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Chapter 7 ready to go, yay!
Such an action wham bam chapter!
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Chapter 7.
Scars.
It was curious, how easily the old friends slipped back into their old world like they were teenagers again. It was a surreal, and magical thing companionship, Sasuke observed. No matter how far they had drifted from each other over the years, or how drastically they had changed on the surface; inherently, their cores were the same, and it was their cores that he loved.
Sasuke sat on Ino and Sai's balcony around their plastic picnic table. He watched as Choji carefully stacked train tickets in a precarious pyramid.
"Give me yours," Choji beckoned Shikamaru, without looking away from the tower.
"No way, I need it to get home, you know, back to Europe," Shikamaru laughed drunkenly from between Kankuro and Sasuke.
"Oh don't be a melt, you'll get it back," Choji muttered, picking his still smoking cigarette up off the rim of a can of Heineken, and placing it between his lips. Shikamaru sighed and slipped his wallet out of his back pocket.
"I either get this back, or I take one of your kidneys as collateral," Shikamaru threatened as he passed the ticket to Choji, who nodded distractedly.
They lapsed into silence. It was only Sasuke, Shikamaru, Choji, Kankuro, Kiba, and Karui on the balcony. The rest of their noisy party was still indoors, fussing obstreperously around Sai's speaker system.
"Here," Shikamaru held a carton of Marlborough Red out to Sasuke, using his smallest finger to edge a pre-rolled cigarette free of its snug herd. Sasuke took the straight and held it between his lips, touch-lighting swiftly off Shikamaru's already glowing cherry. As he leant away from Shikamaru, he felt Kankuro's eyes following his every move, like a falcon waiting to clinch its prey. Sasuke pretended not to notice Kankuro's keen gaze and instead turned his attention to the view from the balcony.
He could see the city, sprawling at the feet of skyscrapers and three-story town houses. It was the city where he had grown up, the environment that had shaped him into the man that he had become. Sasuke grazed his teeth ruminatively over the cigarettes filter. Would he come back to this place again?
"I like your necklace, Sasuke," Karui dragged him from his reverie and he turned, meeting her friendly, shining eyes. "It's lovely," she gestured towards her own collar, where hung a whole cache of gold and fat jewels.
"Thanks, it's…" Sasuke begun, with the intent of explaining the meaning behind the necklace. He had reached a level of drunk, where he was full of false confidence, the type that always spiralled into regret.
"That's just the type of thing your lot are into though, isn't it?" Kankuro interrupted with a sly smirk, as he brought his can of Stella up to his lips. Everybody fell silent and Sasuke frowned, not grasping Kankuro's meaning.
"Huh?"
"Flouncy, sparkly little things – dressing up like princesses," Kankuro chuckled nastily and Sasuke frowned; around him his friends looked colourless and annoyed. Was it only Sasuke that didn't understand what was going on?
"Leave it out, Kankuro," Choji murmured, casting him a warning, sidelong glance.
"No, clearly he has something to say; so let him get it off his chest," Sasuke snapped caustically, "he's had a few pints of larger, so he's feeling brave – floor's all yours, Kankuro," Sasuke made a sweeping motion with his arm, narrowing his eyes as he watched Kankuro.
Kankuro didn't speak for a moment, he seemed torn; reluctant to take Sasuke's baiting.
"I just thought," Kankuro began, focusing on his hand and refusing to meet Sasuke's eye. "That you'd be more comfortable with a nice Cosmopolitan, not a beer," he dragged his gaze from his hand and locked eyes with Sasuke, his eyes cold with dislike.
"That's enough," Shikamaru cut in, his voice uncharacteristically harsh.
"I still don't get it," Sasuke shook his head, shrugging Kankuro's strange behaviour off.
"Are you lot really comfortable with it? I mean all these years, we've had him stay over our house, and all this time, he was a fag."
It was like a penny dropped at Kankuro's words. A penny in a vast, empty, auditorium, so that it's collision sent up a deafening clamour. Sasuke froze for a moment, the word going all through him like rusty nails. Slowly, he turned his head to look at Kankuro, almost hoping he'd misheard.
Kankuro's eyes were bright, wired with a delirious buzz, excited and proud that he'd said the words.
"What did you just call me?" Sasuke demanded in a sharp voice and he felt their friends prickling with alertness around him.
"You heard me," Kankuro hissed, his eyes narrowed, he seemed reluctant to repeat himself.
"Are you fucking touched in the head or something?" Sasuke barked, "seriously, are you broken?" he snarled, "or are you just impossibly thick?" Sasuke met Kankuro's eyes which flashed. "What, do you think because I've dated one boy, suddenly, I wanna jump the bones of every dude I come across? More to the point, Kankuro, do you really think I'd wanna touch a talentless, dirty, narrow-minded, thick, little loser like you?" Sasuke seethed, his hands shaking by his sides. "No, the answer's no." He snapped, chucking his cigarette aside and getting to his feet.
As he made to stalk away however, feeling unsteady on his feet with the shock of what had just happened, something snagged on his sleeve holding him back. Sasuke turned to see what he was caught on, only to find Kankuro had also risen to his feet and caught hold of Sasuke.
"Let go…"
Wham.
Kankuro punched Sasuke solidly in the face.
"Shit!" Sasuke cried, clutching his jaw and staggering away. His friends were on their feet preparing to intervene, but not before Sasuke hit back, matching Kankuro's hit to the face.
"Fuck!" Kankuro choked, his hands pressed over his nose as blood gushed between his fingers. "Fuck you, you fucking queer!" Kankuro roared thickly and threw himself at Sasuke with all his weight. Sasuke scrabbled for something to grab onto, something that would keep him upright so he could repel Kankuro. There was nothing however, and his fingers combed only thin air. With a yelp, his back crashed into the glass patio door. He didn't stop at the door however, with a groaning, splintering sound, the door gave way beneath the force of Sasuke's impact. The glass panel came apart in an arc of crystal shards and Sasuke followed, falling flat on his back.
He lay sprawled on his back for a moment, breathing rapidly, thinking how lucky he'd been. Then it began to dawn on him how hot his right shoulder felt; his shoulder never felt that independently febrile compared with the rest of his body. He reached up and touched two fingers to his shoulder: wet, it was soaking wet, so much so in fact that his fingers slid off it. Feeling hazy, Sasuke held his hand up to his face and groaned meekly, his fingers effulgent with scarlet blood.
"Sasuke?" Shikamaru was ducking through the hole Sasuke's body had left in the door. "Shit, Sasuke!"
"Shoulder, my shoulder," Sasuke said through gritted teeth, laying very still. "I think I got a bit of glass in it."
"Just a bit," Shikamaru gasped as he knelt beside Sasuke's head.
"What d'you mean?" Sasuke frowned, twisting to look, and seeing a large sheet of glass like a shark's fin extending from his clavicle. "Fuck," Sasuke looked away quickly, his head spinning.
"What's all the noise…Oh shit!" Their remaining friends had joined them in the sitting room.
"Sasuke!" Naruto wove through the gaggle of gawping twenty-year-old's and crouched beside him. "What happened?" He looked pale.
"I fell through a door," Sasuke muttered irritably, struggling to push himself upright, catching a glimpse of Kankuro still stood statuesque out on the balcony.
"You fell?" Naruto quizzed sounding panicky, "did you have a seizure?"
"No, and he didn't fall, Kankuro pushed him," Kiba revealed looking dark and the room fell silent.
"Kankuro…" Temari began in a tremulous voice from beside the sofa.
"He did what!?" Naruto's bellow drowned Temari out and Sasuke screwed his eyes tight shut.
"Should I call an ambulance?" Ino was asking, "Lee, let me borrow your phone."
"No! No ambulances," Sasuke interjected wearily, "I'll get a taxi to the hospital." He sat up, clutching onto his shoulder. "No ambulances," he repeated catching sight of Naruto's face. "Let's just go to A&E," he muttered.
At A&E, Sasuke had to wait an hour just to see the triage nurse. It was one in the morning by the time a doctor was free to see him, and being a patient who suffered with a chronic condition, Sasuke immediately came with a hospital fast pass – he hated to think how long everybody else had been waiting.
Sasuke sat on the edge of a hospital bed, in a small assessment room, swinging his legs.
"So, tell me what happened?" Naruto pressed and Sasuke shook his head quickly.
"Why not?" Naruto asked in exasperation. "I'll just ask Shikamaru."
"Then ask Shikamaru," Sasuke grunted, crossing his ankles and looking around him.
How many people had already been seen in this room today? He wondered. Get them in, and ship them out, that was hospital policy. Sasuke scrunched his fingers in the disposable paper blanket he sat on, running its tissue-like fibres through his fingers.
"Hello, are you Sasuke?" A bespectacled woman with tawny hair edged into the room. Sasuke nodded shortly, he was determined not to move too much and risk wincing or crying out in pain. "I'm Doctor Nonō Yakushi, I've come down from Paediatrics to be the A&E on-call tonight." Naruto and Sasuke shared a deeply sceptical look.
She began to pull on a pair of rubber gloves, talking cheerily the whole time; giving Sasuke and Naruto the opportunity to swap grimaces.
"I'm just going to have to ask you to pop your top off now, Sasuke," she smiled, taking a step closer to the bed.
"You what?" Sasuke barked, alarmed.
"I'm going to need to get to that wound in your shoulder," she elaborated.
"No," Sasuke refused; his mind buckling to the wound in his forearm; the wound he'd antagonised and helped create. He knew what people would call a self-inflicted injury like that, they knew what people would think of him, how they would brand him.
"Sasuke, I'm afraid I really need to get to that injury," Nonō insisted gently.
Sasuke's gaze drifted to a perplexed looking Naruto.
"You have to leave," he told Naruto bluntly, and unsurprisingly Naruto looked stunned.
"What?" He spluttered, "Sasuke, I've seen you topless – neigh, naked – untold times," Sasuke's face felt very hot suddenly and he glowered at Naruto.
"I want you out," he ordered and Naruto looked floored, before a dogged look rent his face.
"No, I'm not going," he folded his arms and legs.
Sasuke glared at Naruto, but even he knew that Naruto's tenacity exceeded his by miles.
"Whatever."
He had to admit though, he was glad Naruto stayed with him when it came to removing the glass and stitching the wound back up. Even with the local anaesthetic, the procedure was still appalling and Sasuke had to lurch to one side to vomit into one of the hospital's provided cardboard bowls halfway through.
"It'll be sore for a little while, Sasuke," Nonō explained calmly, mopping his flesh gently with an iodine swab. "So, it's important to make sure you rest it," she continued, placing a dressing over the wound, so large that it engulfed the top right hand side of his chest.
"Yep," Sasuke acknowledged in a shaky voice.
"Is your next of kin the same as it was the last time you were admitted to hospital?" She queried, glancing down at a folder of notes. "Mikoto and Fugaku Uchiha?" Sasuke felt a twist at hearing his mother and father's names.
"No, it's Itachi Uchiha now," Sasuke told her, controlling his voice carefully.
Her eyes scanned the notes and then she nodded.
"Right, yes, he's on here – I'll go give him a call and see if he can pick you up." She winked as she backed out of the room.
"How you feeling?" Naruto quizzed, perching on the edge of Sasuke's bed. If the anaesthetic hadn't been wearing off Sasuke's shoulder, he might've tried to shrug.
"Sub-par," he admitted feebly and pushed the hair back off his face.
"What happened to your arm?" Naruto asked suddenly and Sasuke paused, frowning at Naruto like he was incredibly stupid.
"Oh, I don't know, it's a bit out of shape given the small window sized fragment of glass I just had dislodged from it." He pointed out in abject exasperation.
"No, not that you pleb," he gripped Sasuke's left arm and turned it over. "What's that?" He pointed at the fleshy canal chased into Sasuke's forearm.
"Oh, it's nothing," Sasuke muttered dismissively, pulling away from Naruto quickly.
"It doesn't look like nothing," Naruto frowned, catching Sasuke's wrist again, but Sasuke squirmed free of him.
"It's nothing," he insisted infirmly.
"It clearly is something," Naruto rebuffed, holding Sasuke tighter.
"Naruto!" Sasuke snapped finally, "it really isn't anything! I caught my arm on one of those poxy armatures you leave lying about and it gouged my arm up!" He was lying. Whenever he started telling lies, things always went wrong. He hadn't gouged himself at all, he picked up a tiny splinter; the rest he'd done himself.
"You did this on one of my armatures?" Naruto asked looking upset. He ran his thumb over the gruesome ravine, and Sasuke felt sick at Naruto's light and lovely touch, on the dirty and destructive wound. "Sorry." Naruto breathed and Sasuke shook his head.
"It's fine, don't apologise," he said briskly.
Naruto stooped and kissed the corner of Sasuke's mouth; Sasuke turned his head instinctively to lean into the kiss and meet Naruto's lips fully, but upon contact he froze. As he inhaled Naruto's scent, so lovely and safe, so perfect…So masculine, Kankuro's words came floating into the back of his head, like a nasty taunting nursery rhyme.
"Sasuke?" Naruto murmured, feeling him stiffen beneath him. He looked down at his boyfriend of two years, a look of deepest confusion and worry twisting his handsome face. "What's the matter?"
Before Sasuke could answer, the door reopened and Doctor Nonō Yakushi reappeared looking harassed.
"Sasuke, I've tried calling your brother several times and I'm not getting any answer. In fact, he's declining the calls." She looked at Sasuke and Naruto helplessly.
"What? He has to be home, it's gone one in the morning!" Sasuke snapped, fighting to get up, but Naruto pushed him back down.
"I'll sort it," Naruto assured him.
"How, how are you going to sort my useless, sack of crap brother?" Sasuke bellowed after him, earning a few looks from the passers-by navigating the corridor outside his bedroom.
Sasuke stretched for his parka on the floor and groped for the pocket. He managed to wrap his fingers around the end of his iPhone and whipped it out.
Ring. Ring. Ring. Voicemail. Itachi had cut him off!
"Itachi, you absolute ball sack! I'm in hospital, I've been run through with a glass door." Sasuke ranted waspishly down the phone. "I can't imagine why you aren't answering your phone, unless you've finally landed yourself in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle and are woefully out of signal range." Sasuke snapped before hanging up.
He flopped back on his bed and then winced, placing a hand over his shoulder; it felt unnaturally hot beneath its dressing. That wound was going to leave a scar, he noted, staring mistily up at the white tiled ceiling. He didn't care about cicatrices and flaws, he wasn't vain. This one was different though. There was a meaning behind this disfiguration, a horrible poignancy that he'd have to carry for the rest of his life. A message: fag.
Sasuke closed his eyes and took a deep breath, holding it in for as long as he could, until his head began to pound and spin.
"Sasuke?" He opened his eyes, Naruto was looming over him. "They're here."
"Iz and Itachi are?" He blinked dazedly and Naruto shook his head.
"No, mum and dad." For a moment, for one shining moment, Sasuke thought Naruto was talking about his own parents; and then he realised that he meant Kushina and Minato.
"Oh, oh right. Yeah, let's go…"
At the Uzamaki residence, Sasuke lay curled under Naruto's duvet, trying to match his breathing to Naruto's.
"Is it hurting?" Naruto whispered as Sasuke shifted awkwardly.
"Not really," Sasuke muttered, trying not to touch Naruto; every time he did, Kankuro's words carried back to him and he felt like he was tainting Naruto by default.
"I bet Ino's going bat shit about her door," in the dark Sasuke saw a flash of Naruto's white teeth as he grinned. "Now that it's got a big Sasuke shaped hole in it."
"Mmm, not one of my best looks, like a glass porcupine." Sasuke muttered, smiling wanly.
"Mum's hysterical, I'm not sure how long I can fend her off for you know. She'll be up here first thing in the morning checking on you." Naruto stroked the bridge of Sasuke's nose, and Sasuke felt his heart constrict. He rolled onto his back, pulling one knee up and closed his eyes like he was meditating.
"Do I really have to call Shikamaru?" Naruto murmured and Sasuke felt the bed moving, "to find out what happened?" Sasuke bit his lip hard and curled his fingers into his palms until his nails broke the flesh. "I don't get why Kankuro would just push you through a door, Sasuke – I'm going out of my mind." Sasuke felt a cold rush over his forehead and opened his eyes to find Naruto leaning over him, his stare hard as he took Sasuke in. "This is driving me crazy."
Sasuke closed his eyes again, unable to stand staring in Naruto's open and adoring pair any longer.
"He pushed me because I'm with you," Sasuke explained in a low voice that threatened to break at every syllable. "He pushed me because I'm with a boy. He called me a…" Sasuke swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "He called me a fag." He felt Naruto go rigid over him and opened his eyes.
Naruto had frozen in place, was that how Sasuke had looked when Kankuro had hurled the word at him? Had he paled as Naruto did then? Had his eyes widened with credulous shock too? Had Sasuke's pulse accelerated so much that the point at the base of his throat jerked erratically? After all, this was Naruto's worst fear as well. They had always feared it, intolerance and hatred, but they had never actually prepared for it, and certainly not from one of their oldest friends.
"When I see Kankuro…"
"Well that shouldn't be a problem, given that we're never seeing him again." Sasuke grumbled, glancing sulkily in the direction of Naruto's window.
"What?" Naruto asked hotly, "you want to hide from him? You want to let him know that you're scared, let him know that he's won…" Sasuke flared up at this.
"He hasn't won Naruto! Kankuro loses every day when he chooses to blindly isolate himself from a whole minority of people. He's the one shrinking his own world, losing out on a sea of potentially fantastic people for a pointless reason, including us. He's the one that loses, Naruto," Sasuke whispered the last part and reached up to brush Naruto's cheek. Naruto looked dubious however.
"Right now, it looks like he's winning," Naruto muttered, indicating Sasuke's bandaged shoulder.
"I think I broke his nose," Sasuke piped up, "if that helps?"
"You kept that one quiet," Naruto crowed with laughter, "whilst you were busy being the saintly little victim," his eyes twinkled and Sasuke smirked.
"My shoulder will heal. Kankuro's a homophobic prick that got twatted by a dude dating a dude, his pride will never recover. Who's the real winner here?" Sasuke grinned, cupping Naruto's chin and tangling his legs around Naruto's waist.
"Even when you're getting beaten-up, you're a conniving smart arse," Naruto grinned, his breath hot on Sasuke's cheeks as he bent closer to him.
"And you love me," Sasuke purred smugly.
"That I do," Naruto breathed, before closing the distance between them and pressing his mouth over Sasuke's. He ran his fingers down Naruto's pelvic muscles and Naruto emitted a little noise that made Sasuke smile against his lips. Naruto trailed kisses dotingly from Sasuke's temple, to the pulse point at the base of his throat; his touch light and feathery making Sasuke flush and tangle his fingers in Naruto's hair.
There was an abrupt banging downstairs.
"Ignore it," Naruto whispered breathlessly against Sasuke's collar bone.
"Where is he!?" That voice.
Sasuke vaulted up, headbutting Naruto as he went.
"Jesus, Sasuke!" Naruto yelped, rubbing his forehead ruefully as Sasuke stared at Naruto's bedroom door, alert and upright like a meerkat. He listened to the voices for a few seconds longer.
"My brother's here," he said shortly, rolling out from under Naruto.
"Itachi's here?" Naruto was shouting as Sasuke hurried from the bedroom.
When he arrived in the kitchen, it was to find a collision of the worst kind, the gathering he'd hoped he wouldn't have to face for years to come: the gathering of both his and Naruto's family in one, confined space. Kushina was stood by the cooker looking dangerously stern as she watched Itachi's every move. Itachi himself looked wild eyed and dishevelled. Behind him was Izumi, stood in her pyjamas and a fluffy grey cardigan looking terrified. Minato was dithering between his wife and Sasuke's family, clearly torn between playing peace keeper, and standing resolutely beside his wife.
"Sasuke!" Itachi choked when he saw him, taking a hurried step in his direction, but Sasuke held a warning hand up and Itachi stopped dead.
"Where were you?" Sasuke demanded, "Where were you?"
"I was…I was in bed," Itachi told him edgily looking panicked.
"Don't lie!" Sasuke barked harshly, "I know that you were rejecting mine and the hospital's calls, so where we you at one in the morning!?" He shouted, shaking with rage.
Itachi swallowed and glanced over his shoulder at Izumi, whose eyes were awash with despair.
"I was out," was all the explanation he offered.
"OUT!?" Sasuke exploded, "what a fantastically vague answer, what, out for a moonlit stroll out, or out gunning down panda bears out? There's lots of ways you can be out, Itachi!" He snapped and Itachi flinched.
"Sasuke, I didn't know you were going to be in an accident…"
"I wasn't in an accident," Sasuke snarled and everybody, including Minato and Kushina turned to look at him in confusion. "This," he gestured to his shoulder, "it wasn't an accident."
"I don't understand," Itachi frowned.
"I was attacked, because I'm seeing another guy; it was a homophobic attack, not an accident." Sasuke muttered, fiddling limply with his dressing.
There was silence in the room and then an eruption of sound from everybody: they had to call the police, they needed names, why hadn't Sasuke said something sooner?
"Mum, dad, be quiet for a minute," Naruto murmured, arriving in the kitchen and crossing to stand between his outraged parents.
"Itachi," Sasuke began, "you weren't there," he locked eyes with his brother, "you weren't there when I needed you to be. You can't just jump in now, I'm not some virtual pet you can drop in on now and again." He paused for breath. "I want you gone."
"Sasuke…"
"Get out! I want you out!" He cried and Itachi jumped.
"You need to go," Kushina interjected, her eyes fixed on Itachi like a mother bear worried about a predator. For a moment, Itachi didn't move and then slowly, very slowly, he began to walk away.
And then he was gone.
He did as Sasuke asked, and left him…
Boo hiss Itachi! Hope you enoyed, please review! x
