Chapter Text
Getting pounded into the pavement for no good reason was nothing new for Naruto, but he’d kind of hoped it would happen a little less once he hit high school. It had mostly, now that he had both Shikamaru and Sakura’s overprotective wrath behind him, but he still didn’t make it three months before he ended up stuck in a dead-end alley with three very unhappy classmates.
And sure, that was two and a half months more than he’d gone for at least two years, but that fact did nothing for the pain, though, nor did it stop the world from spinning as… whoever had jumped him wandered away. He’d known their names when they’d shown up, but now he was looking at them, and he couldn’t remember what they looked like. He was probably going to pass out, actually, which sucked, because Sakura always yelled at him when he passed out.
Ooh, maybe Sakura could help. She did… doctor stuff, or something – Naruto wasn’t really sure. It took him a few tries to open his phone, but once he did, he sent her his location like a pro. He would have provided follow-up information, but his phone battery decided to die right when he started to type. That was fine. Sakura was smart; she’d figure it out.
–
People liked to claim that Sasuke prided himself on being unreachable – they assumed it was some aspect of his ego, that he did it because he thought he was too good for their messages. Really, he just thought the notifications were fucking annoying. It was far easier to just leave his phone on do not disturb and silent mode forever, and look at his notifications all together once or twice a day.
Itachi said that was the deranged behavior of a self-isolating loner. Itachi didn’t get an opinion on the matter, though, because Itachi knew more heavy metal bands than people.
Regardless, after dinner every day, without fail, Sasuke checked the notifications on his phone, and every day, without fail, he deleted ninety-nine to a hundred percent of them, because most of the people who had his number were fucking annoying.
Speaking of fucking annoying, actually, Naruto had messaged him. Naruto had messaged him exactly once. That was strange. Normally, the excessively extroverted blond sent at least four texts per idea, but this time, all he’d sent was a weird link to Google Maps. Even weirder, that link led to a pin dropped on a random backstreet.
It wasn’t like Sasuke cared, though. Naruto was weird all the time, and if it wasn’t Sasuke’s problem before, it sure wasn’t now. Sasuke had better, more entertaining things to do. Like his homework. Or studying for his SAT’s.
Except he’d finished all his homework (except sixth period, but who needed home ec, anyways). And he didn’t actually give a shit about the SAT’s. Actually, he didn’t even have ten minutes worth of things to do before his options were either go to bed at six P/M. or go hunt down Naruto. So fine, he caved, whatever. It was not because he liked spending time with the idiot.
He threw on a random coat and slipped out the door. Itachi made eye contact with him, emerging from his basement cave, but neither of them said a word to each other. When Sasuke got outside, he took Itachi’s bike and Itachi’s helmet, because fuck that guy, and took off, biking far faster than his mother would approve of. Not because he was worried or anything. He just liked the freezing cold breeze that whipped his face and stung his eyes. It was… refreshing.
The sight that greeted him when he hopped off the bike was unpleasant, to say the least. Naruto was leaning on the side of a building, and blood was leaking from a gnarly cut on the side of his head. While he seemed conscious, he didn’t react to Sasuke’s appearance until he was right in front of him. When he did see him, he flinched hard. The only reason he didn’t crack his skull open further was Sasuke managing to whip a hand out and catch it, even though it got disgusting, warm, sticky blood on his hand. He was selfless like that.
Naruto eyed him warily for a second, then decided Sasuke wasn’t a threat and asked, “S’ke? What’re you doing here?”
Blankly, Sasuke said, “You texted me.”
Naruto scrunched up his nose. “Nuh-uh.”
Admittedly, Sasuke was tempted to lower himself to Naruto’s level with a “yuh-huh,” but he was pretty sure the other boy needed to go to a hospital, and petty arguments wouldn’t help that process go any faster. He settled on pulling up the text on his phone to show it to Naruto.
Naruto cringed away from the light rather than reading the text, which made sense. Reason and logic hardly worked on Naruto on a normal day, let alone when he was… concussed? Brain-damaged? Whatever was going on here.
Sasuke was pretty sure he didn’t need to call an ambulance, but he didn’t know how to move Naruto otherwise – there was no way he was getting him on Itachi’s bike. He could call Itachi himself, but he would actually rather drag Naruto to the hospital by hand.
He moved to get up, unable to think with Naruto in his personal space, and Naruto asked, “You’re getting Sakura?”
Bewildered, Sasuke blinked at him. “What? No, I’m taking you to the hospital.”
Naruto jolted upwards, grabbing Sasuke’s arm in an iron grip even as he swayed. “No! No hospital, my dad doesn’t- it’s too expensive.”
Sasuke tried to shake him off, but Naruto didn’t relent until he did, stubborn to the last. “Okay, fine. Jesus.”
He crouched down again, pulling one of Naruto’s arms over his shoulders. He stood with a grunt, hauling the blond up with him.
It took Naruto a second to get his feet under him, and when he did, he turned to Sasuke to eloquently ask, “Bwuh?”
Sasuke rolled his eyes. “I’m not just going to leave you here. Just hold on and try not be completely dead weight.
He eyed the bike a little regretfully as he left, but this was probably more important. Itachi could drive; he could pick it up if he decided it was a big deal.
–
If Naruto had to describe the walk back to Sasuke’s house in one word, it would be blurry. If you gave him a second word, he probably wouldn’t be able to come up with anything, because he did not remember most of it.
His only clear memory was once they got there: Itachi opening the door and looking them over with a critical eye.
Sasuke, clearly panicking, had blurted out, “I left your bike.”
And then Naruto didn’t see Itachi anymore, but he did hear the jingling of car keys, so he could put three and three together and get six (or was it seven? Whatever).
By the time they reached the stairs, Naruito was practically coherent enough to make it up them by himself, except for Sasuke’s hand on his elbow and his tight grip on the railing.
Most of his grogginess had cleared by the time Sasuke settled him in his bathtub, and Naruto, ever the genius, said, “You’re not Sakura.”
Sasuke glared at him. “Hold still.”
Naruto managed this task for a monumental thirty seconds before he said, “I texted Sakura, though.”
Sasuke took a deep breath through his nose and said, “You’re lucky you’re concussed.”
Naruto did not know what that meant, but his best guess was that he should keep his mouth shut at the very least.
When Sasuke was done… wiping him off? Sticking band-aids on him? Honestly, Naruto hadn’t been paying attention. Whenever he was done with whatever he did, Naruto followed him lamely to his room, feeling like shit. Not only did his head hurt like a bitch, but Sasuke was cool and smart and totally going to tell everyone that Naruto got beat up and then bled all over his bathroom.
He blinked stupidly as Sasuke pushed him to sit on the bed. “I was just going to go home-”
Sasuke cut him off. “No. You need to sleep.”
“I don’t want to be a bother, you know? I’ll just-”
“Sleep.”
“But-”
Sasuke chucked a stuffed animal at him. It was an angler fish (cute), and Naruto got distracted enough staring at it that Sasuke got away with pushing him into lying down. When he did, he saw a second anglerfish embroidered onto Sasuke’s pillowcase (double cute).
Sasuke blushed when he saw Naruto looking, and said, “Shut up. They’re cool.”
Naruto opened his mouth, meaning to protest that he hadn’t said a word, but Sasuke said, “I told you to shut up. Go to sleep, or I’m smothering you with a pillow.”
Naruto wanted to protest, but Sasuke’s bed was comfortable. Stupid rich idiot, probably didn’t even know how good his bed was, and that’s why he was letting Naruto sleep in it. Yeah, Naruto totally won this interaction.