Chapter 2
"Call 911" Sasuke told told Itachi, "I think he's going to need more help than we can give him." Itachi nods and reaches down into his pocket and pulls out his cell phone. Sasuke continued doing chest compression's wondering all the while what exactly had made the blonde feel like he had no other alternative than to kill himself. While Sasuke had heard some of the phone conversation in the bar, he couldn't imagine that that would have been what had pushed him over the edge.
"Come on loser" Sasuke muttered before pausing the compression's to check the young man's airways. "you still have a point to prove" finally after what seemed like ages to Sasuke, the boy before him started choking, forcing Sasuke to turn him on his side. What bothered him more than anything was the fact that he was still unconscious. Sasuke wasn't sure if it was because he had gone for so long without oxygen or what, but the fact remained that the longer he remained unconscious the worse off that he would be.
"Who is he?" Sasuke asked after Itachi hung the phone up, after explaining where they were.
"Naruto Uzumaki" Itachi said frowning as he stared down at his former employee. Itachi had never thought that the typically happy blonde would ever try something like this, then again the man had come to work high, it just goes to show that you didn't always know the person you worked with.
"You said you fired him for being high?" Sasuke asked frowning. There was something about the situation that was bugging him.
"Yes," Itachi replied "It was reported that another employee caught him snorting cocaine." Sasuke could hear the disdain in his brother's voice, Itachi hated when the drug was even brought up.
"Was there any evidence, such as the actual drug on his desk, or photos of him snorting it?" Sasuke asked.
"No, just the word of two individuals that came forward with their concern." Itachi replied, frowning at the thoughtful expression on his face.
"I'm sure they were concerned alright." Sasuke muttered under his breath while watching the paramedics load Naruto onto a stretcher. "It sounds like you have some jealous coworkers who know just how much you hate cocaine." Itachi scowled and shook his head in disagreement.
"Naruto was pretty well liked, what reason would any of them have to do that to him?"
"Beats me" Sasuke replied "But I am betting you find the truth if you do a little digging. This is why I don't want to work for Father, too much damn drama."
Sasuke proceeded to exit the park and head towards the hospital, lucky for him it wasn't much of a walk, only a few short minutes. Even as he walked he couldn't help but wonder about why the man that Naruto had been talking to had threatened to have him internationalized. Had Naruto done something like this before? Sasuke didn't get the feeling that the boy had a drug problem, he had witnessed Itachi high enough times to recognize the signs. He had seen none of those in Naruto.
"Sasuke where do you think you are going?" Itachi asked as he runs to catch up with his little brother.
"I'm going to go see what I can learn about your former employee. And make sure that you haven't given him any kind of reason to sue the company. Pretty sure Father wouldn't want to pay out a shit ton of money for a wrongful termination law suit."
"How are you so certain that he wasn't high?" Itachi asked "His behavior has been off lately."
"Perhaps there is a reason for that." Sasuke suggested, "We both know that our Father isn't the easiest person to work for, he expects the best out of everyone. Not everyone can work under that kind of pressure."
"That sounds like a damn good excuse for coming in high if you ask me" Itachi muttered, feeling annoyed with his brother. Why couldn't Sasuke just leave things alone, Naruto had been fired. Whether or not he had actually been high was yet to be discovered. Itachi was certain that Sasuke wouldn't rest until the truth of the matter had been discovered.
"Why do you always seek out the worst in people without giving them a chance?" Sasuke asked as they entered the emergency room doors. "it seems to me that you want Naruto to have a problem so he won't have to be there. Is there a particular reason for that?" Sasuke eyed his older brother, a curious look in his eyes. Itachi scowled at him.
"what reason would I have to not want him there?" Itachi wondered as they entered the waiting room.
"You tell me" Sasuke said as he sat down in a hard plastic chair. "Would it be possible that maybe you have feelings for him that you don't want to deal with?" Itachi scowled. He would know if he had feelings for someone or not, but something told him that Sasuke wasn't going to leave it alone.
"Even if I did, why would I let someone set him up to get fired." Itachi asked.
"Easier than having to see him everyday, if he doesn't feel the same about you." Sasuke said, looking away as a tall blonde man entered the waiting room, yelling at a nurse. Sasuke didn't need anyone to tell him that this man was Naruto's father.
"I want to know what happened to my son" he shouted, "How did he end up here? Did he have too much to drink."
"Mr. Uzumaki, as soon as we have information for you, until then why don't you settle down you are disturbing the other visitors." The red haired nurse looked over and met Sasuke's calm gaze. She knew exactly who he was, who didn't know the Uchiha considering they owned most of Konoha. Sensing the nurses distraction, the blonde man turned and glanced over his shoulder to what held the nurse's attention.
"I don't care" Minato said "I want to know how Naruto is." scowling Sasuke wondered if this was the same man that Naruto had been talking to on the phone. He could admit that the man looked stressed whether or not that was cause of his son, or he had been working too hard for too long.
"I'll tell you what happened to your son." Sasuke said standing and walking over. There was something that he didn't like about this guy, he couldn't exactly put his finger on it. "Your son got fired from his job, I suspect that he didn't actually deserve to be fired, and then he had a friendly conversation on the phone while he was at the bar. Getting off the phone, he proceeds to go to the park and attempted to drown himself."
"How the hell would you know?" the blonde guy asked, not actually taking in Sasuke's wet appearance.
"Because he said something that concerned me and I followed him that's how I know" Sasuke said "I want to know why he felt the need to do that." Minato sighed heavily as he took in the news that Sasuke had given him. He wasn't surprised that Naruto had tried to kill himself, Minato knew when Naruto was in a manic depressive state that he would be more likely to try. However what could have triggered this latest episode. Minato knew that he could be hard on his son, he probably expected too much of him. He just wanted Naruto to succeed, how could he do that if he could barely keep a job and pay his own rent. Sitting down in a chair, Minato stared down at the floor. He really didn't know what to do anymore. Naruto refused to help himself by taking his medication.
"Why would he try to kill himself?" Sasuke asked interrupting Minato's thoughts. "He doesn't have a drug addiction problem does he." Minato snorted before looking up at him.
"Naruto is bipolar" he explained "he has periods where he can be either really happy, which can be disastrous to him because he makes decisions without thinking them through first, and he has periods were he gets depressed, those are hard to bring him out of too, because all he wants to do is lie in bed and sleep. These periods can last for a few days or a few weeks. I'm never sure what triggers them, it doesn't help that he refuses to take his medication."
Sasuke glanced over his shoulder at Itachi.
"I think this so called high was Naruto being in a manic state" Sasuke told Itachi "I can see where it would get confused with Naruto being high." Itachi frowned, Naruto had never mentioned a mental illness, though he didn't really see any need for it. He knew that Naruto would likely want to keep it to himself because there wasn't always a good connotation that went with that particular disorder.
"What happens now?" Sasuke asked, still thinking about the little bits of conversation that he had overheard.
"I think the best place for him right now, is a mental institution" Minato said "he's proved he is a danger to himself and isn't capable of making good decisions on his own."
"I think he deserves the opportunity to prove himself." Sasuke muttered, not really understanding why he had even involved himself in this situation.
"Sasuke" Itachi's cool voice interrupted his thoughts. "Whatever decision is to be made should be made by his father. Obviously Naruto is mentally ill, maybe the hospital will be able to get him back on his medicine." Sasuke scowled and pulled his arm away from his brother's grip. Why did everyone insist that the boy get locked away, he hadn't hurt anyone. There was no reason to try and take his freedom. Scowling, Sasuke decided he'd waited long enough, he was tired of talking to Naruto's father, who seemed to be determined to have Naruto locked away with the key tossed.
Sasuke couldn't help but wonder how much longer they would have to wait to hear something about Naruto. Sasuke feared he would knock the so called father out. How could a father claim to love their son but not do what was in their son's best interest. Sasuke could tell that Minato didn't spend a great deal of time with Naruto, so he wondered if the man actually truly knew Naruto. Sasuke doubted it, he doubted it very much.
Walking up to the nurse's desk, Sasuke softly asked for news of the attempted suicide. Typically the nurses wouldn't give out information on any patients unless said person was related to them, but since Sasuke's father ran the town she quickly got the information that he needed.
"He's conscious now" the red head told him "they are still running tests to make sure that he didn't suffer any kind of brain damage." the nurse told him.
"When will you know about the brain damage?" Sasuke asked. The nurse shrugged.
"I can't tell you that it could be anywhere from twenty minutes to three hours it just depends on the doctors."
"What will be done about the suicide attempt?" Sasuke, he knew that the normal procedure would mandate that Naruto get placed under suicide watch for 48 hours, from there it was up to the therapist as to what happens.
"The normal procedure.." the nurse started but Sasuke shook his head and she stopped.
"What happens after the suicide watch?" he asked.
"That will be up to the father" the nurse replied "whether the father brings him home or sends him someplace else, that's his choice to make."
"Once again taking away his choice" Sasuke muttered before turning and heading into the emergency room. He didn't care what anyone thought, he wanted to talk to Naruto. He wanted to know what Naruto wanted to do with his treatment.
Sasuke had expected Naruto to be lying quietly on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and thinking about his options, what he found however was completely unexpected.
Naruto was thrashing on the bed, fighting whatever the doctor was trying to do to him. Sasuke watched silently as Naruto's fist launched out and hit the doctor square in his face.
"Son of a bitch" the doctor muttered before turning and belting Naruto in the face. Sasuke stared in horror as the doctor proceeded to roughly strap Naruto to the bed.
"I don't want to be tied down" Naruto cried as he tried to buck against the straps. He didn't know how he'd come to be in the hospital, one minute he had been sinking beneath the water in the pond, the next he was being held down on a hospital bed. Naruto hated hospitals, he didn't want to waste anytime here.
"We have to make sure you don't have any damage from your suicide attempt." the doctor said coldly as he applied pressure on Naruto's arm, in an attempt to keep him strapped down.
Suddenly the sound of snapping and a loud cry of pain filled the air and Sasuke knew he couldn't just stand there anymore.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Sasuke demanded as he entered the room, and roughly pulled the doctor away from the panting blonde on the bed.
"He is a danger to himself!" The doctor lied "he has to be retrained."
"Give me a damn good reason why you had to break his arm in order to restrain him?" Sasuke said coldly. He didn't think he had ever been so angry in his life, this man would be lucky to even have a job come morning. Sasuke would certainly make sure his father heard about this. He was certain his father would disapprove of physical abuse for any reason.
"He has a knife on him and he was going to attack me with it." the doctor lied so badly that Sasuke snorted before roughly shoving him out of the room and calling for another doctor to be brought in.
"Why does everyone think he's dangerous?" Sasuke muttered, glaring at the doctor. Turning, Sasuke looked back in the room, Naruto was resting with his eyes closed and his chest heaving. Tears silently fell from his closed lids making a path down his face. That moment touched Sasuke's heart, making him hurt for the boy lying there. Sasuke couldn't help but wonder what the boy's earlier life had been like, Sasuke was pretty sure that his small glimpse wasn't enough to even top the cake. Why did people think that because you had a mental illness it made you less of a person. It wasn't fair to that person to be judged and feared by those around them. Sasuke wasn't sure how but he wanted to make it better for him.
"I'm sorry you got treated like that." Sasuke said upon entering the room, he winced when he noticed how swollen Naruto's forearm already was. "You didn't deserve that."
"Thanks bastard." Naruto muttered and Sasuke somehow knew that it wasn't just for stopping the doctor that he was being thanked for.
"No problem loser." Sasuke muttered wondering if he really had been a bastard towards the blonde. He hadn't really intended to, he was just tired and needed a break and the blonde had interrupted that.
Stepping out into the hall, Sasuke saw Minato talking to a doctor. Having seen Naruto for himself, Sasuke knew that Naruto would be alright, they would just have to deal with the suicide attempt. He paused outside Naruto's door, just a couple feet from where Naruto's father and the doctor talked, unfortunately it was the same doctor that Sasuke had thrown out. He scowled darkly wondering what the man would suggest be done about Naruto.
"My best advice is to have him admitted to a mental institute" the doctor said "He's done proven that he can be a danger to society after he attacked me for no reason." Minato nodded.
"I agree that for the time being Naruto would be better off somewhere else until he can get back on his medicine again."
"I don't want to go anywhere!" Sasuke heard Naruto yell "I want to go home." Sasuke closed his eyes, he could almost hear the tears in Naruto's voice and it hurt.
"You shouldn't have stopped taking your medicine then." Minato said as he walked over to the door. "I don't want to send you away either but you have given me no choice."
"Please don't send me away" Naruto cried tears forming in his blue eyes. "I just want to go home."
"I'm sorry, son, my hands are tied. You tried to kill yourself something has to be done."
"NO" Naruto yelled "I won't go, you can't make me!" Minato closed his eyes as a nurse injected a syringe into his IV line. "Don't let them take me away!" Naruto cried as he looked at Sasuke, his eyes full of pleading.
"I'm sorry Naruto" Minato said softly tears filling his eyes as he watched his own son plead with the doctors to not take him away.
"I might have a solution to the current crisis" Sasuke told Minato, ignoring his brother who come to stand behind Minato a few moments ago.
"What's that?" Minato asked, tearing his eyes away from his son.
"Since it's pretty clear to me that Naruto doesn't like hospitals, I suggest he come and stay with me for a while. You wouldn't have to worry about him pulling something like this again."
"I don't think you understand what you will be getting yourself into" Minato said "you will never know when his mood will change, it could possibly be dangerous for you."
"I don't think so" Sasuke said coolly, "I think he needs someone who is willing to stick beside him during those moments, someone that is willing to try to help him because from what I can see you aren't willing to help him. You just want him out of your hair."
"Sasuke, don't you think you should consult father before doing this?" Itachi asked "He's not going to be pleased with the situation."
"Fuck off Itachi" Sasuke said "That kid needs someone that is willing to be there for him."
"You are willing to do that for a complete stranger?" Itachi said frowning.
"What's the matter? Afraid that you will have to face your feelings if you are around him all the time." Sasuke said, using the one topic that make his brother leave him alone. As far as he was concerned the decision was made, he wasn't going to back out of it.
Thanks for reading and reviewing! I promise the chapters will get longer! Almost two years ago, I was hospitalized for a suicide attempt, a lot of Naruto's feelings of not wanting to be there is what I was feeling at the time. The suicide watch thing really sucked too, although it wasn't anything like what Naruto went through.
AN: I did read the wiki page, I already knew what it is because my sister is bipolar. I think I may have explained it a little better in this chapter.
