A/N: Look whats baaack! Yup yup, you have to endure another chapter of this :D As usual, I'm sorry for taking oh so very long. I'm also sorry if the last chapter made people think I was quitting writing this. I would never do that. I'd stick a crappy ending to it before I did that. XD;
Enjoy :3
The next day Sasuke rose blearily at around noon. He showered quickly, dressed, and then went downstairs and ate. He ran back upstairs and dumped the contents of his backpack on the floor, hastily filling it with other things. He finished quickly and loped easily down the stairs, leaving his house at roughly 12:30, and whipping out his cell phone as he did so. He pressed down a number on his speed-dial and put the phone to his ear with a sigh. The phone rang twice before an annoyed voice picked up and answered, "Hello?"
"Hey, it's me." Sasuke drawled casually.
"Tch! It's about freaking time! Is this what you consider morning?" Naruto growled at his best friend.
"I couldn't fall asleep until four in the freaking morning last night, okay? You're lucky I'm even awake this early. " Sasuke retorted.
"I wouldn't call that lucky, though retarded is certainly a suitable word you dumba--"
"Fuck you." Sasuke interrupted him. "I'll be there in about five minutes. Be ready or I'm leaving you behind." He snarled in aggravation, and then he snapped the phone shut on Naruto's sure to be heated reply. 'That's certainly an interesting way to thank the person taking you to see your cousin in the hospital', Sasuke thought bitterly. Of course, the anger at the rude words would fade within moments, and it would soon be as if the insults had never been made. As retarded and stupid as it was, that was the way Sasuke and Naruto's friendship functioned.
Sasuke walked down the front steps menacingly. He was decked out in a black T-shirt and baggy black jeans clung to his hips. Even his flat-bottomed shoes were black. His hands were thrust in his pockets and he looked neither happy nor well rested. Of course he didn't just look it, he wasn't either of those things. He got in his car and turned it on, met by No Regret Life shrieking out of his speakers at him. He shifted the car into drive and peeled out of the driveway, causing his tires to squeal at him in protest.
He drove down the roads quickly, paying little attention. He didn't need to give the drive much attention at all, he had been to Naruto's house plenty of times. Sasuke grimaced once and then turned up the volume on his speakers drowning in the music, and he tried not to think about the fact that Naruto lived only two streets away from his cousin.
A few minutes later he arrived at his friend's house. It was a beautiful old western thing, and looked very modest although Sasuke knew first hand that on the inside there was no lack of space. He honked the horn sharply a couple of times and Naruto came dashing out the front door.
The blonde boy reached the car and Sasuke took his foot of the break and let the car roll forward a bit, before breaking again and letting him pile in. Naruto swung in his big school bag first, and then followed it, plunking into the passenger's seat. "You are not funny." Naruto said flatly, giving him an aggravated look. Then as he buckled in he sneered, "Glad that you could grace me with your presence."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him. He was usually the one acting like he had a stick up his ass, not Naruto. "You're that worried." Sasuke said simply. Naruto grimaced and could only nod.
"And I can't stand being in cars, either." The normally happy boy sighed. "This fucking sucks." He said angrily, shoving a hand back through his unruly golden locks. Sasuke pursed his lips in regard to his friend, but said nothing. He didn't like being in vehicles at the moment either. "Everything in that house makes me think of her." Naruto said quietly, his voice lacking any life at all.
"She's GOING to be fine." Sasuke snapped. He was not about to act like Sakura was going to die. He was sick of losing people, at least as sick of it as Naruto.
The young blonde lad lived with his Uncle Iruka. His mother had died while giving birth to him, and when Naruto was 9 his dad was killed in a drive by shooting. His father had been Iruka and Emi's older brother. Naruto's Uncle had instantly stepped up and taken guardianship of the boy. Naruto was as familiar with loss as Sasuke was, and neither of them had a taste for it.
"You don't know that. Live in fucking reality, Sasuke. She could die." Naruto snarled his voice hard and cold. Sasuke slammed his foot on the brake and him and Naruto were both thrown forward, caught from the impact by their seatbelts. Sasuke was grateful that he hadn't been going very fast or they would both have whiplash. Naruto swiveled his head to his best friend, a fiery glare upon his features. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Sasuke glared right back. "You're going to shut your damn mouth. If we don't believe she's going to get better then how the hell is she supposed to?" Sasuke barked heatedly at his friend. Naruto's face clouded over in shock, before his expression became hard again. "If you're going to say another thing like that then get the fuck out of my car. Now." Sasuke growled.
Naruto glared at him, but said nothing. He turned away from Sasuke and looked out his window, ignoring everything in the car. Sasuke let out a breath in a huff. "Okay then." He said, and began to drive again. The song had changed, and Last Alliance was the only sound that was heard in the car until they reached the hospital ten minutes later. They both got out of the car in continued silence. Sasuke opened the back door and got out his bag, he slammed it closed harder then necessary and locked the car with the click of a button.
Together they walked silently to the hospital. Naruto walked into the revolving door first, and Sasuke followed taking the next one. "You're right." Naruto muttered to Sasuke as he came out of the fresh air of spring and into the creepy and sterile smell that all hospitals seemed to possess. Sasuke flashed a short-lived smirk at his friend.
"Duh. Now come on." And he walked to the elevators. All the harsh words between them had just been dropped, and now they were only concerned about Sakura and her well being. The two of them boarded the elevator and pressed the button for the fourth floor. They rode up, still quiet, and got off on her floor. They walked the familiar steps to her hospital room, both of their nerves too shot to be tense. They walked into the room, and Sasuke was almost surprised to see Emi and Adelie there. He shouldn't have been, of course. It was obvious that they would have been there.
The room itself was about twenty different shades of dazzling. The room was practically made of flowers, and there were at least 6 'get well soon!' cards, and 8 teddy bears that were stuffed on Sakura's bed side table. One was on the floor; he had apparently fallen off.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to Sasuke. "Hey, has Iruka been down here yet?" he said, leaning over to Naruto and whispering. Emi was on the phone and Adelie seemed to be asleep in the chair.
Naruto shook his head. "But he's been on the phone with Auntie since 6 in the morning. He was when I left, and I assume that's who she's talking to now." Naruto said.
"You think anyone else has been here yet?" Sasuke asked, partially sarcastic.
"Tch. Duh." Naruto said with a roll of his eyes. "TenTen and Neji came by at about 8, they called to see if I wanted to come with. Ino and Shikamaru were by here at about 10, they called to see if I wanted a ride too. Hinata isn't coming down until Thursday. She just can't handle it. Temari and Gaara are coming down later. Kankuro got really upset then shut himself up in his room when he heard. Nobody told anyone else, but..." Naruto trailed off, gnawing on the inside of his cheek.
"But what?" Sasuke asked, as he continued to look around.
"But her crash was on the news, and the fact that she's in the hospital. I dont know how many other people have been through here, or will be. Fuzzy brows if he heard, probably. But I don't know. I mean, Sakura knows almost everyone in our school. She knows half of Eji's school because she dated him, and then there's every other person she's ever met and been nice to in her whole life." He gestured around the room. "And I have a feeling that a lot of this stuff was delivered in person, and that this is one of the busiest days Sakura has had, awake or not." Sasuke whistled once. Sakura's days tended to be generally packed, and she was a busy body. But Sasuke had to agree with his friend. There seemed to be thirty to fifty piles of flowers all over and probably more, the boy didn't feel like counting. He also got the feeling that most of these people wouldn't be back.
It was a relieving thought that so many people wouldn't be back to bustle around her in the state she was in. If Sakura was awake she would have been throwing pillows at doors, shrieking about the fact that she wasn't dressed and wearing make up, and insisting that only immediate family and very best friends could see her like this. A pang shot through Sasuke's chest. If she were awake, she wouldn't want him here either.
He shoved a hand back through his thick dark locks and let out a sigh. He took the empty chair he had set next to her side yesterday. He dropped his backpack to the floor next to him and dug through it for a few moments, re-emerging with the packet and a pen. He scowled at the packet, but Sakura would want it done. He tapped his capped pen to the paper a few times, before uncapping it and reading the question aloud to Sakura, which shocked everyone in the room.
"Your nanny has quit because she is needed at home on her farm. Your husband is home, but you are worried about his lack of experience as a parent, What should you do?" he finished the question and scowled, positive that Anko had made the packets herself, with the specific couples in mind as she did. "Ask your sister if she would come over and help out for a couple of days." Sasuke spoke the words aloud as he wrote them down on the paper, guessing his best at the kind of answer Sakura would use. About twenty minutes after Sasuke and Naruto's arrival, Adelie awoke from her sleep. She stood, and the blanket fell off of her and onto the floor. She stooped and picked it up, putting it over the chair she had been resting in. Then she slipped out of the room in search of food.
After about 35 minutes of reciting questions and answers aloud, Sasuke's head began to droop. His eyelids closed of their own volition, and all of him went limp due to boredom, not enough sleep, and the fact that his chair was comfy. The told himself that there was nothing wrong with a little break, and before he knew it he was out.
The dream began with him in a suit. He was standing in a line behind his friends. Everyone was dressed in respectful blacks, himself included. He looked about, confused.
There were boards with pictures of Sakura all over them, with her at various events and different ages. He looked past his friends to see the beginning of the line. Everyone his eyes glanced past was crying, and then he saw the coffin. He could see her, laying there in a forever sleep.
Sakura.
Sasuke felt himself choke on a gasp, and he was suddenly aware that tears were streaming down his cheeks. He felt sick, and very much wanted to go home and crawl into a hole. He started to stumble backwards, and then felt pressure on the back of his knees, and found himself sprawling into a chair. He slumped back into it's support and closed his eyes tightly. He felt someone pull a blanket over him. He jerked at it out of reflex, and grabbed the person's wrist tightly. It was then that he opened his eyes.
His mother, smiling quietly at him met his eyes.
The corners of her eyes crinkled as she smiled at him grabbing her wrist. Sasuke's mouth dropped open in shock, before he hissed in a sharp breath. Slowly, he released his grasp on her arm, just loosening it at first, before he released her completely. She brought a hand up and rested it on top of his head, before stroking his onyx hair a couple of times.
"Hello love..." she said.
"...Mother?" Sasuke asked in disbelief. She nodded and smoothed his bangs away from his forehead, before they flopped back into the same place.
"It's me." She responded.
"...But...you're gone." He managed weakly.
She sighed and nodded once more. "Physically...that's true. But really, I'm only hiding." She placed her first two fingers onto the middle of his chest. "Hiding in there."
He would have normally sneered back a rude remark. Instead, he wanted to throw himself into her embrace and cry, like a small child to be comforted by their mother. He looked behind her and saw the scene of Sakura's funeral in the distant background. "She's going to leave..." he said, mostly to himself, his voice dead of emotion yet unable to stop it from cracking. "She's going to leave just like you did. Just like you and dad." He had to resist throwing up at his own words.
"Sasuke, what happened was not something I choose. Your father and I would have never chosen to not finish raising you, to hurt you the way we did. Sasuke, we love you." She insisted.
He tore his gaze from the funeral scene. "I wish you hadn't left. Itachi is just about the worst brother there's ever been, and that's excluding no one."
She sighed and looked pained. "I know. And I'm sorry."
He shook his head. "But the place that hurts because of how he is...where he tried to inflict pain...where I'm broken because of you...it all disappears when she smiles." He said, every word filled with obvious despair. "And now she's going to leave too..."
His mother frowned, and said in a rather hard voice, "Stop giving her such little credit."
"Excuse me?"
"Young man, if you don't honestly believe that Sakura has enough will power to get through this, you must not know her very well at all." She reprimanded him.
He opened his mouth, then closed it again. Then he frowned, debating his retort. "Sasuke, you have to have hope." She told him before he had a chance to voice anything.
Then his eyes narrowed into a glare. He glared at her in the exact way every teenage boy has glared at his mother. "She IS my hope. So with her like that, what do you expect me to do?" he said harshly, snarling a bit. His mother looked surprised, then softened her expression once more.
"Then you do the only thing you can, little one." His expression did not change. "You trust your hope, little darling. That's all you can do."
His glare receded to a frown. "I dont trust anything anymore."
She frowned. "Don't lie to your mother, and give your love and your hope more credit. And don't forget...that hate and love are separated by a terribly fine line." When her statement was finished, she began to go transparent. Sakura's funeral scene had disappeared from behind her, and his mother began to fade into the white that surrounded them.
Sasuke was suddenly alarmed. "No! Stay!" he pleaded. She shook her head.
"I must leave, love. But do not disregard my words. I love you, little one." And then she was gone, and Sasuke was alone.
He jerked violently, and his eyes flew open, revealing Sakura's hospital room. His eyes darted around for a few moments before he knew his surroundings. Naruto walked up to him, looking alarmed.
"Dude, are you okay?"
Sasuke nodded, and realized he was sweating. "Yea, fine. How long was I out?"
Naruto shrugged, still looking worried. "Twenty minutes or something."
Sasuke looked down, and then froze. A blanket was covering him. "What the hell did this get here?" he asked hoarsely.
"Oh, Adelie put that over you. We both got a good shock when you snatched her wrist, even though you were asleep." Naruto said. He was eyeing Sasuke like he wanted to get him looked at. Sasuke just waved a hand.
"I've had better dreams, lets put it that way." Naruto nodded, and dropped the subject. Sasuke stood and shook his head. "I think I need to go home. I'll come pick you up if you need me to, though, okay?"
"Bah, don't worry about it." Naruto said. "Just go home and get some sleep, I guess." He waved, and Sasuke left.
Sasuke's phone began to shriek at him, and it bounced across his bed side table as it vibrated. His eyes opened blearily, and he saw his clock. 3:17 AM. Whoever the hell was calling him would regret it. He got a hold of his phone, and looked at the caller ID. Naruto's number, go figure.
He flipped the phone open and snarled, "Damn you, this better be important."
"Sasuke! It's Sakura! She--" His heart missed a beat.
"What about her?!" he interrupted Naruto.
"Shut up and I'll tell you! She's awake!"
Yeaaaaaa. So, from the very beginning, I wasn't going to kill her. I like her when she's older, and I like her in this story. Plus, if I killed anyone it would be Orochimaru, cause he's a nasty gay old snake, who likes to molest twelve year olds. I only kill people I dont like, like him, but he's not in the story to kill, so oh well xD; I hope you liked it, chapter 14 coming...eventually:DD