A/N: I shall not go below 1000 words, I shall not go below 1000 words, I shall not go below 1000 words, I shall not go below...
The door was unlocked. The only thing keeping me in bed was an IV filled with a liquid that was supposed to be a food substitute until I was able to handle solid food. No guards, no ropes, no threats. When it came to detaining a prisoner, Konoha really left much to be desired.
I forced myself to get up, ignoring the pain that erupted from the wound on my shoulder, and swung my feet over the side of the bed. I hissed when my warm feet touched the cold floor, but I forced myself onward. I slowly pushed myself off of the bed and, even while holding onto the bedside table for support, I hissed at the exertion.
Then, my knees buckled and I fell straight onto the floor. I grunted in pain as the IV needle was pulled out and I growled in frustration. I tried to push myself back up, but my legs remained uncooperative.
Goddamn it!
"Ita—" Haruno began, walking into the room. She paused when she saw me and then rushed over, exclaiming, "Itachi! Your wounds! I told you not to move, didn't I?"
"Yeah, like I'm going to listen to a Konoha shinobi," I replied, my voice a low growl, "I'm not sticking around just to be interrogated and killed."
Haruno sighed and helped me back into the bed and put the IV needle back in my hand. "Today, Itachi, we're going to go over your past so that, when you're discharged, you hopefully won't be so confused. First, I'd like to tell you that you absolutely will not be interrogated and killed. We don't do that to friends here."
I quirked a brow, but stayed silent, waiting.
"My name is Haruno Sakura and I'm dating your brother, Sasuke-kun. You and I are best friends and you're dating my friend, Ino. The couple that came in the other day were your parents. Sasuke-kun did not attack you, but he was in the car with you when you crashed... he'd been driving. He wasn't hurt badly—only had a few scrapes and some bruises—but he felt horrible. It took us forever to make him stop blaming himself for your injuries.
"Anyway. The city we live in is Tokyo, in Japan. Any questions so far?"
I blinked slowly, folding my arms over my chest, which hurt my still-injured shoulder, but I put that to the back of my mind so I could say, "You lost me at that part where you said I'm dating Ino."
Haruno's smile grew and she nodded. "It's true."
"And Ino is that insufferable blond who can't shut up for the life of her and has a strange compulsion to call me 'Itachi-kins'?"
She nodded again. "That would be Ino. You used to love it when she called you that."
"Was I insane?"
"Nope."
I sighed and massaged the bridge of my nose for a moment. Okay, I could get through this... I could just skip passed that little bit of information and just work on the other things. I needed to find a hole in Haruno's story where I could reveal her lies. I couldn't let her belief that I was courting that... pest... get the better of me.
I cleared my throat and had been about to ask something when the door opened and Sasuke walked in. He had a smile on his face until he saw Haruno and then his eyes narrowed almost suspiciously. His tone was light, however, when he asked, "What are you two doing? Are you guys having a tryst behind my back?" The chuckle that followed his question seemed forced.
My eyes turned to Haruno to see her reaction and found her face was a little flushed, her eyes cast downward to the floor. Was that... guilt? I had no chance to really look and see because, as soon as the expression crossed her face, it was gone and she was smirking at Sasuke. "Oh, yeah, we were about to get eloped."
Sasuke flinched, but his smile widened. "Funny," he replied and it had probably been meant to sound genuine, but it only sounded angry.
I quirked a brow. Haruno had said that she was romantically involved with my younger brother and yet the tension was so great in the room now that Sasuke was here I was sure I could cut it with my kunai.
Kunai... kunai! That was it! I turned to Haruno. "Where are my clothes?"
Haruno blinked in surprise, but answered, "The clothes were ripped to shreds by the paramedics trying to help you, but we kept all of the belongings you had on you. The clothes were thrown out."
"And in all those belongings was my weapons' pouch?"
"Your what?" Sasuke asked, his brow furrowed, "Did you say weapons' pouch? Why would you have a weapons' pouch?"
Haruno sighed and told me, "I still haven't told them about your amnesia and your dreams." She turned to Sasuke and said, "I was speaking to him about some important things about his past—" She rolled her eyes when he glared warningly at her. "So if you could please leave so that he won't be distracted."
Sasuke's glare grew even darker, but he turned and stalked out of the room, closing the door with exaggerated gentleness on his way out.
Haruno sighed. "I'm going to hear about this later on. I shouldn't have egged him on like that, but I couldn't help it."
"Egged him on how?"
She turned as though she had just realized I was in the room and she smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, Itachi, I was thinking out loud. I kind of do that when I'm stressed and, well... Sasuke-kun's been stressful lately." She sighed again and added quickly, "Anyway, back to what we were talking about... What were we talking about?"
"Why have things been stressful for you two?" I asked, changing the subject back to Sasuke, my eyes narrowing. From what I had gathered from spies I'd had kept on Sasuke, Haruno had been infatuated with him to a level that it had become unhealthy, but Sasuke, considering who and what he was, was both unable and unwilling to return her feelings. He'd made an ass of himself to keep her at arms' length and he had hurt her.
Had he hurt her? ...Not that I cared or anything. It was simply for curiosity's sake that I wondered this. Though, of course, Sasuke had been taught from an early age to fight fair and, while I hadn't exactly been the best one to lead by example, he would still know what was good and what was bad. If he was hurting this girl, this girl who loved him so much she would most definitely take it all, it certainly was not fair play.
Haruno cleared her throat and changed the subject back to him. "You're going to be discharged in a couple of days. We'll do more talking then, okay?"
Though I was still curious, I nodded. If it was any of my business, she would come and talk to me. Everything else was obviously not my business and I would do best not to make it my business.
So, I watched as Haruno left and then closed my eyes. I had definitely sensed that there was something... not right... about Sasuke and I was now determined to figure that out.
A/N: ... 1000 words, I shall not go below 1000 words, I shall not go below 1000 words...
