The Top Floor

This story is being co-written by KandKL of fanfiction.net

Disclaimer: We do not own Naruto, nor do we intend to profit from this story.

Kiba’s eyes were bugging out of his head. All around him, as far as he could look, were presents. Big boxes, small boxes, medium boxes, all brightly wrapped in shiny paper and topped with huge colorful bows. Kiba sat on the edge of his bed, his feet dangling above the floor as he hastily rubbed the sleep from his eyes, certain the mirage would disappear. To his delight, the boxes still covered the floor when his eyes opened once again.

With a loud cry of delight he leapt from the bed and launched himself into the pile. He wrenched the paper off the box nearest him and opened the box, tearing the cardboard in his haste. An indecipherable noise escaped him as he took out the red firetruck. Reverently, he placed the prized toy on his bed before turning back to the presents around him.

Spinning tops, a playdoh barbershop, tinker toys, animal figurines, a chest of child’s tools. By the time Kiba had finished tearing into all of the packages, the room was littered with the noisiest, messiest, and most forbidden toys he had ever imagined.

Kiba heaved a long, sated sigh and laid down among his new possessions on the floor, a huge grin plastered firmly on his face. He reveled in his post-presents glow in peace for a few moments, until a rather insistent poking at his shoulder distracted him.

Kiba looked over his shoulder to find a box there, jabbing him. He pushed the box away and closed his eyes again, only to feel the sharp prodding again. He slapped the box away, a little irritated by this point.

“Kiba.”

Kiba’s eyes opened roundly.

“Kiba,” the voice came, more insistently this time.

“...Box?” he asked incredulously.

“Kiba!”

Kiba shot upright from his bed with a loud gasp of incoherent mumblings, clutching at his shoulder. He whipped his head to the side and found Shikamaru standing there, a slightly annoyed look on his face.

“Are you awake now?”

Kiba scowled at Shika before rising slowly to his feet. Suddenly he let out another loud gasp, this time one of disbelief and denial.

“Awake?” he asked, hoping he had heard wrong. Quickly his eyes searched the room for any trace of boxes, wrapping, or toys. When none were found, he sighed forlornly.

“It’s not my birthday...”

It was more of an acknowledgement than a question. Kiba watched his toe scuff against the carpet and didn’t see the faint expression that had crossed Shika’s face. By the time Kiba had looked up the look was gone and the mask of laziness had returned.

“Ten Ten said to wake you up so you can get ready to go do your cleaning.”

Kiba groaned.

“Are you awake?” Shika asked again. “Because before, your eyes were open, but you weren’t--”

“Yes, I’m awake,” grumbled Kiba as he got up from the bed and started to change out of his pajamas. “Obviously I’m awake. There aren’t any presents anymore...”

Shika turned quickly to hide his smirk and left the room, leaving a pouting Kiba in his wake hastily scrambling to find any clean clothes, or at least anything passable as clean.

~

Tremors rippled through Naruto’s body as Sasuke held him pinned against the mattress, grinding harshly against his hips. He let out a sharp groan and bucked his hips as much as he could under Sasuke’s weight.

It was all Sasuke could do to keep silent, the muscles in his face clenched painfully tight as he forced his jaw to stay closed.

The morning had started innocently enough for Sasuke. He had woken up slowly, laying on his side facing Naruto. The blonde muttered unintelligibly in his sleep and inched closer to Sasuke, causing a small smile to spread across Sasuke’s face. The smile vanished, however, when Naruto innocently brushed his knee up against Sasuke’s groin.

Sasuke had frozen, unsure of what to do with his new...dilemma. The gentle pressure of Naruto’s knee was taunting him, teasing him to hardness at a maddeningly slow place. Sasuke had bitten his lip in an effort to stop his lustful urges, but when Naruto had stirred again...

And now the two boys were moving in frantic tandem, each bent on finding the pleasure that had been denied them four days ago. Naruto continued to emit harsh pants mingled with high-pitched whimpers, begging in his own way. The last four days had almost completely erased that once prominent fear of moving to quickly. Now Naruto found he couldn’t move quickly enough.

“Sasuke!” he rasped, jerking his head to the side. “Please...”

Sasuke’s answer was a low moan and a nip to Naruto’s exposed neck. Naruto wriggled again, trying to gain more of that unbearably blissful friction. Nothing was enough. Lustful cries rose to the ceiling as each boy worked their hardest to reach their end, not caring how long the journey would, or more appropriately wouldn’t, last.

Naruto started to feel something in the base of this stomach, a warm glow he couldn’t describe adequately in his haze-filled mind. He wanted to desperately to grab Sasuke’s hips and pull their bodies even more flush, but Sasuke’s grip on his arms kept him firmly in place. All he could do was wiggle slightly against Sasuke’s erection that was grinding against his.

So close...so close...

And such was the moment that Kiba decided to ruin.

“NARUTO! I CAN’T FIND MY SHOES!!”

Naruto cried out then, from sheer frustration. Sasuke rested even more of his weight upon him, if that was possible.

“Ignore him,” he growled in a husky tone. Naruto held his breath for a moment and stayed completely still, as if immobility would make Kiba forget his existence.

“NARUTO!!!”

Naruto groaned loudly and tried to get up. Sasuke proceeded to flop gracelessly on top of him like a deadweight.

“Come on, Sasuke,” Naruto grumbled edgily. When Sasuke refused to budge, Naruto groaned again and struggled to get out from underneath him. “You know he won’t shut up until I go out there.”

Sasuke felt the urge to whine but quickly squaushed it down internally, opting instead for a begrudging sigh. He rolled off the blonde onto his back and watched as Naruto scrambled up, muttering under his breath with such vehemence that Sasuke made a mental note to never truly piss the boy off. Naruto was...a little scary like this.

Naruto stood, still obviously hard. He closed his eyes tight and clenched his fists, willing to mind every horrible thing he had witnessed or heard about. All the three-legged puppies in the world couldn’t help him out, it seemed.

“NARUTO!!!” Kiba howled. And suddenly Naruto was glaring hard at the door, so intensely angry at that moment that it sufficed as enough of a distraction. As soon as Naruto felt himself start to soften he growled in anger and strode out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Sasuke lay still on the bed and strained to hear what was going on outside. A few seconds passed, then Naruto’s exasperated voice could be heard through the walls.

“Kiba! They’re right here!”

“No.”

“What do you mean, no? They’re sitting right by the door!”

“I don’t want to wear those.”

There was a tense pause, then Naruto replied through gritted teeth,

“Which shoes do you want to wear?”

Sasuke chuckled at the impatience lacing Naruto’s words but stopped short as the movements of his stomach caused his still-present erection to rub against the fabric of his pajama pants. Unconsciously he reached down and pulled his pants low enough to free his cock. He was just about to grasp it by the base when he suddenly looked down, aware of what he was doing. He stopped his hand, torn between waiting for Naruto to come back or just finishing the job himself.

He wanted so badly to take his pleasure from Naruto, not his own fist...

“Kiba, you don’t even have shoes like that!”

“Yes I do!”

“No, you don’t!”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Obviously Naruto wasn’t going to be coming back anytime soon. With a small reluctant sigh he let his hand resume its journey.

~

Naruto was trying his very hardest to keep his mutinous thoughts under control and unheard by Kiba. The young boy was making that increasingly difficult, however.

“They’re...red. Bright red.”

“Red? Now they’re red?”

“What?”

“You said they were blue.”

Kiba sighed and rolled his eyes in a typical preteen fashion. “No. I said they were red.”

Naruto bit the inside of his lip for what felt like the hundredth time. He was sure it had to be close to bleeding by now.

“Fine,” he ground out. “Where did you last see them?”

“I don’t know,” whined Kiba, frustrated. He continued to scour his bedroom, grabbing handfuls of clothes off of the floor and throwing them behind him as he looked on the floor. Naruto followed behind him silently, transferring the thrown clothes from the floor to Kiba’s bed. After a few minutes, the floor was completely bare of clothes and, unfortunately, shoes. Kiba crawled under his bed in a last ditch effort but came out empty handed.

“Did you check out in the common room?” Naruto asked.

Kiba shook his head.

“Okay, let’s go check then.” Naruto started to walk out of the room but stopped abruptly and turned back to Kiba, who was following behind him.

“Did you brush your teeth?”

Kiba thought for a second before shaking his head again. “I forgot.”

Naruto grimaced a little. “Then you go brush your teeth, and I’ll look around out here while you do.” The two started out of Kiba’s room again and split ways outside.

Naruto took a wide sweep of the room and quickly looked under the table and chairs as he heard Kiba turn on the water in the bathroom. Then he headed over to the couch, undoubtedly Kiba’s favorite place to sit. Hopefully the ever elusive shoes would be somewhere nearby...

Naruto bent down and peered under the couch. No shoes. He looked around the sides of the couch. He looked around the back of the couch.

No shoes.

Then a lightbulb flickered on in his mind. He ripped the cushions off of the couch and two little shoes came tumbling out after them. Naruto grinned in triumph and picked them up, then frowned.

The shoes were green.

Naruto sighed and turned to go put the shoes in Kiba’s room when Kiba reemerged from the bathroom. Kiba stopped in his tracks, pointed at the shoes, and squealed in delight.

Naruto looked at the shoes again in confusion. “These are the shoes?”

Kiba nodded fervently and ran up to Naruto and snatched them from his hand.

“Really?” asked Naruto, bewildered.

“Yeah,” replied Kiba, who had sat down on the cushionless couch and was hurriedly forcing his feet into the shoes.

“But they’re gree—you know what? Great. I’m glad we found them,” said Naruto.

Just then Ten Ten came barreling into the room. “Kiba, let’s go!” she called out.

“‘Kay!” said Kiba as he tied his last shoe and bounded up from the couch.

“Have fun cleaning, Kiba,” said Naruto with a half-hearted smile. Kiba suddenly frowned, remembering what he had been rushing to get ready for. He looked up at Ten Ten apprehensively.

“How long do I have to clean?”

“Two hours.”

Kiba hung his head and stuck his bottom lip out in a pout, but walked past Ten Ten and out the door she was holding open.

Ten Ten rolled her eyes at him and turned to Naruto. “He’ll be back in a while.”

Naruto nodded and waved Kiba goodbye. And if Kiba had known what ‘the finger’ was, he probably would have flipped it.

Ten Ten locked the door and walked behind Kiba as they made their way to the janitor’s closet. She was watching him closely, looking for any signs of another escape, but his face held no evidence of evil plotting. Only a lower lip jutted out and a furrowed brow as he stomped his way down the hall.

They reached the closet and she opened it with her key, still keeping a watchful eye on her prisoner. She disappeared into the closet for a few moments, returning with a armful of spray bottles, cloths and scrubbers. She dumped them unceremoniously into Kiba’s hands. He sighed.

She placed a hand on his shoulder, guiding him down the hall to the men’s bathroom where a security guard stood, looking irritable. He gave one glance to Kiba before sighing and straightening up.

“This the one?”

Ten Ten nodded, pushing Kiba forward. “Yeah, this is him. He’s scheduled for two hours today, so have someone page me when he’s done and I’ll come and get him.”

He nodded, motioning for Kiba to enter the bathroom. Kiba shuffled in, working hard to balance the load in his arms.

“Be good Kiba!” Ten Ten said in what she hoped was a stern voice.

Truth be told, she was a little scared at what would occur when Kiba was mixed with toxic chemicals…

~

Naruto waited till the door clicked shut, then he turned on his heel, walking quickly to his room. His mood had been efficiently spoiled, and he wanted nothing more than to punch something. Hopefully, Sasuke would be out of his room by then, if only for his own safety.

He reached his door in record time, swinging it open, hoping to find it empty. He had no such luck. The first thing he noticed was the sounds—soft panting, labored breathing. Sasuke lay on his back, his pants around his knees, one hand roughly stroking his cock. He heard Naruto and looked up with his lust filled obsidian eyes.

Naruto gulped.

But…even with as arousing as this picture was, Naruto’s mood was still sour, and his speech came bubbling out from his mouth before he even realized it.

“No WAY you’re getting off twice without me!”

He felt embarrassed immediately, and he had to force himself to refrain from clapping his hand over his mouth in horror. Sasuke blinked, hearing Naruto’s words, and he smirked.

“Let me give you a hand then,” Sasuke said, his voice thick from need. He patted the bed next to him, but Naruto just stared. Sasuke gave him a look that dared him to disobey, and Naruto meekly walked over and sat on the edge of the bed cautiously, fully aware that Sasuke’s erection was still in plain sight.

“Do you want me to help you, Naruto?” Sasuke asked softly.

Naruto didn’t move, he just stared straight ahead, trying to train his eyes away from Sasuke’s lap.

“Fine then,” Sasuke whispered huskily. He reached down and grasped his dick in his hand, gasping and throwing his head back at the sensation as he began to pump himself slowly.

Naruto watched with wide eyes as Sasuke jacked off, noticing the small noises he made and the way his back would arch when he picked up his pace. He was trying to ignore the sparks shooting to his groin.

“Sasuke, Shikamaru and Lee are--”

“Naruto!” Sasuke gasped, running his thumb over the head of his pulsing cock twice.

Naruto was watching Sasuke blatantly now, his mouth becoming dry as Sasuke’s thigh muscles quivered and tensed. But oh god, it was about to get worse.

Sasuke suddenly turned to fully face him, growling, “Naruto,” under his breath as he aggressively crashed his lips over Naruto’s. His tongue was in Naruto’s mouth instantly, probing sweeping as he pinned the boy to the bed below him. “Naruto-…” he breathed, trailing his fingers down Naruto’s abdomen before tracing the outline of his awakening cock through his pants.

Naruto gasped and bucked his hips up, trying to get more contact. “Fuck Sasuke--…”

That one uttered statement broke whatever hold Sasuke had left on himself. His hand slipped under the waistband of Naruto’s pants and boxers, firmly grasping the rapidly hardening flesh below.

“Hahh—Sasuke!”

All of Naruto’s embarrassment had all but evaporated as he tried to control the quiet moans escaping him. His hands ran up, one tangling in Sasuke’s hair, pulling him into a fierce kiss, the other wrapping around his shoulders to pull him closer.

The heat between them was smothering.

Sasuke had pulled down Naruto’s pants and boxers and taken Naruto’s cock and his own and held them in the same hand. Naruto thrust upward, and the skin on skin contact was almost too much.

A throaty moan rattled past Sasuke’s parted lips as he stroked them in unison, his tongue tangling with Naruto’s. Naruto thrusted into Sasuke’s hand, his head falling back and his eyes falling shut as he neared his climax. Sasuke too felt himself getting closer, and he picked up his pace, their groins rocking together in a fevered pace.

It was Naruto who found release first. The coil in his belly was so tight…it was going to snap…

“Sasuke! Sasuke, I--” he couldn’t even finish his statement as his orgasm hit him like a load of bricks.

White flashes appeared before his eyes, and his body arched violently into Sasuke’s, a whimpering cry filling the air. Hot pleasure spiked through his body and he lay rigid still as his body trembled in Sasuke’s arms.

A few seconds later, he opened his eyes to see that Sasuke had reached his peak too. Sasuke met his gaze and smiled tiredly. “You finally got off,” his voice was of mock celebration as he grinned.

“Yeah…” Naruto breathed, collapsing back onto the mattress. “Why don’t we do that more often?” he asked softly.

He could practically hear Sasuke’s smirk. “That can be arranged…”

A knock on the door cut him off. “Hey!” Shikamaru called. “You two done in there?”

His tone made Naruto blush as he jumped out of bed, squealing lightly. He hastily grabbed a shirt off the floor and wiped down his stomach and legs before pulling on a pair of pants and a shirt.

“Just a minute!” he called frantically, pushing Sasuke out of bed to rearrange the covers on the bed to hide the stains. He tossed the soiled shirt against Sasuke’s chest, and Sasuke wiped himself off, slowly pulling on his own shirt and shorts.

Four knocks this time.

“Coming!”

Naruto opened the door to come face to face with an agitated looking Shikamaru, Lee standing behind him.

“Naruto, we have a problem.”

~

“What?” Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We. Have. A. Problem. Don’t tell me you forgot too!” Shikamaru’s hands were uncharacteristically motioning about as he spoke, and his eyes were slightly wide with anxiety.

“Forgot what?” Naruto asked, lifting his hands in a confused guesture.

“Yeah, forget what?” Sasuke piped in.

Shikamaru gave an exasperated sigh and dropped his hands to his sides. “What’s the date today, Naruto?”

Naruto blinked a few times, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Yeah, what does that have to do with--” a glare from Shikamaru promptly silenced Lee.

“The date, Naruto.”

Naruto stood and thought for a moment before answering, “The…seventh of July, why--” His face froze.

July seventh.

“SHIT!” Naruto shouted, his hands grabbing his head as he shook it.

Shika nodded sharply. “Hence my statement, we have a problem.”

“What’s going on?” Sasuke asked, reaching for Naruto’s shoulder, but the boy had begun to pace rapidly.

“How the hell did this come up so fast? How the HELL did I forget?”

“Forget what?” Lee asked in timid voice, thoroughly confused at this point.

“Okay, Naruto, relax,” Shikamaru ordered sharply and Naruto halted and their eyes met. “Does Ten Ten know?”

“Umm…uh…maybe? I mean, it was…It was Neji’s job to tell her!”

Shikamaru growled. “Okay, so that’s step one—tell Ten Ten.”

“Tell her WHAT?” Sasuke was getting angry by now. “Naruto, what is going--”

Naruto held up a hand to silence him as he continued to think. “I’m sure she can help out, right? Ten Ten, I mean. She could probably scrounge up some decorations…some supplies…”

“Okay, let me get her in here…” Shikamaru’s voice trailed off as he walked to the wall and quickly pressed the green button.

Lee poked Sasuke in the side and asked quietly, “What’s happening?”

Sasuke was fuming at the point. He moved to stand between the rapidly conversing boys, blocking their view from each other.

“What?!” Naruto and Shikamaru asked at the same time.

“Would someone please tell us what the HELL is going on here!” Sasuke motioned to Lee and himself, his arms ending up crossed over his chest.

“It’s the most important day of the year…” Shikamaru said, rubbing his temples.

Sasuke motioned for Naruto to speak. Naruto sighed, shaking his head slightly.

“Today is Kiba’s birthday.”

~

Ten Ten listened to the boys near frantic story as they (well, Naruto) paced around the room. “Okay...so you guys do this every year?”

Naruto nodded, only then remembering that Ten Ten was relatively new to the staff of the hospital. “We—well, Neji was going to tell you, but…”

“We need help, fast,” Sasuke added. Now that he knew what was going on, he was starting to get into it almost as much as Shika and Naruto. Alas, so was Lee.

“We need STREAMERS! And PARTY HATS! And PRESENTS!”

“Can it, Lee!” Shikamaru yelled. He turned to Ten Ten. “All we’re asking for is a cake…maybe some balloons and some presents. Can you help us?”

Ten Ten let out a shaky breath and shook her head. “You boys…We only have--” she glanced at her watch, “An hour and forty five minutes but…I can make it work. At least some of it,” she paused, thinking over her options. “I can probably get some cupcakes from the cafeteria…And we can make decorations if I can find some craft supplies. But you guys are on your own for presents.”

Naruto nodded enthusiastically. “Thank you so, so much, Ten Ten!”

The look of hope and excitement on the boys’ faces made her smile. “Sure thing. I’ll be back with supplies in soon…” She left the room, trying to grunge up an excuse to give the lunch lady to get a cake.

“Hate to rain on your parade, but we still need presents,” Sasuke added softly, frowning as he tried to think of solutions.

Naruto nodded absently but said, “It doesn’t have to be anything nice…hand made things are just fine with Kiba, he’s never had a very extravagant birthday. We’ve just got to come up with something…”

“Everyone just think…anything will please him, honestly. We just need something,” Shika muttered.

They all thought in silence for a few minutes. After what seemed like forever of wasting what precious time they had, inspiration his Sasuke so hard he almost jumped. Everyone heard his gasp and looked up expectantly. Sasuke grinned wickedly.

“Hey Lee…you in the mood for some origami?”

~

Kiba scrunched his nose as the stench of feces rose from the toilet.

“This is gross!”

“Give it a rest, kid, you only have thirty minutes left…”

“Why don’t YOU do it?” Kiba offered, holding out the filthy sponge to the guard.

A glare was all he got in return. With a dejected sigh, he turned back to his cleaning.

~

The room had erupted into chaos. Actually, that was an understatement.

Lee was sitting on the couch, making paper monkeys and dogs like a madman. His face was scrunched and slightly red in concentration, his fingers nimbly bending and folding the paper. His pile was massive already, and he showed no signs of slowing down.

Naruto was sitting on the ground on all fours, writing “Happy Birthday Kiba!” across a large poster board in festive colors. He bit his lip as he concentrated on making the letters the same size, with the same loopy scrawl (“Naruto’s making the sign, he has the prettiest handwriting.” “It is not pretty!” “Yes it is, shut up and do it.”) He finished with the text and began to add stars and smiley faces around the border.

Shikamaru was doing his best to wrap what little gifts he and Naruto had saved for this day. It again, wasn’t much, only a set of new crayons and two packs of gum, but it was all they could get. Ten Ten had managed to get her hands on some colored Xerox paper, and he was trying to fashion it into some kind of wrapping paper. It wasn’t going very well. He growled as the paper sliced through the pad of his thumb.

Sasuke and Ten Ten were setting up the table, pulling up extra chairs she had found and setting out paper plates and cups. She had managed to convince the cafeteria workers to give her the extra dessert from yesterday, which was about half of a carrot cake—dry, but edible. Sasuke dealt each placing a spork and a napkin.

Ten Ten had also gone around, trying to find people to invite. In the end, all she could muster up was one or two other nurses and Shizune, but anyone extra was considered success at this point.

Everything was being done at a feverish pace, each of them aware of the clock that was ticking down—second by second—till Kiba got back. Everyone froze as the sudden beep of Ten Ten’s pager cut through the atmosphere. She looked at it, nodded to everyone and headed for the door.

“This better look like a party when I get back,” she said, smiling lightly.

“Roger!” Lee saluted to her as she closed the door behind her.

It took a few moments, but the pace soon picked up again, almost doubling as they realized they had four minutes at most to get the room into shape. The stress alone was enough to kill them.

But as the door swung open, revealing Kiba’s shocked face, they all felt it as worth it.

~

Kiba stood stock still in the doorway, silently taking in the room with a slightly puzzled expression.

His eyes immediately wandered to the faces of all the people there. Shizune and two other nurses were standing on one side of the table. Naruto stood at the center, brightly smiling back at him, and Sasuke, Shika, and Lee stood on the other side.

Origami adorned the table and floor in shapes he hadn't thought possible. On the table sat a proudly displayed cake with a few paper monkeys sitting on top, and all around the cake were little dogs as well as two packages wrapped in brightly colored paper.

Behind the cake and the presents stood Naruto, holding a colorful sign. Kiba's eyes scanned the sign quickly and were about to dart off in another direction when he caught his name on the sign. His attention returned to the sign and as he read it, his eyes grew large.

Happy Birthday Kiba!

Kiba's eyes flitted back up to the people staring back at him, face alight with emotion akin to disbelief and hope. There he saw something that meant more to him at this moment than anything.

More than the cake. More than the origami, the decorations, and more than even the presents.

In front of him stood every person that was important to him.

And they were all smiling genuinely back at him. More importantly, Shikamaru and Sasuke were smiling. Kiba never had to try too hard to gain acceptance from any of the staff or from Naruto, and, well, Lee and smiles went hand in hand. But the two silent boys he had always wanted to hear, or see, or experience some type of positive reinforcement from were genuinely showing him affection, with no hint of sarcasm or patronization. Kiba felt his heart swell a little bit.

"Happy Birthday, Kiba!" yelled Lee, effectively ruining the tender moment.

“But I thought it wasn’t my birthday,” Kiba mumbled, confused. “It’s really my birthday?”

Naruto nodded, grinning.

"You gonna come in or what?" asked Shikamaru.

Kiba grinned widely and ran into the room, Ten Ten following him in and closing the door softly behind them.

~

It didn’t take long for Kiba to return to his normal self. He had run in, given everyone there an enormous hug as well as a headache from all his excited screams.

“These are all for me?!” he asked incredulously. Sasuke fought the urge to rub his aching temple.

“Yup!” exclaimed Lee loudly.

“Wow! When do I get to open—CAKE!!”

Sasuke felt he deserved a medal, or trophy, or some outward display of affection from God for the trouble he was going to to keep his impulses under control.

Kiba sprinted up to the table and reached a finger towards the cake. Ten Ten quickly intervened, slapping away the offending digit. Kiba looked up at her with a hurt look.

Ten Ten eyed him warily. “Not yet. And no fingers.”

Kiba pouted, but his face brightened when he saw the plates and forks set around the table.

“But soon, right?” he asked expectantly.

“As soon as you wash your hands,” put in Sasuke.

This promptly cued more pouting. “Why do I have to wash my hands?” Kiba whined.

“You have chemicals all over them, and God knows what else.”

“No I don’t!”

“Where were you cleaning anyway?” interjected Naruto.

“The bathroom,” replied Kiba nonchalantly. Sasuke almost laughed out loud at the disgusted look on Naruto’s face.

“Go wash your hands, Kiba,” Naruto said forcefully.

“No! I don’t wa--”

Suddenly Lee had bounded in between Naruto and Kiba and was in Kiba’s face, grinning maniacally.

“Kiba! Let’s WASH OUR HANDS!!” he exclaimed, looking incredibly excited over the idea of soap and water.

Kiba stared blankly at Lee for a whole second before his face erupted in excitement as well.

“OKAY!”

And the two ran off towards the bathroom together, squealing like little girls the whole way, leaving a completely stunned audience in their wake. Even Naruto was surprised to see how little it took to distract Kiba.

Sasuke, Naruto and Shikamaru collectively sighed, trying to prepare for what was bound to be a ridiculously hectic few hours for them. The two boys tore out of the bathroom at such a speed that Naruto wondered with a grimace whether they had really washed anything.

“Time for presents?” Kiba asked expectantly.

“Well…would you rather do presents or cake first?” Naruto asked.

Kiba opened his mouth, but he had to shut it and think for a few seconds. “Both!”

They all laughed, the boy’s excitement beginning to feed off onto them. Everyone gathered around the table, the boys getting seats while the nurses gathered around. One snapped pictures with a Polaroid every few minutes. Ten Ten then carefully sliced the cake into nine equal pieces, setting the sharp knife carefully on the table when she was done.

“Should we sing happy birthday?” Sasuke asked cautiously.

“Yes!” Lee exclaimed. “Happy biiirthday to YOU! Happy biiiiirthday to YOOOUUU!”

They laughed and sang along as Kiba rocked happily back and forth in his chair to the rhythm of the song. They burst into a round of applause when the song ended, and Kiba’s smile stretched his face.

The song was soon forgotten as Kiba saw the cake. He let out a cry of joy, stuffing his fork into the cake and then shoving it into his mouth. Lee followed suit, and soon the room was filled with the sound of munching and the pleased sounds coming from Kiba as he tasted the first real sugar he’d had in a while.

It took only a matter of a few minutes for Kiba to clean off his plate completely, finishing by licking his plate free of crumbs and stray frosting. Once finished, he jumped upright, and with a wicked grin swept everything (plates and all) off of the table and onto a heap in the floor.

“Presents!” he announced, his face splitting into another huge smile.

Sasuke motioned for the nurse that had stooped to pick up the mess of cake and glasses on the floor to let it go for now as Naruto handed Kiba his first present. His eyes widened as he saw the bright yellow paper covering it. He took a deep breath, seemingly savoring the moment before he ripped into the paper. The paper flew over his shoulder, piling on Sasuke’s chest until he finally revealed his first treasure, the two packs of gum.

He squealed, biting his lips to keep from reflexively stuffing the gum into his mouth.

“That’s from Shikamaru and me!” Lee announced proudly, not caring to mention that he had no part in actually getting the presents.

Kiba’s eyes shone, and he gently set the packs down as if they might break. He muttered a muffled “thanks” and he reached for his next gift, which was wrapped in pink. He, again, took a deep breath before once again tearing into it, the paper again landing in Sasuke’s lap (where they promptly were dumped on the growing pile of junk on the floor).

He froze when he saw what was inside and he held up the box of twenty-four crayons in reverence. He was speechless and Sasuke could have sworn his eyes were watering.

Naruto squeezed his shoulder. “Do you like it?”

He nodded soundlessly, looking from Naruto to Sasuke then to Naruto again. Sasuke smiled softly, nodding his acceptance of Kiba’s silent thanks. Kiba put the crayon box on the table and sat for a moment, thinking. He smiled widely then, picking up one of his gum packs and opening it.

He then passed out one piece to everyone in the room, leaving him with only three pieces left in his first pack. Everyone watched, surprised, as he unwrapped his piece and happily popped it into his mouth. He saw them all staring and he motioned for them to do the same, so they all slipped their pieces into their mouths.

The calm, almost serene moment was promptly ruined when Kiba challenged Lee to a bubble blowing contest. The nurses conveniently chose that moment to tell Kiba that they couldn’t take any longer on their break and that they had to get back to work. He hugged them each, Ten Ten and Shizune last and longest of all.

As soon as they left, things began to get wild. Shikamaru and Sasuke worked to scoop all the trash into one central pile on the floor while Kiba and Lee continued to duke it out with their bubbles.

“Hey Naruto! Can I have your gum so I can blow a bigger bubble?”

“EW, Kiba no! That’s gross!”

“Why not?” Kiba asked, chewing his gum noisily with his mouth open. Naruto made a face.

“Because--just, ew.”

Kiba soon gave up on the bubble contest, seeing how Lee seemed to be owning him. Naruto took the moment of calm to tell Kiba to go wash his face clean of the gum residue that coated his nose and forehead.

He disappeared into the bathroom, singing a happy tune as the sink was turned on and Naruto let out a sigh. He was happy that Kiba’s birthday only came around once a year. He jumped slightly when Sasuke pulled him close, bumping their noses together affectionately.

“Take a deep breath.”

Naruto laughed softly, and nodded. “Yeah.”

He heard Lee stifle a giggle, but he froze when he heard a loud gasp from the direction of the bathroom. They pulled apart quickly to see Kiba staring at them with a confused look. Kiba folded his arms over his chest.

He didn’t speak, but the tapping of his foot clearly showed he wanted an explanation. Naruto coughed embarrassedly, taking an inadvertent step away from Sasuke. Sasuke rolled his eyes at Naruto and moved to a chair next to the table, patting the chair next to him so Kiba would approach.

“Maybe it’s time we get something straightened out?” He spoke this to the whole group, getting permission.

Lee bounded over to the table and pulled up a chair, and Shikamaru shrugged indifferently. Sasuke ignored Naruto’s obvious protest and he turned to Kiba.

“Okay…see, Naruto and I are like…” he struggled to come up with a sufficient simile. “Like two trees!”

“What?” Naruto asked.

“What?” Shikamaru asked, looking at Sasuke to see if he was serious.

“Yeah, what?” Lee always felt it necessary to add his input.

“Basically, they’re fucking,” Shikamaru told Kiba, leaning forward on the table.

“Hey! That language is not necessary, and we are NOT doing it, for the last time!”

“Close enough.”

“What’s fucking?” Kiba’s face wrinkled as he tried out the new word.

“STOP!” Naruto’s face was tomato red as he shoved his hands over Shikamaru’s mouth.

“That’s sexual intercourse, Kiba,” Lee said condescendingly. To demonstrate, he made an ‘o’ with one hand and inserted his index finger of his other hand into it repeatedly.

Kiba mimicked him, his face contorting into a frown. “I don’t get it…”

Okay,” Lee showed him the hand maneuver again. “The finger—(he waved it) is the pee-pee, and the hand is the--”

Lee was promptly shut up as Naruto tackled him to the ground with a shout.

“—so it’s like we’re friends, but close friends…like…like…trees?” Sasuke was still trying to go off the tree theory and he seemed to be confusing himself.

Naruto’s head appeared above the table as he scrambled to get back to his feet. “Enough!” he announced, waving his arms, causing a thick silence to fill the room.

He looked at Kiba and sighed. “Okay…basically Sasuke and I are…” It was harder to say out loud than he would have thought. “We’re together.”

“Together?” Kiba asked. “Like…Kiba and Naruto are together?”

“No, no,” Naruto corrected quickly. “Like…like Shikamaru and Neji were.”

That seemed to do the trick as understanding blossomed over Kiba’s face. “So you’re—I get it!”

Naruto blinked. “And…you’re okay?”

Kiba nodded, giving Naruto a ‘duh’ look. “What do you think I am, a baby?”

Naruto chose not to answer that, but he let a nervous laugh escape him. He felt relieved somehow, now that this was really out in the open. They talked in quiet mumbles amongst themselves about the details of the relationship, mostly to Sasuke for a few minutes. But Kiba, never to be outdone, announced that he had a plan to make the night even more fun.

Naruto flinched. This couldn’t be good.

“Let’s pull an ALL-NIGHTER!”

A chorus of groans sounded from around the room.

~

The valiant plan of an all-nighter was rapidly beginning to dissipate as Kiba’s eyelids began to droop. Everyone (but Lee, who had passed out surprisingly early) watched quietly as his head nodded in his efforts to stay awake, no one wanting to move and break the boy’s spell of sleepiness. It was when he dropped his forkful of cake into his lap, causing his eyes to snap open, that the other boys felt it safe to move again.

Sasuke stood quickly, helping Kiba out of the chair. “Bed for you, Kiba.”

He protested feebly, insisting on lasting the whole night, but Sasuke managed to coax him into his room.

Naruto looked around the room subtly, making sure that Lee was asleep on the couch before tiptoeing over to Shika, who sat at the table, writing a return letter to Neji. He stood awkwardly for a few moments, briefly glancing over Shikamaru’s shoulder. Shikamaru looked up, his arm moving to cover the letter.

“Can I help you?”

Naruto coughed, looking at his toes, a blush coloring his cheeks. “Umm...”

Shikamaru sighed irritably, anxious to get back to writing. “What is it?”

Naruto looked towards Kiba’s door, hearing what sounded like a soft lullaby in Sasuke’s thick tenor. He bit his lip and turned back to Shikamaru.

“It’s about…you and Neji. You two were…together….right?”

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. “Yes.”

“Well…” Naruto gulped. “How did you guys not get…caught?”

Shikamaru realized what he was talking about and had to restrain from laughing. Who knew Naruto would be such a prude? “Get caught…doing what?” He asked in mock sincerity, loving it when Naruto’s cheeks colored further.

“You know—stuff.”

Oh, he was evil. He really was. “Stuff? Like what…hugging? Kissing?”

“Stop it, Shikamaru, you know what I mean!” Naruto glared, annoyed at being made fun of.

“So you mean sex?”

Naruto nodded, trying to look angry instead of embarrassed.

“Just be cautious. Don’t do anything blatant in front the nurses…and I wouldn’t do anything in your room. Cameras, you know.”

Naruto paled. Both times that he and Sasuke had…gone at it…it had been in his room. Shikamaru let out a disbelieving snort.

“You did it in your room?” he asked dryly, folding his arms over his chest.

“We never did it, but yeah, we…oh god, we’re in trouble.” He bit his lip harshly, and he began to pace.

Shikamaru grabbed his arm, halting him. “Relax Naruto. If they haven’t talked to you about it yet, that means they don’t know. They don’t check the camera tapes twenty-four seven, you know.”

Naruto exhaled, but he still looked wary.

“What possessed you to do the big nasty in a room full of cameras?” Shikamaru asked, smiling inwardly as Naruto got flustered again.

“We haven’t done it yet!”

“Done what?” Sasuke asked, softly shutting Kiba’s door behind him.

Naruto’s mouth snapped shut as his eyes widened with embarrassment. Luckily, Shikamaru was finally done being malicious.

“Nothing that concerns you.” He stood, and walked over to Lee, kicking him lightly in the side. The boy jerked awake with a gasp, a slight stream of drool escaping the corner of his mouth.

“Wha--?”

“Go to your bedroom,” Shikamaru muttered before grabbing the unfinished letter from the table and retreating into his own room. Lee followed suit, saying “goodnight” to both Sasuke and Naruto.

Then they were alone.

Sasuke blinked in mild confusion as he saw Naruto’s lingering blush. He walked over to the blonde, who was still staring at Shikamaru’s closed door, and lightly grazed a hand against his hip. Naruto jumped at the contact and blushed even more.

“Ah—let’s clean up. We should clean up,” he said, quickly turning away from Sasuke towards the mess on the table.

Sasuke watched Naruto for several seconds before shrugging and going to find a bag for the trash. He knew Naruto wouldn’t reveal anything if he pressured him, and, in all honesty, Naruto would probably end up giving himself away fairly soon anyways. Sasuke smirked with the knowledge that he would find out and that it was inevitably just a matter of time.

The two boys worked on cleaning up the aftermath of the party at a leisurely pace. Sasuke cleared off what little trash was left on the table after Kiba’s maddening sweep of it earlier and wiped the table down. Naruto wandered around the room and picked up bits of wrapping paper and misplaced origami creatures. Occasionally he would wad them all up into a small ball and throw them at Sasuke’s back, just to turn quickly when Sasuke would whip around.

Naruto wadded up another ball and chucked it quickly. He vaguely wondered when Sasuke would snap, or if he was really going to let him act this childishly as long as he wanted. Suddenly Sasuke spun on his heel and caught the ball just as it was about to hit him, eliciting a startled gasp from Naruto.

Sasuke smirked. “You done?” he asked condescendingly.

Naruto pouted and turned his back, bending over to retrieve a few last scraps of paper from the floor. He padded over to the still smirking Uchiha and dropped the trash in the bag Sasuke extended to him, then plopped down noisily in a chair at the table.

Sasuke tied the top of the bag into a tight knot and deposited it next to the door for the next morning. He returned to the table and sat down opposite of Naruto. Naruto looked up as Sasuke sighed heavily and closed his eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

Sasuke shook his head, eyes still closed. “Nothing. Just tired.”

Naruto smiled wryly. “Kiba tends to have that effect.”

Sasuke chuckled softly at that, and Naruto smiled again at the sound. Sasuke laughed more than he had when he had first arrived at the hospital, but it still was a fairly rare occurrence, and Naruto practically swelled with pride every time he got a smile or laugh out of him.

“You want to go to bed?” Naruto asked, although he wasn’t really tired yet.

Sasuke opened his eyes and shook his head again. At Naruto’s questioning look, he smiled softly.

“I don’t want to go to bed alone, and you’re not ready.”

Naruto’s mouth dropped slightly. He wasn’t used to be being read so easily. But then again, Sasuke was the first person he had really been honest around in a long, long time. So after a few moments, Naruto closed his mouth once more and smiled back at Sasuke, silently thanking him as he sat back in his chair.

They lingered in comfortable silence. The quiet was a welcome change after the mayhem that had been Kiba’s birthday celebration.

Suddenly Naruto sat upright and was about to say something but suddenly blushed, searching for the words.

“By the way, um, we can’t, uh...well when we...”

Sasuke arched an eyebrow.

Naruto colored a little more and took a deep breath, determined to stop acting like a bumbling schoolgirl. “When we do...stuff...we have to do it in your room.”

Sasuke sat up slowly, a small pout forming. “But I like your bed!”

Naruto valiantly hid the smirk he felt coming on from Sasuke’s whining tone. “I know. Believe me, I like mine better than yours. We can still sleep in my room, but...”

Sasuke’s face quickly lost the pout. “Oh...the cameras...” He nodded. “Was that what you and Shika were talking about?”

Naruto nodded, looking down at the table’s clean surface. Sasuke laughed again. At Naruto’s glance he sobered but his eyes kept the same teasing twinkle.

“You’re so conservative. It’s cute.”

At this Naruto promptly went into full-scale pout mode, crossing his arms against his chest and slouching in his chair. Sasuke grinned at the reaction and stood from the table.

“Want to play hangman?”

“No.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes and went to get the paper and crayons anyways. Naruto scowled and dragged the toe of his show across the carpet as he watched Sasuke walk away. Suddenly his foot hit something, not very big but heavy enough to feel through the leather of his shoe. Naruto looked down under the table, only seeing random pieces of torn wrapping paper.

“You didn’t clean everything up over here!” he called to Sasuke.

“So clean it up.”

Naruto scowled again and reached a hand out to grab the errant papers. He had wadded them up and picked up the last piece when he saw something on the floor he hadn’t noticed before. His eyes grew wide as they adjusted to the dimmer light and recognized the object.

The knife.

The knife Ten Ten had used to cut the cake.

Naruto unconsciously grasped the handle of the knife and stared at the blade. He could see his reflection in it, even with the diminished light under the table. Blue eyes stared back at him, pupils dilated.

Why was it still here? Why hadn’t Ten Ten taken it away with her?

Why was it on the floor?

Suddenly Kiba’s mad sweep of the table sprang to his mind’s eye, and he understood. But he still held the knife tightly and stared at it, even as a part of him questioned why.

The sound of Sasuke’s footsteps growing closer was enough to snap Naruto out of his mild trance. He moved to drop the knife...

...but found he couldn’t. And to his horror, something in his mind shifted. Something that he had never been able to objectively observe, but still rang with familiarity. Something he had experienced before.

It was like sitting back and watching someone else man the controls. Naruto sat up when he heard Sasuke approaching the table and deftly hid the knife from Sasuke’s sight under his thigh.

Sasuke slid noiselessly into his chair and lazily pushed a piece of paper and a purple crayon toward Naruto.

“We both know you want to play,” Sasuke said condescendingly as he peeled back a bit of the paper on his crayon. When Naruto made no move to grab the paper and crayon, Sasuke sighed.

“Fine. I’ll start.” He sat up and reached across the table towards the paper but stopped as he looked up at Naruto. Something about the blonde’s face bothered him...

Naruto wasn’t acknowledging Sasuke’s presence. He stared at some point on the table’s surface without really seeing it, his eyes slightly glazed, his body completely motionless.

“Naruto?” asked Sasuke, doing his best to mask his concern. Naruto quickly shifted his eyes to meet Sasuke’s.

“What?” he said in a monotone. Sasuke frowned. Naruto’s eyes...they were darker, somehow. And the pupils seemed too large. His gaze was far too intense for comfort.

“You okay?” Sasuke asked.

Naruto forced a smile. “Let’s play.”

Sasuke slid the paper back over to his side but watched Naruto warily. Naruto’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, and the muscles of his face tensed. He was much too focused...

But all Sasuke could do was take Naruto at his word. The last time Naruto had acted strangely, he had promised to talk to Sasuke before doing anything rash ever again, and Sasuke trusted him.

Unless...

No. Sasuke shook his head. Naruto would never try something while Sasuke was in the room with him, even if his condition took over. And Sasuke wasn’t planning on leaving the room anytime soon.

So he settled back into his chair and started to draw out his diagram, all the while keeping an eye on Naruto.

Naruto was struggling fiercely in his own mind, trying to overcome whatever this thing was that was controlling him. He had known that something came over him at times, and tried to kill him, but he had always blacked out when that happened. This time was different. This time he was seeing things as they happened, with the knowledge of what was about to happen and no way of stopping it.

It was horrifying.

Sasuke finished drawing his hangman’s noose and leisurely dashed a few blank lines below it.

“Okay, guess.”

“S,” Naruto immediately replied. Sasuke wrote the ‘S’ in the appropriate blank.

“T.” Two ‘T’s added to the blanks.

“A.” Sasuke’s eye was starting to twitch.

“N.” Sasuke glowed in triumph as he finally drew a big circle under the noose.

“E.” Naruto kept guessing without missing a beat. Sasuke looked up then, frowning once more. Usually Naruto would have said something about Sasuke’s silent gloating, or called him a name, or even pouted, but this Naruto...

Sasuke wrote in the ‘E’.

“L.” Sasuke watched Naruto closely this time as he drew the line representing the torso of the doomed stick figure. Again, Naruto made no sign of recognition. There was no competitive gleam in his eye.

And that was when Sasuke realized it.

Naruto was focused, yes...just not focused on him, or the game. Naruto was busy thinking about something else. And judging by the brief emotions flickering subtly over his face, Sasuke should be worried.

Naruto was busy screaming inside his head, trying anything he could to get this...thing to leave him alone, to let him regain control. Every so often, he could feel a sliver of command return in the form of shifting his eyes or twitching the corner of his mouth, but that was all he had been able to get back, and only if he focused really hard.

At that moment, whatever was in control of his body decided that it was time to make the move. Naruto screamed louder but to no avail as he felt his hand slowly withdraw the knife from its hiding place underneath his leg. He wished he could look down at it, or tilt his head, or something, just to get Sasuke’s attention, but he couldn’t. All he could see was the paper between him and Sasuke, and Sasuke’s worried glances every so often.

Please worry, Sasuke. Please, keep worrying. Please notice something is wrong!

I don’t want to die...

Naruto focused as hard as he possibly could, trying to gain function of anything in his body. His hand brought the knife to rest on the top of his leg, two inches from the start of his knee cap. Gently, sickeningly gently, the tip of the blade penetrated the thin cloth of his pants and met unprotected skin, breaking its surface easily. Naruto knew it should have hurt but he couldn’t register any pain, or rather any reaction to the pain, as he felt the knife digging deeper, until it sliced through the artery there.

Horrified, Naruto felt the blood seeping out from his leg and running down to meet the floor. He knew it was only a matter of time now...

And with that realization came desperation like he hadn’t possessed before, something that only the survival instinct could provide. Naruto put all of his willpower into kicking that thing out of the driver’s seat in his mind.

“Naruto. Guess,” Sasuke said in an irritated tone, still watching carefully but trying not to let it show.

“R.”

Something in Naruto’s voice made Sasuke stop before he drew a leg. For a second, there had been...a tremor.

Sasuke looked up once again, but this time he saw flickers of the Naruto he knew. The face muscles were still tensed, the brow still furrowed, but the eyes looked alive now, lighter in color once again and shifting quickly, looking...

...afraid?

Sasuke looked back to his paper and drew the leg on the stick figure slowly. He knew something wasn’t right, but he had no idea if he should involve the doctors yet. He didn’t want to cause Naruto any pain by inducing their worry and thus their incessant tests. But he also knew he wasn’t capable of handling everything himself when it came to Naruto.

“Sasuke.”

The trembling voice shook Sasuke from his thoughts and he looked up quickly. This time the expression in Naruto’s eyes made his blood run cold.

Naruto’s eyes looked terrified, in stark contrast to the rest of his face.

“Naruto, what’s go--”

Before Sasuke could finish the question a faint smell hit him. The smell he knew so well, the smell he had fervently wished to never have to endure again in his life.

Blood.

Sasuke sat completely still, praying to any god listening that he was wrong, that he wasn’t smelling that, but the smell only grew stronger and Sasuke’s eyes only grew as he watched Naruto’s face pale with each passing second.

Naruto knew he had Sasuke’s attention, and that he was about to discover what was going on, but he also knew he didn’t have enough time left to let the Uchiha sit there in denial like a freaking stone, trying to wish it away. If he had had the capabilities, he would have screamed at the boy and hit him over the head with something hard, preferably a brick, or something pointy. As it was, he had no such capabilities, so he focused as hard as he could, even with his waning strength, and managed to get out a whisper.

“Help.”

The plea was enough. Sasuke leapt from his chair then and rushed around the table. The sight that met him was ghastly.

Naruto sat in his chair clenching a kitchen knife in one hand, his head staying still but his eyes staring back helplessly at Sasuke. Blood was pouring from a cut on the top of his right thigh and pooling around his foot on the floor. It was enough to make Sasuke want to throw up.

And he just about did, when the realization hit him that the people in his life sure had a thing with knives and massive amounts of blood spilling from their arteries.

Then Sasuke chose to shut his mind down to those kind of thoughts. There were far more important things to be focusing on than the ironies of his life. He quickly ran to Naruto, ignoring the voice in his head screaming at him to stay as far away from that bloody knife as possible. He tore off his shirt, balled it up and pressed it firmly against the cut. He grabbed Naruto’s right hand and wrenched the knife from it, sending it clattering to the floor as he placed the hand over his shirt.

“Hold this there, tightly, okay, Naruto? Tightly!”

Then Sasuke ran to the wall and slammed his fist against the red button. Immediately an alarm sounded. Sasuke turned and ran back to Naruto, only to find the shirt on the floor and Naruto swinging his right foot back and forth rapidly underneath the chair in what Sasuke could only assume was an attempt to rush more blood to the gash.

“Stop! Naruto! STOP MOVING!” Sasuke sat, heedless of the blood on the floor as he tried to wrestle Naruto’s leg into immobility.

“...can’t...” he heard whispered above him, and he looked up to find Naruto’s eyelids fluttering, his eyes about to roll back into his head.

“No!” Sasuke yelled desperately and roughly hauled Naruto out of the chair and into his lap. He deftly hooked his leg over Naruto’s still kicking one, doing his best to render it motionless as he slapped at Naruto’s cheeks.

“Naruto. NARUTO! You have to stay awake!”

Naruto’s eyes fluttered again. He looked up weakly at Sasuke and moved his mouth slightly. Sasuke leaned down to hear the feeble whisper.

“...sorry...”

“Shh, you’re fine,” crooned Sasuke, rocking his and Naruto’s bodies back and forth gently. He tried to sound comforting, even as he could feel his heart pounding against Naruto’s back. “You’re fine. You’re going to be fine. Don’t be sorry. You’re fine.”

Naruto’s eyes closed once more as his breathing became shallower. Sasuke wasn’t sure if the boy’s skin could get any more white.

Where are the goddamn nurses??! Sasuke found himself thinking desperately.

“What’s going on?”

Sasuke looked up to see Lee coming out of his room, rubbing his eyes sleepily. Shikamaru came walking out of his room then. He stopped at the sight of Naruto, bloody and unconscious.

“Hurry, Shika, grab my shirt and push it against his leg!” Sasuke barked out. Shikamaru rushed to obey. “Lee, quickly, go into Kiba’s room and stay in there with him. DO NOT LET HIM COME OUT HERE.” Lee nodded and ran into Kiba’s room.

Sasuke breathed a small sigh as Shikamaru pushed hard against Naruto’s leg to try to stop the bleeding. He had forgotten the other boys were even there.

And then the nurses and doctors came running in, wrenching Naruto from his grasp and laying him none too gently on a stretcher. A nurse quickly stretched out Sasuke’s shirt and tied it tightly around the gash while another strapped an oxygen mask over Naruto’s mouth and nose.

“Sasuke.”

Sasuke looked to his side then. Shizune was talking to him.

“What ha--”

“The knife—Ten Ten left the kni—He cut his leg and it’s bleeding, badly...hurry!” Sasuke rambled, the terror of the situation finally catching up with him. “He’s dying. Please don’t let him die!”

Shizune grabbed Sasuke harshly by the shoulders. It was enough to silence him for a moment.

“Sasuke, listen to me. Naruto is going to be fine. All we have to do is sew up the wound and get him some blood. Okay? Do you hear me? He’s going to be fine.”

Sasuke nodded even as a few tears fell on his cheeks. He watched as Naruto was sped out of the room and down the hall. As soon as the boy’s stretcher was out of sight Shizune lead Sasuke over to the couch and sat him down gently.

“He’ll be fine, Sasuke. Stay calm, alright? I have to go now.”

Sasuke nodded as Shizune hurriedly left the room, the door clicking shut behind her. The room rang in with the silence that now pervaded it.

Sasuke sat staring at nothing, hugging his knees to his chest. Everything felt numb, even his mind...

After awhile, Sasuke heard the click of the door and looked over to it to see Shizune entering again. Whether a minute or twenty minutes had passed since she had left, he had no idea.

Shizune went over to the table where Shikamaru was kneeling on the floor. The two conversed in low tones and then Shizune knelt beside Shikamaru, taking something from his hand as she did so. Sasuke peered further over the back of the couch to see what they were doing.

They were cleaning up the blood. Shikamaru’s pants and the bottoms of his sleeves were red with it as he sat on the floor, mopping up the mess with paper towels. Shizune had placed the still-bloodied knife on the table and was now crouching down to help Shikamaru.

Sasuke watched with detached interest as the puddle was cleaned up and the pile of red paper towels grew on the floor. Shizune stood and reopened the trash bag that was sitting next to the door. She started depositing the towels in the bag, then said something quietly to Shikamaru. Shikamaru nodded and proceeded to strip down to his boxers. He silently handed over the bloodied clothes to Shizune, who put those in the bag as well, and went into the bathroom. Sasuke could hear the water in the sink running, and then it being turned off.

“Sasuke.”

Shizune was talking to him again. Sasuke looked at her blankly.

“Take off your clothes.”

Sasuke stood and mechanically removed his pants and his shirt and gave them to Shizune. He stared at his hands then. They were still bloody.

Then he saw a hand covering one of his and followed the arm with his eyes to find Shikamaru now standing in front of him.

“Come on. We’ll wash it off,” Shikamaru said quietly. Sasuke nodded. Shikamaru slowly lead Sasuke towards the bathroom, walking backwards himself.

“Shizune?” he called out to the doctor, who had grabbed the bag and the knife from the table and was about to leave. She looked back at him over her shoulder from the doorway.

“Keep us posted, please? About anything. Wake us up, okay?”

Shizune nodded and smiled softly. “I will,” she said, and then she left, shutting the door quietly behind her.

Shikamaru brought Sasuke into the bathroom and turned on the hot water. He drew Sasuke’s hands underneath the flow and lathered them in soap. Sasuke watched as the reddish brown bubbles ran off his fingers and into the sink, swirling into the drain. Shikamaru scrubbed at his fingers, having to lather the soap a few times to get them clean.

Sasuke withdrew one of his hands from the sink while Shikamaru worked on the other. He looked at one of his fingers closely.

Blood was caked underneath his nail.

Sasuke stared at it, unbidden tears coming to his eyes. Shikamaru reached out for the hand but stopped, seeing Sasuke about to cry. He looked at the nail, then, grasping the finger lightly, hooked his own nail underneath, scraping out the dried blood. A single tear escaped down Sasuke’s cheek as Shikamaru worked on each fingernail meticulously.

“Sasuke?” Shika murmured as he cleaned the last nail. “Naruto will be okay. I promise. He’s going to be fine. Shizune said all they have to do is get him some blood, and that he has a common blood type, so there shouldn’t be a problem at all.”

Sasuke nodded and took a shaky breath. “Good.”

Shikamaru finished washing Sasuke’s hands and patted them dry with a towel, then looked him in the eye. “You found him in time. So he’s going to be fine.”

Sasuke nodded again, this time with more certainty. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Shikamaru repeated, turning to leave the bathroom. “Come on, I’ll get you some clothes.”

Sasuke followed Shikamaru out of the bathroom and sat down on the couch. Shikamaru returned a minute later fully dressed and carrying a blanket, a tee shirt and a pair of light cotton pants. He tossed the clothes on Sasuke’s lap.

“Put them on,” he ordered mildly and walked into Naruto’s bedroom. Sasuke complied, donning the garments that were slightly too large for him. Shikamaru returned again, this time with Naruto’s blanket and two pillows in hand. Sasuke had never been more grateful for Shika’s intuition as Shikamaru handed him one of the pillows and Naruto’s blanket, then sat down on the other side of the couch with his own blanket and the other pillow and started to position himself to sleep.

“Thank you, Shika,” he whispered. Shikamaru grunted lazily, his own version of a “you’re welcome”, and laid his head down on the pillow against the armrest.

Sasuke sat back down and situated himself as comfortably as he could. He knew he didn’t want to fall asleep. He already had an idea of what his dreams would be like tonight.

But the chaos of the day began to catch up to him, and he felt his eyelids drooping. He struggled to maintain consciousness, even though he knew he was fighting a useless battle.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, one thought hit him, one that would keep at bay the worst of his nightmares this night:

Naruto had known. This time he had been aware of what was happening, and he had even been able to override some of his condition enough to communicate, however primatively. And that meant...

That meant there was hope for Naruto.



Hey everyone! ::ducks to avoid objects being thrown:: I’m sorry! I really am! We’re trying really, really hard. Both of our lives are far too crazy right now... (to KandKL) We really should try to slow down.

KandKL: Slow down? I think that’s why they’re going to kill us.

Mirandler43: (gulp)

KandKL: You are the slowest writer I have EVER known.

Mirandler43: (double gulp)

So anyways, have I mentioned that I love you all? Seriously, have I? Because I got 49 reviews. That’s right, 49. I CAN’T BELIEVE IT. THANK YOU GUYS! We totally owned the ff reviewers. (very very evil laugh) We’re only 15 behind now, which is insane. I really can’t believe it. You are all my heroes. ... can we do it again?

...

Okay, I know. How about if we do it again, I’ll update super fast? Will that work?

Next chapter is going to be a lot of fun, for all parties involved. Lots of laughs, and lots of...well, let’s just say Kiba and Lee will be the only innocent ones by the end. Stay tuned.

Also, I can confidently say that our outline for the rest of the story is finalized (finally...we’ve changed it three times now I think) and there are only five or six chapters left. So if you have any final requests, or ideas, or things you want to see done differently, go ahead and let us know now and I’ll see what we can do.

I can’t believe this (as I have redundantly stated three times now), but I have too many reviews to respond to all of them, so if you are a regular or you had a question in your review, you can find your response below. I’m sorry I can’t say thanks to everyone individually, but know that I appreciate you! A lot! Cookies for all!

MiniMew: Well, I hope your headache is gone by now. And feel free to bug me with reviews as much as you want. :) (I’m a review WHORE, can you tell?) Glad you liked it, especially with Shika and Neji. You’ll see more in the future. And thanks for the site!
Briryan: Glad you enjoyed! Can’t you totally picture Lee giving the Heimlich, and Kiba’s screaming for him to stop? Yeah, I laughed anyways. And, well, I can’t really answer about Neji. But you will hear more from him.
Rasengan22: Here’s your update. For real. After many false promises. Can you ever trust me again? Anyways, KandKL was mega impressed that you liked the *action* that much. I shifted perspectives more in this chapter, just to try it out. Did it work okay? I agree, I’m not really sure how Naruto can be so prudish around Sasuke. The boy is damn fine. But whatever, I’m sure Sasuke will work it out of him. (evil smirk) I hope you update nstah soon...?
hanyou-elf: Your review is one of my top three that I look forward to reading. You’re very flattering. ::blushes:: Sorry to disappoint with the long wait. We just...had a lot of issues. But hopefully things will start picking up again. I agree about Lee. Lee’s my baby. I wouldn’t worry too much about Shika. With Neji back in his life, he’s going to see Lee as more of an additional friend than a replacement. And Shika is about a year older than everyone else in this story, so he is a bit more mature. Thanks for the encouragement, and see you next time!
Reno’s_Lover: Haha, I hope the ending of this chapter didn’t make you slip into depression or anything. It does end on a hopeful note though.
yaoigoddess: I know! He’s back! Yay!
sango2sakura: Oh, no, no worries, I can assure you that Shika and Lee will NOT become romantically involved. No, no, no. Next update will come more quickly, I promise. I’m embarrassed it took so long.
Artemis-sensei: Haha, oh well, this name’s better, right? I know, about the Toy Story song. I was reading the lyrics, and I was just like, wow, can I got write songs for Disney? Because this I can do...I’m reading your story, by the way, and I love it. I can’t remember if I’ve reviewed yet, but if I haven’t I’m getting there, I swear! You write emotion great. That’s the stuff I always struggle with. I’m very Hemingway in that regard.
ladygizarme: HAHA! I know. I think everyone would be Kiba inside with that song, because of the nostalgia it creates if nothing else. Hm, well in my mind, it took them forty minutes to find Kiba (it had to be awhile to get Naruto so worked up, right?), and I don’t think the lady ratted him out. I think she sat there in silence with big eyes. Thanks for the understanding about the update time. My life is mildly insane right now.
Pumpkin: O_O Did I read that right? You want Kiba and Lee together? ... Don’t you think that would be way too much energy? Kind of scares me...About Shika and Neji, we shall see about visits. That’s all I can say.
Me Loves You: Okay, so you’re not a regular, and you didn’t ask a question, but you called me a GOD. So I had to reply. I love you. :D
sadistickiss Haha, you are very flattering. I’m glad we make you feel happy. Sometimes I worry about the angst level of this story, but then I figure, they’re adolescent boys in a psychiatric ward. It’s bound to get dramatic.
Naruto: KandKL saw your review from my one-shot, and she was just like, okay, you see? We HAVE to start moving faster. People are waiting on us. My apologies! Aww, we’re amazing? That’s sweet. You should, um, tell Sasuke to review ::cough cough:: See I really AM a review whore. ... Oh well, I’m over it. :D
Teaspoon: Indeed. AFF took this round by a landslide. I can’t really answer any questions about Sasuke’s health or how long he’s staying. I can say that you will see Neji in the future, so keep an eye out for him.
CMG: Kays, keep reviewing over here. Please. I will love you forever?
Shadow Walker: It’s okay, I still love you! I know, the toilet thing was really hard to write. The germophobe in me was kicking and screaming. Glad you like Lee like this! He’s fun to write.
ADHD Kid: Lemon’s coming, I swear!
Vincent Valentine: Neji will be back soon, so keep an eye out!
Pandora: Aww, here’s a tissue. :D A little more *action* to pick up your mood!
nate: No problem, you’ve been added. Glad you’re enjoying!
Steph: Feel free to keep me in line then. Comment whore? Hmm.... I may have to take you up on that. :D

Peace and love y’all!