Chapter 52

Sasuke

To be completely honest, my talk with Tsunade went as planned. I told her that I'd like to start talking to someone about how my parents' death affected me, so maybe I could stop being an ass towards everyone around me besides Naruto, Gaara and Itachi … though I could care less if I was an ass towards Itachi. He's my brother, so I can do whatever I wanted to him.

Tsunade said she'd talk to someone she knew, and I mentioned that I didn't want it to be Ibiki-sensei that I talked to. Naruto could have him. And I also took care to mention that I only wanted her and Itachi knowing I was seeing some shrink besides Sakura. Hell, I was doing this for her too.

So once Tsunade and I were done talking, I was sitting quietly in my room, listening to music through speakers and not really loud because I know, from experience, that Naruto doesn't like music when he's sleeping. And that's what I thought he was doing until I heard screaming coming from the bedroom. I was thinking about ignoring the little spat, but it broke my concentration with what I was working on so I closed my laptop and got up, sighing heavily, and went to see what the problem was.

But once I got to the hallway, Naruto was leaving his room, and slamming the door closed in Gaara's face. The next thing I saw, was Naruto putting his shoes on and was outside once Gaara got the bedroom door open, and Itachi was chasing after Naruto.

"Naruto, wait a minute!" Gaara yelled once he left the bedroom and went after Naruto. I could tell by the look on his face that he was frustrated, probably just as frustrated as Naruto was.

"Naruto!" Itachi yelled just before the front door slammed shut, hard enough for me to hear some of the things around the television to rattle. God, he really was pissed off.

"What the hell happened?" I asked when I realized Gaara wasn't leaving the house, only going back to the bedroom and closing the door half way. I could tell he was ready to rip his hair out, so I didn't know if I should go and ask him anything or not.

But I know Itachi ignored me, sort of. He rushed out of the house with a pair of sandals on, not caring how cold it was outside, and rushed after the fuming blonde.

I decided to take this chance to talk to Gaara, even though I might get my head ripped off and shoved down my neck. I needed to know what was going on.

"Hey, Gaara, is everything okay?" I asked, knocking on the bedroom door softly. Not daring to take a foot inside the room unless Gaara wanted me to.

"No, I just completely pissed Naruto off and now he probably doesn't want to talk to me anymore!" The red head yelled as I pushed the door open, giving me a clear look that Gaara took refuge on the bed, leaning his back up against the still broken head board, knees up to his chest and his elbows resting on top of them. I could see that his head was low and his hands brushed through his hair some as he pulled at the red strands a little bit. Hell, the light might not be on in the room, but there was enough coming from the hallway.

"What were you two talking about to start an argument?" I asked, half of me wishing I chose better words, but that's the best I could come up with.

"I kept telling him to go through his stuff to take home with him. But no, I had to stare at him like I was a fucking idiot while he explained to me why he didn't want to take anything home." Gaara explained. "I feel like such a total asshole!"

"Guys, we'll disguss this later, Naruto said he's taking all his clothes over, and only his clothes." Itachi huffed, hell, he scared the shit out of me because I didn't even hear him come back inside the damn house.

"Alright." I nodded.

"And Gaara, I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but maybe staying here will be best … that is if we want to keep Naruto's father from knowing about you two." Itachi mentioned, and it was a great idea. We didn't need Naruto and Gaara yelling at each other about their relationship problems in front of his father.

"I know that!" Gaara yelled, but the moment he clamped his mouth shut, he was sorry for yelling at Itachi, he didn't have to say anything for my brother to nod and help gather Naruto's clothes. I quietly stepped in to help while Gaara took a moment to calm himself down before helping us put all the clothes in the suitcase we used to first bring Naruto's clothes over in. To be honest, I didn't think everything would fit, but it's only because I didn't remember how full it was the first time.

And to be honest, the more I looked at the clothes that we grabbed, the more it looked like he had only new clothes and some spare old ones.

"Hey, Itachi, didn't we bring over more clothes of his than this?" I asked as I closed the suitcase and picked it up off the floor. It still felt lighter than it really should.

"No, and when Naruto and I went over to get them the first time, he didn't have many clothes to begin with." Itachi said, shaking his head a little bit as he rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand.

"I'll take it over." I offered. "And I'll see if Naruto wants to come over for a little bit, like half an hour so we can get this settled." And I left before Gaara could object to what I suggested and left the house quickly after putting my shoes on.

When I looked across the street, Tsunade's car was sitting next to Naruto's fathers' car. I guess they got here a few minutes ago. And when I got to the street, I lifted the suitcase and propped it up over my back since I found it easier to carry it that way and hopped over the curbs and up the stairs to the front door where I knocked patiently. Praying that it wasn't Naruto's dad that answered the door.

And with my luck, that's exactly who answered the door.

"Oh, evening Sasuke. I take it that's all of Naruto's clothes?" His dad asked, and honestly, he looked much better than the last time I saw him. No bags under his eyes, smelled clean of alcohol and looked like he's actually been taking a real shower and ate something.

"Yea." I nodded, half mindedly bringing it down from my shoulders until I forgot I was going to take it in. "I'll take it to him, if that's okay."

"Sure, that's not a problem. And take your time." His father said as he stepped back and let me inside. I nodded and took my shoes off when I was inside and went down towards Naruto's room and noticed that the door was closed. When I tried the handle, it was locked. God, he really was upset with Gaara.

"Hey, Naruto, it's Sasuke. May I come in?" I said.

"Is Gaara with you?" Naruto asked a moment later after I heard some stuff moving around, and it made me think that he's cleaning his room up by himself and moving stuff he isn't supposed to yet.

"No, he's not with me." I answered, then suddenly the door was unlocked, and ripped open and I was pulled into the room with the suit case before I could even protest against his harsh actions. And before I could voice anything, he slammed the door shut and locked the door again. Great, now I feel like I'm being held hostage.

"He's a fucking jerk." Naruto hissed as he got back to doing whatever he was doing before he dragged me in here. And from last time I saw this room, it was already half cleaned.

"He's sorry." I blurted out, not something I wanted to do because I honestly didn't want to say anything about the matter.

"I don't care, he should have talked with me instead of staring at me like I'm some fucking moron with a disease." Naruto hissed in my direction before he kicked something out of his way that looked like a broken desk drawer, and the sound of it crashing towards his closet made me wince away.

"He's really beating himself up Naruto. Please, come back over for half an hour at least and let him explain." I suggested, hoping he'd listen and do just.

"There's nothing to explain, Sasuke." Naruto said, and it was too calm for him from the way he was talking a few minutes ago.

"Naruto, if you don't do this, then your father might notice something." I sighed. "Now please, you just need to come over for half an hour, no more."

"Fine." Naruto spat as he turned to face me. "I'll be over when my room is cleaned." He added and got back to work on his room.

"May I help?" I asked as I sent a message to Gaara what Naruto said.

"Sure, whatever." He said, his back now to me as I sighed and got started on getting his computer desk taken care of.

When we were done with Naruto's room, he insisted that he vacuum before him and I left back to my place, and I gotta say, him cleaning helped calm his mind a little bit, though I could tell very much that he was still upset with Gaara, but at least he wasn't close to yelling about it.

"Hey, Naruto, you want the desk from the room you were staying at over at my place?" I asked, since his computer desk had been broken beyond repair and we had to throw it away up at the curb with his fathers' help. Apparently, Tsunade had a long talk with the man and when I last saw a glimpse of the hallway, there was a callendar hanging that had times on each day when Naruto needed to have his medicine and when he was supposed to talk to Ibiki once a week to see how he's coping with the medicine and the sudden change in home life … probably.

"But I can't, it's yours …" Naruto sighed when he turned the vacuum off and started putting it away since he was now done with it. And now that I really look at the room now that it's clean, he needs the walls redone; there were holes here and there and it needed painted badly. "And it doesn't seem right."

"Don't be silly, think of it as part of your birthday gift." I winked over to him and grabbed his hand before pulling him out of his room to see that his father was in his office, only because the light was on and the door was closed. We could also hear things being moved around inside so he was cleaning and we could leave.

"I'll be back in half an hour or so Dad, I'm going over to Sasuke's to see if I have anything else to bring home." I heard Naruto say as we walked past the closed office.

"Don't be gone too late, Tsunade said you're going to school tomorrow so you're going to have to go to bed at a decent time to wake up early." His father said, and I wanted to choke on my own spit because I'm just so not used to hearing him talk like this.

This was going to need a lot of getting used to … if it works as it should.

"I won't be gone long Dad, I'll yell for you when I come home." Naruto said and the two of us were putting on our shoes and out the door as we heard his father say an 'okay' and we were walking across the street towards my house. But once we got to the front door, Naruto stopped walking and I had to stop too because he was in front of me.

"Something wrong Naruto?" I asked, my voice quiet.

"No …" He said a moment later before he opened the door and went inside. I sighed heavily and followed him in.

"I'm home." I said once I closed the door and took my shoes off. I mentioned to Naruto that he didn't have to take his shoes off if he wasn't going to stay here long, but he took them off anyway and sauntered into the kitchen for something to drink. Which reminds me, his father will need to go to the grocery store tomorrow so they can have some food. I'll have to talk to Itachi while Naruto talks to Gaara.

"Okay, and Naruto, Gaara's in the bedroom." I heard Itachi say from down the hallway, so I made my way there and saw he was in his office, chilling in his chair and playing solitaire on his phone. I only knew this because he threw his phone down onto his desk a moment later, frustrated.

"I haven't been able to win a game since you left. I guess I'm just worried." He explained as he straightened up in his chair, taking his feet off his desk and stretched a little bit.

"I am too, but it's Naruto's choice to go home." I shrugged, closing the door behind me and sat in one of the two chairs in front of his desk.

"Something on your mind?" Itachi asked.

"Yea, if Naruto's dad's car isn't working, we'll have to take him to the grocery tomorrow …" I sighed, leaning onto my elbows and rested my chin in my hands when I webbed my fingers together. I was going to be really bored knowing that it's just going to be Itachi and me again.

"I know, I've thought about that too. I'll talk to him tomorrow when you guys are in school." Itachi nodded, glad to know that we're both on the same page.

"I'm also worried about Naruto going back to school. Do you think he'll be able to even catch up from missing so much?" I said, voicing my opinions like usual.

"He'll be fine. He's got you, Gaara and all of his friends to keep him up to par." Itachi chuckled, probably amazed that I'm voicing my concerns. True, it's something I don't normally do, but it shouldn't be that funny.

"Fine." I sighed heavily. "Should we check up on Gaara and Naruto? They've been really quiet since we got here."

"No, they need to talk this out themselves. You of all people should know this." Itachi said as he put a finger up before standing up. I guess he's going to get ready to go to bed. I should do the same, but I'm far from tired now, unlike how I was when I went over to Naruto's an hour or so ago.

"Okay … Go get your shower and I'll get mine later. I helped Naruto clean his room up and I'm wide awake now." I told him as I got up too.

"Okay, if I don't come say good night, that means I passed out after my shower." Itachi said, and I couldn't blame him. Sure, he might be working from home now, but that doesn't mean he's not worked himself to near exhaustion everyday either.

Sighing, I followed Itachi out of the office and I went to my room, leaving the door open so I know when Naruto leaves the room him and Gaara are talking in and make sure he goes home safely and sat down at my computer, turning it back on and putting my password in. I didn't want to play music now, only because I wanted the silence and started typing as I waited for Naruto to get done. I just hoped it was soon.