Author's Note; I know, probably an early update, but I'm bored and taking a break on that short story I started and published half of called The Slow Road to Insanity. I'm almost done and it'll probably be published later tonight. I'm also going to work on Monsters Inside Me and publish that tonight as well. So then I'll be able to focus on My Life as a Roller Coaster and get that published when I can this weekend. Gawd, I forgot how much hard work it was to keep up with multiple stories!
Well, hope you guys enjoy this chapter! I'll post again this Sunday :)
Chapter 18
Sasuke
I was glad that Naruto finally woke up after five days of being comatose, but I wasn't expecting him to go off on the male nurse Tsunade called Kurama. And what shocked me was that he agreed to let him in the room. You didn't have to look at him to know he was upset, he was emitting it from himself like a furnace emitting heat to warm up a room. And it was getting so thick that it was becoming hard to breathe.
"Hey, Naruto, do you want me to stay with you and Gaara, or do you want me to go home with Itachi?" I asked, wondering what the blonde would say when he finished his last bowl, out of four, in fifteen minutes. A new record time for him.
"You can stay if you want. I mean, I've kept you both from school long enough, you're the Valedictorian and you should be at school." He said, and I could tell he felt guilty for the two of us missing school.
"Don't worry about that dobe, Tsunade is reasonable and she knows what's been going on." I said with a shrug. "And it's just a title, not something I actually care about."
And I was being truthful, too.
"But …" Naruto started saying before Gaara interrupted him.
"Naruto, for now, worry about only yourself and getting better so you can go back to school, okay? We'll handle ourselves just fine." He said, and he had stolen the words out of my mouth.
"But Gaara." Naruto whined, but all three of us knew Naruto didn't have the heart to put himself before others, it wasn't his personality, and the only reason his father wasn't behind bars already.
"No buts, Naru, now that you're done eating, try to get some rest okay? I'll be here." Gaara said, and I could tell that these two were actually meant for each other, and it was too creepy how well they went together.
"Well then, since Gaara has the floor, Itachi and I are going home, okay?" I said, looking between Naruto and Gaara for a moment before my eyes landed on Naruto.
"Sleep well you guys." He said with a small smile, but we all knew he was feeling hurt inside.
"See you in the morning Naruto." I said as I waved and walked out of the door, Itachi took his time saying good bye, and I wanted to go home to go to bed so I waited for him by the elevator, leaning against the wall with my arms crossed as I closed my eyes for a moment.
In all honesty, I wanted to go home and take my glasses off. Since I had worn contacts for so long, I wasn't used to wearing them and they were a little irritating, especially when they got dirty and I had to clean them every few minutes.
I couldn't wait until I got my contacts in a few months. The only reason I didn't have them now was because Itachi wanted to keep within his yearly budget. Yes, we might be rich, but his yearly spending budget was no more than fifty thousand, and we were hitting it close this year, and we still had a couple holidays to reach yet.
Then I felt a tap on my shoulder and thought it was Itachi saying we could go, but when I opened my eyes, all I saw was the red head nurse from earlier and I glared.
"What do you need?" I asked, though I wasn't trying to sound as rude as I did.
"I have some advice for your blonde friend." He said, and he was as serious as a damn heart attack. "Make sure he steers clear of Yaguro, I have friends inside his loop that spy on him and his whereabouts, and last I heard he's working for a group called Akatsuki."
"Why are you telling me all this?" I asked.
"Because if the blonde heard it, he'd never trust this hospital as long as he's alive and you know it." He said. "And do you know the name Jiraiya?"
"I heard it, he's the cop that arrested Naruto's boss the other night." I said, recalling the last time I heard the name before.
"He's one of the people working undercover and getting information about this group. And from what he's told me, nothing coming from them is good. They're a sex ring that takes in children and trains them before selling them. But lately, they're going after certain people as young as you guys." He explained. "I want you guys to keep Naruto as close to you as possible and never let him out of your sight. These people know how to make themselves slip in and out of surveillance faster than a sexual predator capturing his next victim."
"I'll keep it in mind, but how can I trust you?" I asked, noticing that Itachi hadn't shown up yet and was wondering what was taking him so long.
"Tsunade and Jiraiya are child hood friends that grew up together. You could say that they might possibly be a couple, but they're not." He said, and that gave me a clue as to talk to Tsunade to see if he's telling the truth or not. I guess I'm going to school tomorrow.
"Tell Naruto I'm going to school if I don't call his room by nine. I'm usually in bed by then." I told him. "And it's Kurama right?"
"Yea, and I will. Stay safe yourself, Jiraiya told me to make sure you and your brother watch each others backs as well, but he didn't give me a reason why." Kurama said.
"I'll tell Itachi on the way home." I nodded when I saw Itachi finally leaving Naruto's room and walk down the hallway, his face buried in his iPhone and I only shook my head when he reached the elevator and I pushed the button then.
"See you later Uchiha." Kurama said as he waved and disappeared to find Saiken for all I know.
"I have to talk to you on the way home, Itachi." I sighed when the doors finally opened and the two climbed inside before the doors closed and we went to the second floor and walked off towards the car garage.
"What do we need to talk about?" He asked.
"It's about Yaguro." I mumbled so no one would hear us as we got inside the car garage and walked towards our car which was parked only a few cars away from the doors we walked through.
"Then lets wait until we're inside the car." Itachi whispered before we climbed into the car and I let him drive home. I was too tired to get behind the wheel tonight.
"What the hell you're saying, is that Yaguro works for a sex ring group called Akatsuki and that they're after Naruto?" Itachi asked once we were in our drive way, parked and had the car turned off. He was going to be more pissed about this than me. "And that they're after Naruto and that the two of us need to watch out too?"
"Yea, that's what Kurama said, and he said, not in the exact words, to talk to Tsunade about all this to see if he's telling the truth or not." I told him with a small nod.
"I'm talking to Tsunade, you're going to your classes. This is bullshit! If she knew about Yaguro, she wouldn't have made him his nurse." Itachi hissed, and I knew not to mess with him when he's pissed. "This is the shit that pisses me off."
"Hey, Itachi, clam down, I'm not happy about this either." I said. "But it could also be that she didn't know about Yaguro until after everything happened."
"You're right." Itachi said after taking a few breaths, finally calming down enough to get out of the car with me and go inside.
It was unbelievably cold tonight, something that usually didn't happen in mid September, but it's Konoha, Japan, we've had weirder weather before.
"Hey, Itachi, make sure Tsunade knows who Kurama talked to, because I don't want her thinking that he's turning on her. I just don't get that vibe from him. He might be an ass in a way, but I don't think he'd be that kind of an ass." I told Itachi once the door was shut and locked behind me. He was already in the kitchen probably to get a beer or a shot of Sake to help him get some sleep tonight, and I don't blame him one bit either.
"I will, but don't stay up too late yourself. As soon as I'm done with this," he said as he rose a beer bottle when I walked into the kitchen, "I'm going to bed. I'm so damn fucking lucky that tomorrow is my day off on all jobs."
"Finally." I muttered as I grabbed me a bottle of Diet Rite tangerine soda, an American soda that got my interest last year when I first tried it, and I've been hooked on it since then. Besides, I don't normally drink soda anyway, it's always veggie drinks and this is a good compromise once in a while.
"I'm not staying up too much longer." I said as I looked at the clock, and it was close to nine. I only shrugged it off and sauntered off to my room to be on my laptop working on my novel once again for an hour before taking my shower and hitting the pillow for the night. And besides, I had to call Naruto, let him know I was going to school tomorrow and realized I didn't have his room number.
So when I got to my room and closed the door, hearing the television in the living room on low, I knew Itachi might fall asleep on the couch before he's finished with his beer, and I pulled my cell phone out and called Gaara before I forgot.
"Gaara Sabaku speaking." He said when he answered his phone two rings later.
"Sabaku?" I chuckled. "Since when did you answer using your last name?"
"It's not funny Uchiha." Gaara snapped into my ear, and I knew I hit a nerve, but I don't know how.
"Did something happen after we left?" I asked, now talking seriously because something was off.
"Naruto forgot about letting Kurama into the room and had a panic attack." He said, no wonder he was upset. "He's fine now, but they had to sedate him to calm him down."
"I'm sorry Gaara, maybe I should have stayed over tonight." I said, now feeling guilty for going home.
"Don't worry about it, it would have happened either way, you know how forgetful Naruto is sometimes when he's stressed out even a little bit." Gaara sighed into the phone. "I'm sorry for snapping at you a few moments ago."
"Don't worry about it." I said, waving my right hand in the air like he was standing in front of me as I put my can of soda down and sat down in my computer chair, turning my laptop on and waited to it to load up.
"Alright, well is there a reason you called?" Gaara asked, and I could tell he was wanting to close his eyes and get some sleep since Naruto wasn't going to wake up at all tonight thanks to the sedation.
"Yea, tell Naruto I'm going to school tomorrow and that I'll come by afterwards." I said, now putting my password into my computer and waited for it to finish loading up. If I remembered correctly, my virus protection would update when it's loaded and I wouldn't be able to use it until it's finished. I'll take a shower while I'm waiting.
"Alright, I will." Gaara said.
"Thanks, see you guys tomorrow." I said, and we said our good byes before we hung up on our conversation.
I sighed, I hated waiting for the computer to fully turn on, it always took forever, even without the virus protection update, so instead of sitting there waiting, I got up and went to my dresser and grabbed my night clothes; a pair of black flannel night pants, clean boxers and a tank top I might not even put on and left my room and headed off to the master bedrooms' bathroom.
I dropped off my clothes and went to go and see how Itachi was doing, and I had predicted right; he fell asleep watching his favorite show with half the beer bottle gone.
I chuckled and pulled my phone out of my pocket and took a picture of the sleeping Itachi. I'd use that as blackmail later because Itachi always hated his picture being taken, it was something he hated his entire life.
After putting my phone away, I took the beer bottle and emptied it down the drain before putting it in the glass trash bin and turned the television off when I got back to the living room.
"Hey, Itachi …" I whispered as I gently woke him up so I could help him to his room better. "Nii-san, if you sleep on the couch all night you'll be too sore tomorrow."
"Mmn." Itachi groaned, but I knew he understood me when he reached out in front of him, barely awake to know what he was reaching for and I grabbed his hand and draped it over my shoulder before heaving him up onto his feet and let him use me as a crutch as we walked to his room next to the master bedroom.
Before I let Itachi fall on the bed, I quickly reached and pulled back the blankets before I helped him lay down and covered him up. I swear, sometimes I feel like I'm the oldest child instead.
"Thanks Sasuke." I heard him mumble before I heard him snoring lightly. I chuckled at how fast he fell asleep and left his room, closing the door quietly behind me and went to take my quick shower.
Tomorrow was going to take forever, and I wanted to be clean before I got to bed because I never have time to take a shower in the morning. I just hoped I was making a good decision to write on my novel a little bit before bed. But not having worked on it for a few days got me off my writing schedule and I wanted to catch up at least a little bit.