Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, as always. Sadly.
Chapter XII: Somebody Waiting For Me
"Hello, Sai-san. Today, I'm going to show you around the school…"
"Bastard! Idiot! Bonehead!" Foul words continued to escape her lips in a stream of swearing and badmouthing, but he only sneered. "You're going to pay for this!"
"P… please." It was almost frightening; how the voice that had been hissed angrily at him for months could sound so shamefully pleading… so desperate… how the apple green eyes bulged as though about to fall out of their sockets, begging him… "S-save… Sasuke… k… un…"
"Excuse me," a voice called gently, as though from far away. Waking up with a start, the pale-skinned art teacher's eyelids flipped open, facing a friendly-looking nurse.
He didn't even bother to greet her; he was startled – whether it was because of the dream he had had, or because of her sudden appearance was unclear. However, she didn't seem offended by this. "We've to treat her wounds now," she explained, still with the soft, caring voice as before, "if that is alright?"
He wanted to say something – even though he knew it was useless, as they didn't even need his permission in the first place – but his mind found no words. Instead, he merely nodded. The nurse smiled kindly. "Perhaps you'd like to go home and sleep? You've been here since she was taken in last evening, haven't you? You must be exhausted."
"There's no need," he found himself saying. "I can still wait."
"Oh, but surely there must be somebody waiting for you at home? And you do seem very sleep-deprived, you know. Maybe if you'd like to, we could give you a receipt so you can pick up some sleeping pills from the pharmacy…?"
He shook his head. "Thanks, but no thanks." And it's not like…
"Are you sure?" He only nodded in response, too tired to say anything else.
…. there's somebody to wait for me, either.
His eyes travelled to the still unconscious, roseate-haired girl – no, woman – lying on the hospital bed.
Not anymore, at the very least.
"I…" Naruto trailed off, at a loss for words as he looked hopelessly at the blonde whom he had once been friends with. "… you know…"
"You don't need to tell me," was her simple response. Naruto looked at her with slight disbelief in his azure-blue orbs. "I know it's unsafe, with Sasuke-kun's current condition."
"Yeah." Naruto paused. "He's…" He silenced again. No explanation needed to be told; both knew what the rest of the sentence was.
"I know." Ino smiled bitterly, "but then again, I'm used to it. I can wait. At least, this time… there's somebody waiting for me to come back."
Her cryptic words seemed to apparently have made sense to Naruto, as he made no attempt to question them. Instead, he asked gravely, "How's Sakura-chan?"
Ino bowed her head. "No good. Same as…" She hesitated. "Same as before."
"Just our luck, eh?" Naruto laughed, but it was no sincere laugh – it sounded hollow and dark, the kind of laughter that had never suited him – that just didn't fit him. "It's like history has a knack for repeating itself."
"Yeah." Both went quiet again, before Ino continued, "How's Hinata, then? I haven't been to see her –" She stopped. She was about to say, "for seven years", but they needed no reminders. Both knew how long time had passed since last.
"Perfectly fine. We're about to celebrate our anniversary in a week… if we feel for celebrating, that is." He grinned half-heartedly. "But I hear you and Shikamaru are an item. Congrats."
A look of surprise appeared on Ino's face. "How did you know?"
A soft laugh emitted from his mouth. "News travel fast."
"I guess."
Silence fell once more – if you could call it silence. Distant screams, groans and hisses could be heard as they passed door after door, sometimes disheveled faces showing up behind the tiny windows with bars that gave them glimpses of the rooms they were imprisoned in.
And then, after what seemed to be an eternity of walking down the gloomy corridors where there seemed to be hardly any walls, just an infinite amount of doors and its miserable inhabitants, Naruto stopped. Inside, a savage roar could be heard, as though the person inside was more of an animal than a human, and the sound of claws scratching skin and walls could be recognized as well, making Ino's heart ache painfully out of worry and sadness.
Is he hurting himself? she wondered, but the question was soon answered by Naruto, whom seemed to have read her mind: "Several of the staff members have requested to give him handcuffs or a straitjacket, but I think that it'd be better for him to not have that. After all, I doubt he can damage himself more than he has, because he wants to stay alive to see her…"
"I see." Ino forced herself to smile.
Naruto made no reply; instead, he turned to the window. "Sasuke?" his voice called out coolly, hard as stone. "You've a visitor."
Immediately, the animalistic hisses and roars stopped, and was replaced by a ragged, impatient breathing. "Wh-who?" he wanted to know, desperately. "Who is it? Is it… is it her?" His eyes widened.
The blonde opened his mouth to answer, but his voice failed him. Instead, he opened the door so that Ino could come inside, shedding dim light into the already half-dark cell. Ino fought desperately not to start crying as she smiled forcedly and said, "Hi, Sasuke-kun. Long time no see."
Sakura's POV
Suddenly, the scene with Ino disappeared, replaced by one where another familiar blue-eyed blonde running towards me. It seemed that it had gone about a couple of months or so, since the cherry blossom trees had stopped to bloom.
"Sakura-chaaaan!" his loud voice shouted as he sprinted towards the younger me.
"NARUTO! DON'T BE SO LOUD!" the younger version of myself surprisingly scolded him, bonking him on the head with a book. I stared at myself and the blonde in surprise. Uzumaki-san?!
"Ow! But Sakura-chan… you're loud yourself," he whined, but as he lay there on the ground, I towered over him, green eyes flashing dangerously, as though in a cartoon.
"What did you say?" my voice menacingly hissed, as he nervously grinned.
"Ah… nothing, Sakura-chan…" He arose, beaming. "But I knew you'd be waiting for me!"
I couldn't believe my eyes. He was so different from the Uzumaki-san in the present time; why hadn't he told me we had once been friends? His playful behavior… his hyper attitude…
"Maybe Sakura-chan's crushing on me, ne?"
"Stop dreaming, Uzumaki Naruto," I – or would it be easier to say she, as she was so different from me – snorted. "C'mon, let's head home."
"Yeah, yeah." He grinned goofily. "But one day, Sakura-chan, you've to confess! And then we can ALWAYS wait for each other - "
A sudden punch in the face distracted him as I – I mean, she – shrieked, "IDIOT!"
"Sakura-chan… that hurt…," he wailed as he got up again.
"Don't get any ideas! I'm only waiting for you because then I'll have somebody to wait for! Ino-pig lives on the other side of town!"
Somebody to wait for…
"I know that Sakura-chan secretly – waaah, don't hit me again!" Uzumaki-san exclaimed in pretended fright as she clenched her fist threateningly, stretching it backwards to punch. "I'm just glad that someb- I mean, Sakura-chan's waiting for me!"
Somebody waiting for me…
"Yeah, yeah! Just hurry up!"
… is it really that much to ask for? Is it really that difficult to achieve?
Do I really not deserve that?
End Sakura's POV
"Hyuuga?"
Soot-colored eyes widen in surprise. "What're you doing here?" Sai wanted to know.
"Visiting Sakura, what else?" Neji responded. Sai resisted the urge to slap his forehead. But of course.
"Visitors aren't allowed." Sai paused. "At least not now, when they're treating her wounds."
"Oh." Neji stopped in his tracks. As though struggling internally, he finally took a seat next to Sai on one of the red chairs in the white-painted corridor.
"You… you know Sakura was…" Sai hesitated. "Was crushing on you, right?"
"Crush?" Neji sneered. "No, but I knew of her infatuation."
"Excuse me?"
"The feelings were disillusioned." He averted his gaze away from the angered painter. "… And never returned."
"You bastard…" Sai gritted his teeth, standing up, grabbed hold of the collar of Neji's shirt, pulling him into a standing position as well.
"Because," Neji's somewhat forced smirk widened, "she never loved me in the first place. She was in love with somebody else."
Sai let go of Neji. "… Uchiha Sasuke," he murmured through his gritted teeth. "I'm going to kill you."
Sakura's POV
"Bye, Sakura-chaaan!"
She smiled briefly as she waved a farewell at the blonde, returning to his home – if you could call it a home. The orphan lived alone, though he was underage; but nobody cared to report it, because as people saw it, he'd be better off being adopted, and they wouldn't want that. After all his parents had done before committing suicide, they weren't going to let go of their son so easily.
How I had got to know this without even being told, I had no idea. But suddenly, all kinds of information just rushed to me – that we were both bullied, that he was the one to talk to me first, that he and Uchiha-san hated each other…
The thoughts of the former me seemed to flow into my mind as we neared what was my – her – home, the school day had seemed pretty well. Ino, or Ino-pig, as I used to refer to her, had been kind of a nuisance because she had tried to get Uchiha-san's attention by loudly criticizing me, but then I had played with Uzumaki-san and spied on Uchiha-san slightly with the other girls…
She shuddered as she came to a halt in front of the house I used to live in. A drunken, stifled roar could be heard from within, and whether it was out of anger or happiness was hard to tell – she had to find out soon anyway. Not that it mattered. She'd get beaten up either way.
As her hand rested on the garden fence's low door – barely reaching her chest – to push it open, she froze as she heard a familiar scream. Twirling around, she stared wide-eyed at the source of the noise: Uchiha-san's house! I could feel a shiver going down my own spine. What was happening in there?
Sounds that sounded like somebody hitting somebody else could be heard as the screams continued to sound, as a woman shrieked: "No! No! Stop! Please… please… STOP! No!" The hitting didn't stop, but it didn't seem like it was the woman who was being hit, as the other scream – belonging to Uchiha-san, I presumed as I felt panic arise – continued.
Soon, the woman's voice started to ramble on by itself: "Le… leave me alone… n… no… the darkness… no… stop… I… don't… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH –"
I felt my entire body stiffen in pure fear; during my time as a psychiatrist, I had never heard such a bloodcurdling scream, such a pained, suppressed fright – this woman was clearly suffering from some sort of illness that made her relive past events by seeing things that reminded her – as she started sobbing wildly, the other scream still continuing, the other still hitting…
"STOP! I ORDER YOU TO STOP! ITACHI!" a male's voice bellowed furiously. "AND SASUKE! IS THIS HOW I TAUGHT YOU? IS IT?" A loud slap could be heard as the woman whimpered loudly, Uchiha-san's scream finally stopping. And then…
"AND DON'T YOU COME BACK BEFORE YOU'VE LEARNT YOUR LESSON!" the voice boomed again as Uchiha-san was thrown out, his body covered in bruises and injuries, his cheek still burning from the slap, as he rolled around slightly on the lawn, lying on the garden path as I glimpsed a wildly sobbing woman behind the man whom had thrown him out – a brown-haired, tall man…
I felt petrified – and it seemed like the past me felt the same as well, because she only stared, wide-eyed, at Uchiha-san, whom struggled to get up, and then shot a nasty glare at her when he noticed her presence, snarling: "So, had a nice time eavesdropping? Going to take a picture and show the others in school what's become of the prestigious Uchiha Sasuke? Eh?!"
His voice was bitter, and the tone was filled with menace; yet she didn't as much as quiver… only stare, with her large, sparkling green eyes.
"I…," she started weakly, but was rudely cut off again:
"Just leave me alone!"
And with those words, he turned on his heel and stomped away. She proceeded to follow him, but then, a familiar sentence echoed in her thoughts – and in mine as well:
He is waiting for you. Don't make him wait.
She shivered, looking distressed as she was apparently torn between two choices. At last, she reluctantly turned away from the direction Uchiha-san had gone, and slowly walked into the house.
As she slowly took off her shoes and her coat, a familiar figure staggered into view, squinting at her with something in his hand. I only stifled a gasp, but the past me didn't look surprised at all, only the slightest frightened.
A knife.
"I've been waiting for you… little princess," he breathed, his eyes still squinting as though he was trying to focus on where she was. "Welcome home."
Only her voice betrayed her, and mine, mutual feelings as it shook. "I'm home."
End Sakura's POV
"You're…" Sasuke trailed off.
"Ino, Yamanaka Ino. Already forgotten?" She fought to keep smiling as the door closed behind them, engulfing them in the half-darkness thanks to the lamp that hung far overhead.
"…" He didn't respond. But she knew he hadn't… after all, she was Sakura's best friend.
"Where's Sakura?" he instead wanted to know, deep onyx meeting pale sapphire.
"In the hospital," she promptly answered, her voice devoid out of any emotion; it was soft, and shaking just the slightest, but that was all. She didn't dare to show any other emotion, afraid to let it all out at once if she did.
"… She still hasn't woken up," he said. It was more of a statement than a question, as though he wanted her to prove him wrong.
"Yeah…" Ino eyed the countless, deep marks of his self-damaging on his arms and face. "Are you… okay…?" she wondered cautiously.
He followed her gaze, and shrugged indifferently as reply.
"Sakura wouldn't want you to hurt yourself," she commented, pressing back tears. Seven years. Seven long years. And nothing has changed at all…
He flinched, and then laughed the same hollow laugh Naruto had laughed before. "You haven't changed at all."
"Maybe…" She smiled slightly. "At least, I know there's somebody waiting for me now."
"Good for you."
But he didn't sound like he meant it.
"Maybe you should return, then."
"You know…" She hesitated. "… she really tries."
"What?" Sasuke snapped, impatient for her to leave.
"… She really tries to remember you."
Sakura's POV
The rain was falling.
Large, fat raindrops smattered against my dirty window as the former me gazed out of it, a look of worry adorning her face. I knew who she was worrying about.
A picture emerged into our mutual mind; a picture of the raged Uchiha-san, glaring at her venomously before stomping off, unable to walk straight due to some injury on his left leg.
"Sasuke-kun…," she murmured quietly for herself, as she looked down at her homework – maths – before finally shaking her head and tiptoeing to her door. Pressing her ear against it, I could also hear the large snores from the bedroom next-door. She put her hand on the doorhandle, and pressing it down, she winced.
A shot of pain appeared in my left arm as well as hers, and we both clutched it with our right hands; and then, she gently got out into the hall, silently walking down the stairs before getting what looked like a first aid kit from the kitchen and walked out into the rainy darkness, only lit by the golden street lamps, giving the impression that there were people lurking everywhere.
She headed hurriedly off unto a familiar path – the way to the cherry blossom park – and as she reached it, she let out a sigh of relief. On the bench she and Uchiha-san had sat on earlier in my previous flashback, sat Uchiha-san, apparently staring intently at nothingness. She approached him much more calmly, and when she finally reached him, her – my – voice softly called out:
"Sasuke-kun."
He turned in alarm, and seeing her, he narrowed his eyes. "What're you doing here?" he spat as she came closer, still holding the first aid kit. As he saw what she was holding, he made a hissing noise that sounded like an angry cat. "I don't need your help."
"You should be more careful," she instead says. "Your wounds will be infected."
"I don't give a damn about my wounds," Uchiha-san snapped. "What do you know, anyway? Leave me alone!" he added, pushing her away slightly as she approached. She winced, and fell onto the ground. I felt a surge of pain again, and we both clutched our arms with a pained grimace, until Uchiha-san at last arose, irritation evident in his face, slapping her hand away to investigate the wound. As he rolled up her sleeve, his eyes widened in astonishment.
There were several deep, fresh cuts – evidently from the knife he had been holding, the gashes forming some strange pattern that formed a word.
"'Light'?"
She pulled her arm away from him, not looking into his eyes. She stuttered swiftly: "O-on my way h-home, I m-met a gang and… and they attacked me and…"
"Liar." He narrowed his eyes again. "You always walk with Uzumaki. He'd have stayed with you if you had been attacked."
She bit her lip, blushing.
"It's your father, isn't it?" he continued, wearing a strange face expression that didn't suggest of sympathy at all – just some strange, bitter anger. "I've seen him."
"I know more than you think, Sasuke-kun," she instead replied, eyes filled with tears. "But at least, you're not alone, right?"
"… Idiot," he muttered, dragging her up and firmly pushing her down onto the bench into a sitting position as he opened the first aid kit. "You're the one not being careful. How annoying."
End Sakura's POV
"What do you mean?" he demanded to know, growling the words dangerously.
"Sakura. The doctor says that thankfully, her wounds aren't that deep, but it's the injury to her brain that keeps her comatose. But it there might be a chance that since she has had amnesia before, she might gain her memories back now." She became quiet, but continued once more: "So what she's really doing now is… trying to remember you."
"….."
They stared at each other intently; Ino with some sort of strange determination, Sasuke with a piercing half-glare. Then, Ino finally approached the door again. "I'm going to leave now, Sasuke-kun."
"…."
And only when she had left, when her echoing steps had disappeared, did he allow himself to break down and do something he hadn't done for seven long years – or maybe longer. Uchiha Sasuke, famed psychopath who had caused six psychiatrists' downfall, broke down and cried.
Sakura's POV
"Whaaaaat?!"
Uzumaki-san's eyes became as wide as saucers as he pointed in disbelief at the figure standing underneath the sakura tree, even though it wasn't blooming.
"YOU!" he exclaimed, still shocked to the very core.
"Hn."
"Naruto! Sasuke-kun!" The younger me started to run towards them, beaming. "You didn't wait too long, did you?"
"You're late," Uchiha-san – or Sasuke-kun – said with slight irritation.
"Wha –" Uzumaki-san's – or Naruto's – eyes became even bigger, however that was possible. "You… what… Sakura-chan, what is he doing here?!"
"Waiting for me, of course!" she smiled.
"Whaaaat?!"
"C'mon, let's go!"
Having somebody waiting for you….
"B-but… Sakura-chan…"
… somebody precious…
"Naruto, are you coming or not? We'll be leaving without you!"
… somebody you care for…
"AAAH! WAAAAIT, SAKURA-CHAAN!"
… somebody who cares for you…
"Idiot! Don't be so noisy!"
… isn't that what we all want?
"You're both annoying."
That's why I'm waiting for you too.
End Sakura's POV
"… Hi. How is she?"
Sai shook his head as he refused to meet the blonde's hopeful gaze. "Where's Shikamaru?" he instead asked.
"Oh… he had to leave. Parent-teacher meeting or something…" She tilted her head somewhat curiously. "Shouldn't you be at work, too?"
"I took the day off."
"Oh…"
Silence. Then, "Don't worry. She'll wake up."
Sai looked up, surprised at the remark. Is she comforting me?
As he made the mistake to look into her eyes, he realized she wasn't. She was making a statement.
"After all, Sasuke-kun's waiting for her. And she has never liked to keep him waiting."
Sai's lips curled upwards into an empty smile. "I guess."
Okay. Please don't yell at me. Or kill me.
... I think I might go into hiding. ;.;
So I know this is a really, REALLY late update, and it's pretty lame, too, but please review? I know, it's a frickin' miracle I updated, I was supposed to have updated this ages ago, but my sister broke my goddamn USB, which means that the entire Fear of the Light plot summary thing died with it. I know. And the coming chapters, too. But I found this on my really, really dusty extra-USB, so I decided I should post it. I'm currently now hunting for the rest of the chapters, to see if I've actually saved them somewhere, or if they're as doomed as the plot summary.
If this will ever be finished? Don't ask. I don't know. Hopefully, it will.
Until then, review, please?