Disclaimer: This disclaimer thing is really kind of pointless. *refer to chapter 1.*

__Oatmeal and Calamine__

Chapter 2

Chicken Soup

Reaching the door of her house, Sakura nearly collapsed against it. She was exhausted. She could just imagine how her two teammates must have felt. "Are you two okay?" She questioned for what seemed like the umpteenth time to the boys behind her.

Panting heavily, Naruto nodded sitting heavily on the ground in exhaustion. The fever had been taking it's toll and draining him of his energy. Behind him, Sasuke stood looking relatively calm but his entire body language showed that he too was tired and his breathing seemed more labored as well.

"Well at least we made it here in one piece." She commented as she knocked on the door. Somewhere in her excellent preparation in the morning she had forgotten her house keys.

The trek home had proven to be more difficult than expected. Sakura found that her usual pace that usually fell behind both boys, had suddenly become too much for them to keep up with and she had to slow it down even more.

Of course, only Naruto complained about the pace. Sasuke had stubbornly said nothing but it was obvious that he was forcing himself to keep up with the speed of the pace. The speed at which they were traveling, along with the fact that they had to stop every now and then due to Naruto's demands for a break, made the trip home tedious and long. By the time they had reached her house it was already late afternoon.

"So you're finally here Sakura!" Her mother exclaimed upon finally opening the door. "You took so long to get back I was starting to get worried…"

"We're fine mom. Well … " Sakura turned to the two behind her letting their appearance alone speak for them.

"Oh you poor dears!" Her mother exclaimed immediately gushing over the sickly boys like any other mother would do. She quickly ushered them inside wanting to get them away from the scorching sun.

Sakura followed shaking her head. Her mother could be stern and demanding at times, but when it came to the sick , she turned into jelly. She watched as her mother settled both boys on the living room couch, with juice boxes and crackers. She had to smile at their confused expressions. They obviously weren't used to this kind of treatment.

"Sakura." Her mother suddenly called and she perked her head up to show she was listening. "Come with me into the kitchen please."

"Uhn." She muttered following her mother immediately not wanting to be reprimanded in front of her crush and the one who had a crush on her.

Once in the kitchen Sakura's mother pointed to the cupboard. "There's some soup in there. Why don't you make them some? Besides you are the one who is suppose to be caring for them, not me."

Sakura sighed already feeling that this would probably be one of her most tiring missions. Getting to work right away she began to boil the canned soup when her mother interrupted her once more. "Don't ignore him."

"Eh?" The pink girl questioned not understanding. What was her mother talking about?

"Naruto-kun. Don't ignore him."

"But I haven't--"

"Sakura, I know you have a crush on Sasuke-kun, but don't forget that Naruto-kun is sick too and needs care as well."

Funny how it only took that one comment to make Sakura's face become redder than any tomato.

"Mom! How did you know that I liked Sasuke-kun?" She hissed hysterically. Though not even she knew why she was hiding that fact, it was painfully obvious to all.

"You just told me." Her mother responded with a small laugh and a smirk. "Just remember what I told you." She added seriously once more as she left Sakura to wait for the soup to be done.

Sakura groaned as she stared at the nearly boiling pot of broth. Mothers could be so sneaky sometimes.

Minutes later the soup was finally done and Sakura happily brought it out to the living room. Naruto had started scratching himself all over again. Now able to relax his body, his attention had been brought back to the unbearable itching. Sasuke on the other hand was leaning back , eyes closed and seem for all the world like he was attempting to fall asleep. However, he wore a deep frown and was sweating slightly, it became obvious to her that he was desperately trying to ignore his own itchy body.

"Here Naruto, you should eat this." She offered handing him the steaming chicken soup.

He smiled pleasantly at her as he took it. But when he saw what is was his smile fell. "Anou …What is this Sakura-chan?"

"Chicken soup."

He stared at it some more as if willing it to change into his favorite food. When it refused to listen to his wishes and change magically, he turned pleading eyes back up to his temporary nurse. "Ne, could I have some ramen instead?"

"Naruto! I spent all this time making it for you and you won't even try it? No. I will not go back in there and make you ramen. Chicken soup is better for you right now anyway. "

The blonde boy's face drooped considerably as he pushed his spoon around the plate still not trying it.

"Don't be so stubborn Naruto. Just eat it." Sasuke's voice suddenly spoke up.

Turning around at the sound of his voice, Sakura noticed that he had grabbed hold of his plate off the coffee table and had started to eat with no problems. 'No, no!' Her mind screamed at him. 'You're supposed to wait till I bring it to you!' Outwardly she nodded and smiled at him. "Glad you like it Sasuke-kun."

Saying nothing, the dark haired boy continued to eat diligently. Contrary to Sakura's beliefs, he didn't want to be pampered, he didn't want to lay around sick all day. He just wanted to get back to training and to do that he was going to do everything possible to speed up his recovery.

Minutes passed like hours as Sakura sat there. What was she supposed to do now? She didn't have to sit around all day and watch them did she? It would be if anything…unnerving. She knew she wouldn't want anyone watching her like a hawk when she wasn't feeling well.

"Eto…..do you guys need anything?" She finally ventured to ask. It seemed to be the most logical question.

"…..I'm fine…." Sasuke stated calmly, yet those hands of his seemed to be doing a lot of scratching when he thought she wasn't looking.

"I'm kinda hungry." Naruto answered his voice on the border of whining and exhaustion.

It was then that she noticed that he had still not eaten the now cold chicken soup. "Honestly Naruto!" She couldn't help but yell out. "Why do you have to be so stubborn?"

"I'm not stubborn, I just don't want to eat that!" He gestured with a look of disgust at the plate. "I want ra-- yeow!" He finished off with a yell as one of his spots bit him hard with the demand to be scratched. Which led to all the others rising in rebellion as well. This of course led to Naruto having another fit of frantically trying to scratch all areas of his body at once.

Sakura blinked in astonishment. One moment he had been talking to her calmly and the next he was in a crazed frenzy. She supposed she should have been used to it by now. Suddenly she realized what he was doing. "Naruto, I told you not to scratch!"

Quite frustrated and irritated, Naruto pointed an accusing finger across the living room at Sasuke. "Why can't I scratch but that loser can?!?"

"Who said I was scratching dobe?"

"I saw you!"

"Che. I don't care what you think you saw, all I know is that I wasn't scratching."

"Whatever you liar!"

"What did you call me?"

"A liar!"

"You--"

"Enough!!" Sakura finally yelled, the other two's squabbling was starting to give her a headache. "Sasuke-kun I saw you scratching too. And your skin is really red." She told him softly hoping she wasn't angering him.

"Keh." he muttered turning his face the other way refusing to look at them. He had been caught and his pride suffered slightly.

Naruto snickered at his teammate and rival. "Heh, loser."

"Naruto…" Sakura quickly interrupted before another fight ensued. " I'm going to make sure that you don't scratch anymore!"

"Eh?" He asked immediately slightly nervous at what she had in mind to do to him.

Disappearing into the kitchen for a few minutes she returned with a somewhat evil smirk. In her hands were two pairs of oven mitts, scissors, and a roll of duct tape.

Raising an eyebrow, Sasuke realized her intentions. This was going to be hell.

Naruto on the other hand, had no clue what her intentions where and watched her approach him innocently and a little nervously. "Ne, Sakura-chan what are all those things for?"

"Just a little something to help."

"Help? Help with what?"

She didn't answer. By now she was already sitting next to him on the couch and without a word she pounced on him pinning him onto his stomach. "S-Sakura-chan! What are you doing?!?!"

Before letting his reflexes react, she quickly sat on his legs and held both of his arms back with one hand. With the other she began putting the oven mitts on. However, this course of action wasn't as easy as it had seemed when she had calculated it in her mind.

"Stop squirming Naruto!" Indeed, he had started to squirm. She was lucky that the fever had sapped most of his energy or he would have probably thrown her off like a bucking bronco.

Sasuke looked on at the other two's antics secretly amused. Naruto merely squirmed because he had been caught off guard and didn't know what was going on, and he was losing. Maybe if he wasn't sick it would have been different. But for now he found it quite entertaining that Sakura was holding him down. She had him in a good hold and was able to keep a strong grip on him.

"Hahaha! S--Sakura-chan s-stop! S-stop it, S-Sakura-cha..hahaha!" He was unable to control his fit of laughter as her attempts to catch his flailing arms caused her to tickle him by mistake.

"Then stay still!" She shouted back trying once more to catch his elusive hands. It wasn't until he started to slowly give up that she was able to slip them both on and secure them firmly with the tape. To Sasuke, the way she still had both of Naruto's arms pulled back and with the tape around them, seemed like she had roped cattle.

Naruto sat up with a large pout looking down at his now oversized hands. He pondered just exactly what this was supposed to remedy, when he felt the annoying itch once more. Quickly starting to scratch, he realized that it had not been as gratifying as when he had done so with his nails. "Sakura-chan! Take these off! I'm really itchy and they don't let me scratch properly!"

"That's the whole point, baka!"

If possible, Naruto's pout grew even larger, but then he discovered that the couch was a great scratching tool.

Turning to Sasuke and not noticing Naruto's new devious plan at getting a good scratch, Sakura held the mitts out to him to show that she was planning to do the same to him. Her mind screamed at the chance that he would put up a struggle as well. 'I hope I have to wrestle him too! Woo hoo!'



Unfortunately her quick fantasy was immediately crushed. Sasuke merely held his hands out in front of him as if he was being arrested. He figured there was no point in fighting it anyway. Disappointed at the lack of a struggle, she placed his mitts on gently, but made sure they had a firm grip on his arms.

"….Thanks, I guess…" He uttered quietly.

She beamed proudly. At least he understood it was meant to help them.

Hearing a sudden sigh of contentment, she turned to see Naruto scratching himself using the rough material of the couch. An eye twitched, fists clenched, and her patience snapped. "Naruto!!!" she yelled.

"Eh heh heh…." He laughed sheepishly settling himself down and giving her the best puppy dog look he could muster.

Rolling her eyes she opened her mouth to preach to him the importance about not scratching when a very loud and distinguishable sound broke the few seconds of silence….the sound of his stomach growling.

She couldn't help but blink at him in surprise and he merely blushed and laughed nervously once more. "I told you I was hungry!"

"Fine." Wordlessly picking his bowl of soup up, she reheated it and returned with it minutes later. "Then eat."

"Okay." He muttered not feeling like facing her wrath by rejecting the soup once more. However, it proved very difficult to even hold his spoon with his now oversized hands. He struggled desperately as both Sasuke and Sakura watched. "I can't eat it!!" He finally shouted out of frustration.

Sighing Sakura moved over to him and took the bowl from his hands. "Listen, I'm doing this only because your sick, and its my job to take care of both of you, got that?"

"What?"

"Open up." With that she hovered the spoon close to his mouth waiting for him to open.

His face brightened and he happily opened his mouth wide. "Thank you Sakura-chan!" he exclaimed with so much enthusiasm as he swallowed that she couldn't help but smile.

"You're welcome."

Soon after she left the room to clean the dishes and get them something to drink and some medicine. It was then that yes, the ever persistent Naruto tried to scratch once more.

"Damn it this isn't fair!" he hissed angrily as he found that the mitts still did not give him relief. He narrowed his eyes at Sasuke who still seemed unfazed by the sickness.

Sasuke sat somewhat calmly reading some random book he had found under the coffee table. On closer inspection though one would see that he was rapidly tapping his foot in agitation and that his oversized hand would occasionally rub some part of his arms or legs. At one point this action was repeated more consistently and increased in speed, becoming more desperate.

"Naruto…"

"What?"

"….If…if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours?" The dark haired boy asked quietly but quite seriously. Obviously he had enough of pretending he wasn't bothered.

Naruto's face beamed once more as he nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah!"

Sitting next to each other on the floor, both boys took turns. One would literally scratch the other's back for a few seconds and then turn so that the other could return the favor. Somehow, even though they were both still wearing oven mitts, this both worked and felt a lot better.

On Sasuke's tenth turn to get scratched, Sakura walked in with a large smile with a bottle of aspirin and two glasses of water. Her smile immediately dropped when she saw what the both of them were doing. "What do you two think you're doing?!?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he quickly separated from Sasuke. "Heh….scratching?"

"Naruto!!"

Sasuke merely shook his head and sighed, still irritated and needing to scratch. Well all they needed to do was wait for her to leave the room again. …He smirked. It was a good plan.

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Warning: You do not have to read this part, it's a long note. :o)

A/N: Hehe. I only torture those characters I love. *smirks at Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto & Sasuke: *glare*

Anyway, I wanted to thank everyone so very, very much! The best part of FF.Net is reviews. All of your reviews made me feel very special and appreciated. I never expected so many reviews for one chapter. I was quite shocked and then felt all bubbly. Hahaz if you knew my friend she would tell you that I was dancing around and singing that I got that many reviews.

I will now take this time to give specific thank-you's to those who reviewed so again if this does not apply to you, you may stop reading and please review! Lol.

Mikazuki1& Uchiha Kumiko: You two were my first reviewers and really made me feel that I did really good so I thank you very much!

Angelmidori, cuito, silverknight7, red cell, angelkicat, saori-hime, nolabel721, fireblazie, ccs_lover, kitinu, shin and bakura13.… Wow. Hahaha. You guys didn't have to say much and still made me feel great, thanks so much.!

LadyDragon Heart1 and Anon E. Mous both your words made me feel very talented. Thanks!

And last but not least Suzaku no miko: You bum! Lol just kidding. Thanks for pushing me into posting this fic and leaving such a cute review! I'll always believe you now when you say that I should post something. Lol.

Well that's everyone…I think. If I missed someone please don't feel bad. I just didn't see your name but I appreciate your review as well!

Thank you everyone for being so considerate and leaving a review!! I hope you liked this chapter as well. Anywayz, you know the drill, please continue to review!

Thankies!!!