Chapter Thirty Three
Crash.
Orochimaru swept the contents of the desk off onto the floor with one great sweep of his arm. Test tubes and vials filled with colourful liquids crashed to the floor and shattered on impact, leaving the contents to spread and stain into the filthy carpet.
He was angry.
Unbelievably angry.
He'd roared and ranted and destroyed his lab for a good half an hour; screaming at three staff, throwing a conical flask at a student and forcibly removing Kabuto from the room with a fire extinguisher.
He stared at the mess of chemicals and broken glass seeping into the fibres of his carpet and stopped.
So what if the idiot Kai had failed?
He could give no evidence against him for fear of his life; Orochimaru had made sure of that, scaring the man witless. No, Kai would not talk.
But the brat would.
He grit his teeth. Oh yes, the boy would talk... unless someone did something to stop him...
If you want a job doing well, the snake-man told himself with a smile, you do it yourself.
"Get me Kabuto" He hissed into the hall at an unsuspecting passer-by, and waited until the wiry bespectacled man was before him, nursing a bruise on his arm where the extinguisher hit. "Tell me, from all these school laboratory chemicals, can we create some sort of... poison?"
Oh he would stop the boy from talking.
He would stop him once and for all.
...
"How's he doing?"
I look up at Itachi as he speaks, my own eyes tired and ringed by circles almost as dark as the ones that shadow Naruto's expression. I look back down at Naruto as he lies sleeping, small and weak on the bed. His blue eyes firmly closed and his blond hair in disarray. I trace one thin whisker-mark with my little finger.
"I don't know." My own voice cracked on the last word "He had a nightmare last night. Tsunade had to put him to sleep with a drug." I rub tiredly at my face. "I don't know what to do, Aniki."
Itachi takes a moment to survey me; wasting away at my best friend's bedside; pale, thin and exhausted, and he sighs loudly.
"Come on" He takes my arm in a loose grip, and pulls me upright "You've spent too long in this room, Hinata'll watch him" He nods at the kind young nurse and all but drags me from Naruto's side.
He buy's us both a hot chocolate and we sit in silence on a bench out the front of the hospital.
"I'm taking you home" he eventually says, "You're making yourself ill staying here."
"But..." I begin, unsure what I'm going to say, too tired to think of an argument. Waves of exhaustion roll over me.
"I'm taking you home" he repeats "We'll visit again tomorrow, after a good night's sleep. He'll be fine for one night Sasuke."
"I feel like I've failed him. I should have helped him. Stopped Kai or something. I need to stay by his side and keep an eye on him, please, big brother." I murmur weakly. Itachi wraps one arm round my shoulders. I must look a sight, exhausted, pale, and sitting on a hospital bench with my brother and an empty polystyrene cup for company.
"You need to go home." His voice is gentle and soft, the kind of voice people use when talking to a young child "He'll be ok without you Sasuke, Tsunade and Hinata are there. And Mother and Father will be checking in on him around mid-day. Plus, I'm sure Kiba will visit again after school. They'll call you if there's any change. Now," He helps me up off the bench and embarrassingly enough I find myself swaying slightly in his grip. "Let's get you home."
And I'm too tired to disagree.
...
I flop on my bed without bothering to change and fall into a weary, restless sleep.
...
Itachi pushes open the door to his brother's bedroom, and sighs at the sleeping figure sprawled out over the top of rumpled blankets. He walks in, and tucks Sasuke into bed, and rests his hand on his little brother's shoulder for a moment longer than is really necessary, before tiptoeing from the room and closing the door with one last fond look, and a soft smile.
...
...
A/N: "Quack Quack. Quack." Oh I say! Lenle's turned into a duck! :O