OoOoO
Chapter Three
Unexpected Experiences
Sasuke leaned against the heavy wooden door as an anchor for himself against the swaying of the ship that had gotten steadily worse the farther out to sea the boat and it's occupants went. Out side the glass of the small round windows, the sky was dark with rolling clouds that seemed to never end. Lightning blazed across the sky screaming off into the distance, leaving waves even heavier than before. It made ones soul nervous and Iruka definitely seemed nervous.
Sitting at a desk that was bolted into the floor, the longhaired brunette had an interesting nervous twitch every time the wild electricity lit up the room or a rolling boom of thunder shook the bones. Personally Sasuke enjoyed the feeling, finding that it seemed to bring everything about being human into perspective, the fragile body, the worried mind, and the enjoyment of being close to the fury of the natural world. Iruka looked up at him after collecting himself, and he smiled softly, knowingly, and Sasuke grew wary. Why the look?
"You do know that he could be a spy don't you? This boy you found." His voice insinuated something deeper and it left Sasuke feeling as though something had picked through his thoughts and half formed ones behind. He nodded and turned his face scanning the room. One of the only beds on the whole ship was in here, the sheets made up, and the pillows sat faithfully at the top of the bed, an extra blanket at the foot of the bed. On the floor, more than likely also bolted so as to not move, lay a rectangular chest.
Inside that chest, an extra blanket, non-perishable canned and boxed rations, first aid, and rain gear laid waiting for the next occupant of the room to make use of them. The rain gear was a simple poncho that was made of water resistant reeds that were tightly woven together in a fashion that let the water drip off easily and keep the owner dry. They were stiff and ungainly; he should know he was wearing one of the uncomfortable things everywhere he went. The thunderstorm left everything soaked to the bone if not covered, and he didn't want to go home with a cold. The great Uchiha with a cold, who would've thought it?
Smirking at an insistent knock behind him, Sasuke stood and pushed away from the door. Kakashi came in holding a flask, a plate full of food resting precariously in the crook of his arm, and his jacket on the other, smiling he nodded to Sasuke.
"If you don't mind I'm going to help Iruka here get some food down. I've heard from some of the other men that this sensei has not been eating properly the entire trip," his eye lit up with a childish delight, and Sasuke couldn't decide if he should get sick from the touchy feely thing, or laugh his butt off at the look Iruka was giving him. Somewhere between a look of extreme terror and being angry at being treated like he was incapable of taking care of himself.
"Okay Kakashi-sensei, might want to be gentle though, Iruka looks a little green," he bowed to both men, "I'll keep an eye on Naruto, Iruka-sensei." Smirking, Sasuke shook his head disbelievingly and walked out of the room looking for the mute blond.
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Naruto happily took a full tour of the ninja ship, keeping the men and woman manning the different parts of the ship preoccupied. His wounds didn't stop him from finding mischievous ways to disrupt everything; the deep cuts had already disappeared, leaving three ugly scars. The scars were unusual, but his mind never lingered long upon any one thing ever, so he didn't pay much attention to it.
Kiba, the dog kid he had borrowed a shirt from earlier, had his dog chasing him around, keeping tabs on him was one of the things it could have been doing. The blond delighted in losing the adolescent pup, and he kept appearing in the most unlikely of places. The crow's nest had been his favorite and not even the biting cold sheets of water from the storm could keep him away. Laughing silently at the confused canine below him, he waved down below to the people on the deck. Most of them just glared up at him, muttering threateningly between each other, coming up with different plans of making his death look like an accident; their words growing thornier and more tangled than a bush of nettles.
Turning back to the vast deep sea around them, Naruto fought with the stiff waterproof jacket until he became comfortable. Even though the ride was violent, the colossal crashes of thunder were soothing and he found himself relaxing into a sleepy lull of comfort. Maybe he could relax now that he was in safe company.
A pair of hands on his shoulders made him jump, his breath coming in fast scared puffs. Looking around in a panic, he found the silky depths of black night in his vision. Sighing, he relaxed back against the black haired Uchiha, enjoying the feeling of another body against his own. Unknowingly to Naruto, Sasuke stiffened, then relaxed, a small smile touching his face.
"Dobe. It's just me." Sasuke stood, leaving a disappointed blond behind, looking around at their surroundings, taking everything in at a minute detail. Looking at Naruto he smirked, "Did you know that you, being unable to say anything, have got every single one of the Nin down there ready to strangle you? For some reason I don't doubt it, but maybe for the rest of the trip you should tone down the urge you feel to bug every living thing alive. Even Akamaru wants you for his kibble and bits tonight, and he's a friendly dog." At this last comment he smiled, thinking about the way Kiba had reported that the blond had a cunning that even Akamaru couldn't keep up with.
Naruto stood and nodded, a large flashy grin adorning his face. Naruto looked again out to sea and the grin turned to a look of dismay as he pointed out toward the horizon. The storm had broken for a moment and the sun shining through the clouds illuminated three dark ships sailing towards them. A gigantic wave raced in front of them, its path taking it straight to the ship they resided upon.
Sasuke's eyes widened a slight bit and glowed red for a brief moment, the Sharingan power filling him like water in a cup. The Uchiha prodigy searched with his enhanced vision and he saw that the water was indeed being pushed, but not by Water chakra energy. If it had been, the chakra would have been focused inside the wall of water, but the water was really just being hounded by pulsing waves of energy coming from the occupants of the dark boats. Glancing out of the corner of his eye he saw a look of terror upon Naruto's face and he turned the beginnings of a question formed on his lips. But the blond backed away, his hands blindly groping behind him, for what he didn't know.
Sasuke reached out toward the other boy, but he was too slow and the boy backed away too quickly. Naruto's feet caught on the edge of the low wood around the edge of the platform and he tripped. Crying out silently, he fell, by some miracle for a landing on the deck of the ship would have killed him, into the water. He was safe from the death of the ship deck, but he had landed right in the path of the crushing wave of water.
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His mission was a simple one. Keep tabs on the fire country ninja's and find out as much information about this "secret" army as he could. When he had been in a tight pinch and couldn't escape without blowing his cover, a total stranger had helped him out.
He wasn't supposed to be feeling heroic; he wasn't allowed to interfere, but he knew he couldn't just break the promise he had made to his blond friend. Even with the consequences in mind he moved to repay the debt he owed, hoping nothing would go too badly.
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Kakashi left a flushed Iruka behind in his room as men on the ship started to cry out for help. A danger was coming and they couldn't figure out how the freak of nature started or how it could be stopped. Grabbing his shinobi jacket and his raincoat he ran out the door that led up to the decks.
On the surface, he felt a tiny pit of terror at the wall of the water rushing at them. But now was not the time for panic and he buried the fear just as quickly as it appeared. Looking around as he felt a use of chakra that was familiar and his eyes were drawn upward. Kakashi watched as Sasuke scanned the horizon beyond the cloaking wave. The other person up there, Naruto, backed away, his hands behind him trying to reach for anything. His fingers twitched naturally up as the boy fell, as if trying to catch the fragile human body that fell toward the wood planking of the ship deck.
The wave, that would most likely capsize them, saved the blond, the tiny wavelets in front of it making the ship rock so that Naruto landed in the water instead of splat like a tomato on deck. Running forward, he looked over the edge of the ship and couldn't find the teen anywhere he looked. A shape ran past his peripheral vision and his hand snatched out, catching Sasuke before he jumped off the ship.
"Sasuke! He could be all right or he could be dead! Either way you need to think before you let your emotions overwhelm you!" His yelling barely made it past the sound of the rushing water that was only a second or two away, and that now none of them would be able to stop it. Looking up at the wall of water that shadowed them, he desperately gripped at the railing that went around the ship and prayed that the ship would put up with tons of rushing water pouring down upon it.
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Naruto's first thought was that the water was obscenely cold. It felt like he had fallen into liquid ice or something worse, and his breath left him as if he had been punched. Keeping his eyes firmly shut, for he had had them open for a few moments before and hadn't seen light or anything to orient himself by, he couldn't tell which way was up or down.
The feeling of numbness over took him as pulses that seemed to come from everywhere rolled him around in circles. He felt as though he could have been dreaming. Maybe this was death and he was going? He didn't know if it was that bad. Even his savior was a demon and that was too much. Naruto had wanted to get Sasuke to like him and then maybe he could have stayed with him in a comfortable companionship or maybe the raven-haired ninja would have loved him. Now he was alone and it was unbearable. This feeling of loneliness was like pins being pushed into his mind and it scared him. He had wanted to live to kill his bother, his traitor brother that had given his body to the demon.
Then the pulses stopped and the water that swirled him into a mockery of ballet stilled. A comforting power cradled him and he was again reminded of his mother, being held close after she soothed the bite of a scrape, of kissing her goodnight, and of her loving hug that promised to always keep him safe. Where was she now?
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Sasuke let go of the rope he had grabbed in fear of floating away with the wave that should have lashed at the ship by now. Looking in a sort of awe, he studied with the power of the Sharingan, the wall of mud that had risen to stop the water. It held a steady glow of controlled power that radiated strength. The wielder was close and definitely dangerous, for none of their men on the ship could have performed the arts of controlling the earth.
Drawing his kunai he prepared to throw at the source when the wall of mud, which he now noticed held shells and bits of growing plant, fell slowly back into the water. But not all of it disappeared, a single column was left standing and it moved, and in a mockery of birth opened and Naruto fell to the deck. Sasuke's breath came in soft pants and he feared for the blond's life. He looked so peaceful though, in a form of sleep that Sasuke envied; the one of true exhaustion and deep ignorant bliss.
Iruka rushed forward and with two fingers checked the pulse of the light haired teen with a calm that came with knowing his practice. Sasuke turned as a voice echoed out behind him, hearing and feeling deep within his bones that the voice was the one of the earth. Deep and with a resonating that held a nurturing nature underneath.
"Is he alive?" The young man stood on the roof to the room that held the Captain's quarters and he held one hand out toward the water, where another wave was starting up, and the black ships of the enemy became more and more apparent for they had been sneaking up in secrecy behind the gigantic wall of water that had previously plagued the Fire ninja ship. Iruka nodded curtly, his back to the enemy made him nervous, and Kakashi stood in front of him. If he had been a dog, he would have looked like Akamaru did now, his hackles raised and a low growl in the back of his throat, all defenses in his stance.
Sasuke found himself taking in the strangeness of the Earth wielder, his black meshed shirt and flowing black pants, his deep red-almost brown hair, and a thick lining of kohl seemed to surround his piercing olive green eyes. The most interesting thing though was the giant gourd that rest upon his back, what it contained seemed to have been just released, for in the ninja's hand, a cork stopper was held loosely.
Sakura off to his side was attending Naruto; Shino was silently observing everything, a Kunai ready to attack the red headed intruder; but an irritating shifting sound drew all of their attentions towards the side of the ship, where a thin layer of what seemed to be sand flowed over the wood railing and into the water. It was a brown spot that headed in a beeline for the three opposing ships with a mind of its own, an almost lethal aura surrounding it.
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Glowing red eyes of a demon met his sight and he fought to get away. Stumbling in the darkness, hungry, cold, but safe from the eyes that seemed to try and burn holes in his head. They chased him through the planes of his memories and he found himself looking on in his memories as if he watched a silent movie.
When he was five they had lived in a small hut on the edge of a village that had been previously plagued by a sickness. His mother had told them they would live; they would just have to work to do it. Never were they unhappy, his brother and his mother always were there to keep company or play with. When they would hunt for fish, they would make it a game, if they needed to every find herbs their mother would show them how, and when she had said it was time to move on, they would move.
His mother was a beautiful woman in his slivers of memories, her hair was a brown that shined with light, a strand or two of grey was always there on the edges, and she was graceful. A dancer that followed some instinctive, exotic tempo and that was how they lived.
When he had turned ten with his twin brother, they had settled down only for a short while before things changed rapidly, their mother got sick and couldn't hunt for food or herbs with them. They had to live off the land without her guide, for the sickness robbed her of the ability to speak for long. His brother had supported him and he supported his brother and they became petty thieves, stealing clothing and food sometimes. Then after two years of the hand-to-mouth lifestyle, she had died suddenly in her sleep, never waking up again. The event seemed to have broken an ancient seal of silence on his brother. His eyes that had been a dull brown became wine-red and he turned into another creature all together. The body may have been human, but the being within the human flesh was a mind centuries old.
The image faded and his mind wandered. Maybe this was the pathway to death? A long road of memories that ended in eternal darkness, with no knowing who or what you were? It was hard, images of people, faces, names, and places faded slowly, his breath left slowly and it became a labor to draw in air to his lungs. What if he just let it all fade away?
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ARc: No I won't kill Naruto. And I couldn't get the document to work with me. So I don't really care. I just wanted to get this out. These last two weeks have been so mean to me and Draven. So tired. ZZZZ
Draven: Please review. We love it when you do.
(gets poked with a stick)
ARc: Oh yeah. It might seem strange, but this is really going to have a point.