A/N: Here we go, chapter nine. Alright, yes, I know, the story is slightly hard to follow in the opening chapters, but, c'mon, give me a break. I was thirteen or something when I first started writing this. I'll try and re-write the crappy parts and re-upload them at some point.
It was still dark when Naruto quietly unlocked the door to Sakura's apartment and let himself in.
Seriously, half the time I'm awake, it's night, he reflected
The home was quiet, but it was a different kind of quiet than the forest. Whilst the forest's quiet was full of tension and danger, this quiet was peaceful and Naruto allowed himself to relax.
First thing's first.
Naruto's clothes were dirty and bloody from the waist-down from his wound. Moving to the guest room's bathroom as to not disturb his sleeping fiancée, he turned on the hot water and began to methodically clean the laceration.
Looking at it, he decided that it was most definitely going to require hospital work, but that could wait until the morning. It was ugly. The kunai that Sasuke had used had a barbed tip, so when Naruto pulled it out, flesh had clung to the kunai like a fish on a hook. Now, it looked like as if something had erupted from beneath Naruto's leg, and strips of it poked out backwards, flopping over and forming an umbrella over the rest of the skin.
Ugly-indeed.
It hurt slightly, but not enough to keep him from operational movement, as long as he channeled a steady flow of chakra to the leg to deaden his pain receptors, and stop the flow of blood. Now though, he was exhausted, so he reduced the flow of chakra slightly, and hissed as pain shot through the wound like lightning. Calmly, he placed the afflicted area under the hot water, and allowed it to run through the leg for a bit. Grabbing a bottle of alcohol, he steeled himself for the stinging pain, and poured it over the wound.
Instantly, tears flooded his eyes, and he had to bite his lip to keep from shouting out loud, but the pain did not last long. The wound now theoretically disinfected – Naruto never really trusted his own medical expertise – he bandaged it once more, and sat down on the toilet.
He just sat there, and allowed himself to zone out. He sighed sadly.
Ah, Sasuke. What happened to you, buddy? It was barely a year ago that you died, and I thought that was the end of it. But now, you're back, and you nearly kill me he thought mournfully. Sasuke was different, that was painfully obvious. But why? What had caused the change? What made Sasuke – the Sasuke that Naruto had come to love as a brother – revert to the old, hard Sasuke? He thought that that period of idiocy was long past his friend, but that was apparently not true anymore.
Naruto clenched his fists. There was also Anko to think about. Anko had taken Sasuke in after he had returned from his stint with Akatsuki, and the two snake users had formed a strong master/student bond. To think that Sasuke would betray such strong a bond made him want to rip out every single tooth in Sasuke's mouth.
But it was the coldness in his eyes that made Naruto want to rip his hair out. It was the casualness with which he intended to hand out death. Didn't their friendship mean anything to him now? Weren't all those years of comradery, their fight at the Valley at the end, his redemption at the hands of Naruto supposed to mean something?
All those years spent searching for Sasuke, fighting him and turning him back to Konoha – was it all for nothing?
DAMNIT!
Naruto slammed his fist down on the tile in the bathroom violently, and the resounding smack echoed in the bathroom. Ugh. Sometimes, Naruto reflected, it would be better that he never had gotten himself into the ninja world.
He stood up from the toilet and entered the main bedroom.
There, his cherry blossom lay asleep. A tuft of pink hair had fallen over her petit face, and it puffed up and down with her every breath. Naruto smiled. Here was the reason that he had joined the ninja world, he suddenly remembered.
Sure, it had been a childish infatuation back then – a crush really – but it had slowly evolved to something more, starting that fateful night underneath the moon, and finally maturing when he had proposed. And, yes, he supposed, Sakura was more than capable of kicking ass by herself, but she was still his woman, and he would protect her with his life.
He lifted the covers and laid himself down next to her. The scent of strawberries was strong, he had always joked privately to himself that she actually produced the scent herself, and he encircled her with his arms. After what had happened that night, it felt good to feel her securely within his arms. It was almost as if she was one of his links to sanity, the only thing grounding him to a calm mind, and preventing him from going nine-tails.
Sakura had noticed Naruto enter the room, but she remained relaxed as she felt his body slide in to bed next to her. She had started to worry that he wasn't going to come tonight, as he usually did, but now her fears were dispelled.
They fell naturally into a spooning position, and Sakura gripped his forearms to her chest, and gently nuzzled the strong, rough fingers. If there was one thing she loved about his body, it was his fingers. So many things could be said about a person based on their fingers, and Naruto's said that he was fiercely loyal, and inspiringly strong.
They both laid there, their breathing rhythm becoming one, and Naruto soon fell asleep.
When Naruto woke up the next morning, he found an empty spot next to him, where Sakura had been last night. He touched it momentarily.
Cold. She's been out for a while.
He sprawled out on the bed and debated whether or not to sleep in another hour, before he resigned himself to getting up. A disheveled Naruto greeted him as he glanced into the mirror. He noted with some approval at the fact that there were no bags under his eyes.
Good. Exhaustion reduced efficiency.
Naruto showered and dressed quickly and ate a frugal meal that Sakura had prepared earlier. He really wasn't surprised that she was already gone – the hospital required long hours from its more experienced staff members, and she was a senior one at that.
Twentyminutes after waking up, Naruto was locking Sakura's front door behind him, and as he stepped out into the street a bright morning sun greeted him. He stretched and yawned. His wound barely pained him at all, and even without looking at it, he could guess that it was probably almost completely healed. Being a jinchuriki had its benefits.
Naruto stood there for a moment to collect chakra in his legs before instantly exploding in a burst of speed down the street. Wind tugged viciously at his hair and face, but he didn't care. More than anything, this was a test drive of his own body before he set out to start his day. He kept his speed steady for a few minutes, moving straight down the street at a sprint. He avoided villagers with ease, his eyes noticing them from hundreds of yards away, and his brain automatically controlling his body to slip by them. Accelerating even faster, he leapt up to a rooftop in a frenzy of corkscrews, startling pedestrians who were suddenly bowled over by the gale he left behind him.
Arms and legs pumping, he ran at breakneck pace – even for a ninja. His wound barely hindered him at all, and he guessed that if it weren't for the vertical obstacles in his way, he'd probably be able to run even faster. His Sannin overcoat billowed out behind him as he sped through the city, spreading out as far as the seams would allow when he dived off buildings.
He ran five laps around the village at this speed, and by the time he was done and standing in front of the Hokage tower, his breathing was rhythmic and in control. Physically, Naruto had supreme dominance over his body. He grinned at the fact that he hadn't even broken out in sweat. Sasuke was sorely mistaken if he thought he was going to beat Naruto that easily.
This time, Naruto entered the Hokage's office the normal way. The first-floor receptionist nodded at Naruto has he entered the building, and allowed him to pass unhindered to the elevator that led up to the Hokage's floor.
The short elevator ride up to the top floor gave him a short period of time in which to collect his thoughts.
Manhunts. Haven't done those in a while.
Mentally, Naruto began to tick off the different resources he'd need in order to find Sasuke quickly and efficiently. Supposing, of course, that this was Sasuke, and not some cheap trick to rattle Naruto.
But the fight in the forest had been too real for Naruto to really consider Sasuke to be a fake. Everything – the inflection, the gestures, the flippant tone of voice – was all reminiscent of the Uchiha. Or at least the old Team Seven Sasuke, before Sasuke defected to Orochimaru. After returning him to Konoha, Naruto distinctly remembered Sasuke having opening up, and acting friendlier towards everyone. If this was the real Sasuke, he must have recreated his addiction to hatred during his supposed 'death'.
Naruto made a mental note make the investigation of Sasuke's death his first priority. Though he really couldn't imagine how much he would find out that he didn't already know. In fact, how could anyone even tell him Sasuke didn't die? He was there when Sasuke died! Though, Naruto had to admit to himself, he had obviously been fooled. Sasuke obviously didn't die, if he was still alive today, and in fighting condition.
The elevator chimed quietly, and the doors slid open to reveal the Hokage's office's outer atrium. A fountain encircled in stones gave the room the peaceful air of a mountain spring. Stepping through the room quickly, Naruto strode in to the office proper, and noted that the change in environment from the atrium was noticeable. Tsunade, the back of her chair to the door, was unconsciously releasing waves of killing intent. She was angry at the situation. Naruto gave a quick greeting to the Hokage.
"Morning, Tsunade."
"Well, you took your damn time," she said, not turning around
Naruto scoffed.
"Yeah, how about next time you take a poisoned kunai, and try to get up early in the morning."
Tsunade grunted and muttered something about good-for-nothing jinchuurikies. She swiveled her chair around, and faced Naruto.
"Whatever. Let's get straight to business. Sasuke is out there, and whether we like it or not, he needs to be captured again, or killed. Before we start planning anything – do you have any qualms with that?"
Naruto stayed silent, and Tsunade raised a questioning eyebrow. Naruto shrugged.
"What? The bastard put a kunai into me. And I'm already done with saving his sorry ass. If he needs to be killed, I won't hesitate."
Tsunade nodded, her expression somewhat surprised at the normally loyal Naruto's newfound coldness.
"Excellent. Had you any problems with that, I would have had to pull you from the mission. But going back to business – Your mission will be to, preferably, capture Sasuke alive, or, if necessary, terminate him."
Naruto nodded.
"What resources will I have at my disposal?"
"Whatever you require. Sasuke's reappearance has been deemed to be the village's number one priority, and the elder council has agreed to provide you with your previously agreed executive power."
Naruto was startled at the council's uncharacteristic decisiveness and swiftness.
"What? Why is Sasuke a priority? I admit, it's definitely surprising that he's back; it's definitely worrying that he was supposed to be dead, but I can't see why the village is making this a number one priority. In fact, he's only killed a single ninja up until now."
"I agree. But the council was adamant in this. I suspect they're afraid that if they don't do something soon, we'll have a situation as bad as when Sasuke originally defected. Politically speaking, that's something that the council cannot afford to have on their hands again" Tsunade responded. She paused for a moment before asking,
"Do you have anything planned to start off from?"
"Yeah, actually, I do." Naruto said.
"While I was riding the elevator up here, I was thinking about the mission where Sasuke was supposed to have 'died'. Though I did clearly see him receive a fatal blow during the mission, now that I think about it, I don't actually remember recovering his body. Nor do I recall the exact details of the mission, and I'd like to go over it. I might find a clue as to how Sasuke survived through the mission's records"
Tsunade nodded thoughtfully.
"I'll make sure you get those documents. Anything else?"
"Not for now, no," Naruto said, before something else occurred to him, "Oh, I will need a command center though. And a few aids. I suspect that this manhunt is going to be pretty damn long, and I don't want to be caught up to my ass in information without help in filtering it all."
"Done. I'll contact you with the details for your command center once a location has been decided upon. Have any ideas for aides though?"
Naruto grunted.
"Sakura, definitely. She's good at this kind of thing. Plus, Sasuke was her teammate as well; she's going to want a piece of this. Probably Shikamaru too, if you can spare him. I'll also need Ino's mind-reading and interrogation skills, if I can't get information out of people through the normal methods."
"Good choices. I'll make sure that those three get attached to your command."
Naruto nodded.
"Alright, I better go. I want to get some training in today. Fighting Sasuke made me painfully aware that I'm a bit out of practice," Naruto said.
With that, he leapt up from his chair, bounded through the office, then jumped out the office window.
Tsunade rolled her eyes.
"Sannins…"
Twenty minutes after his meeting with Tsunade, Naruto found himself at his favorite training ground. Training ground three was the place where Team Seven had had their first training exercise, and Naruto found that he was still fond of the place. For a few moments Naruto just stood there, closed his eyes, and drew the scents of the forest deep into his lungs. The air was sweet and woodsy, the smell of soil light and calming. All was calm.
Naruto sat down and crossed his legs in one fluid motion, and allowed the sound of the forest to invade his senses. The sound of the wind gently prodding tree branches came to his ears. He spread out his senses as far as they could go, feeling and probing the different animal's separate chakra signatures. He felt birds flittering amongst the great oaks, predators stalking their prey, the small beady presences of insects under the dirt, and tried to hold the feeling of each in his mind.
Completely at peace with his surroundings, he allowed his arms to cross gently into a meditative position, and began chakra flow exercises. He visualized the chakra in his body as flowing water, and practices diverting the flow of chakra to different parts of his body.
Like a river, you can divert the flow, but can never stop it completely.
This he had been told by Jiraiya, and it was true. Naruto could ease the chakra in his body to his hands, feet or eyes, but try as he might, he could never keep the same chakra in any part of his body. All he could to was regulate the flow into, say, his arms, as well as regulate the flow out of it.
Now, he set up internal stones along the bank of his chakra river, and redirected the energy deep into his belly. There, the chakra gently swirled into a whirlpool, and Naruto felt a warm sensation rise up from his midriff into his chest and then spread out through the rest of his body.
He held the sensation for a few moments, the chakra fully spreading out through his system. His senses became even more acute than they were before. Now, to Naruto's ear, it was almost as if he could actually hear silence. Even with his eyelids fully covering his eyes, Naruto could begin to detect the silhouettes of the tress surrounding him. His skin became extra-sensory to the environment, and he could feel the soil beneath him, even though clothes covered every part of his body. His nosed twitched as scents of every kind invaded his body, but his brain quickly filtered the smells, so he could tell each one apart.
Good. Very good. He told himself. Naruto stayed sitting in the middle of the clearing for a few minutes, before releasing the technique, standing up and stretching.
The extra-sensory technique that he had just performed was something of his own design, based on the teachings of Jiraiya, on the subject of chakra. Naruto's body acted as a reservoir of chakra, and by allowing the chakra to fully pool out throughout his organism, it eventually overflowed and spread out through his surroundings. Through this, he was able to completely sense his environment.
It was a technique he still hadn't mastered, and it required him to be completely still and quiet for a few moments, as he set about the task of making his chakra spill out of his body. This was the biggest problem with the technique so far, something that Naruto was still trying to overcome. So far, he was able to shorten the preparation time of the technique to about five minutes, but he required total concentration and complete stillness. Something that would make the technique useless in the middle of the fight.
Naruto sighed in frustration, passed a single hand through his unruly hand, before flopping onto his back. Pausing for a few seconds, he went into a series of abdominal crunches. He kept this up for about ten minutes, reaching one thousand-five hundred sit-ups before stopping. Somebody had entered the training grounds.
"Hey!" Naruto called out to the forest.
"Naruto! Hello there! I see you are training." A familiar voiced responded. Lee stepped into the clearing.
"I was passing by when I suddenly felt the intense flames of youth that only somebody like yourself would send out, and I thought that I might spar with you."
Naruto grinned.
"Yeah, sure. I was actually just about to go look for you after I finished physical training, but I'll just skip it and cut to kicking your ass."
Lee chuckled and said, "I think you mean 'getting my ass kicked'."
They both into their respective combat stances, and traded a few more good-natured verbal jabs before leaping across the training ground and trading blows.
Lee came in to the fight with a fist cocked back, and as soon as he came within range, he let it fly with deadly accuracy. Naruto sidestepped casually, seeming to slide across the ground effortlessly, before offering an uppercut of his own. Lee twisted his body to avoid the blow, stepping past Naruto, who's back was now exposed.
Lee drove an expertly-placed elbow into Naruto's back, but Naruto was already moving forward and rolling to avoid the rock-hard joint. As he rolled, he stuck out his left leg to try and sweep his opponent off his feet. Lee neatly stepped over the leg, and quickly turned around to face Naruto once more. Neither man was breathing hard.
"Nice try with the elbow there, Lee" Naruto said, still grinning.
Pausing momentarily, Naruto collected chakra in his legs once more, like earlier that morning, and instantly exploded in a fury of speed. Tree branches behind him were pulled in his direction as he left behind a vacuum of air. Lee didn't even see Naruto's movement. Suddenly, a hand came out of nowhere from behind him, and a leg popped out of the nether, both working in coordination to trip Lee over. Using all of his strength, Naruto set up a leg in front of his opponent, and pushed him over with is hand.
Now on the ground, Lee attempted to but up a decent defense, but it was hopeless. Ground fighting and grappling was Naruto's strength, whereas exchanging strikes was more along Lee's specialties. Naruto was instantly upon Lee, and fist after fist found its way to his face. His arms and legs fully pinned, and his body pummeled, Lee had no choice but to slacken his body, pretending to have been knocked out.
"Woops," Naruto murmured, surprised at how quickly Lee had gone out.
He stopped his blows, and got off Lee. Big mistake.
With a roar that fully set Naruto's hair standing, Lee bunched up his legs onto his chest before hitting Naruto with both feet full on the chest. His head snapped back, then forward as his body left the space it was occupying moments before. Ribs cracked, air left his lungs, and Naruto went flying back into the forest. He crashed into a tree and he groaned in pain.
Mouth bleeding from a gash on his lip, blood partially blinding him as it flowed into his eyes, Naruto got up from the splinters of the tree that he had bowled over as he flew. He picked out the wooden shards that had embedded themselves into his skin, and flicked them out of sight into the forest. He cackled devilishly, wincing slightly as the gesture spread his gash apart. With a training partner like Lee, Sasuke was as good as dead.
Clutching his bruised ribs, and shrugging the pain away, he leapt back to the training grounds and continued the fight.
A/N: So a bit of filler for the next chapter, when the manhunt for Sasuke begins. I'm not particularly good at fight scenes though, so sorry if it wasn't that great. Anyway, read, enjoy, review and all that jazz.
