Hi ^^ So, if you're reading this then I'm assuming that you've read the baseline story for this? Yes? If no, then go read it .
Well, yeah... so as per usual... this is super OOC
I hope you like it :D

"Sasuke!" Sakura yelled as the teen went flying through the air before bouncing across the hard ground.

"Come on, Sasuke." Naruto growled. "Get up, dammit!"

They watched as the raven groaned and rolled onto his stomach before struggling to get onto all fours. He wobbled as he slowly stood and then he pulled the kunai from his chest, but the enemy was in front of Sasuke in a second; landing a kick into the boys chest, sending him to the floor again.

"Leave him alone!" Naruto yelled, wincing as the teeth of the giant cats holding him dug further into his legs, stomach and arms. Sakura was in a similar position as a sword was pressed tight against her throat.

Again, Sasuke struggled to his feet. He glanced at Naruto and offered the blonde a faint smile before turning his attention back to the group leader "That all you got?" he chuckled and his teammates could hear the strain in his voice.

"Sasuke, just stop" Sakura begged "Stop or he'll kill you"

"Shut up, Sakura. I-I made a promise" he coughed causing blood to dribble down his chin "I promised to protect–" he coughed again and staggered.

"Forget about your promise!" she said

"I said shut up" he snapped.

Naruto watched, shocked that Sasuke was speaking to Sakura like this; he usually kept his temper with her.

"How touching" the enemy smirked "to see friends such as these, trying to protect one another when you're all going to die regardless"

Sasuke reached into his weapons pouch and pulled out a kunai. He had barely shifted when the man before him twisted suddenly and threw a handful of shuriken towards the blonde.

Naruto squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the metal to pierce his body. But instead, he felt arms slide around his waist and a face push into his neck before there was a gasp in his ear. His eyes snapped open "Sasuke!" he breathed, staring at the weapons in bedded in the raven's back. "Why?"

"I promised I'd protect you" he said, his voice strained as his hands gripped the material of Naruto's jumpsuit. "Just get out alive" he managed before his body went limp and he fell against Naruto.

"How– how dare you" Naruto growled, his teeth growing into vicious fangs "what have you done?"

"Good, now that he's out of the way. We can have the Nine-Tails" the group laughed

"You did this to get to me" Naruto yelled, fury clouding his vision as a large red bubble grew around him. The lions holding him whimpered and released him before running away into the surrounding forest, sensing another animal's presence.

"What... what is this?" the leader of the group said.

Gently, Naruto laid Sasuke onto the ground before looking up and allowing a fierce growl to slip through his lips. The air around him bubbled as the chakra shaped into one of the nine tails of the beast inside him. No words were spoken as Naruto held out his clawed hand and instantly, a huge ball of red chakra began swirling in his hand.

"Naruto! You can't do a Rasengan while using the Fox's chakra. It'll kill you!" Sakura yelled

Ignoring her, the blonde held out his other hand, creating a second Rasengan, causing another tail to grow and another growl rumbled from his chest.

"NARUTO! STOP!" She called desperately

He moved quickly, running across the dirt towards his enemy who had only seen that the blonde was gone; but it was too late, Naruto was too close for the man to run. His hand swung and instantly his Rasengan connected to the man's chest, and with another growl, the ball because to push into the man's body and suddenly, Naruto had his hand coming out the other side of the man's body; blood splattering onto the blonde's face as well as the floor.

Once he removed his arm from within the man's body, he snarled while watching the now-corpse sink into a heap at his feet. His attention turned to the man holding a sword to Sakura's throat who looked terrified at the sight of the teenager, Naruto ran to the man and shoved the Rasengan in his other hand through his body.

As he released Sakura and crumpled to the ground, Naruto turned frantically, sniffing the air.

"N–Naruto?" she said in a quiet, scared voice "Please, calm down. Sasuke needs help"

He crouched and let out a loud growl which slowly changed into a scream of pain as Naruto repressed Kyuubi's possession. Once he'd stopped struggling for breathe and began panting heavily, the blonde crawled over to Sasuke's side.

"Is.. Is he dead?" the blonde asked, it felt like his stomach has dropped to his feet.

"No, but he's losing a lot of blood and if we don't get him back to the village soon, he'll die" Sakura replied in a quiet voice.

"Heal him." He demanded

"I can't" she replied, sounding as if she were close to tears "I used most of my chakra in that fight"

"Let's go then" he said, struggling to his feet.

"Naruto, no! You're completely wiped out" she scalded

"Sasuke used up everything he had to protect me, so I'm going to keep him alive. No matter what." He said, gritting his teeth as he grabbed Sasuke's arms and bent down to haul his limp body onto his back. "Let's go"

They'd been running towards the village for quite a while, the sun was beginning to set over the treetops and Naruto was heavily feeling the effects of what he'd done. And now he was going as fast as he could; using the remains of his chakra to increase his speed with the hope that he could get the other boy to safety. Sakura kept glancing at him, her eyes always gazing at him in disbelief.

"What?" he asked her through gritted teeth after about the third time she did this.

"How are you still walking?" she replied quietly

"I can't let him die" he said sternly

"That isn't what I mean–"

Naruto cut across her "We're not going fast enough" he sped up, leaving her to shake her head in astonishment.

Naruto only allowed his pace to slow as he drew nearer to the village, his ears were ringing and his vision fading in and out, he resorted to blinking rapidly to clear this.

"I'll run ahead and get Tsunade-sama" Sakura called as she sprinted past him.

Naruto heard something then. Like water splashing on the floor, was someone sneaking up on him? He glanced left, nothing. Right, nothing. His eyes narrowed and he turned, his body tensing for an attack but instead of an enemy ninja, he found that all that was behind him was a trail of puddles which lead right up to his feet.

"Wh–" he grunted in pain as he felt it. He felt the blood seeping out of his chest, hands, legs, arms and his head. It was dripping from his hair and soaking his jacket from a bright orange to a deep red. "Oh..." he sighed.

He turned again and started walking towards the village again, he realised now that the blood flowed fast when he moved. 'Damn, when is Kyuubi going to heal me?' he coughed, hoisting Sasuke further onto his back when he began falling off.

By the time that Naruto came into view of the village gates, he thought he was going to cry with relief. His vision was nearly completely gone now as the world swam around him and he couldn't quite get air into his lungs.

He heard his name being called from a distance and he could see the faint outline of Kotetsu and Izumo running towards him. The relief that washed over him was like a sedative, allowing him to finally feel the pain his body was in.

Slowly, he gently placed Sasuke onto the floor and knelt beside him, cradling the raven's face in his hands. "I got you as far as I can, Sasuke. Please, hang in there" he whispered, the blood dripping from his face and smearing from his hands onto the other's face, a shocking contrast between the colours. "Please Sasuke. Please, promise me you'll live" he pressed his forehead against the other boy's and took a shaky breath.

"Naruto!" it was Tsunade's voice

He smiled lightly "See, Sasuke... help is here" as he said these words, a terrifying thought occurred to him 'I am finally going to die'. He pulled away and in a spur-of-the-moment-I'm-going-to-die thing, he desperately pushed his lips into Sasuke's.

And with that, he collapsed sideways, a pool of blood slowly forming around him as he fell unconscious.

His eyes blinked open before quickly closing again due to being blinded by the harsh light. He groaned with the realisation of where he was, he'd been here enough over the years. The unmistakable smell of the hospital surrounded him; suffocated him. He coughed and then grunted in pain as his entire body protested the movement.

"You're awake, huh?" upon hearing the familiar voice, he opened his eyes slowly.

"Wha–what happened?" he asked, his voice sore.

Naruto watched as Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed and then Tsunade spoke from across the room "Do you really not remember? Or are you being stupid?" she asked, sounding concerned.

"I remember carrying Sasuke back and then I think Sakura ran off..?" he sighed, and rubbed his forehead as he attempted to recall what happened afterwards but when it didn't happen he looked up at the ceiling "Nothing after that though..."

Sasuke gently placed a hand onto Naruto's forehead and pushed his hair away from his face "It's okay, we'll explain later" he smiled and the blonde could see marks on his face from unhealed cuts.

Kakashi watched the exchange from the corner of the room with a raised eyebrow, wondering when the boys had gotten so close. "I guess I'll head off now" he said "I'm glad you're okay, Naruto" Kakashi smiled behind his mask before he slowly walked to the door and waved before leaving.

"I'll send Sakura in a little later to check on you but you should be safe with Sasuke. Any problems and just call" Tsunade said, sighing slightly before following Kakashi out of the door.

There was an eerie silence while they left and then Sasuke looked down at him. "I'm glad you're awake, you took your time about it" he chuckled.

"How long have I been out?" he asked, clearly confused.

"It's been three weeks since our mission" Sasuke replied. "You had us all worried, Tsunade said there was a chance that this time... you'd gone too far" the raven's eyes left Naruto's gaze, suddenly finding his feet seriously interesting.

"Too far? What do you mean?"

Sasuke huffed "You exhausted all your own chakra and then you allowed the Kyuubi to take over; you had two tails... You make two rasengans without the aid of your clones and then you pushed them through the hearts of those ninja... the backlash of the jutsu as well as the strain that Kyuubi puts on your body left a hole in your chest and should have left you unconscious." He clenched his teeth.

"Sasuke?"

The hand that the raven had in Naruto's hair tightened and he hung his head, his body shaking. "Why are you such an idiot?"

"Excuse me?" Naruto exclaimed, clearly offended.

"Where you trying to kill yourself? You had no chakra, no energy and you were covered in fatal wounds and then you decide to do something stupid like use chakra to run me back to the village. What the hell were you thinking?" he growled

Naruto tutted and squeezed his eyes closed "I couldn't let you die..." he replied in a quiet voice. When Sasuke didn't reply, Naruto looked down at his body; he had bandages wrapped around his hands from where the fox-chakra-rasengan had burnt him, more around his thigh, his shoulder, his ankle and his forearm from where he'd been pinned by the lions. He had a large padded bandage around his chest, assuming that was from using the Kyuubi's Rasengan. On top of that there was another bandage around his head and he felt like his entire body had been trampled by horses. A tired yawn escaped his lips and Sasuke moved his hand down to hold the blonde's.

"Get some rest" he said "I'll leave you to sleep"

Automatically, his hand tightened around Sasuke's. "Stay"

He seemed to think about it for a second before he nodded and took a seat "Okay, I'll stay"

"Thanks" he said, his eyes closing

It was a few days later and Naruto was still in the hospital with Sasuke sat quietly at his side, they had been talking about Rock Lee and Gai (who had just left after visiting the blonde) when they'd gone silent. The entire atmosphere of the room changed as Sasuke raised his eyes to Naruto's face again "Sakura told me something, about that day... that when we got back to the village... and you put me down, you – you..." he faded out

"I what?" he said "come on, Sasuke... you're making me worried. I can't remember what happened, so you'll have to tell me"

"You kissed me" he mumbled, so quietly that Naruto almost didn't hear it.

"I DID WHAT!?" he yelled

"Shut up, idiot. We're in a hospital!" Sasuke placed his hand over the blonde's mouth.

Naruto reached up and grasped Sasuke's wrist until he removed it. "Opps, but I did that?"

"Do you regret it?" he asked "I mean, neither of us remember so... I was thinking... maybe we should..."

"We should?" he asked, waiting for the other boy to finish his sentence.

A light blush settled across his face as his eyes danced around the room, focusing on anything that wasn't the boy who was sat up in his hospital bed. "Maybe we should... ki–actually, forget about it"

Realisation slapped Naruto in the face "Are you asking for us to kiss again?" he smirked

"Maybe" the raven muttered, again avoiding his gaze.

"Well..." the blonde went quiet, waiting for Sasuke to kiss him. "Umm, Sasuke. I can't move... you're going to have to make the effort here" he chuckled

Sasuke's face flushed again before he took Naruto's hand and smirked "Sorry"

The blonde tugged his hand slightly to get the other's attention and in one swift movement, Sasuke bent down and pushed his lips against Naruto's.

Naruto smiled against the other's lips before returning the pressure and sliding his tongue against Sasuke's bottom lip. But before their kiss could turn into a bit of a make-out session, the door slid open and the two boys jumped apart.

"Naruto! How are you feeli–" Kiba exclaimed as he came through the door before stopping and raising an eyebrow at the two "Did I just... interrupt something?"

"Huh? No! Of course not!" Naruto laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head.

"You guys are so troublesome" Shikamaru groaned as he pushed past him and flopped into one of the hospital chairs beside Naruto's bed, quickly followed by Kiba who began to speak endlessly about his day.

Naruto raised his gaze to Sasuke's and a small smile crossed his lips and butterflies erupted in his stomach as Sasuke returned the expression.