A/N Hello! This chapter was a STRUGGLE because this is a multi-POV chapter and everything's awkward between the characters.
Ahhh I really hope you guys enjoy it!
"Sasuke?" Sakura says.
Naruto stops wriggling, though he is still hanging upside down from the rope trap. Sakura releases Sasuke from her tackle, just as shocked as Naruto.
Naruto blinks, and his shock is quickly replaced by something else.
"Breathe, Naruto." Yamato warns him.
He tries to breathe, he really does. But something deep inside him starts to burn.
Sasuke's eyes are white, but that doesn't mean anything to Naruto, whose vision is suddenly tinged with red. The scar on his chest starts to ache. He focuses on his breathing, and closes his eyes.
He sees Itachi's illusion behind his eyelids.
The pain explodes, like his chest has just been punched clean through. He thinks he might be dying.
Again.
Naruto feels his chakra and strength surge, and he breaks free from the trap. He goes straight for Sasuke's throat, slamming the other boy into the tree by the neck.
Naruto feels Yamato using his jutsu to wrap wood around his middle. He glares at the man, and places a clawed hand above where Sasuke's heart should be. It would be too easy, even if Yamato intervened.
The man reads the clear threat, and reluctantly loosens his hold on Naruto. Kakashi then tries to raise his headband to reveal the Sharingan.
"Don't even try." Naruto digs his claws into Sasuke's flesh. "I will kill him." Naruto turns back to his hostage.
"Sasuke." he growls. The tree bark cracks as Naruto increases the pressure on Sasuke's neck..
"Na-" Sasuke wheezes. "-ruto."
Naruto remembers how Sasuke tortured him with glee in Itachi's genjutsu. He remembers the sound of a thousand birds.
"I hate you." he growls.
Naruto's chest hurts so much.
"You don't sound like Naruto." Sasuke says.
"What do you know?" The red in his vision intensifies. "You barely looked at me."
"I know-" Sasuke winces. Naruto was digging his claws in even deeper. "I know now that I was wrong."
"And you'll pay for it." Naruto doesn't recognise his own voice, dripping with venom. "Uchiha scum." The words are not his own, coming from deep inside his mind. Blood from Sasuke's chest begins to drip. He starts to press down with his claws, relishing in the pained noises coming from Sasuke.
Naruto wants to feel Sasuke's blood on his hands. He wants to-
A hand grips his wrist.
Naruto looks into watery green eyes.
"Stop this." Sakura says. Her lips are quivering.
Naruto wants to attack her for interfering, but the pain in his chest is suddenly unbearable. The heat in his belly has spread throughout his body, and he feels like he is on fire from the inside. Naruto is suddenly on the ground, writhing and shaking as the blistering pain consumes him.
Sakura watches in silent horror as Naruto's body starts to convulse and his eyes roll up into his head. He crumples to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, and begins foaming at the mouth.
Immediately her hands glow with green chakra and she kneels over him. But she has no idea what the problem is and how to fix it.
"What is it? What's going on?" Sasuke demands.
"I-I don't know!" Sakura hates herself as her voice cracks and tears spill from her eyes. Yamato-san and Kakashi rush over to help her lay Naruto on his side and cushion his head as his body continues to spasm.
Jiraiya arrives on the scene, but she can only focus on how hot Naruto is to the touch. Suddenly his back arches and he shudders once, twice, and goes limp.
Sakura immediately presses her fingers to his pulse point, and almost sobs in relief as she feels a faint pulse.
"We need to move him inside the bunker." Jiraiya says. "I'll carry him." The Sannin gently picks Naruto up in his arms and hurries through the forest. Sakura, Kakashi, and Yamato follow behind him in a hurry.
Sakura looks back. She is surprised to find Sasuke trailing behind, but following nonetheless. She decides to save her questions for later.
Jiraiya lays Naruto on a futon as soon as they enter the bunker. It is a rectangular room, with seals carved in some parts of the walls. It is almost bare, save for two futons in the corner, a table, and a shelf with scrolls and books haphazardly stuffed in it. Some of the books look suspiciously similar to the ones that Kakashi always has in his hand.
There are also scrap pieces of paper pasted all over one of the bunker walls, filled with hastily scribbled notes and half-drawn seals.
Sakura sits by Naruto's futon and leans against the wall. Belatedly, she realises there is a burn on her hand, from when she had gripped Naruto's wrist.
He had been cloaked in red chakra, bubbling and boiling through his skin. It was the first time Sakura had seen the blond lose control.
Sakura was scared of Naruto then, sure. But it scared her even more, how a dark part of her didn't want to stop him from what he was about to do.
It was because of Sasuke that everything had fallen apart. He had caused Naruto so much pain.
Sasuke had caused her pain.
But Sasuke was also blind now.
She didn't know what to say to him, when she tackled him in the forest. His eyes were white, and up close, Sakura could see the faint scars around his eye sockets.
She wanted to ask so many questions, but...
Sakura shakes her head. She shoves her conflicting emotions in a box and locks them up. She could just ignore them until they went away.
Sasuke is silent, listening to Kakashi talking to a man Sasuke doesn't recognize. They are discussing Naruto's condition in hushed, worried tones.
"Is his seal weakening?" whispers the man he doesn't know. "The medicine has been controlling his outbursts, but maybe his trauma goes deeper than we thought."
"And we don't even have much of the medicine left." Kakashi replies. "The supplies were lost during the escape."
"I'm sorry." Sakura says. "If I had been more careful..."
"There was nothing you could do." Kakashi tells her. "We were under attack."
Sasuke has no idea what is going on. What medicine? What attack? Was Naruto going to be okay?
Sasuke is lost, alone in the dark. It reminds him of the night Itachi took everything from him.
For the first time in his life, everyone is angry at him, instead of him being angry at everyone.
Is this how it feels like to be Naruto? To be hated?
He feels a hand on his shoulder, anchoring him.
"They need time, Sasuke." Jiraiya says gently. "You all do."
Naruto's consciousness finds him in some sort of sewer system. For the first time in a long time, his head feels completely clear.
The pain is gone, but he is up to his neck in raging water.
The current drags him along until he reaches a huge...was that a cage? He is pushed against the bars of the cage, and Naruto struggles to keep his head above the water.
There is a loud, inhuman sound and the cage trembles as something gigantic collides into it from the other side.
The enormous creature rams itself into the cage doors again. Looking at the bars, Naruto can see that they are battered and disfigured. It doesn't look like it will hold for that much longer.
"Hey!" Naruto shouts to get the creature's attention. "Hey you!"
The creature stills, and so does the current. The water level suddenly decreases, and Naruto finds himself standing in front of a colossal fox.
"Hello, jailor." It sneers, before banging its head against the cage.
"Who are you?" Naruto asks. The fox fixes its huge red eyes on him, big enough that Naruto can see his own reflection. Oh.
"You're the Kyuubi." Naruto whispers in realisation.
There is so much rage in its eyes. But he also sees something else.
Naruto has seen it in the mirror before.
What would a Demon Fox be afraid of?
The Kyuubi bares its teeth and growls, long and deep.
"Look at what you humans have reduced me to!" it roars. "A filthy animal in a cage!"
"You attacked the village!" Naruto argues, pointing an accusing finger at the fox.
"You think I wanted this shit?" The Kyuubi seethes. "I was freed from the last container, only to be manipulated by another." It throws itself against the cage again. "The Uchiha and their fucking eyes."
"What do you mean? " Naruto is confused. What did the Sharingan have to do with this?
"The man in the mask used the Sharingan to take away my will. And then used me to take his revenge on the Leaf. " It says bitterly. "Right before the fucking Yondaime Hokage sealed me into some infant." He spits the word "infant" as if it were a curse. "Humans disgust me."
"I didn't ask for any of this, either." Naruto says. He is beginning to see how much the Sharingan's power has affected them both.
Was the Kyuubi scared of it as well?
It feels like a lifetime ago, but Naruto can remember a time that he wasn't so angry, and afraid. When he wasn't so hurt.
"You know, I was different before Itachi's genjutsu."
"You may have been different before, but now my chakra flows with yours." The Kyuubi says. "You have been calling upon my power ever since that Uchiha boy tried to kill you."
"What are you talking about? I've barely been using my chakra, much less yours!"
"You don't have to." He lowers his head to Naruto's level. "Your rage resonates with my own."
Naruto regards the creature standing before him. The Kyuubi was feeding Naruto's anger and fear. And maybe Naruto had been feeding it back.
But it needs to stop, one way or another. Before it destroys Naruto.
The Kyuubi paces around the battered cage that was barely containing it, beside itself with broiling hatred.
Before it destroyed them both.
"I was someone else, before all those bad things happened to me." Naruto puts a hand through the bars of the cage, on the fox's nose. The Kyuubi recoils from his touch, but Naruto stands his ground. "And I'm sure you are someone else too, under all that hatred."
The Kyuubi turns away, wrapping its tails around himself.
"Get out of here, you worthless brat." He says.
Sakura stares at Naruto's unconscious form. His claws have not receded, and his face markings are deeper than they should be. Sakura thinks she would find razor sharp canines if she pulled back his darkened lips.
"He's waking up!" Sakura says, as soon as Naruto's eyelids begin to flutter. She gasps when he opens his red, slitted eyes. Sakura expects the hot, red chakra to come out again, but it never does.
"Sakura-chan? What happened?" Naruto groans as he sits up. "I feel like I got beat up. By like, a Rasengan. Or maybe five." He rubs his bleary eyes and looks around him.
"Why are you all looking at me like that?" He asks. "Is there something on my face?"
"Naruto...you look…" Sakura struggles to finish her sentence, but then Naruto notices the claws on his hands.
He turns away, covering his face in shame.
"Naruto, are you in control?" Yamato-san asks. "How do you feel?"
"Yeah, I think. Sort of. I am still-" Naruto takes a shaky breath. "Angry." His eyes dart to the corner Sasuke is leaning against. "I need to get out of here." Naruto stands and heads straight out the bunker door.
"Naruto, wait!" Sakura calls out to him. She tries to follow him, but Yamato stops her.
"I'll go," he says. "If anything happens, I can restrain him." With that, Yamato disappears after Naruto.
"Well, this has been an awkward reunion." Jiraiya clears his throat loudly. "I'll, uh, go catch us some dinner." He disappears with a body flicker.
Kakashi takes a good, long look at Sakura and Sasuke. His face is unreadable, but that's nothing new. He stalks out the door a few moments later.
And then there were two.
The old her would have done anything for a moment alone with Sasuke. Now, they are across the room from each other, and there is a tense silence that neither of them know how to break.
"What happened to him?" Sasuke asks hesitantly.
Sakura looks at him, unsure. How was she even going to begin to answer that?
"He experienced severe psychological torture under Itachi's genjutsu. Then you almost killed him." Sakura sees Sasuke flinch. "His chakra network has been unstable ever since." That was the short answer. She didn't really feel like discussing the details.
"Is he...you know," Sasuke looks frustrated, trying to find the right words. "Will he be okay?" Sakura is taken aback by the question.
Is Sasuke actually concerned?
"I don't know." Sakura tells him honestly. After a few minutes, she tries to ask about his eyes.
"Your uhm-" She gestures at Sasuke's face, before remembering that he can't see her. She abandons her question.
Gods, this was so awkward.
Sasuke's neck still had burns from Naruto's corrosive chakra. There were five bloodstained holes in his shirt as well, where he had dug his claws in. Sakura already healed the burn on her hand earlier. Should she do the same for Sasuke?
"I can heal that." The words spill from her mouth without permission. She doesn't know why she offers to. Maybe Tsunade had drilled the duties of being a medi-nin into her too hard.
Or maybe an irrational and childish part of her wants to prove to Sasuke that she isn't useless anymore. That she's changed.
"What?" Sasuke raises an eyebrow.
"The burn." Sakura clarifies. "On your neck." She feels stupid. Sasuke isn't the type to accept help from anyone. She braces herself for Sasuke's rejection and the awkwardness it would add to the situation.
"Okay." Sasuke says, so softly that Sakura almost doesn't hear it. Did he really agree?
Huh. Maybe Sakura isn't the only one who's changed.
"Okay?" Sakura asks, surprised. "Right. Okay." Neither of them move for a moment. Sakura panics, wondering if she should go over to Sasuke, or wait for Sasuke to come over to her. Then she mentally scolds herself for being ridiculous. She's the one who offered.
Sakura nervously walks to where Sasuke is leaning against the wall, near the door. She presses a green, glowing palm to where the burn is the worst. Sasuke hisses at her touch, but does not pull away.
She heals the wounds on his chest as well. She still isn't skilled enough to heal the deep wounds, but they definitely looked better than before.
Sasuke doesn't thank her, but gives her a tiny nod when she's done. Sakura doesn't mind. She honestly wouldn't have known how to respond if he did verbalise his gratitude.
Sakura doesn't know how to feel, seeing Sasuke again. She sure as hell doesn't trust him.
But something about him is different. Perhaps, Sakura could call a truce.
For now.
Kakashi steps through the door. If he's surprised to see Sakura standing so close to Sasuke, he doesn't show it.
"Jiraiya's cooking." He says, pointing his thumb towards where Jiraiya is.
Sakura and Sasuke head outside. Sasuke crouches by the fire, and starts to stir the stew. Sakura stands a few feet away, crossing her arms.
Out by the river, Naruto's mind is reeling.
He stares into the water, horrified at his own reflection. Naruto looks at his claws and wills them to disappear.
They don't disappear, and Naruto wants to yank his hair out. Why can't he change back? What was wrong with him?
"Naruto?" Yamato-san slowly approaches him from behind.
"It won't go away." Naruto chokes around the lump in his throat. "I look like a freak!"
He remembers his earlier conversation in bits and pieces. The Kyuubi had said something about its rage "resonating" with Naruto's. Being angry and scared is what made him go all crazy, and turn into...this.
Problem is, Naruto feels angry and scared almost all the time.
And his medicine doesn't fix the real problem.
"The medicine makes me forget, but it doesn't take the pain away!" Naruto turns to face Yamato, tears threatening to spill. "I see Itachi whenever I close my eyes. And this hurts, all the time." He clutches at the aching scar, where Sasuke's Chidori pierced him. It was a constant reminder of the time his nightmares turned into reality.
How was he supposed to just stop feeling all of that? How does he make that all go away?
Yamato puts a hand on Naruto's shoulder.
"I was Orochimaru's experiment." He says. "He injected the Shodaime's cells into me when I was an infant. It's why I can do this." A plant sprouts in the middle of Yamato's palm, right in front of Naruto's wide, teary eyes.
"Things happen that we cannot control. And sometimes it hurts us." Yamato continues, after a while. "I can't change how I was created." The plant in his palm blooms into a yellow flower. "But now I use my mokuton to serve as a shinobi of the Leaf."
"What are you trying to say? " Naruto sniffles.
"Don't let your pain eat you up, is what I'm trying to say." Yamato explains. "You can rise above it."
"But how?" Naruto looks at Yamato searchingly. "I'm still so angry!"
"It won't go away overnight. But see," Yamato gestures at Naruto. "You may look like that, yet you're able to control yourself. That's a step in the right direction."
Naruto turns back to his reflection in the water.
I was someone else, before all those bad things happened to me.
"How do I go back to who I was before?." He whispers, as he remembers another part of his conversation with the Kyuubi.
"I don't have all the answers." Yamato admits. "But we'll be here to help you figure it out."
He hopes that he's getting through to Naruto somehow. Yamato was created in a test tube, then recruited into ROOT, and then into ANBU. He has no idea how to advise a weeping jinchuuriki, other than to speak from his own experience. Unfortunately for Naruto, Yamato has never had a tailed-beast inside him.
The blond stands by the river for a while longer. Yamato patiently waits for him, until Naruto's stomach growls.
"Let's go back, Yamato-san." Naruto touches his belly sheepishly.
"Okay, kid." Yamato says, chuckling. They are walking back when Naruto pauses again.
"Eh? Is Sasuke related to the Hyuuga?" He asks suddenly. "His eyes are white now, and he has dark hair and pale skin. Hinata and Neji have dark hair and pale skin. Are they cousins or something?"
"Naruto," Yamato scratches the back of his head. He knew Naruto wasn't the brightest, but really? "He's blind."
Naruto's head whips toward him, disbelief written all over his face.
Well, the boy did attack Sasuke before they had a chance to talk. And Naruto hadn't been in the right state of mind at the time.
"How did that happen?" Naruto demands.
"I don't know." Yamato answers. He's never met Sasuke before today, and only knows him through stories told through Naruto's doped-up ramblings from their time at the safehouse. "Guess you'll have to talk to him and ask."
Naruto scowls at this, obviously not looking forward to it. Yamato shakes his head and continues their walk back towards the bunker.
The blond hesitates when he sees Sasuke sitting by the fire. Sakura sees them, and she waves them over. Her eyes widen when she gets a better look at Naruto's features, but she covers it up quickly and smiles at him.
Yamato pushes him towards the fire encouragingly. The boy goes, albeit warily. He and Sakura sit together, across from Jiraiya and Sasuke.
"Bastard." Naruto mutters, by way of greeting. Sasuke gapes at him for a second before recovering.
"L-loser." Sasuke coughs to disguise his stutter. Sakura nervously looks back and forth between them, as if expecting a fight to break out any second.
The boys are thankfully, silent. Sakura visibly relaxes. Things weren't great, but it was a start.
Yamato still gives Naruto his medicine during dinner. They were being frugal with the dwindling supply, but they had to be cautious of Naruto's violent nightmares.
Despite having a perfectly good bunker at their disposal, the children sit silently around the dying embers of the fire after they have eaten.
Naruto's features return to normal as the medication kicks in. He's leaning heavily against Sakura's back, though she doesn't seem to mind. Sasuke's sightless eyes stare off into space, and he seems to be deep in thought.
Yamato winces when he sees Kakashi watching them from afar. He knows the man doesn't trust himself with the three genin again, and is probably torturing himself over this whole situation.
"Senpai." Yamato says to him.
"Hmm?" Kakashi looks at him, casual as ever. It doesn't fool Yamato.
"Whatever you're thinking, you're wrong." Yamato narrows his eyes at him.
"Maa, but I was just thinking about how my kouhai is doing such a great job at handling Naruto." Kakashi tells him, his eye curving up into a smile. "How is he, by the way?" Yamato wants to roll his eyes at the obvious flattery, but answers anyway.
"He seems to be in control, even without the medicine. But his chakra signature has changed." Kakashi looks at him questioningly. He frowns, trying to describe how Naruto's chakra felt like, back in the forest.
"I sense both Naruto's and the Kyuubi's chakra. Perhaps Naruto's chakra network has been unstable for so long, it has merged with the Kyuubi's?" Yamato says, a little unsure. "It would explain the seizure earlier, if that was his chakra network shifting. And maybe that's why he still has red eyes and claws. "
"That doesn't sound good for Naruto's hopeless chakra control." Kakashi mutters.
"But you can help him. You are his sensei." Yamato insists, before correcting himself. "Their sensei."
"And look how that turned out." Kakashi looks back towards the children. "I'll only get them killed."
Despite Kakashi's secretive nature, Yamato knows about the Kannabi Bridge mission and how Kakashi got his Sharingan. He also knows the story of a certain kunoichi, and Kakashi's own Chidori. The man never stopped feeling guilty over them.
And now he is blaming himself for how Team Seven fell apart.
Sometimes, Yamato thinks that the reason Kakashi slouches so much is because there is so much guilt weighing on the man's shoulders.
He respects Kakashi, and grew to see him as a close friend during their time in ANBU. Yamato hates seeing him like this, especially when Kakashi is the reason he isn't one of Danzo's mindless puppets.
"I'm sorry, Senpai." Yamato whispers.
"For wha-" A loud crack rings through the quiet night.
The children's heads turn curiously toward the noise.
"And that's one way to break a genjutsu using physical pain!" Yamato says as he waves off the children's attention. Kakashi is rubbing the side of his face, stunned.
Yamato turns back to Kakashi, lowering his voice. He's only ever slapped his captain once before, when he was feeling especially self-sacrificing on a mission gone awry.
"They need you, now, more than ever." Yamato says, gripping Kakashi by the shoulders. "And you need them too." he gives the man a hard shake. "Do not make me hit you again, senpai. I don't enjoy it."
"Such an evil kouhai!" Kakashi gripes. Yamato stiffens, suddenly feeling guilty. He is about to stammer out an apology when Kakashi gently puts a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you, Tenzo."
"It's Yamato, now." Yamato reminds him half-heartedly, before he leaves Kakashi to his thoughts.
Kakashi goes back to watching the genin. Tenzo's words play in his head, over and over again.
Knowing Tsunade, she sent Kakashi on this mission to reunite Team Seven, with him as their sensei.
They need you, now, more than ever.
But did they really? He was the one who got them into this mess in the first place.
Kakashi was seconds too late, the day Sasuke and Naruto fought on the rooftop. The kid was scared, choking on his own blood. And Kakashi couldn't do anything, say anything, to comfort the boy.
Now, Naruto, currently high on his medication, could barely use his chakra without channeling the Kyuubi. Kakashi thinks he can feel Minato-sensei's disappointment from the afterlife.
They need you, now, more than ever.
Tsunade had told him that a surprise was waiting for him in River Country. Now that he knows she was referring to Sasuke, Kakashi thinks "surprise" is an understatement.
Kakashi tried to track him down after he was kidnapped. He should have known Orochimaru would send his people to take Sasuke. If only he'd been faster, smarter. He followed the trail for weeks on end, until the Godaime forced him to stop. He never understood why, until today.
Sasuke would have been treated as a criminal for what he did to Naruto, genin or not. That, combined with the loss of his eyes, might have destroyed him. Jiraiya has kept the boy safe here, but the Sannin can't always keep an eye on him, so long as the Akatsuki remain at large.
They need you, now, more than ever.
Do the genin even trust him? He regrets turning Sakura down when she had begged him to train her. He was only trying to protect her from further harm. It was like the Shinigami followed Kakashi, everywhere he went.
Sakura was the only one on his genin team that hadn't already suffered loss when he first met them. And now she's been dragged into their mess, far from Konoha with an unstable jinchuuriki, a blind Uchiha, and a fuck-up of a sensei.
He looks at Sakura. If Team Seven really were to be together again, Naruto and Sasuke would depend on her. It was quite the responsibility to bear.
As if she could sense his gaze, Sakura turns to look him in the eye, just for a moment. Her eyes are tired, but Kakashi can see the underlying determination and steel in them.
Ah, so that is what Tsunade saw in her.
They need you, now, more than ever.
Kakashi used to see his old team every time he looked at their faces, and he distanced himself from them at first. He cursed the Sandaime for giving him a team with Minato-sensei's son, Obito's cousin, and a kunoichi so much like Rin.
And you need them too.
But his team is long gone. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are alive, against all odds. His genin now are not the ghosts of the past but a new beginning. A second chance.
Kakashi smiles at the thought.
His genin.
A/N and that's the story of how they all meet again. Next chapter will be focused on how they grow back together and heal from, well, everything…
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Till the next chapter!
