Author's Note; I'm sorry for being late! I'm obsessed with defeating this stupid game called New Super Mario Bros I picked up at my library! I hate world 7! Dx But now I'm on world 8 :3 I'm a happy girl. Bwahaha.

Naruto; You were ignoring me all week! Wench!

Me; Me? Ignore my nee-chan? Neeeever. xD

Naruto; I'm not a damn girl!

Sasuke; You sound like one when you scream. -smirks.-

Itachi; Stop it Sasuke, Erika, you're making the little girl cry. -has a poker face-

Naruto; I hate you! -seething-

Me; Okay nii-chan. -Hugs poor Naruto-

Naruto; You ... Oh my God! An Uchiha is hugging me!

Itachi and Sasuke; -face palms- Uchiha's don't hug Erika!

Me; Didn't I already establish that I'm not a normal Uchiha? Hence ... why you barely remember me Sasuke-kun. Now, on with the story! :)

Chapter 30

Sasuke

I woke up with another headache today. I guess it's because last night was the second night in a row that I stole Itachi's booze so I could get myself to sleep. So far, Itachi wasn't getting pissed that at least four of his beers were missing, but he'll have a fucking cow when he notices a good portion of his whiskey is gone. I only got into that one because it took four beers to put me asleep two nights ago.

"Sasuke … Uchiha!" Itachi screamed so loud I could have sworn that he was standing just outside my room, but then it dawned on me that I didn't put away the whiskey before I somehow made it back into my room last night.

After realizing what had happened, I bolted out of bed and rushed down the hallway so I wouldn't keep my already pissed off brother waiting any longer than I already made him wait and stood in the walk way to the kitchen. I, honestly, was too scared to go anywhere near the obviously enraged man in front of me.

Gulping loudly, I felt a bead of sweat drip down the side of my face as I spoke, "Yes … nii-san?"

He didn't have so speak, he held up the bottle of whiskey … that barely had a third of it left, and it was just opened by me after he went to bed last night.

"I was okay with a beer here and there as long as I'm awake. But four beers one night and over half a fucking bottle of whiskey in the next?" Itachi yelled, making my head hurt worse than it already was. "I'm officially getting rid of all the hard liquor in this house and I'm locking up my beer. I swear, if I find you with anything else that has alcohol in it before you're twenty one, I'll tan your hide so hard you won't be able to sit for a month!"

And he opened the whiskey, pouring it down the drain before getting the other two bottles and the only vodka bottle we had in the house and poured them down the drain too.

"Did you get sick at all before you went to bed?" Itachi asked, his voice hoarse from the yelling, but I could tell he was trying to calm himself down.

"I think once, I don't remember." I sighed truthfully, looking down at the floor because I honestly didn't want to make eye contact with him.

"Did you drink it straight?"

"No, I drank a lot of it with my stash of soda I kept in my room." I answered. I knew this was definitely true, there were empty soda cans all over my bedroom.

Itachi sighed heavily and threw the now empty bottles away before he stepped into reaching distance in front of me.

I was expecting him to hit me, knock some sense into my thick skull because I deserved it, but I wasn't expecting to be embraced with a hug.

"As long as you're okay, then I'm happy." He said, and I nodded.

He had every right to be pissed off with me, so I don't know why he didn't try to punish me.

"And, the hangover is punishment enough." Itachi added when he pulled back and flicked two fingers on my forehead between my eyes, knowing it'd send a shot of pain through my head like his yelling did.

"You're not driving for another hour, so take your time getting ready to visit Gaara and Naruto." Itachi added before I nodded again. "And I'll have some coffee made in ten minutes." I nodded once more, walking to the cabinet and grabbed a trash bag before going back to my room and closed the door.

I tossed the folded trash bag onto my bed and sighed heavily as I turned my light on and looked about my bedroom, taking in the damage as I realized I drank nearly two hole twelve pack cases of the only soda I drank.

"Jesus, fuck." I growled at myself, holding my stomach, vowing silently that I'm done with soda for a month before I picked up the trash bag once again and started cleaning up my room and looked at my clock to see what time it was … and read eight o'clock in the morning. Fuck, even with a hangover, I can't sleep past normal wake up time.

"Hey, Sasuke, you need to wake up." I heard Itachi's voice say calmly next to me.

Groaning, I rolled over onto my back, putting an arm over my eyes to block out the sunlight coming in from my window.

What time was it?

Hell, when did I fall back asleep?

"It's going on noon, if you want to spend some time with your two friends that are in the hospital, then drink this and wait ten minutes before getting up." Itachi said, helping me sit up as he put one of our black coffee cups into my hand that smelled disgusting. I already wanted to puke.

"What is this shit?" I asked, putting a hand over my mouth so if I did puke, I could hold it back until I got to either my trash can I kept by my bed or the bathroom behind Itachi.

"I called Tsunade, got scolded, and she told me to make this and give it to you. Said it will help you get the alcohol out of your system. Apparently, you've drank enough for it to be considered binge drinking." Itachi explained. "If you have to, clamp your nose shut, down it and I'll clamp your mouth shut for two minutes to make sure you don't puke it right up."

"I think I may be fine." I sighed, but I had little doubt in my ability to keep this putrid mixture down at all.

Doing what Itachi suggested, I took a deep breath before camping my nose shut and poured it down my throat. To my surprise, I couldn't taste it much, but I could tell that there was some kind of spice to it.

Then it hit me, and my stomach churned so violently that I clamped my mouth shut and held my stomach as I doubled over.

"Did you have any other alcohol before the whiskey?" Itachi asked, surprising me because I thought he left my room already.

I shook my head, afraid that I'd puke if I talked.

"That's good then, lay back down and I'll come get you when ten minutes has gone by." He sighed before grabbing the cup off the floor that I don't remember dropping and left my room.

Taking his advice, I laid back down on my bed and curled up into a ball, praying that in ten minutes, the pain and the nausea would go away.

I'm. Never. Drinking. Again.

"Thanks for driving Itachi." I yawned as the two of us drove towards the hospital. I, honestly, didn't trust my judgment today to even try to be behind the wheel. Apparently, neither did Itachi.

"There's no need for thanks." He said, and he was absolutely right, I'm not driving because it's completely my fault anyway.

But whatever.

"Oh, and I wouldn't tell Naruto, you know how he is towards alcohol." Itachi warned, and I nodded. Truth be told, if Naruto had the guts, he would have already beat his old man with a bat because of his drinking habits. I don't want to know what he'd do if I started drinking.

"But seriously, he's been around alcohol long enough to know what someone looks like when they're having a damned hangover." I complained out loud, using the cold window on my door as a pillow. It felt good.

"I know, but if he says something, don't lie, it makes it worse." Itachi added, and I nodded again. Once again, knowing Itachi was right.

"I'm going to drop you off and find a parking spot, it's Saturday so everyone's visiting at the same time." Itachi said once we drove onto the hospital grounds and saw that nearly every parking spot here was taken by some car or other vehicle of transportation.

I groaned, mostly because I didn't want to walk, but when Itachi pulled up to the doors and stopped the car, I got out and closed my door and decided to walk in and go up to the room while Itachi found a parking spot. He knew where their room was, he had been there yesterday, so I could leave him to go up by himself.

When I got upstairs, I could hear Tsunade yelling all the way down the hall. Complaining about being called old or something like that, and I knew full well that Naruto was awake and getting on her nerves already. I just had to smirk at his amazing guts, because I didn't even have them to get her pissed off.

"Oh, Sasuke, you're here." I heard Tsunade a few minutes later as I was taking my time to get to Naruto's and Gaara's room, I didn't even realize she left their room already until she was standing in front of me with her arms crossed.

"Yea …"I nodded, and I know she was looking me over with hardened eyes, probably to see if the putrid concoction she had Itachi make was working.

"Have you thrown up yet?" She asked.

"No … the nausea has been gone the last twenty minutes …" I answered, yawning again.

"If you throw up after drinking that mixture, you'll have to be hospitalized and probably have to get a liver transplant. So if you get sick at all, even a little bit, come and find me right away." She said, and now I know the reason why Itachi had been asking if I felt nauseous since I drank it.

"Is it that bad if I throw up?"

"It is, because that means your liver is failing." She answered, and I think I lost the last bit of color in my face as I gulped loudly.

"All because I wanted to get some fucking sleep!" I screamed, mostly at myself as I grabbed my hair and pulled on it so hard I felt some strands rip from my scalp. And I would have kept on pulling if I didn't feel hands on mine and that's when I realized that Tsunade was standing closer to me with a look of concern.

"Are you that worried about Naruto and Gaara, Sasuke?" She asked, and she was calmer than I've ever seen her be.

"I keep worrying that Naruto's going to be a cripple for the rest of his life and Gaara freaked me the fuck out when he got sick … I've never seen him sick like that before …" I answered, truthfully, avoiding eye contact because an Uchiha never admits when they're scared.

"Well, you can stop worrying, because Gaara's fever is gone and Naruto can feel below his waist." She smiled, and I only blinked at her. "It's faint, but he can feel. It will be a couple more days before he gets full feel, but he won't be a cripple for the rest of his life."

I nodded, looking down at the ground because of how pathetic I've been these last two days and sighed heavily.

"Okay, well go visit, Gaara's been up for about an hour and Naruto's been up for the last half hour, you have the rest of the day to catch up." Tsunade smiled when I looked up and she walked on past me to go and do her job.

I sighed once again and continued on my way to the room, dreading the line of questions that Naruto might ask if he put one and one together, and when I heard them talking, I stopped just outside the door where they couldn't hear me so I could hear what they were saying.

"You need to stop provoking her, she might make sure you don't leave the hospital until your dying day." Gaara said, but with a smile to let me know he was joking with me.

"So, Naruto, you really like getting on her nerves don't you?" Gaara asked, it was obvious who he was talking about.

"Tsunade-baa-chan takes everything I say too seriously when it comes to her age and shit." I heard Naruto say as I heard someone get up out of a bed, Gaara must be able to leave his bed now.

"You need to stop provoking her, she might make sure you don't leave the hospital until your dying day." Gaara said

"She can't keep me here." Naruto said. "Because I know full well that I'll annoy her so much she'll be begging to get me out of her hair."

"You've only been awake for half an hour and you already pissed Tsunade off? Damn, Naruto, you broke the record." I smirked as I finally walked into the room, now leaning against the door frame as I crossed my arms.

"Hey, Sasuke-teme, took you long enough to get here." Naruto smirked as he turned his head to look at me. And he really did piss her off … enough to be strapped down like some crazy person.

"Well, I can tell you're going to be bouncing off the walls within a month … So how're you feeling Gaara?" I said, completely ignoring what he said as I sat down in the other chair, all of my attention now fixed on Gaara and I watched Naruto pout.

"Fever is gone, but she wants me to stay one more night to make sure it is." Gaara told me, and just to point out, he did look much better than he did the two days he was asleep.

"Well, that's good." I shrugged, now feeling Naruto's glare bore through me like daggers and I sank in the chair I was sitting in.

"What the hell did you do?" Naruto growled, great, he found out much sooner than I thought he would.

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to avoid the conversation.

"I know what someone looks like with a fucking hangover you bastard!" Naruto yelled. "I'm not that stupid!"

"Hey, gaki, there are people on this floor that are trying to sleep!" Tsunade's voice yelled behind me, making me jump because I had no idea that she was there in the first place.

"Does it look like I care?" Naruto snapped, but hell I didn't think he'd be this pissed off.

"Well try to be more quiet, next time you want to yell at the moron in front of me, make sure the door is closed. At least then your voice will be muffled." She snapped right back.

Moron? Who the fuck is the moron?

"I'm not fucking moron!" I hissed as I sat up and turned to glare at her.

"You have no room to talk." Tsunade growled and hit me, hard, on top of my head and I honestly thought that, combined with my hangover I still felt, I was going to be knocked out. But I only saw stars and some black spots in my vision. "And I barely hit you so sit up."

"You are so fucking evil!" I complained as I slowly sat up while rubbing my head, hoping that the throbbing would stop.

"How much did you drink?" Naruto asked, the one question that I was dreading to hear from him and gulped loudly before looking up at Tsunade to see if I should tell him or not.

But when she looked down at me, she sighed heavily and crossed her arms.

"Tell him, he'll find out sooner or later." She shrugged and walked out.

"Find out what?" Naruto growled, not liking the fact that I was ignoring him.

"I … drank four beers two nights ago and last night I drank over half a bottle of whiskey." I sighed, my voice low so I prayed he didn't hear me.

"You … did what!?" Naruto yelled, and I could see his arms flying up to try and take the strap off of his chest, and I completely regretted coming in at all today.

"Naruto, stop it, do you want to hurt your back again?" Gaara said as he tried to keep Naruto from moving more.

"I don't give a fuck! I'm going to pound Sasuke's ass so hard he'll wish he weren't even born!" Naruto yelled, making Tsunade run into the room with Matatabi. Then it dawned on me … where in the fuck was Itachi?

"Calm down Naruto! If you don't I'll sedate you until tomorrow!" Tsunade warned as her and Matatabi pinned Naruto's shoulders and arms down.

"Then sedate me! Because I mean it when I said I was going to pound him!" Naruto hissed, and I pushed the chair back away from the bed, but the chair stopped on something and I know, personally, that there was nothing behind me.

"Hey, Itachi, what the hell were you thinking letting your kid brother do that?" Naruto said, confirming that someone was standing behind me and I sank into my chair.

"Naruto, calm down, he's already being punished enough with his hangover, and I already told him he's not having anymore while living in my house." Itachi said, and I looked down at my knees in shame. "Besides, all the alcohol, besides my beer, has been poured down the drain and my beer is being locked up. So he can't get it anymore."

"How did he even know where the liquor was?"

"I didn't hide it well enough, but I never, in a million years, thought he'd drink it in the first place." Itachi answered.

"You and me both Itachi …" Naruto said, the first time in a calmed voice, though you could still sense the hurt behind the words and I tried even harder to make myself invisible to the room. But the only eyes I could feel on me were Gaara's, and I knew he was pissed off at me for making Naruto so upset. I was going to hear it from him later.

"Now, are you going to behave, Naruto?" Tsunade huffed as she and Matatabi let Naruto go, both of them looking like they used a lot of energy to keep Naruto still.

"Yes, now leave, I want to be left alone." Naruto said, looking towards Gaara, but I could tell he wanted Gaara out too, if I knew him well enough.

"Gaara, you can walk around if you want. It will help you loosen up some sore muscles you might have from sleeping for a few days." Tsunade said as Matatabi left the room to take care of another patient across the hall that was calling for her.

"Maybe in a little bit." Gaara nodded, his glare returning to me a moment later, making me know that he was going to definitely have a word with me and I sank further into my chair.

"I'm going to get something to eat." Itachi said behind me, making me jump because I thought he walked out a few minutes ago with Matatabi. And before he left, he ruffled my hair, earning a growl of protest from me as he walked off and I tried to fix my already messy hair that I didn't bother to do anything with today after my shower.

"I'll be back in an hour to give you some more pain medication if you need it." Tsunade said and walked out before she could get something from Naruto to know he heard her and then the room was deathly quiet with just the three of us in here.

"Why did you do it Sasuke?" Naruto asked, his voice low and he still wasn't turning his head to look at me.

"I wasn't trying to drink that much, I was just trying to drink so I could get to sleep because I haven't been sleeping well the last few days." I honestly answered. "It took four beers to get me to sleep and I didn't even know how much whiskey I even had until the next morning when Itachi went down my throat for even getting into it."

"You drink again and I'll rip your dick off and shove it down your throat." Naruto threatened. "And it's not a threat, it's a fucking promise."

"Yes sir." I nodded quickly, but not so quick that my head was going to split open.

"Sasuke, did you even shower today?" Gaara asked, and I could understand why.

"I did, just didn't bother to do much because of my head hurting." I answered.

"You look like shit … I'm surprised that you didn't die of alcohol poisoning from drinking so much whiskey." Gaara said, sitting back in his chair as he crossed his arms.

"Tsunade said the same thing, but she said that if I throw up by tomorrow … I'll probably have to have a liver transplant or something." I told him, now wondering why I'm even talking about this in front of Naruto because I know he's getting more pissed off the longer we talk about it. The whole atmosphere in the room was becoming darker and darker, and more suffocating as the seconds passed.

"Do you feel like puking right now?" Gaara asked, and there was a hint of worry in his voice.

"No, actually, I've felt nausea free for the last … I think hour or something close to that." I told him. "So I think I'm free from that."

"You're damn lucky." Naruto finally said, but it was bitter and I knew that whenever he came home it wasn't going to be pretty. He'll want to avoid me and not let me help him with anything and he'll probably hurt himself more also … I needed to get this settled before I went home.

"Naruto, I know, and believe me when I said I'm never drinking again. If I had been able to notice how much I was drinking last night I would have stopped after one try, you know me better than this." I said, my voice sounding scratchy and whiny and I really hated it. "You know that I wouldn't have gone and drank any alcohol unless I had a moral reason to."

"Shut up, your voice is too whiny for an Uchiha." Naruto said, his head turning towards me and he was smirking … he was fucking smirking! "I know you wouldn't drink unless you wanted to sleep, you're just like Itachi when it comes to alcohol. I only wanted to hear you whine and beg for my forgiveness."

"I hate it when you do that shit Naruto." I huffed and glared at him angrily.

"Well you deserved it this time, teme." Naruto said, sticking his tongue out at me and I growled as I glared at him harder. God he was such a child sometimes.

"Naruto, stop trying to piss Sasuke off." Gaara sighed as I watched him bring his hands up and rub at his temples. I guess he was starting to get a headache as well.

"Hey, hey, guess what." Naruto said, his usual excitement back and I actually smiled because I missed his cheerfulness.

"What?" I said, realizing he wasn't going to say anything until I said what.

"I leave in the morning!" He said, happily, but I groaned inwardly, knowing that my last night of being Naruto free was tonight. Crap, I forgot to put his shit in his room.

"That's great." I smiled, hoping it wasn't too fake.

"Anyway, I'm starving, can Itachi bring up something for Gaara and me?" Naruto whined a few minutes later when neither of us would say anything.

"I'm not hungry." Gaara said.

"You're eating whether you like it or not!" Naruto snapped.

"Fine." Gaara huffed.

"I'll call Itachi, what would you like guys?" I sighed as I dug into my sweats for my cell phone, waiting for an answer from the red head and the blonde.

"I want something crunchy … like those chicken fingers I had last time!" Naruto said. "And French fries!"

"You need something green, Naruto." Gaara seethed. "I'll take a chicken salad."

"Rabbit." Naruto huffed. "Then get me a side salad, but make sure I get those fries!"

"Alright, I'll be in the hallway." I said, shaking my head with a light chuckle as I got up and dialed Itachi's phone number. I just hoped he was still downstairs in the cafeteria.