He stood. The ground was soft, his feet left prints into the green grass as he walked off in search of dry twigs.
After about ten minutes, he returned to the 'camp' his efforts had been somewhat fruitful. Sasuke had, at best, a handful of small sticks. On the way to the fire pit, he stepped over a clumpy figure covered by a now wet blanket. Sasuke intentionally let his foot drag when taking the step, kicking the figure. It had made no response when he looked back at the silent mass.
"tch." Sasuke grunted snidely. A vicious smirk on his handsome, pale face.
He tossed the sticks down into the charcoal. Then placed a few previously collected logs on top. After several, futile attempts at striking a wet match, he created the flame with his trademark 'jutsu'. That worked well.
After warming his chilled hands for a minute or so, he again became restless. He needed to move around or something. Sasuke's hands continually flexed, constant twitching of his long slender fingers. He turned his head to look at the incapacitated baggage that Sasuke had been carrying all that previous night. And it hadn't been easy.
Naruto was a lot bigger than Sasuke had remembered. Also very muscular. And everyone knew that muscle weighs more than fat. Naruto had a LOT of muscle apparently. Sasuke was tired, but he wouldn't sleep. He needed Naruto to wake up. At this point he really wanted Naruto to wake up. It was taking forever. And Sasuke was bored.
He had hesitated on just shaking Naruto to wakefulness, but he figured that would make him seem foolish, because it had been him who had made sure that Naruto wouldn't wake up for a while. Sasuke had hit him (in the head) with a force that would have killed a normal person. Needless to say that when Naruto did wake up, eventually, he would have a bitch of a headache. If Sasuke had wanted Naruto to wake up sooner, he wouldn't have hit with such power, but he went all out, just in case. Sasuke didn't know for sure how strong Naruto actually was, but he figured that he was. Though the slip up in the woods a week or so ago hadn't really enforced Sasuke's opinion. The one thing he did conclude was that Naruto was indeed still stupid.
So Sasuke told himself that no matter how much he wanted to go punch Naruto to wakefulness, he could at least have the decency to wait patiently for him to wake up on his own.
But it was so boring.
Sasuke's inability to wait drove him to his feet and to trudge over to Naruto's unconscious body. He knelt down and pulled the heavy black blanket away from his face. Sasuke stared at Naruto's face. It was vaguely familiar, but there were many discrepancies between immature thirteen year old Naruto and this one. The face was less baby like and more concerned. There were shadows of wrinkles around the crease between his eyebrows and also slight indents of crows feet. Sasuke wondered what could worry such a carefree soul to this extent. Naruto looked worn.
Sasuke reached his hand to Naruto's head, barely skimming his hair with his fingers. The blonde was just as bright as it had ever been, with naturally orange highlights. Sasuke thought that such obnoxious hair would be a disadvantage in a ninja's profession, it would easily give him away if seen. And seeing as it drew the eye immediately, it would constantly give away his position. Sasuke was thankful for his black hair.
Sasuke's hand slowly moved to Naruto's face, brushing his cheek with the tips of his fingers. Sasuke had an expression of enthrallment on his face. A rare emotion for him. His eyes widened, his mouth slightly parted, eyebrows lifted, entertained. Sasuke placed his hand over the bloody crusted opening on the right side of Naruto's head. It had stopped bleeding. Things had gotten ugly after Sasuke slammed the rock into Naruto's face the previous night. It had bled for nearly an hour, almost profusely. It would give the sand ninjas a traceable lead. Sasuke did not want that. He at one point he wrapped a spare cloth around the blonde's head, stopping the blood flow effectively. It was now no more that a scab. The blood was dried all over Naruto's face. It looked gruesome.
Sasuke dabbed a part of the blanket into a nearby puddle and carefully wiped off the blood of the majority of Naruto's face. It looked less creepy now.
Satisfied for the time being Sasuke got up and turned back towards the log he had been sitting on earlier, making his way across the dewy grass, only stopping upon hearing a weak and broken call,
"Sasuke"
Okies.
Howdy all. Headaches here. Thanks for being patient. Y'all know how the end of the school year gets. I was tired, but then I was like, "you know what would make me feel way better? Writing some fanfiction." so tada. I hope y'all enjoy the latest installment of this... thing. Thanks go to all my reviewers and Asagoro who as usual inspired me to at least make an attempt to... write.
Seven chapters... I am so ready to find a way to end this fic, so keep up.
By the way, if any of you have ever played Naruto on the game cube and know the hell that was Sasuke's stuttering "Fire style Jutsu" attack; that was all I was thinking about when I had him light the fire. Questions? Comments?
much love h4e.
