BLURRED SOUND

Sasuke Uchiha met Naruto Uzumaki when he was seven years old; a twist in the time line, and he meets her again five years later during the Chunin Exams – as an Otogakure Genin. SasuFemNaru. AU/AT. Dark Naruto.

CHAPTER FOUR
- - RIGHT KIND OF WRONG - -

'I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, Who art as black
as hell, as dark as night' – William Shakespeare.

"Iruka-sensei..."

Sasuke paused before he asked the question on the edge of his tongue, fully aware that it wasn't really normal for him to be asking his teacher a question like this, but he didn't like this feeling of not knowing. He hated it, actually.

He knew the teachers knew something about what had happened to Naruto; he could tell by the genial looks that had suddenly appeared on their faces the day after she had disappeared. He hated it, because that kind of happiness couldn't be for any good reason that he knew of. Not when it seemed to concern Naruto - the villagers hated Naruto.

He had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach, one that told him he already knew what the answer to his question, but he didn't want to believe it. He refused to believe it until he had actual verbal confirmation.

"Sasuke? You don't hang by after class often – you didn't have any problems with today's lesson did you?" he asked, eyebrows knotting in concern.

There was one simple reason he was asking Iruka and not another teacher, and it was because the man seemed to try his best to help Naruto – he didn't seem to hate her like everyone else. He didn't really understand her, but he did try, and that was a plus in Sasuke's mind for his teacher

"Sensei, why hasn't Naruto been in class for the past two weeks?"

He said it quickly, like taking off a sticky plaster off of a healed cut; Iruka's face morphed into surprise, and then an expression he knew all too well; it was the look he had seen on the faces of the nurses at the hospital after he had woken up after the massacre.

"Why are you asking Sasuke? I didn't realise you were friends with any of the girls..." he asked, a little warily.

Sasuke didn't care abut Iruka's wariness – he was impatient. He wanted to know what had happened to her, and he didn't want the stupid sympathy or concern or any of those condescending looks again! He had seen them once before, and he could... he could... he wanted the man to tell him straight out!

"She throws rocks at the lake all the time, but she doesn't go any more, and I know she isn't sick, cause she's never sick! She heals quick! I saw it, but she doesn't show up any more! Where is she? You know! I know you do!" he blurted with a little more angry enthusiasm than he had expected.

Iruka contemplated this, and sighed; Sasuke felt frustration again.

"Something's wrong! Everyone, all the adults, they've been grinning ever since she... They're grinning, and its disgusting! They're grinning and laughing like they're celebrating because..."

He couldn't say it; he couldn't say that word. He couldn't think it. He didn't want to; he was chewing his bottom lip, trying to keep the mix of anger and truth from boiling over. Iruka's expression was wide as he had yelled at him, but now it was softer, understanding.

He sat down in his chair and looked him straight in the eye, and he was grateful for that; he didn't like being talked down to at all, and he especially didn't want to be talked down to on this subject.

"Sasuke... Naruto's apartment building collapsed; there was an explosion in the chimney system I think, but it was a pretty big building and...a lot of people were... they weren't found. Hokage-sama had ANBU searching the rubble but... they didn't find her."

No. He didn't want to hear that! She was really...? No! That wasn't... Naruto couldn't die like that! She just couldn't! She couldn't die at all! He didn't want that! His family was already gone, and now the one person who had come close to understanding that too? He didn't want to hear that...!

He didn't even notice the thin wet tracks beginning to leak from his eyes until Iruka had hugged him, and while he hated the predicament of being caught crying by someone else, he couldn't really think of anything – the most he managed was hiding his face in the man's green flak jacket until they had passed.

After a few months, he would remember the interaction he had with Naruto the night before her apparent death, and would begin to reject the idea, but at the moment, all he could concentrate was the awful feeling of grief as it consumed him for a second time.

Naruto pouted at the blood on her hand as she withdrew it from the body of a Kusgakure ninja; she hated getting blood on her mesh gloves! It was always so hard to get off! It made her nails look disgusting if it was left to set too... Thinking nothing of it, she began to lick the blood off as best she could until she could get to a stream.

The removal of Sai had gone well; one of the lesser-level salamanders had been the perfect distraction for Sai – it was a miracle he had survived being swallowed though – the fire-breathing lizards had a horribly burning stomach fluid. It was what they used for their fire breath after all.

Disgusting old fart Danzou may be, but he couldn't be accused of slacking off in the training of his drones; the remaining ninjas of the team were staring at her in abject horror as she examined her nails, and one of them threw their scroll at her – she caught it nonchalantly, still examining her nails.

Glancing at the scroll, a smirk crossed her lips; third time lucky! It was an earth scroll! She smiled at the two remaining ninja, then began forming a blue whorl of chakra in her palm, and lunged forward; she slowed the rotation ever so slightly, enjoying the agonizing scream from the guy she had landed on as his insides were torn into with a little more slower finesse.

The girl was already running by the time her team-mate shuddered into the life of a corpse, and that just made her grin all the wider; she loved it when they made her chase them! Leaping after her, she dug her elongated claws into one shoulder for grip, tightly clamping her legs around the girl's waist as the impact of her landing fell to the floor.

Her other hand dug into her face, dragging her chin aside so she could clamp her canine teeth down on the girls throat and tear into her jugular; she spat the lump of flesh to the ground and looked up to the branches above; Dosu and Zaku were standing above her with positively green faces.

Naruto wrinkled her nose at the sight of them; what the hell did they want? There was a rustle, and she was greeted with the much more interesting face of Kabuto, who landed down on the branch as she looked up.

"You seem to be having fun there" he noted.

"You know I don't like keeping it pent up! I had to do something to relax – I almost tore into the old-man's guts yesterday! This is why I need more jobs! Tell snake-head to gimmie more jobs when you go report on me!" she retorted huffily.

That was the only thing she didn't like about the side effects of the Kyuubi's chakra – the urges could be controlled, but they were almost second nature to her, like a bad habit that you couldn't get rid of. The most she had ever lasted was a month, and then she had just gone nuts during a training match with Kin.

She figured that was why Zaku and Dosu sorta hated her, but she really couldn't help it!

"I take it you got the job done?" she asked her team-mates, pulling herself off of the dead body beneath her.

"We poisoned him with the kunai you told us to use – what now?" Dosu asked – he was the only one of the pair that actually seemed to have a brain.
"And you didn't stay to make sure it worked? You were supposed to make sure he was dead you idiots!" she snarled – Kabuto's face remained blank in front of the blatant lie.

"You just said to poison him!" Zaku snapped back in reply.

"I would have thought you had the common sense to make sure it worked! Go fix this mess!" she replied heading away from the clearing.
"Wha- Hey! Where the heck are you going?"

"Where I'm going is none of your business! Just do as you're told unless you want to end up as my next piece of game!" she snarled back, jumping up onto Kabuto's branch and kicking off onto the next one.

Kabuto said something to Dosu and Zaku, before following her, quickly catching up with her.
"Do you really need to keep them in the dark?" he asked.

"Those two have blabber mouths; it's better if Sasuke still trusts me a little bit – he's smart enough to know I'm not here for a plain old promotion, but it'll be quicker and easier if Sasuke thinks I'm working in his best interests when the he does find out – he won't believe them if they say they were acting on orders to kill him, but if they blurt out that Orochimaru wants to take over his body... well, he won't get the chance to" she replied.

"And his team-mates? That pink haired one seems awfully suspicious of you..."

"If what I have in mind works out, Sakura won't be too much of a problem; it helps that Sasuke holds my word in higher worth than hers. Suspicious of me or not, he won't listen to her. I already took care of Sai, so there's nothing in the way at the moment..." she finished, kicking off the branches and heading in another direction - she smelled Gaara's sand, and that meant hunting time!

"Where are you really going?" Kabuto asked, catching the excitement on her face.
"I'm going to find someone to play with."

She could have sworn she heard Kabuto chuckling as she disappeared into the trees.

"What's wrong with Akamaru?" Hinata asked as she and Shino landed on the ground beside Kiba, surrounded by the bushes and undergrowth Kiba had landed behind.

"Something has him spooked; there someone really strong nearby, but he's never normally this spooked..." Kiba replied, peering out through the leaves into the clearing beyond; it was those three Genin from Sunagakure and some Amegakure Genin.

They exchanged the usual fighting insults back and froth for a few moments and then the hail of needles rained down on the redhead; her eyes widened when the hail ceased, and the sand shell around him could be seen. He reached out a hand forming a hand seal with the other, and the sand fell to the ground, slithering and swarming around the needle user.

Then he lost a little concentration, turning to look over his shoulder just as an orange Otogakure blur landed on his back, and Akamaru burrowed even further into Kiba's coat.

"Hello Naruto" the redhead greeted blankly, not bothered in the slightest by the contact.
"I smelled your sand, so I came to watch!" she replied grinning, before turning to wave at his team-mates.

"Smell of... How could she know what it...Why would she...?" Kiba asked to no-one in particular as they stared out at the scene in front of them; there was something about the disbelief on his face that scared her.

Hinata was sure she had been mistaken by the implications Naruto's words placed on the scene in front of her, but then the sand surrounding the Genin began to tighten, and the grin on Naruto's face turned into something malicious as the boy she had latched herself onto picked up the discarded umbrella, and crushed the struggling Genin into a mass of flesh, bone and blood.

One of the other Amegakure Genin hastily dropped a heaven scroll to the ground, a unmistakable look of terror in his eyes as the droplets of rain fell down on himself and his remaining team-mate.

"Hey Gaara, you want the other two right? Gimmie one please? All this blood is making me twitchy... I haven't had much fun since leaving Otogakure... Village image and all that mumbo jumbo..." Naruto asked in a wheedling tone, her arms still clasped around his neck and a pleading look in her eyes.

Kiba's eyes grew even wider at that, and Hinata couldn't blame him; she had always admired Naruto when she had been in the academy, and one thing she had noticed was Kiba's attachment to her. She could barley believe the words that were coming from their former classmate's mouth.

She meant every word that was coming out of her mouth, and she was saying it eagerly; it just didn't fit with the memories in her mind. What kind of place was Otogakure if Naruto was enjoying the scene that was occurring in front of their eyes?

"Go ahead"

She moved almost faster than her eyes could keep up with, almost dancing on the sharp arm of sand that darted towards the remaining two Genin; taking the risk and activating her Byakugan, Hinata watched the secondary supply of chakra bubble to the surface, clogging her coils as her nails and canines lengthened.

She moved so quickly she could barley keep up with her, but thank god her father had been taking a more vested interest in her recently. After somehow managing the 64-palms in her training, he had taken interest in training her again, so she was more used to such speedy movements.

She appeared at random placed, but fluidly landing fast, heavy blows - too quick to be countered - and dodged haphazard attacks before they were in an inch of her. She had a malevolent grin on her face as her claws and teeth tore at the Amegakure Genin; she was just toying with him...

Finally, she drove a hand into the boy's gut, but not in a particularly vital spot; the blood spurted around her hands after a few moments, and his eyes widened before the was a howl of the wind, and he was torn to pieces from the inside out as his remaining team-mate was crushed by Gaara's sand.

The clearing was filled with the sound of Naruto's laughter as she danced about like a young child under the second shower of bloody rain.

"Ouch!" Sai winced as Sakura replaced one of the bandages on his arms underneath the sheltering roots of one of the the giant trees.

"Where did it even come from? I thought the Salamanders were a forbidden contract outside of Amegakure... There weren't that many applicants from Amegakure were there?" she asked.

Sai had finally woken up after collapsing from his burns, and had retold the story of the Salamander summons attacking him. She was glad they had a medical kit, but he needed a proper medic. She had basic first aid from the academy, but that was it.

She couldn't deal with burns like this, and she had no clue how to deal with the poison that was spreading through Sasuke's veins; after pulling the kunai out he had been screaming even through his unconsciousness, and a burning, smoking black mark had appeared on his neck a few hours ago.

She had tried every kind of routine hand out antidote with them, even going ins Sai's shuriken pouch for some extras, but there was no change at all; what kind of poison was this? Why couldn't she do anything? Sai could barley talk, let alone move, and if that Oto Genin was to be believed Sasuke was dying a slow death right in front of her...

"It was just prowling around out there – I think someone summoned it to pick off anyone it came across..." he winced as she tightened the bandage as best she could around his chest.

There was a crackle of leaves outside their makeshift shelter and the jittery girl threw a kunai towards the poor squirrel that had encroached her trap. Before she could breathe a sigh of relief though, two nastily familiar sound Genin emerged from the shrubbery on the other side of the clearing.

"What the hell are you doing here? You've caused enough damage to us already!" she yelled, pulling a kunai from her leg holster, feeling Sai pulling out one of his blank scrolls and his ink brush.

"We still need a scroll, and you're easy pickings" the one with the bandaged face replied.

They lunged forward dodging the pre-dug pit trap; Sakura cut the cord holding the log trap in place as Sai formed a single hand seal – a pair of his ink lions emerged from the trap towards the sound ninjas. They had taken a large chunk of his chakra, and he had been left breathless from the effort thanks to his current physical state, but they were worth it.

The two ink cats left some nasty claw marks on the hunchback's chest and on the shoulder of the wind user before they were blasted with an air slice in to inky splashes on the ground. Sai struggled to his feet, but was immediately pushed back down by his pink haired team-mate.

"Don't you dare think of moving Sai! You and Sasuke have done enough!" she informed him, pulling her an array of shuriken from her pouch and taking a few steps outside the shelter of the roots.

She glanced at the two ninja and furrowed her brows; this had something to do with Naruto, she just knew it. If Naruto hadn't caught her spying on them the day before, she was certain that whatever was going through her mind would have been put into action already...

Sasuke refused to see her for what she was because he was stuck in the past, but she wasn't their childhood classmate any more! She wasn't her old playmate any more! She was an enemy ninja from another village, with a nasty streak she seemed determined to keep low key unless the situation suited her.

The feeling of inescapable death she had received from that one look over Sasuke's shoulder when they had run into her... it had been horrible. Naruto was an old friend yes, but an old one. They couldn't trust her any more, and Sasuke was learning that the hard way.

"You're talking bullshit; if you wanted a scroll, you could have just taken it from us earlier! What do you three want with Sasuke? What did you do to him?" she demanded, bracing herself from any attacks.

"Three? Oh, you mean the yellow haired bitch too... Sorry couldn't tell you. I just follow orders. We were just told to come back and finish the job" the hunchback informed her, plaintively flexing his fingers.

He lunged towards her, metal covered fist held high and aimed directly towards her; Sakura pushed her chakra into her feet and soared into the air with a kick from the ground, dodging the attack. Twisting in the air, she clenched her own fists and hurled the collection of shuriken towards him as she gathered her chakra in her fists.

Naruto's explanation before the written exam yesterday had sparked a little of her own bookish curiosity, and after reading up on Tsunade and her techniques in her father's bingo book, she had done a little experimentation; she hadn't wanted to go into the exams without something useful in her arsenal, and though it was far from perfect, it was all she had right now.

The ninja below her was busy deflecting shuriken when her fist blasted down into his gut; it wasn't destructive per se, but it was certainly more effective than the average punch. He stood back up with out much notable effect, but all she had to do was keep hitting him and use her smarts – she had plenty of those after all.

Sasuke awoke to a black world. Glancing around the endless darkness, he caught sight of himself standing only a few meters away; the boy in front was younger, but it was definitely him.

Image's of his parents and his brother flashed through his mind, but he did his best to ignore them; there was no way this sort of dream was good, he knew that instinctively. He couldn't listen to anything, or look at anything, smell anything...

They had been taught on mind games and techniques like this, and if in doubt, the best thing to do was to just shut off every sense and block it out until he could find some method of counteracting it, or until someone could help do the same thing. That was the thing to do.

"You should stop fighting it you know. It isn't going to do you any harm if you just accept it; if anything it'll just help you when you finally kill him."

That voice... He slowly opened his closed lids to find the old Naruto peeking out from behind his younger self; she wasn't the same though... She had all the hidden personality of her present self, trapped in the most familiar image he had of her.

'This is a mind game of Naruto's making' his brain screamed, 'You can't trust a ghost – that isn't Naruto any more!', but it was to a deaf set of ears; he knew Naruto damn it. He knew this was of her organisation, but he knew that she wasn't lying this time.

She meant it when she said it would be to his benefit to give in to... whatever this was. Of course she did – she was responsible for putting him in this predicament.

"What did you do to me?" he asked – he still wasn't completely convinced despite his own opinions.
"I gave you a boost; well, technically Sensei did – I'm just his messenger."

That didn't answer many of his questions, but he got the impression that he could get a power boost if he played his cards right. Another image of Itachi flashed through his mind, and he threw his caution away; to hell with it! If Naruto said it was a boost, then it was a boost, and he'd take any boost he could get if it meant killing his brother would be that much easier.

"I just stop fighting it?" he asked.
Naruto nodded.

So that was what he did; he re-tuned his senses, his mind, to the horror once again, and then it washed over him. He could feel it rushing through him immediately, and he absently felt a warning screaming from somewhere inside him, but he ignored it.

"There's more where that came from if you want it."

Naruto's voice was barley more than a whisper as the power and the black consumed him, but he couldn't find a hint of a lie in her words. Naruto never lied to him – she just withheld things, and once he woke up, he was certain she wouldn't be withholding so much from him any more.

That thought was just as appealing as the promise of power her words implied.

Chapter 4 is done. I liked this chapter for some reason – I liked writing the scene with Gaara; I gave Sakura a boost too, because I refuse to write Kunoichi to be as useless as they are in canon... I apologize for the lame fight scenes; I'm really not good at writing fights... I can get them in, but they aren't my favourite thing to write, so they never turn out very well...

Chapter title and inspiration comes from 'Right Kind Of Wrong' by LeAnne Rimes. To the lovely people who do like this fic, please keep reading; i hope you liked this chapter, and look forward to the next one!

Nat.
xxx