All In | By : momhuey8 Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 1711 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1 |
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. |
"I did this to her."
"You saved her life."
"I just thought she was farther away. What the fuck is wrong with me? This kind of mistake..."
"Dobe, you know how things happen in the heat of battle."
"I know, but..."
She drifted way on a medicated cloud.
The next time she woke, her mind slightly sharper, the same voices were nearby.
"I think your decision to bury him in the Uchiha family cemetery is really great. I'm proud of you."
"Until I know differently, I'm going with my instinct that there was something more and give him the benefit of the doubt."
"I know I keep saying it, but I really am sorry you won't get to ask him the questions you have."
"I've been thinking about that. It seems unlikely that there isn't somebody else..."
She drifted again.
The next time she surfaced, she managed to open her eyes enough to look around the room.
Sasuke and Naruto were present again...still? They were standing against the wall, foreheads pressed together. One was fingering dark strands, the other caressing whisker-like scars with the pad of one finger. Their voices were quiet enough that she couldn't hear them.
As coherence and memory slipped back into her head, one thing was clear; Sasuke did not hate Naruto for killing Itachi.
At the realization, she gasped in pain.
The next days were agonizing for Sakura; at times the pain was excruciating.
But then the day came when she happened to be awake when a medic came to change her dressing. She nearly vomited at the sight of her own body. Her hands had what looked to be third degree burns.
All the layers of the skin, as well as some of the tissue beneath were a patchwork of white and black. Her medical training told her that grafts would be needed.
But the skin of her torso where her tunic was in flames was worse. The flesh from her shoulders to the tops of her legs was angry red and blistered; she had no feeling on most of her abdomen.
And her breasts...were gone.
She screamed her anguish to the four walls.
The next time Naruto and Sasuke came to her room, the only thing she could think was that she hated the male with all her being. She had been a pretty girl; everyone had said so. But now, now, that which made her a woman, was gone. Tsunade had reassured her that there were procedures that would restore much of her looks and shape, although she would never have the flawless skin and figure she'd had.
That useless demon holder had taken everything from her, her looks, her future and, because she knew there was no use fooling herself, her beloved Sasuke. It had become clear to Sakura as she observed her two ex-teammates; Sasuke was not going to leave Naruto. He was strong, single minded, possessive and he wanted Naruto.
Clearly, Naruto had to go.
Naruto had to go. Upon consideration, that didn’t seem possible. She was in no condition now to engage the blond. And even on her best days, she didn’t see how she could ever win a fight against him. And anyway, Sasuke would hate her beyond measure if she killed Naruto.
But, still, Naruto had to go.
Using her infirmity as a shield, Sakura used the next days to observe Naruto. She lie still quite often, feigning sleep or the disorientation of being medicated, studying the blond, looking for weaknesses.
It didn’t take long for her to spot a giant one; the cuffs. But she needed information, and the best way to get it was from Naruto himself.
She remembered another lesson taught to her by Tsunade; ‘keep your friends close, and keep your enemies closer.’ For the second time in the last weeks, she silently thanked the older woman for the shared wisdom.
Determined to right the wrongs in her life, the next time she woke to Naruto and Sasuke in her room, she repeated to herself, ‘keep your enemies closer,’ then held her hand out to the blond.
When he tentatively grasped the tips of her fingers, she smiled gently up at him and whispered, "You saved my life. Thank you, Naruto."
He collapsed to his knees, his head dropping to the edge of the mattress. His body shook with relieved sobs. As he choked out, "Oh, Sakura-chan," Sasuke bent down and pressed his lips to her forehead and held them there for several long seconds, caressing the hair at her temple.
Her smile was brilliant and her joyful tears were sincere.
Keep your friends close. Keep your enemies closer. Sakura latched onto this to keep from screaming her rage at the loathsome blond whenever he showed up in her room. The notion satisfied her need for revenge while giving her a focus that kept everyone from realizing the depths of her hatred for Naruto. It gave her the sense that she was outsmarting everyone.
One thing she did know, if she had to watch Naruto put his hands on Sasuke for even one more second, she didn’t know if she could control herself in their presence. It had taken all of her extra strength to keep a serene smile on her face, striving to give the impression that she thought the image they portrayed was adorable.
As the pair left at the end of the day, she decided it was time to act. The fact that she was presumed to be bed ridden paired with the fact of Naruto’s cuffs inspired her to engage a hastily made plan. As a life long resident, she knew just which residents could be counted on to stir up a frenzied mob with the right motivation.
Plan finally forming, the next time she woke to Naruto and Sasuke in her room, she repeated to herself, ‘keep your enemies closer,’ and then held her hand out to the blond.
Her resolved solidified as this action caused Sasuke to take her other hand and press it carefully to his lips.
Tomorrow Sasuke would be hers.
“I didn’t realize you actually own the orphanage property.” Sasuke leaned against one arm of the couch, flipping through some papers in his lap.
“It was the only way I could maintain the place the way I think it should be maintained.” Naruto shrugged. They were both in their boxers, relaxing for the evening. He had one of Sasuke’s feet in his hands and was digging his thumbs into the arch, basking in the simplicity of being in each other’s company.
Sasuke nodded. “I guess we need to find new caretakers? There aren’t any orphans now, but that…”
Naruto sat up abruptly, his entire body tense.
“What it is?” Sasuke could almost taste the tension radiating off his friend.
Naruto threw Sasuke’s foot out of his lap and headed toward the door. “Stay!”
Sasuke grabbed his arm. “No fucking way.” And he started toward the door behind Naruto.
“I told you to stay!” Naruto yelled. Sasuke found himself flying backward and then he was pinned to the floor. He was astounded when he couldn’t get up.
“Naruto, don’t you dare leave without me!” Sasuke shouted to what was now an empty room. Naruto was already gone.
Fear filled him as he struggled to figure out why he couldn’t get up from the floor. He had never intended for Naruto to protect him, ever; especially now that the blond was wearing the cuffs. Even Sasuke could feel the barest trickle of chakra flowing through Naruto.
Sasuke tried to remain calm and figure out why he couldn’t move. As he tested his limbs and sent his chakra throughout his body and then the floor under him, he growled in anger. It seemed that Naruto hadn’t taught him all his secrets. He had no idea how to undo this. He didn’t even know if it was his body that was affected or whether he was being held in place by an outside force.
As he sensed the malice and agitation in the dozens of signatures outside his door, he howled his rage, “Narutooo!”
Just outside the Uchiha gates, Naruto found a fair sized crowd made up of villagers he’d known his whole life. He’d had trouble with most of them at one point or another, but never as a group. Now they were here as a mob, each holding some sort of weapon, although most were just average kitchen blades and household tools.
“Hey?” He wished he was standing amongst these people in more than his boxers. If he wasn’t careful, they were going to see the tattoo on his back. Acutely aware of some intense hatred coming from…somewhere…he knew that the sight of the demon on him would only make things worse.
No one in the group said anything to him and he had the distinct feeling that they were confused.
“What’s up?” he prompted when no one said or did anything.
“Demon…” one man muttered half heartedly and then scratched his head as if not sure why he said it.
Then one shouted, “Uchiha!” Several in the group grumbled and nodded. Naruto frowned. It was as if they were here for a fight, but didn’t know what they wanted to fight about.
“Yeah. Fucking Uchiha deserter. Living like a king.”
“Abandons us then comes back to more money and property than all of us put together.”
“My sister has five children and lives in a two room apartment. This traitor is falling off his money pouch and has two dozen empty houses.”
“Probably sleeps in a different room every day.”
“Has the best ninja in the village as his own personal servant!”
Several of the men separated themselves from the group and headed toward Sasuke’s house, shouting and waving their weapons.
“Guys!” Naruto called out. “Let’s just call it a night. We can talk about this stuff in the morning. Maybe Sasuke and I can…”
A hate filled chakra signature swirled behind him and he turned, ready. Then the air shifted and he felt a moment of disorientation. Just as he gained his bearings he heard shouts of alarm from behind him.
“Kyuubi!”
“The demon’s loose!”
“Save the village!”
Next thing he knew, the remaining villagers that weren’t heading toward the house were attacking him. Fuck!
His first instinct was to bring up wind to keep all the men in one place. He reached inside for that well and gasped as he found it empty. The cuffs!
He held his arms up to take some of the blows and craned his neck to find the group that had gone after Sasuke. They were almost to the house and now had lit torches.
They were going to burn down the house and he had Sasuke trapped inside it.
Naruto tried to go through the men who were shrieking and growling, stabbing and clubbing him. But he had less chakra than they did and there were a lot of them. He just needed to keep Sasuke and the villagers separated.
Ignoring the blades now sticking out of his back and arms, he closed his eyes and concentrated with all his might. If he could just come up with enough to throw a thin shield around Sasuke’s house with a totem signature similar to that which Yamato used to absorb Kyuubi, it shouldn’t take much and he could keep Sasuke in and the civilians out.
Inside the house, Sasuke was in an absolute panic. His own, albeit lesser, sage abilities let him feel enough to have some sense of what was going on. Naruto was in trouble while he was still stuck to the floor.
Suddenly, though he was free. He leapt up and made to go to Naruto’s aid but found himself blocked again as he ran into the shield that Naruto had put around his house. From this vantage point, though, he could see what was happening just beyond the gate.
For the next few minutes he did everything he could think of and used every ounce of power he had to free himself or send his chakra beyond the shield, but it seemed to just absorb it all. All the while he watched as Naruto sank to his knees, his arms limp at his side, not even trying to defend himself from the continuous rain of blows coming from his attackers.
Naruto had found the well of chakra that his body used to stay alive and had forced it passed the cuffs and out to protect Sasuke. But by using that he didn’t even have enough to remain standing, much less defend himself.
Sasuke screamed and pounded on the shield as he watched the cuffs glow. He could smell the burning flesh mixing with the coppery scent of the blood pooling under Naruto’s knees.
The younger shinobi had dozens of sharp objects sticking out of his body, two run completely through his back to stick out of his chest. His face was swollen and bleeding, But Sasuke could still feel his focus; every cell in his body working to hold the barrier in place.
Unbidden tears streamed down Sasuke’s face when one villager looped a noose around Naruto’s neck and threw the rope over the arch of the Uchiha entrance gate. Terror filled him as several men joined in and hoisted Naruto’s unresisting body up into the air.
“Kill the demon!”
“Kill the serpent!”
“Protect Konoha!”
For the briefest of seconds, the barrier flickered but Sasuke wasn’t quick enough to take advantage of it. He looked at Naruto whose eyes had opened and were now looking at him. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop! Don’t do this!” Sasuke screamed. “Let me out!”
Then Naruto’s body was spun around as the attackers continued to hack at the demon on his back.
Suddenly Sasuke knew what was coming. Sickness welled in him as he watched one of the burlier men dive for a long blade lying on the ground and make a broad swing for the demon’s head, just below Naruto’s knee.
His fingers burned as they dug into the shield and…Naruto’s leg fell to the ground.
Then the shield vanished. And Sasuke was running. Just as he reached Naruto, a blur flew out of the trees and Neji was soaring toward them, his sword out. The Anbu howled as he swung his own weapon, cutting the rope holding Naruto in the air. The blond’s body fell into Sasuke’s arms and they crashed to the ground.
“Naruto!” Sasuke pulled Naruto into his lap, the weapons protruding from every part of the blond’s body cutting into his arms and legs.
He looked into his lover’s face. Naruto’s eyes were open but cloudy, unseeing. His breath bubbled in short, wet spurts through his nostrils and open mouth, and blood streamed passed his lips and down his chin.
Neji was there, tying a tourniquet around Naruto’s leg. “Tsunade will be here any second. There was a disturbance in town as well.”
Sasuke and Neji both watched as Naruto made one last short exhale and then…nothing.
“Naruto?” Sasuke whispered, shock on his face.
Neji and Sasuke held their breaths for a space of seconds, waiting for the next rise of Naruto’s chest.
It didn’t come.
Sasuke became aware of his new connection to the planet, the connection that Naruto had shown him, had given him. His breath faltered as felt the life leave Naruto’s body, much as rain sheds from the leaves on a tree.
He felt the earth beneath them joyfully absorb this life energy, just as it covetously soaks up rain after a spring shower. The soil under them became richer, warmer, and more vibrant. His senses were following the trickles of Naruto’s life as they sunk deeper into the earth and dispersed, diluting and mixing with the other elements of life hidden there. The heavens around him were happier, brighter, shimmering with joy at this new addition. The container in his arms was fading.
“Sasuke, help me,” Neji yelled.
Sasuke looked at him, his expression still one of disbelief.
“Help me!” Sasuke could not understand what Neji was doing, much less what was being asked of him. He didn’t comprehend that Neji had his hands on Naruto’s chest and was forcing chakra into his body.
“We were just making plans…” Sasuke whispered. He was in a web that was apart from the substantial universe and from his new senjutsu perspective he observed a tiny spark, a warm, beautiful light, rise from Naruto’s chest and hover, brilliant, alone in a vast black nothingness. He reached for it, but it danced away and he had a feeling that it was teasing him, laughing and playing.
‘Come with me.’
He nodded and studied the weapons before him. He pulled one knife from Naruto’s shoulder set it to his forearm, making a cut toward his wrist.
“Sasuke!” Neji grabbed his wrist.
“I have to hurry. He’s alone again.” Sasuke jerked his arm free. “I promised him that he’d never be alone again.” He put the blade to his arm again. “He’ll think I lied to him.”
Then Tsunade was there. The first thing she did was remove the cuffs. Then she pulled Naruto from Sasuke’s arms and yanked enough weapons out of him so that she could lay him on the ground.
“You will not fucking die.” She grabbed Sasuke’s hand and pressed it onto Naruto’s chest next to Neji’s. “If the demon’s still alive, we have a chance.”
“Sasuke!” He just stared at her, stuck between two worlds.
She slapped him across the face. “Sasuke!” she shouted again. “Your chakra! Now!”
He blinked and became aware of the activity around him. Then, never taking his inner eye off the spark that hovered and danced, caressing his cheek and ruffling his hair, he nodded and drew forth every reserve of power he could find inside him.
‘Stay.’
Again...Next Chapter, All In and Constellations are COMPLETELY different. Thanks so much for sticking with me. Chapters 13 and 14 haven't been my favorites (I really suck at 'bad guys') but hopefully you'll enjoy them as the conflicts unfold.
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