Turning Back
(edited)
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"AHHHHHH!"
The two woke up. When they realized what was happening Naruto jumped up.
"What is wrong with you? Why are you molesting Sasuke?" Sakura demanded.
"I wasn't-"
"He wasn't molesting me Sakura. I would've knocked him out if I hadn't wanted him on me. Leave him alone. He did nothing to you."
Naruto flinched like Sasuke had hit him when he'd said that. He believed it. Why had he flinched? Sasuke loved him. He was waiting here for him. Even though Naruto knew that he wanted to go so bad. Stupid Itachi.
"He obviously did something to you," Sakura said getting closer to him feeling his forehead.
"Yeah... I guess he did. But it was something better than you could ever do to me." Sakura looked hurt.
"No need to be mean Sasuke," Naruto said from the corner of the room. He looked like he regretted his decsion to come to the hospital and stay the night. Sakura had caught them and now they had to explain what they had been dreading having to tell her.
"What? What is going on with you two?" She said backing away eyes going from one boy to the other.
"We-" Naruto started.
"-are together." Sasuke finished before he chickened out.
"No. You can't be. No. Sasuke you can't. I lo-"
"Don't you dare say that you love me. Because you don't. Now get out."
Sakura ran from the room not trying to hide her tears.
"That was a little harsh don't you think Sasuke. She didn't do anything," Naruto said walking back up to sit beside Sasuke.
"She is telling herself lies and believing them. I won't ever like her so it doesn't matter. I just don't want her to get even more hurt later.'
"You could've waited until after the mission. She'll be depressed the whole mission."
"She always is anyways when it comes to me so what's the difference?" Sasuke said looking out the window.
"I don't know," Naruto said quietly looking at the floor at his feet.
"Naruto, I'm sorry I freaked out."
The blonde looked up at him, smiled and pulled him into a kiss.
Naruto broke the kiss. Sasuke made a sound that he was unhappy. Naruto heard it but didn't acknowledge it.
"I guess this is good bye then," Sasuke said looking up at the boy as he stood up.
"Yeah," Naruto said turning around. Trying to hide the tears on his face. Sasuke saw them anyways.
"Naruto, it's okay," Sasuke forced his body to get out of the bed. He stood behind Naruto and wrapped his arms around his waist.
Naruto turned around in his arms. He was smiling while crying. He leaned in for one more deep kiss.
"Good-bye Sasuke," Naruto said into his lips and with all of the strength that he could muster he turned to leave, unwrapped Sasuke's arms from him and left his love there. Standing in the hospital room. All by himself.
"Bye Naruto," Sasuke said quietly to himself as the door shut lightly. His legs gave way on the floor. He fell to the floor crying. How did this happen? How was he going to stand living with out Naruto?
----
Naruto had been crying ever since he'd left Sasuke's room. Once he left the room he'd been so lost. All he wanted was to take Sasuke into his arms and stay there forever. He didn't want to leave him like that. It wasn't fair.
To either of them.
----
Naruto reached the bridge where they were going to meet for their mission. He saw that Sakura was sitting on the bridge crying just as hard as Naruto was.
"Sakura. I'm so sorry you had to find out like that," Naruto said thinking back on how mean Sasuke had been to her.
"It's okay Naruto. I know he didn't really mean to be so mean. But I know he's right. He doesn't love me. He loves you. It's so obvious. I don't know why I didn't see it sooner. I love him and I just want him to be happy. If that means with you. Well, better you then Ino."
Naruto was touched by her words. She wasn't angry. She was accepting it. She didn't care that Sasuke and Naruto were lovers.
Naruto pulled her into a big hug. She didn't object. "Thank you so much Sakura," he said to her. "That means so much to me."
"Naruto, you can let go of me now. They're here."
"Oh, sorry," he mumbled looking at the three people walking towards them. It was Kakashi, Iruka and a man. That must be the man they were going to escort to-. Where were they going anyways?
"Yo," Kakashi said raising his hand, open like always.
He saw that they were looking at the man that was accompanying him and Iruka. "This is Kaito Naoki."
"You can just call me Kai," the strange man said.
"Hello Kai," Naruto and Sakura said when they took their turns shaking his hand.
"Now that were all acquainted why don't we leave?" Iruka said to the group. "The sooner we go the sooner we get back," he said quieter for only Naruto to hear.
Naruto was shocked for a moment. What had he said that only to him for? He was confused but it gave him something other then Sasuke to think about. Did Iruka know about him and Sasuke?
----
Sasuke had collapsed onto the floor. He didn't care who found him. He wanted it to be Naruto. He knew that would never happen. Sasuke leaned against his bed. He was still crying. Naruto had left so abruptly. It scared him. It angered him. It confused him.
"Why did this have to happen? I'm supposed to be strong," Sasuke said to his hands.
"Sometimes love can make us strong Sasuke," a voice said from the doorway. He had been too upset to notice that the door had opened.
"You should get up. You're certainly not doing yourself any favors by sitting there on the floor. You do want to get better, don't you?" Tsunade said walking over to him. "Come on," she said picking the broken boy up off the floor. She placed him onto the bed.
"Thank you," the brunette mumbled.
"No problem Sasuke. Lay down now. Get some rest," she said placing a hand on the boy's shoulder and pushing him down onto the bed. He didn't object to this treatment. The tears did not stop though.
"Sasuke you should stop crying. It's not going to make him come back. You're just wallowing in self pity."
"I happen to like wallowing in self pity so if you don't mind leave me alone." Sasuke had just realized that she had said it wasn't going to make him come back by crying. "How did you know?"
"Know? Oh. About Naruto?" Sasuke nodded. "I'm not the Hokage for nothing Sasuke."
"Oh," the boy said blushing. She probably knew everything then. He heard her chuckle. His eyes burned. He had to stop crying. But how? Naruto had left him with all of these mixed feelings. How was he ever going to cope?
----
The group had set out from the village and was making fairly good progress. They had to keep telling Naruto to hurry up. He was barely keeping up. Iruka stopped him after a couple hours.
"What is wrong with you? I would've thought that you would've been happy to be on a B-ranked mission," Iruka said to the boy during their break.
"Nothing is wrong Iruka. I am happy to be on a mission like this," Naruto said looking at the ground.
"I think you'd rather be somewhere else though. Am I right?" Iruka said prying for more information.
Naruto only nodded. Iruka took this as a sign to stop. He wasn't going to get any more information out of the boy and he knew it.
----
They started again. This time Kakashi brought Naruto up front with him. Probably to stop Naruto from getting too far behind. This only served to make Naruto even more depressed. Kakashi could see that the farther that Naruto went from the village the worse he got. He felt bad for him and before long Kakashi had called another break.
"Naruto is it that bad?" Kakashi asked.
He nodded, he didn't want to be there. He couldn't stand it. He was getting father and farther away from Sasuke. It was unbearable.
"I think that under the circumstances it might be alright to let you go back. No one is following us," His eye arched to show that he was smiling.
"You know too then?" Naruto asked his sensei.
"Yup!" he exclaimed brightly.
"Great," Naruto said under his breath.
"You're no fun to tease anymore." Kakashi said poking Naruto. "I'll go run my idea by Iruka and I'm pretty sure you'll be able to go back to the village. You can relax with Sasuke until we get back."
----
Naruto had just broken away from the group. He was running as fast as he could. He had to get back to Sasuke. He needed to get back to Sasuke. He had to help him get better. Help him heal. So that he could have Sasuke.
----
"Perfect. I think a change of plans is in order. Don't you?" someone said quietly from the bushes.
----
Naruto had been running for a while. He hadn't even noticed that there had been someone following him. He passed it off.
He realized that they were getting uncomfortably close to him. He was starting to get worried. He had to get back to Sasuke. He needed him. He almost felt that he couldn't live without him. He just had to see him again. He had seen the pain in Sasuke's eyes when he left. The first thing I'm going to do when I get there is to apologize for that. Naruto was so sorry that he had hurt Sasuke. He couldn't stand it.
----
"What's the new plan?" the woman said to the man in charge.
"Well since we have such a good opportunity we'll take the boy. No one will notice. The village thinks he's on a mission and the group thinks he's going to be at the village when they get back. It'll take a month but it will be worth it. He can be my bait."
"Well that's really perfect then isn't it?" she asked him.
"It would be better if I didn't have to wait for a month. But other then that…"
The woman nodded. He really wanted this. Naruto would be weak. Both of them would. This was going to be easy.
----
Naruto was getting worried now. They were gaining on him. He tried to run faster but eventually they caught up with him.
"You!" Naruto gasped before he was knocked out.
----
"Naruto!" Sasuke said sitting up suddenly. He was soaked in sweat. He'd just seen-. No it couldn't be not him. What would he want with Naruto?
Sasuke was worried about the blonde. He was frantic with worry. He was about to swing his legs over the side of the bed to get up
It then dawned on him that it was just a dream. Naruto was with Kakashi; the sensei no matter how lazy would never let him kidnap Naruto. Never. What would he be doing in the woods anyways?
----
Sakura was confused. Why had Naruto left? Sure he had been sad, everyone had noticed it. But what made him so special?
----
"When do you think he'll will wake up?" Naruto heard a woman say.
"Right now," the man in charge said. He had noticed that Naruto's eyes had started to flutter open.
"Good morning sleepy head," the woman said.
"What do you want? I'm not the one you want. It's Sasuke. I'm not Sasuke."
"We know that Naruto," the man said drawing attention to himself.
Naruto gasped he had forgotten. "Itachi?"
"Very good," Itachi said beckoning Akimitsu over to him.
"What?" she asked the man.
"Watch him while I go out scouting. I doubt if anyone saw us take him but just to make sure. I've waited too long for this to be ruined."
The two watched Itachi leave. Soon he disappeared into the trees.
"So what is his brilliant plan?" Naruto asked Akimitsu.
"Oh. I'm not sure I should tell you," she said to him looking at him questioningly.
"What am I going to do? It's not like I'm stronger then you. I wasn't prepared for this," the blonde said to the woman standing in front of him. He realized that he was tied up. Perfect.
"I guess it would be okay then," Akimitsu said obviously debating telling. "Well his plan was to kidnap you on the way home. Worry Sasuke. He would be devastated, go looking for you. He would probably guess that Itachi took you. He would then go after his brother. He loves you too much not too. You are perfect bait."
"So why did you change you're plan?" Naruto asked. 'This boy is dense,' Akimitsu thought.
"Itachi saw you going back. He thought that it would be perfect. No one would notice that you were missing. The village would think that you're on a mission and your teammates would think that you were in the village."
"Oh. Pretty smart plan. It would worry Sasuke even more too," Naruto said immediately seeing the image of the boy inside his head. Sasuke looked sad. Naruto had just left him. Why had he left so abruptly? He could've smacked himself right there. It probably would've looked weird.
"Why did you turn back anyways?" Akimitsu asked him after a short period of time.
"I was going back to see Sasuke," Naruto said this in such a sad depressed tone that Akimitsu regretted having to kidnap him.
Naruto leapt up no longer tied.
"Wha--?" Akimitsu shouted.
Naruto had lunged at her. She was surprised.
After a few minutes of fighting. Naruto finally managed to knock out Akimitsu. Now back to Sasuke, Naruto thought.
----
Naruto started running. He heard someone curse. Itachi, 'I'm sorry I had to ruin you're plans. I have to get back to Sasuke. You would probably hurt me anyways.'
Naruto wasn't surprised to find that someone was following him. He was surprised at how fast they were catching up to him.
The blonde yelled out when he felt someone wrap their arms around his waist.
"Not so fast you little brat," he heard Itachi whispered roughly in his ear. It gave him a horrible case of shivers. The last thing that he thought before he was knocked out was 'Sasuke, I'm so sorry I couldn't get back to you.'
----
Sasuke had a bad feeling in his stomach. Something was wrong. Something bad was happening to Naruto. He began to wonder if his dream really had been just a dream.
----
The group that Naruto had left behind was doing well without Naruto slowing them down. They were still a little worried about him though. Something could've gotten him. Naruto could handle himself though. He was strong.
----
Naruto was starting to come around. His head hurt so much. Someone was carrying him. Where was he? What was he doing? Where was he going? Who was carrying him? Was it Sasuke?
"Sasuke?"
No, it couldn't be Sasuke. He smelled different then this person.
Naruto opened his eyes to see where he was or to try and see his captor. He saw someone following them. It was a woman. He remembered that Itachi had knocked him out after he'd tried to get away. To see Sasuke. He remembered. It hurt him to think about Sasuke. He didn't think that he ever would. Ever since Naruto had tried to make a get away Itachi had probably decided to kill him. Or at least hurt him.
"Hey Itachi, the brat is awake," the woman behind him said.
"That's fine. We're here, he's not going to get away again." Itachi said gripping the blonde a little tighter to his body. He was not going to let this little brat ruin his plan. He had to kill Sasuke if it was the last thing he did. He wanted to see the weaker boy writhe and scream from pain.
----
Naruto watched as best he could were he was going. He had no idea where he was. What was going on?
"What's that you have there Itachi?" Someone said to the man carrying him.
"A brat. He's going to be staying here a while though. Think you could help me guard him. He has a tendency to slip through unsuspecting fingers."
"I said I was sorry a million times," Naruto heard Akimitsu say from somewhere around.
"I know I'm not deaf," Itachi said placing the blond back onto his feet. "Come on kid let's go." Itachi pulled Naruto through the streets. He kept going right and left so often that Naruto soon gave up on trying to remember what street was what. He just walked the way Itachi wanted him too. It was like he was walking to his death. It felt like when he reached his destination he was to be slaughtered. He felt so awful about how he had left Sasuke. He regretted it so much. Why? Why had he done that?
Before he knew what had happened he was being thrown into a cell. It was dark and it stunk. Naruto watched as the last bit of light slowly slipped away from him.
----
Sasuke was alone in the dark. The moon was the only source of light. It was so quiet so lonely. "Naruto, come back to me."
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--To Be Continued--