Night Breeze

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto!

A/N: -scowls- this turned out to be a multi-chapter story after all…damn it. I wanted this to be a one-shot, but it was just too long!

-grumbles to self-

Ahem. Moving on. I present to you: Chapter Two!

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Sasuke swam sluggishly towards consciousness. He could sense it—the feel of thought, the feel of self. So there was an afterworld after all. He wondered what it would be like. Had he gotten into heaven? Maybe he'd gone to hell. The boy didn't think he qualified for either of them. He wasn't evil, but hadn't been particularly benign either. For a while, he fretted over his fate, then broke the surface of the dark pool he'd gone into a few minutes after slitting his wrist.

Hmmm. Neon lights, people in white, voices barking orders, and a warm bed beneath him.

Somehow, Sasuke doubted that he'd died.

A pink haired woman stood threateningly over him, blurring into focus. She wore a fatigued expression and a relieved smile.

"You gave us quite a scare, you know," she chuckled, "I thought you were comatose for a minute there…and then you woke up, just as you pleased, Sasuke."

He sighed and closed his eyes again, struggling to find his voice. Sakura observed him curiously. Suicide attempts were uncommon in the remote town of Konohagakure, but the few she'd dealt with before were just as relieved to be alive as she was to have saved their lives. This one seemed almost…disappointed?

"Any chance that this is the afterworld?" he whispered softly, a tinge of hope in his voice. He opened an eye to look at her, and she shook her head. "Haruno Hospital," she said.

"Damn."

Sakura frowned and bit back a rebuke. This kid's mental health and attitude wasn't her problem. It was his body that concerned her. She turned away from him to check his stats, but was unable to suppress a sentence she knew she had no right to utter.

"Your parents and your brother are outside, worried sick."

"Don't let them in. I have the right to refuse to see them, right?"

The doctor swallowed her indignant retort. What a brat! His parents had had no clue that he was even depressed, and here he wasn't even going to allow them to talk to him!

"Yeah," she said curtly, walking out.

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Sasuke lay in bed, stewing in his thoughts. Horror came to mind first. He'd failed. He wasn't dead. His family knew he'd tried to kill himself. He pushed the weight of that realization away, refusing to cope with it. Why? That was the next thought. How? How had he been saved? It was New Year's, for crying out loud, his brother and parents had been out partying, assuming he'd be doing the same.

Oh. Yeah…a shadow of a memory drifted across his mind. His brother…he'd come home merely minutes after he'd taken the cleaver to his skin. Falling on him, smelling like a dozen different drinks. Sasuke groaned. Trust his aniki to pick such an inconvenient day to come home at a reasonable hour.

The door clicked, and a blond man in a white tee and dark jeans walked in, a sun kissed smile on his face. Sasuke eyed him warily. A psychiatrist, obviously. He wondered if he should bother lying, but somehow he doubted this guy would buy it. The electric blue eyes sparkled with the azure fires of the sky, and held empathy that ran deeper than the oceans.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he introduced himself, sticking out a hand. Sasuke looked away. "Nice to meet you," he said demurely, "Come to find out what's wrong with me?"

"Judgmental," Naruto tutted.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't you assume the same? I'm just being defensive because I'm too tired to take the offensive."

"I see," the blond murmured, walking over to him, fluffing his pillow. The red eyed boy caught a whiff of his scent—natural, woody, and…airy, somehow. Frivolous.

Sasuke closed his eyes and leaned back into the bed, wishing himself away, wishing himself into nonexistence. A panic rose at the base of his throat, desiring to vent itself in a scream, and he smothered it, mentally reciting one of his favorite poems.

Whose woods are these I think I know…

His house is in the village though.

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow…

"Nice poem," Naruto commented, and startled Sasuke into opening his eyes, for one wild moment thinking that he'd said the words out loud. But the man was holding up a piece of paper in his hands—a black Post-It, on which was written a haiku, in white marker. Sasuke let his eyelids fall over his irises again. Just his suicide note.

If I could will myself away, I would.

If I could wish myself to bits, I would.

But I can't; hence the knife.

"Yeah," Sasuke said faintly, "Thanks."

Naruto abruptly stuck a mirror in front of the boy. The black haired lad blinked in confusion, and his reflection blinked back.

"Do you think that that boy is handsome?" the blond asked. They both knew it was a cheesy thing to do, but Naruto hoped that he would play along. In his limited experience, direct questions tended to yield dishonest answers. This was a roundabout way of figuring out if the frail young thing suffered from insecurity or an inferiority complex. Another person would have immediately squealed and said "Are you insane, he's fucking hot!" Sasuke stared for a long time at the mirror, and then laughed mirthlessly. "Yeah," he allowed, "He's handsome. But the beauty's skin deep. And it's not his own, it's passed down from his parents. Whatever beauty is his own comes from his thoughts…they shine through his eyes."

"He's a good person, isn't he?" Naruto said quietly, watching him.

"Maybe. I just meant that his thoughts are beautiful. I don't know about him."

"What about you, Sasuke?"

The scarlet eyes flashed annoyance and amusement. "Don't fuck with me, I'm not a child. We are talking about me."

A grin burst through the serious face the blond had acquired over the last minute or so.

"I'll be back soon," he said, "Make yourself comfortable, you're likely to be here a week or so for rehab."

"Doctor?" Sasuke called out as the man reached for the doorknob, "I'm going to kill myself. You can't stop me, and I won't tell you why."

Naruto looked back over his shoulder, and winked at him. "That's what you think," he said, and left.

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"He's a brat."

"Sakura!"

The rosette stirred her coffee unrepentantly. "He's a brat. He doesn't care that he's hurting the people around him, he's selfish, he's only thinking about some stupid teen angst that he feels enough to end his life over. He's a brat."

Naruto shoved her playfully. "Maybe it's not teen angst. Maybe his family did abuse him."

Lee snorted. "Naruto, did you even see them? Did you see the brother? It was as though a part of him died. That family cares about its children."

"Maybe too much? Maybe there's pressure on him to perform well? A brother as achieved as that, maybe he has to vie for attention?" the blond theorized.

Sakura sat down next to her boyfriend, letting him steal the first sip of her beverage. "He's a brat," she said obstinately to her best friend, "Naruto, I dunno what he said to you, but I think he's a brat."

A fair haired nurse burst into the lounge, out of breath. "Sakura-san! The suicide patient—he cut himself again!"

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Hm. I like cliffhangers. Sadistic bitch? I like to think engaging authoress.