Promises
by Lochar
A/N: Another chapter. So sue me, I'm bored this weekend. :)
Chapter 3
It was a few weeks later when Naruto walked back into the hospital to make his semi-weekly checkup on Sasuke. He'd been unconscious the past few weeks, but baa-chan had said he was just healing and would wake up soon.
Not noticing the increased activity at the nurse's station outside Sasuke's room, he walked in to be surprised to find Sasuke sitting up in his bed, glaring at him.
"Dobe." Was the cold hello he got.
Naruto grinned. "Welcome back to the world of the waking, Sasuke!"
"Not that you care, but I've been awake since yesterday." Sasuke turned his head to look out the window.
Naruto noticed the window was facing the direction that he'd run off to leave Konoha. "You know, we completely destroyed the valley." he started.
Sasuke snorted. "And yet I still lost." He touched the cursed seal on his neck. "If I didn't have enough power to beat you, the dead last, how am I supposed to have enough power to destroy Itachi?"
"With help." Naruto said, his voice saying it was obvious. At Sasuke's glare, Naruto continued. "Hey, even your brother had someone with him for backup. That shark guy, remember?"
Sasuke slumped into the bed. "And you want to be the help, right?"
"Me, Sakura, Kakashi-sensei. We've all been willing to help you. Just about anyone would."
"Ha. Dead last, a girl who had to be protected more than our clients, and a teacher who could only teach because I could copy his moves. What great choices."
"Whatever." Naruto stood up. "If you don't want to accept help, I doubt that baa-chan or ero-sennin will let you out of that circle. And when I become Hokage, I won't let you out either. And then you'll never get stronger. Sasuke-teme." With that, Naruto walked out of the room.
Naruto rolled his eyes when he heard something thump against the now closed door, before walking down the hallway.
Slowing, he noticed a familiar white haired old man attempting to chat up a nurse.
"Ero-sennin."
"Don't call me that! You should call me Jiraiya-sensei." the man spun around saying, as the nurse laughed.
"Sasuke is awake." Naruto said, ignoring Jiraiya's previous comments.
Jiraiya sighed. "I know. I was here yesterday when he woke up. I'm studying how the cursed seal interacts with his chakra."
Naruto's eye twitched. "And you're out here why then? Kinda hard to study it when he's not here." Jiraiya opened his mouth to say something, but Naruto cut him off. "Whatever. Just help him, please?"
Jiraiya closed his mouth before nodding. Turning, he made his apologies to the nurse before walking to Sasuke's room and entering.
"I suppose I should thank you again, Naruto." Sakura's voice said from behind him.
Naruto started, grabbing his head thinking he was going to be hit. When no hit came, he slowly turned around.
Sakura stood there with a half grin on her face, looking between him and Sasuke's room. "I was about to have to ask Tsunade-sama to drag him in there."
Naruto grinned. "Hey, I want him to get better too, Sakura-chan."
Sakura raised her hand to hit him, but then dropped it. "I was going to hit you for putting him in there in the first place, but..." she trailed off, looking to the closed door. "I think he would have physically thrown me out of his room if he could have yesterday. That seal was pulsing then too. I guess you didn't have a choice."
With that, Sakura walked into Sasuke's room as well, leaving Naruto to quizzically look after her before shrugging and walking out of the hospital.
He'd come back again tomorrow and see how Sasuke was doing.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
A little over a month later
Naruto sat in the Godaime's office, bored. Sakura sat in another seat while Tsunade sat at her desk and Jiraiya was leaning against the wall, looking out a window.
"And why didn't you tell him the meeting was starting an hour ago, baa-chan? You know Kakashi-sensei never shows up on time." Naruto complained.
Tsunade looked up from the scroll she was reading and scowled, before flinging an ink bottle at him.
Naruto laughed and caught it. "I know, I know. Don't call you that, right baa-chan?"
This time, a paper weight flew at Naruto who ducked as the door opened. The paper weight sailed right into Kakashi's stomach and actually knocked him back out of the office.
Stumbling back in, Kakashi tossed the paperweight to Tsunade. "Sorry, I was-"
Tsunade cut him off. "If you make an excuse about being lost on the road of life, Kakashi, I swear I will make you a genin again, and you will stay one until Naruto becomes your Jounin-sensei."
Kakashi paled, and from behind his mask there was an audible click as he closed his mouth.
"And the same goes for if you are ever late for a meeting I call, ever again." she continued. Kakashi just silently nodded.
"Now, as for why I wanted the three of you here."
"Did you find a way to cure Sasuke?" Two voices said at once.
Jiraiya chuckled at them.
"Unfortunately, what I discovered was that the cursed seal Orochimaru used on Sasuke has completely infected his chakra coils. Removing it from him, unless the snake did it, would destroy Sasuke's coils." Jiraiya's voice was calm, but held a sad tone to it.
Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Then I'll make him remove it." He cracked his knuckles and jumped up from his seat.
"And where is he then, Naruto?" Tsunade asked. "Lead the way and we will all force Orochimaru to remove it."
Naruto sunk back into his seat, arms crossed and scowling.
"I can split the seal though, but the split part of the seal would require another host so that it wouldn't reform." Jiraiya added. "And the only people that could be the other host, are ones that have a strong link to Sasuke. And since the Uchiha boy has no living family he has no ties there. He has no real friends outside of Team 7 either."
Kakashi nodded. "I don't think I would have a strong enough link to him. I may be his teacher, but I never cultivated a tie with him that strong."
Naruto opened his mouth to speak, before a voice interrupted in his mind.
You can't do it either, kit. I have very serious doubts about the seal being able to even touch your kitsune chakra and it would probably just dissipate. It would have the same effect as if the old man removed the seal completely from the kid.
Naruto closed his mouth, before opening it again and speaking. "I-I can't either."
Tsunade nodded. "Because of the results of your fight with him?" She asked.
"Yeah." He looked at Sakura. "He's still my best friend, my brother even, but something happened when we fought that makes it to where I can't do it. Sorry."
Sakura looked down at her hands in her lap, fiddling with the hem of her shirt for a moment. After a few minutes, she looked up. "I love him." She stated simply. "I told him that when he left, and I told him I'd do anything to help him. If I have to be cursed along with him to help, I'll do it."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Sasuke was allowed to see the almost one dozen ANBU that were stationed all around his room, including sticking to the wall outside his window, as Tsunade and Jiraiya dispelled the seal.
He gave them a questioning glance.
"We can't remove the seal, Sasuke, but we can stop it from affecting you." Tsunade said, allowing him to stand and walk past the seal markings for the first time in almost two months.
Sasuke stretched and then turned to face the two Sannin. "So, what exactly are you going to do?"
"We're going to split the seal. Someone else has agreed to bear the other half of it for you."
"Who?" Sasuke looked around, not seeing anyone he knew beyond the two Sannin. "One of the ANBU?"
"No. You'll find out before it's removed. Are you coming, or do we put you behind in a sealed room again?"
"Alright, alright. I'm not going to be locked up all my life. Naruto-dobe managed to point that out." Sasuke quietly followed behind them.
The three people plus their escort of ANBU walked silently downstairs and into the basement, where a very large circle had been inscribed, with many seals written into it. Oddly, there was a separator that hid the far half of the circle.
Jiraiya looked at Sasuke. "We're missing one seal, Sasuke." He handed the boy a scalpel. "In the center, there is a space for a seal. Write the right half of whatever emotion led you to accept Orochimaru's cursed seal in your blood. Write it against the separator so it can connect to the other half of the seal. Then go lay down in the open area and close your eyes."
Sasuke took the scalpel and carefully made his way to the center of the circle. Looking at the open space, Sasuke thought.
What emotion had brought him to the point of accepting the conclusion he'd lose his body eventually? Was it desire? Desire for power?
No. He didn't want power just to have it. He wanted enough power to be able to destroy his brother, in revenge for him destroying their clan. Was revenge an emotion?
No, Itachi had told him that he didn't hate enough to be able to defeat him. So he was after hate then. He wanted to be able to hate enough to destroy his brother. He hated his brother, but it hadn't been enough. He had taken the power in order to hate even himself so that he could have the hate to destroy Itachi.
Nicking his finger, Sasuke drew out in his own blood the right half of the symbol for hate. He then stood up and made his way over to the area they had said to lie down on. He saw an activation seal right near the spot, so someone would be activating the circle right next to him.
Lying down, Sasuke closed his eyes and waited. He heard them move the separator away and imagined someone else lying down in a mirror image of him on the other side of the circle.
Someone moved close to him and Sasuke froze up when a hand was placed on his arm.
"Itachi may be your blood brother, but I am here as your brother to help you along." Naruto's voice was unnaturally quiet as he talked.
The hand was removed, and Sasuke heard four different voices shout something, before there was a large surge of chakra and he felt himself pulled somewhere. He panicked as the sensation was almost like Itachi's Tsukiyomi before he was completely drawn in.
When he was able to open his eyes again he found himself lying on soft grass, in an unknown location. There was someone sitting nearby.
Sitting up, he was shocked at who it was. "Sakura?"
The girl smiled softly at him. "Hi Sasuke-kun."
"So, what? You want a piece of the power of Orochimaru? Is that why you volunteered to be the other for this?" Sasuke laughed. "Because you're pretty weak otherwise."
Sakura shook her head. "No." She looked around. "And this is how your mind is. It's so sad."
Sasuke looked at the surrounding area. "If this is a reflection of my mind, I don't think it's bad. Open fields, grass, there's no cities but I guess if it's just my mind, I don't need one."
"No, Sasuke. You're seeing my mind. I think Tsunade-sama said it was viewing the world through someone else's eyes. What is see is a desolate wasteland, devoid of life. The seal here is destroying everything you are." Sakura explained. "In this meeting, Jiraiya-sama set it to where we could not lie."
"I don't care." Sasuke shouted. The air seemed to quiver at that, and the land around him seemed to die off slightly. The sun in the sky seemed to take a darker hue as well. He then looked at Sakura. "I require that power to destroy Itachi. That is why my half of the seal was hate. I must have enough hate to destroy him."
"If that is what you want, I will help you there as well. But..." Sakura looked at something, but Sasuke couldn't tell what. "What about the Uchiha clan? You will destroy your brother, and then Orochimaru will destroy you. And then your clan will be gone."
Sasuke paused, not sure how to answer that and unable to unequivocally say he did not care. Some part of him still did care about his clan so he could not lie and say he didn't.
"I told you before you left that night, Sasuke. I love you. I want you to stay with us and we can work together to bring Itachi to justice. But if you wish to leave, I will leave with you. And we can both be destroyed by Orochimaru. You will keep the seal and I will follow you."
Growling, Sasuke looked up at the sky. "It wasn't supposed to be like this. I did not mind destroying myself, if that was what was required to take down Itachi. But I was supposed to be the only one to go."
Sakura stayed quiet during this.
After a moment, Sasuke looked back at her. "Fine. Split the seal. I'll find a way to have my revenge on Itachi without killing myself. Happy?"
Sakura's grin seemed to light up the whole area. Suddenly there was a shaking and the whole area went dark.
When the light returned, both looked up to see something truly strange.
"The left half is the sun, the right half is the cursed seal?" Sakura asked.
"I see the opposite. The left half is the seal, and right half is the sun." Sasuke said.
Before they could question it further, Sasuke felt himself being pulled again. Closing his eyes, Sasuke felt himself begin to spin and fall.
He opened his eyes to find Naruto's face peering down at him.
"Ugh, definitely not something to wake up to, dobe." Sasuke pushed him away and sat up.
Immediately, he was surrounded by ANBU. Yawning, he waved at them. "What are you looking at?"
Suddenly, two of the ANBU seemed to be almost thrown aside as a pink haired kunoichi dived at Sasuke. Sakura knocked him over as Naruto laughed.
"Uh, yeah. Good to see you too Sakura. A little much though, don't you think?" Sasuke asked.
Sorry if there wasn't as much Naruto in it as you might want, but I needed to take care of a few things. I don't think I'll be getting another chapter out before the 4th, but hey, ya never know.