Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Author's Notes: Updates will definitely be sporadic depending on my workload at school and other factors. I apologize profusely at the amount of time this took. I'm going to change my mind about limiting the use of characters and try to have guest appearance every chapter from a different character each time to liven things up a bit. Also, I realized that there was some of the plot that I didn't tie up too well with my original plan, so the story will be longer than anticipated to fulfill those obligations. Thank you so, so much to reviewers who have been incredibly supportive and have stuck by the story despite the slow updates.
Recap: Sasuke has undergone the procedure to rid him of the Curse Seal and Sakura goes to visit him at the hospital. When she gets there, she sees that doctors are rushing to save Sasuke's life. Meanwhile, Gai has gone to knock some sense back into Kakashi, who is at Obito's grave and deeply disturbed by the illusion he fought. Elsewhere, Itachi has inquired as to the content of Naruto's dreams, and upon finding out, tells him vehemently that the Yondaime was his father. The story continues…
Chapter 12
He paces the down the same path as he has a hundred times before, the same path through the same maze to the same destination. The corridors are dark; they are always dark. Something about darkness is soothing to his master and his wasting body, but he has never particularly enjoyed it. Footsteps preceded bodies down this rough brick, but his are in time with the stone, swallowed up in silence. There is also something singularly oppressive to him about the way the ceiling felt as if it was constantly falling, as if only by some sheer will did it remain where it was. He could never love this place, but he would be loathe to leave it.
He reaches the end of his journey and raptly knocks on the thick wooden door three times.
"Enter."
Today the smell of rotting flesh reaches him earlier than before, and he knows it will take more time than usual to perform his daily routine. The badness is spreading over his master's skin and he uncorks a bottle of especially potent ointment to counteract its effects. When he applies it his master lets out a hiss that he ignores. There is a kind of lethargy about the way he is allowed to handle his master's body, a disregard of his presence that he is unaccustomed to. He was pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he finished the last of the bandages when a sickly yellow hand entwined itself in his silver hair and another hiss escapes from the body he has just treated.
Kabuto looks up, surprised by this unprecedented behaviour. "Orochimaru-sama?"
The golden eyes narrow into deadly slits and sound rattles menacingly out of the melting face.
"I no longer feel his presence."
-----
She wakes up to a throbbing headache and a pair of concerned dark eyes, but when she tries to sit up the pain makes her so dizzy that she stops halfway through the attempt.
"Where…?"
"Shh, just relax." A pair of gentle hands brushes the hair out of her eyes, and her vision focuses enough to reveal Shizune's face. The older woman is smiling. "You're one heck of a fighter."
She was about to ask what the other woman meant, but then her conscious memories came back to her and she was frantic again.
"Oh god, Sasuke! Where is he? Is he-he—" Her voice rose hysterically, and she was startled when two shinobi rushed in through the door. Shizune laid a placating hand on her arm and turned to the new visitors calmly.
"It's alright, just a misunderstanding." She gave them acknowledging nods before they departed. Turning back to Sakura, she cut off the young kuniochi before she could speak. "Don't make any assumptions, Sakura, or I'd hate to have to sedate you again."
At the last few words, her anger rose. "Sedate me? Sedate me?! Am I insane now because I want to see my teammate? What's going on, anyway? I thought he was recovering, but now—"
Shizune sighed. "Sakura…"
"—look what's happened! I can't believe—"
"… it wasn't Sasuke."
"—you could let this—what?" She paused to catch her breath, feeling all the blood rush to her head. "What are you talking about?"
"The boy you saw, the one that went into cardiac arrest – that wasn't Sasuke."
Sakura felt all the blood drain out of her body as relief swept over her. "But… that was his room, wasn't it?"
"Yes, it was." The hint of a smile appeared on the other woman's lips. "But he was recovering so well that we only just moved him earlier in the morning. He'll be able to rest easier in a more comfortable room."
"But I thought that was a private room that wasn't used anymore?"
Shizune cleared her throat. "As to that, you'll have to ask Hokage-sama yourself." Silence settled over them as Shizune poured a glass of water and handed it to the girl beside her. "If you want to see Sasuke, he should be up and about by now. I'll take you."
Sakura downed the entire glass and gave a grateful and sheepish smile.
-----
He didn't think any more could be taken from him, but since that day Naruto finds that he is afraid even to dream. Itachi's eyes are piercing and he feels as if every memory he has ever had will be revealed to this man. His injuries have healed enough for Itachi to deem him fit for travel, which limited his eye contact with the Uchiha to the bare minimum. Even so, Naruto is uncomfortable simply walking in front of him, feeling the venomous gaze burn what he is certain will become permanent scars onto the back of his neck. But his overwhelming need to know the truth was sometimes enough to drive away these fears, and so he resolutely stops mid-stride and turns to face his captor.
"How do you know he was my father?"
He had asked the question several times before, but Itachi never bothered to give him a response. He knows Itachi's distaste for delays when travelling, he knows this and knows that behaving like this isn't going to get him answers any faster but he does it anyway. There is nothing but contempt in the eyes that meet his; he wants to flinch but keeps his gaze level, willing some sort of reply.
"It's best for you to keep your voice down."
If he had been expecting a rebuke of some sort, some scorn or plain silence, this takes him by surprise.
"Keep my voice down?" And instinctively, he does the opposite. "You call than an answer?" He moves in Itachi's direction but is quickly deterred by senbon needles that just miss his nose. Intuitively he dodges backwards, but the sudden movement has caused him to reopen his abdominal wound and the severe pain makes him crumple to one knee, panting. When he looks up Itachi is still as stone. The trees around them rustle as a group of five shinobi appear from the thickets.
"Well well, look what we have here." The tallest of the bunch is a burly man dressed in torn clothing, hiding his identity behind a shabby mask. Naruto suddenly understands why Itachi had demanded his silence. There was nothing to identify them as shinobi of a particular village, but they seemed cruel enough; Naruto's gut tells him that these rogues aren't in it only for the money. He didn't think that it was anything Itachi couldn't handle, but such fights would be deemed useless by the Uchiha and he knew that Itachi detested wasting his precious time on what he would call vermin.
The ringleader had been looking at him, but the man's eyes shift and focus on Itachi's statuesque demeanour and his lips curled into a snarl. He eyes him coldly and settles his gaze on Itachi's ring. "That thing on your finger will fetch a pretty penny." He lets out a bark of laughter. "And ruining your pretty face would make my day."
Simply hearing it makes him feel sick to his stomach. He knows what will come, he knows that within minutes they will all be corpses and a wave of sickness washes over him as Itachi's outline flickers and disappears the way he has seen it happen countless times before. His silent warning is too late, too late as a muffled groan escapes the first one struck and much later the delayed thud of the body hits the ground. In a daze he is unsurprised when his hand comes away soaked in blood and the world starts spinning. He no longer hears movement, but without warning Itachi launches an attack somewhere into the trees that collides with something and vanishes. What emerges is the blue man, laughing heartily and holding his sword above his head in a truce.
"Take it easy, Itachi. It's just me." Their eyes meet in silent greeting and then turn simultaneously towards him, creating a bloody mess on the grass and dirt.
By now Naruto's vision had dimmed to a blurred line, but he could still see two pairs of feet approach him and was conscious enough to hear Itachi's cold voice.
"I'll take care of the bodies. You deal with him."
His mind doesn't quite understand what 'deal with him' means, but when he feels the pressure of the huge blade placed on his shoulder and its cold metal sucking out his chakra, the picture suddenly becomes crystal clear.
'Whether he's my father or not, at this rate I'll get to ask him myself.'
-----
She was facing the door. The door was facing her. Neither of them moved.
"UGGGGHHH!!!!" Inner Sakura let out a shriek of frustration at her own cowardliness. "Why won't you just go in?!"
Her hand had been poised above the doorknob for a while until her arm had grown numb and she had withdrawn it. Now it hovered at the same spot again with the exact same hesitancy. She had been standing there for the past hour since Shizune had left, debating whether or not she dared to go in.
Her decision was finally made for her as the door opened inwards of its own doing, and there in the doorway stood her teammate.
"S-Sasuke."
He looked surprised to see her, probably because she was right outside his door. Their eyes had met for a brief moment and she thought the red in his was somehow different, that the pattern had changed somewhat, but the Sharingan had quickly faded away to reveal only Sasuke's stubbornly dark eyes.
"Sakura." He sounded a little awkward, something she was unaccustomed to from him.
Seeing him healthy was enough to ease her fears. "You're… you're all right." She smiled. "I was afraid that something might go wrong…"
"I'm fine." He smiles at her then, not the playful smirk tinged with arrogance that was always on display, but a genuine—she would even say humble—kind of smile. "Thank you." He claps her on the shoulder and gently walks by her.
"Sasuke, wait!" He turns to face her at her call, the posture and clothes fitting the same way but also different. She can't pinpoint or understand this peacefulness from him, but she knows that 'thank you' was for more than the house call. "Where-where are you going?"
He gives her a pointed look, the smirk making its way back onto his face. "Don't you trust me?"
Sakura gives him her most serious expression. "You thanked me," she deadpans.
His lips widen into the Sasuke of old, the one that constantly made her worry but made her feel safest of all.
"Don't worry," he says quietly. "I'm not going anywhere."
-----
Kakashi has not felt this kind of shame since his early Academy days, and walking into the Hokage's office with a burdened conscience made him feel like a chastened schoolboy all over again, a feat he had not thought possible. Her eyes regarded him coolly as he entered and sat down in silence.
"I apologize for my irresponsible actions," he began. "What I did was a direct neglect of—"
"I didn't call you here to criticize you," she interrupted. "What I would like to discuss is Sasuke's future, now that he is rid of the curse seal."
Hearing his student's name sobered him up completely. "How is he?"
Slowly, the Hokage was dropping away to reveal only Tsunade. "He's fine now, although his recovery could take some time. I doubt he realizes how extensive the curse seal was and how much damage removing it has done."
Kakashi simply nods, taking in what he had missed.
"You'll need to watch him personally all over again. I'm afraid no one else can help him as much as you." Her eyes soften momentarily. "But I have one other concern." The Hokage returns and Tsunade has been pushed into hiding.
"Please continue."
"Orochimaru may have figured out by now that the seal is broken. Of course it was a possibility from the start, but what concerns me now is how we're going to deal with this if Orochimaru decides to pursue him."
"I don't think he will yet," Kakashi says slowly, measuring his words. "He won't need a new vessel for some time, and Sasuke's current condition isn't what he's hoping for."
"But should he decide that now is the best time to take Sasuke, while he's still weak?"
Kakashi shakes his head. "His pride wouldn't allow it. All along he's been certain that Sasuke would go to him on his own; he won't take him by force."
Her gaze is neutral as she asks her next question, but he can tell that Tsunade is recording his every movement and word to memory. "And do you think Sasuke will go to him?"
"I think…" He sighs deeply. "I think at this point, he's more concerned about Naruto."
"You don't trust him?" Tsunade asks, somewhat sadly.
"I want to."
-----
He comes upon him in a clearing practicing a new taijutsu combination. As he watches the pale body dart from the trunk of one tree to the next, he secretly has to admire how much Sasuke has grown. His conversation with Tsunade still resounds in his head, but he pushes those thoughts aside as he walks to greet his student.
"You've gotten a lot better, Sasuke."
The dark-haired teen looks up at his voice and stops his movements. He slowly approaches Kakashi and stands a foot or so away from him, proud and awkward at the same time.
"How are you feeling?" Kakashi asks gently.
"Fine." The reply is a staccato of air pushed through closed lips. Sasuke never looks in his eyes, only looks down at his own feet while the silence continues between them. "Kakashi-sensei, I'm—"
Kakashi doesn't think he wants to hear it and he doesn't think Sasuke wants to say it, so he lays a hand on his head to silence him. "I know."
And Sasuke thinks he does, believes he does, doesn't take offence at this overly childish way of treating him.
"Just rest, we'll get him back."
He believes Kakashi and so he nods, just nods, never before realizing how comforting a hand could be.
-----
When Neji arrives at his daily training spot early the next morning, he is surprised to find someone there waiting for him. Moreover, he is surprised to find Uchiha Sasuke waiting there for him.
"Sasuke. Is there anything I can do for you?"
The other prodigy moves from the tree that he had been leaning against and uncrosses his arms. He takes a deep breath before talking, "I need to ask you a favour. I also need to ask you to keep it between us."
Neji can sense that this could only mean trouble, 'keeping it between us', but Sasuke has never asked him (or anyone, really) for anything before and he's curious as to what this fabled request could be.
"If it's within my ability to grant, sure. What is it you need?"
Having heard his promise, Sasuke's tone turns serious. "I need your Byakugan."
"What?" Neji is unsure he has heard right. "What do you need the Byakugan for?" Sasuke's momentary silence somehow makes him very apprehensive.
Because the problem is that Sasuke believes, but he doesn't believe enough.
"I need you to use the Byakugan… to test if you can see through my Mangekyo Sharingan."
TBC