Title: Alone Together
Word Count: 2422
Rating: K, for nothing.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters herein contained. I only own the text.
What to say about this fic....Other than the fact that it is insanely long--for me, anyway--I was really ambitious with what I wanted to accomplish. I mainly wanted this fic to be really long in a disjointed way: the passing of many weeks and months in short snapshots. I think I succeeded, but I'm not so sure. This fic is also meant to be slightly ItaNaru, because...I don't really know. I don't even like the pairing, really. But I think that if given the chance, they could...care about each other. Fall in love is a little too romantic to be possible, I think, but I think they could be soul mates. You can ignore that, if you want. Inspiration came from....I don't actually remember. In part from a really depressing fic I read that I don't remember the name of. And of course the holiday. Christmas is always so depressing to me. I don't know why. But it is why you're not getting the traditional Christmas fic. And so, I think, I can conclude. Enjoy.
Also, a shoutout to J T Elroy, here on , because he is a good friend and faithful reader of mine. Thanks, dude.
Naruto wakes up chained to the ceiling. He is unsurprised, considering his last memory is of blood and gore and hate, with Akatsuki members surrounding him. His wounds aren't all healed, and he can feel a small trickle of blood trail down his cheek from a scratch opened by his moving. His chakra level is dangerously low, and he quickly welcomes unconsciousness again.
His wrists are bruised and blistered from the shackles, and his shoulders hurt from being suspended from the ceiling by his wrists. He wonders about what will be done to him, but can't bring himself to care. His wounds still aren't healed, and he drops back into sleep easily.
When Naruto wakes up for a thir d time, Itachi is there. The older Uchiha says nothing, just watches as Naruto struggles to gain full awareness. It eludes him, and he can barely voice the question 'what are you going to do to me?' before he sinks into unconsciousness too soon to hear the answer.
Naruto wakes up and miraculously feels like he can function at about forty or fifty percent, which is about as much as he feels he can expect. He tries to relieve the strain on his shoulders, but cannot seem to lift his body enough, and gives up. Itachi is once again watching him. He asks again what they are going to do to him, but Itachi doesn't answer. Naruto doesn't ask again; he stares back at Itachi, childishly challenging him to a staring contest. Naruto blinks first, and Itachi finally looks away disinterestedly. Naruto says nothing and stares at the floor and eventually Itachi leaves. He comes back with a single rice ball, but doesn't give it to Naruto. He places it on the floor and leaves again. He doesn't return.
Naruto, a day later, is practically drooling for the rice that he cannot reach. He tries stretching his entire body, but he is suspended too high off the ground and the onigiri is too far away anyway. He feels his mind slipping, hunger and thirst and sheer exhaustion overtaking him.
Itachi returns shortly after Naruto wakes up. He is at about sixty percent now, he estimates. Time is more difficult to judge, but he thinks he's been here about two weeks. He asks the Uchiha, but receives no answer. They both stare off in silence: Itachi at Naruto and Naruto at the floor. Naruto isn't sure whether he falls asleep first or Itachi leaves first, but either way he ends up alone.
Naruto dreams of home. Sakura and Kakashi welcome him warmly, and the three go to ramen. Sakura, for once doesn't say a single mean or disparaging thing, and Kakashi's book is nowhere to be seen. At the end of the meal, Sakura admits she always thought of Naruto as a brother, and Kakashi says he sees the blond as his son. Naruto wakes up crying.
Four days after Itachi brought the initial rice ball into the room, he finally gives it to Naruto. Naruto, while it is being fed to him, almost sobs with relief. The soft touch of Itachi's fingers barely grazing his lips haunt his dreams for weeks, showing a gentleness that throws Naruto off-guard.
Naruto becomes used to waking up to Itachi staring at him, and weeks pass. He stops trying to talk to him, and wonders whether Itachi's voice has simply withered away from disuse.
Naruto, when he realizes he has been chained up for months—at least two, as far as he can guess—also begins to wonder if they will simply keep him chained up forever. The idea is not as revolting as it should be. He is wondering where his spirit and will to live went, but cannot see. Not even thoughts of home rouse him. Itachi seems to sense this brokenness, and he stops being so watchful. Naruto's days pass in a haze, each the same as the last. Eventually, he rallies himself enough to stay in the present, and not in dreams or dazes. He clears his throat—the occasional water he receives is not enough to do much other than keep him alive—and asks the first thing he can think of.
"Why did you kill them?" Itachi looks at him, the slight widening of his eyes showing that Naruto has succeeded in startling him, whether that was his intention or not. Itachi seems to consider, but replies.
"It was my duty."
"But why?!" Naruto yells, suddenly desperate to understand, to know why his best friend will never be more than an avenger.
"The Uchiha clan was traitorous," Itachi states before getting up and leaving.
Naruto sleeps for days after talking to Itachi. He is tormented by nightmares of blood and slayings, of murder and revenge. When he wakes up, he is still exhausted and Itachi is not there. He sinks unwillingly back into sleep, and thinks he can taste the blood of the Uchiha clan in his mouth.
When Naruto finally wakes from his nightmares, he thinks he is at about seventy percent of capacity. Itachi is there again, and food is forthcoming. Once again Itachi's fingers just brush Naruto's lips, and the touch prompts something in Naruto. He is tired of being alone, and longs to connect with another human being. He doesn't ask the obvious questions, know they won't be answered, but instead asks Itachi if he loves his brother. Itachi stares at him and nods. Naruto digests this.
"Is that why you couldn't kill him?" Itachi nods again.
"Will you really let Sasuke kill you without telling him?" Itachi doesn't answer, gazing at the wall behind Naruto. Naruto takes the clear hint and doesn't ask any more questions.
Naruto thinks carefully over what he has learned of the Uchiha massacre. What Itachi has told him isn't much, but the way he said it tells volumes more. Naruto knows how much of a burden it was for Itachi to vilify himself for Sasuke's sake, how much he longed to continue being the beloved older brother. He can feel the hatred Itachi feels even now against the dead Uchihas, and the anger at himself for hurting Sasuke so badly. Naruto wonders what Sasuke would do if Itachi told him the truth. Would he believe him and forgive his brother, or would he kill Itachi anyway for the murders, condoned as they were? Or would he refuse to believe what he was told and kill Itachi out of revenge? The thoughts twist around him, snarl themselves in his thoughts and wind about his dreams.
The next time Naruto wakes up and Itachi is there, he begins talking. He doesn't know whether it's to fill the silence or to reach out to Itachi, he just keeps talking. He tells Itachi about his family, about growing up alone and hated. He talks about Iruka, and how kind he was to take Naruto in, and how much he misses the days when Iruka could protect him from his demons and himself. He tells about his classmates from the Academy: those he liked—Kiba, Sakura—and those he didn't—Sasuke—and those he didn't really know. He remembers the way he struggled with jutsu the others seemed to grasp right away, and the way he would have given anything to be like them. He tells Itachi what he has told no one else, about the night he mastered the secret jutsu and managed to graduate despite the odds. He cannot tell if Itachi is listening, but he feels better after talking. Itachi leaves without saying anything, but does give Naruto what could almost be described as a sympathetic glance over his shoulder as he walks out the door.
Naruto doesn't sleep at all for what feels like days. He cannot be absolutely sure, because they have boarded up the window in his cell. He is exhausted, but determined to wait for Itachi. He eventually falls unconscious unwillingly, and Itachi still has not shown up.
For what Naruto thinks are weeks, Itachi does not return to his cell. He wakes up to occasional food water on a shelf next to him, but doesn't ever see anyone put them there. He feels like crying again: he finally connected with someone, reached out to them, only to have them slap his hand away, tear out the little piece of him he'd invested. He doesn't cry though, because the tear tracks would be only too visible on his dirty face and he won't give them the satisfaction.
Itachi is there when he wakes up the next morning. He wants to yell, to scream at him, but his throat is too dry. He clears it in an effort to get Itachi's attention, and Itachi brings over a cup of water and lets him drink. This is a marked improvement over having to lap it out of a bowl on the shelf, and he gives the Uchiha a grateful look. Itachi simply goes back to the doorway and stares at him. Naruto is silent, wondering if it will make the Uchiha angry to ask where he has been. Deciding to risk it, Naruto clears his throat again.
"Where were you?" he questions quietly. Itachi gives him the familiar considering look and then murmurs "on a mission". Naruto inwardly grins that he received an answer, that Itachi wasn't purposefully avoiding him, that they are getting to be something near friends. He doesn't let that deceive him, though. Kindred spirits though they might be, Itachi is still loyal to the Akatsuki, and will likely hand Naruto over when they ask without a second thought. Naruto wouldn't ask him not to anyway: they are the same, he thinks, and he wouldn't even ask that of himself.
Naruto wonders if Itachi feels the connection between them. It is tenuous and likely to shatter at the slightest perturbation, but Naruto can't deny its existence. He wonders if this has to do with his imprisonment, the fact that he doesn't have a future and Itachi is the only human he sees. He wonders if there is any point at all in thinking about it, and instead thinks about Konoha. He hopes everyone is alright.
Naruto tells Itachi about his friends and his team next. He elaborates on his bond with Sakura, their friendship and how he used to want to go out with her but now thinks of her only as a sister. He tells of Kakashi, how he thought of the jounin as his father. He talks about the others of the "Rookie Nine", and what he thought about each of them. His tone is full of longing and affection, but Itachi doesn't say anything. Only the slightest softening of his eyes show him to be listening. Naruto doesn't say anything about Sasuke.
The only time he sees another member of the Akatsuki, it is because something is happening that apparently requires Itachi. Kisame comes to guard Naruto instead. Naruto is wary of the man, and doesn't talk or make any sound, but Kisame simply ignores him. Naruto wonders if this has to do with what Itachi told Kisame while leaving that Naruto couldn't hear, and why Kisame glared after him, but doesn't ask. He stares at the wall, waiting for Itachi to return so he can fall asleep again. He doesn't trust Kisame not to attack him, no matter what Itachi might have ordered. Itachi returns as Naruto is close to passing out from exhaustion and Kisame storms away. Naruto smiles slightly before the dark overtakes him.
Naruto, when he wakes up, feels almost as strong as normal. He wonders if Itachi knows this, if the Akatsuki know this. The only reason he can think of that he has not been taken for the Kyuubi to be extracted. He thinks about how much longer he can have left, but can't summon regret or hope for salvation at the small number of days. Itachi is staring at him, and he thinks carefully over what he has done and what he wanted to do. He comes up with one thing he still has left to do, and so starts to do so.
"Itachi?" Itachi's eyes flick up to meet his from a routine survey of the room.
"Thank you." Itachi says nothing, but drops his eyes in a gesture Naruto takes to mean 'you're welcome'. He thinks of what he can do to show his gratitude for Itachi—the missing nin has become his companion, and he is grateful for that in the last months before his death—and begins to talk again. This time, he tells Itachi what he knows of Sasuke. Itachi quickly stops looking at Naruto, gazing instead at the wall beside him. Naruto continues anyway, knowing that Itachi wants to hear about the little brother he still cares for. Naruto tells Itachi everything he knows: Sasuke's interests, his friends and enemies, and what he had wanted to accomplish. When Naruto is done, Itachi looks at him softly, murmuring a thank you and leaving the room.
Naruto wakes up feeling completely refreshed. He knows this means he is going to die soon. Itachi is there watching him, and Naruto starts talking again, trying to reach Itachi. He talks about his training with Jiraiya and all the people he knows now. Itachi seems almost longing when Naruto talks about his friends, and Naruto wonders if Itachi ever missed the opportunity to make friends and people who would care about him. When Naruto is done talking, Itachi doesn't leave, but instead stares past the blond.
"We are alike, you and I," he says, "bound by duty and…" he trails off and continues staring. Naruto sighs.
"Yeah. Yeah we are."
Itachi is not alone when Naruto wakes up, and he knows that he is going to die today. He looks unblinkingly at the members of the Akatsuki who are gathered around the doorway, and faces his fate. They unchain him, and he rubs his wrists, feeling the scars cut into them. The other members walk out of the room, and only Itachi is left. Naruto starts after them, Itachi following. He looks into Itachi's eyes for a brief moment.
"I'm glad to have known you and become friends," he whispers, then continues walking. He barely hears the murmured "so am I" before they reach the statue that will bring about Naruto's death. Naruto faces Itachi and smiles. If this is the end, he thinks, at least I helped touched one more person. And then, he doesn't remember anything more.