The reviews were very positive and I appreciated every last word. Gives me
a funny feeling (in a good way) in my tummy, it does. Anyway, here's the
next part, let's hope it's satisfactory.
Warnings: a lull, mood swings, swearing, grammar mistakes I have not caught.
Disclaimer: Naruto, not mine.
--
The Uncertain Paths of Emotions
It had taken the better part of a lovely, sunny morning for Sasuke to get out of his tent undetected and unfettered. For the first time in his life, he had feigned weakness to get rid of the people hanging about him, most especially Sakura who was determined to 'take care' of him. She had come in at first light bearing a host of foods and medicines, fresh bandages hanging off the tray's edge, smiling like a loon and scaring the wits out of him with her forced cheer. He had a feeling that mostly, she was not there to take care of him but to ease her guilt. After all, a person did not go from shocked silence to crying lamentations to chipper cheer in just one day.
Even knowing that Sakura was doing it to make herself feel better, Sasuke could not get rid of her fast enough. Unfortunately, other people had come to ruin his well laid plans as well, and the sun had reached almost its apex before he had finally just collapsed and claimed extreme tiredness, causing the people around him to quickly leave to let him rest.
Little did they know that he planned on no rest, just a bit of a stealth mission into Naruto's quarantine tent.
After doing a simple jutsu to put a replacement body in the bed, Sasuke slipped out of the tent, keeping a careful eye out for anyone who could possibly send him back to rest. His legs felt a bit rubbery, but they were up to the task of brushing across the grass without leaving a mark. With nary a noise, Sasuke flitted towards the quarantine tent, the only tent with distinct drawn seals on the fabric and guards around the perimeter.
Four guards, two in the front and two in the back, stood in various stages of the slouch, each of them looking terribly bored about their posts. However, Sasuke could see past the image, the pretense, and see the glint of duty and determination painting their eyes. It was as if they were guarding something more precious than an innocent soul, more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose.
More than the guards, the seals worried him. He did not recognize them, not at all, and he could not exactly ask Kakashi to explain it to him. Sasuke knew that he was well versed in many of the jutsus and the seals, but it seemed, the knowledge he possessed would not be enough to get him into that tent unnoticed. From the reactions his commanding officers had given the day before, he knew that if he wanted to see Naruto, it would have to be in secret and in silence.
Achieving that, though.. maybe he should have thought about it a mite bit more.
He crouched in his hiding place, a well placed shrubbery that blended like a second skin in a forest of this type, contemplating his choices. He had various scenarios and ideas that he considered then discarded, each plan becoming harder to put into action in reality. If he got around the guards, then the seals would get him. If he found a way around the seals.. well, how the hell did he do that when he did not know anything about them?
"I'll take you, okay?"
If Sasuke had not been a well trained ninja with good reflexes and control over his reactions, he would have screamed like a five year old girl with a mouse down her dress.
"Kakashi." Sasuke turned his head carefully, craning his neck to look up at the mildly amused commander, his black eyes betraying nothing of his thumping heart about to make a jumping leap from his mouth. "Why didn't you say so before I went through all this trouble?"
"Oh, no reason, really," Kakashi mumbled through his mask, his face as unreadable and placid as ever, "I just enjoyed watching the skulking."
"I do not skulk," Sasuke retorted, getting up to stand and brushing dirt off his medical gown of drab, sullen gray that covered him to his knees. "I stealth."
"I think 'stealth' is not a verb."
"I think you're an ass."
Kakashi considered that for a moment. "Quite right."
--
Naruto laid on the bed, covered to his chin in a white sheet that Sasuke knew to be scratchy. His face betrayed no expression, his hair laid in a tangle around his face and his form was unnaturally still. Sasuke could remember spending all those nights in the bed next to Naruto as his roommate, getting annoyed and frustrated by the blonde who could not keep quiet even when asleep. Naruto had been prone to sleep talking, thrashing his limbs around until the blankets bunched up and eventually hog tied him, forever making noise even when he was supposed to be quiet.
Therefore, this Naruto who lied like he was dead was not right.
He felt the weight of Kakashi's stare on his back, but he let it wash over him. In this tent lit only by the softly filtered sunlight, there was no Kakashi, no guards peering in through the gaps in the tent. No, in this moment, only he and Naruto were present, one sleeping as if dead and the other standing over that stilled form, dressed in bandages and a robe.
"Hey, idiot." Sasuke sat on the edge of the bed, his weight barely displacing the sheets that covered the blonde, and rested his hand near Naruto's arm. "Don't you look pathetic, laying there like a lump."
Only shallow breathing answered him and a slow burning gnaw began in his stomach. According to what Kakashi had told him in their short walk to the tent, Naruto had been like this since he had been found, still and silent. What surprised Sasuke more was that Kakashi had gravely informed him that Naruto's mind was gone, that even the most well trained medics with training in mental revival had not found any traces of that boisterous idiot's personality. However, Sasuke refused to believe that Naruto could just abandon his body and the world like that. If anything, the idiot fought tooth and nail to be the person that he is, never letting the barbs and insults of Konoha's denizens get to him, never letting the outside forces win against his indomitable spirit.
'There is no way you would just leave yourself.' Sasuke smiled, his hand gripping the sheet into a hard ball, 'no possible way that you won't find your way back.'
Minutes passed into an hour, and still Sasuke did not make motions to leave Naruto's side. Outside, the guards who had peeped out of curiosity had long lost interest and wandered back to their posts, and Kakashi had taken a seat on an unstable stool to doze off by the flap of the tent. Sasuke, however, sat still on the bed, looking at Naruto, his mind shouting quiet encouragements to the unconscious idiot whom he knew to be stronger than this.
"What happened to you, Naruto?" Sasuke leaned forward so that his face was mere inches from Naruto's sleeping one, his dark eyes hidden by the fall of his hair. "What was it that took you over? It's because I know you. I know you, and that was not entirely you."
As expected, no answers came, and Sasuke sat upright again, his mouth in a scowl. However, looking at that face that had haunted him for an entire night, the scowl smoothed out to a small smile, gentle but playful. It was a sweet sight, the dark haired boy staring at the blonde one, a study of contrasts that melded into a picturesque scene. Kakashi watched through the crack of his eyelid, smirking inwardly at the lovely tableau, wondering if he should take a picture of this touching scene and blackmail his soldiers for all their worth later on in life.
The silver haired ninja restrained the muscles of his cheeks from forming a smile when Sasuke reached out with his right hand and softly brushed his fingers over Naruto's cheek, almost caressing the skin marred only by the permanent scars that gave Naruto his fox like face. It was so gentle, so sweet, that Kakashi literally fell out of his chair in surprise when that same caressing hand went out far to Sasuke's side, to fall in a sharp crack of a slap across the same cheek that it had touched only moments before in reverence.
'Tough love, there..' Kakashi could only dumbly think as he tried to extricate himself off the floor and the fallen stool. He had barely gotten his feet under him when Sasuke raised his hand again and backhanded Naruto's yet untouched cheek in another vicious slap, leaving behind a red print to match the one already rising like a blush in the other cheek.
"What are you doing?" Brushing back his silver hair, Kakashi sauntered towards the bed, his hands at his sides. Sasuke deigned to turn his head slightly at Kakashi's approach, his dark eyes sparkling with an unreadable emotion, but did not stop in raising his hand again for another hit.
"I realized something." Slap. "Naruto isn't the kind of idiot who likes quiet words and gentle support." Smack. "He needs this, the damned moron." Crack. "Wake up, you empty headed bastard."
Kakashi did not stop Sasuke's slapping, nor did he comment on what he had heard. In a way, Sasuke had made sense, albeit a strange, warped kind of a sense. Anyhow, this was one method that had not been tried before, so who was he to say that it would not work?
After about the tenth slap, Sasuke felt the sting in his hand and opted for another method of violence. He picked up Naruto by the collar of his medical gown, the same, gray one that he was wearing, and shook him, rolling the blond head about the shoulders with the force.
"Hey, Naruto," Sasuke said, his voice hard but not loud, "don't you want to wake up and see why the hell you are letting me beat on you?"
'Well, that's going to cause some whiplash.' The thought surfaced as a mild expression on Kakashi's face, his hand rubbing his chin slowly. He wondered briefly if he should put a stop to Sasuke's abuse of a defenseless boy, but chucked the idea when he detected a trace of desperation underlying the dark haired soldier's measured words.
"Idiot, don't you have things you want to say to me?" The shaking became more frantic, sending strands of blond hair to fly about in abandon. "Don't you want to tell me how much better you are than me?"
No matter how sorry he felt for Sasuke, Kakashi could not let this go on for much longer. Despite the fact that Naruto healed physically at a rate that was inhuman, all this shaking was probably going to cause brain damage, something Naruto could not afford. Sighing softly, Kakashi moved to drag Sasuke away from Naruto, but was thwarted in his efforts by the unconscious blonde himself.
Naruto moved.
Kakashi's right eyebrow climbed steadily into his hairline as Naruto's hand came up to clutch at Sasuke's that had him by the throat. The shaking stopped immediately, Sasuke's surprised and pleased eyes staring at the hand that had him by the wrist, squeezing hard enough to turn the knuckles white and cut off his circulation.
"Stop.." A raspy voice emerged from Naruto, scratchy from disuse but no less irate for it. "Stop shaking me, asshole."
Sasuke watched in mute fascination as Naruto struggled to open his eyes, wrinkling his forehead in effort. The hand grasping his wrist never let up and he felt his hand tingle from lack of proper circulation, but he dared not turn away. He had to see Naruto's eyes to make sure that they were his, the blue of a cloudless sky, not the red.
"Is this how you treat an injured person, jackhole?" Naruto opened his eyes half way, revealing blue orbs so intensely bright that breath left Sasuke. "I save your sorry ass and I gotta wake to you trying to kill me?"
Sasuke recovered from whatever that had his throat tight quickly and responded, his lips quirking into his trademark smirk. "At least you're awake, idiot. And you're not injured at all, so stop your whining." His smirk widened when Naruto's eyes opened fully to stare at him incredulously. "Were you going to sleep forever, idiot?"
Angry and somewhat disconcerted at Sasuke's proximity, Naruto sputtered before he could get actual, recognizable words out. "If this is what I get, then shit, asshole, I'd rather go back to that white space talking to that-"
An uncomfortable silence fell, Naruto's jaw agape from what he could not say and staring unseeing into Sasuke's puzzled face. The moments he had spent lost in the white place came rushing back to him in a flood, the words, the evil, the final revelation. The memories of his fight against Itachi also came in a fast blur, accompanied by unfamiliar emotions, and they all blended together to create a havoc in his newly conscious mind.
Abruptly, Naruto wrenched off Sasuke's hands now lax from inattention and pushed the dark haired boy off the bed. Sasuke let him, confused and worried about Naruto's sudden change in mood and behavior, staggering on unsteady feet. The look on the blonde's face, his brows crinkled and his mouth twisted in disgust, made him keep the questions from being voiced.
"Well, now, Naruto, shouldn't you be happier about being awake?"
Dull blue eyes flickered towards Kakashi, taking in the nonchalant face and relaxed form in one quick glance. Sasuke warily watched, unsure of what to say, how to react, as his commanding officer strolled to Naruto's side. The blond ninja started a bit when Kakashi reached out and touched his forehead with his index finger, but otherwise did not move. Sasuke tensed when he felt a trickle of chakra from Kakashi, his muscles settling into a stance for defense. Then, common sense kicked in, identified Kakashi as an ally instead of an enemy, and Sasuke forced his body to let go. How much a fool was he to think Kakashi would hurt Naruto and why would he even think about protecting the idiot?
'Denial must be hard,' Kakashi mused as he saw Sasuke's subtle change in posture and the struggle to keep it as innocuous as possible. 'Fifteen is not the best age for figuring anything out.'
The masked ninja scanned Naruto's mind, checking for anomalies and defects. Although he was not an expert on these things, his specialties lay elsewhere, he knew what to look for and to a certain extent, what to fix. It was surprising that a violent attack from Sasuke woke Naruto when countless complex jutsus developed over centuries had no effect, but results were results. The blonde was awake and boy, did he ever wake noisily. All he had to do was confirm that this was indeed Naruto, though there was little doubt that it was from his behavior so far, and that he had not brought back a passenger with him in the form of a demon.
"Good, good." Kakashi lowered his hand and nodded thoughtfully. "It's just you."
"Just.. me." Naruto stared hard at his commanding officer who gave him a hint of a smile through the mask. "What is that supposed to.." Words died on his lips and his eyes widened impossibly as several things clicked at once. Kakashi's relief, the smile, the words..
"You know." It was a statement, not a question. "You.. you fucking know, don't you?"
A growl erupted from low in his throat as he launched out of the bed to grab Kakashi by his green vest. Barely balanced on his toes, his hands fisted roughly in the coarse material of the uniform vest, Naruto stared up at the taller ninja in shocked accusation.
"You know that.. that thing.." So many things he wanted to say, to scream, but the words caught and came out in a tumble. "Who else knows? Just you? Why.. how.."
Calmly, Kakashi rested his hands on Naruto's shoulders, looking down at the enraged ninja with a bit of apprehension.
"Relax, Naruto. Calm down."
The soft commands grated on Naruto further, and instead of blunting the edges of his anger, it exacerbated the fires of his rage.
"Don't fucking tell me to calm down!" Spittle flew from his mouth and his hands grabbed on harder. "How can I when you know? You know about.. Damn it to hell, Nine-Tails.."
A thick silence spread out in the small tent as the last of Naruto's words died down in an uneasy echo. Kakashi grimaced, his visible eye narrowing to a slit, as he disengaged Naruto's hands from his vest and pushed down the blonde onto the bed. Naruto's expression faltered with the movement, going from angry to sullen resignation in a heartbeat, and he sat, staring helplessly at the floor.
"Nine-Tails?"
A jolt ran through Naruto's system at the unbelieving voice and his head sharply turned to face Sasuke, standing not three feet away from him.
'Oh shit, Sasuke.. he's still here!' What the hell was he doing, blurting out shit like that with him still within hearing distance! How was he going to explain this? Could he even try?
Sasuke pushed Kakashi out of the way, the silver haired ninja allowing the shove to his chest, and grabbed Naruto by his shoulders. Dark eyes flashed with a mess of emotions as they stared hard into panicked blues, but the hands remained gentle on the shoulders.
Nothing was said, no words uttered. Between the two boys, tension mounted, one arising from confusion, the other from wordless panic. Kakashi wondered if he should break up this scene, drag Sasuke out of the tent and explain the situation to Naruto in privacy, but yet again, Naruto surprised him.
As sudden as his awakening, Naruto wrenched away from Sasuke's steady eyes, turning his head away with a snarl. With surprising strength borne of desperation, Naruto pushed aside both Sasuke and Kakashi, his feet a steady fast staccato on the bare, dirt floor of the tent, as he hurled his body into the exiting flap of the tent.
Perhaps Kakashi should have told Naruto that the tent was in quarantine and only a special jutsu could get a person in and out of the tent, but alas, he had not the chance to mention it to the distraught blonde. Therefore, instead of the intense, dramatic exit that it should have been, Naruto ended up running into an invisible barrier flat out, his arms and legs out at spread eagle, his nose squished up against solid air and his mouth muttering curses to high heavens.
"Motherfucking.. Ow.." Naruto carefully peeled his flattened body off the barrier, holding his bruised nose in his hands. "What in seven hells.."
"Ah, yes." The commanding officer put his hand in front of his masked face to hide the tell tale lines of a grin forming. "I forgot to mention that this tent is sealed."
"How fucking convenient of you," Naruto complained, turning around to shoot the silver haired man a glare that could have pulverized steel. "And stop your damned laughing! I can see it!"
The tension that had been so solid only moments before evaporated, leaving Sasuke feeling rather hollow inside. Into that space, something odd bubbled over as he watched Naruto berate Kakashi for letting him run into the barrier unwarned. He knew that if he started laughing now, it would be taken very badly, and besides, that kind of went against his reputation for being very composed and stoic. Still, the picture of Naruto comically spread out on the barrier tickled his throat, almost enough to make him forget that he had been shocked, confused and had heard something very strange only moments ago.
"Idiot," Sasuke said, his voice only wavering slightly from the suppressed laughter, "why don't you sit down before you hurt yourself more?"
"Shut up, asshole."
However, Naruto took the advice and shuffled back to the bed, gingerly sitting with his elbows resting on his knees. His eyes shifted back to Sasuke, spikes of blond hair shifting restlessly on his head, and gave him a thorough once-over with a grimace.
"Man, you're all messed up, ain't you?" His eyes paused on Sasuke's crossed arms covered in bandages, then advanced further up to look him in his dark eyes. "Itachi really got you, huh?"
Swallowing the vile taste the name conjured up, Sasuke shrugged, feeling a bit of a twinge from his quite unhealed muscles. "Yeah, he did." But he had hurt Naruto as well, if not more. "Nothing I can't handle, though."
"Is he really your brother?"
"Yes." What would be the point in denying that now, after all that had happened?
"Why was he trying to kill you, then?"
'Because he killed everyone who ever mattered to me,' thought Sasuke, the scene from eight years ago flitting through his mind. 'Because I'm the only one left in the Uchiha clan.'
Instead, he answered, "none of your business, idiot."
For a moment, it seemed that Naruto would burst out with various accusations and tell him to go stuff his business up his ass. After all, hadn't Itachi tried to kill not only him but Naruto as well? Yet, no words came, not even an accusing finger pointed his way. Instead, he saw the anger in Naruto freeze over as he broke eye contact to stare at the floor.
"Yeah, you're right." It wasn't as if they were friends, as if they could tell each other the deep, dark secrets in their hearts. So, there should be no earthly reason why Sasuke's answer shot that lance of pain through him. "Sorry I asked."
Sighing into the latest uncomfortable silence in the tent, Kakashi walked to the tent flap and performed the jutsu that would dispel the barrier. It would be better for these two if they were separated now, before they could say more things to hurt each other's feelings. As it was, the damage incurred seemed bad enough, if their iced over non-communication was of any indication. When the seal was undone, Kakashi used gentle force to guide Sasuke out of the tent, the boy following behind him dejectedly with feet dragging.
"Wait," Sasuke whispered, his feet stopping just short of a complete exit, "what were you talking about, Naruto? Nine-Tails?"
A short, pregnant pause followed and Kakashi berated himself in his mind for not bodily carrying the Uchiha heir out before he spoke.
"You don't have the right to ask me that." Naruto's response was unusually cold, sending an unwelcome shiver down Sasuke's spine. "To quote you, none of your business."
Feeling as if he lost something, Sasuke walked out of the tent with a heavy heart. Maybe it was a good time to get that head exam he had been contemplating, because there was no reason that he should feel the nausea building in his stomach or the slow tightening in his chest.
--
Hinata walked briskly, yet ladylike, holding a steaming pot in her hands. The news that Naruto had finally woken up had brushed through the camp like a forest fire and she had spent the last three hours preparing a wake-up gift for the blonde energy bomb. Her face flushed from excitement and a bit of nervousness, she tread towards the quarantine tent which was no longer under lock and seal.
From what Kurenai had told the rest of the 121, Naruto had come back to them in perfect mind and health, much to her relief. Hinata had spent three sleepless nights worried sick over the loud ninja who always had something outrageous to say. Kurenai had warned them he would not be ready for visitors for several hours, but that had been well, several hours ago. By now, she should be able to see Naruto and offer him a gift for so bravely fighting to come back to life.
She was no more than a few shy steps away from seeing Naruto's tent in her view when suddenly, she found herself flanked on either side by girls from her battalion. To her left, Ino stared at the steaming pot in her hand curiously, her blond hair falling over one shoulder, and to her right, Sakura glanced at her rapidly blushing face with rapt attention. Belatedly, Hinata saw that TenTen was also with them, smiling encouragingly from her far right, her eyebrows waggling.
"So, what is this?" A delicate sniff followed Ino's question, eliciting an approving squeal. "Oh, it's ramen!"
"Right.. ramen." Sakura nodded knowingly, slyly grinning. "Just happens to be someone's favorite."
An actual giggle came out of TenTen's mouth. "I wonder who it could be."
It was a wonder that Hinata hadn't spontaneously combusted from the blushing.
"So. Where in the world did you find all this stuff? I thought we only brought field rations." Ino glared at the pot enviously, wanting to eat something more than whatever paper and rat poison which comprised their field ration. "Don't tell me you took things out of the cook tent! Although, I don't remember them having anything but rice and some fishy kind of things.."
Hinata blushed even darker, turning into a curious shade of fuchsia, as she stammered out that no, certainly not, she would never break rules like that since the food in the cook tent was assigned to certain injured people. When the girls kept eyeing her curiously, she lowered her eyes but refused to elaborate further, not going into the gruesome details of giving Kurenai the sad, broken puppy eyes until she had handed over the precious package nor the three hour foraging in the woods for the proper mushrooms and herbs.
Instead, unsteady as her voice was, Hinata opted to change the subject to something that she knew Sakura and Ino loved to talk of incessantly: Uchiha Sasuke.
"I didn't see Sasuke in the meeting," Hinata ventured bravely as they got ever closer to Naruto, "is he still abed?"
"Of course!" Ino flipped her hair artfully, tilting her chin to show off her flawless profile. "Sasuke was so horribly injured. He needs rest. Besides, it's not like Sasuke would care about Naruto, you know."
"Oh." Hinata could say nothing more. She wasn't entirely sure if Sasuke and Naruto were friends or not, but from what little she had observed, she had not gotten the impression that they truly hated each other.
"I wonder about that.." Sakura said very softly so that Hinata did not think she heard it clearly. Too polite to inquire further, Hinata pretended that the pink haired girl said nothing. If anything, she was glad they were no longer talking about her gift to Naruto. It embarrassed her to be so teased, especially when it seemed that these girls knew that she had a crush on a certain blonde boy. How they had figured it out, she had no idea, it's not like she told anyone. Hell, she hardly ever spoke.
"Well, come on," TenTen announced, "let's go see our battalion idiot. I'm sure Hinata wants to, right?"
Surrounded by good natured teasing, Hinata resolutely stamped down the urge to run away and marched towards the tent.
Finally, she'd see Naruto again.
--
TBC
--
Warnings: a lull, mood swings, swearing, grammar mistakes I have not caught.
Disclaimer: Naruto, not mine.
--
The Uncertain Paths of Emotions
It had taken the better part of a lovely, sunny morning for Sasuke to get out of his tent undetected and unfettered. For the first time in his life, he had feigned weakness to get rid of the people hanging about him, most especially Sakura who was determined to 'take care' of him. She had come in at first light bearing a host of foods and medicines, fresh bandages hanging off the tray's edge, smiling like a loon and scaring the wits out of him with her forced cheer. He had a feeling that mostly, she was not there to take care of him but to ease her guilt. After all, a person did not go from shocked silence to crying lamentations to chipper cheer in just one day.
Even knowing that Sakura was doing it to make herself feel better, Sasuke could not get rid of her fast enough. Unfortunately, other people had come to ruin his well laid plans as well, and the sun had reached almost its apex before he had finally just collapsed and claimed extreme tiredness, causing the people around him to quickly leave to let him rest.
Little did they know that he planned on no rest, just a bit of a stealth mission into Naruto's quarantine tent.
After doing a simple jutsu to put a replacement body in the bed, Sasuke slipped out of the tent, keeping a careful eye out for anyone who could possibly send him back to rest. His legs felt a bit rubbery, but they were up to the task of brushing across the grass without leaving a mark. With nary a noise, Sasuke flitted towards the quarantine tent, the only tent with distinct drawn seals on the fabric and guards around the perimeter.
Four guards, two in the front and two in the back, stood in various stages of the slouch, each of them looking terribly bored about their posts. However, Sasuke could see past the image, the pretense, and see the glint of duty and determination painting their eyes. It was as if they were guarding something more precious than an innocent soul, more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose.
More than the guards, the seals worried him. He did not recognize them, not at all, and he could not exactly ask Kakashi to explain it to him. Sasuke knew that he was well versed in many of the jutsus and the seals, but it seemed, the knowledge he possessed would not be enough to get him into that tent unnoticed. From the reactions his commanding officers had given the day before, he knew that if he wanted to see Naruto, it would have to be in secret and in silence.
Achieving that, though.. maybe he should have thought about it a mite bit more.
He crouched in his hiding place, a well placed shrubbery that blended like a second skin in a forest of this type, contemplating his choices. He had various scenarios and ideas that he considered then discarded, each plan becoming harder to put into action in reality. If he got around the guards, then the seals would get him. If he found a way around the seals.. well, how the hell did he do that when he did not know anything about them?
"I'll take you, okay?"
If Sasuke had not been a well trained ninja with good reflexes and control over his reactions, he would have screamed like a five year old girl with a mouse down her dress.
"Kakashi." Sasuke turned his head carefully, craning his neck to look up at the mildly amused commander, his black eyes betraying nothing of his thumping heart about to make a jumping leap from his mouth. "Why didn't you say so before I went through all this trouble?"
"Oh, no reason, really," Kakashi mumbled through his mask, his face as unreadable and placid as ever, "I just enjoyed watching the skulking."
"I do not skulk," Sasuke retorted, getting up to stand and brushing dirt off his medical gown of drab, sullen gray that covered him to his knees. "I stealth."
"I think 'stealth' is not a verb."
"I think you're an ass."
Kakashi considered that for a moment. "Quite right."
--
Naruto laid on the bed, covered to his chin in a white sheet that Sasuke knew to be scratchy. His face betrayed no expression, his hair laid in a tangle around his face and his form was unnaturally still. Sasuke could remember spending all those nights in the bed next to Naruto as his roommate, getting annoyed and frustrated by the blonde who could not keep quiet even when asleep. Naruto had been prone to sleep talking, thrashing his limbs around until the blankets bunched up and eventually hog tied him, forever making noise even when he was supposed to be quiet.
Therefore, this Naruto who lied like he was dead was not right.
He felt the weight of Kakashi's stare on his back, but he let it wash over him. In this tent lit only by the softly filtered sunlight, there was no Kakashi, no guards peering in through the gaps in the tent. No, in this moment, only he and Naruto were present, one sleeping as if dead and the other standing over that stilled form, dressed in bandages and a robe.
"Hey, idiot." Sasuke sat on the edge of the bed, his weight barely displacing the sheets that covered the blonde, and rested his hand near Naruto's arm. "Don't you look pathetic, laying there like a lump."
Only shallow breathing answered him and a slow burning gnaw began in his stomach. According to what Kakashi had told him in their short walk to the tent, Naruto had been like this since he had been found, still and silent. What surprised Sasuke more was that Kakashi had gravely informed him that Naruto's mind was gone, that even the most well trained medics with training in mental revival had not found any traces of that boisterous idiot's personality. However, Sasuke refused to believe that Naruto could just abandon his body and the world like that. If anything, the idiot fought tooth and nail to be the person that he is, never letting the barbs and insults of Konoha's denizens get to him, never letting the outside forces win against his indomitable spirit.
'There is no way you would just leave yourself.' Sasuke smiled, his hand gripping the sheet into a hard ball, 'no possible way that you won't find your way back.'
Minutes passed into an hour, and still Sasuke did not make motions to leave Naruto's side. Outside, the guards who had peeped out of curiosity had long lost interest and wandered back to their posts, and Kakashi had taken a seat on an unstable stool to doze off by the flap of the tent. Sasuke, however, sat still on the bed, looking at Naruto, his mind shouting quiet encouragements to the unconscious idiot whom he knew to be stronger than this.
"What happened to you, Naruto?" Sasuke leaned forward so that his face was mere inches from Naruto's sleeping one, his dark eyes hidden by the fall of his hair. "What was it that took you over? It's because I know you. I know you, and that was not entirely you."
As expected, no answers came, and Sasuke sat upright again, his mouth in a scowl. However, looking at that face that had haunted him for an entire night, the scowl smoothed out to a small smile, gentle but playful. It was a sweet sight, the dark haired boy staring at the blonde one, a study of contrasts that melded into a picturesque scene. Kakashi watched through the crack of his eyelid, smirking inwardly at the lovely tableau, wondering if he should take a picture of this touching scene and blackmail his soldiers for all their worth later on in life.
The silver haired ninja restrained the muscles of his cheeks from forming a smile when Sasuke reached out with his right hand and softly brushed his fingers over Naruto's cheek, almost caressing the skin marred only by the permanent scars that gave Naruto his fox like face. It was so gentle, so sweet, that Kakashi literally fell out of his chair in surprise when that same caressing hand went out far to Sasuke's side, to fall in a sharp crack of a slap across the same cheek that it had touched only moments before in reverence.
'Tough love, there..' Kakashi could only dumbly think as he tried to extricate himself off the floor and the fallen stool. He had barely gotten his feet under him when Sasuke raised his hand again and backhanded Naruto's yet untouched cheek in another vicious slap, leaving behind a red print to match the one already rising like a blush in the other cheek.
"What are you doing?" Brushing back his silver hair, Kakashi sauntered towards the bed, his hands at his sides. Sasuke deigned to turn his head slightly at Kakashi's approach, his dark eyes sparkling with an unreadable emotion, but did not stop in raising his hand again for another hit.
"I realized something." Slap. "Naruto isn't the kind of idiot who likes quiet words and gentle support." Smack. "He needs this, the damned moron." Crack. "Wake up, you empty headed bastard."
Kakashi did not stop Sasuke's slapping, nor did he comment on what he had heard. In a way, Sasuke had made sense, albeit a strange, warped kind of a sense. Anyhow, this was one method that had not been tried before, so who was he to say that it would not work?
After about the tenth slap, Sasuke felt the sting in his hand and opted for another method of violence. He picked up Naruto by the collar of his medical gown, the same, gray one that he was wearing, and shook him, rolling the blond head about the shoulders with the force.
"Hey, Naruto," Sasuke said, his voice hard but not loud, "don't you want to wake up and see why the hell you are letting me beat on you?"
'Well, that's going to cause some whiplash.' The thought surfaced as a mild expression on Kakashi's face, his hand rubbing his chin slowly. He wondered briefly if he should put a stop to Sasuke's abuse of a defenseless boy, but chucked the idea when he detected a trace of desperation underlying the dark haired soldier's measured words.
"Idiot, don't you have things you want to say to me?" The shaking became more frantic, sending strands of blond hair to fly about in abandon. "Don't you want to tell me how much better you are than me?"
No matter how sorry he felt for Sasuke, Kakashi could not let this go on for much longer. Despite the fact that Naruto healed physically at a rate that was inhuman, all this shaking was probably going to cause brain damage, something Naruto could not afford. Sighing softly, Kakashi moved to drag Sasuke away from Naruto, but was thwarted in his efforts by the unconscious blonde himself.
Naruto moved.
Kakashi's right eyebrow climbed steadily into his hairline as Naruto's hand came up to clutch at Sasuke's that had him by the throat. The shaking stopped immediately, Sasuke's surprised and pleased eyes staring at the hand that had him by the wrist, squeezing hard enough to turn the knuckles white and cut off his circulation.
"Stop.." A raspy voice emerged from Naruto, scratchy from disuse but no less irate for it. "Stop shaking me, asshole."
Sasuke watched in mute fascination as Naruto struggled to open his eyes, wrinkling his forehead in effort. The hand grasping his wrist never let up and he felt his hand tingle from lack of proper circulation, but he dared not turn away. He had to see Naruto's eyes to make sure that they were his, the blue of a cloudless sky, not the red.
"Is this how you treat an injured person, jackhole?" Naruto opened his eyes half way, revealing blue orbs so intensely bright that breath left Sasuke. "I save your sorry ass and I gotta wake to you trying to kill me?"
Sasuke recovered from whatever that had his throat tight quickly and responded, his lips quirking into his trademark smirk. "At least you're awake, idiot. And you're not injured at all, so stop your whining." His smirk widened when Naruto's eyes opened fully to stare at him incredulously. "Were you going to sleep forever, idiot?"
Angry and somewhat disconcerted at Sasuke's proximity, Naruto sputtered before he could get actual, recognizable words out. "If this is what I get, then shit, asshole, I'd rather go back to that white space talking to that-"
An uncomfortable silence fell, Naruto's jaw agape from what he could not say and staring unseeing into Sasuke's puzzled face. The moments he had spent lost in the white place came rushing back to him in a flood, the words, the evil, the final revelation. The memories of his fight against Itachi also came in a fast blur, accompanied by unfamiliar emotions, and they all blended together to create a havoc in his newly conscious mind.
Abruptly, Naruto wrenched off Sasuke's hands now lax from inattention and pushed the dark haired boy off the bed. Sasuke let him, confused and worried about Naruto's sudden change in mood and behavior, staggering on unsteady feet. The look on the blonde's face, his brows crinkled and his mouth twisted in disgust, made him keep the questions from being voiced.
"Well, now, Naruto, shouldn't you be happier about being awake?"
Dull blue eyes flickered towards Kakashi, taking in the nonchalant face and relaxed form in one quick glance. Sasuke warily watched, unsure of what to say, how to react, as his commanding officer strolled to Naruto's side. The blond ninja started a bit when Kakashi reached out and touched his forehead with his index finger, but otherwise did not move. Sasuke tensed when he felt a trickle of chakra from Kakashi, his muscles settling into a stance for defense. Then, common sense kicked in, identified Kakashi as an ally instead of an enemy, and Sasuke forced his body to let go. How much a fool was he to think Kakashi would hurt Naruto and why would he even think about protecting the idiot?
'Denial must be hard,' Kakashi mused as he saw Sasuke's subtle change in posture and the struggle to keep it as innocuous as possible. 'Fifteen is not the best age for figuring anything out.'
The masked ninja scanned Naruto's mind, checking for anomalies and defects. Although he was not an expert on these things, his specialties lay elsewhere, he knew what to look for and to a certain extent, what to fix. It was surprising that a violent attack from Sasuke woke Naruto when countless complex jutsus developed over centuries had no effect, but results were results. The blonde was awake and boy, did he ever wake noisily. All he had to do was confirm that this was indeed Naruto, though there was little doubt that it was from his behavior so far, and that he had not brought back a passenger with him in the form of a demon.
"Good, good." Kakashi lowered his hand and nodded thoughtfully. "It's just you."
"Just.. me." Naruto stared hard at his commanding officer who gave him a hint of a smile through the mask. "What is that supposed to.." Words died on his lips and his eyes widened impossibly as several things clicked at once. Kakashi's relief, the smile, the words..
"You know." It was a statement, not a question. "You.. you fucking know, don't you?"
A growl erupted from low in his throat as he launched out of the bed to grab Kakashi by his green vest. Barely balanced on his toes, his hands fisted roughly in the coarse material of the uniform vest, Naruto stared up at the taller ninja in shocked accusation.
"You know that.. that thing.." So many things he wanted to say, to scream, but the words caught and came out in a tumble. "Who else knows? Just you? Why.. how.."
Calmly, Kakashi rested his hands on Naruto's shoulders, looking down at the enraged ninja with a bit of apprehension.
"Relax, Naruto. Calm down."
The soft commands grated on Naruto further, and instead of blunting the edges of his anger, it exacerbated the fires of his rage.
"Don't fucking tell me to calm down!" Spittle flew from his mouth and his hands grabbed on harder. "How can I when you know? You know about.. Damn it to hell, Nine-Tails.."
A thick silence spread out in the small tent as the last of Naruto's words died down in an uneasy echo. Kakashi grimaced, his visible eye narrowing to a slit, as he disengaged Naruto's hands from his vest and pushed down the blonde onto the bed. Naruto's expression faltered with the movement, going from angry to sullen resignation in a heartbeat, and he sat, staring helplessly at the floor.
"Nine-Tails?"
A jolt ran through Naruto's system at the unbelieving voice and his head sharply turned to face Sasuke, standing not three feet away from him.
'Oh shit, Sasuke.. he's still here!' What the hell was he doing, blurting out shit like that with him still within hearing distance! How was he going to explain this? Could he even try?
Sasuke pushed Kakashi out of the way, the silver haired ninja allowing the shove to his chest, and grabbed Naruto by his shoulders. Dark eyes flashed with a mess of emotions as they stared hard into panicked blues, but the hands remained gentle on the shoulders.
Nothing was said, no words uttered. Between the two boys, tension mounted, one arising from confusion, the other from wordless panic. Kakashi wondered if he should break up this scene, drag Sasuke out of the tent and explain the situation to Naruto in privacy, but yet again, Naruto surprised him.
As sudden as his awakening, Naruto wrenched away from Sasuke's steady eyes, turning his head away with a snarl. With surprising strength borne of desperation, Naruto pushed aside both Sasuke and Kakashi, his feet a steady fast staccato on the bare, dirt floor of the tent, as he hurled his body into the exiting flap of the tent.
Perhaps Kakashi should have told Naruto that the tent was in quarantine and only a special jutsu could get a person in and out of the tent, but alas, he had not the chance to mention it to the distraught blonde. Therefore, instead of the intense, dramatic exit that it should have been, Naruto ended up running into an invisible barrier flat out, his arms and legs out at spread eagle, his nose squished up against solid air and his mouth muttering curses to high heavens.
"Motherfucking.. Ow.." Naruto carefully peeled his flattened body off the barrier, holding his bruised nose in his hands. "What in seven hells.."
"Ah, yes." The commanding officer put his hand in front of his masked face to hide the tell tale lines of a grin forming. "I forgot to mention that this tent is sealed."
"How fucking convenient of you," Naruto complained, turning around to shoot the silver haired man a glare that could have pulverized steel. "And stop your damned laughing! I can see it!"
The tension that had been so solid only moments before evaporated, leaving Sasuke feeling rather hollow inside. Into that space, something odd bubbled over as he watched Naruto berate Kakashi for letting him run into the barrier unwarned. He knew that if he started laughing now, it would be taken very badly, and besides, that kind of went against his reputation for being very composed and stoic. Still, the picture of Naruto comically spread out on the barrier tickled his throat, almost enough to make him forget that he had been shocked, confused and had heard something very strange only moments ago.
"Idiot," Sasuke said, his voice only wavering slightly from the suppressed laughter, "why don't you sit down before you hurt yourself more?"
"Shut up, asshole."
However, Naruto took the advice and shuffled back to the bed, gingerly sitting with his elbows resting on his knees. His eyes shifted back to Sasuke, spikes of blond hair shifting restlessly on his head, and gave him a thorough once-over with a grimace.
"Man, you're all messed up, ain't you?" His eyes paused on Sasuke's crossed arms covered in bandages, then advanced further up to look him in his dark eyes. "Itachi really got you, huh?"
Swallowing the vile taste the name conjured up, Sasuke shrugged, feeling a bit of a twinge from his quite unhealed muscles. "Yeah, he did." But he had hurt Naruto as well, if not more. "Nothing I can't handle, though."
"Is he really your brother?"
"Yes." What would be the point in denying that now, after all that had happened?
"Why was he trying to kill you, then?"
'Because he killed everyone who ever mattered to me,' thought Sasuke, the scene from eight years ago flitting through his mind. 'Because I'm the only one left in the Uchiha clan.'
Instead, he answered, "none of your business, idiot."
For a moment, it seemed that Naruto would burst out with various accusations and tell him to go stuff his business up his ass. After all, hadn't Itachi tried to kill not only him but Naruto as well? Yet, no words came, not even an accusing finger pointed his way. Instead, he saw the anger in Naruto freeze over as he broke eye contact to stare at the floor.
"Yeah, you're right." It wasn't as if they were friends, as if they could tell each other the deep, dark secrets in their hearts. So, there should be no earthly reason why Sasuke's answer shot that lance of pain through him. "Sorry I asked."
Sighing into the latest uncomfortable silence in the tent, Kakashi walked to the tent flap and performed the jutsu that would dispel the barrier. It would be better for these two if they were separated now, before they could say more things to hurt each other's feelings. As it was, the damage incurred seemed bad enough, if their iced over non-communication was of any indication. When the seal was undone, Kakashi used gentle force to guide Sasuke out of the tent, the boy following behind him dejectedly with feet dragging.
"Wait," Sasuke whispered, his feet stopping just short of a complete exit, "what were you talking about, Naruto? Nine-Tails?"
A short, pregnant pause followed and Kakashi berated himself in his mind for not bodily carrying the Uchiha heir out before he spoke.
"You don't have the right to ask me that." Naruto's response was unusually cold, sending an unwelcome shiver down Sasuke's spine. "To quote you, none of your business."
Feeling as if he lost something, Sasuke walked out of the tent with a heavy heart. Maybe it was a good time to get that head exam he had been contemplating, because there was no reason that he should feel the nausea building in his stomach or the slow tightening in his chest.
--
Hinata walked briskly, yet ladylike, holding a steaming pot in her hands. The news that Naruto had finally woken up had brushed through the camp like a forest fire and she had spent the last three hours preparing a wake-up gift for the blonde energy bomb. Her face flushed from excitement and a bit of nervousness, she tread towards the quarantine tent which was no longer under lock and seal.
From what Kurenai had told the rest of the 121, Naruto had come back to them in perfect mind and health, much to her relief. Hinata had spent three sleepless nights worried sick over the loud ninja who always had something outrageous to say. Kurenai had warned them he would not be ready for visitors for several hours, but that had been well, several hours ago. By now, she should be able to see Naruto and offer him a gift for so bravely fighting to come back to life.
She was no more than a few shy steps away from seeing Naruto's tent in her view when suddenly, she found herself flanked on either side by girls from her battalion. To her left, Ino stared at the steaming pot in her hand curiously, her blond hair falling over one shoulder, and to her right, Sakura glanced at her rapidly blushing face with rapt attention. Belatedly, Hinata saw that TenTen was also with them, smiling encouragingly from her far right, her eyebrows waggling.
"So, what is this?" A delicate sniff followed Ino's question, eliciting an approving squeal. "Oh, it's ramen!"
"Right.. ramen." Sakura nodded knowingly, slyly grinning. "Just happens to be someone's favorite."
An actual giggle came out of TenTen's mouth. "I wonder who it could be."
It was a wonder that Hinata hadn't spontaneously combusted from the blushing.
"So. Where in the world did you find all this stuff? I thought we only brought field rations." Ino glared at the pot enviously, wanting to eat something more than whatever paper and rat poison which comprised their field ration. "Don't tell me you took things out of the cook tent! Although, I don't remember them having anything but rice and some fishy kind of things.."
Hinata blushed even darker, turning into a curious shade of fuchsia, as she stammered out that no, certainly not, she would never break rules like that since the food in the cook tent was assigned to certain injured people. When the girls kept eyeing her curiously, she lowered her eyes but refused to elaborate further, not going into the gruesome details of giving Kurenai the sad, broken puppy eyes until she had handed over the precious package nor the three hour foraging in the woods for the proper mushrooms and herbs.
Instead, unsteady as her voice was, Hinata opted to change the subject to something that she knew Sakura and Ino loved to talk of incessantly: Uchiha Sasuke.
"I didn't see Sasuke in the meeting," Hinata ventured bravely as they got ever closer to Naruto, "is he still abed?"
"Of course!" Ino flipped her hair artfully, tilting her chin to show off her flawless profile. "Sasuke was so horribly injured. He needs rest. Besides, it's not like Sasuke would care about Naruto, you know."
"Oh." Hinata could say nothing more. She wasn't entirely sure if Sasuke and Naruto were friends or not, but from what little she had observed, she had not gotten the impression that they truly hated each other.
"I wonder about that.." Sakura said very softly so that Hinata did not think she heard it clearly. Too polite to inquire further, Hinata pretended that the pink haired girl said nothing. If anything, she was glad they were no longer talking about her gift to Naruto. It embarrassed her to be so teased, especially when it seemed that these girls knew that she had a crush on a certain blonde boy. How they had figured it out, she had no idea, it's not like she told anyone. Hell, she hardly ever spoke.
"Well, come on," TenTen announced, "let's go see our battalion idiot. I'm sure Hinata wants to, right?"
Surrounded by good natured teasing, Hinata resolutely stamped down the urge to run away and marched towards the tent.
Finally, she'd see Naruto again.
--
TBC
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