When I say I'm going to have more time to write... I really mean it now don't I? Haha today I wasn't as distracted or busy as I thought I would be so I went through my notes and then wrote this chapter... my back really hurts from sitting at this computer all day lol. Well enjoy ^.^

Oh... and I forgot... to Dann, the anonymous reviewer from chapter 27... I don't know where I lead you to believe that I didn't know what seme and uke mean... but I assure you that I've known their definitions since I was in grade 9... that was over four years ago. I know that seme=dominant and uke=submissive... which is the exact reason why I find Sasuke's name that ends in "uke" funny because I see him as a seme... and even if I didn't, it would be a hilarious coincidence. Why else would I find that giggle-worthy? Just saying... but thanks for the review anyway!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or "Concrete Angel" by Martina McBride

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Chapter Fourty Two:

He looked around to see that he was surrounding by nothing but the color white. There was no distinction between the floor, walls or the ceiling, if any even existed. Ground had to exist didn't it? Or else how would he be standing? He only knew that he was firmly on the ground, floor, whatever the white substance may be and everything else was endless and seemingly connected.

He suddenly felt fingertips along his wrist, realizing that he hadn't felt anything before that. There was no cold or warmth in the air, it didn't even feel like he was situated on the ground for he couldn't feel the ground beneath him. The fingertips leaked warmth into his unfeeling body and he looked up into familiar blue eyes. They looked so calming, so real, and it felt so natural for him to be looking into the gorgeous sparkling orbs. However, he couldn't place them in his memory which appeared to cease to exist. Nothing about him or these eyes lay within his empty mind but he knew that the eyes were important to whoever he was.

The hand along his wrist began to move away from his wrist and towards his hand. He watched the hand move before looking back up to see the entire, familiar feeling, silhouette of a blonde boy with a soft smile and tears forming in those beautiful blue eyes. It took him a moment to realize that the tears and the movement was caused by the blonde slipping away from him and floating up to what he was considering to be the sky.

His dark eyes widened in fear. He didn't know who this boy was, he didn't even know who he himself was, but he didn't want to lose this person. He felt a deep connection between them as the fingers slid down his wrist and he couldn't bare to lose him. He grasped the other's wrist with his own but that still didn't stop the blonde from slipping away until they were only holding onto each other by only their fingertips.

He pleaded with the blue eyes crying back at him. For some strange reason he was unable to open his mouth to voice the plea to stay with him. He was unable to beg him and this oddly empty world for him to stay by his side. He wanted to scream his lungs out when their fingers finally broke apart and the blonde drifted up into the sky. They both reached out their arms towards each other and he jumped off the white ground to try and catch the blonde, but all attempts failed as the blue eyed boy disappeared.

"NO!!!" Sasuke flew up from his horrible nightmare, falling off the uncomfortable chair in the process. He groaned on the hard tiled floor, biting his lower lip from the pain in his arm and leg, and tried not to sniff in the disgusting smell of the cleaner used on this floor. That was a hard task to accomplish when he was breathing so hard. Sasuke ran his hand through his drenched black hair as he attempted to calm himself down from that terrifying dream.

He found himself sitting with his head in his hands for several minutes before he could exhale calmly and lift himself back into his chair to glance at the bed on the other side of the room. Tubes were attached to his arms and running into his mouth, down his throat. Something was attached to his nose to help him breath, and everything connected to him was connected to a monitor.

Sasuke hated this. He picked up his crutch leaning against the gaudy hospital chair and limped his way over to the bed, straightening his shirt with his free hand. He had been wearing these same clothes for the past four days and nights. He hadn't even left this hospital within that time frame either. He barely ever left this room as it was.

He lowered himself into the chair that sat beside the bed and took the hand of its inhabiter.

"Naruto," Sasuke sighed, stroking the hand of his lover with his fingers.

Naruto had been in a coma for two weeks now. The doctors said he would never wake up. Even Tsunade was strangely quiet about this case and still had not given him a solid answer of how long Naruto would be distanced from this world. Nonetheless, Sasuke refused to give up hope and refused to leave his boyfriend's side. It was all his fault Naruto was in this current predicament. All because he got dragged into his twisted family situation.

Sasuke leaned over, kissing Naruto's hand sweetly. Not receiving any response just about killed him. He bit his lower lip, tears brimming his dark eyes. His dream was true, every time he got Naruto in his grasp... something allowed him to slip away.

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Sasuke had woken up within a few hours of arriving at the hospital. Tsunade had just walked in just after Sasuke had rose with a start, kicking and screaming and crying for Naruto. She told him to calm down or she'd restrain and gag him, nothing very motherly about this woman. Once he did as he was told and shut up, she told him everything that happened.

It seemed too extraordinary to believe. Apparently, she had gone out to grab something from the convenient store and returned to find Naruto missing and the phonebook open to the yellow page for taxi companies. Immediately she assumed he had gone back to Sasuke's, came to get him. She heard a gun shot when she pulled into the driveway, or rather sped into the driveway, and ran in to find them as they were after Naruto pushed Sasuke to the ground. She had already pulled her own gun out as she ran to the house and she shot Itachi before he could shoot her.

"Why the hell do you have a gun?" Was the first question Sasuke asked to her story after he begged and pleaded for the whereabouts and situation of his boyfriend. He wouldn't have asked the question in the first place if she hadn't pushed him back on the bed and refused to let Sasuke see his unconscious boyfriend. So once he settled down, he was able to review her story in his mind and that was the first thing that puzzled him.

"I have my reasons. But I wouldn't be so concerned with why since I saved your ass."

"No! Naruto saved me!"

"He pushed you out of the way of the first bullet. If I hadn't been there-"

"I would still be alive and Itachi would have taken Naruto to the Akatsuki! So..." Sasuke bit his lip and grumbled, "thanks for saving Naruto..."

It didn't please him to have to thank Tsunade for this kind of random thing but she did come around at a good time and he was glad that she cared about the child of her childhood friend. If she hadn'tlooked out for Naruto... he would probably be dead with the Akatsuki right now and his brother... well his brother would be...

"What happened to Itachi?"

Tsunade rose her eyebrow to his question. Perhaps it was because she never got to rub it in that Sasuke thanked her, he couldn't be sure with her.

"You mean that black haired boy that looks a lot like you who almost shot me?"

Sasuke nodded.

"He's in the room down the hall on life support."

Sasuke's eyes widened. Life support meant that... Itachi would die without it. Did she shoot him in that much of a critical spot?

"Is he... conscious?"

"Why? You want to go finish the job?"

Sasuke merely glared at her but refused to answer. He honestly didn't know how to feel about his brother in that condition after everything that had happened.

Tsunade sighed and shook her head. "Didn't I tell you not to get that kid caught up in shit like this. Couldn't your family business stay family?"

"Well too bad it wasn't family business at all!" Sasuke snapped.

Tsunade narrowed her eyes, urging him to continue that sentence.

"Itachi didn't come back for me... he didn't even want to kill me." Sasuke also didn't know how he felt about that, it almost felt like he was jealous but it was probably just him wanting to be taken rather than his boyfriend who he loved more than anything. "He came here to get the son of the Nine Tailed Fox... Naruto's mother's title. They wanted Naruto to be part of the gang so he could become like his mother."

Before Sasuke could continue Tsunade had turned and walked out of the room. He gazed at the closed door for a moment, confused out of his mind and even more shocked when he heard a loud banging noise and yelling in the hallway.

A random voice hollered, "Tsunade! Not again! How many walls are we going to have to fix in this hospital?"

"Walls?" Sasuke asked to himself as he stared suspiciously at the door, jumping back when it opened to see Tsunade walk in, her hand very red.

"Did you punch a wall?" Sasuke asked again, still as confused as before. She didn't answer him, as he suspected.

"Now I'm glad I shot your brother."

Sasuke rose his eyebrow but didn't ask any questions. She looked angrier than usual and for some reason, she scared him right now.

"So you killed him then?"

"Unfortunately not. He's still alive but probably not for long. He has internal bleeding that can't be stopped and is going in and out of consciousness."

Sasuke looked away, afraid to look her in the eyes at the moment. Her voice was incredibly tense and irritated.

"Can I... go see him?" He lifted his head to see Tsunade the most confused he'd ever seen her and she wasn't even holding back this emotion. Of course, a younger brother asking to see the older brother that shot his arm, leg and boyfriend was probably an odd sight.

"As long as you don't kill someone in my hospital... then I might be held responsible." Tsunade stood up and grabbed two things that were leaning against the wall by the door. "And you'll need these."

Sasuke watched as she set two crutches on her bed, just beside his legs. "Why?" And the answer was brought back to his mind once he tried to move. Oh yes, he got shot in the leg and that's probably causing it to hurt immensely. "Oww..."

"Glad you remember."

Sasuke gritted his teeth and glared at the mocking doctor. "Can you get up."

After a long struggle, Sasuke made it out of the bed and onto the crutches. He was in a lot of pain and he now knew how Naruto felt the last time he was in the hospital, but he managed to stand properly with the aid of the two crutches and shuffled toward the door that Tsunade was holding open for him.

The elder doctor led him down the hallway, not slowing her pace to fit his struggling movements. He'd never used crutches before so he was having a little trouble keeping up and she had to wait for him at the door he presumed to be Itachi's. Once he reached her, she opened the door and let him go in on his own.

"You're not going in?" He asked.

"It's better if I stay here." Was all she had to offer before turning to look away from the door as he shuffled in.

Itachi looked like he was asleep, except for the absurd amount of tubes and wires and other medical instruments attached to him to keep him alive. His heart rate appeared slow on the monitor that emitted a beeping sound into the entire room. Sasuke had never seen his older brother looking so pitiful... he almost felt bad for him... and the sad thing is... he really did. He still loved his older brother, the older brother he knew before the massacre. He missed him terribly and now that Itachi was dying, he was losing the last family member he had on earth.

"Itachi..." Sasuke mumbled as he limped over to the bed.

Those dark eyes that matched his open flew open and eyed Sasuke, who froze instantly. Great, he was still afraid of his older brother when he couldn't move.

Itachi opened his mouth slightly, it seemed to take him a lot of effort. "Sasuke." His voice was hoarse and shallow, barely audible.

"Itachi... Naruto's in a coma because of you. I told you your mission would fail." Sasuke hadn't meant to say that, it just came out. He didn't really know how to start a conversation with his brother at a time like this but it seemed his subconscious wanted to be spiteful.

"I told you, I didn't want to kill you."

"And you didn't. I am on crutches though and if Naruto hadn't pushed me... well... you just might be regretting something on your deathbed." Sasuke was certainly surprised with how spiteful he was being, but Itachi had shot him twice... and his boyfriend twice... and now his boyfriend was in a coma and he was on crutches. Spite seemed like a pretty agreeable thing at this moment.

"It's alright for you to hate me." Itachi spoke calmly.

"Oh thank you for the permission, dearest older brother! Of course I fucking hate you! Do you see what you've done? Can't you understand that you've destroyed my life! I was a paranoid, lonely, wreck because of you! I lived my life in fear without a mother, a father or an older brother who was supposed to look out for me! And what did you do? You killed my mother, father and became this! A pathetic murderer who has now killed my older brother! Because of you I am losing the last bit of my family!" As Sasuke screamed these words out, tears began to pour from his face. His emotions were running wild today and he didn't have the energy to control them.

"I'm sorry... little brother. I never meant to harm you." Itachi sounded strangely sincere with that statement, which confused Sasuke incredibly.

"Then why did you do all this? Why did you kill everyone? Why did you try to take my boyfriend? Why the hell did you shoot me?"

"I didn't want to believe he was your boyfriend, hurting you was the last thing on my mind."

"But when those guys that hurt Naruto told you that he was... well, that he was close to me at the time. You could have laid off."

"And what? Let someone else take the job and actually kill you?" Itachi seemed somewhat enraged by that and the energy put into that sentence pained him.

"What?" Sasuke moved closer to his brother's bed.

"If I had let someone else in the gang take this mission, you would have died. I was the only hope you had. I didn't care if you'd hate me, you already did, but as long as you were alive then-"

"Then what, Itachi? What?"

"Then my life would have meaning."

Sasuke paused in his actions. What did he mean by that. Why was his brother being so confusing and contradicting? Did he just want him to think better on him now that he was dying?

"Itachi... what are you talking about?"

"Despite what you think you know little brother... everything I've done was to protect you."

"How am I supposed to believe that?" Sasuke yelled. He wanted to believe it with all his heart because the man he saw before him reminded him of the brother he once idolized. However, he couldn't bring himself to truly believe this after every pain that Itachi had caused him.

"That's your problem now, Sasuke." Itachi murmured as he closed his eyes weakly. He looked so fragile now and Sasuke couldn't resist moving over and resting his hand over his older brother's. "I'm sorry, Sasuke."

Sasuke gulped down the lump in his throat. "Thank you, older brother."

The beeping that filled the room slowed until it eventually became one long, drawn out tone. It was at that time that Tsunade walked in and personally unhooked Itachi from the machine that had attempted to keep him alive.

Sasuke sniffed back the tears and as he gazed at the dead body of his last family member, something occurred to him. "Shouldn't he have had something over his mouth to help him breath?"

"He asked a nurse to remove it. He would have died either way." Tsunade responded shortly.

Sasuke merely nodded, not wanting to get into a conversation. His brother was dead and that was that... now he had to focus on more important business.

"Can I go see Naruto?"

"Shouldn't you take care of your emotions?"

"It won't matter if I wash these tears away because once I see Naruto I'm going to start crying all over again." He didn't care if he sounded like a wuss to the privileged doctor. That was how he knew it was going to be and he didn't care anymore.

Tsunade, thankfully, didn't mock him this time. She only nodded at him and urged him at the room.

Sasuke took a deep breath and ran his fingers over his brother's hand. "Goodbye, Itachi." He whispered before turning to depart from the room with Tsunade following him. They switched positions very shortly and he followed her to the elevator where she would eventually lead him to Naruto's hospital room and he could be by his unconscious boyfriend's side to support him and hopefully bring him out of this coma.

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Sasuke sighed beside Naruto's bedside. Thinking back on that first day when he woke up in the hospital... Sasuke never would have thought that Naruto would still be in a coma two weeks later.

"Naruto... please wake up..."