Blue

Chapter VII

A man lay in bed, unmoving and undisturbed except for the steady rise and fall of his chest. Anyone would've assumed that the young man was sleeping but he wasn't. He reached out his hand to the ceiling, watching as his hand was wrapped in the familiar warmth of a glowing red chakra. It had only taken three weeks and his Anbu team was now among the top ranking assassins in Konoha. Balling his fists, Naruto's eyes followed the yellow chakra that twined with the red.

See, boy, you're alive and I'm alive and we're having fun…

"Shut up."

Kill once, kill twice, killing's just another exercise…

The kyubi settled comfortably in Naruto's consciousness and gave the boy some peace. It wanted sleep as well.

Naruto closed his eyes, glad for the silence. He'd blame Kyubi for everything if he wasn't aware of all the missions at all. But he was, and he could refuse taking the assignment and Kyubi wouldn't be able to do a thing about it. And yet, he accepted time after time, even to a point of looking forward for a hard assignment. The moment he drifted off to sleep, his body glowed with a clear orange chakra, cocooning the sleeping form like a child. His and Kyubi's chakra had long merged ever since he had learned to control Kyubi's. This time, the fox was feeding off his coldness with every kill and with each death, the demon had gotten stronger. They were almost one.

In another room of another house, lay another man, awake and his expression grew wearier at each passing hour. Sasuke's mind was plagued by how Naruto's missions came in like a raging river, just a day's rest and not a single complaint and not at all slowing pace. Though Naruto's team brought more clients for Konoha, good as it was to the village, it worried Sasuke that the carefree person he once knew was actually enjoying these missions. To each his own, and he shouldn't really bother, except that this was Naruto. This was Naruto who knocked people out but never killed. With a last heave of a tired sigh, Sasuke succumbed to a restless sleep.



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