蛙 | Naruto
"He's in a holding cell inside the interrogation room," Sakura whispers.
I peer around the corner and stare down the long, dark hallway, lit only by a few fluorescent bulbs spaced between rows of office doors. "Which one's the interrogation room?" I ask.
Sakura sighs from behind me. "Baka. It's the one at the end. The big metal one that says 'Morino Ibiki' on it!"
I wince as her voice rises far above a whisper, but am too scared to mention it. It's much safer for me to be caught than risk Sakura's wrath by pointing out that she should be quieter. Glancing towards the end of the hallway, sure enough there stands a metal door with a plaque to the side of it. Morino Ibiki: Commanding Officer Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force.
"You didn't tell me that Ibiki-san was doing the interrogation!" I shudder. That man gives me the creeps. I think he secretly has it out for me.
"Shh!" Sakura flicks the back of my head. "He's not. He's more in line with the Hokage than the elders. They probably picked shinobi who had a particular grudge against Sasuke, like he killed a member of their family or something."
I nod, studying the door for just a moment longer.
"You ready?" Sakura finally asks.
"Let's go."
We head purposefully down the silent hallway. Besides possible guards inside the interrogation room, no one else should be working at this hour. When we reach the end of the hallway, Sakura places both hands on the door. They start to glow blue with chakra for a moment, before her eyebrows snap together agitatedly.
"They changed the lock," she mutters.
"What lock?"
Instead of answering me she shoots more chakra into her hands. After a couple minutes of irritated grunts and curses, a loud click sounds inside the door. Grinning triumphantly, Sakura pushes it open. I tense, ready to meet some sort of resistance, but there are no shouts of protest or flying fists. The door opens on an empty room.
"Perfect. No guards." I grin.
"Of course there're guards," she grumbles. "They must be in the main room. That's where the holding cells are."
I follow her around the corner to another door. She reaches for the handle but I grab her arm. "Let me go in first."
She nods and steps back. Taking a deep breath, I fling open the door and stride into the room.
Two guards spring towards us. "What are you do-?"
I hold up my hand, stopping their progress as well as their questions. "The elders told us we could talk to Sasuke."
The man and woman look at each other, unsure of how to act. "But Naruto-san, we didn't receive any orders."
"We have them." I glance behind me, shoving my hands in my pockets. "Sakura-chan, show them the authorization."
She nods, her face blank as she walks forward and reaches into her ninja pouch. Fingering the cloth in my pocket, I try to appear relaxed. As I see Sakura approach the woman and start to remove her hand, I dash forward, slapping my palm over the man's mouth as I pull his head into a tight hug. Wrenching the cloth out of my pocket, I stick it over his nose. His panicked, deep breaths quickly taking in the smell of whatever Sakura put on this thing.
After only a few seconds, the struggling jabs and jerks weaken and then stop altogether as the shinobi falls limp in my arms. Releasing the grip I have on his head, I lay the unconscious man gently on the ground and watch Sakura do the same with the equally-unresponsive kunoichi.
"We'll have to hurry," Sakura says quietly. "They won't be out for long."
I nod and reach up to wipe the side of my forehead on the back of my wrist. Despite our lack of action so far, I'm already coated in a thin layer of sweat. It's probably from nervousness more than anything plus I'm not totally healed from my fight with Sasuke.
Bracing one hand on my knee, I try to push myself up, but my limbs feel too thick and heavy. My body doesn't seem to want to cooperate with my brain as my calf spazzes out, forcing me back onto one knee.
"Naruto?" Sakura's voice is slow and groggy. Is something wrong with her?
The lights in the room start to fade. Maybe the power's going out. Well I guess that's fine with me. The exhaustion of the day is starting to catch up with me I suppose. I could use a nice long nap. The darkening floor is starting to look extremely inviting as the stones mesh together to form a single, fuzzy, dark blur.
Naruto! Wake up! Now's not the time to be sleeping. A spark shoots from one side of my head to the other, sending a small shock wave through whatever is in between.
Kurama? My inner voice sounds wobbly, even to me.
You held the drugged cloth near your face when you wiped the sweat off, kid! A faint image of him shaking his head in exasperation slides through my mind. Come on. Pull yourself together!
Shaking my head firmly, I stay kneeling until the lights come back on and I can feel my legs beneath me once again. Sakura's laying into me with quiet frustration.
"Naruto you idiot! Just because you're using the cloth doesn't mean that you're immune! Come on give me that thing." She holds out her hand expectantly, snapping her fingers back and forth impatiently.
I stare at her for a moment before finally realizing what she wants and handing over the drugged handkerchief. She quickly snatches and seals it in a plastic bag along with her own. After that's taken care of Sakura kneels back down beside the unconscious kunoichi.
"Where's Sasuke?" I ask, glancing around the room as she begins to dig through the woman's ninja articles. Claws, hooks, whips, and other unidentifiable instruments decorate the gloomy walls. Half-scrubbed-away blood stains the stone floor like eerie shadows as chains drape with frightening regularity over work tables, poles, and other "furnishings" about the room. I shiver. Is it possible that the tortured souls of past shinobi haunt this room? Maybe their ghosts linger, waiting to exact revenge on some unfortunate soul who enters here.
"He's in that cell." Sakura jerks her head towards a door to my left, snapping me out of my reverie. Gear jingles as she fumbles with the kunoichi's belt and then grins as she finally holds up a clinking ring of keys. "Here we go."
I follow her as she marches over to the door, and glance about nervously as she starts to try each of the keys. Did that piece of rope on the work table just move on its own? Maybe it was once used to strangle a prisoner and their soul is still caught in its grasp!
"Got it!" she announces, the loud whine of the door making me jump as she enters the dark room. I can't see a thing. "Keep an eye on those two just in case," she orders.
I turn back towards the unconscious jōnin and watch the room carefully. I swear that that set of tools on the wall looks like an eye. It's watching me!
Calm down, kid. There's no such things as ghosts. The voice inside my head startles my already on-edge nerves.
How do you know that?
Because it's stupid, that's why. Get your head out of your rear and find something to fill it with!
I cross my arms defensively. They could exist.
Even if they did, don't you have bigger things to worry about right now?
Hanging my head a bit, I begrudgingly acknowledge Kurama's point. Deserting the village isn't exactly a small step. It's ruining everything I've ever worked for, goals, friends, connections,my whole life!
And Sakura's too.
No, not hers. I won't let it. I'll find a way. You can depend on it.
Kurama doesn't reply and Sakura snaps me out of my thoughts by calling me into the cell. The air inside is cool and damp, but not much more than the room outside it. Even though I can sense his presence and hear his breathing, I have to squint to see an unconscious and worn but fairly clean Sasuke on a metal bed at the back of the cell. He has fresh bandages and fresh clothes, obviously complements of Sakura.
"I've drugged him up," she whispers, even though we already incapacitated the only two people down here. "He should be out for several hours, long enough for us to..." she swallows a bit painfully before continuing. "You should carry him. Be quiet and do exactly as I tell you. I can't believe that two lousy jōnin would be the elders' only security."
I nod. "Sure Sakura-chan. As long as you promise me one thing."
She quirks an eyebrow at me.
"If we get caught, you take Sasuke and run. Take him to the spot we talked about and wait for me there. If I don't show up, then just continue on with the plan."
She narrows her eyes. "Naruto. I'm not leaving you."
"Sasuke is our first priority." You're my first priority. "If something happens, you have to get him out." I cross my arms, fixing her with a stern stare.
She meets my hard look with one of her own. "It won't come to that. We're all leaving. Together."
My eyes soften. I sure hope so.
Walking over to Sasuke's bed, I grab his shoulders and slowly pull him upright, bending over to plant my shoulder on his chest as one of my arms slips under his legs.
"What are you doing?" Sakura asks before I can lift him.
"Uh, you said I should carry him," I point out.
Blowing out a long breath, Sakura closes her eyes as her arms cross. "Not that way. You can't throw him over your shoulder, he's injured!"
Straightening, I lay my friend back down. "So how do you want me to carry him?"
''In your arms. You know..."
My face springs into a fully appalled glare as realization dawns on me. "You mean, like, bridal style?"
"Well you don't have to call it that, but yeah."
With a long sigh, I bend over him again. The rough cloth of both the sheet and his clothes tugging at my skin as I very carefully slide my hands underneath his back and knees. Curling my arms around him, I straighten, pulling his rather light body up into my hold.
Looking down at his pale face, barely two feet away from mine, and partially illuminated by a stark path of light from the open door, I jump and almost drop him. It's so…relaxed. Sasuke's face has been passive, but never relaxed and never so...so close! I haven't been face to face with him since he left Konoha many years ago, unless you count the times that we've been hurtling towards each other with deadly weapons or ninjutsu in our hands. Otherwise, he's always been a sort of small figure on the other side of a battle field, features a bit blurred by the distance.
Now, seeing him so close up, I think reality is sort of crashing down on me. This is the first I've seen of him since we fought and I guess it just hasn't seemed real until now. We got Sasuke back. We did it! He's here, like right here.
My happy thoughts are somewhat shattered by remembrance of the reason we've come, why there are two unconscious ninja on the floor out there, and why Sasuke's in my arms instead of resting in the hospital. Eyes narrowing in determination, I glance up to see Sakura watching him as well, though probably for a different reason. I almost smile, remembering how, many years ago, she would've blushed and squealed at the sight of an unconscious Sasuke so close to her. As I study her for any such reaction now, I'm almost relieved to find nothing more than what looks like a sort of clinical concern.
Sakura has told me many times that she's given up on loving Sasuke, and not like the hoax she tried to pull in the Land of Iron where she simply wanted me to give up chasing him. I know she still loved him at that point and even through most of the war, but eventually, her heart sort of moved on I suppose. She hasn't loved anyone since though, at least not in that way.
"I still want him to come home," she said, one of the many times that we spent all night simply talking in my apartment. "I guess I just stopped fantasizing, stopped dreaming."
I could tell that this decision, or change, or whatever, had hurt her. She felt Sasuke's absence just as deeply as I did, just in a different way. It was still a relief to hear that her feelings had changed though and not because I wanted her to be with me, but because I knew that constantly longing for Sasuke in a romantic way was hurting her even more than a decision to move on.
Sakura's eyes suddenly snap up to meet mine. I can now see a determination as deep as my own, shining through their depths as the dim light bounced brightly off their green surfaces. "Let's go."
I nod firmly, and follow her out of the cell. She's just as resolved as I am to fight for our team, even if that means giving up one thing that we both love more than anything...almost anything. Family always comes first and by family, I mean Team 7.
蛙
A sudden curse flies out of Sakura's mouth. I jump back in surprise as my arms, which are still holding Sasuke, collide with her back when she jerks to a halt in front of me.
"What?" I ask, probably a bit louder than I should, glancing around nervously. I don't feel anyone else's chakra down here besides ours and that of the two unconscious jōnin that we left back in the interrogation room.
"We missed a security camera," she whispers, pointing up towards the corner of the hallway. Sure enough, the slightest edge of light reflects off a small black camera hanging from the ceiling, making it just barely visible in the shadows. Oops. We got all the others turned off, but I'm positive that neither of us got that one.
With a curse of my own, I walk around to stand beside her.
"Oh, well," she shrugs, waving at the camera with a grim smile. "They'll play back the tape and confirm what they'll already know, that we helped Sasuke escape."
That can't happen. "Is the tape in the camera?"
"Should be. Wha-? Naruto, what are you doing?"
Sakura grunts as I shove Sasuke into her arms and sprint over to the wall by the security camera. Shooting chakra down to my feet, I plant one foot on the wall and run up it. The familiar sensation of the pull of gravity shifting to my upper body, my back tensing as it works to hold me straight, only lasts a few seconds as I cover the short distance up to the camera and yank it open. Halting the flow of chakra to the soles of my feet, I reach inside the camera and pull out a shiny, flimsy length of tape, yanking it out as I drop back to the floor.
"Naruto, it doesn't matter if they see the film or not," Sakura, who's followed me over to the wall, sighs in exasperation. "They're gonna know who did this."
I don't reply but simply slide my arms back under Sasuke to relieve her of his weight.
"Destroy this," I order, holding the film out to her as I shift Sasuke in my arms. This is not a comfortable way to carry someone for a long time.
"Naruto-"
"Please. Just do it, Sakura-chan."
She bites her lip, watching me worriedly for a second before grabbing the film from my hand. Holding it out in front of her, she wreathes her hand in a small flame of chakra. The tape disintegrates within a second. "There."
I nod my thanks. "Come on, we need to get out of here. You said that that drug wouldn't last very long." As soon as those jōnin wake up, they'll alert the village to Sasuke's escape. We need to be gone by then.
As I turn to head down the next hallway, fingers press into my shoulder, holding me back. I stop, but don't turn around.
"Naruto, are you sure you're okay with this?" Sakura asks softly. I keep my shoulders rigid, not wanting to show the impact that her words have on me. I know what she's asking. Are you okay with deserting Konoha? Are you okay with leaving your friends, your home, and all you've worked for? Are you okay with giving up your dream?
What she doesn't realize is that I'm not concerned about my ambition nearly as much as I'm concerned about her and Sasuke. They are my dream.
"Are you?" I ask, tilting my head back just slightly so that I can watch her reaction.
Her eyes narrow and she nods firmly. I smile. It means a lot to me that she's willing to give up so much for me, for all of us.
I face forward again, glaring down the hallway in front of me. Even if she's willing to, I won't let her. She has so much more to lose than I do. I won't let her give it all up.
"Good, then let's go," I repeat. Her fingers lightly squeeze my shoulder one more time before relinquishing their hold as we head down the hallway.
蛙
"We're going to have to go over the wall," Sakura whispers. "The minute we cross the village's barrier, they'll know exactly where we are."
"But it'll take them a while to get a team together to chase us, right?" I shift uncomfortably as twigs from the bush that we're crouched behind, poke into my back.
"The two guards are probably conscious by now. They should already have a team looking for us."
A sudden scraping of fabric against stone causes me to glance down at Sasuke whose propped up against the wall next to me, his knees forced up to his chest by the large bush. I reach out to grab Sasuke's shoulder as he starts to fall over and quickly sit him back upright before Sakura, who's on my other side, notices. It's supposed to be my job to take care of Sasuke and I'm not doing a great job so far.
"Even with a head start, we'd probably lose in a chase because they'll obviously have Hyūgas to help track us." Sakura muses quietly.
With Sasuke's legs crushed up against him like that, I don't really know what to do with his arms. I try placing them on top of his bent knees but they keep sliding off. I don't want to just lay them in the mud, although he's already kind of sitting in it so I guess it wouldn't be that big of a deal.
"It would be so much easier if they didn't know exactly where we exited the barrier." Sakura mutters.
Suddenly an idea hits me. Holding Sasuke's wrists in one hand, I use the other to tilt his lolling head upright. His mouth is already hanging slightly ajar, but I slide his jaw down even a little further with my thumb. Grabbing one of his hands in each of mine, I make them both into fists, leaving only his pointer fingers up.
Sakura continues to mumble to herself. "If we could somehow break the barrier in multiple places, they wouldn't know where to concentrate their search."
Curling his pointer fingers, I stick them into his mouth and hang them inside his lips. There. I drop his hands and allow them to droop, suspended from his mouth. I grin at my handiwork. Now I won't have to worry about his arms dropping into the mud.
"Naruto!" A sharp elbow digs into my side, causing me to whirl my head around to face a glaring Sakura. "Are you even listening to me?"
"Uh, yes?"
Peering around me, Sakura raises an eyebrow at the sight of Sasuke propped up against the wall with his fingers hooked over his lips, pulling his mouth down in an unseemly frown. "Get his fingers out of his mouth!" she snaps. "And pay attention!"
"But I need to hang his arms somewhere so that they won't fall into the mud!" I insist.
She sighs. "Just let them fall and seriously, listen up!"
I stick my lower lip out in a pout as I pull Sasuke's fingers out of his mouth and shove his jaw shut.
"Now," she says, "I should've thought of this before. The barrier corps will know exactly where we've exited which will allow them to focus their entire search efforts on just that area, but if there are multiple points of exit, then they'll have to spread their forces thin and might not be able to send a special sensory shinobi with every group. Not only will we have fewer shinobi chasing us, but they might not be quite as top notch or specialized!"
I stare at her for a second and blink, my eyes wide. "Uh, what?"
"Oh, geez." She shakes her head. "Never mind about the explanation. Just once we get outside the wall, I want you to create at least five, probably closer to ten, groups of shadow clones. Each group should have a you, a me, and a Sasuke, okay? Tell them to spread out carefully around the wall. Nobody can raise the alarm until we're ready. In five minutes, we'll all make a dash for the barrier. Got it?"
It takes me a second to process her instruction, but eventually I nod.
"Good," she says, "Now, grab Sasuke and we're gonna get over the wall."
蛙
"Are they all ready?" Sakura asks. Only a sliver of her face is visible in the glow of the pale moonlight, but it bounces sharply off her bright eyes, hardened with determination.
I close my eyes in concentration. It's very hard to sense your own shadow clone since you're already so used to yourself. It's difficult to notice the emotions. "They should be."
"Good. We're gonna go in about thirty seconds."
I nod and pull Sasuke's limp body a bit closer to me, taking in a deep preparatory breath. The warm air is saturated with the rich smell of the damp forest. The muggy air dulls the echoes of forest life, as well as the vague sounds of the slumbering city which drift over the wall to find us at its base.
Even though I can barely see her, I can feel Sakura's arm pressing warmly against my own. Her breath cools the sweat on my palm, which rests against her one drawn up knee to help me support Sasuke's head. The slight fragrance of sweat, soap, and a hint of some sort of feminine perfume, wafts comfortably towards me. Her presence helps calm me with its comfort and familiarity.
"They all have the pepper, right?"
"Yep," I confirm. Sakura gave each group of shadow clones a little bit of pepper that she brought with her to throw of the ninja dogs' scent. She wants all of our trails to look fairly similar so that our shinobi will have trouble choosing one to follow.
I wince at the phrase "our shinobi". I guess they really aren't ours anymore. We won't be a part of Konoha anymore. We'll be nukenin, missing-nin. I shudder to think of just how many I've tracked down. What if any of them had a situation like mine?
"You ready?" Sakura asks.
I nod firmly, my muscles tensing. "Ready."
"Well, let's go."
Pulling Sasuke up fully into my arms, I glance down at his face, hidden in the darkness of my own shadow. This is for you. It's all for us. For Team 7.
My joints pop as they spring out of a crouch, Sakura's arm still brushing against mine as we spring towards the trees.
There's no turning back now, kid.
There never was.
A/N I'm so sorry for this chapter taking me so long! I've been super busy with sports and work, plus my computer broke so please forgive me! I'm going to be gone for a while, so the next chapter might take me a while too, but I'll try to get it done as soon as possible. Please be patient and thank you for sticking with it! I promise that I won't just stop writing because I absolutely hate it when authors do that. Please tell me what you think! I hope this chapter is up to par. Love you all and God bless!
