Story's Title: Of Truth and Reality
Author: SchwarzViolet
Rating: PG-13 (coz of later chapters)
Pairings: you'll see later on
Disclaimer: (a tape being played) "I do not own Naruto!"
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Hey there!
I think I kinda changed my original plot. I thought that this chapter would be a boring one or sumthin… seems like my mind's working at the moment. I certainly don't have writer's block! Yey! But, really… this chapter came out weird. Well, whatever. You can see for yourselves…
Here's the next installment… Hehehe. Have fun!
SchwarzViolet
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Chapter 5: Dreams
Nori's POV
"This sucks."
I wanted to desperately leave the hospital already. It had been three days… three looong days of boredom.
'Then again, it wasn't even that boring. Too many things happened, in fact.'
For a long moment, I was silent and reflected upon all the things that occurred in my stay here. When I thought that my head would break with all the thinking I was doing, I pulled at my hair in frustration.
"Damn it! I hate this…"
'It isn't fair..'
I sat up and forced myself not to wince at the pain.
'That accident really got to me…'
Carefully, I stretched my arms above my head, yawning like a fox, trying to remove the sleepiness.
'Guess I'm just not used to lying around, doing nothing. This isn't good for my hyperactive image!'
I looked around the room and sighed. I was tired of the sickening green color of the walls. The color was really sickeningly green, literally. It also didn't help my aching head, either.
'Couldn't they have used a more stylish color? Like orange, perhaps?'
Something was off, today. I just couldn't remember what…
"Maybe I should just get out of this place? Escape from the boredom…"
It was then that I stopped my trail of thought and understood. The sickening feeling wasn't because of the green walls… It wasn't even boredom that bothered me the most. It wasn't really the headache, either. I wanted to get out of the hospital soon because…
I looked at the wallclock and cursed.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!"
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Ikki-san's POV
I opened my eyes. This was the day.
I looked at the clock on my bedside table. It read 6.30 am. I groaned and took a deep breath.
'Should I get up? Maybe I shouldn't?'
I knew I was acting childish, but I couldn't help it.
'Yeah, I shouldn't get up! I'll call to say I won't go to work today because… because… I'm sick! Yeah, because I'm sick!'
As fast as the idea crossed my mind, it flew right out again.
'But Kyo's gonna hate me forever. He's gonna rip me to pieces… or blackmail me… or even worse…'
My eyes went wide.
'He might not even talk to me ever again!'
Before I knew what was happening, my body acted on its own accord and I found myself in the bathroom the next second, preparing myself for work.
I stared into the mirror and glared at my reflection, as if it were what tricked me into getting up. After a while, I just sighed and gave up. Anyway, my reflection wouldn't have given up. One of us just had to be the wiser…
'Guess I can't let this get out of hand. And anyway, he needs me to help his brother come back to the world of the sane…'
For a while, my gaze softened.
'No… that came out rather wrong. Nori's just as much my brother as he is Kyo's.'
"It's not fair…"
My mind went blank and I remembered the time when this happened before, a few years ago…
'Only, that time, it wasn't an accident that caused all the trouble. He was too young back then. Lucky for him, for all of us, that he didn't break. I don't want that happening again.'
Determinedly, I snapped out of my trance and my gaze fell on my wristwatch on the sink.
My eyes flew wide and I cursed like there was no tomorrow.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!"
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Nori's POV
"Shit! Shit! Shit!"
I literally flew out of the bed and landed on my butt.
"Oww…"
With a face, I stood up and rubbed the sore spot.
While standing up, I felt terribly dizzy and needed to close my eyes. When I opened them again, they tried to focus and my vision became clear once more.
Steadying myself, I approached the wall.
I checked the wallclock again, wishing it wasn't time yet. But alas, all my glaring at the clock didn't change a thing.
Soon, I gave up.
'Well, I can't have him catching me like this, can I?'
I looked into a mirror.
'Certainly not. I look like I journeyed to hell and back.'
I quickly strode over to the bath and almost disappeared inside already if it weren't for an annoying nurse.
I saw her enter my room and go wide eyed.
She ran over to the table, deposited the tray of food and came to me with long strides… all faster than you could say: "Ever heard of knocking?"
"Young man! You shouldn't be walking around yet! You just had an operation! You shouldn't stress out your body at the moment."
'Geesh. Tell that to Ino! She's been bashing me like crazy.'
I put on my goofy and confident smile.
"I can handle it! Right now, I'm perfectly fine! I just need to… need to…"
I felt the faint lightheadedness again and once more, my vision became blurry. Suddenly, pain clouded my senses and I heard myself scream.
"Oh God! I'll call for help. What hurts? How do you feel?"
I heard her move away and push the button above the bed.
Not being able to bear the pain anymore, I fell onto my knees.
Soon, several other nurses came to my room to help me. All that just caused my headache to increase in magnitude and I cried out again.
All I could remember were a pair of brown eyes looking down at me before my world turned completely black.
"Iruka-sensei…"
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Nori POV
Another scream…
'Was that me?'
I tried to move my body in the darkness. I felt panic creep into me as I found out that I couldn't move my body. Apparently, I was lying on my stomach in the middle of a dark nowhere.
'What's wrong here?'
Another scream…
'No. That's not me…'
Struggling to move, I willed my fingers to obey as I tried to clench them.
It had no effect. Panic gripped my heart even further now.
'Damn it! Where am I?'
There sounded the same scream again. I felt a chill run down my spine at the sound. It was as if the person was being tortured…
Now that I hearkened a bit more, I also heard other faint cries in the distance. They were cries of pain and anguish…
'Where am I?'
I tried to call for help, but my voice wouldn't come. I opened my mouth to try over and over again to speak, but nothing came out aside from air.
Fear slowly took over me as the screams became louder and louder, and the temperature dropped several degrees lower. I could feel my breath in the chilly air.
When I heard someone sobbing beside me to my right, I started to move my head to face in that direction. Surprised that I could move it, I turned it all the way till I could see the person beside me. What I saw made my heart stop.
To my right, there was a dead body. Its head was cut off. That wouldn't have bothered me too much. I have seen so many corpses already in my life as a ninja. What bothered me was that its head was directly beside mine, so near, that our noses were almost touching. It was crying tears of blood out of empty eye sockets. I felt myself go pale and bile rise up in my throat.
It even got worse when it started chanting one thing over and over again…
"You killed me."
I saw the body's arm reach out to me and that did it.
"Nooo! Get away from me!"
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Ikki-san's POV
"Nooo! Get away from me!"
I was pinning him down so Kyo could give him a shot to calm him down. He had been thrashing around for minutes now.
But suddenly, before Kyo could inject the drug, Nori sprang up from the pillows and hit me with his forehead on mine.
"Oww.."
"Nori! I swear I'll get you for th-"
I stopped when I saw the look of pure horror on his face. At that very moment, I was stupefied. When he snapped out of it and finally realized he had been having a nightmare, he pushed me off him and ran to the bathroom. There, the noises already told us what he was doing.
I gazed over to Kyo questioningly and he nodded calmly before following Nori.
We found Nori hunched over the toilet and puking his guts out. I felt pity for the boy I see as my own brother, and kneeled beside him, patting his back in a soothing motion. When he was finally done, Kyo offered him some tissues. He wiped himself and threw the tissue aside. Then, he did something he hadn't done for years… he cried onto my shoulder like there was no tomorrow.
Suddenly, I felt like being pulled back into time, when Nori did this for the first time. With shaky hands, I held him and let him cry everything out. After a while, Kyo sat beside us on the bed and patted him on the back. This went on for what seemed to me like ages, and each of Nori's sobs hurt me. It pained me to see him in this state.
"Hey, feeling better?"
He looked up at me and nodded.
'I miss his smile.'
Kyo and I helped him back to the bed. He lay down, but when he felt his eyelids drooping, he panicked and grabbed Kyo's arm.
Kyo understood.
"It's okay, Nori. Trust me, you can fall asleep. No more nightmares will bother you."
Nori just nodded his understanding, closed his eyes, and held out his arm to Kyo. With a practiced hand, Kyo injected the drug into Nori's system and soon, Nori's frown disappeared, leaving a calm expression behind.
"Sleep well, my brother."
'Yes, sleep well…'
Quietly, we made our way out of the room and assigned a nurse to clean up Nori's bathroom. We also ordered her to call us when he wakes up.
With that done, we left for Kyo's office to talk. I had the feeling that it would be a serious one. I was very much correct.
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Kyo-san's POV
"Tell me what happened."
"I don't know. I was just on my way to his room when I saw the nurses hurrying from the nurses' station. It seemed like something bad happened, so I ran along with them. Little did I know that it was Nori they were coming for."
He looked at me unsurely and I nodded.
'Ikki's in pain. It's been a long time since I've seen that expression on his face. The last time he wore this look was when…'
My eyes widened in realization.
"Well, I entered his room and we saw him kneeling on the floor. Obviously, he was in pain coz he was crying out. I… I…"
He glanced away and walked to the window. Staring out, he sighed.
"I never felt so helpless before."
"I see."
"I see? That's all you can say?"
he turned angrily to me.
"I've been a doctor for so long. I always know what to do. I'm always in control of the situation… but this time…"
he looked downwards.
"This time I panicked. I guess it was because Nori was the one suffering there. It was Nori, and not just any other patient."
Slowly, I made my way to him and stopped before him.
"But that's not the real problem there, is it?"
Surprised, he looked into my eyes and groaned.
"I never could keep anything from you, could I?"
I gave out a dry chuckle.
"Yes."
I reached out and held his face with one hand. Unconsciously, he leaned into the touch.
'He must be in a worse situation than I thought.'
"I just couldn't stand it."
"What couldn't you stand?"
His voice drooped down to a whisper.
"Déjà vu."
"That was what has been bothering you, right?"
When he didn't answer, I continued.
"Sure, you were scared that you wouldn't be a good shrink for Nori because you know him. You made that very clear to me from the start. But it's because of her, right?"
With eyes clenched shut, he nodded weakly.
"Ikki, look at me."
When he didn't open his eyes, I repeated it again.
"Ikki, look at me. Please, my dolphin…"
He cautiously opened his eyes and stared into mine. What I saw troubled me. There were too many negative emotions showing in the mirrors of his soul.
"It was not your fault."
"No, I failed him… I failed her…I…"
"it was not your fault."
"Why are you saying this? Why?"
He was close to tears now.
I saw him sway and I tried to steady him.
"Why? Why!"
He was shouting the word over and over again, while hitting me on the chest. The tears he had bottled up for so long were now finally flowing from his eyes.
It was then that my body acted out of its own accord and I hugged him.
"it was not your fault."
I let him cry onto my shoulder.
'So long… He had kept these tears from the world for so long. I'm so sorry, Ikki.'
When he calmed down, I told him to go home and rest. His meeting with Nori would be postponed till tomorrow. I even told him that he could wait a few days to adjust to the idea.
"No, I want to see him tomorrow. I won't fail again…"
"Ikki, it's not-"
"I know."
I stared after his retreating frame and shook my head in frustration.
'No you don't. You think you do, but you don't.'
I sat down onto my seat and buried my head in my hands.
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How was that? Good, bad, stupid, brilliant? Please review! Thank you!
Aaaaannnnnddddd…
Once again, I've finished another chapter. It kinda feels good, ya know?
But I must say that I added many twists in this chapter. This started out to be the chapter where Nori and Ikki should talk at last. Seems like it didn't happen… Personally, I like this chapter. (please ignore the wrong grammar and spelling)
Who can guess who 'she' is? And what's happening? Can anyone understand what I wrote? Tee hee.
Well, I was just partly worried and partly amused by some of the reviews. It seems like not everyone knows who is who. Coz of this, I'll give you now an incomplete list of the characters and their names in both worlds…
Naruto – Nori
Kakashi-sensei – Kyo-san
Iruka-sensei – Ikki-san
Setsuna-chan – Sakura-chan
Hikari-chan – Hinata-chan
Namida-kun – Neji-kun
Iori-chan - Ino-chan
Chiriko - Choji
Shinichi - Shikamaru
Shinta - Shino
Kira – Kiba and Aki - Akamaru
Tae – Ten-ten
Len – Lee
Like I've stated before, this is incomplete. Not all the names are here because not all the characters have been introduced to you yet in Nori's world.
I hope this was helpful…
SchwarzViolet
PS. Please review!