Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

The Canalized River	By : susanna Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 944 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
Replies
to reviews at the end of the
chapter

Chapter
Fourteen: Juugo's Story

“Why
did you do that?”

Sasuke
looked angrily at Juugo and Suigetsu who had pulled him up into the
tree. He clutched his shoulder. During the fight he had barely felt
the pain, but now it was spreading like fire through his right arm
and the right half of his chest. Having been grabbed and lifted by
the shoulder had not helped either.

“Let
me have a look at your wound”, Karin said.

He
shook her off and glared at the two men.

“I
did not order you to get me out of the fight.”

“Calm
down”, Suigetsu said. “Your friend is safe.”

“He
is not my friend.”

“I
thought he was, coming after you all the time and trying to get you
back. I thought it was only you who did not know whether you were
still his friend or not.”

Sasuke
kept glaring.

“Though
considering that you just saved his life, it seems that you are.”

“I
am not. I have cut all bonds.”

“Stop
talking”, Karin said. “Sit down so that I can tend to
your wound.”

He
finally obeyed.

“His
people collected him when they saw that it was safe”, she said.
“No reason to be angry, and no reason to worry any more.”

“At
least not for the moment.”

“What
do you mean?” Suigetsu asked.

“They
abandoned him once, they will do so again.”

They
looked at him in astonishment, not knowing what to make of his words.
He did not really know himself.

“I
cannot blame them”, Suigetsu said. “I'd be scared as
well. At least we know now what kind of specific people Akatsuki are
after.”

I
should have figured it out earlier, Sasuke thought. I should have
guessed it when Itachi and Kisame came to hunt down Naruto. But I did
not realize because I was busy being jealous that Itachi did not take
any notice of me.

“That's
the chakra they are looking for”, Juugo said. “The chakra
the birds have told me about. The chakra in those hiding places of
theirs.”

“He's
in danger”, Sasuke said. “Akatsuki are targeting him, he
cannot protect himself, and his team is scared.”

“Everyone
is scared in front of the kyuubi”, Suigetsu said.

“I
am not.”

He
met Suigetsu's questioning and surprised eyes. Juugo's eyes were wide
open and still impossible to read; only Karin was looking down and
smiling. He looked down himself.

“Would
you abandon me if I got out of control?” Juugo suddenly asked.

“Of
course not”, Suigetsu answered. “We have Sasuke with us,
and he is not afraid of anything. He'd get you under control again.”

“And
if not?”

Suigetsu
hesitated. “I'd try to remain alive. Getting myself killed
would not help you in any way. I'd try to help you when it makes
sense.”

“Don't
worry too much”, Karin said. “Sasuke is with us after
all. And besides, I've got the impression that you are improving.
Since we left the Northern Hideout, you lost control only once.”

“Twice.”

“Twice?”
Karin asked back.

Sasuke
tried to remember. Once had been when Karin and Suigetsu had fought
after Suigetsu had called her a dumb animal. It had been the last
physical fight between the two of them.

“Just
now”, Juugo answered.

“I
did not even notice”, Karin said. “You see, Sasuke gets
you under control rather quickly. And besides that, you just have to
see that you don't get excited.”

Sasuke
wondered how this should be possible on a mission as theirs that
would include a lot of fights and other dangerous situations. He had
already made up his mind to keep Juugo out of fights if possible.
Suigetsu and he himself would have to defend the rest of the team:
Karin had never been much of a fighter, and Juugo, deadly as he was
in his Cursed Seal Stage Two Form, was too desperate when it was
over. He was not violent by nature – just now his bird was
sitting on his shoulder, cuddling to his cheek, and it seemed as if
it was attempting to kiss him with his beak. No one so gentle to a
bird could be violent to humans! It was difficult to resign from
using his fighting-prowess, but after all Sasuke had chosen him for
his team because of his ability to communicate with animals, not as a
fighter.

“I
cannot control when I get upset”, Juugo said. “And no one
came to help the kyuubi boy.”

“Sasuke
did”, Suigetsu said.

“It's
not his fault that the kyuubi is inside him”, Juugo continued
as if he had not heard it. “He did not choose this fate.”

“No”,
Sasuke said. “The fox was sealed inside him when he was still
an infant.”

“And
still everyone is scared and ready to abandon him.”

“Sasuke
is not scared”, Suigetsu said, sounding increasingly irritated.

“They
will shun him and desert him”, Juugo insisted. “And in
the end he'll be all alone. And it's no one's fault, as no one can be
blamed for being scared. Just as it is no one's fault that I have
this stuff in my veins, and I cannot blame anyone for not wanting to
be near me. It would better if I was shut away from all other human
beings.”

“Stop
whining”, Suigetsu interrupted him. “You are with us
now.”

“I
was not born like that”, Juugo continued. “I was not born
a monster. I was a normal kid as any other, perhaps a bit clumsier
than most, and always rather big for my age, so that people thought
that I was older than I actually was, wondering why I did not act my
age. I was also always rather silent, and less clever than most other
kids, so that I preferred to keep to my birds...”

Sasuke
felt a claw around his heart as he listened to this tale.

“But
apart from that, everything was fine with me. Me and my parents and
my sisters were living at my grandparents', where we were a bunch of
cousins, always playing together, and I was happy being part of the
crowd. I never wanted to be anything special. But then there was this
huge cloud of unformed chakra hovering over our village. The
grown-ups saw it in time and came to get us kids into the house, but
I was not with the rest, because we had been playing hide and seek
and I was still hiding and did not notice that there was a danger and
that the others were going inside, and no one came to look for me.
They simply forgot me, and I got caught by the cloud of chakra and
transformed into a monster.

“The
medical ninjas who examined me afterwards said that it was some
strange enzyme and that something was wrong with my DNA, but this was
only the physical manifestation of that chakra. I was not like that
from my birth. I have not been a monster for all my life.”

“You
are not a monster”, Sasuke said. He began to feel
uncomfortable, just as Suigetsu. Juugo's pain, his sufferings and
loneliness that had lasted for almost all his life were more than he
could bear.

“I
went everywhere, trying to find some cure. ‘Please,
help me’, I said. ‘I
don't want to be a monster any more.’
But they all turned me down, recommending me to someone else. Because
they were scared. At last someone sent me to Orochimaru, who did not
send me away, but neither did he attempt to cure me, he just used me
for his experiments and that cursed seal of his.”

“What
about your family?” Sasuke asked. “Did they not look for
you when you did not return?”

“My
family...” Juugo looked at him, and slowly it dawned on Sasuke
what had happened.

“You
don't hate me”, Juugo said.

“No,
why should I”, Sasuke answered, though he knew exactly what
Juugo was talking about. “Nobody could know you and still hate
you. I have rarely met a gentler, more selfless person.”

“Nothing
can undo the evil I have caused”, Juugo said.

“Not
if they are dead. But you can overcome your killing impulses. I'll
help you, I promise. When all this is over, we will find a way to get
rid of that dark chakra.”

“Thank
you”, Juugo said and lowered his eyes. Sasuke felt embarrassed
as well – he was not used any more to offereing his help to
other persons and receiving gratitude in return.

“We'll
stay here for the night”, he announced. “Itachi won't
mind if I am a day late. I have to do some thinking.”

He
would never admit it, but Juugo's story had deeply disturbed him.

Spoon:
Thanks for the compliments for the fight scene! Actually the fight
scenes were most difficult to write for me. Maybe because with the
fight scenes it is clear that I will never be as good at Kishimoto.
(So I should rather write romance...)

The
kyuubi having a soft spot for Konoha – well, I thought that it
made sense. I think that Chiyo somewhere says that the kyuubi has
always been associated with Konoha.

Lexjamandme:
Hm. I would not use this tone to a three year old. They are too young yet to understand irony. I would use it however to a fifteen year old. :-D

I
loved writing Team Hebi, and particularly Suigetsu. I think it was
their behaviour after the fight against Deidara that made me a
Hebi-fan.

Actually
I see Sasuke not as black-and-white, but I see him and his team as
the Wild Card in that fight Good against Evil. (Konoha versus
Akatsuki.) Selfish and caring, funny and human – without them,
the manga would be all boring.

On
the other hand I think that there is such a thing as evil – but
now I have to be careful not to spoiler my own story.
- 13
- 14
- 15
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

The Canalized River