Are You Red and Gold, Sapphire?
Chapter
four~~~
Notes: wOw…. So many reviews to reply tooo~~~ and the italics I used last chapter didn't work;-;. The things written on the wall were supposed to be in italics. I feel the mood had been ruined a bit. And I heavily apologize for the grammar and spelling mistakes. My beta had just gotten back, and I wanted to post a late chapter so I didn't look over it.
THIS CHAPTER is six pages. The replies are not part of the fic and I would not have made the chapter longer anyways. So it is at its desired length. Because I find that the chapters that are the shortest are the ones with the review replies. And if feels as if the author wrote in the reviews to make it seem longer even though it isn't. Sux huh? I am including replies, but even if I hadn't, the chap. would be 6 pages.
Chapter warning: Angst~! Relatively!
Replies:
WuffieLuver: Well.. I don't really think Sasuke's a prick~~ more like a confused 12 year old boy whose been badly hurt~ And right, they wouldn't^-^;. Here's your more!
MeGs-YAFP: *gasp* review this one too please! Please! And thank you~~ you've made me habby!^o^
new dragon18: ooo~ ur- it WILL happen! I have to build it up a bit, but soon, soon, REALLY soon, it's gonna begin, muwhahaha!
Chibi0Dragon: I know~ Poor Naru-chan! An dit gets worse~ I'M SORRY I MADE U WAIT;-;. Here' is your more~ take it please and review~~
JadeTiger: You''ll just have to keep reading~_^ I do some things for build and suspence, but you'll see~ and Maybe Naruto will cry~ You'll have to read and see~
dark vampire: ooo~3 I was kisseid 2wice!OO! arigato gozaimasu! I hope you continue to like my story!
Anime Freak/Kichigai Ojousan: I knowU-U. Thank you~ Yay~ More intresting means more fun right? Please review~
Eikou: …is that a compliment or a complaint? I can't tell;-;
firedraygon97: Slight inkling prolly~ But I don't think he'd assume it was the kyubi inside Naruto… I dunno~ Thank you much for your compliments! Please enjoy this chapter!
oruchuban Ebichu: *glomps back* I'm so glad you like it Kami-chan^^! Hehehe~ Arigato! Soon! Everyone will start getting answers soon~~
Review please!
Chapter warnings: some Naruto OOC.
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Naruto felt his eyes opening to the warm sunlight bathing him in its rich glow. For a moment, he smiled; he knew nothing but the warm (Lumpy?) shelter of his bed and covers. The lumpiness and general *broken* feeling to it worried him slightly. 'Perhaps I should stop jumping on it…' he thought, turning over. Hugging the soft pillow (not as soft as it used to be. Is some stuffing missing?), the fact that he should be meeting with his team, and that something was seriously wrong was just out of his conscious thinking range.
'No, it was a bad dream—see? I was asleep! I'm in my bed! That means it didn't happen and I just dreamed it! …It does!' the twelve-year-old didn't want to contemplate that he was arguing with a silent voice inside his head. One that just screamed "issues!". And he didn't want to get up—he hurt. His knees and fingers stung and were sore as if had been… picking up…glass… Blue eyes deep as the ocean shut tight, refusing to open. 'It didn't happen! It's just impression from my dream! I wasn't picking up glass!'
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Kakashi looked up from the last part of the last he had assigned himself. From the shift in chakra he could tell Naruto had woken up. But there were threads of pain and sadness expressed in the boy's aura too. The gray haired teacher wondered if it would be a good idea to lave the boy alone after they finished.
Turning his attentions back to the bits of uncooked Ramen, spilled milk, vegetables and breads, Kakashi allowed his thoughts to drift.
On the other side of the room, Sakura wasn't faring much better in her wandering thoughts. One side of her seemed to think it was all Naruto's fault that his place was destroyed and that HE got out of it when SHE had to get dirty cleaning HIS mess!
But the other side argued that it wasn't Naruto's fault. People just seemed to not like him—didn't it make sense that, if they were going to attack him, why not attack his home? She had to remind herself Naruto was in pain, that he wasn't faking. His home had been destroyed. Wouldn't she feel the same if her home had been vandalized?
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Around noon Kakashi stopped the two workers and told them to go home for lunch and to come back afterwards. He conveniently left out that he wanted to talk to Naruto alone. Sasuke left, but his eyes were narrowed with suspicion. Kakashi turned, when they were out of sight, and went into Naruto's room. Thankfully, that door had been left relatively intact. The interior of the small bedroom wasn't much better than the outer room. The window was smashed, glass littering the floor, scrolls were torn to shreds and lie like confetti on the dirt and blood stained floor. The glass was tinted red. Sheets had been shredded, as were any spare clothes the boy had owned. The bed they had laid Naruto on had stab punctures and was obviously broken like it had been hit with giant mallets. The one salvageable sheet was wrapped tightly around the figure on the lumpy bed. He was clutching the white sheet tightly in his small fists, and shivering.
Kakashi's stare did not waver; even as he sat down next to Naruto and realized he was crying.
There was silence for a few moments in which Naruto desperately wished his sensei would leave. And the said sensei was contemplating what to say.
"Hmm… do you know who did it?" No reply.
"Do you know why they did it?" no reply—though one eye opened to give him a blank look.
"What are you going to do?" There was a small movement under the sheets.
"You're not going to leave are you?" The blond shook his head.
"Of course not!" he cried, sitting up quickly. His eyes were closed and he was half pouting/half scowling. The taller male his face a smile.
"That's what I thought." Naruto's pout/scowl face melted into a full pout because he realized he had been tricked. For a moment he just stared at Kakashi through closed eyes.
"EH, what is it!? I was sleeping!" Lie one.
"You were?"
"Yes!" Lie two.
"Oh well." It didn't matter to him.
"I… guess I have to finish cleaning first… then I'll figure out how to get some food." Naruto said at length, face turned towards had been scrolls.
"Aren't you going to go to Hokage-sama?"
"He already knows about this." Came the whispered response.
"He does?" An eyebrow raised. Naruto nodded.
"He knows everything that happens around me. I'm always being watched by him."
"Ah… I see.
Do you think he knows(who did it)?" Naruto shrugged, "How am I supposed to
know?" a closed eyes glare.
"You're
not. Hup!" The jounin stood fluidly and scratched the back of his head before
dropping his arm. "How about some lunch?"
"There's food left? Is it my ramen? Miso? Pork? Beef~?" the blond asked now sitting Indian style with his hands tucked in his lap and his face torn by a wide vulpine smile, eyes closed.
"Eh, hm… I don't think any food survived. But I'll take you to Ichiraku for lunch."
"Honto!?"
"Hai. But I'm not paying."
"Urk…"
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**Sasuke POV**
I saw Kakashi sensei leading Naurto out of the entrance to the large building of rooms and flats, they went a direction I don't usually go—towards the small cluster of food stands and clothes shops [1]. It's a distraction, and an obvious one. The anger and anguish was rolling off the boy in waves, and what better way to distract Naruto but to feed him or throw a mission in his face?
My face was schooled as normal—nothing showed. But I feel a bit irritated. Sensei told us to come back and work when he's just taking the dobe out to eat. I didn't feel like going back to Naruto's home by myself, and it would be no use going back home because I didn't know how long the two would be gone.
So I followed them.
I reasoned it that I might learn something about this whole mess by listening to Kakashi talk to the baka about the incident. There was no other reason, the concern you think I might be feeling is all in your head—it really is. In my head… no! I'm just curious! I want to know about the whole "Kyuubi" subject. I want to know why. Why destroy his house? Why threaten him? Why Naruto? He's one of the least threatening people I've ever met, so why would someone(s?) want him to leave under pain of death? So many questions I have unresolved, unanswered.
I am pretty sure Kakashi realized I was behind them pretty much as soon as I began heading after them. He never looked behind him, never curved the conversation to less revealing topics (not that I learned anything except that miso ramen was the flavor Naruto ate practically everyday).
Ichiraku
was a Ramen stand I'd not visited before, never really having the interest in
the noodles' flavors or texture. It wasn't a surprise that the people running
it knew Naruto by name—given the number of crushed instant ramen cups we found
around his apartment and the occasional deceleration of his love or want of the
timely cooked food, or how he wanted to visit Iruka-sensei so the man could buy
him ramen at this very stand.
I find a
seat at a bench not too far away; I can only just make out what they are
saying. Which is good, I don't want to be obvious, and the people around me
milling about in their own lives help disguise my presence as well. At the
moment the two are just ordering what they want, and making small talk. I watch
some women who were probably out shopping talk to each other, whisper and sneer
in hushed voices. I am looking at them, so I didn't notice who they were being
so cruel to secretly, till one of the two—a tall woman with dark hair in a
short braid with a plain brown and tan skirt, and dark blue tunic tucked into
it tied off with a silver-plated chain belt—pointed, quite openly, across from
me.
Naruto.
That rude woman is pointing at Naruto, which meant that they are talking about him. I can feel my indifferent mask waver in confusion as if my own feelings weren't sure where they were supposed to go, or what to change to. Annoyance? Anger? Cruel agreement? Rage? I'm not sure, so I shove it all aside, I will not reveal anything. My black eyes roam back to Naruto, who a moment ago was talking loudly to Kakashi and slurping his noodles hungrily, is now stiff and tense. Kakashi's body reveals no such feelings, no difference in how he's sitting—he's still very relaxed. Then again very few things seem to perturb our sensei, and I would have thought it a little cold his lack of physical reaction to such open cruelty.
But I cannot judge. What am I doing if not being cold myself? I feel my face screw up at that, by eyebrows furrow. Damn that Naruto! I shouldn't be worrying about whether or not I was being cold to him, and I shouldn't have followed him out here! Even my thoughts are getting heated, and I was just thinking I was being cold!
I stand up at this point, while I was thinking, Kakashi had drawn Naruto into a discussion and two large ramen bowls were already stacked to the side. I could barely hear them above the people and the rush of thoughts echoing in my ears. Inwardly I cursed myself, 'This is stupid. I came here to learn whatever Naruto would say, and I cannot even hear him. Damn it.'
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**No POV**
Sakura had started to wander after lunch, as she didn't want to directly go back to Naruto's house. In her hands she held a small cardboard cut out. She had found it by where Sasuke had been cleaning, and when he stood up to leave for lunch; it had fallen out of one of the pockets of his white shorts. It was that fox cut out Kakashi named as one of the things Naruto was supposed to find. Yet… Sasuke still had it… it bothered her and she didn't know why.
'I bet he doesn't even know he lost it…' Sakura thought, trying to bring some logical reason as to why Sasuke would have kept such a useless piece of material. Her feet were slowly brining her towards Naruto's apartment complex, as she knew that the mission wasn't over, even if she wanted it to be.
"Hey!"
"Come
here!"
"…and…. that way!"
"Her apartment… going down!"
Sakura stopped her almost aimless walking and looked up from her directed gaze.
'What's going on?'
People were suddenly rushing about her, yelling and generally panicking. Helpfully, no one decided to stop and tell the young shinobi girl what was going on, so it was by luck that she looked right, and straight up. Apparently she had reached Naruto's building. Blue eyes opened far wide with panic, and in her confused panicked state she wasted a whole five minutes staring.
"Oh God…." 'I have to find Naruto!'
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There was a loud ruckus being created not far from where Naruto, Kakashi, and Sasuke were. People were yelling loudly and running this way and that, it was all very hectic and any answer asked for was incoherent and mixed up. Panic and tension hummed through the air, and words were being thrown right and left to everyone. Shops were closing and the owners running out of them and in a familiar direction. Amongst the panic of the populace, a single recognizable shape and voice reached the three confused shinobi.
"Kakashi-sensei!!!"
Sakura screeched as she came into view of them. "Taihen desu*! Taihen desu
Kakashi-sensei!" she dodged a random man calling for his wife or maybe his
daughter and stood in front of him.
"What's going on, Sakura?" he asked, calm, but tense. Sasuke made his way across the small dirt street to stop next to his teacher. Naruto looked at him surprised for a second, before focusing on Sakura.
"Sakura-chan! What is it?!"
"N-Naruto- it's your apartment! Come quick! Hayaku!!" with those words of no description she turned on her toes and sprinted back the way she came, confident that they were following her faithfully. Back where he stood Naruto blanched. His apartment? What more could happen to it?! Without another thought the mentally anguished blond ran after the quickly disappearing girl.
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...He couldn't believe it. He couldn't. It just wasn't possible!
Thick, choking black smoke rose threateningly out of the far right side of the building. It looked as if the room inside had exploded, and the smoke had been freed. Naruto stood still, staring up at the building his home had been in. His skin was the whitest it had ever been, as if bathed by a sudden moonlight. The whisker marks on his face seemed all the darker.
"No…!" he ignored the chain of men and women passing buckets up and down a line leading to a large reservoir. He ignored the strangled gasps of Sasuke and Kakashi as they too witnessed what Naruto now saw.
Fire.
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DONE! Good God! I never thought I'd finish it! I'm so sorry about the lateness!
… My beta had problems. It happens. Life is full of shit and I'm in a bad mood. Whatever.
Please review. I'm already
working on the next chapter, but ya never know how fast a snail can go when
kicked…