DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. (Though the OCs are mine!)
Webs of Deception
Chapter Sixteen
Breakable Fences
Ruri exited Naruto's bedroom and entered the hall. Where Itachi and Miki were standing, waiting for the diagnosis. She sighed, already finding that this day was going to be a long one. "It was a small offshoot of the buildup. The stress of being here and the situation with Uchiha-san must of triggered it. But he'll be back to normal by the end of the day. Once it runs through his system."
Itachi sighed heavily, "It's barely light out and already all this has happened." He smoothed out the non-existing wrinkles in his cloak as he said, "I better inform Tsunade-sama the resent events. If she's awake that is. Miki, I want you to keep an eye on Sasuke. Just in case he wakes up and does something more foolish than he's already done."
"Yeah sure. But what if he wakes up cranky and tries to kill me?" he asked sarcastically.
The older raven shrugged, "Don't know, try dodging." he advised seriously. "I should be back before lunch. Depends though....." he continued as he turned and began walking down the hall towards the stairs. He stopped before he descended to the lower floor and said over is shoulder. "Oh, if I run into Kyoko-san or Gaara, I'll send them this way." Then he proceeded down the stairs.
Miki's brows furrowed, "Where'd they go anyway?"
Ruri opened her mouth to answer but then shut it again when she realized that she didn't really know. "Hmm. I don't know. We should of asked Itachi-san. He would of known."
The other nodded his agreement. Knowing that guy barely sleeps. He dramatically swirled on his heels and pointed his finger forward. "I'm off to guard duty." Then walked like a soldier to Sasuke's bedroom door. As he grabbed the door's handle, he asked in a dead serious tone to Ruri, "You don't think he sleep kills, do you?"
Gaara and Kyoko walked side by side down the slowly getting crowded market street. The people near and passing, purposely turned their heads to stare at them. Many--not to discreetly--whispering about their presence.
Kyoko re-positioned the clipboard with a large piece of paper attached to it, on her arm. Her hand drawing symbols and writing down names as she passed different stores. "Now I wonder if we only have to protect the area where the Chuunin exams are being held or the whole of Konoha?" she asked out loud. She lifted the pencil's eraser to her chin and tap lightly. "Because if it's only the area, then boy am I wasting my time."
"Hmn. Either way, it'll be useful." he stated flatly as he secretly glared at everyone who was whispering and staring.
"I suppose so...." she said lowly. Her mind zoning out for a moment before her hand went back to drawing and writing. She was just about to draw a square for the next shop until she read the store's sign. She stopped taking steps forward, "You know, that's exactly what Sasu-chan's home needs!"
Gaara stopped and turned half-way around to glance at her. Then followed her gaze, arching an eyebrow when he read, 'Yamanaka Flower Shop' . "You want to get Uchiha flowers?"
"No!" was her immediate reply. "Maybe......but it's only for his house! It's just so dreary! Needs some color......" she pouted underneath her mask. But it didn't deter her from grabbing his hand and practically dragging him into the store.
The bell attached to the door jingled as it opened and closed behind them. Signaling the two women within the store that customers entered. The woman closest to the door emerged from the surrounding plants with--at first--a bright smile. Until she saw who entered, then her smile fell almost instantly. "May I help you?" she asked in a snotty tone.
Even if the blond woman couldn't see her face, Kyoko smiled. "Yes, I wanted to get some flowers that would brighten up a home!"
The other woman within the store emerged from the other side with a pot of flowers within her grasp. "Ne Ino-chan, where do--" she stopped herself when she saw the two Akuma members.
"Haruno-san! It's good to see you again!" Well sort of. Kyoko was partly glad to see her. Though she couldn't say all of her was.
Sakura's eyes set into a cold glare as she stared at the two. Her mouth sneering, "Why are you here?" Her eyes going back and forth between the two. For a second, she stared at the shorter person with the Raccoon mask. 'I don't remember him.'
"Flowers for Sasu-chan's house!" she answered cheerfully. Not at all worried at the girl's tone.
Ino and Sakura choked when they heard what she referred the younger Uchiha with. Then their choking turned into an all out laughing fit. "Sasu-chan!" exclaimed Ino while trying to keep herself standing by holding onto the side of the nearest table. Sakura was hunched over, her arm squeezing the potted flowers relentlessly. The soil within the pot, spilling over the top and onto the floor. As the pot cracked from her inhuman strength.
All the while, Gaara and Kyoko stood in silence. Watching the two in front of them almost laugh themselves into a hospital bed. Kyoko's once wide smile was now turned upside down into a frown. Knowing that their laughter was meant in a condescending way. "Are you two done, yet?" she asked in a business tone. Not at all, going to take their rude treatment to her or bad mouthing the people she considers friends. "I'm a customer and I need to be served."
Gaara couldn't help the upturning of his lip when the other two stopped almost immediately in their laughing. Their expressions turning from filled with humor to disgust in an instant. Kyoko's natural personality is perky and cheerful. Getting along particularly with everyone she meets. But when you offend her, she can become a right bitch. It's quite amusing to watch when the switch in personalities take place.
"Why don't you serve your way right out of my shop." Ino snapped at her.
Kyoko smiled sweetly underneath her mask and purposely gave a small giggle. "I wonder what Tsunade-sama would think of this?" she began in a sickly sweet voice, "That her own apprentice is being quite rude to guests of Konoha." She tilted her head upward in a gesture of thinking. "Hmmm......I wonder how she would react to that?"
The other two women's complexions paled at the image of a pissed Hokage. Sakura knew, by the way the two interacted, that her shishou and Tatsuo were close. She had no idea how they became like that but they were. And since these two were part of Tatsuo's team. Any bad feedback from the Team would result in personal punishment from the Hokage. So, against her own bitchy judgment, she reluctantly swallowed her pride and forced herself to say, "What type of flowers would you like?"
Her tone not at all what it would probably be like with other customers but it was better than nothing. "Yes, colorful flowers please!" Kyoko's voice back to being cheerful with a triumphant grin on her features.
If Gaara was willing to risk his reputation of impassiveness and if he actually thought he could. He would of laughed at the two's sudden change of their malicious hearts. But since he had no intentions of testing to see if that bodily function still work. He merely stated. "Just hurry up. We have other things to do."
The light of the early afternoon sun snuck through the partly parted curtains of the decorated dark room. Causing Sasuke's eyes to squeeze tighter shut from the light landing on them. His head turning to the opposite side to hopefully drift back completely into sleep. He moved his arm slightly when he realized that he was sleeping on something soft.
Now that was confusing. He forced his half-awake mind to focus more. Wondering how he got on something soft? For some reason, his mind came up with the conclusion that he should be waking up on the highly uncomfortable forest floor.
Forest?
Now why was he supposed to wake up in the forest? Then it came back to him slowly. Showing what he did to himself. He groaned softly as the images passed in front of his mind's eye. Damning his weakness to the bowels of hell. Wait, that just brings him back to the question at hand. Why was he laying on something soft?
'Am I dead?' he asked himself seriously. Thinking that it might be true, since he doesn't remember leaving the forest.
He forced his lead like eyelids to open. 'Damn they feel heavy....' and focused his vision on whatever was in front of him. Which happened to be a black comforter. A black comforter that looked awfully familiar. He lazily blinked a couple of times to get his mind to come out of its sleepy haze.
"Hey, you're awake!" came a very loud voice from his right. God, how he wanted to hit whoever it might be for being so loud. And being so god damn close to his fucking ear. He turned his head slowly toward the source of the noise. And oh look, why didn't he feel surprised to see Miki sitting in a chair near his bed. Though he did feel slight disappointment that it wasn't someone else.
He looked around and saw that it was his room. Empty of anyone else besides Miki. 'How did I get here?' he mentally asked and obviously so did his mouth. Because Miki answered, what he thought was his unspoken question, "Naruto found you in the forest behind your house. Brought you back here."
Sasuke's expression turned more blank with this. 'Naruto? Why would he even care?' And without another thought, he pushed himself up into a sitting position. His muscles feeling stiff and his bones popping from the movement. He now noticed that he only had pants on. His shirt and other glove and arm protector were gone.
"Ummm....." Miki's voice sounding a little hesitant. "I don't know if you should be getting up or not. You lost a lot of blood. Maybe I should get Ruri and tell her that you're awake." Sasuke was still a little paler than normal but at least he didn't look dead.
"I'm fine." came the automatic reply from the raven. Miki scoffed, "Oh yeah, you're fine alright! You're so fine that you think it's normal to cut yourself to get rid of the feelings that don't seem fine." his voice filled with sarcasticness that you could practically see it dripping out of the male's mouth.
Sasuke ignored the other's smart ass comment and looked down at his bandaged arm. His eyes becoming distance as he thought of what Naruto thought when he found him. 'Pathetic.' his mind offered him the answer. He used his other hand to rip off the bandage and threw it aside. Gazing down at the area where his mind vaguely remembered being four cuts and several scars in the area. But now that one patch of skin was healed, clear of any wounds or scars.
It was kind of odd, seeing any skin on either of his arms without a single scar. They were the evidence of his pain throughout the years. Now that one section was erased. It seemed to take with it the weight from him, making him feel slightly lighter.
Miki noticed the prolong gazing of the other and said, "Doesn't Ruri do a excellent job. Not even a scar. You were practically half-way through death's door, you know. From what Ruri said, if Naruto didn't find you when he did, you would be probably be dead. And of course that he was the only one that could get you to take the blood pill. I bet that helped." he rambled, trying to fill in the dead silence that he knew would come if he left the youngest Uchiha to initiate a conversation.
Silence reigned as Sasuke mulled over the fact that Naruto saved his life. Only if it was the right part of his life that he saved. At least then, it would actually mean something. "Get out." he whispered coldly. His hand yanking the comforter off himself. But the other male didn't hear the whispered command. Instead when he saw that the raven was going to get up, he exclaimed, "Hey! Get your ass back in bed! Don't you for one minute think I won't sic Ruri on you!"
And with impeccable timing, the bedroom door opened and Ruri came walking in. Immediately upon entering the room she began asking, "What's all the--" but stopped when she saw the Uchiha now standing. Instead of continuing what she was going to say, she yelled, "What are you doing! You need to lay back down and rest!"
"I'm fine." he repeated lowly to the female medic. Who took no notice as she stalked forward and grabbed him by his arm. Thinking to force him back into the bed. Once his arm was in her hold, he immediately yank it out, snapping, "Get the fuck off of me!"
"HEY!" roared Miki while rising from his chair, "Don't treat her like that! She fucking helped you!"
"I don't need or want help from ANY OF YOU!!" He was waaaay passed his limit with these people.
"BULL SHIT!!" Miki retorted with just as much volume as the raven. "YOU WOULD BE DEAD IF IT WASN'T FOR US!!"
"GOOD!!!" Sasuke yelled before he thought of who he was admitting this to.
Naruto was laying on his bed, soundlessly sleeping. Temporarily unaware of what was going on in the world around him. That is, until the loud voices coming from another room began to stir him from his slumber. His sensitive ears making it sound like they were talking right within his room.
He groaned when his mind woke up more to feel the ache in his body. Vaguely knowing why the ache was there to begin with. He shifted on the bed slightly as the voices grew in volume. 'Fucking people. Don't know when to be quiet when someone's trying to diiieee.....'
His hand lazily lifted to his face and to his eyelids. Since they were being stubborn and wouldn't open on their own, he decided to use his hand to pry them open. Making sure he held his eyelids open for half a minute to make sure they wouldn't close again. Once he was sure, he lowered that hand back to the bed. And using both his arms, he reluctantly pushed himself up into a sitting position. The ache in his body only increasing the more movement he did.
'Kit, you shouldn't be getting up. It's not completely out of your system.'
He huffed to himself, 'I say, if I can walked, I'm good to go.'
'Stubborn brat.....' muttered Kyuubi.
A yawn escaped his wide mouth. His mind focused enough to tell that the voices belonged to Sasuke and Miki. 'What the hell are they talking so loud for?' He asked himself. Forcing his legs off the bed without bothering to remove the blanket from them.
'Probably Uchiha brat's stupidity.' murmured Kyuubi as Naruto rose his aching body up into a standing position. Wobbling a couple of times as he made his way to his bedroom door. He waited a moment against his door to let Ruri pass by. And from the distance she went, he guessed that she enter Sasuke's room. And his guess must of been right because she started yelling at Sasuke.
As quickly as his body would let him, he exited his room and walked the short distance down the hall. Slumping his body against the wall by Sasuke's now opened bedroom door. Now don't get the wrong idea. He was absolutely not trying to eavesdrop. Because he could of easily done that in the privacy of his own room without any chance of getting caught. But he needed to move around anyway. Well, that was the reason he was using.
The voices of the two males grew louder. And he was about to risk the wrath of Ruri and go in there to stop it, but......"GOOD!!!" came ringing into his ears. And along with that one word, a sinking feeling followed.
His legs suddenly felt very weak and he crumbled soundlessly to the floor. Tears forming in his eyes as he bit his lip to stop them from falling. But it couldn't stop the one that fell down his slightly paler cheek. Or the one after that.......He's cried more in the last two days than he has in the passed years.
But he didn't care. He couldn't......Because he's only cared for very few things in his life. Sasuke being the main one and he didn't.......No he knew he wouldn't survive if anything like death happened to Sasuke.
He closed his eyes as he listened to the conversation continue.
Ruri gasped at the admission while Miki stood stunned. 'He wanted to die.....' This is something he could never understand about these types of people. People who wanted to take their own life away. It was suppose to be in human nature to want to survive. To live.
Even when they still had people that cared about them, loved them. They willingly took themselves away from those people. They're selfish. They have no idea what they do to the ones they leave behind. To the ones that wanted them to stay.
Miki's head lowered, his bangs shadowing his eyes. "Stop saying stupid shit like that. What about the people you'll leave behind?"
Sasuke couldn't stop the sinister chuckle that escaped his throat at the ridiculous implication. "What people? If you haven't noticed, no one would care if I up and disappeared."
"Nobody.....?" he asked himself lowly. 'That's what my sister thought.' His head lifted to stare directly in the other's onyx. "And what about Naruto? Don't you care what'd it do to him?"
"Naruto?" he repeated, a sad smirk forming on his features. "He's the last person who would care."
Miki tried his best not punch that fucking smirk off of the other's face. Instead he nodded his head while grinding his teeth. "Right......because he brought you back here so you could just bleed to death on your own bed. And he was practically in hysterics because you were merely getting blood on him." By this Sasuke's smirk was wiped off. "But no, he doesn't care, does he?"
Sasuke didn't really know what to say to that. He didn't think about what the blond's reaction to what he did was. Did he really react like that? His face remained impassive as he stared at the white haired hair. "You don't know anything." he stated coldly, without showing the emotions he was really feeling.
"Boy, you're a stubborn ass, aren't you? I think you and Naruto are in a competition to see who can be the most stubborn. And I'm not really sure who's winning." He lowered his gaze to the floor. "I just don't get you two. You two love each other and yet, you both are trying your damnedest to stay away from each other. I can sort of understand why Naruto's doing it. But only to a point. You, on the other hand, you have all the known reasons to stay away from him. But I can tell that you don't want to. That's why you both are just stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid."
Sasuke practically stopped listening after 'You two love each other'. His mind was reeling through the possibility that he might be right. That Naruto did love him and didn't use him that time. He was the one that just didn't know anything anymore. He didn't know what was the truth.....even about himself......
Naruto stared at the opposite wall as he listened. Staring at the wall's surface with a blank expression. He felt Itachi's presence ascending the stairs and didn't turn his head in that direction until he knew that the other was at the top.
Itachi wasn't expecting Naruto to be sitting by the door of his brother's room. Appearing to be eavesdropping on whatever conversation was going on within that room. He ignored the tear stains on the other's cheeks and lifted an eyebrow at the blond. A silent question to what he was doing?
His answer came with the blond sticking up his index finger to his mouth. His mouth giving a quiet, "Shhh...." as he slowly managed to stand up from the floor and make his way over to the raven. Before Itachi had anytime to say anything, Naruto whispered, "He wished he died....." and from the expression written on the blond's features told him that he didn't want to know this information.
A weak smile formed on Naruto's face, "I always manage to fuck everything up. Don't I?"
"The circumstances fucked everything up. You just managed to help it along." Itachi stated in a flat tone. "But from your actions this morning, I have feeling you plan to attempt to fix things with Sasuke. Am I wrong?"
Naruto shook his head, "No. No you're not." he said without any emotion as he made his way back to his room.
"Good. You've been an idiot long enough." He paused shortly before asking hesitantly, "Do you plan to tell him about everything?" Another nod came from the blond. "Do you plan on telling him about her?" his voice coming out softer as he tilted his head toward the tattoo of 'Asuka' on the blond's arm.
This question stopped Naruto in his steps right in front of his bedroom door. His hand unconsciously rising and caressing the tattoo on his left forearm. The emotions rising up at just the prospect of telling Sasuke, made him want to hide somewhere and never come out. "I.....I-I.....I-I don't know." he stuttered out with his back to the older raven.
"He has a right to know." the eldest Uchiha informed the younger male.
"I know." whispered the blond. He turned slightly so he could look dejectedly at the other. "But that doesn't mean I can bring myself to tell him."
Itachi curtly nodded and decided that a change in subject was needed. He knew this subject was always hard for the blond to talk about. "Aren't you suppose to be resting?" he asked, seeing that Naruto was barely able to stay on his feet.
"I'm going." he said in a grumpy tone as he loosely gripped the doorknob. But the sadness in his sapphire orbs never ceased. When he noticed that Itachi was continuing down the hall he asked, "Oh, are you going in there?" his question indicating Sasuke's room.
"Hmn. There's a few things I need to discuss with my foolish little brother." he stated with a smirk.
Naruto blinked at the creepy smirk and made a mental note to remain in his room until that little discussion was over. "Yeah, ummm......can you ask Miki if he can bring me up a folder of one of the jinchuuriki. A dead one would be most preferable, and not the oldest ever." Once he received confirmation of his request, he opened his door and said over his shoulder. "Have fun."
The smirk present on the oldest Uchiha widened as he silently continued to his brother's room.....
