Somebody Save Me

Chapter 10

Itachi waited nervously in the surgical waiting room, while Fugaku went and checked on Naruto and Sasuke. Itachi knew Fugaku was worried that Orochimaru hadn't been apprehended yet, which also worried Itachi. Because he knew that Orochimaru would keep trying to kill Naruto until he succeeded. After that whole mess with the wrongful arrest, Itachi wasn't sure who to trust on the police force, sadly that also included his own father.

Sighing, Itachi stood up and began to pace, while the situation with Naruto and Orochimaru was worrisome, Itachi needed to be able to focus on one thing at a time. Right now his thoughts were on the best friend he wasn't sure was going to live or not. Itachi continued pacing the floors, feeling like he was going to lose his mind if someone didn't come to tell him something about Kurama. He couldn't stand not knowing, even if he did live did that mean he would have some serious brain damage and end up being worse off than Naruto mentally? Itachi really hoped not, he couldn't imagine his intelligent best friend being anything but what he had always been.

"Itachi, have you heard anything?" Itachi looked up when he heard his mother's voice standing at the entrance to the waiting room.

"Nothing other than that he's in critical condition." Itachi replied. "How did you know to come here?"

"Your father called me. He's going to be staying with Naruto and Sasuke for now, so he thought it best if I come down and sit with you while you wait."

"Probably a good idea." Itachi muttered. "I'm about to go crazy. I want to know why he would think killing himself would fix anything for him and his brother?

"I don't. I have noticed that his behavior has been a little off for a while before their parents were kill though." Mikoto said.

"How so?" Itachi asked. "I've noticed he'd been getting a lot of headaches lately, but nothing really major until recently."

"Not only the headaches, but I believe he's been having severe mood swings and that is a part of the reason he's treated Naruto so crappy." Mikoto said.

"I would have noticed the mood swings." Itachi said frowning.

"Not unless he tried to hide those from you, just like he tried to hide the headaches that you always knew about." She replied.

"How does one even hide a mood swing, I would think that's pretty obvious when someone is not in a good mood." Itachi said.

"That's because Kurama was pretty good at hiding things from you. He could always hide his true mood around you, and he was good at hiding his pain, though more recently that has gotten a little more difficult for him."

"So what does all of this mean?" Itachi asked. "If those are symptoms of a bigger problem. What's going on with him?"

"Now, I'm no doctor." Mikoto said, "but I believe that there could be something wrong with Kurama's brain that's effecting his mood and the headaches."

"Meaning?" Itachi asked getting the feeling that he wasn't going to like his mother's answer.

"Now I'm not saying that this is for certain." She told him. "Only that it's a possibility that Kurama could have some kind of growth on his brain."

"What does that mean for Kurama?" Itachi asked, swallowing hard. He really didn't think that he was going to like what she had to say.

"I'm not sure, it would depend on whether it was cancer or not." Mikoto replied. "And on how big it is. I'm sure they done a brain scan before they took him to surgery, they probably would have found something then."

"Lovely." Itachi said, staring down at the floor. He really didn't know what to think at that point. Of course it would help if they knew whether Kurama actually had a tumor or not.

"I didn't say any of that to scare you." Mikoto said softly reaching over and placing her hand on Itachi's shoulder and squeezing. "But I think it would be better if you were prepared to hear that something else is going on with him."

"It's not fair." Itachi said sitting down beside his mother. "Why do they have to suffer so much? Hasn't life stolen enough from them without adding more hell to their lives?"

"No, its not fair." Mikoto agreed. "But I can promise you this. Your father and I have every intention of taking care of those boys and making sure they are okay, no matter what happens."

"Even if Naruto ends up depending on you guys for his care for the rest of his life?" Itachi asked. There was no way possible that Naruto would ever be able to live on his own, he just had too much stacked up against him.

"Of course." Mikoto answered. "Naruto is a sweet kid. I don't helping him or Kurama for that matter. Their mother was my best friend and would want me to take good care of their children."

A few minutes later a surgeon in blue scrubs came walking towards them, blood turning the material red. Itachi swallowed at the sight, knowing that that was his best friend's life force. Itachi swallowed hard and dropped his gaze, he couldn't get the image of his best friend lying on the floor of his parent's bed room slowly bleeding out, out of his head.

"Your Mr. Uzumaki's family?" The blonde haired woman asked.

"I am his guardian." Mikoto replied. "What news do you have? Is he going to be okay?"

"Let me first tell you that he's damn lucky to be alive right now." The doctor told them after introducing herself as Tsunade Sannin. "I don't know if you were aware or not but there was a large growth on his brain, you might have noticed some change in his behavior as of late."

"I knew he's been having trouble with some migraines." Mikoto told her. "I just figured it was the stress from the situation with his parents being murdered and his brother arrested."

"Afraid not." Tsunade. "we actually spotted the tumor on the cat scan that we done before rushing him into surgery."

"Can you remove it?" Itachi asked, hoping for a positive answer.

"Kurama pretty much took care of most of that himself, instead of the bullet lodging in his brain and killing him it lodged in the tumor. We were able to successfully remove both the bullet and the tumor." Tsunade told them.

"Is it cancer?" Itachi asked.

"We will be running tests on what we were able to remove." Tsunade said. "and when we know something we will let you know."

"So the bullet didn't do any damage to his brain?" Mikoto asked.

"No, it did not. I would say that this kid has an angel watching over him. He'll be in for a bit of a recovery though, he may need to learn to speak and walk again, but he will live."

"What if the tests come back positive for cancer?" Itachi asked.

"We will discuss that when and if that happens. For now don't add anymore stress to yourselves." Tsunade said noting the exhausted look in Itachi's eyes. "And you need to go home and get some rest." She told Itachi. He just shook his head, relief filling his veins. He was glad that Kurama was going to survive. What were the chances of a bullet actually lodging inside of a tumor that was growing on your brain. Itachi had to figure that was probably a one in a million chance. Kurama really did have an angel looking over him.

"At least we won't have to tell Naruto that his brother killed himself." Itachi said softly to his mother after Tsunade had walked away. They would wait for the next few hours to get in and see Kurama.

"There is that." Mikoto said softly, wondering how they would be able to help both Uzumaki's recover. She would do it without question because that's what her best friend would want her to do. But she wondered what effect it would have on their health. She supposed she could count on Itachi to help with Kurama and Sasuke with Naruto.

"What do you say, we go see how he's doing and then go check on Naruto?" Mikoto asked.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Itachi said standing up and following his mother down the hall to the elevators.

"Why don't they just put him in Naruto's room?" Itachi wondered. "That way it would be easy to keep an eye on both of them and make sure that Orochimaru doesn't come to finish the job he was paid to do."

"That's a good idea." Mikoto told him as the entered the elevator. "I'll talk to the nurses about it."

Exiting the elevator they made their way to the room that Kurama was currently in. His eyes were closed, a bandage wrapped around his head, and tube going down his throat helping him breath. He was hooked to various other machines as well as heart monitor and IV's that were giving him some type of medicine.

"My god, Kurama look what you done to yourself." Itachi murmured, entered the room and moving beside the elder Uzumaki's bed. "I guess I should be grateful that you managed to shoot the tumor and not completely blow your brains out." Itachi was relieved that Kurama was still with them, he just hoped that he didn't decide to go to a more permanent place while he recovered.

"Your brother will kill me if something happens to you." Itachi murmured reaching down and touching Kurama's IV free hand. "Just keep fighting, Naruto still wants you in your life. I'm sure that he will understand better once we explain the tumor to him. One thing is for sure Naruto could never hate you, he doesn't have that capacity to hate. So please stick around, don't leave us. Because despite your actions I still believe you are an awesome person and you deserve the world."

Thanks for reading and reviewing! Thought it better to end on a kind of sappy note lol Liz