Silver Lining

8

"Hello, dear brother," Itachi said.

Suddenly, Sasuke couldn't breathe. He felt his heart begin to hammer in his chest as if he were panicking. Coldness spread throughout his whole body, racking him with shivers and convulsions. Tears pricked his eyes and he tried to fight back the tears. He sucked in a large breath once he remembered how to breathe, and fell to his knees in defeat. The only thought haunting his mind was, 'My brother took everything I loved away.' He couldn't quite comprehend the whole situation-the only part he could think about was Itachi. The one person who had haunted his nightmares and dreams, lurking in the corners, waiting to reawaken memories long since forgotten, had taken the last bit of love from his life.

"Sasuke!" Sakura bent down, placing a hand on his back. "Sasuke are you okay?" Sasuke withdrew from her touch, letting out a choked sob followed by short breaths as he hyperventilated.

Naruto sighed. "Itachi…take Kaoru home and stay there until I get back. Deidara and Sasori can deliver the contract to Tsunade but right afterwards go back home. Go straight home! I'll stay here with Sasuke." Ignoring Itachi's apprehensive look, Naruto rushed over to his best friend. He placed a hand on Sasuke's back, trying to console the poor boy, but he didn't actually talk until Itachi was gone.

"Sasuke!" Naruto bent down in front of him, watching as tears slid down Sasuke's face and fell onto the pavement. "Sasuke are you listening to me?" Naruto forced Sasuke's head up so he could look into the blank obsidian eyes that reminded him so much of Itachi. "What's wrong with him? Why isn't he answering?"

Sakura looked at her blonde friend. "Lets get him to his house first." She pulled him to his feet but he fell limply back to the ground on his knees. Rolling her eyes, she lifted him up with her shoulder and began towards the Uchiha compound. What was wrong with Sasuke?

111

After they got the unresponsive boy home, they placed him on his couch, where he proceeded to pull his knees to his chest and burry his face in his knees.

"What's wrong with him?" Naruto asked for the second time that day. It was aggravating that she hadn't answered him the first time. He wanted answers now! This was his best friend, although, by the time he actually got to talk to the boy, would Sasuke even want to think his name anymore? Would he be disgusted by the fact that Naruto had moved on-to his brother of all people?

"He is stunned." Sakura answered dully. The boy on the couch let out a loud sob. He had stopped crying long enough to catch his breath, but every now and then, he would either let out a sob or a pained moan.

"Stunned?" Naruto didn't know that much about medical terminology but he knew that if it didn't sound good, then it probably wasn't.

"Yes. It is merely a stage where the mind shuts off, leaving the body to fend for itself. It's common in trauma patients." Sakura paused looking at the blonde boy who was staring back at her with curiosity. "Did you know that Sasuke was a trauma patient?"

"What?" Naruto asked incredulously. He had never heard such a thing before.

Sakura nodded. "After…the Uchiha Clan massacre,"-she didn't want to say 'After Itachi killed his family,' because she knew Naruto would take offense to that-"Sasuke became stunned. He wouldn't talk, walk, or even eat for a whole week. He was practically a zombie." Sakura brushed her hand over Sasuke's head, making him flinch. She drew her hand back seeing his reaction. "It seems that seeing Itachi take something else away from him has reawakened that state of mind for him."

"How do we get him out of this…whatever you said it was?"

Sakura shrugged. "Shock him out of it. Not a bad kind of shock just let the alarms go off in his head. Like…if I was in the state…seeing a naked Rock Lee would probably shock me out it." Naruto almost laughed at that. "The only way to get him out of this is to do something radical." Taking one last glance at Sasuke she turned around for the door.