AN: Kind of a boring chapter, I apologize. I'm so lame for not getting back to all of your encouraging reviews and I know this means I fail as a human being, but I don't think y'all understand just how lazy I can be. You're reviews are very much appreciated, and if you ever have a direct question or concern, or even an idea for the story, I promise I'll get back to you personally!

Mmm, sunlight, go away. Wait, sunlight?

Sasuke shifted beneath his sheets and rolled over, propping himself up on an elbow. The blinds were only partially closed over his window and outside he could see the warm light of day pouring over the tops of trees. A thin band shot straight across the head of his bed, and, as the sun had risen higher in the sky, conspired to disturb his sleep.

But Sasuke was still confused. He didn't understand how he'd ended up in bed. The last thing he could remember was…well feeling bad for being such an asshole. He refused to admit he had cried over it, but he had, curling up into a sad, pathetic little ball on the floor. Remembering that horrible break in his sanity as well as in his pride, he rubbed his sore eyes and frowned.

So then, how had he gotten here? Rolling the comforter back, he threw his legs over the edge of the bed and blinked groggily at the tatami mats covering the hardwood floor. Licking his chapped lips, he carefully swallowed and winced. His throat still hurt like a bitch. Standing on shaky legs, he shuffled awkwardly to the adjacent bathroom.

For a time he stood in front of the sink staring blankly at his reflection. The cut on his head had bloomed darker bruises around the bandage, but they were nothing compared to the purpled bruises clinging beneath his eyes. With all the dreamless sleeping he had been doing recently, he would have thought they didn't belong there but he still felt bone deep tired despite this.

Chewing his lip habitually, he combed his bangs back to inspect the cut a little better, tentatively removing the bandage. The cut didn't look as bad as the bruises had made him fear, but he could feel the beginning of a terrible headache starting to take root. After a little further prodding, he replaced the bandage and moved further into the bathroom to turn the shower on, letting the water warm up before removing his clothes.

Climbing in, he sighed in relief, letting his bones turn to jelly in appreciation of the scalding water running over his skin. He made sure to clean himself well, realizing he hadn't gotten a shower in two days, and hating the thought of being somehow soiled and dirty for an unnecessary extended amount of time. On missions, it was completely understandable and he didn't mind, but deliberately not taking one when time and a bathroom permitted it made it seem disgusting.

He somehow knew he had slept the rest of yesterday away, no matter how he had gotten into bed. He just didn't know what time of day it was now. And he also didn't know how he was going to deal with Naruto. He couldn't apologize. He never apologized. But he wanted to somehow make it up to him. He'd have to think on a discrete way to do that.

He began to extend his awareness with thoughts of trying to locate Naruto so he knew how to avoid him when he finished his shower and ventured downstairs, but just as soon as he thought he might have seen a flicker of blotchy dark purple on the backside of the house, his headache sent a burst of sharp icicles behind his eyes and he quickly withdrew, sucking in a deep breath.

Rubbing his temples for a moment, he dipped his head back under the stream of now warm water, rinsing out suds and conditioner before stepping out of the shower stall. Drawing the curtain closed behind him, he tousled his hair dry with a towel and moved to stand back in front of the sink.

Rubbing condensation off the mirror so his face was framed by fog and water droplets, Sasuke combed and parted his hair with his fingers until he felt it was presentable and moved back out into the bedroom.

Throwing the towel over the back of his desk chair to dry, he pulled open a drawer and grabbed a pair of briefs and black pants. The pants felt a little loose but they still clung acceptably well to his hips and so he chose to ignore it. Returning back to the bathroom, he scooped up his discarded clothes and threw them in the hamper before pulling another sleeveless shirt from the closet.

Yanking it on, he hesitantly opened his bedroom door and waited, listening for any sounds of his—he hated to admit it—caretaker. Upon hearing nothing, he slipped out of the doorway and soundlessly descended the stairs. From there he could hear a dull thwacking sound that led him through the foyer, down the entry hall and into the kitchen where he found Naruto repeatedly slamming his fists against a wooden dummy. The doors were open just as they had been the day before, and Sasuke stood numbed, watching as Naruto beat his fists to a pulp.

Suddenly growing angry, Sasuke grit his teeth and stomped out into the sunlight, ignoring the way the glare made his head throb. What was the dobe thinking, ruining his knuckles like that? What if they were suddenly called out on a mission? It would impair his ability to defend himself properly!

Naruto didn't even respond to the sound of his none too quiet approach as he tromped across the overgrown yard. Once he had crossed the distance, he didn't even think about what he was doing before he gripped the back of Naruto's damp tank top and yanked him away from the dummy. Twisting him around so he could glare into the other boys eyes, he isntead blinked in complete shock, all traces of his anger vanishing at the sight of the damp trails staining Naruto's scarred cheeks.

Tearing himself away, Naruto scrubbed at his face with the backs of his wrists, and glared up at Sasuke warily. Blood was left streaked across his cheek bone from his torn knuckles.

"What do you want?" Naruto snapped.

Quickly covering his shock, Sasuke tried to sound sarcastic and biting.

"I want you to stop staining my training dummy with your blood," He said, not quite sounding the way he wanted. And instantly whishing he hadn't said anything at all.

Naruto recoiled slightly, and, almost instantaneously, his eyes grew somber and chilly and the anger drained from the posture of his shoulders. He glanced behind him at the red scrapped onto the dark wood of the dummy, and suddenly Sasuke didn't give a shit about whether or not the dummy was stained or fucking on fire, if only he could remove the emptiness he saw beginning to fill Naruto from the ground up. But Sasuke did nothing.

"Sorry," Naruto said. His voice sounded fine, almost normal, but at the same time it wasn't. It lacked life, Sasuke realized, the very life he had come to love more than he had originally thought if the pain in his chest was anything to go by. And here he was smothering it out like a flame in the windowsill.

For the first time in what seemed forever, Sasuke felt unsure. As Naruto spared him one last barren glance and hurried past him, Sasuke remained standing in the yard, expression steeled into a stony stare. All his life, he had known what the next step was, had known what he did and didn't want. He had carried out his actions carefully, before under the watchful eye of his father, and know under the heavy weight of his own expectations.

After his parents death's, he had chosen to cast out the child he had once been, always depending on his brother to care for him and show him the way. Now, he would be strong, he thought, and if he could not even trust his own brother, whom he had loved so dearly, then he could trust no one.

But with this…thing he had become, he was hurting the very person that he could not live without. And he didn't know how to change. He didn't know if he even could.

Arg, why did Tsunade have to place Naruto as his fucking babysitter in the first place! Why? Sasuke glared at the sky, maybe in hopes that an answer would be handed to him, but none was forth coming. Casting his eyes to the grass reaching up towards his knees, he frowned.

His head really was starting to hurt. Like, extremely bad. Turning around, Sasuke walked to the porch and sat down. Covering his eyes with a hand to block out the glare of the sun, he was startled when a small head nuzzled his thigh.

Parting his fingers so he could peer through, he saw the small ginger that had woken him the day before, after the incident.

He hesitated for a moment before allowing himself to return the affection. He had had a small orange tabby when he had been younger. He remembered that his father had not been pleased, but mother had argued. And even Itachi had thought fondly of the small kitten.

But one day, Sasuke had come home to find no warm ball of fluff curled up on his bed. His mom had told him it had run away, and his dad had not said anything at all. But Itachi, he told him what had happened. His father had taken matters into his own hands. No, he hadn't killed the cat, but he had abandoned it somewhere out in the forest, never to be found again. Itachi had always told him the truth of things, even when he had been very young.

The fur beneath his fingers now was a very dark orange, not the same as the pale orange that he had known before. But the cat was very small. Sasuke would even say malnourished.

Picking up the little scraggily thing, he tucked it under his arm were it allowed itself to be manhandled and walked back into the kitchen. Seeing no Naruto that could observe his moment of charity, Sasuke set the cat on the counter and rummaged through a couple cabinets. He didn't see anything he thought a cat might like: a bag of rice, some packets of miso base, a bar of dark chocolate…ah, a can of tuna.

Standing on his tiptoes to snag it off the back of the top shelf, Sasuke eyed it carefully and then glanced at the cat. It was a known fact that cats liked fish, but he didn't really know if it was good for them or not.

"Umm, want this? It's all I've got." He rasped quietly, shaking the can slightly to emphasize what he was talking about. The cat looked up at him with her green eyes and mewed, padding across the counter to nudge Sasuke's wrist.

Shrugging, he took that as a yes.

Popping the tab on the can open, he took a random chopstick out of the drawer and drained some of the water down the sink before poking the fish onto a saucer and placing it beside the cat on the counter.

The little ginger sniffed the plate tentatively, and Sasuke didn't blame her. It didn't look very appetizing to him either. But she carefully liked the tuna before beginning to chomp on the chunky stuff. Watching the cat munch happily on the canned fish, Sasuke allowed himself to smirk slightly before walking to the table in the middle of the sunny kitchen and sitting down. His head was still throbbing dully.

Gently, he placed his forehead on the cool pressed wood. For a moment, he felt himself beginning to fade out when he heard a creak behind him.

"Hey, hey, not so fast or you'll get sick little one."

Sasuke jumped, but didn't lift his head from the table. He suddenly felt too tired. And the sun felt really good on the back of his neck and his bare arms. He hadn't known he had felt so cold.

"Hey, Sasuke, wake up. You have to eat something and take your medicine." The voice came from right behind him, startling Sasuke again but he refused to let him self jump this time. Finally lifting his head from the table, Sasuke glared behind him at Naruto, but secretly he was looking for any sign of damage.

He looked fine enough, with the usual expression he usually reserved for him, one of disdain, maybe even disgust, but his hands were now wrapped in white bandages. Naruto just rolled his eyes halfheartedly at his glare and moved to rummage through his fridge.

"God, you really have nothing in here," he mumbled, voice muffled by the fridge door. "We'll have to go to the store in a bit." Naruto straightened and turned to look at Sasuke. Sasuke just squinted at him, lifting an eyebrow, wondering what he saw,

"You look like shit."

Well, that answered that. Sasuke decided to play it cool, acting like it didn't affect him. He just mimicked Naruto, rolling his eyes and shrugging his shoulders.

Naruto huffed, and walked across the kitchen to pull a cup out of the cabinet, stroking the cat as he passed. Sasuke watched as he also grabbed a little green bottle.

Filling the cup up, Naruto unstopped the bottle, exposing a dropper, and added exactly three clear drops to the glass. Then he walked back to Sasuke, and stared down at him for a moment before setting the glass in front of him.

"Drink that," he said. "All of it." He said it nice enough, but his tone left no room for argument.

Sasuke peered into the clear liquid, skeptical. "What did you just put in it?"

Naruto shrugged as he sat down to the left of Sasuke. "Just something Tsunade made. I don't really now what's in it. It's supposed to help the pain in your throat. There is also another vial of stuff she made to help you sleep. "

Sasuke gave him a look, not liking the idea of being sedated again after last time. He had been sleeping without dreams for the past couple times, but he knew it wasn't going to last forever.

Naruto must have known exactly what he was worrying about because he chuckled and shook his head. "Don't worry so much, Tsunade said it's not strong at all. It's just a push in the right direction.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, not liking that Naruto had seen right through him. And what was so amusing about it anyway?

He propped his chin in his hand, still unwilling to down the glass of water. He turned it in half circles on the table, watching as it made a damp ring on the tabletop.

"Come on Sasuke, stop stalling. We still have to go to the store." Naruto said it in a bored tone, but his leg was jiggling up and down under the table in his usual show of impatience.

Sasuke gripped the glass in his hand, mentally preparing himself for the pain he knew was coming, but that fucking leg was really bothering him. Not even realizing, he put his hand Naruto's knee, glaring daggers at him. His head was really pounding now.

"Stop doing that." He growled.

Naruto immediately stopped, getting up from the table all together.

"Just drink it." He said, moving away. Sasuke put his hand back on the table, staring almost disinterestedly at it. What had he just done? He couldn't even remember thinking that through. Glancing over his shoulder, he was greeted with Naruto's back as he petted the ginger, who was now gleefully licking her lips and purring under the dobe's touch.

Frowning deeply, Sasuke rubbed his temple and picked the glass up, throwing back all its contents as fast as he could. It burnt like hell and left a metallic aftertaste, so much so that he almost felt like throwing up, but he held in the moan of pain he wanted to release. Standing up, he put the cup in the sink and waited for Naruto to notice he was ready. His throat didn't feel up to anymore talk for the day and Naruto didn't seem to like his touch too much, either, so that was the only option left to him.

Finally Naruto looked to him.

"Ready?" He asked. When Sasuke didn't do anything but stare, Naruto shrugged and started to walk to the front of the house. Sasuke followed.

AN: WTF, why is this ending so lame…ugg, I need to read something good to get my levels up again. Help?