"Foolish Hearts"
'Chapter Two'
Kakashi stood in the middle of the ICU hospital room; Naruto on his left and Sasuke on his right. The hospital must have been full of idiots if they thought they could keep the two in the same room. Glancing at his Hokage, his former student, Kakashi caught sight of the bandaging on the left side of the kits face obscuring his view of the man. The patch covered almost all of the left side, and Kakashi could only hope that the fox didn't lose an eye. The real damage was lower, the hole in the kitsune's side, the one that had almost killed him.
Kakashi could only sigh as he gazed at the shirtless fox; the doctors wouldn't put a hospital shirt on him, not until the wound healed more. Until then, all the silver haired man could stare at was a slowly darkening bandage.
Looking to his right, he found Sasuke. It was ironic that the privacy shade between the two cast a shadow over the Uchiha, hiding him in darkness, while Naruto was in light. The Uchiha was turned on his side, facing Naruto, and like the fox he was also shirtless, only heavy bandaging being seen around his shoulder and on his chest. Doctors had told the sensei that when the back wound healed a bit more they would rest him on his back.
But, unlike Naruto, Sasuke was chained to the bed. Thick leather cuffs were bound around the man's wrists and ankles, even one was strapped over his waist.
..Sakura would have a fit if she saw this.
Sasuke was slowly waking up.
He was waking from a very odd and real dream -- remembering what had happened hours... maybe even a day previous, he couldn't really be sure. For a fleeting moment he had been sane, but now his mind was twisting, bending once again as he gained consciousness.
His eyes the color of blood blinked back the sleep, looking around the room as he slowly calculated his surroundings. He took note of the chains on him, of the bandages, of the wires and monitors all around him. He blinked up at the privacy shade, seeing a shadow on the other side -- a silhouette of someone in a similar place as he was.
Licking his lips, his heart began to beat erratically -- he wanted out, he needed to get out! The urge inside of him began to well up, like a caged animal Sasuke's mind began to work, forming plans and thoughts. He couldn't stay here, he couldn't be confined, he needed to get free -- he needed to kill.
Then he caught sight of Kakashi.
He took in the sight of the older man, his dark eyes calculating him, seeing him more as a threat than a fond memory. Kakashi was an obstacle -- he tested his bindings, the clinking of metal on metal as the chains clashed with the metal bed poles as he shifted his weight here and there, seeing his boundaries. He no longer felt pain, so as the blood began to soak his bandages from his movements, he didn't seem to notice or care in the least.
Kakashi narrowed his one eye slowly, the medication button for both men in his hands. His arms were crossed as he surveyed Sasuke…it was as if he felt no pain, he moved as if he weren't hindered by the injuries or the bindings.
"I'd keep still if I were you." He said pointedly holding up the medication button. Slowly walking over, he set Naruto's down on the small table, before stopping at Sasuke's eye level. "Those cuffs and bars are safer than what I am, so I'd stop planning."
Sasuke licked his lips, smirk on his porcelain face as his red eyes narrowed as he glared up at this man with an unwavering gaze. "Is that a threat Kakashi-sensei?" He asked, his tone mocking, taunting.
He knew these people.
The whole village.
But it was like everyone was just a passing dream, a memory, like nothing felt grounded or real.
No one mattered.
No one could take him from the edge he had leapt from.
No one…
…but Naruto.
The name slowly slithered through his consciousness, and his grin faded to a frown, his dark eyes filled with a silent inner rage.
Ever and always calculating Kakashi watched Sasuke's facial expressions.
Was there a mental battle going on?
"Call it a threat if you like." The man answered his tone passive and uncaring.
He leaned against the table, the button still in his hand. "..I can't imagine those wounds feeling very good." He started, trying to mentally throw Sasuke off balance, trying to get into the man's head.
"Wounds." He murmured as if trying to grab at the word.
His mind was split.
At the moment fighting for dominance over the other. Ever present frown on his face, his red eyes looking distant, almost occupied before they flashed back to insanity and glared right up to the tall man before him.
"I don't feel them." Sasuke flashed him a grin -- one side had won, for now. He licked his lips, flexing his fingers, testing his strength, mentally taking note of himself. "I don't feel pain." He said darkly, voice smooth.
"Oh really?" Kakashi asked, yet again his voice holding no emotion remaining completely impassive. He had been pressing the button every ten minutes for the last hour or so, when the Uchiha started twitching in his sleep. He kept the item hidden in his crossed arms, "Aren't you fortunate." He looked down at the glaring red eyes.
"Too bad for your suite mate," He paused moving so he could move the curtain, showing the unconscious Naruto to Sasuke. "He does feel pain." Pushing the curtain back he looked down at the Uchiha, his eyes hard, "You almost killed him."
"That was the point." Sasuke spat, but as his red eyes actually took in the sight of the kitsune his grin faded. His red eyes were hard, trying to hold onto that sparkle of madness, but it was getting harder and harder as he stared at that face; that marred bandaged face. His dark eyes narrowed, his movements sluggish until he stopped fighting his bonds completely.
As if mesmerized, transfixed in place as he took in the sight of the broken fox. His heart beat differently, and a pain he hadn't felt… since god knows how long caused his beating organ to ache unpleasantly. His breathing was uneven, his body swaying forward, towards the fox as if he tried to move closer he might actually touch him even though they were a good eight feet apart.
…then Kakashi pushed the curtain back.
In that moment the sanity died and insane eyes flashed back up to Kakashi. "I will kill him." He growled with a newfound vigor, with newfound malice, "He will die!" He thrashed, kicked, tried to force himself free -- panting from the effort as his crazy mind wanted to kill the creature that was causing his control to falter.
Kakashi let Sasuke throw his fit, pushing the button rapidly three times in a row.
...It would suffice for now; at least it would calm the dark haired man down.
It seemed there wasn't much left of Sasuke.
Darkness, insanity, demons...
"I highly doubt that." Kakashi answered as soon as the screams stopped.
Sasuke blinked rapidly.
No matter how demonic he seemed...how crazy he was...
He was still human, and he still had limits.
That numbing feeling began to coat his limbs, his brain, and it enraged him...but his body no longer could respond. He was sluggish, sedated and weak. "Bastard..." He growled, blinking his eyes rapidly, trying to keep them alive. "Fucking bastard. I will kill him." His eyelids were heavy, his red eyes holding rage even as sleep took him.
Kakashi watched the Uchiha fade to nothingness, taking his demons with him.
...Huh, maybe he pushed the button too many times.
Slowly reaching out, Kakashi brushed some of the wayward strands out of the Uchiha's eyes. "You won't kill him." He murmured, "You need him."
--
It was dark.
Sasuke had opened his eyes for the second time this day, and everything was black.
There was a light, a lamp lit on the other side of the curtain, where ... where Naruto was.
He could see it through the thin screen, the silhouette of the man who appeared to be... sitting up? Or was propped up? It was one of the two.
Sasuke's side had no light, the darkness outside crept all over him, the faint green light of the monitors giving off a weird glow across the Uchiha's figure. As the sedation slowly left his system control began to filter back over, his dark eyes flashing with more and more consciousness as the minutes passed. Obsessed with that light, with the screen and the man on the other side of it.
His dark half wanted Naruto dead.
No matter what, he wanted the fox dead.
...but then, the dim, faint sane piece of Sasuke was still holding Naruto's light deep inside his lost heart. Growling to himself with his own struggle, he fought his bounds again; making it known he was awake and irritated.
Naruto paused in his thinking; he was holding an ice pack against the heated wound. Turning his glazed eyes over to the curtain, he glanced back up at Kakashi. The doctors had removed part of the bandage along the side of his face, all except two pieces on his forehead, just above his eyebrow and the lower portion of his cheek to his jaw.
Was Sasuke next to him?
Kakashi sighed as he stood up, and walked over to the curtain, pushing it open he reached down and turned the lamp on next to Sasuke. "Must you make so much noise when you wake up?" He asked moving back over to Naruto's bed, helping the kit slip the shirt he now had on. "I thought you were a ninja."
Sasuke's red eyes blinked as he adjusted to his own light, looking past Kakashi and at Naruto. He frowned to himself, control being relinquished for a moment as he stared intently at the fox. No longer thrashing, he laid on his side, dark calculating blood colored eyes boring a hole into Naruto.
His mind was twisting this way and that, Sasuke was completely oblivious to Kakashi, merely staring -- almost seeming to be drinking in the sight of the kitsune, his usually sharp tongue dull and quiet as he just passively watched.
Naruto didn't know what to do…
Sasuke was back, strapped to a hospital bed, dirty bandages soaked with blood, and was staring at him.
Somehow, it unnerved him.
Shifting slightly, he winced, moving the ice pack back up to the wound, his head dropping back to rest against the wall, his eyes closing as a breath escaped him.
"..Stop staring."
Rejection.
Sasuke's mouth drew into a frown as he laid back, not leaning over the side as he was, once hoping for a closer view. Quietly he turned his eyes away, along Naruto's figure, down the bed, to the floor -- up to Kakashi and finally on the wall as he kept still.
His mind was tilting this way and that now that he lost his focus on the one object still holding the key to himself. "Lucky." He murmured, his voice dark, "You're lucky I missed." His tone wavered between being a solid dark even tone -- to being a whisper. Absently he flexed his hands, the clinking sound of metal a nice change of sound next to the monotonous beeping of the monitors.
"I didn't think the Uchiha murderer could miss with those demon eyes." Naruto commented, not moving from his place on the bed.
Kakashi gave the unknowing Naruto a look, before he looked over to Sasuke.
Maybe he should get someone to move one of them...
Sasuke growled in his throat.
He had missed.
He had failed in the kill.
Because of his damn fucking heart.
Because he was still weak.
His back was tense, his mouth a thin angry frown as his dark eyes narrowed. "I shouldn't have missed." He murmured, agreeing, but blaming his weaker stupid self.
He didn't think Naruto was the Hokage...
He had thought… he didn't know what he had thought, but he didn't think Naruto would have achieved that title in just the few years he had been gone. He thought he could swoop in, kill the Hokage and destroy the village without having to come to terms with ... with the weakness inside of him.
He cursed himself a million times over.
Revenge should have been his by now.
It wasn't fair!
"Well you did." The fox opened his glazed, blood shot eyes and turned them on Sasuke. His orbs were narrowed, the bright wound on the left side of his face standing out as a dark, black line in the lamp light. "Deal with it."
Sasuke turned his blood colored eyes on the fox, sadistic grin on his lips, "I won't miss..."
That damn fox.
His face... just, something about him clicked, turned on a switch he had long since tried to ignore. Memories, fleeting feelings and thoughts. He wanted to bury them, bury everything inside of him that caused him to lose his path, to make him weak.
But... it just wasn't happening.
Those blue eyes...
He growled to himself, "I won't miss next time." It took effort to keep control, to say those words, it was frustrating, it was maddening.
Naruto raised an eyebrow.
Kakashi caught the motion and kicked the medication button once...twice for safe measure.
"And what about being chained to a hospital bed makes you think there's going to be a next time?" The fox snapped back.
The ice pack be damned, he sat up straighter than what he should have, but he didn't feel the pain, the adrenaline getting to him first before the medication. "You honestly believe that you'll be able to kill me, when you've tried to kill me three times already and have failed to do so?" He pointed out rather harshly, "I seriously doubt you'll get a next time."
"Oh?" Sasuke's tone held in pitch, mocking were his dark eyes, but he fed on Naruto's anger.
He kept focusing on those angry blue eyes, that rejection, that rage keeping his weaker self from showing its face. He licked his lips, angling himself on the bed, looking to the fox. "You going to kill me then? Right here?" He felt the numbing from Kakashi, but he tried to ignore it, focusing all his efforts and attentions on the irritated fox.
"Get over yourself, Sasuke."
Kakashi narrowed his eyes; maybe he should have requested the room change earlier. "Naruto, don-"
"You aren't worthy enough to be killed by me." The blonde started, "If I get my way, you'll rot in the lowest dungeon I can find."
"--Maybe you should rest, that run through wasn't the easiest to fix." Kakashi grabbed Naruto's clicker and pushed it two times, he should have stepped in earlier. "Sasuke, stop taunting Naruto. He's just upset you stabbed him." Despite the fact that Kakashi was also angry with the Uchiha, he didn't want any more fights.
"What? You're siding with him-"
Kakashi pushed Naruto's clicker two more times. "Shut up."
Naruto let out a long breath as the strong medication started to catch up to him. He felt dizzy, and moved a hand to his temple, before his eyes slid closed and his head fell limply to one side.
"Stop talking like we're children Kakashi." Sasuke murmured, licking his lips, finding Naruto's irritation... fun.
As Naruto fell to unconscious Sasuke frowned, glaring up at his former teacher, feeling no ties to this man whatsoever, "Why did you do that?" They were actually beginning to speak, to be on even ground, Sasuke was enjoying pushing Naruto's buttons... trying to force the kit to act, to respond.
Kakashi walked over to Sasuke's bed, and set the clicker down. "Having fun were we?" He asked, reaching out and grabbing one of Sasuke's bandages. Easily ripping it off he looked at the stitches before grabbing some cleaning supplies. "Because, neither of you are ready to have a full blow argument when you're this hurt." He answered pouring the hydrogen peroxide directly on the wound. No one said he had to be nice to his former student.
Sasuke laid there, feeling a light sting for a moment when Kakashi ripped off the bandage, and felt a sort of heat when the peroxide hit it. "Why do you care about me?" Sasuke murmured evenly, red eyes glaring up at his teacher, curious as to why he cared to clean and dress his wounds. Why he cared to put Naruto down, but leave him awake.
…what was his angle?
"Hm?" Kakashi looked down at his student, as if he didn't hear him.
Sasuke didn't need to know that Kakashi had taken a personal oath to help and protect Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. The three who were essentially his own children, and despite the fact that Sasuke was an S-Ranked criminal, he would protect the boy for as long as he could.
"You want to lie here with dirty bandages?"
There was more to it than that.
Something in the way Kakashi responded, something in his eye.
Sasuke kept it to himself for now, his mouth his usual frown but he laid there, actually cooperative to his former teacher. Maybe subdued by the sedation, or perhaps he had let his sanity find its way back to the surface… it was unclear.
"Naruto would like me to rot." Something in Sasuke's tone wasn't as sharp as it had been, his dark eyes not shining with so much rage -- something else in them. "Why not in dirty bandages?"
"Naruto isn't all there right now." Kakashi started as he continued to now carefully peal the bandages off Sasuke's body. "He's overly doped up." The man went on explaining, "The dosage that it takes to keep him under is almost three times that of which yours is." He easily tossed the soiled linens to the garbage and reached over for some new ones. "..But he doesn't want you to rot," Kakashi's voice was quieter than before, holding more emotion than he had since coming into the room.
Sasuke's blood colored eyes were duller, a little more sanity in them than before. He continued to look at Kakashi -- shifting slightly as the man worked on his chest. He took in the information, a twisted grin on his face as he attempted to shrug it off. Looking away, out the window, he scoffed, "Why are you explaining for him?"
"Do you actually think I care what he says?" Sasuke murmured, though his tone didn't hold conviction -- something underlying his words held them from being completely true.
"I hardly think Naruto can speak for himself at the moment." Kakashi answered, cleaning up the dried blood against the Uchiha's strong pectoral muscles. Gently setting the bandage over the wound, Kakashi held it with one hand while he reached for the medical tape, his hands were free from the fingerless gloves he wore, skillfully, and with one hand he tore the tape into strips before setting them on the patch. "You should care what he has to say, his word holds your fate, and no one will challenge it."
"Mm." Sasuke tucked that information away, but he didn't drift his eyes back to Kakashi. "I'm not going to beg him to spare me, if that's what you're implying." Sasuke's grin returned, red eyes flashing as he turned them up to Kakashi. "I don't care."
"If I don't kill him, I can't finish what I need to do. If he kills me… well..." Sasuke shrugged, looking away again, "That's just that then."
He would not fall again to his weakness.
He would not become the weak child he had been... pining for someone who wouldn't...
..No.
He stopped those thoughts, his mouth a frown as his eyes turned distant, trying to keep control of his mind.
"You know," Kakashi took his hands from Sasuke's body and leaned to the side, his hip resting against the small table. "For someone who doesn't care about what Naruto thinks or says, you're making quite a big deal about it." Pushing off the table, he turned back towards the fox. He needed to get the blonde to lie back down, or the doctors would have his head. Carefully pealing the ice pack out from under the limp fingers he set it on the bed, "What is it you need to do anyways?"
Sasuke kept his frown.
He didn't care.
He didn't.
...he shouldn't care.
He had kept all those feelings locked away for so long he had hoped he would have forgotten them. But… seeing those anguished blue eyes, it just opened the box he had tried so desperately to keep closed.
"To destroy this village." He said evenly, red eyes sweeping across the room, looking at Kakashi's back. "To kill everyone."
...everyone.
But… the kitsune.
That had been the compromise from his sanity to his insanity -- until Naruto became the Hokage. Now there was no compromise… and now Sasuke's mind was in a chaotic state to try and gain control over the other -- both sides wanting two different things.
"Why?" Kakashi easily slid Naruto down in the bed and started towards the fox's own bandage. "What do you think you'll accomplish if you kill the whole village?"
"I don't need to explain myself to you." Sasuke said simply, keeping himself turned towards the window, laying on his wounded side but not caring.
Kakashi had just bandaged him...A shame he was already irritating the wounds.
He licked his lips, hiding in his darkness, ignoring the light -- just staring out at the night's sky, wanting to be out there and not chained to this hospital bed.
"You want to explain everything to Naruto after you two are healed then." Kakashi said, it wasn't a question just a statement. "That's fine." Easily pealing the bandages off the fox, he tossed them over to Sasuke's bed, just in front of the man, almost to taunt him. "I'm sure he'll appreciate you wanting to talk to him willingly." Half sitting on the fox's bed he started to carefully clean the wound.
"...He's missed you."
Missed me?
Those words stabbed into the recess of Sasuke's mind -- like a bright light.
He narrowed his eyes, trying to fight against the flutter in his heart, but it just couldn't be done. He growled to himself, blood colored eyes glaring at the soiled bandages, his hands flexing in his bonds as he tried to keep control of himself -- trying to keep the goal of death in mind.
...but...
He had felt happy..
Happy that Naruto missed him, and such a feeling was hard to undo.
He clenched his eyes shut, keeping his breathing as even as possible, even when a past image of a young kitsune, smiling and offering his hand to him passed behind his eyes.
Naruto...
Naruto missed him.
Kakashi looked over his shoulder at Sasuke, noticing the closed eyes.
Sasuke's face was a bit more relaxed, despite the fact that his eyes were clenched shut.
"I'm sure he'll be happy to know you missed him too." Kakashi finished cleaning up Naruto's wound, before covering the kit with the blanket. Walking back over to the Uchiha he grabbed the bandages, "How long are you going to keep up the insanity act?"
Sasuke's eyes opened, dark eyes glaring up at the man.
He kept his frown, the fleeting bit of happiness gone at Kakashi's taunt.
Act?
Part of him wished.
His eyes were just too strong, too powerful, the energy just like acid to his susceptible brain. He gave nothing away as he kept glaring at Kakashi -- his mouth an angry frown.
Slowly but surely his face became relaxed, he twisted himself in his bonds, head tilted up towards his former teacher. "Act? Why don't you come a little closer and we'll see whose acting." He said, his tone even, grin on his lips -- blood red eyes shining in the dim lamplight -- half his face shadowed.
Kakashi closed his normal eye as he pushed the hiteate up, his own Sharingan blazing. "What are you going to do? Hm?" He leaned down slightly, narrowing his own eye.
"You have chakra bounds written down you're back, you couldn't make a simple kage bushin even if you tried." Kakashi leaned down his elbows on the mattress.
Silence, nothing but Sasuke's silent rage between them.
"So I have to ask myself, again," he tilted his head, a smirk in his eye, "What are you going to do?"
Sasuke frowned, nose to nose with Kakashi.
He was glaring darkly into Kakashi's eyes, not afraid in the least of this man, his chains singing as he shifted in the bed, his mind processing the situation and figuring the best plan of action.
He stared him down for a good long minute before he leaned back into the bed, his irritated red eyes looking out the window.
Useless.
He couldn't attack Kakashi like he had wanted.
He couldn't even fucking kill Naruto when he tried.
Useless.
Stupid useless and weak...
"That's what I thought."
Pushing himself up, Kakashi opened his real eye once more and stared down at Sasuke, "What happened to you?"
"I don't need to tell you anything." His voice was low, deeper than it had been before, his dark eyes not looking to Kakashi but a madness was furrowing in them.
He didn't like being captive.
Didn't like being as weak as he was.
He thrashed in his bed, mad at himself, growling in his throat as he tried to throw the thoughts he didn't want out of his head. "Stop!" He flexed his arms, using all the effort he had to try and break the bonds -- the edges of the cuffs digging into his wrists. He growled, animalistic in his newfound rage, his dark eyes turning on Kakashi, the pinwheels spinning as his mind reeled.
"Stop fucking talking to me." He said, his tone low -- dangerous, "Leave me alone!" He didn't need his speeches, his questions; he didn't need the familiar voice sending light into his consciousness.
Kakashi leaned back more, and shook his head. "I'm ordered to stay here until Sakura and Tsunade comes back." He answered, crossing his arms. Reaching behind him he grabbed the medication button and clicked it once, "So until you decide to stop this little charade, you're stuck with me."
He heard a small moan in back of him and looked back at the fox. He always had his hands full when it came to the boys, walking back to the bed he reached for the ice pack and easily slid it down to the wound.
It was strange that the wound wasn't healing yet…
"What did you tip that sword with?"
Sasuke's dark eyes looked to Kakashi's back.
It took him a moment to stop his shaking, slowly moving back on his side, tired from his exertion -- the drugs numbing him in an unpleasant way. "…a type of poison." He admitted, "Though... there really shouldn't have been too much left, I cut down other ninja before Naruto got there." He explained a little more sober from the medication…his mind not as broken. He shifted, his dark eyes tired, the edges of his eyes bled black as he rested his head heavily on the pillow, looking to Kakashi's back.
"It's not complex." He murmured, "Just quick."
"But what is it?" Kakashi asked as he set the ice pack back on the heated wound. The poison wasn't doing too much to the fox just letting heat radiate from the wound and a low grade fever. He wouldn't be able to give Naruto another dose of pain medication for another thirty minutes.
"What does it do?"
"Attacks the nerves." Sasuke said, his voice weighed down with fatigue. "Naruto's immune system is better than most, it probably won't do much to him but irritate the surrounding area." Sasuke murmured his dark eyes heavy as he shifted in his bed, trying to stay awake -- focused, black swallowing up the large portion of red in his eyes; only a ring of ruby left.
Nodding slowly, Kakashi looked back at the fox, and rested a hand against the Hokage's forehead. Things were quiet for a moment, looking back at the Uchiha; Kakashi caught sight of black eyes. "If things work out," Kakashi started, "Maybe we can get this whole thing under control. Help you straighten things out."
"I'd... like that." His eyes, completely onyx were staring back at Kakashi.
Sasuke's vision was fading, it had only been one push of the button -- but no longer did his eyes give him a buffer zone. Pain was creeping into his limbs, his chest, his back... everything was hurting, he tried to hold onto the numb feeling... his black eyes slowly shutting, his breathing evening.
"Naruto...will be … okay." He said before the darkness of unconsciousness claimed him.
A/N:
Not much happening yet. Thanks for all the reviews so far! So exciting! I'm glad it was flowing well enough that not many of you noticed it to be an RP. Please leave us some more feed back and we'll try to update again soon. Thanks!