Melancholia

Chapter 7

"Naruto, wake up."

Naruto opened his eyes to see Sasuke standing there in front of him. Immediately, agitation entered his chest.

"What do you want this time? If you can't tell, I'm trying to sleep..." He grumbled.

Sasuke was never one to particularly beat around the bush, so he had no problem being blunt and getting straight to the point.

"Show me your arms." He said. While it wasn't in a hostile tone, and it was more neutral, there was still an edge to it that made it clear he wasn't playing around.

"What? Why?" Naruto's eyes flared for a moment and his heart skipped a beat. Sasuke knew ? No, he couldn't possibly-

"There's no use hiding it. I already know. I saw the bandages in the bathroom." Sasuke said simply.

Oh, shit, of course!

The bloodied bandages he had thrown into the trash can. He'd been too dazed from blood loss to properly think to hide them and, due to living alone, he'd fallen into the habit of just throwing them into the trashcan without a second thought, so that hadn't helped at all.

Great.

"...Well, it's not like I'm trying to kill myself or anything. So just mind your own business, teme ..." Naruto glared at him before averting his gaze, cursing himself for not being able to hide it better. Just as he hadn't wanted to wrap Sakura up in his problems, he certainly hadn't wanted to get Sasuke involved either.

Having his suspicions pretty much confirmed, Sasuke felt a bit of irritation. "Really...? And what is it you're proposing I do instead ...? Am I supposed to just stand by and ignore everything while you continue cutting yourself...?!"

At this point, Sasuke lost his cool, grabbing Naruto by his collar just as Naruto had done to him hours prior. "Is that what you had in mind?!"

Naruto's eyes widened at hearing Sasuke's words, the look of betrayal in the Uchiha's eyes striking him to his core. Suddenly, he felt sick to his stomach.

Even so, it didn't matter what Sasuke thought. He needed this. It was his only escape from the inner turmoil he felt every day. Sasuke had no right to interfere with that. "Yeah, that's exactly what I'm asking you to do!"

Blue pain-filled irises met dark conflicted ones, before the rivals momentarily broke eye-contact, Sasuke barely managing to regain his composure. "...It looks like I was right... You need help, Naruto... Maybe Kakashi-sensei will know what to do."

After all, he himself had only made things worse up to this point and wasn't in the proper state of mind to really try to talk things out with him. Right as he started to head towards the door, however, Naruto creased his eyebrows defensively, fear at the idea of Kakashi or Sakura getting involved completely consuming his sense of reasoning.

"Hey, it's not like I'm the only one that's been pushing others away, ya know! You have no right to fault me for anything when you've been doing the same thing!" the blonde shouted.

Stopping in his tracks, Sasuke clinched his fist. Naruto wasn't wrong... Due to the influence of the nightmares and his last encounter with Itachi, he had been putting a lot distance between himself and others, especially Sakura and Naruto. A pang of guilt once again weighed on his chest when he recalled Sakura's depressed voice as she'd left their room after he'd rejected her offer for dinner, as well as how he'd even tried to choke Naruto earlier in surprise.

...However, what Naruto was doing was not healthy at all. Intervention was necessary in this matter.

He looked back at Naruto(who was at his back and fully prepared to start a fight), an undeterred look on his face.