Soft Drink

Chapter Five

"Inside"

Naruto walked through the island and continued on for almost half a mile. When he got to the third door it opened, leaving a long tunnel in front of him. All around it was water, as the tunnel was transparent. Naruto walked through it, confused, yet motivated. Suddenly a large creaking sound was heard, and the tunnel's walls started to crack, though they didn't break.

He started to run towards the end, realizing the situation. When he got to the end he started beating on the door as hard as he could, shouting to a person who wasn't there. "Open the damn door! Come on!" The water started to go above his ankles. "Come on! Damn it!"

Fear turned to parinoia and parinoia turned to panic. Through clenched teeth he started to curse his own fate. The water was at his waist. Finally, he gave up on life.

"Is this what you want? You bastard. Fine! Kill me! Kill me!"

Itachi smiled. "Are you going to kill him?" he asked to the technician.

"Don't ask me, it's the jutsu. He'll either die or survive. If he does live though, it'll be soon. I've never seen it hold out this long, it must be a hard decision."

"It's not like it guesses the goodness in him, it's judging the opposite. Or is it?"

"No, it's not. Don't think that. It won't let him by because of that."

The water hit his chest. His eyes were angry at the fact that he had not been killed yet. Every single angle that he thought of as he shouted his anger strike was blocked. He thought of breaking the tunnel, but he could see no opening outside, as the only lights in the whole open sea was in that tunnel.

So if he did break it he would be without any sort of light. The water continued up and up bringing an ever-present, stining, cold. It had been there for almost three minutes and the room had started to tint a yellow green, as the lights were yellow, green was the color that was showing in the water.

It had gone up to his neck and Naruto was now floating in the water, he continued to kick at the door. Over and over again the metal door was banged and banged upon. His head had hit the top of the tunnel, there was no more running, no more escaping it. The water slowly went over his head, and Naruto took his final breath.

He floated down to the door and looked at it, expecting something he knew was never going to come. The door looked back at him, almost mocking him. In his mind, "Open! Open! Open! Open! Open! Open!" A click was heard and suddenly the doors flew open.

"No way," said Itachi.

"It likes him. The rest of the way will be easy going."

The water sucked him, and he flew out into another room, this one was very small. The doors closed in and the rest of the water that had made its way through flooded Naruto's feet. It then slowly fell though the small holes in the floor, they were about the size of a needle. The room looked very mechanical, the walls were a black steel as was the floor.

Naruto looked around, and the door in front of him, which had the number five painted on it, opened. He walked through, expecting the impossible.

"I don't know how this could have happened. Should we have?" said the technician.

"Yes." Itachi left the room. He walked out through a series of doors, filled with guards at each one. He left the building, passing another set of guards, and started to walk into the town.

The last door. It opened, and a blinding light greeted Naruto, but his face did not move. No expression changed, nothing. He did not feel. Itachi joined him, along with Hoya as he walked outside. Naruto looked around, the Akatsuki was nothing but a small village. "Naruto?" said Hoya. "Where is Takuko?"

"I don't know, where is she, Itachi?" his eye shot over to Itachi. He was ready for the question.

"She died. Naruto killed her on accident."

"What?" said Hoya. Itachi kept walking, not wanting to hold the conversation. "Wait," she caught up with Itachi. Naruto stayed where he was.

"Itachi," Itachi stopped, but did not turn around. "From the very beginning. . ", he said, "I knew why you tried so hard to find me, why you walked for over a week to get to my cave. Why you killed every single one of the Hunter-nin outside of my cave, why you went through all the trouble."

Itachi had not turned around, but his fist were clenched and his hands had moved. They were no longer hanging freely from his body, they were over his kunai holster.

"You brought me here, you made me do the test, you did all of that all of everything. . .to. . ." Itachi turned around. "You brought me here to kill me."

Hoya looked at the two, she had just noticed it, she was in the middle of the two. "What is going on Itachi?" she said, her head moved quickly between the two.

"I don't have a kunai, so I'm not sure if I'm gonna win this fight. You have a library of jutsu in your head, and I've forgotten all of mine. This is kind of a four-hundred-fifty-thousand-to-one, eh? Well that's all good. I'm content to die here. But not without her, everyone knowing that I did not kill Takuko. It was you Itachi. You killed her. I have no idea how, but you killed her."

"I did not bring you here to die. And yes. . .I killed her. . .but I want you to know. . .it was meant for you."

"What?"

"Uzumaki Naruto will die, that is true, but the monster inside of you! The real you! Will live!" he charged Naruto. Naruto's composure, his stance, nothing changed. He was not afraid of dying. Hoya acted as quickly as she could and threw her foot out, tripping Itachi to the dirt below.

"What are you doing!? This is not part of the plan!" she shouted.

"Yes it was you idiot!" shouted Itachi as he stood up. Naruto did not look at him, he kept his stance forwards. "The whole time! Trick him! Get him! Kill him!"

"I was just along for the ride?"

"Yes! God!" he looked behind him and then back at her. "Guards are on their way to have you killed." he said to Naruto.

"No."

"What?"

"They aren't going to kill him." Itachi was thrown a little off guard on the comment.

"What?" Hoya jumped forward, pulling out a kunai, throwing it into Itachi's stomach. She kicked him down and pushed Naruto.

"Come on!"

"You're actually helping me?" said Naruto.

"Yes! Let's go!" she ran up to the door, and it opened. "Come on!" Naruto slowly followed her. "What's wrong with you?"

"Sorry. I'm . . .in a mood for dying."

"Dying?! I'm trying to make you live! Get a living mood dumbass!" Naruto laughed, then stopped.

"Wait, why should I even go with you?" It didn't go well with Hoya. She punched him in the face.

"I just gave up MY life for YOU! Idiot! You will do as I say so that both of us can live." Naruto smiled. "Got it?! I say run! You run!" he shook his head yes.

"Whatever." She ran through the room, it was painted green. The ceiling was painted to be a cloudy day, and an effect in it made it look as if it were bigger and larger than it actually was. Naruto followed close behind her, and he and Hoya ran through the rooms. Soon they had made it to the fourth door.

"Itachi is probably on the seventh door by now, along with whoever I bet he brought with him. . ." said Hoya as she walked up to the door.

"Wait, don't open it! The tunnel is flooded, how are we gonna get through?"

"Idiot." She smiled. "How do you think Itachi and I got through here way before you? There is a shortcut." She put her hand on the circular handle to the door, and started to open it.

"Then why are you opening the door?"

"So I can drown them." She smiled. The door flooded open and Hoya jumped to her left, "This way!" she shouted. She ran over to the metalic wall and kicked the side of it, instantly a part of the wall fell off. "Come on!" Naruto ran through the new door and Hoya followed him.

The new door was a staircase that led about twenty feet up, here they were above the other rooms. A one mile strech was all that stood in their way. "The water should go slowly up the stairs, and it'll never flood this room, it'll flood the other before this one, so we'll be ok. . ." said Naruto.

"Yeah, and Itachi. . .he wont get out anytime soon. We can walk. . ." Naruto sighed, looking at Hoya.

"Thank you."

"You are welcome."

"Why though?"

"Why what? Help you? I don't know, honestly. . .I do not know what came over me enough to save you. To most of the world, besides that bridge that's name after you, the name Naruto does not exist. If you think it's a house hold name, you are wrong. So there goes that motivation. . .well. . .I guess. . .it was more of a spur of the moment kind of thing."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"I will pay you back. Although, you choose the way I pay you back. I don't want to do something that will 'pay you back', but you aren't satisfied."

"I get you."

"What's the plan after this?"

"No plan. We run. Your cave is a no, cause they know where it's at. And you still have Hunter-nin after you so that's a negative. A positive is they don't know where you are at the moment. Since all of them are dead at your cave they probably figure you've killed them and got up and left. Always good. Another positive is that the Akatsuki doesn't know where we are going, well either do we, but we can figure it out, they can't. A negative is they are the biggest private 'army' in the world. . .so. . ."

"Yeah."

"So, yeah."

AN: I wanted this chapter to be longer, but there is no where to go without ending it. Hope you like it. Review often.

Oh yes. The Takuko death is not something that just came up and BAM was there. It was planned in the whole entire story, it's purpose is not revealed yet and I can't tell you without spoiling it. Also, it was not a BAM thing in the story either, Itachi planned it. I can't tell you HOW she died, as that will later be revealed. Naruto did think he killed her, but something happened in those rooms as he made his easy way down the test. The whole point of the test is the tunnel door anyways, so the last doors are all just for show. What happened will ALSO be revealed. So yeah. Lots of stuff coming up. Sorry for ranting.