Disclaimer: After 3 chapters, isn't this kind of dumb to keep doing?

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Oatmeal & Calamine

Chapter 4

Delirium

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Silence. This meant only one of two things. Either Naruto finally fell asleep, or Sasuke killed him.

"If Sasuke did kill him, I'm in so much trouble." Sakura muttered as she made her way over to their room not realizing how cruel that comment sounded. It had to be because of the lack of sleep.

She knocked softly on the door, ……..once, …….twice………. "Guys? Are you okay in there?"

No response.

Now she had to admit that she was officially worried. Knocking once more and hoping that she wasn't intruding at an inopportune time such as when they were changing, she entered the room. Checking on the dark haired boy first, she saw him lying on his back the sheets half covering him exposing his upper body. His head was turned away from her, lips slightly parted as he breathed. She smiled almost lovingly and reflected on the thought that he truly looked his age while he slept. His face looked serene and calm, unlike how it looked when he was awake, so determined, so …..tense and much older.

Briefly feeling his forehead she concluded that he was all right and raised his blanket to cover him more.

Heading towards the other end of the room she paused as she looked down at the finally sleeping blonde boy. "You better not try anything funny." She warned pointlessly as she examined him with a quick glance.

Sheets were tangled around his body, and his body was sprawled out across the bed. He was also frowning and sweating as his mouth was also parted, but it sounded like he was gasping for air. Obviously he wasn't sleeping as peacefully as the other.

Frowning she placed a hand on his forehead and took it back quickly, surprised at the heat radiating from his body. "Naruto!" She immediately exclaimed. It sounded like she was scolding him for something that wasn't his fault, but it was only to mask her worry.

"Don't do this to me….." She muttered as she quickly ran down the steps and into her kitchen.

She was surprised to see her mother sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee looking quite tired. "Okaa-san? ….." She started but after studying her mother some more, she knew the answer to her own question. "Otou-san didn't come home last night?"

"Iie. He's still out on the mission."

"Oh. ….you know, ….you shouldn't worry so much, he will come home safe and sound." She told her mother with a sudden bright smile hoping to cheer her mother up.

"Aa. I know." Her mother responded with a small smile of her own. As long as her daughter had faith in him, so would she. "Ara? Sakura what are you doing up?" She exclaimed suddenly as if seeing her daughter for the first time and noticing that it was still early in the morning.

"Ah! I can't believe I almost forgot!" Without an explanation to her mother's question, she dashed around getting a bowl of water with a wash cloth and medicine with a glass of orange juice. Then she dashed back up the stairs without another word.

Her mother simply shook her head and sighed wondering if the two patients were all right.

Back in the room, Sakura hurried over to Naruto's bed and quickly dipped the cloth into the water and placed it on his head hoping to cool his burning body.

"…..Mmph…." He muttered frowning under the sudden coolness and trying to take the cloth off unconsciously.

"Don't do that." She chided softly replacing the cloth that had started to slip off.

At the sound of her voice he stirred and opened his eyes revealing an unusual color of a hazy grayish blue, not his usual vibrant blue eye color. "….S--Sakura-chan??"

"Hai. Naruto, now that you're up, you have to drink this." She told him quietly not wanting to disturb Sasuke and wake him from his slumber, even though that sneak was probably already awake and not saying anything.

"N-nani?"

"Medicine, drink it."

Groggily sitting up he took the medicine from her and drank the pills down with the orange juice she brought him to fill his stomach since he had not eaten anything yet. . He winced and laid back down quickly, doing just that seemed to have taken a great deal of effort.

"Sakura-chan…….so…..tired…"

"It's okay, don't worry, just go back to sleep if you want."

"….Okay……." He muttered closing his already heavy lidded eyes.

Never having seen him this drained due to an illness, made her worry. He may have gotten on her nerves almost every 5 seconds, and he may be the loudest most annoying ninja in the world in her opinion, but he was her teammate and she had grown to really care for him as a friend. And she didn't want anything bad to happen to her friends.

Of course, she'd deny all of this under alien water torture if asked in front of him. The boy was already really interested in her, or so it seemed, and she didn't want to get his hopes up just in case. She only had eyes for Sasuke right now.

Movement snapped her out of her thoughts. Naruto had once again begun to stir and look uncomfortable in his sleep. She nearly panicked and quickly set to placing the washcloths on his brow.

"Don't worry, the fever is just running it's course. Now that you've given him the medicine it should go down."

Sakura turned quickly in surprise to see Sasuke sitting up in his bed, his hair slightly out of place and looking quite groggy himself.

"Sasuke! How long have you been awake?"

He couldn't help but smirk slightly. "Awhile."

"Oh, …how are you feeling?"

He shrugged stretching his body fully and turning eyes to her still half dazed. "Fine, would have felt better if that idiot fell asleep right away and didn't keep me up half the night."

"….Not idiot, you ….loser……." Naruto muttered in his sleep as if he had been awake to here the comment.

The pink haired girl couldn't help but sweat drop. "I can't believe he even dreams about you two arguing."

"Hn."

"I hope he's okay…"

"He will be okay, Naruto heals quickly."

"Aa. Demo…."

" If the fever doesn't go down is the only time you have to worry so much."

"You're right."

"Ne, Sasuke-kun….do you need anything? I can make you something if you want…"

"I'm fine."

"I see.."

She eyed him and gave him a quick glance over now that he was awake. He too, seemed tired but not so much as Naruto. His cheeks were slightly rosy but other than that and the spots that still covered his body, he seemed fine.

"Can I?"

"Hm?"

Without explaining herself and risking the chance of being turned down, she quickly walked over to him and place a hand quickly on his brow. He was warm, but not as warm as Naruto.

She stared at him for a moment as if contemplating something, and then nodded. "I'll go make you some breakfast, you should take some of this medicine as well."

He blinked and then shrugged. "Fine." He wasn't going to fight, he just wanted to get better.

"Okay, you stay here, I'll bring your breakfast up for you…."

He started to get out of bed anyway.

"Oi, didn't you hear me? You should stay in bed and rest!"

He stared at her for a moment and brushed past her gently, in the doorway before she could protest any more, he looked back at her. "I'm going to the bathroom, are you going to make me stay in bed for that too?"

She couldn't help but blush and immediately shook her head. "Sorry."

He nodded in acceptance of her apology and headed off to the bathroom.

Hours later, Sasuke had been up and around, eaten breakfast, taken his medicine, had another oatmeal bath, more lotion had been applied, and still Naruto slept.

Back in the room once more, Sakura was intent on waking him this time. Feeling his forehead once more, she noticed that luckily his fever had gone down. She felt bad about having to wake him up, but felt she should. Letting him sleep the entire day away didn't sound like it would be the right thing to do.

She nudged him gently at first. "Ne, Naruto…"

He moaned slightly and turned on his side.

She nudged harder. "Come on Naruto, wake up…"

He stirred some more and tried to hide under the covers.

Sakura could feel a vein popping. "You need to wake up and eat something at least!"

He made no move at all. ….Fine. She had her ways.

Pushing him non too gently she readied her breath and shouted directly into his ear. "Naruto!!!"

The result was instantaneous. He bolted upright , rubbing his injured ear, hoping to ease his pounding eardrum. "Nani?!?" He shouted, voice hoarse and eyes still foggy.

The look on his face made her feel immediately bad about shouting, but he was being so stubborn about waking up that she had no other choice.

Lowering her voice in case he had a headache, which now he indeed did have, she replied, "Aren't you hungry? You've been sleeping until the afternoon. You've missed breakfast."

He blinked and then shook his head. "No, not hungry."

She frowned at this and then stomped her foot with authority, or childishly depending on how you were looking at it. "Well , you will eat something and it won't be ramen!"

He winced at the tone in her voice and nodded if only to get her to lower her tone once more.

She noticed and apologized immediately. "Just go wash up and come downstairs okay?"

She wanted to get him moving and hopefully snap him out of the daze he was in. His lack of energy was so unusual that it unnerved her.

He nodded and walked into the bathroom lethargically.

When she had finally gotten him to eat something, he was still unenergetic and barely said anything or put up much of a fuss about the itching and spots.

"Naruto, are you sure you're okay?"

He nodded and since he was behaving and the two boys were no longer arguing, Sakura left and allowed them some time alone with peace and relative quiet as they watched television.

A short while later, she heard Sasuke's upset voice once more.

"Just what the hell are you talking about, dobe?"

"Why is the grass green? I mean why are things green anyway?"

"Why are you asking me this? It would take to long to explain something like that to a no brain like you!"

Normally, under normal conditions, the blonde boy would have retorted with a witty remark, or maybe a not so witty remark. but a remark nonetheless.

This time his response was completely different. "Why is that man wearing ugly pants? Doesn't he have any fashion sense?"

Sasuke didn't even respond to that. He merely stared at his teammate.

Naruto continued, staring at the television with half lidded eyes as he pointed at random things. This was it, had he lost his mind to the illness?

No.

His mind was simply extremely fogged. Boggled with meaningless questions and his reaction time was slowed. He had been given twice as much medicine as Sasuke during the length of the day due to the fact that his fever had been fluctuating the entire day.

The medicine had left him feeling drowsy but Sakura had refused to let him fall asleep again, having determined that he needed fresh air and a good time awake to help with his recovery. However, the demand from his body to sleep, and not being able to give in to that demand, had made him extremely groggy and have no control on what escaped his mouth.

In a way he was delirious with the need to sleep and with all the medicine flowing in him.

After realizing this, Sasuke decided it would be best if he stayed quiet and kept his sanity.

Too bad Naruto had other plans.

"Ne, Sasuke? Why would we get a disease from chickens anyway?"

"…..Baka…"

"Do idiots get sick too?"

Sasuke felt his eye twitch. "…Obviously…"

"Oh."

Sakura meanwhile had been watching this exchange and had been biting her tongue to keep from laughing too hard at Naruto's ridiculous questions.

Sasuke suddenly began to cough and Sakura immediately snapped to attention. " Sasuke-kun?"

"I'm……fine…" He broke into another fit of coughing and she frowned. Of course he'd never admit that he wasn't feeling well.

She disappeared for a minute and returned with the almighty famous medicine, a cough syrup this time.

He eyed it warily. "That's regular cough syrup right?" He glanced at Naruto who was still asking pointless questions while watching the television, this time not directing them at anyone and not waiting for an answer. He didn't want to take this medicine and later on behave like a certain fool.

She laughed openly and nodded. "No side effects guaranteed. Non-drowsy formula."

He smirked at her and took the bottle and spoon from her taking the medicine himself.

Darn. Her inner self yelled. She still had not been giving the chance to "baby" him and spoon feed him anything. She would think that doing such a thing would be fun.

"If pigs can fly does that mean cows can too?"

At Naruto's ridiculous question, both Sakura and Sasuke turned and blinked. Wondering if he wanted an answer this time.

Naruto however continued to talk to himself, fully involved in his soliloquy.

"Er…Naruto, maybe you should lie down for a little bit…" Sakura started watching him get into a heated argument with himself.

Naruto looked up and smiled at her. " You're really nice Sakura-chan."

She smiled, this meant he really meant what he said to even say it when he was delirious. "Arigato, but really I think you should lie down. "

"Okay."

"Sakura, I'm going to the store for a bit, do you need anything?" Sakura's mother suddenly called into the room and she immediately hopped up to tell her a list of things she thought were needed.

Nodding her mother left the house, leaving it, two patients and her daughter all alone. Goodness she hoped the house would still be standing when she returned.

Meanwhile, Sakura sat in the living room watching television with the boys and taking care of anything and all things that needed to be done. What else was there to do?

After a while she decided she should start to make another soup for the boys just to keep them well fed. Sasuke agreed to it and when she asked Naruto, he merely asked, "What is soup, really?" Which she took as a yes whether he wanted it or not.

While waiting for the broth to boil, Sakura heard someone knocking on the door.

"Nani?" She muttered out loud knowing that her mother had taken her keys, and that even her father would have keys. " Who could that be?"

She made her way over to the door and opened it peeking around its edge. "Who is…..it?" Her eyes widened at whom she saw.

"Sakura! Get out of the sunlight, your blinding me with your big forehead!"

"Ino-pig!! What are you doing here?!?"

The blonde girl forcefully pushed the door open and entered the house, breathing like a wild boar on a rampage. "Where is he?!? I bet you've poisoned him by now!"

"Nani?!? Just what are you talking about baka?!?" Sakura shouted feigning innocence and hoping the other girl would not be so rude as to push further into her house….

"Sasuke-kun!! There you are!"

No such luck.

"Ino." He acknowledged eye twitching in annoyance as she hung off his neck in her usual hug.

"You poor baby! My mother just came back from the store and she bumped into big forehead's mom and heard about you having chicken pox! I'm so sorry!"

"Its not that bad."

"Yes it is! I had it when I was younger, it was horrible!"

"I can handle it."

"I could take care of you instead you know, you could come to my house." She batted her eyes as she said this with an added flirtatious smile.

He removed her hold on him and pretended to be interested in the television. "Kakashi-sensei said I had to stay here." The powers above knew that he had wanted to just go to his own apartment and take care of himself, but Kakashi had actually prevented him from doing so. How? He'd stolen his keys of course and had locked the apartment windows and all and told him that he did so.

"Oh, that's too bad!"

Sakura smirked in triumph but at the same time was slightly hurt that he felt it was such a bother to stay in her house.

"Yeah Ino-pig, as you can see, he doesn't need you. So you can leave now!"

"Well he may not need me to take care of him, but I'm sure you have him bored senseless. Everyone has visitors when they're sick, right Shikamaru?….Ara?" she uttered when she noticed her teammate had not followed her in.

Quickly going back to the door, she saw her two missing teammates standing outside. "What are you two doing?!?"

"We weren't invited in, its rude." Shikamaru answered simply while Chouji obliviously munched on potato chips beside him.

They were still trying to figure out why Ino had dragged them along.

"Well get in here and be good friends to Sasuke! He's sick and you should always visit the sick!"

"Isn't Naruto sick too?"

"Ara? He's here too?!?"

Shikamaru blinked, had she really ignored Naruto's name when her mother had told them that both Naruto and Sasuke were sick?

Sakura huffed behind her and pointed at the blonde boy who was laying on the couch watching the television through hazy eyes as everyone entered the room. "He's right there."

" Why are there so many people here?"

"Because---"

"And why is everyone just standing?"

It was no use, Naruto continued to ask pointless questions which began to irritate everyone but they said nothing understanding it was due to the illness.

"Argh! Just get him to shut up already!" Ino shouted not handling his babbling as well as the others.

Okay, so one wasn't so good at ignoring him like the others.

Sasuke started his coughing fit once more which immediately alarmed the blonde girl and at the exact same moment both Sakura and she went racing to his aid…….only to bump into each other.

"Ow! Sakura! Careful with that thing! I think your forehead almost broke my skull!"

"You don't have to worry, there is nothing in there that would be damaged Ino-pig!"

"Nani?!?!"

Chouji ignored everyone and happily sat on the couch beside Naruto, eating his chips and watching the television.

Shikamaru sighed. They were supposed to stay here and help entertain them? This was going to be so……troublesome.

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A/N: Wow, things are starting to get crazy. Lol. But its fun. ^_____^

Thankies to everyone who has reviewed. Like always, your words brighten my day and make me feel special. I'm sorry I don't do individual thank-you's but if you ask me something. I will answer you. I don't take any reviewer for granted though, I appreciate all your words so much!

Also, I have a proposition to make to you wonderful readers. More than one of you has asked for this to be a Sasuke/Sakura fic. To tell you the truth, I'm not that crazy about the pairing or Sakura at all, but I'm doing a vote.

When you review, please let me know if you want this to become a Sasuke/Sakura or not. Depending on the amount of votes I'll do it. Okay? ^___^ So another reason for you to vote!

(P.S. I included some small tidbit about Sakura's dad, but I don't even know if she even has one or if he really is a ninja or a retired ninja. I haven't seen anything mentioned about him yet, I'm only up to epie 77. And on that topic, poor Gaara!)

Okiez, I'm done babbling now. Thanks once again, wuv ya all!