Man, someone must have drugged my food with some inspiration... or ecstasy (jk)... cuz I've been extremely inspired the past couple days, seeing as how it's only been two days since I last updated (and we all know how long I normally take). Not to mention the NEW fanfic I came up with the other night. For those of you who are interested the first chapter is up now, it is called "Stay" and it is also a SasuxNaru fic . But don't worry, I will not neglect Concrete Naruto while I am also writing chapters for that one. I will attempt to keep them both on the go at once, but Concrete is my top priority. Alright, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Concrete Angel

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Chapter Twenty-Eight:

A loud, obnoxious beeping startled Sasuke from his slumber. He'd only gotten to sleep about two hours ago according to his clock, which read ten to one when he shut off the annoying alarm.

He exhaled deeply as he rose up from his bed and slipped on a discarded tee-shirt, raking his hands through his dark hair.

It was about time for him to wake Naruto, at least for a few minutes, and get him drugged up enough to stop feeling the general pain.

"Uh... Sasuke?" A quiet, tired voice rang from the hallway as the raven emerged from his own room.

"You want to come downstairs to take your medication?" Sasuke asked the drowsy blonde, who seemed to be feeling the ache from his shoulder and arm.

The blonde merely nodded and joined the other to descend down the stairway and into the kitchen where Sasuke promptly flicked on the lights. Both squinted their eyes, attempting to shield themselves from the first light they'd encountered since waking.

Promptly Naruto sat himself at one of the seats, too tired and hurt to stand there and wait, while Sasuke busied himself with pouring Naruto a glass of water and retrieving the bottle of pills from the cabinet.

Naruto groaned as the glass was placed in front of him and the pill was placed into his palm. He knew that this rather large pill would bring pain relief, but it was so hard to swallow and was absolutely disgusting.

Sasuke didn't pressure him. He just took a seat across from the blonde and waited patiently.

Naruto took a deep breath and exhaled audibly before tossing the pill into his mouth so that it was on the very back of his tongue then immediately chugged down as much water as he could. His eyes were shut tight, it hurt a little swallowing a pill that size since he wasn't really used to taking much medication anything, let alone anything big. Not to mention the taste was horrid.

He gasped for air once the pill was successfully down, and he took a moment to make sure it didn't come back up before swallowing a bit more water much more slowly than earlier.

"You alright?" Sasuke asked, having watched the entire affair. It really didn't look like such a great thing to partake in.

Naruto gave a little cough in response, trying to get the taste out of his mouth as well as the lingering chocking feelings. "Yeah... I'll be fine. They're just so nasty."

Sasuke gave a sympathetic chuckle, "I'd imagine. They look like something you'd feed a horse." He was joking of course, but it didn't seem to faze Naruto in the least. So he decided to be optimistic, "Well, at least they ease your pain."

At this he only received a long, sad sigh. "Yeah... but I wish I never had the pain to begin with..."

The blonde's mind travelled back to the terrifying situation with the Sabaku siblings and the strangers. The gunshots, the fighting, the entire thing was a horrible mistake that Naruto should have never walked into. He regretted it terribly. He should have listened to Sasuke earlier than none of this would have ever happened. This was frequently on his mind whenever he felt the pain from his wounds, even though the two boys had gone over this before, Naruto still felt he was entirely at blame.

"It doesn't matter anymore. What has happened, happened, it's all in the past. We should just move on and look at the future." As Sasuke said this, he reached across the table, removing Naruto's left hand from its grasp on the cup and entwined his own fingers through the blonde's.

Finally he'd gotten through to the blonde, for he smiled as he gazed down at their interconnected hands. Perhaps his life wasn't completely depressing. And if that situation had been what had brought him here, to this very moment, it wasn't a total waste.

Sasuke stroked Naruto's hand with his thumb, coaxing the blonde look up at him. Once he received the desired reaction, the raven smirked as he locked on to those gorgeous subtle blue eyes that seemed to speak to him on a whole other level. It was as though his eyes could know everything about a person in one glance, but would never in a million years would they give away the secrets they'd learned, not even to Naruto.

Under the raven's gaze, Naruto blushed profusely. He had not yet gotten used to being stared at so intimately, so passionately. Naruto could never understand himself, or Sasuke, whenever he gazed into his eyes like this. Usually Naruto tried to avoid eye contact because of this strange feeling, but whenever Sasuke did successfully lock onto his eyes, forbidding the blonde to look away, Naruto felt utterly confused.

He was so intrigued by the dark depths, but he couldn't understand a thing about them. They were uninviting yet invoking, deep yet shallow, complex yet simplistic. Naruto didn't know if he felt this way because his mind was so jumbled from being entranced, or if it was because Sasuke's eyes were so entirely unreadable. It frustrated him to no end, but he never showed it. He just sat there, puzzling over the intentions of the other's eyes.

A soft sigh from Sasuke's lips wouldn't have even been heard by Naruto if Sasuke hadn't just as suddenly broken eye contact.

The disconnection befuddled the blonde, as though he was abruptly separated from an entire world and tossed into another one. It even took him a moment to interpret Sasuke's next words.

"We should get back to bed. We need to be awake at seven again for this."

Naruto frowned with disappointment, but nodded nonetheless. He didn't want to be away from Sasuke right now, even though they were only down the hall from each other. He wanted to feel the closeness he felt when Sasuke held onto his hand, like he was still doing now.

Sasuke seemed to sense this anxiety and gave Naruto's hand a squeeze. Though he appeared as though he had been confident with what he planned to say, the words took a short pause before the raven was able to speak them, "Do you want to sleep in my room?"

Naruto's heart just about skipped a beat. Sure it was a simple enough question, but it meant so much more to the blonde. He'd never been asked this before in his life, and from someone like Sasuke, who evidently had strong feelings for him, it felt like Naruto's life had been turned right, at least for a little while.

Trying not to show his eagerness in his speech as much as he was in his mind, Naruto spoke his sentence as casually as possible. "Sure, if you don't mind."

"Of course I don't mind," Sasuke assured him with both a smile and yet another squeeze of the hand.

Naruto returned his smile, gripping Sasuke's hand gently, as their eyes reconnected with each other as if they had been meant to fit together.

--

Beeping, again, was the source that disturbed the raven's sleep. He moved to roll over and turn it off, but he found that his left arm was unable to move freely and restricted him from changing positions. This confused him at first until he was somewhat more conscious and aware of his surroundings.

Right, he spoke to himself. Naruto was currently resting on his left arm, cuddled up ever so neatly against his own body. It was most definitely comfortable to have the blonde sleeping so peacefully next to him.

Using his right arm, he manoeuvred it to shut off the alarm on the nightstand behind him before returning to his comfortable position snuggled ever-so possessively against the blonde. But he didn't attempt to fall back to sleep, instead he brought his right arm back under the covers and back over Naruto's body to caress his fingers along his bare arm.

This action did not serve to stir the blonde from his slumber, which actually pleased the impish raven. This meant he could move up closer behind the blonde and softly blow air onto the exposed skin of the back of his neck before placing subtle kisses along the area, working his way up to the boy's ear where he kissed it gently.

Naruto was squirming in his sleep, his breathing hitching every-so often. Though it was obvious he wasn't fully on the brink of consciousness, nor did he realize what was happening.

Sasuke smirked at the blonde's cute reaction, deciding to nip gently at his earlobe. Finally this stirred a stronger response from Naruto. He moaned softly, turning his head to give the raven more access, and just as he did this, he slowly woke up.

Sasuke wouldn't have expected the blonde to jump so high, nor move as far away from him as he was able. He couldn't help but chuckle at the blonde as his face turned the brightest shade of red when he realized what had just happened to him.

"Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed, attempting to scold him for what he'd done.

"What? You were enjoying it," The raven teased, not being able to remove the wide, mischievous smirk from his lips.

This in turn caused the blonde to pout, which didn't help his circumstances. Sasuke had been utterly pleased to remember that he'd slept most of the night next to the boy he'd loved and he found himself wanting him even more when he offered him such a cute expression.

Naruto saw this look in his eyes which he pinned on him. It was strange that he could only read this and the depressive state from the raven's mysterious eyes. Perhaps it was because Sasuke hadn't been trying hard to hide them, or at least he wasn't successful in hiding them.

The blonde was far too bewildered, and unaware of himself, this early in the morning to fully comprehend what Sasuke was getting at, and he did not feel like dealing with it just now. Trying to worm his way out of this situation would have been difficult, except they were both on a six hour schedule.

"Sasuke wait!" Naruto shouted as Sasuke made his way closer to him, "I need to take my medication."

This seemed to snap Sasuke out of his trance and a look of disappointment fell over his face. "You're right... let's go downstairs."

Naruto felt bad for Sasuke's discontent, but he didn't regret putting the other's ideas on halt. He definitely was not ready for any advances made on him after he was just woken up by whatever Sasuke had been doing to him while he was unconscious. He giggled inwardly at that thought, it sounded so wrong in his mind, but he knew Sasuke wouldn't do anything questionable to him without consent.

"Are you coming?" Sasuke asked from the other side of his room.

Naruto looked up questioningly to see that the raven was now fully dressed and ready to go. Naruto sighed, getting up from the bed wearing a pair of boxers and a tee-shirt he had borrowed from Sasuke.

Now he was starting to regret putting Sasuke's alternate plans on hold, he definitely didn't want to take another one of those disgusting pills. But he realized as he stood up, that the pain from his injuries was beginning to make itself present. It was all for the best.

--

Downstairs, Sasuke was back to his usual self and once again pouring a tall glass of water for the blonde who sat very quietly. He was still contemplating about earlier, not even ten minutes ago to be frank. He was considering what his response would have been if he hadn't needed to take pain medication, or if he hadn't just been abruptly woken in a partly unfamiliar place.

Naruto didn't glance upward when Sasuke placed the glass of water in front of him, and as he reached for it, a loud ringing sounded throughout the house.

The sound instantly caused the raven to jump back in surprise. Naruto didn't hesitate in looking up at Sasuke and wasn't shocked to see fear in his dark eyes. Whatever it was that was happening with him, it really had him paranoid. Though Naruto didn't want to presume anything about whatever was haunting Sasuke, from the fright caused by the phone ringing he could deduce that it was somehow related to a person or some people.

As the ringing continued, Sasuke seemed to be struggling with himself. He appeared conflicted on whether or not he wanted to go and answer the phone that was just out in the hallway.

Naruto looked back and forth from Sasuke to the doorway where the sound was resonating, whoever was calling they were very persistent.

"It's probably just Tenten calling to bother me with more student council stuff," Sasuke tried to play it off as nothing serious, even though his voice was shaky.

"It might be Tsunade-sama," Naruto offered. He didn't want to force Sasuke to answer the phone when he was so clearly afraid of who might be on the other end, but he had heard Tsunade was this persistent when calling and she never let up until see got an answer.

Sasuke nodded but didn't move from his spot, "If it is she's probably just making sure you're taking you pill... which you should do."

Naruto looked down at the pill Sasuke had set down beside the glass of water, but he didn't touch it. Instead his eyebrows furrowed as the ringing continued. "You don't have an answering machine?" It seemed weird for someone like Sasuke not to have one, even Emi had an answering machine, but he supposed she needed it since she was either never home or too intoxicated to answer.

"Ugh... no... It broke. I need to replace it..." Sasuke averted his eyes from Naruto's direction.

Naruto glanced back at the doorway, it was clear the person was not giving up, but again he couldn't push the raven to do something he didn't want to do. But this made him want to know Sasuke's secret even more. He wanted to know what could have a guy like him, so secure and confident, as shook up by something as simple as a phone call.

Suddenly Sasuke let out an involuntary sigh and eased against the counter. The ringing had seemed to surround them for so long that Naruto didn't even realize that it had stopped.

His eyes settled on the stressed raven, he looked like he'd just run a marathon. Once more, Naruto did not want to invade into Sasuke's life but this was definitely something to be concerned about. It was such a shift in his personality, caused by a simple phone call. Or for all he knew, the significance of a phone call could be anything but simple.

"Sasuke?" Naruto started but was cut off by Sasuke's strained voice.

"You should take your pill, Naruto." As he said this, he turned his back on the blonde, raking his hand unsteadily through his hair.

Naruto sighed sadly and lowered his eyes, picked up the pill, threw it back into his mouth and chugged down the glass of water.