Kuranei's team wasn't going to make it, so they set out towards the mountains with the five of them. The whole time Naruto was acting weird. Well, weirder, but the general consensus was that the blond was too quiet, too obedient and too introverted. Several times Sasuke has had to physically tap his shoulder to even get a response, and it always went the the same. An absent-minded 'Huh? Oh yeah, I guess...' or other vague response no matter what the previous remark had been.

Naruto's mind was filled with the image of the blood he woke up covered in. It was very hard to focus on anything else and despite having thoroughly washed himself, it was still like he could smell the coppery scent lingering on his skin. It was like a perfume that he could sometimes catch a whiff off. It scared him how much he wanted more. He had always had a thing for blood, but he never actively wanted to create a situation to find it. He would never pass an opportunity to draw blood, but he never sought it out deliberately. Now he felt like he was and that was terrifying. Something had changed within him and he didn't understand what.

When they sat camp for the night, Sasuke saw a chance to actually take Naruto apart and talk to him. "Tell me what's wrong? I know there's something." He pressed.

Naruto looked away. He almost felt ashamed. Sasuke, and Ibiki and others, had done so much to help him, and now he had the feeling that it was all crashing down. Could he tell Sasuke or would Sasuke abandon him? It wasn't unthinkable, for Sasuke to leave, but he really hoped he wouldn't.

"Sasuke..." He started, looking at Sasuke. "I..." He looked down and away. Maybe he shouldn't say anything. Not yet. It could be just a fluke, something he could satisfy with the Akatsuki members they were hunting. He could just paint the world red with their blood and then see how he felt after that. But if he did, what would happen if he really liked it, like, enough to draw him to blood even more?

"Naruto, if there is anything, anything at all, you can tell me." Sasuke said, stepping closer and cupping Naruto's cheek. The touch sent a shiver down Naruto's spine. He almost felt like he would lose the strength in his legs. A way too strong reaction to just that touch. He closed his eyes, relishing the overreaction because it just felt so good, and he felt like his mind was being swept away by a need to obey Sasuke. Or anyone... but he wanted it to be Sasuke.

He swallowed and opened his eyes. "I think I did something bad last night, but I don't remember. Your touch is making me feel hot and my mind feel muddled." He just laid it all out. Probably not in the clearest way, but when was he ever clear in the minds of others?

"Are you getting sick?" Sasuke asked, ignoring the first part of what Naruto said in favour of worrying over him first. If Naruto was feeling hot, he might be getting sick and that could become a very bad thing out on a mission.

Naruto followed the movement of Sasuke's hand as it moved to touch his forehead, pressing into it to keep and anchor the connection of bare skin. "No, I don't think I'm getting sick, I... I don't know... It's scary. I'm scared." He admitted. "I..." His breath caught in his throat as Sasuke removed his hand. The loss of contact was somehow almost unbearable and he had to struggle not to whimper pathetically.

His desperation must have been showing on his face, judging by the look Sasuke was giving him. "Come on, tell me the rest of it." Sasuke said, watching Naruto carefully. He couldn't help but notice Naruto eyes were weird. His blue eye was brighter than his red, but it didn't look right. His eyes were glazed a bit. His eyes were focussed on Sasuke intently, almost unsettlingly strong. Sasuke felt like Naruto wanted or needed something desperately, but it was clear the blond himself didn't even know what. "What did you mean when you said you think you did something wrong?" Sasuke asked, putting a little authority in his voice to push Naruto to talk.

Naruto blinked and shook his head a little to clear the muddled feeling. "I woke up covered in blood." He blurted out. "But I don't remember anything after falling asleep. Sasuke, what if I harmed someone and I don't even remember doing it? Or what if I hurt you next?" He asked beggingly. He needed reassurance, even if he already knew Sasuke wouldn't have an answer. His eyes gained a new kind of glaze, one of tears, as he looked at Sasuke.

It took Sasuke a second to respond. "Well, I haven't heard anything about something happening when we left town. Maybe it wasn't as bad as you think it is. It could be something completely different." He said. His voice wasn't as certain as Naruto hoped it would be, but he nodded nonetheless.

"Hey, we'll figure this out." Sasuke said, lifting Naruto's head by gently putting his fingers under his chin. "We'll do it together." He was sincere with what he said. He was not going to leave Naruto that easily.

Naruto shivered at his touch again and smiled at Sasuke. It wasn't all better, but at least he didn't feel that alone in it anymore. Sasuke smiled back and leaned in to kiss Naruto. Naruto felt nervous. He had never been nervous for a kiss, since it never was very serious... No, that was the wrong way to describe it. He had never been nervous for a kiss, because it was natural and easy, just go with the flow, but now, he felt himself blushing, his heart was pounding and his breath was slightly faster. He was expecting something... something more or different, but he didn't know what. And that made him nervous.

When Sasuke's lips grazed his, he whimpered weakly. He couldn't control it. The sensation was so strong that it actually made him lose his strength. Luckily Sasuke stepped closer and put his arm around Naruto's lower back, giving Naruto the support he needed to stay standing. But the added contact just made it worse at the same time. His mind was screaming to respond to Sasuke, accept it all, no matter what Sasuke would want and Naruto did. He opened his mouth at the first lick, let Sasuke dominate the kiss, he didn't protest against Sasuke's hand sliding under his shirt, or the other into the back of his pants, feeling his ass. He just put his arms around Sasuke's neck, trying to keep himself standing up but, truthfully, his full weight was hanging on Sasuke, who held him up with ease. He wouldn't say no to anything right now. Sasuke wouldn't even need to ask.

He let out another sad whimper when Sasuke slowed the kiss down. He didn't want to slow down, he wanted more. Sasuke pulled back anyway. "Sorry, but I do need to breath from time to time..." Sasuke said with a small smile after a few needed breaths. Naruto burried his head in Sasuke's neck and nodded. "We should get back to the camp. I'm sure Shikamaru wants to go over his plan for the mission." Sasuke said, trying to wiggle out of Naruto's hug. Unfortunately, the blue-eye boy had decided to cling to Sasuke for all eternity, not wanting to let go of the feeling coursing through his every nerve. Sasuke sighed in defeat and instead picked Naruto up and carried him back to camp.

The plan was simple enough, but prone to failure. It was basically to go check every cave they came across in search of signs that people were staying there for a prolonged period of time. Shikamaru wasn't pleased with it in the slightest, but since he was using all resources available, this was the best he could thing off.

"But if you don't sense someone's presence in the cave, why go into the cave?" Naruto asked. He didn't quite understand. It seemed like a lot of extra effort for something simple. He could always tell who was where in a pretty wide radius around him. That's how he knew Sasuke was Sasuke when he first saw him with the ANBU mask on, or how he knew Cat was in the Hokage office that time.

Four pairs of eyes stared at him for a second. He was still clinging to Sasuke like his life depended on it, so it was quite an achievement on Sasuke's part to be looking at him too. "What?" He asked.

"You never told me you were a sensory type!" Shikamaru almost yelled.

"I am? And, did you ever even ask?" Naruto threw back.

"You knew we were going to search for hidden Shinobi. If you would have told me you could sense them, I wouldn't even have called for back-up and we could have left a day earlier!" Shikamaru's voice was dripping in exasperation.

"Well, I didn't know it was something special! And last mission we were looking for people too, and you never asked me then either. I was the one to point them out long before any of you noticed them." Naruto said, and then seemed to realise something. "Huh, I guess you guys really can't sense the people around you. I always wondered why people would act surprised when someone suddenly appears..."

"Oh, Kami, why do I even try? This is too troublesome! " Shikamaru complained to himself. "Fine, at least this will speed things up. Lead us to them, then." He said to Naruto, throwing his hand out in a random direction in an exasperated move to get Naruto to move.

Finally Naruto unwrapped himself from Sasuke, but the moment he did, he felt like he was abandoning something precious and all he wanted to do was snuggle back against Sasuke. This was beginning to get ridiculous. It was getting worse and he had no way of dealing with it other than clinging to Sasuke, but he couldn't do that now. They needed to start this mission before the Akatsuki members were on the move. He closed his eyes to stabilise himself for a moment, hoping nobody would touch him. That seemed one of the things right now he was overreacting to.

"Naruto, we're ready to go." Shikamaru was standing in front of him, snapping his fingers. The camp was packed up and everyone seemed ready to leave.

"We're not making camp for the night?" Naruto asked, after blinking a few times.

"No, we decided to use tonight to get a head start, since we lost some time already." Shikamaru said. Naruto didn't really care. His sleep schedule was still a little messed up anyway. The only reason he slept at night was that Sasuke was asleep then. He just joined him. Naruto nodded.

"Give me a second, I need to focus so I can feel them out better." Naruto answered, closing his eyes again. People always left this disturbance in the natural flow of energy. He just needed to find it. The stronger someone's presence, the longer the disturbance was left. It was quite easy once you knew what you were looking for to find this. But you did need to learn to feel through your own disturbance and that was the hardest part.

Naruto set out in a random direction he felt the most disturbed with. Time would tell if this was indeed a human disturbance, or maybe a large animal with high chakra, but the latter was rare so he assumed it was humans. He didn't look back to see if the others were following him. A new feeling washed over him. An excitement. He was using all his senses to find something he was planning on killing. He was hunting and he was loving it. The thrill settled in his bones and drove him to track faster.

Sometimes he stopped dead in his tracks and needed to take a moment before continuing. Other times he turned around a hundred and eighty degrees barely noticing the rest stepping out of his way as he bolted through the group. They were there. They were close. He could distinguish two people now. One seemed more dangerous than the other, but they stayed close together.

Underground, as expected, but he needed to find the way in. He felt like he was missing something obvious. He suddenly stopped again, grinning this time. He had been moving pretty fast, so the rest had trouble stopping as well. Shikamaru rammed into him full speed and they fell to the ground together. The moment he felt Shikamaru's hand land on his bare skin, the exact same sensation as Sasuke touching him flooded his mind. The only difference was that Naruto did not like it at all. An involuntary snarl left him, trying to get Shikamaru off of him.

Shikamaru did, as fast as he could and Naruto just stayed down for a moment, trying to get rid of the feeling. He hated this. Shikamaru didn't do anything wrong. He just bumped into Naruto, yet it rendered Naruto almost powerless. It made him realise even stronger that something was very wrong right now and he just hoped he'd be strong enough to fight it until they got home.

"Damn, did I hurt you?" Shikamaru asked, thinking Naruto's snarl was one of pain. Naruto shook his head, ignored the hand Shikamaru was holding out for him and got up on his own, backing up a few steps in the process. He needed to watch who he was close to and avoid touching people. Easy, right?

"Well, if you're alright... Why did you stop?" Shikamaru asked, studying him to find something wrong.

Naruto took a deep breath, then remembered his idea and grinned again. Sitting down on the ground, he quickly took his shoes off. He only wore them because Sasuke insisted on them anyway, but Naruto much preferred feeling the ground underneath his feet. He threw the shoes off to the side somewhere, not intending to take them with him.

Bare feet opened up a whole new world for him. New details found their way to him more easily, making his grin again. This felt so much better, easier, and he had a clear sense of where to go now. He grinned again. He had his prey targeted and he couldn't wait to find them.

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