Disclaimer: Heh, it would be a bad thing if I owned Naruto...

If: Hoo waahhh... wow, what a response to last chapter. It was awesome! Is it bad that I loved that reaction? Seems there was a might of confusion though. If the confusion isn't cleared up in this chapter, let me know and I'll be happy to try and explain! But yesh. Some of you noticed that that last chapter was rushed and there were hints through it that it wasn't real and such. Totally. Now onto the ANGST!


Ferocity wins teh game: Waahhh... I'm so happy you noticed! Yesh, last chapter was purposefully rushed. It was supposed to give the reader a sense of something wrong like "Hey, wait a minute, she doesn't usually write this way..." or something. Plus there's all those other little hints and things. Man, I'm glad you liked that chapter, it was awesome to write! He he he... I'd probably kill people if I did that all the time, but it was so much fun! ... But anyway, thanks so much for the nice words and review!


"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" Sasuke screamed. His mind was reeling, pulling him away from reality, trying to bury his conscious self. Sasuke's mind couldn't handle this. Gaara was almost dead, and raped on the floor. He himself was chained to a wall, unable to do a thing, and the man that he hated the most in the world was smirking at him as if he had just won the lottery. Sasuke screamed and screamed. If this kept up then he would go insane, if he wasn't already.

Orochimaru kept his smirk firmly in place. He pulled up his pants and stepped over to the screaming, thrashing, broken younger Uchiha. Reaching out, he grabbed Sasuke's chin and held his head still. The younger Uchiha's eyes were racing all over the place and his body was out of his control, thrashing and kicking and straining to be free. Orochimaru leaned in close to Sasuke's face.

"You know Sasuke-kun," he started, catching the younger Uchiha's attention. "You really missed out on him. He tasted and felt wonderful."

Sasuke screamed and thrashed harder, he wanted to just tear Orochimaru to bits. The snake man only smirked at him.

"That's right Sasuke-kun," he purred gaining an unhealthy amount of pleasure from tearing Sasuke apart mentally. "He was wonderful. The only thing that I regret is that he isn't really alive to enjoy it as well. He would have made a good pet himself. Yes, I can imagine it. That fiery spirit straining underneath me until he broke… it would have been delicious. That friction that I got from his cold body, I can only imagine how sweet and hot and tight it would have been while he was straining beneath me."

"STOP IT!" Sasuke screamed. "STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!"

Orochimaru laughed. Itachi was staring wide-eyed at his little brother as he broke before his very eyes.

"Oh but Sasuke-kun, I don't want to stop. I might even be able to fit in another session with this good looking soon to be corpse before he expires," Orochimaru said, turning his head away from Sasuke to look Gaara over and lick his lips. "I think I might not even mind taking him once he is dead…"

"STOP! Leave him alone!" Sasuke screeched. He pulled his head back and out of Orochimaru's grasp. Orochimaru turned to look back at him, his eyes narrowing. Sasuke brought his head forward and head-butted the man who was torturing him. He put all of his force behind the head-butt and managed to knock Orochimaru out.

Itachi stared at his little brother. Sasuke was panting, and crying and laughing all at the same time. Itachi was sure he had lost his mind, but what could he do about it? Sasuke never listened to him, let alone liked him. There was nothing he could say to try and bring his brother back, but he couldn't just let him slip away into insanity.

"Sasuke…" Itachi croaked out, wincing at how horrible his voice sounded. Sasuke didn't seem to hear him.

"I imagined it all…" Sasuke was murmuring, his eyes wide and blank. Itachi winced. "I imagined them coming for him… they're imaginary, there's no one coming to save him…"

Itachi grit his teeth. Sasuke laughed, insanity lacing his voice.

"He had said that no one cared about a monster like him… but I care! Don't I count? Why can't someone save him? What's so wrong with saving him? Is he truly a monster? Why can't what I imagine be real? He didn't deserve this! He was an angel! He was perfect!" Sasuke yelled. His eyes were now firmly glued on the unmoving form of the person he loved. "GOD DAMNIT!"

"SASUKE!" Itachi shouted. Sasuke turned startled eyes to him. "He's not dead yet. There's still time."

Sasuke stared at his brother before laughing maniacally. Itachi hung his head.


Temari was regretting her decision to wait and listen to her brother's wishes the second she heard more screaming. She couldn't take this. She had to go in there and get her precious Gaara!

"The police are on their way," Kankuro said, startling Temari.

"Fine, good, let's go," Temari said, unbuckling and getting out of the car.

"Wait! Temari they said to stay where we are and…" Kankuro protested. Temari glared at her brother, effectively silencing him.

"I don't care what they said! My... our little brother is in there right now! He might be dead! I can't sit around here anymore waiting for the police to come only to find out that they came too late!" Temari shouted. Kankuro was silent. "If you want to wait here then fine! Do what you want to do! I for one am going in there and bringing my brother back!"

Temari stomped off to the house. Kankuro sat in the car, stunned, until he realized that she was right. Hastily unbuckling himself, he threw open the car door and dashed to his sister.

"You're right," was all he said. Temari nodded at him and together they entered the house.

The first thing Kankuro noticed was that the place was totally trashed, followed by the realization that there were people screaming in pain. Both siblings turned to each other.

"It doesn't matter who's making all the noise unless it's Gaara," Temari said. Kankuro nodded. "We're ignoring anyone who isn't Gaara."

"Got it," Kankuro replied. Temari grinned and brandished her monkey wrench. Kankuro sighed and brandished his own pipe.

"Let's do this," Temari said, starting to hear the sirens in the distance. Kankuro nodded and followed his sister's example of ignoring the sirens.

Together the siblings maneuvered through the kitchen and dining room and making their way to the stairs. The door to the second floor was jammed shut. Kankuro handed Temari his pipe and yanked on the door handle. After several violent shakes, Kankuro finally got the door to budge inward. Kankuro scowled.

"There's something blocking the other side," he said to Temari. Temari shoved her wrench in his face.

"Use this to get the screws out of the other side," she said. "And hurry, the police are getting closer."

Kankuro nodded and proceeded to try and unhinge the door.


Sasuke's laughter hadn't stopped and Itachi was starting to get annoyed by it.

"God Damnit Sasuke! Talk to him! He's not dead and I'm sure if you convince him to, he'll cling to his life and you'll be able to live together and do anything you had been planning on doing!" Itachi yelled. Sasuke stopped laughing and blinked at his brother, remnants of his sanity coming back.

"Really?" he asked meekly. Itachi nodded fervently.

"If he loves you as much as he acts, or you seem to think, then he'll cling to life if you tell him too!" Itachi yelled, seeming almost frantic. Sasuke seemed to think about it for a moment. He turned back to look at Gaara's body, his already shallow breathing was slowing down and becoming sporadic. Sasuke felt that overwhelming panic in his chest again.

"Gaara!" he shouted. "Hang on Gaara! You have to hang on! You have to live! I can't live without you Gaara! You need to hang on! Don't leave me! I don't want to be in a world that you're not in with me!

"I promise you I'll never do anything stupid! I'll stay with you forever! Just you and me! Nothing will come between us! That incident with Naruto is all in the past! I don't care about that! I won't ever care about that! I'll forgive you and I'll forget it ever happened! Just stay with me! That's all you have to do! All you need to do is hang on until an ambulance comes! Just stay alive!"

Itachi's heart went out to his brother. He so desperately wanted his brother to be happy, to find his happiness with this red haired boy he so obviously loved. And Gaara deserved all the happiness in the world, from what little he'd heard from his siblings, since Sasuke wouldn't tell him anything. These two boys… their lives had already been so hard and they were still so young.

"You have to stay with me!" Sasuke was still shouting. "I need you Gaara! I'll give you anything, everything! We can live together in some small place and grow vegetables. We could get an apartment in the city and go out to eat every night! I'll give you anything you've ever dreamed about! Any fantasy you've had I'll cater to! Any desire, any dream, anything!

"I'll give up my future, I'll give up my own flesh and blood, just don't leave my side! How could I live in a world where the one person I've ever truly loved is dead? How could I deal with every day? How could I deal with the fact that I was unable to save the one person that meant anything to me? I can't live without you! I don't want to live without you! So please just hang on! Hang on!"

The sirens were blaring and the lights from the police cars and ambulance were flashing through the window. Sasuke was diverted for a moment, but was quickly back to pleading for Gaara to stay alive, and with him.

Orochimaru was waking up, and only Itachi was noticing. He couldn't let this man escape the law, but there was nothing he could do to keep him here. Orochimaru took one look at Sasuke and the body of Gaara before snorting. He caught Itachi's cold glare.

"It looks like my work here is done," Orochimaru said, smirk firmly in place. Itachi thrashed against the wall, trying to break free. Orochimaru scoffed at him and headed towards the door. He opened it and was met with two extremely pissed off Sabaku siblings.

"My my Kankuro, look what we found here," Temari said, swinging her monkey wrench around. Kankuro sneered.

"Indeed Temari, seems we've found the source of all this," Kankuro replied clapping his pipe against the palm of his hand. Orochimaru backed up into the room. Itachi watched the scene unfolding before him anxiously.

Temari glanced around the room and saw the state her baby brother was in and then caught Sasuke screaming at him to hold on. Temari's hands shook and in her anger she slammed the wrench against Orochimaru. Orochimaru's eyes went wide and he coughed up blood at the impact to his stomach.

"What the fuck did you do to my brother and his boyfriend you bastard!" she shouted. Kankuro raced away from the angry Temari and the suddenly scared Orochimaru over to his brother. Kankuro cursed colorfully.

"Shit! He's barely breathing Temari!" he shouted over the din of noise. The police had found the stairway to the second floor. Orochimaru tried to get away but Temari punched him in the face, sending him flying backwards.

"You son of a bitch!" she yelled. "I could kill you!"

The police rushed into the room. Two officers restrained Temari and another one was already cuffing Orochimaru and reading him his rights. There were officers freeing the Uchiha brothers and one officer rushed from the room yelling for a stretcher. Sasuke immediately ran to Gaara's side, fresh tears running down his face. He clasped one of Gaara's hands in his.

"Don't leave me…"