Chapter 44

Sasuke

I think Gaara got up faster than I did when we both heard a crashing sound coming from Naruto's room. But to be honest, I think Gaara was much more worried than I was. And we were about to barge into the room when we were both grabbed by the necks of our shirts and dragged back into the living room by Itachi.

"I'll check up on him when Ibiki comes out. And if it's serious, Ibiki would have called someone back there." He said, which is true enough. But we were still pissed off, Gaara more than me.

"Whatever." Gaara growled and pulled himself from Itachi's grip and sat back down on the couch while I glared at my brother before he let me go and I sat back down on the recliner.

Now we were both positive on what Ibiki was going to talk to us about; Naruto's father.

But we couldn't ask any questions about it with Itachi, he made that perfectly clear early this morning when we were up before Naruto that he wasn't going to be a part of our questioning until after we were done with Ibiki.

"Okay, Itachi, Naruto hurt his hand a little bit, but I didn't get the chance to really look at it. You'll probably need to call Tsunade, but I think he's going to be alright. And did he have his medicine this morning?" Ibiki asked when he suddenly appeared behind the couch.

"Okay, and yes, we gave it to him around eight this morning." Itachi nodded.

"Don't give him anymore, I'll explain that to you when Tsunade gets here." Ibiki said, and that just left us all confused, but I think Itachi understood more than us. That just pissed me off more.

"Okay boys, lets go to Itachi's office." Ibiki sighed and the three of us followed him into Itachi's office and Ibiki sat behind Itachi's desk while Gaara and I occupied the other two chairs that were in there.

It was extremely uncomfortable sitting in there with him when Itachi wasn't there, but when Ibiki pulled out a stack of three tapes and his recorder, we knew it was going to be a while before we all left this room.

"Now, before we get started, there are a few things I need to say." Ibiki said as he opened his recorder and took out a tape, grabbing a pen from Itachi's desk and wrote something on it before putting a tape from the stack into the recorder and closed it.

"You two are only listening to these tapes because Naruto said you could, believe me, if it was up to me you wouldn't be listening to them today." Ibiki said, and Gaara and I looked at each other, confused. "He, honestly, wanted Sasuke to hear these yesterday, but Tsunade convinced him to make it today."

"Let me ask this …" I said quietly. "Is it about his father?"

"You'll find out soon enough, Sasuke." Ibiki said before pushing play and Naruto's voice filled the room before Ibiki adjusted the volume to be a little lower than it is now so it wouldn't echo.

"Now Naruto, what is it you'd like to talk to us about?" Ibiki's voice asked as there was shuffling in the background. I could only guess that everyone was on edge.

"First, I want to know if my father is coming home this weekend." Naruto asked, I could tell he's been crying for a while from his hoarse voice.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Gaara shifting uneasily in his seat.

"I don't think so, Naruto." Tsunade's voice answered, and she sounded sure of herself. "He won't be home for another week or so."

"As long as it's not on my birthday, then it's fine." Naruto sniffed.

"Does this have to do with what you're telling us tonight?" Itachi asked.

I guess Naruto nodded, because it was silent for a few minutes.

"On my seventh birthday, it was a week after I heard my Dad talking in his sleep and I heard him mumble something about how I'm the reason Mom's dead, I woke up and found myself tied to I guess my bed and a pillow case was over my head … and I guess that was tied off too because I couldn't get it off no matter how hard I tried." Naruto's voice said, but then there was another pause and the sound of someone shifting in their chair again before Naruto started talking again.

"I was going to call for help when I felt something hit my back and I recognized it was Dads belt, only because he used it no me before … but not like this. He just kept hitting me with it, not saying a word and it felt like he did this for hours by the time he stopped." Naruto sobbed, but my blood was boiling, and there was an air of darkness surrounding Gaara.

"He only spoke when h ewas done, and he said something on the lines of, 'that was for your mother, fucking trash' and he left me there."

"Is that all he did Naruto?" Ibiki asked.

"No, it gets better." Naruto laughed, and it sounded so fucking sarcastic. "For my eighth birthday, he hung me in our basement for two days without food or water." He continued with that same laugh, and my stomach sank.

"What else happened Naruto?" Tsunade asked this time.

"I was stabbed five times on my ninth birthday." Naruto said, then I noticed he was choking on his sobs and my stomach did a three-sixty flip and I wanted to do nothing but puke.

"And you want to give this bastard another chance?" Tsunade yelled from the tape before it suddenly went quiet.

"Next tape." Ibiki said as he grabbed the recorder and changed the tapes out before putting it back where it was and pushed play.

One more tape to go …

"He just doesn't want to face the fact that Mom couldn't handle child birth and no one knew about it!" Naruto yelled, and both Gaara and I flinched at how furious he sounded.

"He hog tied me and threw me into the tub, filling it up to my chin and left me there for six hours." Naruto said a few minutes later. "That was my tenth birthday."

"Naruto, tell me now, does it get worse?" Tsunade asked, and she sounded pissed. Hell, I know I was pissed off, but I believe Gaara was already way beyond that point.

"Eleventh birthday, Hinata gave me a sweater for my birthday." Naruto said, his voice so low we almost didn't hear him. "I wore it home because I forgot to take if off and Dad knocked me out about an hour after I got home … I didn't know he was home either. But when I woke up, I was tied to a chair in the basement and he set the sweater on fire while I was wearing it."

"His father did what?" I found myself yelling and Ibiki suddenly paused the tape.

"Please, keep your comments until the end." He said, and I wanted to say something else, but I clamped my mouth shut and stared at Gaara. I was expecting him to go off the deep end, but instead, he looked calm, and that's never a good sign.

I gulped and looked at the recorder as I sank in my chair when Ibiki pushed play.

"It was just a goddamn sweater." Naruto yelled, and I visibly flinched.

That's when I heard the sobbing and Itachi trying to calm Naruto down when I heard what sounded like a door opening. This must have been when I came home.

"Last tape, and if you want to know, that's also when you got home Sasuke." Ibiki said, confirming my suspicions.

Gaara, again, sat in his chair, still with a calm expression on his face, but he was now chewing on his nails. That meant he was beyond pissed and nervous.

When Ibiki pressed play on the recorder, there was nothing but the sounds of Naruto's cries and Tsunade throwing curses until Naruto said something.

"My twelfth birthday was just as bad as my seventh, but he actually used a whip, and he whipped me until I blacked out."

"I don't know what you see in him Naruto." Tsunade hissed.

"My thirteenth birthday, Sakura gave me a sweater, and without thinking, wore it home too and I was set on fire again while wearing it." Naruto mumbled before there was another quiet moment before he started talking again.

"Last year … ho, that was the best year yet." Naruto said, his words just dripping in sarcasm. "That book you bought me, baa-chan … I loved his work by the way, Dad decided to tie the book to me and me to the usual chair and used an accelerant to set the book on fire."

That's when Tsunade started yelling so loud her words couldn't be recorded correctly. Hell, I thought Gaara was going to start doing that, but he just sat there, completely unfazed by it all. God, I wished that he'd start screaming so that he didn't look like he was going to kill someone.

"After he let the book burn a while, he untied me and threw me in the tub filled with water and tried drowning me. But like before, he just got tired and let me hang by my wrists in the basement all night and into Monday morning."

Then the tape clicked.

That was all? Everything Naruto talked about with them … That was all?

"Now boys, I'm going to say this once." Ibiki said as he started putting the recorder and tapes away in his pocket. "Do not, and I mean, do not yell at Naruto about any of this. He's already under enough stress as it is."

"All of this happened on each of his?" I asked, of course I knew, but it was just something that I needed to have confirmed myself to make sure I heard all of this right.

"Yes, that's one reason why Itachi held such a big birthday party for him last night." Ibiki nodded, and my stomach sank again.

"Am I allowed to confront his father?" Gaara asked, and I knew he'd ask something like that.

"No, and I'm only saying that to make sure you don't go to jail." Ibiki said and I saw Gaara throw a scowl at him before he crossed his arms. "I just get a feeling that you'll do more than just yell at him, Gaara. And besides, Naruto's told me once that if his father slips up, he's turning his father in."

"Really?" I asked, and I was shocked. Naruto usually isn't that kind of person.

"Yes, really. So guys, let Naruto handle this, okay?" Ibiki said as he stood up, but a soft knock on the door made us stop and look at the door only to see it open and Itachi's head pop in for a quick moment.

"Naruto wants them to listen to the new tape." He said … New tape?

"I think these three are enough." Ibiki said.

"Lets listen to it." Gaara said, and I couldn't agree more, but I'm just glad he didn't give off the death vibe anymore.

Ibiki sighed and Itachi closed the door as Ibiki reached into his pocket and pulled out the recorder and the tapes again, changing them out to the one he wrote on earlier and pushed play.