Chapter 6
Taking him home
The sun was about to set in the horizon. Another day was about to end, although it wasn't exactly the end of a day for the people in town.
Somewhere in town children playing were being called by their parents to come home, saying their goodbyes to their friends knowing that they would meet again; shop workers that were opened until late at night were preparing for the night costumers; some people were still busy doing errands for dinner or tending to their family already; shinobi out of duty were enjoying the rest of their off day, knowing that tomorrow started another week of endless jobs; and shinobi that were on duty didn't rest and for them the night meant that they would have to work harder.
For Naruto the night meant that he had finished his work has a Hokage for the day. Since he had started to use clones to help him with work he would be done much sooner saving him from staying working over night, although he left the Hokage's tower a lot more tired.
Being a Hokage meant putting the village interest before himself, it was a twenty four seven job. He never thought that he would be so busy but he also thought that it only seem that way because the town was still under construction. There was paperwork everywhere, every day, after the war had ended, and somehow it would always double during the night. There were too many requests and too few shinobi for them.
Even with their win, one eighth of the Konoha shinobi had died during war. The first thing he had done when he became Hokage was to hold a ceremony to honor all the shinobi that had died to protect their world along with the other Kages, whose villages had also lost a similar number of shinobi.
He hadn't been able to hold his tears, nobody had on that day. Lives had been lost, and lives had been saved and the ones who were lost would always be reminded by the ones that lived. Although he knew that, Naruto still felt those losses everyday he would put on hold requests due to lack of active shinobi.
On the other hand, ever since he had started sleeping next to Sasuke in his hospital bed, he felt better. He couldn't explain exactly why, but having the brunet save and sound in an arm's reach calmed him greatly. After all, he was the missing peace to achieve his dream. He would have never had accepted to be the shichidaime otherwise.
That's why, no matter how much he was criticized, he would put Sasuke's well being on the same platform as the village. He would never choose between them, even if that made things more complicated. And if that meant that he would use clones in order to help him finish his work before sunset to go to the hospital to see him, he would.
Today was no different, even if he had already done his work for the rest of the week. When he realized the brunet was still in no condition to walk out of the hospital he had decided to do more work, because even if he had done a week of work in one day, he was still behind.
He was always behind as a matter of fact. His work never seemed to end or at least stabilize for enough time for him to have a life of his one. It had been a month since he had stepped into his new apartment.
His only comfort was knowing that he could spend the rest of his time with Sasuke, even if it was just to sleep besides him.
Walking down the familiar corridor to the former rogue's room, he felt the disappointment of having his plans of walking with Sasuke around the new Konoha, going down the drain. It would have been a change in his routine after months of nonstop work, and more importantly to share the changes in Konoha with the brunet.
When he opened the door, he had forgot that the onyx eyed ninja had woke up from his coma, and was surprised to see Sasuke awake in the middle of dressing a simple dark colored shirt.
For a minute both of them looked at each other not knowing what to say. Naruto was so caught by surprised that for a moment he panicked about what he was going to say to Sasuke to make him believe he was still dreaming, while on the other hand the brunet was simply off.
"You're awake."
The blond almost slapped himself for stating something so obvious even to him.
"I had to go the bathroom.", the raven haired teen responded has naturally has possible.
"Oh…", Naruto was panicking." You're walking."
If you can walk then you can run.
"Dobe, stop stating the obvious. It's dumb even for you. But since it's a dream I guess I shouldn't be so surprised."
"You still think you're dreaming?", was the question that the blond wished that had he never said. "I, a… I mean of course you're dreaming! It's a dream! Really!"
"Again, dobe. Stop stating the obvious. Are you still a Hokage?", the brunet asked while sitting on the bed, acting as normal as any other person would.
"Hum… yes, I am.", the blue eyed Hokage quickly replied.
"Are you still taking me on a tour around Konoha?"
For a moment that question lingered on Naruto's mind, while their gazes were locked. When the information finally sank, he grinned widely and replied tiredness and sadness forgotten:
"Yup. I definitely am."
Sasuke then got up from the bed, walking slowly and a bit stiff in his direction. Once he reached Naruto he stopped, and as soon as the blond started to walk so he did. They left the hospital side by side in silence.
Although the blond was happy for having the brunet by his side, he was still anxious about how he would pull his plan off… well he didn't even have a plan, he was going with the flow and that was why he was worried about things going wrong.
He just wanted to protect Sasuke from any unnecessary situations like him running away for example, or harming himself or another one in his attempt to escape.
The blond was so worried thinking about what could go wrong, that he missed the fact that the former rogue was behaving much more carefree than his usual self since he firmly believe that all this was just a dream.
"Where are we going?", the onyx eyed teen question, while staring ahead.
Again caught off guard the blond said the first thing on his mind as usual.
"Where do you want to go?"
"Dobe, aren't you supposed to be the one touring?"
"Well, I'm kind of starving, so maybe we should go to Ichiraku ramen first."
"Ichiraku ramen? Honestly, even in my dreams you're just the same as ever. But I guess that's not a bad thing."
"Let's go then."
Naruto grinned widely before he jumped onto the nearest roof and waited for the brunet to follow. Sasuke however stood hesitant on the street staring at the blond.
"Come on. It's faster this way."
His reassurance seemed to work as the onyx eyed brunet moved slightly in a sign of compliance. For a moment Naruto thought that maybe the other had figured that he wasn't dreaming and was preparing to run away, but Sasuke proved him wrong has soon as he quickly jumped onto his side.
They started to run, the brunet following close behind the blond from roof to roof ignoring the crowd of people that casually walked the busy streets. The streets were noisy and full of live and the more they got nearer to the main streets the louder and livelier it was. The smells from the restaurants and food shops were mouthwatering which only made Naruto more enthusiastic about reaching his goal. He was so entranced on his stomach that he forgot to watch Sasuke along the way, trusting that he was following him.
The blond only remembered to look over his shoulder when he finally reached the ramen shop, to present it to the brunet as a sight of the tour. For some reason Sasuke was not behind him, and immediately he panicked. He was about to perform kage bushin when he was stopped by Moegi and Udon who were running in his direction.
"Naruto-nii-sama!", they yelled at him.
"Moegi, Udon, I don't have time for you now, sorry."
"We know where Sasuke-san is.", the little girl hurriedly said stopping the blond by grabbing his arm.
"Where is he?"
"Follow us."
While they were running, Moegi explained that Konohamaru had spotted him, running on the rooftops along with Sasuke and he decided he wanted to follow them, making her and Udon come along. As they were running right behind them, they noticed that the former rogue was slowing down, and thought that he was set on running away. And once the brunet disappeared by jumping into an alley instead of onto the next rooftop they acted accordingly. Konohamaru said he would go after the former rogue and told them to get Naruto.
On a hand Naruto hoped that Konohamaru would be enough to stop Sasuke, because even weak he was still strong and he could hurt him or someone else, but on the other hand he hoped the brat wouldn't hurt him either.
"Oi, Boss, Moegi, Udon, I'm over here."
Konohamaru was waving at them from an alley of a somewhat busy street. Naruto was relieved to see that things hadn't gotten has bad as he thought. They entered the alley right behind Konohamaru that had entered it has soon as he had got their attention.
The blond slowed his pace finding Sasuke unconscious sitting against the wall bounded.
"What happened?", the blue eyed Hokage asked with his heart on his throat.
"At first I thought he was trying to escape, boss, so I used some rope to catch him right before he hit the floor. As it turned out he was passed out even before I caught him. I tried to wake him up but he isn't responding."
Naruto went white as the words finally sunk in. Sasuke had lost his senses again while running and if it hadn't been for Konohamaru he would have fallen from a third story building to a most certain death.
Kneeling at the brunet's side he tried calling him while taking the ropes off. It seemed it took forever before those stubborn lids lifted to show off cloudy onyx orbs.
"Sasuke how are you feeling? Are you hurt?"
"I fell.", it was the tired mumble that left the brunet's lips.
On the background the three chunin were talking with each other.
"It would be a real bad fall, he fainted just like that?"
"He only woke up today right?"
"Sick people shouldn't leave the hospital right away everyone knows that. What was boss thinking?"
Naruto could only feel his heart aching painfully at each statement. He had been stupid to do this when he knew Sasuke wasn't fit for it, but when he had seen the brunet standing and able to walk he hadn't been able to stop himself. Sasuke had made him think that he was ok when he wasn't, and he had stupidly believed it. If Konohamaru hadn't been stalking them the brunet might have fallen to his death just like that due to the fact that he had been naïve.
And just like that he remembered the time he had almost lost Sasuke during the war, due to the similarity of the situation.
"Konohamaru…", he said stopping the trio from talking."… thank you. Sasuke, can you get on my back?"
The brunet tried, but failed to move even an inch, the only exception was the head when he nodded a no. He didn't have the strength to speak either, the blonde though while he managed a way to put the brunet on his back without him falling. It was easier than what he thought it would be but he heard Sasuke's discomfort.
"Are you alright?"
"Fine."
"You're not fine, teme, now tell me what's wrong?"
"I'm fine, aren't you hungry?", the brunet insisted.
Naruto was about to explode. From what he didn't knew. What he just now realized was that Sasuke was forsaking his well being for his sake again. Being a dream or not the fact was that he had been pushing himself because he wanted to make him happy when it should've been the other way around. He had underestimated Sasuke's aptitude to sense other's emotions.
"Sasuke, why didn't you jump to the roof like I did before when I told you it would be the fastest way?", Naruto asked to confirm what he had already concluded.
"I didn't think I could make it. But it's a dream so, I just told myself I could and I jumped."
Naruto could've sworn his heart had shrunk with guilt at that reply. Sasuke wasn't fit physically or mentally. What was worse was that most likely the brunet was probably just following him like a duckling would because he didn't know what else to do in his dream.
"I'm not hungry anymore."
The blue eyed blond said before starting to walk slowly, so the onyx eyed young man wouldn't be so uncomfortable. He said his goodnights to Konohamaru and the rest of the gang before walking back into the street.
This time he paid attention to Sasuke, and every time he felt the other was distressed he slowed down or stopped completely so he could have a chance to recover. It would take a lot of time to get back to the hospital this way, nonetheless he did not mind, it was for Sasuke's sake.
It had been his mistake to take him out of the hospital, no matter how much better the brunet had looked, he should've know better than to trust Sasuke when he was this weakened. He had fallen for that to many times now, and all the shame and guilt he felt weren't enough to compensate all the distress he had caused for his mistake.
All he wanted know was to take the former rogue back to the hospital, take him to bed, feed him medicine and lie on his side while he slept.
"Naruto."
The blond stopped anxious, thinking that lost in the depth of his guilt he had once again made Sasuke feel discomfort.
"Are you ok?"
"Are you mad?", the brunet asked.
"Yes. But not at you."
"Why not? It's my fault."
"It's not your fault, teme. You're sick and besides you're my responsibility."
Naruto felt Sasuke's forehead on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry.", was the broken voice that the brunet managed to speak.
The brunet started to shudder lightly, gripping weakly at the blonds' shoulder. The blond turned his head only to see the black. In that solemn moment the guilt evaporated, he had decided what he could do to make Sasuke's dream a good one.
"Do you want to go home?", the blue eyed ninja asked.
"I don't have one.", was the expected answered he got.
"I'll be your home. I'll be your family… If you let me. Please, Sasuke, let me."
The shuddering tuner to spasms, Sasuke hadn't been able to hold his tears, and Naruto started to feel his left shoulder wet.
"Please be my home, Naruto.", was the broken reply between silenced hiccups.
Those words were enough to set Naruto free from guilt and doubt. It didn't matter if for Sasuke it was just a dream, for him it was as well a dream come true. He was going to take Sasuke home with him, it was all that mattered.
Like this, he could wait and hope for Sasuke's memory to come back.
He didn't had to feel the need to rush things anymore.
His life right now was not perfect, but it sure as hell was close.
Really close.
Okay this chapter sucks! Sorry, I'll be updating the good stuff on the next chapter. I'm promising nudity, kissing, yelling and a hell of lots of embarrasing situations and drama!
