Sometimes he truly hated his life.
Ever since the all-time-cheery high school student Naruto Uzumaki – with messy, long blonde hair and big, bright blue eyes – had taken a summertime job on one hot day, he regretted that. And of course really regretted the bet he had made with his best buddies, Kiba Inuzuka and Shikamaru Nara. And of course he had lost the damn bet. And here he was. The place was called Akai Tsuki (1) Hospital. Yes, a hospital. And it had to be a mental hospital at that. Naruto sighed, silently cursing himself and his damn so-called friends.
Curse them. Naruto sighed again. It's entirely his obnoxious classmate's, Kiba's fault. Nobody came to Akai Tsuki without being mental themselves. Well, he couldn't back out now. The 17-year-old boy grabbed his bag again from the ground and started walking towards the entrance. The clock hit exactly 9 o'clock when he arrived to the desk, where seemed already to be the receptionist or a nurse or something, tall – but not nearly as tall as Naruto, who had grown very much during only these few years – brownhaired man with a ponytail.
"Err... excuse me?" Naruto dared to ask. He was usually very talkative, very loud person. But suddenly hefelt a little less loud than usual.The ponytail-man turned to him and Naruto saw a clean, straight scar across his nose. The man smiled to him – very gently – and nodded.
"Ah, you must be Naruto, right? I am Iruka. Iruka Umino, very nice meeting you!" Man said softly and shook Naruto's hand. Naruto couldn't help but grin at Iruka, who seemed to be very young and quite shy.
"Yes, that's me. Nice meeting you too!" Iruka blushed a little and nodded.
"Well... you're early here…and I was just going to go visit our patients and give them food. They act strangely when hungry, so will just wait here for a minute?" Naruto nodded and waited. Act strangely? Of course, they are here because they're… you know…crazy. He waited a little more and then Iruka came again, pushing a trolley full of food.
"Ah…you don't have to help me yet, just follow what I do, okay? Yes, as you notice, our hospital isn't that big, so they aren't too many patients." Iruka explained and started to walk down one corridor and motioned for Naruto to follow him.
As they arrived to the dining room, Naruto saw only five patients, sitting patiently. And one skinny woman standing near the wall with long, white coat.
"Kurenai-sensei, have they been well?" Iruka asked the woman, who turned to look at them. Naruto almost felt his jaw hit the floor. Kurenai, this mystic black-haired lady had red eyes. Kurenai giggled.
"Awh, this is Naruto? What a cutie!" Naruto survived from his stunned state and laughed.
"Yep, that's me!" He had always had that kind of confidence and he really liked when people complimented him. Still the sunny boy had never become…arrogant.
"C'mon, Kurenai-sensei, we have to…"
"Stop worrying, Iruka-kun!" Kurenai stopped the worried looking man in middle sentence and then, suddenly clapped her hands together.
"Everyone, lunchtime!" The patients raised their heads and Naruto examined them, curious boy as he had always been. There was one woman near the opposite wall with short, black hair and dark, pretty eyes. She held a small pig-plushie. But she gave Naruto a very sweet smile, before starting to hum in her own little fairy world.
"I suppose we should introduce them..." Kurenai said and pointed at the only other woman in the room. Her name was Shizune. One of the four men was called Mizuki; he had white hair and bright blue eyes. He looked very…sour, yes, that was the right word. Three other man were called Asuma – he was very broad-shouldered man with thick black hair and a beard -, Kabuto – silverhaired young lad with round glasses and a smug smirk – he seemed to smirk all the time, to everything and anything – and Kakashi, with messy silver hair and a bandage covering his left eye. He was really good-looking. Naruto hit himself mentally. When had he started looking at other dudes that way?
When Iruka gave them their food, they all smiled at him and thanked. Naruto almost wondered what in the world they were doing here…they didn't even look like they were…mental or anything at that. His thoughts were cut by lazy male voice:
"Awwh, Iruka-kun! Is this supposed to be my lunch today? I'd rather have something…maybe…something more…alive, you know?" Naruto raised his eyebrows. What in the world...? What he saw made him want to laugh his eyes off. The man called Kakashi was looking like a kicked puppy but the look he gave to Iruka with his visible eye was more than enough to make the shy brownhaired man blush furiously.
"K-Kakashi-san! Please, do not speak that way!" Iruka stuttered and hurried away from the dining room. Naruto laughed and saw Kakashi take out a small, orange book and start to read it. Before he went to ask what the book was, Kurenai stopped him, obviously trying to stop herself from giggling.
"It's better if you don't. That book is not good for kids like you…and…yes, maybe Kakashi kind of has the hots for Iruka, who knows? That guy has been here quite a long time, after all. And he will be released quite soon, after all."
And for the rest of the day Naruto didn't hear any reasons, which made him quite miserable. It had been pretty funny to see Iruka blush that way, and to know that Iruka really did blush very much, to everything.
During the next few days, he actually managed to get few friends – from two other patients he hadn't met that day, blonde man named Deidara – he liked to blow things up and was playing with his toys in his room all the time - and his buddy Sasori – who really didn't speak much -, but especially from the weird man called Kakashi-sensei, the scarecrow. It had been fun, Kakashi joking all the time and telling Naruto stories about old Chinese and Japanese legends and all that stuff. And the scarecrow even managed to show Naruto his book, which made the boy avoid the eccentric man for few days.
You know, the book was so…perverted. What can you expect from a title like Come Come Paradise?
Yes, it was fun, until Kakashi told him that In Akai Tsuki, they also kept criminals, yes, real living criminals, who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic and all other stuff. And Naruto, as extreme-loving person as he was, of course wanted to see these people. It didn't take long for him to beg for Iruka to let him see these people. After all, the staff of Akai Tsuki contained only five people – two guys named Izumo and Kotetsu and one lady named Tsunade – she was one scary woman – including Kurenai and Iruka. And Iruka happened to be the one in charge, because the old lady Tsunade was on ill vacation. Iruka sighed, after fifteen minutes blackmailing from Naruto's side – I'm going to tell Kakashi that you liiiiike him too! – He barely kept the blush from his face and motioned for Naruto to follow him when he next time was taking food for these 'scary people'. The corridor was small and it made Naruto feel insignificant, uncertain.
"Heavy... heavy atmosphere." Naruto dared to say. He didn't even notice his voice shivering. Iruka patted his shoulder.
"I know, Naruto-kun. I know…I warn you…they may seem quite sane, but you don't want to make them angry…" He pushed the food trolley forward and opened one little hatch in the door on his left.
"Oh, lunch time already?" Asked a surprisingly clear voice behind the door, making Naruto jump. Iruka laughed, sounding a little tense.
"Yes, yes, Shiranui-san."¨
"Good… I am already very… hungry." The man's voice was suddenly low and Naruto felt himself shivering and smiled sheepishly. Iruka noticed it and sent a comforting smile at him.
"Don't worry. His name is Genma Shiranui, accused of murdering two cops, brutally and –..." He couldn't continue, when Shiranui's voice interrupted.
"Excuse me, Iruka-kun…don't say things like that! You made me sound like I am some kind of terrible, cold-blooded killer…" Naruto could have sworn he heard a hint of mocking hurt in the sarcastic voice. Iruka sighed.
"Hai, hai Shiranui-san." Naruto peeked through a little window in the door and saw a small-built man with dark eyes and brown hair. Shiranui coughed, noticed him and sent him an evil grin. Strange thing was the stick that was hanging from his mouth.
They continued walking through the corridor. There were three more people to meet, Iruka said and stopped in front of one door. At first, they didn't hear anything as Iruka pushed to plate through the hatch in the door. Then, a sharp voice asked:
"Who's with you, Umino?" Naruto stared. At the window, man with bluish skin and very sharp, black eyes was staring back. Iruka sighed.
"Naruto Uzumaki, he has summer job here…"
"Tsh." The man in the window snorted, sarcastically.
"Little kid…" Iruka's eyes narrowed.
"Manners, Hoshigaki-san, manners!" Iruka said in a surprisingly stern voice.
"Yes, mother." Answered the shark-like man in the window with a scornful voice, shot Naruto a mocking glare and pulled back. Naruto was getting a little pissed of. Little kid? Him? Who did that guy think he was?
"Please don't mind him, Naruto-kun." Iruka said, speaking again with that soft voice that Naruto had grown to like in past few days.
"He's Kisame Hoshigaki, killer from the criminal organization which was destroyed only a year ago." Iruka explained and Naruto nodded. This really was interesting. The other man he met was called Zabuza Momochi. He had short black hair and bandages covered half of his face. He was quite scary, but spoke to Iruka quite politely, only nodded at Naruto. Naruto shivered when he heard that Zabuza was the one responsible for the mass murder of two large families from two years ago and was still in here because he seemed to like slashing people in pieces. Naruto was quite surprised when Iruka told him that a boy about Naruto's age visited Zabuza-san quite often. Then they moved to the last door.
Little did the sunny boy know that this last one might change his life to one way or another.
"And lastly…"
When had Iruka's voice gotten so sad? Like he wants to cry and can't?
"Iruka-san…"
Naruto's own voice shivered, before he could make it sound right. He frowned. What was wrong with him? It couldn't be anything worse than what they had already seen, could it?
Iruka didn't look at him.
"M-maybe… I-I-it's better that you don't…look."
"…Why?"
Iruka didn't speak for a while, when he opened the hatch again.
"Uchiha-san, time for you lunch." Naruto blinked.
U-Uchiha? But wasn't that…wasn't that the one…?
"Yes, Naruto-kun." Iruka said after seeing his confused look.
"His name is Sasuke Uchiha, the little brother of the cold and emotionless killer Itachi Uchiha from six years ago. Wiped out his own family from existence. Yes, Itachi Uchiha is dead now. He's the one who killed him…at the young age of 14. Almost killed other people too, ripped apart one cat and moved here. An orphan, nobody here to care for him." Naruto suddenly felt blood freeze in his veins. But a wave of sadness soon overcame everything.
"I want to look at him, please?"
"Naruto-kun…yes…you may do that. But please notice the fact that Uchiha-san…can't see you. And he hasn't spoken a word in these three years. Well, not to anyone else…only to me…but he speaks so coldly, so silently…" Iruka looked so sad and Naruto frowned again and blinked. Why? He looked inside the window in the door and froze again.
Small white room, containing only one small bed. And on the bed sat a boy, not much older than him, maybe even few inches shorter, maybe even the same age. He had messy bluish-black hair, pearl-white skin and very skinny body. He had handcuffs on his pale arms. His eyes were covered with a blindfold, but still he turned his head to the door, hair falling on the beautiful – as much as Naruto could see – face. Naruto could only stare.
So young.
So…fragile.
Naruto wiped his eyes when he felt tears form. The sight was just…miserable. He shivered even when Iruka ruffled his hair, sad expression on his face. The boy in the room was quiet and nodded.
"But he's really…really…"
"I know, Naruto-kun."
"Why...why is he wearing…a blindfold? Handcuffs?" Iruka sighed, still ruffling his blonde hair.
"His eyes...well, he could do…things, with those eyes of his. Two nurses fainted when looking at him, one broke her arm, one even died and I…I couldn't even breathe when looking at them. His eyes…were…red. Pure, blood…red. And…he just…he acts very…aggressively most of the time. Although I am quite the only one that he accepts there, he even tried to attack me few times…"
Naruto said nothing, just stared at the floor before bowing and heading outside. He just…couldn't bear to look at as warm-hearted person as Iruka, looking so sad. And that boy in the room…Naruto didn't know what to do, what to say. For the first time in his short life, he was speechless.
Maybe he didn't have to do anything; after all, words couldn't help the young Uchiha, not anymore.
So ended Naruto's first week in the Akai Tsuki Mental Hospital. And already he wasn't sure if he wanted to go back, to perhaps see the pale boy in his room, in his darkness, blindfold covering his dark eyes, long, pale fingers trying to grab something that he couldn't get.
Akai Tsuki…c'mon.. you can guess. A-KAT-SU-KI. Hai hai. Our famous criminal organization.
A/N: Yes, I have fun writing this. (Well, I pity what I did to Sasuke. Sad.) Yes, this is supposed to be an AU-fic but I couldn't help but put the blindfold on Sasuke. And the Sharingan? Maybe he has them. We shall see to that. Gomen ne. Tell me what you think.
'Til next time, people!