SasuNaru Shorts

Here, Let Me Help You

Naruto's POV

I sunk to the ground, panting. I closed my eyes, leaning against the tree I was just using for target practice.

Today, me and Sasuke were out in the forest training. Sakura had a mission with Granny Tsunade, and Kakashi Sensei was doing who knows what. I had just barely managed to convince Sasuke to train with me.

Oww... my hands hurt from throwing all those kunai and shuriken. I wonder if Sasuke's' training is going okay.

I look around. Where is he anyway?

Slowly, I stand. Finally I spot Sasuke against a different tree, looking over his hands. I walk over to him, and sit down in front of him.

"Sasuke, can you hit the target 100% of the time now?" I ask, pointing to the target shape above him.

"Dobe, of course I can." He rolls his eyes, and I notice he moves his hands subtly behind his back, as if trying to make sure I don't see them.

"Why are you hiding your hands?" I lean forward a bit, trying to see them.

"I'm not!" He says, but hides them further.

"Teme. Then show them to me." I say, and poke his arm.

Sasuke leans back as far as he can go, squishing his hands behind him. "Why? They're my hands." Just show them to me already.

"Something's obviously wrong if you're hiding them like that. Plus, I saw you looking them over. And knowing you, you probably went overboard with kunai throwing." I cross my arms.

Sasuke bites the inside of his cheek. "Fine." He closes his eyes and throws his arms in front of me, exposing the many cuts there from kunai training.

"S-Sasuke!? What is all this?" I push his fore-arm-sleeves up, and more cuts show. The ones on his hands are larger, but the many small ones on his arms still look painful. Some of the cuts on his hands are actively bleeding. T-They're bleeding!?

I touch one, and he flinches. "Did I hurt you?" I ask, looking up at him. He's looking away.

"No, I just didn't expect you to touch it." Sasuke responds. I believe him that I didn't hurt him, but they must hurt at least a little bit.

"Well." I sigh, and gently flip his hands over. Even more show on his palms.

Then I notice that he's not wearing his headband. I look around again, and see it on the ground a couple feet away. He seems to notice what I'm looking at.

"It fell off while I was training." Sasuke says, and starts to reach for it. Right as he's about to pick it up, he flinches again, pulling his arm back a couple inches.

The curving of his fingers must hurt. He can't pick it up.

"I'll do it." I push his arm away and take his headband from the ground. I hand it to him to put on.

"Dobe. If I can't pick it up I can't put it on." He rolls his eyes.

"Haha... I guess that's right. Here, let me help you then." I can put his headband on for him.

Sasuke... blushes? He looks side to side for a second, and then nods. I sit up on my knees, and lean forward, placing his headband where he likes it.

I'm glad I pay attention to these things, or I might have put his head band on the wrong spot!

I can't really see around his head, so I unknowingly get closer and closer as I try to tie without seeing. Finally being able to tie it, I start to lean back.

Ah! I'm so close to his face! Pausing halfway through leaning all the way back, I blush and swallow at our close proximity.

"Why in the world are you looking at me like that!?" Sasuke says, a bit louder than normal. He pushes me back by my shoulders, gently to protect his hands.

I sit back down, and although still very close to Sasuke, I let out a mental breath. Then I hold it again. "Teme! Why are your hands still on my shoulders then?" I ask.

"Dobe! I don't know." He moves his hands off my shoulders, wincing a bit as they graze my clothes.

Yeah. Doesn't that hurt? But... Maybe pushing me back was an instinct, and he didn't mean too. Which means he accidentally hurt his hands again by pushing me. Which means it's kinda my fault.

"How'd you even get that many cuts in the first place?" I ask.

"Just training a lot." Sasuke shrugs, and gingerly pokes his headband around a bit.

"Did I put it on right?" I ask a lot of questions.

"Yeah, it's fine." He says.

We sit there for a minute, wondering what to do. Well, maybe he is, but I'm thinking about other things. Why did Sasuke keep his hands on my shoulders for longer? And why was he blushing?

A better question, why was I?

"Um, Sasuke?"

"What?" Sasuke looks at me, right in the eyes.

"I was wondering. Why were you blushing earlier?" I ask. I can't believe I actually just asked that. Oh well. It's not like I can suck those words back in.

"Blushing? When?" He asks, blushing. Um, right now?

"When I was tying your headband." I say.

"Well, because you were close to me. And I... I thought it was strange how you were being so... nice." He states. Sasuke never hesitates. Something must have happened.

I get up on my knees, and start crawling around him. I can't go behind him, because there's a tree, but I look on either side of him, and up and down too.

I mean, nothing looks more injured, but from the way he hid his hands earlier you never know.

"Dobe! What are you doing?" He recoils slightly, bringing his arms up to his chest.

"Looking for other injuries. You've never hesitated like that, so I thought maybe something was very wrong." I stop looking around, and sit next to him. I lean against the same tree, but we're not exactly right next to each other because of the trees' curve.

"I'm not injured in other places. I was honestly just surprised at how much you seemed to care about my hand injuries." Sasuke says. I scoot as close as possible, so our sides are pressed against each other.

I redden slightly. "Teme. I do care. Especially if you're going to be all suspicious about it."

"Hmpf." He sighs. I breathe out and look up through the trees.

I'm glad you're okay Sasuke. Maybe one day I can figure out what these feelings are that I get when I look at you. Maybe one day I'll tell you about them.

But in the meantime, hopefully we can have many more training days together, and act like close friends like this again.

Thanks Sasuke. I really like hanging out with you like this.