Disclaimer: I DO *whispers not* OWN NARUTO.
I looked down at my test. This was impossible. I knew, vaguely, what the first question was saying, the others I didn't even understand. I was stumped. How was I going to answer these? I couldn't, I didn't even know what they were asking, how could I answer correctly. I sat up. I couldn't even begin to understand these problems. though, what was worst was the feeling of eyes on me, the eyes of chunin and jounin alike. At first I was thinking of ways to help Naruto out, but, I realized, I was the one that needed help first.
Think Sasuke, I told myself. There had to be a way. Cheat. A little voice in my head said. Of course I couldn't the proctor said not to, if I was caught I'd lose two points...wait, why only two points? In most test if you were caught cheating that was an automatic fail, why give us chances. If fact it sounded almost as if they expected us to cheat, dared us even. I looked back to the impossible test in front of me, yeah, they expected it. So the real test was to cheat, I wonder if the others figured it out. I scanned the other ninja in the room, I found Sai first.
He had definitely figured out the test, I saw him using a jutsu to lift writing of a ninja's paper. It turned into a rat that scurried towards him and onto his paper, becoming one with the paper and laying back down as the answers. I saw the man, who's answers just walked off his paper start again. The man must have been really smart, he was writing all the answers again at near lightning speed. If I ever thought of a plan, I was going to copy him.
..Copy him. The Sharingan! It analyzed and copied jutsu and hand signs, all I would have to do was copy his movements. But, I almost sighed in disappointment, he had already finished. I perked up slightly when, again, the ink on his paper rose and turned into a small rat. I watched it run off the table, instead of going to Sai, I saw the ink animal ran somewhere else. I followed it, it ran to the front of the room and up a desk, up Naruto's desk. Sai may have been a stalker, but he was also a genius.
"Ahh."
Bang.
Splat.
And Naruto was a idiot. He had just crushed the answers to the test. People looked to him for a second before going back to their tests. I sighed, Sai could do it once more but it would be harder, and even if he invaded the eyes of the chunin there was the face that the moron could just crush them again. Sai would have enough trouble getting answers to Naruto, I needed to get the answers myself. I looked back to the guy that wrote the answers. It seemed as if he finally realized that his answers were gone again and was writing them again. I quickly active my Sharingan and started to copy the movement of his hands, stealing his answers.
I sat back when I had finished writing, there was nothing to worry about for now.
If I had thought that the first task was hard, even more so with the surprise tenth question, the second was promising to be harder. We hasn't even been told it yet but I knew that it would be bad because the second proctor was insane. She had a grin that promised both pleasure and pain, pain for you, pleasure for her. She was a sadist and it surprised me that Konoha, a village said to be the softest of the hidden villages, had a ninja like her. Or like the first proctor for that matter, for a second I wondered about the third proctor.
the test seemed pretty straight forward, get both scrolls, get to the tower and don't get killed in between. We did have a slight run in with the dobe, he was causing trouble again, bad mouthing our proctor and got a cut on his check. i was sure that if he had not been a Konoha shnobi he would have got more them that slight scratch. With a sadistic grin she sent us off to our gates.
"I can't believe that I smashed the test answers." Naruto muttered to himself before turning on Sai. "Why wasn't your rat stronger. It usually takes more then a punch to kill your ink-things." The dobe growled out, point a finger at Sai.
Sai just smiled in return. "It's because that ink wasn't the chakra laced ink I use in battle, also I had to do it without touching the ink, dickless."
Naruto huffed but, before he could go off again about Sai calling him dickless again, I interrupted.
"We need a plan." I said, making both boys turn to me. "I was thinking, we could use Sai's jutsu to scout. Maybe if we find a team that's careless enough one of Sai's ink snakes could get to their scroll. If not, we'll still know where the teams are and we could trap them." I turned to Sai then. "Can you do that?"
Sai nodded, smiling of course. "I can but it would take all my concentration, if it came to a fight, I'd be useless."
"Do it." I said before hesitating and continuing. "We'll protect you."
"Yeah freak, we'll protect you." Naruto nodded, grinning.
Sai stopped smiling and looked at both of us, a small upturn of his lips expressed more happiness then his past, fake, smiles had. I also caught a slight gleam in his eyes that was gone before I identified it.
"Okay, we'll travel a few miles then find a place to stop. Maybe a cave or a hollow tree." I said and they nodded. with or plan set, we waited for the gates to open.
Things were not going good. The plan had not even been put into action and already things were going wrong. First of all was the Naruto imposter.
We had not been traveling that long when Naruto stopped, loudly exclaiming that he needed to, 'take a piss', and starting to unzip his fly. I turned, this was something I did not want to see.
"I don't mind, I always wondered how you pee with out a dick, dickless." Sai said stepping closer to Naruto, eyes trained on the front of his pants.
Naruto stopped and looked at Sai, who looked at Naruto's crotch.
"I think I'll pee behind a bush." Naruto said redoing his fly and walking away. "Alone." He added as Sai went to follow, Sai stopped.
When Naruto was gone Sai turned to me, he looked uncertain. "Whatever happens...I'll protect you." There was a fire that flickered into his eyes, one I'd seen before. In Sakura when she talked about one day becoming a ninja. In Kakashi when he talked about protecting his teammates. In Naruto when he had told Zabuza he would become Hokage. It was in me too, when I thought of avenging my clan, I could feel it burning in my eyes those times. It was what most, if not all, Konoha ninja's eyes. Sai had the will of fire.
I didn't know what he was talking about, he wasn't making sense. My first instinct was to brush him off, but there was something else in his eyes, something pleading to me not to. So instead I nodded.
I was saved when Naruto came back. I narrowed my eyes, this guy was not Naruto. It wasn't that he looked different, or the words he said were strange. It was that walk, more confident, less clumsy, his foot steps were sure, trained. It was also in his smile, he was wearing Sai's smile, a fake one, not the normal, easy, grin that was often plastered on his face. But the biggest sign was his chakra, instead of the, seemingly, never ending warmth, there was a cold, icy, chakra. It wasn't supressed and I also felt how much he had, there was more then I had, but at least I had Sai. Together, we could beat him, I punched him right in the face.
"Sasuke?" Sai said startled, he must not have known that this was not Naruto.
"This is not Naruto." I said simply, readying myself for a fight.
"That cold smile was still there, reminding me so much of Sai when we had first met. I realized, looking at this Naruto impostures face, that Sai's smile was so much colder and faker. I didn't like that smile, not on Sai and not on Naruto.
The imposture released his hedge and I saw his face. He was pale, as if he had never seen sun. He reminded me so much of Sai, but it was not his appearance or even their style. In fact standing the two boys next to each other, most would say you could not find two boys more different in looks. The only thing that they shared was their pale complexions. The boy was broad across him chest and had very large arms. He was short, shorter than Naruto even, and had short, skinny and stumpy legs. They made him look slightly out of proportion, nothing like Sai's tall, lean frame. He wore a green shirt and brown ninja pants, the clothes were plain, used as simple tools of blending into his surroundings or the forest. He wore standard weapon gear, along with a short sword on his back and a Konoha protector on his forehead. And even their facial features were worlds different. Sai's face was thin and held prominent, sharp features. This boy's face was almost completely square, his face was thick with, at first glance, baby fat, but on closer inspection his face was all muscle. Then there was his nose, which was at least twice as large as Sai's, his lips were thin and an off cream colour. And lastly was his exotic crystal blue eyes, they were round, probably the only round feature he had, and not very large. They set off his large features and make him pass for handsome.
But his appearance was not what made Sasuke think they were alike, it was their attitude, how they walked and talked, how they acted. It was scary similar to how Sai was when he was first put on team seven. It was that smile, the fake, cold and disturbing, smile. But most of all, it was their eyes. Those eyes that made it seem as if there was nothing inside them, no emotions, no mind and no soul. I hated those eyes on Sai, I hated them on this boy when he was Naruto and I hated. Them on this boy's real face too. I'd seen those eyes on that man.
"I should have known that a ninja of your breeding wouldn't fall for a simple trick like that. No matter." He smiled at me. "You are outnumbered."
discreetly, I searched for any close chakra signatures. There was none, one this boy's chakra, Sai's and, of course, my own.
"Outnumbered?" I questioned.
"Shinobi 94, codename Sai." The boy nodded to my teammate who nodded in return.
"Shinobi 56, codename Dai." Sai replied.
Realization hit me, these two were working together, they knew each other. It this man was not here for the chunin exams then what was he here for? This could only mean one thing, Sai was a spy.
"Mission." The boy, Dai, said.
"Shinobi 94 batch C was assigned to infiltrate a genin team with the Jinchuriki and last Uchiha. Find out if the Uchiha has the Sharingan, if so capture the Uchiha's eyes. Do not kill Jinchuriki unless instructed to." Sai replied in a monotone voice.
"Mission statues."
"Both seem to trust me, the Uchiha has invited me over for dinner next week. I had planned to start there." Sai said.
"Stand down 94, the mission has been changed. We must not waste time, Danzo-sama wants those eyes." Dai stated. "He has sent me as back up. Danzo-sama caught word of a high ranking ninja here for the Uchiha too, he wants those eyes before the missing-ninja reaches them."
So that was it, this, 'Danzo', wanted my Sharingan eyes, enough to kill me? They would have to kill me, there was a chance I'd tell someone about this Danzo who had stolen one of the only Sharingan left in the world. Yes, my Sharingan was undeveloped, but still, the Sharingan was a dying doujutsu, there was only two people in the world who had it, one had no interest in passing it on, and the other was too young to.
Without another word, the fight started.
Sai fell back, he was mostly a long rang fighter, he stood no chance against me on a close range fight. The other boy, Dai, on the other hand, rushed forward.
Short ranged fighter. Was all I was able to think before I stopped thinking beyond blocking the next hit and throwing the next punch. Looking at the size of Dai you would think that he would strike slow but hard, this was not the case. Dai did, if fact, strike hard, if it was not for the chakra pulsing through him, Sasuke was sure that he would have broken at least both arms and his left leg. But his heavy hitting was to be expected, it was his speed that was worrying, he was fast, almost as fast as Sasuke himself. While fighting him Sasuke did not have any time to think of a plan, because what attention that was not on Dai, was on Sai, sitting down drawing.
Sai had been drawing for five minutes now, I was frightened to see what he would create. His ability to create ink beasts in seconds was amazing, but given five minutes or ten. He could create a whole army, an army of hundreds. I needed to stop him.
"Sasuke, Sai." I heard Naruto scream as he ran into the battle.
"Naruto." I yelled, getting ready to warn him, Sai was not on our side. But Dai distracted me with a punch aimed at my face, I managed to block it in time. Then I heard the worse thing possible.
"How much longer do you need Sai? I'll make sure he doesn't slip past teme and you can-"Naruto never got to finish, because as soon as he turned his back to Sai, Sai had used one of his snakes to tie Naruto up.
No I thought, Naruto. Dai got a lucky hit and sent me flying back, I'd hit my head on the tree and willed myself not to black out, if I did they would kill me. By sheer willpower I did not black out. But I was dizzy enough to stay laying down.
"You know Danzo has his suspicions about you turning on him, it was also my mission to make sure your loyalties were still with Root. I'll send Danzo a message say that your on his side still, and that we have secured the Uchiha. Tie him up will you." I hear Dai saying.
I felt Sai's ink wrap around me, I was much too disoriented to do anything. I almost swore, there was nothing I could do now...except, maybe there was something that I could do.
I knew medical ninjutsu, it was only a little and I could only ever use it to heal slight cuts, everything bigger was done by Sakura. But I knew the theory behind the bigger stuff too. Things like healing concussions, mine wasn't a major one, it was still pretty big though. I had never tried and I would have to do it without hand signs, something that was needed for most injury close to the brain, and with out my hands all together. I'd have to send healing chakra straight to the source, something extremely difficult, and do all of this while feeling the effects of the concussion. If I did it wrong, sent the wrong amount or the chakra I sent was not healing chakra...there had been a multiple amount of warnings on how much of a bad idea this was. If I failed, I died, and if I sat around doing nothing I would die anyway.
With that I took a deep breath then started to gather up my healing chakra to my hands. When my I had gathered enough chakra I sent the healing chakra up my arm, through my neck and towards the wound in my head. I closed my eyes and used my chakra to see. my brain was fine, I could tell that much and I almost gave a sigh. There was a slight crack in my skull, that would be difficult to fix, I'd never done anything will bones. Then there was the bleeding, it was on a larger scale then I was use to, but I was sure I could do it. But that gave me another worry, my chakra.
Every time I had healed those, little, wounds I got, I felt tired afterwards, the small healing drained me. It was not the fact that I did not have enough chakra, it was simply that my chakra wasn't meant to heal, it was in the first medical book Sakura had given me. 'Theory of Medical Ninjutsu. A Science and magic.' It was a horrible titled book that was, also, a wealth of knowledge, and it was in the first chapter it explained chakra. Chakra was a living thing, something that was like us, like a arm or a leg, a part of us and alive. We, just like an arm or a leg, could control it but chakra was more then that. Chakra was also like the person who owned it. Some people were not fit to heal, instead their strength laid in combat, and that was how chakra was too. Some chakra were not fit to heal, instead their chakra molded in a way perfect for offence jutsu.
My chakra was not really fit for healing. It was why I had such a hard time healing, my chakra was darker, something I knew, it was laced with hate for that man. I wanted, with all my being, as I trained, to kill him, so my chakra grew dark. It was born out of my need to avenge my clan. That was why my attacks were so strong, but I didn't ever have a need to heal, not even myself at most time, and even if I did. Healing wasn't based on hate, hate killed and love healed. That was why Sakura was so good at healing, she loved everyone, friends and strangers alike. There was not a single soul I had met that she had not taken a liking to. Clotting the blood was that first thing I did, it was easy, even though it was a much larger wound, I had done this before, even if it had been with ly hands. Now I had to start of with the crack, this one would be harder, I gently probed it with my chakra, a mistake, I found as I felt the crack get larger and my head throbbed in pain. Again I felt as if I would pass out, I fought the dizziness off and eventually it dispelled.
Okay, I thought, that wont work.
I couldn't heal bone like skin, it wasn't like stitching the skin back together, it was much harder. I couldn't make it seem like a small needle was threading the skin back together. I thought for a second, the books and scrolls I read on healing bones were mostly theory, it said that most people heal in the same way but some, rare as it was, healed differently. I, for the life of me, just could not follow the guide the book gave, something that was frustrating to me. The book was written for someone who had chakra compatible with that of a healers, chakra that instinctively healed someone, I did not have that kind of chakra, mine's first instinct was to attack. That is what it did when the needle technique didn't work, it attacked the bone.
Maybe a patch would work though. I though, I could use my chakra as a temporary patch. Like the tire on a bike, it would be useless to use a needle to patch it together, it would only make matters worse, but a patch worked. It also was the least likely plan to backfire.
Yes, I decided, I'd do that.
So with another big breath I got to work, I made a chakra patch out of my healing chakra, holding my breath as I placed it on top, thankfully, the crack did not get worse. In fact, slowly the healing chakra was making it better, the sides were knitting together and my headache was ebbing slightly. I felt drained though, before, the thing stopping me from doing anything was my concussion, now it was pure chakra exhaustion.
"Danzo-sama's reply returned, he said that you may have the honor of killing the Uchiha and taking him eyes. After all, this mission was your's from the start."
No, I cursed inside my head, I was out of time.
But I refused to give up, I pushed the exhaustion away and opened my eyes. Though we were under the canopy, it was too bright for my eyes. It took me a few seconds to adjust to the light. I was about to start to get up when I heard a scream.
"SAI!" I looked over, as did Sai and Dai, Naruto had eaten the part of the ink snake that was over his mouth and could now talk again. "What are you doing? You can't kill Sasuke, sure he's a bastard, but he's our teammate."
"You go finish your mission Sai-san. I'll deal with him, Danzo-sama said that he'd have to be taken care of too, he's seen too much." Dai said as he turned his back of Sai to advance on Naruto.
As soon as Dai had his back to Sai, Sai raised his hand and took the sword from Dai's back holster and in a quick movement sliced off both his arms, one at the shoulder and the other right through his elbow, Dai had turned around enough to save his other shoulder but the swords caught his elbow. Still, Dai smiled, it was as if he could do nothing else, he did not seem upset or betrayed, not even like he was in pain. He just stood there for a second and it was Sai that made the next move too.
"Sorry Dai-san." Said Sai the words coldly, saying through his expression and tone that he was any but sorry. "But you must die." And with that Sai drove Dai's own sword straight into his heart.
As the ink bindings melted away and both Naruto and I were free, I remembered Sai's words, "whatever happens...I'll protect you." Sai must have known something like this would happen. So why had he not told me anything, why keep it secret. I had so many questions but it was Naruto that spoke first.
"Sai...did you just make a joke?" And with that, the barely visible tension that was in Sai shoulders melted away and I thought better than to ask my questions so instead I got up and nodded to him.
We were okay, my nod said, we were still a team.
And that would always be true.
After the fight with Dai I thought that it would only be easier. It was not like me to forget the little bit of information that Dai had let slip about the missing-nin. As it so happens, I did not remember until I was fighting said missing-nin. I had forgotten through the wind storm, through the second Naruto imposter, through the genjutsu and through my little freak out. I had not snapped out of said freak out until Sai had made some stupid comment, "If Naruto has no dick, you must have a vagina because your being a pussy right now." As idiotic as it was, it did snap me out of it.
But I remembered nothing of what Dai said until the ninja survived being tied to a tree and burnt. It was when he stepped out of the flames, his face flopping off, I remembered, and it was too late. And when he stretched his, abnormally long, neck, I did really know what to think, I don't think I even had time to think anything. But I never expected him to bite me.
He then pulled back and told be that If I wanted power I should join him. Orochimaru. That was his name. and when he was gone, the pain consumed me and I knew no more.
I didn't know how long I relived it, how long it went over and over in my head. Them dying by him, that man killing them and me being useless, worse than useless. I was afraid and confused. It went from that to a painful, lonely darkness and back again. I felt like I should die, that would be good, to just die, not having to worry about the pain, the nightmares. But I couldn't do that, I realized, I couldn't stay here in this pain fulled word. If I didn't moved, didn't escape, I would never kill him, never avenge my clan, never be free. I needed more though, more power, I couldn't beat him then, not even now, I was just too weak. But with more power I could crush him, crush anyone.
If only I had more power.
The words echoed in my head. If only I had more power, if only, if only...if only.
And then I did have power, I had so much, I could feel the chakra, the powerful chakra that overflowed my body, it was now thick in the air around me, I was sure even Naruto, who was clueless to everything that he couldn't see, would be able to feel it too.
So with that I stood up and looked around with new eyes. I felt so strong, so unstoppable, I felt as if I could, and would, beat anyone. And then I saw Sai, my teammate who I swore to protect, some who, despite all my efforts to push away, had become my friend, had become someone special to me. So seeing him hurt made me want to avenge him, I wanted to hurt someone, to use this power, test it out.
"Who did this to you Sai?" I found myself asking. And when the cocky boy had said it was him. I couldn't keep the wicked smile off my face when I had broken his arms. Those arms that he was going to use on my teammates and I. And then I turned to the last one standing, my thirst for blood, for revenge had not been sedated and I needed more.
"Now it's your turn." I told the ninja as I advanced on him.
Vaguely, I heard a voice, Sai I think, screaming at me but I ignored it, walking closer to the last man, but Sai's voice broke through my haze. "Sasuke, what would Sakura think."
At first I thought, 'who was Sakura?' But my mind was quick to conjure her up. With that I felt as if Sakura was here, standing behind me and holding me back from carrying on. I was sure I heard her voice, just a whisper, in my ear. "Please Sasuke. Stop this. No more." And I felt the mark fade, it receded and I realized just how much it had grown. I dropped to the ground, it felt as if I was a puppet and all my strings were suddenly cut. So with nothing to hold me up, I was weakened.
It didn't really register what the enemy said right now, I was too busy reflecting on what happened. What I had done to that shinobi, it was sick, I had dislocated both arms. And worse I had enjoyed it.
"What am I?" I found myself asking out loud.
A monster. The answer was supplied to readily by my mind. Like looking up and asking what colour the sky was, you knew already it was blue. Did I always know I was a monster? Was I always one? I didn't know.
Right now everything was uncertain to me, and it scared me slightly.
This chapter was longer, and had more context, but my smashpad (I dropped my ipad and now its got cracks running through it.) glitched out and have the chapter was not saved. I hate rewriting so I just didn't rewrite it, but everything that I didn't write was just cannon anyway so. Yeah.
R&R.
Then ForF. (Fav or Follow.)
