Sasuke wasn't worried. Sure, the idiot was thirty-six—no, thirty-seven minutes late, but that wasn't his concern. Nope…He took a rather vicious bite of fried chicken. He wasn't worried at all.
It was purely because of instinct, then, that his head swiveled around the instant the door opened. Naruto walked—or rather staggered—inside and crumpled to the ground with a groan.
Sasuke's chicken was forgotten as he went to the other boy's side. Naruto's face was disfigured and swollen, and he was bleeding from a cut on his lip and a rather deep gash above his eyebrow. There were blossoming bruises that looked vaguely like finger marks on his neck, and he could see dark spots already forming on his wrists. He didn't even want to think about what other injuries might be hiding under his clothing.
"What the heck happened to you?"
Naruto cracked open his one eye that wasn't completely swollen shut. "Oh hey, Sasuke." He tried to smile, but it turned out as more of a grimace. "It's nothing. I just tripped and fell."
Sasuke felt his eyebrows raise to his hairline. "You tripped and fell," he repeated in disbelief.
"Uh, yeah…really hard?"
He crossed his arms skeptically. "Right. And that's why you have finger marks on your neck, I suppose."
When the blonde remained stubbornly silent, he said, "Who did this to you?"
"Nobody, ok?! I fell, that's all—urgh."
Sasuke watched impassively as the other boy cringed with pain. "You should go to the
hospital."
"I'm fine," Naruto panted as he struggled to his feet. "This is nothing. I'll be better in no time."
Sasuke rolled his eyes as he draped the other boy's arm over his shoulder. "You're an idiot, you know that?"
Naruto's smile held some of his usual cheekiness. "At least I'm not a stubborn jerk like you."
"I'll go get the medical supplies, so stay there," he ordered as Naruto collapsed onto the bed.
"They're in the lower left cabinet in the bathroom," the blonde called after him.
Opening the cabinet, he was a bit thrown off by the sheer quantity of bandages, gauze pads, and cooling packs that he found. If there was ever an apocalypse, at least they wouldn't have to worry about running out of medical supplies. Or instant ramen. They had buckets of the stuff.
Grabbing an assortment of items that he thought he might need, he returned to the bedroom with his arms full. "You need to take off your shirt first," he instructed.
"Geez, you're even more bossy than the nurses at the hospital," Naruto muttered as he removed the tee shirt with some difficulty.
Just as he had thought, the blonde's arms and chest were already peppered with dark, ugly splotches. "You really got your butt kicked," he said as he surveyed them. "I hope you at least paid them back."
"How could I?" Naruto's voice was laced with bitterness. "It was three on one and they were all adults."
Adults? A wave of unexpected anger washed over him. What type of adults would gang up on a child?
"You should tell someone," he said. "The Sandaime would—"
"Jiji's got enough to worry about already. I can handle it on my own."
"Right," he bit back. "Because you're clearly handling it great right now."
"I'm doing my best, ok?" Naruto said hotly. "Why do you think I'm trying to get stronger?" He took a deep breath and took the bandage from Sasuke's fumbling hands. "Here. I'll do it."
Sasuke watched as he skillfully wrapped the bandage around his arm. This had happened before, he realized. And all of the other times, Naruto came back to this empty apartment and had to treat himself, all alone…
"I'll train you."
"Eh?" The other boy looked up in surprise.
"I'll train you," he said again. "We start as soon as you're healed."
Naruto's eyes became as round as saucers. "You really mean it, dattebayo?"
Sasuke averted his own gaze in embarrassment. "Hn."
The blonde jumped up excitedly. "Yes, dattebay—ow!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Idiot."
Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I have to say that it's one of my personal favorites. Tomorrow's update will feature their first training session, but until then, thanks for reading and please leave a review to let me know what you think!