Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto . . . I'd be worried about my anti-fans.
Author's Note: There isn't much to say today, except that I want to thank everyone for both the exceedingly amazing amount of hits and reviews. This is, by far, my best (and favorite) story. I'm super tired and feeling a little sick. Excuse any mistakes. I've reread this chapter over and over in the past four months, but my eyes tend to skip over random words.
Important Part: There's a lot of scene-skipping at the beginning of this chapter and I apologzie. It's just that the first three scenes were originally at the end of the previous chapter, but in my greed to end the last chapter with a cliff hanger, I had to take them out and put them here.
So this chapter is 1,252 words longer than it should be.
Sorry!
Chapters will not be this annoyingly long ever again. I was just never in the mood to give the whole beginning a remake.
There's a lot of angst in this chapter, but a lot more of Kisame to brighten the mood! =D
Chapter 7
…:::Born to be Wild:::…
ACDC
[Warning: Super-long chapter. Sorry. Read above author's note for explanation.]
Itachi led Sasuke into the apartment and closed the door behind him. "What's going on?" he willed Sasuke to answer. "What's wrong?"
"I hate him!" was all Sasuke replied. "I hate him! I want to kill him!"
Itachi unlatched his brother from him and held him by the shoulders. Sasuke's eyes were reddening. "Tell me what happened."
Sasuke closed his eyes, hanging his head, his shoulders shaking in attempt to hold back raw fury. "They saw," he managed. "They saw my leg when Naruto pulled my pants down in the locker room. We'd argued during lunch and I guess he wanted to get me back for punching him. But Itachi, they saw!"
"Who saw?"
"The boys in the locker room. It doesn't matter how many there were!" Sasuke rested his head on his brother's chest. "The whole school is going to know by tomorrow. There's no way I'm going back."
"You have to go back," said Itachi. He stood from the couch, taking Sasuke with him, and led his younger brother to his room. "It's not the end of the world."
"I'm going to kill him if I ever see Naruto again," spat Sasuke wearily. "I will rip every stupid blond hair from his head and gouge out his stupid blue eyes until he bleeds."
Itachi sighed and pushed his brother into bed. "You need your rest, Sasuke. Wait right here."
The next time Itachi appeared, Sasuke knew his brother held a needle behind his back. He struggled, but Itachi personally got onto the bed and straddled him so he would not move. Keeping one hand around Sasuke's wrists that he had pinned over his head, he pulled the cap off of the needle with his teeth.
"Itachi, please," pleaded Sasuke.
"Forgive me, Sasuke."
He emptied the syringe into Sasuke's arm vein and watched his brother's eyes close.
o.o.O.O.o.o
When Naruto came to, he was in the nurse's office on a bed with his shirt off. Kabuto was wiping blood from behind Naruto's ears, and Kakashi stood over his head as Neji, Lee, Kiba, and Shikamaru sat in plastic chairs a little away from the beds.
"What's going on?" slurred Naruto. His vision was blurry and his head ached terribly.
"Do you remember what happened in the locker room?" Kakashi asked him. Naruto thought the man looked angry. He could never tell, really, with that single eye of his. But he refocused his thoughts onto Sasuke and remembered the image that would forever be embedded into his mind:
Sasuke, standing in nothing but boxer shorts, with a prosthetic leg. At first, Naruto didn't know what to think. His mind had stopped working. He had stared into Sasuke's face and had seen so many flashes of emotion that he was still trying to comprehend them. Then his mind trailed back to the mechanical leg.
What the hell had happened to the boy?
"I didn't – I don't –"
He couldn't complete a sentence. There were no words to describe anything anymore. It was too much to try and comprehend all at once. It was too much to think that Sasuke – Sasuke! – was missing a limb.
"Do you know what you've possibly done to his mental health?" asked Kakashi. He wasn't angry anymore. He seemed tired. He was always tired nowadays. "Do you know how long Sasuke's trained himself to make it appear as if he's a normal person? He went full-out to make sure no one knew of his handicap."
"I didn't know he was . . ."
He was still trying to grasp the concept.
"What made you think it was okay to pants him, Naruto?"
"That would be my fault, Mr. Hatake," Kiba said weakly, feeling guilty. "Naruto was angry and said he wanted to get back at Sasuke, so I suggested it to him."
"Sasuke punched you quite powerfully," chirped Kabuto. "You'll be dizzy for a while due to a hard hit on the head, and you've got a massive bruise on your chest, but nothing serious."
Kakashi turned to the boys sitting in the chairs. "You have to promise not to tell anyone about what you've seen," he said seriously. "And you can't treat Sasuke any differently, or he'll turn unstable. It's happened before."
"I swear it," Neji was the first to say, his facial expressions portraying grave seriousness. Lee followed suit, then Shikamaru and Kiba said so as well. Kakashi dismissed them. School would be over in fifteen minutes.
Kakashi asked to be alone with Naruto. Kabuto said he would be glad to leave and needed to make a call.
"Do you realize now," Kakashi said, sitting down in front of Naruto, "why Sasuke is the way he is?"
"Kakashi, he's missing a leg! A leg! That's like – can you imagine?! – . . . a leg! What happened to him?"
"I have no right to distribute that kind of knowledge, Naruto," Kakashi replied levelly. "I just want you to know that Sasuke isn't about to go trusting anyone too soon. It took him a while to trust me when he came to me for therapy, both physical and mental. And right now, I'm not so sure about what this incident is going to do to him."
Naruto felt a sudden weight collapse onto his shoulders. Hello, Naruto, said the weight. My name is Guilt, and I shall forever be your best friend!
Naruto groaned. What had he done?!
o.o.O.O.o.o
Kakashi called Itachi that day to ask how Sasuke was doing. Itachi said he'd sedated him in fear that Sasuke would have a panic attack or another collapse. The Uchiha had already reported the happenings to Tsunade, telling her the dosage he'd given his brother and his current health situation.
"We're ending this," Kakashi said over the phone. "You, Sasuke, Naruto, Lady Tsunade, and me. We've all got to sort this situation out, or it'll mean the death of Sasuke."
"I know," Itachi replied. He stared at his sedated brother with a frown on his face. "I know."
Sasuke didn't go to school the next day. He stayed in his bed without a word, refusing to eat and refusing to move. The only thing he did was plunge his face into his pillow. Itachi didn't go to work that day either. He called to state that it was a family emergency.
Itachi made Sasuke tea and a bowl of rice at three o'clock before leaving briefly to visit his mother at the hospital. Shizune welcomed him and directed him to his mother's room, where Mikoto slept peacefully, her fever receding.
Hinata was still present in the room. After having undergone another surgery recently, she slept as well. Neji was at her bedside. He watched Itachi stand over Mikoto.
"Mr. Uchiha," he said, speaking with the utmost formality. "You are Sasuke's brother, correct?"
Itachi looked up and studied the boy affront of him. "If you are allowed to visit Ms. Hyuuga Hinata, then you must be a Hyuuga yourself, and if you know Sasuke, you must be Hyuuga Neji."
Kakashi had told Itachi of the people that knew of Sasuke's prosthesis.
"Him I am," replied Neji. "I wanted to ask if Sasuke was doing okay."
"He is well," was Itachi's automatic reply.
"He was not present in school today."
Itachi's eyes swept over Neji's. "He was incapacitated."
Neji knew not to say more. He simply stared as Itachi touched his mother's hand. When Itachi came to leave, the Hyuuga spoke: "Give him my best."
". . . I shall do that."
o.o.O.O.o.o
Naruto was worried.
Sasuke hadn't show up at school that day. Throughout his entire exam, and the following classes, Naruto pondered about it. It was all his fault! What if Sasuke was now being entered into a sane asylum? What if he'd ruined the Uchiha's mental life?!
Kakashi hadn't spoken to Naruto for the entire day, either, not that the blond had seen him. It seemed the man was too preoccupied with other matters.
Feeling ultimately guilty, Naruto decided to do something about it. At home, with his grandmother at work, he opened her telephone book and scanned the pages for Sasuke's name in the U section. There was only one Uchiha: Mikoto. Beneath the telephone number was an address that Naruto followed on his bicycle, telling his driver to take a well-deserved break for some tea.
Apartment seventy-one.
Meaning the seventh floor.
Naruto hoped they had an elevator.
They did. As he watched the numbers light up – one, ding . . . two, ding . . . – he began to have his doubts: What if he's not home?
He had to be.
What if he doesn't want to speak to me?
Of course he doesn't! But Naruto would kick the door down anyway.
He suddenly lost the courage when he reached the supposed door of the Uchihas. It seemed to tower over him in all its finely-polished glory. Gulping and taking a deep breath, Naruto rang the doorbell.
Ding dong!
"Kisame's early," he heard a low, contemplative voice from behind the door. It opened suddenly and in the frame stood Itachi. The Uchiha stared around before spotting a head of blond. His eyes darkened.
"Haven't you done enough damage on your own already?" he asked calmly.
"Uh . . . um . . . uh . . ."
"What is it that you want?"
"I want to see Sasuke."
Itachi frowned. "Sasuke doesn't want to see you."
"I want to make sure he's okay," continued Naruto, feeling the need to grasp his bravery before it melted away.
"Go away."
Itachi moved to close the door, but Naruto stuck his foot out, mentally thanking himself for wearing boots that day.
"Let me see him. Please."
Itachi stared.
Naruto stared right back.
Itachi raised an eyebrow.
"He'll hurt you, and I won't stop him."
Naruto stood tall. "I'll take every hit."
Itachi welcomed him inside, telling the blond to take his shoes off. Naruto stared around the smallish apartment, taking note of its OCD-like cleanliness. Itachi moved to one of the furthest doors with Naruto on his trail.
"Sasuke?" Itachi called, knocking on the door. "There's someone here to see you."
"Who?" Sasuke immediately called back, not removing his face from his pillow.
Itachi did not answer, but he pushed Naruto in and closed the door, whispering lightly, "I'll get 911 on speed dial."
Naruto gulped.
He examined Sasuke's room silently, noticing how almost nothing lined the walls. There was but a simple bed, closet, and desk, with nothing decorating either of them but a pile of books and a picture frame on the desk. Sasuke lay beneath navy covers on his bed, his head buried in his pillow. Naruto moved closer and dared to speak.
"Hi, Sasuke."
The Uchiha whirled around so quickly, Naruto swore he saw his life flash before his eyes. Sasuke's face was contorted into a snarl.
"You!" he snarled, swinging his legs off of his bed. "You!"
"Easy now, Sasuke." Naruto backed against the wall, his hands up in defense.
"How dare you come here?! How dare you show your face to me again?"
Naruto was beginning to think it was a bad idea.
Sasuke backed the poor blond into a wall. With a single fist, he lifted him so high, Naruto stared down at the Uchiha for the first time.
"You ruined my life!" exclaimed Sasuke. "You ruined everything! I'll knock you out so badly, you won't remember! I'll put you in a coma for six fucking months!"
"You were in a coma? For six months?" blurted Naruto. He immediately regretted saying it when Sasuke's eyes raged with a sudden extra level of anger and then blanked out completely. Sasuke was looking at him, but he wasn't seeing wide sapphire eyes, or drooping blond hair.
He was seeing his father.
"You wouldn't hit me, would you, son?"his father told him, grinning malevolently. "Not your loving father."
Sasuke's other hand unconsciously went to Naruto's neck.
"You don't love me," he hissed.
"What?" asked Naruto, confused and frightened at the same time. Sasuke's grip was becoming uncomfortably tight around his neck and being locked in the room, no one would find his dead body.
"But I do love you, son. After all, I almost killed you, didn't I?"
"Shut up." It was a snarl at first, but Sasuke's fingers dug into Naruto's windpipe. "Shut up!"
"Sasuke!" Naruto choked out, his fingers clawing at Sasuke's own. "Sasuke, please! Stop! Stop!" Dark spots were beginning to appear in his vision. Everything was blurring and he could hear his own breaths with the pounding of blood in his ears. "Sasuke, I can't breathe!"
"Die," the Uchiha whispered ominously. "Die. Die! You said you wanted to die, so I'll do you a favor for once!"
Naruto saw the insane expression, the twisted grin and manic eyes on Sasuke's handsome face as his hands went limp and his mind fogged. Before he had the time to fall into permanent unconsciousness, the door opened and a calm figure walked in, followed by a rush of two others.
"Let go of him, Sasuke," said Itachi.
"He tried to kill me!" Sasuke yelled wildly, squeezing harder around Naruto's neck. "So I'll kill him before he can try again!"
"Sedating you again would be unwise, Sasuke. Let go of Naruto."
"Let go of him!" a woman screeched. It was Tsunade. She rushed forward and in an attempt to free her grandchild, she pushed Sasuke wildly aside with inhuman strength. Itachi caught him before he could reach the ground, but even with his strong arms, he was forced back a few steps.
"That's probably the second time he's tried to strangle Naruto to death," Kakashi said lightly in spite of the situation.
Tsunade laid Naruto on the floor, desperately calling out to him and asking him how many fingers she was holding up, all the while cursing and yelling obscenities at a suddenly lidded-eyed Sasuke.
"Two, two, Granny!" Naruto replied hoarsely, sitting up with the help of his grandmother. He touched his neck gingerly and winced at the pain shooting through his throat. "Why are you here?"
"Itachi called me," she said. "But don't worry – I left everything to Shizune. She should be okay."
Naruto stared at Sasuke, who had closed his eyes and leaned tiredly against Itachi, looking almost as if he wanted to cry and scream at the same time.
"What's going on?" the Uchiha finally asked after a while, blinking as if he had been absent for the past few minutes. "When did everyone get here?"
The adults of the room exchanged worried glances.
"Itachi, I'm really worried about his mental health," said Tsunade. "He almost killed Naruto! I don't think we should've stopped his therapy."
"Killed Naruto?" Sasuke asked incredulously, sparing a glance at the blond. The situation sunk in. He placed a hand over his eyes. "Damn it," he whispered. "It's happening again."
Itachi chose not to reply, but Kakashi didn't think the same way.
"You've only had three months of rehabilitation, Sasuke," he said. "For physical and mental therapy, even with your prodigious skills, that's not enough. You weren't ready. Normal people need at least two years."
"I'm not a normal person! Kakashi, look at me! What about me is 'normal'? I'm obviously dangerous! I'm better off being locked – . . . locked . . ."
He slumped, unconscious. Itachi pulled a needle from behind Sasuke's back and recapped it.
"The sedative shouldn't be too much on his bloodstream," the older Uchiha said calmly. "It'll be much easier to handle him this way."
o.o.O.O.o.o
When Sasuke next awoke, he was in the hospital . . . again.
It wasn't the quietness of the room that got to him, no. It wasn't even the heads of blond, silver, and black that he could make out from his blurry vision, either. It was the white. The white that he'd seen for months on end. The white that he thought he would have been placed in from the start, and the white that he desperately wanted to escape.
"Am I in an asylum?" he asked the ceiling.
"No," the ceiling replied. "You're in the hospital."
Apparently, the ceiling could impersonate Tsunade's voice unbelievably well, thought Sasuke. It, perhaps, had a future as an impersonator.
It took a head of blond and Tsunade's lips to move to convince Sasuke that it wasn't the ceiling, but Tsunade herself. She helped him into an upright position. A wire brushed against Sasuke's temple; an IV drip.
"Have I been out for long?" he asked, staring at Tsunade's familiar office.
"An hour, probably. Your nutrition levels have lowered drastically, Uchiha, which means you haven't been eating. We've had to place you on the IV for now."
Sasuke rubbed his eyes wearily with his other hand and stared around once more. Itachi and Kakashi were situated at the end of his bed, which Sasuke realized was the bed he was well-acquainted with in Tsunade's office. Naruto sat on Tsunade's desk chair, looking guiltily at the floor.
"This is the last day we're going to let this nonsense go on," said Tsunade. "I'm bringing order right now. We're going to get you help, Sasuke."
"You'll need to carry on with your therapy lessons after school," continued Kakashi. "In the state you're in, you'll need to keep coming back to my house for at least another six months. This isn't for physical anymore, either. It's all mental."
"So I'm a mental case now?" asked Sasuke, boring his eyes into Kakashi's own. He straightened himself against the wall he was leaning on. "I'm mentally unstable?"
"In a way."
The answer made Sasuke swing his fist to angrily connect with the wall. Tsunade started, but only watched Sasuke's breathing quicken.
"I'm tired of being treated like a basket case," he whispered harshly. "I am completely mentally sound. Some things just trigger mental reactions like that."
His head jerked to face Tsunade, then to Kakashi, a snarl distorting his lips.
"Do not treat me like I need an asylum."
Itachi took interest in the conversation. "It seems," he said quietly, "that you have been trying to heal a nonexistent illness. Perhaps you should opt to specify his needs and treat them individually instead of bringing him to therapy without any results."
Tsunade stared at Itachi thoughtfully. "Your brother's right, actually," she said, impressed. "That's smart thinking, Uchiha."
Itachi said nothing.
"Alright," continued Kakashi. "Sasuke, list what's wrong."
Sasuke held up a slender finger. "Insomnia."
Tsunade stared at him long and hard, thinking. "This is horribly tricky," she finally said. "To treat it would mean putting you on more medication, but we can't. You've got too much medication entering your body already. Any more and there could be some serious consequences."
Insomnia had probably helped in his lack of nutrition and proper functioning, she thought, but to treat it properly, she'd need additional medication, and they couldn't risk taking him off of any he was currently on, or putting him on any more. So what . . .?
"Chamomile."
It had been whispered and for a second, Sasuke thought it was Itachi that had said it. But he had forgotten there was another presence in the room: Naruto.
"Sorry?" asked Tsunade.
"Chamomile," the blond replied strongly this time around. He raised his head to stare at Tsunade. "Granny, remember when dad . . ." He swallowed thickly. "When dad worked, he started getting insomnia. He told me that he drank chamomile to help it, and it did."
His eyes averted to Sasuke. Sasuke scowled, doing everything in his power to prevent him from throttling the blond then and there.
"If you drink it every night, it'll help."
"Come to think of it, I remember Minato telling me something like that," said Tsunade. "That's an excellent idea, Naruto. And chamomile is beneficial as well." She turned to ruffle his hair affectionately. "Thanks, brat."
"Thank Naruto, Sasuke," spoke Itachi, smirking. He enjoyed watching Sasuke's clenched jaw twitch.
Sasuke, instead, growled and turned away, stubbornly crossing his arms over his chest.
"Did you know Pride is a sin, Uchiha?" Naruto spat at Sasuke's reactions.
"So is Wrath," the Uchiha spat right back.
"Boys."
Insert glares here.
"Continuing with everything, we need to keep Sasuke away from anything that might trigger trauma. Naruto, you need to be aware of this as well," said Kakashi. "Things like bridges, certain words or phrases, streams of water –"
"What is with all these things?" interrupted Naruto. "Bridges, water . . . what do these have to do with anything?"
"Kakashi, you're doing this on purpose," hissed Sasuke. "I don't want him to know anything that's unnecessary."
"Does this relate to –?"
"No, it doesn't!" Sasuke interrupted the blond. "Stop dwelling over those matters!"
Tsunade sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. This was going to be a lot harder than she thought.
o.o.O.O.o.o
When they'd gotten out of the hospital, Itachi had driven them to the local market to buy a large box of chamomile before they went home. Sasuke was deeply infuriated. Kakashi had developed a plan to take action on Monday, and he did not like it.
"Aren't fifteen days over?" Sasuke suddenly asked his brother later as he sat on the couch, calling over to Itachi who was in the kitchen over the stove. "Shouldn't Mom be coming back?"
Itachi walked into the room with two steaming cups of chamomile tea. His had a mound of sugar settled on the bottom, whereas Sasuke's had half a spoon. He handed it to his little brother and sat across from him.
"Tsunade has informed me that although mother's condition has improved greatly, she needs hospitalization for the maximum of a week to carry on with medication and nutrition," Itachi said calmly, sipping his cup.
"But can you handle another week?"
Itachi visibly grimaced. "I'll try and cut back."
Sasuke smirked. "You sound like you're doing drugs."
"Work is just as bad."
They lapsed into comfortable silence, sipping their tea quietly and relishing in the other's presence. Sasuke, for the first time in four months, felt genuinely drowsy. By eleven, he placed his cup in the sink and slunk into bed.
At least he'd gotten a good night's rest.
o.o.O.O.o.o
Sasuke dreaded Monday. He woke up after a good night's rest knowing that he would hate it, but that there was no way he could avoid it. Itachi was gone, but there were toaster waffles waiting for him on the table. He dressed comfortably (with the baggiest pants he could find) and left the house.
There were two reasons he dreaded today: one: because of Kakashi's "ingenious" plan yet to take action, and two: because he hadn't seen everyone's reaction to his prosthetic leg. Walking into school, he braced himself for stares, laughter, and snide remarks.
But got none.
No one was staring at him with a different expression than the way they'd always stared at him. The girls were still ogling his body like toddlers wanting candy. The boys were still trying to decipher what went on in his mind. No one said anything about a prosthetic leg.
When Sasuke entered Kakashi's office like he'd been told to do, Naruto was already there, looking heavily disgruntled.
"Why is the entire school –?"
"Behaving normally?" supplied Kakashi from nowhere. He appeared right behind Sasuke and closed the door. "Well, probably because no one knows."
"Why –?"
"We're not stupid, Uchiha," remarked Naruto. "We know when to keep a secret and when not to."
Before another argument could start up, Kakashi laughed good-naturedly (to hide the awkwardness) and interrupted. "Now that we've got that out of the way, let's get down to business! Boys."
Naruto reluctantly held his hand out to the manic guidance counselor. Sasuke hesitated, but did so as well.
Kakashi slapped a pair of handcuffs around their wrists.
"Good!" he chirped. "Now I know you have different electives, so just come straight here, I'll unlock them, and then come back when you're done, got it? Other than that, you're stuck for good!"
"What if one of us needs to go to the bathroom?" asked Naruto. He examined the handcuffs. The chain between them was only a foot long.
"Well, that's your problem!"
Sasuke glowered deeply at Kakashi, who simply smiled so widely, his visible eye crinkled (today, his silver hair was flattened from the front to cover his other eye instead of the usual bandage). Naruto muttered obscenities beneath his breath.
"At the end of this month, I want an essay from each of you about what you learned. It should be about . . . four – no – five pages."
"Five pages to write about him?!" Naruto shouted incredulously.
"I agree with him for once," retorted Sasuke. "I'm not quite sure there are enough synonyms for loud, obnoxious jerk to fit five pages."
"Why you –"
"And," continued Kakashi, "here's the layout! Naruto, today, you'll go to Sasuke's house until I come to pick you up, understood? And tomorrow, Sasuke will be going to your house. This pattern will repeat for a month."
"I'm not bringing him into my house!" both boys exclaimed in unison.
"He'll destroy the peace!" Sasuke said angrily.
"I have friends that I hang out with, Kakashi!" Naruto retorted with the same amount of infuriation.
"Deal with it."
And with that, Kakashi shoved them from his classroom and locked the door behind them. Sasuke's cuffed hand twitched. This was going to be a lot harder than he'd expected.
The bell rang.
"We've got Arabic."
Sasuke hated the class of Arabic. The study was excellent, but the people weren't. Naruto's entire main posse seemed to take up the entirety of the class, and Sasuke knew them all from previous classes. Nevertheless, the second they entered the classroom, all eyes were on them.
"Ah," said Iruka with a mocking smile. "I see Kakashi has placed his plan into action."
"You still owe me ramen, Iruka."
"And you still owe me that assignment, Naruto. Good morning, Sasuke."
Sasuke grumbled. Naruto grumbled. Both boys were in horrible moods.
Kiba came up to Naruto and Sasuke and grabbed the chain that held them together. "What have you done?!" he cried dramatically to no one in particular.
"This is Kakashi's idea of helping us to get to know each other," Naruto supplied. He turned to Sasuke. "How are we supposed to sit down?"
"Deal with it."
"Ass."
Naruto thanked whoever that he was left-handed, seeing as his right hand was currently attached to Sasuke's left hand.
The two boys silently sat next to each other, their cuffed hands dangling between their desks. Kiba shook his head pityingly, saying that they would only hate each other even more. Sasuke thought that out of all the remarks he'd gotten that class, Sai's was the one that stood out the most.
The strange, belly-shirt-bearing boy sauntered into class, took one look at Sasuke and Naruto cuffed together, and raised a slender eyebrow.
"Did you lose the key when you were getting it on in bed last night?"
P.E. wasn't any better. Going into the locker room was the one thing Sasuke hated. The boys that had seen the accident were behaving . . . normally. Neji simply turned his back to Sasuke as he took off his own shirt. Lee saluted Sasuke in greeting, apologized for anything he might have done, and carried on dressing in his spandex. Shikamaru . . . slept. Even Kiba seemed to hold onto whatever manners he possessed, not staring at Sasuke except for one or two fleeting glances out of curiosity.
Although knowing everyone knew he wore a prosthesis, Sasuke didn't want them ogling at it. Without a word, he pulled Naruto behind a group of lockers where the other boys were and growled at him to quickly get undressed. They'd have to keep their shirts for now.
Naruto quietly complied. Feeling their hands go in different directions caused the entire thing to feel quite awkward, but they got it down. When Sasuke turned to reach for his other pants, Naruto stole a quick glance at Sasuke's leg and felt terribly guilty once more. He also felt depressed. A sudden need to delve into Sasuke's life bubbled in his chest, but Sasuke soon turned around. Naruto turned away quickly. He didn't want to be caught staring.
Sasuke quickly placed on his pants, acting as if he didn't notice Naruto staring. He knew he'd be getting it quite a lot for the next month. Without another word, he pulled the blond away from the locker room and onto the field.
If Sasuke had to describe that day's P.E. class in one word, he would say: disturbing.
Gai, wearing his green spandex and orange leg warmers, was demonstrating the perfect way to stretch. And so, he made quite a lot of movements that one wearing spandex should not make.
To put it simply, Sasuke would have nightmares for years.
Sakura and Ino came up to the two boys when the lunch bell had rung. "Naruto!" exclaimed Sakura, waving enthusiastically. She stopped when she saw Sasuke and a confused look dawned onto her face.
"I didn't know you two were handcuffed. I thought it was weird that you were sitting next to each other," said Ino.
"Kakashi," both boys muttered simultaneously. When they'd realized what they'd done, they both tried to cross their arms, but ended up tugging on each other fiercely and allowing their hands to fall limply at their sides.
Sakura giggled. "Then I guess that means we'll be inviting Sasuke to our hangout this Wednesday as well."
"What?!" exclaimed Naruto. "No way! No! He'll ruin everything!"
"You'll barely even know he's there," retorted Ino.
"Every time I head in to the bathroom, I'll know!"
Sasuke smirked. Sakura smiled. Ino laughed. Naruto grumbled.
"Well then, we'll see you at the Chalk O' Lit Café on Wednesday!"
Sasuke didn't want to see them at the café. He knew he wouldn't be able to bring too much money with him. Besides, what was so great about drinking an over-priced smoothie with complete strangers?
Naruto, however, thought differently.
"You're coming with me whether you like it or not," the blond grumbled.
He then proceeded to tug Sasuke to Kakashi's room.
o.o.O.O.o.o
When the end of school came around, Sasuke was forced to visit Naruto's locker (finding that it was utterly messy: a disarray of papers sticking out of every book that littered the lockers and some peculiar odor coming from the dark, murky depths) and Naruto was forced to visit Sasuke's (nothing but a few textbooks and notebooks neatly lined together).
"It's not like I want to come to your house, Uchiha," growled Naruto as they neared the doors. Sasuke growled in reply. "How are we getting there?"
Sasuke said nothing. He continued to walk from the school and down the sidewalk where students that were running to their freedom stopped to stare at the two handcuffed boys.
"We're walking?!" the blond exclaimed when he realized that Sasuke hadn't gone for any car or bicycle of the sort.
"My apologies, your Highness," Sasuke said dryly. "My driver is out to lunch."
"Funny, Uchiha. Your house had better not be far away."
"This is payment for the track meet Kakashi forced us to miss today."
"And I have to suffer?"
Silence.
"Great, it's back to the one-sided conversations."
Silence.
"Hello, Sasuke. My name is Naruto. Yes, the weather is nice. I'm fine, thanks for asking. What about you?"
"You're annoying."
Naruto grimaced. He saw Sasuke's familiar row of apartments come into view and breathed a sigh of relief. That is, until he realized what Sasuke had in mind.
"There is no way I'm walking up seven flights of steps when there's a working elevator," said Naruto, glaring deeply at Sasuke. Sasuke put his hand on the railing and continued to walk. Naruto grabbed onto the railing as well, but only to prevent Sasuke from moving him. "What are you doing?"
"It's training," was the monotonous reply.
"Training my ass! It's seven flights of steps! Don't tell me you do this everyday!"
Sasuke merely continued to pull.
Naruto, however, didn't want to move. He wrapped his hands tightly around the metal rod.
"Let go, Uzumaki," growled Sasuke.
"No."
"Let go, Uzumaki!"
Naruto let go.
The look in Sasuke's eyes – the manic, dangerous look – made Naruto obey. He remembered his grandmother's orders, and Kakashi's talk about triggers of trauma, and Naruto really didn't want that to happen while the two were handcuffed together.
"So, uh . . . you've got a brother, right? Itachi, I think he said his name was." Naruto tried to make light conversation when they'd reached the third floor. "Is he home?"
Sasuke didn't answer. Naruto got his answer, though, when Sasuke opened his locked apartment door to nothing but silence.
So he wasn't lying when he said his brother worked for seventeen hours . . .
Naruto was able to take a better look around the apartment now that he wasn't in a nervous rush. It was neatly and simply arranged, nothing like his house, which was decorated to the brim with expensive items. The only things in the house that decorated the walls were beautifully-done paintings, all signed by the same person.
The apartment was small, with each room connecting to the other. Naruto walked into the living room and found that the kitchen was attached to it as well, with the only thing separating the two being a bar.
"What do you do when you're alone?" asked Naruto casually, looking at the fireplace as Sasuke fixed the pieces on a chess board. There were framed pictures of Sasuke as a young boy, always smiling in the hands of either his mother or brother.
No father.
"Train," Sasuke grumbled back.
"Do you do anything besides train?"
"No."
"You train for sixteen hours?"
Silence.
". . . So. Do you have anything around here to eat?"
"Wait."
"For what?"
"Wait."
Naruto waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Sasuke sat down on one of the broken-in couches, forcing Naruto to follow. After several minutes of waiting, Naruto sighed and turned to Sasuke.
"What are we waiting for?" he asked.
"Wait."
"We've been waiting."
Sasuke held up three slender fingers. He subtracted one. Then another. When he took down his third finger, the door suddenly rattled. A key was inserted, the doorknob squeaked, and in came a figure holding a large box.
"Saaaaaaaasuke! I'm hoooooooooooome!"
Kisame stepped in dramatically, spun around, and kicked the door closed. Naruto had a sudden fear of the man from the way he grinned and two rows of unbelievably-pointed teeth showed.
"I didn't know you had guests," said Kisame, plopping down on the couch affront of Sasuke and Naruto and placing the box, which was a large box of pizza, onto the coffee table. "Well, the more the merrier. You don't look too happy, though."
"You wouldn't be, either," growled Sasuke.
Kisame laughed and outstretched his hand towards Naruto. "Hoshigake Kisame."
Naruto brought his hand out as well. "Uzumaki Naruto." The hand, however, was the one attached to Sasuke. Kisame's eyebrows rose.
"Um, is there a reason you two are . . . handcuffed together?"
"Torture," said Sasuke.
"Punishment," replied Naruto.
"I'll ask Itachi, then." Kisame's grin returned and he stood up. "Well, howdy, Naruto! Have you come to join the fun?"
"What fun? Uchiha over here is about as much fun as a sack of shit."
"Actually," replied the blue man, opening the box of pizza, "I've played with a sack of shit back when I was on my uncle's farm. It was pretty fun."
Naruto let out a laugh. Kisame told him to help himself to some pizza.
"No, Sasuke's a pretty fun guy if he isn't in his PMS mood," continued Kisame. He bit off a large chunk of a slice of pizza, watching Sasuke silently slide his hand beneath a slice and pick it up. "But I'm here to supervise him while the older sack of shit is out at work."
"Supervise?"
"Yeah, you know: make sure he doesn't pass out during training, gets all his medication, sedation, intake of food –"
"Kisame!" Sasuke snapped sharply. "What the hell?"
"Itachi told me some kid named Naruto knew a lot," said Kisame, "and since Naruto isn't a common name, I'm taking a gander and thinking this guy's him."
"He doesn't need to know any more! Let me keep the rest of the secrets at least!"
Kisame put a hand to his mouth to pretend to ignore Sasuke as he said to Naruto, "This is what would be categorized as his PMS mood."
Sasuke threw what was left of his single slice of pizza back into his box and stood up roughly, causing Naruto's hand to jerk and cause his other hand to smear tomato sauce over his upper lip.
"Hey!" the blond whined when Sasuke wanted to move. "I'm still eating!"
"Sit down, Uchiha," said Kisame. "You need to eat."
"I'm not hungry."
Kisame wagged a finger jokingly, trying to lighten the darkened mood. "You know you have to eat something before you go off and hold Naruto hostage."
"Hold me hostage?!"
"Don't worry. He won't kill you."
"But I don't want to be alone in a room with him!"
"Are you afraid I'll kill you?" Sasuke questioned ominously.
"Yes, actually."
"Uh, Naruto, you know he wouldn't actually do that, right?"
"He thinks I'm insane."
"He's not."
"I never said that!"
"It was implied. You don't know anything about me but a few sentences you happened to overhear," Sasuke ground out, turning around and beginning to tug the blond away. Naruto simply refused. He dug the heels of his socked feet into the carpet and held onto the couch.
"The world doesn't revolve around you, Uchiha," snarled Naruto. "Other people have problems of their own."
"What would one of your problems be?" Sasuke sneered. "Granny didn't get you the golden limo you wanted for your birthday?"
"Screw you!"
"Humans can't be screwed. That's what screws are for."
"Shut up and die, Uchiha!"
Die, Uchiha!
The words echoed in his mind.
Die, Uchiha!
Die, die, I want to die!
"Die," Sasuke robotically repeated in a whisper. "To die."
"Crap."
Kisame ran to the kitchen and noisily opened the cupboards, searching through them hastily, making a mental note of how empty they were.
"Did I trigger something?" asked Naruto, suddenly afraid of being attached to Sasuke. He stared at the boy, who seemed to be completely motionless, staring at the fading walls with a detached look on his face.
"Yeah, yeah, just stay calm," Kisame said absently, still searching. "Where the hell does he put those things? Uh, Naruto, try to snap him out of it until I can find a tranquilizer."
"What?!" the blond exclaimed. "Me?! How?"
"You have two options." Kisame had now moved out of the kitchen and went to search through the drawers of a desk in the living room. "You can talk him out of it, or you can punch him. Aha!"
Kisame found a syringe in one of the drawers, but upon further inspection, he realized it was empty. With a frustrated growl, he threw the syringe onto the floor and quickly ran into Itachi's room.
"I want to die," repeated Sasuke, walking towards the kitchen in a trance-like manner. "Die . . . die . . . I want to die."
"No you don't, Sasuke," Naruto tried. He pulled on the handcuffs, trying to stop Sasuke from moving. "You want to live."
"Die. I want to die."
When Sasuke realized he wasn't getting anywhere, he turned around fiercely to stare into Naruto's eyes. Naruto thought they looked insanely fierce. A trickle of sweat fell down his temple.
"Let me die."
"Uh . . . um, Sasuke?"
"I want to die."
Sasuke was now advancing towards him with his hands in a strangling position, a snarl on his empty face, lacking any emotion whatsoever. Naruto, unconsciously moving backwards, thought of what Kisame had said. Option number one was out of the question so . . .
WHAM!
Sasuke staggered backwards, his eyes wide open in shock, and lost his balance. He fell to the floor, narrowly avoiding the coffee table, and lay motionless on his back. Naruto fell directly next to him from the force of Sasuke's fall.
"Found it!" Kisame called cheerfully, entering the room with a syringe in hand. He stared around. "Uh, hello?"
"Down here, Kisame," grumbled Naruto. Sasuke was still staring at the ceiling.
Ow.
Kisame whistled and grinned. "Well, it looks like I won't be needing this baby!" He set it down on the coffee table and knelt beside Sasuke. "Uchiha, whatever is interesting on the ceiling can't be more interesting than me."
Sasuke simply continued to stare, unblinkingly, at the ceiling. Naruto sat upright and rubbed the back of his head.
"Uh . . . Sasuke?"
And suddenly, Sasuke was above him.
"Why the hell did you hit me?" the Uchiha demanded, blood dripping from his nose to splatter onto Naruto's cheek. "I didn't do anything!"
"That's exactly why I hit you!" retorted Naruto.
"Hey, hey! Sasuke, calm down!"
Sasuke raised his left hand, but remembered that Naruto's hand was still attached to it and let out a scream of annoyance and anger.
"Why is it that everything has to be so incompetent?"
Kisame managed to pull the frustrated Uchiha off of Naruto before violence could ensue. He sat the two boys on separate ends of the couch.
"Sasuke, you were going into another attack," the bluish man explained. "Naruto punched you to snap you out of it."
Sasuke took several tissues from the box on the table to stem the flow of blood from his nose and said nothing. Naruto looked slightly guilty, but his anger took over and a grimace was etched onto his face.
"Alright, here's the deal," said Kisame. "Naruto, think before you speak. Sasuke, don't piss him off. Get it? Got it? Good."
Before anyone could speak, loud, electronic words accompanied by cheesy background music rang out.
"I feel pretty, oh so pretty. I feel pretty, and witty, and –"
"Hello?"
Kisame held his cell phone to his ear and listened to what sounded like high-pitched squabble over the other side.
"Deidara, calmly state what happened."
More squabble. A loud clatter burst in the background and what sounded like sirens suddenly blared.
"This is a bad time! I've got things to do. Can you tell the chimps to hold on for a while?"
Clapping, screaming, and then silence were heard. After a steady pause, it all resumed once more. Kisame grimaced.
"Is it a complete emergency?"
Over the sound of what seemed to be gerbils on helium, an audible and seemingly-desperate YES was heard.
Kisame gave an apologetic look towards Sasuke and Naruto, who had no idea what was going on, and said, "Fine. I'll be right there." When he closed the phone, he turned to the boys once more. "I've got an emergency on my hands and I don't know how long it'll take. How long are you boys going to stay like this?"
"Until Kakashi comes," supplied Sasuke moodily, his voice coming out muffled from the many blood-soaked napkins.
"And when's that?"
"He wanted to surprise us," concluded Naruto.
Kisame sighed. He had a real predicament on his hands. He had to leave and help his friend, but was it possible to leave the two trouble-makers alone in an empty house? He had no choice. Deidara had sounded ultimately desperate over the line, and the chimpanzees weren't making anything better.
"Please, don't try and do anything stupid, okay?" he finally said, getting up. "If you want to kill each other, try and wait until Kakashi comes or something. I'm begging you not to do anything, because no one else will be around to help."
Without waiting for any replies, Kisame headed to the door. He waited for the right moment when Sasuke was preoccupied to turn around and stare pointedly at the blond. "Naruto," was all he said. He pointed to the syringe on the coffee table. Naruto understood.
Kisame left.
Sasuke promptly stood up without a word, pulling Naruto off of the couch with him. Not wanting anything else to happen, Naruto complied and followed Sasuke to what he assumed was the bathroom door. The Uchiha entered the smallish room and immediately went to the sink.
The bathroom was as small as one could get when it only had a small tub, a sink with a cabinet above it, and a toilet to occupy its area. It was purely white and seemed to be scrubbed to shining textures.
Sasuke had gotten the sink going and had his face beneath the gushing water, giving off groans of pain every now and then at his abused nose. Naruto busied himself with playing with a stray thread on his peach shirt.
When the Uchiha was finished, he dried his face on a navy towel and inspected himself in the cracked mirror. Satisfied, he left the bathroom, not caring if Naruto noticed or not.
"Are you just going to sit around all day?" asked Naruto. "I'm bored."
To Naruto's surprise, Sasuke sat on the small wooden stool on one side of the chess board, forcing Naruto to stand on the other side.
"Sit," said the Uchiha when Naruto gave no sign of sitting on the other stool.
Naruto raised an eyebrow.
"You said you wanted something to do."
Naruto finally sat down, inwardly admiring the stool he was on. It was delicately made, with engravings of the recognizable Uchiha symbol and metal-work vines crawling up the legs. "I don't know how to play," Naruto admitted.
After much inward debating, Sasuke said, "I'll teach you."
After all, there wasn't much else to do in the house, and Sasuke couldn't really play with someone who didn't know the rules. Sasuke told himself that it was simply on his own selfish whim and nothing else.
Naruto learned chess in fifteen minutes, contrary to what Sasuke believed he could take in. Despite losing to Sasuke within the first few minutes, he soon got the hang of it. Dare he say, he thought it was fun. Being able to think of different positions, of different tactics, made the game feel like it came to life. He felt like he was really in the medieval ages, battling knights for castles and land.
"Take that!" Naruto exclaimed when he'd taken one of Sasuke's pawns.
"Check."
"What?!"
Naruto's eyes scanned the board. It was their fourth game. He found his king being held captive by Sasuke's knight.
"No way! That can't be true!"
He moved.
Sasuke moved.
"Checkmate."
Naruto watched his king fall from the push of Sasuke's finger, watching – almost as if in slow motion – the wooden piece fall to the board with a dull clack of defeat.
"Ack!"
Naruto fell back, forgot that it was a stool and not a backed chair, and fell to the floor in a tangle of limbs. The ghost of a smirk crossed Sasuke's face, but it disappeared when he felt his hand get tugged.
Sasuke flew forwards, collapsed atop the low table with the chess board on it, and he and the piece of furniture were soon sprawled next to a certain blond.
"Asshole," Sasuke grumbled, getting to his knees. "You're helping me clean up."
Naruto laughed despite the situation. "Sorry," he said. He put the table back into its rightful position and began picking up the pieces. Taking the king in his hand, he finally realized something special about the polished pieces of wood.
"Hey, these are hand-carved, aren't they?"
Sasuke took them rudely from the blonde's hands and set them on the board. Naruto merely picked another piece off of the floor and examined it. "They are!"
"What's your point?" grumbled Sasuke, taking a few more pieces and setting them up neatly in their respective positions.
"Well, if they're all hand-carved, then you're not as poor as you make yourself out to be," said Naruto. "I've got a hand-carved set and it cost me a lot."
"For your information," Sasuke ground out, despising the fact Naruto included money in the situation, "I made them." He then busied himself with placing the pieces in exact order once more, not waiting for Naruto's reaction. Had he looked, however, he would've seen Naruto's wide eyes.
"You made these?" he asked incredulously. "But these look so professional! You could get paid a lot!"
"I don't do anything for anyone," said Sasuke. "Selling the things I make would be pointless, if I can just make them instead of gaining money to buy others."
Naruto pointed to the stool. "You made this, too, didn't you?" He then pointed to a painting behind Sasuke; this one particularly was a scenic view of what seemed to be a snow-covered field and a cottage at the end of a winding trail. "What about that? Can you paint?"
"You ask too many questions."
"Well, Kakashi did say we had to write an essay by the end of this month, and I don't think I'd get a good grade if I wrote about how much I hate you."
Sasuke sighed and ran his right hand through his hair, staring at the painting. "My brother made it."
Naruto looked like he was trying to decide which emotion to place on his face. He chose surprise. "That's amazing! You guys could do anything together! Why doesn't he just sell them instead of working?"
"It's long, and it's complicated, and it's none of your business," barked Sasuke. "You've got your answers. Now stop bugging me."
They went into silence for a long time. The two of them still sat on the stools. Sasuke was content with the silence, but it seemed as if Naruto wasn't. It wasn't long before he began to speak.
"I wonder when Kakashi will get here," he said. "I'm hungry. It's dinner time. And it's dark outside."
Sasuke quietly stood, silently telling Naruto to follow him as he ventured into the kitchen. He unhooked one of the pots from the kitchen and placed it on the stove.
"What's your favorite dish?"
It took Naruto a while to realize that Sasuke spoke.
"Did the Uchiha actually complete a sentence?" he said in awe, watching Sasuke light the stove with a match.
"What's your favorite dish?" Sasuke repeated in the same monotone.
"Uh, ramen. I wrote that on the paper Kakashi made us fill out, remember?"
Actually, Sasuke didn't remember. He'd forgotten where he'd put it as well, but he carried on, looking through the cupboards and forcing Naruto to follow.
"Make yourself useful and pour some water into the pot. Four cups of it."
Naruto stared strangely at Sasuke but obeyed. He reached with one hand to grab a cup from beside the sink and open the tap, allowing Sasuke enough distance to reach up into a cupboard and pull out a bag of hardened noodles.
"You're making dinner?"
"No. I'm going to feed the cats outside."
"Oh . . ."
"I'm making dinner!"
"Oh!"
Naruto certainly brightened at that, having not noticed the sarcasm earlier. Sasuke, had his other hand been free, would have hit himself and the blond, but resorted to pouring some of the noodles from the bag and into the pot.
"You can cook, too?"
Sasuke stirred the noodles.
"Granny would never let me near the stove."
Sasuke moved to the refrigerator, taking Naruto with him. He pulled out several things: tomatoes, onions, ginger, a box of sweet corn, and a stick of butter. Naruto helped carry the things over to the table, where Sasuke set him to work slicing the onions and ginger roots as he took a few bottles of spices from the cupboard above them.
"So . . ." began Naruto as he sliced the onions. "Where did you use to live?"
Sasuke didn't answer as he put in three drops of soy sauce into the boiling noodles.
"How was life like?"
Sasuke took the cut ingredients and added them into the broth.
"Do you like it better here or there?"
Sasuke tasted the mixture, liked it, and stopped the boiling noodles.
"Are you planning on answering me?"
He emptied them into a strainer and soon placed them into two separate bowls, adding more into Naruto's. What soup had gone from the strainer was separated evenly into both bowls. Atop of the noodles, he placed two slices of ginger and sprinkled corn in a decorative manner.
"Put these on the bar."
As best as the distance would let him, Naruto took one bowl at a time and placed them onto the bar that separated the kitchen from the living room. Sasuke met him there with two pairs of chopsticks and a bowl of cherry tomatoes.
"This smells delicious," commented Naruto. "Where'd you learn how to cook?"
Sasuke put a tomato into his mouth, mentally smirking.
"I'm digging in!" [1]
Naruto enthusiastically buried his chopsticks into the bowl, slurping up the noodles. He chewed thoughtfully, savoring the flavor, and then smiled. "This is amazing!"
"Nothing but," Sasuke replied cockily. Naruto accepted the cockiness. If one could make ramen as great as what he'd tasted, then one deserved to be cocky.
After a filling round of dinner (where Sasuke had been forced to eat the entirety of his ramen) and the washing of the dishes, Naruto challenged Sasuke to another game of chess.
That's when things got ugly.
Halfway through the game, Naruto had his pawns laid out in an F shape, and began to weave his knight through them. Sasuke's eyes widened at the maneuver. It wasn't until Naruto said something did his memory finally kick in.
"You are no match for me, Sasuke," boasted Naruto in a feigned deep voice, gaining the upper hand in the game. "You'll have to do better than that to get to my level of superior-ness! Ahaha!"
Sasuke's mind malfunctioned, not because Naruto had cornered him, no. It was because of the memory that came with the move.
"The Fugaku maneuver," he had called it. "The knight slips past his sacrifices to stalk the real target." He would never forget the way his eyes bore into his own, showing disappointment and an ego that could reign over the universe. "You are no match for me, son. You will need to become more skilled in order to reach my level of superiority. Until then, I will not meet you in chess again." And then he'd stood up to walk away, leaving Sasuke alone, depressed, and wanting to become better at the game. He'd be unbeatable.
"I will beat you!" Sasuke exclaimed, suddenly standing up. The chess board fell from the table at the movement.
"Hey!" cried Naruto. "That's no reason to be a sore loser!"
But when he'd stared into Sasuke's eyes, they were blank, like the many times he'd gone into hysteria. Naruto began to get worried.
"Sasuke," he tested. "Sasuke, come back."
"You will not beat me!" the Uchiha spat, staring emptily into Naruto's eyes. "I will surpass you!"
"Uh . . . Sasuke, it's me. Naruto. You know, the blond kid you think is annoying."
He reached out to touch Sasuke's shoulder for assurance.
Bad move.
The Uchiha swiftly grabbed Naruto's arm and jerked it so that the blond lost his balance and fell to the floor, narrowly avoiding the coffee table as Sasuke had done previously. Sasuke was atop of him suddenly, straddling him, and his hand slithered around Naruto's neck.
What is with him and strangling me?!
"I will surpass you."
"Sasuke! Sasuke, snap out of it!"
Sasuke squeezed harder. Naruto's vision was fading.
"Naruto," came Kisame's voice. The imaginary image of Kisame in his mind pointed to the syringe on the table.
The syringe!
With shaking fingers, Naruto blindly groped for the syringe on the table. Dots were coming into his vision and through them, he could see Sasuke's manic, satisfied smirk, like he'd just gained what he'd wanted most.
Naruto's fingers found the syringe. He felt for the needle tip, held it the other way, and without hesitation, brought his hand down to stab Sasuke's forearm.
The Uchiha screamed in pain as Naruto hastily emptied the liquid into his vein.
"Naru . . . to?" he said weakly when he'd fallen to the floor, staring at the vision of the blond.
"Just get some rest, Sasuke," said Naruto sadly. He pulled the syringe from the boy's arm. "Just get some rest."
When Sasuke's eyes had closed and his breathing had evened out, Naruto took a tissue from the coffee table and wiped away the blood that had come from the tiny prick of the needle. Not knowing what else to do, he heaved Sasuke's limp figure onto the couch and sat beside him, staring at the framed painting ahead of him without actually seeing the picture. He didn't want to see anything.
He didn't want to see Sasuke
Because he knew if he did, he'd cry.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] "I'm digging in!" - This would be the infamous "Itadakimasu!". However, since I have made a pact with myself to not include any random Japanese (because I find it annoying and would be a hypocrite if I incorporated it into my own writing), I gave the English translation. So it sounds weird. Oh well.
-- I'm so mean to Sasuke. The rest of the events in this story are worth every punch.
-- Oh, and for all those who asked: 100% on the History exam. I had the luck of my readers/fans on my side. Thank you so much for every ounce of it. (Even though our History teacher was a little too generous . . .)
