Ok so I know I could have just continued the last chapter but due to time restrictions and me just wanting to separate the two parts of the subject I'm putting this one up as a continuation of the last chapter as well as a preparation to the next one.
Please forgive my lack of style. And thank you all for reading and reviewing these ill-scribbled words.
As always, make yourselves at home, my inbox and comments section are ALWAYS open, fire away and never refrain from criticizing my stuff, it's the input I need to make my stories better for you.
It would be nice to say that as soon as Iruka pulled Naruto in his arms, the blonde had calmed down and become happy to know he wasn't alone.
It would also not be the truth, and the people currently down at Gai's basement knew exactly how hard it was for someone going through this kind of pain to be able to look up from the hellhole that fear made them dig for themselves.
Still, they were getting worried that Naruto's condition wasn't caused only by his fear of rejection accumulated with ingrained homophobia, because the man just wasn't getting better.
Gai had returned to his home with Kakashi one hour and a half after Naruto had broken down, and he didn't like what he saw.
It didn't help that Kakashi's nerves broke down and he puked next to the door to the basement as soon as he saw the state that Naruto was in.
"Gai, we're gonna need Ino for this; I think he's too far gone to hear us. And he's not healing as he should be." Shizune told him quietly.
Naruto was curled up in a dark corner, growling whenever anyone came near him. Blood was gushing out from the blonde's nose and from the corners of his mouth, as if he was chewing on his tongue in an attempt to drown in his own blood. Both Iruka and Lee had tried prying the blonde's jaw open and get a wad of cloth inside to stop him, but he had thrown them to the other side of the room.
Gai nodded and pushed a shaky Kakashi towards Lee, before leaving his house again.
Inside Naruto's mind, Kurama pleaded with Naruto from inside what the fox perceived as a glass ball.
"Naruto, let me out of here, boy, let me heal you, get a hold of yourself!" the fox screamed in near-panic.
Instead of the usual landscape, Naruto's mind now resembled a ghastly mix between a mirror maze and a funny house.
The fox's first instinct as Naruto's mind had turned into this had been to contact the other beasts, but the Jinchuuriki's mind had blocked their chakra from coming from outside as well as the fox's from coming from within.
All Kurama could do besides screaming was watch with increasing worry as images and sounds came from the mirrors around Naruto's catatonic figure, which stood in the middle of it all.
Along with old acquaintances like the villagers from Naruto's childhood shunning the boy, there were images of people making fun of queers, both real from Naruto's memories and figments of his imagination where his friends hauled all kinds of insults at him, but those weren't the worse.
Some of the mirrors depicted the times Naruto had been put under genjutsu by spies interested in the Uchiha's whereabouts, some sent by Konoha's Council.
Now, the thing about the link between Naruto and Kurama was that Kurama wasn't aware of what happened in Naruto's mind during genjutsu. He noticed the emotional aftermath of those, but Naruto had never told him what happened in them. Now, however, Kurama knew.
And he was livid.
Many of the attempts had involved showing Naruto images of Sasuke betraying and hurting him, or his friends, or destroying Konoha, or even ripping little babies limb from limb, as the background voice told Naruto that was what would obviously happen should the last Uchiha be allowed to run free.
In a few, the genjutsu wielder had made Sasuke's image torture the blonde while saying he had lied to Naruto all along about giving up on his plans.
In variations of that theme, Naruto had been tortured and raped by the spies themselves, who demanded to know where the Uchiha was.
In yet others, images of Sasuke being tortured, raped and killed were shown to the blonde as a seductive voice told him that if he turned the last Uchiha to them, he would only be incarcerated, and escape those atrocities.
But the images that stood apart from the others and brought a lump to the fox's throat were the ones where Naruto watched impotently as the Uchiha was dragged down by the Jinchuuriki's friends and killed in front of him.
Because, in that particularly painful fantasy Naruto's terror had created, Sasuke always told the blonde it wasn't his fault; that he couldn't have chosen him instead of everyone else anyway.
All this Kurama watched, and also watched as the man repeated the same denial of the bond he shared with the last Uchiha he had sworn upon at the last Kage summit.
The fox cursed fate for making Naruto particularly weak to genjutsu, cursed the blonde for never opening up with him about what he had gone through, cursed the five elemental nations for choosing to do this to their savior, cursed the Uchiha boy for going crazy and turning on his friend, and definitely cursed every single person that had overlooked Naruto's education and taken advantage of his kind heart to allow for him to be this easily guilt-tripped.
Outside Naruto's mind, the others were filling Kakashi in what had happened.
"I started watching Naruto nii-san last year, when he began withdrawing, and alerted Gai-sensei", Konohamaru had started, "but I couldn't do much without raising suspicion from the spies that keep watching him all the time. I know that he was able to soundproof his apartment because a few kids were playing ball in the street and it went through one of his window panes without a noise, but since he wouldn't let me in I couldn't even try to talk to him."
"Nobody could ever reach that boy when he didn't want to be reached, that's a fact", Iruka said. He had shot eye-daggers at Kakashi through a good part of the conversation.
"And then he made up with Sakura-san and we thought he was finally getting a little better, but then this last week he's gone from bad to worse, as if something horrible had happened that he couldn't talk about", Lee said, "so we decided to intervene if things got uglier. Today Konohamaru caught him breaking his leg on those boulders that were installed for him to train with."
"One thing we all know is that he's been in love with Sasuke since gods know how long, damn, I even made a yaoi edition of the advanced Sexy no Jutsu featuring Sasuke and Sai to see if he'd snap out of the friendzone he locked himself in, but Naruto nii-san was so deep into the closet even though he did react to it he still didn't understand what he felt, apparently", Konohamaru said again.
"Gai better get back with Ino fast, he's losing too much blood" Shizune warned.
It was another grueling five minutes of waiting until Gai came back, pulling a scared Ino behind him.
"Get in there and try to keep his body still long enough for us to be at least able to control the bleeding, if you can't snap him out of it" Shizune asked of her, "we'll take care of your body".
Ino nodded. Gai hadn't said much to her except that Naruto was in shock and they needed her to help, and as soon as she had seen the state her friend was in she had realized its seriousness, so she quickly made the seals and projected her mind into Naruto's.
"Oh my gods" Ino whispered in horror as she opened her eyes inside Naruto's mind, "How in hell am I going to get him out of this?" she said, looking around herself in disbelief.
Loud thumping called her attention to the giant glass bulb containing a desperate Kurama.
"Get the Uchiha!" the fox screamed.
"What?" Ino asked, getting closer to the beast's container.
Kurama slapped his forehead, but then snapped his fingers. He extracted a sharp claw and began scribbling with it in the glass.
"Teg eht…", Ino frowned, then realized the fox didn't notice the characters were backwards to her,"Oh, get the Uchiha. Wait, what? How?" she said, shrugging to the fox to get the point across.
'WINDOW', Kurama scratched on the glass. Ino immediately began searching, and after a few missed calls, she found it.
Naruto and Sasuke's connection (not that Ino knew that was what it was) looked like exactly like an open window in Naruto's mind. She wasted no time, and began hollering with all the emotion she could put into it.
"UCHIHA SASUKE, I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO NARUTO TO PUT HIM IN THE STATE HE'S IN BUT IF YOU DON'T GET YOUR ASS HERE AND FIX IT I SWEAR I'LL FIND YOU AND SKIN YOU ALIVE IF I HAVE TO FOLLOW YOUR CRAZY ASS TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH, YOU HEAR ME? TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH!"
On the the aforementioned ends of the Earth, in a small island off the continent, to be exact, Uchiha Sasuke missed a tree branch and fell ten feet to the forest floor, passing out before he hit the ground.
He barreled through the window into Ino, and both went tumbling a few feet before stopping.
"Ouch, gods damn it HOLY SHIT YOU REALLY CAME!" Ino yelled in shock, stumbling over her own extremely long hair as she tried to get up.
Sasuke got up, shook his head and looked around, freezing on the spot as he realized where he was, and what he was looking at.
"Get out" he told Ino, without sparing her a look, as he ran to Naruto's still figure.
"Hey! You're not the boss of me, ya know!" she yelled at him.
"Get the fuck out or I will throw you out, your choice" the Uchiha growled. Ino gaped at him and turned to Kurama, only to see the fox scribbling "DO IT" in the glass.
So she did.
She blinked for a few moments in her own body.
"Could have given me a few minutes more, he's still bleeding" Shizune complained.
"Sasuke's in there, Kurama told me to call him through this window in Naruto's mind and then all of a sudden Sasuke barreled through it and now he's there with Naruto and Kurama is trapped in a glass bulb and oh my gods the things I saw in there, my poor friend" Ino said in one shocked breath, and began sobbing. "Oh gods Shizune he was tortured through genjutsu to tell people where Sasuke is so many times and they were playing all together and he was just there in a catatonic state going through it all again at the same time, all the genjutsu tortures and all the memories he has of being rejected and mistreated and oh gods he's doing it to himself"
Shizune gave Kakashi a questioning look.
Back inside Naruto's mind, Sasuke assessed the blonde's vacant eyes and moved over to where the fox was imprisoned. He activated his eyes and popped the glass bulb with one finger.
"Talk" he said to the fox in a demanding tone.
"No time, he's bleeding to death", Kurama said, and the Uchiha went white. "I have to get all the chakra I can into healing him before he does, the medic didn't have time to close all the veins and arteries the baka chewed open in his mouth. Make him snap out of it."
Sasuke ran back and started shaking the catatonic blonde.
"Usuratonkachi don't you fucking die on me now, you motherfucker, you told me to wait for you in my dream, Amaterasu no kamisama said you would come for me, don't you fucking DARE die, you piece of shit", he said breathlessly as he slapped the unresponsive man in the face.
Now that he was in his mind, Sasuke didn't have to actually look at the scenes playing around him to know what had happened. Their bond made him aware of everything the usuratonkachi had gone through, was feeling and was doing to himself, and it terrified the man to no end.
"It's no use", Naruto said in a small, hollow voice, "they know everything, you know. I have to die, or they'll find you."
"What the hell are you talking about usuratonkachi, snap out of it, come on, see?" Sasuke pointed to each of his eyes.
"Sharingan, Rinnegan, haven't used this shit for over a year but I turned them on just for you, now get yourself together, Uzumaki!" the Uchiha commanded in a nervous voice. "You can't just up and kill yourself on me, dead last, I'm the only one allowed to kill you!"
Naruto focused sleepy-looking eyes at him.
"I love you back, you know", he muttered in the same weak, hollow tone, "I really do. I realized while I was under your genjutsu that I felt for you what Hinata felt for me."
Sasuke froze.
"I knew it was wrong for me to love you like that, that this type of bond was too dangerous to be found out, and that I would never get to be with you again" Naruto continued, "but I couldn't get rid of it. I even tried ripping my markings out, but the skin grew back on with them…"
"I was so careful… I did what everyone expected of me, ya know? But they found out anyway, and I just can't… promise me you won't hurt them, please?" Naruto whispered. "Promise…" he breathed, and fell forwards into Sasuke's arms .
"Kyubbi! What the fuck are you doing that he's not fully healed yet, you stupid useless fleabag!" Sasuke yelled.
"I'm trying, damn it! You have to get through to him, he's put up barriers around his chakra gates, I can't make my chakra circulate properly!" the fox shout back. "You're his soulmate, make him drop them! I don't care what you do but DO SOMETHING!"
Sasuke's training at the island finally kicked through his panic, and he took a long breath, before plopping to the ground with the usuratonkachi still in his arms.
'Think, think, think, stupid Uchiha, where have you seen this kind of thing before?', Sasuke asked himself, absentmindedly stroking Naruto's hair.
His face lit up. Naruto was an idiot. All the gods Sasuke had communed with were also idiots. Logically*, what worked on gods would work on Naruto.
Sasuke lay down and maneuvered the usuratonkachi so their metaphorical foreheads touched, and began his meditation procedure to clear up his own mind.
After a little while, he felt their minds synchronizing, and he slowly began to overtake control of Naruto's body.
Outside Naruto's mind, Naruto's hand slowly came up and touched his whisker marks. Every single person present held their breath.
Sasuke's attention moved to Naruto's chakra gates. One by one, he lifted the blockages, keeping one metaphorical eye on the blond's slumbering consciousness as he tampered with his body.
After a few grueling minutes of stealthy work Sasuke felt Kurama's chakra start working on Naruto's body and he retreated back into Naruto's mind chamber, opening his eyes and meeting open blue orbs that were watching him with a hurt look.
The ghastly mirrors were gone, now, thankfully.
"Why?" Naruto whispered, "why can't you let me go, they'll find you, you stupid bum…"
"Because you're mine, usuratonkachi, and if I couldn't make myself kill you I am not letting anyone else take you away from me, not even you" Sasuke answered earnestly, "and don't you ever do anything like this again, or else when that Yamanaka girl calls me I will come in person and haul your stupid ass away from this stupid place for good."
"I-Ino?" Naruto asked breathlessly.
Sasuke nodded. "I was going back home from getting medicine for Taro-sama when her shrill screeches pulled me here through our chakra connection, so stop bitching about losing your bonds, usuratonkachi. Not everyone loves you, and sure as hell nobody loves you as much as I do, but you still have more real friends than everyone I know. Real friends that accept you no matter what, like the ones I have now", he finished.
The most beautiful smile Sasuke ever saw lit up Naruto's face. "You have other friends? Really? I'm so happy, teme!" the blonde said, hugging him and snuggling into his chest, not caring for the scratching from the rough cloth on his face, "You have no idea how happy it makes me that you have more friends now."
"Well, I lost everything that was dear to me, even your socks, so there was no other way than upwards for me to go, really", Sasuke said, and Naruto went rigid in his arms.
"You sneaky bitch, you really did steal my socks, didn't you? I thought Sakura-chan was pulling my leg with that story! And you kept them? They were my ONLY pair ever or since!" the blond complained loudly, raising furious eyes at him, "Where the hell are my socks, teme? I want them back!" he demanded with a half scowl-half pout in his face.
Sasuke laughed in utter relief at seeing the blonde begin to act more like himself. "Sorry, usuratonkachi, I think they burned to cinders along with the rest of my shimenawa" he chuckled. "I took them with me when I went to Orochimaru, then undid the knitting, dyed the wool purple and wove them in it", he explained. Oh, how Kabuto had yelled after his missing crystal violet**…
Naruto made a funny face, and then fell back on his back, laughing at the irony.
"Thanks for telling me, I found your shimenawa in the riverbank after the fight", the blonde said, and Sasuke's eyes went wide.
"You have it?" the Uchiha asked.
"Yup, hid it in my pants and kept it with me ever since, I sleep holding on to it every night" Naruto said with a sad smile, "couldn't imagine why you held on to it after killing Orochimaru, but if it was important to you it was for me too. Now I know, eh?"
"Better take good care of it, then, 'cause I want that back", Sasuke demanded.
"What? That thing was made with MY socks; they were mine before you even dreamt of having that thing, you bastard!" Naruto complained.
"Oh right, so what are you going to do, knit them back together and wear them? No way those socks will fit on your big-ass feet now, deadlast, so take care of my stuff and don't you forget to bring them when you come for me", Sasuke said as he gave Naruto a squint.
"Ne, Sasuke?" Naruto asked him quietly, "Is this another dream? Sakura-chan said my markings were changing because our bond might be breaking away" Naruto continued, and raised his right arm, pulling back his tee-shirt to better show the marks. His reflection in his own mind didn't use the bandages, at least, because he felt that was his only really safe place, the only one where he was allowed to be completely honest.
Sasuke raised his left hand and touched it. "Why do they come all the way up to your shoulder?" he asked quietly, as he touched the marks lightly, wondering at the tiny suns next to the crescent moons.
"I don't know, yours don't?" Naruto asked, and Sasuke pulled his long sleeve back, showing that his own swirls only went until halfway up over his elbow. Sasuke gasped.
"Wait, mine are creeping up too, they were down to halfway up my upper arm a few weeks ago", Sasuke said, and looked closer, "and there weren't moons in it."
"How did you spend weeks without seeing your marks, don't you bathe every day?" Naruto asked, and scrunched his nose.
"It's the middle of the fucking winter, sue me for not wanting to catch pneumonia in an island with no electricity and no onsen" Sasuke answered in a cold voice, but Naruto grabbed his hand before he could get away from him.
"I'm sorry. I forgot how bad things were where you are", he apologized, and Sasuke grunted noncommittally.
"It's not all bad, at least there are no fangirls" Sasuke said the last word through his teeth. Fangirls had always been the bane of his existence, and the fact the island females considered money a much more attractive asset than looks was a blessing to the Uchiha, seeing that he was as poor as a church mouse.
"And no, Naruto, this isn't a dream. I at least know I'm not dreaming, I've been here before, remember? Our bond as as strong as it ever was, probably even stronger because I was actually pulled in here this time. By the way, tell the Yamanaka girl to sell her damn hair already, she kept stumbling on it, it was that long. No respectable kunoichi would use her hair like that, it's totally unpractical in the field", Sasuke commented.
"Ino sell her hair? What are you talking about, she's grown it out since the war, it's her pride and joy!" the blonde said.
"Waste of perfectly good money that could be used on better things, then. Haruka-san sold hers to pay for the medicine and supplies. Oh, and she's Uzumaki, too. Apparently you have relatives all over the place, and so do I, though I hope like hell none have the Sharingan" Sasuke commented the last fleetingly.
"Really? It's not just me and Karin?" Naruto sat up, and his face lit up again. "There are other UCHIHA? Holy shit Sasuke, you're not alone anymore!" he tackled the apprentice shugenja in a hug.
Sasuke huffed, and pulled Naruto's face in front of his. "You goit, I'll never be alone as long as I have you. And I always will be if you're not here, nobody else matters as much", he said.
"But Sasuke, they're your family, your clan, you wanted to restore it", the Jinchuuriki said in confusion.
"Che, usuratonkachi, if I never see another Sharingan for as long as I live I will die a happy man", Sasuke said, shaking his head, "This damned eye was good for nothing but to bring death and suffering to my people. Leave them alone, in peace, wherever they are, and let the Uchiha bloodline die, that's what I'm aiming for my clan."
The Uchiha felt the last of his chakra beginning to pull him back, and held Naruto's head close to his again.
"Give me your word you'll bring me my shimenawa when you come for me. And promise me you'll never let anyone or anything hurt you like this ever again, not even you. I've lived for this long because I know you'll figure a way for us out of this mess; don't disappoint me, O number one unpredictable ninja. Or else I'll come drag your ass away and so help me if you open your yapper to complain, I'll kick your ass all the way across the continent. Got it?" he said, and held Naruto's gaze until the blonde nodded.
"I give you my word", Naruto sighed, and Sasuke kissed his lips softly, his chakra presence leaving Naruto's mind in a hazy trail of purple mist.
A/N:
* And here you know why Sasuke was acknowledged as a genius even though his IQ scores didn't come close to Sakura's (you will find confirmation of this in the Chuunin written exams chapter of the manga, Sakura aced it without even considering cheating, while Sasuke realized even though he didn't even understand the questions, let alone know the answers, he could cheat as much as he wanted as long as he wasn't caught doing it – please notice that Shikamaru's intellect is so advanced he didn't even move the pencil from his table because not only he knew the purpose of the test before everyone else but he also knew Ino would freak out and give him and Chouji the answers without him even asking, so why bother doing anything…).
** Crystal violet or gentian violet (also known as methyl violet 10B, hexamethyl pararosaniline chloride, or pyoctanin(e)) is a triarylmethane dye. The dye is used as a histological stain and in Gram's method of classifying bacteria. Crystal violet has antibacterial, antifungal, and anthelmintic properties and was formerly important as a topical antiseptic. It also stains like nobody's business.