Don't Come After Me
Don't Come After Me
Sasuke was a mile away from Konoha, one freakin' mile. A distance he could have easily covered in under five minutes, when he felt it. He wasn't sure what it was at first. All he knew was that it was worst thing he had ever felt and he never wanted to feel it again.
The 18-year-old Uchiha clenched his fist over his heart when he was hit with another pang, this one stronger than the last. His foot caught on a branch and he fell. He could vaguely hear the shouts of teammates trying to make sure he was ok. He registered none of this until he felt the air leave his lungs when he slammed into the ground.
"Sasuke are you ok?" Sakura asked when she reached his side. He couldn't speak due to the lack of air he was currently getting so he gritted his teeth and nodded. Kakashi walked over and helped him up. "You sure?"
Pang!
There it was again. Sasuke fell to his knees and grabbed his chest. 'What is going on? Where is this coming? Why doesn't it physically hurt'? Those were just some of the questions running through the stoic man's head.
Suddenly, a single word passed through his mind. Actually it was a single name.
"Naruto!"
Sasuke didn't wait to mention what he was doing. He just got up and ran like hell. He knew something was wrong and he was going to kill whoever was doing this to his dobe.
--
Sasuke had been back in the village for a little over two years now and the very next day was his and Naruto's one year anniversary. And Lady Tsunade had the nerve to send him on a mission where he might not make it back in time. It also happened to be Naruto 18th birthday.
--
The raven had come back for one sole purpose, one that he never shared with anyone and no one ever asked anyways. He came back for Naruto, his dobe.
He didn't like what he felt the moment he stepped back into the village. Something was off but he couldn't put his finger on what it was. So he did what he always did; he shrugged and continued walking.
The moment Sasuke reached the Hokage Tower he figured out what was wrong. It was too quiet. Sure there were normal village noises and whatnot but something was missing.
Where was his dobe?
Even if no one knew he was back yet, Naruto had a six sense about this kind of thing. Or seventh or eighth, however many extra ones he seemed to have.
When reached the Hokage's office, the Uchiha heir didn't bother knocking.
When she heard the door open, Tsunade looked up from her work. Or at least from her desk. The chances of anyone actually catching her doing work were about the same as Naruto not wanting ramen.
"Uchiha." The woman seethed. She wasn't going to easily forgive the man in front of her for what he did to Naruto.
"Why are you here?" Tsunade asked when he didn't speak. "I want to come home." That was as simple as he could make it.
"What of Orochimaru?"
"Dead."
"And your brother?"
"No."
Tsunade blinked in confusion. "What about your revenge? I thought that was the most important thing to you"
"It was and it still is important. I've just had some time to straighten my priorities." Sasuke replied. "I see." She paused to think.
"What about your plans for restoring your clan?"
"I still have them." Tsunade raised an eyebrow when he didn't go on.
"Are you going to elaborate?"
"No."
"Fine then, be that way. Now about your re-assimilation into the village…"
After an hour of listening to Tsunade babble on about all his new rules she finally allowed him to leave.
As the raven haired man reached the door he remembered something he wanted to ask. "Where's Naruto?" He asked without turning around.
He heard Lady Tsunade sigh. He didn't like the saddened tone in it. "He's at home." She said just as sadly, if not even more so.
Sasuke's hand was still frozen between himself and the door. He couldn't decide if he wanted to see what was wrong for himself or hear from her first. He walked back to her desk and really paid attention for the first time in the hour and a half that he had been there.
"You have no idea what you did to him when you left." She said as she opened a drawer. She pulled out a bottle of sake and two cups. Then she gestured one to him and he shook his head 'no'.
"What happened?" He asked after the Gondaime took a drink of the foul liquid. "After you left, Naruto slowly went into a spiraling depression. No one even noticed what was happening to him. Then he went with Jiraiya to train so no one even saw him for over two years." She finished of her second cup.
"When he came back still no one noticed the change in him. It took three more months after that for us to finally realize what was going on."
Sasuke was listening so intently that every time she paused, the silence deafening. "How did you find out he was depressed?"
"At first it was little things. He started to withdraw quite a bit. He was barely seen eating, even at Ichiraku's. When he was seen there he wouldn't even finish his first bowl." Sasuke couldn't help but to chuckle at the thought of the way Naruto eats ramen.
At the interruption, Tsunade tossed the now empty sake bottle aside and pulled out two new ones. "Are you sure you don't want any?" This time he took the offered bottle. He thought he was going to need a little something to calm his nerves.
"His friends started noticing that he always seemed tired and that he was getting thinner. Iruka and Kakashi both tried talking to him but he kept insisting that he was fine. Finally they were concerned enough to bring him to me, though it was rather unwillingly.
I had him undergo a psyche evaluation and it was confirmed that he was depressed. But that wasn't even the worst of it." She had to take a break here because tears were starting to well up in her eyes. It was still difficult for her to believe that Naruto of all people was acting that way.
The Uchiha waited patiently for her to regain her composure before asking, "He didn't try to kill himself, did he?"
"No it never got that bad, thank Kami. I had him start taking an anti-depressant and it seemed to be working. But a week after the meds kicked in he started lashing out at people and he rarely left his apartment. It was horrible to see him like that and there wasn't much I could do to help him.
On one of the rare occasions that Naruto left his home, he ran into Neji and it's a good thing he did or else he might have died." Tsunade had to take another pause here.
She had almost finished her third bottle and Sasuke drank just enough to keep him self calm for the moment.
It took almost ten minutes for her to continue. "Naruto looked like the walking dead. His skin was pasty, his eyes were blood shot, and you could see his ribs poking out. The moment Neji saw him he activated his byakugan. Naruto's chakra was almost completely depleted.
His immediate reaction was to bring him to me. But of course he wasn't going to move on his own so Neji tried to grab him. In his weakened state it wasn't that difficult. His jacket ripped in the process revealing scars and half healed wounds on his arms. Apparently, Kyuubi refused to heal self-inflicted wounds unless they were life threatening.
By this point, a few more of his friends were trying to help but they all froze when they saw the cuts. Naruto completely broke down right there in the middle of the street."
As strong as the Gondaime was, she couldn't keep going after that. Sasuke had paled and seemed to be in shock. Someone suddenly spoke up.
"It turned out that Naruto never took his medication." Neither Tsunade nor Sasuke remember the door opening or Sakura standing against a wall during most of the story.
The Uchiha heir turned around as she walked up to him. She didn't seem upset or shocked to see him. There was evidence that she had been crying while listening to the retelling of Naruto's depression.
"He's gotten a little better now. But I have to take his medication to him every day or else he won't take it himself." The pink haired girl explained. "Do you want to go see him?"
He couldn't speak at the moment so he nodded and followed her to the door.
"Sasuke…" The Hokage started. He looked over his shoulder. "Please don't do anything that might upset." He rolled his eyes, like he would do anything that stupid. "Oh yeah and welcome home."
--
Well this is a first for me. I don't have many stories post on this site but I do on several others. My stories are usually very lovey dovey but I've been feeling rather depressed lately and I've read a lot of these so I wrote one myself. Not sure how many chapters it'll be. Not many I know that for sure but we'll see. Oh, it would be real nice if you reviewed. Thank you