Enjoy!
The Long Way Home
Part 12
Berry Bad
Chapter 1/3
The fruit trees were gone.
The longer they traveled the more it seemed as though the trees that bore the yellow fruit only grew in the part of the country that bordered with Adessa. Now that the air was drying out a little, the fruit trees became scarcer as they traveled onwards.
Sasuke was annoyed by this. He'd liked that fruit. Normally he didn't like things so sweet but the fruit had become a daily staple for him and now that he'd gone without for almost a week he found himself craving it all the more.
Just remembering the taste on his tongue set his mouth watering, his eyes darting around, looking for the telltale yellow orbs in amongst the surrounding foliage. But so far all he saw was green leaves and nothing else.
It got to the point as they were walking along that Sasuke simply stopped in his tracks, a deep scowl on his face and the irresistible urge to turn back.
Naruto stopped a few paces away, still yammering on about something or another until he looked around to Sasuke and his story died on his lips.
"What's wrong?"
Good question. It was just fruit, right? It seemed stupid to be hung up on something so trivial. But try as he might, he just couldn't shift the idea from his head that he might have to continue without it from here on.
"We should have dried some out," Sasuke mused to himself out loud.
"Dried what?" Naruto asked confused. "What's wrong with you?"
Sasuke barely heard him and continued to look around. He didn't even notice Naruto come back to stand in front of him till he saw a blur race past his vision as Naruto waved his hand in front of Sasuke's eyes. Sasuke hadn't realised Naruto had been talking to him. But it was hardly a first for him to drown out Naruto's voice when it became too much of a distraction.
"Earth to Sasuke? Wow, Sasuke you look really... hot."
Of course that made him pay attention. He focussed his eyes back onto wide blue ones.
"What did you just say?"
Naruto's eyes widened even further when he realised what he'd just said might have been taken wrongly.
"I didn't... I just meant you're all flushed. You're sweating too and sure it's hot but usually I'm sweating bucketloads more than you but I'm not even feeling damp. Your eyes look all weird too. Are you feelin' okay?"
Sasuke blinked, surprised at the question. He hadn't noticed he'd been sweating. He didn't even feel warm.
"I'm fine," Sasuke replied emphasizing the last word.
Naruto put a hand to his cheek causing Sasuke to take a step back and glare at him.
"You feel hot too," Naruto said with growing concern, completely ignoring the look. "Maybe you're sick."
"I'm not sick," Sasuke said dismissively. "It's over thirty degrees and humid as hell, of course I feel a bit warm."
Naruto put his hand on his own cheek as though to feel the difference. "You're a lot hotter than I"
Sasuke smirked at him. "Only just noticing this now are you? Most people tend notice that instantly." Naruto flushed a little himself at that comment but from anger in his case. That was the trick with Naruto, Sasuke had noticed, if you wanted to derail him it was better to mock him and make him angry because glaring hardly ever seemed to work.
"Bite me Sasuke, you know that's not what I meant. I think you might be really sick."
But sometimes even the proven methods failed to get results if he was really dead set serious. It made him wonder if perhaps Naruto had a point. Not that he would admit it, but he wondered if he was really coming down with something.
Naruto's illness last week might have had a lot to do with the reawakening Kyuubi but not all of it. He had still been dehydrated and malnourished and it wasn't like Sasuke had been keeping himself much better. Maybe it was just his turn to feel the effects. His obsession with his lost fruit might just be a deliriousness of some sort bought on by fever or something.
But admitting to it would only put Naruto's protectiveness into overdrive and he could think of nothing worse than having Naruto fuss over him like some ill child.
"I feel fine," Sasuke persisted. "So if you've finished feeling my hotness can we move on?"
Sasuke didn't wait for a reply and just simply started walking on ahead past Naruto. Eventually with some quick stepping, Naruto caught up and fell into step beside him.
"You were the one that stopped in the first place," Naruto muttered.
Sasuke just ignored him.
The next day by sunset he felt a lot worse and it was becoming difficult to hide it any longer. He didn't get sick very often and it annoyed him when he did. He didn't like the feeling of weakness, having to take medicine and waiting to get better. He didn't like the loss of control one little bit.
Sasuke took a moment to rest while Naruto raced off to talk to some trader on the road. He was glad to get away from Naruto's concerned looks thinking that any moment now Naruto was going to start fussing over him or something.
The last time he'd been fussed over when he was sick or injured was when he'd been a lot younger and the thought of being treated like an invalid child again didn't sit well with him one bit.
The only reason Naruto had hailed down the trader at all was in the hopes of buying some food so he didn't have to spend the afternoon fishing.
Sasuke didn't like to speculate why but he had an uncomfortable feeling that Naruto wanted to spend the time instead looking after him. Probably as an overzealous urge to repay the favour Sasuke had done last week by doing the same.
So when Naruto came trotting back over, Sasuke was already in a bad mood. He stood up from where he'd been sitting, trying to ignore the wave of dizziness that washed over him and failed completely. Naruto grabbed his arm to steady him and looked at him with wide worried eyes.
"Just don't," Sasuke advised.
"But Sasuke-"
"What did I..."
Sasuke finally managed to focus on Naruto's face long enough to see panic in his features. Not even Naruto would panic over a little swoon. Sasuke got a bad feeling all of a sudden.
"What?"
"I asked the trader if he had any of that fruit you like, you know, I thought it would make you feel better. But when I described it to him he said that he didn't sell it."
"So?"
"He doesn't sell it because it's kinda poisonous."
Sasuke blinked at him thinking he had misheard. "How can something be 'kinda poisonous'?"
"It's sorta like a drug," Naruto explained nervously. "People get addicted to it."
"What does this drug do exactly?" Sasuke asked still not seeing the poisonous side.
"Well not a lot really. It sorts of peps you up like if you'd drunk about ten cups of coffee but it doesn't make you high or anything apparently. But your body doesn't like it when you've been eating it for a while and suddenly stop. Then your body goes into withdrawals which are pretty bad. I guess that's why we never saw anyone selling it."
"So I'm not sick?"
"Well sort of, but not like we thought. It's not gonna kill you but you'll crave it for about another week and you're gonna suffer for a few days."
"Great," Sasuke muttered sarcastically. "So how come you aren't sick?"
Naruto shrugged. "I didn't eat it every day, only when I was really desperate. Plus I've got a pretty good tolerance for things, especially now Kurama is kinda awake again. Anyway, the guy said we should bunk down somewhere for a day or two while it finishes going through your system. He said I'd have to tie you to something to make sure you don't try to go back for more."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at that.
"I don't think he meant literally," Naruto clarified. Then thought about it. "Well I hope he didn't mean it literally. Anyway, the guy told me not to eat stuff we find on trees and bushes in the woods that we haven't seen for sale at a market. There's a lot of poisonous plants around here so I guess you were right to be wary the first time."
Once they had found a good spot for the night, Sasuke spread out his blankets and thought about what Naruto had told him. It seemed stupid to be addicted to a thing that did nothing for you apart from filling your belly and giving you energy.
Didn't addictions come about because the substance in question made you happy or high or something. Not that he wished he was addicted to something like that either but he felt a little cheated.
"Hey, Sasuke, are you okay?"
Sasuke sighed, "Stop asking me that."
"You just looked really out of it for a moment. Do you want some water or something? Maybe I should go wet a bit of cloth to cool you down or something 'cause you still look really flushed. I think that's what you're supposed to do..."
Sasuke watched Naruto bite his lip and look up into the trees like he could find some sort of answer there. It was in odd moments like this that reminded Sasuke that Naruto had grown up alone. When Sasuke had been little and running a fever his mother did indeed used to wet a cloth to put on his brow.
He supposed it was just something mothers did, but then Naruto wouldn't know that. When Naruto got sick as a child he probably just ate some instant ramen and tried to sleep it off. There would have been no one there to look after him. Even when Sasuke had done a similar thing to cool him down from his fever, Naruto had been asleep and hadn't known.
"See that in a movie, dobe?"
Despite the unfeeling comment Naruto didn't seem upset by it. He just smiled proudly and said,
"Yep. So you just lay back and relax and I'll get some water, okay?"
Before Sasuke had gotten sick, Naruto would never run around after him like this. He wouldn't have stood for it. The change in character was pretty amusing actually to watch Naruto set up camp, start cooking their food and then run down to the river for water just so Sasuke didn't have to get up.
Of course it also probably had a lot to do with when their situations had been reversed last week. And then it was compounded by the fact that Naruto's illness had been mostly unknowingly self-inflicted which had made him feel even guiltier. So Naruto was probably going a little overboard trying to make it up to him, even perhaps enjoying the chance to even the score a little.
When Naruto came back with the water bottle he wet a bit of cloth and smoothed it over his brow like it was some great undertaking and watching Sasuke like it would cure him on the spot. Even more strangely, Sasuke let him. He hadn't wanted to be fussed over, he really hadn't. But somehow this wasn't as bad as he had been expecting.
"What?" Naruto asked defensively in response to an expression Sasuke hadn't been aware of making.
"Nothing," Sasuke murmured closing his eyes.
The coolness on his head did actually make him feel a little better and now that he was finally lying down he let himself drift off to sleep.
It was fully dark by the time Sasuke woke up again. Naruto was snoring on the other side of camp half sitting up against a tree as though he'd tried to stay awake and failed.
Sasuke couldn't even appreciate the possible teasing opportunity because his stomach was cramping so badly he was in a lot of pain. He rolled onto his side into a tight ball and clutched at his belly as it apparently attempted to tie itself into knots inside him. It lasted what felt like a long time before it seemed to die down and then strangely he felt nothing but hungry. And weird. Don't forget weird.
His brain was mush and he couldn't make himself think clearly at all. All that did enter his mind was the hunger and thirst he was feeling right now and nothing else at all.
He hadn't eaten whatever Naruto had cooked because he'd fallen asleep and Naruto had probably thought he'd needed to sleep more than food. But Sasuke was really hungry now and the food was nowhere in sight.
Still very dizzy he went down to the river to drink some water and hopefully ease his stomach a bit when his fuzzy head made him stumble and almost lose his footing. He only managed to stay upright because he'd grabbed onto a dark leafed bush by the water's edge. When he pulled his hand free he saw three small red berries lying innocently in his palm.
What had Naruto said about eating local fruit? Sasuke couldn't remember and as his belly gave another painful twist he stuffed the berries into his mouth and bit down. They were nice though a little tart but he didn't let that stop him from grabbing more and eating them rapidly. Finally his stomach felt better and he continued on to have a drink. By the time he got back to camp he was feeling a whole lot better.
He sat back down on his blankets, his eyes roving around their campsite in sudden interest. It all looked so cozy in a way. Actually it seemed so familiar to him now, especially since it was set up in virtually the same way every night, that it was almost like this was their house. This is where they lived, it was just that the view changed daily, not their house.
An especially loud snore drew his eyes over to the house's other occupant and he smiled broadly.
Then he frowned. It was so dark without the fire he could hardly make out any of Naruto's features.
He crawled off his blankets and over to where Naruto was propped till he could see him better. His mouth hung open as he slept, a deep resonating snore echoing up from both his mouth and his nose.
Sasuke snorted and tried not to laugh.
Naruto was kinda cute, wasn't he? Well maybe not while he was snoring, but cute all the same.
Certainly cuter than anyone else Sasuke could think of. Big blue ocean coloured eyes, bright blond hair and gold skin. Especially when he squeezed his eyes shut and a small puff of air escaped those lips just before he...
Another snort and Naruto stopped snoring. Slowly his eyes fluttered open and looked momentarily startled to find Sasuke watching him so closely. But after blinking a few more times and getting a better look at his friend his eyes bugged out and he grabbed Sasuke's chin, swiping a thumb across Sasuke's bottom lip and examining it.
"Holy crap," Naruto said relieved after a moment. "I thought this was blood. Did you eat something?"
Sasuke nodded and tried to go after that thumb Naruto had taken away from him. Eventually he latched onto to the digit and as Naruto watched dumbstruck, sucked the berry juice off it slowly and with a lot of suction.
He looked back up at Naruto like he should be impressed but Naruto only looked scared.
"Sasuke you're acting really strange, what did you eat?"
Sasuke tried to remember but it seemed unimportant right now. The cute blond housemate looked a lot more interesting right now.
"Are you really horny right now?" Sasuke asked.
"No! Sasuke, please tell me what you ate."
"Berries," Sasuke answered dismissively before darting his head forward to try and kiss those enticing lips. "Red berries down by the river. I was hungry."
"What?!"
Naruto slipped away from Sasuke's grasp and got to his feet, heading down toward the river.
With a resigned sigh Sasuke drifted after him. He got there just in time to see Naruto pop a berry into his own mouth before spitting it back out again after chewing only once very gingerly.
"Tastes like bitter cherries," Naruto said to himself. "I think that guy said that the little red bitter ones won't kill you."
Sasuke felt that this must be a good thing so he tried smiling. Naruto eyed him nervously.
"He did say it could make you high if you ate enough of them though. Damnit Sasuke, you were already sick with withdrawals from one kind of fruit, why the fuck did you eat something else when I told you we shouldn't? That's not like you at all."
Sasuke shrugged. "Hungry," he repeated like it was no big deal. And as far as he was concerned it wasn't. He wasn't in pain anymore and he didn't feel sick. "I feel fantastic," he grinned.
"You're high."
Sasuke thought this over carefully. Eventually he replied. "Probably. But there's good news."
"Yeah, what's that?"
"I'm totally over the other fruit now."
"I'm happy for you Sasuke. C'mon, come back to camp before you eat anything else."
Naruto had thought for a moment that maybe he should have stuck his fingers down Sasuke's throat and made him throw up whatever he had eaten. But he hadn't for a few reasons.
For one thing it looked as though the berries had already gotten into his system anyway so it wasn't like he was going to stop it.
Two, if Naruto was right about which berries they were, Sasuke wasn't in any real danger.
And three, Sasuke really did look a lot better than he had before. Besides, if he tried to stick his fingers down Sasuke's throat he'd probably just get bitten.
Of course he was still hard pressed to decide whether this really was an improvement or not. Sure Sasuke looked and seemed to feel a lot better but a high Sasuke turned out to be a bit of a handful.
He'd dutifully followed Naruto back to camp but once there hadn't seemed interested in sleeping any more. Unlike Naruto, Sasuke had slept the entire afternoon and most of the night away so it seemed unlikely he would sleep for the remainder of the night.
Naruto on the other hand had not been so lucky and after watching Sasuke for an hour or so and Sasuke did nothing but stare at the newly remade fire and grin occasionally he laid down next to him hoping that perhaps Sasuke was too blissed out to do anything else strange.
The assumption had not been entirely accurate.
He didn't think he'd been asleep for very long when he started having this odd dream. Someone was kissing him, he could feel their tongue slide into his mouth and he responded, pushing back against it without too much thought.
He vaguely heard the zip on his shirt being drawn down and then a hand against his chest, roving first up and clutching his shoulder tightly before releasing him and moving downwards, palm flat over his belly, till fingers pushed underneath his pants and swiped against the swell they found there.
At least it was enough to wake him up and he pushed Sasuke away and sat up blinking in the dim firelight.
Sasuke must have been hunkered over him on all fours while he was kissing and groping him and sight now of Sasuke still in that pose watching him intently, flushed, breathing raggedly with that small demented but still strangely enticing smile on his face made Naruto swallow thickly.
Sasuke made a move to crawl towards him but Naruto held up a hand to ward him off and said,
"Sasuke, stop!"
Surprsingly he did. Now if only he would stop giving him that look.
So high Sasuke turned out to be a horny Sasuke, who would've thought it? Naruto might have even appreciated it all the more if he didn't feel it would be somehow taking advantage of the situation and Sasuke to just go with the flow. But he wouldn't take advantage so instead of it being a massive turn on it instead made him feel a little tortured.
"I thought you were watching the fire," Naruto told him hoping Sasuke might just go back to doing that instead.
"It got low."
Of course, the fire had become less interesting so Sasuke had decided to grope him instead... What the fuck?
"Don't do that while I'm sleeping."
"You do it to me."
"Yeah but usually you're not high. I really need some sleep Sasuke."
"Aren't you afraid I might suddenly keel over or something? Perhaps you should stay awake."
Naruto was pretty sure that if Sasuke was going to have any bad effects from what he'd eaten it probably would have happened by now. He had spent that first hour sick with worry even though he was almost positive that trader had told him those particular berries weren't fatal.
But Sasuke had looked better not worse, a little spacey, but not sick. And after that he'd just gotten tired. But hearing Sasuke say that made his heart skip a beat and he did think that maybe he should stay awake after all
"Okay."
Sasuke resumed his crawl but Naruto shook him head vehemently. "But no fooling around."
Sasuke pouted. Holy fuck, he actually pouted! He hadn't realised Sasuke could do that.
He almost suggested they go down to the river figuring that the cool water might help sober him up but then he wasn't sure if one or both of them being naked right now was such a wise move either.
"I'II build up the fire again."
"Don't, it's too hot anyway."
"But I could heat something. Maybe you should eat."
"I'm full," Sasuke assured him. "Unless you're offering dessert."
Naruto chose not to read into that.
"Only fish."
Sasuke sighed and flopped onto his back looking up at the stars though the gaps in the trees. And he stayed that way for a good long twenty minutes. Naruto stifled a yawn and lay down himself. He hadn't planned on going back to sleep and probably only dozed for about ten minutes before starting awake and sitting up quickly, annoyed that he'd been so careless.
He looked over to where he had left Sasuke to find the space empty. Frowning he looked all around the camp and still, no sign of his friend. He practically jumped to his feet and raced back down toward the river.
He didn't find him along the way and there was no sign of him when he reached the water's edge either. Really beginning to panic now he raced off through the trees, circling their camp, hoping to find some sign of him.
Between the camp and the road he eventually found him, staring up at a tree and watching the leaves move in the breeze. Naruto wasn't sure if he wanted to hit him or hug him.
He put a hand on Sasuke's shoulder and spun him around gently.
"Why the fuck did you wander off?"
"It ran away, and then I got distracted."
Sasuke showed him his hand and in it was one of those little hopping mice looking up at Naruto with those tiny little black eyes. Naruto was shocked. He occasionally played with the little critters but mainly they seemed to stay clear of Sasuke. Of course Sasuke looked so serene right now he probably seemed less threatening than a blade of grass.
Actually now that Naruto had calmed down and Sasuke wasn't trying to feel him up he started to appreciate seeing Sasuke's face this calm. He almost looked like he did when he was asleep.
Naruto had kissed him the last time he'd looked so peaceful and while he didn't exactly want to start that again right now, he could still appreciate the look. It made him look like he didn't have a worry in the world and surprisingly it suited him and took the hard edge off his features.
But then it was slightly ruined when Sasuke smirked at him. "What are you staring at?"
"Nothing," Naruto replied quickly.
He held out his hand to the mouse which took the opportunity to hop on so Naruto could guide it to the ground where it hopped away again.
Sasuke went to follow it but Naruto grabbed his arm and started leading him back to camp.
Maybe tying him up wasn't such a bad idea after all.
It was probably cruel, but even while Naruto spent the remainder of the night watching him, Sasuke still either took it into his head to wander off or got a little too grabby with him.
So in the end he did end up tying Sasuke's hands together with the cord he usually tied his blanket with and his ankles with the cord from Sasuke's bedding. Sasuke looked slightly annoyed by the treatment till a few bats started making noises in the trees around him and then he seemed content to sit and listen for a while.
"Hi, aren't you the trader I met yesterday?"
The old man nodded and smiled from his cart as Naruto came up to greet him. The amiable young man he had met yesterday looked a lot more worn than the last time he had seen him. Today the boy had dark circles under his eyes and although he was smiling it look a lot more forced than it had before.
"Yeah I'm just coming back from the village that I went to yesterday."
The darker haired companion he hadn't met yesterday was with Naruto this time, smiling blissfully up
at the old man and apparently completely unaware that his blond friend had for all intents and purposes put a leash on him. A length of cord was tied around the dark haired man's belt loop and held tightly by his blond friend.
"Is this the friend of yours that ate the Presis fruit? 'Cause you know I didn't mean it literally like that you actually had to tie him up." The trader peered a little closer. "Are you sure it is Presis fruit poisoning anyway? He looks..."
"He ate the bitter red berries last night while I wasn't watching."
"Yeah," the trader agreed. "Withdrawals from Press will make you do some funny things when you're all dizzy and disorientated. It makes it so you can't think right making you do some pretty stupid things. Oh well it won't hurt him none, it might actually help get over the first problem so long as you don't mind him acting like a blissed-out zombie for a day or two."
"A day or two?" The blond asked with wide eyes.
"How many did he eat?"
"I don't know. A lot I think."
"Then yeah, he won't sober up for at least another day at the earliest. Good thing you decided not to rest up for a few days like I suggested. Makin' him walk will mean he might be okay by tomorrow morning so long as you can get him to sleep tonight."
"I was going to camp for a few days till he was better but he was really, uh, energetic this morning.
And it was either walk or keep him tied up."
The trader laughed. "Yep, sounds like the red berries all right. Got a little affectionate, did he?"
The blond went a little pink. "Uh sort of."
"Ah don't let that bother you much. The berries can take people that way sometimes. He'll be right as rain tomorrow sometime so long as you walk off the extra energy."
"That's good," the blond replied relieved tugging his friend back with the leash when the brunette started to absently walk off. The trader got the impression this had happened a lot during their walk today.
"He'll say some weird things and do some weird things in the meantime but don't let it bother you, it'll just be the berries talking. It's like being really drunk in that way. Sometimes people will say stuff they mean, sometimes they'll say things they don't mean. It's best just to not listen."
"Okay thanks!"
The blond smiled and waved as the trader got his cart moving again and he smiled ruefully.
"Tourists," he scoffed.
TBC
