Grace
Standard Disclaimers and note still apply.
Flaming Beauty – hahaha… what plot? I literally make it up as I go along. Aye, I didn't want to go for pairings because if I did, there would be a whole group of disappointed people… so I try and keep it pairing…less for this story. Though my other one will have some pairings in it. (I think)
And to everyone else, thank you very much for reviewing! Your reviews make me happy inside…
Warning: mentions of rape are in this chapter, as well as some scenes pertaining to it. Italicized text under the 'dream-sequence' section contains this content. Reader discretion is advised.
If you don't wish to read the scene, then don't, and please scroll past it if you feel you aren't able to read it. Thank you.
╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤StoryGoesHere╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤
October 9th. 11:00pm. Nearly 5 weeks since initial arrival.
╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤Dream-Sequence╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤
"Tell me where she is, little boy, and then I won't have to hurt you…" came a sickenly sweet voice in his left ear. He tried pulled away only to find he couldn't, there were seals all over his body preventing him from moving even the slightest inch.
"Get away from me you filthy bitch." He spat at her, watching as rage contorted his captor's face. He shivered, knowing he was going to regreth is words.
"So be it." The leer in that voice was worse than Orochimaru's. Hands. Hands touching his chest. When had his shirt even come off! No, no, No, NO! He thought desperately. Panic started to settle in and his memory started to blur. The feelings remained however. There came a chuckle in his ear as a scream ripped from his throat.
It didn't hurt physically. No, it was the mental pain, the anguish he would feel. No genjutsu could synthesis the effects like the real thing.
"Gaki, wake up." A deep rumbling voice told him.
╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤End-Dream-Sequence ╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤
Naruto sat bold upright in his bed, panting for air. The sheets stuck to his body as sweat dribbled between his shoulder blades. Even upon wakening he was panicking. He started to struggle with his sheets, trying to tear them off his body only to have them further entangled. He started to hyperventilate as he struggled even further, his mind blank and focused only on one thing. Getting away.
He didn't care about the racket he was causing, especially when he fell off the bed with a hard thump on the floor, instead he only concerned himself with getting the sheets off of him. Once he managed that he grabbed the closest article of clothing he had and fled through his window, almost not caring to open it.
Naruto didn't notice the figure at the doorway on his way out, completely rooted on the stop and hidden in shadows.
╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤PerspectiveSwitch╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤
Jiraiya usually was a heavy sleeper. But tonight he woke up to the sound of a muffled scream across from his room. They were followed by pleas for someone to stop doing something, though he couldn't understand the words themselves, the messaged was clear. Jiraiya wasn't a Sanin for nothing. He grabbed his robe, a scroll and a kunai and dodged out of his room, almost forgetting to open the door. For him, his roommate was in danger.
He warily crept to Naruto's bedroom and pried open the door slowly. He stood frozen on the spot as he stared into the room. Naruto was thrashing in his bed as if he was in some severe amount of pain. He watched as red chakra spiked visibly off his body and the kid woke up, sitting up straight faster than Jiraiya's eyes could trace.
He really should have gone to see if Naruto was alright, but he couldn't bring himself to move. Instead he watched. He watched as Naruto started to hyperventilate, he watched as he fell off the bed in full blown panic. He watched as Naruto fled through his window in a mad frenzy to escape the room he was in.
For a long time Jiraiya just stood there. He didn't understand why he was so shocked by seeing Naruto like that. Was it because during the short time he's gotten to know him, that Jiraiya liked the kid? And thus seeing him so… so… so helpless shocked him? It was heart wrenching.
╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤PerspectiveSwitch╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤
He ran. It felt as though all his ninja skills left him so all he could do was run, not jump from rooftop to rooftop, just run. So he did, he ran through the dark empty streets stumbling and blind to his surroundings.
After awhile he slowed to a walk and his panting turned to steady breathing. He was only in his boxers and navy jacket. And it was cold. Very, very cold. He wrapped his jacked tightly around him and watched his breath ghost away from him.
A few moments later he took in his surroundings. He was near the Uchiha compound, so he wasn't that surprised to bump into one. But the ground sure as hell was surprised to meet his behind.
Those eyes seared into him, they seemed lost and cold, kind of like his entire situation. It took several long seconds for both pairs of eyes to realize who they were seeing before it clicked.
"Naruto-sensei?"
"Itachi-san?" they both asked at the same time, staring at each other in shock. Itachi held out his hand which Naruto took, and Naruto was once again back on his feet.
"What are you doing here, Naruto-sensei?" Naruto's eye twitched at being called sensei. Itachi however looked his 'teacher' over. Puffy eyes, pale skin, pajamas. Naruto's next words confirmed his suspicions.
"Um… a.. nightmare." He explained. Shivering slightly and warming his arms with his hands. Naruto found it difficult to accept this kinder, caring version of Itachi.
"Come on, my house isn't far from here, you'll catch a cold staying outside." Since there was nothing better to do, Naruto followed him, though a bit warily for his own mind. Meeting strangers in dark alley ways the blond haired bimbo is always the first to die.
Soon enough Naruto found himself being guided inside the Uchiha main house and into a kitchen. Itachi told him to have a seat while he fixed some tea. That's just what Naruto did, relishing in the warmth the house brought to his numb limps. He let his thoughts wonder before waking up to the steam of tea wafting into his nostrils.
Itachi sat facing him, sipping his own tea. Naruto determined that the tea wasn't poisoned (force of habit, honest) and took tiny sips, his numb fingers defrosting on the edges of the clay cup. They both sat like that for some minutes. The silence wasn't comfortable, but it wasn't unfriendly… just awkward.
"Gomen nasi, I'm not much company" Naruto spoke, sipping his wonderfully warm tea.
"That's okay; I'm not much of a talker." Itachi replied, both of them smiled softly. But in the moonlight it was hard to see.
"Do you want to talk about it sensei?" Naruto twitched at the title again. There was no way he would get used to it.
"About what?" feigning innocents. Itachi's eyes narrowed as Naruto refused to meet his face.
"Your nightmare. The one that must have scared you so bad you took as stroll outside in only boxers and a jacket in the middle of October, which, might I remind you, is almost below freezing." Itachi specified. Each word made Naruto wince and pale to the point where in the moonlight streaming in from the window, he look translucent. Naruto struggled to form an answer but was saved by a voice in the shadows.
"Takako, again?" Sasuke appeared, causing both present occupants of the room to jump; Naruto because he wasn't paying attention, and Itachi because he hadn't mastered the finer points of sensing.
"Hai." The blond nodded stiffly to his friend and brother, where Sasuke just stared at him before refilling Naruto's empty tea and taking a seat in-between the two, at the head of the table.
"You never did tell-"
"And I never plan to!" Naruto managed to yell at them with a whisper instead of an actual yell. But it came out sounding more like a vicious hiss. Itachi and Sasuke flinched at Naruto. They fixed him simultaneously with the Uchiha scrutiny, making Naruto fidget uncomfortably. Wasn't Sasuke supposed to hate Itachi, not have him gang up on him?
"She touched you, didn't she." It wasn't a question. Naruto trembled and refused to look into Sasuke's eyes. Of all the times to have the nightmare, of all the people to run into, of all the times to break down again it had to be tonight.
Itachi's eyes widened as the implications of what Sasuke had said finally hit him. Strangely, he felt sympathy for the Kyuubi container, not satisfaction that someone put him in his place, in fact he felt sick that someone had done that.
Naruto wondered why they were just starting to have this conversation now; it was a year and a half ago for him! Back when they first met Takako. Naruto supposed that just because they didn't ask then, didn't mean they were still curious as to what happened to their little brother. Sasuke just was the first one to ask rather than Sakura.
"I didn't say anything before because I wasn't exactly sure…" normally Itachi would mind being ignored, but this time he opted to settle as an observer and watch his brother and his team-mate talk. Sasuke seemed to be good at reading people's minds and Naruto deflated before him.
"She wanted to know where Sakura-chan was, and I didn't tell her, no matter what she threw at me. I actually don't remember all of it; I think I blacked out at one point. Though I remember coming too and seeing a crater around me…" Naruto did distinctly remember that. And he supposed it was due to Kyuubi being one pissed off demon lord. A new silence fell between them for awhile before Itachi spoke up finally.
"Have you told Sakura-san?"
Naruto shook his head as a negative answer. And once more there was silence, penetrated only by Sasuke going to the window and opening it. Naruto raised an eyebrow and Sasuke smirked at them.
"You can come in now Jiraiya." Naruto and Itachi jumped, yet again; Naruto because he wasn't paying attention, and Itachi because he hadn't learned the finer points of chakra sensing.
A familiar white head of hair peeked through and smiled (though, since he was upside down, it looked like a frown).
"Oooooh? Looks like I was spotted." He said in a slightly sulky voice. Jiraiya chuckled, trying to lighten the gloomy atmosphere.
"Anyways, I dropped by to see if Naruto wanted to hit the baths with me." Naruto, who was tired of the Uchiha's ganging up on him for information, readily jumped up and agreed. On his way to the window (did he ever use a door anymore?) He was stopped by Sasuke.
"Dobe."
"Hrm?" Naruto turned around in time to catch a small flying object with sharp corners on his nose. He hissed and rubbed his poor abused nose and caught the object on his way down. It was a small heavy box wrapped in sparkly paper.
"Happy Birthday." Sasuke actually pointed to a clock on the wall that read 12:01. Naruto chuckled.
"Arigato." And out he went, leaving a smirking Sasuke and a slightly bewildered Itachi behind.
On their way to the baths, Jiraiya had selflessly given Naruto his outer robe to wear over his thin jacket and boxers. Naruto walked in relative silence, not responding outside of a few words to Jiraiya's pointless questions. Such as 'what are we learning tomorrow.' In which Naruto would answer 'dunno, we'll see.' And Jiraiya would get annoyed and be silent for a few minutes.
"We're here." Naruto looked up and realized that yes; they were at an open bath house. Yawning they made their way inside (Jiraiya's treat, since Naruto had not money on him) and stripped into another set of robes and into the hot bath itself.
Naruto sunk down into the hot liquid with a pleasant sigh. They were, for the moment, the only ones there this late at night, thus had the bath entirely to themselves. Silence with Jiraiya was comfortable, and neither of them was in a rush to break it. After awhile though, Jiraiya asked him a very unusual question.
"Hey, did you hear about the optometrist that fell into a pile of broken glass?" Naruto opened his eyes and looked over to Jiraiya who was sipping some Sake.
"No, what happened? Was he okay?" Naruto sounded genuinely worried. Why was Jiraiya asking this?
"Dunno, but apparently he made a spectacle out of it."
It took Naruto a few moments to get it before growling and splashing Jiraiya. Naruto however couldn't contain his laughter though, it was pretty funny, for a bad pun.
╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤EndOfChapter╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤
HA! 3 chapters in 3 days! Beat that Sisco and Ebert!. I dunno, in my opinion, this is simply a filler chapter, and was rather pointless… o.O oh well! Originally itachi wasn't supposed to be in this one... but… my mind rebelled against me, really. Honest.
(edit(07/03/06): ah, I need to apologize, due to the fact that I have a strong tendency to forget words and letters (making sentences seemed cropped and without flavor) as well as the fact that I type fast, there were a lot of errors in this chapter that my program didn't catch, so um.. I'm sorry.)