Ahaha... oh shit. More than a year since I've updated. Wrote this all in one afternoon in about two hours in a sudden bout of inspiration.

Title: Arabic Numerals - Chapter 5
Pairing: SasuNaru
Warnings: I'm not gonna lie. This chapter is just filler. Cursing, OOCness, rambliness, etc. I like subtlety in writing, but I sorta fail at it, and that's what this chapter is. My failure.

I remember back when I used to live in the asylum: There used to be this high-pitched, ear splitting, nails on six blackboards accompanied by the chorus of sobbing children with rectal dryness, grinding noise that would play over and over like the humming of cicadas in my mind. Of course, I hadn't noticed this noise, hadn't received or processed it in the tiny mush of medication once called my brain. It wasn't until I had stopped taking the medication that I noticed the sound was gone.

All there was was quiet. All there needed to be was the soft rustling of clothing, and my mind would pounce on it and ravage it with smothering interpretation and suspicion. It was a new dimension of sensory my mind had seemingly never experienced before. Where my mind was cramped and squeezed like multiplying mice in a basement, it was now expanded, and I realized that something in the medication had been causing me to be, for lack of better word, dim.

Occasionally, the sound would come back, and it would be so unbearable that I'd dig my fingers into my skull and crumple to the floor, sobbing quietly and wishing for it all to end. Really, truly, the most pathetic sight you've ever seen.

Luckily, this didn't usually happen when there were people around. Not usually, anyway.

That morning, I had awoken to the heated hiss of someone's voice. I felt lips nipping at my ear. I felt hands traveling across my body, around my waist. I felt fingers hooking the waist of my pants and tugging them down. I whimpered as seething hot fire licked at my insides and gripped my limbs like a hand puppet. And then I was awake.

I blinked dazedly, opening my mouth to utter a brief "Good morning". But I stopped when I saw the curled figure of Sasuke right beside me in the bed, still sleeping and drooling slightly from the mouth. Had it been any other time, any other life, I would have found the image adorable and precious.

But I pulled my lips together and lowered my head, as though in a trance. Was I dreaming? Today, I wasn't even going to say good morning to myself. What had happened?

Jumping unenthusiastically out of the bed and pulling on the clothes that had been prepared for me on the dresser adjacent, I silently tiptoed from the room. And I decided to myself I would be taking a walk that morning.

It was strange. As though the entire trip out of Hinata's household was a distant illusion that had sifted from my memory like smoke from a windowsill. I was suddenly wandering around the back alleys of wherever the hell I was. My clothes were dry, straightened, smooth: More than any clothing I ever imagined I could afford. I felt like a puppy in winter boots. This was not how I was meant to be, I noted.

I turned around.

And my lips formed words without me realizing it. It was like watching two people conversing in the middle of the park. "Was this where I came from?"

And someone else replied. "Whatever you want. Just keep going."

And I sighed, patting the smooth velvety coat to my chest. "But should I go back soon? How am I going to get back if I don't know the way?"

And that someone replied again. "You don't want to go back now, do you?"

"But I didn't even say goodbye. On second thought, I don't... I don't want to say goodbye!"

"You're not the brightest of stars in the gas clouds. You asked me this question yourself: How do you get back if you're lost?"

"I can find a way if I just try to retrace my steps. I'll probably find Sasuke at least."

But on second thought, that bastard probably wouldn't even come looking for me. He'd probably be sitting idly at his table, waving a wine glass in the air, speaking in that arrogant manner of his. Hinata would come over, the kind, righteous woman that she is, and she'd say 'H-Have you seen Naruto? He's been missing since this morning... Maybe we should look for him...!' And Sasuke would scoff in perfect unison with Neji, and they'd both groan with their lips pursed, 'That idiot? If he's stupid enough to get himself lost in this city, he deserves to rot and die in a gutter.' That would be the exact scenario, wouldn't it?

What an annoying voice in my head, I thought.

I shook my head back and forth, my teeth clenched in determination. "He'll be on the way back. If I just try to retrace my steps, he'll be looking for me at the halfway point."

But I didn't turn around.

I kept going deeper into the city, losing myself.

It was becoming blurrier, wavier, grayer, and as things became so blurry I feared I could never see again--

The sound, that sound, that god forsaken sound of babies wailing, piglets shrieking, rocks upon mudslides upon news reports upon announcement after announcement of panic and despair, the sound I hadn't even noticed until I had followed the good doctor out of the asylum and into the wild was back.

I cried out, my voice not loud enough for me to even hear over the screech. Gripping my now sweaty, matted, stringy blond hair at the roots and stumbling through the street, I wailed again, earning more than a few frightened looks from random passerby.

And someone grabbed me by the collar. "Naruto."

"WHAT THE HELL IS IT!" I couldn't hear myself, so I had to shout, you see. I must have been dreaming or something. I still couldn't hear myself.

I couldn't hear anything.

I couldn't see anything.

"You're not Naruto. Naruto, get the fuck back here!"

"I AM HERE! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT!" Was what I meant to say, but, you see, it was like trying to stay on top of a wild, rabidly enraged horse, and there was no way I was going to stay on for long, and if I even tried to form this mental image on my mind, I felt I was being thrown off the seat of a carriage on haywire, flying on the feathers of a bird and slipping into a deadweight free fall past levels and levels of a building with infinite floors.

"Wake up! You! You're not Naruto!"

"YES I AM!" I screamed. "I AM NARUTO! I'M RIGHT HERE! WHO THE FUCK IS IT!"

"Come out! It's me! It's me!"

And I felt a strange tugging in my lower body, bubbling in my gut and rising all the way to my cheeks.

But I couldn't feel my cheeks at the time, so what was I feeling?

"Wake up!"

If my soul were to be ripped from its casket and welded to a flaming pike, it would be the feeling I was feeling right then.

"You fucking idiot, it's me!"

My cheeks were on fire.

And everything was clear again

"It's me, Sasuke," he murmured, glaring down at me with the most hilariously miserable expression on his face. His black pupils were now clearly visible, as his face was so close to mine. His irises were more of a dark brown color. And his hair looked wet.

"What the fuck do you want, bastard?" I replied curtly, weakly narrowing my eyes.

Sasuke's expression changed then as the jackass realized I was actually still alive. But I swear I was conscious this entire time. Just what the hell was he babbling on about? He looked like a ruffled hamster.

"...I want you to tell me how this feels," he finally said.

And I felt that strange tugging in my lower body again. And my eyes widened and my lips parted for a soft, confused yelp.

"Finally, you show some sort of reaction, stupid."

My cheeks burst into seventy different shades of red, each one brighter than the rest. I was boiling with embarrassment.

"You were groping me the entire time-- Ah...!" I asked, wincing again as his hand rubbed up against my groin once again.

Great. Now the bastard was smirking again. You know, I used to think that smirk made him look pretty handsome, bordering on sexy. Now it's just always accompanied with sexual frustration and a well-placed heap of jackassery.

"I was sort of hoping I'd meet you at the halfway point between where Hinata was and where you had lost yourself, but, no, you just had to make me come all the way for you..." he growled, leaning over and nipping gently at my ear. I yelped again, well aware of the waning erection bouncing excitedly in my trousers.

"Stop that! That's so nasty!" I slammed my hands down on Sasuke's chest and tried to push the bastard away, but he just kept coming, hooking his arms under my underarms and pulling me close. I struggled and wriggled like a fish out of water.

But it was no use. Sasuke wasn't going to let me go, it seemed. His head was snapped in the crook of my neck, and I could feel the breath from his nose pooling across my skin. Dammit, why was he so cruel to me like this! Finally relaxing my body in defeat, I cautiously, hesitantly patted the sides of Sasuke's arms like the sides of a porcupine.

My cheeks still burning hot, I leaned into Sasuke's body and sighed.

"What did Neji do when he found out I was gone?"

"He said you should go die in a gutter if you're stupid enough to get lost in this city."

Haha, oh Neji. Sorry again TT Please review, everyone. It really does make me feel so happy. And this time I'll actually respond to your reviews if you have questions!