Soft Drink

Chapter Four

"The Akatsuki"

Naruto looked in front of him, nothing was there, he looked back down at Itachi, who smiled. "Is this. . .a trick?" said Naruto. Itachi slightly laughed, as did Hoya. It seemed like they loved doing this.

"No. But, it's a severe security issue. This really is the Akatsuki, but it is all protected by an immense jutsu. It will only open to those who it knows and those who it trusts. It is very difficult for it to open for you if you do not belong in the organization." Suddenly a giant, loud sound occured, it was almost machine like. The landscape in front of them, which had been a green bush, along with other flora around it, opened up.

"This is. . .it?"

"No."

"What?"

"This is the first step. We have about ten more doors to go through. But. . ." he smiled. "I already know how to do all this. You two are going to have to do it alone. I will join you when you get inside."

"What's the point of this?" They were now inside a completly white room. All around them was nothing but white, a white, endless space.

"It will ensure that the jutsu will trust you and know you and you can go through it much more easily. Because of this, I am not lying. Doing this does put your life on the line."

"My. . .life?"

"But I know you don't care about such needless things around now, but her." Takuko started to sweat, and she looked at Naruto, who put his hand out for her to join him. She looked back at Itachi, and she knew she had to make her decision.

'Death. . .or. . .freedom. . .which means a long ways away from home. . .' she thought. 'Which probably means death.' Almost half a minute went by, and Naruto's hand didn't even twich. 'Death. . .freedom. . .' She put her hand up, and Takuko put it in Naruto's. "I trust. . .you. . .somehow I feel it. . ." she said.

Naruto smiled and Itachi opened the second door. The floor opened up, and a ladder led to the third door. "Goodbye Itachi, see you soon. Hoya."

She nodded to him and said her goodbyes and Itachi did the same. Takuko went down first, and second was Naruto. As he went down he didn't move his eyes from Itachi. "See you there, Naruto." The floor closed in above his head. At the bottom, it was almost a sewer. Wet, damp, and cold.

"Which way?" said Takuko. They were in a tunnel, and there was no end in sight for either way.

"This is probably a tunnel. . ." said Naruto. "So. . .splitting up is really bad, but we cannot just go one way. . ."

"Yeah. . .it will probably just be best if we both go one way, and just. . .trust that's the way."

"Yeah. Or we can probably try to go back the other way. Yeah that works. Wait. . .," Naruto smiled. "Haha! I found it! I did it! I did it!"

"What is it?" said Takuko.

"Haha! The light! Reflection! In the water! It comes from this direction. See, over there, it's a little bit darker, which means that this is the way out."

"You sure?"

"Positive!"

He started walking to the right and Takuko followed him. They navigated, through the sewers, their only light source was the reflections of which Naruto spoke of. Slowly the light got brighter and brighter, and almost ten minutes after they made their way through the almost pitch black sewers, it was completly blinding, the light.

"Here it is!" shouted Takuko. She continued to walk until she suddenly fell down, into the light it seemed. Naruto jumped for her, barely catching her shirt, and as the light was passed through and he could see what was in front of him he gasped. A giant, cave-like and jungle-like room was at the end of this tunnel, and he was almost a hundred feet above it.

The tunnel, wet from the water, was no host for him, so he slid out, still holding Takuko's shirt. They fell down to a lake below, a giant splash as they went in. As Naruto swam for the surface he saw Takuko's body already at the surface. At first he was glad that she was up but then he noticed something that struck him to the bone.

She was staring down at him. Takuko was laying on her stomach in the water, her eyes were wide open as was her mouth. Naruto flew out of the water, flipping his face around to get as much excess water off as he could. Naruto swam towards her as quickly as he could, and when he got there seconds later he almost instinctively checked her breath.

"Takuko! Takuko! Takuko! Takuko!" he repeated her name over and over again. He didn't feel a small movement in the air above her mouth, next he checked her neck. Nothing. Her wrist. Nothing. Naruto knew what this meant. . .she was dead. 'How!?' he thought. "How!?" he then shouted. "How the fuck did she die!?"

Tears ran down his face as he panted. 'Was it the fall? No. . .not the fall. . .? It can't be that. . .cause I'm ok. . .but. . .life threating!? Oh! Yeah! But, that doesn't explain anything. . .'

"Not the fall. . .Maybe. . ." Suddenly he remembered the scene where he held onto her shirt. "No. No." He closed his eyes as tight as he could and lost his concentration. He then went underwater and quickly came back up, spitting out the water in his mouth. Naruto then, with nothing else to do, grabbed onto Takuko's collar, dragging her to land.

There he started to dig in the ground, with his bare hands. He dug and dug and dug as long as he could. Since the room was painted as a day sky, he didn't know if it was day or night whenever he finished, but it took a good while. Finally, he got his way out by planting his shoe in the wet dirt and walking up as if it were ice.

When he got to the top he noticed Takuko. She was peaceful, and it was then that he got the depression of the situation. He was not sad, he was not mad, he was just depressed. 'I dragged her out of her peaceful life and killed her. God how could I. . .' He picked her body up and jumped into the pit. There, he laid her down, by now her clothes and hair were dry, and he did her best to make her look nice.

"Ok. . .Ok. . ." he put his foot into the dirt again, where he had got up the first time, and slowly started his way up. The pit was twenty feet deep. When he got to the top, he started to slowly throw the dirt into the hole, as quickly as he could. It took almost as long as it did to dig the hole.

Itachi stared in suprise from a monitor. "How did he?" he said to another man who had been watching them before Itachi had gotten there. "When did he start on it?"

"Five hours ago,"

'No way. . .' thought Itachi. 'How can he be able to dig something like that in five hours!?'

"So. . ." he tried not to show his suprise. "Did it work?"

"Yes."

Naruto patted the dirt, it was as level as the rest of the ground around it. Smiling, he said his final words to Takuko. "I'm sorry Takuko. If I never brought you into it, you would have never died. I will avenge you."

Itachi looked into the monitor with nothing but fear.