Naruto tried to ignore the feeling being held by Sasuke was giving him. His efforts were futile. Sasuke made him feel so warm, so protected. He could have been content to stand there like that forever.

Little known to Naruto, Sasuke was experiencing some of the same feelings. He could have held Naruto forever. It felt so right. Sasuke smiled softly. God he loved Naruto . . . Wait, what? Sasuke was confused but, the minute he thought that, he knew it was true.

He loved Naruto. Uchiha Sasuke was in love with Uzumaki Naruto.

It was slightly surreal. He had never loved anyone since the death of his clan. His clan . . . Naruto could not help him to revive his clan. But . . . did it matter? There was no way he could revive a whole clan anyway, and he LOVED Naruto. What could trump that?

Naruto broke Sasuke's train of thought. "Thanks. Sorry to . . . er . . . break down like that."

Sasuke released him. "No problem."

"So teme, you haven't trained in a while, huh?" Sasuke did the math; it had been more than a month. Naruto, seeing confirmation on Sasuke's face, continued. "Wanna spar?"

Sasuke smirked. "In the mood to lose, dobe?" He was no where near as confident as he tried to seem. After hearing about Naruto's battle with Orochimaru, he was eager to find out about Naruto's new abilities.

A mischievous glint appeared in Naruto's eyes. "Okay, let's spar. It's not like we don't have enough room." He glanced meaningfully at the half mile crater.

"Whatever." Sasuke jumped back, so he and Naruto stood facing each other, ten feet apart. "Go," Sasuke said. Sharingan and Nentougan activated instantaneously.

Sasuke dropped into a fighting stance while Naruto stood completely open to attacks. Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "Waiting for the grass to grow?" Sasuke asked. With that he lunged at Naruto.

When he came to a stop, Sasuke was surprised to find himself on the other side of Naruto while Naruto appeared not to have moved. He tried again, this time with a different tactic.

His hands flew threw hand signs faster than a normal person could see. "Lightning Style: Static Tracker." This battle was over. No matter how hard Naruto tried, he would not be able to escape the Tracker. It wasn't given its name for nothing. The jutsu was on target and it would follow Naruto no matter how fast he moved.

The ball was going to hit him; there wasn't even any time to move. Suddenly, Naruto was gone and the ball crashed into the side of the crater.

Out of the blue, Naruto's voice was directly behind Sasuke. "You shouldn't have underestimated me, teme." His voice was barely above a whisper. "You're going to have to do better if you want to win." Sasuke jumped, trying to get out of Naruto's range when. . .

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Naruto was having fun watching Sasuke fight an invisible enemy. Sasuke had been trapped in Naruto's nentougan since it had originally activated. He was lunging around blindly, having no concept of reality. If anyone stumbled across this scene, they would think Sasuke insane.

Naruto was amused by all of this until he saw one of Sasuke's blind lunges was taking him headfirst into the edge of the crater.

"Sasuke! No!" But it was too late. Sasuke hit his head on the rock-face and fell to the ground unconscious.

Naruto ran towards him. "Sasuke, no. Wake up. Pleas, wake up."

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Sasuke's eyes opened slowly. He was on a bed somewhere he didn't recognize. He looked around the room. It was a soft green color. Naruto walked into the room carrying a cup.

"So you're awake," Naruto said softly. "Drink this. It will clear your head."

Sasuke sat up, a little unsteadily, and took the cup from Naruto. His head was clear as soon as he drank, as Naruto had predicted. The dull ache in his head was also eased.

"What happen?" Sasuke asked. "Where are we?"

"You ran into a rock and this is my apartment," Naruto answered softly. "I'm sorry."

"I ran into a rock? I don't remember seeing a rock," Sasuke said suspiciously.

"No. I'm sorry. You were in one of my illusions and you didn't see what was really there. If I was paying better attention, this wouldn't have happened. Sorry," Naruto said guiltily.

"It was all an illusion?"

"Yeah. Sorry." Naruto said. Not only was Sasuke probably upset that he lost, but he was probably furious that Naruto steered him into a rock.

"It's fine, Naruto." Naruto looked up, surprised. "Out of curiosity, why did you bring me here and not to Sakura or the hospital?"

A peculiar shade of pink tinted Naruto's face. "In the ANBU exams, we had to learn first aid and basic medical jutsu and I figured you'd rather not go to see a medic if you could avoid it."

'Don't kid yourself, Kit. You didn't want anyone else's hands on him.'

'Shut up!!!'

Sasuke put an end to this silent squabble by saying something shocking. "Thank you."

Naruto froze. Sasuke was thanking him? "N-no problem."

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Sorry this took so long. *dodges tomatoes and various other projectiles* I changed ideas in the middle. Review and I'll update faster. *wink*

I own nothing but the plot.