Chapter 10 – Stash
I sighed and slumped into my seat at the picnic table the group had clearly claimed as theirs. What a Monday. I yawned and slowly sat up to eat my lunch as Naruto chattered to Kira about things that had happened during the classes they didn't share. As I munched, I looked over to the empty seat normally occupied by Sasuke. It had been a couple of days since we found out that his brother was in the hospital, and his parents had decided to keep him home from school for the day so that they could all go together and visit Sasuke's brother, because for some reason he refused to do it over the weekend.
When I had walked out of Kurenai's to drive to school this morning, Sasuke had been waiting by my car, with our finished group assignment in his hands. He didn't say a word to me, just gave me the papers and disappeared back into his house, with this unreadable look in his eyes. I had no idea what had happened, but I knew that it definitely wasn't all rainbows and sunshine in the Uchiha household right now.
"….Kari….Kari! I'm gonna steal your lunch Kari!" I turned a mock glare onto Naruto, who grinned sheepishly at me. "Sorry Kari, but you were spacing out again." I pouted.
"What's wrong with spacing out? I like to think about things sometimes you know." I stuck my tongue out at Naruto before taking another bite out of my sandwich. I was kinda in a brooding mood today anyway. I had a lot of things to think about, things that I needed to rationalise or otherwise categorise in my head. The fact that Sasuke's brother had been part of a gang, that he had likely been hospitalised because he had left, was a lot to be taking in. It made me wonder just how influential this gang could be, how much power they had over Konoha and its residents. It was worrying stuff to be thinking about, but I didn't want to just pretend it wasn't happening.
"Whatcha thinkin' about anyways Kari?" Kiba asked curiously, pointing a raised eyebrow at me. I just shrugged and played with the straw in my carton of chocolate milk.
"Just stuff, I guess." I mumbled, as I kept playing with the straw and slowly losing myself in my thoughts again. As lunch came to an end and I began making my way to my next classes, I couldn't help but wonder what Sasuke was doing with himself today…
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Sasuke hated hospitals. Too white, too clean, too quiet. It was like walking into one giant, bustling cathedral which catered for the ill and the injured instead of those who were seeking something to believe in. He stuffed his hands into his pockets as he followed behind his parents to his brother's hospital room.
That was always the other thing he had hated – being compared to his older brother. Itachi, who had graduated from high school when he was fifteen, and had finished his undergraduate degree by the time he was eighteen, and his master's degree by the time he had turned twenty. Sasuke's father didn't seem to be able to comprehend that Sasuke, number one student within the rankings as he was, would never be Itachi's carbon copy. That was what Sasuke hated the most about his brother, that he had set the bar so impossibly high for Sasuke to try and reach, when Sasuke himself couldn't reach it, could barely even brush his fingers against that bar. It was an impossible goal set by his father, and Sasuke resented both of them for it.
When they walked into Itachi's room, the first thing Sasuke noticed was how pale and sickly he looked. He was lying in the bed, with an IV feeding blood into his arm, the other arm attached to a saline drip, while a heart monitor resounded a repetitive, steady beep through the room. Sasuke's mother had gone silent, and was clinging to his father's side as they sat in the small, likely uncomfortable couch provided for visitors in the room. Itachi was still unconscious, though he no longer needed to be monitored in the ICU. Sasuke glanced around the small room and wrinkled his nose in distaste. After all, the hospital was the last place he wanted to be.
Silently, he slipped out of the hospital room, and eventually, the building itself, until he was standing at the bus stop and hailing the bus that went past his street. Before too long, he was at home again.
Shutting the front door behind him, he looked around at the cold, empty, quiet house. What was he supposed to do with himself since he couldn't go to school to get away from the drama? His parents had informed the school that he wouldn't be attending today, even though he'd told them he'd rather be at school than at home or the hospital. Unsure what to do with himself, Sasuke began to wander around the place he called home.
It was different, somehow, being home alone. It seemed, though Sasuke would later deny it to himself, a little more intimidating without the sounds of his mother bustling around in the kitchen, or of his friends tuning their instruments in the garage, or just being loud in general. It wasn't for the first time in the last few days that Sasuke wished that his brother had never joined that gang in the first place. He wondered how much differently dinner with Hikari would've gone if the hospital hadn't called when it did.
Speaking of said brother, Sasuke had come out of his thoughts to find himself standing in the middle of his brother's, unsurprisingly neat and tidy, bedroom. While Itachi normally lived in his apartment across town from here, Sasuke doubted that his mum would allow that to happen for quite a while after what had happened to him. Itachi would also move back in here temporarily in between moves whenever his lease ran out.
He glanced around, wondering how he had wandered in here while he was lost in thought, when he noticed something that was out of place. One of the top drawers of Itachi's dresser was left hanging open. Sighing briefly, Sasuke walked over to it to slide it closed. Itachi must've left it like that after his last visit a few days before his trip to the hospital.
It was the contents of the drawer that made him freeze in his tracks. Sitting in the drawer, in plain sight, was a stash of several packets of white powder, as well as several other larger packets containing dried up leaves. There was also a bong lying in the drawer, so Sasuke had a fairly good idea what the leaves were meant for.
Sasuke couldn't have been able to describe how he was feeling, though it seemed strangely like an out of body experience. He tapped the bong with his knuckles, and, when it rang through like glass normally would, he pulled the entire drawer out of the dresser and took it downstairs. It was early May (going by Southern Hemisphere seasons) so if his parents asked why the fireplace was lit, Sasuke could readily tell them that he had begun to get cold while waiting for his parents to come home.
He grabbed some pages from an old newspaper and crumpled them into loose balls, placing them in the fireplace. He put a small amount of kindling on top of the paper, followed by a few smaller sticks and logs. Then, he lit the fireplace. He sat there for a minute, staring contemplatively into the flames, watching them grow. He threw one, two, then three handfuls of little bags of powder and leaves into the flames. Once they were all completely consumed by the fire, he took the glass bong outside, careful to make sure nobody else would see it, opened the lid of the garbage bin, then quickly brought the bong up over his head only to throw it into the bottom of the garbage bin hard enough that it shattered.
When Sasuke came back to himself, he had already returned the empty drawer to Itachi's dresser and had shut the bedroom door. He stared at the door in silence for a few minutes, before quietly going to his room to grab a novel to read on the couch in front of the fire until his parents came home.
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When I saw Sasuke back at school the next morning, he was looking slightly paler than usual for him. I looked at him worriedly throughout the day, but didn't say anything. After all, it was up to him whether he told anybody what had been happening while he was away. I wasn't expecting Sasuke to be waiting by my car at the end of the school day.
"Can I get a lift back with you? I got a ride from Naruto this morning." I nodded wordlessly and unlocked my car so that he could climb into the passenger seat. I tossed my bag into the back as I climbed in, Sasuke waiting silently for me to turn the car on. As I began the drive back to our street, he spoke up.
"I found something in my brother's room yesterday." He began quietly. I nodded, but gave no other indication that I'd heard him. He needed to speak up on his own terms.
"I came home from the hospital early because I can't stand seeing my mother in tears like she was, that and I honestly hate hospitals. After I got home, I ended up wandering into his room. There was a drawer open on his dresser. I went over there to shut it, but I ended up burning what was in the drawer instead." Sasuke sighed, running a hand through his hair. "There were packets of dried up leaves and white powder in that drawer, there was a bong in there as well." I glanced at Sasuke briefly, which was all I could manage since I was driving.
"Yikes," I murmured, "honestly, I don't know what I would've done in your shoes, Sasuke. I probably would've freaked out."
"I think I did freak out, though. I didn't consciously think to destroy it all, I just did it. I didn't start thinking again until after it was all burnt down to nothing."
"Again, yikes," I sighed and carded a hand through my hair, "do you know what you're gonna do next? Now that you know?" He nodded silently in response, and I offered him a small smile even though he wasn't really looking.
We spent the rest of the car trip in silence, both of us thinking pretty hard on what had happened. When we pulled up outside of Kurenai's, I turned to face Sasuke, who was looking down at his lap. I reached over to gently pat his shoulder when he didn't immediately realise we were back. I didn't know what else I could say or do to help him, so I grabbed my bag from the back seat and got out of my car, with Sasuke following after a couple of seconds.
As I turned to head towards the house and let myself in, I felt a pair of warm, muscled arms wrap around my left shoulder, and a chin come to rest on my right shoulder. With a murmured 'thank you, Hikari', Sasuke pressed a barely-there kiss to my cheek, let go of me and disappeared across the street and into his own home. I smiled a little, despite the situation Sasuke found himself in. I couldn't help but wonder if my crush on him wasn't so one-sided after all as I made my way inside to find a snack and do my homework.
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(Added 08/9/2017)
ZOMFG I LIVE! I have spent far too much time away from my babies. Seriously. I can't believe that I completely forgot to take some time to write for myself instead of writing what my university classes wanted me to write. To be honest it actually took me re-reading over this myself to both cringe at my inconsistencies from several years back, and realise that I missed writing like this, even if it is just fanfiction. Anyway…
(Back to what was originally written in this space sometime in 2013-2014)
Well, what did you all think? I bet some of you weren't expecting a little twist like that, huh? Though, I do suppose the title of the chapter gave it away a little bit xP but anyway… Sorry it's shorter than usual also, but I had actually almost finished it at page two with the exception of the fact that I needed to add the stash and burning of the stash into the chapter…
So, as my faithful readers would know, HollyEmpire00 has semi-retired as my beta. Since she herself is starting uni this year, I may be in need of a beta for later chapters (hell, I think I'm in need of a beta for this chapter!) SO, if there is anybody out there in cyberspace who knows a good beta who isn't too terribly busy, could I possibly have some contact info so that I can see if they'll take up the mantle as beta for this fanfic? Thanks muchly ^^
Kudos~
Attempted Self-Beta, if any spelling or grammatical mistakes are noticed, please point them out!