Destiny: Hey guys. I know it's been so long but college has really done a number on me. I love it and hate it all at the same time.But hey, guess what I got my brick of inspiration in Anthropology class. Crazy right? Class must be where I'm most creative. Well with out further waiting… here's the long awaited chapter, I really am so sorry. But I hope you love this chapter!

Chapter 10: Sick Sick Sick!

Naruto woke up to find himself violently coughing for the third time that night. His eyes drooped and looked at the time, 5:00 am. He sniffed and let his upper body once more collapse on the couch in exhaustion and defeat. He hadn't even made it to his bed that night after he had skipped home from his date, he just flopped down on his old disgusting couch and fell asleep in his cold, wet clothes. He greatly regretted his decision not to take a warm shower or at least to change clothes. He stared at the ceiling, his whole body felt weak and his muscles were cramping and aching. He was not used to this feeling at all. It had been so long since he had been sick; usually living in an orphanage exposed one to all illness at an early age causing him to never get sick when he was an adult. He slowly tried to fall asleep once again and did so with in a matter of minutes.

"Oi! Hey Sasuke-kun!" Sakura waved as she saw the raven haired boy head towards their normal morning meeting place. He sat down in the open stool next to her and ordered some morning coffee.

"Hey Sakura," He murmured.

"How was your night last night?" Sakura questioned as she examined the bags under his eyes and his pale face. "It looks like you had a long one."

"Yea, I was just up investigating old documents about… well Uchiha stuff." He ended quickly as his coffee came to relieve him from talking. Sakura had learned not to press the subject of Sasuke and his investigations into his own clan; he would ask her if he needed her help. He has before, especially when he became paranoid about him becoming blind one day, he asked for medical advice from the only medic he trusted.

"Ah," Sakura breathed and blew on her warm coffee. There was a bit of an awkward silence between the two. Sakura stared into the distance, usually her mind would be racing with conversation starters for the boy next to her, or her heart would be beating for they were sitting next to each other, by themselves. But instead she was thinking about why her blonde companion had yet to come and relieve them with his crazy antics. Then the silence was broken randomly by, for the first time in while, Sasuke.

"That mission is tomorrow morning isn't it? The one into the old sound territory?" He asked seriously. Sakura looked at him; he was actually making eye contact with her as though this were a serious subject.

"Well yea, but I wouldn't worry its just the old territory the chances of some of the old members actually still inhibiting it are low, they've caught most of the followers already," Sakura said calmly meeting his gaze with an unworried smile.

"Sakura, please just be on your guard, the ones they haven't captured, they're obviously good ninja, possibly ranked up with the," Sasuke was cut off.

"Sasuke-kun. I'm perfectly able to handle myself out there and you know that, its not even a major mission, we are just asked to go out there and deliver a package to an old friend of Tsunade-sensei's."

"Sakura, you know I just worry, this is the first time you will not be with Me, Naruto, Kakashi or even Sai in a long time, you know how we like to know you're at least with one of us," Sasuke told her. Sakura smiled, he was actually worried about her. Sakura blushed and gave a meek smile.

"I'll be fine, I'll be back before you know it, I give my promise!" Sakura said and gave him the thumbs up. He smirked at the girl, she had really become one of the guys, and she was easily offended when she thought they were speaking about how weak she was but really she was the one they were just most afraid to lose.

"All right, so long as that is settled, I only have 2 more weeks until I can go on active duty again, how great is that?" Sasuke said, he actually seemed excited… something he had not shown in a while.

"That's awesome and we'll be the team we always wanted to be, I really am pumped for that, our first mission with you back on the team." She gave him a big grin and returned to her coffee.

Sasuke gave her a relieved smile, he was actually happy they had accepted him back as they once were. Everything seemed like it may actually go back to normal once again. He had met Sai, and had some brief encounters with him, and although he had been part of team 7 he was glad that Sai had gone back to the Anbu, that way Sasuke could, in fact, have his old team back. Sai would once in a while drop in on breakfast, or come and say good bye to the team as they went off on their missions rarely, he still felt a connection with them.

As peace settled between the two there came a poof.

"Sensei, sit down, you always try and scare us with that and it never works, we just become angry that you're late." Sakura said as she waved him towards the stool next to her that was open.

"I never try and scare you," he said with a bright sparkle in his eye, "are you packed and ready for this mission? Tsunade said it was of great importance that this friend of hers got the medicine she needed."

"Yea I'm packed and ready we leave at 500 hours. And it's just because this old friend of hers give so much money to the village, I wouldn't be surprised if all she had was a head cold."

"Are you going to be expected to cure her?" Sasuke questioned.

"Yea, if she'll let me, supposedly she's a stubborn old witch," Sakura replied, and as she thought about it a little more maybe that's why Tsunade and this woman really were friends. Her lips curled into a sneer at the thought that could get her a thwacking from her master.

"Hey where's Naruto?" Kakashi said after a small pause and a look around. Sasuke shrugged and looked behind him as though Naruto was about to sneak up behind him. Sakura's eye brows furrowed; she looked onward with concern. What if he didn't make it home safely last night? What if an Akatsuki member was waiting for him to be off guard, what if…

"I'll go check up on him and then go take a nap before my mission, are you guys going to see me off like usual?" Sakura asked with a fake smile as she pulled her purse close and started towards the cashier.

"I'll try but no guarantees," Sasuke mumbled, Sakura knew this meant he was going, he had not missed a sending off since he had been home.

"You know me," Kakashi said with a grin. Sakura gave a weak smile and paid for her food plus some more.

She waved good bye to the two and began in the direction towards Naruto's raggedy apartment. Her wondering made her pick up speed to a near jog, and then she eventually said screw it and went full speed ahead. She made it to his place in record time and banged on the door in hopes he would answer. No answer. She breathed a worried sigh and pulled out the key to his apartment.

She made her way in and the ringing of his alarm was automatically heard she walked in only to find her foot in a puddle. "Kisame," she thought in a brief moment of insanity. The place was a mess as usual so you really couldn't tell if there was an actual struggle or if it was just Naruto being an irresponsible housekeeper.

She made her way passed the empty couch, which was oddly wet as well. Sakura's heart was beating wildly. They couldn't have done this. There was no way they could have… She ran to Naruto's room and crashed open the door with her brute force, sadly breaking the door off its hinges. And to her great relief, surprise and anger there lay Naruto completely unhurt and completely unaware of what was going on around him. Sakura's body somewhat crashed and she began to get a headache. She reached for the alarm clock and threw it across the room crashing into the kitchen counter and breaking into a thousand little pieces.

"Naruto, YOU IDIOT!" Sakura screamed as she walked angrily to his bedside. Naruto's eyes slowly opened and remained only halfway opened.

"Sakura-chan? Is that you or is it another dream?" Sakura punched him in the head in annoyance. As a bump grew rather large across the crown of his head he replied to his past statement. "Oh… no you're definitely real Sakuar-ch," but Naruto was cut off by a series of brutal coughs.

"Naruto, how long have you had that cough?" Sakura asked worriedly, her pulse had finally come down from where it had been, "and why didn't you call me, you gave me a damn heart attack! I was so worried you idiot, I thought something had seriously happened to you, I swear I stopped breathing for 5 minutes." Naruto gave a small smile across his flush face where snot was running down from his nose.

"I kinda did something awful," he said in a dull voice clearly done because his nose was completely clogged, "I slept with those wet clothes on last night." Sakura's eyes widened and she raised her fist ready to strike against his stupidity again. She managed to stop herself and decided this was more than punishment. She brought up a chair and sat next to the boy and decided the Kyuubi must not be used to actual diseases and illness just outward injuries and cell regeneration.

"You probably have pneumonia you idiot, with a cough like that and this high fever, oh Naruto, give me a second, here give me a second I need to examine your lungs." Sakura reached into her large purse and with annoyance her eye twitched. Out of all the things she could have forgotten she had forgotten her stethoscope. "Damn I forgot my stethoscope, hold on, I think I'm going to have to do this in an utterly basic way," she said half to herself and half to Naruto. She took a deep breath and looked at the boy.

She felt so awful; she could have at least offered him clothes when he was over. She had more of his clothes than she could believe. She often times ended up staying the night over here when she did his laundry or helped him with training so she stole a lot of his clothes. These were never considered anything more than a friend helping another friend out of course.

"What are you going to have to do?" Naruto asked her a little worried; she hadn't sounded too happy about doing this.

"Oh, well um, I'm just going to have to, um… put my ear up against your chest as you breathe in and out. It's not a big deal I mean sometimes I can here it even more clearly," She reassured him, but really she was just trying to reassure herself that it wasn't going to be as awkward as she had led herself to believe. She looked over at the blonde who seemed to be even more flushed and he was looking away towards the window as to not make eye contact.

"Oh sure, I mean, it would just be faster right? Haha just go ahead," Naruto said and then Sakura noticed he was already shirtless which made it a little less awkward, she didn't have to ask him to take his shirt off.

"All right, well here," Sakura pressed her ear against his chest she listened carefully, "ok go ahead and take a couple of deep breathes," she tried to listen but her mind was racing.

His chest felt so muscular and she could only think about being under his body in a warm embrace, his strong arms around her shoulders and chest on hers. Even if he was sick... She shook her head a little as though to wave away her wanting for his body, she could feel her own heart rate begin to race, a very different type of adrenaline than she had been feeling earlier, and she felt Naruto's chest begin to beat harder and faster.

She listened and as he began to take breaths, she was able to clear her mind and hear that there was a lot of fluid in his lungs. She lay there for a second just to lay there as though she had forgotten why she was laying on his chest in the first place. She snapped herself out of it and shot upwards.

"Yea! Um YES! You definitely have a lot of fluid in your lungs!" She said her face was so red she could feel it, it was awful.

"So what should, um, I do?" Naruto said trying to keep the conversation going, he was gripping his hands together as though to try and control his adrenaline.

"Well, I have some strong antibiotics with me already, I'd still go up and talk to shizune tomorrow though," she said as she searched through her large purse, "I have them with me now just incase someone gets terribly sick on the mission tomorrow morning." Naruto's eyes widened a little he had almost forgotten about the mission tomorrow.

"Sakura, are you going to be okay going on this mission, you barely know any of the team you're going with, and I don't trust them in keeping you sa…" Naruto was once more cut off by a row of violent coughs. Sakura ran to the kitchen and got some water for him. "Thank you," he said as he took a drink, "keeping you safe, I wish they had chosen at least one of us to go with you."

"In a state like this, you wouldn't be much help sweetheart," she said with a laugh but Naruto frowned. Everyone seemed to be so serious about this mission, she couldn't help but be very care free. He stared at her with so much concern etched in his face.

"Look," she said staring at him straight in the eye, "we have a limited amount of medic-nin willing to work the field out there, I'm going to have to get used to going with out you guys once in a while, right? That's what a good medic must do."

"Sakura you are the best medic-nin, but I just wish I was there to make sure that nothing happens to you, no one on that team could say they'd risk getting hurt to save you and Kakashi and Sasuke definitely would," he said worriedly. Sakura frowned at the boy, he had not said he would risk getting injured for you.

"What about you?" she decided to push the subject, "you wouldn't risk getting injured for me?" She set the pills on the table adjacent from his bed.

"I would risk my life to make sure a hair on your head was never touched." He said with a huge grin and Sakura giggled childishly.

"You're such a charmer, you'll be there tomorrow morning right? Even if you are sick?" she said as her elbows found their way onto his bed and her head fell into her hands. She stared at the boy; his eyes always managed to catch her attention for some reason, even when she had no interest in him. They were just a pair of eyes that anyone could get lost in easily.

"Of course I will! I would never miss saying good bye before a mission. But I'm afraid I'm going to end up getting you sick." he said sadly.

"Nah, I have all those crazy vaccines and I'm nearly one hundred percent sure you have Pneumonia." Sakura said as her head lolled to her right hand.

"I feel awful," he said with a frown.

"I know, but honestly what were you expecting to get if you stayed in those clothes all night?" She asked as her eyes closed, she too was still tired from last nights-crazed events. All in all, she had only gotten around 4 hours of sleep. He smiled and thought to himself that maybe if he didn't take off those clothes then that night wouldn't had ended.

"I guess I'm just a lazy idiot," he decided to say instead with his dumb grin, Sakura picked up her left arm and hit him lightly across his head with her eyes still shut.

"You're a ninja, you were totally unaware of anything when I came in."

"Yea I know, hey why were you so worried anyway when you came in?" He wondered out loud.

"You really wanna know?" Sakura asked a tiny bit embarrassed. Naruto nodded. "I saw that puddle of water and thought Kisame had come to take you away," Sakura said. Her lips were no longer in a smile instead she was biting down on them and her chin was quivering, she really had been afraid. Instead of actually noticing this Naruto began to laugh. Sakura twitched with his laughter and opened her eyes and stood up over his bed, her eyes seething with anger and she yelled "WHAT'S SO FUNNY?! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"

Naruto stopped and looked at her, his eyes still drooping, but then he noticed there were tears building up in her eyes, "I only laughed because I couldn't believe you were really that worried about me." Sakura began to shake and she began to cry.

"You idiot," she whispered as she sat back down on the chair and lay her head in her hands. Naruto actually felt bad, he couldn't even see her when she told him about her fear. He couldn't even keep his eyes opened when she was talking, how was he supposed to know she felt that bad.

"Jeez Sakura-chan, this is why I love you." He whispered as he brought his arm up and squeezed his shoulder. Sakura lifted her head from her hands and stared at the boy. 'Loved her?' "You're so damn caring and worried about all of us all the time, you're wonderful."

Naruto did not regret for a second that he said he loved her. He meant it. It just would suck if she felt awkward about it, because he most certainly didn't. There was a brief moment of silence.

"Are you cold?" Sakura asked him. He smiled and looked up, thankful that there was little to no awkwardness.

"Yea actually my whole body feels like its about to freeze." He said. He lifted up his hand and put it against her hand. She pulled away because it was so cold.

"Scoot over I'll lay next to you, I'm too tired to actually go home and sleep and I'm sick of sleeping on the couch, plus it will help you feel warmer." Naruto's whole face felt like it was on fire all of a sudden. He scooted over and she climbed in next to him. She lay beside him in the fetal position under the covers. And he lay behind her feeling awful.

"You're not going to get any sleep with me coughing," He said trying to make sure this was ok with her.

"I work at a hospital, I'll do fine." She replied wittily. His lips curled, and he grinned, this was possibly the happiest he had been in a while.

"Good Night Naruto."

"Good Night Sakura"

D: WHEW! What a flippin chapter! I love it! It made me so happy on the inside while I was writing it, I hope you all kind of feel the same way while reading it. PLUS! I now know how I'm going to end! It will most definitely be done in 2-3 chapters. And you all will LOVE the ending. I will try try try to finish this before the end of break!

Next chapter: Mission of the Sound! Sakura Says Good-Bye!