…numb.
by thenote
-o-
…
…
…
Don't find love, let love find you. That's why it's
called falling in love, because you don't force
yourself to fall, you just fall.
~ Unknown ~
…
…
…
-o-
This is THE END.
That was the relief filled thought which took her strawberry minted breath away.
…but she was wrong.
-o-
It was only the beginning.
-o-
~Chapter Onze~
o*o*o* her free fall*o*o*o
(Thud-
BAM!
-thud.)
The sun's brilliant rays danced across the horizon, as a warm fire spread across the sky. Night would come soon and drape itself across the sky, causing darkness to enfold. Just the thought made her hurry more.
Her bare, drenched feet trudged across the shattered pieces of stone, which once formed a magnificent marble floor on which only the feet that belonged to the most powerful people had stepped on. Today, beggars, peasants, low ranked genin, and some of the most incapable medical ninja crowded the small area, examining its destruction, probing around for any injured or missing ninja that the remaining mutts hadn't already scouted out. The ones scouting were the only ones able to do it at the time—the rest of the shinobi from the closer villages had been either fatally injured or unconscious .
Soft jade eyes wildly scanned the area searching frantically for the two things that kept her sane—she could not afford to lose even one of them.
Her sanity depended on it.
-o-
"Sakura-chan!" a strident, very youthful voice bellowed from somewhere inside the throng. A bruised rosette's head whipped around fast enough to give her a whip lash. However, the small pain she felt was ignored as she raced back to a shattered piece of stone where the owner of the voice was waiting for her.
"Lee," she panted, "what is it? Did you get any news of what happened to Naruto?" after a pause she added, "…or Sasuke?"
A very…erm, glittery, and shimmering grin spread across her face which caused a small smile to sneak up on her own.
"Yes! Some medical ninja and Kiba-kun found him crushed under a fragment of stone a couple miles away!" he said cheerfully. The news caused her to gasp, and put a palm to her mouth. Seeing her worried reaction he rushed, "Oh no, no! He's in a stable condition—he was just knocked out from chakra depletion."
Sighing in content, she placed a hand to her heart. After a few heartbeats, she whispered, "…and what about…Sasuke?" she shifted her gaze so she would be looking at the ground.
Silence.
And then—
Poof!
"They found him, in a pool of his own blood, unconscious…" it wasn't Lee's reassuring voice that answered, it was a cold, hard voice from none other than her own former teacher—Kakashi.
-o-
Beams of light shot in though the holes in her tattered tent. Carefully, one pale eyelid reopened for the first time in five days, revealing a cold, amber pupil. Suddenly, a barrage of voices and questions echoed around her, causing her to clutch her blond head.
"Hokage-sama!"
"She's awake!"
"Should we get a medic?"
"How are you Hokage-sama?"
"Stop crowding her! She needs fresh air, so get out of the tent." Was the only voice she recognized at the moment.
Slowly, she slid herself up, and rubbed her eyes. "Shizune?" she rasped out, "What happened? Did Pein die? Wha-What happened to Naruto?" amber eyes flashed around the room panicking, until she caught sight of her assistant sighing with a small smile on her face.
"Tsunade-sama," she began, "everyone is fine. It was Naruto who saved all of us, and brought the rest of us back to life. Pein is dead, and Konoha is safe." She smiled softly.
Tsunade sighed in content, as she weaved her pale hand through her sunny, blond locks.
"But," the small smile Shizune had placed on her face was replaced by a frown, as she bit the bottom of her lip hard enough to make it bleed.
The hand stopped weaving, as smoldering amber eyes gazed heavily on the woman beside them. "But what, Shizune? What else happened that I am not aware of?" she hissed gruffly. "What is it?!"
"They replaced you with Danzo…" she whispered, shrinking back.
"WHAT?!"
(BOOM!)
-o-
In the recuperating village of Konoha…
"WHAT!?"
(BOOM!
Newly built, wooden houses break.
Other houses practically jump.)
"Roku…What was that?" a frightened chunnin shivered at the broken gates.
"I don't know Lin…I think it was an earthquake…" the other whispered. And then they remained shaking, waiting for an older jounin to take their place.
-o-
"THOSE OLD HAGS HAVE FINALLY LOST THEIR MINDS—"
"Tsunade-sama, please calm down…Danzo is—"
"—WHAT ARE THEY DOING?! DO THEY REALLY WANT KONOHA DESTROYED!?"
"Please, lower your voice…The villagers—"
"AND THE VILLAGERS! DID THOSE BASTARDS EVEN THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY WANTED-WHAT THEY NEEDED?! THEY NEED A L-E-A-D-E-R—NOT A DICTATOR!"
"TSUNADE-SAMA!" Shizune bellowed, finally shutting up her master. Taking a couple deep breaths, she glanced around the tent and few, newly built buildings that the former Hokage had just destroyed. She winced at the thought of how much damage she could have done, if she had all of her strength and health back…
"What is it Shizune? You shouldn't raise your voice like that—it might give the villagers a wrong impression." Tsunade raised her eyebrow, and folded her arms across her chest.
"Tsunade-sama…Danzo is dead." Shizune said softly.
Tsunade's eyes brows furrowed, as she put a thin finger under her chin. "Danzo is dead…? What happened?"
"While you were unconscious, the five kages had a meeting..." Shizune winced when she glanced at her master's balled up fist. "During the meeting, Uchiha Sasuke and three other unidentified members of Akatsuki attacked the meeting—their goal was to kill the kages."
"Uchiha Sasuke?! He became part of the Akatsuki?!" she stammered.
"Yes…That was one of the reasons why the Raikage had come to the meeting; he wanted Sasuke dead because of the Uchiha had kidnapped his brother, the host of the eight-tails.
When the Akatsuki attacked, some kind of conversation had erupted between the Uchiha and Danzo during their battle, while the other kages had escaped. Sometime in between, Naruto and another Akatsuki member, who we now know is Madara, showed up sometime in between."
"Madara?!" Tsunade gaped, "He died years ago!"
"That is what everyone else thought, however we were wrong. It seems that something Naruto said, stopped the Uchiha from killing everyone. Other than that, we have no idea how the battle really ended.
It seems that Danzo's body has already been destroyed by a fire, and Madara's has disappeared as well. The kages have been taken to our medical center to be healed, and Naruto is living off of a chakra-supplying machine." Shizune ended sighing as she placed her nimble hands onto her lap.
"…And Sasuke?" Tsunade's voice was barely above a whisper.
"….he was brought back to Konoha, unconscious with his new team trailing behind to make sure that he was alright."
"Is he still alive?"
Silence.
-o-
"...Hm? What did you say Kakashi-sensei? I couldn't hear you?" Sakura mumbled, tilting her head and placing a frown on her pale, flawless face.
Kakashi sighed, placing a glove covered hand behind his head. "I think you should go see Naruto." he smiled a little, however, the smile did not meet his murky, onyx eye.
Sakura smiled softly and whispered a barely audible, "Hai!" and disapeared with a poof!
Lee stared blankly at the spot that his object of affection had just been at before vanishing. "Kakashi-sensei...Is what you said about Sasuke-kun true?" he looked up to see his teacher's rival staring at the dancing lights on the horizon. His large, fuzzy eyeborws furrowed as he waited for a deligent answer, or just a carefully picked out word.
"Lee, go home. We can take care of the rest here." Kakashi ordered, not sparing him a glance.
"Hai..." he whispered, frowning with droopy eyelids before leaving in another poof!
Kakashi tilted his head up, his gaze resting on the bleeding sky. He could only wish that the information he had given wasn't true...
-o-
'I have finally become a real shinobi.
but not a real human being.
Shinobi were never humans.
they were merely tools.
.killing machines.
and that is why
they are all
numb.'
-o-
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own anything Kishimoto owns. If I did…this story would be moving a lot faster.
Time Period: Takes place after Sasuke's battle with the Kages and after the manga- meaning everything is "SUPPOSED" to be fine when it's over.
A/N: Hey guys! How are you people?! Ugh, the manga is really pissing me off nowadays, so I decided to fast-forward this to make a SasuSaku story. But it's not going to be an easy one where he comes back, sees how much she has changed, looks at her figure and falls in love. Nope. Those stories are too unoriginal and boring—I mean where's the thrill in those?
The title refers to what a man becomes after the things the world has molded into him. No person is ever born evil, they are only tainted and misguided by the teachings and enviorment they grow up in. The story is mainly SasuSaku, NaruHina, some ShikaTem, teeny weenie bit of SuiKar, a lil TenLeeNeji, and a bit of my new cute favorite couple--GaaMatsu.
Numb is going to be a very long multi-chapter story, and the title is based off of the song Numb by Linkin Park. I was listening to Numb, Leave out all the Rest, and New Divide by Linkin Park. And also the song, Perfect in Weakness by Flyleaf inspired this. All I can promise is that this is going to be a story worth waiting for.
If you like making people's days, and like making them happy, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE REVIEW! Tell me if I should continue this story!
Keep safe!
-thenote