Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Sector Five	By : FlairForTheVeil Category: Naruto AU/AR > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 2292 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor its characters. Rightful ownership belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I make no profit of this fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 17
- 18
- 19
Chapter 17: Broken Bonds – Part II

They moved through the brush efficiently, keeping their steps light and their guns in hand to prevent the clinking of bullets in their chamber. At certain areas in the woods, they’d have to quickly duck under low branches and stay that way as to not be seen. The sounds of a rough battle were heard even more clearly now, the frantic switching of a magazine with shaking fingers, the sound of shells hitting the ground after piercing shots, the heavy breathing and grunts, the pangs of metal against each other, and the audible scuffles on ground as some group members chose to take things down the classic way.
Naruto knew that their most specialized and experienced close combat members were Neji and Hinata – but neither was here to fight anymore. Coming up right behind them was Rock Lee, trained harshly by Guy and who seemed to perpetually be running laps around their whole camp at a dizzying speed. The guy would practically punish himself if he didn’t do something perfectly, giving himself two-hundred pushups and sit-ups to do and seventy-five laps around the camp to sprint. He had mad dedication that Naruto, albeit sometimes disturbed by it, admired. The blond knew it would be nearly impossible to defeat the monster.
He knew that the girls of the camp were vicious in close combat. There was no questioning them. Tenten had an obsession with various knives and creative, melee weapons. Karin seemed to prefer getting her knuckles bruised and bloody. Sakura’s strength, achieved by the training of Tsunade, was downright terrifying – she could break a neck with one hand. Naruto couldn’t recall much of Ino’s fighting style. What he did recall was a quick series of disabling attacks, almost done in a dancelike manner. It was similar to what he had seen of Neji and Hinata, and he wouldn’t be surprised if either of them had shown her some of their moves. Sai fought in a similar way, though he tended to use an assortment of weapons similar to Tenten’s.
Naruto knew that Chouji threw some spine-snapping attacks, throwing all of his weight behind them. His attacks were efficient, but the boy moved like a bull. Shikamaru usually stuck around to fill in the areas Chouji missed, mostly using knives to paralyze the enemy. If he remembered correctly, another dynamic duo was Shino and Kiba. Shino tended to remain as far from his attacker as possible, always evading a fight without so much as a bruise or scratch. Quite the contrary to him, Kiba was an actual animal – he charged into battle headfirst and wasn’t afraid to throw a few body slams into mud. Beside him was always Akamaru the mutant issue mutt, ripping flesh clean from bones and protecting his master at all costs. Suigetsu preferred to use a thick sword of his that seemed to move by itself sometimes. He had noticed that Juugo didn’t need much besides his own weight to defend himself.
Whose fighting techniques he couldn’t recall very well, though, were those of Konohamaru. Naruto could guess that he was a close combat fighter like him, as the boy tended to cling onto him at times. He wished that the adults were here to fight with them – Jiraiya had some deadly moves due to his large size. Kakashi had some pretty badass, speedy moves that he had witnessed to take down three scouts within five minutes. Tsunade was a wielder of severely inhumane strength and could smash someone’s skull like an eggshell. Guy was very similar to Lee, focused on strength and agility. And the others… well… Itachi had been an excellent fighter, obviously self-taught. He recalled Kabuto being an outstanding archer and swordsman.
Naruto glanced to his side, leaves gently whispering against the sides of his face and clinging into his hair. Sasuke was mainly focused on speed and power. He was enviously good at almost all fighting techniques, whether it be combat in close or long distance. While he took on a more graceful and organized approach of attacking, Naruto reared his head into battles and immediately went for the weak spot, no matter how well it was protected. In that situation, Sasuke would take the guards down to inch himself closer to the weakness, like a game of dominoes.
The pale boy held out his arm, lightly hitting Naruto in the chest and slowing them to a stop. They were at a junction of the forest just a few feet away from where the officials had invaded into, positioned just so they could see the military men but not vice versa. Only three of the twelve scouts that had entered were standing guard there.
Naruto shuffled a bit deeper into the woods, catching eye of a shine in the foliage. He moved a few branches away and, lo and behold, were two huge black military-grade SUVs; completely decked out with bumper protectors, blue and yellow alarm lights and a matching trailer attached to the back of each one. The trailers looked like a cage that an animal control vehicle would carry around. It read “Sector Three Border Control” in huge, luminescent yellow letters. He took quiet and careful steps closer to the vehicles, his eyes slightly burning from keeping his eyes on them too long. But he had to be alert. Along the indents of indestructible looking bolts in the trailer and on the entering step of it was a substance Naruto decided to deem as rust. He swallowed roughly and his heart ached for the ones that had been caught, ones who had been ripped from their homes yet again. He could envision the officials manhandling men and women, children as well, into the trailers, declaring their extermination as soon as they came within a few feet of them. A pungent stench radiated from both of them, so strong that Naruto had to prevent himself from gagging. This was fucking horrible.
He snapped his neck away from the trailers, successfully keeping yesterday’s lunch down. He didn’t need to think about what happened inside of those things. Instead, he focused on the matted areas of luscious grass that the officials had so roughly skidded over, slightly uprooting some of it. The blond glanced inside the SUV closest to him. Its windows were tinted a complete, glossy black. He recognized the whole model of the vehicle as a more recent one of Kakashi’s. Its wheels looked like they could run over huge road spikes and still come out unscathed, raised so that the vehicle came a bit more than a full head above his own.
The blond glanced behind himself to where he felt Sasuke glaring at him, sending him a message with his eyes that said come the fuck back over here all too clearly. He held up his index finger to Sasuke, asking for just a bit more time to search what the officials had left outside of their vehicles.
Naruto carefully rounded the vehicle, intimidated by its size and his own reflection in its paint coat and windows. He couldn’t tell if someone or something was inside one of them. He’d have to take a risk. Now he reached the driver’s door and came to an important decision – should he open it or not? The silver handle was glossy and held a few fingerprints on it. It would be pretty bad if they traced him, wouldn’t it? Sucking in a deep breath, he bunched the bottom of his shirt between his fingers and wrapped it around his whole palm. He set his hand on the door handle, the surface so clean that his fingers barely squeaked on the surface. Sending a hopeful look to himself, he looked anxious and sweaty – he would do anything to bring safety upon his camp.
Naruto tugged the door, starting when it actually opened. No alarms or lights went off, and no person or Katon jumped out of the vehicle to attack him. He licked his chapped lips and opened it all the way, revealing high-grade Sector technology and weapons littering the black leather seats.
Naruto gasped. He closed the door slightly and glanced back to where Sasuke was crouching, madly beckoning him over and tilting his head towards the door.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes and shook his head, flipping him off and jerking his hand to get Naruto to return to his side. He shook his head when the other persisted, hooking his thumb to the full-blown battle behind him and mouthing that he was a… what was that… Naruto stopped his motions and tilted his head. He didn’t think he’d known that cuss word before.
Gee, Sasuke really had a mouth on him. The blond continued to motion towards the car, closing his fist to poke out his thumb and index finger in a gun gesture, closing the door halfway and aiming his hand at it. The pale boy tilted his head and grabbed his own shotgun in askance. Naruto nodded and began to beckon madly again.
Sasuke glanced behind himself, narrowly avoiding being caught by a guard who shifted his weight and spit on the ground to his side. He shuffled along the corners of the forest, lightly brushing against leaves and disturbing the resting snow on the tallest branches. He moved quickly and silently, hands on his weapons and eyes on the military officials.
He finally jogged up to Naruto, looking slightly irritated but curious nonetheless. “What the hell is it?” He grumbled and tucked a thick lock of his bangs behind his ear.
“They left their guns in the front seat,” Naruto whispered and tugged the door open a bit more. “Should we take ‘em?”
“First of all,” his friend replied tensely and pursed his lips. “those are military-grade weapons. Some of those things don’t even look like fucking guns. Second of all, neither of us know how to work those, stupid. And last of all, what the hell are you thinking, opening the official’s fucking car-“
“Alright, alright,” Naruto interrupted and rolled his eyes. Despite Sasuke’s bitching, he tugged a suitcase off of the dashboard and nearly doubled over with its weight.
“Naruto,” the other growled. “Put that back right now.”
The blond opened the latch of the silver case, neatly popping open to reveal a complicated assortment of weapons imbedded in black foam. He tilted his head. Naruto laid his eyes on the odd guns inside, some of them resembling simple classic revolvers and evolving into sleek, small shapes. He tentatively reached out for a gun that kind of looked like a boomerang, wondering how the sleek white metal would feel like-
“Ouch!” he hissed, cradling his wrist to his chest and glaring up at Sasuke. He had fucking kicked his hand!
Sasuke crouched to bring himself eye level with Naruto, making sure to give him a look so dirty that his balls would shrivel up. He quickly slammed the suitcase shut and closed the latch, tossing it back inside the vehicle and gently pressing the driver’s door shut.
“Now, that was no fun.”
Sasuke had unsheathed Kusanagi in less than a few seconds and dragged Naruto to his feet in the same window of time. His partner raised his favorite gun in the direction the voice had come from, biting his lip and furrowing his brow in concentration.
“Put that gun down, dickless,” Sai emerged from the opposite side of the military vehicle, carrying a silver suitcase in hand.
“Sai!” Naruto choked out. He glanced at Sasuke out of the corner of his eye, the back of his neck turning red at the nickname. He certainly had a dick. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Sai smiled in an utterly bloodcurdling manner. “I could ask both of you the same thing. A romantic rendezvous? A dramatic exit? A flee to freedom? Just what are you planning?”
Naruto hoped that the boy beside him kept his attention focused on Sai and not the blooming redness across his cheeks. He balled his fists by his sides. “For your information, we’re planning to attack the officials. Now what the hell are you doing stealing military weapons?”
“Isn’t that what you were planning on doing?” Sasuke grumbled under his breath and dug the tip of Kusanagi into the ground. He carefully examined Sai, not a single emotion to be seen on his sheet white face.
The blond resisted telling his friend to shut up and willed the blood gathering in his whole face to leave. This really wasn’t the time for Sai’s lewd gestures and jokes – if they could be even called jokes. All the dude did was comment on everything, especially penises.
“If you really want to know…” Sai deadpanned and rubbed his chin calmly. “I was supposed to leave with Kabuto.”
Now Naruto’s jaw went slack. Sai had always been content around this camp and had even befriended Naruto, though he was aggravating and too perverted most of the time. The blond would have never expected him to so much as hate the camp. He seemed to pick up artistic inspiration just about every day from his friends. “You…? Sai, w-“
“Yes. I forgot that I was with Kabuto in the first place.”
“You forgot,” Sasuke cut in flatly, sending the other a disbelieving look. “even after that whole speech Kabuto gave back there?”
“Yes.”
Silence overcame the three as they all stared at one another, two sets of incredulous eyes staring at a pair of bored and indifferent ones. They all bathed in a full minute of unadulterated silence, expecting an explanation from the teen standing alone in front of them – but one never came. Distant clangs of metal and gunshots punctuated it but never the voice of the artist.
“Uh…” Naruto started. “So you’re staying with us?”
“I guess so.”
Sasuke scowled beside him. “Then you better help us with our ambush.”
Sai squinted his eyes at the Uchiha, tilting his head back and parting his lips. He turned his head to the guards at the entrance of the camp, then back to Sasuke. The artist appeared to be in deep thought, calculating their positions and their most likely mediums of attack.
“What is your plan?” he suddenly asked.
Sasuke grunted. He finally meant business. “The first thing is to sneak up on those guards from behind,” he whispered and pointed to said guards. “Disarm them and then kill them. Use a knife if you can so we don’t attract the other officials. We all get one each, since there’s only three – first come, first serve, I guess. Then we help the rest of the camp.”
“I see…” Sai returned to the realms of his thoughts yet again. “So your personality suggests-“
“What?” Sasuke interrupted, raising an eyebrow. “What does that have to do with anything that has to do with-“
“-that you have a big dick. But I don’t know if it matches your personality. Please drop your-“
“Excuse me?” Sasuke growled. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Beside him, Naruto snorted. “I bet ‘Sas has a millimeter Peter-“
“This is not the time for this,” Sasuke snapped, genuinely irritated by the whole conversation. “We need to move in-“
“You are one to talk, Naruto,” Sai quipped. “Hence why I have named you Dickless-“
“What! What about your dick, huh, Sai?”
“Stop it!” Sasuke hissed. “You’re so fucking immature. We’re moving in right now. Both of you are stupid dumbasses.”
“It is somewhat redundant to use ‘stupid’ and ‘dumbass’ consecutively,” Sai noted. “next time, I suggest you use ‘fucking’.”
The boy ignored him and marched his way along the forest brush, skimming the soft leaves and the snow lying upon them. He knew that the other two would have no other choice than to follow him. Just walk away, he reminded himself, controlling his hot head and leading himself away from the two biggest idiots in the world. An inch away from death and Naruto would still try to pick fights. What kind of man was he getting into?
And right before they had all agreed to ambush. They needed to move now. Who knew what members of their camp were already dead or injured, or if they had all been captured and were currently being tortured? The gunshots and screams didn’t have a story of their own. There was no possible way to see who had lost their life within the echoes of an emptied chamber or whether the grunt he just heard was one of victory or someone’s very last grunt.
He sobered his thoughts and checked to make sure Kusanagi was on her cutting side, a strong grip around her hilt and a firm offensive stance in his legs. There was no telling just how good these officials were – it had been ten years since he had last fought one. Even then it had been difficult, but he had been a tender elementary school age. He’d like to see just how much his combat skills had improved.
Now he was crouched just over ten feet away from the guards, glancing behind himself to ensure that both of his comrades were behind him. Indeed they were, Sai directly behind him and Naruto closing their formation. The artist held two short cutting knifes in either hands, ones that nearly reminded Sasuke of the one that had been buried in his shoulder. He nearly shivered.
He turned his attention back to the guards they were nearing. Sasuke fell into a lower crouch, carefully maneuvering back into the spot that Naruto and he had been before. He patiently waited for the blond to quit fumbling in a bush and return to his spot, fisting his hand in the soft forest grass and feeling some dirt lodge under his fingernails. This decision right here – it was a life or death one, Sasuke reminded himself. He’d choose correctly due to the intense pressure training Itachi had put him under and so diligently listened to. He’d do this for the mere memories of his older brother and he’d take out his sadness and frustration on the male guard he would attack. With the loss of the man’s life, he would also lose the negative thoughts about his brother – he’d let him go right here, right now. He wouldn’t have time to mourn and sulk in the future.
A determined look came upon Sasuke’s features, leaking into his tense shoulders and white knuckles around Kusanagi’s hilt. Today, he wouldn’t mess up at all. He’d avenge his own family, although only on a few members of the Sector he wasn’t even from. Never mind that, they might as well all be working together in a sick idea of peace. Sasuke eyed the stocky stature of the guard farthest away from him. He had short brown hair and matching eyes which were looking everywhere but the area he was supposed to be guarding – skimming across the ground and wandering into the trees. It wouldn’t be too hard to take him down, Sasuke thought. They must have underestimated their whole camp and sent in a few rookies, judging by the limited attention span of the three in front of them. Sasuke understood that it was a better choice to send their best fighters straight into battle – but leaving the newbies by themselves? It was like leaving a kindergartener with a bowl of hand putty and nobody to tell them when to stop playing with it. They were all distracted by either themselves, each other, or their surroundings. How unprofessional.
Sasuke snorted and frowned deeply, turning his head to Naruto. “You could walk straight up to them and they wouldn’t notice,” he whispered, voice masked by the yells and gunshots in the distance. “how pathetic.”
“Uh…” Naruto cast him a wary glance, his eyes flickering back and forth between the other and the guards. “I think I misheard you… what was the ambush plan again?”
He raised an eyebrow and inspected the blond’s expression, analyzing the confusion all over its tan features. “Disarm them,” Sasuke repeated himself, gesturing to his own shotgun. “and kill them.” He made a cutthroat motion with his hand, raising his eyebrows in a hopeful finale that he hoped Naruto understood. “I’d prefer if you’d use your knife. Spread some blood around h-“
“Can I talk to you for a sec?” Naruto murmured, his hand flying up to the back of his neck, fingers tangling in his flaxen hair and scratching his scalp.
“You are right now.”
“In private,” he replied almost incoherently, deemed uncomfortable should Sai hear his request.
The other tensed, sending Naruto a cautious glance and pressing his lips into a straight line. He guessed there was no turning the blond down now – he wouldn’t stop bothering Sasuke if he said no. So he glanced at Sai, sending him a warning look and rising to his full height, motioning for Naruto to follow him. He treaded lightly on the thin sticks and hard clumps of snow in the woods, slightly irritated that Naruto seemed to want a heart-to-heart right before an all-too-important ambush.
Sasuke turned suddenly, keeping his voice down as to not attract officials and to keep his own irritation from leaking into his voice. If he wanted to gain Naruto’s trust steadily, he’d have to respect his decisions at all times – even if they sprung up at completely inappropriate ones like right now. “What?”
He ran a hand through his blond mane and sighed through his nose, shuffling his feet and slumping his shoulders. Naruto visibly bit at the inside of his lip and focused his eyes on anywhere else but Sasuke, crossing his arms behind his back. He finally glanced at the other, but only for a single fleeting moment before darting around the growth of the forest once again.
Sasuke relaxed his face, wiping any expression of irritation away and letting his hands hang freely at his sides. “Naruto.”
“I-“ Naruto swallowed roughly mid-sentence, attempting to focus on Sasuke. The time he had spent before staring into the shrubs and stalling their ambush seemed useless now. He had forgotten the small speech he had quickly made up. Now he didn’t know how he acted when he wasn’t under stress, didn’t know how to control the shaking of his fingers and the jumping in his throat. “I don’t think I can do it.”
Sasuke was taken aback – he didn’t expect a reply for at least another minute. “Can’t do what?” he asked in genuine confusion.
The other sighed, a bit exasperated that he’d have to voice his dreaded problem. Sooner or later, he’d have to man up – just as Sasuke and the others already had, leaving him in the dust. Naruto moved to rub the side of his head but awkwardly caught himself in the middle of the action and settled for an ungraceful crossing of his arms. “I don’t think I can kill them,” he said softly, staring at a tear in Sasuke’s shirt near his collarbone.
Sasuke didn’t miss a beat. “Why not?”
There it was. Sasuke didn’t approve of his feelings, Naruto thought. His mouth struggled to catch up with his mind, taking veering turns and nearly crashing with others. “I know that they’re officials and all-“
“Why not?” Sasuke repeated himself, just a bit softer this time. He tilted his head up, face blank. His irises, like dark pools, held no snarky monsters or malicious creatures lurking in their depths – there were flowers of ears that would bloom at the slightest provocation and deep, promising ivy that held an occasional thorn.
Naruto swallowed roughly. “Sasuke, they have families of their own to go home to. If we kill them… they can’t bring food to the table to feed their wives and children, much less themselves. Sai and I are victims of this. They’re not the true enemy, they’re doing their job. If we kill them, what more does that make us than an enemy ourselves?”
He pushed away the pang somewhere deep in his chest. Yet another thing Naruto and he hadn’t experienced together. He was on his own for this one, teamed up with two that saw the men guarding as their own parents. Who were they to deny them the love of their own children?
“Then I’m sorry they couldn’t realize what they were doing right now,” Sasuke said. “Just look out there. If they haven’t already realized what they were doing…” he shrugged and shook his head. “No child would be proud of their parents when Job Day comes around.”
Naruto furrowed his eyebrows and stared at him for a few moments, processing what he had just said.
“I see what you’re saying, Naruto. We’re already no better than them. Just… picture them as deer or something. I promise that there’s no healthy benefit for what they’ve done.”
The other’s cheeks were slightly flushed, his azure eyes grateful for another reason. Naruto took in a deep breath and nodded. “Okay. Sorry for taking so long.”
Sasuke didn’t reply, simply nodding once and turning to lead them back to Sai’s figure, poised and ready for attack. He turned his head and glared impatiently at the pair. He realized that he couldn’t give Naruto time to change his mind – they would have to jump straight in before he realized what he was doing.
“On three,” he whispered, taking advantage of a bird call to unsheathe Kusanagi, masking her hollow sound.
Sai lowered a paper mask onto his face that Sasuke hadn’t noticed before. It was of a tiger, painted roughly in thick black acrylic that appeared oriental. “One,” his monotone voice announced.
Naruto’s throat felt like cotton and he felt like he was in a dream. The grip on his knife felt weak and his ankles flimsy in his boots.
“Two.”
He swallowed roughly. His stomach was filled with sludge, his mind filling with negative energy. Perhaps his hands had done so much worse in the past.
“Three.”
At once, they gently stepped out from the shrubbery, Sasuke and Sai immediately grabbing the posterior guards and leaving Naruto with the centermost guard.
He turned around, face etched in confusion as he wondered where his colleagues had gone. The guard jumped when he saw Naruto and immediately flipped open the gun holster on his hip to clumsily pull out a sleek contraption.
The blond, averting his eyes from the thin face of the guard, simply raised his foot and the contraption skittered along the dewy grass. He was scrawny. That thin wrist was probably sprained, at least bruised.
Naruto grabbed the man by his stiff collar – it held no merit pins. This guy was a newbie. Maybe it was his first day on the job, and if it was, it sure was shitty ass first day. He slammed the official against the nearest tree, jostling its leaves and causing lumps of snow to shower down on them. The man – Isamu, his nametag read – struggled diligently around his firm grip, using well-practiced self-defense to grab Naruto’s wrists and fingers in weak attempts to twist and break them like he had to Neji’s. This guy just didn’t have enough weight on him for the job, his sweaty hands sliding off Naruto’s skin and his knees to the blond’s stomach easily dodgeable. Isamu twisted his body wildly away from the tree, moving his feet to hook behind Naruto’s to trip him. But Naruto simply held his weight or lifted his foot.
This was sad. Naruto pressed his forearm into the guard’s neck, effectively holding him down and choking him. He glanced down, carefully sheathing his hunting knife as Isamu clawed at his arm and moving his head slightly when he threw a punch. Naruto finally yanked the man away from the tree, being dragged along as he tried to run away while stumbling over his own fancy shoes. The blond produced his leather-bound knife from his pocket, quickly hooking it around the other’s neck and using both of his hands to hold either side of the clad knife.
Their heads were side by side, the back of the guard’s neck against his left shoulder and his leather knife barely migrating closer and closer to his own neck as the man stopped struggling. Isamu never stopped fighting, presumably a man dedicated to his work. He attempted to kick Naruto’s feet out from under him, weakly threw a few backhands into his nose but turning into a slap weaker than a kitten’s. He tried to elbow Naruto in the stomach, and although they felt like mere pats, he flexed his abdominal muscles like it were to be a real hit. He located the main vain of his wrist, digging his long thumb into Naruto’s tan skin and successfully drawing blood – Naruto simply jutted his whole body to the left, crushing the man’s trachea and closing his eyes in a weak attempt to block out the sound of the other’s morbid choking and gurgling.
Isamu stopped struggling. Naruto held onto his neck for a minute longer, ensuring that he hadn’t faked death and was robbed of all his oxygen. The expensive material of the military uniform rubbed against Naruto’s wrist, tightly wound and starched straight. He finally let the man slump to the ground in an unceremonious heap, blood leaking out of his nose from his attempt to head-butt Naruto and a straight bruised line already formed across his neck.
Naruto stared at the bound knife in his hand, gently tossing it and grinding his lips together. He almost didn’t want to pocket it anymore, something he had used to kill someone. He pocketed it either way and glanced up, forcing himself to forget the hot breaths hitting the side of his neck and the spit hitting his left cheek from rough and desperate breaths.
He knelt down and turned the man on his back, refraining from looking into his eyes. He dragged the small cap atop his head, now thrown haphazardly a few feet away from him, over his face. The golden hog symbol and crest glittered on the front of the cap, a morbid wink at Naruto. He had come face to face with death but wasn’t the one experiencing it.
Grimly, Naruto stood and glanced in front of him. Sai had engaged in a quickly-paced and graceful fight with another guard, obviously more experienced than Naruto’s. There was a long gash across the guard’s face, leaking down onto his collar where a single bronze star glinted in the light. He wore his hair in a short bun – scratch that, now bob. Sai had chopped it off in a feasible attempt to chop his neck off.
Naruto gulped and immediately searched for Sasuke. He was kneeling on the ground not too far away from him, gingerly running Kusanagi over the soft grass to remove the thick blood from her blade. Pungent even from here, Naruto nearly gagged but made the wise choice to breathe from his mouth. He could nearly taste the metallic flavor of blood in the air, accompanied by none other than sweat.
He kneeled next to Sasuke, finding himself lulled to relaxation in his back-and-forth movements to clean Kusanagi. Her blade moved smoothly and lightly over the grass, slicing thin blades of it away when her owner shifted slightly.
“Stabbed him the moment I ran out of there,” Sasuke grumbled. “this is the only downside of it.”
Naruto grunted, knotting his fingers in his lap and staring at the beads and thin streaks of maroon on the blade.
“Saw you strangle him,” he continued. “and it looked like you remembered pretty well.”
“I did,” Naruto said. “Isn’t the whole point of fighting to learn how to move your body, so that the attacks come like instinct?”
“Yeah,” Sasuke grunted and finally resorted to tearing a piece of cloth off a leg protruding from the forest. No doubt that Sasuke had shoved him into the woods, to “spread some blood”. He ran the cloth up his blade, successfully wiping it of all blood and leaving nothing but an orangey residue. “and you probably remember everything. About fighting, at least.”
He idly watched Sai break a sweat fighting the other guard. “I guess we’ll see.”
“I think I’ve told you this a million times already,” Sasuke announced suddenly, placing Kusanagi on the ground and turning his body towards Naruto. “but this doesn’t make you a bad person. You know what does?”
Naruto scowled into the grass, his cheek tingling from where he knew Sasuke was staring at it. The baritone of Sasuke’s voice was always smooth and full. He hummed.
“I say,” he tilted his head in thought, black bangs shifting and tickling Naruto’s nose. “a bad person is a terrorist. One who kills a person without a purpose, and one who lies to others.”
“People who lie to themselves won’t bring anything positive to their loved ones,” Naruto murmured, finally raising his eyes to the intense dark ones of Sasuke. “they’re hurting themselves and others. Hurting others is one thing, but themselves…” his gravelly voice was unable to use such a quiet tone.
Sasuke, like always, boldly held his eye contact. He wasn’t one to back down, wasn’t one to give up and declare defeat. Though this wasn’t some sort of contest, this was an earnest confession coming from himself – and Naruto had so generously accepted his opinion, never missing a beat. Their beings – Sasuke blinked – they were always in some sort of sync… whether it be that they would match each other’s moods or speeds or styles, it always happened.
Naruto felt a gravitational pull to the other, a yearning to look closer inside the depth of his eyes. He was, as always, even more charmingly handsome this close – but this time, it didn’t irritate the blond or arouse jealousy inside his core. Instead, it created a wild churning in his gut and a wild beating of his heart, the slipperiness of his palms against the damp grass and dizziness deep in his skull. He leaned a bit closer, their breaths now able to mingle and about half an inch between their noses. Naruto cast his eyes down to Sasuke’s thin and pink lips, slightly parted and barely chapped from the cold. His eyes flickered back to the other’s again, catching Sasuke’s lowered lids for a fraction of a second as he stared at Naruto’s lips. Their eyes caught each other again as a moment of pure silence passed by and they both unconsciously leant in closer together, turning their heads-
“Watch out!”
Two hands planted themselves in the middle of Naruto’s chest, shoving him backwards so that he had to roll away to prevent hurting his neck. A heavy thud was heard in the area he was sitting before. Naruto turned, quickly making eye contact with Sasuke across from him. His legs were open and braced on the ground, the heels of his boots digging into the ground. He had pushed Naruto away and scooted himself away from the body now between them, breathing heavily as shock caught up with the both of them. Their eyes quickly darted away from each other in embarrassment, the blond’s cheeks burning.
They didn’t have to make eye contact anymore as Rock Lee blocked their view, straddling the body between them and delivering an alarmingly powerful series of punches that sent the official’s neck twisting in every which direction. He grunted with the force of each one, mumbling to himself about the force and power and passion of his youth. Once the official stopped fighting back, his face swollen and bloodied beyond recognition, Lee gripped him by the collar - three silver stars adorning the neck – and yanked him face level to himself only to slam his head harshly into the ground, effectively snapping his neck and giving the body a harsh concussion.
Rock Lee threw his head back and let out a battle cry, unraveling the bandages around his knuckles and throwing the bloody things to the side. He produced some more from the inside of his shirt, rapidly wrapping them around his hands and timing himself as he knotted them. “Seven,” he yelled, shaking his head. “how slow of me.”
“Bushy Brows…” Naruto said, shocked at the spectacle he had just put on.
“Oh!” Lee shouted, opening his round eyes and dropping his jaw open. “Naruto! Sasuke! Where have you been all this time? We need your youthful energy to f-“
“We know that,” Sasuke interrupted. “Sai and us just took down their three guards.”
“Smart thinking!” Lee praised, standing up and slapping his hands together, ridding them of the excess bandage powder. “Let us fight together for our freedom!”
Naruto stood wearily, eyeing Lee’s slender figure and wondering how he had taken down the huge man by their feet. “Uh… how are things going over there, anyway? Is everyone okay?”
Lee bent to remove his leg weights, tossing them to the side and practicing his stretches. “So far, we have 2 unconscious, Suigetsu and Shino, and Juugo has been shot five times in the stomach. Do not fear his safety, though! Juugo has evolved into a fiery ball of powerful youth. He is a human weapon! He will not even stop at the wrathful fate of Karin’s hands-”
“Juugo’s evolved into what?” Sasuke cut in, giving Lee a concerned look.
“He is sending punches that could break boulders,” Lee mimicked a powerful punch in front of him, in between Naruto and Sasuke’s chests. “and kicks that could move mountains!” he side kicked the air in front of him.
Sasuke stared into the entrance of the camp, noticing enraged yelling dominating most other yells and nearly matching the volume of gunshots. It was most definitely Juugo, his deep voice scratchy and audible even all the way over here.
“Lee, we need to help Juugo,” he said, glancing behind him to find Sai’s guard with an open wound in his chest but no sign of his killer. He bothered with no explanation as to exactly why they had to help him. Juugo’s business would remain between the ones he had chosen to trust, and Sasuke would respect that.
Juugo was prone to lengthy fits of rage – something Karin had diagnosed but he couldn’t recall the name of at the moment. Juugo had always told Sasuke that there was something about his presence that he found calming, and it was up to Sasuke to keep the young man’s rage in check. In his regular state, Juugo’s personality was equivalent to one of an elementary schooler, kind and calm. But should someone or something upset him, he went completely berserk and destroyed everything in his path until Sasuke was able to intervene that path, effectively stopping him.
But, in this situation, was Juugo hurting the officials or their own camp members? He ran into the camp opening, sure that the officials would be distracted by his large teammate – and surely, they were. There was no definite attraction in any part of the camp, though an assortment of small white knives littered the ground, accompanied by the cringe worthy amount of bullet shells. There were a few appendages scattered around, occasionally interrupted by a large pool of blood and unidentifiable substances.
An alarming amount of their own members were on the ground unconscious or severely injured and groaning. Juugo had thankfully left Karin alone, who was currently kneeling and trying to patch up a nasty compound fracture that Konohamaru was harboring. He was conscious and beet red into the face. Karin had given him a towel to bite on as she pushed his bone back into his skin, apologizing as he screamed and she could only bind his skin together with gauze and not allow him to fight anymore.
A good amount of their camp members had odd welts on various parts on their body. They were most likely caused by Tasers of some sort, obviously from the military officials and their snarky technology. Sasuke snapped himself out of his thoughts and continued to cautiously jog through the camp, weaving through fights of multiple members of their camp against one officer and searching for Juugo. He had evidently hurt their own members, judging by Sakura having to nurse Chouji and Akamaru at once. Kiba was fighting alone against a weaker official, Shikamaru and Ino handling another.
Over half of those officials were dead. Kimimaro, the female, and three other male soldiers were still standing alert and fighting roughly, seeming unwearied by the amount of effort in which they were fighting with.
And with Kimimaro he found Juugo, madly charging the man and wildly hitting him, only to have his attacks dodged.
Now was his time, Sasuke thought. He had wished to fight Kimimaro, and his wish was granted. He would put an end to Juugo’s rage and take this man’s life himself.
“Juugo, snap out of it,” Sasuke called, gaining the attention of Kimimaro. The thin hairs on the back of his neck rose with the pending exhilaration of a fight, especially one against a five-star military official. The strange markings on Kimimaro’s face made him appear apathetic and serious.
On top of a destroyed tent, Kimimaro stared at Sasuke. The gun barrel was overturned and completely empty, dented in who knows what had happened to it. There were patches of grass missing in evidence of many scuffles and the remnants of a few limbs.
Juugo charged at the man again, yelling obscenities incoherently and raising his fists in what would have been a barrage of powerful punches. But Kimimaro simply held up both of his hands, letting the technology on his wrists absorb the shock and return it to Juugo.
The teen screamed in agony and cradled his hands to his chest. Sasuke’s brow furrowed in shock and he stepped away from his teammate, glaring at the man who had brought him pain. The devices on Kimimaro’s wrists looked like simple white bracelets, a ring of electric blue softly glowing inside them.
He growled. “Juugo, knock it off,” Sasuke demanded, grabbing him by the shirt and yanking him backwards. “Go for a walk. I’ll take care of this.”
Sasuke waited for no answer. He turned his body fully to Kimimaro, sending him a hard glare straight in the eyes and bracing Kusanagi right in front of himself. There would be no mercy shown in this fight, as it was already apparent by the look in the other man’s eyes.
Sasuke never figured out what it was that he had done for his whole family to be exterminated from One. He was merely the age of six. If it was children like him, innocent people like him, that officials like Kimimaro hated so much, then he would certainly make his mark in history. What goes around, comes around. It was simple and basic karma. For all the lives that had been lost at the leather-gloved fingers of Kimimaro, he would certainly add them up – but a life was a life, and it meant more than anything he could ever think of. He knew that this was Naruto perceived life as, reluctant to rob the right of living from someone else in a world like this. But people like Kimimaro…
Said man slightly turned his body to the side, his silvery hair tangling and swaying on his back. His uniform was crisp, torn in a few areas. The five stars on his collar under his strong jawbone sent a mocking wink to Sasuke, the unblemished skin on his face looking pampered and unwrinkled without the thoughts of all those he had killed.
In Sasuke’s eyes, he was a vigilante. He could only spend so much of his time brooding and thinking about the lives that had already been lost, and pondering over what his life would have been had Itachi not strained himself to raise his brother. He could only spend so much time imagining what the standoff against one of them would feel like, sound like, taste like – and he was standing there right here, right now. The soft glean of sweat on Kimimaro’s face taunted him so much that his jaw tightened and his breath quickened, hatred seeming to bubble up in the core of his being. He itched to show this man what true justice was, to give him a taste of his own medicine. Now he stood right in front of Sasuke, and he was ready to take his treat like a cat that had finally caught the mouse.
His body temperature spiked and his lip curled, holding back a growl that had formed in his chest. He tilted his head down to glare at the man, fixing Kusanagi so that her blade looked as if it was right between his eyes. She would be resting there, in all of her gorgeous glory, if it took him days to fight off this man.
“Stop hiding behind your technology,” Sasuke growled.
Kimimaro said nothing, stepping closer to Sasuke and raising his wrist. There, the white trinket still dangled slightly loosely on his wrist. It seemed to activate the moment that Sasuke glanced at it, clicking alive with another series of hollow dings. His face was wiped completely of any emotion, numbly gazing at Sasuke as he activated the rest of the tech on his body.
Sasuke was nothing short of enraged. He was worth more than a bored glance, and he certainly wouldn’t be underestimated enough to have one look away from him in the midst of a battle. He ground his teeth together and lunged, swinging Kusanagi in a large arc to ensure that he’d damage something.
Kimimaro quickly raised his arm in a block, his blade sharply deflecting off of his wrist device. Surprisingly, pain didn’t shoot through his arm as it had appeared to Juugo. He made the instinctive mistake of raising his left foot in a side kick once his upper body was left open, shoving his weight harshly into Kimimaro’s stomach hard enough to leave a nasty bruise and perhaps cause internal damage.
Pain immediately shot up his whole foot, ankle, and simmered in his calve – he grunted loudly but let his foot fall gently onto the ground, disappointment in himself surging in his chest. His boot steadied his ankle. So it was true that some sort of device on Kimimaro’s body reflected pain back into his source – whether the man was experiencing it or not, he couldn’t tell. But the catch of it seemed to be metal, seeing as how fighting with a knife or sword was highly unpopular.
The few seconds Sasuke had allowed his thoughts to consume him were all it took for Kimimaro to quickly approach him, a white rod of glossy Sector material whistling with blue energy coming down over his head.
Sasuke quickly flipped Kusanagi’s blade in his hand, shifting it to the blunt side that he could hold over his head. He caught the baton inches away from his forehead, his blade immediately going through half of the electric baton and sending vibrations through the metal of his sword. Kimimaro pressed down once again as Sasuke pushed up, his palm becoming sore from where it was supporting Kusanagi; the baton sizzled as her blade cut through a good two thirds of it, a few sparks of blue electricity falling on his shoulder and burning his skin. He yelled in pain, the blue liquid scorching his skin and making distraction for himself.
Sasuke pushed on the blade with his left hand and completely sliced through the baton, half of it flying to his right and the other being dropped on the ground by Kimimaro. His arm swung with Kusanagi and his opponent immediately made a sharp punch for Sasuke’s chest, successfully winding him with just two knuckles. He coughed and dodged the next kick Kimimaro had prepared for him, raising his chokutō in another wild arc that he felt drag and catch along the skin of Kimimaro’s stomach. It was like cutting taut and thick paper, the metal blade wobbling once it detached from its burrow in his stomach.
The other growled, his uniform torn open to reveal the muscle-deep and horizontal cut all along his stomach. Sasuke snorted, easily blocking the next few hits Kimimaro tried to send.
Each and every time, he aimed for Kimimaro’s neck or head. Anything that would get him closer to dead. But he would either kick the chokutō and intercept it from its route, or distract Sasuke with yet another military technology antic that was frankly a waste of time and showed off the little fight he had. It was like his whole body went on autopilot, numbly thinking about his brother but still taking the bruising punches and kicks to his body and face, his vision able to interpret the other’s next move. He twisted and shifted his body, cornering Kimimaro with his natural aggression and becoming more frustrated with the few, although lethal, hits he landed. Since the stomach jab, he had sliced a nice fish mouth cut across Kimimaro’s face, going through one eye, across his nose, and ending at the opposite jaw side. Half of his face was covered in blood, gushing out as he breathed a bit heavier and his heart pounded harder. He had, in a blind rage, managed to catch Kimimaro in a chokehold for just a few seconds before the pain of the hold travelled up his own arm and managed to get to his own neck; it was confirmed that Kimimaro could feel the pain himself, though it was reciprocated upon the inflictor.
Now Sasuke had gained a small cut above his eyebrow that seemed to bleed a dramatic amount of blood, burning his left eye and forcing him to shut it. He had some trouble breathing from the punches Kimimaro had managed to land on his throat and chest, weakly clenching his stomach from a powerful kick in the abdomen. Sweat plastered his hair to the sides of his face and burned his open eye, though Sasuke wasn’t completely sure if it was his own sweat or an accumulation of both his and Kimimaro’s. He wouldn’t stop sending fluid jabs and arcs and stabs at the other man, though, for his eye was a minor problem.
He panted and glared up at the other man, slightly nauseated by the sight of the other’s face; he hadn’t flinched when he received the slice, either. Kimimaro’s eyes glinted madly and he whipped out what looked like a small trident, made of a rough material Sasuke had never seen before. He was confused as he caught Kusanagi between one of its teeth, quickly turning it and sending half of her blade over their heads and behind them.
Sasuke nearly gaped in shock, watching her glint in the sun as she imbedded deeply into a nearby tree trunk. But he had less than a second to try to comprehend what had just happened, having to quickly turn so that the mysterious trident wouldn’t make any contact with his body. The other man’s energy seemed to skyrocket, throwing attacks more efficiently and fluidly than he had before, shoving Sasuke backwards and knocking the wind out of him.
Every time he blocked, a ringing pain was sent deep into his bones and he screamed with the effort of holding back his attacks. He couldn’t, without Kusanagi, attack the other man; he would only hurt himself three times worse than what he had intended to. Sasuke was continuously pushed back, racking his minds for attempts to fight back without hurting himself. He was slowing down with exhaustion as he thought, breathing heavily and covered in sweat as his blocks became more and more minute.
Kimimaro ducked in what Sasuke thought was going to be a crotch shot, his mind lazily muddled by the lingering pain of Kimimaro’s attacks and still clouded over with the loss of Itachi. He was suddenly on his back, his breath painfully knocked out of him, staring into the gray sky. His view was quickly replaced with Kimimaro’s meaty face, his glossy silver hair now filthy and matted with clumps of blood, chopped in layers from where Kusanagi had missed.
Sasuke choked. Kimimaro’s fingers were wrapped boldly around his neck, squeezing his trachea and filling Sasuke’s chest with panic instead of air. He could feel each individual and rough pad of his fingers, his nails already creating crescents and bruises on his neck. Kimimaro only glared down at him, straddling his torso, and furrowed his brows in the first sign of distress he had shown through their whole fight.
He wheezed, clawing at Kimimaro’s fingers and wrists. He tried the antic Naruto had pulled on Neji earlier, but that only dug his fingers deeper into Sasuke’s neck. He didn’t dare to twist the other’s wrist to break it – it would only break the skin on his neck and he would be strangled further. But now Kimimaro leant his whole upper body weight on Sasuke’s neck, sighing as he simply rested on top of him.
Sasuke kicked his legs out, frantically trying to shove Kimimaro away and extend his neck for air. His chest heaved and he croaked multiple times, his eye burning and his heart only beating faster and faster. He arched his back and shoved the heels of his boots into the ground, sinking into the slosh and mud and tilting his head back for oxygen. This time, he would have no blood to worry about, seeing as he wasn’t losing too much – but this felt horrible.
His lungs ached and the corners of his vision turned black, panic making his eyes water and wheezes go into his throat more easily. All the while he scowled at Kimimaro, using his hands to tear at the skin on his forearms, his biceps flexing as he struggled to push the man away. His shoulder ached, his face ached, his whole body ached, and he came to the realization that, just like in the past and just right now, he was completely and utterly helpless.
“I wanted you alive, but you have too much of a fighting spirit,” Kimimaro muttered, glaring straight into Sasuke’s eyes and breathing heavily through his nose.
The weight of his grieves fell upon him once again though he didn’t have enough oxygen to accommodate them. His family… his brother… his confusing orientations and the calming presence of Kakashi that he’d probably never again feel…
Sasuke felt like vomiting. He had no idea how he’d managed to last this long. He didn’t know if he had stopped kicking his legs because there wasn’t enough oxygen in his system to or if he had stopped by his own choice. Now he weakly gripped Kimimaro’s wrists, gazing into apathetic gray eyes.
A gravelly voice in the back of his mind repeated his mantra as his fingertips molded into Kimimaro’s skin. He remembered… something. He had something. Something important for his life, and his back hurt, his lungs hurt, his bones hurt.
We can’t stop fighting.
His lungs had never hurt more. His whole body was at a fever pitch, his stomach tense under Kimimaro’s weight. The man stared into his face dully, evidently waiting for him to fall limp for a good few minutes.
You don’t have to do it alone.
Got it?
Sasuke’s eyes widened. Actually, he didn’t “got it” at all. He was weak and under a high-ranking military officer who hadn’t put up that much of a fight in the first damn place. He was under a high-ranking military official, mourning his long-dead family and the betrayal of his brother. He was annoyed that Naruto would butt into his conscience like this, bossing him around and dominating most of his decisions.
Technically, he wasn’t alone. Kimimaro was sitting on top of him and he was sure there was a dead body lying somewhere. Maybe their spirit was still hanging around. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that Naruto innocently wanted to be closer to him, to be there for him in times like this.
He dropped his hands to the grass and quickly uprooted some of it, screwing his face up in a façade of giving up. He only had a maximum of a minute of life left, and he might as well try to get it back. Though his vision was half black and completely blurred, he thought he could at least maneuver around. He discreetly slipped his hand lower to his pocket, cursing himself for allowing such a fact to leave him at a time like this.
His fingers caressed the cold metal of Naruto’s Jericho, and he vaguely remembered quickly stuffing it in his pocket right after killing a guard and finding it on the ground. He had thought he’d return it to Naruto, but had gotten… distracted…
He quickly dipped his finger inside his pocket to make sure the safety was off. It was a wander how it hadn’t shot off during their scuffle. Sasuke was lucky indeed. He wrapped his index finger inside the trigger and gently pulled it out of his pocket, sliding it on the ground under his palm and choking dramatically. His pupils dilated seriously and he was sure a few blood vessels had burst in his face from struggling already.
It was now or never, he thought, just like everything else always was. Sasuke finally picked up the gun, though he found himself too weak to lift it but a few inches from the ground. Thankfully, Kimimaro did not notice but chose to spit out some blood to Sasuke’s left. His heart pounded in his ears and he felt like he was floating, asleep but not dreaming; the heat on his torso more noticeable as he lost his own.
His muscles strained as he did his best job of propping his lower arm up on his elbow, holding up the gun straight into what he thought was Kimimaro’s face. Everything right now was nothing but a gray and green blur, interrupted by black dots dancing across his vision. Messily aiming, he believed he had pulled the trigger as a gunshot pierced the air. His finger was swollen and lazy, and maybe the gunshot had been off with timing if he had pulled it, but the weight on his torso fell to the side and his throat was finally let go.
Sasuke gasped, coughing dryly as air hit his throat for the first time in a while. His eyes watered more as he seemed to choke more than he actually did when he was being strangled, quickly sitting up and wheezing roughly. He clutched his own chest, squeezing his eyes shut as a barrage of footsteps mingled together far away and some more yells were heard. But weren’t they done fighting?
“Sasuke!” a familiar voice yelled out, coming closer and closer as he repeated his name.
He tried to remember the best way to breathe, tilting his own head slightly back to open his airway as Karin had taught him CPR. It brought some more oxygen into his pathway, serving him a hell of a lot more justice. He finally felt the cold wind against the thick layer of sweat on his neck, burning his throat and chapping his lips.
“Sas-“ Naruto probably skidded to a stop, immediately falling to his knees next to his friend. His hands hovered over the bruises around Sasuke’s neck, quickly debating himself what part of Sasuke he should grab to portray his worry. He lifted his shirt slightly and wiped the blood out of Sasuke’s eye, wincing at the amount that he had lost.
But he awkwardly set both of his hands on his ground, quickly remembering what had happened before and blushing heavily. He gently patted his friend on the back and glanced at the mangled body to his left. Nasty… But Sasuke really had killed Kimimaro, hadn’t he? It seemed like the boy never broke his promises.
“We need to go,” Naruto rushed him, gently shaking his shoulder and grabbing his wrists.
Sasuke allowed himself to be pulled up, finally opening his eyes and glancing down at the dead body of Kimimaro, a bullet wound on either side of his head and grey matter spilling thinly onto the ground. He wished he had more time to revel in the sight.
Naruto grabbed his arm and threw it around his shoulder, basically tugging Sasuke along with him.
“What?” he asked, his hearing blocked by the pounding of his blood in his ears.
“We needa go,” the blond said again, tripping over a leg and nearly slipping on a stray gun.
Sasuke sighed. “Naruto…”
He cast his friend yet another worried look, slowing down and glancing to the center of the camp where a congregation of people had formed. He had no idea where Sasuke had ran off to after conversing with Lee, finding Juugo wandering around in the woods, confused and alone.
It was all too much to explain to Sasuke right now, too much for him to take in. Maybe they would both get completely filled in later. Ino had rushed him to find his friend, though, and anybody else who would be counted in their camp total for the recruiters.
Naruto couldn’t process it himself, feeling tired and a bit shocked at the last few days of events. Sasuke suddenly slumped slightly, dragging them both down with his weight. Naruto pushed them off of the ground with his fist.
“I’ve got some pretty good news for ya,” the blond grunted and struggled to hold up his friend, covered in blood and Kami knows what else. They neared the center of the camp, a few familiar and new figures standing in a tense circle.
“K’kashi…?”
“All of ‘em,” Naruto smiled. “They brought us some friends, too.”
- 17
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Sector Five