It was quite early in the morning when Sasuke woke up. At first, he was a little surprised with himself that he had actually managed to fall asleep. His eyes were burning and he probably looked like crap. He never did like how he looked when he was tired and the worst kind of tired was tired because of crying. He could only imagine the absolute mess he was right now.

He knew Naruto was in front of the door. It stung him a little that Naruto was so close, that he didn't leave Sasuke alone for a while, but at the same time, Naruto's persistence was reassuring. Naruto put no effort into hiding his presence and Sasuke could tell he was already, or still, awake and that he was distressed as well. Good. At least he had the decency to be upset.

Sasuke had spent the entire night going back and forth between being angry, hurt, betrayed, and, strangely, also a little understanding. Sasuke found himself not liking that last part. He didn't want to understand. He wanted to just be angry with the blond, furious even. If it had been anyone else, Sasuke would have destroyed them, yet here he was feeling sorry for Naruto. He was the one that got hurt and he was feeling sorry for the one that had hurt him.

Damnit, this was frustrating. This was so hard and he felt like a wreck, and over what? A moment Naruto didn't even remember, maybe didn't even have control over? But that was bad in itself. If Naruto can't control himself then he can't be left to wander on his own. He'd be too dangerous. And Sasuke would be alone again.

And what was bugging him the most? It wasn't even that Naruto had cheated, or the fact that he had told Sasuke. Naruto had told him he had done that and had said beforehand that he didn't remember it at first. He had been honest and Sasuke couldn't help but be grateful for that. Naruto did always say he didn't lie. Sasuke had spent the entirety of last night contemplating what could have triggered Naruto's memory and guess what screaming conclusion he pulled and hurt the most?

Naruto had remembered it during his first time, their first time. That, that was what was hurting the most. The fact that their moment was tainted by Naruto remembering that at that moment. He felt so utterly betrayed because of that.

He needed to hit something. And be alone for a while.

But he wasn't just going to go outside like this. He needed to put himself together. He was going to clean himself up, put on some clean clothing, make sure most traces of his distress would go unseen, and avoid everyone to the best of his abilities. In other words, he was going to be the best put together mess Konoha hopefully wasn't going to see.

He took a deep breath and opened the door. Naruto still sat on the floor and he looked up at him. The moment their eyes met, Sasuke saw the flash of guilt and hurt on Naruto's face. Sasuke bit down on his teeth and swallowed, turned his back to Naruto, and started to walk towards the front door.

"Sasuke, wait!" Naruto called after him, but Sasuke didn't stop. He didn't even look back. Tears were stinging his eyes again, and he hadn't thought just seeing Naruto would mess him up like this again. Yeah, put together...

He heard Naruto stand up and run after him. Naruto grabbed his hand and stopped him from walking on. He tugged his hand lightly to get Sasuke to turn around. The moment their eyes clashed again, they both froze in place. Both had hurt in them, though one was of regret and the other of betrayal and they were both stunned by the others visible hurt. The moment conveyed everything and nothing at the same time. It was a silent beg and a silent plea. The moment lasted only a second, but it was enough for Naruto to let go and drop his hand and for Sasuke to bite down on his teeth again.

"I'm leaving..." Sasuke said and swallowed down the lump in his throat. He meant to add 'I'll be back before nightfall' but he choked on his words. If he had spoken more, his voice would have come out broken and he didn't want to admit he was near tears. Not even to Naruto.

"W-what?" Naruto said. "Why?" Sasuke wasn't letting him close, he was avoiding Naruto. He didn't want Sasuke to leave him. There was no way he was going to be able to handle that. His regret and guilt were all to quickly muddled by panic and dread. He felt his breathing speed up and his mind getting swamped with the repeating thought. No, not again, don't leave me. I can't... His vision blurred when tears filled his eyes. It was hard to process the world right now.

"Just leave me alone..." Again Sasuke choked on his words. He took a moment to collect himself so he could finish his sentence, add 'for today' or something like that to it, but a deep, throaty sound cut him off before he could speak. It was almost inhuman, a growl of some sort, and Sasuke snapped back around to look at Naruto, a little startled.

Naruto was staring at him fiercely. His eyes were wide and filled with tears and his pupils were dilated. More than ever did the pupils look like black holes eating the universe around them. They were dangerous and deep, and so easy to get lost in for Sasuke, but his eyes were framed by a face set in a scowl. "No!" Naruto growled out. "You can't leave me." He said, sounding slightly hysterical. His voice was a little high pitched and uncontrolled.

"Calm down, I'm..." Sasuke started but was interrupted by Naruto suddenly rising to his feet and storming towards him. Naruto had enough speed to bash Sasuke against the wall, hard enough to knock the air out of Sasuke's lungs and leaving his dizzy for a second when his head collided with the wall. Naruto's fists twisted into Sasuke's shirt and he looked up at Sasuke, the tears finding their way down his face.

"You can't... You can't leave me. Please don't... d-do that to me." He begged. Sasuke looked down on him. The push reminded Sasuke of the fact that Naruto was a lot stronger than him, but right now Naruto was looking small, fragile, and panicked. But that didn't change how Sasuke was feeling right now and it didn't change that he wanted to be alone for a while.

Sasuke took a deep breath and grabbed hold of Naruto's hands. "I'm not leaving you. I just need to be alone." Sasuke was surprised he managed to say this as calm as he did, but it didn't seem to soothe any of the panic in Naruto's eyes.

Sasuke pried Naruto's hands off of him. "Listen to me, Naruto, I will be back. I just need some time, alright?" He let go of Naruto's hands and again set out towards the front door. For the sake of himself, he didn't look back at Naruto. He wasn't going to be able to walk away if he saw a deeply upset Naruto, but he truly needed some time. Was it bad of him to need that? To walk away? He didn't think so. It would be worse to keep being frustrated and upset and not work through how he felt.

He didn't make it three steps out the door, however, before something hit him hard in his back, sending his face-first to the ground. He felt knees press against his lower back and hands grabbing onto his shoulder. "You don't leave. You're mine. My mate. You need to stay with me." Naruto muttered, sounding a little unhinged.

Sasuke turned around as well as he could and looked at Naruto. "Naruto, get off of me! What are you doing?" He raised his voice, trying to get Naruto to listen to him, but Naruto seemed unable to focus on anything he said. Naruto just dug his fingers more into his shoulders, enough to make Sasuke wince in pain a little. It was enough to pull Sasuke out of his moment of stupor.

He twisted and struggled to get out of Naruto's hold, but Naruto was determined to keep Sasuke in place. They struggled for a bit, Sasuke failing to get the upper hand at any moment until he managed to get his leg pulled up and kick Naruto off of him.

Sasuke staggered to his feet just in time to see Naruto get up as well. He was looking angry and hurt and was still muttered something. Sasuke was too far away to hear it, but Naruto was definitely talking. His eyes were different. Wild and unfocussed. It reminded Sasuke of the few moments he had seen the 'Kurama-part of him' at the forefront, but this was more wild and unhinged, leaving Sasuke to believe that Naruto was running on instinct once again.

Sasuke didn't get a chance to think about it, though, as Naruto was moving towards him again. The move was aggressive and Sasuke prepared to defend himself, blocking the first hit thrown at him.

"You can't leave me!" Naruto yelled again, twisting around to try and land another hit. Sasuke blocked it again, staggering back.

"I'm not leaving you, Naruto!" Sasuke yelled back, adding Naruto's name on purpose in the hoped that it would help reach Naruto, but Naruto just growled at him. "Do you hear me, Naruto? You need to snap out of it!" For the first time in a very long time, Sasuke was actually kind of grateful that he lived in a pretty much abandoned part of the village. The ruckus they were causing right now was sure to have attracted a lot of attention and a lot of trouble with that.

Naruto shook his head. He was trying to clear his mind, but each time he thought it was clearing a little, the back of his mind pushed back and muddled it all over again. He felt like he was fighting a losing battle against himself, again, and he had no answers now that Sasuke was the one to turn on him. He couldn't handle it. The mere thought was enough to panic him completely to the point his vision was red. His mind was shorting out and he felt like he was spiraling out of control. He needed Sasuke to hold on to. Why was Sasuke not there to hold on to? Why was Sasuke abandoning him? He didn't want to be alone. He can't be alone.

Naruto lashed out again. It was uncontrolled and something was holding him back, so Sasuke was again able to block him, guiding his strike sideways so he strumbled a few steps before regaining his balance. He turned around and went for a kick this time. Since he was behind Sasuke, the kick landed hard and sent Sasuke through a nearby fence.

Sasuke got up, his clothes were a bit torn and he was a few bruises richer, but otherwise unharmed. He needed to find a way to get through to Naruto because there was no way the violently flaring chakra from both of them wasn't going to gain attention soon.

He looked at Naruto again, noticing the slight sway as he stood there and the was he was holding on to his Hitai-ate as a clear sign of distress. His eyes were searching around like he lost sight and was looking for something, probably Sasuke. There was pure stress written all over Naruto. Sasuke couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy at the sight and he kind of knew what he had to do after seeing Naruto like that. He swallowed. This was going to hurt. Probably a lot. Ah, well, here's hoping this was going to work.

Sasuke took a deep breath. "Naruto!" He called out and watched as the galaxy eyes searched around before they turned their attention back to Sasuke. "I'm right here. Come on then!" It took a second for Naruto to process Sasuke's words and the fact that Sasuke was taking on a fighting stance and that he had activated his Sharingan. Sasuke... Sasuke was fighting him? Did Sasuke really want to leave him badly enough to fight him for it? His breathing shuttered at the thought.

With a growl, he set off at Sasuke again, aiming to hit hard and often. Sasuke caught his first few hits but winced in pain from the impact, but unlike before, Sasuke took a few tries at hitting back. He didn't actually land a single blow and he wasn't truly trying either. That was not his intent.

Naruto was sloppy, wasn't dominating the fight as he had done in training time and time again. This allowed Sasuke to maneuver a little better to get where he wanted to be.

When Naruto jumped back again, Sasuke took his chance. "Naruto, come on, come here." He said, a lot calmer now, but still in a defensive stance. With another growl, Naruto ran at him, but at the very last second, just before Sasuke should have blocked, Sasuke stood down.

The move surprised Naruto, but he wasn't able to stop himself. His first connected with Sasuke's stomach full force, making Sasuke double over but as he did so, he wrapped his arms around Naruto and holding on to him as he struggled for breath. "Calm down, love, I'm not leaving you. I'm right here." He said as soon as he had his breathing back under control.

Naruto struggled in his arms but did so feebly. He heard Naruto let out a whimper. "I-I can't lose you... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..." Naruto whispered, grabbing on to Sasuke and seemingly giving up his resistance, crumbling into submission easily now that Sasuke was holding him.

"I've got you," Sasuke said, kissing the side of Naruto's head. Naruto whimpered again and leaned into the hug.

They took a while to both calm down. Sasuke still needed to be alone for a while, but he wasn't going to leave Naruto if it made him this upset. But Sasuke had to accept it. Naruto was utterly unstable and dangerous and probably needed... something. Sasuke had no idea what, though, other than that he seemed to have some sort of power over the blond that had nothing to do with physical strength.

"Can you tell me what happened just now?" Sasuke asked, keeping his voice near a whisper.

"I lost it." The short answer was almost enough for Sasuke to roll his eyes.

"Yeah, I figured that part out. I'm asking why." Sasuke said in the same tone, backing up a little so he could look into Naruto's eyes.

"You said you were leaving. You can't leave me. Please don't go away..." Naruto said in a small voice, clinging to Sasuke a little desperately.

"I didn't mean breaking up with you, love. I just need time to think, that's all. And I wanted to do that alone. I'm still going to do that, alone. But I will come back to you. I will always come back to you, you hear me?" Sasuke said, cupping Naruto's cheek and wiping away the stray tear.

Naruto nodded, blinked a few times, and suddenly seemed gripped by a whole new layer of panic. "Oh my Kami, I hurt you! I attacked you! I'm so sorry. Are you alright? Did I hurt you? Please say you're alright!" He exclaimed, stepping back to be able to look Sasuke over.

"I'm pretty sore, actually, but don't worry, love, just some bruising. But we do need to get better control over this. They won't let you be free if they know you can lose control over yourself this easily." Sasuke managed to smile at Naruto, though it might have been a sad one. "We're going to Hokage-sama tomorrow, together."

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