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Sai can’t get that Kumo shinobi’s face out of his mind. She was consumed with fascinating levels of hate, and all of it was directed purely at Sasuke. Not even Sasuke himself, just the idea of him, one single act of his that hurt someone she loved. Why would Naruto take that on?
“Sai.” Naruto snaps. “Come on.” Sai realizes he’s stalled a bit, so he picks up the pace. Naruto is angry at him. He knows why, but he doesn’t understand it. Seeing Naruto struggling to stand, face dripping blood, and still clinging to Sasuke, had pushed something inside of him to the edge. It made him angry. Surely Naruto understands not wanting a comrade to be hurt?
Well, Sai supposes, if Naruto was completely rational, he wouldn’t be Naruto.
He’s still on edge now, dragging Naruto back to the village. The other shinobi is capable of moving his legs, but he has to lean on Sai to keep his balance, and his breath is coming out raggedly. That makes Sai...is angry still the word?
He tightens his grip on the back of Naruto’s jacket, hoping they don’t run into the Kumo shinobi again when they reach the village.
When they reach the village, Sai guides Naruto into the tent he’s been staying in. He has to share with a few other Anbu, but they’re clearing rubble today.
“Stay here.” he tells Naruto, lowering him onto his sleeping mat.
“I need to talk to Kakashi-sensei.” Naruto says, pushing up. Sai plants his hand on Naruto’s chest, keeping him in place.
“I’ll get him.” he says. “After you’re properly treated.”
“Don’t bring Sakura into this.” Naruto says sharply. Sai feels his jaw tense.
“Fine.” he stands up. “I’ll go get a medical kit.”
He exits the tent. Medical supplies are being stored in the northeast, so he heads there.
He turns a corner and sees Kakashi, conversing with a few other jounin. He looks exhausted, but then, he usually does. Sai pulls him aside and explains the situation, unsure how long it’ll take him to find the other shinobi again if he goes back to the tent now.
After he gets the kit, Kakashi follows him back to the tent. Upon seeing Naruto, he sighs, rubbing his temple.
“Good grief.” he says. “Can’t stay out of trouble, can you, Naruto.”
“You know me, Kakashi-sensei.” Naruto smiles. It looks more like a grimace, considering his battered face. Kakashi sighs again.
“I’m guessing you don’t want me in here so you can apologize for your behavior.”
“It’s about Sasuke,” Naruto begins. Kakashi closes his eye.
“I figured.”
“Kakashi-sensei-”
Kakashi holds up his hand. “Give me a moment. I don’t want to bear the burden of responsibility alone, and you need to recover before you work yourself up again.”
Naruto frowns, clenching his fists. “Kakashi-”
“I’m serious.” Kakashi says sternly. “Get bandaged up. I’m going to get Yamato. Then we can talk.”
Sai watches him walk out of the tent silently, then turns back to look at Naruto. The other shinobi scowls at the closing tent flaps. When his attention shifts back to Sai, his eyes flicker down and away almost immediately.
“Come on then, ya know.” he says. According to books, this means he feels embarrassed, or awkward, or annoyed. Sai doesn’t remember what he’s supposed to do when other people feel like that, so he sits down next to Naruto and opens up the medical kit.
He pulls out bandages, saline solution, and gauze, then sets them aside and reaches for Naruto, who is sitting up, hunched over slightly.
He grabs the zipper of his jacket and pulls down, getting half way before Naruto lurches back.
“Hey! What are you-ow!” Naruto winces and grabs at his side, almost falling over. Through gritted teeth, he yells “What are you doing, ya know?”
“Helping you.” Sai says. He assumed it was evident.
“I can get my own jacket off!” Naruto says, struggling out of his sleeves. He can, obviously, but Sai doesn’t know if it would be very good for his injuries. Since Naruto’s clearly very set on this, Sai lets it be.
“Sorry.” he says unapologetically. It seems appropriate. Naruto mutters something under his breath and shoves his jacket away.
Sai examines Naruto torso. His arms have a lot of cuts that he’ll need to bandage, and at least one shoulder is sprained. Naruto had grabbed his side, and Sai can see a lot of bruises blooming over his right ribs, so he puts his hand there, feeling the bone.
“Hey!” Naruto yelps, trying to pull back again. Sai moves his other hand to his injured shoulder, keeping him in place easily. “Ow!”
“I’m trying to help.” Sai says, looking sternly into Naruto’s inadvertently watering eyes. Naruto looks back. After a breath, Sai lets go of his shoulder, acknowledging that his grip got subconsciously tighter at some point, and goes back to observing his torso.
“What’s wrong with you, ya know.” Naruto huffs, rubbing his injured shoulder. Sai doesn’t blame him. It’s definitely even more tender than before. He put a lot of pressure on it. He pulls his hand off of Naruto’s torso, too. His ribs are definitely bruised, if not cracked.
“Are you angry at me?” he says, splashing the saline solution on a piece of gauze.
“Of course!” Naruto says. “You didn’t need to butt in like that. I had it under control.”
“She could’ve killed you.” Sai points out. “If it went on much longer.”
“She wouldn’t have.” Naruto says. “You just don’t understand this, okay Sai?”
Sai swipes the gauze roughly across Naruto’s collar, making him wince again.
“Of course I don’t.” he says simply. “Your behavior doesn’t make any sense.” He doesn't have any ice, so he unpeels the end of a roll of bandages and sticks it on Naruto’s abdomen, pulling it diagonally up to his shoulder. “Even by letting her take out her hatred on you, there’s no guarantee that she wouldn’t still want to pursue Sasuke. Revenge, to my understanding, is a very personalized experience. If you could replace the person you hate with a punching bag, why wouldn’t everyone?”
“Not everything is like in a book, Sai!” Naruto growls, pushing him away. Sai watches the roll of bandages fall out of his hand into Naruto’s lap, then the bedroll. He looks at Naruto’s face, only to find him looking more determined than angry. “I want to protect Sasuke, any way I can!”
“So why are you mad at me for protecting you?” Sai asks, louder and more intense than he intended. Naruto falls silent, face stalling. He must have realized the flaw in his logic. Sai continues tamely, a little shocked with himself. “I’m sure Sasuke doesn’t want you to interfere anymore than you want me to. But you still do. Can’t you understand why I stopped her?”
When Naruto still doesn’t respond, Sai leans over and picks up the bandages again. He pulls them around Naruto’s torso, and stops when he reaches his shoulder. Using his free hand, he adjusts the joint. Naruto’s huff of pain is the only sound he makes, and it surges through Sai’s ears. He finishes wrapping up Naruto’s arm, and is back to wetting gauze strips by the time Naruto speaks again.
“Can you look at me?” he says roughly. “It’s kind of hard to have a conversation with you wrapping me up, ya know.”
Sai looks up at his face. The swelling is already starting to go down.
“Your swelling is going down.” he says. Naruto exhales a laugh. They are quiet for a few more moments. Sai decides to start on Naruto’s face, to stay productive and acknowledge the other shinobi’s request.
“A while ago,” he says, wiping at a cut above Naruto’s eye, “you told me you would do anything it takes to bring Sasuke back. I don’t remember the quote exactly,” he holds Naruto’s chin to tilt his head down, getting a better look at the bruise associated with the cut, “because it was very long. But I’ve been trying very hard to understand the sentiment behind it.”
He lets go of Naruto’s face, reaching for the bandages again. “Please try to understand,” he says, and pushes one end of the bandage to his cheek, near his ear, “I may get it wrong sometimes.”
“You…” Naruto starts. Sai patiently waits for him to finish. “I mean, you don’t need to try and copy what-how I feel about Sasuke, ya know.” he pushes his hair back agitatedly, disrupting Sai’s attempt to angle the bandages just over his eye, which is swelled shut anyway. He gives up and wraps his eye up too. “Just-just find out what you feel.”
“That’s not the point.” Sai sighs. “You’re supposed to reexamine the logical reason you’re mad at me.”
“That’s not how-!”
“Are you still mad?” Sai says, starting a new loop of bandages around Naruto’s forehead. He makes sure to push Naruto’s bangs back so they don’t snag. Naruto looks much more endearing with his bangs, anyway. He should pull them in front of his headband more. Pushing his bangs back angles his entire face up. Every cut and bruise fills Sai’s vision. His lips tighten, and he notices Naruto staring at his mouth.
“I-whatever.” Naruto huffs, ducking his head, which messes up Sai’s work. He averts his eyes again. “Probably.”
“Your cheeks are red.” Sai tells him. Naruto’s entire face immediately gets even redder and he hunches his shoulders up.
“Shut up, man! They’re not!” he practically yells. Sai can’t help it; he smiles. Seeing Naruto’s face scrunched up in embarrassment, his blush blotting out some of his bruises, it lifts a weight off of Sai’s shoulders. Naruto looks up at his expression and gets more flustered. “Stop!” he squawks. “It’s not funny!”
Sai starts laughing, just a little, despite himself.
“I’m definitely mad at you now!” Naruto exclaims. Sai laughs harder, bringing a hand away from Naruto’s face to cover his mouth. “Cut it out!”
Sai thinks about a book he read where the protagonist teased his love interest about being flustered. “Is cute the right word for you right now, Naruto?” Sai teases. Naruto covers his face with his hands.
“No!” he says.
“Alright.” Sai says, deciding to leave the rest of Naruto’s face for later. “I’ll think of a different word.”
“You’re so weird, ya know.” Naruto groans into his hands. Sai sees a smile in between his fingers, which loosens him up even more. He doesn’t like the tense, coiled feeling he’s been left with from earlier. Despite more than likely being the cause of those feelings, Naruto is still able to make Sai feel better. Not any less confused, though.
Sai’s own smile softens, which probably makes it look more reflective or fond. Whatever the case, he reaches back down to feel Naruto’s bruised rib, wondering if it really needs to be wrapped.
As soon as he touches his skin, Naruto shrieks and recoils. Sai looks blankly at him.
“Is it really that sensitive?” he says. His brows furrow. “I thought they were just bruised.”
“I’m fine, ya know.” Naruto mutters, scratching his nose sheepishly. “Your hands are just really cold.”
“Oh.” Sai looks at his hands. “Sorry.”
“Since when are you a medic, anyway?” Naruto says as Sai makes up his mind and reaches for the bandages again. “Sakura’s gonna be pissed with you replacing her.”
“I’m not a medic.” Sai says. “I just go on a lot of solo missions for Root. Even in a squad, it’s not customary to do this sort of thing for each other.” he gestures between him and Naruto. “You have to know how to take care of yourself.”
He starts the first loop of bandages around Naruto’s torso, fairly high up. He is aware of the way he has to wrap his arms around Naruto, following the bandages. “Maybe you should learn some first aid, too. Then you won’t drag down Sakura and I during missions.”
“I don’t drag anyone down!” Naruto protests. “I heal really fast anyway, ya know.”
“I noticed.” Sai finishes, taping up the bandages just over Naruto’s belly button. He notices the swirling seal on his stomach. He’s seen it before, of course, but it’s interesting to look at. Just inside of that seal, Sai thinks, is an animal with more hatred than the Kumo shinobi, Sasuke, or anyone else he can think of. He remembers when Naruto had been overtaken by it. It’s astounding, he supposes, that even with that, he manages to be...well, Naruto. If Sai was in the same situation, would he be able to handle it?
“Sai?” Naruto says cagily. Sai looks back up at his face.
“Yes?”
“You good?”
“Most likely.” Sai says. He pushes his palm against Naruto’s bruised ribs. “How badly does this hurt?”
“Ow.” Naruto answers, wincing again. He’s not as melodramatic, although Sai thinks he prefers the melodramatics to earlier, before Sai had stopped the Kumo shinobi, when Naruto had just laid there and taken it, almost completely silent. Sai doesn’t know why he can’t stop thinking about Naruto right now, besides the fact that he’s right in front of him. He turns his attention back to Naruto’s face-Naruto’s injuries on his face.
His nose is bleeding, and he has a cut lip leaking blood all over his chin. The only thing Sai thinks he will have to bandage is his left cheek, which still looks nasty, even if it’s barely swollen anymore. He can’t do anything about the black eye above it, either. Maybe he should have gotten ice.
“I should have gotten ice.” Sai tells Naruto. He read in a book once that it’s good to keep people informed when giving them medical assistance.
“Aren’t you done yet?” Naruto complains. “My face is fine, ya know!”
“I know more about this than you.” Sai says. “It’s very juvenile to complain about this sort of thing.”
“You’re a crappy medic.” Naruto grumbles as Sai pulls out more gauze. “Weren’t there any pretty girls out there you could find to nurse me back to health?”
“I’ve read about that sort of thing.” Sai says. “Where shinobi fall in love with caring civilian girls after a battle. It doesn’t seem very realistic, though. What could be romantic about getting hurt?”
“What kind of books are you reading?” Naruto grimaces. “Never mind. You just don’t get romance, ya know.” he assumes the air he always does when he’s about to explain something to Sai that Sakura will do her best to dispute when he brings it up. “It’s not about getting hurt, it’s about getting cared for. Plus,” he wiggles his eyebrows, “there’s a lot of skin to skin contact, ya know?”
“Hm.” Sai tilts Naruto’s face back towards him, wiping at the gross, crusting blood at the side of his mouth. “I still don’t see it.”
Naruto flushes and looks down as Sai reaches for a fresh gauze pad. “Well, you wouldn’t.” he mutters. Sai smiles and pushes Naruto’s face up again. He wipes off his cheek and layers the gauze over it, then, holding it in place with one hand, peels up a piece of tape and rips it off with his teeth.
“Ew.” Naruto whispers as Sai uses the tape to secure the gauze, sounding very underwhelmed. Sai raises an eyebrow and repeats the process.
“Now I just have to do your other arm.” Sai informs him, smoothing the ends of the tape onto Naruto’s skin. He glances at Naruto’s eyes, only to see them trained on his mouth again. He touches the end of his mouth, wondering if he has something on his face.
“Something wrong?” he says. Naruto rips his eyes away.
“Agh!” he says loudly, turning red. “No, nothing, ya know!” Sai wipes his mouth with his thumb just to be sure, and smiles. Naruto slaps at his arm. “Stop! You’re smiling way too much today! It’s weird!” Sai catches Naruto’s next playful punch, and leans forward. Naruto freezes, looking very intimidated.
“I think you might be the weird one.” Sai points out. “You were staring at my mouth.”
“I-!” Naruto squeaks.
“Ahem.” someone clears their throat behind him. Sai turns around and sees Yamato and Kakashi standing in the tent’s entrance.
“Sorry to interrupt, boys.” Kakashi says. His exposed eye looks thoroughly amused. Sai drops Naruto’s hand and inclines his head, letting his smile fall from his face. It’s hard when he hears Naruto almost fall over next to him.
“You didn’t interrupt anything!” he yelps. Kakashi chuckles and Naruto shakes his fist. “Knock it off with that face! It isn’t like that!”
“I’m not saying anything.” Kakashi says. “I’m just observing. Next time, we’ll knock, right Tenzo?”
“Kakashi,” Yamato sighs as Naruto splutters some more. “Don’t get him worked up. Look at him.”
“He looked much worse earlier.” Sai says. “He heals very fast.”
“I looked fine earlier!” Naruto protests. “Who’s side are you on, anyway?”
“I wasn’t aware there were sides.” Sai says. Kakashi waves his hand.
“Alright, alright.” he leans against a crate. Sai can’t remember which of his impromptu roommates it belongs to, if any. “Sai, just finish fixing him up.” Sai obliges, reaching for Naruto’s other arm.
“Thanks, Sai.” Naruto says when he finishes. Sai nods, feeling lighter at the other shinobi’s smile even as that tension starts to return at the severity in the air.
Yamato crosses his arms. “I understand you wanted to talk to us about Sasuke?”
Sai can actually see the way Naruto changes, just at Sasuke’s name. His fists tighten, his face hardens in determination. Sai looks over at Yamato and Kakashi, wondering if they saw it too. From the complicated look they exchange, Sai guesses that they did.
After that, it’s all business. The tension Sai feels spikes every time he hears Sasuke’s name. He is angry, he decides. But not at Naruto, or the Kumo shinobi. When he walks back through the remnants of Konoha afterwards, trying to find an obscure spot to report to Danzo, without Naruto there to distract him, it all makes sense to him.
He doesn’t know why Naruto thought getting hurt could protect Sasuke from the Kumo shinobi’s hate. But he does know why he would do it, if that's what he thought. He understands almost perfectly.
So, he decides, he also understands the Kumo shinobi. He is very mad at Sasuke.