So this has basically been my baby for the past few days or so (whipped it up in 2, a new record).
I've been toying with a new idea of mine, and this was the outcome.
I also discovered I have a penchant for imagining the Naruto characters in some sort of therapy. (They need it ).
R&R, please :D Thanks
OO
Faint mumblings and moans could be heard from the room on hallway 2B, room 757.
"Momma's on that wall.." The voice was child like and frightened. "And daddy's on the other one."
No one answered, for the ward was empty except for the bare bones of staff.
With no reply, a small giggle went through the cracks in the steel door. "Wanna know a secret?"
Sakura Haruno, nurse on the graveyard shift, took a glance at her partner, Naruto Uzumaki. In her hand was an injection needle -- she had been filling it with antidepressants when the client had began to speak.
"He's talking again."
"I know."
A stray case file in his hand, the boy sauntered over and changed the subject. "Whose the lucky recipient?" He asked with a wry grin.
"757 B. His weekly anti-depressant. Making sure it's potent" She said quietly, once more resuming her job of filling the tube.
"Good. That guy creeps the hell out of me, tubes or no tubes."
Sakura frowned at him and snatched the file to write on. "This is a phychiatric hospital, Naruto. What'd you expect, for our clients to be singing like munchkins and handing out flowers?"
He blanched. "Not nice imagery Sakura. Not nice."
By this time the rosaceous haired girl had completed her log, and handed it back to him. "Imagery or not, someone needs their dose. Take care of the files for me, kay? We got a Hyuuga who seems to have a talent for lock picking."
He shook his head and shifted his blue scrubs. With a fatigued sigh, he went back to overseeing business of operations - Uzumaki style.
Sakura Haruno was a nice girl. She gave money to beggars on the street, helped teach Ino Yamanaka cooking skills (disaster), and dressed well. She liked her job, but no conditioning had ever prepared her for the client in 757 2B.
She punched a few digits on the doors keypad and entered inside, syringe deftly twirling in her fingers. Adjacent to the scrubs-clad employee was a crisp white bed containing a quivering lump of nerves.
Red rimmed black eyes traveled towards her green ones, and he smiled that eerie smile. "Hi nice lady. The walls are red today."
" 'Fraid not hun. They're white." They always went through this.
Emphatically shaking his head, the patient was adamant. "Silly lady. That's mommy's blood on the wall, can't you see it?" Dark bangs covered his eyes, the boy's bent his head.
"Mr.Uchiha, I'm well aware there isn't any blood on the walls."
Already he forgot the subject, and changed it abruptly. "Daww, my name isn't Mister Uchiha! "
The man was obviously too distracted to be aware of the needle currently piercing his skin. The Uchiha skin parted like butter for needles - no problems, no tension from the muscles.
"What's your name then?" Sakura asked, trying to distract him.
"It's Sasuke. Sasuke Uchiha." He said with a childlike huff, as if the two were obviously different.
Sakura sighed and went along. Mr.Uchiha-- or Sasuke, had multiple personality disorder. Tomorrow he'd be a different boy. The nurse just had to ride the wave of his current personality.
Ah, the tube was done now. With relative ease, she slid it out of his arm. For tops, she put on a cherry patterned band-aid. Sasuke stared at it fixedly.
The exhausted nurse was about to leave when Sasuke tugged at her sleeve. "They're gonna get me, lady!
"Who, hun?"
"The scary men!" And with this, the poor boy hid himself under the scritchy blanket.
"Scary men? There's nobody here." Sakura's determination to be the voice of reason was long fading, and she could feel her eyelids like sandpaper.
"Yeah. Scary men. Got brother hangin' dead on a pole-- telephone, telephone, telephone..." That was when Sasuke began to shake again, emitting a scared choke. He poked up to look at her, slate coloured eyes now bloodshot.
Okay then, this was her cue to leave before taking a bow. The girl tucked a pink lock of hair behind her ear, and smiled warmly. "Well, Sasuke, I'm afraid it's Naruto's turn to come visit you now. I've got to go back and help the other patients. You remember Naruto, right?" The nurse prayed to God he didn't. There was bad blood between those two, from the past.
The man eyed her warily. "No."
"Well then, He'll brings you some medicine to help you sleep."
"Oh yeah, I remember those things. They look like candies."
"Yes, they do look like candies."
There was a pregnant pause in the air, which Sakura took to look at her client. His handsome face looked too tired to be healthy, with huge dark bags beneath his eyes. The case file had stated that Sasuke Uchiha often recieved night Terrors from the homicide of his parents. It was nothing short of a miracle that he got any sleep at all.
She reached out her hand and patted him on his tousled dark hair. "Good night, Mr. Uchiha." Somewhere inside Sakura's heart, she hoped that it would give him a semblance of familiarity to the old days, before his mind split.
"Okay then, lady. Go bring in 'Rudo."
Without another word in edgewise, Sakura closed the door. Naruto heard her approach before he saw her, and was waiting in the cubicle of an office. He was knee deep in papers, having resorted to sorting them.
"How was it?" Naruto mumbled fatiguedly. His free hand combed through his sunny hair and began to scratch the back of his neck.
Sakura tossed the needle into a disposal bin and went to sit on a rolling chair. "He's still frightened at night, poor thing." With a bite of her lip, she turned to look at him. "Sasuke needs his sleep meds now. I said you'd give them."
Naruto sighed in defeat. His work partner always got what she wanted, and now that she'd gotten 757 B's hopes on it, there was no turning back.
"Oh God, help me. He's gonna call me 'Rudo again." In his last will and testament before giving Sasuke his meds, Naruto turned to Sakura Haruno and besotted her with pleading eyes. It gave the implications something like: 'If you love me, let me go '.
She smiled devilishly, and Naruto knew he was done for. If he didn't go give the meds, she'd make sure their supervisor, Tsunade, kicked his ass. Bottles of Sake and pain medications thrown at his poor, undefended face was not on his to do list.
"'Rudo?" Came the bidding through the vents. The voice was young and immature again.
"Coming, coming." Said Naruto, and with that he retreated from the battle field.