Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Broken ❯ misunderstanding part 2 ( Chapter 17 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: blackarora 
confrontations
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Psychological / Hentai / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 08.05.2005 | Updated On: 02.27.2006 | Pages: 5 | Words: 6.6K | Visits: 1.7K | Status: Completed
confrontations
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Psychological / Hentai / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 08.05.2005 | Updated On: 02.27.2006 | Pages: 5 | Words: 6.6K | Visits: 1.7K | Status: Completed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~17
Misunderstanding, part 2
I do not own them.
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Sasuke watched Neji carry Naruto over his shoulder as he jumped from roof to roof, following close behind. A lump of something, close to anger and resentment, but not quite, welled up in his stomach.
HE was the one that was going to take care of Naruto, not Neji. HE had watched out for and thought about the blonde every day he was in the Sound. Where was Neji through all of Naruto’s suffering? When did Neji follow a deadly demon it to the woods to save his friend? Where was Neji and the rest of Konoha when Naruto wanted to die?
Damn it! How could he just let Neji take Naruto from him like that!? He had just gotten him back from Orochimaru, he was not going to lose him again, and certainly not to a stuck-up ass like the Hyuuga.
Why the hell did Neji take him anyway? One moment standing there, like he was about to say something, then smoke everywhere. One moment he could feel the sleeping weight of Naruto on his back, then nothing. All the warmth left his body the moment Neji took Naruto and jumped out the window. That arrogant prick took all his meaning, purpose, and happiness and jumped out the fucking window!
‘Damn asshole. I need Naruto, and Naruto needs ME, NOT NEJI!’
Wait, did he just think he needed someone? Someone who was stupid, loud, obnoxious, and had twice the amount of pride allotted to people who had a reason to be proud? Except that now he was so traumatized he panicked when he woke up, but he was still Naruto, his friend who had killed the snake to save him.
Timid, scared, these words should never be used to describe Naruto but now... it was like he was someone else. Sasuke vowed he would stay with his friend until he had returned to being the Naruto that he loved.
Sasuke stumbled, fell, and just about broke his nose. He managed to recover quickly and only lost a few paces to Neji. Pushing all thoughts out of his head, he started to concentrate on caching up to the fucker that made him think something that ridiculous about his friend.
Sasuke watched as Neji jump down on to a balcony and quickly followed. He was not the only one who saw, though. Gai, and the others with him, spotted Neji and the dark foreboding form that was oozing murderous intent enter the balcony.
Neji’s hotel was quiet and the room he was staying in was on the third floor. It was just a very simple room. L shaped with two beds and a microscopic bathroom. There was a table and chair under the one window at the side opposite of the door in and a balcony on the small leg of the L. The whole thing was color schemed in light brown colors.
Sasuke, dressed in black with his gray vest, stood out fiercely when he jumped through the balcony window, looking like he was going to kill anything that got in his way.
Neji had pulled the covers back on the bed closest to the window. Even the comforter was khaki colored, but the sheets were white. He set Naruto on to the bed and pulled the covers over him so that they almost covered his head. The blonde instinctively snuggled deeper in to the soft fabric, soon it was hard to tell if the bed was unmade or if someone was sleeping in it.
Sasuke glanced at Naruto, glared at the Hyuuga, leaped across the room, and then punched the white-eyed teen hard in the face. Neji took the hit and used Jyuuken to knock Sasuke back a little. That one little poke staggered the mad teen, but it did nothing to stop him from kicking Neji across the room and slamming him in to the door that led in from the hotel side.
Neji hit the door, and immediately had to dodge a fist that splintered the solid oak slab in the place that his head had been. Ok, he knew that taking Naruto would piss the temperamental Uchiha off, but this was little more homicidal than he had planed. He jumped back and put his hands up in a non-threatening way.
“Sasuke stop, I just...”
‘Wham!’ The force of the hit knocked him right over the unoccupied bed to land in between the two. Talking to a pissed off Sasuke was like talking to a wall, but the wall would let you survive the conversation. Seeing no hope in verbally calming the angered Uchiha, he tried the next best method.
Sasuke’s next blow was a beautifully executed spin kick. Neji blocked the kick and jabbed the raven-haired teen’s leg just above the knee. The enraged teen stumbled back and fell into a crouch, his leg having gone numb. Now considerably less mobile, Sasuke flung several kunai at Neji, who knocked them away.
Sasuke sprinted forward, despite the numb leg, hiding as one of the shadow’s of the kunai and nailed Neji the moment that the knives where knocked away, revealing him to the Byaakugan. Then Neji was air born from the knee to the chin that Sasuke had delivered the moment after he returned from shadow form.
Neji flew backwards, hitting the back of his head on the corner of the nightstand that was between the two beds. As he tried to lift his head to get up, Sasuke punched down, slamming his head back to the floor, knocking him out cold. Pulling one of the kunai that he had thrown out from the wall, where it had been lodged from Neji hitting it away. Sasuke stood over the unconscious Hyuuga, contemplating killing the bastard.
The next instant had him hit away from the downed man by a green blur. A green blur that hit pretty damn hard and had a tacky bowl cut hairstyle. The Uchiha bounced off the empty bed and onto his feet, ready to fight, red eyes swirling. He could sense the presence of the other four shinobi and their locations.
Kiba charged him from the window, and was easily slammed back to it. Lee rushed him from the balcony, and was similarly knocked away. He jumped in front of the bed Naruto was in as no less than fifty Shuriken and Kunai were sent toward it and him, courtesy of Tenten at the door. Sasuke blocked them all, and returned a few with small explosion tags on them. Tenten had to jump back into the hall as they went off, destroying the door. Sasuke did a quick set of hand seals and turned into a shadow to avoid a punch from Gai and the hoard of bugs from Shino.
Lee set off a flash bomb and Tenten aimed for the one remaining shadow. Sasuke dodged them all and materialized behind Tenten from her own shadow. He kicked her across the room and into Kiba, who was still by the window. Suddenly, two green beasts that knocked the air out of his lungs hit him. He managed to fight the spandex twins and hold his own, his sharingan was the only thing that was keeping him alive at the moment. The punches were so fast and had so much strength in them that if one more he hit him would not be continuing the fight.
Gai and Lee were well coordinated with each other, feeding off the others moments, and keeping up with that deadly green combination was very draining. Dodging a punch from Gai and a kick from Lee, a black blob of bugs attached it’s self to his legs, making him hold still for just a second, that was all Gai needed to kick him across the room. Akamaru lunged at him, and when he reached for a Kunai to fend off the mutt, he found his holster full of bugs.
Punching the mutt away and getting bitten on the hand, Kiba tackled him. Throwing the larger mutt off of him, the bugs formed chains around him and held him down. Looking at the controller of the millions of the bugs that were pinning him, he briefly caught Shino’s eye out from under the sunglasses. His sharingan swirled and Shino fainted, the bugs retreating to help their master.
Lee and Kiba tackled Sasuke before he could stand back up, and after a few moments of fierce melee fighting, each one had a firm grip on one of the Uchiha’s arms.
Sasuke was stuck, but was still struggling. He was on his knees, and the two holding his arms had them at an angle back so they had no chance of getting caught by his sharingan, and he had no leverage to push them off.
Gai knelt next to Neji and checked that the Hyuuga was not going to die; he then turned to the struggling teen on the floor. He knew better then to look at the Uchiha’s face, and for the safety of all, sent Tenten to cover his eyes with her forehead protector. Half way to him, he caught her gaze and she feinted from the powerful illusion. Glaring up at Gai, he threw his weight toward Kiba and felt Lee’s grip slacken just a tad. He the tried to kick out to get at Lee, but suddenly something was placed over his eyes blinding him.
Shino had come up behind Sasuke and tied his forehead protector around the Uchiha’s eyes, then used his bugs to help restrain him as the raven-haired teen started to fight even harder to get away. Lee twisted Sasuke’s arm and Shino was able to see the burn on Sasuke’s neck where the curse seal had been.
Kiba was growling, and so was Akamaru, who was standing in front of Sasuke looking like he was about to rip his throat out, Gai’s cologne was blocking the smells and was giving them both a head ache, which did not improve their mood.
“Why are you here, traitor? Come to find and kill more of your ex Friends? Well, Bastard?”
Kiba jerked on Sasuke’s arm and he had to stifle a pained grown.
“Kiba, we are not going to interrogate him just yet.”
Gai spoke as he used smelling salts on Tenten, and Kiba turned the color of Lee’s jumper.
Tenten shot up and looked around upon seeing Sasuke she jumped to her feet and punched him.
“You bastard!”
He sneered in response and spit a bloody glob of phlegm at her. Even blind-folded his aim was good, the glob got her right in the chest. “Bitch.”
Tenten, shaking with silent fury, kicked Sasuke in the gut. He tried to lean forward and cough, or to puke, but the two boys holding him gave him no slack to let him. She would have hit him again if Shino and Gai had not ordered her to go tend to Neji. Reluctantly she complied, and went to kneel next to her fallen teammate.
Gai knelt in front of Sasuke and Shino, who was still behind him, pulled his collar away from his neck revealing the burn mark on the pale flesh.
“Same as Anko.”
Gai nodded and reached out and removed the elbow protectors from the pinned teen, who struggled more when the left one came off. Slowly the green clad jounin ran a finger along the inside of Sasuke’s elbow counting the faded track marks. “Shino, search his pouch.”
With a nod, the bug man removed Sasuke’s pouch and dumped the contents on to the floor. Kunai, Shuriken, a scroll, and a half-full syringe fell out. Gai picked up the syringe and twirled in his fingers.
“AH HA! You still work for the Sound.” It was more a statement than a question.
“No.”
“Then why do you have this?” Sasuke knew what Gai was holding, even if he could not see it. There was only one thing that he had that would be any different from the others. He did not want to admit that he had lifted it from the hospital floor as he started out after Neji, or even why he felt compelled to do so. His addiction was his problem and he did not want his problems out in the open.
“Well?”
Gai, sounding impatient, grabbed Sasuke’s collar, forcing his chin up. He would have been looking at the man’s face if he were not blindfolded.
“You still work for the Sound, and if you tell us where Naruto is,
Tsunade-sama might go easy on you.”
Sasuke smirked, Gai really was an idiot. He was hit when he pointed this out to Gai.
It stung where he was hit, a little bit of blood seeped out of Sasuke’s mouth and down his chin. His lip was split, the left side of his face was bruised from the fight with Neji in the hospital, his right leg was numb his left leg was going numb from the position he was forced to take, his arms were held down, and he was blind folded. He was stuck, but he wasn’t going to offer anything to these assholes. If they were too stupid to look in the bed behind them to find Naruto, then he wasn’t going to tell them to.
Neji groaned and sat up, there was a throbbing pain that was running through out his body, but was concentrated in his head. Looking up, he had to blink several times to stop the images he saw from swimming. Sasuke was being held down by Lee and Kiba, Shino was standing behind him, Gai was standing in front of him, and Tenten was sitting on the bed next to him. After she helped him sit up, he turned back to their former teacher. He looked at the green-clad jounin just in time to see him backhand Sasuke. Then the resonating voice belonging to Gai echoed in the room, or maybe just his throbbing head.
“If you don’t want to cooperate, then I’m sure Ibiki will have fun making you. Just tell us where Naruto is and I’ll make sure you’re spared the worst that man can do.”
Neji sighed and stood up. “Gai-sensei, you really are an idiot.”
Sasuke took advantage of the momentary shock of the two holding him down when they heard Neji insult their teacher and lunged out of their grasp. He charged forward where he knew Naruto was, only to be tackled by the stupid green jounin. In the scuffle with the moronic teacher, the blindfold came off. However, before he could use that to his advantage, a sharp pain stabbed threw his arm just above his elbow, followed by two more sharp pains in his shoulder. The room started to swim, and Gai let go of him. Sasuke only made about two more steps before he fell, the room fading to black.
“Damn it!”
Neji watched as Sasuke fell, ANBU needles in his shoulder and arm.
Smaller than regular needles and coated with a powerful sleeping potion, they were very handy on this mission. They were easy to conceal and did not kill, Shino still had three more in his hand as he stood dispassionately behind Lee and Kiba.
“Not bad Shino, but next time use the bigger ones, these ones are not painful enough.” Kiba grinned a toothy smile.
“You didn’t have to do that.” Neji spoke in a deadly calm tone of voice, and all eyes looked at him.
“Whose side are you on? First you insult Gai-sensei, and now this. What the hell is going through your head, Hyuuga?” Kiba got off the floor and glared questioningly at Neji.
“It’s not like he was a friend or something. Hell, after how he treated Naruto, I wouldn’t want to say I even knew the guy. Don’t look so pissed at me.”
Gai was giving Neji a thorough look over. Maybe hitting his head had scrambled his brains.
Neji snorted and pulled back the covers, showing Naruto. He noted the collective look of shock that had encompassed the room.
“He was protecting him. He didn’t know whether or not Konoha had forgiven Naruto’s demon rampage, so he didn’t want to let us find Naruto, in case we had order’s to destroy on sight.” He was just going off the hunch he had concerning Sasuke’s motives, but considering his ability to read people, he was probably right.
“Then why did he attack you?” Gai asked.
“I took Naruto away from him. He’s not the trusting type, so I doubted that he would have believed anything I said. I used Naruto as bait to get them here, Sasuke just overreacted.”
“It looked like he was about to kill you.”
“Maybe. I got the impression that he would do anything to keep Naruto safe.”
“Perhaps we should hear Naruto’s side when he wakes up.”
“Perhaps.”
Gai then went in to a long tirade about youth, friendship, and other annoying things that Neji was not listening to as he pulled the blankets back over Naruto. After that was done, he put Sasuke in to the other bed.
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Naruto woke clutching the sheets of a bed he did not remember. Sweat dripped off of his small frame as the images of the nightmare he just had still flashed behind his eyes. It was more like a memory, which was what made it so horrible. He shuddered and curled up in the soft fabric of this unknown bed. Taking deep breaths, he looked around him for Sasuke. The room was dark and unfamiliar, a twinge a panic hit when he did not see the raven-haired teen.
Sitting up he looked harder into the darkness, there was another bed next to the one he was in, and some one was in it.
“Sasuke?”
The lump did not move, but something else did. He jerked around so he could see with his good eye. Someone was sitting on a chair at a table, the moon light poured in through the window behind the person, outlining him and obscuring his face at the same time. For one moment he though it was Sasuke, but it wasn’t. This person’s hair was wrong, he moved wrong, and was not the same height as Sasuke. The small twinge of panic had just multiplied tenfold.
Where was Sasuke? Who was that by the window?
As the person got up and started to come toward him, a very horrible thought came to Naruto. It was one of Orochimaru’s men come to take him back to the Sound to continue where the snake had left off. Panic in full force now, wisps of red chakra started to swirl around him. The man had stopped and was saying something, but Naruto was not listening.
Claws grew and both his eyes went red, the left one focusing for the first time since it had grown back. Too caught up to notice that he had both eyes working again, Naruto growled a low and terrifying sound.
He was not going back to the Sound, ever. At least, not if he could help it.
The overwhelming presence of the demon’s chakra alerted the other members of the shinobi team and they all rushed to the room that held the once sleeping demon. Naruto, eyes blazing red and lips curled in to a snarl, had Kiba pinned to the floor. Blood dripped from the beast’s mouth as he turned to survey the newcomers, not caring who they were. With a bestial roar, he charged the closest one clawing the arm that was put up to block. He was knocked away before he could do any real damage and crouched low on the floor.
Kyuubi was still sleeping inside of him, and even this tiny bit of chakra he was using was detrimental to the demon. He had to make this quick.
Charging the only female in the group, who was standing a little to far apart from her teammates, the beast gathered chakra in to the tips of his fingers. Before he reached the girl he swiped his chakra charged hand like a sword, releasing the gathered chakra. The powerful red arc cut through a lamp and the corner of a cabinet, it would have cut Tenten clean in two if Sasuke had not pushed her out of the way.
Sasuke grabbed the still charging beast, sending them both tumbling to the floor. “Naruto, stop it.”
Naruto recognized that voice; he would always recognize that voice. Looking at the person that he was currently trying to gut, he saw the pale skin and black hair of his friend. “Sasuke.”
The red eyes, fangs, and claws faded away instantly, and the marks on his cheeks returned to normal. There was blood on him again. The blood of a friend on his hands. It was worse than going back to the Sound. He looked at the blood on his hands, shaking in silent terror.
Sasuke saw Naruto scramble back away from him and got off the floor, wincing as he put pressure on his left leg. The lowest part of that red slash had cut him right above the knee. He could feel the blood run down his leg, but had more important things to worry about.
Naruto was between the two beds, he had his back against the one Sasuke had been sleeping in earlier. His arms were wrapped around his knees he was trembling visibly.
Sasuke sat himself next to the trembling blonde and gently touched his arm. Naruto just about jumped away, but the raven-haired teen kept a gentle pressure on the shaking tan arm. “It’s ok, Naruto.”
The blonde uncurled himself and just about tackled Sasuke, wrapping his arms around the larger teen’s chest, and getting a death grip on him.
Silently, Sasuke put his arm around Naruto’s shoulders. “It ok now, calm down.”
Neji heard the soothing words Sasuke was saying to Naruto and turned to Kiba, who Tenten was patching up. There was a nasty looking bite on is upper arm. Gai had Lee putting a bandage around his clawed arm, and despite looking like a poorly darned patchwork quilt from the bandages that covered him from yesterday’s fight Neji was fine.
He looked back between the beds and saw that Sasuke was similarly patched up. Tenten did not have the chakra healing of Sakura and Tsunade, but she was outstanding with a needle and thread. Sasuke’s arm and shoulder from the needles, as well as the dog bite on his hand, were bandaged. Looking at the bandaged hand as it rested just above Sasuke’s left knee, he noticed the growing dark pool under Sasuke’s left leg. It stood out even in the dark on the pale brown carpet. Activating Byaakugan, he looked over Sasuke’s wound. It was deep, and needed to be stitched up quickly.
“Get the lights.” Shino, from his spot leaning on the open door, hit the switch. The other’s in the room that were aware of, but kindly not watching the pair on the floor, snapped their attention to the dark red pool under Sasuke.
Sasuke, noticing the attention of the others was on him, moved his left
Leg, he flinched when he saw the blood spurt.
Neji came up to the two and knelt to the side of Naruto, getting the blonde’s attention and making sure he did not see the pool of blood under Sasuke. “You have to let him go, just for a little while.”
Sasuke figured what Neji was up to and decided to help for once. Removing his arm from around the blonde’s shoulders, he ruffled the spiky hair, pushing him towards the longhaired Hyuuga.
“It’s ok, Neji’s a friend. You did not let me kill him.” Sasuke was glaring at Neji as Naruto loosened his grip on him and backed away.
“Yeah he’s my friend.”
“Ok, stay here with him.” Naruto snapped his head back to look at Sasuke and saw the bloody leg. “Your leg... I...”
“Drop it, it’s just a scratch.” To prove the point, Sasuke got to his feet. “See? No problem.”
Knowing that Sasuke did not want Naruto to see the extent of the injury, Neji put a hand on the blonde’s shoulder, but removed it after Naruto flinched. “Tenten, take Sasuke to the other room to treat him.”
Getting up from where she had been kneeling next to Kiba, the girl nodded and went out the door. Sasuke, who was trying not to limp, quickly followed her.
The room next to the one Sasuke had unintentionally spent the night in was the mirror replica of his. The difference was that it was decorated a neural green instead of brown. He sat down on the bed, and Tenten went to work cutting the fabric away exposing the wound.
“Dang.” Sasuke just snorted, although he had to admit that it looked bad. She cleaned it up, but before she could numb it to start stitching Sasuke told her not too. She warned him that it would hurt like hell but he still would not let her. Snorting in frustration she started to stitch him up with out the injection of anesthetic.
Sasuke fisted the bed sheets as Tenten stitched up the gaping wound on his leg. Oh did it hurt like hell, but he refused to let a syringe touch him. It had almost been too much just seeing one at the hospital. He had picked up the one they found in his pouch just because he could not stop himself. It was just to tempting.
“Done.”
Opening his eyes that he did not realize he had clenched shut, he looked down at his leg. Stitched shut, the cut was close to four inches long. Naruto had gotten him pretty damn good. Tenten started to wrap a bandage around the closed wound.
“Hay ah... Sasuke?”
“What?”
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“Pushing me out of the way of that attack. I would have died had you not done so.”
“I didn’t do it for you.”
“Prick. Then why did you do it?”
“Naruto would have hated himself if he killed you, or anyone in there.”
Tenten silently finished bandaging Sasuke’s leg, and then helped him to his feet. He pushed her away from him and stood on his own. Partly because he was a bastard, but mostly to hide the shaking that had started when he was thinking about how easy it was to get the syringe from the hospital and how wonderful it would of been to use it.
Sasuke limped back to the room he had left Naruto in and walked into the silence his presence had created. They were all still here, staring at him, all except Naruto. Furrowing his brows and glaring at Neji, he asked the question that had run through his mind.
“Where is he?”
“In the shower, the blood on him was bothering him.”
“Hn.”
Sasuke stalked to the window and leaned on the frame, looking out. His hands were shaking, and he could feel his stomach start to do flip-flops. ‘Why now?’
Gai noticed the shaking hands, as did the others, most just thought that he was pissed. Gai knew better then that, though.
The sun had come up and was barely over the horizon. Birds flew around twittering, and the sunlight was reflected off the dew that was still on the ground. Sasuke did not notice it; he had a grip on his left elbow, on the place where he used to put the needle in to get high. It was getting worse. The fighting yesterday, the offered needle from Tenten, or something, was making it worse. All he knew was that he wanted it, he wanted it so bad it hurt. His bones ached for it, and his blood was screaming for it. Gai’s voice, for once not the over enthusiastic wail, but a serious tone, snapped his attention back into the room.
“The method of control Orochimaru use on you is classified, so the others don’t know. I have to ask, did you use any you got from the hospital?”
“No.”
Sasuke had to admit he sounded unconvincing. His stomach had started to do gymnastics, and he sounded weird. So it was not surprising when the green breast leapt across the room and pulled his hand off his left arm. The speed the older man possessed was impressive. In less than a second Gai held his wrist out with one hand and had a grip on the front of Sasuke’s shirt with the other.
The faded old track marks still shown on his arm. The jounin did not see any new one’s so he released Sasuke. “Sorry, had to make sure.”
Sasuke growled as he turned back to the window. He was aware of the stares the others were giving him and the raised eyebrows of Neji.
“When was the last time you had some?”
The Uchiha turned to glare at the man. Why did it suddenly have to be about this? Why did green spandex ass want to know all about it? He was not going to answer the jounin; it was none of his damn business.
“Had some what?” Lee asked innocently, watching the raven-haired bastard glare at his beloved sensei.
Sasuke looked at the mini spandex man, then returned to lean on the window frame looking out, ignoring the other occupants of the room. It was bad enough that Gai knew he was not going to tell the others if he could help it. Hopefully they would leave soon. His hands where shaking badly now, and he gave himself about five more minuets until he had to throw up.
Gai did not press the question and went over to sit on bed, out of the immediate blast radius if Sasuke got pissed again. As soon as he sat down, the jounin returned his attention to the shinobi at the window.
Pale hands were shaking and Sasuke was sweating. He did not know how long it had been since the teen’s last dose, so he could not guess how far along in to withdrawal Sasuke was. He watched silently as Sasuke made a fist and chewed his bottom lip, trying to hide the fact that his shaking was getting worse. He was not the only one to notice Sasuke’s poorly hidden discomfort.
“Why don’t you just tell us? It’s obvious that something’s wrong, and if it’s important, we should know so we can handle it if it becomes an issue, since we are protecting you two.”
Sasuke glared at the smirking Kiba. “I never asked for your help.”
“Bastard, you are incapable of realizing you need help, so we decided for you. Your not the only one who is a friend of Naruto.”
“And what happens when Kyuubi comes out? You all go running again.” The dog lover growled at the bastard leaning on the window.
“Fucker, your not the only one who can help him. Jiraiya has been planning for Naruto’s return and can reseal the demon. Just because you were the one that got him out, does not mean that you’re the only one who cares about him. Stop being such a god damn prick.”
“Kiba stop. Don’t antagonize him.” Kiba looked over to the green clad Jounin and was about to argue when Neji spoke.
“He’s right, though. If the Uchiha has a problem, we should know about it if we are going to protect Naruto. It’s obvious that something is wrong, and we are going to protect him whether you like it or not.”
Sasuke was not saying anything about his problem. Hell would freeze over before he did, but apparently Gai-sensei was convinced by Neji and thought that the others needed to know. Getting Sasuke to admit to it would require a fair amount of finesse. Though, seeing that he had none, he went for Plan B, just start talking about it.
“The reports said that you were tricked into it, that you did not know what it was at first. After a while, though, you could not stop, that you went on missions because you needed it, and the snake would only give it to you if you went.”
“What’s it?” Lee was getting mad at not knowing what Gai was talking about. The jounin smacked Lee upside his head and continued. Sasuke was pointedly not watching the jounin, or anybody else for that matter.
“The reports said that you tried to get away, but did not make it because you got very sick. That’s why when Orochimaru’s men found you they had to take you to the hospital to stop the shaking fits.” The shinobi in the room watched as Sasuke’s hands shook, now they knew it was not from rage.
“You could not make it out of the Sound because if was too far to the next village to get treatment. Your shaking right now is because you still need it.”
“I DON’T NEED IT!” None of them had ever heard Sasuke yell before. Gai paused, rethinking his plan, but continuing any way.
“But you still want it.”
Glaring daggers at the green clad man, Sasuke spoke with an icy tone. “No.”
“Then why did you have some in your pouch?”
Sasuke jerked his head away to look back out the window. In a quiet voice, almost to himself, he replied. “I do not want it any more.”
Gai got to his feet, noticing how hot the small room was getting with so many people in it. All the shinobi were watching Sasuke, waiting for him to say what was wrong with him. It was like watching a daytime drama, or a train wreck. Despite the horror, they just could not look away.
“Maybe you don’t want it, but it’s obvious you’re not over it. Can I ask how they tricked you in the first place?”
The raven-haired teen looked away. He did not want anybody to know, but Gai had all but said it any way. The part of him that wanted to stay quiet was shaken apart by the withdrawals. He sighed in defeat.
“I was hurt by Kyuubi. I could barely walk. It was given to me instead of a pain killer.” The details of just how he was injured no one would be ever be able to get out of him.
“Heroin is a pain killer.”
The three chuunins gasped, Neji had guessed, and Shino was informed prior to the retrieval mission in case he was to encounter Sasuke.
“How long since you last shot up?”
“The day Orochimaru died was the last time.”
“Good. You should be at the tail end of the withdrawals.”
Kiba, Lee and Tenten looked on shocked. Sasuke, /the/ Uchiha Sasuke, was addicted to smack. It was just so odd. None of them would have ever figured Sasuke for the drug using type. It did kind of explain why Sasuke did not get Naruto out of the Sound until recently. He had his own issues to deal with.
Sasuke stood at the window looking ashamed as he held on to his arm. He felt sick he was going to hurl. He did not want to puke in front of them, and the dobe was in the shower. It was bad enough that they knew why, but he was not going to show how weak he was at the moment. The small table beside him suddenly had bugs crawling over it. The small beetle like insects formed letters on the table. ‘OK?’
Shino was asking and Sasuke shook his head side to side, he was very not OK and to stubborn to admit it. Neji and Gai were close enough to see the bug’s question and his response. In his enthusiastic way Gai ordered every one out, his outrageous outburst changing the mood in the room. Lee jumped out of the room instantly at his sensei’s command, Kiba and Tenten followed. Shino looked Sasuke over and then silently followed his teammate.
As soon as the door closed behind the bug man Sasuke grabbed the trash can and started to puke. Gai leaned on the doorframe and watched as Sasuke’s stomach’s contents found their way to the wicker basket.
“This is why they needed to know. What if you started to do this in the middle of a fight? Neji will stay here in the room and keep an eye on you two. Some one will relive him later on. You are not to leave until I get word back from Tsunade-sama. Understood, Sasuke? Oh and drugs are bad, mmK? As long as you’re here you will not be permitted to use any.”
The sick teen nodded numbly and Gai left to send word to Tsunade. Neji made himself comfortable on the one chair at the table.
After about half an hour Sasuke stopped throwing up and took his shirt and pants off and did not even crawl under the sheets before he passed out on the bed.
Misunderstanding, part 2
I do not own them.
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Sasuke watched Neji carry Naruto over his shoulder as he jumped from roof to roof, following close behind. A lump of something, close to anger and resentment, but not quite, welled up in his stomach.
HE was the one that was going to take care of Naruto, not Neji. HE had watched out for and thought about the blonde every day he was in the Sound. Where was Neji through all of Naruto’s suffering? When did Neji follow a deadly demon it to the woods to save his friend? Where was Neji and the rest of Konoha when Naruto wanted to die?
Damn it! How could he just let Neji take Naruto from him like that!? He had just gotten him back from Orochimaru, he was not going to lose him again, and certainly not to a stuck-up ass like the Hyuuga.
Why the hell did Neji take him anyway? One moment standing there, like he was about to say something, then smoke everywhere. One moment he could feel the sleeping weight of Naruto on his back, then nothing. All the warmth left his body the moment Neji took Naruto and jumped out the window. That arrogant prick took all his meaning, purpose, and happiness and jumped out the fucking window!
‘Damn asshole. I need Naruto, and Naruto needs ME, NOT NEJI!’
Wait, did he just think he needed someone? Someone who was stupid, loud, obnoxious, and had twice the amount of pride allotted to people who had a reason to be proud? Except that now he was so traumatized he panicked when he woke up, but he was still Naruto, his friend who had killed the snake to save him.
Timid, scared, these words should never be used to describe Naruto but now... it was like he was someone else. Sasuke vowed he would stay with his friend until he had returned to being the Naruto that he loved.
Sasuke stumbled, fell, and just about broke his nose. He managed to recover quickly and only lost a few paces to Neji. Pushing all thoughts out of his head, he started to concentrate on caching up to the fucker that made him think something that ridiculous about his friend.
Sasuke watched as Neji jump down on to a balcony and quickly followed. He was not the only one who saw, though. Gai, and the others with him, spotted Neji and the dark foreboding form that was oozing murderous intent enter the balcony.
Neji’s hotel was quiet and the room he was staying in was on the third floor. It was just a very simple room. L shaped with two beds and a microscopic bathroom. There was a table and chair under the one window at the side opposite of the door in and a balcony on the small leg of the L. The whole thing was color schemed in light brown colors.
Sasuke, dressed in black with his gray vest, stood out fiercely when he jumped through the balcony window, looking like he was going to kill anything that got in his way.
Neji had pulled the covers back on the bed closest to the window. Even the comforter was khaki colored, but the sheets were white. He set Naruto on to the bed and pulled the covers over him so that they almost covered his head. The blonde instinctively snuggled deeper in to the soft fabric, soon it was hard to tell if the bed was unmade or if someone was sleeping in it.
Sasuke glanced at Naruto, glared at the Hyuuga, leaped across the room, and then punched the white-eyed teen hard in the face. Neji took the hit and used Jyuuken to knock Sasuke back a little. That one little poke staggered the mad teen, but it did nothing to stop him from kicking Neji across the room and slamming him in to the door that led in from the hotel side.
Neji hit the door, and immediately had to dodge a fist that splintered the solid oak slab in the place that his head had been. Ok, he knew that taking Naruto would piss the temperamental Uchiha off, but this was little more homicidal than he had planed. He jumped back and put his hands up in a non-threatening way.
“Sasuke stop, I just...”
‘Wham!’ The force of the hit knocked him right over the unoccupied bed to land in between the two. Talking to a pissed off Sasuke was like talking to a wall, but the wall would let you survive the conversation. Seeing no hope in verbally calming the angered Uchiha, he tried the next best method.
Sasuke’s next blow was a beautifully executed spin kick. Neji blocked the kick and jabbed the raven-haired teen’s leg just above the knee. The enraged teen stumbled back and fell into a crouch, his leg having gone numb. Now considerably less mobile, Sasuke flung several kunai at Neji, who knocked them away.
Sasuke sprinted forward, despite the numb leg, hiding as one of the shadow’s of the kunai and nailed Neji the moment that the knives where knocked away, revealing him to the Byaakugan. Then Neji was air born from the knee to the chin that Sasuke had delivered the moment after he returned from shadow form.
Neji flew backwards, hitting the back of his head on the corner of the nightstand that was between the two beds. As he tried to lift his head to get up, Sasuke punched down, slamming his head back to the floor, knocking him out cold. Pulling one of the kunai that he had thrown out from the wall, where it had been lodged from Neji hitting it away. Sasuke stood over the unconscious Hyuuga, contemplating killing the bastard.
The next instant had him hit away from the downed man by a green blur. A green blur that hit pretty damn hard and had a tacky bowl cut hairstyle. The Uchiha bounced off the empty bed and onto his feet, ready to fight, red eyes swirling. He could sense the presence of the other four shinobi and their locations.
Kiba charged him from the window, and was easily slammed back to it. Lee rushed him from the balcony, and was similarly knocked away. He jumped in front of the bed Naruto was in as no less than fifty Shuriken and Kunai were sent toward it and him, courtesy of Tenten at the door. Sasuke blocked them all, and returned a few with small explosion tags on them. Tenten had to jump back into the hall as they went off, destroying the door. Sasuke did a quick set of hand seals and turned into a shadow to avoid a punch from Gai and the hoard of bugs from Shino.
Lee set off a flash bomb and Tenten aimed for the one remaining shadow. Sasuke dodged them all and materialized behind Tenten from her own shadow. He kicked her across the room and into Kiba, who was still by the window. Suddenly, two green beasts that knocked the air out of his lungs hit him. He managed to fight the spandex twins and hold his own, his sharingan was the only thing that was keeping him alive at the moment. The punches were so fast and had so much strength in them that if one more he hit him would not be continuing the fight.
Gai and Lee were well coordinated with each other, feeding off the others moments, and keeping up with that deadly green combination was very draining. Dodging a punch from Gai and a kick from Lee, a black blob of bugs attached it’s self to his legs, making him hold still for just a second, that was all Gai needed to kick him across the room. Akamaru lunged at him, and when he reached for a Kunai to fend off the mutt, he found his holster full of bugs.
Punching the mutt away and getting bitten on the hand, Kiba tackled him. Throwing the larger mutt off of him, the bugs formed chains around him and held him down. Looking at the controller of the millions of the bugs that were pinning him, he briefly caught Shino’s eye out from under the sunglasses. His sharingan swirled and Shino fainted, the bugs retreating to help their master.
Lee and Kiba tackled Sasuke before he could stand back up, and after a few moments of fierce melee fighting, each one had a firm grip on one of the Uchiha’s arms.
Sasuke was stuck, but was still struggling. He was on his knees, and the two holding his arms had them at an angle back so they had no chance of getting caught by his sharingan, and he had no leverage to push them off.
Gai knelt next to Neji and checked that the Hyuuga was not going to die; he then turned to the struggling teen on the floor. He knew better then to look at the Uchiha’s face, and for the safety of all, sent Tenten to cover his eyes with her forehead protector. Half way to him, he caught her gaze and she feinted from the powerful illusion. Glaring up at Gai, he threw his weight toward Kiba and felt Lee’s grip slacken just a tad. He the tried to kick out to get at Lee, but suddenly something was placed over his eyes blinding him.
Shino had come up behind Sasuke and tied his forehead protector around the Uchiha’s eyes, then used his bugs to help restrain him as the raven-haired teen started to fight even harder to get away. Lee twisted Sasuke’s arm and Shino was able to see the burn on Sasuke’s neck where the curse seal had been.
Kiba was growling, and so was Akamaru, who was standing in front of Sasuke looking like he was about to rip his throat out, Gai’s cologne was blocking the smells and was giving them both a head ache, which did not improve their mood.
“Why are you here, traitor? Come to find and kill more of your ex Friends? Well, Bastard?”
Kiba jerked on Sasuke’s arm and he had to stifle a pained grown.
“Kiba, we are not going to interrogate him just yet.”
Gai spoke as he used smelling salts on Tenten, and Kiba turned the color of Lee’s jumper.
Tenten shot up and looked around upon seeing Sasuke she jumped to her feet and punched him.
“You bastard!”
He sneered in response and spit a bloody glob of phlegm at her. Even blind-folded his aim was good, the glob got her right in the chest. “Bitch.”
Tenten, shaking with silent fury, kicked Sasuke in the gut. He tried to lean forward and cough, or to puke, but the two boys holding him gave him no slack to let him. She would have hit him again if Shino and Gai had not ordered her to go tend to Neji. Reluctantly she complied, and went to kneel next to her fallen teammate.
Gai knelt in front of Sasuke and Shino, who was still behind him, pulled his collar away from his neck revealing the burn mark on the pale flesh.
“Same as Anko.”
Gai nodded and reached out and removed the elbow protectors from the pinned teen, who struggled more when the left one came off. Slowly the green clad jounin ran a finger along the inside of Sasuke’s elbow counting the faded track marks. “Shino, search his pouch.”
With a nod, the bug man removed Sasuke’s pouch and dumped the contents on to the floor. Kunai, Shuriken, a scroll, and a half-full syringe fell out. Gai picked up the syringe and twirled in his fingers.
“AH HA! You still work for the Sound.” It was more a statement than a question.
“No.”
“Then why do you have this?” Sasuke knew what Gai was holding, even if he could not see it. There was only one thing that he had that would be any different from the others. He did not want to admit that he had lifted it from the hospital floor as he started out after Neji, or even why he felt compelled to do so. His addiction was his problem and he did not want his problems out in the open.
“Well?”
Gai, sounding impatient, grabbed Sasuke’s collar, forcing his chin up. He would have been looking at the man’s face if he were not blindfolded.
“You still work for the Sound, and if you tell us where Naruto is,
Tsunade-sama might go easy on you.”
Sasuke smirked, Gai really was an idiot. He was hit when he pointed this out to Gai.
It stung where he was hit, a little bit of blood seeped out of Sasuke’s mouth and down his chin. His lip was split, the left side of his face was bruised from the fight with Neji in the hospital, his right leg was numb his left leg was going numb from the position he was forced to take, his arms were held down, and he was blind folded. He was stuck, but he wasn’t going to offer anything to these assholes. If they were too stupid to look in the bed behind them to find Naruto, then he wasn’t going to tell them to.
Neji groaned and sat up, there was a throbbing pain that was running through out his body, but was concentrated in his head. Looking up, he had to blink several times to stop the images he saw from swimming. Sasuke was being held down by Lee and Kiba, Shino was standing behind him, Gai was standing in front of him, and Tenten was sitting on the bed next to him. After she helped him sit up, he turned back to their former teacher. He looked at the green-clad jounin just in time to see him backhand Sasuke. Then the resonating voice belonging to Gai echoed in the room, or maybe just his throbbing head.
“If you don’t want to cooperate, then I’m sure Ibiki will have fun making you. Just tell us where Naruto is and I’ll make sure you’re spared the worst that man can do.”
Neji sighed and stood up. “Gai-sensei, you really are an idiot.”
Sasuke took advantage of the momentary shock of the two holding him down when they heard Neji insult their teacher and lunged out of their grasp. He charged forward where he knew Naruto was, only to be tackled by the stupid green jounin. In the scuffle with the moronic teacher, the blindfold came off. However, before he could use that to his advantage, a sharp pain stabbed threw his arm just above his elbow, followed by two more sharp pains in his shoulder. The room started to swim, and Gai let go of him. Sasuke only made about two more steps before he fell, the room fading to black.
“Damn it!”
Neji watched as Sasuke fell, ANBU needles in his shoulder and arm.
Smaller than regular needles and coated with a powerful sleeping potion, they were very handy on this mission. They were easy to conceal and did not kill, Shino still had three more in his hand as he stood dispassionately behind Lee and Kiba.
“Not bad Shino, but next time use the bigger ones, these ones are not painful enough.” Kiba grinned a toothy smile.
“You didn’t have to do that.” Neji spoke in a deadly calm tone of voice, and all eyes looked at him.
“Whose side are you on? First you insult Gai-sensei, and now this. What the hell is going through your head, Hyuuga?” Kiba got off the floor and glared questioningly at Neji.
“It’s not like he was a friend or something. Hell, after how he treated Naruto, I wouldn’t want to say I even knew the guy. Don’t look so pissed at me.”
Gai was giving Neji a thorough look over. Maybe hitting his head had scrambled his brains.
Neji snorted and pulled back the covers, showing Naruto. He noted the collective look of shock that had encompassed the room.
“He was protecting him. He didn’t know whether or not Konoha had forgiven Naruto’s demon rampage, so he didn’t want to let us find Naruto, in case we had order’s to destroy on sight.” He was just going off the hunch he had concerning Sasuke’s motives, but considering his ability to read people, he was probably right.
“Then why did he attack you?” Gai asked.
“I took Naruto away from him. He’s not the trusting type, so I doubted that he would have believed anything I said. I used Naruto as bait to get them here, Sasuke just overreacted.”
“It looked like he was about to kill you.”
“Maybe. I got the impression that he would do anything to keep Naruto safe.”
“Perhaps we should hear Naruto’s side when he wakes up.”
“Perhaps.”
Gai then went in to a long tirade about youth, friendship, and other annoying things that Neji was not listening to as he pulled the blankets back over Naruto. After that was done, he put Sasuke in to the other bed.
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Naruto woke clutching the sheets of a bed he did not remember. Sweat dripped off of his small frame as the images of the nightmare he just had still flashed behind his eyes. It was more like a memory, which was what made it so horrible. He shuddered and curled up in the soft fabric of this unknown bed. Taking deep breaths, he looked around him for Sasuke. The room was dark and unfamiliar, a twinge a panic hit when he did not see the raven-haired teen.
Sitting up he looked harder into the darkness, there was another bed next to the one he was in, and some one was in it.
“Sasuke?”
The lump did not move, but something else did. He jerked around so he could see with his good eye. Someone was sitting on a chair at a table, the moon light poured in through the window behind the person, outlining him and obscuring his face at the same time. For one moment he though it was Sasuke, but it wasn’t. This person’s hair was wrong, he moved wrong, and was not the same height as Sasuke. The small twinge of panic had just multiplied tenfold.
Where was Sasuke? Who was that by the window?
As the person got up and started to come toward him, a very horrible thought came to Naruto. It was one of Orochimaru’s men come to take him back to the Sound to continue where the snake had left off. Panic in full force now, wisps of red chakra started to swirl around him. The man had stopped and was saying something, but Naruto was not listening.
Claws grew and both his eyes went red, the left one focusing for the first time since it had grown back. Too caught up to notice that he had both eyes working again, Naruto growled a low and terrifying sound.
He was not going back to the Sound, ever. At least, not if he could help it.
The overwhelming presence of the demon’s chakra alerted the other members of the shinobi team and they all rushed to the room that held the once sleeping demon. Naruto, eyes blazing red and lips curled in to a snarl, had Kiba pinned to the floor. Blood dripped from the beast’s mouth as he turned to survey the newcomers, not caring who they were. With a bestial roar, he charged the closest one clawing the arm that was put up to block. He was knocked away before he could do any real damage and crouched low on the floor.
Kyuubi was still sleeping inside of him, and even this tiny bit of chakra he was using was detrimental to the demon. He had to make this quick.
Charging the only female in the group, who was standing a little to far apart from her teammates, the beast gathered chakra in to the tips of his fingers. Before he reached the girl he swiped his chakra charged hand like a sword, releasing the gathered chakra. The powerful red arc cut through a lamp and the corner of a cabinet, it would have cut Tenten clean in two if Sasuke had not pushed her out of the way.
Sasuke grabbed the still charging beast, sending them both tumbling to the floor. “Naruto, stop it.”
Naruto recognized that voice; he would always recognize that voice. Looking at the person that he was currently trying to gut, he saw the pale skin and black hair of his friend. “Sasuke.”
The red eyes, fangs, and claws faded away instantly, and the marks on his cheeks returned to normal. There was blood on him again. The blood of a friend on his hands. It was worse than going back to the Sound. He looked at the blood on his hands, shaking in silent terror.
Sasuke saw Naruto scramble back away from him and got off the floor, wincing as he put pressure on his left leg. The lowest part of that red slash had cut him right above the knee. He could feel the blood run down his leg, but had more important things to worry about.
Naruto was between the two beds, he had his back against the one Sasuke had been sleeping in earlier. His arms were wrapped around his knees he was trembling visibly.
Sasuke sat himself next to the trembling blonde and gently touched his arm. Naruto just about jumped away, but the raven-haired teen kept a gentle pressure on the shaking tan arm. “It’s ok, Naruto.”
The blonde uncurled himself and just about tackled Sasuke, wrapping his arms around the larger teen’s chest, and getting a death grip on him.
Silently, Sasuke put his arm around Naruto’s shoulders. “It ok now, calm down.”
Neji heard the soothing words Sasuke was saying to Naruto and turned to Kiba, who Tenten was patching up. There was a nasty looking bite on is upper arm. Gai had Lee putting a bandage around his clawed arm, and despite looking like a poorly darned patchwork quilt from the bandages that covered him from yesterday’s fight Neji was fine.
He looked back between the beds and saw that Sasuke was similarly patched up. Tenten did not have the chakra healing of Sakura and Tsunade, but she was outstanding with a needle and thread. Sasuke’s arm and shoulder from the needles, as well as the dog bite on his hand, were bandaged. Looking at the bandaged hand as it rested just above Sasuke’s left knee, he noticed the growing dark pool under Sasuke’s left leg. It stood out even in the dark on the pale brown carpet. Activating Byaakugan, he looked over Sasuke’s wound. It was deep, and needed to be stitched up quickly.
“Get the lights.” Shino, from his spot leaning on the open door, hit the switch. The other’s in the room that were aware of, but kindly not watching the pair on the floor, snapped their attention to the dark red pool under Sasuke.
Sasuke, noticing the attention of the others was on him, moved his left
Leg, he flinched when he saw the blood spurt.
Neji came up to the two and knelt to the side of Naruto, getting the blonde’s attention and making sure he did not see the pool of blood under Sasuke. “You have to let him go, just for a little while.”
Sasuke figured what Neji was up to and decided to help for once. Removing his arm from around the blonde’s shoulders, he ruffled the spiky hair, pushing him towards the longhaired Hyuuga.
“It’s ok, Neji’s a friend. You did not let me kill him.” Sasuke was glaring at Neji as Naruto loosened his grip on him and backed away.
“Yeah he’s my friend.”
“Ok, stay here with him.” Naruto snapped his head back to look at Sasuke and saw the bloody leg. “Your leg... I...”
“Drop it, it’s just a scratch.” To prove the point, Sasuke got to his feet. “See? No problem.”
Knowing that Sasuke did not want Naruto to see the extent of the injury, Neji put a hand on the blonde’s shoulder, but removed it after Naruto flinched. “Tenten, take Sasuke to the other room to treat him.”
Getting up from where she had been kneeling next to Kiba, the girl nodded and went out the door. Sasuke, who was trying not to limp, quickly followed her.
The room next to the one Sasuke had unintentionally spent the night in was the mirror replica of his. The difference was that it was decorated a neural green instead of brown. He sat down on the bed, and Tenten went to work cutting the fabric away exposing the wound.
“Dang.” Sasuke just snorted, although he had to admit that it looked bad. She cleaned it up, but before she could numb it to start stitching Sasuke told her not too. She warned him that it would hurt like hell but he still would not let her. Snorting in frustration she started to stitch him up with out the injection of anesthetic.
Sasuke fisted the bed sheets as Tenten stitched up the gaping wound on his leg. Oh did it hurt like hell, but he refused to let a syringe touch him. It had almost been too much just seeing one at the hospital. He had picked up the one they found in his pouch just because he could not stop himself. It was just to tempting.
“Done.”
Opening his eyes that he did not realize he had clenched shut, he looked down at his leg. Stitched shut, the cut was close to four inches long. Naruto had gotten him pretty damn good. Tenten started to wrap a bandage around the closed wound.
“Hay ah... Sasuke?”
“What?”
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“Pushing me out of the way of that attack. I would have died had you not done so.”
“I didn’t do it for you.”
“Prick. Then why did you do it?”
“Naruto would have hated himself if he killed you, or anyone in there.”
Tenten silently finished bandaging Sasuke’s leg, and then helped him to his feet. He pushed her away from him and stood on his own. Partly because he was a bastard, but mostly to hide the shaking that had started when he was thinking about how easy it was to get the syringe from the hospital and how wonderful it would of been to use it.
Sasuke limped back to the room he had left Naruto in and walked into the silence his presence had created. They were all still here, staring at him, all except Naruto. Furrowing his brows and glaring at Neji, he asked the question that had run through his mind.
“Where is he?”
“In the shower, the blood on him was bothering him.”
“Hn.”
Sasuke stalked to the window and leaned on the frame, looking out. His hands were shaking, and he could feel his stomach start to do flip-flops. ‘Why now?’
Gai noticed the shaking hands, as did the others, most just thought that he was pissed. Gai knew better then that, though.
The sun had come up and was barely over the horizon. Birds flew around twittering, and the sunlight was reflected off the dew that was still on the ground. Sasuke did not notice it; he had a grip on his left elbow, on the place where he used to put the needle in to get high. It was getting worse. The fighting yesterday, the offered needle from Tenten, or something, was making it worse. All he knew was that he wanted it, he wanted it so bad it hurt. His bones ached for it, and his blood was screaming for it. Gai’s voice, for once not the over enthusiastic wail, but a serious tone, snapped his attention back into the room.
“The method of control Orochimaru use on you is classified, so the others don’t know. I have to ask, did you use any you got from the hospital?”
“No.”
Sasuke had to admit he sounded unconvincing. His stomach had started to do gymnastics, and he sounded weird. So it was not surprising when the green breast leapt across the room and pulled his hand off his left arm. The speed the older man possessed was impressive. In less than a second Gai held his wrist out with one hand and had a grip on the front of Sasuke’s shirt with the other.
The faded old track marks still shown on his arm. The jounin did not see any new one’s so he released Sasuke. “Sorry, had to make sure.”
Sasuke growled as he turned back to the window. He was aware of the stares the others were giving him and the raised eyebrows of Neji.
“When was the last time you had some?”
The Uchiha turned to glare at the man. Why did it suddenly have to be about this? Why did green spandex ass want to know all about it? He was not going to answer the jounin; it was none of his damn business.
“Had some what?” Lee asked innocently, watching the raven-haired bastard glare at his beloved sensei.
Sasuke looked at the mini spandex man, then returned to lean on the window frame looking out, ignoring the other occupants of the room. It was bad enough that Gai knew he was not going to tell the others if he could help it. Hopefully they would leave soon. His hands where shaking badly now, and he gave himself about five more minuets until he had to throw up.
Gai did not press the question and went over to sit on bed, out of the immediate blast radius if Sasuke got pissed again. As soon as he sat down, the jounin returned his attention to the shinobi at the window.
Pale hands were shaking and Sasuke was sweating. He did not know how long it had been since the teen’s last dose, so he could not guess how far along in to withdrawal Sasuke was. He watched silently as Sasuke made a fist and chewed his bottom lip, trying to hide the fact that his shaking was getting worse. He was not the only one to notice Sasuke’s poorly hidden discomfort.
“Why don’t you just tell us? It’s obvious that something’s wrong, and if it’s important, we should know so we can handle it if it becomes an issue, since we are protecting you two.”
Sasuke glared at the smirking Kiba. “I never asked for your help.”
“Bastard, you are incapable of realizing you need help, so we decided for you. Your not the only one who is a friend of Naruto.”
“And what happens when Kyuubi comes out? You all go running again.” The dog lover growled at the bastard leaning on the window.
“Fucker, your not the only one who can help him. Jiraiya has been planning for Naruto’s return and can reseal the demon. Just because you were the one that got him out, does not mean that you’re the only one who cares about him. Stop being such a god damn prick.”
“Kiba stop. Don’t antagonize him.” Kiba looked over to the green clad Jounin and was about to argue when Neji spoke.
“He’s right, though. If the Uchiha has a problem, we should know about it if we are going to protect Naruto. It’s obvious that something is wrong, and we are going to protect him whether you like it or not.”
Sasuke was not saying anything about his problem. Hell would freeze over before he did, but apparently Gai-sensei was convinced by Neji and thought that the others needed to know. Getting Sasuke to admit to it would require a fair amount of finesse. Though, seeing that he had none, he went for Plan B, just start talking about it.
“The reports said that you were tricked into it, that you did not know what it was at first. After a while, though, you could not stop, that you went on missions because you needed it, and the snake would only give it to you if you went.”
“What’s it?” Lee was getting mad at not knowing what Gai was talking about. The jounin smacked Lee upside his head and continued. Sasuke was pointedly not watching the jounin, or anybody else for that matter.
“The reports said that you tried to get away, but did not make it because you got very sick. That’s why when Orochimaru’s men found you they had to take you to the hospital to stop the shaking fits.” The shinobi in the room watched as Sasuke’s hands shook, now they knew it was not from rage.
“You could not make it out of the Sound because if was too far to the next village to get treatment. Your shaking right now is because you still need it.”
“I DON’T NEED IT!” None of them had ever heard Sasuke yell before. Gai paused, rethinking his plan, but continuing any way.
“But you still want it.”
Glaring daggers at the green clad man, Sasuke spoke with an icy tone. “No.”
“Then why did you have some in your pouch?”
Sasuke jerked his head away to look back out the window. In a quiet voice, almost to himself, he replied. “I do not want it any more.”
Gai got to his feet, noticing how hot the small room was getting with so many people in it. All the shinobi were watching Sasuke, waiting for him to say what was wrong with him. It was like watching a daytime drama, or a train wreck. Despite the horror, they just could not look away.
“Maybe you don’t want it, but it’s obvious you’re not over it. Can I ask how they tricked you in the first place?”
The raven-haired teen looked away. He did not want anybody to know, but Gai had all but said it any way. The part of him that wanted to stay quiet was shaken apart by the withdrawals. He sighed in defeat.
“I was hurt by Kyuubi. I could barely walk. It was given to me instead of a pain killer.” The details of just how he was injured no one would be ever be able to get out of him.
“Heroin is a pain killer.”
The three chuunins gasped, Neji had guessed, and Shino was informed prior to the retrieval mission in case he was to encounter Sasuke.
“How long since you last shot up?”
“The day Orochimaru died was the last time.”
“Good. You should be at the tail end of the withdrawals.”
Kiba, Lee and Tenten looked on shocked. Sasuke, /the/ Uchiha Sasuke, was addicted to smack. It was just so odd. None of them would have ever figured Sasuke for the drug using type. It did kind of explain why Sasuke did not get Naruto out of the Sound until recently. He had his own issues to deal with.
Sasuke stood at the window looking ashamed as he held on to his arm. He felt sick he was going to hurl. He did not want to puke in front of them, and the dobe was in the shower. It was bad enough that they knew why, but he was not going to show how weak he was at the moment. The small table beside him suddenly had bugs crawling over it. The small beetle like insects formed letters on the table. ‘OK?’
Shino was asking and Sasuke shook his head side to side, he was very not OK and to stubborn to admit it. Neji and Gai were close enough to see the bug’s question and his response. In his enthusiastic way Gai ordered every one out, his outrageous outburst changing the mood in the room. Lee jumped out of the room instantly at his sensei’s command, Kiba and Tenten followed. Shino looked Sasuke over and then silently followed his teammate.
As soon as the door closed behind the bug man Sasuke grabbed the trash can and started to puke. Gai leaned on the doorframe and watched as Sasuke’s stomach’s contents found their way to the wicker basket.
“This is why they needed to know. What if you started to do this in the middle of a fight? Neji will stay here in the room and keep an eye on you two. Some one will relive him later on. You are not to leave until I get word back from Tsunade-sama. Understood, Sasuke? Oh and drugs are bad, mmK? As long as you’re here you will not be permitted to use any.”
The sick teen nodded numbly and Gai left to send word to Tsunade. Neji made himself comfortable on the one chair at the table.
After about half an hour Sasuke stopped throwing up and took his shirt and pants off and did not even crawl under the sheets before he passed out on the bed.