Arashi: Sorry was working on other fics and forgot to update this one yesterday. Disclaimer-Don't own Naruto at all still.
"Gaara? Tsunade would like to see you." A very meek looking nurse said, stepping into Gaara's room.
Gaara hadn't moved for two days and wouldn't respond to anyone's inquiries on how he 'felt'. He refused to talk. It was driving everyone up the wall. He had figured out why Lee had rejected him. It was because Gaara was a shut in. A loony. A freak. He probably didn't even know who he was talking to when he had agreed to go out with Gaara. Someone must've told him that he agreed to date a crazy.
Besides… even if Lee had known, he would have been pushed away eventually what with Gaara's violent mood swings, the little things setting him off in a surprising frenzy of fear, and of course how he lived out of an insane asylum. Normal people didn't live in an asylum. Normal people didn't have so many scars that it was hard for Gaara to distinguish scar tissue from normal skin tone. Normal people didn't lie in a bed, naked for two days not talking and not eating. Gaara was the farthest thing from normal, and it disturbed him.
"Gaara?" the nurse questioned again, due to the fact that Gaara had not even spared her a glance. Sighing, Gaara lifted himself from the stark white sheets, letting the fabric flutter away from his skinny and scarred frame. The asylum never let him have any privacy with changing, besides, even if no one was in the room, he still had a camera trained on him at all times. Gaara shuffled around, trying to find something to wear in his bare room. The nurse, who was bright red, handed over a small white bundle. Gaara took the bundle and slowly started to change into the simple white tunic and white cotton pants.
Slowly slithering down the hall with the still embarrassed nurse, Gaara pondered on what Tsunade was going to say to him. He technically was behaving—it wasn't as if he had started to harass and throw objects at the nurses. Gaara stepped through the familiar yellow door and sat among a smattering of brightly colored pillows.
Tsunade wasn't typing this time. She was simply sitting, waiting for his arrival. After a very long silence of just eye contact, Tsunade stirred.
"Gaara, what has gotten into you? You were fine two days ago. Sure, Anko told me some kid decided to date you for a few hours, but seriously. This is enough!" Tsunade's statement started softly, but ended in yelling.
"Do you know why he broke up with me?" Gaara murmured softly at his crossed legs. At Tsunade's negative nod, Gaara continued, "He broke up with me because I'm an insane shut in."
"Gaara…" Tsunade voiced softly. But before she could get in another word, he snapped, slamming his fists on the floor next to him.
"For once in my life I want to be normal! I want to have friends that aren't always walking on eggshells! I want to be able to take a punch and not crawl in a corner and shake for an hour! I want to have a normal life! I've been trying so hard to get better but it seems that I'm just making things worse and worse, till I'm so deep in the hole I'll never fucking crawl out of it! Why can't I be normal!?" Gaara was shaking, clenching his fists rhythmically, and his face was that of complete anguish.
It was then that Tsunade understood. Gaara wasn't necessarily upset that a boy had broken up with him, he was upset because of the reason, and that this was… to be utterly cliché, the straw that broke the camels back. The event triggered all of Gaara's pent up emotion, causing a small breakdown in mental stability. This wasn't the emotion of one event. This was every emotion he had felt since he head been born. Contempt. Fear. Anguish. Want. Need. Confusion. It was all pouring out of him in one swift, but painful movement. Tsunade thought that this was a good development, it would help Gaara let go of his anger and fear from all these traumatic events. He was starting to show emotion more freely—it was a good development.
"Gaara, how would you react to moving out of the asylum?"
"Please!" The question had surprised an answer out of Gaara, causing him to wince at his pleading tone. For gods sake! He had just broken down in front of his goddamn shrink! He didn't need to be anymore pathetic.
"This development would be possible if you had a live-in sedative technician, and visited me regularly. Would you consent to that Gaara?" Tsunade asked, watching as his face of sadness brightens up at the notion of moving out of the institution. At Gaara's excited nod, she smiled in return and started shuffling through all of her papers, obviously looking for something. However before she found it, Gaara had stood up and made his way to the door.
"Wait! Don't you want more details?" Tsunade called after him. Gaara shrugged indifferently before moving completely out of the door. He couldn't wait to be out of this stark white prison. Marching back to his room, Gaara decided to ask the security to call Anko to his room. He couldn't wait to tell her about this new development! The second she stepped into his room he bounded over to her.
"Did you hear? I just got released."
"…Yea. I heard." Anko said, looking away for Gaara's semi-happy face. He wasn't smiling, but you tell he was ecstatic.
"Why… why aren't you happy? I finally get to leave this place."
"Well yea… but you won't ever visit me!" Anko cried dramatically, draping her form mockingly over Gaara. Gaara gave a muffled yelp and tried to push her off of his smaller form.
"Anko! Get off!" He mumbled into her shoulder, trying to shove her off in vain.
"But… I'm soooooo sad, Gaara! Don't leave me here!" Anko wailed, putting more weight onto Gaara, which caused them both to collapse onto the floor.
"Dear god. Was that completely necessary Anko?" Gaara asked from underneath Anko's completely limp form.
"Yes." She answered into Gaara's hand, which had been clutch on her face, trying to push her off of him. A long silence ensued.
"Get off already!" Gaara nearly shouted, throwing his entire weight into pushing her off of him, which failed miserably, but she eventually got off of him. Gaara asked her to pack his clothes for him because he wasn't allowed to have them in his room, lest he strangle himself with a pair of pants or something equally stupid. When Anko agreed and basically skipped out of the room, Gaara let himself crack a small smile. Anko was ridiculously immature for her age, but Gaara liked that about her, it gave him a small comforting feeling in the pit of his stomach. Gaara briefly hoped that Baki would get well soon so he could say goodbye to him—but that emotion passed quickly when a small nurse came through the door with some odd news.
"Uhm… excuse me Gaara… but there is a boy with long hair asking for you in the front… May I escort you out there?" She said, nervously looking at his unrestrained state,
"I think you may have to wear a retraining garment to meet him Gaara…" she said softly. Gaara's eyes flashed with anger before he simply pushed past her and started down the stairs to go to the lobby, ignoring her calls. Pushing open the double doors that led to the internal parts of the asylum, Gaara waltzed into the lobby.
"Excuse me. Gaara, I believe you are only allowed to be with visitors when you are restrained." The secretary said sharply, standing up. Gaara raised a non-existent eyebrow at her, before turning to his 'long-haired guest'.
It was Neji.
"Don't tell me you forgot about our outing to Itachi's Restaurant?" He said lightly, eyeing Gaara's state of dress. Gaara blushed a slight pink before muttering a very colorful expletive.
"Do you mind waiting for a minute?" He said shyly, before running back into the internal workings of his prison. He came to a skidding halt to his open room door and saw Anko putting a small duffel bag on his bed. Those were his clothes!
"Hey Anko! I need an outfit! Quick!" At Anko's laughter, he huffed and stomped over to the bag. Within seconds, Gaara was dressed very… figure friendly?
Gaara was dressed in a very tight, very small black shirt that said 'If you think this shirt is tight…' that Anko had begged him to wear, a pair of flattering jeans that had a weird graffiti print splatters across them randomly. Anko had insisted he wear jewelry as well, so both of his writs were splattered with a rainbow of colorful beads and knick-knacks. Anko had handed him a small white messenger bag that had all of his medical needs, and patted his heat with a smirk. Toeing his shoes on that Anko had just dug out of the duffel bag, Gaara ran back to the lobby, out of breath.
"Sorry… I completely forgot." Gaara gasped out.
"Really? I didn't notice." Neji said with a slight smirk. Gaara growled and was about to retort, but what Neji was wearing caught him completely off guard. He was wearing a dark grey turtle-necked vest with an impossibly tight pin-striped short-sleeved shirt underneath. That coupled with his customary bandages, his hair was down, and black slacks, he was practically oozing sex appeal.
While Gaara was placing the bits of his brain back together, Neji guided him out to an enormous black Escalade with chrome edging that was blasting some sort of underground techno mix. Gaara winced at the sheer volume of the music and the shrewdness of the lyrics, but it was strangely satisfying. When Gaara had climbed into the passenger side of the car (strangely, it was open, Gaara had expected Naruto to indulge in the 'Shotgun!' contest), he was startled yet again to see what everyone was wearing. Itachi was wearing a purely fishnet shirt with a black bandana that was littered with small red clouds covering his head (like a beanie Gaara noticed, twitching) and a pair of very tight, very shiny, leather pants. Gaara made a small mental tick in his head next to Itachi's name that was labeled 'gay'. Naruto was wearing a loose orange, sleeveless vest with a high collar and a blue tee shirt underneath, along with bright orange shorts. Sasuke, who was sitting next to Naruto eyeing his legs with a blush, was wearing a simple white Uchiha type shirt (high collar, short sleeves), and long white slacks.
Halfway through the very loud, very boisterous car ride, a song called "Uchiha-San is Worth a Million Bucks" came on Neji's Sirius XM radio, and everyone promptly began to sing along, taunting the two Uchiha's present. It was very, very amusing— that is, if you listened to the lyrics. After the song ended, everyone was in high spirits, and Naruto asked Gaara in a slightly breathless voice that made Sasuke gasp:
"Hey, how's it going with Lee?" The air suddenly turned thick as Gaara stiffened and the music stopped momentarily for a new, softer song to start. Gaara struggled for an answer that wouldn't make him seem completely and totally pathetic. Apparently, he was silent for too long.
"Did he hurt you?" Neji asked tightly, gripping the steering wheel till his knuckles turned white.
"No." Liar.
"Then what's wrong?" Sasuke asked curiously from his spot next to Naruto.
"We… we went our separate ways. It doesn't matter." It does.
Apparently, Gaara wasn't very convincing, because Itachi snorted from the backseat in disbelief and Neji just shook his head in frustration.
"I honestly don't believe that, but since Gaara looks so uncomfortable, let's drop it." Itachi said wisely from his position in the backseat. And right at that very cliché, very convenient moment, they arrived at Itachi's new… establishment. If that's what you could call it, Gaara thought narrowing his eyes at the bright glowing sign outside of the building.
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Arashi: Please read and review.
