AN: This fic is actually based on a dream I had whilst on holiday before I lost my job. It was such a cool idea that I couldn't stop myself from writing despite the other projects I had to keep working on.
It's difficult to say when exactly this is set though to be honest, the setting is not particularly important for this fic. For clarification purposes, it's technically set after Pain but Tobi's next gen ninja war has not been announced. The village has been successfully rebuilt at this point so you can safely assume that Tobi did not announce his intention to war at the same time as he did in the manga. This is probably the only canonical deviation to note for this story.
I think that might be it for the technical notes. Any questions, just PM me.
Warnings: Sasunaru, canonverse, occasional narrative circumlocution…I dunno.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
The Source of My Apathy
Naruto was knee deep in swamp water, the blue of his eyes reflecting the murky surface as they darted over the low hanging, damp trees surrounding him. Ripples spread out from his legs as he shifted, minute rings that disturbed the surface of the thick fluid and though he knew in a situation like this it was probably wiser to get out of the water and take to the saturated branches of the weeping willows, he remained rooted where he was.
Their plan only worked so long as he was playing the bait after all.
He took a small breath in, concentrating on regulating his breathing and feeling the push and pull of senjutsu chakra around him. The colour of his eyelids flickered briefly as he closed them and the ripples in the water stopped leaking out from around his legs.
From his position hidden in the trees, Sasuke watched, his sharingan enhanced eyes narrowing as he observed energy seeping into his old friend's chakra coils from somewhere outside, like Naruto was drawing on the power of existence itself. He shifted on the branch he was currently occupying, his hand buried in the wet leaves of the trunk beside him, feeling for the slightest tremor to alert him to the fact that his prey had moved.
He kept his eyes on the idiot before him, trying to work out this bizarre power, a power he had seen for the first time during their final battle. He'd been perplexed when Naruto had begun the fight with his eyes reflecting neither the virulent blue Sasuke had become accustomed to during his time with Team 7 nor the slit of incarnadine red that indicated Naruto was drawing on the fox's power. Instead, his eyes were a fierce electric yellow, outlined by a shadow of dark red that framed his eyes quite strangely. His pupils had been turned on their sides, almost like that of the frogs that Sasuke had sometimes caught in the dank caves of Orochimaru's hide outs.
He inhaled carefully, perturbed when he realised that the ripples around Naruto's legs had disappeared. Since when had a loudmouth like Uzumaki Naruto learnt to be as still as that? Even Sasuke couldn't remain so still and he was naturally inclined to such a thing much more than Naruto could ever hope to be.
His thoughts were interrupted when he detected movement in the trees beside him, a slight rustle of the wet leaves that made miniscule droplets of off-colour moisture fall into the water below, making new ripples. The movement was too small to be the product of an animal and too swift to be a by-product of the light breeze.
Sasuke smirked.
He turned his sharingan enhanced eyes on the set of trees beside him and zeroed in, spotting the tainted chakra of the first of their opponents with their eyes fixed on Naruto in the water. Drawing a set of shuriken from his pouch with the greatest care, Sasuke took aim, letting the shuriken catch the last of the light as dark clouds closed in above them, promising rain. The glint of light on metal had the desired effect and the ninja in the trees started, his chakra pulsing grandly to indicate surprise and Sasuke used his opponent's moment of weakness to spring off of his branch with chakra enhanced feet, landing gracefully on the thinnest part of the weeping willow and using the momentum to angle himself forward, throwing out the shuriken to force his enemy to dodge and reaching back to grasp the hilt of his katana.
As planned, the enemy contorted himself out of the way of the shuriken which embedded in the base of the tree trunk with loud, rhythmic thunks, pushing himself up and into the air to avoid the attacks, exposing himself fully so that Sasuke could analyse his critical hit points. The man that revealed himself was slightly taller than Sasuke had been expecting with large arms but a slim waist and legs. Sasuke's eyes flashed with the promise of the Mangekyou as he took in the thinly inked eye tattoo inscribed onto the middle of the man's forehead.
Sasuke lunged forward, thrusting the length of his blade at a point on the man's side, a hit that would avoid critical points because he'd been ordered to bring back a member of the Mokurokumen gang alive. He expected the man to either try and dodge or protect his torso somehow but weirdly, the man immediately raised his large arms to cover the eye on his forehead.
Sasuke's blade struck and he felt the smooth slide of flesh and sinew as it parted before the solidity of his perfectly kept katana. He braced himself for the sound of the man before him as he started screaming but oddly, there was only a faint grunt and Sasuke wondered briefly if he'd accidentally nicked a vital point. The general rule of thumb when it came to deep injuries was the louder the screams, the better the chance of survival, at least that's how it had always been in Sasuke's experience.
He'd critically wounded a lot of shinobi in his time.
The two of them landed in the swamp water below the trees with an almighty splash and Sasuke kept his hands on his sword, remaining as still as he could whilst the man before him breathed. The man's face was contorted in pain and he was losing light in his eyes fast. Sasuke waited until the moment when his opponent wouldn't try to fight and removed a single hand from his sword, reaching back into his pouch to pull out a roll of bandage, something he could use to stop the man bleeding out whilst they toted him back to the Hidden Leaf. Taking a deep breath in, he slowly removed the sword from the man's side, watching blankly as blood started to cascade from the now open wound.
He took a step forward, bandages in hand and stilled when he heard the clash of kunai behind him, alerting him to the fact that Naruto had engaged his own opponent back in the clearing. He angled his head back, listening to the sounds of the fight, analysing the distinct feelings of apathy that presented themselves when he thought that Naruto, his comrade, might be in trouble.
He'd been having trouble with bouts of crippling apathy ever since he'd been dragged back to the Hidden Leaf. Having lived so long with the intensity of anger and hatred forming black pools in his system, this apathy was almost unbearable.
Sensing that his potential captor was distracted by the sounds of the clash behind them, the man before him jumped back, landing on the surface of the swamp water and lowering his hands from the eye on his forehead with a twisted grin. Catching the movement, Sasuke's head snapped forward and he glared at his foolhardy prisoner.
This altercation was over already. The man had to know that he would bleed out without medical attention and even though they were currently in a remote part of Amegakure, the closest medical facility with the means to treat a wound as deep as that was Konoha. This guy had no choice but to surrender, submit to Sasuke's will.
He took a step forward, his glare turning disdainful when the man's skin started to become ashen grey.
Then he stopped.
His eyes widened slightly.
The man before him grinned.
Sasuke had only seen the effects of hyper-speed healing a few times in his life, the first being the memorable fight at the Valley of the End when he first abandoned the Hidden Leaf and the wound on Naruto's chest had closed itself up before him, engulfed in the chakra of the Kyuubi. What he was seeing now was similar to that, the wound on the man's side smoking as it healed, the sinew and torn muscle knitting together effortlessly before him. He balked as he saw the distinct green chakra flowing through the man's chakra coils from the eye on his forehead down to the wound, wincing when he realised that eye was smoking as well.
Just what was that all about?
Seeing the look on the face of the ninja before him, the man grinned, stretching out the newly fixed muscles on his side and swinging his arms like he was warming up for a spar. Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the cocky display and he straightened from his predatory stance, indicating that he would like to talk.
The man before him shifted his hands behind his head, exposing his vital points in a way that made Sasuke grind his teeth together.
"What kind of jutsu is that?" Sasuke bit out harshly, not really expecting an answer.
Strangely, the arrogant expression on the face of the man before him eased into something sombre, something almost akin to torment.
"It's her jutsu," the man said, his voice low and guttural.
Sasuke growled against the cryptic answer and drew out a fresh batch of wire trapped shuriken, determined now to take this guy down at all costs. The man before him mimicked his moves, his green eyes dulled whilst the tattooed eye on his head continued to smoke and at precisely the same moment, the two ninja threw out their weapons. Sasuke knew the moment that he threw his stars that at least one of his opponent's weapons was going to hit and he braced himself, concentrating on directing his lightning element through the wires on his own stars to incapacitate his enemy.
There was a sickening thud as the shuriken connected with the muscle on his arm and he grunted. At the same time on the other side of the battle field, one of Sasuke's shuriken connected with the man's shoulder and lightning was fed directly into his body.
There was a millisecond of dark recognition on the face of his opponent and then his limbs started jerking violently in the swamp water, out of control due to the jagged energy pulsing through him. Sasuke kept his sharingan enhanced eyes on the man before him, continuing to pump a steady stream of lightning through the wire on his shuriken as the eye on his forehead struggled to keep up with rapidly healing him. Eventually, just as Sasuke was sure that he had exhausted most of his chakra, the power of the eye on the man's forehead seemed to give out and he fell limp in the swamp water.
Deactivating his sharingan, Sasuke allowed himself to fall back in the water, gripping the shuriken embedded in his arm and tugging it out, watching the blood bubble up and run swiftly down his arm to drip onto the viscous surface of the swamp. He wasted no time staunching the blood flow and wrapping a tight bandage around that arm before creating a shadow clone to watch his downed opponent and taking off in the direction of Naruto's battle.
It took him less than a few seconds to reach his destination over the tree tops, dropping down onto the branch of the original weeping willow he had been situated on as Naruto threw out the shuriken shaped rasengan he had thrown at Sasuke during their last battle. Sasuke watched, vaguely interested as the jutsu connected and as Naruto's opponent screamed out in agony, subjected to the feeling of having thousands upon thousands of senbon needles being shoved into every orifice and chakra coil. Sasuke observed the pause following this mammoth attack and tilted his head to follow the fall of Naruto's opponent as he crumpled back into the swamp water, his body hitting the slimy surface and floating there somewhat grotesquely.
Sasuke automatically fell into physically examining his partner for any injuries, noticing an ominous swirling of dark red beneath the swamp water from what appeared to be a cut on Naruto's calf. His nose twitched slightly at the thought of these sorts of injuries being exposed to the bacteria infested waters of a stagnant swamp but it was an empty reaction - Sasuke's immunity to most poisons rendered things like bacterial exposure somewhat irrelevant and should anything enter Naruto's bloodstream, Kyuubi was sure to take care of it sooner or later.
Casting once last glance around for any straggling enemies, he launched off of his tree, dropping down onto the surface of the water before Naruto, glaring disapprovingly at the fact that Naruto was still slightly submerged beneath foul water.
Naruto blinked at him, his eyes flashing briefly when he noticed the bandage around Sasuke's arm.
"Man, these guys were tougher than I thought they'd be," Naruto admitted, grinning and scratching the back of his head in a gesture Sasuke knew well.
"Hn," Sasuke said by the way of a reply. "I've got one of them incapacitated about 10 yards that way."
Naruto's eyes widened as he waited for his friend to jab a thumb in the right direction or something but Sasuke just continued to fix him with a relentless gaze, like he expected Naruto to be a mind reader.
"Oi teme, which way?" he asked, pouting slightly.
Sasuke cocked his head to one side and Naruto shivered under his old friend's scrutiny. Somehow he couldn't shake the familiar feeling that he'd just gotten an answer wrong on a test or something. Sasuke continued to stare at him for an unnervingly long time and Naruto tried not to flinch under such a penetrating gaze. Ever since he'd managed to bring Sasuke back to the Hidden Leaf, ever since he'd finally been re-instated as a shinobi due to some long interrogations and some riot causing on Naruto's part, things had been…well…a little weird would probably be a massive understatement. Naruto had been hoping that following his re-installation, Sasuke would go back to being the friend Naruto had always known, the boy that had risked his life to save Naruto on the Great Naruto bridge in the Wave country but that was definitely not the case. Sasuke continued to treat Naruto as he had before he'd been brought home, with an air of such apathetic indifference that Naruto almost preferred the heated glares he used to get from the villagers.
When Sasuke eventually turned on his heel to lead the way back to his captive, Naruto let out a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding and patted the space on his chest where his heart was starting to beat out a heavier rhythm. Of all the enemies he'd faced in his time since first becoming a Konoha ninja, Sasuke was the only one that ever evoked this kind of response, the placating response, like he didn't want to say anything that would piss his old friend off.
Heaving himself up onto the surface of the swamp, he took a moment to check to the cut on his leg, flinching at the gunk that had collected around the wound and stuck. He reached back into his pack and brought out a bottle of standard anti-sceptic, setting about cleaning the wound as quickly as possible and dressing it with a bandage. It certainly didn't equate to Sakura's fine work but it would do until they got back to the village. He took off in the direction that Sasuke had disappeared in, pausing when he came to a narrow clearing where Sasuke was hauling the swamp saturated shinobi onto his back, his large arms dangling before his old friend, showcasing how thin he was.
Naruto let his eyebrows furrow.
"Hey teme, when was the last time you ate? You're starting to look like Nagato did right at the end."
Sasuke glanced up at him, mildly perturbed on hearing a name he didn't particularly recognise but when he realised no explanation was forthcoming, he dropped his gaze back down, focussing on the task at hand and preparing to take off back to the village. The sooner they got back, the sooner he could rid himself of the one person that brought out this diabolical apathy so fully.
Just as he was about to leap, he felt something hard push against the side of his mouth and on a reflex turned to bite into it like he would an enemy appendage, finding himself granting entry to a granola bar that Naruto had pulled out of his pack.
"You gotta take better care of yourself or you'll collapse on the way back then Sakura'll have my head, y'know?"
Sasuke stared at the smiling shinobi before him, his mouth full of granola and Naruto simply smiled back amiably, the kind of smile that had no malice, the kind of smile that could have lifted anyone's spirits, even in this grey coloured rain…
Sasuke felt a paper thin spike of the fury he had only ever experienced in relation to Naruto's antics before it was buried beneath a layer of pressuring apathy once more. He grunted to show he'd acknowledged Naruto's comment but was otherwise uncommunicative, chewing on the granola as he took off, leaving Naruto and his disarming smile to catch up.
Naruto watched Sasuke's retreating back, the figure of his prisoner draped over his shoulders and his smile slipped ever so slightly.
In the days before Sasuke's betrayal, following something like the stunt Naruto had just pulled, Sasuke would have yanked the granola bar out of his mouth and tossed it ungratefully at Naruto's head, complaining raucously about Naruto's lack of respect for personal space or the audacity he'd shown in thinking he could take better care of Sasuke than Sasuke could himself.
Once again, he tapped the space on his chest where his heart was, trying to ease the ache blooming under his fingers at being dismissed so thoughtlessly and took off after his partner, half dreading getting back to the village because he was sure that he wouldn't see Sasuke again until they had another mission together and honestly, though it hurt to be around this Sasuke that refused to acknowledge him no matter what he did, he missed his friend when they were apart. His days were spent worrying that Sasuke would abandon the village again because he wasn't happy and though he'd tried to seek out the stoic ninja in the past couple of months to confront him, Sasuke made a point of being annoyingly illusive. If only Sasuke would talk to him, talk about their final battle, something that had been swept under the proverbial carpet since Sasuke had been released from prison. If only Sasuke wouldn't shut him out so completely.
He sighed as they crossed the border on the edge of the forest and met the main road to the village. He had a better chance of seeing pigs fly.
"Pestilence…pestilence…pestilence…filthy…tainting…pestilence…demons in every corner…get them away from me…AWAY FROM ME…get them away…pestilence…"
Inoichi Yamanaka drew back from the man before him, glancing over at Ibiki with a concerned look on his face that Ibiki immediately recognised. It was the look Inoichi only ever wore after his prisoners had lost their mind.
He sighed, squeezing the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger and glaring angrily at the spindly eye tattoo staring out of the man's forehead. When the Hokage had first presented him with their captured prey, he'd thought at the time that the man of the Mokurokumen gang had seemed particularly mentally fragile. Though the nature of his healing abilities meant that he was able to withstand physical torture easier than most shinobi Ibiki had come across, the constant questioning, the pressure of some of the mind games Ibiki had put into play and the various disturbances of things like body language, designed to appeal to psychological fear triggers had taken their toll on the man after only a few days.
Ibiki had to wonder if he was perhaps already at the end of his psychological tether when he'd been captured and made a mental note to ask the Uchiha about his behaviours prior to being captured.
"Seeing that look on your face, I already realise there's probably not a lot you can do but…"
Inoichi met Ibiki's eyes and nodded his agreement to the silent request, centring himself and preparing to enter the mind of a madman. The prisoner before him continued to rock backwards and forwards, spouting nonsense and hugging his legs with large arms. Inoichi felt a momentary pang of pity for the man but erased it in favour of keeping his own sanity, reaching forward to touch the tattooed eye on the man's forehead.
The man's eyes grew wide.
His voice rose a few octaves as he whimpered.
Inoichi's hand was inches away from that eye.
"DON'T TOUCH IT! DON'T TOUCH IT! DON'T TOUCH IT!"
With the reflexes of a truly veteran shinobi, Ibiki vaulted forward on one foot, a curse colouring his lips as he reached out for Inoichi's protective vest at the same time the man in front of him swung out one of his large arms. There was a horrifying moment where Ibiki was sure the fist was going to connect with the side of Inoichi's head before he could get there but at the last possible instant, his finger fell into the thick fabric of the vest and with almost super human strength, he yanked the man back until Inoichi was sprawled out on the floor of the interrogation room. The fist that had been ploughing towards him hit nothing but air where Inoichi had been sitting and continued its trajectory into the concrete wall, decimating half the room's foundations in one fell swoop.
"Get the sedative!" Ibiki barked through clenched teeth, angling himself towards his prisoner and bracing himself for a fight that was sure to get a little out of hand.
The man before him was standing now, tugging in the fist that had been swallowed by the destroyed concrete of the wall, his other hand lifted protectively to his forehead where his eye had begun to smoke showing that it was healing the damage done to his knuckles.
"Can't touch it…can't…demons don't touch…witch's eye…pestilence…filth…"
The man turned back with wide frightened eyes as a few of Ibiki's colleagues approached with a tranquiliser. The pupils of his eyes shook as he regarded them, hyper aware through fear induced adrenaline and Ibiki watched him analytically.
On the ground behind him, Inoichi sat up, breathing heavily.
The first shinobi with the sedative in hand leapt forward, followed by three more and Ibiki held his breath as the man lashed out with a frightened cry, his slim legs sweeping swiftly through the air. Luckily with his hand still stuck in the foundations of the concrete wall and the other still clamped protectively to his forehead, it was over in seconds and the big man dropped to the floor in a limp heap of limbs, completely unconscious.
Staring almost uncomprehendingly at the sleeping mental patient before him, Inoichi turned to Ibiki with sincere eyes, about to profess his gratitude for the semi-miraculous save when he caught sight of Ibiki's steely facial expression and the words died on his lips. It was an expression that he had seen a dozen or so times on the face of the interrogator and one that occasionally still made him question his morality as a shinobi.
"Keep him on the strongest sedative with have. We'll have to try out that jutsu," Ibiki barked.
The light was blinding, scorching, all encompassing. Naruto felt the lick of it over his skin, making him break out into an uncomfortable sweat. His body was broken, exhausted, aching in ways that he had never known it could ache and still he pushed himself, angling his head to follow Sakura's agonised gaze as his eyes adjusted to new light levels until he was looking up into the illuminated face of…
His blue eyes widened, his jaw clenched, set into a hard line.
His breath stopped in his lungs and his heart started to jackhammer against his chest, threatening to break out of his ribcage.
"Sasuke…" he breathed, the name sounding like a curse and a prayer on his tongue.
Sasuke, his best friend, the first person that had acknowledged him on such a meaningful level.
Sasuke, the boy who had chosen the path of darkness, who was looking down at him with dark, black eyes that no longer reflected the spark of heat Naruto had come to recognise in his youth.
He was taller than Naruto remembered and his face was like a Noh mask, completely expressionless, cold. It was lacking the familiar disapproval, the irritation, even the sliver of sorrow Naruto had always seen pushed back into the murky depths of his soul. It was like he had been stripped of himself - calm to the point where it was unnerving.
In contrast, Naruto knew that his emotions were playing over his face like a fast-motion movie, his anger, sorrow, guilt and the desperate desire to save his friend twisting his features until he was sure that he himself was probably unrecognisable.
Above them, Sasuke let his eyes sweep from Sai to Sakura who's eyes were shimmering with threatening tears, and then to Naruto where they stuck fast. Naruto met the darkness in those eyes head on, refusing to break the eye contact even though he was being mercilessly scrutinised and measured.
"Sasuke," Naruto repeated, his voice lower this time. "I need to know…why didn't you kill me at the Valley of the End?"
He winced when he saw Sakura's eyes snap back to fix on him in his peripheral vision. He'd never given the details of his and Sasuke's exchange at the Valley of the End, no-one had been informed that Sasuke had tried to kill him. He hadn't particularly wanted Sakura to find out about it. If Sasuke was to come home he wanted things to be like they were before, exactly as they were before…
Team 7 was the closest thing to a family Naruto had ever had and not a day went by where he didn't wish for things to go back to being the way they were.
A brief flicker in Sasuke's expression told Naruto a number of things and he stiffened when the Uchiha leapt gracefully from his perch above them to land so close to Naruto that the little hairs at the back of his neck started to stand on end.
Sasuke's arm was draped over his shoulder in what could have been mistaken for a lazy display of affection but Naruto was a ninja first and foremost. The cold killing intent radiating from his old friend was intense, absolute and completely controlled - there was no conflict of interest as there had been when they'd been 12 years old, fighting haphazardly with jutsus barely mastered, only the pure untainted intention to end life.
"That time, you survived because of my passing whim and this time…"
Sasuke's free hand fell to the hilt of the katana strapped to his back, the pale hand gripping it surely, strongly.
"…you will die because of my whim."
Naruto held his breath.
The katana split the air in two, a silver line that seemed to penetrate the world itself, ripping a pathway to a new, dark dimension.
Sasuke's dark eyes reflected crushing nothingness.
Regret.
Then pain.
Naruto woke with a jolt in the half light of morning, his eyes wide and unseeing, his tan hand twisted in his bed shirt over his heart which was beating wildly. It took him a couple of seconds to realise that he was safe in his own apartment, in his own bed and to regulate his ragged breathing, to force himself not to hyperventilate. Rapidly cooling sweat trickled down from his forehead to pool in the chaotic tresses of his blonde hair and his limbs felt unbearably hot though as usual, he'd managed to kick his way out of the blankets in the middle of the night.
He took a deep breath in, held it for a few seconds and exhaled grandly, feeling sweet relief flood through him.
It was just a dream, a bad memory.
Taking another deep breath, he turned, listening to the rustle of his hair over the pillow and wincing as he took in the deep orange of sunrise, the illumination cutting into his retinas and provoking a sharp pain to spike in the middle of his skull. Clenching his teeth, he waited for the pain to subside before sitting up, his brows furrowed in mild confusion. It had been at least a week since he and Sasuke had been on their last mission to the swampy outlands in search of information on the Mokurokumen gang and he didn't think he'd sustained a head injury; besides, it would probably have healed by now thanks to the Kyuubi. Perhaps he'd managed to hurt himself in training for the upcoming chuunin exams?
His heart pulsed uncomfortably in his chest as he glanced with dread at the calendar pinned to his bedside wall, today's date circled in dark red with a few exclamation marks for added emphasis on how important this was. He'd been hoping that with the recent trust Tsunade had placed in himself and Sasuke to perform A Rank missions such as the last one they had been sent on, he would be able to forgo the chuunin exams and simply skip rank but Tsunade had insisted that both himself and Sasuke should take the exams, do it properly. At first, Naruto had complained in his usual boorish manner but when baa-chan had explained that he would have no respect as a chuunin if he didn't go through the appropriate channels, he'd backed down immediately. For him, it was still all about respect.
Sasuke had been less easy to convince. Standing in Tsunade's office, Naruto remembered with a shiver that Sasuke's perfectly apathetic mask had cracked for a mere instant to showcase just how little he thought of Tsunade's plan. Of course, being Naruto, he'd immediately questioned Sasuke about this slip up the moment they were out of the official atmosphere of the Hokage's room and Sasuke had merely told him:
'She's making us go through this because she wants to show off Konoha's power, nothing more. I'm not some sort of prize winning dog she can simply parade around whenever she feels like it.'
With that, he'd turned tail and left in true Uchiha fashion and Naruto had briefly doubted that he would show up for Kakashi's special chuunin training the next day though he'd been at Team 7's bridge before Naruto in end.
Swinging his legs off of the edge of his bed and standing slowly, Naruto immediately noticed that something was off. His limbs felt heavier than usual and there was a great pressure on his chest. His skin was still clammy despite his calm after the nightmare had faded and his thoughts were more muddled than usual, like he was trying to think through a thick fog. He swallowed cautiously and felt a dry burn in the back of his throat, an unpleasant sensation not unlike the one he had experienced the last time Sakura had accidentally...
Had someone poisoned him before the matches? It wasn't exactly an unheard of tactic and he was being watched much more carefully by his opponents this year because of his boost in reputation following everything that had happened recently. He sighed, shaking his head and making his way sluggishly into the little bathroom, grabbing the black hitai-ate off of the little bedside table where the original picture of Team 7 sat facing his bed. Whatever they'd done to him, he was sure that Sakura could fix him before he entered the arena.
The thick fabric of the headband put pressure on his temples as he tied it firmly into place over his hair, easing the headache in the centre of his skull and he tried smiling at his reflection in the mirror, only managing a grimace as he took in his haggard appearance.
It was not a pretty sight.
For all the sleep he had been so careful to try and get last night, there were dark bruises under his eyes and the blue of his irises was duller than usual. His face was unusually pasty so the whisker-like marks on his angular cheeks were more prominent than usual and the dried sweat that had run down his face in the night made his skin look like it had a bizarre texture. He groaned, falling forward until the metal of his hitai-ate clinked against the smooth surface of the mirror and he winced when he remembered that it was only a few short weeks until his birthday. If he didn't want to be finding tiny threads of glass in his feet when the angrier villagers came for their usual birthday greetings, he would have to replace the mirror with the cheaper plastic one he kept behind his worn couch in the living room.
He took his time changing into his clothes and rigging up his various ninja gear for the exams, wondering if Sasuke had already finished preparing himself. Knowing his stoic companion, he'd probably been ready hours before and was probably already at the arena with Kakashi, getting in a few warm up exercises before he was unleashed onto whatever unsuspecting candidate was supposed to go up against him today.
Naruto shuddered as he pulled on his jacket, thankful that the two of them hadn't been matched up together. While he would enjoy a good spar with his rival considering how evenly matched they'd been in their last fight, he didn't particularly want either of them to get carried away with such distinguished witnesses.
Interestingly, the agonising 3 minute wait for his morning ramen wasn't quite as unbearable as usual and when he came to actually eat his breakfast, he found that he'd fallen into staring into space for so long that it had gone cold. He pulled a face as he lifted up his chopsticks, taking a bite of cold noodles and wincing at the sliminess that coated the inside of his mouth.
Nothing worse than cold ramen…unless it was summer soba…
Deciding to forgo breakfast in favour of a big lunch later, Naruto tossed the full ramen cup into his overflowing bin and grabbed his keys from the shelf by the door, pulling on his shoes and locking up. The air was a little crisp this morning and Naruto took a deep breath of it, feeling the chill rush through his system, calming him and clearing his head slightly. There was no need to be nervous. He was more than worthy of becoming a chuunin, one step closer to achieving his dream of becoming Hokage.
With no further thought on the matter, Naruto took off in the direction of the stadium where the sound of the gathering crowds could already be heard, despite the early hour.
"Sasuke, you don't look right, let me feel your forehead damnit."
"I said no."
"Oh for the love of the Hokage, you're worse than Naruto!"
"Don't compare me to him."
Naruto dropped down on the dust strewn path before his old team who were currently situated outside the gates to the stadium, flinching as a tremor ran through the usually firm set of his legs. The flinch turned into a grin as Sakura's bright eyes locked on to him and dropped into a more serious expression as his eyes flicked to Sasuke.
However haggard Naruto had looked this morning, oddly, Sasuke seemed to be fairing worse. His usually pristine black hair had lost some of its lustre, drooping at the back and sticking to his already sweaty forehead at the front in chaotic black reams. While he was usually pale, he still had enough of a pigment to be considered 'healthy' but at the moment his skin was so pale, he was almost translucent, almost unnatural, vampiric like Sai except for a large streak of angry red colouring his cheeks and nose. His dark eyes, usually so sharp and coldly clear were glassy and his breathing rhythm was just a beat off, like he'd been exerting himself by standing still.
Naruto wondered briefly if they'd been the target of the same poison user and, weirdly, a flame of something he could only identify as excitement flared up within him. It was an odd feeling and far too nostalgic, painfully reminiscent of better times as Sasuke's rival when they were both younger but in a way, it was welcomed. For some reason, the two of them had been given the same handicap for this chuunin exam and Naruto was desperate to find out who would fare better. Theoretically, with his stamina, he'd win out easily and a win over Sasuke was nothing to snort at.
He plastered his best grin on his face, the one so large it forced his eyes to close and crossed his arms over his chest in an arrogant display of provocation.
"Yeesh teme, you look terrible. Think you can still fight like that? I'd hate to see you get left behind as a genin, forced to watch as I take chuunin before you."
He waited with baited breath for the retaliating comment that would have followed something like that in the old days but Sasuke simply continued to fix him with that uncaring, unnerving stare that he had been wearing since Naruto had succeeded in bringing him back to Konoha. Inwardly, Naruto begged Sasuke to scold him, to promise him that he had no chance of beating Sasuke because he was an usurantonkachi or a dobe, even a punch would be fine right now if only Sasuke would register some irritation, some anger, even hatred was fine…
Naruto just needed to be acknowledged.
He waited until the time for Sasuke to respond had well and truly passed and then he waited some more, somehow unable to bring himself to break the awkwardly over-running silence, to try and interact when Sasuke wouldn't reciprocate today. On the sidelines, Sakura watched them both, a frown making her forehead appear bigger than it had in years.
"You don't look so good yourself Naruto."
Naruto started at the new voice and whipped round as Kakashi landed a couple of feet away, his visible eye slightly upturned with the lift of his cheeks as he smiled disarmingly at both Sasuke and Naruto. He had an omnibus edition of Icha Icha clasped in hand and was wearing his jounin vest as a sign of his rank for the occasion. Naruto scowled at him, his arms, still crossed over his chest, tightening in a subtle display of protectiveness that Kakashi did not miss. In an instant, his dark eye had flicked to the Uchiha, trying to see if his former pupil was paying attention to the loud mouth, to see how he would react to Naruto's sudden prickliness. He sighed when he gauged Sasuke's detached expression.
"I'm fine Kakashi-sensei, it's Sasuke you need to worry about. He looks like he needs to forfeit the match and go home to bed. Probably got himself poisoned through being too careless."
Naruto shook his head mockingly, the gold of his hair glinting in the patches of Konoha sun as dawn shifted into early morning and for reasons that Sasuke couldn't fathom, he found the shimmer somehow captivating, fascinating in a way that he hadn't been moved to experience in months, maybe even years.
For just an instant, a tiny, insignificant instant, the spell of apathy that had plagued him since he'd been dragged back to Konoha dissipated and he felt a stab of something scarily strong somewhere in his chest. Automatically, he let his hand reach up to grip at his shirt, the feel of the familiar fabric something of a comfort as Sakura obscured his view of Naruto, striding forward to hit the blonde boy squarely in the middle of his head.
"Ack!" Naruto exclaimed intelligently, peering up at Sakura through reactive tears and opening his mouth to complain that she'd just managed to bring back the pounding ache in the middle of his skull that had shifted somewhat when he'd tied his hitai-ate about his head.
One misplaced look at Sasuke under Sakura's arm made him hold his tongue though. He wasn't going to complain of an ailment with that stoic bastard around. Not after he'd made a point of teasing Sasuke for looking under the weather.
"Idiot! Stop trying to provoke Sasuke before the exam, he needs to concentrate and so do you! You both look as bad as one another alright? When these exams are over, I want you both to let me check you over. You have absolutely no right to refuse," Sakura proclaimed, turning an impressively icy glare on Sasuke who just stared at her with an expression of general disinterest.
Naruto had to hand it to Sakura. Since Sasuke had returned, he'd fully expected her to fall back into the old patterns of fawning all over him, completely besotted and unable to hide it but instead, she'd met him with a strength of character that had both surprised Naruto and made him respect her more as a person. He knew that she was still in love with Sasuke, it was still obvious in the way her eyes lit up whenever he was around and the subtle inflections of her voice whenever she spoke to him but now, she was able to be herself in all her brash glory rather than an asinine 2 dimensional fan girl. Naruto had relished the fact that Sakura had continued to be friendly towards him and was sterner with Sasuke when he said something that Sakura didn't approve of. She no longer reacted to his death glares like she'd been physically struck and she openly scolded him as much as she scolded Naruto though Naruto was still the only one she'd ever dare hit. That was probably less out of affection for Sasuke and more out of fear of how apeshit he'd go if she tried something like that. Naruto couldn't blame her, Sasuke was the least tactile person he'd ever known and that was saying a lot in the ninja world where the sensation of touch formed a huge part of one's shinobi life from the get go.
"You will both see Sakura after the exams are over and you will both report home for some rest following that, are we clear?" Kakashi asked, his voice taking on the tone of lazy authority he sometimes adopted when he thought Sasuke and Naruto were behaving more like the 12 year old genin he had first been introduced to than the high level shinobi they'd become.
Naruto allowed his face to warp into an expression of utmost disbelief and disgust, throwing an accusatory finger in Kakashi's direction like he might throw a weapon.
"What about the celebratory ramen you promised me?" Naruto asked his sensei, aghast.
Kakashi merely raised an eyebrow, his one visible eye portraying the beginnings of an expression that could only be described as weary confusion.
"Naruto, I never promised you celebratory ramen."
There was a pregnant pause in which Naruto's finger remained prominently raised and Kakashi's expression became almost apologetic. Neither of them seemed to be able to bring themselves to speak so the silence dragged on until it got entirely too uncomfortable. Eventually, and somewhat uncharacteristically, it was Sasuke that broke the seemingly never-ending bout of high tensioned silence having had enough of this inconsequential nonsense, huffing out his indignation and pivoting smartly on his heel to walk up the steps to the stadium entrance, his face once again devoid of emotion. Sakura followed a moment after that, shaking her head exasperatedly at the antics of her teammate and her former sensei so early in the morning. As Sasuke's fingers brushed the rough handle of the stadium door, he could just make out Naruto's voice strangely low and sinister.
"…Then what the hell am I here for Kakashi-sensei?"
First chapter of my first canonverse story completed (is actually quite proud of this). Huzzah!