A/N: I know some of you disliked the end of chapter 18, but oh well. If that puts you off this fic, then that's your issue, not mine. Regardless, the story is entering its second half now. And if you wanted romantic stuff, the next few are going to be to your liking.
Time for chapter 19
Enjoy!
Naruto clenched his jaw and held his ground as the Anbu slowly advanced towards him. He had taken a major risk in protecting Gaara, but one he considered to be righteous. Unfortunately, it seemed that he was about to pay the price for his selflessness. At full strength, he was likely more than capable of fending the group off for enough time to find an escape, but as he was now, he had little chance of surviving them for long. He was cornered, and he knew it. The blonde glanced back at the girl whom he had defended, whose eyes were closed with her chest rising and falling in a staggered pattern.
'Sorry, Gaara. Looks like we're both screwed.' he silently apologized before refocusing on the situation at hand. They were closing in quickly, and he would be forced to fight within moments. Bracing himself for combat, Naruto stepped forward. Much to his surprise, however, another figure stepped between himself and the advancing Anbu. It was the man Naruto had punched en route to saving Gaara.
"Wait. Let's not be hasty. Let me talk to him." the formerly cat-masked man said as he rubbed the side of his now-exposed jaw. He was daily average looking, if a bit weathered. His hair was short and brown, and he had a large bruise on the side of his face from the punch he had absorbed from Naruto.
"I'm not entirely sure why you feel the need to protect her, Naruto, but please, consider the situation we're in right now." he said calmly. The blonde scowled and bared his fangs.
"The 'situation' doesn't matter. You were going to murder a defensless girl! Even if she's the enemy, you can't just kill her out of the blue." he growled. The unmasked Anbu shook his head.
"There are several issues with that. First and foremost, the situation absolutely does matter. As of two hours ago, we're at war with Sunagakure. They shattered the fragile peace we had, and now we're enemies once again. With that in mind, consider exactly who that girl is. She's their most potent weapon. A Jinchuuriki is an invaluable asset in warfare." he explained. Naruto's angry expression only intensified at his words.
"Is that all she is to you? A piece on a goddamn chess board?" he demanded. The Anbu leader briefly wore a look of discomfort, but it vanished quickly.
"Given my line of work and what I've been tasked to do in events like this one, yes. That's exactly what I view her as. I don't like it any more than you do, but it can't be helped. If she lives, more people are going to die. The Anbu cannot and will not allow that to happen." he said firmly.
"You can just lock her up! How is she going to harm anybody else? She's harmless!" Naruto yelled frustratedly. The man shook his head once again in response.
"She's far from harmless. You know that as well as I do. At the height of her strength, that girl would maul most Jonin. We'd have no way to truly contain her if she chose to resist. Even if you clearly have her checked in combat, she still destroyed a massive portion of a residential district." he said. Naruto searched for a counter to the Anbu leader's logic, but came up empty handed.
"I still won't let you kill her." he declared wearily. The man looked to his squadron and then back to the young Jinchuuriki.
"Think about this for a moment. You're already on your last legs, and there are four of us. You'd have struggled fresh. Please stand down. I don't want to hurt you, kid. None of us do." he urged the genin. Naruto's response was both predictable and saddening.
"Come and hurt me, then." he challenged. The Anbu leader sighed heavily and gave a signal to his squadron of fellow Anbu. They immediately rushed to surround the blonde and Gaara. Naruto gave a look to his instructor, who was simply staring at him with an unreadable expression. There was an odd eerieness to him. The young Jinchuuriki steeled himself and turned back to the Anbu Leader.
"I gave you every chance I could. No hard feelings, kid." the man said. What happened next was a whirlwind. One that Naruto was unable to keep up with.
Within moments, he was overwhelmed.
The sound of a door shutting snapped Naruto awake. The first thing he noticed was that he was unable to move. He was sitting in a chair of some kind, and his wrists were strapped down. The room he was occupying was dark, cold, and smelled dull and old. There was little to remark about the area. That was, until a candle was lit roughly five feet from Naruto's face. The flash of light caused him to flinch and squint his eyes, but it also revealed the person who had closed the door to awaken him. It was an old man. Only his face was visible, but that alone was enough to be telling as to his physical state.
Half of his face was covered in a thick layer of bandages, and the exposed section was wrinkled and scared. He looked as though he should have been buried long ago. Despite his ghastly appearance, Naruto recognized him somewhat. He was the very same old man the blonde had seen around the Hokage building several times throughout the years. Both within it and exiting it.
"Good, It seems that you're awake. I feared you would be unconscious until morning. That would have complicated things a tad." the old man said. Naruto glanced up at the man and studied him for a moment.
"Where the hell am I, and how did I get here?" he asked after a time. The bandaged man took a seat in a chair across from the blonde. One that lacked the restraints of Naruto's uncomfortable prison.
"The former of your questions is none of your concern, and the latter should be fairly obvious. You committed a form of treason and resisted arrest, so you've been detained. You're quite fortunate to be alive, frankly. But then, execution was never truly an option for you. You're far too valuable." he explained. The events of the battle with Gaara and his defense of her in the face of the Anbu then came flooding back to the Jinchuuriki. He had been struck in the back of the neck by one of his assailants, and that was the last thing he remembered.
"What's your name? I recognize you, but I don't really know who you are." the blonde asked, having taken a few moments to sort out his memories.
"My name is Danzo Shimura, and I'm either your worst enemy, or your closest ally depending on how this conversation shakes out." the old man, apparently named Danzo, replied. Naruto narrowed his eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked suspiciously. Danzo leaned back in his chair and set the candle he had lit on the ground to his left.
"There are several things you should know before I answer that question. The most important of which being that your greatest benefactor is now gone. Hokage-sama has been killed." he revealed. The words hit Naruto like a punch in the gut. His mentor, friend, and father figure was gone. Apparently murdered. It was jarring. His breathing rapidly increased, his eyes became glassy, and his entire body tensed. Despite his desire not to, the blonde cried. For nearly two full minutes, tears streamed down his face. It may have lasted much longer had Danzo not interrupted.
"Dry your eyes, boy. There's still much you don't know. Much you must learn of your current standing." the bandaged man said sternly. Naruto sniffled and blinked tears out of his eyes.
"Start talking then." he snapped. Danzo chuckled and took a deep breath to begin what would inevitably be a lengthy exchange.
"Something that may relieve you is that Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, and Sasuke Uchiha are all relatively healthy. In Sasuke's case, I find it to be surprising. The boy was at death's door when we found him slumped over in the stadium halls." he began. Naruto heaved a sigh of relief.
"Thank god…" he muttered. Not bothering to give him any time to dwell on the information, Danzo continued speaking.
"In fact, all of your comrades are in stable condition. Even those who aren't necessarily your comrades." he said vaguely, allowing the blonde to connect the dots. It took Naruto little time to decipher the meaning behind his words.
"Where's Gaara?" he asked, a scowl now on his face. The old man adjusted his sitting position to have one leg rested atop the other.
"Contained and neutralized, but very much alive. Worry not. As with you, she's far too important to be killed. The Anbu very much needed a reminder of that fact." he said.
"Why didn't they kill her? They cut me down really quickly. They could have done whatever they wanted to her without me there to stop them." Naruto asked skeptically. Danzo shook his head.
"You were not the only thing standing between her and them. Your teacher came to your aide nearly immediately, though you seem to be suffering from some amnesia. He nearly killed two of the Anbu attacking you, and he convinced them of the novelty of keeping her alive as a political tool for the oncoming war. He was likely bluffing when it came to his own belief in the idea, but it certainly did the trick. He escaped punishment for his actions, if barely." he said. Naruto pursed his lips as an image of Kakashi passed through his mind.
'Thanks for that, Kakashi-sensei. I owe you one' he thought to himself. Danzo then leaned down and rekindled the dying candle on the floor.
"Now, onto the essentials. You will be imprisoned for ninety days as per the council's orders. It would have been far longer had I not defended you relentlessly, so you are in my debt. Upon your release, I already have a plan as to how you will repay me." he said. Naruto furrowed his brow.
"What do you mean?" he inquired. The bandaged man smirked and stood up from his seat.
"We have a war on our hands, Naruto. A fairly small one, but a war nonetheless. I'm not a massive believer in diplomacy in situations like these, so combat is an inevitability. You may not be useful for much, but you're a force of nature on the battlefield. Even as an exhausted wreck, you still managed to repel the Anbu Black Ops several times." he said. The blonde met the man's glowering stare and scrunched up his nose.
"And what makes you think that I'll fight for you?" he asked defiantly. Danzo sat back down and folded his hands in his lap.
"I would say 'national pride', but I know that you have none. Not with Hiruzen dead. No, your incentive to do as I say is far more personal. Should you participate in combat post-release, Gaara of the Sand will live. If not, I'm afraid we can do without her." he said threateningly. Naruto's blood ran cold. It was a threat he had somewhat expected, but one that he had not been fully ready for. His feelings regarding the redhead were convoluted and mixed, but her death was still something he strongly opposed.
"You're a monster." he growled. Danzo raised an eyebrow and leaned in closer to the restrained boy.
"Am I really? Consider just how much smoother this war will go with you present and active. It sounds counterintuitive, but the more Suna Shinobi you slaughter in our name, the less casualties will pile up in the long run. I simply wish the best for Konoha, and I will do anything to ensure its future." he said. A spell of silence then set in over the dark room. For a period of several minutes, Naruto weighed his options. There was no desirable choice, but one was less immediately painful. Eventually, the bandaged man's patience wore thin.
"Perhaps I should let you sleep on it. But not here. No, I think it's high time you be transferred to your cell." Danzo said. Before Naruto could respond, the old man produced a syringe from his robes and positioned it by the genin's neck.
"This will only hurt for a moment." he assured the boy. He then stuck the needle into an exposed vein and injected the contents.
For the second time in his most recent memory, Naruto's world went black.
Naruto's eyes slowly dragged open as he emerged from his unwilling slumber. His head hurt, his body was numb, and his vision was taking time to clear. It had been the feeling of a liquid striking his face that had awoken him, and despite his best efforts, he couldn't identify it by consistency alone. His mind was simply not clear enough. Eventually, after a painstaking two minutes, his vision returned to him in full. What he saw answered several questions. Hovering over him was Gaara, who's cheek was still badly gashed from Sasuke's grazing jutsu. The wound was dripping blood down onto Naruto's face at a steady pace.
Given that information, Naruto silently deduced that the soft surface his head was resting on was Gaara's lap. It took a moment for the magnitude of this information to fully set in, but when it did, his entire body reacted. He tensed instantly, his eyes widened, and his heart rate increased substantially. As per usual, it took Gaara a disturbingly short amount of time to detect his shift in demeanor.
"What has you more shaken? That I'm still alive, or that you're lying helplessly in my lap?" she asked softly. Finding that the sedative that had been injected into his body hadn't fully worn off yet, Naruto gave up trying to move himself. Once he had conceded to his temporary paralysis, he responded to her question.
"I'm having a hard time picking." he growled. Gaara raised an eyebrow and wiped at her bleeding cheek to clear some of the plasma.
"Really? Given that you saved my life, I thought it would be an easy choice." she said. Naruto immediately prepared to snap back, but found himself unable to refute her point despite his still-present anger.
"Where are we?" he asked in an attempt to change the topic as quickly as he could. The redhead chuckled strangely and gently used her hands to turn his head to the side so as to give him a view of their surroundings.
"In a prison cell. Where else? We're prisoners of war, afterall. Well, I am, at least.'' she replied. She then turned his head back towards her face. Naruto pursed his lips and clenched his jaw tightly.
"And who's fault is that?" he asked rhetorically. Gaara shrugged and tucked a strand of crimson hair behind her left ear.
"We only have ourselves to blame. I chose to stay behind rather than escape, and you chose to defend me from your own comrades. If you didn't want to be stuck in here with me, you should have let me die." she said bluntly. The leaf Jinchuuriki made another attempt to move, but to no avail.
"Yeah, maybe, but if you hadn't attacked us in the first place this wouldn't have even been possible. It's your fault in the end." he said. If his words had affected Gaara in the least, she was doing an excellent job of concealing it, as her facial expression remained tranquil.
"Perhaps, but I was acting on orders I had no way to realistically refuse. And before you ask, no, I will not be explaining why that is." she said. The pair then lapsed into silence for a stretch. The scene was a depressing one. Two Jinchuuriki, both injured, one paralyzed by sedative, and the other suffering from a severe facial laceration. Sasuke appeared to have struck a blood vessel if the amount of blood Gaara had spilled was any indication. The stream finally slowed after a point, but her face was still tattered under her right eye.
"How long has it been since the fighting ended?" Naruto asked quietly, breaking the silence between them. Gaara thought for a moment.
"Eight hours, just about. Why do you ask?" she inquired. The blonde shrugged as best he could and sighed, seemingly sobered by the points Gaara had raised.
"No reason, honestly. I'm...just trying to process. I'm in prison, with you for god knows what reason, and I got here by my own actions." he said. Gaara gazed down at him and shook her head.
"No matter how much you try to hurt my feelings or antagonize me, I won't hurt you. I know what you're doing. You're trying to get us separated into different cells. It won't work. I have no desire at all to harm you." she said firmly. Naruto's right eye twitched with irritation, but he maintained his composure.
"Why? You were totally willing to hurt me a few hours ago." he asked skeptically. Gaara gave him an odd smile, one that made him greatly uncomfortable for difficult-to-discern reasons.
"Because I no longer have any reason to hurt you. I was under obligation to kill you before, both from my demon and my military superiors. Now I have no such commitments. Besides, I've had my fill of you for now." she explained. Naruto snorted.
"Oh, so you'll be ready to take a crack at me again someday?" he asked sarcastically. The redhead's smile then changed in nature, her demeanor less aimless than it had been.
"If that's the way you want to take that statement, be my guest." she said vaguely. Finding himself at a loss for an obvious response, Naruto lapsed into another silence. After a shorter stretch than before, Gaara broke the streak.
"I know this is a bit late, but...thank you for saving me, Naruto." she said quietly. The blonde averted his eyes away from her and gave an almost imperceptible nod. The redhead then reached down and brushed away a speck of her blood from his cheek. The contact caused him to visibly flinch. Gaara instantly pulled her hand away and retracted it to her side.
"Do you hate me, Naruto?" she asked out of the blue. Naruto slowly returned his line of sight to her face, which was unreadable. After a few seconds of thought, he responded.
"I really, really want to. You're a murderer, you got me arrested, you almost killed Sasuke, and put Kiba and Shino in the hospital. I've got every reason too, but…" he said, trailing off by the end. Despite her best efforts, Gaara could do nothing to hide the damage he had done to her emotions. Her eyes were painfully watery, and lines had appeared on her face.
"Go on." she urged him. Naruto fumbled for a proper combination of words to convey himself with for an uncomfortably long time before finally finding himself.
"I don't hate you. I just don't. Today should have pushed me over the edge, but I...just can't do it. Even after what's happened." he admitted reluctantly. Gaara took a deep breath and managed to relax herself a tad.
"I'm glad. So very glad." she said in a tone barely above a whisper. Her voice was hushed, but Naruto's ears were sharp. He had heard her.
"Let me ask you a question, then. How do you feel about me? I've tried to figure it out a million times, but you just don't make any sense." he asked. The girl from Suna sighed and traced a finger along one of his whisker markings.
"How should I know? You're the first person I've ever felt anything for in any capacity beyond my siblings. I'll tell you when I figure it out myself." she said. Naruto muttered a response, but the redhead simply ignored him and gently brushed her fingers over his eyes to close them. At that, Gaara leaned her head back against the wall.
"Sleep, Naruto. The days will pass quicker if you do." she ordered him gently. To her surprise, the blonde did not retort. Instead, he mustered what strength he could to turn onto his side with his head remaining in her lap. The difference being that his face was now lightly pressed to her stomach. Gaara reddened at the likely accidental development, but found herself no less comfortable.
"Goodnight, Naruto."
A/N: The Romance is about to seriously pick up, folks, so get ready. And yes, Danzo is kind of a common villain, but I didn't exactly have a ton of logical options. Don't worry. He won't be SUPER major past a certain point. Hope you all enjoyed :)
See you next chapter! Read and Review!