A/N: This was originally supposed to be a one shot, but a reviewer suggested making it a series of one shots. I liked the idea, so props to them though I can't remember who you are (sorry). So here is the second installment. They won't go in any particular order, just so you know.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Sake

"In visions of the dark night

I have dreamed of joy departed;

But a waking dream of life and light

Hath left me broken-hearted.

Ah! what is not a dream by day

To him whose eyes are cast

On things around him, with a ray

Turned back upon the past?

That holy dream, that holy dream,

While all the world were chiding,

Hath cheered me as a lovely beam

A lonely spirit guiding.

What though that light, thro' storm and night,

So trembled from afar –

What could there be more purely bright

In Truth's day-star?"

-Edgar Allen Poe, "A Dream"

The night Sakura woke up in the middle of the night to the phone ringing was one of the worst she had ever experienced. Naruto was on the other end telling her Sasuke had been drinking again. Apparently he was unable to hold his alcohol and got drunk too quickly for his own good.

She had groggily gotten dressed and stumbled down the street to Naruto's apartment where the Uchiha was currently vomiting into the blonde's toilet. Sakura knew how bad alcoholism could be. Numerous shinobi had been taken to the hospital for alcohol poisoning during her long shifts.

Naruto and Sasuke didn't go to the hospital when they could help it. Her teammates preferred to go straight to her at her home to be treated. The hospital staff did not treat them kindly.

Sakura went into the bathroom to find Sasuke passed out on the floor. Naruto was worried. Of course, this wasn't the first time this had happened.

The kunoichi was not surprised as others to find that Naruto had often kept Sasuke company when he was drunk. She knew – just as well as Naruto did – that Sasuke shouldn't be left alone when incoherent and incapacitated.

Most people were surprised that Naruto always stayed with Sasuke during this random mental purging after difficult missions.

Sakura knew why. Sometimes she wished that Sasuke would come to her instead, but she knew that wouldn't happen.

Naruto had a way of keeping Sasuke from drinking too much sake. Sakura did not.

A long time ago Sakura had realized that bonds that could not be broken chained the two together. Only death could break that bond, and the two weren't about to die any time soon.

Sakura and Naruto carried Sasuke out of the bathroom and onto a futon laid out on the floor. Naruto would stay with his best friend for entire night watching over him.

She knew she would be hearing Naruto yelling tomorrow just to remind Sasuke of his hang over. It was amusing sometimes, but it worried her all the same.

Her friend was quickly becoming an alcoholic and she could do nothing. She had only one person to turn to: Naruto.

Naruto would be the only person to be able to get Sasuke to stop. Being as close as brothers had its advantages for Sakura too. She would be able to help the two of them subtly through the other.

It was all she could do because Sakura did not hold as much sway.

She had always been the one to mediate.

She had always been the one to hold their hands when they could not rely upon each other.

She had been the one to physical wounds.

That was all she could do. Heal physical wounds.

So she had to help as much as she could when one of them needed help.

Naruto was looking at her expectantly. She smiled at him sadly.

"Help him, Naruto-kun."

--

A/N: I would imagine that Sasuke would have a drinking problem if he joined ANBU. As you can tell, this is set after Shippuden, and he is back in Konoha. I just think that he should be back there instead of wandering around.

I don't have much to say about this one. However, I imagine that Sakura would feel it necessary to help her friends in any way she could. Therefore, she doesn't have much influence over the two, but she can ask one of them to help each other. I imagine that if she asked one of them to help each other they would do it.