Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto

I wasn't sure if it is clear, but in this story Naruto does have two good arms; because I hadn't thought up that part in Kodomotachi yet, where he loses his arm…

Note: this chapter was edited on 11-05-2014

-oXo-

Chapter 2: The effect

4th of November

Sasuke sat at Naruto's bed once more. The sun was shining through the window on Naruto's bed and Sasuke's back had become nice and warm. His fever had luckily resided, and he was no longer cold all the time.

Tsunade entered the room just to check in on the blond.

"Ah, Sasuke," she said.

"Tsunade-sama." Sasuke gave a nod as he laid the report from his mission away.

Tsunade straightened the covers that lay over Naruto, almost in an automatic and motherly way, and stroked her hand through his hair. His ear twitched when she touched it.

Tsunade had not told Naruto or anyone else yet. She had mentioned it to Shizune though a few weeks ago. She was planning on retiring from the Hokage title, and Naruto was of course the first candidate that had come to her mind. To be fair she had looked at some others as well, but Naruto was actually the only real option to her.

She sighed and stroked his hair again, absentmindedly. Sasuke studied her. She had never really said it out loud to him, but he knew Naruto meant more to her then she let on.

Suddenly she looked Sasuke in the eyes and pulled her hand back as if finally noticing that Sasuke had been there all along, watching what she had been doing.

"How's Akira-kun doing?" she asked.

"Fine. He misses Naruto too, but he's doing well at the academy." Sasuke shrugged.

"Good." Silence fell and Tsunade turned her head once more to the man lying in the bed. The sound of the IV dripping on the background was the only sound in the room. It started as a slightly awkward moment, but it soon grew quite normal.

Naruto twitched his ear, but there had not been a hand in range to make it twitch.

Tsunade and Sasuke both looked up to it, stared at each other and then back at the ear.

It twitched again, as well as the other.

Sasuke sat upright and Tsunade leaned in a bit closer.

"He didn't do that before, did he?"

"No." Sasuke stood up. "Naruto? Can you hear me?"

The ears stopped twitching and instead Naruto's face cramped up in pain. Tsunade stood up as well.

"Naruto."

Suddenly Naruto's eyes went open and he started coughing.

"Naruto!" Sasuke helped him sit up a bit.

Slowly Naruto stopped coughing, gasping for air for a bit before his eyes began to close again.

"Naruto, look at me, don't fall asleep again!" Sasuke called, shaking him in his eagerness to keep Naruto awake.

Tsunade had her hands on Naruto's chest, showing a light green hue. Naruto's breathing began to even out and he soon slept once more. Tsunade looked up to him. "It's alright now." She moved her hand lower over Naruto's torso and finally stopped as she finished the examination. She laid her hand on Naruto's shoulder.

Sasuke looked at Tsunade, waiting for her to speak first, but she didn't. "What's wrong?"

Tsunade turned to him and looked down at Sasuke. "Nothing. He's fine. I think he's trying to wake up from the jutsu." She looked Sasuke up and down before she pulled her hands back from Naruto. "This is a good sign."

-X-

Sasuke had stayed over the night, thinking Naruto would probably wake up again soon, and didn't want to miss it. The nurses had tried to get him out of the room, but a single glance had made them reconsider. "There aren't a lot of patients in the hospital, maybe we could make an exception and make him stay just one night."

Akira was with Kakashi and Anko, and had been quite excited about it. Kakashi had lazily looked down at the happy boy standing next to him and had walked home, Akira smiling while he followed the Silvery haired ninja home while an 'Icha Icha' book seemed to materialize out of nowhere.

Sasuke was lying next to Naruto on the same bed, spooning him, careful not to detach his IV or catheter. He was all too happy to be sharing a bed again that he couldn't complain about the size of the bed. His hands were wrapped and plastered tightly around Naruto's body, and that was how he had fallen asleep.

Slowly eyes fluttered open and Naruto's looked around. He couldn't quite remember what had happened, at first, but slowly the memories started to return to him.

He took in a couple of deep breaths, as his chest felt heavy, which made Sasuke stir.

"You're awake?"

Naruto yipped, and turned around so quickly that Sasuke almost fell off the bed. Sasuke was only able to stay on the bed because he had held on to Naruto so tightly so not to make the fall.

"Sorry," Naruto gripped Sasuke and pulled him back onto the bed against himself, and turned to face him. Naruto grinned. "The bed sure is small." He wanted to put his arm around Sasuke but instead he pulled at the IV in his arm. "Itai." He looked at the tube of the IV, following the cord to the side of his bed. "How long have I been out of it?" He knew putting someone on the IV mostly wasn't just for a day, especially not for him. And then he felt a catheter as well.

Sasuke sighed. "Almost three weeks."

"Three weeks." Naruto repeated monotonously and turned back to Sasuke.

Suddenly he realized what he had just said. "Wait, three weeks? What did that jutsu do? What happened to you?"

Sasuke was glad to hear that Naruto still remembered what had happened, which was a good sign. "We still don't know what the jutsu was supposed to do, but it caused me to get a fever and you to sleep for this long."

Naruto blinked. "I feel fine," he said while he tried to sit up, but Sasuke pulled him down again.

"You sure?"

Naruto moved his eyes between Sasuke's left eye and his right eye. "Yeah, why?"

"To be sure."

Naruto smirked. Sasuke sat up and helped Naruto up too. "You hungry?"

"A bit."

Sasuke got out of the bed and turned towards the door. "I am too, so I'm going to get something to eat."

"Okay."

As soon as Sasuke had left the room, Naruto pulled out the IV, he hated needles in his body for too long; it reminded him of the nails that had once pierced his hands for over a month. Slowly he made a move to pull out the catheter as well.

"It will be over in a minute," he told himself as he pulled at the cord.

He swayed his legs over the bedside and wanted to stand up. When he tried he swayed a bit and fell back on the bed. His legs felt more similar to jelly. As he sat on the bed again, he tried to stretch his legs. Finally he was able to pull them up to his chest and he tried to stand up again.

At the very moment that he stood up and took a few steps, Sasuke came in again with some food. Sakura was following him.

"Naruto?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura noticed the loose IV and catheter. "Naruto? Why did you-?" She turned back to him, "Never mind. Sit down on the bed. How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Naruto said as he walked back to the bed, his tail swaying.

"Ah," Sakura started looking him over and came to the conclusion he was indeed doing fine.

Sasuke gave Naruto his food and he slowly began eating it. Sasuke sat beside him on the bed, eating his own food.

"So, that jutsu, didn't really do anything? Beside putting me to sleep for over two weeks and give Sasuke a fever?"

"Not that we know of."

"Stupid man. If I had been in his position, and been as mad as he was, I would have come up with something better to take out my enemies," Naruto muttered.

"You don't know if it's over," Sakura said, looking sternly at the blond, "and perhaps this was the easiest jutsu for him to do. It did take you out of the fight. I'm lucky his second jutsu misfired at himself, or I might have died instead," Sakura told him.

"He died, because his jutsu misfired?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, he landed himself into a coma. He died just a few days ago. His brain had been damaged too much."

Naruto shivered. "What if he had hit you or us with that..."

Silence fell as they thought of the 'what if's' that might have happened.

"If only he had hit me with a de-foxing jutsu," Naruto said as he put his hand on his chin. "I wouldn't have minded that."

Sakura hit him on the head. "Baka!"

Sasuke seemed to agree with her, he just didn't hit Naruto since it wasn't in his character. "I would never want anyone to hit you with a de-foxing jutsu," he told the blond.

Naruto blushed and fiddled with his food, rolling over his plate.

"Dobe."

After a while Naruto sighed. "I'm good to go, right?" he asked, looking up hopefully to Sakura.

"Yeah, you're alright, and I think not even Tsunade-sama is able to think of something to keep you here."

Naruto grinned. "Well, thank you for the meal," he handed Sasuke the plate, "and if you don't mind I'll put on my own clothes again."

-x-

Later the same day Naruto had been officially discharged, and was sitting on the couch with Sasuke and Akira.

"I'm glad you're fine," Akira said. He'd just gotten home.

"Me too," Sasuke said. Naruto smiled.

"You guys are so good for me," Naruto said, sticking out his tongue.

"Naruto, did you see my report card?"

"No, I didn't."

And so Akira went to fetch his card to show his excellent marks to Naruto.

"So you haven't been on any missions?" Naruto asked Sasuke.

"No, not many; I was too ill or not feeling up to it."

"Ah," Naruto looked up as Akira came down the stairs.

He handed Naruto the card and Naruto examined it.

"Wow, I wish I had been able to get such grades back at the Academy. Even half of it," he muttered as he came to the last few grades.

Akira blushed. "They're not that great," he said with his hands on his back, swaying from left to right and back.

"They are to me," Naruto said and gave him a smile.

"Still; I want to do better," he said softly.

"Why, is this not good enough?" Naruto wondered stunned.

"I know I can do better," he smiled shyly.

Naruto looked at him and then to Sasuke.

"You have anything to do with this?" he asked softly.

"No, it's all his own idea, and I believe he can do it."

"I'm not saying I don't believe him. But you do have to want to do that by your own decision." Naruto directed the last sentence to Akira.

"I do," he said, blushing a bit. "You don't like it?" he asked.

"Well, it's more that I'm impressed that you want to do it."

Akira became a slight tint redder.

"You're making a tomato out of my son," Sasuke told Naruto.

"Tou-chan!"

Sasuke and Naruto laughed.

-X-

Naruto was sleeping soundly in his bed. Everything had turned back to normal since he'd woken up three weeks ago. Nothing seemed to have happened to them, and the incident with the mysterious jutsu had already been forgotten.

Naruto woke up when he suddenly felt a pull behind his stomach. As he leaned on his elbows he saw Sasuke sitting on the edge of the bed, making gagging motions.

Naruto quickly helped Sasuke over to the bathroom, but they didn't quite make it to the toilet or sink in time. Sasuke vomited on the white tiles. The second wave luckily did end in the toilet. After that Sasuke stayed hanging over the toilet for a moment and then shakily got up as Naruto was cleaning the floor.

"Are you feeling alright?" Naruto asked as he stood up to help Sasuke back to bed. Sasuke pushed him away.

"Fine. I'll go back to bed if you don't mind."

"Okay." Naruto stared after him until he was out of sight. He shrugged and went back to cleaning the bathroom. It smelled badly so he wanted it clean as fast as possible.

His nose still filled with the vomit stench, Naruto came back into the bedroom where Sasuke was sitting on the bed. He seemed alright again.

"Probably eaten something wrong," he told Naruto.

"I guess so." Naruto sat beside him and placed his arms around Sasuke. He was still sweating a bit.

"Now I feel strangely empty," Sasuke said as he rubbed his belly.

"Let's get back to sleep. Tomorrow you'll feel a lot better."

They both lay back and Naruto got the blankets over them. Sasuke stayed staring at the ceiling for a while before curling up on his side. Fortunately he fell asleep quite quickly; he felt drained of energy.

-x-

Three hours later they sat at the kitchen table, having breakfast. Sasuke seemed almost fine again. He still felt lacking energy a bit, but he wasn't nauseous. Naruto had made him some toast and tea and he was slowly eating as he watched his son do the same.

"You okay?" Akira asked.

"I'm fine."

"Okay," Akira smiled.

Naruto looked Sasuke over and saw he wasn't paler than usual or shivering like last night. He was eating a bit slow, but that was expected he thought. He cleaned his plate and gave Sasuke a kiss.

"I'm going to train my team, bye."

"Bye, Naruto," Akira waved.

Sasuke just watched him leave. When he turned back to Akira he saw him playing with his milk. How the boy hated milk.

"Hurry, drink up your milk or you'll be late," Sasuke said as he stood up to put his own plate and cup away.

Akira moaned and closed his eyes as he gulped down the milk in one go. He shivered at the taste and wiped his mouth. When he stood next to Sasuke at the sink, Sasuke ruffled the boy's hair.

"Good boy."

Akira frowned at him. Then he took his bag and hugged Sasuke before running out of the kitchen.

"See you later!" he yelled.

Sasuke sighed and started to get ready for his small solo mission for today.

He rubbed his neck as he walked down the stairs after washing up and dressing. He'd felt bad the morning before as well. Naruto hadn't remembered, because he'd been so deep asleep when he woke up and noticed Sasuke was gone. When Sasuke returned he had asked what was wrong, Sasuke had told him he'd been sick and Naruto had turned around and was off sleeping again. He hated it when Naruto did that.

The next morning he hadn't asked anything about it and Sasuke knew he had forgotten.

-oXo-

Next: The outcome; what is the jutsu really doing? (Of course we all know it, but they don't) ^^