Finally the plot thickens a wee bit. I know this is all going slowly, sorry if it bothers you.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters (though that would be nice…like I always lose my keys…I could get Kakashi to summon his dogs to find my keys and all would be well…)
SPOILERS: If you have not been keeping up with the manga and you do not want any inkling of spoilers, you may not want to read. But it is up to you.
* * * * *
Run From You
By Doskoipanda
Chapter 4: Foreboding
Sasuke twirled a shuriken on his finger, contemplating the weapon-studded target before him. He had missed three times, extremely unusual for him.
In one fluid motion, he whirled and hurled his weapon at the door. Gaara caught the shuriken on his finger, lounging nonchalantly against the doorframe.
"I was here for five seconds." Gaara flipped the throwing blade back at Sasuke and slouched into the room. "You must be off today."
"Something like that." Sasuke grunted as he sheathed the shuriken and waited for Gaara to come up to him. "What are you doing in Konoha?"
"Escorting the delegates." Gaara came to a halt. "But we also had to deliver a message to your jounin."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "I don't work in the office, I'm ANBU."
"This message pertains to you especially." Gaara smiled one of his rare, rather sinister smiles. "So I thought I'd give it to you personally."
Bemused, Sasuke nodded. Gaara handed him a small scroll. "We found two of Orochimaru's men." The sand ninja motioned for Sasuke to open the scroll. "We took care of one, but the other escaped."
Sasuke's fingers wrinkled the parchment as his hand tightened. Though Orochimaru had been taken care of last year, his disbanded followers still roamed the land, trying to carry out his last wishes. There were warrants out for them in every country, so it was not easy for them to hide, but they were extremely dangerous individuals, so they were not easy to capture.
"The one that escaped is powerful, but his mind snapped after Orochimaru was killed. He may or may not be a threat." Gaara continued. "He's headed this way."
Sasuke nodded. There were plenty of jounin here; now that they were properly warned, they would be able to take care of one rogue shinobi. Unjou Kogaku, he read. Age: 39. Weight: 130 lbs. Height: 162 cm. Abilities: Unknown. Origin: Sound Country. "I never saw this one," he muttered, addressing Gaara without looking at him. "Do you know his patterns, techniques?"
"No." Gaara's eyes narrowed. "His partner did all the attacking when we encountered them. We were not able to see his jutsu."
"Pity." Sasuke rolled up the parchment. Then, seeing as Gaara did not say anything nor make a move to leave, he raised an eyebrow inquisitively. Gaara was smiling slightly.
"That's the end of the official report," he told Sasuke. "But there's something else that I thought you'd be interested in."
"Really?" The Uchiha walked up to the target he'd been practicing on and began to remove the weapons imbedded in it. "Like what?"
"He's after Uzumaki."
Gaara's smile widened only slightly as he watched Sasuke's shoulders tense. "How do you know that?" Sasuke asked softly.
"By what his partner said." Gaara turned away and began to walk to the door. "She yelled at him to continue on to Konoha, to find Uzumaki, and then died before saying why."
Sasuke did not say anything, and Gaara did not turn around again. But the Sand ninja did pause before stepping over the threshold. "Whatever they want from him, it can't be good for either of you," he said over his shoulder. "It's Orochimaru, after all."
After Gaara left, Sasuke simply stared at the target before him, the straw doll that vaguely resembled a man. His eyes focused on the doll's left shoulder, just below the neck.
His eyes suddenly glowed with the fire of the Sharingan. I will not let you touch us anymore, Orochimaru, he vowed. You are dead, and you will stay that way.
The last member of the Uchiha clan turned and proudly stalked from the room, clutching a cold hand to the left side of his neck.
* * * * * * * *
Iruka dumped his bag onto the floor, turned swiftly and locked the door to the apartment. After a moment's thought, he threw the bolt as well. He usually did not lock his door and the act felt alien to him, but whatever protection he could offer to Naruto, he would.
He moved through the living room to the kitchen and dining area, intending to lock the window as well. He was so jumpy that when Naruto addressed him, he leapt two feet and instantly pulled out some kunai from his leg pouch.
"Hey Iruka-sensei…" Naruto's eyes squinted up as he tried to puzzle out what demons disturbed his sensei now, then gave up and turned back to the steaming pan in front of him. "Curry ok?"
"Yes….great…" Iruka said weakly, cursing inwardly. He had been so determined to act normal so that Naruto would not begin to guess what was bothering him, but so much for that. Well, Naruto was always slow on the uptake, so hopefully he wouldn't notice.
Iruka continued to the window and put his hand to the bolt.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Naruto said distractedly, reaching for some salt. "Kakashi-sensei won't be able to get in."
"Oh, you're right." Iruka laughed as he turned away from the window. Then he stiffened and said in a much altered voice "I mea—what? Why would Kakashi try to get in?"
"To see you, of course." Naruto's brows knit together as he stirred his concoction.
"Wh…why would you think he'd want to come here if he wanted to see me?" Iruka tried to laugh but failed miserably.
There was a great hiss and Naruto cursed. Then he smiled in relief and took the pan off the stove. "Well, he's been coming in for the past three months, right? If you lock the window—"
"HOW ON EARTH DO YOU KNOW THAT?????" Iruka screamed, pointing at Naruto. The blonde ninja sighed. "Iruka-sensei, I'm not blind, ya know? And you really should be more open about it, you've been together for a year now—"
"HOW ON EARTH DO YOU KNOW THAT?????" Iruka's face was dead white, making the scar over his nose much more prominent. Naruto sighed again as he poured the curry over some leftover rice. "To tell the truth, I think the whole village knows," he said unfeelingly.
There was a loud thump behind him. Naruto figured that his sensei had fainted, but he was wrong; Iruka had sunk into a chair and was staring straight ahead at nothing.
"Kami-sama." The older man breathed. Naruto grinned as he opened the top of a cup ramen and began to pour hot water into it. "You can just call me Naruto, you know," he said lightly.
When Iruka didn't respond, Naruto rolled his eyes. "Iruka-sensei, get over it. If you act as if it's a bad thing, I'M gonna think it's a bad thing, ya know."
"Do you, though?" Naruto opened his eyes a crack to behold his teacher staring almost pleadingly at him. "Because I…we can—"
Naruto snorted. "If I really didn't like it, I would have told you a year ago." He brought his ramen and Iruka's dinner over to the table and sat down. "Itadakimasu."
Iruka repeated the phrase automatically, but didn't eat. He had been so sure that he had been treading carefully around Naruto…and Naruto wasn't the most perceptive person—
"Are you ashamed of him?"
Brown eyes met blue. "What?" Iruka asked, though he'd heard the question.
"Are you ashamed of him?" Naruto was pointing his chopsticks at Iruka as if accusing him. "And don't give me bullshit," he added as an afterthought.
Steam rose off the forgotten food as silence filled the room. Iruka's gaze had dropped to his curry after Naruto's question, but now he raised his eyes and locked them on Naruto's face, as if assuring the blonde shinobi that every word he spoke was true.
"It would be a lie to say that I'm perfectly comfortable with it." There was an almost abashed tone in Iruka's voice, yet his gaze didn't waver. "But it's nothing compared to how I feel about Kakashi…how much I care about him." His voice grew stronger. "And even if the entire village laughed at me, I wouldn't give him up. I wouldn't be able to." Naruto noticed that Iruka's fists clenched. "But it's different with you, Naruto. You're with me now…and the last thing I want is for you to be jeered at or hurt because of my wants and needs." Naruto's eyes widened, while Iruka's closed. "No. I'm not ashamed of him. But if it bothers yo—"
"I said don't bullshit me!" Naruto slammed his chopsticks on the table. "I said that if I didn't like it, I would have told you! I mean, why do you always have to have my goddamn approval? You're human too!"
A half-smile tugged at the corners of Iruka's mouth. "I'm sorry, Naruto," he said quietly. "I should have trusted you."
"Damn straight." Naruto's eyes closed as he dug into his ramen in a huff. Iruka smiled, then picked up his own chopsticks and began to work on his fish-cake curry. Naruto could cook, but he was adamant about using ramen ingredients in non-ramen foods. It was just something that Iruka had to deal with.
Naruto finished long before Iruka, but he didn't clear his place right away as usual. Instead, he folded his arms on the table and rested his head on them, musing in a very un-Naruto-like way. A wave of worry and fear suddenly made the food in Iruka's mouth turn to ashes as he remembered the warning from the Sand Country.
Why were people always after Naruto? Couldn't they leave well enough alone? Was the fact that he shared the power of a demon fox enough to mark him for the rest of his days? Would he never know what it meant to be perfectly ordinary—
"Ano sa, Iruka-sensei." Naruto's voice broke through Iruka's panicked fretting. Despite the ball of worry lodged in his throat, he managed to swallow his current mouthful and answer coherently. "Yes?"
"What does it feel like to be in love?"
The unexpected question made the ball drop into Iruka's stomach. He set his chopsticks down and took a long drink of water before answering.
"It's like….for me, it's like I have a new body. A fresh body that feels softer, so that everything in my life feels sharper and newer to me. All the good stuff, all the pain, it's amplified. I think it's because…it's like my heart got bigger because it became one with his. With Kakashi's, I mean." He added, as if it wasn't obvious.
"Kakashi doesn't have a heart." Naruto mused, thinking of his former teacher's One Thousand Years of Pain jutsu.
"Hey—" Iruka began hotly. The younger man smiled. "But if he takes yours…it's certainly big enough for two."
The jounin blushed, but the color faded rapidly from his face as he watched Naruto's eyes glaze over, watched him sink back into a reverie that looked troubled and turbulent.
"You know," Iruka looked down at his almost-empty plate. "Kakashi waited a long time to tell me how he felt. I wish he hadn't." He stole a glance at Naruto. "If you want to tell someone how you feel, I don't think you should hold back."
There was no response, which was surprising enough, but when Iruka lifted his head to look at his student, he was unprepared for the face that greeted him, a face completely devoid of expression save an intense alarm glowing in the blue depths of Naruto's eyes.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Naruto said in a much-too-controlled voice.
Iruka was only stunned for a moment. Then he sighed inwardly. So it's true, then, Kakashi.
Taking advantage of the silence, Naruto pushed himself up roughly and moved to the window. "I'll be outside," he said over his shoulder as he slid the glass back and leaped out into the night.
Iruka came back to reality in a hurry and jumped up to drag him back, but was blocked by Kakashi's body, perched on the sill. He and Naruto must have passed each other in the air.
"It's ok," the silver-haired jounin assured the nearly panic-stricken Iruka. "Sasuke's down there." He hopped down from the window and brushed himself off, expecting an explosion of some sort from Iruka. After hearing nothing, he looked up.
Iruka had turned away and was staring at Naruto's empty ramen cup. Kakashi watched him for a minute, then stepped close to him and enfolded him in his arms from behind. "What?" he asked.
"You were right." Iruka closed his eyes and brought his hand up to grip one of Kakashi's. "You were right about Naruto."
"I tend to be with this kind of thing." Kakashi's grip tightened, became more possessive. "Does it bother you?"
"That's not it." Iruka sighed. "I think he's in pain about it. That hurts me." His hand left Kakashi's and rose higher, stretching up to the covered face.
"I thought it would be simpler between them." Kakashi paused and instinctively closed his eyes as Iruka's fingers hooked over the top of his face mask and dragged it down to his neck. "But Sasuke's making this hard for himself. Hard for Naruto, too." He breathed out a small sigh. "Or, I might have been wrong in his case."
Iruka's hand trailed slowly down Kakashi's face, then dropped back down. "I hope you're not," he whispered. Kakashi didn't answer, didn't reassure him, but simply pressed his cheek against Iruka's, cradling the brown-haired jounin in his embrace and letting him lean against his chest.
What will it take for Sasuke and Naruto to know this joy, Iruka thought sadly. Could the maze of walls and barriers between them be broken? Or were they doomed to fall off the thin bridge between love and hate, and never find their way back?
* * * * * * * *
When Naruto's feet touched the ground, a shadow darted forward. Naruto's hand automatically flashed to his leg pouch, but he relaxed as he recognized the chakra.
Sasuke didn't leave the cover of the tree he stood under, but the moon's light filtering through the leaves dappled him with bits of white. His eyes were glowing red.
"What's with the Sharingan?" Naruto asked. "Can't see in the dark?"
"I'm practicing." Sasuke answered coolly. It was something he'd do, so Naruto didn't ask further. But Sasuke was trying to see as well as he could in the dark. Not all abilities were visible, and a skilled shinobi would be able to do a lot under the cover of night.
"Hmph." Naruto's eyes squinted up. "Go practice somewhere else."
"No thanks."
"Fine. Asshole." Naruto vaulted up into the tree and began to head for the forest, spring-boarding off other trees to reach a thicker canopy. He could hear Sasuke not too far behind him. All right, he thought. I can deal with you.
Like the flirtatious frolicking of the wind, Naruto led Sasuke on a merry dance through Konoha's abundant foliage, jumping lightly from tree to tree without much effort. He enjoyed doing this. It made him feel like a creature of the forest, wild and free. And somewhere deep inside him, he knew of another being that enjoyed the sensation of roaming through the deep night just for the hell of it.
After ten minutes of mindless jumping, though, Naruto's feeling of freedom was giving way to utter annoyance. He scowled in anger and dove to the ground. Sasuke followed him down and leaned casually against a tree trunk, standing just out of reach, Sharingan still glowing hotly.
"Why the hell are you following me around!?" Naruto's temper reached breaking point. Sasuke shrugged, knowing it would further irritate the blonde shinobi. "I'm bored." He said.
"You just get sick pleasure out of messing with me." Naruto sneered. "Get lost."
Sasuke said nothing. Naruto glared at him for a few more seconds, then flopped into a cross-legged position on the forest floor. "Stuck-up bastard." He shot at Sasuke.
"Usura tonkachi."
Naruto's organs roiled in anger, but for lack of a better comeback, he stuck out his tongue at the quiet Uchiha.
A smile suddenly flashed across Sasuke's face. It startled Naruto so much that all his anger dissipated instantly. "What?" he asked.
Sasuke had instantly tried to drop the smile, but the corners of his mouth kept twitching threateningly. "What? Is there something on my face?" Naruto had risen to his feet. The black-haired shinobi shook his head, still trying to contain his grin. "You're so…" he muttered.
"I'm so…what?" Naruto asked defensively.
"Childish."
But the word had come out softly, almost affectionately. As if Sasuke liked Naruto this way, as if it was his fond delight that Naruto had not lost the immature if not enthusiastic spitfire he was known for in his youth.
It was moments like these that Naruto both cherished and despised, the moments where Sasuke would lose his disdainful exterior and show him emotion other than scorn and anger. Things like laughter. Happiness.
And something that felt far too good to be true.
The silence between them now felt too much like that warm silence they'd shared so many nights ago under a glorious moon. Naruto hated it. Loved it. And was so deeply, deeply afraid of it.
"What am I to you, Sasuke?" Naruto asked softly.
The Uchiha tensed, all mirth gone from his face. "What?"
"What am I to you?" Naruto repeated, locking his vividly blue eyes with Sasuke's black ones and holding them for a long moment. Blue sky meeting deep midnight. Aside from the gentle chuckling of a nearby river, there was no sound between them.
And when Sasuke didn't answer, Naruto let his eyes close. "Just get lost," he said curtly. "I can't deal with your crap."
Naruto leaped back into the trees and began traveling back towards his home. This time, Sasuke did not follow, for the heavy weight of fear was spreading through his chest once more, had extended its force through his limbs and anchored him to the ground.
He had to stop this. For both of them.
* * * * * * *
"So that's it," a thin, sickly voice rasped. The speaker watched the young man with glowing red eyes take to the canopy before emerging from the river he was submerged in. The water flowing around his body camouflaged his chakra to a point, so his target would not have noticed him if he attacked with the proper speed. He had been ready, his nerves finely turned to the young man carrying the great Nine-tails, he was about to lash out from the water with the speed of a cobra's strike.
But when the Uchiha had arrived, he could do nothing. He had heard the tales of the young man's prowess, and he knew better than to attack directly. It was his business to know such things because he was a master of stealth and covert assassinations.
He was a wisp of a man, thin and pale, limbs trembling. The protector across his forehead seemed too large for its purpose, his bloodshot eyes glowed pink as his nose twitched in a rodent-like fashion.
And he was mad. Strings of slobber fell constantly from his lips, and he uttered small, nervous laughs at random moments. He tottered as the chakra prepared for attacking left him, too weak and hungry to stand properly. He hadn't eaten in days.
He, Unjou Kogaku, was the last stronghold of the Village of Sound, or so he constantly reassured himself. It was up to him to carry out Orochimaru-sama's plans. Never mind that he was sick, he was a brilliant man. Orochimaru-sama had said it himself many a time, that Kogaku was vital to his back-up plan if something was to go wrong.
Tears rose in Kogaku's eyes. His leader…his mentor had much confidence in him. And now he was dead. Dead!
Kogaku knew that he had fallen into madness when the news of Orochimaru's death had come to him, but he had nursed himself back to complete health. Yes, he was fine! And when the Village of Sound had met for the last time to carry out Orochimaru-sama's back-up plan, he had told himself to be strong, for his leader's sake. He absolutely had to carry out the mission, especially now that his companion had fallen to the Sand shinobi on their way to Konoha.
Kogaku didn't care very much about that. True, the woman with him would have helped because he was so physically weak, but everyone knew that his jutsu was unstoppable. He didn't need anyone, probably even Orochimaru-sama had been slightly afraid of his power. His cracked, dry lips spread out as he grinned and savored this colorful fantasy. Yes, even the great Orochimaru-sama had respected Unjou Kogaku!
Suddenly, the great Kogaku whirled and plunged back into the river, dragging his hands alongside the banks and clawing at the soft mud. He let out a cry of delight and raised his fist high, a small frog clenched in his grip.
Dinner.
And as he bit into the slimy, wriggling flesh, he pondered what he'd seen tonight. He knew that his target, Uzumaki, was the Uchiha's companion, but their comradeship seemed to go beyond that. Did Orochimaru-sama know of this?
Well, it didn't matter much as far as the plan went. Kogaku swallowed and dropped the bones of the hapless amphibian into the water. If he was right, he might be able to manipulate Uchiha into compliance instead of…
No. Why should he? Uchiha was afraid of him too, just like everyone else was. Just like everyone else! Kogaku could handle him! And once he had, he could finish the mission alone and watch the others writhe in jealousy and deference to him. Ragged laughter escaped from his throat as he basked in his future glory. He would complete his plan regarding Uzumaki, and he would deal with Uchiha alone, unaided, glorious.
Kogaku stood absolutely still, the water flowing around him enveloping him in a cushion of cold support. He sighed happily, then began to cast about again.
If there was one frog, there must be more.
* * * * * * *
Hm. Things are getting interesting. Or are they? Maybe I am just hoping. ^__^
Thanks for reading, please review!
