The Restricted Section

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I do not own the basis for the story idea ‘The Restricted Section’.


The Restricted Section
By 11


Chapter 10

Five hundred: in dollars that would have been enough to keep the machines running for the next month. He hadn’t paid it yet, and the hospital was still waiting for him to pay. But this money was stained somehow.

Clenched in his hand and staring up at the stone gray building, he somehow knew he wouldn’t step foot in there today. Not today.

He’d had a plan to use this, and he’d had a reason for going through the motions for it; but there was no way he could use it. Even for something as important as this. Two faces entered the conflict; one like his own pale and deathly; the other the last good look he’d gotten at the raven-head’s face.

Beaten and empty; he may have been more alive than the other face, but his was so full of pain that it seemed even worse than that of the catatonic blond. There was no way that he could use it… looked like he’d be asking the old bag for another loan.

She was truly a lovely woman to keep doing this for him in the first place.

`

“So, he’s been moping for a week now,” Temari shrugged, “Big deal.”

“I went to see him last night, he was horrible! I took him out but he still didn’t seem to feel much better.” Hinata explained as she practically tugged her partner up to Sasuke’s apartment, “I need to check on him, he was really depressed last night. And… I really think he might have been serious about Naruto…”

Temari nearly laughed at that one, “Right. Sasuke. Serious; about a person.” Hinata pursed her lips as if to retort, but knew better than to argue with Temari when she couldn’t provide any kind of evidence. Her girlfriend could be too much of a skeptic sometimes.

“Of course he’s depressed he finally got dumped,” Temari finally sighed, when Hinata made it a point to walk ahead of her and not respond, “I know. He even refused to go out with Suigetsu, Karin, and Juugo a few days ago. I know, okay?”

Hinata slumped her shoulders; Temari still didn’t seem to get the reason she was worrying so much; but then Temari was Temari; and at least she was trying to understand. The effort was what mattered, she supposed.

In any case, they had to get Sasuke out of that apartment before he turned into a permanent hermit. It could not be good for him to be holed up there day after day and week after week.

“Sasuke?” Hinata called loudly as she knocked on his door. He didn’t answer, so she took out her hairclip again. She supposed until Sasuke had the initiative to answer his own door she’d have to let herself in. Temari seemed slightly amused she was ‘breaking and entering’ but didn’t say anything.

“Hey, Sasuke; we’re here to get you.” Temari called up as they walked in, shutting the door behind them. “You can’t stay locked in here forever. I’ll drag you out if I have to.”

Hinata suddenly squeaked, and Temari glanced over at the dark side-hall. Sasuke was glowering at them worse than when he wanted someone to spontaneously combust and die. Hinata actually seemed to shake slightly at the blatant disgust and loathing that his dark eyes fired at them.

Temari’s eyes narrowed and she returned the glare, icy to match his burning hostility. He had yet to move from the floor and from the way his neck was slightly bent, she assumed he’d slept that way after stumbling home last night. Wait, was that blood on the wall there?

“S-sasuke, a-are you okay?” Hinata asked shakily, still half-hiding her form behind Temari’s. Dearly glad that this time she’d brought someone with her. Otherwise she was sure to have run from the apartment from his eyes alone.

“Don’t talk to me!” He snapped viciously. Temari felt a vein in her forehead ripple. Gee wasn’t he the nicest guy you ever knew, being so kind and considerate to his friends who were worried about him!

“Filthy lying bit-!”

“Say one more word I’ll rip your throat out Uchiha.” Temari growled in return before Sasuke could finish his insult directed at the already terrified Hinata.

“You’re not my friend bull-dike!!” Sasuke snarled at her in rage. Her mouth snapped shut, for the moment her face contorted in unabashed anger. “And neither is your two-faced ‘snowflake’!!”

“How dare you, you god-damn ungrateful brat!” Temari hissed in a low and dangerously calm voice. Sasuke’s eyes darkened and seemed to lash out in hatred.

“Ungrateful? Oh yeah, I should definitely be ‘grateful’! After all you ‘paid’ Naruto to hurt me!” He ground out, his voice a cracking scream of accusation than any kind of vehement threat.

Hinata looked as if she’d been struck across the face and had the wind knocked out of her; like her cousin had landed a particularly well-placed kick to her gut. Wiping her feet out from under her.

Temari glared, allowing Sasuke to finish his tirade; he was far from done. She only wished she could have shielded her lover’s ears.

“‘Ungrateful’ you say?” Sasuke asked, his face contorted in manic anger.

“What you did is what enemies do! It’s not right!” His dark eyes turned to Hinata, the more vulnerable to his attacks. Insults and accusations glanced off Temari like a steel wall.

“And you!”

Hinata flinched away, but pale eyes reflected guilt and pain; she wouldn’t deny whatever Sasuke accused her of; after all it would all be at least half-true.

“You lied to me face! You tried to comfort me! And all the while you were secretly laughing at me behind my back!”

Hinata’s body shook, and she fought to keep her voice level and contain the sting in her eyes, “No, that wasn’t it!” she protested, but her voice was small and weak compared to Sasuke’s tidal assault of fury.

Temari felt her skin grow tight and solid like stone, and moved so that Hinata stood almost directly behind her.

Hinata was too sensitive as it was; she would not let him subject her lover to this; not when he only understood half of what they meant. Not when he distorted facts to come to conclusions that could not be farther from the truth.

Temari closed the distance in four quick steps.

“How dare you come here and-!!”

Sasuke must not have even realized she was coming toward him before her blow had silenced him. She’d only hit him once, it was on his cheek; his pale skin was slightly red now.

Hinata had gasped somewhere in there. No doubt she’d scold her later for hitting him when he was in ‘such a delicate state’, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Sasuke realize why they did this. It was not for his pain, and it was not for their amusement. Not entirely.

“Sasuke, can you shut up for about five minutes?” Temari asked coldly, not expecting an answer; Sasuke looked like he was in some shock. He was still breathing which was good, but he wasn’t looking at her; he just looked shocked and empty, and shell-like. So much like a shell. She could see why Hinata worried.

“I’m going to tell you everything.” Temari sighed letting all her previous anger at the youth drain out of her.

“Sasuke, ever since I met you everything that you have ever done has been continually leading you on the path of self-destruction.”

“Did you know that?” she prodded when Sasuke’s head jerked at those last words.

“You don’t care about other people. You can’t feel anything that they feel, what we feel. You have no empathy at all. You don’t care who you hurt.”

“Your tendencies- your ‘patterns’,” Temari settled on the word, “in relationships have nearly destroyed you. Countless times, you’ve been in so much trouble; and you were either oblivious or you just didn’t care.”

Even if you don’t feel the burning hot water when you drink it down; it will still tear up your stomach and kill you.

It was a good metaphor, but she didn’t think she’d have to use it. Sasuke was intelligent, he understood what she was saying; if that blank and pensive look on his face was any indication.

“We are your friends Sasuke, that’s why we did it.” She explained. “We were trying to help.”

She sighed, “Yes, we may also have been a little bored and angry with you too; but ultimately this was the best plan we could think of to correct your behavior patterns.”

Temari finally settled back to glaring at him. Dark eyes slowly having turned to gaze up at her in something like thought and consideration. “How were we supposed to know if you actually fell in love with an illusion?”

Sasuke’s eyes darkened then and his lips slightly parted, slightly shocked slightly traumatized. He didn’t want to remember; that was why he’d holed himself up here. Considering him again, Temari noted that his knuckles had scabs all over the back side.

Self-inflicted; even without other people around Sasuke found ways to hurt himself did he? Well if Sasuke refused to get himself back to normal, or at least try, by the next week Temari could always tie him down to his bed and have Hinata and her take care of him until he stopped doing crazy stuff to damage himself.

Sasuke swallowed, still watching her pensively. “So… none of it… was even real,” Sasuke seemed to ask more than state. “Everything he said and did… all of it was fabricated.”

He didn’t want to hear that it was the truth. There was still light in his eyes. He wanted to hear that maybe it wasn’t all a lie. That maybe there had been something more between them than his one-sided infatuation. Something he wasn’t imagining because of a very good act.

Temari felt the urge to draw back. A feeling of guilt and sadness struck her; a feeling she recognized as pity. She couldn’t tell him what he so desperately wanted to hear. She could only tell truth.

She kept her voice level and carefully guarded her expression to be kept blank. “Likely,” she answered in all certainty. Sasuke’s face fell and it looked like he’d been punched again, “half-truths at the very most. Naruto is 100% straight. He had no interest in dating you to begin with.”

It was tearing him up. He looked like he even wanted to cover his ears to stop himself from hearing it; but Temari continued and she thought she heard Hinata grimace in a mirror to Sasuke’s pain.

She didn’t want to hurt him. Neither did Temari; but wasn’t it less cruel to tell him the truth rather than lie and lead him on?

“He would never have said yes at all if we hadn’t paid him.”

And Sasuke hung his head in defeat.

`

Her phone rang. It was a number she had missed getting calls from; he didn't often call back, usually she had to call him. Something had gone wrong, likely, he didn't usually call for check-in chats.

Tsunade's brow creased slightly as she clicked her cell open and stepped back into the kitchen to take the call from her adopted son. "Hey brat, what's going on?" The word's lacked vehemence.

"Hey Tsunade, I'm sorry," Naruto's voice came over the phone, apologetic and tired; if she saw him right then she flinched to think of the mess he had become. All-nighter, or what?

"About what? I noticed you didn't pay the hospital bills yet this month," Tsunade brought up before the youth could, "I already took care of it. You alright? Jiraiya treating you okay?"

"Yeah, the old fart's fine." Naruto seemed to shrug. "Thanks. I really appreciate what you've done for me and my brother, really. Thank you."

"It's okay Naruto; I love you boys you know that." she assured him, smiling slightly; if everything was fine though she was glad. Naruto didn't sound that bad, at least he was still alive and taking care of himself.

"I had some money earlier, I'm sorry. I know I haven't asked you to do this for several months now, but-"

Tsunade cut him off, "It's fine." She insisted gruffly, with no room to argue, "You're sounding like a broken record brat. Feeling okay? Come by the diner and I'll get you some decent food for once."

She heard Naruto snort over the phone, he was smiling; good. "Yeah, I'll have to do that. Thanks."

"Bye brat." Tsunade said looking up at Shizune motioned that he attention was needed.

"Bye mom."

And the connection was broken.

`

"Hey, so... you think you'll keep him with you this time?" Shino asked the redhead tentatively.

The youth didn't so much as glance up at him as he allowed Ed to crawl patterns around his fingers, shifting his hand to prompt the tiny reptile in different directions.

"Gaara?" Shino questioned. Dark rimmed green eyes looked up at him indifferently and he shrugged.

"I don't have a place to keep him, and he has plenty of food at your place." The redhead pointed out.

"Yes but he's your pet..." Shino insisted, "and my bugs aren't food; those are 'my' pets."

"Sorry you're having so much trouble to find someone to take care of him." Gaara said, not sounding sorry at all as he put his hand over so the gecko could crawl back onto Shino's shoulder, up his neck and inot his hair.

"But you really are better suited to take care of him, and pets of any kind aren't allowed in my dorm; so I couldn't if I wanted to." Gaara reasoned calmly, cutting off Shino's ever protest. It really wasn't fair.

The redhead turned to head back, "I'll be seeing you; thanks for taking such good care of him."

"But Gaara, really, I-!" Shino tried, and failed. Gaara was already half a block away, and Shino sighed in defeat. Glaring up over his forehead at the tiny gecko and source of his misery.

Sure he was Gaara's pet, but Shino had to take care of him. Gaara would always come by and walk around with the guy, but he always gave him back to Shino before running off.

And worse, Shino, a law major, could not argue with the kid; he had reason and a cool calm on his side. Shino sighed again, easily wallowing in his own self-pity. When his fly colony was gone, he was positive his ant-farm would be next for the tiny green lizard.

Oh hey, there's Sasuke... wallowing as well.

Well there was no way Temari or Hinata could be uhappy with him now. He was out of the house, even if he was still just moping. He selected a seat on an empty bench and sat himself down to try and do absolutely nothing.

He would have succeeded if his brain had decided to go blank, but instead it concentrated on all those things he would rather have simply not thought about. It was all just so unfair; the more he thought about it the morehe realized how unfair he himself was, and had been.

One instance, that was recent, and stood out most in his mind was Sakura that day on the bus. He had broken up with her cruelly over the phone; and when she came that day; perhaps she had just been looking for closure.

She had never done anything to him and he had treated her cruelly and terribly. He'd done horrible things to her even after he initially hurt her. Thinking back he wondered if he had always been so unnecessarily cruel... had he?

Even in middle school he could remember hurting people; but was it present earlier than that as well? He had always had no reason for it either, almost all the times. Sure there were a few guys he really didn't like but most were nice decent people.

Even for those people he hadn't liked, perhaps they still didn't deserve what he did to them. Likely no one really did. Oh man, and one guy he'd stranded in an airport a thousand miles from home with no cash...

Just thinking about some of the things he'd done now, it made him cringe where a few days ago he might have laughed about them. He was truly a horrible person. It was criminal.

He was considering this, and falling into another state of self-misery and dislike when Shino approached him and abruptly plucked him from the universe where Sasuke was the center of all things.

"Sasuke! Will you take care of Ed for me? Even if it's just for a week?!" Shino begged, offering the tiny green lizard plaintively. "Please!! It's killing my lifestyle to have him around! It's like having a cat in the room when you're trying to breed hampsters!"

Truthfully, the only reason Shino had decided to ask him again was because right now Sasuke looked; to be honest - normal.

He wasn't done up, or wearing tight pants or hot shirts, he just looked normal; at least as normal as someone as drop-dead gorgeous as Sasuke could look.

Dark eyes looked down at the small reptile. Huge amber eyes shimering and wet stared up at him. It blinked at him, sideways; a small filmy eyelid from the side of his eyes sliding over the golden orbs before sliding back.

Sasuke was suddenly entranced. It was something he knew of, of course. But actually seeing it gave him an odd tingly feeling inside that all but erased whatever it was he was thinking about a moment ago.

"Please, Sasuke; you have no idea how desperate I am!!" Shino begged, offering the lizard. Sasuke reached out, and a tiny grip of a foreleg grasped onto his fingertip.

The creature sniffed him with its long nose, the tiny critter evidently decided he liked the smell and clambered in small quick movements onto Sasuke's palm. It sort of reminded Sasuke of water, or a snake; the quick and flowing steps it used to move.

He was mesmerized.

"So will you?!" Shino prodded, hopeful suddenly.

"Yeah, sure." Sasuke agreed without really thinking. Dark eyes watching amber as those large orbs stared up at him unblinking. For some reason he felt he shouldn't look away, it was like a staring contest somehow; and he shouldn't lose.

"Excellent! I'll tell Gaara you have him!" Shino's eyes lit up happily. As if a huge weight had been lifted from him.

Like Atlas after Hercules took his burden; and of course in no rush to have it forced back upon him - hightailed it as soon as he possibly could. "Good luck, I'll see you later Sasuke!"

And Shino was gone. The lizard finally blinked, it's name was Ed or something; right? Sasuke finally looked up; "Hey Shino, what do geckoes eat?"

Of course Shino was long gone, but that still left Sasuke with the question, likenable to the origin of the universe or the reason for mankind's existence. Yes.

What do geckoes eat?

---

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