Out Of It
X - Interlude: Naruto-centric
Naruto dressed hurriedly as he watched Kakashi stroll down the hallway after Sasuke. Naruto allowed himself a brief moment of annoyance over the fact that Kakashi was never so relaxed when he had to escort him somewhere. But then it passed and Naruto flashed a huge grin at a surprised Sakura as he exited the art closet.
"What were you doing?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Ehehe...getting...getting..." He spun around on his heel and snatched the first thing he saw. "Markers!"
He held them up and tried to make his grin more convincing.
She sighed. "You are such trouble sometimes, Narut--hey wait! Aren't you going to clean up the mess?" She called as Naruto jovially walked towards the rec room. She waved her arms to indicate the pile of art supplies on the closet floor.
"Nope! I'm a crazy person!" Naruto hollered as he thrust a fistful of blue markers into his pocket.
He vaguely heard her growl his name in annoyance but paid no attention to her. He headed over to the green couch he was on before and slid his hand underneath the cushion where he had shoved his notebook. He drew the crumpled pad out and flopped into a comfortable sitting position the couch.
He scanned the scribbles on the page he'd been working on, which said IDEA at the top in blocky bubble letters. A feeling of irritation came over him and he ripped out the page, crumpling it further. Any IDEA at this point was useless anyway.
The messy handwriting and messier pictures illustrated Naruto's complex plan to somehow get himself into trouble and have Sasuke be his saviour. Naruto shook his head and found he absolutely couldn't stand the thought of Sasuke having to rescue him with that smirk on his face. So screw that entire line of thought.
Naruto wondered if he really doubted Sasuke enough to test him through a ridiculous damsel-in-distress plan. His eye nearly twitched at the word damsel. He stared at the floor, holding the notebook on his lap.
Abruptly, his mind flashed to Iruka's words, reminding him Sasuke was bad for him. But he was making Sasuke better, another corner of his mind injected.
Sasuke didn't talk about it but Naruto knew Sasuke had no reason to leave the hospital. His vengeance, his 'purpose' was in S-class. And the...whatever it was he had with Naruto was here at Konoha. And Sasuke had no family.
But any idiot knows life is better when you're not trapped in a mental hospital and Sasuke was no idiot, Naruto thought with a morose sigh. It wouldn't take long for him to recognize he could be out of here. He was ready to leave behind Konoha and Naruto, all he had to do was realise it.
And, Naruto thought, this was about where his magnificent IDEA became redundant. Because Sasuke could choose to stay at Konoha and slowly, unconsciously tear Naruto apart...or he could leave, sacrifice security and whatever he'd found here so that Naruto could get better
Naruto laughed mirthlessly to himself and crumpled the IDEA inside a fist. How funny. The one thing he really wanted to keep was keeping him crazy.
He viciously hurled the ball of paper across the room, where it bounced into a corner. Kurenai eyed him curiously and patiently went to pick it up.
"Done with this?" She asked, holding it up.
"Definitely," Naruto said, folding his arms.
"I'll throw it out then." She paused in the middle of turning towards the nurse's station. "If you're going to write anymore, I'll need to be here."
Naruto held out the notebook for her to take. "I'm done," he said sullenly.
End Part Ten