CHAPTER 36: Fear of Losing Him

A/N: Heya People!!I thought let's have some mercy and not keep y'all waiting too much, do here you go! ρ（ーoー)♪

There, on the threshold of the Uchiha mansion, with the sun's light entering the cold place from beside him, stood Naruto. The blond's breath was ragged, and his heart was already beating out of control when he kicked the door open. He was afraid of what he would see beyond it.

And his fears were justified.

"Sasuke..."

The blond's body froze when his eyes landed upon Sasuke's limp and bruised form being held by the throat by a man whom he perceived to be Fugaku. His eyes were filled with worry as his gaze alternated between Sasuke and his father, who was now looking at the blond.

Fugaku's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance as he recognized Naruto as the boy on Sasuke's laptop. He released Sasuke's throat, causing the young raven to fall to his knees as his legs were unable to support him anymore. Sasuke was thrown into a fit of forceful coughs as he tried to catch his breath.

Naruto's hands clenched into a fist as he watched the man he loved suffer indescribably because of a mentally sick father he was cursed with. The blond was descending into an absolutely livid state of mind. All the fear, anxiety, and restlessness the Uzumaki had felt were now acting as fuel to the burning rage inside him.

Just then, Kakashi entered behind Naruto. He couldn't help but notice that Naruto was shaking, and he knew it was rage. His gaze shifted ahead and landed on Sasuke and Fugaku.

"What the hell..."

The words involuntarily escaped the silver-haired teacher, who was absolutely horrified on seeing Sasuke's condition. He now understood why Naruto was in the state he was, and Kakashi was going to do nothing to stop him.

Just the sight before them was enough permission for Naruto's inner beast to take over. His face darkened with menacing rage as his eyes grew red with fury, looking like the slits of a fox, and his whiskers assumed a darker shade, looking oddly prominent.

He was his most dangerous self right now.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE, YOU SICK BASTARD!"

The blond yelled as he rushed towards the father and son duo at lightning speed. Kakashi accepted this as his cue to finally get to work and followed the blond right behind him.

Fugaku was sure that he would be able to tackle the two, but what he failed to predict was their speed. Both Kakashi and Naruto were too fast for the elder Uchiha to be able to stop them from getting to Sasuke and defend against them at the same time.

Naruto made his way towards Sasuke, allowing Kakashi to deal with Fugaku, who wasted not a second in getting the elder Uchiha away from his son. While the silver-haired man kept Fugaku occupied in combat, Naruto quickly dropped to his knees beside Sasuke, who was now lying on his side on the floor.

"SASUKE!"

The blond yelled as he tried to lift Sasuke's head to his lap, earning a groan from the raven.

"S-sorry, just don't fall asleep, teme!"

"N-nh-"

Sasuke's voice was hoarse as he tried his best to speak. His breaths were shallow and quick, which was a clear indication of the pain he was feeling in his body. Even as he tried to speak, the slightest movement of his neck was causing it to hurt like a thousand needle pricks.

"Don't speak, it's okay..."

Naruto's voice trembled with the overwhelming emotions coursing through him. The blond was terrified because he didn't know what to do. He only watched Sasuke writhing in pain while praying for the ambulance to arrive.

He couldn't care less about the duel taking place just behind them. His eyes were back to their ethereal cerulean color, the anger in them having faded into worry as they shined with unshed tears.

"I'm sorry I came so late."

Naruto looked into the beautiful ebony orbs of Sasuke as he whispered the words to him. The raven's eyes, which were supposed to be the embodiment of the night sky decorated with constellations, were silently screaming a horrifying tale to the blond today.

"I'm so sorry... I'll not let anything happen to you, dattebayo."

The blond hesitantly went for Sasuke's pale hand and took it in his. He gently caressed it to try and give as much comfort to the raven as he could without hurting him. Naruto's hold on Sasuke's hand was so firm as if he was afraid that the raven would disappear.

"Don't worry, Sasuke. You'll be fine..."

These words sounded like they were meant more for Naruto himself than for Sasuke. However, they did manage to make the Uchiha smile. Sasuke nodded slightly to let Naruto know that he was listening, and the blond didn't miss that detail.

Naruto smiled softly as the tears that he had been holding back for so long had finally begun streaming down his whiskered cheeks. He kept Sasuke's hand in his and refused to let go of it before the arrival of the authorities.

And soon enough, the siren of the ambulance and the police could be heard getting louder as they closed in towards the Uchiha mansion, giving Naruto and Kakashi some hope.

"T- They're here! Sasuke! You'll be fine, dattebayo!"

Naruto smiled at the raven with a fresh set of tears flowing for an entirely different reason. They were tears of happiness.

He turned around momentarily to see that Fugaku was being pinned down on the floor by Kakashi, who wasn't exactly unscathed due to the small battle he had just engaged in.

"Yare yare, he almost tore my book."

Kakashi huffed softly and shrugged at Naruto, who then passed a small smirk of his own.

'You never disappoint, Kakashi sensei, do you?'

Naruto turned his attention back to Sasuke and smiled at him hopefully. He then looked up from him towards the door and watched the police make their way into the building, followed by the team of paramedics, who rushed towards where Sasuke and Naruto were with their first aid kits.

One of the paramedics took a short check on Sasuke and his vitals.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine. He's in shock right now, so we should take him to the hospital as soon as possible."

The paramedic informed him as he called for a stretcher. Sasuke was carefully lifted onto the stretcher and rushed to the ambulance on a trolley bed. Naruto insisted on going with him. Hence, he climbed into the vehicle after the paramedic member, and they drove off to the nearest hospital.

On the other hand, Kakashi handed Fugaku over to the police, and fortunately, Fugaku did not create a fuss over it. He quietly yet bitterly accepted the handcuffs that were placed on him.

"I'll ruin you. No one can take my son away from me."

Fugaku spoke with seething anger as he stood right before Kakashi and loomed at him with a piercing gaze. The silver-haired man returned Fugaku's fury with indifference as he stared back at him with the coldest gaze he had ever looked at someone with.

"Oh."

Kakashi said before nodding at the two police officers who were keeping a hold on Fugaku's arms, signaling them to take the elder Uchiha away.

He watched Fugaku walk away before he turned his attention back to the other officers roaming the house and searching it.

"SIR! YOU NEED TO SEE THIS!"

The voice of one of the investigating officers screamed from the basement, grabbing Kakashi's attention. The silver-haired man rushed downstairs along with the other officers to see what secrets lay in that underground lair.

'What's this...?'

He had never known a place such as this to exist in the Uchiha Foundation. He took in the gory setting of the basement, quietly approaching the open door before which the officer who had screamed stood.

However, as soon as he saw what lay beyond the door, his eyes widened with horror.

He quickly blocked his nose to keep the smell of rotting blood out of him. He observed that the walls of the room were smeared with splashes of blood. Numerous equipment, including whips, ropes, and handcuffs, were placed on the various racks inside along the walls. And in the center of the room stood that table.

It was that very room at the end of the aisle that had given Sasuke his worst nightmares.

Just the sight of this one room made Kakashi's skin crawl, and he didn't want to imagine what the other rooms on this floor looked like.

To Kakashi, this was what hell would look like.

"Just what happened here...?"

*TIME SKIP* 4 HOURS LATER, AT THE HOSPITAL~

The machine beside the hospital bed beeped with a stable rhythm, constantly reminding Naruto that Sasuke's heart was healthy and beating. The adrenaline in Naruto had finally subsided, and he felt drained due to the entire ordeal, but he didn't want to leave Sasuke alone.

The raven lay on the bed with his eyes closed as he was in an induced sleep. Naruto had pulled up a chair beside his bed to keep an eye on him in case there was any activity. His eyes kept hovering over Sasuke's bandages. The injuries weren't life-threatening, but they were pretty grave. He had broken multiple bones, and his windpipe was practically saved by an inch.

"Why... why didn't you tell me, teme...? Did you lose trust in me a- after what happened?"

Naruto mumbled to himself, unable to get over the shock and guilt. The image of a broken and beaten Sasuke was popping up in his head time and again, making the blond feel miserable with every passing second.

'What if I was just a second late?'

The question kept making itself known to the blond occasionally, sending a shiver down his spine at the endless possibilities of the answer. Just the thought of never seeing Sasuke again had made him charge at Fugaku without a strategy, which wasn't exactly safe.

But what choice did he have? Naruto didn't want to imagine what the fear of losing him would be like. He'd rather risk himself than compromise Sasuke. And that's what he did.

He listened to his heart.

He was more sure now than ever that he wanted Sasuke in his life, and there were little to no limits he wasn't willing to cross to make this happen.

"How is he?"

A voice much calmer than his thoughts brought Naruto out of his trance. He turned his head and only found the door to the ward opened with Kakashi standing right there.

"Sensei..."

Naruto sounded tired, which made the silver-haired man worry about him. He walked up to the blond and placed his hand on his shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze like last time.

"He'll be fine. The doctors also said that, right?"

Naruto nodded at his ex-sensei's question, giving the much-needed answer to Kakashi.

"Oh, right. This is for you."

Kakashi caught Naruto off guard as he held out a black diary for Naruto. Naruto blinked in confusion as he stared at the diary for a long moment before looking up at his former sensei.

"What's this?"

Kakashi sighed at the question and placed the diary on Naruto's lap.

"I don't know if this is right or wrong, but you should give it a read."

Was all the explanation the silver-haired sensei gave and innocently walked out the door, shutting it behind him to give the blond some privacy to deal with what he was about to see.

Naruto found his teacher's behavior quite odd, but yet again, he did trust Kakashi's decisions. He once again checked Sasuke, who was sound asleep, and smiled slightly at how peaceful the raven looked. He confirmed that everything was in place before turning his attention back to the black diary on his lap.

"Alright, let's see what's in here, dattebayo..."

He flipped the diary open to the first page, and what he read made his blood run cold.

"These are... his entries?"

Naruto's eyes widened as he looked at a sleeping Sasuke once again and then turned back to the diary. He wanted to rethink his decision of reading it, but just the first few lines of Sasuke's journal were enough to make the blond realize that these entries held a proper and detailed account of Sasuke's pains.

The blond couldn't help but read through every page of the journal as Sasuke had described even the worst of his nightmares in such a way that every word resonated with Naruto. The impact Sasuke's words had on him made him feel a cacophony of emotions all at once.

"What...? I'm in here too...?"

Naruto's lips curled into a small smile as he spotted his name in there, written in a handwriting so beautiful that made Naruto feel that his name was some word once written by an angel in the holy grail.

Naruto had never known Sasuke to be expressive, and yet, through these pages, Naruto could read Sasuke's thoughts as clear as day, without any filter.

And so, Naruto, being Naruto, smirked mischievously, and he decided to continue reading.

'Let's see what you actually think about me, teme.'

A/N: And this was it! I hope you all liked the chapter! I really did my best to give you people a good update! 🥹🧡💙Also, if you don't like a chapter, then just a reminder that I'm not a professional writer or anything! Haha- ok, I'll stay shut. 😑Anyway, see you all in the next chapter!Author sound out ~ ✌🏻