Hello again, people! I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! This is the sequel to my other fic, "Distant Dream". IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THAT STORY THEN DON'T READ THIS!!!!!!!! Well, you can read it, but it won't make any sense whatsoever. This fic is also being "Plot consulted" by my best pally Dayna the Jedi Master Solo. Please read her stories too. Without further ado, let the story begin! (P.S. this story begins with a flashback/dream)
"Yume?" Sasuke asked, looking over at her. The two shinobi were on the roof of Uchiha Manor, where they always slept on summer nights. It had been a few months since Yume had transferred from Sand Village, and came to live with her boyfriend in the overly-large house.
"Hm?" She said, still searching the sky for constellations.
"I'm thinking... about leaving... Orochimaru offered me power, and I don't want to turn down an opportunity."
"What?!" she said, sitting up. "Are you sure?"
"Yes... but... I want you to come with me. Is that all right?"
"W-well," Yume stuttered, still in shock. "I d-don't know. Chiaki is still here, and I don't want to let my best friend down... but... I love you, and I'm not letting you leave without me."
So it was decided that the pair would leave the next night. Sasuke walked on the street, and Yume traveled through the trees beside him, in case they encountered trouble. There was a brief incident with that pink-haired girl... Sakura, wasn't it? But Sasuke just knocked her out and moved on. The two were soon outside the village and took one last look at their former home.
"Are you sure you want to go through with this, Yume chan?" said Sasuke, putting his arm around her. All Yume could do to hold back the tears was nod. The two shinobi were soon off into the forest surrounding the Hidden Leaf Village traveling at top speed. Yume was silently crying behind Sasuke, but he wasn't to know that. She wiped her eyes and caught up with him, thinking 'I have made my choice, and this is it. I'll go through anything to stay with him.'
Ishimaru Yume sat up in her bed, the base of her neck twinging. She pulled off her covers, turned on the lamp, and walked over to her vanity, pulling the sleeve of her nightgown away from her neck. 'Damn curse mark,' she thought, rubbing the little black symbol. 'It's been nearly five years and the thing still burns.' The eighteen-year-old sound kunoichi looked up at her mirror. 'Hm,' she said to herself 'Even if anyone from Leaf Village came after me, they wouldn't recognize me. This damn curse mark at least did that for me.' This was true. The curse mark Yume had received after coming to the Sound Village had a rare side affect of altering her appearance. Along with the natural additions of becoming taller and thinner, Yume's formerly brown hair had become a dazzling whiteish silver, and green eyes had changed to a shining golden. Yume had also gotten the power of control over the elements, which came in handy quite often, as it would be. She had changed mentally as well. The girl who had been a relatively carefree teenager had become very serious, only laughing and smiling around Sasuke, her boyfriend of five years, and Tayuya, her best friend and the only person she confided in. (A/N: I know Tayuya died, but I DIDN'T LIKE THAT! And, this is MY fanfic and Tayuya lives along with the rest of the sound 4! Except Kimimaro and Jirobo, I hate them!) Yes, she had changed enough that no one would recognize her.
Yume decided not to go back to sleep, and pulled on a bathrobe and slippers. She slid noiselessly out of her room and began the trek down to the large kitchen of the Sound Fortress. There, she found Tayuya sitting at the table, sipping a cup of coffee. Yume's friend had always been a night owl.
"Couldn't sleep?" the redhead asked, heading for the cabinet and pulling out a second coffee cup. Yume nodded as her friend handed her the cup, now filled with Starbuck's Italian roast espresso.
"Thanks," Yume said, and sat down across from Tayuya at the table "This damn thing is bothering me again," she said pointing to her neck "Add that to bad dreams and you get no sleep." Her flute player friend nodded and stood up.
"Well, if you can't sleep, and I can't sleep, then nobody sleeps," Tayuya said, grinning evilly. "KIDOMARU! SAKON! UKON! KABUTO! SASUKE! GET YOUR LAZY ASSES OUTTA BED AND GET THE HELL DOWN HERE!"
The sound shinobi walked down the staircase, rubbing their eyes and squinting in the light. "Tayuya, It's four a.m., what the hell is going on?" said Kidomaru, stretching his arms... all six of them.
"Yume couldn't sleep," Tayuya said, shrugging.
"Well, now we're all up," Kabuto said, putting on his glasses. "And you know what that means."
"COFFEE!" yelled the newly named Sound Six, and thus began another day in the Sound Village.
There weren't any missions that day, so the Sound Six went their separate ways. Tayuya headed up to her room to practice flute, Kidomaru, Sakon, and Ukon all went on a day trip to the Waterfall Village, Kabuto went off to his not-so-secret lab, and Yume and Sasuke opted to go out into the woods and train. Once they found a suitable clearing, they began sparring.
"You've gotten a lot stronger, Yume," Sasuke panted as a kick from the silver-haired kunoichi knocked him backwards into a tree.
"Not really," she said, slipping back into fighting stance. "I just excel at catching you off guard with my stunning beauty."
Sasuke laughed, which earned him another kick, and the bout continued until both shinobi got tired. They then took a short break and decided to start weapons training, carefully of course, so no one would get hurt more than a few scratches. Yume whipped two fans out of the golden sash of her red fighting kimono, and opened them. Sasuke pulled out a couple of kunai and shuriken, and the two began to fight. Thirty minutes later, they were both on the ground, short of breath.
"Screw the weapons training, lets just go for a walk," Yume laughed, dusting off her kimono.
"Yeah," said Sasuke, hopping up into a tree. "Why don't we take the scenic route?"
"Wait," Yume said, fiddling with the sound headband around her neck. "Do you hear that?"
Sasuke listened for a moment. "Mm-hm," he nodded, but stayed where he was.
"Lee, admit it, we're lost!" said a familiar female voice.
"On the contrary, 'Aki chan, we are not lost, we are...er... taking the long way," said another voice, male this time.
"'Aki chan..." Yume mouthed silently at Sasuke, who nodded and signaled for her to stay where she was.
"Lee, just give me the damn map or so help me, I'll..."
Eighteen and nineteen-year-old versions of Matsuo Chiaki and Rock Lee stepped into the clearing, eyes big around as dinner plates, both of them staring at Yume and Sasuke.
"Damn," Sasuke said under his breath. "We have to get out of here." Which was responded by Yume shaking her head.
"'Aki ... chan?" the silver haired girl asked. "It's me... Yume."
Chiaki simply glared at her. "Ah, that's rich," she sneered. "I don't know who the hell you are, but Yume has brown hair and green eyes."
"I did," Yume said, pulling her hair away from her neck, showing the curse mark. "But this changed my hair and eyes."
"I wouldn't believe any of this unless you were to know something only Yume would know, and you can't do that, 'cause you're not her."
"Name: Matsuo Chiaki, a.k.a. 'Aki chan. Birthday: March 14. You are dating Rock Lee, or at least you were when I left. Your favorite color is purple. Your favorite movie is 'Inuyasha the Movie Three: Swords of an Honorable Ruler'. You love punk rock music and Neopolitan ice cream. Last of all, something only I would know... You have an extremely irrational fear of Chuck E. Cheese."
"Omigod," Chiaki gasped, sitting down on a tree stump. "After all these years, it's really you. By the way, not only are Lee and I still dating, we're engaged..."
"That's great!" Yume said, moving to hug her friend.
"No! Don't touch me! I'm ANBU now, and I can't let personal friendships get in my way. Tsunade sama sent us with a warning. 'Come home now or someone's gonna get hurt'. I didn't want to be the one to say it, but my name got picked. Please, Yume. Just come home," Chiaki said, tears forming in her eyes.
"I'm sorry. I can't. This is my home now." said Yume, looking her friend in the eyes.
"What, you mean a den of criminals that don't give a crap about anything, including you?! This is home?!"
"That's not true! The Sound Six have become my family! They care about me, and I care about them!"
"Puh-lease! How can you be so gullible?! They're using you. You're a tool, just like Sasuke," Chiaki sneered, jerking her head toward the raven-haired boy.
"None of us are tools! We're people, 'Aki! People who had nowhere to be accepted, and finally found someplace to call home! Does that make us tools or evil?! Well?! Does it?!" Now Yume was on the verge of tears.
"No, what makes you evil tools is who you're working for."
"We can't help that! If we were to leave, our curse marks would kill us instantly. Sasuke needed power, and I needed Sasuke, so here we are, deal with it!" Yume shouted, wiping her eyes.
"I-I'm sorry... Yume chan" Chiaki said, walking over to her friend. "I didn't know... about the curse mark. I could seal it for you, and you could come back with us."
"It depends on Sasuke. If he stays, I stay," Yume said, glancing back at her boyfriend.
"I'm staying. Lee just gave me some news, Yume. Naruto died," said Sasuke.
"What?! How? How could this happen?" Yume said, remembering the few times she had met Sasuke's blonde ex-teammate. He had always been nice to her.
"My brother," Sasuke said, putting his head in his hands. "He'll never stop tormenting me until he's dead. I'm afraid he'll come after you next, Yume. He has to be eliminated as soon as possible."
"I'm so sorry," Yume said softly, putting her arms around him. "I know your brother's a total jerk, and that's putting it mildly. But... wouldn't it be safer if I were to go with 'Aki and Lee?"
"No. I don't want to be that far away from you if something happens. I think it's safer for Yume to stay with me, if you two don't mind," He said, looking up at Chiaki and Lee. "Tell Tsunade that We'll both come home as soon as my brother is safely...erm ... disposed of."
Chiaki nodded, looked over at Lee, and the two Leaf Nin jumped into the trees. It was nearly sundown by this point, so Sasuke and Yume headed back to the village for dinner. Everyone was having a relatively good time, seeing as Kidomaru and Orochimaru sama got into a fierce competition of Yo Mama jokes. Kidomaru won hands down with a finisher of "Yo Mama's so fat that when you go off to school, she runs after the bus yelling 'TWINKIE!'" After a large round of laughing, the Otonin crew went up to bed. Yume was drifting off to sleep when she got the feeling of being watched. 'Must be nothing,' she thought, and drifted into blackness.
Yume woke up to a cold wind blowing in from her window. 'Odd,' she thought, rubbing her eyes. 'My window was shu...' She saw a familiar looking figure next to her window, with black hair and an Uchiha crest on the back of his shirt.
"Mm? Sasuke? Not now, hun, I'm tryin' ta sleep," Yume said, shaking off the feeling of sleepiness.
"I'm not Sasuke," said the familiar figure, turning around. Golden eyes met red eyes... the red eyes of Uchiha Itachi.
"My, my, what a lovely little flower my baby brother's found," Said the former leaf-nin. "He'll be so sad when he finds you missing."
"You."
"Ah, what an articulate little flower as well. Does Sasuke know your little secret... Ishimaru Yume?" The Akatsuki member sneered. "Does he know about what's living inside you at this very moment? Does he know that Sabaku no Gaara isn't the only demon container from the Sand Village? Does he know why the Akatsuki wants to kidnap you... four-tailed Dog?"
"Shut up!" Yume shouted, hurling a few shuriken at Itachi. But, it was all in vain. The ex- Leaf shinobi deflected the throwing stars back at the silver-haired girl, pinning her to the wall.
"Now," Itachi said, binding her wrists with chakra ropes. "You can come quietly, or you can wake up my brother, and when he comes in here, I'll tell him that awful little secret you've been hiding from everyone. Ah, it seems he's been listening anyway."
Yume looked over her shoulder to see Sasuke standing in her doorway. "You," he said, glaring at his brother.
"I have a name, baby brother, and it isn't 'You'," Itachi sighed. "Now, you can let me leave, and I'll give you a fighting chance at saving the girl, or I can kill her now."
"You're bluffing," Sasuke scoffed "If you kill her now the four-tailed Dog dies. You can't get anything until you perform that sealing ritual, and she has to be alive for that."
"The Akatsuki can carry out their plan one demon short. It'll just help if we have her. And now baby brother, I bid you adieu," said Itachi, jumping out the window with Yume slung over his back. The last thing Sasuke saw before the two faded into blackness was a chakra-gagged Yume looking at him with eyes that showed an emotion he had never seen in his girlfriend... unbridled terror.
"No," Sasuke whispered, running to the window, but it was too late. He ran out into the hall, flicking on all the lights, and began opening doors. "Everybody up! Emergency meeting in the kitchen, NOW!"
Once the sound shinobi were all sitting at the table, Tayuya piped up "Hey? Where's Yume?"
"That's why we're here," said Sasuke, trying as hard as he could to hold back tears. "I just watched my brother kidnap my girlfriend, and I wasn't able to save her. Yume's gone, and Itachi took her."
"Oh, thats IT!" Tayuya yelled, getting up so fast she knocked her chair down. "That bastard just signed his own death notice! C'mon guys, we're going to get Yume back!"
"Tayuya, sit down," Orochimaru said, sitting her chair back up. "If we just go plunging after them in a blind rage, we won't get any thing done. The last mistake we want to make is underestimating the enemy, especially an enemy as strong as Uchiha Itachi. If we do that, Yume is as good as dead, got it?"
"Yes, Orochimaru sama," Tayuya grumbled, plopping back down in her seat.
"Okay, so we need a strategy," Sasuke said, hands shaking. "Here's what I suggest we do..."
Meanwhile, In The Leaf Village...
"No, Chiaki, I won't accept this. They refused to come back, and now they have to pay the consequences. I'm in a generous mood, so I'll only make you kill Sasuke." Said the blonde lady Hokage.
"So this means Yume won't die, Tsunade sama?" Chiaki said, a look of hope crossing her face.
"Oh no, she will die, but I'm giving her death order to Lee."
"Please, Tsunade sama," said Chiaki, falling to her knees. "Yume's only there because of Sasuke. If he dies, she'll come home. I know she will. I'm begging you, extend her death order until Sasuke is dead, and give her one more chance."
"Fine, but only because you're my best black ops squad leader. Mind you, if she refuses to come back, you must kill her on the spot."
"Thank you, Tsunade sama, thank you! I'll get on the Uchiha job right away." For someone about to kill her best friend's boyfriend, Matsuo Chiaki looked extremely happy.
xXx
Whoot! One chapter down! I LOVED the way this chapter showed the nice side of Orochimaru! He is NOT evil! He's MISUNDERSTOOD, I tell you! This sequel is really making my writing talent blossom, in my opinion! I hope you all liked the first chapter, PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE! YUME COMMANDS YOU!
Next Time
Yume is taken to the Akatsuki Fortress, and the three-day sealing ritual begins.
Lee and Chiaki's on-the-spot wedding
Sasuke makes a stunning "proposal" to Yume (wink, wink, hint, hint)