Previously on The longest year ever:
Sakura's gone, and everyone worries.
Sasuke follows a shadow to the Nara forest, and when morning comes, his demeanor changes to what it used to be when he was with Orochimaru.
Tsunade calls everyone to her office, and after a while, she agrees to make 4 teams of 3 to go search Sakura.
Sai isn't allowed to go for some reason, and as he sees the library, he goes inside, his goal, find out where Sasuke and Yamato meet so he can know why and what they do.
My dear, precious and loved readers and reviewers, I'm sorry I haven't updated in a long time, but I've been out of ideas, and I just recently found a new muse!! (I'm glad I did, I hate taking so long to update)…
Anyway, I hope you all like this chapter, and please, review, I'd like to reach 100 reviews with this chapter!!
Ah… I've revised my story, I haven't altered the plot thought, only the grammar errors and such, so you don't have to re-read all of it.
Anyway… enjoy, and review!!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, all the glory goes to Masashi Kishimoto-sensei!!
Yellow snake-like eyes glared into passive, slightly annoyed and pissed sharingan ones.
After so much work, finally possessing the body, and being able to 'live' amongst the living again, he did not expect he would end up like this, nor that he would be loosing to someone like… him
Red and black sharingan started to spin, and the person holding him down spoke in a calm but deathly tone.
"Ready to die Orochimaru?" Yellow eyes hardened, the glare becoming even more murderous (if possible), as he coughed some blood.
The next thing he knew, he was being pinned against one, of the many, partially destroyed trees of the once upon a time forest, now clearing, the owner of the sharingan entering the mind of this body, preparing to send him, the once highly recognised Sannin, Orochimaru, to the world of the dead.
Chapter 14 – The Search, the Kyuubi and his mask
4 weeks (1 month) earlier, 2nd week of January, Sunday the 13th
Sitting down on a random roof, he looked at the map in his hands and made a black line across a small marked area on the map.
"Not here either, that leaves…" he looked at the map again. "The training fields and the forest areas." He gave a nod to himself and got up.
"I'll check that tomorrow, Yamato-taichou as free Sundays, so they won't be doing anything today." He gave a small smirk, but it soon disappeared behind his poker mask. "If I wanna think properly I can't let my emotions get in the way, I have to use my ANBU and ROOT training wisely." If this particular shinobi was something, he was all but an idiot.
Deciding to go eat something, he jumped down from the roof he was in and landed on the street below gracefully. A few civilian females looked at him, and the group of 3 girls giggled while eyeing him up and down. He glanced at them with emotionless eyes and a raised brow, they apparently didn't knew who he was.
He walked in their direction as a mere coincidence, and they started whispering and gigging while looking at him.
He merely shrugged and kept walking, he just didn't understand why they eyed him like a piece of meat.
"Seriously, have they never seen someone with defined muscles before?It's not something out of the norm among shinobi. Tsk." Just because he had a shirt that showed his abs they almost drooled, he found that pitiful.
He walked past them nonchalantly, and the girls let out a whine as he didn't pay any attention to them.
"Tsk, pathetic." He muttered and kept walking.
Somewhere near the Grass Country, still in the Fire Country
A figure wearing all black moved silently from tree branch to tree branch. Yellow eyes scanned the area as the person kept moving.
There was a shifting somewhere below, and the figure stopped soundlessly, noticing a few Grass Chuunin walking by. They were chatting, or rather, complaining, about having to check the forest for any intruders, but they soon disappeared, and the figure started moving again.
As the figure jumped from one branch to another, a few birds flew by, and the figure merely narrowed his eyes, his new pale skin glowing as a few sun rays hit it.
Long black hair flew as the person moved, and then the figure stopped completely, and a few seconds later a shuriken came whizzing towards him, hitting the tree trunk where he would have been walking by.
He smirked and silently summoned a snake. Sharing the snakes vision, he saw a few rogue nins, no hitai-ate, they wouldn't be hard to defeat, especially not with the power his new body had.
A dark smirk appeared on his pale features as blood lust overtook him, and he went down for a fight.
"I'll get to know the new strength I possess by sacrificing a few cute little mice." He chuckled darkly and then went to the ground liking his lips in excitement.
3rd week of January, Monday the 14th
He watched, well hidden, as the Uchiha made his way to his house, followed by his ANBU guard, after finishing his day duties.
He followed them with one of his art pieces, a small bird, that to anyone would seem an innocent black sparrow, but appearances can be very illusive.
He watched as, a few minutes later, the Uchiha and his ANBU took off towards the forest.
Before following them he had checked the training fields, but the training fields were being used by the Genin almost everyday until past dinner time, so it left the forest.
He mentally smirked, there were only 2 forest areas numbered with a 3.
He let them go and waited about 30 minutes before moving into the forest to satisfy his curiosity.
Meanwhile, Borders of the Fire Country
Kiba and Akamaru led the way, while Shikamaru and Chouji followed. Their team had been assigned to cover the territory that connected to the River Country, and they were almost done, but still no sign of Sakura.
Shikamaru was getting frustrated, Chouji was lightly sulking, and Kiba was beginning to be pissed off and frustrated for not finding anything.
"C'mon Akamaru, nothing??" the dog-boy asked his dog for the umptieth time, his tone desperate. The white dog gave a small bark/whine, frustrated at his master, and confirming that he hadn't found anything.
"AH, DAMN IT." Kiba yelled, to which Akamaru whimpered. Kiba almost lost his balance, landing on another tree branch. "It's not your fault boy, sorry." He mumbled the last part, to which his dog barked, something like an accusatory glare directed at his master.
Shikamaru sighed and glanced at Chouji, this wasn't going well, not one bit, and the other teams hadn't given news yet, which meant they hadn't found anything either.
Back in Konoha
After checking the nearest area n°3 of the forest and finding nothing, Sai moved silently through the forest to the last area on his map, where he was sure he would find Sasuke and Yamato, and, just like he had anticipated, they were there.
He hide himself in a tree and settled there, observing in mild interest.
In the once upon a time regular forest was a high levelled platform, from where a waterfall stood out, ending in a lake below. The waterfall was quite large in width, and in front of it stood something similar to a passage way to walk, being centred in height with the waterfall.
Yamato was on the ground, having several wood polls with kanji engraved in them around him, cross legged in the centre of the wooden polls circle, facing the waterfall.
He scanned the area, to see Sasuke coming out of the lake, drenched and shirtless.
Was he crazy? It was winter for heaven's sake, the water must have been freezing an-
"Who cares about him, let him die for all I care." Sai mentally kicked himself for, even if just for a second, pitying the Uchiha.
Sasuke swam to the edge of the lake and walked out, he had screwed up again. After the few weeks of training he had been having with Yamato, he realized, not at all softly, how he had been dependent of Orochimaru's seal, and it was painfully evident to him that, without the seal, he wasn't half as strong.
He turned to the wooden platform in from of the waterfall and narrowed his eyes.
"Damn." He cursed under his breath and jumped into the platform again. Settling in the centre, he closed his eyes and focussed, he knew how to use Katon and Raiton jutsus, and now he had decided to try and see if he could use Fuuton based jutsus. He already knew a few Suiton jutsus thanks to his sharingan, and Doton jutsus, he was still thinking if he wanted to learn about those or not.
But for now, it was Fuuton. (A/N: Katon- Fire element; Raiton- Lightening element; Fuuton- Wind element; Suiton- Water element; Doton- Earth element.)
He opened his eyes and focussed on putting his chakra in sync with the water movement. He then took a step forward, his bare feet almost out of the platform, and extended his arms, his palms facing the water, and then he focussed, closing his eyes, he made his chakra surround him like wind, and, opening his eyes again, he made the chakra as sharp as he could, almost sharper than his Kunasagi, and then focussed on spreading it horizontally.
As he did all of this, Sakura's smiling face came to his mind, and it was all it took for his chakra to spread horizontally like a giant blade and pierce the water. The waterfall broke in half, and it stayed broken for 2s, until it resumed its flown.
He felt a tug in his neck, but, with simply his will power, he shoved the seal on the back of his being and turned around, Yamato was looking up at him from behind his mask.
The ANBU kept his current jutsu going, but couldn't help himself but to compliment his new found student.
"I'm proud of you Sasuke, you're starting to control the seal more properly, and you managed to pass the next step of the training."
Realizing the compliment, Sasuke managed a small smile, that went unnoticed to all eyes, and then dove into the lake below, no matter how cold the water was, it felt nice against his skin, and it made him realise that he could have weaknesses.
Nature… nature isn't anybody's enemy, yet if you get trapped in water, you drown, and there's nothing you can do, and that's a weakness, a weakness that's born with every single person.
He swan underwater, enjoying the constriction the water imposed in his body, the pressure that surrounded him, the coldness that made his senses numb but sharp at the same time.
His onyx eyes opened as he appreciated the sunrays that pierced through the water and then started to fade into the darkness of profundity, there was nothing that could take away the simple beauty of those natural things, and although he didn't usually observe it, he openly admitted to himself that nature was beautiful.
He swan deeper into the depths of the lake until he could barely see anything, yet the light still managed to seep through the water and illuminate the soaked earth.
He ran his hands over the muddy earth, catching a few stone as he did so, and then, with his lungs burning from lack of oxygen, he swam up to the surface, taking his time even if he knew he should be hurrying.
As the cold hair hit his face he felt good for some reason, he felt relieved and free, something he didn't remember feeling ever.
He walked out of the water, his poker face facing his ANBU sensei, and spoke, a feeling of peacefulness mixing in his words, even if he knew how fucked up everything was. Even if he knew how much it was fucked up more than everyone else.
"I wanna try it again, I want to confirm that it wasn't just luck." Yamato nodded in understanding, and he knew that under the white porcelain mask, his new found sensei was smiling, it irradiated from the older man in waves, it was wrong, but somehow, he knew, he couldn't control people's feelings, and the fact that this person, that until a few weeks wouldn't even have cared if he died, was now somehow proud of him made him feel… something close to content.
He went to the platform again, this time going to the far left. He walked, his left arm extended so his hand was touching the water, his feet near the edge, one wrong step and he would fall, but he walked slowly, and even if he had his eyes closed and his sharingan deactivated, he already knew where to walk and where not to walk.
He stopped in the centre of the platform, just like he had previously did, and extended his arms forward, his feet almost out of the wooden floor, and closed his eyes once again.
He thought about his past… about his team mates… about Sakura…
Sakura, the weak and annoying cry baby, that had to be saved constantly. The girl that, by her own strength, was becoming the strongest of all of them. She didn't have the Sharingan, she didn't come from a prestigious clan, she didn't have any cursed seal, she didn't have a Tailed Demon sealed in her, she didn't have anything they had, she only had herself, she only had her strength, her soul, her conviction and determination. She had been the one with the hardest life, he now realised. Even if she hadn't lost her clan like him, or her friends, family, and sensei like Kakashi, or been a despised orphan like Naruto, she had had the hardest life. Never being acknowledged by her own team mates, not being able to do anything in battle, not being able to make her friends stay with her… it must have been frustrating, desolating, heartbreaking, breathtakingly painful.
And now, as he opened his eyes, he admired her for becoming so strong without anything other than herself.
His chakra surrounded him like a warm summer breeze, and as he kept thinking about how screwed up life was, his chakra shifted to something sharp, that would cut almost through anything, and it spread horizontally, breaking the water flow like he had previously done.
From the corner of his eyes, he saw something shine, and focussing on it, he saw Sai, watching what he had been doing, and then he remembered what said artist-nin had told him after he had been thrown in the dungeons of the Hokage building.
"You're not even worth being called a shinobi, you use the seal Orochimaru gave you, and the sharingan." He had paused, his eyes staring blankly at Sasuke from behind the porcelain ANBU mask. "If you lose the seal and the sharingan, you're nothing, you don't have your own strength." Sai had been right, but now he was making up for it, using his own strength.
He had been training with Yamato for 5 weeks. The first 2 he had been doing raw training, in those 2 weeks he had learned how to control his seal properly, without using it. Then he had asked Yamato to train him with the wind element, and in 1 week he had managed to pass the first test, cutting a leaf in 2 only with his chakra. He hadn't done it in 2 days like Naruto, but he had done it in record time as well, and without using the Kage Bushin. And for the past 2 weeks, he had been trying to pass this test, breaking the waterfall in half, and he had demanded the conditions to be the same as the ones Naruto had had, and now, he had finally done it.
He would show them, all of them, he'd show Sai, Kakashi, the Hokage, everyone, that he wasn't just a Sharingan user, or a cursed seal possessor, he'd show them. He was going to show all of them that he, Uchiha Sasuke, had his own strength, that didn't come either from the sharingan or from the cursed seal, a strength that came from deep within him, from his soul.
And he was proud of himself, because even if it was painful, he was having the exact same problems Sakura had had with her training.
On the back of his mind, Ryuusuke told him he was doing the right thing, and for some reason, he felt relieved that his inner was on his side.
He focussed his chakra again, and the fact that he was doing his best to improve without any help kept him going, and so he broke the water flow again, and again.
By the seventh time he broke the water flow, it was night, around 8:30 or 9 p.m., and he felt light inside, because he believed in his inner strength, something he hadn't done in his entire life.
He jumped from the wooden passage way and landed in front of Yamato, said ANBU was already standing out of the wooden polls circle, ready to leave. He noticed Sai was still there, but for some reason he didn't care if anybody else saw his training, because he wasn't doing anything wrong. The only thing he wished was that she was there, so she could see that was becoming a better person, that he wasn't a bastard anymore. But she wasn't there, and it was his fault, for leaving something half done, and making her pay the consequences he should have been the one to pay.
His demeanour kept the same as the previous days, cold, calculating, his mask kept in place for everyone to see, he would only let the hard walls around himself break when she returned, sound and safe.
No words were exchanged between Yamato and Sasuke, he noticed as he watched them walk back into the village. He had to say, well, not say, merely acknowledge the piece of info in his mind, that the Uchiha was trying hard. He hated to admit it, but the words he had said when the raven haired teen had been back, were now something that was not true, because Sasuke was now working on achieving something by his own hands, without the Sharingan, and without the cursed seal.
He walked back to the village on his won, the way Sasuke had been when training, it was as if he was someone completely different, someone that knew more than everyone else, but wanted to take care of what he knew without involving others.
He shook his head, that last thought was a stupid one.
As he walked into the village, he looked up from the ground and stared at the Hokage building, why hadn't Tsunade let him go with the others? He wondered, he was a talented ANBU, so why send everyone else and not him?
He narrowed his eyes but dropped his inner discussion, and resumed his walking.
"Where are you Sakura?" he sighed and jumped to the roofs, it was easier to get home that way. "Please come back safe Ugly, don't make me go down to hell to bring you back." It was his fault she was gone, if only he had just gone with her that day when she went to do the check up on the Uchiha… if only… if only… if only…
Somewhere in the Fire Country
Shino, Tenten and Lee sat on the ground around the fire they had done, they were already half way through the territory verification, it would take around a couple more days to check the rest of it until they reached the Tea country, that stood at the extreme south of the fire country, and that besides having a border with Fire, was surrounded by the ocean.
Shino was as quiet as usual, his bugs were a big help to cover more terrain, they'd have everything checked in half the time, but it still let Tenten troubled, if they found nothing, then there'd be only 3 other chances. What if no one else found anything? What if… what if… so many what ifs, but no real answer and facts came, only assumptions, and she hated it.
Kami, even Lee was quiet and not doing some speech about youth, it disturbed her greatly, not knowing where their friend was, and what disturbed her the most, was that Sasuke seemed to know more than any of them about Sakura, it was… frustrating.
The fire cracked lightly, and she couldn't take her eyes off of the reddish colours dancing and consuming the wood, it was elegant and beautiful, but at the same time tragic.
She sighed, it was being hell, and she was sure that it was being hell for the others too, even if all of them showed their emotions differently.
3rd week of January, Wednesday the 16th
Neji, Kakashi and Gai were now on their way back to Konoha, they had found absolutely nothing in their search, they had went as far as entering Wave and almost entering Sound.
Nothing, there were no signs of Sakura.
The 3 remained silent, each thinking about what could have happened to their friend/Student/daughter. The silence was bearable, and they were all wishing they would have found something, at the same time fearing what they could have found.
Somewhere in the Fire Country, near the border with the Grass Country
"Ne, Hinata, can't you really really find anything?" Naruto asked again, his voice loud and pleading and somehow frustrated. Ino sighed.
"I-I'm s-sorry N-Naruto-k-kun." The shy Hinata said in a small voice, her head down. Ino narrowed her eyes at the blond loudmouth.
"This sucks." Naruto all but yelled. Ino twitched as she noticed Hinata sniffing lightly.
The trio kept walking, but in a sudden movement, Ino pulled Naruto back by the collar of his jump-suit, making him almost fall to the floor.
"Stop being so annoying Naruto, can't you see she's trying her best??" Ino hissed, her eyes set in a hard glare directed at the bond in front of her. They had both stopped by now.
"But-" Ino's glare hardened and Naruto was cut off when her fist connected with the top of his head and sent him 'flying' to the floor below.
"ITAI." He yelled, his hands going up to nurse the bump on his head, his eyes looking up at Ino. "What was that for?" he asked with a frown. Ino pointed to Hinata, that was a little ahead of them and was walking slowly.
"Go apologise, Hinata's trying her best, but you keep blabbering and she's getting depressed." She gave him a cold stare. "Now." In a flash Naruto was stumbling to his feat and running to join Hinata. Ino sighed, maybe now Naruto would be a little more patient.
Naruto stopped next to Hinata, he glanced back, to shiver at Ino's stare.
"Anou." Hinata looked at him. "I…" he looked down, his hands fidgeting with the hem of his jacket nervously, he was never good with excuses.
"I was acting like an idiot and I shouldn't have been so annoying and I should have been more patient and it isn't your fault we're not finding anything and…" he trailed off his quick ramblings, his cheeks tinted red. "I'm sorry." He finally announced in a loud tone, which made Hinata jump a little at his sudden outburst.
"I-It's ok Naruto-kun." He glanced at her and then grinned, looking up at the sky, his hands at the back of his neck.
"Do your best Hinata!!" the shy Hyuuga blushed a light shade of pink and nodded, a shy smile on her lips.
Ino smiled and shook her head, Naruto was someone out of the norm, way out of the norm, and it was evident for everyone that Hinata liked him a lot, well, to everyone except for Naruto, who was denser than… well, that was denser than everything.
They kept walking, now all 3 side by side, but Hinata suddenly stopped with a gasp.
"What's wrong Hinata??" Naruto asked, but Hinata just pointed ahead.
"Let's go see." Ino added, Naruto was already ready to go, while Hinata nodded silently, staring at something with her Byakugan in shock.
Hinata led the way to a clearing, and once they were there, all 3 were shocked. In the forest floor stood several remains of bodies. There was blood and limbs and flesh everywhere, it was as if a massacre had occurred. Well, a massacre had happened, that was for sure.
"Who could have done this?" Ino asked to no one in particular as she held in the urge to throw up the contents of her stomach. Hinata had turned her back to the scene and was shacking lightly, while Naruto stared at the scene, his fists clenched at his side.
"Ne, Hinata, can you feel the chakra of who did this?" Ino looked at the blond loudmouth, who was now quiet, he never did like monstrous acts.
Hinata shook her head.
"T-there's o-only the c-chakra of the p-people h-here." She managed to say.
The 3 stood there, not doing anything, letting the scene register in their brain.
"Oy kid." Naruto looked around, trying to find who had spoken. "Get yourself together kid, I'm not around you, I'm inside of you." Naruto nodded, realising that who was speaking to him was the Kyuubi.
"What do you want?" a growl was heard, and Naruto almost shivered at the darkness of the growl coming from the fox.
"He was here." The Kyuubi growled out, his red malicious eyes glaring at something in the scene in front of them.
"Who?? Who did this??" Naruto inquired, but his inner self only kept growling.
"The Snake, he was here." The Kyuubi kept glaring at something in the scene, and as Naruto followed the Kyuubi's gaze, he found a snake eating flesh from an half eaten arm.
"Who's the snake??" Naruto's question was ignored as the Kyuubi kept growling and glaring.
"Get the snake kid, and get it now." Not knowing why, he obeyed his inner demon and walked to where the snake was eating.
"Naruto, what are you doing?" he heard Ino inquire, but he paid no heed and kept walking to where the snake was, the Kyuubi's growl still vibrating through his whole body.
Hinata turned to watch Naruto, but she turned around again not to look at the gore.
With little effort Naruto caught the snake, clenching his fist around its throat, or whatever it is snake's have after their heads.
"Take it to Tsunade." The Kyuubi ordered and Naruto found himself obeying once more. He turned around and walked to his team mates, the snake squirming to get free, its body curled around his arm while it hissed and tried to bite him, but couldn't.
"Let's go back." Ino was surprised at the seriousness in Naruto's voice, it was as if her wasn't himself, and partly he wasn't, because it was the Kyuubi who was speaking.
"Hurry up to get to Konoha kid." The Kyuubi growled, and Naruto stayed quiet, obeying the fox demon.
The 2 girls were confused by Naruto's behaviour, but they didn't say anything, they just followed him, hurrying to get to their village.
I hope you liked it, I really do, I tried my best to do a good chapter!!
Ne, can anyone guess who the Sharingan user at the beginning is?? That's gone be a huge surprise… -grin-
And what does the Kyuubi knows?? That's another surprise!!
I hope you enjoyed, and please review, reviews make me really happy, and make me wanna update quickly, it's inspiring to have a lot of reviews!!
Oh, and please give me your opinions about what you'd like to see happening next, opinions are always welcome and help me get new ideas for the story!!
Now I'm gonna finish Chapter 10 of The Secret Behind, because I haven't updated that story for ages, but I already have a few good ideas, so…
Anyway, Happy New year, even if I'm saying this a bit late, and, as I already said countless times, review!!
Love you all, Kaori-chan!!