“Sasuke!  Sasuke!” Naruto yelled in his sleep.  It was the fifth time this week he had the same nightmare.
     It was always the same.
     Running, that’s all Naruto did in his dream.  He ran towards Sasuke, who stood unmoving and next to Orochimaru.  No matter how hard or fast he ran, Naruto couldn’t get closer to his best friend… and lover.
     And towards the end of the dream Sasuke would always look at him with emotionless onyx eyes and say, “I hate you, Naruto.  You were too weak.”
     And with that he would walk away with Orochimaru, enjoying the other’s company.

     THUD!
     Startled, Naruto shot out of the bed, grabbed a kunai from the nightstand, and went to the door.
     “Who’s there?” Naruto yelled out.
     “Naruto, it’s Sakura; open up.” a sickly-sweet voice sounded out on the other side.
     Sighing, Naruto opened the door and let the shivering pink-haired girl in.
     “It’s snowing up a storm and Lee organized a play war.”
     And had it snowed.  There was about two feet of snow on the ground and it was still coming down at a fairly good rate.  The whiteness blinded him a moment as he looked out at it.
     “Naruto, I know you miss Sasuke; we all do.” Sakura went on, pushing a sensitive button on Naruto.  Wincing, the blond listened as she went on, “But everyone here loves you, too, and we hate to see you sad.  Please join us, Naruto.”
     Looking up, the kitsune gazed at the desperate Sakura before nodding, “How can I say no to you?”
     Sakura squealed, pushing Naruto into his room to change.  Getting into his normal outfit, Naruto grabbed a cream and orange cap and scarf before being pulled out of the house by his friend.
     It was the first time he had left his apartment in months, ever since Sasuke had abandoned them.  Sakura dragged him through the snow and out of the gates.  Standing there were all of his friends split up into two groups.
     “Alright Naruto!” Lee yelled happily, “Way to let your youth shine!  You’re going to be on Neji’s team.  Sakura, you’re with me.”
     Naruto went to Neji’s team, which consisted of himself, Neji, Ino, Shikamaru and Kiba.  Lee’s team was him, Sakura, Chouji, Hinata, and Tenten.
     “The rules are as follows: there are two bases, one for my team and one for your team.  Your goal is to capture your opponent’s teammates.  You’re allowed to use whatever force necessary to get them to come with you, just don’t kill them.  Once you have captured an opponent, you have to take them to your base.  Once in the opponent’s base, the person can’t leave until another member of their team rescues them.  Got it?” Lee ordered.
     “Yup!” everyone yelled happily.
     “Good!  Now move out!”
     In a flash the teams separated to go to their bases and regroup.  It took only a couple minutes to get there because of the fast pace they were moving at.
     “Here’s our base.” Neji called back to the group as they made it up into the trees.
     Naruto looked up and smiled, they had gotten the cool base.  It was completely naturally made by the branches of the trees.  They crisscrossed all over each other, creating a box with an open top.  It looked more of a jail than anything else.
     “Alright, here’s the plan: we’ll split up into groups of two.  Ino and Shikamaru together, Kiba with Akamaru, of course, and Naruto is going to be with me.” Neji paused as the group nodded that everything was fine with that, “In these groups we’ll stick together.  You loose your partner you better get them back!  Take out at least one person and let someone follow you.  Once you get them into the base, take the other person out.”
     Everyone remained silent, absorbing the information they were given.
     “Alright, break up!”  With that, everyone went in separate directions, looking out for anyone of the other team who might have already discovered their base.
     Naruto followed Neji for a while before the Hyuga decided to break the silence.  “Naruto…”  He looked over at the kitsune, his eyes softening.
     “Yeah?”
     “You okay?  I haven’t seen you since…” Neji paused.
     Naruto hesitated a second before saying, “Sasuke and I had a relationship bigger than what anyone thinks… or knows.”
     Eyes widening, Neji suddenly understood what Naruto was saying.  “You two are-”
     “Were.” Naruto corrected.
     “Were…” Neji agreed, “You two were lovers?”
     Nodding, Naruto felt tears coming to his eyes, so he looked at the snow covered ground, examining how it hugged itself to the ground.  Sasuke had always wanted to keep their relationship a secret, so no one knew about that two.
     Collecting himself, Naruto went on, “Neji, you can’t tell anyone!  No one knows about it except you.  We kept it quiet.”
     “Of course, Naruto; I won’t tell anyone” Neji concurred before abruptly stopping.
     Looking back up, Naruto blinked away tears only to see a teary-eyed Sakura and enraged Lee before them.
     “How could you say something like that about Sasuke?  He was NOT gay!” Sakura screamed angrily, tears flowing down her face.
     Eyes widening, Naruto stared at the infuriated, crying Sakura before questioning, “How long have you been listening?”
     “Since you left your base!  We set a genjutsu on you, idiot!” Lee hissed angrily.  Obviously he thought Naruto was trying to hurt Sakura on purpose.  The genjutsu melted away to show that they had actually been walking around in circles instead of straight like they thought they had been going.
     Naruto felt his face whiten; only Neji, who he trusted, was suppose to know.
     “How could you spread rumors like that about Sasuke?  He HATED you!” Sakura bellowed, punching Naruto.  Naruto fell backwards, taking the pain.  He deserved it; he hadn’t been able to stop Sasuke…
     “All your youth has left you!” Lee declared, going to attack when Neji cut him off.
     “Naruto, run!” he barked, blocking Sakura’s advances to hurt him further.
     Jumping up, Naruto ran, his hat and scarf flying off in the process.  Adding chakra to boost his speed, Naruto jumped from tree to tree.  Tears fell from his face as he ran as hard as he could, zigzagging through the woods in order to make sure no one was following him.  Every breath of cold air hit his lungs like daggers and the wind bit his cheeks with every step he took.  And during all this time he didn’t notice it; he could only think of the things that had just happened.  Finally, he ran out of chakra and fell to the ground, shivering as he rose up.  The sun was beginning to fall behind the horizon.
     ‘Not good.’ he thought while trying to figure out where he was.  Because he was so sidetracked about thinking about what he should have done, Naruto hadn’t paid any attention to where he was running.
     Shuddering, Naruto realized how cold it was. Breathing out, the kitsune watched as the steam rose and broke apart.  Naruto was frantic now, knowing that as soon the sun fell down the temperature would plummet.  Walking aimlessly around, Naruto couldn’t help but notice that the sun was falling faster than he had expected.  Also, he was getting colder by the second since his entire outfit was covered in snow.  With his chakra used up, Naruto had no other way to assure that he would live through the night.
     Crying out softly, Naruto tripped over a root hidden by the snow, diving into the ground, which absorbed the only heat he had left.
     ‘This is it, I’m going to die.’ he thought, spitting up the snow.  Getting up shakily, Naruto stumbled forward blindly.  The sun was swallowed by the horizon and the stars were hidden by the clouds, which were still spitting out snow.  Just about to give up hope, Naruto looked up to see a figure in the distance.
     ‘A person!’ he thought, scrambling through the snow.
     Approaching the figure, Naruto froze as he recognized them.  It was the man he hated with every fiber of his being; the man who took Sasuke away: Itachi Uchiha.
     The elder Uchiha raised an eyebrow as he looked at the frozen kitsune.  Naruto looked terrible: his skin was as white as the snow, his lips blue, and he couldn’t stop shivering.  Shockingly, the Uchiha was worried about the blond’s wellbeing instead of being thrilled he could finally capture the Kitsune.  He knew that he also wasn’t worried because if Naruto died it would mean the end to the mission.  Yet, he cared that the boy was shivering wet and freezing.  Itachi tried keeping an unconcerned look in his eyes.
     “Naruto, come here.” he ordered in his deep, masculine voice.
     “No!  Never!” Naruto retorted, new tears streaming down his face, “I hate you!”
     “You’re going to die if you don’t warm up.” Itachi tried to reason.
     The blond snarled, “The so be it!  It’s better than going with the man who destroyed Sasuke!”
     With that, Naruto’s shaking knees gave out and he, crying softly, fell into the snow.  Itachi kneeled next to the shaking boy, his eyes finally softening at the kitsune’s state of being.
     “Naruto, let me help you.” the elder Uchiha semi-begged, semi-ordered.
     With a final sob, Naruto threw his arms around Itachi, who pulled the emotional blond close.
     “I hate you.” Naruto repeated against Itachi’s Akatsuki cloak.
     “I know, so let’s have you live till tomorrow, so you can still hate me.”  Itachi unbuttoned his cloak before pulling the freezing kitsune close to him to him and rebuttoning the cloak around the blond.  Naruto pressed himself up against the warm Uchiha, making him shudder from the contact of cold skin.
     “Put your feet on mine.” Itachi said gently.
     Shifting, Naruto put his feet on Itachi’s much like a child would on their parent’s feet when they were little.  Itachi wrapped his arms around the bulge in his cloak, letting some of his chakra into Naruto to warm the teen up.  Nestling closer to the one he despised, Naruto hated himself for a moment while thinking about how he had to depend on Itachi to live.  Itachi began to walk, awkwardly at first until he got use to moving with a person on his feet.
     It was a half an hour before Itachi could find a cave to stay in for the night.  Grabbing some essentials like dead wood before entering, Itachi quickly set up a fire, never letting Naruto out of his cloak.  Once the fire got started, Itachi lied down on his side not too far from it.
     “You can let me out now.” Naruto said bluntly since he had warmed up.  Still, he wasn’t warm enough for Itachi.
     “No, the fire is not enough to ensure that you’ll live through the night.” the Uchiha explained, pulling the blond closer.
     Nodding, Naruto buried his face into Itachi’s strong chest, taking in the smell of wood and fire from him.  “Why are you here alone?  Where is Kisame?”
     Chuckling softly, Itachi looked down at the blond head the popped out of the top of his cloak.
     “He got… sidetracked.” he answered, “Now get some sleep, you’ll need it.”
     Naruto looked down and got comfortable before slowly nodding off into sleep while listening to Itachi's slow breathing and heart beat.  Lying there, Itachi watched as the adorable blond slept in his arms.  Itachi smiled softly as he continued his vigil of the kitsune.  Suddenly Naruto cried out.
     “Sasuke, don’t go!  I’m so sorry!”
     Itachi stroked Naruto’s hair, trying to calm the boy down as he had his nightmare.
     “I knew you were foolish, little brother, but this is too much.” Itachi said angrily.  It was one thing to go after him, but Sasuke had hurt Naruto in the process, something Itachi would never have done.
     “Sasuke, please don’t leave me!  I need you… I love you.” the blond sobbed.
     Itachi shook the blond awake.  Blinking, Naruto looked confused before realizing what happened.  He quietly cried in Itachi’s chest.
     “Everything is ruined.  I cannot go back to the village and Sasuke has left me.” the kitsune choked out.
     Itachi stared at the blond, “Then come with me.”
     Jerking his head up, Naruto glared at Itachi.  “Why?  So you can get the Kyuubi out of me?”
     Chuckling once again, Itachi shook his head.  “No, kit, because my foolish brother didn’t realize what he lost by letting me win.  Now I have to mend what he stupidly did.”
     “What do you mean he won?  He’s not dead, is he?”  Itachi mentally cursed himself for letting the teen worry about such nonsense.
     “No, I won because he let me destroy his life.  What he doesn’t realize is that by going on with his life, by moving on and not becoming obsessed he could have won.  He, clearly, has not done that.”
     “Itachi, I do not understand; why do you care about what happens to me?  Surely you just want the Kyuubi inside of me.” Naruto went on.
     Itachi smirked at the cutely oblivious blond, “No, Naruto, that’s not why I care.  I care because you’ve been hurt just like me, and I want to do something right in my life.  Naruto, put away your hatred for me and let me love you like Sasuke never could.”
     Naruto looked horrified at first before looking down.
     “But Sasuke…”
     “Sasuke only cares about killing me.” Itachi pressed, gently hugging the blond, “I can love you for you, and not because I believe you can somehow make me stronger.”
     For the first time in months, Naruto melted into someone’s embrace.  Only it wasn’t Sasuke’s, like he had planned.  Giving in, Naruto cuddled up next to Itachi.
     “I guess I could try loving again.” he whispered.
     Itachi smiled softly and raised the blond’s head before pressing their lips together.  Naruto felt something he had never felt before and dissolved into Itachi’s passionate kiss.  Licking his bottom lip, Itachi begged entrance to Naruto’s mouth.  Naruto obliged eagerly, allowing the elder Uchiha explore as much as he wanted.  Finally, the two broke, Naruto gasped for breath while Itachi hardly seemed winded by the experience.
     “That was…” Naruto panted, “the most amazing kiss ever.”
     Itachi beamed at the winded kitsune before lowering his head and licking and nipping the blond’s ear.  “Even better than Sasuke’s?” he asked, letting his breath tingle down Naruto’s neck.  Shivering involuntarily, Naruto bit his lip as he nodded; tears were beginning to well back up into his eyes at the thought of Sasuke.
     Sasuke would hate him for this.
     “He didn’t care about you to begin with.” Itachi murmured to Naruto, as if he could read the kitsune’s thoughts, “Or else he wouldn’t have left.  You are not at fault, Naruto.”
     “Thank you, Itachi.” the blond muttered, slipping his arms around the elder being.
     “Anything for you, kit.” Itachi responded.