She doesn't own Naruto…or Bosnia! (But if she did, she'd have made some changes, to both Naruto and Bosnia).

Another author insert appears somewhere in this chapter…guess which totally unnamed character is me.

Neji couldn't stop blushing. He faced the window to hide it, seeing as it was painfully obvious on his white face, but unfortunately the reflection in the glass was like a mirror. Lights flashed past them as they drove. They hadn't stayed in Eire, seeing as the tall woman in the elevator had filed a complaint, which led to a shouting match, which led to Temari using terms that would make Fifty Cent blush, which led to the seven of them getting kicked out of the hotel. Gaara just opted to drive straight through to New York City, just to save time and energy.

It was well past midnight. Sasuke lay spooned against Naruto, trying desperately to fall asleep. He was failing miserably. Half of him wanted to sleep, really he did, but half of his just wanted to lay there, awake.

"Bastard…your eyes are burning holes into the back of my head." Sasuke blanched. 'He was awake?' his inner voice demanded. 'Quick, Road Trip Evasive Maneuver number one forty nine: pretend you are asleep until further notice.' Sasuke pretended to snore. "I've shared a room with you for the past two weeks. You don't snore."

"Damn…" Sasuke sighed and Naruto turned to face him, the blond boy propping himself up on one elbow. "It was such a good plan too."

"Smooth Sasuke. So…what's keeping you up? It has to be past midnight--"

"One oh seven," Gaara corrected.

"It's one oh seven," Naruto continued, "why are you still awake?"

"I could ask you the same question Uzamaki."

"I asked first," Naruto protested.

"How about I tell you why I'm awake, and then we can go from there?" Gaara suggested sarcastically. "Your incessant bickering is beginning to try my last nerve. Stop kicking the side of my van."

Naruto was about to remind Gaara is was technically Shikamaru's van, but the scalding glare made him think twice. Three times, actually. "So Sasuke…what's got you up at this obscenely early hour?"

"Afraid to go to sleep," Sasuke muttered as he checked to make sure everyone in hearing distance, that is to say everyone in Murphy, was asleep.

"Still?" Naruto asked quietly. "Nightmares not getting any better?" He looked genuinely concerned. Sasuke nestled against the side of the van, the cold aluminum biting into his skin with frigid teeth. The dark haired boy nodded, curling up into a tight circle. He didn't want to admit it, but he was still afraid of the night. The nightmares still plagued him, and despite waking up beside his best friend in the early hours of the morning, he was still afraid to go to sleep at night.

"Just a little," Sasuke murmured. Naruto shuffled forward on his hands and knees to lay next to Sasuke.

"You know I won't let anything happen to you. Can I help at all?"

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders lightly. "Maybe. I don't know. I haven't tried." His words came in short spills. "Why are you up."

"I knew you were. I couldn't stand wondering if you were okay," Naruto admitted. "I can't have my closest friend hurting while I'm asleep, now can I?" He swished a couple of strands of black hair out of Sasuke's pale face.

"No," Sasuke murmured, sitting up and leaning against the side of the van. "You couldn't." He leaned forward, pressing his forehead against Naruto's chest in a sort of 'I'm tired' gesture. Naruto blinked a few times and smoothed down Sasuke's hair with one hand.

"We should sleep now. We'll be in New York in the morning, and we'll see all the cool stuff!" Naruto assured his friend. "Now come on, before we have to drug you to sleep. Temari has enough stocked up to keep you asleep until Gatlinburg."

"Ask her if I can borrow some."

"You want to be the one who wakes up the freaky hormonal lush rapper? Be my guest," Naruto said with a laugh that was just a little drier than usual. Sasuke blanched at the other boy's tone, but didn't respond to it.

"I'd rather not wake up and feel like Neji," he agreed. "But…stay with me?"

"Where would I go? The van's tiny," Naruto pointed out.

"I mean…stay with me…" Sasuke muttered. Naruto blinked a few times and inched timidly closer to his friend.

"Okay," he acquiesced. He wrapped a stray arm around Sasuke, who in turn nestled his face in the crook of Naruto's neck. "Gaara has that creepy look in his eye that means we're going to be in New York sometime soon. I'm tired. Don't keep drilling into my skull with that creepy look of yours, ne?"

"Alright."

"Good night."

"Good night."

"Shut up before you wake my sister. I can't stand another Tupac song."

Silence.

Sasuke woke up feeling thoroughly disgusting. His usual nightmare had been replaced by choking blackness, so he was already on a crappy start, but he felt much fouler than usual anyway. His throat was dry, his eyes ached and begged to shut. His breathing was thoroughly ragged and his heart seemed to be pumping excessive amounts of blood into his face.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked, pushing a hand against Sasuke's cheek. "Why is your face so hot? Are you sick?" Sasuke shrugged weakly. Naruto bit his lip and felt around in the dark until his hands closed around a hard, plastic object. He pushed a button on the side of the tube and a beam of light flicked over Sasuke's face, which was drastically paler than usual. "Gaara, Sasuke looks really sick."

"Are you ?" Naruto asked, pushing a hand against Sasuke's cheek. "Why is your face so hot? Are you sick?" Sasuke shrugged weakly. Naruto bit his lip and felt around in the dark until his hands closed around a hard, plastic object. He pushed a button on the side of the tube and a beam of light flicked over Sasuke's face, which was drastically paler than usual. "Gaara, Sasuke looks really sick."

"Wake up Temari. She can take care of it."

Naruto crawled over the floor and shook Temari away. "Tema-chan," he whispered. "Temari, wake up." Temari's eyes drifted open, but as soon as she saw it was still dark, she was up like a shot. Sasuke could hear her shuffling over to him, pressing a cold hand to his face, muttering a few words to Naruto.

"Sasuke, are you feeling sick at all?" Temari asked. Her voice didn't even sound a little groggy. "Can you sit up? Do you feel dizzy? Are you seeing colors that weren't there a couple minutes before?" Temari's questions came rapid fire.

"Sitting up yea, dizzy yeah, colors no," Sasuke informed her flatly and quickly. "Why?"

"You have a fever. Can you swallow?"

"It hurts," Sasuke mumbled.

Temari shook her head somberly. "You're pretty sick, Sasuke. You should probably get some rest. We're going to be in New York a couple of days, so no worries, you'll still get to see the city. Shut your eyes and go back to sleep," she ordered. Sasuke nodded and shut his eyes. He did not, however, shut his ears.

"Naruto," Temari said, "he's got a fever…probably the flu. He's going to have to stay in the hotel tomorrow."

"I'll stay with him," Naruto volunteered. "If I can play the video games and watch the pay-per-view movies." Sasuke heard Temari sigh and in his mind's eye he could see her waving Naruto off and falling back to the floor of the van and curling up beside Shikamaru.

Sasuke opened one eye when he felt Naruto lay down beside him. "Still awake?" the blond boy asked. "I can tell when you're awake."

"Still awake," Sasuke croaked.

"You heard Temari then. She said sleep. I know I won't sleep until you do…inconsiderate bastard…" he growled. "You want a blanket?" Sasuke nodded. With a smirk, Naruto stole Temari's blanket. She didn't even notice, she just rolled over and snuggled under Shikamaru's blanket. "Here you go Sasuke." Naruto cast a blanket over the two of them. "Night."

"Night," Sasuke muttered, his voice ragged from his tortured throat. "Wait…Naruto?"

"Yeah?"

"Would you really spend all night in a hotel room with me?"

"Of course."

"Both of you…your incessant rambling is going to wake up my sister, and when she wakes up, there will be blood, and there will be death. So be quiet right now, or I'll make you walk the rest of the way to New York in the dark. With the hobos."

Silence.

"I don't care, he was offensive!"

"Hey, Tupac uses the N word, so that bellboy wasn't that offensive."

"Tupac is BLACK! HE'S A BLACK RAPPER! He can say that! However, people cannot make comments about gay people in a manner such as that bellboy did and get away with it, unless they themselves are gay, in which case the language changes and certain words are acceptable. However, the way that bellboy said it, I think he has a girlfriend or nine. Not only that, he pushed me."

"He what?" The manager of the hotel cast Temari a worried glance.

"Yes, I'm sure I twisted my back…"

"How badly?"

"I'm growing faint…"

"Oh dear…how faint?"

"Faint enough to sue your ass if you don't comp our stay."

Naruto bounced into the room and practically shrieked. "This is SO FRICKEN COOL!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. He leapt onto the bed and rolled around on it a couple of times before promptly falling off. "Oh sorry, didn't mean to shout that loud" he said sheepishly. Sasuke shrugged and crawled onto his bed.

"What's there to watch?" the dark haired boy asked.

"Not sure," Naruto replied as he checked the TV guide card. He turned on the television and flicked to channel thirty eight. There was some cartoon on, which Naruto had never seen before, but tolerated anyway since someone fell off a building.

"We'll be back around six, Gaara wants to go donate time to the homeless shelter," Temari called as she poked her head through the connecting door. "We'll check in when we get back, alright?" Naruto nodded and the blonde girl shut the door with a slight slam. The blond boy turned his attention to Sasuke.

"Did you want food? Temari said I could call room service."

"I'm starved, now that I think about it."

"Okay!" Naruto said brightly. He consulted the room service card that was sitting on the nightstand. His azure eyes flickered over it a few times before he turned smirking to the phone and picked it up and hitting 0 for room service.

Twenty minutes later, Sasuke was confronted with the most food he had seen in one place in a very long time. There was a bowl of fettuccine, a pitcher of lemonade, a bottle of wine (though Temari had purchased that earlier and instructed Naruto to drug Sasuke if need be), a platter of cheese, two salads, a massive chicken, nine plates of sushi and six or seven bowls of ramen. The waitress was being followed mercilessly by a chunky brown-haired girl who kepted eyeing the fettuccine. Natuto eventually just handed her the pasta. She ran away, laughing maniacally. Sasuke stared at her running back, then at all the food.

"Loser…why did you order all of this?"

"They're only comping our stay one night. Might as well stock up on free food. You hungry?" Naruto handed Sasuke one of the heaping salads. Sasuke eyed it and took a bite carefully, chewing slowly and eyeing his friend.

"I don't feel too good," he said.

"You haven't eaten though," Naruto argued. "Just eat a little bit, then take a nap. You want to feel better for tomorrow, right?" Sasuke nodded. "Alright, then do that. Drink water too. Temari said it makes you feel better."

Sasuke nodded, acquiescing and taking another bite of salad. He ended up finishing it and curling up quietly under his covers. "Thank you for staying."

"No problem. It's just New York. There's always tomorrow. So, you going to take a nap, or do I need to read you a bedtime story first?"

"Is it the story about the little blond boy who tries to fly out the window?"

"Nope, it's the one about the blond boy who drugs his stubborn friend because he's engaging in unhealthy activity. So unless you want to hear that story, I suggest you go to sleep and let me get back to Grand Theft Auto."

"Temari says that has a despicable way of portraying women as sex objects."

"Fine. I'll play Mario Brothers."

"Temari says Mario's accent is culturally offensive."

"Eminem and Fifty Cent, Rapper Show Down?"

"Temari says Eminem is a women hating homophobe."

"Scoot over. I'm going to lay their until you fall asleep and then I'm going to play every one of those video games until six o' clock PM in the evening, because I don't give a damn what Temari says."

I was the chick following the waitress.

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