Wading Through the Ripples

"Aw crap!" Naruto shouted, jumping up and knocking his chair over.

"Just what'd you do this time?" Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"I left your window open! I couldn't close it while carrying you here," Naruto said, already opening the hospital window to hop out through there.

Sasuke pressed the button on the side of his bed to bring it to a reclining position. "Well don't jump out another window, idiot. Use the front door. I don't want to have to get up to close the window after you. I'm trying to minimize how much I have to drag this thing around." He gestured to the pole that held his medicine.

"Yeah but…" Naruto looked at the clock. It was getting on into the evening hours. By the time he returned, the time for visiting would have passed. "I won't be allowed back in if I leave…" he murmured.

Still, Sasuke shook his head at him. "Go home and get some sleep. You've done enough for today." And then he smiled.

Slowly, that smile was wearing on him. "I suppose so. Oh! Hey, where's your house key? I'll need to leave by the front door there as well. And by the way, you didn't lock the sliding door to your balcony. That's how I initially got in."

Sasuke scrunched his face, thinking. "Really? Could've sworn I did…I must've been really out of it." He put a hand on his forehead in thought. "The key would be on the dresser beside my bed."

"Okay, that should be easy enough." Naruto closed the window and went for the door instead. For a moment, he paused and looked over his shoulder. "I guess I'll see you in the morning then..."

The drugs were already taking hold of Sasuke again and he was sluggish to reply. "If that's what you want…"

Slipping out the door, he made his way to the elevator and back down to the entrance hall. Out in the street, Konoha was still very lively. It was pleasant being around the noise and excitement whereas the hospital was quiet and sterile. He wanted to stop and join in, but…he knew he'd feel guilty if he did, with Sasuke being stuck in the hospital. Increasing his speed, he continued his run past the attractive restaurants and on towards Sasuke's home.

He again used the balcony to get inside, immediately turning around to lock the door. From there, he went to Sasuke's bedroom, closing the window and locking that as well. On the dresser, he accurately found the key right where he'd been told. He looked closer at the keyring though and found that it held a metal imprint of a cat's paw. From somewhere, he vaguely remembered hearing that the Uchiha were tied to cats but for Sasuke to put something so cute on his keyring was so unexpected that he found it rather adorable.

Looking back at the small night stand though, he realized the bowl of soup was still there. A darkened film covered it, showing it'd been sitting out for too long. He took it with him into the kitchen and emptied both the bowl and pot out, even washing the dishes. There, everything was finished. Except…

It'd be days before Sasuke returned. If it was going to be that long, Sasuke had nothing to keep him occupied during his stay, much less anything to wear other than the boring hospital sweats. He headed back into the bedroom to look around. Opening the closet revealed a bag perfect for traveling on short trips. Grabbing it, he pulled a few shirts and pants down from the hangars and was about to stuff them in carelessly, when he stopped himself. These weren't his things, they were Sasuke's and except for these last few days, Sasuke had never dressed messily. He carefully folded the clothes instead, setting them neatly into the bag.

From the dresser, he searched around until he found what appeared to be Sasuke's underwear drawer. He blushed furiously as he pulled a pair out, noting that Sasuke was what he called a "middle man". Neither boxers nor briefs but appeared to prefer boxer briefs. He snatched a handful out and these he did shove to the bottom. Okay, what next…

His eyes cast around for forms of entertainment and came up empty. While there was a TV in the bedroom, he could already guess it wasn't watched much. The stand that the TV sat on though had two double doors underneath it. Kneeling down, he pulled open one of the doors, revealing a game console of the newest technology. Pulling open the second door showed him a rather large stack of video games.

Since when was Sasuke a gamer?

Curiosity got the better of him and he thumbed through the titles. He recognized all of them, but every single one of them went no higher than a T rating. At eighteen, Sasuke was old enough to buy M-rated games but most of these were adventure platforming games or RPG's, nothing with extreme violence. He'd ask him about it later. Unfortunately, since the TV at the hospital sat so high up, it'd be difficult to bring the console. It'd also probably be in bad taste to bring Sasuke's 32 inch slim TV so the clearest form of entertainment would have to be left behind.

Instead, he scanned the bookshelves for anything else. The books were in near-perfect condition, but he noticed that a few seemed to have a little more wear to them. He could only hope that these were books Sasuke read more frequently and shoved them into the bag. He cast around again, hoping to maybe find something like a manga collection or even a handheld console, but the room was bereft of either, though he was lucky enough to find a deck of cards. Well, this would have to do for now.

He shut the lights off as he exited the apartment, properly locking the front door behind him. Hoisting the bag up, he quickly made it back to the hospital in only ten minutes but paused before going through the front doors. Indeed, the time for visiting had passed. If he repeated though what Sasuke had said, that their relationship should grant him more rights (which he still blushed to think about), would they let him through? He was scared to chance it.

He went around the back of the building where he remembered Sasuke's window looked down onto. He scanned all the way up to the fourth floor but realized he didn't know specifically which one was his. Most of the room lights were off but he'd left Sasuke's light on when he'd gone out. It was possible though that Sasuke had turned it off. If so, there was no hope of him finding it.

He was about to turn away when something flickered in his peripheral vision. Squinting up, he saw that it was a Konoha headband on a dark, open windowsill. While it certainly could've belonged to anyone, he had a hunch that it was Sasuke's. Likely, Sasuke had probably slipped it into his pocket back when he'd been cleaning his jacket in the bathroom. The fact that he had thought to keep the window open at all again made him warm inside.

With a good push of chakra, he was launched into the room, landing stealthily on the floor. "Operation Lockdown is complete! And I also brought you—"

Sasuke wasn't listening. He must've woken up for a brief period to set up the headband but afterwards, he'd gone to bed. Well, that was fine. It was past the hospital curfew anyways. He pulled the bag of items off his back and set it down in the chair he'd been sitting in all day. Quietly walking over to the bed, he curiously peered down to study the sleeping form lying there.

Sasuke did not have a cliché, cherubic face when he slept. The babyfat of youth had long been replaced by hardened angles. Even though they were still teens, he knew neither of them considered themselves a child; going to war had a way of doing that to a person. Instead of focusing on that though, he noticed that Sasuke seemed to have lost an eyelash, the tiny hair just visible in the low lighting. Without even thinking, he licked a finger and used it to lightly pick it up from his cheek.

A silly superstition he'd heard as a child was that if you blew a fallen eyelash away while making a wish, it would come true. He knew it was ridiculous; weren't they all? But after the stress of today, he was fine indulging in a little silliness. Going back to the window, he closed his eyes for a moment, holding his hand up. I want Sasuke to get better. And for Sakura to not have to be hurt and to find someone really special for her. And for Kakashi-sensei and Iruka-sensei's babies to grow up healthy and strong. Oh, and one more thing! If I could someday become the Hokage, that'd be really great! And another thing! I wanna see Kakashi's face just once before I die! Okay, I think that's it for now…thanks.

Opening his eyes, he blew on the lash, watching as it instantly disappeared into the night. He picked up Sasuke's headband from the windowsill and took it back to the bed, pushing it under the pillow. There, now he could leave.

For a moment though, he hesitated. In movies, this would be the part where the main character would kiss their beloved before departing. Naruto couldn't see that applying to him and Sasuke though and instead offered a hasty, "Good night, sleep tight," before slipping out the window and vanishing.

Sasuke smiled as he closed the eye he'd cracked open. "Good night."

~.~.~

The next day, the hospital staff received a verdict back from Tsunade commanding Sasuke to remain there for the full three days. Naruto had returned the next morning, opening the room door to see Sasuke shredding the letter into his lap. Then, picking up the pieces, he held his hand in a pose and blew a small flame, incinerating the paper to less than ash.

"I see someone's feeling better," he said with half sarcasm, sitting down in the same chair. Sasuke had found the clothes evidently as a pile was beside him. He must've been getting ready to change when he'd gotten the letter.

"I'm still not going to stay the entire time," Sasuke informed, slipping his feet to the floor. "Really, what's the worse she can do if I leave?"

Clearly, you've not seen a pissed-off Lady Tsunade. Naruto hated it when Sasuke dug in his heels like this, which was pretty much for everything that didn't align with the Uchiha's plans. "You act like everyone's punishing you. Ever thought that we just care about your health?" He watched him as he picked up the clothes and shuffled with his IV stand toward the bathroom. "I was really worried yesterday, Sasuke. I've never seen you like that. Everyone's just concerned. And we're concerned 'cause we care."

Sasuke jerked to a stop, taking a moment to look over his shoulder. "That is the single-most cheesiest thing I have ever heard you say, which is an accomplishment considering the amount of corny things that come out of your mouth," he snorted, making Naruto grit his teeth. "However…" His dark eyes flashed. "If 'everyone' also includes you, then that's fine." He continued his slow pace while the blonde fumbled with finding a good comeback. The bathroom door closed behind Sasuke, shutting out his opportunity.

He breathed out a sigh and then checked his watch. It was only a little past eight, but had breakfast been given yet? He'd tried to get Sasuke to eat something from the vending machine the day before but he'd refused, claiming to not have an appetite. He grimaced as he remembered that Sasuke's last meal had probably ended up on his clothes, but that would also mean he'd gone nearly an entire day with no food.

Pfft, and yet he insists he can take care of himself…

Just then, he heard Sasuke swear loudly in the bathroom, spoken with a sharp intake of breath. Naruto wasted no time in launching himself across the distance to the door and throwing it open without knocking. The shower was already on, but Sasuke seemed to have been in the process of taking off his shirt when he realized there was one problem. The IV in his hand prevented the shirt from being able to come off. The result was that Sasuke was now tangled in the fabric, one arm ripping violently at the clothing.

Naruto stifled a giggle. He was half tempted to just sit there and watch him struggle as a flustered Sasuke was so rare. But alas, he choked down his laughs (promising to save them for later), and went up to Sasuke to pull the shirt over his head. The right arm was now free but he stopped before bringing the shirt over the left arm. "We might need to get a nurse to help with removing this thing," he said, following the trail of the tube.

"No need," Sasuke said, and put his right hand on the back of his left. "I think I already pretty much ripped it out." He grabbed it and gave another sharp pull.

"Don't!" Naruto shouted.

But it was done. Sasuke's hand was bleeding slightly, but he now held up a needle about an inch long that was at the end of the tube. He looped it around the clear bag of medication to keep it from dripping and then snatched a washcloth off a towel rack to put against his hand. "Got tired of dragging that thing around anyways," he brushed it off.

It certainly ranked extremely low on the scale of injuries Sasuke had received but Naruto still was unsettled at looking at it. Sasuke had already moved on though, finally removing the shirt and, without warning, stripping off everything else below the waist. Naruto immediately turned around with a squeak of embarrassment but Sasuke said, "You can stay. I won't be standing so you won't see anything. We're both men anyways."

Even if he was right, Naruto still felt it was different for them to now see each other naked. He peeked over though to see that indeed, Sasuke had opted to sit down in the bathtub. The water was still set to shower and Sasuke made no attempt to switch it to running water from the faucet for a bath. "Are you…just going to sit there and shower?" he figured he'd ask.

"That's right. I do this after training to loosen muscles." Sasuke sat with his knees against his chest and his chin down, making the position seem rather easy. His back was turned against the downpour in a way that made Naruto think of depressed characters in movies, perhaps. But Sasuke was actually giving a small smile and even let out a content sigh. "You ought to come in here and try it."

"Pass," Naruto immediately blurted, waving a hand as he turned to leave. Before he could reach the door, he felt something knock roughly against his head and hit the floor. "What the—so now you're throwing things at me?!" This was a new one even for Sasuke.

He looked to the floor to see a mini bottle of shampoo, Sasuke already holding the conditioner bottle at the ready. "Indeed I did," he said with a playful twinkle in his eye. "Now, you can bring that back over here. I'm not asking you to get in the shower. Just…" He faltered, becoming uncertain. "…You don't have to go. I mean, you don't have to just sit out there."

For a moment, Naruto didn't move. Could it be? Was Sasuke…pouting? He wouldn't believe it if he weren't looking with his own eyes, but he was certainly poking his bottom lip out just a bit. Looking at him brought back an ancient memory, one from when they were much younger. Before everything went horribly wrong, Sasuke used to give that same face to Itachi when he came to pick him up from the academy but refused his request to train.

Coming back to himself, he picked up the small bottle, going back over to the tub to kneel down while holding it out. Sasuke narrowed his eyes in suspicion, probably from him going along so easily when usually he knew he was the one to balk at anything even seemingly intimate. Naruto held the bottle out until Sasuke reached up to take it, but just at that moment, he brought up his left hand and tapped Sasuke hard on the forehead in the fashion his late older brother would.

"Tch! Damn bastard!" Sasuke grabbed above his brow.

"Gotcha!" Naruto giggled, letting the bottle go and starting to rise. He'd better enjoy that; who knew if he'd be able to catch Sasuke with it a second time.

As it was, Sasuke wasn't about to let him get away with it even once. His fast reflexes pulled Naruto back instantly, snatching on his shirt and tugging him down. Naruto hit the bathroom floor hard on his knees, yet again forced to kneel beside the tub. He tried to get up to scramble away but Sasuke was now holding out both the shampoo and the conditioner. He said nothing, but sat them very pointedly on the side, giving a lingering stare. At last, he curled his arms back around his knees and closed his eyes, becoming an immovable statue.

Naruto blew out a breath, looking at the Uchiha. "You know, you really are a sore loser," he griped, reluctantly picking up the shampoo bottle. There was no further response, making his own defeat sink in that much more in the silence. Angrily, he squeezed out a sizable glob before slapping it onto Sasuke's scalp. He began to massage it in, first roughly using his palms until they began to ache his wrists. It had to have hurt, but not a peep was uttered from the other. In time, he ran out of steam and Naruto gave up on his indignation. He switched to using his fingers, which proved much easier to rub the shampoo all the way down to the roots.

He could feel the moment when Sasuke really began to relax. His shoulders lost their tension and he again rested his head on his knees, his eyes still closed. Now that they weren't bickering, Naruto found it was rather peaceful this way. The water falling drowned out any noises beyond the room and he'd never seen Sasuke looking so serene. Before he realized it, the hair had been soaped for well over the appropriate time, but his fingers remained imbedded in the thick hair. That Sasuke would let his guard down like this around him made him feel not only special, but powerful, that it was he who could make someone so strong all but purr like a kitten.

He bit his lip to keep from laughing, finally removing one hand to gently pull Sasuke's head back into the downpour of water. There was no resistance and he carefully guided the bubbles around Sasuke's face to keep them from getting in his eyes. Once sure it'd all been rinsed out, he squeezed the entirety of the tiny conditioner bottle into his hands and again began to slowly spread it through the thick hair. This time, he went slower, rubbing his fingers in a circular motion.

That must've hit the spot. Like a flower that bends towards the rays of the sun, Sasuke began to tilt his head in his direction, encouraging him to scratch deeper. Naruto did, which earned him a giggle. Wait, Sasuke doesn't giggle. He checked again, but that was certainly the best word for the noises he was making. Maybe it tickled. "Want me to stop? " He figured he'd ask.

"Hell no." Sasuke shot him a look that questioned how he dare ask such a thing. Softening, he murmured, "You really have quite the magical fingers."

Or you just like to be treated like a pampered house cat, Naruto thought, continuing his ministrations. He kept the conditioner in much longer than even the shampoo, but eventually it had to come out. He again tipped the head back, continuing his massage in a new way as he worked to rinse the suds out. Already he could see a difference, with Sasuke's hair being much softer now than when he'd let it become uncharacteristically dry and tangled. He didn't realize he'd been repeatedly threading his fingers through the hair though until Sasuke brought up a hand, placing it over his.

"S-sorry, didn't mean to," he stammered, about to right what he thought was a wrong.

Instead, Naruto felt Sasuke put his hand in his blonde hair and pull him in. He had only a half second to react, but his defenses were down in the calm atmosphere. Sasuke's lips met his as a soft push, made wet by the streaming water. His lips smiled against Sasuke's as he thought of kissing in the rain, but then gently pressed back. They held there for several beats, each threading a hand through the other's hair, until they slowly broke apart.

Naruto slid back his hand but Sasuke didn't move, and instead brought his face closer to rest his forehead against his. "So I guess then kissing is okay?" he whispered, nuzzling his nose against him.

He'd asked about that a few days ago, when they had talked. He couldn't bring himself to answer though, his voice failing to only make a noncommittal noise in his throat.

It seemed to be enough and Sasuke nudged back just a bit more. "Either way, thank you." He finally let go and Naruto could see just the barest hint of pink on his cheeks as he turned away to grab the bar of soap. "Now, if you'd kindly leave, I'd like to finish my shower. Your shirt's wet though so you can borrow one of mine."

The fact that Sasuke was being respectful of his request to take things one step at a time made him almost want to kiss him again. Gingerly, he rose from the hard floor, grabbing a small hand towel to dry his hair as he left out. The first thing his eyes landed on back in the room were the plates of food sitting on a wheeled stand meant for feeding patients in bed. He'd never heard a knock over the sound of the shower, but though Sasuke was the only patient admitted to the room, someone had taken the care to leave a guest tray for him as well.

For now, he opened the bag of belongings and picked out a simple white shirt that lacked the traditional large collar and the crest. He shed his own shirt and put it over the back of the chair to dry. With that, he seated himself on the edge of the bed, content to wait until Sasuke came out so that the two could share breakfast together.

Things were meant to move along a bit more for this chapter, but once I got to writing, I realized that would've been too much to add here. Forgive me, Sasuke's illness is not the main focal point here, though I'd be lying if I said I've not had fun writing with him like that…