Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

The Metronome Maven, this is for you! A couple months late, er... I hope you people like it! Though, I won't blame you for losing interest after so long. xD;

I'm not dead, yay!

(Also, please answer my poll! Pretty please with insanity on top? *sparkle eyes*)

Gaara is awake. His eyes are wide open and Naruto feels like he could burst from the delight his friend's awakening has brought him.

Still, he has to cover his ears and the wish that Gaara had never woken up teases his mind, as the redheaded boy starts to scream so loud that it feels like his dry throat will tear open if he keeps it up. So Naruto pleads him to stop, but Gaara refuses to listen and the hoarse cries continue to echo through the woods.

The sound is like torture for Naruto's soul because Gaara is obviously in pain and he doesn't want the other to suffer. On the other hand, Naruto's fingers twitch from the urge to silence the other forever because his oversensitive hearing can't handle it.

He falls on his knees instead, eyes shut tight, hands still pressing against his ears and starts screaming himself.

Sasuke does not want to be found.

Correction; he does not want to be found by wrong people.

So having two Jinchuuriki screaming their lungs out was not something he could afford to have. But he's already injured from the previous battle and does not feel brave enough to approach Naruto whose hand is still red for having sunk it into the enemy's chest. Hushing does nothing, so even if it repulses him to no end, Sasuke has to approach the redheaded boy.

Gaara is alert the moment he notices someone approaching, looking frightened, as his eyes shift between Naruto and Sasuke.

Sasuke does not know what has happened between them before he found them, but he doesn't need to be a witness to know where Gaara's fear comes from.

'It's okay,' he tells the boy. 'I won't hurt you.'

Naruto doesn't know if he's ever appreciated silence as much as he does now. Sasuke is a great friend, he decides, for making Gaara stop screaming.

The way Sasuke tells him to stay away from the two of them he does not like, though.

Looking at his two friends makes Naruto see green, his cheeks puffing as he observes them from a nearby tree.

Sasuke has hastily mended his own wounds with water and lotions and bandages and is now attending to Gaara. Naruto would have treated Gaara himself, but the closer he got the louder the screaming became, so he wasn't able to do that.

Somewhere deep inside Kyuubi stirs, and a word whispers itself though his body.

'Jealousy.'

A day later they are walking again, both Sasuke and Gaara with little ease due to their injuries. Still, Naruto is walking behind them, because Sasuke says that he should not get too close to Gaara.

Naruto does not like this setting, he does not like it at all. In fact, he can't say that he has ever felt this dark in his life. He can't even manage a smile.

Lacking in patience, it doesn't take him long to hasten his strides to catch up with Sasuke, ignoring the way Gaara looks alarmed, takes a step away and has sand whirling around him all at the same time. He would deal with the redhead later, but now it was about Sasuke.

"Where are we going?" He demands, but receives no answer, not even a look of acknowledge that his question has been heard. Something boils inside him, a feeling that he knows is not originated all from him but Kyuubi as well, and he tries so hard not to have it pour over.

"Tell me!"

Still, Sasuke keeps his mouth shut and Naruto is not in the mood to tolerate his impoliteness even if they are friends and so he makes Sasuke's back hit the trunk of a tree. And it hits it hard.

Sasuke's breath catches in his throat at the impact, but he does not complain. Gaara fades from sight, tightly shut inside the sand that he thinks will protect him from harm.

Naruto's small fingers press against his friend's neck in a way that he's used against men Kyuubi wanted to tease because the last thing they would see was the face of their murderer. A child.

Sasuke understands this gesture, oddly calm despite this and he takes a deep breath before looking at Naruto right in the eye. Sasuke is not stupid, Naruto knows. Sasuke understands and Sasuke will now tell him because Sasuke knows what is good for him.

'I'll take you to my... friends, Naruto,' he tells him, eyes still staring at Naruto's and Naruto knows he's not lying because Iruka has told him that honest people look you in the eye. 'They can help you.'

Something inside him lurches almost painfully at those words, but he knows the feeling of discomfort is not his own.

'Lies!' Kyuubi roars inside him, voice deep and far-off like a coward's who's shouting from a distance. A coward who is afraid to trust.

But Naruto trusts Sasuke.

"Okay," Naruto says, letting his friend go, managing a smile again.

To be continued...

Totally forgot what was up with this story (again) but I'm sure it'll write itself.

Gimme a little spank for being an awful updater?