Being and Belonging
The Fire Jutsu
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
A/N: This is my first Naruto story and I'd appreciate any feedback that I can get. And I do have a question for my readers. The story can go down two paths right now: it can skip forward several years to the plotline, or it can continue with Naruto at this age, advancing slowly until we finally reach the main plotline. It's the readers' choice. Review and tell me which you prefer.
Summary: When Itachi leaves town on the eve of his parents' murder, he doesn't go alone. Can Naruto handle what comes next? "Ano sa…Ano sa, where are we going?"
"The Akatsuki?" Itachi questioned, brow only portraying the slightest frown, "What business do you have with us?"
"I have no need for you or the man behind you." the man in charge proclaimed, "We're here for the brat. Our leader wants him."
Itachi's blood red eyes narrowed. "That's not an option."
The leader's face flashed into a quick snarl before smoothing out. Behind Kisame, Naruto shuffled his feet nervously and tightened his grip on Kisame's pants. "Kisame-san," he whispered, "What are the A-Ka-Tsu-Ki?" he asked, saying the name slowly as not to mispronounce it.
"People who have no right being here." Kisame answered defensively, lifting his voice so that it carried over to the seven fighters who were standing close by.
"All we want is the kid. We have no reason to fight with you two. Just give him up and leave and we'll do you no harm." the man said again.
"And I told you that it wasn't going to happen. Naruto isn't going anywhere with you." Itachi hissed as Kisame tensed his grip of his sword.
Then, as if on a hidden cue, three things happened so fast that Naruto could hardly comprehend them. The Akatsuki leader charged forward, Kisame drew his sword and Itachi leapt backwards, pushing Naruto back. As Naruto stumbled backwards to fall on his rump, the metal pole of the Akatsuki leader met Kisame's sword with a resounding clang. Wincing, Naruto covered his ears and blinked through the film of dust that had risen in the aftermath of the quick scuffle to see Kisame locked overhead, sword to pole, in a test of strength.
Both men pushed their weapons against each other in an effort to topple the other, but they seemed to be evenly matched. The other men crowded around the two fighters for an instant, but then turned their cold gaze back towards Naruto, or more specifically, at Itachi who was standing defensively in front of him. One of them started towards the two of them as Kisame started to slide backwards. Then, before Naruto could see the end of the impromptu match, Itachi swore softly and grabbing Naruto, plopped him into another tree. Then he swooped back down.
Naruto bit his lip and edged towards one of the tall tree's outer branches. The tree was taller then he was used to back home, but the solid bark of the branch gave him the courage to inch along one of the protruding branches. The tree shook a little as if unused to tree climbers, even one of small stature like Naruto. Gripping the tree nervously, Naruto leaned over the branch and peered through leafy branches in time to see Itachi enveloped by the six other members.
Itachi whirled out of the middle of the group and, eyes flashing, he bore down on the first of the fighters with a vengeance born half of anger and half of- and he absolutely hated to admit this –desperation. He leapt towards the fighter with two kunai, locking one with the fighter and sending the other, along several shuriken towards another fighter. He didn't check to see if his aim was true, instead drawing back his kunai and attacking with several quick strikes that left his assailant with long, thin, streaming, red cuts along some vulnerable spots of his body.
Diving in one last time, Itachi slashed his kunai against the man's throat, closing his eyes against the blood as it drenched his cloak and hair, and effectively blinded the other men whose eyes had been open when the blood had first started spattering. Taking ruthless advantage of the situation, Itachi drove another kunai deep into one man's chest and threw two other shuriken at another's with deadly accuracy.
The men fell with barely a sound.
The remaining three men backed up and began to circle him carefully. Itachi smirked inwardly. These men thought him young and mostly inexperienced. They thought they were fighting a boy, but he was a fox and would fight like one.
Clever. Deceptive. Victorious.
Itachi gathered his chakra and forced it into a ball. It was jittering and hissing, angry of being left unused for so long. The battle had awoken his bloodlust if nothing else. Standing still, Itachi crammed his chakra down one man's throat, forcing it past his convulsing throat muscles and into the lungs. He let it sit there peacefully until it was pumped into the heart.
There, Itachi let it explode.
The man's eyes widened and a trickle of blood dribbled down his chin. Then he, like all the others, dropped lifelessly to the ground. Laughing quietly, Itachi dropped the rest of the barriers on his chakra, allowing the two alive men feel his power. He grinned viciously; he knew what they felt- the unending well of power, the absence of limitations; it was the same thing he felt whenever he looked at Naruto.
"Give up." he rasped quietly. "Give up and your deaths will not be painful."
One of the men laughed. "Even if we die, this won't end. Did you really think that you travel with a monster like him without the help of a formidable ally or without assassins? If we don't kill you, then the next ones sent to do so will. Then they'll go after him."
"Give up." Itachi repeated gently, "Give up or I'll turn you over to Kisame when he's done." Itachi spared a look for Kisame and saw that the leader was cowering under the Samehada and…was that a whimper? "He doesn't appreciate attacks on people he likes. Considers it a personal affront."
The two men paled. They also must have noticed what Kisame had done to their leader. "There's someone more powerful than us coming." one of them tried, "He's…he's going to kill you. He'll kill both of you and then you don't want to know what he'll do to that kid of yours. He'll break him, I mean, there are so many things you can do with a pretty young boy like-"
The two men exploded as Itachi pushed pure chakra into their bodies. It didn't have finesse and it certainly wasn't nice and clean like he had promised them, but after the man had dared insinuate that someone would- to a boy Sasuke's age- to-
The leader in front of Kisame choked, interrupting Itachi's thoughts, and writhed on the ground as the Samehada neatly slit his throat. Itachi turned and nodded at Kisame, his chakra relaxing into a normal subdued striking position around his neck.
Of course, it leaped up again when he heard Naruto scream.
Naruto was scared.
He didn't like that- being scared. It sent a creepy crawly feeling down his spine to curl in the pit of his stomach. It made slivers of sweat sluice down the heaviness of his hair onto his neck, the prickling sensation making Naruto even more nervous.
As the fight below continued, Naruto started shaking and his breaths quickened. His death grip on the branch tightened even more and an odd heat began to build up in his body. Shuddering gasps tore through his body and he became distracted from the fight below by a red filmy haze that crept up the sides of his vision.
"No…no…no…" Naruto whispered quietly. He could almost feel the heat rising off him, hot tendrils sifting through his hair and melting off his clothes. The red- angry and hot –was covering his vision completely, but he could still envisage a glittering arc of the sword as it swung upwards and then fell downwards, slinging nearer and nearer towards Itachi's neck.
The only person who had ever been nice to him.
"NO!"
And the heat building up inside him finally found a way to escape.
Itachi whipped his head around towards the tree where he had left Naruto and stepped backwards in shock.
The entire tree was on fire. Huge flames had erupted from the branch where Naruto had sat. They bloomed into the upper branches and alit the dry wood near the base of the tree. Naruto screamed again and Itachi realized that he must be in the center of the inferno…getting burned alive. Itachi ran towards the tree, ignoring Kisame's questioning shout.
Itachi jumped into the tree, landing more in fire than branch. Seeing Naruto- a small figure obscured by smoke and flames –he tackled the young boy out of the tree and landing on the, thankfully, grass and not fire, Itachi rolled Naruto along with him until all the flames coloring his clothing were put out.
Hurriedly, Itachi turned Naruto over and hissed under his breath. The small boy was covered with burns and lesions. His cloths were half melted and starting to stick to his skin. Even his bright blonde hair was burnt and…and…he had no idea how to handle this.
"Kisame!" Itachi yelled, his voice not the least bit hoarse- and no, he was not worried, but…
Suddenly, Kisame was at his side. Taking one look at Naruto, he swept the boy up in his arms and ran towards the river where they had camped last night. A little shell-shocked, Itachi got up to follow him and chanced a look behind him.
Kami, the fire was spreading.
By the time Itachi had caught up to Kisame, the shark-faced man had laid Naruto down in the river, carefully keeping his head above the waterline. As Itachi watched, Kisame peeled away the rest of Naruto's cloths, keeping a tight grip on the child when he convulsed from pain. Finally, Kisame had all the clothing off, letting the ruined rags float down the river.
He was not upset.
Grimly, Kisame pulled Naruto out of the water and laid him on the ground. Wordlessly, Itachi handed Kisame his cloak, which was dipped into the water and then placed over Naruto's shivering form.
"He's cold. Why the hell is he cold?" Itachi asked suddenly.
"You've never dealt with the medical aspect of a ninja's work, have you?" Kisame muttered drily, "He's shivering because he's in shock. The problem is that we need to keep the burns moist until we can get him to a doctor."
"He'll be fine." Itachi answered frigidly, "He doesn't need a doctor."
"He needs a doctor. He'll die without one," Kisame stated, "and I can't let that happen."
"If he dies then he's weak. I won't have a weak pupil."
"And I won't let him die to fulfill some twisted fantasy of yours!" Kisame snarled and then leaped up, his shark teeth opening as if to intimidate Itachi into listening to him.
Itachi looked at him superiorly, his eyes still a blood red, his cloak still splattered with the drying blood of his enemies and whatever Kisame saw in that mess of human and monster and Kami knew what else made him sit back down, slump his shoulders almost imperceptibly and settle in for the long haul.
"Baka brat." Itachi muttered.
Kisame looked up from the fire at Itachi. It was the first thing the boy had spoken since their semi-argument more than five hours ago. Night had well since fallen and Naruto had stopped shivering a while ago. Kisame wondered if it was already too late to stop Naruto's slipping descent into a coma and then death. He face was patsy white in the light of the fire. In fact, it was completely at odds with the glowing hero-worship that had shown in his eyes last night.
"I asked him to light a match, not start a forest fire." Itachi continued stoically, his eyes reading deep into the fire.
Kisame looked at him heavily. The teenager seemed to be speaking to himself on a certain level. His eyes were still Sharingan red though Kisame had tersely told him hours ago that he could let the jutsu drop. He supposed that the bloodline jutsu was a comfort for the boy. He'd always be able to see things others couldn't and that gave him an aspect of control.
It was important to maintain an illusion of control when a situation was completely out of control.
Suddenly, the two men heard a rustle from the far bushes. Instantly they rose to their feet, moving to stand protectively in front of Naruto's still form. Kisame tensed. He wasn't sure whether they could handle another enemy. It wasn't a question of being unable to beat them back, but rather the crawling fact that Naruto was so weak, so fragile that jostling him now could kill him.
Quiet laughter greeted Kisame and Itachi's battle-ready forms. "Please, if I were to attack, you wouldn't have heard my approach."
"What do you want?" Itachi asked.
Kisame blinked. He could almost see a visual representation of Itachi's chakra. It was straining to get out and rip, tear, and shred. The indistinct animal-like shape had its hackles raised and Kisame guessed that the faint hissing that was starting to permeate the air was the animal growling.
Kisame smirked; Uchiha wasn't as calm as he liked to pretend.
As Kisame focused on Itachi's chakra, a tall, slim, white-skinned man came out of the trees, his long black hair oozing off him like poison. "My name is Orochimaru," he stated pleasantly, "and I have a proposition for you."
Kisame sighed, looking down at Naruto. He already knew what this man was going to offer them: sanctuary and he already knew that they'd take it. Why? Because it was the only way that Naruto would last the night. And Uchiha Itachi, though he might be a bastard, cold-hearted and insane, if there was one thing that he wasn't, it was stupid.
To Be Continued…