"Baka."

Startled, Naruto turned to face Sasuke.

It had been a cheap shot sneaking up on him like that instead of approaching openly.

"Go away." He sniffled indignantly. Great. Now his humiliation was complete.

It was times like this Naruto regretted forsaking the goggles. You could cry forever behind the dark glass and no one would ever know.

Sasuke frowned. Or should that be 'frowned more' - or maybe not since that didn't seem possible. He grabbed the smaller boys' hand that he'd been washing in the stream. He performed a perfunctory examination, and was slightly surprised to see the gash from the kunai already healed. Just the three scratches from the claws remained, healing slowed by the poison, he presumed.

"Don' t you know any . . . " Sasuke stopped himself as Naruto snatched his hand away. There was no point in lecturing Naruto for not knowing field medicine. He glared at the boy that was poutily hugging his injured hand to his chest.

"Give me your hand." He demanded.

Naruto sniffed and looked away.

"If you don't let me treat your hand you'll die." It was a lie, and the horrified look the boy directed to him made Sasuke regret it immediately.

"I'd rather die than be saved by you." Mumbled Naruto. He seemed to think about the irony of that statement, because a moment later he added awkwardly. "Again."

"Fine. Now give me your hand."

"No!" Denied Naruto stretching his hand behind his back to put as far from Sasuke's reach as possible.

"Naruto!" Sasuke sternly demanded.

"You're lying! Kakashi-sensei would have said if I was gonna die!"

"Baka." He pretended to give in and waited for Naruto to drop his guard before tackling him. The struggle was short-lived for the fact that Naruto was physically weakened by the poison. However even when Sasuke had him pinned, Naruto still stubbornly kept his free arm held back. It would have been quite a remarkable feat with the mild paralysis from the poison setting in . . . except . . . . except. . .

Sasuke laughed and Naruto froze at the unfamiliar sound. And then he died from embarrassment (again) at realizing the hand he was playing keepaway with was the uninjured one. Unable to move Sasuke's weight from his chest he slumped to the ground defeated.

"I don't need you. I don't need anybody."

Sasuke slashed the welts expertly before placing the hand to his mouth. Naruto gasped a little when he started to suck the wound, drawing out any residual toxin- funny, he hadn't even flinched when the kunai cut.

"Fine." He replied after spitting a little blood to the side. He repeated the process a few times before dragging the unresisting boy over to the stream again and dunking the hand, taking care to rinse his mouth thoroughly. With deft fingers he rebandaged the hand - even though it seemed unnecessary as the wound was already healing . . . it was unnaturally fast and Sasuke couldn't help but wonder if Kakashi-sensei had used some kind of healing jitsu.

"I'm only letting you fix my hand so's I can rescue you later. I'll rescue all of you and then we'll be even."

Sasuke smirked indulgently. 'Letting?'

"We'll see."

"Hey! Hey! And I'll rescue Tazuna-san too. That'll be pretty neat even if he is an old fart, ne? Ne?" Cheered Naruto.

"Uhn."

"And Kakashi-sensei too!" Naruto giggled in delight mentally picturing the teacher in supplication, thanking him for saving his unworthy life. Then buying ramen. He wondered if wave country ramen was as good as Konoha Village Ramen . . . probably not.

Sasuke just nodded, wondering if Naruto was hallucinating when he screamed, "Extra Large Double Pork!" while pointing to the sky meaningfully.

Unfortunately this was the moment Sakura chose to appear (on the premise of checking on Naruto but really to ogle Sasuke), and being physically weakened his finger pointed not so directly skyward but very much so directly at herself. She flushed angrily at the accusation.

"Sakura-chan! Gomen-gomen!" Wailed Naruto after her retreating form - the slight stagger now the only indication he had been suffering at all.

"Baka." Sasuke muttered to himself, wiping his mouth and cleaning off the kunai before hiding it on his person again.

He let his fingers linger on his lips . . . he had the oddest tingly feeling . . . it was not unpleasant . . .

It was probably the poison.

Probably.

**** * *** **** ****

HOLY SHITE! I WROTE FLUFF! I'M SO PROUD OF ME O_O!

(I don't care how bad it is! This is a real step up in the world!)