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Restless	By : Jelp Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 2106 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
This chapter has been edited. That being said, it may still need editing done to it. If you see any mistakes e-mail, leave a review, or personal message me about it. :-)

Some more recap in this chapter. A bit of smut in the next though. ;-)

Restless

Chapter 5: Restless Winner

Kakashi smirked slightly as he watched Sasuke approach from atop the cliff where they had been training. Sasuke clearly had not had much sleep, but that did not matter. His chakra reserves were fine to work with, and his head was now clear, sleep or not. A shinobi was trained from an early age to go without sleep. Now that his head was clear from worrying about what happened to Naruto (or so Kakashi thought) his training would go much more smoothly. They began training immediately. Powering up his chidori, Sasuke took a shot, impressing Kakashi once again with how quickly he had managed to learn that jutsu.

Sasuke pushed himself extremely hard the entire day, barely resting. He had used one chidori shot, and then another right after it. Kakashi had dutifully explained that two shots seemed to be the limit of Sasuke's ability to use the chidori without draining his chakra and possibly killing him at this point in time, but that did not deter Sasuke from training all day. He still continued to train just as hard, if not harder, than before going to see Naruto. There was a glint in his eyes that told Kakashi that not everything had been as resolved as he had hoped, but there was definitely an improvement in Sasuke's attitude once he had learned that Naruto was out of immediate harm�s way. When Kakashi mentioned Naruto briefly, Kakashi was amazed at the extra "oomf" Sasuke began training with.

Despite Sasuke�s renewed vigor to his training after Kakashi had mentioned Naruto, Kakashi noticed that Sasuke also seemed somewhat desperate. Kakashi knew that the main reason that Sasuke had started training so hard during the academy was to take revenge on his family by killing Itachi. Revenge was something that could become quite dangerous. However, Sasuke seemed to have developed a safer, short-term goal: beat those that were around him in order to become stronger. Right now, Kakashi knew that there were many other foes that Sasuke needed to focus on. Many of them would want to kill Sasuke if they could - for instance, the person who was radiating pools of killing intent from behind one of the rock formations nearby.

"You may as well come out. I know that you're there," Kakashi sighed, noting the semi-surprised look on Sasuke's face. He was only slightly annoyed that Sasuke had not picked up on the large killing-intent of chakra, but perhaps due to how drained he was from using two chidori shots and then non-stop physical taijutsu, it was understandable.

However, Kakashi only had a split second to think through all this as he observed the red haired boy in front of him as Gaara of the desert stepped out from his �hiding� spot. Kakashi had actually done quite a bit of research on Gaara when he had learned that Naruto would be in his team. He knew that there were other Bijuu, other demon holders, but the only one that the Konoha archives had been able to verify such top-secret information on had been about Gaara. In fact, only a few in Konoha knew of Gaara's inner demon. Kakashi only knew that there was such information available having been the Yondaime's former student. Yondaime had known because, well, Yondaime seemed to know everything.

Sasuke shifted his footing, feeling at quite the disadvantage. His chakra reserves were low, and here was the opponent of his first match seeing him in such a weakened state. Cursing under his breath, he could only look at Kakashi in order to avoid fighting him now. As Kakashi began to question what Gaara was doing there, Sasuke began to search for a way to use his surroundings in order to outmaneuver Gaara. Although unconscious during the match between Lee and Gaara, he had heard in the hospital of Lee's condition. Lee had beaten Sasuke before the first exam, and Gaara had destroyed Lee's chances of ever becoming a shinobi without sustaining any significant damage himself. Sasuke's worried musings stopped as he noticed that Kakashi and Gaara had stopped talking. Sasuke looked over at Gaara. Gaara stared back.

"You have the same eyes as me," Gaara said in a strange sounding voice. Sasuke smirked. This guy clearly thought that they were on the same level. He got the feeling that Gaara was trying to say that they both had seen more than their share of childhood tragedy, and that they had the same eyes because they had seen the same kinds of horror. Blah blah blah. Such nonsense. Sasuke was about to make a retort, but he stopped, as a vision of blue eyes flashed in front of him with the exact look Gaara was giving him now.

With a jolt that he hoped didn't show on his face, he finally realized what it was about Naruto that had always seemed to bug him; it was Naruto�s eyes. Sasuke heard himself talking, making some sort of reply, but his thoughts were elsewhere. It was then that Sasuke remembered seeing Naruto with the same sort of haunted look in his eyes, but he couldn't remember when, though he had a feeling it was sometime during their Academy days. Either way, Sasuke remembered the conversation that he had had with Kakashi when his sensei had woken him up the day after Naruto had first unknowingly molested him in his sleep.

�Kakashi-sensei...what happened to Naruto�s parents? Did they leave him money to help him with his finances? Or does Konoha help him out?�

�If you want to know about Naruto, ask Naruto,� Kakashi had said.

Sasuke shook his head. With a dangerous opponent right in front of him, now was most certainly not the time to be off in la la land. He had to focus despite his mind drifting to the realization about Naruto.

Sasuke would have to ask Naruto about his past later. He wanted to know why it had taken Gaara talking about eyes to realize it was Naruto�s eyes that were the key to how he connected with Naruto. Again, Sasuke realized that now was NOT the time to be thinking about Naruto, and he should focus on beating this guy into a bloody pulp because that was the only way for him to progress in the exams in order to fight another opponent, hopefully Naruto. Then he could beat the crap out of Naruto in order to help quell his growing frustration with the blond. Or molest him � whichever came first.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed upon Gaara, finally feeling the killing intent radiate off of Gaara towards him. Sasuke�s smirk grew to hide his slight fear, but suddenly, Gaara began acting strangely. As Gaara clutched his head and muttered wildly about his existence, a whirl of sand arose, and Gaara suddenly vanished.

Sasuke looked at Kakashi, wondering what the hell that had all been about.

"Be careful around Gaara. He is unstable. He uses both earth and wind elements as a means to fight and mixes them together in order to control his sand. Your chidori is strong against earth, but weak against wind. However, he uses mostly earth, so your chidori will be stronger. Just remember that using fire against wind is a better means of attack," Kakashi instructed cautiously. Sasuke nodded, remembering their discussion of elemental jutsu attacks, and each elements' strengths and weaknesses. "Now back to our training after our happy little encounter with one of Konoha's supposed allies who wants to kill Sasuke!" Kakashi chirped out merrily. Sasuke's face faltered at Kakashi's abrupt and drastic mood change.

"You're so weird," Sasuke mumbled.

"But I wouldn't be any fun if I were predictable."

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Naruto walked aimlessly around Team 7�s first training grounds. Waking up in the hospital to find Shikamaru (who, if Naruto had a choice, would not have had Shikamaru in his top five people to have woken up to) with a basket of fruit (though, since he had brought food, Naruto figured he could squeeze him into slot eight or nine of his top ten) had been less than comforting. Then having that creepy eyebrow-less psycho dude try and kill the fuzzy eyebrows dude was not the best thing to have fresh in his mind from the previous day. Nor was that semi-freaky dream he had where Sasuke had snuck into his hospital room to see him. He didn't know why, but something felt really weird about the dream he had, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He figured since he had thought the other sexual experiences he had with Sasuke were originally when he had thought he had been dreaming that it was hard for him to tell when he was dreaming and when it was actually happening. Because of course Sasuke could not have possibly been there in the hospital room. No one knew where Sasuke was training with Kakashi-sensei, except, well, Sasuke and Kakashi.

Naruto looked at his feet, worriedly. No one had heard from Sasuke or Kakashi, and he was getting slightly panicked. He had wanted to talk to Kakashi-sensei before his match against Neji. Truth be told, he was nervous. He couldn't fail. He just couldn't. Neji was incredibly strong, and as most of the people left in the Chuunin exams, possibly quite deadly. Naruto was so preoccupied thinking about Neji's strategies, that it startled him when he actually saw Hinata standing by one of the three pillars at the training grounds team seven usually used.

"Hinata!" Naruto said, looking at the small girl. She scampered, startled at the sight of him, half hiding behind the pole. (1)

"Oh-h, Naruto-k-k-kun," Hinata stuttered back. What a strange girl, Naruto thought to himself. "Why are you here?"

"Uhh...I just...it's nothing. I came to check out this training field. This is actually where I became a genin so..." Naruto's thoughts trailed to the day when Sasuke had fed him as he was tied to the post. He could clearly remember his embarrassment at having to be hand fed. It had been the first time Naruto could remember anyone doing something so kind for him. Sasuke had been so calm, so cool about the whole thing. Despite the fact that he had felt weak for not being able to do it himself, he couldn't help feeling so excited, so happy, that someone had taken it upon themselves to try and feed him lunch. Sasuke had risked (or so they thought) becoming a genin for him. Even after what Naruto had tried to do to him the day before, tying him up, and then pretending to be Sasuke to turn Sakura on him, Sasuke had still been nice to him, in his Sasuke-ish sort of way.

Naruto knew that no matter what happened between him and Sasuke, he would always remember that Sasuke had risked something for him. Even though Sakura had helped feed him too, she had only done so because Sasuke had done it first. And of course, Sasuke had risked much more than him becoming a genin. He had risked his life in order to save Naruto from Haku too.

"Eh? But, why are you here?" Hinata's voice cut into Naruto's musings.

"Oh, uh, nothing! No real reason, it doesn't matter anyway!" Naruto said, turning away from Hinata quickly. He knew it was silly, but he didn't want her to guess that he had been thinking about Sasuke. Or at least, he didn't want to tell her that.

"I guess you're right. Sorry." Hinata mumbled. There was a moment of silence. Naruto's mindset switching from Sasuke back to the match he would be having.

"Ne, Hinata..."

"Hmm?" Hinata asked, her eyes wide.

"Neji, he's a cousin of yours, right?"

"Uh...yeah," Hinata affirmed weakly. Naruto turned to face her again, face flushed.

"So is he, really strong?"

"...Un..." She affirmed. Naruto sighed.

"I see," he mumbled. If he didn't beat Neji, there was no way he'd ever get the chance to fight with Sasuke! If he didn't do that, he didn't know what he would do to prove himself to his rival. If worse came to worse, perhaps he could find that damnable Ero-sennin and discover ways of being dominant in other areas�

"But, I mean, you still might be able to win Naruto-kun!" Hinata tried to explain. Naruto laughed forcibly, putting his hands behind his head, meanwhile thinking that it was quite unlikely.

"Yeah, I'm strong too after all!" But he sighed. Thinking about the reality of the odds of him beating Neji didn't make him feel better.

"I know you can win, Naruto-kun. Remember that time that you cheered for me? I felt like, like I was able to become stronger than ever before. When the preliminaries ended, I was finally able to like myself a little. To anyone else, it might look like nothing has changed about me, but I feel different, like I'm a better person now. And I've been thinking that it's all thanks to you, Naruto-kun," Hinata said timidly, her face blushing as she remembered the way he had cheered her on.

"Ne, Hinata, do you really believe that's true?" Naruto paused, his face looking downcast. "I may look strong to you, but all I ever do is mess things up. I act tough because I'm so frustrated. Underneath it all, I just feel like I'm a huge failure," Naruto muttered, speaking on such a deep level was not like him, but he couldn't help it. His feelings recently had gone for a drastic turn, and he couldn't collect his thoughts.

"That's not true! Even when you messed up you were always a, a...how can I say this? A proud failure from my point of view. When I look at you, you just fill me with such admiration. I'm not saying that you're perfect - no one is - but when you do make a mistake, you have the guts to pick yourself up and keep trying. I think that courage, to keep going no matter what, is what real strength is. I just think that you're an incredibly strong person, Naruto-kun."

"Thank you, Hinata, I needed that. Even though I'm used to being the underdog, I guess this time I was just really feeling the strain. I was really down, which isn't like me at all, but I feel 100 percent better now!" Naruto grinned. Honestly, he wasn't being himself. He didn't usually act so moody. That was Sasuke's job. Naruto mentally kicked himself; he was thinking about the teme too much. He needed to seriously beat Neji in order to kick the crap out of Sasuke for rubbing his emo self off on him. Well, not that kind of rubbing. Naruto blushed as a mental image of him and Sasuke rubbing against each other rose to mind before he quickly quelled it.

"I'm glad you do," Hinata's face brightened, her cheeks coloring slightly.

"Alright, I'm off to the match," Naruto said cheerfully, turning to leave. "Thanks again. Hinata - I kinda thought you were umm..."

"What?" Hinata said breathlessly. Naruto tried to figure out what it was that he seemed to like about Hinata. There was just something that made him feel like he wasn�t a dobe any more. He smiled as he found the words he wanted to say, all of them escaping in a rush.

"...gloomy, timid, always terrified and basically completely weird," Hinata's world crashed in horrible, horrible slow motion as the words hit her. But Naruto didn't stop there. "But you know what? I actually like people like you!" He walked off, not noticing the way that Hinata's eyes shown, the way her mouth hung open. "Oh! And don't forget to watch me wipe up Neji off the floor in the final competition." In the distance, fireworks began to sound the start of the finals.

"Oh no! I gotta get going, and fast! I'm gonna be late! See you later Hinata!" Naruto waved and ran off. It would have been far kinder of Naruto to have let Hinata's hopes and dreams of ever pursuing Naruto have died there, but with those words, Hinata's heart soared. What Naruto also didn't know was that Hinata had not been the only one to hear their conversation.

Sasuke and Kakashi sat atop the trees in the grounds of team seven. They had been doing some last minute practicing when first Hinata, and then Naruto had walked by. Sasuke sat seething as he watched the conversation between Naruto and Hinata. He felt himself shake as jealousy swept through him. Sasuke watched the scene as Naruto's confession had tumbled out of his mouth, tumbled so easily in the wake of this girl, and the way that she looked at him, the way that she had made him smile, had wracked Sasuke's entire being with the strange emotion of jealousy. As Kiba approached Hinata, and the two of them disappeared to watch the match, Sasuke looked ready to kill.

Kakashi frowned. He had wanted to make it in time to watch Naruto's match, but with the way that Sasuke was acting, it was far better to finish letting him relieve some tension. Sasuke had to be at his prime, relaxed, but able to move freely without acting up his curse. Kakashi feared that in a match with Gaara, he might be forced to use it in order to stay alive. He had no doubts that Sasuke had the capability to win, but he knew that there was a very real possibility that Sasuke could lose. With what he had seen and heard about Gaara so far, it was not entirely far fetched to think that Gaara might try and kill Sasuke. Therefore, Kakashi had decided to try and keep Sasuke as relaxed as possible by keeping him moving before it was his turn. Kakashi had thought Sasuke would be okay, but now, with the scene that they had just witnessed, Sasuke looked anything but relaxed.

"Let's get in another quick bought of taijutsu. Gentle, slow motion. It's less strenuous on your chakra reserves but excellent in clearing your head. Begin," Kakashi said, attempting to slow down his motions to attack Sasuke from the tree. It was much harder than one would expect. To deliberately slow down one's actions was sometimes more strenuous on the body, but it also helped to calm and slow one down. Which is exactly what Sasuke needed, especially when the blow that Kakashi deflected came neither slow nor softly.

"We might be later than I expected," Kakashi sighed as he tried to calm Sasuke down. Honestly, those two boys would be the death of him.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Naruto stood around the inside of the stadium, his body aching from the strain of his fight with Neji. He looked around at the spectators in the stands high above him, feeling flushed with excitement at his victory. The demonic power that had radiated from him felt so good, so strong that Naruto couldn't help but feel that he was invincible. Still, a slight tinge of regret clouded his victory that he hadn't won just by himself. And a different kind of regret swept over him when he scanned the surrounding area, and still didn't see Kakashi or Sasuke. He hoped the damned bastard had been watching. He wanted to show him how great of a ninja he was. Naruto headed back up with the other contestants, cheerfully as he could be, but when he didn't see Sasuke, and the match was postponed, Naruto felt himself becoming distraught.

He had just had the best victory in his life, and the teme didn't have the decency to show up on time? Naruto sighed. He guessed it was Kakashi's fault. His sensei was always late. They just better show up so that Sasuke was there by the time it was his turn to face Naruto. Naruto grinned. As long as he got to beat up his stoic teammate, he could wait as long as necessary: which by Naruto standards meant till the end of the day.

It felt like an eternity before Naruto saw Sasuke. Quite frankly, he was scared shitless for him. He knew that Gaara would not hesitate to kill Sasuke if necessary, so he only hoped the teme would be able to pull off one of his miraculous stunts as he normally did in order to beat the enemy.

"You better win teme," Naruto growled under his breath.

Next Chapter: Restless Uncertainties

(1) FYI, most of this is actual dialogue taken from the anime, episode 59 or 60 - can't remember which one. This dialogue is not my work, but the thoughts of the characters are.

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