HI everyone, Thank you to all who has followed the story and Reviewed I have really enjoyed writing this story and I feel my writing has improved somewhat since I wrote Nightmare's and Bonds. It has taken me a while to write this one it took me a few drafts for me to help choose the direction I want the story to take.
Thank you for your patience now on with the new chapter.
(Killer Bee is in this, I humbly apologise if he is out of character in this I can't rap to save my life.)
Search and Destroy
Sakura began her malicious quest in the Hokage's office a few slowly working through the piles of paper work, searching for a specific document that would be essential to her plan. Sakura sorted through everything determined to find it no matter what.
At first she had tried to break into the medical files at the hospital in the hope that she may find the document there, but she came out with nothing. If Sakura's plan was going to work smoothly she needed to find Naruto's medical file that would tell her all of his injuries he had sustanied she also needed to find the mission report from thier last mission, which was hard to find as Tsunade had put them under lock and key in her office.
But thanks to a little digging it was soon located it in Tsunade's personal draw along with a thick brown envelope addressed to Tsunade, this to Sakura would have meant nothing had it not been littered with stamps from every hidden country in the land.
"What on earth is this and why would Tsunade keep this in the same place as Naruto's, medical records?" Sakura carefully lifted the heavy package out of the draw to investigate further. It hadn't been opened yet as the red seal on the back hadn't been broken yet.
Carefully she put it back, along with a fake copy of the medical notes underneath and left the mysterious envelope. At the moment the file in Sakura's hand was more juicy than some random letter that Tsunade so too lazy to open. Sakura couldn't believe that she would keep both the medical file and the mission report in the same place.
Sakura left the office quickly making sure everything was in its rightful place, quickly Sakura went back to her home and began to read the files quickly taking in every detail before she had to take them back. She was left disappointed when she discovered Naruto had been deemed unfit to give a statement. Tsunade's hand writing confirmed that she didn't want to make Naruto relive the experience so soon after returning home.
Sakura smiled slightly "That will have to change and as soon as possible. I need to know what happend from Naruto's point of view for theis to work perfectly."
After she had finished meddling with Naruto's mantle state, Sakura would need to find a certain someone close to Naruto. "Just wait Naruto in a single day you will lose everything you hold dear to you I swear that."
Meanwhile Iruka was busy getting ready to leave for the academy to teach it was heart breaking to leave Naruto with Sasuke, but he had started to warm to the raven since he had started to actually start helping look after the blonde to the where Naruto he would sometimes catch Sasuke attempting to crawl in to the bed which Sasuke flatly denied ever happened.
Besides he had taken enough time off work and he needed to report back, he would have to wait until his day ended before he could come back to check on Naruto. For Iruka a few hours was going to feel like a year. Iruka rubbed Naruto's head again and when got up back he noticed Sasuke standing in the door way leaning on the wooden frame. The two ninja looked at one another both checking the other out each one was sizing the other out trying to guess the others motives.
Eventually Iruka gave up sizing Sasuke up and just made a few simple requests "Sasuke just look after Naruto for me today. Please try and get him to sleep" After giving Sasuke his instructions and requests Iruka stood up and walked out the door trying to avoid eye contact with Sasuke at all costs, before walking out of the mansion.
Sasuke watched Naruto from the door way not fooled by Naruto pretending to sleep, sighing heavily he walked into the room and leaned against the wall. "Oi, dobe if you were on a mission now and your life depended on how well you could pretend to be asleep. You would be dead by now."
Naruto heard Sasuke's comment twitched in his restless sleep and rolled over his cover blown. Naruto had been asleep but it was light to stop him from sleeping any deeper. The ANBU behind Sasuke sighed a little; they had all been hoping Naruto would sleep for a bit longer.
Sasuke had noticed he was awake as well and sighed heavily before walking over to the bed before sliding awkwardly under the covers trying in vain to copy what Iruka had done a few days before. Only instead of calming Naruto it had the opposite effect causing him to nearly jump out of bed but he lacked the energy to do so.
"Naruto, please go to sleep for me just for a few minutes you will collapse or worse otherwise." Sasuke held on to the sleepy blonde it required very little effort. Naruto shook his head weakly before answering "No Kabuto will eat me and Sniper will do things to me again."
If Sasuke wasn't worried that statement would have been funny, Sasuke chuckled a little when he realised what Naruto had said. "Naruto I think you need to sleep more than we realised. You can't even speak properly."
Naruto had stopped moving after a few minutes and snuggled into Sasuke's chest he lay there for a moment enjoying Sasuke's scent, letting it fill his nose. Reluctantly Naruto had to agree with Sasuke that the time had come for him to try and rest properly, but he was so scared what would be waiting for him once he shut his eyes that there was only one way he could even think about sleep. "Sasuke, I will only sleep if you stay with me."
Sasuke had expected Naruto to ask him to stay with him and wasn't completely surprised by his request. Sasuke turned to face the ANBU guarding him today, silently asking them for permission which they answered with a small nod of approval. Slowly Sasuke lay down with Naruto letting his jet black hair rest on the pillow. Once Sasuke's relaxed and settled himself so did Naruto soon Sasuke could feel the smaller ninja's breathing relaxing, soon Naruto was out cold and dreaming.
Naruto found himself in a fairy tale like dream with Sasuke in a pleasant field with a blossoming cherry tree's petals blowing on a gentle breeze. Sasuke invited Naruto to sit down
Naruto's pleasant dream took a horrible twist when Sasuke pushed him away breaking their kiss. Naruto looked around to find the field of flowers had now turned into the room where he was tortured by Kabuto. Looking around he found he was chained up to the stone table. Everyone he knew was looking down at him even Kakashi was there among the crowd. Naruto tried to call someone but he was ignored by everyone. He tried again to talk to Sasuke but he ignored him and he calmly walked towards Kabuto and Sniper allowing the huge creäture to squeeze him tightly. "Why would I be with someone like you when I could have been with Sakura or Ino?"
Unable to stop himself form screaming out to his love "NO, PLEASE STOP SASUKE, DON'T LEAVE ME." Naruto's eyes widened when he heard the sickening sound of Sasuke's ribs and other bones snap before blood spilled out of his open wounds from where the bones had penetrated his skin. Sakura laughed along with the rest of Kohna at the sight of Naruto wailing and screaming on the hard table, begging for the dream to end.
Sasuke hadn't realised how sleepy he was until today, he had fallen asleep twice now since he had crawled next to Naruto. He had to admit Naruto's hair was a better pillow. He couldn't help but feel so frustrated when he and Naruto were imprisoned together comforting Naruto had come so naturally to him. But now he could barely touch Naruto without pulling back at the last moment. He had been so jealous of Iruka he could show emotion without hesitation, even with the tips Iruka had taught him he couldn't express to Naruto how he felt.
His train of thought were broken by the sounds of desperate cries "SASUKE NOOO DON'T DIE NO PLEASE. DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE AGAIN."
Sasuke was so warped up in his own thoughts that he jumped out of his skin when Naruto flew out of his dreams screaming for Sasuke not to leave him. Sasuke could only watch as his true love thrashed madly before going limp for a few minutes then waking up again only to scream the same things over again.
The third and last time Naruto came round he was weaker and not struggling much in Sasuke's arms. Naruto blacked out a few moments later going limp in again in a frantic Sasuke's arms.
Sasuke was still holding Naruto in his arms desperate to get a response from him. When there was none Sasuke noticed Naruto's breathing was becoming irregular. Sasuke's breath got caught in his throat when he checked Naruto's pulse to find it slow and weak.
Sasuke called to Sai "Go get help now something's wrong with Naruto, hurry."
Sai nodded and ran out the window at top speed towards the Hokage tower.
Sasuke held Naruto close feeling like it was his fault that Naruto had ended up in this state because he had allowed himself to feel again. Just as he was thinking this a warm voice familiar voice spoke to him.
"Sasuke its fine I'll take care of Naruto." Sakura gently took Naruto from Sasuke and began to work on him.
Naruto found himself back in his nightmare again desperately Naruto tried to wake up again but couldn't. Every time he tried to wake up trying to move he was pulled back under in a few seconds Sasuke's worried face was the last thing he saw before he blacked out again.
Sakura stepped forward from the crowd of people this time. The pink haired medical nin's eyes were fixed on the ground hardly able to look directly at Naruto as she stepped forward, it was as if Sakura was disgusted by just the sight of him. When she finally spoke her words were followed by sobs of despair.
"How on earth could I ever care about you, a filthy selfish creäture you should never have been born?" Sakura crumbled to the ground on her knees sobbing even harder than before, her cries becoming like screams of agony.
Naruto felt like he was the cause of Sakura's pain, after all he had taken her first love without even thinking about her feeling. "Sakura-chan I'm so sorry please forgive me for hurting you so much. I never meant for you to hurt like this."
Sakura turned away from Naruto ignoring his desperate apologies when she at last came face to face with the deadly ninja she had control over her crying and was able to speak in a hush whisper. "Please make it go away."
The white scaled ninja simply nodded as if understanding her pain, his hand changed to a soft green as he propelled himself towards Sakura. Naruto called out a warning for her to move out of the way, but it was ignored. Sakura closed her eyes and allowed Kabuto to decapitate her swiftly; her head bounced on the floor and rolled away blood still pumping through the arteries that would have been connected to her neck.
Iruka stepped forward next holding his old headband that he had given to Naruto on that faithful night when he began his journey as a ninja. "Why did I even bother with a demon in the first place?" Iruka walked away just like Sakura and was killed by Snipers mutated rattle tail Naruto couldn't bear to watch as his fatherly figure was cut down so easily.
Naruto's tears kept falling on to the hard floor he couldn't take watching everyone die in front of him anymore. Right now he would have happily crawled into the coils of Sniper now and accept death gladly without fuss. Sniper crawled closer to the trembling ninja on the floor slivering over the bodies of his friends. Naruto didn't move a muscle as the muscled snake warped around him, before the coils could settle around him a familiar voice echoed in the tunnels.
"OI, BRAT QUITE YOU'RE SCREAMINGI'M TRYING TO SLEEP." The voice was that of the Kyubi.
Naruto raised his head to see that he was no longer in his awful dreams but inside the foxes prison Naruto was taken by surpirse to find he was warped not in the tail of a scaled snake but in one of the foxes fury tails. "You should see the look on your face brat."
Naruto wasn't interested in the Kyubi's sick sense of humour and more concerned why he was here in the first place. "Why am I here and not in my dreams?"
Kyubi laughed harder "You call those dreams never mind, I summoned you here because I need to rest I can't do that if you are half dead on your feet."
Naruto shook his head frantically in protest. "I can't you've seen what waits when I close my eyes besides I'm coping just fine without sleep." Naruto snapped back at the demon exhaustion making him more irritated than usual.
Kyubi growled deeply angry and Naruto's ignorance to the danger he was putting them in. "Brat if it wasn't for me you would be in a coma by now. My Chakra is too low to keep you functioning now that's why you haven't been healing as quickly; you would have been in a very bad state when you eventually work up if I hadn't pulled you in here. You're not the only one that was attacked back then, I too need a rest to recover from what that freak did to us."
Naruto felt dizzy his head was spinning with the effort to hold his gaze with the Kyubi for more than a few minutes at a time. He couldn't' believe what he was saying there's no way he was that weak he could slip into a coma that easily.
As if the Kyubi could read his mind he spoke again this time more softly "Naruto you can't run from your dreams forever. Sooner or later you will have to face them. Now just rest in here you won't dream while in here. You should use this time to think about telling your friends what scares you, don't look at me like that kid they need to know about the nightmares." With that speech said the huge fox lay down in his cell and went to sleep his slow breathing echoing in the small space.
Naruto fell asleep as soon as his head mad contact with the foxes fluffy tail unaware of the chaos going on outside his mind.
At the Hokage tower
Tsunade had been in an important meeting with the Raikage and was getting to the point about Sasuke. All though A had reluctantly accepted Sasuke's formal apology he still wasn't happy about Sasuke's punishment calling it a joke and an insult. Tsunade couldn't help but wonder if he had only accepted Sasuke's apology because Killer Bee had been in the meeting as well. As A was in charge of a village he needed to know all of the story and knew about Sasuke and Naruto, so as such Bee knew as well.
Since Sasuke had tried to kidnap Bee he had to apologise to the jinchuuriki , which went a lot better than expected, Bee had accepted his apology better than his brother and even congratulated Sasuke for choosing Naruto for a mate, saying or singing something along the lines of.
"Yo fool, you have chosen the best of the nest and have a good thing. Naruto is one cool fox that knows how to rock. But if you hurt his heart I swear you will feel Lord killer Bees sting, hell yeah. "
Tsunade grinned at the memory of Sasuke cringing slightly at the threat against his life so bluntly through rap alone.
Slowly she regained her composer and explained the meaning of the punishment to A trying hard not to lose her temper. "Sasuke needs to see the damage his has done not only to his village but to the people who cherish him most. By assigning Sasuke the task of caring for Naruto, the only person who has never given up on him no matter what he has done, as you already have read Naruto was seriously injured on the last mission by a Kabuto. He needs Sasuke not just to make a full physical recovery but a mental recovery as well."
A was about to protest again when Sai had barged in through the doors unannounced "Sai what on earth are you…?
Sai didn't let her finish her sentence and proceeded to pass on Sasuke's urgent message despite her glares. "Forgive me Tsunade-sama Sasuke sent me something is wrong with Naruto."
Tsunade sat up quickly not bothering to hear what the "Tell me on the way Raikage come with me I think you will need to see what I have talked about for yourself."
With that they left and made it to Sasuke's mansion in just a few minutes to find Naruto on the floor being worked on by Sakura. She seemed to be doing what she was trained to do
Tsunade spoke to Sasuke not bothering to hide her worry from the leader of the lightning country. "Sasuke tell me what happened here."
Sasuke explained to Tsunade what happened still holding Naruto's hand what happened to Tsunade before asking Sakura how Naruto's was doing. Tsunade had predicted as much that Naruto would be unable to resist sleep for much longer and judging from Naruto's expression on his face as he slept she could tell her little blonde ninja was at his limit.
The Raikage snorted unimpressed with the detour from there meeting. "He's just sleeping nothing to worry about how can you be so sure that Sasuke didn't do this to try a lure me here and finish the job?"
Sasuke hissed loudly holding a tight grip around Naruto's hand angry at the nerve of A for accusing him so unfairly. He was about to jump up and give the Raikage a big piece of his mind when Sakura piped up first before Sasuke could give him a death stare.
In light of Raikage's harsh accusations Sakura quickly jumped to Sasuke's defence, before Sasuke lashed out first. "Sasuke was right to be worried Raikage- Sama his breathing and heart rate were below normal, if Sasuke hadn't been here anything could have happened. If Sasuke says that Naruto was in a terrified state of mind then he could have hurt himself."
Tsunade breathed a sigh of relief when A backed down from the disagreement; he looked satisfied with Sakura's reasoning. She made a mental note to praise her young student later, now her only concern was Naruto. Lifting his shirt up the blonde's black t-shirt she noticed something alarming had appeared on his abdomen.
Sasuke noticed it too and looked just as alarmed as Tsunade the seal that kept the Kyubi at bay was glowing. Tsunade called to Sakura, keeping her voice as calm as possible "Sakura please get Kakashi, Yamato we need them here as soon as possible. Oh, don't tell Iruka about this just yet."
Sakura nodded and left to fetch the two ninja's on Tsunade's command.
A seemed confused by the fifths sudden urgency for two new people to be summoned so quickly. "What do we need those two here for?"
"The seal that has appeared is a sign that the Kyubi is keeping Naruto in this state I need to know why. Kakashi can talk to the Kyubi with his sharingan; while Yamato possesses the wood jutsu we need him in case the Kyubi has other motives."
I'm leaving it there for now in the next chapter Kakashi and Sasuke hold an intervention and will Naruto open up and tell his friends about his nightmares and what is Sakura planning to do? Find out in the next chapter.
Next time on A broken Vow: Intervention Sharingan Style
