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Sanctuary	By : AkashaEmily Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 1111 -:- 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.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
::Cue
theatrical music:: I LIVE!!!! And thus I update.

Note: If I�ve done this correctly, then this won�t be too
much of a surprise but just to be on the safe side I�m going to say this anyway:
regardless of what preconceived notions you may have about Kyuubi�s gender, for
the purposes of this story, the demon does not have an assigned gender. Though
occasionally when talking Kyuubi may refer to itself as �he� or �she� it is
doing so in reference to the sex of the physical body it is inhabiting.

Chapter 6

�All things considered, that wasn�t half bad.� Kyuubi thought, rubbing a hand over her lower stomach
lazily in an effort to ease the lingering deep seated ache there. Riding Sasuke
had made her pleasantly sore and tired and the demon looked forward to a much
deserved, undisturbed, rest later. Konoha lay a good distance behind her and,
if the fox had its way, the city would always remain that way. There was no
need for Naruto to return there ever again, no need at all.
For the umpteenth time since possessing the
blonde, the demon once again quirked an amused eyebrow at its current form and
idly caressed the pair of breasts on the its vessel�s chest, wondering how
�she� was going to explain Naruto�s appearance to Itachi and Kisame, not to
mention Naruto. Kyuubi frowned, idly flicking a pert nipple before flipping a
long wayward lock of blonde hair back over its shoulder; this had better not be
permanent- the demon had finally gotten used to Naruto�s male body, had finally
figured out what it could do and couldn�t, how it should perform and how it
shouldn�t. Permanently having this form would force them both to start from the
ground up and learning all the blonde�s abilities over again was not a prospect
the demon looked forward to. Suddenly being female opened up a whole host of
possibilities not open to a male but by the same token introduce them to other
potential abilities whose beneficence would remain questionable until
thoroughly explored.
Perhaps it could be explained as a temporary
byproduct of the abrupt and violent gender switch, but Naruto�s senses weren�t
working as well as they had. Hearing, taste, touch, sight, and smell- all of
Naruto�s senses were currently stunted, muted, as if the blonde�s body had been
wrapped in cotton without either of them noticing. Kyuubi could barely make out
the sounds and scents directly surrounding them, could barely see even by the
light of the moon in the sky, and this left the demon feeling exposed and
vulnerable in a way that it hadn�t felt in a very long time, encouraging it to
force its tired blonde host to walk faster.
Once
Naruto was someplace safe from the Akatsuki and had had a little time to gain
strength, they would go back to the little hole-in-the-wall village and track
down this �Kana� person. Kyuubi could feel the strange foreign energy
circulating passively through Naruto�s system alongside its own and didn�t like
the sensation one bit; there were already two of them sharing this body and no
room for third, potentially harmful presence. Things like this simply weren�t
supposed to happen- not between human bodies at any rate- but neither was a boy
supposed to be able to suddenly become female! A small part of the fox�s mind
reminded it that boys weren�t supposed to be able to give birth, either, but
Kyuubi ignored the thought, shoving it mentally aside, irritably flicking
another lock of long blonde hair over its shoulder. The fox didn�t fully
understand what the hell had happened between its vessel and the other male,
but the demon wanted answers and was fully willing to terrorize Kana in order
to get them. Big man or not, no one could stand against the kind of torture an
enraged fox demon could inflict and the thought made the demon smile, not at
the possibility of relieving pent up frustration but because it reminded Kyuubi
about what it had just accomplished.
�I�m so talented it�s scary.� The fox thought smugly, smile widening considerably.
Its conquest of Sasuke had ruined him for other women and the demon took great
pleasure in that knowledge. Kyuubi had fucked his body, had fucked with his
mind, and had fucking insured that Naruto had a safety net all in one blow. �Now that�s
multitasking!�
The
demon frowned, the rosy glow of self satisfaction ebbing away as worry reared
its ugly head. Their third and final round of sex with Sasuke bothered the
demon, bothered it a lot because
that was when it had completely lost control of the situation. After the second
time, Kyuubi had mistakenly thought the Uchiha too exhausted for further
escapades; finished, his head had lolled back to rest on the edge of the
headboard, eyes closed, mouth open to gasp in air, limp penis small with the
delicate skin already showing signs of being rubbed too hard. For all intents
and purposes, Sasuke appeared as if he would remain that way all night long
unless someone moved him into a more comfortable position. Kyuubi, not feeling
so inclined, had simply pushed a pillow further down the bed and dismounted from
his lap to sprawl on the mattress face down beside him, her hips cradled on the
pillow positioned under her.
Naruto�s
body was tired and needed a break before the fox could even think of moving to
leave. Good sex always left one feeling both tired from the physical activity
involved and exhilarated from the intense release of feel-good hormones. Good
sex combined with the drain from the panicked blonde�s earlier attempt to find
safety after being scared so badly by Kana had made a nap damn near mandatory.
Courtesy
of the hormones circulating through the blonde�s body, the urge to cuddle with
Sasuke became strong and intense, but the fox ignored it, leaving the blonde�s
body in an autopilot-like state as it let its awareness slide away to its
prison deep inside Naruto�s mind. It found the sleeping soul of the young male
and curled its metaphysical form around him, humming contentedly while it
rubbed its chin against Naruto�s golden hair as it relaxed.
They
would be okay- Kyuubi would make it okay. They had a problem, one that the
demon was confident it could fix in time so there was nothing to immediately
get upset over. They would get a good rest, raid the Uchiha�s pantry for a good
meal, then set out for someplace far, far away from Konoha and the Akatsuki.
Kyuubi would protect Naruto, would insure the blonde�s happiness, would be
everything its vessel needed if necessary.
The
idea slid through the fox�s mind with a great amount of possessiveness and
ferocity, surprising the demon a bit but not by as much as it thought it should
have. There was a quality to the idea, a foreign-yet-not flavor to it, and
Kyuubi realized that it had probably been thinking such things for a very long
time unconsciously. It wasn�t that hard to imagine- locked in its prison, forced
to be bare silent witness to the abuse heaped upon an innocent child that had
literally done nothing wrong except save their worthless lives, it seemed
natural that the cold-hearted demon would want to do something to protect
Naruto from harm. Kyuubi would love him, would protect him, would become his
lover, his confidant, his mother, his father, his brother, his sister, his
teacher, his friend- everything Naruto needed so the blonde would never feel
abandoned ever again!
Just
as she�d begun to fall asleep, she had felt Sasuke rouse enough to pick his
head up and shift, laying down on the bed beside her. Since Sasuke had served
his purpose and wasn�t worth her notice any longer, the demon had paid him no
mind, pulling the blankets higher over her shoulders to keep the chill in the
air at bay. Let him get comfortable- it wasn�t like he�d be going anywhere any
time soon. In a magnanimous gesture, Kyuubi had even allowed the Uchiha to put
his arm around her waist as he cuddled up against her side. The action
irritated her since, in the fox�s opinion, Sasuke wasn�t entitled to it by any
stretch of the imagination- the demon had messed with his mind, had essentially
possessed him, and he was just acting on the impulses that the demon itself had
placed inside his mind. Letting the tension ease away, the fox settled back
into its nested sheets; Kyuubi could handle a little one-sided cuddling so long
as he didn�t do something else.
But
Sasuke did do something else, pushing his luck and incurring her wrath. He�d shifted
lower, tightening his grip around her hips in an almost possessive manner even
as he began to pepper soft kisses all over the back of her neck and her
shoulders. The action was too intimate, too personal for the mindless fucking
they had just done, but, before she could leave the cage and wake up enough to
stop it, Naruto�s spirit had unexpectedly wrapped around her, tangling around
her legs until the fox couldn�t move. While, outside in reality, Sasuke had
begun whispering words of adoration to the blonde, pledging his love and
devotion for Naruto, kissing the blonde back as he slowly mounted them,
settling his body carefully over the blonde�s before pushing his erect arousal
inside them and shallowly rocking his hips. Gentle yet determined, Sasuke had
coaxed and caressed their semi-conscious body until it began to respond
appropriately.
White hot anger toward its vessel flared in the demon
briefly before banking and dying. She shouldn�t blame the blonde for reacting
so strongly to such a situation- the fox had essentially hijacked his newly
altered body and had knowingly placed said body in a position that would
produce an emotional response. The situation they were in was one that she was
directly responsible for; the blonde was blameless so she couldn�t be angry
with him.
In
retrospect, this had been a bad idea but, damn it, the traitor had earned it!
After Sasuke had fallen for Sakura�s trap and effectively called Naruto
disgusting, the blonde�s spirit had crawled into the fox�s cage and cried against
the demon�s side for hours before finally collapsing, exhausted, under the
weight of his own emotional turmoil. He�d been in there with her around the
clock for days afterward, had crawled in with her off and on for the next
month, and each time he had he�d been a little bit weaker, a little bit closer
to completely giving up and actively- or passively, considering the always
present bloodthirsty amount of chakra that neither controlled anymore- finding
a way to kill himself.
It
was during one of these times that Kyuubi had come up with its plan for revenge
upon the Uchiha should it ever have the opportunity and, for all the problems
it caused, their run in with Kana may truly have been a blessing in disguise
for the demon since it had presented that chance Kyuubi had longed for. Naruto
had loved Sasuke, had loved him purely and utterly in a way that was rare
nowadays, and the brunette had tossed it all aside, tossed it away and ground
it under heel without a thought, and all because of his own fear and stupidity.
For that Uchiha Sasuke had to pay for the pain he had caused Naruto, pay for
every tear shed, for every whimper uttered on his behalf. Naruto had pined away
to nothing after the rejection, had grieved and hurt and suffered and Kyuubi
could not let that injustice go.
Not
then and certainly not now- especially not now with the little bastard mounting
them! He hadn�t earned that right and Naruto shouldn�t have been giving it to
him because the fox knew �knew!- that the Uchiha would only
hurt the blonde again. Its vessel was still trying to scrape himself together
in the aftermath of the first rejection- a second and the blonde may completely
withdraw mentally. Sasuke would hurt Naruto and Naruto�s mind would just
collapse under it all, dragging Kyuubi with it into a mental prison for the
rest of the blonde�s life or into raging insanity. Naruto had been put through
the wringer, emotional, physically, and socially and he had done little to
protest any of it, packing away his anger deep inside himself until he hadn�t
even know it existed anymore until it began rampaging inside him. If he
snapped, the floodgates would suddenly open and that rage would eventually pick
a target because it would need one; the question was would it be Naruto or
everyone else. Only time would tell and Sasuke�s little dominate stunt could be
a determining factor should that happen, one that could skew the results
against Naruto�s survival.
Kyuubi
needed to stop this immediately before anymore damage could be done and so the
demon struggled, as gently as possible, against its host�s fragile and
misguided spirit. Unfortunately, Naruto�s �fragile� spirit was proving
unusually strong- absurdly so considering recent events. Foregoing gentleness,
the demon began fighting in earnest doing everything short of biting and
clawing, using its formidable strength to buck and pull its legs free of the
bonds preventing it from moving. Of all the times for the blonde�s infamous
indomitable will to suddenly make a come back from the dead�!
Souls were malleable despite what any religious figure
may say against this fact and it was this ability to bend and reshape that made
them so resilient and Naruto�s soul was one of the most malleable ones that the
demon had ever seen, taking the whole concept to new heights as the blonde
wound himself around the demon�s legs like some possessed rubber band. The fox
kept tripping, kept getting tangled, and Naruto would simply wrap around the
demon tighter. It was like a ludicrous parody of passive resistance since the
teenager wasn�t actively fighting the other- just getting in the way. During
any other time, any other circumstance, the fox would have been ridiculously
happy to see this type of initiative in its host since Kyuubi would have taken
it as a sign of Naruto�s recovery. Though the demon was still happy about some
of the blonde�s old self returning, the fox still had to reign in the impulse
to scream in frustration .
Kyuubi
had tried repeatedly to free itself from the smaller spirit in its way but it
was no use- the harder the demon fought, the more entrapped the fox became
until both spirits were hopelessly tangled together in one knotted metaphysical
mess. Naruto had found the inner strength somewhere within himself to firmly
bar the fox on this one large point of contention and was putting all he had
into it, focusing his energy into the action of restraining the other to
prevent Kyuubi from stopping what was happening.
The
fox had yelled and screamed and pleaded with the blonde, reminding the teenager
of the hurt that would surely follow, that Sasuke making love to them now meant
nothing. That this was not an expression of how much the Uchiha loved him, that
this bout of gentle sex was just a tryst and one that Sasuke would probably any
type of involvement later. Kyuubi reminded Naruto of all these things but still
the blonde had kept it captive and allowed the brunette to continue while their
body ran on the pure instinct to mate.
Sasuke
had made love to their shared form and the feeling of impending orgasm had
grown closer and closer until finally it had hit in one intense rush, affecting
all involved. The blonde body shuddered, crying out. Inside it the fox voiced
its surprise and fell heavily to its knees, unable to stand any longer, while
Naruto�s spirit gave a feeble whimper of pleasure and spasmed, its hold
slackening until it completely slipped away, freeing the demon.
Once Kyuubi had recovered enough to do so, it gained
control of Naruto�s body, stepping over its vessel�s metaphysical form to do so
though it took a moment to tend to the blonde. Still shaky on its legs, the fox
had nevertheless carefully picked Naruto up with its teeth, placed him inside
its cage, settled him, and then had headed out to get them the hell out of
there before the Uchiha roused enough for a fourth round of sex.
Three
vigorous sexual bouts in� What, forty minutes? With virtually no recovery
period before a new round and an intense orgasm every time? That had to be a new
human record or something since sexual stamina like that from a virgin wasn�t
normal even with a demon�s help. By all rights, after the second time, Sasuke
should have well and truly been unable to get it up for another, at least for
several hours. Attachment issues aside, frequent sex in a short amount of time
could result in rashes, not from disease but simply due to the friction
involved- genitals, male and female, were made of sensitive skin, after all,
and raw rubbing wasn�t good for such delicate areas.
Shaking her head, the fox returned to its earlier
thoughts, the smug smile once again returning as it pondered its
accomplishments.
No
woman would be able to slack Sasuke�s lust, though, how effective this would
ultimately be was open to debate. Unfortunately, the youngest Uchiha was not a
carnal creature, as evidenced by the lack of any form of store bought
lubrication in his home, so it was entirely possible that this part of Kyuubi�s
revenge wouldn�t last beyond the night. Gods, no wonder the little prick was
such a bastard- he wouldn�t even let himself beat off his sexual frustrations
to relax.
The
fox blinked blinked. Maybe Sasuke�s tastes naturally ran to the more
masochistic and this was his way of indulging them. It would explain a lot about
his personality.
Shuddering,
the demon steered away from that avenue of musing. It didn�t matter really-
Sasuke�s body was now owned, at least sexually, by Naruto�s. The Uchiha would
still be able to achieve release on his own or with another lover but the
satisfaction of the orgasm would be minimal at best and not nearly as intense
in comparison to one brought by the fox�s vessel. The best part was, and Kyuubi
was quiet proud of this, that Sasuke, haunted by deliberately unclear memories
of their passionate couplings, would know it subconsciously.
Buried within the layers of those muddled
recollections would be the little seeds Kyuubi had planted while taunting the
teenager. Sasuke Uchiha could be truly analytical when he wanted to do so,
usually reverting back to such behavior when he was emotionally confused, and
Kyuubi was banking on this. Insulting him had been truly cathartic, yes, but it
was just icing on the cake as far as the fox was concerned. By lecturing and
taunting him, the demon had filled gaps in the teenager�s knowledge while
simultaneously creating others, ones that Sasuke would feel compelled to fill.
The fox had left him with riddles and, given the little bastard�s perfectionist
nature, they would eat at Sasuke until he had all the answers, some of which
could only come from Naruto and Kyuubi.
And
there in lay the beauty of the fox�s vengeance. All that she had told him was
indeed true but Sasuke wouldn�t be able to confirm it without hunting for the
blonde first. Knowing the Uchiha, he would err on the side of caution and
assume- no matter how fantastic- the demon hadn�t been lying. Which meant that,
since they had had repeated bouts of unprotected sex, the high possibility that
Naruto was carrying the next Uchiha heir existed. Should Akatsuki proceed with
their plan to extract the Kyuubi, Sasuke would be the perfect ace in the hole
since, if only for the sake of the baby, Sasuke would search for Naruto until
he found him.
Not
that there would be a baby. Kyuubi wasn�t stupid enough to allow a pregnancy,
not with the physical and mental states Naruto was in. Any pregnancy now would
only result in miscarriage later and the emotional toll the loss would inflict
in all likelihood would tip Naruto over the edge into complete insanity. Once upon
a time she would have scoffed at the idea, that there was anything that the
vibrant blonde couldn�t bounce back from, but those days were gone now- long
gone. In time and with enough care, Naruto may recover back to a healthier
state but Kyuubi knew that the road would be long and his progress slow but
with Akatsuki closing in, the boy just didn�t have that kind of time.
Which was precisely why the fox had not simply
purged Naruto�s body of Sasuke�s seed. Yawning hugely, Kyuubi applied more
force and continued to rub her lower stomach, searching below Naruto�s navel
for the small carefully constructed ball of flesh containing the Uchiha�s
sperm. Though she had allowed the remaining ingredients of the seminal fluid to
flow into Naruto�s uterus without opposition, the demon had made damn sure to
keep the sperm far away from any waiting eggs. Housed snugly amidst Naruto�s
intestines and the fundus of his uterus, surrounded by a small thin layer made
of fat as the temperature of the area steadily increased, Kyuubi intended to
kill them off and then absorb the extra protein just as she was absorbing the
extra sugars of the ejaculation. Any energy source was not to be wasted no
matter how meager; Naruto�s body was
starved, starved for so many things that had both everything and nothing to do
with food, and Kyuubi was bound and determined to make use of anything that
came their way.
Of
course, the last was also why Sasuke himself would not be moving any time soon.
Kitsunes had the ability to siphon energy from their lovers, an exceptionally
handy trick, and Kyuubi had used this to her advantage. The more passionate the
completion, the more energy released and, since Kyuubi had made sure to bring
the brunette hard, a lot of energy had been available for her to take. She had
left him spent and exhausted- nearly comatose- in his bed, uncaring of his
safety now that he had fulfilled his purpose to her.
Forget
the wife selection ceremony or whatever they were doing later today to find
Sasuke a human brood mare for his seed- the village would be lucky if he would
be conscious enough to perform in any capacity for the next month!
�Eat that Tsunade!� Kyuubi thought spitefully, faithfully holding a grudge against the
Godaime on Naruto�s behalf. The woman had said for years that she thought of
the fox�s vessel as a surrogate younger brother but when it had come upholding
her pseudo family ties, the woman had been found wanting. He had needed her
and, if she hadn�t been too busy trying to keep the village�s image intact- and
thus her own- she could have prevented Naruto from degenerating into his
current state. If she had bothered to think for even a second beyond
reprimanding him for his vacation request, maybe Tsunade would have figured out
that something was sorely amiss with her �little brother!�
And
she was called the greatest medical professional in this century. Bah! All the
signs that something was wrong had been there, plain to see, and no one had
bothered to look�!
Kyuubi
clenched her teeth tightly and took deep breathes, diverting her angry energy
into walking further away from the hated place behind her. Though it was
happening under less than ideal conditions, Naruto was finally getting away
from Konoha at long last and being exposed to the rest of the world. The fox
smiled gently, deciding to suggest the idea that they travel for a while.
Forget Konoha, forget Fire Country all together! It would do the blonde good to
get out and immerse himself in other cultures, to explore all that they offered
freely and she mused about where to take Naruto first.
Somewhere
colorful, somewhere loud and vibrant and teeming with life� Somewhere�
Kyuubi
stopped, scanning the horizon in alarm and scenting the air.
Disquiet
and a sense of foreboding settled inside the fox�s stomach, disturbing the
demon and making Naruto�s spirit stir where it lay sleeping inside the fox�s
lair. Something was wrong, very wrong, but the fox couldn�t put its finger on
what and it cursed their current body, again, for its uselessness.
�Damn Kana!�
The fox cursed, the skin between its shoulder blades tightening as its anxiety
rose. Kyuubi felt blind all over as if all its senses had been blocked and,
leaving dignity behind in favor of survival, the demon began to run as fast as
it could toward the town containing Itachi and Kisame. Naruto was vulnerable
right now, and, though Kyuubi loathed admitting it, the Akatsuki pair would
protect the blonde from anyone trying to hurt him.
They
didn�t have a choice in the matter since they needed the teenager alive.
�As the saying goes, any port in a- OW! Son of a bitch!� The fox cursed,
already diving for cover behind a nearby tree, one hand already pulling the
sleek needle from its shoulder a storm of senbon needles peppered the ground
right behind the blonde�s heels.
Ears
piqued to pick up any sounds of movement, Kyuubi sniffed the slim piece of
steel between her fingers, trying to detect any trace of poison and failing.
This body just didn�t have the sense of smell the demon needed to do it and,
again, she cursed its failings and adding onto her �To Do� list concerning
Kana. He would beg her to die, beg, oh yes he would the little-
She
whipped her head to the left just in time to avoid it being ventilated by the
senbon aimed at it. Pulling the sleek projectile from the tree, she twirled it
through the fingers of the hand holding it and did the same for the senbon
contained in her other hand.
Protection
was too far away but they had a matched set of weapons now; Naruto was no
longer defenseless.
Pivoting
around the trunk, the demon threw her barrowed body to the side to avoid
another attack and jumped up into the tree�s branches, using the provided cover
to hide her position as she closed in on her attacker.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
�That whore!�
Sakura�s
rage boiled inside her, silently screaming for the blonde�s blood and urging
the kunoichi onward. It burned inside her, feeding the darker fantasies that
had been born the moment the medical ninja had touched Sasuke�s form.
What had the bitch done to Sasuke?!
Hand�s
tightening on the senbon needles gripped between her fingers, Sakura spared a
thought to congratulate herself and her planning abilities.
Up
in the tree, watching the pair have sex over and over, she had finally figured
out what to do with the unfamiliar female and had begun preparing accordingly.
Donning her gloves to protect her skin, she had dumped out her supply pouch and
separated the contents accordingly into two piles: weapons and medical
supplies.
Along
with the traditional kunai and shuriken, Sakura had added senbon needles to her
personal arsenal long ago and she was proud of the perfect command she had over
the hard to use weapons. It had taken her a while to learn the skills necessary
to handle the damn things and she had the scars to prove it but she had done it
Shizune had given her a set as a present. Half of the assortment had been
anointed with solutions mixed up by the poisons master herself that would
disable an enemy but not kill while the rest of the set was normal but
glistened in the faint light from their recent oiling and, though they didn�t
pack a wallop like the others, Sakura preferred to use them over the poison
treated needles, opting to keep the �big guns,� so to speak, in reserve for
emergencies. To date, those had never been drawn and, though she was
justifiably angry over Sasuke�s choice of bed partners, she doubted that this
was the time to use them.
Instead
she had turned to her medicinal supplies and further sorted the pile,
subdividing it into smaller categories and everything that didn�t suit her
needs was placed back in the pouch out of the way. When nothing but a mixed
handful of empty and full vials remained, Sakura began opening the tiny
containers and mixing new solutions carefully in the empty small bottles.
Finished, she put all but the newly created mixtures and a few gauze pads away
then returned her attention to the pile of weapons beside her, treating them
all with her concoctions before returning the whole mess to her pouch.
She
was angry and had a point to make but wasn�t stupid; she didn�t want to hurt
the blonde after all, just scare the hell out of the other girl and insure that
Sakura�s womb was the only one that would get to carry any Uchiha offspring.
Nothing too awful... Well, nothing terribly violent, anyway.
Sakura
had been immensely surprised when, after a third bout of passionate fucking,
the blonde had practically flung Sasuke�s collapsed form off of her and left
the room to return messily dressed minutes later. As the kunoichi inwardly
cheered over this development (and groused about the rough treatment directed
at her beloved), the blonde had approached the bed and twitched the covers over
the Uchiha�s lax form before leaving. Maybe it really had been just a fling
after all and Sakura wouldn�t have to lay down the law. Maybe the blonde would
just go away and never return�
Or
maybe� She thought about the absence of condoms, her musings turned toward
darker territory as another alternative reared its head, making her anxious for
the blonde to finally leave so that she could slip in and check on Sasuke.
When
she heard the front door open and then close, Sakura slipped from her hiding
place and hopped from branch to branch down to the wall surrounding the Uchiha
compound. Channeling chakra into her hands and feet, she leapt up to adhere to
the wall outside Sasuke�s window before sliding the pane of glass up and out of
her way as she entered. Though she immediately headed to the bed, part of her
began estimating the size of the room and noting design features of the room,
appreciating some while frowning at others. She�d need the exact measurements
of the walls so that when she moved in, redecorating could begin immediately
after the construction ended. She would be an Uchiha then and, as it was, Sasuke�s
bedroom just wasn�t to her liking.
A
leaf rustling above her alerted of impending attack and Sakura mentally
wrenched herself back to the present, throwing herself to the right and up to
avoid the blonde just as the other girl dropped down onto the very spot the
kunoichi had just fled from. Seizing the opportunity, Sakura threw more senbon
at the girl, inwardly rejoicing with malicious glee when all of them struck
their quick target. The moment was short lived however when she realized that,
despite the fact that the senbon were dosed heavily with sedatives, the other
woman wasn�t slowing down. Astonishingly, the woman seemed to actually get
faster and Sakura�s surprise cost her as the blonde simply pulled the needles
free and rushed forward with blinding speed, using the kunoichi�s own weapons
against her. Before Sakura could even begin to get out of the way, a needle was
stabbing with pinpoint accuracy into her left shoulder, the force behind it
pushing the senbon all the way through the Glenoid cavity of the kunoichi�s
shoulder, effectively and painfully dislodging the head of the Humerus from its
resting place in the ball-and-socket joint.
Agony
spread through her upper body like fire and, though she grit her teeth against
the sensation, Sakura did not scream. She was a kunoichi, damn it, and had a
job to do- she didn�t have time to wallow in misery! Using the rage that welled
up over the injury, she pulled a kunai from her holster with her right hand and
stabbed the blonde in the side before the other could back-peddle away. There
was a satisfying grunt of pain but nothing more and, ridiculously, this
infuriated Sakura beyond comprehension.
The
slut should be howling by now, should be screaming for mercy! Why the hell was
she fighting back? How could some
low-bred prostitute be able to fight back against a kunoichi of Sakura�s
caliber and actually land a hit?
The
answer was that the whore was not merely a normal whore and again Sakura�s mind
provided a darker explanation for the blonde�s presence.
�Don�t�go��
Sasuke had said, the words sounding forced out and slurred as his hand loosely
gripped Sakura�s wrist. His eyes had been unfocused as they looked at her and
the skin of his shoulder underneath Sakura�s hand had been warmer than it
should have been. Horrified, she had soothed him, shushed him, had promised
that everything would be okay but he had to stay awake a little bit longer,
okay? His eyes had narrowed then, and he�d blinked up at her in a way that
suggested he was trying to clear his vision of some obstruction. His mouth
opened to speak but then his breath had hitched and his body went limp as his
eyes closed, as his hand fell from hers. She had shaken him hard, but Sakura
could not awaken the Uchiha. Turning him onto his back, she tossed the sheet
aside and gazed down at his pale body, her eyes drawn immediately to the
brunette�s groin where his penis lay small and wet, the delicate skin quite red
where it lay amid the nest of dark hair.
The
blonde had stolen his precious seed and had insured that Sasuke wouldn�t be
engaging in sexual activity anytime soon! She�s given him something- done
something to him- to make him unconscious� Or maybe she had actually tried to
kill him but Sasuke had proven to be too strong to defeat so easily�
Yes,
Sakura decided, firmly seizing onto the idea as the only rational explanation
for what had happened. The blonde�s attempt at murder, of insuring that she
alone could lay claim to the Uchiha name and fortune, had failed miserably.
Sasuke had proven too powerful to kill either by negating the attack or by
diluting it somehow and now the blonde was retreating. Sakura had to stop her;
she was the only hope Sasuke had against this scheming whore.
Sakura
would protect Sasuke and show him how devoted she was to both him and the
Uchiha name!
The
kunoichi lashed out with a foot and kicked the harlot in the stomach, making
the other woman double over but not fall. Feinting another kick, Sakura forced
the blonde back long enough to use her free hand to pull the senbon from her
shoulder and leap to another branch, working the affected hand to regain
mobility. Staying one step ahead of the blonde chasing after her through the
tree tops, Sakura pulled more needles from her pack, absently noting that she
had run out of the others and was now using the toxic ones.
Behind
her, she heard the blonde slowing down as the damage she had inflicted earlier
finally took effect.
Leaping
to the ground, allowing her pursuer to close in, the kunoichi abruptly stopped
in her tracks, redirecting her forward momentum to add more force to the blow
as she simultaneously ducked down and turned, swinging her fist up at an angle
to drive the senbon hidden between her fingers into the blonde�s body-
But
the blonde wasn�t there for the hit to connect with and Sakura suddenly felt
something with the force of a flying cement block smash into her side and send
her airborne to hurtle sideways into a tree yards away. She couldn�t help the
groan of pain she emitted upon impact or the cry as a hand tangled itself in
her hair and wrenched her head back harshly.
�You!�
The blonde accused, the grip on Sakura�s hair slacking for an instant.
The
kunoichi struck, channeling chakra into her arm to speed the muscle movement,
making her hand and the senbon in it disappear in a blur only to reappear
against the blonde�s thigh, the poisonous needle buried deep in the warm muscle
for maximum delivery.
�Conniving
bitch!� The blonde hissed out,
tightening her hold to the point that Sakura was suddenly forced to worry about
the very real possibility of having her neck broken. One good twist was all it
would take and, as the seconds ticked by, Sakura panicked and began repeatedly
stabbing the blonde�s thigh with the senbon in her grasp.
The
blonde grabbed her hand and, with an almost effortless gesture, broke it,
crushing the bones of her palm as easily as Sakura would snap a twig. Then, to
add further injury, the slut bent each finger back, seemingly taking pleasure
in each audible pop as the knuckles dislocated, leaving each finger to stretch
backward at obscene impossible angles. She did it one finger at a time, slowly,
and when she ran out she began repeating the process with the middle knuckle of
each digit.
The
kunoichi whimpered but forced herself to swallow down the screams building in
her throat, stoically taking the torture as she glared up at the blonde. Though
her other hand was now usable, she let it lay limply against the ground as if
it was not, keeping the illusion that it was too badly damaged to be a threat
any longer. Sakura would bide her time and wait for the right opportunity to
strike. Let the blonde think her helpless- it was only a matter of time before
the poisons took effect anyway and then Sakura would extract her vengeance. The
blonde had hurt Sasuke, had nearly destroyed Sakura�s dreams of happiness, and
for that she needed to pay. Sakura would just have to suck up the pain until
the fight was over-
Her
scream echoed off the trees as the blonde threw her injured hand to the ground
where it landed palm up to use its own weight to put further pressure on her
contorted fingers and began slowly grinding the broken bones under her heel
cruelly. As if unsatisfied, the blonde then began stomping her foot on the
hand, smashing it into the ground with no signs of stopping, and the kunoichi
could feel the bones splinter and fracture under the assault, the nerves in her
hand wailing in agony as everything was pulverized. For the final insult, the
blonde kicked the kunoichi hard in the stomach, pulled the senbon puncturing
her kimono clad body out and used them to impale Sakura�s already mangled hand
into the ground. The grip on the pink hair tightened, the only warning the
kunoichi got before the blonde slammed her head against the tree trunk she lay
crumpled against, letting Sakura drop when her stunned body sagged.
Red
eyes appeared in front of her, staring hard into her own green ones with
obvious smugness and in that moment Sakura hated the other with a passion that
went beyond any rational explanation.
�You�re
ruined.� The blonde said, the voice sounding eerily familiar even though Sakura
knew she had never seen the woman before. As she watched, the blonde�s eyes
actually darkened to a crimson color. �You�re useless now, Hurano, just like
you�ve always been. You took on bigger prey than you could bring down and have
paid for it dearly. You can be Tsunade�s assistant no longer. You can be a
ninja no longer. Sasuke will never love you and you two will never marry.�
�I
hate you!� Sakura spat, red faced as tears leaked from her eyes, her hand a
mass of burning pain. �I�ll kill you!�
�You
tired that and failed.� The blonde reminded her, smirking. �This is all a
result of your own machinations and no one else�s. Karma is always keeping score,
Sakura, and you reap what you sow.�
�Who
are you? What did you do to Sasuke-chan?�
�Now
that would be telling.� The blonde smirked and began to walk away. �Don�t you
know? Ladies don�t kiss and tel- ah!�
Now
it was Sakura�s turn to smirk, taking fierce joy in the way the other woman
suddenly fell to the floor, the leg the kunoichi had injured useless. Finally,
Sakura�s time had come and now the blonde would be defenseless against further
assault.
Fishing
out a syringe already filled with a local anesthetic from her supply pouch,
Sakura jabbed the needle into the bend of the elbow of her injured arm,
directly into the nerve she knew lay beneath the skin. Pushing the plunger
home, the pain of her damaged hand faded away into a distant unpleasant memory,
the numbing solution already going to work and helping her function. Tossing
the used syringe, Sakura pulled her broken hand straight up, not even feeling
the senbon pinning her hand as they slid right through her skin. She would
mourn later but right now she had a mission to follow through with and,
panting, she forced herself to her feet, her left hand completely useless as it
hung by her side. She lurched toward the blonde, her right hand already tightly
gripping a kunai.
�I
hate you.� Sakura growled, meaning it, feeling the emotion rising up through
her and giving her strength. Her anger, her pain, her rage were all suddenly funneled into one single purpose and that
was to eliminate the blonde before her completely. It buoyed her and the almost
euphoric sensation flowed through her to chase back the pain of her injuries,
helping her strike quickly.
�I hate you! I�ll kill you!
IhateyouI�llkillyouIhateyouIIhateyouI�LLKILLYOU!!!!!!!�
She
was on the blonde in seconds, tackling the other down and stabbing mindlessly
as they wrestled. The blonde fought back but she was weak, too weak to bare the
Uchiha�s children, too weak to protect herself! Sakura was strong, strong
enough- worthy enough- to be Sasuke�s wife, to bare his babies, to be an Uchiha and have everything that
went with the name! She was worthy,
not this trashy slut who had seduc- tricked! Yes, tricked was the word! Sasuke
had been too tough to seduce, the pink haired kunoichi reminded herself
vehemently, and his love for her, Sakura, had protected him against the whore�s
charms! With another violent thrust, Sakura buried the knife so deep in the
other woman�s gut that it caught on bone and couldn�t be pulled out no matter
how hard the kunoichi tugged. It was then she realized absently that she was sitting
on the blonde�s thighs, but the thought was distant, remote, and did not
register in the kunoichi�s rage-filled mind as anything important.
�Ihateyou!I�llkillyou!Ihateyou!I�llkillyou!Ihateyou!
Leaving
the kunai where it was, she continued her assault unarmed, using her fully
functioning hand to punish the blonde woman. Her fist came down time and time
again, so fast and so hard that it seemed like it had a mind of its own, as if
her hatred of the other had possessed the appendage. She didn�t have any
control over it until it was suddenly wrapped around the blonde�s pale throat,
squeezing other�s flesh, squeezing so hard her nails made bloody half moons in
the mottling skin.
Though she now had control over the appendage,
Sakura didn�t bother to stop her hand, taking savage satisfaction for the
blonde�s expression, watching the other woman�s now blue eyes widen. The
kunoichi grinned maliciously into those fearful orbs, enjoying the terror she
saw there. She squeezed, choking the life out of her victim, feeling the rapid
pulse beat against her fingers like a trapped animal, fascinated by the
sensation. Part of her wondered if she would hear it if she were quiet enough,
hear the moment the other died, and she leaned forward slightly, ears straining
for the distinctly thick, frantic beat of a heart in distress. She knew that
the pace couldn�t be kept up indefinitely, that eventually the organ would slow
to nothing, all the while making half hearted attempts to keep going�
If
she was quiet, Sakura knew she would be able to both feel and hear the blonde
whore expire beneath her and would know beyond a doubt that Sasuke�s attacker
and her potential rival for his affections was dead. She leaned forward further
over the blonde, oddly excited now that she could feel the process beginning
and knew that the other�s brain was being oxygen deprived. The brain needed
more oxygen than any part of the body, she knew, in order to remain conscious
and cognizant. Remove the method of transporting that oxygen- Sakura squeezed
the arteries in her grasp even tighter- and a person passed out then died but
not before becoming distinctly uncoordinated much as her victim was doing now.
It
was happening! The heart was slowing, the body gasping, fluid gurgling in its
lungs, the eyes beginning to roll up and back. The medic ninja felt pleasure
course through her like some fine wine, her ears straining for that last beat,
her whole body waiting. Intent on exacting her revenge on Sasuke�s behalf,
Sakura ignored the hands that weakly clawed at her wrist�
�Almost there�!�.
�at
her throat�
�Almost there�!�
�at
her cheeks�
�Almost there..!�
�at
her eyes�
She
howled, jerking away as her only working hand automatically covered the injury
to protect it from further damage. Fire lanced her cheeks as the blonde�s nails
sank into the soft skin, raking bloody furrows as they were pulled raggedly
down. The liquid leaking from Sakura�s eye burned as it followed the gory track
to drip off her chin in a parody of tears. She screamed over and over until her
voice gave out, finally tumbling to the side as the body beneath her shoved her
off.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This
had to be the weirdest dream Naruto
had ever had.
Before
he�d been dreaming that Sasuke had been making love to him and now the Kyuubi
vessel was dreaming about exacting vengeance upon Sakura.
Sitting
up, he looked over at the kunoichi huddled in a ball beside him, listening to
her mewl piteously and whimper from pain. He waited, waited to feel something,
for some emotion to surge through him and invoke some sort of response. It
didn�t happen; Naruto felt�nothing, absolutely nothing; in fact, he felt
strangely apathetic toward the sight even though part of him should be having a
fit over it.
Once
upon a time the thought of hurting Sakura would have been unthinkable, that it
would have been like contemplating the idea of ripping his own arm off. Once
upon a time, she had been his teammate. Once upon a time, he had thought of her
as a friend, as family and the younger sister he had never had. Once upon a
time, he had loved her.
The
phrase �once upon a time� encompassed a great many things that were now no
longer true for the Kyuubi vessel and realizing this suddenly made Naruto felt
weary, the kind of weariness that comes not from years but from knowledge, as
if everything he had experienced and learned in his short life were slowly
crushing him. He�d been so na�ve, so oblivious that it baffled him now. He�d
been such a fool, but a happy fool for at least a little while.
He
looked around, half expecting Iruka or Kakashi to suddenly appear, but gave up
after several seconds and climbed to his feet, walking away from the pitiful
kunoichi. In retrospect, much as with Sakura�s betrayal, Naruto should have
known that his two senseis had been on a mission, that they had only been on a
mission from the council and that it had been Naruto�s own fault that he had
been deceived so easily. He had wanted to belong so badly, had wanted to have
some semblance of a family� His desire had blinded him and he had paid dearly
because of it.
He
hoped that the two teachers were happy together.
The
sensation of warm wetness running down his legs distracted him, prompting the
blonde to look down at himself and notice for the first time that his dream
self had been injured. He paused and began exploring some of the wounds gently,
noting that several were so deep his questing fingers disappeared completely
inside as he poked and prodded the edges. Worry coursed through him briefly
before he realized that, though he was bleeding heavily, he felt no pain, that
no matter how hard he pressed or how far in his fingers probed, his body didn�t
put out any stop signals. It was a surreal experience, knowing that it should
hurt but not feeling anything, and he shrugged it off as just another part of
his increasingly strange dream, rationalizing his decision by reminding himself
that if he was truly wounded, Kyuubi�s healing ability would have already begun
taking care of the problem.
Thinking
about Kyuubi made him remember the Akatsuki pair and the blonde resumed his
course, walking further into the dark forest and under the coverage the trees
provided. Far away to the northwest he could faintly sense Itachi�s and
Kisame�s chakra and he adjusted his path to head in that direction,
concentrating on the signatures as he moved.
Though
they were surpressing their chakra to almost nothing, the sudden appearance of
a group of unidentified presences several meters behind him awoke well honed
instincts, urging him to seek shelter behind the tree he had been passing and
press himself against the flaking bark for cover. For several tense minutes, he
waited, holding absolutely still and hiding his chakra just as he had been
trained to do. Masking his chakra, careful to remain hidden, Naruto looked
around his tree at the group gathered around the fallen kunoichi, his eyes
immediately catching sight of the symbol clearly displayed on their forehead
protectors.
They
were Konoha ANBU. Naruto�s heart began to pound furiously as memories tried to
rise up and grab him, tried to make him re-live the many horrors he had
suffered at the ANBU�s hands but he fought them off, burying the images all
once again. Dream or not, he didn�t want to be anywhere near Konoha or the ANBU
and he felt suddenly trapped.
The desire- the need- to get away filled him, and, as panic firmly settled over
him, Naruto concentrated on Itachi and Kisame. Once he
found them, they could all go to their hideout and he�d never have to worry
about Konoha, or betraying teammates, or being abandoned, or having babies ever
again. The Akatsuki would end his pain, they
would make everything stop by just doing their ceremony and- poof- Naruto would
simply be no more. Naruto Uzumaki would just� slip away� and then everyone
would be happy.
Happy
that he was dead.
Swallowing
past the inexplicable lump in his throat, Naruto gathered his chakra and,
heedless of the group of ninjas not ten yards away, opened a doorway.
It
wasn�t like opening any physical door Naruto had ever seen or touched but for
simplicity�s sake that was how he described it. Using his chakra, the blonde
opened a hole in the air to the left to him, distorting the space and making it
ripple like the disturbed surface of some clear thick fluid. There was no depth
to it but it was tall and wide enough for him to fit through comfortably; other
than the minimal distortion there was nothing else to let anyone know it was
there beyond the surge of chakra needed to open it. Turning toward it, the blonde
stepped into the transformed space of air, feeling the familiar trickling
sensation wash over him like walking through a wall of water, his mind filled
with thoughts of the inn he�d been staying at with the Akatsuki pair.
Naruto
had never mastered the teleportation jutsu used by most ninja and this
inability- just one more in a long list of inabilities- had only served to
discourage him further, reinforcing the idea that everyone was right and that
he was in fact a failure on every conceivable level. Kyuubi, though, had
reassured him of his worth, telling him that he was strong, that he was
intelligent, that he was so powerful it went beyond imagining. The fox had
decided it was time to start instructing him in how to use his vessel-borne
abilities and the demon had taught him many things, many skills that were on
par with, if not better than, the ones other ninja used. Instantaneous
transportation, reshaping his features, calling and speaking to foxes, as well
as a whole host of other talents had been added to Naruto�s repertoire.
Some of those he had been hoping to use to rescue Sasuke from
Orochimaru and then help the Uchiha rebuild his clan with later. Even if the
unthinkable happened and Sasuke didn�t want him, Naruto had planned to still
hang around and help protect his love as well as any other little Uchihas in
the future from the ever present threat of Itachi. Naruto had planned to do a
lot of things but that was before and this was now, two completely separate
subjects. He�d been stupid. He hadn�t been able to fathom how much Sasuke�s
rejection would hurt, hadn�t realized how much he�d gotten his hopes up about
the ridiculous notion that the brunette liked him. He�d been na�ve and it had
broken him, rendering everything Kyuubi had taught him meaningless.
In
the space between two heartbeats, Naruto crossed the distance separating him
from the pair he sought and appeared in the same shadowed alleyway that he had
disappeared from hours prior. He felt the doorway close behind him, shimmering
back into normal air with a small whooshing noise. As he walked his footsteps
seemed loud in the narrow space and the darkness seemed to eat at the edges of
his sight, obscuring strewn debris that made him stumble as he neared the mouth
of the alley. Naruto�s thigh ached with every step and as he continued his
lungs began to labor for air. Limping, his footsteps were heavy as he walked,
as if he were walking through some thick liquid instead of strangely cool
summer air, and he frowned, absently wiping sweat from his face as he swallowed
down the sudden urge to be sick.
There
was no sign of Kana or of Naruto�s dropped shopping bags, no evidence of an
altercation of any kind, and the blonde crossed the distance separating him
from the inn without incident. The street light nearest the building was out,
making the night seem even darker, but Naruto could sense that dawn was coming,
could taste in the air that in a few hours the sun would rise and make the
world bright again. As he climbed the short flight of steps leading up to the
inn�s entrance way, he found himself wondering if Itachi or Kisame would be
interested in watching the sunrise later.
Pushing
the heavy door open a crack, an action that required more concentration from
him than seemed necessary, he heard an angry voice. It sounded like Kisame, at
least, was awake and had noticed his absence. Though he knew that the missing
Mist ninja was probably going to scream bloody murder, Naruto felt his insides
warm over the idea that his presence had been missed by someone. It was stupid,
really, to feel so good over something so simple, especially since one would
have to be completely insane to be even remotely happy to see the person who
had kidnapped and was intending to kill you, but Naruto couldn�t help it. He�d
been missed and it felt so good knowing he had been missed. The blonde felt
tears well as he paused in front of the closed door, his forehead resting
lightly against the thick wood, letting his eyes close to half mast as he
listened to Kisame continue to question someone inside the inn lobby. The
warmth Naruto had felt initially over the thought seemed to double and spread,
moving through him like a warm wash beneath his skin, making him relax and feel
sleepy.
A
sound caught his attention, a deep vibration that registered at the very bottom
of his hearing range, something so low that it was felt more than heard. It was
off to his right and, automatically, Naruto half turned his body toward it to
find the source, already knowing that it wasn�t being made by anyone in the
immediate vicinity. The sound came again, the maker far out in the woods beyond
the town, and he realized that it was a roar, that some very large animal was
out there prowling the outskirts.
�Good thing I didn�t walk here.� He thought, hearing the roar again, feeling it tease
over his skin and rub against his spine like a living thing. The sensation made
him shiver pleasantly but as he did so the first stirrings of pain began to
make themselves known, making him tense up again which, in turn, made the pain
more intense to the point that he frowned. For the first time he began to feel
uneasy about all that had transpired that evening, that maybe it wasn�t all a
dream, but the idea kept slipping from his mental grasp before the connection
could be fully made. The thought remained fuzzy, vague, something that had no
relation to Naruto, and he continued to stare into the direction the constant
roar was coming from even as his eyelids began to slip completely shut.
Deep
inside him, he felt something low in his abdomen move, felt it stretch in an
almost languid movement, and for a second he thought is was the Kyuubi until he
remembered that the Yondaime�s seal restricted the fox�s movement. He frowned,
realizing that something else was moving inside him unrestrained, a separate
energy that was neither his nor Kyuubi�s. He could feel it uncoiling and
spreading cautiously, much like an animal exploring a new territory except that
its new territory was Naruto�s insides. He held still, frowning, feeling this new
energy creep up through his chest toward his heat and suddenly the roar that he
has been listening to wasn�t just noise any longer. What had been a mindless
call resolved itself into words, ones he could almost make out, and he strained
to hear the message, feeling compelled to listen, that it was important
somehow. The blonde felt himself take a step toward it, helplessly entranced,
the rest of the world fading away as the urge to go find the source of that
message took hold.
A
tug on his arm kept him from going any further and Naruto paused, disoriented
as he looked back to see what he was caught on, coming face to face with Itachi
Uchiha standing in the open doorway. Naruto hadn�t even heard the door open or
the other approach and this bothered him mildly because he should have; it was
if reality itself had hiccupped, one second the inn door was almost shut and
suddenly the next it was open, Itachi framed by the door jamb, the light of the
inn lobby spilling out into the night with no sense of time passage in between.
�Naruto-kun.�
The voice was monotone but softer than usual, as if the Uchiha didn�t want to
risk being over heard, and the blonde had the vague impression that this was
not the first time that Itachi had said his name.
Naruto
blinked then shook his head, frowning, trying to focus on the brunette. The
brunette looked tired, worn out, as if he hadn�t slept well. There were dark,
faintly blue bags under his eyes and his skin looked almost unnaturally pale,
but the hand wrapped around left wrist was firm, the grip strong with no sign
of weakness.
Was
it him or had Itachi gotten taller? Naruto was five foot eleven and a half,
roughly two inches taller than the elder Uchiha, but suddenly Itachi was nearly
five or six inches taller than the blonde. That couldn�t be right� Right? It
had to be the damnably bright light behind the brunette distorting the image�
Naruto shut his eyes to protect them, trying to regain some sense of reality,
then giggled because finding reality in a dream just stuck him as completely
silly.
�I
found you.� The blonde said when he regained control over himself. His voce
sounded funny, tinny and distorted, as if it was coming from further away than
it actually was and somewhere in his mind a very dim warning bell was going off
that this was bad but, again, the connection failed to be made. �I was� I was��
He couldn�t remember what he was trying to say, distracted by the roaring in
the background and the crushing weight slowly settling on his shoulders. The
grip on his wrist tightened, the only warning Naruto got before abruptly being
pulled forward into the inn and stumbling against Itachi�s warm body.
Arms encircled him, trapping him loosely,
while hands began roaming his body lightly, pressing him close as Itachi searched
him. Naruto didn�t know what the other was looking for and frankly didn�t care
at that point because being this close to Itachi was making him break out in a
sweat, the liquid seeming to drench his body and trickle into uncomfortable
places, making them sting and ache. The blonde began pushing the other away,
fighting him, slapping at the Uchiha for freedom; Itachi was just too warm, the
lobby too hot, and Naruto felt as if he was burning up as he stood there. The
teenager struggled, trying to backpedal away through the door behind him,
dragging the surprised brunette across the floor with him as he tried to get
back into the cool night air but Kisame was suddenly there, blocking his path,
turning the blonde around and shoving him forward against Itachi again as the
missing Mist ninja closed the door.
This
time the Uchiha�s grip was firm as one arm slipped around the blonde�s waist,
the other pressing on Naruto�s back between his shoulder blades, pulling the
blonde forward until he was tucked firmly under Itachi�s chin. Naruto flailed,
hard, pushing and shoving, kicking out until his thigh- by now a burning knot
of agony- refused to hold his weight anymore. Both he and Itachi slid to the
floor, the brunette�s arm still wrapped securely around the blonde�s hips in an
almost possessive manner, the hand on Naruto�s back still keeping him pinned
against the Uchiha and as suddenly as it had come, the energy powering his
attempts to get away faded, leaving him to lie heavily against the other as he
panted for breath.
�Hot!�
The blonde moaned, weakly banging his palm against Itachi�s chest, trying to
communicate his discomfort and failing miserably. �You�re too hot!�
�Ai-sama?�
A young voice asked and Naruto rolled his eyes slowly upward until a teenager
came into view. Dark, almond tilted eyes stared worriedly back at him from
underneath tousled brown hair. He was dressed in the lavender uniform that
Ianthe�s staff wore, his hands occupied with the shopping bags he held, fingers
curling and uncurling around the handles.
The
blonde didn�t recognize him at all and in fact it took Naruto a long to time to
remember that he was the one being spoken to, that the unknown teenager was using the
name that Naruto had given at the restaurant. Blue eyes drifted down to the
teenager�s hands, sweeping over the bags the youth held and the Kyuubi vessel
realized that this solved the earlier mystery of where his abandoned shopping
bags had gone.
Naruto
tried to work some saliva into his dry mouth for speech, intending to thank the
thoughtful teen, but wound up with a mouthful of coppery sweetness. A tickle at
the back of his throat was his only warning and the blonde quickly buried his
face against Itachi�s chest, coughing the liquid out all over the Uchiha�s
front and, though he would have understood if the brunette had, Naruto was
grateful that he wasn�t pushed away. When the blonde was through, he slumped
against the other heedless of the mess, too spent to move let alone thank
anyone- being against Itachi�s body was like lounging inside a heated oven, and
Kisame�s close proximity behind the blonde was amplifying the unbearable
feeling to the point that Naruto felt himself shivering, sweat pouring off his
skin like rain.
�Oh,
God.� The words were spoken softly but the note of horror was clearly there.
The blonde felt his mind wandering distractedly, thinking that it was an odd
phrase to say, especially since Kisame was the one who spoke. Naruto felt his
eyelids close. They were so heavy, so, so heavy, as if each weighed a thousand
pounds and the sensation spread, creeping through his limbs until he could
barely feel his extremities.
�Tired��
He said, unaware that it was not an internal monologue and he was actually
speaking aloud. �You�re not supposed to get sleepy in a dream, right? I mean,
that would be a stupid dream, dreaming of sleeping� isn�t the point of
dreaming� to escape�? How can I be tired when I�m already asleep? That doesn�t
make any sense��
His
breath hitched deep in his chest as he inhaled, making him cough. There was
activity in the room around him and tension in the air but all of it was remote
and meaningless to the Kyuubi vessel. He was still shivering and the room was
still too damn hot but even that was beginning not to matter anymore. Stupid as
it may be, he decided to give in and sleep off the rest of his dream as he
settled more solidly against Itachi; now that he thought about it, the brunette
wasn�t nearly as uncomfortable as he looked and the red and black cloak wasn�t
really that stiff�
�Ai-sama!�
Someone�s hands on his face, patting his exposed cheek, feeling his forehead
frantically. �She�s cold! Ai-sama, stay awake!�
�Naruto-kun!�
It was Itachi�s voice in his ear, low and urgent. The brunette�s hands stopped
pinning him in place and moved to Naruto�s front, fumbling against the blonde�s
stomach while Kisame, behind the teenager, began tugging harshly at both the
collar and obi of the kimono. Naruto felt his body jerk backwards but was
unable to do anything except remain passive, flopping back against Itachi with
a grunt, the Uchiha�s hand not stopping as it continued to search and probe.
�Isamu,
go get the doctor then get your boss!� A gruff voice ordered. �Tell him they
got the wrong guy!�
The
hands touching his face disappeared and the sound of cloth tearing filled
Naruto�s ears, muffling the squeak of the hinges as the inn door opened. More
cloth was torn and suddenly the blonde felt warm air against his newly exposed
back, against all his skin as Kisame- alternately peeling and pulling at the wet
fabric- stripped the kimono off him.
�Wrap
her in this!� Something soft was draped over his bare body and he felt himself
being tilted backwards, large hands gripping his shoulders uncomfortably tight.
�No! No, you idiot- not the floor! Don�t you know anything about shock? Open
that stupid cloak of yours, big man and keep her warm!�
Then
gnarled, weathered hands were shoving Naruto against a broad chest, pressing
him roughly against scratchy mesh in their haste and, though some part of him
knew that the owner of those hands was simply trying to help, the sensation
still triggered an onslaught of buried memories that drowned this knowledge
out. A parade of horrors began behind his closed eyelids and the blonde began
to shriek incoherently and thrash in the arms that held him as the display
continued, blurring together into one long nightmare that made him plead
incoherently.
�You�re a failure and always will be a failure! You�ve
wasted my time and by doing so, you�ve wasted the time of someone who was
worthy of my training!�
�I�ll
do better!� He promised desperately, just like he always had, just like he
always would.
�I don�t want to hear it!� Jiraiya had screamed at him, looming over Naruto like
some angry giant, one fist raised as if to strike the bleeding blonde laying at
his feet. �Wasting my time has
consequences, Naruto, dire consequences and I am going to make sure you pay in
full!�
The
toad sage had reached for him then and the blonde had frozen, confused, afraid,
unsure what was happening or what to do about it. Jiraiya had grabbed him by his
upper arms and Naruto remembered being surprised by how large the other�s hands
were, how rough they were from training for so many decades, but then he became
distracted as the elder began dragging him back to the inn and into their room.
�You�re a weak ninja, Naruto.� He was thrown across the room while Jiraiya slammed
the door shut and locked it. He had had a moment of bewilderment, of fear, but
then the elder man was on him, tearing at his clothes while Naruto clawed at
the other�s hands to make him stop. �Weak
ninja get captured. They get tortured. You can take a lot of damaged, Naruto,
but the Kyuubi can�t protect you from some types of pain.�
He�d
been weak, both then and now; Jiraiya had taught him well.
�Don�t
touch me!� He screamed, striking out at the one who held his hands down, mind
trapped by something that had happened over two years ago. �Let me go! Nooooo!�
�Is
all that muscle just for show?! Hold her down before she breaks something!�
�Listen
you geezer..!�
�Kisame!�
�I can�t wait until this mission is over.� Another memory grabbed him, dragged him inside of it,
and Naruto was suddenly standing outside Iruka�s apartment door, frozen in
midstep by the soft whisper from inside as he began to walk away. He stared at
nothing, his attention focused solely on following the quiet conversation
taking place in the �empty� apartment beside him. �Babysitting that brat is driving me crazy! I don�t know how much more
of that monster I can take! I hate
ramen- if I have to eat one more bowl of the stuff, I�ll puke!�
He
knew that the person was talking about him instantly and felt his eyes prickle,
his chest tighten up. It was Iruka�s voice, Naruto would know it anywhere; when
things had gotten bad in the village, he�d counted on hearing his sensei speak,
had found peace in the comforting tones and words.
There
was nothing comforting about it now.
The
blonde had fought so hard to stave off tears. If his pseudo-father had only told
him how he really felt about the meal they usually bonded over, they could have
had something else to eat together, that Naruto hated it too and had only
continued to eat ramen because Iruka seemed to enjoy it so much. Then the rest
of what his sensei had said sank in and the blonde couldn�t keep everything
contained any more. It had been a lie- everything had been a lie! He�d sagged
against the door heavily and sobbed once before pulling himself upright and
leaving.
�Ne, ne, Sasuke,� Sakura�s voice whispered through his head like poison. �If you had to choose between a girl who
loved you and a boy who loved you, who would you choose?� It was the
sentence that had begun the conversation that had ultimately ended what had
remained of his world.
�Oh
no�� He moaned, trying to curl up, as if making self smaller would protect him
from it all. He began to sob. �Not this, no, no, no��No, no please! Please! I�ll do better just make it stop! Make it
stop!� He was screaming the last inside and out, trying to find Kyuubi-
trying to find help.
The
fox had been his only outlet and, in recent years, he had run to it for a great
multitude of things. It had been his friend and shoulder to cry on when he was
shunned. It had been his teacher when no one would take him on as a student. It
had been the only constant presence in a life filled with upheaval of one sort
of another.
The
fox was supposed to help him repress these things, was supposed to help him
forget so that he could function and be relatively normal. No matter how much
therapy one might receive after a traumatic even, there are some things that
you never get over, some things that you can only learn skills that helped you
cope with it. Naruto had never received counseling and when pretending nothing
had happened didn�t work, Kyuubi had offered to intervene. The final straw, so
to speak, had ironically been a sunny, normal day with nothing out of the
ordinary. Naruto had dragged himself out of bed, had sat down to pick at his
breakfast and had a flashback to Jiraiya�s�training method. With no memory of
how he�d gotten there or sense of the time in between, Naruto had �woken up�
hours later in his bath tub, having repeatedly cut into his arm with a kunai,
crying and shaking with the blade aimed at his throat.
Naruto
couldn�t deal with his memories so Kyuubi had taken them, locking the most
awful ones away from the blonde consciousness. He had argued for them to be
given back, that he was weak and he had to learn to live with them because he
was a ninja but the fox had simply shaken its head at him. "They were not things
you should have had to deal with at all," the demon had reassured him. "Forget
they had ever happened."
So
Naruto had and he and the demon grew close. Maybe it was because they were
quite literally trapped together in one body but they both seemed to know
instinctively that the other was all each of them had now, the only one who
could be depended on through thick and thin. To put it simply, they adopted one
another and became family. They bonded, not in a parental sense but in the way
that some children adopt other children when they are young. Before blood
relation holds any meaning, before a child learns that boys and girls- or, in
this case foxes- are different. Before words like �lover� or �betrayal� exists
and the world is still a big mystery just waiting for you to solve it. You like
somebody, you care for them, and at that fleeting age this fact is enough to
make a friend a treasured member of the family.
He
called for the fox as soon as he appeared in front of the cage and, for several
long agonizing moments, nothing in the familiar darkness beyond the cage doors
stirred. The darkness seemed to mock him as he peered into it, swallowing his
increasingly desperate cries for the Kyuubi, making his voice fall flat. Naruto
looked around, panic threatening to consume him as he noticed that closer to
the ground, several of the cage�s bars had been bent outward to make a massive
hole and, though it would be a tight fit, he knew that it was indeed big enough
for the fox to fit through.
The blonde sank to his knees, spiritual form shivering as
the ever present water covering the floor of his mind slosh around his naked
hips. He sobbed, feeling his shoulder�s slump, his hands fisting into his hair
as despair gripped him.
Sakura had hated him.
Iruka had only pretended to like him.
Sasuke thought he was disgusting.
And now Kyuubi.... Kyuubi had abandoned him too.
�Couldn�t you have even said good-bye?� Naruto sobbed harder, leaning forward enough to rest his
forehead against a section of the door with its bars still intact. Hadn�t he
even been worth a farewell?
The
teenager nearly screamed when a long thick tail shot out from the hole in the
bars, wrapped around his waist and yanked him inside the cage, bringing him to
the dais Kyuubi usually slept on. The blonde was abruptly released and he
tripped over his unsteady feet, falling heavily against furry side that rose
and fell rapidly beneath him. Nine long tails wrapped around him, keeping him
warm and safe as he shifted to get comfortable.
Did
you honestly think I�d leave you?
Kyuubi asked, chest heaving, pain clear in its voice. When a trembling Naruto
remained silent from shame, the fox merely grunted. Seal or not, I�m staying with
you. Let�s face it kid- we�re stuck with each other!
It
was clear the demon was trying to make light of the situation but it just made
Naruto feel guilty and the blonde continued to shake, clinging to its fur. A
spasm passed through the demon�s body from head to tails, unsettling Naruto and
causing him fall until to hit the dais near the fox�s stomach. The spasm
passed, and spent, Kyuubi lay against the stone wearily for several seconds
before the fox turned his head enough to look down its body at the teenager
beside it.
The demon winked but the effect was ruined by
its pained grimacing and Naruto stared at it as the thought that something was
incredibly wrong finally forced its way through his brain and connected. The
teenager stood and hurried toward the triangular head to stroke one large furry
ear, asking what happened.
Don�t
worry. Kyuubi said, the demon�s
usually booming voice soft and slurring, its crimson eyes beginning to slowly
slide shut as it fell into the torpor like state it used when more drastic
healing had to be done to the blonde�s body. We�ll be okay. Just need to rest� for a while� just need
to�
Then
the fox was gone and Naruto was left sitting alone in the dark.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Naruto�s
body gave one last shudder before laying limply in Kisame�s arms. Whatever fit
that had been possessing the teenager seemed to have passed but the inn keeper
and the two ninja held on for several tense seconds longer in case the blonde
launched into another one. When the Kyuubi-vessel continued to remain passive,
his blue eyes empty and staring at nothing, Itachi slowly released Naruto�s
small wrists and stepped back, trying to put some physical and emotional
distance between himself and the teenager.
Itachi
Uchiha- missing ninja of Konoha, an S class criminal guilty of slaying his kin
and psychologically torturing his defenseless little brother- felt his heart
lurch. The blonde was a mess, there was simply no other way to describe him.
Someone had attacked Naruto, had hacked the teenager up, and Itachi felt the
blood in his veins boil. He had known that something was wrong the moment he
woke up, so much so that he had practically kicked Kisame out of bed and
dragged the ex-Mist ninja downstairs.
Despite
the admittedly drastic augmentations to his appearance, Itachi knew the second he
opened the door that it was Naruto he was looking at. The long blonde hair was
stuck to his head in some places, matted and dark with bits of leaf litter
stuck here and there. His scarred cheeks were bleeding, the trio of parallel
lines on each side oozing small streams of crimson, but it was nothing compared
to the blood over the rest of his outfit; there was so much of the liquid that
the black of Naruto�s kimono was now dark purple in color. The Kyuubi-vessel�s
hands, smaller than they should have been yet appropriate given his current
size, were bloodstained, the nails cracked and broken down to the quick.
Someone had tried to strangle him and the hand prints of his attacker were
still visible on the pale throat in the form of stark darkening bruises. Naruto
had stood in the doorway at a slant, one shoulder dipped as the arm attached to
it hung limply at his side, his weight borne mostly on his left leg as his bent
right knee poked through one of the longer slashes in the kimono.
Of
course, only once they had stripped off the kimono did they find out how
extensive the damage truly was. Naruto had been nearly butchered, there was no
other way to phrase it. Almost all of the blonde�s torso was covered in stab
wounds, punctures of all shapes and sizes. Someone with a lot of rage had
jumped the blonde and, either by deliberate planning of blind anger, had sliced
into every organ system to a devastating degree. Even with the Kyuubi�s healing
powers, the Uchiha was amazed that Naruto was still alive and able to stand
upright, let alone make it to the inn to find the Akatsuki pair.
Itachi�s
hands began to ache and he realized that he had been unconsciously clenching
them so hard that he�d driven his blunt nails well into the meat of his palm.
His heart was clawing its way up his throat, screaming incoherently about the
blonde; it wanted vengeance, it wanted a payment in blood for all that the
kitsune vessel had suffered, voicing it all in one continuous battle cry that
rallied the rest of his body behind his heart.. Trying to calm the jittery,
anxious feelings roiling inside him, he surreptitiously took a deep breath and
let it out slowly, simultaneously forcing his hands flat under the cover of his
cloak sleeves. He swallowed, forcing his heart back where it should be,
concentrating on drowning out the ranting and raving of the impatient organ.
Itachi
Uchiha was not a passionate person but in that moment he wanted to give in to
his hearts desire, to storm out and hunt down the perpetrators responsible, but
he had never been a man ruled by his heart. For better or worse, Itachi Uchiha
was a logical creature, a man ruled by his brain and, though it was
inconceivably more difficult than it had any right to be, the Uchiha finally
did manage to dredge up enough of his trademark icy calm to pull it around his
inner self. The cries for blood receded and the rush of adrenaline leveled off
as his brain took firm control over his body. He sank into that calm iciness,
trusting it as he had trusted no one because it had always kept him alive,
allowing him a measure of distance, giving him the ability to step back and
evaluate a situation efficiently.
All
that careful calm was undone moment�s later with a word.
�Strip.�
The inn keeper ordered, looking directly at him with a pointed expression, and,
before he could stop it, a blush found its way into Itachi�s pale cheeks. He
balked, standing ramrod straight in place, the gears of his mind trying to
process the idea coherently and failing.
Kisame
let out the indignant squawk that Uchiha pride wouldn�t allow Itachi to make.
�I�m
not joking, young fella! Strip to your skivvies and stop being shy before your
modesty kills her!�
That
earned the old fart the look he deserved and Itachi leveled a glare so awful
the inn keeper should have burst into flames but the Uchiha saw the purpose
behind the old man�s orders and stripped down to his boxers, quick and
efficient, arms out and ready to receive the blonde.
�Sit
first.� The inn keeper told him, turning his attention to Kisame once Itachi
had followed his command. The elder�s gnarled hands briefly touched Naruto�s
neck and wrist again before rearranging the blanket when he was done. �Now you
can set her on the floor, Muscles!�
�You
sure give a lot of orders, old man.� Though a small portion of the Uchiha
appreciated Kisame�s attempt to look out for his well-being, the rest agreed
that this was neither the time nor the place for it.
�I�ve
also lived longer than either of you.� The elder snapped as Kisame moved the
blonde as directed. �I may not be a ninja but I have seen my share of the
darker side of life, including the evils that some men do to pretty girls first
hand.�
�What
do you mean by the evils��Dread gathered inside the Uchiha, the foreign emotion
increasing as he took Naruto and held him close, shivering the moment the blood
splattered skin touched his. The blonde was cold, freezing actually, and so
pale that he made Itachi look positively tan.
�The
ramblings of a senile old man.� Kisame cut in loudly, voice too harsh for the
simple dismissive comment. The blue skinned male draped the blanket around them
tightly, insulating them against the warmth-stealing air. Kisame continued to
fuss with it long after, burning off nervous energy, finally ceasing a breath
before Itachi had to tell him to stop.
No
matter what he said that may seem contrary, Itachi knew that his partner was
smart and could be incredibly intuitive. Much like the Uchiha�s, Kisame�s mind
was beginning to make the next logical leap in the pattern being laid out before
them and the blue skinned man was resisting it, fighting against the dark but
simple possibility involving the attack on Naruto. It was something that,
admittedly, neither of the Akatsuki pair was qualified to deal with right now
(or ever for that matter) and so the former Mist ninja was refusing to deal
with it, quiet happy to remain in denial about the issue. The odd image of
Kisame on the beach with his head firmly buried in a mountain of sand came to
mind but Itachi didn�t find it amusing at the moment.
�The
bleeding�s slowing.� Kisame grunted, critically examining Naruto�s face,
manipulating the blonde head cupped between his hands with care. �Where�s this
doctor that kid went after? Konoha?�
�As if we�d seek help from that arrogant lot!�
It was the old man�s turn to be openly hostile and he was taking full
advantage, as if Kisame�s thoughtless comment had been the most derogatory
insult in all of human language. The elder was angry, was terribly bitter
toward Konoha, and Itachi filed this piece of information away for later. �Too
busy perfecting their big secret weapon to help a village in trouble even if
it�s on their doorstep! High and mighty bastards!�
The
old man continued to mutter angrily to himself, putting his energy into tending
to Naruto. Over his head, Kisame and Itachi shared a meaningful look, using the
opportunity to catch each other�s eye and communicate a silently, both very
carefully avoiding looking at Naruto, acutely aware that one errant look in the
blonde�s direction could cast damning suspicion on all three of them. If what
the geezer said was true and not just some paranoid delusion, it was possible
that Konoha had finally decided to actively use the most powerful weapon in
their arsenal- the one currently sitting in his lap, surrounded by Itachi�s
body to keep it warm.
�Isamu
will get back here as fast as he can. Right now, Ai-sama�s care is up to us. We
need to see to her injuries before she bleeds to death. If you won�t help, get
out of my way!�
�Ai?� It
meant love, indigo. Naruto had chosen a name for his female persona, one that
obviously had some deep meaning for the blonde. The Uchiha wasn�t sure if he
should feel happy about this or not and, after a few seconds of analysis,
realized that on a deeper level, the name bothered him greatly because he
didn�t fully understand the reasoning behind it.
The
Uchiha shook his head; these were musings for another time and it was too late
to try and rename �her� now.
�Ai-sama?�
Itachi murmured, allowing himself to finally look down into the face Kisame�s
large hands still cradled. �Ai-sama, can you hear me?�
All
this time, Naruto had been staring vacantly into space, eyes wide and a paler
blue than they should have been. The blonde had remained limp and passive since
finally calming down, allowing them to manhandle him as they wanted without a
hint of protest. It was disturbing to see and the brunette tried repeatedly to
encourage the teenager to respond but, despite Itachi�s attempts to get his
attention, Naruto remained in his catatonic state.
It
was as if the Kyuubi-vessel�s mind had completely disconnected from reality
and, if that were true, then calling him by another identity was probably not
helping the situation. Kisame withdrew his hands from the blonde and Itachi put
his lips close to Naruto�s revealed ear, whispering quietly, his arms
tightening around the blonde. Keeping his voice soft and even, he repeated the
other�s name constantly while shaking the teenager, telling Naruto to come
back, that he was safe and, eventually Naruto responded.
Maybe
it was the sound of his name that finally caught his attention, or the feel of
Itachi�s body against his. Maybe it was none of those things or all of those
things, but suddenly there was a tension throughout Naruto�s body that stated
loudly some part of the teenager was aware of his surroundings. The brunette
didn�t care as the blonde turned his head toward the Uchiha and blinked up at
Itachi, eyes full of personality and focusing slowly on the other. Then those
confused orbs drifted upward and found Kisame, resting on the former Mist ninja
for several seconds before coming back to the paler skinned member of the duo,
gaze sweeping over the abundance of visible skin.
�Dream?�
The blonde asked in a rough whisper.
Itachi
studied him before replying slowly. �No, you�re not dreaming. This is real.�
The
teenager began to nod but stopped mid-motion, eyebrows drawing together. A pink
tongue flicked out to moisten cracked, blood stained lips as the bruised throat
swallowed audibly, the sound painfully loud. He blinked once more before
closing his eyes again, the young face taking on a look of concentration, and a
second later Itachi felt Naruto place a hand over the Uchiha�s heart.
�You
don�t look so good.� Louder this time, Naruto�s voice was a hoarse croak and
made him wince which made the scars on his cheeks bleed. His eyes remained
closed as he swallowed again, leaning his head to the side so it rested on the
Uchiha�s upper right chest. He huddled against the other, moving until he was
hidden from view underneath the flap of blanket draped over Itachi�s shoulders.
�Did you eat dinner?�
Itachi
didn�t answer, too taken aback by the question.
Kisame
stared after the blonde.
Naruto
had been brutally attacked and his only concern is if they had eaten dinner?!
�Young
lady,� The inn keeper moved closer, sharp eyes glancing from face to face. In
one hand he held a medical kit, in the other several towels and for the first
time that evening, the old man looked quite confused. �How do you feel?�
For
a tense minute the blonde didn�t say anything, remaining quiet so long that
Itachi began to wonder if the other had passed out. Then finally, as if
remembering that someone had spoken to him, Naruto answered, voice soft. �Warm,
I�m warm.�
�Any
pain?� the old man pressed, coming to kneel beside Itachi�s left side so he
could see the teenager mostly hidden from view.
Against
the Uchiha�s chest, the blonde shook his head in response.
An
awful thought arose in the Uchiha�s mind. �Ai-sama, you�re hurt. Did you know
that? What have you been doing today?�
�I
am?� Naruto roused enough to blink up at the other in confusion then quickly
looked down again after catching sight of Itachi�s intense stare. �I went
shopping for supplies� for the trip� Then I went to Ianthe�s because I thought
you�d be hungry. I left though� I was coming back here but Kana� Kana�� The
blonde shifted in the Uchiha�s arms, leaning against the other heavily as his
voice became more and more breathy. �I had this really weird dream� I was
fighting, I think. I fought� Someone� they hurt me�really badly.� His eyes had
unfocused as he spoke and he began blinking rapidly as he tried to focus.
Naruto abruptly frowned and buried his head against Itachi�s chest, mumbling.
�I�m tired. My head hurts.�
Before
Kisame could say something scathing, the Uchiha glared at him sternly, clearly
communicating the warning for the other to hold his tongue. The brunette then
turned his attention back to the blonde in his lap.
�Stay
awake.� Naruto�s hand, still resting on the Uchiha�s pale skin, curled into a
fist but otherwise remained in place. A part of Itachi noted that the appendage
was quite warm, almost hot.
�I�m
tired.� Naruto whispered again, and something in his voice made the Uchiha look
down at him. �Just tired.�
The
blonde�s face was flushed, his eyes only open to half mast, lips taking on a
slightly blue tint. Naruto�s voice had once again taken on the slightly
slurred, dreamy quality that it had had when he walked in and it sent alarm
bells ringing inside Itachi, made the stoic ninja�s stomach tighten up into a
hard painful knot.
�You
have to stay awake.� Itachi said, grip tightening on the blonde, as if trying
to impart strength to the other before repositioning the teenager, pulling him
upright before leaning him back enough so that the Uchiha could look down at
him directly. �You can�t sleep yet.�
From
his supply satchel, Kisame pulled a small pouch and began pouring its contents out
onto his waiting palm. Several different colored spheres appeared against the
blue skin and the ex-Mist ninja judiciously chose three of the darker hued
ones, handing them to Itachi who took them.
�Chew
these.� The Uchiha commanded, showing Naruto the pills he held, patiently
waiting for the blonde to focus on him. He knew that Naruto was rapidly losing
touch with reality, knew that if the blonde passed out again it was entirely
possible that no amount of pleading or medical ability would be able to wake
him up again. The Akatsuki pair needed to stack the odds in their favor against
a fatal outcome and Itachi pressed the pills against Naruto�s lips, trying to
force them between the other�s teeth. Naruto, however, shoved his hand away
irritably and pressed his lips together.
�There�s
something in one of the cuts.� Kisame reported, voice coming from close to the
floor, nearly startling Itachi. The brunette had been so focused on the blonde
that, for a moment, he�d forgotten there was anyone else in the room.
Berating
himself, the Uchiha stopped trying to force feed the blonde and simply held him
still, gaze trailing down until he could see what his partner had found. There,
in one of the larger cuts roughly an inch above the top of the nest of dark blonde
curls that trailed lower, amidst the torn flesh and thick, congealing blood
that was so hot it was nearly scalding, was something foreign, something
metallic looking that was definitely not supposed to be found in the human
body.
The
innkeeper appeared on Itachi�s other side and began peering at the cut Kisame
was pointing to. �Don�t touch it! We�ll pack it with towels but let the doctor
handle it.�
�Does
that hurt?� Itachi found himself asking, gaze flicking back up at the
kyuubi-vessel.
�No.�
Naruto said faintly, eyes shut, his head beginning to loll back.
�You
can�t sleep yet.� The brunette reminded him in a harsh tone, barely managing to
keep his voice level, the anxiety he felt making him want to yell.
The
blonde jerked, startling Kisame and the innkeeper as they secured the object
with towels and gauze strips, making them swear. Naruto blinked rapidly and
raised his head, clearly straining against his physical failings to meet the
Uchiha�s gaze. The eyes that looked back at Itachi were focused, burning
brightly at the Uchiha with a seriousness and intelligence that so far had been
lacking in the blonde. It translated clearly even through the fever that Itachi
could feel spreading through the teenager, warning the brunette that his next
words were not to be taken lightly and the Uchiha gave the other his undivided
attention, letting his awareness of the rest of the room fade away, trusting
that Kisame would protect them.
�Can I sleep through it?� Itachi knew
immediately what the �it� was that Naruto was referring to and didn�t need to
ask for any kind of clarification.
�Yes.�
The brunette said quietly, looking straight into those demanding eyes directed
at him. He made his already low voice softer. �You can sleep though it.�
�Do
you promise?� The childlike voice was somehow so much worse, so much more
damning than anything before. �You�re word of honor?�
No
one should be that willing to die, no one should look that happy about their
death, and the Uchiha felt his heart clench at the naked hope in those
beautiful blue orbs. What had happened to the infamous blonde, the boy who was
so stubborn that it seemed as if even fate itself was unwilling to defy him?
What had been so awful that the only good thing he could look forward to any
longer was a painless death?
�My
word of honor.� Itachi said, watching Naruto sag with apparent relief against
him. Those blue eyes remained riveted on the Uchiha, searching the other�s face
for some sign of deceit. �It will be painless; I�ll make sure of it.�
Naruto
began nodding rapidly, too rapidly, his body giving a shuddering breath, and
suddenly he was hurling himself at Itachi and sobbing, clinging to the other
like a lifeline. It startled the brunette since giving comfort had never been
Itachi�s forte but he let the blonde hug him tightly, occasionally stroking the
teenager�s back as he continued to weep. There was a �thank-you� in there some
where, almost indistinguishable from the other broken noises Naruto made, but
Itachi heard it.
It
was unnecessary, but the brunette heard it, and something in his heart that had
until now remained amorphous and ambiguous finally crystallized into some thing
sharp and determinable.
Itachi
Uchiha was going to save Naruto Uzumaki.
An
important question remained, however and it nagged at the Uchiha like an
irritating insect that would not go away.
How
much of the blonde was there left to save?

More�s Moment:
Righty-oh! We have a lot going on in this chapter so, if
any one�s confused, I highly suggest reading it again when you have some free
time. It�s long, I know, but I wanted to get this night done and over with and
not drag it out longer than necessary. I�m trying to answer some questions and
laying the ground work for events later and most of it cannot be done through
one central character since everyone is biased in there own way (or not
entirely all there anymore, in Naruto�s or even Sakura�s cases). Before the
screaming begins, Kana and his importance will be explained later in subsequent
chapters (hopefully the next).
I�m not entirely happy with this chapter but I can�t find
out what bothers me about it- I just know that if I keep staring at it, I�ll
end up rewriting it again. Or go nuts. Both are equally likely at the moment.
Apologies for not up-dating sooner however, after the last chapter, my summer
went straight to hell. It was bad, very, teeth grindingly, hair pullingly bad
and my creativity as well as my time went right out the window.
Which brings me to my next point: I have this story
planned out roughly to a point but I am welcoming suggestions for scenes
involving the characters. As a warning, this story will remain primarily around
the events concerning Naruto, Kisame and Itachi directly and we will only visit
Konoha when necessary. I happily invite people to put ideas involving our trio
in their reviews. Feel free to run the whole gambit of emotions- I get inspiration
from everything.
Now, if you are
still reading this, pat yourself on the back if you are thinking that everyone
is drawing the conclusion that Naruto has been raped. If this completely strikes
you as a surprise or if you�ve dismissed the comments of the innkeeper makes
during Itachi�s point of view, I suggest reading them again before the next
chapter because they will come up again.
Thank you everyone for reading (and hopefully reviewing)!
- 5
- 6
- 7
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