After washing in the river and going back to camp, they found Shikamaru still awake and still keeping watch. "You two..." He said, pointing at the pair entering the camp. "Are not subtle." He said, yawning and looking quite tired.

"Why didn't you change watch? It's really late already!" Naruto asked, a grin on his face. He was leaning against Sasuke, an arm around Sasuke's waist while Sasuke had his arm around Naruto's shoulder.

"And have Choji listen to you two? No thanks, that'll be way too troublesome... Go keep watch, I'm going to sleep." Shikamaru answered, rolling his eyes and quickly disappeared into his tent.

Sasuke kissed Naruto's temple. "You want to sleep? I can keep first watch." He offered. Naruto shook his head.

"I'm not sleeping tonight. Why don't you go and get some sleep? I... need to think something through..." Naruto said seriously. Without his eyes changing from blue to red anymore, it was a little harder for Sasuke to know Naruto's current mood, but the seriousness in Naruto's voice hinted to red.

"Alright, but wake me up if you need anything." Sasuke said, slowly walking backwards towards their tent, smiling as he did so. Naruto nodded and grinned to reassure him.

It was really quiet after that. It seemed that not even the animals were awake at this time of night. The stars were a little less bright than they could be as well. The light clouds drifting in front of them were enough to take the edge off their brightest light.

Naruto sat thinking over the events of the past few days. Especially the gut-wrenching event in town that he only just remembered. Tears were burning in his eyes at that. How could he have done that? More importantly, what else had he done without remembering it? He was sure his instinct-driven actions were only something recent, something that had been nagging at him only after meeting Sasuke again and accepting him as his mate. Maybe his mind was too messed up to properly process Kurama's urges together with Naruto's feelings. Maybe he needed Inoichi-san to help him more with this.

He didn't think he had done anything like that before. At least, he never woke up somewhere else like that, not knowing how he got there, so maybe it was just that one time? Maybe now that Sasuke and he had done that, his mind would be more in control? No, wait, he needed to be in control of his mind, right? Was there even a difference for him?

But then there was the incident with Shikamaru. He had bumped into Naruto, and Naruto had felt like his mind had been completely overwhelmed. He had growled at Shikamaru, another unconscious action, but in reality, he had felt completely and utterly incapable of getting Shikamaru off of him. Had Shikamaru, or anyone else for that matter, at that moment had other intentions, Naruto would not have struggled against it despite never, ever wanting that to happen with anyone else beside Sasuke.

This was frustratingly difficult. Was his instinct really so strong it was able to overthrow his cognitive will that easily? Yeah, Yamanaka-san wasn't going to be able to help him with this, he realised. The poor man could barely make sense of Naruto's shattered mind as it was, let alone adding something like a haywire basic instinct to the mix...

What he did notice now, even stronger than after just leaving the cave, was that his mind had a sense of peace in it, like his instinct had been fulfilled for the time being. Maybe Sasuke would be enough to keep him under control. He would need to tell Sasuke, though, and that was going to have to wait until they were safely back in Konoha.

It was enough to keep Naruto up all night, only breaking out of his troublesome thoughts when Choji emerged from his tent. Choji greeted him with a grin, one that Naruto answered in kind and the both of them made breakfast together, starting a day of travelling with a good meal for them all.

Naruto was nervous. The whole journey home was different than the first part of their journey, mainly because Sasuke was no longer angry with him, but also because of Naruto's intent to tell Sasuke what was going on in his mind and about what he had done. Every time he thought back at what he had done in the village, his gut clenched. Damnit, he fucked up! Sasuke was going to be so angry with him...

He was unable to stand still during the report to the Hokage. He was fidgeting so badly even the Hokage noticed. He was looking at Naruto like he wanted to keep him back after dismissing the others, but Naruto expertly ignored eye contact in favour of keeping his eyes on Sasuke. "Naruto." The Hokage said. Naruto finally and a little reluctantly looked at him, a big grin on his face.

"Yes, Jiji?" He asked in a completely innocent voice.

"Why don't you stay here with Sasuke? The rest of you are free to leave." Sarutobi asked in an equally pleasant voice, returning the grin with an amused smile. He might be old, but he wasn't senile. Of course, he didn't know about Naruto's latest troubles and just saw the figeting as eagerness to be alone with Sasuke again.

"So, how are you enjoying living with Sasuke, Naruto?" He asked. He already knew about their relationship, but never had the chance to talk about it with Naruto himself. Naruto recognised the jovial tone in his voice and decided not to bother Jiji with anything.

"It' s great! Sasuke is really nice to me. I really like him. I want to keep living with him." He said enthusiastically while flailing his arms around. He suddenly stopped and looked at Jiji with begging eyes. "I can keep living with him, can't I?" He suddenly felt worried over that. There wasn't any reason to be, but what if someone decided he needed to be housed somewhere else again?

"Of course you can. I see no reason why not." Jiji said, watching Naruto's face morph back into a grin. Naruto turned to Sasuke and beamed at him, completely happy. "Why would you ask me that? Did something happen I should know about?" Sarutobi asked.

"Uhm... no, not really..." Naruto answered. Instead of turning around and facing Jiji as he spoke, Naruto installed himself with his arms around Sasuke's neck. Sasuke placed his arm around Naruto's waist.

"Well, I can't say I'm completely satisfied with the report, but since Shikamaru didn't report any incidents, I guess I have to leave it at that. I do have a warning, though. For the both of you. From what I've heard, Naruto has shown signs that he isn't always in full control. These are just rumours as it stands now, but if I should ever see clear evidence of this, I will have to act on that. At the very least it will mean confinement to the village. At the worst, imprisonment. And I do not mean the T&I department." The words were tough, but spoken with care. It was a fair warning, even Naruto thought so.

"I'm watching him." Sasuke answered. Naruto glanced up at him, noticing that he was almost glaring at Jiji, adding another arm around Naruto's waist.

"I'm sure you are. Unfortunately, you aren't an impartial party anymore, so if there ever is any sign of trouble, you'll be disregarded as a witness." Jiji said. He sounded a bit weary. Naruto remembered the words Cat had said to him all those years back in the medical bay. That there had been people out to get him, waiting for him to mess up. Chances were high those same people were still after him. He tugged at Sasuke's shirt to get his attention.

"He's right, Sasuke. Don't be mad at Jiji. I'll do my best to behave, I promise." He smiled at Sasuke, watching Sasuke's expression mellow out.

"Alright." Sasuke said to Naruto, smiling at him.

"Good, I'm glad you understand what I'm trying to tell you. Now, go and rest up. A big day awaits tomorrow!" Jiji said smiling. Even his eyes crunched up with the smile. For a moment Sasuke and Naruto stared at him, both clueless as to what the man was referring to.

"Oh, by the way, shouldn't Kakashi-sama be here too?" Sasuke asked. The masked man had been absent during the meeting, but the desk looked only recently abandoned with pens scattered about and a half full glass of water still on the table, moist with condensation.

"Ah, yes, he had a... sudden meeting somewhere. It came up the very moment the new load of paperwork was dropped off, oddly enough." The dear old Hokage was still smiling, though now it looked strained and hurting. "I'm sure he'll be right back." He added hopefully.

"I'm sure he will. Let's go, love, it seems the Hokage has work to do." Sasuke said, turning around and leading Naruto out of the office, leaving a very tired looking old man behind.

They went straight home, only stopping to buy enough groceries for dinner and breakfast. Naruto took a deep breath while he watched Sasuke put the stuff away, leaving out the ingredients for dinner. Naruto hadn't cooked at home once after their little bet, and even though Sasuke had tried to rope him into it as 'something we can do together', Naruto was adamant about just sitting there and watching Sasuke. It was a good view, after all.

Naruto took a deep breath to prepare himself. "Sasuke, we need to talk." He said. Sasuke had his back to him, so he didn't immediately see the serious expression on Naruto's face.

"Uh oh, that sounds ominous."He said jokingly before turning around. "Wait, you're serious. What's wrong?" Sasuke stopped what he was doing, turning all his focus to Naruto.

"Well... remember I told you I woke up covered in blood and I was afraid I might have hurt or killed someone?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, what about it?" Sasuke walked over to Naruto. Naruto leaned back in his chair, a guilty look on his face as he looked up to Sasuke.

"I, uh... well, I remembered what I did... and it might be worse than having killed someone." He was avoiding looking directly at Sasuke. He really didn't want to see the hurt look that Sasuke was going to have when he told him.

"You are worrying me, love. What did you remember?" Sasuke asked in a stern voice. He didn't like that Naruto was dragging this out. It made him worried. What could Naruto have done that he would consider it worse than killing?

"Okay, so I'm first going to tell you that I wouldn't have done it, and I never will again. I would never betray you. You need to believe me when I say that. I really do love you very much. I still don't remember it clearly and I certainly don't understand why I did it to begin with. I have a decent guess as to why, but that isn't really explainable. Am I making sense? I feel like I'm not making sense. What-" Sasuke interrupted him by holding up his hand. As Naruto had been talking, he had started talking faster and faster, and that left him a little short of breath.

"If you talk any faster than that, I wouldn't even be able to follow you even with the Sharingan active. Breathe, love, steady now." He said, cupping Naruto's cheek and kneeling down so he was more at eye level instead of towering over the sitting distressed blond.

Naruto took a few slow breaths. This was fine. He was fine. He was able to tell Sasuke. It was going fine. He nodded, more to himself than to Sasuke, but Sasuke was happy to see Naruto at least breathing properly again.

"I'm fine... So, here it is. Please remember that I didn't remember any of this and I still don't really understand why I did it, okay?" He waited for Sasuke to nod before continuing. "I.." He started, taking a deep breath. "Let a guy f-fuck me..." He said in a small voice. He watched Sasuke as Sasuke processed what he had just said. Sasuke was looking straight at him. Naruto flinched when he saw the Sharingan flash for a second before disappearing again, leaving a deep scowl on Sasuke's face.

Sasuke took a few breaths, then turned around and left the kitchen without saying a word. "Sasuke..." Naruto feebly called after him, grabbing after him, but missing the hem of Sasuke's shirt. He felt unsure of what to do now. Sasuke would need time, right? He realised that Sasuke probably wouldn't be able to look at him, maybe ever again, but he didn't want Sasuke to be alone while he was this upset either...

The door to the bedroom slammed closed, making Naruto flinch again. He closed his eyes and waited for a second. He let out a deep, unsteady breath.

He dug his fingers into his hair, grabbing onto it almost painfully and then let his hands wander to the Hitai-ate around his neck, clenching it and clawing at it in an almost forgotten habit. The poor feeble metal stood little chance against the sharp nails and strong grip, warping under the pressure and remaining dented and bent out of shape. He wasn't going to leave Sasuke alone, and he also wasn't going to pressure Sasuke with his presence.

He got up and made his way to the bedroom door and sat down in front of it. He made no secret of where he was and even deliberately flashed his chakra to alert Sasuke that he was right there. Naruto hugged his legs and sat there, determined to wait right there until Sasuke was able to talk to him again.

"I'm sorry..."

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