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Naruto felt the throbbing in his temples long before he registered the fact that he was lying on the ground, the long grass tickling his cheeks and hands. It was pitch black but he could hear someone calling his name. Why couldn't he see anything? Could he be caught in a genjutsu?

"Open your eyes, moron."

'Oh.'

Naruto raised his heavy lids just an inch, only to slam them shut once more as a vicious stabbing pain travelled from the back of his skull, to a point right above his right eye. He groaned and put a hand to the spot, gingerly lifting his bangs until he found a large bump, at the edge of the hairline.

"What happened?" he mumbled.

Something nudged his leg--hard--and Naruto winced. 'That would be Sasuke.'

"You fell out of a tree, idiot." The bastard sounded disgusted and Naruto opened his eyes cautiously, to see if the expression on his face would match. It did.

"I didn't fall out of the damned tree," Naruto replied. He would have scowled, but frowning made his temples throb harder and set off little sparks of colour behind his eyelids and Naruto didn't think that was a good thing.

"Then how do you explain /this/?" A finger tapped against his forehead, making his world explode into painful flashes of light.

"FUCK. Don't do that you bastard," Naruto hissed, blindly moving a hand to swat at Sasuke. His stomach roiled and he slumped to the side a bit and dry heaved onto the ground.

Sasuke watched him silently, then got the water pack out of the supply bag Sakura had left them and held the canteen to Naruto's lips.

"Don't gulp it, you'll just throw up," he said, sounding rather detached. But he wasn't moving from Naruto's side, so the blond took that as a good sign. He sipped carefully at the water until his stomach unclenched and his throat stopped trying to crawl up out of his mouth.

He gave Sasuke a small smile when he finished with the water, and pushed the canteen back into Sasuke's hands.

"Thanks."

"Hn." Sasuke took back the canteen with a stony expression and Naruto felt the smile slip from his face.

'Well fuck you too, bastard.'

He tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness and nausea quickly made him lie back down.

"Did something attack us?" he asked, fuzzily. "I kind of remember this loud noise and a big ball of fire rushing towards us..."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and sat down, loosely clutching the water pack in his hands.

"You fell out of the /tree/," he said, "because some stupid firework spooked you."

"Firework?"

Sasuke angled his chin up a bit and Naruto followed with his eyes until he was staring at the night sky above them. It was a normal looking sky. A few sprinkling of stars, some clouds, thin strip of moon curving at the corner of Naruto's vision. He didn't know what Sasuke was talking abou-

A sudden burst of colour came screaming up over the trees, pinwheels of fire sending sparks shooting through the sky before fading off with a dying whistle. Naruto's eyes widened and he groped for a kunai that wasn't there.

"Holy shit/. Sasuke where the hell's my stuff? We /are under attack..."

He tried to sit up but a hand was suddenly pushing him onto the ground, putting pressure on his chest. Naruto glared up at Sasuke, hands fisting into the grass in an effort not to punch the scowling face above him. He was still seeing double and wasn't really certain the punch would connect anyway.

"What the fuck's your problem?"

Sasuke gripped his shirt a little and shook him. White-hot pain lanced through Naruto's skull and he winced. Immediately, Sasuke released him, but he didn't move far.

"Stay down," the Uchiha hissed. "Don't you listen to a single word I say? You have a concussion/, idiot. That means you need to rest before you fall down /again and make it worse."

"But-"

"We aren't under attack. Haven't you ever seen fireworks before?"

Another burst of colour flared in the sky with a sharp bang, and glittering tails of fire spread out in an arc from its center. Naruto decided it looked kind of pretty for something mimicking a deadly fire jutsu. He dropped the tension in his shoulders and eased back down on the ground, placing a hand behind his neck for comfort.

"Heh...well no, not in person," he explained sheepishly. "I don't really go out to festivals much."

That was true. Naruto tended to stay indoors on nights when the civilians of Konoha roamed the streets. They didn't need a reminder that the kyuubi container was still amongst them, and he didn't need a reminder that a lot of people still hated him and wished he were dead, thank you very much.

He supposed he could have watched the fireworks from the roof of his apartment, but it didn't seem appealing to watch an event you could never really be a part of.

Naruto moved his head gingerly to the side to sneak a peek at Sasuke. The boy was staring somewhere in the vicinity of Naruto's left foot, looking vaguely guilty. Well, he'd have to put a stop to that.

"What festival are they celebrating anyway?" he asked, cheerfully.

Sasuke snorted and drew his legs up to his chest. "Don't you ever read the missions details Kakashi-sensei gives us?"

"Why should I, when you and Sakura-chan 'll just fill in the blanks later?"

"Ch." Sasuke wrapped an arm around his knees and rested his chin against it. Naruto resisted the urge to tell him he looked like a sulky three-year-old. His head wasn't ready for the kind of blunt force trauma that would result from such a statement.

"Star Festival," Sasuke mumbled eventually. "Celebrating the legend of some princess of something."

"Which princess?"

"Does it matter, dobe?"

Naruto smirked in triumph. "You didn't read the missions details either, did you Sasuke? Lazy."

"At least I'm not a totally useless moron who fell out of a tree."

"Oi!" Naruto sat upright and quickly regretted it. His vision blurred and nausea twisted in his gut. "Bas...tard," he panted, keeping his breaths shallow so that he wouldn't spew all over himself.

"Lie back down, moron," Sasuke ordered. "If you throw up in this spot I'm not moving you."

"Fuck you," Naruto mumbled, but he slumped back obediently, into the soothing coolness of the grass. His eyes burned and he shut them wearily. Why did Sasuke have to be such a bastard? He could at least pretend like he cared that Naruto felt so miserable.

'No, showing a little bit of concern might break his face or something.' Naruto snorted quietly at the thought and let his head drop to one side so that strands of grass rubbed against his cheek. 'Mmm...nice and cool.'

"Hey..."

Naruto heard the voice but decided to ignore it. The cool grass felt so good against his sweaty skin and the whistle of fireworks was fading into the background. Maybe he could catch a few winks before Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei came back from their scouting trip...

"Hey."

Naruto groaned a little at the irritating buzz that rasped next to his ear. He titled further onto his side, away from it, and nuzzled his face into the grass. If he tried really hard, he could imagine the colours that throbbed behind his closed eyes every few minutes were really dancing bowls of ramen.

'Mmm, ramen.'

A hand grabbed at his shirt and he was shaken roughly. Pain exploded out from his temples to the back of his neck as his head thumped on the ground with every shake. Naruto's eyes snapped open and Sasuke's angered face spun dizzily before him.

"/Fuck/," Naruto whimpered, in too much pain to do more than that.

Sasuke seemed to realize that he was making it worse and he stopped shaking him. But he kept a hand on Naruto's shoulder, digging his nails into the fabric of his jacket.

"Don't fall asleep, moron. What part of you have a concussion don't you understand?" Sasuke scolded.

Naruto scowled, baring his teeth. He'd had enough of this shit.

"Look Sasuke, I'm frikken tired okay? My head hurts and your conversation isn't exactly interesting enough for me to want to stay awake. And if you fucking shake me again I'm going to pass out whether you like it or not!"

Naruto shut his eyes again and he waited. After a few moments, Sasuke's hand slid from his shoulder and Naruto sighed. Why did the black-haired boy have to make everything so difficult? He wished Sakura-chan were back. She might yell at him for getting hurt, but she wouldn't keep on hurting him just because she was annoyed.

A noise sounded to Naruto's right, and he guessed that Sasuke was moving back to his usual five-feet-from-anyone-in-the-vicinity position. Which was why he almost choked in surprise when, a second later, something that felt suspiciously like dry lips were being pressed to his own.

His eyes shot open, but Sasuke was already moving away, a small flush on his cheeks. Naruto gaped at him and propped himself up on his elbows.

"W...What the fuck was that for?"

"What was what?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed. He wasn't seriously going to try to pretend like he hadn't just done that, was he?

"You kissed me," Naruto accused, sputtering.

"How would you know?" Sasuke mocked, his head lowered so that Naruto couldn't meet his eyes. "I'm not interesting enough to pay attention to, remember?"

"You are such an /asshole/! You know, if my head didn't feel like someone was smashing it with a hammer I'd come over there and...and...ungh..."

Naruto swayed on his elbows and fell back against the ground. Sasuke's head shot up and he moved a bit closer, his expression wavering between concern and annoyance.

"What?"

"I...oh shit.../ugh/." Naruto let his head loll back and frowned, breathing heavily through his mouth. He peeked out from between slitted eyes and saw Sasuke hovering over him, his anxious face a few inches from his own.

Naruto smirked and quickly grabbed the back of Sasuke's neck, forcing his lips down to meet his own. He heard Sasuke grunt in surprise and a pair of strong hands dug painfully into his shoulders, but the other boy didn't pull away so Naruto deepened the kiss, praying that Sasuke wouldn't punch him.

Sasuke lips were dry, but full, and Naruto slid his tongue along them curiously, enjoying the way Sasuke gasped and parted them just a bit. Becoming bolder at the lack of resistance, Naruto pushed his tongue through the part of Sasuke's lips and began to explore the inside of the Uchiha's mouth.

Sasuke made a low noise in his throat that Naruto could feel reverberating in his own. He angled his head a bit and swiped his tongue across Sasuke's, feeling the silky wetness of it, before coming up to stroke the sensitive roof of Sasuke's mouth.

Naruto hummed a bit as he felt Sasuke's fingers bear down on his shoulder hard enough to bruise. He rubbed his thumb against the soft, spiky strands of hair at the nape of Sasuke's neck, smiling when the other boy arched into the touch. He slid his tongue out of Sasuke's mouth and nipped a bit at the other boy's jaw, feeling more dizzy then he had a few minutes ago when he'd tried to sit up. The throbbing in his head had suddenly been replaced with a more insistent throbbing in his groin.

Sasuke shifted against him and Naruto groaned loudly. The sound seemed to snap Sasuke from whatever trance he'd been in and he pulled back with a hiss of air between his teeth.

They looked at each other for a few seconds, a myriad of emotions flashing in Sasuke's eyes, running from wonder and fear to guilt and disgust. Naruto swallowed hard and tried to make a soothing motion with his fingers, which were still gently cupping the back of Sasuke's neck.

The Uchiha stiffened and then abruptly pushed away, stalking over to a distant tree and leaning against it, his back to Naruto.

Naruto cautiously rose to a sitting position, one hand going to his head where the lump was finally receding, and the other going to his mouth. He stroked his own lips softly, trying to catalogue the taste of Sasuke on them. It was a flavour he couldn't really describe, but it was one he wanted more of if he could have it.

He looked across the clearing at the rigid line of Sasuke back and sighed. He had a feeling he wouldn't be getting close enough to wrestle another kiss from Sasuke for a very long time.

'Difficult,' Naruto thought to himself, shaking his head. Sasuke's ears and the back of his neck were flushing a nice pink colour and Naruto smiled. 'Hot though. Definitely hot.'

When Kakashi and Sakura found them a few minutes later, Sasuke was still faced away from Naruto against the tree. Naruto greeted them enthusiastically and listened to Sakura's excited ramblings about the festival attractions and the deal she had been able to strike with an innkeeper for a reasonably cheap room for the night that was close to where their mark was staying, but he kept one eye on Sasuke who was doing his best to ignore everybody.

Sakura didn't seem to notice the extra tension, but Kakashi looked at the two boys suspiciously.

"Something happen while we were away?" he asked casually, bringing a familiar orange book out of his pack and beginning to flip through it.

"No," Sasuke replied, sulkily, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Just some fireworks, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto added, catching Sasuke's eyes with his own and swiping a thumb across his lower lip. He grinned as Sasuke's eyes widened and chuckled softly to himself.

'This isn't over, Uchiha.'



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Fin.