In case, you are a very special type of person and, missed it the first time. I do not own Naruto…the characters of Naruto…or anything else to do with the damn business…..kind of wish I did though.
Naruto was, by nature, a happy child. He smiled and laughed. He was often flighty, but despite that a protective friend, and passionate, emotive human being….usually. The events that had transpired in his past made him prone to; panic/anxiety attacks, and violence. This was more than likely because he always acts before he thinks. That, and when in trouble one either picks the flight, or fight response. Naruto always had trouble sticking to only one reaction in the best of situations.
/
Chapter two-
When Naruto awoke it was in the comfort of his own bed, at home. Drowsily he rubbed his eyes and looked around. He spotted Iruka sitting prone on his desk chair, a blanket only covering the lower half of his sleeping form. Naruto shot forward, sitting upright. He remembered what had happened before he fainted. The memories that the bullies, and Kabuto's actions had produced, and the fight against said councillor. Tears began to build up in his eyes steadily. He wondered if it was worse not having his bad memories and having them come back eventually; or remembering all the terrible things that had happened to him in the first place. He had thought that he had finally started to get over his past, he had not had an attack for months, and no new revelations for years. Then this new knowledge comes…. and he's shattered all over again. Sobbing racked Naruto's frame causing him to quiver. Iruka woke up immediately at the sound and instantly moved to comfort his adoptive son. Sitting down on the bed next to him and holding him from around his shoulders. Naruto immediately moved into the warmth; his eyes covered by his hands, tears dripping out from under them and onto Iruka's shirt. As the man held him, he saw his lover appear in the doorway and watch the two of them. Slowly the other came over as well, and encompassed both of them in his strong embrace.
"Sorry I couldn't be there." he apologised quietly to Iruka.
Iruka just gave him an understanding smile as Naruto continued to cry.
Soon enough though the flow of tears stopped and the room was thrown into a tense silence.
"Naruto…."
"Naruto?"
The adults looked at each other worried. "Tell us what happened" Iruka pleaded. "Was it a memory? Did something happen at school to trigger an attack?"
Not hearing anything from the boy Kakashi tried his luck. "We can't help you if you're being a spoiled brat and not telling us anything." he said.
Naruto pursed his lips slightly. He wasn't spoiled, they knew that. Besides, it wasn't as if it was any of their business. Aside from that, he didn't want to worry them, and….he was embarrassed and ashamed.
So instead of giving them all the details, he conveyed what he could with the two things he remembered foremost in his mind. The triggers.
"Slut….."he uttered sadly, not waiting to see if they'd heard before continuing. "…Kabuto…."
Kakashi narrowed his eyes. Just by those words he could figure out some of what happened.
"I'm going to go chase your councillor up," he told them standing up. "I'll be back soon."
Iruka stood up as well rubbing Naruto on the back. "I'm going to go make some food okay. You must be hungry you haven't had anything since breakfast."
Naruto just nodded watching them leave the room. He rose soon after they both left. He could hear the pair speaking softly about him in the kitchen before the front door shut loudly. Looking at the clock he saw that he had slept for hours, and it was now around nine at night. Making his way to the bathroom, he immediately turned the hot water on for a shower and started to undress. He stepped in while the water was still burning his skin, and slid down the wall until he was sitting on the warm tiles. Silently tears began to fall down his face again.
Why him? Why did everything bad happen to him? He shuddered as he cried, the hot water scalding his skin, irritating it immensely, turning the tan skin red. Naruto ignored this however, the pain was not a good enough distraction. He started sobbing louder as he realised what the main source of his pain was….he missed his mom and dad. He needed them.
/
Iruka returned to Naruto's room quickly, he didn't want to leave him unattended for too long. Not in his distressed state. When he saw the boy was missing he walked quickly around the house trying to find him, as he approached the bathroom he heard the water running. More poignant than that though, was the sound of Naruto as he wept. Iruka sighed and sat with his back against the hall wall. He would give Naruto a moment alone, to let his emotions out, and then they would have to discuss options. Or rather Iruka would wait until Kakashi came home, and they would tell him together. What his guardians had decided for him. In Iruka's own mind, and his professional opinion as a psychologist, Naruto was not in the right frame of mind to make some of these important decisions by himself. He would avoid doing anything at all, content to ignore the problem as if it wasn't there…like he had been doing his entire life. It wasn't healthy and Iruka could acknowledge that he had perhaps left it too long, optimistically praying that Naruto could handle his own problems. Obviously the repressed memories were causing more issues than they were solving, and they had to resolve the situation before it got any worse.
A while later Iruka checked the time on his watch only to discover that they had been at a stand still for over half an hour, and the boy was still crying (albeit weakly). Another half an hour passed, and Iruka decided to knock on the door as it had quietened down substantially. Naruto had obviously finished his lamentation for now.
Nothing was said as Naruto came out of the bathroom with his head down, and only wearing boxer shirts, dripping. Iruka tutted and grabbed a towel rubbing him off, without a comment from the blonde and then sent him back to bed with a sandwich in hand.
Another ten minutes had passed since Iruka had forced Naruto out of the shower. In the mean time he had fallen asleep exhausted from crying. It was then Iruka received a call from Kakashi. The news was not good.
"Kabuto has disappeared."
"What?" Iruka whispered furiously. "What do you mean disappeared?"
"I checked his phones, and then went to both the school and his house. He wasn't there, and didn't answer when I called. I talked to his neighbour and she said that he had left in quite a rush."
"What does that mean?" Iruka asked nervously.
Kakashi sighed. "It means, I'm opening an investigation."
"Are we going to tell Naruto?" Iruka asked.
"I don't think we should just yet. Right now I'm just gathering information about Kabuto and his past dealings. You remember how Naruto was when the investigation and trial was happening for Mizuki. I don't think he could handle it right now."
Iruka nodded forgetting he was on the phone and Kakashi couldn't see him. Kakashi knew about this habit though and asked;
"Are you nodding your head right now?" Somewhat amused despite the serious circumstances.
"Yep." Iruka smiled a little, "Come home soon though." he added.
"I will, I should be there in another hour. I love you."
"Love you too" Iruka hung up.
/
The next day Iruka took Naruto with him to his workplace at the Konoha Mental Health Institute.
"Say good morning to Tsunade, Naruto."
"Hi old hag."
Naruto nursed the bump on his head.
"I though I told you not to call me that brat." the women said.
"Yeah, and I told you I wasn't a brat didn't I? Didn't do either of us any good."
Tsunade laughed despite herself. Naruto and Iruka were currently in Tsunade's office in an important meeting, and they still had the good humour to joke around.
"I don't see why I have to be here." Naruto huffed.
Well, that cleared up while brat was able to stuff about, she thought. Sighing Tsunade gestured for them to sit down. Pulling out a bottle of sake she slammed three cups on the table.
"Tsunade you know he is underage, why are you offering him alcohol" Iruka exclaimed.
The women just rolled her eyes. "He's probably already drunk alcohol. You know teens these days. Besides this is his last chance to actually have something decent. You know that the cafeteria in here sucks."
Naruto straightened in disbelief. "What do you mean, 'the cafeteria in here?" he turned to Iruka. "I thought you said I was getting a new therapist, not coming to the live in this nuthouse!"
The older man had the decency to look abashed. Especially when his boss turned to him as well from where she was pouring shots.
"You didn't tell him?" she asked incredulously, despite already figuring this was what the psychologist had done. She had to at least pretend to chide him for his actions.
Iruka just took one of the glasses and sipped at it. "Well, I meant to tell him when Kakashi came home. You know so we could do it together….but he was caught up at work again."
Naruto sunk in his chair muttering to himself about selfish bastards. He quickly grabbed a shot for himself and slammed it down before Iruka could grab it. It burnt his throat on the way down, but it was worth it. He needed something to help with the shock.
"So let me get this straight. Not only am I going to have to get a new therapist, its going to be one of the nut jobs working here?" he questioned sounding incredulous.
Both the adults nodded their head.
"Not only that though, I have to stay at this hell hole?" he continued "with all the freaks and nut jobs?"
Iruka frowned. "Don't call them that Naruto. Just because they have problems doesn't mean that they're 'freaks' and/or 'nut jobs'"
Tsunade interjected trying to stop them arguing. "Don't forget that you're just like them kid."
"I'm not crazy." Naruto snarled.
"I didn't say you were," Tsunade said calmly. "This is a mental health institution. We do not use the word crazy here."
As Naruto continued to huff and complain as Tsunade and Iruka turned to more important matters.
"Who do you think he should have as a room-mate?" Tsunade asked "I want to place him with someone from your roster. That means that it has to be someone on the same ward."
Iruka nodded his head accepting the parameters. "There are two free spots. Neither Kiba or Sasuke have a room-mate. I don't think Kiba would be suitable though, they'd never go to sleep. They're both too excitable."
"Sasuke it is then, though you know he won't be happy about it."
"I think it will be good for him to have to interact with someone like Naruto. God knows, he could use a little brightening up."
Naruto had finished with his muttering by now and had sunk sullenly into his chair, glaring at the both of them.
"Did you bring a bag?" the women asked Iruka, who nodded.
"What the hell?" Naruto shouted, he hadn't even noticed the small clothes bag Iruka had carried in with them. "You nicked my clothes?"
"Not all of them." Iruka noted. "Just the safe ones."
"What do you mean 'safe'?" Naruto settled down a bit.
"Well to be honest most of your clothes I couldn't bring. We don't allow chains on clothes, I never noticed how many pants you had with those, by the way. Also no shredded material, or metal."
"Boy are you emo or what?" Tsunade snickered.
Naruto growled. "Its not emo, you hag…its punk." he crossed his arms.
"Sure it is." she laughed. "There are some other things that are compulsory at this hospital just so you know."
Instantly Naruto's apprehension increased tenfold, he didn't have to wear a straight jacket did he?
"…Like what?" he asked slowly.
" This bracelet for one." She handed a small silver band that she pulled out from a draw. "Its got your identification tag on it, so don't lose it."
"Great" he said sarcastically latching it on tight.
"Would you prefer a collar?" Tsunade joked.
"NO!" Naruto shouted immediately, jumping up, and scaring the adults with how frightened he looked hearing that comment.
"I was just kidding, brat." The women informed him softly. Watching him carefully as he sat back down hesitantly.
Iruka changed the subject quickly to rid the room of the awkward silence. He would make sure to talk to his boss about this later.
"Another compulsory item, is just for people under my care. You have to write in a diary at least once everyday."
Naruto groaned. This was just Fantastic.
/
"Did you hear that there was a new patient coming into today?"
Sasuke grunted at the boy next to him. He flipped his dark bangs out from in front of his face.
"I hope that he is fun, we need some happy to make up for all your emo."
Ignoring the other boy, Sasuke moved to stand up when he heard something that actually elicited his attention.
"What?" he asked quickly interrupting the other boy who was still rambling.
"Excuse me?" the boy, Haku asked.
"What did you just say?" Sasuke growled
Haku gave him an odd look. "…I hope he's hot?"
"Before that."
"um…I heard that he could be your room-mate." he said.
Sasuke hissed, he quickly sped out of the room, not bothering to say goodbye. Haku waved at him as he left anyway. Making his way to the staff-room he spat foul words out from under his breath.
He looked around as he entered the room, looking for someone of importance, spotting Tsunade's assistant, Shizune, he strode up to her.
"I don't want a room-mate." he snarled at her.
She just turned to face him calmly. "Hello to you too Mr. Uchiha."
"I don't…want…a…room-mate." he forced out between his teeth.
"Well, neither of us make that decision." she said. "Now can you please go back to the ward, you know you are not allowed in here."
"Hn." was his typical response and walked out of the room. Still not content with Shizune's answer though he stalked towards the warden's office. He stood outside wondering whether Tsunade was drunk already or not. He would have more of a chance to protest and get his way, if she was. Raising his fist up to knock he was startled when the door opened in front of him. Sasuke's own practicing psychologist stalked out, a worried frown on his face.
"Oh, hi Sasuke." he stopped, only noticing his ward right before he walked into him. "How are you?" he asked distractedly.
"Bad." Sasuke actually deigned him with a response, although stony. Iruka's head immediately shot up from where it was staring at the ground.
"Bad?" he asked worried
"I don't want…or need…a room-mate." Sasuke continued.
Sighing Iruka gestured for him to follow as he made his way down the hall. Reaching the patient common room he waved at a few patients before sitting both of them on the couch.
"Sasuke." he started "Why do you not want a room-mate?"
"He'll be an annoying idiot." Sasuke growled.
Iruka sighed, Sasuke's sociopath attitude was the only road block then. He leant down so he could look the boy straight in the eye.
"Sasuke, I want you to understand…" he paused to see if he was listening. Seeing the slight look of concentration on the dark-haired boy he knew he was. "…The new patient, is someone very important to me."
Sasuke looked up a bit surprised. "Important?" he asked.
"Not just to me," Iruka added. "To Kakashi as well."
That stopped Sasuke in his tracks. Kakashi was as close to liking a person he had come in a while. Instead of hating him, he was just irritated most of the time.
Kakashi had defended him at an important moment in the past so Sasuke owed him. He supposed for Kakashi and Iruka's sake, he could at least put up with the fool for a while.
"Hn." he just grunted making Iruka smile a little in understanding of his acceptance..
"Thankyou Sasuke."
/
"So why did you send Iruka out?"
Tsunade looked at the small boy that was questioning her. She remembered when Iruka first came to work at her institution and he would bring the boy with him. She hadn't gotten along with him at first, but now they were like family. She never thought that his problems would get bad enough to warrant him becoming a patient here. Especially considering it had been ten years since they had discovered the abused six year old, and he had been placed in Kakashi and Iruka's care. It was so sad.
"Old lady!" Naruto shouted.
"What, you brat?" she yelled right back.
"I asked if why you sent Iruka out." he smirked. "But you're obviously getting a bit hard of hearing in your dotage."
"Dotage?" She shrieked, She prided herself on her youthful looks and the boy knew it. "Isn't that word a bit advanced for you?" she sneered.
He opened his mouth in response but she just shoved another cup of sake into his hands.
"I was just getting him to organise some things for me, while I talked to you one on one." she explained in retort to his original line of enquiry.
He gave her a suspicious look as if knowing where this investigation was going. He took a big mouth-full of the sake and then waited for the onslaught.
"What do you want to know?" he asked.
"If I ask, will you tell me anything?" she just fired back.
"Depends what it is." he stipulated.
"Was it about Mizuki?" she asked him, watching as he winced at the name.
He avoided her gaze, wondering how much he could tell her with her going mental on his ass.
"Not really." he admitted hesitantly.
She attempted to hide her shock and worry at this. That meant that the incident with Mizuki that was investigated and went to court, was not the only traumatic event that the child went through.
"Can we just…not talk about it?" he asked
She nodded, she could accept that for now. He had a bad enough day as it was, she didn't want to add more to it.
Tsunade grabbed the bottle and chugged the rest of it down. Naruto frowned at her, he wanted more, he wasn't even buzzed yet. Stupid alcohol tolerance.
"You're lucky I made time for you brat." Tsunade once again to it upon herself to break their quiet time. "Usually we don't spend so long on an orientation. But since it was you…."
The blonde just rolled his eyes. "So I'm like a teacher's pet now am I?"
She leaned over and smacked him in the head. "No, you idiot, I was saying you are lucky to have people you care about."
"Sure." Naruto just muttered under his breath.
"While we're on the subject; do you have a girlfriend yet?" she smirked at him.
"No." Naruto grimaced. Will the interrogation never end?
"…..a boyfriend?" she winked at him.
"NO!" he shouted turning red and looking away, his cheeks puffed out.
"Do you want one? I could set you up." she continued with her teasing, finding his blush hilarious.
/
"This is the cafeteria. Each meal usually goes for an hour and then you are given some free time in the common room I showed you before. Breakfast is at nine; lunch is at twelve; dinner is at seven. If you miss a meal due to a doctors appointment, or something similar, you can arrange with a handler to have a snack."
Naruto frowned looking around. The eating area was not that big, that meant that hopefully there wouldn't be too many people. Usually he didn't mind crowds, but when you're in the loony bin, it might be a blessing. There was only so much crazy a person could take.
"This is another one of the bathrooms, a boys one. As I've already explained each corridor will either have a boy or girls bathroom, but they are alternated from each corridor so they are easy to find. The exception are the dorms where they have both."
Naruto nodded, bored. His tour guide was extremely boring and he hadn't even seen any of the other patients yet.
"If you are somebody who purges, or are suicidal then the handlers reserve the right to be present as you use the bathrooms." the man, Ebisu, sounded like he was just reading all this information from straight out of a book.
"Do you look after my ward?" Naruto asked him quickly before he could continue talking.
The man gave him a disgusted look. "Of course not. I wouldn't work with you perverted teens. I work with the younger children."
Naruto just raised an eyebrow, as the man readjusted his glasses. Thank God, he though to himself.
"Where is everyone else?" he questioned.
"Either at group therapy or outside I suppose." the man responded without interest.
He hastened his step to avoid more discussion with the boy. He did not seem to fond of him, for reasons Naruto could not comprehend. He didn't think he had met the man before, if he had, he would probably remember someone as obnoxious as he was. Maybe he was like this with everyone?
"Finally…" Ebisu sighed as they reached yet another identical corridor. "This is the dorms. Your room is number five, and you share with a boy called, Sasuke Uchiha." he motioned towards a door. "Chuck your bag in and I will take you back to Tsunade."
Hesitantly Naruto entered the room. Looking around he saw that it wasn't as bad as he had though it would be. It was painted a light blue but with a navy feature wall. There were two fairly large beds arranged so that neither of them were against the wall. They weren't even those nasty white, metal beds he expected but rather nice wooden ones, stained dark. Overall it was pleasant and calming.
"Hurry up. All I told you to do was to put your damn bag down. Surely it doesn't take that long?"
Naruto scrunched his noise up as he heard the obnoxious voice of the man he had been following the past hour. Though he just rolled his eyes and exited the room, being careful to close the door behind him. Not bothering to deign the insufferable man with a response.
As they were walking down the corridor, the blonde boy was so busy in though ( contemplating the though of having to live here for who knows how long) and did not see the person he was about to bump into until he actually did.
"Sorry." he muttered from the ground.
A hand appeared in front of his face, and by the size of it, he knew it must be the person who had bumped into him. It was a child's hands, they were definitely too small to be Ebisu's.
"That's alright." the mystery person said.
Naruto looked up and was shocked with the sight that met his eyes. In front of him, was someone that was most certainly a boy, however his clothes….were undoubtedly those of a girl.
"Why are you wearing girls clothes?" he asked immediately out of astonishment.
The boy pulled Naruto up and again surprised him by chuckling at his comment.
"You know you are only the fourth person to recognise me as a boy, and not a girl." he said.
"Really?" he asked.
"Yep…Well anyway, I'm Haku and it was a pleasure to meet you…."
"Naruto."
"I'll hope we'll be friends" Haku continued.
"Enough talking." Ebisu interrupted them. "Hurry up and come along." he added without waiting for an answer as he skulked off.
"Don't worry about him, he only shows the newbie's around. You won't see him around very much after today." Haku reassured the blonde.
"Thank God." Naruto laughed waving as he walked off.
Naruto really hoped that they would be friends. Haku was a very pleasant person, and first impressions were important for Naruto. He didn't seem to crazy, as well, which is an upside….that is, apart from dressing like a girl.
It seemed to take ages for them to walk all the way back to Tsunade's office. Ebisu stopped quite a few times to reprimand younger patients and talk to a few teachers and handlers. Naruto just snorted and rolled his eyes; of course he couldn't take the time to do the things he wanted for himself (like checking out his new room, and making a new friend). Ebisu however, could take all the time in the world. Fucking hypocrite.
Naruto was glad to see the back of him as he entered the old hags office once more. She motioned for him to sit with one hand as she hurriedly signed the documents that Shizune was passing her with the other. The blonde boy knew better then to ask if the woman was going to read them, because he was the type of person to learn from his mistakes. The last time he had asked a related question was the day that he could no longer look at whisky or suspenders the same ever again.
Eventually the pair ran out of papers, and Tsunade lowered her pen back to the desk. Slowly she leaned her elbows on the desk and clasped her hand together. Speaking through said hands, with her eyes peering directly into Naruto's, she asked;
"So…..are you ready to meet the rest?"
/