Chapter 25: Russian Roulette.
Pairings: Naru/Sasu...duh.
Rating: K-T (looonng gone), M-NC-17
Disclaimer: I do not own the sheer genius "Naruto", Shippuden or other. The honours go to Masashi Kishimoto (lucky f***ing duck -_-) and his genius brain that created this masterpiece.
Summary: Remember that summer camp you went to; that quaint place out in the woods, by a lake, sitting around a campfire telling ghost stories and eating s'mores? Well this summer school sure as hell isn't that. Three months, Sasuke, teenage delinquents, illegal alcohol, prescription drugs, annoying shrinks, escape plans, a shitzu from hell, and new relationships; welcome to camp.
A/N: You do realize that we are a serious set of perverts right? ...And NO, I'm not a chemist. DO NOT ATTEMPT ANY OF THE PROCEDURES DONE IN THIS CHAPTER. Not reliable if you get chemical burns or end up in a wheelchair...just sayin'.
A/N2: Clichés abound...oh and slightly OOC Sasuke.
**** Teacher's Lounge, 9 a.m. *****
"Kakashi," Kurenai said holding up the staff lounge phone and wiggling it at him, "... call for you."
The psychoanalyst shot a grin to Iruka, crossed the floor and reached out for the handle, "Hatake here."
"Kakashi, it's Aoba," the police officer sounded tense. "...we have a situation down here...and I think it kind of involves you."
The silver haired psychoanalyst went very still; pale hand clutching the phone till his knuckles went white and bloodless. Wait...what the hell had happened? "What is it?"
"Remember that kid you were searching for...a Deva Yahiko...well, he's been found dead this morning; floated up in the canal, throat cleanly slashed."
(*)(*)(*)
Kakashi silently stared at the cold corpse through the glass window as the mortician finished the autopsy and pulled off her mask. With a sibilant hiss the pneumatic doors opened the doctor stepped out.
"Well," she, a pretty young auburn French woman, ironically named Aurelia Rousseau(1), said while peeling off her gloves, "... he's dead all right... éteint terminé... no mystery there, carotid arteries cleanly sliced, cause of death; exsanguination."
He faced her grimly. "There was nothing else, no hairs, fibres or fluids...nothing that can be used to track down the killer?"
"None of those no," she shook her head auburn tendrils shifting minutely, then her grey eyes lit up, "...maisoui monsieur, there was something else...something strange... "she admitted pulling out from her pocket a small sealed transparent bag containing a card. "It was tucked in his jacket... I have no clue as to why."
The shrink took up the package and scrutinized it, it looked like a game card but embossed on it was an elegant black rose entwining a double scythe.
A calling card, extremely cliché, borderline Joker-esque, but it was still a clue; a clue that possibly could be traced.
"May I...?"
She fanned him off, "C'estbien, it's the handsome policeman's anyways."
"Merci." He said leaving the room and strode up to the pacing policeman, "Aoba...about that criminal database..."
(*)(*)(*)
Pulling off the damp dust mask, Sasuke viewed the harmless looking pale blue solution lying in the bottom of the metal crucible; pale slightly concentrated cyanide solution.
It had taken some doing but after altering the correct chemical formula by using cyanide pellets and some sulphuric acid, he had made a double threat; the reaction had produced a twenty millilitres of the solution itself and had produced nearly lethal hydrogen cyanide gas(2).
Sasuke had made sure to capture the escaping gas in the now galvanized black half of his double compartment canteen by tightly sealing the container's mouth around the tube and doubly binding it with duct tape; the liquid was going to rest safely in the other blue half.
Sighing he rolled his shoulders, clasped his hands behind him and pulled, tense tendons and muscles stretched producing a deep moan of relief. An extremely faint tendril of the escaped gas tickled at his nose, burning the tender passages until he sneezed.
Tsunade was going to literally kill him if she detected any more chemicals in his system.
Speaking of kill... well not kill exactly... he needed a test subject...a guinea pig. Casting around his mind a vision of a small furry, demented creature slapped him and he cringed slightly, scrap Tsunade... Naruto was the one who was going to kill him.
(*)(*)(*)
Black eyes watched silently as the pup's eyes bopped at him. Five minutes ago Sasuke, after prying sharp fanged jaws open with a pair of dull pliers, had forced the Tantualla berries concoction down the puppy's throat.
But now, seeing the confused dazed eyes, guilt was crawling through him. The only concession he could make was to run his fingers through surprisingly soft fur, "I'm sorry about this you half-possessed, demon spawn, alien life-form ...but it is very necessary."
The pup looked at him dully, fluffy tail drooping. The minute the eyes closed and the body went deathly still Sasuke started the watch's timer. Pressing his fingers at the pulse point on the pup's body he grimly noted that every lifelike bodily function had completely ceased; just like the medical journal had described. He softly shifted the pup's eyelids to look at his pupils; completely dilated.
Well that was a step in the right direction.
If everything went right the animal should be in a coma state for just twenty minutes. If not... well... he would cross that bridge when he came to it.
He sat down to wait; breathing slowly; hoping the kit would wake up. His mind strayed to Itachi, he hoped he and Kisame was all right now, in the peace and quiet his alabaster lids bopped.
Sasuke was ungratefully jerked into wakefulness when sharp fangs sunk into his hand. Damnit, he had drifted off. The pup's amber eyes were staring at him as if saying, 'What-the-hell-is-wrong-with-this-idiot.'
"Don't judge me, you menace." He murmured checking the watch, twenty nine minutes had passed; not exactly on trajectory but workable. "I know people who will turn you into a fur coat."
Performing a quick corporeal check on the little animal he then leaned down at eye level with the pup he stared the thing in the eye, "You've been a wonderful guinea pig...I'll get you a fresh killed rat sometime."
(*)(*)(*)
****Four p.m. The Front Quad****
"Two days..." Sasuke murmured rechecking the emergency medical kit loaded with everything from poison ivy remedy to ipecac. Satisfied he stood up strapping the loaded knapsack over his shoulder. "...wilderness survival run."
Naruto was literally hopping on his feet like an agitated bunny-rabbit. "They need to start this damn thing already; it's going to be sundown soon and we need to find camp; ya'know away from the local wildlife... I mean it not like we have a damn tent... or a gun."
"No worries... with that face of yours you might just fit right in." Sasuke teased.
"Ha-fucking-ha." Naruto grunted crouching down and shifting through his own equipment pack. "...boar-hide rope, check... a Swiss army knife, check, canteens, flashlight, compass, binoculars, tinder box and matches, flares and canned food, check, check and check."
"Team Seven: Uchiha and Uzumaki; front and centre!" Ibiki shouted. They had barely reached the drill sergeant when the scarred man slapped a tightly rolled map into Naruto's hand.
"You," the man said eyes shifting slyly to Sasuke then back, "I know can be trusted to read map's coordinates correctly. Get to the meeting point by sundown in exactly forty-eight hours or you will fail this exercise; understand."
"Yes, Sir." The Uzumaki affirmed collecting the scroll. Morino grunted and walked off to the next team in line.
Naruto unrolled the map, scanned it and whistled lowly, "Damn...this more than fifty klicks through the mountain range...over a gorge, a river and through a valley...forty-eight hours...this is nearly impossible, five hours sleep at best."
"I'm not surprised we got the impossible one." Sasuke snorted hoisting the pack to settle more firmly across his shoulder, "He does hate me remember."
The blond shrugged rolling up the map, "I said 'nearly' impossible. It's not child's play but compared to avoiding Siberian hunting wolves on a breaking ice shelf in twenty below zero temp, it's doable."
"You...ran...from...Siberian wolves?" Sasuke asked incredulously. "Why?"
"Rescue mission," the blond said idly, "One of the army's top nuclear physicist was trapped into a fault zone with a disintegrating ice shelf; me and this guy name Leo were chosen to rescue him." He winced, "...frostbite in Russian winter is not something pretty."
The call to start rang out. Sasuke glanced up at the sky to the deepening dusk. "We need to go."
"Yeah..." Naruto agreed, scanning the trail, "I'll lead."
(*)(*)(*)
They pushed hard and covered good amount of ground in the following five hours; almost seventeen kilometres. The forest floor, Sasuke thought irritably swatting away another cloud of flies, was a trial sent from the deepest part of the sulphuric netherworld.
Thriving with thick crawling vines and dense underbrush that made it their mission to trip Sasuke up with almost every step, brambles and thorns of every size and nature threatening to stab his eyes out, and bugs the size of albatrosses flying around creating an incessant and annoying buzz in his ear he was dying to see the end of it.
He preserved; though not without grumbling at the sight of Naruto moving through the blasted place like a seasoned figgin' deer.
Until they reached the river gorge.
Sasuke was completely taken aback by the likes of a river this high in the mountains had managed to carve a ravine so deep in the hillside. The chasm was about fifteen feet wide but that didn't stop him from hearing the deafening rush of water and seeing the wispy fog flittering around the jagged basalt rocks which were framing each side of the chasm.
"Damn." Naruto cursed almost silently.
Sasuke's mind was then busy calculating if there was another, circularly route they could take. "Is there any ot-" he started to ask but shut up as Naruto was already unrolling the coil of rope from his backpack.
"No teme." He answered tightly quickly inferring what Sasuke was about to ask, "This is the quickest way; it'll save us ten to twelve kilos of hiking time and I'm betting that over that ridge is where we might find good camping ground."
The Uchiha glanced up at the steadily darkening sky. "Fine, but how the hell are you going to-"
Fancy tying paired with a calculated toss, a double repeat and behold, a makeshift bridge was formed before the raven's astonished eyes. Naruto tested the strength and nodded, "Not perfect but usable."
Sasuke just shook his head, "So who's going over first?"
"You are." He replied, "Make sure to hold on to the lead rope as best as possible...and just...don't look down."
"Got it." Sasuke said securing the pack with double lashing around his waist. Sideways he stepped on the lower rope and gripped the higher one with both hands.
Then it happened; the fucking acrophobia.
Each step over the chasm made a fuzzy haze congeal over his eyes. He mentally cursed; he was a genius, he knew psychology; he should have damn well found some way to kick this stupid fear. Breathing deeply through his nose he looked up to spot the end of the rope; it was less than seven feet away; good.
He stepped again... and then it all went to hell.
His right foot lost contact with the rope and for less than a microsecond he glanced down and went rigid. Eyes shot back up to the sky but his mind was replaying in high def the image of turbulent white water and sharp black rocks.
His vision went extremely hazy; cold was climbing up his skin. He knew these symptoms well, he was about to faint. He wasn't going to punk out this time; especially when seventy feet above watery death. He grabbed the rope like the lifeline it was and moved; one step at a time.
One foot, two...five...
He stepped off the rope, teetered for a second trying to regulate his heartbeat. Dimly he heard the blond step on the ledge behind him, sighed and collapsed.
(*)(*)(*)
****Police Station; Iwagakure.****
"This," Aoba said pushing the card over the desk, "has been a mystery for thirty-six years. We've seen it just thrice in the past three decades; first time was before I was stationed here; the report said a unidentified middle age man just mysteriously showed up dead with this taped to his forehead, the second, another man, showed up hanging to electricity wire after a combined university based psychotherapy convention in Sunagakure with this stuffed into his pocket and the third time an young medical aid in Kohonagakure, each time with just the card on a corpses... no other clues to indicate origin. The only thing definite is that they were all men...no women."
Kakashi sighed feeling a migraine pulsing in the back of his head.
"...but on the last one we found a partial fingerprint."
Kakashi's head shot up, "You found a print?"
"Yes." He nodded, "Problem was it didn't match any records we had on any of the five countries combined criminal records, voting I.D's or censuses."
"The killer's off the map...underground." Kakashi recognized.
"Exactly."
An idea sprung to Kakashi; it was a longshot in the dark but maybe it was worth it. "Aoba, may I see the records of each murder."
"We did have our resident criminal behavioural profiler take a look at them," the man said brow quirking getting up, "...but maybe you can do a better job at it though."
Kakashi was tense. "I sincerely hope so."
(*)(*)(*)
****Forest, Iwagakure****
He woke up to heat. Disorientated and slightly confused Sasuke found himself looking up through a canopy of broad leaves to a clear star-riddled sky.
He shifted and the foundation he was on shifted madly. Sasuke gripped about him heart pounding. He then realized he was suspended between two trees on a hammock like structure made from the two thermo-blankets they had brought with them. Looking over the edge he spotted a blazing campfire, both of their camouflage packs shoved up against the base of one of the trees.
Naruto was absent.
Tuning out the dull hum of cicadas, Sasuke leaned back and he silently stared into the sky, memories of freezing cold water, getting dizzy and fainting like a friggin' girl bombarded him. Second...this was the second time that the blond had basically saved his life.
Seemed Naruto was superhuman for the only way he could've gotten where he was, was obviously because Naruto had carried him, pack and all. Blankly staring at the sky Sasuke felt something ephemeral but like titanium wrap around his chest. He laughed hollowly; the bond with Naruto had just doubled in strength.
"You're up."
He shifted silently to face the silently approaching blond and an absurd memory of a fairy tale surfaced into his head; the similarity made his snicker softly, "Seeing you walk like that, I remember my mother telling me stories about ninjas." Sasuke said staring at the fire's cracking embers.
"Yeah?" Naruto asked scanning the sky.
"Yes...she said her clan descended from ninjas..." he snorted, "... told me stories about exceptional warriors who could literally do anything; breathe fire, summon monstrous beasts, fight for days, they even controlled the elements, wind, water, earth... even lightning...I would listen for hours."
"Cool," the blond murmured, tossing Sasuke a wrapped apple, "...growing up the most stories I heard were mission reports of mysterious disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle.
"Never...not even once?" he asked nibbling at the sweet fruit.
"No; properties of a messed up childhood..." he replied while sharpening a stout de-leaved branch, "... but military bases do have localized legends, in Hawaii they tell about ..."
Sasuke leaned back on a tree trunk silently listening to the deep dusk of Naruto's near hypnotic voice relating legends of fiery Hawaiian goddesses, Mayan cannibals and Egyptian mummies was strangely ... soothing. Sasuke focused on the here and now, not miles away on the criminal boss, the C.I.A spy, the attacks on his brother or the crime he was about to commit.
"Give me a minute, baka." Sasuke said getting up to find a private place to void his bladder.
"Sure."
The raven walked about ten feet into the brush when the sound of gurgling water assaulted his ears. Finishing doing his business he searched around and stopped when the moist air was turned to slightly sulphuric scented steam.
A hot spring.
Perfect. Sasuke closed his eyes and breathed deeply; it had to be kismet or something. He needed some serious relaxation right now. Completely forgetting about the blond twenty feet away he stripped to his underwear, secured his clothes on the nearest rock and waded feet first into the warm water.
Utopia.
Every muscle in his body went lax like a deflated balloon. Tension he didn't even know off seeped out of his body like trapped oil. Alabaster lids slipped half closed over black eyes; his hair lost its stiff shape and damply fell to his shoulders in obsidian curtain. Time passed, he couldn't remember being so tranquil, ever. His mind slipped away until:
"You could've given me a heads up, ya'know." Naruto's slightly amused voice from the edge of the pool.
"It's called 'privacy'." He retorted opening his deep smouldering eyes a smidgen not realizing the tendrils of steam framing his angular face, and the silvery moonlight dancing over his pale skin made him look like an ethereal celestial being.
Silence. Sasuke arched a black eyebrow at Naruto's glazed over eyes.
"Dobe?"
The only response he got was the blond pulling off his clothes and wading, orange boxer clad, into the water, sinking slowly until the water was chest high and in the next moment was pressed chest-to-chest against the Uchiha.
"You shouldn't do that." Blue eyes bore into his.
"Do what?" he asked
"Dazzle people." The kiss that then followed seemed hotter than the water they were in. Sasuke didn't know if it was the heat from the water between them or the latent heat they both generated or the combination but whatever it was, it felt amazing.
Moonlight arms went up and clutched to wet tan skin. Broad callused hands dipped under, grabbed Sasuke's knees and hitched them up around a corded waist; pressing their bodies together that not even air could pass between them.
Kisses dropped down on his neck, suckling bright marks and new tender places into existence. Sasuke's fingers threated through short golden hair as the blonde's mouth then dropped down to sucking –hot and hard- at his nipples.
It had been so long Sasuke had felt this that he had partially forgotten how to reciprocate, but not this time. This time wasn't going to go on one-sided.
Pulling back he murmured against peach lips; "I'm going to do something...just roll with it."
"O...okay."
"Turn around."
Glinting in the moonlight was the dark VERITAS tattoo. Sasuke's forefinger trailed lightly over the mark for a minute, temporarily forgetting what he was going to do. Naruto shivered at the touch.
"S'uke?"
Oh, right. Trailing his hand over the strong back he paused to make sure he was in the right direction. The only reason he could do this was because of Neji who had broken a strident in-house law to teach him the Hyuuga family's secret technique. Tenketsu, pressure points, were tricky to locate if you didn't have the intricate knowledge of their location and purpose. The applicator could unlock a closed artery or send the patient into heart attack with just one touch; the best intentions in the world could be the aim but a smidgen off the results could be disastrous.
Tenketsu were connected to every part and aspect of the human body; nerves, muscles, organs, reflexes, blood circulatory systems, even libido. It was the libido part Sasuke was after now.
Left hand thumb at the base of his neck and three fingers on his right hand splayed out at the base of his back, in a twitching ear Sasuke whispered, "Enjoy." And pressed hard.
Naruto's surprised shout rang over the treetops, his whole body seemed to go into rigor mortis, hands flexing spasmodically at the hard ejection that shook his whole body.
Extremely pleased with himself Sasuke grinned.
"H...How the h...what the fuck was that?" the blond stuttered eyelids fluttering.
"Trade secret." He murmured nuzzling at the trembling shoulder, "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."
"Keep it then." Naruto replied turning around to face Sasuke and recapture his lips, "...just do it more often."
(*)(*)(*)
If there was one thing Sasuke loved it was cold. He could literally live in a snow drift, but the case was exactly opposite with the blond. Even though he ran hotter than a space heater sometimes he got cold extremely easily.
It was nearly midnight and the chattering of teeth made Sasuke sigh, get up and grab his blanket. Stupid ass moron; the blond had to be exhausted what with carrying him and everything else so damn far, but even tired like hell the idiot still insisted on taking watch.
Settling himself behind the blond, knees up, Sasuke wrapped the material and his arms around the trembling blond and buried his head in the crook of a broad shoulder.
"Don't get hypothermic on me." he whispered in the nearest ear nuzzling against the prickly edges of an almost invisible five-o'-clock shadow.
By degrees Naruto relaxed; the combined body heat engulfed them. "Never got used to cold." He snorted warm callused hand trailing up Sasuke's bent leg, "Blistering desert sun I can do, damp rainforests I can do, freezing cold...not so much."
"You'll survive."
Naruto yawned widely, Sasuke shifted, "Go to sleep...rest."
"W...what about you?" exhaustion reverberated from every half whispered word.
The raven smiled wanly knowing he was going to have a rather sleepless night. "I'll be fine," he lied "...go ahead...sleep."
"You're lying." Naruto murmured head slipping sideways into a doze. "Stop 'hat...don' lie to me."
(*)(*)(*)
"The Spine." Naruto said lowly, hand braced on the tree's trunk as his eyes ran over the landscape before him. The Spine was an appropriate name for the treacherous and narrow hump of cliff-side mountain track that was the only visible pass over the yawning chasm below.
Five am; the morning fog saturating the air was teasing Sasuke's sinuses to rebel. Forty two hours ago they had left camp; six hours left to reach their destination. The raven felt like he had been though a wringer; backbreaking hikes, bug bites, a near miss with poison ivy, fainting, insomnia, dehydration and now this.
"Few more miles." Naruto assured him while squinting into the setting sun. "Then it'd all be over."
Sasuke grunted.
A sharp crack rented the air. Thunderstorm... fucking perfect.
(*)(*)(*)
"Congratulations," Ibiki growled handing them each a folder, "You passed the assessment. These are your new classes starting Monday... be warned they are fully military grade."
They both nodded as Sasuke, damp from the rain and sweaty from the hike, turned tiredly to the open backed truck throttling in front of them. Perched on the truck were Gaara and Kankuro, Kin's team, Renjii's, TenTen's team and Neji's. He sighed.
"One more." Ibiki said checking his watch, "...then we leave. The other trucks will bring the rest."
Great.
"Motherfuck!" Sasuke spun around to see a mud-stained and limping Kiba hobbling over to them, "That's the last fucking time I give you anything to do, stupid asshole. 'No trip wires' my ass." He snapped to his teammate, "...sorry ass piece of shit."
Against himself Sasuke snickered.
"I swear," Kiba snarled to his roommate, "If I lose this leg I'm gonna have my giant ass wolf-dog Akamaru eat your stupid face."
The guy, Himura, went pale.
With some help Kiba vaulted up and plunked in to bed of the vehicle still cursing. The jeep hummed, raked up a cloud of dry dust and took off in the darkening dusk back to camp.
(*)(*)(*)
"You're sneaking out again," the quiet baritone said from the other side of the room, "...to where I wonder."
Sasuke went dead still; like a corpse. Regrouping he turned around to face blue eyes gleaming like sapphire fire out of the dark, "I just need some air."
"There you go... lying again." Naruto said flipping the lamp on. "What are you hiding... and don't try to deny it...you are hiding something."
"I'm no-"
"Do not lie to me Sasuke." Naruto growled backing him up against the wall. "What is going on? You've been shiftier than an addict on crack."
Sasuke closed his eyes and breathed; opening them he pushed the blond off him. "If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."
And left.
(*)(*)(*)
Things had been silent between them for the past fifteen hours. Naruto has his jaw clenched so tight he face looked like it was cast in stone.
Sasuke tried his best to ignore it and scanned over the list of new classes he was going to face in eight hours: Field Navigation: Terrain Assessment and Survival Training; Weapons Training: assembly and deconstruction, Military Methods: Planning and Preparation and Strategy and Tactics.
Sasuke sighed trying to ignore the voice in the back of his head; this thing called conscience was going to kill him. Glancing up under his bangs he judged Naruto's disposition.
"Naru-"
A knock on the door startled him. Naruto made it there first. After a short conversation he closed the door and grabbed his shoes, "Ibiki wants to talk to us."
A distraction, perfect timing.
Mind eighty percent focusing on what he was going to tell the blond after the meeting he failed to assess where he was going. He snapped to attention when a door slammed behind him.
The echo of the hollow sound in the empty classroom made Sasuke wheel around before marshalling his strength and stoically facing the people in the room, Shikamaru, Gaara, TenTen, Kin, Renjii and Neji.
Stiff, static silence; like the one before a thunderstorm.
"You're up to something, Uchiha." Shikamaru said evenly, arms spread wide, "...and we want to know what it is."
(*)(*)(*)
Bum...bum...bummmmm. Got figured out huh Uchiha... Honestly, you, with all your formidable genius should have expected it... all those freakin' high I.Q's and criminal masterminds.
(*)(*)(*)
'Ironically named Aurelia Rousseau' – pun, 'Roux' in French means 'red'.
'Hydrogen cyanide gas'- the compound used in gas chambers for 'humanitarian' execution.
AND REVIEW DAMNIT!