Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...
Note: Wow, I was actually able to make this chapter longer than my previous ones (hooray to myself!) I was actually supposed to post the story on jan.1 but was unable to do so because of some family and holiday matters. And so, I decided to lengthen this chapter. Besides, since school has started again, I might not be able to update as soon as possible.
Normal - conversations/narrations
Italics - thoughts
Italics Bold - Jutsus
Blue-Eclipse - yes, there will be pairings, don't worry
Sirius183 - thanks for finding this story interesting, I'm trying my best (this is my first fic, after all). Sasuke's point of view is about to end, don't worry. I'll try to make the next few chapters as long as this one.
jpthug12 - I won't make it yaoi, don't worry
LichtSieger - I intentionally made Sasuke think he could beat Tsunade with the Curse Seal, mainly because I wanted to depict his past self as an arrogant, selfish guy. The main timeline did depict him as having regrets at not being as strong as he thought he was.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flashback continues
Sasuke floated in the darkness. Everything that happened that night almost felt like a dream… but it also seemed so real…
He suddenly hears a voice above him. "So, how was your trip, Uchiha Sasuke?"
The voice seemed… unfamiliar. "What the?!? Who the hell just said that? I'm supposed to be dead, right?"
Sasuke lifts himself up on his two hands and opens his eyes, while groaning from the immense headache that he felt.
"Oww, what happened? I was inside Konoha, and now I'm… here."
Sasuke looks forward, toward the bushes right in front of him, trying to make out his jumbled memories.
"Wait a minute… isn't that bush… the same one I looked at? Is this forest at the outskirts of Konoha? But how…"
"Don't mind him, Koujiro. He won't be any threat to our mission. I still don't understand why you're so interested in him."
"That voice!! It's… it's…"
Sasuke stands up, despite the stinging pain he felt in his head. All the hatred he felt, all the anger he felt, all that loneliness… everything flooded back to his mind. Sasuke's black eyes were replaced with the crimson eyes of the Sharingan, bearing all three tomoes.
"Why shouldn't I mind him, Itachi-kun? He is your brother after all… I want to see for myself how talented your 'foolish little brother', as you call him, is."
All the pain that Sasuke endured during the day his brother killed the whole clan surfaced, and he felt himself swept away with his hatred. The only thing on his mind was… to kill. "Die, Itachi."
Sasuke starts forming seals, jumps, and turns in the direction of the voices in mid-air. "Katon Goukakyuu no jutsu!!"
A large fireball escapes his mouth, engulfing the whole area with flames.
"Pfff, is that all your little brother can do, Itachi?"
Sasuke turns around only too see his brother and two other Akatsuki members in mid-air as well, talking casually among themselves.
"I think we should knock him unconscious like we did the others, Itachi-kun, Yomi-san, before he burns down the whole forest and alerts Konoha."
"Why should we even let him live? He's weak, and the weak don't deserve to live, yeah? Besides, he's going to become Orochimaru's container, so if we take care of that problem now…"
"No." Itachi's eyes were like cold ice, and with his full Sharingan eyes he looked truly evil. "Koujiro, finish the mission. Yomi, scout around for some of the ANBU which could be scouting. I'll handle my foolish little brother myself."
Sasuke lands on the burnt ground, and stares at the three Akatsuki members as they land right in front of him. The other two depart in different directions, leaving him alone with his brother.
"So, little brother, I see that you've acquired the full Sharingan. Have you acquired the Mangekyou Sharingan as well? Do you finally have the strength to fight and defeat me? Or will you be like our father who died like a worm before me?" mocks Itachi.
At the mention of 'father', Sasuke felt his anger burst out. He unleashed the first level of the curse seal.
"Ahh, that must be Orochimaru's forbidden curse seal. Interesting," says Itachi, with a bored tone.
"Hmph, he's underestimating me. I'll be the one laughing once I'm done with him."
Sasuke charges and starts doing hand seals. "Katon Housenka!!" Sasuke jumps, and spits out multiple blasts fire, then does a few more hand seals. "Jutsu Bunshin no Jutsu!!" The multiple blasts of fire then replicate and the sky is suddenly filled with a rain of fire.
"How pathetic…" Itachi shakes his head, and swings his cloak right at the rain of fire. "Kamaitachi no Jutsu!!"
Winds suddenly forms from Itachi's cloak, which blows away the fire and slightly cuts Sasuke's arms and legs.
Sasuke then flips in mid-air, lands on the trunk of a tree, takes out a kunai and launches himself right at Itachi.
"Die!!!!!"
Sasuke stabs Itachi, which then transforms into a mud bunshin. Itachi reappears behind him, grabs Sasuke's right leg and pulls Sasuke toward him. Sasuke then balances himself by grabbing the earth underneath him, while launching his left foot right at Itachi's face.
Itachi dodges and immediately sweeps both of Sasuke's hands and hits Sasuke's stomach, neck, and forehead, in quick succession, followed by a quick roundhouse kick right at Sasuke's back, causing him to fly towards another tree.
Sasuke changes his position and lands with his feet flat on the tree's trunk, and throws a barrage of kunai, followed by a few hand seals. "Kunai Bunshin no Jutsu!!"
The barrage of kunai replicates into a flood of kunai, which Itachi easily deflects with his own kunai.
"Heh, so you aren't as invincible as you thought you were, big brother," Sasuke says with an arrogant grin.
Blood was dripping from the hand Itachi used to deflect the kunai.
"I see, so you hid a kage kunai in a few kunai you had thrown. But I am still not impressed, little brother."
Itachi slowly closed his eyes for a second and opened them with the Mangekyou Sharingan activated.
"Do you understand the power of this Mangekyou Sharingan, my foolish little brother? You will never be capable of defeating me without your own Mangekyou Sharingan."
The Akatsuki member known as Yomi suddenly appeared right behind Itachi. "Itachi, it's going to get a little troublesome here, yeah? Konoha seems to have seen your little brother's fireworks earlier, and are coming here to investigate. And if those ANBU don't return, we might have the whole village down on us, yeah?"
Koujiro suddenly appears right beside Itachi as well. "The target has arrived. He seems to have considered our offer. And he has the scroll."
Meanwhile, Sasuke was already charging towards them, with the Chidori in his hands.
"Ahh, the Chidori… this is very interesting."
Sasuke kept charging, but was suddenly distracted by what the man called Koujiro said.
"How does he know about the Chidori!?! Who the hell is he?"
Sasuke blinked… and Itachi was gone.
"What?!?"
"I can't waste any more time on you, my foolish little brother," came a voice from behind him.
Itachi grabs Sasuke's left hand from behind and breaks Sasuke's whole arm. The Chidori dissipates, and after the quick crack followed Sasuke's scream of pain.
"What are you doing, Itachi? You'll bring those ANBU right to us, with all your little brother's screaming, yeah?"
"I'm not worried, Yomi…let them come…"
Yomi was clearly not satisfied with Itachi's answer, and turned to Koujiro.
"Tch, do you have enough chakra to use 'Nirvana' again, Koujiro? We aren't here to start a war… yet. Didn't I tell you awhile ago not to use it on that Uchiha boy?"
"Ahaha, you worry too much, Yomi-san. I just wanted to test if the Sharingan can dissipate my 'Nirvana'. Besides, the target has arrived."
Sasuke contained his screaming and looked at the newcomer, who was surrounded by the shadows. The newcomer seemed to be looking straight at him, apparently surprised to see him.
Koujiro takes a step forward and extends his hand out to the person in the shadows.
"Welcome, Uzumaki Naruto."
Naruto walks toward Koujiro, and finally leaves the shadows of the forest.
Sasuke was shocked. "This is… Naruto?"
Sasuke was surprised to see how much Naruto had grown. His face had matured a little and the scratch marks were a little longer than before. He was taller now, and his blonde hair was as just as spiky as always, just longer. He wasn't wearing the orange jump suit Sasuke was so accustomed to seeing; instead, he was wearing an open yellow jacket with a ninja vest underneath, and dark blue pants. In his hand was a large scroll with the symbol '4' on it.
As Naruto got closer, Sasuke noticed something glittering in Naruto's eyes. "Tears? Is Naruto… crying?"
"Let's go." Naruto's voice seemed cracked from crying.
"You're not going anywhere, you bastards!!!"
Masashi and Kuroro suddenly appear, jumping out of the darkness.
"Stop it! Masashi! Kuroro!" shouts Sasuke. "These… these guys are too strong. And we can't complete our mission, because Konoha has been alerted of intruders' presence. We need to retreat, and abandon the mission."
"What are you saying, Uchiha bastard? We must complete the mission, or Orochimaru will have our heads!!! And I won't forgive these Akatsuki idiots for treating us like weaklings a while ago. And they already had the upper hand to begin with, because they seemed to know we were coming."
Yomi steps up, with a very dangerous aura about him. "Tch, you ungrateful weaklings should even thanks us for not killing you. If Koujiro weren't here, you guys would be dead. Besides, you guys are just too damn careless, yeah? You tripped our detection trap, and the hooting owl was a sign for us that someone was right behind us."
"If you don't hinder our mission, then the ANBU won't be finding five dead Sound nin bodies in the forest," Koujiro states casually.
Fighting suddenly erupts in the bushes to the right. The sounds of clashing kunai was clear, and more voices were coming their way.
"Damn it!!! The ANBU!!! Alright, Uchiha, we retreat, but if Orochimaru sentences us to death, I'll make sure that I kill you before I die!" growled Masashi.
Sasuke turns around to finally head out into the dark forest, but takes one last look at his friend, who was now with the Akatsuki.
"Naruto…"
Naruto was looking at him too, and he suddenly sees the pain in Naruto's eyes, and what's more, an emotion that he himself had always felt.
Loneliness.
That emotion looked so wrong for Naruto, because Sasuke always saw Naruto as the energetic, loud-mouthed idiot who called him bastard and tried his best to outdo, outsmart, and outmatch him. Even in their battle at the Valley of the End, Naruto never showed this much pain in his eyes and always had that spark of determination.
But now, his eyes were different.
His eyes were dull, and lacked that certain spark of determination that he always had. It was as if Naruto was in some sort of unbreakable trance.
"What… what could have happened, that would break Naruto's spirit like this?"
Naruto finally turns around and starts walking towards Akatsuki. Sasuke takes his gaze off of Naruto and begins his retreat into the dark forest.
Flashback ends
Sasuke finally arrives at Orochimaru's large palace, and enters its massive doors. Inside, the 'Otokage' was standing in the hall, just out of reach of the sunlight coming through the palace entrance.
"So, Orochimaru-sama," Sasuke stresses with apparent sarcasm, "what do you want from me, you're only student whom you've ignored for a month?"
Orochimaru motions his hand to Rui, clearly making it known that he wanted to be alone with Sasuke. Rui leaves at this signal, and closes the doors behind her. Lamps along the hallway come to life, and the Sasuke sees Orochimaru's pale face and figure.
Sasuke could not help but feel utter disgust towards Orochimaru. The man had possessed another person's body four years ago, but he could no longer see any trace of the person in Orochimaru. The Orochimaru that stood before him now was the old Orochimaru, except a little taller. He still had that long dark hair, those small snake-like eyes, that pale skin, and that disgusting elongated tongue.
Sasuke cringed as he recalled that he was supposed to have been the one Orochimaru had possessed last year. However, he had just come back after the failed mission from Konoha, and still had the feelings he felt after fighting Itachi. His extreme hatred and the focus in his life-long mission to kill Itachi was so strong that it overwhelmed Orochimaru's mind transfer jutsu and forced him to withdraw.
"Don't be so cold to me, Sasuke-kun. I was merely planning our next move."
"Tch, what next move? You do know that Akatsuki has already beaten you since they already have Kyuubi!!!"
"But why haven't they done anything drastic yet? From what I know of them, they are still trying to expand their power and influence all over the Underground. They're still going about doing their 'missions', and they still strive not to let their presence be known in the other shinobi villages. Think, Sasuke. If they already have Kyuubi, why are they still hesitating?"
Sasuke knew this was true. Naruto had gone to Akatsuki a year ago, and yet it seems that Akatsuki had still not extracted the Kyuubi from Naruto. There was no news whatsoever of a nine-tailed demon fox ravaging any village, and news like that was quick to spread throughout the world.
"We've waited for over a year for Akatsuki to make the first move, but they still haven't done anything. This just means they're getting ready for something, my dear apprentice. Something very big. I don't think they'll extract Kyuubi till the last minute, partly because of its uncontrollable power and partly because it is a youma."
Orochimaru turns around, and motions Sasuke to follow him.
"We have much work to do, Sasuke-kun. Konoha's destruction will have to wait. We need to take some measures with regards to Akatsuki. My information network in that group was recently cut off, so we need to move before they do."
Sasuke follows Orochimaru into the depths of the palace, but his thoughts wander off into the darkness.
"Naruto… you've made things a lot more complicated than they used to be. You should have stayed in Konoha. You don't deserve to carry this darkness in your heart… the darkness that I bear because of my quest for revenge."
Sasuke touches his chest, and a feeling of guilt and torment escapes his heart and spreads throughout his whole body.
"Kakashi was right… living for revenge is like not living at all. I've realized that once I kill Itachi, I would have no reason to live whatsoever… but the wheels of my life have already turned, and I can't escape this path I've chosen. Naruto, escape now… before it's too late."
Meanwhile in a ramen shop in the Village of Sand…
Aaaaa-choooo!!!!
"Are you alright? Don't tell me you've caught a cold."
"Nah, it's just probably all this dust and sand. I'm fine!!!"
"Hahahaha! I'm sure that a good big bowl of ramen will cure that cold of yours."
The guy with the cold suddenly looks annoyed. "I told you, I don't have a cold!!"
He suddenly stands up and boasts, "My body resistance is too strong for stuff like that!"
"Ok, here you go!!! Three miso ramen bowls, for the two of you!! Enjoy!!!"
The guy who was originally standing up snatches two of the bowls and quickly grabs some chopsticks from a container to the right. "Ahhhh!!! Thank you!!! I'm sooo hungry!!!"
The other guy calmly takes his bowl from the ramen girl. "Thank you very much, Miss Ramen Girl."
The ramen girl blushes. "Oh, th-thank you. Um, by the way, I don't think I've seen either of you around here. Are you new here?"
None of the guys answer her because both were too busy eating. The ramen girl just goes on dreamily as she stares at the more refined one.
After a few minutes of silence, the ramen girl suddenly speaks out again. "Blondes are quite rare in this village… And the two of you have the same hair color. Are you brothers?"
"Oh no, miss, we're not," says the more refined one, as the other one continues drinking his second bowl of ramen like a vacuum cleaner. "We're just fellow travelers, and good friends." He finishes his bowl of ramen and notices his companion sticking a piece of paper on the bowl. He glares at his companion, who then sighs and takes off the piece of paper from the bowl. He then stands up and smiles at the ramen girl. "Well, we should be going. Thank you for such a fine bowl of ramen, miss."
The other guy also stands and smiles towards her. "Yeah, yeah, thanks!!! When we come back, I'll make sure I go back here to eat!!!"
The two put on their straw hats and the ramen girl just stares dreamily at the pair, particularly at the more refined one, as they walk towards the village gates. "Come back soon!!!" she shouts.
The two strangers continue walking through a sand storm in the wastelands, seemingly taking in all the sights of their surroundings.
"Well, the mission wasn't as bad as I thought it would go. We even got to eat in their ramen shop without them knowing it!! This must have been our easiest mission yet, ne, Koujiro?"
Koujiro suddenly stops and strains his eyes ahead and into the storm of dust before them. Ten shadows of cloaked sand nin suddenly appear.
"Well, it looks like you're wrong again. I told you we shouldn't have stopped by that ramen shop on our way out," Koujiro states in a joking manner.
"But, but, Koujiro, I was hungry!!! I needed something to eat!!!"
"Ah, don't worry. At least we get some exercise immediately after we ate." Koujro smiles at the group of sand nins hiding in the sand storm. "Don't get in our way, if you ninjas don't want to die."
A voice inside the storm suddenly speaks out. "Hmph, you're the ones who will die if you don't identify yourselves and tell us what you were doing in our village."
"Alright then. We'll identify ourselves. I am Arashi Koujiro, and my companion over here is Uzumaki Naruto."
Naruto grins wide. "And we were here to steal the Village of Sand's forbidden scroll, you bunch of losers!!!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Glossary:
Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu - Fire Release: Grand Fireball Skill; the user expels a huge fireball from his/her mouth, burning a large area.
Katon Housenka - Fire Release: Phoenix Fire; a jutus wherein the user expels multiple blasts of fire from his/her mouth, while focusing on just one target.
Kamaitachi no Jutsu - Wind Sickle Skill; a jutsu that requires a medium for the wind to be used; the wind is strong enough to extinguish flames and are as sharp as sickles.
Jutsu Bunshin no Jutsu - a jutsu which creates an illusion of the the jutsu used before it; it is used to distract or confuse the opponent with the real thing; however, the stronger the jutsu it tries to create an illusion of, the more chakra it uses up.
Kunai Bunshin no Jutsu -a jutsu which creates replications of the original kunai thrown; however, these replications are just illusions and cannot really hurt the target.
Kage Kunai - a technique wherein a second kunai is hidden in the shadow of the first one.
Mangekyou Sharingan -the highest level of Sharingan that can be possessed by the Uchiha clan; it is said that only a handful of people have ever achieved this.
Nirvana - a secret genjutsu used by Arashi Koujiro; takes up a lot of chakra,however, not even the Sharingan can cancel it out; other details about this genjutsu are unknown (why would I spoil it for you? I'll explain this genjutsu as the story goes along)
Author's Note: Ok, I hope you like this chapter. I'll also explain in the course of the story why Naruto seems so out of character in the main timeline even though he was so disturbed in the past timeline. Review please!!!
