A/N: I can't believe I almost have 100 reviews! Thank you everyone for your continuing support of this fic! Also, I'd really appreciate it if you checked out my other stories... They may not be Naruto, but since i write AU you don't have to know anything about the series to read and enjoy them .
Recommendations: If you like really long excellent SasuNaru fics, check out
Queen Angelblood, shes an excellent writer. Also, please take the time to read anything from Hannio or Neo-chan. They also write Digimon fics, but like I said, you don't have to be familiar with the series to love their fics!
Review Replies (everyone who reviewed is guaranteed a reply. Scroll down and find your S/N):
Shizuka Ketsurui: Oh yes they can! It makes it a lot more suspenseful that way, hehe. Plus, this needed something unexpected after those last two dull chapters. Hope you like this one!
Blackgate: Thank you for putting me in your favs. Thats a total honor, believe me. The cliffy gets resolved in this chapter, so here you go!
Tamara2187: You'll see who he was captured by in this chapter . And your comment about Anko was very surprising and true. You'll see what happens soon... Enjoy!
Hogo-chan: Oh god am I lazy! But summer is coming soon and updates will be made much faster. I also feel sorry for Iruka, but don't worry, he's just a support character, lol.
Agrias-101: Here's your update !
KuraResa: You like my writing style? That's actually a very nice compliment, thank you. I think I've improved from chapter to chapter. I hope you like this chapter!
Silent laugh: lol. Thanks for writing more than one word! Don't worry, there will be no (depicted) rape in this story... I don't really have a comment on the part about you raping Itachi.. --0. Enjoy!
Narutofreak360: Thank you for reading all of the chapters. I'm so glad you like it! The only reason I changed the Hokage thing to Sultan is because of where this story takes place... It's sort of an Aladdin esque time line.
Uzamaki Liliana: I would never abandon this story! I just took a small break to work on my other fics . Enjoy!
... :phew:... Review replies take forever. But I gladly do them for you. You took the time to review, so I'll take the time to appreciate each one -;;.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...
Cerulean Change: Chapter 11
All he could feel was hard, cold floor underneath him. Semi-consciousness was an annoying state to be in especially for Naruto. He didn't know where he was, how he got there or what was going to happen next; he hated not being in control. It hurt to move or even open his eyes and the healing wound in his arm throbbed endlessly, so he lay still as a stone waiting for a sign of life. He didn't have to wait long for a stirring noise to come from what Naruto thought was his right side. A familiar smooth arm grazed his own as the body shifted.
'Good. At least Sasuke is here with me.'
The other boy's touch only brought a few seconds of comfort to him before he heard yet another sound coming closer to them by the second. He could immediately feel the dark presence of the form walking towards him and his love and instinctively wrapped his aching body around Sasuke to protect him from whoever was coming.
"How cute. The little street rat is protecting his master!" The sinister, almost reptilian voice cut through the air and sent shivers down the blonde's back. "Come on now, wake up my little beauties. Its time to face the crimes you committed."
That got Naruto's attention.
He eased one eye open carefully only to see the one person he feared the most looming over him with a twisted smile on his face. That bastard.
"You little punks got me in a whole lot of trouble! Its time for you to meet my Sultan and learn some respect." Sasuke by that time had opened his eyes and greeted the sight with the same petrified manner.
Darco grabbed each of the exhausted boys by their collar and dragged them unceremoniously down the castle corridors, neither of them having the strength or will to fight back. Finally, after eons of hollow footsteps upon marble, Darco stopped in front of a large oak door with the Camnio crest emblazoned into it. He sneered at the two teens.
"I expect both of you to show the utmost of manners in the presence of your future Sultan." Sasuke's eyes widened and his intense glare only increased making Darco chuckle. "Oh? Does that idea offend you, oh prince and heir to the throne?" he cackled once more and pushed open the large doors to reveal an even larger throne room.
Inside, the room was bare and white except for the banners on the walls and the large throne seated in the very middle surrounded by steadfast guards. Naruto knew he wasn't going to like his visit with the High-priest just by the looks of the place. What Darco had said about the supposedly holy man's aspiration disturbed him and he immediately nudged Sasuke, giving him a "Lets get the hell out of here as soon as possible" look... Sasuke only managed a frightened nod before the both of them were plopped in front of the lavish throne. Naruto's fears only escalated when he lookd up.
In the seat sat a man whose only visible body part—his eyes, stared back at them coldly. The look in his evil eyes froze the blood in the young prince's veins as he remembered seeing the same man when he was very young. The frozen statue of a priest stood slowly from his chair and a line formed underneath his cloth as a smirk. He chuckled soft before descending the steps towards his prey. Sasuke was scared shitless and sat unable to move under the petrifying stare of the priest.
The blue and white robed man glided leisurely right up to him, smirk still intact and reached out his hand to touch the boys beautiful face. He lifted the chin of the frozen angel and a smile line creased on his face.
"Yes indeed, you have the eyes of Sarutobi and and the looks of royalty. I do not doubt that you are young Sasuke of Samnoria..." The priest averted his gaze, seeming to just then notice the boy quivering next to his initial prey.
"Oh? And who might this young boy be? An accomplice? ...How cute. I wondered how a bred puppy found its way through these streets. I see now all he needed was a street-smart fox to guide his way..." Naruto fliched at the lowely mention of him. The Sultan's smirk only brightened.
"Well, I for one am very humbled to be in the presence of such royalty, aren't you my young fellow...?" Naruto at that moment realized the man was talking to him, expecting a reply. And seeing the situation he was in he though it better to cooperate then die.
"Y-yes. M-my name is Uzumaki Naruto." At the mention of his name the priest's eye twitched slightly before returning to normal. All of the sudden he took real notice to the boy he labeled as a fox. Taking in his form. All of his smooth charm dissipated in one quick moment as he turned closer to Naruto, eyes colder than ever.
"Who gave you that name?" The harsh, desperate tone in his voice indicated that the blonde had hit a nerve of some sort although Naruto had no clue how.
"I-I don't know... It's just my name." That was a lie. He knew his name for one very good reason—Anko had told it to him years ago. The priest's glare intensified tenfold.
"You would be wise not to lie in my presence. I can be an ally to anyone; but dare become an enemy and the earth will not have time to swallow your wretched remains, boy!" The marble walls reverberated the last of sentence chilling even the stoic guards.
Before Naruto had a chance to gain his voice and reply the sultan quickly ordered them to be taken away from his sight. Two guards instead of Darco hauled the quaking boys away from the empty room.
"Leave me." All the guards hastily followed in suit along with a perplexed Darco. The priest returned to his cushioned seat and slumped down in confusion.
'Uzumaki Naruto... Uzumaki. Where does that name ring a bell? It was the way that scum said it that reminds me of something...' the priest sighed and stared at the spot where the boy once sat, defiant and scared, like he had been all those years ago. 'It wasn't even what he said that makes me confused... It's that look in his eyes--those deep blue eyes that I remember from somewhere... Not many people I have met have had such intense eyes, bearing melancholy and tears to make an ocean. Such intensity in face I should remember, as rare as it is...'
XXXXX
A boy knelt quivering in fear in front of the throne of his Sultan. Beside him knelt his very own father, looking to ground as a peon he had never seen before. He frowned at the sight; he could not derive strength from a man who knekt to another; he wanted to be the one who stood, with everyone below him. But where he knelt he knew that he was just a boy, expendable and useless as a bag of bones.
Slowly he raised his young eyes to see a man of formidable stature and countenance standing before him as if carved in statue. He wanted so badly to be that man, with a glorious gaze and presence that called for all else to cease in his presence. He wanted to be the one to conquer and survive to flaunt his victory. The boy knew from his father that the man standing before him would be the new Sultan of the land, having won a well-fought war against him and the former Sultan. The boy look on at his relative as a failure, losing a battle and bowing like a whipped dog to the man above him. He knew in his heart that one day he would surpass the pitiful fate of his family and take the throne for his own.
The boy looked beyond the golden man to see by his side a young maiden, only half his age if that, sitting quietly as queen. She was a fair one, with skin as pale and beautiful as any snow the boy had seen. Her form was etched out of a story, wondrous and full of life. But all of those features could not come close to describing her beauty once his eyes locked with hers. Upon her face were two cerulean eyes as deep and mysterious as an ocean and as solid as the earth. So intense and bright were her eyes that the boy immediately looked away in fear that he wold be sucked into her ethereal gaze. She was a vision to behold, more worthy for the gods than any mortal man—including the golden warrior posed before him. She was a goddess.
XXXXX
The priest sat up in his chair after recalling his own memories. How could he have been so stupid to not realize it! Those eyes were the key and there was no mistaking it. He knew those eyes through many years; he thought about them often; derived strength from them; doing anything he could to make them his. He met those eyes the very same day his father had been executed and he had been made high-priest. He saw the look of empathy rich in those orbs as he was crowned the duty of ruling Camnio at such a young age. That goddess knew he was there to usher in her Sultan's new dynasty and she knew what it had cost him... It cost him his father and it cost him his childhood. But all the greedy boy could think of that day, as he looked on at those eyes instead of his dying father, was the opportunity that lied ahead. He would make the goddess his at any cost...
XXXXX
Times were changing and the boy knew it. He had become a man through years of duty and responsibility for a city. The city of Camnio was his to control—under his Sultan, of course. He had seen many things in the years he ruled so far, toughening him to the very core even at a young adult age. And so it went that the golden warrior he had witnessed as a child was withering with age himself, old unable to give his subjects the zeal of his fierce stance anymore. He was still a young man, but the Sultan was a head-strong fool, always hopeful for peace.
And thats when it happened... One gray day, when the winds rustled at unusually high speeds and the rains hit with ferocity, an army came to challenge the might of Samnoria; to take throne for their own and all that came with it... Including the Cerulean-eyed goddess. The priest knew it was coming as if he forecast the rains... and he still wanted her for his own, so he took notice of the opportunity presented and ceased it.
Messages for help were sent by horse asking to aid the falling Samnorian army. The priest ignored them all, killing the friendly rider and smirking at his plan. He watched from his rain-teared window as off in the distance the golden warrior fell along with his not-so-mighty army... the fool had become soft with age and deserved his demise. The priest cut of his resources and let the brave new general take the city for his own. This new dynasty would usher in his chance at a clean slate so he may take what he had wanted all these years.
Before the war had started, the priest had sent his own messenger to the general of the army. In his message he called for what would soon be the demise of the golden Sultan's era. It had stated:
General Sarutobi of the East,
I am writing as the humble priest and over-seer of the city, Camnio. You wish to campaign against a mighty army and will surely need the support of an ally to ensure your victory. I am proposing to you that in exchange for my armies withdrawal from Samnorian reinforcements that you grant me the continuing position as governing royalty of the city of Camnio and the island surrounding it.
Signed,
High-priest Kazekage of Camnio
Orochimaru
The message was returned almost as quickly as it was sent. The golden age was about to fall, and the age of Sarutobi would begin... All because of a fair maiden, with cerulean eyes to win a war.
XXXXXX
Hehe... I love flashbacks! Please tell me what you think of this chapter. I'm actually getting really excited about this story again now that the plot is taking off! (And you though there was no plot, heheh.)
Thank you
Love
CA
