Lovely review from Anon. Thanks and keep the feedback coming!
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Three Days from Konoha
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Anko had finished preparing the morning meal and Naruto still had not awakened.
The group had left the boy to sleep in as long as he could, and he still showed no signs of stirring.
They would be preparing to leave soon, and as they wanted to force Naruto to eat before they left, they needed him awake soon.
Itachi leant over the boy silently. He still did not move, and Itachi observed his small form.
The child hunched in on himself, brow furrowed even as he slept. He looked paler,
The corner of Itachi's mouth twitched downwards as his ears picked up the beginning of a wheeze to the boys' breaths.
He pursed his lips and shook the boys' shoulder. After a few shakes blue eyes fluttered open.
"Up time." Murmured the Uchiha as he hoisted Naruto up by the armpits.
Not quite awake yet, the blonde's boys' head drooped forwards as he was held to Itachi's chest.
Itachi settled the boy in his lap as he coughed slightly, accepting the handful of rice biscuits from Anko and held them to the sleepy boys' mouth.
Ignoring the shaking of the blondes' head, Itachi continued to hold a biscuit to his lips.
It resulted in a stare-off between the stubborn blonde pout and the infamous Uchiha glare. These sort of battles could go either way, sometimes with the Uchiha cracking under the puppy-dog eyes, others with Naruto breaking away first without a pout.
This time, it was Naruto who cracked first, likely due to his discomfort. With a sigh he opened his mouth to accept a small bite of biscuit reluctantly.
He continued to force-feed the reluctant blonde while their other two teammates packed up the camp, ready to set out again.
After some last minute checks of his body and ointment applications, the group took off, Naruto already asleep in Itachis' arms.
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In the cool morning air, it took Itachi a few minutes to realize something was wrong.
The group had maintained almost break-neck speed for the whole journey, and after this many days the scenes around him had started blurring together, homing in on their Village as he travelled on auto pilot.
It took a tiny tug to his sleeve for him to break his trance, and he looked down at the small boy in his arms to find in horror that Naruto's forehead was slick with sweat, blonde locks plastered to his face, which looked even paler than usual.
Itachi dove for the ground, hearing his teammates follow him instantly.
As soon as his feet made contact with earth, Naruto struggled from his arms to collapse on all fours, emptying what little contents to his stomach there was onto the forest floor.
His tiny body shuddered with each retch, his body refusing to believe there was nothing else as he continued to dry heave.
The team could do nothing to soothe the boy, and they hovered helplessly over him, smoothing his hair from his face and rubbing his back. Genma retrieved a canteen and held it ready for the boy.
It was a painful long few minutes before Naruto's pained heaves died down, and Itachi gently caught the boy as his arms gave way beneath him, leaning him back against his chest and away from the mess.
His eyes were closed and his skin was grey as he panted weakly, the tendrils of poison that were visible standing out harshly against his skin.
Anko inspected the boys' arm briefly as Genma managed to coax some water into the blondes' mouth. He used it to gratefully rinse away the taste, but refused to swallow, much to the teams' dismay as they eyed his chapped lips.
"How are you feeling." Anko murmured, peeling back the boys' eyelid to inspect his pupil.
"Hurts." The child winced. "'M so tired."
He truly looked exhausted. His usually sparkling eyes were dull, barely focusing on them at all. He seemed to expend all his strength to cradle his arm to his chest.
The wheezing was now persistent, a steady gurgle rising from his lungs in with each breath.
From behind the boys' back, Itachi locked eyes with Anko in a silent question. She responded with a helpless half shrug.
Itachi took this as approval, and tilted Naruto's chin up so he could look into dull blue eyes.
His Sharingan spun lazily as Naruto's tiny body flopped against him, tranced into dreamless sleep.
The group wasted no time taking to the air again, and they were immensely grateful for the lightening colour of the leaves that signalled their close proximity to Konoha.
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-AN-
Wow, getting close now. But there is still much story left!
Now, I received a PM asking to hear more from Anko. Let me know in a review if you'd been hoping for a little bit more character development, or perhaps you would prefer to see a little more of something else!
Another short chapter I'm afraid, I'm a bit all over the place with these long then short then long again chapters. But it just makes more sense to keep one 'day' to a chapter, regardless of how much has happened in it.
RNR!