THE YOUNG, THE RICH AND THE RESTLESS
rantipole-(n.) a wild, reckless, young person. (v.) to be wild and reckless. english
A metallic click and static before "Hello Konoha Police, what's the emergency?" asked in a drawl.
A woman with wide panicked eyes and clutching her bag for dear life gripped her phone in her shaking hand. She was alone on the side of the road, the hour almost approaching five in the morning. The skies purple and the clouds swollen, little specks of water hit her forehead and she swallowed.
"H-hello? Please...I need some help! There's been an accident, t-they just came out of nowhere!" There was a distant clap of thunder and the droplets began to pound from the heavens.
There is something to be said for the power and rush of recklessness. To feel wild and young and untamable, on top of the world. It was like a drug, putting yourself in dangers way and pulling a hairs width back before Death can touch you saying, 'no, not this time.'
But Death is no one's fool and there are always consequences to being so stupidly naive...
He just didn't care.
7 hours earlier...
-:-Are you coming? The message popped up on a phone, lighting up the darkened room. The vibrations roused a body and an eyelid opened to refocus on a room before closing
-:-Helloooo? Are you there!?
-:-STAWP IGNORING ME!
Huffing through his nose he sat up, the red numbers besides his clock screaming 9:18 p.m.
-:-What
He typed back with a small scowl marring his face.
-:-Good! You're NOT dead, I'll be over in 10 mins so we can head over to Suigetsu's
He felt like telling her no and rolling over to return to lovely, sometimes calming blankness but a drink sounded much, much better. Getting out of bed he fumbled through the darkness before retreating into his bathroom. A quick ten minute shower later found him coming back into the tranquil darkness of his room with a billow of steam. The only source of lighting was the white moonlight coming in through his large window and streaking across his carpet.
There was a soft knock at the door and the yellow light from the hall fell onto his face.
"Sasuke?" A soft voice called and a head popped in and promptly flipped on his lights. He winced at the harshness of it. Iruka looked slightly surprised, his dark hair held up messily.
"Oh, I was just wondering if you wanted to go out to dinner? Kakashi is going to be at the station overnight."
"No" Sasuke turned his back and gave Iruka a sight of all the small bruises on his back. There was awkward shifting and a deep sense of self satisfaction.
"Okay then, are you staying in?"
"I don't know"
It didn't satisfy him and he sighed sounding tired, "well if you are tell me, okay"
Sasuke didn't respond. Tch, what do I owe you?
The door clicked shut and as soon as it did a redhead popped in from the corner of his window and pointed at the lock.
He ignored her in favor of changing in his bathroom.
When he came back out he popped the lock and she stumbled over his roof tiles and almost tumbled gracelessly onto his rug. She adjusted her glasses and huffed.
"You could've opened the door first"
She plopped down on his bed and subtly sniffed at the bed, loving the traces of his scent.
She watched his drying hair, the charcoal strands falling straight but layered above his shoulders.
"You know you wouldn't look bad with your hair like that" she mused fiddling with anything she could get her hands on.
He grunted and went about adding the products he usually did to his hair. He was used to having people ogle him, inserting their opinions. Their opinions meant nothing to him. What do they care anyway.
Standing back he scrutinized his dark jeans and white muscle tee with the liquor logo on it. He tucked his black necklace into his shirt and stared into his own unimpressed black eyes. He got enough compliments on them to know they were one of his most appealing trait.
"Karin" he growled, snatching his phone out of the redhead's hand. She had been cluttering his phone with pictures of herself.
"Finally, let's go" she said relieved. She could never just sit still.
Iruka was truly too much of a trusting individual, really. Dumb bastard. Sasuke took advantage each and every time he saw a chance and they still out so much blind trust in him. Kakashi was harder to fool, but still, he's an idiot.
Sasuke didn't bother to conceal that he was leaving and popped open his window, reveling in the billows of the air that hit his face and breathing in the crisp, clean smell. There was nothing like the purity of the outdoors. They both ducked under the windows they passed, sneaky like the shadows of trees and leaves, hearing their scraggly limbs scrape across the glass. Once they made their way around the house they climbed into the oak big tree in his backyard and scaled down.
After that they bolted down the dark street. They were hardly seen because Iruka liked to enjoy a glass of wine by the fireplace and tv by that time. There was a idle cab waiting around the corner and eight minutes later they were at Suigetsu's.
The party itself had spilled into the streets with intoxicated and vomiting individuals but just barely, Suigetsu lived in picturesque suburbia in a giant cul-du-sac. Sasuke could hear the low thrum of partygoers and the second he stepped inside an arm was thrown around him.
"Sa-Sa-Sa-Sasa-Sasuke!" Suigetsu sang putting a beer into his hand and taking his coat.
"Oh goodie-ur here!"
"You're already drunk" he said
"Yea! 'S the purpose of waiting, I can have my cake n' I can eat it! And then I can 'ave some more!"
Jugo raised his cup at him from across the room and Sasuke brushed off Suigetsu. His presence gathered the attention of some people and he sat down next to Shikamaru Nara. Ino practically squealed and he got some murmured greetings. Sasuke didn't hang out with a lot of people, but he partied with a lot of people. The strobing lights began making him slightly woozy so he downed his beer enjoying the rush of alcohol straight to his blood. Just what I needed.
OoOoO
The rest of the night was spent getting fucked up and at some point he remembered Suigetsu taking off part of his clothes and dancing on his own granite counters. Eventually he wound up smoking on Suigetsu's back porch.
It was then that someone said, "you know what would be awesome right now? Driving with the windows down and the music blasting. Just ride, man"
Now the guy was stoned out of his fucking mind . He was only fifteen, he couldn't drive. That didn't mean he didn't know how to though.
That was how Sasuke ended up in the driver's seat of one of Suigetsu's cars. Karin was in the passenger's seat, buzzing with excitement. Talking his ear off, he only registered the excited wobbly pitch of her voice.
He wouldn't remember much of the darkness of the surrounding highway, the intensity of the white light, the tires hitting pebbles and grass and Karin's ear splitting scream.
OoOoO
"-urned over...call from female witness..."
"-riving?"
"That fast...lucky..."
Sasuke was smart in that when he came to he didn't open his eyes immediately. Instead, the pain hit him like a brick and he groaned at the pain that blossomed all over, from the palpitations in his head and from his own groan mixed with the clippings of conversation. He could recognize Kakashi's voice as the closest.
It was a bitch to open his eyes and fuck just make it stop.
"Sasuke?"
It was hard enough to get the room to focus and Kakashi's worried face was a thorn in his side making his face twist into a grimace. He blinked the stars out of his vision and took deep breaths gingerly because it even hurt to breathe. Shit.
He almost sat up but a hand encouraged him back and the clicking of heels soon came up to him.
"You're one lucky spoiled punk, I hope you know that" Tsunade said.
"Sasuke what were you thinking? I had to rush over here straight from Sarutobi's office. Do you know how stupid and dangerous it was what you did? We tracked down the Akatsuki and we could've been short handed to send someone from you!"
Kakashi's voice was angry and exasperated and tired. When Sasuke finally had enough motor ability he looked at the bags under his face and didn't acknowledge the stabs of guilt at seeing Iruka and Kakashi's face.
"Why didn't you just tell me, Sasuke" Iruka growled, fists at his side and eyes glassy.
Really pissed them off this time. He wondered if it was a good idea but even sitting in a hospital bed in pain he realized he just couldn't help himself.
"Because I didn't want to, it's none of your business"
His eye peeked at them and Kakashi's mouth was pressed into a fine line, his clean gray hair no longer spikey but tousled. But damn, does it feel good.
Inochi stepped up and pulled away the seething pair.
"Sasuke, what's the last thing you remember?"
Taking shallow breaths through his nose and having Tsunade put something else in his IV drip his mind went blank.
Suigetsu laughing sitting in a storage bin racing another idiot down his stairs like a slip n' slide.
"The party" he murmured and winced as Tsunade tightened some bandages.
"What about the party?"
"Someone dancing on a counter" Suigetsu, again. This got a strange expression from the man and he wrote it down after hesitation. Sasuke could've laughed.
"Who's party was it?"
"I don't know"
"How'd you get the car then, Sasuke?"
"I don't know" he heard a sound of frustration from someone in the room.
"What if I told you that that car belonged to your friend Suigetsu? Would you still not know then?" Inochi sounded sure of himself and Sasuke scoffed softly.
"If you knew, why ask?" He licked his lips and swallowed to get rid of his dry throat.
"If it was his car he must've given me the keys, only he would know where they are."
Inochi stayed quiet and tapped his pen against his pad.
"Alright Sasuke, you should be careful, really. Tsunade knows how close you and Karin were to doing something really dangerous." Karin? I hadn't even thought of her.
"You managed to swerve off the highway and avoid any collisions with anybody but the car rolled a few times. Some woman saw and called. It's good you weren't going past the speed limit or not you would've flown right through the front windshield. I contacted Suigetsu's parents and they're going to talk to Kakashi and Iruka to settle somewhere."
Sasuke looked at him from the corner of his eye and Inoichi examined the scrapes he knew were littering his face.
"Is there anything else you want to say?"
"No"
"Okay then, when you do, you know where to find me." With that the man turned to leave the room and his guardians murmured their thanks to him.
Tsunade quickly went from scowling opinion-inserting bystander to scowling doctor.
"As of right now you have very bad bruising all over your body, you broke your ulna, cracked part of your radius-which isn't too bad, the splint will allow for monitored swelling. A minor concussion and some smoke inhalation. So pretty much you're just banged up pretty bad but nothing severe. Your friend is in better shape than you, if you were curious..."
She didn't get any answer and he could almost feel her growing disdain for him from lack of curiosity. Tsunade was a strange woman, she made no effort to hide her dislike of him but he knew she pitied him.
"How long is he going to have be in here for?" Kakashi murmured
"Just until everything heals, which could be a two weeks at most. The break is going to take longer."
Iruka looked relieved and Kakashi just nodded. She excused herself and they were left stranded in the quicksand of thick uncomfortable silence.
OoOoO
Iruka and Kakashi didn't stay long in the hospital. After being yelled at and chided for a little bit more they had gone home. What were they going to do anyway? he thought. Kakashi was with the police force and Sarutobi was too much of a softie towards him to send him to a detention center, he pretty much had a free pass. There were no real consequences for Sasuke, what's the worst they could do? Ground me? Take away what? He wasn't worried and whatever they put in the IV drip was pretty amazing he thought since he quickly fell into a deep sleep.
OoOoO
It was a big job to deal with all the shit Tsunade had to deal with. As the head of hospital she micromanaged everyone and in some cases like those with the Akatsuki case, she would provide her assistance. Those teenagers in pediatrics were wearing her out. Those damn kids are going to be the death of me.
At the moment there were only a couple of cases that she was truly interested in and handled personally. Two of them were involved in the Akatsuki case; Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki. His redhead friend had caught her interest too...that was until she found out his last name was Sabaku. The Sabaku's from Suna were in a high position of political power and Tsunade had had to dig just for his name. The Sabaku's probably had an entire army of doctors. If it was released to the press that the boy Gaara had been associate with the Akatsuki the press would have a field day. But Tsunade didn't know enough about him, why would a politician's son end up in such a position anyway?
The other child of interest was Kakashi's brat, Sasuke...but that was more of a moral obligation since he was Kakashi and Iruka's charge. Oh God does that boy give me high blood pressure.
So Tsunade sat looking at Naruto and Sakura's blood work results among others too, and as expected both had deficiencies in vitamins and amino acids that came from malnutrition. Sakuras malnutrition was worse than Naruto's and both had low iron levels. Nothing extreme if treated, really.
The reason Sakura intrigued her was because of her story and relation to Yahiko and Naruto because he was a cheeky boy who lacked a connection between a filter and his mouth. She saw some of herself in him during his crass moments.
At eleven, (after some much needed rest) Tsunade headed down to make her daily rounds. The first ones was Sasuke. He was sitting in his hospital bed on his phone. He looked up once before he ignored her. She was going to ask if he was having any issues, nah, he would tell me if he did, ungrateful brat.
She grabbed his clipboard and after doing a basic check up rubbed the bridge of her nose. Right before she left she murmured, "you should apologize"
Boy, if looks could kill.
The next stop was Naruto. But the boy was not in his room even though the tv was on.
"-an accident, I swear"
The boy came in begin pushed in by a scowling guard. His socked feet glided on the floor.
"What happened?"
"I found him loitering the halls when I realized he hadn't just gone to the bathroom."
"Ah, and what were you doing, exactly?"
Naruto didn't look happy at the guard and plopped down on the bed dramatically, the gown almost falling off his shoulder. He looks too small for his age she noticed.
"It just so boring here! What is this a prison!"
"That's why you have the tv and do not take out your IV" she went about doing the same basic process.
"Yea but...I can't just stay in a bed all day. No ones meant to stay in a bed all day. Can I go outside?"
"Ask that again and use your brain" she said checking his pulse.
"I'd like to say the answer is yes" he said rolling his eyes up to the ceiling.
"Try again"
"Urgh you old hag why?"
Old hag...old hag. OLD HAG.
"You are lucky you are my patient or not you would be through that wall right now" she threatened lowly, sadistic twinkle in her amber eyes. He met her glare right back and crossed his arms, unimpressed. He looked reminiscent to a squinting cat.
"Pft whatever, can I at least get some ramen here? They don't have any in the cafeteria, I already checked."
That threw her off. "Ramen?...What?"
"You heard me, ramen. Hospital food sucks. Surely you must have already heard that somewhere"
"I don't deal with food"
"Yea but you're the head person figure lady so surely it's within your power, if not, then really what are you doing?"
It never bid a doctor well to hurt patients.
"We are not discussing the cafeteria choices right now...how often did you eat ramen?" A small thought popped into her head and his blue eyes shifted.
"I dunno, I used to eat it everyday."
My God this dumbass.
He must have been amused with her expression because glee surfaced on his face. No wonder he's bigger than Sakura but just as malnourished.
"Do you have any idea how much sodium is in a bowl of that crap. Do yourself a favor and don't eat that" with that Tsunade took note of his vitals and left the room.
"Well then what am I supposed to eat you old bat!" He bellowed.
The last round for the morning was Sakura. The girl was much easier to deal with than the other two. She was sitting in the lounge area with the other kids, cross legged with a book in her lap but her head to the tv. Her IV was besides her.
"Sakura. Check up" her head snapped in her direction and she followed Tsunade back, wheeling it besides her.
The girl could only be described as super skinny and fragile.
"Alright Sakura how are you feeling?"
"I feel better" She was looking better than she was earlier. She was also eyeing the stethoscope. Tsuande noticed that every time she would use an instrument or anything of the sort she would eye it with curiosity.
"It's called a stethoscope."
"Huh? Oh" her eyes became and alert, she had looked like she had been building castles in the the air.
"Look" Tsunade wasn't sure what possessed her but she put the buds in her ears and let her listen to her own pulse.
"Yea, I wanted to be a doctor when I was younger."
"Really?"
"Mhmm" the thought made Tsunade smile just a bit.
"How'd you sleep?"
"Fine"
Tsunade checked her eyes and watched the leafy green color grow.
"You are doing much better, any questions?" The girl lapsed into silence before she adjusted her gown.
"How long do you think I'm going to be in here for?"
"It depends on your body, hopefully nothing unexpected happens"
Her expression grew thoughtful and she nodded, okay. The girl was already aware of Sarutobi digging for family.
"I've noticed your braids are so well done" Tsunade wasn't sure what possessed her to say something like that, she wasn't the girly type.
"I didn't do them myself"
"Really, who did"
"Konan"
Her eyebrows rose in surprise and Sakura turned away from her expression to look at the tv. Well that caught Tsunade off guard.