Just One More Birthday

I’ve gotten one review in the first day of this being up, to be honest I’m content with that, though a little discouraged. Anyway, I wrote the following chapter last night, but didn’t publish it because I wasn’t sure if I should continue the story. But I’m gonna take YamiTenshi’s advice and continue.
_xtabularasa


Naruto rolled from his bed, doing his best to get to the bathroom before his stomach decided to empty. He was at the door, his hand on the knob when his insides jolted—one could never get used to that feeling—and he retched, bile rising up the back of his throat. It burned, he hadn’t eaten in days so all that came up was the yellow-y substance he recognized as stomach acid. He coughed, still gagging as his body tried to rid itself of the poison that coursed through his veins. His skin burned from the radiation treatment he’d received, it hurt to move and the gagging motions his body was going through made his skin scrunch up painfully.

Feet padded through his apartment and he could vaguely hear someone calling his name, though at the moment he didn’t particularly care. His skin broke out in a cold sweat and he suddenly found himself very dizzy, the room began spinning, the voice—voices?—blurring into one unintelligible noise. He felt like he was at the bottom of a well, and the voices were calling down to him. It was almost comical how slow they seemed to be yelling.

His thin legs finally gave out and he hit the floor at the same time his mind went completely blank. He could feel but not see the arms that lifted him,—when had his nurse gotten so strong?—he could hear the noise of the person speaking, though he couldn’t understand it. When had his nurse’s voice gotten so deep?

Naruto felt his heart pump one last, steady time before he felt nothing. His lungs burned as they suddenly ceased to allow him to suck in air. His lips wouldn’t move to form the words he needed to tell the outside world. He was left in the dark of his mind, and he could feel his body beginning to just simply…stop.

Tears padded down his sickly face and he inwardly screamed and raved, ”OPEN YOUR EYES!” Nobody could hear him, and he began panicking when he could no longer hear or feel anything from the outside world. “OPEN YOUR DAMN EYES!” he tried again, his voice cracking and breaking as his mind slowly began to dwindle.

He could feel himself slowly withering and it brought more tears to his eyes. He couldn’t die, not yet. He needed to do more, needed to feel more.

His inner voice no longer functioned, and he realized his brain must slowly be ceasing to function as well. He was left sitting in the confines of his own mind, unable to speak, hear, and feel. He gave up. He accepted it.

Naruto was dying.

Beep, beep, beep.

What the fuck is that noise? Naruto groaned, wanting to cover his ears, but finding himself unable to move. Why was it so loud?

Beep, beep, beep.

“. . . . should be fi. . . . wake up. . .” A voice. Male.

“. . . .long. . .?” Another one. He vaguely recognized it as the one from his apartment.

“. . . .months, if he. . . .” The same voice from before.

They were talking about him. Naruto wanted to open his eyes, to reassure the voices that he was still amongst them. He found that he couldn’t move. It was silent for what seemed like an eternity, though it may have just been seconds. Suddenly a cool hand pressed against his cheek, he wanted to lean into the touch. He couldn’t. A thumb stroked his cheek, tracing the scars it found there.

“Naruto. . .”

Neji! Oh god, I’m here!

“I’m so sorry. . . .”

No, Neji, it’s okay. I get it. But you’re here now so—

“I’ve been so stupid. And now I’m going to lose you.” The words were soft, and full of sorrow, but they hit Naruto like a ton of bricks. Neji continued to caress his face. There was a sudden weight on his chest. He vaguely wondered if Neji were leaning on him, only to realize the warm touch of his ex-boyfriend’s palm was suddenly gone. He could hear the older man’s feet padding against the floors. He tried to call out to him, to let him know that he wasn’t gone—not yet. His voice wouldn’t work, and Neji couldn’t hear his thoughts.

Was this how he was to spend the remainder of his life? Hearing the world around him but never able to interact? How. . . cruel.

~*~*~*~*~

Gaara didn’t panic. As a matter of fact, Gaara was the master at keeping his cool—mostly. He found that any time there was a matter concerning his blond friend; he would go on an emotional tirade. He wondered if that was normal. He was older than the other, by about 6 years, but that didn’t hinder their friendship. The blond boy had helped him to heal after the death of his mother, and he loved Naruto for that. He approached a madman, completing a task that not even his family dared to try.

That being said, when he saw a frantic Neji carry a limp, lifeless blond into his ER, Gaara lost it. Well, inwardly at least. It hadn’t taken the dark-haired male long to get to the hospital—about four or five minutes—but those were precious minutes that Naruto’s brain didn’t receive oxygen. And it took at least seven to resuscitate. So with twelve minutes of no oxygen, no heart beat, it was a miracle that Naruto didn’t have any brain damage.

Regrettably, he did fall into a coma. This was why Gaara was panicked. The Oncologist in his hospital, a snakely man named Orochimaru, had informed Naruto seven months ago that he had no more than a year to live—year and a half if he was lucky. Naruto had been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor that they could not remove surgically do to its size. Removing it would risk damaging the healthy cells around it, and also held too high a risk of death. Only eight percent of the people diagnosed survived.

Naruto had prepared himself to be the other ninety-two percent.

Gaara frowned, watching the retreating back of the long-haired male who had been so frantic over Naruto only moments before. The redhead had just informed him of the time Naruto had left, and that he wasn’t sure if the blond would ever wake up. After Gaara watched a brief, touching—and maddening, if he were to admit it—interaction, he also watched Neji flee with his tail between his legs. Again.

Gaara scowled at the memory of a heartsick blond sobbing over the phone about Neji leaving him.

He wasn’t surprised, though. Neji always seemed to play the part of the coward.

Really, Naruto deserved so much better.

He sighed and stepped up to the side of his blond’s hospital bed. He had read that while in a coma, some people had been able to hear the world around them, and vaguely wondered if Naruto was the same way. “Uh, hi Naruto,” he began awkwardly, brushing a few stray strands of once sunshine-blond hair from the boy’s face. He struggled to find the words he needed to say, unsure of how to word them. “Um. . . hurry up and get better.”

There was a twitch in Naruto’s brow and Gaara wondered if it was a muscle spasm, or if the blond was laughing at his pathetic attempt at soothing him. The redhead couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at his lips at the thought. Grabbing a chair and pulling it up to the side of the bed, Gaara began his awkward one-sided conversation. He stayed that most of the night, simply telling his friend everything he heard about their group, what everyone had been up to. What he had missed.

He didn’t know that Naruto was laughing along with him, or wailing and whining about the things he missed out on.

Well, there’s the first real chapter.
No Neji bashing, Gaara just doesn’t like him, haha.
Please rate and review, dear readers.