Chapter 21
Hostages and I Think It Likes You…
Italics = English/Other language
'Single Quotes' = Thoughts
Edited by: Thomas Drovin
x
Previously on A Play With Words:
Team 7 minus Kakashi travel with Fay and Jiraiya as they search for a legendary healer. Fay is hoping this healer will be able to help Sasuke and Anko. When they get to their hotel, Jiraiya leaves the group as he goes skirt chasing. Sasuke and Sakura go shopping and Naruto introduces Fay to his toad summoning. A sneeze caused by coffee results in Naruto taking a shower. A knock on the door reveals Itachi, whom Fay believes is an ally because he is Sasuke's brother. She invites them in for coffee, and accidently says the coffee is poisonous. Fay's right arm is broken, and Sakura and Sasuke return to find a hostage situation… Dun-Dun-Duuuuun!
x
"Oh, Sharingan? So this is your brother Itachi?" Blue Man drawled as he easily hefted his giant wrapped sword over one shoulder.
"I'd heard the whole Uchiha clan was wiped out…by you." Blue man continued, while eyeing Itachi curiously. Itachi didn't respond to this. The only reaction I saw, or rather felt from him was the slight tightening of his fingers gripping my hair.
At Blue Man's words, I felt myself pale even further than before. Sakura and Naruto's expressions morphed into one of shocked horror, their eyes widening and mouth falling slightly open in disbelief. I suspected my expression mirrored theirs.
'Killed the whole clan?' I couldn't wrap my head around the concept. For him to have murdered so many of his own flesh and blood. If Sasuke was the only survivor that meant that he had murdered women, children…babies!
It disgusted me: the idea that a hand so completely drenched in the blood of innocents was touching my hair, was holding a kunai to my throat. I felt the fine hairs on my arms and legs rise up as goose bumps formed. A strange tingle crawled up my spine, rather like the feeling of hitting your funny bone. The throbbing pain in my arm intensified as my heart raced faster and faster.
Though I was terrified, and on some levels repulsed, a new emotion was growing in me, anger. If just hearing about the horrible crimes committed by Itachi was enough to make me angry… I couldn't even fathom just how desperate and obsessively livid Sasuke was probably feeling.
I eyed Sasuke, who was steadily loosing what little control he had over his emotions. With a hiss, he suddenly flashed through a series of hand signs, and I heard and felt the familiar crackling of lightning as it formed in his left palm.
In response, Itachi lifted me up slightly, using me as a human shield.
"Temee!" Naruto yelled, as he rose unsteadily to his feet after the painful smack down he'd received from Blue Man.
"Sasuke-kun, No! What are you doing?" Sakura screamed. She leapt forward and grabbed Sasuke's arm, ignoring the shocks of electricity she was surely receiving.
"Get off me!" Sasuke snarled as he fruitlessly tried to wrench free from Sakura's chakra enforced grip. "I've lived hating him. I've only lived to kill that man. Itachi, I've been waiting for this moment, the moment to kill you!"
My trembling increased as I saw Sasuke spiral into revenge fueled madness. His Sharingan spun wildly as his lightning chakra cracked and sparked around his arm.
Naruto seemed to have been struck speechless as he just stared at Sasuke, his expression a picture of shaken dismay.
Sakura for a second seemed frozen in the face of Sasuke's intense rage as well, but suddenly she tightened her grip on Sasuke's arm and practically screamed at him, "So you're going to kill her? Are you going to drive a hand through Nee-san's chest to get to that man Sasuke? You, you…" Sakura choked off, as she was overcome by her increasing panic.
"So dramatic," Blue Man snorted. "Itachi, let's just take the Uzumaki brat and go."
Hearing their plans to take Naruto snapped me out of my silence. "No! Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke!" My eyes met Sasuke's, and I took a shallow, but calming breath. "I'm okay Sasuke." I forced a smile onto my face as I said as steadily as possible, "Don't mind me. I can die, okay?"
Though I was telling them to forget about me, to let me die if it meant that they would be safe, truthfully, I was lying. I didn't want to die. I was scared; I wanted someone to save me.
"I don't want to die." I whispered out loud in French, letting myself speak the truth in a way that the preteens couldn't understand.
To my surprise, and guilty relief, Sasuke slowly let his lightning attack fade away. His head fell slightly, and I couldn't read his face as his bangs shadowed his eyes. He seemed for all intent and purposes broken.
In an abnormally monotone voice, Sasuke asked, "Sakura, Naruto, status?"
The two preteens blinked in surprise at the sudden question but promptly answered.
"Fine, fully functional," Sakura replied.
"That guy's sword did something to my chakra, I can't use it at all, and I'm bruised but physically good," Naruto responded hesitantly.
Sasuke gritted his teeth in frustration and clenched his fists till his knuckles turned white.
"Still so weak." Itachi's smooth voice seemed to cut through the air. "Still lacking hate." His kunai drew lightly across my neck and I started as I felt the knife cut into my flesh slightly. Blood trickled down into the v of my shirt. It was a strange thought to have at the time, but I couldn't help but think how much the damn dribble of blood tickled.
I also had the ridiculous thought that my second favorite shirt was ruined as well now. My favorite burgundy shirt had been torn to shreds by Daiki (wow that kind of sounded dirty), and now this pretty green one would be stained by blood.
"Wait!" All attention and gazes turned to Naruto who looked incredibly young and small with his dripping wet hair and his half naked state.
My chest tightened in stress and terror. Naruto was holding a kunai firmly over his heart, his expression unusually restrained.
"You need me alive don't you? Let her go, or I'll kill myself!" There was a brief period of silence, before noise erupted throughout the room. Sakura and I screeched bloody murder at Naruto to drop the damn f-cking kunai, while Blue Man chortled in dark amusement.
Only Itachi and Sasuke remained silent, and I couldn't help but to notice how similar the two were. 'They really are brothers.'
"Naruto, you idiot what the heck are you doing?" Sakura shrieked as she took a step towards the blonde. Sasuke blocked her way however.
"Don't you remember what Kakashi-sensei said, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked with a weak smile. "Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their mission are worse than trash."
Sakura blinked at Naruto blankly. "What—" She started to say, but Sasuke interrupted her.
"Naruto's right Sakura. That's what it means to be a shinobi. Fei is our mission. We can't fail…but Naruto, your legs are shaking. You can't follow through with that threat..." Sasuke said. He slowly reached into his back pouch and drew out a kunai. "I can though," he finished.
With a blur, Sasuke was suddenly behind Naruto. I gasped in shock as I registered what I was seeing, Sasuke was holding Naruto hostage. The kunai that the black-haired boy had drawn previously was now at Naruto's throat, and the kunai Naruto had been formerly holding was smacked out of his hand.
The situation was quickly becoming ridiculous. Sasuke and Itachi, two brothers mirroring each other with respective hostages. Heck, Naruto and I even had similar hair colors ever since I had to dye my hair.
Blue Man seemed absolutely fascinated by the whole drama that was unfolding in front of him. A predatory grin stretched his face, a complete contrast to Itachi's blank features. Sakura just looked ill, though I could have sworn there'd been a flash of understanding in her eyes. I just stared at everything with a dumb expression. Pretty sure I went temporarily catatonic.
Tightening his grip on the kunai, Sasuke said, "Sakura. Remember our mission."
The pink-haired girl gritted her teeth, but gave a short nod.
"Sasuke. What are you trying to accomplish?" Itachi questioned.
With a slightly manic grin, Sasuke laughed, "Just doing what you told me to do brother. I'm getting stronger. When I kill him, I'll have the eyes."
Sasuke raised the arm with the kunai, bringing it down to stab Naruto in the chest. My shriek caught in my throat as I was brusquely dropped. I landed heavily, unable to catch myself properly with my broken right arm.
As quickly as possible, I snapped my head up towards Naruto and Sasuke, but wasn't able to see anything, as suddenly Sakura was there. She quickly threw me over one shoulder and sprinted towards the window.
All of a sudden, I was dropped as something smashed Sakura from the left. Whatever it was that had hit us had scrapped my leg, and hot blood was dripping down my pants, which were now completely shredded beyond repair.
With a groan, I rolled off of Sakura.
"Sakura, Sakura?" I called out as I shook her with shaking hands. I felt so tired and drained, my chakra had dropped significantly, and I knew I was close to fainting from low chakra again, though I couldn't fathom what had depleted my levels so drastically.
She was conscious, but disoriented. Her hands sputtered green for a second as she tried to heal her head wound, but like me, her chakra failed.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted in warning.
Eyes widening, Sakura quickly grabbed me and rolled us away from the wall that we'd hit when knocked aside. A loud explosion rocked our room, and small pieces of debris rained down on us. I was fine, but because Sakura had covered me with her body, I was worried that she'd been hurt.
"Sakura-chan! Nee-chan! Are you okay?" hollered Naruto. His attention abruptly switched, "Hey! Sto—Sasuke!"
Sasuke's body flew through the air like a ragdoll and crashed through the door and into the hallway out of sight.
I didn't have much time to worry about Sasuke or Naruto however as a shadow fell over my face. Though Sakura's pink hair and body blocked most of my sight, I was able to see Blue Man's looming figure above us.
"You brats are really getting annoying now," he growled as he lifted his giant sword. The bandages that had been wrapped around the sword had shifted mostly off and I noticed that it was less of a sword and more a collection of razor sharp scales. Blood dripped down its length. I faintly took note that it was probably the sword that had shaved off a good portion of skin off my leg.
Blue Man's intentions were clear to me. He was finished playing with us. Naruto was the only one he needed to keep alive,while Sakura and I were just irritating flies. We were in his way, and so he would swat us down.
Mustering up as much of my strength as possible, I was just able to flip Sakura and I around so that I was hunched over Sakura protectively. I screwed my eyes shut, waiting for the end.
Nothing happened.
Trembling from a combination of nerves and fear, I peeked over my shoulder. Blue Man's sword was frozen a few inches from the base of my neck. Sweat trickled down the shark man's neck, as he seemed to be fighting some sort of internal battle.
"Samehada. What?" He growled.
Blue Man suddenly grunted in pain as spikes sprouted from the sword's handle piercing his hand. To my shock, the strange sword, creature, thing, contorted its shape to wrap itself protectively over me.
'It has a mouth…' I noted blankly.
Something wet and rough scrapped across my wounded leg. "Freaking peanut butter!" I swore at the disturbing sensation.
'The sword's licking me. The SWORD is licking me.' I didn't know if I should scream rape or just freeze and hope it would stop. The choice was taken away when Blue Man roughly kicked the demonic sword off. For a split second, an automatic, thank you, almost slipped out.
Blue Man was definitely not playing around anymore as he wasted no time in grabbing me by the back of the neck. I kicked weakly as he swiftly lifted me up. 'Lifting m-me up with one hand, w-what a show off' I mentally whimpered to myself in a sad attempt at bravado. I was sure I was going to die then and there. There was no doubt in my mind that he would be able to crush my windpipe in one squeeze of his huge hand.
Once again for the umpteenth time that day I was dropped. I was relieved, but confused at first, but when Blue Man used both of his hands to block an attack from a gigantic toad, I felt tears of relief well up and overflow to trickle silently down my cheeks. Crouching on top of the toad was Jiraiya. He was finally here.
"Hey there Fei-chan. You okay?"
I snorted at the question and eyed the unconscious girl slung over his shoulder. "You late Ero-sennin. Perverts are all same I think," I muttered before collapsing, my exhaustion finally catching up with me.
x
When I woke, it was to a pounding headache and fatigue. Groaning, I slowly sat up. To my surprise, I wasn't in the hospital, but looked to be in some sort of hotel room.
"Nee-chan! You're awake!" greeted Naruto as he scampered over. I let out a soft sigh of relief to see that Naruto wasn't kidnapped and seemed to be perfectly fine. There wasn't a scratch on the boy.
"Naruto," Sakura cried out irritably. "Get out of her face. You'll stress her out like that."
"Sakura-chan…" Naruto whined and pouted looking so dejected that the pink-hair girl actually winced. It seemed that Naruto's sad puppy dog eyes had leveled up quite a bit.
Sakura looked relatively okay as well. She had a few scrapes and bruises, and a nasty looking bump on her forehead, but she was smiling and didn't look to be in much pain.
"Sasuke?" I asked, looking around the room. I felt my anxiety rise when I didn't see him right away.
"Sasuke's fine. He's taking a bath right now," Naruto reassured me with a grin. Sakura pinked slightly at the thought of Sasuke and bath, which made me smirk a little in amusement.
'Ah, young love.'
"If you're wondering, Jiraiya-san is okay too. He's gone off again though, so not sure where he's at exactly." Sakura's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as she relayed this to me.
"How long I sleep?"
"Only a few hours. The missing-nins left once Jiraiya-san came. Because Nee-san, Sasuke-kun and I were all unconscious, but reasonably okay, Jiraiya-san decided to just move lodgings instead of heading back to the village. Sasuke-kun woke up within an hour, and I woke up a few minutes after him."
"Is everyone healthy? Ok?"
Sakura and Naruto both gave me reassuring nods. "Sasuke-kun had a dislocated shoulder from when he was tossed through the door by Itachi and a concussion, but I healed that. Naruto and Jiraiya were fine from the start, and I had a minor head wound and sprained ankle, but that's healed too. I fixed Nee-san's neck, leg and arm as best as I could but…well, broken bones are difficult to heal completely, so unfortunately, you're going to have to refrain from using your arm for a while, or at least until a senior medic sees you."
Sakura gave me an apologetic look, but I smiled warmly in response. "It's okay," I reassured her, and it really was. Sure I had to keep my dominant arm wrapped up and in a sling for a while, but I could deal. More importantly, to my relief no one was seriously injured...at least I think that was what Sakura said. She spoke a little quicker than normal, so I had a bit of trouble following her.
My good mood was interrupted by a loud thump from the closet.
"Shit! I think it ate through Ero-sennin's seal already!" swore Naruto as he scrambled towards the closet. But before he could make it, the closet door bashed open and THE SWORD came crawling out.
The damn thing was grinning evilly and drooling as it pointed its 'head' in my direction as if sniffing me out.
"Oh shit!" I swore as the sword swiftly dragged itself over to my bedside like some sort of weird scaly pet. I got the distinct impression that the crazy thing was just begging for attention.
"Um…good sword?" I stuttered.
Sakura hummed thoughtfully, "I'm pretty sure its name is Samehada."
"Oh. Um…good Samehada?" The thing purred, (or perhaps its stomach was just growling?) at me. Cautiously, I brought my hand over for a hesitant pat. The second my hand touched its rough scales, it bristled.
"Holy shit!" I swore again as I quickly pulled back my hand.
Ignoring Naruto and Sakura's alarmed questions, I observed my hand with a wince. The scales had sliced a thin line across my palm rather like a paper cut. It didn't hurt too much, but nevertheless stung.
The sword whined, yes whined, as it bristled and squirmed.
"Oh man, not you too…" I sighed as I realized what it wanted.
I hesitantly offered my hand that was beading blood and the sword immediately started licking it. Its scratchy rough tongue induced further blood flow, but didn't irritate the wound nor cause it to bleed profusely.
After a few seconds, I pulled back, and to my relief, the sword seemed satisfied with what it had got as it settled down with a wide grin.
All three of us were struck dumb, the silence was deafening.
"Did you just feed that thing your blood?" a sharp voice asked, startling all of us.
"Sasuke!"
"Sasuke-kun!"
"Temee!"
The boy ignored our exclamations, and instead warily made his way over to my bed.
Sasuke's state both troubled and reassured me. Physically, he seemed fine. His dark hair slightly dripped with water from his bath and he was flushed slightly from the heat as well. A few bruises peppered his left arm, which were not yet wrapped in their usual bandages, and there was a small cut on his face that was not yet fully healed. However, his expression worried me. Though Sasuke was never one to show many emotions, there was a dead look in his eyes as if he was constantly remembering a nightmare. Considering what had happened, I wasn't really surprised by his emotional state, just concerned.
The boy took my hand and observed it and Samehada critically, before gesturing towards Sakura whom took the hint right away and quickly healed my cut.
"Nee-chan…" Naruto mumbled as he pointed a finger accusingly at Samehada, "I think it likes you."
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A/N: Haha, how many of you saw that coming? Also, I hoped you enjoyed the chapter…Thank you to all my reviewers and readers. To the people who reviewed my last chapter, I will reply to all your reviews, it just might take a while as you guys amazingly left over a hundred reviews! I can't believe I'm over 900 reviews! Thank you all so much, especially Thomas Drovin who has been editing this story.
Also, I'm very sorry for the hiatus I had to go on. Just…a lot has happened and people needed my help.
On my profile, there is a poll that I thought would be fun to do. Check it out if you're interested. Also, out of curiosity, who is your favorite anime/manga character? Mine is Natsume Takashi from Natsume Yuujinchou.
Finally, (sorry for the long note) extras! One for 800 and 900 reviews!
Sasuke's POV
Sasuke gritted his teeth and trembled in a combination of rage and frustration. He felt so helpless, pathetic and most of all completely out of his depth. Naruto was out of chakra, and Fei was the hostage of that man.
Even though he'd decided to temporarily put aside his revenge to complete his mission and protect his teammates, Sasuke didn't have a clue as to how to go about this task. Panic was rising up, threatening another explosion of anger and it was only Sakura touch that kept him fairly grounded.
Then Itachi had to go and drag a kunai across Fei's neck. Sasuke's blood boiled and Sakura seemed affected as well as her fingers dug into his arm. He felt his curse mark throb, but didn't care. If it meant that he'd finally be able to protect someone from that man, he'd do anything.
"Wait! You need me alive don't you? Let her go, or I'll kill myself!" Sasuke's head snapped up at Naruto's abrupt and truthfully ridiculous declaration.
'What the heck is that idiot doing?' He thought to himself. Naruto couldn't really think that anyone would actually believe he was serious about that threat.
"Don't you remember what Kakashi-sensei said, Sakura-chan? Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their mission are worse than trash."
'What? Mission?' Sasuke mentally started as he realized what Naruto was planning.
The whole situation was reminiscent of Kakashi's lesson. He remembered Kakashi holding a kunai to his throat and ordering Sakura to kill Naruto or he'd kill him.
The final lesson: those you break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.
Subtly changing the message was Naruto's way of setting the stage for the plan while also cluing him and Sakura in. Sometimes Sasuke wondered if Naruto really was an idiot, or if he was just pretending to be one.
As Sasuke dashed over to Naruto and took him 'hostage' he met Sakura's eyes. A flash of understanding assured him that all three of them were on the same page.
"Sakura. Remember our mission," Sasuke ordered as he fingered the kunai in his hand. The exploding tag attached to its ring was carefully hidden in his palm. The plan was simple. Distract Itachi enough so that he'd drop Fei. While Naruto and Sasuke would divert his attention Sakura would do as ordered. 'Remember the mission' was his way of telling her to protect Fei.
Plan B was the kunai. In the case Sakura wouldn't make it out in time with Fei, he'd have Naruto throw the kunai, setting off the explosion tag. Hopefully it would alert the stupid perverted sennin.
The second Itachi flashed over and grabbed Sasuke's wrist, He dropped the kunai, which Naruto quickly caught, and allowed Naruto to scamper free with it. Avoiding his brother's eyes, Sasuke pivoted sharply breaking Itachi's hold and threw a kick, which Itachi easily stopped. Sasuke's eyes flickered over towards Sakura and Fei and mentally cursed to see that they hadn't made it.
"Naruto, kunai!" Sasuke yelled before a fist in his gut forced him to turn his full attention back to Itachi.
There was a shout of warning from Naruto before the exploding tag took out a whole wall. If that didn't attract Jiraiya's attention, Sasuke didn't know what would. Distracted by the image of Sakura and Fei lying motionless on the ground, Sasuke was grabbed by Itachi and thrown harshly through the door.
"F-ck…" He swore as he struggled to stay conscious. Sandaled feet fell into his line of vision.
"Jiraiya, you're f-cking late." Sasuke hissed out to the white-haired man before succumbing to darkness.
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Extra: Pocahontas
"You think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don't know?
You don't know..."
Fay sang under her breath while searching for firewood. All this nature around her was reminding her of Pocahontas. She was careful to keep her voice down however as she wasn't the best singer and it would be rather embarrassing if she was heard. Not to mention, Samehada's presence was rather...awkward. The creepy sentient sword quietly crawled after her everywhere like some sort of shadow.
Fay's song faded off as she became troubled by an unruly branch that refused to come out of a bush. She reached out as if to grab the branch with both hands, but her sling constricted her movement, thus reminding her of her right arm's state. Scowling at her useless arm, she instead strengthened the grip on her left hand and dug in her heels as she pulled.
"Come on you stupid branch!" she growled, stubbornly refusing to give up or ask for help. The tender new skin of her palm throbbed in protest, but Fay just frowned and gripped tighter. The branch creaked ominously when, with a harsh snap, it broke and for a minute she tethered, trying fruitlessly to regain her balance.
"Oh Shit!" she swore as she pin wheeled her one good arm. The stick went flying out of her hand and landed point up a few feet to her left. Fay felt herself fall backwards. Screwing her eyes shut, she stiffened herself for impact, but to her relief someone managed to steady her in time. The glimpse of orange she saw helped her realize that her knight in orange armor was Naruto.
Sighing in relief, Fay turned around to thank her savior, but was startled and dismayed to see all three preteens and even Jiraiya studying her with raised eyebrows. Even Samehada looked amused with its toothy grin.
"I…I got wood…" Fay offered weakly, as she reddened. Chuckling, Jiraiya patted her on the head, but quickly pulled back when Sakura practically snarled at him like an angry pink wolf.
"Nee-chan, what song was that?" Naruto asked as the group made their way back to their campsite.
Fay internally groaned and awkwardly shrugged with one shoulder. 'Ah, they heard me didn't they,' she thought with a sigh.
Sakura sidled up to Fay and gave her best puppy dog eyes as she asked, "Could you translate it, please? I'm really curious to know what kinds of songs you sing in your country."
Even Sasuke perked up slightly in interest.
'Damn it…' If it weren't for Sasuke showing a response, Fay would have probably refused, but she really did want the boy out of his funk.
"Hard to translate…" Fay protested weakly, but the preteens and even Jiraiya were quick to assure her that they didn't care. Sighing, Fay tried desperately to gather up her meager vocabulary for what she knew would be a complete massacre of Colors of the Wind.
"Um…You think you can take what dirt you stand on. The world is dead rock you can buy. But I know all rock, and tree and…dog? Has a living, has chakra, has a name."
Fay's brain was throbbing in pain by the time she stuttered her first stanza. Translating was a lot harder than she thought it would be. The ninjas looked completely bewildered as well.
After a minute or so of silence, where the ninjas tried to understand the song, Fay hesitantly asked, "I sing more?"
The preteens exchanged looks before Sakura nodded encouragingly while Naruto and Sasuke just shrugged.
"You think only people are people, are people whose face is same and smart like you. Uh…But if you follow in…paw print of new person you learn many stuff you didn't know…you didn't know?"
"I see," hummed Naruto with a knowing nod.
"You understood that?" asked Sasuke with a disbelieving glance that Sakura and Jiraiya mirrored.
Naruto let out a relieved laugh, "Whew! I thought that I was the only one who didn't understand a word. Hehe…"
'I should have known…' everyone but Naruto thought with a mental groan.
A/N: Thanks again!