Warnings: I haven't actually seen the Naruto: Kizuna movie; the previews spawned this. In all likelihood, it will not have any relationship to any scene in the animation.


Disclaimer: The original manga, Naruto, is the work of Kishimoto Masashi. Characters and settings have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use.

"Kizuna"

Sasuke blinked a couple times, his eyes adjusting to the dark cave where he'd been lying on his back. For quite awhile now, to judge from the crick in his back, or the dull ache radiating through his skull from the point where his head touched the cold stone ground. That was the last time he used Mumyaku Mukyuu Musei no Jutsu - the No Pulse, No Breath, No Life Technique - to fake out an opponent after a battle. Kabuto could apparently snap right out of it, no problem, but Kabuto could sleep two hours a night and spend the early morning teaching birds to sing in a barbershop quartet. Successfully. The guy was a freak, and in Sound that was saying something.

'Stealth' my ass... Sasuke thought. Next time, everybody dies. Watch 'em talk about seeing me then. But oh, no... he had to get in and out without making a scene... Fuck that. At this point, he'd been out but semi-conscious long enough that this was uncomfortably like waking up. He hated waking up. Especially when there wasn't any breakfast. It always took him five minutes to remember where he was, even when he woke up in his own bed, let alone after sleeping in his clothes without a proper shower on a fucking stone floor.

Not that he'd been asleep. Not really. But getting his blood moving again was a hell of a lot like waking up, and that made this idiotic technique useless in battle from here on out.

He couldn't sense any more enemy chakra. The coast seemed clear enough. And if it wasn't, at least Sakura knew not to talk that loud even if Naruto didn't... the familiar voices echoed through the caves, little more than background noise. He couldn't really focus on the words.

Inability to focus - Yet another reason why he hated mornings.

Not that this was one.

But he'd be damned if he didn't want a shower and some breakfast to get his blood sugar up.

"But Sakura-chan!! We should carry him back to the village while, you know, he's here and we're here, and we still can, you know? We need to get him back, ASAP!! Come on..."

Why am I in this cave again? Sasuke thought, waiting for the foggy pain to recede from his head. Perfect the consciousness transfer technique? He vaguely remembered Orochimaru's voice hissing some crap like that. Well, fuck that too. Leaving Konoha to train with 'real ninja' had apparently been less effective than he'd thought it would be when he was twelve. If he'd known Orochimaru had left the goddamn Akatsuki because Itachi could beat him up, he probably wouldn't have gone in the first place. Besides which, Naruto had continued to level up at his ridiculous pace while playing around in Konoha - and he'd gotten fucking hot, too. It just wasn't fair.

"Naruto, you know we can't risk carrying him off against his will. He's always a little out of it before he gets something to eat, and we don't want him to attack first thing. We'll wait here and talk to him when he wakes up completely."

Sasuke groaned and started pushing up on his elbows, muttering, "I'm not fucking asleep, you idiots." There was a lake somewhere around here, or a waterfall or something. He could hear it. And it sounded sufficient to clean off the cold sweat and the cave dirt.

"Sasuke!!" A flying tackle from six different directions knocked him back flat, and five of the Narutos exploded in a puff of smoke as they collided, leaving just the one clinging to his neck. Typical. "Let's go home, 'kay? We'll all go home together, and everything will be fine, right?!"

"God, you're loud." He opened one eye and sighed at the foolish grin on his friend's face. "And heavy. Get the fuck off me." As Naruto sat back, he pushed to a sitting position and shook his head before standing up all the way. "I'm not going anywhere til I get a goddamn shower." He started shedding his clothes as he walked toward the waterfall.

Sakura squealed for a second and faced the other direction with her hands over her eyes. "Sasuke! I'm right here. I can see you, you know..."

"Are you or are you not a medi-nin? This can't possibly be the first time you've seen a man naked."

Naruto, on the other hand, jumped in the waterfall with him with all his clothes still on, showing no sign of caring that he was getting soaked. "But you'll come back, right? Right?! You've got to. And I'll introduce you to Tsunade-baachan, and you'll be good once she says you're cool -- she's the Fifth Hokage, you see..."

"I do actually know that. We met, remember?"

"...and we'll throw you a huge welcome back party, and everyone will come..."

"I doubt it," Sasuke muttered.

"And I'll make Ichiraku bring ramen for everyone, not that tsukemen crap..."

"Tsch. I like tsukemen better, though." Didn't matter. Naruto wasn't listening.

"...real ramen with the noodles and the broth all in the same bowl, and it'll be awesome..."

"Naruto." He cut off the blonde decisively enough that the idiot actually stopped talking. Now Naruto was silently looking at him with his ordinary clueless expression. "I can't just go back. I walked out on the village, walked out on you... sold my body to that creep Orochimaru for power he couldn't even give me." Shaking his head in the stream of water, he kneaded the sore spot on his back. "All I got was that stupid bow on my ass."

"And you can summon snakes."

With a sigh he replied, "You know, I think I'd rather be able to summon dogs." Nostalgia sucked.

"Kakashi-sensei can teach you! So you've got to come back!"

Sasuke scoffed and looked at Naruto in disbelief. How dense could you be? "Remember the last time Kakashi-sensei taught me a high-level personal technique? I used it to shove my fucking fist through your chest. He's not going to teach me shit now. Give it up, Naruto -- I can't go back."

"But see!" Naruto replied, pulling back his jacket and shirt collar. "There's not even a scar. No harm, no foul, right?"

The combination of pseudo-waking-up crankiness, three years of frustration, and atrophied defenses to Naruto pissing him off translated into slamming his friend up against the cave wall very fast and very hard.

"Sasuke!" Sakura's voice called out from somewhere in the cave. "Naruto! Will you two cut it out?"

But all his attention was fixed on two blue eyes that even after all these years wouldn't let him go. "That supposed to make me feel better or something? I tried to kill you, but it's all right because I couldn't? What the fuck are you on?!" Unfortunately, the sound of his stomach growling lessened the impact.

Instead of looking scared or even defensive, Naruto just grinned. Sasuke sighed and dropped his head. Stupid stomach. And when he looked back up, the sight of Naruto biting his lip nearly derailed his train of thought.

Stupid hormones.

"Hey, Sasuke. You can still make a fireball even if you're hungry, right?"

"Don't ask stupid questions," he muttered. "Of course I can. You want me to fry off that ugly growth on the end of your neck?"

"My what-where?"

"Your head, moron." Sometimes trying to insult Naruto was more trouble than it was worth.

There he was, that dead-last idiot... still grinning, shaking his head. "Nah, I just thought... if we could get a fire going, there's plenty of water..." Reaching into a large pocket on the side of his leg, the Konoha ninja pulled out a water-tight package. "And I've got rice and miso..."

Sasuke blinked.

Rice and miso?

On a mission?

When field rations were three times as compact and five times as much food?

Somewhere on the edge of his perception, he could hear a female voice demanding to know, "Oh, my god! What are you doing?" followed by a choked squeal of surprise.

Sasuke had just barely noticed himself when it happened, but it was obvious in short order. He'd never wanted to kiss Naruto more in his life... though to be fair, pretty much every other time he'd wanted to kiss Naruto he'd been much more awake, or in another country, or both. He broke off just long enough to say, "I love you," then continued - rather forcefully - since, even if he'd just woken up, he sure as hell would have noticed Naruto trying to stop him. Probably he should have been surprised that Naruto was kissing him back, but why waste the opportunity?

He wanted to ask, Why the hell do you have rice and miso? It wasn't like the mission was about finding him and getting him back to Konoha by any means necessary... even breakfast... but the combination of the fact that he was very hungry and Naruto was clearly offering to share overrode his good sense. Besides, if their situations were reversed and he were the one trying to bring Naruto back to Konoha, he'd sure as hell have Cup Ramen on him anywhere he went, just in case. So, he knew why, and it was idiotic, but it was also rice and miso for breakfast.

Of course, since gathering firewood and cooking was going to take some time anyway, there was nothing to lose 'thanking' Naruto a little longer. For old time's sake, though technically they hadn't had that kind of old times. He chuckled at his friend's encouragment, asking, "So is there a scroll in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"

"Umm..." Naruto said, retreating a bit and blinking in confusion. "... yes?" But once he'd started 'appreciating' Naruto's offer, he wasn't ready to stop so fast. After all the craziness and all the horror and all the loneliness, that kiss just made sense... and as long as his old friend was into it...

Really, what teenage boy was responsible for the position of his hands in this sort of situation?

"Oi, oi!" Naruto cried out, pulling Sasuke's hand away from his rear. "That's a little--"

Then the cave rumbled. They both went still and silent, wary of the rocks stirring loose from the tremors running through the ground and falling all around them. Earthquake? Sasuke wondered. No one saw any evidence of fault activity in the area... Besides, it was over too quickly and the tremors didn't quite feel like a normal earthquake.

Quietly, they examined the situation, and turned to face the open area of the cave. Sakura was kneeling - fist to the ground - in the middle of a large crater. She looked up at the two of them, eyes narrowed and practically snarling.

He could feel Naruto gulp. "Sa-sa-sakura-chan..." the blonde stammered.

She stood, kicking at the ground, and a larger rock than the ones that had fallen earlier flew within an inch of the top of their heads and smashed against the wall behind the waterfall. Apparently, Sakura had leveled up, too.

"I'm... right... here!!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.

Sakura had also clearly gotten pissed.

Which he might have to admit was fair.

[The End]