I own Naruto: All its characters and affiliated products and merchandise…..in my messed up dreams.
Rubbing his eyes again he noticed how tired he was and the feeling he had before seemed to arise again slowly. He grabbed at his head with one hand and at his chest with the other before he swayed more drastically to the left and collapsed onto the floor.
Haku's voice calling his name being the last coherent thing he heard.
"Sasuke"
/
6
Sasuke was being particularly slow this morning. He had woken up, his eye lids seeming to stick together and weigh down on his eyes. Tiredly, he opened them, and breathed in and out calmly. Almost immediately his eyes started to close again of their own accord. This annoyed the dark-haired boy to no end, usually when he awoke he was alert immediately and it was often difficult for him to even comprehend falling back to sleep. There also seemed to be a peculiar buzzing coming from all around him.
"Shut up Naruto" he murmured drowsily not bothering to open his eyes, content for the moment just to lie in relative silence.
However that irritating sound soon got the better of his patience and he once again stirred. Opening his eyes once more he swung his feet around in an attempt to remove himself from bed.
"Sasuke!" he heard shouted before he felt hands pushing him back to sit on the comforter. Which he soon realised was much too high to be his own. His feet were barely able to touch the floor from the height he was sitting and he was sure he had not shrunk. It was then he noticed the person pushing him back was familiar, and not in a good way.
"This isn't my room, and you are not Naruto." he stated casually while taking his time to observe his surroundings now his mind was starting to wake up more.
"No." the woman answered him. "Do you know where we are?" she asked slowly watching for his reaction.
Sasuke chose not to deign this question with a response, he just looked at the woman like she was an idiot. His elder however, took his silence to mean that he was not aware of his location and promptly asked another question.
"Do you know who I am?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes and decided just to answer here stupid question even though he still felt really lethargic and was honestly not interested in what this old bat had to do with his current situation.
"Yes Lady Chiyo I know who you are." he replied in his most condescending tone.
Ignoring what the old woman knew was a clear insult, she advised him to lay back down and not to move until she came back.
After disappearing to God knows where Sasuke was left alone. Or so he thought, until he took a closer look at the room he identified as the clinic. Lying on a bed a few paces away from him was a small body with a shock of blonde hair. Even as addled as his brain was at the moment he identified this person as being his own roommate.
"Oi….dobe." he called out softly. The figure in question remained unmoved and Sasuke huffed dispassionately.
Thinking back it figured that the boy would wind up here anyway. He just did not think that he would be in a similar situation. Not that he could recall how he eventuated here.
He flopped back to recline on the bed his legs dangly off the edge, disregarding the slight dizziness he felt as a result of the action.
There was one thing that Sasuke was glad for at this moment, well two; one, that none of the other patients could come into the clinic without a handlers approval and escort; and two, that Naruto was still asleep, preserving the silence for his emerging headache. He was aware that this seemingly tranquil atmosphere would probably not last that long though. It never did.
/
"Sasuke, Sasuke…. Wake up."
The words sounded like they were coming through a thin layer of cotton wool. Distorted and bleeding together Sasuke struggled to comprehend what was happening.
"Come on open your eyes now." the voice reiterated.
He groaned, his body felt like lead and he was so tired. Why couldn't the voice just leave him alone so he could fall back to sleep in silence. Slowly he wrenched his eyes open, he cringed at the sleep residue around the corners of his eyes attempting to glue his eye lids together.
"There's a boy." the voice said supportively.
He turned his head to the side slowly and frowned when he found that it was the annoying nurse standing next to him. He felt a touch on his arm and glared at the offending hand attached to him. The impertinence of this women, daring to touch him yet again after addressing him as if he were a dog no less. Growling he sat up stiffly, still in the process of waking up, and glanced around. He was still in the infirmary. He did remember waking up the last time, although he did not recall having fallen asleep. Even if he did he thought that he would be waking up feeling better then he had before he had arrived. If anything he felt worse; his eyes and neck were aching, he had a headache, and the rest of his body felt like it was being weighed down by lead. Especially his stomach which was tossing and turning in every which way and direction. He's lucky he doesn't have a weak stomach or he feared that he would have already have thrown up; and he couldn't possibly do that, it wasn't the Uchiha way.
Seeing the confusion and frustration that was being almost perfectly concealed on the teenagers face the nurse adopted a serious expression.
"How are you feeling?" she asked reaching out to the trolley that was beside his bed and grabbing a strange looking stick.
Explaining to him what she was doing as she went along (even though he could have guessed most of it; being in a medical institute he was used to such things) she took his temperature, blood pressure, responses to light and touch. She also informed him that she had taken some blood samples from him while he was asleep.
While Sasuke was glad for this he did not feel the need to commend her for her forethought. She had obviously learnt from experience, the last time she had tried to get blood from him she had ended up with a large bite mark on her arm for weeks.
"You didn't answer my question before." she tutted "…how are you doing?"
"I feel like crap." Sasuke stated before turning over to face away from her.
Even though he couldn't see it he knew that she was dying to interrogate him some more. The tension in his shoulders relaxed upon hearing her move away from him.
Observing her as she walked past he saw her heading over towards another bed.
"Oh, you're awake." he heard
His eye widened and his stomach knotted when the woman said this. He wasn't quite sure about why he was reacting this way, he was almost nervous. Maybe it was because he didn't want to be seen as weak by his roommate. Being seen as weak was just asking for trouble. This was speaking straight from experience. He closed his eyes, great… his headache was coming back again.
/
"Oh, you're awake."
Naruto closed his eyes hoping that the woman would just leave. Nobody should be allowed near him, he was a monster. Always hurting his friends and family. It was no wonder he never had friends more than a few months. They were disgusted by him and had every right to hate him.
"Come on Naruto. Do you want something to eat, or drink?"
Naruto resolutely refused to talk. He would only say something stupid anyway. Pulling the covers up over his head his lip quivered. No, he wouldn't cry. Not now.
"Do you want me to get Iruka for you Sweetie?"
That made Naruto flinch. Iruka always had to clean up his messes after him. He loved his father and the man deserved better then to have to deal with someone like him.
"I'll just go get him for you." Chiyo said and left which made Naruto wish he had said something to her.
He lay in silence or a while, not really thinking bout anything in particular. He felt the eyes glancing at him every so often from across the room. Sasuke, he had heard the nurse talking to him. Why the other boy was in the infirmary as well, he didn't know. The Uchiha had looked fine last time they had met. If he was being his normal cheery self he might have been concerned but at the moment he couldn't bring himself to care. It had only been fifteen minutes or so since the nurse had left to get Iruka that Naruto got bored. Even depressed he was too energetic to lay down for long, when he wasn't asleep. Sitting up he looked around the room. He hadn't been in this room before. He hadn't had any reason to he supposed.
Blue eyes landed on the prone figure a few beds away from his own. Dark, spiky hair denoted the identity of the person. He got up and walked over towards the bed. Upon closer inspection he found that his roommate appeared to be sleeping. Moving across the opposite side of the bed so he could see his face, Naruto was alarmed to find that the other teen was sweating profusely and was also shivering a little.
"Sasuke." he called nudging the other boy.
The eye lids opened to a slit, revealing only a portion of the dark eyes they hid.
"Are you okay?" Naruto asked.
Sasuke was, apparently, not okay as in the next minute his eyes widened and he turned himself over; almost falling off the bed, before promptly throwing his stomach contents up on the floor.
Naruto moved backwards hastily to avoid any of it getting on his feet. He was only wearing a hospital gown, he didn't want vomit touching his exposed feet or shins. That's just gross. Noticing the boy getting out of his bed to stand unsteadily he held his hands out towards him worriedly.
"Sasuke….?"
The dark-haired boy wavered once more on his feet. Naruto wasn't quiet sure whether this was because he was going to spew again or faint. Either way he decided it would be prudent to wrap his arm around the other and attempt to keep him upright. This was decidedly hard seeing as he was now a dead weight in his arms.
His head darted from side to side attempting to find a way out of this situation. If only the nurse would come back it wouldn't be a problem. He couldn't hear anyone coming towards them though so that wasn't his best course of action.
Looking down towards his roommate he saw that his eyes were now closed, he was apparently unconscious, and his breathing was more faint.
Biting his lip, he made a decision. There was no way that he could leave the comatose boy here by himself. What if he got worse? What if he was dying? There would be no-one there to aid him, not that Naruto could if he wanted to. With the decision made he shifted his arms around the boy so they were under his waist and one of them was between his legs. Grunting with the effort he lifted Sasuke up in a fireman's hold.
"Hold on a sec." he grumbled to both himself and Sasuke shifting him a little. "Come on, let's go find the nurse."
Running as fast as he could, he made his way along to Iruka's office. The nurse had mentioned that she was going to get Iruka, and although this was daunting news at the time of the announcement, it was now nothing more then a bothersome fact.
/
As they ran along the corridors Naruto became increasingly worried about the imminent threat of the boy vomiting again. Pressing on a sick boys stomach was never a good idea, and here Sasuke was bouncing up and down on Naruto's shoulder as they ran for help. The blonde couldn't help but wonder if it was possible to vomit while you were unconscious, although he would prefer not to discover the answer at this exact moment.
After running for about five minutes Naruto was quick to reconsider his plan of action. He paused to catch his breath and in doing so looked around only to discover that he was totally lost. He probably should have taken into consideration the fact that he had never visited the infirmary before and therefore had no idea where he was in relation to Iruka's office.
After realising this the boy did the only thing he could think to do in this situation.
"HELP!"
He never admitted to thinking it was a brilliant plan.
"PLEASE, IS ANY BODY THERE? HELP!"
Readjusting his hold on the other he once again started running , still yelling, and hoping that he would find someone to come to their rescue.
After what seemed and eternity of these actions and having no response he finally spotted an emergency phone against one of the white walls. He almost sobbed the stark red colour signalling him towards it as he ran. Finally standing before it he carefully place the dark-haired boy on the ground. Thankfully vomit free and still breathing. Although he looked even more wan then before. Pulling the handset of the wall he dialled in his father's mobile phone number and crossed his fingers. After only two rings his prayers were answered. Unfortunately not by who he was expecting to pick up.
"Hello who is it?" Came the voice of his other father through the line.
"DAD!" Naruto exclaimed in both surprise and dread. "Why do you have Iruka's phone? Where is he? I need to talk to him now!"
"Calm down Sunshine. Iruka just left his phone at home today. What is so urgent? Surely you could have just to his office to speak to him.
As calmly as he could Naruto explained the situation to his adopted father. He could almost see his brows furrowing as he understood the serious nature of his son's dilemma.
"Okay first things first. How is your friend?" Kakashi inquired in his policeman's tone.
Naruto almost corrected him out of habit but pushed it to the side.
"I don't know…he's pale."
"Anything else."
"I don't know." Naruto replied sounding more distressed. How was he supposed to know he had never done first aid training like Kakashi or been around sick people like Iruka.
"How's his breathing?" he was prompted.
Naruto leant down the phone clasped in one hand and the other placed gently on Sasuke's neck. He moved as close as he could to the other as he could without touching him and listened and felt attentively.
"Its really soft and it isn't coming out as fast as it was before."
"….and can you feel his pulse for me."
The blonde nodded his assent forgetting that his father couldn't see him and felt with the hand that was already on his neck for a beat. Thinking fast he compared it to his own.
"His is faster then mine." he answered quickly sounding worried.
"Okay, that means that his heart is trying to make up for the oxygen he's losing in his breathing by trying to push more blood through his body."
"Ok." Naruto calmed down a little understanding the situation a bit better.
He waited with baited breath for Kakashi's next instruction.
"Ok what I want you to do now Naruto is look around and see if there are any numbers on the wall or on any doors where you are. Or even if you remember passing any."
Looking around carefully Naruto scanned his surroundings intently but failed to notice any signs on the walls, and there were no doors that he could see at the moment.
"I couldn't see any." he said standing back up from where he had been crouched in front of Sasuke. He slammed his hand on the telephone box that was mounted to the wall in frustration. "I can't see any-…."
"Naruto?"
"…I found something." he announced sounding excited "There's a number on the telephone. Like a source number or something, like the internal land-line you have at the station."
"What is it? I'll write it down." Kakashi asked hurriedly.
Relaying the number Naruto breathed a sigh of relief hopefully the institution kept a track of their phones.
"Naruto this is going to be the hard part okay. I'm going to have to hang up so that I can contact someone at the institutions main office and find out where the phone is. Do you think you can stay put until someone comes and finds you?"
"But what if the don't?" Naruto frowned at his shoes.
"They will." Kakashi comforted him confidently. "Can you look after Sasuke until they get there?"
"Yes." Naruto answered softly.
"I didn't hear you soldier." Kakashi's voice rang out over the phone.
"Sir, yes, sir!" Naruto replied loudly in continuation of their personal joke. Cracking a slight smile.
"I'll see you soon Son." Kakashi said before the dial tone was heard.
Naruto put the phone back on the receiver and turned to slowly slide down the wall to sit next to his roommate.
Looking at the boy contemplatively Naruto shifted closer and raised an arm to place around his shoulder. The unconscious boy's head fell to rest on his shoulder and he placed his own on top of that.
"I wonder why we aren't friends?" he asked aloud although quietly. "When you get better I promise that I'll make more of an effort to be nice….and don't forget, I never back out of a promise"
/
They were eventually found although it was about three quarters of an hour late. Kurenai was the one who found them in the end. She immediately grabbed her pager and sent a message to the others and then checked on the patients.
"Are you alright?" She asked Naruto watching out for any signs of danger. He had after all just had a major breakdown only hours before.
Naruto nodded.
"What about Sasuke?" she turned her attention to the other boy noting how pale he looked.
"I-I don't know." Naruto sobbed.
"Will you let me take a look at him please, and then we can go back to the infirmary to make sure he gets looked after."
Naruto nodded, but did not move from his protective position cradling the other.
"That means that you'll have to move your arm a little bit." Naruto growled as Kurenai said this. To placate him she continued; "You can still stay near him and hold his hand if you want."
Observing the women suspiciously he reluctantly gave his consent and loosened his grip on Sasuke. If he had not known Kurenai for as long as he had (which was almost as long as Iruka had been working there), then he would not be giving an inch.
After a cursory examination Kurenai nodded and stood up.
"Did you want to carry him back?" She asked Naruto
Naruto nodded mutely before once again picking up the sick boy, this time bridal style so that he could keep a better eye on his condition. Also because he was more worried about him now that he had been unconscious for such a great length of time; then he was about being spewed on or looking stupid.
Kurenai marched them back in the direction they had come from, and following her confidant lead they made it back to the sick bay in fifteen minutes. Naruto had had no idea how big this facility was until he had got himself lost in it.
"Naruto!" his name as called as soon as they entered the room.
"Iruka." Naruto almost sobbed in relief. That was before gruff hands came and tried to relieve him of his burden. He hissed at them attempting to shuffle back through the door.
"Naruto its okay." Iruka assured him in a calm voice. "You have to let the doctors take care of Sasuke so he can get better okay?"
With an increasing amount of trepidation Naruto handed the dark-haired boy over to the burly handler who laid him on a bed for the doctors to examine. While Kurenai was rattling off a quick series of stats about his condition to them Iruka came and took Naruto around his shoulders.
"Let's give them some room." he said before leading the two of them out into the hallway.
"But….Sasuke." Naruto attempted to turn his head back around only catching glances of his soon-to-be friend.
"We'll be right next door" Iruka informed him. "Sasuke is my patient too so I'd like to keep an eye on him."
/
"I heard about what happened this morning." Iruka started as they sat down in the comfy chairs present in the otherwise empty room.
"I'm sorry." Naruto hung his head picking at a thread sticking out from the fibres of his own chair.
"What is there to be sorry for?"
"I hurt Sakura…' he hesitate before shutting his mouth.
"I'm sure she'll forgive you. But were you going to say something else?"
"and….I embarrassed you."
"I forgive you Naruto, and you didn't embarrass me."
"Yeah but I lied to you too."
"What did you lie about?"
"I didn't tell you about something and forgot about it."
"If you forgot about it then its not lying."
"…." Naruto didn't know what to think about that. It didn't make him feel any less guilty about it. He had always told his parents everything.
"Did you want to tell me about it?"
The boy was saved from answering when Kurenai slammed the door open her eyes searching for the other psychologist.
"Iruka! You need to come back in now!"
"Stay here for now Naruto I'll be right back." Iruka asked Naruto before rushing out of the room.
The blonde curled up on the chair and tried to stave away the long held tears that were threatening to break through with his fathers departure. Conflicting emotions warred within him as he sat along the interminable wait stretching onwards until the door was opened again.
/
Rei: "review… pwease!" O_O