Alrighty then, I present Chapter 4 of 'Broken'. I thank you all for the reviews takes theatrical bows Now, continue on…
Oh, before I forget, I DO NOT own Naruto or the characters. I do own however the plot line and such….
Last time: "But Sakura, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. If I had known then, then…"
"Then what Sasuke? I'm sick and tired of taking care of you and nursing your hangovers. Until you get some help for this stupid disease of yours, just don't even talk to me. Good bye Mr. Uchiha." Struggling to sound as professional as she could, she left him sitting shocked on the bed, furious at himself and surprised at what she had just told, shouted would've been a more appropriate term, him.
"You've really screwed yourself this time Sasuke. Now you've done it."
Due to Sakura's yelling at him, his headache grew even worse. Glancing at the counter, he saw that she had left the bottle of aspirin there along with a few plastic cups for water.
"Hn…" Grabbing two pills and filling a cup with water, he swallowed them, and then reclined on the bed, trying to sort out his thoughts and emotions. Sasuke knew she was right. He needed help to sober up but he didn't think that Sakura was the right person to ask for help. Thinking hard without giving himself a bigger headache, he ran through a mental list of shinobi who could help.
'Shikamaru, nah. Naruto? Nope, he's an idiot. Kakashi, maybe. Lee-don't go there. Uhm…who else?' His list was running short of people he knew that might be able to help. Finally only one other person crossed his mind. He knew she would probably know how to help him, seeing as she was an alcoholic, too. Just one problem: He wasn't sure if Sakura had told her about what was going on between herself and Sasuke. Unfortunately, this person he had in his mind just happened to be very fond of Sakura and would probably kill him or at least pulverize him if she knew.
'I'll talk to her before Sakura gets off her shift. Maybe…'
With that he succumbed to sleep and dozed off. He woke up a few hours later, around 6 am. Yawning, he got out of the hospital bed, stuck his head out of the doorway to make sure no one was looking, and then strolled out of the white building as fast as he could. The alcohol had filtered out of his system a bit, so he wasn't as intoxicated as when he walked in, but he still had a while to go before he was detoxed completely. Heading towards a tall tower only a few blocks away from the hospital, he summoned all of the poise and confidence he could muster before strolling into the tan building. Walking up to the top where her office would be, then knocked on the door.
"What do you want?! I'm busy in here doing important hokage…stuff."
He pushed open the door a crack.
"Oh, it's you Sasuke. Come on in. "
Although his knees were knocking together, he walked over to her desk, sure to shut the door behind him.
"So, what can I help you with Uchiha? Do you want a mission, or something?"
"Uh…No, actually, "He took a deep breath. "I'm here to ask for some help with a, personal problem of mine."
Tsunade's eyes went wide as her half sake induced brain tried to figure out what he was here for.
"Oh…Well, I don't know if I'm the best one to help you. If it's personal like that maybe you should talk with Jiraiyah or Kakashi. I'm sure with their area of expertise you could get the help you wanted." It took him, the genius Uchiha, a minute to figure out what she was implying. When he realized that she was implying a 'male' problem he immediately blushed, something that doesn't happen very often, and firmly told her that wasn't it.
"Oh, well then what? Just spit it out already."
He took a moment to calm himself down before admitting the real reason he had come.
"I'm well, you see, I need some help to sober up."
"So you're an alcoholic now?"
"I'm trying to stop after certain things happened."
"What sort of things are you talking about Uchiha?" Oops, he had said a little too much.
"…." Now Tsunade was actually paying attention. What had this kid done to make him want to sober up? Unless…
"If it has anything to do with Sakura, I swear I will beat to a pulp." Sasuke gulped, also something that didn't happen very often.
"I-I don't know what really happened though, I was drunk at the time, but Sakura said…"
Fuming, Tsunade stood up, slamming her hands down on the top of her desk.
"What did she say?" She asked in a surprisingly aggressive voice.
'Now,' thought Sasuke, 'I'm probably in deep shit.'
"She just told me that last night I came over to her house…uh…drunk and sorta did stuff…"
"What kind of stuff Sasuke?" she said through gritted teeth. This kid was starting to piss her off more and more each minute he sat there.
"She said I-I…." the rest of the sentence was lost in a mumbled breath.
"WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?" Officially, Tsunade was pissed.
"She said I-I beat her pretty bad….and that I…"
'If this boy doesn't tell me, his head is going to meet my fist. Soon.'
"That I sort of, kind of raped her." Sasuke hung his head in shame waiting for the hokage to say something, anything to break this uncomfortable silence between them. Finally, she did.
"YOU DID WHAT TO HER?!"
"I-I didn't mean to! I don't even remember anything!"
"BUT I'M SURE SAKURA DOES!"
"I-I'm sorry! I don't know what happened. It was Sakura who told me this. Oh, and she also said I did this before…"
'Correction,' he thought again. 'I'm in serious shit and she's gonna kill me. Way to go Uchiha.'
Tsunade couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe that Sasuke of all people would do that, but what was even more incredible was that Sakura didn't tell her about it. Maybe if she had, things could've been different. Trying to remain calm, she asked him another question.
"How many times did she say you did this?"
"Well, she didn't exactly say how many times before, but it's happened she says, pretty much every time I got drunk."
"And how long have you been getting drunk like this?"
"Uhm…maybe about 6 months or so? I'm not positive."
Sitting back down, she rubbed her temples, trying to sort out all of this information.
"Uchiha,"
"Yes Hokage-sama?"
"Just go home and don't tell Sakura about this, okay? I'll talk to her soon."
"Thank you. And when you talk to Sakura, tell her I'm really, really sorry."
Nodding her head, she dismissed him. He shut the door quietly behind him and walked down the steps, the conversation still fresh in his mind. Sasuke was starting to regret even telling Tsunade about it, mostly because he thought that it might lead to some uncomfortable questions. He was right; it had.
"This is all your own fault anyways…Don't go trying to feel sorry for yourself. It's Sakura you should feel sorry for." He told himself. Directing himself away from the Hokage's tower, he went towards his house, passing a few bars in the process. The urge to drink swelled up inside of him, begging to be let out, if even for one tiny sip of alcohol. In the background, he heard a song and the irony almost made him destroy the radio that it was playing out of:
'Cause the more I
drink, the more I drink
Yeah, I'm the world's greatest lover
and a dancin' machine
I get loud, I get proud...and it gets
worse
Well if I have one, I'll have thirteen
Naw, there ain't
no in-between
Cause, the more I drink, the more I drink.'
'It's as if the whole world hates me now.' He thought, passing the bar that was playing the music. 'Damn country artists. What do they know?'
Trying to get the lyrics out of his head as he opened the door to his apartment, he looked around.
It was pitiful.
There was trash on the ground, empty beer bottles, the occasional wine glass and wine cork. He sighed. If he was going to start sobering up, he might as well start at home. Beginning in the living room, he threw various pillows and blankets on the couch, made various piles of stuff and got out the vacuum, which hadn't been used since the last time Sakura came over, which was about 6 months ago. It took awhile but finally, he made some progress. The room wasn't spotless, but for the average man living alone, it was pretty okay.
Next was the kitchen.
Tossing the cups and dirty dishes into the sink, he started to sweep the floors, mopping them, too. While they were drying, Sasuke cleared off the counters, grabbing every alcoholic beverage he could find and stuffed it into a black garbage bag. Shoving the bag to one side, he set out to find all of the alcohol in the house. As you can imagine, it took a while.
There were quite a few bottles in his bedroom, a few scattered on the hallway floor, and even one under the bathroom sink. Not the best to place beer, but then again, when you're drunk, who cares? After about 4 hours of cleaning up, Sasuke took a break and sat on the couch.
"Well, the house is pretty clean. Now for the fun part: detox.
Sorry that it took so long…I was really busy and stuff. Anyways, the song in bold is not mine….It is 'More I drink' by Blake Shelton….its a funny video and I figured that might be the best song to be playing in the background…Well, as always, review!! I'll work on the next chapter soon!!
Jecrite