Title: "Sleep Little Child, and Rest Without Fear"
Author: Yukari Rin
Series: Naruto
Character(s)/Pairing(s): KabuSasu
Word Count: 507
Notes: For Hyorin since the YonShi I promised her is delayed so I can use it for one of the 30 Kisses themes. Title taken from a poem included in a Thomas Blackshear print. I felt like making both of Kabu-chan's adoptive parents medic-nins in this. And I have no idea what this is, so if it's disjointed and such, oh well.
Disclaimer: Naruto and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

"Sleep Little Child, and Rest Without Fear"

Sasuke lay on his bed shaking with fevered dreams. Kabuto slowly drew the damp cloth along the younger boy's forehead, brushing the black bangs from the slick skin. Sasuke shifted his position from his back to his side, finding no comfort on the hard mattress. His voice was raspy as he called out and groaned, though his words were too soft to understand.

Kabuto dipped the hand cloth into the small bowl beside him and wrung out the excess water before rubbing the hot skin of Sasuke's neck with the damp cloth. The boy's neck was smooth and delicate, and Kabuto's hand was large enough to wrap over halfway around the column. 'It wouldn't be hard at all to suffocate him in his current state,' he thought as he brought the cloth down over Sasuke's chest. 'Though Orochimaru would undoubtedly question the bruises. Poison would be best. Either by giving him too much medicine or by an alternative chemical.'

As the cloth brushed his skin, Sasuke cried out as if in pain and convulsed more violent than he had before, causing the bowl to fall of the bed with a dull crack. He kicked at the sheets he was entangled in and swung his arms, nearly hitting Kabuto. The medic-nin reached for the flailing fists and pressed them crossed at the rest against the boy's chest. The kicking subsided and Sasuke opened his eyes slightly, groaning with effort. Kabuto was leaning gently over his chest, holding their arms between them, and he registered Sasuke's awareness.

Kabuto eased off of him, staring in thought at the face contorted in sickness before him. He had never been ill as a child, and with his adoptive parents being in the medical squad, he had spent much of his childhood passing time by himself. But this child had had a loving family, and the loss of it had hardened him. Kabuto hadn't been able to kill him before, and he was still unsure if he would have gone through with it if Kakashi hadn't arrived. They weren't exactly similar, but both had lost their families due to slaughter. Kabuto had been adopted by an enemy, and then Sasori, and then Orochimaru. But Sasuke had been adopted in different ways by the members of his Genin team, but they were not enough for him. Now Sasuke was inadvertently taking the only thing that Kabuto had left.

"Mother?" came the strained question through dried and cracked lips. Sasuke closed his eyes as another wave of pain coursed through his body.

And yet, Kabuto could not hate him as much as he wanted to. He stroked Sasuke's sweat-soaked hair before sliding his hand over the boy's eyes and closing them. "Go to sleep Sasuke, you'll be better in the morning." The older boy moved his hand to the ill one's forehead and focused his chakra in the way he had been taught to heal.

In the shadows of the room a small snake slithered through a crack to the hall and returned to its master.