Out Of It

VIII – Interlude: Naruto-centric

Naruto felt Sasuke's breathing settle into a smooth lull. But that was a few hours ago.

He lay there with his roommate half on top of him in slumber, his taste still in his mouth. Naruto's blue eyes swivelled to the alarm clock. Barely midnight. He'd have to be sneakier than usual.

Moving in an odd sideways scuttle, Naruto ungracefully but gently wiggled out of Sasuke's loose hold. He landed somewhat on his feet next to the bed. Sasuke was still out cold thanks to the sleeping pills, sleeping pills Kakashi hadn't seen the need to give Naruto that night.

Naruto glanced at his pale bed mate, his skin only made more ghostly by the dark of the room. Naruto shook off the urge to sigh mournfully and left the room looking as determined as one could while tiptoeing in socks.

He had been tempted to tiptoe the entire way to Iruka's office just for the entertainment value but his toes voted against it. It wasn't until Naruto was approaching the therapy building that he realised he'd have to try picking the lock on the door by himself. He groaned, though he knew wouldn't have had the nerve to ask Kiba to come even if he had remembered. Naruto's thoughts flickered guiltily to how Kiba had been avoiding him like the plague recently.

Naruto frowned and quieted his steps as he walked down the corridor leading to Iruka's office. Well...looked like he wouldn't have to pick the lock. There were lights on inside and Naruto heard a murmur of voices. He huffed in disappointment at finding his mission aborted. Rather than turn around, Naruto was spurred onwards courtesy of curiosity.

As he neared the office, the fair-haired teen sank his slow walk to a crawl. He then flattened himself out on the ground and turned his head, pressing an ear to the crack underneath the door. Naruto noted with some relief that one of the voices was definitely Iruka's (not an intruder's). And the other one was...Kakashi's?

Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated. To his delight, he found it was surprisingly easy to make out the conversation.

Iruka was saying how he was considering moving Sasuke into Tsunade's care.

"He's improved that much?" Kakashi asked conversationally.

"He has. Of course, a large part of that has to do with Naruto."

"I didn't think sociopaths responded very well to an abundance of close contact."

Naruto subtly tried to scrunch himself closer against the door; he didn't want to miss a word of this.

"Well...he may have purposely curbed any unfavourable reactions to Naruto and other people. Intelligent sociopaths often hide their lack of empathy as a strategic move. They know how to manipulate others' emotions to get what they want. I mean, that's what creates criminal masterminds: a combination of sociopathy, high IQ, and self-awareness."

"Spare me the psychology talk. Why is Sasuke cuddling with Naruto rather than planning a hostile takeover of the nurses' station?"

An image of Sasuke lying alone on the bed flung itself in front of Naruto's eyes. He tried not to wince and refocused on eavesdropping.

"--does seem to have an attachment to Naruto," Iruka was saying. There was a sound of ice clinking in a glass as Iruka took a sip of something. Then a sound of him choking. "Good god, what is this?"

"Whiskey," Kakashi said nonchalantly.

"It's vile." Sound of him taking another sip. "Anyway. Sasuke. May be a strange case where a sociopath has concern for no one but himself and another person."

"Isn't that what love is usually like?" Kakashi said, complete with a theatrical dreamy sigh.

"No. Love means often sacrificing oneself for the other person."

"Mmhmm," Kakashi said happily.

Naruto rolled his eyes.

"He would probably be considered a mild sociopath, but he's still a sociopath nonetheless." More ice clinking. "If Sasuke had to choose between himself and Naruto, he would more than likely choose himself."

Naruto frowned, his entire mind throwing a fit at the blatant distrust of the boy in his bed. But a tiny corner of his brain pointed out, much to the irritation of the gung-ho-ninja-willing-to-die-for-love part, that Iruka might, unfortunately, be making just the tiniest bit of sense.

At the mention of his name, Naruto's attention quickly scurried back to the conversation he was trying not to be distracted from eavesdropping on.

"Suppressing Kyuubi may not be the best way to stop these outbursts. Since Sasuke doesn't like Kyuubi, Naruto's been forcing him away, which makes the ward calmer but...But Naruto shouldn't be ignoring Kyuubi. He needs to reconcile that it's a part of him he needs to get under control."

This sent Naruto's thoughts into another wild spiral.

"I'd never heard Kyuubi and Naruto talk to one another before," Kakashi said quietly. Almost too quietly for Naruto to hear. "That was the reason I didn't interfere today."

"You wanted to let Naruto fight his own battle himself?" Iruka supplied before taking another sip. He sighed. "But he's so good for Sasuke. It's a little unfair that the favour isn't returned."

"Maybe Naruto merely acted as a trigger for him. With Sasuke...with Naruto, especially...anything's possible," Kakashi responded enigmatically. There was a sound of a glass being put down.

"Who knows? Well...I should. This is what I do. These are kids I--mmph."

It took Naruto 4.7 seconds to realise they were kissing.

His eyes flew open. That meant Kakashi must have his mask off! That thought alone was nearly enough to prompt Naruto to burst through the door with guns and cameras flashing. There had been a pot going on for years in C-class on what Kakashi was hiding behind his mask. Actually, Naruto himself may have started it. He couldn't remember.

After a minute of moaning and grunting, Naruto figured the juicy conversation was over. Quietly, he hauled himself to his feet and so, with some troubling new trains of thought and with an imprint of carpeting on one side of his face, Naruto crept back through the catacombs of Konoha Hospital.

The doorknobs in C-class were never polished. They all remained a hazy brass. Naruto's hand was hovering above the one on the door to his room when the IDEA landed in his head. He didn't move for a few seconds, just letting the IDEA settle itself properly in his skull.

After making sure he wouldn't dismiss the IDEA as a dream in the morning, Naruto turned the knob slowly and entered. The first thing he noticed was that the squares of moonlight had travelled across the floor since he'd left. How long had he been gone?

Naruto let out a massive yawn and crawled back onto the bed. He snuggled into a still-prone Sasuke who, thanks to Kakashi's drugs, was so out of it, his sleeping body didn't respond.

End Part Eight

Author's Note: This is an interlude because I switched from focusing on Sasuke to Naruto, which seemed too out of line not to interrupt the flow of the story. So I figured, if you're going to interrupt the story, interrupt it properly.

-Ms. Trick