Naruto was poised in-between two trees, pressing his hands and feet against them to lodge himself securely. From where he was he had a good view of the part of the forest he'd been told to watch for their mission, and this way he didn't have to focus too much on his chakra. Grinning to himself, he looked down, and thought of ways he could succeed in the mission on his own. Without needing that damn Sasuke. Maybe if he found that thief on his own, Sakura would be impressed enough to go with him for some Ramen. He could even try that new ramen, the one that had mushrooms and onions mixed with fresh peas and garlic. He really ought to try it he thought, and that would be a great celebratory meal. In fact, even if Sakura didn't agree to go out with him, he would treat himself to that ramen if he did the mission by himself. But then if the others ended up helping…well, he could always just have the ramen anyway. He was overdue for a fancy reward, having done several missions more than just 'well' recently.
Naruto was so distracted by his daydreams of Ramen that he didn't notice the male ninja silently closing in behind him. The first thing he became aware of was a hand pressed against the small of his back. In milliseconds he lost control of his chakra, and was using only his physical strength to hold his body, which he realised felt extremely heavy without any mystical help, in place. About to yell out, Naruto choked slightly as a hand covered his mouth tightly, and a voice whispered in his ear.
'I wouldn't do that if I were you, right now I could knock you out of this tree, it would be a good way to test your apparently impressive skills, now then, wouldn't it? Now, call me boastful, but you see, I've performed a ninjutsu which has temporarily blocked your chakra flow.' The voice chuckled darkly. 'Don't worry, it will return…eventually, until then, I suggest you don't yell, or we might have a little…accident.'
Naruto glanced down, internally cursing the fact that he was so incredibly high up. He didn't like his odds of finding something to grab onto without the help of his chakra before hitting the ground. The hand moved away from his mouth, and Naruto paled as he felt it sliding down his back. Two fingers pressed and rubbed in between his buttocks, then moved around so that they stroked his crotch. He felt sick at the touch. It felt wrong, almost like some slimy creature was inside him, squirming around. But then a flash of fear went through him as his body began to respond of its own accord.
'Stop it!' Naruto hissed between gritted teeth.
'But, you seem to be enjoying it so!' The hand began to rub faster, and hardening Naruto's erection. 'And I believe I am your first. I just LOVE being the first.' A tongue came and licked Naruto's neck, and slimed its way up to his ear.
'No!' He gasped, as his arms and legs shuddered, the sensation turning his muscles into jelly, and panic running through his body.
The movements became rough, but didn't stop the physical feelings contrasting with disgusted emotions rushing through Naruto as he closed his eyes and cringed against it.
Then a hand pushed its way through the waistband of Naruto's trousers, and touched bare skin.
Out of shock, Naruto cried out, and the hands withdrew suddenly, an arm quickly wrapping around his neck. Naruto groped at the arm that now both held him up, and cut off his air supply. Struggling, he felt his legs lose their strength, and slide, so that he was dangling from the arm that was suffocating him. He flailed around for some form of support, finding it only in the ninja's arm. A voice hissed in his ear 'I warned you,' and Naruto's vision started to go black, 'If you survive this, and I hope you will as I'd hate to lose my new plaything, I wouldn't advise mentioning this to anyone, Naru-chan.' The last word had a disgustingly sarcastic sweetness to it, as if the words were made of sugar laced with poison.
The Ninja released Naruto, who tried desperately to suck in a breath, but couldn't manage it, as the air just seemed to rush past him rather than into his mouth. As the ground drew closer and closer, he reached out towards the trees, desperately trying to pull himself close, but without the use of his chakra it was hopeless. Just as he was about to run out of time, a dark blur sped towards him, and caught him, roughly pulling him into a tree, and throwing him down on a thick branch. Naruto gratefully gasped in oxygen, and clung tightly to the tree limb under him, as Sasuke rounded on him, panting.
'BAKA! What the hell were you playing at? Are you trying to get yourself killed?'
Sasuke stared at Naruto, who was shaking slightly, and wouldn't let go of the branch. It took the raven a while to work out that Naruto was not going to answer with his usual retorts.
'Baka. Why weren't you using your Chakra?'
'Shut up teme.' Said Naruto, in a strangely shaky voice. Carefully regaining his balance, Naruto stood up, refusing to look at Sasuke in the eye.
'We got the thief. Kakashi says we can go.' Sasuke said, a little of the viciousness from his voice gone.
Naruto turned his back to Sasuke. He didn't even care that he'd failed to help the mission in any way, and all thought of ramen were gone from his mind. Adrenaline and terror washed over his body, and he edged back to the trunk of the tree. Sasuke's expression turned from angry, to confused as he watched his team member clumsily slide down the tree trunk, and walk away towards the village. Jumping down, he stood in front of Naruto, arms crossed, and stared at the blonde.
'What's wrong?' Sasuke said, bluntly. If Naruto had looked up he would have seen a flicker of concern in the eyes of his teammate, but Naruto was in no mood to let anyone see how terrified he looked.
'Leave me alone teme.' He snarled, and Sasuke's eyes hardened.
'Fine, it's your own fault for falling out of the tree. You do know that doing something stupid like that could bring the whole team down right?' Sasuke spat, only just managing to stop himself from saying 'And you do know how much you scared me right?' But far from this riling Naruto into his old self, this seemed to break Naruto, who glared through glistening eyes at the ground.
'I don't care.' He seethed, and ran past Sasuke back to the village. Sasuke watched him get smaller and smaller before disappearing between the first houses. He kept staring stupidly after the blonde, wondering what the hell had just happened.
Bursting into his small apartment, Naruto slammed the door shut, and leant against it, glaring through watery eyes. He hated Sasuke so much right now. As if he'd done it on purpose. It was all that stupid Ninja's fault…a small shiver went up his spine as he remembered, but he shrugged it off. He'd just be prepared next time. No one was going to get away with what had just happened ever again. Going to his room he hid a couple of extra kunai under his t-shirt, and sat on his bed. He wasn't going to be able to sleep tonight, that much he knew.
Three ninjas sat in a dark room, with only a candle to see by, rolling dice behind curved palms on a table, and exchanging coins as they lost or won, calling out numbers, with the occasional mutter of "liar" as one called the other's bluff. A breeze ruffled their clothes as the door opened, then shut, and a dark figure entered the room.
'I think he's scared.' Came the sickeningly sweet voice.
'Boss…' came a cautious voice from one of the seated ninja's, 'are you sure you should have done that?'
A deathly silence filled the room, and the other two figures shrank away from the one who had spoken.
'Are you questioning me?'
"I just…hasn't that warned him? Put him on alert? What if he tells someone?'
The figure by the door didn't even seem to move, but suddenly the ninja who had voiced doubt screamed as a kunai flew at their face, cutting through their eyebrow and eye, lodging itself just above their cheekbone, blood flowing from the wound.
'Never doubt me. You think he will tell anyone? Who would he tell? They all hate him. And he knows it. He has no friends, idiot. Never question me again.'
The injured ninja stifled his screams, still whimpering, and crawled away into a side room, and the others heard him cry out as he tried to heal his injury. The dark figure came over to the other two, settled down beside the table, and picked up the abandoned dice, rolling them behind a cupped hand.
'Five threes.'
The next day Sasuke was the first to get to their meeting spot, a clearing in the woods, so he sat down and tried to work out what to say to Naruto. He briefly considered apologising, but threw that thought out the window immediately. He had done nothing wrong. Maybe the fall had just scared his rival; things would be back to normal again soon enough.
As the blonde appeared, Sasuke got up and walked towards him. Naruto paused as he saw Sasuke, and sent a glare his way before turning and going to the opposite side of the clearing.
'Hey, Baka, are you gonna be falling out of any trees today?' After getting no response Sasuke grunted, and said 'I thought so, you fall out of one tree and get too scared to go back up.'
Naruto span round on his heel and yelled 'Hah! I'm better at climbing than you are teme!'
'Prove it.' smirked Sasuke.
There was a brief pause before both boys leapt towards the nearest tree, and darted upwards. Branches rushed past them as they scaled the bark using chakra, dodging through the canopy, and leaping upwards. Air rushed past the raven, and he glanced over to see the blonde had gained some ground on him, closing in on the treetops. Grunting, Sasuke tried to put on a burst of speed, but Naruto matched it, and got to the uppermost branches seconds before Sasuke, and cheered, grinning at the rising sun. Sasuke glared at his rival, who was laughing at him, whilst he himself felt disappointed at his loss. But secretly, he was happy that Naruto seemed to have cheered up, not that he was going to let that show. Sasuke then found himself watching the morning light glowing off Naruto's face. It lit up his beaming smile, making his face glow with pride, and his blonde bangs shine like gold. Sasuke couldn't stop a small smile tugging at his mouth, so he was very happy that the sun was behind him, casting his face into shadow.
'Sasuke?' came Sakura's call, and Sasuke inwardly groaned, before following Naruto back to the grass below.
'Hey Sakura!' grinned Naruto, cheerfully strutting towards her, 'Looking forward to today's mission?'
Sakura glared at the boy, and snapped 'What help will you be? You weren't even there when we caught that thief yesterday! I bet you were busy daydreaming about ramen.'
Naruto seemed to slump slightly, and Sasuke, who had just appeared behind him, felt a slight urge to shake Sakura until she agreed to stop picking on Naruto. He'd only just cheered Naruto up, and now this pink haired menace had…
Luckily Kakashi turned up at that moment, appearing in a puff of smoke, and distracting the trio.
'Kakashi! You're early!' Sakura said, open-mouthed.
'Yes, that's because I haven't slept yet. We have no mission. I'm giving you guys the day off.'
Sakura immediately appeared beside Sasuke, latching onto an arm, and stared at him with sparkling eyes. 'Sasuke…would you like to go and have lunch together?'
'No, I think I need to train some more.' said Sasuke stiffly.
'Wow, Sasuke, you're a really incredible Genin!' Sakura gushed.
'I'm going to train too.' said Naruto, grinning at Sakura, who glared at him as if he'd ruined something.
'I guess I need to go do some chores…' she sighed, 'Bye Sasuke, enjoy your training, don't let Naruto annoy you too much.'
Naruto glared at Sasuke before heading into the forest to train. Sasuke followed at a safe distance, before finding somewhere close to Naruto, but not noticeably near, to practice. He didn't want Naruto to realise he was keeping an ear out for him, but he also didn't want anything to happen again. Sighing, he began his warm ups.
Finding a clearing, Naruto sat down, and stared blearily at the trees around him. He was so tired he couldn't think straight. He'd sat up all night, on guard, but now felt drowsy, and slightly ill. He hadn't been able to eat yet either, and his stomach was not happy about this.
Flopping backwards, he stared up at the sky, his eyelids drooping, as he started to fall asleep.
'Nice save from that Uchiha kid, Naru-chan.'
In an instant Naruto was alert and up on his feet, staring around, kunai in hand, but unable to spot his tormentor. Pulling on his chakra, he tried to search for another chakra pulse, but before he had time to do it properly, a hand again pressed against his back. Naruto screamed out as fear, shock, and horror collided inside him. He whipped round, backing away quickly, and staring wide eyed at the Ninja.
'Oh, tut tut Naru-chan, have we learnt nothing?' The ninja asked in a singsong voice. Naruto had imagined all sorts of horrifying things, during the night, when he'd thought of the ninja, having never seen him. But in reality the ninja looked so normal, so ordinary. If it weren't for the sly look and chilling grin across his face, Naruto wouldn't have suspected him at all. The kunai felt like a useless heavy lump in Naruto's hand as the ninja advanced on Naruto, backing him up against a tree, and curling his hand under Naruto's chin. 'I never got to finish my fun, and trust me, I always finish a job I start.' The malicious look in the ninja's eye made Naruto turn cold, and his hands turned weak as he dropped the kunai. But just as the man leant in, they both heard the sound of someone, or something, coming towards them. Naruto turned towards where the noise was coming from, and without warning he felt something slam across the side of his head, knocking him to the ground.
Sasuke had been trying to improve his distanced aim when he heard Naruto's scream. Paling, he sped towards the sound, his stomach lurching at the sudden silence. Stupid baka, he better not have cracked his head open, why oh why did I have to dare him to climb a tree, I'd be perfectly happy if he never went up one again…
As he leapt into a tree he spotted a figure and leapt towards it. Nearing it he saw it was a male ninja, who seemed to be holding a slumped Naruto up. His heart in his mouth, Sasuke leapt down in front of them and moved towards them.
'What happened?' He asked, pausing, as Naruto seemed to pull away from the ninja, before being caught by him as he swayed unsteadily.
'Is this your friend?' the stranger asked, and Sasuke nodded. 'He fell from that tree, I caught him, but I think he hit his head on the way down. Perhaps I should take him back to the village?'
Sasuke watched as Naruto again, more forcefully this time, pushed the ninja away, and stumbled against the nearby tree.
'That's okay, I can take him…' Sasuke looked back at the ninja, who had an unreadable expression on his face. 'Thank you.'
'Oh it's fine, hope he's okay, he was training so hard.' The ninja ruffled Naruto's hair, and Sasuke realised that his teammate was pale and shaking. As the ninja disappeared into the depths of the forest, Sasuke turned to Naruto.
'C'mon, I'll take you back to get checked over.'
'I'm…' Naruto gulped, his voice was dry and hoarse, and his mind full of thoughts of what would have happened if Sasuke hadn't turned up. '…I'm fine…lets just…get back to the…the village…'
Sasuke made no comment, but did not believe for a second Naruto was okay, and watched him carefully as they walked back.
'What's wrong? This is the second time you've fallen out of a tree…'
'I didn't fall.' Naruto said quietly.
'What are you talking about, that guy said he caught you mid fall, Naruto what's going on? Pretending nothings wrong when you're obviously weak is…' Naruto interrupted him by turning on him and yelling 'I'M NOT WEAK!'
'WELL THEN WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?'
Naruto's retort seemed to die in his throat, and he turned away, his mind full of fear of what would happen if he told Sasuke, he was sure Sasuke would never believe him, and who knows what that ninja would do to him if he told Sasuke what had happened. Looking away he searched for words that would solve his situation.
'I just…think I'm ill…and…something…I…chakra is…' Sasuke hated how small and scared Naruto looked. Something was obviously getting to him, if it was just this stupid falling out of a tree business why didn't he just get it out?
'What do you mean?' he spat.
'He just…he caught me when I fell…'
'A second ago you said you didn't fall.'
'Well maybe I did, why does it matter to you?'
'Stop being so stupid! If something's wrong just tell me and stop hiding it!'
When he got no reaction, Sasuke grabbed Naruto, who flinched and tried to tug away, but Sasuke held onto his arm stubbornly.
'What happened, Naruto tell me, I know something's wrong, so just tell me!'
Naruto refused to meet his gaze, so Sasuke shoved him against a tree, and held him there by the shoulders. Suddenly Naruto seemed to panic, and pushed Sasuke away with all his strength, before sprinting off towards the village.
'NARUTO!' Sasuke yelled, before cursing and running after him.
Naruto ran as fast as he could. He was in a panic; Sasuke had brought back to him how real it had been when the ninja had trapped him against the tree, and all he wanted to do was find somewhere to hide. But as soon as he realised he'd just run away from someone, and was alone, he ran even faster. He seemed to gain energy from somewhere, and slowly the chakra again filled his body, and he sprinted gasping into the village, right into the market. Gasping for air, he came to a halt, and collapsed against a fence, staring around at the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It was all so normal, so unconcerned. He began to walk, still panting deeply, between the crowds. Their looks of dislike and glares almost felt welcome due to their familiarity. He walked all the way through the busy street to his block, climbing the stairs, and pausing outside his flat, looking over the railing at the life going on around him. It was noisy & felt safe, surely nothing would happen here at this time of day? Still uncertain, he sat down outside his door and stared blankly across the rooftops and houses.
That's where Sasuke found him. After losing him in the woods, he had decided to head to Naruto's flat, hoping he'd be there. What he did not expect was a shell of Naruto's bubbly usual self, gazing vacantly across the village. Sasuke's heart gave a small flutter, and seemed to rise up his throat. He wanted to rush over and take Naruto in his arms, protecting him, and make him say what was wrong so that he could fight it… but he didn't think that Naruto would understand, or even feel the same. That uncertainty and his own reputation for being unemotional and stoic held him back.
He went and stood next to Naruto, who still didn't seem to notice him.
'Hey, baka.' He could not have prepared for Naruto's reaction; in seconds the other boy was on his feet, and backing away from Sasuke with a shaking kunai held out in front of him, his eyes wide and a terrified look on his face. A few seconds passed before Naruto lowered his kunai slightly, and his look of fear turned into a fierce glare.
'What are you doing here teme?' he blurted out, not dropping his arm completely. His mind was in a frenzy trying to catch up with what was happening; this was not another assault, but Sasuke had just about given him a heart attack appearing so silently like that, it had made him realise how he really couldn't let his guard down. How easy it would have been for an enemy to sneak up on him, even here, out in full view of everyone else. I doubt anyone would even do anything… came the unasked-for thought.
'Naruto…why did you run off?' Sasuke didn't close the distance between them, realising something was very wrong. Looking at Naruto, he thought that maybe he should just leave Naruto alone; he was deeply concerned, but decided that if Naruto didn't answer he should stop probing for that day. He was getting nowhere like this.
'Because you…because I wanted to get away from you.' Naruto stared at Sasuke as if the raven was an idiot for not understanding something so obvious.
The two stared at each other, both trying to out-glare the other, before Sasuke grunted.
'Fine.' He turned on his heel and left.
The minute he had gone round the corner, Naruto regretted his decision, and wanted to run after Sasuke, but at the same time didn't want to give him the satisfaction. As he stood there, unsure of what to do, he heard a door slam shut nearby and jumped. He glanced around, suddenly noticing that it was nearing the end of the afternoon, and the street was slowly emptying. A small chill went up Naruto's spine, and he flung himself at his door, quickly locking it behind himself once he was inside. Breathing heavily he turned and faced the familiar safety of his home, and slumped to the floor. Resting his elbows on his knees he cupped his face in his hands. This was going to be a long evening, and an even longer night. He wondered if he'd even feel safe sleeping. But first things first; his stomach reminded him that it had been too long since his last meal, and that hunger was clouding his thinking. After five bowls of ramen, he felt much better, stronger, and decided to take things into his own hands. If this ninja could block his chakra, he'd just have to improve on his physical attacks.
