Hello, I have some bad news, I won't be able to update this story for a while (maybe for about a week or so) I'm so sorry, There has been a recent death in my family so I'm flying out to the funeral, hopefully, I'll be back by next week, again I'm sorry.
The Long Way Home
Part 11
Awakening
Chapter 2/5
Naruto had been suspiciously quiet this morning and Sasuke was, well, he wasn't concerned exactly but perhaps a little on the troubled side about it.
Lately Naruto was the last one to go to sleep. Except when they had their frustration relief and then Naruto was out like a light generally within twenty minutes. But on a normal night like last night, no matter how tired Naruto looked after the day's walk, he was generally still sitting up when Sasuke closed his eyes. Sasuke didn't think much of it because since coming to Arrei this had been pretty normal behavior.
But mornings for Naruto were getting worse and Sasuke had begun to wonder just how much sleep Naruto was actually getting. This morning for instance he'd been completely out of it, sitting on his bedding and staring at nothing till Sasuke had to kick his leg in order to get a reaction from him.
The reaction had been Naruto telling him to fuck off, but it was better than the zombie stare by far. But even with this new hint of life, packing up and getting going had been a slow process with much squinting at the sun peeking in through the trees and wincing as though his head hurt.
"Are you actually going to walk at a fast enough pace so grandmother's won't outdistance us, or are you happy to just get home sometime this decade?" Sasuke asked with annoyance.
Naruto looked at him then and gave him a grin for the first time that morning. "I know you're tryna be mean teme, but I like it when you make jokes."
"Tch."
"Even if they're bad."
Sasuke rolled his eyes and faced forward again.
It was a pretty little road they were on. With the river somewhere off to their left behind the dense treeline, the other side of the road had been cleared for an orchard with trees Sasuke had never seen before. He wondered what they were.
"It really is just skin, isn't it?"
Naruto's random sentence took him a little off guard, to say the least.
"What?"
"Skin, all of it. Even lips really, I wonder why it's so interesting. You know, like you said the other night."
"Have you really been thinking about that for two whole days? Whatever, I'm not talking about this," Sasuke told him sternly.
"And why some bit feel better than others. I mean apart from the obvious," Naruto continued unperturbed. "You really have a weakness with that spot near your ear."
"I will hit you," Sasuke warned.
"You probably have other spots too."
It was this point that Sasuke paid proper attention to the sound of Naruto's voice. Something didn't sound quite right, in fact he sounded half asleep.
Sasuke took out his water bottle and thrust it in Naruto's direction.
"Drink," he ordered, "You sound delirious."
"So it doesn't make you wonder?" Naruto asked before taking a drink and handing the bottle back.
"No. It's all nerve endings, that's all."
"You make it sound so cold."
"It's just a fact, there's nothing special about it. It feels different in different places, that's all. Now stop talking about it."
"Fine," Naruto relented. "Just seems weird that you'd get that sort of reaction to some random spot on your neck. I mean it's not like I was licking..."
Naruto did shut up then but not before his eyes widened slightly and his ears went a little pink.
"Ah, never mind!"
Unfortunately, this was another one of those moments where Sasuke had no trouble filling in the blanks. And his damn brain went one step further with a quick imagining of what that might feel like.
He probably colored a little himself in that moment but luckily Naruto was too busy trying his hardest not to look at him. It was an interesting thought nonetheless though. It was true, he probably did have some sort of weird sensitivity for that spot on his neck. And when Naruto had been licking and sucking on that spot while rubbing up against him his mind had definitely lost itself to sensation. And that was just skin, as Naruto had said. Imagine...
"Sasuke," Naruto said greenly snapping him from his thoughts. "I gotta stop for a moment."
It took Sasuke a few more paces to process what Naruto had said and that he was no longer walking beside him. He stopped and turned to find Naruto sitting on the ground by the road with his eyes closed and sweat dripping off his forehead. But the reason this had taken Sasuke by surprise was that Naruto hardly ever suggested they take a break earlier than they normally would.
Either because he wanted to show to Sasuke he could keep up with him or because he really just didn't need to. Of the two, Sasuke believed the second one more. Even deprived of chakra Naruto had amazing stamina and would probably walk for the entire day without resting if he needed to. He didn't take unnecessary breaks and didn't slow them down, normally.
"It's possible you're getting sick," Sasuke allowed.
Naruto gave him this disbelieving but clearly pained half smile. "Yeah right."
It wasn't a shock Naruto didn't believe him. Even when they'd been younger Naruto hardly ever got sick. Even when the rest of his team had gotten the flu and spent the entire week off missions Naruto had spent one day snuffling a little and had been fine the next morning. If Naruto was really getting sick this time he'd been feeling the effects for over a week now at the very least.
Still, Sasuke couldn't see what they could do about it anyway. According to the last person they'd met on the road they'd be hard pressed to reach the next town by sunset even traveling at their regular speed. With Naruto dragging his feet, there was no chance of getting there tonight. Plus they had no food, edible game still hadn't presented itself and Naruto probably wasn't in much of a position to fish as he was.
So really it was in both their best interests to keep moving on rather than waiting out Naruto's illness in the woods for however long it took for him to get over it. But he had to be practical about it too otherwise they'd been stuck out in the wilderness for a lot longer than one more day.
"We'll walk for another few hours and find somewhere to camp."
Understandably Naruto looked confused by this suggestion.
"Sasuke it's not even noon yet. We've still got heaps of daylight yet."
"I'd rather you didn't keel over in the middle of the road because it's not like I'm going to carry you anywhere."
Naruto got to his feet, stood up straight and looked Sasuke steadily in the eye.
"I'm not a burden."
"Then don't become one," Sasuke replied coldly. "If we camp early tonight maybe you'll be able to walk faster than a snail tomorrow."
Naruto looked pissed after the statement but Sasuke noticed that he picked up his pace a bit when they set out again.
Naruto didn't know what was wrong with him. Maybe Sasuke was right, maybe he was just coming down with something. After all, without Kurama there to help heal him he would get sick as easily as the next person and not recover as quickly either. After they'd made camp that afternoon, Sasuke even went as far to suggest that perhaps Naruto might even fare worse than most since he wouldn't have the same natural resistances most people would because he'd always had help to fight off sickness before.
Naruto had given Sasuke a sour look and laid down on his blankets after that, for once not in the mood to get into a conversation with Sasuke. He seemed to be getting just a little bit too much sadistic pleasure out of seeing Naruto suffer like this. Probably because he thought it was a rarity, also partially because a younger Naruto had been a lot more resilient to illness than Sasuke had been and if there was anyone that would revel in any form of revenge it was Sasuke.
He hadn't really known what else to expect from the asshole anyway. It wasn't like Sasuke to fawn over anyone, sick or not and honestly it probably would have been creepy if he tried. But Naruto supposed he should be thankful that all he was getting was mild annoyance and taunting because he really didn't like the idea that Sasuke might actually get angry about it. Naruto was angry enough at himself, he really didn't need to feel even worse.
He was trying to push himself, he was trying to keep up but he knew that when Sasuke suggested the stop early that his pushing had been for naught. Sasuke had obviously noticed he was having problems so he hadn't been fooling anyone. It had probably been that last stop he'd made that had been the last straw in the end but he'd just gotten so dizzy all of a sudden it had either been sit down for a few moments or fall over on the road.
"You know if I'm sick, you'll probably get sick too," Naruto pointed out looking up at the trees above him gently swaying in the light breeze.
"How do you figure?" Sasuke replied as though he didn't see why.
"I thought you didn't want to talk about it."
That shut Sasuke up in quick order. But it wasn't like Naruto had to say anything more for Sasuke to understand what he meant. A couple of nights ago they'd been rolling around naked together, kissing and writhing against each other. So if Naruto had anything contagious he couldn't think of a more sure-fire way to pass it onto someone else.
That tiny little thought gave him a small smile at least. If Sasuke took such great pleasure teasing him now he wouldn't be smirking when he started to feel like shit too so long as it wasn't anything really bad.
"I told you I probably have a better immune system than you at the moment. It's pretty pathetic how much your body relies on other things to keep you well. You're clumsy and overreaching without your chakra and vulnerable without your demon leech. It's a wonder your not dead already," Sasuke replied acidly.
The comments made Naruto a little pissed off but mainly because Sasuke wasn't far wrong. Here he was, the great ninja war hero reduced to wincing in pain because of some stupid little headache inducing bug or something.
"I'm stronger than you give me credit for," Naruto retorted hoping that he would sound a lot more confident than he felt about that.
"I suppose at least that much is true."
Naruto had to replay that last bit over in his head a few times before he realized that Sasuke hadn't actually sounded sarcastic when he'd said that. It was just another one of those weird Sasuke compliments when he'd verbally smack you before actually saying something relatively nice.
Naruto boosted himself up onto his elbows to look at Sasuke who was busy rooting around in his bag for something.
"What do you mean?"
Apparently Sasuke hadn't been paying a lot of attention to the conversation when he'd spoken and paused now, looking up and giving Naruto a confused stare for a few moments before he realized what he'd said.
"Physically, you're still pretty strong," Sasuke elaborated. "Of course that might not save you the next time you decide to have a fight with gravity and lose."
He should have known. He lay back down and glared at the trees above.
"This is about the cave again, isn't it?"
"And the thorn bush, and the log over the river, not to mention the-"
"Fine, I get the point already!" Naruto snapped.
Sasuke was actually making his headache worse so he went back to not wanting to have a conversation again.
"You asked," Sasuke pointed out.
"You're enjoying my pain too much, just shut up for a while."
The following silence was very loud. It wasn't often Naruto was the one to tell Sasuke to be quiet so Sasuke had to be pretty pissed about it. And Naruto didn't like discouraging Sasuke from speaking to him even when they were fighting because it had taken weeks of traveling together for Sasuke to even get to a point where he could converse almost like a normal person. But pain had funny ways of making you feel selfish and all he really wanted to do was close his eyes and will the pain away.
So he did, until he felt something cool graze his cheek softly and he opened his eyes fractionally to see Sasuke hovering above him. He was staring at Naruto intently like he was some kind of puzzle.
"Your fingers are cold," Naruto said stupidly.
"My fingers aren't cold," Sasuke corrected him, "your face is too hot."
If Sasuke hadn't looked so serious Naruto might have called the comment childish. But Sasuke's seriousness made him feel a little too nervous.
"Is that bad?"
"Maybe," Sasuke replied vaguely. "I thought your skin felt warm the other night. You might have a temperature."
"So?"
Sasuke shrugged and sat back. "I'm not a doctor. Generally it's not a good thing though. Go soak in the river, it will cool you off."
"Whenever I hurt myself you always send me to the river like it's a cure-all," Naruto remarked dryly.
"I'm starting to think you just like me getting naked."
Sasuke gave him the smallest hint of a smile, "Don't flatter yourself."
"Someone's got to."
"Well if you're done stroking yourself, go cool off."
"Yeah, yeah."
But Naruto didn't move. Not that he was that eager to run off and do what Sasuke told him to, but he also wasn't sure if he was going to be able to get back to his feet without Sasuke noticing how weak he was at the moment. Unfortunately, Sasuke had straightened back up and was watching Naruto with his arms folded across his chest.
"I'll do it later," Naruto told him.
"Can you even get up?" Sasuke asked perceptively.
"Of course I can!" Naruto retorted hotly. "I just spent the last few hours walking didn't I?"
"If you call that walking," Sasuke muttered. "Lurching maybe."
"Sasuke seriously, I just want to lay here quietly for a while."
"That was my first clue that you must by dying," Sasuke told him with no small hint of amusement.
"You are enjoying this too much."
"Somewhat," Sasuke admitted. "But mostly you're being a pain."
"Then shut the fuck up and leave me alone!"
"If only I could. But the moment I get comfortable you're going to ask for help because you can't even stand for too long by yourself at the moment and I'd rather get it out of the way while it is still relatively convenient for me to do so."
"Gods you make my head hurt. And I don't need your help!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes and finally left him to finish rooting around through his pack. Naruto closed his eyes again and enjoyed the silence for once. He felt tired enough to sleep for a week but his pounding head, made worse by the heat, the exercise and Sasuke made it impossible for him to rest.
So after about half an hour he pushed himself up figuring that maybe cooling off in the river would help after all.
Sasuke had stopped to watch him but thanks to the small break Naruto was able to get to his feet without so much as a wobble and head down to the river. He half expected Sasuke to follow him because more often than not they took their baths together these days but Sasuke hadn't seemed inclined and Naruto didn't bother to invite him.
He stripped down on the shore and waded into the river surprised at the almost icy feel the water had against his heated skin. But he persevered and was soon almost completely submerged sitting down on the rocky bottom with only his head poking above the surface. And okay, Sasuke might have had a point, it did start to make him feel a bit better. So he took the chance to clear his mind and relaxing his breathing falling into an almost mediative state. Eventually his headache eased and the soft movement of the water sliding over his skin felt nice and relaxing...
He woke up suddenly, rolled over and coughed up a lungful of water so violently that his throat felt raw by the time he was finished. He rolled back onto his back thoroughly exhausted and fingers gripped his shoulder harshly.
"Naruto!"
"Wha..Sasuke...?"
He opened his eyes slightly to see a pissed off face glaring back at him.
"You almost drowned you moron!"
"I was just sitting and I..." Naruto let his sentence trail off.
One moment he had been sitting there meditating, the next he had woken up on the bank of the river with Sasuke poised over him looking like he wanted nothing more than to knock some sense into his idiot traveling companion.
"You must have fallen asleep," Sasuke concluded fiercely. "What the hell is wrong with you!"
"I guess I'm really tired," Naruto replied lamely.
It was about at this point that he realized Sasuke must have saved him. That was both annoying and embarrassing. But as annoyed as he was that Sasuke had to save him, admittedly the bigger concern was that he'd even had to save him. He really was starting to wonder what the hell was wrong himself.
"No shit," Sasuke spat back.
Naruto stopped and sat heavily down on the side of the road, hand to his head, face flushed and breathing rather heavily. Sasuke figured he had yet another migraine and this one looked like a doozey. He came back and squatted down in front of Naruto, unkindly grabbing his chin and forcing Naruto's head up and out of his own hand so Sasuke could look at his face.
Naruto had a fine mist of sweat all over his face, red cheeks and a creased forehead probably due to the pain. He blinked in the daylight as though the light bothered him and hurt his head even more so Sasuke let go of his chin and allowed Naruto to cover his face again.
"This isn't getting better," Sasuke told him unnecessarily.
"I'm slowing us down," Naruto said in apparent understanding.
"That's not what I meant. Actually I think we might need to spend the next few nights in the next town to give you a chance to recover. You are useless like this."
"Maybe you're right," Naruto conceded.
After a few more moments Naruto let Sasuke help him to his feet and the pair continued onwards.
It wasn't until the next village was in sight that things got worse. One moment Naruto was staggering along beside him, the next he wasn't. Sasuke looked around to find his companion face down in the dirt, unmoving and apparently unconscious.
Sasuke hurried back and grabbed his shoulder to roll him face up. Naruto looked feverish and his face was very hot to touch. This was more than a headache, Naruto was really sick. So after quickly checking that he was still breathing, Sasuke hauled Naruto up and onto his shoulder and set off
towards the town as fast as ne could manage under nis burden.
By the time Sasuke made it into the village proper he was more than red-faced himself and dripping in sweat. Thankfully having the odd sight of another person draped unconscious over your shoulder gained him some useful attention for once and after a few barked questions managed to find his way to the nearest doctor and burst into the office.
"I need help. Now!" he demanded savagely to the open mouthed woman sitting at the reception.
The frightened woman nodded mutely and rushed off down a hallway out back. She came back not a minute later, beckoning for Sasuke to follow her.
In towns like this a doctor's office was the closest thing anyone ever got to a proper hospital. It was one of those towns that had only the most essential things and no more. So this office took care of anything from colds to heart surgery and Sasuke was rushed into a room that looked something between a crude operating theatre and a storage room.
He lay Naruto down on the awaiting stretcher, careful to hold his head so it didn't hit the bed too hard just as a middle aged man with greying hair and glasses entered, coming up to the other side of the bed and gazing down at his new patient.
He set about checking Naruto's vitals and asked Sasuke, "What happened?"
"We were traveling and he collapsed on the road," Sasuke told the doctor shortly, watching Naruto's unconscious Face.
The doctor raised an eyebrow at this. "I hope there's more to the story than that. I was in consultation with another patient."
"He's been having headaches," Sasuke told the doctor reluctantly. He was unused to giving out information to strangers, anything that could mean weakness. "Very bad headaches," Sasuke continued. "For weeks he's been getting them with more frequency and severity until today when he woke up with one and couldn't shake it. Then he collapsed. The headache today was almost disabling, sometimes he couldn't even move."
"And the pair of you kept traveling despite the pain?" The doctor asked prying Naruto's eyelids open and shining a little light into them.
"We had to," Sasuke answered and didn't elaborate. It was information the doctor didn't need.
The doctor seemed to realize that Sasuke wasn't going to offer anything else and set about examining Naruto while Sasuke looked on.
"Well," the doctor began after he had finished. "I'd say your friend doesn't seem to be in any immediate danger. Actually right now he's sleeping."
"Sleeping?" Sasuke asked unbelievingly.
"Has he been getting much rest?"
Sasuke paused here. Lately Naruto had always been the last asleep and the first to wake but Sasuke had assumed that he'd been sleeping through the night. Maybe his assumption had been wrong. The last two weeks especially he could only ever remember seeing Naruto nap just after their 'relief' time.
"I thought he was sleeping."
"Well he's obviously exhausted and more than a little dehydrated. Has he been pushing himself lately?"
Sasuke nodded.
"I'm guessing that the headaches are due to lack of sleep, dehydration and perhaps even malnutrition. Have you two been eating well?"
Sasuke had to shake his head.
"I didn't think so. Well if I am right then this is good news. Take a few days to rest and recover. Eat well and look after yourselves and he should be fine. I will give you something to help ease his pain if he gets another headache, also some other things to help him sleep. He does seem to be running a temperature which is perhaps the most troubling thing, but see if you can't cool him down with some water before we think of giving him any more medicine. If after a day or two he shows no great improvement I want you to bring him back and we will investigate further."
Sasuke let out a breath he hadn't been aware of holding. "Okay. What do I owe you?"
The doctor smiled warmly for the first time. "I didn't do that much. You can give my assistant the payment for the medicine on your way out but I think that will suffice. Of course your names might be nice to know."
Sasuke balked again, it was more information and he felt it was unnecessary. But really, what could it hurt to know their real names? Sasuke was unused to trusting anyone but they were in a country where no one knew them so what did it really matter?
"Sasuke. This is Naruto."
"Well Sasuke, I'm Doctor Isagi. And I want you to know you can come back here anytime you have any concerns. I am sure it is just a simple problem with Naruto but these sorts of symptoms can sometimes turn out to be more dire. I don't say this to worry you, I just need to make you aware of the possibility. For now, find a place to rest up and relax. I think you both could use it."
TBC
