I can't wait to finally post again! YAY! READ AND ENJOY!
Sasuke POV (finally, right?)
Shaking in fury, I try and struggle, my butterfly knife sinking into something soft, a shriek echoing. The pressure lessens, but then a blinding pain is slammed into my neck, and I gag, coughing and gasping for air.
"You really suck at fighting, kid." Two hands reach and one pulls my neck taut, head back, the other digging into my throat. But darkness swirls and pain becomes warmth. Hot, burning heat all over my face and neck. I throw a fist, and curses fil the air, a flat palm smacking my cheek. Only one person would respond like that.
I open my eyes, seeing Sakura with a bundle of napkins, holding her face and glaring daggers at me, yelling about how I should but institutionalized. But all I can feel is the steaming hot chocolate all over my face. Whipping out of bed, I dashed to the bathroom and turned the shower on, sticking my face into the flow of ice cold water.
Breath whooshing out in relief, I grab a towel and rub the water off, leaning on the tiled walls. My hands were shaking, as I remembered the dream.
What the hell. Where's my dobe? There's a knock at the door, and Sakura curses again, glaring at me as she walks past, jerking the door open and cussing someone out before stuttering.
"Hey Naruto."
"Hi-ii...?" the blonde's voice slips around the corner and I get up, trying to get there before-
"Yeah. The jerkface is in the bathroom," she snaps and slams the door after letting him in, making him jump and glare at her.
"What did he do now?" Naruto groans, leaning on the door frame and watching as I abandoned my task of trying to beat her to the punch in search of clothes, since I slept in my boxers most of the time. In the back of my mind, I made a note to vye for a lock switch, since somehow Sakura had clawed a key from somebody I'd mistakenly trusted.
"Well for starters, I had a sucky morning," she pouted, and I rolled my eyes, pulling on skinny jeans, grey ankle socks poking through the small bottoms. Hunting around, I started sorting dirty out from the few clean, and loaded a basket of dirty, putting them off to the side for later.
"What happened?" They were sitting on the couch now, Sakura glaring at the table.
"My mom said she wouldn't be coming to get me at when the holidays start, and I should focus on my grades- I have straight As in everything and have been offered six management positions for dojos and Karate Training Schools in the past month!- and not so much on my social life. That maybe I'd go somewhere in life if I closed my legs and opened my ears." Her face actually was red now, and her eyes were full, nails biting into her arms as she held herself to keep from shaking.
I didn't say anything, still digging for a clean shirt. Didn't we ever do laundry? My basket was overflowing and I scowled. I know I just did a load yesterday, so where the hell are all my clothes?
"What?" Naruto yells, and I hear a crack. DAMN. That sounded like my table. I peeked. Yep. It now had a small spiderwedb of cracks on one side. Naruto hadn't noticed, instead glaring daggers at the floor, flushed from his collarbone up in fury.
"What's the big deal?" I finally ask, grabbing a shirt from the now giant mound of dirty clothes and sniffing it cautiously. Good enough. Pulling it over my head, I don't see the smack until it whips around the back of my skull, and my angry boyfriend blonde growls, "Even you have a sensitive side. I am certain, because I've seen it. Show a little, every once in awhile. It won't kill you, but if you're mean after what she just said, I might."
Like he could hurt me. He smirked, like he knew what I was thinking, and leaned forward, breathing hotly on my ear. I grimaced, warm breath poofing over my skin and heating me up. Damn him.
"I wasn't trying to be mean," I mutter, and shake my head, long bangs shaken in my eyes as I brush them away again, "But what is the big deal? You have a job, right?" I stare at the pinkette, and she nods after a moment.
"Good school funds?" Nod.
"Good friends?"
"..."
"You want this or not?" I glare at her, and she smirks, nodding.
"So shut it. Yes, you have good friends. And you're not living with your parents anymore, so why the hell does her damn opinion matter? It doesn't." I shrug and adjust my shirt, tugging it down as I get up and go to the mini-fridge, grabbing a coke and opening it with a crisp 'chrr'.
Looking back at Sakura, I see tears in her eyes, and brace myself.
"Jerk," she whispers, and launches herself at me, grabbing me and squeezing. Naruto laughs, and I manage to barely avoid spilling my soda as she crushes me to her in a fierce hug, crying into my shirt. So much for clean.
"You stupid, cuddly, jerkface of a softie," she murmurs, refusing to let me got for a moment.
"Get off, Sakura," I whine, and paw her away, trying to maintain my dignity. She lets go, probably trying to do the same, and smiles, dry-eyed from a maneuver I must've missed.
Looking at her watch, she gasps, hair mussed, and shouts, "OH SHIT. 9:43. Oh shit oh shit oh shit. My Chem Lab started at 9:35!"
And she was gone, a slight breeze and a slammed door the only signs that she was ever here at all. I looked over at Naruto, leaning on the bed and smiling at me, brows raised. I smirked, and nodded at the door.
"Well? You have the same class right?" He just smiled innocently and nodded, "So? Are you just gonna let it go?"
"No," he said slyly, a grin growing, "But the thing Sakura fails to remember...is that it's Saturday today."
We blinked at the door, and couldn't help it as we collapsed into laughter. A moment later, Naruto's making breakfast and getting the phonebook out, murmuring to himself about which place quits delivering food after noon. Watching him, I can't discern the actual Sasuke's love from my own, and we both watch him with warmth, eyelids lowered a little as he moves around, hunting for his phone.
Unmoving and watching silently at the edge of his thoughts, I scan my memories, but a frustrating fog is still there, as it always is. I pressed and shove at it, only to bounce away gently, the thick grey firmly but subtly denying me.
I try narrowing my thoughts and thinking of an arrow or a bullet, and punching my way through, but with a jolt I'm back into my body, trapped for a moment before I'm able to pull away again.
Next I'm smoke, blending in with the fog and trying to coax it into letting me over it, or even flow with it to the outside.
But it repulses me, and I'm back where I started, whirling against the current that surrounds me an a soft but tall and firm wall.
I even try to shred it with sharp nails that are red and aren't my own, glowing like embers in the dim light. But suddenly I hit something, reaching with nails to pierce and grab it, dragging it along through the mist to hold as it pulls me too.
I'm lying on the floor, grey everywhere, and pain slams me as another kick comes, Itachi laughing as I grunt, both corners of my mouth dripping boold into my mouth that's unbound, apparently to let my sick brother hear my screams clearly.
He has no doubts that nobody will save me.
Now that I'm here, I try to pull away from the pain, but I'm jammed here, unable to move, every part of my mind bound to Sasuke's (my own) frame as we're abused.
Itachi is grinning as he presses a finger to a gun wound petting it gently, shocks of pain rushing me and making me breathe funny, before digging his nails into the puckered hole, the lead ball inside jutting against the skin.
I bit hard on my lip to muffle the shriek, and he frowned, slamming a fist into my solar plexus and smiling again as I spit out blood, my breath coming in heaving gasps. He just laughs at me, and lets his fingers pull away, giving me a few moments, thinking maybe it's over now.
But instead he jerks me over to a different side of the room, out of the pool of blood, slamming me into a chair as a man comes in.
"Sir, the plane was blown up, just as you-" Itachi silenced him with a look, and then glanced at me, that sadistic smile back.
"I think I'll go visit Naruto. Anything you want me to tell him? He always asks about you, always cries for you when I take him, begging for you to save him. He sobs your name in his sleep, little brother."
I'm not sure if it's fury, hatred, or the tears in my eyes that obscures my vision, but I grit my teeth and say nothing, the private part of my mind hoping I'll be able to retreat from the memory soon. I try again to tug away, prying the holds with my imaginary fingers, pulling as tiny scraps let me go, and the images faded.
My hands are empty now, and I take a huge, shuddering breath. I'm shaking, and I can't feel anything for a moment, before I let Sasuke suck me back into the frame of right now.
We're walking down to the cafeteria to collect our friends, and Naruto bounces along beside me, grinning happily. Still quaking, I try to calm down, immersing myself in my dobe's words and forgetting for a moment about the pain that had only moments ago wracked my body, throwing agony like splinters into my gut.
"He cries for you, little brother. 'Why don't you help me, Sasuke' he always says. Well, brother? Why?" I gag but can't move. Can't breathe. I grip the panic and smother it in anger. I can't remember anything else. I have to find out what happened.
Silently swallowing, I pull again from the real Sasuke and swirl back into my thoughts, the fog billowing angrily, tossing me around his mind in short wheezes and jerks. Screaming in agony as I feel a mental kick in my stomach from the leftover memory, and I lash out, grabbing tendrils of the all-dampening mist, ripping it away from the mess of color just beyond, faces and things and feelings whooshing through me as they're released in a blur.
"Sasuke? Sasuke, can you hear me?" Sakura. From before. I remember her talking to me.
"Please wake up now. I know you must be hurting, and I know I'm selfish…but Naruto's hurting, and you're the only one he lets in now. Please wake up," her voice breaks, and I wrestle free of the fog.
I try to see what's happening, but suddenly it's back. I'm whizzing through images until I see Naruto scream and fall, blood smeared on his face and hands, to a black fog as it sweeps up and around me. Beeping blares softly in the now black everywhere, and I smell Germ-X and plastic.
(A/N: It's around 5:57 in Japan right now, and 2:34am in America. I know the layouts might not work, but just work with me, people. Shika and Sakura have just come back from shopping and Neji and Kiba have just started the dinner. Action!)
My fingers twitch, and I start. My fingers just twitched. I made my fingers twitch. I moved.
But I can't see-I open my eyes, and stare for a moment, stunned that I moved again, at the dark white tiles about ten feet above me. The dull silver tubes that run in my peripheral vision snake over and are jabbed into my arms, thick white liquid sliding inside, the tiny jellyfish wriggling through are actually bubbles, and I watch them move.
Everything is so white and clean, and I know I should be sluggish since I feel exhausted, but I've never felt so awake.
So alive.
I'm moving...I think and sigh deeply, right before I remember for the second time, and I can't breathe.
Naruto.
He was covered in blood.
My blood? Or his? I swallow hard, and blink again.
Trying to sit, I wince, pain jabbing at me from all directly, stiffness soaking into injuries. Growling in effort, I push up, and survey my body as the thin sterile sheet falls away. I'm swathed in thick bandages, some stained red at the edges, one on my side digging in as I try again to sit upright.
But just as I try to move, I see a light flashing on a machine and a different light comes on, one I can now see through the huge, wide windows to my right. At the far end of a long branch, there's a small rectangle that spills over with lemony yellows light. Shadows move on the shades.
I see the flashing light stop, a smaller glow coming along towards me down the hallway. My door is open, and I see the glow there too. My heart amps up a couple beats, until it's thudding on my ribcage with indecisive nerves.
I don't want to be discovered, for some reason.
You'd think I'd want help or information, but something in me tells me to fake it.
Falling swiftly back without a sound, I relax my body, and let everything fall into place. A gruff voice breaks the silence in the room as a woman. presumably a nurse, looks me over, flashlight washed across me. She spoke a few garbled letters of English I'm not familiar with and shock races through me. Where the hell-
"Are you awake?" a heavily accented phrase comes out and she shines the beam on my face, eyes peeking open to see my bangs cast on the wall as spiky shadows. I resist my head, which tells me to come out for a moment, before she shakes her head and mutters more english, shutting the glass and steel door behind her, locking it from outside. I curse as soon as she's gone, moving so I'm sitting on the edge of the bed, toes hanging teasingly right above the floor.
A chill races through me as I touch down, trying to keep my balance against both the pain and the gravity attempting to make me fall and break my face open.
Where am I?
Staggering upright, I stand and everything spins before I can take a step, catching the metal table and gasping for a second, regaining composure and walking over to the large window, lights splayed out in front of me. A huge, golden bridge is lit up a few miles away, and my heart thuds painfully in my chest.
I've seen it before, in tourist booklets and magazine pages.
My teachers have mentioned it in World History, and I stare at it, slack-jawed.
The Golden Gate Bridge. Which means-I'm in America.
I'm in San Fran-freaking-cisco.
And I am alone.
Dodging out of the hallway, I padded down the bigger corridor, pressed to the wall whenever someone moved in one of the rooms. I had to find clothes. It had been thirty minutes since I'd left my room, and this hospital must have had some sort of clothes somewhere.
I just didn't know where.
Jumping as someone spoke in their sleep, I felt my heart do doubletime, gritting my teeth in embarrasment. Looking around and eyeing a linen closet, I toed over, peeking in and grinning as I saw grey sweats and black shirts, folded next to nurse shifts. I grimaced at the shoes, and donned socks instead, quickly stripping and re-dressing right there in the hallway.
"Hello?" I froze, and pressed myself into the shallow closet, shutting the door as a mane of white hair swung into view. No light came out, but Jiraiya stood close to the closet, looking around. Breathing a sigh of exhausted relief, I moved to open the door, but a nurse came into view, and I watched through the thin slits on the door. The older man turned and sighed, rubbing his neck.
"What now?"
"Sir..." she began, and swallowed. Looks like they'd seen I was gone. She spoke Japanese with little accent, and I listened closely.
"Well?" Jiraiya raised a brow.
"The Uchiha boy...he's gone. We found his bed empty, IV unplugged and his medicine and wrist wrappings on the floor. We-"
"Gone?" Jiraiya was instantly alert, and looked around, like he could sense me, "As in...awake? Where is he? Do you have any idea?"
"N-No. My boss told me to ask if he would panic and try to leave, or where you might think he'd be. If you'd like us to-"
"No. I'll find him. He's probably pissed right about now, knowing that brat. No doubt he's realized he's not in Japan anymore." Jiraiya shook his head, "Didn't you people realize he was waking up? I thought he was being monitored. I thought someone would be there when he finally woke up. What the hell am I paying you for?" He cursed and waved her away, leaning on the wall.
"I thought I'd have time to tell Naruto the good news," he chuckled after a moment, and rubbed his face.
"Jiraiya." I opened the door, and the old man must have jumped a hundred feet, a string of whispered curses filling the air as he smacked me upside the head in his surprise, glaring until he realized who I was and grabbed me, crushing me in a fatherly hug.
He smells like the ocean and seaweed. Pulling away, I nod to him, and he stares at me, holding me at arms length for a moment, murmuring, "I thought...doesn't matter. How do you feel?"
"Fine, but where is everyone?" He knows what I mean, and hesitates.
"They went home, since-"
"They left? Why? W-where is Naruto?" I mutter, and scowl as he chuffs for a second, rubbing his neck.
"He went home, Sasuke. You don't understand something." He waits ,and watches as I calm down and gather some patience.
"What don't I understand, Jiraiya? Why did Naruto and everyone else leave me here alone?"
My throat burns, and my pride quenches confused tears.
Being with the blonde has apparently made me much more sensitive than I used to be. I swallow, and glare at through the window, gaze fizxed on the glowing bridge in the distance.
"What do you-"
"Everything up until the pain and Naruto screaming my name. He collapsed. Something was wrong with my throat, and I couldn't speak. I think I fainted," I said slowly, still staring at the lights.
"Well. That's good, at least. There was no damage to your mind," he sighed, and nodded, stopping as I shook my head.
"No. I was hurt. Not permanently...but I won't forget this for a long, long time. Maybe I shouldn't try to."
"Sasuke, you did collapse, from the severe bleeding on the interior of your body, and the pain of shouting with an injured vocal cord. We managed to fix that since it wasn't snapped, only twisted and scratched a little, but you had five broken ribs, two cracked, a broken wrist, fractured leg, head trauma, and a broken arm. Not only that, but the pain was apparently so severe that the moment you woke up in the hospital you fainted again, and went into a shock-induced coma," he rushed to finish, and I felt my stomach drop to my knees, a cold shard lodged up my spine.
"...how long?"
He waited a second, measuring my panic levels, and murmured, "It's Christmas Eve right now. So almost four months. We had no idea if you'd ever wake up again. Naruto thinks you're only in critical care, and we'd prayed you would wake up so we wouldn't have to tell him...that he'd never see you again."
I sucked in air, and couldn't breathe. I felt a fist clamp around my body like a vise, and I choked, eyes wide. Four months. Naruto...
"I have to go." I spun around and was almost gone when Jiraiya said quickly, "Wait. Sasuke, you're not completely healed, even after two surgeries to remove bits of bone from your intestines and piece if back together. You have to stay here. But I'll call Naruto and tell him that-"
"No. I have to go." Before he could say anything, I was sprinting down the linoleum, racing for the door. I had to get home.
I ran up stairs, even though I sensed I should go down. Some other isntinct pointed straight up, and maybe that was God trying to kill me, but I slammed a last door open in the staircase. A whirring a blades made me immediately look at the big black copter, windmill chopping at the air above it. The huge thing hovered, and a blob leaned out, dark hair against an oddly light sky.
The lights of the city held the darkness at bay, and I jumped in as the door swung open, helicopter lowering close for me. Staggering, two hands held me up, each from different sides. Once I was inside, it swerved and dipped further, and two more feet appeared as I sat on a lightly padded seat built into the wall. Jiraiya climbed in after me and glared before letting a familiar body rush me and wrap wiry arms around me.
Kakashi grabbed me in a crushing hug, and I sighed, letting myself hug him back and squeeze him tight. Leaning into it, I felt that damn lump show in my throat, and forced it down, swallowing hard. It felt good to hug my godfather after so long.
Letting me go, he held me at arms length, memorizing my face.
"I'ts good to see you up and about. Took you long enough." I smirked, and he smiled under his mask, the thin black fabric shifting slightly.
Jiraiya still glared, and sighed, "I should drag you back inside and make you stay untl you're healed. Are you sure you can't wait a few more days? Or even just hours?"
"I have something I've got to take care of," I muttered, and looked out the window.
"Right now?"
"Right now."
"Then I'm coming too. I'd like to see Tsunade, anyways."
Beside Kakashi, a young man who I faintly recognized as one of Naruto's highschool friends helped me into a seat-belt, yelling to the front cabin, "Let's go, Anko! We have to get fuel, but then its a straight shot. No stops."
"Right. Sit down and shut up!" I looked back at the silver, who was also listening, and the man on his other side frowned, his light blonde hair in a ponytail, a long, thick piece of it covering half his face. He wiped it away for a second, and light, grey-blue eyes smiled at me.
"Deidara Hakume. Sasuke, right?" I nodded, and he smiled again, turning to the pilots' cabin, his black and white leather jumper fitting as he sat in the co-pilots chair and slipped a headpiece on. The woman's voice came from behind a wall I couldn't see behind, and she shouted above the noise, "Kakashi. Sit down already. Konohamaru, you too. buckle up!"
They sat and belted in, my godfather turning back to me, frowning as I picked absently at a scab on my finger, unused to the heavy feeling of the injuries and bandages put together. I'd never say anything, but I was starting to feel a little woozy. Despite my acting, Kakashi noticed, and frowned deeper.
"You need rest, Sasuke. But," he added before I could protest, "Naruto has waited long enough. I saw his eyes when I told him. He needs you more than I first thought."
"What!" Jiraiya yelled, and stared in horror at Kakashi, then sighed, and hung his head, fists clenched on his legs as the silver looked at him sadly.
He sighed and I processed what he said.
"You told him? Why?" I scowled, and was about to snap at him before he looked straight at me and murmured, "Because what if you never woke up? What if nobody had the guts to tell him? He would've waited for you until the end of time, Sasuke. Or at least until he'd wasted his whole life for someone that wouldn't be coming back. I just thought it best that he be prepared."
Taking that in, I felt the lump in my gut grow as I tried to swallow again, heaving in a ragged breath. He was right, I knew. But Naruto.
"Jiraiya said Naruto thought I was only in critical care. How-"
"Naruto lied," he said softly, and rubbed his neck, leaning on the wall, "He lied as soon as he could that he knew nothing. I don't know why, and I don't need to. I do know that at least Shikamaru and Gaara know he knows, and maybe Juura."
Jiraiya made a noise like a choked off sob, and shook his head, letting both hands hang off his legs.
"Juura?" I raised a brow.
"She helped us get here, and is visiting the school right now for the holidays. Actually, everyone but you, me, and Jiraiya is there. I think there's a party tonight or something. I came because one of the aides reported fluctuations in your statistics."
"Oh." I thought about before. There hadn't been any real conception of time back then, but everything to exist all at once, and still in a sequence. I remembered everything now, but something was still off. It hit me right then that I felt off-balance. I was nauseous and queasy like a cat with out it's tail or a bat with no ears.
But I listened to Kakashi and Jiraiya talk about Christmas and Naruto and Me and Life in General, and the thrum of chopping blades, I thought only about Naruto and the promise I'd broken, the lump in my throat lmost unbearable.
Naruto POV (now 11:24 pm)
I spread my hands over the thin fabric and stared at myself in the mirror, taking in the shadows under my eyes, blood red veins streaking the whites and the tired look of my face. Even my posture was sad, slight slumped forward. But I couldn't bring myself to move to fix it. I was too exhausted.
Groaning, I slipped my shirt off and the almost-white bathroom light glinted off my chest, the risen scars bumpy and long across my body, ribs criss-crossed, arms threaded with thin white lines.
Tracing one particularly long one, I sighed and pulled a grey tank-top on, grimacing as my arms ached from long hours decorating the tree. I wriggled out of my black skinny jeans, and kicked my shoes off.
I had raked some of my mop of blonde hair down earlier, but it'd sprung away from the teeth, unruly as the eyes under it, who refused to be covered in concealer.
There was a knock at the door and my half-mast eyes flew open, hands clenching and turning the water on, splashing dome on my face and scrubbing my hair with a few handfuls. The knock came again, and a low voice said, "Naruto. It's me."
I froze. Like a robot, I walked to the door and stared at it, slowly opening it and swallowing, mouth dry. But there was nobody there, and I waited for him. I waited for the owner of the voice to come around the corner and smirk haughtily.
Walking out into the hall, I looked the other door. Paint chipped, handle dull from use, the carpet in from of it ripped and worn. So many thoughts flooded my head, and I grabbed one. I wanted to sleep somewhere familiar tonight, and even though I'd slept in my room for four months, it wasn't the same as our room. Suddenly I was blinking tears away, and walking over to it, feeling under the torn up rug in front of the door and feeling the key.
Opening the door, I stepped in and took a breath, the lump in my throat growing double as everything came back. Through the bathroom door, I could see the bare sink and tub. Of course. We'd taken everything for the trip. Toothbrushes, shampoo. Even spare band-aids, provided by yours truly.
I padded slowly into the bedroom, and looked around, half-expecting him to be laying on the bad, reading glasses perched on his nose, thick novel in his long hands. He would realize I was watching him and glance up, smiling softly, brow raised. He would turn his head up and pat the space next to him, telling me what he was reading. We would sit and read for an hour or two, me complaining as he turned the page too fast, finally begging him to read aloud in that weirdly gentle voice of his. We would eventually go to sleep like that, and wake up later, him dragging my shirt off as I complained about the heat. I would smile and watch him move around, shutting things off and getting read for the new day.
I would be home.
But he wasn't, and he wouldn't ever again, and I wouldn't and we was a thing of the past.
The room was cold. Drapes drawn open, there was thick dust everywhere, and it was so lonely. But at the same time, I breathed in the smells and caught a sob in my chest, lodging it in my throat before it could escape. I smelled like his...just him. Nothing really stood out besides the fact that this scent was totally, in-equivocally Sasuke. It was home.
Going to the bed, I dug under the sheets and slid in, toes curling at the oddly nice chill to the soft fabric. Sighing, I wrapped myself in the cushy blankets, pillows following, and breathed. I didn't sleep. I just lay there and breathed, finally letting everything out. I was safe here, and I could be weak. Just for one night, one moment, I would let myself be weak.