/ ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER / 6
Staring out the window, Sasuke glanced at his phone, he hoped Itachi would hurry up and come home soon. Ever since Itachi had called and informed him about what had happened at the school earlier that morning, Sasuke had felt sick to his stomach. He wanted nothing more to get to the hospital so he could find out what was going on with Naruto.
Sasuke
How are you? Itachi told me about what happened today.
Sakura
I'm not sure how I feel right now. It's been a pretty scary day.
Sasuke
I'm sure it was. I wish I had been there so that maybe things wouldn't have ended up the way that they did.
Sakura
I don't think you could have done anything to prevent it. He seemed to have a hit list and unfortunately, it seemed like he was able to succeed on taking out several on that list.
Sasuke
Why would he have anything against those kids? Were they bullies?
Sakura
No. Most of the kids were some of the nicest kids that I knew. The only thing that I can think of was that the whole incident happened because the kids had some kind of learning disability.
Sasuke
To kill a kid because of that is disgusting. It's not those kids faults that they didn't learn the same as everyone else.
Sakura
I agree. Your brother has more theories but I think it would be best if you talked to him about it. I don't want to talk about it right now.
Sasuke
I can understand that. If you need anything just let me know.
Sakura
I will. I doubt there is anything you can do to erase this whole event from my brain though. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to school and not see the dead kids lying on the floor. I hope your brother finds the one responsible and he puts him down like the dog he is.
Sasuke
My brother will do just that. If he hates anything, it's anyone that messes with kids. He won't stop until justice is served. I like that about my brother.
Sakura
It means that your parents won't get the justice that they deserve right now.
Sasuke
I'm okay with that. This situation feels like it's more important than anything else going on anyways. I know there are going to be some families that are going to wanting some answers as to why this even happened. Itachi's going to do his best to give them those answers.
Itachi loved kids, except for maybe Naruto, but Sasuke knew that Naruto made a lot of noise when Itachi got off of work and that had the tendency to drive Itachi crazy. Sasuke doubted that Itachi truly hated Naruto.
Sasuke
I'm sorry that you had to go through this. I wouldn't wish this kind of thing on anyone.
Sakura
I know you wouldn't. You would have to be pretty sick in the head to want something like this to happen to anyone. What's done is done and now we all have to live with the consequences of what happened.
Sasuke
Still it's a painful lesson to be learned all the way around. Have you heard anything about Naruto?
Sakura
Not yet. Last thing I knew was that he was in critical condition and being rushed into surgery. I'm not sure that they believe that he's going to make it through the surgery. I know Naruto though and he's a fighter and he's going to do everything he can to come back to us.
Sasuke
I hate that this happened now. Naruto was just figuring out that he needed more help than was being given to him. It's not fair, he deserves more than what he's been given.
Sakura
I agree and I believe Itachi is going to talk to Naruto's parents, and they are probably going to deal with the school. There is no reason for Naruto to be failing his classes right now, the teachers should at least be trying to help Naruto.
Sasuke
But not a single one has done anything. I wonder if Mr. Umino won't help Naruto, because his parents died on Naruto's parent's operating table.
Sakura
It's possible, but it's a pretty shitty thing to hold that against Naruto. He didn't do anything to deserve it.
Sasuke
We both know that. I hope his parents go after the school for just how badly they are failing him and other kids that have a difficult time learning. The school needs to learn a lesson that those kids are just as important as everyone else is. I know that they might not think that those kids matter but they really do.
Sakura
I hope that all those kids that were killed get the justice that they deserve. I believe your brother is going to go after the school for allowing this to happen.
Sasuke
It's not their fault. They couldn't have stopped it, it was an act of violence that no one expected to happen.
Sakura
I disagree with that. The only teacher that actually showed up today with Mr. Umino. He still acted like it was going to be a problem to get Naruto tested for dyslexia though, but yeah, not a single other teacher showed up. So I believe that if they didn't have a part in what was going on, then they at least had a clue that it was going to happen and they stayed away for their own safety.
Sasuke
That makes me sick. How in the hell can they do that? Not a single one of them need to be able to keep their job.
Sakura
I agree. Itachi thinks that they might have had a bigger role than just knowing about it. He has a theory that their goal was to take out the learning disabled kids which is the reason Naruto was targeted.
Sasuke
How in the world can people be so evil? Those kids deserve an education too.
Sakura
Again we both know that. But clearly the school has a different opinion on that matter. They clearly have a very different opinion on how those kids should be treated. One day, that school is going to pay especially if Itachi tells Naruto's parents about what he believes occurred.
Sasuke didn't think it was possible to be more angry than he was in that moment. How could the school be so callous as to treat their students that way, it was like prejudiced to focus on one certain group of students instead of all of them. Sasuke hoped like hell that Itachi could prove that the school had done such a thing. He doubted that the school officials would admit to the truth of what was going on, but if anyone could get the truth out of them it would be his big brother.
#
Three hours later, Sasuke was waiting in the living room when he heard the sound of a door opening, turning his head away from the television that his eyes had been glued to for the last three hours, Sasuke was relieved to see his tired looking brother walk through the door.
"Did you make an arrest?" Sasuke asked as Itachi flopped down on the couch beside him, letting out a weary sigh.
"No. He wasn't home. The kid is on the run. I should have known that it wasn't going to be that easy." Itachi said. "But we know who it is, so we'll know if he tries to step foot in that school again."
"Were you able to talk to any school officials?" Sasuke asked. "And find out where they were since they all decided to take a personal day on the same damn day."
"Nope." Itachi replied. "But that's coming. I've been at the school all day, going over the crime scene with Deidara with a fine tooth comb. After that I did get the files on all the students that were killed or injured."
"Why are those important?" Sasuke asked. "Is there something in the file that's going to give you a reason as to why they were targeted? I know Naruto's file is pretty thick, he tries to stay out of trouble, but the teachers don't exactly care for him."
"That's sad, because he's a great kid when he's given a chance." Itachi shook his head. He didn't think he would ever understand the prejudice that had been shown towards Naruto.
"He is." Sasuke agreed. "Which makes it harder to understand why anyone would rather that he be dead than to teach him on the level that he needs to be taught."
"Because it's easier to watch him fail than to adjust the way they teach." Itachi answered. "Sakura says that even Iruka Umino didn't show much interest in helping him."
"Everyone knows that's because Iruka's parents died on Naruto's father's operating table." Sasuke replied. "So, I'm not too surprised at that."
"He's not responsible for what happened." Itachi shook his head. Sasuke was really painting a picture of the teachers that he didn't like. He felt like they were being lazy, but it was more than that, they were ignoring Naruto because they didn't like him, and holding things against him that wasn't even his fault.
"We both know that." Sasuke replied. "But doesn't mean anything to the teachers. They don't deserve to have their job anymore."
"I agree. I'm going to the board of education no matter what happens with this case." Itachi replied. "Because whether they are involved in knowing about the shooting, they should be held responsible for allowing their students to be slaughtered by now showing up to work."
"I know you are tired, but I want to see Naruto. I haven't anything from anyone." Sasuke told his brother. "I'm scared for him."
"I know you are, but I believe he's still in surgery." Itachi replied. "Deidara is going to text me when he hears anything. Since he lives right next door to them, he felt like it would be better if the news came from him than me."
"That's understandable." Sasuke murmured. "But I still want to know something."
"You know what they say about no news being good news." Itachi replied. "But I was the one that got Naruto to the ambulance, he was pretty bad off, he'd been shot four or five times. When the shooter ran out of ammo, he kicked Naruto until Sakura believes that his back was broken. So this particular shooter hated Naruto something terrible."
"There's very few people who hate Naruto like that." Sasuke said his eyes narrowing. He was pretty sure he knew who the shooter was now, and he wanted nothing more than to track the asshole down and put him in the grave where he belonged.
"I see the wheels turning in your head." Itachi said. "Don't do anything that's going to get you hurt."
"Someone needs to defend Naruto. Gaara needs to know that he can't go around hurting people just because they have a better life than he does. That's not Naruto's fault." Sasuke replied. "Gaara needs to be taught a lesson."
"And he will be when we catch him. He'll spend the rest of his days in jail. I don't think any judge in their right mind would turn him loose." Itachi pointed out. "Not so that he can do it again, but I still have a theory that he might have been a pawn in all of this. I just don't have enough evidence to prove it."
"I don't care if he was a pawn or not, he followed through with it instead of telling a higher authority. He deserves exactly whatever he gets." Sasuke muttered.
"And he will pay for it." Itachi replied, "Though if he tells who convinced him that it was a good idea to go through with it, he might get a deal."
"He doesn't deserve a deal. He's the only only I know of that could hold so much hatred towards a person." Sasuke shook his head. "I'll never understand why he's never had the ability to think for himself."
"I can't give you a reason for that either." Itachi replied. "But I can promise that he's going to have no choice but to talk to someone, so maybe we can get some sort of clue about what's going through his head."
"What if he kills himself?" Sasuke asked. "I've always suspected that he was the type to do something like that. I never imagined he'd try taking a bunch of innocent people with him though." Sasuke said. "I kind of hope he is dead, that way we don't have to worry about him getting by with it."
"That's a cruel thing to say." Itachi said. "There are probably reasons for him to be the way that he is."
"No reason good enough to try to take out a bunch of kids with learning disabilities." Sasuke replied. "Those kids deserve to be home with their parents, but now their body is lying in a morgue. Tell me how that's fair for them?"
"It's not, and I'm going to make sure that they get the justice they deserve. Their parents won't have to always wonder why it had been their child that was murdered in cold blood." Itachi replied sighing. He honestly hoped that Naruto did not become one of those victims.
"I'm going to encourage the parents of the kids that were killed to sue the school for all they are worth. It won't bring the kids back, but I think the school will learn an important lesson not to mess with anyone's kids. Whether they are learning disabled or not."
"I hope they go for it." Sasuke said. "I think the school needs to learn that lesson. I hope that no other kid has to suffer because a teacher has decided that it's too much trouble to teach them."
Sasuke stood up and walked over to the window, as much as he wanted to see Naruto, he wasn't going to pressure Itachi into taking him right at that moment. Sasuke knew that Itachi would have trouble coming to terms with the things that he'd seen in the school, and he didn't want to do anything to make things worse for Itachi. His older brother needed time to decompress and Sasuke was going to give them that time.
"I wonder how Naruto's parents took the news." Sasuke said thoughtfully. He knew Naruto's parents adored him, even if they were just a little bit neglectful of him.
"I would say they are pretty devastated. I just hope that Minato wasn't the one to have to operate on Naruto. I can't imagine him handling that very well." Itachi commented.
"I don't see where it would be legal for Minato to operate on his own son." Sasuke replied. "That's giving Minato the opportunity to make too many mistakes because he's bound to be upset."
"You have a point." Itachi said thoughtfully. "I didn't think about that."
"I can't imagine that Minato is in that right kind of frame of mind." Sasuke said. "To be told that your son was targeted in a school shooting because he possibly, and most likely has a learning disability that they didn't realize that he had. It's terrible, and I bet they feel guilty as hell."
"I'm sure they probably felt like they could have prevented this. I don't think they could have prevented the tragedy itself, but I believe that they could have gotten more help when he's been begging for it help for a long time. Even I can tell that he's tired of struggling to keep up with everyone else. I can't imagine how draining it must have been on him all this time, and no one was offering any help." Itachi shook his head.
"I tried to help him as much as I could. I tried to get the teachers to not call on him in class to read out loud." Sasuke said. "I think most of them enjoyed humiliating him, just because they had the power to do so."
"Those people have no business teaching anyone." Itachi shook his head. "If I have my way they won't have a job anymore."
"I think he was getting close to suicide." Sasuke admitted. "It was pretty obvious how tired he was of having to fight for the same education as everyone else. Not having his parents home all the time didn't help either."
"I know the kid had the tendency to get on my nerves but I didn't want him to do anything to hurt himself." Itachi said. "I don't want to see anyone hurt themselves because they aren't getting the help that they need. Especially, if there is something an adult can do to help."
"I don't understand what the issue is." Sasuke shook his head. "Not everyone learns the same and if they have more trouble learning than other people that's not his fault either."
"I agree." Itachi replied. "I don't know why they would want to pull off something like this, it's like killing someone based on the color of their skin, and that's not right. No one should be judged on their skin or how they learn. Anyone caught doing so should be punished."
Sasuke sighed, he agreed with Itachi no one should be judged based on how they learn, but Sasuke didn't think that there was going to be anything they could do about it. People were going to be cruel over things they didn't understand. Should that cruelty come from an adult, Sasuke didn't think so, and believed firmly that an adult was in control of their actions and what they chose to believe in. They didn't have the right to force their opinions onto the shoulders of those that they were in charge of educating.
Glancing around him. Sasuke stared at the TV who was continuing to drone on silently in the background. Images of the school surrounded by police and ambulances flashed across the screen. Sasuke couldn't imagine the hell that Sakura would be dealing with now that she had survived, or even what would go through Naruto's head if he survived this. Sasuke hoped and prayed with everything that he had that Naruto would survive, he didn't deserve for his life to end like this.
"Those kids are going to be traumatized for a long time." Itachi said. "And it didn't have to happen. Why punish the ones that learn well because you didn't want to teach the ones with learning difficulties?"
"Good question. You would have thought those kids would have been warned just like the teachers were." Sasuke said. "But clearly the school doesn't give a damn about anyone."
"At least not certain people." Itachi agreed. "I hope the Uzumaki's sue the school for all they can. If they don't, I will. I won't have your safety at risk, because they don't want to do their jobs."
"I'm perfectly normal though." Sasuke replied. "I don't have any sort of issues."
"That doesn't mean that they won't decide to change their mind and take out the rest of the students that they don't feel like teaching." Itachi replied. "If they could so easily decide to take out the learning disabled, there's no reason to think the rest of the student body isn't at risk."
"I guess you have a point." Sasuke commented. "I just never thought that it would come to this. I never thought they would think that learning disabled kids were so much of a problem that they didn't want to deal with them."
"Right now that's just a theory nothing has been confirmed." Itachi replied. "I suspect that it will be confirmed however."
Sasuke shook his head, he still had a hard time believing this whole situation had taken place. He'd never thought that such a thing would ever take place in Konoha, nor that the teachers would be the main ones responsible for it.
"I don't know how Sakura isn't going to have nightmares after all this." Sasuke murmured. "It'll be a miracle if she ever wants to walk back through those doors again, and I can't blame her. I can't imagine the hell that is going through her head right now."
"Especially since Naruto had been trying to protect Sakura, and was shot multiple times." Itachi said.
"He did what?" Sasuke asked turning to look at his brother. "Sakura isn't learning disabled so why would she have been targeted?"
"I don't think she was." Itachi replied. "But he didn't know that so he instinctively covered her body with his own."
"That sounds like something Naruto would do." Sasuke admitted. "He cares more about other people than himself." He hated that now Naruto was fighting for his life with no knowledge of whether he was going to survive or not. Sasuke hoped with everything that he had in him, that Naruto pulled through this situation. It wasn't fair for Naruto to have to struggle so much and then have his life end this way.
thanks for reading and if you don't mind leaving a review, I would much appreciate it. Liz