Taiyou
Summary: The sun shines no matter what choices we make in our lives. Each chapter tells a different story. What would happen if we had taken the other path?
1 – The Snake
I had to choose. Would I give up all that I have now, for the opportunity to make up for my past?
Almost a year ago, I would have jumped at the chance to become more powerful than him. That was before I met a certain idiot. An idiot who never seemed to realize how pitiful his situation was. Somewhere along the way, I realized that the two of us weren't so different. He wanted to go along a different path, but both of us wanted to go to the same destination.
Redemption.
Maybe I'm getting soft. I can never forget how cold his eyes were that night. It still hurts to this day. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I half expect my mother to be there, in the kitchen, making breakfast for myself and Itachi. When I stop to think how long it's been, I remember us, before the massacre. If I were stronger then… Would I have been able to protect her?
As far as I can tell, I'm getting stronger with each battle I survive. But is there another way? The thing on my neck tingles when I think about it. Orochimaru… What did he mean when he bit me?
Will this… This curse seal…
Will it make me strong enough to kill him?
Something inside me tells me I should leave Konoha. I should leave to train, to become stronger. Running around with that clumsy idiot has made me weak.
But something else tells me to stay. What you are feeling isn't weakness, it says. It is a different kind of strength altogether. What fueled you before was hatred…
Now, the source of my strength is different.
Now, all I want to do is protect what I have… And what I love.
Itachi will pay, one day. When we meet again, I will be far stronger.
But before that…
()()()
"He's back?" Sasuke looked up from the pile of scrolls on his desk. The two years that Naruto had spent training had also strengthened the young Uchiha. A promising young Chuunin, Sasuke was constantly on demanding missions…
…when he wasn't ordered to do any paperwork, that is.
"Yes." Sakura smiled, sitting down. "He's gotten taller… I can't believe it. And he isn't quite as dim as he was before."
"What, now you have a crush on him?" Sasuke laughed.
Sakura stared at him. "N-no! It's nothing like that. It's just…"
"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Sasuke looked out the window, where a certain Konohamaru was chasing down a certain rogue neko. "When was the last time I heard that dobe's voice?"
He smiled. The blonde had been missed.
"Hope all that time with Jiraiya hasn't messed up his personality." Sakura grinned.
"His personality is messed up as it is." Sasuke smirked.
A knock on the door put an end to the conversation.
"What is it, Hinata?" Sasuke frowned.
The Hyuuga peeked into the room hesitantly.
"S-someone's here to see you, S-sasuke…"
"Oi, Sasuke-teme! Open up!" Naruto said loudly.
Sasuke shook his head. "Can't you see I'm busy, dobe? Shikamaru needs all this paperwork approved in time for the next-"
Undeterred, Naruto kicked open the door.
"Since when was paperwork more important than-"
The two locked eyes. Sharp sky blue met whirlpools of blood red.
Naruto froze. "Y-your Sharingan…"
"What? You're not the only one who trained all this time." Sasuke stood up and examined his teammate. "Sakura told me you'd grown, but I hadn't expected much…"
The blonde frowned. "You're still as full of yourself as ever."
"Unlike you, I have work to finish, idiot."
"Yeah, well I'm not the one stuck doing paperwork in an office building."
"You're not a Chuunin."
"You're not the one who trained with a Sannin."
"You spent two years with an old perverted writer of romantic fiction."
Naruto frowned. "…touché."
"Heh. Dobe."
"Teme."
Naruto stared unblinkingly at him for a few seconds before getting the wind knocked out of him by a big hug.
"G-geh! Sasuke?!" Naruto looked at the brunette in confusion.
"Hmph." smiled the Uchiha. "Sakura isn't the only one that missed you, you clumsy idiot."
Naruto hugged back. Not a bad reunion, he thought.
()()()
Kabuto paced outside one of Orochimaru's labs. It had taken longer than he'd anticipated, taking into knowledge the fact that Sai was much weaker without his brush and scrolls.
"Orochimaru-sama, I'm coming in…" sighed the medic nin, making a mental note to think of a shorter name to call his master ('Orochimaru-sama' was quite a long thing to say).
The pale body that belonged to Sai was writhing on the floor, as if something invisible were choking it. Next to it was a hastily discarded brush and a spilled bottle of calligraphy ink. Sai's eyes glared at him with angry intensity one second, and astute victory the next. The curse seal on the left side of his neck spun wildly, releasing volumes of chakra that struck nearly everything in the direct vicinity.
That was the main reason why Kabuto had been waiting outside. But for Kabuto to have been this impatient…
"O… Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto said hesitantly. They had both assumed that Sai wasn't strong enough to resist the sannin's attempt to take control over his body.
"Hsss… K-kabuto, you traitor…" Sai stuttered.
"Hn. I'm sorry, Sai, but this is how we'd planned it from the beginning." The white-haired ninja watched him curiously, invisible waves of chakra buffeting him with notable force.
"You… You promised to resurrect my brother…!" Sai growled, lashing his arm out in an attempt to reach his brush.
Kabuto reached into his pocket and quickly threw several senbon, pinning the brush to the ground. "I don't think so. Orochimaru-sama, is everything all right?"
Sai's left eye flashed a sickly yellow. The nin arched his back, hissing.
"Y-yes, though he is more powerful than I had a-anticipated." Orochimaru struggled to say, in Sai's body. His voice took on a rasping serpentine quality, though it still sounded like the anbu's normal tone.
Kabuto glanced to one side, noticing Orochimaru's discarded body slowly corroding in a corner.
Sai's right eye soon changed color as well, and the seal on his neck began to vanish.
"Kabuto…" Sai managed to say, in his last moments. "Y-yamato ordered me not t-to tell you…"
A skeptical Kabuto raised his eyebrow. "You're still there? Fascinating. Perhaps a byproduct of Root's training…"
"Y-your family…" Sai gasped. His body was having convulsions.
"My family died when Kyuubi attacked the village." Kabuto frowned.
"No. They… She…" Sai smiled weakly.
"She?" he asked.
"Yeah. She… Was your master's f-former teammate. Your aunt…"
"Tsunade?!" Kabuto knelt by the trembling boy. "It's a lie!!"
Sai closed his eyes. "Ask… your master."
His body stopped shuddering. Sai was gone, with a weak Orochimaru taking his place in the pale boy's body.
"The change will start soon…" Kabuto took a set of bandages out of his pouch. "…"
"Tsunade…"
()()()
"Itachi, Pein will question us if we're late, you know that?" Kisame set down a bloody Samehada onto the ground.
"It won't take long. I just wanted to see if he'd returned safely." Itachi gazed out into Konoha, his eyes scanning for a certain young man.
"Who, Uzumaki?" Kisame began cleaning his sword. "Tch. Kirigakure nin are as bloody as I remember them."
"Hn." Replied the stoic Uchiha.
"You're as delightful as always." grinned Kisame sarcastically, his pointed teeth gleaming in the afternoon sunlight. "…this is the fifth time in three months we've been here. You waiting for him?"
"No." Itachi's lips curled ever so slightly into a smile. "Just watching my brother."
"Oh?" The shark man paused to scratch his head. "You've been acting oddly since he DIDN'T defect to Orochimaru…"
"Well… I guess part of me is glad he didn't leave."
Itachi's eyes rested on a certain Sasuke, currently busy fighting off several Uzumaki clones.
"Ah, I remember when Leader sent me to scout you. You trained a lot in that particular field, didn't you?" Kisame sighed nostalgically. "Back then I didn't believe a kid could be of particular use to the Akatsuki. Guess I was wrong…" he chuckled.
"He's getting pretty good, isn't he?" mused Itachi.
"Mmm… He could use a little more speed, but overall… Not too bad." he nodded.
He's made some surprising decisions, Itachi thought. I really expected him to leave after the beating I'd given him, but he actually stayed and found those scrolls Father had been keeping for me. Even without Dad pressuring him or Kakashi constantly tutoring him, he's learned quite a bit. But how did he get to that level of Sharingan? Not even I managed that without resorting to the Mangekyou…
Sasuke has been making good progress… He'll catch up with me sooner or later if I'm not careful. He smiled. Little brother… I hope you can do what I couldn't, bound by my duty…
"Is that a smile I see on your face? That's pretty rare." Kisame stared at him.
"…Let's go." Itachi turned around, walking off into the distance.
"I'll never understand that guy." Kisame snorted, following him.
()()()
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Orange and black-clad clones surrounded the Uchiha, each of them charging at him. Sasuke punched one in the gut, using another as a ledge to leap gracefully into the air.
"Katon Kyokaku no Jutsu!"
Blazing fire enveloped the clones, diminishing their numbers greatly. Naruto had barely escaped the flames, a section of his jacket singed. He drew three kunai from the pouch on his waist and threw them at the airborne Sasuke.
"Not going to work this time!" Sasuke took a katana from his back and deflected the kunai easily. Landing in a roll, Sasuke blocked a punch from one of the Naruto clones and stabbed another in the chest.
He looked up in time to see Naruto and a clone about to throw a ball of charged chakra at him.
"Kawarimi no Jutsu!" The attack hit its target dead-on: the unfortunate tree stump splintered into pieces.
"You've gotten pretty good!" Naruto panted, with a manic grin on his face.
"So have you." Sasuke wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead.
A sudden tremor shook the ground beneath their feet. The two jumped just in time to avoid one of Sakura's powerful punches.
"You guys aren't the only one who's been working out all this time!" Sakura smiled, the training field in front of her nearly decimated.
The look of surprise on Naruto's face was priceless. "What the hell?! Is she on steroids or something?!"
"Shocked me, too, first time she tried it on me." Sasuke laughed sympathetically.
"Hope she doesn't go all PMS on us…"
"What did you say?!" Sakura shouted.
Both boys 'eep'ed and escaped the next fissure.
Kakashi watched silently from a nearby tree. It had been two and a half years since Naruto had convinced Sasuke to stay at Konoha instead of leaving to join Orochimaru. During that time, Tsunade had sent him on several missions, which had taken him far from the village. It was around then that Naruto had left to train with Jiraiya, when Sakura began her training with Tsunade, and when Sasuke had begun intensive training with techniques he'd found in his clan's scrolls.
"Despite all that, it seems everything worked out okay." Kakashi watched his team with pride. He wondered if this was how the Third had felt, watching his genin team grow up into the legendary Sannin. Naruto had matured, Sakura had blossomed, and Sasuke… Sasuke was the one that had changed the most.
"Looks like my work here is done." Kakashi dropped down from the branch he had been sitting on, whipped out his new copy of Icha Icha Tactics and began the long walk back to his apartment.
"Oi! Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled from afar. "Where 'ya going?"
Kakashi turned his head a slight bit. Right behind him stood Naruto, with leaves in his hair, Sasuke, with a torn sleeve, and Sakura with no discernible signs of having been in battle at all.
"Don't think we didn't see you in that tree watching us." Sakura smiled.
"Well, I was just thinking about going home and taking a warm bath…" Kakashi gave them a sly look.
"Remember these?" a grinning Naruto took something out of his pocket and threw them to the Jounin. "Iruka-sensei gave 'em to me! He told me to show 'em to you…"
Kakashi looked at the objects in his hand. They were the bells he'd used on the first day of their training, to test their teamwork.
"If you insist…" Kakashi put down the book and strung the bells on his belt. "Same rules apply…"
"Whoever loses buys the winners ramen!" Naruto shouted.
"Make mine beef." Sasuke drew his katana, grinning.
"I'm having miso!" Sakura clenched her fists.
"Okay-HEY!" Naruto pouted. "Don't think for an instant you've already won!"
"Remember who won last time?" laughed Sakura.
"Kakashi-sensei! You ready?" Sasuke smiled.
The masked man tried, but he could barely hide the happiness he felt.
"I won't go so easy on you this time." Kakashi drew a kunai from his belt pouch and crouched into his usual fighting stance.
"Ready?"
This is the path I have chosen.
"GO!"
The nin disappeared into the forest, in what seemed like a game of chase, but in truth, a test of skill.
Owari
()()()
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