He's Mine (Sasuke's POV)

In which there might be things that even Ichiraku's Deluxe Dinner Set can't fix. Special appearance by a certain shabby dino.

A/N: Wahhhh thanks for all your lovely responses to the last chapter! Yes, our boys have come so far since this fic began, actually talking and being honest about their feelings. So of course, everything's just gonna figure itself out now, right? …well.

It was an odd feeling to wake up and realise that for once, his sleep had been blissfully free of dreams. And he hadn't woken up coughing or feeling feverish, his arm didn't hurt, he wasn't angry or desperate or needy. He was just…content. Peaceful. It was a very odd feeling, and to be honest it was quite unnerving.

Thankfully, it didn't last very long.

He opened his eyes to find Naruto rifling through his room and pawing through all his drawers, dumping clothes and papers all over Sasuke's tidy bedroom. "Dammit, Sasuke!" the blonde whined. "You had hundreds of blankets here the other day! Where the hell did they all go?!"

Sasuke gazed over at Naruto's bare thighs and backside and felt his cheeks warm. Despite the state of his room, seeing Naruto wandering around completely naked was certainty not an unwelcome sight, even if he was being obscenely loud. Sasuke ran his eyes over those tight muscles in his shoulders and down his back, and hoped that he wasn't drooling.

…but then Naruto stepped away from his dresser and reached out to yank open the closet doors. Sasuke panicked and froze; no-one was meant to look in there! "No, don't!" he cried out, but it was too late. Naruto hurled a pile of blankets out of the closet and then paused, looking down.

Sasuke cowered into the bed as the idiot blonde's face broke out in a bright grin.

"Well hey now," Naruto sang, looking beside himself with happiness as he reached down to the bottom of the closet. "Who's this little guy?"

Sasuke pushed himself up and leant forward, snatching the plush dinosaur out of Naruto's hands and clutching him to his chest. "He's mine," he scowled. "...don't touch him!"

"He's cute," Naruto pronounced, gathering up the blankets from the floor and flopping back down on the bed next to Sasuke. "Does he have a name?"

Sasuke chose not to answer that. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was still early; barley 8 o'clock. There was time for more sleep. It's not like he had anything better to do today, given that he was still locked up in here. He settled on his side and carefully nestled Mr. Roary in his arms.

Naruto stared over at them both, his gaze lingering on Sasuke's arms around the shabby dino, and his eyes glazed over for a moment.

Sasuke glowered back over at him. "Stop that," he demanded, as Naruto laid a few more blankets over the top of them and even reached out to pet Mr. Roary's head. What nerve!

"Kiss me again," Naruto demanded back. "You're just too cute, I need a kiss!"

Sasuke stuck his tongue out at him and nestled deeper into the blankets.

Naruto laughed at that. "Hey, I was freezing last night you know!" he declared. "You only let me cuddle with you for like, ten minutes before you kicked me away. Right in the shins!"

"You're lucky I let you sleep here at all," Sasuke said to that, sulking. Naruto would have hung onto him the whole night if he thought he could get away with it.

"You cuddled with me for hours the other night," Naruto said, giving Sasuke a sulky frown of his own in retaliation.

"I was delirious," Sasuke pointed out. It hasn't been Naruto in the bed with him, it had been a blurry, Naruto-shaped heater. So there.

"Ah, you certainly were!" Naruto said with glee, a huge grin plastered on his face. He was in an annoyingly good mood this morning, it seemed.

"Stop that!" Sasuke said again. "Stop- stop being so happy!"

"Not gonna happen," Naruto pronounced. "I'm going to be happy all day. And I'm gonna replay what happened last night over and over and over again in my head. And then once more just for luck-"

"You wouldn't," Sasuke interrupted, horrified. That was mortifying, the thought of Naruto walking around thinking about the two of them- no, it was unacceptable!

"You can't stop me," Naruto teased, reaching out to tickle his cheek with his finger. "Actually, I'm pretty sure I couldn't stop myself. It was amazing."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. Well, maybe it had been amazing. Maybe it had…definitely been amazing. But still!

"Oh, hey!" Naruto said, his grin becoming even brighter. "Guess what, I spent all yesterday afternoon training, and Sakura-chan said I went from fifty percent to fifty-five percent! Isn't that awesome?"

Sasuke frowned, trying to translate Naruto's remarks into English. But he had no idea what Naruto was talking about, so he honestly couldn't say if it was awesome or not. Well, he seemed happy, so it must be a good thing, right?

Suddenly there was a crash from outside the bedroom and the door slammed open. "Sasuke!" Sakura cried, before stopping short when she caught sight of them.

Sasuke quickly glanced down to make sure they were both covered enough, and subtly pushed Mr. Roary under the blankets. It was bad enough that Naruto had seen him.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto called out, flashing her a grin. "What are you doing here?"

"I should have known I'd find you here," Sakura said with a growl. "I was coming to your place next. Get dressed already, would you? I'm taking you training in five minutes!'

Naruto nodded and slipped obediently out of bed, not seeming to care in the slightest that he was completely naked. Sasuke looked away and tried to supress his blush.

"And you!" Sakura exclaimed, turning her attention back to Sasuke. "Why on earth do you have such an annoying friend?!"

Ah, Sasuke thought. Yes, she'd had Suigetsu in her apartment the whole night. No wonder she seemed a bit…edgy. "You forced him into your place," Sasuke pointed out. "You have no right to complain."

"I have every right to complain!" Sakura retorted. "Why don't you have better control over your friends?! You need to program them, like I did with Naruto! Look at him, he's already dressed and waiting for me!"

Sasuke gazed over at the blonde and saw that this was indeed true; Naruto was standing there patiently, fully dressed.

"Aww! Thanks, Sakura-chan," Naruto said happily, seemly pleased with Sakura's praise. "Can we have breakfast before we go training?"

"See what you can find in Sasuke's kitchen," she instructed, and Naruto smiled and bounced out of the room.

"See?" Sakura said, her arms on her hips.

"You're welcome to try that with Suigetsu," he said. More than welcome. Sasuke would pay good money to see his friend obediently following Sakura's instructions.

Sakura sighed. "Whatever. Anyway, you're being released, so you need to get up and get dressed too. I need your help with his training."

"I'm being released?" Sasuke asked. Since when? This was the first he'd heard about it.

"Unofficially released," Sakura clarified. "The Anbu will still be watching you, and the boys have to stay here. Now, I assume you can get to the training fields without anyone seeing you? As far as Konoha is concerned, you'll still be locked up in here."

Sasuke shrugged. "Yeah, okay," he said. He sat up and then paused, staring at her. He wasn't going to walk around naked in front of her! Leave that to the moron! "…you two go on ahead. I'll find you after I have a shower."

Sakura frowned. "Well, don't be too long!" she said as she whirled around and left the room.

Sasuke let out a breath and relaxed back into his pillows the instant she was gone. No, he wouldn't be too long, but he was sure he'd be forgiven for needing a little time to process just what he'd done last night.

"So what do you think?" Sakura asked as they sat at the side of the clearing watching Naruto train.

Sasuke gazed across at the over-energetic blonde and gave it some thought. There was undeniably still something wrong with Naruto; the bright spark in the back of his mind that usually marked his presence was barely a little blip. It had actually taken him ten minutes to figure out where Naruto was once he'd left his apartment this morning. Not that he was planning on telling Sakura that.

"He's stronger than he was," Sasuke finally concluded, and that was true; Sasuke had to admit that he was relieved- more than relieved- to find that Naruto's condition didn't seem permanent.

Sakura nodded briefly. "I agree. But...but there's still a long way to go, before he's back up to his normal level."

"So what's you're theory?" Sasuke asked. Sakura surely had her own ideas of what had caused this.

She hesitated. "I've heard of illnesses that can do this kind of thing, but he doesn't have any other symptoms. So…a poison or toxin I would say. It's not really my area of expertise, though. If only he'd let me ask someone else, but he made me promise not to..."

"And if you asked someone else without telling him?" Sasuke suggested, only half in jest.

Sakura gave him a tight little smile. "Naruto takes promises very seriously, you know."

Sasuke sighed. Yes, he did know; which is exactly why he tried so hard to avoid promising the guy anything. Give him an inch and he'd take a mile. He couldn't help it; it was just his nature.

"So that's how," Sasuke said. "Do you have a theory as to why?"

She paused. "I do, actually," she said. "Everyone knows that Naruto is Konoha's best defence. Konoha's main defence, even. I think he was deliberately targeted, so that he would be weakened when the attack came and they'd have a better chance of succeeding."

"The attack failed, though," Sasuke pointed out.

"Well, they came a lot closer to the archives than you might think. That's classified information, by the way. The official line is that yes, they failed, they didn't get anywhere near the archives."

Sasuke frowned. That was...concerning. The information and potential power in those archives could not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands.

"Sakura-chan, look!" Naruto called out, and they both stared over to see Naruto standing proud with at least 30 clones behind him. ...ah, that explained the headache Sasuke could feel coming on, all those mini sparks of Naruto-chakra in the back of his head.

Sakura smiled. "Very good, Naruto-kun," she called back in praise. "Why don't you run some drills with them? Three on one until you take them all out."

"Okay!" Naruto exclaimed happily, bounding off and calling out orders to the clones.

"He's like a puppy," Sasuke commented, wrinkling his nose. And just as needy as one, that was for sure.

"At least he's in a much better mood today than he has been," she said, sending him a sly look. "I wonder why?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I have no idea," he said back, as if she hadn't walked in on the two of them naked in Sasuke's bed this morning.

Sakura sighed heavily. "I swear to god, Sasuke, if someone looked at me the way Naruto looks at you, I'd be beside myself!" she declared out of the blue.

Sasuke blinked and stared over at her, surprised at her sudden outburst. "Where did that come from?" he asked.

She shot him a dark look. "He's my best friend! And he adores you. And it's mutual, I know it is, so why can't you stop messing him around-"

"I don't want to talk about this," Sasuke interrupted, feeling his blood run cold at her sudden anger.

"I'm sure you don't," she said back with a scowl. "But it's all still there, and it's all still true, whether you talk about it or not!"

Sasuke fell silent and looked away from her.

There was a palpable tension in the air as they both turned their attention back to Naruto. Sasuke was shocked. Sakura certainly hadn't been shy the past few months about voicing her opinion on his actions, but she'd never been so…angry. Is that really how she felt?

And Naruto, he'd been angry too yesterday, when they'd fought. Really angry. Yes, Sasuke had provoked him, he'd done it deliberately, he could admit that. But he'd still be surprised. It just goes to show, Sasuke said to himself, it's not safe here. It's too intense. Everyone's too invested in something that could never happen.

They sat in silence for another few moments until Sasuke could bear it no longer.

"I need to leave, Sakura," he murmured to her, keeping his eyes glued to the ground. "I can't stay here any longer. I shouldn't have come back. He...he would have..." He would have moved on. He'd already found someone else, after all.

"No, he wouldn't have," Sakura interjected. "He's yours, Sasuke, completely yours. He'd do anything you asked."

…maybe he would, and maybe he wouldn't. But it just couldn't happen. What would that even be like? Naruto was all-consuming; he would demand Sasuke's whole life, his whole being. Sasuke couldn't give it to him, or to anyone. What would he become, someone who just idly stood in the shadows watching Naruto chase after his own dreams? Someone who sat at home and waited for him to get back after a long day at the tower?

No, Naruto needed someone who could properly take care of him- be the Hokage's silent partner, supporting his ambitions. That wasn't Sasuke, that was for sure. He should go after one of those nice, silly girls who chased him around, that would be best. Someone pretty to cook and clean for him. She could give him children, a family. That was what Naruto needed, not- not a-

-but wait, that would mean-

"Sasuke?" Sakura murmured, glancing over at him.

Sasuke blanched, his head suddenly full of images of Naruto kissing someone else, holding someone else, sharing a bed with someone else- no, no, that couldn't- he's mine-

"I really shouldn't have come back," he muttered, feeling immensely sorry for himself and unable to stop picturing Naruto with that idiot outside the bar, the way they'd been smiling and laughing together, Naruto had seemed happy, and then they'd been kissing and-

-and what do I do to him?! I certainly don't make him happy! Sasuke would never forget the look on Naruto's face the other night when they'd been arguing, and Sasuke had said those terrible things to him. About Konoha- about his home. Why did Sasuke feel so compelled to fight with him, to try so damn hard to push him away?! If he'd just stayed away, then Naruto could have moved on, and Sasuke wouldn't be stuck with knowing exactly what it looked like when Naruto was with someone else.

Sakura sighed next to him. "Look, I've got stuff to do- can I trust you to supervise his training?" she asked. "And to not kill each other?"

"Yeah," Sasuke mumbled. "Sure." He highly suspected she had ulterior motives for heading off now, but whatever.

She sighed again. "You're hopeless," she said as she stood. "Honestly, would being happy be the worst thing in the world, Sasuke?"

He shrugged. Maybe it would be, and maybe it wouldn't be. Who knew what being happy even meant, anyway. He waved goodbye as she left the clearing, and then turned back to watch Naruto train. If nothing else, he had a duty to see Naruto get back to full strength. After that- who knew.

They trained for several more hours until Sasuke honestly couldn't tell if Naruto was improving or if it was just wishful thinking. When the sun started to set they called it a day and headed back towards town.

"Hey Naruto, where's Kyuubi?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto averted his eyes. "I was wondering when someone would ask about that," he mumbled.

Well, to be honest, Sasuke had preferred not to know. All of this was bad enough, without worrying about the demon.

"His name is Kurama," Naruto said, "and he's…not talking to me. He's annoyed because this- poison or whatever it is- it took away some of his chakra, too."

Well, great. So this thing was strong enough to affect tailed-beast chakra as well? That was just…wonderful. He sighed.

"So what's it like to feel normal, huh?" Sasuke asked, and Naruto poked his tongue out at him.

"Hey, shut up would you? I'll be back to kicking your ass in no time, you'll see!" he declared. "And for the record, it's horrible."

Sasuke nodded. Yes, he was sure it was. Sasuke may not have been born with crazy amounts of chakra like Naruto had- he'd had to train to get to that level- but the very idea of suddenly being stripped of half his strength was terrifying.

They walked on, Naruto slumped over and dragging his feet, looking exhausted. And he was in such a good mood this morning, Sasuke thought. He'd almost seemed his normal self, so annoyingly exuberant and energetic. Sasuke had almost started to think that the idiot had just forgotten those terrible things Sasuke had said, that he was back to feeling optimistic about his chances of recovery.

A small voice in the back of Sasuke's head told him that he himself had the power to put Naruto right back into his good mood, right away. With just a few words, or a few carefully placed touches. He shivered. No-one should have that much power. And yet, he did; he hadn't asked for it, the moron had done this to them both.

He cleared his throat. "Hey, Naruto…" he began.

"You already regret it, don't you," Naruto murmured.

Sasuke froze. He- well, he… "That, um…"

Naruto kept his eyes downcast, avoiding Sasuke's gaze. "Calling me last night? You wish you hadn't. Right?"

Sasuke winced. Why couldn't this guy be a 100% idiot instead of a 95% one? Fine, if he had to admit it, calling Naruto had been a stupid thing to do. If Sasuke just had more self-control, this whole thing would be easier on both of them.

"It's okay, really," Naruto went on. "I knew what you were asking for. And- and I wanted to help. I did help, right, Sasuke? You felt better?"

His voice was so earnest and eager that it cut right through all of Sasuke's defences like they were paper. "…yes," he heard himself say. "Yes, it helped. A lot." Okay, so it wouldn't hurt to show a little appreciation for a job well done.

Naruto seemed to brighten a little at that; at least, he lifted his eyes and smiled, just a tiny bit. "Good," he said back. "I'm glad."

Sasuke bit his lip. He should leave it at that. Naruto was giving him the out he needed to get around this, they could just move on. Sasuke would just deal with his issues himself next time, he needed need to get Naruto involved with his problems. Yes, they should just move on-

"…let's go get dinner," Sasuke found himself saying. Dammit, Sasuke! he cursed himself. Why did you do that?

Naruto blinked. "Dinner?" he repeated. "Really?"

"Well, I'm hungry, and you're hungry, so we might as well," Sasuke replied gruffly.

"Oh, okay!" Naruto said. "Let's- oh! But, you're not actually meant to go outside, so…"

-right, true. Yet another out Naruto was providing for him. Too bad, we can't eat together, I guess you'll be going home now. "Go and get ramen and bring it back to my place," Sasuke said.

Naruto's eyes widened. "What?" he exclaimed. "Ramen? You're going to eat ramen, with me, voluntarily?!"

No, Sasuke wasn't sure it was voluntarily. There was something in him compelling him to say all these idiotic things. He was probably relapsing. He made a mental note to check his temperature later.

"And I mean real ramen, Naruto, if you come back with instant, I swear-"

"Right, of course!" Naruto interrupted. "Two Ichiraku deluxe dinner sets it is! Okay, I'll be right back!"

And then he was gone, bouncing up and over the rooftops, probably thinking he should leave before Sasuke changed his mind. And that was probably a fair point.

Sasuke stood still for a moment, until he remembered that he was meant to be confined to his apartment. He sighed and headed home. Look, the bottom line was, he didn't want Naruto to be with anyone else- Naruto was his idiot, and no-one else's! But that was just- that wasn't going to work. In which case, Sasuke would just have to stay away from him forever, so he didn't have to see that, see Naruto being happy right in front of him.

Besides, did he really want to spend the rest of his life fighting with that moron? Naruto just didn't get it, he'd chased him for all those years demanding he come back- come back to what? Konoha wasn't the magical place that Naruto thought it was. Sasuke didn't know how else he could say it, not without hurting him even more.

Yes, leaving for good was the sensible thing to do. Just as soon as Naruto was better- as soon as all this Ryuu nonsense was sorted out- he needed to get as far away from Konoha as he could, and never come back.

Coming up next: Naruto proves that he's just as big a baby when he's *cough*hungover* "sick" as Sasuke is, and team seven/Taka receives a mission from the Hokage.

A/N: Okay Sasuke, I see how it is, it's one step forward and two steps back with you isn't it, *grumbles*. (Also GUYS, I totally just finished writing the epilogue! Wellllll the first draft anyway, it's all still patchy. But still!)

Oh and ALSO! Me and a friend just started a Christmas-themed SNS event/challenge over on tumblr. Come and check it out at .com!