Author's Note: Woo! Another chapter ^_^ I really am sorry about the shortness of the last one but I was really about to pass out when I finished it. Seriously, as soon as I'd finished it, I laid down on my bed and after that, I just passed out without getting my PJs on. Hopefully this one will make up for it (Juura, you were correct with your guess ^^) Anyways, here's another chapter!

Warnings: Obviously you guys know that this is a shounen-ai by now so should I really be warning you? Now, violence, swearing, confusing plot-lines, blood :D Yes, I decided that I would: 'cause I iz a sadist. Also, I think that I'll be changing the rating to this to an 'M' now. Sorry for all you 'T' lovers (and not of the chamomile sort!)

Disclaimer: Again with this: Fullmetal Gary owns Gary; Juura99 owns Kaoru, Juura and Kamari and, I shit you not, all Naruto characters have labels on their asses saying 'Misashi Kishimoto' (seriously, with the Plushies I got for Christmas, they have labels on their asses saying that!) Anyways, on with the story :3

Chapter 8

The rain hammered the steamed up windows of the cottage. Despite it sounding like a small place, the building was pretty big. There were six bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a dining room and a study. As you entered the drive/ front gate, you were met with the back garden as well as the cottage itself. Opposite the cottage was a huge hanger, under it, a small chalet which was used when a lot of guests were staying over.

Naruto was currently situated in the chalet, staring out of the window with a forlorn expression. Sasuke was in town with Itachi, picking something up for dinner. Blue eyes were glazed as he lingered on the thoughts of his boyfriend and he sighed whilst shaking his head. He felt like some sort of love-sick puppy following its master. A crashing at the chalet door brought him out of his musings and he snapped up to see Gary panting and hiding something under his jacket.

"Gary? What's wrong?" Naruto asked the brunet, scared that someone was trying to hurt the people he called family. The boy panted, dark green eyes looking around wildly as he shoved the unknown object into the blonde's tan hands. The blond blanched as he saw what it was.

Pocky.

"Uh, Gary, what is this?" Naruto asked blankly. Gary turned on him.

"You've gotta hide this from Kaoru; he's going nuts for it and I can't save it otherwise!" he begged. Naruto sighed and accepted the pocky without further question. Gary sighed in relief before collapsing onto the sofa that was situated in the room. The silence was strained and the only sound was the raindrops pounding the tin roof of the hanger the chalet was under. Something similar to the sound of thunder sounded from outside the chalet. The two boys looked up in time to see Kaoru throw the door open.

"WHICH OF YOU BASTARDS STOLE MY POCKY?" he roared. Naruto flinched and turned an accusing eye towards Gary who shrugged.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Kao-chan," he replied calmly. Neon green eyes bore into dark green and the temperature dropped about ten degrees. Eventually, Naruto saw it fit to give up.

"Gary stole it and gave it to me. Here ya go!" he said happily, handing the open packet to the redhead. The twin's face lit up in joy as he snuggled his pocky to his face.

"Oh my baby, I'll never leave you again!" he cooed. The other two sweat-dropped at the scene before the sound of tyres on gravel caught their attention. Naruto perked up immediately.

"Hey, Sasuke might be back!" he cried before running out into the rain. Only to be met with the disappointing sight of the Impala. Juura exited and saw the displeased look on the blonde's face. She chuckled slightly before going up to the front door of the cottage and knocking thrice. Iruka opened it almost immediately and ushered all of the guests in. Naruto had been so busy moping that he hadn't realised that Kiba, Hinata, Neji, Sasori and Deidara had been in the car too. Where the car was too small to accommodate 6 people, Hinata had had to occupy Kiba's lap for the journey and it was pretty safe to say that she was highly flushed. Kiba had loved the attention and it had taken all of his might to keep 'Little Kiba' at bay. Neji looked to his cousin's boyfriend in disdain. He hadn't really approved at first but then he realised that there was no-one other than himself that was perfect for Hinata's protector.

The rain drenched usually sunny locks as he stood in disappointment in the middle of the drive. A sigh to his left caught him off guard. It was Kisame, Itachi's boyfriend. Naruto looked up into the man's eyes to see them twinkling with mirth.

"It's always the Uchihas." He exclaimed knowingly. Naruto tilted his head to show that he didn't understand. Kisame gave him a toothy grin and turned back to looking wherever he was looking.

"Uchihas. They get what they want and when they have it, it's hard for the victim to let go," he explained omnisciently. Naruto surveyed the man for a moment before thinking back on all that had happened.

Ever since he had met Sasuke, the boy had constantly been on his mind. Realisation hit Naruto like a tonne of bricks and he felt his jaw drop.

"No way! We've been mind-raped Kisame!" he gasped. Kisame chuckled and patted Naruto on the head before going towards the house.

"No we haven't Naruto; it's just the Uchiha charm," he told the blond before walking inside. Naruto stood there for a few minutes thinking about Kisame had said. He shrugged, realising that it mustn't have been important. He entered the house to find Kiba sitting on the sofa, x-box remote in his hand and playing Dance Dance Revolution with the controller. Naruto snorted and shook his head.

"Dude, that's cheating. You need to use the dance mat." He told the dog lover. Kiba grinned at him before going back to the game where he was currently getting 'OK's and 'Good's. Kamari was watching him with a small smirk on his face whilst eating some of the pocky his brother hadn't managed to hide. Shikamaru and Chouji were in the corner, pouring over some paperwork that Naruto didn't understand. He approached the two anyways to see what it was about.

"What you two doing?" he asked, sitting in an unoccupied seat. Shikamaru yawned and rubbed his eyes whilst Chouji just sighed.

"Research," they replied simultaneously. Naruto blinked before grabbing a piece of the paper and observing the content what was on it. It was all about the Uchiha Massacre 15 years ago. Desperate, Naruto grabbed some more pages and started to franticly read more and more. Shikamaru fixed Chouji with a worried look as the blond let out something between a sob and a yell. The papers fell from his hand as he ran outside and into the chalet where Gary and Kaoru still resided. The two boys looked shocked at Naruto's sudden entrance but were even more shocked when the boy collapsed onto the sofa and started to sob. They were there in instant, their arms around his shoulders.

"What's wrong Naruto?" Kaoru asked, pocky hanging from his mouth. Gary squeezed the blonde's shoulders.

"Tell us what's wrong. Would you like some chocolate? It makes everyone feel better," he offered, taking out a chocolate bar from his back pocket. Naruto giggle-coughed at the two before wiping his eyes and sitting up slightly.

"It's okay guys," he smiled, still with a shaky voice. Kaoru sent Gary a worried look and Gary nodded, knowing what to do. Naruto felt the absence of Gary's arm and looked up to see the boy by the DVD player and TV that resided in the chalet. He was confused when Gary took out a DVD and placed it in the opening tray. The brunet turned around and smirked, hands on his hips.

"If you won't tell us what's wrong, then we'll just have to cheer you up. Although first we're watching 'Saving Private Ryan'," he told the blond sternly, dragging the quilt from one of the beds in the other room in the chalet and jumping on the sofa with it. He threw it gracelessly on top of everyone as the movie started up.

"Kao, get the lights!" Gary whined form the sofa and a sigh was heard.

"Lazy bugger," he complained before switching the lights off, dimming the room a bit.

As they got to the end of the movie, Gary was in near tears with Kaoru not far behind. Naruto however, was crying buckets.

"H-how could t-that-" he breathed, before wiping his eyes on the sheets.

"I know man, I know," Gary replied, walking up to the DVD player and removing the disk. During the time they were watching the movie, it had gotten darker but Sasuke and Itachi still weren't back from where they'd gone. Naruto sighed and looked towards the window. Kaoru noticed this and jumped up.

"My turn to pick!" he yelled as he jumped and ran over to the selection of DVDs. He giggled maniacally as he saw one of his all-time favourite films. The DVD case was splashed with red with a black background. He popped the disk into the DVD player and the three sat down on the sofa.

"Prepare to meet Leather-face, bitches!" Kaoru grinned as the opening credits to 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' started to roll. Half way through, Naruto had been reduced to a quivering wreck, trying to yank the sheets up over his head. At some point Kaoru had acquired popcorn and he and Gary were munching on it with interest, maybe a bit too fast seeing as Kaoru choked on a bit.

"This is the best part," Gary whispered as the man approached one of the last girls within the washing before the chainsaw descended upon her petite body, grinding it and allowing the contents to spray all over the white linen. Naruto squeaked and tried to hide further under the covers until near the end of the movie where the last girl had finally managed to escape and was walking down the road. Blue eyes widened in realisation at what was going on.

"She's like the chick from the beginning!" he snapped his fingers. Kaoru smirked.

"Exactly! Which is why there's a sequel!" he cheered. Naruto paled.

"We are not watching that!" he protested. Kaoru looked disappointed as Gary walked up to the DVD selection once more and went to pick out a film. Naruto sighed and the brunet looked to him.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Gary asked, leaning against the wall. The blond looked up with an expression of defeat on his facial features.

"Shika and Chou were doing research on the Uchiha massacre but I happened to glance at a section," he whispered. Gary's eyes widened at that.

"It was the part about the Uzumaki-Namikazes, wasn't it?" Gary asked. Naruto nodded and looked towards the brunet.

"How did you know?" he asked. Gary sighed.

"Ever since we'd been at the orphanage, I was wondering about your past. You had an interesting last name and so I thought I'd Google it. The Wikipedia page about the Uchiha massacre came up and so I decided to read it. I didn't believe any of it at first but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense," Gary explained.

"You knew this whole time?" Naruto asked, fists clenched. Gary shrugged.

"I assumed you knew. I thought you were narcissistic enough to Google your own name. Everyone's done it at least once in their life- I'm surprised you hadn't." Gary replied honestly. Naruto sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"So the Orphanage was-"

"-was the Namikaze Manor; your home." Kaoru supplied. Naruto looked to him in shock. Kaoru shrugged.

"I've Googled everyone's name who lived at the orphanage. Did you know that Tsunade used to be a really famous medic until Orochimaru took over?" he supplied. Naruto frowned at that. Now that he thought about it, it would make sense seeing as the old hag would always know if they were faking an illness or something similar.

"Also, Iruka used to be a soldier in the front line. How d'ya think he got that scar?" Kaoru asked, pointing to his own nose to indicate 'that scar'. Naruto nodded, seeming to have calmed down a bit.

"Now! Let's watch Godzilla!" Gary exclaimed, taking out the DVD remake of the old video. Naruto chuckled but the sound of tyres caught his attention.

"Sasuke!" he called, running to the window to see if it was indeed his boyfriend. He cheered out when he saw that it was the Uchiha. He rushed out the chalet door to meet him, leaving Kaoru and Gary in the chalet. Gary tilted his head.

"I feel strangely abandoned, don't you Kaoru?" the brunet asked. Kaoru hummed in response before grinning.

"No matter, we'll get our revenge tonight!" he grinned manically.

Naruto rushed up to Sasuke and jumped on his boyfriend before kissing him passionately on the lips and wrapping his arms around the pale neck. Sasuke responded eagerly, securing his arms around the blonde's waist.

"I missed you," Naruto whispered. Sasuke chuckled slightly.

"Dobe, we were only gone for-"

"Nine hours, 27 minutes and 32 seconds," Itachi answered, watching the reunion with an amused twinkle in his eye which disappeared when he saw Kisame who looked murderous with a fish slice in his hand. Itachi grinned sheepishly and sweat-dropped at the look his boyfriend was giving him. Kakashi then chose that moment to exit the cottage.

"Ah, so this is where all the sexual tension is coming from!" he exclaimed, earning a double Uchiha glare. If Kakashi was any less of a man, he would've shrunk away and cried under his quilt for the next hour- that had happened to the last man who was on the receiving end of the glare. Instead, Kakashi just smiled and retreated back into the house to save himself from getting wet whilst everyone else helped unload the shopping from out of the car.

"Ramen?" Naruto asked as his boyfriend placed some shopping bags on the counter. Sasuke chuckled.

"Of course not. It's too unhealthy!" he protested with a grin on his face. The silence that followed was deafening. Kamari swallowed.

"No ramen? That's like not buying Kaoru pocky. You did buy pocky right?" Kamari asked. Itachi blanched.

"I thought you guys were joking when you put those items on the list." He told them honestly. The killing intent was suffocating at that moment and the two Uchihas turned to see Naruto and Kaoru seething.

"RAMEN! NOW!"

"POCKY! NOW!" was the synced shouting. The two ravens leant backwards. Iruka chuckled at the predicament, leaning against the doorframe.

"I wouldn't have put them on the list without a reason," he told Kakashi. Kakashi chuckled and smirked at the brunet where a blush sported his cheeks.

"Looks like we'll have to go back tomorrow," Kakashi told the brunet. Just then, Hinata entered, carrying a bowl of fruit from the garden.

"Uchiha-san, something's happened to the pond!" she told older raven breathlessly. Itachi frowned and Kisame perked up.

"Are the fish okay?" he asked instantly. Hinata shuddered.

"That's just the thing. They're-"

"DEAD! They're all dead!" Kisame yelled, near tears that his beloved Koi were dead. Itachi frowned and held his lover close as he took in the sight. The fish had been mangled and dragged to the water's edge where they were now sat at the bank. Shikamaru hummed in quiet analysis as he crouched down to assess the damage. His eyes widened slightly as he took something in. The fish hadn't been mangled by something as common as a fox; the cuts were deep and clean- as if they'd been made with a surgical knife. His eyes widened as he saw something else. A strand of long, black hair- too long to be Itachi's, too black to be Deidara's.

"What the Hell?" he muttered as he leant closer to the pond to be assaulted with the smell of rotten eggs. He drew back, covering his nose in disgust. Kiba was standing a way back with his hand over his nose too.

"Neji, did you just fart?" he asked, backing away from the brunet slightly. Neji's eye twitched.

"Kiba you fool, I would not do such vulgar things in public!" he retorted, hitting the brunet over the head. Shino looked around to see a spider's web without a spider in it.

"Strange," he muttered. Chouji looked towards his friend.

"What was that Shi?" he asked, munching on an ice cream (God knows why) as Shino surveyed the spider web.

"Usually the spider of this web would be out in such conditions. It's not here which suggests either a bigger predator or poison in the air." He explained calmly. Shikamaru's eyes widened and he backed away from the pond.

"Kisame-san, did you have puffer-fish in here too?" he asked, backing away from the water. Kisame looked up.

"Yeah, why?" he answered. Fear overtook the brunet's irises as he rounded on everyone who was present- which happened to be everyone.

"Nobody drink the tap water! Don't brush your teeth, don't wash your hands. Use bottled water." He ordered. Naruto flinched.

"What's going on Shika?" Naruto asked. Shikamaru sighed and glanced slightly towards the younger children. Juura looked towards Sasori and Deidara who nodded in return. Iruka was looking confused whilst Tsunade examined the water carefully, Shizune by her side, swiping a sample in a small test tube. Kaoru, Kamari and Gary were standing a way back as the smell intensified. Kiba was almost retching now, Hinata placing her hand on his back to calm him down. Sasuke and Naruto observed as calmly as they could whilst Shikamaru came to his conclusion.

"This is an assassination attempt. The puffer fish are missing and I'm guessing they'll be in the water supply. These fish were used as practice to see if the person could cut the right place in the puffer fish when the time came, releasing its deadly toxins- strong enough to kill us all with one sip of contaminated tap water! The smell of sulphur in the water is strong, suggesting that the pond has been contaminated with sulphuric acid to kill the fish in a way that their bodies would decompose before we could realise anything. Hinata, I wouldn't eat any of that fruit if I were you; the acidic fumes mixed with the humidity of the air may have seeped into the fruits, causing them to become toxic. Right now, we're all breathing in fumes, so I suggest we go inside immediately." Shikamaru told them. Nearly every mouth was agape at the fact that A. Shikamaru had spoken so much and for so long without uttering the word 'troublesome' and B. The fact that this was a clear assassination attempt on all of them. It seemed the enemy didn't care if small children got involved as Konohamaru, Udon and Moegi were shaking violently.

"C'mon guys, we need to get inside to stop inhaling the fumes. Sheesh, you're all so troublesome." He muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets and walking towards the house, keeping his eyes sharp as he did so.

SMASH!

The one with goggles rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and grinned whilst his companion remained stoic.

"Damn it!" Orochimaru seethed.

"You never said, did you get your phone back?" the one without goggles whispered. The one with the accessory nodded happily, lacing his hands behind his head.

"Yo boss, I think you need to stop unless you want to waste anymore of the drugs," he informed in a bored tone. Yellow eyes pinned red tinted and the latter pouted.

"I'm just saying. If you go all ape-shit on them, you're only going to complain later!" he reasoned. A barely audibly snort sounded from the goggled man's left. Orochimaru tensed and stalked up to the man and got into his face.

"You find something funny?" he snarled. The man shrugged and looked Orochimaru in the eyes.

"To be honest, yeah. I mean, you're yelling at everyone to get a move on with the drug but you keep on smashing the progressing product," he smirked.

"How is that funny?" Orochimaru hissed. The man shrugged.

"More ironic than funny but still, irony can be humour." He said sagely. The man to his right snorted.

"Yeah, because you can be so smart to say that," he teased. Orochimaru looked with confusion at the two's banter which didn't seem to be affected by his threats at all. They weren't taking him seriously. A sense of rage swept over the man as he grabbed a small dagger and threw it at the goggled man. It sliced his arm and his companion became enraged and worried at the same time.

"Obito!" he yelled, running over to his companion. The cut wasn't very deep but it was bleeding quite a bit. Cold red eyes were pinned on yellow.

"You bastard!" he hissed as he ripped off some of his cloak to use as a bandage. The man- Obito- hissed at the sting of the cut and applied more pressure through the bandage.

"What an ass!" he complained as if Orochimaru wasn't in the room with him. Orochimaru snarled.

"Say that again and I'll slice you like a sushi chef!" he spat. Obito looked up and smirked.

"Yeah, yeah Sushi-sama. Suigetsu would try to kill you," he smirked at his joke and so did his companion.

"That's if Tobi hasn't already dragged him out of here to go get McDonalds," the other joked. Orochimaru stared in disbelief at the two friends- one of them so clearly injured- who were just talking back to him as if he were a classmate in their school with whom he had been assigned a project with.

"Hm, I wonder if Sui would stick 'em if he saw the Fillet 'o' Fish," Obito wondered tapping his finger on his chin. His companion snorted.

"He wouldn't see it; Tobi would drag him to the play area whilst demanding the best toy from the Happy Meal!" he replied. Obito chuckled before full out laughing and wiping a tear away, using his good arm to move.

"Ah, Sui is forever Tobi's bitch," he chuckled. His companion chuckled at that too, unaware of the darker aura surrounding the doctor.

"FOOLS!" was the loud hiss that emitted from the mouth of the golden-eyed man. The two on the floor snapped out of their stupor to glance at the World Leader who- in their opinion- was losing his touch. His place had been blown to pieces and a few kids had managed to trick him and beat him around a bit. Albeit there were casualties and a fatality, but you couldn't think of those sorts of things in a war. Casualties and death were the norm in a war as big as this one was going to get. They were lucky that it had only been one so far and not two.

Orochimaru was seething once more at the two men on the floor. Despite how they acted, Obito was older than his companion, being 28, whilst the companion himself was only 23. Despite this, it was almost as if their roles were reversed, Obito being the one who was looked after. Such an example was in the next moment where Orochimaru rushed at the two, pulling out another small dagger. In a flash, Obito's companion had grabbed the one discarded from earlier and blocked the attack aimed at the older male's throat.

"You don't want to do that," he muttered darkly, shoving the other man's arm back and throwing the dagger aside. With a grace which could only have been attained from many years of practice, he grabbed Obito by his good arm and swung him on his back in a piggyback style before walking out of the large mansion. There was a small mutter by the ear of the companion.

"You didn't have to do that," Obito muttered. His companion smiled and just continued to walk down the front garden with the older- albeit smaller- male on his back.

"Hn, what sort of person would I be if I let you get your throat slit by that paedophile?" he replied omnisciently. Obito chuckled.

"Thank you Shisui."

They were on lockdown. No-one was to exit the house without the supervision of a guardian and all water supplies had to be monitored. It was the third day. Kiba, Hinata, Neji, Juura, Sasori and Deidara had all gone home on the day when they'd found out about the contaminated water and promised to bring fresh supplies every day. They'd just left once more after wishing them luck. Shikamaru yawned and stretched out on the sofa, not seeming to mind the constant relaxing; although there was thing that was bothering him.

"I miss the clouds," he sighed sadly as he looked up at the plain ceiling. Chouji snickered, munching on a strawberry- the boy had taken to eating healthy food since Juura had refused to buy any junk food, leaving the teen no choice. Sakura was texting Ino about god knows what and giggling every once in a while, then showing Moegi the text who giggled along with the pinkette. Shino had taken to haunting the kitchen and all the other rooms, looking for spiders to document whilst Sai just sat on the arm-chair opposite Naruto and Sasuke with his sketchpad out, glancing up to his secret subjects occasionally and sketching. Kamari and Kaoru were once again on Dance Dance Revolution. They had taken to doing it, progressing so that they were now able to do 'Heavy' with only a tiny bit of difficulty and were soon moving onto the 'Oni' difficulty. Naruto had joined in on occasion, much to Sasuke's delight as he got to watch his boyfriend sway his hips and move his backside to the suggestive beat of 'I'm Too Sexy'. Needless to say that after that Sasuke had needed to go into the bathroom and drench himself in a bottle of refrigerated water. Konohamaru and Udon had found a new hobby- it was called 'Who can annoy Sasuke the most'. Several times a day the two would pull pranks on the raven, resulting in him becoming frustrated and snappy. Gary had found a new past-time with the old chess set in the corner, playing games against himself and when the other felt like it- Shikamaru. Itachi and Kisame just lounged around the house as if nothing was different whilst Kakashi and Iruka spent much time cooped up together discussing something that was a mystery to the rest of the world- most probably the meaning of life. Tsunade and Shizune had been locked up in the study to try and find out a counter chemical to neutralise the water so that when it became humid, it could dispel the sulphuric acid fumes. So far they had drawn blank. The only other alternative was to wait for it to rain- which wasn't going to happen as it had now dropped below freezing and the most that they would get was hail, snow if they were lucky. Even if they did get snow though, they couldn't enjoy it as it would become contaminated.

That evening found the group doing their usual things only this time the arrows were far too slow and the drawings far too boring. Depression had set in as the outside world called for the teens. Sakura had stopped texting Ino about an hour ago and had taken to watching the twins on Dance Dance Revolution out of pure boredom. The three younger ones had gone to bed two hours ago and Naruto was snoozing on Sasuke's lap, worn out from doing nothing. The whole affair had a lethargic response to it, making everyone feel like they weren't doing enough.

It was on the fifth day when Naruto was struck ill. His fringe was plastered to his forehead with sweat and a red hue was permanently taking residence on his cheeks. His temperature was too high to be ignored and he was constantly tossing and turning in a restless sleep, sometimes screaming out due to the nightmares the fever produced. Sasuke watched as his boyfriend became sicker with each passing day. And eventually he could take it no more. Naruto had been put into isolation with no visitors apart from Tsunade who wore a protective mask when she entered and scrubbed herself with anti-septic when she exited. It was Christmas Eve when Sasuke snuck in and what he was met with was a heartbreaking sight. He knew that Naruto was ill but he was drenched with sweat, flushed and never still for a minute. Briefly, Sasuke remembered one time when the screams had been particularly bad and Tsunade had had to rush in and sedate the poor blond with a homemade tranquiliser. Never had Sasuke felt so useless as he approached Naruto and placed a hand on his sweaty forehead. It was burning up but at the cool touch of his hand, Naruto quietened slightly and leant into the touch, mewling at the comfort it brought. Sasuke was suddenly struck with an idea. He exited the room quietly and brought out a bottle of cold water from the fridge. Slowly, he made his way back to the room, grabbing a flannel along the way. He soaked the flannel in the freezing water- the fridge was really cold- and placed it to the blonde's forehead. Almost instantly Naruto stopped tossing and turning and his breathing started to ease out. Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief into the mask that was over his mouth. The blond on the bed made a content noise and a small smile overtook his lips, silencing any screaming that was going to appear. Gently, he lifted his boyfriend up by the small of his back and blue eyes opened slightly.

"'Ske?" he asked breathlessly. A small smile formed on the raven's lips, invisible due to the mask.

"Dobe, drink this," he whispered, pressing the bottle rim to dry lips. Shakily, Naruto drunk until all of the water was gone. Naruto panted, not having taken a break whilst drinking. He coughed slightly, bringing his hand up to his mouth. Blue eyes widened slightly and Sasuke looked worried.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Sasuke asked. Naruto glanced to his boyfriend before smiling.

"Nothing, just a little hot is all!" he replied cheerfully. Sasuke nodded and slyly, without the raven realising, Naruto rubbed his hand on his orange pyjama trousers, leaving a red smear.

"Why are you wearing a mask, Sasuke?" Naruto asked. Onyx eyes widened as the Uchiha only just remembered what he was wearing. Sasuke sighed and poked the blonde's sweaty forehead.

"So I don't catch your lurgy." He replied simply. Naruto giggled slightly before sighing.

"I think it was just a repercussion of the drug," he replied honestly. Sasuke smirked.

"Ooh, big wor- wait, drug?" he asked, cutting off mid tease and ripping off the mouth mask so that his voice was more pronounced. Naruto flinched before turning to face Sasuke.

"When I was with Orochimaru, he injected me with a strong anaesthetic before injecting me with something else. It was so painful," Naruto flinched at the memory and was then reduced to shivers as he remembered what happened after that, touching the scar that was barely visible thanks to Kabuto's stitching.

"Naru-"

"And then he cut me open," Naruto whispered. Sasuke froze.

"W-what did you just say?" Sasuke asked, fists curling into a ball at his sides. Naruto shivered and Sasuke drew him in for a hug.

"He c-cut me o-open and t-took m-my a-p-pendix," he shivered whilst warm tears ran down his face and splashed onto the fabric of the sheets. Sasuke was shocked at the piece of news that was withheld from him and was about to question the blond when there were footsteps outside the door and it was pushed open. The newcomers continued to talk as if they hadn't seen the two boys awake and on the bed- which they most probably hadn't. Itachi and Kakashi were arguing over something and just as Itachi was going to grab the thermometer to test the blonde's temperature, he realised that the boy was awake and in Sasuke's arms. Shock overrode any previous emotions in the elder's onyx as he took in the sight before him. He then calmed down.

"Ah, Otouto, I thought I'd find you here when you weren't in your room. How did you get him to wake up?" Itachi asked, ignoring the silver-haired man who seemed fairly distressed. Sasuke eyed Kakashi before turning to face his brother, holding the flannel.

"I put a cool towel to his head. He woke up and I gave him some of the bottled water," Sasuke replied wearily.

"Didn't Tsunade think about doing that?" he asked. Itachi's eyes widened.

"Otouto, we've been doing that every day now only he wouldn't wake up to drink the water," he told his little brother. Naruto frowned.

"Every day? What's the date? How long have I been out?" he panicked, looking around the room, before coughing once more and clenching his fist as he brought his hand away from his mouth. Kakashi sighed.

"It's Christmas Eve Naruto. You've been out for five days now." Kakashi told the blond. Cerulean eyes widened.

"F-five days? It only feels like a few hours!" he protested, starting to hyperventilate. Itachi was there in an instant with an oxygen mask to calm the blond down with. Eventually Naruto was calm, a little flushed, but overall calm. Sasuke sighed and kissed Naruto on the cheek.

"I'm so glad you're awake," he whispered as he pulled Naruto into a hug. Weak tan arms wrapped themselves around the Uchiha and the fist was still clenched, unwilling to open. Naruto was afraid that if he did, the blood from his body would drip onto the sheets and stain the Uchiha's clothing.

Woo! How'd ya like THAT baby! XD It was 5,920 words long *sniff* I'm so proud! That's about 2.5x longer than the last one! So, the 'mysterious' people have been revealed (I'm inwardly praying that you guys remember who Shisui is) Also, whilst I'm here, I'd like to do a little advertising. Firstly, I have an original story out so if you enjoyed Cassie as a character, she's starring in an All New Horror story as a side character! :D Just go to my FictionPress, the link is on my Bio!

NEXT TIME! Naruto's hiding something from Sasuke and he's getting annoyed, but how will Naruto take the news when he's told that- wait, who are these two strangers at the door? Why are they saying they're Uchiha's? But more importantly: why do they want to take Naruto away? Find out in the next chapter of Fighting Darkness!