Uggh. Another chapter seven. I hate that number with a passion. I wish I could just skip over that number. Have a chapter six and chapter eight, but no seven. :sigh: Well, it's only unlucky to me so hopefully you all will enjoy this chapter regardless. You should. It has some fluffy moments in the beginning X3 hee, hee. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything associated with him. Unless of course you count ramen. Which, in fact, I do own and is available for purchase at the price of fifteen cents per package down at your local Shop N' Save.
Warning: Boy Love and Language. Those easily offended and repulsed should vacate the area immediately in an orderly and single file line. I SAID SINGLE FILE!! Jeez. The back button isn't going anywhere people. You don't have to rush out like animals.
Important: Dedicated to the almighty and all-knowing SasuNaru1025. Bow at her feet and feel grateful that you are privileged to live on the same planet as her!
When he opened his bright blue eyes the first thing that Naruto noticed was the plain white yet unfamiliar ceiling hover above his head. His vision fought to return back to the darkness once again, but the blonde-haired boy willed them to focus on his current surroundings.
He turned his head slightly to his right and then to his left, taking in the sights of the alien room. It did not take Naruto long to realize that the strange room that he now found himself in was none other than that of a hospital room. They all looked the same. Pale walls, one large window along the far wall, bed separated by curtains that hung from the ceiling, strange machines that would hook up to patient in order to keep them alive.
Yes, every hospital looked the same. And Naruto should know. For the blonde had been in and out of hospitals because of severe injuries that he had gotten ever since he had joined up with that group of thugs.
Naruto fidgeted underneath the itchy cotton sheet and then let out a soft sigh in defeat. Iruka had probably found him again and had taken him straight to hospital, just like every other time that the blonde had come home battered and bruised. He would always insist to the older man that he was fine, but being the "always worried and always concerned" person that the brunette was, he would simple not listen to his adopted son.
He let out another sigh and calmed himself down so that sleep could grace him with its presence and take him back into the darkness of his mind.
Suddenly, the blonde heard a soft intake of breathe and his blue eyes shot open immediately. Naruto frantically turned his head all the way to his right and saw the sleeping form of a small raven-haired boy slouching forward as he sat in a very uncomfortable looking folding chair right beside his hospital bed. The tan boy's face twisted into a look of pure confusion as he continued to stare at the sleeping raven. Naruto then slowly lifted his torso off of the hard mattress, being careful not to reopen any injury that he made have, so that he could get a better look at the boy's face, which was coincidentally hidden by raven locks that hung down on both sides of his face.
When Naruto finally was able to fully see the boy face, he gasped and almost fell out of his bed. The boy sitting next to him was absolutely gorgeous. His skin as pale as a porcelain doll, which contrasted nicely with his dark raven hair, and his lips thin yet the perfect shade of peach.
The blonde was at a lost for words from the sight of the boy. His mind finally pulled him out of his stupor and brought the blonde to the real question that was on his mind: Why was this beautiful boy sitting next him, Uzumaki Naruto, of all people? The more Naruto wondered about the answer to that very same question, more confused he became. He could not remember much after that big fight that he, which included himself and a few other guys from his gang, had gotten into with a few members from the gang of high school guys that called themselves the Akatsuki.
Once again, Naruto was suddenly brought from the deep corners of his mind when he heard yet another sound coming from the raven beside him. The pale boy's dark eyes fluttered open gracefully and immediately focused on the blonde boy lying upon the bed in front of him. The beautiful boy quickly rose to his feet, surprised to find that Naruto had waken up already, and backed away from the uncomfortable hospital bed until his small body brushed against the curtain that was partially blocking the bed that lay parallel to Naruto's. His expression was stunned for only a moment, before it became cold and emotionless.
Naruto decided in that split second that the raven's expression changed that he did not care to see such a lovely face with such a stoic expression.
The boy said nothing and the blonde did not know how much more of this unbearable and awkward silent he could take before he went completely mad.
"Hello." Naruto said softly. The sudden noise slightly startled the raven-haired boy, but his stoic expression did not falter for long.
"…" The raven paused, unsure if he should answer the blonde at all. "Hello."
"Why are you here?" Naruto said suddenly. Only realizing after the words had left his mouth that they must have sounded terribly rude. The blonde shrugged off the thought. He couldn't change what he said now.
The raven scowled. "I just happen to be the person who saved your life." The boy's tone was very haughty and yet so annoyed at the same time.
"Ha!" Naruto mocked. "Save my life? Should have just saved yourself the trouble and left me to rot."
The blonde said that line instinctively for he had grown his hate his own existence after all the years of hurtful stares from other people. Suddenly, his mind recalled a memory, most likely suppressed in his mind, from the moments right before he blacked out. Naruto remembered seeing the same raven-haired boy, whom was standing a meter or so from his bed, hovering over him with a worried expression on his beautiful face.
Naruto's blue eyes widened slightly and his gaze once again settled on the pale boy beside him. The raven stared back, slightly confused by the blonde's intense gaze and eventually let his dark eyes wander over to stare at a random spot on the wall in front of him.
"Stop staring at me like that." The pale boy said in an irate tone.
"Why did you bring me here?" Naruto asked softly.
The raven-haired boy's expression became slightly surprised by the blonde's question and his pale cheeks turned a dull pink shade from his embarrassment. "I just felt like it." He answered quickly.
"But I don't even know you."
"Hn. Dobe." The raven sneered mockingly at the tan boy still lying upon the hospital bed. "You don't even recognize your own classmate." After a moment to let the statement sink in fully, Naruto noticed that the raven-haired boy was, in fact, wearing the same school uniform that he was wearing, albeit less tattered and bloodstained.
"You… You go to my school?!" Naruto said in shock.
"I'm also in your class." Naruto gapped again at the sudden discovery. But no matter how hard the blonde tried to remember seeing the pale boy when he would occasionally go to class, he could not recall the boy's face appearing anywhere in his memories of school. Then again, Naruto really couldn't remember any of his classmates.
"Sorry. I really can't remember you." Naruto let out a small chuckle as he scratched his cheek, which the blonde had just realized was bandaged up.
"Tch. Dobe." The raven replied.
"Oi! Don't call me that!" Naruto yelled back. "Besides, how do I know that you're really in my class?"
The pale boy let out a sigh. "You're name is Uzumaki Naruto."
"You could have found that out when you came to visit me here." Naruto retorted as he jutted out his lips in a pout.
"You've only shown up to class once in the past week and twelve times in the last month." The raven-haired boy continued to explain with a completely serious expression on his young face.
"Sounds to me like you're more of a stalker than a classmate."
Naruto laughed at his own statement. The raven blushed and turned his face away from the blonde lying in the bed, his expression changing to that of a childish pout, just like the one Naruto had sported not that long ago.
"Oh! Right. I still don't know your name." Naruto said suddenly. The pale boy let his dark orbs wander over to the corner of his eyes so that he could glance back at the tan boy for only a moment, and then they returned to staring away from the blonde's smiling face. "Come on." Naruto whined. "It's not fair that you know my name and I don't know yours. I want to be able to call you something other than 'you' all the time."
The raven-haired paused for another moment and let his gaze wonder once more over to Naruto's face, which made his slightly flushed cheeks become redder. He then let out s small sigh. "Uchiha Sasuke." The raven stated in defeat.
Naruto smiled at the name. 'Sasuke, huh.' He thought with a huge smile plastered on his young face. "I think I'll be coming to school more often now." Naruto mused to himself in a soft voice. Apparently it was not low enough, because the boy, now known as Sasuke, heard him. The raven then blushed even more as he scowled at the wall, hoping for it to combust purely from his rage and embarrassment.
--
"Wha… What about the Akatsuki?" Sakura asked as she gentle shook the blonde-haired boy, trying to wake him from his thoughts.
"…" The blonde did not answer the Shinigami. His vacant yet terrified stare added to Sakura's worries that Naruto may have not even heard her question to him what so ever. The blonde seemed to far off in his own mind to do much of anything but recall the memories that flooded into his brain.
"Naruto, please! Answer me!" The pink-haired girl's cries were silenced by the loud ringing of the school bell, announcing to all students, both inside the large building and outside of it, that school was now starting and the school gates were closing. Sakura momentarily let her attention drift over to the last group of students run into the building, thankful that they were not locked out of the school and therefore not late to class.
As if awakened from some sort of hypnotic trance, the loud ringing in Naruto's ear pulled him from his own thoughts and left the blonde confused as to what had just happened to himself. Sakura looked back at the blonde and saw Naruto resting his forehead in his tanned hand, his eyebrows pursed together in irritation and his blue eyes wide.
"Naruto?" Sakura asked once again slowly.
"Sorry, Sakura-chan." He said as he let his fingers slip through his unruly blonde bangs and fall back down to his side. "I… I was just remembering something."
"What was it?"
Naruto knew that Sakura, being his guardian of sorts for the remainder of the week, would have asked him that very question no matter what he had done. But that did not mean that the blonde really wanted to tell the pink-haired Shinigami the horrible things that he had just seen in his mind.
Most of the memories that flashed through the tall boy's brain just moments before include many, many fights between his own gang and the Akatsuki. And a few focused almost completely on a certain member of that notorious gang.
The images were far from pretty to say the least.
"Just… Just a fight with that gang." Naruto said as he feigned a smile on his handsome face. "Nothing to worry about, I swear."
Sakura glared at the tall boy. "That wasn't nothing, Naruto!" She said sternly. She paused and her features softened with concern for the blonde-haired boy in front of her. "Naruto, you can tell me."
The actuality of it all was that he could not tell the Shinigami. He just refused to do so. No one should have to suffer through the awful memories of the things that the blonde had witnessed, experienced and… done to others. He was so ashamed of himself, though he refused to block the images of his mind. He knew that the memories just might come in handy with remembering his death.
Naruto had hoped that once he head heard the name of his rival gang, he might actually have remembered his death, but, to no avail, he did not. Letting out a sigh of disappointment, he turned his brilliant, blue eyes back to the pink-haired Shinigami, who still sported that expression of genuine concern.
"Trust me, Sakura-chan." Naruto said with a bright smile. "It was nothing that you need to worry your pretty little head about."
Unconvinced but willing to let the subject that was obviously tormenting the tan boy drop, Sakura let out a sigh of her own and leaned her body against the wall. "Did it give you any hints at all though?"
"Well… I could make out the areas where the fights took place pretty well." The blonde replied looking back at the spirit with a look of concentration etched onto his face.
"What does that have to do with anything?" The pink-haired girl asked, truly interested.
"Well, Sakura-chan," the blonde-haired boy started off, proud at the fact that he knew something that the Shinigami did not for once. "Gangs usually start pointless fights with each because they believe that another person in a different gang had trespassed onto their turf. By knowing where the fights happened, I could probably find out where those particular gangs hang out most of the time."
"And by doing so we could bump into the people who shot you!" Sakura finished his speech, quickly catching onto the blonde's point of his speech. Naruto gave the pink-haired girl a nod as she smiled; for it was now her turn to be proud of herself, since he had quickly caught onto the basic thought process of a yanki.
"Exactly." Naruto reassured.
"Then let's go! This is just the lead we need right now!" Sakura then grabbed a hold of the other spirit's hand and began pulling him along the tall cement wall of the school, heading toward the front of the school.
The two spirits were just about to run off into the crowded city in search of the places that Naruto saw in his memories, when a familiar head of raven hair caught the blonde's attention and stopped him dead in his tracks. Naruto's body froze as he looked upon the pale face, whose feature where cold and filled with such hidden pain.
"Naruto! Come on! We need to g—" The Shinigami cut herself off short when realized that the tall boy beside was not listening to a single word she had uttered to him; his attention completely focused elsewhere, making the pink-haired girl quite annoyed. "Come on, Naruto! Stop daydreaming and let's… go." Sakura paused when she looked up at the certain object that had stolen Naruto attention away from her and gave an audible gasp in surprise.
Sasuke stood outside the school's gates, looking up at the large windows filled with students. Sakura could only imagine what was going through the raven's mind at that point in time with the confusing determined yet utterly depressed expression on his face, merely gazing toward the sky.
"That's… Sasuke-kun." Sakura said softly as she and Naruto continued to look on in shock.
The raven-haired boy quickly turned away from the school building and walked across the busy street, twisting and turning his way through the idle cars, backed up in the early morning traffic. Almost instantly Naruto ran after him, ignoring that fact that his spirit body was actually passing through the metal vehicles instead of going around them, with the pink-haired Shinigami trailing close behind him.
Sakura's high-pitched voice continued to call after the blonde-haired boy as he got farther and farther away from her, but he would not stop. Naruto had also noticed the weird expression that the pale boy held upon his young face and the blonde would not be satisfied until he knew why such a look of depression and desperation graced his old lover's face.
Slowly, Sasuke's feet led the two spirits further away from the school and closer to a place that, even though the blonde did not realize it at the time, held such horrid and scarring memories for the tan spirit, whom was still following the raven's every move.
"Naruto!" Sakura called out once again, finally able to catch up to the blonde slightly.
'Sasuke.' The blonde thought frantically to himself as he following the pale boy closer than his own shadow ever could. 'Just where the hell are you going?'
It was a long flashback, ne ((Makes up for how short the actual events of the story was in this chapter))? Well this is the only one that really needed to be this long. The other memories won't be as long ((hopefully)). I believe there are only three other important flashbacks that I really want to write. I'll think up more along the way though. X Oh! I hope I have enough chapters to fit them all in.
Oh well. I'll write more chapters. Simple, ne?
Okay. Review please! I'm spent for the night. Time to sleep until I can't sleep no more.