Whoot for putting off school work! Not that I really have that much work, just a few text books to read, as well as other books and memorization and all that loveliness. But it's the weekend, and yesterday was Friday. Who honestly does work on Friday? (hehe me, I actually did do some reading) but today I have done nothing but sleep, eat, clean, rehearse and write.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Concrete Angel

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Chapter Twenty Five:

"Ow," Naruto groaned a little as he shifted his right arm a little too fast, trying to get the door open with his left arm.

"Are you alright?" How Sasuke managed to get over to his side of the cab and open the door Naruto was struggling with, the blonde did not question.

"Don't worry, Sasuke. I'm fine." Naruto tried to reassure the raven. If Naruto had been any other person, this much constant attention would probably be severely annoying right now. But Naruto didn't mind the feeling of Sasuke's concern that much, it was rather comforting.

However, if Sasuke intended to continue with this behaviour for an entire week...

"Come on, I'll help you out." Despite Naruto's previous statement about being capable, Sasuke insisted on helping the blonde out of the cab very carefully, treating him like a slate of glass that could smash into pieces at the slightest wrong movement.

Naruto sighed and did not fight the assistance, which was actually good for him since there was a high probability of him falling onto the ground had he opened the door himself.

As Sasuke paid the cab driver through the window a reasonable amount of money, since he had driven Sasuke to the hospital from here, waited for him and Naruto, and then returned them, Naruto stood back and gazed up at the wondrous house that always mesmerized him. It was beautiful in the early evening light, much like how he had first seen it on the day he had fallen into the stream. It seemed like such a long time ago.

"Naruto?" Sasuke came up from behind the blonde, startling him. But he quickly turned around and grinned at Sasuke, who was looking at him with both confusion and concern.

"I'm okay. I was just remembering when we first met."

Sasuke's eyes widened unexpectedly and a faint blush passed over his face before he could stop himself. "...Yeah, seems like it's been years." At saying this Sasuke had averted his face, taking a couple steps forward. "We should probably go inside and get you settled."

"Yeah," Naruto smiled at how easy he had gotten Sasuke to smile. Somehow, now that they were outside of the hospital and away from Emi and the Sabakus and school, everything seemed calm with 

the world. Free of the chaos that had swirled around the blonde his entire life. Free from... the world he once called real, and welcomed into a new one that seemed more... normal.

--

Hustling about the kitchen, Sasuke tried to busy himself with cooking as Naruto took a nap.

He had gotten him settled into one of the many spare rooms. Coincidently it was the spare room closest to Sasuke's bedroom, but that, of course, was only so he could get to him faster if he needed help. The blonde obviously hadn't had anything with him when he'd come back from the hospital, like decent clothing that was free of rips and blood stains, so the blonde was currently occupying some of Sasuke's clothing.

Later Sasuke would have to find some time to head back to Naruto's 'home' and pick up some of his own clothing. The only dilemma was that Sasuke couldn't bring Naruto with him. He was instructed by Tsunade that he couldn't leave the house and especially not to go near Emi. Nor could he just leave Naruto here for a short while. It was nothing that had been instructed to him, he was just paranoid that if his brother came round... and he found an injured boy by himself who wasn't his little brother...

Sasuke shuddered that the thought. The dream had been bad enough. He couldn't live through a reality.

The sound of water boiling brought Sasuke's attention back to the pot on the stove. He was too lazy today to cook anything half decent, so he figured he'd make something shamefully simple, only he'd put a bit of effort into it. He poured the package of raw noodles into the bubbling water, watching them slowly break apart for a moment before glancing up at the clock. Twenty after six it read. Naruto would have to take another pain killer in forty more minutes.

The raven sighed, leaning against the counter. Suddenly he had responsibility over the boy he loved, and he was temporarily living with him as well. It was sickly funny that while his world was threatened to be torn apart by the past, and while Naruto's life was jeopardized, a good thing between them was finally started to form as the result.

However, most of Naruto's troubles could be put behind him. Sasuke's troubles... were following him intently and there was no escaping.

Once again Sasuke sighed and dropped his head, how long would he and Naruto have before their lives were disrupted again?

"What are you cooking?"

The sudden, unannounced voice alarmed Sasuke, almost causing him to upset the boiling pot of noodles.

"Shit Naruto, you scared me." Sasuke couldn't help but exclaim as he sighed from relief at the sight of the yawning blonde.

Naruto was obviously perplexed at why Sasuke was so jumpy all of a sudden, then something seemed to dawn on him and he averted his eyes. "Sorry... I didn't mean to."

The raven cursed at himself under his breath. He was going to have to learn to ignore anything to do with his brother for the time being. If he continued obsessing like he was then he would end up hurting Naruto in some way, obviously not physically, but Tsunade would definitely murder him if anything befell the blonde.

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you. I was just thinking about things and I didn't hear you coming over the sound of the water." Sasuke gave him a genuine, apologetic smile.

Timidly Naruto presented a smile of his own, but still kept his eyes turned aside.

"We're having ramen." Sasuke offered. This instantly brought Naruto's eyes upon the raven, the blue of which brightened and anticipation and excitement spread throughout his feature.

"I've had that before... when I was a kid. I saved up just enough from change I found and bought some from that small shop. It's so good."

Naruto's reaction was so unexpected and adorable that Sasuke could not help but burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Naruto asked, not impressed by the laughter most likely at his own expense. Especially after he had confessed something very personal about his past, something that hadn't directly involved abuse or any miserable thing like it.

"Sorry... your reaction was just..." Sasuke managed to struggle out between laughs before they consumed him once more. For someone with so much pain in his past, Naruto could seem particularly optimistic.

Naruto smiled a little to himself, despite the darkness that seemed to hover above the raven, he seemed to be more expressive with his more pleasant side.

With a slight cough, Sasuke's laughter came to a halt and he turned his attention back to the noodles he was cooking. Turning off the burner he removed the pot from the burner and poured half of them into one bowl, and half into another. On the counter beside the oven he had already prepared strips of pork, two hard boiled eggs, sliced in two, and sliced green onions which he adorned the noodles with shortly.

At some point Naruto ventured over to observe what Sasuke was doing.

"Wow... that looks delicious." Sasuke could almost hear the drool dripping from his mouth.

"It's just ramen, Naruto."

"That doesn't mean it can't be delicious." Naruto retorted, and the boy had a point.

"You can eat yours now. I'm going to clean a bit before I eat." Sasuke announced, picking up a dishcloth.

"No." The raven turned to look Naruto in the face. He appeared to have certain stubbornness about his eyes. "If you have a guest you should eat together, shouldn't you?"

Sasuke sighed, yet another point made by the blonde.

--

Naruto consumed the mouth-watering noodles, vegetables, eggs and pork with much speed. He glanced up at Sasuke between as he was chewing a full slice of meat. The raven at considerably slower than the blonde, of course, anyone would look like a slow eater to someone who pretty much devoured everything without a breath.

Naruto sighed inwardly as he took his time on this particular piece of meat. Sasuke seemed so different... he was jumpy, and normally he was stiff as a stone. Not to mention how disturbed his eyes looked. True they could look cold or dangerous or something along those lines, but they seemed to be thoroughly distressed by something that Sasuke was obviously keeping to himself. And with Naruto's experience in keeping things bottled up, it seemed as though Sasuke was keeping it from everyone, and has been doing so for quite a while.

Perhaps... Sasuke would be able to confess in him. After all, they trusted each other a great deal. At least, Naruto knew he trusted Sasuke with his life... and had. Hopefully Sasuke had that same trust in him.

"Something wrong?"

Naruto focused his eyes on the raven, shaking off the thoughts. "No, everything's great. Why?"

"You've been chewing that same slice of pork for nearly ten minutes."

Naruto looked down at his food, nothing more was gone from when he had taken that slice. Yet Sasuke's bowl was nearly empty. Hastily Naruto gulped down the excessively chewed meat, more like squash, and offered a sheepish smile.

Sasuke once again gave a short chuckle at the way Naruto responded.

Naruto covered up a cheerless expression by taking a generous bite of ramen noodles. It was saddening how Sasuke could smile so handsomely while his eyes stayed solemn. He desperately wanted to ask the raven what was wrong and if he could do anything to help. He remembered how hard of a time he himself had revealing his own dark problems to Sasuke. However, with that... everything just played out without him deliberately meaning to come clean with the truth.

He couldn't just ask Sasuke to come clean with his own, if Naruto originally hadn't, even though Naruto confided more afterwards.

"Why the sudden slow pace?" Once again Sasuke, who had finished his ramen, was observing the odd behaviour the blonde was unconsciously displaying.

"Uh... sorry... Just thinking, I guess." Naruto couldn't think of an alternate explanation, therefore did not try and present one.

Sasuke thankfully accepted this. "You have a lot on your mind, it's understandable."

Naruto nodded, letting his eyes drop to stare at his ramen. All this was to cover the melancholy in his own eyes as he thought, "But what is on your mind?"

--

Sasuke stood, still watching the blonde before him. He could tell that Naruto had more on his mind than just... well whatever would be on a person's mind after he had been shot. The way Naruto stared at him and reacted to the underlying misery Sasuke was struggling to hide, Sasuke knew Naruto was trying to figure out what was troubling him.

Picking up his bowl, he returned to the kitchen to rinse it out, also to give Naruto the space he probably needed and give himself the space he really wanted. He couldn't just come out and tell Naruto what was bothering him. It was rather... complex and almost certainly a threat to the blonde's life as well as his own.

He would just have to try even harder to live in ignorance. Maybe after a day or two with Naruto, he could temporarily forget about the past that refused to leave him alone.

Footsteps followed the last drop of water from the tap after it had been turned off.

"Naruto you didn't have to bring it in. I could have gotten it." Sasuke insisted as he turned to take the bowl and chopsticks from the recovering blonde.

Naruto shrugged but nonetheless handed over the empty bowl, "You can't just be waiting on me hand and foot. I'd like to do some things myself."

"I know you don't want to feel helpless, but you're recovering. If you over exert yourself, it will only take you longer to be healthy again." He knew he sounded an overprotective mother of sorts but that didn't stop Sasuke from saying the truth.

Sure Naruto knew this fact very well, but he also had never really abided it before. All his life he had to take care of himself and make sure that he could still function as best he could even with the multiple injuries. But now he had Sasuke to look after him, and that is exactly what he was planning on doing. He would just need focus and a good case of selective amnesia.

Naruto nodded reluctantly, it seemed as though he was thinking of the same conclusion Sasuke had come to.

Sasuke opened his mouth, about to ask if Naruto wanted to go watch a movie in the den, but the blonde beat him to it.

"Sasuke... what are you hiding from me?"