Chapter 46
Sasuke
I just had to leave home, because if I didn't right when I did, I would have started yelling at Naruto for even giving the son of a bitch another chance. If it was me, his dad would already be locked up in jail for the rest of his miserable life without parole. But with the way I get things around here, that will never happen. At least in this life time. And I'd hate to say this, but the last tape that Ibiki had the two of us listen to, was the one that really set me off.
So when I got in my car and drove off, I had no real destination to go. I had planned on driving until the car ran out of gas, but it was already after two in the afternoon … and I had a full tank of gas anyway, so that wasn't going to work.
So in total honesty, the only way I could get my frustrations out, was to go to Shikamaru, Naruto wouldn't mind since Shikamaru already knew most of what was going on, this actually, was the only thing he was kept out of the loop on. So it shouldn't really hurt.
When I had to stop at a stop light, I went for my phone and speed dialed Shikamaru's number since I added him there earlier this week and put the phone up to my ear. I only hoped that he wasn't too busy or that his mom wasn't too sick for me to come over and bitch about Naruto's stupid life choices.
"Hello?" Shikamaru's voice said after I heard a clicking that signaled he was on the phone.
"Hey Shikamaru, it's Sasuke, is it alright if I come over for a little bit?" I asked when the light turned green, and I wanted to get the conversation done and over with as I put it in gear and made a right turn at the light.
"Sure, but only for at most an hour, my father is visiting my Mom and I just got home from work. I was about to leave, but that can wait a little while. Is it about Naruto?" He said.
"Yes, and I'll see you in a few, I'm driving." I said and heard him say something else but I hung up too fast, only because I saw a cop car coming towards me in the other lane and I didn't want to be pulled over, because if I did, I would be yelling at them and not at Shikamaru's place.
I thanked God, if he did exist, that the cop didn't see me put my cell phone down on the passenger seat as I made another right onto Shikamaru's street about ten minutes down the road and stopped in front of his house before backing into it next to his car. When I leave, I wanna be able to just drive out and not worry about backing out. It was much easier this way in my opinion.
"Hey, you got here faster than I thought." Shikamaru said when I noticed he was sitting on his front porch, something he usually did but doing it with it freezing out here, he's out of his mind.
"You're out of your mind for sitting out here in this cold weather." I told him as I got out of my car and closed my door. Shimmying my way up to his front porch and stepped up onto it before taking my shoes off with him and went inside.
"I was waiting for you, because when you called, I had literally just parked my car and turned it off." He told me.
"I have good timing." I shrugged, and the two of us went inside after he unlocked the door.
"I'll go make us some tea, green tea?" He said, and I nodded and followed him to his kitchen. Honestly, I didn't want to sit in the living room waiting for him, especially since I had little time to spare with the lazy ass.
"Okay, what else have we learned about Naruto?" He asked, getting straight to the point as he filled the electric percolator with water and plugged it into the wall after putting two scoops of loose green tea leaves into the pot and I sat down at the island while he decided to stay standing.
"Well, today … Gaara and I listened to four tapes, three of them from earlier this past week and it has Naruto telling what all his father did to him on his last seven birthdays, excluding yesterday." I told him as I sighed heavily, leaning forward and resting my elbow on the counter top and my head on my hand. I looked bored, hell I felt it too, somewhat.
"What did his father do?" Shikamaru asked, and he, for once, sounded really serious.
"Well, it's a long story, sort of. It took Gaara and I three hours to hear the tapes that also had Tsunade's swearing and barely audible yelling to go with it." I said. "So lets wait for the tea, it'll be easier that way."
"Alright, and since you're hear, I can already tell it's not going to be a pretty ass story, is it?" He asked, shrugging as he dug his hands into his pockets, the tea maker clicking when it was done and Shikamaru got two mugs out of the cabinet and brought the tea pot part of the maker over to the island. I handed him a chair to sit on as he served the two of us tea, and I got talking.
"Are you fucking shitting me?" Shikamaru almost yelled by the time I reached the point in the storyline where Naruto talks about when he was first set on fire by his dad.
"Yes, I'm fucking serious, and it doesn't stop there." I said. "His father whipped him worse on the next birthday, set him on fire again on the next and fucking did the same thing last year but add attempted drowning to the list.
"I swear, Naruto makes no sense whatsoever giving his father a second chance." Shikamaru said, and he was absolutely right!
"I know, but I promised not only Gaara and Ibiki, but myself that I would never confront Naruto about this." I said, now biting my nails. "And another thing, Ibiki had us listen to a new tape, one from today before he talked to Gaara and I … and it's just as depressing."
"What did it say?" Shikamaru asked, pouring us another cup of tea as I debated on telling him or not. But I gave in and sighed.
"Naruto's on anti-depressants and they're not working at all. Naruto's even more depressed than usual and he's even having nightmares." I said. "He thinks Itachi and I will kick him out and that Gaara will break up with him over these tapes."
"No wonder he looked so jumpy last night." Shikamaru sighed and stretched. "You did notice how he kept looking outside the window behind the television?"
"Yea, but it was because in his mind, his father was going to come at any minute and torment him." I said, just as Shikamaru's phone started ringing in his pocket.
"That might be Dad." He said, pulling out his phone and answering it. "Hey Dad, yea, I'm coming soon. Sasuke stopped by and wanted to talk about school things. I'll be there in half an hour, bye." And he was off as fast as he answered it.
"How long were we talking?" I asked, because honestly, it didn't feel like very long at all.
"We've been sitting here for about an hour and a half." He said as he looked at the time on his phone. Damn it, it was longer than I thought.
"Well, I'm probably wanted at home too, see you at school tomorrow Shika." I said as I got up and finished my tea off.
"Yea, see you tomorrow Sasuke." Shikamaru said as he took both tea cups over to the sink and unplugged the tea maker and the two of us went back outside and put our shoes on.
"Hey, next time I come over, wanna take our shoes inside so they won't be so cold when we put them back on?" I suggested.
"Dad would be furious, but I'll put down a towel anyway, I hate cold shoes." He said.
"Okay, bye Shika." I said, waving as I walked down off the front porch and towards my car as he stepped down and got into his car.
I left after he did, I didn't want to keep him waiting at the stop sign up ahead at the end of the road since he's needed at the hospital with his dad. I felt sorry for him, his mom had been in the hospital three days already with a nasty cold, or so I've been told.
"I'm ho me." I grunted as I walked through the front door, expecting Naruto and Gaara to be laying on the couch together; Gaara comforting Naruto still. But to my surprise, they weren't there.
"Welcome home." I heard Itachi say from the kitchen, and it smelled like he cooked something not too long ago.
"Where's Naruto and Gaara?" I asked as I took my shoes off and went into the kitchen only to find Itachi munching on what looked like shrimp fried rice - spicy for him - and working away on his laptop.
"Tsunade gave Naruto a pill to help calm him down because he was in hysterics after you left. He's been sleeping for the last hour or so and Gaara decided to lay down with him so he wouldn't be alone." Itachi explained, and I nodded as I sat down across from him. "There's some food left for you."
"I'm not all that hungry, I went to Shikamaru's to vent there." I told him, leaning forward and resting my arms on the table before I rested my head on my arms. I was mentally exhausted, and I wanted to type some more on my book before I lost my muse like last week.
"So that's where you went." Itachi said after taking a bite of his food when he closed his laptop and leaned back in his chair. I guess he was done with whatever he needed to get done.
"Yea, I didn't want to waste a whole tank of gas when gas is so high." I nodded, getting up and getting me a bowl of shrimp fried rice since I changed my mind and went into the silver ware drawer and grabbed a pair of chop sticks before sitting down and eating a few bites.
"Oh, before I forget, Naruto doesn't take his anti depressants anymore. Tsunade's orders." Itachi said. "She's putting him on something else, and she also said that if he were to hurt himself again, to take him to the hospital on the seventh floor. But we have to call her first before we do."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because the medicine was just making his depression worse, she thinks he might start hurting himself again, and more often if left alone too long. She's coming by tomorrow morning on her way to the school with his new prescription." Itachi said.
"Good, I don't want to see another depressed blonde again." I mumbled, eating a few more bites before I put my bowl down. "So, how long was Tsunade and Ibiki talking?"
"They talked for about forty five minutes, then with me about ten or so minutes." He answered.
"Okay." I sighed, picking my bowl up and held my chop sticks in my hand as I stretched slightly. "I'm going to go to my room, I'm either going to type while I finish this, or I'm going to finish this and take a nap. I'm just mentally exhausted."
"I don't blame you, I'll let you know when dinner is ready." Itachi said as he finished his bowl as he got up, then put it in the sink and started putting the left over rice away as I walked out of the kitchen and into my room.
Then I decided to put my rice down on my bedside table and take a peak into Naruto's room to see how he's doing. So when I cracked the door open quietly, just enough to poke my head through, Gaara's head went up, telling me he wasn't sleeping, but Naruto was. I brought a hand in with my thumb up, swaying the thumb between good, maybe and not good as a non verbal way of asking how he's doing, and Gaara put his thumb around maybe and good.
Nodding, I quietly closed the door and went back to my room and threw myself onto my bed. I debated on whether I wanted to get back on my laptop or not, but seeing that it needed charged, I sighed, picking it up off my bed next to me and got up, grabbing my lunch and sat at my computer desk, opening it and turning it on as I grabbed my charger and plugged the laptop in. Might as well work on something while I'm eating.