"Saving Grace"
'By: Racheal Insanity'
"Sasuke, please stop! You're being stupid. Please, just stop." Naruto choked out, dropping the kunai he had gripped in his hand.
"No." Sasuke chuckled. "You're just being foolish. You really think that after all these years I'd even think about going back there?" He pulled his Kusanagi out of its sheath on his back and held it out in front of him, ready to attack.
"Naruto! You're the stupid one." Sakura screamed behind him. "He'll kill you." He didn't even acknowledge her until he sensed her moving forward, to defend him.
"Stay out of this." He ground out, deciding that, somehow, this would end here. He couldn't keep chasing their teammate anymore. It would end in his death one way or another and he wasn't afraid of that anymore.
"But she's right, you know. I will kill you." Sasuke told him, moving his sword like a child's play thing. He set the point into the ground, leaning on it, when he saw the passive look on Naruto's face. He was confused, but he kept his expression as emotionless as ever.
"Then kill me. I won't stop you." Naruto laughed, opening his arms wide. "You'll be the death of me either way, so why not just end it here?" Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he knew he was taking this too lightly and he could faintly hear Kyuubi trying to yell some sense into him. Too bad it just didn't matter anymore.
Sasuke let his confusion show for a moment, before he put his emotionless mask back in place, as he reached into one of his pouches for a kunai. As his hand gripped it, he silently wondered what had gotten into his old teammate. The action of self sacrifice to protect no one wasn't like him. Maybe he's protecting himself … The thought fled his mind as quickly as it had come. He flipped the weapon once in his hand before throwing it straight at Naruto's heart, expecting him to move and attack. A look of surprised pain graced the blondes face as the kunai hit its target.
"Naruto!" Sakura screamed again, running towards the falling figure. He was dead before his body reached her arms. Sasuke's eyes widened as he witnessed the scene before him. He didn't understand what had just happened and realized that his bond with Naruto was not broken in the least, just locked away in hid mind.
You really are a fool boy.Naruto let out a strangled breath as Kyuubi's thought, before his mind finally went black. While his body would have been considered dead, his mind was very much alive as Kyuubi tried his hardest to save the boy he would never admit he cared about.
XXX
"- you listening?" the voice snapped the boy to attention. He opened his eyes and, realizing he was laying on his back, sat up, not understanding what was going on in the least.
"What-? He asked, hoping that he would get an explanation. He felt like he should know where he was, what was happening, like he had gone through all of this before.
"Sasuke just finished introducing himself when you fell back." Kakashi told him. If you knew the Jounin well enough, you would be able to spot the concerned look in his eye.
"Oh. Sorry." Naruto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. What the fuck is going on here?! Kyuubi?
You're the one that thought it would be fun to let the Uchiha kill you! I didn't want to die, so I did the only thing I knew that would save me. The fox sounded apologetic, and the boy knew immediately that he was lying.
Tell me the truth you damn fox. I've known you for eighteen years. I sure as hell can tell when you're lying by now.
Well, if you want to be technical, you've only known me for about twelve. Naruto paused for a moment and then it dawned on him what the fox had done, but he didn't believe it was possible.
He was about to voice his arguments when he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He drew in a shallow breath as he brought his left hand over his heart. He felt something sticky and when he pulled his hand away, he could smell the metallic scent of blood.
"Sensei, I think something's wrong." He muttered quietly. Sasuke let his gaze drift towards him and Sakura moved forward so she could see what was going on while Kakashi pushed off the railing to see what happened. Hi eyes widened when he saw the blood and Sakura gasped. No one could imagine how Naruto could have gotten hurt while they had been sitting there or how they missed the scent of blood.
As Kakashi bent down in front of Naruto, he saw blood on the concrete behind the blood. He put his hand on the boys back and confirmed his suspicions. The wound seemed to go right through him and it looked dangerously close to his heart.
"Can you walk, Naruto? We have to get you to the hospital." The silver haired Jounin asked. Naruto nodded his head as he stood up. He was almost positive that his wound was from when Sasuke killed him. He shot a glance at the raven at that thought. He gave a small frown as he took in the twelve year olds appearance. It was such a drastic change from the boy he remembered seeing, to him, only minutes ago.
He adverted his gaze from Sasuke to Kakashi, who was pushing him forward with his teammates following beside. The walk from the Academy to the hospital felt short to the blonde, he was lost in his childhood memories.
"What happened?" a nurse demanded when the four walked into Kohona Hospital and saw the blood seeping through Naruto's jacket.
"We don't know." Kakashi told her as he pushed the blonde forward, and into her grasp. She nodded her head and led Naruto into and empty room while Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke followed.
The nurse instructed Naruto to take of his jacket and then the black shirt underneath. They were covered in blood and she threw them away without complaint. She saw the cut on his chest and knew he had been hit with a kunai; nothing else would give it that shape. As she checked his back, she gasped. It looked like the wound went right through his chest, through his heart. She used her chakra to check and her eyes widened. The wound seemed to pass right over the heart. The kunai went into his chest and out his back, and should have gone right through his heart, but there wasn't a scratch on it. It was astonishing, and it was already starting to heal.
She didn't say anything as she started to clear away the blood. The flow has almost stopped completely and she just wrapped a thin layer of bandage around his chest before addressing Kakashi. "He'll be fine. The wound seems to be healing already and he should be able to take the wrapping off in a few hours. It looks to be two separate wounds made to look like one. Unless they're something someone's not telling me, there's no telling how this happened.
"I don't know how it happened." Naruto shrugged. "I spaced out and when Kakashi-sensei snapped me out of it, I felt a sharp pain." The nurse pursed her lips, not believing a word, but nodded her head regardless. The blond tried not to sigh in relief when she dropped the issue.
XXX
"So sensei. Do we get a mission now?" Naruto asked as they exited the hospital.
"Yes. We'll have our first mission tomorrow." Kakashi told the three, keeping an eye on the youngest. He had an inkling that he wasn't in danger from his wound because of the nine-tailed fox.
"What kind of mission are we going to have?" Naruto laughed happily, remember how this scene was supposed to have played out.
"A survival exercise." The Jounin stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I thought we were supposed to have a real mission, not more practice. We already did this stuff at the Academy. That's how we got here." Sakura questioned. She was tired of being an academy student and wanted to have a mission where she could spend time with Sasuke.
"This is not like your previous training." Kakashi told her, looking into one of the shops as they passed.
"What kind of training is it then, huh sensei?" No one caught the taunting edge to his voice; he smirked at that and let it quickly fall into a grin, knowing that when he was twelve, he hadn't yet picked up on that Sasuke trait. Naruto almost started laughing himself when the Jounin started laughing. He knew exactly what was going to come.
"Hey. Hold on. That's a normal question. What's so funny?" Sakura demand, not seeing anything funny.
"Hm. Well if I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it." Kakashi sang as he laughed again. He continued when he saw the confused look on all three of their faces. The confusion being less prominent on the young Uchiha's and less realistic on the Kyuubi vessals. "Of the twenty seven graduates that just came here only nine will actually be accepted as Genin. The other eighteen will be weeded out and sent back the Academy. In other words, this is a make it or break it, pass/fail test and the chance that you'll fail is at least sixty six percent." He smiled when he saw the slight horror filled looks at the possibly of going back to the academy. "See, didn't I tell you, you wouldn't like it?"
"Then what was that da .. that graduation test for anyway?" Naruto stuttered. He didn't that this would be the most appropriate time to display the colorful language he had picked up while training with Jiraiya.
"Oh that. That was just to select candidates that might become Genin, or not." He told them, easily waving it off. "Well that's how it is. I decided whether you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at five A.M. and bring your ninja gear. That's it. You're dismissed. Oh, tomorrow you might want to skip breakfast or... you'll puke." With that, the Jounin disappeared and left his students to themselves.
Team 7 stood there for a few moments after Kakashi disappeared, letting the information set in. Naruto knew that the ex-ANBU was lying, but he wasn't in any position to tell that to Sasuke and Sakura. Sasuke would just glare at him and Sasuke would call him stupid and probably hit him. He opted to let out a small, unnoticeable sigh instead, shifting his weight to see if one of the others would break the silence first.
"So Sasuke," Sakura sang, a bit high pitched, "would you like to go out to lunch with me. I bet you're hungry and it'll be great team bonding!" The raven in question just glared at her and started to walk away, leaving the blond and pinkette alone.
"Humpf. I'll get him to fall for me sooner or later." She muttered under her breath, turning around to go back home or rub it into Ino's face that she was on a team with Sasuke, Naruto couldn't be sure which.