And so, my beloved readers and reviewers, I apologize for the long wait I put you through for this chapter, but my mind seemed to have bailed out on me with the ideas for the story… and the cause of it was a very veryvery boring 3 weeks with my dad, where the only productive thing I did was read my beloved Japanese, translated, literature. (seriously, Haruki Murakami is one of the best author's I know)
And so, I thought to myself, since I haven't updated in almost 2 months, I'll ask for forgiveness by writing and extra extra long chapter, which, by the way, turned out to be twice the size I usually make them, 16 pages on word.
Oh, I loved writing the second part of this chapter, you'll see what I mean… I hope I did ok with the humour.
Oh, I'll dedicate this chapter to everyone who will review, also, I'll give my reviewers virtual cookies and cakes and candy (you can choose XD).
A special thanks to and lauchoco92 because they're very faithful reviewers!!
I'll stop rambling now…
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters, the honor goes to Masashi Kishimoto. I do, however, own the plot of this story.
Enjoy, and please review.
EDIT: I decided to cut this chapter in 2 for a matter of round numbers. I know it sounds weird, but i'll explain, until my story ends, i'm just making 2 more chapters, one of them being an epilogue, or i'll make the epilogue only the final part of chapter 30, which brings me to the reason i cut this chapter in 2, because that way, i can end the story (that i would never have imagined would turn out so long) with a round number, it being 30.
anyway, i noticed i didn't get any reviews, which made me sad... so please review, even if it's just to yell at me for not updating for so long and then coming up with things like cutting chapters instead of posting new ones... -sigh- pretty please?? just a review -makes puupy dog eyes-
--'
ok, on with the story........
Oh, one more thing, i was thinking about changing the arting of this fic to M, should I??
Chapter 27 - The future starts to rebuilt - I
Thursday, 22nd May
The water ran down the waterfall, crashing loudly on the lake below as he sat on the sculpted rock of the valley of the end, black with red clouds cloak billowing with the wind, one leg propped up as the other simply lay against the cold rock. Orange mask covered face tilted upwards, watching the sky and the white clouds floating by.
Life really was, well, at lack of better word, a bitch.
Oh, and karma too, always coming back to bite you in the ass when you least expected it.
An inaudible sigh escaped his lips as the events of the previous months came crashing into him, not literally of course, but it still sucked.
At first, when he came across Orochimaru in his new body, he had thought of simply killing the unwanted parasite, but there had been something different… the body, the girl… her mind hadn't been fully consumed yet, and so, he had decided to do something no one could ever know about, he had saved her, sending the disgusting snake into another dimension with his sharingan.
Her mind had been something so unique… usually, when he entered people's minds, he saw things, but not with her. When the sharingan was used, some users created a world and sent their 'victims' into that world, but he did the exact opposite, he entered his 'victims' worlds, seeing everything, every little detail they wanted to hide, every secret.
But not her, her mind had been the most intriguing of all, because there had been some sort of locks spread randomly over her mind. Her world wasn't one he would have expected, it wasn't bright and filled with memories and fantasies dancing around. She lived in darkness, but it wasn't any type of darkness, the type of darkness of her world wasn't like normal— scary, smothering— her darkness was something that he could feel was meant for her piece of mind— she liked the darkness, wanted it, needed it to keep herself in check.
The locks on her mind, he had supposed, were things, events, she didn't want to relive, buried deep within.
As he had progressed through the darkness, he had decided to just free her from the parasite, and then leave but… she had been caged, trapped and connected to the ground by a sword stabbed in her chest, her eyes had been so dead and empty.
The bastard had probably tortured her mentally, trying to take over all of her, at that point he found himself musing that she would have probably been lost forever if he had found her later.
And there had been something in her eyes… oh, he knew who she was from the minute he had seen her— pink hair, green eyes, monstrous strength— but there had been something that made him help her, made him show a part of himself he only showed the people he cared about. He also used that side of him to make himself seem like an idiot within the organization he partially ran in the shadows, but that part of him had only been shown to 2 people, it would become 3 with her.
His brother— a sacrifice for the future… in vain— and his sempai, because he truly looked up at the artist, even if the blond was generations younger than him— another sacrifice for the future… again, in vain.
And both those people had sacrificed themselves because of him, his brother so he could create the village, and his sempai for the sake of Akatsuki while fighting his last descendant.
So many decades had gone by, and when he had finally led himself to believe that he had managed to make that part of him— the soft and caring and goofy and giddy and… that part of him— her eyes had brought it all back, and those eyes held something both his brother's and sempai's eyes held— innocence.
Oh, he knew about the bloodshed and the tragedies, but there was still innocence, the sense of justice and wanting a better world, they all had that in common. His brother had wanted what was best for the village-to-be, his sempai had only wanted the freedom of being able to appreciate art and she just wanted to be strong enough to protect.
And when he had discovered that she was amnesiac, only remembering faces and histories but no connections to herself, he had felt a tug at his soul, urging him to take care of her, to try and do a better job than with his younger brother and his sempai— though said person was also younger.
And for once he had done something well done, he had taken care of her, helped her with the pain and, when he saw he had to, given her all her memories back.
Another sigh passed his lips.
But he had grown too attached, and someone had blown his cover, because he knew very well that Sasuke knew who he was, the kid could be a jerk and sometimes a brat, but he wasn't dumb, certainly not dumb.
But he was still too attached, not in a way he wanted to have her to himself as a lover of anything of the sorts, he just felt compelled to watch over her, even if she was strong, she could still be a little bit of a klutz.
A half-smile settled on his lips— he was glad he had a mask over his face— and he berated himself for having grown to care so much for the young girl, as a sister— she would be his protégé until either he or she died. If he died first, he would do everything he could to let her safe, but if she died first, he would do anything for her death to be of old age, and when she would be gone, he would watch over her children, her grandchildren and all of her descendants until the end of time— because immortality came with a heavy price, and if he could, he would use it to do something worth it, even if no one would ever know,
"I'm a fool aren't I?" he mumbled to himself and shook his head.
Life truly was a bitch, and karma truly came to bite you in the ass at the worst times.
"M-Madara-sama." He cocked his head to the side, side-glancing at the new comers. A tall, well-built man that only wanted peace, a lean, shorter than the other man, teen with silver-blue hair and sharp shark-like teeth that wanted to defeat the 7 swordsman, and a red-headed teen girl that obsessed over Uchiha Sasuke.
"What is it?" his voice came out void, because he couldn't be his true self with everyone else.
"We spied on the villagers a little!" the shark boy replied, a grin on his face. He remained quiet as the girl took a bold step forward, she seemed to have a hidden agenda, but he let it pass.
"When are we attacking Madara-sama?" he watched the girl carefully, her hidden agenda probably had something to do with Sasuke, and he knew that, by the way things had progressed, it would have something to do with his imouto too. (A/N: imouto means younger sister)
"We aren't." he answered nonchalantly as he returned to his cloud gazing. The girl was gaping like a fish, shark-boy was eyeing him strangely, a brow raised in amusement, as for the taller boy, he simply looked at him, a little confused, his head tilted.
"W-- why-- and-- but—what about you revenge?" the girl stuttered at first but then almost yelled in outrage. Her eyes were glaring openly and she was livid. She definitively wanted to hurt someone from the village, but he wouldn't allow it.
Getting up, his gaze never broke apart from the sky.
"Revenge can never be fulfilled when the one you seek revenge from is already dead." He spoke calmly, but she only glared harder, which, of course, he ignored.
"Only 4 people in that village know of what had happened when the village was founded, only those same 4 people know of what happened to the Uchiha clan. Those same 4 people are the only ones that deserve punishment for their actions." He turned to face the group of 3.
"Those 4 people have their days counted, even if they don't know it yet." He let his eyes go the 2 males a little farther away from the girl.
"You are free to go as you please, but the village is off-limits." Only the boys seemed to understand. He paused and ran his eyes over the 3 people in front of him, he was sure the girl was a lost cause, but not the boys, so he walked forward towards them, and once he was between them, he put a hand on each of their shoulders.
"In 4 days you'll enter the village by the front gates, an ANBU team will be expecting you to lead you to the Godaime Hokage Tsunade." The boys didn't look at him, and he didn't look at them.
"You will go through interrogations about Orochimaru and Akatsuki, and you will answer their questions without hiding details." They remained silent, so he continued. "One week later you will begin as genin from the village and will be able to escalate ranks like any other Konoha shinobi." He heard Suigetsu gulp, wanting to say something but restraining himself from doing so.
"Tsunade-sama will assign the best medics to do what they can about your problem and you may stay in the village as a civilian or as a shinobi." Although he didn't talk directly to one or the other, he knew they understood his words.
He took a couple of steps forward, away from them, and unbuttoned his cloak.
"As of now, you no longer belong to Akatsuki." He declared and sent his cloak flying down the cliff towards the water below.
He heard the sound of 2 other cloaks being thrown off of the cliff and stopped.
"As for you Karin." He paused and looked over his shoulders, the 2 boys still had their backs to him. "You will remain a missing-nin, listed on the bingo books of all of the hidden villages." He turned back forward. "Shinobi will have the order to kill you on sight if you enter their lands."
Before he started walking again, he heard footsteps, and then a voice, 2 voices in fact, at the same time, with the same words.
"Thank you." Were the words he heard from the 2 boys as he walked away, that, and the screeching of the girl.
"4 days." He reminded before using his technique to literally disappear.
Thursday, 22nd May, in Konoha
"Will you do it already?" Grumble.
"Are you sure?" Doubt.
"Yeah, now move along." Impatience.
"Then take that off." Calm.
"Oh, are you serious?" Disbelief.
"Yes, that is, if you want it." Raised brow.
"Fine, I'll take it off." Muter.
"First let's get it moist." Still calm.
"What for?" suspicious.
"So it'll be easier." Stating the obvious.
"If you say so." Still a bit suspicious.
"Hm…" mumble.
"What?" irritation.
"Take that off or I can't do it." deadpan.
"You're a difficult one aren't you? Can't you just get it over with?" more irritation.
"Stop being bitchy, it makes you uglier." Witty remark.
"If you want to keep your bones in a single piece I'd suggest you shut it and get it done." Glare.
"…" sigh.
"Now, are you doing it or not? 'cause if you aren't I can go see that other guy…" Trailing off.
"Fine, just hold still." Frustration starting to show.
Silence…
"Oh…" slight surprise.
"…" no response.
"…it's so…" continuation of surprise.
"I know." Grunt.
"Are you sure it's gonna—" a little doubtful.
"Yes, now just—" no words formulated.
"Ok…" slowly vocalized word.
"Let me jut get the c—" quiet mumble
"Shut up already." Hiss.
Silence.
"…wider..." mutter.
"…oh… sorry…" quiet mumble.
"I'll just—" trailing off.
"Just do it already." Impatience again.
"Ok." Quietly said.
Silence followed.
And a bit more silence.
"Ouch… be gentle you idiot, I've never done this before." Irritation in a yell.
"Shut up, I've never done this before either." Said through gritted teeth.
And that's when Uchiha Sasuke decided to enter the kitchen to see what Sakura and Sai were doing, fingers already twitching to make the hand seals for his chidori and to attack someone if he saw what he could imagine they were doing— which was very much hentai if you asked him, worthy of being in the Icha Icha book series.
But what he saw wasn't what it looked like from their talk, and he paused on the doorway.
Sakura was sitting on a stool, cross-legged over it, next to the kitchen table, her arms crossed over her chest, as her face showed irritation, a frown seemingly permanent.
As for Sai, he was standing behind her, left hand moving over Sakura's long black hair, while his right reached over to get something from the table— which now held several vials and things he couldn't name that probably were related to what Sai was there to do.
"Get it done already, I don't feel like sitting around all day, ya know?" Sakura hissed, irritation clear on her voice and face.
"Shut up, I'm a painter, not an hairdresser." Sai gritted out, clearly getting annoyed with her.
"How hard can it be to just take the ink out of my hair?" she glared at the floor, thoughtful to the fact Sai had asked her to stand still.
"Well, excuse me for not specializing in painting hair and instead focusing on useful jutsus." He shot back.
Now this amused Sasuke greatly, because it was the first time he saw Sai loosing his patience.
"For Kami's sake, you deal with ink every day, and you can't just take it out of my hair?" she asked in disbelief. "Sorry I thought you were useful, I really should have asked Ino-pig." Sai's fingers on her hair twitched as he ran them over said hair with some sort of cream.
"Then why didn't you? I'm sure the florist knows a lot about ink and wouldn't just ruin your hair to the point you'd look like a troll." Her fingers clenched.
"Another witty remark and you'll wake up in the ICU." She hissed, glare hardening towards the floor.
"Then just shut up and let me work." He muttered and took something from the table, a vial with some sort of blue translucent liquid in it.
"Jackass." She shot back.
"Hag." Sai didn't let himself go down and opened the vial, letting the water like liquid run to the top of her head.
"Bastard." And she kept at it with the feisty attitude.
"Bitch." Sai shot back, having laid the now half-empty vial on the table, and spreading the liquid over her hair.
"Fucker."
"Shut it."
"No more insults?"
"Fine, shut up mongrel." Sakura opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, closed again and then huffed, to which Sai smirked and kept spreading the water like fluid on her hair.
As for Sasuke, he was now leaning against the frame of the entrance of the kitchen, enjoying the show.
He watched as Sakura stayed silent, glaring at the floor and Sai started doing a few hand seals.
The artist nin put his hands over her head, fingers spread apart, and then focused.
There was silence for a while.
"So, tell me Ugly, had fun busting the forest?" Sakura sniffed.
"What do you care?" she mumbled. "And how do you know?" Sai rolled his eyes, a small black blob of what seemed ink starting to form beneath his fingers.
"Followed you into the forest." He shrugged. "Until, of course, I had to get out of there so I wouldn't get blown up too." She seemed to sulk in place.
"Sorry." She mumbled under her breath. Sasuke stared at her, gaze void. Now wait a minute, when he'd basically told her that, she basically told him to fuck off, and she was apologizing to… to… Sai??
"You know, you'll only get—" Sakura cut the artist nin off, seemingly knowing what he would say.
"If you say anything that has the words ugly, hag or any derivations of those, I swear you'll get sent to the ICU, and I'll make sure shishou let's you there to heal in misery." Sai rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"I was going to say you'll only become conspicuous again with the pink hair." The artist deadpanned. Sakura huffed.
"Shut up, it's genetic." She mumbled.
The blob under Sai's fingers was getting bigger, and Sasuke was starting to see pink at the tips of the strands, somehow, the color was nostalgic to him.
"Would the shitty temper be genetic as well?" the young Uchiha could see Sakura trying her hardest to not just turn around and send Sai crashing into the village streets by the wall, and a smirk adorned his face. Sakura was acting like she used to act with Naruto, and Sai didn't seem to care about her threats, seemingly unfazed and immune to her temper. They seemed comfortable enough with each other.
"Ne, Sai." Sasuke returned his attention to Sakura, after noticing that Sai knew he was there, and watched her attentively.
"Hm?"
"Well, I was wondering…" she paused. "If… well, if someone saved you and you became friends with that person, what would you do if latter you found out the person was someone bad?" she sounded like a confused child as she quietly inquired the artist currently working on removing the black ink from her hair, her arms uncrossing as she let her hands fall over her legs, fingers twisting in the fabric of the pants she was wearing.
"Why that question all of a sudden?" Sakura shrugged lightly.
"But what would you do?" she urged, her voice still quiet.
"I don't know, firstly, how bad of a person was it? And to which extent had he saved me? There would be a lot to consider, and on the same situation, people think differently." She nodded lightly.
"I see." There was a pause. "Thanks Sai." Sasuke was dumbfounded, because he saw Sai smiling, truly smiling.
"You're welcome." He replied quietly and refocused on his work.
He watched as she kept silent, taking in the artist's words.
The blob of ink beneath Sai's finger's grew and then he moved his fingers, the blob seemingly attached to his fingers, to let them hover over a metallic bowl, where a second later, the ink fell down.
"All done." He announced, Sakura nodded lightly, and Sasuke noticed that on the right side of her head, a mesh of red and another of purple still stood.
She turned her head back, looking up at Sai, and then her fingers touched the red and purple meshes of hair.
"Ne, can you make a black mesh next to these ones?" Sai half-smiled, rolled his eyes and nodded, then moving his fingers over to the ink, making his chakra collect a small amount of it, and then letting it run down her hair, this time he didn't need to spread anything, he just let the ink flow down, and controlled it so it would stay where it was supposed to.
The once again pink haired girl smiled brightly once Sai told her he was done, and, shifting to face the teen on her stool, she hugged his stomach, her face against his t-shirt covered abs.
"You're the best Sai!!" she cheered, and the quiet boy hesitated slightly before wrapping his arms around her, a light blush tinting his cheeks, hidden from the Uchiha's eyes as he tilted his head forward, his bangs shadowing his face from the other male in the room.
"Thanks." She grinned up at him and then got up. She looked at the table and then bent over, staring at the ink in the bowl.
"That's so cool!!" She exclaimed and then giggled, as if she were a kid discovering something.
"It's ink." Sai stated nonchalantly as Sakura poked her index finger in the ink and then giggled.
"Gaki." Sasuke couldn't help himself but mutter under his breath as he watched, amusement playing in his eyes. Sai seemed to be thinking something along the same lines. As for the girl in question, she just giggled some more as she poked her finger in the ink again.
She giggled one last time and then turned to Sai, head tilted to the side as she held her hands behind her back.
"So." She said slowly. "How do I look??" she asked, her tone of voice reminding Sasuke that of an innocent child. Sai smiled at her and poked her nose.
"Not as ugly as usual." Her hands fell to her sides as her well vocalized shout echoed through her whole apartment.
"SAI." And as her voice resonated, the artist nin was escaping through the window of the kitchen as Sakura went after him. Perching herself over the window, her nicely vocalized shout echoed through the streets of Konoha.
"GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE TEME." Sai, being a few rooftops away, turned back and saluted her.
"As usual Hag, you'll have to catch me first." The black haired male bowed and then disappeared in a twirl of ink. The again pink haired girl was seething as she clenched her fists in front of herself.
"He is so dead." She hissed darkly, eyes set in a murderous glare as she stared out of the window… that is, until she heard someone speak.
"I'll kill him for you." The voice was low and smooth, and when she was about to turn around to face its owner, warm and strong arms wrapped around her waist.
"Sa-Sasuke?" she inquired, turning her head to the right, trying to see him. "How long have you… been here?" her sentence ended in a whisper as she felt him nuzzle the back of her neck.
"Long enough." Was his smooth reply, warm breath running over her skin.
"Oh…" she gave up on trying to see him and looked out of the window again.
The silence was comfortable as they stood there, Sakura watching the village by her kitchen, and Sasuke, having settled his head on her shoulder, nuzzling her neck affectionately. (Hey, give him some slack, once that first little bit comes out, he could do the rest… 'sides, it wasn't his fault his mother had given him her 'hopeless-romantic' genes…)
One of his hands travelled upwards, running over her stomach and then her bare arm, fingers running over hers, then her wrist, following to her lower arm, lingering on the inside of her elbow, then over her upper arm to momentarily stop on her shoulder. Fingers stopped for a few seconds, before returning to their travel up her neck and catch a mesh of pink hair, as smooth and silky as he remembered them from the previous day.
As his hand made its travel, Sakura remained quiet, eyes closed as she enjoyed the simple touches, it wasn't everyday that he was so very affectionate with her, he was somewhat romantically—just a little tiny bit— retarded, but just a little tiny bit. When his fingers started playing with her hair—"like a child" was what she thought— she smiled contently, she loved these little moments.
"Kimi no atama wa suteki." He murmured against her skin, his fingers twirling her hair like a child often does with its mother's. "Atashi no reijin." She felt him smile against her skin as he said those words, and she also felt herself blush, her face turning a dark shade of pink, as he kissed her neck softly, his dark and long lashes moving softly against her skin.
(A/N: kimi no atama wa suteki literally means your hair is lovely; atashi no reijin literally means my beautiful woman. I just hope I built the sentences right… oh, and on my ending AN there'll be more info about the word I used. I hope you're enjoying!)
She let out a squeak, her face nicely covered by a blush, and she snapped her eyes open when she felt his chest—tightly pressed against her back—vibrate as he chuckled, apparently he'd noticed her blush too.
"Sasuke." She whined, and the reaction she got was a smirk as he leaned back and let her turn in his arms, his dark eyes observing her every movement and his fingers never letting go of the mesh of hair he was holding.
"Aren't you supposed to be working?" she mumbled before looking up at him, cursing him for being so tall.
"Finished early." He said nonchalantly, fingers twisting in her hair, his other hand pressing on her waist and bringing her closer to him. His onyx eyes gazed down at her still dark sapphire blue eyes, and he found himself plotting.
Hmm… he hadn't plotted anything in a while.
"Say, Sakura." He drawled slowly, his face coming close to hers.
"Y-yes?" she stuttered in a whisper, berating herself for her voice coming out like that. He pressed her body tightly against his, and her face heated, turning a dark shade of pink again.
"Let's do something fun." He drawled, containing the smirk that wanted to settle on his face.
"Uh?" she looked confused, and the playful smirk finally tugged at his lips. "L-like w-what?" his face came closer to hers, and her blush intensified.
"How about a game." He drawled, his warm breath running over her face.
"A g-game?" she squeaked. He nodded slowly and bent his head forward, stopping when his lips touched her earlobe.
"How about the 'making-Sakura-blush' game?" he whispered, lips grazing her earlobe as he spoke the words slowly. To his satisfaction, her blush turned from pink to red.
Oh, this would be fun.
Very fun.
And so, chapter 27 part I ends here, part II coming right up.
PLEASE REVIEW PEOPLE, i'm getting un-motivated at the lack of reviews...
And, as I said somewhere above, I'm gonna talk about the words I made Sasuke use. As I also said somewhere above, kimi no atama wa suteki literally means your hair is lovely; atashi no reijin literally means my beautiful woman.
So, kimi is the male term/language and means you;
Atama means hair, but it's not a very frequently used word and it also has other means, depending from the context;
Suteki means lovely; dreamy; beautiful; great; fantastic; superb; cool; capital.
Atashi is a female term/language meaning me, joining it with the 'no' fallowed by noun, it can mean mine, my.
As for reijin, it means beautiful woman; beauty; belle.
Now I'd like to explain why I made Sasuke use a term used by females, the main reason is because atashi is a much musical and sweeter term than my other option: which one sounds more romantic, atashi no reijin or ore no reijin?? Personally, I think atashi sounds better.
Also, I make Sasuke use words that aren't frequently used because he's someone unique that has some trouble to express his feelings, so everytime he does, he wants to make an impact.
Oh, and if you haven't noticed, by saying 'his beautiful woman' Sasuke's being possessive.
...
I'll stop rambling now, I really hope I'm forgiven for the 2 moths long wait…
Love you all very much,
Kimi-chan!!