Author's Note; Here's the next five chapters! The last five will be tomorrow :) I hope everyone's going to enjoy these last few chapters that are left!

Chapter 48

Sasuke

I wanted to break those damn crutches over Naruto's head for hitting me with them, but I also wanted to break the other one over Itachi's head for laughing at the scene instead of yelling at Naruto and telling him not to do that. What kind of brother is he?

"You should have told him to stop!" I hissed at him as I rubbed my head, walking back into the kitchen to find the rest of the dishes were washed already.

"Sasuke, we all know that if Naruto did that to you, you would have done the same thing." Itachi said as a defense, but he was right, so I shouldn't complain.

"But he still shouldn't have done that." I pouted, just as Gaara walked in. I was surprised, though, that he wasn't pissed off, but he wasn't too thrilled either. "Everything okay Gaara?"

"My father wants me to come home tomorrow after school." He sighed as he shoved his phone back into his pocket and sat down at the table. I went into the fridge and pulled out a couple sodas before sitting with him while Itachi went to his office or to check up on Naruto to see how he's doing.

"Dad says I can come back on Friday and go home Tuesday night. I talked him into letting me stay here one more night because I want to make sure his father keeps to his word." Gaara said, and I didn't blame him either.

"I'll be here too, so you won't be alone in keeping an eye on that fucker, okay?" I said, opening my soda before taking a few sips from it.

"I know Sasuke, I know." Gaara sighed as he did the same with his soda before getting up and going into the fridge for another one and went down the hall to the bedroom probably. And my guess was right when I heard a door close.

I sighed heavily and took my time sipping at my soda before getting up and getting another one for myself and went down the hall towards my room, but I stopped at Naruto's room first and knocked on it like I promised.

"Come in." Naruto's voice said and I slowly opened it to find Naruto sitting in the computer chair and Gaara standing behind him, arms draped over Naruto's shoulders as he leaned on the chair.

"If you get any homework done, give it to either Gaara or me, we'll turn it in for you okay?" I offered.

"Will do Sasuke, see you tomorrow." Naruto nodded and went back to reading Impulse. I nodded back and closed the door before I went to my own room and closed the door, only to have it stop half way and when I turned around, I found Itachi standing there, and with the look on his face, he wanted to talk to me about something, so I let him in and sat in my computer chair and turned my laptop back on.

"Is there something you need Itachi?" I asked once he was inside and closed the door to my room. He took a few moments, but once he took a heavy sigh and crossed his arms in front of his chest, he finally spoke what was on his mind.

"If Naruto and I aren't here tomorrow when you get home from school, it means I had to take him to the hospital. That goes for any of the days this week.." He said, and it got me confused.

"Why?"

"Because Tsunade feels like he'll do something to hurt himself before his father comes home." He answered.

"Oh." Was all I could get myself to say when I realized he was right on the dot.

"She's going to be stopping by here tomorrow in the morning with a new anti-depressant, she says this one will work much better and differently than this last one did, but she wants to start him off much smaller than she did with the other one." Itachi said as he sat down on my bed when I turned my chair around to face him.

"Do you know which one it is?" I asked.

"No, I'll know in the morning." He said, shaking his head. "I'm hoping that he'll get better by the time the weekend comes, well, better than he is now, but you know as much as I that that's a goal that might not happen."

"Yea, I know, but with Gaara around after school until he has to go home might help, you know that right?" I suggested.

"I do, but his father wants him to come home tomorrow, I heard the two of you talking in the kitchen." He said.

"Yea, but his father is letting him say from Friday until Tuesday." I told him, unsure if he heard that part at all or not.

"At least his father is so forgiving this time around." Itachi sighed.

"Yea, honestly I didn't think he'd change." I said.

"Everyone's shocked just as much as those two are."

"But, we need to make sure he and Naruto's dad don't have a conversation." I warned as I leaned back in my chair.

"Why?" Itachi asked, and I sighed heavily.

"Because, what do you think Gaara's dad will talk about with Naruto's dad?" I asked.

"Oh, right, we need to keep those two apart as much as we can between these two houses." Itachi said, and I nodded.

"We can discuss this more tomorrow when Gaara and Naruto are here to talk about this with us so they can help out too." I said as I stretched. I had planned on writing a little more tonight since I was actually done with my homework, but exhaustion was catching up with me since I didn't take that nap that I wanted.

"Sure thing." Itachi yawned, stretching as he got up off my bed. "I'm going to go to bed, see you in the morning Sasuke."

"Night nii-chan." I sighed and turned back towards my computer that was waiting for my password and typed it in.

I woke up startled by a loud banging sound near my bedroom, and it took me a moment to realize that Naruto might have fallen leaving his room half asleep, so I shot straight out of my chair since I fell asleep at my computer and ripped my bedroom door open to see no one there.

"Okay, I know I heard something…" I mumbled to myself, rubbing my face as I stretched a little bit and walked out of my room towards Naruto's and cracked the door a bit to see a light on, but when I opened it more, it was light from Naruto's computer… and he wasn't in the room. Fucking great, he must have ran off again… but where too?

When I looked on the bed to see if anyone was on it, I saw Gaara's red head sticking out of the blankets, snoozing away. God, what did Tsunade prescribe him for his insomnia? It's working like a charm.

"Is everything okay?" I heard Itachi whisper behind me as I closed the bedroom door silently and shrugged.

"Naruto's not in his room." I whispered before the two of us went to the kitchen to see if Naruto went there to find that the back door was unlocked and the light for the back porch was on too. "I guess he went outside?"

"Lets check up on him." Itachi suggested, and I nodded as I went to the back door first, opening it slowly before I stepped out to see Naruto had brought out a chair and sat on it, slouching a little bit with his arms crossed and he looked like he was fuming.

"Is everything okay Naruto?" I asked as Itachi followed me outside.

"Yea, everything's fine. I didn't mean to wake you up if I did." He said, and he sounded pissed off.

"Come on Naruto, you don't slam doors unless you're pissed off, what pissed you off?" I asked, crossing my own arms as I looked down at him.

"I finished the book and it pissed me off, that's all." He sighed before he slouched as far as the back brace would let him.

"It pissed me off too." I agreed with him. "But did you throw anything inside? I heard a loud bang by my room."

"I accidentally closed the back door a little too hard, that's all I did." Naruto sighed.

"Alright, as long as you're okay Naruto." Itachi said before giving the blonde and me a tiring hug. "I'm going to go back to bed. Night."

"Night Itachi, and I'm sorry." Naruto said.

"It's okay." Itachi yawned as he went back inside and softly closed the back door.

"Night." I said just before the door was closed and sighed as I sat on the porch next to Naruto on the floor. Honestly, I didn't want to leave him alone for some reason.

"So, Sasuke, how many times have you read that book?" Naruto asked after a few minutes of silence.

"I've read it about three times, why?"

"How pissed off do you get when you read it?" He asked.

"I get extremely pissed off, to be honest, Connor's parents reminded me of my Dad sometimes. Mom was always soft, didn't care what I was going to be when I got older unless I passed all my classes with either A's or B's. Dad always made sure I had straight A's or I had something taken from me." I sighed, hugging my knees to my chest now as I rested my chin on my knees. I'm surprised I'm even talking about my parents, especially with Naruto.

"Yea, your Mom was great, she'd be the Mom I'd always want, if I had a mother." Naruto said. "Your father is better than mine … I'd ask for him to be my father if I could have."

Then it was silent, and I don't know how long it was silent at all either until I heard soft sobs coming from Naruto, making me realize the subject really got to him.

"Sometimes I wonder if my Mom blames me for her death if she could tell me." He said. "Or if she'd curse me and kick me out for being gay and being so pathetic like I am right now for not standing up to my Dad and letting him kick me around for so long."

"Mom told me once that your Mom was the kindest person she ever knew." I said, hoping it'd help him calm down as I got up and gave him a hug; something I don't normally do. "Your mother wouldn't do anything like that, and I highly doubt she blames you for her death. I bet right now, if she could talk to you, that she'd be thanking you for living the best you can and for giving your father the help he needs. And I doubt she'd care if you were gay or not and would be happy that you've found someone you can love that loves you back."

"You really think so?" Naruto asked, his hands gripping my arm that was wrapped around the front of him. It didn't hurt or anything, it was more like a reassuring grip, but all the same, I wished I wore a long sleeved shirt right now. It's fucking cold out here!

"I really think so." I nodded, giving him a good squeeze before I let him go. "Now lets go back inside before we get sick, okay?"

"Okay." Naruto nodded and I helped him to his feet and handed him his crutches before I opened the door and let him inside first before I went in and locked the door behind me, turning the porch light off as Naruto went into the fridge and got himself a soda.

I followed him to his room where he went inside and I closed the door after I saw him sit back down at his laptop and start typing away what I was guessing was his book report and went off to my own room. But I saved my work and closed my laptop, throwing myself onto my bed after reading that it was only around midnight and groaned as I pulled the covers over myself without changing into night clothes and turned the light off on my bed side table.