For those reading 'Love At Its Worst' I have started a re-edited version, so this is a redo of everything and there will be dramatic changed, hopefully you'll find them more in a positive light. I deleted the old poll so….
Please vote in the new poll.
Chapter One: Goodbye Naruko
Sasuke's lips curled in a gruesome smirk, his front bangs draped, shadowing his eyes, and his fingers digging into his palms. "Drop the act Naruko," He glared up at her, his eyes piercing and blazing with anger. "You act all high and mighty and I'm sick of it!"
Naruko returned his emotionless stare; her pupils followed the trail of blood running down his arm. Finally after long minutes of silence she spoke just loud enough for him to hear, "Sasuke, Why do you follow the path of darkness?" She asked him, her head tilted and brows bunched.
"Shut up!" He growled whipping his face directly at her, "You don't know shit! What pain do you know? Always the oblivious fool,"
Both of their wounds bled profusely, blood seeped through the makeshift cloth used to seal the wounds and dripped down onto the burnt grounds. Naruko winced when she felt the kunai lodged into her chest dig deeper, she was sure that she would soon lose her vision if she didn't stop the blood flow, that is, if Sasuke hadn't gotten to her first. Glancing down at herself she cursed at the amount of damaged Sasuke had done to her, ripping out the Kunai would do much more harm than good, but keeping it lodged into her chest caused ripples of pain to shoot through her with each movement. It barely missed her heart and had punctured a lung.
"You're wrong," She growled. "In this world, we've all lost someone precious!"
"Pathetic," Sasuke scoffed, "Don't you even dare compare that pain to what I went through, to what the village did to my family!"
Naruko scowled, her teeth become bare and her eyes blazed with fire; she returned his glare with full force, "Pain is pain! Your pain will never end as long as revenge is in your heart!"
"Fool, my revenge is what fuels me. That is why I have to take revenge, and if you stand in my way, then I will kill you," Naruko watched as Sasuke drew Kusanagi no tsurugi, she forced her strained muscles to dodge and barely managed to keep Sasuke from slitting her throat. Using her hands as leverage she drew a kick aimed at his chin. Sasuke twisted to the side and sliced his sword across, grazing Naruko at her waist as she back flipped away from his attack. Without giving her a moment to recuperate, Sasuke charged forward and wrapped his hand around her small neck, tightening his choke hold as he lifted her off the ground.
Naruko struggled to breathe, she clawed at his hand effectively drawing blood, "..S-Sasuke…" She bared her teeth at him.
His reply was a smirk.
She narrowed her eyes, using his arm as a leverage she lifted herself up and kicked him in the chest, successfully forcing him back as she fell onto her knees gasping for breath. The dagger vibrated in reminder of the damage already done to her lungs. Sparing Sasuke a glance, she licked her lips and tasted sweat, dirt and blood. Rising to a stand, she charged forward, kunai in hand.
Sasuke kicked up as she came down, hitting her square in the gut while Naruko dug the kunai into his shoulder, she clenched his neck and dragged the Kunai deeper in his shoulder and sliced it down his body, effectively giving him an open wound that enabled him from using that arm. Sasuke hissed and clawed his nails in Naruko's scalp and threw her to the side.
She landed as a heap on the ground and stilled. Sasuke let his wounded shoulder go limp, he held Kusanagi no tsurugi in the other. Breathing in deeply he spoke, "Is this the strength of Konoha's best? Weak,"
Naruko's limbs shook violently as she pushed herself from the dirt. Her arms protested in pain as she heaved herself onto a knee. "Shut up, you say Konoha with such disgust, but we both know you love the village," She smirked when she saw him react to her words.
"Love?" He chuckled angrily, "I'm incapable of feeling such a weak emotion,"
"Your brother loved the village," Naruko knew she was playing with fire by mentioning Itachi, "Does that make him weak?"
Sasuke reacted violently, he appeared above her and lifted her by her collar, "One more word and I'll cut out that tongue,"
Naruko began to laugh, she chocked on blood and smirked down at Sasuke, "Your pathetic Sasuke, your brother loved the village, so much that he sacrificed himself," She continued to laugh, "Here you are, contradicting your beloved brother's wishes,"
"You don't know anything!" Sasuke yelled, he shook her in the air, "My brother died because-"
"-Because you killed him!" Naruko screamed, interrupting his thoughts.
He dropped her.
Naruko flipped back away from him. She watched as he seemed to be lost in his thoughts, and then just as suddenly he returned, angrier than before.
"I'm ending this," Sasuke dropped his sword and tore off his ripped sleeves.
Naruko reached towards her chest and pulled out the kunai lodged into her lung, right as she pulled it out blood began to ooze from the wound. Sasuke seeing her ridiculous act chortled, "You know, dying from blood loss is a pathetic way to go,"
Naruko replied, "That may be so, but killing your best friend is a fate worse than death,"
Sasuke frowned, "True, I admit that out of everyone in Konoha you were the closest to me, but that was a long time ago, now, you are nothing but a waste of air,"
Naruko charged forward, Sasuke jumped back and blocked her kunai with shurikens. Smirking he activated his sharingan , "Too slow," He whirled around in midair and kicked a clone to the side.
"Not quite," Naruko growled. Another one of her clones appeared behind him as he came to the ground, it held him by his stomach as another one came down on him with a chakra enhanced punch. Sasuke dropped his weight on the clone holding him; reaching behind him he grabbed the clone's petite shoulders and threw her upward at the other clone. The clones collided and then proofed into smoke.
"Same old tricks, are you sure you learned anything these past few years?" Sasuke cracked his neck and turned around.
"And you're the same old cocky bastard," Naruko replied. She took a step forward then stopped when she noticed her vision was off balanced, Damn! I'm losing too much blood!
"I won't allow you to hurt anyone else,"
"In that case, I guess I'll have to kill you," He replied.
Without hesitance, Naruko summoned two more clones, each one standing at her side. Holding her hands out as each clone began the shape transformation and nature transformation of the Rasen shuriken.
"Rasen shuriken.. interesting," Sasuke whipped his usable arm to the side, his eyes crazed with delight, and the cruelest smile imprinted on his lips, "This is how it will end!" lighting affinity sprang to life in Sasuke's palm, the air vibrated with electrical currents as he crouched his body in preparation. Naruko tensed as Sasuke charged forward, his chidori locked on her and the ear screeching vibrations of the lighting ringing in her head. Her Rasen shuriken wouldn't be completed on time to be thrown, its full power will be lost but that didn't mean it wouldn't cause damage if she ran it through Sasuke's body.
Naruko felt lost tears run down her cheek as time seemed to slow, Sasuke's blood thirsty eyes directed on her: his target. He was closer, but even then felt so far away.
"Neh, Sasuke?" Naruko smiled, leaning her face closer.
"What is it, idiot?" Sasuke frowned; the dobe couldn't be more annoying, suddenly shoving her face into his. It irritated him to no end that she could affect him by just coming closer.
"You actually like it, don't you?" She laughed, she poked his nose, "The great Sasuke actually likes hanging out with konoha's knuckle head kunoichi?"
Sasuke huffed and turned to walk away, he was suddenly halted by someone jumping onto his shoulders. "Admit it!" Naruko yelled, pushing him down with her arms.
He tumbled over from her weight on his and ended up on the ground, Naruko straddling him. She beamed at him from where she sat and yelled once more, "Admit it, or I'll kick your ass!"
Sasuke realized his cheeks had become hot and turned away, "You're an idiot," He growled, trying to hid his embarrassment, "Get off of me, you idiot,"
"Takes one to know one!" She yelled as she jumped up, Naruko held her hand out to Sasuke and almost chuckled when he slapped it and got up by himself.
"You're an idiot, everyone knows that," He huffed.
"Then I guess everyone else is an idiot too," She returned with a scow.
"Well you're a jerk, I don't see why girls swoon at the thought of you, your egotistical and rude, and you hate ramen, so with that said, you're the king of jerks," She stuck her tongue out at him. She began to turn away when he grabbed her by her wrists, "What?!" She bellowed when she turned back to glower at him.
"I….prefer your company," Sasuke whispered.
She had imprinted that moment deep within her memories, that moment was the only moment Sasuke had truly stated that he acknowledged her, and the look he gave her would follow her throughout her life. Sasuke was her best friend.
She couldn't recognize the man that was before her now.
"Chidori," laced with poison, his voice echoed in her ears. He came upon her in a lighting fiery.
With no time to throw her wind affinity, she drove it straight into Sasuke, "Rasen Shuriken!" Naruko screamed. All hope and energy built up in this last attack.
A bright light consumed the whole battle ground, rubble flew through the air and the world vibrated. Silence consumed like an atomic bomb and soon all that was left was the smoky fog of the aftermath.
"Even in your last moments you couldn't find the strength to do it,"
Naruko hugged her arms around his shoulders and grunted as his arm that was stabbed straight through her abdomen exploded with blood and pain. "Admit it," She whispered desperately.
Her rasen shuriken had taken out his use of both his arms and inflicted major damage to the upper portion of his body, how he was still standing and supporting both of their weights was beyond Naruko. "Admit it!" She screamed. Her body began to shake. Tears flowed freely down her face.
Sasuke pulled his arm back from her body; Naruko's blood cloaked his arm and the open hole in Naruko's abdomen rained blood.
"Admit you love Konoha," She whispered as she fell onto her knees.
Sasuke stared down at her bloodied body, his emotions running wild on his face.
"I am unable to feel love," except for you…
The blue orbs that were full of energy became clouded, her hair fanned down her back as blood dripped from the corner of her mouth and from all the wounds on her body, wounds caused by him.
Taking in a breath he spoke, "Goodbye, Naruko,"
Sasuke continued to stare at her body as blood pooled around her, her hair once golden and bright was stained by crimson red, Sasuke tried to pry his eyes from the dying woman, but the site of Naruko losing her connection to life right before him enabled Sasuke from pulling his eyes away from her, his reflection in her blood stared back at him as if taunting him. Murderer! Monster! "…Dobe," he whispered before he tended to his dire wounds and stumbled towards the burning village.
-:- -:- -:-
There you have it, the first chapter of the edited version of 'Love At Its Worst' I wanted to get out at least one chapter for the day, especially since my schedule has died down for a little bit.
I want everyone to know that, because that this is an edited version; everything in the unedited version will be erased. Things will remain the same, but most will be altered to fit my preference of the story.
Also for the flashback, I made Sasuke a tad bit more lenient and caring towards Naruko because first, The flashback was set before Sasuke left but after team seven had been through hell, so I had Sasuke and Naruko create a bond that even Sasuke found 'tolerable,' And for the flashback, if Sasuke had a little crush on Naruko in the past? Well that's up to you to decide. I would think of it as an undeveloped relationship that could have definitely turned into a blooming romance.
I tried my best to correct my grammatical mistakes, but again, I'm only human –that's too lazy to truly go back and check detail for detail- so there might be a few mistakes. And who knows, there might not be any but I wouldn't count on it.
I erased the old poll, so the poll will be open once again, this is a harem fic so you go ahead and vote for who you want our knuckle head of a kunoichi to be paired with, or not paired with, who knows, and she might not end up with anybody at all.
Thank you for staying with this story for so long, especially when I decided to re-edit everything, I won't apologize for it because again it's my free time on what I do, and there is no obligations on my end. But I will thank you for taking the time to read it.
Until next time –Hopefully soon-
-Sana.
