Summary: Naruto goes out to confront Sasuke...and wakes up not remembering the meeting. He struggles to remember what happened and understand why Sasuke wants him with him before Sasuke's last six months of being in control of his body are up.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own an orange jacket…I got it for Christmas. :)

Chapter one: Voices of the Past

I'm running, running...why am I running? This feels like a dream, but I'm sure it's more than that. Maybe this is a memory? But then why can't I remember what I'm running for? I think I'm looking for something...someone. My feet hit the ground in a steady rhythm, duh-dub, duh-dub, almost like a heartbeat. It helps me focus as little bits of memory seep into my brain. I know for certain now that I'm looking for someone, someone I haven't seen in a long time. Sasuke. I'm running for Sasuke. I remember the meeting with Tsunade now, how she called me into the Hokage's office and told me that she had received reports of Sasuke, had heard where he was rumored to be heading. She assigned me this mission to head to the location and confront him, ask him--no, tell him to come back. I'm flying over the ground now, the thumping of my feet on the ground speeds up until it matches the beating of my own frenzied heart. Will he really be there? Will I really see him again? I can't bear the thought of returning without him, whether due to a failed attempt or this being faulty information, so I don't let my mind think about it. I know I need to find him. He only has half a year left before Orochimaru can possess his body. I shudder at the thought, my heartbeat and pace quickening. I know I'm almost there. I can sense it in my very soul. It's right ahead, so close...three seconds, two seconds, one second...

Naruto's eyes open to darkness. Feeling something over his eyes, he closes them and makes to move his hand up to brush it away, and feels his other hand forced to move with it. 'What...? Why are my hands bound?' He experimentally shifts his legs--in the process noting that he is laying on a something soft that he assumes to be a bed--and finds his ankles and bound together, too. His breath starts to come faster as he starts to panic.

"Ah, you're awake." The voice is close but barely above a whisper. It came so unexpectedly and so quietly that Naruto can't decide if it is male or female, let alone if he recognizes it. He senses the owner of the voice shift, and hears quiet tapping as he or she moves over towards him.

Naruto freezes when he feels a hand touch his cheek lightly and slowly move up past the blindfold to run softly through his hair. "Wha..." he manages through his shock and fear. 'Where am I?' he wants to ask. 'Who are you? What's going on?' When he's about to find his voice, he hears a sound that causes his to turn his head quickly to the left. A useless motion, considering his covered eyes, but a reflex.

A door opening slowly, a tap-tap-tap of shoes on the ground, a relaxed but steady pace. The feet bring the new occupant of the room right up to his left side. He can sense the new arrival's stare, and hears him draw in a nearly silent breath to speak, a noise he would not have heard had his hearing not been intensified from the restriction on his sight. "We need to change his bandages. Or, if his healing ability is as amazing as you say, we can take them off already." Naruto recognized this man's voice, but he was not sure where he had heard it before. Something about it made him uneasy, and it wasn't the way the man so casually spoke about him, not too him, in his presence.

Something clicked, and he realized what the man had said. 'Bandages? Am I injured?' As if it had been waiting for him to think this, pain seeps into his entire body, a kind of stinging throbbing. He hisses at it, and winces as his chest gives a particularly painful throb. The silent person shifts beside him, and he feels the person lean in. The hand is back on his face, comforting him as the voice whispers something soft and calming that he fails to comprehend through his sudden pain. He knows he shouldn't--considering his current position--but Naruto feels reassured that everything is okay, and that he is safe for the time being. He unconsciously leans into the hand slightly. "Where am I? What's happening?" he voices some of his pressing thoughts, and is slightly startled at how weak his voice sounds. 'If I can get one of them to say something, even if they don't tell me anything, I can probably guess what's going on. If I get that guy to speak, I might figure out where I know his voice from. And that other person...if I can get that person talking, I'll know if I know who it is.'

"Naruto...you don't remember?" It was the first person again, speaking a little more loudly than the first time, but still barely above a whisper. (It's as if the two people didn't want to scare him by speaking too loudly, or didn't want to break the spell of silence that the room cast. With his own weak voice, he, too, was unable to break that spell.) He caught more of the tone of the voice this time, though, and pulled two things from it. One was that the speaker was male. The other was that he knew the man.

"S-sasuke? What...how did?" His voice was so weak, as if it wished to spite him. 'I can't be weak; I have to take Sasuke back to Konoha! If I show weakness, he'll not come back with me.' His panicked thoughts reflected upon his body, as he began to shift restlessly and grit his teeth.

"Naruto, calm down." Naruto complied right away. He took a calming breath before asking in an even tone: "Sasuke, why am I here?" He assumed 'here' was Sound, as it couldn't logically be anywhere else, not in his mind at least.

There was a pause, as if Sasuke was considering how to answer him. At last, he said, "I guess you don't remember, but we made a deal, and you agreed to stay here with me until...until six months go by." Naruto noticed how he was reluctant to say anything about his deal with Orochimaru. Speaking of deals...

"Why would I agree to stay here? What sort of deal did we make?" Naruto was a bit put out that he couldn't make his tone more threatening. 'Darn it, I hate feeling so weak!'

"It's best if you remember on your own. I'm sure you'll remember everything, given time."

'Why doesn't Sasuke want to tell me? He told me once, didn't he? Why not tell me again?' Naruto pondered this as he felt two pairs of hands removing bandages from his arms and legs. When they move to take off the bandages on his chest, he winces. 'Man, that hurts! What happened to me?'

"It looks like this is the only wound left...It will probably take a few more days to heal." The other man spoke, his voice tauntingly familiar. Naruto's mind suddenly attached a face with that voice: silver hair, glasses...Kabuto. 'So I am in Sound. Figures.' he thought. He gritted his teeth and hissed in pain as his chest wound was irritated by a new bandage being applied.

"Is it as bad as it looks, dobe?" Sasuke asked, not without a hint of worry, Naruto noticed.

"Ah, well, does it look like hell? 'Cuz it sure feels like it."

He felt Sasuke tense beside him. "Naruto…I'm sorry."

Naruto thought for sure he'd misheard. Sasuke, the cold-hearted bastard, actually apologized? There was definitely something wrong. He shook his head, deciding he'd figure it out later. "Um, it's okay. But…Sasuke? Could you untie me?"

"Yeah. We though you might freak out when you woke up. So, we decided tying you up would prevent any," he paused, trying to find the right word, "Incidents." As he explained, he was slowly undoing the ropes that bound Naruto's hands and feet. Finally he reached up to Naruto's face and pulled off the blindfold. Dark eyes met blue, and Naruto caught a flash of something akin to concern in Sasuke's eyes, before they assumed their regular apathy.

"Sasuke…" Naruto whispered. He briefly though of all the things he could say: threats, claims that he was going to take Sasuke back with him to Konoha, insults…but the thing that came out of his mouth was a cheeky "Nice to see you again, teme."

A/N: So, how was it? Interesting? Horrible? I'd love a review, if you have the time. I won't post the next chapter until next year. Ha! Scared you there, didn't I? As today is New Year's Eve, tomorrow is next year! (Man, I hate that joke.) I'll try to get it up by Friday. Thanks for reading!