Chapter ten
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, only the occasional OC that may / will appear
~ ҉ ~
The day grew hotter as Sasuke and Naruto continued their walk to Konoha. Sasuke could still feel the uncertainty and fear that Naruto was practically radiating, and it worried him (although he would never admit to it). Sasuke watched Naruto out of the corner of his eye, as Naruto twitched nervously, fiddled with his fingers and looked around at random times. Sasuke scratched his side, just above his wound, and stared ahead.
Naruto felt an uncomfortable pressure in his head. Worry crowded his mind, fear probably obvious in his eyes. Although his face was blank, he knew that Sasuke could see the little twitches or shifting gaze that Naruto did. Naruto let out a small sigh, and shifted into a Henge as a lady and her son walked past.
The lady nodded to Sasuke and the covered up Naruto, and pulled on her son's hand. The son looked back at Sasuke and Naruto, smiled a toothy grin before turning around. Naruto scratched his head and stopped walking.
"You know, it's hard to remember people smiling at me. I mean, I've had you around but all you do is smirk at me. And everyone in the Hidden Village hid their faces." Naruto said, voice laced with surprise. Sasuke turned his head, also stopped walking and looked at Naruto.
"Hn." Was all he said before walking on. Naruto rolled his eyes and followed. When he felt safe enough, he released his Jutsu and kept walking.
~ ҉ ~
The sun well lower into the sky, as it unwillingly dimmered. Sasuke and Naruto were now closer to Konoha, and Naruto was getting more worried the closer they got.
"Naruto. Let's camp here." Sasuke suggested, slowing down and sliding his bag off one shoulder.
"No way! There's still hours of daylight left! We should-"
"Naruto. No. An idiot could tell how scared you are. Sit down." Sasuke said walking over, and shoved Naruto in the shoulder so he fell down onto his but. Naruto watched Sasuke uncertainly. Sasuke, in a matter of minutes, found enough sticks and dry stuffs to make a fire. As the flames began to crawl skywards, Sasuke sat opposite to Naruto.
"Why are you coming? And no bull shit this time." Sasuke said, watching the flames. Naruto stared at the fire some more, before sighing.
"I miss the ramen shop."
"That's a lie."
"I want to take revenge on Konoha."
"That's another lie."
"I want-"
"Oh for fucks sake Naruto! I said no bullshit! So get the hell on with it!" Sasuke hissed, fisting his hands and slamming them into the earth. Naruto jumped, before taking a deep breath in, then out.
"Well… the reason is… you know that… file?" Naruto said, scratching the inside of his arm. Sasuke raised an eyebrow and kept his face bank.
"Well… it… it c-contains-"
BANG!
Naruto feel forwards as something exploded against the tree behind him. Sasuke immediately became alert and jumped to his feet, hands braced to draw his katana. Naruto scrambled up, fixed his cloak up, and turned quickly. What the hell was that?
As the smoke from the explosion died down, the forest fell quiet. Whatever set the explosion off was gone. Sasuke cautiously walked over to the tree and examined it. Black marked the bark of the tree, and small strips of white lay at the base of the tree. Sasuke reached down, picked up a strip and examined it.
"This came from an exploding tag? Crap. Naruto I think we should… Naruto?" Sasuke turned around and saw his blonde friend staring at the fire. His face was blank and his eyes haunted
"It was the same guy…" He muttered. Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"Who?"
"The other day… when you pissed me off and I left and made my toad summon watch you… I was sitting at a river… and I was attacked by a person wearing blood red clothes. He wore a mask too… and… and… he had a shar…." Naruto stopped his sentence at the look on Sasuke face. It was often you found an Uchiha looking confused.
"A shar….Shark?" Sasuke asked, anger flickering behind the confusion in his eyes. It wouldn't have worrier Naruto as much, since Sasuke always used to get angry, but the anger was overcoming the confusion, until there was no confusion. Just anger. Cold, hard anger.
"What? No. where the hell would he get a shark from? Unless, of course it walked on legs and… ooohhh…" Naruto's mouth made an 'O' which slowly shrank. Of course, he'd thought of Kisame… so he thought of…
"Uh… hehe…" Naruto offered a nervous laugh, and found the hem of his cloak suddenly fascinating. "It… it wasn't Itachi… that i was facing… it wasn't him…" Naruto whispered, causing Sasuke's head to shoot up.
"What do…. What do you know about Itachi?" Sasuke said slowly. Naruto gulped.
"I would tell you… but it… it's too…" Naruto struggled to get the words from his mouth, and each pause he took he saw Sasuke getting angrier.
"I can't tell you at the moment… soon though… I'll tell you soon…" Naruto took in a deep breath and let it out, waiting from Sasuke to blow up at him. Great…
An ear splitting crack made Naruto look up, and make an unmanly squeak when he saw the tree that had previously exploded, now was cut through the length of the tree. The tree groaned as it's now two sides bent down towards the earth and cracked as they hit the ground.
The earth shook heavily, and almost caused Naruto to topple over. Naruto looked over at Sasuke hesitantly, but he could not see his face. Sasuke's back was to Naruto and his face was forward.
Naruto lay on the ground and curled into the foetal position to sleep, letting on hand rest under his head as a make-shift pillow. He didn't bother getting a blanket from the bags, so he just slept in his cloak and mask. Naruto had almost slipped up two of his secrets. And now Sasuke knew what they were about.
The file and… Itachi…
"I'm… I'm sorry Sasuke… I'm always… I'm always screwing things up…"
~ ҉ ~
The long trip was now over. It was their third day into the trip, and Konoha could be seen on the horizon.
"Almost there…" Naruto muttered to himself, scratching the back of his neck. Him and Sasuke had not exchanged words since the discussion the previous night. In fact, only a kick on the shoulder was what woke Naruto up and Sasuke was already half was down the road. So Naruto had had to quickly repack and run after him.
Sasuke grunted in reply, and began to pick up his pace. His side wasn't bothering him as much, since it was healing up well, so he broke into a run. He heard Naruto yell out, and then scramble forwards into a run too.
The wound in Naruto's chest was aching slightly, but not too bad since it was almost healed. He stumbled one or twice, tripping over the rim of his cloak. Naruto felt a sudden urge to flee, but fought against it. He had to do this. He had to.
Sasuke came to a stop some few minutes later, slowly coming to a stop. Naruto slowed down too, stopping about a metre behind Sasuke. (Ninja's and their stupid lightning fast running…)
Sasuke stared open eyed at what lay infront of them. Naruto looked around his shoulder, not quite getting it.
"Soo… where are we?" Naruto said doubtfully. A heavy brown coloured log cabin lay before them, hidden amongst the tree's. "I know Konoha is like…. Just over there, so why are we… here?" Don't get him wrong, Naruto definitely did not want to be near Konoha, but he was still curious about their whereabouts.
"We are at an old cabin that Tsunade had built for your arrival." Sasuke replied, which was the only communication he had given Naruto the whole of the day. Naruto looked at him sideways.
"She knew I was coming…" He said grimly, his mouth set in a girm line.
"Well, yes and no. She had a suspicion, but couldn't be sure." Sasuke said matter-of-factly, walking forwards and unlocking the cabin door. They were greeted with a pine scented air as they walked into the room. The cabin was about as big as Naruto's apartment in the Hidden Village, with its walls nice and high at nine foot high. Nice and airy.
The cabin was complete with wooden furniture, that were coloured with orange cushions and trimming. The kitchen was clean and tidy, also made from wood but had an orangey coloured marble top. There was also a fully stocked, cupboard (that was about two metres wide, touched the floor and ceiling) full of ramen. Ramen. The thought made Naruto grin.
Naruto jumped in past Sasuke, walking into the cabin. Two separate rooms were on the far room, one being a bathroom and a bedroom. The bathroom had a wooden interior too, and a nice big spa like bath sat in ground, in the corner. Naruto looked into the bedroom next, to find a double, four post bed in the middle of the far wall, with an orange overlay and soft, yellow transparent curtains hanging off the posts.
Naruto walked back out, scratching the back of his head to find Sasuke in the kitchen, chopping up what looked like… vegetables.
"This is… a bit over the top, don't you think?" Naruto asked, walking to the kitchen bench. Sasuke was, indeed, chopping up vegetables.
"Well, I guess it's fit for a Hokage, I'll give you that…" Sasuke muttered, picking up the slices of a cut tomatoe and pushing one into his mouth. Naruto liked the opinion, but suddenly felt bad about it.
"Yeah well, I doubt I'll be Hokage any time soon." Naruto shook his head and sat on an orange-cushion adorned couch that was sitting against the wall.
"Well, don't give up on that dream any time soon. Hate to run and leave you, but I have to go give a report on the… mission." Sasuke shook his head, waved goodbye over his shoulder and headed for Konoha.
~ ҉ ~
Tsunade sat in her office, sorting through a barrage of paper and reports. A sudden pop made her jump, sending two stacks of the piles down. Which just happen to have been the ones she had sorted…
"Who is it now?" She yelled, running one hand over her smooth, blonde hair and the other half-heartedly reaching for one of the falling piles.
"Gee, not excited to see me?" Sarcasm laced the bored sounding voice and Tsunade looked up to see the young Uchiha standing before her.
"Sasuke! Did you… is he…?"
"Yeah, I found him. He's here. At the cabin. He was… uncertain at first. Probably still is, but I think hes calmed down a little bit since we left." Sasuke said before Tsunade could ask. She nodded thoughtfully, grabbing a handful of papers to begin re-stacking.
"Does he need anything?" Tsunade asked, only minutes away from asking to go see the brat.
"Time to calm down completely. So, no visitors until I say." Sasuke said, cracking his knuckles and looking out the window. "I'm going to give him time before he can see anyone, or come any closer to Konoha. One, for his own safety. After all these years, the villagers still despise him, maybe want to kill him, though I doubt it. So until I know he is ready, he won't be coming into Konoha. the second, I am not sure how he will actually react once inside the walls. For all we know, he could suddenly go biserk and destroy it."
"I understand, Sasuke. Let me know when he is ready to come in. Should I let some people know of his return?" Tsunade asked, leaning forward slightly.
"No. No one else should know. Especially not the council. If they find-"
"TSUNADE-SAMA!" the door to the office blew open with such force, the once-again neated pile of files blew up all over the place, sending Tsunade into a mini-rage.
"SHIZUNE!" Tsunade screamed, standing and throwing her hands up. The woman in question had a look of minor horror plastered onto her face, and her hands were brought up defensively over her chest and face.
"I'm sorry, Tsunade-sama… but… there…the council…" Shizune gulped, before steadying her breath. "the council wishes to see you immediately." Tsunade slouched back into her seat, bringing a hand up to support her head.
"Right. The meeting. I forgot about that…" Tsunade said, her voice heavy and suddenly very, very tired.
"Sasuke… you may go now." Tsunade dismissed the Uchiha with a wave of her hand. He nodded once before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Shizune looked between Tsunade and the spot where Sasuke disappeared.
"Uh… Did I interrupt something?"
~ ҉ ~
Sasuke stood in front of the Hokage building. He walked slowly through the village. This of course, was only for show. If her didn't, the villagers would get suspicious of him. They always had been, ever since the event five years ago.
He was greeted by a few villagers on his way, and some even tried to draw him into a conversation. As Sasuke walked, a sudden high pitched "SASUKE!" met his ears. Resisting the urge to cover his ears with his hands, Sasuke turned to see a flurry of pink hair fly towards him. He only just managed to block the hug that she tried to give him.
Sakura smiled widely at her teammate, standing back to give the Uchiha his much loved space.
"Sasuke! How was your mission? Did it go well? Were you successful? I mean, of course you were!" Sakura said, raising a hand her hand to her mouth to cover a small giggle.
"It was fine. Everything went according to… plan." Sasuke said, taking a slight step back as Sakura leant forward.
"That's good to hear, Sasuke!" Sakura said, leaning back. a small glint in her eye was the only signal that his step back disappointed her. Sasuke looked towards the insight Konoha gates, then back to Sakura.
"I'm sorry, Sakura, but I really have to go." He frowned at her, when she crossed her arms and pouted.
"Don't tell me you got another mission again… we've barely talked, and you only just got back!" Sakura said crossly. Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"No, I'm not on another mission, I just have to go."
"Then you can stay and talk with me! I'll even treat you to a meal, if it means you'll stay!" Sakura said, half-heartedly attempting to grab at his arm. Sasuke grabbed her wrist and moved it away form himself, looking at her in the eyes.
"Sakura. I am not going to stay and talk. I told you, I have to go. And plus, you'll only go telling everyone that we went on a date if we went to eat. And I do not want that sort of rumor spreading around." Sasuke said, anger beginning to simmer. Sakura turned a hard eye on him.
"Huh. You're hiding something then. Because, as far as I know, nothing important in this village would make you hurry there. You have all the free time in the world, since you're one of the lucky few people who can actually choose when they want a mission." Sakura leant forward, looking into his eyes.
"And if I know you, you'd only spend your free time reading anyway. What are you hiding?"
"Sakura. Back. Off. I do not want to have to deal with you now." Sasuke said through gritted teeth. Sakura leant back, something clicking into her mind.
"Oh. I get it…" Sakura half-snorted, looking at the ground with pain and sadness in her eyes. "You're still angry…" She looked up at Sasuke, her eyes pleading. "It's been five years Sasuke… years… can't you forgive me for that yet?"
"Do you accept him as himself, and not a demon?" Sasuke said abruptedly.
"Well… I…" Sakura hesitated.
"Answer me."
"No, I don't, okay?"
"Then no, I won't forgive you yet." Sasuke said harshly, turning to leave. Feeling suddenly desperate, Sakura jumped over to Sasuke, clutching at his arm, causing him to turn back around to face her.
"Sasuke, please! Please!" Sakura cried at him, then suddenly felt anger flow off the Uchiha.
"Unhand me… now" Sasuke said, voice hard. He brought one hand up, and clenched it around the top half of her arm. of course, she could have thrown him off as easily as if he were a fly, but she never used her strength against him. Never.
"H-hey now! No need to fight!" a new voice suddenly broke through the tension, and Sasuke and Sakura turned to face the new comer. This person had dull brown hair, brown eyes and was wearing a simple brown shirt and black trousers. The person looked worried, and had his hands up in an attempted peace gesture.
Of course, Sasuke immediately knew who the person was and let go of Sakura and shook her hands off of him. Sakura turned to the person and glared.
"And who the hell are you?"
~ ҉ ~
Naruto lazed back on the couch. It had been all of five minutes since Sasuke left, and he was bored. He hadn't thought of bringing entertainment at all…
Naruto sat up rubbed his eyes and stared at the front door. Maybe he could… no, he better not… but… he could… Naruto shook his head and looked ahead, brought his hands up and said, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Now, Naruto was looking at the clone of himself. Each brought up a hand, looked at each other squarely and said, "Rock, Paper, Scissors!"
Naruto had his hand in a fist, whilst his clone had his hands in a horizontal peace sign. The real Naruto grinned triumpently, while his clone frowned. Naruto stood, his clone disappeared, and he walked quietly to the door.
"Henge…" Naruto whispered, as he opened the door. As he walked through the door, a puff of smoke covered him, and a brown haired, browned eyed person left the smoke.
~ ҉ ~
"I…I'm…" The brown eyed person stuttered, standing upright and looking around quickly. "Jari! I'm Jari!" Sakura looked doubtfully towards he feet, moved her foot around the back at the person.
"Jari?" Sakura said, while thinking, "gravel?"
"Yeah! Jari … Nara! I'm Shikamaru's cousin!" the person said quickly, then smiled to himself. Sakura saw Sasuke's eye twitch at the confession, and her look turned doubtful.
"… Jari… I better take you back… before you get yourself hurt." Sasuke said through clenched teeth, grabbing a tight hold onto 'Jari's' upper arm and dragging him away. Sakura raised an eyebrow at both men before turning away. Her suspicion was very high now.
~ ҉ ~
"What the hell were you thinking, you Dobe?" Sasuke said angrily back at the cabin. 'Jari' frowned at the Uchiha before dispersing the Henge. Naruto looked out the window and back to Sasuke.
"I don't know. Sight seeing?" He said sadly. His eyes had a guilty look to them, but also sadness. They were very sad. Sasuke took a deep breath in, and then out again.
"What did you hear?" Sasuke said, looking at the floor. If Naruto saw the sudden flash of sympathy in his eyes, he would not hear the end of it.
"Since she asked if you had forgiven her. And the fact that you hadn't, and that she still thinks im a monster." Naruto said, half angry, half sad. Sasuke looked up, his normal stoic face in flace. Naruto looked into his eyes, trying to figure out what emotion the Uchiha was actually feeling.
"I… I'm… I'm going to tell you that she will change her mind with time" Sasuke said abruptly. Naruto smiled up at the him, before the Uchiha mumbled something about going back to the Uchiha compound and left.
Naruto knew, that that was Sasuke's way of trying to apologize about Sakura. He smiled to himself, then felt the same sadness over take him. He slowly shuffled back to his room.
~ ҉ ~
Written by Urufu-chan
(Ochibi and Urufu)