Insanity's Slip

Chapter Twenty Four

By Boejangles

Smoke, crisp thick smoke, was the first thing that assaulted a young blonde's senses. His nose twitched slightly before his eyes opened to see the yellow flames licking at the sky.

"You are awake. I was so worried after you fell into another fit," A soft voice spoke from his left. He turned his head to look at the girl that had a smile on her face, but held hurt in her eyes.

"Sakura, what happened?" asked the weak voice of the smaller boy.

"Oh Naruto, you were having these terrible fits. I thought that you were going to die. Then…" she trailed off looking into the night past the blonde's head.

Worried, Naruto prodded for his teammate to continue, "Then what?"

As if it hurt her to say anything more, Sakura continued in a weak voice, "It was like you were possessed, Naruto. You had a crazy look in your eyes. You, it, felt evil. Naruto, you tore apart three people and were completely calm. You threw Sasuke into a tree. Then you fell into another fit, only this time you were coughing up blood."

Seeing the fear in Sakura's eyes, he turned away from her and hid his own worry. He had done those horrible things. He had killed not one, but three people. He had thrown his brother into a tree. Realization hit, he had thrown Sasuke into a tree. He was going to die- Sasuke was going to kill him. Why hadn't he already killed him? Was it to keep witnesses out of it?

"Is he here?" Naruto asked his pink haired teammate referring to his brother.

Sakura nodded, before realizing the boy wasn't looking at her. "He is on the other side of camp fixing the food."

Nodding in acknowledgement the blond stood up. "I need to go talk to him." Naruto didn't wait for a response; instead he located his brother and made his way towards him. Sitting next to the older boy, he bowed his head towards the ground. "Aniki, I am so sorry. I don't know what happened. Please forgive me."

The dark haired boy continued working on the food without acknowledging his brother had said a word.

Naruto hung his head lower feeling horrible. "Please believe me, I am so, so, so, so sorry. I never would hurt you purposely. You know that, Aniki. How can I make you believe I am sorry"?

Sasuke finally turned to address his younger brother. "What you did was wrong. However, it seems you realize that. You should be glad I need you to finish this test. After we are done, you will receive punishment. Now, leave me."

"I understand, Aniki," the blond spoke quietly before giving a small bow and rushing away from the older boy.

The ten minutes that passed before food was ready went by in tense silence. When Sasuke came over and handed his two teammates their food, Sakura took her chance to break the silence.

"Oh, this is much too much food for me. Naruto, you seem to have less. Would you mind trading with me"?

Looking down at his food, the blond nodded and offered his meal.

"Sakura, I'd keep your own meal and let Naruto eat his," Sasuke spoke without looking up from his food.

With a laugh, Sakura shook her head, "No, I don't want to waste food. Plus, Naruto all ways has a bigger appetite then me." She took the blonde's offered plate and gave him her own.

The rest of the meal went by in silence, everyone's minds in other places, before Sakura made a funny face and darted away from the camp.

"I warned her," The older boy mumbled when the sound of heaving entered the camp.

Naruto looked at where his sister figure had run off to before turning to his brother with horror in his eyes. "You, you poisoned her."

"Actually, I poisoned you, she was the one stupid enough to trade food," the older boy spoke completely calm. "I'm going to bed; tomorrow we will finish our journey to the tower."

Still shook up, Naruto rushed to where Sakura had run off. Once he found her, he kneeled next to her and rubbed circles on her back. "I am so sorry," the smaller boy whispered.

The pink haired girl gagged on the fluid moving up her throat as she wondered why the blond was sorry. The food must have not been cooked right, or whatever the blond had was making her sick. Even then it wouldn't be his fault. He hadn't chosen to be sick. She lost her train of thought as more of the vile liquid made its way through her.

Having both scrolls, team seven traveled in a straight line towards the tower. They were surprised to meet very little resistance, and were able to make it to the large stone building before the sun began to set. However, they were not the first team, nor the second. In fact, multiple teams had already made their way to the tower. The older members of team seven were actually surprised that the third member had remained in good health.

On the other hand, Naruto was shocked that they had been in the forest nearly five days. When the sun finally set into the horizon the test would be over.

It was only a few hours until the burning globe disappeared from view. Most teams took this time to rest, eat, and discuss how the test went. The calm was broken when a jounin coughed and made his way onto the stage. He then blew a whistle, so that all eyes were focused on him.

"Now that I have your attention, it appears that we have too many candidates left. So, we are going to have one on one battles to eliminate half of you. Please direct your attention to the board that will inform you who you will be fighting."

All eyes turned to the flashing board waiting to see what it would land on.

A/N: All right, what do you think? I ended here, so that I could get your input on who you want to see fight in the prelims. I have a rough sketch, but if there is any fight any of you really want to see and it works with what I have planned, then I will see what I can do. Basically, I know who I want to pass on to the next round of the test, but which person to fail fights which person to win can be shuffled around. There is only one fight that cannot be changed, but you will have to wait and see which match up that will be. So, tell me what you want to see. Along with what you thought of this chapter, likes, dislikes, complaints, critique, praise, anything you might have to say. I look forward to hearing from you.