Empty Glass Jars
ATAIRA
- - -
Rating: R-17; Language, violence, blatant yaoi and…er…shota? NOT FOR THE KIDDIES
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs solely to its creator and the people who control its name and empire. I make absolutely no profit from Naruto.
Summary: Even as their lives seem to cross more and more, Sasuke and Sai pursue perfection, power and release. But nothing ever comes easily, and both will pay the price too willingly.
AN: Wow! Thanks for the reviews, guys! I wasn't quite expecting any, seeing as I'm just riding the fanservice wave hahaha This chapter may be disturbing to some so I ask those easily disturbed to step away from any of my writing. I'm being completely serious about the offensive nature of this chapter.
- - - - -
At first Sasuke had not thought to spare a second glance to the slight figure Orochimaru and Kabuto brought back to the cave. He was young with a red braid dangling down his back, had wide and fretful eyes, and altogether sported a most pitiful look of fear. Sasuke should have turned away, not even wasted another moment on that weak boy, but he remembered how he once misjudged a certain shinobi as well. A misjudgment that ate away at his pride whenever he thought of it.
He glared angrily with sharingan at the shinobi who stood across from him in the laboratory, and the boy doubled over, fell down, and started to scream in fear.
"Play nice, Sasuke-kun," Kabuto said dryly from the other side of the lab, not even bothering to see what happened. Sasuke felt relieved-- this boy actually was as weak as he looked; no need to be paranoid about this one. He scowled at the boy who was still writing. Damn that ANBU nin, making him cautious around others again.
Kabuto looked sideways at Sasuke, who looked suddenly very annoyed. This was the first sign of Sasuke starting to act more carefully around others. The first sign that the Sai boy had threatened him and worried the powerful young man. Kabuto smirked at the test tubes he was handling; it was about time the kid realized he was not as powerful as he thought.
- - - - -
The mission that Team 7 had been sent on by special leave of the hokage had led them to the neutral land between fire and wind. They were indeed granted access to investigate the scene of the assassination and the huge crater that Sasuke created- but as soon as they got there, Kakashi got a message from one of his dogs.
Pak-kun appeared, bearing a letter that was stamped with the hokage's seal. Kakashi took it and broke open the seal.
"7-513 (special) terminated. Eyes open, smog tremors detected in area. Send for brother before 5. 7-514 (A) initiated."
Kakashi allowed the three gofers a chance to read the message and try to decipher it, "So, here's your first time reading one of these, anyone know how to?"
"It looks like a bunch of gibberish," Naruto concluded, "What's baa-san talking about?"
Sakura spared Naruto a pitying glance, and looked carefully at the paper, "She's switched missions on us. The current one we're on, 7-513 it looks like, is terminated. 'Eyes open' is code for investigate, but I don't know what 'smog tremors' is. Probably code for something."
"Akatsuki's making moves and the news has traveled." Sai said quietly. Kakashi nodded.
"Anything else, Sakura-chan?" he asked, "Before Sai reveals the rest?"
"Uhm, no. this is the first time I've ever read a coded message."
Sai took the message, "The rest is short. If you need back up, send a call for it before 5 o'clock, otherwise she's going to assign the standby team to another mission," he ignited a flame in the palm of his hand and the letter burst into a ball of flames.
"What the hell!" Naruto yelled suddenly, "She said we could look for Sasuke! How can she just change missions on us like this? I don't think we should change missions at all! Let her send that standby team to chase after the damn Akatsuki!"
Kakashi shook his head, "We're closer, sending a different team would give Akatsuki time to move somewhere else. And anyways, as soon as the message is destroyed, the seal that's placed on the message sends an 'accepted' signal back to Tsunade. So let's get going and see if we can find the Akatsuki members before 5."
"No!" Naruto slashed his arm out aggressively, "Like hell we are! We're looking for Sasuke like she promised! How come everyone's trying to stop me?!"
"Naruto-baka," Sai suddenly grasped Naruto's arm and ignored the painful waves of chakra that pulsed through their touch, "No one's going to stop you. You'll find him eventually, just not today."
Naruto looked sharply at him, "How the hell do you know?"
Sai looked surprised, "Obviously because you're in love with him. And your sexual frustration is going to lead to him, right?"
Kakashi had to intervene when the fight escalated to annoying levels. His two male gofers broke apart with only minimal injury.
"Sai, don't say these kinds of things, will you?" Kakashi sighed, "Naruto's still in denial."
"Aaagh!" Kakashi easily dodged the punch and pushed Naruto down while he was still moving with furious momentum.
"Now let's get going."
And that was how their search for Sasuke was postponed.
- - - - -
Orochimaru knew that Sasuke's frustration at being beaten by another young man had been building for the past week, but he never knew that it had grown to such an alarming level. He was randomly killing off experiments that Orochimaru specifically said to test out, causing a build up of bodies that was overall unnecessary He was overdoing justus during practice, as if he testing the extent of his power; and pissing off Kabuto whenever he decided to test the jutsus on the teacher and his faithful medic-nin. The foundations of their underground lair were not too happy about the damages either, and every time Sasuke went off the deep end Orochimaru remembered the anger the first hokage felt when Orochimaru had summoned him from the dead. Then he'd rethink his experiments that manipulated the first hokage's genes. These underground caves ran pretty deep...
But this was going just a bit too far. Orochimaru glared at his young charge, which was currently standing in the doorway, arms crossed before his chest. Orochimaru sat up and immediately the boy gyrating above his hips clung to his shoulders, still moving jerkily.
"Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru said evenly, "As exciting as a threesome may be, this one's a virgin, and you know how much I like to enjoy them by myself."
Sasuke's eyes flitted over the boy who was moving up and down with an expression of extreme pleasure. It was the red-haired boy from earlier that week. Sasuke didn't spare a second glance.
"You said you'd teach me something new this morning. It's already past noon."
Orochimaru languidly pumped the boy, "I'm a bit busier than I thought, Sasuke-kun. I didn't think I'd left so many test subjects in this hideout. They've missed me, you see."
"This one's the new one."
"He was 17th in line, I promise I've been going through them as quickly as possible," Orochimaru's smile was strained, "Now why don't you go and play with Kabuto-kun?" the boy's rapid movement stopped as he suddenly arched into Orochimaru's chest and screamed. Pale fluid erupted between the experiment and the scientist.
"It's past noon. Don't you think you've had enough? It's my turn to train."
Orochimaru laughed as he placed the sated boy back into his cage, "Sorry Sasuke-kun, but number 18 is, quite literally mind you, dying with need, so you'll have to wait in line." He snapped a different lock open and its prisoner hurtled out.
Sasuke watched as the boy immediately began thrusting against Orochimaru, his eyes crazed and wild. Orochimaru lifted him and penetrated him swiftly with no preparation, holding him against the cage and thrusting in deeply. The boy's relieved groan irritated Sasuke, but the other prisoners watching number 18 and Orochimaru pressed tighter against the bars that held them in. Sasuke was sure these experiments had some kind of effect that made them this sexual...this base was known for the perverted use of lab subjects. Honestly...who would willingly lust after someone like the snake sannin? Sasuke frowned with disgust.
"Tight..." Orochimaru whispered before clearing his throat and looking back at the unintentional voyeur, "I'll come later...or sooner, depending," he smirked at the young boy who locked his legs around his waist, "So just practice something in the meanwhile."
Sasuke scowled darkly and strode out of the dark cage-chamber. Orochimaru watched the retreating figure, but decided not to pay him anymore attention. He clenched the boy's thighs tighter and continued to rock into the gasping boy. He would worry about his pretty Uchiha doll later.
The next day, Orochimaru was taken over when trying to transfer to the younger Uchiha.
"So," Kabuto said while Sasuke walked towards, "You'll spare random large groups of ninjas you don't know, but you'll destroy the man who trained you this far?"
Sasuke ignored him and continued to walk away. Orochimaru had become weaker than himself: now he was a thing of the past. It was time to prepare a new cache of weapons.
Kabuto watched the young man walk away. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Okay, so he -was- as powerful as he thought. This was going to make things very interesting...Uchiha Itachi had better watch out for his otouto-chan.
- - - - -
"So Naruto-kun," Sai whispered, "The older one doesn't appeal to you as much as the younger one?" when Naruto attempted to punch him out, Sai evaded and made subduing gestures, "If you start anything now, you'll alert them to our position. Quiet down and you can try to beat me later." the blond boy growled threateningly but relented, understanding Sai's logic.
"I fucking hate this," Naruto pushed a few leaves aside from their lookout tree, "Akatsuki is probably checking out the blast scene too. I mean, we saw it, it looks pretty damn frightening. We should have stayed there and waited for them to come to us."
"You're not a very good ninja if you follow simple mission instructions." Sai said pleasantly, "Stop trying to get put on probation for insubordination."
Naruto was quiet for a few minutes before turning to Sai, their faces hidden by leaves, "A good ninja follows his intuition just as much as his instructions. Following your emotions is just as important as doing what you're told. But you wouldn't know that, not with your head stuck in someone else's ass."
Sai smiled at Naruto, "Again with the homoerotic language. Do us all a favor, Naruto-kun; hire a man for a night and get it all out of your system. I promise you'll feel much better once it's over."
"Will you two shut up and concentrate on the mission?!" Sakura's irritated voice came over their earpieces. Naruto unclenched his grip around Sai's neck and suddenly perked up, looking through the leaves. He had sensed something.
"Yeah," Sai quelled a cough, "They're here."
There was a blur as two figures in black moved past them. But Naruto and Sai could properly identify them. It was Uchiha and his pet fish.
"Target sighted," Sai whispered into his earpiece as he and Naruto stealthily moved through the forest, "…and identified. Missing-nins Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigake Kisame." They ghosted carefully through the thick tree tops, favoring quiet over speed.
"Copy," Kakashi responded, "Keep a long tail or they'll smell you out. Naruto, hang back a little. Let Sai do the close-shadowing." Naruto immediately fell back and allowed Sai to speed ahead.
Sai pulled out a jar of ink from his pocket and splashed it on the forest ground as he whizzed overhead. The ink moved as swiftly as he did, blending with his shadow. He would need it later in the very likely event that he met up with the Akatsuki duo.
This was the problem with Tsunade. She was more mathematically inclined, so her writing skills sucked. She never specified exactly what he was supposed to do when he found them. Eyes open, and then what? How hard was it to write in code anyways?
Before he knew what was happening, his body twisted backwards and his hand was already throwing shuriken out. Uchiha had materialized in front of him, and his ugly sharingan had loomed right before him. Sai felt his body hit the forest ground, but the pain was dull in comparison to the psychological pain that also coursed through his nerves. He could practically feel the agony as his mind was being pulled apart and analyzed brutally. There was no finesse to the jutsu, only the pull and tear of his mind trying to fight the intrusion.
Then suddenly he was aware of something else. When he opened his eyes, there was a red sky above him, and his arms and legs being chewed by inky beasts. Sai blinked and stared. They were large, much like the beasts he painted and released, and long rows of teeth were gnashing violently into his body. There were too many, but at the same time the pain was like one screaming blaze of agony.
Above him, a red moon burned, unaffected, indifferent. The dark red sky seemed to leech all color from the rest of the illusionary world. Sai closed his eyes.
With much more effort than he used to counter the other Uchiha's fire-blast, Sai heaved at the psychological illusion. He ignored the raging beasts and attacked the illusion with all of his psychological effort. But no matter how hard he tried, the illusion never gave any sign that it was relenting. The beasts continued to claw into his bloody body.
Suddenly, Uchiha appeared inside the illusion, standing behind the beasts that were ripping his abdomen open. Uchiha watched a slight frown in his brow.
"You're not afraid."
Sai was gasping for breath, "It's not real," although the pain begged to differ, "And...I'm not Sasuke. I don't care if you kill me."
Uchiha stepped closer to Sai, who could feel his vocal cords being ripped out of his body, "Was it really he who created that blast? Not a jinchuuriki or the sannin?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't he kill you, too?"
Well damn, Uchiha knew he was the ANBU who targeted the Suna official, "Because he c-couldn't catch me." he gasped as his liver was chewed through. It looked gross; dark flesh flying and spurting blood.
Uchiha stepped away as an artery suddenly gushed blood when it was punctured, "You aren't special to him?"
Sai tried to roll away, tears streamed from his eyes. It seemed like as if body parts were growing back just so there was something left to maim, "Would...would that bother you?" "If you are special to him, I will kill you." death threats must have been a normal thing to Uchiha. He could say something like that so easily now, so cold like the burning moon.
Sasuke was going to have a field day when he heard about this, "You and Naruto...are so..." Sai tried to cough but his face was bitten, and his facial bones made interesting cracking noises as they were chewed through. His voice still came out, slightly wry, "...isn't...isn't incest gross?"
Itachi frowned, and suddenly the beasts were growling, their jaws even stronger as they shredded mercilessly into him. Sai gave in and screamed, the voice coming unnaturally from his broken body. His body writhed, giving in to the pain.
"Itachi," there came a foreign voice, "Sasuke doesn't give a rat's ass about Sai. He's not going to care one bit if you kill him. I doubt he even knows Sai's name."
It was Kakashi, somehow penetrating the illusion. He was suddenly standing beside Itachi, hands deep in his pockets, a picture of nonchalance. But Sai could see (suddenly with his eyes back), that Kakashi's left eye was completely visible, red and swirling hotly.
Itachi stared pensively at the boy he mutilated. Then both sharingan users disappeared. Sai gasped in pain and tried to move away from the onslaught of pain. But he quickly realized something that made him let out a long scream. Itachi was gone...but he was still captured in the illusion. He wasn't going to be released. The inky beasts closed back in on him.
- - - - -
Sasuke looked sideways at his traveling companions. Suigetsu was bickering heatedly with Karin. Juugo was contemplating something under his breath. They were getting closer and closer to his brother, and the tension was starting to spark the weirder quirks of Orochimaru's children. Just the other day Suigetsu jumped into an oasis lake and came out with tentacles out of his back. Needless to say, Karin's laughing sparked another fight that Sasuke didn't even have the energy to intervene in.
And this again. Sasuke felt something prickle on his wide scope of the land. Someone had just entered his subconscious boundary. And it was an extremely familiar presence.
"Hey," Sasuke sighed, stopping suddenly, "They're coming."
Suigetsu and Karin broke their fight for a moment, looked off into the distance, and then started fighting again.
"Do you think you can handle this?" the monster nodded, but already his eyes were starting to look wild.
"What's wrong? You can't control yourself?"
Juugo shook his head quickly, "I just...have a question..." Sasuke watched as the four people's chakra auras got much closer, "S-Sasuke...is it female or male?"
Sasuke bit back a sigh, "Juugo...I don't want you to kill any of them. So try to control yourself. I'm here." the boy nodded furiously.
"Mm..." Suigetsu grinned, "it's your fan club again, Sasuke. They smell so richly of the forest. Even the desert can't dry out that scent of rain."
In a matter of four minutes, Sasuke was being gawked at by his former team mates. His former sensei looked bored (but Sasuke could see he was very much on the edge) and the ANBU who got away was standing by Kakashi, his face totally blank.
"Awh shit," Suigetsu ruffled his hair, "Can we skip the ogling and jump right away to the yellin' and screaming?" Naruto shot him an acidic glare.
"You shut the hell up--"
"Or how about," Karin interrupted, "We skip the yelling too, and jump to the part where we beat you up? I call the pink one."
"Oy, oy," Kakashi made placating gestures, "We're not here to get beat up!" But as soon as he said it, he dodged a fast blow from Suigetsu, who had obviously been itching to physically fight someone for the past few days. Sasuke frowned. Suigetsu was starting to get annoying. But if getting the crap beaten out of him by Kakashi would calm him down, then he'd let the boy battle it out.
Karin took Suigetsu's attack as a sign and also pressed forward, a blade already out in her hand. In what could only be called the most repetitively useless move, Naruto activated his kage bunshin, which caused mass confusion.
Juugo, (apparently the lucky sex was male today) snapped, striking out and obliterating the closest Narutos near him. But Sasuke quickly held him back.
"No, Juugo," Sasuke pointed at Sai, who was helping Sakura out, "That one."
Juugo stared, absentmindedly striking out against a few more bunshins, "But is that a girl...or boy?"
Sai turned at that comment, and suddenly grinned at Juugo, "That's pretty much what I thought about Sasuke too! I suspected the open robe was just to reassure everyone he didn't have boobs!" Juugo stared at Sai, but then also grinned a little.
Sasuke held Juugo back, "Never mind, Juugo. You go after the blond ones."
It wasn't until after the first blows that Sasuke realized that Sai was avoiding his eyes totally. He was still watching Sasuke's every movement, carefully retaliating and blocking when necessary, but he avoided Sasuke's eyes completely. Sasuke frowned and pressed forward, wondering if Kakashi had already warned him about the Sharingan's power.
He also noticed something else. For some reason, just as he did almost every time they met, he was toying with Sai. He was moving slower than usual, moving carefully with more restraint than he usually used. For some reason he was fighting almost languidly, not like his usual ferocity.
Sai apparently seemed to notice, because there was always that infuriating smile on his face, his sparring as impeccable as a machine. He even bothered with the useless ink business. But when Sasuke suddenly appeared right in his face, Sai was suddenly a distance away, his smile slightly strained because of the sword that had sliced cleanly through his abdominal wall.
"What's wrong, Sasuke?" the androgynous guy said pleasantly, "Feeling sluggish today?" Sasuke scowled internally...big words for a guy whose intestines had been an inch from being sliced up. He pushed on, the dangerous sword glittering, but not striking in vital spots. Sasuke knew before he began the fight that given different circumstances, he'd be able to kill this nin faster than it took for him to draw his sword.
But it wasn't the right person. This leaf jounin had no intention of killing him...and he was an entirely different fighter because of it. Sasuke quickly disabled him, a fast series of punches in vital areas, leaving him to lie harmlessly in the dirt.
A quick gesture from Sasuke and suddenly the fighting stopped. Suigetsu had suddenly poured out of Kakashi's unyielding grip; Karin didn't bother retaliating Sakura's fierce blows, and even Juugo stood to attention.
"No!" Naruto yelled, spun on his foot, held his hands out as if to catch Sasuke.
The group of four scattered.
- - - - -
