Holy hell it's been a loooong looooooooong time since I've updated, wow..

And it's very short to, maybe a little rushed :shot: .. Sorry. Haha I hope some of my readers haven't totally lost interest in this. And it's been so long I'm sure most of you might have to skim through previous chapters to know what the hell's going on.

I look back at other chapters an I'm like.. Ugh sooo many grammatical errors it makes my eyes bleed. (and with how quickly I typed this crap out there are probably quite a few mistakes as well)

Moving on..

.:Chapter Six:.

Back to Play

Panting heavily, his chest rose high above him with every deep, rhythmic breath he took. He clutched the sheets tightly at both sides of his squirming figure; the fabric between his fingers were on the verge of tearing as his clammy grip intensified. Sweat was pouring down the boy's lightly tanned skin as he vigorously whipped his head from right to left, letting out small whimpers and groans through clenched teeth.

Eyes shot open extensively, revealing two orbs of hazy, cerulean blue, and the teen lurched violently upward from his sleeping position. His breath was ragged and short, and his golden hair in a tangled mess.

His eyes darted towards the alarm clock sitting silently on the bedside table, it read 3:24 AM. The blond let out a shaky sigh and lethargically pulled his knees against his chest, arms wrapping around them protectively.

"That dream again.. T-that damn nightmare.." Naruto slowly rested his forehead against both of his trembling hands. It was the second time in a row that he had experienced such a horrific dream, and this time it was worse; he couldn't even describe how frightening it was… and how realistic it had seemed. It felt like a memory. No.. he had never had such a horrific memory.

His room was completely covered in darkness… not even the moon bothered to offer him a speck of light to ease the sudden rise of fear swelling in the his chest. After waking up from such a dream paranoia ensued; he could only continue to imagine something crawling out from beneath his bed and grabbing his leg, or possible entities lurking in the shadows, watching him with malevolent eyes..

Naruto kicked away the sweat soaked sheets, jumped off the bed and hastily headed towards the bathroom, desperately wanting to flick on a light source. He nearly tripped over a shoe on the way and clumsily stumbled into the bathroom that was connected to his room.

He flicked on the lights, hissing at the sudden overpowering brightness that stung his sensitive eyes. Naruto leaned against the marble counter for a moment; both hands clutching the edges as he stared at his reflection groggily. His eyes were squinted, still adjusting to the offensive fluorescent lighting.

"I look like shit.." He chuckled, almost bitterly at his reflection.

The teen had bags under his slightly swollen eyes, and his skin seemed paler, glistening with streaks of sweat. His limp, blonde bangs were stuck to his face, also damp from his body's perspiration.

Naruto became well aware that his limbs were still shaking; and every few moments as visions of the previous nightmare flashed through his mind, an involuntary chill would drive up his spine like a cold, steel blade thrusting into his back.

"What the hell does it mean? Why.. Why did I have it again?" Naruto mumbled to his reflection, not overly out of it enough to expect a reply from it. He then turned the faucet of the sink beneath him and collected a handful of ice cold water. He stared at it for a moment before splashing his face with the liquid, then began to slightly relax as he felt his face begin to numb from the coldness.

Naruto slung his bag over his shoulder and headed for the front door in a quickened pace. "I'm off to school!" He shouted loud enough for Iruka to hear, whom was currently in the kitchen area.

He could hear the sound of what seemed to be his guardian dropping a handful of slippery dishes into the sink with a loud 'clank' then scramble out of the kitchen. Hastily and almost desperately he asked Naruto from behind, "Do you need me to drive you there?!"

Naruto was halfway out the door when he turned around, surprised at Iruka's forced grin combined with pleading eyes, "Uh.. I always ride my bike or walk."

So, this was weird, Iruka almost never offered to drive him to school. Main reason being that he had work to leave to in a few minutes and his job was on the other side of town which was the opposite direction of Naruto's school.

"W-well it might be a little safer if I-" Naruto sighed through his nose, of course.. Iruka was worried that poor, defenseless little Naruto was going to be kidnapped by a pedophile on the streets.. Should've seen that one coming. "I'm not a girl I can handle myself.." …Of course if he said that around Sakura she probably would've nailed his jawbone for implying that girls were weak. …Sometimes he wondered if Sakura was even a girl.. With all that brute force he was starting to believe she was born the wrong gender.

Okay stop thinking about Sakura's manliness now..

"Iruka! I think I can manage riding my bike to school without being molested and murdered on the way! Jeez quite being such a worry wart." Naruto threw his hands up in the air in exasperation.

Iruka's head hung slightly limp and he sighed, "Alright.. Your right, you should be fine, I'm just being.. protective that's all. There have been many missing children lately and I-"

Naruto rudely cut him off, already knowing what his foster parent was going to say. He just really had to speed the conversation up if he was ever going to make it to school on time.. Not that he ever did, but still. "Yeah, I know.. If it makes you feel any better I'm gonna be riding to school along with Kiba too," He grinned at his guardian then glanced at his Spiderman wristwatch, which no one else but him thought was cool but fuck them, he loved Spiderman, "Crap I gotta go, bye!"

Before Iruka could say anything there was a slam at the door and Naruto was gone. The scarred face man rubbed the back of his head and sighed, "Teenagers..."

"Hey Naruto, you gonna tell me what the hell you were freaking out about yesterday or what?"

Naruto snapped out of his long, skyward daze and turned towards Kiba, "uh…Huh?"

The two teens were pushing their bikes down the sidewalk, the school no less than a five minute walk ahead.

"Don't act stupid, y'know! Yesterday on the phone? You started yelling about something then you hung up on me! Dude.. you left me hanging on the other line baffled as hell. So what happened? You burn your ramen or something?" He chuckled, it wouldn't have been a surprise if that was the case, Naruto always went crazy over the most trivial of things.

"Oh! That.. I forgot ehe.. Um N-no yah see I..I.." Naruto suddenly grinned inwardly when the perfect excuse suddenly accumulated in his teeny little mind, "You see, I cried out in distress and had to hang up on you because my dog snatched my camera away from me and ended up chewing it into little pieces! So .. Not only was my new camera destroyed but the pictures I bravely worked so hard to obtain from the manor have all perished as well… it was a very dramatic moment for me…" The over-exaggeration of the story was very overwhelming.. Naruto was even breathing heavily when he finished; he even faked a tear and sniffle.

Kiba stared mindlessly at his blond friend for about ten seconds before he spoke slowly, "Naruto… you don't have a dog."

Oh Shit I don't! Stupid!! "Uh, A-actually, Iruka got me a dog yesterday morning! It was a surprise.. um early birthday gift! Yeah… his name is.. U-uh Fluffy!" (1)

"Oookay… Let me come over so I can see this new dog of yours, maybe Fluffy and Akamaru can be play buddies eehh??"

"U-uh well y-yah see I kinda have to go somewhere right after school.."

"Where?"

Damn Kiba and his persistent inquiries! "The Uchiha Mansion. I told you my camera was totaled so I'm gonna have to start over and also grab information about the history from the owner- I meeeaaan… over the computer…or library.." Shit.. He almost forgot about the death glare Sasuke gave him after saying not to tell anyone about him living there.

"Ah alright then, hey do you need any help with that stuff man? Cuz you sound like you're behind on the project. It's due by the end of this week you know."

"Thanks, but.. I think I can manage."

Kiba sighed and gave his blonde buddy a good pat on the back, "Well, just forget about that stupid bet thing then, I knew you wouldn't be able to handle it without screwing something up anyway.. Or getting your 'new dog' to screw it up."

"..Gee thanks." Naruto laughed slowly, he didn't know whether to be relieved or embarrassed.

School went by pretty quickly for Naruto. He realized that many of his friends seemed to be slightly worried about him, asking him if anything was bothering him, all day long. Most likely because he wasn't acting his usual goofy self today.. He found himself spacing out during class, staring blankly out the window daydreaming, and being abnormally quiet around his friends during lunchtime. When they did ask him what was wrong, he simply shrugged and walked away.

The blonde just decided he was probably going through some kind of hormonal change, which would probably explain why he didn't feel like being around anyone or communicating so actively as usual.

After over about a half hours walk from school, he found himself in the desolate and familiar neighborhood aligned with old Victorian-esque homes.

"I.. don't really feel like doing this now.. But I gotta get this project done I guess.."

The vampire had already sensed the young blondes presence just as he stepped foot in front of the Uchiha manor. His aura was a special, rare, and unexplainably dense one. He could practically smell it a mile away if he were searching for it.

The raven smirked, "The little blonde boy has come back to play." He chuckled lightly, standing in front of a dusty unlit fireplace that stood nearly twice his size, while staring up at a painting above it; which showed a young man with long, dirty blonde locks of hair, and eyes like the deep sea, that looked similarly to the Uzumaki kid.

"Hmph…No wonder."

"Why, I haven't seen you look so amused in decades, Master Sasuke."

Sasuke slightly bowed his head, shifting his gaze away from the painting, "That was a dirty little trick you played on him yesterday, Kakashi, pretending to be his little girlfriend stuck in a closet."

"Haha.. I was just curious about him, a lot of us are. He's a very interesting person with a fascinating aura."

There was a pause for a few moments, then a cold draft passed and the other presence was gone.

"Interesting indeed.."

(1) OO; surely no one forgot about dear Fluffy from the third chapter right?

A/N : Like I said before ..extremely short chapter compared to the others. It might be a long time before I update again guys.. Sorry. See I just kinda ..lost interest in Naruto (although I still keep up with the chapters) Well okay more like.. I'm not as obsessed with the SasuNaru paring as I use to be. In fact I actually don't really care that much for it anymore. ;; it's a sad thing and It's all the fault of this new Animanga I got into a few months ago called Katekyo Hitman Reborn! OAO I'm srsly obsessed with it.. And the pairing YamaGoku from that series kinda REALLY owns my soul right now (if anyone watches/reads it you know what I'm talking about then)

Sighh so Maybe I'll start writing for that pairing soon.. (I really don't have much time lately tho..)

But I still like this story and I've had so many ideas for it that I don't think I should let go to waste, so I'll try to update but don't hold your breath guys.. It might be a very long time till then OTL