I got a chapter up for the one-year anniversary! :D Enjoy!
I do not own Naruto. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Tails, Lies and Reunions
Yamato frowned. "I never thought the fourth tail would appear here."
Ami looked at the captain, brow furrowed. 'Fourth tail?'
A huge shockwave ripped through the air towards them, and the shinobi threw up their arms in front of themselves to shield themselves from the blast.
"Is Naruto causing this too?" Sakura asked, lowering her arm as the boom faded.
"Yes." the captain replied.
"Yamato-taichou, you know something about Naruto, don't you?" the pink-haired girl asked quietly, "What's happening to him?"
"Sakura, you don't need to worry." the wood-user said, "The higher-ups chose me to be your captain… for this exact reason."
A voice spoke up from behind them.
"It seems Sasori won't be coming, after all."
They turned to see Kabuto, walking calmly towards the bridge, but stopping before he stepped onto it.
"He was the only one who should've known I was coming here today. He didn't even tell the rest of Akatsuki. And yet, your group from Konoha showed up. I seriously doubt you forced that information out of him through interrogation. In which case, he must've told you voluntarily. I assume he hoped Konoha would pry information out of me and use it to destroy Orochimaru-sama." He smirked. "The Akatsuki are after him as well, you know. Your disguise earlier on was… flawless. Someone in your group must have met Sasori to have been able to do that. And that's when he gave you the information about today, correct?"
The kunoichi and Yamato listened with trepidation as Kabuto picked apart the situation.
"Of course, he probably thought the mind-control technique he'd placed on me was still in effect. That Sasori bothered to tell you about today means that he's acknowledged your strength. Sasori hated Orochimaru-sama and was always talking about how he wanted to get back at him. He wouldn't have handed the task over to you unless he was unable to do it himself. In other words, he's either being held captive… or he has already passed away."
'Calculating thing...' Ami thought, glaring at the silver-haired boy.
"Hate to tell you, but it's the latter." Sakura said.
Kabuto smirked. "Excellent."
Another enormous explosion ripped through the air.
"What was that?" Sakura asked.
Something burst from the forest, along with a huge cloud of dust, and the shinobi tried once again to shield themselves.
Looking over, Ami's eyes widened as she saw the dust clearing.
Now on their side of the canyon, with a severely elongated sword from Orochimaru's mouth stuck in his abdomen from almost half a mile away, was what appeared to be a miniature Kyuubi, red and black cloaking its body, but was undoubtedly Naruto, rested in a crater, snarling deeply in his throat.
"He's more like the demon fox than ever." Kabuto smirked.
Sakura's eyes filled as she recalled memories of the boy, smiling and happy, calling her name with a grin that lit up his face, comparing it to the bleeding, wild beast he currently was, surrounded by foul Chakra.
The boy sank further into the stone behind him as Orochimaru pushed harder against his sword.
"Naruto!" Sakura cried.
Ami's eyes widened in shock.
The sword wasn't even piercing his skin.
Naruto swept away the sword with one hand like it was nothing, nearly slicing Kabuto and his teammates in half as he discarded the weapon.
The bespectacled boy, Yamato, Sakura and Ami watched from a distance.
"Instead of a fight between shinobi, this is more like a fight between monsters." Kabuto smirked.
Orochimaru's sword receded back into the mouth of the snake poking out from his own jaws, which also withdrew.
The red-cloaked Naruto released a terrible roar.
"Just look at that thing." Kabuto said, as the Konoha Jinchuuriki continued to bellow. "Did he want to save Sasuke-kun so badly he was willing to turn into that thing? He's even lost control over his own body. …What a sad child."
Ami gritted her teeth, trying to keep her eyes clear.
The pink-haired girl ran for the boy.
"Wait, Sakura!" Yamato yelled, "You can't get near Naruto right now!"
She ignored him. "Naruto! Enough! That's enough! I'll save Sasuke-kun for you, so please stop, Naruto!"
Ami gasped as Sakura stumbled and the boy smacked her away with one of his tails.
Yamato bound the Jinchuuriki with wood, Kabuto making a strangely mixed noise of vague disappointment and amusement.
Ami exchanged looks with her captain and ran for Sakura, who was clutching her bleeding, burning arm.
The brunette inhaled sharply again, drawing out her water as Kabuto began walking calmly towards them, a smirk on his face.
Yamato constricted the boy just a foot away from Sakura with another Mokuton jutsu.
"I don't think so." the captain said, glaring slightly.
"Don't jump to conclusions." the Oto-Nin replied calmly, brow slightly furrowed, "I don't see any reason for us to fight anymore. Just the opposite, in fact."
"What do you mean?" Ami scowled, knife still at the ready, bristling when Kabuto's hand glowed with green Chakra, which he directed at Sakura's injury.
"Our groups share the same viewpoint. …We both want Akatsuki gone. I figure if we let you guys live, you might take another one of them down for us."
Ami was still glaring furiously, and wasn't sure whether she should feel more or less suspicious as she saw her teammate's arm healing. The Konno flinched as Naruto began to break lose.
"You can repay me by killing at least one more Akatsuki." Kabuto said, glancing at Naruto, "But that's your problem. You'll have to take care of him yourselves."
The blond broke loose and Yamato leapt for the boy, making hand signs as Kabuto vanished in a pop of smoke.
The captain thrust a palm into Naruto's chest, and his hand began to glow with Chakra, a long, thick string of it joining him to Naruto as he leaped back, slamming a palm on the ground to bring up several spiked, wooden posts around the Jinchuuriki.
Naruto roared as the Kyuubi Chakra receded to reveal his skin, dyed red with his own bleeding, and with his own voice, rather than the Kyuubi's, released a bawl of agony.
Ami watched as Sakura healed the boy, the blond's skin growing back far more slowly than usual.
'I guess that usually, the Kyuubi helps.' she thought, as Sakura intensified the healing level, flinching when sharp pain shot through her only partly-healed arm, the whiskered boy bucking and gritting his teeth with agony as the tanned covering on his flesh grew back. '…He's a mess.' she thought sadly.
"Yamato-taichou." the pink-haired medic said quietly, "Will you please teach me the technique that you used to stop Naruto?"
"That's impossible." the man said sadly, "I'm the only one in Konoha who can use that technique, because I'm the only one infused with the First Hokage's DNA. That technique forcibly suppresses the Kyuubi's Chakra. You can't learn it without possessing the unique abilities required for its use. Unfortunately I'm only an experimental copy. I don't even compare to the original, the First. That necklace that Naruto wears is an heirloom of the First Hokage, which is made of a crystal which only responds to the Chakra of the First. It's because of that necklace that I can control a Jinchuuriki's Chakra. Some people believe that that is why the First became Hokage to begin with. That's also the reason I was chosen for this team's captain."
"…It's always like this." Sakura said sadly, "The only things I can ever do for Naruto… are small and insignificant."
"At least you can heal him." Ami frowned, cursing her venomous Chakra for the hundredth time.
"It's not the size of what you do for him that counts." Yamato said, looking at and clearly speaking to Sakura, "What really matters are your feelings for Naruto." The wood-user smiled. "I can tell just by looking at you. You really lo-"
"Sakura-chan…?" Naruto mumbled, stirring awake.
"Naruto!" Sakura beamed, eyes filling with tears of joy.
Ami placed her hands behind the boy's back as he sat up gradually, holding the back of his head as he looked around, confused.
"What happened…? I was going after that Orochimaru guy and then… and then what did I do? Sakura-chan… Hey, Sakura-chan why are you crying?"
"Oh, there's just something in my eye." the girl smiled, wiping the droplets away, but being interrupted by a loud 'Ahh!' of understanding from the blond.
"I know! It was that asshole, Sai! He said something mean and hurt your feelings again, didn't he? Like 'ugly bitch' or 'freak of nature'! That bastard!"
Sakura got to her feet, fists clenched, speaking in a dangerously quiet voice. "Sai never called me a 'freak of nature'…"
"Oh? R-really?"
"Don't make up new insults, you jerk!" she barked, smacking the boy lightly over the head. "Oh, actually, where is Sai?" she asked.
Ami's hands tightened into fists as she thought of the raven-haired boy again.
"Sai is-" the captain began, but was interrupted by an incoming message on his earpiece. "Wait a second."
There were several seconds of silence before Yamato lowered his hand again.
"…Well?" Ami asked, a little too stressed to care that she was being slightly rude.
"Oh. That's right. Right now, Sai is headed somewhere together with Orochimaru."
"Together?" Sakura demanded, and the man nodded. "What do you mean?"
"It means that he's a traitor." Ami snarled.
"Come with me, you three." Yamato said.
"The ground's still soft." Naruto said, kicking the bottom of a large crater on the other side of the wrecked bridge, two massive gorges extending far out from it, three furrows in the soil between them. "And the bridge is trashed. What the hell happened that messed this place up so badly?"
"You don't remember?" Yamato asked, staring at the boy.
Naruto scratched his cheek, thinking.
Ami sighed, looking at the large ink splatter on the ground beside them, a clear sign of Sai having been there, along with his scattered belongings.
"Now that I think about it, why was I unconscious?"
"Orochimaru knocked you out." Sakura lied quickly.
"For real? Damn it!"
Ami stepped over, picking up the raven's picture book from underneath a scroll, glancing swiftly around at his other things all strewn around the place before directing her eyes back at the artwork. "I thought this was important to him. Why did he leave it?"
"If he was nervous enough to leave things behind, I'd say he was pretty tense while speaking to Orochimaru." Yamato said.
"And he probably still smiled like a creep." Ami muttered, handing the book to Sakura.
"You sound like you were watching." the rosette said, eyeing their captain curiously as she took the book from her teammate's hands.
"Up until a moment ago I had a wood clone over here. We were communicating through a walkie-talkie I have in here." he replied, gesturing to the side of his head.
"What happened to smiley?" Ami queried.
"After talking to Orochimaru about something, the two of them left with Kabuto."
"You couldn't hear their conversation?"
"No. The clone couldn't catch it."
"He may have been threatened and forced to go with them." Sakura said.
"He certainly wasn't threatened to let you plummet off the bridge." Ami growled.
"It didn't look like that, Sakura." Yamato said, "He approached Orochimaru on his own and handed him something. It looked like he was trying to gain Orochimaru's favour."
"W-wait a minute!" Naruto cried. "He may be a complete jerk, but there's no way he'd betray us!"
"No, he might." Sakura said.
Ami's brows rose slightly to find that the pinkette shared her opinion.
"Yamato-taichou, do you know about Danzou?" the medic asked.
"I do." the armoured man replied.
"Who's Danzou?" Naruto asked.
"He's a hawkish man who once opposed the Third Hokage." Yamato said.
"He's an old man, Sai's superior, and doesn't think well of the Third." Sakura continued.
Between the two of them, Sakura and Yamato figured out and explained that Danzou may have give Sai another mission, besides their own, using Sai to get close to Orochimaru, so that they could combine forces to attack Konoha so that Danzou could overthrow Tsunade and become Hokage, and that depending on how things went, they may have to kill Sai.
"My clone is trailing them, but I don't know what will happen." Yamato said, "We're going after them too."
"But-" Sakura began, but was cut off by Naruto.
"Got it! Let's g-!" the blond, cried, before the eyes rolled back in his head and he fell towards the ground face-down, being caught by a band of Ami's water.
'I was wondering how he was so energetic.' Ami thought as she watched Sakura help the boy up.
There were a few minutes of them trying to figure out just what to do, Yamato saying to leave Naruto behind and that although he was Kakashi's replacement, he wasn't Kakashi, and wouldn't smile and tell them he'd protect them.
With Sakura refusing and Ami trying to figure out the best solution, while Naruto argued that he would be fine, eventually, the captain simply asked the Jinchuuriki what he would do with himself, as if they didn't go soon, they would lose Orochimaru, Kabuto, Sai and what may very well be their only chance at finding Sasuke.
The blond, being as pigheaded as ever, of course chose to come, and so, the group set out together, through the trees after the enemy, until Sakura's hand slipped off a branch she grabbed using her injured arm, nearly hitting the ground.
As they watched Sakura heal herself, panting and grunting in pain, it became apparent that the Kyuubi Chakra must work like poison, and that even though Kabuto used powerful Medical Ninjutsu on her, it wasn't going to heal quickly.
Naruto began asking questions about the injury, to which the rosette had responded with a lie that Orochimaru had done it to her.
"Let's take a short break here." Yamato said, "Sakura is the only medic in the group. The success of our mission lies with her."
"I thought you said we have to leave right away." Ami said, not arguing, but rather pointing out his self-contradiction.
"I also say that haste makes waste." the man replied, "There's a difference between hurrying and being reckless."
"That's right, that's right!" Naruto grinned. "Sakura-chan, you're this team's only med-ninja and master of brute force! You're the most vital part of the group-"
"Stop adding 'brute-force' to the list!" the pink-haired girl barked.
Ami and Yamato smiled as they watched Sakura yelling at the confused boy.
"Naruto." the wood-user piped up. "Since Sai has left, you'll be working as my buddy now. Sakura and Ami can be buddies. Let's work out our strategy together now."
The boy obediently left with their captain, away from the girls.
The brunette watched, feeling rather useless, as Sakura healed herself.
The water-user spoke up after a while.
"Sakura."
The pinkette looked at her.
"I understand what you're trying to do, but you can't keep lying to Naruto."
"…I'm only lying because-" the pink-haired girl murmured.
"You want to protect him." the brunette interrupted, "I know. Naruto went wild after he realized he was dead and nearly ended up hitting me too. And if I know Yamato-taichou like I think I do, chances are he'll tell Naruto what really happened. And if he doesn't, I will, because I want him to know what's going on when he uses that power. Yamato-taichou won't always be there to stop it. Naruto needs to understand the consequences. He's nearly hit me and actually hit you. I'm sure he'll be terribly ashamed to know that, but that's necessary to give him the drive to keep himself under better control. Cruel kindness."
The pink-haired girl bowed her head in understanding.
"Aside from that, do you still have Sai's picture book? If we read it, we might find something out about him."
"Yeah…" the girl said, moving her arm, the pain now mostly stopped, pulling out the book and opening it.
The kunoichi were shocked by what they found, and called Naruto and Yamato over to see.
The story started from the ends of the book, with two boys, one with white hair and one with black hair, one at each end, defeating their enemies and taking weapons and armour from them as they went through, meeting in the middle. However, the centre was unfinished, so it was unclear as to just what happened once the two boys, who both defeated every enemy they were met with, once they met each other. Only the right page had anything drawn at all; the black-haired boy with a hand outstretched towards the centre, everything but his face drawn.
"Hey, don't you think the black-haired guy looks kind of like Sai?" Naruto piped up.
"Yeah, he does." Sakura agreed.
"So he was drawing himself?" Yamato said, "Then who's the other boy?"
"He said it was his brother's treasure, so perhaps his brother?" Ami suggested.
"So, when you open it from the centre… Sai and his brother…"
Their conversation was interrupted by an incoming transmission from Yamato's bunshin.
"My clone managed to follow them to their base." the captain said, "Let's get moving."
The group ran across the lake towards the island in the centre, and now stood before a large rock in a barren placed filled with dust, dead trees, rocks, termite mounds and the like.
Yamato handed the shinobi small seeds to swallow so that he could track them if they got split up, and the group infiltrated by tunnelling down into the ground and making a small hole in the base, as it was completely surrounded by stone, in almost utter silence by Yamato applying pressure to a minuscule crack using a stake of his Chakra-reinforced wood.
They quickly found Sai in a room by means of the same tracking method Yamato had used on the others, having planted seeds in his food and clothes back at the hot springs.
Naruto grabbed the boy roughly by the front of his clothes, but Sai kept on smiling, pale face glowing in the dark room lit only by a candle, light from the flame dancing on the stone walls. "Why the hell did you turn on us, traitor?"
"You shouldn't be so noisy, or things really will get difficult." the raven leered.
Naruto snarled. "You-!"
"Naruto." Sakura warned, and the boy gritted his teeth before angrily releasing the boy.
She stepped forward and handed the pale boy his book. "Here. This is yours, right?"
"Thank you." Sai said, still smiling as he took it.
"Danzou's orders, right?" the rosette said, glaring slightly at the boy, "He's plotting something involving Orochimaru, isn't he? And you were chosen to be their liaison. What are they up to?"
Sai was silent, fake expression still in place.
"He wants to team up with Orochimaru to try a new 'Crush the Leaf' plan, doesn't he?" Yamato said.
There was a long silence.
"No, he doesn't-" Sai began, but Naruto cut him off with a growl.
"We know that smile is fake, and we know you're lying!" the blond barked.
There was another silence.
"Now that you all know I'm here, my mission is a failure. I can't finish you all off by myself. And since you've figured this much out, there's no point in trying to hide the truth." He dropped the facade. "It's just as you said. We're trying to destroy the current Konoha. I was to be taken in by Orochimaru with the understanding that I would help him conspire against Konoha. That is the true mission that was assigned to me."
"Do you understand what you're saying?" Naruto demanded, "That's-!"
"That's not all. I'm also to secretly send back information on Orochimaru to Danzou-sama. In other words, I'm also working as a spy."
"Keep talking." Yamato said, raising a kunai. "And don't leave a single thing out."
"So you're supposed to be part of an alliance with Orochimaru whilst spying on him behind his back? That's so dangerous…" Sakura murmured.
"The moment Konoha is betrayed, Orochimaru will definitely betray us." the raven smiled. "It's a preventative measure to make sure we keep the upper hand."
"I see." Yamato said, nodding.
"Danzou wants to make Konoha his…" Sakura said, looking down, brow furrowed slightly, "And you're supposed to make it happen all by yourself?"
"The information I write on my scrolls can take the form of small animals." the boy said, "That way I can still leak information without compromising my safety. That's the reason I was chosen for this mission."
"If Konoha is thrown into chaos, lots of people will die again!" Sakura said angrily, "Do you really understand just what it is you're trying to do?"
"Who cares? I'm just following orders."
"Sai… you…" the rosette said quietly, shocked.
"That's wrong." Ami scowled, disgusted.
"One more thing. The name 'Sai' was assigned to me for this mission. I am no one. I am merely one of Danzou's arms. I do not exist. There is no point in saying anything to me."
"…If that's true, then why do you treasure that picture book so much?" Sakura inquired.
The boy seemed lost for words as the girl continued.
"The two children on the cover are you and your brother, aren't they? Why is that book so precious to you? Because it's the only thing that proves you exist. You haven't lost your emotions as much as you like to claim. No shinobi can fully throw away their emotions. The fact that you accepted the book back and said 'thank you' proves it. You felt relief when I handed it to you."
"In what way does carrying around this book prove that I exist?"
"The reason you don't want to let go of that picture book is because you can't give up the image you have of yourself as a little brother. Do you know why?"
The boy was silent, and seemed confused.
"Because your ties with your brother were important to you!"
Sai's blank eyes widened, and suddenly seemed the tiniest bit more understanding.
"You don't want to destroy the bond you share with your brother."
"'Bond'?" he repeated.
"I apologize, but we took a look at the contents of the book." Yamato said. "Only the two centre pages are incomplete."
The boy's eyes narrowed.
"Sai. I know that you're from ANBU Root. I also know that Danzou had you go through special training to kill your emotions."
"'Special training'?" Naruto mumbled, confused.
"In order to kill your emotions, you underwent the vile training once used in the Hidden Village of 'Blood' Mist.
Ami's eyes widened in horror. 'That's the training Zabuza did… that must mean that Sai… killed his own brother and friends, along with his feelings? And Danzou had him do it? The more I hear about that old man the more I dislike him…'
"Going by the flow of the book, you take the weapons and armour of the foes you meet. When you get to the centre pages, you would have had to fight your brother. …You killed your-"
"Wrong." Sai growled, showing true feeling in his voice for the first time since they had met him. "This picture book was meant to be a present for my brother. But, just when the picture book was almost complete… brother… brother… died from a disease." he finished smiling.
'He sounded seriously offended when Yamato-taichou implied that he killed his brother…' Ami thought to herself, 'Maybe Sai is human, after all.'
"There are a lot of children in Root who are torn away from their parents because of war. He and I got along like real brothers, even though we weren't related by blood. He often praised my pictures. The centre two pages were the ones I wanted to show him the most, but since he died… I can't remember what I wanted to draw on them."
Ami folded her arms as she examined the boy tied up before her with Yamato's Mokuton jutsu.
"Tough break, Sai." Yamato said. "I'm going to leave you here and have my wood clone keep watch."
"It's time we went after Sasuke." Ami said.
"You should give up." Sai said bluntly, "I met Sasuke-kun. Orochimaru is always with Sasuke-kun. In other words, you'll have to fight Orochimaru again. If you pursue him, you'll be ripped apart and used for their experiments. Plus…"
"'Plus'…?" Naruto said, urging him to continue.
"He no longer cares about you. Sakura-san said that you think of Sasuke-kun as a brother. And yet…"
Team Seven's original remnants tensed.
"Why for someone like him?" Sai asked, "Why are you trying so hard to bring him back, even risking your life by going up against Orochimaru, when he thinks so little of you? Why? You haven't been ordered to do this."
Ami felt the cold stone of the necklace brush against her flesh, and she clenched her fists.
To everyone's shock, Naruto smiled.
"Back in the day," the whiskered boy said grinning, "I couldn't stand Sasuke. Even though neither of us had families, he was an elite and I was dead last in class. But, it really was a lot of fun when we were together. He… he acknowledged me more than anyone else ever did. Sasuke is my friend. Someone who I was finally able to form a bond with."
Sai's eyes widened. "But still… But still, against Orochimaru, you-"
"I don't care who I have to fight!" Naruto beamed. "If he rips my arms off, I'll kick him to death. If he rips my legs off, I'll bite him to death! If he rips my head off, I'll stare him to death! And if he gouges my eyes out, I'll curse him to death from beyond the grave!"
As the Jinchuuriki continued to speak, Sai's eyebrows rose higher and higher as he gaped at the blond, the others smiling at the blond's characteristic stubbornness and guts.
"Even if I'm torn to shreds, I'm taking Sasuke back from Orochimaru!" the blond swore.
The raven was staring the blond down.
"We'll move as soon as the guard clone's complete." Yamato said, going to make several hand seals, but jumping backwards to dodge, as did the others, when several kunai rained from the sky and Kabuto landed before them, in front of Sai.
"And here I thought we'd managed to fool our tracker." he said, smirking as he adjusted his glasses, "But you are one of Orochimaru-sama's guinea-pigs, so I suppose it's not unexpected."
Naruto growled. "Kabuto…"
"You're persistent." Sakura frowned.
Ami narrowed her eyes at the man in displeasure.
"Sai, I see you've been taken prisoner." the silver-haired boy said, looking back at the raven.
"Take a hike." Naruto ordered. "If you don't leave, I won't hold back."
A shadow clone of the blond's flew down from above, Rasengan spiralling in its palm, but Kabuto dodged simply and kicked the boy away.
"It's pointless." he smirked.
"You don't know until you try!" Naruto snarled, making a seal, and four clones dashed at the sound-nin.
The bunshin vanished as they were quickly beaten, and Yamato attacked with several wooden columns, as Kabuto danced between them, Sai swinging from his hand.
Ami latched onto a wooden beam with a cord of water and pulled herself up, shooting a concentrated blast of air at the boy. However, she missed, being snatched herself and flung towards the ground, though she managed to land on her feet. A column planted itself in the ground and Sakura shot up it, swinging a fist at the boy and blasting out the side of a large cathedral termite mound, the winged residents chasing the pony-tailed boy down onto the ground, where he sliced them to pieces.
Once finished, Kabuto leant down to speak in Sai's ear, though they were unable to hear just what he was saying, and cut through the wooden binding with a quick slice using a Chakra-filled palm.
"I must say, I genuinely feel sorry for you people." he said, "Especially you, Naruto-kun. You're the most pitiful of the lot. Even if you do defeat me, you're wasting your time. People change. Sasuke-kun's not the same person that you used to know."
"It doesn't matter what he's turned into, we're taking him back!" Ami called down, glaring.
To their shock, Sai suddenly grabbed a hold of Kabuto and pinned him, smacking the boy with glasses' face to the ground for a dirt facial.
"What's the meaning of this?" Kabuto growled, trying to turn his head to look at the raven, who gazed back calmly. "Your mission was to be the liaison between Danzou and Orochimaru-sama…"
"You said people change. That means I can too."
Kabuto was furious. "What?"
"But, there are also things that don't change." the raven continued.
"Sai… you…" Naruto mumbled, stunned.
"That 'bond'… I want to see it for myself." the artist said, looking up at the whiskered boy.
"Sai, don't let him go." Yamato said, walking over, before he tied up an infuriated Kabuto with wood and stuck him in the very spot that Sai had previously been, looking very much like a misbehaving child in time out.
As Yamato made the Moku Bunshin, Naruto stared at the mysterious boy.
"Sai…" he whispered, "What are you thinking?"
"I want to know why you go so far for Sasuke-kun and what 'bonds' really are." the pale ANBU Root member said simply, smiling again, though it seemed just the slightest bit more genuine than usual, "According to you, I still have bonds with my brother. If such bonds are really that important, then I might understand them better if I see you and Sasuke-kun. That's all."
Kabuto began giggling.
"What's so damn funny?" Sakura demanded.
"You idiots don't know the real Sasuke-kun." he said, smugly.
"Where is Sasuke-kun?" Yamato demanded, stepping forward. "Answer me."
Kabuto was silent for a long time, as a gecko scurried around his feet, before finally answering. "By now, he's probably finished with his training and gone back to his room in the inner area."
"It's true that Sasuke-kun went to train with Orochimaru." Sai said, "I don't think he's lying."
"Then, let's hurry-!" Naruto began, but he was cut off.
"However, 'inner area' doesn't tell us much."
"Even I don't know which room." Kabuto glared, "This place has spaces and rooms carved out everywhere. There's more than just one or two inner chambers."
"Then we'll just have to search all of them." Naruto said.
The silver-haired boy smirked. "That could work. You might find him if you search at random like that. But, if you aren't careful you could disturb the wrong bush and have a snake jump out at you. Orochimaru-sama's room is back there as well."
"Well, thanks for being honest with us." Yamato said.
"Oh, there's no need for thanks."
"You think we're all going to get killed, don't you?"
"Yeah."
"Son of a-!" Naruto began, but Yamato stopped him by throwing up a hand.
"I guess we'll see." the captain said calmly. "Let's go."
The group ran, leaving the silver-haired henchman alone with the clone.
Adrenaline surged through Ami's veins as sweat poured down her face, dashing through the hideout with Sakura and Yamato, searching behind every door they found, Naruto and Sai having split up from them to go the other way.
Memories of the boy flooded her brain; fighting each other at the academy on her first day, eating together on missions as Genin, giving him the necklace for his birthday that she now wore herself, going on dates together with Baby stalking them both, him appearing on her doorstep and talking to her on the night he left, and everything in-between.
Frustration poured out in sweat and tears as they checked room after room fruitlessly.
This was getting scary.
'What if Kabuto lied? What if there are secret rooms inside these rooms, and we've already passed him? What if Orochimaru finds and kills us? What if Sai tricked us again? What if Sasuke really has changed too much?' These were just a few of the terrifying possibilities going through her mind.
As they checked yet another door, Yamato suddenly sensed Naruto's Chakra fluctuate.
That could only mean one thing; A fight.
They burst through a wall to find Naruto and Orochimaru staring each other down, the snake-like man licking his lips.
Ami almost facepalmed. 'This guy again?!'
Orochimaru's sick smirk suddenly slid off his face. "Naruto-kun, I'll let you live for now. Please do your best to kill at least one more Akatsuki for me, okay?"
"W-what?" the blond exclaimed.
"Now then, I have business with that Sai boy. If you'll excuse me." The snake-man vanished in a cloud of smoke, and Sakura released a relieved breath.
"Naruto, where's Sai?" Yamato asked.
"Sai's searching for Sasuke. We have to do something before Orochimaru finds him!" the blond replied. "I could do Tajuu Kage Bunshin to find him, but it'll use up the last of my Chakra. And you guys can search down that way."
Ami noticed the picture book sticking out of the ANBU Root member's abandoned bag. She picked it up and opened it on the middle page, surprised to see the drawing finished.
"Oh yeah, he remembered." Naruto said beaming, "That's what he wanted to show his brother; a 'picture of their dreams'."
"They're both smiling." Sakura said, looking at the book, happy herself.
"Yeah. After he finished it, he smiled for real from the bottom of his heart."
Yamato also reached inside the boy's bag and pulled out a small, black book.
His eyes widened. "This is…!"
The heads of the young shinobi turned in curiosity.
It was a bingo book; An assassination list that ANBU used for their targets. People that had been killed had their pictures crossed out with large black 'X's.
"Why would Sai have something like that?" Sakura asked, bewildered.
Yamato was flicking through the book, when suddenly, his eyes widened.
"What is it?" Ami asked, noticing his change in expression.
The captain turned the book around to them wordlessly, and their jaws dropped in shock.
An unmarked picture of thirteen year-old Uchiha Sasuke stared out from inside it.
It finally hit them.
Sai's mission was never to act as a liaison between Orochimaru and Danzou.
His real mission was something completely different.
The assassination of Uchiha Sasuke.
"But he smiled for real!" Naruto cried, "He said he'd help get Sasuke back! It wasn't like before-!"
"Naruto, it's more than likely than he was just trying to fool you." Ami said sadly, cutting him off. "He might even have faked not having emotions this whole time just so he could trick you at the last minute."
"Everyone in this book are or once were a threat of some kind to Konoha." Yamato said, "It's clear that it's Sai's job to eliminate threats to Konoha, and Sasuke is also one of those threats. Danzou's goal was to eliminate Sasuke, Orochimaru's future body. That's why Sai approached Orochimaru. It wasn't to destroy Konoha... it was to protect it!" He gritted his teeth. "Just what you'd expect from a warmonger like him."
"...There's not point standing around whining." Naruto said, "I don't give a damn about Danzou's orders or what Sai thinks! What we need to do right now is to team up with Sai and get to Sasuke!"
"Naruto is right." Yamato smiled. "I just sensed Sai's Chakra a moment ago. Let's hurry!"
As they headed towards where Yamato sensed Sai, the echoes of an explosion sounded throughout the hideout.
"Found him!" the pinkette growled.
Sakura shot for the boy, Ami hot on her heels, heading towards the light at the end of the corridor, where Sai stood, gazing up calmly, sunlight shining down onto his pale face.
The pink-haired girl grabbed the raven roughly by the front of his shirt, shouting in his face. "What are you really after? How many more times are you going to stab us in the back before you're satisfied?"
"If all you're going to do is lie and betray us, we should have just left you tied up with Kabuto!" Ami snarled, jabbing a finger at the boy, before noticing a body of water behind herself, up above them, and flicking her head around to see.
Her eyes widened.
There was a man silhouetted against the sun, hand on his hip, looking down at them.
'It can't be...'
"Sakura... Ami, too..." the person said from above, sounding vaguely surprised, though not really bothered.
The girls' eyes practically bulged out of their heads.
'That voice...' Ami thought, heart pounding wildly, knowing that the person they had been searching for all this time, now stood before them, a mere stone's throw away. 'It's deeper, but it's definitely...'
Sakura's voice completed her thoughts with a barely audible whisper.
"Sasuke... kun...?"
Dan dan daan! :D
Hope you enjoyed! ^_^
By the way, rewatching this... the fact of just how much time these guys waste standing around and talking was really driven home to me. They're in the same place as the Missing-Nin they've been searching for for ages, yet instead of looking for him, they're trying to tell Sai he has feelings, reading a picture book, Naruto's saying how he'll stare someone to death if they rip off his head, and they're all trying to decide whether they like Sai or not. ¬_¬
Are they really bothered about Sasuke at all? If I was in that situation with my teammates I'd be constantly fidgeting in frustration that we weren't searching and tell them that if they talked about the picture book any more I'd shove it up their arse. DX
Mental... Don't get me wrong, though, I still love the show. :D
Hope you enjoyed!
