Meetings, Meetings, and more Meetings

Naruto jolted from his bed. Sweat dripped down his pale face. The soft echoes of screams ringing in the back of his head. He knew it wasn't real, but god that was morbid. His heart was pounding. The image, still engraved in his mind. The color draining from the man's face. The shouting and pleading for help. The jagged gashes embedded on his arm after he had already fell limp.

He threw his head back, hoping to take his mind off of it and possibly catch up on a few hours of sleep, when a loud knock was heard coming from his front door. He sat up, dropping his legs off the side of his bed, sharp pains shooting up his lower abdomen. Who could be here at this hour? He stood up, ignoring the pain, and made his way across his apartment. Once he arrived at his front door, another louder knock was heard.

"Okay okay, I heard you the first time." Naruto complained as he opened the door. Greeted by none other than the famous genius, Shikamaru.

The chunin pushed aside the blonde, letting himself in. "Naruto, go get yourself ready." The Nara stated, crossing his arms.

"Huh, why?" Naruto questioned, rubbing his eyes. His voice, raspy and tired.

"This is such a pain. Just get changed, I'll tell you on the way." Shikamaru replied. Naruto rolled his eyes, reluctantly walking back to his bedroom.

"This better be worth it!" Naruto yelled before shutting the door. Shikamaru groaned in response.

The Nara took the opportunity and began wandering around Naruto's small apartment. Surprisingly, it wasn't as dirty as the brunette expected it would be. Sure, there were a couple of ramen cups and scroll's every here and there, but besides that, it was decently clean. As he turned his back, the bathroom caught Shikamaru's gaze. He stepped closer in an attempt to get a better view.

There was… a broken mirror? That was strange. He assessed the rest of the bathroom finding shards of glass, poorly swept into a small pile underneath the sink. Although Shikamaru found that peculiar he wouldn't voice it. Who knows what kind of problems Naruto deals with outside of ninja work. The blonde's bedroom door swung open. The ninja appeared in a short sleeve black tee-shirt and orange pants. Different from his usual but not enough to comment on it.

"Ready to go Naruto?" Shikamaru asked, walking towards the front of Naruto's apartment.

"I'm ready, but it would be really nice to know what you're waking me up at 4:30 in the morning for." Naruto stated, making a annoyed face whilst opening the front door.

"Lady Tsunade called an emergency meeting. I'm guessing it has something to do with the mission we were assigned yesterday, I'm not sure though." Shikamaru replied, trailing behind Naruto.

As soon as they were outside of the blonde's apartment building, Shikamaru analyzed the boy, noticing the small cuts along his knuckles obviously coming from the glass earlier. He glanced up, finally getting a good look at Naruto's face, and damn. He looked like shit. He was pale, and had dark eye bags. He was sweating like crazy. If anything, Shikamaru assumed he was sick or something.The brunette continued to watch him, noticing that every couple seconds or so Naruto would glance around, as if he was being watched or followed. Yeah, he definitely needed to see a doctor.

"Hey. Naruto. Are you okay? You sick or something?" Shikamaru asked, touching Naruto's shoulder. He slightly flinched at the contact, obviously caught up in his own thoughts. "Oh yeah, I'm good, just a bit tired."

"Hmm okay." Shikamaru doubted the boy's response, but he didn't want to pry any further. So they continued on their way to the Hokages tower both ignoring the newly formed awkward silence. Naruto had too much on his mind to focus on fixing awkward silence. After a while they finally arrived at the tall building. Shizune greeted them hastily, with a weary smile. She guided them towards the waiting room, where the rest of the genin were waiting anxiously. It was actually quite a shocker, seeing all of them here and awake at such a god-forsaken hour.

Before the two had time to sit down in the waiting room, Lady Tsunade opened the door to her office, waving them in. She was rubbing her forehead again. That wasn't a good sign.

"I know you guys must be curious as to why I called you all in here before the crack of dawn." She continued, sitting back in her chair. "The case I assigned you all yesterday. Another victim was found." Lady Tsunade was briefly cut off by Shizune making her way towards the Hokage's desk, she placed a stack of files on the desk explaining that these were the autopsy results of the victim in question.

Naruto grew curious. He wanted to know what had happened to this victim that made Lady Tsunade crazy enough to call a meeting at 4 in the goddamn morning. He walked up to her desk snatching one of the files.

"This better be one hell of a bad case, cause if it's not i'm going back to sleep." Naruto grumbled opening the file.

"It's very graphic, Naruto, I'm warning you." Lady Tsunade explained.

But nothing had prepared him for what he saw. Naruto's eyes grew wide. He stared at the pictures in utter disbelief.

These wounds. It had to be- No. It can't be. It's not possible. He clutched the paper, his hand trembling uncontrollably. He flipped through more pictures. Nononono.

It was him.

Memories of his absolutely horrific dream came flooding back to him. The pictures on the file were so clear . The deep gashes on his forearm. His mutilated face. The many stab wounds littering his body. Naruto had watched it happen. With his two very own eyes.

He couldn't do it.

He rushed out of the office, feeling bile rise. People yelled at him to come back. He ignored their shouts, he didn't care. He just needed to find a goddamn bathroom. The blonde ran all over the place. Searching. Finally a bathroom appeared right next to the faculty room. Sprinting inside, he slammed the stall open. Naruto choked, shutting his eyes, opening his mouth, allowing a thick rush of fluid to spill from his throat and into the toilet.

He couldn't believe it. This was absolutely insane. Naruto watched that man get brutally murdered, in his dream. It wasn't real. So how in god's name did this happen? His throat began to burn again. Time for round two. The bathroom door clicked open as sick noises continued coming from Naruto.

"Ew." Sasuke called, walking towards the bathroom stall. He arrived just outside of the stall Naruto was in. The dark haired boy reached to push open the stall door when he was stopped by the blonde's voice.

"Get out." Naruto hissed, anger seeping through his voice. He hoped to stop the Uchiha from getting any closer. It was his own pride on the line. And yes, he was aware that it had already been crushed the day prior. Still, he hated it when he was weak and vulnerable like this. He was in a pitiful state, hunched over the toilet to what seemed to be a little gore to everyone else. It was pathetic. He was pathetic.

"I'm following orders, Naruto. But if you say so." The Uchiha replied, shrugging his shoulders. Making it clear that he didn't want to be in there either. Naruto heard the bathroom door click again, and Sasuke was on his way. Naruto dropped his shoulders, eyebrows scrunching in frustration.

Why did it always have to be Sasuke? Sasuke had to be the one to come check on him when he was puking his guts up. Sasuke had to be the one to see him when he got the shit beat out of him. Sasuke had to be the one to save them in the land of waves. Sasuke had to be the one to save them from Gaara, when it was him, Naruto, who had actually saved the day. Did anyone believe him? No.

It was always their precious Sasuke.

Sasuke. Sasuke. Sasuke.

Another wave of nausea overcame him.

…

Naruto ran past the group holding his stomach, after dramatically dropping the file. Sasuke watched him, curiosity painting his sharp features. Was it really that bad? Kakashi and a few others called out to Naruto. No response.

"Sasuke go check on him." Kakashi continued, turning towards him. "That's an order." He finished. Sasuke rolled his eyes. Clearly already in a bad mood. He spun on his heel and began walking towards the nearest bathroom. He did find that Naruto had been acting strange recently. He's been more tired than usual. More pale, almost..lifeless you could say. And with what had happened yesterday he knew something was up. I mean, Naruto got beat to a pulp.

It was surprising. Really. Naruto didn't move, just sort of accepted it. But the Uchiha couldn't blame him he could barley see that man's attack, even with his sharingan. He later realized that he definitely should have jumped in to assist his teammate, when Naruto stood up making eye contact with the Uchiha, hurt and betrayal in his eyes. Sasuke shook his head and continued his way to the bathroom. He heard the soft echoes of vomiting and immediately cringed. He hated throw up. It reminded him of bad memories. He opened the bathroom door. A strong stench attacking his nostrils.

"Ew." He stated, plugging his nose. He slowly walked towards Naruto's stall, praying his puking session was over. He reached his hand out to push the stall open when Naruto spoke.

"Get out." Naruto hissed, suprising Sasuke, he didn't think the boy could make his voice sound so intimidating. Was he still mad about yesterday?

"I'm following orders, Naruto. But if you say so." He replied, shrugging his shoulders. It's not like he wanted to be in there. Sasuke exited the bathroom, starting his route towards the Hokage's office, when a small family hunched in the corner of the waiting room came into view. They were all sobbing.

"My husband—he didn't deserve this! You guys must find who did this!" A lady cried out, holding a small child. Another child hugging onto her leg. She was yelling at a group of shinobi.

"Why do these things always happen to the best people?" An older chunin muttered to himself shaking his head. Sasuke watched in curiosity, wondering if they were the victims' family.

"Ma'am we are trying our best to find who did this. But we can assure you, that your husband will be avenged. He was my comrade." A younger jonin assured them. The woman nodded hugging her children tight. The older child looked up at her mother and opened her mouth.

"Mom, so is dad not coming home?" The young girl asked, looking up at her mom. Her mom stayed quiet, more tears falling down her tanned skin. Sasuke, feeling like he was intruding, continued his walk to the hokages office. His mood had now declined even more.

Upon arrival he slipped back inside the office, barley making a sound. Once his presence was registered everyone turned to him their faces silently asking him if their blonde comrade was alright.

"Which is why-" Lady Tsunade cut herself off. Finally taking notice of the dark eyed boy. "Sasuke, how's Naruto?" She asked, her voice laced heavy with concern.

"He's fine, just some stomach issues." Sasuke responded, lining himself up with the rest of the group. "What'd I miss?" He questioned. Shizune walked over to Sasuke handing him a tan file.

"A man was murdered early this morning. His corpse was found around 1 am. The marks on his body matched the marks found on all of the other victims." Lady Tsunade continued.

"The cause of death was strangulation. He also had marks on the arms, just like all the others. But strangely, this one was slightly different. It was.. more brutal than all the rest. Multiple stab marks, the man's face was almost completely ripped off. He was hardly recognizable." She took a pause before continuing. "Whoever did this can't be a human.." She finished. Shaking her head in disbelief.

"Again, you don't have to open the file, if you don't want to. It's extremely graphic." Shizune claimed. The whole group had eyes on Sasuke. Obviously trying to see if he had the guts to open the file, after the huge fuss Naruto made. Sasuke scoffed and opened the file.

God they weren't lying. This was horrific. He cringed as he forced his eyes to stay open. Flipping through the pages of pictures, more and more awful images showing up. No wonder Naruto threw up, in fact he felt like he would be joining Naruto in the stall next to him pretty soon. Finally he came across the last page. Identification. He skimmed through the paragraphs of information, such as where he was seen last, what he was wearing, how old he was, and so on. Until his eyes finally landed on a picture of the man.

Oh. It was him.

The guy who slapped Naruto.