A/N- sorry for uploading so late. I got sick and my computer crashed…. Seriously. Anyways all the REALLY exciting stuff happens in the next chapter promise! Thanks to my reviewers as well. I would write down your names and give you plushies, cookies, and hugs but Im sick and believe in Hygenic Karma so… DON'T GET SICK! There I feel better. I'm going to go take some nyquil now bye!
Disclaimer- Seriously! Who thinks I own anything?
Chapter 2 – Impossible figures
It was a beautiful early afternoon in Konoha. The sky was cloudless, the trees were chirping and in the background Sasuke could hear Naruto screaming at Tsunade all the way from the Hokage's office. Seriously, Sasuke was on the other side of Konoha walking down the street when he heard Naruto roar, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!!" Well, life in Konoha had returned to normal, at least as normal as it could get.
Sasuke felt stupid. Naruto had made him leave while he was having his exam with Tsunade. This hurt Sasuke's feelings a bit but he knew that if he was in Naruto's shoes, he'd do the same. Besides, Sasuke had to respect Naruto's feelings considering it was mostly his fault that he had to visit Tsunade so often.
Sasuke stopped on the bridge where he and the rest of team 7 would wait for kakashi-sensei so often. He leaned over on the bridge and looked down at the calm moving waters below remembering how things used to be and how stupid he was back then. Stupid enough to believe that Orochimaru could give the revenge he wanted so badly. Stupid enough to believe that defeating Itachi would bring everything he had ever wanted and the worst mistake of all was trying to sever all ties with Konoha. Oh how wrong he had been.
Naruto hadn't given up at all though. Sasuke kept running and running but Naruto kept coming back threatening Sasuke that if he didn't come back to Konoha willingly Naruto would break his arms and legs and drag him back if he had to. Sasuke had just laughed at him hoping that breaking all ties with Naruto would make Sasuke stronger and more able to defeat Itachi. All of that changed when Naruto was captured by Akatsuki.
Sasuke knew he would never forget that day. It was the worst day in his life. He had been traveling through the land of fire fully aware that he might be seen and, though he would've denied it then, was hoping Naruto would come so they could spar. Instead what he found was Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, Shino, and Kiba carrying a half dead Sakura. All of them regarded Sasuke with contempt especially Sakura who was in tears.
"You'll get what you want Sasuke," Sakura said with half her face buried into Kiba's shoulder. Tears were flowing freely down her face as she felt herself choke on her own words. "Akatsuki has Naruto so in a few days your bond with him will seem like it never existed right?"
In that very moment, Sasuke felt his heart break. He couldn't say anything reassuring to Sakura because she probably wouldn't believe him. Shikamaru gave orders to Kiba to take Sakura back while the rest of the group went after Naruto. Sasuke didn't even wait for them. He knew none of them would believe he wanted to help and could probably sneak into the Akatsuki base by himself undetected. It was there that Sasuke finally confronted Itachi.
After a long battle in which Sasuke had been beaten to within an inch of his life, Sasuke had a choice; he either live to fight another day by leaving or risk the chance of dying and save Naruto anyway. It was then Sasuke realized that not only was Naruto the reason he himself was stronger, but that if Naruto died in Akatsuki's hands, it was exactly what Itachi wanted. Seeing this, Sasuke abandoned Itachi, but not before taking the use of one of his eyes.
So Sasuke goes in, saves Naruto, comes back into Konoha and everyones happy right? No wrong. So wrong. If Sasuke had been wrong about so many things in the past why would he suddenly start being right all the sudden? Karma is a bitch and at the point of his life, and liked to slap Sasuke in the face.
The three days to complete the extraction jutsu was almost up and when Sasuke entered, it was at the exact minute Kyuubi was being stripped from Naruto. Naruto was screaming in agony as though one of his limbs was being pulled off his body. Sasuke was actually surprised on how easy it was to get to Naruto and get him out (probably because no one from akatsuki expected him to get past Itachi). The only problem was Naruto wasn't breathing and because of that Sasuke would take his own dirty secret to the grave.
Ok, so it was only CPR but still! Sasuke felt more then that and telling Naruto that Sasuke had not only 'kissed' him but felt something from it was like signing your own death warrant. Naruto was alive and didn't need to know – ever. Sasuke felt ok with that… ok not really but Naruto would never feel the same way.
So now everyone was probably wondering that Sasuke came back to Konoha and Naruto healed and so on and so forth… happily ever… WRONG! As said before Karma is a bitch and if it wasn't bad enough that Sasuke felt guilty for allowing Naruto to go through that ordeal because he wanted to kill his brother, Sasuke has to feel worse then that. Much much worse.
Naruto was having the Kyuubi extracted from him, and Sasuke thought that because he interrupted the process that Naruto still had the kyuubi inside of him and that why he was still alive but as always Sasuke was… seriously, theres no point in saying it. Something had gone horribly wrong instead causing Naruto to be extremely sick. His seal was always showing raw on his skin and random cuts and bruises slid on Naruto's skin. Tsunade said his chakra was extremely unstable as the seal had been all but lifted. Naruto said he no longer had the Kyuubi in him, but Tsunade said Naruto's chakra is more like the fox's then it ever has been. There were many theories about Naruto and each were as unlikely as the next.
That was 2 years ago when they were 15. Two years later and Naruto had been doing better or so it seemed. He had enough energy to still be Naruto and continue working towards his dream. What upset him was because of his incident Tsunade (and Sasuke for that matter) took him off of ANBU who had really challenging missions. Now Naruto mostly trained and helped Iruka while doing a few Jonin missions here and there. It was actually more irritating to Sasuke because sometimes the blonde-haired blue-eyed dobe would come back smirking at Sasuke, probably because he just learned another really good Jutsu, the dumbass.
Sasuke stood straight up, no longer looking at the water below. He was paying for a lot of his mistakes now. He had almost left Naruto to die at the hands of his brother and now how to watch one of the people he cares deeply about struggle each day. Sasuke did a lot of maybes when he came back thinking 'maybe if I had stayed in Konoha…' or 'maybe if I had just ran past Itachi…'. When he was thinking of that last one he earned a smack upside the head.
"Dammit Teme, don't look at me like that," Naruto said, not only sounding irritated but angry. Sasuke rubbed the small sore spot on his head and glared at Naruto.
"What the hell dobe..? Look at you like what?" Sasuke snapped in irritation. Naruto held himself stubbornly under the Uchiha's gaze.
"I can take the hateful stares, and silent treatment. Hell I can take the taunting and loathsome comments but you will not pity me or I'll poke your eyes out."
"Dobe I do not pity you – "
"Yes you do. You blame yourself for my injuries so you think dragging me to ba-chans will help you come over your guilt. You PITY me and because of your guilt you think you need to repent or something. Well don't. I don't need pity Sasuke-teme, theres not a single thing in life I regret and you need to stop blaming yourself and I swear teme if you don't stop with this I will beat the shit out of you!"
Sasuke guessed that was Naruto's way of saying it wasn't his fault and also for Sasuke to stop acting like Naruto was going to break at any moment. The first threat didn't work so well, and when Sasuke was caught 'pitying' Naruto again he was almost pushed off Hokage Mountains (Sasuke said pushed but by all accounts Naruto almost forced Sasuke off the mountain). Since then Sasuke stopped. Even when sickly Naruto was a force to be reckoned with. A very loud force whose vocabulary was getting dirtier and dirtier by the day. Naruto didn't deserve to be treated lowly by his rival and best friend.
Suddenly, Sasuke's thoughts were interrupted by a sound…silence. There was no heckling, or screaming, or sounds of explosions or crashings meaning only one thing – Naruto's exam must be over. The raven haired teen turned to walk back to the Hokage's office.
"Tsunade-sama?" Sasuke said as he entered the Hokage's office. In there was Kakashi, Iruka and Jiraiya surrounding the Hokage who was leaning against the window. They were obviously deep in discussion when Sasuke interrupted but the Hokage beckoned Sasuke forward anyway. "Where's Naruto?"
"He was tired so I sent him home," Tsunade said. "Come in Sasuke, I think you have a right to know this just as much as anyone else in here."
Sasuke didn't like her tone. "Whats wrong?"
Tsunade sighed. There was no point beating around the bush. "My exam with Naruto didn't go so well. Because he's in much worse condition then before I was able to find out more of whats going on with him."
"Like..?"
"Naruto's seal is breaking and leaking vast amount of Chakra into his system. That's why there are breaks in his skin. The chakra is so potent its destroying his cells."
"Wait," Iruka interrupted looking a little frightened and confused. "If the seal is breaking is it likely the Kyuubi will try to come out?"
"You would think so but I cant find the Kyuubi in Naruto's body."
"What do you mean? Surely it's the Kyuubi's chakra which is doing this to Naruto."
Sasuke felt like that was a stupid question. What other chakra would be doing this? He didn't get the expected answer from Tsunade though.
"No," Tsunade said. Everybody gapped at her.
"No?" Jiriaya said astounded.
"No," Tsunade repeated flatly. "The Kyuubi's chakra has a signature on it. It's usually more malevolent and evil where as the chakra pouring out of Naruto is just strong."
"That doesn't make sense," Kakashi said calmly. "Naruto's own chakra shouldn't be hurting him like that. The only chakra capable of harming Naruto in such a way is the Kyuubi unless he has some other Biju inside his body which is impossible."
Tsunade shook her head. "There's not even evidence that the Kyuubi is still in Naruto. Theres no chakra, or malevolence or even a presence."
"Do you think Akatsuki succeeded in extracting the Kyuubi then?" Jiriaya asked.
"No, if they did theres no doubt Naruto would be dead," Tsunade looked out the window thoughtfully. "However whatever is wrong with Naruto we have to figure out how to fix it fast before it kills him."
There was silence in the office. It was a sunny day outside, and no one in the office knew as they contemplated what was wrong with Naruto, that he was outside enjoying the day and eating some ramen. He was enjoying the day too much to realize he was being watched by several cloaked figures from the tree tops.
"When do we attack?" one of the cloaked figures asked their leader. There was no indication that the man was leader as they were all wearing the same black cloak with red clouds on it.
"The next time Naruto leaves the village by himself ," The leader responded. All of the figures were so focused on Naruto none of them noticed they had been overheard. The guy simply smiled and lit a cigarette. This was gonna be one helluva long week.
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Ooooooooh! Is it the akatsuki who are going to kidnap Naruto? What exactly happened to the kyuubi? And whos the guy listening in on the Akatsuki? Ooooooooh I love knowing these answers. I plan to answer all those questions within the next few chapters. Yay! Don't forget to R&R!!!!!