こんな夜にこんな夜に: On this night
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, so don't tell the men in white coats that I was here!
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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Chapter 2: Searching
He woke up because someone threw a llama at him.
Not a real llama, of course. Even he, Uzumaki Naruto, Dunce Among Dunces, could tell that what smashed into his face was not a living creature.
But it still hurt.
"Naruto!"
He moaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes as he glanced at the alarm clock by his bedside.
"Sakura?" he asked, squinting up at the form towering over him. He knew he should probably be cowering in terror, but it was still too early for that.
6.45, to be precise.
"Get up," Haruno Sakura commanded. She never SAID anything to him anymore; now it was always a command, or a scolding, or a lecture. But they hadn't actually TALKED, not since a year ago...
"It's too early," he mumbled stubbornly, picking up the llama. It was furry, and wore a red cape, and had a nose sewed off-center and beady black eyes that perched askew on its face. "Is this yours?" he asked.
Sakura snatched it back from him.
"Superllama's a gift," she replied. "Get UP, Uzumaki Naruto, or I will MAKE you ge-"
"I GET it," Naruto groaned, scooting out of his bed. His feet met the ground, and he jerked them back. Looking down, he frowned. "Where are my slippers?" he mumbled unhappily, putting his feet down and standing.
"I understand why you like them."
Naruto glared at Sai.
Who wore his slippers.
"How do your feet even fit in those?" growled Naruto. "Give them back!"
Sai made no move to do so.
"Make me," he replied, lifting an eyebrow.
"Dobe."
The memory reared forth like a tsunami from the ocean, and Naruto's eyes flashed as he leapt at Sai.
"They're MINE!" he snarled. "Give them BACK!"
"Uzumaki Naruto, stop it this INSTANT!"
The words were followed by something small but immensely hard whacking his cheek, and Naruto flew into the wall. He felt blood in his mouth, and gagged; his jaw was lopsided, he could feel it.
"Sakuwa," he managed.
In response, she cracked her knuckles. On the other side of the room, Naruto saw Sai in a similar position as him.
"Promise to be good."
Another command.
He sighed. What had happened, that they had gone from best of friends to this...?
"Tch."
The sound came from Sakura. It made both him and her flinch.
The unbidden memories, which had begun to slink away, came back.
"I'm leaving."
The words were spoken on a dark night, in a dark room, by a boy with dark hair and a darker past.
"What?" Sakura and Naruto spoke at once, equal intonation of confusion in their voices.
"I'm leaving," repeated Sasuke. He said it slowly, as if they were little children who had a hard time grasping an idea. Oh, they were children, and they did have a hard time grasping this idea.
"You're joking," replied Sakura, nervously putting her book down beside her. She wore pink pajamas with bunnies on them, and looked all the world like a little bunny herself, young and cuddly and vulnerable. She leaned forward, her feet nervously kicking back and forth as they hung over the side of her bed.
Naruto laughed.
"Good try, Sasuke," he said teasingly, reaching behind his head and scratching the back of his neck. But the gesture was a sure sign of his apprehension. "But your jokes just get worse and worse."
Sasuke didn't blink while he looked back and forth between the two.
Naruto saw Sakura's face grow pale. He felt his cheeks flush with anger.
"You seriously fell for that 'OBC' crap?" Naruto shoved himself up from bed, lunging to grab Sasuke's shirt collar. Sasuke reached out and deflected Naruto's hand easily.
"O-Sound has connections HEI doesn't," he said. Naruto growled. "There's nothing more I can learn from here."
"Bu-"
"Guys!" Sakura's voice cut through their argument. She stood, feet slipped into her favorite green flip-flops, arms placed gently but securely on each boys shoulder. "Let's go get ice cream."
She meant gelato, actually; there was a little shop across the street from the hotel they were currently at.
Sasuke yanked his shoulder from her grasp and grabbed his jacket off his bed, where he had flung it upon entering the room. Naruto hastily pulled a shirt on. Sakura pulled a simple sweater over her head, not bothering to change.
Sasuke me them outside the shop, silent as always, his eyes carefully watching them both as they joined him. No one spoke, except to order. Sakura slapped a fifty-dollar bill onto the counter and walked out, not bothering to collect her change. Naruto and Sasuke quickly gathered it for her and payed for their own, then hurriedly followed her. She stood by a streetlight a block away, leaning against it, her gelato untouched.
"Let's walk," was all she said before taking off at a run, tossing her gelato haphazardly into the nearest trashcan.
"Sakura!" Naruto called, looking around himself quickly. "It's not safe to run around at night!"
Beside him, Naruto saw Sasuke's shoulders heave in a sigh.
"Tch."
And then he shot after the retreating pinkette's form. Naruto let out a moan and stuffed his food in his mouth, taking off as he did so. The cold dessert made his eyes bulge and his tongue to a little numb, but he ignored it, feet pounding against the cement pavement as he chased his friends.
"Naruto, snap out of it."
Sai's voice brought Naruto up from his dive into memory lake, and he shrugged his shoulders, as if trying to dismiss the past.
"Uhh..." he managed. Sakura shook her head, obviously coming out of her own reverie, and looked pointedly at each boy.
"I think you should see this."
The boys glanced at each other. When Sakura said think, she meant demand, and crossing her meant a kick to the stomach. The boys nodded as one and followed her as she led them down the hallway to her hotel room.
Separate rooms. Another reminder that the past was painful and changed everything.
She plopped onto her queen-sized bed and ushered the boys over. She picked up her IPhone (why she hadn't just brought it into their room, Naruto didn't know) and went to YouTube. Naruto slid onto the right side of the bed, sidling up to the girl for a better view, and Sai, after a moment or two of observation (no doubt to ensure he wouldn't receive a pummeling for copying Naruto's actions) did the same on Sakura's left. Naruto leaned over just as Sakura clicked play.
A youn girl with hair like night and eyes like stars greeted him. She was pale, unbelievably so, and sat in a hospital cot; no machines were near her bed, and the white walls bathed in moonlight only further enhanced the image of frailty about her.
Which was, ironically, a stark juxtaposition to her voice.
"Hey," she said. Her voice was throaty, as if she were ill. Well, she was ill, obviously, but...
"My name is Hyuuga Hinata. I'm 17 years old and a huge Hei!K7 fan."
Oh, Naruto's heart went out to her.
"Poor thing," commented Sai. Naruto didn't know if he meant it or not; you never could tell with that guy. "I wonder what hap-"
"They say I have a year to live, if I'm lucky."
A silence fell over the room, and Sakura paused the video.
Naruto let out the breath he had t noticed he'd taken.
"God..." he mumbled.
"She wants to see us perform," announced Sakura.
"I wouldn't mind," said Sai, "Except that we're booked for the year."
"She's only got a year," replies Sakura. "Look, this isn't just about her. See this?" Sakura ended the video and scrolled just a bit. Her finger pointed to the hit count.
Well, that silenced Sai pretty well.
"That's more than what Nyan Cat has," Naruto remarked quietly.
"Why do you know how many views that meme's got?" asked Sai dryly. Naruto smiled tensely in reply, turning his attention back to the subject at hand.
"That's not all," Sakura said, scrolling down to the comments. She pointed to a link supplied by a user called penguintejas. "There are over 2,000 people on this petition alone. And there's more than just one petition." Sakura went back to the video.
"Just think it over," she said, voice softer this time.
Naruto looked back to the screen as the girl like midnight introduced herself again.
"They say I have a year to live, if I'm lucky."
Eyes like stars met eyes like ocean.
AN: Thank you for lovely reviews! I love lovely reviews! Tell me what I can fix, or your thoughts or ideas or suggestions or... Well... Anything really! Just review!
Thanks for reading!