Sasuke and Naruto groped around in the dark to find the now sealed-off entrance.
"Damn it," they exclaimed at the same time.
Sasuke began looking for rocks to remove to no avail.
"I somehow don't think it's going to work," said Naruto. "There are over two tons of boulders in our way. Besides, you need to rest." He groped his way to the fire and relit it. The cave soon became visible and Naruto looked over to see a glowering Sasuke leaning for support on a boulder.
"So, you're going to keep on being stubborn?" Naruto scowled. "Fine, I'm going to look around here. Talk to me when you feel like being civil." He turned away from Sasuke and walked away into the rocky passage.
Sasuke watched him storm off and sagged to the ground. The baka is right… I'm not strong enough. I'm pathetic. He crawled over to the fire, picked up a fish and ate it. Fuck… this is actually good. He finished the fish and stood to wobble back to the sleeping bag.
Naruto groped his way along the passage of the cave, searching for a source of light. "Naruto," he chided himself, "you should have been smarter and gotten some fire to light the way."
He stumbled on a rock and fell, scraping his elbow. "Ow," he exclaimed. Rubbing his bleeding elbow, he proceeded forward only to slip and fall into a steaming hot spring face-first. He emerged sputtering and shook the water out of his hair.
"Shit! How did this spring get here? These were my only clothes," he gasped. "Oh, hell no! I'm not walking around naked with Sasuke!" He clambered out of the water and began to walk back to Sasuke and the fire.
Sasuke glanced up to hear splashing and Naruto yelling random nonsense. He smirked and leaned back against a rock to wait for him to come back. Sure enough, a minute or so later, Naruto came sauntering back.
They locked eyes briefly and Sasuke began to say something, but Naruto interrupted him. "Don't say anything, Sasuke, or I swear to you, you will regret it."
Sasuke shrugged and hid a smile. "You're going to catch a cold if you keep those on."
Naruto sat down, dripping water into the fire. "I realize that, but I have no other clothes to change into, so therefore, I need to stay in these."
Sasuke shook his head and sighed. "Stop acting like such an immature idiot. Get them off, and if you want to hide yourself, you can get under the sleeping bag and I'll dry your clothes out for you."
Naruto hesitated, but after a few minutes of sitting in drenched clothes, he felt shivers run down his spine and decided that it was best to remove the clothing. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Sasuke's eyes soften slightly while hiding a smile.
Wait… maybe he does care. I knew it! Sasuke can't be cold and heartless, no matter how hard he tries to be. He began stripping down and handed his clothes to Sasuke who moved so he could get under the sleeping bag. "Thank you," he whispered as Sasuke stood up to drape the clothes on the walls of the cave.
"Don't mention it."
Naruto smiled. "But I—"
'Really." Sasuke turned slowly towards him. "Don't mention it. Ever."
Naruto laughed and began staring at the patterns the fire made on the ceiling. He felt himself drifting off to sleep. "Good night, Teme..."
Sasuke leaned against the wall of the cave and sighed. After making sure Naruto had fallen asleep completely, he turned to him and whispered, "Good night, Dobe."