a s p h y x i a t e d . t e a r s
chapter two. A Silence under the waterfall

disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
author's note: This is chapter two, it picks up right where the first one ended, and will jump five years into the future. Really the first chapter came out of no where. It was hard to decide weather to continue on with it or not, but I decided to go on with the story and see how it develops.

Naruto sat on the ground at the door of Sakura's house. He simply sat starring up at the clouding sky. His orange jacket stood out against the bleak house, against his somber complexion. He kept asking himself why, but there was no answer, and no one could give him an answer. He didn't even know if he wanted one. The truth could hurt so much, he was torn apart as it was, Sasuke, now Sakura.

Kakashi stood in the doorway, looking at the clouds as well. His gray hair, released from the headband, flowed with the slight breeze that passed by the forsaken house. Kakashi looked down to Naruto, who's eyes were full of grief, pain stricken they both were. Sadly there was nothing they could do, nothing but move on. Kakashi stepped out, slightly past Naruto. His feet were placed firmly on the light brown dirt that sat loosely upon the earth. He pulled down his cloth mask, revealing his face. His elegant gray hair covered his right eye. The air brushed against the soft skin of his face, like it had been born once more. Kakashi lowered his head.

"Looks like rain…Naruto…"
"Why…why Kakashi-sensei…" It was evident that Naruto's voice was filled with pain as he struggled to talk, and much less hold his composure.
"…Its life Naruto-kun." Kakashi sighed turning to Naruto, and lowering to one knee. "Some wills are stronger than other's, some just can't handle it anymore. There's no telling why people do these things…"
"Sasuke…" A tear rolled down Naruto's face as he spoke. "It's his fault…"

Kakashi looked at him, Naruto seemed to be far gone, drowned in pain, however, whatever he may say, its true. Sasuke had been at the bottom of this, there was no denying it. Sakura killed herself, she did it because of, no, for Sasuke. He was all she had, and now he was gone.

Naruto found himself falling into Kakashi's arms, crying, letting it all go. "Kakashi…" Naruto struggled to fet his words out, over the loud sobs he let out. "…what, what do we do now…" Kakashi sighed. He couldn't save Obito, Sasuke, or even Sakura, he must save Naruto, at all cost, Naruto can't slip away, out of his grasp, into the darkness.

"We will continue down the path of life Naruto-kun…"

...
The night sky was lit up by an elegant blanket of stars. A full moon, hung in the sky, peacefully. A light mist was suspend in the air, in the country of the Waterfall. Tranquil, shimmering waters flowed at the base of gray jagged cliffs, the cliffs seemed to spring out of the lush green forest the covered the land. For some reason, it was strangely cold that night…

Kakashi stood, his body half engulf by a waterfall he stood under. Dressed in a tight black shirt, and loose fitting pants, the light gray ANBU armor covered his chest and forearms. Blood stains Kakashi's right side, trickles of water slowly wash the blood down his face, his left hand runs through his hair as he lets out a sigh. His ANBU mask lays broken on a damp gray rock at his feet. His eyes slowly follow five figures in the dark of the forest ten feet ahead of him. Darting from the thick brush of the forest a kunai pierced Kakashi's neck; Blood ran down the gray ANBU uniform as he began to fall to the ground…

...
Naruto leaps, out of breath, from one branch to another, then jumps down to the moist ground. All around him, its quiet. He stares around through the small slits of the fox shaped ANBU mask. His long yellow hair hung out of the sides of his mask, soaking wet, along with the rest of his black clothing.

Naruto summersaults from his crouched position, dodging a kunai. A wet green leaf falls in front of his face, and he disappears into the darkness, into the deeper woods. He sits resting, breathing heavily, behind a large tree and thick brush. Naruto's right arm shakes violently as he reaches for the water vessel hanging from his waist. Though, it seemed it had dropped as he was running through the forest. His mouth had become so dry, his tongue was like sand paper, he felt as if he was going to faint, even die right on the spot where he lay. However, the mission, his first with the ANBU, must not be failed.

Naruto moved his numb right hand towards his lower calf, grabbing some senbon, he jolted up into a tree, and twisted around thirty degrees to his right and threw all three. A piercing thud came from the direction of the senbon as a body fell from the tree tops. Naruto gasp for more air, he leaped up a few feet onto another branch. He sat down, his whole body was weak, it trembled, the feeling in his body faded away, the little that he could see began to turn black…

...
Kakashi's body fell to the ground shattering into droplets of water, running off with the rapid fall of water. Kakashi waits, crouched down behind the waterfall, as he watches his water clone dissolve. A kunai flows through the massive wall of water. Kakashi extends his right arm and catches the kunai with his index finger. The wet kunai swirls around Kakashi's finger twice then is thrown the same direction it came from, meeting another kunai just on the other side of the waterfall, the collide, causing slight sparks and both fall into the river below.

Silence fills the air, its too calm for comfort, something isn't right. 'Why did they just stop?' Kakashi thought to himself. He leaped up six feet grabbing a hold of a rock and turned to face the black inside of the waterfall. Kakashi started climbing, faster, and faster. Soon water started pelting on his head. The instrumental percussion of the water weighed Kakashi down. He took a deep breath and with all of his might he leaped backwards, out of the raging falls. He did a full 360 degree turn in the air, water flung off of his damp clothing, raining down to the gray grass below. His feet hit the ground hard, his knees bent as far as they could go, he pulled a kunai out of his holster with each hand and sprung backwards to land on his feet more stable. Glancing around, he saw nothing, not even the swaying of the trees with the cool night wind. Something had to be wrong. 'NARUTO…' Kakashi thought, his chest pounded, it felt ready to explode.

Kakashi darted out into the dark woods. He couldn't loose Naruto now. Macabre thoughts ran though his head, wish, hoping they weren't true, he continued on, led only by crudely drawn arrows on the bark of trees. Soon, though, he was stopped in his tracks, a tree rose out of a heavily bushed area. The tree had to have had three dozen kunai plastered over it. Kakashi gripped on to the kunai he held closely, ducking down slowly, he inched his way forward, searching for a sign of Naruto. Making his way to the porcupine like tree, he examined it closely. Bits and pieces of black clothing hung from the kunai, further right, in the center of the tree was a streak of blood, next to a vague slash, what looked like it was made from a kunai, that traveled from the top of the tree, past many broken branches, and down into the bushes.

Kakashi's head snapped right hearing a moaning sound in the distance, yet it didn't sound threatening. He moved towards the noise, cautiously. He came upon an enemy's body. The fallen foe was still breathing, barely. Three senbon had pierced his neck, from Naruto most likely, Kakashi thought to himself. The enemy was wearing a tight black jump suit, just as Kakashi was wearing under the ANBU armor. Yet the foe had bandages wrapped around his from the top of his pelvic area to just below his nipple line. On his right side were beautiful calligraphic characters in a brownish ink, most likely blood, which was written on the bandages. The characters read "Kuraoi-Kawa." Kakashi seemed unpleased, by the time he had looked over the body, the man had died.

"It was surely them…" Kakashi spoke silently to himself, reaching for a scroll at his side. Kakashi unraveled the scroll, and preformed two hand seals. Smoke blew out from the scroll and Pakkun was sitting on the ground before Kakashi.

"Ah…Kakashi, what is it, I was just in the shower…" Pakkun said shaking the suds from his wet brown coat.

Kakashi sighed, "Here…" Kakashi handed Pakkun his usual blue outfit, "Take a good smell of that body there. There should be four others…as far as I know."

"Ai…" Pakkun nodded and walked over to the body sniffing at the clothes.

"I have to find Naruto-kun. Just follow those people once you find them, I may have to get Naruto help…"

"Don't worry about it Kakashi…" Pakkun said rather cheerfully, "I will find you…" With that said, Pakkun lept over the body and continued off into the darkness.

Kakashi stood up and walked back to the tree. He knelt down where the bushes were and started to search for Naruto's body, it seemed he had fallen from the tree. Kakashi heard some strange noise in front of him. He reached his hand down and felt a solid warm spot. He pulled out a kunai and chopped away the bushes. There before him, in the cleared bushes, Naruto laid, unconscious, with his stomach growling. Kakashi looked over Naruto's body, a bunch of scratches, but nothing serious. Kakashi sighed and put his arms under Naruto to pick him up. Now at a stable base, Kakashi turned to walk away, but something caught his eye. Where Naruto was laying, there was a huge puddle of blood. Kakashi glanced down at Naruto, "How…theres only scratches…" Suddenly Kakashi felt something soaking into his left glove where Naruto's head laid in his arms. He gently set Naruto down and turned him over. From the middle of Naruto's neck down to the middle of his back was a huge gash and hanging flesh; it was deep enough that bones could be seen.

"Damn…" Kakashi said glancing at the large wound. 'By the looks of it, he's had that for a few hours now…' Kakashi thought. He really had nothing to do, all of his bandages had been used. Standing there for a few seconds, Kakashi took out a kunai, he pulled at the tight black fabric of his ANBU outfit and sliced around the waist. Taking off his upper body armor, Kakashi took off, the now top, of his black jump suit. He placed the armor back onto his bare skin and wrapped Naruto's back up with the cloth. Picking Naruto up, Kakashi darted off heading for Konoha.

AN: Thats all I have, more will be explained in the next chapter. Thanks for reading if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them