"Sasuke, you can barely walk right now, and you still said you were going to hit me earlier. You're really dumb,"
Naruto said as he supported Sasuke while they slowly made their way through the streets of Konoha toward the Uchiha district.
But as they walked, Naruto suddenly realized something — in his current condition, Sasuke couldn't possibly beat him.
"Did I say right now?"
Sasuke paused for a moment and leaned his full weight on Naruto.
This idiot... They were already halfway home, and he was just now realizing that?
He really is kind of dumb. Maybe Kakashi should start giving him more brain-boosting supplements in the future.
"Oh..."
Naruto pouted as he glared at Sasuke but continued to support him as they walked.
Even though Sasuke always called him stupid and dumb, Naruto genuinely liked how they were getting along lately.
Putting on a pitiful expression didn't bother him at all — in fact, it worked out great.
At the very least, it kept Sasuke's attention focused on him. He cared about him, looked after him, and couldn't bring himself to hit him...
Thinking about this, a small pang of guilt rose in Naruto's heart.
Receiving this care and closeness through an act felt a bit dishonest. What if Sasuke found out one day?
But since he didn't know how long this kind of warmth and closeness would last, he wanted to hold onto it as tightly as he could —
Even just one more day of it would make him happy.
"Sorry about that, I forgot to come pick you up. Thanks for your hard work, Naruto. Go take a bath and get ready for dinner!"
Kakashi stood at the doorway, chuckling as he looked at Naruto's flushed, exhausted face.
Even though he still looked a bit pitiful, this version of Naruto — genuinely tired — was much more pleasant than the overly dramatic, fake-pitiful expressions from earlier.
"Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke needs a bath too. I'll help him back to his room first,"
Naruto said, wanting to complain about Kakashi's negligence, but he was too tired to muster the energy.
Besides, he still had to take care of Sasuke. He didn't trust Kakashi to do a good job with that.
And also… bathing, huh?
If he helped Sasuke take a bath, wouldn't that bring them even closer?
"I can bathe by myself."
Sasuke, now back in his room with Naruto's help, immediately felt awkward when he saw Naruto starting to take off his own clothes as if they were going to bathe together.
In his memory, sure, he'd been bathed by his parents or his brother — but that was when he was two or three years old.
He really couldn't bring himself to be helped at this age…
"You're the patient right now. You have to listen to me."
Naruto glared at Sasuke, showing an unusually firm attitude for once.
"I—"
Just as Sasuke was about to insist he could manage on his own, he heard the system prompt and reluctantly closed his eyes.
**[Host's body is weak. Naruto is eager to help others. Please choose:
1. Accept Naruto's help.
2. Refuse help but fall and attract Naruto over.
3. Bathe with great difficulty on your own.
4. Skip the bath.]**
The system's options left Sasuke utterly resigned.
His coordination had simply been disrupted by the Eight Trigrams technique—how did that translate into him only being able to bathe with difficulty?
To avoid creating a bigger scene, Sasuke reluctantly chose option one.
They were both boys, after all. Bathing together shouldn't be a big deal.
Back then, he'd even been to public bathhouses—everyone was male, so what's the problem?
---
"Sasuke's body's pretty nice... He's way fairer than me, and also..."
In the bathroom, while helping Sasuke bathe, Naruto couldn't help but comment and compare aloud.
Throughout this, only Naruto's constant comparisons and laughter could be heard. Sasuke mostly kept his eyes shut, ignoring the guy's nonsense.
Outside, Kakashi—who had come over to check in out of concern—paused after hearing Naruto's chatter. The endless commentary suddenly reminded him of Might Guy.
That acorn-head…
But what baffled Kakashi even more was: how was this little rascal Naruto still so energetic after losing? Shouldn't he be all dejected and dramatic like that idiot Guy?