A/N. So, it seems like yesterday I was all excited about 300 reviews...now I'm over 400. Wait what? Thanks guys, hope you enjoy this chapter.
He moved through the forest as fast as he could, the Hokage's mission orders swirling through his head.
Sasuke had tried to flee the Leaf. He had turned traitor.
Not that the circumstances really mattered all that much. He was the target of his mission, and thus he would deal with him accordingly.
He echoed the words of the mission, given in haste and in few words.
'Kill or Capture Uchiha Sasuke, support the retrieval team in their mission. Go.'
He had no idea how the retrieval team was doing, his feet barely touching each tree before propelling him towards the border with Oto.
The circumstances were bad. An enemy that had wounded Konoha in the past was now stealing one of their shinobi. The last of a clan, and one of the brightest prospects for the next generation of shinobi.
He also had the sharingan, which was valuable.
Naruto considered what he would do with such an asset if he had a living Uchiha in his possession. The sharingan was a useful dojutsu to have in the forces of a village. It was too valuable to be lost.
He would have carefully controlled the Uchiha's movements, aiming to injure him when he hit maturity and force him to retire. From there, he could rebuild the clan. Eventually, given enough generations of careful care, the Uchiha clan could be rebuilt within Konoha.
Still, it was unimportant. It was likely that if the defection was of his own volition, he would be forced to kill his target. He would be a difficult target to kill.
Hopefully he wouldn't be needed. He didn't know who the retrieval team was, but the right shinobi with the right jutsu could do it. He'd see Sasuke fight before. His style was showy and fast, relying on taijutsu and powerful ninjutsu.
He could beat him, and certainly another like him with the skills to do it could as well.
There was a crash from a few hundred metres ahead of him, and he activated the Byakugan to scan it. There was one signature lying next to a rapidly fading one. He sped up to see who was who.
From a higher branch, he saw the remaining signature weak, but it was a Konoha shinobi who he hadn't met before. The swirls of the cheeks were testament to his being an Akimichi, but he had defeated his larger opponent.
He had to keep moving, he felt a pang of regret that he couldn't provide medical aid but more backup would be coming in time.
He passed another fight, and saw a familiar signature fighting another who was circling around him. Neji was fighting his opponent, and his signature was suddenly upon his opponent's one.
He passed on, Neji would not desire his help, and may not have needed it. Stopping too long would compromise his mission.
He kept moving, once more feeling sadness at not being able to help a comrade, even one such as Neji.
He felt the lactic acid in his legs begin to burn with every stride. He ignored it. His mission demanded it, and he would face any pain. He would face death if he had to.
He ran through potential scenarios in his head. Could he ambush Sasuke if he got ahead of him? Would it be possible to fire into a fight with a fellow shinobi safely?
He suddenly paused, his vision hearing an odd noise to his left. He saw the waves of sound expanding and weakening as they emanated from a single point.
He felt his vision blur a little. He dispelled the genjutsu that was distracting him as he kept moving. Whoever they were fighting would have to be alone. He had no idea who was fighting, or whose genjutsu it was. Firing at them would distract him and delay his catching of Sasuke. He pressed on. Three comrades he couldn't help. He couldn't even make a shadow clone because he would likely need the chakra.
His legs continued to burn with near agony as the toll of the journey began to take effect. His breathing hurt and he knew he was dehydrated from the hours of running. Sweat was drenching his clothing, but he knew he had to keep going.
Eventually, a burst of chakra ahead caught his attention, followed by a second burst. There was a fight up ahead that almost glowed with chakra. He sped up, forcing his legs to push on further.
The trees were thinning ahead, leading to a small, rocky path. He kept to the edge of it, seeing the valley spread out before him. He turned off his Byakugan. He wouldn't need it to try and follow this fight.
Two figures were in the valley below. One, wreathed in a golden figure that encased him. He was watching an impact sight at the base of the valley.
Then darkness exploded outwards from the cave straight at the golden figure. Black lightning met a glowing fist and was knocked aside, but the golden figure was pushed backwards. The grey figure dropped the black lightning from its grip, and rose up on leathery wings that emerged from its back.
He activated his Byakugan to see what was happening. The two jutsu, whatever they were, that the two fighters were employing were powerful. They were chakra heavy, and showy. And he realised if anyone came against him with one he would be in serious trouble were he spotted. He felt the urge to run.
The two figures, leather winged and gold encased were fighting now, the movements blinding, impacts causing shockwaves that he could feel from where he lay.
He wasn't really hiding anymore. There was something too captivating about this fight. He knew one of the figures was Sasuke, and that he was the leather winged figure. The lightning jutsu gave that away too much.
The other though. He wasn't sure who it was. The jutsu was one he'd never heard described before. He felt he'd seen it before.
The two were still battling though. The golden chakra around the warrior who fought Sasuke took the impacts from the winged figure, who dodged each of the blows that were sent his way.
He couldn't hear anything over the impacts and the sound of the water rushing below the fighter's feet. He was sure they were shouting. He kept watching, alternating between Byakugan vision and normal vision.
He readied his bow, ready to take a shot at Sasuke if it presented itself.
The fight continued. Naruto found himself wrapped up in the contest. He slowed his breathing to try and control the trembling.
The golden figure fought with all its might, landing blows on the dark figure, which twisted and danced around it.
But the fight couldn't last forever. The two figures broke apart and came at each other once final time. A spear of dark lightning pierced the chest of the golden giant, and the cry of pain echoed around the valley.
A horribly familiar cry of pain. A cry he'd heard before.
The golden light faded from around the body of the brown haired genin, a hole in his chest visible where Sasuke's hand had been pushed through it. The figure around it was trying to stand, but a second stab of lightning saw the resistance crumble.
It was Baka. Anyone but him.
Sasuke tossed the body up out of the valley, and he landed badly, bouncing and skidding with the sound of broken bones, before the winged figure landed up after him, grabbing his collar again, raising him up with a pained expression on his face.
Naruto realised he should shoot. Baka was basically dead; he could shoot through him to kill Sasuke. He could.
His squeezed his finger and didn't feel the bow kick into his shoulder. He did so again. And again. He realised there was no resistance to his finger movement. It wasn't on the trigger. It squeezed empty air.
He took hold of the bow again carefully. Sasuke was hesitating, holding the boy aloft and staring at his beaten form.
He tried to fire again and found he couldn't. His finger somehow lacked the strength to pull back the well oiled trigger.
Anyone but him. Nearly anyone else and he would have fired. Anyone else. He couldn't hurt his friend.
The wet sizzle as the lightning jutsu slammed through Baka again. He couldn't watch. He wiped his hand across his face to wipe away the rain water that clouded his eyes. But it hadn't been raining.
He forced himself to focus. His legs were nearly cramping after the exertion they had been through. Sasuke was still attacking Baka, who couldn't make a noise, or move. The blood was soaking into the ground. A light drizzle began to fall.
He focused, staring only at Sasuke. He shut his normal eye, using only the Byakugan to guide him.
Baka was slumped in Sasuke's grip, bleeding heavily. Naruto steadied his finger on the trigger and prepared to fire.
He cursed his angle. Sasuke was holding the limp body such that it covered all his vital areas. Naruto felt a pang of annoyance that he couldn't manipulate chakra to add more punch to the bolt.
He tightened his grip as he saw Baka's head somehow rise. There was the faint movement of lips. He read the lips and his grip subconsciously tightened a little too much as he understood the words.
The bolt flew true as always, and for once he wished he'd missed.
It impacted on Baka's head, and ran through towards Sasuke. The jolt of impact twisted Sasuke enough that the bolt hit his shoulder. The boy yelled in pain, but was too spent to search for a target.
Naruto gripped his tanto blade and prepared to move forwards to try and finish the job when a newcomer landed next to Sasuke.
Bony growths off the mans arm were filled with chakra, and it was clear this man was a threat he couldn't face. They looked exhausted and injured, but the fact they had been in a fight and then found Sasuke again meant he was a danger Naruto couldn't face.
He tried to get a better angle but his targets were moving away, the other man watching behind him, arms spread wide to cover Sasuke's retreat. He couldn't get the shot. He hadn't killed his target.
They started kept moving towards the border and Naruto felt anger.
He had killed Baka. Killed him on a low percentage shot. He could have waited, maybe Sasuke would have let him survive somehow, and maybe backup could have arrived.
He pushed the emotion back into the recesses of his head, ignoring the weak snarl of anger he could feel from his stomach.
There was no time now. Sasuke had an escort, and he couldn't make any more shots with the watchful man's presence.
His mission orders were clear. Capture or kill.
He summoned his aching limbs to carry him onwards in pursuit, and, through the pain, carried himself off after the two. He would complete his mission.
The rain fell hard as Kakashi landed near the valley.
He barely felt the weight of the rain over the weight of the urgency he carried. His two students, one a prodigy who he couldn't control and one who had grown on him over time, had fought. He knew it to be true. The devastation in the valley below bore the hallmarks of a hard fought battle.
After all, when he'd heard of the oath to bring Sasuke back, he knew it would come to that. His student would have fought until he died to try.
He saw the hunched form in the rain and knew the truth immediately. He ran anyway, hoping that this wasn't as bad as it looked.
Up close, even the hard rain hadn't washed away the blood and splatter fully. He lifted the broken body up in his arms, and stared at the injuries.
His chest was a ruin, ripped apart and cauterised by lightning. He felt the pain that a jutsu he had given to Sasuke was used on another of his students. He felt the broken nature of the bones and saw the bruised and cut flesh.
The thing that hurt him most was the wound to his head. It wasn't the largest injury, it wasn't the most bloody. But it was one he knew had been caused by a Konoha shinobi. He knew which had done it.
"Naruto...what have you done?"
He felt the tear fall from his eye as he accepted the truth. He even knew where Naruto had gone.
Any other shinobi would know when the game was up, when the target had escaped and returned. They would know when to stop the mission.
Naruto wasn't any other shinobi. Naruto would keep going until the mission was done or he was dead.
Then there was a darker thought. Had Naruto been in collusion with Sasuke? He knew he couldn't just discount the theory, but everything within him fought it. He knew others might take that view in the end as well. There would be those who blamed everyone else. Hopefully Tsunade would know the truth of the matter.
He began the long journey back to Konoha, holding the body of his student in his arms. As he entered the forest again, he took a last fleeting look back towards the valley, and the direction where the ghost had gone.
He crawled into the ventilation shaft quickly and quietly. Sliding into the small metal vent, he pulled himself forwards. He grabbed the string and pulled the cover back over the hole, hearing it click back into place perfectly.
He allowed himself to breathe again.
The heavy clatter of feet on the floors around him beat through the walls and vibrated the structure of the ventilation ducts.
There were voices, shouting loudly. He heard the door to the storage room he had left via slam open against the wall.
"He went this way!"
"He hasn't, there is no trace of him. Even bloody Karin can't sense him anywhere."
"I swear I saw him!"
"Everyone says that. I said that. It's a ghost. It has to be a fucking ghost. There isn't anyone here."
"But...she can sense him sometimes!"
"The girl is a nutcase."
"The boy knows he's here!"
"That Uchiha traitor is paranoid. The girl is just trying to impress him. You've seen how she looks at him."
"But..."
"No buts. Tell Kabuto that our search found nothing and prepare for the beating we will surely receive, even though there cannot be anyone here."
The door moved shut again, and he kept crawling along the ducts. He could feel pain aching his entire body. The recycled air in the ducts was warm and humid, and he could feel the sweat soaking his clothes again.
How many days had he been in the base? How many weeks? When had he last slept?
The seal had been ramped up to its full extent, cutting off almost all his chakra. He'd had to. Night one he'd discovered a powerful sensor had been visiting the base whilst he'd been there, and she simply hadn't left. That wasn't also to include the S-ranked missing-nin he'd physically seen walking through his base.
He crawled through the ducts. He'd memorised them. They were the base to his mind, the gratings that separated him from the other tunnels and rooms were merely some other dimension.
He found the spot where his home was. It was his home now.
The underground base had a small point where the ventilation shaft touched the rock it was carved into. He pushed aside the cover and crawled into the small opening.
The soft dripping of groundwater was somewhat calming away from the echoes of the tunnels. He collected one of the bottles he had stolen from the kitchens in the base from where it was filling with water that slowly dripped.
He drank, feeling the cool refreshment. It was the best feeling he'd had all day. The water wasn't great, but it was better than nothing.
He reflected on his target. They were extremely well protected. They would have to be poisoned. It didn't matter too much if he was around afterwards, but it did matter that Sasuke died. That had been his mission. Retrieval was not an option.
He knew he had to poison Sasuke. He had to do it within three years. He had to do it knowing the protection he had.
He drew out the textbook and set it next to the candle he'd stolen from another storage cupboard that hadn't been guarded. He needed the light to read.
He realised he needed to write a report on this as well, but the pad of paper he'd been using was nearly full. He resolved to steal more paper and pens to be ready for it when it happened.
Even though the words didn't yet have meaning to him, Naruto felt two burning desires urge him onwards.
He would have his vengeance.
He would have his atonement.
It was going so well wasn't it? It didn't like writing this bit because it hurt a little but it had to happen.
I think this is where I'll have to slow my updating rate a little to one every five days (at least once a week! I promise this upon my sword!). The later chapters are proving...tricky. I had to scrap about two thousand words I deemed unsatisfactory and rethink the first bit fight scene of the next part, so we'll see how it goes eh?
