Part 2: Chapter 7
Ino finally rushed in, looking disheveled.
"Class, sorry!" she plopped down into an armchair beside Sakura, who placed a hand on the blonde's arm but kept her eyes on me.
"What exactly is this 'emergency meeting' about, Naruto?" she asked me.
"I heard Sasuke quit," Shino spoke up.
"If that's why we were called here, we all know, so, why bother?" Shikamaru grunted lazily from beside him.
Ino made a face: "But why did he leave?"
"It was probably too troublesome," the man lounging on the huge couch glanced at her, then returned to his normal posture--hands behind his head, leaning back, eyes closed.
"Naruto has called this meeting to explain why Sasuke left," Hinata clarified.
"I don't care about why he left," Kiba snorted, "I just wanna know what we're going to do about it."
"Well, I care," Garra spoke up. "It was a very sudden decision, and it bothers me." He sat next to Haku, one pale hand on the other's neatly-pressed black slacks. Haku smiled at me and gestured with one hand.
"Please, Naruto," he said. "Explain." I laced my fingers together and leaned forward, my elbows on my knees, clearing my throat slightly. Everyone was paying attention (even Shikamaru, from what I could tell).
"You need to know a little about Sasuke's past before you can really understand why he left," I picked my words carefully. "First being, he spent half of his life growing up in an orphanage."
"Sasuke, in an orphanage?" Ino blinked, obviously shocked. "But he's so...normal."
"Orphanages don't make one mentally unstable," Garra looked over at her dryly.
"He lived in a public orphanage from age eight onward--after his parents were killed in a car crash," I continued.
"I still don't understand what this has do with him quitting," Kiba lifted an eyebrow.
"Sasuke had an older brother named Itachi," I looked up at him. "Itachi is the one who gave Sasuke up to the orphanage." Hearing it come out of my mouth, I could see why Sasuke had been shaken up when we had seen Itachi and his band at the cafe. Over ten years without a word and suddenly bam there he is again. But then, I couldn't really understand, could I? He had been part of a family at one time. "The night we cancelled that one practice," I spoke and my voice cracked. I swallowed, then continued in a much more normal-sounding voice. "We went on a drive down the coastal highway just outside of town, and wound up at a little cafe. We went inside for a drink, and found out they had a live band playing." I looked down at my hands. "The band was going to be in the Battle of the Bands competition that week."
"You saw our competition?" Shino looked surprised.
" How good were they?" Kiba asked eagerly. I paused, closing my eyes and calling up the four faces that had come out from the shadows and into the stage lights: Kabuto, the silver-haired guitarist; Orochimaru, scary-looking drummer; Neji, fucking bastard of a keyboardist; Itachi, exact replica of Sasuke with a guitar.
"They were an odd bunch of older guys," I grimaced. "A guy who looked more like a manager than a guitarist, a drummer that looked like he escaped from the freak show of a local circus, Neji--"
"WHAT?" everyone cut me off. I winced at the sound, but continued anyway.
"And Itachi, Sasuke's older brother."
The silence that came after that statement was louder than the previous outburst, I thought. Finally...
"He doesn't want to face his brother after all this time?" Garra offered.
"I wouldn't," Shikamaru shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Too much trouble."
"It can't be all that," Kiba wrinkled his nose. "There's got to be something you're not telling us, Naruto!"
"We drove home, he quit, I punched him, we haven't talked since," I completed with a frown. It didn't quite happen in that order...
"You punched him?" Sakura yelped.
"That's what I said," Kiba shook his head.
"I would have punched him too, if that makes you feel any better about it," Shino gave me a sympathetic look from behind his sunglasses.
"But," Hinata spoke up, stroking Ciaran's head fondly as she nibbled on her bottom lip, "as much as we know, it still doesn't quite explain why he quit. There's got to be another reason..."
"It is confusing," Haku agreed, nodding. "He rarely comes in earlier than midnight anymore, I haven't seen him eat, and I know he isn't writing."
"Speaking of, we only have two presentable songs for the competition," Kiba looked over at me. "If we're even going now, that is."
"I don't know," I mumbled. A sudden harsh slap on the table we were huddled around made me jump and look up from my spinning thoughts. Sakura had stood and was leaning forward with her arms locked and her hands flat against the table's surface, glaring teal daggers at me.
"You once told me that you and Sasuke were in this for the long-run! That Sharingan was your life, and we were going to go all-out all the time!" she leaned closer. "I believed you. What happened to you, Naruto?"
I looked away from her, suddenly feeling ashamed. "I..."
"Sasuke is important to all of us," she grabbed onto that unspoken doubt. "But we have to do this for him, just like we helped Kiba tell Hinata how he felt. We have to let him know how we feel." She paused, now looking thoughtful. "How you feel." I finally lifted my eyes to her, and this time, she was smiling. A small, quivering smile, but a smile nonetheless. "You're the only one that he truly loves," she lowered her voice. "You have to lead us in Battle of the Bands, so he can follow you there. And when he does, maybe we can convince him to come back to us." I opened my mouth. Closed it. I let my eyes travel from her face, to Ino's, Hinata's, and slowly around at the rest of the group--I looked into the eyes of all of my friends. They were all smiling.
I gave back the truest smile I could manage: "Alright, we'll go. I'll write the last song."
The group broke out into cheers and applause. All except for Shikamaru, who hunched lower in his seat and muttered something about it suddenly being too loud to sleep.
Saying you're going to do something and actually going through with it are two different things; it's a lot easier just to say you can do this or that. I looked down at the blank paper and then back up to the empty room. Nothing came. I sighed and there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," I put the notebook down. Garra entered, looking as if he really would have preferred to be somewhere else at the moment. I lifted an eyebrow at him as he came over to the bed and didn't sit down, but just kind of stood there looking like he had something to say. After almost a minute of this strange behavior, he pulled something from his back pocket, tossed it to me, and started for the door. I blinked and watched him as he left.
"Haku wanted to see how you were," he called over his shoulder on the way out. "And I wanted to give that to you anyway. Later."
I looked at the door for the longest time, just wondering what the hell that was all about. I finally remembered the thing he had tossed at me; it was a folded-up piece of paper. I picked it up and undid it, staring at the familiar off-white paper with blue-ink writing on it. Sasuke's handwriting. Up in the top right-hand corner, scrawled within brackets, was the title of the song: 'Untitled--Naruto's Song (Heaven?)'
After staring at the notebook paper for what felt like hours, I slowly put it aside and reached for my own blank notebook paper and pen. Without hesitation, I began to write; it wasn't a masterpiece, but it got the point across. That's all that matters, right?
Kiss me, kiss my eyes
Tell me everything's alright.
Kiss me, kiss my lips
Promise that you'll be here tonight.
But I guess not
That's okay.
You're gone, and now
It's not the same.
Still I just wish
You'd let me know
Instead of me
Waiting here alone.
And now you've gone and left me here
With nothing to hope for and nothing to fear.
Kill me, kill me quickly
Don't leave me here this way.
Kill me, kill my heart
So it doesn't cry for you again.
I won't beg you
To come back to me.
I'll stay and wait
For you patiently.
And I'll be here
When you come around.
And take you back
Into my arms.
You've got to know that I won't let you
Throw everything aside and go.
Just so you know
I love you.
Just so you know
I need you too;
Please tell me why
You ran away
And let me stay
Beside you now.
I don't care what the past has done
All that matters is the future with you.
So kiss me, kill me
And let me
Die in your arms.
When you're scared and when you're lonely
I'll be the one there to dry your tears.
Kiss me, kill me
Tonight.
Kiss me, kill me
Always.
Kiss me, kill me
Again.
Kiss me, kill me
Forever. --Uzimaki Naruto, February 3, 2006