Once again, the reviews were quite wonderful. Except for one, which I have
yet to figure out if it is a flame or a request due to grammar inadequacies
and spelling errors...
Warnings: This is yaoi. It will eventually be Sasuke and Naruto, sitting in a tree, doing god knows what. Not this chapter, but it's pretty clear that I'm working for that SasuNaru pairing. OOC occurrences as well.
--
Fear and Loathing
Four days and still, there was no sign of Sasuke, Sakura or Naruto. For four days since the battle had ended, the members of 121 waited with hearts in their mouths for the three lost ninjas to come into the clearing where their camp was, but there was nothing. Kakashi had even gone out into the forest surrounding camp in order to search for them on the third day, but nothing had been found. It was almost as if they had vanished into the air, like they had been spirited away during battle.
Tension ran high, the soldiers of the 121 snapping at each other without meaning to. All felt the stress from not knowing where the three were, whether they had lived or not, whether they had been kidnapped into the embrace of the enemy or anything else that might have happened. Yet, despite the worry and the need all of them felt to various degrees to find them, there was a war to be fought and duties to carry out.
That was why at the end of the fourth day of waiting for their return, all the battalions stationed at the fifth line, point two-seven had to move out to a new camp site in order to strengthen defenses and plan a counterattack. They could not stand around for the three of them to return indefinitely, and as much as it pained the four commanding officers and the remaining nine soldiers of the 121, they broke camp to move out to a new location in order to assess total damages and formulate future plans.
--
"Hey, Sasuke," Naruto whined, trudging behind the ever silent Uchiha heir, "how the hell did you get lost so badly?"
If Sasuke had not been thinking the same thing, he would have given Naruto a very nasty piece of his mind. Truthfully, after the second day of wandering around the woods looking for signs of their camp or any tracks that could have led there, the dark haired boy had been at a loss to explain why they were so damned lost. Surely, even if they had been lost in the beginning, it should not have taken him so long to find their way back. They had been trained in tracking, tracing their paths using stars and nature, therefore it was absolutely inconceivable that they would be lost still, on their fourth day of meandering.
"Why don't you stop the damned whining and use your animal instincts to find our way back?" Sasuke stomped along ahead, not even deigning to turn his head to address his blond rival. It could not be entirely his fault that they were in this situation, wasn't the damned loud mouth also a trained ninja? "So far, all you've done is to eat most of our scrounged up food and driving me insane."
Naruto glared at Sasuke's back, clenching his fists at his side. Ever since that first night when the enigmatic dark haired boy had said he cared, the mood between them had been strained at best. The only times they communicated was to insult each other, to blame each other for some transgression or another. Yet, unlike in the past when the insults had been just a way to express their rivalry, it seemed that these sets of scathing remarks served another purpose. Just what that was, Naruto did not want to know, instinctively shrinking back from the answer that lurked just beneath the surface.
An uneasy silence fell on the three as Naruto refused to rise to the bait and retort at Sasuke using various words that mothers told their children not to use. The only sounds heard were crunching of leaves under their feet and the ghostly wind blowing through the branches. Sakura felt her shoulders sag as she walked watching Sasuke's graceful back. It seemed like all she did was watch Sasuke or listen to him and Naruto argue. Sasuke paid her no mind except to occasionally make sure that she was still there and even Naruto who had been slavish in his attention on her seemed to forget that she was with them. What the hell was wrong with those two? When had their relationship changed to the point where they saw nothing but each other, even if it was in rivalry and loathing?
As she continued her silent watch and contemplation of her crush and her annoying stalker's relationship, she blocked out the flow of the argument that inevitably started up once again between the two boys. It was just easier to ignore them as they hurled insults and names at each other than to stand between them as a moderator. Although she had never meant to be in the middle of the arguments, invariably, there she was, trying to cut through the vicious name calling and blaming, to no avail. She had given up soothing their flaring tempers and unease some time ago, opting to get lost in her own head with her private thoughts. She almost preferred the disquieting silence of their first day as lost lambs instead of this constant bickering that played her frayed nerves closer to the edge with each syllable.
"Are we really lost?" Sakura heard Naruto accuse, "because it sure seems to me like we're just fucking circling the same spot." The blond tucked his hands behind his head and carelessly let the words stream out. "Come on, genius boy, are you doing this on purpose just to piss me off or what?"
The pink haired girl let out a sigh as Sasuke tensed his shoulders and stopped walking. She knew that the boiling point had been reached, that the four days of stress, uncertainty and whatever the hell that had sprung up between the two boys were coming to a head. She wondered whether or not to interfere, if letting them have it out would relieve all the tension or it would just end up with her digging graves for the two of them.
"Why the hell would I want to be lost with you? Do I look insane to you?"
"Oh shit, you don't want me to answer that, do you?" Naruto grinned viciously at Sasuke's twitching face. "I don't see how I can answer that one-"
The blond never got to finish his appropriately insulting reply since Sasuke chose to dive at him and knock him onto the ground. Naruto barely blocked a fist coming at his face and rolled free just in time to see his dark haired rival forming a jutsu with his hands.
"Shit, Sasuke," Naruto scrabbled backwards on his hands and feet as he tried to figure out what jutsu he was about to face, "don't get so fucking serious! What the hell is the matter with you?"
"What's the matter with me?" Sasuke halted forming the jutsu and stared incredulously at the stunned blonde. "Matter with me? What about you? Why the hell can't you just leave me alone? Why are you always pissing me off?"
"That's what I do! Fuck, Sasuke, we're always fighting! What's so different now that you have to throw a ninjutsu at me?"
Sasuke breathed hard as he glared at his rival, knowing that Naruto was right. They always fought, it had been like that since the day they had been assigned to the 121. And until now, he had never been so close to losing his control, enough of it so that he had seriously tried to injure the idiot blond with a jutsu that he had not even thought to use during the battle. Why was it that Naruto got so easily under his skin now? Why the hell couldn't they go back to being rivals as they had been, instead of this new, amorphous thing they were now?
All this only because he had said something he should not have in the night. All this tension, lack of control, this confusion had happened just because something in his heart and soul decided to go insanely stupid when it came to Naruto.
"Will you two just stop this nonsense? We have better things to worry about!"
Sasuke and Naruto jerked their eyes to Sakura who had yelled with uncharacteristic fire. She stood, her head bowed and covered by her length of pink hair that had turned ragged with the passage of rough lost days, her body shaking. She had had enough, damn it, of all the tension, the arguments, everything. They were lost in the woods, they had no idea how to get out of their predicament, and all the boys could do was snipe at each other. They should have better sense than this, they had been trained for it.
"I'm sick and tired of listening to the two of you," she raged, "and I'm tired of being lost, I want to rest, I want to wash my hair. Stop this immediately!"
Naruto swallowed thickly, unwilling to show that he was shocked by her intense reaction. He was used to this, Sakura yelling at him for some transgression or another, it had been that way since he had laid his eyes on her when he was so young. But for her to show her ire to Sasuke, the one she worshipped as he worshipped her, that was downright rare. They must have been really getting on her nerves to have pushed her to the point where she could show her displeasure at Sasuke.
"I.. I apologize, Sakura, for my behavior." Sasuke looked as if he had bitten into something unpleasant, but he did not falter. "I know we should figure something out, and I know I should not let the idiot get to me." He ignored Naruto's splutter that he was certainly not the only idiot in this group. "You are the smartest one here, Sakura. Have you figured anything unusual about this?"
Surprised at Sasuke's apology and his plea for help, Sakura lifted her head to stare at the handsome face. His lips twisted in a mockery of a smile as he shrugged his shoulders carelessly, causing Sakura to smirk at his out of the ordinary actions.
"Well, I was thinking that we should not be this lost, no matter what the circumstance."
Sasuke nodded, his eyes gliding past Sakura's thoughtful face to Naruto's irate one, only to receive a sour look from the blond. Well, it wasn't his fault that all it took was one sentence from him to bring Sakura back to normal.
"Have you thought that maybe, we're not lost, but forced to be lost?"
Now, that was something Sasuke had not quite considered. From the look on Naruto's face, it had not exactly crossed his mind either.
"Who would do something like that though? I mean.. who could?"
Sakura tilted her head and considered Naruto's question carefully. In four days, they had not been attacked, had not sensed any enemy chakra or presence. That meant, either her theory was way off the edge or someone more skilled than they could ever imagine was playing with them. Someone that even Sasuke's newly awakened Sharingan could not detect.
"I think.." Sakura cleared her suddenly dry throat, "I think we're in a lot of trouble."
--
The night fell softly, deathly around the three lost ninjas, the black ink of it surrounding them with unease and danger. Ever since their conversation earlier that day, they had become unbearably tense and alert, every muscle and nerve ending twitching from anticipating the moves of this unseen foe. They did not know who it could be, how much power this person had at their disposal, and most importantly, they did not know why this was happening. Was it only they caught in this strange trap or had others of their battalion fallen into this situation as well? What in the name of nine hells was going on here?
Among the three of them, they had limited number of weapons. Naruto had two kunai, but one had either cut too closely to a bone or something equally as hard, because its edges were ragged and blunt. He had only three shuriken left, barely enough to take down one bumbling ninja, let alone someone skilled enough to have done.. whatever this was to them. Sasuke had even less weapons on him, having used his shuriken and kunai freely in his pursuit of the enemy, but Sakura had kindly relegated some of her weapons to him seeing as how she had not actually fought during the battle. Still, their weapons stash was small and they were only beginners when it came to battle, no matter how many jutsus they knew, no matter that they had survived the first encounter with the enemy.
The moon, a barely shining crescent in the sky, illuminated only enough for them to see shadows that seem to move every time they turned their heads. Even with his Sharingan, Sasuke could barely make anything out.
"I hope you're wrong, Sakura," Sasuke whispered, "because if you're right, and there is something out there, we will not make it out alive."
"Don't be such a dope!" Naruto turned to glare through the darkness at Sasuke, "we're gonna be okay. Sheesh, how can you give up before it starts?"
"Do you even live in reality, idiot?" Sasuke carefully calmed his madly twitching eyebrow, telling himself that he could not let Naruto make him angry. "If we are really in some elaborate trap, it means genjutsu. Illusion! An illusion that my Sharingan can't see. Does that mean anything to you?"
Naruto stiffened his spine and walked up to Sasuke in even measured steps. "So what if your fancy eyes can't see?" He raised his hand to shove Sasuke lightly on his shoulder, forcing the dark haired boy to step back to keep his balance. "So what if we're up against something so damned amazing that it's making you say stupid shit?" Naruto shoved his face very near Sasuke's seething one, his voice a study of fire and disappointment. "You're my rival, ain't you? You're the guy who's always supposed to be better than me? So why the fuck are you so scared? Why're ya making me yell at you, huh?"
To Naruto's absolute amazement, Sasuke began chuckling that blew itself into a full out laugh. The shorter blond backed off a bit, regarding the rare sight of Sasuke's laughing face in the wan light of the bleached out moon, not quite understanding what had happened.
"You.." Sasuke gasped, trying to catch his breath as his laughter faded, "you are downright impossible, you know that?" His dark eyes shone like onyx as he stared hard at Naruto's surprised face so shockingly near his still. "You don't get that you're supposed to be scared, do you? You don't understand that we're up against someone truly terrifying, do you?"
"So what?" Naruto crossed his arms defiantly, refusing to back away from this strange Sasuke who was laughing at him with that glint in his dark eyes.
"So.. so, I don't get you, idiot. I don't get why your stupid, brash attitude should make me feel better."
More than the laughing, more than Sasuke's earlier fear, this shocked the hell out of Naruto. Had Sasuke just said something that could qualify as nice.. to him? Even if seventy percent of it was insulting?
"Oh, how lovely," came a disembodied voice to shatter this little moment, "two friends who are so disgustingly sweet to watch."
Instantly, all of Sasuke's laughter and Naruto's shock evaporated like water on a hot skillet, only leaving alert and ready ninjas in its wake. The red flare of the Sharingan came back to life in Sasuke's eyes, the dark dots surrounding his pupils circling madly in search for the body that went with the voice.
Sakura found herself between Sasuke and Naruto the second the voice had rung out into the woods, her body protected by the two boys from either side. Her hands trembled lightly, but then again, why should not she be scared? Whoever was out there, he was much more powerful than all three of them.
"Hey, Sasuke, you see anything?" Even though Naruto might have belittled the Sharingan before, he knew for a fact that the best chance they had lay in his rival's inherited eyes.
"How sad." The creepy voice started again, coming from all directions. "The little blond ninja can't do anything without the eyes of the Uchiha. How incredibly sad."
"Ignore it, Naruto," Sakura said gently, "you know better than letting that get to you."
A slithering laughter echoed in the night, making Naruto tense more and Sasuke's search more frantic. Where was this guy?
"How sweet, the encouragement from the pretty, useless girl. You three have been quite funny, but very sad. None of you can even see this jutsu, not even you, possessor of the Sharingan." Another round of icy chuckling followed, the sound made colder by the night and the shifting shadows. "I'm so very disappointed, my dear last of the Uchiha, my dear brother."
Sasuke stopped breathing, his eyes stopped scanning as he finally recognized the intense, frightening voice in the wind. Brother.
"Itachi.." The hated name escaped his numbed lips before he could think, earning him a sharp look from Naruto. He did not notice the look nor that he had dropped the kunai he had in his hand. The only thing he knew was that his brother was out there, taunting him, letting him know that even now, after he had grown and trained, he was no match for the brother he had so admired and then hated.
--
Something smelled terribly wrong, like rotten eggs buried deep beneath the earth. Not that it was an actual tangible smell, more of a feeling nagging at the back of his head, but nevertheless, something was definitely wrong. Kakashi narrowed his visible eye, his arms at his sides unconsciously reaching for shuriken in his pouch, as he tried to figure out just what was so damned wrong that his senses were going haywire.
Maybe he was just out of sorts because of the missing members of the 121, but he doubted it. The feeling, this smell that seemed to ripple in his brain, screamed danger, the kind that dripped blood and caused nightmares. He had not felt something like this since he was a young man, just barely trained in the arts of the ninja, facing a foe that had nearly killed him. That had been what, eight years ago? He was one of the best Konoha, if not the world, had to offer now, and yet, that terrifying feeling from eight years ago was tickling at the edges of his consciousness.
"Damn it, get yourself together, Kakashi," he muttered, admonishing his foolishly distracted self from dwelling on the fear grabbing hold of him. If something was so damned wrong, then he would go check it out, not sit here and contemplate it to death. However, he would not go alone, he was not an idiot after all.
He hoped Kurenai or Asuma would be up for some scouting based solely upon his gut feeling, because however antsy he was to check out this thing nagging him, there was no way in hell he'd ask Gai. He'd rather burn his precious book first.
--
Naruto spat blood pooling in his mouth out onto the ground, coughing to return some oxygen into his lungs. Everything hurt so badly, from his head kicked so swiftly and violently to his left ankle that he knew was broken. Barely supporting his pain wracked body with his arms, he tried to stand, but his amazing healing abilities had not yet caught up to the damage dealt to him by the one Sasuke had called Itachi.
His blue eyes swiveled to the prone and unmoving form of Sakura who laid only a couple of feet away from him. If it were not for her chest moving shallowly, he would have thought her dead. When the attack had come at them so suddenly and from a direction he still could not discern, Sakura had been the first to go, one hit to her face enough to knock her out completely. Not that he had fared any better, for in the next second, he had been on the ground, tasting copper and feeling pain like he'd never experienced.
Slight shift of his eyes brought Sasuke into his line of vision, and what he saw dropped his already drumming heart into his feet. In the low light of the moon, he saw Sasuke held against a tree by his throat, his feet dangling off the ground by a good foot. The dark haired boy was clawing at the hand holding him, his face twisted into an expression so hateful and fierce that Naruto thought that maybe he was looking at someone else.
"Hold on a sec," Naruto gasped as he forced his body to move, "I'll be right there, so don't you give up, you asshole."
Sasuke did not hear Naruto's encouragement, did not even notice that the injured blonde was basically crawling towards him and his brother. All his eyes could see was the face that had plagued his nightmares and revenge fantasies for eight years, smiling grotesquely at him. His brother had changed, he noted absently; he had grown taller, broader, and startlingly, more like their father.
"Dear, dear brother," Itachi murmured, "is this all you have to offer?"
Gods, if only he could breathe. If only his limbs would obey him, then Itachi would be nothing more than a bad memory. But he could not move more than his hands tearing at the strong grip at his throat, could not voice the rage that gurgled in his head. Damn him, Sasuke could only seethe, damn him to the nine hells that spawned him.
"Your Sharingan is incomplete, my younger brother," his brother taunted, "only three dots total. Not nearly enough to touch me, let alone kill me."
Suddenly, Sasuke felt air invade his lungs as Itachi threw him, almost too casually, into Naruto who had almost made it to them. He felt his body crash into the blonde's and they skidded in a tangle of limbs and new pain on the ground.
"All this effort just to see if you were fit, and you only disappoint." Itachi drawled, walking towards the fallen pair on silent feet. "I sacrificed most of my reserve forces just for you, brother dear, and you are not nearly ready. Are you truly the avenger you claim to be? How long must I wait for you, little brother?"
Sasuke raised his head to watch Itachi approach. He could see the Sharingan in his brother's eyes, so much like his yet so different, glowing like heated steel in the dark. They were so much more frightening than the ones he saw in his dreams, held more power than he had thought possible. What could he do, as he was, against his brother who had always been so much better at everything than he? What could he do against this one man who had had the power to slaughter every member of the Uchiha clan eight years ago, save him?
His hands fisted in the earth, railing at him for his inability to do anything. He had sworn vengeance against Itachi all those years ago, but now that he was faced with his brother, all he could do was lay on the ground, looking up at the face so eerily like his, unable to get up.
'So this is it,' Sasuke gritted his teeth, 'this is the end, how I will die.'
He turned his head in shame, unable to face his brother walking towards him, unable to swallow the thick taste of humiliation, and his eyes fell on Naruto groaning back to life next to him.
"Idiot," Sasuke smiled sadly, "stay down. It'll be easier."
But as always, Naruto would not listen. Sneering around the blood staining his mouth, he wobbled to his feet, wincing when his broken ankle caught awkwardly on the stony ground, but he stood. Then he held out his hand for Sasuke who only stared up at him in disbelief.
"Sasuke, you bastard," the blonde grated, "get the fuck up. We ain't dead yet."
Itachi stopped in his advance to consider the stubborn ninja with blazing blue eyes and the wild golden hair. If anything, the boy had guts, but still, that would not be enough to defeat him.
"Amusing.. very amusing to see that you can't admit defeat."
"Shut up, bastard!" Naruto turned his eyes away from Itachi's sardonic smirk and his coldly gleaming eyes to look down on Sasuke. How many times had he dreamed that he would be the one standing over Sasuke, that he would be the one to save his rival from certain doom like heroes were supposed to do? He had dreamed it so often that he lost count, but damn it, it was not supposed to be this way. In reality, the Sasuke he knew would never ask for help, need help, from someone like him. In reality, the Sasuke he knew would be on his feet, ready to face whatever enemy that came at him.
He just had to make sure Sasuke went back to what he was supposed to be.
"Hey, Sasuke, get up. Let's fuck this guy up, yeah?"
"Naruto, you idiot," Sasuke half laughed, "do you even know who we're up against?" A hysterical edge cut into his soft voice like glass shards in flesh. "Of course not. Why would you? You're just an idiot who can't understand anything."
"Yeah, you're right. I am an idiot and I don't understand anything."
Sasuke watched in unabashed awe as a smile dawned on Naruto's face, his eyes shining bluer than the summer sky and somehow brightening the suffocating night around them. It was a smile filled with faith and belief, a smile that warmed him throughout his body, chasing away the crippling fear and shame that had filled every nook and cranny of his system.
"I may be an idiot," Naruto continued through that blinding smile, "but you ain't. You're the best at everything, right? You always succeed, right? Why should it be any different now?"
'How do you do that,' Sasuke wondered as he reached out his hand towards the one Naruto had extended earlier, 'how the hell can you change me like this with just a smile and words?'
When Sasuke stood by his side, Naruto turned his head to the enemy ahead of them, standing with that damnable smirk still present on his face. He felt Sasuke do the same, concentrating on Itachi, but as much as he was lost in assessing the enemy, he did not fail to notice that Sasuke had yet to let go of his hand.
"So, we're going to take him down."
"Damn straight," Naruto grinned savagely and tightened the grip on Sasuke's hand in his. They were in this together, as it should be.
--
TBC
--
Warnings: This is yaoi. It will eventually be Sasuke and Naruto, sitting in a tree, doing god knows what. Not this chapter, but it's pretty clear that I'm working for that SasuNaru pairing. OOC occurrences as well.
--
Fear and Loathing
Four days and still, there was no sign of Sasuke, Sakura or Naruto. For four days since the battle had ended, the members of 121 waited with hearts in their mouths for the three lost ninjas to come into the clearing where their camp was, but there was nothing. Kakashi had even gone out into the forest surrounding camp in order to search for them on the third day, but nothing had been found. It was almost as if they had vanished into the air, like they had been spirited away during battle.
Tension ran high, the soldiers of the 121 snapping at each other without meaning to. All felt the stress from not knowing where the three were, whether they had lived or not, whether they had been kidnapped into the embrace of the enemy or anything else that might have happened. Yet, despite the worry and the need all of them felt to various degrees to find them, there was a war to be fought and duties to carry out.
That was why at the end of the fourth day of waiting for their return, all the battalions stationed at the fifth line, point two-seven had to move out to a new camp site in order to strengthen defenses and plan a counterattack. They could not stand around for the three of them to return indefinitely, and as much as it pained the four commanding officers and the remaining nine soldiers of the 121, they broke camp to move out to a new location in order to assess total damages and formulate future plans.
--
"Hey, Sasuke," Naruto whined, trudging behind the ever silent Uchiha heir, "how the hell did you get lost so badly?"
If Sasuke had not been thinking the same thing, he would have given Naruto a very nasty piece of his mind. Truthfully, after the second day of wandering around the woods looking for signs of their camp or any tracks that could have led there, the dark haired boy had been at a loss to explain why they were so damned lost. Surely, even if they had been lost in the beginning, it should not have taken him so long to find their way back. They had been trained in tracking, tracing their paths using stars and nature, therefore it was absolutely inconceivable that they would be lost still, on their fourth day of meandering.
"Why don't you stop the damned whining and use your animal instincts to find our way back?" Sasuke stomped along ahead, not even deigning to turn his head to address his blond rival. It could not be entirely his fault that they were in this situation, wasn't the damned loud mouth also a trained ninja? "So far, all you've done is to eat most of our scrounged up food and driving me insane."
Naruto glared at Sasuke's back, clenching his fists at his side. Ever since that first night when the enigmatic dark haired boy had said he cared, the mood between them had been strained at best. The only times they communicated was to insult each other, to blame each other for some transgression or another. Yet, unlike in the past when the insults had been just a way to express their rivalry, it seemed that these sets of scathing remarks served another purpose. Just what that was, Naruto did not want to know, instinctively shrinking back from the answer that lurked just beneath the surface.
An uneasy silence fell on the three as Naruto refused to rise to the bait and retort at Sasuke using various words that mothers told their children not to use. The only sounds heard were crunching of leaves under their feet and the ghostly wind blowing through the branches. Sakura felt her shoulders sag as she walked watching Sasuke's graceful back. It seemed like all she did was watch Sasuke or listen to him and Naruto argue. Sasuke paid her no mind except to occasionally make sure that she was still there and even Naruto who had been slavish in his attention on her seemed to forget that she was with them. What the hell was wrong with those two? When had their relationship changed to the point where they saw nothing but each other, even if it was in rivalry and loathing?
As she continued her silent watch and contemplation of her crush and her annoying stalker's relationship, she blocked out the flow of the argument that inevitably started up once again between the two boys. It was just easier to ignore them as they hurled insults and names at each other than to stand between them as a moderator. Although she had never meant to be in the middle of the arguments, invariably, there she was, trying to cut through the vicious name calling and blaming, to no avail. She had given up soothing their flaring tempers and unease some time ago, opting to get lost in her own head with her private thoughts. She almost preferred the disquieting silence of their first day as lost lambs instead of this constant bickering that played her frayed nerves closer to the edge with each syllable.
"Are we really lost?" Sakura heard Naruto accuse, "because it sure seems to me like we're just fucking circling the same spot." The blond tucked his hands behind his head and carelessly let the words stream out. "Come on, genius boy, are you doing this on purpose just to piss me off or what?"
The pink haired girl let out a sigh as Sasuke tensed his shoulders and stopped walking. She knew that the boiling point had been reached, that the four days of stress, uncertainty and whatever the hell that had sprung up between the two boys were coming to a head. She wondered whether or not to interfere, if letting them have it out would relieve all the tension or it would just end up with her digging graves for the two of them.
"Why the hell would I want to be lost with you? Do I look insane to you?"
"Oh shit, you don't want me to answer that, do you?" Naruto grinned viciously at Sasuke's twitching face. "I don't see how I can answer that one-"
The blond never got to finish his appropriately insulting reply since Sasuke chose to dive at him and knock him onto the ground. Naruto barely blocked a fist coming at his face and rolled free just in time to see his dark haired rival forming a jutsu with his hands.
"Shit, Sasuke," Naruto scrabbled backwards on his hands and feet as he tried to figure out what jutsu he was about to face, "don't get so fucking serious! What the hell is the matter with you?"
"What's the matter with me?" Sasuke halted forming the jutsu and stared incredulously at the stunned blonde. "Matter with me? What about you? Why the hell can't you just leave me alone? Why are you always pissing me off?"
"That's what I do! Fuck, Sasuke, we're always fighting! What's so different now that you have to throw a ninjutsu at me?"
Sasuke breathed hard as he glared at his rival, knowing that Naruto was right. They always fought, it had been like that since the day they had been assigned to the 121. And until now, he had never been so close to losing his control, enough of it so that he had seriously tried to injure the idiot blond with a jutsu that he had not even thought to use during the battle. Why was it that Naruto got so easily under his skin now? Why the hell couldn't they go back to being rivals as they had been, instead of this new, amorphous thing they were now?
All this only because he had said something he should not have in the night. All this tension, lack of control, this confusion had happened just because something in his heart and soul decided to go insanely stupid when it came to Naruto.
"Will you two just stop this nonsense? We have better things to worry about!"
Sasuke and Naruto jerked their eyes to Sakura who had yelled with uncharacteristic fire. She stood, her head bowed and covered by her length of pink hair that had turned ragged with the passage of rough lost days, her body shaking. She had had enough, damn it, of all the tension, the arguments, everything. They were lost in the woods, they had no idea how to get out of their predicament, and all the boys could do was snipe at each other. They should have better sense than this, they had been trained for it.
"I'm sick and tired of listening to the two of you," she raged, "and I'm tired of being lost, I want to rest, I want to wash my hair. Stop this immediately!"
Naruto swallowed thickly, unwilling to show that he was shocked by her intense reaction. He was used to this, Sakura yelling at him for some transgression or another, it had been that way since he had laid his eyes on her when he was so young. But for her to show her ire to Sasuke, the one she worshipped as he worshipped her, that was downright rare. They must have been really getting on her nerves to have pushed her to the point where she could show her displeasure at Sasuke.
"I.. I apologize, Sakura, for my behavior." Sasuke looked as if he had bitten into something unpleasant, but he did not falter. "I know we should figure something out, and I know I should not let the idiot get to me." He ignored Naruto's splutter that he was certainly not the only idiot in this group. "You are the smartest one here, Sakura. Have you figured anything unusual about this?"
Surprised at Sasuke's apology and his plea for help, Sakura lifted her head to stare at the handsome face. His lips twisted in a mockery of a smile as he shrugged his shoulders carelessly, causing Sakura to smirk at his out of the ordinary actions.
"Well, I was thinking that we should not be this lost, no matter what the circumstance."
Sasuke nodded, his eyes gliding past Sakura's thoughtful face to Naruto's irate one, only to receive a sour look from the blond. Well, it wasn't his fault that all it took was one sentence from him to bring Sakura back to normal.
"Have you thought that maybe, we're not lost, but forced to be lost?"
Now, that was something Sasuke had not quite considered. From the look on Naruto's face, it had not exactly crossed his mind either.
"Who would do something like that though? I mean.. who could?"
Sakura tilted her head and considered Naruto's question carefully. In four days, they had not been attacked, had not sensed any enemy chakra or presence. That meant, either her theory was way off the edge or someone more skilled than they could ever imagine was playing with them. Someone that even Sasuke's newly awakened Sharingan could not detect.
"I think.." Sakura cleared her suddenly dry throat, "I think we're in a lot of trouble."
--
The night fell softly, deathly around the three lost ninjas, the black ink of it surrounding them with unease and danger. Ever since their conversation earlier that day, they had become unbearably tense and alert, every muscle and nerve ending twitching from anticipating the moves of this unseen foe. They did not know who it could be, how much power this person had at their disposal, and most importantly, they did not know why this was happening. Was it only they caught in this strange trap or had others of their battalion fallen into this situation as well? What in the name of nine hells was going on here?
Among the three of them, they had limited number of weapons. Naruto had two kunai, but one had either cut too closely to a bone or something equally as hard, because its edges were ragged and blunt. He had only three shuriken left, barely enough to take down one bumbling ninja, let alone someone skilled enough to have done.. whatever this was to them. Sasuke had even less weapons on him, having used his shuriken and kunai freely in his pursuit of the enemy, but Sakura had kindly relegated some of her weapons to him seeing as how she had not actually fought during the battle. Still, their weapons stash was small and they were only beginners when it came to battle, no matter how many jutsus they knew, no matter that they had survived the first encounter with the enemy.
The moon, a barely shining crescent in the sky, illuminated only enough for them to see shadows that seem to move every time they turned their heads. Even with his Sharingan, Sasuke could barely make anything out.
"I hope you're wrong, Sakura," Sasuke whispered, "because if you're right, and there is something out there, we will not make it out alive."
"Don't be such a dope!" Naruto turned to glare through the darkness at Sasuke, "we're gonna be okay. Sheesh, how can you give up before it starts?"
"Do you even live in reality, idiot?" Sasuke carefully calmed his madly twitching eyebrow, telling himself that he could not let Naruto make him angry. "If we are really in some elaborate trap, it means genjutsu. Illusion! An illusion that my Sharingan can't see. Does that mean anything to you?"
Naruto stiffened his spine and walked up to Sasuke in even measured steps. "So what if your fancy eyes can't see?" He raised his hand to shove Sasuke lightly on his shoulder, forcing the dark haired boy to step back to keep his balance. "So what if we're up against something so damned amazing that it's making you say stupid shit?" Naruto shoved his face very near Sasuke's seething one, his voice a study of fire and disappointment. "You're my rival, ain't you? You're the guy who's always supposed to be better than me? So why the fuck are you so scared? Why're ya making me yell at you, huh?"
To Naruto's absolute amazement, Sasuke began chuckling that blew itself into a full out laugh. The shorter blond backed off a bit, regarding the rare sight of Sasuke's laughing face in the wan light of the bleached out moon, not quite understanding what had happened.
"You.." Sasuke gasped, trying to catch his breath as his laughter faded, "you are downright impossible, you know that?" His dark eyes shone like onyx as he stared hard at Naruto's surprised face so shockingly near his still. "You don't get that you're supposed to be scared, do you? You don't understand that we're up against someone truly terrifying, do you?"
"So what?" Naruto crossed his arms defiantly, refusing to back away from this strange Sasuke who was laughing at him with that glint in his dark eyes.
"So.. so, I don't get you, idiot. I don't get why your stupid, brash attitude should make me feel better."
More than the laughing, more than Sasuke's earlier fear, this shocked the hell out of Naruto. Had Sasuke just said something that could qualify as nice.. to him? Even if seventy percent of it was insulting?
"Oh, how lovely," came a disembodied voice to shatter this little moment, "two friends who are so disgustingly sweet to watch."
Instantly, all of Sasuke's laughter and Naruto's shock evaporated like water on a hot skillet, only leaving alert and ready ninjas in its wake. The red flare of the Sharingan came back to life in Sasuke's eyes, the dark dots surrounding his pupils circling madly in search for the body that went with the voice.
Sakura found herself between Sasuke and Naruto the second the voice had rung out into the woods, her body protected by the two boys from either side. Her hands trembled lightly, but then again, why should not she be scared? Whoever was out there, he was much more powerful than all three of them.
"Hey, Sasuke, you see anything?" Even though Naruto might have belittled the Sharingan before, he knew for a fact that the best chance they had lay in his rival's inherited eyes.
"How sad." The creepy voice started again, coming from all directions. "The little blond ninja can't do anything without the eyes of the Uchiha. How incredibly sad."
"Ignore it, Naruto," Sakura said gently, "you know better than letting that get to you."
A slithering laughter echoed in the night, making Naruto tense more and Sasuke's search more frantic. Where was this guy?
"How sweet, the encouragement from the pretty, useless girl. You three have been quite funny, but very sad. None of you can even see this jutsu, not even you, possessor of the Sharingan." Another round of icy chuckling followed, the sound made colder by the night and the shifting shadows. "I'm so very disappointed, my dear last of the Uchiha, my dear brother."
Sasuke stopped breathing, his eyes stopped scanning as he finally recognized the intense, frightening voice in the wind. Brother.
"Itachi.." The hated name escaped his numbed lips before he could think, earning him a sharp look from Naruto. He did not notice the look nor that he had dropped the kunai he had in his hand. The only thing he knew was that his brother was out there, taunting him, letting him know that even now, after he had grown and trained, he was no match for the brother he had so admired and then hated.
--
Something smelled terribly wrong, like rotten eggs buried deep beneath the earth. Not that it was an actual tangible smell, more of a feeling nagging at the back of his head, but nevertheless, something was definitely wrong. Kakashi narrowed his visible eye, his arms at his sides unconsciously reaching for shuriken in his pouch, as he tried to figure out just what was so damned wrong that his senses were going haywire.
Maybe he was just out of sorts because of the missing members of the 121, but he doubted it. The feeling, this smell that seemed to ripple in his brain, screamed danger, the kind that dripped blood and caused nightmares. He had not felt something like this since he was a young man, just barely trained in the arts of the ninja, facing a foe that had nearly killed him. That had been what, eight years ago? He was one of the best Konoha, if not the world, had to offer now, and yet, that terrifying feeling from eight years ago was tickling at the edges of his consciousness.
"Damn it, get yourself together, Kakashi," he muttered, admonishing his foolishly distracted self from dwelling on the fear grabbing hold of him. If something was so damned wrong, then he would go check it out, not sit here and contemplate it to death. However, he would not go alone, he was not an idiot after all.
He hoped Kurenai or Asuma would be up for some scouting based solely upon his gut feeling, because however antsy he was to check out this thing nagging him, there was no way in hell he'd ask Gai. He'd rather burn his precious book first.
--
Naruto spat blood pooling in his mouth out onto the ground, coughing to return some oxygen into his lungs. Everything hurt so badly, from his head kicked so swiftly and violently to his left ankle that he knew was broken. Barely supporting his pain wracked body with his arms, he tried to stand, but his amazing healing abilities had not yet caught up to the damage dealt to him by the one Sasuke had called Itachi.
His blue eyes swiveled to the prone and unmoving form of Sakura who laid only a couple of feet away from him. If it were not for her chest moving shallowly, he would have thought her dead. When the attack had come at them so suddenly and from a direction he still could not discern, Sakura had been the first to go, one hit to her face enough to knock her out completely. Not that he had fared any better, for in the next second, he had been on the ground, tasting copper and feeling pain like he'd never experienced.
Slight shift of his eyes brought Sasuke into his line of vision, and what he saw dropped his already drumming heart into his feet. In the low light of the moon, he saw Sasuke held against a tree by his throat, his feet dangling off the ground by a good foot. The dark haired boy was clawing at the hand holding him, his face twisted into an expression so hateful and fierce that Naruto thought that maybe he was looking at someone else.
"Hold on a sec," Naruto gasped as he forced his body to move, "I'll be right there, so don't you give up, you asshole."
Sasuke did not hear Naruto's encouragement, did not even notice that the injured blonde was basically crawling towards him and his brother. All his eyes could see was the face that had plagued his nightmares and revenge fantasies for eight years, smiling grotesquely at him. His brother had changed, he noted absently; he had grown taller, broader, and startlingly, more like their father.
"Dear, dear brother," Itachi murmured, "is this all you have to offer?"
Gods, if only he could breathe. If only his limbs would obey him, then Itachi would be nothing more than a bad memory. But he could not move more than his hands tearing at the strong grip at his throat, could not voice the rage that gurgled in his head. Damn him, Sasuke could only seethe, damn him to the nine hells that spawned him.
"Your Sharingan is incomplete, my younger brother," his brother taunted, "only three dots total. Not nearly enough to touch me, let alone kill me."
Suddenly, Sasuke felt air invade his lungs as Itachi threw him, almost too casually, into Naruto who had almost made it to them. He felt his body crash into the blonde's and they skidded in a tangle of limbs and new pain on the ground.
"All this effort just to see if you were fit, and you only disappoint." Itachi drawled, walking towards the fallen pair on silent feet. "I sacrificed most of my reserve forces just for you, brother dear, and you are not nearly ready. Are you truly the avenger you claim to be? How long must I wait for you, little brother?"
Sasuke raised his head to watch Itachi approach. He could see the Sharingan in his brother's eyes, so much like his yet so different, glowing like heated steel in the dark. They were so much more frightening than the ones he saw in his dreams, held more power than he had thought possible. What could he do, as he was, against his brother who had always been so much better at everything than he? What could he do against this one man who had had the power to slaughter every member of the Uchiha clan eight years ago, save him?
His hands fisted in the earth, railing at him for his inability to do anything. He had sworn vengeance against Itachi all those years ago, but now that he was faced with his brother, all he could do was lay on the ground, looking up at the face so eerily like his, unable to get up.
'So this is it,' Sasuke gritted his teeth, 'this is the end, how I will die.'
He turned his head in shame, unable to face his brother walking towards him, unable to swallow the thick taste of humiliation, and his eyes fell on Naruto groaning back to life next to him.
"Idiot," Sasuke smiled sadly, "stay down. It'll be easier."
But as always, Naruto would not listen. Sneering around the blood staining his mouth, he wobbled to his feet, wincing when his broken ankle caught awkwardly on the stony ground, but he stood. Then he held out his hand for Sasuke who only stared up at him in disbelief.
"Sasuke, you bastard," the blonde grated, "get the fuck up. We ain't dead yet."
Itachi stopped in his advance to consider the stubborn ninja with blazing blue eyes and the wild golden hair. If anything, the boy had guts, but still, that would not be enough to defeat him.
"Amusing.. very amusing to see that you can't admit defeat."
"Shut up, bastard!" Naruto turned his eyes away from Itachi's sardonic smirk and his coldly gleaming eyes to look down on Sasuke. How many times had he dreamed that he would be the one standing over Sasuke, that he would be the one to save his rival from certain doom like heroes were supposed to do? He had dreamed it so often that he lost count, but damn it, it was not supposed to be this way. In reality, the Sasuke he knew would never ask for help, need help, from someone like him. In reality, the Sasuke he knew would be on his feet, ready to face whatever enemy that came at him.
He just had to make sure Sasuke went back to what he was supposed to be.
"Hey, Sasuke, get up. Let's fuck this guy up, yeah?"
"Naruto, you idiot," Sasuke half laughed, "do you even know who we're up against?" A hysterical edge cut into his soft voice like glass shards in flesh. "Of course not. Why would you? You're just an idiot who can't understand anything."
"Yeah, you're right. I am an idiot and I don't understand anything."
Sasuke watched in unabashed awe as a smile dawned on Naruto's face, his eyes shining bluer than the summer sky and somehow brightening the suffocating night around them. It was a smile filled with faith and belief, a smile that warmed him throughout his body, chasing away the crippling fear and shame that had filled every nook and cranny of his system.
"I may be an idiot," Naruto continued through that blinding smile, "but you ain't. You're the best at everything, right? You always succeed, right? Why should it be any different now?"
'How do you do that,' Sasuke wondered as he reached out his hand towards the one Naruto had extended earlier, 'how the hell can you change me like this with just a smile and words?'
When Sasuke stood by his side, Naruto turned his head to the enemy ahead of them, standing with that damnable smirk still present on his face. He felt Sasuke do the same, concentrating on Itachi, but as much as he was lost in assessing the enemy, he did not fail to notice that Sasuke had yet to let go of his hand.
"So, we're going to take him down."
"Damn straight," Naruto grinned savagely and tightened the grip on Sasuke's hand in his. They were in this together, as it should be.
--
TBC
--