Author's Note; Heeeeey guys, sorry for the late update. I was away from internet until yesterday and I was too exhausted to update. So, here you go, another triple update :D We're just over twenty chapters away from the end of the story!

Chapter 33

Naruto

I couldn't believe how slow the day went by since Sasuke left. I guess it's because I didn't get any form of sleep last night because all I could think about was what I'm going to bitch at Gaara about; One for ignoring my calls and text messages, and two, not stopping over at all.

I decided by the time I heard Sasuke's alarm going off that I'm going to bitch at Gaara about both. And right now, it was only noon and I felt like ripping my hair out of my scalp from impatience.

"Naruto, calm down or I'm not letting you go over at all." Itachi sighed from the kitchen. I guess he could hear me getting frustrated over what time it was.

"Whatever, I'm going to go take a nap." I huffed and wheeled from the living room back to my bedroom and parked the chair by the bed before heaving myself into the bed myself just as Itachi walked into the room. But the glare coming from him meant that he didn't like how I didn't wait for him, once again this week.

"You really want me to call Tsunade and tell her you're doing everything against what she said you can do?" He threatened.

"Go right ahead, not like I care right now anyway." I said, reaching behind me for the covers and pulled them over myself, shivering because the room was cold. "And is the AC on too low? This room feels like a freezer."

"I'll check up on it in a moment, the phone is ringing, okay?" Itachi said, and I could hear the office phone ringing because the door was open, and I really wanted to hear who called, but I knew I'd get my rear end blasted if I did, so I just stayed where I was, laying in the bed and stared at my picture of my mother and her parents.

Right now, I wondered where my grandparents were. What they could be doing. I haven't heard from them in a few years, I think at most ten years. My first and last present from them was this photo. But I knew deep down that if Dad knew I had this picture, he'd take it from me, beat me over the head with something and tear it apart in front of my face and set it on fire. That's how he is … he did that with my last birthday present I got from Sakura, who went and got me a new sweater last year because I was always walking to school in long sleeved shirts in the winter and didn't have a coat to keep warm.

I was forever grateful for her when she got it for me, but after a week, Dad found it and tied me to a chair while he set it on fire … with me wearing it, saying that I'm a good for nothing slut who had sex to get it when in fact I hadn't. She asked many times where the sweater was after that, but after two weeks of her asking and me answering; I'm letting my father borrow it until he gets himself a coat, she dropped it.

Now-a-days, I refuse any and all birthday presents unless they were small and could be hidden in my secret spot underneath my closet, so far, none of them were small enough so I refused to accept anything. That was, until Gaara gave me my most prized gift other than the picture, that necklace I now refuse to take off my persona. Hell, he'd have a fucking cow if he learned that my house was ransacked and I almost lost it.

I lied, the sweater from Sakura wasn't the last one I got, it was a really big book that contained all of Edgar Allan Poe's work; short stories, poems, prose, everything he wrote. It was a gift from Tsunade-baa-chan a year before I got into high school. Dad had managed to strap me to another chair in the house, tied the book to my chest and lit that on fire with an accelerant. I thought I was truly going to die then, but for some reason, he took the burning book off of me before I got too seriously burned and put it in the sink with running water. But he left me in that chair screaming in pain and shock that he did such a thing to me that I didn't realize that the burns could be seen even if I wore a shirt. I didn't know that until the next day when Gai-sensei sent me to the nurses' office to get it looked at because my right shoulder was burned enough that anything I wore that wasn't a short sleeved shirt and a scarf together would be seen.

Of course, I never went to the nurse, I skipped class and hid in the locker room until the bell rang, signaling the end of the day and I ran home and locked myself in my bedroom.

"Hey, Naruto, are you okay?" Itachi asked, his voice startling me because I didn't even know he came back, hell, he was standing right in my line of sight, on his knees so he could be at eye level with me and he looked worried.

"I'm fine, why?"

"Because you're crying and I was kneeling here for the last five minutes trying to get your attention, and it was like you couldn't even hear me." He said.

Me … crying? I asked myself before I unconsciously reached up and touched my face, feeling that it was indeed wet with tears. I bit my bottom lip hard out of frustration that I let my emotions get like this again without me knowing. I felt like such a fucking loser.

"Do you want me to call Tsunade and have her come over?" Itachi asked, and I shook my head no.

"Only if she comes with Ibiki." I said, and I wished I had stopped myself from saying anything but now it was too late.

"It'll be two hours before she can come over if you want him to come too." Itachi said, trying to get me to understand it might be a while.

"I know … but if I talk to anyone, it's going to be Ibiki …" I sighed, now breaking eye contact with Itachi and wished that someone would just shoot me now.

"I'll go call her, want some pain medication? It's time you can have another dose." Itachi said, smiling a small smile and I nodded. The meds might not be for the pain right now, but it does help me sleep.

"Okay, I'll be right back." He nodded, standing up and leaving the bedroom and I sighed a shaky breath, pulling the blanket tighter around me as I shivered again. I could swear, this room felt like a fucking freezer.

"Hey, Naruto, Tsunade and Ibiki are here." I heard Itachi's voice say quietly as I felt my shoulder being shaken.

I grunted and rolled over onto my other side, honestly, I didn't want to be bothered and I was finally warm under the blanket in this cursed room and I curled into a ball until I felt someone shake my shoulder gently again.

"Naruto, you wanted them to come over, and it's after three, you need to get up." Itachi said, and I yawned, swatting his hand away as I rolled back over with half lidded eyes. My eyes getting slightly wet for some reason so I forced myself to sit up and I rubbed at my eyes furiously to get the sleep out of them.

"It's what time?" I yawned and stretched a little bit.

"It's a few minutes after three. Tsunade wanted to do a round at the hospital before stopping over." Itachi said as I put my arms in front of me, a signal we all agreed to when I wanted help in and out of my chair, and Itachi lifted my tired and barely awake body off the bed and into the chair.

"I slept longer than I planned." I yawned once more as Itachi wheeled me out to the living room, then it dawned on me that I hadn't heard anything about or from Sasuke since I woke up.

"Where's Sasuke?" I asked.

"He's at the library doing his homework." Itachi answered, and I scoffed. The ass never wanted to do his homework at the library before.

"Good afternoon Naruto." Tsunade's voice said once Itachi and I were in the living room a few seconds later, and my eyes only fell on Ibiki, who sat next to the television with his arms crossed and a scary look upon his face that made my whole body quiver. Then question why I wanted him over in the first place.

Wait … I don't even remember why I wanted him over anyway.

"You guys might find this extremely stupid and a waste of time … but I honestly don't remember why I wanted you two over in the first place." I told them after Itachi locked my chair, with a nervous laugh as I scratched the back of my head, hoping they wouldn't be too pissed off.

"Don't worry, Itachi has an idea why you wanted to see us and told us before he went to wake you up." Tsunade smiled, and I bit my lip again.

"Naruto, I know you don't like others worrying over you, but a very good source is saying that they're afraid you're hurting yourself again, Naruto." Ibiki said, and I knew he was trying his damnedest not to say any names, but it isn't hard to find out who his source is.

"I'm always around Itachi …" I grumbled. "So what other source is there?"

"Okay, Naruto, you got us there, but he isn't the only one, Sasuke came to school this morning saying he's worried about you too." Tsunade said as she took a step forward, taking a seat in the kitchen chair that I didn't even know was there.

"Whatever." I snapped when I didn't hear about Gaara.

"And Naruto, Sasuke knows you're upset over Gaara … but … I can explain why you haven't heard from him this week." Tsunade said, and I stiffened when she said Gaara's name, but I stared at her when she said she knew why he was ignoring me all week.

"Spill it baa-chan!" I almost yelled, but I was surprisingly calm. And I was half expecting her to tell me that Gaara and his folks moved back to his home town in his fathers' last ditch effort to get him away from me.

"Gaara had to go back to the hospital Monday, his fever came back even worse than before and I've had him under all week. The fever keeps coming and going and I'm starting to think that all this worrying, stress and his insomnia is making him really ill." Tsunade explained, and I stared at her wide eyed, I didn't even have to blink to know that there were tears falling.

"No one could get in Gaara's phone to call you guys and I've been too busy to look your number up for Kankuro and Temari." Tsunade sighed. "Sasuke just found out last night about it all since he stopped by last night."

"He did what?" I yelled, the sadness all gone and now there was nothing but anger upon my features, and now I was ready to tear the stupid teme in fucking half.

"He wanted to talk to me first, Naruto, he was going to tell you last night but you wanted to go to bed and you were also giving him the cold shoulder." Itachi said, and he was absolutely right.

"I had my reasons for giving the asshole a cold shoulder." I huffed as I crossed my arms. "The teme doesn't know how to explain Algebra and I'm probably going to fail because of him."

"You're being childish, Naruto." Itachi sighed and sat on the couch that was kind of behind my chair.

"I don't care, as long as Neji comes back over and helps me, I'll be happy." I admitted

"That can be arranged." Itachi said, and when I looked over at him, he was smirking.

"As long as it's free tutoring!" I argued.

"Naruto, I also heard your home was broken into … was there anything of personal value stolen?" Tsunade asked, and I wished she hadn't. Because I wanted to forget about it.

"No, just my laptop that I know of, and some money I was saving up from when I was working." I said truthfully, looking down at my hands and picked at my thumb nails a bit.

"That's good." Tsunade sighed heavily with relief.

"Naruto, is there any particular reason you wanted to talk to me?" Ibiki asked, and I had thought about him asking that sort of question, and I've been trying to come up with a good answer, and the only thing I could think of was … telling him about what my father did to me. Only because I feel like the longer that it's locked up inside me the more I feel like I'm falling apart.

"Yea … and Tsunade … you promise my Dad won't be taken from me?" I nodded, now looking at Tsunade, almost glaring, until she gave me an answer I wanted.

"Yes, I promise, because like I said … I'm making it your choice if you want him gone." She nodded.

"Good, now promise me you won't go on a rampage … We're staying out here and I'm talking with all of you in the room …" I told her.

"I promise I won't go on a rampage, but I won't promise stuff might not be broken by the time we're done here." She shrugged.

"As long as the television isn't touched … or anything glass, I don't care." Itachi said, both his hands were up when I looked over at him. And I could tell he didn't like the idea, but he was going to go through with it.

I sighed heavily, honestly, I don't know why I'm talking to this group of people …

"Hey, Ibiki-sensei …" I said after a moment of silence.

"Yes Naruto?" Ibiki said, I guess he was ready for me to start talking because when I looked up at him, he had the recorder ready.

"Tell anyone … I'll never speak to any of you again." I told him, hopefully a glare that was as strong and hopefully stronger than Gaara's glares of promising death.

"I wouldn't tell a fly, Naruto." Ibiki promised, though he seemed unfazed by my glare, but I could see Itachi shift uneasily in his seat, along with Tsunade. Guess it had some effect …

I sighed once more and looked over at Ibiki, who took that as a sign that we were going to get started and the red light on the recorder turned on.