Fire: This is chapter 8. Sorry about the overuse of shunshin no jutsu. I know that it does take up a lot of chakra, especially since both Sakura and Naruto doesn't know the technique.
Sasuke: You're pushing it...
Fire: And I know that I'm pushing it... (sniff) It's just that I can't think of any other way to make the timelines work. Sasuke had a four and a half day head start and has reached the border by the end of three days because of his getting lost... Naruto and his group didn't leave Konoha until the middle of the fifth day... And Sasuke runs into Kisame on the fourth day...along with a long rest to replenish his chakra so he shouldn't even resume his journey until the fifth day... That means that the scream was on the fifth day! How did Naruto and his group get to the border of Taki no Kuni and Hi no Kuni in less than a day when it took Sasuke almost four days to get there! Writer's breakdown! Arggh!
Sasuke: I hate my life... (turns and resumes chasing after Itachi)
Naruto: No! Sasuke, don't go! (runs after Sasuke)
Kakashi: (shouting at Fire) Get a hold of yourself!
Fire: (blinks several times) Yeah...okay... (straightens up) Now...on with the reviews!
Kakashi: (reaches into a bag marked reviews and looks at the first window) It...is empty.
Fire: (stares at Kakashi) Are you sure…?
Kakashi: (nods) Yes…
Naruto: It's because you're mean to us.
Sasuke: (lies to the floor at Fire's feet in a depressed puddle) I demand more benefits!
Naruto: Strike!
Fire: I have no benefits…
Sasuke: Then what's the point…?
Fire: (suddenly depressed as well) No one's probably reading anymore…
Naruto: Lots of people are reading! Haven't you seen the stats!
Kakashi: (practical) but no one's reviewing…
Naruto: Because it's perfect! No one's complaining!
Sakura: I thought I was the complaints' department!
Sasuke: We're not a marketing company…
Kakashi: (smiling) Actually, I was joking. We have one review. (pulls out a review from the Bag of Reviews)
Fire: What? Give me that! (grabs the window from Kakashi) Thank you, Fractured Dreams! Yes, THERE WILL BE MORE SASUKE/NARUTO MOMENTS, NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS. (sniff) This is a SasuNaru, even if…
Sasuke: Fire's currently having an emotional breakdown. Someone roll the chapter!
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Warning: Wondering why this is rated T? Read on to find out, but if you're not one for blood and killing, skip this chapter and read the next one.
Warning: This is the most emotional chapter so if you're a crier, grab a box of tissues before reading it.
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Disclaimer: If you don't know what belongs to me and what belongs to Kishimoto-sensei, go back a chapter and look at the disclaimer there. Oh well…might as well repeat myself. I own the phrase "my dobe" and the verb "to shunshin" and all conjugations. If you don't know what a conjugation is, go back a chapter and read my examples. Kishimoto-sensei owns exclusive rights to the Naruto manga, the Naruto anime and all other Naruto-related items except for fanfiction since he's too nice to sue us. But I do own Naruto stocks…so I guess I sort of own Naruto…right? Right:( Guess not…
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Chapter 8: Found
Sasuke's red eyes darted through the air as he searched for his brother in the rustling leaves overhead. Itachi was there. Sasuke knew that Itachi was there. If only the leaves weren't there, he could...
With the black cursed seal across his skin–since he couldn't possibly allow himself to use level two in this long fight–the younger Uchiha pressed his hands painfully together in four quick but difficult seals, careful to hide them lest his brother see. 'Serpent... Dragon... Hare... Tiger...' He aimed the attack at the canopy above his head before sending it around to the rest of the trees. 'Katon ryuuka no jutsu!'
Itachi smiled a little to himself before dropping the uncharacteristic smile and jumping out of the way of the torrent of fire which flew through the leaves. He was a little surprised, even if it didn't show on his face. He had already cut a large gash along one arm and broken the other. He didn't think that his little brother could still perform seals.
The elder Uchiha appeared suddenly behind the smaller boy and smashed Sasuke to the ground with a single swift gesture of his arm. Sasuke's face met bitter dirt before he flipped himself back onto his feet not too far away. The younger Uchiha's face curved into a small smile as Itachi realized where he was standing. The elder Uchiha quickly leapt back as the fuuma shuriken that Sasuke had thrown into the air earlier cut through the very place that he was standing only a moment ago.
'Don't think that you can defeat me that easily, otouto,' Itachi thought to himself as the fuuma missed him by a hair, literally casting small feathers of his bangs into the raining fire that saturated the air.
The smile on Sasuke's face vanished as he raced toward his brother in a mock kamikaze run. He had no intention of dying. He couldn't let Naruto down. He had cut down that blue skinned man who had tried to stand in his way. He wasn't going to let anything stop him. He couldn't give up now that he was finally here. He would defeat his brother...so he could go back to Naruto, like he promised he would.
Blood flew from his injured left arm as Sasuke aimed for his brother's head, only to meet his blocking right arm. Itachi grabbed Sasuke's broken right arm and twisted it around, sending a single sharp cry of pain from his little brother's mouth into the darkened sky.
"You're still weak," Itachi said with vivid animosity as Sasuke looked up into his spinning red eyes.
'The eyes... They've...changed!'
Sasuke grabbed a kunai with his burning left hand and closed his eyes tight...but even if he closed his eyes, he knew that his brother could still kill him...in the conventional way. Itachi was still stronger than him, still had the advantage, and he could easily take that kunai from Sasuke's hand.
'It's already broken anyway...' Sasuke bit his bottom lip as he wrenched himself away from his brother and his deadly attack. He knew it all too well, and he had no intention of becoming catatonic in the middle of their fight.
Itachi frowned at the severed arm in his hand and threw it to the ground. 'Touche!' He never thought that his brother could bear to part with his dominant arm so easily.
'Chikusho! Losing...too much blood...' Sasuke's vision blurred as thickening red liquid drenched his already bloodstained white shorts, and flowed freely to the ground. 'But...I'm not going to give up! Naruto's...counting on me!' But, he couldn't do seals anymore...not with one arm. He was doomed.
Unless...
With blurring eyes, he summoned all the chakra he had left in his body. He had practised enough to do it without seals. But he only had one shot at this. 'Naruto...gomen... I guess I'll have to break that promise...' The dark-haired boy's trembling hand clutched his aching chest for a moment before looking at his brother, all thoughts of Naruto gone again. One chance left. He had to make it count...
Itachi approached slowly–some would even say cautiously, but Itachi would never admit to that–toward his brother, his bloody body stained with his own blood was nowhere as beaten as Sasuke's but it still hurt to walk. However, he was in no hurry. It wasn't as if Sasuke could–
The sound of birds filled the air and a bright silver-blue light lit Sasuke's face from below. Itachi's eyes shifted, a tiny shuriken filling each of his eyes. He knew this attack. Sasuke had tried to use this on him before.
With calm hands–in spite of the blisters that had formed there from fighting his brother–Itachi bent down and plucked three kunai from the ground–since he had run out of shuriken a few parries ago–and flung it at his brother in a single swift motion. The three kunai landed all along Sasuke's arm, hitting his joint in the middle, the tendon on his upper arm and the major vein on his lower arm. Sasuke's arm buckled a little at the attack, red blood running down in slow streams to the concentrated chakra in his hand.
"Sasuke!"
In the din of birds that filled the empty air–empty of real birds–Sasuke could faintly hear the sound of Naruto's voice in his ear. "Naruto...I'll get him..." Sasuke whispered faintly as he felt his body grow heavier.
The three black marks in each of his bloody eyes spun as he felt his brother standing at his side, right over his left shoulder. He twisted around to catch his brother by surprise, but Itachi was already gone. Sasuke was thrown to the ground as he felt a kunai tear through his shoulder, but the younger Uchiha wasn't going to allow his brother to get the upper hand. He swung his leg around to knock Itachi to the ground.
"Sasuke!"
"Naruto!"
Sasuke's hand slipped for a moment at the second voice. Those weren't coming from his head!
The dark-haired nin's eyes trailed to his brother at the last moment to see the last hand seal of many, but it was enough to know what it was. Sasuke lifted his arm to block the attack, knowing that it was useless. 'Goukakyuu no jutsu! Itachi, you bastard!' How dare he use that technique!
The Konoha shinobi rammed his hand through the fireball that flew right at his body. It wasn't going to stop the attack from consuming his body, but at least he was going to take his brother with him. And even if it didn't work, he had a backup...
The sound of screaming birds echoed through the air as Sasuke felt his hand run through muscle and bone, the cracking filling his ears as loudly as the birds that had faded from his hand.
Sasuke's eyes widened. He had actually hit his brother...
Itachi's eyes widened. His brother had actually hit him...
The elder Uchiha fell forward, sinking his torso farther through Sasuke's hand as he tried to swallow the blood that rose up in his throat. However, it refused to go down. Instead, he settled for allowing it to overflow from his mouth, tainting his entire chin and dripping down onto Sasuke's face.
Sasuke turned his face away as the overwhelming scent of blood reached his nose. Dead blood.
The nukenin grabbed his brother's neck with the last of his strength, crushing it in his hand. There was no way that he was going to leave alone. Itachi stared down at his brother as the cursed seal subsided from the younger Uchiha's skin, Itachi's face as expressionless as it was when he began the fight. There was no way that he was going to let his brother go.
"Sasuke!"
With shaky strength, Sasuke lifted his leg and kicked his brother away, his neck half-crushed by the nukenin. Itachi's cooling body rolled a little away, sinking into a pool of blood as his little brother fell back onto the ground, empty of energy, empty of chakra, empty of all thought.
"Sasuke... Sasuke!"
With his fading vision, he could barely see Naruto's bright blond hair in the dim light of fading fire, the only light in the area under the dark sky. The dark-haired boy felt the blond lift his head, propping up his body from the right. He couldn't see his face anymore. He couldn't see anything anymore.
"Sasuke..." But Naruto could see him, and he could see that Sasuke was covered with blood. "Sasuke..." He tried to stifle the tears that threatened to spill out of his eyes. He didn't know that Sasuke couldn't see him anymore. "...your arm..."
"My...dobe..." Sasuke lifted his hand to touch Naruto's face lightly, his voice cracking, ending that one word with a fitful series of coughs. Blood flew from his mouth to his already sticky-red upper limb. The new droplets sank into the rivers on his only arm. There was no way to really know if he had coughed up blood or not. The evidence wasn't visible anymore.
"Na...ruto..." Sakura's eyes trailed to the two boys, her eyes instantly registering the blond head, then the black head on Naruto's chest. "Sas–" she felt Kakashi's hand stop her. "Kakashi-sensei?" She looked up at the grey-haired jounin and saw him looking pass her at Naruto and Sasuke. There was the faintest look of pain on his face.
"Sasuke?" The cold hand that laid on the blond boy's cheek fell to Naruto's side. "Sasuke!" He shook the dark-haired boy in his arms as he called out his name. "Sasuke!"
Sakura ran forward with Kakashi at her side. "Naruto!"
The blond boy's head popped up at his name. For the split second that he was with Sasuke, he had forgotten that Sakura and Kakashi were there. "Sakura-chan!" The blond turned his head quickly to the pink-haired medic-nin. "Help him! Sasuke... Sasuke's not breathing!"
The kunoichi knelt down at the boys' side. From the corner of her eye, she was faintly aware of the dead stare of Itachi's nearby corpse, but she ignored the chills that ran through her body at the bloody stare. Instead, she focussed on the body in front of her.
But it wasn't too long before her hands froze over Sasuke's body. She trailed her fingers through the stream of blood which hung coagulated from his bare right shoulder.
"Naruto...gomen..." Her head had dropped, her eyes shadowed by her pink hair as she stared down at the body of the dark-haired shinobi.
The tears shining in Naruto's eyes spilled over as the sky broke, drenching all of them in unstoppable rain. Sakura couldn't see that he was crying. "Sasuke!" Naruto buried his face in the other boy's still, cold chest. "Sas–!"
In the sudden gust of wind that caught all of them off guard–except for maybe Kakashi who had stepped forward in an attempt to stop it–Sakura saw only the severed strands of short pink hairs fly away from her. The kunai in Kakashi's hand was still as he stood frozen in a stance that denoted his rushing forward...but of course, he wasn't fast enough. Naruto's eyes were wide.
"–s'ke..." He fell forward over Sasuke's still body, the fuuma shuriken stuck in his back.
"Na..." Sakura's mouth moved wordlessly after that as her eyes grew wider with slow realization. "Naruto!" She pulled the fuuma out of the blond boy's back, ignoring the thin wires that still clung to its metal frame. "Naruto...hang on! I'll heal you in a second!"
The blond swatted her hand away as he turned meekly to the pink-haired girl. There was an awkward smile on his face, as if he hadn't even noticed the pain in his back. "Sasuke," he said with an intense cough as he tightened his grip around Sasuke's body. His hands were beginning to shake from his profusely bleeding back. He could taste blood in his mouth, even as his breath shortened.
Hey baka! Let the pink-headed girl heal you already. I have no intention of going down with you!
Naruto ignored the Kyuubi. He had grown very good at ignoring him over the years. If there was ever a time to ignore the demon fox, he thought now was the time. His one-track mind refused to allow anything else to overwrite his sorrowful thoughts of Sasuke.
Are you even listening to me!
Red chakra swirled around Naruto's rain-drenched body as he felt the Kyuubi engulf him. He hadn't realized that he was hurt, but the Kyuubi did.
"Naruto!" Sakura shouted at him as she clutched his body tightly. The red chakra threatened to blow her away, and it was difficult holding Naruto still. "I..." Her hand shook uncertainly over the blond boy's wet wound. "I'm going to heal you!"
Naruto turned quickly to face Sakura, turning his wound away from her as he mechanically dragged Sasuke's body with him. Blood leaked from his mouth, streaking from his lips, down his chin and neck to his orange jacket. Beads of blood slowly rained onto his trembling hands as he felt the Kyuubi take over. His voice strained through clenched teeth in a wordless cry before he fell over Sasuke's body at a sudden surge of pain.
Kakashi glared at the boy for a moment before pushing him down into the thinning mud for Sakura. This wasn't a time for Naruto's stubbornness.
"I don't care what you want!"
Sakura yelled at him even as she thought that he might want to follow Sasuke, her eyes blurring at the thought that he would want to leave her alone to carry on the name of Team Seven. It was unlike Naruto to want to die. She knew that, but she couldn't help but think that he might do it. For Sasuke, she would do anything, and the same went for Naruto even more than her because...he loved Sasuke more than her.
And she couldn't deny that anymore.
"I..." Her hand glowed over the wound, but...the blood kept pouring. "Heal dammit!" Tints of salt mixed with the rain that fell on her head. "Heal...Naruto!" This was why she became a medic-nin. She wanted to be of some use out here when they were on missions. She had to save him. She wasn't useless anymore. She couldn't be useless anymore! "Heal!" She screamed desperately.
And quickly the wound closed.
She didn't know if it was the power of the Kyuubi, or her force of will, but the wound closed and for a moment, she breathed a sigh of relief...
...until she heard the frantic coughs of the blond shinobi.
"Naruto!" Her hands hovered over his body, the green glow of her shosen jutsu could find no flaw to her work. And she panicked. She was still worthless after all...
'Internal bleeding? No...that's not it... I've healed every part of him, inside and out... The wound's closed! Completely! He should be fine!' Sakura's eyes trailed all along the blond chuunin's body. 'What is it! What can it b–'
And her eyes caught onto the blood that still poured from Naruto's mouth. It was his lungs. When the fuuma shuriken hit Naruto, it had rent right through his lungs...and in that short time she had tried to heal him, that short time the wound was allowed to bleed, they had filled with blood.
Naruto was drowning in his blood!
"Naruto!" She shouted at him, even as she felt the Kyuubi's chakra push her back, throw her back from the blond shinobi. The Kyuubi was madly trying his best to heal him...but it wasn't working. There was no way to get that blood out...
The kunoichi wasn't always the best of friends with the blond nin. She always ignored him. She yelled at him. She hit him a lot over the head and called him a baka. She had hated the thought of being in a team with him when all she cared about was Sasuke. He was an annoying...loud...stupid...cluelessly naive...nin. But...
Sakura felt a hand rest comfortingly on her shoulder. She turned, startled, to look at her sensei. He had been thrown back by the Kyuubi's chakra as well. "Kakashi-sensei..." she said as she wiped her eyes with her wet arms, but the look on his face–even with his face half covered by that constant mask–held a dangerous premonition.
Through the thin curtain of rain, she looked back at Naruto, but the boy's body was already still; the arms that held Sasuke so tightly before, were now relaxed. They looked...asleep, as if they could open their eyes at any moment...and Sasuke would continue to ignore her with that annoying smirk on his face as Naruto laughed at her and told her that he was only kidding, that he wasn't really dead. She would love to have smacked him over the head then, but...she knew that she wouldn't do anything like that, not if he really was alive. She would probably have been...relieved.
"Naruto?" She took a shifted a slow inch forward, held out her hand to shake him awake. The glow was still there, hovering over the fresh scar which was still visible after healing the wound left by the fuuma shuriken. "Naruto!" She shook him gently. 'Wake up! Wake up, Naruto!'
Kakashi shook his head lightly as if scolding a naughty student. "Sakura..." he said as he pulled her back. He couldn't really think of anything to say.
"They can't be dead," she said to herself as she clung onto the two boys. "They can't be dead!"
In the midst of Sakura's cries, Kakashi turned his head quickly at a sudden movement in the trees. It couldn't have just been the rain on the leaves. There were no leaves anymore; they were all scattered on the ground around them in melting ash. That meant...
"Sakura, we need to go!" He grabbed the boys in one arm and Sakura in the other before running away. Itachi was dead. Somewhere back along the way they had come, Kisame lay dead. But, that didn't mean there weren't other members of Akatsuki around here. He couldn't expect Sasuke to have killed them all. He was only one boy.
And Kakashi couldn't fight them now. He had already used up too much chakra getting here to hold them back, especially with a bawling girl and two limp bodies in his arms. No. Today, he had to get away.
End Chapter 8
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Fire's English tidbits for those who care:
This is IMPORTANT! I'm going to talk about verb tense agreement. Do I sound like an English teacher to you? Well...I'm not but whether you're writing a story or just writing a fanfic, this is important. If you start in present tense (ie. run, sit, drink, eat, etc and not ran, sat, drank, ate, etc) at the beginning of the story (look at your first sentence), then the rest of the sentences in your story or essay should be in present tense (generally unless you're writing about an event that happened before the time you're talking about and it's not a flashback, then use past tense; eg. Sasuke likes Naruto, but he hated Itachi first). When writing in present tense, the simple sentence (short sentences) is your enemy and you should be writing your sentences with at least ten or more words in them unless you're using them for effect. The reason for this is that short sentences in present tense makes the story choppy, unless you want it that way for effect (again; as in for anger, anxiety, etc). If you start your story in past tense (ie. ran, sat, drunk, ate, you know what I mean!) then the rest of your story should be in past tense (unless you're writing about an even that happened before the time you're talking about and it's not a flashback, then use the past participle; eg. Sasuke liked Naruto, but he had hated Itachi first). There is no restriction on sentence length when writing in past tense. I certainly find it easier, which is why I don't write in present tense anymore, but too many simple sentences when writing in past tense is also bad. More about simple sentences next chapter to explain why that is, I'm trying to keep these tidbits as short as possible.
Fire's babbling:
Fire: (sweats) Okay...I know that section is getting a little long...
Sasuke: (eying the English tidbits) Just how long have you been writing...?
Fire: Since October... (smiles)
Sasuke: You know that's not what I mean...
Fire: (points suddenly behind Sasuke) Sasuke, look! It's Itachi!
Sasuke: (crosses his arms) I'm not going to fall for that...
Itachi: (walks up to Sasuke and looks down at him) ...
Kakashi: (shouting in surprise) Itachi! (falls into a defensive stance)
Sasuke: (quickly turns around) ...!
Itachi: (shunshins away) ...
Sasuke: Itachi! (runs away)
Kakashi: (turns to fire) So...?
Fire: (imitating Kakashi's voice) So...what?
Kakashi: How long have you been writing?
Fire: Since I was in elementary school...but not fanfics.
Naruto: (stops crying and looks at Fire with a confused expression) Why did you tell Kakashi-sensei and not Sasuke? (sniff)
Fire: Kakashi's nicer.
Kakashi: (smiles) ...
Naruto: (looks at the fanfic and cries) Waah!
Fire: (looks at the fanfic) What!
Naruto: I'm dead?
Sasuke: (walks back, having given up on trying to catch Itachi) What! I'm dead too!
Kakashi: (still smiling) I'm still alive.
Fire: (snapping at Kakashi) No one cares about that! Sasuke, what did you write!
Itachi: (holds up his hand) I did that.
Sasuke: (annoyed) I only wrote the part when I killed Itachi!
Naruto: (tilting his head to the side) Who wrote the part where I died?
Mizuki: (hiding at the back of the room) ...
Fire: (nervous) Well...I guess we're in a bit of a mess... Please don't stop reading! I'm going to try sorting it all out. I'll bring them back from the dead if I have to!
Sasuke: You're going to have to do that if you want to keep your readers...
Fire: (yelling at Sasuke) Urusai! You'll give away the plotline!
Sasuke: Review. Tell us what you think or Fire might cancel the story. (turns away from the group) Now…I'm going to the crematorium to lie in the incinerator...
Fire: Hey! You're not dead yet! (runs after Sasuke)
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