Disclaimer: Naruto, his friends and the universe they live in don't belong to me but to Masashi Kishimoto. I write this story solely for my own pleasure and don't make any money with it.
A/Nat the end of the chapter
Chapter Thirty-Six: Controlling the Kyuubi like a pet
Naruto had often dreamt of kissing and being kissed: Touching soft lips with his own, letting his tongue run smoothly along the opening between the lips. The dreams had been nice, but now he discovered that reality was completely different.
It was no longer some anonymous woman out of a daydream whom he kissed, it was no longer some visualization of Sakura or Hinata that did exactly as he wished, it was Sasuke, his own living Sasuke, approaching his lips with his own, touching them, opening his mouth a bit with his tongue – not shoving his tongue into Naruto's mouth, as Jiraya's heroes would have done, but gently parting his lips and waiting for his reaction. Naruto opened his mouth and welcomed Sasuke's tongue with his own, and then he entered Sasuke's mouth himself.
Sasuke, his Sasuke, who had been a dream for more than three years, was now with him in flesh, and he was not cool and aloof any more, but warm and gentle, and still everything Naruto had ever dreamt of, generous, noble, clear-minded, courageous.
His tongue was caressing Naruto's upper lip now, his hands were holding his head, as if he was something unbelievably valuable. Naruto had never thought that someone might consider him worth anything (which was one of the reasons that he was always ready to put his life on the line) and that it was Sasuke, most admired of all the boys in Konoha, who thought of him as someone really precious – not just something that had to be protected because it contained the kyuubi, but someone who was really precious so that he should be treated with care, just as Sasuke was now carefully tracing the lines of his face – it was too much for his heart to comprehend.
They were not kissing any more, but looking at each other and smiling – that is, the corners of Sasuke's mouth were slightly twisted upwards, but his eyes were beaming, and warmth flowed from them into Naruto, and he smiled widely but his eyes filled with tears out of sadness that Sasuke had forgot how to smile.
They kissed again, opening their mouths for each other's tongues but also for their whole persons. I want him inside me, Naruto thought, fragile and strong, easily scared and valiant, having great issues with trust and intimacy, but having also a generous, loving heart. His tongue in my mouth, and mine in his, beautiful, gracious creature, and then Naruto did not think anything any more, just felt the warmth spreading from his mouth to his body, his blood rushing to his sexual organs. Both boys moved, so that they could press their bodies against each other, their hands wandered under their shirts, touching naked skin.
Sasuke would have been scared, had he still been able to think enough to be scared, but he had given up all conscious thought and deliberation and was following his passion only now. He kissed Naruto's mouth, his cheeks, his eyes, his ears, his neck. He had wanted him since he had been a kid, funny, ever-friendly, ever-happy Naruto, he had envied him, he had wanted to be close to him, so that some of his happiness might rub off, though at the same time of course he had refused to allow himself any happiness. Funny, ever-friendly, ever-happy Naruto - a cute kid then, a clumsy teenager now, feeling uncomfortable in his skin, but already there was the promise of the future man, strong, confident, ready to hold and protect him, just as he, Sasuke, was ready to hold and protect Naruto.
He was a good choice, and being gay was a fine thing with a partner as Naruto, who was so different from the girls who wanted to play psychotherapist but who were not ready just to help and protect and hold and comfort him when he needed it. For them he was just a pretty doll, sadly suffering from some irrational fixation on his revenge, whom they could embrace and attempt to heal at will, forgetting that he was a person with his own ideas and wishes and feelings.
Naruto was embracing him as well and kissing his neck, but it was all in response to Sasuke's own embraces. He tried him by withdrawing a bit, and Naruto stopped immediately, looking at him confusedly, then Sasuke kissed him again, following his own passion, giving himself to Naruto's passion. He felt Naruto's body under his hands, strong, muscular, manly, he pressed him against his own, he felt Naruto's erection and knew that Naruto felt his own. He was embarrassed about it, he did not want Naruto to think that he wanted to do anything but kissing. He pretended not to notice, and Naruto did not mind, only his kisses got more passionate now, his tongue deep in Sasuke's mouth, and Sasuke concentrated on answering to them and tried to forget what was happening in the lower regions of his body.
His Sharingan allowed him to see chakra, but he had no particular talent for sensing it. Still he knew what was happening: He was open for Naruto, and Naruto was open for him. Naruto felt it as well: They were open for each other, body and soul, and he also knew that though they might be only kissing now he would be ready to go all the way when time came. It was no loss to be gay, not if the partner was Sasuke whom he had longed for for so long. He would not have it otherwise now.
They were only kissing, and already open for each other, and chakra was free to go from one to the other, and the chakra systems connected...
"Sorry to disturb you, boys," Suigetsu said, "but the kyuubi is moving. Something seems to be going on outside."
Slowly they remembered where they were and what time it was and that there was a world outside with men like Itachi and the guy who could turn into a raven, who would both be all too happy to make use of the occasion if they found the two of them kissing. So Sasuke and Naruto dissolved their embrace, but they did not completely break the physical contact, nor interrupt the chakra flow between them. They went outside where the kyuubi had got up on its four feet, its tails raised, its head lowered, growling angrily at the men who had arrived, but just as with a dog its open aggression was only a sign of its nervousness and fear.
The boys went around it and met their opponents: Itachi and the stranger who could turn into a raven. Naruto quieted the kyuubi:
"We will protect you", he said, then he turned around, looking into two pairs of Sharingans.
Sasuke, whose arm was still around his shoulders, drew him closer.
"We'll make it", he said, suddenly feeling confident. "They only have each other, but I have you."
He wondered about himself. This morning he had been dissolved in sorrow, then he had been dissolved in passion, but now he was perfectly calm and focused, more than ever when he had been fighting Itachi, not angry any more, but oddly detached. He remembered Suigetsu's words: "There is no way to understand a mind as Itachi's."
Staring at each other, waiting for the other to show a sign of nervousness or fear or even give himself an opening: The Uchihas fought like cats. Naruto was rather like a dog: his rashness and impulsivity were well-known both to enemies and friends, and so everyone waited for him to make the first move. But just as a dog might be scared of a cat though he is much bigger and stronger, just because he does not understand that weird creature's behaviour, Naruto felt insecure amid these men with their genjutsus he could not do anything about.
Then Sasuke struck. He had seen an opening and got into Itachi's mind, taking Itachi's companion with them. With Naruto's chakra supporting him it was possible to catch two men in one genjutsu... Naruto was still at his side, ready to fight, conscious both of the real world and of the nightmarish world that was Itachi's mind, just as Sasuke himself was.
The landscape resembled what one would find on the moon: Bare stones and no water, and the sky was deep black as it is when there is no atmosphere. Yet Itachi was not shocked or depressed as Sasuke and Naruto had been when last night they had looked into their minds.
"Do you really think that you can defeat me like this?" he said. "Do you really think that I might be hurt by this empty barren landscape? You are wrong: I created it myself. I searched it and destroyed everything that might cause me pain or fear."
So this is the source of Sasuke's crap about severing bonds in order to get stronger, Naruto thought.
The guy who could turn into a raven was not even defending himself against the genjutsu. He was just standing around, smiling arrogantly, confident that he could not lose. He was not helping Itachi either.
It turned Naruto angry. Only Naruto could be turned angry because Itachi did not get any help from his companion, Sasuke thought amusedly, but this was what he loved him for.
What a relief to be allowed to get angry without fear of awakening the kyuubi! Finally Naruto could use his anger to summon all his own chakra, and none of the kyuubi's! He created a bunch of kagebunshin, not only of himself, but also of Sasuke, which was possible because their chakra systems were still connected. They attacked from all sides with kunai and swords and shuriken.
They were of course no real threat for Itachi and his companion but they kept them busy so that Sasuke could do some thinking: This lunar landscape could not be everything, he knew, there must be something else, something deeper, something that had caused him to become like this. Something from the time before he had murdered the clan – from the time when they had still been a family.
Naruto's kagebunshim lured them all forward, so that they got to see more of the landscape. He found a crater, and after a sign to Naruto the kagebunshin lured them all inside.
On the ground there was a new landscape: not barren stone any more, but ice, which was a progress, because ice was frozen water after all, and Antarctica was still a continent on Earth.
"Do you really think I still feel the cold?" Itachi asked, but he must, as they all felt it now, while they had not felt the cold of outer space at the other place.
On and on the kagebunshin made them go, until they came to a crack between two giant glaciers which was filled with dark green water.
This time Itachi was afraid, as if he knew that if he sprang down into the rift he would find another world where he was still more vulnerable than in this one, but his companion did not seem to care, and the kagebunshin did not leave him any choice.
Naruto had thought that he would end up in icy water but he did not: There was another landscape below, yet this one was not natural but artificial: It was made of glass and of concrete, similar to some modern quarters of the capital of the Fire Country that he had once visited on his journeys with Jiraya. Even the floor was made of glass, and below the glass there was darkness, so that they saw their reflections in the glass.
Sasuke looked for a way out of that mental dimension, another crack or hole, but there was none.
"I told you", Itachi said. "There's nothing that would still cause me any pain or fear: Don't look for something beneath, where there might still be some warmth or softness. There is no other dimension. This one is real. This is what is really inside me, and this is what the outside world really is."
It cannot be everything, Sasuke thought. Even with him there must be some reason why he had become like this. Then he discovered that what he had first taken for skyscrapers made of glass were actually mirrors, a special kind of mirrors that magnified Itachi, but left the rest of them their original size. So this was the world Itachi dreamt of.
Naruto had understood it as well. The kagebunshin spread out, one pair to every mirror, and when they were all in place they turned them around in one single moment. Now they showed an Itachi who was scaled down and much smaller than the rest of them. The real Itachi who was standing between all these mirrors had also shrunk, because in this dimension what he thought about himself became real.
Behind himself in the mirrors were the images of other Akatsuki; His own companion, magnified so that he looked like a giant, and behind him some other nameless, faceless figures with the typical black and red Akatsuki cloak.
"So your friend is useful for something after all", Itachi said to Sasuke, "but you don't defeat me like this. I have always known that I am small compared to my leader and his plans."
We will get him, Sasuke thought, it is just a matter of time, as in chess when your opponent has lost all his strong pieces. He has lost this fight the moment I got into his mind.
The kagebunshin turned the mirror a second time, and this time the figures vanished and the mirrors showed nothing but the glass landscape without any living being at all – even Itachi who was still standing between the mirrors and who should have been reflected did not show up in the glass panes.
"This it it!" he called. "This is the world as it really is!"
This is it indeed, Sasuke thought, as he watched Itachi grow transparent.
"You are nothing", he said. "There is nothing alive in your world, not even you yourself. You always wanted to be strongest, and now you are vanishing into nothing."
"I am strongest", Itachi said. "I was stronger than all the other Uchihas, I am stronger than all the Jounin and ANBU of Konoha who did not dare to hunt me down. I am second only to my leader who has acquired the power of Uchiha Madara himself and who will restore the glory and dignity of the name of Uchiha that was destroyed by the members of our clan when they were content to be second and to serve the hokages."
Sasuke was not even angry – he just shook his head hearing all this nonsense.
"How could you do it?" he asked. "He's not even from our clan. He's just an impostor."
"He has the true power – he knows the true purpose", Itachi said, having become almost transparent by now. "Blood is not important – families are not important – persons are not important. Only the name and the power are."
And with these words he vanished completely. The landscape of glass vanished as well, and they found themselves back in the real world: with Itachi passed out or even dead, the dimension that had been a visualization of his mind could no longer be kept up.
His companion prodded his body with the tip of his foot. Itachi did not move.
"He was not important anyway", he said to Sasuke. "He was too weak in the end, relying entirely on his genjutsus, and besides, he never had the capacity to control the kyuubi. I do not need him any more. You, Sasuke, are stronger, you might become my new companion."
"And be discarded as Itachi when I am no longer useful."
"You will never cease to be useful. You know that I need you to control the kyuubi just as you need me to summon it. Together we might rule the world."
Yesterday he might have been tempted – today he just did not care.
"I can force you to cooperate", the man said. "You know that I can."
Sasuke had forgotten the Mangekyou Sharingan – he panicked even before he saw the pattern in the other's eyes change its form, remembering how yesterday he had been forced to relive the day when his family had been murdered, how his world had broken down, how again he had felt lost and cut off from everything that had been precious to him, how the pain had been so intense that it had been almost physical.
Naruto felt him stagger and steadied him with his arm. He sensed Sasuke's chakra flow go crazy, breaking down at some points and rising to unhealthily high levels at others, and though he had never really been interested in medical questions he knew from last night's adventures what this meant: Parts of the organism were going through whatever bad experiences were caused by the Mangekyou Sharingan while other parts were trying to protect themselves against it. As their chakra systems were still connected, Naruto could stabilize Sasuke's chakra flow with his own, forcing Sasuke to remain conscious and – Sasuke regretted his intervention as much as he was glad about it – to relive the memories of that day.
To see them all lying dead again, his world breaking in parts – to see it and remain conscious, with Naruto at his side, holding him firmly. His world might have broken down that day, but he was still alive, and for him there might be something new. Not for them, however, they would remain dead, whether he kept mourning or avenged them or just went on. He realized that so far he had only been mourning for himself and the broken world of his childhood, never for their lost lives.
Slowly Naruto led him out of the house, then they climbed one of the stairs that ran along the walls of the houses, leading to the roofs, but now leading into daylight, as if the street with all the corpses was in truth some subterranean labyrinth. Upstairs they found the wintery landscape they had visited in the night, and now it did not seem dreary at all but was a relief after the nightmare they came from. Some of the snow had melted away and Sasuke could see now that what he had taken for a garden was in truth a graveyard. He'd have to bury them but never forget them. He would remember them while he tended to the garden.
All the time while he was recovering from the effects of the Mangekyou Sharingan Naruto had been ready to protect him, yet their opponent had not attacked but just waited for the Mangekyou Sharingan to break Sasuke, not considering the possibility that Sasuke might fight it off.
"Itachi lied to me", he said when Sasuke finally straightened and looked at him again, a fierce determination in his eyes. "You do have the Mangekyou Sharingan, or you would not have been able to counter it just now."
"I don't", Sasuke replied. "You see, my friend is still alive."
He tried to hit the man with his chidori blade, but his opponent evaded it easily. Naruto was beginning to form his wind chakra shuriken, and Sasuke lent him his left hand for it as Naruto's own was still around Sasuke's shoulder. They were fed up with this man's crap, and they would finish it now.
They gasped when the man summoned the kyuubi.
"Don't you hurt it!" Naruto shouted. "You don't use it for your evil purposes! It's just a creature of nature, it's innocent, it does not even know of good or evil! It's not meant to be used to cause destruction!"
For the first time during this fight he was tempted to let go of Sasuke and just rush at that man and break his control over the kyuubi. Sasuke however held him firmly in his grip.
"Worried that someone might hurt your cute little puppy", the man said.
"Calm down", Sasuke whispered to Naruto. "He cannot use the kyuubi. Not on his own."
"But he has power over it."
"Not enough."
"He will make it fight us."
"I will be able to control it. Calm down."
Naruto did not try again to break free from Sasuke's grip, but he did not calm down. How could he, with the kyuubi slowly walking towards the man, all nine tails hanging to the ground as if it did not want to follow the man's call – it was so depressing, his fox-demon, his companion for all his life, just set free against all reason, and already prisoner to someone else's will.
"Kyuubi", he shouted. "Come back! Don't let that man use you! He's evil! You hear me, he's evil! He will use you to kill us, and then destroy Konoha and the fire country and the rest of the world!"
Both boys held their breath when the kyuubi turned its head and looked at Naruto. It took a first tentative step in their direction, then a second, the third was not tentative any more. Still they did not know whether it was coming because Naruto had called it or because the man had ordered it to kill them. Only when it had almost arrived they trusted that it would not attack.
Naruto welcomed it with open arms, caressing its snout, burying his hands in its long, thick fur. Sasuke hesitated, he still felt a bit insecure with the kyuubi, not knowing whether it would allow him such an intimacy, but then he gave in to his longing to stroke its long, shiny hair.
Their opponent made a second attempt to summon the kyuubi. It struggled, torn between its own wish to remain with Naruto and the man's superior power. After several seconds it gave in, turned round and went back to the man.
When it was halfway, Sasuke understood its intentions.
"Call it back!" he shouted at Naruto. "Call it back! It's going to kill him!"
It was too late: The man had caught Naruto in his Mangekyou Sharingan.
A/N: The title of this chapter – not the content! - is the only thing I changed about this fanfic as a reaction to the recent revelations. The original title was a bit lame, and I thought that this one fitted it.
This is the last regular chapter. Tomorrow you will get an epilogue. (You see, the story cannot end like this.) Thanks to you all for following this story and commenting on
it and being patient until the boys finally meet! I hope you enjoyed it!