I'm not going to write a full therapy session, you will have to use your imaginations as to what else Tsunade and Sasuke talk about…
In an odd way, Orochimaru's character reminds me of the song Lights Out by Breaking Benjamin …weird coincidence
There are 5 more chapters to go after this one; it's weird to be so close to the end of the story…
So, frixiewulf13 asked if I was going to do something in this story for Valentine's Day, I didn't really plan to do a Valentines Day chapter, but I could be talked into doing a related one shot that would probably happen sometime probably after last chapter or chapter 49 so it's not too close to spring break…let me know if you want to see a Valentine's Day one-shot, preferable before tomorrow so I could post it tomorrow
As always I own nothing, enjoy and please review
Chapter 51: Protection
Ino and Sai sat outside at a table, eating lunch. It was a rather nice day and they were talking about spring break and going with Naruto and Sasuke. "It'll be a lot of fun," Ino said with a smile.
"Yeah," Sai agreed. The table went silent for a moment before Sai said, "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course, anything," Ino said. She was hoping that he was going to ask her out, but she wasn't going to just assume.
"I was wondering if, uh, you wanted to be my girlfriend," Sai said nervously. He wasn't sure if she had as good of a time on their date as he did, so he had been putting off asking her.
"I'd love to," she smiled, giving him a kiss on the cheek. He just smiled, happy that she felt the same way.
NS
Hinata and Sakura sat in the pink haired girl's room. All of their other girl friends seemed to be busy. Sakura thought about what Ino was up to, knowing she was with Sai, which depressed her a little. "I hate being single," the pink haired girl said.
"Then why not go out with Lee?" Hinata asked timidly. She didn't understand why she didn't give the guy a chance.
"Because, it's Lee," Sakura said, as if that was supposed to explain everything. She had been battling within herself as to whether she should go out with him, so it was difficult for her to explain why she wouldn't go out with him.
"So?" she asked, confused as to what Sakura meant. "What's wrong with Lee?" she wondered.
"There's nothing wrong with him, he's just," she paused. "I don't' know how to describe it," she said.
"Is it really fair not to give him a chance?" she asked. She knew it was difficult when someone liked you that you didn't like, but she also thought everyone should be given a chance.
"Probably not," Sakura sighed. She knew she should give him a chance, but she just didn't know if she could. "Maybe I'll give him a chance, I've been thinking about it, I just don't know if I should," she said. "I just need to think about," she let out a frustrated sigh.
"Sakura, not everything is about looks," Hinata said timidly. "You know that you're one of my best friends and usually I wouldn't say this, but you need to get over yourself," the dark haired girl said, finding a little bit of confidence.
"Excuse me?" Sakura asked angrily.
"You don't like Lee because of his looks," the timid girl pointed out.
"What's your point?" Sakura asked, getting irritated.
"Well, looks eventually fade," said Hinata, her voice more timid than the last time she spoke. "It's silly not to give someone a chance because of looks," she looked down, once again a little nervous.
"I said I'll think about it," Sakura said, a little angry. "What about you, do you like anyone?" she asked, trying to change the subject.
"No," Hinata said timidly. "Kiba liked me, but I think he's moved on," she explained. "I didn't really like him anyway," she continued. "He's a great friend, but that's all," she frowned. She wished that she had felt something for him; it would have made everything easier.
"I guess we're just going to have to deal with being single then," Sakura sighed. "Life sucks," she huffed.
"There are worse things then being single," Hinata smiled. She still didn't understand why Sakura wouldn't give Lee a chance, considering how much she seemed to hate being single.
"It still sucks," Sakura said and Hinata just nodded.
NS
Sasuke sat in an all too familiar office. He hated going to therapy, but he promised Kakashi that he would. He knew if he didn't go then Tsunade would tell Kakashi and Kakashi would show up during spring break.
"Hello Sasuke," Tsunade smiled. "How have things been going for you? Anything new happen?" the woman asked.
Sasuke looked down for a moment as he said, "Things have been going okay lately." He sighed and said, "I told someone else about Orochimaru." He knew she was going to get everything out eventually, so he might as well tell her and just make it easy.
"Really now?" she asked. "Why did you tell them?" she asked. 'Well this is progress, finally,' she thought as she smiled. She was happy that Sasuke was talking to someone about it; it showed the kind of progress that she wanted to see from him.
"The first person I told was my friend Juugo. He over heard Suigetsu and I talking so it just kind of made sense to tell him," Sasuke explained.
His words made Tsunade think the progress may not be as good as she thought. 'Of course that's why he'd tell someone, that's always why he tells people,' she thought, but kept on smiling. She didn't want to interrupt him from telling her everything else that was going on, so she kept silent, seeing that he was going to continue talking.
"The second person is my boyfriend, Naruto. I keep seeing Orochimaru around campus and he was wondering what was wrong, so I ended up telling him," he said. He knew that the woman knew Naruto, so he wasn't entirely comfortable talking about their relationship.
"A boyfriend?" she asked with a smile, knowing just whom he was talking about. 'Well good for him, maybe he actually is making progress,' Tsunade thought with a genuine smile as she thought about the Naruto and Sasuke's relationship. "Has this been helping you with dealing with Orochimaru?" she was her next question.
"He has actually," he admitted, almost hesitantly because he'd heard how close Tsunade was to Naruto, the blonde called her granny after all. "He knows how to calm me down and is just always there to listen to me or distract me," Sasuke explained.
"And you said that you've been seeing Orochimaru around campus," she looked at Sasuke as she paused. "How have you been dealing with that?" she asked.
"Well," he hesitated. "It's a little unnerving because I'm pretty sure he knows my schedule," the raven paused, thinking about what he's been doing about it. "I took an online class this semester, which makes me not have to see him around campus as much."
"Anything else?" she asked. She knew that he always seemed to leave things out. She didn't want him to leave anything out, because she knew the last time that he hid things he ended up hurting himself, even if that was a long time ago.
"I also am taking classes with friends. Suigetsu is with me in my Economics class and Naruto is there in my English class. Naruto also walks me to Biology," he told her. "And I guess that I've kind of made a friend in my Biology lab class, he's also in my lecture class for Biology as well," he shrugged. "He doesn't know about what's going on, but he hangs out with me a little before and after class, so I guess that helps me deal with it," he paused as he thought about what else to say. "I always feel safer when I'm not alone," he added.
"I see," she said. "It's good that you're making more friends. You seem more relaxed this session," Tsunade said.
"I guess I am," he replied. He didn't know what else to talk about, or at least what else he wanted to talk about.
"Kakashi tells me you and your friends are going to the beach for spring break," Tsunade said. She was concerned about the boy because she knew that he didn't like taking off his shirt.
"Yeah," Sasuke frowned a little. He didn't really say anything else; he just looked down, finding the floor interesting. 'Damn it, why'd she have to bring that up?" he frowned. He was trying to forget about the fact that he'd probably have to take his shirt off at the beach.
"I remember you telling me once that you didn't like taking your shirt off in front of people. I believe you said it was because of the bruises," she said. Tsunade wanted him to talk about it, not just try to forget about the subject 'Come on kid, don't be difficult.'
"The bruises aren't there any more," he said as he looked down, he was more talking to himself than Tsunade, trying to make himself understand that the bruises were truly gone. "But I still don't want to take my shirt off in front of people," he sighed. "It feels as if they are still there, I know they aren't, but I can't help but be self-concisions about it," he explained. He hated being so open to a person, but he knew if he didn't cooperate it'd just get back to Kakashi and he'd have to be back in the office yet again.
"What do you plan to do at the beach?" she asked. She didn't want him to lock himself away the entire time he was at the beach. Tsunade felt it was important for him to have fun with his friends and not let Orochimaru dictate his life.
"Honestly, I'm not sure yet," he admitted. "I want to have fun, but I don't know that I can do that and take my shirt off at the same time," he said.
"It's important to have fun, but don't rush anything you're not ready to do," she told him. "You almost self-destructed before, I don't want that to happen again," she said.
"I know," he sighed. "But I think that I have better people around me this time," he added. 'I have Naruto this time,' he added in his head. The session lasted an hour and she continued to make him talk about things that he may not have wanted to talk about.
NS
Later that day, Sasuke and Naruto were walking through campus to go back to their dorm. "Guess what," Naruto said happily.
"What?" Sasuke asked, not wanting to play a guessing game.
"I got our time off of work approved for spring break," he smiled.
"Good job," Sasuke smiled back.
"I think I deserve a kiss for that," Naruto smiled. Sasuke just rolled his eyes, but kissed him anyway. "How was therapy?" the blonde asked.
"Good, I think I kind of needed it," the raven admitted.
Naruto grabbed his hand as he said; "You know you can talk to me if you ever need to."
"I know," Sasuke he said with a small smile. Before they could continue talking, Orochimaru appeared, he was walking close to them.
Naruto stopped walking, causing Sasuke to stop as well. "I can hurt him if you want," Naruto said. "In fact I want to hurt him," the blonde said angrily.
"Naruto, please just don't do anything," Sasuke said. "I already told you that it'll only make it worse," the raven said.
"I don't know, I think it'll make me feel pretty good to beat the crap out of that man," the blonde argued. He wanted to beat the man so badly that he wouldn't even be able to think about Sasuke again with out remembering the pain. "I just want to protect you," Naruto said.
"If you want to protect me then don't do anything," Sasuke said. He knew that Orochimaru would just get some kind of sick satisfaction out of Naruto attempting to hurt him. He also knew that the man would press assault charges. "Please, I don't want you to do anything stupid, I'll only cause more trouble for you," the raven said.
"Fine, but if you want him hurt, you just say the word," Naruto said. As they started walking once again, hand in hand, Naruto glared at the older man. He knew that he had to respect Sasuke's wishes and not hurt the man, no matter how badly he wanted to.
NS
Neji and Gaara were talking while sitting at a table. They had been doing some homework, but started talking instead. Temari saw them and felt disgusted, she couldn't believe that her brother would forgive Neji. She walked over to where they were sitting and asked, "Can I speak to my brother alone?" It was obvious that she wasn't going to take no for an answer as she pulled him away.
"What is it?" he asked. He knew it was going to be something about Neji so he didn't even bother to try to sound interested.
"I can't believe you forgave that jack ass," Temari said angrily. "What about how much he hurt you?" she asked.
"Look, I didn't tell you not to go out with Shikamaru, even though I was thinking it. You can't really say anything, you're going out with a guy who was indecisive for quite awhile, so I would think you of all people would understand," Gaara said angrily as he pulled his arm free of her grasp.
She sighed, "It's just he hurt you so badly." She hated the idea of her brother getting hurt yet again.
"And I will kill him if he does it again," Gaara said, sounding serious. "Just like I'm not going to let Shikamaru get away with it if he hurts you, I'm not going to let Neji get away with it either," he explained.
"Fine, but if he hurts you I get to help you hurt him," she said, wanting to protect her little brother.
"Wouldn't have it any other way," he agreed before walking back to his boyfriend.
NS
It was the day that Kyuubi had to start dealing with the Uchiha Corporation. He was not looking forward to it, as he had a feeling that he knew who he was going to be working with. He hoped he didn't have to deal with Itachi, but he knew with his luck he would be. He was escorted to a room for the meeting, the woman then said, "Mr. Uchiha will be with you shortly.
When she walked out he found himself wanting to bang his head against the nearest wall. He knew that it'd be Itachi, no matter how much he was dreading seeing him. Their last conversation wasn't exactly friendly, so he wondered how the meeting would go.
"Good morning, Mr. Uzumaki," Itachi said as he walked in. "Can I call you Kyuubi, or are you still angry with me?" he then asked.
"I'm still angry with you, but you can call me Kyuubi anyway," the redhead answered, obviously not happy about their situation. 'It's just my luck that I'd have to work with him,' Kyuubi growled in his head.
Itachi sat across from Kyuubi, "Look we're going to have to work together for a while; so can we at least be friends?"
Kyuubi was quiet for a moment, thinking it over. He didn't want to just forgive him, but he knew if he didn't then working together would be unbearable. "Yeah, I guess," said Kyuubi.
"Good, now that we've got that sorted out, let's get working," Itachi said. Kyuubi just nodded, wishing that he wasn't assigned to the project.
TBC…?
