Fire: The end is coming! The end is coming!
Sasuke: What are you talking about?
Fire: Don't you feel that the story is getting more tense?
Sasori: What's going to happen to me?
Tobi: I'm going to kill you. (smiles happily)
Sasori: That's never going to happen.
Fire: Anyway, the storyline has officially shifted from Sakura and Sasori back to Naruto and Sasuke. Yay!
Sasuke: I'm not happy about that.
Naruto: I'm back.
Fire: I've reintroduced Naruto to the storyline. Everyone, meet Naruto.
Sakura: We know who Naruto is.
Fire: ...
Kisame: You're an idiot.
Fire: Kisame! Why are you calling me an idiot? (tears up)
Kisame: We all know that you can't cry, so stop trying.
Fire: I can if I try! (tries to cry)
Tobi: Um...remember this? (holds up the Big Bag of Reviews)
Fire: Since I'm afraid that it might take too long to reply, due to the bulk of reviews in my email right now, I'm going to say a few things here. Um...first, I'm not killing Sasori.
Tsunade: That's right. I am.
Fire: --;; Ah, Sasori's not going to die, so don't worry, EasilyAmusedReader-san.
Tsunade: What do you mean, I'm talking to Orochimaru? I don't talk to Orochimaru. (laughs nervously)
Fire: ...
Tsunade: I don't.
Fire: And Teges-san, Sakura will probably end up with Sasori at this point, doesn't it? DeiSaku pairing is still standing, but Sasori will have to kill him if he insists on taking Sakura away. We'll just have to see if that comes up. Even I don't know what the characters will do next. --;;
Tobi: (points at EasilyAmusedReader's review) Fire-sama, you're not finished with this yet.
Fire: (looks at the rest of the review) --;; I'm sure that not everyone wants Sasori to die. We have a lot of people reading this that want Sasori to end up with Sakura. And if Sasori dies, I'll make sure it's good. I definitely won't let him die an ordinary death...like an execution. I don't like things like that either. This is just the logical flow of the storyline. If I try to force anything, the story becomes unnatural and the characters will become OOC. Everything will work out at the end.
Kisame: Are you finished talking now?
Fire: Um...yes?
Tobi: That means we should start the story now, right?
Sasuke: (nods) ...
Tobi: (presses the button to load chapter 24) ...
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Chapter 24: Useless Hands of a Phantom
'Last night, the sky darkened and blood rained from the sky...in my dream. Last night, the fingers I used to touch your face ached to touch you again...even if it was in my dream. To cross the heavens... To cross time... Or to cross the land of the dead... Should I? If only to feel your warmth again with these bloodstained fingers, should I? Should I run from this world I'm trapped in? Can I escape when running at full speed all this time only brought me to these dreams?'
The days had suddenly grown warmer. He could leave the shouji doors that insulated his room in the winter open without freezing at night. But that was for now, for this time of the year, when summer was beginning and the thunderstorms hadn't arrived yet. Early July was a good time to feel the warmth of summer. But Sasuke couldn't enjoy it. His mind was preoccupied with Naruto's current location.
What had happened after he died?
He couldn't remember. He couldn't remember what had happened to Naruto. 'How can I forget what happened to him?' Sasuke held his head, his fingers digging into his skull, but he still couldn't remember. Through the days and nights that he had spared in the hopes of finding the smallest bits of information that could bring him back to Naruto, he found nothing. There was nothing. Only darkness and death.
But Sasuke knew that it couldn't last forever. All he needed to do was push himself, was to make himself remember. The memories had to be there!
'Think! What happened to him?' His fingers dug into his skin until blood crawled down the sides of his face, but he didn't notice it. He was too close to be distracted by simple pain and blood. He needed to know what had happened to him! 'Where is he?!'
Sasuke could hear his harsh breathing through the empty thoughts that surfaced in his head. The loud sound of inhaling air. The loud sound of exhaling air. The loud sound of inhaling air.
"I..." The grey slowly faded from his thoughts. 'Impossible!' His hands slowly fell from his head as the memories of a life he didn't want to live filled his vision. He had tried to remember for the last week, and now, he didn't want to see it anymore. He didn't want to know about something like that!
But he couldn't stop staring at his hands. Long after the visions faded, he couldn't stop staring at the hands which were capable of a technique like that. And he couldn't stop wondering whether it was true. He couldn't stop wondering if he had remembered wrong, if he had only fabricated the horrible memory to calm himself.
He had done it before, after the clan massacre. He had created so many memories, something to sheild himself, and something to hide the reality that his brother had created. It was possible that it wasn't true. It was possible that Naruto was alive somewhere, that he wasn't just a puppet, waiting to be summoned.
With shaking hands, Sasuke formed his fingers around the seals. Simple seals that Orochimaru had taught him. Ordinary seals. Nothing to fear.
Then, why were his hands shaking?
Naruto always thought that Sasuke was smart. He was always first in class. He had Sakura's admiration. He had everyone's admiration. The teachers at the Academy often praised him. The evidence was there. But he was wrong. Sasuke wasn't smart. If he was smarter, he would have realized what had happened long before this point. No one else would be digging their fingers into their head over something like this.
'Maybe we should kill him.'
"Who said we're going to kill him, baka kitsune!" Naruto sighed inwardly. Even in death, he had to deal with the Kyuubi. He was never going to get rid of this bijuu.
"I just did."
"We're not going to kill him!"
"..."
"I heard that!" The Kyuubi wanted to bite him. Naruto wanted to bite the Kyuubi too...
...when the world faded into darkness. His whole body filled with strange aches, otherworldly numbness like frostbites on his skin. His limbs melted, wanted to pool on the ground. His head stretched, felt loose. His eyes exploded, dangled from their sockets.
'Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei!'
And he was there.
"Teme!" Naruto jumped out of the casket. "I'm going to kill you!" He had waited over six months to hit him!
"N-Naruto!" Sasuke shouted as the fists smashed against him. He had half expected the technique to fail. If Naruto wasn't dead, he shouldn't be able to summon him. He shouldn't be able to summon him because... 'Naruto's not dead!'
But all signs pointed elsewhere. The small clouds of dust that flew from each punch... The pale colour of Naruto's hair and skin... The pastel clothes on the blond shinobi's body... There was no doubt that Naruto was a normal Edo Tensei summoning.
"Teme! What kind of idiot goes insane over nothing?!" Naruto shouted.
"Nothing?" Sasuke glared at Naruto. "You thought it was noth—" Sasuke couldn't find the strength to choke it out. Naruto was definitely too dense to explain something like that to. All he could do was glare at him.
"Ne, Sasuke," Naruto said, not flinching for even a moment under the dark-haired boy's glare as he stared with wide-eyed innocence. "Let me hit you. Just once."
"Wha—?"
And a thick fist sent Sasuke flying through the open shouji doors into the stone wall surrounding his garden.
"K-kuso! Naruto! I didn't say you can hit me!" Sasuke shouted as he pushed himself to his shaky feet. He didn't even know why Naruto was hitting him.
"You stopped summoning me! Who told you to do something so stupid?!" Naruto shouted, ignoring everything Sasuke had said. "Baka!"
"You..." Sasuke growled angrily. He could barely remember what he did, and Naruto was already yelling at him for it. "I have my reasons." But even though he couldn't remember what Naruto was yelling at him for, he wasn't going to tell the blond shinobi.
"Stupid reasons," Naruto fumed.
And suddenly, the guilt that Sasuke had held back for the last six months flooded his chest. "Hn." The memories of before slowly surfaced in his mind. "If you keep complaining about it, I just won't summon you again when you..." He glanced quickly at the dust gathering around Naruto's feet. Already, he was disintegrating. Already, the fragile body that housed Naruto's soul was falling apart.
And he couldn't say it. He couldn't hurt Naruto with those words.
"Naruto," he said slowly as he raised a hand, his fingers gently grazing the face for which he had spent a month searching. He wanted to hug him. He wanted to grab hold of Naruto and never let go. But the memory of what had happened before when he did it... The memory of Naruto's body exploding into the wind with his touch... He could barely bring his nervous fingers to feel Naruto's face. "Doesn't it hurt?"
Naruto backed away, sending a soft gray mist into the air as Sasuke's fingers grated against his skin. "Of course not," he said bluntly. "I'm dead. You're an idiot if you think it hurts."
"Hn." Sasuke glared coldly at Naruto, but he didn't say anything. Again. Naruto had called him an idiot again. He hadn't returned for even ten minutes and he was already insulting him.
"You were just lazy, weren't you, Sasuke?" Naruto didn't notice the glare. "You didn't want to summon me! Sakura-chan would have—"
"I'm not Sakura!" He had almost forgotten this part about Naruto, the part of him that still loved Sakura. He was even more unsure now whether Naruto really liked him or not. "Kuso! Naruto, I don't have pink hair! I'm not a girl! And I'm not in love with that damned Suna-nin!"
It was the first time—or at least, the only time Naruto remembered—Sasuke losing his composure.
"Suna-nin?" Naruto didn't know anything about people from Suna...other than Gaara and his siblings. "Sakura-chan's in love with Gaara?" He was floating around Sasuke all this time, but he so preoccupied with why he wasn't being summoned that he didn't see anyone beyond the dark-haired shinobi. He didn't understand anything Sasuke was saying.
"Who said anything about Gaara?"
Naruto's stomach rumbled.
"Ramen!" Naruto grabbed Sasuke's arm. "Tell me later. I want to know all about Sakura-chan's long distance relationship with Gaara. But first, you..." The blond shinobi grinned maliciously. "You're going to buy me breakfast!"
And he pulled a groaning Sasuke away. He knew that Naruto would find some way to punish him, even if he didn't know that he was doing it.
Deidara had given up. It was a fact that he was willing to accept. He couldn't find the jinchuuriki without any clues, and there were definitely no clues to help him. Tobi was probably dead. Zetsu had no new information. And Sakura wasn't going to help him. He had nothing.
So he was sulking at the tea shop. If he drank enough tea, he might calm himself enough to think of a rational plan, something to help him survive failing, something that would keep him from getting killed by everyone when he returned empty-handedly to Akatsuki.
The leader didn't like failure.
'What can I do, yeah? If I can't find him, I can't find him!' But it wasn't a good enough excuse. Hidan would definitely say that he didn't try hard enough.
He had better luck trying to find and kill Tobi.
"Sasuke, you have to pay for the ramen. I can't do it. I have no money!"
Deidara's ears immediately caught the familiar voice. He knew that voice. 'The jinchuuriki!' He searched through the crowds. The jinchuuriki was nearby. This was the clue he needed!
And he saw him, the blond boy he had seen months ago when Sasori was still his partner. Standing outside Ichiraku Ramen was the Kyuubi jinchuuriki!
He had found him.
And the dark-haired shinobi with him... Uchiha Sasuke! Uchiha Sasuke was the one hiding him!
Kakuzu surprised himself. For the first time, he was the one who wanted a break. Hidan wanted to keep going. Usually, it was the other way around. Usually, Kakuzu wanted to capture the bounty, and Hidan complained about how annoying it was. "Hidan, it's getting dark. We won't be able to see the damned trail."
"We don't need to see. I'll find him," Hidan said as he trampled determinedly through thick undergrowth.
"..." Kakuzu wanted to rip Hidan's face off. It was too dark to see! "You know how that bastard thinks. We should return to Konohagakure."
"These footprints lead back to the village." Hidan continued forwards.
"..." Kakuzu continued after his partner. He wasn't listening. He was trying stop Hidan, trying to rest for at least a short while, but... "If you know where we're heading, it won't matter when we get there." He wanted to tear Hidan's legs off.
"We'll lose him if he goes into the village." And Hidan knew that Tobi was going to the village...because that was where he was.
Tobi was particularly upbeat that day. That was why Hidan had to ruin it. He hated enthsiastic people, and most of all, he hated the only current member of their organization who had joined without fighting and defeating a previous member. He despised Tobi.
That was why as soon as he heard the words from Zetsu, the evil smile on his face couldn't stop the words from escaping. "Since Sasori's not dead, the membership of the man holding his ring isn't valid anymore, is it?" Hidan grinned at Tobi, although no one could see the smile through their shadowy figures.
"This isn't about the validity of Tobi's membership," Zetsu said slowly. He had helped Tobi join their organization, so he would obviously defend him. "What's important is that Sasori is still alive."
"We should kill him," Tobi said determinedly.
"YOU should kill him," Hidan said. "YOU'RE the one trying to take his place."
"I agree," Kakuzu said predictably. Even though he stood neutral on this subject—considering how he only cared when there was a bounty to collect—he understood the rules of the organization. "If Tobi wants to join, he should kill Sasori."
"Yes," the leader agreed. "Until you bring Sasori's corpse back as proof of your membership, we will have to revoke your position in our organization."
"..." Tobi looked desperately around him, at Zetsu and at Deidara, but no one was helping.
"Be glad we won't kill you, yeah," Deidara said passively. He had always hated Tobi, so it wasn't a surprise that he didn't help. "All other ex-members die."
And Tobi had no choice but to accept his demotion.
Yes. Hidan understood Tobi's thought patterns. Even though the order to kill him had spread to every branch of their organization, he wouldn't give up. Even if he couldn't join Akatsuki, he would still try to kill Sasori. That was why he was heading toward Konoha. Because Konoha was where Sasori was.
"We could have just waited by the gates. He was already heading there," Kakuzu complained. The sun had set a while ago, and twilight was already fading into darkness. "Let's stop for today."
"We're almost there."
"I said stop, chikusho!" Kakuzu's arms flew from his body, grabbed Hidan's legs and sent his partner falling to the ground. Within the moment, his arms flew back with the S-ranked criminal's dismembered legs in its grasp.
"Fine," Hidan conceded. He couldn't walk without legs. "I'll just crawl—"
Kakuzu sliced Hidan's arms off.
"Give me back my damned limbs, Kakuzu!" Hidan shouted. "Do you know how much this hurts?!"
"We're taking a break." Kakuzu set his partner's arms and legs by his side as he sat down. "We can continue in the morning."
"Fine! Just reattach my limbs!" If Kakuzu didn't reattach his limbs soon, he would lose his arms and legs. He wasn't in ritual mode. He wasn't invulnerable.
He would just have to wait until morning to kill Tobi.
For a week, Tsunade had dwelled on the same problem. She had a volitile man in her village, but she couldn't just kill him. He wasn't considered an S-ranked criminal anymore, not after he came under Sakura's control. Since then, Suna no Sato had taken him out of the bingo book. So, she couldn't just kill him. He was an ordinary man, and ordinary men couldn't be executed in public.
So since she couldn't return him to Suna, the only option was to execute him in private.
"Hokage-sama?"
Tsunade looked up at the purple-haired woman standing by the door. For times like these, she had no other choice but to use the ANBU. "I have a mission for you. Come in and close the door." The ANBU were created for difficult missions like these.
The village hadn't changed much in the last six months he was gone. As Naruto looked around with a full stomach, everything still seemed the same. He had thought that everyone would leave him behind, move on without him, but they had all waited. They waited long enough for him to catch up to them. Everyone was still the same...except for Sakura.
He had asked Sasuke about her relationship with Gaara while they were at Ichiraku Ramen, but he didn't remember anything that Sasuke had said. He was focussing on the delicious ramen that he hadn't tasted for half a year. 'I should have listened.' Sasuke had repeated himself so many times that he grew frustrated and left.
But Naruto didn't care. Now, he didn't have a dead weight following him around.
'And I can look for Sakura-chan!' And probably get the story from her.
"Konnichiwa! Irrashai— Naruto?" Ino shouted in surprise as the blond shinobi walked into Yamanaka Hana. She had thought he was dead. Dead people didn't just walk around.
"Ano-sa, Ino," Naruto said as he walked up to the counter. He was aware of the fine dust flying from his skin, but as long as nothing broke off huge chunks of his body, he should be able to sustain his form for a while longer. "I'm looking for Sakura-chan." He went to her house, to the training grounds, to the Hokage tower, to the hospital...everywhere she could be, but he still couldn't find her. "Do you know where she is?"
Ino looked nervously at Naruto. "N-Naruto?" She couldn't resist asking. "Why are you here? I thought you were dead." She hadn't seen him since he died a year ago.
"I am dead," Naruto said bluntly. "Sasuke summoned me back."
"S-sugoi! I knew Sasuke-kun was amazing!" Ino lost her thoughts immediately. "He even brought back the dead!"
"Ino, where's Sakura-chan?"
"Sakura? Why do you want to see Sakura when you have a beautiful girl in front of you?" Ino said jokingly.
"Tell me where Sakura-chan is." He didn't have much time left and he wanted to see her.
"She's probably at the Hokage tower," Ino said, ignoring the rude comments. 'Since I'm a nice person, I won't yell at him for it.' Even though she wanted to yell at him, she couldn't yell at a dead man. She didn't want Naruto to haunt her.
"I went there. She's not there."
Ino blinked at Naruto. "Did you search everywhere?"
Naruto shook his head. He only searched near the Hokage office, where Tsunade's study and private libraries were. That was where Sakura was when she was training in the Hokage tower. "Why would I search everywhere for her?" There was no reason for Sakura to be anywhere else in the Hokage tower.
"She's probably in the holding area, at the top of the Hokage tower," Ino said with a shrug. "Sasori's being held there, so she's probably looking for him."
"Who's Sasori?"
Ino stared at Naruto. She still doubted a little that this was truly Naruto, but that last line destroyed all doubt. Only Naruto would be stupid enough to say something like that. "You fought him before, and you forgot?"
"I've fought a lot of people."
Ino sighed. She didn't want to explain it to Naruto. If she tried to say anything, there would only be questions she couldn't answer...or she could answer them, but Naruto just wouldn't understand. He was too dense, and she didn't have enough patience to explain everything slowly. "Just go to the Hokage tower. She's definitely there."
"And if she's not?"
Ino glared at Naruto. "Go away!" She knew where the conversation was heading. He was trying to make her buy him ramen! "If you don't believe me, search the entire village until there's only the Hokage tower left!" And she pushed Naruto out of the shop. "If you're not going to buy anything, don't come back!" She slammed the door closed.
"I didn't say I wasn't going to buy anything." Naruto scratched his head at the confusing sentence, but Ino was right. Even though he didn't say that he wasn't going to buy anything, he had no intention of buying flowers today.
He only wanted to find Sakura-chan.
End Chapter 24
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Fire's English tidbits for those who care:
The word this week is personal. If you want to use it, you probably don't need to. It's an omnibus word. For example, "I personally think that the soup for Rock Lee's ramen is too spicy." Thoughts can only be personal. They can't be anything other than personal, right? So, you can omit personal from that sentence. --;; I hope this made sense. I can explain further about the exceptions and where you would use this word, but...that would make this tidbit too long. So, if you're curious and want an explanation, tell me and I'll explain it in a PM.
Fire's babbling:
Naruto: I'm not that stupid!
Fire: --;;
Sasori: You said all the characters, but I'm not in it, and neither is Sakura.
Sasuke: And what happened to Kakashi?
Fire: That's for next week.
Sakura: What's Tsunade-sensei doing?
Fire: --;; Stop asking me all these questions!
Sasuke: There are too many unaswered questions to finish the story now!
Fire: I'll answer them! Just stop yelling at me! (hugs Kisame for comfort)
Kisame: You're a leech.
Tobi: Hidan threw me out of the organization on purpose?
Hidan: I see Tobi now! (runs after Tobi)
Tobi: (runs away) ...
Kakuzu: (walks after Hidan and Tobi) He never gives up.
Kisame: Now's the time to review, mina. If you want to help me get Fire off, send in a review! Fire has to let go to read it.
Sasuke: How many chapters do you think there are left?
Fire: Feedback is always welcome. I'll try to reply as soon as I can, but I currently have over a hundred emails to get to. It might take a while.
Sakura: --;; It's true. I've seen it.
Fire: But I want to know who should kill Tobi. I'm still trying to decide if Deidara, Sasori, Sasuke, Hidan...
Kisame: I want to do it.
Fire: You're dead.
Deidara: You're not going to kill me are you?
Fire: ...
Deidara: Say something!
Fire: (runs, pulling Kisame away) Ja!
Deidara: Answer me, yeah! (runs after Fire)
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