The Weakened Crutch

Quick warning: OFC in this chapter. Of no real relevance.

Chapter Four

“Look, I didn’t tell her anything,” Neji said in a voice that was obviously meant to be placating. “but you have to remember, Tsunade is not as stupid as you make her out to be.”
Gaara swiped half of the sandwich off f Neji’s desk and munched on it thoughtfully. Neji sighed. “You know, if you wanted I would make you lunch.”
Gaara looked at him and smiled. “But half the fun of eating your lunch is stealing it from you. If you made me lunch, it wouldn’t be any fun at all. Although I have to admit, you are a very good cook.”
“Go; steal your interns’ food for all I care. Teach them something first, but stop stealing from me. I need to eat. It takes a lot of work to tell people they’re dying, in case you care.”
“I don’t,” Gaara told him as he swiped the other half of his sandwich and marched out of the room with a smug look on his face.

“Duckling Two, where is Duckling One?” Gaara asked, leaning against the doorway of his office.
Sakura jumped out her chair looking surprised and guilty. “Sorry, sir, who?”
“Uzumaki, where is he?”
“In the clinic, I think, sir. Like you told him.” She was shaking where she stood, silly thing.
“Sit down, Haruno. Watching you quiver is giving me a headache.”
It was, however, rather amusing to watch her collapse, boneless, into the chair.

“Good afternoon, Sabaku,” greeted the head nurse.
“Hello, Kurenai,” he replied as amiably as he was capable of being. “How are things in the clinic this evening?”
“Everything’s fine. Unless you’re wondering about your young blond boy-toy?”
Gaara raised an eyebrow. “Something I should know, Kurenai?”
She smiled and thrust a folder into his hands. “He’s a natural.”
Gaara flipped through the case folder and smiled to himself. “Thank you, Kurenai. You always save the most interesting work for me.”
“Well, if I didn’t, you’d never get anything done. As for your duckling, all the nurses love him and he’s good with kids and soothing the nerves of angry parents, unlike some who only serve to antagonize.”
Gaara shrugged. “Who am I to deny my natural talent for annoying people?”
Kurenai shook her head. “Let the boy go home, he’s already worked an hour more than you were scheduled to do.”
Gaara nodded. “The boy has potential.”
Kurenai could only stare after him in shock as he walked through the clinic to get his young intern. Never in all her years of working with the man had she ever heard him praise one of his peers, let alone one of his underlings.

“It’s just a cold, ma’am.” Naruto was saying as Gaara walked into the exam room. Naruto looked up at him, but continued to explain to the anxious mother. “The anti-bodies in breast-milk only protect your baby for the first six months of life, that’s why you are told to get your baby vaccinated. Once she gets her shots she’ll be fine.”
The woman smiled foolishly and looked at her baby guiltily. Gaara shooed her out of the room with a look and a gesture.
“Uzumaki,” Gaara said as the door shut behind the young mother. “Nurse Ratchet out there tells me you’ve been in this room since you got here.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Which means you’ve worked almost an hour and a half more than you needed to, you realize.”
Naruto wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. “Did I do something wrong, sir?”
“Don’t overwork yourself, kid. You’ve done this everyday this week. Go home, take the day off tomorrow.”
Naruto stared, mouth gaping.
“Don’t leer at me, just go. And if you happen to pass by my office tell the pink-haired strumpet sitting there to get her ass home as well. Are we clear?”
“Absolutely, sir,” Naruto told him with an easy grin, and Gaara found himself smiling back. Naruto felt himself fighting the urge to blush. He felt as though he had seen something he shouldn’t have.

“I don’t really understand why you work here,” Neji told Gaara as he took off his lab coat and packed up his briefcase, getting ready to go home. “I mean, if you didn’t want to do the work, you could easily work for any hospital and slide by on reputation alone. So, why work here in a teaching hospital?”
Gaara looked at him thoughtfully and then shrugged. “Go home, Hyuuga. I’m tired of looking at you and your silly hair.”
Neji smiled and did his best to make it look like he wasn’t trying not to laugh. “I take it you have some business to attend to.”
“Some, yes. Nothing that concerns you. Seriously, go home to your wife and have a nice meal like you’re supposed to and I’ll steal your lunch tomorrow.”
Neji Hyuuga left the hospital and went home to his wife. Gaara went down to his patient’s room and got to work.
Outside, it snowed.

When Haruno Sakura came in the next morning, she found her boss asleep at his desk, the dark circles around his eyes more prominent than usual and the patient she hadn’t known he had in his care happily recovering.

Naruto, regardless of what his boss had told him (his very handsome and smiling boss, Naruto couldn’t seem to get the image out of his head) he did not go home.
Back home there was no food in any of the cupboards and the fridge which had begun lurking in its corner some time ago, was well on its way to becoming quite frightening. Back home the door was still trying to fall off its hinges and onto anyone who tried to open it, the springs of his bed and couch dug in uncomfortably to his soft flesh and he was pretty sure the city was getting ready to cut the power and knock the place down.
It didn’t really matter. Naruto owned nothing of any value in that house. He was actually beginning to hope they would tear it down and build a parking lot over its foundations.
So, he went back to Sasuke’s house, uninvited and hoping to hell no one would mind.
When he got there, Sasuke’s car was not in the drive way. Itachi’s flashy beamer sat alone in the open garage. Naruto himself did not own a car, relying on public transit to get him pretty much anywhere he had to go. When the buses failed him, he could rely on the taxi cabs, as he knew pretty much every one of the drivers from his neighborhood.
Naruto rang the bell, not daring to let himself in when Sasuke was not at home. He was surprised when it was Lily—Itachi’s pretty secretary—who opened the door and smiling, let him in.
“Take off your shoes,” she said. “Itachi-san just sat down for dinner. Would you like to join him?”
Naruto fumbled with his shoes and nodded his head in what he hoped was the correct response. Lily smiled at him when he stood upright again, and held out her hand.
“This way then, Naruto-kun,” she said.
Itachi, it seemed, had just sat down to dinner by himself. He glanced up at Naruto, his red eyes glassy and bright, and gestured for Naruto to take a seat.
“Help yourself, Naruto-kun.” His voice was rougher than it should have been, Naruto noticed. And he was pale too.
Lily sat down next to Itachi and took it upon herself to serve him a bit of everything. Itachi nodded his thanks to Lily as she handed his plate back to him and served herself a very small portion of salad.
“Dig in,” Itachi said, instead of the usual grace. Naruto didn’t mind the lack of preamble. Dinner was delicious, although quiet. Itachi wasn’t a talkative person by nature, but it seemed, when he was sick, a strange sort of silence hung over the whole house. The only sounds made at the table were the clicking of cutlery against china plates.
After dinner, Lily, with an unusual crease between her eyebrows took Itachi upstairs. When she came back, still looking nervous and tired, she began clearing the table. It seemed the house-help had gone home, so Naruto offered to help her with the dishes. She smiled and thanked him.
“Is Itachi-san very sick,” Naruto asked around a pile of plates he was bringing into the kitchen.
Lily shrugged her shoulders and took the plates from him, dropping them into the sink and beginning to scrub by hand. “I don’t know. I was told it was just a cold, a little more serious than most, but I’ve never seen Itachi-san sick in my life. I’m worried about him, but I’m sure he’ll be fine. He is an Uchiha, after all.
As if that made everything better.
“There is that, isn’t there,” Naruto agreed as he picked up a towel and began to dry and put dishes away. “You wouldn’t know where Sasuke is, by any chance, would you?”
Lily laughed. “Of course I would. I look after their affairs, remember? He’s in a dinner meeting with some foreign partners.” She turned away from Naruto as she said this, her hair falling over her face. She felt bad for the boy, but there was nothing she could do. Telling the boy the truth would completely destroy him and Sasuke both and she couldn’t bring herself to do such a thing.
Besides that, Itachi-san had specifically instructed her to keep her mouth shut about such things. Itachi had actually taken a liking to his brother’s young boyfriend, and she had to agree that Naruto was a cute kid and had a great personality. She had hoped, when she’d first met him, that he might do Sasuke some good. And in a way, he had. But she also knew that Sasuke would bring the other boy nothing but pain in the long run.
She wished she could tell him the truth, she really did. He didn’t deserve any of this.

Lily had not been necessarily lying about Sasuke’s plans for the evening. He was, in fact, having a dinner meeting with one of the Uchiha Corporation’s foreign partners.
Yamanaka Ino looked as happy and self-satisfied as the cat that had just been fed a meal of fresh cream and steak. Sasuke had fucked her twice already and they hadn’t even gotten to desert yet. Judging from the look on her face, there was no way she would ever say no to one of his business proposals again.
In truth, that was why he was here with Ino tonight. As beautiful as the girl was, she held no interest for him beyond the monetary gain partnering with her company might bring him. But that was only if he played his cards right and she played along.
Up until now he had had some difficulty convincing her to conform to his plans for her and her family’s company. But considering the way she was slumped in her chair now, that would never be a problem again.
“Would you like to sign the contract now, or should we wait until after dessert?” Sasuke asked, his voice like whisky and melted chocolate.
Ino purred under his scrutiny. “Let’s wait until after dessert,” she decided as she leaned in to kiss Sasuke again.
Just as he thought, she was eating right out of his hand.

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Lola Note: I’m still not sure what I’m doing with this fic and I’m still pretty sure it’s more “House” than I want it to be, but alas.
If you see any way this fic might be improved, please drop me a line and let me know.
As always, I encourage good reviews, bad reviews, love letters, hate mail, suggestions and any and all comments. I look forward to hearing from you.