Thirteen
(Unlucky for some)
He tried to open the door as quietly as possible. He really did. But the hinges creak. They creak really loudly. Too loudly.
There was a crash.
A loud, echoing crash.
A pain in the side of his face.
And he was on the floor.
"You lil' fucker!"
Kai.
Standing over him, a scowl creasing his face into furrows, a snarl on his lips. His breath stank of alcohol. He'd been drinking. He was worse when he'd been drinking.
Shit.
...
Sasuke followed Itachi in, and locked the door behind him, tucking his key's into his pocket.
"Mum, Dad, we're home!"
"In the kitchen boys!" - came the call in response. Sasuke's brother, Itachi, had come to pick him up from where the coach had dropped them off, at school, in his police car. He'd had to literally drag Kiba away from it to stop him drooling all over the bonnet and begging Itachi to put him in handcuffs. He smiled, remembering Kiba being hugged by his mother and cuddling his dog, Akamaru, who he'd been moaning about missing all week. He remembered Sakura and Ino and their parents, hugging smiling and babbling excitedly about all the amazing things they'd done over the week. And he remembered seeing Naruto, small and alone, walking away, as Itachi put his hand on his shoulder and steered him into the front seat.
His smile slipped a bit, then it grew as a idea formed.
He'd got Itachi to offer Naruto a lift home. He looked horribly reluctant at first, but was eventually persuaded. It had been cold outside, with night just falling, and no one would want to walk six blocks in the cold. They'd dropped him off at the end of his road, and Sasuke had watched him walk to the door of a run down, semi detached house, and fit a key to the lock. Itachi had driven off then, and taken Sasuke home.
"How was your trip?" His mother shuffled over from where she was making dinner, and carefully embraced him with a gentle smile. His father sent a grin and a nod of welcome his way and went back to his paperwork.
"It was..." he trailed off and Itachi raised one eyebrow prompting him to continue; "eventful." His older brother's other eyebrow joined the first, giving him a surprised, curious look at his tone of voice.
"That's nice dear, now run along and unpack your bags." Mikoto gave her youngest son another warm smile, and went back to chopping vegetables.
"I'll help, little brother" Itachi placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, ruffled his hair, and steered him up the stairs to his room. He sat on Sasuke's bed while his brother unpacked and flattened his black spikes back into shape.
"Eventful huh?" he asked.
Sasuke stared at him a long moment, before proceeding to tell him everything about the trip. Everything about Naruto.
...
"Where the hell have you been?"
Thud. His head hit the floor.
"You were dropped off by some police car"
Smack. His face stung.
"What have you been tellin' people?"
Crack. His shoulder collided with the wall.
"Where you been!"
Naruto's head hit the floor again, as the blows rained down.
"School trip. You... signed... form..."
Crash. Into the coffee table.
"Fucker!" He was furious "You. Can't. Escape. Me." Thwack.
"You're crazy!" and he was. He had been ever since his foster mother had died.
There was blood in his eyes, nose, mouth. Warm and bitter with a horrible, sharp, metallic tang. Pain radiated up his arm and torso, blossoming across his skin, raging like a fire – hot and bright and burning. A boot collided with his chest, he sucked in a breath. It felt like an iron band was tightening around it. Crushing him. Like a thousand needles in his lungs. His head felt stuffed with cotton wool and raw pain.
"All I've done for you, you little shit!"
And Kai was kicking him. In his ribs. There was a sharp crack. He tried to force himself up. To get away. His body refused to be forced. He couldn't breathe. The world was spinning. He felt sick. It was the taste of blood. His vision was going fuzzy. Black and white like white noise on a TV set crackling across it. His arm was limp and unresponsive; his elbow felt on fire, it felt like the bones in it were splintering, cracking as it was wrenched up behind his back. The band around his chest was tightening. It was like trying to breathe underwater.
Like he was drowning.
He felt his eyelids slide groggily closed.
He felt himself being bodily dragged, shoved, kicked and distantly heard the sound of a door slamming, as his body hit cold stone, and the world disappeared.
...
Sasuke shivered. He'd suddenly felt a sort of... breeze, a draft, and paused in his recounting of events to Itachi. Something suddenly felt very, very wrong.
"Did you feel that?" He asked shaking his body, but he couldn't quite shake the feeling. Itachi gave him a funny look.
"Feel what?" He asked. Sasuke shrugged.
"Not sure..." And he proceeded to tell Itachi how Naruto had been on the coach on the way home, all quiet and pensive. "It was like he didn't want to go home" Sasuke laughed, then he shuddered, that cold, uncomfortable feeling still there – a sense of foreboding.
"I'm going to be off now" Itachi patted his shoulder "Got a late shift at the station tonight" He grinned "Got to keep Kisame and Deidra from killing each other, now don't I?"
Sasuke let out a sharp bark of laughter at the mention of his brother's co-workers and smiled.
"Yeah"
He lay on his bed as Itachi left, waiting to hear the revving of the car engine in the drive. He frowned. Itachi was sure taking a long time. He'd thought he had to be there soon? There was that cold sense of foreboding again. Sasuke shivered.
Footsteps on the stairs now.
Sasuke had moved to sit on his bed, about to get up, when Itachi poked his head round the door.
"Naruto left his rucksack in the car, you want to come and take it back to him? I can't remember where we dropped him off. Somewhere round fourth street right?"
"Fifth" corrected Sasuke, that sense of foreboding growing, large and uncomfortable in his chest "Yeah, I'll come with you."
...
...
A/N: Awwwh! Naru-chan! :O Evil Kai! *brings out that stick again and starts sharpening the end* :3