Title: The Watcher
Author: Lilya
Genre: Supernatural
Summary: When Sasuke and his allies try to extract the Fox from its container, they get more than they bargained for. Revelations on the workings of Naruto's mind, through the eyes of Karin and Sasuke.
Main Characters: Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Karin.
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine – it belongs to Kishimoto Masashi.
Author's notes: this fiction owes a lot to Terry Pratchett and his novel Thud!. It struck me one day as an answer to the famous question: how can Naruto remain so cheerful in the face of his childhood? He certainly didn't see the best in human nature, now, did he?
Much of Kushina's dialogue is shamelessly lifted from Thud!, if a little revised. It was simply too perfect.
The Watcher
They have planned everything.
The attack, the capture, even the perfect hideout where to stop and extract the Fox as soon as possible…
They have planned everything. Except this.
They had expected that the chakra would resist the transfer, but this is simply beyond resisting.
Resistance they know how the handle, but not this.
At first they think it's the Fox itself, but Karin is not fooled long: she just has to close her eyes to see the world in different colours and the energy fighting them off is not that red so dark it's almost black characteristic of the King of Demons.
No, the – barrier, if she can call it so, is yellow.
It doesn't make sense, his type of chakra always comes in shades of cyan – some in lighter blues at the most, never yellow and the shade…
She has seen, tasted all types of chakra, every colour possible and imaginable – and even some for which she had to find a name herself, in the privacy of her own head – but never this one.
Yellow usually comes in duller hues – like flax or saffron, lemon or mustard.
All colours with a hint of darkness in them.
This one she can only define as Pure Yellow.
It's the extract of all the crayons used by every single past, present and future child to colour the sun – the biggest, brightest sun possible.
It almost hurts her eyes and she could swear that the others are seeing it too, perhaps for the first time in their lives.
Raw chakra in a globe, pulsing and throbbing like a heart, like a miniature star.
She opens her mouth to shout a warning, but the explosion is faster.
It's like a storm with all the thunders going off at the same time.
It feels like being struck by lightning: suddenly they find themselves on the ground, lungs empty and nerves tingling with pain all over their bodies.
They lie paralyzed, helpless as babies as the chakra starts changing, moulding itself into shape.
All she can do is breathe faster, fear suddenly creeping into her heart and putting down roots.
On her left, Sasuke tries to move but his muscled refuse to obey him.
He grits his teeth in frustration and stares – everybody is staring, this is not the Fox and the boy can't possibly be doing it, he's still knocked out.
The globe is lengthening and thinning, sprouting five bulges that grow more and more definite by the second – two legs and two arms and a head.
A woman stands in front of the Jiinchikuri – no headband, round and friendly face, thick Venetian-red hair flowing loose down her back, almost to her feet, but her lithe form states she is a ninja.
Sasuke's breath gets caught in his throat. He has seen that face before, smiling out from within a simple frame, impossible to miss because it was the only photograph in Naruto's home that did not portray somebody he knew.
Back then, he did not ask – he had more common sense than that.
Who else could it be but Naruto's mother, eternally twenty-six-year-old?
His mind is racing – he knows Naruto never knew his parents, but what is she doing here, now? Was her spirit accidentally sealed with the Fox?
There's something frightening about her.
It cannot be explained with words as it's just a feeling raising from the deep, but this petite woman in a flowered dress seems to tower over all of them.
Her face is blank – the blankness of ancient statues, tinged with solemnity and hidden knowledge.
She turns her head slowly.
Even that simple movement is stiff and heavy, as if she wasn't used to moving in this world.
One by one, her gaze finds them all.
Suigetsu's mouth opens and close, but no words escape.
Juugo whimpers in downright panic, trying to crawl away, then Karin gasps and then…
Then it's his turn.
Cat-like baby-blue eyes whose eyelids nobody saw move, eyes that were born open and staring look right into his own.
There's something in there, right behind all that blue – something dangerous.
Sasuke feels her watching right through him, deep down into his soul. Parts strong as walls are being toppled while other as light as veils are being viciously torn apart – it hurts, it burns, it tears and cuts, like a sudden light into a perpetually dark room.
He falls back down clutching his chest, fighting wave after wave of pain.
The pain has barely begun subsiding when she speaks.
"What do you want?"
All of them see her lips move, but the sound comes from all around – walls, ceiling, even the floor on which they lie.
Sasuke speaks before his own brain realizes it. "The Fox. The Demon."
"You want the Dark." Her voice is the rumbling of the ocean, ageless and genderless. "But you cannot have it."
Sasuke glares, his eyes slowly going from black to red. "Who are you?"
"I am the Watchman."
"The watchman?" Karin whispers, staring at her.
The woman turns to glance at the unconscious boy over her shoulder. Nothing changes in her countenance, yet they can perceive a slight difference – a sort of unfathomable warmth.
"He created me." She states simply. "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who watches the watchmen? Me. I watch him. All the time. You will not open this gate."
"Who on Earth creates his own personal policeman?!" Sasuke snorts angrily, disbelievingly.
Something flickers in her eyes. "One who fears Darkness," There is a new solemnity in her tone. "And so he should."
Her eyes find Sasuke again, but this time, there is no searing pain.
She looks at him and her lips move into a smile – a terrifying smile. Death's own fixed grin, flashing out from beneath Its black cape.
Panic grips him and holds him, sending little earthquakes to shake his body – his vision begins to blur as her voice resounds again.
"His Darkness."
"W-what?" Sasuke stammers, dumbfounded.
"I am not here to keep darkness out. I'm here to keep it in."
The words echo in all the refuge.
It suddenly dawns on him that Naruto, for all his reputation as a punk, could have done worse. Much worse.
Konoha showed him all her hatred and disgust and he never retaliated, never showed anything but smiles and laughter.
He used to call him an idiot for never getting angry, never getting even – but he was the idiot.
Twelve years is a long time. To a child, an eternity.
How much anger can be accumulated in twelve years?
And it isn't over still.
How much anger can be accumulated in sixteen years? How much hatred?
How many times can one wish to reduce Village and villagers to ashes in a day? In a month? In a year?
How many times can one come close, this close, to doing it before snapping?
Now he understands why she's wearing the same dress she had in the picture.
Naruto created her, Naruto gave her a shape out of his own chakra – the shape of his mother from the only image he ever had of her.
His own mama to guide him. His own watchman to stop his worst side from taking over.
Watching over him.
Always.
"What are you?" Karin whispers reverently.
"I am darkness too. Call me…the Guarding Dark. Imagine how strong I must be." Utter fury twists her features into an unrecognizable mask. The floor begins to shake and light starts shining through her clothes and her very skin. "Leave now and do not bother me again!"
All four ninjas scramble to cover their ears and their eyes – she hasn't even shouted, but the sound is deafening and the light burns their eyes through the closed eyelids.
When they look again, she has vanished – but a faint yellow aura still shimmers about Naruto's body, reminding them she is never truly gone.
From a distance comes the sound of the outer door being knocked down, shouts and footsteps rapidly approaching.
The Leaf nins have come to the rescue.
Suigetsu is the first to react.
He elbows Juugo out of his stupor and orders him to carry away their leader while he helps Karin to her feet.
Nobody even suggests trying to take their captive with them – too weak, too dazzled by the encounter. They can only leave him for his friends to find, until the next time.
They barely make it out of the old Uchiha base undetected, then they run for hours and hours until their feet refuse to take another step.
By chance they find an abandoned farmhouse with a well, where they finally stop to rest.
Nobody is pursuing them.
All is still and quiet in the hot afternoon air.
It is Karin who breaks the silence first, her voice half-shocked and half-gleeful. "That was incredible! I have never seen anything like that!"
She babbles on excitedly, eliciting groans from Suigetsu and Juugo's polite attention.
Sasuke is not listening, too lost in his own thoughts.
The incident has left him deeply shaken – he feels as though he had been weighed, measured and found wanting.
Or not wanting.
He truly cannot tell which one is worst.
The image of her grin is burned in his brain and will not leave him.
It was aimed at him, only at him – perhaps for something she saw into his soul. He wonders what it could have been, though he carefully avoids looking for the answer.
"I must absolutely study him!" Karin concludes with unprecedented fervour.
"Forget it," He leans his face against his joined hands, unable to suppress a shiver. "Every time you look, she will be looking back."
I wrote this fiction a short time ago and I really like how it turned out - that's why I decided to publish it rather than leave it gathering dust in my hard-disk for some time.
Anyway, liked it?
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