I have full legal rights to everything, as soon as I change all the names and backstories. (And the Edward Scissorhands references down there in Sasuke's dream-o-doom).

Oh yeah.


"You think he's going to kick the bucket?"

"No, he's not going to 'kick the bucket' Kiba. He's just…passed out and shit. Well, he was passed out and shit. He's awake now. That's what counts, right?" Sasuke felt something fleshy prodding him in the ribs. A foot, by the feel of it. "Up and at 'em, oh Sleepy One." One black eye focused on Temari's face and then snapped shut. "Oh don't be like that. You're such a whiner."

"You did kind of leave him to his own devices for two days."

"Yeah, well…Neji says mangoes were missing. I mean, who better to trust than the mango king? Looks like Uchiha is a little smarter than we gave him credit for." She knelt down beside Sasuke. "A lot smarter, I suppose. You want some water?"

Sasuke cracked his eyes open and nodded vaguely. Temari smiled and crawled from the almost empty yurt, abandoning the dark haired boy with Kiba. "Well," the dog haired boy said offhandedly, "I suppose you're back in good graces with her. She does feel bad. Honestly."

Sasuke went to sit up but found himself feeling just a little disoriented to do so. His body ached from the scuffle he had been the day prior (at least, he assumed it was a day prior) and his throat felt thick and useless.

Temari returned a few minutes later with a hollowed out coconut filled with water. She passed it carefully to Sasuke, watching him drink carefully from it: sloppy, desperate drinks. Sasuke choked, sputtered, trying to get the liquid down his throat.

"I'm sorry," Temari blurted when he had finished. "I didn't think your body would take it so hard." She seemed genuinely apologetic, something that struck Sasuke as strange. "You don't have to do anything to day, you know, if you're going to get sicker. I didn't mean to blow up at you like that."

Sasuke shook his head, sitting up deliberately. "I'll do something. Anything you need me to."

Temari's mouth stretched into a small smile. "Oh, that's a good boy. Come on, you think you're up to helping me de-vein some shrimp? Kankuro and Shikamaru caught some on the east side of the island." Sasuke nodded, even if he was suspicious in the blond girl's change in attitude. He followed her carefully out of the drift-wood yurt he had found himself in and into the clearing. "It's a nice day," she said softly. "We should sit outside."

The two teenagers found a spot on the ground, wet from the heavy rain the night before, and spread out a pile of grey shrimp onto the grass. Temari picked up a strand of floral fire and demonstrated to Sasuke how to string up the crustaceans and remove the tales and veins with his hands.

"You like shrimp?" She asked. Sasuke shrugged.

"I haven't eaten it in years," he admitted, digging out a slender grey vein from the back of the shrimp. "Orochimaru isn't so fond of sea food."

Temari crinkled her nose in thought. "Orochimaru…that's your guardian, isn't it? What's he like?" She sounded like an old woman, gossiping quietly with her friends. Only, Sasuke wasn't her friend, or at the very least he wasn't sure or not. The pale boy stared off into space.

"He's okay, I guess." He fidgeted with his hair, tucking it behind his ear and casting his eyes down to the pile of shrimp in front of them. He heard Temari grunt but didn't look up, instead placing the shrimp in the pile of 'done shrimp'.

"Just okay?" Temari inquired. Sasuke nodded quickly, reticently, and picked up another shrimp. Rip off the tail, dig out the vein, again and again and again. He could feel her eyes, seeking, searching him, wanting some explanation besides 'fine'. 'Because,' he thought, 'everything is fine. No matter what it is.'

"Just okay."

He heard Temari sigh beside him. "Whatever you say, darlin'." She set to work again, methodically preparing the shrimp with precision and accuracy. Sasuke looked over the tiny animal in his hands, turning it back and forth in his palm. The tail went first, cast away before the veins and the minute legs. 'Small and helpless,' he thought. 'They're small and helpless.' How miserable it must have been being caught in a net and then drowned in the air. 'I drown in air,' Sasuke thought. 'Ever day I breathe.'

"You done with that shrimp? You've been holding it for a couple of minutes now." Temari leaned over and took the shrimp from Sasuke's pale, limp fingers and finished it off herself. "You okay love? You don't look too good."

Sasuke shook his head. "I'm fine." He glanced up to meet Temari's gaze for the first time in ages and ages. Concern and guilt met him. "Really." He resumed his work. The shrimp felt cold in his hands. 'A lie,' he decided, 'I'm not fine. But I'll never be fine.'

They finished in silence. Sasuke more than Temari, if only because she worked quicker, deft hands that had clearly done this a hundred times before. Sasuke was too clumsy for such work really, but Temari never commented on his inability. A different side of her exposed itself: concerned and gentle. It reminded Sasuke, in some way, of his mother.

"We shall feast tonight," she laughed. "On shrimp and fish and mangoes and peanuts!" She smiled. "Did you want a package of those, actually? Who cares if it throws Neji and his perfectly-counted-rationing into a fit? You must be hungry." Sasuke shook his head reticently and picked at the edge of his shirt. Shrugging, Temari gathered the de-veined shrimp into the bottom of her blouse, stood, and offered Sasuke her unoccupied hand. "Come on, don't just sit there."

Carefully, Sasuke took the blond girl's hand and hoisted himself to his feet. Took more effort than he remembered. He followed her to the 'food-storage-facility', as it had been named by an agitated and formal Neji, and watched as she placed the shrimp on long strands of floral wire. There she was, graceful all over again with this task.

"Do you string a lot of shrimp?" Sasuke asked. He sealed his mouth shut with his lips instinctively. He never talked much, and not about something so trivial. Not to Temari, especially.

Temari shrugged. "Kind of. My mother died when Gaara was born and dad didn't take it so well," she stepped out of the store room and rolled the log over the entrance again, "and he kind of avoided us, you know? I learned to cook pretty fast." She laughed a short rueful, laugh. "And you? You look like you've never cooked a day in your life."

"I have, just not that kind of cooking."

"Oh, what kind of cooking?" Temari raised an eyebrow and started for the south end of the island, "we need to get our clothes washed," she explained in reply to Sasuke's blank look.

"Pasta," Sasuke said. "And every kind of frozen dinner imaginable."

"Orochimaru not so much for gourmet?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Not really." They fell into a comfortable silence, and in it, they offered up a piece of themselves without saying anything. It was all inferred in their breath, in their stance, and neither of them had to do anything, say anything, but the other knew.

Or at least, Sasuke knew, and he figured since Temari was a million times better at reading people than he was that she must know too.

Neither said anything, not until they reached the shallow stream where Haku had set about washing clothing. Awkward bodies stood in a semi-circle, except Sai, because had been set apart for making 'disrespectful comments' towards 'Kiba's man junk, right?' Leave it to Temari.

She joined in on the laughter emitting from everyone except Kiba. At the sight of the hotly pouting boy, Sasuke found a short, dry laugh escaping from his lips too. Soulless, mirthless, maybe, but he figured it was something. He eyed the water uncomfortably. 'I'd rather keep my clothes on, thanks.' Temari bade them farewell with a wink and a nod in the general direction of Haku, who was the only boy besides Sasuke who had his clothes on.

"Come on, Uchiha, shed it…" Kiba urged. "Stop being such a girl. Isn't it worse to reek?" It sounded almost Shakespearean back there.

Sasuke tossed the shirt over his head, cautiously handing it to Haku, who rolled his eyes at Sasuke's discomfort. "Oh please," the androgen chided. "It's just us guys…" He shook his head in exasperation. "Go. Flee. Scatter."

It was better without his clothes anyway, Sasuke decided, even if everyone could see everything… The sun was baking down in strands, hot and scalding. Heat rose from the sand in waves. "Hey," Kiba talking again, "you're all burned up Uchiha." Those weren't the only flaws…there were scars too, scars Sasuke had long ago memorized.
'Why are you looking?' Sasuke almost snapped. "I'm aware." He glanced down at his arms. Itchy and dry where they were burned, just-dry every where else. He hated that. That's why there was lotion. For dry skin. Which Sasuke had.

Only he didn't have any lotion.

Stupid sun.


The violin. Like the violin. Everything was so fucking high strung, everywhere and nowhere all at once. People were running, only they were running backwards and Sasuke found himself, running backwards too. He glanced behind him, in front of him, and there he was, running backwards a little too close for comfort, Orochimaru-the-root-of-evil.

Someone ran beside him too, no, hundred did…no…only one. Sasuke turned to stare at them and they turned to stare back. "What's going on?" he called, but it didn't come out like it should have, didn't escape his mouth like words.

A ripple of sound emitted from the mouth of the 15-teenaged girl running near him, beside him, to the same fate as him. It sounded strange, running back and back and…

He couldn't understand a word she was saying, screaming. He couldn't understand the music playing from nowhere and he couldn't understand the scenery because above him was the ground and the sky was underneath his feet and he was so fucking confused it didn't make sense.

Again, he tried to shriek something out because running, he couldn't stop running and he swore Orochimaru was gaining on them, him and the other dozen people that kept multiplying, multiplying, until they were everywhere and then…

He was alone in a sea of black.

And then Itachi was there, and he was leering like he was ready to kill him and Sasuke scooted back until he swore he hit a wall but there was nothing there, no wall only black and it was all in his head. He wanted to disappear so badly (The light concealing cream goes on first. Then you blend, and blend, and blend. Blending is the secret.His brother the skeleton, white and conniving and alwayssocharistmaticeveryoneloveshim. Itachi reached forward, and his hands were like scissors and not hands and Sasuke could feel them at his throat, slicing, slicing, blades of ice and fire at once, draining away his red-life into the black-dark while Itachi laughed and laughed and laughed and--

And Mozart played backwards.


"Sasuke," Naruto shook the dark haired boy cautiously. Sasuke scooted away. "Sasuke, wake up."

"What's going on?" Sai propped himself up on an elbow. "Is he alright?"

"Go get Sakura, okay? She volunteers at the hospital on weekends. And Temari too." Naruto could feel panic in his throat. The past five minutes he had been trying to calm down a completely ballistic Sasuke armed with nothing to go on. Nothing. 'Were you supposed to wake people having nightmares up? Or are you supposed to let them scream it out?' He couldn't remember, but he remembered someone telling him it was deathly important one way or the other.

He just couldn't remember which way or the other.

Sai crawled from the yurt and left Naruto alone in the dark with the feverish, screaming teenager. 'Feverish?' Naruto questioned himself when that particular description came to mind. He knit his eyebrows together unconsciously. "Sasuke?" Screw letting him sleep. "Sasuke, wake up."

Sasuke's eyes snapped open. They were wild, animalistic with dreaming induced rage, but they did clear as the dark haired boy stared up into the black. He wriggled away from Naruto instinctively with nothing more than a cold, 'let me alone, Uzumaki'. Naruto shook his head. They weren't friends, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it was damned obvious that Sasuke needed someone to be concerned about him.

This was thoroughly interrupted when Temari and Hinata crawled into the yurt, burning stick aloft. Temari relit the fire in the center of the fire-pit. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Something had better be wrong, because I was just-- Uchiha, what's wrong with you?"

Sasuke struggled to sit up, pressing his back against the drift-wood wall. "Nothing. Headache." The look he sent Naruto and Sai was clear: 'don't say anything'. And neither of them did. Sakura had suspicions on her own though.

"Liar," she replied curtly. "You look like you just went through torture: you're shaking like leaf, your skin is redder than a boiled lobster, you're hyperventilating…" She trailed off. "Did you drink enough water today Sasuke?"

Sasuke nodded immediately. "Yes."

Temari raised an eyebrow. "I was with you most of the day," she replied, stifling a yawn. "I didn't see you drink anything." One blond eyebrow arched high above her slate-grey eyes. "You sure? If you're sick, we can help you. If you don't tell us…you remember what happened last time, don't you?"

Naruto sure as hell remembered. Leg cramps aren't forgotten so easily. Neither are soaking wet teenaged boys clinging for dear life, for that matter.

"I didn't have anything to drink after that water you gave me this morning," he admitted. Sakura made a 'hmm' noise.

"Dehydration," she said finally. "All the classic signs. Getting bad, too, yes." She narrowed her eyes. "Are you sunburned?"

Sasuke nodded miserably. He looked small, Naruto decided. He looked like that a lot. 'So much for the Uchiha pride, huh?'

"Then you might be at risk for heat-stroke. Take a bath or something tomorrow. It should cool you down, since your burn will affect how you sweat, assuming you sweat at all. Dehydration, definitely. You're thirsty, right?"

Sasuke shrugged. "A little."

Temari snorted. "A little means a lot. Naruto, go take this," she handed him one of the hallowed out coconuts that every yurt was equipped with, "and get Uchiha some water." Naruto nodded and crawled out of the shelter.

The nighttime was pretty cold, actually, despite how hot the days were. Stumbling blindly across the clearing, Naruto found the pool of water (not Alkaline) and filled up the half coconut. He stumbled back, spilling frigid liquid over his hands awkwardly. All his movements seemed awkward. 'Leave it to Uchiha to interrupt a good night's sleep. Because he worked sooooo hard today.'

"Drink this slowly," Temari ordered, handing the water to Sasuke. "In the morning, drink at least five times this much. Sai, you're in charge of making sure he does that. Got it?"

"Can we sleep now?" Naruto demanded, stifling another yawn.

"I am there with you brother man."

"Same."

"Okay, then we're going back to the girls' yurt. Unless there is blood, fire, or chocolate, do not disturb us again." And then they were gone. Sasuke still sat against one of the walls, drinking the water slowly.

"Good night to the both of you," Sai said, "I'll be seeing you in the morning."

And after Sai was asleep, it was just Sasuke and Naruto, awake. As much as he wanted to pretend he wasn't worried about the other boy's mental health, Naruto was kind of worried. Sasuke had always struck him as enigmatic, even when they were in junior high together. Honesty had never been part of the Uchiha's school of thought. Or, if it wasn't dishonesty, just a find blend of understatements, half-truths, and words left unsaid.

And silence. That too.

"What did you dream about?" Naruto asked abruptly. He had never been really good with words. He wasn't as articulate as, say, Shikamaru and not as smooth as Neji. He was awkward and honest and worried, because even if he wasn't friends with Uchiha Sasuke, they were stuck on the same desert island. If they didn't look out for each other, who would?

"Excuse me?" Sasuke's eyes grew dark, closed.

"Your dream. You were freaking out and stuff, so I assumed--"

"Don't."

And that was the end of that.


It seems like filler, but it has purpose.

Rawr...my 100th review was anonymous, but regular, so Taloose...email me about this. Because your ever-so-small cameo in this sucked. It needs to be better. Honestly.