Silver Feathers
By: Black Dragon Diva
Rating: PG-13
Anime: Naruto
Spoilers: Up to Episode 144
Disclaimer: I don't own the Naruto Characters
Summary: Sasuke comes home after four years away from Kohona. But he's not alone. There's something wrong with the young man he finds outside the borders of the hidden Sound village, and its not just because he can't remember who he is. Is he an Orochimaru spy or a far greater threat?
Chapter Two: The Returning
"Naruto."
Said boy's head whipped around so quickly something was pinched. He winced only slightly, opting instead for staring. His heart stopped.
Dead silence.
Ba-dump.
His heart leapt back into consciousness.
"You look like shit, Sasuke-bastard," Naruto murmured.
A wheel in his head creaked, then moved forward slowly.
Gods! It was Sasuke! Here! At Kohona's wall! He was hunched over, his hair dirty and his clothes dirtier, frayed and battle-eaten long past repair. But Gods, it was him! It was Sasuke!
"You were never a looker yourself, dobe," was the irritated mutter. There was a glare in the darkness from under the trees that Naruto sensed more than saw. The trees grew huddled shadows over Sasuke, shouldering away the cool, pressing light of the full moon.
Naruto smiled and turned, stepping closer to the black-clad teen before him. He hadn't taken more than three steps when he stopped, his smile diminishing.
Sasuke stepped back, further into the protective shadows. He opened his mouth to speak but, as usual, Naruto's tongue was quicker.
"Who the hell is that!" he all but yelped, pointing accusingly to Sasuke's back.
Sasuke shifted the weight on his shoulders and back. However, the said weight wasn't a back pack as Naruto had originally thought. A head of blackish hair rested against Sasuke's shoulder, shot through with dark silver and tiny threads of midnight blue. The face was pressed against Sasuke's shoulder and thus Naruto saw no features on the unconscious face. However, the shortness of the hair and the lean build that was common for their age suggested intense bishonen masculinity.
"He can't come out into the moonlight or his Chakra goes berserk," Sasuke explained calmly. Naruto sputtered and Sasuke plowed on. "I found him a few miles out of Sound. He has burns all over his skin and tons of wounds from weapons."
Naruto finally caught his tongue up with his brain. It just took a moment.
"You found him near Sound? Are you out of your fucking mind! For all we know he could be Orochimaru's new container! We don't even know if the fucker's truly dead and you bring some guy with you that could be in alliance with him! What the hell are you think-" Naruto's outraged voice grew in pitch and Sasuke bit back the urge to yell right back at him.
"Shut up!" he hissed. "Someone might hear you."
"Does it matter?" Naruto asked, his voice irritated, but his question genuine. Sasuke ignored him.
"Let's just get him somewhere safe," Sasuke said, eyes darting about. Moonlight was everywhere.
"Here, let me take him. You're tired."
Sasuke allowed Naruto to take the young man from his shoulders, silently grateful as he straightened and cracked his back. Although probably no older than Naruto and himself, he was still close to one hundred sixty pounds of limp flesh. Traveling with that on your back for a few days got a bit uncomfortable.
"Hold on a minute. I have to leave someone here at the post," Naruto said. He shifted his shoulders and hunched over to balance the unconscious body on his back. He quickly formed a few hand seals and muttered. Two poofs of smoke cleared to reveal two Naruto Dopplegangers.
"You two stay here. If anything happens one of you run and get another guard while the other stays here to buy time," the original Naruto, distinguishable only because of the weight on his hunched back, gave the instructions firmly. The other two nodded and took their placed on the wall.
Sasuke waited quietly, ears and eyes alert. If they waited a few moments the moon would go behind the clouds and it would be safe to move forward. The wispy cloud, however, didn't give them much time. He turned to Naruto, who was watching him.
"What?" he muttered. Naruto just smiled.
"Nothin'," was the smug reply. Sasuke grunted quietly and looked up. The moon was beginning to become obscured even as he watched.
"C'mon. Let's go." And with that they leapt up, landing on the three-foot wide ledge at the top of the wall. Sasuke took a moment to look about the sleepy village. Few lights were shining, mostly in the taverns and bars, and laughter trickled softly from open doors and windows. He took a deep breath. The scent was still the same, rich and earthy with tinges of smoke and cooking food.
"Kitsuii!"
At the sound of Naruto's voice, Sasuke looked down to where the blonde had already landed. Next to him was a giant… slug. That was odd. He studied the blue patterns on the white invertebrate carefully before hopping down from the wall as well. His Sharingan, although exhausted, told him it was a summoned creature.
"What are you doing here, Kitsuii?" Naruto asked excitedly. The slug, a smaller version of the large, towering creature Tsunade had summoned in her battle with Orochimaru, waved its eyes slightly.
"Tsunade-sama told me to come and see if you needed any help," Kitsuii replied. Naruto smiled.
"So she remembered," he said quietly. "Awesome. Hey, Kitsuii, you think you can carry this guy to the hospital? We'll follow you."
Kitsuii moved in a gesture that could be assumed was a nod. Naruto quickly put the boy on her back. In the dim light he could see unruly hair falling over his eyes, a long lock tied with red ribbon covering each ear. His face was bruised and cut. All in all, Sasuke looked like he had just woken up from a refreshing beauty sleep in comparison.
"He's pretty fucked up," Naruto commented to no one.
"We need to hurry. The moon's starting to come out," Sasuke said. He turned to Kitsuii and she started off at a pace he curiously didn't suspect she was capable of. He and Naruto took to the rooftops and building overhangs to keep up.
"Hey Sasuke." Naruto's voice was soft as they ran side-by-side. The teen grunted in question.
"You're here to stay right? You're not leaving Kohona again, are you?"
The air was thick and the silence stretched. Naruto could feel his stomach twisting slightly with hope and fear. Gods… Please!
"No, I'm not leaving," was Sasuke's quiet reply. "I'm going to wait for Orochimaru to come back, if he's still alive. Then I'm going to kill him. Until then, I'm going to stay home."
Naruto's heart leapt. Home. He gave his teammate a radiant smile.
"Yeah. Good."
The hospital was one place that always had lights on. Be it for patients who couldn't sleep or late-night drunks coming in, seeking shelter against angry spouses and/or family, or who were merely too drunk to reach home. Helping drunks home, Naruto had learned, got him a nice tip that could buy a small bowl of ramen at Ichiraku. But there was only the dust in the streets at the moment.
Upon reaching Kohona hospital Sasuke and Naruto followed Kitsuii to the back entrance. Tsunade stood waiting, half asleep against the closed door.
"Baa-san!" Naruto called to her as he jumped down. She jolted awake and stood, crossing her arms lazily as she blinked the sleep from her eyes. Naruto grinned.
"You fell asleep," he teased. She snorted and glared at him, but her eyes darted around quickly.
"No, I was resting my eyes," she replied. Her eyes darted over to Kitsuii and her eyebrows raised.
"Who's this?" she asked as Kitsuii inched closer. She knelt down, scanning the boy's face. It was then that the cloud, having been very helpful to Sasuke and Naruto thus far, left the moon to wander elsewhere in the sky. Silver light flooded down over his sleeping face, which quickly contorted, radiant and writhing in the light. A flash of blinding silver light screamed into Tsunade and Naruto's eyes, making them squeeze them shut in pain.
"What the Hell!" the Hokage hissed.
With a quick flash of shadow, the unconscious boy soon stood inside the doorway, Sasuke under his arm with another around the other boy's waist to keep him upright. His face again fell slack, his head hanging limply. Sasuke turned and glared at Naruto, who blinked away the silver spots before his eyes.
"I told you not to let him in the moonlight," he muttered. He was glad for the distraction without the uncomfortable greetings from the Hokage, who was currently stumbling to her feet. She muttered a few choice curses as she made her way into the back entrance to the hospital.
"Gods, what was that?" Naruto asked. He was currently leaning on Kitsuii as she uncurled herself from a defensive position.
"Chakra?" Tsunade asked quietly. Sasuke nodded.
"It's the moonlight. It looks like a berserker reflex," the teen replied. The woman's mouth spread to a thin, worried line as she studied the youth in the dim light of the small room they were in.
"I'll get a nurse!" Naruto said, his eyes fully recovered as he rushed past. Tsunade reached out and grabbed the back of his shirt nonchalantly, still studying the injured boy that Sasuke was currently settling into a chair.
"Lemme go, Baa-san!" he whined, pulling forward. When she didn't, he continued to complain. "Ano, Baa-san! This is a new outfit! You'll ruin it! C'mon, lemme go!"
Sasuke turned and saw that, indeed, Naruto was dressed differently, no longer in that gaudy orange jacket and baggy pants. Instead there was a tight orange tee-shirt, still gaudy, but covered with a loose black vest. On its back was the swirling red symbol formerly found on his orange jacket. His orange shirt had a black Kohona Leaf symbol on its front. His pants weren't as baggy and seemed to fit a bit better than the others, that always had looked as though they clung to him through sheer belt-power. These weren't orange either, but rather black. Sharinken holder was carefully wrapped around his right leg. Of course, his footing was still the same traditional sandal shinobi wore, and could be seen as his pants ended just past his knees. All in all, it was a somewhat mild get-up for the hyper-active ninja. Sasuke no longer felt blinded by the mere sight of him.
He couldn't remember if he'd been wearing the same outfit a month ago…
"Quiet, Naruto," Hokage-sama ordered. The blonde quickly fell silent, watching her carefully. "I think we should wait for other's to see Sasuke and our guest until later."
Naruto, his plan extinguished momentarily, stood sulkily with crossed arms.
"Is… Sakura here?" Sasuke asked quietly. Both looked at him and blinked. He studied the tile floor.
"She is at home right now. She'll be back in the morning," Tsunade said softly. Sasuke grunted and turned away.
Sakura sneezed. She rubbed her nosed tiredly, but continued to decipher the page before her.
It was late, but the time of night never stopped her from studying. She was, for once, struggling with a certain medical procedure. It was very advanced, but that, like the time, never stopped her. She refused to give up. She was going to show Sasuke how strong she was when he came home.
Her mental focus wavered over the characters on the page. Her hands, once poised for a justu, fell slack. Home. When would Sasuke come home?
She looked up from the thick book in front of her. She shifted slightly in her chair so she could look out the open window beside her desk. Moonlight shown upon her windowsill, but stretched no further. Sour yellow light from her desk lamp burned it all away.
A thick, milky moon looked down on her softly from its place a thumb's length from the horizon. She stared at it longingly, and at the horizon it was slowly discarding. Kami-sama what she would give to be out of this room. To be with her team again. To see Sasuke again. Hell, to see Naruto again. The annoying guy was too busy picking up missions and training to do more than stop by once a week to say hi. And that's all he did. No date requests, no irritating comments that made her lose her temper. She sighed. Either he's grown up or he was avoiding her. Or maybe a little of both, she mused.
She turned back to the book. She couldn't keep studying like this tonight or she'd be dead on her feet in the morning. Tsunade-sama wouldn't appreciate it and she would probably be punished by having to do the laundry or something just as boring and non-medical. She stood up, stretching tired, creaking limbs. She shook off a few cookie crumbs that stuck to the front of her pajama's; the remnants of her late-night snack. She put a hand to the back of her head, ruffling her hair. It needed to be cut, but she was far too busy to be going to the hair salon. Instead, she pulled it over her shoulder, quickly twisting it into a loose braid and tied it off. It was a short braid, as she refused to let her hair grow as long as it used to be, but it served to get the thick strands out of her face. She turned off her light and made her way across the room.
She yawned as she pulled thin, summer covers back from her bed. She climbed in silently, being sure to avoid any unintentional noise that might wake someone in the household. They were proud of their daughter, of course, but hardly approved of her late-night study sessions.
Snuggling deep into the blankets she found comfort in their warmth. She sneezed again and muttered before turning over to sleep.
Neji looked up, frozen in mid-kick. He blinked, but the Byakugan, he knew, never lied. However, when his eyes flickered open again, the outrageous Chakra was gone. He relaxed his poised foot and dropped his hands to his side. He concentrated his Byakugan harder, but saw…
He stopped. He blinked a second time in bewilderment. Impossible.
He sighed and relaxed, disengaging Byakugan and closing his eyes. Perhaps he had strained it with the training. After all, using it all day, strengthening his Chakra and his justu all at once, might have adverse effects on it. Like, hallucinations? He'd have to ask his uncle about it.
Then again, he could always go see for himself.
He opened his eyes, staring into the dark sky and the twinkling stars. He immediately saw and named constellations and land-mark stars in his head. Basic survival training 101. Shinobi grade-school things. To the normal eye they might be bright, but for the Hyuuga's normal eye, they seemed duller, lacking the glorious luster that awed him by sheer beauty with the Byakugan.
He turned away from the sky, flicking a stay lock of dark hair over his shoulder. He must have lost his tie while training. He was tempted to look about for it, but his curiosity for the strange Chakra in the distance was stronger.
He glanced into the house, but already knew everyone was asleep. By the gods it was late. Had he really been training all day? It wouldn't be a wonder if his Byakugan was acting strangely after a 15 hour strain. But because of training like this, day after day, it had grown stronger and his justu's more numerous and powerful.
He was tired to.
Who was he kidding? Why was he trying to avoid inspecting the Chakra?
He muttered the truth to himself irritably, but decided not to listen.
Fine, he'd check it out then.
Such a huge Chakra. Why hadn't anyone awoken? Why couldn't he feel it? He didn't like the thought of why.
Instead of dwelling, he resummoned his Byakugan, which was reluctant to reengage. His eyes fell upon… the hospital? Without further thought, he sprinted forward.
Naruto studied Sasuke for a moment before Tsunade interrupted his thoughts.
"Naruto, Sasuke, follow me. We'll get you two patched up and you can rest," the Hokage said. Both watched her as she studied the injured boy in the chair before carefully, yet effortlessly, pulling him up out of the chair and into her arms. Carrying the boy and confident the other two would follow, she led them through a door and down a corridor. She told them to wait at the foot of a set of stairs going up to the second level as she went to the front desk. A nurse there jumped to her feet upon seeing the Hokage and quickly offered her assistance after seeing the young man in her arms. Naruto and Sasuke could see her shake her head and decline the offer. The nurse took her seat once more and Tsunade turned away.
She took the stairs quickly, but gracefully, hardly jarring the package in her arms. Upon reaching the second floor she quickly walked down the hall, her heels clicking on the shining floor that shimmered yellow in the ugly overhead lights.
Tsunade quickly slid open a door on their left that was fit with two separate beds, a curtain between them for privacy. She walked into the room, placing the boy in her arms on the bed to her right before gesturing to Sasuke and Naruto to take the other bed on the other side of the curtain by the open window.
"Sasuke, get in the shower. Naruto will help you bandage your wounds. If any of them are serious I'll look at them." She glared at them. "And don't pass them off. I'll pound you both if I find out you ignored a wound that might need my attention." She turned back to her patient. He was covered in dried, dirty blood, but breathing easily. She removed his sandals, then started to unzip the dark blue (or she assumed the color was blue), wide-collared shirt. She pulled it from the boy's shoulders, to which was a pack that was as torn and bloody as its owner.
"Sasuke, what's in his pack?" Tsunade asked. She heard him removing his shirt slowly, his teeth grinding as the fabric once pasted to his skin and wounds with dried blood was painfully pulled free.
"A set of clothes. Feathers," was the reply.
"Feathers?" she asked, her voice surprised, but not effecting her deft hands and fingers.
"Yeah."
She heard him mutter to Naruto about being able to take care of the rest and headed to the bathroom near the door. It shut a moment later and the water started.
"Naruto, grab the disinfectant, will you?"
"Sure." There was scrambling on the other side of the curtain, then it was pushed aside.
"Hot damn, he's worse off than I thought," Naruto breathed, staring at the chest wounds in gaping awe. Tsunade grabbed the bottle from him.
"Make sure the curtain is pulled tight. I really don't feel like getting blinded again, and the windows are open," the Hokage muttered. Naruto stepped forward, swallowing thickly. Half of the boy was burned, but not directly, so the skin was marred, but not in a threatening way that couldn't be completely healed. It was the kunai and other weapon wounds that were hideous. They ripped over his body in shriveled, dark mouths poised in a cry of anguish. Many would need intense healing from Tsunade.
She was wiping the wounds clean when Naruto spoke. His words didn't surprise her, but his sad, soft tone did.
"Ano sa, Baa-san, how do you think the village will react to Sasuke? Will they treat him like they used to treat me? Like he's some kind of monster?" he murmured.
"I don't know, Naruto," she said softly.
"I bet Sakura-chan will be happy," he said, his voice forcefully lightening. Tsunade ached a tiny bit. She knew how much Naruto had sacrificed to bring Sasuke back. Of course, she knew he hadn't done it all for Sakura, but it would still hurt when the girl went straight to the black-haired boy to hug and fawn over him before she even turned to thank Naruto, if she did at all. It was the one-track mind of the girl. She could practically see it now, with Naruto smiling in the background, proud, but left out.
She grunted her acknowledgement of his statement as her hand reached out for a waiting round of gauze on a steel cart by the bed, left there specifically for her. She rubbed away the liquefying blood carefully, but the boy with the silver-black hair didn't even flinch. She was aghast. There was so much blood. She flinched. Why wasn't he dead yet?
Footsteps from down the hall drew her attention. There was excited, but quiet jabbering as quicker footsteps followed the sure, heavy ones. There was no reply to the nurse, who seemed to be trying to explain that visitation hours were over.
"Naruto, get the door, will you?" Tsunade asked. The boy nodded, leaving her to work in peace. The door opened.
"Neji, what are you doing here?" Naruto's surprised voice was echoed in Tsunade's mind. Didn't these kids sleep? They had missions in the morning.
"Sasuke's here?" Neji's voice was just as surprised as Naruto's under its deep impassiveness.
"Well… erm.. I mean…"
"Yes, Neji. He's in the shower," Tsunade said. She sighed. She supposed it wouldn't be so easy keeping Sasuke a secret until he had recovered like she'd planned. She heard footsteps approach and the curtain push away.
"Oi, Neji, careful, keep those closed! Hey, you shouldn't go in there!" Neji heartily ignored Naruto's protests and came to stand at the foot of the bed, watching Tsunade press her hands over an especially nasty wound on the boy's chest. The pale green light weaved intricately over said wound and it gradually healed shut. Neji's eyes scanned over the mangled flesh. It was going to take the Hokage forever to heal all of them like that.
Although exhausted, Neji still had enough energy to reactivate the Byakugan once more. What he saw was startling.
A short gasp from Neji drew the attention of the other two, who looked at him in curiosity.
"What's wrong, Ne-" Naruto was interrupted by the bathroom door opening. They all looked up to see a half-dripping Sasuke in the doorway, towel firmly tied around his waist. One hand was against the doorframe, supporting his grimacing form, while the other had his clothes clenched in it. The wounds on his chest, though small, were bleeding again after the water's irritation and a scrubbing. Naruto was the first to notice Sasuke's slight tremble as he leaned heavily against the door.
Tsunade muttered about the curtain having been left half open before returning to her administrations.
"There are hospital gowns in the dresser," she said. Naruto quickly took away Sasuke's blood-soaked clothing and offered him a shoulder to lean on over to the bed. It was clear the Uchiha's exhaustion was quickly catching up with him. Without thinking much about it, he took Naruto's shoulder, hardly offering a glance at Neji as his blistered feet met with cool flooring. His footsteps left tiny dabs of blood on the sparkling linoleum.
After placing Sasuke on the bed, where he sat with his head down and his hands on his knees, Naruto threw the clothes next to the dresserthat housed the blue-gray hospital clothing. Taking out a set that looked frighteningly like normal pajamas he shut the doors. He threw them on the bed next to his injured charge and fetched the antiseptic and clean bandages.
Neji watched all of this carefully with expressionless, colorless eyes. However, he found no hostility from the Uchiha. It was as if the past three and a half years never happened, as though the two had just come back from an especially strenuous mission that had come down the hardest on Sasuke. Both were silent, speaking without words, but mere body language. Neji's eyes narrowed slightly. Somewhere among all the pain and confusion, these two had connected; become friends.
"Neji-kun, could you tell me how this low boy's Chakra supply is?" Tsunade-sama jolted the Hyuuga from his musings and he turned to her, walking back into the small cubical. He straightened his back and pulled his hands behind his back respectfully.
"Of course, Hokage-sama. By activating the Byakugan I found that he has barely any at all." Tsunade nodded. That was expected considering his condition. "However, I did notice something strange. His Chakra channels are… they're not channels at all, they're threads. Even at full strength he wouldn't have enough Chakra to climb a tree."
Tsunade didn't seem fazed by his words.
"So he has no shinobi talents?" she asked. Neji hesitated.
"I don't know."
Sasuke grunted. "Of course he does. You saw the amount of Chakra that exploded from him when the moonlight hit him." There was a muffled curse and a 'watch it' from the Uchiha, followed by a quiet apology from Naruto. Bandages were shuffled and scissors snipped.
Neji turned to Tsunade, eyes wide.
"That was him?" he asked skeptically. Kami, this boy could barely breathe, much less emit such huge amounts of power! But it was confirmed when Tsunade-sama nodded her head.
"Neji, please go downstairs and ask the nurse for a 'Do not Disturb' sign please. The last thing we need is an unsuspecting nurse walking in and announcing the people in this room to the village without our knowing," the Hokage said. Neji took saw the implication. He wasn't to speak and no one was to know about this until further notice. Reading between the lines, he took it as his cue to leave them in peace. He turned and left, the door closing softly at his retreat.
"How are you boys getting on over there? Everything okay?"
"Yeah," Naruto answered. "Almost done."
"Anything I need to check over?"
"N-"
"Nah, most of this is just scraps and a few older wounds from last month," Naruto replied, intervening with Sasuke's predictably bitter answer.
"Good. You two get some sleep. Naruto, there's a pallet rolled up in one of the dresser drawers I think, if you want to stay." She checked her watch. "Then again, you do still have night watch."
She could practically hear Naruto argue with himself. He sighed.
"I'll be back in an hour or so when my shift's up," the blonde said, turning to leave.
"Don't bother, dobe, I can sleep alone, you know," Sasuke answered haughtily. Naruto chuckled and grinned at his friend.
"Sure, whatever," he responded. "See ya later, Tsunade Baa-san." With that, he left the room.
A few minutes after Naruto had left, Tsunade heard covers shifting on the bed as Sasuke prepared for sleep.
"I'm glad your back, Sasuke. We've missed you," Tsunade said quietly. The rustling paused, but her words went unanswered. She hadn't expected anything less.
……………………..
A/N: alright! Much longer chapter this time. Of course, everything's kinda Angsty right now. That should pick up soon, possibly even next chapter. Any critiques of my work are appreciated.
Kitsuii is, from what I found out online, the name of Tsunade's summoned slug creature. At one point during her battle with Orochimaru, a smaller slug is formed from the larger one's body and goes to help the people on the ground, so I got this idea.
I don't know if Tsunade ever got over her fear of blood, but for my purposes, she has
According to timelines in the story, I'm assuming that Sasuke leaves at about age 13, thus, Sasuke and Naruto, assuming they were the same age at graduation even though its said that Naruto failed twice, which might make him two years older than Sasuke, they're both 17.