I Miss You, Dad

Old Chapter 16

Itachi grabs my hand, swiping the kunai away from me with one toss of his hand, and he threw it in another direction. His eyes glared into my own; I could tell that he was pissed. His grip tightens on my hand, causing me to wince, and I feel tears drifting at the bottom of my eyes.

"Naruto, what the Hell is this?" He pulls up my shorts, my marks being exposed.

"I-Itachi, I-!"

A hard slap comes across my face. My head holds itself to the side, and my cheek burns. The tears release themselves, and I whimper lightly. Itachi wraps his arms around me, then, holding me so tight that I can hardly breathe.

I'm not mad that he slapped me. I understand. He wasn't doing it to hurt me intentionally; he was doing it in order to knock some sense into me. And in case it had hurt too much, or maybe to show his love for me, he gave me a hug to sugarcoat the pain.

I hug Itachi back, crying onto his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Itachi. I really am. I should have told you. I should have-" I choke on my words, crying loudly.

Through the blur of tears, I see a mass lifting itself from the bed, followed with a groan. Sasuke has woken up. I assume he notices us, judging by the way he's unmoving for a few seconds, then he scrambles off the bed towards us.

"What happened?" A hand sets itself on my shoulder; it's most likely Sasuke's.

Itachi leans back, and he looks at me, asking a question without having to say it. I nodded, wiping my face from tears as I replied,

"Itachi found out that I've- been cutting myself." I grab my shorts, lifting them up to show the dried marks.

When I look at them now, they're quite disgusting. Some are deep, others jagged, quite a few overlap each other. Older ones have crusted, and they look like stitches from a different perspective.

Why did I let it come to this?

Sasuke looked horrified. Cautiously, he puts a hand on the marks, and I stare at him as he does it. The face he makes next is an expression I can't tell. There's too many emotions bundled up within his face that I can't interpret what he's thinking.

"Naruto...is this because of all those horrible things people have been writing on your desk?"

I look at the ground, shaking my head lightly.

"It's because of everything. The writing on my desk everyday just- pushed me over edge, I guess?"

Sasuke looks at the confused Itachi. He never knew what they were writing about. I decide I'd go ahead and tell him.

"...I said something that wasn't so nice to Neji. I also managed to get Sasuke and Hinata in trouble when Neji got mad about it. After that, since people are obsessed with Sasuke and some of them may have been friends with Neji, I don't know, they started writing mean things on my desk everyday."

"...is that so? And the teacher didn't do anything about it?"

"No, it's not that he didn't, it's that he couldn't. All he could do was yell at the class and help me clean it off. He tried to give me encouragement, but..."

I looked down, shaking my head in shame. I really let myself fall into a pit, didn't I?

Sasuke laid his head on my shoulder. I look over at him, and a sad expression is crossed along his face. A shadow lingers over his eyes.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't do anything, Naruto." His voice is soft, sincere.

I've heard his tone so light before. I shake my head again, adding,