Bonds
Author's Note: I had a lot of fun writing this requested story from Kidagirl8 and I hope you like it!
[Imagine that Naruto unlocked a new power during his fight with Sasuke at the Final Valley that then caused a WORLD of unprecedented complications...and not just for the black haired Uchiha but for our blonde boy wonder also. Read along to figure out how they solve this "new power" or if they even solve it, and who they end up running into along the way! (Don't worry, the power he unlocks makes sense.)]
Orochimaru
These arms... Dammit...
Completely devoid of feeling, I stared at the useless logs in the mirror. The light above me flickered dimly.
Coming up with an idea like the Reaper Death Seal... Of course, only Hiruzen would.
I cocked my head as I eyed the forbidden jutsu scroll on the medical table next to me. A demon with a purple face and a knife in its mouth was drawn above extensive directions explaining how to enact the reverse jutsu to the reaper death seal.
Then again, I should thank him for reminding me of that seal... Now, I can begin studying it. And if everything goes as planned, I should have my arms back in no time...
The door swung open. I turned to see Kabuto entering my private lab. He glanced down at the medical table, eyes zeroing in on an axe that just so happened to lay next to the scroll and he smirked.
"Already giving up on immortality, I see." He said before plopping down in the chair adjacent to me.
"I was reading the scroll." I said, narrowing my eyes as he leaned back in the chair and kicked his sandals up on desk, scattering my papers.
"Hey, hey, it's fine, Lord Orochimaru. Whatever you think about in your spare time is cool with me." he said, angling his head back to toss some chips into his mouth. "Just make sure you write me into your will first."
"You've gotten extremely comfortable around me lately." I noted.
He continued eating the chips, opting to say nothing.
And this one clearly believes that because of my minor set-back, he's free to do whatever he wants.
He pushed his glasses further up on his nose.
But he isn't wrong. I could still kill him any time I wanted to but that would harm me more than help me.
"Oh! I almost forgot the reason I even came in here." He said, tossing the empty chip wrapper to the floor. "The girl sensed Sasuke on the way."
I raised my eyebrows.
"He came even without the Sound Four and Kimimaro." I stated. "As I expected."
"The girl sensed something else, too." He added.
Something else? Something like what...?
"Explain." I told him.
Kabuto snapped his fingers.
"Hey, Karin! Get in here!"
A quiet, slightly depressed looking girl pushed the door open slowly and walked into the laboratory. Her long red hair was dirty and messy, flowing around her shoulders and doing nothing except to make the rags she wore as clothes look more appalling.
"Tell him." Kabuto said.
She avoided looking me in the eyes, none of them were brave enough to do that, instead, she looked at my feet and spoke quietly.
"The boy... The one from the Chunin Exams..."
"Kabuto, weren't there many boys in the Chunin Exams? Or...am I mistaken?" I asked him.
Kabuto shrugged.
"You know, now that I think about it, it probably was only girls in that exam... No one there had any balls anyway."
I snickered.
Karin began again.
"The boy...with a blue shirt." She specified. "You call him Sasuke-kun."
"Oh, that boy. Right... Right..." I said, smirking. "Go on."
"He's approaching..." she revealed. "In company with a secondary chakra."
"What secondary chakra?"
"A...strange one." She said. "It feels weird. Like it has two sides."
Two sides? That description would probably best fit a...Jinchuriki.
Kabuto gave me a knowing look as Karin, finally, raised her head and looked up at me.
"But... Sasuke's chakra feels double sided that way, too, now."
"Great, observation, Karin. So, now, there's four chakra's approaching... It must be the end of the world." Kabuto joked.
"Karin, leave immediately and direct Sasuke to this hideout." I ordered.
Interest filled her eyes. Interest I'd never seen on her before. She nodded and left quickly.
"You think she's actually going to come back?" Kabuto said.
I smirked at him.
"As if she has anywhere else to go." I told him. "That's the key to this entire set up, Kabuto. It's loneliness. All of these ones, every single one of them, have no one waiting for them to return anywhere except here. That is why they always find their way here."
"Mmm. Like Sasuke?" he asked me.
I frowned.
"Sasuke has someone to return to... And it seems he's brought that person with him."
"So, you think it's Naruto, too, huh?"
"Who else would it be?"
Kabuto laughed.
"Didn't you say something like 'Naruto is the one person Sasuke can't be allowed to stay around'?" He reminded me.
"How ironic." I said, turning. "But I am curious... What provoked Sasuke to carry him all the way here?"
"I can think of one good reason." Kabuto said, sneering. "Though, I initially didn't think Sasuke was into that sort of thing."
I eased myself back into my chair.
"How indecent of a joke." I replied as Kabuto snickered.
"Well, he better not be expecting us to heal him. We're not running a medical wing." He said, then he seemed to ponder something. "Though, with the amount of people we're taking on these days, we could be considered an orphanage."
I smiled.
"And Hiruzen Sensei told me I'd never become a philanthropist." I remarked. "I've fed and clothed more children than all the five nations put together."
"Yeah, after you tortured them."
I looked at Kabuto, who immediately, most likely sensing my animosity at his word choice, jumped back into line. He threw his hands up.
"Sorry, Lord Orochimaru, I was just making an observation!"
The door swung open then, loudly and quite rudely as a boy, drenched from the rain, walked into the room with another boy, equally as drenched, hanging on his back.
Like I expected. Sasuke...you've brought Naruto to me.
Naruto's head lolled on Sasuke's shoulder and his body was completely limp. He was knocked clean out.
"Must've been some fight, huh?" Kabuto asked, looking at the holes in Naruto's jacket and the gashes and bruises on his face and arms.
Sasuke completely ignored him. His eyes were solely on mine.
"What did you do to him?" he asked me.
Before I could even question his question, he began speaking again.
"His hand." Sasuke said, motioning toward it. "It has a curse seal on it. I thought you were only after me. Why did you drag him into it, too?"
Curse seal?
That peaked my interest more than anything else that day.
"Kabuto, clear the table."
He lifted the scroll and the axe and the other miscellaneous things I had gathered atop of it and placed them on bookshelves or chairs. Sasuke leaned toward the table, laying Naruto down and positioning him for me. I walked over and as I did, Kabuto, quite literally becoming my second pair of hands, grabbed Naruto's hand and turned it over for me.
On his palm, was a curse seal in black ink. But the symbol was strange. It wasn't a symbol I'd ever seen or created before.
I turned to Sasuke and as I did, just as quickly, Kabuto grabbed Sasuke's shoulder and pulled his neck at an angle showing me his mark.
This symbol has also changed...
"Reverse the seal. Quickly." I told Kabuto.
He nodded and pushed his glasses up, becoming solidly serious and meticulous just like the medical genius he was. He did the hand signs and, with electric pulses bursting from his fingertips, he pressed upon Naruto's palm, causing his arm to jump. The seal still remained. Kabuto did the signs again, created the static and did it again but to no success.
Why is this seal so stubborn? If it's just an accidental dopple-ganger sprung off from Sasuke's mark, we should be able to remove it...
Kabuto continued.
"You never explained why he has a seal. And what are you doing to him?" Sasuke asked as he stared from the other side of the table. "What's happening?"
I opened my mouth. Thinking I was going to answer, he stopped speaking, only to be caught off guard by a flood of snakes that spurt from deep in my body, ran through my mouth, and wrapped around his torso.
He grimaced, writhing futilely against the wet, wild reptiles. The snakes wrapped around his body again and again, keeping him firmly coiled, contained and quiet, seeing as how they also covered his mouth.
"It's like an eight trigram seal." A small voice said.
I turned, looking at Karin who no one had noticed returned with Naruto and Sasuke.
"Or...no... It's... It's even stronger than that." She said as she looked on.
Well, she's an Uzumaki. Of course she'd be familiar with seals...
I turned to the unconscious blonde haired boy on the table, watching him closely.
But then, does that mean that this child...!?
"If you know how to reverse it then come here." Kabuto told her.
She shook her head.
"You need a key." She said. "For seals like the eight trigram and stronger, you need a key to unlock it."
It irritated me that, even for a split second, she thought she was teaching me something. I was completely aware of that. Though, I wouldn't have classified the seal as an Eight Trigram one.
The one on his stomach... The one I disturbed before was an Eight Trigram. But this one... It looks exactly like a curse mark style but...
But the symbol in the middle looked like a swirl of miniature dots...or... a ball of moving wind. And the three-dot mark on Sasuke's neck had come together to look more like some kind of flame ball.
Perhaps it's the amount of chakra within the seal that is making Karin classify it as that. But if the seal was even stronger than an eight trigram...
But as Kabuto continued trying to reverse the seal, using a rather painful series of muscle and skin shearing, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Sasuke jerked where the snakes were keeping him tied up. Initially I hadn't been paying much attention to his movements, until...
"Mmmmffhh!" He tried to say.
Is he reacting to this boy's injuries?
I snapped my fingers.
"Kabuto, enough." I said.
Kabuto stopped. With the amount of times he had tried to electrically revert the mark, the boy's hand and wrist were both almost singed but the mark still remained.
"Use the scalpel and cut it off." I ordered.
He smirked.
"And I thought I was being careless." He remarked.
"Do as I say."
My eyes narrowed on Sasuke where the snakes were beginning to wrap around his eyes.
Now I can make sure Sasuke-kun doesn't just have an abnormal amount of empathy. If he can't see him, he can't feel for him...
Kabuto's waited a couple a seconds and then, on my command, his hand swiped across Naruto's stabbing into the back of his hand. A single tear slipped from underneath his closed eyelid just as Sasuke's hand balled into a fist, fingers flexing and unflexing.
"I haven't seen you smile that widely since we got Kimimaro." Kabuto mumbled.
"Prepare the laboratory connected to the south cell chamber, Kabuto." I said. "And take Sasuke and Karin there."
"Karin, too?" He asked.
"Do as I say." I repeated, having one of my snakes hiss at him appropriately.
"You don't have to get all edgy..." He said, raising his hands.
He grabbed Karin's arm, and motioned to the snakes which were still coiled around Sasuke and left the room.
I stared at the boy lying on the table.
"It must've been then... Back then..."
I could visualize it my head, the moment that I launched for Sasuke and that weak girl standing next to him and inserted my fangs into his neck, implanting the seed.
But little did I know this idiotic boy hadn't been caught up long enough by the snake I'd sent to swallow him. I didn't know how he'd gotten out of it so quickly but he was there, pushing me to the side and pulling Sasuke from my grasp.
The curse mark is a very time conscious jutsu. Even though I'd implanted the curse, because of the idiot, I wasn't able to properly seal it. If it isn't sealed properly for a long time, it will fade, reducing to nothing, in which case, I could've easily implanted the seed in Sasuke again and sealed it properly. On the contrary, if the curse is sealed but sealed by someone else, that person is then able to insert whatever will they want into the jutsu. The will I had given Sasuke, the will of ambition, and avarice and pride most likely slowly began to be overshadowed by the new will.
If I don't act quickly, Sasuke will be out of my control.
I stared down at the blonde haired boy.
And the worst part is... I can't even just do away with this ridiculously idiotic set-back.
"Sasuke and Karin are locked in their new rooms." Kabuto reported as he pushed the door open.
He came to my side and we both looked down at Naruto.
"Should I kill him?" he asked, raising a knife in the form of chakra. "The jutsu will disappear if we do that."
"I considered it momentarily but no." I told him. "We have no idea how strong the seal was that Naruto put into Sasuke. We don't even know what will he put into it. In the worst case scenario, if we kill Naruto, Sasuke may snap and go into shock or rage or...even commit suicide. There are endless possibilities."
"And we can't play around with this one because you don't have enough time to kill them both and go search for a better body host." Kabuto added.
"Precisely." I replied.
Or better yet, I doubt that there is a better body host for me than Sasuke... This is just a small unexpected predicament. I will have him. And I refuse to stop until I do.
"You told Karin to spy on him I presume?" I asked.
"I don't even have to tell her." He said. "Next to Kimimaro and I, Karin is the most trustworthy of your children, isn't she?"
Good...
"I have to check to see if Sasuke's still under my control." I told him. "And if he is, I must force him to separate himself from Naruto permanently."
"How are we going to do that?"
I looked down at the unconscious boy on the table.
"These two are like oil and water... If what I'm thinking is correct, we won't have to do a thing."
"But until then, we're going to keep trying to remove the mark, right?"
"Precisely." I responded. "Come. Let's move him to the laboratory connected to the south chamber."
Sasuke
I could hear the screaming in my head all day.
AHHHHHHHHH!
It was constant.
NGHH! GURAAAHHH!
I could sense... Pain. Confusion. Fear.
UGHAAAHHH!
And something else... A sense of longing... Longing for something or someone.
But there wasn't anything I could do about it. Even if I wanted to, which I didn't.
It's all Itachi's fault. All of it. If he hadn't done what he did, I wouldn't need this power so desperately. And Naruto wouldn't be in the situation he's in either.
I'd been stuck up in that room for days. The girl I was stuck with marked the days. Some kind of weird nervous tic.
"How can you even tell when the sun rises or sets from here?" I finally asked her, simply to stop myself from going mad.
She stared at me for a second, expression easing into an expansion of dumbfoundedness.
"I don't really know... I guess I can just feel it." She responded.
And that was the day I realized they locked me up with a crazy person. Literally locked me up, too, because there was no knob on our side of the iron wrought door. There was a single candle in the room. And old, cold brown and green stone brick walls. The ground was a mixture of concrete and mud. The only things that didn't look completely depressing were the beds. And even they struggled hard to make you feel the hopelessness. Two were connected by chain and as I picked the one closest to the candle, she decided to pick the one connected to mine. And that was where we remained for the majority of our time there. I watched the girl mark day five even though it felt to me like a month had passed.
My absence of time was most likely also encouraged by the fact that I didn't sleep much. I had tried to sleep the first couple of minutes I got in there but I woke up sweating from some nightmare I couldn't even remember. After that, even thinking about sleep bothered me. I decided it must be the surroundings. Forced to live in a dungeon cage with your only company a girl who did nothing but mark the walls and stare at you. Interestingly enough though, she seemed to sleep just fine.
The heavy, solid iron door groaned and creaked up loudly. Both of us sat up expectantly. The candle flickered with the whoosh of wind and fizzed out. A shadow stood in the doorway, illuminated into a soft silhouette by the dim lanterns in the hallway.
"Are you ready to train?" Asked the voice.
Just from the drawl of the tone, I knew it was Orochimaru. I was slightly surprised that he hadn't just sent that lying idiot with the glasses.
I've been ready to train, you asshole... But you've been bent on keeping me in here for days.
"Where's Naruto?" I decided to ask him.
"Naruto, Naruto, Naruto..." He sighed. "Lengthen your vocabulary."
"Where is he?" I persisted.
"Who knows." Orochimaru asked, shrugging exaggeratedly. "For all you know, he might already have died."
I stared at him. Moments passed. The girl rustled in the sheets near me. He began to chuckle sourly.
"Don't fret, Sasuke-kun. Your beloved Naruto is in the training courtyard, safe and sound."
Yeah, right. How could he be safe or sound? Screaming all day and night like that...
"You think I'm lying?" Orochimaru asked.
I looked at him head on and said nothing. Strangely, he gave me a curious look but it was only for a moment and then he turned around.
"Come. You as well, Karin."
"Where?" I asked.
He grabbed the door knob, not saying anything, and with the door open, I didn't have much choice but to follow him. Past the rows and rows of doors just like mine with iron doors and bars on the only windows. Some of the doors had small hands on them, fingers curled around the bars, others were silent, like whatever life inside had died a long time ago. The only light in the hall flickered, occasionally buzzing out.
What kind of hell did I sign up for?
Karin barely seemed to notice at all. She walked through the halls staring straight ahead like she didn't have a care in the world.
I wonder how long you have to be here to become as empty as she probably is...
As far as I was concerned, she and all the rest of them were probably born in these dungeons and would die there, too. Serving him.
But not me. He may think I want to become apart of this ridiculous sob story but he's got the wrong one...
I looked up as he strode ahead of me.
But I still can't figure it out. What is this guy planning? Is he after Naruto? Is that why he implanted that mark? And when did he even get the time to do it? Was it at the chunin exams like mine or later? Why did it take so long to show up?
We continued walking through the damp, dank passage ways, past more and more dark and dusty rooms. Because of my lack of freedom, I wasn't at all familiar with the place. But I didn't have time to feel apprehensive about that, I was getting a really strange feeling about something else. Like every step I took led me closer and closer to...something.
Something positive.
When I closed my eyes I imagined my home...before my brother destroyed it.
Something peaceful.
In any case, I was sensibly surprised as we jumped up through a narrow hole in the ceiling and landed...outside.
Outside... It's been a long time.
Chirping birds blessed my ears, flowing wind kissed my skin and smells like flowers and fresh water soothed my nostrils.
I must've been sensing that we were nearing outside.
"Sasuke!"
I turned, sunlight flooding my vision as a brightly colored haired and dressed boy writhed in Kabuto's arms.
"If you keep going on like this, I'm going to have to detach the tendons in your legs. Remember how that felt?" Kabuto threatened.
"Let me near Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, clearly not listening at all.
Orochimaru ignored him, turning toward me.
"Sasuke what did you hope to gain from coming here?"
I didn't even hesitate before I responded.
"Power."
Naruto continued struggling, my eyes drifted toward his.
"You brought Naruto here under the assumption that I chose him in addition to you and gave him a curse mark." He went on. "But that is incorrect."
...What?
"That mark he has... That clone curse mark of yours isn't my doing." He smiled, in an unhinged sort of way. "We've been trying to remove it for three days straight and haven't made any sort of progression."
My eyes lowered to Naruto's hand, where the skin was a raw red.
"But I can't train you with this complication." Orochimaru told me. "It posses all sorts of threats that are incredibly...inconceivable at the moment."
That caught my attention more than anything.
"So I'm going to be stuck in a dungeon indefinitely?!" I retorted.
His eyes shined, feeding off my outburst.
"Perhaps not." He said. "Naruto is the only person standing in your way... What do you think you should do?"
Standing...in my way...?
I turned, looking directly into Naruto's eyes. My gaze made him struggle harder.
I can't let anyone stand in my way...
"I want to be next to Sasuke!" Naruto shouted again.
"Kabuto, let him go." Orochimaru ordered.
Kabuto shrugged, letting Naruto go, who immediately sprinted over to me.
I raised my eyebrows, feeling the sun beating on my back, roasting my desperately pale skin and took in his ragged appearance, his clothes were torn and dirty, and his cheeks were slightly drawn like they hadn't been feeding him well. There, in the warm atmosphere surrounding us, I slightly felt for him...
You stupid idiot... Getting mixed into all of this.
He outstretched his hands, running for me like there was no other place he'd rather be.
"Dobe-" I began.
He cocked his fist back, plunging it into the side of my face as hard as he could, and off guard, I stumbled back a few steps, almost tripping.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" I exclaimed, hand shooting up to my face.
"That's for trying to leave the village, you bastard!" He shouted at me. "Now you've gone and gotten us both kidnapped and held hostage by this snake weirdo!"
Orochimaru raised his eyebrows, seemingly amused by Naruto's declaration.
I gritted my teeth.
"Maybe if you weren't a weak, worthless usuratonkachi, you could've stopped me and neither of us would be in this situation." I retorted.
"How is it MY fault!?" He spouted, then he frowned, pointing at me. "You tried to KILL me and then you said it's because you're my best friend! What kind of shit is that?!"
"Well, why don't we settle it right now, then so I kick your ass back to that Konoha where you belong."
"More like I'll kick your ass back to Konoha!" Naruto shouted. "Then we can stop all this and go see Sakura-chan and Ramen-chan again!"
"You're on!"
I dug in the deepest recesses for my chakra. As soon as I discovered that I could transform into another being when I used my Curse Mark Power, I was heavily interested in how to keep it up. I hadn't been just sitting around while I was stuck in that cage with that girl. Even if I hadn't enacted it again, I knew I could do it again, I had to. I wouldn't lose to him.
Naruto dashed toward me Rasengan in hand, and seemingly using a bit of that weird red chakra he had. I braced myself, tapping into the power, and releasing it. I could feel it engulfing me... Filling me. Consuming me.
But only momentarily, then fire came, shooting down my body in a light strip and the brownish dark purple skin I'd had with the handed wings and my long hair, stuttered...and began to fade out.
No! Wait...
I struggled to contain my transformation but it was like grasping water. I was failing quickly, and Naruto continued plunging toward me, facial expression moving from determination to...something else.
Is that...
His mouth opened, it seemed like he was yelling something.
...Fear?
Then, he was next to me, skidding to a stop to avoid hitting me straight on with his Rasengan because I hadn't even done well enough to enact a Chidori and as I watched him, watched the swirling ball of wind near my face, sparks of lighting shot up all around me and the world took on a strange purple hue momentarily as I began to see sparks of blue swirling inside everyone.
Their chakra?
And my neck felt hot, so I reached for it...but the moment I touched it, the spot my curse mark was, everything vanished, and I fell to my knees.
"Sasuke..." Naruto said, Rasengan fizzing out. "Are you okay?"
He kneeled next to me, grabbing my arm.
"I'm fine." I said, pushing him off.
...What just happened to me?
"Orochimaru-sama, did you see-"
"I saw it."
I looked up, watching as Kabuto and Orochimaru stared at us. They both had smirks on but behind that...there was something else.
What did they see?
But as the moment passed, Orochimaru began to chuckle.
"Sasuke, you can have your power... But first, we must get over this hurdle." He told me, then looked over at Naruto. "Tell us what you did to tamper with the mark or kill each other with the sole survivor being the successor."
My ears perked.
"You'd chose him?" I asked.
"I like geniuses." He told me. "And with the way things are going, he just may be a prodigy afterall..."
This can't be happening.
"Until then, all three of you will return to that cell." He banished us.
I could hear the iron door slamming shut in my face before we even got back down into the hideout.
Naruto
I watched as Sasuke snatched a piece of chalk out of the hands of the girl named Karin and used it to drag a line across the partly muddy ground.
"This is my side." He said, pointing behind him to his bed.
"And that's yours." He pointed to the bed I was sitting on, directly across from his.
"If you step even a toe across this line, I'll massacre you." He threatened.
I crossed my arms.
"You don't scare me, Sasuke. I can do whatever I want."
His arm pulsed with electricity, but instead of the usual light blue aura of the Chidori, it seemed to have a purplish tinge.
"I dare you."
We stared each other down. It was silent. Karin leaned over and grabbed the chalk back out of Sasuke's hand and began dragging it across the wall. That distracted me.
"...What are you doing?" I asked.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" She replied.
I squinted.
"Making a line."
She sighed, moving backwards so I could see the multiple lines she had already made.
"Making... Lines...?" I guessed.
"I'm marking the days." She stated, then she looked me up and down, like she was seeing me for the first time and then turned to Sasuke. "Is your girlfriend retarded?"
"He isn't anything to me!" Sasuke said, not taking his eyes off me as he pulled himself up onto his bed.
I walked near Karin, trying to get a good look at the lines.
"Why did you put a diagonal one across the others?"
She continued staring at me weirdly.
"It's like saying 'five'."
I put my hands behind my head.
"Then why didn't you just write five?"
She began to write out some characters.
"It takes longer, see?"
Is that really five? Crap... I knew skipping all those writing classes when I was younger would mess me up one day.
Karin turned to Sasuke.
"He can't read?" She asked him.
"He's an idiot." Sasuke replied simply, leaning down on his elbow and picking at the sheets.
"Hey, take that back, Sasuke! I'm smart enough to know when someone's insulting me!"
"How do you sign your name then?" Karin wondered.
I blinked at her.
"I...never had to sign my name."
"What kind of ninja do they create in that crackpot village?" She muttered. "Sounds like living in such a stupid place is just a waste of time."
Sasuke smirked.
"Konoha isn't a waste of time!" I argued. "It's just that...I'm different. Everyone else knows all that stuff just fine."
"So then what's wrong with you?" Karin asked.
Long, lonely nights with nothing except shadows and the wind whistling through my empty apartment to keep me company... No photographs on the wall. No antiques in the hall. No plants. No animals. No voices. Nothing... Nothing except a lot of time clinging to my own shadows.
I grinned.
"Nothing at all! I'm a loyal ninja of that 'crackpot village' you're talking about. So shut your mouth!" I told her. "Because you're talking to the future Hokage!"
"Hokage?" She asked.
"That's right!" I proclaimed. "And then everyone in the village will put my face up on the mountain and have to acknowledge me."
Sasuke snorted.
"You wanna fight about it?" I asked turning to him.
He rolled over in bed, ignoring me.
"A leader of a village who can't even write his own name?" Karin challenged me. "You're dumber than you look."
She turned back to the wall.
"At least know how to do that much before you go around preaching..."
She began writing the characters out, and as she finished the first one. My eyes locked on it.
I think I know what that says...
"Uzumaki?"
She froze, slowly turning to eye me with those deep reddish pink eyes she had.
"What?"
"You just wrote Uzumaki, right?" I asked, pointing.
"How would you know that, illiterate boy?"
"I can't write my name but I know what it looks like. Uzumaki..." I clarified. "That's my name."
A look of pure astonishment crossed her face, and then it sunk into a sullen confusion at the unfairness of it all.
"Oh, great! The idiot's my brother..." She mumbled, flopping down onto her bed.
"Brother?" Sasuke and I asked at the same time.
"I'm Uzumaki Karin." She told us. "The last living survivor of the Uzumaki Clan positioned near the Village Hidden in the Grass."
Last survivor?
"Lord Orochimaru found me when our clan was ambushed by a nomadic clan and burned to the ground."
Sasuke sat up, looking at her like he was incredibly intrigued.
"They let you live?" He asked.
"No, I sensed them coming and ran." She said, flashing him a smile. "I'm a sensor."
That revelation didn't seem to surprise Sasuke at all.
"...I see." He said.
But my mind was going an entirely different direction.
"So... You're really part of my family?"
Karin gave me a disgusted look.
"No. Your chakra feels dirty." She said, wrinkling her nose.
She looked me up and down again, eyes settling on my bright blonde hair that opposed her hot reddish pink hair.
"It's your probably because you're a half-breed." She said.
"Half-breed?" I asked.
She rolled her eyes, clearly getting tired of explaining everything to me...like how everyone did.
"It means one of your parents isn't of Uzumaki blood." She said. "You're probably more like a distant cousin, if even that."
But that's fine. If I know one of my parents' heritage, that means I can figure out who they were. I could end up actually finding...
"Are there more Uzumaki clans?" I asked. "In the other villages?"
"Why?" She asked, still wrinkling her nose at me.
I grinned widely.
"Cause I wanna find them!" I told her. "I could find people like me!"
She stared at me for a moment and then sighed, turning from me.
"When I was really young, my family got word that our clan was most likely the only full, pure blood one still roaming around." She said. "You and I... It's very possible we're the last ones."
...What?
She got back up into her bed. I stood there in the center of the room, feet only a centimeter away from crossing Sasuke's line.
Well... It doesn't matter much.
I turned, going over to my own bed with the yellowish-brown stained sheets and rusted, red iron stands.
I never honestly thought about finding bits of my family before anyway... I figured that...
I sat on the edge of my bed.
That if they left me all alone in Konoha for everyone to hate me, they must hate me the same too.
I clasped my hands together.
But what if they just lost me, or something? What if I could find someone who knows who I really am? Where I really belong?
"Does being half-breed mean I wouldn't belong there?" I found myself asking.
Karin was lying in the bed with her face in the pillow and she sighed, probably wanting to drop the whole conversation altogether.
"Normally, it would but..." She raised her head. "You seem to have some of our power, so..."
"Power?" I asked.
"I'm done talking to you." She said. "Figure it out yourself."
Sasuke, who had decided to lay back down, turned his head toward her.
"Karin, explain." He ordered.
And just like every girl who ever met Sasuke, she didn't hesitate before she obeyed him.
"Uzumaki's are known for being really good sensors, having a lot of vitality, and being Fuinjutsu geniuses." She explained, eyes never leaving his.
"I don't get it!" I said. "What's Fuinjutsu? And what's vitality?"
"Ughhh!" She groaned. "Vitality, meaning we all live really, really long lives."
"Like until we're a thousand!?" I exclaimed.
She glared at me, choosing to go on and ignore my shout.
"And Fuinjutsu is the art of sealing. Like sealing techniques in scrolls or even on people." She told me. "Our clan is the one who created that art, so naturally, we're the best at it."
Sealing...people...?
"I can't really do sealing too well, so I shine in sensory arts. But it's obvious you're a sealing type, isn't it?" She asked. "That's the whole reason why Orochimaru's interested in you."
It took a while but slowly everything started to fall into place. I turned my right hand over, palm up and looked at the whirl seal still etched there. Sometimes it disappeared, but when I flexed my chakra, kneading it, it returned full force.
"So... Orochimaru wasn't lying?" I asked. "I... I did this...?"
But how? How could I do a technique I've never done before?
My eyes slowly drifted up to Sasuke's who was glaring at me silently. I found myself grinning back at him as he turned away from me.
"It's easy then..." I said to no one in particular, since Karin had pulled the sheets over her head and Sasuke rolled over. "I'll just tell him I don't know how I did it."
I kicked my sandals off and lay down in my bed. The dust that kicked up made me sneeze until my nose hurt. As I lay there, I found myself wondering what Sakura and Kakashi Sensei and everyone were doing. I worried about Ero-Senin and Grandma Tsunade. I worried about all the people that slowly had become my friends.
My friends...
But being near Sasuke, the friend I was still dangerously close to losing, took the edge off my worry for them.
They're in Konoha. I know they're fine.
I turned my head, gazing at the black haired boy lying with his back to me.
It's him that I have to bring back home.
Sakura's face flashed in front of my eyes.
I made a promise to a very special person...
I yawned, and it felt like the moment I closed my eyes, the moment I was thrown into a dream.
People I didn't know swarmed in front of my face, saying things I didn't understand, wearing clothes I wasn't used to...
I felt sunlight suddenly. Shining down into my eyes. I lifted my arm, shielding my face and backing up but my feet hit against the edge of something and I found myself tripping, sprawled out onto my back.
"...Ouch." I muttered, rubbing my side.
"...And so just like that, I ended up making the perfect curry stew!" A feminine voice declared.
"Sounds like an eventful day." A deeper voice said.
I watched as a man, who looked like he'd never smiled a day in his life, allowed his lips to stretch upwards for a dark haired woman who walked next to him wearing a stained apron.
She kind of looks familiar... But I know I've never seen her before.
"Oh, it's just preparing meals." She told him.
"Everyone has a place in the family."
"...Family." She repeated, then she snapped her fingers. "Speaking of that, where are the boys?"
She sped up, heading right toward me, where I still sat on the edge of the porch.
"Hey, hey, watch it!" I exclaimed. "I'm-"
But...but she walked right through me!
"Itachi-kun! Sasuke-kun!"
...Sasuke?
I turned, noticing for the first time a tuft of blue-black hair sticking out from behind the edge of the house behind me accompanied by a small pale hand gripping the wall there. As I noticed it, the woman seemed to as well and she stopped, waiting expectantly.
Suddenly, with his hands outstretched and wiggling playfully, the person jumped out, staggering slightly on small, unsteady legs.
"Boo!" He shouted gleefully, while grinning looking like the furthest thing from a monster.
This kid is...
The woman put a hand to her heart, pretending to faint.
"Oh, you sly little ninja, you got me!" She said.
His mother bent down scooping him up into her arms so quickly that his gray trousers sagged slightly, revealing the top of a pair of toilet training pants underneath.
A toddler Sasuke?
"If he's here, then where's-"
But before the man could complete that sentence, a creak was heard on the roof. Everyone looked up but before our eyes could even steady from the sun, Sasuke's father jumped to the side, narrowly missing being impaled by another boy.
"Boo." He said plainly, straightening up and flicking bits of dirt off of a sleeveless white shirt he wore that matched the one the toddler Sasuke wore.
His father straightened up, looking completely unphased.
"You keep practicing your stealth like that, and you're gonna be the best infiltration ninja this village has to offer...Itachi."
He reached out, patting his head just as his mother grabbed his cheek and pinched it playfully.
"Our little eight year old genius." She doted. "But now that you've finished playing hide and seek, help me with the sandwiches. Today's picnic day, remember?"
"We're going to the waterfalls then?" Itachi asked.
"A little time with family never hurt anyone." Their father replied.
Sasuke stretched down, thick fingers reaching for Itachi, who immediately took him from their mother and balanced him on his hip like he'd been doing it for years.
Sasuke grabbed his hair firmly in his chubby infantile hand and tugged it.
"Ow!"
"Picnic!" He exclaimed.
"Hey, Sasuke, let go."
"Picnic!"
"Let go, please?"
Sasuke has such a nice family like this?
I watched as they all walked inside to prepare for their small trip.
Then what happened to them...?
But as I asked that, I realized I knew what happened to them. I was there when it happened. In the village, when the yellow tape was stretched across the Uchiha District gate and everyone could smell the blood rotting for miles and then Sasuke was around all the time. Always alone. Always near me because I was also always alone.
The dreamscape changed as my thoughts did. The sun disappeared and was replaced by a large full moon. Blood splattered against the windows and walls. Screams rang out across the district. A swift pair of feet ran from one house, to the next to the next, and I just watched. I couldn't move or stop it and then finally the pair of feet walked up, until they were right in front of me.
This... This person... He is...
Even though he was taller, and his eyes were colder and he was covered in blood, I recognized the eight year old I'd just seen as...
His brother.
And then he lunged at me, slashing across my body with his sword and I was almost immediately cut to pieces, bleeding, and...
"Usuratonkachi!"
I shot up out of the bed, head colliding into something really hard and solid.
"Ow!" A voice rang out.
I looked around, blinking hard and trying to steady my vision.
"What the hell is a matter with you?" Sasuke grumbled.
I looked around the dimly lit, cold, dungeon and rubbed my forehead sorely.
"W-Where are we?"
"'Tch, in Orochimaru's cage, are you really that dense after sleeping?"
I shook my head, trying to shake out what I felt like was a really bad dream.
"Ohhhh... Right, right."
Sasuke rolled his eyes and pointed at the door.
"They want you."
I looked up to see Kabuto standing in the doorway with his eyebrows raised at me. As he held the door open, Karin ducked under his arm, making her way back into our room.
Why are they taking us separately? What's happening?
"Scared to leave your Sasuke-kun?" Kabuto joked.
I glanced at Sasuke who rolled his eyes again and I stuck my tongue out.
"I'm glad to be leaving this empty box." I said, getting to my feet.
"Make sure you stay out of my way this time."
"Why don't you stay out of my way?" I retorted.
Kabuto slammed the iron door shut behind me and I watched as he put his hands together forming some kind of seal on the door.
...I thought it just had a regular lock. Figures. We're really trapped...
"What do you want me for?"
"What do you think?" Kabuto replied in his sneering tone. "More experiments on that precious beauty mark on your palm."
Oh right... This thing...
I shook my head, wondering why my thoughts were so scattered, but I began to recall the conversation I'd had before I went to sleep.
"I don't know how I did it." I said to him. "I don't know, so, you should stop all this and just let us go."
He acted as if he didn't hear me. I stopped in the hall, waiting until, like I knew he would, he stopped too.
"I'm serious!" I yelled. "Let us go, this is stupid!"
Kabuto turned to me, sneer missing from his face.
"Are you really that much of an idiot?"
"What are you talking about? You're just interested in this seal, right? I'm telling you, it's just gonna have to be stuck forever."
He sighed.
"Your seal isn't the point of all this." He told me. "That's just a side operation that's only mildly amusing Lord Orochimaru. His real interest is Sasuke."
"What does he even want him for anyway?" I asked.
"That's of no concern to you. But until Sasuke makes his move, we'll just have fun cutting the nerves and tendons in your palm, one by one."
"I don't care what you do to me." I said. "But what do you mean about Sasuke's move?!"
"Naruto, you can't tell me that you haven't noticed it." He said, smile beginning to return.
"Noticed what?" I asked.
"Sasuke's true nature."
His...true nature?
"He's ambitious. He wants power. And right now, you're standing in the way of that power with this clone curse mark you have." Kabuto said. "All Lord Orochimaru has to do is wait until Sasuke gets fed up and snaps and delivers your cold, lifeless body to his feet."
I responded without even thinking.
"You're wrong!" I shouted. "Even though that guy's an asshole, he's..."
"Sasuke... What am I to you?"
"To me...you're my closest friend."
"I'm..."
"Then why... Why are you doing this?"
"It's because you're my best friend, that I have to-"
"I'm the one he really cares about." I declared.
Kabuto laughed. His laugh echoed throughout the thin, dark hallways. There was a shearing sound, like fingernails scratching against the other iron doors surrounding us, small fingernails, other prisoners?
"The one he really cares about, huh?" He smirked. "So, what? Did you think he was your one true friend?"
He is... Isn't he?
"But he tried to kill you once before, didn't he?" Kabuto turned around, still chuckling. "Heh... Friends. That's why I could never understand them."
I stood there, feeling the emptiness close in around me and the sound of the little nails scratching against the iron doors filled that emptiness, making it only feel more lonely.
Sasuke... Would you really...?
But then, as my brain reeled, reaching out in all directions for an answer, something to clarify, something I already knew, I gripped it. That dream I had.
If that was real... Then, Sasuke... The true Sasuke... Isn't the one Kabuto's talking about.
Visions of people being slaughtered left and right, trying to hide and hold their family members, opting to die with them flashed in my mind.
A ruthless Sasuke was born to protect the tender Sasuke. It has to be that way.
And then I thought of all our missions together, all the moments we'd spent, most of them silent or arguing, but still...together...
But... I've always know that, deep inside, I've always known we both put up a front.
"Hurry up!" Kabuto yelled.
My eyes set against the dim light, casting shadows across my face.
I know my friend. No one can tell me that I don't know Sasuke. I'm going to save him. I'll make it so that the true him doesn't have to hide anymore. He can count on me.