The Darkness Within the Light
Chapter 6
Bitter Encounters
Ok guys...I'm disappointed with the lack of reviews...I am not posting again until the reviews hit 45...lately I've only been getting one or two which doesn't motivate me. So if you want more...review if not...I can wait
-Naruto-
Naruto blinked around the forest. "W...what?" he asked confused.
He looked around the dark, misty forest, trying to figure where he was. Had that dark place been all a dream?
Suddenly he was aware of the absence of the demon, the Kyuubi was gone. He gulped as one conclusion came to him. Am I...dead?
He began to shake, instantly terrified. No I can't be...I'm not dead...if I were dead...I would have remembered...
Bright light began to flow from between the trees, breaking through the mist. The forest seemed to close in one him, wanting to trap him, to stop him from going. He took a step to the light, which instantly died away.
A dark voice sounded behind him. "No...that place isn't for people like you and me..."
Naruto did not want to turn around, but...he had to...he had to know for sure that it was his voice. He took a deep breath and spun around, nothing. He stared at the empty spot, confused.
The trees and mist in front of him parted to make a path, waiting in the path was a figure, with glowing red eyes. "Come, Naruto...follow me," came the achingly familiar voice.
"S...Sasuke?" came his quiet voice.
Sasuke gestured for him to follow before spinning around and walking away.
"Wh...where am I following you to?" asked Naruto, not moving.
"There's something you need to see..." said Sasuke, pausing, but not turning around. "Something important."
Naruto blinked, debating what to do before catching up to Sasuke, who had continued to walk.
"So...Sakura gave up on me..." he said simply. It was not a question, it was a statement...somehow he knew.
Naruto felt like he had been stabbed in the heart and he stayed silent.
Soon they came to a clearing, it was dark and empty, except for one person. There stood Sakura, horrified and staring away from them. "Get away!" she screamed.
"Sakura!" breathed Naruto glancing at Sasuke, but the Uchiha was gone. Naruto didn't have time to care because a creature came stalking out of the forest.
"Get away!" screamed Sakura, taking a step back.
Naruto's heart stopped for a moment before he darted over to help her. He stood between her and the strange creature. "P...please N...Naruto...s...stop this..." whispered Sakura her tone terrified.
"I will..." he promised, not realizing she wasn't talking to him.
"I...I know you're there...b...but...you have t...to fight..." said Sakura her voice stronger.
"Sakura...what are you...?" he started but trailed off as she stepped strait through him.
He blinked, shocked. What the...?
Naruto turned his gaze to the creature and realized with a sickening jolt, what it was.
The fox-like creature snarled at her as it stalked toward her. It's hollow, empty eyes stared at her with one intention...death.
Naruto stared at the four-tailed creature in disgust. So that's what...
"N...Naruto..." said Sakura her voice uncertain as the creature...as he hesitated.
It instantly fell into a pouncing stance, ready to spring.
"No!" yelled Naruto right as the creature pounced.
He stared in horror at the scene before him, then he tore his gaze away, unwilling to watch. Despite his epiphany of where he was...it still hurt...mostly because...he knew it could still happen...he knew that...
He rid himself of all emotion and turned to look at the creature, standing over her body. His voice hollow he said. "You can stop this now..."
Naruto's jolted back into reality. He was back in that room, and the Kyuubi was back with him. Staring at him were a pair of emotionless Sharingan eyes. The eyes blinked slowly and then they were gone.
Did he just...? thought Naruto, annoyed. But it was so...real
-Sakura-
Sakura scowled as Suigetsu led them through the rain. Out on the horizon was a town, once in the two Suigetsu led them to a simple house on the edge of town. Suigetsu entered the house, while everyone else waited outside.
After awhile his head appeared. "Coming?"
They all exchanged glances before stepping into the simply house.
They found Suigetsu sitting, his back against the wall, his eyes closed. "What now?" asked Sakura, her voice harsh.
"We wait," said Suigetsu simply.
Sakura sighed and did what he said, they waited.
The minutes ticked by, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...
After awhile, maybe a half an hour, everyone grew restless, Sakura started to pace the others stared around, their eyes annoyed.
Suddenly Suigetsu got up and just walked away, telling them to wait. He reappeared with two people, one was a rather large man who kept his distance. The other, a snobby looking woman was instantly next to Sakura. "Who's she!?" she demanded.
"Relax Karin...you won't have to worry about her..." said Suigetsu annoyed.
"Who are they?" asked the man.
"Some friends..." said Suigetsu, grinning.
Sakura glared at him. "Where is Sasuke!?"
"I knew it! I knew it! She..." started Karin, her eyes flashing.
"Shut it Karin!" yelled Suigetsu.
"I'll do whatever I want, thank you very much!" said Karin.
"Are you two arguing again?" came the quiet voice.
Karin instantly spun around. "Sasuke-kun!" she took a step to the shadow. "Suigetsu brought some friends with him!" she said accusingly.
Sasuke's eyes flashed across the group. "You want Naruto," he said, half to himself. Then he turned to Suigetsu. "Why did you bring them here?"
"Well you said we need more people to create a distraction..." said Suigetsu.
"Hold on! You said you'd tell us where Naruto is!" reminded Shikamaru.
Sasuke glared at Suigetsu, who just grinned. Then he turned to the others. "So...you all are willing to help me for him?" he asked quietly.
Sakura opened her mouth to speak but Shikamaru quickly answered, afraid something rash would come out of her mouth. "Yes."
"Before I tell you do I have your word to help me?" asked Sasuke. He was annoyed he needed help from them and it showed in his eyes.
Shikamaru glanced at Sakura who gave him a small nod. "Yes...you have our word."
He smirked. "Sakura must stay behind with Karin."
"What!?" yelled both of the angry females.
"I do not trust you to stay and help me...so I need something to encourage you to stay..." he said simply.
"N..." started Sakura.
"Sakura...do you want to see Naruto again or not!?" demanded Shikamaru, getting annoyed.
She glared at Sasuke. "Fine I'll stay...but if you're lying..."
"I'm not...Naruto is being held by Akatsuki...Suigetsu witness the battle between him and my brother..." said Sasuke simply.
"I'm curious as to why Suigetsu was watching Naruto..." said Shikamaru.
"That is of little importance..." started Sasuke. "But if you must know...he was a part of plan A."
"And this is plan B?" guess Neji, speaking for the first time.
"Correct."
"What was plan A?" asked Sakura, instantly suspicious.
"Itachi wants Naruto, I want Itachi...so if I have Naruto, Itachi would come to me..." said Sasuke.
-Naruto-
Darkness, darkness, and more darkness. That's all there was, no other word could describe his prison. Naruto was so sick of the darkness...it was messing with his head...of course for all he knew Itachi could be messing with his head too.
Naruto laughed to himself. How stupid had he been? To think that maybe his life would work out ok...how foolish...how pathetic. My life's been useless!
He laughed at himself. Hokage? Was that really my dream...? No I don't think it was...
Slowly the swing swung back and forth back and forth. That's all the swing would do. A young child sat there, hiding his pain, behind a plastic smile. If only they could see beneath it...if only he were pityful enough to let them see it...
Naruto lifted his head up and stared around, all around him, people were taking their children home, Shikamaru, Chouj, Kiba, Ino, Shino...all of them. Naruto stared after them, trying to keep the bitterness hidden.
Then he saw one person, one person who, like him was alone. Sasuke? he thought, staring at the child, at his rival. Every day he challenged him to a match, every day he lost.
He watched Sasuke walk home alone, and couldn't help but to feel relieved. Someone else could understand his pain. He didn't really know why Sasuke had been so alone lately...but did it matter?
He got up and followed Sasuke, silently, he didn't want to be alone...not today...it was the week of his birthday...everyone always seemed worse during that week.
If only he had known.
The eight-year old Naruto followed Sasuke quite some time before his rival suddenly stopped and said. "You don't want to fight me again do you?"
Naruto froze in his tracks.
"Come on...did you really think I wouldn't notice?"
Naruto remained silent, his eyes travelling amoung the people who were staring to appear. Then he turned to Sasuke. "Lecture me later..." he said, his instincts screaming at him to run before someone decided to do something.
"Why do you keep doing this?" asked Sasuke, ignoring him, as usual.
Naruto's eyes flashed, completely forgetting his fear. "All I want is someone to respect me...I figure if I can beat you..."
Sasuke stared at him, before turning around and walking away.
Naruto smiled bitterly, he had come home that night with a huge wound on his side. "But it changed...didn't it?" he whispered to himself.
"Naruto!" came the voice. Naruto tensed ready to run. "No don't run! We need to talk!"
Naruto froze, the kunai still in his hand, the thought still in his head.
Jiraiya sighed at him and sat down, unable to run anymore. "I'm surprised I could...that I caught you..." He glanced down at the huge wound on his chest.
"Go away Jiraiya!"
Jiraiya blinked. "What happened to Ero-sennin?"
Naruto glared at him.
"I'm not leaving you alone..." sighed Jiraiya.
"But I..." said Naruto, his voice shaky, staring at the huge wound on his chest. His voice steadied and became emotionaless, "What if next time it's not you I'm with...what if it's one of my friends...someone who couldn't..."
Jiraiya sighed. "Naruto..."
"Just listen...what if it was a better thing...what if I'm supposed to die?"
Jiraiya's eyes grew hard. "You are not dying anytime soon!" he said.
"Why? I'm dangerous," said Naruto simply.
"So am I," said Jiraiya.
Naruto glared at him. "You don't have a Bijuu inside of you," he pointed out.
"What happened to becoming Hokage? You can't do that if your dead..."
Naruto shook his head. "That's not it...you don't get it!" He paused, thinking. "My dream was to earn respect...but now...none of that matters anymore...when Sasuke left...I realized that all I really wanted was to protect them...my friends...if anyone hurt them...especially me...or because of me..."
"That won't happen!" said Jiraiya sternly.
"Come on!? How long do you think it will be until Akatsuki figures out that they don't have to catch me...Itachi will know...he'll get to someone...he'll hurt someone...someone that I care about! But if I'm dead...none of that can happen!"
"How can you protect them if you're dead?" asked Jiraiya quietly. His voice grew louder. "We are not discussing this! You have no idea how everyone would react if you..."
"But in the end..."
"NO!" yelled Jiraiya, anger showing on his face.
Naruto looked down at the ground, turning his head away, trying to hide his emotion.
"How will you fulfill your promise?" asked Jiraiya. "How will you save Sasuke?"
Naruto turned away from him.
"Do you plan on just letting Orochimaru have him then?" asked Jiraiya.
Naruto, without another word, walked back the way he came. He ignored Jiraiya's comment, not wanting to give in, but also knowing he was right.
Jiraiya stared after the young ninja, but he was really seeing someone else, someone older, yet the same. "That's what I thought..."