Out Of It
VII
The door opened and immediately, Sasuke knew something was wrong. The hallway's night lights were all off, and the figure in the doorway was merely a dark silhouette.
Sasuke squinted and when the figure spoke, his very blood froze in his veins.
"Hello Sasuke."
Sasuke took a shallow breath and swallowed slightly before speaking in a voice barely above a whisper. "Orochimaru."
"You're alone," said the lilting voice. "Where's your crazy roommate?"
Sasuke breathed slowly and didn't respond.
"No matter," the pale man continued. "Come Sasuke. I'm taking you out of here."
Sasuke didn't move. His legs felt like lead underneath the bedcovers. A flicker of annoyance flashed in Orochimaru's eyes but it was gone in the next instant.
"You don't belong here. You're not crazy. We both know that."
"You're wrong. I'm...sick," Sasuke said, his voice just audible enough to make it to the other side of the room, where his brother's old friend stood in the doorway.
"They told you that? You believed them? They don't understand you very well, do they?"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed angrily but Orochimaru merely chuckled.
"You two are definitely brothers. But you have more potential than Itachi. So let's go home, Sasuke." Orochimaru's voice betrayed some of his impatience as he approached Sasuke's bed.
A snakelike smile was plastered onto his face. He struck quickly, his hand latching onto Sasuke's wrist like a vice. In one motion he yanked the teen out from under the covers and off the bed.
Sasuke landed haphazardly on one foot, with one knee hitting the floor hard. He tried not to wince at the sudden pain in his knee. Orochimaru took no notice of the dark-haired teen's discomfort and strode out the door, lugging Sasuke along after him.
Sasuke grunted and tried to break the man's tight grip on his arm as they made their way down the corridor. But Orochimaru's grasp was like steel. When they neared the nurse's station, Sasuke opened his mouth to call out but Orochimaru cut him off.
"The night crew have all been taken care of already," he said with a smirk.
Sasuke's eyes widened and he struggled harder against Orochimaru's firm hold.
Then, out of nowhere, a shoe flew out of the dark hallway and struck Orochimaru on the side of the head with perfect accuracy. His unbreakable stride halted and he paused, frowning at the slight ringing in his ears. They both looked down at the shoe in confusion, noting that it was a girl's shoe.
"Excellent throw!" Cried a voice that seemed unethically loud and hyper for this time at night.
Orochimaru whipped around and his face met a fist like a cement truck. He stumbled backwards, dragging Sasuke with him, before falling to the ground in an unconscious heap.
Sasuke's hand flew to the large, pale fingers even now still gripping his wrist. As soon as he managed to work off Orochimaru's hand, he looked up from his place on the floor to find a thumbs-up sign filling his vision. Behind that was a green jumpsuit and a blinding smile.
Sasuke resisted the urge to groan. Maybe he should have just let Orochimaru kidnap him.
Half and hour later, Sasuke found himself involuntarily still awake and sitting uncomfortably outside the nurse's station in a spinning chair. His knee was throbbing and his wrist was still red.
He spun in circles mindlessly and didn't pay much attention as Gai recounted the story of his brave rescue to two police officers, a story punctuated with many erratic gestures, pats on a yawning TenTen's shoulders, and the occasional in-your-face moment directed at the asleep-on-his-feet Kakashi. Sasuke only zoned back in whenever one of the cops would ask him to verify something.
He also took note Kakashi's request that Orochimaru be legally banned from the hospital grounds. The police officers agreed to do what they could and mentioned that Sasuke's would-be kidnapper would be spending the night in jail.
Kakashi then sent TenTen and Sasuke back to their rooms, cutting off Gai's proposal of a celebration of the triumph of youth and enthusiasm. When Sasuke returned to his empty room, he collapsed on his bed and was dead to the world before he could pull the comforter over himself.
Iruka fidgeted, shifting his clipboard from hand to hand and trying not to think about what could go wrong. He stood next to Sasuke and an old, grey-haired orderly that Sasuke had never seen before.
They stood in front of yet another door with a small window in it on the third floor hallway of the S-class building. The window was higher than Sasuke's line of sight so all he could see of the chamber inside was the ceiling and the tops of the padded, off-white walls.
"Sasuke, are you sure you'll be okay?" Iruka asked for the fifth time that afternoon.
The dark-haired teen was watching the elderly female orderly, who stood silently next to the door his brother lived behind. Figuring it would be in his best interest, Sasuke nodded to Iruka's question.
The psychologist eyed the door a little apprehensively before turning to his patient again. "Because if you're still shaken up over what happened last night, there's no harm in postponing this meeting."
"Dr. Umino, I assure you, I'm ready for this," Sasuke said, sounding more confident than he felt.
Iruka sighed. Then, looking resolute, he nodded to the silent orderly. She turned and unlocked the door with a soft click, and then took a step back, pulling the door with her, leaving Sasuke's path to Itachi wide open.
Feeling the two adults' eyes on him, Sasuke took a step forward. Then another. And another. Until he found himself just inside the doorway. He vaguely recognized the sound of Iruka shuffling closer behind him, but his attention was now completely focused on the figure huddled down in the corner of the little padded room.
As Sasuke stared at his brother, he felt the familiar hatred flair up inside him like a lit firework. But accompanying this usual reaction was the out-of-the-blue thought that Itachi seemed...smaller than Sasuke remembered him. He certainly didn't resemble the threat he used to be now that he was out of his black and red clothes. The hospital gown hung loosely off his shoulders. His once glossy hair, so similar to Sasuke's own, was now straggly and unbrushed.
Maybe it's just the damn hospital gowns that make everyone look so thin and sickly, Sasuke thought, thinking of how Naruto had looked. He took a few controlled breaths. He was expecting the worst and wouldn't have been surprised if his mind had gone into meltdown mode again. But so far, nothing had happened. The world remained in colour. He could still hear everything: Iruka was writing something on his clipboard behind him and also Itachi was mumbling to himself softly.
After months of begging for this meeting, Sasuke was suddenly at a loss for what to do. He had expected a confrontation of some sort. But whenever he had imagined this day, Itachi always started it. He would envision his brother calling him one of his old, condescending pet names and Sasuke would retaliate in some way that would finally break his brother's cool exterior.
Sasuke had to admit, he was just a little disappointed. He had expected the situation to be more dramatic, more epiphany-causing, more life-altering. But all he had done so far was reconfirm that he hated his brother. God damnit, he had wanted this situation to fix something!
Itachi suddenly made what sounded like a bark but what was probably a laugh. He melted out of his odd crouching position until he was sitting limply with his back against the wall. His head lolled weakly to the side and his eyes rested on his younger brother.
Sasuke didn't move. He swallowed quietly.
"It's as though the walls eat," Itachi said suddenly in a voice that sounded like it didn't speak above a mutter very often.
Sasuke frowned and Iruka's note scribbling paused for a second.
"Itachi--" Sasuke started. He was almost grateful when Itachi cut him off; he hadn't been sure how to finish what he was going to say.
"I told you to get stronger than me," he snarled. "Now I'm trapped in a frog's stomach!"
Sasuke blinked. Of all the things he had imagined Itachi would say, that was not on the list.
"Frog's stomach?"
"Courtesy of the Frog Hermit. Little Brother, have you learned nothing? I imagine you've already figured out that fire won't burn through the bile coating the walls. And we're usually so good with fire. So damn good for fire..."
Sasuke watched silently as Itachi's speech dwindled back into haphazard soft mumbling.
"I...I'm done, Iruka," Sasuke said, not taking his eyes off his brother, who seemed to have forgotten his existence.
"Okay, Sasuke," Iruka said gently.
When Sasuke didn't turn around, the kind-hearted psychologist put his clipboard down at his side and reached out to put a hand on the dark-haired teen's shoulder. He then steered him slowly out of the room.
"So how do you feel?" Iruka questioned as they made their way out of the building
"This for your notes?" Sasuke asked.
"Ah you're being difficult. That means you're in a good mood," Iruka said with a good-humoured chuckle.
Sasuke sighed a little and slipped his hands into his pockets. He had a bored expression on his face but Iruka knew better than to judge his patient's mood on that.
"I don't know how I feel," Sasuke said factually.
"Do you still hate your brother?"
"Yes." Sasuke's response was quick and solid. He would never stop hating his brother.
"Do you still want to kill him?"
Sasuke took longer to answer this question. They were halfway between the S-class building and the C-class building that Sasuke had come to think of as home. Iruka looked across Konoha Hospital's grounds, shielding his eyes in the late afternoon light as he waited for his patient's reply.
"I...I still want to kill my brother...but it's almost like I don't have to..." Sasuke said slowly, eyes boring holes into the footpath as they walked.
Naruto's words fluttered through his mind unbidden. Why does it have to be you that kills him?
Iruka saw the look of concentration on the dark-haired teen's face and subtly slowed his gait a bit, hoping to provide more time for him to talk with his patient.
"Itachi should. He needs to be wiped out of existence..." Sasuke trailed off into thought again for a brief second before a look of resolve crossed his face. "No, I don't need to kill my brother. He's...broken...and already destroyed to the point where he can't hurt anyone but himself."
A broad, warm smile graced Iruka's face. Nothing else was said until the two had entered the C-class building. As they climbed the stairs, surprisingly it was Sasuke who broke the comfortable silence.
"Do you think I'll end up like him?" His hand had drifted up to his pale neck to cover his tattoo. But rather than rest it there like he once would have, he merely rubbed the mark distractedly for a second before lowering his arm and returning his hand to his pocket.
"Only if you want to," Iruka supplied soothingly.
Sasuke looked up at his psychologist, who gave him another genuine smile as he held open the door to the ward.
"Thank you, Iruka," Sasuke said, with a bit of difficulty. They both knew he meant more than just the holding open of the door.
"You're welcome," Iruka said as Sasuke passed through the doorway, back into the familiar hallways.
As Sasuke walked down the girls' corridor towards the rec room, he noted that he was in a good mood that had nothing to do with sex for the first time in a long, long while.
He felt good enough to give Hinata a friendly glance as he walked around her in her usual place on the floor and he very nearly smiled at Kin, who had stuck her head out of her room. Nearly.
Unfortunately, his elation began to ebb when he realized there was a commotion in the rec room, near the boys' hallway. The patients in the room that were still consciously aware of their surroundings were all watching--some in mild curiosity, some in fright, some with glee--as Naruto seemed to be having a type of fit.
The blonde had his eyes squeezed shut and his hands were clutching his head as he had what sounded like a vicious argument with himself.
"-worried so much about them? They hate you--They hate you! You're the reason I'm here--I am you!--Shut up!--Just ask your pretty boy, I told him the same thing--Leave him out of this!--And he believes me--Shut it!--Know why? Because it's true!"
At this, the wind seemed to go out of the blond teen's sails. His orange and black-clad shoulders slumped. He appeared to have fallen asleep on his feet.
There was a moment of utter pin-dropping silence before he snapped back awake, like a toy that had just been plugged in. A crooked smile crossed his face and Sasuke realized with some worry that he couldn't tell whether it was Naruto's or Kyuubi's. Was the line between the two blurring?
Sasuke noticed Kakashi hovering just at the edge of the circle and gave the masked orderly a strange look. Why wasn't he wasn't doing anything?
Sakura was clutching Ino's arm, a look of apprehension on her face. Lee was hopping up and down, itching to help but desperately lacking a clue of how to.
The blonde pulled a pen out of nowhere and held the point up to his neck. The crooked smile grew until it bared teeth.
Kakashi moved forwards.
"One more step and I jam this in our...my aorta," Kyuubi said, his nasty tone not tapered by his stumble.
Kakashi stopped. "Your aorta's in your chest," He deadpanned calmly.
Kyuubi looked undeterred but then his eyes widened in shock and the hand that wasn't holding the pen flew to his head again.
"You're me so stop--You wish--You live here and it's my body and you're just angry and stupid--Naruto--Kyuubi. Shut. The. Fuck. Up!"
Rather than stay on his feet, this time when Naruto slumped, he fell to his hands and knees, breathing heavily.
Still nobody moved. The ward's collection of patients were either utterly focused on Naruto's next move or too out of it to care.
"The aorta's in the chest, huh?" The blonde said softly as he slowly pulled himself to his feet. He tiredly took a few steps towards Kakashi and clicked the pen back to blunt. He looked up at the orderly with clear blue eyes and held the pen out. "Good to know," he said with a weak smile.
Kakashi took the pen and moved quickly to catch Naruto as his knees gave way again. He began to snore loudly and Kakashi sighed.
"Shizune, isn't it time for evening meds?" Kakashi called over his shoulder as he hoisted the exhausted blond teen up into a bridal carry.
"U-uh, yes," she stuttered. Having been staring rapt at the scene Naruto had caused, she had forgotten the time. "Everyone line up!"
Sasuke blatantly ignored her and moved in the opposite direction of the rest of the patients. Kakashi made his way down the boys' hallway and opened the door to Sasuke and Naruto's room with his foot. He softly lowered Naruto, fully dressed, onto his bed.
Kakashi looked down at him thoughtfully for a second before turning. He wasn't surprised to find Sasuke brooding right behind him.
"I figured you skip them, so I took the liberty of having some on hand for you," the orderly said, holding out two sleeping pills. "Come on, eat up."
Sasuke's gaze flickered to his prone roommate and then back to the orderly's masked face. Impatiently, Sasuke took them and popped them into his mouth, simply hoping to get Kakashi to leave as soon as possible.
"Ah...swallow them," Kakashi said smugly.
Sasuke glared but figured that two sleeping pills tonight wouldn't do him any damage. He swallowed and opened his mouth to show off its emptiness.
"Good," Kakashi said with a clap of his hands. "Sleep well!"
The door clicked shut after him. Sasuke toed his shoes off as he went to turn off the lights. He then climbed over Naruto and crawled over to lie next to him.
"Sasuke..." Naruto mumbled through a haze of exhaustion.
"What, dead-last?" Sasuke said in his usual tone as he shuffled about, making himself comfortable.
"Kiss me."
Sasuke inhaled and his eyes opened from where they'd drifted shut. He glanced over at his roommate come best friend, who appeared asleep. His heartbeat sped up.
He pulled himself into a sitting position, unconsciously licked his lips, and leaned over the blonde. Sasuke put a hand on Naruto's shoulder to steady himself and let his eyes close as he brought his mouth to Naruto's, which opened unresistingly.
Their tongues met languidly. Tonight's dance would be a slow one. Sasuke's hands ran up Naruto's body, bringing the two of them into a haphazard embrace.
Sasuke shifted forward, his body melding itself to Naruto's. The blonde's hand slid up the back of Sasuke's neck to rest in his black hair. In the dark, Naruto's lips were soft and yielding as Sasuke gave him one very lazy, tired kiss. Their bodies wrapped around each other a little more, soaking up the contact missed over the last night, as their mouths pressed gently and lingered.
The kiss broke as they came up for air. A drop of Sasuke's head found him with his face comfortably in the crook of Naruto's neck. He felt his roommate press a long kiss into the top of his head.
Sasuke recalled the few times he'd been to the seaside as a kid. Whenever a wave would pull him under and hurl him back to shore, he would squeeze his eyes shut against the salty water and the entire world would be black and dwindle to only sensations.
Kissing Naruto in the dark was kind of like that.
With his mind wafting between the sensation of his friend's mouth and old memories of the seashore, Sasuke felt the pills suck him out of the waking world, leaving him sprawled sleeping over Naruto's body.
End Part Seven