Nameless Desires

Nameless Desires


Chapter Six: Kyuubi's Experiments


"Just finish explaining this, please," Naruto said, a resigned note in his voice. Sasuke nodded, but he hesitated, looking away.

"Will you first tell me about what happened? You never got around to telling me about what happened with Kyuubi, and what he," Sasuke swallowed, "what he said and did to you on that day." It was Naruto's turn to look away. Naruto hesitated for a moment, but he had promised, and he wasn’t sure if he would want to stick around after Sasuke finished his part of the story. He decided to tell Sasuke everything.

"I did promise you I would eventually, didn't I? Well, here goes..."

- - - - - - - - - - - -


Naruto woke up in the middle of the night, lying on Sasuke's bed, suddenly wide-awake, as something felt strangely and terribly wrong. He idly wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that he was still uncertain about what had happened between him and Sasuke before they had headed to bed, and wondered if Sasuke had been really just helping him get off before, or if Sasuke had something else in mind. Naruto rolled over onto his side with the intent of waking Sasuke up and discussing this with him, when he realized Sasuke wasn't there. Naruto’s feeling of panic mounted.

The strange surge of panic that had flared up within Naruto died just as suddenly when he realized that Sasuke was probably down in his art gallery. Yet why, why did something feel horribly wrong?

Flinging the covers off of himself, he slipped out of bed, walking barefoot across the room. Sasuke's room was on the fifth floor, and the entrance to the hidden room was on the third. Naruto began his trek down to flights of steps as he grumbled to himself about stupid people who can't stay asleep all night as he reached the landing on the third floor, only to hear muffled sounds downstairs in the kitchen.

Naruto sighed, and turned to head down the other flights of stairs, wondering if Sasuke would put an elevator in the place, not even bothering to look down the hallway of the third floor, or he would have seen the dim light above the door to the entrance of the hidden room was on, and the door indeed open...

Grumbling to himself now about stupid people and their need to eat in the middle of the night, Naruto huffed down the stairs, muttering to himself in order to help shake off the strange feeling of unease.

"Oi, teme! You should have woken me up too. You know I like to eat," Naruto hollered as he pounded down the last flight of stairs, muttering about the need for elevators to save time, even though he usually enjoyed exerting his energy running up and down the stairs.

The house was eerily silent except for the noises coming from the kitchen. As soon as he reached the base of the steps the noises stopped. Naruto's foot hung in mid-air, as though his body had refused to take the next step for him, an unexplainable fear gripping him. The living room was completely dark, and Naruto knew that Sasuke liked to save energy and all, but he would have at least turned on the light to the living room, right? Maybe the light from the stair well had been enough for him to see in the kitchen, even across the vast expanse of the living room? His hand shaking, Naruto flickered on the light switch by the stairs, the lights flashing on. Naruto looked around him suddenly, as though afraid somebody was going to attack him once the darkness they had been hiding in had disappeared.

"I'm being paranoid with all this Kyuubi nonsense," Naruto muttered to himself when he saw nothing, finally placing his foot down on the carpet of the living room floor. Still, his steps were slow and deliberate as he crossed the large living room, cursing for the first time at how big Sasuke's house was. He wished the kitchen light were on so he could look into it better because he couldn’t make out where Sasuke was.

As he drew closer, Naruto frowned. He should have been able to see Sasuke by now, as close as he was, even if just the living room light was on. Suddenly, Naruto’s sense of fear and panic began to grow as he realized that the reason that he was unable to see Sasuke in the kitchen was not because it was too dark; he couldn’t see Sasuke because Sasuke wasn’t there.

"Sasuke?" Naruto called out feebly, wondering if Sasuke was tricking him. "This isn't funny!" Naruto called out a little more boldly as he stepped his foot into the kitchen. A noise to his right made him turn, and Naruto literally jumped. He realized it was coming from the other side of the kitchen island placed between the fridge and the table. He couldn't see what was making the noise, and for some horrible reason, Naruto didn't want to take another step forward, fearing what he would see on the floor of the kitchen.

"Sasuke?" Naruto called out again tentatively, but Sasuke didn't answer him.

Naruto looked around him, glancing back towards the door that seemed miles away across the wide living room, and even the stairs on the other part of the room seemed so far away.

Now, Naruto let fear and panic take over. His body was tense, and he was paralyzed in his terror. Then, his fear took on a more personal form, as he realized that maybe it was Sasuke, lying out of his sight behind the kitchen's island counter, unable to move, and here Naruto was, unwilling to help him.

Swallowing, Naruto forced his body to move, forced himself to take a few more steps forward to see what was behind the counter, to see what was making those noises.

"Ah!" Naruto screamed as he saw something blood red on the floor, and Naruto scampered half a foot before he got up the nerve to see what it was. Naruto stood rooted to the spot as he took another look at the floor, his eyes adjusting to the slightly darker kitchen, and then nearly cried from relief. A red fox looked up at him expectantly. The thing had somehow managed to get a piece of meat from the freezer, tearing away at it every now and then, making a bloody mess with the raw meat. It seemed to be making the banging noises as it picked up the meat in its enthusiastic jaws, biting into it, but not always ripping off a piece cleanly right away. Once it had, the entire hunk of meat would fall back to the ground, the bone in it clanking horribly against the tiled kitchen floor.

"You scared the shit out of me," Naruto sighed, wondering how the hell the fox had gotten inside of Sasuke's house. "How'd you get in here?" Naruto asked, his heartbeat slowing down as he turned to look and see if the door was ajar.

"I let him in here." Naruto froze. As he had turned to look at the door, he found that a very familiar person blocked his line of vision. A very unwelcome person. "Hello Naruto-kun. It's been a while." That was the last thing Naruto remembered before he felt a sharp searing pain in his head, and then he saw nothing but darkness...

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"You were in your art studio though, weren't you?" Naruto asked, pausing in his narrative.

"Yeah. I couldn't sleep. I had thought about waking you up, but you looked so peaceful. I wish I had asked you to come with me," Sasuke said bitterly.

"But you heard something, didn't you?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, but not until you were out of the house..."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Sasuke had woken up from a disturbing dream, but for the first time, the nightmare had not been about his past, but rather his future. He couldn't quite remember the dream, but he knew it had had something to do with Naruto. Feeling rattled, Sasuke turned in bed to face Naruto, about to wake him up, and then thought better of it. He felt foolish. He shouldn't be waking up Naruto when Naruto had been having such a terrible week, and he finally seemed to be sleeping. Instead, Sasuke got out of bed and headed down to his art studio, hoping that his uneasy mood would pass.

As Sasuke finished a sketch that he had started of Naruto earlier that day, his stomach clenching and unclenching, a tight pain coiling in the pit of his stomach. For a second, Sasuke felt that he was going to be physically ill. He doubled over, but nothing came up. The pain had come and gone in a matter of seconds, and Sasuke was rather confused as to what had caused his strange and random burst of nausea.

Then, he heard something that made his blood chill. One - two - three gunshots rang muffled from somewhere above him. Panicking, Sasuke dropped his sketch and bounded up the steps, out of the hidden entrance to the art studio, and then bounded up the two flights of steps towards his bedroom.

"Naruto!" Sasuke hollered, panicked. He ran into the room. A glance across the bed and seeing that Naruto was not there made Sasuke turn and practically fly down the stairs. "Naruto!" Sasuke yelled again, dashing across the living room, glancing over the room to the kitchen, freezing as he saw something that looked horribly like blood smeared across his kitchen floor. Sasuke stepped tentatively toward it, then noticed that the trail of blood led from his kitchen floor, little splatters here and there across the rug. The trail seemed to lead out his front door. Hesitating for only a second longer, Sasuke burst out his house.

As he dashed out onto his front lawn, he slipped on the wet grass in his bare feet, wondering where the hell the policemen that were supposed to be guarding him and Naruto were. He turned, looking around wildly, then heard the sound of a car speeding away, followed by blaring sirens and another set of screeching tires as the police car sped off.

Sasuke thought he might have a heart attack. He felt utterly alone as he realized, in dawning horror that Naruto had been abducted.

Taken by Kyuubi, no doubt.

The thought sickened Sasuke, and he really did throw up this time. Sasuke spat afterwards, ridding his mouth of the little residue of bile still left in it. He swiped his hand across the back of his mouth in disgust.

Then, to his horror, he saw something that looked terribly like a body lying in his front lawn. He stepped toward it, praying to kami-sama that it wasn’t Naruto. Getting closer, Sasuke noticed it was one of the police officers. His body lay crumbled, his hand still clutching his gun in his hand, his eyes unseeing.

Sasuke threw up again.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Naruto woke up groggily, the side of his head throbbing horribly. He tried to reach a hand up to massage his aching head, but his hand wouldn't move. It was then that he realized he was tied to a chair, sitting in a room that looked vaguely like a hospital room.

Naruto tugged at the ropes that bound him, and found that he could move neither his arms nor his legs which had both been tied to the legs of the chair.

"Ah, you're awake." Naruto turned his head to look at the man that was sitting slightly behind him, staring directly into the eyes of Kyuubi.

"Mother fucker!" Naruto spat at him.

"You're wound is healing nicely," Kyuubi said conversationally, as though Naruto had not just spat at him, his tone suggesting the casualness as one who was commenting on a new shirt. Kyuubi moved his chair to sit in front of Naruto.

"Let me go, murderer!" Naruto demanded. Kyuubi gripped a clipboard in his hand and began to write.

"Firery spirit. Seems coherent after an hour of being unconscious. Drugs appear to wear off more quickly with this patient than the others. I was going to let you sleep before we started, but I’m just so excited to get started," Kyuubi said aloud as he wrote all of this down on his clipboard.

Another wave of panic swept over Naruto, remembering what Officer Akimichi had said about him.

"He'd been giving them different types of poisons, subjected them to different types of electrical shock therapy, and even amputated certain body parts to see how they would react from having the mutated parasites in them. It was horrible..."

"What am I, you're guinea pig?" Naruto demanded. Kyuubi looked up at Naruto, a frown upon his face.

"Of course not Naruto-kun. I baby-sat you. I fed you. I think that you and I, after sometime with these experiments, will be good friends," Kyuubi said as he smiled at him. Naruto gave him a horrible sneer.

"You killed my parents. You killed off all the other people you experimented on and dealt drugs to," Naruto hissed.

"The follies of my youth," Kyuubi agreed. "Your parents were a sad tragedy. I shouldn't have gotten high. That was my error. I have changed my ways. I know that that was wrong. I need to right the world. I will not kill you Naruto, nor was it my intent to kill off those that I experimented on before. But you see, all of them, except you, were drug-addicts, like I was once myself. It was less of a threat to the rest of the world if I experimented on them, don't you see? Some of them, like me, had changed their ways and no longer did drugs. I made sure to take extra care of them. They didn't die."

"What about their family members? Their friends?" Naruto yelled.

"Oh, poor Naruto-kun. Don't you understand? They were necessary sacrifices. I didn't want to kill them either, but they were getting in the way. It is sad though isn't it?" Kyuubi asked conversationally.

"You're a sick, twisted, selfish fuck," Naruto spat again, disgusted.

"Such an unkind thing to say Naruto-kun. I am not unselfish. See this fox here?" Kyuubi asked, pointing at the fox that had been in Sasuke's kitchen earlier. It was curled up over in a corner, apparently asleep. "This little fox snuck into one of my hideouts and ate all of my food. Even though I was angry, I didn't throw the starving thing out. No, I gave it a string of the parasite I placed in you. Wasn't that kind of me? It will protect it from being hurt, and it heals remarkably fast, faster than humans even. Watch!" Kyuubi said delightedly, as he took a gun from his pocket.

"No!" Naruto yelled. His shout woke up the fox that looked around, and seemed to cower in fear at Kyuubi before a gunshot rang out.

Naruto turned his head away, not wanting to see the little fox's mangled body. Even with his eyes closed, Naruto could still hear the whimpers of the fox, and he could picture in his mind's eye the poor creature's body shaking in pain.

"Oh, Naruto-kun. He's fine," Kyuubi said, sounding almost exasperated with Naruto's antics. Naruto, despite his better judgment, opened his eyes to look at the fox. There, shaking in the corner was the fox, his body trembling from fear, and even though there was a small patch of blood on his fur, there was no wound what so ever on the fox’s body. Naruto stared, wide-eyed at the fox.

"H-how?" Naruto asked, amazed despite himself.

"Ah. I knew you'd be interested," Kyuubi said in a sickeningly delighted voice. "Little Akatsuki here has the same strain of mutation in him as you do, but he's also got a special something else. I've developed it since my experimentations have started. I haven't been able to completely recreate what I once had before I was first sent to jail, but I've this," Kyuubi picked up a needle from a bag that was lying on the floor that held liquid tinged with just a hint of pink (though still rather clear liquid) swirling in it.

Naruto merely stared at Kyuubi, wondering what he was talking about. Kyuubi was clearly insane, and the man's thoughts were not overly coherent.

"What do you need me for if you already have the fox?" Naruto asked, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. Kyuubi smiled wickedly at him.

"Dear Naruto-kun, foxes and humans are not alike in how their bodies react. Even dogs and cats have reacted differently from how this fox does. I think I've lost nine of my dogs, but only three of the cats. I don’t have them any more. They were too cumbersome to take care of," Kyuubi mused. "I kept this fox here because, like you, it still holds value. If I let him loose into a home, he has an uncanny ability to find raw meat. He distracts people into the kitchen, allowing me to take them back home with me unawares," Kyuubi said pleasantly.

"Kidnapping people," Naruto said bitterly.

"Taking them back with me," Kyuubi amended. Naruto didn't even bother to try and correct him again. It was clear that Kyuubi was not aware of any wrong doing on his part. He had justified everything in his twisted brain. Naruto shuddered, realizing he had met someone with no conscious or ability to take their own blame: the worst kind of villain. "So, Naruto-kun, we will start you off today with a nice dosage of morphine so that way you don't feel much of this, though you do need to be semi-coherent so I can question you about certain side-effects. See? Aren't I generous? You'll be in hardly any pain at all." Kyuubi pulled out another needle from the bag, pushed out any air bubbles and jammed it into Naruto's arm, followed by a different needle filled with an unknown drug.

"I really do hate to put drugs into your system, you have stayed clean after all, but, I know I'll get different results from you than from someone who was already addicted," Kyuubi explained happily. A few minutes past, and Naruto began to feel absolutely and utterly horrible. His head was swimming, and he was having a hard time telling whether or not he was feeling happy or not. Kyuubi's face kept swimming in and out of focus, strange colors dancing across his vision. Naruto vaguely wondered if this was some sort of acid trip, but his mind couldn't focus on anything at once. Naruto felt the strange sense of happiness, though he could see his body physically shaking. His body had also begun to feel strangely numb.

All Naruto could think about was Sasuke, trying to grasp onto his friend, thinking, wildly hoping, that his friend would come save him from the grip of the madman, meanwhile trying not to wonder why Sasuke hadn’t been there, wondering if Sasuke was lying injured, or worse, dead in his house somewhere.

What felt like hours later, but was really only forty minutes, Naruto found his mind coming back down to reality. His eyes were finally focusing, and he could tell that his body was adjusting back to normal.

"How're you feeling?" Kyuubi asked.

"Like I hate you," Naruto groaned.

"In an unpleasant mood still, I see?" Kyuubi said. "Well, I suppose that means the drug has worn off. You don't seem to have gone through any terrible hallucinations. That's a good sign. The morphine should still be working. Is your body feeling numb still, or do you need another dosage before I continue?" Kyuubi asked as he held up what appeared to be a sword. Naruto paled as he realized Kyuubi was about to impale him with it. Naruto's mind thought fast. His body was no longer numb, but it appeared that Kyuubi believed it should still be, so if he didn't accept the drug, his body would still be manageable, and Kyuubi wouldn't be any the wiser. Naruto would be able to move, but getting stabbed like that would still hurt like hell.

"Still numb," Naruto mumbled, eyeing the sword with fear.

"Excellent. Well, here we go," Kyuubi said as he stabbed the sword straight through Naruto's right chest. Naruto cried out in agony.

The pain was almost unbearable, but Naruto knew he didn't have time to think about that as he felt Kyuubi sliding the sword back out of him, frowning at Naruto’s cry of pain. Naruto lunged himself forward as soon as the blade of the sword had left him. Using the balance from his judo and jujutsu, Naruto turned in his chair so that the blade cut at the ropes, his arm snapping free, though it wasn't a clean cut. He had paid a price to get the ropes off of him, as he felt blood now seeping from another wound in his right arm.

"Wha-?" Kyuubi asked surprised, but didn't have time to think as Naruto shot out his hand, his adrenaline pumping as he grabbed the sword, swiping at Kyuubi desperately, his uses with a wooden kendo sword during a brief introduction with it during jujutsu vaguely coming back to him.

Kyuubi staggered back, clutching at his chest that Naruto had slashed at. He wasn't wounded deeply, but it was enough so that he was distracted long enough to allow Naruto to cut at the ropes binding his other limbs. Still bleeding, clutching the sword, Naruto took another slash at Kyuubi. A part of him, a dark part of him wanted to cut off Kyuubi's head, or make him suffer for what he had done to him, to those other people and to his parents, and even what he had possibly done to Sasuke. Another part of him knew that he shouldn't. Naruto took the sword, and used the hilt to hit Kyuubi over his head, knocking him unconscious.

Naruto, still clutching the sword, still bleeding, ran through the only door he could see, ran up a flight of steps, ran through a deserted looking house, until he burst through the front door.

"Help! Help! Call the police!" Naruto hollered. He repeated his call before he saw the lights in nearby houses flicker on.

"What's going on?" Someone yelled.

"It's fucking 3:30am in the morning!" Another man shouted.

"Call the police!" Naruto yelled again.

"Kami-sama, he's bleeding-!"

"Call the police and an ambulance!" Naruto stopped yelling as he heard many voices gasping and shouting their concerns at him. A crowd of people had gathered around him, and someone came running up to him, trying to help bandage his bleeding wounds.

“Cool sword dude,” a random kid said from behind him. Naruto only half paid attention to this comment as people began pressing what looked like kitchen dishcloths on his bleed body.

"Sorry kid, best I had in the house," the man tending Naruto's chest wound apologized as he unrolled some gauze. The police followed by a medic squad. The medics approached Naruto and began to take over caring for Naruto’s wounds as Naruto hastily shouted instructions to the police about where Kyuubi was, and what had happened. The medic continued bandaging Naruto's wounds when the actual ambulance arrived.

Naruto was carted off to the hospital, the siren screaming overhead. Naruto felt dazed as he reached the hospital and was then wheeled through the halls of the hospital on a stretcher, flying past people.

"Did Kyuubi do this?" A familiar voice asked as Naruto found himself being hauled into the air off of the stretcher and then onto a bed. Naruto looked up to see Dr. Tsunade frowning worried down at him. Naruto merely nodded as he looked up at all the people who appeared ready to do surgery on him.

"Naruto!" Sasuke's distant voice came. Naruto's heart leapt as he heard before he saw his best friend coming towards him. Sasuke was okay! The doors to the operating room burst open. Sasuke ran in, followed by two police officers that Naruto didn't recognize.

"Mr. Uchiha, this is most unsanitary, leave!" Tsunade bellowed, her voice slightly muffled due to the medical mask that she had placed over her mouth.

"Naruto," Sasuke said, ignoring Tsunade. "What hap-"

"Leave!" Tsunade bellowed again.

"It's okay," Naruto said reassuringly. "I'll be okay. Go," Naruto said. Sasuke hesitated before glancing over at a fuming Tsunade, and then back at Naruto.

"I'll be waiting right outside," Sasuke promised.

"Okay Naruto. I'm going to give you something to put you to sleep for this," Tsunade said. Naruto nearly panicked, not wanting any more drugs in his system, but then calmed down because he knew that being sewn open while awake probably wouldn't feel too good either. "Count back from 100."

"100, 99, 98, 97, 96...95...94........93..." All went dark.

Naruto woke up groggily for the umpteenth time that day, hearing voices coming from outside the doors of the room he was in. 'Guess the operation's done,' Naruto mused.

"-not going to happen!" Tsunade yelled from the other side of the doors. Her voice was so loud Naruto felt as if she were actually standing in the room next to him.

"Tsunade, you must see it from a-"

"Get the hell out of here you freak!" Tsunade hollered back at the unknown male voice. It was much quieter, but still audible. Naruto didn't like the sound of it.

"Tsunade-"

"I'm not letting you touch this boy. He's been through enough already. He doesn't need to become your lab rat, or, from what I hear, lab snake-"

"All unproven accusations-"

"But knowing you, Orochimaru, all true the same. Get out!" Tsunade yelled again.

"Tsunade-" the man called Orochimaru began, but there was a resounding smack, and then a crash, and several screams.

"Tsunade-sama! You can't just hit him!" a voice scolded.

"The hell I can't! I just did," Tsunade's voice was angry, and the next thing Naruto knew, the door to his room burst open and slammed shut. Naruto didn't know her well, but he could tell that this Tsunade was not someone to mess around with. "You're awake," Tsunade said, conversationally as she saw Naruto's wide eyes on her.

"It was kind of loud," Naruto said, rubbing the back of his hand, only then realizing that there were bandages on his right arm. He looked down, noticing more bandages wrapped around his torso. Naruto fiddled with his blankets, Tsunade looking at him gently, all anger from moments before vanished. "Were you talking about me?"

"Hai. The man outside wanted to do conduct, as he worded it, ‘controlled experiments’ on you. The media arrived after what happened with Kyuubi, and there are hordes of people here wanting to examine you. I'm sure there are many doctors who would love to see what abilities that Kyuubi has pumped you full of, but don't worry," Tsunade said, a large smile appearing on her face, "I can take care of them." Her voice softened and she looked at Naruto. "Both my little brother and my fiancé were diagnosed with deadly diseases, and died long before their age. However, both of them wanted to be doctors, head doctors at this hospital in fact," Tsunade murmured.

She shook her head. "To make a long story short, both of them decided to allow others to perform, as they called them, "experiments" on them, in order to try and figure out ways to cure their diseases for the better of mankind. It was their choice, but I believe that the testing that was done to them only sped up their early deaths. I promise I won't let anyone do any more experiments on you unless it is with your consent, Naruto," Tsunade promised gently. Naruto couldn't help but feel a wave of gratitude for her.

"Thank you," Naruto said sincerely.

"Well, now that you're awake, I will send your friend back in. He was here by your side until only a few minutes ago when I kicked him out to get something to eat. He looks worse for wear, and I'm sure that he will be happy to see that you're awake," Tsunade said, as she walked back towards the door and yelled out of it. "UCHIHA! Get in here!"

Naruto felt his head rattle, wondering how anyone could be so loud, but grateful anyway when Sasuke appeared thirty-seconds later.

"Sorry," Sasuke said, just the slightest bit out of breath. "I had to run here. I was getting food in the cafeteria lounge here. It's two floors down, but I managed to hear you anyway," Sasuke said, frowning as he looked at Tsunade. He had obviously come to the conclusion she must be extremely loud when he looked past her to look inside the door. "Naruto!" He called, seeing his friend awake.

"You look terrible," Naruto said, a smile crossing his lips. Sasuke's usual smirk seemed weaker than normal, but he smirked back nonetheless.

"Look who's talking. All those times you make fun of my house being haunted, and all this time it's you who's been the mummy," Sasuke said, pointing at all of Naruto's bandages.

"No, your house is really haunted. You've just been collecting scary beings, and I guess I finally got added to the collection," Naruto smirked back. Tsunade rolled her eyes at their bizarre banter and left the room, calling behind her shoulder.

"You have twenty minutes. Then I will have to do another examination to make sure you're okay to be released." Tsunade shut the door behind her. Sasuke looked over his shoulder at her.

"She's been really helpful. Normally they'd keep you in here for observations, but she's pulling some strings to get you out of here. She told me that a few doctors have popped up that want to do some testing on you and your condition because of its healing properties. None of them look friendly," Sasuke said darkly.

"Yeah, she told me," Naruto said, nodding. Sasuke looked at Naruto, his smirk faltering.

"What happened Naruto?" Sasuke asked, his voice faltering. Naruto looked away. Everything was too fresh in his mind. He felt too helpless, too vulnerable. He had all sorts of judo and jujutsu training and yet he hadn't managed to use it very effectively. Hadn't that been the whole reason that he had taken it up in the first place? To prevent him getting attacked again like what had happened with Kenji? Yet here he was, lying bandaged in the hospital.

"I don't want to talk about it right now. I'll tell you later. I promise," Naruto said. Sasuke looked unhappy at the decision, but all he could do was nod. There was a moment of silence when Sasuke looked at Naruto, and Naruto felt the feeling of helplessness intensify because he had never, never before seen Sasuke look at him like that, look at him with sympathy and just a bit of pity.

"It's my fault. I shouldn't have left the room-" Sasuke said, his guilt spilling over.

"No it's not, teme. Kyuubi would have just gotten you then too," Naruto said firmly. That was the one thing that he had been grateful for, that Sasuke hadn't had to suffer through anything. Sasuke looked like he wanted to say more, but swallowed his words.

The awkward silence was interrupted as Naruto's stomach growled loudly.

"Can't a guy get some food around here?" Naruto asked sheepishly. Sasuke grinned.

“It is breakfast time,” Sasuke said, both he and Naruto sharing the same thought about how long the night had seemed.

After Sasuke called one of the nurses to bring up a tray of food, and after Tsunade had come and gone for Naruto's medical examination, Naruto finally got a chance to ask the question he was burning to know.

"What happened to Kyuubi?" Naruto asked as he finished off his food, having been interrupted in the middle by Tsunade insisting on checking to make sure he was okay. All of his wounds had been miraculously healed.

"He's dead," Sasuke said through a bite of toast that Naruto had given him from his tray.

"Dead?" Naruto asked, pausing in mid bite.

"Hn. Apparently there was a fox in the room-"

"Yeah, he let it in your house to make a distraction," Naruto said off-handedly. Sasuke paused, waiting to see if Naruto would elaborate any more about what would happen, but when he didn't, Sasuke continued.

"Well, the thing was half-starved. Like you it's got a huge appetite because of the parasite in it, so when Kyuubi was bleeding all over the place, the thing lunged at Kyuubi's throat. The police also suspected that Kyuubi was rather cruel to it, so it might have had it out for him."

"He was cruel to the little fox," Naruto said darkly, musing over what had happened. There was a strange sort of peace that welled within Naruto. He knew that Kyuubi was gone, and he felt that the little fox had gotten revenge for everyone. "What happened to Akatsuki?"

"Akatsuki? Dawn? It's two hours past daybreak already. You slept for a while after your surgery," Sasuke said confused. (AN: Akatsuki means dawn/daybreak in Japanese.)

"Akatsuki's the fox's name," Naruto said.

Sasuke shrugged. "Animal control probably has it."

"I hope those creepy doctors don't get a hold of it," Naruto said, nodding outside the door. The two finished off the breakfast before either spoke again.

"I'm surprised you haven't asked about the police," Sasuke said slowly.

"About the police?" Naruto asked confused.

"The police stationed outside the house, watching it," Sasuke murmured. Naruto's eyes went wide.

"I completely forgot! What happened?" Naruto said.

"Mr. Akamichi was shot. He's in stable condition, but the bones in his left arm shattered. Mr. Nara chased after you and Kyuubi, but Kyuubi ran him off the road into a tree. He's okay. He was lucky. Just a concussion. His police car is totaled though," Sasuke explained. Naruto felt his anger at Kyuubi well up again, feeling that the bastard got what he deserved being mauled to death by one of his own "patients." Sasuke continued. "Obviously Mr. Nara radioed for an ambulance to come to my house. They took Mr. Akimichi and me along for the ride. I er," Sasuke mumbled the last bit, "I was so unwilling to stay here and be checked out by a doctor that the one police officer that had arrived here to question me actually arrested me for 'unwillingness to cooperate with an officer.' They had-cuffed me and everything," Sasuke muttered.

Naruto stared at Sasuke for a moment before throwing his head back and laughing. Sasuke grinned rather sheepishly. Tsunade came in a few minutes later, telling Naruto that he was free to leave after he filled out the police report.

"And you need to fill out yours too, Uchiha," Tsunade said pointedly. Sasuke sighed, and Naruto couldn't help but grin at Sasuke.

"I'm going to get fired for sure," Sasuke sighed, and Naruto's grin vanished instantly.

"What?" Naruto asked, his face going pale.

"I'll have a record now. I guess I'll just resign," Sasuke said. Naruto's mind began to whirl. He hadn't expected that. Here, Sasuke had merely tried to find him, and he had gotten in trouble. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right.

"B-but, all you did was-"

"Hit an officer," Sasuke muttered.

"You hit him?" Naruto said, aghast.

"Yeah. The guy was pretty lenient when he wrote up the report. Like I said, he put it down as ‘unwillingness to cooperate with an officer.’ I guess he understood my hysteria, but still..." Sasuke said.

"But that's retarded. I mean, your job will surely not care, right?" Naruto asked, hesitantly. Sasuke shook his head.

"Doubtful." Sasuke suddenly smiled at him. "I don't really need to work anyway. I've got enough money to do without it. It'll give me time to finish the ceiling."

But no matter what Sasuke said, Naruto knew, as he sat there in the hospital bed, staring at Sasuke, Sasuke was deeply upset. He would have to quit his job. There were few things that Naruto and Sasuke did not talk about, and Sasuke's work was one of the few. Sasuke hardly talked about it at all. He worked, he did what he needed to do, and then he left it at the office when he was with Naruto. Naruto felt horrible for laughing when Sasuke first told him, not even thinking about the fact that it would affect Sasuke’s job.

In some regards, Naruto knew that Sasuke would not have cared if he had stayed or not at the job in the long run, but the fact was that it would be shameful to be dismissed in such a way.

Even in 21st century Japan, shame was not something one could live with. And Naruto felt horribly guilty for putting Sasuke in a position that would shame him. At first he had found the entire thing extremely funny, now Naruto didn't know what to do.

"Uchiha," an officer said as he appeared at the doorway. "We need to talk with you for a moment alone please." Sasuke merely nodded in response to the policeman, murmured, "I'll be back," to Naruto and left the room. Naruto felt utterly miserable.

Suddenly flashes of images began to assault Naruto. Images of Kyuubi coming at him with the needle, shooting the fox, stabbing him…Naruto shook his head, and thought of Sasuke.

"Why am I being such a wimp?" Naruto asked shakily to himself. He was trying to brush off the whole ordeal. He had seen plenty of terrible things happen to people in the movies, why was he freaking out now that it had happened to him? Everything was over. He was okay. Naruto took in a deep breath, wishing that Sasuke would come back. He had seemed to chase away any and all fears that he had had.

Someone knocked lightly at the door before opening it just a crack to peer inside.

"Naruto?" a voice said tentatively. Naruto looked up to see Sakura peeking her pink-haired head inside the room.

"Hello Sakura," Naruto said, smiling, glad for a distraction.

"There’s a police officer that would like to discuss what happened between you and Kyuubi. Tsunade asked if I would be here with you. That way, if you don't want to answer anything, you just look at me and I'll say that you're too medically unfit to answer - even if you fully are. You don't need to tell them anything they don't really need to know, okay?" Sakura said, winking at him. Naruto smiled at her gratefully.

"Thanks," Naruto said appreciatively. Sakura motioned to someone behind her that Naruto couldn't see, and a police officer came in. True to her word, if Naruto didn't feel like going into too much detail as the officer questioned him, Sakura kindly said that he only had to answer if absolutely necessary in fear of upsetting her patient. The interview didn't take too long, and before the officer left, Naruto had a question of his own to ask.

"Ano-sa, my friend, Uchiha Sasuke," Naruto started, hoping that this particular police officer was not the one that Sasuke had hit. There had been a lot of police around the hospital since Kyuubi had been such a high profile murdered. Naruto even checked to see if he could see any bruises. Thankfully, he couldn’t. "Sasuke, uh, he - uh was trying to help find me. I-I don't think that he really should get written up. I mean, the police were there at the house and everything already, so everyone knew that he was just as involved as I was. Can you help get the charges dropped?" Naruto pleaded.

The dark-haired police officer looked at him, thoughtfully.

"That's a difficult area," the officer said off-handedly.

"Please Uncle Asuma?" Sakura said, piping up. Naruto turned to her.

"Uncle?" Naruto questioned, looking back and forth between the two of them, thinking that they did not look at all alike.

"His wife, my Aunt Kurenai, is my Mom's younger sister," Sakura said, as if reading Naruto’s mind. Then she turned back to her uncle. “Please?” she asked again.

"I don't know Sakura. This is one of those gray areas," Asuma said.

"Oh pleeeeease Uncle Asuma,” Sakura said, almost batting her eyelashes. Then a sudden idea seemed to hit her. “I know! Why doesn't Sasuke come over and you and Aunt Kurenai can meet him and see how nice a guy he really is?"

"He punched me right in the jaw," Asuma said, rubbing his hand over his short beard on his chin. Naruto winced. So this HAD been the one that Sasuke had punched.

"But Naruto-kun is so adorable! Who wouldn't want to try and save him?" Sakura said, pointing at Naruto. Naruto's eye twitched at being called adorable, but he knew Sakura really was trying to help. Asuma sighed.

"Look, your aunt is having a few friends over tonight for a dinner engagement. Why don't you come and bring Sasuke. If your aunt finds him acceptable, then I'll drop the charges," Asuma said.

"You mean if Aunt Kurenai can convince him to do some baby-sitting for her?" Sakura said amused. Asuma shrugged.

"I'll see you tonight then?" Asuma asked. Sakura nodded, and then left the room. Sakura turned to Naruto.

"Uncle Asuma's pretty laid back. I think my Aunt will convince him to drop the charges," Sakura said kindly towards Naruto. "If you were legal age to drink, I'd invite you along too. " Sakura said gently. Her voice suddenly changed and she had a knowing smirk on her face. "But of course, you're legal age to do, other things, of course." Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Sakura got a strange, almost maniacal look in her eyes.

Suddenly, Naruto was very afraid.

Before he knew what was happening, Sakura had a hold of his hands, and was staring into his eyes with bright stars practically beaming out of them.

"Oh! You should have seen it! Sasuke was so upset that he couldn't come after you. True love knows no boundaries! I've never seen Sasuke-kun want so desperately to do anything as he did wanting to fly to your side to save you. It was so romantic! I knew from that night when I came over that he was head-over-heels for you. Oh, to see him wanting to rush off to save his dearest love. How long have you been a couple? Is he a good kisser? Do you have sex often? Is he a wild one in bed? I'm so sorry that it's not me he's with, but if he wants to be with another man, than I'm glad he's with you! You’re so kawaii!" Sakura squealed excitedly.

Couple? Good kisser? Sex?! Naruto stared at her open-mouthed, unable to speak. Sakura giggled again.

"If you two made a video, it'd totally sell for big bucks," Sakura said delightedly.

"I-I, w-we, I mean," Naruto tried stuttering out, but was saved having to say anything more when Sasuke came walking back into the room.

"Hi Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said happily. Sasuke looked back and forth between Naruto and Sakura, and narrowed his eyes, finding the situation very strange. "Have fun you two! See you tonight, Sasuke-kun," Sakura chirped as she left the hospital room.

"What's going on?" Sasuke said, confused.

"You're going to a dinner party tonight with Sakura. Apparently it was her uncle that you slugged. If you go with her, he'll drop the charges," Naruto said, shaking his head slowly, trying to register what Sakura had said, and wondering how she could switch to being so professional to so fan-girlish in such a short period of time.

"I don't want to go to a dinner party. Especially not tonight with everything that happened to you," Sasuke said angrily, clearly not liking how someone else had made plans for him. Naruto shook his head.

"I'm not a baby. I'll be fine. You don't need to coddle me," Naruto said, a little more coolly that he had intended to. Didn't Sasuke understand that he needed to go to this party in order to save his honor? Sasuke muttered something that sounded like a feeble disagreement, but they didn't talk about it any more.

"Come on. Let's get out of here before this day can get any worse," Sasuke said, half-jokingly as he tried to ease the unusual tension that had risen between the two friends.

- - - - - - - - - - - -


Sasuke looked at Naruto.

"You went a little further than just recounting what happened with Kyuubi," Sasuke said, musing out loud. Naruto shrugged his shoulders.

"I didn't want to just leave at what happened. I mean, I just..." Naruto trailed off, looking over to the side.

"You're not weak, Naruto." Sasuke murmured gently, reading what Naruto was trying to say. Sasuke gave a small smirk. "You just liked reminiscing how I got in trouble," Sasuke said jokingly.

"Actually, I was hoping you could tell me what happened at the dinner party. And then about what happened afterwards. You've been dragging your story out for so long Sasuke. I want it all out," Naruto said as he looked at Sasuke. "How did you, you who doesn't drink, get so plastered that night that you came back, tied me up, and-"

"Naruto," Sasuke said, cutting off Naruto from saying anything else. He didn't think he could bear it to hear Naruto actually say the word rape. "I'll finish it. I'll finish the story," Sasuke took a deep breath as he closed his eyes, remembering the night in strangely blurry, yet somehow vivid details as he began telling Naruto the exact details he had been demanding from walking through his door.

:-) Yes, the next chapter will finally reveal how Sasuke screwed up so badly. FYI, I posted a one-shot yesterday entitled “Sleepless Nights” if you can’t wait for a bit of smut. Let me know what you think of this chapter! ~ Jelp