The Story of Us

Chapter 17

Narutos Pov

Several weeks has past since Sasuke decided to take me back in and tutor me. I've never studied this hard before in my life, but I have to do this for my moms sake. Speaking of my mom, she was really pissed at me for not calling her sooner. She's making me call almost every single day now. I don't dare to disagree. She's scary when she's mad.

Most of the time when we call it's to check up on her condition, and to complain about all the work Sasuke is basically shoving down my throat, although I'm the one who wanted it this way.

"Naruto quit daydreaming." Sasuke thwacked me in the head with a rolled up news paper to gain my attention.

"Jeez I can't help it. You don't have to be so violent all the time. Besides you hit me really hard with that thing." I said as I rubbed the forming knot on my head. Sasuke sighed and looked down at the papers in front of us.

"We have been drilling this material for a while. What do you say we head down to the cafe for a drink." I jumped up and ran towards the door.

"Hurry Sasuke I can't wait to get out of this stupid dorm. I've seen nothing but dark brown wall paper for far too long I tell you." He slowly got up and grabbed his keys off the kitchen counter.

"Oi can you calm it down a bit. Your voice is giving me a headache." He bent down to slip on his shoes while I was tapping my foot impatiently on the floor.

"You're so rude teme. My mother tells me I have the voice of an angel." I smiled triumphantly as we both walked out the door to the car.

"Yeah whatever do-' I stopped walking and turned around.

"Why'd you stop talking?" Sasuke was kneeling over the hood of the car with his hand clutched over his right side.

"Sasuke is everything-' he stood back up and wiped some sweat from his forehead.

"Ugh stop worrying about me and get in the car already. It's probably just gas pain." I puffed out my cheeks and slung myself inside his car, which he soon followed.

"It's your funeral."
-
The rest of the car ride was pretty quiet. I mostly looked out the window the whole time in order to avoid awkward conversation. Antisocial hack, it works wonders.

Once we got to the cafe, Sasuke parked into a vacant spot and opened his door, leaving me to follow after him. When we entered, we saw Sakura sitting at one of the booths texting on her phone. She briefly looked up and saw me running towards her.

"Sakura-chan it feels like it's been ages." I sat myself down beside her and motioned for Sasuke to sit down in front of us. She pulled me into a hug and smiled.

"Yeah no kidding. How's studying treating you." I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly and looked at Sasuke.

"Thanks to him, pretty great." She looked over him and pushed a piece of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah I'd say so. He probably intends to be top of the class too, ne Sasuke-kun." Sasuke looked at her and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah that'd be nice, but of course you are far better in this focus area than I am." I looked over at Sasuke with a stunned expression on my face. Sakura smirked in her victory.

"Yeah you got that right, but you probably won't even be second. Don't count Naruto out just yet. Plus he's not just doing this for himself, but for his mom too. Right Naruto." She looked over at me, and I looked down at the table.

"Naruto what's she talking about." Sasuke looked over at me with concern in his eyes.

"You didn't tell him yet," she sighed and picked up her things," I guess I should be going then. Give you guys some time alone. Text me if you need me." She waved bye to me right before walking out of the cafe. The bell on the door jingling in the process.

"Naruto?" I sighed and looked at him in the eyes.

"It's nothing that serious Sasuke, really." He shook his head and placed his hand on top of mine.

"If it's not that serious then you should be able to tell me. Besides she's like a mother to me too." I smiled a bit before returning to a frown.

"Well you see, right before graduation, she was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer. They haven't discovered a cure for it yet." I looked up to see Sasuke frowning at me as he gave my hand a little squeeze.

"I see. I'm sorry for bringing it up." I shook my head and wiped a small tear out of the corner of my eye before it could fall.

"It's alright. I wanted you to know." He nodded his head, but kept his hand in place.

"I guess I should tell you my reason for wanting to become a doctor too." He took a deep breath in and sighed a bit.

"It's alright you don't have-'

"Shh dobe. Let me tell my story." I smiled at his childishness. Very rare sight.

"Anyways, I don't know if you remember or not, but we used to be best friends. No we were closer than that. I...I lost my memories of those moments of us together until I saw your mom at the grocery store a few weeks ago. I slowly started to regain them over these past few weeks." I nodded my head, so he could tell I was processing everything he was telling me.

"I bet you're wondering how I lost them in the first place. My family has always been somewhat...
dysfunctional. One night I overheard my parents fighting, so of course I got up to check it out you know. My dad was picking up almost every dish and breakable glass item in the house and throwing it at my mother. He suddenly picked up a huge wine bottle and chucked it right at her. She couldn't dodge it, so I ran. I took the hit for her. The bottle hit the back of my head causing major damage. Blood was probably everywhere as you could only imagine." Sasuke stopped for a moment. His eyes looked so distant. I gently stroked his finger with my thumb, thus bringing him back to the real world. He swallowed hard before continuing.

"After that, I lost some of the best memories of my childhood. That brings us to the present. After graduation, my mom and dad got into a really big fight. I can't remember what it was about anymore, but I wasn't there to protect her. I was out that day touring the colleges I could attend, but when I came home my mother was on the ground surrounded in a pool of her own blood. She was breathing, but it was ragged. It turns out she took a hard hit to the head, and she's been in a coma ever since. Her brain is severely damaged and no one knows how to help her. She's been through surgery after surgery, but she has yet to wake up. So I'm going to become a neurosurgeon." He looked up at me with determination.

"Then lets both do our best." We both smiled, and ended the day on a good note, surprisingly.