Woot! Chapter four, and I put this up just a few days after my last one! :amazed: Ha, I'm so happy. This chapter is….sad. And…just….cute. And…in the past. Naruto seems a bit bi-polar in the beginning, but oh well.
And I'm loving how pretty much everyone thinks Demy's a creep.
But…on another note, to all you who somehow think Naruto's a part of the suicides…I'm going to kick you hard in the groin. No, no, I'm not really. Who knows? Maybe he is part of the suicides. You'll just have to read and find out.
Oh, and random shout-out to VanityWantsYou, whose stories pretty much inspired me to write in the first place. :grins:
(Come.Fly.With.Me)
A few years ago, it had been Naruto who carried Sasuke around. It had been Naruto who tried to distract the raven from painful chemotherapy and despair with his bright, sunny smile and charming antics. Sure, there was Itachi, and Mikoto and Fugaku, but when they were at work or at home, little Naru-chan was the one sitting by the hospital bed.
Their friendship had been a turbulent one at first, of course it was. They were so different, weren't they? Following the death of his mother, Naruto had come to live with the Uchihas in their sprawling estate just outside the village, and almost immediately the raven disliked everything about the little dobe. He shared a room with Sasuke, and kept him awake every night with his sniffles and sobs. Instead of sleeping on the bed the blonde slept under it, rarely coming out unless it was to eat, and even then he ate in hiding.
Even at age eight the little boy wasn't toilet-trained. He could barely write his own name, much less read. There were cuts and bruises on his face that never seemed to go away, plus his hair stuck up wildly like it had decided it didn't like him, either. Sasuke looked upon his room-mate like some sort of annoying little dog--never speaking to him, never paying attention unless it was to shove him out of the way.
Naruto never fought the taller raven's coldness. He knew his place. The ways of the world were cruel, he'd learned that lesson well.
….And then Sasuke got sick.
(Come. Fly. With. Me.)
It started with a bruise on the inside of his right arm, deep and ugly and painful. Once a thriving and cheery boy, the youngest Uchiha became fatigued and irritable. His skin paled and took on a wax-like appearance. The beautiful eyes his mother had given him grew dull and sunken. His athletic muscles began to diminish, allowing the brittle bones to poke just under the paper-thin flesh. Mikoto noticed her son's condition and grew concerned, but it wasn't until the nosebleeds that she began to fear for her younger son's life. Blood constantly clogged his throat; he could no longer sleep laying down for fear of drowning in the thick liquid pooling in his mouth.
Sasuke's mother called off work one day and took her sickly child to the hospital, a shy and quiet Naruto trailing behind as she carried the little boy into the emergency room. Almost immediately after their arrival, the raven had been whisked away from his mom for a series of tests. She had wanted to go with him, but the doctors wouldn't allow it.
Nervous and worried, Mikoto sat bolt upright in the stark hospital room, wringing her delicate hands together. Naruto cautiously inched up to the woman and tugged at the hem of her shirt, his sad, innocent eyes staring deep into hers.
"Is Sasu-Teme gonna be okay?" the blonde asked in a small voice.
Mikoto offered a smile to the child and wrapped her arm around his petite frame, speaking to him in a soothing tone, "Yes, honey, Sasuke will be fine. He's just not feeling well, that's all."
Naruto grinned brightly, and his foster mother was amazed at how natural the expression seemed, even when she had never seen him smile or even speak. She was happy that he'd finally felt safe enough to do such things. It was… comforting to see him relaxed. Just the thing she needed.
"Naruto," the Uchiha whispered deviously, like there was some great big secret between the two of them, "How would you like to buy Sasuke a get well present?"
He gave a little nod, looking up at her hopefully, "Can I, Sasu-teme's mommy? Can I?"
"Of course, sweetheart." With that, Mikoto pressed a small coin purse into the child's hands. He looked down seriously at it, feeling its solid weight in his palm, "…What should I get him…?"
Mikoto laughed softly. "I'm sure he'll like anything you buy for him, Naruto. Do you know where the gift-shop is?"
The blonde gave a short, determined nod.
"Good. Hurry along now, Sasuke could be back any second."
Naruto suddenly whooped and shot out of the room, nearly bowling several nurses and an elderly woman over. He dodged their presence with an agility previously unshown, running full-tilt for the small gift-shop down the hall….and smacking face-first into the door.
"Owowowowowwwww!" He landed on his ass and clutched his throbbing nose. Tears of pain filled his pretty baby-blues as he whimpered and prodded it with a delicate touch.
"A-are you o-okay…?" A soft, timid voice asked. Naruto looked around and saw a little girl about his age with raven hair and a beige cast on her right arm. She had large, round eyes and a cute button nose, and her pale skin was dusted with a heavy crimson blush.
"Yup," Little Naru said as he picked himself up off of the floor and brushed the seat of his pants, "Didn't hurt much."
The timid child took a small step forward, inspecting the damage to his nose. She had the look of a frightened doe, ready to spring back and run at the slightest indication of danger.
"What'dja do to your arm?" he asked, eyeing her bulky cast with curiosity.
"N-N-Nothin" She replied, shifting her broken arm behind her back a bit. "W-What's you-r name?"
"I'm Naruto!" The boy gave a friendly grin, "Who're you?"
"H-Hinata."
"Are you here because you're sick?" Naruto asked her. She shook her head. "Oh. Well, are you feeling better now?"
A nod.
"That's good. Sasu-Teme's sick, that's why I'm here. I'm gonna buy him a get-well present!" He said this with a proud stance, puffing out his narrow chest and smiling widely. Hinata giggled, hiding her mouth behind a delicate hand.
"I d-don't want to k-keep you, N-N-Naruto-K-kun. I h-hope he likes-s your p-present!" With that, the shy little girl turned and ran off down one of the corridors, and before he could respond, she rounded a corner and was gone.
She was weird, the blonde thought as he opened the door and walked into the shop, but in a good way… a tiny bell tinkled over his head. The place was pretty averaged-sized, but to a kid like Naruto, the rows of stuffed animals and brightly-coloured flowers seemed so huge…Like they could swallow him completely. It excited the child, made his lovely grin grow even wider.
"Can I help you with something?" A tall, friendly-looking man asked.
Naruto opened his mouth, paused, and closed it again. I wanna get him something good…
Finally discovering his voice, the child fidgeted restlessly, "Sasu-teme's sick, and I'm trying to find him something he'll like…"
The shopkeeper smiled and knelt down to his tiny customer's level. He was such a cute kid. "Okay, well, tell me some things about him, and we'll see what we have."
The little boy thought for a second. "Umm…he's really pale, and kinda quiet most times, and he's always got this look on his face." Naruto furrowed his brows and scowled darkly as he did his best impersonation of Sasuke, but the expression was more comical than serious.
Chuckling softly, the store owner nodded. "Okay, let's see what we can find…"
(Come. Fly. With. Me.)
Ten minutes later, a very excited Naruto left the shop cradling his room-mate's present in both skinny arms. After much deliberation, he had finally picked out the perfect gift: a medium-sized teddy bear with little patch-work squares on his stomach and a cute red polka-dot bow around his neck.
Sasu-teme's gonna be so happy--
The sound of crying reached his ears as he neared the hospital room. Knitting his brows together, he looked around. It couldn't be coming from Sasuke's room, no way. But…where was it coming from?
Feeling his heart pound a little faster, the boy quickened his pace. By the time he got near the doorway, he was running. What happened…?
Mikoto looked up just as her foster son entered the room. She dabbed at teary eyes with a tissue and smiled at him, "D-did you find anything?"
"Mmhmm," Naruto said, slowly depositing the gifts in an empty chair. He frowned and turned back to the crying woman, head cocked curiously. "What's wrong..?" His face was suddenly pale, those crystal blue orbs staring at her with an innocent understanding. "Teme's sicker than we thought, huh?" He asked, knowing the answer.
"Y-Yes, honey, Sasuke's sicker than we thought," she motioned for him to come to her, "But he'll be okay. I promise."
Naruto approached his foster mother, and she settled him into her lap just as she had done with both of her children when they were younger and wanted comfort. She knew that he needed her. He'd already watched his mother die, and now he had to witness what could quite possibly be the death of the youngest Uchiha.
"Sasuke has leukaemia. Do you know what that is?" The blonde shook his head. "Well…it's a form of cancer. It makes it harder for his blood to give him the stuff he needs. That's why he's so skinny and weak. Do you understand?"
Nodding, the little boy fiddled with Mikoto's sleeve. Teme's dying…? "Can we go see him?"
"Not yet." More tears slid down the mother's pale cheeks. It was agony for her, to know that her child might not live…Her heart broke when she looked down at Naruto, who was trying in earnest not to cry. Such a tough little guy. She pulled him closer and kissed his forehead. "Please don't worry, he'll be alright."
That's what they all say, Naruto thought, but no one's ever alright…
(Come. Fly. With. Me.)
Naruto was sleeping peacefully in his foster mother's lap when Itachi and Fugaku showed up, looking haggard and worried. They'd gotten the news as soon as Mikoto could get to a phone, and shortly thereafter hopped into a car for the long journey down to the hospital.
Itachi was quiet the entire time, digging his dark purple nails into the fabric of his jeans. He seemed to be in a sort of shock, refusing to accept that his little brother was ill. Not Sasuke. Not the kid who used to dump frogs into the toilet, not the kid whose first word was 'aniki' (Itachi still revelled in that moment). What about the healthy, perfectly normal otouto he'd grown up with? The one who yanked Itachi's hair as a toddler when he thought it was time to play. The one who would look up at him with those big, inky eyes and whine to be held? There was no way that Uchiha Sasuke could possibly be dying.
His mother was crying hysterically. "T-they said he has s-six months. Six months! And t-that's with c-chemo…."
The teen-aged Uchiha looked up as if her words had slapped him in the face, his mouth forming a small 'o', Six months?!
It was hard enough knowing that Sasuke was going to die. Now they'd given him the time of his execution like he was some slaughterhouse bull. Itachi's fists clenched a bit harder as he fought back the tears that wanted to fall. He had to be strong. For his mother's sake, for Sasuke, he had to be strong.
Fugaku was comforting his distraught wife, the lines on his face more pronounced than usual. He, like his eldest son, kept his cool, but grieved in his own way. Parents weren't supposed to bury their children, it was the other way around, and to say that he wasn't devastated would be a lie.
"W-what are we g-guh-going to do?" Mikoto sobbed, clinging to both Fugaku and Naruto, who was still asleep, "My little b-boy…"
"Let's just get through this one day at a time. He's not dead yet."
(Come. Fly. With. Me.)
Several hours later, the doctors had allowed Sasuke's family to visit him one by one. His mother had gone in first, her pretty face drawn with exhaustion and sorrow. Her child lay on the starched hospital bed, his pasty skin matching the colour of the sheets all too well.
"Hey, sweetie," she whispered, reaching out to touch his arm. IV tubes ran from the back of his hands and the inside of his elbows, pumping poison into his veins. Hopelessly she wondered which would kill him first--the chemo or the disease it was treating.
The ill child opened his eyes and smiled with cracked lips. "Hi, mom."
"How're you feeling? Better?" Mikoto smoothed down a few strands of hair from his forehead, doing her best to sound cheerful.
"Yeah, I'm okay."
"Good." She smiled. "Your father and Itachi are here, too. We've missed you. Do you need anything?"
Sasuke shook his head. The room spun around him at breakneck speed, and he felt the familiar tingle of bile creeping up in his throat. "U-ulp! Mom…" He sat up and quickly motioned for her to grab the shallow pan on the floor by her chair. She held it in front him just before he vomited. Pale, thin fingers grabbed at either side of the mattress as he heaved, throwing up little more than foul-smelling acid.
It must have been painful, though, if his tears were any indication.
"Shhh, I know, honey…" Mikoto rubbed her youngest son's back, whispering into his ear until the storm of sickness had passed enough for him to lay down. There was nothing she could do for him, nothing. It was so devastating to know that the only comfort she could offer was a few soothing caresses and gentle words….Nothing to numb the pain, nothing to make his body well again.
The woman sighed and wrung her hands together, a distraught expression rupturing her pretty face. "Are you okay now? Would you like a drink?"
Her tiny child nodded weakly. She reached over to the large pitcher beside his bed and poured some water into a glass. "Here, sweetheart, sit up."
Sasuke did as he was told, but not without help. The Uchiha woman held the water to his lips, her free hand holding the back of his head like he was a newborn again. "Alright, drink slowly."
The raven-haired boy sipped the taste of vomit from his mouth a little at a time, the wonderfully cool liquid soothing his burning throat. When he'd finished, Mikoto sat the glass down and fluffed up his pillow, then tucked the sheets over his sickly frame.
"Is there anything else you want?" She asked, fussing around like a mother hen, "Are you warm enough? Do you want your window open?"
"No, mom, it's okay. Thanks though."
The pale woman smiled and combed her fingers through his dull hair, "Anything for you. I love you, honey."
"I love you too."
Mikoto got up and turned her back to the boy so he couldn't see the tears streaming down her face, "I-I'm going to send for Itachi now, okay?" She crossed the room and opened the door.
"Alright. And mom?"
"Hmm?"
"Please don't cry for me."
Unable to find the strength to speak, Mikoto stepped out into the hall, silent sobs wracking her entire body. She leaned against a wall and buried her face in her hands, letting sorrow and worry claim her whole being. Sasuke's too young to die….! There's so much he hasn't done! It's a mother's instinct to want the best for her child, and I can't give it to him…Why did this happen?!
She slid down to the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest, much like Naruto would ten years later when they lost him for good.
(Come. Fly. With. Me.)
The first thing that Naruto could see when he walked into the brightly-lit room was all of the machines. They beeped and blinked at him with their strange artificial authority, the tubes attached pulsing as they administered medicine to the raven-haired boy lying on the bed.
Feeling anxious and scared, Naruto wrapped his arms tighter around the bear he was holding and crept up to his foster brother. "…Teme?"
Sasuke looked like a wax figure….There was no way something so ghostly pale could be living. His chest rose and fell in a laboured rhythm, adding to the melody of the devices crowded around him.
The blonde reached out to touch his face, but quickly snapped it back when Sasuke opened his eyes.
"Dobe, what do you want?" he asked, his hoarse voice cold and hard.
Naruto was losing his nerve, and fast. "I-I brought you something…to make you feel better…."He plopped the teddy into the Uchiha's lap and blushed, wanting nothing more than to run out of the sterile death-room.
The sick child picked up his gift and looked at it, his nose wrinkling. "It's stupid." He tossed the bear onto the floor. "You woke me up for…that?"
"I-I thought--"
"Shut up!"
"But…" Naruto glanced down at the discarded toy, anger and hurt welling up inside him, his voice confused, "I just wanted to help-"
"You can't help me with a stuffed animal, usuratonkachi! Che, what the hell's wrong with you?" the raven sneered, surprised at how cruel his own words were. Why was he so bitter…?
"Listen, Teme, I wanted to do something nice for you on account of you being sick and all, but if you're going to be so mean then I don't want you to have it!"
"Fine!" Sasuke snarled, "Take it! It's ugly anyway!"
The blonde snatched up the bear from its resting place on the cold floor and stormed out, jaw clenched so hard it made his head hurt.
Why did he have to say those things….? Naruto sighed and hugged the toy to his chest. He'd been so proud of himself for finding it, and Mikoto had said that it was a wonderful gift, but that jerk just took one look and tossed it away like garbage!
He sniffled and rubbed at his dry eyes. Naruto didn't understand why Sasuke got so angry, they'd always been fine at home. Didn't mean their relationship was exactly smooth-sailing, but they simply ignored each other for the most part. But this fight, it was different. The little blonde's feelings actually got hurt this time, and he hated the dark grey cloud of disappointment that settled over his mind.
He hadn't expected the Uchiha to jump for joy or anything, but he had hoped for a smile, a thank-you, something! He felt so worthless for buying the stupid bear, for thinking that the raven would like it. Of course he wouldn't like it! Of course not!
Right then and there, Uzumaki Naruto vowed to prove to Sasuke that he wasn't as stupid and worthless as he thought. Nothing would bother him, nothing would break his smile anymore.
And from that point on, he considered his foster-brother-slash-enemy as a challenge, something he had to work for.
He wouldn't give up until he had Sasuke's friendship.
And he never did.
(Come. Fly. With. Me.)
Warm sunlight danced on the white walls, playing with the metallic sheen of the balloons by the bed. Sasuke was sitting cross-legged at the foot, a blue beanie covering his bald scalp. He'd only been in the hospital for a week, and already the chemo was taking its toll. Still, if it helped…
A small radio was playing on his nightstand, the tune an upbeat rock song that the boy didn't recognize or particularly like. Annoyed at the singer's voice, he gave a little huff and reached over to jab at the off button. Sweet silence.
…….Or so he thought, anyway.
"Teme!" A loud voice called from behind the closed door. Sasuke glared at it as if he could send the damn thing (and the person behind) into the fiery flaming pits of hell.
"Don't come in unless you've got a reason other than to annoy me."
A grinning blonde walked into the room carrying two trays of food. They teetered precariously in his stick-like arms, but somehow the idiot managed to balance them over to Sasuke's bed. "Look, I brought us breakfast!"
The chemo patient looked down at the tray that Naruto held out to him, not really in the mood to eat the bland, congealed oatmeal and artificial bacon. One sniff solidified his resolve, "Ughh, it smells like old lady sweat! This is gross, I'm not gonna eat something that I'm just going to throw up. Che, I bet it looks the same, too…." He shuddered and pushed his nasty breakfast away, back into the fox-boy's hands. "You eat it."
Naruto shook his head, straw-coloured locks swaying with the movement, "I've got my own, and you need to eat to get better. It doesn't taste as bad if you hold your nose like this." He pinched his nostrils together with his thumb and forefinger, then took a bite out of the rock-hard bacon.
The raven felt his stomach twist into itself at the thought of eating that yucky goo and strips of leather. There was no way in hell.
Finished with the strenuous task of chewing the fake meat, Naruto picked up a spoon, pulled out a huge blob of oatmeal, and held it in front of Sasuke's face. "Open wide!"
"Dobe, I'm not going to eat that--mmph!" Any further words were cut out as said dobe shoved the spoon into his foster brother's unguarded mouth. The lukewarm cereal had a consistency similar to snail-slime and tasted even worse than it smelled.
I'm going to kill that moron...
Revenge, unlike the horrible mass of sludge he was currently struggling to swallow, was best served cold.
Naruto happily spooned out another blob of the stuff and forced it into the raven's recovering mouth like a mother feeding her toddler baby food.
What a dobe.
(Come. Fly. With. Me.)
Sasuke's carefully-plotted revenge never came into play, because by that evening, he had suffered a major reaction to the chemotherapy(1). He'd thrown up every bit of the breakfast Naruto hand-fed him (as predicted, score one for the Uchiha's foresight), along with some sort of red fluid that he was too drugged up to recognize as blood.
Doctors swarmed around him, checking monitors and adjusting medication levels, their mouths frowning behind white masks. Naruto could see the look in their eyes as they bustled him out of the room, a look that made his heart stutter in his chest. He knew what it meant….They weren't trying to save him, they were just trying to make his death more comfortable. As if death was ever truly comfortable.
A female doctor took the blonde's tiny hand in hers and led him to another room, one with red and yellow walls and a cheery atmosphere. The girl from before, Hinata, sat at a small table and worked quietly on a jigsaw puzzle, apparently not noticing the two people who had entered her space. Naruto wanted to wrench his hand away, to run back to his room-mate, but he didn't. He'd only be in the way.
The woman holding onto him knelt down to his eye level, chocolate orbs staring into his with a soft calmness. "What's your name, sweetie?" She asked, her huge breasts pressing against the buttons on her white blouse.
"Naruto. Is Sasu-teme gonna be okay?" The worry on that innocent face seemed to engulf the tiny boy like a black flame, casting poisonous shadows across his tanned skin.
Like any good doctor, the well-endowed woman avoided the eight-year-old's question. If she said yes and Sasuke died, the kid would be devastated. If she said no, he'd still be devastated and most likely cause a scene. It was hard to choose the lesser of two evils when a child's heart was at stake.
"My name is Tsunade," she said, trying to pull Naruto's mind away from his friend-slash-rival's sickness, "And my job is to play with kids like you when they're waiting for someone to get better. I'd like to be friends, if you're okay with that."
Knitting his brows together, the boy nodded hesitantly. What about Teme…?
Tsunade smiled and ruffled his yellow locks, "Good. You seem like a nice kid. Do you want to work on the puzzle with Hinata and I?"
Naruto wanted to say no, to tell her that he wasn't in the mood to do her stinking puzzle, that he wanted to go back, but he couldn't find the words. He just nodded again and followed her over to the table.
(Come. Fly. With. Me.)
Somehow, Sasuke had made it through his darkest hour and emerged with signs of improvement. His mother had been so relieved when he opened his eyes that she broke down and cried a new set of tears on top of the ones that were continually forming streaks along her skin. Both Itachi and Fugaku were there beside his bed, watching as Mikoto once again turned into a pile of emotional goo.
"'mm okay now, Mom," the little boy told her, feeling guilty that he'd made her cry so much.
"I-I know…I'm j-juh-just so happy…" She sobbed, smiling through the shimmering droplets.
Without warning, Naruto burst into the room and ran up to the foot of the bed, almost knocking the breath from his own lungs as the metal railing caught him around the middle. "Ooof! Sasuke!"
The three healthy Uchiha's heads snapped to look at the panting blonde, wondering: a) where in the hell he suddenly came from, b) when in the hell he started referring to Sasuke by his actual name instead of Teme, and, in the case of Itachi and Fugaku, when the fuck he started talking.
Sasuke's left eye twitched at his foster brother's idiocy, but he didn't seem as irritated with him as he'd been the previous week. Maybe it was the pain meds.
"I'm so glad you're okay!" The stupid kid grinned like a retard and shoved something into his lap.
That damned teddy bear. That stupid, absurdly cute fucking teddy bear. Sasuke would never have admitted it, but he'd wanted that dumb thing. Even when he'd said it was ugly, he wanted it just because…Because what…? Holding it now in his frail hands, the raven looked questioningly at its giver, "….You…..kept this, dobe?"
"Yup! I don't care if you don't want it," Naruto stated, "Cause I'll just keep giving it to you over and over until you keep it."
"…Thanks."
And so began the two boys' bond, adding more ties to the ribbon connecting their hearts as the years progressed until they were like one single entity, their intense love lasting when most other relationships fizzled out.
(Come. Fly.With.Me)
Holy crap. Twelve pages. In like three freaking days. You guys better love me for this. But I did say I'd make up for my short chapters, so hopefully this does the trick? And yes, Mikoto's a crybaby. I do what I want. Besides, I'd be like that too if my kid was dying. Have a heart, you bastard.
(1) I have no clue if that can even happen. XD I don't pretend to know about leukemia, I just write what sounds good.
Coming up next chapter: Sasuke gets some news that shakes him to the core, and Naruto learns of a friend's death.
Until next time!