Echoing Footsteps

By: CagedRaven

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Chapter 2

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"Are you sure it was okay to have them both in the same room, Kakashi, even if it was just for over night?" Iruka asked as they walked down the hallway toward the front desk. "I thought we both agreed that they didn't get along too well. They're both unstable on top of that, what if-"

Kakashi broke the other man's sentence and said, "Sasuke isn't unstable at the moment, Iruka. He took his pills right there in the room in front of me."

"No, I guess he's not... but what if he says or does something that makes Naruto hate himself more than he already does?" The brunette couldn't help but worry.

"I doubt he will," Kakashi walked up to the desk and signed his name, passing the pen to Iruka when he was finished. "Sasuke's probably just going to fall asleep."

Iruka was surprised, "What did you give him?" he thought for a moment, "An anti depressant?"

Kakashi nodded, "A psychologist diagnosed him with Bipolar disease about a month - two months ago. I was thinking of bringing her over in the morning to meet Naruto; she's a really nice woman."

Iruka nodded as they walked through the front double doors of the large Konoha hospital and took in the clean air.

"I've been thinking of asking Gai for help to train Naruto without the use of weapons – he's into all that weight training. I don't want Naruto harming himself with shuriken, so I was just focusing on strength and stamina." Kakashi said.

Iruka looked down to the ground, "You may not have worry about that too much longer. I've asked the Hokage if Naruto could be taken out of his Ninja studies. I just don't want him to learn new techniques and then uses them to hurt himself."

Kakashi nodded, not saying a word.

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"Sasuke?" Naruto looked over to his left at the pale, raven haired boy in the dim light. His teammate looked back him with a blank stare, most likely already knowing the blonde was on the other side of the curtain, and faced the other way again.

What had Kakashi meant by adding Sasuke in his lecture? Why was Sasuke in the hospital to begin with? The blonde thought to himself, silently, not even knowing why he was in the hospital. His self inflicted cuts had most likely healed soon after his hands were pulled out of the water. He looked over to his right and craned his neck painfully over his shoulder toward the IV poll.

'Ah, did they think I needed a blood transfusion?'

He watched the scarlet liquid drip as many times per second as the machine had told it to before the pain in his neck became harder to ignore. Naruto could just see it upon his skin again, dancing as beautifully as running water. Each drop bringing the blonde closer and closer to his high.

Oh, he wanted it now!

Naruto's eyes darted to his arms, remembering bitterly that they were tied down to the hospital's bed frame. Not to mention the lack of sharp items in the pale room would have made it difficult even if he wasn't tied.

A thought entered his head. Sure he wouldn't be able to see the blood, but he would taste it. Naruto took in a deep breath and bit down on the fleshy muscle inside his mouth, hard. Sure it hurt like hell but it was working, he could taste a little bit of the metallic flavor in his mouth. He did it again, making sure to bite down on the same spot to draw more blood. He let out whine of distress as he rolled his head back and forth; alerting his roommate that something was amiss.

"What's wrong, idiot?" Sasuke asked in a bored tone, his back facing the blonde.

Naruto was breathing hard from holding his breath every time he would bite down, he hadn't even known he had made a noise, instead believing it was in his head.

"...it's nothing." He managed to answer, choosing to swallow his mouth full of blood. He sighed, letting his head rest on pillow provided, waiting for the sensations to over take his form. The blonde had to wait long, not having any water to stop the demon's chakra from healing the wound and instead used his saliva. It took about ten minutes until he felt like he was sinking, slowly losing power over his body and its actions. The idea had worked; he was being pulled in by the darkness but it was gray and shallow. The blonde would just have to wait some more, for the wonderful feeling he'd experience two times in the same day.

Sasuke tried to ignore his gut but it was telling him something was wrong. The blonde didn't even retaliate when Sasuke had called him out of his name. Naruto had been making a lot of noise over on his side of the room; shifting in the bed, panting, and whining- and now the blonde was quite. Too quite. Almost like Sasuke was in the room by himself. Naruto wasn't even snoring like he usually did when the team was camping on a mission, so he couldn't have fallen asleep. The raven haired boy was debating on turning over, taking a quick glance just to ease his nerves when the door opened. A nurse on the night shift smiled down at him, checking the tubes for air and reset the IV machine and after wrote a few notes on chart she was holding in the dim light of the nightlight.

She walked around Sasuke's bed, pulling the curtain some, out of habit, and Sasuke guessed to look at the blonde's IV poll too, like she had did with his. He heard a quick intake of air followed by the clattering of - what he believed to be- the chart she had been holding. Sasuke turned over and watched her dim shadow through the curtain as she stood at the end of Naruto's bed, gasping as her hands clutched her head in fear. She was muttering what sounded like a shallow prayer before running out of the room at full speed, noisily screaming for the head nurse and the doctors.

'What had she seen', Sasuke wondered, slowly rising from his bed and reaching for the curtain, having a hard time ignoring the way his heart went to his throat. 'What had the woman seen to make her run like she had seen death?'

Sasuke grabbed the thin fabric and jerked it toward the back wall, taking in a small breath himself - eyes widening, fingers turning white as he still held onto the curtain. He could feel the bile coming up.

'It wasn't death she had seen but the closet thing to it.'

Naruto's half open eyes were clouded and barely focused- pointed straight at the ceiling. His shoulders were sagging and his head sat oddly on his neck. The blonde's lips were painted crimson along with his chin as the blood spilled out of his mouth at a slow speed. His chest wasn't moving in the gentle rhythm it should have been, choosing to move much quicker. Naruto was dying right before his eyes.

More footsteps entered the room; the bright lights were flicked on. Another nurse pushed Sasuke back in bed, pulling the hanging fabric over to block the action and asked if he was alright.

'How can I be alright? I just saw my teammate try to commit suicide!' Sasuke wanted to shout at the older woman but refrained from doing so, he nodded shakily instead.

"Damn it!" a male doctor cursed from behind the curtain, "Don't shut off the machine, that blood supply is the only thing keeping him alive."

"Should we increase speed?" a woman asked.

"Yes, and someone get me a sedative to give him so he can't try this again."

Another nurse ran from the room in search of the drug, passing the raven haired boy's side. He was able to see the white latex gloves she was removing on her way were painted in that deep red.

Sasuke saw a green glow peek through the thin fabric, it must have been the medic nin's chakra healing what Sasuke believed to be Naruto's tongue. The woman next to Sasuke was trying to convince him everything was fine and quite frankly getting on his nerves. He was attempting to understand what was happening on the other side of the bright room his eyes weren't as lucky to see. The doctors spoke to one another in hurried manners, like they were trying to beat the clock. Nurses followed their orders before their sentences were completed. It seemed like it was so surreal to the Uchiha.

The nurse who had left earlier returned to the room, a needled syringe in hand as she disappeared to where his eyes couldn't follow her. The green chakra slowly dimmed down until there was no more of it and a sigh a relief came from one of their lips.

"Should we order more blood from downstairs?" a male asked.

"Yeah, do that. About two bags of it; he lost a lot even with his tongue already beginning to heal by itself." He sighed again, coming around the curtain to look at Sasuke. "I'm sorry about all the noise and excitement."

The raven haired boy didn't know what to say, they made it sound like it was a small issues, as if Sasuke had complained his neighbor was blasting the television too loud or something. Luckily the doctor wasn't expecting an answer and turned to leave -the nurse who had been sitting with Sasuke following right behind him- giving one last order to a nurse outside,

"Make sure you keep him on that sedative."

The bright lights hadn't been turned off although all the action had left. The quite had returned as if it had never left, except the new beeping coming from the blonde's heart monitor. It gave Sasuke a chance to think, a chance to wonder and most importantly, a chance to prepare for tomorrow.

"Alright," a short, round woman walked in wearing a nurse's aid uniform as she wheeled a laundry basket and held fresh sheets under her arm past the pale curtain and to Naruto's side of the room. "Let's get you all fresh, shall we?"

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Naruto hated this lazy, tried feeling, whatever drug they gave him, made him feel. It made the blonde feel powerless and that wasn't a feeling he wanted to feel when Kakashi and Iruka eyed him like this. With the curtain pulled away again even Sasuke was able to look at him. It wasn't the same worried expression as the older men, more blunt in curiosity.

He was trying to fight it, the fake sleep the drug put his body in, it was hard but he was doing it. Soon they would have to find something new to use anyway, the demon's chakra sometimes started to act like white blood cells, killing things it though would harmful to the body.

"Naruto, I would have said you go first and give me your explanation but it seems like the sedative they gave you is strong and is preventing you from talking."

The blonde focused his blue eyes on Kakashi; he glared as best he could, hoping it was getting the job done. Naruto was not in the mood for this crap.

"Go to hell." Naruto snarled.

"Naruto, how are you feeling?" Iruka asked, offering a weak smile to the blonde.

"Like shit." 'I wasn't even able to feel the darkness that time; my timing was off and luck was bad.' The blonde thought bitterly of the nurse that had first found him.

"That seems about right," Kakashi muttered to himself, turning his dark colored eye toward the raven haired boy. "Sasuke?"

The raven haired boy looked over to his team leader at the call of his name, glaring at him and turned to face the opposite wall. "It's none of your business."

Kakashi sighed, pulling out his orange book from his bag and opening it to where he left off. "It's not like I was expecting an answer from the two of you anyway."

He read silently to himself, ignoring the glares from the blonde and the brooding air coming off the raven haired boy. Iruka looked between the other three males, almost nervously, before excusing himself out of the room.

Naruto paid little attention to anything besides how heavy his eye lids felt. It would sometimes feel like his glaring eyes were becoming crossed. The blonde didn't want to blink because then it seemed like his eyes wouldn't open again. It was so uncomfortable; and how Kakashi would randomly peek over his book's spine at him made it seem like he waiting for Naruto to fall asleep. Every time he did and there eyes met Naruto would try to strength his scowl by tenfold but it just seemed to fall flat as Kakashi would smiled and continue reading his book.

This strange routine passed for minutes, and with every second Naruto felt his eyes closing little by little. He was soon even to weak to give a dirty look, instead choosing to just keep watch.

'Why am I fighting this again?' Naruto wondered to himself. 'Maybe this will be just like when I bleed; that wonderful darkness over taking me.'

Kakashi snapped his book shut as the blonde's eyes closed, the light snoring coming from his mouth confirming how deep it was. He moved his eye over to Sasuke's back; even he was gently shifting in slumber.

The door slid open and Kakashi greeted Iruka with a wave as well as the Hokage.

"Ah, I came too late, then?"

Kakashi nodded, looking back over to his two students.

"I can't enter my team in the chuunin exam without my whole team there, Hokage sama." Kakashi said, paying no attention to Iruka's shocked expression.

"Ah, is it what Iruka said that prevents you from doing so?" The old man smiled, "I have no intention of stopping Naruto be a ninja."

"But, Hokage sama!" Iruka yelled, flinching when Sasuke moved under his blankets. "Naruto is not mentally stable to be in an atmosphere like that, and even if he was his not strong enough. Sasuke is barely making it, himself and Sakura doesn't have the strength."

"Iruka," The old man fixed the chuunin with his eyes, "To be a ninja is the only thing Naruto was to look forward to. Taking it away from him is not what our priority should be, finding the true problem underneath is."

"Yes, Hokage sama, I apologize." The brunette looked toward the floor.

"Kakashi, go ahead and enter them in, if that is what you chose to do. These two will be out by then." The Hokage turned toward the door but stopped to say one more thing before he left. "I'll ask her to come by and see if she can figure out what's going on in Naruto's head, alright?" He smiled at Iruka as he continued out.

Kakashi pocketed his book went to follow the village leader and flicked off the lights behind him. "See, Iruka, I knew it would all work out."

"That's funny; you didn't agree or disagree with me earlier about my idea for Naruto. Now you throw out how much you want to enter them in the next exam!" Iruka lingered on his one-sided argument all the way out the door.

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Finally out the hospital and off those weird drugs the demon's chakra didn't even have time to attack, Naruto knew exactly what he wanted to do. Run straight to the ramen stand. The hospital food was so bland and disgusting he couldn't even explain it. Though it had to wait. First the blonde had to see a woman that wanted to talk to him. The idea of this lady wanting to talk to him didn't annoy him, what annoyed Naruto was what he knew she wanted to talk about and who she probably was. A psychologist.

He entered an office looking room two men had shown him too. There was a large chair facing him with a small wooden table sitting next to it. A long couch that somewhat look like a bed facing the chair. Yeah, it was a psychologist's office.

"Are you just going to stand there or are going to sit down?"

The voice came from behind him, a female's voice. Naruto turned to face it and was surprised to be faced with large breast almost touching his nose. His tanned face turned red as he jumped away. From further away he could see her much better. A blonde, brown eyed, tall female that looked more pissed than friendly.

"You should really watch your manners." She muttered, throwing on a pair of small glasses as she sat in her chair, one leg over the other.

"You were right behind me, it wasn't my felt!" the blonde pointed out.

"Uh, whatever, it doesn't matter anyway. Just sit down so we can start this.

Naruto did as he was told, hoping to end their session just as quickly.

"Your name is Naruto Uzumaki, correct?" He nodded. "My name is Tsunade, let's get started."

Her smile was proof that she was thinking of other things she could have been doing but Naruto just smiled right back, giving little to no attention to what would be happing in the woman's office. His mind was busy thinking of the large bowl of ramen he was going to eat and even, perhaps ironic, of the color of his blood running over his wrist.

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TBC….

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It wasn't beta-ed and there may be a handful of mistakes so if you see any just let me know and I'll fix it up.

Hope you enjoyed it, please review.