Chapter Thirty Four
It was the shaft of thin, pale golden sunlight that hit my face and woke me. I rolled over with a tense groan, and stretched out like a cat. All my muscles contracting and relaxing as I reach out and then curl back into a ball. The offending light still battered persistently against my eyelids, giving the darkness of my closed eyes a slight peppery orange glow. Deciding I probably had to open my eyes around now, I let them become slits, still guarded against the beam of light that fluttered from the gap in my curtains and paraded across my face. With another groan I rolled back over, tugging my lovely warm sheets with me, and fumbled for my alarm clock. Grasping the dam elusive thing, I pulled it towards me and peered blurrily at the red flashing diodes that illuminated the time, scrubbing sleep out of my eyes to see the numbers properly.
2.43pm
I swore explosively, and wrenched my protesting body out of bed. I was late. Dreadfully late. It was a Sunday, I'd slept all the night and most of the day away when I could have been by Naruto's side.
"Itachi!" I roared downstairs. "Why the hell didn't you wake me?"
Instead of Itachi, it was my mum who poked her head around the door frame, and smiled at the sight of me dashing around the room, still in the clothes I wore yesterday, desperately trying to find my mobile; encase I'd missed any calls.
"I couldn't bear to wake you dear, you just looked so peaceful" And then she laughed, passed me my phone and disappeared around the doorframe. I flicked open the lid – no missed calls.
Then I was thundering downstairs, ready to order Itachi to take me to the hospital straight away, when he met me halfway, and shoved me back up.
"Shower. Now."
He tossed me, protesting mercilessly and screaming profanities, into my en-suite bathroom, chucking in a change of clothes in after me and leaning against the outside of the door so there was no possible escape as I tugged on the handle.
"Go on, get in."
"Aniki..." I moan feebly, but I know he's right. I sigh, resigned to my fate, and strip.
I when I clamber into the shower it's still cold, as it hasn't had the chance to warm up yet. I shiver under the icy blast, and pull the heat up to full to encourage it to warm up quicker. A minute later, as I'm lathering shampoo into my dark hair, I'm being blasted by a boiling jet, and I pull the handle back down to regulate the temperature... and I'm shivering again. My skin a bright tomato red from the temperature abuse, I rinse the soap off and climb out, grabbing a big fluffy towel, and hammering on the door to beg Itachi, who's still smugly sitting there, to get me a pair of socks.
He passes in the offending items when I'm half dressed and I pull them on before trying to hastily wrench my jeans up my half-dry legs. The fabric clings and sticks to the damp skin, making the task nearly impossible. I give an exasperated sigh when the same problem occurs with my T-shirt.
I pound the door again, asking to be let out, so we can 'just go already', but the hand that appears round the doorway is only to hand me a bowl of cereal. I eat it so fast I don't even recognise what's in it.
"Right," Itachi looks me up and down after I've handed the bowl and spoon back to him, and rubbed at my wet hair with the towel so I 'stop dripping all over the dam floor'. "Let's go."
I can't get in the car quick enough.
...
He's asleep when we get there.
His blond hair forming a soft halo around his head where it's pressed against the pillow. His skin soft and pale and almost ethereal as he lies on the bed, the white sheets drawn up over his chest, and his arms lying limply on top of the covers.
He looks like the perfect angel.
Ready to ascend to heaven.
I grip his hand tightly in mine, as cold, raw fear strikes my heart like an iron crashing down on an anvil, and I slip into my usual seat. Itachi pulls a chair up next to me.
"Naruto" I whisper his name on an exhale. "Naruto."
I can't lose him.
I can't.
At some point Itachi fetches me a disposable cup of hot chocolate. I let Naruto's fingers curl around it in my hand so he can feel the warmth, and know he needs to get better soon so we can drink one together. Hinata appears to jot down his stats every ten minutes, and Tsunade pops in to check on him twice.
"He's in a drug induced coma." She says, having seen me fretting over his state of unawareness. "In a sort of... dreamless sleep. Hopefully it'll be good for him." She ruffles my hair and writes some notes on a clipboard.
Itachi eventually stands and stretches wearily. He looks more haggard and old than he ever has, dark lines under his eyes, as he runs a hand through his hair.
"I'll be back in a couple of hours. I've got some paper work to fill out at the station. Oh, and you're going to school tomorrow, remember." Itachi pats my shoulder and leaves me there, clutching Naruto's hand like my lifeline.
My eyelids droop as tiredness grasps at me again.
"Sasuke?" I must have fallen asleep, because a soft voice wakes me. I think for one heart-stopping, wonderful moment it must be Naruto... but it's Tsunade with her hand on my shoulder.
"Urrk? Wha'?" Is my intelligent response. She smiles sweetly at me and shakes her head. Her golden-brown eyes twinkling merrily.
"What am I going to do with you?" I shrug in response, and see she's changing one of the bags that pumps chemicals via a tube into Naruto's pale skin.
"He was doing so much better." I whisper, and lean into the touch of her hand on my shoulder.
"He is." She says "This is to keep the nightmares down. We're protecting him from the memories, Sasuke, until he's ready to deal with them."
She presses a light kiss on Naruto's still brow, and steps softly from the room.
Itachi appears half an hour later, ready to pick me up and take me home. I'm supposed to say my goodbyes for the day, but it feels like a final goodbye. Fear clenches my heart.
What if something was to happen? I couldn't just leave him. What if...?
I touch my forehead to his uninjured shoulder and whisper into his skin.
"See you, Naruto. I'll be back, I promise."
"I'll bring him back tomorrow, after school." Itachi adds with a smile, and takes my shoulder, and steers me away.
I cast one last fleeting glance back at the still form of my best friend on the bed.
"Naruto."
...
...
A/N: D:
Hello... I forgot to upload this chapter... oh well... you can read it now! :D