"You do seem to know what you're doing," Anko conceded. "Bet it would be even easier with the sharingan."

"It will be," Sasuke agreed as he put the snake back in its cage. She had told him to use gloves and an odd rod with a set of grippers at one end designed to close over the snake's head. When he had refused she had scoffed and set herself up to watch. He was immune to the six species of the snakes in this room so it wasn't as if he needed extra protection. But with those precautions anyone should have been able to do this safely. Using genjutsu would just make it easier. He put away the little cup of venom he had extracted and turned to face her. "Why are you the only one who does this? Is Konoha really so biased against snakes that they would risk their own?"

Anko gave a smile he could only describe as viciously amused. "Yes. The fact that you offered to do this says a lot about you and none of it is good."

"Ibiki didn't think so."

"Of course he didn't," she scoffed. "Ibiki knows to take advantage of someone offering be to useful. This work is necessary, especially for anyone risking direct contact with Sound. But no one offers to do it. The only time I get someone else to do this job is when they're being punished. No one does it by choice. They certainly don't look as if they enjoy doing it."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her tone and then turned to the next cage. He did enjoy it. This was useful work, paid well, and by the time Naruto found out it would be too late for him to intervene. He doubted Naruto would be able to talk Ibiki into changing his mind. Besides, all of their specimens were healthy and impressively deadly. It was nice to be able to handle them without having to hunt them down himself. They needed a wider variety, though. There were none of the venomous snakes he had seen in the forest of death, for instance. Maybe they collected venom from those at the hospital where it was regularly needed. These were obviously imported from other countries where the venom was commonly used. They even had one of the black-mouthed ones whose bites were almost inevitably fatal without antivenom. He had been forced to feed a full dozen of their venom sacks to Terra before his summon had been willing to help him develop an immunity to those.

"Well?" Anko prodded. "Are you going to deny that you actually like this?"

He wondered if she were intentionally distracting him in order to see if he messed up. It wasn't going to happen. "If you hate this so much, why do you do it?"

"Because someone has to and I'm the only one in the entire village who still summons snakes. Anyone else who could summon them refuses to do so. That doesn't mean I like snakes. Snakes are greedy, cold-blooded, selfish creatures and they're quick to admit it. They take pride in being loathsome. Why do you like them?"

"Because they're useful."

Anko took the snake from him and put it away, being as comfortable with it as he was. Once he had stored the venom she folded her arms and gave him a look that was difficult to read. "I've been going over your summoning scroll. Ibiki wanted me to summon your snakes to get a better idea of where you've been and what you've been up to and how much of that was influenced by Sound. Not a single one of your snakes is useful. You aren't even summoning the few snakes that are good for something. If you had learned to summon snakes in Sound your scroll wouldn't be full of worthless nobodies. Any real snake summoner would have taught you better. That means you were summoning them on your own. Why? What possible use were you getting out of them?"

Not much use, to be fair. He wondered what sort of snakes she summoned that she considered good for something. He shrugged. "Infiltration, restraint, envenomation, scouting, antivenom." Snake summons had many uses when they could actually be persuaded to be used.

"Antivenom?" she asked in disbelief. "You can't milk a summon and you couldn't make antivenom out of one even if you could. Did someone tell you otherwise?"

"No, but they are good at locating venomous snakes that can be used for antivenom."

He folded his arms over his chest and waited. She still looked torn between disgust and suspicion. She obviously hadn't been able to summon Terra. Was Terra's ability to alter his venom to suit his needs that unusual? He would have to ask him. He would also ask him which snake summons were considered 'somebody' and 'useful' if Terra was considered a worthless nobody and good for nothing. Those particular words were guaranteed to get Terra talking. Manda was the only summon Sasuke knew of by name but hadn't summoned himself, and that was only because Terra had complained about Manda often when he had first summoned him. Maybe that was the reason Terra was nobody in the hierarchy of snake summons. He hated dealing with his own kind as much as he hated dealing with humans.

Anko shook her head. "If you find them that useful, why were most of your contracts expired? Oh, don't try to hide it," she scoffed when he raised an eyebrow at her. "They were pathetically eager to be summoned by me and two of them didn't even recognize your name. What, were you just doing random snake summons and marking down any who answered the call?"

"Yes."

Anko gaped at him. "Seriously?"

"Yes. And some of them were useless so I added them to my scroll so I would never intentionally summon them again. When I stopped doing missions I had no reason to summon anything so I let the contracts expire. If any of them suited you, you're welcome to them."

"No, thank you." She sighed and waved toward the remaining cages. "Back to work. You are good at this, and better you than me. Maybe you like snakes because you're used to summoning some of the worst snake summons possible. One of them was clearly brain-damaged. For your sake I hope that happened after you stopped summoning it."

There were at least three of his first snake summons who fit that description. Sasuke didn't bother hiding his amusement. "How many were you able to summon off my scroll?"

"All but two. A few of them were difficult to summon, so they might have made a contract with someone else since yours expired. What order are they in on your scroll? Top to bottom?"

"Why?" asked Sasuke. He finished milking the snake before looking up. "Does Ibiki want me to summon the two you missed to see if you know them?"

Anko grinned, but it was a more friendly smile than her last one. "No. You can introduce them to me if you want to, but I'd probably find that as annoying as they would. I've seen more than enough to know none of your summons are likely to be used by Sound to gather information on us. They're definitely not intelligent enough to tell us anything you aren't already sharing. I was just curious because the types and levels of the summons seemed very random."

"They were random. What I summoned depended on how much chakra I had available at the time and that depended on the mission." Compared to some of his early summons Terra had been a pleasant surprise considering how little chakra it had taken to call him. "The last one on the scroll was the biggest one I ever summoned and he was too big for the task I had in mind."

"So you let the contract expire? Maybe he's dead, then. I couldn't summon that one."

From her voice, she didn't believe the snake was dead. He didn't believe it either. "He was probably contracted by someone else. He wasn't useless, just too big for me."

Anko laughed and waved a hand at him. "You don't even know how backwards that is, do you? I opened your scroll expecting to find Orochimaru's influence. Instead you might as well have been summoning tadpoles. And you were calling the small ones on purpose? Iruka warned me I was wrong about you, but I didn't believe I could have been that wrong. It's no wonder you like these snakes. They're just your size."

"Yes, they are," Sasuke agreed. He almost rolled his eyes at her visible disappointment. As if he would be insulted by the truth. "I gather that you prefer them as big as possible?"

She snorted and then sputtered out a laugh. "As a matter of fact, yes, I do. The bigger the better."

Naruto opened the door with a look of outrage on his face that got worse when he spotted Anko. "You! I knew it!"

Anko burst into full laughter and went over to slap him on the top of his head. "Consider yourself lucky, Brat. He likes them small."

"What?" Naruto snapped. "What are you talking about?"

"Snakes," said Anko, "I think." She was snickering as she left.

"What's so funny?" Naruto demanded of Sasuke. "Why was she laughing? Were you laughing, too? With her?"

"I wasn't laughing," Sasuke assured him. But part of him wanted to. "We were discussing my summoning scroll. I didn't get a chance to ask if I would be getting it back." Not that he needed it for anything except to avoid summoning the wrong snake. With Terra and the giant in the forest, he doubted he would be trying to summon any new ones any time soon.

Naruto continued to scowl at him. He was soaked and filthy with soot. Had he been digging around in the burn pile? Probably. Sasuke made sure all of the cages were locked and the venom was stored away before giving him his full attention. Naruto immediately grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the door.

"I can't believe you were in here with her," Naruto muttered. "And today of all days! And Ibiki went along with it! But of course he did because there was no way he'd turn down the chance to have someone who's actually willing to do this job. He still should have asked me first. Yeah, I would have said absolutely not and he would have ignored me and hired you anyway, but that's not the point. At least I would have been warned so I didn't have to walk in here and catch you laughing with her!"

"I wasn't laughing."

"Maybe not on the outside, but I can tell. You're still doing it! I can see it in your eyes."

Sasuke sighed as he let himself be dragged down the hall toward the entrance of the T&I building. "You're being ridiculous. She made a joke that was only amusing because of your reaction. Just like with your friends the other night."

"That was different. They're my friends. She's not. She hates me."

"Why do you believe that?"

"Because she doesn't just tease me. She's mean about it."

Naruto wasn't sulking or exaggerating. He actually seemed upset by the thought that Anko didn't like him. Was that because she was friends with Iruka? Or Ibiki? Or was it just because Naruto wanted to be liked by everyone?

Sasuke sighed again. "I will have to interact with her at times since I'll be taking over part of her work, but I doubt either of us will be seeking the other out. She was openly contemptuous of my interest in snakes and considers my summons useless."

Naruto shot him a startled look. "But she summons snakes, too!"

"Not the small ones, apparently. And she hates domestic snakes."

"I thought she loved them," Naruto murmured. "Maybe that's why she's always in such a bad mood. Dealing with snakes all the time when she doesn't even like them? Gotta take that out on someone."

Sasuke suspected what Naruto considered a bad mood was just Anko's natural personality. They stepped outside and his attention was drawn to the sky. Still heavy with clouds but at least they were lighter now. Hopefully it wouldn't rain any more. The streets were soaked and the formerly well packed dirt edges were now full of puddles. There was also debris, bits of roofing and trash that had blown all over the place. He had made quite a mess. He wondered if Naruto was going to wait until they reached the apartment to broach that subject. Then they turned and he realized where Naruto was taking him.

"You haven't visited Lee yet?" asked Sasuke.

"Of course I have. We had to find out about his poisoning as part of the investigation." Naruto gave him a knowing look. "We'll get into that. Believe it. But first you're getting checked by a medic." He tightened his grip when Sasuke tried to yank his wrist free. "No arguments! Ibiki should have sent you there himself before interrogating you. Lee said you were so worn out you were seeing things!"

"He was suffering from poison," Sasuke snapped. "He wasn't-"

"I know," Naruto interrupted. "He wasn't doing so well himself. But you weren't even supposed to spar with anyone. Don't tell me you feel fine. I can tell by the way you're walking that your side hurts, Sasuke. If it's bad enough for me to notice then you should be rushing to a medic yourself. Do you want to wind up back in the hospital?"

Sasuke forced himself to walk normally. That would be easier if Naruto would slow down a little. "I don't want to be locked up again. That's why I don't want to be seen by a medic. It's just an ache. If I had internal bleeding there would be swelling and hardness. It wouldn't feel like this."

"Lee thought he just had a stomach ache and it turned out his stomach was hemorrhaging."

Sasuke winced. He hadn't thought it was that bad.

"You aren't a medic," Naruto continued, "so you don't know what's wrong with you. I'm not going to let them keep you unless it's absolutely necessary. But you have to be checked to make sure it's not something that's going to get a lot worse."

He couldn't argue with that. If the ache was coming from something minor and easily fixed it would be nice to have it gone. If it was something serious then it was better to find out now before it became worse. He still resented having to return to the hospital. "Is Sakura working today?" Better her than a stranger and she made house calls.

"I hope so. She'll take it seriously and not make us sit in the waiting room until you're bleeding out of your ears or something."

He ignored that bit of nonsense and turned his attention back to the clouds. Were they still seeded with his chakra? He couldn't sense anything now, but his own chakra was so low he was rather impressed that he was still upright and functional. On the other hand, his chakra should have recovered at least a little by now. How long had he been discussing the corpse with Ibiki? He didn't ask Naruto because he didn't want to discuss the storm, or anything else for that matter. He was overdue for a rest. After a shower and a thorough scrubbing. His clothes had dried enough to itch and his scalp wasn't much better. At least he wasn't as filthy as Naruto, who must have sat on something burnt because he had a black stain on his ass. Sasuke snorted.

"What?" Naruto asked, sending a quick scowl over his shoulder at him. "You going to argue some more?"

"No. Let's just get this over with." His eyes dropped to Naruto's gray ash covered feet. If this went quickly maybe he would let Naruto take the first shower. Maybe.

They were directed to an examination room and didn't have to wait long before Sakura arrived. She wearing an apron with a small amount blood smeared on it, but she was also beaming too happily to have been interrupted during something more important. She took one sweeping look at Sasuke before removing the apron and washing her hands.

"You're just in time," she smiled when she turned back to them. "A few minutes earlier and I would have asked someone else to see you. Guess what I just did!"

"What?" asked Naruto.

"Delivered a baby! All by myself!" She gave a little laugh when Naruto hugged her. "A healthy baby boy. It was wonderful. And scary. But no complications, just a little catch and snip and they're both doing fine."

"Congratulations!" Naruto cried.

"Thank you. Though the mother did all the real work, of course. But this was my first time in charge and there is always a risk when they come early. We had another premature one earlier today that I got to assist with, but she had her mother there to handle the delivery itself. Sudden storms always bring out the babies in some women."

Did that make him responsible for two premature births? Sasuke watched as they hugged again, Sakura letting out another bubbling laugh. He kept his own expression blank just in case one of them glanced his way. He wanted to ask about the fathers. Maybe they were dead. Was it normal for women to give birth in a hospital attended by medics here? Births in his clan were a private matter between husband and wife. They had medics waiting outside in case of complications, but they rarely needed them. If the father was dead then the closest female relative attended the birth. It was still a private family matter. He couldn't imagine a child of his being delivered in a hospital, the first hand to touch it that of a complete stranger. But that was what would happen if he did have children now. It would be a mockery to attend the birth of a woman he had never even been intimate with. And then to take the child away from her? He hadn't considered that at all. Naruto had spoken of using a surrogate as if it were a simple thing, but it wasn't. It suddenly seemed cruel and wrong. Could he really go through with that?

"Sasuke?" asked Naruto.

He was glad he had schooled his expressions. This was something to think about in private, or to not think about at all if he could help it. Possible futures could wait when he had things he wanted to do right now. He turned away from them and lifted his shirt. Without the sharingan there was no point trying to see what Sakura was doing. He pointed to the area that was aching, "There is some discomfort here. It isn't bad, but it's persistent."

"Of course it's persistent," Sakura huffed. Her hands were very light against his skin for a moment with just a wisp of chakra and then she pushed right on the worst area so he tensed and drew a sharp breath. "The healing has almost completely stopped. What were you doing to have used up so much chakra?"

"He was attacked," Naruto told her. "While he was out with Lee. At least three people, maybe more. Lee was poisoned and admitted to the hospital earlier."

"What?"

"He's fine! They got to it in time and he's a beast anyway. He didn't even know he was poisoned. But Sasuke went and hung out with Ibiki and Anko instead of letting a medic check him."

Sasuke scowled but didn't bother looking back at them. Their silence spoke volumes. "Just hurry up and fix it."

"Don't be rude," Naruto muttered.

"Oh, let him be rude," said Sakura. "Sorry, Sasuke-kun, but I can't fix this."

That made Sasuke turn. She looked too smug for a medic admitting she couldn't heal an injury. "Why not?"

"Because the only thing wrong with you is the fact that you used up too much chakra. I warned you that entire area was still healing. Your chakra paths were severed by the wind chakra coating the blade. They had to be reconnected. It's going to take time for them to heal and that takes chakra. A minor but steady flow of chakra," she emphasized. "When the flow stops the healing stops and if it stops long enough they start degrading and then they have to be severed and reconnected and you get to start all over again. That's assuming they haven't degraded so much they can no longer be reconnected."

"Are you serious?" Naruto demanded. "Does he have to be admitted again? For surgery? With the spreader? Just because he used too much chakra?"

Sakura's shoulders slumped and the smugness vanished. "No, Naruto. It's not that serious. I didn't mean to scare you. But it could have become very serious if you hadn't brought him in." She sent a pointed look at Sasuke. "If you had gone home like this you could have lost those chakra paths for good. There is no excuse for that. I warned you that you were still healing."

"You said the area was healing," said Sasuke, "not my chakra paths. You said nothing about maintaining a steady flow of chakra."

"Maybe not, but I did tell you no sparring or anything that would risk a blow to the area. That should have been reason enough for you to seek a medic after having been attacked. You admitted the pain was persistent. How long were you planning to ignore it?" She threw her hands up and turned to the cabinet on the wall. "You got lucky this time. That's all."

"So what do we do?" asked Naruto.

"Convince him to be more responsible in the future," she muttered. She turned to toss a small brown bag to Sasuke. "For now, take one of those each time the ache comes back. That should maintain a steady flow while your chakra recovers." She put her hands on her hips, scowling at Naruto now. "Why wasn't he carrying chakra pills of his own? You know he's being targeted. Just because you don't need them-"

"I don't use them," Sasuke cut in. "I won't be using these, either."

"You will if you don't want to be kept here and force-fed them for the next twenty-four hours," Sakura glared back at him.

"Um, Sakura-chan?" Naruto winced when she glared at him again. "I don't think he can take them. I mean, physically. He threw up the antibiotics. He might not be able to keep them down."

"That's not the problem," Sasuke told him.

"It's a big problem," said Naruto. "They won't work if you can't keep them down. Maybe she can water them down and inject you with them or something."

"I could keep them down if I wanted to."

"But you threw up the-"

"Because I was unconscious," Sasuke growled. "I didn't know what it was or who was giving it to me. According to you they were doing everything they could to keep me unconscious and restrained. Of course I fought it. I was trained to fight having anything done to me against my will. If they ever have to perform surgery on me again they should give me something to help me stay awake and lucid, not drug me into a stupor."

Horror flashed across Naruto's face. "Awake? With the spreader thing they were using? Are you insane?"

"I can hold still through pain. I was trained for it."

"That's not training," Naruto cried, "that's torture. Our medics sure as hell aren't going to do anything like that to you while I'm alive to stop it. You don't know what you're saying. That spreader thing opened you up this wide. I saw everything. Everything!"

"Naruto," Sakura sputtered. She was fighting a laugh. "I'm sure it wasn't-"

"It was," Naruto rounded on her. "I saw everything. I'll never unsee it."

Sasuke scowled at the little bag in his hand as Sakura laughed and tried to talk Naruto down. He had gone his entire life without having to resort to supplements. If Sakura had warned him to maintain a minimum amount of chakra would he have used less? No, because hadn't intended to drain himself in the first place. That meant he couldn't blame her. He had only himself to blame. He took one of the little balls and crushed it between his teeth. The flavor was bitter, which suited his current mood just right.

"There," Sakura sighed. "It should only take a minute or two for you to feel the difference. Take another one each time the ache comes back. Don't be stubborn about it. This isn't like a sprain or a pulled muscle. You can't take chances with your chakra paths."

"But what if he throws it up?" asked Naruto.

"I'm not going to," said Sasuke.

"If he does, he can dissolve one in a spoon of vinegar," said Sakura. "That should let him absorb it fast enough to do the trick even if he can't keep it down long."

Sasuke ground his teeth and glared at them both. "I can keep straight poison down if I have to. What I can't keep down are unknown substances given to me against my will by people I don't trust."

"Then you'll just have to trust us," said Sakura. "Our medics vow to do no harm outside of battle. No one working here would do anything to hurt you. Medics don't do that. Certainly not one of our medics."

She sounded as if she were explaining something to a child. Sasuke gave her a cold look. "Wasn't Kabuto one of your medics?"

Sakura flinched, her face going white. She stared at him for just a moment with pure loathing in her eyes. Then she was out of the room and he was wishing he could regret what he had said. But he didn't regret it. Even the shocked and hurt look Naruto shot him didn't make him sorry for what he had said. He could have said it more gently, perhaps, but it was the cold truth and needed to be said. Trust wasn't something to be given that freely, especially not his trust.

"That was a low blow, Sasuke. Really low."

And now Naruto looked disappointed in him. He was disappointed to see that. "It's the truth. Your own medic betrayed you. You told me yourself that it's too soon for your medics to trust me. Why would I trust them?"

"I get that," Naruto sighed. "But you shouldn't have said that to Sakura. Not like that. You didn't have to say it like that. We both trusted Kabuto but he was her coworker. The fact that he was a fellow medic made his betrayal so much worse for her. And she's not wrong. There are going to be times when you need a medic. You have to trust someone."

"I have trusted Sakura so far. I'll continue to do so."

"Go tell her that. Now. Please?" Naruto took a shaky breath. "If she's out there crying..."

Sasuke sighed. "Stay here." If she was crying then anything he said would only make it worse. But Naruto looked like he was about to start crying and that was the last thing he wanted to see. Why couldn't they just get angry like he did when someone hit him where it hurt the most? He couldn't imagine any words hurting him enough for tears.

She was sitting on the floor a few feet down the hall. She didn't lift her head, but her eyes flicked up, bright and moist. There was no expression on her face. She looked more tired than anything, her shoulders slumped and her arms around her knees. Now he felt some regret, not for telling the truth but for telling it to someone unprepared to hear it. He braced himself for whatever reaction she might have and then crouched down so they were at eye level.

"I trust you. Just you, Sakura. You're the only medic here that I trust." Because Naruto trusted her. Because he believed she would do whatever she could to keep him alive for Naruto's sake. And because she hadn't yet betrayed his trust. He didn't trust her completely because he was incapable of that, but he trusted her as much as he could.

Sakura held a hand up, a wincing pretense of a smile pulling at her face. "I don't need to hear that. I know you do. I know why you do. And I understand the point you were making. I hate the fact that you're right, but you are. That was my fault. I'm the one who trusted him. I recommended him to be our third. I gave him access to Naruto. That was all me because he was a medic and we do no harm. I was trusting and naive and he betrayed us. I know better now. I do. So you don't have to say anything. If Naruto sent you out here to apologize let him think you did so he'll feel better. Don't actually apologize. I don't want you to. You're not sorry because you have nothing to be sorry about. You're right not to trust anyone here just because they're a medic. I shouldn't have said that. But you do have to trust someone and it can't just be me. I haven't learned everything. Trust Tsunade-sama. She taught me everything I know and she's so much better than I'll ever be. And Naruto is like a grandson to her. She won't let anything happen to you. Trust her, too."

"I'll try."

"Alright. That'll have to be enough." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out in what might have been a laugh. "I really thought I was past all of that." She pushed herself up and shrugged. "He never blamed me for it, not once."

"Because he trusted him, too."

"Yes, because he's trusting." She shook her head with a pursed frown, looking more in control of herself. "I have to be less trusting in order to make up for that. I know that. I'm working on it. Come on."

He waited outside the room as she entered and immediately set to picking on Naruto. She pointed out how filthy he was, how he stunk, how he was leaving gray prints on the floor that someone would have to clean up but not him because he had to go home and make sure Sasuke got some rest because chakra depletion wasn't anything to play around with. She'd keep an eye on Lee, assuming his teammates weren't already doing so. She would come by tomorrow if they didn't come to her first. She wanted to know everything, so Naruto should prepare himself for a proper interrogation. Naruto was whining and grumbling half-heartedly at her by the time he was pushed out into the hall. That was so much better than tears. Sasuke would show his gratitude and make this up to her with a proper spar as soon as his chakra recovered. If what she wanted more than anything was to prove herself he would give her a chance to do so. It was the least he could do. She had been so happy when she had come in. It hadn't taken him very long to ruin that. She might be putting up a good front for Naruto, but he knew the hurt was still there.

.-.

According to Naruto it was past time for dinner when Sasuke woke up from what he had planned to be a quick nap. Naruto moved the furniture back so he could meditate a little while a clone went off to fetch them some food. The clone was bound to come back with ramen. Sasuke set out the scrolls and tried to level his chakra. Naruto was in the bathroom scrubbing out their dirty clothes. That was the price for Sasuke agreeing to shower with him earlier. Naruto had sworn he wouldn't try anything, that they would just wash each other's backs and maybe hair and that was it. No funny business. And he had kept his word. Sasuke had been disappointed by that. Naruto's hands had felt good on his back and even better in his hair. The bathroom was too cramped for sex but Naruto had said they didn't need to have sex to be lovers. They could have just jerked each other off. Maybe he should have suggested it. But Naruto had been abstaining for so long that probably would only have frustrated him. He had wondered about how Naruto might react or overreact until the shower was over and by then he just wanted to go to sleep. Now his lower back was starting to ache again. How much chakra did healing repaired paths take? How long before his chakra recovered enough to handle a minor but steady drain? He was going to have to take another chakra pill. It had better be the last one he had to take.

The clone returned with the expected ramen and Naruto came into the livingroom to hover worriedly.

"Well?" asked Naruto. "Did meditating make it better or worse?"

"Neither," Sasuke sighed. He let Naruto move the furniture as he took one of the pills. The ache vanished immediately. That was a good sign. Hopefully.

"Don't you dare," Naruto blurted suddenly, rushing into the kitchen to pull the clone away from the table. "None for you!" The clone was mid-complaint when he poofed out.

"They can eat?" asked Sasuke.

"They can, but they don't need to and none of the food transfers to me so it's a total waste. Sit. Eat. You must be starving. I am." He fussed him into a chair and then grinned. "He got something else while he was out. This."

It was a little white teapot with blue flowers on it and cloth sticking out from under the metal flap on top. Sasuke raised an eyebrow as he took his first bite of dinner. Ichiraku ramen was good, but it was best eaten hot.

"Ino," Naruto laughed. "There's tea, too." He opened the lid to show the little bundle of leaves. "You shouldn't have told her you like her tea. She believed you."

"I did like it."

"Really? I thought you only liked green tea. Hers is bitter and brown and smells like weeds."

"It's herbal tea." He accepted the pot for a closer look. All he recognized for certain were the dried dandelion roots. "Does she sell tea?"

"No way. No one would buy it."

"I would," Sasuke informed him. "You would do well to drink more of it yourself."

Naruto made a gagging noise. Then he grinned. "Not me. But if you want more just keep telling her you like it and she'll be trying anything she mixes up on you. Her parents have a flower shop so she has access to weird stuff I'm sure isn't meant to be drank. And," he cracked his chopsticks and stuffed his mouth so he was forced to talk around the food, "speaking of her gross tea, we need to come by and have tea with her team tomorrow. Not really for the tea, that's just her taking advantage of us being there. It's a good chance to sit down with Shikamaru. My dad has had him doing his own investigation into these attacks, separate from Ibiki's. Looking in directions the Anbu can't officially look without a very good reason, if you know what I mean."

"Are you referring to Konoha's 'subversive elements'? Do you think this is coming from within the village?"

"No," Naruto said firmly, "I don't think it is. But he's looking at them as if it is so we have every angle covered. He'll probably have questions about this last attack, but it sounds like he already has an argument all wrapped up and ready to deliver. If he does, then he might have a plan so that if it is an inside job we can be ready for it. They didn't teleport outside the village. We couldn't find any evidence of that and Neji says we would have. That means they're still here unless they disguised themselves well enough to walk right out the front gate. If they can walk out they can walk back in so whether they're still here or not we have to act as if they are and be ready for it. Shikamaru will probably be really convincing because he's good at that, but that doesn't mean he's right. He'll admit that himself. He'll just be summarizing things based on the direction he was pointed in. That's better than Ibiki, though, right? He's pointed out and he's definitely not the sort to share until he knows for sure. Not with us, anyway."

Naruto might be surprised. Ibiki had made it clear that he was looking at Sound, or at some other outside group trying to implicate both Sound and Konoha. If Naruto's friend was looking inward then Ibiki probably considered it no more than an exercise, just in case. He would keep that in mind and try not to be too quick to accept an inward view just because it was what he personally believed. If, like Ibiki, Shikamaru believed that both attacks were the same group then remaining skeptical shouldn't be too difficult.

As soon as they finished eating Naruto dragged him to the couch for some snuggling. That involved lying with his back on Naruto's chest. Rather comfortable after a bit of shifting around. He should have asked Sakura what side effects those chakra pills had. With the first pill he had already been mentally and physically exhausted. This time he was sure it was the pill making him feel so relaxed. It was a shame Naruto was so determined to practice abstinence.

"So," Naruto drawled, sliding an arm over Sasuke's chest to hug him a little more closely. "You set the sky on fire, huh?"

Sasuke sighed. He should have known they weren't done talking. "Lee has a big mouth."

"Yes, he does. But Neji saw traces of chakra in the clouds so we already knew that storm wasn't natural. So...?"

"I was just trying to make it rain, like it did after we burned up the lake."

"And you didn't think the fact that you made that storm was worth mentioning? Really?"

Sasuke really wished Naruto didn't want to talk about this right now. Or ever, for that matter. "I wanted time to think about it myself before I had to justify it. The forest was burning. We had the worst of it contained but it would have spread before we could get anyone back there to put it out. I didn't have your attack to contain and center the fire so I went around the perimeter and then in the center. I used way too much. I know. Maybe if I had just released fire into the center, or just around the edges, the clouds would have formed quickly enough without spreading so far. I don't know what exactly causes the clouds to form in the first place. Heat and humidity? The speed of the heat rising? The concentration of it? Maybe your library has something about weather that will help me figure it out. At least the fire was put out. Right?"

"Oh, yeah. It was a soggy stinking mess. We had to dig up trees to find the spot where you did that earth trap. Forget finding any scents or blood samples. They might have set the fire but you completed the destruction of any evidence we might have found. Just so you know."

"My apologies," Sasuke muttered.

"Uh-huh," Naruto murmured. "So...? You planning to tell me about the rest?"

"Do we have to talk about this now?"

"Yes, we do." Naruto's grin was audible in his voice. "It's bad enough I missed seeing you set the sky on fire. You're not really going to try and keep me in the dark about the rest, are you? What were you aiming at when you threw that kunai outside the hospital? I saw the hole you made. I saw some more interesting holes on my way to Ibiki. What was that all about, Sasuke? Hmm?"

"I was trying something."

"Trying what, Sasuke?"

"Keep using that tone of voice and I'm going to hurt you, Naruto."

"You're already hurting me," Naruto insisted, belying that with a laugh. "It's not fair that I missed it. You always do cool things when I'm not around to see it. You can at least tell me about it."

"There was nothing cool about it," Sasuke muttered. "Anyone with fire and lightning could do the same."

"Lightning?"

Sasuke sighed. "If Kakashi already guessed and told you, why are you bugging me about it? Ask him. He probably knows more about it than I do."

"Kakashi doesn't even know you made the storm. He'll find out since I have to tell my dad so Ibiki doesn't think your attackers did that, but as of right now you and me and Lee are the only ones who know. Oh, and Neji, but he suspected it was you from the start. As soon as he said it I was sure he was right. So, really, you can't blame Lee. He just confirmed what we already thought. Anyway," Naruto shifted his arm so he was petting Sasuke's side, "you were saying something about lightning?"

The petting was nice, and Naruto would find out eventually. "I was able to control the lightning in the storm. Maybe because the clouds were seeded with my chakra. Maybe just because there was so much lightning in the clouds. I went straight from the hospital to the mission room so I didn't have the time to experiment with it very much. It didn't take much chakra to control it, or maybe it didn't take any at all. My chakra was too low to tell how much I was using. I'm going to look into it, but I need to learn more about naturally forming storms first. If I have to use up all of my chakra to form thunderclouds then it's pretty much useless." Unless he used chakra pills to replenish himself? If one pill was responsible for the way he felt right now then taking a bunch of them during battle was a very bad idea. "It probably is useless, but I have never heard of such a thing. I want to see what I can make of it. If Kakashi doesn't know I was experimenting with the lightning don't tell him. I don't want to watch him do it better than I can before I have even had a chance to study it. Maybe once I have actually learned something about lightning from him I'll change my mind." That was a very big maybe.

Naruto hugged him closer. "I have got to get you out of here so we can experiment. If we can make a thunderstorm with a combined attack then it won't use up that much of your chakra and you can show me what you're talking about. It's not fair that I missed it. We just have to figure out who is behind these attacks."

"Ibiki suggested someone to teach me the teleportation jutsu. That should help with future attacks. I just wish he had picked any other person in this entire damn village."

"Why? Did he pick Kakashi?" Naruto was quiet for just a moment before laughing. "He did? Really? He picked Kakashi? I thought Ibiki liked you!"

"Apparently not," Sasuke muttered.

"You poor thing. Do you want me to come with you or ask one of my friends? No one would dare bother you with Kakashi there but if you're still low on chakra you won't be able to actually perform the jutsu even if you learn how it's supposed to be done. That would leave you alone if Kakashi takes off afterward, which he'll probably do."

"A clone or Gamakichi would suffice."

"No," said Naruto. "I'll be sending a clone to work with my dad and staying with you myself unless I'm sure you have someone with you who can teleport from now on. My dad already agreed. I know, you held your own just fine, but we're not taking any more chances with you."

"Are you sure? I'm supposed to meet with Kakashi at six tomorrow morning."

Naruto laughed. "That means he'll show up at nine at the earliest. Kakashi is always late. That's no problem at all."

"If you say so."

Sasuke closed his eyes and enjoyed the warmth. He really did feel lazy and relaxed. He should have been annoyed that they couldn't start on the house tonight. He didn't have the chakra for it and the blood was best applied while fresh. But the house had waited for years and would still be there tomorrow. Or the day after. It would be there whenever they got around to it. Naruto was quiet for so long that he started to doze off. Definitely feeling lazy. He pushed himself up, stretching and wincing when his shoulder gave an audible pop.

Naruto rose as well, rubbing a hand over his shoulder. "Are you sore? I can give you a massage. I promise not to try anything!"

That again? Sasuke pushed off the couch. "Alright. But you don't have to keep that promise." He made it three steps before Naruto caught him, turned him around, and kissed him hard.

"Do you mean it?" Naruto asked. "Really? Oh, thank god." He kissed him again frantically. "I don't think I could have lasted another night."

"Massage first," Sasuke reminded him, because Naruto had offered.

.-.
TBC