Flick Through VII
Ikinoshita (Gasp)
Author: Ms Trick
Notes: I thrive on reviews and cupcakes. I would be honoured to accept either.
Konoha
Summer continued its merry days of warm sunshine and fluffy blue clouds, disregarding the bloody battles and desperate cries of ninja. Had the sun been avidly watching, though, it would have been on the edge of its heavenly seat.
In a completely trashed circle of forest, surrounded by mutilated trees and ripped earth, Naruto and Sasuke had finally met on the battlefield and had been throwing everything they had at each other. After ten minutes, they had both pulled back to breathe and now stood tense and waiting for the other one to move.
Clangs of kunai and the rumble of explosive tags emanated from the thick forest outside their perimeter of destruction. Trees were bent and blackened sticks, kunai or kunai holes were sunk into every available surface, and the ground had been overturned and fissured and trampled. Even as each waited for the other to attack, Sasuke knew they would never finish this battle. Their commanders had worked far too hard to keep them apart to let them fight uninterrupted for much longer. Tsunade herself was probably racing towards them right now.
Sasuke grit his teeth and held back a snarl at the thought that their battle would end as a mere tie. He flew at Naruto like lightning and Naruto had zero time to react before a well-aimed fist went straight through his head. Sasuke blinked in surprise as the clone popped into smoke. His red eyes slid around their destroyed battle ground, looking for any sign of movement, smirking at if the blond thought he could hide with his colour scheme.
Then rose up the stampede of what had to be at least 300 pairs of feet charging toward him. Sasuke turned to find himself faced with an army of orange and black blonds that multiplied in front of his eyes, and he re-evaluated his conclusion that Naruto couldn't hide. Pleased at the challenge, he raised his katana dangerously and made note of which clones were conjuring Rasengans.
Sasuke had only worked his way through about twenty clones before a gargantuan shadow fell over their battleground, a territory Sasuke found himself getting defensive of. The hundreds of Narutos all yelped and ran in all directions to avoid the slimy body of Katsui. The Queen Slug's interference was impossible to miss. She lay like a felled, blue and white building across the cleared space with Tsunade standing on her head in the hot sunshine.
"Tch," Sasuke said in irritation, taking advantage of the mayhem caused by so many Narutos getting out of her way. Cutting a swath through them, he left a trail of evaporating smoke in his wake.
Nobody--certainly not any of the Naruto clones and certainly not Naruto himself--noticed Sasuke grabbing the arm of one of the clones and dragging it along after him. Caught off guard, it gave a yelp of surprise.
Taking care not to let the clone disperse, Sasuke disappeared with it into the dense forest.
"What the hell are you doing? I'm not the original, you know!" The clone yelled into Sasuke's ear.
He had to admire the dark-haired shinobi's skill, though; the grip on his arm was just tight enough not to let him escape but not tight enough to trigger a dispersal. It was a completely foreign concept to kidnap a clone. It's not like you could torture it for information or anything.
They were now too far to see Katsui's huge presence through the thick foliage and numerous trees. Sasuke abruptly stopped and shoved the clone against the tree, again with the perfect amount of pressure to keep it in existence. And then he was kissing it.
He pressed his mouth to the facsimile of his rival, to the guy who may still be his best friend, the guy who may be his only friend, the only real friend he ever had, the only person he would care, really care, about should he die in this war. He kissed its warm mouth hard and he heard the clone sharply inhale through its nose.
It tasted like chakra, to no surprise. And it was this unfortunate taste that pushed Sasuke over the edge. With the razor-sharp ache of loneliness and desperate wishing, he plunged a kunai into the clone's stomach. He felt the smoke hit his face as it dispersed, its mouth still open and its eyelids heavy to the last second.
Back at the now deserted zone of destruction, Naruto was grumpily waiting on a rock for Tsunade to come scold him. He gasped in suddenly as a bucket of images and experience was dumped onto him. With a heart-stopper of a moment, a wave of scarlet rushed through his face and neck. His hand flew to his mouth and, contrasting his bright red face, his blue eyes widened.
Not too far away, Sasuke dropped his head into his hands, unsure of anything anymore.
Reno
Sakura yawned as she blearily peered into her locker, trying to remember if she'd need any books for her afternoon classes. Since finals were just about over, every class consisted of watching movies or playing games, anything to kill time until Wednesday, which was their last day of school.
But the entire senior class wasn't waiting for the beginning of summer, they were abuzz for the upcoming Friday: Their Prom Night.
The chatter of a bubbly Ino kept flying into her right ear and she made sure to respond at some appropriate times. Though right now she couldn't quite keep track of the something Shikamaru had said or the something Shikamaru had done or the something Ino still needed to do before the Prom. It all seemed so...inane to a shinobi. Even her 2007 persona was too tired to make much of an effort to match the blonde girl's vibrancy. Hell, it was Monday morning, for godssake.
Glancing at Ino, another blonde head of hair caught her eye. Naruto had separated from the mass of teenagers moving towards the cafeteria and was approaching his locker on the opposite side of the hallway from Sakura. He wasn't wearing his goggles today. And he hadn't looked like he'd slept much.
Sakura watched Naruto watch Sasuke purposefully stride past him without a glance.
"Hellooooo? Sakura?"
She dully turned her eyes back to Ino.
"You okay?"
"Tired," Sakura mumbled.
Naruto stared into his open locker for a few seconds before slamming it hard and jog down the crowded hallway after his best friend.
"I gotta go, Ino," Sakura stuttered, taking off abruptly.
Ino frowned and tucked a short strand of hair behind her ear. Noticing that Sakura hadn't closed her locker, Ino quietly did it for her and made up her mind to grill the pink-haired girl about this weird behaviour later.
Dodging around Shikamaru, Sakura rounded the corner just in time to see Naruto grab Sasuke by the scruff of his black button-down shirt and haul him unceremoniously through an open classroom door. Sasuke's bag thumped to the ground unnoticed and Naruto kicked the classroom door shut with a bang.
"What the fuck?!" Emanated from the door.
Sakura worried her bottom lip, hoping this confrontation would prove healthy and wouldn't end up a repeat of the hospital roof. She scooped up Sasuke's navy book bag and just thanked fate that lunch time meant the hallway would be relatively empty. Not that anyone in school would want to get in the middle of a Naruto/Sasuke brawl. Among Leafseek Highschool students, it was well-known safety hazard.
Loud voices continued to argue from inside the empty classroom and Sakura, still biting her lip, hesitantly ambled to the wall next to the door. She clutched Sasuke's backpack like a lifeline and resisted the urge to peer in the door's large glass window. Meanwhile, Sakura's inner Reno Girl was still whining that she'd just left Ino in mid-sentence and the blonde girl was SO not going to let that go.
The cool of the corridor's wall against Sakura's contrasted with the heated words she was eavesdropping on.
"--like I'm too fragile to handle the fact that we're fucked up in some other dimension?"
"What are you, a fucking moron? I shoved my fist through your chest!"
"Uh, no. No, you didn't. If you haven't noticed, THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN TO US!"
"It could have," Sasuke said in a voice so deadly serious it made Naruto pause for a second. Sakura could imagine the deep, frustrated frown on his face. She had seen it often enough in her time period.
"No, Sasuke--"
"No, you idiot! You don't get it. I shoved my fist through your chest and it made sense. I needed to defeat you and I did and that justifies it. Even now, that other me can't regret that. And I can't regret it either. Do you get that?"
"What the fuck do you have to regret? That wasn't our fight. Anyway, you didn't kill me. We both know how that fight ended. The other me was unconscious. If you really wanted to kill me, you would have."
"Fuck you."
"I'll take that as a 'You're right and I'm too stubborn to admit it' and I'll say, thank you."
Sakura could hear it in their voices: Naruto had practically already dismissed this altercation but Sasuke was still being tormented by the shadows of motives and actions he knew could be his own with only a few twists of fate. Naruto didn't quite understand that Sasuke couldn't forget this as easily as he could. Sasuke had been given a glimpse of just how badly he could hurt someone close to him if it meant pursuing a personal goal.
What he couldn't get his mind around was that Naruto had already forgiven him. Not only for the actions of their other-dimensional selves, but for any injury Sasuke could possibly do to him here in Reno. Sakura knew the same went for her Naruto.
She was suddenly jerked out of her mulling when the classroom door burst open and Sasuke stalked out with his hands fisted and without looking back. He didn't even notice the wide-eyed Sakura. Her heart beating rapidly, she watched him until he disappeared loudly through a pair of double doors.
At length, Naruto appeared in the classroom's doorway. He blinked in surprise when he saw Sakura sitting on the floor, hugging Sasuke's bag. Exasperated, he ran a hand through his messy blond hair.
"Were you looking for us?" He asked, trying to fill in the awkward silence.
"Um, uh, yeah. I think, uh, you guys should practice using your abilities in combat. So I was thinking after school, the five of us would drive back out to the desert."
"Sooner we find your bad guy, the sooner we stop having these dreams, right?" He questioned suddenly, his eyes on where Sasuke had exited.
"Yeah," Sakura offered, though in truth, she wasn't sure when exactly the dose of her chakra would fade from their systems or when exactly the dreams would stop.
Author's Notes:
Holy fuck I haven't updated in a year. How did that HAPPEN? And this is a pitiful update, I know. Sorry!!
Thanks to
lonelylulaby
DarkRavie
Hasamaki
Makayla
FREAKSHOW1
TimeForTea
moonlover825
Ador
Moony
fullofmisery
Rockleerox93
Heaven Cobra
Luchia13
Akako-Chan
Fields of View
Dark Mican
HoshitheHorse
ChocohalicsAnonymus
Ayu-Chan15
nellie330
Acidic-time
Lady Valtaya
songsix
unheardcries
I LOVE this - How can you be sorry about giving me two reviews? I eat reviews like candy! Hopefully, I answered some of your questions here.
Fyawkes and Leo – I haven't answered your questions because you've got to keep reading! ;) Thanks for the review!
gallatica7 – I'm sorry for the delays! Real life is kinda full of five college courses. :P Thanks so much for the cupcake and review!
Yuna's Aeon – That review made me so happy. ;) I'm glad my story's doing its job. Stay tuned!
