Byakuya

Chapter 5

------------------------------------------

The valley was filled with a dense fog. He could hear the waterfalls a short distance away, the noise magnificent, making the valley seem almost noiseless. A speck of water fell down on his nose, and he looked upwards and gasped at the beauty before him. The sky was colored by the darkest grey imaginable, but somehow he knew it was not night. An evil chakra seemed to fill the place, to loom around, seeping into his pores and veins, not quite unlike the Kyuubi's chakra.

The droplets of water fell in faster pace now. He heard steps on the water, and turned his gaze down again.

He was surprised he was standing on top of water. The bottom of the valley was not covered by ground, as he first thought, but water instead. The water was a clear dark blue color, swirling with great speeds under his feet. The feeling was ethereal. He knew he wasn't using any chakra, but he still stood above the water. The feeling wasn't like the one of weightlessness one felt when you fell. It wasn't the floating feeling when you dreamt of flying.

It was the simple feeling of not belonging. Naruto shivered.

A figure stepped forth from the shadows. Shiny, black hair fell slightly above the jaw line. A pair of blood red eyes stared at him, filled with malice. A skin so pale and creamy looking he got the sudden urge to touch it. A swirling back chakra spreading from the nape of the person's neck, spreading marks on the neck, face, body. The skin darkened, the marks spreading along the whole body. He saw them emerge from under white shorts and a dark blue t-shirt.

The skin darkened more, and the eyes darkened. They turned black, before a yellow pupil swirled forth. A lighter mark spread over delicate nose, disrupting the beautiful features with its crude x-form. Teeth gritted and shoulders shook as something started to emerge from the back. One skin colored gross imitation of a scaly wing unfolded from between the shoulder blades, by the spine.

Another unfolded. The figure's arms hang low, as if it didn't possess the energy to hold them up. A grin showed from under the bangs that had been covering the eyes for some time. The face snapped up, eyes glaring with a grazed tint in them.

"And that is exactly why there is use in me killing you." The harsh voice rasped.

Naruto screamed.

-----------------------

Sasuke's head snapped up when he heard the scream, his eyes widening slightly. The Uchiha manor had been silent as long as he could remember. After the Uchiha massacre he hadn't had the heart to live in it because he could swear he could hear conversations behind walls, steps in the halls. He had tried to move back the year after that, and finally, the manor had been avoid of noises.

Sasuke soon got used to the lack of noise, and it gave him comfort, as he then could train his ears to hear the smallest of sounds inside the manor. Of course Sasuke didn't use the whole manor. The Uchiha clan had over ten branch families, and in all about two hundred members. The Uchiha compound was big, with the main house situated in the middle, with scattered branch houses surrounding it.

He had reveled in the sounds the night after his mission when he had seen Naruto. The sounds of the blonde's hesitant footsteps in the hall, not that he had noticed them then, and the lulling sound of the shower. But when Naruto had fallen into deep slumber he had noticed he could hear the other breathe in the other room. And of all the things to happen, Sasuke didn't expect Naruto to scream.

Sasuke jumped up from his chair, almost knocking his table over in the process, along with the Katon jutsu scroll he had been studying. Sasuke sped fast out of the door and into the hall, slamming Naruto's door open. He stepped into the room, moving beside Naruto's bed with ninja speed. He took a firm hold of the blonde's shoulders, before starting to shake him awake.

"Naruto! Wake up! NARUTO!" Sasuke yelled, but nothing seemed to wake the boy. Suddenly Naruto's eyes snapped open. Sasuke's breath hitched in his throat as he took in the hazy eyes. Naruto stared at him with unseeing eyes, before letting out a wail of utter terror. For some reason the voice made Sasuke afraid. After all, he had never heard his team-mate sound afraid. Not once, not even before Orochimaru.

"DOBE! WAKE UP!" Sasuke yelled, conveniently pushing out the thought the he sounded worried. The haze left Naruto's eyes, as his eyes started to focus on Sasuke.

"Sasuke…" Naruto whispered his voice hoarse. Then Naruto suddenly pushed Sasuke away from where he had been holding Naruto still, and leaned over the edge of the bed to couch blood. Sasuke's eyes widened as the stared at the blood Naruto had couched up. Naruto didn't mind the blood though, his gaze running to Sasuke in moments. He let out a whimper of relief at seeing the black expressionless, maybe slightly wider than normal eyes.

"Oh god. It felt so real." Naruto whispered as he leaned back on the bed, raising an arm to cover his eyes, trying to stop shivering. If Sasuke noticed the effect, he didn't comment.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked, not sure if the genin would choose to answer. Naruto was silent for a moment, and just as Sasuke was sure he wasn't going to answer, he spoke.

"I was in a valley… There was just this evil presence… And then you stepped from the shadows. Or it wasn't really you. What you could've been, maybe. I guess if the curse seal hadn't been sealed that's what you would've looked like." Naruto explained; making Sasuke flinch at the thought of the cursed seal Orochimaru gave him in the chuunin exams. Thank god Kakashi had succeeded in sealing it though. Sasuke was afraid he would've let himself to be swallowed by that darkness otherwise.

"…And the pure hatred in your eyes…" Naruto whispered, more to himself than Sasuke. Sasuke froze once more.

"I don't hate you." The brunet said.

"I know." Naruto weakly answered.

--------------------------------------

"Oh no, it's him."

Naruto walked along the streets of Konoha, trying to ignore the harsh whispers that his shinobi ears easily caught, and the evil glares thrown at him.

"He's back again."

'Oh come on now Uzumaki. Pull yourself together. You should be used to it now.' Naruto reminded himself.

"It's that monster."

And Naruto had been. Used to it, that is. But being off the stares and insults for three years, had leaved its marks on him. He had still been stared, but he had gotten used to the other kinds of stares. The lustful ones…the ones he felt he was in control of.

"He shouldn't be allowed to live."

Naruto raised his jaw higher. 'Well, Naruto, you're just going to have to life with it. Not like you haven't done it before' Naruto thought to himself, before resuming his journey to the training grounds. Satisfied with himself, Naruto started whistling a tune he knew annoyed people, while at the same time plastering his finest smile on his face.

"Hear my words; he'll turn on us eventually."

--------------------------------------

Naruto sat in the middle of the training ground, leaning his back on the training pole, while ignoring the hot sun with the same intensity he ignored the villagers.

He gathered his thoughts for a moment, trying to get free of the irritation that had flowed into him while walking across the town. He calmed his breath, and concentrated on feeling the differences in his chakra flow. He felt his own chakra flowing, like a river in its calmness, and the Kyuubi's chakra, intervened with it, gushing from side to side with the power of a tsunami.

Naruto fought the urge to gasp at the sensation; it always felt like this. Soon he felt the sudden surge of power fall to the back of his mind, and concentrated on holding the grip on his chakra steady. He rose to his feet, his eyes still closed.

He walked forth six steps before opening his eyes. He did the one handed seal for the kage bunshin, something he had learned on his travels. Two kage bunshin appeared, and with a silent order he told them to attack.

His pulse beating in his ears Naruto started to move to a rhythm, the most important step of Fuketsu koodori. A slight sheen of sweat starting to cover Naruto's body, he thrilled in the feeling of the style. It left him with a sense of accomplishment he couldn't explain. Mastering the Fuketsu Koodori was to be told near impossible, and Naruto doubted he would ever succeed in it either. But he was good at it, so much he had gotten out of Jiriya.

And besides, he loved to have something of his own. And while not the showiest technique, like the jyuuken or the shadow bind technique, it was practical, and that was really all that mattered. This technique and his practicing it were important to Konoha, and their information flow.

Naruto had learned much from the perverted sennin on the time he had been gone. Of course he had learned couple of very good jutsus when he traveled with Gaara, and he had gotten the good ground knowledge on the side of society he worked with now. But from Jiriya he had learned a lot of what being Hokage really was. And he had decided, then and there, that if he was never going to be Hokage, then at least he would do his best for Konoha.

And right now what Konoha needed was an expert in Fuketsu koodori.

----------------------------

Naruto swatted some of his sweaty bangs from his eyes as the last bunshin poofed out of existence as he kicked it in the neck. Naruto stretched arms over his head, breathing in the fresh air that cooled his flesh nicely, along with the slightly moist grass between his bare toes.

Naruto yawned, cracking his mind to come up with what to do now. The exorcise with a couple of his clones was barely enough to get him started, but he couldn't well practice some of the more complicated stages of the Fuketsu koodori, as they were near Konoha. He was still officially a genin after all, unofficially possibly a chuunin; so he probably wouldn't notice some ANBU's in the trees.

He didn't want to give the secrets of Fuketsu koodori to anyone after all.

"Yosh!" He heard suddenly before he was almost slammed forward on all four onto the ground by the 'friendly' slap on his back. He scowled behind him, but brightened considerably as he saw who was standing behind him. It was Rock Lee. The boy was still glad in his green spandex along with the annoying shade of orange legwarmers, but he had changed a lot.

With age Lee's eyebrows didn't stuck out so horribly anymore. His hair was also grown out slightly, now falling slightly on his eyes, though mostly held back in a braid. Lee was smiling brightly, and Naruto noticed that the smile had a slightly mature tint to it, before reminding himself that Lee was a year older than himself. Having just turned sixteen himself, it would make Lee seventeen.

"Lee! Good to see you awoke from your coma!" Naruto greeted brightly, unbalancing Lee slightly. Lee stood there, half a head taller than Naruto, his jaw hanging open. Naruto froze, his smile turning slightly sheepish, wondering about Lee's reaction. Lee jumped into action suddenly, startling Naruto. Lee pointed his finger at Naruto accusingly.

"You called me by my given name! No nick-name, no suffix, without a care in the world!" Lee exclaimed, smiling brightly, leaving Naruto to wonder if he had actually insulted the older boy in some way. Lee was hard to understand sometimes.

"That is so cool! Such a hip greeting! The springtime of youth still flares brightly in you, Naruto-kun!" Lee exclaimed, a big sunset appearing behind him.

Naruto's jaw dropped, and his eyes glazed over.

"Eeh…thanks…I think." Naruto answered, while putting his arms behind his head in a nonchalant gesture. Then a thought struck him.

"Wow, Lee, you must have trained really much these three years. I bet you are lots stronger than before I left! Oh, and you learned that sunset-thingy from Gai-sensei! Ano sa, ano sa, that's, like, really cool!" Naruto said with equal enthusiasm, some of his old habits from his childhood years returning. Lee blushed slightly, and Naruto was alarmed to find that the sight made Lee look almost…good.

Naruto's eyes widened and he made a gesture to ward off evil. No way in hell I just though that fuzzy eyebrows was good looking!

"Umm, well after I recovered from the operation Gai-sensei helped me to train a lot. Oh, and talking about that, what was that style you were practicing? It looked really cool! What is it called?"

"It's called Fuketsu koodori." Naruto said blushing. If Lee knew what that meant…

"Yo! That sounds familiar somehow! Hmm…maybe it's something Gai-sensei mentioned sometime…" Lee said, while trying to figure out where he had heard the name. Naruto froze, before starting to move his arms around wildly.

"Oh! That's not really important!" Naruto said, trying to get Lee into thinking something else. Not knowing what else to say, he said the first thing that came to his mind. "Dattebayo! How about a friendly sparring match?" Lee's eyes started to sparkle so brightly that Naruto was afraid he was going to turn blind.

"That would be so cool! It really looked complicated! It would be an honor to fight against your Fu kesu koodori!" Lee exclaimed brightly, as Naruto flinched at the urge to correct Lee.

'Fu kesu Koodori' meant 'submitting to turn off dancing'. This didn't sound nearly as good as the real name.

Lee settled on his normal fighting pose with his feet spread slightly and with his other arm before him, palm facing towards himself. He then smiled brightly.

"I have indeed been training hard these years! So worry not, I shall not go easy on you! It is only fitting that your unique style be honored with no holding back, except for my weights!" Lee proudly presented, smiling brightly. Naruto gulped loudly, his eyes widening.

Oh god, I just challenged one of Konoha's most efficient taijutsu experts in Konoha and he agreed to not to hold back…

Oh come on Naruto. Bite it together. Lee will leave you alive. He wouldn't want to kill off a fellow shinobi. It's a friendly spar, so he won't hurt you that bad...Right? RIGHT!

------------------------------

A/N: So there's chapter 5 for you . Thank you very much for the reviews, I enjoyed them very much. I'm kind of surprised how fast this has become popular…well, considering I posted it like three days ago T-T.

I worked really long with the dream sequence though. You would never believe how hard it is to really try to get the ideas on your head into paper, when you want to do it so that the readers experience it in a good way. Oh, and I absolutely LOVED writing Lee! I don't know if I really succeeded though, but I think it'll get better with time probably.

Here you get to understand a little something of Fuketsu Koodori, though it'll take couple chapters before I really get into explaining it. I'm soon sending Naruto and company on a mission, so I get to put him interacting with some characters I've made up… And some of the other jinchuuriki's will be appearing, but you'll probably never guess it's them if you don't know

So, tell me what you liked about this chapter, and I hope I'll get around updating soon I'm a little afraid I'm just going to update slower and slower as the chapters I've already finished are updated, but, oh, well… you'll just get to wait then

--Dark