Not every thing is as it seems.

Assumptions

A/N yes i know it's been like three months. But i moved to japan and that is a pain in the ass! The navy sends us over here all the time, one would think that they would at least know what there doing.
Wait its the navy, knowleadge is not their strong point.
Anywho, sorry for the wait.


Naruto rushed to the side of the bloody bath tub. Pressing his fingers to Sasukes neck, checking for a pulse. Feeling only a faint tremble under his fingers. Cursing, Naruto dipped his hands in to the red water and removed the Uchihas bleeding wrists.
Fresh bursts of blood trailed down the pale arms to stain the bath water an even deeper crimson hue then it already was. Heart in his throat, Naruto slid his hands up the pale flesh to where the blood escaped Sasuke. Pressing his palms to the gushing cuts, Naruto focused.

Healing was not his forte. He had to learn the basic healing jutsu to be able to mend minor cuts in order to join ANBU. Sakura had tried her best to teach him, but most shinobi honed their skills by healing themselves. Something he almost never had to do.
Something he regretted at the moment.

Tan palms flared a week green chakra and the blond gasped at the effort just that small amount required. Seeing the green waver at his momentary break, he concentrated on sending it in to the slashed flesh. Face set in to a grimace from the strain as he forced himself to focus on the minute amounts needed to heal.

He could manipulate massive amounts of chakra. It was always when he had to use a small amount that he blundered and had difficulty. Just concentrating on an area the size of his foot had been a difficult task when training. Now he was trying to get one cell to reconnect to the one next to it and not destroy it by overloading it with to much chakra at once.

Sweat gathered on his brow and slowly the blood dripping down Sasukes arms, tapered in to a trickle. He was no medic, but he managed to close the gaping cut to the vein on each of the Uchihas wrists .

The green chakra faded from his hands that shook from the stain of preforming the justu. Sasukes wrists were still laid open, still bled in little rivers down his pale arms. It just no longer bled in pulses that matched his heart beat. The slices now just non fatal flesh wounds.

Taking a deep breath to clear his head. Naruto set the wrists he held, back in to the warm water. He checked for a pulse at the too pale neck, before scooping Sasuke up in to his arms. Staggering under Sasuke’s weight as the wet raven hair plastered against his cheek from the head now on his shoulder. Bloody bath water drenched and stained his clothes he maneuvered his heavy burden to the bedroom. His feet slid and slipped on the soaked floor and he struggled to not bash Sasuke in to the doorway, or the dresser that sat against the wall just outside it. Setting the bloody, limp form on the new mattress and not giving a damn that Sasuke was making a red stain on it.

Panting lightly from the exertion of carrying a man who weighed more then he did. Naruto leaned on the bed next to his incapacitated ex-friend. Brushing the dark hair that had splayed out over the still face, back behind an ear.

‘So surreal when sleeping.’

Naruto jerked his hand away and wiped it on his pants. Shifting from one foot to the other then turning around and returning to the soaked bathroom. Naruto grabbed two hand towels from under the sink and wrapped them around the still bleeding wrists. Tying them tightly to ensure that there was pressure on the wounds.

‘No. There was nothing in return. Looks aren’t everything.’

Naruto paused, taking deep breaths. Heart pounding in his ears as he remembered all the emotional turmoil and pain of the last few months. His shirt stuck annoyingly to his chest, his pant were starting to chafe and he bolted to the kitchen where the phone was mounted to the wall next to the fridge.

Sasuke... He needed help. Much more then what Naruto knew he could offer.

Never having much use for the phone in the past, he ripped through the drawers in the horribly clean kitchen until he found the phone book.

Flipping through the thin pages that stuck to his wet fingers until he came to ‘Haruno’ and dialed the number next to the name.

Fidgeting as the phone rang. Leaning over as far as the short cord would let him and looking in to his bedroom. Seeing only one pale bare leg on the barren bed as he thrummed his fingers on the counter nervously.

Waiting as the phone rang for the third time.

The sweet voice of the girl he admired most came on and Naruto jumped in to action. Talking fast and having to repeat himself more then once in his hurry. Hanging up and running back to the room to check on Sasuke.

The Uchiha had not moved and Naruto paused in the door way. Ashamed almost for his worry. He could see the chest rise and fall with each breath. The way the wet raven hair clumped and stuck to the slumbering face. The pale body laying on its side, knees slightly bent in like he was instinctively trying to curl up. That in Sasuke’s nudity, Uchiha Jr dangled in the open for all to see. His legs at an angle that provided no modesty at all.

Turning to the dresser, Naruto opened the top drawer and removed a pair of boxers. Now, if was him being found under any circumstances by a pretty girl. Let alone one he was friends with and had to see again. He would want to at least be covered. Not out of shame, just that, well, some things were best left to the imagination.

Also there was something about Sakura seeing Sasuke naked that he just did not like. Even under these circumstances.

Sliding the happy pink and bright green fabric he had selected up the cream legs that retained a tint of red from the bathwater. Naruto lifted Sasuke’s hips a tad, to pull the shorts over his bum, not caring if he pinched one of the boys, but just wanting to cover them up.

A curt knock resounded from his front door as he set the Uchiha down then Sakura’s voice rang out.

“Naruto? I came as fast as I could.”

“In here.”

Naruto stepped back away from Sasuke. Lest she walk in and find him with his hands on the hem of the only article of clothing Sasuke was wearing. Sure she knew that there had been something going on between them. But he did not want her to continue thinking that there was still something there.

‘Because there isn’t.’

Sakura marched in to the room and Naruto watched her face fall when she saw Sasuke. Then as her features shifted into her working mask.

If emotions could cloud the judgments of shinobi. Then it went doubly so for the medics that fixed them up after the mission was complete. The clench of fear and worry at the sight of seeing a friend torn and bleeding had to be shut out so that they could still do their job.

Sakura’s clothes were rumpled and her pink hair wet. The sent of recently applied and hastily rinsed shampoo wafted around the room to tease Narutos nose as she passed him on the way over to the bedside.

With care, she removed the impromptu terry cloth bandages. Setting the cloth next to Sasuke’s head and examining the slashes.

“You healed the veins?”

She did not look up from her position next to Sasuke, hands flaring up their confident shade of green. Her voice the sterile tone she used when her mask was in place.

“Yes.”

“You did a good job. But the boxers you put on him are just ridiculous.”

Naruto’s face tinted pink. Whatever it was that he and Sasuke had. It was not a relationship or anything else that focused on them caring for each other. There was no warm mushy-ness, no ‘let me get that for you’s. Sasuke had fucked him, that was about it and it was over. Now Sakura, or any one else might think that doing such a thing for a person might mean that there was indeed feelings there.
Something he really did not want her to think there was.

Leaning back and crossing his arms across his chest Naruto tried his best to scowl at her.

“How did you know it was me that put them on him? He could of done it himself.”

This time she turned around to look at him. Eyebrows arching at the sight of his scowl consumed face. She wiped the blood from her hands on to one of the towels and set it on the bed next to her.

“The bathtub is still full of bloody water and most people get naked to take a bath. Besides he’s still wet and the shorts are dry.”

Sakura stood up, walked over to the small linen closet and pulled out some sheets.

“Grab a towel and dry him off. I’ll make the bed so your new mattress won’t be destroyed.”

“So he’s going to live then?”

He meant it as a joke, to get her to drop her mask, but when she turned to look at him there was a odd look in her eyes. Like she suddenly remembered that he and Sasuke were not on good terms with each other. Odd in itself because she had a spot on memory.

“Can he stay here, or do you want me to take him to the hospital?”

Naruto fidgeted, in a way he felt bad. He was still mad about the way Sasuke treated him and confused about what had just happened. The sex and the suicide attempt.

“He should go to the hospital. They can better take care of him.”
That and he was sure Sasuke needed to see a shrink. A whole slew of them working full time just on him. He felt bad, but he knew that he had done nothing to push Sasuke to take his life.

He knew that, but his guts still squirmed and tried to convince him otherwise. All he did was stop whatever perverse relationship they had, yes. Then try to have sex with him, ok, but it was instigated by Sasuke. Still the internal convincing was falling short, much like Saukra’s face he was intently watching.

Sakura’s arms slumped and she let her face fall in to a frown that Naruto believed a girl as pretty and smart as she, should never have. Slowly she folded the bed sheets she had pulled out and Naruto scratched his head.

She saw worse stuff in the hospital then a set of self inflicted slashes on a friend. Hell, the time Shino tried to go swimming and his bugs staged a mutiny was enough to send most seasoned medics in to heaves. Yet she had treated him without a flinch. So nothing on the medical side was upsetting her. That just left the personal.

“Did you want him to stay here?”

She looked at him, green eyes moist with tears that tore holes into his heart.

“It would have been inevitable that he went anyway Naruto. So it is best that he is taken to the hospital.”

Sakura put the sheet back in to the linen closet and walked the short way to the phone. Naruto listening in as she called the hospital and gave the medics the report. She sounded...numb.
Like she was on auto-pilot, going about her tasks without letting her emotions out or else they would overcome her. Or they already had, he wasn’t sure.

She had liked Sasuke. Obsessed over him for the larger part of 2 years. She could be taking it worse then he thought. Or maybe the thought of indomitable Sasuke committing suicide was throwing her for a loop.

Naruto admitted he too felt odd. Like the gravity of what Sasuke did, still hadn’t hit him yet. Sure he had wanted Sasuke to leave him alone. But not to kill himself or hurt himself at all. How he felt kept swinging around in circles. One moment he would be mad at Sasuke for doing this, the next worried, the next trying to figure out what he had done to cause it or how he could of stopped him.

Then mad again for thinking that.

Sakura drifted back in to the room. Jerking him out of his mindless circles with her saddened voice.

“They’ll be here soon to pick him up.”

‘Why did she have to say it like it was the morgue picking him up?’

Sakura turned to look at the Uchiha on the bed, eye brimmed with unshed tears. Naruto walked up behind her. Grabbed her arm and spun her so that she was facing him, then wrapped his arms around her before she could protest and embraced her tightly.

There was a tense moment and for a second Naruto thought he had figured wrong and would now be slapped away. Instead Sakura let her hands grab the back of his soaked shirt and her shoulders shook as she cried in his arms.

For once Naruto was right about something and he got to hug Sakura for it. So there was some good left in the world. The joy left as a sob made it to his ears. A mimic to the one Sasuke had made before. Lowering his head to her shoulder, a sigh escaped his lips.

Here he was holding the girl of his dreams and he was to worried about the bastard to properly enjoy it. The smell of her hair was blotted out by the sent of blood. The well formed body he held shifted in to the soaked, lifeless one he pulled from the tub.

Shuttering, he held on tighter for a second. He might hate Sasuke. Loath him, detest him, but Naruto did not want him dead.

Sakura pulled away after a few minutes, wiped her face and slumped down on to the corner of the bed.

“You know what the last thing I said to him was? I told him that I didn’t give a damn about him anymore. That if he stepped out of line with anybody, let alone you, I would report him for mental incapacity and have him pulled from the active shinobi list. I knew he was upset about something, but all I did was yell at him! I slapped him even. What if you did not find him in time? What if that was the last thing I ever said to him?”

Naruto sighed, the last thing he had said to Sasuke was nothing more then some inarticulate moans derived from a blowjob. He felt guilty too. He should have done something. Stopped earlier, not let him continue, or..or something.

A tear ran down Sakura’s cheek and he used his thumb to wipe it away.

“I did find him in time and you will get to talk his ears off in the hospital. You did nothing to cause him to do this. Your talking to him was something he needed to hear. Something he probably already knew was coming. I thank you for saying it. Don’t blame yourself for his actions.”

Sakura smiled weakly at him and he smiled in return. Heart doing a double beat as he sat down next to her on the bed. So close, his leg brushed hers. When she started to say something he turned to look at her and found he was mere inches from her beautiful face. Whatever it was she was going to say dyed on her lips and Naruto slowly leaned forward.

The resounding booms as someone pounded on the door made them both look toward the door at the same time and she jumped up to let the medics in to retrieve Sasuke.

Naruto let out a exasperated sigh over what had almost happened. So close, one more second and his lips would of touched hers. Her perfect cherry colored lips would of been against his hand he would of kissed her. Kissed her like there was no tomorrow, or maybe get slapped away. Either or, he had almost kissed her.

Naruto still sat on the foot of the bed, mind indulging in scenarios about if he had kissed her, when Sakura returned flanked by the two medics. All at once she was herself again asking him curtly to stand out of the way to not interfere. No longer the girl who had been crying on his shoulder but the head medic. Second only to Shizune and the two medics heeded her every command. Wrapping Sasuke in a spare blanket pilfered from his closet then putting him on the stretcher. Naruto stood in the corner to stay out of their way. Following as the men marched out, the Uchiha suspended between them secured to the gurney. Sakura looked back to him as she stepped out.

“Are you coming?”

A smile ripped across his face and she blushed, turned and left, closing the door behind herself.

Leaving Naruto alone in his apartment. Wet shirt still sticking to him and bathtub full of bloody water. He wanted to change, then he figured he would go to the hospital.

It was the right thing to do, wasn’t it?

To tell the ass that he did not want him to die. That was mostly for his own conscious, to clear himself of his lingering doubts. But it would be beneficial for Sasuke to see the people that wanted him alive.

The smile he had shot Sakura faded in to a frown as he walked to the gory tub.

He did want Sasuke alive, just not around him.

A lump settled in his stomach as he drained and rinsed the bath tub. Picking up the kunai he found on the bottom once the water had resided. His emotions were still battling it out over how he should feel and react to all this. Setting the blade on the sink top Naruto washed his hands and went in to the bedroom. Stomach growling as he pulled a fresh shirt over his head. Informing him that the last time he ate was a long time ago and it object to being ignored like this.

Going to the kitchen to riffle through the cupboards filled with cans and box’s holding strange foodstuffs. Settling on a box that had a picture of noodles that almost resembled ramen. Naruto followed the directions and left the small pot on the stove so it could boil or do what ever it was supposed to do. Setting his small timer he had for 15 minutes.

‘Ramen only takes 2 minutes. This stuff better be good for all the extra time it takes.’

Grunting, the blond turned to his destroyed living room. He was never one for cleaning but if he intended to ever use the room again he should at least put the furniture back in to their proper locations. Moving the couch and the end tables so that they again faced the TV. Using the phone book to prop up a leg that had been broken. Throwing out the collapsed coffee table and boarding up the hole in the wall made when he had inadvertently put his fist through it.

Naruto flopped down on his couch, slapping dust and splinters off of his shirt from the wrecked coffee table. Grabbing the remote that had been flung to the far corner of the room and flipping through the channels. The TV had remained on for all of it, the history channel now showing something about the Queen of Manchuria.

Naruto gave up trying to find anything interesting on the second pass and stopped at a soap opera. 3 minutes still left till the whatever it was he was cooking, was done. Grunting out of irritation, Naruto watched as the screen flicked back from commercial.

A woman with perfect make up on, lay in a hospital bed and cheesy dramatic music played as a manly actor wearing lip gloss walked in.
The woman gushed at his entrance and Naruto sniggered at her poor acting.

“Oh Johnny, you came! I knew you would.”

The woman looked all doe eyed at Johnny who stood maybe a step in to the room. Face set in to what should of been an angry grimace, but it was ruined by the shine of the lip gloss he was wearing.

“I only came to say that your tricks wont work on me anymore Rhea. I know why you did it. You took those sleeping pills then called 911 so I would come rushing in here. You thought that maybe if I saw you all helpless and felt sorry for you then I would take you back. But I won’t! I’m tired of your schemes, of your little plans to make do what you want. We’re through. Do you hear me? We’re done.”

Johnny turned on his heal and marched out of the room. Giving a little hair flip at the last moment before disappearing down the hall.

Rhea straitened in her hospital bed and scowled as soon as the hair flip was over.

“We’re done when I say we are. I’ll get you back Johnny. You know I will.”

More dramatic music as the show jumped to show another couple arguing and Naruto turned the tv off.

What if Sasuke was just trying to make him feel sorry to get him to come back?

Naruto shook his head. Sasuke was a manipulative prick, but would he stoop so low? Leaning back on his couch the blond thought about it.

90 percent of suicides take place in a private place, alone. There was always the guy who would jump off a bridge, but that was not Sasuke. The Uchiha was a closed off person, if he was going to take his life it would probably be by seppuku at the place his parents were killed.

Or something like that.

So why would he cut his wrists in a tub, his tub, sure to be found?


Sasuke knew he would look in on him. The Uchiha may be a uber asshole but Naruto was not. Sasuke or anybody that knew him would know that he would try to help. That he would rush in and try to save him.

Then what would he do?

He would rush to the hospital, making sure they’re ok. Be all fidgety and worried, trying to find out what happened to drive them to do this. Tearing himself up to see if there was something he could of done to stop them from feeling like death was the only way. Trying to get them to not do it again.

Naruto made a fist and swore. Sasuke wanted to be found, by him. So that he would be all upset and wanting to do whatever he could to prevent Sasuke from trying to take his life. Which would give Sasuke an advantage over him. And he had almost done it too.

‘Stupid, stupid, stupid! I played right in to his hand. Just what he wanted. Aaaah!!’

Basking in the sudden urge to choke someone, Naruto grabbed his vest from the kitchen chair and started for the door. Plaining to murder any training dummy he came across. Grabbing the door nob he jerked it open then slammed it behind himself. Making it to the corner just as the buzzer for his food went off.

The sun had already set and most of the populace was tucked away in their beds. Naruto marched passed a bar holding the familiar form of the pervert hermit and continued marching until he reached one of the fenced off areas.

Leaping over the fence without difficulty Naruto found the area filled with oversized snakes and started to massacre them. By the time the sun came up there was not a snake left and so Naruto practiced precision and form on a dummy crudely made to look like a certain Uchida. Throwing kunai and needles to hit the vital areas over and over then getting mad when he missed and using a rasengan to destroy the dummy.

Panting from the exertion, sweat dripping from his brow his stomach grumbled again and the blond flopped down. Laying on the grass and looking up at the clouds as they passed slowly over head. Morning was in full swing and birds were chirping as they dipped and dived on the air currents.

Sasuke was the biggest asshole he had ever met.

Manipulative, selfish, arrogant and an all around jerk..

There was no way he was ever going to go see him in the hospital. Hopefully he never saw him again. He was to nice to say he hoped he would die... but falling off the face of the planet was a viable option.

Naruto’s stomach growled again, more ferocious then ever.

Slowly picking himself of the ground, Naruto stretched so he would not cramp up. Mid calf stretch the thought of boiling noodles came to mind.

“Fuck!!!!!! I left the stove on!!!!!”

Lurching forward, the blond sprinted out of the enclosed area. Leaping the fence and bolting towards his apartment. Stomach dropping to his toes when he saw the trail of black smoke drifting up in the general area of his place.

Rounding the corner, he spotted the fire truck and his ever-angry land lady. She stood with her face pinched in to an even uglier scowl then usual and hand on her well fleshed hips. Slowing to a walk the last few steps. Naruto watched the fire men in full gear come out of his apartment, dragging hoses and telling the crowd that the fires out and the show is over.

As his landlady pounced on the fireman, demanding a full report. Naruto took the opening and darted in to the smoke filled building. Scouting the damage done and avoiding the hags wrath for a few moments longer.

Smoke still drifted up and out of the doorway, the living room was clogged with the stuff. Then the kitchen.... was just a black scorch mark.

The dilapidated cupboards hung charred to the walls. Every inch having been consumed by the fire. Blacked cans littered the floor, contents bursting the metal when the fire boiled them. The stove was nothing more then a metal husk and the wall behind it was burned through.

For some miracle, only the old, ugly linoleum floored kitchen burned. The bedroom and living room were fine, smoky, but fine.
The blond set his hand on the destroyed counter top. Feeling the heat that remained in his battle calloused hand.

He wanted to move anyway. To start over, elsewhere. To get away from everything that had happened here. He was more then ready for some change.

Letting out a disgruntled sigh, Naruto turned and left the charred room.

He would not be Sasuke’s pawn to be toyed with and leaving here would be just like leaving all that behind him. Going on to bigger and better, things and friends.

Making up his mind, Naruto walked right up to his landlady mid screech and before she could flay him. Said he would pay in full for the repairs on the condition she let him out of his lease.

Two days later, savings gone, never onec going to the hospital, Naruto stood in his new house. Closer to the hokage tower and lager by over half. His stuff looked grubby in the new place and had a smoky scent but he didn’t care.

Moving and arranging for his last apartments needed repairs gave him something other than Sasuke’s games to think about. Adjusting the old TV so he could see it from his couch, Naruto settled in.
Shifting to find a comfy position then flopping back to look at the freshly painted ceiling.

‘God this place is nice’

The living room reached out to a rectangular kitchen, a full kitchen, not like the kitchenette he had before. There was a hall that led to the two bedrooms, one side of it having folding panels to hid the washer, drier, water heater and so on.. Then the bathroom, oh god the bathroom must of been made with a shinobi in mind. Large and with a huge tub he could properly soak in.

It was glorious, and even better was that it was all his.

New and untainted, it was perfect.

The sun shone through the large window and his view, no longer of the dumpsters, looked over a small garden next to the walk in. Shading his eyes and groaning as the light made it hard to see the TV. Groaning, the blond stood and walked to the curtains. Spotting a familiar pink haired friend coming up the short walkway.

Opening the door moments before she knocked. Smiling from ear to ear as she looked startled for a second at the abrupt opening.

“Can I come in?”

Backing up, he held the door open for her, grin still plastered across his face.

“So what do you think of the place?”

“It’s nice Naruto.”

“Aw come on it’s more then nice. It’s new and everything works and bigger. You should see the tub. This place is great! Here let me show you.”

Grabbing her hand he started to lead he to the bathroom to show her the huge bath tub.

Sakura pulled her hand away from his and Naruto turned around and smiled.

“I just wanted to show you, I wasn’t thinking about anything dirty.”

That was a lie, a vision of bathroom lovemaking had popped in to his head. One were he got to kiss her as she turned to say something, then that led to...

“Sasuke isn’t doing to well.”

Naruto shook his head to clear it of the lust filled daydream. The simmering pot of anger he had shoved to the back burner for the move, lurched to the forefront again. Sasuke was ruining it again, and this time he wasn’t even here.

“I know that he and you... that you two were fighting. That you are mad at him for hurting you like that. But can you please go to the hospital?”

His body went ridged at the question, the angry simmer turned in to a boil.

‘Did Sasuke send her to get me? I bet he did the ass wipe.’

Closing his eyes for a moment then focusing the brilliant blues on to Sakura.

“No. After everything that happened. Now this... I can’t just go running back to him. I won’t let him fool me anymore.”

She was looking at him and shaking her head.

“Fool you? What are you talking about?”

The anger surged up like a tidal wave. Making him clench his fists as he stood looking at the girl he wanted. Who would normally melt him with a look.

“He’s trying to make me feel bad so I come running back! He’s always doing things like that. Tricking me in to thinking I have to stay. That I have to put up with it. WELL I WON’T! I ‘ve had enough of his damn mind games and of his using people to get to me. So if you don’t mind. Go run back to his bedside side because I won’t be joining you!”

Sakuras face flushed as she took in the harsh tone and the unexpected resentment in every word.

“Naruto he...”

“There is more to life them just Sasuke! All you ever do, everything you’ve ever done, was for him! Now you’re his little messenger girl. I thought you had more integrity then that! If you can’t see past his looks then you’re just a ditz. And I have no time for helpless girls fawning over assholes they’ll never get. Sasuke never cared about you. He sure as hell never cared about me. He’s just a jerk off that would stage a suicide just so I would find him and feel bad!”

Naruto stood fists at his side, chakra ready for anything. Watching as Sakura stood shaking. He could feel her chakra brace and surge in little pulses. The angry look on her face betraying how his words affected her.

“Naruto... you idiot! He didn’t want to fool you, he wanted to die! He still wants to die! He’s tried it three more times in the last to days! Your such a moron sometimes!”

Naruto watched as the girl of his dreams turned on her heal and glowered away. Damn near ripping the door off when she jerked it open, then turning to as him again.

“Their going to send him to the Yakizu mental hospital in two days if he doesn’t stop and once there you’ll never have to deal him again because they won’t let him back out! So if you don’t mind, I have to go be a ditz and try to save him from himself! I had thought that maybe you were a good enough person to see past all the grief he gave you and that maybe you would help. But no, Naruto go back and soak in the big bath tub. He’s just your best friend, let him die or be carted off to that horrible place.”

Sakura finished her tirade, slamming the door behind herself so he could not get a single word in.

Running his hand through his unruly blond hair, Naruto looked up at his nice new ceiling.

“Well fuck, I was wrong.”