Gouka

by Don Amoeba

Warning: Narusasu "As a boy who grew up shunned by everyone, as a vessel of the most notorious monster in history, Naruto had been through enough to know what real hell could be like. But nothing prepared him for this day."

Title: Gouka (1/?)
Author: Amoeba
feedback: don_amoeba@hotmail.com
Archive: Narutoyaoi ML, NaruSasu ML, fanfiction.net, A^2
Category: drama
Pairings: Narusasu
Ratings: M
Warnings: violence, characters' death, alternative ending
Note: This story is an entry for Kinu-san's narusasu contest
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Note to Protia-san: I am still having great trouble with the tenses. ^^;; If you see any painfully obvious mistakes, please point them out to me again, if you don't mind.

~ Dedicated to Kinu-san, who can do whatever pleases her to the story. ~

As a boy who grew up shunned by everyone, as a vessel of the most notorious monster in history, as a man who was constantly hunted by many who desired his power, as a Konoha ninja who survived to become a jounin, Naruto had been through enough to know what real hell could be like.

But nothing prepared him for this day.

* * *

With a double-edged kunai in each hand, Naruto punctured his last enemy's forehead in one swift blow, ending the life of the sturdy ninja who stood seven feet tall. The towering figure fell next to Naruto's feet, and he kicked it away. He barely had time to wipe the bloody sweat that was clouding his vision off his forehead when he sensed a fierce aura of a new ninja team charging at his direction.

Oh great, here they come again. Moaning mentally, Naruto straightened his aching body to preparing for his new guests.

The Oto village had certainly recruited many pawns for their disposal. They reminded him of the colony of ants that swarmed his leftover ramen soup and milk every time he was away on a mission, mission, an occurrence for which his landlord had nearly kicked him out.

Pests. They never die out, just keep coming.

Naruto looked around at his surroundings, and found himself standing at a small opening within the forbidden forest. A spray of light lit his form through the thick canopy, spotlighting him in the otherwise dark forest. The blood and corpses lying scattered about denoted the intense battle that took place just moments ago.

Still breathing heavily, he closed his eyes and read the chakra of his next opponents. Fifteen, he counted, all at chuunin level.

They would be within physical range in three

now.

Fifteen shinobis, bearing the symbol of the Oto village, emerged from the forest and encircled Naruto in the opening.

Never a man with much patience, his mind already formed a quick plan. Let's make this short and easy.

Arroused by the taste of fresh kills, the Oto ninjas did not even bother to hide their presence as they launched themselves towards him, their eyes bright with bloodlust. Naruto raised his arms to block the attacks, but his last battles had left him spent and his defence slowed considerably. He dropped his weapons and freed up his hands to start a jutsu.

Kage Bunsh!

But it was too late.

Hundreds of shurikens embedded themselves into Naruto's limbs, torso, face, until his body became an unrecognisable beehive, his wounds squirting thick blood violently between sharp metals. One of the ninjas finished it off with a slash to where Naruto's throat was.

The fifteen ninjas watched with satisfaction as Naruto's mutated body fell to the ground and turned into a block of log, the shiny steel plates still buried deep within it.

Their minds wheeled. All they could do was stare at the dead trunk before them when the thought hit them. They had lost Naruto and he was now hidden somewhere, watching them in shadows.

He could be anywhere.

However, years of training had taught them how to handle this situation. Quickly the ninjas forced themselves to calm and gathered into the guarding formation, preparing themselves from Naruto's strike.

The eerie silence lingered as the group huddled in sheer anticipation.

The forest held its breath when a small thud, like the sound of a ripened fruit fallen to the ground, broke the spell.

Thump.

They fidgeted, awaiting the inevitable when they heard another thud, this time closer.

Thump.

Before the Oto ninjas could react, a train of loud thuds exploded around them. They whipped around, frantically trying to locate the source of the sounds.

"Maybe he's-" a ninja whispered anxiously.

"Hush-"

The ninja barely got the word out when suddenly a painful wail of horror and desperation tore their remaining composure apart.

The whole forest was raining blood.

The trees were stained red, and from the dripping branches, heads were falling to the ground.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The ninjas, now dangerously disoriented, watched with wide eyes as the heads dropped before their eyes, each with a pronounced thud, smearing the lush green crimson.

"My god! The" one Oto ninja shrieked, recognizing the bloody face of a head, still warm and fresh.

It was their back up team of forty, their safety net, their supposed support who were to wait hidden at the treetops.

And they had been exterminated completely.

Suddenly the shinobis' agenda changed. All they cared about now was making it out of the forest alive.

And they knew they wouldn't be able survive this jounin alone.

They had to get Orochimaru-sama

But before they could register another coherent thought, a barrier seal manifested beneath their feet. And their faces paled.

Judgement day - there was no way out.

As stealthy as Death himself, Naruto appeared in the depths of the forest, his gaze fixed on his trapped opponents like a leopard's to its prey before the lethal pounce. With the corner of his mouth vaguely lifted into a half-smile, he worked his fingers into complicated symbols. Reacting to his ninjutsu, a burst of branches sprang from the seal and thrust themselves into the captives, piercing and tearing the ninjas apart like jaws of hungry beasts.

The branches shot up until it gradually grew into a tall tree, canopying where the open area used to be.

"Game over," Naruto whispered, scanning for any possible pursuers still hiding in the forest. When he was convinced that he was alone, he finally allowed himself to relax. He rubbed his face roughly with the only clean spot on his sleeve, and then wiped the thickened blood off his kunais on the grass.

As his adrenalin subsided, Naruto realized his knees were shaking, almost unable to bear his own weight. He crouched down slowly, each overworked muscle tightening painfully as he moved. When he successfully sat down on the grass, he leaned against a tree and gave a hearty sigh. Then, solemnly, he began to survey the mayhem.

The decapitated corpses of the Oto ninjas hung from the trees while their heads staring up at him at awkward angles from the forest floor. The thick smell of blood and death was overwhelming. The dried blood turned flaky with the other grime on his hands, and absent-mindedly, Naruto massaged his thumb against his fingers to get rid of the dirt.

He didn't have to be Kiba to know his body reeked of sweat, and other stomach-churning stenches which origins he'd rather not think about.

He needed a shower really badly.

Under other circumstances, the benevolent Konoha ninja would have cleaned up after his mess. He would have washed the blood off and bury the bodies, his way to pay final respect to the people he killed. This time, he would let the crows take care of it.

With all the bodies left to rot on streets and in homes of the Konoha village, it all seemed pretty pointless now.

It was a crazy world out there.

The final war was taking place in their village, and Naruto, along with all the remaining ninjas from Konoha, were the remaining defence.

Many sacrifices had been made, and there was no holding back.

When was the last time he had seen a smiling face?

And when was the last time he had smiled?

Somehow, it didn't matter anymore.

He could vaguely hear the sounds of explosions and war cries from the heart of Konoha village, where the war was being staged. He knew he had to get back as soon as possible, but he had been fighting sleep for days, relying on stimulators, and he knew he was at his breaking point. His chakra was almost used up, and plunging himself into another battle could only mean suicide.

His eyelids felt awfully heavy.

If only Sasuke were here

You weren't here.

Naruto gave his head a vicious shake, trying to push the phantom voice of his childhood friend away.

You weren't here, Naruto.

Stop it! Naruto fought angrily, but the remembrance of their days together kept flooding back, and as much as Naruto hated to admit, those memories were his only resort for short comfort now, even if he was always left in bitter guilt and hatred.

That arrogant, shameless bastard.

Traitor.

Sasuke.

At last, collapsing to the ground, he surrendered to fatigue. His mind drifted as noisy images left him and emptiness lulled him into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

It had been a time of crisis in the Konoha Village, the loss of its most respected "Professor" and many other lives. Naruto was thirteen.

It was then, when Sasuke had left Konoha to make contact with its nemesis, the Oto village, for the very first time.

Tsunade-sama, the new Godaime, had send a team of genins, led by chuunin Shikamaru, after Sasuke and the Oto Tetrad. Naruto had been one of the chosen genins.

To all the adults in the Konoha village, Tsunade's decision was absurd, almost brutal. After all, what difference did she expect a bunch of inexperienced kids to make? Against the Orochimaru's strongest fighters, they were as good as human sandbags. It would be suicide.

However, miraculously, the group had managed to get out in one piece, and to most people's surprises, they even brought Sasuke back to Konoha with them. Needless to say, the council held a trial on Sasuke's unauthorized departure.

Naruto had never seen Kakashi so angry.

Like Iruka to Naruto, Kakashi had always, in some way, seen a glimpse of himself in the solemn boy. For a child to become a chuunin at the age of six, Kakashi's upbringing in the battlefields and his gaining of his expertise in killing was primal, brutal, and anything but glorious. He saw Sasuke as his successor, and while he was determined to teach Sasuke everything he could to help the boy survive his uncertain path as a ninja, it was also his wish to help the hatred-driven child see beyond the circle of vengeance he was caught up in.

It was his only path to redemption, his vow to his best friend, to give Sasuke a choice to live a happy life, the chance he never had.

However, Kakashi's efforts were fruitless, and Sasuke's betrayal to Konoha and its beliefs had wounded him personally.

But they had all experienced the power of Orochimaru's manipulative words before, and in the end, Sasuke was given special considerations and escaped further charges.

After all, as the only Uchiha in the village, he was highly regarded by many and was expected to do great things for the village. At that stage, they couldn't afford to lose another soldier.

Deep down, Naruto could tell Sasuke would never be the same. The innocence in the boy's eyes was long lost, replaced by his hunger for power, for a chance to push his potentials to dangerous levels. Konoha would not keep him for long. He was gone forever.

Nevertheless, Sasuke had conformed to the village and stayed.

It hadn't taken too long for the two of them to pass the chuunin exam, and since then, Naruto and Sasuke had gone their separate ways.

With one of the most dangerous demons in history sealed in him, long-term solitary missions had never been an option for Naruto. Sasuke, on the other hand, had been taking on many highly ranked missions outside the country, making the most out of his talent and copying enough jutsus to measure up to his former mentor, although his main goal had always been to locate the man he had sworn revenge on.

But fate wouldn't leave them alone. Just when Sasuke, eager to prove himself, had accepted the proposal to join Anbu, he had been paired up in a mission with Naruto. They were to obtain a sacred scroll owned by a daimyou, which contained many forbidden jutsus too dangerous for Konoha to ignore.

The mission assigned to them was A ranked, not for the difficulty of the task but the importance of the object there were to retrieve. Two chuunins should have been more than enough to secure the scroll.

They were caught.

And that was when it had all started.

"Lemme OUT!!" Naruto yelled and kicked the prison door with all the strength he could muster, but only yelped when a powerful force of chakra rebounded.

His whole body was flung back and he hit his head on the wall. Hard.

"Aww" He winced as he balanced himself, ready to charge again.

"Idiot. Just shut up and sit down," Sasuke sounded impatient, "This cell is designed to hold ninjas. Nothing, not even my sharingan, works in this room. Stop wasting your energy."

"You wouldn't know if it's gonna work or not if you don't try, would you?" Naruto snapped back. "Get me out of here-!! I need a shower!! I need to pee-!!" He smashed into the door with his left shoulder, and this time, he was thrown to the floor.

Naruto could sense Sasuke smirking from behind and gritted his teeth in annoyance. He couldn't believe Hokage-sama had assigned him with this arrogant know-it-all. As if having to put up with Sasuke when they were genins wasn't enough torture already. And now here he was, alone with Sasuke in a tiny dungeon cell, and who knows how long they would have to stay this way. He tried to wriggle his bound hands into a more comfortable position, only to give up when the rope cut deeper into his flesh.

"The bastard who did this to meI'm going to have him minced and"

"Get over here." Sasuke's voice was commanding as usual.

"Give me a thousand good reasons to go near you," Naruto muttered. Yeah right, like he was going to let Sasuke order him around.

"Come here, you dope," Sasuke sighed. "I'm going to untie your hands." He held out his freed arms and motioned Naruto to move.

"Oh." Naruto hopped up to his feet, sat in front of Sasuke, and felt his cool fingers prying the knots loose.

The chamber was dim and stuffy, with no windows and only a small hole at the door to allow fresh air and a flicker of torchlight in. Naruto was trained to see in the dark, so the lack of light posed little inconvenience to his vision, yet it did nothing to improve his mood. The chamber was specially made to confine captured ninjas, and it had a barricade of spell blocked all use of chakra, making it impossible to start any jutsus within the room.

And worse, they had been thoroughly searched and all their weapons had been taken away from them. They were at a dead end.

At least I don't see a pile of old bones gathering dust in the corner of something, Naruto consoled himself with that comforting fact.

Then again, old bones make really good weapons. He sighed in looked at his bare prison.

"Done." A nudge on his back snapped him from of his thoughts. His fingers were tingling from the eased circulation.

"So er what next?" Naruto asked as he massaged his wrists.

"We wait for the rescue team to come," Sasuke stated flatly and returned into the dark corner, his back against the wall.

"WHAT!!? NO WAY!!" Naruto put his fists together to form the symbol of a boar, and almost immediately, a shot of energy cut through his hands and knocked them apart.

"I can't touch the door, I can't use my chakra, and now I can't even put my hands together? What the hell is this place??!" Naruto banged the wall with a fist in frustration.

"The air can decipher the pattern of your chakra and stop you from using it in any way. Just don't try any jutsus and you won't get hurt."

"I need to get the hell out of here. No way am I staying here for another minute." He probed around the cell for the third time.

"We don't have any weapons on us, and the prison is heavily guarded, so there's nothing we can do but wait."

"Over my dead body. No fucking way."

"Just listen for once, would you?" Sasuke raised his voice for the first time since they had been captured. "We fucked up. Period. Haven't you learned anything as a ninja all this time? You don't just go all heroic and run around like a headless chicken. Learn when to admit your failures, Naruto. Your pride will get you killed one day."

Naruto wasn't sure if he was hearing right. Maybe he was hallucinating. After all, it was quite stuffy in here.

Sasuke, of all people, warning him about being proud?

It didn't take long for Sasuke to register the awkward silence, and when he looked up and saw Naruto's dumbfounded look, he cringed, regretting what he had said.

He understood Naruto's reaction. Although Naruto was the ruthless good-for-nothing on their old team, it had also been Naruto's self-sacrificing boldness that had always saved the day. Sasuke himself, on the other hand was the headless chicken, to proud to ask for help, always playing the hero, going off to the wrong direction and putting everyone in danger. He lowered his head and moved a hand up to touch the mark behind his shoulder.

Still, all these were done for a higher purpose, a duty he could never escape from.

He could've made up some other snide comments, or plainly dismissed Naruto's reaction, as he always did. But this time, he was too tired to pretend. He looked up and responded to Naruto's silent query, "If there is something I want to achieve, I will get there, and if it means I have to throw away my pride, dignity, and even my values, I will do whatever it takes. So no, maybe my pride isn't worth that much after all." The smile on Sasuke's face was bitter and cynical, one of a man who had seen too much and now, had nothing to lose.

Again, Naruto was taken aback, this time by Sasuke's sudden honesty. He knew about the past between Sasuke and Itachi, a tale that was well known among all shinobis in the village, and he himself had experienced a short but intense interaction between the brothers firsthand. But hearing it from Sasuke was different. As the words were sinking in, Naruto realized, for the first time, that he could see through the indifferent mask Sasuke had on, as if the power of Sharingan had possessed him and their minds were linked by the their gazes.

It hurt Naruto to see the painful gravity of the words manifesting in the depth of Sasuke dark orbs, drawing him closer to Sasuke's past, different from, but as equally tormenting as his own. He couldn't take his eyes off him. Beyond the grief, he could sense something more inside Sasuke, a foreign gleam that hadn't been there before, a possessing madness, like a secreted serpent ready to lash at the man's weakest moments.

Naruto shuddered slightly and finally turned away after what seemed like hours. When he looked at Sasuke again, he was back to his usual self, eyes cold and indecipherable.

"Just do as I say. Go to sleep." Sasuke leaned back and closed his eyes as he made the closing statement.

This time, Naruto did not argue.

Three days and three nights passed, or so it seemed, not being able to see the change of days, since Sasuke and Naruto were confined. They had no food or water, no actions from their captors, and definitely no signs of allies coming to their rescue. It was a great challenge to Naruto's sanity, trapped in a dark, timeless space with no guarantee of any hope. Remembering the times back at the Academy, Naruto secretly thanked Iruka-sensei for teaching him to tell the time by listening to his own body rhythm.

Learn to listen to your own body, your heart, your intuition. When it is all you have left, it will help you get a grip on things, and it may very well save your life one day.

Sasuke had been quiet for days, sitting in the same corner the whole time. Naruto assumed that he was just conserving his energy, but at times, Sasuke would stay so still that Naruto worried he might have died without him knowing, and when Naruto's suspicions were too real to bear, he would gently call out Sasuke's name, trying to start a conversation. Sasuke never replied, but he would nod his head every now and then in response, so Naruto could relax with relief.

Unable to do anything else, Naruto chose to follow Sasuke and spend his time meditating, building up chakra within his body. They were trained to endure severe hunger and thirst, using their chakra to regulate their bodies' consumption of water and nutrients, but it didn't make Naruto's growling stomach any better. After the first day, he could already see colourful spots that resembled ramen cups dancing in front of him.

Maybe we will turn into a pile of bones after all. As optimistic as he was, Naruto couldn't help but feel desperation mount at their situation. Food was one problem, but how long could they last without water? His tongue felt hot and swollen, his throat scratchy, and his saliva thick and sour.

I was right. We should've tried to find a way out. No one's gonna ever come. He opened his eyes and glared at Sasuke, annoyed at himself for even taking Sasuke's words into consideration.

His eyes widened as he caught sight of Sasuke's silhouette crashing onto the floor. The elite Shinobi's back drew an acre of red stain on the wall behind him, and he remained in an awkward position, like a rag doll neglected by its careless owner.

His whole back was soaked with the dark, metallic liquid, the uchiha symbol on his shirt no longer visible under the dye.

Sasuke!

~ to be continued ~

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I'd like to thank both Portia and Shaun for beta-readering the story for me, without you this will be practically unreadable. And thanks to Kinu who very generously allowed me to stay in the competition, and even gave me time to rewrite the hopeless draft that I sent her. ^_^;; The story should end in three chapters.