Disclaimer: I don't own nor have I contributed to Naruto in any way! Nope! None! -
Sky-eyed Kitsune: IMPORTANT: Ok guys, here's the thing: the more reviews I receive, the faster I update. It gives me feedback and shows me that you guys care about my stories as much as I do. If I don't receive any reviews I will keep writing my stories, but only for myself. (I write because it is something I love and will do so no matter what.) I just won't post any of them on fanfiction. Reviews show me that you all want to continue reading my stories. And if you don't want to read more, then I have no need to post more. So please review, critique, and overall just let me hear your thoughts on my stories. I think I speak for all writers on fanfiction when I say that reviews are the greatest reward possible that we can receive, and they keep us going…literally. The greater amount of reviews we receive, the more people we know that are actually reading and supporting us.
Sky-eyed Kitsune: EDIT: I wrote the above message you see at a time when I thought that my readers no longer cared or bothered to review because it wasn't worth the time or effort. If no one cared about something I put so much time into, then why bother to display it? Before I started writing fiction and simply reading it instead, I like many of you I disliked when authors would ask for reviews. I didn't understand why they simply wouldn't let the reviews come to them if their readers so chose. But now that I do write fiction I see why a lot of authors do this; reviews are fantastic motivation. They are also fantastic disappointments. When a story you put so much work into receives so little reviews, and yet the amount of hits it receives is very great, this is confusing. There are always one or two faithful reviewers which I cherish and thank deeply. People get mad at authors for requesting reviews, but why is it only when we do this that we begin to receive reviews from people we've never heard from before? Why must we ask? To put something so personal as our own stories out here for the world to cheer or beat down, and we simply ask for critique. We are not paid to write these stories nor are we trying to sell books. All we want is to know that you enjoy or hate our stories, and to tell us (how else will we know?) I am not asking for good reviews or bad ones- either that suits your fancy, I simply crave critique and opinions. What did you like about the chapter? What did you hate? What could I improve on? I desire answers to my questions. I believe it takes a writer to understand a writer. One very knowledgeable and brilliant author that I have had the honor of reviewing my chapters cautioned that asking for reviews can both alienate and encourage readers. I agree with this entirely. But this tangled web still bothers me: people who become angry at an author for asking for a review, when they themselves only seem to review when asked. What strange logic is this? If you have answers then please speak, for I am puzzled. Either way, reviews are an honor and great encouragement if you see fit to give one. I hope that by saying this it does not spark debate. But I think now I do realize that it is more a matter of coexistence between both sides. Authors must allow the readers free will, and the readers must allow the authors theirs. In other words, nothing is expected of either side. The author does not have to write, just as the reader does not have to respond. It is simply on our own will that we act, whether or not we are told I respect this idea.
Thank you to everyone that reviewed, truly I appreciate it so. This chapter is for all of you...
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Chapter Ten: Luck
"It came over
Crawls up from hell
Say hello
Hey you
Do you want great luck?"
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Naruto stared at the blood dripping down his arm from his split knuckles.
He blinked slowly, his gaze following a particular drop in its travel down his skin, along the curvature of his elbow, before dropping to a small pool on the bathroom tile below.
Naruto reached out with his good hand and grabbed the washcloth he had previously under the faucet, kneeling down to wipe up his blood.
He collected the pieces of glass one by one with his fingers, gathering them into his injured hand before tossing them in the trash can beside the shower.
He turned on the faucet once more, letting the stream run over his soaked cloth and watching red swirl down the drain until the towel was white once more.
Naruto stepped out of the bathroom, padding silently to the room adjoined to his and Pein's.
He made not a sound as he crept over to the side of Hidan's bed where he slept, snoring noisily.
A chainsaw was quieter…
He reached under the bed, blind hand searching until he pulled out a brown medical bag. Deidara insisted that Hidan carry medical equipment with him at all times in case one of his rituals got out of hand. Of course, he never used it anyways.
Naruto stood with the bag and made his way back to the bathroom in his and Pein's room, shutting the door gently behind him.
He didn't bother turning on the light- his eyes had adjusted to the dark quite well and he dare not wake Pein.
He opened the medical kit in the bag, pulling out separate compartments until he found the tweezers, and began the tedious task of removing every little piece of shattered glass from his hand.
Naruto finished half and hour later, and he rinsed his hand under warm faucet water before he began to wrap it lightly with bandages.
He secured the roll of bandages back away when he was finished, and made to close the kit when he stopped.
He opened the lid back up and slid off every detachable compartment until me reached the bottom.
With shaky hands he pushed aside pill bottles and sutures until he found a small needle and clear vial.
He stared at the clear liquid, mesmerized.
In all of half a second he had shut the kit, drawn the liquid, prepared the needle, and was looking down at his right arm.
"Don't take this stuff when I'm not around, ok?"
Haku's words never failed to resonate within him when he used morphine. But words were words. And Haku was dead.
Naruto slapped his arm, searching for a vein. He didn't require the use of a tourniquet; he was well schooled in the profession of drug abuse.
A faithful blue vein revealed itself, and Naruto plunged in the needle without a second thought.
He breathed out firmly through his nose as he pushed the liquid heaven in. He was immune to the burning at this point after years of use, and all he felt was when that wonderful weightlessness hit his skull.
As he squeezed out the last drops into his veins, he removed the needle slowly, placing it back in the bottom of the kit with the half-full vial of morphine.
He had only just zipped up the bag when the tingling echoed throughout him, and he stumbled backwards, his head light and his feet numb.
Naruto attempted to grip onto something, but his hands clutched air, and he fell into a heap beside the porcelain tub.
He managed to prop himself up against it, leaning his head back on the edge and closing his eyes.
The feeling of nothing was tremendous and subtle at the same time. He was simply floating in limbo, not a thought or feeling in his mind.
Naruto felt a lopsided grin twitch at the corner of his mouth, and he chuckled to himself.
He had given himself quite a large dose. It was laughable to him how small the first dose Haku had ever given him had been. He found himself continuously increasing the amount he pumped into his veins as his body became used to the drug and the wonderful sensations were curbed.
Naruto blinked lazily, staring up at the ceiling into nothingness.
He suddenly felt something warm touch his cheek, and he tilted his head upright. Tears began to well in his eyes as he stared into the creamy brown depths of Haku's. The brunette smiled at him gently as he always did, kneeling before him.
His pale hand moved to the back of Naruto's neck, pressing it forward until their foreheads bumped familiarly, and Naruto's eyes fluttered shut in ecstasy.
"Can I keep you forever?" Haku's voice slipped through Naruto like thread through a needle- so perfectly, so gently.
Naruto's lips parted slightly, eyes still closed as he moved a hand to rest it on the warmth of Haku's cheek.
It was cold.
Naruto opened his eyes to find his open-palmed hand hovering in midair, reaching for nothing and no one.
The tears that had threatened to escape him before now flowed freely down his scarred cheeks.
He stared blankly ahead, suspended hand shaking.
The drug was making him hallucinate.
Naruto all at once became lifeless as his arm dropped to his side and his head lolled back to rest on the rim of the tub.
"Why…why did you leave me…" Naruto simply stared ahead as hot tears traveled from his cheeks down to his neck. "Why did you leave me, Haku…"
Naruto felt a sob rise in his throat but he pushed it down, taking quick a gasp of air in its place.
"What would you say if you saw me now? Saw what the world's done to me…what I've done to me?"
He shut his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth, trying to stop the tears.
"I'll find him, I'll find him, Haku. I promise." Naruto screwed his eyes shut even tighter. "You didn't die for nothing…I'll find him, make him pay, then we'll be alright; I'll be alright….it'll all be ok…we can be together again. Hold you close, be like we were...it'll be perfect, I promise…"
"I promise," Naruto said aloud, his thoughts becoming words as his mid swirled with weightless agony. "I promise!"
Pein groaned under his breath and rolled over in bed as a heard a noise. It was soft, but echoed loudly in the stillness of the night.
He flopped a sleepy arm out beside him to pull Naruto to him…only to rest his hand on warm sheets.
Pein begrudgingly forced his tired open as he stared into the darkness of the room. He looked down to see that Naruto was not in bed.
Pein furrowed his eyebrows before glancing at the closed bathroom door. He allowed himself to relax once more, figuring that nature called.
He began to drift off again into the feathery warmth of slee—
"I promise!"
Pein bolted up in bed and swung his legs over the side. He stood, and wobbled slightly from his sudden awakening. He placed a hand on the bedpost to steady himself before walking to the bathroom.
He opened the door without knocking and flipped on the lights.
He regretted the action instantly as he closed his eyes and groaned as they painfully adjusted, only opening again when they were relatively used to the new light.
"Naru-" Pein froze as he saw Naruto slumped back against the bathtub, head hanging back against the rim of the tub.
"Naruto!"
Pein leaned down before the blond, gripping his shoulders and shaking him frantically.
"Naruto? Naruto!"
"I promise….I promise…I promise….." Naruto murmured softly, eyes shut as if in anguish.
Pein placed a finger against the blond's exposed neck, feeling his pulse. It hammered against his fingertips as if about to burst forth from the skin that contained it.
"Naruto, what's wrong?" Pein asked, shaking the blond more by his shoulders.
"I promise…I promise….." the blond continued his mantra.
Pein looked about the bathroom for answers. His eyes caught on the medical bag.
"He must have overdosed on something…"
"Naruto," he said seriously, gripping the blond's head with both hands and pulling it up until he faced him, nose to nose. "What did you take?"
Pein received no response and he mentally cursed. He couldn't do anything for the blond if he didn't know what was in his system.
Pein reached his arms under Naruto's skinny form, and easily lifted him into his arms. He exited the bathroom, shutting off the light, before placing the blond in bed. He climbed in next to Naruto, covering them both with the blanket there and holding his frail form against him tightly.
"Help….help me, Haku," Naruto whispered desperately against Pein's skin, and he held the blond tighter. "Please…help me…"
"Tell me how," Pein said, feeling helpless himself as he held the trembling figure of the one he loved against him, unable to do anything.
"Help me…I need you…Sasuke..."
Pein froze at the mention of the name. He hadn't even thought to ask Naruto earlier of his relationship with the Uchiha, and he felt jealously curl in the pit of his stomach.
"I'm here, Naruto."
"Sasuke, Sasuke Sasuke, Sasuke!" Naruto repeated in a strained whisper, as if too weak to shout. Pein felt hands cup his cheeks, and he leaned back.
Naruto was crying, tears streaming down his cheeks like waves as he held Pein's face gently, lovingly, like something precious.
The way Pein had wanted Arashi to hold him for years.
He stared at him with bright, half-lidded ocean blue eyes.
"Sasuke, forgive me, Sasuke…" Naruto murmured. "For- forgive me, please….forgive me."
Pein felt his heart wrench. Whatever Naruto had taken was making him hallucinate, and thought that he was the Uchiha.
The pleading, loving way he was staring at him through his tears, the gentle touch of his fingertips against his face as if his visage would shatter….it wasn't for him.
It was for Sasuke.
"I had to, Sasuke," Naruto went on, practically babbling. "I-I had do! I won't let you get hurt, not again…not because of me. I had to….I had to! Please understand, I had no choice…I will sacrifice anything, everything, to keep you safe….y-you have no idea of how…how precious you are to me. Forgive me…forgive me Sa-Sasuke…I love you…"
That was all it took to break Pein in two. He felt his mouth hang open slightly in surprise and grief. His heart was breaking- he could almost hear it. He wanted answers.
Now.
"Why…why him, Naruto…." He heard himself growl, tugging Naruto closer against his own body.
"Sasuke?" Naruto murmured quizzically, holding onto Pein tightly nonetheless.
Pein cursed himself for his slip-up. He was the Uchiha to Naruto, not himself.
"Why…why not Pein?" he readjusted his previous sentence, and Naruto was quiet.
Pein felt Naruto's grip on him lessen, until he slowly withdrew, eyes not meeting "Sasuke's".
"He's…" Naruto licked his lips uncertainly as his dilated pupils stared down into the bedsheets, deep blue morphine swirling in their depths.
"He's great….really is," Naruto was almost mumbling as Pein strained to hear his tiny voice. "He's also…he's also in love with someone that doesn't…" Naruto sighed. "Doesn't exist."
Pein blinked. Was he? Arashi and Naruto were the same person, but how much different were they really? He still felt the familiar jump in his heart when Naruto's eyes met his, if even more so than Arashi. The overwhelming desire to protect and shelter him from the world, to know that the purity that so enraptured him belonged only to him…these feelings were still present in the face of Naruto.
"You're wrong," Pein said firmly, grasping Naruto's shoulders as he cocooned him in his embrace.
His received response was the gentle exhale of a steady, sleeping breath.
Pein craned his head back to look down at Naruto's face. His heartbeat had calmed, hair swept over his red, swollen eyes, dried tearstains alighting his cheeks.
It was the most peaceful Pein had ever seen him.
He buried his face into Naruto's sunshine locks, clutching him like a lifeline. He felt bitterness rise up in his throat.
"Why him…"
"Why him!"
"Try to contain yourself, Suigetsu," Sakura sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger. "I have a migraine…"
"Fuck this!" Suigetsu growled, sweeping his arm over the table before the two of them, sending glasses and empty beer bottles crashing to the floor.
"After everything we've done, and he chooses him?"
"Shut your face, Suigetsu," Sakura suddenly snapped. "Naruto has done just as much for Haku and Kurochi as we have, if not more. You think less of him because he's younger and less experienced than us? Bullshit!" Sakura slammed her fist down on the table and Suigetsu was surprised it didn't split the wood in two.
"He's saved your life and mine more than once in the short four years he's been with us. He has skill, and Haku saw that skill in him. He is the right person to become leader of Kurochi, and-"
"And all those scars on his face are from his mess-ups that could have been fatal!" Suigetsu cut her off, venom spitting off his tongue.
"You know that he made each one of those scars himself by his own blade, as reminders of his faults," Sakura countered, voice low and dangerous as her head throbbed. "I'd like to see you attempt something nobler."
Suigetsu grinded his pointy teeth together, and the sound reverberated in his skull. "The little fox has luck, that's all. Just plain, stupid lu-"
Suigetsu flew back off his chair as Sakura suddenly reached under and flipped the table over. It hit the back wall by Suigetsu and crumpled in a flurry of splinters and dust.
"Look at me, Suigetsu! Look at you! Look at us! We are it, this is Kurochi! Everyone else is fucking DEAD!" Sakura panted and put a palm to her head where several white bandages were wrapped, some leaking red.
Suigetsu did as he was told and looked down at himself- a fractured ankle, bullet wound to the arm, and two broken ribs.
Pathetic.
"Naruto…" Sakura spoke softly. "…was the only one that ran to Haku and his brother's side during that fight…risked his life for him, while the rest of us scrambled for the leftovers like a bunch of rats…and now we're all gone." She glared strongly at Suigestu. "Kurochi needs to be built back from the ground up. I truly believe that if anyone can do it, it would be Naruto."
Suigetsu scoffed. "That kid-"
"Naruto," Sakura pressed.
"Naruto…" Suigetsu corrected himself, rolling his eyes. "Is still strapped to a hospital bed. He's probably worse than us. I mean the docs said that he would be lucky if he lived, bein' shot right through the chest and all…"
"Then it's a good thing I'm a lucky little fox, ne Suigetsu?"
Sakura and Suigetsu looked to the source of the new voice, and Naruto closed the front door behind him.
Sakura scanned over him with calculating medical eyes. He wore a loose, blood red tank top, opposite from the usual orange t-shirt. His right shoulder was wrapped with bandages where Sakura knew a switchblade had been previously jammed. He had several cuts and bruises on his face, neck, and arms, and Sakura knew his clothing was hiding the real damage where the bullet had struck.
"Naruto, you should still be in the hospital," she concluded aloud.
Naruto gave her a twisted smirk, and Sakura's eyebrows immediately furrowed. The gesture was completely foreign.
"I granted myself early leave."
Naruto held out an expectant open palm to Suigetsu, who in turn narrowed his eyes before throwing his new leader a switchblade.
Sakura took a step forward quickly and gasped as the knife sliced through Naruto's left cheek before clattering to the floor.
"Na-Naruto…" Sakura murmured, covering her mouth with a hand as she watched the deep red blood ooze down his neck like water, staining his tank top.
"That makes six," Naruto mused aloud, not seeming to care in the least that half his face was painted red with his own blood.
She shook her head.
"What happened?" she said.
Naruto licked his lips as some blood rolled down into the corner of his mouth.
"You noticed," he said. He raised an eyebrow as Suigetsu suddenly kicked the remainders of the table across the room.
"What the fuck is going on here!" he practically screamed. He shifted a little as Naruto began to walk towards him, face unreadable.
He placed a tan hand under Suigetsu's pale chin, holding his head in place.
"The hothead and the medic," Naruto mused aloud. "That's what I'm left to go off of, huh?"
Suigetsu snarled and attempted to rip his skull away, but the grip that held him was iron. Naruto didn't even budge as he thrashed.
"Hey, hey shush now," Naruto said, lifting his free hand to his own red cheek. He dipped two fingers in the bloody mess on his face before bringing them to Suigetsu's, coating his pastel lips with the deep burgundy.
Suigetsu's face twisted with revulsion as he swallowed rising bile.
Naruto leaned in close until they shared each other's breathing space
"Don't wanna smudge your pretty new make-up, right?"
"What happened!" Sakura repeated, this time fists balled at her sides and body shaking.
Naruto released Suigetsu and turned to her, the pale man furiously wiping his lips against his sleeve.
"Well, I guess that Naruto just couldn't handle Haku's death, or anymore death for that matter, so I'm here instead."
"What the hell are you talking about? You are Naruto!" Sakura screamed in confusion, gripping her lollipop pink hair down to the roots.
Naruto smiled. "You're right…" He frowned. "And you're wrong. You're a nurse in training, aren't you Sakura?" He hummed with contained laughter. "Tell me now, 'nurse', what happens when one person becomes two?"
Sakura stared at the man before her with a confused, yet calculating gaze. Her mind raced as her eyes bore into the person she had known for four years, yet didn't recognize at all.
Her eyes suddenly widened and Naruto smirked.
"That's it," he encouraged. "That's it. It took Naruto an entire hour to find out what had happened." He snickered a little. "He thought he was schizophrenic!" Laughter bubbled from his lips as he chuckled deeply, and the sound elicited quivers from Sakura.
"Sakura!" Suigetsu yelled, begging for answers.
Sakura took in some air, gripping her arm defensively. "Naruto has...created this-" she waved a hand to Kyuubi. "Another person..."
"Is that even possible?" Suigetsu asked cautiously, his body language also taking on a new position and his voice lower.
Sakura smiled weakly down at the floor. "So I've heard...in times of crisis or trauma in which the human mind doesn't quite know how to handle something, another ego can be created to deal with the problem..." She looked the man before her in the eyes.
"Who...what, are you?"
The blond smiled so genuinely that it felt all but eerie. He opened his arms wide as if displaying something. "I am what is needed. I am the new leader of Kurochi."
"What're we 'sposed to call you?" Suigetsu voiced, and the man smirked.
"I had no idea that you could speak so quietly, Suigetsu." He shook his head and laughed a little. "Naruto has already given me a name." He twirled a finger in a spiky blond lock of hair. "I should probably change my appearance so you guys can tell Naruto and I apart, ne?" He placed a hand on his cheek in thought, and the cool wet feeling surprised him- he had forgotten that he was bleeding. He stared at the color on his hand. "Wonder how I'd look as a redhead, huh?"
"Your name," Sakura pressed. She flinched as humorous eyes instantly turned deathly cold on her, before they were softened over with laughter once more.
"Kyuubi."
Reviews are an honor, as always.
(The above song quote came from the opening of Luckydog1, a japanese yaoi game turned into a manga that I have fallen in love with.)
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Sky-eyed Kitsune