Naruto sat in his bed staring at the floor, listening to the sound of rain beat down on the roof of his apartment. His normally piercing blue eyes, full of life, seem devoid of anything remotely close to life. Were he not blinking every so often, and tears not pouring down his cheeks, one would accuse him of being dead. Naruto lifted one hand and stared at his hand, with disgust and despair…
A week ago Naruto had attempted to stop Sasuke from leaving, to keep him away from Orochimaru. He succeeded in a sense… but not in the way that he had desired. He could remember every gruesome detail of the final moments of the battle… He began to breathe rapidly, the feel of blood splattering him and the smell choking him. He let loose a scream of bone chilling despair as tears cascaded down his face.
The door exploded violently. "NARUTO!" came a feminine voice rushing in, but Naruto took no notice as he began to beat his own head violently. Slender fingers gripped his wrists trying to wrestle with the boy trying to beat himself up. Finally the woman gave up trying to restrain his arms individually and embrace Naruto in a tight hug, so that if Naruto wanted to get at himself, he'd have to go through her.
Naruto finally relented at this and began to sob into the bosom of the woman. He had grown used to her presence rather quickly actually.
After all she had been assigned to him to keep him from performing suicide; she'd been through the emotional turmoil of such dark thoughts.
That and Anko Mitarashi owed this young boy. Because the bottom line was, it was because of her ex-sensei Naruto had to suffer, it was because of Orochimaru that Naruto had killed Sasuke.
She sighed softly, as the sobbing died down and the boy was becoming lethargic from the emotional stress. She remembered the first day she had showed up to explain to him how things were going to work. Sure there was tension at first, and hell when she had decided small talk was a good idea she told him in a very blunt way that she had been Orochimaru's student at one point.
Worst mistake, Naruto had went ballistic on her, screaming at her, reflecting all his anguish and hurt onto her, with a nice heaping dose of the Kyuubi's chakra, but she didn't fight back. After a good while of beating her up Naruto had DEMANDED to know why she didn't fight back… She didn't give him an answer but she looked at him with a look that was reserved for, in her opinion, no one up until that point, the sorriest look on her face possible… she owed him that much for her sensei's transgressions. Naruto was at once furious, at himself, Orochimaru, this crazy snake lady, and himself again for beating up an innocent to the point his anger melted into sorrow.
Anko sighed pulling herself out of her memories and continued to hold Naruto. "It's going to be okay, Naruto. You did nothing wrong." She murmured to him gently.
"But I do nothing right…" was his choked voice in response. Anko only held him tighter for that, trying to give as much comfort as she could as the young man fell asleep in her arms.
Anko stayed for hours, to make sure the boy didn't start hurting himself when he wakes up. She looks up with a glare, feeling a presence at the door. She's scowling angrily when she notices a certain white haired shinobi with a forlorn look in his eye.
"How is he?" Kakashi asks, coming into the small apartment, ignoring the glare Anko was giving him.
"Horrible how do you think?" she spat. "He's tried to beat his head in only god knows how many times."
"Sorry…" was all the white haired jonin, looking genuinely remorseful.
The silence between them was deafening, not even the rain could disturb it.
"So what's been keeping you? He needs YOU. You're his jonin sensei right?" She glared at Kakashi, she was going to make sure he knew her displeasure with him, she hated people who disregarded their students.
"The hokage's been keeping me busy." Kakashi sighed crossing his arms, one hand tapping his sleeve where a tattoo ought to be, the tattoo that specifically meant that Kakashi used to part of Konoha's top military organization: Anbu black ops.
Anko's eyes narrowed, "I thought you would be doing something else."
"well… sometimes we have to get to the root of the problems. I admit, I've lost my edge, and my judgment." Kakashi sighed, keeping the conversation both about his faults and the danger to Naruto, having tapping his shoulder when he said root.
Anko eyes narrowed even more, "we'll have to talk later. You going to be staying or are you still busy?" she arched an eyebrow.
"I'll be sticking around… I need to apologize to Naruto for not being a better sensei… and for arriving late." Kakashi said remorsefully, sitting down and watching the blonde shiver in his sleep.
"Good. Taking care of the kid is practically a full time job; I kind of needed the help. Not that I mind." She tacked on at the end, running her slender fingers through Naruto's hair. She kinda felt like an older sister doing this. If this wasn't so depressing right now she'd feel happy.
Kakashi nodded, just keeping silent, praying that maybe Naruto would forgive him. He wouldn't even forgive himself though, if he were being honest. He had come across the scene of the fight. It was horrendous. He supposed it was a miracle though, that at least Naruto came out of the experience alive… well almost. He sighed, just listening to the ticking of the small clock in the room and Anko's gentle ministrations of the poor afflicted boy.