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It had been a good week.
Naruto leaned back in his chair, giving the completed report a final once-over. His first year as Hokage had been a resounding success, all things considered, and for once he was actually on top of the ever-growing workload. There was only one thing that could make Naruto’s day better than it already was.
A quiet knock interrupted the peace. Speak of the devil.
“Sasuke,” Naruto beamed as the door opened to reveal his best friend in the entire galaxy, “I didn’t think you’d be back so early! Here to congratulate me on the job well done, or do you want a rematch? Honestly, I think you’d be better suited to this kind of strat—"
“Naruto,” Sasuke’s frown hadn’t dropped from his face, “where are you hurt?”
“What?”
Naruto blinked and Sasuke was beside him. He caught the fist swinging towards his face easily, confusion blooming in his chest.
"What the fuck are you do—"
“Your chakra’s off,” Sasuke cut him off again, frown deepening, “your reactions are slower. And you’re warm.”
Before Naruto could push him away, the hand that he had just caught was pressed against his forehead. He leaned into the warmth without thinking.
“How long have you been running a fever?”
“What? I’m not— I don’t get sick, you know that, Sasuke.”
Sasuke gave him a dry once-over. “You’re shivering.”
“It’s cold in here! That doesn’t mean I have a fever. Kurama would—" he cut himself off with a frown of his own. Come to think of it, he hadn’t heard from Kurama in a minute, had he? He had thought it was just the newfound lack of life-or-death situations, but maybe…
“Naruto?”
He waved Sasuke off, who finally pulled his hand away. “Give me a minute.”
Naruto shut his eyes, focusing, and reached.
He was met with a horrifying, searing explosion in the recesses of his mind.
“—n’t know, I think he’s been sick. I’m… bring him to Sakura.”
Sasuke’s voice. Was he talking to someone? And— huh, that was weird. Why was he on the floor?
“Naruto. You back with us?”
Naruto knew that voice too. His brain shuffled through several incomprehensible sounds before finally identifying Shikamaru. Why would Sasuke be talking to Shikamaru? And—
Right, he should probably answer.
“Mmfine.”
“Say that again when you’re not passed out on the floor, idiot.”
Sasuke hadn’t sounded this angry with him in a long time. He wondered what he had done this time.
Whatever. He was too tired to try and worry about it.
“Naruto. Stay awake.”
Naruto tried to listen to Sasuke, he really did, but the world was shifting and melting behind his eyelids, and everything felt very, very warm.
Somebody sighed, and then the world was moving for real. An arm wrapped around his torso, hoisting him upwards.
Naruto wondered if he was dying. Either way, it was kind of nice to be held.
“What happened?”
Sakura’s voice this time. Naruto was kind of killing it at this awake and alertness shit.
Immediately though, he wished he wasn’t. He was dangling lopsidedly over something, his leg and arm clutched together, and the nausea from not being fully upright made his head spin.
“His chakra’s weird and he has a fever— I pressed him about it and he passed out. Shikamaru is looking over the office to make sure there isn’t anything we missed.”
“Set him over there.” Naruto’s world shifted again, timespace stretching and collapsing strangely until his cheek was pressed up against a papery surface. “Naruto doesn’t get fevers.”
“He mentioned that a couple times. The dumbass keeps insisting that he’s fine.”
If he could’ve, Naruto would’ve rolled his eyes. He was fine, or he would be. This was just a minor setback— he had work to do. Any second now, Kurama would respond to his outstretched hand and help him back to his feet.
Kurama. The thought sent another shot of agony up his spine. He didn’t understand what could possibly be keeping them separated like this.
“Oh, Naruto. What did you get yourself into?” The familiar feeling of Sakura’s healing jutsu washed over him. “I’ll see what I can do.”
For a minute, Naruto almost relaxed. Except— Sakura’s jutsu didn’t usually start to burn like that. He felt Sakura pull her hand away, but the burning remained.
“Shit,” Sakura breathed, fear evident in her voice. “Sasuke, I need you to go get Lady Tsunade. As fast as you can.”
Naruto let the flames envelop him to the near-silent soundtrack of Sasuke’s running footsteps.
The warmth was suffocating.
Naruto couldn’t move, the heat and the darkness and the weight in his limbs all conspiring against him to keep him trapped.
To keep him alone.
He had hardly ever been alone like this. Even when he was little, there was always someone just out of his reach. Something burning in the pit of his stomach, angry and spiteful.
Kurama. Why couldn’t he reach Kurama?
Pain seared through him like a brand, like a curse.
And then he was cold again.
He couldn’t make sense of where he was. Cold and pain and sorrow— was he in the snow again, begging the Raikage not to take Sasuke from him?
No, that wasn’t quite right. He was on his back, not his hands and knees.
Still, he felt like he was begging for something. He was being left again, he could feel it.
He didn’t want to be alone.
A gentle hand wiped at his face, calloused fingers swiping the tears away from his cheeks.
A goal. Someone to reach.
And Naruto never walked away from a goal, did he?
The waves of pain took him under again.
He came back up.
“Naruto stop that. Lay back down.”
Someone pushed him gently back down to where he had been lying.
He wrinkled his nose. Stupid Sasuke, thinking he was the boss of—
Wait.
He forced his eyelids open, ignoring the irritating stickiness that seemed to try and keep them stuck.
“Oh, hey. Are you awake for real this time?”
Naruto stared at Sasuke, brow furrowing as much as his tired muscles would allow. This time?
Sasuke’s hand moved to Naruto’s forehead, surprisingly gentle.
“Your fever is lower,” he muttered, almost like he was speaking to himself, “maybe I should get Saku—“
“Sasuke,” Naruto cut him off, wincing at the roughness in his throat, “what happened?”
Because something had to have happened. For starters, Sasuke was still here, in Konoha, yes, but also here as in, well, Naruto’s bedside.
He was also just acting strange as hell. Naruto had never seen him handle anything with such infuriating gentleness.
“You don’t remember?” It was more a statement than a question. There was a tinge of something in Sasuke’s voice, disappointment or judgement or, worse, worry.
Naruto rolled his eyes. “That’s not what I meant.”
“How the hell am I supposed to know what you meant?”
Naruto shrugged, letting his eyes close again. Something about the light was making him too aware of the way his heartbeat pulsed in his temples.
Sasuke’s hand moved to Naruto’s neck, two fingers pressed up against his pulse point. Naruto wanted to ask him what the hell he was doing now, but he was so fucking tired.
Instead, he inched his own hand up, wrapping his fingers around Sasuke’s wrist, and promptly fell back asleep.
“Oh hey man, it’s good to see you awake.”
Naruto blinked owlishly. Shikamaru was sitting next to him, fiddling with some wooden carved puzzle Temari had given him from the Sand.
Next to him, Sasuke was curled up in the other chair, head propped up by his knee tucked up against his chest at a strange and unusual angle. It was kind of endearing— of course Sasuke would find a way to sleep in the most uncomfortable position possible.
Shikamaru followed Naruto’s gaze.
“Don’t ask me, dude. He’s taking his position as your guard dog way too seriously.”
Naruto blinked again. Guard dog?
“Man, Sasuke wasn’t lying when he said you were out of it. That poison must have really done a number on you, huh?”
That was new information. “Poison?”
Shikamaru grimaced sympathetically at the sound of Naruto’s voice.
“Yeah. We’re still trying to work out the details. But so far all we know is it’s a modification of an old recipe, seems to be targeted to jinchuriki specifically.”
Naruto’s eyes widened at the same time as Shikamaru reached out, putting his hand on Naruto’s shoulder.
“Don’t. Kurama’s there, Sakura made sure that your chakra was still combined. But the poison spreads faster when you reach out for him.”
“So they were targeting me for being a jinchuriki?”
“We don’t know.” Shikamaru sighed. “We still don’t really have any clue who was behind it. Hence, guard dog.” He used his hand on Naruto’s shoulder to lean in conspiratorially. “Although, between you and me, I think Kakashi was worried Sasuke might actually commit another murder if he didn’t have a task to do. Especially if we figured out who did it while he was in earshot.”
Naruto frowned. “That’s stupid. Why would Sasuke do something like that?”
“Are you asking me why Sasuke would kill someone for hurting y— you know what? Nevermind. Forget I said anything.”
“O….kay?”
Naruto coughed and Shikamaru pulled back, worry evident on his face.
“You know, man, I can get you some ice chips or something. For your throat. If you don’t mind being left alone with old Fido over here.”
Naruto smiled at the jab, sleep already tugging at his eyelids. “Sure.”
Shikamaru got up to leave. Naruto watched Sasuke sleeping for another minute, a different kind of warmth lulling him back into peaceful quiet.
“Naruto.”
Someone was shaking him. He reached up annoyedly to push them off, but they caught his hand.
“C’mon, you’ve woken up twice now. I’ve gotta take your vitals.”
“I’m awake.”
Sakura sighed. “Naruto, come on. Up and at ‘em.”
She sounded tired. Naruto could empathize. He pried his eyes open anyways.
“There you are,” Sakura rewarded him with a bright, genuine smile. “You freaked everyone out, you know.”
Without even really thinking about it, Naruto scanned the room for Sasuke. The already solemn hospital room felt somehow gloomier without his presence.
“He’ll be back.”
“Huh?”
Sakura took readings while she talked, too focused to meet Naruto’s questioning eyes. “Sasuke. Shikamaru made him go shower and change so I could have the room to run tests. Besides, I’m plenty strong enough to be your guard dog for a minute.”
Naruto smiled. “That nickname has stuck, huh?”
“I think it’s funny— squeeze my hand— even if not entirely accurate. Other hand now— He usually acts more like a cat than a dog, doesn’t he? Although… lately— okay, good.”
She turned around, picking up a vial of some dark-colored liquid, and handed it to him. “Drink this.”
He grabbed it, neither of them mentioning the way Sakura had to help him sit up.
“Eugh, Sakura, that’s awful.”
“It’s medicine, Naruto. Grow up.” She smiled at him anyway. “You seem to be doing better than expected. If you keep your strength up, maybe you’ll be out of here in a couple weeks or so.”
He stared at her. Weeks? He’d already been here for— huh, how long had he been here?
“How long has it been?”
Sakura’s smile drooped slightly. “You were unconscious for— for a while.”
“How long?”
“It was bad, Naruto. It’s a miracle you’re awake now, even with my expertise and Lady Tsunade’s combined.”
“Sakura. How long?”
She sighed, looking away. “Almost a month. I told you, you scared everyone.”
Naruto shut his eyes, breathing in deeply through his nose. A month. He’d lost so much time.
“Kakashi-sensei is going to be so happy you’re awake. They were on the verge of forcing him to be Hokage again.”
When Naruto opened his eyes again, Sakura was perched on the chair beside him, filling him in about everything he’d missed while he’d been asleep. She showed no signs of moving from her post, even when the door creaked open and Sasuke slunk back in, eyes trained only on Naruto’s hospital bed.
Huh. Maybe Sasuke wasn’t the only one taking the guard dog thing too seriously.
Naruto smiled to himself, letting himself bask in Sakura’s voice and Sasuke’s focus. He had missed his team.
His friends trickled in slowly after that, Lee and Hinata and Konohamaru and Sai all stopping by to say hi, to see he was still breathing with their own two eyes.
Sasuke never left him, except for when Sakura or Shikamaru dragged him away to change his clothes or bathe himself.
They had a meeting in his hospital room about the poisoning, after about a week of Naruto being able to stay awake consistently.
Kakashi-sensei ruffled his hair on the way in, relief evident in his eyes.
“It’s good to see you awake.”
They still hadn’t figured out who had actually done the poisoning. They had leads— there were rumors of upset, dissatisfaction among a quiet subsection of ninja who were still loyal to Danzo and the elders’ outdated thinking. But they didn’t know who would’ve actually tried to kill Naruto to return to the status quo.
Sasuke suggested firing everyone who had ever interacted with Danzo and starting over. Sai suggested using Naruto as bait to lure the rat out of hiding.
Naruto wondered, not for the first time in his life, if they were going to kill each other. And then he wondered if he’d be able to stop it.
Kakashi obviously had the same thought, because he nonchalantly placed himself in between the two for the rest of the meeting.
Naruto largely tuned out after that as everyone talked in circles about the best way to flush out a traitor. He found himself too tired to think— too tired to care.
“You didn’t talk much”
Sasuke was once again the only one left in Naruto’s room, watching him intently with an unreadable expression.
“There wasn’t much to say.”
Sasuke hummed, not taking his eyes off of Naruto. There was something strange in the air between them, a tension that had been growing and smothering everything in the room.
“What?” Naruto’s tone was sharper than he meant it to be, dragging across his growing annoyance like a whetstone.
Now, Sasuke looked away. “Why don’t you care?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Someone tried to kill you, Naruto. And you’re just, what, going to roll over and take it? Why don’t you care?”
Naruto yawned, grazing his tongue over the point of his canine. “Lots of people have tried to kill me, Sasuke. I’m tired.”
Sasuke made a pained noise, scrubbing his hand over his face. “And you’ve never acted like this about it before. The Naruto I know wouldn’t just take this lying down.”
“Well maybe I’m not the Naruto you know.” The mutter slipped out of Naruto’s teeth before he could stop it.
Sasuke stared at him, wide-eyed.
“I got what we’ve been working towards, Sasuke. Our friends aren’t going to let one bad actor drag everything back to the way it was before. And it’s good to see that I’m not— that Konoha isn’t gonna fall apart the minute I’m not there, y’know?”
“I don’t care about Konoha.”
It was Naruto’s turn to stare. “What?”
“I trust you, and your peace, and your vision. But that’s not what— I thought you were going to die, and your stupid, idiot last words were going to be you saying you were fine.”
“I am fine though, aren’t I?” Naruto smiled at Sasuke, attempting an olive branch. “It’s alright, I knew you guys had me.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“What do you want from me, Sasuke?”
“I want you to get angry,” Sasuke’s eyes were alight with something Naruto had never seen before. It burned uncomfortably in his stomach. “Someone hurt you— you should care. I want you to stop letting everyone else make decisions for you and think about yourself for once in your goddamned life.”
“Fine. Then get out.”
“What?”
Naruto ignored the fear spreading through Sasuke’s expression. “I want a minute to think, Sasuke. I can’t do that when you’re hounding me like this.”
“Fine. I’ll get— I’ll be right outside.”
“Fine.”
And if Naruto regretted it the second Sasuke stepped out the door, leaving him with nothing but his thoughts and an empty hospital room, that was his business. He took a breath, shutting his eyes, and tried to collect his thoughts.
Naruto must have fallen asleep; he had no clue how much time had passed when the door creaked open again, waking him up.
“Sasuke, I told you—“
He jumped up, narrowly avoiding the kunai that lodged itself in the pillow his head had been on. That was not Sasuke.
His attacker was lithe, wearing an out-of-commission Anbu mask to hide her face. And she was persistent— she shot another attack at him as soon as his feet hit the ground, fire this time. He narrowly dodged the flames, adrenaline just winning out over the exhaustion plaguing his bones.
“Who are you?” He rasped, lunging for her. She dodged neatly, knocking one of the flower vases Ino had left him to the ground with a sparkling shatter.
The next kunai she threw hit, slicing along his left shoulder in a deep, wide gash. Naruto growled in frustration.
He was dead on his feet. He didn’t have time to try and achieve sage mode, he was more tired than he had been in years, and his movements were too slow to get him out of this with his chakra alone. Instinctively, he reached for Kurama.
“Naruto, you shouldn’t—"
“Kurama,” Naruto smiled, ignoring the pain rippling through his body as Kurama’s chakra enveloped him, lighting up the dark, small room, “it’s so good to hear you again, buddy.”
His attacker paused, cocking her head before lunging at him again. The heaviness seeping through his chest meant he had limited time in this form, but he already knew that. He had to get this right.
Kurama worked with him on instinct, wrapping a tail around the woman and slamming her into the wall with more force than Naruto would have liked, had he been in complete control of himself. She did not let up, picking herself up off the ground and throwing another fire attack his way. He dodged, the flames just lapping at his arm, and swung at her with a weakened, miniature rasengan. His palm hit another flower vase instead— substitution. He turned and she was behind him, swinging at his face.
Pain was eating at the edges of his vision, warmth making the room swim. He really couldn’t afford to let this go on any longer. Instinctively, he gathered chakra into his hand one more time and pushed it towards her with the last of his strength. Vaguely, he was aware of the sound of shattering glass and the feel of the cool night air seeping in through the window he’d just broken.
Kurama faded from his grasp. He breathed, in and out, and then dropped to the floor, the world going dark in one fluid motion.
“Naruto, I swear to all that is holy, if you die on me right now I will pull you out of the afterlife and kill your sorry ass myself.”
Sakura was mad at him. Why was Sakura mad at him?
Everything swirled and melted together. He couldn’t breathe.
“Naruto. Let go of me.”
Kurama. But why? Naruto didn’t want to be alone.
“You’re not. You won’t be, just let go for a second.”
He didn't know how to do that. The air was cold in his lungs. It hurt.
"Just hold on, Naruto.”
He didn’t know how to do that either.
There was too much noise and Naruto was tired. Couldn’t everyone just leave him alone and let him sleep?
“There you go, Naruto, easy does it.”
Naruto cracked his eyes open, searching for whatever was interrupting his peace. Multiple faces swam in his vision.
“Naruto! It is good to see you are not dead!”
“Quieter, Lee.”
“Sorry, Sakura.”
Naruto blinked. Everyone was crammed into his hospital room— Lee perched on the foot of the bed, Sakura standing beside him, Ino tending to a new vase of flowers, Sai silently sketching by the window, and Shikamaru and Temari hanging back by the door, having a quiet conversation.
Well, everyone except Sasuke.
Sakura smiled at him, checking his temperature. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll explain everything later, when you’re more awake.”
She ruffled his hair before taking her hand away, turning back to whatever conversation she had been having with Rock Lee.
Naruto smiled too, shutting his eyes, and let the voices of his friends lull him back to sleep.
By the time Naruto was awake enough for Sakura to explain what had happened, Sasuke was discharged from his hospital stay.
He had been ambushed too, apparently— the Root ninja that attacked Naruto hadn’t been working alone. Sakura had found Sasuke on the ground, struck with a paralytic agent that was probably meant for Naruto, surrounded by the bodies of four traitors. The fifth one was the woman Naruto had fought— Shikamaru found her unconscious under Naruto’s broken window.
Sasuke had recovered much faster than Naruto— largely because the poison he had been hit with was more of the incapacitative style than killing. And yet, he never went to visit Naruto, not even when Naruto was discharged (with the express warning that he was not to reach out to Kurama for at least another month).
So, Naruto had to take matters into his own hands.
“Where are you going?”
Sasuke was packing a bag, back turned. Naruto knew Sasuke was aware of his presence— still, he didn’t turn around.
“There’s a mission.”
“Sasuke—"
“I’m sorry.”
Naruto froze, staring at the Uchiha symbol emblazoned on the back of Sasuke’s shirt. He hadn’t meant for Sasuke to apologize— he had come here to apologize to Sasuke.
“You’re sorry?”
“I shouldn’t have pushed you like that. I’m a hypocrite— it frustrates me to see you get hurt, even though I hurt you,” Sasuke turned around, eyes sweeping over Naruto like the tides, “even though I keep hurting you.”
Naruto stared, mouth agape. “You don’t— you’re not hurting me.”
Sasuke shut his eyes, breathing in. “What do you want, Naruto? Just for you, I mean— beyond the peace, beyond Hokage, is there a life you want to have?”
“I guess I’ve never really thought about it before.” Naruto took a step forward. “Is there something you want?”
Sasuke started to laugh, deep and true, until there were tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes. “You’re an idiot.”
Oh. “Do you still want to leave?”
Sasuke smiled at him. It had been so long since he had seen Sasuke smile. “Do you want me to stay?”
Naruto smiled back. “You’re also an idiot, y’know?”