Nintendo shouldn't mind that I borrowed a little inspiration from them ;)

Link to the Past

At last, the end of their stay was here. Naruto happily jumped out of bed, throwing on something that'd been tossed on the back of a chair and still smelled relatively clean. He was still fighting to put on one of his shoes as he left out his apartment, not bothering with any other preparations.

He breezed down the hallway of the hospital, saying a swift welcome to the doctors and nurses he'd come to know and impatiently patted a hand as he waited for the elevator to reach the fourth floor. The moment it opened, he weaved around the other patients in the hallway until he reached the right room, carelessly throwing it open.

Sasuke was not only already awake, but halfway packed as well. "I cannot wait to get out of here," were his first words. He shoved a wad of clothes into his bag, the same clothes Naruto had taken so much care to keep neat when he'd packed them. He certainly couldn't blame him though; even though he'd been allowed to go home to sleep, he too was getting tired of the hospital. He could only imagine how much worse Sasuke felt considering he'd been stuck there.

To help speed things up, he gathered all the get-well cards together into a stack and transferred many of the flowers into the same two vases, minimizing how much they'd have to carry. A final sweep of the room showed that everything else had been taken care of. Sasuke had even set up the bed and folded the hospital clothes on the top cover.

Pulling the bag onto his back, Sasuke then bent to pick up Sakura's basket. Leading the way out the room, he popped one in his mouth and an instant smile spread across his face. "I'll be damned. The girl can cook."

Curious, Naruto reached in and ate one as well. He first tasted chocolate but then it was accompanied by a sweet and vaguely familiar flavor, all with a soft and malleable texture. "The flavor's on the tip of my tongue but I can't quite get it…" he thought hard. He'd had it, and not too long ago at that either.

"Mochi," Sasuke supplied, holding open the elevator door for him. "Mochi with a chocolate coating. Not bad, you can only barely taste the medicinal herbs." He finished the first one and instantly ate another. "Everyone else should've brought me something like this."

Naruto quirked a smile at him. "So you would've rather had candy? Valentine's Day must be your favorite holiday then!"

Thinking it over, Sasuke groaned and shook his head. "No, that's actually my least favorite holiday. Girls would always try to give me stuff and then come March 14th, they'd watch me like a hawk, like I owed them something. I rejected all of their presents on Valentine's Day, why should I owe them anything on White Day?"

Naruto had always been immensely jealous of Sasuke for getting so many gifts. He remembered in utter embarrassment a time he'd made a crude, hand-made Valentine for Sakura when he was about nine. She'd shown it to Ino and both of them had laughed at him before tearing it in his face. At that age, it'd felt like she'd literally ripped his heart to pieces. How he continued to have such strong feelings for her after that was probably propelled solely on loneliness and desperation. Odd how the memory of that little girl could still make his heart twinge even now.

Coming back to the present, he realized they were now at the front counter where Sasuke was checking out. Sasuke hastily penned his name on some papers and strode purposefully from the building, taking a moment to absorb the sunlight on the front step. "This. Feels. Amazing." He took in a deep breath, smelling the warm spring air. Then he shook out one leg and did the same with the other. A thin amount of chakra gathered at his feet and he was just about to push off when—

"Nope, not gonna let you do it," Naruto stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Even if you ate the food pills, you should probably take it easy still for a day."

"I've taken it easy for three days," Sasuke reminded him testily, pushing the hand off. "I know what my body is capable of. I'll be fine."

There goes that line again. No, he wasn't going to wait for Sasuke to collapse for it to be proven that he wasn't okay. Holding the flower vases with one arm, he grabbed Sasuke's wrist and pulled him down the hospital steps, making it very clear that they were going to walk and walk only.

Once they'd made it to Sasuke's home, Sasuke unlocked the door and stepped in to take off his shoes but froze to gaze around the house. It'd been cleaned recently, everything looking new and shiny. Naruto trailed behind him wearing a massive grin, delighted in his impressed reaction. "I didn't want you to come home to the house being covered in dust," he said, breathing in the clean smell of the carpet powder he'd used. "I hope this makes a good 'welcome home' present."

"You probably don't even clean your own house like this," Sasuke noted, still looking around.

It was true, Naruto didn't spend nearly as much time cleaning his own place, though since seeing his parents during the war, he'd begun taking better care of himself. "Ah, I'm not that bad," he chuckled in light defense.

For a second, Sasuke disappeared into the bedroom, coming back out without his travel bag but with a handful of clothes in his hand. He was about to open the washer when he slowly turned to Naruto. "About your jacket…"

Naruto flushed. "I've already washed it. It's fine, really. But tell someone next time you start feeling that bad, damnit!"

Sasuke's eyes turned away. "I was so hoping I had imagined that happening," he said, embarrassed. He busied himself by sorting the laundry into the washer. Once it was going, he came closer and Naruto couldn't help but take a step back, though uncertain as to why he was apprehensive.

However, Sasuke only took the two vases from him, setting one on the living room table and the other on the kitchen table. "I have no intentions of staying here," Sasuke spoke up again. "I need to get my strength back so I'm heading to the training grounds. Go get that book I gave you and meet me at training ground one."

Ugh, that damn book. "Actually, I've already read it and it's nothing new for me," he confessed, scratching behind his head. He'd finally gotten a chance to read it at home with all his free time. "It talks about Sage Art jutsu and…I've already mastered that." Thankfully, the book hadn't covered specifically how to obtain the jutsu.

Sasuke stopped everything to stare at him. "You've…mastered that? When? And how?"

"The old frog that taught Pervy Sage how to do it also taught me," Naruto said proudly. He'd gone through and completed a training most ninja would salivate at the chance to do. Salivate…that also reminded him of his cuisine on Mt. Myoboku…the flies, the beetles. He quickly shut that memory down.

Sasuke seemed to have recovered himself, shaking his head with a small smile. "Well then, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I guess you'll be teaching me how to do it."

Immediately, Naruto felt a tiny blossom of something very powerful in his chest. "Not sure I could teach you…the old frog only taught me because I was Pervy Sage's student. He told me he wouldn't have done so if I hadn't been."

"Good thing that I'm not training with this old frog then, now isn't it?" Sasuke smirked, unaffected. He left to his room again, probably to get ready. "Be at training ground one in twenty minutes, okay?" he called out.

"Yeah, sure…" Naruto put back on his shoes at the entrance and left with no intentions of hurrying. There was something about Sasuke wanting to learn Sage jutsu that rubbed him the wrong way. The two of them had come so far, taking different paths and yet coming out finally as equals. But he knew it was less about wanting Sasuke to have yet another technique in his arsenal and leaned towards more personal reasons.

He'd been trained by a teacher of Jiraiya's. At a time where his emotions had been in complete shambles over his master's death, he'd found something that brought him out of the darkness and again gave him a purpose. By learning this special technique, he could protect the Leaf village, his biggest ambition which went hand in hand with wanting to be Hokage. It was the endearing act of passing something from master to student that made Naruto want to hold onto the technique as his so tightly. Sasuke had never been big on bonds, but as for himself, he thrived on them.

He went home and got ready, putting back on the headband he'd taken off during the three days, showing that he was now back on active duty. Aside from his weapons pouch, he packed two cold bottles of water and made a few quick sandwiches for lunch. With that finished, he now headed out to the far side of the village for the training grounds, halfway hoping that they were all in use already.

Of course, luck was not on his side as Sasuke was already there at the designated spot. He was practicing his aim, throwing handfuls of both shuriken and kunai at targets. Not surprisingly, they all hit the mark. "Going back to basics?" Naruto said as he walked up. He sat the bag of food at the base of a tree and began a simple set of stretches.

"I've never gone so long without fighting or practicing. I want to make sure nothing has changed," Sasuke replied, walking away to retrieve his weapons. Putting them back in his weapons pouch, he returned to his position, closing his eyes with a deep breath. Then, in a whirl that Naruto almost found too hard to follow, much less stop, Sasuke jumped in the air. He turned himself upside down while rotating like a top. With the Sharingan activated, he again unleashed the blades, where only most, but not all, found their way to the bullseye. As for Sasuke, he must've misjudged the velocity of his spin for he fell to the ground on his side instead of his feet.

Naruto was too late to catch him and saw when the wind was knocked out of Sasuke. That dumbass! As if he didn't just get out of the hospital! He ran up to Sasuke, rolling him on his back to help him breathe. While he was only taking shallow breaths, Naruto felt along his ribs and was relieved to not feel anything was broken. Comforted by that, he immediately dropped Sasuke again where the breath was once more knocked out of him. "Serves you right for trying something so stupid when you're still recovering!" he yelled, hands on his hips as he glared down at him.

"I've done that technique thousands of times before," Sasuke gasped, slowly pulling himself up with shaky arms. "I had to test to see where to draw the line for now."

"Mm-hmm, draw the line my ass," Naruto muttered, but ensured it was loud enough that he heard him. Louder he said, "Well, for now, looks like that's it then. Your aim is fine, but you still need more time for anything that requires agility."

But when had Sasuke ever listened to him without a fight first? "I'm gonna try it one more time."

Naruto sighed but decided it'd be a waste to argue. Instead, he crouched at the knee, preparing himself to spring into action if this move went as bad as the last.

Sasuke once more retrieved the weapons and positioned himself even further from the marks. He was still for a few seconds until he broke out into a run. When he reached his initial standing point, he launched himself into the air again, tightly flipping his body until he was upside down. His fingers were already fitted with a kunai between every knuckle but suddenly, his momentum stopped. He yet again plummeted to the ground but broke his fall by landing in a crouch. He dropped the kunai and put a hand over his mouth, fighting a gag.

This time, Naruto only slowly walked over, kneeling down to pat him on the back as Sasuke fought to not be sick. "See? You're moving too fast. You don't need to prove it to anyone that you're tough. Nobody doubts you about that."

Finally controlling his stomach, Sasuke slammed a fist into the ground. "What the hell! When have I ever had motion sickness?"

Naruto did feel sorry for him, he honestly did. But he wasn't sure what else could be said that wouldn't come off as cheap and hollow to make him feel better.

Sasuke breathed out an extended sigh before folding his legs under him, sitting cross-legged. "Alright, so I can't do anything too strenuous right now. That book seemed to specialize in concentration though. Since you seem to know so much about Sage Art, why not teach it to me?"

"Uhh…well…ah! You need a special oil to begin the training!" Naruto remembered. "Without it, it's usually too hard to begin the process."

"Okay, you have a link to the frogs with your summons, right? Summon one of them to bring you some," Sasuke instructed.

Naruto quickly cast out for anything else that could stall him. "The geezer frog actually told me that it can only exist on Mt. Myoboku. If it's removed from there, it'll evaporate. And they're not willing to train you, so…" Naruto gave a seemingly helpless shrug.

"I don't need the oil then," Sasuke dodged around his excuse. "It's about concentration, right? I'm way better at that than you. Show me the basics and I bet I can copy it."

Something in Naruto instantly cracked and before he could catch himself, he shouted, "Look, I'm not going to teach you, alright? So quit asking!"

He felt awful for it, turning his face away in shame. Still, the other feeling, the desire to hold on to something so precious that he'd been entrusted to, was much stronger and if it meant hurting Sasuke's feelings, then, well…Sasuke would just have to deal with it. He sat down on the grass as well, still keeping his face hidden.

There was a small snort though and curiosity made Naruto look up. "If you didn't want to teach it to me, why didn't you just say that from the beginning?"

The truth, now or never. "Because you don't handle 'no' very well," Naruto confessed. He saw Sasuke purse his lips slightly. "This was a jutsu taught to me by Jiraiya's own master. We shared that bond of teacher and student. It's something special, something I'd want to share with only my own most dedicated pupil." He thought of the fact that he'd already taught Konohamaru the Rasengan. Maybe one day, he'd help facilitate the transition with him into learning Sage Art as well.

Across from him, Sasuke smirked even wider. "See, now was that so hard?"

Naruto didn't feel that deserved an answer. "So, now what? Wanna maybe spar or something?"

"Right now, you'd beat me, but I'll get in some practice on the straw dolls later." Sasuke laid down on his back, closing his eyes as the wind blew a few blades of grass over him.

Naruto copied his pose, but honestly, the view was rather boring. Today, the sky was extremely clear with almost no clouds to make it interesting. At his movement, the chain around his neck shifted sideways, causing it to drag in the grass. He picked up the ring that was on the end and turned it in his fingers. "You ever gonna tell me what this thing says or is it one of those 'has to be the right time' kind of things?" he asked to Sasuke. He hoped not as he was scared for what that would mean.

Sasuke rolled over onto his side, putting him facing Naruto. He took the ring and examined it himself before making a disparaging noise. "It actually doesn't say anything, I just told you that to get you to wear it."

With a furrowed brow, Naruto tried to take it back to examine again, but Sasuke continued to hold on, subsequently keeping their heads nearly touching. "You told me it was a family heirloom; I would've worn it for that alone. But I think it really does say something. C'mon, I don't have to wait years or something, do I?"

Sasuke finally let go, laying back down. "No, but we've only been dating for a few days. I said I'd tell you someday; someday doesn't mean 'I'll tell you by the end of the week'."

"We're not even guaranteed tomorrow so you might as well tell me today," Naruto huffed.

It was said childishly but Sasuke became very still, his breathing even seemingly halted. Naruto could already make out that tell-tale darkening of his eyes which usually preceded one of their arguments, the kind that usually led to physical fighting and tears of frustration being shed. Instinctually, he began to backpedal. "Haha, I'm just kidding! We're at peace now with the other Great Nations so there's less to worry about!"

But Sasuke shifted his eyes to him in a way that showed it didn't take a Sharingan to see through his lie. "No. We shinobi count on conflict in order to remain necessary. Peace has been maintained for now, but our existence is reliant upon those that want to ruin it. So you're right, Naruto, we're never guaranteed tomorrow with everything that we face. But that doesn't mean I'm going to treat each day like it's my last."

Without another word, Sasuke pulled himself up and began to walk away from the training ground. Naruto didn't follow him, too stunned at his outburst to move. He lay there, confused and hurt, unable to shake the feeling that somehow he was at fault.