Atrophied Illusion
AN: Messing with Kakashi, angsting poor Naruto and the plot limps along somehow. Uber-much thanks to everyone who reviewed. You guys rule liek woah! –um. Intentional bad spelling.
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Chapter Two;
Edge of Forever
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Sakura had spent the entire night pacing. Every so often, the walls would suffer her wrath, and Naruto would have to grab her arm and stop her from demolishing the house right under his nose. Her face was streaked with tears that she probably hadn't realized she'd shed, and Naruto, although he wanted to give her a comforting hug, reasoned that it probably wasn't a good idea. But then, when had he ever cared about that? He hugged her anyway, and she read it as support and not as him goofing off, which was how he'd intended it.
"Your hair smells funny," he told her, trying for a lighter mood. Anything was better than this…suffrage.
"Naruto, we're going to get Sasuke back. Be SERIOUS about this!" she snarled at him. She would have hit him if they would have been further apart.
Briefly, Naruto held her at arm's length, with all the solemnity that he could muster. "I…am serious, Sakura-chan."
"…Good."
Naruto looked at Sasuke, still bound in a chair, still defiant and dangerous, and he smiled. Just a little. "Dead serious," he whispered. He knew that Sakura couldn't hear him, wasn't really trying to make her, but at the moment, he was his own backup, and he hated to admit it, but he needed fortifications against…this. Against knowing that his best friend had tried to kill him no less than twice. Even that didn't make up for almost-dying for him once, although Naruto had already forgiven him.
Not-forgiving Sasuke was a concept that he had never been able to grasp. Brothers don't have to forgive, because everything can stay unspoken and still be heard.
Sasuke glanced at him, quirking an eyebrow in question, but Naruto shrugged it off. "Come on," he continued. "Let's go find our friends."
The Uchiha snorted in contempt.
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When Kakashi woke up, he was in chains. There was blood in his mouth and he couldn't see –blindfold?—and his entire world felt muzzy around the edges, like it'd been dipped in water and dragged through fire. His right arm ached so badly that for a moment he would have gladly took it off at the shoulder just to stop his nerves from burning. And then he gave himself a mental smack for that line of reasoning, because no matter how badly he was hurt, he'd heal. It was the ninja way of life. Either you lived or you died, you healed or you lived a cripple and Kakashi would be damned if he was going to succumb to the latter.
It just wasn't his style.
"Sensei—" a soft voice hiccoughed off to his right and he tried to turn. Learned that the chains were doing more than holding him upright, instead. He grunted in annoyance.
"Sakura?"
"Shh, don't move, sensei. You were badly injured, and…" he heard her take a breath. He hated how light his head felt, and how he couldn't quite focus on anything beyond the fact that his body was shot through with shards of ice. Even so, it did nothing to dampen the –fever? Right, he'd been injured, badly, and for one moment, in between eternity and anticipation, he'd almost thought he would die. It was a fate he'd obviously escaped again. For a time, sine the life expectancy of people in shackles was never all that optimistic.
"And?" he asked, shaking his head gently. The chain looped about his wrists was anchored on the wall above his head, through a single ring. Ergo, if he lifted one arm, the other was left with a little more room to maneuver, and he touched his face with his left hand. His fingers were cold against his bare cheek. Mask's gone, he assessed at about the same time he confirmed Definitely a fever…
"I…I'm sorry, sensei, but I had to remove your sharingan eye—" he could hear the pain in the girl's voice. He coughed, trying to clear his throat, not willing to admit that the reason it had so suddenly become obstructed was the fact that the eye had been Obito's…That was all I had left of you, huh?
"Sakura, listen to me. There's no time to worry about that sort of thing now. Are you free?" Yes, that's right. Get down to business and don't break the cycle and be a ninja, damnit, and everything would eventually be all right.
"Yes," she said to the affirmative, and then came to stand in front of him. He could feel the heat from her body, and, relying on senses other than sight, he could feel her shallow breathing as she pressed chill fingers against his throat to check his pulse, and against his chest to check his heart. "Orochimaru is here."
"Here? Now?" He couldn't detect anyone else in the room, but that presently meant very little. There'd be time for lost tears and regret later, but not, he thought, right now. Right now he had a student -she's just a kid- to protect, and he'd do whatever it might take.
"Hello, Kakashi-kun." The voice was strange, not quite like the Orochimaru he remembered, but then he assumed that he'd taken a new host somewhere in the last few years. Kakashi tried to stand straighter, turned his head in the direction of the voice –wasn't Sakura just standing there?
"Hello," he returned, not finding a reason to be surly and rebellious just yet. If he could get Orochimaru talking…if Sakura was free, couldn't she? No, she'd die, surely. Hell, Kakashi knew even he couldn't take on Orochimaru, and definitely not in this state…not without Obito's last gift…Damn. Checkmate?
"I was very annoyed with you, Kakashi-kun, for killing Kabuto. I was somewhat fond of him," Orochimaru purred, and then leaned closer. Placed a delicate hand against Kakashi's bare chest, just where Sakura's had rested moments before. His hands were cold, too. "Although I should thank you for your sharingan."
He thought he heard Sakura snarl.
"It's not quite as good as having the body of that young boy, Sasuke-kun, but it will suffice for now. Unfortunately, it will be a while until I can change hosts, again. You people do like to meddle in my plans, don't you?" The smirk was in his voice, cruel and confident and so hopelessly cruel…
Kakashi smiled a little. "It's kind of my job, you know," he joked. Humorlessly.
Orochimaru chuckled in that sinister way of his. Had he taken a female host? It wouldn't be the first time, but Orochimaru's tastes seemed to be getting stranger and stranger these days. Did the body he was using now have family? Friends? People that should recognize her but wouldn't, ever again…? You're looking through the eyes of a corpse, Orochimaru.
He could have laughed at the irony of it all, because didn't copy ninja Kakashi know how that felt…?
"Kakashi-kun, has it escaped your mind that you're currently completely in my power…?" Now Orochimaru sounded purely quizzical, his soft voice light and musical and so sickly sweet…
"Um." The fact that I'm shirtless, injured and blindfolded…ooh, and tied up against my will hadn't even occurred to me, no sir. "Possibly"
Another little laugh. "You haven't changed at all, Kakashi-kun. Still so very stubborn and foolish." And when Orochimaru had cornered him years ago, just when he'd joined ANBU, and asked him, Wouldn't you like to join me, Kakashi-kun…? he'd been stubborn then, too. Orochimaru couldn't have forgotten that, now could he?
Kakashi knew what Orochimaru was capable of. Didn't have to like it, but knew anyways. Knew that he'd kill Sakura here and now if he thought it would get him anywhere. Knew that he could skin her alive and would probably enjoy it. Kakashi was no stranger to death, and pain seemed to be a fondly remembered companion, and so he'd stand here and not bother keeping his little quips to himself and maybe, just maybe, Orochimaru would forget that there was another person kicking around to torment.
"I guess it never got beat out of me, eh?" he drawled in a complete deadpan.
"Is that an offer?" Orochimaru asked, dryly. The hand against his bare chest was withdrawn. Kakashi tensed for a blow that never fell. "I see such strange things with this eye, you'd hardly believe—although I suppose you would. What was it like, to know that that little Uchiha boy's death was your fault? I've caused the deaths of many people, but never a friend."
Kakashi was silent a moment. Silent and still like an ocean, and he couldn't break the surface to take a breath, because when he did, the world would shatter. "Now you're going to have to kill me," he said finally, softly, tilting his head to one side, and despite the blindfold, he thought he could almost see Orochimaru's aura through the darkness. "Because—"
"Save your idioms, Kakashi-kun. I really don't have any time to listen to you. You see, I'm going to leave you here. I'll return every so often, to check up on you. Maybe I'll even feed you from time to time. But I have other business to attend to, and you really aren't of any importance to me. If spare bodies weren't so hard to come by these days, I would probably have you killed right now…" he trailed off. Sighed a sort of melodramatic sigh. "I suppose, I shall see you later, Kakashi-kun. But I very much doubt you'll be seeing me…" He chuckled to himself, gave Kakashi one final pat on the cheek, and the sound of his booted feet rang out against the stone floors as he walked away.
When he left, Kakashi was alone. There was no Sakura.
Where did that bastard take her…?
The part of him that cared didn't want to know. The part of him that he'd given over to being a shinobi knew that knowledge was perhaps the only thing that could save her life. He twisted his hands in their manacles until they bled, crusted over, and broke open to bleed again. It didn't get him anywhere.
Kakashi had felt useless before, but never quite like this. And no matter how many muted snarls he uttered to the darkness, it never abated.
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If Orochimaru were a different sort of person, he might have let Jiraiya kill him.
If Orochimaru were a different sort of person, he wouldn't have tried to discover an immortality jutsu at the cost of so many lives.
If Orochimaru were a different sort of person, he might have let Sakura go free.
Orochimaru isn't a different sort of person.
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"Sakura-chan!"
Sasuke, having been spared the indignity of being carried by Naruto, had plodded along beside him obligingly. His leg hurt, and he could barely move without some corner of his body sending little shockwaves of pain to his brain, before he remembered that it was just his nervous system playing cat and mouse with him.
After that, he ignored the pain. Naruto tugged him along, because he hadn't untied his hands, and he'd babbled enthusiastically all the way here. About what they'd do when they were all back together again, about how things would go back to being the way they should have stayed. About the what-ifs and the maybes and about everything that Sasuke didn't want to talk about but knew he had to hear.
Orochimaru's curse seal against his neck was a constant reminder. It gave off a sort of impulse that was worse than any pain he'd felt, but he'd gotten used to it. Learned how to take it and twist it into something new that he could tolerate, actually learn from. Naruto had noticed it and half-snarled, and something of the demon in him had flashed behind his eyes as he entertained the idea of cutting it out of Sasuke's skin like a cancer.
He hadn't said that aloud. He hadn't had to. Sasuke just knew.
Naruto had always been readable like that. And he was even more transparent now, crouched next to Sakura's prone form and dragging her into his arms. She looked horrible. Sasuke was more used to a Sakura that tried to keep up her appearance, and this…wasn't her.
One eye was crusted shut with blood; the entire left side of her face was purple and green with bruises. Her lip had been split open and he could only just hear the rattle of her breathing. The right side of her uniform had been completely drenched in blood, now oxidized and ugly, and she'd probably managed to break more ribs than not.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled again, and he smacked her –delicately- on the side of her face that wasn't horribly mangled. "Sakura-chan!"
Sasuke crouched beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. Naruto stiffened and when he looked back to Sasuke, animalistic rage was flooding his gaze. Sasuke suppressed a shudder, because this side of his friend never ceased to unnerve him, and he shook his head finally. "Get going."
There were tears in Naruto's eyes—tears that he probably didn't notice. He'd always been the oblivious sort. But he didn't do as he was asked, and Sakura's broken form didn't leave his arms.
"She's still alive, idiot," Sasuke informed him coolly. "Now you have two choices. You can risk letting her die here, or you can bring her back to Konoha. Either way, I'm going to slow you down, and every second is going to count. So. Let me go—" Back to Orochimaru—"and take her and get help."
He didn't really want to admit that seeing Sakura like this bothered him. He wouldn't have admitted it, even had Naruto asked. Even if he'd grabbed him and shook him and yelled and raged and screamed because that was probably about how Naruto wanted to treat him right about now. Sasuke didn't really care. They were his teammates. They'd been his teammates, but right now his place was at the side of his master. Just because he knew he'd have to kill them -both of them eventually- didn't mean he couldn't play for time right now. Some part still cares…and he knows he'll have to kill that part of himself first.
"She'd kill me," Naruto said flatly. He hadn't given up on her yet. He wouldn't, because Naruto didn't give up on people. He never knew how, because he never gave up on himself and he expected the same of everyone around him. It was a high standard to overcome, a harder one to live up to. It was Naruto, whittled down into little hopes and dreams and words. "Sasuke, we're here for you. We're here to save you! She…she!"
"She is going to die."
Naruto reeled like he'd been slapped. "No she won't!" he snapped. "She's not gonna die 'cause I'm not gonna let her!" If anyone could drag someone back from the dead, it would probably be him. Somewhere along the line, Sasuke had accepted that no amount of genius could defeat Uzumaki Naruto. Didn't mean he had to like it, and he didn't like it. But he knew, just the same.
Awkwardly, he reached out and brushed Sakura's hair away from her face and Naruto snarled at him, feral and ferocious and demonic and he didn't bother withdrawing his hand, because if Naruto wanted to bite it off, Sasuke couldn't say he'd blame him. You should hate me. Both of you. Yet you're here and you think you'll be my savior.
"Get out of here," Sasuke said softly. "Take her and go. You'll see me again." He stopped himself, but only just, from saying something stupid and corny like 'it's destiny' because there was no point in stating the obvious. They'd started this together, they'd end it in the same way, and if only one of them walked away from the fight…
Naruto rubbed at one tear-stained cheek. There was a protest in his eyes and acceptance in the firm line of his jaw. Sasuke wasn't surprised to know how much he'd grown. He'd grown, too. In different ways, with different methods, but somehow they'd arrived at this point just the same. An apex of turmoil, broken trust and shattered dreams, once dove-white and now stained irreparably red. "Come with me," he pleaded. "Just…forget that Orochimaru asshole! Sasuke!"
Sasuke took a step back. It was answer enough.
And then Naruto nodded. Stood up and brought Sakura with him. He wiped his face against his own shoulder and when he looked back to Sasuke, his eyes were dry.
"I'll never give up, you know. Not…not ever. Okay? Wait for me, Sasuke, because…one of these days, I'm gonna win, and everything…everything will be all right."
There was a tremor in his voice, and Sasuke hated that he'd put it there. I'll wait for you, some corner of his mind whispered. He didn't say it aloud, because Naruto had already bounded away through the trees with a broken porcelain doll clutched to his chest and he probably wouldn't have heard him anyways.
After all…I'll have forever.
He'd been developing jutsu of his own, these last few years.
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