I wanna protect you:NaruSasu23

Chapter 23: Too horrifying to call it all a joke

Sasuke woke up to see Naruto gone,
Panic rushed down his body and his fingers started to feel numb.
From where Sasuke sat up, he looked around the room, hoping to find something blond.

"..Naruto?" he called aimlessly which seemed to stick in the air.
Silence answered.
Sasuke jumped out of the bed and started searching everywhere.
When he finally was convinced that Naruto wasn't home, Sasuke dashed out of the front door, only to crash into someone.
Sasuke opened his eyes after the collision and realized that he was on top of somebody.
And that somebody was Naruto.
Gladly, the two boys colliding to the ground wasn't hard since the ground had a layer of snow covering every inch of the outside world.

"Naruto!" Sasuke cried and hugged him on the ground, "where were you? And why are you wearing only a t-shirt? You should be freezing to death by now!!"
When Sasuke let go, Naruto sat up and held out a little bunch of Neofinetia falcata (winter flowers) to Sasuke.

"You were picking these...for me?" Sasuke asked, touched. Naruto nodded a reply with a warm smile. Sasuke started to cry but Naruto doesn't know what to do until Sasuke takes his flowers and hug Naruto. Naruto found that Sasuke appreciated the flowers and smiled.
Naruto didn't know how long they were like that, but slowly he drifted off to sleep. When Sasuke pulled off and said thanks, Naruto had his eyes closed and was dozing off into a dreamless sleep. Sasuke chuckled quietly, and then carried the feather-light body of Naruto's back into the house.
From the lack of food/energy, Naruto was sleepy most of the time.
Sasuke sat on the bed where Naruto was sleeping in and looked out the window blankly as he recalled his dream.


<Flashback/Sasuke's dream>

In the darkness, Sasuke spotted Naruto who was facing his back towards Sasuke in the distance.

"Naruto!" Sasuke called.
Naruto turned and smiled. The smile Sasuke longed to see. The flashing blue eyes that was full of life, staring back at Sasuke.
Sasuke smiled and walked over towards Naruto, but Naruto's eyes suddenly flashed red and Sasuke automatically froze on spot.

"LIAR! You're afraid of me! You betrayed me! You broke your promise!" Naruto suddenly shouted.
Before Sasuke was able to say anything, he felt himself falling into a dark, endless pit.
He didn't know what happened, but Sasuke had been unconscious and was lying down. He opened his eyes, and looked up where he felt a presence of someone.
It was Naruto, crouching down alone.

"...Naruto?" Sasuke hesitantly called.
Naruto looked up at Sasuke and smiled.
His eyes were blank.
Blank.
No emotion held in those clouded blue eyes.

'Sa-su-ke,' he mouthed.

"You did this to him," a voice said.
Sasuke turned to see himself standing beside him.

"No voice, no emotion. It's all because of you. You broke him down completely in to pieces," the other Sasuke told Sasuke, who was staring wide eyed from realization and looked at his hands which were bloody.
When he looked back up, Naruto was standing in front of Sasuke, as good as dead with a blood splattered body but with bright blue eyes staring blankly to the side.
When Sasuke's eyes focused on Naruto's chest, Naruto had a hole where his heart should be. That was when he felt something warm in his hand. Once again, Sasuke looked down at his hand.
And in his hand... was Naruto's heart.