sasuke turned his attention to the blonde once again. How Kyuubi could have gotten such a hold on his lover was confusing, especially since he thought that Naruto knew better than to listen to the demon.

“Naruto…snap out of it…” he whispered in some form of attempt to get through to him.

The blonde charged at Sasuke, as if he was going to attack, but he remained where he was. Letting Kyuubi try to frighten him would probably give the fox more to twist inside Naruto’s mind. No, he would take whatever the demon threw at him.

Once Naruto crashed into the bars Sasuke acted quickly and trapped his demon possessed lover in his arms and against the cage. This was protested by clawing, biting, and growling, but he wasn’t about to let go.

“Now you listen to me, Kyuubi. Let Naruto decide whether or not he likes your twisted idea of protecting him, or I swear I’ll find a way to destroy you completely so you’ll never hurt anything again.”

The snarling blonde in his arms seemed to calm down enough to just stay still while trying to catch his breath, but Sasuke wasn’t about to let too much silence pass. Kyuubi was probably hesitating and what better chance did Sasuke have at getting through to Naruto?

“Naruto…I think you can hear me…. Please hear me…. I need you to get control of yourself and Kyuubi. Don’t let doubt choose the fate of so many. Kyuubi plans to destroy all you love and want to protect. How could you ever be Hokage if you let that fox destroy the one place you always wanted to protect? What you want and what Kyuubi wants are two drastically different things, so just listen and regain control!”

The thrashing once again continued, and Sasuke wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing at this point, but there wasn’t time for second guessing anything now.

“Naruto…damn you…I love you and I know that if you let Kyuubi take control…I’ll be told to try and destroy you. Don’t make me have to choose between doing what I should for the sake of others and refusing to hurt you. I don’t want to make that choice. Would you want to be faced with that kind of decision?” he ended in a whisper.

The blonde fell still against the bars, and moving him slightly, Sasuke realized that he was unconscious. Not sure what to make of the situation, he stayed there to wait and see if it was either Naruto or Kyuubi’s eyes that he would see open up.

~*~*~*~

It was hours later and Naruto was still out, and Sasuke was nodding off with the blonde in his arms. Even if there were bars between them, he wanted to hold his lover as close as possible. He was afraid that if Kyuubi remained under most control for too much longer…the village elders would order that Naruto be killed. For them, such a thing would be a win-win situation. They would get rid of the demon as well as the demon’s host, but Sasuke wouldn’t let them destroy Naruto unless they killed him first.

“Sasuke…you should go home now.”

Snapping his eyes open, he noticed that Tsunade had returned.

“But I can’t-”

“I’ll keep an eye on him while you’re gone, but you need to eat and get some rest, and this time I will throw you out if I have to.”

Knowing that Tsunade wasn’t one to give idle threats—something he learned the hard way when he first returned to the village—so he reluctantly pulled his arms away from Naruto and left.

It’s not hard to guess that Sasuke had a horrible time trying to keep any food down and then try to get any sleep while he knew that Naruto was caged up all because of the demon. What if Kyuubi took control again? What if Naruto had managed to wake up, only to find that Sasuke wasn’t there for him? What if the elders assigned someone to kill the blonde in the night? There were so many questions and no answers…leaving the Uchiha to be very tired the next morning.

At the earliest possible time he could, Sasuke went back to be at Naruto’s side, but once he returned, he couldn’t find his lover anywhere.

This sent him into a panic. Maybe one of the many uncertainties had happened in the middle of the night and he hadn’t been there to prevent anything bad happening, and where the hell was Tsunade?!

Storming off, Sasuke quickly reached her office and slammed the door open, not caring what was happening. Which, thanks to his luck, was a small meeting about some trivial mission that needed to be done.

“Where the hell is he?!” Sasuke demanded.

“Couldn’t wait, could you?” Tsunade sighed.

“Tell me where he is. Now.”

Watching as Tsunade got up from her desk, he wasn’t too surprised when she grabbed his arm and dragged him out of her office, slamming the door behind them both.

“Calm down, Uchiha.”

“How can I calm down?! I want to know what happened to him!”

A second later Sasuke found himself with the wind knocked out of him.

“Now shut up and listen,” Tsunade ordered. “He woke up in the middle of the night and was exhausted. Due to his weakened condition, he is now at the hosp-”

Sasuke ran off before Tsunade could even finish her sentence. Once he reached his destination, he demanded to know where Naruto was, and thankfully Sakura was around to save the poor receptionist from the wrath of the Uchiha since she refused to share the information that she had.

After some cursing directed at the incompetent receptionist, Sasuke was led by Sakura to Naruto’s room where she left him alone with the blonde.

The first thing he noticed was that Naruto was sleeping…and although it was probably wise to let him continue to sleep, Sasuke needed to be reassured that it was actually Naruto who would be the one to wake up. Shaking his lover slightly, he watched as the blonde groaned and mumbled something in his sleep. Well…he was pretty sure that it was his Naruto that had control once again, but…he just wanted to be completely sure.

“Naruto…wake up, dobe.”

“Damn you, teme…can’t I just sleep?” Naruto complained.

Yep, Naruto was back to normal.

“No, not after yesterday,” he answered softly. “Do you know how worried I was about you?”

While waiting for a reply, Sasuke was greeted with the most wonderful sight of Naruto’s bright blue eyes opening up and staring back at him. In such a short time he had missed the sight dearly.

At that point there were no words to be said. It was obvious to Sasuke that Naruto understood his worry for him, and that was all that was needed at the moment. As long as Naruto knew that Sasuke cared, it was all that truly mattered.

“Sasuke?”

Tilting his head slightly, he wondered what Naruto wanted.

“Yes?”

“Can we get some food when I get out?”

Giving the blonde a flat look, Sasuke shook his head in disbelief. Naruto had just been caged because Kyuubi  was taking control and previous to that Sasuke had been gone on a mission and what his lover wanted first out of all the things he could have…was food? With a sigh and then a slight chuckle, Sasuke nodded. He couldn’t deny Naruto anything.

“Sure, Naruto.”