Hello There
“You don’t look happy.” Sasuke said, holding out a scroll. “Give this to him when he wakes.”
“You heard everything--?”
Sasuke nodded stoically. “Naturally.”
Shikamaru stood aside, giving Sasuke space to pass and the Uchiha walked in.
Locking eyes with orange, Sasuke stared at the figure on the sofa. Was that the idiot?
Huh, idiot does as idiot is.
Idiot.
Up close, Naruto looked dead. His face was gaunt, his expression like that of a corpse. Sasuke looked back at Shikamaru, his pale face looking marginally, if possible, even paler. “Do I need to ask?”
The adviser leant on the door. “Nothing you don’t already know.”
Sasuke gave him a side look. “Go on.”
Shikamaru leant by the door frame and tsked. “He fell while trying to stand up. Hit his head on the table going down. He wasn’t making sense for a while. I told him I’d get him food and something to help with what might be a migraine.” He stepped back a few when Sasuke started carving craters into his skin with his eyes. “He wouldn’t let me help at first. I had to push back.”
Sasuke’s face was impassive, cut marble. “I see.”
“I also thought about getting Sakura.” Shikamaru’s face grew dark. “He doesn’t look good. I think he passed out at one point.”
Sasuke turned completely and looked at him; the flames of the Susanoo crackled in the depths of his black eyes. "You think he passed out? Or he did?" He glowered at his classmate. “Which is it?”
"I looked outside once. When we were still talking,” Shikamaru offered, keeping his voice even. “He was on the floor next.”
Sasuke did not acknowledge this, but instead, took off his traveling cloak and draped it on the pile of documents threatening to swallow his best friend's table whole. He then strode to the center of the room and activated his Rinnegan.
As the portal opened, he spoke in a clear, low voice: “Naruto needs you. It might be his chakra. A diagnostic would be preferred.”
Clad in her usual pink and red, Sakura stepped out and into the hokage’s office. Her cheeks were a brilliant, bright blush, and she was holding a vase of flowers, but as soon as she saw Naruto, she set them down on a nearby shelf, and pulled her apron off, her eyes glinting like dangerously cut emeralds.
“Welcome home, Sasuke-kun,” she whispered gently, passing by her husband before sitting by Naruto’s side, said husband choosing not to respond as his wife took his best friend’s hand into her own.
A soothing green glow emanated from Sakura’s fingertips. “Shikamaru?”
“He apparently took a nose dive,” Sasuke supplied. “He has a flair for the dramatic.”
Sakura smirked at the answer, but suddenly looked alarmed. “His blood pressure is way too low. He must have fainted. Did he--?”
“Ten minutes ago,” Shikamaru supplied.
“Is that all?” Sasuke had moved closer to them.
“No. Shikamaru, grab those throw pillows and place them underneath his feet.” Shikamaru obliged.
Sakura ran her hands up Naruto’s arm and down his chest, before settling above his heart. “He’s exhausted. His chakra is lower than normal. Has he slept? Eaten? Not done work more than he has to? He’s so cold. Damn it.”
Gritting her teeth, the green glow intensified as Sakura coursed her healing chakra through Naruto’s pathways. “The kyuubi would normally take care of his fatigue. Stamina has never been a problem for him. But he’s doing poorly. What happened?”
This was getting repetitive, even for Shikamaru.
“Headache. Vision blurred. About to get up. Fell down. Hit my head. Must have said some shit because Shikamaru’s nearly wet himself. Or have you already, Shika?”
Sakura gaped.
“Hello, Sakura-chan. I see Shikamaru lied. I’m fine. I don’t need anything, just sleep. Can I get up now?”
Naruto’s eyes were extremely tired, but his trademark humor peeked through those depths, the joker in him coming out to say hello. He was wide awake, or seemed to think like he appeared as though he was. “I’m not sure Sasuke would like his wife’s hands all over another man.”
“I don’t, but I’ll make an exception tonight, usuratonkachi.”
It was Naruto’s turn to gape. He hadn't seen him. How was that even possible?
“Teme, you fucking there?”
“Don’t get used to it,” Sasuke muttered.
“Hello there, asshole. I’ve missed your mug too.”
“Hnn.” The Uchiha replied. “Sakura?”
His wife had suddenly bent forward; she was inches from Naruto’s face.
“Naruto?”
The blond’s eyes were closed.
“Is he breathing?” Shikamaru asked, deathly still.
Sakura’s looked softened. “Yeah. He fell asleep.” Her fingers touched his forehead. She almost flicked him, but only Uchiha did that. No can do, friend. She instead touched his cheek for a few seconds before preparing to get to work.
Naruto, dumbass, moron, Hokage, friend, needed an IV.
Moron.
But her throat felt tight nonetheless.
She looked at her former teammate and felt a weight lodge in her soul.
The bags underneath Naruto’s eyes were dark and pronounced. He had broken into a cold sweat, his breathing slow, the end labored, almost a whine. Sakura’s fists clenched.
He was falling apart.
A hand settled onto Sakura's shoulder and she gazed up into the dark, fathomless eyes of her husband. “Steady. I’ll take him home as soon as he is able. Hinata will have been worrying. It’s almost one in the morning.”
Sakura nodded. “Thank you, Sasuke-kun.”
“You know how it is. I must’ve spoiled dinner.” Sasuke's lips looked like they had barely moved.
She smiled at her husband’s attempt to apologize. “I left the pot roast to Sarada. Let’s eat after we bring Naruto home.”
“You haven’t eaten?” said Sasuke.
“I was waiting.” Her eyes shone. “You know what today is, right?”
Sasuke closed his eyes. There was a slight softness there.
And then, just like lightning, it was gone. “We’ll talk later.”
“Will he be okay?” asked Shikamaru tentatively.
“Yessssss.”
Sakura smacked his left cheek on impulse.
“Stay asleep, baka.”
Naruto was awake again. “I need to get home. I’m feeling better.”
“Says who?" Sakura barked, fingers still trained on the underside of his wrist. "Your pulse is still slow.”
"But Sakura-channn--"
"Shut it, moron."
“Sasuke tell your wife to stop please.”
“So I’m “his wife” now, am I?”
Naruto latched unto Sakura’s hand. “Of course you are. And I think you like that. Now, let me up. Unless you fancy Sasuke seeing you ripen like a tomato. I thought that was only for his eyes.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“I DO NOT--!!”
With a sudden rush of strength, the Seventh Hokage rose from the sofa and sat up. Immediately, the sudden rush of blood to his head caused him to tip over to one side.
Complete black. Naruto couldn’t see a thing.
Fortunately, Sasuke being Sasuke, he was able to catch him. He returned Naruto to a prone position. Sakura growled. “Fucking lunatic. I told you stay down.”
A few seconds later, when the blond had caught his breath, he snickered.
“We have to stop this business of “falling for each other" and you doing all this catching, teme. It’s cramping my style. And your wife looks like she’s about to faint from apoplexy.”
Sasuke smile was like a secret door opening for the shortest of seconds. “This dumbshit. Stop bothering me then.”
Sakura cleared her throat impatiently and withdrew the small, concealed, ninja pouch she still had attached to her thigh out of habit. She took out an infusion kit. Then she began to fiddle with the tubing, and…
Naruto clucked his tongue. “Woah. Someone came prepared.” He swallowed. “No needles. I need to get home. That’ll take at least half an hour minimum. ”
“Either you stay here and try to hold yourself together so you actually get to see your family in a bit or you push it and Hinata Gentle Fists you first thing tomorrow because you couldn’t go home. I guarantee that if you try to push your luck this very minute, you’ll end up eating carpet. Your funeral, “boss.”
Naruto sighed. “Fine. But Hinata’s not to know.” He closed his eyes and grumbled, “I need to actually live so I can sit at the Sand meeting tomorrow.”
His eyes scanned the room, looking strangely lost and vacant, before something clicked, and then he frowned, pouted, and then gave Sakura a dirty look, his eyes shrinking to slots, his mouth puckered. “You’re bossier than ever. I wonder how your husband puts up with that. It wasn’t this bad when we were genin. Oy, Sasuke, tell her to stop, will you? Hmph.”
Sasuke cleared his throat. He actually liked how precious this all was. But fuck that. “You can do it, ‘Boss.’”
But one person wasn't the least bit impressed. Sakura inserted the needle with a heavier hand than she intended and the hokage let out a howl before proceeding to glare at her.
“Careful with that, you practicing that motion for stabbing something evil?," Naruto muttered, but he looked sorry for teasing her. “You know I appreciate it, why do you have to be so uncute?”
Sakura checked to see that IV was secure before smacking him on the right cheek this time. Now, it was even.
As the minutes ticked away, the IV now doing its job, the blond’s color seemed to improve, evidenced by how he now started to bicker with Shikamaru while also simultaneously trying to trigger Sasuke by aggravating Sakura. Naruto was too distracted and stressed to register that that he still felt very cold. Sasuke heard everything and said nothing: he had always been the smart one.
An hour later (not thirty minutes and Naruto was mad) with the cannula and tubing in the trash can, Sasuke opened a portal to the Uzumaki residence. “Shikamaru?,” Naruto inquired as he helped the blond walk.
“Yeah?”
“I need that report revised by nine. Make sure I get it first thing when I clock in. I need to practice.” He looked determinedly at an expanse of wall. “I still get the willies.”
Shikamaru sighed. “Sleep. Leave me in peace. Get your wife off my back. Fuck off for a few hours. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Naruto nodded. “Tell Temari it was my fault. Tell her I kept you.”
Shikamaru smirked, but was beside himself with worry inside. “I’ll just duck when she aims her fan.”
As Sasuke took his place at Naruto's other side and inched through the portal, Shikamaru lowered his voice and smiled at Sakura over his shoulder.
"He’s a stubborn shit. I’m not sure he’d get home in one piece.” A pause. “I leave him in your care.” He gave her a knowing look. “You know what he’s like.”
“Don’t I.” Sakura winked and followed after her husband and their friend.
As the portal closed, Shikamaru picked up the folder that Naruto had been trying to hand him earlier. His eyes zeroed in on a speck of blood on the edge, near the tab. He wiped it away.
He stood there for a while more before he turned off the light and walked out of his friend’s office.
The speck had smeared. But he hadn’t noticed it.