Out Of It

II

That night, Sasuke lay awake in his new bed, unable to sleep despite the meds. The problem may have had something to do with the fact that every ten minutes a nurse would poke his or her head into the room, saying,

"Checks."

Sasuke winced at the sudden light from the hallway and looked over at his roommate, whose eyes were also open. He had gotten into bed as the hyperactive Naruto but, as Sasuke was learning, Kyuubi could show up at any moment.

"Why do they do that?" Sasuke asked tiredly.

"They're just doing Checks," Naruto whispered. "They'll space them out after you've been here awhile. Which means we'll have to be quick."

Sasuke noted the change in voice the second before Kyuubi leapt onto his bed. While straddling Sasuke, Kyuubi grabbed his wrists, bent low and brought their lips together for the second time. This kiss was substantially deeper than their previous one. Sasuke felt a tongue slide into his mouth and his eyes slipped closed involuntarily.

Sasuke pulled back, breathing a little harshly. "Why...what are you..."

"I liked the kiss, even if little Naruto was confused as hell," he responded with a smug smile. He leaned down to steal another kiss and though Sasuke obligingly met his mouth at first, he then quickly twisted his head sideways.

"Stop," he said firmly. The tight grip on his wrists loosened suddenly.

"S-sasuke?" Naruto said nervously. "Shit. Shit! I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry..."

Sasuke looked up at the blonde teen sitting on him. His blue eyes were wide with remorse as he apologized again and again.

"It...it's okay. Nothing's...wrong," Sasuke said awkwardly.

Unsurprisingly, Naruto didn't look convinced in the least. He sat utterly miserable on his roommate; even his odd sleeping cap seemed to droop. Sasuke's mind raced as he tried to remember exactly what people did to comfort one another.

Unfortunately, the only thing he could remember at that moment was hurt/comfort sex, which Sasuke didn't think was quite what this situation needed. He eventually reasoned with himself that he could just do the first part of the comforting. There was not need to go all the way, he was sure.

Impulsively, he leaned up and put his arms around Naruto's shoulders. Tentatively, Naruto reached up to return the uncomfortable hug.

"I feel bad," Naruto mumbled into Sasuke's t-shirt clad shoulder. "I knew too. I knew he liked what happened earlier. Damn it. ...how's your nose?"

"Okay," Sasuke said stiffly. What the hell was he supposed to do now?

That decision was taken away from him as Sasuke felt the effects of the meds dimming his mind like a light. Naruto seemed to be going boneless too.

A couple minutes later, Kakashi stuck his head in. The word "checks" died before he even opened his mouth. Usually, it was mandatory that patients sleep one to a bed since some woke up in a volatile manner. But Kakashi wasn't stupid. A sociopath allowing someone else in such close proximity might bring some good. And not just for Sasuke.

Naruto had been considered something of an outcast in C-class because of Kyuubi's explosive moods. Kakashi sighed as he pulled a blanket over the two sleeping boys.

Maybe, just maybe these two could help each other. Kakashi looked over his shoulder one last time before quietly shutting the door.

Sasuke awoke to someone's breath on his neck and he immediately froze. Naruto was cradled against him, his arm over Sasuke's chest and his face pressed against Sasuke's shoulder.

"Ne, Sasuke?" Naruto said, sounding awake. "What's this tattoo on your neck for?"

This was it for Sasuke. He hurriedly shoved Naruto away and scrambled out of the bed, his hand flying up to cover the mark on his neck protectively. Naruto yelped slightly as he avoided falling off the bed himself.

"Nothing. It means nothing," Sasuke said before making a quick exit, still wearing the t-shirt and shorts he wore to bed. In his hurry, he nearly collided with Asuma in the hall.

"Oh, there you are, Sasuke. It's time for your meeting with Iruka. Are you ready?"

Sasuke looked up at the mammoth of a man, the words not sinking in. In the end, Sasuke wound up sitting in Iruka's office wearing his pajamas and a foul mood.

Iruka tried not to sigh. He was quickly learning that Sasuke would be exasperatingly uncooperative on his good days. And that bad days like today were going to be nothing but spiked roadblocks.

"I understand you spent last night in the same bed as your roommate," Iruka said, looking at his patient curiously. "Anything you want to tell me about that?"

Sasuke scowled. If it was one thing he really did not want to talk about right now, it was Naruto.

"Have you become friends with Naruto?" Iruka queried.

"Why? Is that bad?" Sasuke asked sarcastically.

Iruka wanted to say 'not at all' but his job prompted him to ask, "Does it feel bad?"

"No."

"Before you came here, did you have many friends?"

"No," Sasuke said, his nose scrunching slightly.

"What is it?" Iruka asked, notebook perched on his lap. "Are you puzzled about something?"

"Yeah, I guess I am," Sasuke drawled, leaning backwards on the couch lazily. "I'm puzzled as to why I have to be in a mental institution."

"You put yourself here."

"The cops put me here."

"No, they didn't."

"Everyone here's fucking crazy!"

"You want to go home."

"Tch. Same problem."

Another productive day of therapy, Sasuke thought sarcastically as he was later escorted from Iruka's office back to the ward. The first thing he heard as he reached the girl's hall was a loud singing that undoubtably belonged to his obnoxious roommate.

"Razors pain you; rivers are damp;
acid stains you; drugs cause cramp."

As they approached the rec room, Sasuke saw Naruto sitting around one of the square tables with three others.

"Guns aren't lawful;
nooses give..."

"Shut up, Naruto," Sakura muttered across from him.

"...gas smells awful;
you might as well live!"

As soon as he'd finished, he threw his cards down.

"Gin!" Naruto crowed.

"Asshole," Ino grumbled from his left.

"Fatso," Naruto retaliated; Ino went pale.

One of the orderlies, an older woman with red eyes, drew near to the table with a clipboard in hand.

"Gaara, your sister's here to see you," Kurenai said, tucking a recalcitrant brown curl behind her ear.

The fourth card player calmly lowered his hand to the table as Sasuke approached. They all looked over as a girl with dirty-blond hair entered, carrying what looked like a small dried gourd in her hands.

"Temari." Gaara spoke without emotion. He looked as though he'd memorized the name out of a book. Nevertheless, he stood and walked towards her.

She gave him a nervous smile before speaking.

"It's been a while since I saw you last. I thought you would want more sand--"

"Father and Kankurou are still too afraid to come after what happened with Yashamaru, right?" Gaara said, eying the gourd Temari held out to him. She didn't say anything and at length, Gaara reached out and took it from her.

Sasuke saw her flinch slightly but gave her some credit for trying to hide her fear.

"Not going to talk to your big sister?" She weedled.

"I've never really thought of you as my sibling," Gaara said, his voice never changing tone. He turned and walked down the boys' hall to his room.

Temari looked after her brother guiltily for a moment. Then her eyes hardened and she turned and walked out of the ward without looking back.

"Oy..."

Naruto poked Sasuke in the back twice. Sasuke spun around to swat the hand away. He was about to give Naruto a warning look but then the blond held up a bottle of bright red nail polish.

Sasuke just blinked instead, and Naruto grinned and spun on his heel. He marched off down the girls' hall towards the staircase. And Sasuke, fuelled by curiosity if nothing else, followed, wondering what sort of surprise Naruto had in store now.

The orange and black-clad boy led them up one floor. They passed Asuma on the stairs and Sasuke wondered if he would put an end to their little adventure. But all he said to them was, "Ah, going for a visit?"

Naruto grinned again and nodded, holding up the little bottle for Asuma to see. The large orderly nodded back before continuing down the stairs. The two boys met a pair of double doors, which Naruto marched through happily. They found themselves in a hallway similar to their dorms downstairs, though it was much less populated.

Looking around, Sasuke noted that many of the doors were marked 'S' and had little square windows in them. His heart skipped a beat as Naruto obliviously proceeded to stride down the centre of the hallway.

Was this S-Class? Could Itachi have been that close all this time?

Sasuke stopped and looked back and forth between the miniscule windows of all the doors. Which one was his brother's? Could he get into these rooms? Which door should he start with?

"Here we are!" Naruto said loudly, startling Sasuke from his frantic thoughts.

He looked over to see that Naruto had reached the end of the hall and was gesturing for him to follow through one of the doors. Sasuke walked unsteadily after his friend, appearing stoic even as his heart pounded almost painfully. The room they entered was filled with two rows of six beds and each bed had thick straps attached to them. Sasuke eyed them as Naruto skipped towards the only occupied bed.

"Hey there, Haku!" He greeted loudly.

The pale boy in the bed was wearing a hospital gown and had his arms strapped to his sides by what looked like a large white belt. Another belt lay across his legs. He had been lying absolutely still under the restraints but when Naruto spoke, he looked over blearily and gave a small smile.

Dragging a metal stool over, Naruto perched on it and unscrewed the bottle of gaudy red nail polish. Sasuke stood nearby with his arms folded across his chest and a frown marring his features.

"Why do you keep doing this?" Haku asked, his voice a raspy whisper. Naruto dragged the little brush over the smallest fingernail on one of the boy's limp hands.

"When you stop looking like a girl, then I'll stop painting your nails," Naruto said with a childish grin. He moved onto the next nail, leaving the previous one glinting like a small ruby.

"Hey! You'll love this! I heard it's going to be a bad winter with LOTS of snow! Which means blizzards and snowmen and..."

Naruto's chatter faded into a quiet buzz in Sasuke's ears. The colours in the room around him seemed to melt and run together until everything was grey. Everything except the nail polish, which was still glaringly red.

Sasuke gripped his arms tighter and dug his fingers into his skin. He could hear his blood pulsing in his ears and it drowned out every other sound. He couldn't hear Naruto or Haku at all anymore. His breathing sped up and panic began uncurling in his chest at a frightening rate.

Then suddenly, Naruto's finger slipped and the small bottle dropped slightly. He caught it in time to save most of the nail polish, but not before some of the red liquid splashed out.

Sasuke's eyes never left the drops as they fell towards the ground. Time slowed to a crawl right as they crashed into the tiled floor. And Sasuke stopped breathing. He took a clumsy step backwards.

He glanced back up at the grey form of Naruto and was met with fierce eyes, eyes that were a glittering crimson. Sasuke's last lucid thought was, Kyuubi? before the red utterly sucked him in and all he could see was red.

Eyes...Red eyes...Red drops...Red drips...Red drops...Red blood...Red...RED...RED

Suddenly he was out in the hallway, scrambling on the linoleum floors as he ran from door to door. Where was he? Where was Itachi? Red eyes. He had to KILL him. He could feel his own eyes being dyed that horrible colour. His parents...God...Itachi splattered their...red...sticky...it had been everywhere. WHICH DOOR WAS IT?

Sasuke beat his fist against one of the doors, trying to get a view through the window.

"Get the fuck out here, Itachi!" He screamed. "I'm going to kill you! I'm going to kill you!"

Suddenly, a large pair of arms grabbed him from behind. He viciously pushed and pulled at them, trying to claw his way back to the door he was sure hid his brother from him. He felt the sensation of a prick in his arm and started struggling more. Then his vision blurred, the grey world regaining some hints of its old colour before finally sinking into a quiet black.

Sasuke spent a few hours just resting in the dark peace of dreamless sleep before finally coming to. As he began to stir and become more aware of the world, he heard someone approach his bed. He raised a hand to his eyes, trying to rub away the heavy remnants of the drugs. He slowly rolled onto his side and got a blurred glimpse of orange and black pants.

Looking up, Sasuke decided that his eyelids weighed about forty pounds. Each. But if he didn't see the face, Sasuke wouldn't know who he was dealing with. As his vision cleared a little, Sasuke nearly groaned. That toothy sneer was a dead giveaway that it was Kyuubi standing over his bed.

"Psycho," the blond said, hands on hips as he looked down at his roommate.

"Time?"

"After lights-out, dumbass. It's dark."

"They didn't...strap me down?" Sasuke croaked out. His throat was dry as as hell. With hell being a bag of extra-salt potato chips in the centre of a desert.

"What? Like pretty little Haku? Nah. You're not quite that fucked up yet. You'll get there eventually," Kyuubi said nastily.

Sasuke tiredly pulled himself up into a sitting position. He was about to ask exactly how bad someone had to get to earn a bed with straps, but a loud crash in the hallway distracted him.

"My hair!" Someone was screaming.

Sasuke dragged himself over to the door as Kyuubi flopped onto his bed. He peered out to see the figures of three people in the hallway's night-lights.

"Seclusion. Take her to Seclusion. Come on," Sasuke heard Kakashi say in a strained voice.

"I got you," Kurenai spoke soothingly to the third figure, who was clawing at her head.

"My hair! What happened to my hair?" The girl screamed.

It took one or two tries but finally Kurenai and Kakashi got the doors to the stairs open. The girl just kept crying and screaming, "My hair! My hair!"

Kakashi leant down and in one big swoop, picked the girl up in his arms as Kurenai tried to calm her.

"Quieten down. Quieten down. You're all right."

The haphazard trio moved through the door and began making their way up the stairs. Sasuke listened to the girl's cries of, "I'm ugly! My hair! I'm ugly! Why?" until they were too distant to make out.

By this time, Sasuke was nearly fully out into the hallway. He was beginning to realize why the sleeping pills were so necessary. He stepped back into his room, belatedly noticing that someone had changed him into a hospital gown. He moved to his dresser to pull out a t-shirt and shorts to sleep in.

"What happened to Sakura?" He asked nonchalantly. Gods forbid he sound interested in something.

"What?"

Sasuke looked over his shoulder to find Naruto sitting up, giving him a puzzled look.

"That was Sakura right? What happened to her hair?"

"Oh." A sad look came over the blonde. "Kin kept pulling and pulling at her hair and then--we call her Inner Sakura--that's her other half--got mad and took over. And when Kin didn't stop, Sakura took this sharp piece of metal that I think she broke off the cards table and just...cut all her hair off. Just like that. She nearly hurt Kin really badly. Then they gave her the needle. I...I guess the other Sakura just woke up now," he finished shakily.

He drew his knees up to his chest as Sasuke finished getting into his pajamas, leaving the ugly hospital gown on the floor. The dark-haired boy climbed back into his bed and began making himself comfortable. He glanced at his roommate, who was still curled up in the fetal position on his own bed, lost in thought.

Sighing, Sasuke realised this was another situation that would involve comfort. Just because he was a sociopath didn't mean he was stupid. And if Naruto was awake all night, he'd probably end up keeping him awake too.

"Naruto."

His roommate looked over at him with sad eyes. Sasuke knew he could be loud and obnoxious but it wasn't difficult to see that Naruto beat himself up every time one of his friends got hurt. Sasuke nearly scoffed. As if the idiot actually thought he could make everyone better by himself.

"Do you want..." Sasuke started awkwardly, unsure of how to phrase his question. He ended up just gesturing to his bed and pulling back the covers helplessly. Talking was not his strong suite.

Naruto just gave a small nod. He pulled off his orange pants and black t-shirt, leaving only his green boxers. Sasuke concentrated on the ceiling and tried not to think about the voice in the back of his head chiding him for getting into such an awkward situation and how this was a really bad idea and how the morning would only be worse and...

But then he felt Naruto's warm body cautiously climb in next to him. Thoughts of how much body heat the other boy had replaced all others. Sasuke really tried not to blush as he suddenly became conscious of just how small these beds were. He lay stiff as a board, still not daring to look away from the beige ceiling.

After a few minutes, he awkwardly reached an arm around the blond, allowing Naruto to shift slightly closer to him. Their knees knocked together and the voice in Sasuke's head went back to calling him an idiot. The sociopath swore that this would be the absolute last time he would ever share his bed with anyone. Ever.

But a few minutes later, he heard rhythmic breathing, a sure sign that his roommate had fallen asleep. And not long after, Sasuke felt himself relax into the clumsy embrace. And although a part of him labelled this as the most embarrassing position he'd ever been in, Sasuke still fell asleep before Checks were called in four minutes later.

End Part Two