Chapter 11: Bitter Tidings

~Everything's so blurry
and everyone's so fake
and everybody's empty
and everything is so messed up~

Recap:

Lunch came fairly quickly and the group met up at a table set further away from the other students at the school. This was at Sasuke's request; he didn't want eavesdroppers to cut in on this conversation. He needed this to just be within the small group that they had formed years ago, no more no less, well including Sakura that is. Now was the time, the time he would share his story with the very ones he pushed out of his life. And it was all because of the one girl he met, the one girl that began to heal his heart. He came forward to the table where all of them sat. Sakura was at his side and gripping his hand tightly with her own. She was there, he knew, there was nothing left to do.

'Well, there's no turning back now.'

Sasuke stared into the faces of the very people he knew that he hurt. What could he possibly say that would make it okay for them? He ditched them and they didn't even know the real reason for it. Naruto had tried and failed to get the information from him, but all he got was the cold shoulder and only part of the truth. His heart skipped a beat as his breathing hitched slightly. He tried calming himself before he opened his mouth to speak. That's when he began to struggle with getting the words out. Sakura noticed this and looked at him, she knew this was painful for him.

"Sasuke its okay, you can do this."

"Dude is it really that bad that you can't say it?" Naruto asked standing from his position at the table.

"Maybe it would be easier to show you instead," Sakura offered.

Sasuke nodded his head as he removed the first layer of his shirts. He hesitated before taking off the long sleeved shirt afterwards. As the shirt came off everyone at the table began to stand up. Naruto froze in his spot with wide eyes. Ino and Hinata gasped and covered their mouths. Shikamaru' and Neji's eyes also went wide as Tenten stared in shock with the rest. They were speechless to say the least, they had not expected to see this, not ever.

"Naruto always pestered me for a reason why I stopped hanging out with you. Well this is the reason okay, my father abuses me and he threatened to hurt you guys if I told anyone or if didn't stop talking to you."

That was the most they had ever heard Sasuke say in a long while. He slipped the shirts back on as they regained their composure. They had to let this all sink in, and Naruto was the first one to speak up.

"Your dad did that to you? That mother fucker, Sasuke you should have told us before."

Naruto was furious at this point, but that feeling was also mixed with shock, though fury was the more dominant emotion at this point for him.

"I told you I couldn't Naruto."

"You think we would care, dude it wouldn't matter if he said it or not, you still should have told us," The blonde boy continued in a serious tone.

"He's right Sasuke, we wouldn't have cared, Shikamaru wouldn't have and neither of the girls would have either."

Sasuke looked at Neji as he said this, then to Hinata, Ino and Tenten, they each nodded their heads in agreement. Maybe they wouldn't have but he didn't risk their safety just to save himself, which was just selfish thinking and he wasn't like that, and he never would be like that to anyone for that matter. Turning his gaze to the ground he said in a whisper but they still heard him.

"You wouldn't have understood the position I was in, I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if either of you got hurt. Sakura was damn close on Saturday when my dad came home. She was lucky he didn't find her."

"We do understand."

"No you don't, I watched my mother die okay, she died in my arms and I couldn't bare the thought of seeing that happen to any of you."

They all became silent when he finished saying this. They never knew that his mother died in his arms, or that he even saw her die for that matter. They figured that his mom was in the hospital and she passed away there like Itachi had. Sasuke waited for them to say something, after awhile no one did and that's when Sasuke decided he didn't want to be there anymore. He grabbed his stuff and began to walk away. Sakura glanced at her friends as they all just stood there.

"Aren't you guys going to say something?"

"What could we say Sakura?" Ino asked as she looked to the ground.

"Um I don't know, how about giving him some comfort? Or telling him that you'll help him in any way you can," Sakura lectured, "You guys didn't say anything, he probably thinks you don't care."

"Why would he think that?"

"Because Naruto he's very, how would I put this, fragile I guess. He hasn't had people care for him in a long while."

"Yeah but.."

"I don't mean to interrupt, but did any of you notice that Sasuke had a bandage on his arm?"

"No Shikamaru we didn't, why do you ask?"

Shikamaru looked at Naruto, didn't any of them find it weird. Maybe he was the only one smart enough to figure any thing out.

"Wait you don't think..." Sakura stopped as she remembered what Sasuke said to Daisuke, and two words stuck out in her mind.

"You think life is so fucking easy, I didn't ask for a lot of things to happen in my life but guess what they did; you're just an asshole that added to it. Do you get enjoyment from picking on people like me? You want me to cut myself; I'll do it right here and right now. I'll show you what you can't handle because you're afraid of messing up your supposedly perfect skin."

"Oh dear god," She said as the others caught on to what the two implied. She took off to go find him with the others not far behind.

Sasuke had disappeared and walked to the side of the school where no one could see or be able to find him. But he wasn't aware that a small group of people was following him. He leaned against the wall as he lifted up his sleeve, the bandage was still there, and the wound still stung.

'I think I had gone too deep this time, this ones going to take longer to heal.'

Just as he was about to unwrap it and change the bandage he heard a familiar voice come from his right. A voice he thought he would never hear and never wanted to hear again. Sasuke turned his head and there he was, the ex-captain of the football team, Daisuke. He was just smirking at Sasuke as his buddies did the same. Sasuke knew he had intentions that couldn't be good for him.

"What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were in juvy."

"I was, but I'm on parole I guess you could say since I'm a minor. I lost everything because of you, you little dumb-shit. Now you're going to pay for it."

Before Sasuke had the chance to try and defend himself, Daisuke's two friends grabbed him and forced him to his knees. Daisuke came and stood in front of the teen and chuckled slightly. He was trapped and he knew he might not be able to get away. Glancing at Daisuke, the said boy cracked his knuckles and grinned like anyone would do when they were about to get what they wanted. And the grinning boy believed he was going t get that plus more.

"I'm going to enjoy this, I'll make this a living hell for you and it'll be much worse than the last time."

Sakura searched frantically for Sasuke, but he was nowhere to be found. None of the others found him either and they were starting to get worried. Nothing was worse than thinking that he was cutting himself to get rid of the emotional pain he may have been feeling. He needed help more than ever right now, and they had to find him in order to do that. They weren't having any luck in finding their friend and that just discouraged them even more.

All of them met up together and each started asking if they had found him yet. But only disappointment crossed his or her faces when no one had. Naruto punched a nearby tree but was immediately scolded about getting himself hurt, but he shook it off, saying that it doesn't matter or he doesn't care. He was angry and he had every right to feel that way. His best friend was off somewhere and no one had even the slightest clue of his whereabouts.

If that wasn't enough, each of them began to argue and blaming each other for not saying anything to Sasuke earlier before he walked off somewhere. Sakura tried to calm them down and make them stop but they only ignored her pleas. Hinata on the other hand, stood quietly off to the side and didn't say a word. She wasn't exactly one to get people under control, so she just stood there and looked around. Looked around until her gaze caught site of someone she didn't want to see at that point. Rephrase that, she never wanted to see that someone again, and she knew Sakura didn't either.

Daisuke's group had just come walking from around the side of the building and she found it oddly strange that they were laughing and giving the other high fives. Without the others noticing she slowly but shyly walked off to see what they were up to, by which she wanted to see what they were doing on the side of the building, even the shy ones get curious every now and then. As she made her way over, Sakura suddenly turned her head and noticed that she was gone and that grabbed the attention of the other bickering teens. Now they each thought in their own minds, they had another one of their friends off somewhere else.

Hinata made it to the corner and as she stepped around to peer what was on the other side, she stopped in her tracks. Her eyes went wide as she started to breath rapidly, her heart was racing at what she saw. Then without even thinking she gave a yell, a yell that held her cousins name. Normally she wouldn't have yelled like she had just now but she was afraid.

"NEJI!"

Neji froze as he heard his name shouted through the air. Everyone looked to him as they realized whose voice that belonged to. Soon enough they spotted Hinata running towards them as fast as she could go. The look on her face held one of fear as tears ran down her face. He ran over to her and stopped her as he grabbed her shoulders and tried to calm her down. Something had to have terrified her to make her scream like that, because that wasn't a normal scream for her.

"Hinata what happened? What's wrong?"

She struggled to say the words but found she couldn't say it. Neji watched her as she pointed where she had come from. He and the guys ran in the direction she gestured to as the girls ran to Hinata's side and helped her to follow them. As they approached the guys, they saw them gathered around something or rather someone. Naruto was kneeling next to the figure's side. Sakura maneuvered around them as she came to a stop, she held the same expression on her face that Hinata had on hers.

Sasuke was sitting on the ground with his back against the wall, he was slouching a bit but he was unconscious. Red liquid trickled down the side of his lip as well as from his nose. More bruises covered his face, as if there was any place else for them to appear. His head was facing down so the blood dripped off of his face and onto his clothes that were torn in some places. Naruto set his hand on his shoulder and gently shook him, nothing happened but after awhile he groaned in pain.

"Sasuke, can you hear me?" Naruto shook him again but still hadn't got a word out of the raven-haired teen.

Sakura had dropped to her knees on his other side as she cupped his cheek with her hand and shifted his face so she could have a full view of the damage. Tears leaked from her eyes as they slid down her face. Who would do this to him? That was her only question, but she didn't think it would get answered.

"We need to get him to the nurse."

Sakura moved out of the way for Neji to take her place as he and Naruto each grabbed one of Sasuke's arms and placed it around their shoulder. Sakura grabbed his bag as the boys carried Sasuke to the nurse's office and the others followed quickly behind them.

The nurse hadn't been expecting anyone to come in as badly beaten us as Sasuke. When they arrived at the office the nurse immediately jumped from her seat upon seeing Sasuke's condition and told them to lay him down on the bed. She quickly went to work and removed his shirts, and gasped when she saw all the bruises, the fresh ones were the ones that stood out most and those are the ones she attended to. When she finished tended the bruises, she noticed the bandage on his arm and the small amount of blood that stained it. Removing it, the teens that were still in the room looked in shock when they saw the large 'X' that was engraved on his arm. Sakura held back the tears that stung her eyes, she was blaming herself for that would, and maybe if she was able to get through to him sooner he wouldn't have done it to himself.

Suddenly the bell rang and each of them glanced at the other wondering what they should do, do they leave? Or do they stay here and wait for him to wake up? That soon was decided for them when the nurse spoke up.

"You guys need to get to class."

"But Shizune…."

"No buts, I'll watch over him until the end of the day, you can come back later, right now he needs some rest and he might not wake up for awhile anyway."

Before any of them had a chance to retort she ushered them out of her office and went back to tending Sasuke's injuries. Sakura had left his bag by the bed he was resting on but took his homework for creative writing, deciding she would turn it in for him. Asuma would surely be asking her questions about where he was and she would have to tell him that Sasuke was hurt. She wanted to know who could have done it to him, but no one came to mind. But what about Hinata, she was acting more nervous than usual. Did she see the person who did it? Sakura settled on asking Hinata when they went to see the principal afterwards to tell him what happened with Sasuke. There was a slight chance she might be able to help with that as well.

All throughout the last two classes, Sasuke was sleeping in the nurse's office. He wasn't aware of the shock Sakura probably went through when she saw Daisuke back in their class today. Instead he was dreaming, not dreaming to be exact, but having nightmares. Nightmares that involved the one that constantly beat him for months, nightmares of the night his whole life changed. Shizune heard him groan and start to flinch in his sleep just as Sakura walked into the room with the rest of the gang not too far behind her. They saw his state and sprinted over to him when Shizune tried waking him up but to no avail.

Sakura instead took the woman's place and attempted to wake him up as well. Sasuke's breathing quickened as he sprung up into a sitting position, his heart was racing as he gazed around the room, he noticed he was wearing a different shirt, probably one given to him by Shizune. Sakura pressed her hand to his back and rubbed it soothingly, it calmed him down for the most part but he was still a little jumpy, which didn't go unnoticed by his friends that were standing around the bed he sat on.

"Sasuke, are you okay?" Naruto asked.

"I'm fine, well for the most part," Sasuke replied as he clutched his torso.

"Who did this to you?" Neji spoke up, asking the question everyone wanted to know.

"It was Daisuke," Sasuke spat angrily as he grunted from the pain he felt.

"The football player that was sent to juvenile hall?" Tenten questioned shockingly.

"Yeah."

"He is here, I saw him in my class today. He still an asshole as always," Sakura said to cover up the emotional pain she was trying to hold back from letting everyone see.

"We need to talk to the principal, and we need to talk to him now. This can't wait." Shikamaru offered and they agreed.

"He's right about that, you should talk to him, I'll call over there and let him know your coming," Shizune told them as she picked up the phone on her desk.

A/N Another chapter finished, yay, okay please read and review and let me know what you think, thanks again for all the reviews you guys.