Warning:

Well...there's no gentler way of putting this but um...this chapter has mentions of vomit.

Yep.

Chapter Six - Twisting and Churning

It took all the strength in him to leave Sasuke alone, even for less than a minute. It seemed impossible; Sasuke needed more water, the manor was huge– no way could Naruto make it in under a minute. But who would he be if he didn't accept a challenge?

Sasuke closed his eyes, back pressed all the way against the headboard. He could feel everything. The drug fading fast, everything else felt slow. As if time was winding down, his limbs felt too heavy and slow, his mind moved even slower– he was tired. He could sleep for days…

But the feeling in his chest wouldn't let him. Constant anxiousness as his mind seemed to be stuck on one thing.

How in the world had he been so easily convinced by the blond idiot?!

A loud bang startled Sasuke. His eyes flung open to see Naruto, back against the bedroom door, clutching onto a mountain of water bottles, desperately trying to catch his breath.

"Idiot," Sasuke said under his breath. Naruto simply glared at him.

"I'm helping you, y'know." Naruto walked to the bed, dropping the bottles by Sasuke's still-kicking and twisting feet. His eyes lingered at the motions under the blanket. He'd read about restless legs as a symptom of withdrawal on many websites he'd searched…

He shook himself out of the trance, ignoring the scared feeling in his gut.

"How are you feeling?" Naruto stood against the wall by Sasuke's bed, arms loosely crossing over his chest. Sasuke…simply flipped him the bird. "Asshole," Naruto chuckled.

The room fell silent for a moment. Naruto bit at his bottom lip, scanning Sasuke who was now sweating through the headboard, who was…growing paler by the minute. Naruto took in a deep breath and–

"You still haven't told me why," he said softly.

"Do I have to?" Sasuke folded forwards, his stomach's churning was too much for him.

"Sasuke," Naruto's voice sounded like an exasperated sigh.

"Another time," Sasuke mumbled into the blanket. "I'm sort of busy right now, going through hell and all of that." Much to Naruto's dislike, he dropped it. Sasuke was right. He had to focus on getting better first.

Sasuke let out a loud, shaky breath. Naruto eyed Sasuke closely. He watched as Sasuke slowly got out of bed, dragging one foot to the ground after the other. Naruto was instantly in front of him, with his hand stretched out, but he…refused it.

Naruto stepped back, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets instead. Sasuke walked to the center of his enormous room and…started pacing. Going back and forth between the windows and the door, one hand loosely latched to his stomach. Naruto recalled the websites he'd read again. It bothered Naruto to no end how little he could do for Sasuke.

Naruto bit the inside of his lip. Sasuke…really had to go through this agony on his own.

Goosebumps enveloped his pale skin. He cursed under his breath and searched for his forgotten hoodie left on the dark hardwood floor. He picked it up and put it on. Or at least tried to– the thing was mangled from how he'd hit the blond with it earlier. His sweaty hands tried to find the hole for his head, an arm, anything. He lost his patience and re-mangled the hoodie and threw it at the door with a grunt. His angry fingers ran through his hair, and then clutched his stomach, and he paced again, and again.

"Teme," he heard Naruto's soft voice say before his head was pushed through the hoodie. "You can't even put on a hoodie."

"Fuck you," he grabbed the jet black piece of clothing and walked away from the blond, shoving his arms through. If he wasn't going through it right now, that moment surely would have done…something to him.

"Drink some more water," Naruto handed him an uncapped bottle. He took it without a word. Now Naruto was just as restless. He sat on the edge of the bed's end, bouncing his leg, watching Sasuke pace. The blond tried hard to just sit on his hands, say nothing, just tried to be there for him. But he couldn't, he simply couldn't sit still.

"Is it "another time" yet?" Naruto looked at him with big, blue, wondering eyes. He shook his head in disbelief. 'The short attention span on this one', Sasuke thought.

"Dobe." He looked away. "Tell me something." He paced again. "Anything."

"Like…a story?" Naruto scrunched up one side of his nose. Sasuke nodded.

"Okay. Uhhh," he scratched at his head. "Well, there was that time I– no, nevermind." Sasuke placed the bottle on his dresser, suddenly too heavy for him to keep carrying. He continued pacing, bending over, standing straight, over and over again. "Oh! I got it!" Naruto sat up further on the bed, crossing his legs. "Don't get mad, though."

Sasuke quirked an eyebrow, "Why would I get mad?"

"It's like, the only secret I haven't told you," Naruto grinned with flushed cheeks.

"Why tell me now?" Sasuke stopped in front of Naruto. Suspicion laced his voice.

"I figured, since you're gonna tell me more of your secrets…" his eyebrows raised, head tilted towards Sasuke's stern look, "I should tell you mine." He said casually. "Well, the last of mine."

"Hn," Sasuke was still quite unsure, but he was interested nonetheless. He continued pacing, gesturing for Naruto to go on. Suddenly, Naruto felt extremely nervous. He reconsidered telling Sasuke–

"I have a brother," he blurted out.

"What?!" Sasuke nearly shouted. Standing by the large window, utterly shocked, he almost, almost, forgot the pain his body was in. Naruto smiled awkwardly at him with terrified eyes. All at once, his joints felt like they'd fallen out of their sockets, and he let himself drop onto the windowsill, mouth still agape, eyes wide.

"Yeah," Naruto laughed nervously.

"W-why haven't you told me about him? Why-how haven't I met him? You're lying." Sasuke had a million questions.

"No, it's true! His name's Menma!" Naruto reached for his phone, most likely pulling up a picture for Sasuke to see, he thought. Naruto stood up and walked over.

"He's older," he flipped his phone around, and there it was. There he was. Sasuke studied the picture. He wouldn't have guessed Menma was older, the two looked as if they were twins, right down to the bright blue eyes. The only things that could have Sasuke believing some time parted them were the few centimeters height difference and the fact that…Menma looked bigger than his blond friend standing next to him in the picture. But it still didn't make sense.

"By how many years? And why does he have black hair? Is he adopted?" Sasuke was spit firing questions. Naruto laughed, retrieving his phone.

"Two years, he dyes it, and no." Naruto laughed again, sitting on the floor across Sasuke. "Hell, I didn't even know he existed until I was sixteen. I still can't believe how Jiraiya managed to keep him a secret for so long."

"Explains your faces," Sasuke smiled, referring to the scared look on both of their strangely identical faces. The picture was probably taken on the day they had met. Sasuke took note of the slight wilderness in Menma's eyes, though, but he didn't bring it up. "Why?"

"Why…what?" Naruto, clueless as ever.

"Why was he kept a secret from you?" From everyone, really.

"My parents won't tell us the whole story; they keep giving us some bullshit excuses." He shrugged. "When Menma was about one and a half years old, he'd gone to live with Jiraiya. Mom was pregnant with me and was in and out of hospitals because of some problems and whatever. Dad was working overtime at the clinic. No one could really take care of him." Naruto paused, remembering that fateful day at Jiraiya's.

"Couldn't they have gotten a babysitter or a nanny?"

"That's what I said!" Naruto flung his arms out towards Sasuke. "Shit just doesn't add up. And they're still refusing to tell us what we deserve to know. Even Jiraya."

"It doesn't make sense why Menma would have to stay with Jiraiya even after you were born." Sasuke looked as if deep in thought. Naruto agreed with a hum and a shrug. "Naruto," Sasuke inquired, the blond looked up, "you visited your godfather many times, how did you two not meet before?"

"Well, for a long time Jiraiya would always be the one to visit us. But during spring break of freshmen year in high school, I was allowed to visit his place for the first time."

"I remember," Sasuke nodded.

"Apparently, that was around the time Menma started…disappearing for some time, and then coming back like weeks later." Naruto brought one knee up and hugged it loosely with his arm. "And Jiraiya couldn't get a grip on him, he's like a damn ninja! No one knows where he'd go. He just sorta…goes away and comes back…quieter, or something. Like, more reclusive. A year later, I visit Jiraiya again and he's there."

"Seems really sus–," Sasuke's words cut short, wincing at the pain in his stomach.

"Tell me about it," Naruto scoffed, looking at his feet.

"Bucket." Sasuke looked straight at the floor, clutching his stomach.

"Huh?" Naruto shot up at him, confusedly.

"Bucket, moron," Sasuke raised his voice. A light bulb flickered above Naruto's head and he scrambled to his feet, grabbing the trashcan by Sasuke's bed. He'd made it just in time as Sasuke made the awful retching noise into it. Naruto felt something warm on his hand…

He squinted his eyes. 'Oh no…' Naruto thought, and slowly looked down.

There it was. Sasuke's abnormally colored vomit coating the hand holding the trashcan. 'So much for making it on time', he sighed inwardly.

"Gross," he whispered. Naruto patted Sasuke's head with his clean hand, pushing his hair out of the way, "My secret wasn't that bad, was it?"

"Dobe," Sasuke's echo came from inside the trashcan, making the blond laugh. Sasuke held the trashcan in place and lifted his head. "Sorry," he wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

Naruto let go of the trashcan and held his hand far away from him, "Eh, it's alright."

"Menma and Naruto," Sasuke smiled. "Fitting."

"Believe it," Naruto winked at Sasuke as he left to the bathroom to wash his hands.

In the bathroom, Naruto let the water run over his hand. Absentmindedly, he stood. All his questions his parents managed to weasel themselves out of came flooding back. He wasn't close with his brother, not by a longshot. To this day, he wished he could be, though. Despite having wonderful, loving (and kinda shady) parents, an amazing group of friends, and Sasuke, growing up technically as an only child left him feeling…rather alone. He'd only gained all those friends around high school. Most of his childhood still felt as if he was an outcast. Some things are just inescapable.

Retching. More and more retching. Naruto turned his head, looking back at Sasuke who had his head sinking deeper into the trashcan. He quickened his pace, grabbing a small hand towel and wetting it. He ignored the ding of his phone as he made his way to Sasuke.

"Look up," he said once Sasuke was done spitting into the trashcan. He gently held Sasuke's shoulder as his head rose. Naruto crouched down and wiped at Sasuke's face and hair. 'Even when the bastard's this sick, he still looks–'

Another ding. He shook his head slightly as he was pulled out of his thoughts again, as if it could get rid of the blush he could feel spreading across his cheeks. He took his phone out of his pocket and checked his messages. Two texts from Itachi asking about his brother.

"What does he want?" Sasuke's hoarse voice asked after peering his brother's name on the blond's phone. Naruto looked up.

"He's asking about you– wants to know how you're holding up."

"Tell him to fuck off."

"'Sasuke is doing fine'", he said while texting, "aaand send." He smiled victoriously at Sasuke who was giving him a rather impressive death glare with the state he's in.

"Ugh," Sasuke closed his eyes, looking away from the blond idiot driving him crazy. Naruto chuckled.

"You're lucky you have an older brother who cares."

"No. Do not play the sympathy card with me."

Naruto's bright and loud laugh filled the room.

Author's Note:

My, my, these two and their secrets. Couldn't help myself from posting one more chapter!

Hope you're liking the story so far,

-Vernie