Nightmare Arc.
Uzu no Musume.
Chapter 24: Unwell.
The photo album she'd received weeks ago on her ninth birthday laid in her lap.
She had tried to avoid it as long as she could, but it seemed the wall she'd built had finally broken. For Sasuke's well being she'd temporally moved into the apartment she'd insisted he be given until the Uchiha district could be cleaned up.
She had point blank refused to allow Sasuke to enter the district until she made sure it was alright for his return.
She didn't necessarily like the idea of Sasuke living in the deserted district alone in the future, but he was determined that he wanted to stay there.
Be it to remind himself of the safety he'd once felt there, or to simmer in his hatred of his brother, Naru didn't know.
Being shinobi they worked fast, and they'd already had a week (give or take) before she woke up to begin removing the bodies and cleaning away the evidence of the massacre.
The funeral would take longer to arrange than a normal one, she'd learned soon after being released from the hospital, because there were so many bodies.
Itachi had also slashed the eyes of those he killed, probably to stop grave robbers from thinking they were going to get a Sharingan without any consequences.
But she digressed; the point was the album she was almost robotically flipping through.
Every picture made a scar in her heart that much more prominent. They were all of dead people... Shisui, Koji, Mikoto-sensei... those that weren't dead hated her, betrayed her, or was never that close to her to begin with.
Though Sasuke had become a bit more... open, for lack of better word, around her. At the same time he kept his distance. He had begun to change from the boy she once knew. He was more guarded already, and showed a hate for any mention of his brother.
No matter what Naruto tried she couldn't bring herself to hate Itachi, but she was angry at him nonetheless.
What worried her the most about Sasuke was his desire to train so much. Whatever Itachi had done to him before she'd gotten there had screwed with him mentally.
The worse part about it was she had no idea what Itachi had done, as the duck-butt boy wouldn't talk about it in detail. All he said when she asked was that he had to get stronger.
"Naruto."
Naruto blinked, the page having stayed on the picture of her and Itachi the day she'd teased him with pocky. It seemed so long ago now, that she'd tied a piece of pocky to a stick, sat in a tree branch above the older boy and dangled it above him teasingly.
It was one of her last happy memories.
As Naruto looked up at the boy standing in the doorway of her guest room she realized she'd been crying the entire time. She hadn't made a sound, but tears had fallen anyways. A few had even landed on the photo she'd been staring at, dazed.
"Sasuke-teme," she muttered, taking a deep breath. "You should knock."
Sasuke didn't do much more than grunt, but she noticed a hint of concern in his eyes, and one of his fist was clinched at his side. He never made mention of how that door had been open the entire time.
"You've been crying, again," he muttered, and Naruto closed her photo album with a snap.
"I... I had something in my eyes... that's all," she said, placing the album beside her on her bed and wiping her eyes as if it would erase the redness and tear stains.
"You loved him didn't you..."
Naruto winced at the way Sasuke hissed out 'him' as if it were the most poisonous word in the human language.
She sighed.
"I loved the entire clan one way or another. There may have been those who barely tolerated me, but there were many who welcomed me as if I was an Uchiha already. I'd never felt so at home or as if I belonged before I met Koji and the other Uchiha. Before Mikoto-sensei and your family."
Naruto looked over at her dresser which had a picture of Team Mikoto framed on it.
"I did love Itachi - " Sasuke twitched with anger at the name, but said nothing. "- at first I thought it was only platonic. I was unsure if I would be able to see him as more, even after I agreed to the arranged marriage. I was wrong though, I realized, confronted with him that day that my feelings had begun to change to something more even before I realized it myself. Maybe because I'm still young, but I've never really been the best with emotions. Before I was four I never really felt much beyond loneliness, and negative emotions as a whole. Even those confused me."
"Hn... I'm sorry," he whispered so low that she almost didn't hear it.
Naruto watched with wide eyes as the other nine year old left. She was more than surprised, after all, Uchiha's rarely ever apologized. For Sasuke... well she couldn't remember the last time she'd heard those words from him. If ever, come to think of it.
Looking at the hair pin she'd sat on the dresser earlier that morning before taking a shower, Naruto sighed. The Uchiha symbol stood out proudly on the hair pin, the gift she'd treasured, given to her by Itachi himself.
She couldn't bring herself to part with it, though she'd felt odd knowing out of what once were dozens of people wearing that same symbol, only Sasuke and she remained.
"I'm confused Itachi... why did you do it?" she whispered to herself, head bowed.
Vivid cerulean-azure blue eyes stared up at him, blood flowing from the side of her mouth, and skin paling visibly from its usual tanned tone.
"Why... why did you do – " the blade in her chest was pushed deeper, twisting, and blood splattered from her mouth as she fell to her knees. "Tra-traitor."
The sword was pulled free and the blonde feel to the side, hair falling around and under her as her eyes faded to a nearly gray-blue, dull and lifeless compared to before, and stared blankly ahead.
Outside Fire Country, a boy about thirteen or fourteen shot up from his sleep, eyes wide and spinning with his Sharingan. Placing a hand on his forehead, his eyes dropping, he tried to shake the dream from his minds eye.
He'd never gone in with the intent to kill Naruto or even Koji if he could help it – he'd known Naruto and Koji were supposed to be training and were always late to return.
He'd miscalculated.
Just as he'd misjudged when his brother would return home from the Academy. He'd taken measures to make sure he was late, but apparently he underestimated his brother's desire to get home.
His parents; well, he wished it hadn't had to turn out like it had. Unfortunately it was what it was, and through everything he'd always have three regrets that laid with the harm he'd left with Naruto, his brother and Koji.
He knew Koji was dead, his Crow summons had returned with this information, and he also knew Naruto had been a coma for about a week.
It wasn't long ago the nightmares had begun. Sometimes they were of his clan, those he'd been forced to kill, and at others it was just Naruto.
"You love her... don't you boy?" a dark voice asked from the shadows.
Itachi gritted his teeth, and looked over to see the man stepping from the shadows the voice had come from.
"What do you want Madara?" he asked, his tone as emotionless as his face.
Madara chuckled.
"You know, Uzumaki women have always attracted the Uchiha clan – of course, it's not easy to catch their attention, they're a feisty breed," Madara said, smirking. "I'd say killing her, probably not the smartest idea you've ever had."
"It was reflex... I didn't mean to hurt her," Itachi muttered under breath, but he knew the older man would hear him.
He glared over at Madara.
"Are you done? Besides... it's a moot point. Any chance we had died when I was ordered to kill the clan," Itachi said, standing up.
Madara watched as the boy left, a slight smirk. The boy reminded him a bit of himself at that age, maybe that had been one of the reasons why he'd chosen Itachi over anyone else in the clan.
The fact he was Izuna's descendant... well that helped make his mind up as well he supposed. But while Itachi did remind Madara of himself in his youth, he was also very different.
At times he saw more of Izuna's personality, which was an annoyance to be reminded of. He'd spent a long time trying to forget his past, but sometimes it snuck back in.
Itachi wondered around the area. Coming across a natural hot spring he sat down on a large rock, and looked up at the still dark sky.
He'd say it was probably rather early in the morning, between three and six in the morning.
Ninja were usually taught to tell time simply by looking at the sky, in case there was no other means of doing so. It wasn't something taught in the academy though – something he'd always thought odd – but by the clans to their children.
He remembered helping his mother teach Sasuke and Naruto. The both of them had made a competition out of it.
He wasn't sure when his feelings for Naruto had begun to change from friendly and platonic to what it had become.
Within the last year, he knew that much, but as he'd told Madara – he'd burned that bridge when he'd massacred his clan on orders that hadn't even truly come from the Hokage.
Foolish, he thought to himself.
Looking down at the water of the hot spring he sighed.
"I'm sorry, Naru," he muttered.
A few days later, almost two complete weeks since the massacre of the Uchiha clan, Naruto stood at the funeral, unable to cry anymore.
She'd already cried as many tears as she could for the family that had taken her in, even if she still lived independently in her apartment.
The same could be said for Kasumi, her last remaining friend and teammate, who she could see standing as far away from her as possible.
She never could tell exactly who the tears she cried were for, the Uchiha or the loss of her last friend and teammate. At least Mizumaru still came around her, though rarely since she also had Kasumi to try and knock some sense into.
It didn't seem to be working. In the end the ninkin was loyal to her partner, all Inuzuka dogs were.
She understood Kasumi not wanting to be around her, but at the same time she couldn't believe her friend was being so selfish. So inconsiderate, so stupid!
Did she think just because she was a jinchūriki she could beat an ANBU captain? She was good, great for a freshly made chūnin, but she was no super-girl.
She had no idea how to consciously draw on Kyuubi's chakra – nor did she really want to. With her new bloodline she might not have to depend on it as much when she did learn to use the Bijū chakra.
Her memories were a bit disoriented as it was, there was a lot she was missing from the last year, some tracing back six months.
She had most her memories, but Tsunade-sama had said trauma like what she suffered and the damage done to her body could cause temporary memory loss, or even some memories to be pushed back or suppressed.
They were still there, but they had to be brought out by situations which differed from person to person.
"Naruto-chan," a voice said, drawing her from her thoughts.
She knew it wasn't Sasuke, he was a bit closer to the front, looking as depressed and emotionless as she herself seemed. Looking to her left and up she saw the light brown eyes of Tsunade-sama.
"Tsunade-sama," she muttered, nodding.
Tsunade frowned a bit. Hiruzen had told her how Naruto usually was.
She was a rather good mix of both her parents, loud and outgoing much like Kushina (she even had a love for pranks when she was younger and still did occasionally) but calm and observant much like Minato.
Like both her parents she was stubborn, compassionate about many things, and intelligent. She was after all considered a prodigy of her generation.
This depressed version was nothing like the Naruto he knew, and it worried him. It was why he'd asked her a simple request.
Take Naruto out of the village for a while, train her even (apparently she struggled with training her chakra control) and give her time to heal.
It had taken a day or two, some advice from Shizune and some saké before she agreed.
"I'm sorry, about your loss," Tsunade said, as cliché as it was. "I wanted to ask you something."
"Yes?" Naruto asked, blinking.
"This place... it holds a lot of memories for you and the Hokage and I think it would do you some good to get away for a little while. He asked if I would agree to take you with me when I leave tomorrow. Just for a few months, and I could train you a bit – at least in your chakra control, maybe help you in your Taijutsu."
Naruto blinked again, and her lips quirked up in a tiny smile.
"A training trip?" she asked.
"Yeah," Tsunade answered. "So, what do you say?"
"Why though, why would you want to train me?" Naruto asked, and then frowned a bit. "It's not because Jiji ordered..."
Tsunade shook her head quickly, sighing.
"No, brat, it's nothing like that. I told you I knew your parents, I was close to Kushina, your mother. I actually trained her a bit myself. There isn't a day that goes by I don't wish I was in the village during that attack, maybe I could have saved her from her injuries, but I wasn't and I can't change what happened. Kushina was like a daughter to me, I at least owe it to her to look out for you when I can."
Naruto smiled more, though it didn't reach her eyes, nor was the spark that was usually in the cerulean-azure orbs present.
"Sure, Baachan, I'll go, but only for a few months," she said, and looked over to where Sasuke stood.
She didn't want to leave him for too long, who knew what Sasuke would do.
As it was, she was becoming increasingly more worried about him by the day and he had begun pulling away from her slowly.
He'd moved back to the now cleaned up Uchiha District for one, which worried her even more. He shouldn't subject himself to those sort of memories day in and day out.
There wasn't much she could do about that, the only thing she could do was be there as a friend and hope Itachi hadn't driven his brother to the breaking point.
"I'm not old, don't call me that," Tsunade grumbled, rolling her eyes but on the inside she was a bit relieved.
There had been a moment, at least, where she'd seen what Hiruzen had been talking about.