Saving Sasuke
Disclaimer: I wish. Song is Saving Me by Nickelback.
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"Life is like an hourglass. Sooner or later, everything hits the bottom. You just have to be patient and wait for someone to turn it around." –Anonymous
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Prison gates won't open up for me
On these hands and knees I'm crawling
Sasuke ran with weakened legs out of the underground base. How many times had he tried to escape and had been caught? Far too many times. He wasn't going to let freedom escape him this time. His legs burned with the exertion. He had been a prisoner for so long that his muscles had deteriorated somewhat. The torture had taken its toll and every step sent blazing daggers into his skin. He stumbled, none of the grace he had been so well-known for in him anymore.
He looked down, more than a little surprised to find himself up to his knees in mud. A sinkhole? When had this gotten here? Not that it mattered too much. He couldn't do a single thing right now, his chakra sealed as it was. He tried and failed to push himself out with his arms. His arms went limp on the branch he had been attempting to use as leverage.
And all I reach for you
I'm terrified of these four walls
Voices…were they really there? He had heard the same voices in that cell. Was he hearing things again?
"I've rarely seen anyone in such a bad state. This generation seems to have a knack for getting themselves into these kinds of situations." That was a woman's voice. No face came with it though.
"Still, how long do you think he was locked up to get this bad?" Man's voice and a shock of silver hair came to mind.
"Probably at least a year. Maybe longer. And we don't know what psychological damage as done."
"We should probably get Naruto over here then."
"That'd be a good plan. If there's anything wrong mentally, Naruto should be able to snap him out of it."
"I'll go find him." The woman seemed to cut the silver haired man off, "You stay here and watch over your student."
Kakashi heard the unsaid meaning: Don't leave him alone again.
At the point, Sasuke's body decided to wake up, his onyx eyes snapping open, wider then they'd been in a long time. The room spun, making a swirling white vortex, with only one focus point: the unruly silver hair with the jounin's uniform. A gloved hand steadied him, its owner speaking again, "Don't try and get up, Sasuke. You were suffering from malnutrition and torture." At Sasuke's blank look, he asked, "Do you know who I am?"
"Why don't you tell us about yourself first?"
"Me? I'm Hatake Kakashi."
"…Kakashi."
These iron bars can't hold my soul
And all I need is you
Come please, I'm calling
Naruto sped through the halls, ignoring the many calls of "This is a hospital!" and "Slow down!". He couldn't slow down, not when Sasuke was back after nine years. His sandaled feet skidded to a stop at the hospital door, white as everything else in the building.
When he saw the person sitting up on the bed, it took him a second to realize it was Sasuke. His obsidian eyes were flat and dull, no longer emotionless, but blank…like he couldn't remember where he was. His cheeks were hollow and his skin wasn't its natural pale, but a sickly pallid color. The hair was unkempt and had lost its usual luster. A hand clenched Naruto's heart so tightly at the sight of the once-strong person looking so defeated, that he feared it would shatter.
Sasuke looked up at the sound of the door opening (Why was it so loud?). The person that stood in the doorway looked dumbstruck, mouth hanging open slightly and eyes wide. The man had wind-swept blonde hair and sun-kissed skin, three whiskered marks on each cheek. He wore a black and orange jacket, open to show a black T-shirt underneath with a blue-green crystal necklace and orange pants. One large hand was clutching his stomach and the big blue eyes were dark with pain. He seemed so familiar and something in his head was smacking him, saying that this person was somebody important.
And all I scream for you,
Hurry, I'm falling…
Kakashi answered the unasked question in Naruto's eyes when the recently-turned twenty-one year old turned his pained gaze at him with a so-so motion with his hand.
"…Sasuke?"
Sasuke met his eyes, and Naruto winced at the empty gaze. He recognized his own name at least. Kakashi stepped back into a corner, staying in case something happened. Naruto took Kakashi's place by the bed and sat in the chair, waiting for something in Sasuke's mind to click, to tell him who he was.
Still, the flat black eyes were without comprehension.
A weak smile flitted across Naruto's face. "Come one, Sasuke. You gotta remember me. You always said I was too loud to forget."
"I'm gonna be Hokage and make everyone acknowledge me!"
This time, the words were questioning, like he couldn't quite fit the pieces together. "…Hokage?"
The smile strengthened. "That's a start. Come on, you know my name."
The effort to remember even that much had exhausted him however, although there was a slightly apologetic look in the pale face, like he really knew he should remember, that the smiling, encouraging person beside him was someone precious.
Show me what it's like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right
And I'll show you what I can be
And say it for me, say it to me
And I'll leave this life behind me.
Say it if it's worth saving me
The person would leave for only short periods of time, Sasuke would notice. Other than that, he was always at his bedside, bringing color into the too white room with its too white blankets and too white walls. He helped Sasuke eat, his own hands being too weak still but he noticed that it was always in a…bento box was what the person called it. There was always tomatoes and onigiri in the bento, no matter what and when Sasuke asked, his voice slowly losing its hoarseness, the person simply smiled in that sad, gentle, honest way and replied, "They were your favorites. I figured you'd wanna eat them again."
And once, when Sasuke asked if the person had a name, they'd chuckled a bit and said, "You can call me whatever comes into your head. You'll figure something out. You're smart."
Sasuke always noticed that the person-his mind couldn't come up with anything to describe this generally happy, loyal person-wouldn't lie to him. If he asked, he always received an answer with a smile that wasn't ever fake, not like some of the other people who came in. Like that girl with the green eyes, her name being something about spring blossoms-her smile had been forced somewhat, like she didn't know who he was.
Kakashi visited regularly too, always with an orange book and smiling an odd smile. His smiles weren't fake, but they were veiled.
"We both made it to the top."
"What's the top?"
Naruto started when he heard that, remembering all those years ago. He grinned delightedly, Sasuke was on the right track. "The tops of the trees, remember, Sasuke? How you could see everything and the air was cleaner and the sky looked like it never ended. We'd run up there, Sasuke, d'ya remember?"
Sasuke did a bit; he remembered this person's face, younger, chubbier and more innocent, and the bright moon over them and the sea of trees that surrounded them before breaking into the real ocean.
"Wanna head back?"
"Sure!"
Heaven's gates won't open up for me
With these broken wings I'm falling
And all I see is you
The physical therapy was hard. His legs didn't move right, he knew that much. It was hard to remember what just plain walking felt like; he'd been running for so long.
The person never held his hand all the way, like the others. He only wrapped two fingers around two of his own and guided him around. Something was beginning to click in his mind, a blonde bright head, the same as this person's and a flame spiraling on a background of white.
The nurses who saw him stumbling and falling would talk. "That poor Uchiha kid. He used to be so good-looking, remember? And so graceful." They would say.
Sasuke would notice the blonde's immediate anger at the nurses, though he tried to hide it. The brilliantly blue eyes had darkened a bit and a frown had made their way to the pink lips.
"There's no way a coward like you is the Sasuke I know. You're the one too freaked out to understand the situation."
Sasuke raised his head and placed a too thin hand on Naruto's broad shoulder. It acted as a balm, because the anger melted away and Naruto smiled this time, still honest, but a little forced all the same.
These city walls ain't got no love for me
I'm on the ledge of the 18th story
And all I scream for you
(Come please, I'm callin)
And all I need from you
(Hurry, I'm fallin)
It had been a long time since Sasuke had seen full daylight. The person always kept the curtains open, said it was too pretty a day to not see it, but it felt completely different to really be outside. The sun was strong and it hurt his eyes. Naruto just grinned and handed him a pair of dark glasses. The world seemed instantly cooler, with the comforting presence of shadows. Not darkness, the one that scared him, but shadows, the ones that were always there but never threatening or helpful. They simply were.
Sasuke tried to ignore the stares. He hadn't seen himself in a while, although Naruto assured him that he looked fine. Sasuke saw his reflection in a shop window and found nothing surprising about his appearance. Cheeks that were once hollow were slowly getting filled, although they had yet to return to their natural appearance. His skin was loosing its sickly pallor and returning to its pale complexion. He'd grown taller, he knew, but his body didn't feel like his own, so awkward and clumsy still. The person's borrowed clothes, he noted, they were in darker colors that the person seemed to only where beneath the bright colors, swamped his thin frame entirely. Maybe that said something about this person. Wearing dark clothes underneath all the brightness, like the any dark secrets would be hidden under a bright exterior.
"You never even had a family! What would you know?!"
"You're right. I never had a family, but when I'm with Iruka-sensei, I wonder if this is what it's like to have a father. And when I'm with you…I wonder if this is what it's like to have a brother."
Show me what it's like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right
And I'll show you what I can be Say it for me
Say it to me And I'll leave this life behind me
Say it if it's worth saving me (Hurry I'm fallin')
"Were we brothers?" Sasuke asks as the person hands him a bowl of pork ramen.
The electric blue eyes(like lightning through a heart) look at him with a strange look, a calculating look like he's looking through Sasuke before they light up and a grin breaks through again. "Do you remember that, Sasuke? You remember all the training and the sparring with me?"
"I remember…you telling me that you wondered if that's what it was like to have a brother," Sasuke looked up at him again, "Is this what it's like? I can't remember."
Those eyes got sad again before he replied, "I think so. I don't totally know, but maybe we could learn together!"
All I need is you
Come please I'm callin'
And oh I scream for you (Hurry I'm fallin)' I'm fallin', I'm fallin'
People came to visit him, although they all started to blur together. Bright greens would mix with soft lavenders, the lavenders mixing with reds and light blues. The one constant thing was this person, someone who the pink-haired one, spring blossom, had called an idiot.
Idiot…dobe
"You can be such a dobe!"
The blonde splash of orange turned to look at him when Sasuke stood from his place by the window.
"Something wrong, Sasuke?"
"…Dobe…"Sasuke rolled the word around. It felt right to call this person that, like it was something that belonged only to them.
The brightest grin that had ever graced the whiskered man's face came to him as he tested something out, "Teme?"
"Hey, watch it teme! I'm gonna be the greatest Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto!"
Sasuke looked up at the blonde with a new light, seeing everything that he never saw and nothing that he had seen before. "Naruto."
Naruto couldn't resist pulling his teme into a tight hug. "Welcome back. Been waitin' for you."
Show me what it's like
To be the last one standing
And teach me wrong from right And I'll show you what I can be Say it for me Say it to me And I'll leave this life behind me Say it if it's worth saving me Hurry I'm fallin' Say it for me Say it to me And I'll leave this life behind me Say it if it's worth saving me (more)