Gravity
I deeply apologise for the extremely long wait for this chapter, school/grad and various other things had diverted my attention, so again I deeply apologise, don't kill me when I'm sleeping… give me a 5 second head start .
This chapter is RAW, meaning unedited by my Beta, I'll put the edited version up later.
«««««««««««««««StoryGoesHere»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
Sakura sighed heavily as she sat down on a fallen log, whipping her bloody kunai on a spare cloth. Beside her sat Sasuke, who was leaning against the log looking ashen faced with flecks of blood adorning his face. He looked as lost as she felt.
"Are you injured?" she asked softly, not wanting to penetrate the silence too loudly.
"Iie…" he answered dully, earning another sigh from the pink haired young women. Of course he wouldn't be fine, it was a silly question. What they had done went against everything they stood for, and it had been one of the most difficult things they had ever had to do before.
"At least now… she can't come after us…" Sakura murmured, casting a sorrowful look at her Uchiha companion, who winced in afterthought at her words. Sasuke sighed, lifting his head and staring skyward.
"That's true…. But I'm worried about the kinds of effect this will have on our future… our present." Sakura looked down for a moment, frowning deeply. She wasn't required to say anything to Sasuke's comment, it simply wasn't needed. An image flashed before her, depicting a young girl, possibly eleven years old with white almost innocent green eyes and tanned skin. Sakura shuddered in remembrance. But that girl wasn't innocent; she reasoned with herself, Takako had never been innocent. Killing her had been surprisingly easy in this time line…
"We can't go after Akira alone, we can barely fight him as it is, and that's with Naruto's help..."
"We can't go after Orochimaru either…" Sasuke hissed bitterly, receiving a slightly amused look from Sakura. She smiled bitter sweetly.
"True, but we can go after the remaining members of Akatsuki." She stated, watching as Sasuke stopped fiddling with the hem of his shorts. They looked at each other and sighed heavily once more. Killing a child wasn't easy, but in this case, it was their only option, too many lives were at stake.
It would be better if they just hadn't… been allowed to grow up… right?
«««««««««««««««PerspectiveSwitch»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
Kakashi was fuming. He was covered in pain, flour and butter while wearing the most ridiculously out of fashioned Tutu over the horrible green spandex of Maito Gai. He still didn't know how in hell his 'opponent' had managed to get it on him without his knowledge, but he grudgingly accepted the fact that he was up against the pros.
He noted with grim satisfaction that Obito was slightly worse off than he was in the looks department. The poor outcast Uchiha was covered head to toe in fish cuts while wearing a very revealing bikini. He had purple paint covering most of his body with the words 'I got Owned by a GIRL' written proudly on his back in red ink.
Both were standing there, shivering in the December air glaring at their way better off opponents. The blond and dark haired Duo was currently facing them with smug looks decorating their faces. Rin, although suffering from blue skin and half her hair being shaved off, was remarkable well off compared to her target, Obito.
But Kakashi wasn't fuming over those two; He was glaring buckets at Naruto, who was standing there in his completely unfazed glory. The Uzumaki was still wearing the ludicrous multi-color spandex suit with whip cream in his rainbow color hair, which he had also found out was a clever wig. If anything, Naruto was the least affected. And that's what irked him, he was a jounin, and he was beaten by someone who was a chuunin in rank…
"H-how? How could we have lost? How could we have been out-pranked? How is that possible! HOW?" Obito was reduced to a pile of sobbing goo on the ground next to an annoyed Kakashi. Rin and Naruto merely smirked at Obito's exaggerated dramatics.
"Well... I had a seasoned expert on my team." As Rin explained this, Naruto did a sweeping bow, clearing refraining from laughing. Obito stopped his bawling to look at Naruto as if he was god.
"Really? Will you teach me? Oh! Teach me great masterful one! I am but your humble servant!" that was the last straw between everyone as Naruto fell over laughing, Rin doubled over and even Kakashi let out the oddest sounding chuckles. Everyone forgot about the prank wars as they whipped tears from their eyes, only to got back into another fit of laughter when realizing the extent of damage that had been dealt out to each of the 4 children, well… near children.
It took them all about an hour to calm down, loose the deep blush on their faces from lack of air and sit down, utterly spent.
"Anyone wanna go to the lake?" the Uchiha chirped up eagerly. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the brunett. Apparently Obito had gone numb from the cold, because everyone was certainly still feeling it.
"Um.. sure… you got turn into an ice block and we'll hit the hot springs…" Naruto said slowly, as to puncture Obito's thick skull, surely he wasn't that bad when he was that age?
"er… OKAY!" Kakashi hit his head in his hand and Rin merely sighed.
"We better clean up first before going over there, meet back in 20?" the kunoichi suggested, and after receiving 3 nods in her direction, made herself scarce. Blue so wasn't her color.
«««««««««««««««TimeSkip»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
The owner of the hot springs was hesitant to let the 4 kids in, on one hand they could pay, on the other however, one was tinged blue, one smelt like fish and another had paint flecks in his hair while the fourth was completely fine. He forced them to take showers before entering the hot springs.
Since they only had so much money on them, Rin went to the public girl's bath whereas Kakachi, Obito and Naruto went off to rent a private bath all to themselves. Yawning, the boys settled in, Naruto with a very comfortable hiss at the hot water meeting his numb appendages. It had been awhile since his last bath.
The searing heat was so comfortable and welcomed that Naruto noticed himself starting to dose away; he closed his eyes and letting his bones soak up the heat and allowed the small current lull him to sleep. It was a brief moment of happiness for him.
Kakashi and Obito managed to stay awake in the sleepy atmosphere to watch Naruto their friend and little nephew (as they liked to secretly call him) fall asleep with the most peaceful look they had ever seen on his face. They didn't want to wake him up and ruin it however, so Obito spoke softly.
"Awwww, he's so cute and time like that." Obito cooed, something in which Kakashi thought was humanly impossible for a man to do, but agreed wholeheartedly. They lapsed into silence. For awhile neither said or did anything, just absorbed themselves in their own thoughts.
Eventually Obito spoke, his voice hushed and distilled against the hallow silence that had taken over the place.
"Ne... Kakashi… do you really think… do you really think he can prevent it from happening? Do you think he can save us?" Obito turned his haunted eyes to his friend, seeking an answer that was full proof. Kakashi sighed.
"He's sensei's son… he has that… that feeling to him, ya know? Like he could tip the entire world around him…... He will, Obito, because he gave us his word. Even by telling us what will happen, things have already changed. I think he'll try…. He'll try his hardest, I'm sure." Kakashi smiled, his eyes curving upwards as indentations in his mask appeared. Obito looked over again, his eyes alight once more, and nodded while looking back at the sleeping form of the six year old version of Naruto.
"Aa…." He muttered softly, settling back down into the ledge of the bath in a more relaxed position, closeting his eyes the Uchiha looked skyward and smiled.
"Aa."
«««««««««««««««TimeSkip»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
The boy swatted away the offending hand poking his side and resumed sleeping. It was difficult however, as he heard distinct giggling coming from his side before the poking returned more viciously than before. The boy mumbled and smacked the hand away again.
"go'way sas'ke…. Nnnn… five mo'minnets." He swapped the hand again and heard someone snicker.
"I'll tell kaka-sensei…… nnnnn I'ell 'em ooo stole 'is porn…." Naruto mumbled, hearing blissful silence before peeking one eye open and looking at his attacker(s).
"faggit…" he mumbled again. "tha haircut stinks…" Naruto made to move over onto his other side, only to be met with scalding hot water instead of his uncomfortable mat.
"EEEEIIIIIIIIYA!" he shrieked, jumping out of the water like a fish and landing painfully on the concrete flooring around the bath. He groaned, realizing his skin was beet red and highly sensitive to the scratchy surface he was lying on. He looked like a cooked lobster…He fixed his gaze to the bastards that didn't wake him up earlier and became disoriented for a second before making the realization.
"KAKASHII! OOOBITOOO!"
«««««««««««««««PerspectiveSwitch»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
Rin had been enjoying a wonderful time in the bath with a fellow genin from her era named Kurenai. The girls were discussing and giggling on and off between the most recent gossips around town, even Naruto hadn't gone unnoticed. They were however, interrupted half an hour later by a ragged scream followed by the fence being broken down and 2 boys running helter-skelter for their lives.
Wait a moment, she recognized those boys! The laughing duo bolted through before their pursuer (a handsome, if a bit young, blond) came barrelling through with a pissed off expression on his face. Rin noticed that Naruto's skin was beat red, either from blushing or from the bath, she couldn't tell. However, before she could even begin to question them, all the girls realized what was going on.
There were boys, in their bath…. In their bath! The following chaos was enough to make even Orochimaru appreciate its potential mayhem. The poor boys were trampled, well that was; Kakashi and Obito, for Naruto had mysteriously disappeared. Any female ninja within the vicinity also proceeded to pound the living daylights out of the poor boys (who seemed that they couldn't catch a break)
Rin chuckled and made her way to the bleeding pair and dragged them off to their bath to patch them up without worrying about the kunoichi returning for even more vengeance. She herself didn't mind, she had learned to go without some modesty when on the road with 3 other boys.
"Alright you two, what did you do this time?" she asked.
"uuuunnngh….. woke him up." Obtio groaned while Kakashi nursed his bleeding nose, strange since it wasn't broken…
"He freaked out on us. 'e 'ere 'ust pokeing him." Kakashi explained thickly to an amused Rin.
"he fell asleep in the bath? And you didn't bother to prevent him or wake him up sooner, before he became cooked?" she giggled at them.
"Couldn't help it, he looked so tiny and cute and… babyish..." Obito admitted, much to Rin's enjoyment. Kakashi managed to grin sheepishly in agreement.
"You guys are like… totally hopeless..." she sighed before far way there was an explosion, followed by angry yells of female voices. Kakashi, Rin, and Obito shared highly pleased looks.
"Then again, I think Naruto has worse luck with women than you two do." She grinned.
«««««««««««««««TimeSkip»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
"That's the last one…" Sakura stated softly, once again whipping her bloody Kunai off.
"Ahh…" Sasuke sighed, shivering when he glanced at the innocent expression on Hoshigaki Kisame's 7 year old face. their purpose was simple, find and kill off as many of their enemies as possible, short Orochimaru, Akira and Itachi. Deidera they couldn't find and time was running short for them. That is, according to when they planned to meet back up with Naruto.
"Sakura…" Sasuke suddenly said, earning the attention of the pink haired kunoichi.
"Sasuke?"
"I don't…. I don't ever… ever! Want to kill like this again. Ever." Sakura nodded.
"Me too…" she fought the bile rising in her throat and turned to walk away as Sasuke formed hand seals toward Kisame's body.
"Katon, Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" he burned the body quickly, turning his back to it and walking briskly away, revelling in the fact that their job was done, and that they wouldn't have to do it every again.
They walked in silence for some time, no longer having to fight from gagging and having long since stopped shivering as their minds rebelled at their actions. It was done, it was over with. Sakura let out a long sigh.
"What day is it?" she asked as they took to the trees.
"December 3rd." Sasuke answered showing shock as Sakura suddenly grinned. How in hell could she be ginning?
"Guess what?" the Uchiha got slightly annoyed by her.
"What?" he snapped a bit harshly. Sakura didn't seem to notice however.
"Yondaime is getting married this day. Poor Naruto, I can imagine Yondaime-sama dragging him into the ceremony somehow…" Sasuke blinked before chuckling. Weddings, no matter who it was for, were inadvertently long and boring and with an attention span like Naruto's…. it might prove to be a disaster.
"Also… since Yondaime-sama is getting married today... that means we only have a week left." That brought Sasuke out of his wicked thoughts of Naruto collapsing and dying of boredom to look at his pink haired companion.
As if reading each bothers minds, they flew north.
«««««««««««««««PerspectiveSwitch»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
Naruto grumbled irritably as he shifted about in his Kimono. Why he had to wear one, he was really confused about, afterall… he was a boy! It didn't help that Kakashi and Obito were snickering behind his back and his father merely tsked him as he helped put the Kimono on properly.
"Stupid traditions... who in hell wears these things anyways!" Naruto cursed as the robe was forced on him by one very, very delighted Hokage.
"Oh quit it, your girlie enough as it is…" Naruto glared fiercely at his father; only to Arashi ignore it with a flippant smile.
"Bastard…" he mumbled, why was he forced to wear a kimono? It made no sense! Unfortunately he wasn't given a choice as Kakashi and Obito were shushed out of Arashi's room while he prepared himself for the wedding in… what! Wait… 10 minutes?
The boys listened to their sensei running around his room, tripping and getting ready and dressing while crashing into things. They sighed, he was truly hopeless, and it made them grin at his misfortune. Naruto was hopping from foot to foot as Obito's mother guided them to their seats to sit and wait for the wedding to proceed.
Naruto droned most of it out, only paying attention to key parts. His future mothers changing on her clothing almost 4 times nearly made him laugh. He would never have a traditional wedding, too much work for the girl he'd be marrying, no matter how stunning the furisode, uchikaka, and shiromaku dresses really were.
Naruto yawned half way through it, feeling unusually tired. He knew it wasn't that unusual though, it was merely caused by the strain of being in Akuma Henge for so long without relieving it for a moment, so he opted to fall asleep in his chair. After all, even if he was a 'chuunin' in rank, he still had to portray the image of a six year old, and everyone knows six year olds fall asleep easily. Naruto smiled as Obito's mother allowed him to sleep up against her; she was very nice… for an Uchiha.
«««««««««««««««EndOfChapter»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
no more filler chapters! Next chapter: start of the dreaded mission! Someone looses an eye… can you guess who?