Chapter 10: Tic Tic Boom
"Sasuke." He heard the voice call to him, but it was so far away.
"Sasuke." The voice was closer now, and it sounded annoyed? What had he done to offend the voice?
"Come on Sasuke!" The voice was very close now, it was high pitched and pleading. Suddenly he felt annoyance and resentment towards the voice. Why was that?
"God damnit Sasuke, wake up!" Sasuke felt something hard come in contact with his stomach. It collided with such a force that Sasuke shot upward, or as far as he could with something planted on his chest. His eyes snapped open and colors flashed before his eyes, before settling on a deep red.
Then Sasuke felt something soft press against his lips. Then the red shot away from him, reveling themselves to be the eyes of Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto had pressed himself against the opposite wall but Sasuke couldn't understand why.
Then the full realization of what had just happened fell on both of them. Naruto started yelling at the top of his lungs, screaming every possible swear that he could think of. He didn't care that there was a potentially influential child one floor below them, he didn't care that the entire house could hear him, Sasuke Uchiha had just taken his first kiss.
But Sasuke wasn't too pleased about it either. So Sasuke did the only thing that seemed sensible at the moment besides screaming his head off like Naruto. He got up, walked into the bathroom and brushed his teeth for a solid five minutes.
Deciding that he had gotten the taste out of his mouth, Sasuke walked out of the bathroom.
"-thought I had avoided that." He heard Naruto grumble from the opposite end of the room. The next moment he had Naruto pinned up against the wall by his collar.
"It never leaves the room." Sasuke growled, raising Naruto higher.
"Do you honestly think I'd go bragging about this? Your the one who kissed me anyway." Naruto finished quietly, but Sasuke still heard.
"You punched me in the stomach while I was asleep!"
"I kicked you!"
"What kind of comeback is that?" Sasuke said. Deciding to end the argument with that he unceremoniously dropped Naruto on the floor. Sasuke gave Naruto one final glare before turning around and walking towards the door.
"Just what kind of sick and twisted dreams were you having last night that would make you want to kiss me?" Naruto said, taking one last swing at Sasuke's pride as he picked himself up off of the ground.
Sasuke stopped, memories flashing before his eyes. He suddenly remembered the devilish smile of Naruto's, his bloodlust. He remembered everything.
Sasuke glanced to his wrist, expecting to see blood pouring from it at any moment, but all he saw was his normal pale skin. Sasuke checked his other arm, but it was as unharmed as his other.
Sasuke checked his shirt, which he had distinctly remembered spilling juice on the night before, but found it dry and clean. All that happened the night before, it couldn't have been a dream, could it?
Sasuke ran out of his room and up to the foot of the staircase. He slowly walked down it, examining each and every inch of every step. But he found no blood, no indents from his fall. He checked his forehead as he reached the bottom of the stairs and found no bump or bruise.
Sasuke simply stood there for what felt like hours, but could have been seconds, and then he started to laugh. Really, a dream about Naruto of all people attacking him, it would have been more convincing if it was Sakura.
Sasuke shook his head as he walked on, trying to dispel the dream from his head. But as much as he tried he could not, it had looked so real.
"Good morning Sasuke!" A female voice chirped. His vision was obscured by a blur of pink has Sakura hugged him. Sasuke pushed her away and attempted to walk by her but was unsuccessful.
"You slept really late today, I was worried Kakashi was going to have to postpone our training for another day." That comment threw Sasuke for a loop. Sakura was worried about training more than him? Sasuke gently pushed by her and walked up to the large rectangular table in the center of the kitchen.
Kakashi sat in the middle, reading one of his books with an orange cover. Sasuke had never figured out exactly what they were about, but judging by the occasional giggle that Kakashi would give out when reading the books he guessed that it was not for minors.
Haku sat next to Kakashi, but he looked slightly shaken. Sasuke smirked as he realized Kakashi had probably given Haku a continuation of Sakura's 'talk' on hospitality when he caught Haku trying to leave.
Then he noticed the three people that owned the house they were currently staying in. Tsunami had a very uncomfortable expression on her face as she glance back and forth between Kakashi and Tazuna. Inari and Tazuna had the same expression on their faces and seemed to be deep in thought. What exactly had happened before he woke up?
A loud yawn broke Sasuke from his thoughts. He turned to see Naruto, fully dressed in his orange outfit, walking down the stairs.
"Got Sasuke up..." He said solemnly. Then he caught sight of Haku and jumped back several feet. "What's she doing here!" He yelled. Kakashi merely sighed and lightly elbowed Haku, who nodded.
He got out of his chair and walked up to Naruto and bowed to him. Naruto's expression immediately changed to confused.
"I apologize for my behavior when we first met, I thought you were ninja of much sinister intentions," Haku spoke. "I have joined your group temporarily to search for my master." Naruto broke out into nervous laughter after he said this, waving his hands in front of his face.
"Alright I understand, but please stop bowing its making me really uncomfortable." Haku immediately straightened up and nodded. Naruto walked over to Kakashi and opened his mouth to say something to him but Haku spoke before he could.
"And by the way, I'm a boy." Naruto froze with his mouth half open and stared at Haku.
"Wow," Naruto said while blinking rapidly. "Your prettier than Sakura..." Right after he said that the temperature seemed to drop ten degrease.
Suddenly a fist made contact with Naruto's face and sent him flying across the room. Sakura stepped over him with a murderous look in her eyes,
"I dare you to say that again you idiot." She said raising a fist.
"D-did I say that out loud? Come on Sakura you know your the only one for me" Sakura responded by swiftly kicking Naruto in the face. She raised her head and walked away from him.
Suddenly there was a snort of laughter coming from the table. Sasuke turned and saw Inari holding his hands over his mouth in a failing attempt to stop laughing. But soon it proved to be too much for the little boy and he howled with laughter.
Tsunami and Tazuna looked at the boy with surprise evident in their faces, which soon turned into happy smiles. Sasuke turned back to Naruto who was still lying on the floor with his head resting against the wall. Sasuke noticed the bruise already starting to form on his cheek, but he also saw a small smile on his lips.
Sasuke turned back to the laughing Inari, then back to Naruto. He hadn't said those things intentionally... had he? Suddenly Naruto went pale and jumped up and ran from the room.
Naruto slammed the door to the bathroom shut and locked it. He felt his vision blur and he leaned against the wall. Right after he collapsed.
When Naruto picked himself up he suddenly felt his feet submerge in water. He glanced down at the murky water and back up at the lightly illuminated room. Soon a large cage made of bars going from the floor to the ceiling came into sight. Naruto stared at the cage until large red eyes appeared on the other side.
"Alright fox, what do you want this time?" Naruto asked. But the nine tails didn't respond. He lowered his gaze and let out a low growl. Naruto raised an eyebrow and asked again, trying to get a answer out of the fox. Finally he answered,
"The seal containing me in your body is weakening." He answered solemnly.
"Shouldn't that be a good thing for you? I mean, why are you telling me. If the seal really is weakening wouldn't that mean that you break free, I die, and you get your body back in a few weeks?" Naruto questioned.
"Not this time... The seal has been tampered with, almost as if its been turned into a bomb set to blow after a certain time, taking us both with it."
"So I've been turned into a bomb!" Shouted Naruto. But the nine tail's glare only intensified after this statement.
"Not in the literal sense you fool. Its quite simple, after a set period of time you and I will die. There is also the possibility of another person who holds the figurative 'trigger'. That person will be able to kill us whenever it tickles their fancy." The fox spat, some of it's old fire coming back.
''Was it Madara?" Naruto asked.
"No." The nine tails said. "I would recognize that despicable vermin's chakra anywhere, this is not his work." Naruto frowned,
"Great, so now I have a psychotic, all-powerful Uchiha and a seal ninja trying to kill me." Naruto said. "So is there any way we could stop it? Could I use sage mode and find where it came from or something?" The nine tails smirked, causing his bright white teeth to show.
"No, that won't work. But there is always the possibility of you releasing me." The fox said, eying the slip of paper on the center of his cage. "With me free we would never have to worry about this seal again."
"I think you know by now that I will never willingly set you free, so do me a favor and get serious." Naruto said shaking his head.
"You've grown a backbone, brat." The nine tails said.
"How long do we have?" Naruto blurted out. After he heard the question the fox's eyes turned solemn.
"To be truthful, I have no idea. But, it's evident this has been going on for quite a while. By now I could give you at least three tails of my chakra even without your consent." Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration,
"So when the seal weakens enough so that you can escape, we die?" Naruto threw his fist into the wall next to him in frustration. There was a loud crack as rubble shot from the wall and fell into the water.
"This is worse then I thought..." the nine tails said. But Naruto was preoccupied by what he found behind the wall he just broke. There was a black liquid that was moving like it had a current. He reached out to touch the black thing, it looked a lot like Sai's ink.
"Stop you fool!" the nine tails roared. "Do you want to damage the seal even more!" Naruto immediately pulled his hand away from the small crack and jumped back into the middle of the room for good measure.
"What was that!" Naruto yelled at the nine tails.
"Do not forget where we are, brat. What you almost touched was the seal itself. If you even grazed that you could instantly break the seal. You truly are an idiot." That comment struck a cord within Naruto.
"So that voice earlier today was you?" Naruto asked, remembering the fox say the same thing.
"Yes it was. That was me trying to contact you before this, but I stopped when you started yelling at your friends, I didn't want to make a scene." Naruto nodded,
"So there's no way we can stop this, or... delay it in any way?" he asked. The nine tail's eyes narrowed and he let out a low growl, which Naruto learnt to mean he was thinking.
"Not that I know of. But as for delaying it, if you stop using my chakra that may give us more time to think." Naruto's eyes narrowed,
"So how long have I been able to stop your chakra?" Naruto asked, angry that he hadn't been warned that his wounds had been healed enough so that he could revert back to his original appearance.
"About a week." The nine tails said nonchalantly. Naruto sighed and started to push out of the fox's mindscape. "I'm not going to bring you in here anymore, that would make all our efforts useless. But I will be using the other method if I need to talk to you." Naruto nodded as the nine tails disappeared from sight.
Suddenly Naruto was back inside Tazuna's bathroom. He groaned and picked himself up, noticing right away how heavy he felt. He swore silently as he realized he would probably have to triple his normal training for a while before he was back in shape.
When Naruto arrived back in the kitchen he saw Kakashi standing if front of Sasuke and Sakura with his hands at his hips. He turned and smiled when he saw Naruto, but his expression soon changed to a confused one as he looked Naruto over. Realizing what Kakashi was staring at Naruto smiled triumphantly,
"Figured out how to turn it off." Kakashi nodded before turning back to Sasuke and Sakura.
"Alright now that Naruto's finally ready we can split up. Sasuke I want you to go with Naruto to the woods and teach him the tree climbing exercise while Sakura and I go help with the bridge. Any questions?" They both shook their heads.
"Sensei" Naruto said. "How have you learned a new exercise, I've only been out for a day or so." Kakashi stared at him for a moment before sighing,
"You've been asleep for three days Naruto." Kakashi said flatly. Naruto's eyes widened, he only had three days until the bridge was attacked?
After this revelation he grabbed Sasuke by the wrist and dragged him out of the house screaming," How come you didn't wake me up!"
A/N: So for the beginning of the chapter I just wanted to say that this is not, nor will it ever be a yaoi fic. The scene was put there for comedic elements only.