In the Mountains

Chapter Two

I barely got any sleep that night. As soon as the sun came down, every time I closed my eyes the scene of us trapped in the car and falling off the cliff would play again in my head. After a while, I gave up completely on sleeping and propped myself on the pillow to look outside where a gorgeous silver sky full of moonlight was framing a black forest in the distance.

I took some mild painkillers, so at least I wasn’t in any pain. The slash on my thigh was itching like hell, and I had to fight not to scratch it viciously.

All night long, I was listening to frogs singing in the night air; there must be water nearby. When the morning came, I was still awake. Our window was facing east, so I watched sunrise from the windowsill, as quiet as I could manage so I wouldn't wake Iruka.

Fortunately, he slept through the night without even stirring. Maybe he'd gone through the anxiety the previous night, worried about me - I don’t know. But his breathing was steady and comforting.

I was already back in bed when Iruka woke up. He looked confused for a moment, frowning at the unfamiliar room. I started laughing and he shifted that confused gaze to me.

“Naruto,” he said, in that way that suggested that he was equally exasperated and very glad I was well enough to laugh so early.

“Good morning!”

Iruka got up and directed a series of questions while preparing for a trip to the bathroom, “Does your head hurt? What about your leg? Did you sleep well?”

“No pains, but I didn’t sleep much,” I answered, wishing I could say ‘I slept like a baby’ so he wouldn't worry. Lying about that would have only have made things worse later, when signs of my sleepless night were bound to be obvious. “New place and everything,” I added anyway.

He hummed. It made me suspect he didn’t really believe me. I’m a horrible liar and Iruka knows me better than anyone, but he let it slide. For the moment.

“You are staying in bed,” he told me. I wanted to argue, but that would be a waste of time. “I need to go back and see if any of our things can be saved.”

To be honest, it never even occurred to me to ask about that. The pajamas I was wearing were not mine; it must have been something the hotel had provided, but I haven’t even noticed. I was never very picky about clothes.

“You can’t go alone,” I objected. “I have to come with you.”

“Lee is going to help me,” Lee, Tenten’s friend? Well he sounded like a sporty guy, he’ll probably be more of help than I could be at the meoment. “If Sasuke arrives before I get back, ask him to wait for me. I want to talk to him.”

“What? Why is he coming again?”

“To change your bandages.”

“I’ve been able to do that on my own since I was eight.” You learn all kinds of things in the orphanage. To take care of yourself is the first on a very long list of them.

“He also needs to examine you properly. You were unconscious yesterday and he was in a hurry.”

“No,” I said, putting the blanket over my head. “He’ll poke my wounds on purpose.”

“He is a doctor,” Iruka said very slowly, so I could absorb the fact. “He is not going to poke your wounds.”

What can I say? Iruka is a nice guy, but really naïve. Sasuke was one of those people that always did very well in class. To Iruka, that meant he was nice.

I don't know why I never told him all those hospital bills he was paying back then were Sasuke’s fault. I would come home from martial arts class, back then, often bloody – and after sending Sasuke home also bloody, most of the time, and no matter how many times Iruka asked who hit me, who hurt me so badly, I never said the name. Iruka would get so furious that he went to see Kakashi more then once about it. But Kakashi would only say, every time, that the other one is just as hurt as I was and that is best to let us deal with it on our own.

He wasn’t, though. Sasuke was never hurt as much as I was. I took me years to understand that it was my own fault; I just didn’t know when to give up. When the fight is over, the defeated side, often firmly in a grip, is supposed to hit the floor couple of times, to acknowledge victory of the opponent, or to give them the signal that the pain is unbearable. I never hit the floor, not back then, not with Sasuke. I had the insane conviction that he would think I was weak, and for some reason it was really important that he didn’t.

Iruka quickly left the room to try and find something salvageable from the wreck. I took off pajamas so I wouldn’t have to strip later and fell asleep like that.

Sakura woke me up around nine, with a trey with sandwiches and yogurt for me.

“Morning,” she said cheerfully, and dumped the tray on the nightstand between the beds. I took it right away; there isn’t anything better then mountain air for appetite. “How’s your head?”

“Fine. Where is Ino?”

“Around. We sorted the first load of clothes Iruka and Lee brought back – a lot is destroyed. My favorite red shirt has a hole in the side, and when Ino saw it, she had another crying fit.” Sakura said, making up the bed Iruka had left messy in his hurry. “She’s driving me crazy.”

Nothing new there, then. I felt sorry for Ino, she must have felt responsible for the accident. I mean, she was, you can’t take your eyes off the road - especially not so you could fight with someone. But, as I said before, Ino was a very inexperienced driver. It was a mistake letting her drive on such a dangerous and unfamiliar road, that was all. I should have said something; I knew that Iruka was weak on pleading. And Sakura should have known better than to insult her; basically, in my opinion, we were all equally guilty for what happened.

“How’s your leg?” Sakura asked.

I stretched under the covers, testing the leg and everything else.

“It’s fine. You’re not hurt?” I asked, though nothing was visible. Maybe she had some scratches under her clothes. But no, Iruka wouldn't let her sort thing if she was hurt, so it couldn't have been serious even if she was a little hurt.

“Oh, no," she winked. "I fell on top of you."

That was right. I remembered falling from the car, cutting my leg, and my instincts kicking in. I was in the middle of rolling, trying to cushion myself in the safest way possible when she fell on me while I was almost upside-down.

No wonder I ended up worst of us all.

“How’s the hotel?” I asked, changing the subject on purpose.

Sakura looked back at me, smirking, “You’ll see.”

That sounded promising.

“Tenten is thrilled you've offered to help her,” Sakura told me, and added in conspiratorial voice, “We think she’s in love with Neji, you know, the owner? She didn’t say anything, but she gets all goggle-eyed when someone mentions him.”

“It sounded like fun,” I answered the first part. Neji was a good-looking guy. It was hardly extraordinary that some girl was in love with him.

“She took us on walks through the park; it’s huge, you literally have to follow the signs not to get lost. Lanes are covered in grit, so you can take a walk even when is muddy, and there are benches everywhere.”

“Sakura!” I whined. “You’re making laying in the bed even worse!”

She moved the now empty tray and hopped up on my bed. Yum, I thought, on to the good parts!

Sakura would always do that when she had something important or interesting to talk about. She would make you lay in a bed with her - luckily, I was already in bed this time so we skipped that part - and she would talk, looking up at the ceiling.

“We asked Tenten, you know, and she told us, he got marred for money.”

Of course, I knew she was talking about Sasuke. In a way, I had been waiting for it ever since she'd walked into the room. So I kept quiet and listened.

“Do you remember his brother? The older brother?”

“Both of them are older then Sasuke,” I told her, but I knew she meant Itachi.

Sakura rolled her eyes on the ceiling, “The oldest, I meant. Itachi?”

“Sure, I remember his car.” Well, I still didn't really know exactly what kind of car he'd had, but I liked them. They were red and shiny and Itachi drove me home once in it.

“He got in some serious debts, almost ended in prison.”

That sure wasn't what I was expecting. “I thought they were rich.”

“They had been, but Itachi spent it all. So, they were broke. Sai was in his last year at some fancy art collage, Sasuke was in the med school and Itachi, well, he was the one who got them in trouble. So Sasuke married a rich girl for her money.”

“That’s horrible,” I said, upset as much about the poor girl as about Sasuke. “He’s the youngest. They should have taken care of him, not the other way around.”

“I’m not sure I’d want Sai to take care of me.” Sakura shivered, to demonstrate what she felt about it. “Ino and I went to see his exhibition couple of months ago, and I haven’t seen that much gore since “Bed Taste”.

Bah, she never even saw most of that movie. She was too busy hiding behind me and dry-heaving in my favorite shirt.

“But I think it was always Sasuke taking care of his brothers. Don’t you remember?”

I did remember. All those times he was buying groceries after school, paying the bills and even cooking… I remembered, almost too well.

“You should keep your voice down,” I told Sakura, because the conversation was getting seriously depressing. “He might be on the other side of the door.”

She took me more seriously than I expected and answered whispering, “That’s right, he’s coming to examine you this morning.”

We were laying like that for some time, lost in our own thoughts. Occasionally. there were footsteps in the hallway, but not much else to disrupt the peace.

I was wondering how many times Sasuke went home from Kakashi’s lessons seriously hurt, and had no one to take care of him, no one to take him to the hospital and yell at Kakashi. I guess I knew on some level that he had responsibilities because he had no parents, I mean, I had them. Maybe I thought all three of them shared the responsibilities equally among themselves.

But, in retrospect, of all endless hours we had spent in the bushes in front of their house, I couldn't remember once when Sai and Itachi had done any of the housework.

After some time, Sakura said, “Ten-Ten also told us that Sasuke would have been better off if he had gotten involved with Neji, instead of with Hinata.”

So, that’s the name of his wife, Hinata.

“Why? Is she really horrible?” I asked. For some reason, the idea that Sasuke’s wife being a mean bitch made me feel happier. Because, obviously, he deserved a terrible home life for marrying her for her money.

“No, it’s just… She’s female.”

Okay, I admit it; that went completely over my head.

“What?” Of course she was female, what else she was supposed to be?

Sakura finally turned her eyes from the ceiling to look at me. It was that pitying look she would always give me when she thought I was being particularly stupid about something.

“What am I supposed to do with you?” she said quietly, but an affectionate smile broke trough.

“You can always sleep with me,” I offered. “Maybe smartness is a sexually transmittal disease.”

“No, thanks. But do try to find someone else who’s smart to sleep with. It’s an interesting theory, I’m curious about results.”

“Meanie,” I said, pouting. I was perhaps too old for it, but it was just Sakura. And that simple fact made it okay. “If it turns out that it’s true, it will be your fault I had to go to school for so many years.”

Sakura elbowed me in my ribs. I wasn’t about to complain, since it was better then cracking my head open. I guess she was making an exception this time because of the injury and everything.

When she didn’t say anything else, I asked, “So, will you explain it to me?”

“Some other time, okay?” She was looking at the ceiling again. “We’ll talk about it some other time. I’m just relived it wasn’t me, you know?”

No, I didn’t know. It wasn’t her, what?

She turned and narrowed her eyes at me accusingly before I could ask again.

“It sure explains a lot. I was very confused about the two of you in high school.”

“What?” I laughed. She was acting like a crazy person. “It explains a lot? Like what?”

“Like the insane force he beat you with, or the extreme stubbornness you were going back for more.”

“He just hated me,” I explained though she had been there, she should have known that. “Almost as much as I hated him.”

She laughed at me, “What ever you say, Naruto.”

There was a knock on the door.

Sakura and I looked at each other. Neither one of us moved.

“I’m injured,” I said. “Go and open the door!”

“No,” Sakura answered with a lazy smile. She made herself even more comfortable in my bed. “Yell for him to come in.”

Feeling a bit ridiculous, I did that.

It was Sasuke, caring a doctor's bag with him.

For some odd reason, I had expected him to wear a white doctor coat. No idea why, he definitely wasn’t wearing one the previous day, but it was picture I had in my head. It was a bit disappointing that he was actually wearing just plain dark pants and a long sleeved shirt.

And I swear, Sakura leaned closer to me when he came in. She rested her head on my shoulder, in a strange, awkward way. What was she trying to do, make him jealous? She wasn't a still on about liking him and what not, was she?

No one said a single word for quite some time. Sasuke was standing in the middle of the room, looking at us lying in the bed with his cold, emotionless eyes. Then Sakura jumped to her feet.

“Good morning, Sasuke!” she called, smiling brightly . There was a glint in her eyes that made my instincts scream at me to brace myself. “How are you today?”

Sasuke nodded in greeting, silent. I couldn't blame him, Sakura looked positively radiant. It was scary and suspicious.

“Well, I’m going to go now. I have a lot more work to do, and I’ll send Iruka up as soon as I see him. You wait for him here, okay?”

Sasuke nodded shortly again. I was suddenly nervous for some odd reason. Crazy Sakura was better than no Sakura at all.

“You don’t have to go,” I told her.

“Oh, I’ve seen you in your underwear too many times already,” Sakura answered me, but she was looking sideways at Sasuke, as if she was expecting him to have something to say about that.

Okay… that was weird. When had she seen me in my underwear, anyway?

Sasuke was as quiet as when he came in, looking straight back at her. Neither was blinking, not as far as I could see. It seemed like some sort of staring contest. The tension in the room was uncomfortable and getting worse, but I had no idea what was going on.

When it became really uncomfortable, I finally decided to break the silence,“Okay then. I’ll see you later.”

Sakura flashed me another brilliant smile and walked out.

“I have no idea what got into her,” I told Sasuke as soon as the doorknob clicked, announcing that the door was shut closed. “She’s been weird like that since she came in.”

“Hmm,” Sasuke spoke, taking out a pair of small scissors from his bag. “Let me see your head.”

I removed most of the covers, and sat at the edge of the bed, so he could get close enough to reach my head easily. I opened my mouth to say something, but then he started to move, cutting the bandages so I forgot what was on my mind. His hands were calm and sure, brushing against my scalp. It was very distracting.

The bandages came off easily. There was a little blood on them but otherwise they were perfectly clean. Sasuke examined the wound, touching it lightly with. No matter how careful and gentle the pressure was, I would still wince every time I felt he is near the wound.

“It hurts?”

“No,” I said, quietly. “It’s just…” I trailed off. How do you tell someone you haven’t seen in years, and who is here to help, that you’re afraid he’ll hurt you for no reason at all?

“Do you have headache?”

“Not anymore.”

“Are you dizzy? Sleepy? Nauseate? ”

“No.”

“Are you having any vision problems?”

I had been so many time in past through that conversation, I knew every question before it came. I rolled my eyes, “I don’t have a concussion.”

He simply continued with the next step, “Follow my finger.”

It was so silly. I always felt silly when they made me do that.

When he returned to inspect my head once again, I dared to say, “We heard you’re married.”

“I am,” Sasuke answered. I felt as his fingers halted on the edge of my wound.

I couldn’t stop myself, I teased, “Poor girl.”

Sasuke pressed harder.

“Ouch!” I knew he’d poke my wounds! “That hurts!”

“Of course it hurts,” he said. He sounded amused. “You hit your head on a rock.”

“Well." It was true. "What kind of doctor you are? You’re making it worse!”

Sasuke moved a little bit away with a humming sound. He said, “I'm almost done, stop crying.”

“What?" I demanded furiously. "I’m not crying!”

“You sounded like you were.”

I finally looked up at him. He was smirking down at me.

“I wasn't crying. And you were poking my wounds. You are a cruel bastard - doctor, or not.”

“What, no yelling to go with the insult? Maybe I should send you to see a specialist. Those head wounds can be dangerous.”

Still looking up at him, I could clearly see the simple amusement on his face, even though he was standing with his back to the window. His eyes were shadowed by his hair that had an almost blue tint on the edges due to the light.

For someone who I had to reminded of my identity just yesterday, he knew exactly what to expect from me. I had a proclivity for yelling in distress. Had he remembered in the meantime? Or had he been pretending all along?

My instincts told me he had been pretending. When I woke up, he was looking through the window. Iruka said he had been in a hurry, but he didn’t look like he was. Not until he realized I was awake.

And I suddenly knew exactly what was Sakura talking about, like a light was turned on. Everything I was thinking about the day before came crashing back at me, and her words ‘he would be better off if he had gotten involved with Neji’ and ‘insane force he beat you with’ hit me in the head.

“You don't have to worry that much about me,” I said, but my voice sounded like it was anyone’s but mine. The chuckle I managed was not forced, it was just... strained. “I’ll be just fine.”

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, all lightness disappearing from his face. He nodded, once.

“Yes, your head will be fine. You don’t have to wear bandages, but don’t wash your hair for a day or two.” I recognized that tone from yesterday; it was apparently his professional way of talking. It sounded off. Crooked. “Now let’s see the leg.”

Why, oh why couldn’t I realize he had some kind of horrible crush - or, or something milder I didn't know what to call it - on me back in high school after this check up? As if yesterday wasn’t bad enough, or the fact that I had a crush on him. I could feel a blush creeping up my neck at the very thought of letting him touch me so close to my crotch. Inhaling deeply, I tried to tell myself that it had been a long time ago, that he was married now, but it did little to help.

I moved the covers a little more, but not completely off. Sasuke took his small scissors and bent practically over me, cutting the bandages on my thigh.

After some endless moments in which I was trying not to breath his scent in, (until I started suffocating), Sasuke lifted his head and said, “Can you hold this end?”

Our faces were way too close; I just knew I was as red as a tomato. I have no idea how I managed to do what he asked me. His hands were unbearably soft and light, brushing against my skin, and against my fingers.

I’m not used to human contact. I grew up without it. Iruka and Sakura learned long ago to avoid skin on skin contact with me. It makes me uneasy and nervous.

Or well, it usually does. Sasuke’s hands actually felt good, and reassuring. I even started wondering why I was flinching earlier when he examined my head.

Sasuke finished, and knelt in front of me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

It was too much for one day, really.

“What?” Sasuke asked.

“Nothing.” I said, voice a little scratchy. “Do you need to do this every day, or something?”

Sasuke was quiet for a moment or two, and then he finally answered, “I can do it as often as you want me to.”

His almost-playful tone made me snap my eyes open. I could see comprehension hitting him; you can’t just say something like that, while using that voice, and not expect people to hear the innuendo in it.

Clearing his throat, he continued, “But you would have to pay for wasting my time, like every other hypochondriac does.”

Not a save, not quite. It was enough for him to start clearing up his things, and for me to remember to breathe, though.

Awkward silence would have probably stretched endlessly after that, if Iruka hadn’t come back just as Sasuke was finishing.

“Will he be alright?” Iruka asked, before he even closed the door. I felt a smile spreading over my face. It was wonderful, having someone to take care of you like Iruka did for me.

Feeling much better and more at ease now that we weren’t alone any longer, I turned to Sasuke as well, “Am I going to survive, doctor?”

Sasuke was looked at me oddly. His mouth opened, like he was about to say something, but nothing was coming through. Then he licked them, and oh God, I totally forgot about my guardian, I just couldn’t make myself look somewhere else but Sasuke’s dump lips.

“Sasuke?” Iruka asked, confused. Sasuke snapped his head in the direction where Iruka was standing. “Has he said something rude to you?”

“If he hasn't, Mr. Umino, I would know that his injuries were serious, and he would be on his way to the hospital by now.”

Iruka, clever man that he was, heard only what he wanted.

“So, he is going to be alright?”

“Yes. The head wound is superficial, and the one on his leg seems to be healing well, as I told you yesterday.”

That had me thinking. He was in very close contact with me yesterday, when we were alone in the room. Moving my hair to see better, and touching my thigh! Dear God, who put those pajamas on me anyway?

“Thank you for coming anyway. I was worried. I’m sorry if he insulted you.”

“It was nothing serious.” Completely serious, Sasuke added, “He was crying, though.”

“What? No, I didn’t!” But Iruka was already watching me with concern and pity in his eyes.

He told me scornfully, “You should have told me it hurt.”

“It was only hurting when he,” I jerked my head (ouch!) in the direction where Sasuke was standing, with a small, but definite smirk on his face. “Poked me!”

Iruka didn’t look convinced. “I really can’t believe he would do that.”

Sasuke nodded. “Yes. Why would I poke you?” He said, forming slightly bigger smirk over the word ‘poke’. I was red in my face again, angry.

Damn it, I knew it was just his weird, slightly sadistic sense of humor. He knew very well I hadn’t been crying, and it was just Iruka with us, so I wasn’t even properly insulted. But when I looked at him, Sasuke’s eyes were lit again. He enjoyed my discomfort and embarrassment.

I was looking at him, and he was still so arrogant; so superior, so freaking beautiful, just standing there and letting the sunlight into his eyes, not even trying to blink it out.

I was falling again, firmly and hard and this time I was much too old to lie to myself. Denial is like a burned curtain, you see; once ruined, there is no place for it on the window.

I was afraid. He was married.

My voice was a dead force of malice, “For the sake of your children, I hope your wife never leaves you. You will never earn your living being a doctor, if you treat all your patients like this.”

I regretted it right away but it was already too late. I could see the little flash in Sasuke’s eyes, before the mask fell in place.

Iruka, enraged, yelled “Naruto! What’s wrong with you? You can’t say things like that, this is not how I raised you!”

He continued yelling, but I was too busy watching Sasuke collect his things and walk out of the room to listen. After the door clicked behind him, I stood up from the bed.

“Where are my things? I need to find Sakura.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Iruka told me.

“I can take care of myself. Where are my things?”

Apparently too mad to care, Iruka pointed at the closet in the small hallway. I found the clothes I had on me during the trip, washed and neatly hang up. Grabbing them, I walked into the bathroom to shower and change.

“You will apologize,” Iruka said after I walked out from the bathroom, completely dressed and refreshed.

“We’ll see,” was all I had to answer before walking out.