Published: 27/9/06
Revised: 23/10/06
Thanks to the people who reviewed, they made me really happy and gave me the motivation to finish chapter 3. I've made a Sasuke-tastic AMV gift for 700+ hits so visit my profile for the link. I hope you all enjoy chapter 3 and the AMV!
-thoughts within dream-
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Chapter 3 ( Of the Abandoner )
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For several minutes, two sapphire orbs gazed fixatedly at the blank white ceiling above her then the shinobi let out the breath she had been holding. Naruto closed her eyes and tried once again to fall asleep, but the shockingly informative conversation replayed in her mind for what seemed to be the thousandth time that night.
Both Kakashi and the young Chuunin were well aware when they left Konoha that their mission investigating Sound Nin could discover information relating to a certain betrayer, Uchiha Sasuke. This was the first evidence they had found of the condition of Sasuke's relationship with the snake-like man. There was no doubt that Orochimaru's current hideout could be somewhere close by, as the Sound ninjas had grumbled about getting back before someone was "made an example of" when they left the bath.
Naruto slid into an uneasy slumber, her tired mind battling endless chaotic and broken thoughts and memories.
He watched as his hands clasped together; he didn't lift his head.
"I have an ambition that I have no intention to leave as just a dream"
-To kill a certain man-
He held him delicately in his arms; needles painfully riddled his body.
"I told myself I wouldn't die until I killed him"
-But you're heading towards death-
He straddled the boy, pinning him against the hard rock; an uncaring look on his face.
"I'm going to Orochimaru's place"
-He just wants your body as a container-
He suddenly grabbed a fistful of his collar; a condescending laugh.
"I don't care"
-You might not come back alive-
He forcefully shook him; another smirk.
"I never expected to"
Entirely bewildered, he stared across the vast distance that had grown between them. All he could see were those murderous, scarlet eyes, three black marks patterning each pupil. They did not belong to his rival, his friend. His heart fractured.
-Why-
"You are my closest friend"
-Why-
"I must kill you"
-Why-
"To break those bonds"
-Why-
"To become stronger"
-Why-
"To defeat Itachi"
-Why-
"To avenge my clan"
-Why-
"Because you held me back"
-Why-
"Because you're important to me"
-Why-
"Baka"
Naruto snapped upright staring ahead, sweat trickling from her forehead down the side of her face and neck. She fought to control her irregular breathing, gulping in large breaths. Once Naruto had calmed a bit she wearily shook her head to clear the static dizziness. The young shinobi slowly removed the tangled sheets from around her trembling limbs, throwing them over the immobile sleeping Jounin. She swung her legs off the bed and sat on the edge, eyes facing but not seeing the opposite wall.
She rubbed at her prickling blue eyes with the back of her hand. It had been several months since she had had a nightmare involving her oldest rival. They had all been disturbing, mostly murdering twists on missions Team 7 had completed. But why, why was she remembering these snippets after just hearing of the cursed Uchiha. The Sound ninja hadn't mentioned Sasuke by name but Orochimaru, the sick bastard.
The edges of the haunting nightmare became fuzzy, like any dream she pondered on. The deep voice of dark haired ninja echoed somewhere between her ears and brain again.
"Because you're important to me"
She had never actually heard Sasuke utter those words, all the rest yes, but not that exact sentence.
"Because you're important to me"
Naruto knew the stubborn Uchiha heir was and always will be precious to her. Had Sasuke ever felt the same in return?
"You are my closest friend"
There was no point torturing her self over the issue; Sasuke had abandoned Naruto, Team 7 and Konoha all for the promise of power.
Sunlight filtered pass the outline of the blackout screens pulled over the sliding door. A stray beam crawled up the wall she was staring at, making Naruto blink as the brightness reflected back. All she really wanted to do was to wriggle under the cotton sheets and fall into a peaceful slumber. The Chuunin guessed it was well after dawn with no clouds crowding out the skies. She sluggishly moved to open the screen and looked out. Yep, no a wisp of white any where, meaning a hot day.
Naruto pitied the silver haired Jounin - wait - almost pitied him as her recollection noted annoyingly that he never seemed to be affected by any type of weather whatsoever. The disguised blonde idly hoped the heavy fur of the wolf-dog transformation made Kakashi itch today.
The canine in question rolled off the bed and landed with a muffled thump on the wooden floor. One paw against the hostel door was all it took for Naruto to quickly open it for him. Who knows what would happen if someone saw the dog let itself out by the doorhandle. Kakashi sent the girl a soft bark and trotted away down the hallway, to all appearances going outside.
If the teenager was correct in her guess, her sensei was off to scout out the Sound ninja. Naruto had returned from her bath the night before, still in shock but able to move and speak. She related every part of the overheard conversation to the Jounin in a very un-Uzumaki like monotone. Afterwards the former ANBU had gently nudged the dismayed Naruto into going to bed and then flopped across her legs to sleep.
No matter what else, they had a mission to complete; otherwise Tsunade-baasan would have words with the two skilled shinobi when they returned and painful ones at that. Naruto collected the clothes of her female guise and quickly dressed before cleaning her teeth and washing her face. The spiral charm upon her collar pulsed warm against the cloth over her heart just as Naruto finished strapping on her arm protectors.
It was a signal from Kakashi for the Chuunin to follow quickly. Naruto would have flown out of the room at the warning except that Moriko was not supposed to overtly show any skills which would mark her as a trained shinobi. She hastily shoved on her pack, approached the front desk to pay her account and exited the hostel one step from a run. The girl settled for a speedy flight across the village's rooftops once hidden from public scrutiny down an alleyway.
The disguised blonde sensed out the small amount of altered chakra held by a spiral charm. Kakashi had several with him, concealed in the thick fur around his neck. Once activated by chakra, these unique charms acted like beacons as well as silent communication for the Hidden Leaf ninja. Naruto landed lightly on the wall surrounding the village and scanned the forested area.
A silver speck caught her eye in the braches of one of the giant trees little beyond the barrier. She dropped from the wall's massive height into the copious foliage to retrieve the spiralled object. It was still warm to the touch, meaning that the Jounin had gone on ahead in pursuit of their targets. Naruto was about to track the grey canine when she felt a shift in the air.
Crack!
Several jagged splits tore through the solidarity of the branch Naruto was crouching upon and cracked under her feet. This was so not good. The limb continued its torturous wooden screech as both gravity and the Chuunin's weight assisted its journey to the hard earth below. Naruto's instinctual leap free of the falling greenery collided with large tree debris from above and turned into a fierce, gravity-controlled fall. The dark haired teenager managed to gather her wits and was barely able to soften the impact with a thin layer of chakra before she hit compacted dirt. It had taken the edge off the crash but the resulting bruises still stung.
Two shadows shot from the neighbouring trees to land on either side of the fallen Konoha shinobi. Naruto gingerly got to her feet, half dazed, vision slightly blurred and annoyed. The newcomers were clearly Hidden Sound; Naruto cursed in her head. It seemed the group had divided while Kakashi trailed them; no wonder he had activated the spiral. The former ANBU left nothing to chance and had continued after the larger group.
"What do we have here?" the cutting voice belonged to the smaller man of the Sound pair.
"Oi, I thought we were trapping an old guy" whined the other Nin, a mountain of muscle.
The comment completely threw Naruto off her current line of thought; which was how could the Sound ninja know she and Kakashi were their enemy from Hidden Leaf. Then an inkling of whom they really wanted flashed through the interrupted assessment, Jiraiya was also in the village. These creeps knew someone was digging up information on the Sound and Jiraiya had been the target, Sannin or not. Unfortunately she had walked straight into the trap meant for him.
The cruel eyes of the small shinobi darted to the Chuunin's right, dropping to the ground near his partner's feet. Naruto followed his gaze and stopped breathing. The necklace she had won from Tsunade before she had become Godaime lay forsaken in the churned dirt. She forced her self to take in air. It must have fallen out of her pocket during the teenager's plummet from the tree. Normally Naruto wouldn't remove the necklace from around her neck but the stubborn thing refused to be altered by any jutsu.
"Ganjoushi, your feet."
Goliath scooped up the precious item and poked at it with a meaty finger.
Naruto hated the sight of the Sound ninja touching her things. "Give back my necklace!"
"I think I'll keep it. It's pretty," he replied.
"Besides you don't want it anymore," continued the small ninja with a sadistic smile. They were going to 'play' with the young girl rather than let her go since she had gone and tripped their trap.
"It's mine. Give it back." She almost growled the words in rising anger, her fists clenching.
"And what is a girl like you going to do about it?"
"I'll beat you up to get it."
"I'd be keen to see you try" the hulk smirked. "You're not even a real ninja as we are."
Go to hell. Naruto prepared her self for a fight. Kakashi can't blame me for this, even if it's against mission limitations.
"What do we have here?" a new, nonchalant voice sounded off to her left.
Naruto blinked. Looking around and then up, she found the old shinobi framed by several leafy branches. Jiraiya-sensei had planted his hands on his hips and stood with feet set apart. Displeasure and disgust was written plainly across his face, belying the calm tone he had just used. Thankfully, the slight scowl was not directed at her.
Ooo, I know that look.
A calculating gaze swept over the Sannin, the Sound's previous objective. "It's none of your business old man" spat the little man.
"If you're talking to Moriko then it is my business." The frown deepened. "I can't stand animals that harm and harass women."
The young Chuunin almost forgot to breathe again. If Jiraiya-sensei was to see the Shodaime Hokage's necklace, his cover would be blown to smithereens. A tirade of mental curses about her precarious predicament then ensued. It only stopped when two of the four people in the forest clearing vanished from their static positions. The Hulk and the disguised blonde were left staring wildly around for their missing comrades.
Their combined shadows suddenly reappeared on the dirt before Naruto, a black splodge growing larger as the Leaf and Sound shinobi exchanged blows. Naruto craned her neck upwards to watch the fighting, silently but eagerly cheering for Ero-sennin despite Ganjoushi (Goliath) near by. Jiraiya pushed off a tree trunk angled towards the short ninja below him, blue chakra rapidly gathering in his right palm. The Rasengan found its' mark in the Sound's stomach and sent him whirling into his partner on the ground. The force of the resulting collision knocked the blonde's necklace from Ganjoushi's giant paw.
Blue eyes widened in an instant and then Naruto ran forward, catching the precious item before it hit the dusty earth again. Fingers quickly pocketed it, hiding the crystal from Jiraiya's sight and attention. Said Sannin landed in a perfect crouch next to the young girl, whose panic during the whole situation was finally simmering down.
"It's in strange circumstances that we meet again Moriko-san." Jiraiya stated as he unwound from his last fighting stance. His eyes flickered over her appearance. Naruto guessed her sensei was gauging the extent of her injuries. "Are you hurt?" he asked decisively.
Yep, I was right. She raised a self conscious hand to the back of her neck, entirely a Naruto gesture. "I'm fine." Though the Chuunin had stopped relying on the Kyuubi and even suppressed the demon's healing powers, the injuries from the fall were distant aches.
Jiraiya's eyebrows twitched. "Where's Ginookami?"
"Ginookami?" Naruto repeated as it slowly dawned on her. Oh shit, Kakashi's after the other Sound. Alarm shot across her expression and jump started her heart. "Tch, I forgot!" If Naruto were to catch up with them now, then she didn't have time to dally with the status of her cover and the sennin.
The older shinobi inconspicuously observed the foreplay of emotions the girl displayed but could not fathom a reason behind them. Naruto's legs tensed in readiness for the chase. Before the Sannin could say or do anything else, Moriko had thrown him a hurried, "Thank you Jiraiya-sama!" and disappeared into the cover of the surrounding forest accompanied by the whoosh and leaves falling from her passing.
.o0o.
He growled his frustration into the empty room, extreme annoyance bleeding through the normally impassive expression. The sound seemed louder than it was in actuality within the cavernous space as it reverberated around the stone walls. Echoes of water dripping some where close by in the small complex mingled with the last vestiges of the human growl, lending the atmosphere a feeling of desolation.
It was dark, lightless, pitch black, whatever you want to call it but nothing could be seen, not even if something was waved two centimetres in front of your eyes. Yet that didn't stop him from coming to that isolated underground cave, if fact, it was the reason why he came to train there. This place was perfect for enhancing his senses.
On some occasions when he was particularly irritated he would bring another to spar in the grotto, one who was skilled in using the darkness. He alternated between four people with the necessary talent, and he was certain that two of them felt completely and utterly beholden to him for considering them. He didn't like any them, and the reason why he still sparred with the four was because they were fun to 'play' with in the dark and they would be quite useless if dead.
However, this trip he had made alone. Silently he snatched an embedded kunai from the wall behind and immediately released it in the same motion, sending it whistling through the still air at an unseen target. If light flooded the area, the action would have only been a blur to even the fastest of eyes. A wooden thunk heralded the absolute success of the throw, considering that the targets set up were discs ten centimetres in diameter.
His eyes had long been used to the gloom after all the training he did here and that had given him the ability to wilfully control the amount of light they took in. Even with this capacity, being underground for as long as he had had still accumulated the natural consequences of soreness. He activated his Doujutsu and stared around the cavern, eyeing the stalagmites, stalactites and stone walls covered by the tiny discs. Every single one possessed an edged weapon in their exact centre so there was a very good reason for him to smirk at the utter darkness.
The boy's satisfaction over the improvements he was continuously making did not last long. The physical exertion had given him temporary relief as he concentrated wholly on the exercise but the images, memories and dreams he had been trying to escape wheedled back into his thoughts as soon as he stopped. He continued to brood as he stalked around the cavern and retrieved the shuriken and kunai that he had used from the targets.
Ugh! Out of the mental maelstrom, he hated the dreams the most. He couldn't work out the tangle of feelings these dreams stirred in his subconscious like before, just because it was his subconscious that was happily screwing his mind about. Compared to the painful memories of his childhood, they contrarily confused him at every chance they got, adding another layer of complexity to the boy while he was awake. Not like any body in the village was allowed to notice or that he even gave a damn what other people thought of him. The infamous cold façade, cutting stares and blunt remarks provided him with the respect and obedience he deserved from the lesser ninja.
At last he ended up back where he had left the few things he had brought when he came underground. He carefully restocked the kunai belt and let the shuriken fall softly back into their leather pouch. The boy had once overheard someone commenting that it seemed like he took more care of his weapons than he would of his own mother. Needless to say the said person didn't survive the encounter unscathed, the injuries he sustained from the boy had him hospitalised for several weeks. The reason why his weapons had such attention was because they were the only things he had faith in, not a single human in that dreary place had earned his trust.
He gathered up the cloth satchel and swung it across his shoulders with one hand, the weapon holders gripped securely in the other. A scowl replaced his previous expression as he again dwelt on his dreams, he did not like the path his thoughts had been taking him down recently. There shouldn't have been a chance in hell that he would get this particular emotion after these years spent in hate and revenge-driven purposefulness.
A snippet of a disturbing and wished-it-was-forgotten dream rose from underneath his ranting thoughts.
An invisible kunai jabbed him in the heart as obsidian eyes spied the boy with a blonde mop of hair.
If the boy seriously took the dreams as an indication of his mental state then he would believed him self insane. He refused to translate the literal meanings of the night-time visions, too proud to back down into the possible consequences they would present. No matter how hard he tried to deny it to him self, only one person had a continuous attendance in his dreams. So may be, just may be, this person had broken the dispassionate fortress he had carefully built, and he - he had let him do it. He hated that even more.
The back of the dark haired teen stiffened as he came to a decision, stalking from the hard stone cave of darkness and desolation. Uchiha Sasuke did not feel guilt
...TBC...
AN: I will update chapter 4 sooner if I get over 10 reviews.