"Eternal Flame" -by Shadray
Full Summary- "This boy…has no pulse. No heartbeat. No breathing. And the healing isn't working," Tsunade breathed. "I'm afraid…Uchiha Sasuke… is dead."Disclaimer- …hmm…I wonder….
Author's Note- Um, people? This would be the first Naruto fic I've written...but I feel that it is...interesting, to say the very least. Or at least, the plotline deepens at a certain point—more than that sad excuse for a summary that I just gave you…. Please give it a chance.
You'll find that—since this is more of a prologue than a real first chapter—Naruto IS the main character of this story, although he doesn't actually show up in this chapter. And you'll notice that I may give a few characters some made-up techniques they didn't have in the anime or manga.
Please be at least remotely kind in your reviews, unless you are particularly interested in having an author track you down, burn down your house and destroy your crops. Oh, and if you request that I read one of your stories (in your review), I shall. n.n;
Please read, and do enjoy.
Eternal FlameChapter One (Prologue): ...Death.
A dark, hooded figure stood in the midst of the shadows, hidden from view due to the obscurity of the night. The figure did not move for a curiously long time, seemingly waiting for its chance to scurry away at the perfect moment.
But as time moved steadily past, the figure's growing impatience caused it to jolt from its safe position in the darkness and dash into the woods, where it was, of course, quite possible for someone to overhear the rustling of the leaves as the figure leaped from tree to tree, attempting to reach its destination.
The hooded figure rocketed through the forest like a bullet, not daring to make even the slightest rustling noise as he leapt from branch to branch. The moonlight emerging from the spherical, potholed object in the sky was its only source of light, but it was far more than enough for the figure to see with.
The journey through the forest continued in an uneventful—yet highly cautious—manner for such a long time that it was only getting repetitive, and the hooded being soon regretted its decision to leave so late at night. If it had left earlier, perhaps that damn Uchiha would—
The figure froze.
There had been a rustling of leaves below him—and there was certainly no breeze blowing through here, and no visible animals. Someone was here.
But no…. The hooded being had no time to waste—and if someone had seen him, surely they would have made some other noise other than a rustling of leaves, such as a gasp or a shriek—or something. Besides, who would be here so late at night?
And with this in mind, the dark thing hurdled to the next tree branch, on which it landed silently—
And froze once more.
Now what was that noise?
It was not a rustle this time. No—it was—
"Hyah! Hu! Hah!"
—the sound of a girl's battle cries, accompanied by a few whacking noises that seemed to echo throughout the forest. Apparently, someone was training here. Alone. In the middle of the night.
The fool.
The dark, hooded being descended just low enough to catch a quick glimpse of the girl. It was admittedly difficult to see all the details in the darkness, but the girl seemed to have short, indigo-colored hair and strange, bottomless eyes… Eyes that—
"What…?!" he mumbled to himself inaudibly. "Is that—?"
The girl suddenly whipped around, staring straight in his direction.
"Wh- Who's there?" she stuttered uncertainly, narrowing her eyes to see better.
The figure did not move an inch, knowing very well that there was no way that girl could see him in the darkness, for his cloak was camouflaged to blend in with both the tree behind him and the pitch-black atmosphere.
Still, the girl did not turn away: she continued to stare directly at the spot where the figure lurked, as if she could really see him.
And that's when the hooded figure saw it—
The veins protruding out from her eyes…the light purple color of her bottomless pupils… A member of the Hyuuga clan. The being in the hooded cloak knew she was utilizing her Byakugan to see him perfectly in the pitch-black darkness—which was not good. He had been sighted.
Damn it.
The Hyuuga girl squinted a little more, as if focusing her Byakugan and seeing right through his cloak. The figure in the cloak stared at her, eyes widened, knowing she would realize who he was in a matter of seconds; there was no choice but to kill her now, before she told anyone of…
—Too late.
The girl's eyes had widened dramatically and she was now gasping so loudly that one would think she had been holding her breath for minutes. The girl began to take quick, short intakes of breath, finally realizing who the hooded being lurking in the shadows was. "It- It's you…isn't it?!" she breathed, shocked. "It's you…Sasuke-kun…!"
"Mmph." The hooded figure jumped down to the ground to look her in the eye, and violently ripped off the cloak from his body. "Yes," he said. "It's me—Hyuuga Hinata."
He seemed much more mature than when he had left the village of Konoha so many years ago. His black hair now extended past his shoulders, and his skin seemed much paler than before. The young man's eyes sent a chill down Hinata's spine, and the dark attire he wore made him seem a great deal more—secretive and peculiar.
Of course, during the time that had passed since Sasuke's sudden leave from Konoha, Hinata had seemingly changed a great deal as well. Her indigo hair was now past shoulder length, her eyes were deeper and more intense, and the young woman was now reasonably taller—all signs of her physical maturity. But she had not become so strong that she couldn't hide the obvious look of shock from her face.
She merely stared at him, surprised at his sudden unexpected appearance. Hinata furrowed her eyebrows a bit, wondering just he was up to, lurking in the woods so late at night. The only reason she was out here herself was for her daily midnight training; for the past two years she had been getting up at this time to venture outside and train by herself, when no one would look or criticize her newly found style of fighting.
"I—"
She stopped; there was something amiss with the Sasuke she had once met. She had never known him well, but she had seen him at the Chuunin Exams so long ago, and…he didn't look the same— There was something in his eyes…something wrong. Something—malicious. He's…changed… Hinata thought. He's—
"Yes?" The Uchiha looked down at her and grimaced. "What's wrong, girl?"
"S- Sasuke-kun…" She swallowed, not knowing what to say. "Naruto-kun… The village… Konoha has been looking for you—! We've been trying to save…" Her voice trailed off, as her mind thought of the one person she knew who would be most delighted to see the young man in front of her. Naruto… She pictured his bright blue eyes and the broad smile he always used to have on his face, and it calmed her a bit.
"Trying to save me? Is that it? Is that what Konoha has been doing?" Sasuke said quietly. "Well—I'm afraid I've been doing much more." His eyes flashed, and a horrible wicked grin spread across the Uchiha's face.
"And…wh-what is that?" Hinata questioned, even quieter, trying to get him to explain what he'd been up to for the past 3 years.
"Obtaining strength—and searching for my brother." He harrumped, and muttered under his breath, "…feh.."
Hinata looked him up and down, still frightened but attempting to conceal it.
"Are- Are you trying to find him now? To…fight him?" she asked quietly, knowing she sounded ridiculous for questioning him like this. But she didn't care; she was now trying to buy time, because she knew very well that she wouldn't get out of this without a fight. Surely…I won't be a match for him, if he attacks…
But she continued thinking of Naruto—and as she did, her confidence grew. She could easily remember his saying: '…because that's my way of the ninja!'
"Hmph. I wouldn't tell you for anything," Sasuke replied simply. "I hardly even know you."
"Sasu ke-kun…"
"No one is supposed to know I'm here out here. This will have to be your end." And with that, he whipped out a large number of kunai from seemingly nowhere and flung them all out in front of him; the weapons soared through the air, about to reach Hinata's face, when—
Hinata performed a rapid series of hand movements and mumbled a few words under her breath, and a narrow blue beam of chakra protruded from her hand. The Hyuuga clan member swiped her hands through the air so quickly they looked like a mere blur—and in seconds, all the kunai had been sliced into bits and were nothing but chunks of metal in a heap on the ground.
Hinata looked up at the peculiar Uchiha in front of her and smiled innocently, now gaining all of her confidence. "…is that all?"
He smirked. "I see you've strengthened. That was only a test to see how quickly I'll be able to kill you," he muttered. "I'll give it—one minute, at the most."
Saying nothing more, the mysterious ninja performed a series of hand movements and said, "Fukashi no jutsu!" And he vanished seemingly into thin air.
Hinata looked around. "Byakugan!" She shook her head and concentrated, closing her eyes tightly, and when she opened them again there were veins protruding from them.
The young woman looked left and right, concentrating hard on any movement that might be occurring around her. And—
There it was. On the ground, a twig snapped; that must have been where Sasuke was standing. Hinata leapt forward and kicked the air where she suspected he may have been located—but her leg made contact with nothing but oxygen.
Sasuke's manic laughter echoed through the forest.
And, while Hinata continued looking about, a strong hand from behind whacked her and she flew through the air like a rag doll, where she collided into a broad tree. The young woman fell to the floor, trickles of blood running down her face. For a while she didn't move, making no indication that she planned to get up; Sasuke merely watched with what looked horribly like pleasure.
'…because that's my way of the ninja!' Naruto had said, long ago.
Hinata still remembered it clearly how the blonde ninja had always said that when it looked like he might give up. And Hinata and always admired it. I…definitely won't give up now. I…must bring him back to Konoha, or…
Leaving the sentence unfinished, the girl rose to her feet—and there was a loud cracklingnoise as she focused her Byakugan even more, to the point where she could keep a good eye on the enemy in front of her, no matter what speed he was moving at. Then, quite audibly, the young woman said, "Now…it's my turn…"
She leapt forward and flung her hands out as if to perform a karate chop to Sasuke's neck—but the Uchiha easily parried the attack. Having anticipated this parry from the beginning, she continued striking at him at a quicker and quicker pace, focusing her Byakugan enough to aim for his internal organs. Sasuke continually blocked each strike at first—but soon the attacks were coming at him so unbelievably rapidly that Hinata's hand movements were merely a huge blur, and his hand movements were becoming a blur as well as he continued blocking as many strikes as possible.
"KYY-AAH!"
Hinata struck him straight in the chest with a powerful blow, and the Uchiha flew backwards and slammed into the ground.
She was panting like a dog that had just run for miles, but she did not move from her stance, for the black-haired young man in front of her was rising to his feet, smirking. "Enough play; you're a waste of my time," he spat. "All this time, I didn't even need to use the curse seal, or the Sharingan."
And with that he zoomed past Hinata at top speed and stopped when he was standing directly behind her. Before she would whip around, the corrupt shinobi went through a series of hand motions, and exhaled a breath of bright red flame that engulfed the young woman in a tall, thick sheet of fire.
And just like that, he left her to burn.
->->-
Hyuuga Hinata waited until she could wait no longer, hoping that Sasuke had left by now, and then allowed the water clone she had made of herself to revert back to its original form: a puddle of water.
…good thing it rained earlier today, she thought. The fates were with me…
She'd fooled him.
The young woman waited a bit longer to make sure she would not run into Sasuke again, and then she rushed back to Konoha: She had dire news to tell.
->->-
"Sorry, kid—but Hokage-sama's busy with loads of paperwork at the moment, and does not wish to be bothered. Besides, it's past one in the morning; what are you doing here? ….Go to sleep and come back in the morning."
"No…! It's urgent, please!"
"I'm sorry. No."
Hinata sighed. "Sir…but you don't understand… It's very pressing news, and if—"
"Here. I'll make a deal with you." The man guarding the door smirked. "If you bring me back seven orders of ramen, I'll think about thinking about thinking about it. Alright—?"
BAM.
Just then, the door he was guarding slammed open, and a frustrated-looking blond woman came charging out, knocking the guard over and stepping all over him in her mad attempt to exit the building.
"Finally… fresh AIR!" she gasped, inhaling audibly through her nose. "Away from all those damn stacks of paperwork and from Shizune's constant, NONSTOP…ANNOYING AS HELL…." She suddenly stopped talking, grabbed a great chunk of hair from her head and "RRRIIPPP"-ed it out, while foaming at the mouth as if she should have been carried away by a group of men in white coats—and then abruptly stopped when she noticed Hinata and the guard staring at her. "Oh. Um…. Good evening."
"On second thought… You do what you what, little girl," the guard said to Hinata, as he slowly innnnnnched away from the woman and fled, not daring to look back.
"Hokage-sama..." Hinata exclaimed, glad that Tsunade had chosen this exact moment to come out and get some fresh air…even if it was so late at night.
"Well, well. If it's not Hyuuga Hinata," Tsunade greeted, smiling. Then, the smile faded a bit as she said, "…oh, you weren't trying to get inside, were you? What are you doing here at this time of—"
"Trying to contact you…" she interrupted desperately. "Something horrible is happening…"
The Fifth furrowed her brow. "Hm? What is it?"
"It's...Uchiha Sasuke. I…saw him in the—"
The smile on the Fifth's face vanished so quickly that one would have thought she'd just learned her father died. "You say you did… what?"
"He was in the forest, far out… and—and I—" The girl quickly explained the situation, and what had happened as fast as possible.
The Hokage's face was pale. "Oh, no… Damn it… Did he at least say where we was going?"
Hinata thought back, and recalled something he had said. "Well…after he left, I waited to see which direction he would go…and it seemed that he was going to the north, far edge of the forest. And he said something…something about searching for his 'brother'…"
The Hokage muttered a rather foul word under her breath that Hinata was quite sure her mother would not approve of, and narrowed her eyes at the ground. Hinata got the impression that she was thinking very rapidly.
"Damn it… This—is not good…."
->->-
"Oh…hee, hee, hee—!" Jiraiya wolf-whistled quietly and snickered pleasurably at the sight of the three half-naked women bathing in the spring. Well, it was more to add to his collection of perverted pictures of sexy women—so he was quite happy, and in an unusually good mood.
"Katie...! Stop it!" one of the girls snapped in the spring, splashing another one irritably with some of the water.
"Ugh! You wet my hair, you whore!" the girl named Katie snapped back, slapping the other girl powerfully across the face and leaving a visible red mark on her cheek.
"ASS!" the girl screamed, grabbing Katie by the hair and flinging her around.
Seconds later, the two were in a massively pitiful catfight, and were clawing out each others' eyes, ripping out each others' breasts, and munching on each others' arms, while the remaining girl merely watched and sighed.
Jiraiya excitedly tape-recorded the whole thing, grinning broadly, and attempting to stop little Jiraiya from showing up, if you know what I mean. "Oooooh…" He snickered some more, still watching the two slender, wet girls attack each other like wild fiends, and he did not stop until something came out from behind him, whacked him in the back of the head, and screamed, "JIRAIYA, YOU IDIOT! STOP TAPING PERVERTED PORNOS, AND GET YOUR PITIFUL ASS OVER HERE NOW! THIS IS SERIOUS!"
"Eh?!" Rubbing the enormous, throbbing ball protruding from the back of his head, the white-haired sennin arose from his good view of the girls in the spring, sighed, and turned around to face two sweat-dropping women who he recognized immediately as Tsunade and Shizune.
Shizune shook her head with much obvious pity. "Jiraiya-sama… You…are one sad man."
Tsunade nodded, agreeing. "And give me those binoculars!" she cried, ripping the binoculars he'd been using to spy on the girls from him, and chucking it far away. "Have you any idea what's happened, while you were out enjoying yourself spying on females?" she said sharply.
He grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.
"Uhh—well, no…."
"Hinata has just relayed some horrible information to me…" Tsunade explained. "It's about Sasuke. The boy who left the village years ago…."
Jiraiya's sheepish expression was abruptly replaced with one of utter seriousness. "What? Sas…uke? You mean, Orochimaru's…? Why would he be turning up so suddenly, with no sign of forewarning?"
"Yes. I'm afraid…he's been sighted. And it seems he's headed for Uchiha Itachi, his brother. The three of us—" The Fifth Hokage gestured to herself, Shizune, and Jiraiya. "—must stop him, at all costs. This is a special S-ranked mission, Jiraiya. If not…"
He nodded, understanding. "…It may be possible for Itachi to easily defeat him and use him…for Akatsuki's own purposes." He paused. "Which would be even worse than Orochimaru's possession of him."
"Exactly." Tsunade scanned the area, and moments later, pointed north. "This is our only clue to where he may be; we'll continue north until something is spotted. Understood?"
The jounin and the other sennin exchanged glances and nodded firmly. "Yes."
->->-
Why would Sasuke be looking for Itachi in this forest? the Fifth wondered internally, as the group continued traveling through the forest. What reason in hell would Itachi have to be so close to Konoha…?
This question had been going through her mind over and over again, ever since she had left from Konoha. But, of course, the question was unanswered, and it was best to leave it alone for now.
She, Shizune, and Jiraiya had been leaping from branch to branch to branch for quite some time now, and had seen nothing peculiar or out of the ordinary.
Shizune looked around. "Tsunade-sama…can we be sure the Hinata girl was right? She could've…"
But Tsunade merely shook her head sharply, indicated for Shizune to silence herself. The man behind them, Jiraiya, had kept to himself the entire time, apparently thinking deeply about something. Tsunade stopped and pointed ahead, at three shady figures lurking in the shadows. It seemed they had finally reached their destination.
"The fool," a dark voice said. "To think he could defeat Uchiha Itachi… even with that seal of his."
"Silence, Kisame," another voice commanded. As Tsunade peered closer, she saw, with not much surprise, that the man speaking was Itachi himself. And, she realized with dismay, Sasuke's body was sprawled out on the ground before him, unmoving and unconscious.
"He did put up a good fight, surprisingly—he's strengthened." Itachi looked down at his leg, which was very bloody and in quite bad shape.
"Yes, he did injure you tremendously…" the man named Kisame agreed. "But we shall return to Akatsuki…and heal it." He paused. "But—what about the Kyuubi brat's mother?"
"What about her? We'll find the bitch afterwards."
…
Did he say…?
Tsunade turned to face Jiraiya, whose eyes were widened dramatically, as if he too could not believe what he had heard. But they both made no noise, aware of what would occur if Itachi sensed them here.
"Fine. Let's go," Kisame said, and he picked up the Uchiha beside him and left, leaving Sasuke lying sprawled out on the floor.
When the coast was surely clear, the group of three descended to the ground and rushed to aid Sasuke, who still showed no sign of consciousness.
"He seems to be in a critical state," Tsunade said quietly, observing him closely. "Very critical. It may be…" She trailed off, placing her hands to Sasuke's heart. The chakra she used to attempt to heal him emitted a green glow.
Shizune seemed confused, however. "But…didn't that man say something…about searching for Naruto's mother?" But before anyone could respond, she shook her head. "No, he couldn't have…right?"
"I don't know," Jiraiya admitted gravely. "But something is definitely amiss here. Naruto's mother was thought to have died long ago, when the Kyuubi was still here… Why would they want to find her? It makes no sense."
The green glow coming from Tsunade's chakra suddenly disappeared.
"What's wrong, Tsunade-sama?" Shizune queried, furrowing her brow.
She said nothing for a moment. Then, the woman slowly turned to face the other two shinobi. "It seems," she said, "that Naruto's mother is not the only person who seems to be dead here…"
"Hm? What…do you mean?"
"I mean… this boy…has no pulse. No heartbeat. No breathing. And the healing isn't working," she breathed, gesturing to the unconscious young man sprawled out helplessly on the floor before them. "I'm afraid…Uchiha Sasuke… is dead."
->-
To Be Continued