Chapter 3
Title: "Lunar, Solar"
Author: Shaitanah
Rating: R (overall)
Timeline: 1 month after the Itachi/Sasuke fight
Summary: because Sasuke would be the moon, Naruto would be the sun, and during an eclipse..." Sasuke hesitates, Naruto has fun, Sakura will do anything to save her friends… and Tobi remembers. Sasuke/Naruto Please R&R!
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto Masashi. Story title from Pablo Neruda's Drunk With Pines. Lyrics from Beautiful Day by Venus.
A/N: Thank you a million times to everyone who read, reviewed and fav'd. I love you, guys! Uhm… does my Sasuke really talk too much? I kind of think he should loosen up a bit around Naruto because it's impossible to remain a grouchy bastard around him forever))) Besides, he killed Itachi so he slowly begins a process of healing his wounds and might one day become a normal person.
Chapter 3
Smiles Lie
I wish I was made
Rebuilt-up and fake
I wish I could lie
And never could fail
Greenish light fell thickly upon Naruto's face, strained with agony. The Nine-Tails went on laughing. Sasuke knew something had gone terribly wrong. He could feel Naruto's heart thudding as if it were his own, beating behind the bars of his own ribcage.
"Hold on," he kept on saying. "Naruto, you're so much stronger than that."
He looked past the youth in his embrace, into the darkness of the cage where the Fox's monstrous shape was trembling with uncontrollable laughter. The bars shook. Sasuke threw up his hand and pressed his palm against the seal. The bars radiated heat into his skin. He clenched his teeth. A surge of energy rushed through Naruto's body and into his; he collapsed, and Naruto went under water. Sasuke's red eyes followed the Kyuubi warily.
"Uchiha Sasuke," the Demon Fox bellowed with faint amusement. "I had little hope we'd meet again."
Sasuke's lips curved into a smirk. With his eyes, he was capable of anything. He'd prove one could control the Kyuubi even without the Mangekyou Sharingan!
"You will be mine," he mouthed.
The Fox snarled furiously. Another jet of energy hit unexpectedly. Instinct took over; Sasuke threw himself over Naruto's senseless body to protect him from the fire. Only then it dawned upon him that the fire would hardly hurt Naruto. He looked up, his arms wrapped gently around the blond. The Nine-Tails crept closer to the bars. Their eyes met. 'Just wake up, blockhead!' he thought irritably.
Naruto coughed, water splattering over his face. Sasuke blinked his eyes. He was lying on the ground a few metres away from Naruto. The blond's chest heaved with convulsive inhales. Panting, Sasuke turned over and crawled towards him. He felt exhausted, as if having been trapped in Tsukuyomi once again.
"F-failed…" Naruto murmured.
"Yeah," Sasuke said breathlessly. He could still feel the warmth of Naruto's body in his arms and the scorching heat of the bars. The memory frightened him. "You'll learn."
He rose, shaking, and held out his hand to help Naruto. They had a long way to go if they wanted to catch up with Hebi before sunset.
Sasuke hated the idea from the moment it formed in his mind. But he had already sunk into the deepest chasm of baseness and it was not the time to regret anything. He would walk this path till the very end even if he had to kill…
He took a walk down the hills and discovered a small muddy river running in a snakelike ribbon through the hillocks not too far from Hebi's camping place. He followed its current, his gaze drifting absent-mindedly over the brownish waters. Here and there emerald clots of waterplants swam upwards.
Fragments of the day danced in Sasuke's mind. He replayed the accident over and over again. Something must have gone wrong and weakened the seal. He wondered how Jiraiya had dealt with such difficulties. He knew he needed to master it. It was just another jutsu. He had become so powerful, training under Orochimaru. He had slain his brother, the strongest person he had ever known. He knew he could gain control of the Nine-Tails; he just needed to figure out what went wrong.
'And I take it that you don't care if Naruto-kun dies along the way,' his inner voice jeered. Over the past month it had come dangerously close to assuming the form of his deceased brother. Whenever Sasuke tried to imagine that other part of him that would always object and humiliate him, he would see Itachi. 'You know, your new quest for power is highly amusing. But power is a dangerous thing. Once you take the first bite, you develop such a fierce taste for it you'll go on to devour the whole world.'
"Oh, that's rich coming from someone who's ultimate goal had always been power, power, more power," Sasuke sneered. "Oh, and did I mention power?"
'Sarcasm doesn't become you, little brother.'
He could almost feel the flap of the Akatsuki cloak brush his leg. Sasuke balled his fists and hissed under his breath: "You're just a projection; act like one! Why can't you die and stay dead?"
He thought he could see a smile. A warm, brotherly and painfully insincere smile.
"You should have just told me!" Sasuke screamed, not bothering if it was loud enough for Hebi to hear him. "You should have fucking told me!"
He returned to the camp, ignoring the team's inquiring looks. The smell of food made him sick. He laid out his bedroll, climbed inside and pretended to fall asleep. In truth, his eyes never left the face of the sleeping Naruto.
He wondered what use he could put the youth to. Activate the Mangekyou? 'Been there,' Uchiha smirked. Kill Madara? Possibly. But afterwards? Would he really sacrifice Naruto to release the Kyuubi and what, just what would he do with the Kyuubi then?
Such questions buzzing in his mind like a disturbed beehive, Sasuke soon fell into a restive sleep.
The setting sun gave the clouds an injection of red; they looked like strawberry foam now. Yet with all its beauty, there was something sinister in the way they streamed leisurely over the sky, splashing the red all over the village.
Sakura leaned against the hallway wall outside Naruto's apartment and closed her eyes. Tonight they were supposed to go on a date. The usual (movies, dinner, a walk home) and hopefully not as miserable as the previous one had been. Sakura couldn't help blushing: to think she had called that heart-wrenching talk at the ramen shop the night Sasuke had left a date!
A few days back Naruto had asked for it. Sakura had refused again. She couldn't say why she always turned him down. Perhaps it was a habit, a sunny remnant of the days when she had been madly in love with Sasuke-kun and Naruto had been nothing but a bothersome idiot.
"Then let's go as friends!" Naruto had insisted. "It's not like I'm asking you to kiss me or something… Though that'd be great!"
Sakura had rolled her eyes. "Okay. There's a film I want to see. Take me to the cinema." She couldn't help throwing in a mentoring note. "We'll see if you are even ready for a date."
Sakura slid down the wall and wrapped her arms around her knees. She couldn't believe he didn't show up. 'You're going to die a slow, painful death,' she addressed Naruto mentally. However, something was not quite right: she knew Naruto would never have missed a date he had been counting on for so long.
"I had a feeling I'd find you here," she heard Kakashi-sensei's voice.
Sakura winked at him. "Spying on your teammates, eh?"
She could swear he grinned behind the mask. "Sorry, I'm not much into teenage melodrama."
Sakura felt embarrassed. She had to admit it did turn out pretty sappy.
"I thought I'd wait for Naruto here," she said insecurely. "He doesn't seem to be in a rush, though."
"I'd rather you don't," Kakashi interjected, "unless you want to wait for months."
That was it. The feeling of uneasiness that had been gnawing at her for the past few days burst into full-fledged panic. She drilled Kakashi with a grave, worried look. He gave her a dark picture of poor quality which she recognized as the guards' post spycam screenshot. It was so bleared that at first she couldn't comprehend what Kakashi wanted her to see. A passing figure caught her attention.
"Sa… Sasuke-kun!" she gasped, astounded. Kakashi nodded slowly. "But… Naruto wouldn't have gone after him alone! He'd have informed us!"
"Not unless Sasuke told him to keep quiet."
Taken aback, she could only stare blankly at the outlines of the familiar spiky hairdo.
"Do you mean to say," she murmured, "that Naruto and Sasuke-kun left together? But that… We must find them! The Akatsuki are still after Naruto, and Sasuke-kun…" She broke off, then added firmly: "I don't trust Sasuke-kun."
"Neither do I," Kakashi smiled. "Call on Sai. They are two days ahead of us. I'll be waiting for you at the main entrance in two hours. I doubt we'll need any more men this time."
As he vanished, Sakura walked to the exit, rubbing her hands unwittingly. Naruto left without a word, much like Sasuke-kun had. The tears of that distant night welled up in her eyes. She bit her lip. Never again would she wait for someone else to carry out her duty. If Naruto had contracted the same virus that had taken Sasuke-kun from her, she'd be there to save them both.
The flowers withered. The dull green horse-tail feathers became dry and brittle. That was what Sasuke loved about flowers: once cut off, they lived on for a few days and died a peaceful death, like a man in his sleep.
Out of all the irises only one had been a full-fledged flower. The others never had the time to bloom. He swept the pad of his finger across the wrinkled buds. The fallen fibre of horse-tail turned to powder in his hand.
He took the ikebana out of his bagpack and set it between the mighty roots of an old tree. He collected the pebbles from it and hid them in his pouch. The bagpack felt strangely light without the miniature vase.
"Can I ask you something?" Karin's voice snapped him back to reality. Sasuke thought with dark amusement, 'Will it stop you if I say no?' and nodded curtly. "I was thinking here. When we take out Madara, Hebi will be disbanded, right? You will have no further need for Suigetsu and Juugo. But I…" She moved closer, trailing her fingers down Sasuke's forearm. He stood stiff and motionless, watching her grimly. "I have some special abilities you could use when you find a new place to settle down in. I thought we could…"
Karin's voice became deeper, rich with seductive overtones, and then she fell quiet so abruptly that Sasuke had to suppress laughter: Naruto passed them, chewing messily at some seaweed from their rations. He looked ragged but pretty cheerful.
"Oops, never mind me! I'm just… minding my own business here," he said, not even bothering to wipe an eloquent smirk off his face.
Karin growled and started for the campsite with the look of a notorious serial killer. Sasuke swallowed down laughter and remarked:
"I was half-expecting you to start unzipping your pants like that day during the Chuunin Exam when you decided to take a piss in front of Sakura."
Naruto blushed. "Ouch, you remember that!" His insolent grin grew even wider. "Anyhow, sorry for blowing off your date."
"My what? Please! She's a slut."
To his faint amusement, Naruto didn't laugh. His face became serious, almost solemn, and his voice was husky.
"It's so easy for you to label people. Like I'm a moron, Sakura-chan is annoying and… well…"
Sasuke shrugged. "Truths and roses have thorns about them. Get used to it." They needed a change of subject before Naruto started making a scene or protecting Karin. Sasuke's tone softened. "How are you feeling?"
"Pretty good, actually, though I can't remember what happened yesterday." Sasuke blinked at that. Naruto ran his fingers through his disheveled hair and chuckled nervously. "Just some weird fragments really. Did something bad happen? Wait! Did four tails come out!?"
"Naruto, stop babbling!" Sasuke snapped out.
He knitted his eyebrows. The dismal thoughts of the previous night flooded his mind with a new force. Now he was sure the seal was about to break. He considered telling Naruto about it, but then again, the blockhead would have no use for the information. It would only unnerve him.
"Are we gonna practise today?" Naruto asked. Sasuke cocked his head. Unbelievable! He was actually waiting for it!
Limpid green sunlight filtered through the leaves. Sasuke listened to the echo of Karin and Suigetsu's bickering not so far away and thought that with all this unplanned training the quest threatened to become too long.
"Later," he said. "First we should move on."
Naruto nodded and strode off to pack his stuff. Sasuke spotted Karin glaring at the blond in her most unfriendly manner.
"Hey, Sunshine!" she called him. "How about you do something useful if you're stuck with us?"
Naruto looked up. His face looked like that of a tiger ready to attack.
"Like what?"
"I don't know. Maybe you could carry my bagpack which contains food, part of which is now in your stomach!"
Karin tossed him the bagpack. Taken by surprise, Naruto collapsed under its weight. Smirking, the woman returned to her business.
Naruto shouldered the bagpack. He spied Juugo coming out of the grove and gave him a significant look. To his dismay, Juugo turned back the moment he caught it. Naruto turned toward Suigetsu who grabbed his water jerrican and hurried after his teammate and pretended to be engrossed in a serious conversation that started from: "So how are the birdies?"
Naruto groaned and dragged himself up to Sasuke with the look of a person who had just suffered the end of the world.
"The four-eyed lady hates me," he complained.
"What do you want me to do?" Sasuke asked calmly. "Hate her back."
Sometimes he dreams in black and orange and silver of the three children bound by friendship and rivalry. There is a girl with riant eyes and a boy whose face he cannot remember. The girl is gentle and caring; the boy is arrogant and efficient. He can't express how much they mean to me, but they slip away, leaving him cold, lonely and blind.
He sees the boy soon enough. He has become a man and he still wears the mask. Only one dark attentive eye stares at him; the other is covered by the forehead protector. He wonders if the man has lost his eye too.
But there is a red eye beneath the forehead protector. And he points at it in the middle of the fight and says:
"This is my eye."
"You wish!" the boisterous ninja who is really good at Kage Bunshin no Jutsu yells.
He counters his attack swiftly. For now he is more than interested in the silver-haired man and he doesn't want to be disturbed.
The man tells the others to keep out of the fight. He flings a shuriken that is meant to crack the orange mask. Tobi dodges it. His mind is racing. He came to stop the Leaf shinobi from… From what? Why is he even here?
"It looks cool on your face," he mumbles. "My eye."
Kakashi attacks again. He is silent and highly professional as he has always been. Tobi grabs him by the hand, surprised he could stop him, and pulls him closer.
"For all I know, the one you're looking for might already be dead," he says.
"What's your interest in this?" the Leaf jounin asks. His voice is deeper now, more masculine and just as cold.
"I know you," Tobi murmurs. "How do I know you?"
"I asked you a question."
"Pray you'll never know it, Kakashi." Tobi lets him go and disappears.
He's done his job. He's held the Leaf up. No matter how much he needs Sasuke-kun to win, the boy must do it alone. It'll be easier to get what he wants if they do not reunite.
He flees before another turn of the tide brings him out of the depths. He wonders briefly if the silver-haired man knows him too.