Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Entropy	By : ersatzbeta Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 1332 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I profit from writing this or any other fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 22
- 23
- 24
Chapter Twenty Two
A scant few hours into the night, Kakashi woke. At first he didn't know what had roused him, but then he knew: Sasuke's chakra was flaring wildly, pulsing and flooding the house. The air was tangled and thick with it. Something was very, very wrong. Kakashi groped for the light and shoved back the covers. He kicked his way free of the sheets around his ankles. With barely a thought, he grabbed a kunai, opened his bedroom door, and ran down the hall to Sasuke's room.
He pounded on the door, waited half a second for a response, and broke it in.
At first, Kakashi thought nothing was wrong. Sasuke appeared to be sleeping. There was no one else in the room, nothing to provoke such a response. One of the shutters over the window had come loose. Kakashi secured it. Not being incautious, he walked around to the foot of Sasuke's bed, out of arm's reach but in full view of whatever move a startled Sasuke might make.
"Sasuke," he said. "Wake up."
No response. Kakashi spoke louder.
"Wake up, Sasuke," he said. "You're having a nightmare. Wake up."
Sasuke stirred underneath the covers.
"Wake up," said Kakashi. "It's time to wake up now."
And Sasuke sat bolt upright.
"You were having a nightmare," said Kakashi. "Are you okay?"
Sasuke opened his eyes, and Kakashi's stomach dropped. Oh no. The Mangekyou swallowed him before he could think another thought, before he could cry out or alert anyone. He was caught in Sasuke's nightmare before he could even blink.
In the distant blackness of the dream world, Kakashi heard screaming. It came from every direction. He turned around, looking for some sign of where he was, but all he could see was the suggestion of a floor, or maybe of ground. He wasn't sure. What he could see sheared off at about six feet out, no matter which way he faced.
Kakashi looked at himself, taking stock. He appeared to be the same as ever, though remarkably unharmed. Previous Mangekyou experience taught him that this was not the usual way of things. Something was indeed very wrong. Sasuke should have been here, with him. Kakashi had never been alone in the dreamscape before, and it was eerie. And then the screaming came again, and he broke out in a cold sweat. It sounded like Sasuke. But what harm could come to him here, in his own world? Kakashi picked a direction and started running.
There was no way for him to tell if he was making progress. He couldn't even be sure he wasn't running in a circle, the clues to forward movement being so obscured here, his finely honed senses of direction nigh on useless. But, as the screaming came again, tearing through the air and boring into his ears, Kakashi thought it was just a hair louder. He kept running.
In the blink of an eye, the dream world changed around him. Kakashi was somewhere else now. He still couldn't make out the details of the world beyond the pervasive and oppressive gloom, but there Sasuke was, curled up on the ground, and that was all that mattered for now.
Kakashi didn't hesitate in approaching him, though it might not have been him at all. This world had ways of going sour, and things were almost never what they seemed. Still, he did not stop himself from reaching out to Sasuke. Kakashi grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him. Sasuke's face was deathly still, and his body was cold. Sasuke didn't move.
"Wake up," said Kakashi. "Please wake up, Sasuke. It's a dream."
Kakashi could feel his heartbeat through his fingers where he gripped Sasuke. Nothing. Sasuke wasn't even breathing, though Kakashi wasn't sure if that was required in dreams or not. Sasuke had to wake. Kakashi waited. He held his breath, but he refused to let go.
After an immeasurable amount of time, Sasuke twitched. His eyes opened, first a hair, then so wide the whites showed all the way around. He sucked in a great gasp of air. The Mangekyou world melted away.
Kakashi came back to himself slowly, breathing hard, sweaty, and shaking. He leaned forward on the foot of Sasuke's bed and knelt, let the bed support his weight.
"Sasuke?" he said.
"Yeah?" said Sasuke.
"What the hell was that?" said Kakashi.
He didn't have the energy to put proper inflection or force behind his words. Sasuke turned on the bedside light. Kakashi blinked.
"It was nothing," said Sasuke. "Just a dream."
Sasuke looked waxy pale and drawn, his eyes two bruises in his face. His hands shook as he smoothed the covers around him. He patted the blankets into place over and over.
"That wasn't just a dream," said Kakashi. "You were dead."
"A nightmare then," said Sasuke. "If that pleases you better."
His voice was thin and bitter, a far cry from how he usually spoke.
"Like hell it was just a dream," said Kakashi.
He pushed himself to stand again, but his limbs were still too weak to coordinate. He shifted and made dents in the covers with his elbows.
"Prove it," said Sasuke.
"I don't know what happened to you," said Kakashi. "But you need help."
"I'm fine," said Sasuke. "I can handle it."
And Kakashi was too tired to argue any more. No matter how he wanted to help, he could do nothing if Sasuke didn't let him. Just a few hours ago, he'd been warm and alive and open to Kakashi. Right now, Sasuke was as pliant as granite. Kakashi frowned.
"Fine," said Kakashi. "Good night."
He struggled to his feet and staggered out of the room.
Kakashi lay in bed afterward and waited for the adrenaline to dissipate, for his heart to stop pounding. He waited for the fear he felt to lessen. Sasuke was fine--he wasn't dead, wasn't injured or missing or trapped in his own nightmares. Kakashi forced himself to breathe slowly, in through the nose and out through the mouth in even measure. But, as hard as he tried, he could not stop shivering.
A/N: Okay, so I didn't really cover everything I wanted to cover in this chapter. I decided to break this chapter in half, almost entirely for scheduling reasons. I feel lucky to have found a good place to make a break so that each half can stand on its own. Truthfully, I dithered about whether or not this part was too short...but nobody really cares how long the chapters are, right? I try to keep them somewhere in the range of 1200~1500 words. This one fell a little short--maybe because of the short dialog lines?

This weekend is Easter weekend. I will probably not be able to make the usual weekend post because of the holiday. But...I sincerely hope that I can finish off the other half of what I had intended to put into this chapter and post it sometime Friday instead. (If I had kept the chapter together, I really don't think I would have been ready to post any of it until after Easter, and that seemed like a lousy thing to do.)
Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the story so far!
- 22
- 23
- 24
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Entropy