Arriving home, he found his friend in bed unmoving, and knelt upon the floor and cried, "Why did this happen? How am I supposed to live without you?"
6
Voices echoed in the black.
"How did…?"
"Why was he…?"
"…Sasuke!"
"…running for a full…"
"I can't believe it."
"Sasuke?" The last voice pierced the haze of his mind. He slowly forced his eyes open but he could only see hazy colored shapes; something soft and pink and white and another something hard and black and orange. A hand slid behind his head, small, soft, gentle. "Drink," said the voice, "please?" Something cold touched his lips. He commanded his mouth to open to it but it didn't respond and something liquid and cold slid along his cheeks and chin and jaw. "Oh, Sasuke…" the voice whimpered. The hand moved away. His head thudded back. A groan rose in his throat but stayed locked behind his sealed lips. He fell back toward the darkness.
"Idiot!" something—someone—else grabbed his head and forced it up, making it roar in pain. He tried to match that roar but couldn't summon the strength and gave up, trying to turn away. A bright yellow flooded his vision, astoundingly clear in the fuzzy blackness. It overwhelmed him. Something warm and wet lapped against his frozen lips and then fought with them, trying to force them apart. His bottom lip cracked and split and he felt his eyebrows tug together in a frown of pain. He inhaled sharply through his nose. The wet thing wiggled its way into his mouth, breaking the crust saliva cementing his lips together, blood, spit, and some liquid blessedly cool flooded into him, sliding thickly down his throat. He gagged and sucked on this wetness at the same time. It retreated from him, leaving his mouth open to fully gulp in air. He heard himself make a pitiful mewling sound at the absence of that warm, wet thing and hated himself for it but he wanted it back and he wasn't sure he remembered how to talk yet to ask for it so he nudged his head upward and whimpered again. "Idiot…" the same voice spoke the same word but softer, and the warmth returned, slipping into his mouth gently this time, bringing the cold liquid with it again. It ran down his parched throat. The warm object caressed him inside, ran along his dry tongue, feeding it moisture, tickled the roof of his mouth just behind his front teeth and soothed away the ache in his cut lip. The second parting was slower, and something else went with it. Sasuke opened his eyes fully to gaze up at Uzumaki Naruto before he passed out once more.
The second time he fully awoke, Sakura was leaning over him, a glass of water held in her hand as she watched him with worried eyes. He sat up slowly.
"You shouldn't move too fast," she lay a hand on his chest and urged him to lie down once more. "You've been out for almost two days now."
He shook his head, both to clear it and to tell her that he needed to sit up. He was feeling restless. His eyes looked around the room, taking in the cream-colored walls and off-white carpet floor of Sakura's bedroom. There were flowers in a vase on the windowsill. A bookcase to his right and a night table to his left, which had an alarm clock, a lamp, and a sealed scroll atop it.
"That came for you this morning," she saw him looking at it. "It's from the Hokage's office. Looks official."
They probably failed me, he thought bitterly to himself. He opened his mouth, winced, cleared his throat, and looked pointedly at the water glass. She handed it to him obligingly. Sasuke drank from it hungrily, finishing it off in three huge gulps. He held it out for a refill but Sakura shook her head.
"A little at a time," she admonished lightly. "You were severely dehydrated. If Naruto hadn't forced you to drink—"
"Naruto," he coughed, interrupting her. "Where is…Naruto?"
Her face became sad. "I don't know."
He looked at her, his eyebrows lifting to hide in his long bangs. "You don't…"
"I told you," she sighed, leaning her face in her hands and resting her elbows on her knees, "Naruto hasn't been acting himself lately. When he came in here yesterday looking for you, those questions he asked me were the first words I've heard him speak in almost a month." Sasuke's puzzled look changed to one of contemplation. Naruto was one who rarely shut up, and here he was, not talking at all. Of course Sakura had been worried, but was that really so important that she had to contact him on a mission? As if she had read his thoughts, she continued her explanation: "He left his apartment early one morning and hasn't been back there since. No one sees him eat at Ichiraku, no one knows if and when he returns home, he doesn't talk to or approach anyone." Sakura's worry took the form of tears welling up in her pretty teal eyes. "He's stopped taking missions and going to classes with both Tsunande-sama and Kakashi-sensei. Not even Iruka-sensei knows what's going on!" Hysterics that she had been keeping at bay threatened her slender frame and she wailed into her hands, covering her face as if to hide the tears she was now shedding freely.
Sasuke took it all in quietly, thinking to himself. Almost a month…around the time that strange touch incident had occurred when he had to leave for the Anbu Exam mission. Had he indirectly caused Naruto's strange behavior? But why? The blond had always been there, loud and bright, so why now did he choose to pull away? After summer, into the fall, when they had that argument over Sasuke's choice of marriage to revive his clan… Was that it? Was Naruto upset over the arranged marriage? He had said he wasn't in love with Hinata, so it couldn't be that; he couldn't lie, he was too honest. It was confusing (as the blond often liked to be, much to Sasuke's own distaste), and he couldn't sort this out without the source. He had to find Naruto and confront him.
Sakura watched him with red-rimmed eyes. He pulled the black tunic on over the deep blue turtleneck and tied the vivid purple sash around his waist—his spare clothing from his pack, which Sakura had in a corner of her room. She handed him his unopened scroll wordlessly. He took it and tucked it into the back of his black pants, disinterested.
"Sasuke…" she started to say something.
"I'm going," he nodded to her and left her room, heading for the stairs. He took them swiftly, ducking quietly into the foyer, avoiding the eyes of Sakura's parents, who were in the next room. He fitted his closed sandals over his feet and silently opened the door. Cold wind greeted him. Sakura joined him in the foyer.
"Sakura?" her mother called from the day room. "Are you going out to meet Lee-san?"
"No, Mother," Sakura blushed. Sasuke briefly gave her a flicker of a grin.
"I'll be back for my stuff," he said, and out the door he went. She watched him go. Her father called to her, something about the cold. She continued to watch him. Sasuke decided to start at Naruto's abandoned apartment, and he was off.
Sasuke scuffed at the empty styrofoam cup on the floor. It scudded away with a hollow noise. He looked up into the darkened apartment, messier and more unkempt than usual, and frowned. There wasn't anything to go on here. From the yellowish tinges of chakra that Sasuke could see (thanks to the sharingan) he could tell Naruto's absence had been long. Everything that had the other man's signature on it was faint and old, nearly weeks old. He didn't sleep here, he only came here to get what he needed—which meant the blond was staying somewhere else.
"Back to the drawing board," he whispered to no one and left the empty apartment.
"Naruto?" the old man repeated, scratching his chin. "Come to mention it, I haven't seen him around in some time. He usually comes in when he's back from a mission to grace me with his presence." The man's laughter rolled pleasantly onto the evening street. Some people glanced their way.
"When was the last time you did see him, old man?" Sasuke prompted, forcing his impatience down. It was important to keep his cool. It was easier to get information from happy people rather than pissed off ones.
"I'd have to say…" his eyes rolled up, trying to recall and accurate date. Sasuke waited patiently. "About a month or so ago," he finished with a decisive nod. "He came in with that pink-haired friend of his—pretty one she is—and ordered a bowl for each of them. They were talking about someone getting married, actually, although I haven't heard anything like that lately."
Sasuke's heart thudded abruptly. "Thanks, gramps," he choked out past a lump in his throat and left Ichiraku, heavy-footed. He nearly bumped into someone in his distraction.
"Sasuke?" they asked. He looked up, his eyes focusing on tall, lanky Nara Shikamaru. Beside him was his polar opposite best friend, Akimichi Chouji. The shorter of the two smiled pleasantly at the Uchiha.
"Hey, Sasuke! What's up?"
"Have either of you seen Naruto lately?" he asked them both. Shikamaru and Chouji exchanged curious glances.
"Not lately, no," Chouji shook his head. "Naruto and I usually share a bowl of ramen every week or so, but he hasn't been to Ichiraku in weeks."
"I noticed that he stopped collecting his mission statements," Shikamaru added. "Is something the matter?"
"We don't know where he is," Sasuke admitted. What do you mean 'we'? a voice inside of him quipped icily. YOU didn't even notice something was wrong until Sakura had to tell you he disappeared!
The two friends exchanged glances again. "No, I haven't seen him," Chouji shook his head. "I'm sorry, Sasuke, but I will keep an eye out for him, if that'll help."
"Thanks," he nodded.
"Where have you tried looking?" Shikamaru inquired.
"Here," Sasuke shrugged. "His apartment, the academy, the training facility, with Iruka-sensei. I even asked Tsunande-sama and the officials at the office."
Shikamaru whistled. "All that ground in a day?"
"Yeah."
"Did you try Sakura?"
"She's the one that updated me about this. I was on a mission until just the other day."
"The Anbu Exam, right?" Chouji broke in. "Did you make it in?"
"I don't know," Sasuke shrugged. Right now, I honestly don't care, either.
"Did you check at your house?" Shikamaru asked him.
"What?" he blinked. "No, of course not."
"Why not?" the other man retorted.
"Why would Naruto be there?" Sasuke frowned.
"If Shikamaru were away on a mission and I wasn't," Chouji spoke quietly, "I'd visit his favorite cloud-watching spot every day until he came back."
"But why would you do something like that?"
"Because I'd miss him," came the other man's answer. "And I'd want to be somewhere where I could at least feel close to him, if I couldn't be close to him."
Shikamaru turned an unhealthy shade of red. "Stop that, man. You're embarrassing me."
"You're too modest, Shikamaru," Chouji nudged his best friend and returned his eyes to Sasuke's. "Sasuke, you don't understand why he'd do that, right?" The black-haired Uchiha nodded. "So go to your house and see if I'm right. If I'm not, you can laugh at me all you want, okay?"
"That's nothing to laugh about," Shikamaru nudged him back. "You're just being an uber dork."
"Naruto's the same way, I'm sure of it." Chouji grinned. "He's just as dorky as I am."
"I'm going to check it out," Sasuke said.
"Good luck finding him!" Chouji waved.
"Let us know what happens," Shikamaru extended a hand to the taller man. "If anything, we'll help as much as we can."
Surprised, Sasuke took the offering and they shook. Then Shikamaru waved him away, turning to enter the ramen stand. Sasuke turned and began the too-familiar path to his big, empty house.
"And if you find out about your exam results, let us know!" Chouji called after him as he began to run.