Chapter Two
"Staccato"
stac·ca·to adj. Cut short crisply; detached: Marked by or composed of abrupt, disconnected parts or sounds
Itachi.
. . . . Brother . . .
I leapt to meet him, even as he threw himself at Naruto. My kunai hit nothing but air, and without any warning but a narrowing of his eyes, my brother flung my body to the ground like garbage. Even so, it put him off his track for my partner, and Naruto landed -- safely -- a good few feet away.
Damn it. I couldn't win this. I was tired, I hadn't slept that night. My fighting wasn't at its best, and even if it were, then I still doubted I'd be able to beat him. It hadn't been very long since I'd last attempted to fight him, and my last loss still stung. I wasn't going to be strong enough. Itachi was after Naruto, but I didn't know why . . .
I shook my head lightly, telling my mind to concentrate on the fight. Naruto couldn't possibly stand much of a chance either, and even if we worked together, things were doubtful. I forced myself up, the bruises on my body protesting as I struggled to my feet.
Naruto kept up a firm stance, and didn't bother looking over to check after me. Things weren't bad if I could stand, he probably figured, so don't waste concentration on the good guys.
I was fine.
With that bit of assurance, he glared furiously towards Itachi. "Bastard!" Naruto snarled, posed awkwardly with clenched fists and widely spread feet. "Eat this!" His hands came together, forming the ball of swirling chakra he called Rasengan.
Itachi closed his eyes . . . and opened them, staring straight into Naruto.
I knew that attack. It was one that I had not yet mastered.
Itachi's Tsukuyomi.
His Eye of the World of the Moon. I'd been victim of that before. It broke me, broke my mind... But only after he broke my body. With it, Itachi brought his opponent into a universe of his own making, into a corner of his mind where he controlled time and space and everything within. And within it, he tortured you, with whatever he could torture you with. With me, it had been the repeated slaughter of my family, over... And over... And over again. I often wondered -- had I been unharmed, would it have worked so well? What would it do to a fully healthy Naruto?
More importantly, what would he show him, in that other universe within his mind? What could he show? Naruto's worst nightmare would probably be - I don't know - being beaten by me to be Hokage. But then, that'd probably just piss Naruto off to the point he'd fight harder.
I just had to wait and see. I hate waiting.
However long Itachi wanted Naruto to spend in that world, it only took a few seconds for it to pass in this one. Naruto didn't do anything, he just stood there as he had before, looking exactly the same. Had I read Itachi's attack wrong? What? I stepped forward, not taking my eyes off my brother. (He was just watching Naruto, show the switch – it seems like "Naruto, are you --"
I didn't see the punch coming. I felt it though, all of Naruto's considerable strength, shoved right into my cheekbone. I think it broke, I don't know, but if it didn't then, it most certainly did when my body was smashed into a tree as a result.
Naruto... He'd hit me?
Naruto'd hit me. Not for a spar, but in the middle of an actual mission, when I'm actually... depending on him.
My mind ran over that concept a few times before grasping it. He'd hit me. He'd really hit me, without pulling his punch, with all his might and speed and skill. But...
Naruto... I forced my eyes to level. He was still as a statue. Naruto, you...
No, whatever Itachi had shown him had caused this. It wasn't Naruto, it wasn't to be expected that his mind escape Itachi unscathed.
Itachi. You bastard, you'll pay for that.
I ran a quick assessment of the pain. At least two ribs, broken from the tree limb. Some bones in my face, luckily none of my limbs hurt too badly except for bruising. I could still fight. I peered up, Naruto's arm was still outstretched from the blow. His forehead protector's shadow covered his eyes from view, and his muscles trembled with something other then exhaustion.
Itachi... what did you do to him?
"Sasuke... You." He shook his head and straightened, fists clenched. A drop of water -- tears? -- fell from his eyes, dampening the ground. And he looked up at me, with a glare more malevolent then those that had changed him so
And my first thought was that this was not Naruto. Naruto wasn't capable of being that scary, that cruel, wasn't capable of feeling such strong murderous intent towards anyone -- let alone feel it towards me.
His eyes were red. Not from tears alone, but the red I'd only seen a few times before, the red he showed when his true strength came out. His pupils slit, he shook his head, his hair slightly more ragged then I was used to. His slender eyebrows creased his forehead in anger, hatred, betrayal -- my Sharingan overloaded my senses with the emotions in that look. He choked out, "If it's a... damn monster fox... you want..." Deep breath, a hissing sound. "It's... a monster you'll get."
Monster fox?
My Sharingan told me he was tensing for an attack. It told me to raise my arm in defense against it, to bring my knee up to his prone side in response. But, there's a difference between what my eyes can see and say and what my body can follow. I was too slow to react to it, and I was flung into the air as though I weighed nothing. A moment later, what felt like a sledgehammer hit my stomach, and I was slammed back into the ground, rolling aside like some sort of broken doll.
What? Naruto, monster fox... I'd heard of one, the one the Fourth died defeating...
I lay panting on the ground for a moment before forcing myself to my hands and knees. My throat burned, and I felt my insides convulse painfully as I coughed up blood. Kneeling, I lifted a shaking arm to wipe it from my lips, and it came back with a bloody smear on the back of it. I looked up at Naruto to find that my Sharingan had faded out from the shock of the hits. I brought it back up, cursing as it had trouble focusing on both Naruto and Itachi.
Naruto?
Naruto was shaking, muttering to himself, seemingly making one of his typical monologue speeches to himself under his breath. Uchiha Itachi was calm, walking slowly towards me, for once ignoring Naruto in my favor instead of the other way around. He peered down at me, standing there just long enough for me to realize my helplessness before kneeling.
"You didn't know this, little brother," He spoke with that eerie air, not caring about anything, "but Naruto's worst fear is being left alone." I couldn't see Itachi's face after that. I think I closed my eyes. "Left alone for no other reason then that of what's sealed within him. To be left unacknowledged."
His words of disgust, and the way he said them in that painstakingly neutral voice, still pissed me off, even more then Itachi usually does. His light "Hmph" was that of speculation. ". . . It took a pitifully short time to bring him to this point. I don't think he has much faith in you, little brother of mine."
That... bastard...
Naruto's eyes were getting redder. Orangey fiery red, to a red so bright it hurt to look at, and then it fazed finally to the darkest, deepest crimson, that of spent blood. I could catch scant phrases in his mumblings, "I... Sasuke... doesn't know... doesn't... hate me... Kyuubi... I'm... monster... "
Kyuubi?
My eyes widened. The monster fox. The Nine-tails the Fourth had died sealing, almost sixteen years ago.
No other reason then that of what's sealed within him.
Those eyes...
It made sense.
Why he had those malevolent, burning eyes...
The burst of power, the animalistic senses, the uncharacteristic murderous intent that extended towards everything and everyone and me. The claws. The whisker-scars. The red, unclean unnaturally strong chakra.
Those eyes, damn it.
Somehow, somehow Naruto was the Kyuubi. Or a part of the Kyuubi. Or the other way around. Somehow, he had its power, its chakra, and my questions of Naruto always seemed to burn so deep... "How... is he the Kyuubi?"
My voice was raspy. I had not meant to speak out loud, and that small loss of control said much for my mental state.
"You didn't know." Itachi's low, soft voice rang in my ears, bored as usual, not sounding like he felt anything at all. "Sad, that I know him better then you. Just one more thing you'll have to catch up to me with, little broth --"
I saw the burst of chakra before my numbed senses let me feel it. Itachi never did finish his sentence.
I could hear the cloth of my shirt ruffle in the wind as I was thrown. That last hit was still affecting me -- I couldn't move my limbs enough to control my movements through the air very well, and I let myself relax, knowing that tensing my muscles before I possibly -- inevitably -- hit something was a bad idea. I could scarcely tell if I was flying headfirst or not. I'd be dead, if I was.
I hit a branch. If I hit any more, I don't know for sure since I blacked out for several seconds, but I probably did. And it did hurt. It hurt a lot, which I feel the need to add, because if I'm willing to admit to pain you should know that the pain came in large amounts.(bringing in the 'you' seems new My body screamed at me, telling me in a wordless stream of torment that it wasn't going to be able to take any more of this inhuman treatment from that which had once been Naruto.
I did, at least, wake up in time to hear a second thud close to me. I craned my neck to look.
Itachi rolled up next to me, his usually unused arm raised in a block.
Fuck. Naruto had gotten a hit in on Itachi before me. That bastard... I wasn't even sure which of the two I was calling that.
My brother isn't hit often, and doesn't stay down. The ground was indented, and Itachi crouched on his knee, arms still wrapped in his kimono, and on his face... My Sharingan could read his face, for the first time.
Itachi was shocked. Serves the bastard right, he should know better then to underestimate the power of a demon that had caused the death of a Hokage of Konoha. Did he think a demon cared who he hit? His Tsukuyomi had shown Naruto something involving me, I could tell, but a demon simply didn't care. My dealings with Gaara of the Desert told me that much.
My brother isn't stupid, though. A new development he hadn't forethought had appeared, and he was uncertain how to deal with it. His hands made a defined set of jutsus, and he disappeared in a puff of curling steam. I didn't relish in his leaving. It wasn't a fearful, decimated flee, it was a calculated retreat, and he planned on analyzing things further -- before returning.
He'd left me to deal with this. Damn him, I thought Itachi wanted me to kill him. He'd left me alive for that reason, and now he was going to let me get killed anyway?
I was loathe to call whatever that thing was by Naruto's name. I don't know why, I shouldn't care...
A hand grabbed me by the neck and I found myself slammed harshly against a tree. My back rubbed roughly against the bark.
I looked pitiful. I know I did. I was a ragdoll, a discarded, bruised, and splintered ragdoll, held in a semblance of a standing position by a set of claws digging in my collarbone. My head thrown back, my eyes struggling not to clench completely shut in pain, my limbs refusing to respond to my pleas to do anything --
I never expected to live long. I had hoped to, but I was experienced enough in misery to know that hope wasn't enough for anything. I was going to die at the hands of my . . . I almost gave a bark of laughter, but that would have been painful. I was going to die at the hands of my most important person.
But this both was and wasn't Naruto. I wondered which I would rather be killed by, Naruto or the Kyuubi, and found the former far more appealing. It was a surprisingly irrational thought for the middle of a fight; I think the blood loss had begun to get to me.
I forced my eyes open. I couldn't tell whether my Sharingan was still clinging to life or not. Naruto's eyes were covered by his bangs, and his teeth were clenched as claws dug deeper into my shoulder. He was only using one hand... I let my head fall forward limply, to rest on Naruto's collarbone.
Could I? Was my windpipe even able to handle anything other then these shallow, strained and panting breaths? My forehead lay precariously on Naruto's shoulder. All he had to do was twitch and my head would unbalance and fall.
Could he even hear my ragged gasps against his ear?
I closed my eyes. "Naruto... You idiot..." My lips managed to find the strength to curl in a trembling smirk.
"Don't..." I opened my eyes again, knowing my Sharingan was gone, and all I could see was black. My voice was incredibly hoarse as I sounded out the words. "Don't die."
I couldn't think of a better way to spend my last breath. I hadn't before. I still couldn't.
My focus was hazy. I couldn't even bring up my Sharingan again enough to clear it As I lifted my head with the last ounce of strength I could conjure, I could make out one thing.
I've...
I've never before seen a sky as blue as those eyes.
He looked stunned. I didn't need the Uchiha eyes to read him. He stared into my eyes, worried, scared, and in slight disbelief. He shook, I could feel his arms trembling as he held me up. He was the only thing keeping me from collapsing.
He was the only thing that kept me from collapsing from everything.
Naruto was back. I'd brought him out of the rage Kyuubi had fed so willingly, the rage that Itachi had induced, and now Naruto was back. I couldn't defend him from Itachi in my state, but I hadn't done that great a job at that to begin with. Naruto would live, and...
A sky as blue... As those... Those... Naruto's...
I couldn't concentrate. My mind felt so blurry, as though nothing had ever had an edge before, and everything seemed so fuzzy it melted together into a mass of memories and dark and the smallest points of light. Poetic, in retrospect, but at the time I barely noticed as I slipped forward into a pair of waiting arms.
Such... Such blue eyes... "Never seen... A sky as blue..."
Was I talking? Was that Naruto, practically sobbing into my chest, whining, clinging, begging me not to go?
Where was I going?
The world faded slightly. Naruto looked up at me... Was the last thing that I'd see before I died going to be Naruto? I don't think I'd mind that, but...
No... It was going to be black... Darkness. How fitting...
And so I let myself fall.
-- . . . Then maybe we could ignore
That the shore used to be the edge; explore more
Than one block from the next sitting over
With nothing on my shoulders
But the clothes on our backs
And you leave us here with nothing,
expecting no attack
With soldiers on the way. --
-- More than just the right thing to do
The time has just passed us up instead.
Maybe we could work our way around it.
If we only knew the truth about it . . . --
-- "The Truth"--
-- Nonpoint --
I couldn't break my eyes away, not even to save his life.
I felt the red chakra of the Kyuubi drain from me all at once, snapping me back to reality in a single swirling, disorienting second. I felt Sasuke's heaving breaths, struggling to breath in each rattling intake of air. I felt my fingers digging into his shoulder, buried partially in muscle and sinew, blood dripping down my wrist and arm to my elbow. I felt my eyes widen and stare.
I heard my voice tremulously ask, "S-Sasuke?"
I saw... All I saw was Sasuke's face. His tired eyes didn't even blink as they watched me with an intensity that I would've normally said was impossible to show with such black eyes. His teeth were stained from the blood he'd had to hack up, and his body was slack and unable to hold up his weight.
In a weird, twisted kind of way, it was a good thing Sasuke was about to pass out. His eyes swam out of focus and his head dipped forward for a second, jarring me enough to force my hand out of his collarbone. His body fell forward without the support, knees sagging, and his head thumped into my chest. Reflex wrapped my arms around under his, keeping him from hitting the ground.
I set him back against the tree, taking in all that I hadn't been able to before. The claw marks on his arms, the burns from raw chakra -- was that a mark from Rasengan on his torso? -- the bruises on his body, the blood... There was way, way too much blood, too much proof, and I couldn't deny it.
I'd done this. I'd hurt Sasuke like this.
I closed my eyes for half a second. How was this... I didn't think I could do something like this. Since when do I... Damn it! Since when does a future Hokage of Konoha practically kill their important people?!
Answer? He doesn't.
What was I thinking?! Yeah, I've gotten pissed and attacked Sasuke before, but I've never really, honestly tried to kill him. And looking at him now... Bones were broken. Ribs, yeah. Collarbone, definitely. His spine? I shuddered, not wanting to even think about that possibility. What the hell was I thinking?!
My mind gave me an answer I didn't want to think about just then. Red Sharingan eyes, two scars that lay beneath -- and the monstrous world that lies within... I shuddered, and bile swam up to burn my tonsils. Stubbornly, I choked it down. It wasn't real, I just had to remember that, right? Sasuke was the important thing here, not his evil excuse for a brother and his demented dreamworld.
I looked at him.Sasuke's stare into my eyes was seemingly empty, glazed over by pain or hate or something. His lips parted. Oh God, he wasbarely able to do that much... I had to lean forward and practically put my ear to his mouth to hear him.
"Never seen..." His voice was hoarse; Sasuke was a mess. I wondered if he even knew what he was saying. "A sky... As... Blue..."
Blue sky? ...Dumb ass, didn't he know it was dusk? Oh, wow, he was really, really out of it. That wasn't a good thing, not this far from camp, not ever. I grabbed his collar and pulled it down, shaking him. "Sasuke!"
His eyes blinked again, and his eyes fazed and unfocused almost lazily. My chest almost leaped right out of me. "Sasuke!" I didn't know if he'd wake up or not. I looked around quickly, knowing I wouldn't see anything but forest. "Damn it, Sasuke, focus on me!"
His eyes closed. My stomach seized up, as though clenched by a sadistic and cruel fist, and for once I couldn't blame it on the fox trapped there. I snapped, and shook his high collar harder, heedless of his injuries. Maybe the pain would bring him back to reality. "Damn you, Sasuke! If you go, I swear to the Fourth, I'll... Damn it, just don't go!"
I should've known not to tell the stubborn bastard to do anything. He always does the opposite of what I say. His eyes seemed to stare right at mine, then through them, then past them -- and then his muscles seized up and his eyelashes fluttered, and he went completely slack. His neck tilted back, exposing so many vital spots he'd smack himself if he were awake to see.
Frantically, I checked his neck for a heartbeat. I'm no healer, but it really wasn't supposed to be that faint, right? I had to get him to help. Konoha was closest.
What about the mission? Screw it! part of my mind screamed, but I shoved it down unwillingly. Got to think straight. I'd head by camp first then, was on the way, but I'd really kill somebody if Kakashi said we couldn't get Sasuke to the hospital
I slid my wrists and arms under his head and knees to pick him up, bridal. It'd be easier to lift him soldier style -- heave him over my shoulder to put his weight on my back -- but his wounds would just get worse if I did that. I didn't cry. I kind of think I need to point that out. I mean, he wasn't dead, and he wasn't going to die either. I wasn't going to let him.
The bastard was too stubborn to up and die on us, anyway. He had to be.
As if on cue, my seal began to burn again as the Kyuubi sought to feed my agitation. I tried to ignore it, but even my frantic footfalls weren't enough to completely distract me. I stifled an odd bark of laughter as I ran. I blame it on the panic, since it wasn't a very funny thought, it was actually kind of sick.
For the first time I could remember, Sasuke slowed me down.
-- Heaven bent to take my hand
And lead me through the fire
Be the long awaited answer
To a long and painful fight --
-- It's the bitter taste of losing
Everything that I've held so dear --
-- Though I've tried, I've fallen. . .
I have sunk so low
I've messed up better,
I should know. . .
Don't you come around here,
And tell me 'I told you so . . .' --
"Fallen"
Sarah McLachlan
AN: Did I mention this was an AU? And I do mean of the Sasuke-was-smart-enough-to-DODGE-the-funny-vampire-seal-bite-thingy type. Other then that, Sakura is actually a normal human being, and OMG! She isn't a total bitch?! The horror!
. . . And yes, Naruto's POV is abysmally short. I made up for it with Sasuke, didn't I?