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Somewhere, in the distant shadows of Naruto’s mind, he knew that there was a voice calling out for him. He tried to block it out, tried to pretend it wasn’t there, because no matter who it was, he wouldn’t want to leave.
He was swimming through globs of thick mist, high up in the air. There was an endless expanse of blue above, whilst green fields flashed by down below.
He closed his eyes, and spread his arms out like a bird. He felt warm, like he was finally free of strain and responsibility. It didn’t really matter what he did, he was just a bird, spreading his wings in an endless world.
For a brief second, the wind chilled, and he could hear that distracting voice again, trying to pull him away. The blue sky turned stringy and the fluffy clouds shifted artificially.
He took a deep breath and shut his eyes. He summoned the clouds back, the wind turned hazy and warm. He felt truly free, liberated of sadness and insincerity.
It began to rain, when his mind began to slip away. The distant voice became clear, repeating the same phrase, cutting through his body like knives.
Everything crumbled around him, the happiness turned distorted and fake. It was just a dream, he realized.
“Wake up you idiot!”
The last stripe of blue broke and faded, but swam into his eyes when he snapped them open and blinked up at the stars.
“Dobe!”
He groaned, and rubbed at his eyes tiredly before looking around. Sakura was still sleeping soundly in her sleeping bag. The fire was almost out; only small pieces of coal remained, glowing faintly in the darkness.
“Stupid dobe, I’m over here!”
That was Sasuke’s voice, Naruto realized. He narrowed his eyes to glare at the idiot disrupting his dreams. He made out faint outlines of a boy in black pajamas, suspended midair with his foot stuck in rope, tied to a thick branch above.
Naruto cursed, and crawled out of the warmth that was his sleeping bag. Even though it was still late summer, cold air pierced through the thin fabric of his shirt. He grasped for his kunai, and ran towards the furious, trapped boy. Naruto was barefoot, only wearing pajamas and his sleeping cap.
The rope snapped with a firm cut, and Sasuke crashed to the ground. He got up immediately and stared at Naruto in disbelief.
“I checked the trees and grounds yesterday. There were no traps.” He quickly scanned the area for any unknown chakra sources, but Naruto knew he wouldn’t find any.
“Who could have put this here?” He asked afterwards, looking confused.
Naruto shrugged unknowingly, and looked up towards the treetops to break eye contact. Maybe if he looked up at the trees, Sasuke would think that he was bird watching, and everyone knew that that was the most innocent activity on planet earth.
“What are you doing?”
Naruto pouted at the misery that was his life for a brief second before he snapped back to reality.
“M-maybe someone put it up there while we were sleeping.” He stuttered and fidgeted nervously; trying to think of a way that he could melt through the ground.
“No way, I would have sensed their chakra.” Sasuke retorted. Naruto felt panic well up in him like water out of a geyser. Maybe Sasuke was realizing how pathetically possessive and weird he was.
“Dobe? Are you still asleep or something?”
Naruto began coughing loudly to buy himself more time, but when that didn't work; he yawned and muttered, “Uhm … speaking of sleep … I’m really tired … what do you say about heading back to the camp, eh? … I’m sure we’ll find an answer to this mystery ... tomorrow.”
Sasuke quirked a slim eyebrow and looked at him with something akin to amusement. Naruto made his eyes slip shut repeatedly like he was on the verge of passing out. “I’m so tired … I think I may die of sleep deprivatio- ”
A horrifyingly embarrassing squeak left him when he noticed that Sasuke had turned around and was currently walking deeper into the forest.
“No! Wait!” Naruto yelled and reached out quickly to grab the sleeve of Sasuke’s shirt, holding on for dear life while panic washed over him in waves.
“Let me go, idiot.” Sasuke hissed in annoyance.
Naruto tugged at his shirt and began stuttering, “No! I can't! Why are you- … where are you going?” There was something desperate and pleading to his voice that he couldn't hide no matter how hard he tried.
Sasuke rolled his eyes and regarded him in a way that made him feel like a small child, “Where do you think, Naruto?”
Said boy looked down at the ground with a pout. He began to fiddle with the hem of his thin shirt absentmindedly.
“Just … don’t go.” He mumbled, voice hardly audible. He kept his gaze on a tiny leaf on the ground. He wanted to pick it up and fasten it back to the tree; the fall would be so empty if Sasuke wasn’t there. The sleeping cap slipped down his blonde head and ended up on the dirty ground by his bare feet.
Sasuke looked like the perfect picture of confusion until something seemed to fall in place in his mind, and Naruto was mortified to notice how a smirk was slipping on to his face.
“You built that trap, didn’t you?” He asked teasingly, obviously enjoying the devastation suddenly showing in his blue eyes.
Naruto blushed immediately, and seriously considered running away in a random direction. He pointed towards the trap for some reason.
“That one? No way!” He said and snorted artificially, he noticed that his hand was trembling and quickly brought it down to cover any sign of weakness.
“I bet Sakura did it! To catch … animals … you know, to eat!” Naruto hurried to add.
“Why would she do that when we have plenty of food left, and we’re leaving first thing in the morning?”
“But what if …” Naruto began, but after a few seconds of trying to think of a way to explain the unexplainable, all he got out was “ngghh”
“Did you actually set that up in case I were to leave?” Sasuke ended up asking. Naruto had expected to be mocked for his pathetic attempt of keeping him close, but Sasuke was just smirking and looking amused. Naruto felt small, and a bit scared looking up into the dark eyes.
“No! … I mean … why would I-“ He tried to scan his brain for a good response, but like most the time, it felt empty. He opened his mouth with another lame excuse at the tip of his tongue, before coming to the conclusion that there was no way to cover this up. Hopefully Sasuke had already found the truth in his guilty-looking eyes and wouldn’t be too shocked about it.
“Fine. I guess I did, but- but only because you already left once, bastard!” He finished, remembering the feeling of searching every nook and cranny of the village for a Sasuke that had already left.
“Dobe, I just had to take a piss. I’m not leaving.” He said, looking down at the slightly angry-looking blonde. “No more traps.” He finished and crouched down to pick up Naruto's discarded sleeping-cap. He rearranged it onto the blondes head with a smirk.
Naruto felt his cheeks redden again before he “hmph-ed” and diverted his gaze back to his sleeping bag and Sakura sleeping peacefully by the dying campfire.
“Sure, teme. I’ll just- … I’ll go back to the camp.” He managed, pouting a bit before beginning to walk the shameful way back to his orange sleeping bag.
He slipped into it, watched the stars twinkle, and fell asleep once he could pick up the sound of Sasuke’s footsteps retreating.