I know a lot are you are probably hating the way this fanfiction, but as I write, I do not decide what the characters: the characters themselves actually decide what they do. A better explanation of this is that I NEVER plan my writing, instead, I just write: when I reach a point, my mind, or the characters, or perhaps just my (rather crappy) "writers sense" just told me what to do. So... Plz dont flame if you hate it!
Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto...
The Uchiha district was silent that night.
Each person in their seperate room, Naruto working on his formula with no results, Sakura crying silently into her pillow, and Sasuke staring blankly at the ceiling, they were all awake.
But they made no move toward each other.
Echoes of memories were devouring them as the night wore on, Naruto screaming into his pillow as, yet again, another formula failed, Sasuke finally drifting into a half-sleep from which he kept jerking awake from, haunted by memories of that night, Sakura sitting cross legged in her room practicing her chakra control with no results. Finally, as Sasuke emerged from his room with deep shadows under his eyes, he walked to the balcony with the idea of some fresh air in his mind, his eye spied a certain Sakura Haruno sitting on the balcony swinging chair, staring at the setting moon.
"I'm sorry…" He whispered. No response. Had she heard him? "I'm sorry," he begged, this time louder. No response. "Please, Sakura-chan…"
She jolted slightly with the suffix, -chan, attached to her name. That word. Please. When had it ever come from Sasuke's mouth, ever?
"Please…"
Slowly, she stood up, then turned around and met his eyes. Emerald crashed with ebony as they stared at each other, then slowly moved toward each other in a slow, almost drunken walk, stumbling in the cold of the night, icy night stars glittering in the inky sky as they moved closer, closer, closer.
Suddenly, Sakura's foot caught on the uneven boards of the balcony, her breath coming out in a small "oh!" as she fell forward into Sasuke's arms. She looked up into his glittering eyes, and suddenly, before Sasuke had registered what he was doing, he lowered his head and their lips met in a collision of universes.
They had never kissed before, after all, they were only twelve.
But when their lips met, delicate pink and firm dark, Sakura's lips molded into Sasuke's, meeting together as she let out a tiny moan as Sasuke's tongue flicked out and explored her mouth, then met with Sakura's and began a battle for dominance, wrestling and dancing as they pulled each other closer.
What was she doing?
With a gasp, Sakura lurched backwards and shoved Sasuke away, but it was too late.
From inside the house, crashing footsteps sounded, and Sasuke looked up to the sight of a orange-clad Naruto running. Running away.
Only he could have seen the small drops of water melting into the wood. Tiny saltwater tears, for what he had lost. As Sasuke and Sakura stared at each other, rain began to fall from the gray sky.
What had they done?
Kakashi:
What the hell is the point of this mission?
And why the hell was he being sent to investigate this tiny, miserable, rainy village?
And why the hell were there these… S-rank Ninja… coming and going from this hellhole of a village?
There he was now. A hooded man, of which Kakashi had only glimpsed a hint of black black hair and black black eyes, pacing around and around a certain, unknown perimeter. The Hokage had told him, investigate the Hidden in the Rain village for any information about the reported sightings of S-rank criminal ninja. Return in a week. Do not let your presence be known.
It was only day three, and Kakashi hated this place.
Sighing, he shuushined away into his small camp outside of the village, leaving the unknown ninja to his work.
Standing in the rain, the man pushed back the hood and chuckled darkly.
Naruto:
He should have known.
They were kissing, after calling him bad names and abandoning him. What had he expected? These relationships never worked out. How many times had people abandoned him like this, betrayed him, hurt him?
Way to many to name, actually.
He was leaving. Back to the streets. He was done, leaving he didn't care about Sasuke or Sakura.
Even after he had risked his life for them…
No. He shouldn't think. He should just leave. Leave. Leave. Run away, never fight back, run away just like he had with his attackers, just like he had always done.
When would it be time for him to fight back?
He did not know.
No one noticed when he climbed out of the window with a suitcase stuffed full of clothes, quills, ninja tools, and weapons.
Sasuke:
"He's gone."
"No…" Sakura whispered, sinking to her knees, staring at the cold bed, covers rumpled and yanked back in normal "Naruto" fashion. "No… Naruto, come back… please…"
"He's gone," Sasuke stated again, the vision of the blonde-haired boy sitting on the bed briefly flashing before his eyes before fading away. Gone, gone forever, shattered, just like their lives long, long, ago, on that night where Fate brought them together just like Fate separated them now.
Alone.
Sasuke Uchiha would forever be alone.
The Next Day:
Stupid.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, Naruto raged inside his mind, feeling so frustrated he would've torn up the scroll in his hands if not for the tiny, stupid, stupid fire seal on the top corner. STUPID!
Tossing down the scroll, Naruto let out a guttural scream and glared at the page he was on, a complicated list of "basic" fuinjustu Space/Time seals, none of which explained what that stupid, stupid, STUPID seal on stupid Fourth's formula. Stupid, stupid, STUPID! Stupid jutsu, stupid seal, stupid formula-why can't Kakashi-sensei teach me some amazing taijutsu, like Sasuke's, or some new Wings of Gods technique?
Another seal, another letter, another drawing.
Another scream of frustration.
Then, suddenly, with a flash of light, a piece of paper appeared on the ground next to him. On it was a single seal, a circle with six lines drawn inside it surrounding a smaller circle on the inside, six lines stretching from the outside of the circle, three on each opposite sides. Written on the edge of the paper was, in miniscule, impossibly neat handwriting, Tobirama's Flying Raijin Jutsu Formula.
Looking at the paper, squinting slightly, Naruto shrugged before painstakingly copying down the formula to even the slightest curve, then staring at Minato's formula, head slightly tilted, eyes squinted.
With a swipe of his brush, the center of Tobirama's formula was copied onto the paper. However, instead of lines on the edges, Naruto copied down about half of Minato's formula on the top and then added his own to the bottom. A circle with six parts surrounding a smaller circle in the center, six lines of text branching from it.
Taking a deep breath, Naruto pressed his hand to the freshly dried ink, palm down, to the paper, memorizing every curve and line and kanji.
Praying to Kami for success, Naruto sucked in a breath and then pressed his finger to the kunai he drew slowly out of his pouch.
"YES!" He screamed, eyes pooling with tears of joy as the formula appeared in glowing letters around the handle of the kunai in subtle black letters. "IT WORKED, IT WORKED, IT WORKED!"
Staring at their Naruto fondly from the trees, Sasuke and Sakura decided the previous day dedicated entirely to finding the Second Hokage's Formula had been completely worth it.
Kakashi:
Last day here, last day here… Kakashi repeated to himself, checking his list of S-rank Ninja that he had collected. Kisame Hoshigaki, Deidara, Hidan, Unknown Cloaked Guy, etc…
Damned rain, Kakashi complained to himself as he shook some water droplets free, then returned his attention to the hooded man pacing the perimeter.
Where was he?
Whirling around, Kakashi deflected a blow from the kunai with his glove guard, then snarled and pulled out his kunai, deflected the barrage of shruikan that rushed toward him as the cloaked man jumped backward, hood flying off, revealing black hair that fell to his chin, a handsomely narrow face, deep creases between his eyes, slashed Konoha headband proudly worn on his forehead. His eyes were…
No…
"Hello, Kakashi Hatake…"
"Itachi… Uchiha…" Kakashi breathed, fear sweeping over him in a wave of icy cold as he stared at Sasuke's brother.
Then, as he stared down Itachi, he felt, sensed somebody behind him. The Clone in front of him vanished, and the last thing he saw was Itachi's spinning Mangekyou Sharingan before everything went black.
Naruto:
Focus chakra at your feet until you feel it is solid enough to stand on water, then attempt to stand on water.
"Absolute bullshit… Stupid scroll!" Naruto complained, sounding both pissed and exhausted as he sat down, his pant legs sodden and dripping with water, staring at the rippling water as he frowned and than glared at his feet. Focus chakra to my feet, indeed.
Turning around, Naruto smashed his fist into the nearest tree, a hole appearing in the wood, splinters burying into Naruto's fist as he yelled with anger.
"Naruto?" A deep, masculine voice asked.
"Huh?" Turning around, Naruto looked upwards and then grinned. "Hey, Asuma-sensei!"
However, Asuma was not smiling. His face was grim, his eyes hard, his mouth set in a firm line.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Naruto asked.
"Come with me to the Hokage Tower… he has some news for you."
Huh?
Following Asuma as he jumped from building to building, steps light and nimble, Naruto wondered at what he had been convicted of this time. He hadn't graffitied anything lately, unless you counted the statue of the Third Hokage in the Academy, but that was ages ago…
Going over every moment in the last six months, Naruto frowned as he followed Asuma through the window. Instantly, the moment he saw Sakura and Sasuke, his face became stone-like, withdrawn.
"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura…" The Third Hokage started, then stopped, an arrested look on his face.
"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura," he began again, "I'm really sorry that this news was delivered this way." Sighing, he stopped again, then rubbed his eyes, looking weary and tired. "Your sensei, Kakashi, is being held hostage… and we don't know where…"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" Naruto asked, his eyes immediately filling with concern, surprise, and anger as he smashed his fist against the nearest wall and shook his head, dumbstruck, as if denying the truth. "Kakashi-sensei? Kakashi-sensei? Held hostage? Haha, very funny. What actually happened?"
"It's not a joke, Naruto… Kakashi Hatake has been captured and is now being held hostage by a group of collected S-rank nin that gathered in Hidden in the Rain, in an unknown location," Sarutobi told him again.
"No…" Sakura whispered, mouthing words soundlessly and shaking her head in denial. "No, you're kidding…"
"I'm not. Your sensei is being held hostage," Sarutobi repeated. "I know this is hard for you, but you're not permitted to go and rescue him: you are no match for these S-rank ninja, among which are the most feared ninja in the nations."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WE CAN'T GO RESCUE HIM? HE'S OUR SENSEI!" Naruto exploded, anger shining in his usually benign cerulean eyes.
"I agree for once with the dobe… we should go save Kakashi-sensei…" Sasuke agreed, causing a look of surprise to be shot at him from all directions.
"Stay out of this, teme," Naruto spat, then turned back to the Third Hokage. "Hokage-jiji, you wouldn't deny us the right of saving our own sensei! We have to at least try!"
"Naruto-kun," Sarutobi began, then sighed. "Naruto, I've already enlisted the help of Jiraiya-sama, the Legendary Toad Sage… he will be plenty enough to deal with these S-rank."
"No! I wanna go too! We should be able to go and rescue our own sensei!" Naruto argued. The Hokage refused, and as Sasuke and Sakura silently egged Naruto on, the argument lasted for several minutes before Naruto finally turned around, anger wrought on his face as the chakra around him violently whirling in circles, angrily stomping out of the Hokage Tower, raging down the stairs, and out of sight. Stunned by the display of blatant rage, Sakura and Sasuke glanced at each other, then, without a word to the Hokage, exited the Hokage Tower.
They found Naruto, with fifty nine clones, outside of the Uchiha Manor, attempting water walking unsuccessfully. Another twenty Naruto's were inside his Fuinjutsu Study Room, fast-speed producing more simple seals and intricately drawing extremely advanced seals. Two Naruto's were in the village, buying a new supply of Soldier Pills, Chakra Pills, rations, and Ninja Tools, among some other small nothings he would use on the trip.
"What are you doing, Naruto?" Sasuke asked one of the clones. The clone, without looking up from his intricate seal, replied with a voice filled with anger.
"Preparing."
"Preparing for what?" Sasuke asked, brows furrowed.
"To get Kakashi-sensei back."
"Naruto, you realize, they're S-rank ninja-"
"And I'm Kakashi's student. I can follow Jiraiya-sama, then get Kakashi out when Jiraiya-sama is following them."
"Naruto-"
"Listen, teme," Naruto interrupted, the word teme harsh and spat out. "If you don't want to value your comrades, I understand. But I'm not like you."
I'm not like you…
I'm not like you…
With shame in his heart, Sasuke realized that he hadn't even thought of sneaking out in the middle of the night to rescue Kakashi. As he watched, seals piled up beside a seemingly leader, a clone stepped forward with a white wristband covered in seals, bought from a shop. With a puff of smoke, the enormous pile of seals vanished into the Time-Space storage. After the two clones returned with all their boughten objects, the vanished into the twin wristband on the left hand, smoothly fit over the red Kyuubi arm. There were Barrier Seals, creating barriers of chakra, Healing Seals, lots of Explosive Tags, and Freezing Seals. There were enormous shurikens, swords, seemingly double-bladed kunai, and the normal smoke bombs.
"If you're going," Sakura's voice rang from the doorway, directed at Naruto. "I'm going too."
"Even if teme doesn't go?" Naruto asked, a slight bit of hurt in his voice even as his face hardened.
"Even if Sasuke doesn't go. I swear," Sakura added, as Naruto lifted an eyebrow. Her room was unusually scattered and messy, items carried by both fighters and medical ninja: bandages, antiseptic cream, a needle and thread, presumably for stitches, a abundance of kunai and explosive tags, and a few different types of shuriken. Her backpack, half filled with neatly packed clothes-
Shit, clothes. Where do I put those… I want to travel light, and that's what I usually do… usually, unless it's a small mission, and this is definitely not a small mission…
Taking the smallest backpack he could find, Naruto stuffed in three changes of clothes, then sighed as he shut his backpack, filling his water bottle and stuffing into the seal on his right arm. Vanishing all of his clones, Naruto clenched a small piece of paper in his hand containing his formula, then formed a single Clone.
"Act like me. Go with Sakura and Sasuke tonight. Vanish once you're outside enough of the village."
The Clone nodded dumbly.
So, no one noticed when Naruto climbed out of his window and stole into the streets. No one noticed when he lingered beside the window, waiting for dusk when he snuck out twenty minutes after a certain Jiraiya, stealthy as a panther, his eyes fixed on Jiraiya as he stole through the forests, a fox stalking prey. No one noticed that Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were gone until two days later, when their replacement Clones vanished. By the time searchers were sent out, their trails had been erased by rain, natural or controlled by Naruto.
No one noticed Naruto, the shadow, except for Jiraiya.
Kakashi:
The pain was never ending.
"Tell me everything you know about Jinchuriki, especially Naruto Uzumaki…"
His throat was too ravaged from screaming to say anything.
The man with bluish skin and gills smiled at his hateful glare, then dragged his serrated blade down his chest once again, from one side to the other, blood blooming where knife cut, pain, pain, pain tearing through him as he screamed, his voice hoarse and broken. His mask, torn into shreds, hung from his face as the blade stopped, then withdrew, leaving him hanging from the ceiling, panting. His chest was bare, his legs covered by slashed and barely covering pants, blood everywhere. On his face, running in rivets down his chest, dried and fresh in his silver hair, which was hanging limp, dull and not even defying gravity. Half of the flesh on his left upper arm was burned away, his right leg hanging limp and useless, his body still jerking occasionally with the painful poison he had been forced to down. A huge patch bruises dotted his back, at least four ribs cracked, his feet pierces with shards of glass.
"Itachi?" the man called.
"Are you still having trouble with that man? Have you tried everything?" Itachi's hateful voice rang from the corner of the dark room.
Oh, yes, he had. Poison, corrosive substances, Genjutsu, knives, bruises, crushing bones, glass…
What was next?
"Hm, will we have to go sexual?" Kisame asked, turning back to Itachi and smiling malistically.
"Well…" Itachi mused. "Have you tried drowning yet?"
"Yep."
"Genjutsu?"
"Yup."
"Are his teeth still there?" Itachi asked.
"Itachi! You know as well as I do that if he can withstand against corrosive substances, he can definitely resist his teeth being pulled out…"
"Well then… I'll just have to go with Tsukuyomi…"
"Itachi? You do realize-"
"Let me try…" Itachi smiled up at Kakashi with malice in his eys. "This… this can break him…"
The night was silent, as if even the beasts and birds were praying for Kakashi, as his screams ripped through the shadows.
Jiraiya:
Whoever was following really should stop.
Really, really, really should stop.
He was about three seconds away from blowing the fuse.
Three…
Two…
One…
Whirling around, six kunai flew from his fingers. With a burst of red chakra, all of them were effortlessly blocked, before Naruto flicked through six hand signs and sent a fireball at Jiraiya, who blocked it with a wall of water. From his left wristband Naruto summoned a line of explosion tags, which he wrapped around a pair of Demon Wind Shuriken that he threw at Jiraiya, who dodged and then smirked up at the boy, who, with the strings connected to the shuriken, pulled it back so that Jiraiya barely dodged it's sharp, glimmering blades. Naruto placed two fingers to his lips, staring intently at the explosive tags, which vanished in thin air. Expecting an explosion, Jiraiya wrapped his hair around him, but after ten seconds, after the explosion didn't happen, his hair slowly retracted and he smirked at the boy.
"Dud tags?" Jiraiya asked, a taunting tone in his voice.
Boom!
Jiraiya whirled around, then disappeared in the smoke as the forest shook in a huge explosion.
"Timed tags," Naruto said into the air. "I know you didn't get hit, you can come out of there," he continued, pointing at the nearest tree.
"Who are you?" Jiraiya asked, his voice infused with a slight bit of curiosity as he dropped down from the tree and stared at Naruto.
"Naruto Uzumaki, Number One Knucklehead Ninja of Konoha!" Naruto announced quite proudly.
"Why are you here?" Jiraiya asked, even as he recognized with a hidden jolt the name of his former student's son.
"To rescue Kakashi-sensei."
Jiraiya's eyes widened, and then he shot forward like a bullet, hand crashing down on Naruto's head, causing him to collapse to the floor like a stone.
"I'm sorry, but you don't want to go where I'm going, especially as the Kyuubi Container…" Jiraiya whispered, turning around and leaving Naruto unconscious on the ground for the village to find.
Or so he thought.
Even Jiraiya didn't notice the shadow trailing him from fifty feet away, a red fox eye seeing further then any human pupil, a black shadow among the towering trees, a midnight black Kitsune.
DON'T BLAME ME
DISCLAIMER: NARUTO DIDN'T DEFEAT JIRAIYA. NARUTO TRICKED JIRAIYA.
As you might know from Shattered Glass, I LOVE Kakashi, and, admit it, writing a torture scene of your favorite character is SO FUN!
Maybe I'm just morbid.
Actually, I am, as you guys all should know if you follow my other stories. Haha...?
Hope you enjoyed! Please Review!
Oh, I wanted to thank moonlightpale for her sudden stream of reviews! Thank you!
I lost HappyGuest...
:(