Hello! Thank you for all the reviews sugars, oodles and stroodles of love!

So, I've uploaded two chapters tonight ooola, but this chapter won't make sense without the previous one (Chapter 10: Colour Castle.) So please read that one first :)

This chapter is uber dramatic! :O

It's also a bit shorter than the others...But I think you'll get why when you read it? It's not exactly like the others...

Anywhoozles, enjoy chaps and chapettes!

(I don't own Naruto)


Chapter 11.

Drop.

Sasuke was jittering in the kitchen that morning; he'd spent the entirety of the past year taking pills to prevent him convulsing, and now he'd deliberately dropped chemicals to inspire the tremors. It was like he'd shed his dull, defective skin, and was watching the world lap in some kind of bi-time-lapse. He couldn't suppress bouts of inexplicable and manic giggling either at nothing in-particular. He'd spent twenty-minutes in hysterical laughter, watching the way Aoda swallowed a dead mouse.

"Morning Sasuke," Itachi greeted from behind him, sounding tentative.

"Yo," Sasuke replied in the same deliriously mirth filled tone he'd used when he'd cooed at Aoda. Itachi looked taken aback and then unnerved.

"Are you alright?" He asked slowly and Sasuke nodded aggressively.

He couldn't control his jaw, it had a mind of its own; he just kept grinding his teeth like he was chewing on a phantom gobstopper.

"Brilliant," He nodded, gripping the countertops so hard, he didn't even notice his fingernails bending backwards, the stress to his nailbeds turning his fingers white and blotchy.

"Have you taken your pills?" Itachi inquired worriedly, pulling down a strip of Sodium Valporate and Sasuke shook his head violently.

"Pills, pills, no, I'll take pills," he discounted the pills into his trembling hands and slammed them down his throat. What were more pills on top of his already toxic stomach? His insides were already pickled with prescribed chemicals, he was more pharmaceutical than man.

"Sasuke…Isn't your exam today?" Itachi asked, just as Izumi appeared looking sprightly and shot Sasuke a sweet smile.

"Which exam is that?" She asked, sounding genuinely interested, much to Sasuke's surprise.

"Math," Sasuke told her, only then realising he was gnawing his lip which tasted coppery; although oddly he felt no pain, in fact, he felt no sensation at all.

"Sasuke, you really don't look well," Itachi observed, glancing from Izumi and then back to Sasuke.

"Here," Izumi was proffering a glass of orange juice at Sasuke.

"No!" Sasuke barked, pushing the glass away so that the contents splashed over both of them. The strength of his reaction startled them both, Sasuke could usually control himself in the presence of others, could compact all of his contempt into one small snide dig.

"Whoops, sorry, Sasuke," Izumi turned away quickly, but Sasuke could see that her whole face was burning scarlet.

He just didn't want to like her, that was all: it's not you, Izumi, he wanted to tell her, it's everything you stand for.

"Sasuke, if you're not well enough to go…"

"I'm not a fucking invalid, Itachi!" Sasuke shouted, turning his attention to his brother. "Now, I've got an exam to go to." He said in a much more composed voice.

Itachi eyed him unconvinced as Sasuke considered food, and then felt the MXE in him reject the very idea with a great lurch in his gut.

"Well, good luck, Sasuke, call me when you're done."

"Yeah, sure," Sasuke said without any conviction or intent behind the statement, already on his way out of the kitchen.


On his walk to college, things had already started to go wrong. The shadows of the sycamores on the ground became contorted and began to look like grotesque fingers. The sky began to swim and take on a strange wriggling look, like bacteria under a microscope. A rose tint kept descending over the world and then dripping away like jam. Then came the paranoid and disturbing thoughts…

"Sasuke, you alright?" Temari whacked him on the head with her ruler when he finally made it to the exam hall. He nearly lurched into the bush bordering the building at her touch with a small cry. "Jesus, sorry!" She threw her hands up looking incredulous. "Whose after you?"

"What?" Sasuke after, twitching and scratching behind his ear compulsively.

"You look like somebody's about to hunt you down and tackle you!" She pointed out.

"Do I? Exam nerves," he dismissed.

"Alright?" Naruto joined them, greeting Temari and offering Sasuke a little nod.

Naruto's presence only made Sasuke's state of horror and derangement intensify.

"You were supposed to wait for us!" Sakura, Lee and Shikamaru panted, jogging to catch up to Naruto.

"Yeah, sorry," Naruto laughed, scratching behind his head.

Sasuke caught his own head in his hands, grasping his temples he began to mutter to himself under his breath.

"Seriously, Sasuke, what's going on?" Temari caught him by the arm.

"Don't touch me!" He barked, his voice unnaturally throaty from the mucus drip in the back of his oesophagus.

"Okay, okay," she dropped her hand and he could feel all their friends watching him, alarmed and wary. "Hey, I've got something to tell you after this exam," she tried brightly and Sasuke started, narrowing his eyes at her. What had she done now? Who had messed up now? Who was leaving him now?

"What, what is it? Tell me! Tell me now!" He insisted, his voice rising to almost manic heights and he noted as panic flared in Temari's eyes.

"Sasuke, I think you should…" Naruto began from beside Temari, but the gym hall doors flew open and everybody fell silent.

A bald examiner stepped out, and called: "This is for everybody sitting the A Level Higher GAC Mathematics paper," he surveyed all of the silent students and Sasuke shifted his weight from one foot to the other repeatedly, trying to shift the sudden burst of energy that had hit him. "You'll be called in alphabetical order, once inside, you will have one hour to complete your paper. If you are caught with your mobile phone or any cheat sheets, this will be reported to the exam board and you may face disqualification. If you talk or cause disruption during the exam, this will also result in potential disqualification…"

Sasuke knew it all already, he just needed to get in that hall.


Inside, and all Sasuke could hear was the scratching of pens on paper. His own pen felt like led in his tingling arm. He couldn't make out the words on the page, he hadn't even managed to write his name. It felt like he might've been drooling; his jaw was hurting so much from the constant chewing.

Why couldn't he do this exam?

Because he was stupid.

'somebody like you…'

Sasuke cracked his neck, trying to get his father's voice out of his head; his legs were so restless under the desk that his knees had begun to throb.

'booze-muddled waster of a kid…'

Sasuke used the heel of his hand to smack his forehead, trying to get the voices out of his mind.

'To see light fall into place, to smile until you unravel, to feel your fingers sting…To feel human again…'

'Orochimaru can always, always, hear when a heart stops…'

Sasuke began to grind his knuckles into his temples, squirming with discomfort in his seat.

'I'm afraid you haven't responded to the Sodium Valporate…'

Sasuke let out a soft groan and dug his fingernails into his forehead and shook his head, willing the thoughts to go away.

'They were going to marry us off, Sasuke…'

'She let him use us like bargaining chips…'

He could feel Sakura staring at him in horror to his left.

'I am never going to get to leave White Hill, I'll never be here with you again.'

"No, no, no…! He began to mutter and whimper, clutching at the sides of his head and curling in on himself.

'Mum, mum! Mummy, mum!'

"FUCK!" Sasuke was on his feet, his fingers under the underside of his desk seat, he turned the whole thing and flung it. "FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!" He screamed, gripping onto his hair and shrieking incoherently. He glimpsed his friends springing to their feet and the examiners rushing forwards."FUCK!" He thought he might vomit he was howling so loudly.

"Sasu…" He on caught a flash of Naruto, before he fell…

Sasuke hit the floor…

He went down. In front of the whole hall. And began to convulse…


Sad times...Sasukes having a tonic clonic...Very sad times :(...Please review :)