Naruto Fan Fiction / Naruto Shippuden Fan Fiction ❯ Every Light on this Path is For You ❯ The Last Hurdle ( Chapter 16 )

Disclaimer: The characters, items, places etc of Naruto are property of Masashi Kishimoto. These objects are used without permission for entertainment only, not for making money. No infringement is intended.

Chapter 16: The Last Hurdle

"I'm not doing it."

"You are," Sasuke replied firmly, grabbing his brother's arm and forcefully throwing him through the door Deidara was holding open. The scent of sterility hit them, reminding Itachi once more of where he was and why.

He was at the doctor with both Sasuke and Deidara in tow, both mutely agreeing to attend and support Itachi. Itachi had told them both on no uncertain terms that he was going in to the doctor alone, and that he had absolutely no intentions of speaking a word if either of them dared to follow him.

He found himself led through to a seat in the waiting room, a magazine thrust into his hand as Sasuke stood above him with folded arms. Deidara was talking lowly with the receptionist, booking Itachi in.

"Read that, shut up and don't ask the time," Sasuke told him firmly.

As usual with doctor's surgeries, there was no clock on the wall. Such places never ran on time, after all, and without a clock people might not notice.

Itachi would notice. That was precisely why he had been told not to ask, and he knew it. Restraining the part of him that wanted to sulk, he flicked the magazine open and pretended to be interested as Deidara joined his side.

"Remember, tell him everything," Deidara urged quietly. "Don't miss things out, yeah. He can't help you if you don't tell him exactly what you feel."

"Deidara," Itachi murmured, not looking up from his magazine. "I mean this in the nicest possible way, but please shut the hell up."

Sasuke and Deidara exchanged a glance, but said nothing.

"Don't look at me like that," Itachi continued, still keeping his eyes on the pages as he flicked them over without reading them. "Sasuke, is there any particular reason you gave me a woman's fashion magazine to read?"

Sasuke snatched it from him, flicking through the pile in search of something more interesting. He found an art magazine, tossing it to Deidara. Deidara's face lit up and he absorbed himself in it quickly, leaving Sasuke to hand Itachi a nature magazine instead.

"I'm not that boring, surely?" Itachi sighed, taking it anyway.

"It's not like there's a huge selection to choose from!" Sasuke replied sharply, turning his attention to a corkboard of leaflets and information above them instead. Itachi knew he was fishing for something to keep him distracted, and that his snappy demeanour was born of worry.

"I'll be fine," he said quietly. "It's not like there's something seriously wrong with me, right?"

Sasuke didn't respond, but he did seem to relax a little. Satisfied, Itachi abandoned his own magazine in favour of glancing over Deidara's shoulder. The man was reading an article that reviewed acrylic paints.

Itachi thought it was rather meaningless, as he was certain Deidara probably owned acrylic paints from every single manufacturer reviewed on the pages. The supplies flowing from cubby holes and drawers in his home said as much, anyway.

The digital display on the wall beeped, the red LCD displaying a person's name and which room they were to head into. A lady sitting nearby heeded it, stepping through the door into a corridor that led to the doctor's rooms.

Itachi did not want to think about this visit. Every time he did he felt his pulse quicken and his mind race, nervous of discussing something he had come to feel ashamed of. What if the doctor told him he was being stupid?

What if he said there was nothing he could do? Regardless the visit would be logged onto his medical file, and he couldn't shake the feeling the doctor was going to brush him aside.

He could see it now. The doctor would record his visit, laughing as he did so.

'Visited on Friday morning. The weather was cloudy and threatening rain. Itachi presented a ridiculous notion that there is something wrong with being an extreme perfectionist and suggested I actually cure him! What nonsense! I sent him on his way with a pat on the head and a lollipop, making sure he knows not to waste my time in future.'

He had to resist laughing out loud, wondering why his eyes were burning. If either of his companions noticed his surreptitious hand movement to them neither said so, both seemingly fascinated by their respective media mediums.

"Anything interesting?" He asked Sasuke, wishing to distract himself.

"Not really," Sasuke replied. "I think I now know more about swine flu and STDs than I ever needed to, though."

"It's always best to be well informed," Itachi retorted. "Who knows when that information will come in handy."

"Since I'm not planning on picking up any STDs any time soon, can I assume you want me to give you that information?" Sasuke responded smoothly, stunning Itachi into silence.

"You cheeky brat," he finally replied. "Stop looking at that stuff anyway- you're still ten years old in my head, you're too young for that kind of knowledge."

"I've screwed more people than you have," Sasuke replied breezily, smirking at his brother's widened eyes.

"How many of those people were female?" Deidara interjected, showing he was listening to the conversation. "Since the only person I've ever seen you with is that blond guy- Naruto, is it?"

Sasuke was the one stunned into silence now, glaring at Deidara sharply. "Very funny," he snapped. "It was a joke, anyway."

They were interrupted by the beep of the LCD display once more, this time displaying Itachi's name. He stared at it for a few long moments before he felt Deidara's hand on his back, gently pushing him to a stand.

"Good luck," he whispered.

Itachi nodded and weaved his way through the other seated patients and chairs to the door, disappearing into it and leaving Deidara and Sasuke alone.

"What is going on with you guys anyway?" Deidara pushed. "You hang around as much as Itachi and I do only you claim you aren't in a relationship with him."

Sasuke threw Itachi's abandoned magazine at him and stalked out of the door, leaving Deidara to snicker behind his hand and ignore the glances of the other people in the room.

"Sasuke," he called, getting up to chase him. "Come on, we need to wait for your brother, yeah."

"Stop being a jackass then," Sasuke hissed at him.

"You get awfully touchy at the subject of Naruto," Deidara told him, looking amused. "If you didn't then perhaps I wouldn't tease so much, yeah."

"Fine," Sasuke replied curtly. "He's a nice guy and he gives fantastic head. Are you glad you asked now?"

He stalked back inside, leaving Deidara to stare at his stunned back before swiftly following. He seated himself back next to Sasuke, who promptly moved two seats away and folded his arms, sulking with guilty reddened cheeks.

Deidara grinned at that. Oh, how he knew that look. He'd seen it on Itachi quite a number of times before.

Time seemed to crawl by for them both. With no clock and mobile phones switched off thanks to the sign on the wall, they had no way of knowing how long had actually passed.

Both of them, though they didn't say it to the other, figured that a lengthy visit was better than a quick one as it indicated Itachi was actually talking.

What felt like an hour later, but was in reality twenty minutes, both of them glanced up as Itachi reappeared in the doorway.

Immediately they stood and went to him, noticing that he was leaning against the frame as though he might fall as well as blinking rapidly in a manner that suggested he was either going to pass out or cry.

He held a green slip of paper in his hand, signalling he'd been given a prescription for something. It was shaking, leaving Sasuke to take control.

"Give him your keys," he demanded, indicating Deidara.

Itachi fished them out almost on autopilot, allowing Sasuke to take his arm and drag him back the way he had just come. Deidara watched them go, getting the hint and going to wait in the car. As much as he wanted to follow, he trusted Sasuke's judgement when it came to his beloved elder sibling.

"Here," Sasuke told Itachi sharply, bodily shoving him into the bathroom and closing the door behind them.

Once inside, he snatched the paper from his sibling's hand and studied it, leaving Itachi to cover his face and sink to his knees.

"Diazepam?" Sasuke read out loud. "That's an anti anxiety med. Itachi, that's good! That's going to help you!"

He didn't get a response from Itachi, who was staring at the floor visibly shaking.

"What's wrong for heaven's sake?" Sasuke hissed at him. "Don't you realise how good this is?"

"Of course I do!" Itachi hissed back, glaring up at him with wide eyes that Sasuke realised were stunned, not saddened.

"Sasuke, he listened! He actually listened, he-" He cut himself off, returning his face to his hands and shaking his head in disbelief.

"Of course he listened," Sasuke sighed, leaning back against the door. "It wasn't healthy, and I'm sure he knows that."

"Sasuke," Itachi murmured, glancing up at his brother. "Be quiet."

Sasuke obeyed. It was rare for his brother to demand much at all, let alone in such a manner. Instead of replying, Sasuke opened the door and left him alone, taking the green slip with him as he headed for the car.

Deidara was sitting in the front seat with a book in his hands, sketching. Sasuke glared at him, realising his shotgun had been revoked as he clambered into the back seat.

"Where is he?" Deidara asked, glancing up from sketching.

"Incapacitated. I think he just realised that he can be helped," Sasuke replied quietly. "And I don't think he realised just how relieved that was going to make him. The doctor gave him diazepam."

Deidara stared at him blankly. "What?"

"For anxiety," Sasuke clarified as though Deidara was an idiot for not automatically knowing.

"Shouldn't you be with him still? He looked upset."

"He's fine," Sasuke responded airily. "He'll be back soon."

He realised with a start that his bag was open- Itachi was going to be dropping him at college after the appointment, so he had brought it with him. He glanced inside, noticing one of his textbooks was missing.

"What are you drawing on?" He asked slowly, an idea dawning on him in horror.

"A book, yeah."

"What kind of book?"

"A textbook."

"My textbook?" Sasuke growled, leaning over his shoulder to see Deidara was, indeed, sketching doodles onto his book.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" He shouted in outrage.

"Livening it up!" Deidara argued as Sasuke tried to snatch it from him. "I forgot my sketchbook, yeah. You're studying chemistry. Your textbooks are all boring!"

"You moron! Give it back!"

Deidara handed it back with a huff of disappointment.

"Do you have any idea how expensive this book was?" Sasuke snapped at him, glaring at the doodle of a cat on the page in front of him.

"It's in pencil," Deidara sulked. "You can just erase it later, yeah."

"That isn't the point. Maybe you should be the one seeing the doctor. You're a nutcase."

When Itachi returned five minutes or so later, he showed no trace of his earlier mood. Calmly, he slipped into the driver's seat and held a hand over his shoulder wordlessly for the prescription.

"We're going to divert and get this now," he explained as Sasuke handed it over.

"What did you tell him?" Deidara finally asked quietly as Itachi drove away.

Itachi hesitated for a moment, looking contemplative. "He told me I had every right to be worried about my behaviour," he replied, sounding bemused at the observation.

"He referred me for cognitive behaviour therapy, which should commence reasonably soon considering the severity of my actions to now." He added.

"Are you glad you did it now?" Deidara questioned, sounding almost as though he was afraid of the answer.

"Yes," Itachi replied definitely. "Thank you both. I wouldn't normally advocate you skipping any more of college Sasuke, but would you like to join us for lunch? I'll take you both, my treat."

"Together?" Sasuke asked, sounding dismayed. "Itachi, I've already suffered enough of his company, don't you think?"

"You think I want to be anywhere near you?" Deidara countered.

"You're both going to come and you're both going to enjoy it," Itachi warned, speaking over them. "Any preferences?"

"I found out Sasuke's preferences earlier," Deidara snickered, earning a sidelong curious glare from Itachi.

"Deidara!" Sasuke hollered, his voice bordering shrill. "Don't!"

"It seems a preference for blonds runs in your family," Deidara continued with an ever-growing smirk.

"Since I am informed that a certain blond named Naruto apparently, and I quote- ow ow fucking ow Sasuke let go!"

Sasuke, who had grabbed Deidara's half ponytail and was pulling with enough force to tilt his head completely back, completely ignored him.

"Your little brother's not as innocent as you think!" Deidara finally squeaked, freeing himself from Sasuke's grasp.

"Asshole," he snapped. "You deserve it, yeah. I did nothing to antagonise you, but you've always hated me for no good reason!"

"I have plenty of reasons!" Sasuke protested sharply, cheeks burning. Itachi, who had said nothing, simply raised an eyebrow and kept his attention on the road. "You give me new ones every time we meet, in fact."

"By speaking the truth?" Deidara replied smoothly.

"You know what- just get out the car right now and go play in the traffic, would you? I've never met anyone as infuriating as you, Blondie."

"Likewise, Uchiha. I have your mobile phone, by the way. I've never seen an iPhone before and I was interested, yeah."

Sasuke froze, eyes widening as Deidara pulled his iPhone from his pocket and navigated easily to the messages. His eyes fell on his open bag, leaving him speechless as he realised it was indeed missing.

"I love the feature of this phone that allows you to read messages as one conversation," Deidara continued casually. "And I particularly liked this discussion, yeah."

"Don't!"

"Message from Naruto: 'Thank you for an amazing time last night!'. Reply from Sasuke: 'No problem'."

"See, it's fine," Sasuke interjected hurriedly, holding a hand out. "Give it back."

"Message from Naruto: 'Where did you learn how to do that? You're going to have to show me so I can return the favour'. Naruto's added a charming little wink on the end of that, Sasuke!"

"You asshole! Stop it!" Sasuke cried, attempting to lean over the seat and snatch the phone from the artist's hand.

"Reply from Sasuke!" Deidara continued anyway as he shoved Sasuke away with one hand.

"'I'm glad you enjoyed it. Just Google 'finding the male G spot' and it's on the first page'. Sasuke, you added a wink this time! You guys are so cute, yeah."

Itachi tried very, very hard to pretend the conversation wasn't happening. The slight pink tinge of his cheeks gave him away however, snatching the phone and throwing it into the back to save both Sasuke's pride and his own sanity.

Sasuke sat back in his seat, folding his arms and sulking. "Jerk," he snapped again.

Deidara gave him a serene smile in the side view mirror, which Sasuke promptly returned in the form of a rude hand gesture.

"You know Sasuke, I'm a little hurt," Itachi remarked, but the smirk on his lips said he really wasn't hurt at all. "I told you about my feelings for my best friend- what made you feel you couldn't share yours?"

"It's because Sasuke likes to pretend he doesn't like people that aren't you," Deidara replied with a snicker.

"It's private!" Sasuke snapped, his tone suggesting the conversation be dropped right away.

"As I was asking," Itachi finally spoke once more, allowing his brother some peace. "Did either of you have any preferences on where we eat lunch?"

"Whatever kind of food he hates."

Sasuke and Deidara had echoed the same sentiment, earning soft laughter from Itachi. Things were definitely going to improve in life, and if all he had to complain about was his brother and his boyfriend's inability to get along, then so be it.

It had been a long day- lunch had become lunch, a movie, shopping, another movie and finally dinner before Sasuke had begrudgingly agreed that it was time to go home. For all their bickering Deidara and Sasuke had got along civilly, though Itachi knew they would and that the distractions they had both presented him with were all designed to get his mind off the morning's events.

Itachi had let Sasuke skip the day without complaint too. He had been oddly attached to Itachi anyway, which the elder Uchiha had found rather sweet. However, now he and Deidara were alone, he had a plan to put into action. His boyfriend and brother weren't the only ones with tricks up their sleeves.

"We need to pick a few things up from the supermarket," he remarked as he turned into the store car park, answering Deidara's confused glance. "You can wait in the car, I won't be long."

Deidara didn't seem too worried, leaving Itachi to head inside with a tiny grin on his face. They didn't need a thing but since Deidara's idea of cooking was usually awful, it was a job Itachi did most of the time, so he was often the one that prompted the supermarket trips.

For all his mishaps in the kitchen, Deidara was able to make a perfect cinnamon cake following Sasuke's recipe. It left Itachi to wonder if he bought him a recipe book if it would have the same effect, allowing him to cook wonderful meals thus freeing Itachi from the job of having to rescue him when he burned things.

He grabbed a few quick essentials to cover the real item he had come in for, going through the self service checkout to avoid the evening queues before heading back to the car. He put the bags in the boot where Deidara couldn't see, slipping back into the car and trying not to look too satisfied.

"What are you drawing on?" He asked with a sigh, realising Deidara had a piece of unfamiliar paper in his hands.

"I took it from Sasuke's bag earlier," Deidara replied airily, as though taking people's notes to draw spaceships and stars on was perfectly alright.

"He's going to kill you," Itachi warned him before letting the subject drop. There was absolutely no point in trying to argue with either of them anymore.

Once they arrived home Itachi was quick to jump out and grab the bags, leaving the one he wanted hidden where it was before slamming the boot shut and heading up the path with Deidara. He let the other open the door, thrusting the bags in his direction.

"Put those away and put the kettle on," he requested. Deidara looked like he was about to protest, but Itachi held a hand up to quell the argument. "Just do it would you? I'm always the one to do it, so go make yourself useful."

Deidara headed off without complaint, taking the bags with him. Itachi waited for him to vanish into the living room before running back down the path and retrieving the last bag, heading back inside to the bedroom with it and hoping Deidara wouldn't come looking for him.

He was in luck. Clad only in his dark dressing gown, he pulled his hair free of its tie and grabbed the bag, heading through to the kitchen. Deidara turned to face him and stopped, eyes widening slightly.

"I have a suggestion," Itachi told him, his smooth voice layered with seduction.

"And what would that be?" Deidara asked, the boiling kettle forgotten as he focused all his attention on his partner.

Itachi reached into the bag and pulled out a jar of chocolate spread. "Art," he said simply.

Deidara's eyes lit up. "You are creative after all," he purred, approaching Itachi with a grin on his lips. "Who knew you had a hidden artist in you after all? Interesting choice of medium, yeah."

"I had a more interesting choice of canvas in mind," Itachi replied lowly, slipping one shoulder free of the gown slowly to put his point across.

Deidara didn't need telling twice. He grabbed Itachi and pulled him through to the bedroom, practically throwing him into the bed and leaning above him, lithe arms supporting his weight as he leant over Itachi and kissed him.

"Do you like chocolate?" Itachi whispered into Deidara's ear.

"Even if I didn't I would have developed a sudden taste for it," Deidara replied, lowering his lips to his partner's neck and gently tugging on the gown.

The material slipped open easily, exposing Itachi as it did so. "When did you plan this?" He breathed as he trailed a line of kisses down Itachi's naked chest.

"I don't know," Itachi replied. "Earlier. It just occurred to me, and I decided to just run with it."

"We should take you to the doctor more often," Deidara approved. "Itachi?"

"Mm?"

"You know I love you, right?"

Itachi gave him a smile, lustful eyes softening slightly to give way to a sentimental gaze. "I know. I love you too. Now come on- get drawing."

"I don't have a paintbrush, yeah."

Itachi smirked, shaking his head slowly. "I don't think you're being very creative," he argued lightly. "I'm surprised at you."

"Are you going to give me free reign of the entire canvas?" Deidara asked, a grin on his lips as he trailed his hands down Itachi's sides, stopping on his hips.

"I think I can allow that," Itachi agreed, putting his hand behind his partner's head and bringing it forward to lock their lips together. He brushed his tongue against Deidara's lips, begging access that was given without protest.

"You aren't painting," he reminded gently once they broke apart. "I didn't think you'd need telling again."

Deidara certainly didn't need to be told any more, reaching for the purple lidded jar without complaint. "Alright then," he murmured as he opened it up. "I'm going to show you what a good artist I can be."

"Please do," Itachi murmured in response. "I look forward to it."

For the first time in his life, Itachi was simply letting things in life run their course without intervention in a manner he had never allowed before.

He was remarkably proud of himself for setting aside his usual restraints, knowing it was probably empowerment from his doctor's visit and the pills he had ready to take in his coat pocket, but that was okay. Tonight, he was going to be just Uchiha Itachi.

Chapter End