Sasuke awoke hot and drenched in sweat, and ripped the blankets off himself. The cool air felt refreshing on his roasting skin. He turned onto his side, witnessed the pile of blankets breathing beside him, and remembered the previous night's escapades. He peeled back the blankets on the other side of the bed to reveal Naruto, contently asleep on his backside. His limbs splayed out in every direction, monopolizing the majority of the bed. He looked right at home, blissfully unaware that he was being watched. Sasuke wanted to touch him, to reach over and push his bangs back, but the contact seemed oddly inappropriate.

Sasuke retreated his hand and sat up to read the alarm clock: a smidge past six in the morning. He yawned and stretched, not as sore from their hike as he'd expected to be, then carefully rolled out of bed so as not to wake Naruto. His shoulder was feeling a lot better, though climbing that tree probably had not helped the situation.

Their clothes were strewn about the floor. Or more accurately, Sasuke's clothes were strewn about the floor, since he'd lent them to Naruto. He went about quietly gathering them up while he thought about what to say to Naruto once he woke up. He didn't even know if Naruto had bothered to tell his parents where he'd been all night. More importantly, did Naruto expect a ride to school that morning? What would Shikamaru say if they showed up on campus together? Would Kakashi catch on to the situation?

Sasuke tossed the clothes into the hamper and sank to the floor. What is the situation between us, anyways? He rubbed his temples while he thought. What is there to catch on to, exactly? He looked towards the bed, where one of Naruto's legs hung off the mattress. One wrong turn and the slumbering teenager would probably slide completely off the bed.

They hadn't had sex, but they had undressed and fooled around. Sasuke knew that making someone cum didn't automatically make him your boyfriend, and he wasn't sure that a boyfriend was what he really wanted from the situation anyways. But what did Naruto want?

Sasuke's stomach grumbled, and he realised they had forgotten to eat dinner. Naruto will probably wake up starving, he thought as he pulled a t-shirt over his head and crept quietly out of the room to make breakfast.

X X X

Sasuke wrapped his arms tighter around Itachi as he tried to ignore the throbbing in his sprained ankle. "Hey, Itachi," he asked. "Can we go back to the dojo tomorrow and keep practicing?"

"Hmm." Itachi paused to adjust the weight of his brother riding on his back. "I think there's a yoga class that uses the dojo on Sundays, and the day after that you start first grade, don't you?"

"We can just go after school, right?"

Itachi laughed. "I'm starting middle school next week," he explained. "I'm going to a private prep school now, and you'll have school during the day too, so we might not have as much time to spend with each other as before."

Sasuke hugged him tighter. "That's okay. As long we can still practice together at the dojo sometimes."

"Sure, just remember to stretch properly like I told you to next time, so you don't hurt yourself again."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, even though Itachi couldn't see it.

X X X

Sasuke stepped away from the stove to answer his ringing cell phone. "You've reached Sasuke," he said, opening the refrigerator with his free hand.

"Hello, Mr. Uchiha," replied a woman's voice. "This is Konan from Akatsuki Psychiatric Institution."

Sasuke strained to reach the maple syrup at the very back of the refrigerator. "Someone else already called," he told her. "I'll read the letter in my own time, so stop bothering me." He grabbed the container and pulled it out.

"I'm actually calling about an official notice that was just sent out today," she continued. "According to our records, the only other mail we've sent you recently was a personal letter from a patient, but that's not why I'm calling today."

Sasuke poured a generous amount of syrup into a saucepan and turned the burner on. Naruto seemed like the type of person who poured a lot of syrup on his pancakes. "Either way, I've been meaning to call about setting up a block for personal letters, like what I already set up to block personal calls." He began flipping the blueberry pancakes while he listened for her response.

The woman cleared her throat. "I would be happy to send you the request form for that in the mail as well. You'll just have to fill it out and send it back to us, and your request will be implemented up to five business days after we receive the properly filled out form." She was handling their call much more professionally than the guy who'd called before. "Now about the notification sent today, all of the details will be in the notice but we're calling in advance as a courtesy about your brother Itachi Uchiha because you might need additional time to request a restraining order if that's what you want to do."

Sasuke pulled out a stool and sat down. Just hearing a stranger speak his brother's name put him on edge. "I thought I didn't need a restraining order because he's in a secure facility, and my request for no personal calls from him never expires. What is the meaning on this?" He took a sip of his coffee.

"Itachi Uchiha is eligible for temporary release." The hairs on the back of Sasuke's neck stood up. "You're being informed so that you will be able to make any necessary arrangements for yourself before this goes into effect."

Sasuke was frozen. Itachi was supposed to stay under supervision for life. That's what the lawyers had told him, all those years ago. They'd told him he was safe, and that Itachi had been put away forever. Even so, he'd still spent years lying awake at night, fearing for his life in strangers' houses. He still couldn't bear to enter certain rooms in his own home. He still wondered, from time to time, if the day would ever come when Itachi would escape and return to finish the job. He had never imagined Itachi would escape like this, under some bullshit lawful pretext.

"You can't," he whispered meekly into the phone, knowing full well the futility of it. "You're lying." He knew he was grasping at straws.

"I'm sorry, sir. I didn't quite catch what you just said."

Sasuke stood up on trembling legs, as if that would carry his voice over the phone better. He thought maybe, if he could just convince this woman how evil his brother really was, maybe she would see through whatever trick he'd used to fool them, and stop this nonsense. "He's evil," Sasuke explained frantically. "You can't let him out, he's evil! He's a fucking psycho murderer, you can't just let him out!"

"He's not exactly being released," Konan continued calmly. "He'll be monitored via a GPS ankle bracelet, and will be required to return in the evenings under a strict curfew."

This lady clearly did not understand the gravity of the situation. Sasuke's blood pulsed erratically through his body, and the arteries in his neck throbbed from the pressure. His heart seemed to bounce around inside his ribcage as it lost track of it's normal rhythm and pounded sporadically.

"YOU C...!" He tried to yell into the phone and force her to understand, but the words became tangled in his throat. He found himself forcing out silent air instead of shouts at a critical moment when he needed his voice more than ever before.

Beep!

Sasukepulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it. What the… the bitch hung up on me. He blinked in disbelief.

"I think something's burning in here," came Naruto's voice.

Sasuke looked up to find Naruto standing in the entrance to the kitchen. He vaguely noticed his phone slide from his grasp and break apart into a handful of plastic pieces on the floor. The sound of it rang in his ears louder than it should have.

"S-Sasuke?"

Naruto's face paled considerably, then blurred like a drawing being smudged out by a cheap eraser.

X X X

Eyes: red and glowing. Evil eyes.

"Dear little brother, are you frightened of the truth?"

Details of the room blurred together. Wall became floor. Family became intruder. Fingers became claws. Shadows became crows.

"I merely played the part of the big brother you wanted me to be."

X X X

Sasuke opened his eyes and gasped. White. He sat up and looked around frantically. The room was white.

He'd only been dreaming.

"Sasuke, thank God!" Suddenly Naruto's arms were around him. He focused his eyes and saw Kakashi there as well, standing behind Naruto with his hands in his pockets.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked drearily.

Naruto looked into his eyes, still clinging to his hospital gown. "You collapsed," he explained softly. "I think you were talking on the phone, and then you suddenly passed out."

So that part wasn't a dream. He felt strangely calm. "I need my wallet and my phone."

"Sasuke, take it easy," Naruto instructed. "You just woke up."

"I have to call my lawyer right away," he growled, shrugging Naruto off himself. "His business card is in my wallet."

Kakashi and Naruto exchanged glances.

"Now!" Sasuke felt dizzy. His eyes phased in and out of focus.

"You hit your head really hard," Naruto told him. "You have a concussion, so just lie back down and rest. Whatever it is, it can wait." Naruto used a remote to bring the bed up to a partially reclined position, and gently forced Sasuke's body to meet the mattress.

"Na… ruto." Sasuke's voice cracked. His eyes stung, his temples throbbed and he was completely and unequivocally exhausted. The bright overhead light seared his eyes.

"I'm right here," he heard Naruto say as he closed his eyes. His body felt so heavy.

X X X

Sasuke opened his eyes again. He knew where he was this time. He sat up and tried to lift his right arm to brush his hair out of his face, but stopped when he felt the IV tug at his skin. He tried again with his left arm to find that Naruto was sitting in a chair next to him, fast asleep but maintaining a tight grip on his hand. He squinted at their interlaced fingers through the dim light. Sasuke had never woken up to find himself in a hospital bed before, but he'd always assumed there wouldn't be anyone at his bedside if he did. It was really nice to have Naruto there with him, even if he was passed out.

He carefully detangled their fingers and brought his hand to his forehead. He felt a bandage wrapped around his head. He'd probably hit it on the counter on his way down. Sasuke leaned back in the bed, which someone had reset back to its original fully reclined position. His body felt heavy and tired, but he did not want to go back to sleep and dream about his family.

He wanted to wake Naruto for the company, even though he knew it was a selfish thing to do. He rolled onto his side and read the label on the IV bag to make sure it was just a saline drip before carefully pulling the needle out of his forearm. He sat up again and swung his legs over the side of the bed. The open back of the hospital gown was uncomfortably breezy as he leaned forward to tap Naruto on the knee.

"Hey, idiot," he whispered. "Wake up."

Naruto opened his eyes drearily. "Sasuke?"

"Come here," Sasuke instructed, pulling on the sleeve of his shirt. "Don't sleep in the chair, you'll hurt your neck."

Naruto compliantly relocated to the bed and slid underneath the thin blanket. The cot was tiny, even smaller than a regular twin size, but they managed to fit by lying on their sides. Naruto closed his eyes again immediately after settling in and Sasuke draped an arm over him.

"Hey Naruto," Sasuke whispered.

"Hm?"

"Thanks."

Naruto smiled and snuggled into Sasuke's embrace. "You were making morning-after breakfast," he mumbled.

Sasuke chuckled. "It was just breakfast, don't start putting too much thought into dumb things."

"I wish I could've eaten it."

Sasuke ran a hand through Naruto's tangled blond tresses. "Do you know what time it is?"

Naruto rolled onto his back to reached for the cell phone on the table. "It's only nine-thirty," he reported. "Kakashi's pissed that I didn't come home last night so I have to go to school soon, but I wanted to be here when you woke up."

The natural light streaming in through the window fell perfectly on Naruto's face, revealing the dark circles that framed his blue eyes. "I'm sorry if I freaked you out," Sasuke offered tentatively when he saw how exhausted Naruto looked.

Naruto shook his head. "Nah, don't be sorry. I'm just glad someone was there when it happened." He snuggled in closer, pressing his forehead into the slope of Sasuke's shoulder. "It looked like you got bad news."

Sasuke remained silent as Itachi's elegant handwriting floated through his mind. The letter was in the drawer of his desk back at the house, and he knew the time had come to finally read it.

"You don't have to tell me about it if you don't want to," Naruto continued. "But when you're ready, I brought you some clothes and Sakura agreed to come pick us up since I don't have a car."

Sasuke traced the shell of Naruto's ear with his finger and said, "Five more minutes."