Atrophied Illusion
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AN: Thanks and uber!hugs to the darling UE, whom I've been bouncing all these random plot ideas off for a while now. Luff you, dearling. Too all my other reviewers, thank you so much! The response I've gotten for this story has exceeded my expectations and I'm both flattered and grateful.
Now, a note to Thermopyle, who was kind enough to take the time to read my story and offer up some criticism. She mentioned that Naruto could have done kage bunshin no jutsu to get Sakura and Sasuke back to the village together. Sasuke's comment of 'I'll slow you down' was actually supposed to be read as him meaning that he'd do it intentionally. They're in enemy territory (Sound territory to be exact) and so Naruto couldn't send a clone with Sakura because it might get attacked. Leaving a clone with Sasuke has the same effect, seeing as how he could kill it easily. Also, I believe there's a limit as to how far Naruto can be away from a clone, because even with his stamina, he can't maintain them indefinitely. I hope that clears it up!
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Break These Walls
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Corpses didn't bother Sasuke. He'd been around enough of them in his time to know that, essentially, they were harmless. If you didn't let yourself be bothered, you could forget the way their glassy eyes stared at the boundless sky, the way their blood cooled at your feet, -the way your brother stands beside bodies already given over to death, acting like this was preordained all along- and so Sasuke knew that no matter what, these things couldn't possibly get to him, because he wouldn't let them. Because…because… I wanted to measure my capacity…
Sasuke liked to pretend that he was nothing like Itachi. And then everything had fallen together, a grotesque puzzle of blood and bone, and Sasuke knew that when he looked in the mirror, it was Itachi's dark eyes that looked back at him. Vengeance was not so much a matter of revenge as it was one of pure selfish necessity. Sasuke could never be at peace as long as that man haunted his dreams. And he'd do whatever it would take to achieve that goal, whatever…
Except…he was there, and I could have killed him, and I didn't. Does he mean that much to me?
When I was with you…I wondered what it was like to be with a brother…
He jerks the tether of his thoughts, hating himself for his lapse in self-perception, and stares down at Kabuto's corpse. His glassy eyes are staring at the boundless sky, just like all the rest, and his blood has already cooled, congealed and browning in the air. And it doesn't make any difference, because death comes for everyone eventually. Not only is Sasuke an avenger, but a harbinger, and he litters casualties wherever he goes like some macabre repository of accomplishments.
This dead body was no more unnerving than any of the others, but Sasuke had felt a sort of kinship with the older man, who'd taken him under his wing and taught him what was expected of someone in the service of Orochimaru. It wasn't that Sasuke was sorry he was dead, it was just that…for a while, he'd thought that something might have come of their tentative kinship. He wasn't naive enough to consider friendship, but something, maybe...
So, in doing his service for the dead, he crouched by the man's body and reached out, removed his glasses and closed his eyes with awkward fingers. There was a very faint residual smirk on Kabuto's face, and it almost made Sasuke shiver. Almost.
And then, what should have been a dead man twitched. His hand shot up and grabbed Sasuke's arm, and Sasuke half-yelled, startled and broke the grip with a quick and complicated flick of his captured wrist.
Kabuto blinked and sat up. Studied Sasuke and then smiled that careful little smile that always seemed so hesitant and shy. "Ah, Sasuke-kun, my apologies. I didn't hurt you, did I?" He reached for Sasuke's hand and the shorter boy jerked it further away, staring.
"You-"
"Are alive, yes," he said bemusedly, rubbing at his bloodied lips with the back of one hand. "Although I very much doubt I'll be performing any jutsu in the near future, it took almost all of my chakra to partially deflect that last blow of your old teacher." He winced, touched a finger to his leg, where the Chidori had taken a chunk out of him. "They're very skilled, Kakashi and that girl..."
Still somewhat unnerved, Sasuke sat back on the charred turf, shaking his head in something almost like amazement. But then, he reasoned, Kabuto shouldn't really surprise him any more. This was a man that he'd once seen stitch himself up with only the help of a mirror, without anesthetic. Unnerving seemed too tame a word to ply to him, and yet Sasuke couldn't think of an appropriate alternative, because Kabuto was…remarkable.
"Ah, Sasuke-kun, we should be getting back to Orochimaru-sama, don't you thi-" Kabuto paused, retrieved his glasses from Sasuke's hand and settled them back across his nose. Vision sharpened, he took in the slender boy, assessed his injuries with the cool professionalism of a medic and tut-tutted over the badly bandaged leg. "Did Naruto-kun do this?"
Sasuke looked away. His face was set and his shoulders were terse when he finally responded. "Yes."
"He's…not good with bandages, is he?" Kabuto shifted his glasses, leaned over and began to unwrap the blood-soaked jacket. Sasuke winced as he did it, but the medical ninja didn't seem at all troubled by the jagged gash where the bone had broken through his skin. Naruto had set it, cursing all the while, and Sasuke had let him because the only alternative would have pushed the blonde boy into breaking more bones, and while Sasuke was many things, a masochist wasn't one of them.
"Not very," Sasuke said warily, as Kabuto poked and prodded at him and 'hmmed' thoughtfully.
"I could heal this if I had any chakra left, but for now you'll have to deal with it simply being splinted and bandaged," he told him as he reached for a pouch at his side, ignoring the fact that the canvas material was stained with blood he'd shed a scant while earlier. Sasuke watched his hands while he worked, because Kabuto had very graceful hands, affluent and confident, and because it was better than focusing on pain.
"Naruto wanted me to go with him," he said offhandedly, not really looking for a conversation but knowing that Kabuto would chatter back regardless.
"Ah?" The pale man was biting his lip in concentration as he started re-setting the bone. It grated horribly and the shockwave set Sasuke's teeth on edge. "I'm surprised you didn't, Sasuke-kun."
"Oh?" A silver needle flashed in the medic's hands, and he threaded it deftly, started stitching up the wound itself. Sasuke dug his fingers into the loamy ground and tried not to squirm. "Why's that?"
Kabuto smiled at him rather quickly before returning to his work. "Because…you and Naruto-kun are the same, in many ways. People like that are very hard to find, and when found, they should be treasured, don't you think?" The needle made faint popping noises as it was threaded through his skin, but it was almost a catharsis, a sharp contrast to the pain.
"…He's nothing like me."
"Ah? My mistake, I suppose." Kabuto finished, tied the thread off efficiently and cut it with a kunai. "I'm going back to the village. Are you going to come with me, Sasuke-kun…? Or…?" He glanced in the direction that Naruto had gone, burdened with Sakura's nearly-lifeless body, and Sasuke shivered inexplicably. How could he have known the exact route they'd taken…?
"I'll come," Sasuke said, somewhat firmer than he'd meant to. It almost came off as insincere, and Kabuto cast him a rather odd glance, puzzled and perplexed, but he said nothing. Merely got to his feet tiredly, wincing delicately at the pain that wracked his own form, and then he offered a hand to Sasuke, who didn't take it. Sasuke hated to, and wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, but Kabuto's words unnerved him, almost more than seeing Naruto again after all this time.
"Orochimaru-sama will be happy, I'm sure," Kabuto reassured him, touching his shoulder with a healer's gentleness.
Sasuke shrugged him off and started walking.
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Naruto knew he'd been followed about half an hour after he'd left Sasuke in the clearing. He should have expected it, because after all, they were in Sound territory, and Orochimaru's reaches were boundless. So he adjusted his grip on the pink-haired girl in his arms and wrestled to get his hands free. The jutsu he performed was one he'd used so many times before that he lost count. Shadow clones, two of them, manifested in little puffs of smoke, and one of them immediately assumed Sakura's form with a minor genjutsu spell. He would have gladly provided his followers with a dozen other distractions, but his chakra was severely depleted and he knew he'd have to conserve enough that if he got in a fight, he'd come out alive.
Naruto wasn't used to thinking so far ahead, and he admitted that it wasn't quite his style to do so. Even so, Sakura was more important now than any half-baked vanity on his behalf, and so he planned. Raced through the treetops and knew that his timing was a matter of life and death. Sakura was barely breathing, and even though Naruto knew she wouldn't die (knew, because he wouldn't let her) he could still worry, a little.
He didn't really want to worry a lot, after all.
The Sound nins, for there were two of them, were clever but not quite clever enough. One of them veered off to chase the duplicates, and the other stayed on Naruto's tail, no longer bothering to disguise his pursuit, seeing as how he knew he'd been found out. Naruto ran faster, and wondered when in the hell Sakura had gained so much weight, and knew she would beat the hell out of him if she suspected he'd so much as thought that.
As long as she survived to do it, he supposed he wouldn't mind so much.
The Sound nin drew closer, and Naruto took a chance, eking to an abrupt halt, watching as the older man rushed past him. And then he'd dropped from the forest canopy to the ground, set Sakura down against a tree and flung three shuriken in quick succession after the other ninja, who dodged with little effort. Naruto growled in frustration and closed his eyes, trying to tap the immense chakra sleeping within him. He'd drawn on it earlier, in his fight with Sasuke -
-"I won't kill you!"
"You'll have to, if you want to stay alive."
"Sasuke!"
"Fight me!"-
-but something of it would still remain, because the nine tails was deadly and dangerous and anything but stupid, and it liked to see Naruto sweat a little, especially in fights that could mean life or death. It was a peculiar game of cat and mouse, or maybe fox and human, and Naruto had always been good at games in which the odds were stacked against him. The demon in him was sleeping, dormant until it could recover its chakra, and he waded through that immense labyrinth to find it.
Stupid fox…
And then was a stinging pain and his concentration shattered like a crystal dropped to a hardwood floor, and he looked down to see a kunai embed itself in his chest and he had time to think only one thing before he lost control, Sasuke, I can't die until I save you…!
The demon roared to life, and what had once been quiet and quiescent was now blazing with fury and killing intent. The Sound nin didn't stand a chance, and Naruto couldn't have stopped even if he wanted to. He tore the man to shreds, oblivious to his pleas of mercy.
Afterwards, there was darkness.
-
Of all the things in the world that Naruto might have considered pleasant to wake up to, Shikamaru Nara's face was not, repeat not one of them. Unsurprisingly, such a development made him yell with shock's close cousin and try, with less strength than he might have liked, to get away from the looming visage.
"Oy…" Shikamaru exclaimed softly, as he reached out and placed a hand flat against Naruto's chest where there should have been, by all rights, a gaping, fatal wound. "Don't be so hasty," the young man continued, "'cause you're not going anywhere for a while."
Naruto hissed against the residual pain that haunted his body and allowed himself to be restrained. "Sakura?"
"She's being taken care of," Shikamaru assured him. "She's badly injured, though." Unspoken drifted the words we aren't sure if she's going to make it, but Naruto refused to listen to those because that wasn't what he wanted to hear.
"Can I see her? Now?" He tried to sit up again and was pushed forcibly back down by the adamant Chuunin.
"Later."
"But!"
"Later."
"But I just want to make sure she's all right!" Naruto rubbed at his chest in memory, wincing slightly as he recalled the precise angle at which the kunai had driven home. How many times had he come so close to dying now, only to be saved by the demon inside him? How many more times would it take, before blessing outweighed curse?
"I checked on her." And as he talked, Shikamaru made himself at home on Naruto's hospital bed, yawning tiredly and rubbing at a cheek with the back of one scarred hand. "Trust me on this, Naruto. It's better if you stay here for now. I brought food, heh?" The enticing aroma of ramen was enough to deter the blonde boy from that train of thought, however momentarily. If his heart ruled his head, then his stomach held at least some definitive sway over his heart. He pounced on the proffered victuals with the enthusiasm of a man that hadn't eaten in several days.
"So," Shikamaru began, watching Naruto eat with due caution, ducking out of the way to avoid the errant splatter of noodles. "What happened?"
"Fought Sasuke." Munch, slurp.
"And…?"
"Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei-" slurp "-Fought Kabuto. I…I couldn't find Kakashi." From the expression on Naruto's face, the thought had only just occurred to him. His fingers stilled on the chopsticks of the ramen and he gave Shikamaru an anguished look.
"We searched the area," Shikamaru supplied without hesitation. "Found both battle sites. There were no bodies, so it seems likely that Kakashi is still alive."
"But - I left him! I should have looked for him!"
"Calm down, already. You're not doing anything by sitting here crying over spilt…ramen." This last was directed to the fact that Naruto had tipped his nearly-forgotten bowl, spilling noodles here and there. Hastily, he righted it.
"Shikamaru, I have to go find Kakashi!"
"Not in that state, you're don't." Shikamaru folded his arms and managed to produce an amazingly proficient 'do not argue with me' aura for someone who was generally too lazy to bother. "You're going to sit and tell me the rest of what happened so I know what I'm dealing with, here."
Naruto had never been the sort to be cowed by anyone, much less Shikamaru. So he struggled out of bed, shoved the dark-haired boy out of his way and headed for the door. "Sorry, Shikamaru! I have to find Kakashi-sensei!"
He froze abruptly as he made it over the threshold. I can't move…
"Shikamaru!"
The genius grunted in what might have been his attempt at an apology. "My stamina's pretty good these days. I can hold you as long as necessary. But I'd rather not, seeing as how it's annoying and tiring. Are you going to behave?"
Naruto might have slumped, had he been in possession of his motor skills right then and there. Instead, he growled. "Damnit…damnit! Shikamaru!"
The dark-haired boy grimaced. "I'm sorry, really," he said gently as he released his shadow hold on the other young ninja. "But we've got a problem on our hands. If Orochimaru can amass an attack on us, right now, I have to know about it, and you're the only one with the information I need. I'll send a group out to look for Kakashi, but you are staying here." He blew out his breath in an exasperated sigh. As much as he hated to admit it, a single life was not worth the lives of everyone else in the village. He'd been taught that lesson by Sasuke. And Shikamaru had never been a slow learner. "Okay?"
Naruto, free of the jutsu, turned and glared at him, but it wasn't Shikamaru he was angry with, and the boy knew it. So he allowed it and dismissed it with nothing more than a wave of one hand. "Sit, finish your food and tell me what the hell's going on."
The story came in disjointed bits and pieces, as Naruto stumbled over the details and had to back-track to re-tell some pertinent part that he'd left out at first. Shikamaru listened patiently, filing away all the information so that he could dissect it and go over it carefully with a fine-toothed comb later. Until that point presented itself, he'd glean what he could from the conversation.
When he'd heard that Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi had gone after Sasuke again, it was about all he could do to keep from finding a nice sturdy wall that he could beat his head against until it fell down, or until he lost consciousness. Of course, that sort of thing was never conducive to getting things done, and so he'd started planning a rescue, instead. He'd planned for every possible scenario he could think of, from Naruto dead to Sasuke dead to badgers falling from the sky, and his team had arrived on the scene moments after Naruto's spectacular collapse following his…Shikamaru didn't think he could call it a 'fight', considering how little of that there'd been.
So now, Sakura and Naruto were back safely, Kakashi was missing in action and Sasuke was gone again, back to the Sound, if what he'd told Naruto had any grain of truth to it.
Shikamaru wondered sometimes why they hadn't given up on Sasuke already. The Uchiha had made his own bed, and sooner or later he'd have to lie in it. And then Shikamaru stopped and thought about what exactly he'd do, if it were Chouji or Ino that needed to be saved from themselves, and he pursed his lips into a thin, grim line, because he knew he would have done the same damned thing. And thus do we make of ourselves a paradox…
How much more would it take, until Sasuke came to his senses…? Shikamaru glanced at Naruto, talking himself to exhaustion, determined and devoted just the same, and he realized that it would take as much as necessary, because Naruto wouldn't give up on him.
It was an admirable trait, if troublesome.
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Kakashi wasn't fond of darkness. Of course, he could feign indifference to most things, but then again, little bothered him more than being helpless, trapped like some sort of oblivious animal, incapable of doing anything to save himself. In this situation, he couldn't even gnaw his own limbs off to escape, although he might have tried, had he the means to do so.
He'd managed to get the blindfold off, by rubbing his cheek against one of his arms, and it was draped now over his nose, a parody of the mask he generally wore. However, doing so must have dislodged whatever bandages that Sakura had applied to his left eye socket, because blood was dribbling down his cheek with a startling alacrity. Blood loss, unhealthy at the best of times, was doubly so for someone as injured as he was.
And silence had never done anything for his sanity.
As if to break that which had settled so heavily, he heard the distant murmur of a voice. Sakura? but no, it couldn't be - it was too deep. Who, then? Orochimaru, back again for whatever purpose?
Whoever he'd expected, it wasn't Kabuto, limping into his cell, holding a torch aloft and looking entirely too pleased with himself, rather like a cat that's caught and carried a rat to its master. "Kakashi-sensei, hello…" he said with a disgusting sort of cheerfulness, settling the torch in one of three holders along the wall. "You look quite horrible."
Kakashi decided that wasn't worth a response, and so he kept quiet, studying the other man as intensely as he could. Kabuto chuckled at his stoic silence as he padded across the room to stand before Kakashi, reaching up to touch the bloodied cheek. With a mild sigh, he began pulling out various antiseptics and bandages.
"Sasuke-kun is with me, although he doesn't know you're here yet…telling him would be problematic, I should think. You should consider yourself lucky that Orochimaru-sama told me; else you might have gone without company the entire time he was away." Kabuto adjusted his glasses and began cleaning the wound. "Orochimaru-sama's new host is quite splendid, I really do think you'd approve. And he now has your sharingan, which was what he'd wanted all along, after all…"
Kakashi's mind kept pace with his heart, fast and erratic, as he tried to, as he had most of his life, see beneath the obvious. Kabuto was …testing him? To what point or purpose? If it wasn't a test, then what did he hope to gain from these mind-games? He couldn't think straight, not fever-weakened and besieged by pain.
"Where's Sakura?" he asked finally, knowing that no information was ever offered unless it was asked for, bartered for in blood. If that was the price he had to pay, well…
Kabuto's smirk was faintly amused, as if at some secret irony. "Back in Konoha, or should be, by now. Orochimaru's plans are always…elegant."
Orochimaru's style of 'elegance' had never struck Kakashi as being anything but horrific. Konoha, attacked? They have to be warned…! "Where's Sasuke? Let me talk to him."
Coyly, Kabuto lowered his head to one side, the firelight glinting off his glasses as he did so. "I should think not, Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke's part in this plan does not involve you. He will return to Konoha eventually, under Orochimaru's guidance."
Kakashi almost called out again as the slight man turned and began walking away, pausing only to toss a parting quip over one shoulder, "I'll leave the lights on for you, Kakashi-sensei…" and then he was gone, and Kakashi had more questions than answers and more pain than reprieve and he still couldn't move.
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Somewhere, Sakura was screaming.
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