A Deal with a Devil
Chapter 1: Back Home
A loud snore rung through the room as Naruto slept peacefully in the hospital bed he had been confined to for the better part of the last week. Naruto found himself slowly waking as another snore vibrated the room. He opened his eyes, despite them feeling like lead weights were attached, only to find that he had somehow been taken back to Konoha village. Not only that but also there was a raven haired girl using his stomach as a pillow while she slept happily snoring away. "Finally," huffed a voice from the corner of the room, "The boy decides to wake up." Naruto shifted his throbbing head towards the source of the voice met with the Godaime Hokage herself, Tsunade, staring at Naruto with a slightly annoyed, yet triumphant, look plastered to her pale features. "You gave us quite a scare, boy." She said smiling.
"What room is Sasuke in?" Naruto blurted the thoughts on his mind, but knew the answer when he saw the Hokage's expression take a turn for the worst. "He's not here is he?"
"No, Naruto." Tsunade replied simply. Naruto drew his thoughts inward; he knew he had felt a change in Sasuke when they fought but he would not believe that Sasuke would go back to Orochimaru. "I know Orochimaru doesn't have him."
This peeked Naruto's interest to the point an excited "hmm?" was all he could muster.
"It seems that Orochimaru is looking for Sasuke; just like us. Kabuto skulked around the village until he realized that Sasuke wasn't here and left." explained Tsunade.
"Why didn't you catch him? Why didn't you torture him for information?"
"Think, Naruto, if Kabuto hadn't returned to his master to report we'd be in another invasion. At least this way Orchimaru's attention is away from Konoha and I doubt that Sasuke will be found so easily with the underground network all Uchihas had access to." Naruto relaxed; maybe there would be time to recover before he had to… "No." stated Tsunade
"What?"
"You're not going after Sasuke, again. I've classified that retrieval mission as a S-rank, Jounin only mission. You don't have the rank to go after Sasuke."
"WHAT!" Naruto had intended to scream and yell until he got his way, but his diaphragm had other ideas and made its objections known with a sharp stabbing pain as he drew in air for the tantrum. Naruto realized that no matter what, he could not do anything in the condition he was in now, and resigned himself to his fate, for now. Quietly the Raven haired girl shifted on Naruto, nestling into his stomach gently reminding him of her presence again. "Um, who is she?" Naruto wondered as he softly brushed a loose tuft of her bangs away from her face so he could see her more clearly.
"We don't know, she was with you when we found you. Is there something you want to tell me?"
"Um, I know just about as much about her as you do, Why?"
"Because," Tsunade drawled, "she was laying on top of you, naked." Tsunade's accusing smile reminded him of the Cheshire cat after eating large meal. Naruto's expression hardened as he turned his attention to the raven haired girl resting her head on his stomach. He had to admit that there was something familiar about this girl that he could not quite put his finger on. She was small framed with, what he could tell from looking at her arms, toned muscles like many kunoichi in the village. The features of her face where sharp just as Sasuke's had been and her hair style was uncannily similar to Sasuke's, but where the duck tale that plagued the hind of Sasuke's head had been, she was given a long mane of obsidian that reached below her shoulder blades to the small of her back. However, before Naruto could retaliate with one of his loud comebacks, the girl slowly began to wake. She sat up and wiped the sleep from her eyes, revealing that she had put the hospital gown on backwards and not tied it correctly. The girl stretched almost revealing herself to Naruto, whose face was now a bright shade of crimson. If it had not been for Tsunade's quick reaction speed she might have lost Naruto due to excessive bleeding from the nose. Tsunade had managed to, just barely, to tie the gown tight which was almost as bad seeing as how the gown was now clinging to her curves.
"So you finally decided to wake up, huh?" wondered the girl.
"Oi, who are you?" wondered Naruto. The girls face hardened as it seemed to take on a look of surprise mixed with shock all the while maintaining as stoic a visage as she could muster, all of it eerily reminded Naruto of Sasuke.
"Listen, dobe, I don't know how many times you landed on your head but you brought me back and now you're not going to get rid of me no matter how much you pretend to play stupid." The Girl half cursed as Naruto finally put two and two together.
"Sasuke?" He questioned with a wry glance.
"I'll leave you two alone," said Tsunade as she made her way out of the room but stopped short and leaned close to Naruto so that she could get a whisper into his ear, "Listen, her Chakra pathways are perfectly identical to Sasuke's but there is something strange about them. Just be careful." Tsunade leaned back and continued toward the door and exited after quickly shooting a playful wink in his direction.
With Tsunade gone Naruto turned to Sasuke's female twin and was astonished at how exactly alike they were (aside from the whole two X chromosomes thing), but noted a distinct difference in personalities. This girl had all the same mannerisms, characteristics, and eyes. However, she was noticeably calmer than her male counter part and where the cocky smirk that Sasuke had constantly plastered to his face once was she possessed a genuine smile. Of course she was not wearing the smile at the moment but rather a look of annoyance that would have made Itachi think twice about crossing her. Naruto realized this that particular part of her expression was his fault, "I'm sorry, Sasuke. Guess you must've knocked me around a little too much." Naruto capitulated as the girl's face reluctantly regained the genuine smile.
"Call me Sasu."
"What?"
"Call me Sasu; I never really liked the name Sasuke. Why dad gave me a boy's name I'll never know." Naruto shifted in bed uncomfortably, finally able to sit up. "You know, Shizune said you've already recovered and could leave the hospital as soon as you woke."
"Really," Naruto cocked his head, "Why do I still feel like I've been put through a Ramen grinder?"
"I don't know; you usually heal faster than anyone else." Sasu stated as if she had been his doctor. She stood and reached around him, pulled him too her chest, effortlessly fluffing the pillows behind his back. Naruto's head rested against her soft chest as he took in a smell her never encountered before, she smelled sweet like the forest winds that carried the thousand cherry blossoms from branch to grass every march, It was intoxicating.
"Why?" Naruto asked
"Why what?" responded Sasu
"Why did you come back to Konoha?" Sasu laid Naruto back down on the pillows she had just fluffed and obtained a look of distance in her eyes as she seemed to prepare to answer.
"Because, well, no matter how much vengeance I got, or how much blood I spilt I'd never have anything more than my memories of my family," Sasu answered, "and if all I ever had of you any more were memories; I think I'd go insane." She smiled that genuine smile again.
VVV
"Honey, come down. You need to eat more." Sakura's mother tried to call her daughter down from her room for the daily breakfast at the Haruno household. Sakura Haruno had been lying in her bed for a solid week now and denied all attempts to coax her into coming down from her room. To Sakura this was punishment; not only had she failed in stopping Sasuke from leaving in the first place she had also been powerless to go after him. In the end she asked Naruto for help, something she did not have any right to do, and yet he still whole heartedly accepted the request on pain of death. Sakura was nothing, no special techniques, no bloodline limit and no ability to do what needed to be done. She was useless, and she had avoided going to see Naruto in the hospital because of this weakness. She could not face him not after her weakness was proclaimed and worn on her back like a scarlet letter.
Sakura rolled over a pulled the covers tight; she knew that she could not feel sorry for herself; after all it was all her own fault to begin with. However, her weakness could not, would not be her mark of fame for very much longer, but the first step on her path to strength would be to face Naruto and she could not muster that level of courage just yet. In the meantime she would have to settle for forcing herself out of bed to get some lunch. "Ok, mom!" she called as she sat up and placed her feet softly on the hard wood floor, one step at a time, Sakura, just one step at a time.
VVV
Sasuke stood amidst a pile of corpses, all of which where crowned with the notorious symbol of the sound ninja, and he felt nothing. He stood quietly as he felt the crimson of his enemies dribble down his arms as if still running for dear life like its masters had done before it. He felt nothing as he wiped the blood off of his hands. He did not feel joy at the defeat of his enemies, he did not feel the pain of taking life, nor did he feel remorse for any of it. Sasuke Uchiha of the legendary Uchiha clan only felt sadness, the sadness of his own loss of humanity.
It was true that Sasuke had gained power beyond his wildest dreams, power to stop his brother and avenge his clan, but at what cost? After the Ninjas of the sound stopped following him he decided to walk, to where he did not know. He had been running for a week now and it seemed that no one Orochimaru was willing to send after him has been able to stop him and frankly he was tired of always moving, maybe it was time to stop for awhile and see what happened then. It was about this time he came upon a small village. It was quaint and humble though the houses were ragged and seemed unfinished. The gates stood defiantly shut and the braces drawn tightly against them. "Hello?" Sasuke called.
"Go away!" answered someone from the other side.
"Please, I need some food and some shelter. I can p…"
"Leave Now!"
"I haven't anywhere to go." Sasuke replied calmly. This was becoming bothersome, why wouldn't they let him in? So he decided to jump over the wall, but as he did so a barrier of Chakra momentarily barred his passage into the village. However, the barrier did not hold but a second against his newly acquired power and he landed on the ground of the other side effortlessly.
Almost instantly, twenty short, ragged, and tired looking masked ninja surrounded him with short blades and kunai at the ready position. They were not sound ninja but rather they did not wear forehead protectors at all. Just as they were about to charge him a girl's voice rung out, "Stop!" the Voice called as a small framed teenage girl about Sasuke's age walked out from one of the dilapidated houses. "If he had wanted us all dead, we would be dead right now." She was pale skinned with a long mane of silver hair that encircled her head as it drew back into a high ponytail. "Why have you come here?" she asked
"I need a place to rest for a while." Sasuke stated the fact. The girl looked him up and down.
"There is only one way you can stay here," She said trading his stoic glance with equally unrelenting gaze, "There is a job opening."
"What kind of job?"
"You will become a bodyguard."
"For who?"
"For this village. Those are the only terms take'em or leave'em." The silver haired girl quietly waited for Sasuke's answer. Sasuke contemplated the pros and the cons of this proposition and after carefully considering that he had nothing better to do he decided to take the offer.
"Fine."
The girl seemed relived but quickly gained her composure and motioned to Sasuke "Follow me and we will get you set up."
"…" he did as he was told and followed the girl.
VVV
"Onee-chan, why do I have to have to sit in this thing?" whined Naruto as he sat in a stainless steel wheel chair as Sasu wheeled him out into the lobby of the hospital followed closely by Shizune.
"Listen," sighed Shizune, "you need to stay off of your feet for a while, but knowing you; you'll probably be on your feet in a few minutes, Just be careful."
"Don't worry, I'll make sure he is." said Sasu as she glared firmly at Naruto. She had gotten a light blue T-shirt and orange and blue pants from Naruto while he had had been given a plain white tank top and a pair of his favorite orange and blue cargo pants that had been washed from the battle. They waved goodbye to Shizune and made their way out of the hospital. The day was pleasant and bright almost as if a blessing to begin anew; however, this new beginning was pushed aside as Sasu stopped every few seconds to pull up the oversized trousers that were once Naruto's.
"Um, Sasu, maybe you should get some of your own clothes, mine don't really fit you that well." Said Naruto as Sasu's belly button came into view as she tried for the fifth time to hold them up with her bare hands. A slight blush crept over Sasu's cheeks as she tried and failed at keeping a stoic face. "What's wrong?"
"Well," she responded, "I gave all my clothes away before I left. I didn't think I'd need anything except what was on my back at the time. I honestly had no intention of coming back."
This was something Naruto had not expected at all, she could not walk around the village naked, but it wouldn't be such a bad turn of events, if it came to that. Naruto mentally kicked himself, he had been hanging around Ero-sennin way to much, and the old geezer was actually rubbing off on him. Naruto's thought's continued to whirl in this direction until his stomach made its anger duly known for being empty for over a week with a riotous growl.
"Tell you what," sighed Naruto, "Let's go get some Ramen and then we'll get you some new clothes."
"Food, yes; Ramen, No." Retorted Sasu," You need to eat better foods or you'll get weak. We'll get some groceries and you will learn to eat right." Stated Sasu as she changed the direction of the wheelchair.
"Oi, I like Ramen!" Naruto protested as she saw Sasu pull the loose fitting T-shirt tight and tied a knot in it behind her back. Likewise she pulled a loose piece of wire from a dangling sign as they passed and used it as a belt to hold up the pants she was barrowing from Naruto. Her new look achieved a quieting effect on the wheel chair bound boy as he noticed just how attractive she really was. Was this girl really Sasuke?
VVV
Sakura had gone for a walk in the time she was trying to get up the courage to speak with Naruto, and ran through all the possible scenarios of how the conversation might have gone. However, she took a left turn when she had meant to take a right and found a scene she could not have planned for, Naruto was talking and laughing with a dark haired girl. How could he be so happy, his mission failed, Naruto failed to bring Sasuke back. Did he even care? "How could you…"
End Chapter 1
AN: Well how'd you like that? This is Chapter one and I need some ideas for the name of the girl and the girl's clan that Sasuke has just become a temporary member of. Also I would like to mention that , in this story, all the characters I use are older than they are in the original series, at least age fifteen for all those who are twelve and the rest you can do the math, which means that, up until this point, the events of the manga and Anime have happened to older kids. Why? Mainly because I don't like the idea of writing a Romance about anybody younger.