Chapter 26

Sasuke

I couldn't believe how out of it Naruto was when he saw the devastation of his room, and when I left to check the other few bedrooms, they were just as torn up as his was and when I ran to the back door and saw that it was pried open, I knew that it was a break in. When it could have happened, I don't know. But it had to be within the last week or so.

And when I went back to Naruto's bedroom, he was on the floor in front of his closet, on his knees holding something to his chest and crying so much I thought he might have hurt something on top of his on growing anxiety and panic from his surroundings. I walked over and put a hand on his shoulder once he was up on his feet using the wall for support, I felt even more sorry for him than I ever did.

"Hey, Naruto, lets go back to my house, okay? I'll come back and get some books you might wanna read and lock up okay?" I suggested quietly, but I don't think he could have heard me.

Sighing, I led him out of the room and out of the house before going back over to mine and opened the door for him and led him inside. By now, his crying had become quieter and he was hiccupping, but I didn't mind as I helped him kick off his sandals and onto the couch where I got his key from him and went back over to the house.

I was going to have a long ass talk with Itachi when I got back, there was no doubt about that. And for books that Naruto might want to read, I have no clue, so when I went back to his room, I grabbed whatever title I saw, and made sure I had roughly ten books before I left and locked the house up.

I know, personally, that taking things from the room without having the police go over it was going to cause confusion, but Naruto seemed to know what was taken from his room, so I was going to leave it to him to tell the police what possessions were his that were taken, his dad would have to add to the list of his own possessions, but I didn't care about his.

When I got back to my house and closed the door behind me, Naruto hadn't moved far and was now laying down on the couch. His eyes barely open and he looked spaced out, so I knew bothering him now would send him back into a crying fit so I took the books to his bedroom and put them on the night stand with his house key and closed the door behind me when I left it.

"Hey, Itachi … we have a problem." I said when I opened Itachi's office door and closed it behind me without knocking. He looked pissed that I didn't knock, but when he heard what I said, he softened and now looked worried.

"Is Naruto okay?"

"He's fine physically, but emotionally I think he feels like his heart was ripped from his chest." I explained, and that was exactly how Naruto's looked in the last five minutes. "His house was broken into while he and his dad were gone."

"Was anything taken?"

"Naruto says his laptop was taken, but I don't know if anything else was. The back door has evidence of a break in, it's pretty damaged around the handle and locks. And the strange thing was, was that only his room, his dads room and his dads office was torn apart, the rest of the house looked like nothing had been touched." I explained while bringing my left hand up and scratched the back of my neck.

"Where's Naruto?"

"He was out in the living room when I came back just before walking in here, but I think he went to his bedroom and locked the door. He really doesn't want to be bothered right now." I said, gulping hard because I don't know what Itachi wants to do about the situation.

"We'll let Naruto decide if he wants to call the police, it is his and his fathers' house." Itachi said after a moment of thought, and I sighed heavily. I was glad, but also pissed off at the same time.

"I know, but I still feel like we should call." I huffed, crossing my arms as I sank into the chair next to his desk that was a spare chair for the room. "And how long should I wait before going to see if he's alright?"

"Give him an hour or two, let him calm himself down, that's best." Itachi suggested and I nodded. He was right, letting Naruto calm down before asking him anything about the house was the best idea I heard in a while from Itachi.

"Alright … I'm going to go for a drive, okay? I'm thinking about stopping at Gaara's for a little bit." I said as I got up and stretched.

"Don't be gone too long." Itachi suggested as he got back to work, but I knew he was keeping an ear out for Naruto and I left his office door open as I walked out with my hands in my pockets and went to get the car keys out of the kitchen before going back to the front door and slid my shoes back on. Today was already a long day at school, and with this happening, it was just making it feel longer than it already was.

"Hey, Sasuke, well this is a surprise." Temari smiled as she opened the door to their house and let me inside. I nodded as I stepped in and took my shoes off.

"Yea, I was wanting some time away from the house and I figured I could help Gaara with his homework if he needed." I said, though I know full well I'm going to be talking to him about Naruto, completely disregarding anything that happened in his house. I don't want to know what Naruto would do if I told Gaara instead of him … just thinking about it is making my head hurt.

"Well, Gaara's in his room right now, so you can go on up and knock on his door. Though I'm sure he's sleeping. But if he isn't, you can stay." Temari said as she started walking into the kitchen area. I guess she was either getting dinner started or was working on her homework with Kankuro. "You know how he was on the way home …"

"Yea, now that you mention it …" I had completely forgotten that he was nearly asleep all the way home today from school.

And without another word, Temari went into the kitchen and I went down the hall where Gaara's room was and softly knocked on his bedroom door, though I made sure it was loud enough for him to hear it. And the door was opened quicker than I could think possible and I was dragged into the room with the door slammed behind me. I was not prepared to see Gaara glaring daggers at me with such intensity that I thought he was ready to kill me.

"I just got a call from Naruto, and he's crying, what the hell happened because he wouldn't tell me." Gaara hissed, and I stared. I had no clue that Naruto called him.

"I had no clue he called you …" I told him. "But since you're asking, Naruto and I went to his house to get some stuff and his home had been broken into. We don't know when, but they only raided his room, his dads room and the office area."

"What was taken?"

"As far as I know, his laptop." I answered, and Gaara's glare softened and he physically relaxed before sitting himself in his computer chair where his homework was sitting, sprawled all over the desks surface, and he looked like he was getting frustrated with his work. But I know he's getting frustrated with it because his mind can't leave Naruto.

"I came over to visit, and to help you with your homework if you needed some." I offered, and I hoped he would let me stay, if he didn't, I'd go home or on a long drive.

"I'm glad you came over, actually, I really need help in English." He sighed and rested his elbows on the surface of his desk and buried his face in his hands. He honestly, truly, looked confused, frustrated and pissed off at it.

"Sure, what do you need help in?" I asked as I pulled up a chair and sat next to him.

"I don't get what Iruka-sensei wants us to do for the book report." Gaara said. Well, English class wasn't his best subject, though he was able to take the advanced classes for it. I guess this was his weak point.

"Well, what Iruka-sensei is wanting, is a book report of the whole book we read, and I just went through the summaries I wrote for mine and did my book report with that." I told him, hoping he'd be able to understand it.

"Really?" He asked me as he turned and faced me, I could only guess he felt stupid because of the look he was giving me.

"Yea." I nodded, and I was right about my hunch, because he gave himself a face plant and growled at himself.

"Thanks Sasuke." He sighed and turned to get into his folder and pulled out all his summaries, and they were a lot.

"What the hell did you read Gaara?" I asked as my jaw dropped, there looked to be roughly twenty summaries in the stack of papers he pulled out.

"I read a book that had two books printed together." He said, and I understood why … but which book could it have been? And he answered my unspoken question. "I read the Breathe series by Rebecca Donovan."

"I don't have that book series, what's it about?" I asked.

"You'll have to read it, but I think you might like it since you like Ellen Hopkins." Gaara said, now reaching over to his book shelf and pulled a very thick book from his book shelf and handed it over to me.

"This is a big book." I said as I took it thankfully and opened it to the first chapter and started reading it. "How long before you want it back?"

"When you're done." Gaara said and he started writing his book report with a quick write.

"Thanks." I nodded, then Gaara turned to face me, and he looked more tired than he had been since I last saw him.

"Is Naruto going to be alright?" He asked.

"He'll be fine, Gaara." I nodded. "And Itachi's going to talk to your father tomorrow while we're all at school. I'll make sure you can see Naruto this weekend, if it means that I drag you there myself."

"Thank you Sasuke." Gaara said, and hugged me, which I never thought he'd do. That's when I noticed that he felt warmer than he should.

"Gaara, are you feeling okay?" I asked when he pulled back from the hug, but I kept him still close to me as I put my forehead on his, and he was burning up so much that I had a red spot on my forehead when I pulled back.

"I'm tired, is all." He said as he turned back to his homework.

"Gaara, you're running a very high fever. Maybe you should go to the hospital so you can sleep and be monitored for that." I suggested, hoping he'd listen to me.

"I can't, Sasuke." He sighed, and he pissed me off right there.

"I'll be right back." I huffed and got up with the book in my hands and went to the kitchen, crossing my arms and trying to make myself look as frustrated as I possibly could.

"What's wrong Sasuke?" Kankuro asked, he looked bummed out about homework, and he looked ready to give up on it.

"Gaara has a fever." I said and the two shot up from their chairs so fast that I thought they were going to fall.

"Go get Dad, I'll get Gaara to the car." Temari told Kankuro and he went into the basement part of the house where the jewelry shop sat and I followed Temari down the hall to Gaara's room.

"Gaara, you should have told us if you didn't feel good." Temari said when she walked into his room and the two of us saw him hunched over his desk, his head resting on the surface as he sounded like he was sound asleep. "We need to hurry."

"Why?" I asked, hell, I had no idea it'd be this chaotic if Gaara got sick.

"Gaara isn't allowed to get sick because he has such a weak immune system. A simple cold could kill him." Temari said as she walked over to her brother and felt his forehead herself.

"Yea, he has a really high fever, Sasuke, can you help me get him to the car?" Temari said once she pulled her hand back from her brothers' forehead and I stepped in to pick him up. I figured bridal style was the best way to carry him as I picked him up after draping an arm over my shoulders to make it more comfortable if possible.

"Do you think I should go and get Naruto? He'll be pissed if something happened to Gaara and he doesn't know." I asked, stating the obvious as the two of us made our way outside after I managed to get my shoes on and found Kankuro and his dad already in Temari's car.

"Yes, I don't care what our father says, Naruto should be there." Temari told me before she opened the back door and I managed to get Gaara in the back with his brother before she closed the door and got in behind the wheel.

They couldn't leave until I moved my car so I quickly got in and drove off towards home as fast as I could without going over the speed limit.

"Hey, Itachi, is Naruto still in his room?" I asked as I burst through the front door without looking to see Naruto was out of his room and in the kitchen by the fridge, and I rushed through without taking my shoes off this time.

"Hey, Naruto, I need you to come with me." I said quickly when he pulled out a soda from the fridge.

"What's wrong now?" He whined, oblivious to what just happened at Gaara's.

"Didn't you notice anything wrong with Gaara when you called him a little bit ago?" I asked, trying not to alarm him or anything.

"He sounded exhausted, but more pissed by the time I was done talking to him." He said, opening his soda and taking a sip. "Why?"

"He … went to the hospital with a fever." I said quietly. "And he was asleep when I helped put him in the car."

"He's going to the hospital!?" Naruto screamed at me and almost spat his soda in my face.

"Yea, they're on their way now, and I wanted to come get you so you could be there for him." I told him, waving my hands in front of me in case he thought I was being an ass and wouldn't take him.

"When do we leave?" He asked, putting his soda on the counter as he steadied himself with the fridge.

"As soon as you're ready." I told him and he rushed past me and to his room, slamming the door behind him and I knew it was an accident and I took this opportunity to talk to Itachi.

"Don't slam the doors!" Itachi yelled once I got to his office.

"Gaara had to go to the hospital, I'm taking Naruto, wanna come?" I asked quickly in one breath.

"No, you two go, I'm about to go into a conference with Hiashi." Itachi answered.

"Okay, I'll call you with updates." I told him when I heard Naruto leave his room and rush back to the kitchen to get his drink and over to the front door.

"I'm ready Sasuke." I heard him say as I waved to Itachi and rushed up to the front door. I noticed that Naruto was carrying his backpack and it looked full, then glared at him because he knew he wasn't allowed to carry it.

"Take this." He said when he saw my glare and slipped on his sandals before the two of us left the house and got in the car.