He reacted violently to what he saw. Giving a brief shout, he shoved away from the door, startling Naruto as he fell backward, and scooting back all the way against Naruto's legs.
"What?? What is it!!" Naruto shouted, and Sasuke slapped a hand over Naruto's mouth so fast that it stung.
"Eyes…" Naruto made a muffled, questioning noise and Sasuke turned to look at Naruto in the face.
"Blue…eyes."
Chapter XXXVII
Hurt Me
Naruto blinked, then realized why Sasuke was staring at him like that.
"What—what you mean like mine?" Naruto hissed, pulling Sasuke's hand from his mouth but trying to keep quiet. Sasuke nodded, then looked back at the door. "Yeah…like yours…I know your eyes better than anybody Naruto. They were your eyes." Naruto shook his head.
"That can't be right." "Because Kyuubi told me no one was here." Naruto swallowed hard as he stared at the door. There was no more noise coming from it. "How is that? If Kyuubi said no one was here then…no one's here. Right? Kyuubi?" He paused in his mind and tried to hear if the demon would talk to him. Sasuke was approaching the door again, but Naruto trusted Sasuke would be fine as long as it didn't open; he had more important things to think about right now.
"Tell me. Tell me why you told me no one is here. Tell me!"
"There is no one here kit. There is no other chakra but yours and the Uchiha's."
Naruto sighed; he didn't understand. "Careful Sasuke.." he murmured from his safe distance. He was getting fed up with dealing with the Kyuubi. And at the same time he was getting a sickening feeling that he was running out of time to think under his own power.
----------
Sasuke tapped the door, and received no response. They'd been sitting there for a prolonged amount of minutes without doing much. Sasuke didn't want to open the door. "I can't. If whatever is in there is something you can't even get near to, how smart would it be to open it and allow whatever's going on inside there to get out here?" Sasuke sat down on the floor by the door and stared at it pensively . Naruto rose an eyebrow. It was sort of amusing watching Sasuke unnerve himself because he couldn't figure out the situation.
"Usually he's two or three steps ahead of whatever's happening…" Naruto mused. At the same time it wasn't amusing at all. "What's going on…"
After a few minutes of silence, Sasuke stood up.
"There's not much else we can do. I'll go in, and you won't come anywhere near until we fix what's happening to you. But…I need your Rasengan." Sasuke said. He'd come to Naruto and sat close beside him for support. Naruto looked tired. He listened to Naruto sigh heavily.
"Sasuke…I don't know if I have the energy for that…"
"I know…and I'm sorry…" Sasuke slipped his arms around Naruto. "I would just use the Chidori. Unfortunately it's the one thing I'm strongly advised not to use. And we might need it later." Sasuke was saying. Naruto sat up straighter and Sasuke backed away from him to give him room.
"I can do it…" he said quietly. "But I don't have the energy to make the clone…the clone makes it stronger than it's suppose to be." Naruto said. Sasuke backed up to give Naruto room.
"That's okay. All I need is for you to make a basic one. Then I'll take it and break the door." Sasuke suggested. Naruto stood up and nodded.
"Alright…but…what do you think is in there?" Naruto questioned, staring at the small, still blank, window.
"Nothing good." Sasuke murmured as Naruto cupped his hands and began molding chakra. Sasuke stared constantly until he got Naruto's attention. Naruto looked up from his slowly increasing ball of chakra. The chakra was red, not blue.
"Don't worry." Naruto said plainly, and continued molding the ball. The noise from the little spiraling ball of chakra increasingly grew louder by the second, and soon it sounded like a wind storm due to the small, echoing quarters of the hallway. Naruto finished, and the spinning ball of intimidating red chakra sat still in Naruto's palm as Naruto held it out toward Sasuke.
"Here ya' go…I hope it's good enough Sasuke-kun." Sasuke came closer slowly. Naruto had amazing control at the moment. Yet he looked in the face as if he were about to pass out.
"Are you sure you can keep it spinning, Sasuke?" Naruto was asking. Sasuke nodded briefly.
"At least until I send it into the door." He said.
"Well that means we can't change our minds…once I hand it to you the door has to come open." Sasuke reached out for the Rasengan, and glanced up at Naruto while he focused himself to handle the orb energy. Naruto looked positively ill. It made him wish they'd never gone on the mission at all. That they were back living their daily lives, training together and with Kakashi, and then later spending time alone, playing with each other, or whatever else they felt like doing. But the mission had to be done. As Sasuke's hand neared the Rasengan, the chakra was already feeling too hot for him to touch.
"Move quickly…don't think about it…Naruto took the time to make this even though he has no energy so I have to use it." Sasuke took the Rasengan quickly, choosing not to over-think the situation, and made for the door in a full on sprint. He grunted under the pressure, having to grip his wrist with his other hand—much like with the Chidori—just to keep it stable. It one fluid motion he slammed the chakra ball into the bolted door, causing a great deal of noise from the twisted metal, not to mention a cloud of dust that had apparently settled. There was now a huge hole right in the center of the metal door, twisted bars of metal spiraling out from around it, and Sasuke stood with his hands on either side of the hole, breathing hard. He stepped back and stared, then glanced down at his hand, looking back up to keep his eye on the opening in front of him.
"God, Naruto…that thing burned my hand…" he murmured without turning around. The opening was dark; there was nothing immediately to be seen. Naruto slowly stepped forward, and then step by step discovered that he could indeed approach the door. Apparently whatever had been preventing him from going to the doorway had perhaps moved farther away. Sasuke didn't look when he felt Naruto come up beside him, but he took Naruto's hand.
"I don't see anyone…" Naruto whispered. Sasuke motioned toward the opposite side of the room.
"Over there…looks like stacks of paper…" Naruto slowly walked into the room as Sasuke crossed it to investigate the mysterious stacks of writing. Looking around, even though there was dull light by the papers, he could barely see the walls or ceiling of the room. It was huge; he couldn't even immediately tell if it was a circular room or a square room. Sasuke, across the room, seemed very far away. He stared solidly at Sasuke's back; his vision doubled, then went red. He closed his eyes and rubbed them, but it didn't go away. "I guess…I'm out of time…"
----------
Sasuke shook his head as he studied the papers.
"It's a bunch of chemical compounds…and a biological description of my Sharingan and curse seal…" Sasuke put them down, then looked back up when he realized Naruto hadn't answered him. He felt heat behind him. An overly warm, steady, emanating heat. Against the blackness of the wall in front of him was a dull red glow. He wanted to shut his eyes and say it hadn't happened, because he somewhat knew what was happening, and he didn't quite know what to do about it.
"Naruto…" He turned around slowly, not wanting to make any sudden movements. When he turned around, the scene wasn't quite what he'd expected, but somehow it was worse. Naruto was lying on the floor, curled into himself, his arms hugged around Kyuubi's seal on his stomach. Sasuke started, but then hesitated. Naruto was sprouting chakra tails quickly. There were already three. Sasuke stood absolutely frozen. He had a seal that he was suppose to use on Naruto for just such an occasion, but the seal was suppose to be used before there were any more than 2 tails. Any later and it was said to be too late.
"Naruto!" He called cautiously from a safe distance. Naruto twitched, curling even further into himself.
"Sas-Sasuke—the corner—" He murmured haltingly. Sasuke looked both ways, then all around, suddenly now that Naruto had warned him, sensing another presence in the room. His eyes halted at a shape in the opposite right hand corner of the room. He stopped and stared, his heart pounding in his ears as his mind raced for what to do.
"Naruto, what is it?" He questioned. Naruto was closer to it; maybe he could see it. "It's…causing…reactions…" Naruto's voice sounded strained. Sasuke made a sudden movement for his kunai and flung it in the same motion, going immediately into a guard position, but the shadow, which he now saw was shorter than he thought, only moved frantically, crouching down and shrinking further back into the corner.
"How'd I miss…"
"Ahh! Sasuke!" Naruto's voice drew his attention away from the strangely behaving shape. His first thought;
"Naruto…he's still consciously responding to me…but there are three tails." He ran to Naruto, very watchfully keeping an eye on the corner and the mysterious someone over there. Naruto, without warning began screaming, the chakra tails whipping about chaotically. The four that had now formed were solidifying. Sasuke gasped, his eyes wide, just sitting there staring as it appeared that Naruto now had four actual fox tails. They were long, furry and deep orange, just like the demon itself. He dove into his pocket and whipped out the seal he was instructed strictly to use in case of this type of circumstance but Naruto darted frantically away.
"Don't!! At this point it'll only antagonize it!" He shouted. Across the room, in the corner, Naruto's movement had cast more chakra light on the questionable shadow. The eyes opened, and they were no longer blue, they were red. Sasuke stood slowly, Naruto groaning in pain at his feet, but he was beyond shock as he stared into eyes that held the Sharingan. He hadn't seen the Sharingan on anyone but his brother in years and years, and now he was rendered speechless and motionless.
"That's how…that's how it avoided my kunai…" Only then did he finally notice that he was looking into the eyes of a child, no older than six years old. At least in appearance. "Naruto it's a kid…" He whispered, feeling himself beginning to shake. He clenched his fists to stop, and knelt down, holding Naruto flatly on his back, for some reason feeling that the child in the corner was not exactly going to spring an attack on them.
"Naruto. Naruto look at me—" Naruto gasped twice, then continued groaning, his back arching as a fifth tail formed.
"What's happening!? Tell me what to do!" He screamed at Naruto finally, the culmination of one shock after another beginning to be too much. Naruto shook his head rapidly.
"It hurts but let it happen!" He forced out.
"What?"
"Let it! I'm still in my right mind, aren't I?" Naruto reasoned through his pain. Sasuke shook his head slowly.
"I…I don't know…I don't know if you are…" Naruto sat up sharply grabbing Sasuke by the shirt to get his attention and pointing to the child in the corner.
"Go…over there…and figure that out…I'll deal with this myself." Naruto managed to say without screaming out in agony. Sasuke looked up, laying Naruto back down, and Naruto closed his eyes. He stared back down at Naruto for a few more prolonged seconds. Naruto was calmer now, or at least appeared to be, the five Kyuubi tails twisted and splayed around him, all of them still occasionally making slight movements of their own accord. Sasuke took a deep breath and stroked Naruto's hair briefly before standing up. The child sat very still, eyes wide and staring solidly at him. Sasuke scratched his head as he stared back. The eyes were definitely Naruto's, and the Sharingan was most definitely, of course, his own. The hair was a messy black mop. There was one other disturbing element. Naruto had always had very noticeable whiskers. So did this child.
"Does that mean that it has not only my Sharingan…but…a fox demon? That's…that's impossible." As cute as he thought Naruto's whiskers were, the things only unnerved him on someone else.
"It's a clone…a clone of myself and…Naru-chan." He said aloud.
"Those papers…" He glanced briefly toward where he'd been reading what seemed to be research. "They're about you." He spoke directly to the child, trying not to seem intimidating or threatening.
"That bastard Orochimaru…why is the clone still here? No one's here but this…abandoned…" He paused in his own thoughts. He felt a paternal instinct wash over him in a matter of seconds, and it made him feel things he didn't know he was capable of just yet, but also things he'd felt for years. "...It's like...my own blood. This is what my son would look like. If I could...with Naruto..." Both very real and and still, at the moment, very unrealistic hope flashed on and off in his mind as he jumped to conclusions, seeing complete tradgedy in having to destroy this living being, but complete dream become true in preserving himself. Preserving his blood. Preserving the Uchiha family. "Is it no different than...If I could...have a child with Naruto? Is it not the same?" His mind swirled with ideas and possible outcomes and scenarios. He stepped slowly closer, noticing so many things that the child shared with himself and Naruto. Sasuke saw his own face shape in the child, and Naruto's nose. He saw his own eyebrows but Naruto's mouth. He let an amazed chuckle slip out as he now knelt carefully to the child's level. He saw the curse seal on the child's neck and shook his head.
"But this is wrong…this is all gone wrong. This one clone has every damned thing that Naruto and I are tortured by.." Deciding that the clone wasn't dangerous just yet, Sasuke knew he had to now turn his attention to why it was causing an adverse affect on Naruto. Sasuke knew the reason was because of the child's curse seal, identical to his own, but the only dilemma was that the child was not reacting, Naruto was. In much the same way that he had the first time his own newly formed seal had conflicted with Kyuubi and nearly caused a disaster. Only now, Naruto was lying calmly on the floor, seemingly unconscious, but for some reason Sasuke knew better. He looked at the child, and at the threateningly glowing curse mark on the child's neck.
"How do I turn that thing off…" He mused.
-----------
Naruto, just as Sasuke had presumed, was indeed still conscious. He heard nothing, saw nothing; the nine tailed demon fox was screaming in his mind—it seemed audible. He explained himself before the demon.
"It's not Sasuke's seal that I've got…it's that person in the corner! The seal's affect are coming from that, not my own body…" Naruto pleaded in his own mind, fighting insanity, his own will conflicting the Kyuubi's for prevalence.
"It is the same energy, kit."
"But what's happening to my body? Why are there tails…Can I still think for myself? Sasuke will stop the other seal!"
He received no answer, only a sharp pain. He felt himself twist, and a six tail formed itself.
"Sasuke I'm sorry…I thought I could stop it…but I can't…"
----------
Sasuke sharply looked up, seeing Naruto make a sudden movement. The child still stared at them both cautiously.
"Do you talk?" Sasuke asked quickly. He received only staring.
"Can you understand me." He said next. He received a single nod.
"Naruto…over there…is where you come from. You came from him and me together. That means we should help him. Okay?" Sasuke spoke desperately, not knowing what else to do but ask for help from the very thing causing Naruto to seemingly self destruct. The child nodded slowly, but when Sasuke looked back at Naruto, Naruto was standing, the red chakra glow surrounding him, and the tails flailing wildly. His head was bowed as if he were knocked out, but being held upright by an unseen forced. Sasuke stood, stepping in front of the child, taking a deep breath as he watch his fiancé begin to appear very fox-like both in movement and appearance, but this time was different. Naruto's face seemed to be in a trance. Naruto's body pitched forward onto hands and knees, and Sasuke braced himself into a defensive stance.
"I can't hurt you…I swore I wouldn't hurt you." Naruto looked up, and straight at him, but it was almost as if Naruto were looking through him. His eyes were a blank, opaque red, without pupils, but Sasuke could nearly feel Kyuubi's eyes on the clone.
"There's only one way you can help me now…" he said to the clone. "Just try to stay back, kid…" He whispered. He began forming hand seals and chanting to himself more quickly than he even thought he was capable of, in the single hope of getting Naruto pinned and attempting a specialized chakra sealing by hand. Naruto made a sideways dash, and Sasuke took off running straight at him. The engagement ring on Naruto's hand caught the light of the fiery chakra around him; Sasuke made a fatal hesitation; and he knew he couldn't avoid getting hurt in the next few seconds without hurting Naruto in return.
"But I can't hurt you…I love you…"
AND that's all for now :) sooo HAH Sure you guys guessed a clone, but I bet none of you suspected I'd tie it in with Sasuke's issue with preserving his family name and make it a child...hehehe get me some feedback on what you thought about that...because as of now, I'm not exactly certain which path I'll take reguarding this matter! By the way, don't assume that just because this child clone happened, that other 'possibilities' aren't being considered...(hint hint)
-!!Kitsune!!