Author: Reviews make a happy author. Yay for all of you who reviewed! Much appreciated. This is, more than anything else, a transition chapter. A way of looking a little deeper into the characters...mwahaha. Er...yes. Read! Review! PLEASE!
Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I would have everything that had anything to do with Itachi. Right now, I am contenting myself with a keychain and a wristband. Since I don't, we assume Naruto and all associated things does not belong to me. Much sadness.
The group set up camp for the night, a flurry of noise as Kawao meandered out into the forest and began to set up a few things. He stopped about a mile away from the camp and murmured as he touched the ground. A shot of blue chakra lept from his hand to the ground and split to race away in two separate arcs. He retreated to within half a mile from the camp and murmured again as he touched the ground. This time the chakra was purple, and he continued whispering until he felt the two strands of energy connect on the other side of a circle, and he smiled. He retreated then to the outermost edges of the camp and set up one last barrier, this one purely red. He then turned and went back into the camp proper and began to help as his small band settled in for the night.
They were one day away from Konoha. That was why he had taken the risk and set up a series of barriers for their protection. The first had been simply to let him know if any human presence passed by them. The second, if triggered by hostile intent, would trap them in a nice illusion he and the Fox had come up with a few years back. He found it was a very effective deterent.
IF they survived, of course.
The last barrier was simply to keep them out. The Fox assured him that it would take around 15 or so highly-skilled ninja who had chakra to spend idly in spades. He doubt any would, though. If they hit that barrier and the intent that was laced into it, they'd probably pass them by. The Fox said not many humans would deal with a demon.
Unless they were insane, of course.
Like Kawao. Who really had had no choice.
Ah, well.
Kawao settled in the branches of a tree, sighed once he found a comfortable spot, and pulled a blanket he was being lent around him tightly.
He was near Konoha. Which meant he was near those eyes. Which meant he may have an opportunity...
Yeah, right.
He had seen the way the two women had looked at him. If they heard that he was in town and Sasuke was as well, the two would do their best to keep him away. He grinned into the darkness. That would be fun, seeing who is better; two trained ninja or a man with a lot of determination and lust for what belonged to him. Remembering that, he pulled away his shirt on his shoulder a little, and looked at the mark burned into his skin. He remembered having seen it on that beautiful, seductive body sprawled out beneath him. He had found it distasteful, maring the perfection of that expanse of creamy skin.
So he had taken it away and replaced it with something less objectionable. Something that had marked Sasuke as his. It was a small spiral, one that was only a slightly darker color than Sasuke's skin color. Unnoticable. Until Sasuke was in danger. Then...then, if needed, Sasuke could call on some of his and the Fox's chakra. If he did that, Kawao would also know Sasuke was in danger, and would go to him without another though. He protected what was his. He closed his eyes slowly, and a lazy, satisfied smirk drifted across his face.
Uchiha Sasuke...
---
He was falling. He twisted in midair, and tried to find purchase on a slippery surface, but found that he was unable to, which was frustrating.
Wait, if this dream was about falling, he would never hit the ground. That'd mean death. No worries. He'd just enjoy the feeling of the air rushing past him at a dizzying rate.
To his alarm, he did hit something. Something wet, and that seeped into his skin. He thrashed, but found that he was weighed down by clothes, and by something else, something heavy that was pinning him from the chest down. He pushed against it, but the thing never budged. He tried to yell, but found himself sucking in water. He felt himself fading, and struggled to cling onto life. He saw a pair of yellow eyes and reached out towards them.
He woke up with his arm extended in front of him, and his body was covered in sweat, as well as the heavy rain that was seeping down through the leaves of the tree he had made his home in. Kawao grumbled darkly and pulled the blanket over his head, and jumped out of the tree. He climbed into a large hollow at the base of the same tree, and leaned back against the inside of the trunk. He would trade spiders and other bugs for getting wet any day. He hated water. Was terrifeid of it, really, but would never admit to it. He knew how to swim. He just didn't like to. He wasn't afriad. Even though he found himself shaking if he had to ford through any river deeper than his waist. He was a good swimmer, strong. He just...hated...water. So did the Fox, so they did their best to avoid mutual discomfort. Why seek out soemthing bad?
He shivered slightly as a muted memory of the feeling of drowning, from both the dream and a previous experience(though he couldn't recall any time that would have happened), and hunched over, and contented himself to wait for the dawn.
---
Sasuke felt an odd jolt and rubbed his shoulder, confused. He expanded his senses and shudderd. He was here. Why?
Sasuke found himself standing, and was alarmed. What the fuck? Did he actually want to see him?
You are mine, no matter who you say you are going out with. Your mind, your soul, your body, your eyes...are mine. No one else's.
Sasuke shook his head slowly. He didn't need to remember that. Didn't need to remember the feel of that man's hands exploring, taunting, caressing, violating...didn't need to remember the particular shades that man's eyes were when they fu-...no, when they made love. It was too gentle, there was too much emotion in that man, too much tenderness to simply call it 'fucking' or 'having sex'. That man had cared about Sasuke, for reasons Sasuke didn't know. As he thought, he found his body responding to the remembered sensations, and balked.
NO!
He had a girlfriend, damnit!
He was straight!
But...those eyes...that body...that strange feeling in his chest...when...when...
When his eyes became bright blue. A bright blue that made him ache, made vauge images and past emotions float up within him.
'Why did you do this?'
'I don't know. My body moved by itself.'
Sasuke shivered. When had he said that, again? Who had he been talking to?
A sunny smile. Bright yellow hair. Mischevious bright blue eyes.
'Teme! I'm going to become Hokage!'
There was a name...almost remembered...buried because of a pain too deep to bear...
Almost..there...
"SASUKE! Earth to Sasuke!"
Sasuke started and looked at his girlfriend, puzzled and alarmed.
"Kumori?"
"Are you alright, Sasuke? You were out of it."
Sasuke gave her a gentle smile that made her smile back. "Just thinking about the past."
"You do that too much."
Sasuke's smile became wry and Kumori laughed.
"Come on. Don't brood," she said softly as she pulled Sasuke to her, her arms looping around his neck. "Are you busy?"
"I don't have any pressing matters, if that's what you're asking."
"Rainy days always make me feel so cold."
Sasuke smiled faintly at the playful look in Kumori's eyes and kissed her gently.
It wasn't the same.