Thunder part one

A/N: this was going to be a one shot but it was getting kinda long for me to keep track of.

Disclaimer: If I owned manga updates would actually progress and not be just filler.

Warnings: mild bad language, nothing really else.

Thunder boomed outside the small apartment, shaking the walls in the process. Sasuke sighed before placing a new cooling pack on Naruto's flaming forehead. He glanced outside the window. Rain was coming down in sheets. It sounded like millions of needles hitting against the window pane.

"How the heck did I get stuck on Dobe duty?" That question had run through his mind a dozen times since he arrived earlier that morning. He stood up to stretch his sore legs and dispose of the small pile of trash that had accumulated next to the bed. He left the small room and headed for the kitchen. Today definitely wasn't turning into what he thought it would be.

Sasuke arrived at the bridge ahead of the others as usual and leaned against the rail watching the fish below. Team 7 was supposed to get a mission today, well that was if Kakashi-sensei showed up in enough time for them to not get passed over again for once. He noticed the reflection of the overhead sky in the water. It was over cast and the clouds were darker than usual. In short it was going to rain either during the day or at least start before night fall.

Sakura arrived next ultimately ruining his peaceful silence with her annoying questioning, like usual. He ignored her to the best of his ability and only responded with an Uchiha "hn" when necessary. He glanced at his watch. It was pasted their scheduled meeting time and only half of them where present. "Where the hell was the Dobe?"

Kakashi arrived an hour later with a scroll instead of his usual porno book in hand.

"Yo!"

"You're late sensei." Sakura stomped her foot as she spoke.

"Now Sakura-san I have an excuse this time. I was with Lord Hokage." He waved the scroll in his hand. "That being said, we won't have a mission today. Naruto's sick with the flu or something like that. Also since that puts a hamper on things, Iruka-sensei said that you two would be welcome to help out at the academy. The day care center is still shorthanded." Sakura smiled. Sasuke grimaced on the inside. The idea of babysitting little kids did not appeal to him at all.

Kakashi noticed the twitch in Sasuke's eye when he mentioned the word kids. The boy maybe stoic, but that didn't mean you couldn't read him like a book if you knew what to look for. A devious idea struck him at that very moment that had him grinning ear to ear. If it went as planned the boy's feathers would definitely be riled for a while.

"Well . . . if you didn't want to help out with the kids . . . you could always check up on Naruto. I mean he does live alone and all. I would gladly do it, but the Hokage asked me to do this mission for him." He again waved the scroll. "Well it's your choice." He waved bye before disappearing into smoke.

It wasn't as if the choice was hard. Look in on Naruto once or deal with a bunch of snot nosed kids. The latter definitely wasn't an option if he could help it.

Sasuke stared at the door in front of him. Did the dobe really live in a shit hole like this? He glanced around, noticing that no one was around he raised his hand and rapped on the door a few times with the back of his knuckles. He glared at the door when he was met with silence. He tried again, and again was met with silence. Annoyed he tried the door knob and was disturbed when it turned easily in hand. Baka didn't even lock his door. He sighed before going into the apartment, if he could even call it that.

"Dobe, you home?" Silence rang out in the nearly bare apartment.

Sasuke made his way through the various rooms. He found the kitchen easy enough. The kitchen was mostly bare, with the exception of a few cups and ramen bowls sitting next to the sink. There was a table with a weird looking potted plant sitting on it dividing the kitchen and what he presumed was the living room. There was a shabby brown sofa that looked twice as old as he was sitting against the wall and a coffee table against the window with more plants on it. There was a short hallway next to the edge of the sofa. He made his way down. Two closed doors met him at the end, one on either side of him. He opened the one on his left first. It was a bathroom. Sasuke cringed when he saw the shower. The curtain seemed to be changing colors on its own and the tub appeared to be molding near the pipes. He quickly closed the door before he decided to lose his lunch.

Sasuke stared at the door for a second before opting not to knock. He opened the door and found Naruto passed out half on and off of his bed, or rather mattress on the floor. Clothes were strewn all over the floor on the far side of the room and hung oddly out of a small chest of drawers. Said blonde was clad in a white sleeveless tank and a pair of dark blue shorts that had ramen cups on them. Sasuke rolled his eyes. Only Naruto would wear something on his clothes that has the same name as he did. He walked over and shook his shoulder.

"Hey wake up. You're falling off your bed." He flinched at the touch of Naruto's heated skin. It was way too hot for his liking. Naruto's eyes fluttered open as he groaned.

"Leave me alone Iruka," he mumbled. Sasuke glared. The vein above his eye twitched in annoyance.

"Wake up dobe." Naruto jerked upright in recognition of the voice. He glanced up into midnight black eyes before sheepishly looking away. A bit of a darker red tint to his already flushed cheeks.

"What are you doing here teme?" There was no malice behind his voice, more of a bewildered tone to it.

"Kakashi told me to check up on you." Of course, thought Naruto. "Anyway how do you expect to get better with that kind of sleeping posture?"

"Shut up teme." He sighed before flopping back on the bed. "It's not really my fault anyway. I kinda just walked in and passed out." He kept his eyes focused on the far side of the room, furthest from where Sasuke stood. Sasuke's frown deepened.

"You passed out? What idiotic thing were you doing before it?" Naruto turned and glared at him. He wasn't liking how red his face was from the short time that he'd been up and moving.

"Retching, if you must know. I think the cold medicine I have is expired instead of helping if felt like it made it worse." Naruto moaned as a wave of dizziness hit him harder than before.

"Stay here. I'll be right back, Dobe." Before he could look up, Sasuke was gone and he heard the click of the front door.

Sasuke glanced up at the sky as he jumped onto the roof of the building next to the complex. The sky was getting darker. With luck he could make it back to Naruto's and then his own home before it started down pouring. He put a bit more chakra into his feet before making his way back into the shopping district. He spotted the shop he knew was rarely visited on days like this.

The shop was small, but seemed to have a little bit of everything in it. It was run by an elderly couple that seemed to be immortal. For as long as he knew of that little shop was opened and run by the same people since his parents were little. He walked in and heard the small bell attached to the door ring as he stepped through it. He waved at the old woman behind the counter who gave him a large smile.

"Welcome, young one. Is there something specific I can help you find?" He shook his head and headed to the far side of the store.

He walked down an aisle, scanned the boxes before grabbing one and heading to another aisle. He grabbed a few cans of easy soup and a small case of bottled water. He headed to the counter. She smiled again as she ran him up. He paid and grabbed his bags. He waved as he walked out the door.

"Bye dearie, come back again if you need anything else."

Sasuke made his way back to the shithole Naruto called an apartment. Didn't the Dobe get money from the Hokage like the rest of the orphans? The dobe probably used the money for ramen and the small paychecks they got from missions on rent and utilities.

"Baka."

He arrived ten minutes later at the apartment. Favoring to go straight up the ninja way and avoiding the unreliable stairs. He opened the door and walked in without knocking. He closed and attempted to lock the door behind him, but found the lock to be broken. He sighed and rolled his eyes. Baka.

"Naruto you awake?" Silence answered him. "Guess not." He turned the corner and dropped the bag instantly. "NARUTO!"

Naruto lay sprawled out on the floor. Broken glass surrounded by a puddle of water was next to him. Sasuke rushed to his side and turned the blonde over onto his back. He gently shook the blonde's shoulder.

"Wake up Dobe. Come on wake up." Sasuke placed his hand on Naruto's forehead and silently cursed at how hot it was beneath his fingertips. This was not good. "Wake up, please just wake up . . . please Naru wake up." A few moments later the blonde moaned and his eyes fluttered open. Blue eyes stared into onyx. They were laced with mixed emotions that confused him to no end, worry, fear, relief, and compassion.

"Sasuke? What happened?" His voice was quiet, barely above a whisper. His eyes fluttered nearly all the way closed again; instead they remained only a fraction apart staring into the onyx ones that were staring back.

"Dobe don't scare me like that. I thought you were dead when I walked in." he nearly growled. "What do you think you are doing out of bed anyway?" Naruto moaned as a headache stated to make itself known.

"I went to get some water and then on the way back everything just went black."

"Dobe, couldn't you have waited until I got back and got it for you? Did you really have to push yourself that far just to wind up on the floor unconscious?" Naruto moved his head and eyes away from him." His face contorted in a mixture of guilt and pain.

"I . . . I didn't think you would coming back." Sasuke glare at the boy beneath his hands.

"I said I was coming back, why would you think I was lying?" A bit of unintentional anger leaked into his voice.

"No one else would have, except for Iruka-sensei." Sasuke's eyes widened a fraction at the statement. Did Naruto really think that way? That nobody would care in the slightest if something happened to him? What about his friends? Hell even he had at least one friend so Naruto should have at least a few that would try to help.

"Come on let's get you back to bed. I will get you some water and some medicine while I'm at it."

Sasuke helped Naruto to his feet and all but carried the blonde back into his room and helped him lay down before returning to the entryway where he had dropped the bag. He fished out the box of cold medicine and took out a few of the tablets. He grabbed one of the bottles of water and headed back down the hall.

Naruto was asleep when he returned. He shook him awake and helped him sit up before handing over the medicine and a now opened bottle of water. Naruto quickly downed the pills and half the bottle of water before handing it back to Sasuke. A flash of light caught his attention. Sasuke looked out the window. The sky was now pitch black and every few seconds lightning lit up the sky. Sasuke cursed silently. There was no way he was going to make it home before it started down pouring.

"I'll be right back with the thermometer. Don't move from here." Naruto nodded and let his head fall back onto his pillow.

Sasuke made his way back to the kitchen where he left the bag and water. He opened the thermometer and turned it on. He put it down and started going through the cabinets in the kitchen, taking in a mental inventory of what the blonde had in his apartment. The thermometer beeped. He grabbed it and returned to the bedroom. Naruto was out again when he arrived.

He shook the blonde's shoulder. Naruto moaned and swatted at the hand.

"Hey, wake up Dobe." Naruto moaned and swatted the hand away again. Sasuke withheld his growing need to roll his eyes at the sleeping teen. "If you don't get up now than it's going up your ass." Naruto's eyes snapped open.

"There's no way in hell you're putting anything up my ass!" Naruto yelled. Sasuke scoffed. Naruto was about to retaliate when he was struck with a wave of coughs.

"Baka! That's why you don't yell when you're sick. Now open." He all but shoved the thermometer down his throat. Naruto glared at him until the thermometer beeped. Sasuke's frown deepened when he read it: 103.8°F. [39.9°C] Any higher and the Dobe could actually die.

"Don't call me a baka, Teme." He said when he finally could breathe again, well more or less. Sasuke threw off the blanket that had somehow remained on the bed and ordered Naruto to get up.

"Come on Dobe, we're leaving." Sasuke made his way to the door to get the rest of the supplies he had bought.

"Why would I go anywhere I'm sick remember?" Naruto folded his arms across his chest.

"You're coming with me to my house. Unless you'd rather let your fever get worse and ultimately die. It wouldn't be any skin off my back. Actually let's go with that option, maybe I could get a more reliable teammate. Later." Sasuke walked out the door and waited for the inevitable call from the Dobe.

"Teme wait for me. At least let me change before we leave. Stupid Teme wait for me." Sasuke heard Naruto rummaging around in his room. A victorious smirk graced his face as he made his way back to the kitchen to refill the bag.

A/N: please review. Flames are welcome as long as they just don't say this sucks or something. If you do flame at least tell me why you didn't like it.

If you want please read some of my other works. Be advised that What They Don't Know will be reuploaded and corrected most likely this summer since it's going way too slow for my likeing.