The Second half of Oct 14th
Where can I run that is truly safe?
Where can I hide where he can't catch me?
Is it in death?
Is it in life?
Where?
Please, tell me, where?
Naruto had been running for more than several hours now. Darting around the whole village, always on his toes and of course, somehow turning around corners at just the right moment.
And it was all in the hopes to simply get away from the staff that was looking frantically for him.
Later that evening he would wonder why he hadn't just used chakra to disguise himself. Blaming it on a brain fart of sorts, he dismissed his moment of stupidity and went on with the rest of his life, as we all do. Actually, he was quite amazed by the shear number of rehab workers that had been looking for him. All of them had been running around with their little name-tags on, making them that much easier to spot.
He was pretty sure had he not been trained in the ways of the ninja, they would have been able to spot him within a few minutes. That was how many there were. And what was even worse, they seemed to multiply by the minute, springing up like daisies in spring time.
His legs burned something horrible and his lungs seemed to be trying to make their way up his throat, but he was pretty sure no one from that rehab center would be able to find him where he was now. Particularly because he was in a rather dense part of the forests that surrounded one of the less used training grounds. The fact that it was two hours into nighttime also helped in the conclusion he finally came to.
Thinking on just exactly what he had done, he sat down with a sigh, realizing all over again just how dumb his move had been. He was pretty sure they'd keep him in there now for much longer than a month, as his original plan had not included at all.
"The Plan", as he called it, had been to act like a civil and completely sane person and manage to get the hell out of the rehab center in a few weeks. But everyone knows civil and completely sane people don't just mouth off to a woman who hadn't done anything to them, (in front of other people anyways) and then smash through a window and land three stories below after jumping through said window.
He didn't have many options anymore, let alone options that would make sure he ended up ahead of the game. He could (a. go back and say he was sorry (b. leave the village or (c. stay in the forest. He knew they'd, they being the rehab center, would eventually get tired of looking for him and might even ask a ninja to find him, so staying in the forest wouldn't do much good for him. Neither would leaving, that could only make things one hundred times worse. You really can't pull off the 'civil and sane' card when you decide to do all of the insane things mentioned above and then go AWOL to boot. So, all he was left with was running back with his tail between his legs and hope the stupid people would forgive his sorry excuse for an ass.
Lying on the grass, Naruto enjoyed to cool air for several minutes, deeply breathing in the heavy night breeze. He knew he would not be able to do this for a while after he went back. Isolated and locked up places tended to have stale air, or so he'd heard. The cool air soothed his poor lunges, and the grass on the ground tickled his sore legs through his pants. Stretching his arms out to either side of himself, Naruto let himself truly relax for the first time in several days. He slowly let the scent of the earth wash over him, let it calm his still racing thoughts, let it bring them back down from their high speed race.
Staring up at what little of the sky he could see through the heavy foliage, he raised up both of his arms and made to grasp at the tiny stars. None too surprisingly, all he caught was air. Breathing deeply once more, he gingerly rested his still injured arms on his chest. He solemnly wished, for the second time in the same day, that the ground would some how come to life and swallow him whole. Oh how nice that would be.
"Hello, my little monster."
His feigned paradise evaporated at the very sound of that voice. Practically flying off the ground, Naruto tried to shoot off into the forest, away from that voice, away from that man. But something grabbed a hold of his injured arm, digging the glass that had been there all day deeper into the wounds, blood flow starting anew. The something, which turned out to be a very strong hand, held his arm tight and twisted until he was nothing but a screaming pile of body on the ground. The hand left his arm, pulling him up by his shirt and pushing him harshly up against the body of a tree, holding him there tightly. Closing his eyes, Naruto tried to settle and hopefully keep his heart from jumping right out of his chest it was pounding so frantically. Adrenaline pumping through his veins and body shaking with fear, he could feel the man's sickening warm breath on his face.
It sent shivers up and down his spin so violently that it honestly hurt.
"Are you scared, little monster?" the man whispered in his ear.
Naruto squirmed as he felt the heat and slickness of a tongue trail over his cheek to the corner of his mouth where it then silently retreated. A whimper accompanied the squirming as a soft kiss was placed on the top of his brow, nearly bringing tears to Naruto's eyes.
He could deal with people hitting him, calling him words, names of all kinds. But kindness being used as a weapon was something he would never understand how to deal with.
Never.
"N-no! I-I'm…not a-afraid." Naruto stammered, his eyes still shut tight. Of course, he was lying.
He knew it, he knew the man knew it, hell, he couldn't even form a proper sentence he was so damn scared! He was shaking like a leaf, he was whimpering and trying to squirm away from this man's grasp, and he was pretty sure the shinobi (the man) could hear his stupid heartbeat. As it was, the shinobi was probably close enough to feel the damn organ nearly go into arrest.
Naruto could hear the man chuckle that haunting chuckle of his and he whimpered again. His squirming and struggling became even fiercer as lips crushed against lips, a tongue pushing its way into the other mouth for an unwanted entry. Moaning it to the kiss, Naruto was filled with disgust at his own natural reaction to what should have been, but was not, consensual contact. As his mind was bombarded with smells, tastes, and sounds he'd rather forget forever, he took action. Whether it had been instinct or some other sick, sadistic, revenge seeking part of his mind surfacing for a second, Naruto would never know.
He felt the man go rigid for a moment in surprise as Naruto pulled the man's face in further to his, the man's tongue and his own mingling together in his mouth for a moment before Naruto pulled his own tongue farther back into his mouth and bit down with all his might on the other's tongue.
The man pulled back with a small surprised yelp, blood dripping out of his mouth, the very tip of his tongue now gone. He smiled insanely at the quickly retreating back of the blond.
"You can run all you want my little monster, but I'm the one who knows what you fear most." The shinobi whispered to the night sky.
Leaping into the trees, the shinobi was quick to find his way back to his home in the village
It wasn't until a quarter mile or so later when he ran head on into a tree that Naruto realized he still hadn't opened his eyes yet. Naruto couldn't help but spit every few minutes as he walked closer and closer to the edge of the forest. He knew all of the man's blood and tiny bit of tongue in his mouth was long gone now.
Still, the mere thought of a part of that man being inside him made his stomach churn.
Naruto had accidently forgotten that letting thoughts like that linger for too long in his head did more bad than good to his poor mind. And for his stomach as well.
Crouching down to the ground, Naruto had just enough time to brace himself as his stomach began dry heaving. It took his poor body several times before it managed to bring up anything more identifiable than foamy bile. He welcomed the bitter flavor of it, the raw burn the acid left in his mouth, to him, felt a hundred times better than the iron flavor that had coated his mouth moments ago. Coughing harshly as his body's natural gag reflex toward such memories subsided, Naruto placed his fingers in his mouth. This time he forced his throat to gag, painfully aware of his nose beginning to run as fluids from his stomach and intestines lodged themselves in his sinuses. Again and again he forced his body to give up everything it possibly could.
Really, it didn't matter to him that his chest and throat burned. It didn't matter that his mouth felt like it was coated in sewage.
Or that his nose dripped.
Or that tears pooled from his eyes.
It didn't matter that he felt so dizzy and lightheaded that he honestly considered lying down in the mess he had just made and fall asleep. What did matter, though, was how clean his insides suddenly felt. It was like someone had taken a scrub brush and scrubbed at his intestines and other organs alike. He was empty, he was clean.
That was what mattered.
Standing up and drying his tearing eyes, Naruto wiped off his mouth and fingers and walked away from the poor tree roots he had so unceremoniously up-chucked onto. He sniffled a bit as the taste of the acid made its way into his nose a second time. That was the only real thing he hated about this particular method of self-harm he indulged in when the times called for it.
Now on the declining part of the hill that will be used as the analogy for his energy, Naruto's mind began to wander to the most ridiculous of things. Some of these things included many a thoughts on tadpoles, why women even bothered to wear thongs, and of course, the obligatory "I'm very sleepy" sentence that came into being between every other random thought he had.
As Naruto's mind wandered, so did his body, almost of its own accord. Instead of making a beeline back to the Center like he had planned when his mind had been far more coherent, he was now making something very similar to a random zig zaging trail in the out skirts of the training grounds. Eventually, his body came to the understanding that it had lost some important contact signal with the brain for the time being. So, instead of continuing, it promptly plopped its self down on the ground outside of a house that it recognized… would recognize that is, if bodies had a psyche all their own.
So, whilst his mind wandered still and his body gave up on wandering, Naruto just so happened to have plopped down in the backyard of the Nara clan's abode. Slowly, but surely, Naruto's mind stopped its wandering and focused where his legs had taken him. He stared at the first story window with its light still on, even at such a late hour. Naruto could easily see Shikamaru quietly reading some book at his small desk, his baggy night clothes and hair loose from a ponytail showing just how relaxed he was.
A moment or so later, Shikamaru looked up from his book, through the window, and let his eyes meet with Naruto's. At this point, Naruto's mind had fully recuperated from its little stay in la-la-land and was harshly thrown back into reality as he realized Shikamaru had moved from his desk, opened the window and was calling to him.
"Naruto, what are you doing here?"
"Taking a walk." Naruto called back, his voice traveling over the several yards that separated them.
Shikamaru motioned for Naruto the come to the window, a perplexed look could be seen clearly on his face as Naruto drew nearer to the window.
"What do you mean you're taking a walk?" Shikamaru said.
"Like I said, I'm just walking." Naruto said rather bluntly, not in any mood to try and deal with an over analytic friend.
Shikamaru stared at him for one moment longer before uttering a simple and effective, "Troublesome" before turning away from the still open window.
"Hey, I'm not troublesome!" Naruto retorted enthusiastically as he stuck his head into Shikamaru's room.
"And you call sitting in my backyard at twelve in the morning being not troublesome?"
Naruto had to admit, it was pretty late to be sitting in anybody's backyard.
"Come on, it wasn't that much of a bother!" Naruto said, never letting on just how exhausted he was.
"It would have been a big deal if either of my mom or dad were home; they hate it when people get near our land at suspicious hours."
"Well, where the heck are they?" Naruto said as he leaned his elbows against the window sill, propping his hands into them.
"My dad's on some sort of recon mission and my mom's taking care of her sick sister on the other side of the village."
"Can't be too bad having the house to yourself for a while, right?" Naruto grinned.
Shikamaru stared at him for another moment, before asking,
"You want to come in for a while?"
"Huh?" was the only answer he got.
"The house has been too quiet without mom around yelling about something every five minutes. I need someone who makes twice as much ruckus as her to make up for it."
"I'm not noisy!" Naruto said loudly as he let himself in through the window, making sure to close it behind him.
Having locked the window tightly, Naruto turned to face Shikamaru. The boy had made his way to the open doorway of his room, where he seemed to have paused; now looking at some point just below Naruto's shoulders.
"What Shikamaru, do I have something on me?" Naruto meant it only as small talk, a little jab at humor and light heartedness if you will.
But of course, humor was never really Shikamaru's strong point.
"Yeah, there's dried blood on your sleeves What happened?"
It was true. There was a good amount of dried blood caked onto the long sleeves that covered Naruto's arms. It seemed to be that he had mostly forgotten about the pain from the broken glass in his arms hours ago and hadn't noticed how much blood had actually been spilled. Dark, odd colored areas mismatched the shirt, like oil spilled in water that spread out to make a varying array of shades of red-brown.
"Uh…well, about that…nothing really…" Naruto trailed off with a chuckle, trying desperately trying to come up with a plausible answer other than 'Oh, I jumped through a window and got glass shoved into my skin.'
Caught off guard, put on the spot, and suddenly asked to think extremely quickly on his feet, Naruto wasn't able process the fact fast enough that maybe, just maybe, he shouldn't let Shikamaru see what was under his sleeves. All things that had led up to where he was at that point left him in a very desperate situation. He hadn't activated the jutsu to cover his own self inflicted scars, now had he?
And so, when Shikamaru had walked quickly up to him, muttering "Don't be stubborn, it'll get infected if you don't treat it you idiot", he had been able to easily pull up Naruto's left sleeve with only a half thought out struggle against said action.
Needless to say, what he saw was more then borderline disturbing.
It wasn't the cuts with bits of glass still stuck in them that caused the shock. The shock came from the scars that couldn't be accounted for, the ones Shikamaru had never seen before. It was the ones that Shikamaru knew weren't there the last time he'd seen Naruto, the ones that had never been there before.
Underneath the tiny layer of dried blood, underneath that thin veneer, he could see them. In some places it looked as if there was no rhyme or reason to any of it, the scars were so sporadically placed across the skin. But then in other places, in other spaces of flesh they were lined up like marching soldiers from far away countries Shikamaru had only ever heard of. All made to look like neat little rows that walked hand in hand. There were old faded ones that had lost their impact on the eye with time, but the newer ones were a different story. Those were the ones that were still red, still looked raw. They were the ones you could still almost taste the raw agony from, could still hear the scream they might have caused. And the newest of them, all sewn up and stitched back together, was still red and irritated, especially now that some parts of it had been torn open again from the glass.
A second or two was all Shikamaru had needed to discover what Naruto had kept hidden from everybody he'd ever known. It wasn't until Naruto tugged his arm back to himself that second or two later did Shikamaru actually let it all sink in.
Naruto's face flushed in shame and embarrassment, the pit of his stomach dropped out. How could something that he had deemed safe, peaceful waters to tread in, how had it turned into yet another person discovering his coping mechanism? There was nothing he could do about this, no way to hide it now. Shikamaru knew and there was no way he could take that knowledge back from him.
"You weren't supposed… supposed to… to see…" Naruto trailed off, holding his once again concealed arm close to his chest, head downcast.
The silence stretched out before them, stretched to the point where it was painfully uncomfortable. Swallowing his barley concealed fear Naruto opened his mouth to break that painful silence.
"Shika-" Naruto began, but was immediately interrupted.
"I use to have an older cousin that did that sort of thing." Shikamaru mumbled, gesturing to Naruto's arms.
"W-what happened to him?" Naruto asked, not quite sure how to handle such a reaction.
The silence was almost stretching its self out again before Shikamaru answered.
"Well, I heard he killed himself not too long ago." The conversation had gone from simply confusing to down right awkward, hitting a ten out of ten on the awkward-o'-meter.
"Oh." Was all Naruto managed to say.
"Would you like some tea?" Shikamaru said suddenly as he lifted his head to meet Naruto's own stunned orbs.
Again, this wasn't quite what Naruto had been expecting from Shikamaru. A quiet "get out" or banter of questions would have been under the 'understandable reaction' category. But to hear a confession of family issues and an invitation to midnight tea? Now that threw Naruto for several intricate loops all at the same time.
"S-sure." Was all the now highly confused boy could manage.
"I'll clean those cuts for you too." Shikamaru said as he stepped out his bedroom. The heavy, receding foot falls that could eventually be heard told Naruto he was heading down the hall.
Naruto stood there for a few moments collecting his wits, took one shaky breath, and headed out of the room. His legs were like jelly and it felt as if his stomach had lost its bottom. His head hurt, his eyes stung, and, if possible, he felt even more tired than before.
He made his way down the hall and into the dinning room where he sat down at the table where a white box was innocently sitting. Naruto stuck his tongue out at said box in simple amusement. He knew all to well what a first aid kit looked like.
From the kitchen came Shikamaru, who now had an odd emotion swimming with the normal calm in his eyes. Naruto could see it was a mixture of fear, sadness with a hint of pity and a pinch of anger, all mixed into a nice muddy consistency.
Naruto sighed to himself. He wished people would stop making such a big deal out of something that really wasn't all so bad.
"Let me see your arms for a second." Shikamaru said as he pulled a chair up next to Naruto, sitting in it.
Instinctively, Naruto hesitated for a moment before he slowly let his scarred flesh be exposed to pondering eyes. A moment passed, and so did the impulse; if Shikamaru already knew they existed, it was pointless to try and hide them anyways. Slowly rolling up his sleeves, he watched as Shikamaru opened the white box and pull out a pair of tweezers, gauze and antiseptics. Naruto sat there numbly as Shikamaru gently pulled the remaining pieces of glass out of the wounds on his arms, placing the bloodied glass to the side. Dabbing antiseptics onto a several cotton balls, Shikamaru muttered,
"This is going to sting a little bit."
As Shikamaru dabbed the damp fluff onto his cuts, Naruto did in fact feel a sharp twinge of pain, a low hiss its product. Shikamaru went through half of the bag of cotton balls and a quarter of the giant container of rubbing alcohol before all the cuts were finally rid of caked on blood and dirt. As white gauze covered the now far less bloody cuts, Naruto could see something else completely new emotion swimming in his friend's eyes.
He'd seen the same emotion over dramatized in one of the soap operas Sakura had forced him and Sasuke to watch when they'd had a "team dinner" (or as Kakashi put it, "learning to tolerate each other is best done over a hot plate of food") at her house. He recognized it as the 'let's have a nice chat about your issues' look.
Great...just fucking great.
As the white box was closed again, gauze and other things put back into it, Naruto tried to brace himself for what was bound to come. And come it did.
"Naruto…" Shikamaru began, before he was rather rudely interrupted by the sound of the kettle whistling.
Growling underneath his breath, Shikamaru stood up from where he was sitting and walked back into the kitchen. Laying his head down, Naruto closed his eyes with a relieved sigh, unable to keep them open any longer.
He was so damn tired.
When Shikamaru walked back into the dining room with the two cups of happily steaming tea, he couldn't help a small smile find its way to his lips when he found Naruto fast asleep at the table.
A knock at the door had Shikamaru wondering just how possibly weird this night could get.
---------
"I would have never thought he'd come here." Kakashi Hatake said to himself.
He couldn't believe this was happening, well, he had to simply because it was the reality of the situation. But still, this was a stretch, even for reality. Who'd have thought he, Kakashi Hatake, would be trying to find Naruto so he could bring him back to a nut house. Who'd have thought it'd be possible for one of the brightest and, seemingly, happiest people he'd ever met to wind up in a place like that. But then again, no one would have suspected the same from Obito when he had been sent there.
He couldn't help thinking it, but at times Naruto reminded him of Obito. He had a tendency to stumble in life and often complained about the lack of action his current position in the ninja world allotted him, just like Obito had constantly nagged. Now…now he could clearly see just how similar they were. Especially when Naruto's position reminded him so much of Obito's when he had been alive.
It was dangerously close to being painful for him to watch what seemed to be history repeating itself.
When Sasuke had told him what he had found when he'd gone to Naruto's apartment, Kakashi had told him not to tell a soul. No, not even Sakura. Soon after the rather short conversation with the slightly frazzled Uchiha, he had rushed over to the hospital Sasuke had taken Naruto to. It had been easy enough to find the doctor that had treated his student. That was, after he'd adamantly demanded the poor woman behind the desk that he see him.
He didn't like to think too fiercely on what the educated man had told him. He didn't like to think on it one bit. He knew self-harm wasn't just a half ass attempt at suicide. He knew that.
Self-harm and suicide are two completely different beasts, they can't just be simultaneously replace one or the other.
He knew the doctor had said that this habit of Naruto's had started years earlier. Much sooner then he'd ever come face to face with the boy. But still, the awful, encroaching thoughts lingered in the back of his mind.
Were some of those scars there because of him? Had he at any point stepped over a line he shouldn't have? Had he ever accidently sent Naruto closer to an invisible edge? Were the reasons for it all anything he could have stopped or fixed or even simply just made better?
All these questions had been eating away at him since he'd had his word with the doctor. As sad as it was, the only thing that soothed his mind at all was the feeble thought that there was nothing he could have done for something he didn't know about. And yet, there was always another part of him would speak in the back of his mind, telling him "You should have known though, you should have". And then he'd be back where he started. It was such a vicious cycle.
Walking with an intended lazy stride, Kakashi walked to the door of the Nara residence, knocked loudly and waited for a on of the two people he knew who were inside to answer. A moment after he had knocked, Kakashi found the door being opened by none other then a very surprised Shikamaru.
"Are you taking a midnight walk as well, Hatake-san?" Shikamaru asked him, smiling at his own words. Kakashi assumed it must have been some sort of inside joke…because really, who took midnight strolls and stopped to wake someone up?
"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not up and about for my own pleasure. I'm here to pick up your little visitor."
At this, the door opened wider and Kakashi stepped into the youth's home.
"He's asleep at the table." Shikamaru stated quietly.
Nodding, Kakashi made his way to the dinning room table to find a very much asleep Naruto. Shaking him slightly, Kakashi tried to jar his student awake, but was only able to get a murmur out of the blond that sounded distinctively like gibberish.
Smiling at the ramblings of Naruto's obviously very sleepy mind, Kakashi picked the boy up and made his way back to the still open front door.
"Before you leave, would you mind telling me what exactly is going on?" Shikamaru said, nodding his head towards the sleeping body in the older man's arms.
"There's not much to tell Shikamaru. Unless he's told you what's going on himself, I'm not sure I'm at liberty to discuss his personal happenings."
"I'm aware of what's happening, Hatake-san. Please, don't treat me like I'm not able to handle something like a friend who cuts their own flesh."
Always a sharp one, Shikamaru was. At the moment, Kakashi didn't want to try and weasel out of him exactly how he already knew about the situation. Kakashi had more important things to deal with.
"Since you already know so much, you should know he'll be staying at the Happy Hills Rehabilitation Center until further notice."
"I see. When he wakes up, will you please reassure him that I won't tell anyone?"
To this, Kakashi simply nodded.
Turning to the door yet again, Kakashi made his leave.
The center wasn't ridiculously far away, making Kakashi's travel short and sweet. Looking up at the fairly old building, Kakashi felt a huge bubble of bitter nostalgia rise up in him, wanting desperately to burst. The few times he had visited here during Obito's stay had not gone well.
Almost unwillingly he remembered in sudden clarity how, despite all of his skills at keeping a straight face, he had nearly exploded at Obito for attempting something as selfish and as stupid as suicide. He'd already tasted the stagnant flavor that never goes away from life once someone you knew had prematurely stopped their own heart.
But, thankfully, Rin's steady gaze had kept his building anger at bay until he was able to leave the building. Leave before he flung unnecessarily cruel words onto an already downtrodden teammate.
Walking into the dark building, Kakashi was amazed, even years after his first visits, that the building never seemed to ever get robbed. With them leaving the door unlocked and all, he would have expected it to happen more often then not. But from what he understood, they had never had to lock the doors. No one seemed to think the building had much worth to steal anyways.
Walking slowly up the stairs, Kakashi wondered if the third floor waiting room looked the same as it had years ago. Reaching the third floor landing, Kakashi managed to open the door without much difficulty and let himself in. Since the lights were dimmed to a mere soft glow, Kakashi had to let his eye adjust for a moment as he looked around the room. It had the same old chairs, same wall color, same plastic plant in the corner of the room, and same old desk. The only difference in the room at all was the person napping behind the desk.
"Hello?" he said uncertainly to the young woman slumped over the desk.
At his single word, her head shot up and for a moment she blinked sleepily at him. Slowly, she smiled.
"Hatake-san, thanks for bringing him back, I got so worried." The woman said in a voice laced with childishness. She quietly clambered to her feet, stretching as she did.
Not wanting to know exactly how or why she knew his family name, he turned his attention to rousing Naruto from his exhausted sleep. Shaking him gently, Kakashi managed to get him to wake.
"What is it?" Naruto asked, sleep dripping in his voice. His movements were sluggish as Kakashi let him down out of his arms. Walking over to one of the old, plastic chairs, Naruto plopped down and proceeded to try to fall back asleep.
"Naruto." Kakashi said, slightly loud.
Blue eyes blinking open, Naruto stared at his teacher for a moment in the dim light, saying,
"Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing in Shikamaru's house?"
"Naruto, we're back at the center. You fell asleep, remember? I was told that I needed to find you and bring you back here." Kakashi answered.
Staring at him for a moment or two, Naruto couldn't help the "Ah crap" that escaped his lips.
"Kiriva has to go to the potty." The woman, Kiriva, said.
"You're still here?" Naruto asked in a slightly desperate attempt to change the subject, head snapping to where Kiriva was already half way out of the door.
"Yup. You can call me the epitome of the hard worker!" Kiriva said with a small smile on her face as she trudged out of the room to find a potty.
A silence filled the room for a few agonizingly long moments before either of them broke it.
"Kakashi-sensei, can we talk about this some other time? I can barley keep my eyes open and I can't think all too straight." Naruto said.
It was very true that his eyes were quite tired.
"Sasuke told me what happened. I bumped into him after he had dropped you off at the hospital. He told me it looked like you had tried to kill yourself." Kakashi said, watching Naruto intently.
"Sasuke doesn't know worth shit." Naruto answered glumly, quite agitated with how the whole day had gone.
"I also talked to that doctor who took care of you."
"Satoshi? What'd he have to say?"
"Well, he said it wasn't a suicide attempt."
"Hah, I told you Sasuke doesn't know a thing."
"But he did tell me that you'd been doing this for over four years. He said the number of scars you have and how old some of them were gave that much away." Kakashi said, almost disregarding what Naruto had said about Sasuke.
A heartbeat, a moment, and Naruto ended the conversation.
"Please leave Kakashi-sensei, I don't want to talk about this at one in the morning. I don't want to talk about it at all right now."
Another moment, another heartbeat, and Kakashi caved in.
"I'll come back in two days…can you talk then?"
"Maybe, but maybe not. We'll have to see when we get there." Naruto said in a barley there whisper with his head resting downcast in his hand.
"Goodnight Naruto."
"'Night Kakashi-sensei."
A minute or so later, Kiriva came tip toeing back into the room, Naruto's eyes following her every step.
"How'd your wee little talk go?" she asked in a whisper.
"He gave me two days before we're to talk." Naruto answered as he stood up to follow her.
Walking back down the hallway he had walked down not but a few hours ago, Naruto was about to protest when they passed the door they'd initially gone through.
"Wasn't I-?"
"Oh, you got moved up four sections because of that window thingy you did today. It's not a problem, they'll fix the window Naruto, so don't you worry! The Board of Medicine just didn't look at your case hard enough. After a few hours ago, they had a super emergency meeting to decide what level you should be put on." Kiriva explained as they continued walking.
As they continued walking, Naruto thought of something that struck him as extremely odd about Kiriva.
"How'd you know my name? I haven't met you before, right?"
Looking at him as she plugged in the code to the lock on the last door of the hall, she smiled and said,
"Kiriva is odd and she knows it. It is one of my oddities that I have. Almost everyone I meet I've felt like I've met before, even if I haven't. You're still young and may not understand it yet, but that is how I am and how I will always be."
The door opened with the sounds of several low clicks and whirls and Kiriva opened the door wide, letting Naruto step in first and then herself before leaving the door just a bit open.
"Why not close it?" Naruto asked in a whisper, pointing to the door and its menacing looking lock.
"Kiriva knows how to get in, but not how to get out. I'm good with names, but numbers seem to flee from my brain like it's a disease." She whispered, scratching the back of her head sheepishly.
Continuing their way down the floor, Naruto found it to look almost exactly like the one he'd seen earlier in the day, with the exception of thick bars on each window and a different pattern to the tiled floor.
"Kiriva!" a middle-aged woman hissed in a low whisper as she came trotting down the hall.
"What is it, what is the matter?" Kiriva asked the other woman.
"It's Emiko, I can't find her anywhere!" the woman said frantically, nearly in hysterics.
"Calm down! We'll look for her, no worries. Have you looked in her normal hiding places?" Kiriva said calmly, her naturally childish voice clashing with the tone.
Out of the corners of his eyes, Naruto saw a figure dart towards where he knew an open door lay. And as Kiriva continued to calm the woman down, Naruto too snuck back the way he'd came from. Door now wide open, Naruto followed the dark figure as it left the third floor and walked quickly up the stairs.
"You're calm now, yes?" Kiriva asked the woman, who nodded her head.
"Kiriva, did the bathrooms get moved, I can't seem to find them at this very second in time." another voice asked as its owner came down the hallway. She was clad in slippers, sweat shirt and night pants, long white hair done up in a loose bun, red eyes glazed with sleep, fairly pale skin gleaming in the dim hall lights.
"Oh Miyuki, Emiko got lost and I still have to get this other one settled." Kiriva said, exasperated.
"…What other one?" Miyuki asked, looking behind the older woman's shoulder.
"This one right behind-" Kiriva turned, only to realize Naruto was now gone.
"Did you lose them?" Miyuki asked.
Kiriva nodded her head dumbly.
"Want some help? I don't think she'll be much use." Miyuki said, nodding to the puffy-eyed woman who tried but failed to stare meanly at her.
"Do you promise on a most sacred of pinky swears that if I let you go check up on the roof you'll come back?" Kiriva asked, sticking out her right pinky finger.
Rolling her eyes in mock annoyance, the girl wrapped her own pale pinky around the already outstretched one.
"You're one of the few people I actually like in here Kiriva. Of course I'll come right back." The white haired girl said.
Uncurling her finger from the other, the girl named Miyuki found her way to the stairs, jogging up them as she went. For some reason, for some dumb reason, she had the distinct feeling of already being to late to stop something from starting.
Shrugging the feeling off, she continued to climb the last flight of stairs.
Naruto crept up the stairs after the figure; very much aware they were headed towards the roof. As he made it to the top, Naruto quickly searched the rooftop for the lone figure. He could clearly see the tall link chain fences and most other accessories one would expect to on top of a roof. That is, except for the lone figure he finally spotted.
Naruto watched silently as the young woman in her torn jeans and black tank top climbed over the fencing that surrounded the roof, eventually lowering herself to the edge of the other side. She turned to face the edge of the building, held tightly onto the chain link wire of the fence and leaned forward. He could see her stare off at the quiet, darkness of the city, letting her long black hair blow with the wind.
"Hey." Naruto said loudly as he made his way toward where she stood.
The young woman simply glanced at him and then back at the ground.
"What do you want kid?" the young woman said after another moment.
"Nothing really." Naruto answered nonchalantly.
"Yeah right, everyone wants something. You want to be a hero and say you saved me from my biggest mistake? Forget it kid. I can't go back now, not when I'm this close. Just one little step and this whole, ugly nightmare can finally stop for me." The young woman said, bitterness dripping in her voice.
Stepping close enough that he could make out goose bumps on her arms from the chilly weather and the few scars that accompanied them, Naruto spoke.
"Can I ask you something?"
"What?" she said, bitterness in her voice increased.
"Can you tell me your name?"
The young woman turned her head to stare at him and then turned to face him completely, hands still clutching the fencing.
"Why do you want that?" she asked, suspicion now nearly drowning out the bitterness in her voice.
"So someone can remember you when you're gone. I'm not going to try and stop you. I've been were you are right now a handful of times myself. I haven't been able to actually be greeted by death yet, but you seem pretty damn determined to do just that. Call it dumb, but I don't want you leaving the world without at least someone remembering your name for some time. It'd be just too damn sad if I had to watch you die and never even knew your name." Naruto said, shrugging.
The lady stared at him for a moment. Naruto couldn't tell exactly what the expression on her face was. One second it looked like she might cry, the next like she might scream. And then suddenly, she was fumbling with something on her neck. Yanking whatever it was over her head, she shoved her hand through one of the holes the wire fencing made, wiggling it for Naruto to take.
"You talk too much, but I'll give you my name and something to keep your mind from forgetting me." She said, dropping a beautiful glass ring with a string looped through it into Naruto's hand.
"Hey" she said, dragging Naruto's attention away from the delicate ring in his palm, "that's mine and my mom's ring, take care of it for me, ok? My name, by the way, is Emiko Nanase." She said, staring at him for only a moment before letting herself fall back, away from the building and closer to death. A second later, a rather loud crunch told him when Emiko had become only a person in his memories.
Naruto knew you could or couldn't die from falling from four stories high. To live land on your feet; to die land on your head. Anywhere in between and you might not get what you want. But Naruto had a feeling she'd been someone who'd make sure to dive in head first, just to see what would happen.
Naruto stood there for sometime, just staring at where she had been and holding the ring in his hand.
"Hey" a soft voice said as a hand landed on his shoulder, "what happened?"
The hand belonged to a girl who was only a inch taller than him, long white hair and pale skin that glowing softly in the autumn moonlight, and blazing red eyes. For a moment, in his dazed and tired mind, he thought he was looking at an earthen spirit.
"She died." Naruto said, walking back into the building, the white haired girl trailing after him.
As Naruto slipped into bed, clothes and all, he removed the necklace Tsunade had given him not but three months before. Untying its ends, he strung the thin glass ring Emiko had given him onto the black string and tied back onto his neck once more.
There was no way Naruto would be able to forget Emiko Nanase for a very long time.
