Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. (It's only chapter 3 and I'm already bored with disclaimers... XP)
Main plot idea belongs to TheNightShadow4 :)
It had been a week and Naruto's bed still hadn't shown up, meaning he was left at the mercy of a bare-chested Uchiha that liked to sleep in only his boxers... The blonde wouldn't have been bothered by it (much), except for some odd reason, Sasuke had a tendency to spoon him in his sleep. And upon confronting him about it, the raven simply told him to 'shut up and enjoy it.' Naruto did his best to ignore it, given the raven had been half asleep when he said it...
After a quick breakfast, said blonde found himself walking alone with the creepy (and slightly moldy) cavernous halls, mostly just to disobey the snake lord; Naruto didn't like him much anyways. Besides, being on his own would give him time to clear his thoughts.
Taking his time striding down the distant-feeling corridors, our blonde wandered aimlessly, thinking of the Leaf Village. How are they doing? Are his friends getting along alright without him? Did they even notice his absence? The last thought caused his face to scrunch up into worry, but he quickly dismissed it.
If the Akatsuki already know I'm gone, my friends should definitely know. Naruto smiled at his logical thought.
But what is the blonde to do if he's ever confronted by his comrades? He's different from Sasuke; he wouldn't be able to handle it as smoothly as the raven did. What if he breaks and returns to the village? He'd be risking their lives again; he can't let that happen. Naruto would just have to be strong and pull through if such an incident were to occur.
Rubbing his temple, Naruto sighed at his pulsing head; he wasn't use to thinking of things in such depth. Hell, he's even seeing things now; Naruto could have sworn he just saw a pink-
No, he did see a pink head of hair! But what would Sakura be doing here? She didn't follow us, did she? No... Sakura isn't that stupid.
Picking up his pace, the blonde watched as the pink dot in the distance disappeared around a corner. Quickly speeding up to a run, Naruto turned the corner, stopping just in time to keep from running into the pink dot. Although... this dot was red, not pink. And, looking closer, Naruto could see the distinctly longer hair, as well as one side which was unkempt. The girl gave him an odd, almost a creeped out expression. She had noticeably darker hair than Sakura, as well as a pair of red eyes that were faintly hidden behind some glasses. Her purple jacket flowed down to her wrists, the bottom of it just reaching under her waist, with the buttons undone to reveal her naval. Her black shorts barely covered anything, while her black stockings reached to her knees... In simple words, she could almost pass as a whore.
"Can I help you?" Naruto quickly realized he had been staring, snapping his attention back to her face. He was actually kind of disgusted; to think this girl resembled his Sakura...
"Uh... sorry, I just... thought you were someone else," the blonde replied sheepishly.
"Well, alright then... I'm Karin, and you are?"
"Naruto Uz... I mean, Naruto, my name's Naruto," he replied, quickly deciding he'd rather not let this girl know of his... ability, so to speak.
"Oh, so you're the new recruit! I guess you seem decent enough, you could probably hold your own in a fight..." Karin smirked, noticing the visible anger on the blonde's face.
Naruto growled quietly, but was interrupted by the red-head. "Who have you met so far? Have you met Sasuke-kun?" the tone she added when saying Sasuke's name started to enrage Naruto more; she said it as if she owned it, as if she owned Sasuke! She's probably know him for less than a year and- "Sasuke and I are in love! We're going to get married and have three children..." Naruto mentally face-palmed; this girl was an idiot. There was no way Sasuke would fall for such a stupid girl.
"Ya, ok, you love him and all, how about we talk about something, I don't know... less pathetic?" Naruto chuckled when the girl 'hmphed' and turned on her heels to leave. He followed her down the hallway, where they eventually ended up outside the base.
Naruto realized he had only been outside once or twice since joining Orochimaru when the sun nearly blinded him. It was so bright outside compared to the depressing feeling Sasuke's and his room gave off, along with everywhere else in the base. Naruto could immediately notice the difference in himself as soon as he stepped into the forest area. He felt as if he were more alive (A/N: I know, cliché :P).
"Well, what do you think of Sasuke? You've met him, right?"
"Ya, we've, um... met. He's ok..." Naruto mumbled, mentally wishing to get off the topic of his teme.
"Wow, you're really talkative," the red-head said sarcastically. "I think I'm going to get a snack," she said, before turning to go back the way they had come.
Naruto sighed thankfully; he could finally enjoy being outdoors in peace. After just under half an hour, Naruto came across an outside training field.
How come nobody told me about a second training field... and an outdoor one at that! he raged in his head. Well, at least now he could make up for the lost time he spent indoors.
Coming closer the blonde noticed a familiar purple and blue outfit, complete with jet black hair. He watched as the teme struck at a tree stump with his foot continuously. That's odd, he never was one for taijutsu...
Dismissing the irrelevant thought, Naruto sat against the nearest tree, letting his skin soak in the UV rays from the sun. He was probably incredibly pale by now...
Eventually his eyelids drooped down until they were fully closed, and his mind was in a peaceful trance... which was soon broken by a kick in the shin.
"What the hell- Teme!" Naruto growled, clutching his leg.
"... You wouldn't answer me."
"Because I was trying to nap!"
"Whatever; as I was saying, what are you doing outside of the base?" the blonde could barely hear the frustrated tone in the Uchiha's voice, much different even for his usual monotone.
"I followed this girl out here... Karin, I think... which reminds me, are you guys really dating?" Naruto felt a chuckle rise in his throat, though the undertone of curiosity and slight hurt was faintly recognizable.
Noticing his teme sigh, however, lifted his hopes a little. "No, just ignore her. She's more of an idiot than you."
"Hm, I see," Naruto pondered. He sure is talkative today.
"Go back inside."
The blonde frowned up at Sasuke, "But I don't want to."
He could almost see the frustration on the Uchiha's face; it was kind of fun bothering the teme. "Dobe... just go inside already,"
"Why?"
"Because I said so."
"You're not my boss!"
Naruto tried to hide his chuckle as Sasuke's hand lifted to pinch the bridge of his nose. The blonde would savor this moment of slight dominance for the rest of his life.
"You idiot; if you stay out here for too long, someone might find you."
"So what if they do?"
"They could take you back to Konoha,"
"So you're worried that I'll be taken back?"
"I- no, quit manipulating my words!" Naruto began giggling childishly at the display of emotions rarely seen from the Uchiha. Sasuke groaned in frustration before crossing his arms and regaining his composure.
Well, it was fun while it lasted. Naruto began to stand, before roughly being shoved to the ground, with the teme following.
"What the hell!" the blonde groaned noticing their uncomfortable position, him on his back in the grass with Sasuke hovering beside him, a hand on his chest to keep him down.
He heard a clink of metal and looked up to see a silver kunai lodged into the tree, right where his head had been a few seconds ago. Naruto looked to the Uchiha hoping for an explanation, if he had one.
"Anbu," he muttered simply before jumping back up, onto his feet. Naruto followed suit quickly, looking around at the small number of specially trained ninja, taking in the details of their animal resembling masks.
One of them, presumably the captain, charged towards them with his katana wielded. Naruto quickly took out his kunai to deflect it, the dueling pair leaping backwards when neither showed sign of giving up. The blonde landed on a tree branch, drawing some shuriken which he swiftly flung at the captain, who easily dodged the simple maneuver.
Sasuke jumped into a tree as well, a few feet away. He looked over to the blonde, both silently recognizing their thoughts: move to a different terrain, being in a large open area wouldn't prove helpful. It was weird and foreignly different for both of them; not having battled together, on the same side that is, for over two years should have hindered their teamwork, but already they were able to make their moves together efficiently.
Moving almost in sync the duo led their enemies deeper into the wooded area, until they were all but engulfed by trees. The Anbu followed, thankfully for the two, prepared for whatever plan the teenagers had in mind. Two of the Anbu closed in on Sasuke, while the remaining three, including the captain, prepared to attack Naruto.
"Fire style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" Sasuke formed some hand signs before pressing a hand to his lips in a circle, where balls of flames began to rocket out towards the two Anbu. One managed to dodge, but the other wasn't so lucky; he was easily burnt by the fire before he fell to the ground in a disfigured heap. The Uchiha lost sight of the first ninja before suddenly noticing the figure behind him, leaping out of the way just in time as a metal blade was stabbed in his direction. Quickly changing his footing to face the masked nin, he drew his katana and their blades clashed with a rough clink.
Naruto glanced over to see his comrade handling himself well, compared to the blonde. He had already managed to fatally wound one of the Anbu, but the other two were still going strong. Quickly he summoned a few clones, all but one of them dashing towards the enemies, some throwing shuriken while others pulled out kunai or paper bombs. Most of the clones were wiped out quickly, but the distraction gave Naruto enough time to form his Rasengan. His clone disappeared, leaving the blonde to storm at one of the ninja and shove the spinning ball of chakra into his abdomen, shredding his close and skin in the process. The Anbu member fell to the ground on his side while blood oozed through the gaping hole. The blonde heard a yelp of pain to his left, where he noticed the teme taking care of the last ninja.
"You still have a lot to learn, Naruto," the black-haired boy said, before taking his leave to report to Orochimaru.
Naruto looked around sadly at the corpses littering the ground; these were people from his own village, that he just slaughtered... He might even know one of them! He was supposed to be protecting the Leaf, not endangering them more by wiping out their forces.
For a few minutes the blonde stood there staring at the bloody mess, before finally deciding what's done is done, and that he can't turn back time. He hastily took his leave.
A/N: Alrighty, so I've got a few things to inform you guys about:
1) After this chapter, I'll probably start updating once or twice a week. I just wanted to get the story going before setting a specific time. But I have a bad procrastination problem, so I can't say for sure a certain day of which I'll update. I'll try to update within three or four days, though.
2) This may come as good or bad news depending on who you are, but Karin is not going to be a major part of the story; I'm mostly including her for little things, but she will be around for a while, maybe every few chapters or so, but I can tell you she will be in the next chapter. Sorry if I disappoint XP I personally love Karin... xD *cough* yuri *cough*
3) It may seem weird, but I just LOVE when you guys guess what will happen, because you never know, I might just borrow your ideas or mix them up a little ;)
4) Some of you might also be wondering where the yaoi is... Well, I don't really want to rush into their relationship. After all, they've not seen each other for quite some time, and you don't really just hop into bed first thing, xD But I promise some fluff in the next chapter, more or less.
Anyways, that's pretty much it. I really need to start packing down on the plot, because I have the main climax(es?) and stuff planned, I just need a little more build up/rising action. I do have some of the rising action thought out, though, so don't worry too much xD
Until next time :D