"A Void Filled"

by Coded

Chapter 1: A Broken Soul

' ' Thoughts, " " Speech

"Please bring Sasuke-kun back, Naruto! This is the only favor I'll ever ask of you!" Sakura cried out at Naruto, tears streaming down her face. Memories of Sasuke thanking her the night before echoed through her mind. 'Maybe Naruto can bring him back to me..'

Naruto's smile slipped. His body numbed. 'After everything...everything I've done for her..even after Sasuke abandoned her and the village..he's still all she cares about.'

The other boys standing around Naruto felt awkward, knowing well how much Naruto cared for Sakura, who now stood crying, begging Naruto for nothing else in life other than bringing back his rival and her crush. Shikamaru immediatly noticed Naruto's odd reaction. 'Girls are so troublesome, I sure hope this doesn't affect the mission..I do feel bad for Naruto though, he just died inside.'

As usual, Shikamaru had hit the nail on the head. Naruto broke inside. All his feelings for Sakura drained away with the pink-haired girl's request, leaving him a shell of what he once was. Swallowing hard, Naruto plastered his fake smile back on, one last time. He turned to look Sakura in the eye and held her a high thumbs-up. "You bet. I'll bring him back. It's the promise of a lifetime."

Naruto turned away and set off with the other Leaf-nins, leaving Sakura with a sadsmile on her face. 'I'm not doing this for you, Sakura. I'm doing this for me. For the Hokage, and the village. More importantly, I'm doing this because it's my mission. Uzumaki Naruto doesn't fail missions.'

Shikamaru grimaced as he looked over at Naruto. Out of thefour shinobi that had left Konoha under his command, it was down to Naruto and himself. Shikamaru had worried that the emotional impact Naruto suffered as they started their mission would affect his performance, but the newly raisedchuunin had worried for nothing. If anything, it had improved Naruto, he was acting like an actual ninja now and using his head, rather than rushing around blindly like Kiba.

Shikamaru frowned as he worried about Kiba. And Neji, and Chouji. He hoped they were alright, although deep down he didn't think they were. These Sound Shinobi were incredibly powerful, Shikamaru worried if his strategies would be enough. Shaking the thought away, the chuunin focused once more ahead of them, toward the remaining sound-nin.

"Naruto, lets go!" Shikamaru said as he picked up the pace.

"Hai" Naruto responded blandly, as he increased his speed to keep up with Shikamaru.

Naruto hid behind a tree, breathing heavily, as he dodged several kunai with exploding tags attatched. 'This last ninja is good,' Naruto thought to himself, 'I don't think I know any other female ninjas this strong besides Old Lady Tsunade.'

He looked down at Shikamaru's unmoving form lying on the ground about 100 meters away. This female sound-nin, Tayuya, had ambushed the pair while Shikamaru was going over his strategy, she had taken him out immediately and Naruto had been dodging ever since.

One of Tayuya's summoned monsters smashed the tree Naruto was hiding behind just as he leaped off, sensing the attack coming. The tree was splintered, and a shard of flying wood sliced across Naruto's left cheek. Landing on a tree branch directly in front of Tayuya, Naruto wiped the back of his right hand across the wound, clearing the blood away. Naruto glanced at the big, sealed barrel on the tree branch next to the flute-playing sound shinobi.

"Why do you want Sasuke so much?" He asked the girl, trying to stall for time until he could come up with a plan to either beat her senseless, or get the barrel and get away safe.

Tayuya laughed as she brought the flute down from her mouth, the lack of music causing her summons to cease movement.

"Like a little shit like you would understand. Sasuke-sama is ment for Orochimaru-sama. Orochimaru-sama needs a new body, and he wants Sasuke-sama here for his next container. He wants his eyes, you spineless shit." Tayuya sneered at Naruto.

"Sasuke-sama has the cursed seal. He's bound to Orochimaru just as much as me."

Naruto watched the girl closely as she spoke. His deep blue eyes narrowed slightly as he noticed a haunted look pass through the female's eyes as she said the last part.

"Sometimes...people make bad decisions. Decisions that they regret and wish they could have changed. Being bound to someone isn't everyone's idea of fun."

The girl's eyes widened in anger and she raised the flute to her mouth and once again began playing, ordering her summoned monsters to renew their attack on Naruto.

Naruto dodged around the giants, keeping an eye on the girl, wondering if his comment had had any effect. 'She doesn't want to be bound to Orochimaru anymore, her eyes say it all. They look like mine.'

Using Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, Naruto made one copy of himself and quickly readied the Rasengan. Tayuya's monster with the club rushed at Naruto just as he finished preparing the Rasengan and the blond genin lunged forward and thrust his arm ahead, catching the giant in theabdomen before Tayuya had a chance to redirect it with the flute.

The Rasengan blew half of the giant away, leaving a gaping hole in the torso. The monster's chest and shoulders listed to the right, having no more support on that side of the body, and the summon suddenly exploded in a puff of smoke.

Tayuya reeled from the blow of having all her musical notes sent to that summon thrown back at her. She also had to strain herself to keep control of the other two, with one destroyed it was harder to keep control of the other two summons with the flute. 'How did he do that! This kid isn't normal, nobody's ever been able to take out one of my summons in one hit before.'

Naruto landed on another tree branch, panting from the exertion of using the Rasengan. Once again he turned to Tayuya. "You don't have to be bound to somebody, you know. No matter what. If you don't want to be associated with that person, you can break free, even if you don't think you can. This is what I'll tell Sasuke when I get him out of the barrel. He's not going to Orochimaru. I won't let him, no matter what you think."

Tayuya's eyes unfocused as she remembered back to when she met Orochimaru for the first time, almost 10 years ago. Her entire family had just been killed in a raid on her village, it was so long ago she couldn't even remember the name. She was alone and powerless, and Orochimaru saved her. Tayuya's eyes watered as she remembered. 'I didn't know what kind of person he was...I didn't realize he was evil, I don't want to serve him, but I don't have a choice.'

Naruto watched her, and his eyes suddenly widened. He recognized the look in the girl's eyes. He'd worn that same look while he was alone for almost 12 years. It was a look of total and complete lonliness. "You don't have to stay Orochimaru's subordinate just because you're alone. I've...I've been alone all my life, but I won't go running to Orochimaru. I still stay and protect those I care about from people like Orochimaru. I'm fighting so Sasuke doesn't make a decision now he lives to regret."

Tayuya snapped back to the present and lowered the flute from her mouth. "WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT IT?" She screamed at Naruto who stood there calmly, "OROCHIMARU-SAMA SAVED ME! I DIDN"T GO TO HIM BECAUSE I WAS ALONE! HE SAVED MY LIFE!"

Tayuya winced, 'I'm slipping...I didn't swear at all.'

Naruto cocked his head to the side. "Did he really save you? Or did he save a tool he could use to gain more power and cause more pain? Orochimaru doesn't care about people. Everyone else are nothing but tools to him, things he uses to achieve his ends and throws away when they don't prove to be everything he expected. He'll do it to Sasuke. He'll do it to you."

Naruto noticed Tayuya softening. 'She's just a scared girl that thinks she's powerless to get away from Orochimaru, no matter how much she wants it.' Naruto's face frew determined. 'I have to save her.'

"You don't have to stay with Orochimaru. Not if you don't want to. All that mindless babble about being bound to him is stupid. Come back with me to Konoha, you can do what you want, live how you want. You can live free of Orochimaru."

Tayuya's head sagged. "I can never live free of Orochimaru..just...take Sasuke and go back to your village. I'm fated to serve Orochimaru until my death. You can't break the chains that bind me."

Naruto's eyebrow rose. "Really? You think that cursed seal means you have to do everything Orochimaru tells you? Means you can never defy him? If you come back to Konoha with me and Sasuke, I'll introduce you to someone who has that very same seal and spends every day living life, fighting against Orochimaru."

Tayuya's head shot up, eyes narrowed in disbelief. "You're lying, nobody with the cursed seal can be free of Orochimaru."

Naruto shrugged. "You'll never know unless you come. Either way I'm done fighting, I'm tired and I'm not going to fight someone who is so much like myself. But I'm not going back without Sasuke. So you either kill me right here and now, or you trust me and come back to Konoha. As an ally." Naruto spread his hands to show that he really ment he was done fighting.

Tears started leaking from Tayuya's eyes as her overbearing, foulmouthedmask slipped off completely, and revealed the scared girl thatcomprisesthe real Tayuya. "I would like to come...I really would..but Orochimaru will kill me when he finds out I've abandonded him and taken Sasuke back to your village." Tayuya dismissed her summons and put her flute away as she rubbed her eyes dry. "Just take Sasuke and go."

Naruto shook his head and used Kage Bunshin no Jutsu to create one clone. "I can solve that problem." The shadow replication of Naruto used Henge no Jutsu and suddenly standing beside the real Naruto was a copy of Tayuya. Naruto turned and roughed up the clone abit. "Ok, now go lay down on the ground until someone comes by and sees you and reports Tayuya as dead." The clone nodded and jumped down to the forest floor, and sprawled out in an uncomfortable looking position.

Naruto looked back up at the real Tayuya. "Now he'll think you're dead. You can start fresh. In Konoha."

Naruto jumped over to the branch Tayuya stood on and put a hand on her shoulder. Tears streamed down Tayuya's face as she looked up at her make-shift savior in orange. "Thank you.."

Naruto smiled and extended his hand. "We haven't been properly introduced. I'm Naruto."

"Tayuya."

Naruto nodded and smiled. "Alright Tayuya, we still have the return trip to make, think you can carry Shikamaru down there, while I bust Sasuke out of this barrel here?"

Naruto turned towards the barrel and rolled back a sleeve. Tayuya gasped and grabbed his arm, stopping a punch that would have gone down through the top of the barrel. "No Naruto-kun! Sasuke has to come out on his own! If you do that he'll die."

Naruto's face paled as he pulled his hand back. "Glad you told me..guess I'll just carry the whole barrel back then, go get Shikamaru and we can start heading back."

"That won't be necessary." Shikamaru called out as he rose from the ground. Shikamaru looked up at the pair of ninjas and shook his head slightly. 'No malicious intent..you really did bring her back from the depths of hell, Naruto..unbelievable.'

Naruto gaped at Shikamaru for a moment, surprised at his sudden recovery. A thought struck Naruto and me moved protectively in front of Tayuya. "Tayuya-chan is our ally now, Shikamaru. She's not fighting us, she's fighting Orochimaru now, fighting to be free of him. I won't let anyone from Konoha harm her, thinking she's still an enemy.

Shikamaru dusted himself off as he stood "I see. Howtroublesome, but Ican make it back on my own, lets get started."

Naruto turned toward's Tayuya with a broad smile. "Ready to go, Tayuya-chan?" Tayuya returned the smile tentatively and nodded. "Yes," she replied, as she removed her Hidden Village of Sound forehead protector and completely destroyed it with a flow of chakra from her her hand. "Let's go."

Author's Notes

Ok, so a new story! Woo! I know its kinda rough on the edges, and I apologize for that. I don't feel I did a very good job of really going into detail regarding Naruto "saving" Tayuya.

I hope the Naruto/Tayuya pairing comes as something fresh and new to everyone, I developed a fascination with Tayuyawhile reading the manga, and it increasedasI just recently caught up on the anime, I was about a year behind. Unfortunately there really isn't alot of information on Tayuya, so I kinda had to wing it and totally come up with just about everything about her, I started getting into it in this chapter, I'll go further into her past and detail more about her in upcoming chapters.

As always, thanks for reading my fic andI hope you enjoyed this chapter, look for more coming soon.