A/N- well here's number five; this chapter may be more informational then anything else.
READ THIS!
To Saske's Iris, I read your review and was prompted to reply (i went back to a pre written chapter). Ok so here it goes-
1. The conversation between Gaara and Naruto will come in this book, probably around chapters 9 and 10 maybe sooner maybe later. We have some BIG issues with Naruto and Sasuke and the THING to resolve.
2. "The Lunch Date" is probably never going to happen... at least not as A LUNCH DATE but the talk will in a while (won't tell when!)
3. OK, behind the door... you might kill me but... you don't find out until Book 2... Which will not be named (even if i have the name); but I will give you a hint, after the long intro the first words are "That Door" and the first chapter is called "The Door".
4. Lastly, about what I have already written. i update only on Fridays so that I stay two chapters ahead all the time (I am just finishing chapter 7). I have a little of the other books typed and A LOT hand written and the whole story is outlined. So I need the time.
READ THIS!
as a bonus i will be asking questions, if someone can give me an answer I will give you a chapter name for a future chapter or a line/quote from way later in the stories.
Question 1. Xx Name the Character xX
I have white/silver hair, blue/green eyes, I am friends with an overly optimistic boy whose voice is played by the same girl who does Naruto's in the anime. My family is very violent, they are paid to kill, and my house is way up high, to open the door with all your might you must TRY. Who am I? (For bonus tell me what Anime/Manga I am in)
Summary- Naruto is not like everyone thinks he is, he hides his true self form everybody. The few who know about the other him know very little. When various events force Naruto to spend time with his team mates in situations out side of the norm he finds it hard to keep up the act.
Parings- SasuNaru, some KakaIru others not decided.
Rating- very much an R rated fic
Warning- sexual situations, foul language, self mutilation, attempted suicide, a very OOC Sasuke. And bitchy Sakura!
Spoilers- for anyone who is not up to date on the manga
Disclaimer- life sucks… get over it.
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Red Walkways
Chapter Five
The In-between
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Naruto was up long before training was due to start the next morning; not that he was planning on going. Things between him and Sasuke were tense the day before even though they were going to forget everything that had happened the burnet seemed to be having trouble letting go.
The blond had spent the rest of the day after the tense training session working on the seal, but he came to a dead end, he needed the soul binding scroll.
It was Thursday and since he was going to training he had the whole day until seven that night to himself, when he had to bring Kaita to Ichiraku's. But instead of making plans for the day and getting the scroll Naruto found himself pacing to and fro around his apartment.
"he knows, he knows, he knows, he knows" he chanted.
When the blond had woke this fine morning everything from the day before sunk in, Sasuke knew about his problem. That was the one thing nobody knew about.
"well I think it's a good thing." Kyuubi spoke for the first time since the panic struck.
"shut up! Who asked you anyways this is all your fault." Naruto snapped back.
"True…" he mumbled with a smirk, but there was hurt that the fox was obviously trying to hide.
The blond took a deep breath and stopped moving around
"Sorry." He mumbled.
"Its fine kit, why don't you go get that scroll and work on the seal it will help clear your head."
Naruto nodded in agreement and made his way to the door already dressed for the day in his Chuunin uniform.
Half way to the Hokage's tower he felt the presence of someone following him, Naruto pretended he didn't know the person was there, he continued his way down the disserted street. He recognized the chakura signature, who else would be out this early in the morning? Naruto sighed…
It was Sasuke…
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Sasuke was out for a morning walk, he couldn't sleep the night before, and all he could think about was what he had seen on Naruto's arm the day before. He was up early after only a couple hours of sleep and need some fresh air.
While out on this walk he was surprised to find he wasn't the only one up, Naruto was walking on the disserted main road. He looked small and alone on the large dirt path; the slightly orange tint from the raising sun gave him a sad angelic appearance.
Sasuke felt his emotions rise, the blond was beautiful and Sasuke couldn't pull away, so he decided to follow and see what the other was up to.
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Naruto let it go, if following him would help his teammate put to rest whatever was keeping him from letting the day before go then so be it. The burnet already knew of his succession to Rukudaime that was to come.
Naruto sped up and felt Sasuke do the same to keep pace, once at the tower he avoided the guards and climbed to the window of the Hokage's office. The window was always left open for the blond unknown to everyone else even the guards.
Sasuke's eyes became wide as he watched the other boy scale the tower and slip into a window, was this how he got those forbidden scrolls? Climbing up after Naruto, Sasuke stopped at the bottom of the window, clinging with his chakura he peeking into the room over the sill.
Naruto was in the middle of the Hokage's office looking around; at her desk was the Godaime fast asleep drooling on her paperwork. The blond boy looked at her and sighed; he walked over shaking his head.
Plucking a scrap piece of paper off the desk he gently took the ink brush from under the sleeper's fingers; dipping it he wrote a note and replaced it under the limp hand instead of the brush.
Sasuke watched with interest as these events unfolded before him. He watch as Naruto walked over to a wall that held nothing but paintings of the first four Hokage's. Stopping in front of the Ichidaime's the blond reached up and removed the picture.
Sasuke's first thought was 'Holy shit he's going to steel the painting!' his mind shifting back to the Kami scroll in the bookcase. Then he noticed the space behind the picture was a slightly different color then the rest of the wall.
Naruto reach up and placed his hand on the discolored spot, it glowed for a moment then the wall did, a second later the entire thing melted away.
Sasuke's eyes couldn't get any wider even if he tried; behind the wall were large metal double doors, a Genjutsu. Naruto stepped forward and said in the loud clear voice,
"Uzumaki Naruto."
There was a moment of hesitation then the doors slid open. Behind them was a long hall that held an ordinary looking wood door at the end., the hall no doubt full of traps, but the blond went down unharmed and unhurried.
It seemed that his name not only opened to door but also deactivated all the traps, Naruto went behind the small door.
The blond smiled as he looked around the familiar room, the forbidden scroll room. He remembered the first time he had come in here at the age of twelve.
The Sandaime had carelessly left the room open as he went out of his office for a moment on call for a problem, he came back and Naruto Sexy-no Jutsu-ed him. Then he just walked in while everything was deactivated took the scroll and left.
Sasuke watched with fascination as his teammate left the room, walked down the hall and back into the office, everything sealing behind him. In Naruto's hand the brunet caught sight of a scroll.
'Soul binding?' Sasuke was confused, what would he need with a soul binding Jutsu?
The Uchiha looked up just in time to see the blond walking to the window; he let his chakura go and dropped to the ground and out of sight before Naruto left. A gust of wind flew through the office as the blond boy vaulted himself out the window, and unknown to both chuunin a scrap of paper slipped from beneath famine fingers and to the floor.
The blond smirked as he ran down the street, Sasuke was still following him, and Naruto knew but chose to ignore it. He was going to go home, shut all the blinds and research until seven when he will have to go to Ichiraku's with Kaita. Sasuke was not going to find out anything that he didn't already know.
Reaching his apartment Naruto unlocked the door, entered and shut everything that let in light from outside. Moving to his bed side he pulled out a pencil and the newest notebook; he spread it and the scroll out on the floor. The blond scrutinized all he had set up then turned around and grabbed a few loose papers from his cabinet and lay them out as well. With a slight nod to himself his research commenced.
The blond planed to have the Kyuubi out before he left for the mission in Sand. He wanted the extra help and he felt he should pitch the idea to Garra and see if he was interested in the arrangement the alteration provided.
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Naruto looked up from the diagram he was sketching; multiple new layers of loose paper covered the rough wood floors. He had another ten pages to his research and the answer to his question of 'How' was on the tip of his thoughts now. He had four more days until the mission, which left at most three days for more work and one day to do the procedure. He was cutting it close, three days wasn't a lot, and he had had mouths for the hearing alteration. He was counting on the fact that he could do it faster since he had already done something similar.
Naruto looked up at his clock, it was six thirty, he needed to go get Kaita and go to the shop before it was too late. Looking around the blond decided he could leave everything out, he didn't have time to pack up and he could just lock the door and leave the blinds down.
Jumping to his feet and stretching he made for the door grabbing his key on the way by.
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It had gone well… no better then well, it went great! Kaita was all settled in. the owner of Ichiraku's gave the woman a job as a favor to Naruto; she was getting room, board and whatever money was left for her work. Once she had enough money to support her self she would get a regular pay, it was a long process but it would work.
Naruto had a rare real smile on as he walked down the road to his apartment; he was getting odd looks for the lack of ignorance on his face but didn't care.
As his apartment came into view the smile slipped from the blond's lips. What was he going to do about training tomorrow? He couldn't very well skip half of it again with out a real reason. Sasuke probably covered for him today, at least that's what Naruto had come to assume from the lack teammates coming to get him again. But Sasuke was the whole problem wasn't he? The blond desperately didn't want to see the raven haired avenger again. The last training was so awkward… and maybe it wasn't all Sasuke's fault like Naruto had though. But that didn't matter, it didn't change the fact that Sasuke knew about Naruto's "problem" and that no matter how hard they tried to ignore it, it was never going to go away. They had to go on a mission together where they have to be in-tune with one other, how were they going to fix this before then?
"Why don't you talk to him about it? Seek help for your problem from the only person who won't toss you aside or exploit you." Kyuubi spoke wisely from years of experience.
Naruto Snorted as he stepped into his rooms,
"Yeah like there is anyone who would help me, Sasuke may have acknowledged that I have a problem but he won't help just like everyone else."
"Because of me?" was the fox's short response, but his tone spoke volumes.
Naruto stopped short of the refrigerator,
"I didn't… that's not… I wasn't…" the blond stumbled over his words.
"Kyuubi…"
He felt the demon block him out.
"Kyuubi?"
No response.
Naruto sighed, why was he such an oblivious jerk? He slammed hand to the countertop, and why was the Kyuubi so sensitive? What set him off? Did it have to with his mysterious past? What reminded him, Naruto's pain, the hatred, self injury?
"Because of me?" the words echoed in the blonds head, his voice sounded almost like he was feeling… Guilt! It was guilt, he was guilty. What could happen to a demon like Kyuubi to make him so sensitive to guilt?
Why did things have to become complicated? If only the world was blunt and tactless then everyone could cut out this in-between crap.
Not knowing what else to do since Kyuubi obviously didn't want to talk the blond went over to his work and picked up where he had left off.
There was something missing, something small but important that was eluding the blond's firm grasp. He was sure he knew what he had to do with the distribution of power within the seal but how dose he go about doing it? The question drove Naruto to the edge and he needed to know the answer.
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Morning…
Great…
This is the moment Naruto was dreading, he couldn't skip training today, but after how tense things were last time he wasn't sure he could get through this morning without snapping and last training he had arrived half way through. This wasn't good, he was going to end up doing something stupid… very stupid.
Groaning with all he had, Naruto rolled out of his bed and onto the floor landing on all fours. Once standing he dragged himself to the bathroom for a quick shower, he was too caught up in work the night before to bother with hygiene. He spent the whole night working and was no closer to that little missing shard he needed to complete his window.
Fresh and dressed the blond was donning his training clothes of black cargos and muscle shirt. He grabbed his weapon holster off the end table on his way by and reached for the door handle. To the side something caught the corner of his eyes, he glanced over and annoyance filled his gaze. Those stupid spiders, no matter how many times he rips there webs down they keep coming back!
In the corner by the door Naruto watched as a little black spider was working on a little web it just started. The blond watched for a moment transfixed as the small arachnid dropped down on its silk rope to another beginning of a web. It moved around some strands of web then connected the two.
Naruto felt a wave of realization wash over him like warmth in the winter; with wide eyes he found his inspiration that would carry him to his answer.
All thoughts of training driven from his mind to make room for new ideas, Naruto ran to his research letting the spiders live out of pure gratitude.
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It wasn't more then an hour after Naruto started to work that there was a knock at his door. Naruto ignored the irritating sound that was disrupting his research and continued to write.
'Knock, knock, knock'
The blonde's eye twitched at every knock but he continued to write, his main brain functions not even registering the sound.
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Sasuke stood irritably before Naruto's door, he was pissed, and the blond was two hours late Wednesday morning plus that thing, as Sasuke had taken to calling, had happened. Then the blond had run off the second training ended that morning blowing off their lunch arrangement (he refused to call it date), then yesterday he didn't come at all and now he's late by and hour again.
The brunet glared at the door contemplating weather he should knock for a third time or just break it down. Sasuke came to a solution just short of his eyes burning a hole through the door, he chose the happy medium.
"NARUO! IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DOOR I WILL KNOCK IT TO THE GROUND!" the Uchiha's voice echoed through the street and random passer by's stopped to look.
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Inside the apartment Naruto's main brain functions found that they couldn't ignore a call of that magnitude and OCC'ness. The blond grumbled as he got to his feet and skulked to the door. Opening it just enough to block the inside of the room from view Naruto glared at his teammate.
"What do you want!"
Sasuke was slightly taken back by the blonds biting tone.
"You're late by an hour… again"
"I'm sick" Naruto deadpanned.
"You look fine." Sasuke pushed, his irritation growing.
The blond gave a couple of very fake coughs, "see very sick, now go away." With that the door was shut forcefully before Sasuke could react.
The brunet was seething with anger and thought about just punching the door in but let it go when his attention was caught by the window. The blinds were down but on one window they were pulled unevenly and there was a crack to look through due to the slant. For a split second all the anger and irritation Sasuke was feeling morphed into worry, what if he was doing that thing again. The brunet's heart wrenched at the thought so he made a quick choice moving silently to the window he peered through the small space.
What he saw shocked him, there kneeling on the floor before many papers and an open scroll that Sasuke recognized as the one he took the day before, was Naruto holding a crude pencil. Of all the things the blond would be doing alone in his apartment research was not even on the list (though some more enticing things were…).
In his shock Sasuke forgot all about his anger, he stumbled back from the window as all the other odd things from before flashed through his mind. He had planned to tell Kakashi about it and now he knew he had to do it sooner rather then later if he wanted any answers.
With one last glance at the window Sasuke turned and ran back to the training grounds.
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As Naruto slammed the door and walked back to his work he knew he shouldn't have done that. It was much too much like the real Naruto rather then the one every one saw every day. Shrugging that thought to the side to harp over at a later date the blond dove back into his research.
It wasn't until many hours later that Naruto came up for breath, and when he did he held a triumphant smile on his face.
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Sasuke had returned to the training ground with the news of Naruto's "health", he received skeptical glances from the others but they continued work. They knew something was wrong, Naruto had missed a lot of training time and the Naruto they knew would come no matter how sick and have to be dragged back home.
After the training was over and Sasuke had shrugged of Sakura's lunch invitation with the excuse of needed to talk to Kakashi the brunet walked forward to do just that. With the pink harried girl clearly out of ear shot Sasuke turned to his former sensei.
"Kakashi-san"
The jounin turned from his departure at his name looking over his shoulder to confirm who had called him.
"how can I help you Sasuke-kun?"
The Uchiha suddenly found himself at a loss for words; he knew he wanted to talk to the man about Naruto, but how to start such a conversation?
"Have you noticed anything off about Naruto lately?" Sasuke blurted out bluntly.
Kakashi seemed to take a moment to consider the question the said, "besides his absence I haven't no, why do you ask?"
Sasuke saw this as a good a time as any to explain so he told Kakashi everything he had found odd in Naruto's apartment and what had just happened. He left out the thing… and the bi thing.
When Sasuke finished he looked at Kakashi face for a reaction but found non due to the mask covering his it, but his one visible eye gave away his confusion.
"I'll have to speak to the Hokage about this." He finally said "I'll get back to you with any news from her."
Sasuke nodded and they parted ways until the next morning.
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That night Kakashi went to Tsunade with his many questions, he told her what he had learned from Sasuke and what the team learned the night of the storm. He grew irritated when she shrugged it off not letting him in on anything, but in her mind she scolded Naruto for his slip up on that stormy night.
The copy ninja left the office on Tsunade's orders with no more information then he had when he entered. He stopped at the Sasuke's home to inform him of what happend creating two irritated Shinobi that night.
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Naruto packed up his research at two in the morning and climbed into bed once again with no shower. His break through with the spiders had pushed his research into over drive.
He realized he couldn't just take parts of the seal down like he had before; he needed to add a seal of his own to make the connection. After the soul binding he would have to add a two point seal.
The seal he had now it a six point seal comprised of two three points, the three point seals are identical therefore correspond with out discomfort to the host. One three point keeps the Kyuubi in while the other keeps him out of Naruto's head (Naruto weakened parts of both in the first alteration). These two seals form one causing a sort of limbo other dimension like space within Naruto's body containing the fox. What the blond found he needs to do is not just break away parts of the seal since that would jeopardize the whole seal and make it hard for Kyuubi to find a way out. He needs to intertwine a two point seal into the six pointer while breaking away some of the original. The two point seal would work with the six points since they were both even points and together make an even number of eight points. The new seal would be like a gateway and a guide that would let Kyuubi in and out while the original would act as the leash (nothing Naruto could do about that).
And two days later Naruto woke the morning of the last day ready to let out his new friend.
A/N- little short and confusing but it will come together next chapter…
Original Finish Date- 7/20/05