THIS IS CHAPTER TEN, DEAL WITH IT!
Title: Never Really Home (Chapter Ten)
Pairing: Sasuke/Naruto, Kakashi/Iruka, one-sided Sakura/Sasuke, hints of Lee/Naruto
Rating: M mostly for language, but for some sexual content as well.
Warnings: Eventual spoilers up to recent chapters.
OK PLEASE READ IT IS IMPORTANT! I SWEAR ON THE HEAD OF SOHMA HATSUHARU THAT EVERY WORD I AM ABOUT TO TYPE IS THE TRUTH. To be honest, I have not actually written a word of this story for over a month. I had chapters one through nine all worked out already, and have been feeding them to you at my leisure. So, as you may imagine, it has been hard for me to start writing again. I knew what I wanted to happen, but I just couldn't get it down.
So, one of my betas came and offered to write chapters ten and eleven for me. Being my beta, he was already kind ofa co-writer, and since I had given him a couple-paragraph summary, it was easy for him to produce something we were both happy with. He writes fight fics very well. And seeing as the next two chaptersare mostly fighting, I had no objection.However, I did edit it and change someof it to flow better and go with the story, and he is aware of this.If I get any flames for it, I WILL bite you. Don't mess. Our writing styles are very different(for instance, he writes hell of a lot better than I do), and I would actually be curious as to what you think.
OK on with the warnings. It may seem that Sasuke has moved on from the weak, rape victim to strong and determined avenger kind of quickly. I don't care. I made a small transition in chapter eight, and if that wasn't enough for you, too bad. Also, a lot of people seem to think Deidara is a girl. Mos def not, and don't even bring it up, I have proof.
Besides, all the girls suck on Naruto, and Deidara is cool, so there is no way he is a girl.
Disclaimers: Don't own Naruto.
As Sasuke walked down the path through the forest he looked around himself, pondering. "Where are you, brother?" the raven haired boy asked himself. "I'm finally ready to fulfill the bargain. I feared you, despised your existence. But I've kept on living. My life as the avenger of our clan is coming to a close at last."
Sasuke stopped and looked up in frustration, roaring out at the cloudy sky, "WHERE ARE YOU!" With a furrowed brow on his face he turned his head to the path ahead and resumed his course.
Walking without a destination was always a tiresome task. Each time Sasuke tried to think of where his brother could be he drew a blank. He had no knowledge of Akatsuki's whereabouts. Orochimaru hadn't talked much of their meetings, but had mentioned that they were never in a particular location. No matter how much he had pushed his sensei to give a straight answer, the snake had always insisted on remaining silent. Even now, Sasuke still wasn't sure why.
The roar of a waterfall broke Sasuke's train of thought. He wondered for a moment where he had come to, but in the back of his mind he already knew exactly where he was. Bursting into a run he emerged from the trees and saw it, the Valley of the End. It was the same place where he and Naruto had fought that time. Sasuke quivered for a moment, but then shook his head and turned to leave.
However, the movement of a small figure at the top of the falls caught his eye. He wondered who was standing there, and what they were doing. "No matter," thought Sasuke, "I have things to do."
He had not taken more than a couple of steps when he heard a far off chirping, though this was also nothing to pay mind to. But when the chirping bird crashed into the tree next to him and released a massive explosion, his ignorance almost cost him his life. With a quick leap backwards, Sasuke avoided being blown up, but just barely.
The blast was rather large, considering the small size of the bird. He was fortunate enough to receive minimal damage, only a few small scraps of wood had hit him, and only one of those had managed to draw blood. The rest of the tree fell away from him as he spun around and reemerged from the brush.
He turned his glare up towards the figure at the top of the cliff, only to find it gone. "What WAS that?" The question rolled around Sasuke's mind as he scanned the area all around himself. He could find no trace of who had attacked him, but then he locked his eyes upon the bird flying almost directly above him. "Is that what attacked me?"
His question was answered as another pair of birds came flying down at him. These two were differently shaped, larger bodies but very elongated. They also had four wings, as opposed to the two wings on the first bird. The different style of bird made it remarkably fast. The two closed in on him before he knew what was happening. They came up on both sides and exploded, engulfing their target in the dual blast. Sasuke's shriek could be heard all the way up to the large bird in the sky, something that made its rider quite glad.
"Good sound... yeah. This kid is a friend of the Jinchuuriki with Kyuubi. Not to mention he's in league with Orochimaru. It's good to finish him off since the opportunity's here... yeah." Deidara let out a satisfied laugh and sat down on his owl-like creation, ready to leave and return to his official job of keeping tabs on Naruto.
How surprised Deidara was to hear the sound of flames rushing at him. His head swiveled and he saw the fireball coming directly at his art. The owl moved to the side in a sudden descent to evade the blaze. Deidara's eyes narrowed as he scanned the area beneath himself, "That little brat survived? Well, this might be a better fight than I thought... yeah." He rummaged through the bag he had at his side and removed a half dozen of the small birds. A simple surge of chakra brought them to life and they began to flit around their creator's head.
On the ground Sasuke was cursing himself. The attack should have hit, but the massive distance was against him. If he could get a kunai up there it would be better, but the chances of doing so now were small at best. For the time he would be forced to settle with what he had. Sasuke's hands moved with expert precision and speed as he formed the seals he wanted, in his mind he roared "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu" and he spit a stream of flames from his mouth. The flame quickly gathered into another large fireball and was sent flying at the bird. This time Sasuke formed the seals immediately and sent another blast right after the first.
Deidara saw the blasts coming this time. Dodging the flames was an easy task when you could watch the approach from a distance. The carrier swooped wide to the left and both blasts were easily bypassed. Now he knew the location of the current target. It would be all over for him now. But from his position Deidara could never finish the boy. He was clever enough to have concealed himself in the trees. Wiping out all of the forest would require something on par with the "Specialty #18", and this kid was not someone to waste one of those on.
Deidara's carrier swooped the rest of the way down in a fast dive and passed away from the wooded area. Now Deidara was over the clearing and the water, a much better place to fight the brat. His fire could never compare with the might of Deidara's art. It would undoubtedly be a short time until the boy came out. From what Deidara knew of the Uchiha, he was not the type to allow someone to try and kill him and then let them get away with it.
The assumption had been correct. Sasuke exploded from the forest at full speed, arms trailing behind his back, bent into the run. His raven eyes were set in a furious glare at this adversary. Deidara's face changed into a twisted smile. He sent the birds he had prepared earlier at the approaching boy.
Sasuke was not one to be caught by the same thing twice. He knew well enough that these things would explode. He had been lucky to have a kawarimi in place prior, but this time would be different. With a swift motion he pulled out a trio of kunai in each hand. As he stepped onto the water he sent them rocketing at the birds. All the while he continued his run towards his enemy, closing the distance. The figure was definitely what he had seen before, but he couldn't make out the details.
The half dozen kunai only connected with two of the birds, but it was more than enough. Upon being punctured they released powerful explosions. Being in such close proximity to the other birds caused them to spin wildly for a moment and then explode as well. Deidara's disapproval of this was made apparent by the curses he mumbled as he reached down and pulled out what resembled a worm. By feeding it chakra it was shrouded in a cloud of smoke and grew considerably into an oddly deformed serpent. It only lingered in the air for a moment before plunging underwater.
Sasuke burst through the still clearing smoke of the blasts and closed the remaining distance with his opponent. A few quick hand seals and he shouted out "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!" Eight small balls of flame were shot from his mouth in various directions at the foe. Deidara chuckled and his large bird flapped its wings. The ensuing gust of wind was enough to dispose of the balls of flame, but not the shuriken Sasuke had hidden inside. They flew onwards at Deidara, only to be stopped by a wall of water that rose up before them.
The serpent shocked Sasuke for a moment. It took him a second to register that it was of the same type as the birds. The creature seemed to stay poised for a moment, and then it launched itself directly at Sasuke. The boy formed a few hand seals and used "Goukakyuu no Jutsu"on the beast, but it burst through. It was all Sasuke could do to dodge the attack. This manner of creature was in a different class than the previous ones. The creature submerged once again and all but became invisible. Sasuke had no chance of seeing beneath the water with all of the distortion the thing had caused.
His situation looked rather grim at this point. The creature was obviously immune to an attack as powerful as Goukakyuu no Jutsu and that was one of the most powerful techniques Sasuke possessed. He knew one technique that would be sufficient, but wasting it now would be a bad idea. With an opponent like this he would most likely need both attacks to secure victory.
Yes, it is a friggin' long chapter. It was originally just going to be one chapter, but I was like, "no way dude." Um, yea, so the guy who wrote this is really annoying and unreliable, so of course he hasn't written the second half yet. I IMed him today and asked if he had written it, and he blocked me. Growl. So, unfortunatly, I have absolutely no idea when chapter eleven will be up. If it gets to be more than a few days, I will write it myself. Unless y'all are like "no way, have hime write the rest, he's better," lol then you can wait for his royal arrogance to update it.
Or I'll write it anyway, but I am a really big procrastinator, so it might actually take longer if I write it. Unless I make it a short chapter... I derno, you guys decide. I'm no good at making decisions.