Disclaimer: I don't own nor have I contributed to Naruto in any way! Nope! None!
2nd Disclaimer: The songs and lyrics mention in this fic do not belong to me! Nu-uh! The songs in this chapter are: NONE!
Sky-eyed Kitsune and Gomi-kun blab & Updates
Sky-eyed Kitsune: Yello everyone!!! X3
Gomi-kun: Yellow?
Sky-eyed Kitsune: Yes, yellow! FEAR TEH YELLOW!!!
Gomi-kun: O.o
Anon Reviewer Replies (since there's a new button for other reviewers!):
To ….: Thank you! X3
To Kubikid: You're a piece of toast!? pounces GRAH! HUNGRY!!! Lovely review! ;)
IMPORTANT CRAP!!!
Here's who you wanted to see Naru dance with! –poll closed--
Gaara: 3
Itachi: 8
Sai: 1
Sasuke: 3
GOMEN! THE DANCE KEEPS BEING PUT OFF! I'LL PUT IT IN WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT, LOL! IN THIS CHAPTER! A DIFFERENT SIDE OF NARUTO! ANGST AND CUTTING! AND ITACHI GETS SOME HEART POINTS!!!
HEART POINT TALLY!
O Beating Heart Points (good!)
X Broken Heart Points (bad!)
Gaara: OOO
Itachi: OOO
Neji: OOOOOOO
Sai: --
Sasuke: XOOO
Chapter Dedication
A very inspiring song for one part of this chapter!
"Untitled" by Simple Plan
I open my eyes
I try to see but I'm blinded by the white light
I can't remember how
I can't remember why
I'm lying here tonight
And I can't stand the pain
And I can't make it go away
No I can't stand the pain
Chorus:
How could this happen to me
I've made my mistakes
Got no where to run
The night goes on
As I'm fading away
I'm sick of this life
I just wanna scream
How could this happen to me
Everybody's screaming
I try to make a sound but no one hears me
I'm slipping off the edge
I'm hanging by a thread
I wanna start this over again
So I try to hold onto a time when nothing mattered
And I can't explain what happened
And I can't erase the things that I've done
No I can't
How could this happen to me
I've made my mistakes
Got no where to run
The night goes on
As I'm fading away
I'm sick of this life
I just wanna scream
How could this happen to me
I've made my mistakes
Got no where to run
The night goes on
As I'm fading away
I'm sick of this life
I just wanna scream
How could this happen to me
Chapter 12: Bleed It Out
-
Neji flew into his house, flinging his backpack to the floor of the mansion as he sped up the stars to the second floor and burst into his room. He threw himself over his large queen-sized bed, reaching across it desperately to his side table on which a black cell phone sat.
He had been cursing himself all day for leaving it home. What if Naruto had called!?
Neji called his voicemail and punched in his number password quickly as if his life depended on it as he caught his breath.
"Good afternoon Neji," the metallic voice said. "You have no new messages."
Neji clicked the red button on his phone and the call ended quickly.
He let out a sigh. Naruto must have not had any problems…
Neji sat down on his bed and looked at the black phone in his hand.
…but that didn't mean he couldn't call him, right?
-----------------T16--------------
Naruto opened his eyes and sat up, letting out a scream as the table by his bed shifted and glass went shattering to the floor.
Naruto clutched the covers underneath him as he panted, his body quivering.
Sasuke had gone out for a student council meeting, and while he was gone Naruto had nothing better to do, so he took a nap.
Big mistake.
"Why are these nightmares coming back now?" Naruto said quietly, lifting his shaking hands to look at them. He shut his eyes and closed his hands tightly as he turned his head away from them.
"Why now…?" he whispered.
Naruto opened his eyes slowly and looked to the ground where the picture of himself as a child with his parents laid, the frame he had placed the photo in cracked and pieces scattered around it.
Naruto suddenly felt sick, and rushed to the bathroom. He heaved until there was nothing left, and walked back out, his legs numb and body shaking violently.
The image of his parents in the fire burned in his mind as he edged toward the glass.
He gasped as his legs gave out and he fell to his knees, pieces of glass sticking into his skin and making him temporarily forget the catastrophe.
Naruto's eyes suddenly flashed as he lifted his head and stared at the shards.
Forget…for one moment there, he had forgotten his memories and just focused on raw pain. Pain with no meaning. Without scars from the past.
Naruto slowly reached out a beautiful tanned hand and wrapped it around a shard.
He winced as the ragged edges bit into his skin and drew the smallest pricks of blood. He lifted the glass to his eyes and stared at his reflection through it as a small line of red dripped down the side.
Forget…all Naruto wanted to do was forget, even if for only a moment. And this shard…could it give him that brief release?
Naruto's breath quivered as he put the shard next to his bare tan arm made visible by his black tee-shirt.
He gave it a flick, and a shallow gash formed on the skin there. Naruto winced a bit as a thin line of blood passed over his sun-kissed arm and pattered quietly to the floor.
This pain, this raw pain…made him forget the real hurt he felt inside ripping him apart.
Naruto moved the half red shard up to his shoulder, and pressing it into his skin, he made a sharp and quick slash.
Naruto bit his lip and suppressed a scream as the glass piece erupted with crimson, and blood began to more frequently dapple the brown wooden floor, spilling over his arm.
Naruto let out a groan as his heart seemed to slow in that instant. He looked at the blood under him through hazy eyes, the room swirling with red.
Flashes of pain burned Naruto's arm, and he sat up on his knees gripping the wound tightly on his shoulder.
More…this wouldn't make him forget. He needed more…
Naruto gripped the glass shard in his hand tightly, more blood spurting from his palm as he did so. He moved his now crimson hand away from his shoulder, and quivered there for a moment, feeling his life ooze down his arm and painting the floor with a vivid new color.
Naruto's eyes suddenly widened.
He gripped his head as a tremendous pain rippled through it, and a wail of agony escaped him.
-----------------Flashback--------------
Naruto ran up to the shore of the beach, the bouncing seven year old that he was, and his father followed him from behind at a more relaxed pace.
Naruto jumped into the cold wet sand as the waves rolled to the shore, and he ran back to the dry sand as they chased him; a never-ending game of tag.
Naruto giggled as his toes came close to the frigid water, but he jumped back and away before it could get to him.
Naruto's father smiled as he watched his son play with the sea, the wind rippling his own blonde hair like a field of gold. His dark blue eyes shone in the sunlight that was determined to warm the chilly autumn day,
"Daddy!" Naruto said happily as he ran up to his father and tugged at his navy spiral shirt. "I ran and the water tried to catch me but it couldn't 'cause it was to slow!"
Naruto's azure eyes sparkled, and his father smiled and ruffled his son's hair.
"You must be fast to outrun the ocean, Naruto!" he said, and Naruto nodded vigorously.
"Do you like the beach Naruto?" the blonde father asked his son, from whom he was given an enormous grin.
"Yaya! The water is so pretty and the sand is fun to walk and play in!" Naruto cried, flinging his arms into the air ecstatically.
"Daddy, look!" Naruto suddenly shouted, tugging his father's shirt insistently and pointing out to the water where a surfer was testing the waves.
Naruto watched as the surfer twisted and turned his board…and flopped into the cold water.
"He's not as good as you daddy," Naruto said, laughing
"You think so?" Naruto's father asked, and Naruto nodded.
"Yea, cause you're the best I ever saw! You're like the coolest."
"It's not all about being cool Naruto."
"Eh?"
"Well, you've got to have fun with it, but it's most importantly about communicating with nature."
"Co-mun-e-kating?"
"Yes. Naruto, what do you say when someone helps you or you get candy after trick-or-treating?"
"Thank you!"
"That's right. That's being polite. When you surf, you're being polite to the ocean. Each bend of your board is like talking to the ocean, and following the flow of the waves is respecting it. You let it lead you to safety, and be polite enough to let the waves crash when they need to."
Naruto's eyes grew big as his father talked.
"That's so cool!" he cried when he had finished. "I wanna learn! I wanna learn!"
"OK, we'll start this summer!" Naruto's father said, pumping his fist in the direction of the ocean.
"Yeayea!" Naruto cried, mimicking his father.
"When you're good enough, you can have my board too."
Naruto gasped.
"The one with the big red foxie on it?"
"That's it!"
"Wow! I love you daddy!"
Naruto jumped up and hugged his father, who laughed and swung him around.
---------------End of Flashback--------------
Tears drifted from Naruto's eyes as the memory, once burned away by the fire accident, resurfaced and he watched it roll before his eyes.
"Dad…" Naruto whispered.
"DAD!" Naruto cried, slamming his fists down on the broken shard of glass and blood, sobbing.
He gripped his shirt as waves of pain reverberated in his heart, and they echoed through his body, his heart pulsing loud in his ears.
Naruto re-gripped the glass shard in his hand with a determination. He looked at his reflection through its crimson gaze, and he closed his eyes as he whipped it across his arm and made another gash.
He let out a cry, but it almost seemed silent as everything in the room stood still and time froze, the only sound being the beating of his heart, like a drum loud and final in his ears.
Naruto let his numb body fall to the floor, rippling the pool of blood below him.
Naruto's eyes grew distant as he hung on the pain, but the memory wouldn't fade. All he could see was his father's smiling face, an older version of himself in all his glory.
Naruto's vision became swirled with red as he felt himself fade, as if his soul was being slowly torn from his body.
He wasn't dying, no, not yet. There wasn't enough blood loss, but the pain felt worse. Naruto suddenly smiled a bit and let out the softest laugh.
If you're thinking that he's gone crazy at this point, you're actually wrong.
For the first time in weeks, Naruto wasn't thinking about the fire accident at all, past or recent, or his tragically lost family. All he could think of was the pain, the raw pain. Nothing else came to mind but the blood beneath him and his pulsing body.
Naruto's eyes suddenly widened as he the doorknob to the room jiggle and opened and he heard two footsteps.
Shit.
"NARUTO!"
Naruto raised an eyebrow. That wasn't Sasuke's voice…
Naruto blinked as he suddenly found himself wrapped up in a warm embrace, moonlight dipped skin and long blue-black hair invading his vision. He breathed in the scent of vanilla and roses, and he closed his eyes.
"Itachi…" he breathed, his head spinning.
Itachi held onto the blonde for dear life, tears threatening to pour from his eyes.
"Naruto, why would you do this to yourself?" Itachi asked quietly.
Naruto didn't answer, and Itachi pulled back to look at him.
Naruto noticed that Itachi's hair was down for once, spilling past his shoulders to his upper back and the front shards of banging shining almost blue against his deep black, almost red eyes.
Naruto reached out a crimson hand and ran it through Itachi's hair, forgetting the blood.
"Your hair looks better down…" Naruto breathed, and pain flashed across Itachi's face.
"We need to get you to the hospital," he said, shifting to let go and stand up, when Naruto gripped his shirt and looked at him with pleading eyes.
"Don't…" he breathed. "Please don't…"
Itachi sighed. "Naruto-"
"Itachi…don't..."
Itachi's eyes widened and his cheeks flushed pink as Naruto lifted his face inches from Itachi's.
"Don't…leave…"
Itachi's breath hitched in his throat as Naruto pressed his lips against his own.
Wait! Stop! Rewind!!!
Naruto placed his lips against Itachi's!?
Itachi felt his heartbeat quicken as Naruto gripped the front of his shirt, bringing him down to kiss him gently.
Itachi almost melted, the sensation of Naruto's soft pink lips on his own making his head spin with a comfort that he had never felt before.
What was running through Naruto's mind the blonde didn't know, but he just had the desire to kiss the raven senior right then and there, so he did. It wasn't about how good he looked, hot that he was, or that he was sexually frustrated, no. He just…wanted to.
Itachi closed his eyes and kissed Naruto back a bit timidly. Him, timid? This had to be a first for him! Then again, this was his first real kiss. He'd never allowed anyone to get close enough to him to develop as anything but friends. In fact, most were just acquaintances. But Naruto Uzumaki…he had only known him for a few days despite hearing about him and S.T.R.A.Y, and yet he could somehow get this close to him.
Neither teen deepened the kiss, keeping it soft and simple.
Naruto broke away and leaned his head against Itachi's chest, his body numb with pain.
"Naruto…" Itachi said. "What are you doing to me?"
Naruto lifted his head back up to see Itachi smiling a bit, before his vision finally blacked out and he fell unconscious.
Stupid freaking student council meeting…who even cared about the freaking school dance!? It was just a waste of a budget! And to top it off Itachi didn't even have to go to the committee because Sasuke was in charge of whole school activities crap. Whoop-de-frickin-do.
Sasuke emitted an emo aura as he stomped down the halls, sending students and poor freshman that got in his way ducking for cover, lest they catch the junior's emoness.
"Sempai! Sasuke-sempai!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes as he stopped and turned to see who was calling him.
A freshman with spiky brown hair tied into a ponytail with a Cheshire cat grin approached him, a paper in his hands. He had transferred from Japan and Sasuke had gotten used to the "sempai" ending over time.
"What, Konohamaru?" Sasuke bit out. The boy didn't deserve the blade of his frustration, but he didn't care.
"You share a dorm with Uzumaki-sama, correct?" he asked cheerfully, unaffected by Sasuke's bitterness.
"Yea, why?"
"Could you give this to him?"
Konohamaru handed Sasuke the paper and the raven read it over.
"Uzumaki Naruto- congratulations! You have been nominated by the freshman class of 2011 for the H.S.O.Y award! In case you're unaware, the freshman class does this every year, and the winner will be decided at the upcoming dance! Best of luck!"
Sasuke's eyes twitched.
The H.S.O.Y award? The Hottest Student of the Year award!?
Sasuke had won last year, and it was…degrading. After you received your award, all of the guys would flock to beg you to dance or try to ask you out.
Sasuke's eyes flashed.
"They're not getting MY Naruto!"
Kukuku…Sasu is possessive! XD
Sky-eyed Kitsune
Translated by Gomi-kun