A/N: Thanks to a reviewer, I found a blunder in the last chapter. But I pulled something clever out of my ass, and now it has been fixed! (sighs in relief) BUT ANYHOW! Chapter 4 of 'Demon's World' is the beginning to the heavy plot that we all know and love. Except now, instead of the focus being Sasuke, our loveable emo, it's now on Naruto! Our loveable gang leader! And he has quite the doozy of a past! Nothing drastic...Ish...Like Sasuke's, though. I don't think. Eheh. (still thinking of it as we speak? Why yes) So anyhow! Enjoy chapter four!
AND THANK Wolfgirl21 FOR BEING AWESOME. If it weren't for her, this chapter would most likely be RIDDLED with mistakes! Eheh. SO THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU PLATONICALLY. (cries because she finally has a beta. God answered her prayers)
Disclaimer: Naruto and Co. belong to Masashi Kishimoto.
Lying on the couch in the comfort of his blonde's arms, Sasuke let his mind wander to gym class, something that had been bothering him all day. Why did it seem like…something Kabuto told him was off? Like, the information he gave him was incorrect or something?
Sighing, he closed his eyes, moving closer to Naruto to take in his comforting warmth, head resting on his shoulder while his right hand gripped the blonde's shirt with a loose hold. Their legs were tangled together, and the blonde was sleeping beside him, mouth slightly opened, eyes gently closed, his hair loosely falling into his face, framing it and almost making him look innocent. But only almost. Naruto's arm had wrapped around Sasuke's waist, pulling him up close to him so that they were pressed against each other comfortably. It was one of the only positions that Sasuke could stand to be in for a long time; something he didn't mind because Orochimaru had never held him tenderly. Only glanced at him with unadulterated lust in his eyes.
This was odd, since Sasuke had been ten. The Uchiha inwardly shuddered.
Sighing again, obsidian eyes still closed, he tried to clear his muddled mind. Fine black hair fell into his face, making his cheek twitch a little as it lightly tickled that spot, but he didn't bother to move it aside. He was much too comfortable to move, anyhow.
"No, she was off any drugs. But she seemed to be pregnant when she finally stopped…Two months in, actually." Kabuto frowned a little. "She's Sakura Haruno's mother."
'He said that…Sakura's mother had been pregnant when she was buying drugs from me…with Sakura…' He furrowed his brow as his mind, slowly clearing, started to make sense of what was told to him. 'But how is that possible? Sakura's my age…I was at her birthday party in March…' His eyes slowly opened as he bit his bottom lip. 'I had seen a picture of her mother and father; her father had red hair…her mom had…white…' His eyes widened and the grip on Naruto's shirt tightened as something finally clicked in his mind.
"Kabuto…lied to me…"
The next day was a Friday, and so, Kabuto was getting ready for a lazy day of school with a few kids coming in with headaches, sprained wrists and the like. Looking at his clipboard, which held the medical health of the teachers, Kabuto was surprised when his door was opened.
Glancing up, the silver haired man paled when he saw Sasuke Uchiha standing there with a neutral, passive look on his face; hands in his pockets, hips slightly sticking out as if trying to stay away from everyone in the world. He wore a high collar dark blue T-shirt, and black jeans with a chain on his left hip, white K-Swiss© sneakers with black strips on the sides on his feet. His backpack was on one shoulder on his back, and his head was slightly cocked to the side, as if he were curious about something. Those dark eyes, which Kabuto loathed and feared, stared at him for a long time, before his lips tugged down in a frown, and his eyes narrowed.
"You lied to me." Sasuke muttered. His voice was emotionless, but Kabuto knew he was angry. Sasuke was only ever this eerily calm when he was angry; at least, the Sasuke Kabuto had known had always been this eerily calm when he was angry. Perhaps Orochimaru and he had been wrong in assuming Sasuke was still the same as he had been as a child?
"Whatever do you mean, Sasuke?" Kabuto asked with a smile, an easy mask he had fallen into when he had dealt with children in Oto. Sasuke's face suddenly twisted into a snarl, though he stayed where he was, only shifting in his spot. Kabuto audibly gulped, looking at him carefully as he waited to see what he would do. His shoulders were tensed and it almost seemed like he had his hackles raised, as if about to pounce on him and tear him to pieces.
"About Sakura and her mom. Sakura's mother's name isn't Midoriko; it's Lillian. She's American." Sasuke narrowed his eyes even more so that they were like snake eyes, slit and dangerous. "She has white hair, and she's never once done drugs. Sakura just has asthma, but it's sport-induced." He stepped forward then, and Kabuto stepped back. "She did have a sister, though; Sakura told me all about her sister, Midoriko. How she had been dating some druggie abusive bastard that knocked her up and got her pregnant. She had fallen into her boyfriend's habit of doing drugs, and it ended up killing her in the end. I remember hearing about it in the news; the Haruno's are a big name, Kabuto. You don't think I couldn't look up about this in the newspaper? They were ashamed of how their daughter acted and so they locked themselves away from society, sending Sakura to a modern public school and going on business trips outside of the country."
He took another step forward, Kabuto another step back, and Sasuke sneered at his cowardice. "And you said I haven't changed. It's you who hasn't changed at all, Kabuto, always the coward, hiding behind the stronger man. But guess what? Orochimaru's dead, Kabuto, and he's burning in hell probably laughing his ass off because he killed off my brother in the end, someone I held precious."
He took three furious steps forward, grabbed Kabuto by the collar and slammed him against the wall. The sharp edges of a small box on the wall, which was most likely a covered fire alarm, jutted into the silver haired man's back and caused a grimace on his face. "So why'd you lie to me, Kabuto? What's the point? Are you trying to screw me up or something?"
"That's already been done for me," Kabuto said, smirking. "I'm just trying to make you break. I thought if I acted nice and joined your school staff as the medic, I'd be able to get close to you, and feed you lies. You're unstable, Sasuke. Really unstable. I'm surprised you've been able to dupe everyone into thinking you're a stable, sane, functional person who won't just fly off the handle randomly." Kabuto snorted, narrowing his eyes at the angered Uchiha. "I wanna see you break, just like my dad did…"
"Dad…?" Sasuke dropped Kabuto, stepping away from him. "Orochimaru…was your adoptive father…"
"Yeah, and he wanted to see you snap because he thought it'd be entertaining and I guess that's been fed into my mind set." Kabuto shrugged, straightening his shirt. "I guess my little ruse has been discovered, though. Pity." He sighed, pushing up his glasses, the lenses lighting in the florescent lights above them, shining down on them. He glanced at Sasuke with his dark eyes as he saw the dark boy's already pale skin seem to bleach out, his eyes wide in shock.
"Why would you do that, though…?"
"It's your fault Orochimaru's dead; you don't think I wouldn't be angry about that? Sure, I wasn't too fond of the guy, but he was my dad, in a sense. He was the only one that would take me in after my parents died tragically." His grin seemed loose, and Sasuke shuddered. "So I guess this was my try at revenge. I suppose I must suck at it, though, if a mentally unstable person was able to figure me out so quickly."
"I am not mentally unstable!" Sasuke hissed, glaring at him angrily. "And you better stop telling me I am or else I'll—"
"You'll what? Kill me? Oh yes, Sasuke-kun, that's completely stable all right, randomly killing an innocent man!" Kabuto grinned. "I would rethink that plan if I were you. Now you should leave the office. The others on the roof will be wondering where you are." He smirked at him, nodding, before he turned, picking up his dropped clipboard and flipping through it lazily, a neutral expression on his face.
Sasuke stared at him for a long time, breathing heavily, before he turned, running out of the room. Kabuto glanced back up, smiling a little.
"And maybe, Sasuke…Maybe you can find an excuse to kill me."
Naruto sighed as he looked up at the sky with a contemplating frown, hands behind him as he leaned on them heavily in thought. The day before, Sasuke had woken him up in a panic, whispering something about Kabuto lying to him. Naruto hadn't caught much of it, since his mind was still groggy from sleep, but if it disturbed Sasuke that much, it must've been bad. The blonde had offered to go with Sasuke when he confronted Kabuto, but Sasuke had said he needed to do it alone.
Now the leader of one of the most powerful gangs in the city was sitting on the roof, worrying his bottom lip as he stared at the cloud filled sky. He had a feeling Shikamaru was looking up at the sky as well with that lazy, half-assed look on his face, thinking about how life was so troublesome.
Speaking of Shikamaru…
"Yo, Shadows," Naruto called out in a lazy drawl, looking back down to the real world and the assorted members on the roof. Sakura and Neji were conveniently missing, but that was because they were hanging out with the other students down on the ground, talking to them easily. Chouji was also missing, but that was because he had gone to get himself some food, and Kankuro and Gaara were gone to visit their sister at her job in the department store a few streets down. Temari had been busy for a while with her new job, barely having any time to come to the out-of-school meetings, but that didn't mean she didn't keep in touch with them all. Life had just gotten a little harder on the eldest Sabaku sibling it all.
"Hn?" Shikamaru looked over at him with a raised eyebrow, blinking lazily. "What's up, Kyuubi?"
"Those medical files on Chidori; you got them yet or has the hospital's security system been upped again?" Shikamaru's face paled a little, and Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Cherry Blossom needs 'em, dude, to finish her files on everyone. You are the best hacker now since Sharingan was killed off last year, and we seriously need those medical files."
Shikamaru sighed, looking at him with wary eyes before he nodded. "I got them a few days ago…" He mumbled, reaching into his pack and pulling out a manila packet. He held the packet out to the blonde, and Naruto leaned forward, grabbing the packet and opening it once it was securely in his hands. He blinked as he pulled up a fairly large folder, weighing it in his hand for a moment, before looking at Shikamaru.
"This is a lot of shit."
"It's a lot of shit." Shikamaru nodded in agreement, sighing as he closed his eyes tiredly. "A lot to read…took me a few hours."
"Hmm," Naruto flipped through some of the files, eyes narrowing as his eyes scanned over a few choice words; damaged, tainted, bad condition, etc. He closed the folder, putting it back into the manila packet just as the topic of their conversation climbed up the fire escape. Naruto grinned lazily, waving over to him as he slid the packet over behind him, hiding it from view. "Hey there!" He called out. Sasuke looked up at him, and Naruto's grin dropped a little as he saw how shaky the dark boy was. The blonde narrowed his eyes, standing up and walking over to him. He grabbed his hand, watching as Sasuke twitched, trying weakly to pull from his grasp. Naruto only tightened his grasp though, looking at him carefully. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Sasuke muttered, shaking his head. Naruto narrowed his eyes, glancing around before he pulled the Uchiha back down the fire escape to the place they had spoken before about how Naruto felt about Chidori. Sasuke looked up at Naruto with shaky eyes, and the blonde wrapped his arms around him comfortingly, kissing the top of his head.
"What happened with Yakushi?" He asked softly, not demanding, but just curious. He had learned over the summer when he saw Sasuke that being demanding was not the way to go about this shaky relationship, so he had to be careful with how he questioned things. If he asked something in the wrong way, Sasuke would become stubborn and refuse to answer him. So of course, the blonde had changed his course of action and decided to be a little gentler with how he asked things that were fragile with Sasuke. When it was something like, 'Did you have breakfast?' Naruto just asked. But with something like this, he had to tread carefully.
"He's not what I expected…" Sasuke whispered, closing his eyes as he took in the blonde's comfort. Naruto rubbed his back soothingly, and the dark haired boy practically melted into him. "He…He's trying to break me, Naruto," Sasuke pushed back, looking up at the Uzumaki as his eyes took on a slightly frightened look, something Naruto hadn't seen since Sasuke came running to him in a panic after having met up with Orochimaru accidentally.
"Break you?" Naruto repeated, narrowing his eyes in confusion. "What do you mean by that, Sasuke?"
"He says I'm unstable, and hell, maybe I am! But he's trying to make me snap. Orochimaru had been out to see me break and now as a sort of revenge for the bastard's death, he's trying to make me break now. He told me so himself, Naruto. He spat it in my face with this sarcastic smirk that…that wasn't like him at all. Kabuto's a coward, right? He's…He's weak and creepy. Not manipulative! Not contemplating! Not calculating! It doesn't make any sense to me!" He buried his face into Naruto's chest, eyes screwed shut as his thin hands grasped at the orange material of Naruto's orange and black long sleeved shirt, the torso orange and the sleeves black.
Sasuke's knees buckled then, and Naruto caught hold of him, bending his own knees—where were covered in dark blue jeans with buckles on the pant legs—and lifted him, holding him carefully as Sasuke buried his face in his neck, as if about to cry.
But Sasuke hadn't cried since Itachi's funeral. And he had sworn to himself he would never cry again.
"Shh…it's okay," Naruto whispered comfortingly, holding him quietly. "It'll be alright…nothing's gonna happen to you…" He closed his dark blue eyes, sighing.
"I promise."
A blonde haired man sat with his legs crossed, leaning back against the comfortable back of his leather chair, eyes closed, hiding their color. His skin was pale, face in a neutral expression as he sat in what some people might suppose was his thinking position. His fingers were laced in front of him, his elbows resting on the arms of his leather chair, and he wore dark slacks and a light blue turtleneck sweater, his hair a mess with long side bangs. His feet were covered by dark, shiny dress shoes, his right foot, which hung about in the air a little since his leg was crossed, bobbing a little to an inner tune as he thought.
Suddenly, there was a knock at his door, and he frowned a little, upset someone had interrupted his thinking time. Opening his eyes slowly, he revealed dark blue eyes, and they glared at the door with contempt. "Enter." He spoke, his voice was strong with good projection, a voice to give orders and demanded that those orders be listened to.
The door creaked open, and a man walked in quietly, closing the door behind him as he looked at the man behind the mahogany desk with sarcastic brown eyes, silver hair slicked back smoothly. He wore a white long sleeved shirt and black jeans with black combat boots on his feet, and on his index finger on his left hand was a ring. "Hidan," the deep voice rumbled, and the man, Hidan, semi-bowed to him, smirking a little. "What is it?"
"Just confirming some things, sir," Hidan said lightly, straightening and walking over to the desk, sitting down comfortably on the chair in front of the desk, crossing his legs quietly. He clasped his hands on his knee, looking at the blonde man with a grin. "When we dispose of Naruto Uzumaki…I get the body, right? He'll be the perfect sacrifice to my god, of course."
"Of course, Hidan," the man rolled his eyes, smirking a little as he leaned his elbows on the desk, leaning forward and looking at Hidan with contemplating eyes. "I think you want that body for more than just that though, Reaper."
"Of course, Leader," Hidan said smirking. "But really, must we speak of that reason? It's so…insignificant." He waved a hand around in a show of 'insignificance', before standing up again. "I'm glad this was cleared up. I would hate to see what would happen if I tried to take the body…and you wouldn't let me."
"Yes, that would be…awfully dreadful, wouldn't it?" He sighed, looking away as he frowned. "Leave, Hidan. I want to be alone with my thoughts."
"Of course, sir." Hidan nodded to him, smirking, before turning and walking out, closing the door. The man sighed then, running fingers through his blonde hair.
"Naruto…" He mumbled, closing his eyes. He then smirked. "How are you fairing?"
Naruto skipped first, second, and third period with Sasuke, the two of them walking outside in the back in quiet, their clasped hands the only thing connecting the two. Sasuke was looking down at the ground in contemplation, Naruto towards the sky as they both just thought to themselves about the things that were going on around them. Sasuke shivered a little, rubbing his arm with his free hand, and Naruto squeezed his hand in an assuring gesture. Sasuke let a tiny smile slip onto his lips, before he sighed softly, stopping by the large tree in the back of the school. He placed his hand on the trunk, looking at the bark and felt Naruto walk up behind him, wrapping his arms around his waist and leaning his chin on his shoulder.
"What are you thinking about?" The blonde asked, looking at the trunk with a blank look.
"How life keeps shitting on me." Sasuke mumbled, looking back at Naruto. "You?"
Naruto laughed lightly, closing his eyes. "Same."
He was walking down some pathways quietly, looking around in confusion. It was his first time in Venice, first time out of the comforts of his city actually, and so Naruto was scared. Kakashi, being Kakashi had told Naruto to behave and then the silver haired pervert had gone off to look at Italian porn, leaving the boy off to his own devices.
Sighing softly, the young thirteen year old swiped his shaggy blonde hair from his eyes, blindly turning into an alleyway. He looked up when he heard a yell, though, and saw a runner coming towards him, the guy looking at him with horror. Naruto's eyes widened and his body seemed to freeze. He thought that at that moment, he would get run over.
But the runner caught his thoughts and skidded to a quick stop, stumbling before he stopped completely. Naruto fell to the ground in shock, looking at the legs of the runner as the driver got off. The man walked over to him, kneeling in front of him and waving a hand in front of his face. "Ciao? Siete tutto il di destra?"
"What?" Naruto muttered, placing a hand on his forehead as he looked at the strange man before him. The man laughed, holding a hand out to Naruto, helping him up; silver hair shone in the sunlight, kind brown eyes looking at him in laughter.
"Sorry, I didn't know if you spoke Italian or not," he replied. He was a young man, probably mid or late teens, and fairly handsome. He had a nice smile, too, Naruto noted absentmindedly… "Are you all right?"
"Uh? …Yeah, I'm fine, no damage done." He stood up shakily with the help of the young man, looking around to see a few random passerby in the ally staring at him worriedly. He smiled a little, waving to them and they all smiled and waved back, walking off.
"I'm glad you're alright then," the man said, brushing off his shoulder before stepping back. "My name is Hidan Morte. And you are…?"
"Naruto Uzumaki." He replied softly, looking over at him shyly. Hidan smiled at him scratching the back of his neck before he snapped.
"As an apology for almost running you over, want me to take you to a nice café that's just a few minutes from here? I'll help you find your way back to wherever you need to be, since you seem to be a tourist." He offered, grinning. "How's that sound to you?"
Naruto stood there awkwardly, before he smiled and nodded. "All right."
Naruto blinked, shaking his head as he looked up to see Ms. Mansfield looking at him worriedly. "Naruto, are you alright?"
"Eh…? Yeah…I'm good." Naruto replied absentmindedly, standing up and grabbing his bag as he saw the classroom was empty; he must've dozed off again. "I'll see you later, Ms. Mansfield?"
"Mm…Yes." The woman nodded, frowning as Naruto grinned and waved to him before he walked off. She sighed, shaking her head, before she went to her desk to grade papers.
Naruto sighed a little as he walked to his last class, looking down at the floor. It made no sense to him. Why were these memories suddenly resurfacing after four years of leaving his mind be? He thought that Kyuubi had locked them all away so that his mind wouldn't hurt anymore and he wouldn't suffer nightmares every night…
Another confusing thing was how Kyuubi had been oddly silent the past few days. He hadn't been whispering into Naruto's ear the yearning to spill blood, nor was he moaning about Shukaku, the idiot demon inside of Gaara. It was odd, because Kyuubi loved to complain about Shukaku, and Naruto would laugh and tell Gaara about it, who would also laugh, the demon inside of him boiling up inside, angered. It worried Naruto, how quiet he had been. Sure, it was annoying how much he yammered day in and day out, but one grows kind of…fond of it, you could say. He kind of grew to enjoy Kyuubi's oddly comforting company.
He sighed, shaking his head and walked out of the school, walking up the stairs of the fire escape to the roof. He sat down quietly, rifling through his bag for a moment before he pulled out a small bottle. Looking at the Japanese label, he sighed, closing his eyes. "Tsunade will be so pissed off when she realizes I broke into her stash again…" He muttered, popping open the cap and taking a swig of the sake. He then rifled through his bag again, grabbing the manila packet from before and opened it, setting it on his lap.
"Now I should get into this. I have my sake and complete solitude, so I think I'll be set." He grinned, flipping open the folder. "Let's see your health, love…"
Sasuke watched the health video with a blank gaze, a frown set on his lips as the monotone of the speaker filled his ears. He glanced around briefly to see half the class asleep, and in the back he saw Hayate coughing quietly into his fist, tired eyes looking at the screen before he fumbled with something in his pocket. He pulled out a bottle then, popping out two pills and dry swallowed them, gulping twice before he twisted the cap back on, shoving it back into his pocket. He crossed his arms, and continued to watch the movie, but not before glancing at Sasuke with a raised eyebrow, almost curious.
Sasuke turned back around, looking at the screen with a slight frown. He had noticed a pattern over the past few sleepless nights about the school's faculty.
Asuma, Kurenai, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Anko, Hayate, Genma, Yugao, Iruka, Sasori…They all had some sort of past connection to Tsunade, it seemed. And half seemed to have been connected to some sort of gang.
He frowned a little. Was Tsunade just taking in the delinquents that no one wanted to teach in their schools, and let said delinquents teach impressionable students?
…Impressive.
Kakashi had skipped out on his final class, leaving it up to Kurenai to sub for him as he went to the hospital to visit Iruka.
Sighing quietly, he walked down the silent halls, feet shuffling almost blaringly loud from the lack of noise. No screams, no cries; just silence. It was kind of eerie in a way, as he thought about it, dark eye looking around with a frown under his mask. How could Iruka stand such silence?
When he reached his lover's door, he opened it and stepped in to see Iruka muttering to himself, patting around the bed as if looking for something. It was then that Kakashi understood why Iruka Umino could stand the quiet.
He was filled with noise.
Walking over to the Home Economics teacher quietly, Kakashi pulled up a chair and watched as Iruka glanced at him briefly, his dark eyes glazed over, his mind not there. He then turned away, and started to mutter to himself again nonsense words, and continued to pat around the bed. "What are you looking for, Iruka?"
"…My watch…Where's my watch…" Kakashi smiled slightly as he heard Iruka, shaking his head quietly. Back at home, when Iruka had still lived with them and had been in charge of Naruto, the Umino had always misplaced his watch somewhere, and was always looking for it. Naruto would always end up finding it in the end and Iruka would thank him, hurriedly going off to where he always did.
But there was no Naruto with them to help Iruka find his watch.
"Naruto, have you seen my…? Oh, Kakashi, move away, I'm looking for my watch. Go back to that shameless porn of yours…" Kakashi sighed sadly as he saw Iruka slam his hands against the bed, squeezing his eyes shut tightly, mouth twisted. His eyes snapped open and he looked at Kakashi again with clear eyes.
"Kakashi…" He whispered; his voice was hoarse, almost in pain. "Kakashi, I…" His eyes then glazed over again, and he went back to patting around his bed. Kakashi stared at him from a long time, before he got up, and hurried out of the room to the nurses' station.
"What the fuck?!"
Naruto spat out his sake, his eyes wide as he stared at the sheet in front of him, holding it with shaky hands. He dropped the paper back into his lap, taking a big gulp of the sake and running his hand through his hair. "My god…" He muttered, screwing his eyes shut. "My freaking god this can't be happening…Not my Sasuke…" He shook his head, denying it, before he took a deep, steady breath through his nose, slowly out his mouth and looked back at the cursed health documents in his lap.
Sasuke…Sasuke was screwed up…
The sake bottle crashed to the ground, liquid exploding as Naruto gripped at his hair tightly, and eyes wide.
Why his Sasuke…?
There was heavy coughing, and then the sound of something wet landing on the floor as the nurses rushed to the room, slamming the door opened. Three nurses walked over to the fallen patient, helping them sit up while the visitor had gone over to the floor, looking at it with wide, terrified eyes, gazing down at a puddle of blood.
They turned over with pale eyes, long dark hair falling into her face as she stared at her sister shaking uncontrollably in her bed, gripping the sheets with white knuckles as blood dribbled down the corner of her mouth. "She's having some sort of attack. Did she by any chance catch a cold or something?" One of the nurses asked, checking Hinata's temperature as she tried to calm her. "Damn it, we need to get her into a sterilized room."
The nurse turned over to the young girl, placing her hands on her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Hanabi dear, but we need to move Hinata to an Isolation Room. She's gotten sick while she's on a heavy dosage of chemotherapy and we need to help her get through this. She won't be able to have visitors for a while."
"I thought she was coming home in a month, though!" The young girl said, eyes flaring in sudden anger. "Why is she still on chemotherapy?"
"Something happened and we need to keep her in for a bit. But she'll be able to go home for an extended visit, maybe even attend school for a little while. We're not sure." The nurse looked over to the other two and nodded, and they wheeled Hinata's bed out into the hall, one nurse pushing the bed, the other nurse trailing with her IV pack. "Just…right now we need to take care of your sister, all right?" The nurse smiled at her comfortingly, before she rushed out of the room, barking orders to a janitor to clean up the blood spill in the room Hinata had just been in. Hanabi fell to her knees, eyes wide as she stared at the white tiled floor, her entire face having gone ghost white.
Hinata was supposed to be getting better…She closed her eyes tightly.
What was she going to tell Neji-niisan?