title: breathe slow
pairing: eventual SasuSaku.
dedication: To the art of breathing.

notes: Well, here we are. Pretty epic ride, if I do say so myself. In reply to the most asked question of last chapter, I don't know who was the one that pillowed Sasuke's head. It could have been Naruto, could have been Ino... it could have been Sakura, too. I don't know who it was, coz Sasuke doesn't know who it was. You know what I'm saying? :)

x

breatheslow

He felt warm, as he slowly began to wake up.

It was a lot of reluctance, that he opened his eyes and looked around at the source of the warmness that cocooned his body. His head pulsed for a quick second and his throat felt dry; his body ached and felt weak and as light as a feather.

All in the day's work of depleting his chakra.

There was an enormous fire in the middle of what was a rather big circle of bodies.

They all sat in different positions; on their stomachs, on their sides, a leg bent at the knee, criss-cross, legs spread out. Sasuke was leaning against a tree, legs spread out in front of him and still managing to be a part of the circle. He could hear a buzz of conversation going on, still too muffled for his brain as it tried to wake itself up.

Behind the circle was a very enormous gap where trees had once been. Now it was occupied with soot and craters and the stench of something that was once burning.

Kirin.

It worked, then.

Sasuke shook his head and brought a hand up to rub at his eyes. His head pulsed and pounded and white dots spotted around as he continuously blinked his eyes to get rid of the blur and make everything sharp and right. He took a deep breath in and cracked the kinks out of his neck.

He heard someone to his right, sigh.

Sasuke turned to stare at Naruto, who was staring back at him.

It was only then that he noticed everyone watching him.

He'd of grown stiffer than he already was hadn't Ino winked at him, reassuringly and had everyone else not be sporting some sort of smile or brightness in their faces.

Sasuke clenched his jaw and turned back to Naruto, catching Sakura peeking at him from over the blond's shoulder, her own reassuring smile on her lips and a glint in her green eyes. Behind her Sai stared with a tilted head.

Naruto sighed, again.

"I guess you won," he said, sullenly.

It was quiet.

Sasuke allowed the sentence to bounce around in his head as he sucked at the foreign feeling of peace that surrounded him.

Peace.

It was a feeling Sasuke as not used to, and possibly one he'd never really would get used to.

But it was there. It was feint, but it was there.

Not everything was okay, he knew. Not with his head, not with his feelings, not with the war. Not with everything.

But it was calm and peaceful enough.

"This time," Naruto went on, thrusting his nose in the air. "I'll win for sure, tomorrow."

Sasuke scoffed, indignantly.

Everyone laughed.