Kindling (Naruto's POV)
In which Konoha and Naruto react to this new crisis and the author starts to wonder if she's pushing our boys too far.
Naruto felt completely numb. Hundreds of those treacherous white papers had fallen all over Konoha, and he had seen with his own eyes people gathering them up and reading the words- believing the words. Each time was like another knife stabbing into him, a piercing reminder that people- his people- were all too willing to accept what was written there. To believe that Sasuke belonged to ryuu, to the enemy that had just attacked their town; to believe that Konoha would be attacked again and again, until Sasuke was returned to them.
He sat at the council table gazing in despair at the arguments and allegations currently swirling around the room. Clan heads argued with elders; accusations at Anbu incompetence flew in the direction of Yamato and Sai. Naruto watched as Ino swore ferociously that Sasuke had saved their lives; Shikamaru tried to subdue her.
But Naruto himself had gone past feeling miserable and helpless, past feeling frustrated and angry. Past any desire to fight back. He was just…numb.
Sakura reached out under the table from her place next to him and gripped his hand. "Good, Naruto," she murmured, her voice barely audible with all the noise in the room. "Don't get mad. Let them have their say, and then we'll take care of Sasuke."
Naruto winced. He knew very well he wasn't restraining himself or keeping down his feelings of anger. He just couldn't do it any more. How many years had he been fighting for the people of Konoha to accept Sasuke? This was Sasuke's home, these were his people, and they'd abandoned him.
Is this what it would always be like if he stayed here? Naruto had seen how hard Sasuke had been working at the tower, all those massive stacks of paperwork he was always doing. He had brains, he was smart- the things he and Shikamaru were doing, well, Naruto had no idea how to do any of that. And if Sasuke hadn't crossed the wall during the attack, Chouji would be dead. Naruto had no doubt of that. And yet. And yet…every time anything went wrong, any time Sasuke's past with Orochimaru or Akatsuki came up, these people would be here to condemn him. They'd never let him forget the things he'd done.
Could this all have really been a mistake? Sasuke was his dearest friend- more than a friend; no-one was more important to him. But maybe Sasuke could never be happy in a place like this…and Naruto had dragged him back here himself.
How could I have done that to him? Naruto thought; I'm meant to be his friend.
Through all the chaos in the room only himself, Sakura, and Kakashi were sitting quietly. Naruto glanced over the table and saw his teacher gazing back at him. Naruto wondered how on earth Kakashi could do anything to quell such feelings of hatred and distrust against their old teammate. What could any of them do?
Kakashi turned to Yamato next to him and made a sign, and then the uniformed head of Anbu stood and moved smoothly to the entrance of the council room. He brought the heavy wooden doors closed with a boom that reverberated through the room with a tremor and an echo.
The sudden noise cut through the fighting and created a brief moment of calm in which the Hokage stood at the head of the table, and silence fell on everyone in the room at once.
The Hokage turned to the three elders, still standing by the door. "If you could take your seats," he spoke to them in a soft, low voice, "I will begin the meeting."
The elders exchanged glances and Naruto tensed at the way they were staring at Kakashi. But eventually, mercifully, they sat down at the table. At this cue, all the other council members still standing in various parts of the room also came to their seats.
Naruto shivered. All Kakashi had done was close a door and say one sentence, and look what had happened. That had been…impressive. He glanced at Sakura next to him and gripped her hand tighter under the table. She nodded at him and gave him a brief smile.
"I appreciate your attendance at such a busy time," Kakashi said. "The papers in front of you outline the current status of Anbu's investigations of the attack. Please read them carefully at your earliest convenience. There will be another council meeting in this week to finalise plans for eliminating ryuu once and for all."
Naruto glanced down at the thick stack of papers in front of him stamped confidential. A pang of anxiety ran through him at the thought of what he might find in there.
"Hokage-sama," said an elder, and all heads turned to the voice. "The Uchiha boy has been working at the tower- in your own office- for months, with virtually unrestricted access. If these allegations of his alliance with ryuu are correct, surely you agree that the results would be catastrophic."
"No-one's saying he has an alliance with them!" Ino scowled from her place at the table, rising in her seat. "Who the hell is saying those things?!"
Naruto felt a vague sense of gratitude towards her for saying such things, but he wasn't sure there was much point. Shikamaru shot her a look and she glared back at him, but eventually she sat back down, continuing to scowl over at the elders.
"Shikamaru," the Hokage said, turning to his assistant. "Could you outline Sasuke's duties here at the tower, and the responsibilities he has been entrusted with?"
Shikamaru nodded, and cleared his throat. "His main duties are with his team in the archives, of course, working with Sakura and the Anbu technical and medical teams. He also spends the equivalent of three working days a week in the Hokage's office, with duties similar to mine. He has a particularly good eye for categorising outgoing and completed missions."
The elders all exchanged glances and there was more than one surprised expression on the faces of the clan heads at this news. Well, not everyone in the council was at the tower all that much, to see just how often Sasuke was here.
"But surely his access to sensitive data has been restricted," the Hyuuga head declared.
Shikamaru gazed steadily back at the imposing man who was more than twice his age. "Sasuke has proved more valuable to the tower when less restrictions are placed on him," he said, his voice steady and unperturbed despite all the people staring at him so critically. "Currently our work on establishing the Shinobi Union and reforming the chuunin training procedures are stretching our capacities. We need talented administrators to stay on top of everything, and Sasuke has proved immensely capable."
The ferocious head of the Inuzaka slammed her hands on the table. "He could be siphoning all that information to our enemies as we speak!" There was a murmur of agreement throughout the room.
"Yamato?" Kakashi said, with a nod towards the head of Anbu.
"There is no evidence of any communication between Sasuke's team and the ryuu agents before, during, or after the attack," Yamato said in response to the Hokage's nod. "Nor with any other organisation or village. All their work on the archives and in the tower is supervised by numerous Anbu agents."
"That's hardly good enough," one of the elders said. "It's said that the large boy can communicate directly with animals. How could even Anbu monitor that kind of ability?"
"It is worrisome indeed, if you have lost faith in Anbu," Kakashi said to that, in his smooth and low voice. There was a glimmer of annoyance from the elder at these words- at the Hokage's implication that the elders were questioning, doubting, Konoha's most elite forces. Naruto noticed Sakura grin cheekily at that.
Yamato paused for a moment before continuing his report. "Sasuke and his two companions made no attempt to leave the village until Konoha was under attack. The first death at the hands of the ryuu shinobi had already occurred before they crossed the wall. Their efforts directly resulted in the deaths of at least 12 enemies and the apprehension of 5 more."
"That is welcome news," spoke Shikamaru's uncle, the current head of the Nara clan. "And can we judge the three of them to be loyal to Konoha?"
"Sai," Kakashi murmured.
"None of the three have affiliations or emotional links with any organisation or village besides Konoha," Sai stated smoothly. "Indeed, their strongest feelings of loyalty at the moment are for Konoha only. These feelings can be easily encouraged and their loyalty strengthened."
The elders evidently doubted this. "The Mist boy-" one of them interjected.
"The Hidden Mist authorises express no desire in repatriating Hozouki whatsoever," Sai interrupted, raising his voice slightly. Naruto stared at his normally nonchalant friend, seemingly defending Sasuke's place in this town. "Their motivations for crossing the wall were only to prevent the ryuu agents from reaching Konoha and to protect Konoha's people."
"Sakura," Kakashi said, and Sakura jolted in her seat next to Naruto. "Could you outline the work that you and Sasuke's team have been doing, and what kind of items are in the archives?"
She nodded. "The…the archives cover everything that Orochimaru and his organisation did. There are records and experiment data, specimens, scrolls, outlines of jutsus and techniques."
"And if this archive fell into enemy hands?" the Hokage prompted.
"It would be disastrous," Sakura went on. "The resurrection techniques used in the war were one of Orochimaru's designs, and details of how to recreate these techniques- and others just as powerful- are recorded quite clearly in the archives."
There was another ripple of consternation around the table at this revelation. Naruto vaguely wondered what kind of information about curse seals could be found in the archives.
"Surely these should be destroyed!" the Inuzaka matriarch declared, and there was a murmur of agreement from the council.
"That would be unwise," Yamato interjected. "Even now the records are aiding us in our investigations of the attack. And we have reasons to believe that the remnants of the Akatsuki are also using methods they learned from Orochimaru."
Naruto tensed again. How could they have so many enemies left after what they had been through in the war? After so many people had died to bring peace to Konoha? This wasn't what they had fought for.
"The Tower has determined that Sasuke and his team have loyalties only to Konoha, and that their work should continue," Kakashi declared, sitting forward at the table and drawing the attention of the whole council. "They will remain guarded for their own safety- and for no other reason- until the threats against them have been resolved."
"That's hardly reassuring-" an elder began to say.
"It will have to reassure you, for now," the Hokage interrupted, standing. "The council is dismissed until each member has read the contents of this report."
Naruto blinked. Kakashi was dismissing them? They'd been here for less than an hour! And based on the expressions of the other council members, he wasn't the only one surprised.
"Hokage-sama-" the Hyuuga head began.
"Yes?" Kakashi said, his voice calm, his gaze steady.
Naruto was terrified.
"…when will the next meeting be?" the Hyuuga continued.
"You'll all be notified," Kakashi said to that.
And with that, he stood and moved out of the room, with Shikamaru following closely behind.
After a moment of stunned silence, the council members began conversing with each other in low, hushed tones. Naruto pushed back to his chair, got to his feet, and headed for the door.
Naruto arrived at Sasuke's apartment with Sakura following closely behind him, clutching Sasuke's copy of the report to pass on to him. Naruto looked back at her, feeling discontent. He wanted to talk to Sasuke alone. He-
"Don't worry, Naruto, I'm going to help you, okay?" she said, returning his look. She pushed through the guards by Sasuke's front door- the chuunin were back, it seemed- not even acknowledging their existence, and barged into his apartment like she owned the place.
…yes, that's how you get stuff done, Naruto thought in the back of his mind, taking mental notes.
Naruto followed her inside and then he was back in chaos once more. Clothes and food packets and empty bags were flying around everywhere, and Sasuke was shouting at Suigetsu to clean this damn mess up already! Naruto winced at the noise and clung to the wall by the entrance.
"It wasn't our choice to get stuck here, you know!" Suigetsu shouted across the room, throwing an empty ramen cup at Sasuke's head.
"Oh right!" Sasuke yelled back, dodging the cardboard cup, "eating all my food, messing up all my futons, destroying my living room-"
"Your food was lousy anyway!" Suigetsu shrieked at that.
Well, that was just rude; Naruto had bought most of that food, and Juugo had cooked it, so how was this for gratitude?! Naruto looked past them into the kitchen, were Juugo himself looked like he was trying to disappear into the floor.
Sakura stormed over to the shark-toothed boy and snatched the ripped cushion he was holding out of his hands. "Enough!" she declared, and her voice boomed and echoed through the apartment. "You!" she scowled at him, before turning her attention to Juugo, "and you! Out, now! I'm taking you next door this instant!"
"I'm not going anywhere-" Suigetsu began, but Sakura just grabbed his arm and forcibly manoeuvred him out of the living room and towards the door.
"Juugo!" she hollered in the direction of the kitchen. "Now!"
Naruto jumped out of the way as Sakura pushed Suigetsu out the front door, closely followed by an ever obedient Juugo.
"You damn well better have yogurt at your place!" he heard Suigetsu shriek before Sakura slammed the front door, leaving him and Sasuke alone.
…alone. He stared over at his dark-haired friend, and Sasuke stared back. Glared back, actually. Naruto wilted against the entrance wall once more, and wondered if it were too late to leave. This was clearly a bad time…but no, someone had to tell Sasuke what had happened, and make sure he knew that he had people on his side.
Sasuke turned away and stormed across his living room, reaching down to grab at all the empty snack containers and shoving them in a rubbish bag. "If you insist on staying, dead-last, you better at least help me clean up this dump!" he demanded.
Naruto's eyes widened. Sasuke wasn't kicking him out? He wasn't gonna kill him for daring to come back here? In that case the flyer from ryuu could wait. Naruto went over to the kitchen at once.
"Okay, I'm gonna wash the dishes alright, Sasuke?" he said, clearing the sink of junk and turning on the tap. Every surface of the kitchen was covered in dirty plates and bowls, so this should keep him busy for a while, long enough to quell his nerves and build up his courage again.
"Whatever," Sasuke muttered, coming over and dumping a fistful of cutlery into the soapy water and sending bubbles flying everywhere. "I can't stand this mess anymore!"
It occurred to Naruto that Sasuke should probably be resting- his cheeks were still too pink, and his eyes were still hazy- but there was no way that he would be the one to tell Sasuke to go back to bed. No way! He turned his attention to the sink and started scrubbing furiously. Sasuke's plates would soon be the cleanest they had ever been!
While he washed he kept an eye on Sasuke as he stomped through the apartment, hurling armfuls of sheets and futons up the hallway to the laundry, and dumping piles and piles of rubbish by the door. Every time he found another ripped cushion, scratch in the wood floor or stain on a rug he swore. Naruto had no idea that Sasuke knew so many profanities. It was…terrifying.
Once the dishes were done and put away Naruto turned to the kitchen table, which was still covered in magazines and loose papers. He could see an abundance of childish little scribbles in crayon of sharks biting off bird heads and monsters with red eyes terrorising children. He quickly scooped these up and disposed of them, though he was certain Sasuke had already seen them- there were even some stuck to the fridge.
He's quite an artist, Naruto thought to himself as he gathered up Suigetsu's drawings. We should start keeping crayons away from him.
And then Naruto's hands landed on a familiar piece of white paper and his blood ran cold. …oh no, he thought, no! How could this be in here?! He glanced over at Sasuke and found the raven-haired boy staring back at him steadily, arms folded across his chest. He froze.
"Yeah, of course I've seen it!" Sasuke declared with a ferocious scowl. "As if I care! People can say whatever the hell they like-"
"There's people defending you, Sasuke," Naruto quickly interrupted, thinking about Ino's words, and supressing his own guilt for not having said a single thing during the meeting.
Sasuke paused and narrowed his eyes. "What's the point? The town's ready to crucify me again, aren't they? Send me back to my people? I'm just shocked, really!"
Naruto winced at the sarcasm and derision in his friend's voice. But no matter what Sasuke said, seeing this kind of thing, knowing that people- your own people- believed it…no, that was horrible, it had to be painful.
"Kakashi-sensei shot them all down, Sasuke, he's not putting up with anyone saying that this is true," Naruto said, waving the paper around. Then he stared at it in disgust and crumpled it up before adding it to the trash piles by the door.
"Doesn't matter what they think," Sasuke muttered. "It's not like I was planning to stay here, anyway."
Naruto frowned. Sasuke said stuff like that all the time, he shouldn't take it seriously. He'd come back here of his own free will this time, it was his choice. That had to mean something.
"It just takes time," Naruto began, "and people are getting used to you being back here! You can't-"
"I came back here because I had a job to do," Sasuke interrupted. "Now it's almost over, and then I can go wherever I want, whenever I want!"
No, Naruto couldn't believe that. He'd come back here just to work on those damn archives? No. If that was true, he wouldn't have been spending so much time at the tower doing the Hokage's paperwork. He didn't get paid for that, Shikamaru told him so! And when he wasn't working he was with Sakura and their other friends; he even trained with Lee. He was building a life here, Naruto knew it!
It just…it just couldn't have been a complete mistake to bring him back here. To want him to be here.
"Sasuke, Konoha is your home," Naruto said. "If you don't belong here, where else do you belong?"
"It's not!" Sasuke retorted. "You need to move on, Naruto, how long has this idea been stuck in your head? Four years? Longer?"
Naruto growled under his breath. "I won't apologise for being worried about you, for trying to bring you home!"
Sasuke shot him a deadly glare. "But it's not-"
"-not your home," Naruto interjected, "yeah yeah, you keep saying that, but-"
"How can you be so obsessed with Konoha?!" Sasuke shot at him. "You and I know better than anyone what this place is really like!"
…that stopped Naruto up short. He knew better than anyone? What did Sasuke mean by that?
"That's not fair," he said. "Konoha may not be perfect, I know that, but it's still great, the people here, my friends-"
Sasuke scoffed. "I can't tell if you're being naïve or stupid," he scorned. "Or are you deliberately repressing your entire childhood? What Konoha did to you? To me? We were orphans, Naruto!"
"Konoha is my home, Sasuke," he said, and winced at the hurt and pain in his own voice. No, he couldn't let Sasuke get to him like this, he just couldn't.
"Why? Why is it your home?" demanded Sasuke, obviously seeing his chance. "Because you were born here? What a stroke of luck that was! Who was your family, Naruto, who cared for you? Konoha never did anything for you!"
"That- that's not true," Naruto fought back, weakly. His childhood was not a time he liked to remember. It was cruel of Sasuke to bring it up now. "They- I had an apartment, and clothes, and-"
"And what, a monthly visit from the Hokage with an envelope of cash, and a warning not to spend it all at once? They hated you! They ostracised you. They would have thrown you out if they could have!"
No, they were scared of kyuubi, that's all. Of course they were, their village was nearly destroyed by him, all those people had died! They didn't understand, they didn't know that Naruto was just a kid, they didn't know how lonely he was.
"But- but I belong here now, Sasuke!" Naruto said, "I have friends, the whole village is my family, and they-"
"Ah, they call you hero and they name a ramen after you on your birthday. So that makes everything better, does it? And when they find out there's something wrong with you? What then?"
Naruto was horrified to feel little pricks at the corner of his eyes. He thought back to Konoha all decked out in orange for his birthday. He couldn't take one step without someone stopping him to wish him a happy day or shove a present in his hand. Even on a normal day, people smiled at him, they laughed with him, children climbed all over him. He was finally loved.
"Why are you saying all this?" Naruto whimpered. The hate in Sasuke's voice was unbearable; it cut right into him. "I worked hard to fit in here, I worked harder than anyone! You can't- you can't just take that away from me…"
"I'm not taking it away from you, moron, no-one could tear your precious Konoha out of your idiot brain!" Sasuke shot with a glare. "But I don't want any of that. It's worthless. This town has no decency at all!"
"That's not true! You'd see that if you gave everyone a chance. If you just-"
"What would be the point? The next time papers like that fall from the sky I'll be an enemy again. What then?"
"So what, that's it? You're giving up, leaving again? What about- what about your friends, what about…about…" About me, he wanted to say. You're gonna leave me again? After what we've been through?
"I never planned on staying here," Sasuke declared, a firm expression on his face.
You are lying! Naruto thought to himself, and all his hurt and anxiety was replaced with a burning rage in an instant. How dare he?!
"Leave, then!" Naruto hissed. "Leave the only place you've ever belonged! The place your family helped build, the place where all the people who care about you live-"
"You just don't get it," Sasuke interrupted, scowling. "I thought you'd understand, if I just gave you time. But even with you back at genin-strength, maybe permanently, you still think you can be happy in Konoha!"
"That's got nothing to do with this!" Naruto exclaimed. "Why would you bring that up?! That was low, Sasuke, you're meant to be my friend-"
"Am I," he muttered.
"Yes," Naruto growled. "Even though you're the worst, shittiest friend in the whole world!" And with that he turned and stomped past him to the front door and slammed it behind him.
Coming up next: Naruto finds himself at Sasuke's apartment in the middle of the night yet again, but is it to fight some more, to make up, or to fight some more and THEN make up?!
A/N: Sometimes I have to remind myself every 2 minutes that Sasuke's only lashing out at Naruto because he knows that Naruto cares about him _ . But still! Sasukins, you deserve a time-out for your words in this chapter! (*cough* even if he makes a valid point about Naruto and Konoha) (*pulls Naru in for a protective huggle*)