Once again, a big thank you to the reviews. They are always appreciated.
Now, on with the next chapter.
Warnings: Look out, characters are seemingly OOC. Language can get rough, plots is thickening, my mind has lost its way..
Disclaimer of sorts: I do not own Naruto, but I have plans..
Another warning: this story is going to be long. Very, very long. So, there won't be quick gratifications, dissolutions or climaxes. Just a rambling story. (I think I just lost about 90% of the people who would read this story.)
Faith and (Dis)Belief
The hall had been built only five years ago, using only the finest of sandstone marble mined from the foothills of the Mountains of the Wind, designed to sparkle under the sun and look imposing in the depth of the night. The ceiling vaulted high, supported by curving staves of mahogany, a single chandelier holding a hundred candles hanging in the center, equidistant from the eight windows cut into the marble walls. At the end of the hall was a throne, a high backed contraption of marble and jade, upholstered in velvet of dark colors embroidered by snakeskin and wolf fur. A man sat on the throne, cupping a glass of dark, red wine, supporting his arms on the massive armrests on either side, smirking at the figure standing before him.
The two men were alone in the hall, bathed on all sides from the sunlight filtering in unhindered through the massive windows, neither saying a word but conveying a world of meaning in silence. The one on the throne, his long, dark hair hanging over his pale face, smoothed a delicate hand over the black robe that covered his lithe body, as he concentrated on the wine that he had not yet drunk.
"So," the man on the throne said, "I see you failed."
"Not at all," replied the one standing, his eyes flickering from black to red back to black, "I think I was quite successful."
"Itachi, your mission was to infiltrate and raze Konoha to the ground." He brushed back his dark hair away from his face and took a sip from his wine. "From what I hear, Konoha still stands, more than four hundred of your reserve forces are dead, and you have sustained some injuries."
Itachi touched the light bruise that still stained his cheek and smiled broadly. When had been the last time that he had met an opponent who could injure him? "Your mission and mine are quite different, my liege," he mocked, emphasizing the title in a hiss, "in case you have forgotten, I'm a mercenary. I don't give a damn about your ambitions."
"But you do give a damn about the fact that I paid." The pale skinned man replied, his lips slithering into a smile, "and if I'm not mistaken, mercenaries are loyal to the one who holds the purse strings."
"Then don't pay me. I could care less."
Itachi knew that despite the smile, the man on the throne was not pleased with his actions. Then again, Itachi did not give a damn; his raid into the fifth line of Konoha had provided him with some interesting diversions and information. Moreover, he had been able to see his brother in action and test him to his limits. To him, the mission was a success, far beyond his expectations.
"So.. how is your brother? Did you let him live?"
Itachi wiped all expression from his face and glared at the man. He certainly knew everything, even how to press his sensitive emotional buttons that he had thought erased from his being.
"You know as well as I do, my liege, that I did not kill him. Your spies must have been quite chatty after the night I had."
"Oh, I do know," came the mocking reply, the soft laughter lacing cruelty into the voice, "I know it better than you, actually." He took another sip of the wine and eyed Itachi closely. "Does he still want to kill you? Take vengeance?"
"Of course." Itachi turned on his heels and took striding steps to the massive wooden doors leading out of the hall. The rest of his reply echoed off the marble walls, reverberating in the vaulted ceiling long after he was gone. "Vengeance is what the righteous man brings to the evil man."
When the doors banged shut and he was alone once again, he leaned back in his throne and drained his wine. Surely, Itachi had not done what he had been ordered to do, but not all was lost. The last of the Uchiha, still a child but of enormous potential, had been brought to his attention. As an added bonus, he was now privy to the level of power possessed by the Demon Bound.
"Itachi, I will make sure that your brother can take vengeance upon you." He tapped his empty glass on the armrest, listening to the clear tinkling of the crystal upon stone. "Then I will let him know the truth of everything and finally attain the power of the Uchiha, the power you could not grant me."
--
Voices speaking way too close to him cut into his happy oblivion, sundering the calm void in which he floated. He wished that they would keep it quiet, because if he woke fully, and he knew he would if they continued in the current level of decibels, he would feel the wrath of all the pains he had cheerfully forgotten about in his void. But the voices kept talking, the sound nothing but a thick murmur in his cotton filled head, coherency lost somewhere between his ears and his addled brain.
He did not want to awake, he knew this. When he awoke, there would be a world of physical pain waiting for him, not to mention all the mental anguish he would have to endure. For now, he just wanted to float formlessly, comfortable and forgetting all the things he had seen and felt. Maybe he was a coward for trying to avoid what he would eventually have to face, but what was wrong with trying to delay the inevitable? Nothing, damn it, everyone did it, even the thoughtless, needlessly brave Naruto.
'Naruto?'
The name circled his brain and hooked on to clarity, bringing forth an image of a smiling face with azure eyes and a mop of sunshine hair. However, overlaid on that happy image was a face with fierce, beastly eyes smoldering in bloodlust, lips curled into a vicious smirk that had made his blood run cold. He shrank back from that dichotomous picture, unable to fully comprehend what it was trying to tell him, furthering himself from the voices trying to remind him of things he was intent on forgetting.
"..nothing left.. laying too still.. can't.."
Disjointed words filtered through despite his best efforts, angling into his consciousness and dragging him out of his self-imposed void. He fought his ascent into reality best he could, but one sentence destroyed all his hopes to remain in the nothingness.
"Naruto is gone, isn't he."
The void disappeared and Sasuke opened his eyes. Above him, the white sheet making the ceiling of the tent fluttered, practically translucent from the light filtering through the thin material. Small shadows from trees above danced on the tent and little motes of dirt drifted through the air, but he noticed none of that, because out of his peripheral vision, he could see Kakashi and the other three commanders of his battalion sitting around a small unlit brazier not two feet away from the bed in which he lay, talking about something impossible.
Naruto was not gone. That was absolutely, unequivocally impossible.
"Is there nothing we can do?"
The worry lining Kurenai's voice, so thick and heavy, made Sasuke turn his head to fully view the four officers. None of them realized that he had finally awoken, not even hearing the light rustle his hair had made against the pillow.
"If there was," Sasuke saw Kakashi run a tired hand over his masked face, "we would've done it by now."
Do what? What in the world were those four babbling about when Naruto just had to be fine? Naruto had been fully healed when he had.. had..
"We must send him back to Konoha, at least to get his Seal monitored."
That was it. Someone was going to explain to him just what the hell had happened and what they were talking about even if he had to throttle it out of them.
Now if he could just get his voice to work, the plan would be a go.
"We know it didn't break. Somehow, it's still intact, but the strain on Naruto's mind must have been too great." Asuma dropped his unlit cigarette into the brazier and took out a fresh one to worry. "In the least, we should be grateful that the demon isn't free."
Frustrated that his larynx would not cooperate, Sasuke raised himself onto his elbows, noting that it was rather painful to do so. For the first time, it occurred to him to look over himself and it vaguely surprised him to find that he was nearly mummified by the bandages covering his body. Had he been so wounded that it required so much medical treatment?
"Sakura won't say what happened," he heard Gai say in an uncharacteristically subdued tone, "and insists that she didn't see anything."
"If only Sasuke would wake up," Kakashi sighed, not having noticed Sasuke's upright position, "then we could get some kind of a story."
Right as Kakashi finished, Sasuke lost the strength he had in his arms and fell heavily onto the bed with enough noise to finally attract the attention of the four commanding officers. Even before his head settled fully into the pillow, four faces hovered above his, all peering at him closely in relief and apprehension.
"Are you okay?"
Sasuke tried to smirk at the ridiculous question posed to him by Kurenai, but his lips chapped and crackled from the movement. Wincing, Sasuke shook his head, and that was enough for Asuma to present him with a glass of water and an arm to help him sit up. He had not known that he was thirsty, but once the cooling liquid dripped onto his lips, he found that he had to restrain himself from gulping it all down. He ignored the four concerned faces staring at him as he drank as reserved as possible, his eyes focused on an innocuous spot just beyond Kakashi's right shoulder.
"How.." Sasuke ventured as soon as the glass was empty and settled on the bed again, "how many days?"
"Three days." Kakashi answered after only a small hesitation. "Asuma, Kurenai and I found you, Naruto and Sakura in a clearing not very far from the old camp site." Kakashi ignored Gai's crying lament that he had been left out, his visible eye never leaving Sasuke's intent glare as he continued. "None of you were conscious, the clearing was scorched beyond recognition and the enemy was gone. We did not find that body."
In other words, his brother had somehow managed to survive that encounter. More accurately, they had survived his brother. The how and why of their survival, Sasuke still could not be sure, but he knew that it had to do with what had happened to Naruto.
"Naruto?"
Sasuke's heart sank when Kakashi turned his face away, presenting him with the profile of his covered eye. What he had heard could not be true, yet if that were the case, why couldn't Kakashi look him in the eyes and tell him that the idiot was fine?
"He still hasn't awoken." Kurenai answered in Kakashi's stead, her face settling into a resigned mask. "We think he never will at this rate."
"But he's alive, right?" Desperation drove Sasuke upright once more, the twinges of pain in his arms forgotten. "He's breathing, his heart is beating, right?"
Kurenai nodded and felt her heart break when Sasuke sighed in relief. How could she tell him that even though the body was healed and alive, the mind had been splintered to the point of no recovery? For three days, ever since they had found the three missing soldiers, they had tried every jutsu and technique they knew to revive Naruto's mind from the wreckage of his inner self, but to no avail. Where Naruto's vibrant and obnoxious self should have been, there was nothing but a blank space, a landscape devoid of humanity. The demon in its efforts to break free from the seal had somehow destroyed Naruto's mind.
The only silver lining in the whole mess was that the demon was nowhere to be found either. Kakashi had feared that with Naruto's mind a blank slate, the demon would have risen up to take up the void and control the body, but the demon had also disappeared from within Naruto. None of them could quite figure where in the hell two presences, especially ones as strong as Naruto and the demon could go and just vanish, but that was the situation as it stood.
So, yes, the physical body was fine. It was in peak health, to be truthful, but it was just an empty shell. Being dead might have been more merciful.
"Can you tell me what happened to Naruto?"
Could they answer him satisfactorily? Could they really explain to him how Naruto had become that terrible being with enough power to drive Itachi away, if Naruto really relished the death shining out of his unnaturally red eyes?
"I wish I could tell you, Sasuke." Kakashi moved away from the young soldier's bed side to stand facing the flapping entrance of the tent. His shoulders tensed as he heard Sasuke's growl, knowing that his answer frustrated the dark haired boy. "Certain things, we must tell Naruto first." If he ever woke up, that is.
"Where is he? I want to see him." Even though things that he could not explain had happened, one thing was for certain. Naruto had actually saved his life. And it was wrong that the idiot wasn't just bursting into the tent with his loud voice, bragging about his heroics and rubbing it into his face.
"He's in a sealed tent and no one is allowed to see him."
"Do I look like I give a damn?" Sasuke turned his enraged face to Asuma, making no effort to suppress the ugly feelings boiling over in his heart. "I have to see him."
"Don't be foolish." Kakashi walked over and tapped Sasuke on his chest, sending a line of pain racing up his sternum to make his vision swim. Sasuke fell back onto the pillow, breathing shallowly. "One touch and you fall over. You're in no condition to move. Stay put."
Gritting his teeth until the enamel ripped off, Sasuke could only watch as his commanding officers nodded and left the tent. Kakashi was right, he could not move without feeling enormous amounts of pain – but that would not stop him from seeing Naruto.
'Why are you so adamant on seeing that idiot? Why don't you just let it be?'
Sasuke snorted at his own mind questioning his motives, but hell if he knew why he had this burning desire to see Naruto, to see him safe, alive and smiling.
Hell if he knew why Naruto mattered so much.
--
Ino carefully set down the breakfast tray she had brought for Sakura on the little table by the bed, knowing that her friend was in no mood to eat. She had healed, most of her grave injuries having been treated almost immediately after Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma had brought them back, but her mind had yet to completely come to grips with whatever it was that had happened. All she knew was that Sasuke was in a coma, Naruto was secreted away in a quarantined tent and Sakura had barely said three words together since she came back.
"So, Shikamaru told me today that I have issues with my image." Ino put a happy face on and began her inane chatter in a voice that made daisies seem downright depressing. She arranged the tray in front of Sakura, taking covers off of the dishes, babbling about whatever topic that entered her head. She could not do much for her friend, but she could at least pretend that everything was okay.
Sakura listened with half an ear as Ino talked on about various things, her green eyes dull as tarnished copper. She still could not forget that last image in her head, Naruto's awful expression and comments swimming around in her head. If that wasn't bad enough, Itachi's taunts and his casual demolishment of Naruto and Sasuke crowded in with the other image, making her head a veritable sea of chaos.
Was she in shock? Did she have the symptoms? She knew that at night, she could not sleep because she knew nightmares were waiting for her to close her eyes, ready to pounce and wring her dry. During the day, her dazed mind played through the traumatic events in the woods, of Itachi and Sasuke, of Naruto who had said things that she never imagined the boy would say. Some images came to her clearly, like a painting done in vivid colors, but some images were blurry and dreary, as if she had seen it through a stained glass window of the darkest scarlet.
Everyday, one of the commanding officers came by to see her under the pretenses of seeing how she was coping, but she knew better. Even if she denied it to them, they knew that she had seen the enemy in the woods, that she had seen the events that had unfolded before her eyes like an unrolling silk screen. They wanted to know the details, the horrifying things that she had seen.
She should tell them, it would probably help out Sasuke and Naruto if they knew Itachi had trapped them in a genjutsu and that Naruto had changed. But the words would not form, her lips only mouthing out patently lackluster and frankly unbelievable denials of knowledge. Every time she tried to tell them something, her voice locked and nothing emerged.
Sakura raised her head slightly to avoid the steam from the rice watering her vision and saw her friend Ino, sitting on her bed with a smile wide enough to crack, talking up a storm about inconsequential things. The long haired blonde had shown up at least three times a day with her meals, always with that smile and demeanor, never asking her about what had happened. Most of the times, Sakura paid her no attention, too lost in her own nightmarish dreamscape, but for some reason, right now, she wanted to listen. She wanted to hear what Ino had to say, what her best friend would do when she found out about the turmoil whirling in her mind.
"Ino.." Sakura whispered, her voice a tinny scratch on glass. Immediately, Ino stopped talking and smiled beatifically at Sakura, putting on an expression that reminded Sakura of mothers and saints.
"How is everyone?"
There, she had said something. Ino had never told her the news with Sasuke and Naruto in all her rambles, keeping to things that she thought would not upset the delicate Sakura. But even if she was still traumatized or whatever, she should have inquired about her friends and comrades sooner, right? After all, the only reason she was alive to hear Ino chatter and have ghostly nightmares, was because of Sasuke and Naruto.
"Oh, fine. You should've seen Kiba asking Shino if he could communicate with fleas. I thought Shino was going to-"
"Stop it, Ino!" Sakura punched the top of her tray, sending foodstuff flying onto the floor. Ino looked on, her face still split into that forever smile, but her eyes wary and somehow proud. "Stop it. I know I'm weak and I know I haven't been the best soldier. But I need you to tell me now." Tears prickled at the corners of her jade eyes, pooling at the shallows, threatening to fall. "Tell me, please. How are they?"
"Sasuke is in the tent next to yours. He's still sleeping." She let the news settle before she plunged into the more disturbing one. "Naruto is in quarantine, and from what they won't say, it's pretty bad."
Sakura twirled a bit of her long, pink hair in her fingers, an old nervous habit emerging at the behest of bad news. However, she swallowed the lumpy tears and nodded to Ino to continue.
"Whatever it was that happened to you three, it must've been bad, huh?" When Sakura nodded, Ino sighed, reaching out to hold Sakura's hand. "Well, that's all I know. No one's talking, most especially you."
"I know," Sakura breathed, "I know I have to say something. But when I try, I can't. I really can't, Ino. I don't even know how to begin."
Unable to watch Sakura's pained face any longer, Ino scooted forward and enfolded her hurting friend in a warm hug, fiercely holding onto the girl who was her best friend.
"It's okay, Sakura." Ino patted her back soothingly, letting her voice gentle into a bare whisper. "It's okay to cry, to admit that it scares you."
Ino held her as the dam burst and the tears flowed, rocking the shaking form back and forth, glad that her friend had finally come out of that frozen shell and feeling her heart squeeze at the pain that welled forth from each wracking sob.
--
The darkness in the tent, unblemished but for the glowing banked fire in the brazier, enveloped him like a blanket. The day had been hard, what with all the people coming in and out of his tent. First, he had woken from three day's worth of nothing only to face the concerns and ravaging worries about Naruto. Then the news that he had finally regained consciousness had flooded into the camp and all manners of people had come to see him.
All but Naruto.
He had stoically borne the attention of his four commanding officers who had come in intermittently throughout the day to ask him about Itachi and the occurrences that had led to such a catastrophic destruction of a mile radius wide area. He had answered the best he could, told them everything that he had seen, and had seen Kakashi's one eye light up when he had mentioned the Sharingan. They had not seemed too surprised about anything else though, only grunting distastefully when Itachi was mentioned and showing no reaction whatsoever at Naruto's seeming transformation and sudden acquisition of power.
If that had not been draining enough, he had been subjected to the 121's version of a hospital visit. First, Sakura had come in to sob into his bed, apologizing for all manner of things and brokenly asking for forgiveness at her inactions. Thank the gods that Ino had been there to mitigate that because Sasuke had been at a complete loss as to how to behave. He had sent her off by telling her that she had nothing to be sorry for, only to make her cry even harder, and had received a small nod of acknowledgement from Ino for his efforts.
Shortly thereafter, the rest of them had come barging in, questioning him about everything that had happened. Apparently, whatever the commanders had told the rest of the 121 had not been quite enough to satisfy their curiosity and they as a collective, had decided to descend upon him like a swarm of locusts. His head still spun from the flurry of questions for which he had no answers, and they might still be here in the middle of the night asking him things if Kakashi had not come in to chase them all out.
Now, it was silent and dark, and he was left alone with his own thoughts. All of them circled around Naruto, but then again, as of late, Naruto seemed to be the only thing in his mind.
How strange and perturbing.
Whatever the case, he would force his way into Naruto's tent tomorrow, damn the seals and quarantines, to see his idiot rival. Then, after he made sure that the boy was alive and drag him back into the world of the conscious, he would ponder why he thought of Naruto so much and get his head examined fully.
--
"How long do you suppose we'll be here?"
Hint of a chuckle brushed by him, leaving behind an unpleasant tingle. Naruto ignored it and merely waited for the answer, knowing that sooner or later, it would have to come.
'Stupid brat.' The chuckle died and a firestorm of rage smothered Naruto before dissipating like a waft of smoke. 'We're here because of you and you dare to ask me how long?'
"Like I actually know what the fuck is going on." Naruto settled comfortably, imagining that he was leaning against something soft and cushy. "You're the one who tried to take me over, ain't ya?"
'You asked for power. Did I not give it to you?'
"Sure, but I didn't say, hey, come take my body and try to erase me from all of existence."
Naruto knew that this was all in his head. The voice, the arguments, everything. Still, that made it no less annoying; he still could not find that light, the brightness of consciousness. So, here he was, stuck with that ominous presence that had seduced him into a coma. If he had not been so damned stubborn, the voice would have taken him over completely, and then who knew what could've happened?
'You worthless child. If I inhabit that crude thing you call a body, it would be so powerful that this pitiful thing you called war would be over in a blink.'
The arrogance and malice dripping from that voice was practically solid, forcing Naruto to repress that stab of fear. If he was going to win against this.. thing in his head, he had to be strong.
"Yeah, sure, but you would destroy everything after, I know it."
'Don't presume to know me, foolish brat.' The malice disappeared and wistfulness took its place. 'I was roaming the untamed skies before your ancestors even knew how to make fire.'
"Whoop dee fucking doo. Now you're stuck in my fucking head. Nice going."
'You jest at something you do not comprehend, human child.' If the voice had a body, it would be slithering all over him. 'Do you even know who I am, what I am?'
"You're power. You're pretty fucking evil. And.. uh.." Naruto paused more for lack of words than dramatics. "You really hate me."
'So I do, little fool, so I do. Not only are you my prison, but you have also become my keeper.'
"What the hell." Naruto sighed, exasperated by the non-answers and the strange statements. "Stop being so mysteriously creepy and just say shit out straight, would you? Shit, you sound like Sasuke being all cryptic like that."
'Ah, yes, the Uchiha boy.' Something in that tone bothered Naruto, the way it seemed to sharpen to unseen edges. 'Your little secret, even from yourself.'
"Huh?" Was it even possible to understand the situation and the conversation any less?
'Foolish human, just leave me be. You annoy me.'
Man, was it him or was this voice in his head a moody son of a bitch?
"I'd leave, if I knew how."
'You know, little brat.' The voice spat, venom racing through the tone. Naruto had a feeling that if he and the voice had corporeal bodies in his headscape, then well, the voice would be strangling the hell out of him right now. 'You know things instinctively, much like I do. You trapped us in here by pure instinct. So get yourself out by instinct.'
"Do you have any idea how little sense you make?"
'Cease and desist your inane questions. I tire of them.' The voice became distant, growing softer and harder to hear. 'Just leave me, leave here, knowing that you have won in a contest of wills against the great Nine- Tails and live to tell it.'
Then it was silent and for the first time since he had come to this white space in his head, Naruto felt that he was truly alone. No voice, no evil presence, just him and this blank, dead place. He only had to get out, but before that, he had to get over the overwhelming sense of disbelief first.
"The great what!?"
--
TBC
Warnings: Look out, characters are seemingly OOC. Language can get rough, plots is thickening, my mind has lost its way..
Disclaimer of sorts: I do not own Naruto, but I have plans..
Another warning: this story is going to be long. Very, very long. So, there won't be quick gratifications, dissolutions or climaxes. Just a rambling story. (I think I just lost about 90% of the people who would read this story.)
Faith and (Dis)Belief
The hall had been built only five years ago, using only the finest of sandstone marble mined from the foothills of the Mountains of the Wind, designed to sparkle under the sun and look imposing in the depth of the night. The ceiling vaulted high, supported by curving staves of mahogany, a single chandelier holding a hundred candles hanging in the center, equidistant from the eight windows cut into the marble walls. At the end of the hall was a throne, a high backed contraption of marble and jade, upholstered in velvet of dark colors embroidered by snakeskin and wolf fur. A man sat on the throne, cupping a glass of dark, red wine, supporting his arms on the massive armrests on either side, smirking at the figure standing before him.
The two men were alone in the hall, bathed on all sides from the sunlight filtering in unhindered through the massive windows, neither saying a word but conveying a world of meaning in silence. The one on the throne, his long, dark hair hanging over his pale face, smoothed a delicate hand over the black robe that covered his lithe body, as he concentrated on the wine that he had not yet drunk.
"So," the man on the throne said, "I see you failed."
"Not at all," replied the one standing, his eyes flickering from black to red back to black, "I think I was quite successful."
"Itachi, your mission was to infiltrate and raze Konoha to the ground." He brushed back his dark hair away from his face and took a sip from his wine. "From what I hear, Konoha still stands, more than four hundred of your reserve forces are dead, and you have sustained some injuries."
Itachi touched the light bruise that still stained his cheek and smiled broadly. When had been the last time that he had met an opponent who could injure him? "Your mission and mine are quite different, my liege," he mocked, emphasizing the title in a hiss, "in case you have forgotten, I'm a mercenary. I don't give a damn about your ambitions."
"But you do give a damn about the fact that I paid." The pale skinned man replied, his lips slithering into a smile, "and if I'm not mistaken, mercenaries are loyal to the one who holds the purse strings."
"Then don't pay me. I could care less."
Itachi knew that despite the smile, the man on the throne was not pleased with his actions. Then again, Itachi did not give a damn; his raid into the fifth line of Konoha had provided him with some interesting diversions and information. Moreover, he had been able to see his brother in action and test him to his limits. To him, the mission was a success, far beyond his expectations.
"So.. how is your brother? Did you let him live?"
Itachi wiped all expression from his face and glared at the man. He certainly knew everything, even how to press his sensitive emotional buttons that he had thought erased from his being.
"You know as well as I do, my liege, that I did not kill him. Your spies must have been quite chatty after the night I had."
"Oh, I do know," came the mocking reply, the soft laughter lacing cruelty into the voice, "I know it better than you, actually." He took another sip of the wine and eyed Itachi closely. "Does he still want to kill you? Take vengeance?"
"Of course." Itachi turned on his heels and took striding steps to the massive wooden doors leading out of the hall. The rest of his reply echoed off the marble walls, reverberating in the vaulted ceiling long after he was gone. "Vengeance is what the righteous man brings to the evil man."
When the doors banged shut and he was alone once again, he leaned back in his throne and drained his wine. Surely, Itachi had not done what he had been ordered to do, but not all was lost. The last of the Uchiha, still a child but of enormous potential, had been brought to his attention. As an added bonus, he was now privy to the level of power possessed by the Demon Bound.
"Itachi, I will make sure that your brother can take vengeance upon you." He tapped his empty glass on the armrest, listening to the clear tinkling of the crystal upon stone. "Then I will let him know the truth of everything and finally attain the power of the Uchiha, the power you could not grant me."
--
Voices speaking way too close to him cut into his happy oblivion, sundering the calm void in which he floated. He wished that they would keep it quiet, because if he woke fully, and he knew he would if they continued in the current level of decibels, he would feel the wrath of all the pains he had cheerfully forgotten about in his void. But the voices kept talking, the sound nothing but a thick murmur in his cotton filled head, coherency lost somewhere between his ears and his addled brain.
He did not want to awake, he knew this. When he awoke, there would be a world of physical pain waiting for him, not to mention all the mental anguish he would have to endure. For now, he just wanted to float formlessly, comfortable and forgetting all the things he had seen and felt. Maybe he was a coward for trying to avoid what he would eventually have to face, but what was wrong with trying to delay the inevitable? Nothing, damn it, everyone did it, even the thoughtless, needlessly brave Naruto.
'Naruto?'
The name circled his brain and hooked on to clarity, bringing forth an image of a smiling face with azure eyes and a mop of sunshine hair. However, overlaid on that happy image was a face with fierce, beastly eyes smoldering in bloodlust, lips curled into a vicious smirk that had made his blood run cold. He shrank back from that dichotomous picture, unable to fully comprehend what it was trying to tell him, furthering himself from the voices trying to remind him of things he was intent on forgetting.
"..nothing left.. laying too still.. can't.."
Disjointed words filtered through despite his best efforts, angling into his consciousness and dragging him out of his self-imposed void. He fought his ascent into reality best he could, but one sentence destroyed all his hopes to remain in the nothingness.
"Naruto is gone, isn't he."
The void disappeared and Sasuke opened his eyes. Above him, the white sheet making the ceiling of the tent fluttered, practically translucent from the light filtering through the thin material. Small shadows from trees above danced on the tent and little motes of dirt drifted through the air, but he noticed none of that, because out of his peripheral vision, he could see Kakashi and the other three commanders of his battalion sitting around a small unlit brazier not two feet away from the bed in which he lay, talking about something impossible.
Naruto was not gone. That was absolutely, unequivocally impossible.
"Is there nothing we can do?"
The worry lining Kurenai's voice, so thick and heavy, made Sasuke turn his head to fully view the four officers. None of them realized that he had finally awoken, not even hearing the light rustle his hair had made against the pillow.
"If there was," Sasuke saw Kakashi run a tired hand over his masked face, "we would've done it by now."
Do what? What in the world were those four babbling about when Naruto just had to be fine? Naruto had been fully healed when he had.. had..
"We must send him back to Konoha, at least to get his Seal monitored."
That was it. Someone was going to explain to him just what the hell had happened and what they were talking about even if he had to throttle it out of them.
Now if he could just get his voice to work, the plan would be a go.
"We know it didn't break. Somehow, it's still intact, but the strain on Naruto's mind must have been too great." Asuma dropped his unlit cigarette into the brazier and took out a fresh one to worry. "In the least, we should be grateful that the demon isn't free."
Frustrated that his larynx would not cooperate, Sasuke raised himself onto his elbows, noting that it was rather painful to do so. For the first time, it occurred to him to look over himself and it vaguely surprised him to find that he was nearly mummified by the bandages covering his body. Had he been so wounded that it required so much medical treatment?
"Sakura won't say what happened," he heard Gai say in an uncharacteristically subdued tone, "and insists that she didn't see anything."
"If only Sasuke would wake up," Kakashi sighed, not having noticed Sasuke's upright position, "then we could get some kind of a story."
Right as Kakashi finished, Sasuke lost the strength he had in his arms and fell heavily onto the bed with enough noise to finally attract the attention of the four commanding officers. Even before his head settled fully into the pillow, four faces hovered above his, all peering at him closely in relief and apprehension.
"Are you okay?"
Sasuke tried to smirk at the ridiculous question posed to him by Kurenai, but his lips chapped and crackled from the movement. Wincing, Sasuke shook his head, and that was enough for Asuma to present him with a glass of water and an arm to help him sit up. He had not known that he was thirsty, but once the cooling liquid dripped onto his lips, he found that he had to restrain himself from gulping it all down. He ignored the four concerned faces staring at him as he drank as reserved as possible, his eyes focused on an innocuous spot just beyond Kakashi's right shoulder.
"How.." Sasuke ventured as soon as the glass was empty and settled on the bed again, "how many days?"
"Three days." Kakashi answered after only a small hesitation. "Asuma, Kurenai and I found you, Naruto and Sakura in a clearing not very far from the old camp site." Kakashi ignored Gai's crying lament that he had been left out, his visible eye never leaving Sasuke's intent glare as he continued. "None of you were conscious, the clearing was scorched beyond recognition and the enemy was gone. We did not find that body."
In other words, his brother had somehow managed to survive that encounter. More accurately, they had survived his brother. The how and why of their survival, Sasuke still could not be sure, but he knew that it had to do with what had happened to Naruto.
"Naruto?"
Sasuke's heart sank when Kakashi turned his face away, presenting him with the profile of his covered eye. What he had heard could not be true, yet if that were the case, why couldn't Kakashi look him in the eyes and tell him that the idiot was fine?
"He still hasn't awoken." Kurenai answered in Kakashi's stead, her face settling into a resigned mask. "We think he never will at this rate."
"But he's alive, right?" Desperation drove Sasuke upright once more, the twinges of pain in his arms forgotten. "He's breathing, his heart is beating, right?"
Kurenai nodded and felt her heart break when Sasuke sighed in relief. How could she tell him that even though the body was healed and alive, the mind had been splintered to the point of no recovery? For three days, ever since they had found the three missing soldiers, they had tried every jutsu and technique they knew to revive Naruto's mind from the wreckage of his inner self, but to no avail. Where Naruto's vibrant and obnoxious self should have been, there was nothing but a blank space, a landscape devoid of humanity. The demon in its efforts to break free from the seal had somehow destroyed Naruto's mind.
The only silver lining in the whole mess was that the demon was nowhere to be found either. Kakashi had feared that with Naruto's mind a blank slate, the demon would have risen up to take up the void and control the body, but the demon had also disappeared from within Naruto. None of them could quite figure where in the hell two presences, especially ones as strong as Naruto and the demon could go and just vanish, but that was the situation as it stood.
So, yes, the physical body was fine. It was in peak health, to be truthful, but it was just an empty shell. Being dead might have been more merciful.
"Can you tell me what happened to Naruto?"
Could they answer him satisfactorily? Could they really explain to him how Naruto had become that terrible being with enough power to drive Itachi away, if Naruto really relished the death shining out of his unnaturally red eyes?
"I wish I could tell you, Sasuke." Kakashi moved away from the young soldier's bed side to stand facing the flapping entrance of the tent. His shoulders tensed as he heard Sasuke's growl, knowing that his answer frustrated the dark haired boy. "Certain things, we must tell Naruto first." If he ever woke up, that is.
"Where is he? I want to see him." Even though things that he could not explain had happened, one thing was for certain. Naruto had actually saved his life. And it was wrong that the idiot wasn't just bursting into the tent with his loud voice, bragging about his heroics and rubbing it into his face.
"He's in a sealed tent and no one is allowed to see him."
"Do I look like I give a damn?" Sasuke turned his enraged face to Asuma, making no effort to suppress the ugly feelings boiling over in his heart. "I have to see him."
"Don't be foolish." Kakashi walked over and tapped Sasuke on his chest, sending a line of pain racing up his sternum to make his vision swim. Sasuke fell back onto the pillow, breathing shallowly. "One touch and you fall over. You're in no condition to move. Stay put."
Gritting his teeth until the enamel ripped off, Sasuke could only watch as his commanding officers nodded and left the tent. Kakashi was right, he could not move without feeling enormous amounts of pain – but that would not stop him from seeing Naruto.
'Why are you so adamant on seeing that idiot? Why don't you just let it be?'
Sasuke snorted at his own mind questioning his motives, but hell if he knew why he had this burning desire to see Naruto, to see him safe, alive and smiling.
Hell if he knew why Naruto mattered so much.
--
Ino carefully set down the breakfast tray she had brought for Sakura on the little table by the bed, knowing that her friend was in no mood to eat. She had healed, most of her grave injuries having been treated almost immediately after Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma had brought them back, but her mind had yet to completely come to grips with whatever it was that had happened. All she knew was that Sasuke was in a coma, Naruto was secreted away in a quarantined tent and Sakura had barely said three words together since she came back.
"So, Shikamaru told me today that I have issues with my image." Ino put a happy face on and began her inane chatter in a voice that made daisies seem downright depressing. She arranged the tray in front of Sakura, taking covers off of the dishes, babbling about whatever topic that entered her head. She could not do much for her friend, but she could at least pretend that everything was okay.
Sakura listened with half an ear as Ino talked on about various things, her green eyes dull as tarnished copper. She still could not forget that last image in her head, Naruto's awful expression and comments swimming around in her head. If that wasn't bad enough, Itachi's taunts and his casual demolishment of Naruto and Sasuke crowded in with the other image, making her head a veritable sea of chaos.
Was she in shock? Did she have the symptoms? She knew that at night, she could not sleep because she knew nightmares were waiting for her to close her eyes, ready to pounce and wring her dry. During the day, her dazed mind played through the traumatic events in the woods, of Itachi and Sasuke, of Naruto who had said things that she never imagined the boy would say. Some images came to her clearly, like a painting done in vivid colors, but some images were blurry and dreary, as if she had seen it through a stained glass window of the darkest scarlet.
Everyday, one of the commanding officers came by to see her under the pretenses of seeing how she was coping, but she knew better. Even if she denied it to them, they knew that she had seen the enemy in the woods, that she had seen the events that had unfolded before her eyes like an unrolling silk screen. They wanted to know the details, the horrifying things that she had seen.
She should tell them, it would probably help out Sasuke and Naruto if they knew Itachi had trapped them in a genjutsu and that Naruto had changed. But the words would not form, her lips only mouthing out patently lackluster and frankly unbelievable denials of knowledge. Every time she tried to tell them something, her voice locked and nothing emerged.
Sakura raised her head slightly to avoid the steam from the rice watering her vision and saw her friend Ino, sitting on her bed with a smile wide enough to crack, talking up a storm about inconsequential things. The long haired blonde had shown up at least three times a day with her meals, always with that smile and demeanor, never asking her about what had happened. Most of the times, Sakura paid her no attention, too lost in her own nightmarish dreamscape, but for some reason, right now, she wanted to listen. She wanted to hear what Ino had to say, what her best friend would do when she found out about the turmoil whirling in her mind.
"Ino.." Sakura whispered, her voice a tinny scratch on glass. Immediately, Ino stopped talking and smiled beatifically at Sakura, putting on an expression that reminded Sakura of mothers and saints.
"How is everyone?"
There, she had said something. Ino had never told her the news with Sasuke and Naruto in all her rambles, keeping to things that she thought would not upset the delicate Sakura. But even if she was still traumatized or whatever, she should have inquired about her friends and comrades sooner, right? After all, the only reason she was alive to hear Ino chatter and have ghostly nightmares, was because of Sasuke and Naruto.
"Oh, fine. You should've seen Kiba asking Shino if he could communicate with fleas. I thought Shino was going to-"
"Stop it, Ino!" Sakura punched the top of her tray, sending foodstuff flying onto the floor. Ino looked on, her face still split into that forever smile, but her eyes wary and somehow proud. "Stop it. I know I'm weak and I know I haven't been the best soldier. But I need you to tell me now." Tears prickled at the corners of her jade eyes, pooling at the shallows, threatening to fall. "Tell me, please. How are they?"
"Sasuke is in the tent next to yours. He's still sleeping." She let the news settle before she plunged into the more disturbing one. "Naruto is in quarantine, and from what they won't say, it's pretty bad."
Sakura twirled a bit of her long, pink hair in her fingers, an old nervous habit emerging at the behest of bad news. However, she swallowed the lumpy tears and nodded to Ino to continue.
"Whatever it was that happened to you three, it must've been bad, huh?" When Sakura nodded, Ino sighed, reaching out to hold Sakura's hand. "Well, that's all I know. No one's talking, most especially you."
"I know," Sakura breathed, "I know I have to say something. But when I try, I can't. I really can't, Ino. I don't even know how to begin."
Unable to watch Sakura's pained face any longer, Ino scooted forward and enfolded her hurting friend in a warm hug, fiercely holding onto the girl who was her best friend.
"It's okay, Sakura." Ino patted her back soothingly, letting her voice gentle into a bare whisper. "It's okay to cry, to admit that it scares you."
Ino held her as the dam burst and the tears flowed, rocking the shaking form back and forth, glad that her friend had finally come out of that frozen shell and feeling her heart squeeze at the pain that welled forth from each wracking sob.
--
The darkness in the tent, unblemished but for the glowing banked fire in the brazier, enveloped him like a blanket. The day had been hard, what with all the people coming in and out of his tent. First, he had woken from three day's worth of nothing only to face the concerns and ravaging worries about Naruto. Then the news that he had finally regained consciousness had flooded into the camp and all manners of people had come to see him.
All but Naruto.
He had stoically borne the attention of his four commanding officers who had come in intermittently throughout the day to ask him about Itachi and the occurrences that had led to such a catastrophic destruction of a mile radius wide area. He had answered the best he could, told them everything that he had seen, and had seen Kakashi's one eye light up when he had mentioned the Sharingan. They had not seemed too surprised about anything else though, only grunting distastefully when Itachi was mentioned and showing no reaction whatsoever at Naruto's seeming transformation and sudden acquisition of power.
If that had not been draining enough, he had been subjected to the 121's version of a hospital visit. First, Sakura had come in to sob into his bed, apologizing for all manner of things and brokenly asking for forgiveness at her inactions. Thank the gods that Ino had been there to mitigate that because Sasuke had been at a complete loss as to how to behave. He had sent her off by telling her that she had nothing to be sorry for, only to make her cry even harder, and had received a small nod of acknowledgement from Ino for his efforts.
Shortly thereafter, the rest of them had come barging in, questioning him about everything that had happened. Apparently, whatever the commanders had told the rest of the 121 had not been quite enough to satisfy their curiosity and they as a collective, had decided to descend upon him like a swarm of locusts. His head still spun from the flurry of questions for which he had no answers, and they might still be here in the middle of the night asking him things if Kakashi had not come in to chase them all out.
Now, it was silent and dark, and he was left alone with his own thoughts. All of them circled around Naruto, but then again, as of late, Naruto seemed to be the only thing in his mind.
How strange and perturbing.
Whatever the case, he would force his way into Naruto's tent tomorrow, damn the seals and quarantines, to see his idiot rival. Then, after he made sure that the boy was alive and drag him back into the world of the conscious, he would ponder why he thought of Naruto so much and get his head examined fully.
--
"How long do you suppose we'll be here?"
Hint of a chuckle brushed by him, leaving behind an unpleasant tingle. Naruto ignored it and merely waited for the answer, knowing that sooner or later, it would have to come.
'Stupid brat.' The chuckle died and a firestorm of rage smothered Naruto before dissipating like a waft of smoke. 'We're here because of you and you dare to ask me how long?'
"Like I actually know what the fuck is going on." Naruto settled comfortably, imagining that he was leaning against something soft and cushy. "You're the one who tried to take me over, ain't ya?"
'You asked for power. Did I not give it to you?'
"Sure, but I didn't say, hey, come take my body and try to erase me from all of existence."
Naruto knew that this was all in his head. The voice, the arguments, everything. Still, that made it no less annoying; he still could not find that light, the brightness of consciousness. So, here he was, stuck with that ominous presence that had seduced him into a coma. If he had not been so damned stubborn, the voice would have taken him over completely, and then who knew what could've happened?
'You worthless child. If I inhabit that crude thing you call a body, it would be so powerful that this pitiful thing you called war would be over in a blink.'
The arrogance and malice dripping from that voice was practically solid, forcing Naruto to repress that stab of fear. If he was going to win against this.. thing in his head, he had to be strong.
"Yeah, sure, but you would destroy everything after, I know it."
'Don't presume to know me, foolish brat.' The malice disappeared and wistfulness took its place. 'I was roaming the untamed skies before your ancestors even knew how to make fire.'
"Whoop dee fucking doo. Now you're stuck in my fucking head. Nice going."
'You jest at something you do not comprehend, human child.' If the voice had a body, it would be slithering all over him. 'Do you even know who I am, what I am?'
"You're power. You're pretty fucking evil. And.. uh.." Naruto paused more for lack of words than dramatics. "You really hate me."
'So I do, little fool, so I do. Not only are you my prison, but you have also become my keeper.'
"What the hell." Naruto sighed, exasperated by the non-answers and the strange statements. "Stop being so mysteriously creepy and just say shit out straight, would you? Shit, you sound like Sasuke being all cryptic like that."
'Ah, yes, the Uchiha boy.' Something in that tone bothered Naruto, the way it seemed to sharpen to unseen edges. 'Your little secret, even from yourself.'
"Huh?" Was it even possible to understand the situation and the conversation any less?
'Foolish human, just leave me be. You annoy me.'
Man, was it him or was this voice in his head a moody son of a bitch?
"I'd leave, if I knew how."
'You know, little brat.' The voice spat, venom racing through the tone. Naruto had a feeling that if he and the voice had corporeal bodies in his headscape, then well, the voice would be strangling the hell out of him right now. 'You know things instinctively, much like I do. You trapped us in here by pure instinct. So get yourself out by instinct.'
"Do you have any idea how little sense you make?"
'Cease and desist your inane questions. I tire of them.' The voice became distant, growing softer and harder to hear. 'Just leave me, leave here, knowing that you have won in a contest of wills against the great Nine- Tails and live to tell it.'
Then it was silent and for the first time since he had come to this white space in his head, Naruto felt that he was truly alone. No voice, no evil presence, just him and this blank, dead place. He only had to get out, but before that, he had to get over the overwhelming sense of disbelief first.
"The great what!?"
--
TBC