Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Sub Rosa	By : TwinEnigma Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 1732 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the characters therein. I do not do this for profit or monetary gain.

Chapter List
- 1-Mukyū
- 2-Jukkyū
- 3-Kyūkyū
- 4-Hakkyū
- 5-Nanakyū
- 6-Rokkyū
- 7-Gokyū
- 8-Yonkyū
- 9-Sankyū
- 4
- 5
- 6
Karin stands before the gates of her village. They loom before her and, nervously, she steps forward. The doors swing open and she can see the path before her, her teammates running ahead.
She hesitates – the woods around them are strange and eerie, even in the daylight – and she has the strangest sense that she is walking into a trap.
Behind her, there are snakes in the grass. They hiss and spit, coiling over the ground, over her feet and then she knows she cannot stay.
Her cloak flutters as she runs through the forest.
"'Hurry up, hurry up,' the merchant told his daughter," her mama says, "'Or the wolves and the bears shall eat you.' And Little Red Cloak ran as fast as she could."
She can hear them, in the trees. The shadows are following her and she is afraid because she knows they are bears and will eat her if they catch her.
"But it was of no use," her mama adds, "They found her just the same."
A bear bursts out of the ground and she screams, falling backwards into an eerily fluid roll. She avoids its crushing paws and wishes she could tear its throat out with her teeth. Were it only that she were stronger!
Sasuke is there. He is nimble and strong and he will win, he did before, didn't he? But this bear is different, stronger, and Sasuke falls, his chest torn to pieces.
The blood seeps into her cloak, turning it red.
She growls and she has fangs in her mouth. Her hands are paws. She is a wolf and the red cloak tears away, flying into the trees. She turns, knowing only that she wants the bear to hurt, and throws herself forward, sharp teeth digging into pliant flesh until the bear is gone.
She stands outside herself now, like a phantom, and places her hands against Sasuke's chest. She can feel the wounds closing beneath her fingertips and he is a wolf now, too.
They run through the woods, unafraid of anything.
A flash of red catches her eye and she is herself again. She is wearing a crown of Forget-Me-Nots.
Again, the red flashes.
She goes to it and Itachi is there, the lines on his face cut deep in jagged shadows.
"Where do you seek to go, little one?" he asks.
There are ravens everywhere in the dead trees, red eyes staring at her, but she cannot look away from him.
"To the village in the shadow of Oinari," she answers, because that is how the story goes.
He tilts his head to the side, eyes lidded as he examines her face, and traces her chin with his burning hot fingers. "You should hurry up or the wolves and bears will eat you."
He is a wolf in disguise. He would know.
"I've lost my cloak," she says.
Itachi nods, as if he had expected it, and pulls it from the clouds of his cloak. He fastens it around her neck. "Take care that you do not get eaten by my brother at the bridge, Little Red Cloak."
That is not the right story and Itachi is a fool to mix fables, she thinks, but she is already drawn back to the path.
He catches her hand and she turns back for a moment. His lips press against hers and she can feel him under her skin, consuming her heart and leaving it filled with ravens.
She screams and she is back on the path, with Sasuke.
Itachi is nowhere to be seen, but she can feel him in the shadows that scuttle away from them and the fleeting sound of wings beating the air.
Her lips taste of ash and Sasuke.
Sasuke takes her hand and whispers that they must hurry. She nods and leads him to a house made of candy and sugar. Thousands of tin samurai pour out of it like ants out of an anthill. They are tiny and insignificant compared to them, but they are irritating Sasuke. He reaches out and crushes them with his hand, again and again.
He turns to her, hand extended and cloaked in black, but it isn't his hand.
It's a skeleton's hand.
She looks up and the face that leers out at her from the depths of the cloak is a skull. A bridge stretches behind him and she takes a step back in horror. If she crosses this bridge, she knows that she will die.
"I need you still," Sasuke's voice calls from the skull. "Come along, hurry up."
She shakes her head, stepping back.
"Do not defy me," he warns, reaching out for her, and she can see the burning ghost of the Sharingan in the empty sockets.
She attempts to flee but he is fast and the bones of his hand slide through her like knives.
The crown of Forget-Me-Nots falls to the ground.
"Forget me," he whispers, for a moment himself once more.
The red stars threaten to swallow her whole.
Sasuke then withdraws his hand and a furious murder of ravens burst from the wound, screaming and beating their wings against him.
There is a girl with pink hair – she knows her – and a boy with brilliant blond hair. The girl is taking her away and the blond boy is protecting them, but Karin doesn't want to go without her crown. The flowers are flecked with blood, but she still wants to save it. She tries to tell the girl to stop, but she isn't listening.
Karin blinks, staring up at the ceiling. "Another dream," she murmurs and frowns as the details begin to slip like sand through her fingers.
She sits up as she hears the door open. It's the nurse, carrying a tray of food.
"Good morning," the nurse says, smiling at her. She moves across the room with ease and carefully places the tray down on the wheeled patient's table. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm not hungry," Karin says. She pauses and adds, "I had another dream."
The nurse nods, as if she'd expected that, and goes to the windows. She opens the blinds and sunlight spills across the floor. "Do you remember what it was about?"
Karin purses her lips and tries to recall. "Do you know the story about Little Red Cloak?"
"The children's fable?" the nurse asks. "Of course – my mother used to tell it to me all the time when I was a girl."
"Me too," Karin admits. "I never thought I'd be in it."
The nurse giggles a little and opens the blinds on the next window. "Was there a big, bad wolf?"
"Two of them, actually," Karin replies.
"Take care that you do not get eaten by my brother at the bridge, Little Red Cloak."
She shivers, her fingers instinctively pressing against the place where she'd been stabbed in the dream. There is a fresh scar there and it throbs painfully. Her heart flutters like a bird in her ribcage and, for a moment, she thinks she might still be dreaming.
"And who was the handsome huntsman?" the nurse asks, smiling as she picks up the water pitcher from the bedside table and refills the water in the flower vase on the window sill.
The flowers are Forget-Me-Nots and there is a card next to them, a picture of a little girl in a red cloak on it.
"Where'd that card come from?" Karin asks, pointing to it.
The nurse picks it up and hands it to her. "Someone brought it for you."
Karin stares at it, confused, and opens it up. It reads only Get Well Soon. There is no other mark on it, save for the logo of the printing house – a soaring hawk. "Did you see who it was?"
The nurse hums noncommittally and moves on to the clipboard, checking off boxes here and there. "He said his name was Karasu."
Itachi's face from the dream lingers in her eyes, the Sharingan spinning lazily, and she manages a horrified and embarrassed blush at the memory it brings. What on earth had caused her to dream of such a thing?
She presses her fingers to her lips absently. Funny, though... his kiss reminded her of Sasuke.
A sharp pain shoots through her head and she winces.
It was a silly thought, she supposes. After all, they were brothers and very much alike.
Forget me, Sasuke whispers and something she can't quite make out flashes across her mind.
The next wave of pain hits soon after and, moaning, Karin rolls over and goes back to sleep.

"Some of this we can fill in with what intel we do have on her and Sasuke's team," Inoichi explains, shuffling the papers in front of him. "She's from Grass, participated in the chuunin exams at the same time as Sasuke, and her team was disqualified. The dream suggests that she may have met him there."
Ibiki snorts. "The giant bears, of course."
"Ah, yes," Inoichi agrees. "And the wounds sustained by Sasuke in this first part here are congruent with those Kirabi reports he inflicted on him."
"This part, though," Ibiki says, holding up one of the papers, "with Itachi Uchiha. Intel suggests he only approached Sasuke. What do you make of it?"
"He could have approached her in passing, if the latest rumors are true," Inoichi frowns, folding his hands. "But... I doubt he'd risk his position if it were the case. No, it's more likely that what we think is Itachi isn't really him at all."
"Another symbol?" Ibiki sighs.
Inoichi nods.
"So who is Itachi if he isn't Itachi?"
"If I had to guess," Inoichi pauses, "then he's Sasuke."

AN: "Little Red Riding Hood, are you afraid of me?" asked the wolf.
"No," she said.
"You should be."
- 4
- 5
- 6
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Sub Rosa