Sasuke had spent the last 72 hours bored out of his mind. 3 days ago a couple of nurses had brought him to a room on the fifth floor, the crazy's floor, and he had not left this room since. Except for some meeting with a therapist.

He probably could have left his room at any time in the afternoon since the nurses had encouraged him to go mingle with other patients of the floor, but he definitely didn't feel like spending time with the weirdos. That's why he spent the entirety of his time listening to the clock ticking on the wall. He had come to the conclusion that this was pretty annoying and that anyone would go mad if they had to listen to this for too long.

Luckily for him, he had to listen to this thing for only 1,800 tick. Then it would be time for his final "test". If he seemed sane enough they would release him back in the world.

Thinking about it, Sasuke was pretty sure that if he only spoke the truth on this evaluation the psychologist would decide to keep him here for awhile. But Sasuke considered himself a skilled liar, thus he'd probably be out of here tonight.

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There was a knock on the door and his assigned psychologist, Dr. Shizune Otone, entered. Sasuke gave her a brief look.

"You're 9 minutes early."

"I didn't want to leave you waiting longer." She answered while taking the chair in the corner of the room.

Sasuke barely refrained from rolling his eyes. "We're not going to your office?"

Shizune sighed and looked at the notebook in her hands. "There was an accident earlier and let's say that my office is not accessible for a couple of hours." She definitely was not going to mentioned that one of her patient had been angry and decided to remove his pants and relieved himself on the carpet.

"Alright, I already know that you're not going to start talking on your own so we'll do like last time. I'll ask questions and you answered them with as much details as you can give. You can always refuse to answer a question but it can have an impact on my final report."

Sasuke nodded. The first time he had met with Shizune, he had spent the entire hour staring at her. She had stared back, sometimes looking away to write a note but she never said a word. Sasuke had been really annoyed and he knew that he would never get away from here if he didn't talk.

He didn't want to talk about anything but he had too. That's why the second time he had met with her, he stopped staring after 30 minutes and told her to ask him questions. That way it would be easier to talk. She didn't poke into his life, just ask some basic questions about where he went to school, his friends, work colleagues, etc. She never mentioned his family, though. He felt like this was going to change right about now.

Sasuke sat straighter in bed and crossed his legs, being cautious to not cross his arms too.

"How are you doing today?"

"Fine, better than yesterday."

"How is it better?"

"Well, my head hurts a lot less and I'm hoping my time here is almost over."

Shizune nodded. "Let's jump right in then. Have you previously been admitted to the hospital?."

"Yes."

"How many times?"

"Three."

"What were the reasons?"

Sasuke answered without hesitation. "I broke an ankle when I was 7 and I tried to kill myself later on. Twice."

"Why did you tried to kill yourself?"

Sasuke sighed, he definitely didn't want to answer that question. "The first time was for some stupid reason… My parents had just died and I was sitting on the dock behind our house where we used to spend our Sunday afternoon. I noticed that my parent's boat was gone and something broke inside my chest. I jumped in the water and voluntarily started breathing in. Itachi heard me and got me out, he called an ambulance even though I was physically fine after he got me out."

"And the second time?" Shizune asked as she scribbled as fast as possible in her notes.

"I'm not comfortable talking about this one."

Shizune frowned. She was a little bit disappointed to see that Sasuke would not open up more, but she was also stunned to see that he had answer at all. This was definitely going more smoothly than what she had thought.

"How do you feel about your brother?"

"I'm mad at him. He's always saying to me that we should be more open about our feelings with each other but he's probably worst than I am. He is an hypocrite. I am one too, but at least I don't pretend I'm not."

"Do you love your brother?"

Sasuke blushed. "What kind of stupid question is that? Of course I do!"

"Have you ever told him?" Sasuke shook his head and Shizune took that for a no. "Has he ever told you?"

"Maybe once or twice… I'm not sure. He shows it, though." Sasuke thought about all the time he heard Itachi lurking behind door after he had screamed himself awake, how he made sure there was always tomatoes for him in the fridge, and how he had came to terrorize the kids that had picked on him at school when he was younger. Itachi had always taken care of him, even when there parents were still there.

And now, he is going to die, Sasuke thought. He stood up from the bed and started pacing.

"Why are you such in a hurry to leave, Sasuke? Be sincere with me."

Sasuke snickered. "Who wouldn't be in a hurry to leave this place?"

Shizune gave him a cold glance.

Sasuke sighed and went back to sit on the bed. "I have a date tonight." He whispered.

Shizune's eyes grew bigger. "A date?" She was not sure if she had understood correctly.

"Yes."

"Tell me about them."

Sasuke was surprised that she didn't assigned a gender to his date. "His name is Naruto." Sasuke thought he saw something like recognition in Shizune's eyes but it was gone really fast. "We met two weeks ago while I was doing research for my book and he help me figure things out for my book."

"Did he help with anything else?"

Sasuke didn't want to answer that question but he guess that showing emotion would help a lot in getting him out of here. "I guess he help me in a more personal way too? I never really considered having a relationship before but it seems feasible with him. It even seem like a good idea."

"Why?"

"He makes me feel good. I was not lying when I said that I hadn't slept in two days before the accident. That's was because I felt excited about this. It kept me from sleeping."

"The idea of a future date prevented you from sleeping?"

Sasuke frowned. "No we had lunch on Monday and I was waiting for his call, let's say. He asked me on a date the day of the accident."

"That wasn't an accident, right?"

That's a tricky question, Sasuke thought. "It was definitely not premeditated."

Shizune nodded, that was the best she would get out of him. "What is the first thing that you are going to do when you get out of here?"

"I'll try my best to remember Naruto's number and ask him if the date is still on."

Shizune smiled and closed her notebook.

It's Saturday morning, the day of his supposed date with Sasuke, and Naruto was having breakfast at his dad's. Supposed date because Naruto hadn't heard from Sasuke since he had called him Wednesday morning. Maybe Sasuke didn't want to go on a date with him anymore. You don't give radio silence to someone you're supposed to date - especially if the certain someone send you a countless number of messages. Maybe Sasuke was annoyed with him.

"So Konohamaru, why did you call for an urgent meeting?" Minato asked.

Naruto looked up from his potatoes to look at his brother. Konohamaru had told him that it was dad asking to move their lunch date. He had said that dad had a dentist appointment Sunday morning so he couldn't make it for lunch. Thinking about it, what dentist was open on a Sunday? Naruto mentally slapped himself.

"Naruto's depressed dad." Konohamaru said.

"I'm not depressed!" Naruto exclaimed. "I'm just a little bit down lately."

"A little bit down, my ass. I haven't seen a smile on your face since Wednesday morning and you were bursting with joy then."

Minato looked at Naruto in concerned. "Is everything alright Naruto?"

"I'm fine."

Minato definitely didn't seemed convince. "Talk to me, Naruto."

Naruto saw Konohamaru concealed smile in the corner of his eyes and he felt like throwing a fork at him. What a fucking traitor. "Something happened with a patient and I'm still concern about it. That's all."

Minato nodded in understanding but Konohamaru was not going to let his big brother get away like that. "What about your date today?"

"What date?" Minato's head snapped up.

"There's no date it seems. I'm not sure if there ever was." Naruto looked down at his plate.

"Ha! See that's why he's brooding dad, not because of some patient!"

Naruto threw a handful of potatoes at Konohamaru's face. "Look I'm not a kid anymore. I can take rejection. I'm not depressed, I'm not brooding, and I definitely don't need an emergency meeting so that my daddy can make me feel better. I can deal with my own fucking emotions. So shut up, Konohamaru. "

"I can see by your outburst of violence that you are doing just fine, Mr. I-Have-A-Phd-In-Emotional-Control."

"Boys, enough!" Minato hadn't even raised his voice, but they both knew that it was time to really shut up. "Naruto, tell me about this date of yours. Is it with the fellow you mention last week?"

Naruto smiled softly. "Yes, with Sasuke. We had agreed on something for tonight but when I wrote to him to confirm, he never answered."

Konohamaru sighed dramatically. "He never cancelled then. Just go to his place and pick him up anyway. If he didn't want to see you he would have told you to fuck off after the tenth message you sent him!"

Naruto blushed - it was probably over twenty by now - and looked at his dad.

"This is going to sound weird, but I agree with your brother. Maybe he lost his phone or erased his contact by accident. You can never know."

In the end, Naruto left his dad's place feeling a lot better. He was still worried about Itachi, though. He hadn't been lying to his dad when he mentioned something about a patient. Wednesday afternoon had been horrible.

Naruto had left his office right after Itachi had told him where he was, apologising to Tenten and her "parents" on his way out. He had no idea on how he was supposed to find Itachi in the immensity that was Kingston General Hospital, but he'd tried anyway.

Coming in, he had went directly to the reception and asked about Mr. Uchiwa. He wasn't sure if Itachi had hurt himself or if something had changed with his condition. Maybe he wasn't even the one who got hurt. In any case, the nurse had given him a room number, thus Naruto had thanked her and ran upstair to see if Itachi was there.

However, when he had gotten there the room had been empty. He had peaked in all the other rooms on the floor - sorry patient's intimacy - and had been about to go through all the other doors before he had thought of calling Itachi. Maybe his phone wouldn't be on silence.

That's how he had found Itachi in a janitor closet, only two door next to the room the receptionist had told him about. And it had been bad.

Itachi had been laying on his side at the far end of the closet, breathing hard and fast, and his face had been wet with tears.

Naruto had seen Itachi several time in court and he had never thought that he would one day see the man in such a bad state. Even after speaking to him about his parent's death Itachi hadn't lost control of himself that way. Something really bad must have happened.

Naruto had entered the closet and had locked the door behind him. He had not been sure that Itachi had even noticed him yet, but he had been certain of one thing, Itachi definitely wouldn't want anyone else to see him like this.

It had been completely dark in the closet so Naruto had turned on the lamp on his phone - being very careful not to point it directly on Itachi - and had knelt in front of him.

"Itachi can you look at me?"

Itachi hadn't moved but his breathing had accelerated even more. Naruto had been about to touch him when the sound of Itachi's phone had made him jumped. He had picked up the phone, had noticed the name "Kakashi" on the screen, and had quickly turned it off before putting it in his own pocket.

"Itachi?" There had been no reaction. Naruto had putted both his hands on Itachi's shoulders, forcing him to sit up. He had putted his hand on Itachi's chin to make him look at him and to feel his pulse - too fast. The dim light of his phone had been just enough to see their faces in the dark.

"Itachi, I need you to focus on my voice and on my breathing." Naruto had taken Itachi's hand and had putted it on his chest. "Just breath in when you feel me doing it. Everything is fine."

It had taken a good 10 minutes before Itachi's pulse and breathing had came back to normal. Naruto had released his chin and his hand and had sat down next to him, making sure that his shoulder was slightly touching Itachi's.

"I told my brother about my cancer and he tried to kill himself."

Naruto had looked at Itachi with surprise on his face and he had noticed fresh tears on Itachi's face. Naruto couldn't have resist after that, he had grabbed Itachi in a hug.

To his uttermost surprise, Itachi had returned the hug and had silently cried in his arms for a really long time.

So yeah, that was a good reason to brood according to him.

I'm so sorryyyyyyy!

I'm really freaking late but with University and work I barely have any free time. I'll post the following chapter on Sunday(I know I owe you guys more than 2 chapters since it's been more than a month but that's the best I can do), after that I'll try to go back to my "once every two weeks" schedule.

Let's hope it works out!