My Lovelies :3 I am Back! Thank you all for the lovely reviews! :D It really boosted my confidence! So I wrote more for you guys, longer than my previous chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter 8
Warmth, nothing but unrelenting warmth seeped through her body. She was too warm to move, yet she felt herself on the brink of waking up. A soothing rumble started to lull her back to sleep when her ears starting to adjust to consciousness. She moved slightly to get more comfortable when she felt what seemed to be an arm tighten around her waist. Instinctively she stiffened, ready to spring into action if need be. Whoever had a hold on her suddenly nuzzled her face and started to lick her face. Sakura's memories came whizzing back to her and she sat up with a start.
"Naruto"!
Startling said person, Naruto sprang awake into a crouching position, growling blindly. Sakura was a bit taken back by his sudden action, and scooted back a little. Naruto noticed her and his fierce expression fell instantly and was replaced with an ear splitting grin, meant just for her. :3
"Flower! You're awake!" He exclaimed all too happily. Sakura's heart melted on the spot and she opened her arms, signaling him to give her a hug.
Naruto was quick to comply. He instantly barreled himself into her arms, purring wildly and rubbing against her cheeks and neck, licking here and there. Sakura just hugged him the best she could and could do nothing but laugh and return his affection. Naruto pushed her to the ground with his nuzzling and began to nip and lick her neck and collar bone.
Sakura was on the verge of passing out from all the laughing because he was hitting her most ticklish spots. As a way to get him to stop, she dug her hands in his mass of hair. Her fingers brushed passed his ears and he got a shiver that ran through his body. He purred happily and pushed his head more into her hands. Sakura started to scratch both of his ears. Naruto stopped his nuzzling and arched his back and rolled to the side, flopping on his back.
Sakura gained the upper hand and squatted down next to him, and began to scratch his belly. Naruto couldn't take all the affection, it was so overwhelming! So he did what any cuddly-fox would do at this point. He passed out XD
Sakura stopped because she couldn't believe her eyes! Naruto had fought brutally before, getting crazy injuries, and yet, a single belly rub knocks him out? XD
Sakura fell back on her bottom, giggling as she watched the now drooling Naruto lay sprawled out on his back, in a daze.
As her giggles subsided, she finally got to look around the area. First thing she noticed was the plush bedding she was sitting on. It looked to be never ending, a never ending fluff ^.^
She took in her surrounding with nothing but admiration, because she knew that Naruto made this tunnel by the trademark swirl on the middle of the ceiling.
Seeing that the cave was huge and basically one room, she found it okay to leave Naruto and walk around a little bit. She needed to stretch her sore muscles.
She first headed over to the large fire burning.
"That's weird; it looks like it was just made…" She thought. "Maybe Naruto's chakra can produce a never ending fire."
She turned around to walk back towards the bedding. Naruto was still knocked out. "I got him good huh?"
Shaking her head slightly, she headed around the crater to inspect the springs. On the ground between the springs she noticed were letters spelled in pebbles.
The springs to her left had the letter 'B', and to her right the letters 'D, W.' Puzzled by the labeling, she tried to make sense out of them.
"Oh I got it!"
"Got what Flower?" An unexpected Naruto questioned right behind her. She jumped from his proximity and sudden appearance.
She laughed nervously to shake off her jitters. "The lettering Naruto." She said pointing to the letters.
Naruto nodded his head so rigorously; it seemed his neck would snap. "That one," he pointed to the letter 'B', "Says Bath!" He began to get more excited. "And that one," he pointed to the 'D,W,' "Says Drinking Water!"
Sakura spun around and gave him a quick hug. "Oh Naruto, you're so smart!"
Naruto scratched the back of his head and blushed a little. :3
Sakura gave a light laugh and bounded around him and began to jog toward the entrance of the tunnel.
"We're playing chase?!" Naruto exclaimed, causing Sakura to look past her shoulders. She opened her mouth to say something but Naruto was already on all fours and picking up speed in her direction.
Sakura got an adrenaline rush and started to sprint toward the entrance. As she neared the entrance, so did Naruto.
With one great push, Sakura leaped into the hole, and managed to crawl through effortlessly. Naruto close behind, had dove straight through the hole, not having to crawl once.
Sakura not expecting him to be so agile had no time to move out of the way. He landed on top of her, but in order to not crush her, he planted his hands and feet firmly on the ground to hold him up, creating mini craters and clawing the ground. O.o
Sakura was on her back staring up into his cerulean eyes that held so much joy that there was no way that she couldn't mirror them. Naruto stared at her eyes with a big smile on his face and was panting slightly. Sakura reached up to gently stroke his whiskers. Naruto's eyes rolled close, and he leaned in toward her touch, purring in content. When Sakura stopped, Naruto opened his eyes slowly to stare down at her. She had a worried expression on her face. Naruto cocked his head as in to ask her what was wrong.
Sakura understood his body language and said, "What's going to happen now Naruto? Aren't you afraid they'll come after us?"
Naruto pushed himself from the ground into a sitting position, and pulled Sakura up with him, sitting her across from him.
"We are safe Flower. They won't find us." He stated shaking his head. For once he sounded serious, and didn't have a smile on his face when he said that.
Sakura shook her head. "How could you be so sure?"
Naruto smiled. "Naruto's not sure!"
Sakura sweat dropped. "What will we do if they do find us?"
"That's easy flower!" Sakura looked at him with hope. "I'll bite their heads off and protect you!"
Sakura laughed nervously at his statement, because she knew very well that that is exactly what he'd do. "Well Naruto I think we should still be precautions." She said the last part looking down at the gadget around her wrist. Naruto nodded his head, and crawled up to her. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his lap, wrapped his tail around her and began to nuzzle and purr, rocking them back and forth. He was deep in thought. Sakura subconsciously fiddled with the gadget around her wrist, not aware of its danger to the both of them.
The lab room was a loud chatter, still shaken up from the previous calamity. Down below in the tunnel leading to Naruto's cage, there was mass destruction. The area was an accumulation of thick blood stains, burnt rubble, and craters. Some of the lab workers were scattered around trying to pick up what little they could.
Kabuto stood in one of the observation rooms, in front of a large screen that had what seemed to be a grid on it. Karin sat in a chair monitoring the grid and typing in coordinates every few minutes. Kakashi and Iruka stood by the entrance of the room, talking in harsh whispers.
Kabuto had his eyes trained on the ground. "What am I to do about this?" He thought. "How is this supposed to turn up in my favor now?"
"Found her!" Karin's voice cut through the air. Iruka and Kakashi stopped their harsh whispers and stared at the screen. Kabuto reluctantly glanced at the screen and was a bit surprised.
"They are almost at the end of our borders. What amazing speed he possesses." He stated in awe. "Karin, file a report about this finding to Danzo."
"Of course." She stated not too happy. She stood up from her seat and walked over to the cabinets to start on her report.
Kabuto stood in front of the screen and placed his hand on the blinking dot.
"Maybe things might turn out for the better this way..." He trailed off in thought.
Iruka and Kakashi took this time to slip outside to continue their conversation.
"Iruka, how will you hide the fact that you allowed them to escape?" Kakashi whispered in such a low voice, that even Iruka had a hard time of hearing him.
Iruka shook his head and sighed. "To tell you the truth, I really don't know." He paused and stared off towards the broken doors that lead to Naruto's old cage. Through the thick darkness, he was able to still make out the lights that lead to the main cage. From the outside, his fox mask seemed so hollow.
"Maybe I won't hide it." He said, still looking off in the distance.
Kakashi sighed. "How could you say such a thing Iruka? You know Danzo won't hesitate to kill you."
Iruka squared his shoulders. "I don't care. "He stated flatly. He turned towards Kakashi.
" That is the least I could do. I was such a weakling! I stood by for the past 12 years doing nothing as Naruto got battered and tormented. Sometimes I even had to do it!" He turned his face down towards the ground. Kakashi could say nothing but stare, because he was ashamed of his actions as well. "I'm disgusted with my cowardice. To think, that poor defenseless child lived in solitude and torment for all of his life, and here I was, too afraid to say anything on his behalf. The Hokage's son Kakashi! His son!" Iruka was now shaking from anger and what seemed to be anguish. With even breaths he began to talk again. "I once revolted him. I only saw the demon fox in him and nothing else."
"I once did too." Kakashi solemnly said. He looked at Iruka. "Do you remember that night when we lost Asuma?"
"How could I forget…It was all my fault"
FLASHBACK
"Contain him dammit!" Yelled the captain of the ANBU.
A 12 year old Naruto lay on the ground growling furiously and pulling at his chains as they were being pulled by a few ANBU. He was being bound by blue chakra as well. A few ANBU surrounded him in a circle. They sat in meditation with their hands locked in a jutsu. Lab workers stood as close as they could be to him, with needles in their hands.
"Dammit Kabuto! How long is this going to take?!" The ANBU leader shouted.
A nervous Kabuto stared up at the phoenix mask that belonged to said ANBU leader. "Asuma, we just need to extract some blood from him." He replied. "But he is moving too much for them to get close"
"Those cowards." Asuma grumble. He ran up to the workers and took the needles they had. Before they could protest, he leaped over behind Naruto. He stabbed the needles in Naruto's back and quickly drew thick black blood. Naruto reached a new level of anger. He roared, sending a powerful shock wave that knocked the ANBU that were holding his chains off their feet. They quickly recovered and leaped back. That was enough time to break free of his chakra bindings. In the blink of an eye Naruto launched himself at a poor defenseless worker.
That worker had no way of defending himself, all he could do was scream. He was immediately torn to shreds. Everything erupted into chaos. A red alert sounded, piercing Naruto's sensitive ears. As he grabbed his head and closed his eyes, blue and green chakra wrapped around him in threads, holding him to the ground. His arms were pulled away from his head and restrained, so he couldn't protect his ears from the painful sirens. He started howling as loud as he could, to try and drown out the sound.
"Quick now is our chance!" Asuma shouted. "Men, get everyone out of here!"
The ANBU nodded and started picking up the lab workers and heading towards the door. Asuma ran back towards Kabuto and handed him the vile of blood. "Take them and leave." His voice was hard, but didn't hold hatred.
Kabuto dumbly nodded and started to run back towards the entrance.
Asuma headed back towards the ANBU that was detaining the livid Naruto.
"Asuma! My chakra is being absorbed by him! What should I do?!" A young ANBU with a fox mask shouted over his shoulder.
"Don't worry, Iruka. Ease your way back towards the door. And when I tell you to drop the bond, drop it okay?" Asuma instructed.
Iruka gave a sharp nod. He slowly got up and started to ease his way back toward the door. Asuma was backing up with him. Iruka did not expect the strain on his chakra would increase as he got further away from Naruto. Thinking he could hold it off, he pushed on backwards.
Suddenly the link between Naruto and Iruka snapped. Iruka gasped in horror, but didn't have time to re-bond Naruto because Asuma grabbed him and threw him the rest of the way.
"Asuma!" Iruka shouted as he went flying back. He hit the the front of the second to last door, and before he could head back out, the last door sung shut. "NO!" He ran up to the door and started banging on it. Through the bars, he watched in morbid horror as Asuma was injured severely by Naruto, but managed to make it to the now closed door. He grabbed Iruka's mask with a bloodied hand. Naruto was closing in on him.
"Iruka! quickly, open the door!" He rasped.
At that moment Iruka couldn't do anything, because he had no way of communicating with the gate keepers to open the door. So He could only stare at Asuma and cry.
Asuma could feel death at his heels, so he shouted one last name. "Naruto!"
Iruka watched as Naruto in mid leap had recognition flash through his eyes. It was too late for him to stop his path, a moment later his claws had pierced right through Asuma's heart. Iruka jumped from the impact/dent that was made on the door in front of him. Asuma's body went limp and slumped to the ground, out of Iruka's sight.
Iruka was too choked up to even cry, to even breathe. He backed up, shaking his head. Naruto, stood up and looked down. "S-Sarutobi?" He mumbled/half growled out. Iruka was shocked to hear Naruto mutter his first words, and that name to say the least.
Naruto locked eyes with Iruka through his mask. For the first time, he actually looked crestfallen.
With a strangled whimpered Naruto cried out. "Sorry! So…so sorry…" He started to back away holding his ears, as if not wanting to hear anything. With one last whimper he threw his hands on the ground and started pummeling the ground, taking out his anger on the ground. His painful cries turned into heartbroken roars. He then began clawing at his body and beating his head. Not caring about the damage he was inflicting upon himself. He began to roar out the word 'sorry' with every wound received from himself.
Iruka was too scared to even move, he could only stare on in disbelief. Tears rolled down his face absentmindedly as he took in the scene. "…Naruto." He whispered sadly.
Naruto's sorrow filled roars echoed throughout the night, and through Iruka's soul….
END FLASHBACK
"Do not blame yourself for that Iruka."
"Kakashi…that night, I finally saw the human being in Naruto." He replied a bit shaky from having re lived the horrific memories. "I could not believe that I was more sadden by the state Naruto was in rather than the death of Asuma. It was...it was just so sad."
Kakashi nodded, having remembered standing in the tunnel that night and hearing Naruto's cries reverberate through the whole area.
Iruka sighed and took off his mask. He stared at the fox mask. "I am not going to stand here and be a weakling anymore. I could give a damn with what Danzo thinks. If he comes snooping around, I'll proudly tell him that I helped them escape." He stated affirmatively. He started going on about how he was going to start making changes for the better.
Kakashi valued the way Iruka was speaking. Nodding, he put his hands behind his head and walked off towards the elevator. Whistling a bit. In Iruka's moment of confidence, he failed to notice Kakashi's retreating form.
"-and that's that! Right Kakashi?!" :D…. Iruka looked around. "Kakashi?"
Sweeeet! All done! :DDDD
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