A/N: I know I skipped around a bit in this chapter, but seeing as it would take forever to re-write the entire Search For Tsunade arc, I only wrote in the sections that I changed for this fanfiction. This chapter also has development on Sasuke's side of the relationship between he and Itachi, and within the next couple of chapters, there will be development more so on Sasori's side of his relationship with Deidara. Naruto's relationship with Pein will start developing more the next time Naruto and Pein meet. Also, throughout this story, there will continue to be slight SasuNaru implications, but it won't usually be major. I might have some important scenes that imply (or are) SasuNaru, but the other relationships are the most important ones, and will have the largest effects in this story.
Instead of working on his newest novel, Jiraiya was staring out the window, wondering when Naruto and Sasuke would be returning from their training together. He had just recently taught Naruto the Rasengan, and with Sasuke's help, the blond's progress was increasing drastically. He supposed it was a good idea to bring Sasuke along, after all.
But then, he couldn't quite understand why Akatsuki was being so lenient. His first conjecture was that it was a trap, so they could attempt to eliminate him, then take the two boys back. But why go through another fight with the two, just to get them back again? They could have kept Sasuke and only allowed him to take Naruto. Was it because Sasuke wouldn't have cooperated if Naruto wasn't there? Although, in a technical sense, Itachi did have the right to keep Sasuke with him, as long as he had custody over him. He may have been a rogue Shinobi, but the fact that he was Sasuke's older brother would always remain true.
That thought suddenly made another thought occur to him. Sasuke hadn't been any bit belligerent toward Itachi when they were together. He didn't want to bring the topic up to the younger Uchiha and run the risk of angering him, but he wanted to know whether or not the boy was being forced to be submissive. Itachi was a Genjutsu specialist – he could effortlessly torture Sasuke if he said or did anything against him or the other Akatsuki members.
It was at that moment that the younger two walked into the room the three were staying at in the hotel. Jiraiya looked toward them, blinking. "That was fast."
"I only practiced that Rasengan thing for a little while. I was helping Sasuke with his Chidori." Naruto answered as he and Sasuke sat down, exhausted from training.
"Really? You gave up your own training for his?" He raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised.
"Pff. Sorry. He's here, too."
Jiraiya blinked again, noticing Sasuke's hand on top of Naruto's. "Uhh, it might be awkward for me to ask this, but are you two in a relationship?"
Both quickly returned their hands by their sides, looking slightly embarrassed about being caught in such a position. Jiraiya just shook his head and chuckled.
"By the way, we should able to find Tsunade soon. Since I'll be bringing her back to the village, I need to know what you both plan on doing. If you go back with me, you'll have to go back to Akatsuki from the village. Otherwise, you'll have to go back from here."
"We'll figure it out." Naruto shrugged.
'He must really trust them to be so calm about going back…' Jiraiya realized, but not voicing his concerns, and instead responding to Naruto with a simple nod.
Within the next few days, the three had come into contact with Tsunade and her assistant, Shizune. Tsunade had been surprised that an Uchiha was traveling with Jiraiya, but she had refused to go back to Konoha. Naruto had been training for an entire week alongside Sasuke to attempt to win his bet with Tsunade. Again afterward, they were looking for her, only this time they had another issue to deal with. The man who had run away a short time ago had informed the three that there had been an oversized snake in the vicinity.
Naruto and Sasuke had frozen up and briefly stared at each other as they remembered the giant snakes that they'd encountered during the Chuunin Exams. With Jiraiya's suspicion added, they rushed to locate Tsunade, and when they had, the first person Jiraiya spotted was, as he suspected, Orochimaru.
While Naruto looked on in bewilderment, Sasuke nearly felt his stomach drop upon seeing the twisted man for a second time. Kabuto being involved in the fight hadn't surprised him at all – he'd already been distrustful of the man during the Exams. He felt like he was going to be ill when Orochimaru noticed him there.
Naruto and Jiraiya had gone on to discuss Kabuto's loyalties, with Sasuke adding that he'd lost trust in Kabuto long before then.
"Sharp as always." Orochimaru smirked at Sasuke, who responded with a scowl.
"Wait a minute! So you're the guy who tried to hurt Sasuke?!" Naruto asked fiercely.
"Tried?" Sasuke repeated in a voice that gave Naruto the indication that the older man had harmed him.
"…You did hurt him?!"
"If you hadn't been so rash beforehand, you could have been conscious to witness it." Orochimaru replied nonchalantly.
Naruto stayed silent, but was inwardly still screaming at Orochimaru. He had a lot he could have said to him, and the look on his face was the proof of this.
"Well, Sasuke-kun? Have you decided yet? You do still want your revenge, don't you?" Orochimaru asked, looking towards Sasuke.
Sasuke abruptly froze, again feeling as though his stomach had dropped. 'Revenge… Itachi…' In all honesty, Sasuke had forgotten about revenge. For some reason, he realized he now had, as much as he didn't want to believe it to be accurate, feelings for Itachi. What those exact feelings were, he wasn't quite sure, but he knew it was and meant something. He didn't want revenge anymore – that was the only thing he knew for sure.
"Why are you hesitating? Don't tell me you need to think it over?"
"I'm… I don't…" Sasuke stammered, not entirely certain of what he wanted to say.
"Want revenge anymore?"
"I don't know…"
"Once you possess power, you will use it. Are you saying you're willing to renounce that power?"
"I don't need your help."
"Yet without it, you'll never be able to kill Itachi."
"Shut up about him!" Sasuke screamed, causing all eyes to be turned on him.
"Sasuke, just stop listening to him!" Naruto grabbed Sasuke's shoulders and turned the raven-haired teen to face him.
"I don't know what I want anymore… I'm too confused…"
"Has anything happened between you?" Naruto questioned carefully.
Sasuke nodded. "He cares about me… But then I still don't understand why he killed everyone… I think I just… still… love him… Please don't tell him yet…"
Orochimaru grimaced, realizing his plans were swiftly coming apart. Whatever happened between the two Uchiha was unquestionably a negative on his side. "In that case… Kabuto…"
The silver haired man knew immediately what Orochimaru's order was and charged after Sasuke, but was intercepted by Jiraiya, who was intercepted by Orochimaru.
Naruto glared at Kabuto, creating clones that all tried to pummel Kabuto with fists and feet.
"You really overuse that technique." Kabuto sighed and shook his head. "You have so many flaws."
"Being honest, he really doesn't have an extensive variety of techniques." Jiraiya admitted. "But the ones he does have, he's very talented with. He has a brain – he just doesn't use it regularly."
"I can't tell whether that was a compliment or not…" Naruto muttered.
"You're right. An aerial attack may have actually hit, but he's trying to attack me from behind, as though I wouldn't notice."
Naruto gaped as Kabuto took down every clone with skills he hadn't shown during the Chuunin Exams. He'd been a remarkable ally, but now made an appalling adversary.
In Naruto's eyes, everything seemed to happen so quickly. For Sasuke, it was feeling as though the entire fight was literally taking years. Kabuto ultimately exhausted the two to the point where either could barely stand, but Naruto refused to stop moving until he was sure he won his bet with Tsunade. Sasuke had gotten a Chidori in after Naruto's finished first form of Rasengan, and let himself collapse beside a heavily injured Naruto.
"Sasuke… don't push yourself too much." Naruto breathed out, his eyes still closed.
"You would do the same thing for me, idiot…" Sasuke's tense muscles relaxed when his comment brought a smile to the blond's face.
While Tsunade continued to heal Naruto, Jiraiya's fight with Orochimaru remained fierce, leaving pure substantiation in the terrain that there had been a fight there. Orochimaru put their fight on hold when he turned his focus on killing Naruto, who was now unconscious. Despite Tsunade shielding him, the man continued to sought to end the younger's life, and Sasuke eventually shot up and ran his second Chidori through Orochimaru's right arm.
'Shit. He's going to pissed now…' Jiraiya realized, rushing after the group.
"You… How did you find out about these arms?" Orochimaru asked, holding back a wince of pain.
"I'm pretty sure your teammates could answer that." Sasuke hissed, moving back toward Naruto and lowering himself back down to his teammate's level.
"You…!"
'Not good… Those two could be in a hell of a lot of trouble now!' Jiraiya grimaced when he saw the look on Orochimaru's face – if he got hold of those two, there would no doubt later be torture.
"Sasuke-kun… you understand the significance of that blunder, do you not?"
Sasuke just stared at him mutely, irrefutably incensed.
Kabuto stopped Jiraiya midway to his target and swiftly began fending him off, further angering Jiraiya.
"You were trying to kill him." Sasuke finally growled at Orochimaru, causing a look of surprise to appear on the Sannin's face for merely an instant before it returned to his angered expression.
"Get up." Orochimaru ordered venomously.
"You're going to have to make me. And from what I can see, you're not able to use your arms." Sasuke retorted.
"Kabuto. We're leaving and taking these two with us." He turned his head to Kabuto, then back to Sasuke. "Not going to try to run away?"
"I'm not leaving Naruto here."
Orochimaru just nodded as Kabuto quickly struck Jiraiya to keep him from helping Naruto and Sasuke before hurrying back to Orochimaru's side.
"I do wish you luck in finding us." Kabuto smirked at Jiraiya, disappearing in a cloud of smoke as he had done to Kakashi a while back, taking both boys with him while Orochimaru disappeared within the ground.
"Dammit… We need to go after them as soon as possible." Jiraiya growled, glaring at where Orochimaru had been previously.
"Hey, you know Konoha's starting to send out warnings about us to their allied nations, right?" Hidan suddenly said upon a sudden memory of what he and Kakuzu had encountered during their mission.
"I would imagine they're unaware of the exact members?" Pein questioned, looking toward Hidan.
"They were only informed by Konoha that Itachi and Kisame are part of our group." Kakuzu answered.
"Even if any villages learn about us as a whole, they likely won't attack us until they know exactly who our members are." Konan added.
"In which case, attacks from Konoha are most likely, as well as Kiri." Sasori noted. "The fact that a missing-nin from each of those two villages are here will decide that, added onto the fact that technically, we did kidnap two of Konoha's Shinobi."
"They may try to attack us soon." Pein cautioned. "To avoid anything negative on our side, I'll assign the next group of missions quickly." The rest of the group nodded in understanding.
"Stop pushing me!" Sasuke hissed with a low growl.
"I wouldn't have to push you at all if you walked on your own." Kabuto sighed.
"I've been." Sasuke glowered.
"You'll be chained up to a wall even longer if you don't behave."
"What are you going to do to Naruto…?" Sasuke asked, both from desiring to know and to attempt to drop the impending argument.
"Same thing as you." Kabuto responded simply.
Sasuke stared at Kabuto silently before looking back ahead. 'If what Itachi said was true, I won't be here long…'. For some reason, Sasuke believed Itachi really would find him and help him. His confusion was lessening slowly as he kept trying to make himself believe the eldest Uchiha's words were genuine.
He was so focused on his thoughts that he hadn't really cared where he was being led. He'd suddenly thought back to the day a while back when he'd willingly kissed Itachi, when he had felt more at ease than he'd ever felt while resting right beside him the same night.
'Why do I keep thinking about that…?' Sasuke questioned to himself, feeling the small blush that was forming on his face.
That was far from the first time he'd reflected on those memories; far from the first time he'd been glad to have them.
Sasuke blinked, thinking over Itachi's attitude toward him throughout the day and a half that they had been together. Had he been trying to seduce him? After thinking their time over, it seemed to certainly be an accurate suggestion. Then again, it may have also been true that he was only acting like Sasuke wanted him to. It hasn't taken Sasuke long at all to stop moving away, and eventually, he'd started moving closer on his own. He'd been questioning his own behavior, but stopped thinking so much about it in favor of keeping himself as close to Itachi as possible.
'…He'll be here to get me.' Sasuke thought, finally firm on the contemplation.
Because of that thought, he figured it would be best to listen to Kabuto and, although he hated the very deliberation of it, Orochimaru. It would be stupid to suffer any gratuitous injures if he was going to be saved not too long from now.
Kabuto was surprised to see Sasuke's sudden change of mood and obedience, but didn't voice his concerns as he locked the chains into place around the younger Uchiha, who grimaced at being confined into one place so roughly.
Once both boys were securely bound to the walls behind them, Orochimaru turned to Kabuto. "I'd like to talk to Sasuke-kun alone for a while."
Kabuto simply nodded and proceeded to leave the dungeon area. Once he'd left, Orochimaru looked directly at Sasuke with a glare. "Explain."
"I have nothing to explain to you." Sasuke glared back defiantly.
"You were going to gain power from me, child. You would let yourself lose that?"
"If you want to give me power so badly, there's obviously a reason for it."
"I can help you gain the power to kill your brother."
"I am not killing him."
"Since when did you decide this?" Orochimaru lifted an eyebrow at the boy, beginning to lose any patience he managed to have in the first place.
"Since I realized he cares about me."
"Does he? So all of a sudden, that former abhorrence is completely gone?"
"…I don't know…"
"Then hate him. Kill him. You'll feel better once you do."
"I'll only feel worse."
"You only say this because you're confused."
"Shut up! I'm not confused…"
"You certainly sound as though you are."
"Shut up! I… love him!"
Orochimaru's eyes widened slightly, and he stared in almost shock at Sasuke.
"I still want to believe he had a good reason for killing everyone. I just can't force myself to hate him… I want to keep feeling the emotions I used to feel for him, and continue to make them stronger."
"…So you went from loathing him for some time to loving him?" Orochimaru inquired almost incredulously.
"I know I never really hated him… I could only force myself to think I did a few times, but I could never actually…"
Orochimaru waited for a moment before speaking again. "I'm keeping you here, regardless. You'll realize your mistake soon enough."
"if he didn't care about me, he would never have kissed me like that…" Sasuke whispered, more to himself than to Orochimaru, looking down at the floor instead of at the Sannin.
"How do you know for sure that it wasn't to get you to lower your guard when around him?"
"Her could've done anything to me right then… He could have even killed me…"
"So your feelings for him are… romantic?"
Sasuke shrugged. "I… I think so… After being separated from him for so long… I'm just not comfortable with confessing so soon…"
"That's disappointing. I suppose I'll have to keep you here without your consent. In which case, I'll be seeing you later." With that, Orochimaru headed back to find Kabuto, not waiting for Sasuke to respond.
Even after Orochimaru had left, Sasuke couldn't find himself able to tear the thoughts from his head. The only reason he had spilled his true feelings out to the older man was because he felt he needed to get his emotions out, yet once he'd started explaining, he then felt he couldn't stop explaining.
'Maybe I really do love him…' Sasuke sighed at the consideration, then settled on waiting for Naruto to wake.
Upon hearing footsteps, Naruto and Sasuke both kept themselves silent. When they saw that the footsteps were coming from Kabuto, they both scowled, but still didn't speak.
Sasuke released a soundless but exasperated sigh when Kabuto turned his eyes on him. "I heard the whole story. So you have feelings for your clan's murderer?" Sasuke said nothing in response, but looked toward the silver haired man with a fierce look. "If I were you, I'd have been at his throat the minute I was given the chance."
Sasuke stared at his enemy with a now blank expression as the older man continued speaking. "It's a shame that you went from loathing the man and desiring to kill him more than anything to opening your legs to him."
Practically choking with a squeak, Sasuke felt his face grow hot. "I have not done anything like that with him!"
"You would if he only asked, if you truly do feel the way you say you do about him."
Sasuke froze, but could still feel the blush on his face – it was true he wouldn't ever want to say No to Itachi, regardless of what Itachi asked of him. In Sasuke's opinion, anything sexual between he and Itachi would only be proof of his trust and love for him – he had thought such things over before Jiraiya had been able to locate Tsunade. He also trusted that Itachi wouldn't ask him to do something he didn't want to do, which then brought in the realization that Kabuto's avowal was actually precise. He knew Kabuto was implying that he would sleep with Itachi – his previous thoughts being the evidence of such.
Naruto just watched quietly, unsure of what he could possibly say that would make the situation any bit better.
"Don't worry. I wont linger on the subject. I need to leave with Orochimaru-sama to get some things done. Seeing as it's not possible for the two of you to escape from this base, you'll both be allowed to meander the halls and get your own food until we return."
"This has nothing to do with Itachi, does it?" Sasuke glared vehemently.
"Not directly."
"And that means?"
"Something we're going out to do involves Akatsuki, but not Itachi himself." Kabuto answered as he moved to the chains attached to Sasuke and unlocked them, then proceeded to do the same for Naruto.
"If anything happens to him, no matter what it is or who's involved, I'll be blaming you." Sasuke said firmly, receiving a shrug from Kabuto in response.
"And while you're out of these cells, make sure you don't anger anyone you can't beat in a fight. They have permission to react violently."
Both boys stayed silent, merely glancing at each other suspiciously. Once Kabuto had left, they again looked toward each other, neither moving from their positions.
"Is this a trap?" Naruto asked tentatively.
Sasuke shrugged. "I wouldn't suggest being too cautious, but at least watch out for yourself."
Naruto nodded, feeling slightly nervous. For both of them, even being with Akatsuki was better than being here. That thought raised their hopes that Akatsuki would be there for them soon. They didn't have to roam the halls to know – anywhere was better than here.
A/N: Next chapter is where I'll finally find a spot to bring in the second main antagonist. Orochimaru will still be playing large parts in this story, considering he's an enemy to Akatsuki, but I'd prefer having more than one antagonist. Thankfully Kishimoto's been following my train of thought recently in that aspect. ;)
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