Chapter 5

Naruto skipped the labyrinth, skipped like a stone over memories past, flew through the air, and landed hard on solid marble floors, tossed like a ragdoll down. He realized with a fuzzy mind that Sasuke had drawn him in once more, into another painful memory.

Then the image of a steel-toed boot flashed across his eyes before he saw nothing but white and felt his own body soar through the air. He cried out in pain and covered his head with his hands, terrified as another savage kick pelted his body a half-meter end over end on the cold ground. There must have been blood coming from his nose because he could smell copper, taste it on his tongue as he screamed again. He could have been no more than seven, no eight years old. His hands were alabaster where they weren't covered in blood; his black hair fell into his eyes. His clothes had once been pristine, the clothes of royalty. Now they were covered in ash, soot and the dirt from the shoes of the masked man, who kicked him yet again. His ribs cracked under the additional blow, and he found he could hardly breathe. All around him the palace was on fire, burning from the outside but crawling its way dangerously in. The servants screamed and fled the area, ignoring the tiny boy and the massive Raider who was beating him without batting an eye. Naruto had been cornered and driven into the eastern ballroom, but now he was surrounded on all sides by windows and mirrors, nowhere to flee on the third floor of the castle.

Another kick. Naruto's tiny body flew across the room from the force to his ribs and was stopped by a mirror on the far end of the room, which shattered across his back. The pain was indescribable, each individual shard cutting through his silk chemise like butter and lodging into his skin in an instant.

"That's right, brat, all you royals really know how to scream," the man taunted. Naruto felt genuine fear lock his body into place, like a rabbit in front of a viper, equally frail and helpless. The memory, he had to remind himself shakily, held as much detail as all of Sasuke's thoughts, down to the most insignificant aspect of the tiny cut on his own left wrist.

"S-stop!" he cried, sobbing in terror and pain, unable to move or crawl away any further. The glass shards dripped down onto his shoulders now, crumbling away from the mirror and cutting his face on the way down. The man laughed, actually laughed, at the sight of a bloody child.

Naruto could do nothing but sob and wait as the man drew a nasty-looking blaster from the holster on his hip. The weapon was spiked in several places, meant to be useful in melee combat as well as long range. Naruto hoped that he would be merely shot and not beaten to death, those spikes sending spasms of fear into his little body. But the man licked one of the spikes with a drooling tongue and took a step closer.

And then stopped mid-stride, his eyes widening in confusion. Naruto glanced down the burly Raider to find a ceremonial spear lodged in the man's stomach, then retracted with a quick, slicing movement. The Raider gurgled and fell, revealing the face of—

"Itachi!" Naruto sobbed, unable to stand or move toward his savior, but weakly extending his hands nonetheless. Shameless tears burst from his eyes, and he cried and cried as his brother neared him.

"Sasuke," the older man said in a low voice, pulling the tiny boy in for a gentle hug. Naruto tried to take in the man's details, black hair and eyes similar to Sasuke's but a stronger more defined chin and heavier limbs. "We have to escape, Sasuke. We have to. We must." His voice cracked with emotion. His face was covered completely in ash and blood, a frightening sight. "Hold on to me now, bro. You'll be safe I promise." He lifted Sasuke gently under his knees and saw with a grimace his bleeding back. "Can you hold onto me?"

Naruto nodded as he wrapped his arms around Itachi's neck. His brother put his hands under his knees and bolted from the ballroom. The palace was set ablaze in many of the once pristine corridors but passed in a blur of tears where the memory fuzzed over in a few places. Naruto felt disjointed all at once and realized that Sasuke must have been passing in and out of consciousness, the loss of blood becoming significant.

They passed into the king and queen's bedchambers, where Itachi pressed a hidden panel on the wall. It groaned, split into two and allowed just enough room for them to escape. The smell of flame and ash lessened as they entered the hall, especially when the panel closed quickly behind them and left them in darkness.

"M-mother and father," Sasuke cried as he clung to his brother with all his might. He hadn't seen them; they must still be in the palace… mommy and daddy…

The words echoed as Itachi spoke them. "No, Sasuke. They can't follow us. They can't ever follow us."

Flung from the memory like a ragdoll, Naruto sat inside the Akatsuki interrogation lab, surrounded on all sides by advanced scientific equipment, a few of them plunged directly into his body through terrifyingly large needles. Other than that, Naruto could hardly see anything, a blinding light shining directly into his eyes. The glint of Kabuto's spectacles blurred as Naruto's head lolled to and fro, his muscles jumping inside his skin against his will.

"Another round," his cousin said unceremoniously, and the sound of his pen scratching in his notebook abruptly sounded like a roaring in his ears, so loud and abrasive that he moaned and put his hands over his head.

In each point on his body where a needle was plunged, he abruptly felt a burning sensation so poignant, he cried out, hurting his own ears again. "N-No more," he begged, drool falling out the side of his mouth. "E-enough, please. I-I can't—

Kabuto didn't look up from his leather-bound journal. One of the Akatsuki walked in behind Kabuto, the red clouds on his cape mesmerizing Naruto's hazy vision. "Why don't we put him in the simulator? You think he can last two hours this time?"

Kabuto looked up at the Akatsuki, appeared to be bored of the man, and waved his hand dismissively. "Do whatever you want with him. Just get me a heart rate and blood pressure reading when you're done. I'm leaving."

The flight simulator's reactive lights and sound bored like drills through Naruto's senses, the part of the cockpit seat digging into his back so painful he thought he might die. He was in mid-battle with the holographic enemy ships, and with each one firing more torpedoes and landing direct hits, the simulated jarring he felt caused him even more pain. He felt ready to gag over the control panel, but his pride wouldn't allow him that luxury. If he impressed the Akatsuki, they would be entertained long enough to grow bored of him and let him leave. He knew that. He clung to it.

Four more fighters on his nav-screen diminished as he fired a mass of supposed proton lasers into the fray. With every sense heightened to a painful degree, he felt he might die from sensory overload, and for a moment, he truly longed for it. He threw back his head and couldn't even look at the screens before him anymore, murmuring strings of phrases that he couldn't discern. He would surely die…

The simulator abruptly stopped, merciful darkness surrounding Naruto. Outside the hollow dome, a woman's voice shrieked. The simulator bubble opened, and he was pulled with uncanny strength down from the cockpit and into warm arms. A gentle hand was placed over his head as he buried his face into the chest of his savior.

"You Akatsuki bastards have taken it too far this time! What would you have done if you'd killed the Third Prince, you ass-holes? I'll see you all court-martialed for this!"

"Do whatever you want, Missling," he heard one of them say, obviously unthreatened. "We're following His Highness Lord Kabuto's orders."

Sakura, for of course it was Sakura, hissed, "We'll see about that."

Naruto clung to her desperately, feeling at once cold and unbearably hot, crying and shaking against her. "Thank you. I-I love you," he murmured over and over again.

"I love you so much."

Corridors of memories flew past him in a terrifyingly narrowing pathway, zooming up to meet him like a wall, and Naruto abruptly landed inside the inner contours of the labyrinth. Sasuke was before him, hand outstretched toward a massive silver gateway, the same Naruto had seen on his first excursion into Sasuke's mind.

"Don't," Naruto whispered. His voice echoed with power, as if they were standing in a great hall rather than a maze with hedges and stones. But Sasuke turned toward him, his eyes dead.

"Get out."

"Don't go in there!" Naruto pleaded. "Whatever you put in there, Sasuke, is something that could destroy you. Something—

"More horrifying than my home burning to the ground, more painful than every Manda injection, more shocking than Sakura... than when she…" He inhaled deeply. "I know already. Get out, Naruto. When I open this door, this memory won't stay inside. It'll come out and consume us both."

"I won't let it!" Naruto approached Sasuke's metaphysical form, noted how much older the boy looked inside his mind, as if the taxing experiences of his life had aged him farther than his body had in reality. Sasuke's shoulders were broader, his chest filled, his face more chiseled and handsome, but his eyes held the same vivacious passion, the same dark life that struck Naruto as he looked into the boy's soul. "I can save you!" he pleaded in a whisper.

Sasuke shook his head and smiled. "Save me, Naruto? You can't save me. I won't let you take the last of my secrets; I'll die before I give in. I'll open this door and lose myself in this memory. It's the reason I have to die. I have to remain loyal. So get out, Naruto. Get out now."

"Sasuke, don't!"

The dark-haired man reached out a graceful hand and opened the door. It creaked and swung with a gust of wind Naruto did not feel with his skin. Naruto made a conscious decision. He could withdraw and possibly save himself, lose Sasuke permanently in the recesses of the boy's vast subconscious or throw his own mind into the fray.

Naruto leapt.

Sasuke arrived at the palace, chewing partially on red tomato while perusing the material for a flight simulation test he was to have in another week. He confessed to himself that he knew the material well enough to teach it, but scanning it, memorizing each of the tiny details of a fighter craft, was exciting. He longed to one day be free of the simulations and fly into the open Otogakure sky.

That would come in another year, he assured himself. He already was advanced beyond most of his peers, but no crew operator would allow a twelve-year old boy inside a fully functioning Sharingan, no matter their station. Sasuke slowly ascended the white marble staircase of the palace, now fully rebuilt after the fire four years before, and entered his quarters at the end of a long hall. Placing his carrier bag down on his bed along with a few scan disks that held the newest designs for the next Sharingan model, he replaced his school uniform with a more casual loose-fitting shirt and military pants.

Each aspect of the memory was hyper-rendered, Naruto realized. It was as if Sasuke had spend long hours, maybe even days' worth of time reflecting on each detail of that fateful afternoon. Naruto could feel the temperature of Sasuke's room, catch the bits of dust floating throughout Sasuke's quarters, how the scan disks felt in his fingers, cold and metallic. Sasuke raised his head, and Naruto watched as the boy leaned slightly, trying to get a glimpse out his open door.

"Itachi?" he called.

His brother was a man of routine, characteristically picking up the habit of maintaining order from his military studies. Sasuke was disturbed slightly that his brother had not kept his normal pattern of checking on Sasuke just about as soon as he stepped through the door. It must have been the conversation they had had the previous night.

"You and I have descended down the ladder, Sasuke. We are now fourth and fifth in the succession line," he'd said wearily.

"What?" Sasuke asked with widened eyes, fear for his own life sharpening his tone. "They can't—

"Orochimaru and Kabuto are Madara's two sons. The Electorate voted this morning to exclude the old Uchiha line in favor for a new one. You and I do not have much time.

"N-no," Sasuke said with closed eyes. "I don't have much time. It's okay, though, brother. A Missling life— death— is an honorable one. I'm not afraid." It was a blatant lie but he knew he'd delivered it with the bearing of a royal.

"You misunderstand me, Sasuke. They mean to dispose of the entire old Uchiha bloodline. To protect the succession. It will be the both of us declared Misslings, brother."

"But that's unprecedented!" Sasuke argued with a cry. "There is no need for you to be declared a Missling if I'm already—"

"It is no matter. Sasuke, you must listen to me." Itachi pulled his little brother closer to him by his small arms, brushing away a stray hair from his forehead. "No matter what happens, will you promise me one thing?"

Sasuke swallowed and fought tears, trying to act brave for his brother. He nodded slowly.

"You must promise to always protect this system, this planet, no matter what. Otogakure is flawed, yes, so is every government, but it is ours, Sasuke. It belonged to mother and father and now… Now, little brother, it will belong to you. Stay loyal to us. Never give in to intimidation or fear. Your path will be the most difficult of all, but you are also the strongest and the smartest. And most of all." He placed a hand over Sasuke's chest. "You have the biggest heart. You are the one who can usher Otogakure into a new realm of peace if you persist. Remain loyal, little brother. Love this planet."

In his room, Sasuke shook his head and dropped the remaining buttons on his shirt, padding slowly down the hallway to his brother's room. He hadn't seen Itachi since that disturbing conversation the night before, and he suddenly felt off balance, a strange sense of foreboding entering his chest.

The world could have slowed in actual time, or it could have been Sasuke's perception of the memory, but Naruto felt the shift as Sasuke travelled down the palace hallway. The plush carpet on the young boy's bare feet felt hot as coals, and the pain prevented time from stopping fully and kept Sasuke slowly, slowly walking. As he neared Itachi's room, he saw the door was slightly ajar, which was unusual. Sasuke didn't particularly like these old-fashioned doors, he thought as he placed a hand on the wooden surface, pushing slightly. They creaked when they moved at times, let in unnecessary air, and could be left open, as he saw—

He saw.

The room's windows had been dimmed, a single glowing lamp left to permeate the pitch darkness. It cast an eerie, sinister glow over the limp body, hanging by the neck in mid-air. It turned with the slow, lazy spin of a taut rope and revealed the silhouette of Itachi's ashen face, eyes wide and milky with death.

Sasuke was frozen for a full minute, his eyes split open in absolute horror, the image too profound, all encompassing and life-shattering to be borne. He screamed, screamed, screamed, lunged forward and dragged his brother's dead frame off the rope, cradling it in his arms. It was stiff with rigamortis and freezing cold, awkward in Sasuke's hands but he clung to it nonetheless. One of the maids burst into the room and shrieked at the scene before her, fled into the next room as another manservant entered and covered his mouth with a kerchief.

"Lord Itachi! No, please…" he cried as he fell upon both boys. "Lord Sasuke, you must let him go. You mustn't touch him!" He tried to pull unsuccessfully at the boy's shoulders, but he was shrugged off without a second glance, as the boy sobbed against the figure.

"Itachi, wake up!" Sasuke begged, holding the body. "Wake up! Wake up, please! Itachi!"

Sasuke's screams echoed throughout the entire palace, through Naruto's heart until he felt like he was on fire…

Fire!

The palace fire burned bright, from the night Sasuke's parents had been killed. Naruto was amongst the burning rubble, covering his eyes with the sleeve of his hand as a piece of the ceiling collapsed into a pile of ashes and sparks. He moved quickly, knowing that as the flames grew more intense, his chances of finding Sasuke dimmed by the moment. He ventured down the stairs, passing shadows of memories, little tidbits of Sasuke's life at home that were now aflame and disintegrating. Naruto approached the boy's quarters, bashed open the door with a swift kick, and saw the boy there, in the same position, clutching his brother's body. He was unaware of the red-hot flames dancing around his figure, alighting on his sleeve, on his back. He did not scream or cry, merely held Itachi and waited. Naruto could not reach the boy from his current standing point, the fire too hot to pass through.

"Sasuke!" Naruto cried over the flames, hoping to get his attention. "Sasuke!"

The boy raised his head, and before his eyes, Naruto saw him shrink to his child self, tiny, crying, and broken. He was eight years old again, clinging to his brother's dead visage but nearly covered under it. Itachi's body was too great a burden to bear for the little boy. Even if he wanted to get up, he wouldn't be able to.

Naruto gathered every spark of will inside his own mind and dispersed a hyper-sensitive jet of his own consciousness into the flames, dispelling them for a moment, long enough for Naruto to jump the expanse and travel to the boy.

No, not a boy any longer. Sasuke was himself and as indifferent as ever, raising an eyebrow at Naruto's rash movements. "I told you to get out."

"Not without you!" Naruto screamed as he grabbed Sasuke and pulled him upward. Like a ragdoll, Sasuke complied but shook his head.

"Why would you go so far for me, Naruto? I'm your enemy. You should let me go."

"Listen to me," Naruto said. " I have never met a person of your abilities who was so content to throw his life away! I'd not see you wasted, Sasuke Uchiha!"

A part of the ceiling caved in, shattering like glass on the floor beside Itachi's body and dissipating into nothing.

Sasuke looked down to the wreckage around him, the flames consuming his own body, driving in the points on his arms and neck where the Akatsuki had injected countless vials of Manda, highlighting the marks on his back where he still carried the scars from the mirror shards.

"You don't want to die," Naruto insisted softly. "I know you don't want this. Let me help you."

"But you can't save me."

Naruto extended his hand, locking his eyes with Sasuke's. "Let me try."

The boy hesitated for only a moment, but then shut his eyes, reaching for Naruto. And took his warm, massive hand in his.

Chapter 5 end.

I liked this one. I like Sakura as a person in this series. I wanted to make her important, a stepping stone, a bolster to grow from. I want to make her memories lovely and ethereal because all these gay romances with women as the enemy just distress me. She's such a tiny part in this chapter, but that part is honestly my favorite.

Please review for the next chapter. It's good to have feedback.