SasuNaru- How to Save a Life 6

Chapter 6: Relapse


The room was very quiet. The sun had already come out, and the only thing that could be heard was the soft murmur of the white curtains brushing against the window. Naruto was lying on the bed and, right beside him, was sitting Sasuke, holding his hand with one hand, and in his other hand he had a cup of coffee.

Naruto has his eyes closed and his breathe was regular; Sasuke observed every inch of his face as he thought. Out of the blue, Sasuke remembered of a very valued possession Naruto had before the accident.

“You used to have a box, Naruto, before the accident…”

“A box? What type of box?” Naruto asked without opening his eyes.

“You called it the ‘Secret Box’. You always found different places to hide it because you didn’t want me to see what was inside, but every time I found it, you got angry at me for less than an hour and cursed out loud as you tried to find a place to hide it again.” Sasuke said, smiling, drinking from his black coffee as he recalled that pleasant memory.

Naruto smiled as well and asked with excitement, opening a sole blue eye to look at Sasuke. “What was in the box?”

“Well, you could say it was where you put all your junk. Pictures, letters, drawings, flowers…” The raven said, taking a large sip from his coffee. Naruto frowned. “That’s not junk! I would do that too!”

“That’s because it was you who did it, baka.” Sasuke said. “Anyway, would you like to see it? I can go to the department and look for it. Besides, I need to sleep.”

“Ok. But do it fast, Sasuke!” Naruto said, smiling a weak but warm smile. Sasuke nodded. Before he rose to his feet he leaned forward and placed his lips on top of Naruto’s for a brief second.


After that he left Naruto’s room.


-----


Sasuke opened the door of his department and entered.

He went directly to his room and found the bed in complete disorder. He hadn’t forgotten about what had happened last night. There was no way to forget something like that.

Ignoring the mess, Sasuke threw himself to the bed and after a few seconds, he was asleep.

…

After what felt like seconds, he woke up.

Outside it was already dark. He jumped of the bed and looked for the switch that turned the light on. When he turned on the light of the bedroom, he remembered he had to look for the ‘Secret Box’ to give it to Naruto.

And he had also forgotten Naruto had asked him to not take too long in the department… He ran to the bathroom and washed his face. He almost didn’t recognize his face in the mirror; he had big bags under his black endless eyes and his skin was even paler. He was still wearing the sweatpants and the shirt he used last night to sleep. But he was not tired.

He changed his clothes and started to look for the brown box in which Naruto saved his ‘junk’. After thirty minutes, he heard his phone coming from his room.
He crawled from under the couch with the dirty brown box he had found under there and went to his room. He picked up his phone –that had stopped ringing- from the floor.

He was surprised that he had received twenty eight calls and five text messages in that single day. He saw a lot of calls from unknown numbers and some messages, as well. He opened the first message he had received, and then started reading all of them.

He was paralyzed when he read them.

- “Hey man. Answer the phone, you bastard! You HAVE to come to the hospital now! Naruto had another strange ‘thing’ and they’re takin’ him to the surgeon pavilion!” Kiba, 10:34 AM

- “Sasuke-kun! Kiba told me Naruto had an attack again! Is he fine? Please call me!” Ino, 10:48 AM.

- “Hey, Sasuke. Look, I’m at the hospital. The doctor needs to talk to you.” Shikamaru, 13:00 PM

- “Sasuke-kun!!! Is Naruto fine? Ino told me! I’m driving to the hospital right now!” – Sakura, 14:30

-“Sasuke, this is Dr. Zuzaku, Naruto’s doctor. I need to talk to you in person urgently. There’s something you have to know.” Dr. Zuzaku, 19:25. An hour ago.
He felt his heart beating furiously.

He dropped the box and ran to the hospital; the box fell down open, and dozens of pictures of him and Naruto spread all over the ground.


-----


When he entered the waiting room, he saw it was full of his friends. Kiba, Ino, Shikamaru, Sakura, Gaara, Lee, Tenten, Hinata, Kakashi…

He saw, when he walked closer to them, that almost all of them had their eyes red and swollen, specially the girls. Sakura was sobbing silently, and when she saw Sasuke almost running towards them, she jumped off the chair and hugged him. “Sasuke! I’m so sorry! I think you already know…”

Sasuke patted his friend in the back a few times, but then moved her away. “I-I know that Naruto had another attack… Is he fine?”

When Sakura heard this, her eyes filled with tears. “I—“

“—the doctor needs to talk to you, Sasuke.” Gaara interrupted Sakura violently. “I’m afraid no one of us can tell you.”

Sasuke looked at the redheaded with a clear look of misunderstanding. “I don’t understand… What happened?”

“Sasuke Uchiha, here you are. I need to talk with you.” He heard a voice from behind that he recognized as the doctor’s. He turned around and his eyes encountered the tired eyes of the man. He heard Sakura sob behind him.

He followed the doctor that started walking to the furthest corner of the room. “Doctor, what happened to Naruto? I heard he had another attack today morning, but is he going to be fine?” The raven said as he took sit in one of the waiting room’s chairs. The doctor sat beside him. Sasuke saw him biting his lip. “Well, I… I’m afraid not.”

Sasuke froze.

“W-why not?” he asked trying his hardest to stop his voice from breaking. He didn’t know how but he thought he knew what the doctor was going to tell him. But he didn’t want it to happen.

“Remember what I told you yesterday, Sasuke, about how Naruto’s brain was affected?” Sasuke nodded. “Well, it’s worse than what we thought.”

Sasuke took a deep breathe to calm himself. “How worse?”

The doctor looked at him right in the eyes.

“Much worse.”

Sasuke could hear a cry from behind. “B-but what is going to happen to him, doctor?” He bit his lower lip in nervousness.

The doctor breathed. “Naruto Uzumaki has not more than a month of life.”

This time, the time really stopped.

The sobs he could here behind his back were now only echoes, and the doctor in front of him was nothing else but a mirage. Suddenly, his head felt too heavy for him as well as his arms, and legs.

“D-does he knows this?” He said, and he noticed a heavy tear running down his pale cheek. The doctor moved his head from one side to the other. “No. He’s being taken to a special room right now where he has to spend the night in observation. I was going to—“

“—don’t tell him.” Sasuke said and rose to his feet, wiping his tears with the sleeves of his shirt.

The doctor looked at him in confusion. “I’m sorry, but we must tell him. It’s against the law not to—“

“—I said: do not tell him.” The raven said. “Where did you say he’s staying?”
The doctor stood up nervously. “In the Observation Room…” But before the doctor could finish the sentence, Sasuke was gone.

He had entered the door that had the ‘No Trespassing’ sign in it, and ran rapidly through the hall. He crashed with more than one nurse and doctor in the way, that had yelled him things like ‘You’re not allowed to be here’, ‘this is an inaccessible hall’.

But he didn’t care.

He had to see Naruto. He had to see his face, to be sure that he was still alive. He now knew he was going to die in about a month, but he had already started to miss him.

No, he had started missing him since the very day the accident happened, more than a week ago.

He missed to see his bright smile every morning. He missed the way he said ‘dattebayo’ after every phrase. He missed the nicknames he had given to him: ‘S’uke’, ‘Sasuke-teme’. He missed the days when he found the ‘Secret Box’ and Naruto spent a complete day looking for somewhere to hide it again. He missed kissing his lips every day and every night. He missed Naruto’s touch. He missed everything about Naruto.

And now that he knew he was not going to be there anymore…

He stopped in front of a room that said ‘Observation Room.’ He opened the door and entered.

There he was, laying on top of the white bed, connected to several machines like the first time he came to the hospital, but to another room. He was also connected to a breathing machine, now. Sasuke couldn’t help but cry out loud.

He threw himself softly on top of Naruto and wrapped his thin waist with his arms, sobbing. He had never seen Naruto in a worse state.

And in hurt him to think that in a month, he was not going to see him anymore.

“N-Naruto,” He said between sobs, “I love you. I love you. I don’t want you to leave me.” He raised his head and looked at Naruto’s face. He caressed his cheek with his hand. “I’m going to miss you so much you can’t imagine.” He whispered very softly, and his head fell again.

He closed his eyes.

“I love you.”