Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, Naruto, and the reference to xxxHolic. Also, I do not make any money from these writings.
Translation
Teme – Bastard
Usuratonkachi – Dobe
Godaime – 5th Hokage
Shishou – Master/Teacher
Mataku – Geez
Miko – Priestess
Dattebayo - Believe it
Chapter 3 : Hope
There was a woman.
She was standing before a huge white building. Something about her hand seemed to occupy her mind.
There was a ring on her little finger. It looked dirty. The woman seemed to be saying something before she decided to remove the ring from her finger.
His eyes went wide when he saw a huge board falling onto her.
"SASUKE!"
He heard the scream. Opening his eyes in surprise, he saw red.
There was pain.
His hand flew to grip his head as he closed his eyes. There was a burning, scalding pain on his eyes. What had happened? It hurt. What was that?
"Sasuke-kun! I need you to lie back down and close your eyes!" A female voice commanded as he felt himself being lowered.
He was too absorbed in the pain to resist the action or even register the words. What the hell had happened? He thought as he felt something wet on his cheeks. Tears? No, it couldn't be, for it did not feel like tears.
"Sasuke-kun, I'm going to put a warm towel on your eyes." The female voice told him before yelling, "Naruto get the towel!"
"O... Osu!" he heard an extremely familiar male voice and the sound of feet stomping about in hurry.
Naruto.
The name relaxed him ever slightly. Naruto was here, so the female must be Sakura.
He dropped his guard as everything came back to him. He was back in Konohagure No Sato. Right... he reassured himself, he was safe, Naruto was here. Sakura too. The pain would go away soon, he told himself as he relaxed his body, trying to ignore the pain that were his eyes. He felt something wet and warm cleaning his cheeks before it was placed on his closed eyes.
"What happened?" he heard the door slammed open as –if his hearing was right- three sets of footsteps walking into his room.
"Tsunade no baa-chan!" The familiar, loud, slightly high pitched voice yelled, "Sasuke he! There's something wrong with him! There's there's..." panic, worry, fear and confusion were laced in his voice.
Sasuke always thought that being a Shinobi contradicted to everything that was Naruto. Shinobi were supposed to be sharp, silent and unfeeling. It was everything that Naruto could never be.
Then again, Naruto was the number one most unpredictable Shinobi.
"Naruto, calm down." An older male voice, Kakashi he assumed, spoke calmly, "Now what happened here Sakura?"
There was a foreign touch on his cheek. Feeling uncomfortable, he turned his head away, wincing as the lingering pain throbbed.
"We were just talking." Sakura started, and he could make out her harsh breathing with his trained ears, "We were about to train when Sasuke-kun's eyes..." he found himself listening in, wondering what had happened.
"The Mangekyou Sharingan activated themselves and bleed."
He tensed in response. The Mangekyou Sharingan had forced itself out? This had not happened since he killed Uchiha Madara, which was more than six months ago. He had no use of them since, and they have been dormant within him.
What was that vision?
He was brought back to the conversation when Kakashi coughed.
"How do you feel Sasuke?" he asked shortly.
"Painful." He replied dryly. How else? His eyes had bled, and eyes were not supposed to bleed. Why did this happen then? Was it to show him that vision? Why? Who was that woman? Where was that? What had it got to do with him? Why did the Mangekyou Sharingan show him that vision?
"Uchiha Sasuke." The stern voice of the Godaime had him sighing inwardly, knowing that the brute of a woman would not accept his answer.
"There was a woman." He stated, wondering how much should he reveal. The vision had been vague and blurry.
"A woman?"
So that was who the third person was.
Hyuuga Neji. He must have been the one who had gone to inform Kakashi and Tsunade. He did sense him waiting outside the Uchiha compound, as he always did before they went to train.
Hyuuga Neji. He was a Jounin, yet instead of training with other Jounin, he preferred to train with team Kakashi. He had commented that both he and Naruto were better than any other Jounin he could find, ones that were willing to risk having all their Chakra pathways blocked.
Sasuke always felt that there was more though.
"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura called hesitantly, and he knew that they wanted a detailed explanation.
"I saw a woman." He thinned his lips when he realized that he was at a loss on how to explain this vision without sounding like a nut job, "It seemed like a vision."
How was he going to explain that he saw a woman who died from a fallen board? Was he turning into someone that could see death premonition? Naruto had once told him of this Miko girl from Oni No Kuni who could see death of people who tried to protect her.
So was he going to die unless some random girl died due to a fallen board? That sounded crazy, even to him.
"Ano na Sasuke," Kakashi sighed, "we can't hear your thoughts, you know."
Sasuke wanted to retort back rudely, but he felt that it would not do him any good now that he was slightly vulnerable. So instead, he decided to elaborate.
"A large board fell on her."
"So Teme..." Naruto's voice was filled with uncertainty, "You uhh... You went Mangekyou and saw a woman being hit by a fallen board?"
"Are you deaf Usuratonkachi?" went Mangekyou indeed, Sasuke thought sarcastically. He nodded as someone –probably Sakura- placed a new warm towel over his eyes.
"What the hell was that you Teme!?" as usual, Naruto was so easy to anger. He smirked when he heard a loud sound of something whacking the back of the blond's head. Not Sakura unfortunately, for it sounded much lighter. It was most likely Kakashi.
"This is a weird situation na?" He felt his bed dipped beside him.
"So the Mangekyou Sharingan were showing you stuff..." Kakashi paused before asking, "Tsunade-sama, how's his eyes?"
"They seem fine." The Hokage answered grimly, "Why did the Mangekyou Sharingan show you that vision? Did you recognize the woman Sasuke?"
"She was a civilian woman." Sasuke said pointedly. Shinobi did not mingle themselves with Civilians unless it was a mission. There was no way he would recognize a civilian. He was an Uchiha.
"Sasuke" Neji called calmly, "What was the surrounding like? What were the woman's actions?"
He heard a hitch of breath and knew that the other had not thought about that question.
"What does it matter? The problem is why is this happening." He bit out harshly. Why? Why him? Why the Mangekyou Sharingan? Why now? He had not and probably would never use the Mangekyou Sharingan again.
"Gaki, it's important for you to tell us everything." Tsunade hissed at him. Really, Naruto and the Hokage were so alike.
"She was standing in front of a white building." Sasuke explained blandly, "She was looking at her ring, the board fell after she removed it."
"And where was your position?" Kakashi proded,
"I was..." he paused to remember, "behind the fences approximately ten meters away."
"Do you remember what was written on the board?" Tsunade inquired.
"No, the vision was hazy." He answered as his towel was changed again.
"Hey Sasuke, don't tell me you're becoming like Shion-chan!?" Naruto exclaimed in mock horror, "You're getting visions of people dying!"
"Only for the people who will protect her Naruto." Neji reminded, and Sasuke could almost hear his amusement,
Like he ever need anyone's protection.
"You know Sasuke, Shion-chan told me that she was seeing those visions from another's person's eyes..." Naruto started babbling to ease the tensed atmosphere, and Sasuke stopped hearing from that point as his body froze.
"W-wait Naruto! Repeat what you just said!" Sasuke yelled as he sat up, letting the towel fell onto his lap. His vision blurred at first before everything slowly cleared. The eyes throbbed, but he barely noticed, his mind focused intently on the blond.
"Eh?" Naruto blinked back at him, "Ano... Was the nee-chan pretty?"
"No you Usuratonkachi! Before that!" Sasuke snapped, his previously ebony eyes had changed to his crimson Sharingan.
"Shion-chan was seeing those visions from another person's eyes..." Naruto trailed in confusion, "Oi! What's the matter!?"
He thought that time had stopped.
Or perhaps it was his heart that had stopped beating.
He couldn't seem to see anything, and he couldn't hear anything besides Naruto's statement.
Naruto's voice repeated itself over and over, like a mantra.
"Visions from another person's eyes..."
"Get your mind out of the gutter Uchiha Sasuke!" A loud commanding, booming voice snapped him back to reality. His head, which had turned to the source in reflex, was suddenly hit by a jolt of pain. Closing his eyes, a hand went up to massage his temples.
"Uchiha Itachi is dead! Move on Sasuke!" The Godaime stated firmly.
Sasuke retorted back, "There was no corpse!"
Hope.
It was hope that was bubbling within Sasuke. The more he reasoned, the more he was starting to convince himself. Even after all these months, there wasn't a corpse to be found. There were no body parts either. And now the Mangekyou Sharingan were acting up, the Sharingan that were given by him was showing him visions...
It had to be.
"Sasuke..." Kakashi called out calmly, "Itachi is dead. The Akatsuki had probably cremated his body after performing an autopsy."
"Then why would the Mangekyou Sharingan activate themselves?" scowled Sasuke before he let himself fall back onto his bed, breathing hard. "He gave me this Mangekyou Sharingan and its secret techniques... everything. It's only right if they react to him."
"Sasuke..." Kakashi repeated softly.
"Please..." The Uchiha breathed out as he raised his arm to cover his closed eyes, "If there was a slight chance... a clue..."
Begging. An Uchiha never begged. However, Sasuke valued his brother way more than the Uchiha name. He needed this chance, no matter how minuscule it was. He needed to know, to see that his brother might be somewhere out there... alive.
He heard Tsunade sighed before she ruffled his hair.
"Gaki, you know that the village is still in ruin. We cannot afford to spare high ranked people to search for a dead man."
There was an uncomfortable silence as they waited for the Uchiha to reply.
He did, his voice soft, sounding almost weak.
"Uchiha Madara..." He muttered, looking away, "Before he died... he was laughing."
"Eh?" rang through the room before silence took over as they expected the Uchiha prodigy to continue.
"'You still don't know the real truth' was what he said."
"The real truth?" Kakashi repeated hesitantly, earning a nod from the dark haired boy.
He had returned to Konohagure No Sato because of Naruto, because of their bond. They had promised to always rely on each other, to support one another. However, Naruto was not the Hokage... yet. He needed to follow the laws and rules to earn his position.
And Sasuke was planning. His brother might be alive, the same brother who gave up everything for him. The brother who had given up on his life –literally- for his sake might be alive... out there, somewhere. The same brother who had lived his life with the little brother he loved hating him, never knowing anything but his hate and malice.
He did not deserve it.
He had sacrificed too much, and had received nothing in return.
Sasuke was prepared to repay him, even at the cost of his life.
"Tsunade no baa-chan." He shifted, uncomfortable with the blond now that he had decided what to do.
"How about letting Sasuke and me go?"
Eh? Sasuke's eyes snapped open to stare at the smiling blond.
"We're both Genin, we aren't allowed to do any high ranked missions anyways." He continued confidently, "You have too many Genin to do your low rank missions... I don't see why we can't go."
"Naruto..." He breathed out in disbelief.
"What Teme? Think you can run away on your own again?" teased Naruto coyly.
His cheeks felt warmed as he turned away, embarrassed. Since when was he predictable?
"Tsunade-sama." Neji stepped forward, a smug smirk gracing his countenance, "I completed the A rank mission you gave me yesterday. I request to go with them."
Tsunade winced, smiling sheepishly at Kakashi who had turned to her, his eyebrows raised in question. It was known that newly made Jounin were not supposed to do anything above B rank missions for a certain period of time.
"Tsunade shishou, I'll also like to-" Sakura's statement was interrupted when Kakashi raised his hand.
"Hai hai I'll go and watch out for these kids." He smiled as he patted the Kunoichi's strawberry pink hair, "They need you in the hospital, Sakura."
"Mataku..." The Godaime sighed as she rubbed her temples, hiding a smile underneath her hands, "My own Shinobi blackmailing me..."
"Three months!" she stated firmly, glaring at Sasuke, "I'll give you three months to search for Itachi. You are to return after that and I expect you to turn in a report every week."
Resisting the urge to shrink back in fear, Sasuke nodded vigorously at the looming Hokage.
"Good." Tsunade nodded in approval, "Come Sakura, we need to return to the hospital."
"Hai Shishou." Sakura nodded. Turning to Sasuke, she lightly embraced the teen.
"Ganbatte, Sasuke-kun." She whispered encouragingly.
"Aww Sakura-chan, where's mine!?" Naruto pouted until the laughing Sakura too enveloped him in a hug.
"Take care, Naruto." She smiled warmly when Naruto held his thumbs up.
"I'll see you when you're back then!" waving, she ran out of the room.
"What about me?" the dejected Jounin pointed to himself, causing the others to laugh, "Maa, I'll see you all at the West Gate tomorrow sunrise. We'll go to the place where you battled Itachi first."
With that, the Jounin disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Discreetly, Sasuke glanced at the white eyed Jounin. Understanding the message, Neji nodded.
"I'll wait for you outside Naruto." He told the blond before leaving the room.
Now that Neji was gone, Sasuke fixed his ebony eyes on Naruto.
Unlike before, Naruto looked different now. The usual bright yellow spiky hair was now highlighted with crimson. It was not short and spiky anymore either, for it had grown slightly longer, touching his shoulders. The usual tan skin was gone too, it was light yellow now, almost white like he was. Gone was the broad shoulders and muscled form, instead he was lean and –using Naruto's own words- "girly looking".
It was his entire fault.
He had joined Akatsuki, and Madara had assigned him to capture the Kyuubi. It was his fault that Naruto had to fight him, with his tears and blood. It was his fault when Naruto had refused to kill him. It was his fault when he had used the Mangekyou Sharingan to burn him with Amaterasu.
It was his fault that Naruto had surrendered himself despite knowing that he could have win with his resistance to the Mangekyou Sharingan.
They had proceeded with the extraction on Naruto. And he had lost count on how many times he had emptied his stomach. Three days. For three days Naruto had screamed in agony. For three days Naruto had suffered the worst possible pain.
When he realized that it wasn't over even after three days, he had snapped.
The Akatsuki, all exhausted, were easy preys for Uchiha Sasuke. All died in his hands, all except for Uchiha Madara, who had managed to escape.
Panicked, he had run all his way to Konoha with Naruto. He did not know of the side effects for interrupting the extraction process, and there was no time to think. He had ran straight to the Hokage tower with his unmatchable speed, barely noticing his own exhaustion as he begged the Hokage to save Naruto.
There was hope.
There was fear.
He had waited outside the emergency room, leaning against the wall, trembling as he hugged himself.
He had prayed.
It was Kakashi that had approached his pitiful form. It was Kakashi that had assured him. it was also Kakashi that had hugged his trembling and exhausted body.
He had cried.
Silent, as he always was. Tears of exhaustion and fear had cascaded down his cheeks.
He had been imprisoned. He had accepted it. Yet when he heard that Naruto was finally stable and alive, he had broken out without thinking. He had wanted to be the first Naruto woke up to see, he had wanted to apologize, to talk, to be with Naruto.
An Uchiha always got what he wanted.
No words were spoken. Naruto had looked different then, but he didn't care. Gently, -for he had feared that Naruto would break- he had touch his whiskered cheek, as he did to him.
He had fallen unconscious then.
"Oi Teme what're you staring at?"
He was brought back to reality by the person he was thinking about.
The extraction had been both a success and failure. They did not manage to bring the Kyuubi out. However, they had almost succeeded. The Kyuubi was so close to the surface that there were changes on Naruto. Not only did Naruto look different, he seemed to be able to talk with the Kyuubi with his mind. He had become like Sabaku No Gaara, capable of talking with his Bijuu easily.
It was only due to Tsunade's and other major clan head's support that Naruto was not imprisoned or killed. Although it was confirmed that the Kyuubi would not be able to come out and take over the body, it was implied that it could influence Naruto and send him to insanity.
Naruto had AnBu following him and he was confined in Konoha for six months.
It was his entire fault.
"Arigatou." He muttered softly as he refused to meet the blond's eyes.
"Is Sasuke-chan embarrassed?" he teased back cheekily, bending down to pat his head.
"Go and train you Usuratonkachi!" scowled Sasuke as he slapped the hand away.
Laughing, Naruto grinned before he turned to leave.
"We'll definitely bring Itachi back, dattebayo!"
Sasuke rolled to the other side as Naruto left, a smile gracing his lips.
Once outside, Naruto greeted Neji with a wave before he scratched the back of his head.
"Sorry for the wait, Neji." He grinned at the long haired Jounin.
"So... training ground 7?" Neji sent him a small smile as he asked.
"Ah... Gomen, can we skip training today? I'll treat you to Ichiraku!" Naruto bargained, giving Neji his watery blue puppy dog eyes look.
Shaking his head, Neji matched his steps to the cheerful teen beside him.
"Until now, I still can't understand how you are willing to do the impossible." He sighed and rubbed his temples, wondering why had he involved himself in it.
"It's not impossible." Naruto frowned, "What Sasuke said actually made sense."
"You believe that he might still be alive?" Neji raised an eyebrow as they left the Uchiha district.
Shrugging, Naruto turned and flashed Neji a wide grin.
"I'm going along because the Sasuke now is like the old me." that said, he started skipping ahead towards Ichiraku Ramen.
"After all, a place where someone is thinking of you is a place called home!"
Author's Note: Shion is a character from Naruto Shippuuden the Movie. The movie creates a lot of possibilities in Naruto world. My idea for this fanfiction actually comes about after I watch that movie.
Please review, I can't judge my own fanfiction after all. –bows-
Oh, as always, the "preview" of chapters and replies to reviews are on my profile page.
