Sanctuary

by More Than I Appear

Chapter 9 where Kyuubi comes clean to Naruto about previous activities, gets vengeance on Kana, then makes a deal with Pallas. Elsewhere, the Akatsuki get their hands on the first of the jinchuuriki.

6. Chapter 6

Note: If I've done this correctly, then this won't be too much of a surprise but just to be on the safe side I'm going to say this anyway: regardless of what preconceived notions you may have about Kyuubi's gender, for the purposes of this story, the demon does not have an assigned gender. Though occasionally when talking Kyuubi may refer to itself as 'he' or 'she' it is doing so in reference to the sex of the physical body it is inhabiting.

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Chapter 6

'All things considered, that wasn't half bad.' Kyuubi thought, rubbing a hand over her lower stomach lazily in an effort to ease the lingering deep seated ache there. Riding Sasuke had made her pleasantly sore and tired and the demon looked forward to a much deserved, undisturbed, rest later. Konoha lay a good distance behind her and, if the fox had its way, the city would always remain that way. There was no need for Naruto to return there ever again, no need at all.

For the umpteenth time since possessing the blonde, the demon once again quirked an amused eyebrow at its current form and idly caressed the pair of breasts on the its vessel's chest, wondering how 'she' was going to explain Naruto's appearance to Itachi and Kisame, not to mention Naruto. Kyuubi frowned, idly flicking a pert nipple before flipping a long wayward lock of blonde hair back over its shoulder; this had better not be permanent- the demon had finally gotten used to Naruto's male body, had finally figured out what it could do and couldn't, how it should perform and how it shouldn't. Permanently having this form would force them both to start from the ground up and learning all the blonde's abilities over again was not a prospect the demon looked forward to. Suddenly being female opened up a whole host of possibilities not open to a male but by the same token introduce them to other potential abilities whose beneficence would remain questionable until thoroughly explored.

Perhaps it could be explained as a temporary byproduct of the abrupt and violent gender switch, but Naruto's senses weren't working as well as they had. Hearing, taste, touch, sight, and smell- all of Naruto's senses were currently stunted, muted, as if the blonde's body had been wrapped in cotton without either of them noticing. Kyuubi could barely make out the sounds and scents directly surrounding them, could barely see even by the light of the moon in the sky, and this left the demon feeling exposed and vulnerable in a way that it hadn't felt in a very long time, encouraging it to force its tired blonde host to walk faster.

Once Naruto was someplace safe from the Akatsuki and had had a little time to gain strength, they would go back to the little hole-in-the-wall village and track down this 'Kana' person. Kyuubi could feel the strange foreign energy circulating passively through Naruto's system alongside its own and didn't like the sensation one bit; there were already two of them sharing this body and no room for third, potentially harmful presence. Things like this simply weren't supposed to happen- not between human bodies at any rate- but neither was a boy supposed to be able to suddenly become female! A small part of the fox's mind reminded it that boys weren't supposed to be able to give birth, either, but Kyuubi ignored the thought, shoving it mentally aside, irritably flicking another lock of long blonde hair over its shoulder. The fox didn't fully understand what the hell had happened between its vessel and the other male, but the demon wanted answers and was fully willing to terrorize Kana in order to get them. Big man or not, no one could stand against the kind of torture an enraged fox demon could inflict and the thought made the demon smile, not at the possibility of relieving pent up frustration but because it reminded Kyuubi about what it had just accomplished.

'I'm so talented it's scary.' The fox thought smugly, smile widening considerably. Its conquest of Sasuke had ruined him for other women and the demon took great pleasure in that knowledge. Kyuubi had fucked his body, had fucked with his mind, and had fucking insured that Naruto had a safety net all in one blow. 'Now that's multitasking!'

The demon frowned, the rosy glow of self satisfaction ebbing away as worry reared its ugly head. Their third and final round of sex with Sasuke bothered the demon, bothered it a lot because that was when it had completely lost control of the situation. After the second time, Kyuubi had mistakenly thought the Uchiha too exhausted for further escapades; finished, his head had lolled back to rest on the edge of the headboard, eyes closed, mouth open to gasp in air, limp penis small with the delicate skin already showing signs of being rubbed too hard. For all intents and purposes, Sasuke appeared as if he would remain that way all night long unless someone moved him into a more comfortable position. Kyuubi, not feeling so inclined, had simply pushed a pillow further down the bed and dismounted from his lap to sprawl on the mattress face down beside him, her hips cradled on the pillow positioned under her.

Naruto's body was tired and needed a break before the fox could even think of moving to leave. Good sex always left one feeling both tired from the physical activity involved and exhilarated from the intense release of feel-good hormones. Good sex combined with the drain from the panicked blonde's earlier attempt to find safety after being scared so badly by Kana had made a nap damn near mandatory.

Courtesy of the hormones circulating through the blonde's body, the urge to cuddle with Sasuke became strong and intense, but the fox ignored it, leaving the blonde's body in an autopilot-like state as it let its awareness slide away to its prison deep inside Naruto's mind. It found the sleeping soul of the young male and curled its metaphysical form around him, humming contentedly while it rubbed its chin against Naruto's golden hair as it relaxed.

They would be okay- Kyuubi would make it okay. They had a problem, one that the demon was confident it could fix in time so there was nothing to immediately get upset over. They would get a good rest, raid the Uchiha's pantry for a good meal, then set out for someplace far, far away from Konoha and the Akatsuki. Kyuubi would protect Naruto, would insure the blonde's happiness, would be everything its vessel needed if necessary.

The idea slid through the fox's mind with a great amount of possessiveness and ferocity, surprising the demon a bit but not by as much as it thought it should have. There was a quality to the idea, a foreign-yet-not flavor to it, and Kyuubi realized that it had probably been thinking such things for a very long time unconsciously. It wasn't that hard to imagine- locked in its prison, forced to be bare silent witness to the abuse heaped upon an innocent child that had literally done nothing wrong except save their worthless lives, it seemed natural that the cold-hearted demon would want to do something to protect Naruto from harm. Kyuubi would love him, would protect him, would become his lover, his confidant, his mother, his father, his brother, his sister, his teacher, his friend- everything Naruto needed so the blonde would never feel abandoned ever again!

Just as she'd begun to fall asleep, she had felt Sasuke rouse enough to pick his head up and shift, laying down on the bed beside her. Since Sasuke had served his purpose and wasn't worth her notice any longer, the demon had paid him no mind, pulling the blankets higher over her shoulders to keep the chill in the air at bay. Let him get comfortable- it wasn't like he'd be going anywhere any time soon. In a magnanimous gesture, Kyuubi had even allowed the Uchiha to put his arm around her waist as he cuddled up against her side. The action irritated her since, in the fox's opinion, Sasuke wasn't entitled to it by any stretch of the imagination- the demon had messed with his mind, had essentially possessed him, and he was just acting on the impulses that the demon itself had placed inside his mind. Letting the tension ease away, the fox settled back into its nested sheets; Kyuubi could handle a little one-sided cuddling so long as he didn't do something else.

But Sasuke did do something else, pushing his luck and incurring her wrath. He'd shifted lower, tightening his grip around her hips in an almost possessive manner even as he began to pepper soft kisses all over the back of her neck and her shoulders. The action was too intimate, too personal for the mindless fucking they had just done, but, before she could leave the cage and wake up enough to stop it, Naruto's spirit had unexpectedly wrapped around her, tangling around her legs until the fox couldn't move. While, outside in reality, Sasuke had begun whispering words of adoration to the blonde, pledging his love and devotion for Naruto, kissing the blonde back as he slowly mounted them, settling his body carefully over the blonde's before pushing his erect arousal inside them and shallowly rocking his hips. Gentle yet determined, Sasuke had coaxed and caressed their semi-conscious body until it began to respond appropriately.

White hot anger toward its vessel flared in the demon briefly before banking and dying. She shouldn't blame the blonde for reacting so strongly to such a situation- the fox had essentially hijacked his newly altered body and had knowingly placed said body in a position that would produce an emotional response. The situation they were in was one that she was directly responsible for; the blonde was blameless so she couldn't be angry with him.

In retrospect, this had been a bad idea but, damn it, the traitor had earned it! After Sasuke had fallen for Sakura's trap and effectively called Naruto disgusting, the blonde's spirit had crawled into the fox's cage and cried against the demon's side for hours before finally collapsing, exhausted, under the weight of his own emotional turmoil. He'd been in there with her around the clock for days afterward, had crawled in with her off and on for the next month, and each time he had he'd been a little bit weaker, a little bit closer to completely giving up and actively- or passively, considering the always present bloodthirsty amount of chakra that neither controlled anymore- finding a way to kill himself.

It was during one of these times that Kyuubi had come up with its plan for revenge upon the Uchiha should it ever have the opportunity and, for all the problems it caused, their run in with Kana may truly have been a blessing in disguise for the demon since it had presented that chance Kyuubi had longed for. Naruto had loved Sasuke, had loved him purely and utterly in a way that was rare nowadays, and the brunette had tossed it all aside, tossed it away and ground it under heel without a thought, and all because of his own fear and stupidity. For that Uchiha Sasuke had to pay for the pain he had caused Naruto, pay for every tear shed, for every whimper uttered on his behalf. Naruto had pined away to nothing after the rejection, had grieved and hurt and suffered and Kyuubi could not let that injustice go.

Not then and certainly not now- especially not now with the little bastard mounting them! He hadn't earned that right and Naruto shouldn't have been giving it to him because the fox knew –knew!- that the Uchiha would only hurt the blonde again. Its vessel was still trying to scrape himself together in the aftermath of the first rejection- a second and the blonde may completely withdraw mentally. Sasuke would hurt Naruto and Naruto's mind would just collapse under it all, dragging Kyuubi with it into a mental prison for the rest of the blonde's life or into raging insanity. Naruto had been put through the wringer, emotional, physically, and socially and he had done little to protest any of it, packing away his anger deep inside himself until he hadn't even know it existed anymore until it began rampaging inside him. If he snapped, the floodgates would suddenly open and that rage would eventually pick a target because it would need one; the question was would it be Naruto or everyone else. Only time would tell and Sasuke's little dominate stunt could be a determining factor should that happen, one that could skew the results against Naruto's survival.

Kyuubi needed to stop this immediately before anymore damage could be done and so the demon struggled, as gently as possible, against its host's fragile and misguided spirit. Unfortunately, Naruto's 'fragile' spirit was proving unusually strong- absurdly so considering recent events. Foregoing gentleness, the demon began fighting in earnest doing everything short of biting and clawing, using its formidable strength to buck and pull its legs free of the bonds preventing it from moving. Of all the times for the blonde's infamous indomitable will to suddenly make a come back from the dead…!

Souls were malleable despite what any religious figure may say against this fact and it was this ability to bend and reshape that made them so resilient and Naruto's soul was one of the most malleable ones that the demon had ever seen, taking the whole concept to new heights as the blonde wound himself around the demon's legs like some possessed rubber band. The fox kept tripping, kept getting tangled, and Naruto would simply wrap around the demon tighter. It was like a ludicrous parody of passive resistance since the teenager wasn't actively fighting the other- just getting in the way. During any other time, any other circumstance, the fox would have been ridiculously happy to see this type of initiative in its host since Kyuubi would have taken it as a sign of Naruto's recovery. Though the demon was still happy about some of the blonde's old self returning, the fox still had to reign in the impulse to scream in frustration.

Kyuubi had tried repeatedly to free itself from the smaller spirit in its way but it was no use- the harder the demon fought, the more entrapped the fox became until both spirits were hopelessly tangled together in one knotted metaphysical mess. Naruto had found the inner strength somewhere within himself to firmly bar the fox on this one large point of contention and was putting all he had into it, focusing his energy into the action of restraining the other to prevent Kyuubi from stopping what was happening.

The fox had yelled and screamed and pleaded with the blonde, reminding the teenager of the hurt that would surely follow, that Sasuke making love to them now meant nothing. That this was not an expression of how much the Uchiha loved him, that this bout of gentle sex was just a tryst and one that Sasuke would probably deny any type of involvement later. Kyuubi reminded Naruto of all these things but still the blonde had kept it captive and allowed the brunette to continue while their body ran on the pure instinct to mate.

Sasuke had made love to their shared form and the feeling of impending orgasm had grown closer and closer until finally it had hit in one intense rush, affecting all involved. The blonde body shuddered, crying out as Sasuke came long and loudly, spilling himself deep inside them. Inside the blonde's mind the fox voiced its surprise and fell heavily to its knees, unable to stand any longer, while Naruto's spirit gave a feeble whimper of pleasure and spasmed, its hold slackening until it completely slipped away, freeing the demon.

Once Kyuubi had recovered enough to do so, it gained control of Naruto's body, stepping over its vessel's metaphysical form to do so though it took a moment to tend to the blonde. Still shaky on its legs, the fox had nevertheless carefully picked Naruto up with its teeth, placed him inside its cage, settled him, and then had headed out to get them the hell out of there before the Uchiha roused enough for a fourth round of sex.

Three vigorous sexual bouts in… What, forty minutes? With virtually no recovery period before a new round and an intense orgasm every time? That had to be a new human record or something since sexual stamina like that from a virgin wasn't normal even with a demon's help. By all rights, after the second time, Sasuke should have well and truly been unable to get it up for another, at least for several hours. Attachment issues aside, frequent sex in a short amount of time could result in rashes, not from disease but simply due to the friction involved- genitals, male and female, were made of sensitive skin, after all, and raw rubbing wasn't good for such delicate areas.

Shaking her head, the fox returned to its earlier thoughts, the smug smile once again returning as it pondered its accomplishments.

No woman would be able to slack Sasuke's lust, though, how effective this would ultimately be was open to debate. Unfortunately, the youngest Uchiha was not a carnal creature, as evidenced by the lack of any form of store bought lubrication in his home, so it was entirely possible that this part of Kyuubi's revenge wouldn't last beyond the night. Gods, no wonder the little prick was such a bastard- he wouldn't even let himself beat off his sexual frustrations to relax.

The fox blinked blinked. Maybe Sasuke's tastes naturally ran to the more masochistic and this was his way of indulging them. It would explain a lot about his personality.

Shuddering, the demon steered away from that avenue of musing. It didn't matter really- Sasuke's body was now owned, at least sexually, by Naruto's. The Uchiha would still be able to achieve release on his own or with another lover but the satisfaction of the orgasm would be minimal at best and not nearly as intense in comparison to one brought by the fox's vessel. The best part was, and Kyuubi was quiet proud of this, that Sasuke, haunted by deliberately unclear memories of their passionate couplings, would know it subconsciously.

Buried within the layers of those muddled recollections would be the little seeds Kyuubi had planted while taunting the teenager. Sasuke Uchiha could be truly analytical when he wanted to do so, usually reverting back to such behavior when he was emotionally confused, and Kyuubi was banking on this. Insulting him had been truly cathartic, yes, but it was just icing on the cake as far as the fox was concerned. By lecturing and taunting him, the demon had filled gaps in the teenager's knowledge while simultaneously creating others, ones that Sasuke would feel compelled to fill. The fox had left him with riddles and, given the little bastard's perfectionist nature, they would eat at Sasuke until he had all the answers, some of which could only come from Naruto and Kyuubi.

And there in lay the beauty of the fox's vengeance. All that she had told him was indeed true but Sasuke wouldn't be able to confirm it without hunting for the blonde first. Knowing the Uchiha, he would err on the side of caution and assume- no matter how fantastic- the demon hadn't been lying. Which meant that, since they had had repeated bouts of unprotected sex, the high possibility that Naruto was carrying the next Uchiha heir existed. Should Akatsuki proceed with their plan to extract the Kyuubi, Sasuke would be the perfect ace in the hole since, if only for the sake of the baby, Sasuke would search for Naruto until he found him.

Not that there would be a baby. Kyuubi wasn't stupid enough to allow a pregnancy, not with the physical and mental states Naruto was in. Any pregnancy now would only result in miscarriage later and the emotional toll the loss would inflict in all likelihood would tip Naruto over the edge into complete insanity. Once upon a time she would have scoffed at the idea, that there was anything that the vibrant blonde couldn't bounce back from, but those days were gone now- long gone. In time and with enough care, Naruto may recover back to a healthier state but Kyuubi knew that the road would be long and his progress slow but with Akatsuki closing in, the boy just didn't have that kind of time.

Which was precisely why the fox had not simply purged Naruto's body of Sasuke's seed. Yawning hugely, Kyuubi applied more force and continued to rub her lower stomach, searching below Naruto's navel for the small carefully constructed ball of flesh containing the Uchiha's sperm. Though she had allowed the remaining ingredients of the seminal fluid to flow into Naruto's uterus without opposition, the demon had made damn sure to keep the sperm far away from any waiting eggs. Housed snugly amidst Naruto's intestines and the fundus of his uterus, surrounded by a small thin layer made of fat as the temperature of the area steadily increased, Kyuubi intended to kill them off and then absorb the extra protein just as she was absorbing the extra sugars of the ejaculation. Any energy source was not to be wasted no matter how meager; Naruto's body was starved, starved for so many things that had both everything and nothing to do with food, and Kyuubi was bound and determined to make use of anything that came their way.

Of course, the last was also why Sasuke himself would not be moving any time soon. Kitsunes had the ability to siphon energy from their lovers, an exceptionally handy trick, and Kyuubi had used this to her advantage. The more passionate the completion, the more energy released and, since Kyuubi had made sure to bring the brunette hard, a lot of energy had been available for her to take. She had left him spent and exhausted- nearly comatose- in his bed, uncaring of his safety now that he had fulfilled his purpose to her.

Forget the wife selection ceremony or whatever they were doing later today to find Sasuke a human brood mare for his seed- the village would be lucky if he would be conscious enough to perform in any capacity for the next month!

'Eat that Tsunade!' Kyuubi thought spitefully, faithfully holding a grudge against the Godaime on Naruto's behalf. The woman had said for years that she thought of the fox's vessel as a surrogate younger brother but when it had come upholding her pseudo family ties, the woman had been found wanting. He had needed her and, if she hadn't been too busy trying to keep the village's image intact- and thus her own- she could have prevented Naruto from degenerating into his current state. If she had bothered to think for even a second beyond reprimanding him for his vacation request, maybe Tsunade would have figured out that something was sorely amiss with her 'little brother!'

And she was called the greatest medical professional in this century. Bah! All the signs that something was wrong had been there, plain to see, and no one had bothered to look…!

Kyuubi clenched her teeth tightly and took deep breathes, diverting her angry energy into walking further away from the hated place behind her. Though it was happening under less than ideal conditions, Naruto was finally getting away from Konoha at long last and being exposed to the rest of the world. The fox smiled gently, deciding to suggest the idea that they travel for a while. Forget Konoha, forget Fire Country all together! It would do the blonde good to get out and immerse himself in other cultures, to explore all that they offered freely and she mused about where to take Naruto first.

Somewhere colorful, somewhere loud and vibrant and teeming with life… Somewhere…

Kyuubi stopped, scanning the horizon in alarm and scenting the air.

Disquiet and a sense of foreboding settled inside the fox's stomach, disturbing the demon and making Naruto's spirit stir where it lay sleeping inside the fox's lair. Something was wrong, very wrong, but the fox couldn't put its finger on what and it cursed their current body, again, for its uselessness.

'Damn Kana!' The fox cursed, the skin between its shoulder blades tightening as its anxiety rose. Kyuubi felt blind all over as if all its senses had been blocked and, leaving dignity behind in favor of survival, the demon began to run as fast as it could toward the town containing Itachi and Kisame. Naruto was vulnerable right now, and, though Kyuubi loathed admitting it, the Akatsuki pair would protect the blonde from anyone trying to hurt him.

They didn't have a choice in the matter since they needed the teenager alive.

'As the saying goes, any port in a- OW! Son of a bitch!' The fox cursed, already diving for cover behind a nearby tree, one hand already pulling the sleek needle from its shoulder a storm of senbon needles peppered the ground right behind the blonde's heels.

Ears piqued to pick up any sounds of movement, Kyuubi sniffed the slim piece of steel between her fingers, trying to detect any trace of poison and failing. This body just didn't have the sense of smell the demon needed to do it and, again, she cursed its failings and adding onto her 'To Do' list concerning Kana. He would beg her to die, beg, oh yes he would the little-

She whipped her head to the left just in time to avoid it being ventilated by the senbon aimed at it. Pulling the sleek projectile from the tree, she twirled it through the fingers of the hand holding it and did the same for the senbon contained in her other hand.

Protection was too far away but they had a matched set of weapons now; Naruto was no longer defenseless.

Pivoting around the trunk, the demon threw her barrowed body to the side to avoid another attack and jumped up into the tree's branches, using the provided cover to hide her position as she closed in on her attacker.

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'That whore!'

Sakura's rage boiled inside her, silently screaming for the blonde's blood and urging the kunoichi onward. It burned inside her, feeding the darker fantasies that had been born the moment the medical ninja had touched Sasuke's form.

What had the bitch done to Sasuke?!

Hand's tightening on the senbon needles gripped between her fingers, Sakura spared a thought to congratulate herself and her planning abilities.

Up in the tree, watching the pair have sex over and over, she had finally figured out what to do with the unfamiliar female and had begun preparing accordingly. Donning her gloves to protect her skin, she had dumped out her supply pouch and separated the contents accordingly into two piles: weapons and medical supplies.

Along with the traditional kunai and shuriken, Sakura had added senbon needles to her personal arsenal long ago and she was proud of the perfect command she had over the hard to use weapons. It had taken her a while to learn the skills necessary to handle the damn things and she had the scars to prove it but she had done it Shizune had given her a set as a present. Half of the assortment had been anointed with solutions mixed up by the poisons master herself that would disable an enemy but not kill while the rest of the set was normal but glistened in the faint light from their recent oiling and, though they didn't pack a wallop like the others, Sakura preferred to use them over the poison treated needles, opting to keep the 'big guns,' so to speak, in reserve for emergencies. To date, those had never been drawn and, though she was justifiably angry over Sasuke's choice of bed partners, she doubted that this was the time to use them.

Instead she had turned to her medicinal supplies and further sorted the pile, subdividing it into smaller categories and everything that didn't suit her needs was placed back in the pouch out of the way. When nothing but a mixed handful of empty and full vials remained, Sakura began opening the tiny containers and mixing new solutions carefully in the empty small bottles. Finished, she put all but the newly created mixtures and a few gauze pads away then returned her attention to the pile of weapons beside her, treating them all with her concoctions before returning the whole mess to her pouch.

She was angry and had a point to make but wasn't stupid; she didn't want to hurt the blonde after all, just scare the hell out of the other girl and insure that Sakura's womb was the only one that would get to carry any Uchiha offspring. Nothing too awful... Well, nothing terribly violent, anyway.

Sakura had been immensely surprised when, after a third bout of passionate fucking, the blonde had practically flung Sasuke's collapsed form off of her and left the room to return messily dressed minutes later. As the kunoichi inwardly cheered over this development (and groused about the rough treatment directed at her beloved), the blonde had approached the bed and twitched the covers over the Uchiha's lax form before leaving. Maybe it really had been just a fling after all and Sakura wouldn't have to lay down the law. Maybe the blonde would just go away and never return…

Or maybe… She thought about the absence of condoms, her musings turned toward darker territory as another alternative reared its head, making her anxious for the blonde to finally leave so that she could slip in and check on Sasuke.

When she heard the front door open and then close, Sakura slipped from her hiding place and hopped from branch to branch down to the wall surrounding the Uchiha compound. Channeling chakra into her hands and feet, she leapt up to adhere to the wall outside Sasuke's window before sliding the pane of glass up and out of her way as she entered. Though she immediately headed to the bed, part of her began estimating the size of the room and noting design features of the room, appreciating some while frowning at others. She'd need the exact measurements of the walls so that when she moved in, redecorating could begin immediately after the construction ended. She would be an Uchiha, then, and as it was, Sasuke's bedroom just wasn't to her liking.

A leaf rustling above her alerted of impending attack and Sakura mentally wrenched herself back to the present, throwing herself to the right and up to avoid the blonde just as the other girl dropped down onto the very spot the kunoichi had just fled from. Seizing the opportunity, Sakura threw more senbon at the girl, inwardly rejoicing with malicious glee when all of them struck their quick target. The moment was short lived however when she realized that, despite the fact that the senbon were dosed heavily with sedatives, the other woman wasn't slowing down. Astonishingly, the woman seemed to actually get faster and Sakura's surprise cost her as the blonde simply pulled the needles free and rushed forward with blinding speed, using the kunoichi's own weapons against her. Before Sakura could even begin to get out of the way, a needle was stabbing with pinpoint accuracy into her left shoulder, the force behind it pushing the senbon all the way through the Glenoid cavity of the kunoichi's shoulder, effectively and painfully dislodging the head of the humerus from its resting place in the ball-and-socket joint.

Agony spread through her upper body like fire and, though she grit her teeth against the sensation, Sakura did not scream. She was a kunoichi, damn it, and had a job to do- she didn't have time to wallow in misery! Using the rage that welled up over the injury, she pulled a kunai from her holster with her right hand and stabbed the blonde in the side before the other could back-peddle away. There was a satisfying grunt of pain but nothing more and, ridiculously, this infuriated Sakura beyond comprehension.

The slut should be howling by now, should be screaming for mercy! Why the hell was she fighting back? How could some low-bred prostitute be able to fight back against a kunoichi of Sakura's caliber and actually land a hit?

The answer was that the whore was not merely a normal whore and again Sakura's mind provided a darker explanation for the blonde's presence.

"Don't…go…" Sasuke had said, the words sounding forced out and slurred as his hand loosely gripped Sakura's wrist. His eyes had been unfocused as they looked at her and the skin of his shoulder underneath Sakura's hand had been warmer than it should have been. Horrified, she had soothed him, shushed him, had promised that everything would be okay but he had to stay awake a little bit longer, okay? His eyes had narrowed then, and he'd blinked up at her in a way that suggested he was trying to clear his vision of some obstruction. His mouth opened to speak but then his breath had hitched and his body went limp as his eyes closed, as his hand fell from hers. She had shaken him hard, but Sakura could not awaken the Uchiha. Turning him onto his back, she tossed the sheet aside and gazed down at his pale body, her eyes drawn immediately to the brunette's groin where his penis lay small and wet, the delicate skin quite red where it lay amid the nest of dark hair.

The blonde had stolen his precious seed and had insured that Sasuke wouldn't be engaging in sexual activity anytime soon! She's given him something- done something to him- to make him unconscious… Or maybe she had actually tried to kill him but Sasuke had proven to be too strong to defeat so easily…

Yes, Sakura decided, firmly seizing onto the idea as the only rational explanation for what had happened. The blonde's attempt at murder, of insuring that she alone could lay claim to the Uchiha name and fortune, had failed miserably. Sasuke had proven too powerful to kill either by negating the attack or by diluting it somehow and now the blonde was retreating. Sakura had to stop her; she was the only hope Sasuke had against this scheming whore.

Sakura would protect Sasuke and show him how devoted she was to both him and the Uchiha name!

The kunoichi lashed out with a foot and kicked the harlot in the stomach, making the other woman double over but not fall. Feinting another kick, Sakura forced the blonde back long enough to use her free hand to pull the senbon from her shoulder and leap to another branch, working the affected hand to regain mobility. Staying one step ahead of the blonde chasing after her through the tree tops, Sakura pulled more needles from her pack, absently noting that she had run out of the others and was now using the toxic ones.

Behind her, she heard the blonde slowing down as the damage she had inflicted earlier finally took effect.

Leaping to the ground, allowing her pursuer to close in, the kunoichi abruptly stopped in her tracks, redirecting her forward momentum to add more force to the blow as she simultaneously ducked down and turned, swinging her fist up at an angle to drive the senbon hidden between her fingers into the blonde's body-

But the blonde wasn't there for the hit to connect with and Sakura suddenly felt something with the force of a flying cement block smash into her side and send her airborne to hurtle sideways into a tree yards away. She couldn't help the groan of pain she emitted upon impact or the cry as a hand tangled itself in her hair and wrenched her head back harshly.

"You!" The blonde accused, the grip on Sakura's hair slacking for an instant.

The kunoichi struck, channeling chakra into her arm to speed the muscle movement, making her hand and the senbon in it disappear in a blur only to reappear against the blonde's thigh, the poisonous needle buried deep in the warm muscle for maximum delivery.

"Conniving bitch!" The blonde hissed out, tightening her hold to the point that Sakura was suddenly forced to worry about the very real possibility of having her neck broken. One good twist was all it would take and, as the seconds ticked by, Sakura panicked and began repeatedly stabbing the blonde's thigh with the senbon in her grasp.

The blonde grabbed her hand and, with an almost effortless gesture, broke it, crushing the bones of her palm as easily as Sakura would snap a twig. Then, to add further injury, the slut bent each finger back, seemingly taking pleasure in each audible pop as the knuckles dislocated, leaving each finger to stretch backward at obscene impossible angles. She did it one finger at a time, slowly, and when she ran out she began repeating the process with the middle knuckle of each digit.

The kunoichi whimpered but forced herself to swallow down the screams building in her throat, stoically taking the torture as she glared up at the blonde. Though her other hand was now usable, she let it lay limply against the ground as if it was not, keeping the illusion that it was too badly damaged to be a threat any longer. Sakura would bide her time and wait for the right opportunity to strike. Let the blonde think her helpless- it was only a matter of time before the poisons took effect anyway and then Sakura would extract her vengeance. The blonde had hurt Sasuke, had nearly destroyed Sakura's dreams of happiness, and for that she needed to pay. Sakura would just have to suck up the pain until the fight was over-

Her scream echoed off the trees as the blonde threw her injured hand to the ground where it landed palm up to use its own weight to put further pressure on her contorted fingers and began slowly grinding the broken bones under her heel cruelly. As if unsatisfied, the blonde then began stomping her foot on the hand, smashing it into the ground with no signs of stopping, and the kunoichi could feel the bones splinter and fracture under the assault, the nerves in her hand wailing in agony as everything was pulverized. For the final insult, the blonde kicked the kunoichi hard in the stomach, pulled the senbon puncturing her kimono clad body out and used them to impale Sakura's already mangled hand into the ground. The grip on the pink hair tightened, the only warning the kunoichi got before the blonde slammed her head against the tree trunk she lay crumpled against, letting Sakura drop when her stunned body sagged.

Red eyes appeared in front of her, staring hard into her own green ones with obvious smugness and in that moment Sakura hated the other with a passion that went beyond any rational explanation.

"You're ruined." The blonde said, the voice sounding eerily familiar even though Sakura knew she had never seen the woman before. As she watched, the blonde's eyes actually darkened to a crimson color. "You're useless now, Hurano, just like you've always been. You took on bigger prey than you could bring down and have paid for it dearly. You can be Tsunade's assistant no longer. You can be a ninja no longer. Sasuke will never love you and you two will never marry."

"I hate you!" Sakura spat, red faced as tears leaked from her eyes, her hand a mass of burning pain. "I'll kill you!"

"You tired that and failed." The blonde reminded her, smirking. "This is all a result of your own machinations and no one else's. Karma is always keeping score, Sakura, and you reap what you sow."

"Who are you? What did you do to Sasuke-chan?"

"Now that would be telling." The blonde smirked and began to walk away. "Don't you know? Ladies don't kiss and tel- ah!"

Now it was Sakura's turn to smirk, taking fierce joy in the way the other woman suddenly fell to the floor, the leg the kunoichi had injured useless. Finally, Sakura's time had come and now the blonde would be defenseless against further assault.

Fishing out a syringe already filled with a local anesthetic from her supply pouch, Sakura jabbed the needle into the bend of the elbow of her injured arm, directly into the nerve she knew lay beneath the skin. Pushing the plunger home, the pain of her damaged hand faded away into a distant unpleasant memory, the numbing solution already going to work and helping her function. Tossing the used syringe, Sakura pulled her broken hand straight up, not even feeling the senbon pinning her hand as they slid right through her skin. She would mourn later but right now she had a mission to follow through with and, panting, she forced herself to her feet, her left hand completely useless as it hung by her side. She lurched toward the blonde, her right hand already tightly gripping a kunai.

"I hate you." Sakura growled, meaning it, feeling the emotion rising up through her and giving her strength. Her anger, her pain, her rage were all suddenly funneled into one single purpose and that was to eliminate the blonde before her completely. It buoyed her and the almost euphoric sensation flowed through her to chase back the pain of her injuries, helping her strike quickly.

'I hate you! I'll kill you! IhateyouI'llkillyouIhateyouIIhateyouI'LLKILLYOU!!!!!!!'

She was on the blonde in seconds, tackling the other down and stabbing mindlessly as they wrestled. The blonde fought back but she was weak, too weak to bare the Uchiha's children, too weak to protect herself! Sakura was strong, strong enough- worthy enough- to be Sasuke's wife, to bare his babies, to be an Uchiha and have everything that went with the name! She was worthy, not this trashy slut who had seduc- tricked! Yes, tricked was the word! Sasuke had been too tough to seduce, the pink haired kunoichi reminded herself vehemently, and his love for her, Sakura, had protected him against the whore's charms! With another violent thrust, Sakura buried the knife so deep in the other woman's gut that it caught on bone and couldn't be pulled out no matter how hard the kunoichi tugged. It was then she realized absently that she was sitting on the blonde's thighs, but the thought was distant, remote, and did not register in the kunoichi's rage-filled mind as anything important.

'Ihateyou!I'llkillyou!Ihateyou!I'llkillyou!Ihateyou!

Leaving the kunai where it was, she continued her assault unarmed, using her fully functioning hand to punish the blonde woman. Her fist came down time and time again, so fast and so hard that it seemed like it had a mind of its own, as if her hatred of the other had possessed the appendage. She didn't have any control over it until it was suddenly wrapped around the blonde's pale throat, squeezing the other's flesh, squeezing so hard her nails made bloody half moons in the mottling skin.

Though she now had control over the appendage, Sakura didn't bother to stop her hand, taking savage satisfaction for the blonde's expression, watching the other woman's now blue eyes widen. The kunoichi grinned maliciously into those fearful orbs, enjoying the terror she saw there. She squeezed, choking the life out of her victim, feeling the rapid pulse beat against her fingers like a trapped animal, fascinated by the sensation. Part of her wondered if she would hear it if she were quiet enough, hear the moment the other died, and she leaned forward slightly, ears straining for the distinctly thick, frantic beat of a heart in distress. She knew that the pace couldn't be kept up indefinitely, that eventually the organ would slow to nothing, all the while making half hearted attempts to keep going…

If she was quiet, Sakura knew she would be able to both feel and hear the blonde whore expire beneath her and would know beyond a doubt that Sasuke's attacker and her potential rival for his affections was dead. She leaned forward further over the blonde, oddly excited now that she could feel the process beginning and knew that the other's brain was being oxygen deprived. The brain needed more oxygen than any part of the body, she knew, in order to remain conscious and cognizant. Remove the method of transporting that oxygen- Sakura squeezed the arteries in her grasp even tighter- and a person passed out then died but not before becoming distinctly uncoordinated much as her victim was doing now.

It was happening! The heart was slowing, the body gasping, fluid gurgling in its lungs, the eyes beginning to roll up and back. The medic ninja felt pleasure course through her like some fine wine, her ears straining for that last beat, her whole body waiting. Intent on exacting her revenge on Sasuke's behalf, Sakura ignored the hands that weakly clawed at her wrist…

'Almost there…!'.

…at her throat…

'Almost there…!'

…at her cheeks…

'Almost there..!'

…at her eyes…

She howled, jerking away as her only working hand automatically covered the injury to protect it from further damage. Fire lanced her cheeks as the blonde's nails sank into the soft skin, raking bloody furrows as they were pulled raggedly down. The liquid leaking from Sakura's eye burned as it followed the gory track to drip off her chin in a parody of tears. She screamed over and over until her voice gave out, finally tumbling to the side as the body beneath her shoved her off.

---

This had to be the weirdest dream Naruto had ever had.

Before he'd been dreaming that Sasuke had been making love to him and now the Kyuubi vessel was dreaming about exacting vengeance upon Sakura.

Sitting up, he looked over at the kunoichi huddled in a ball beside him, listening to her mewl piteously and whimper from pain. He waited, waited to feel something, for some emotion to surge through him and invoke some sort of response. It didn't happen; Naruto felt…nothing, absolutely nothing; in fact, he felt strangely apathetic toward the sight even though part of him should be having a fit over it.

Once upon a time the thought of hurting Sakura would have been unthinkable, that it would have been like contemplating the idea of ripping his own arm off. Once upon a time, she had been his teammate. Once upon a time, he had thought of her as a friend, as family and the younger sister he had never had. Once upon a time, he had loved her.

The phrase 'once upon a time' encompassed a great many things that were now no longer true for the Kyuubi vessel and realizing this suddenly made Naruto feel weary, the kind of weariness that comes not from years but from knowledge, as if everything he had experienced and learned in his short life were slowly crushing him. He'd been so naïve, so oblivious that it baffled him now. He'd been such a fool, but a happy fool for at least a little while.

He looked around, half expecting Iruka or Kakashi to suddenly appear, but gave up after several seconds and climbed to his feet, walking away from the pitiful kunoichi. In retrospect, much as with Sakura's betrayal, Naruto should have known that his two senseis had been on a mission, that they had only been on a mission from the council and that it had been Naruto's own fault that he had been deceived so easily. He had wanted to belong so badly, had wanted to have some semblance of a family… His desire had blinded him and he had paid dearly because of it.

He hoped that the two teachers were happy together.

The sensation of warm wetness running down his legs distracted him, prompting the blonde to look down at himself and notice for the first time that his dream self had been injured. He paused and began exploring some of the wounds gently, noting that several were so deep his questing fingers disappeared completely inside as he poked and prodded the edges. Worry coursed through him briefly before he realized that, though he was bleeding heavily, he felt no pain, that no matter how hard he pressed or how far in his fingers probed, his body didn't put out any stop signals. It was a surreal experience, knowing that it should hurt but not feeling anything, and he shrugged it off as just another part of his increasingly strange dream, rationalizing his decision by reminding himself that if he was truly wounded, Kyuubi's healing ability would have already begun taking care of the problem.

Thinking about Kyuubi made him remember the Akatsuki pair and the blonde resumed his course, walking further into the dark forest and under the coverage the trees provided. Far away to the northwest he could faintly sense Itachi's and Kisame's chakra and he adjusted his path to head in that direction, concentrating on the signatures as he moved.

Though they were suppressing their chakra to almost nothing, the sudden appearance of a group of unidentified presences several meters behind him awoke well honed instincts, urging him to seek shelter behind the tree he had been passing and press himself against the flaking bark for cover. For several tense minutes, he waited, holding absolutely still and hiding his chakra just as he had been trained to do. Masking his chakra, careful to remain hidden, Naruto looked around his tree at the group gathered around the fallen kunoichi, his eyes immediately catching sight of the symbol clearly displayed on their forehead protectors.

They were Konoha AMBU. Naruto's heart began to pound furiously as memories tried to rise up and grab him, tried to make him re-live the many horrors he had suffered at the AMUB's hands but he fought them off, burying the images all once again. Dream or not, he didn't want to be anywhere near Konoha or the AMBU and he felt suddenly trapped.

The desire- the need- to get away filled him, and, as panic firmly settled over him, Naruto concentrated on Itachi and Kisame. Once he found them, they could all go to their hideout and he'd never have to worry about Konoha, or betraying teammates, or being abandoned, or having babies ever again. The Akatsuki would end his pain, they would make everything stop by just doing their ceremony and- poof- Naruto would simply be no more. Naruto Uzumaki would just… slip away… and then everyone would be happy.

Happy that he was dead.

Swallowing past the inexplicable lump in his throat, Naruto gathered his chakra and, heedless of the group of ninjas not ten yards away, opened a doorway.

It wasn't like opening any physical door Naruto had ever seen or touched but for simplicity's sake that was how he described it. Using his chakra, the blonde opened a hole in the air to the left to him, distorting the space and making it ripple like the disturbed surface of some clear thick fluid. There was no depth to it but it was tall and wide enough for him to fit through comfortably; other than the minimal distortion there was nothing else to let anyone know it was there beyond the surge of chakra needed to open it. Turning toward it, the blonde stepped into the transformed space of air, feeling the familiar trickling sensation wash over him like walking through a wall of water, his mind filled with thoughts of the inn he'd been staying at with the Akatsuki pair.

Naruto had never mastered the teleportation jutsu used by most ninja and this inability- just one more in a long list of inabilities- had only served to discourage him further, reinforcing the idea that everyone was right and that he was in fact a failure on every conceivable level. Kyuubi, though, had reassured him of his worth, telling him that he was strong, that he was intelligent, that he was so powerful it went beyond imagining. The fox had decided it was time to start instructing him in how to use his vessel-borne abilities and the demon had taught him many things, many skills that were on par with, if not better than, the ones other ninja used. Instantaneous transportation, reshaping his features, calling and speaking to foxes, as well as a whole host of other talents had been added to Naruto's repertoire.

Some of those he had been hoping to use to rescue Sasuke from Orochimaru and then help the Uchiha rebuild his clan with later. Even if the unthinkable happened and Sasuke didn't want him, Naruto had planned to still hang around and help protect his love as well as any other little Uchihas in the future from the ever present threat of Itachi. Naruto had planned to do a lot of things but that was before and this was now, two completely separate subjects. He'd been stupid. He hadn't been able to fathom how much Sasuke's rejection would hurt, hadn't realized how much he'd gotten his hopes up about the ridiculous notion that the brunette liked him. He'd been naïve and it had broken him, rendering everything Kyuubi had taught him meaningless.

In the space between two heartbeats, Naruto crossed the distance separating him from the pair he sought and appeared in the same shadowed alleyway that he had disappeared from hours prior. He felt the doorway close behind him, shimmering back into normal air with a small whooshing noise. As he walked his footsteps seemed loud in the narrow space and the darkness seemed to eat at the edges of his sight, obscuring strewn debris that made him stumble as he neared the mouth of the alley. Naruto's thigh ached with every step and as he continued his lungs began to labor for air. Limping, his footsteps were heavy as he walked, as if he were walking through some thick liquid instead of strangely cool summer air, and he frowned, absently wiping sweat from his face as he swallowed down the sudden urge to be sick.

There was no sign of Kana or of Naruto's dropped shopping bags, no evidence of an altercation of any kind, and the blonde crossed the distance separating him from the inn without incident. The street light nearest the building was out, making the night seem even darker, but Naruto could sense that dawn was coming, could taste in the air that in a few hours the sun would rise and make the world bright again. As he climbed the short flight of steps leading up to the inn's entrance way, he found himself wondering if Itachi or Kisame would be interested in watching the sunrise later.

Pushing the heavy door open a crack, an action that required more concentration from him than seemed necessary, he heard an angry voice. It sounded like Kisame, at least, was awake and had noticed his absence. Though he knew that the missing Mist ninja was probably going to scream bloody murder, Naruto felt his insides warm over the idea that his presence had been missed by someone. It was stupid, really, to feel so good over something so simple, especially since one would have to be completely insane to be even remotely happy to see the person who had kidnapped and was intending to kill you, but Naruto couldn't help it. He'd been missed and it felt so good knowing he had been missed. The blonde felt tears well as he paused in front of the closed door, his forehead resting lightly against the thick wood, letting his eyes close to half mast as he listened to Kisame continue to question someone inside the inn lobby. The warmth Naruto had felt initially over the thought seemed to double and spread, moving through him like a warm wash beneath his skin, making him relax and feel sleepy.

A sound caught his attention, a deep vibration that registered at the very bottom of his hearing range, something so low that it was felt more than heard. It was off to his right and, automatically, Naruto half turned his body toward it to find the source, already knowing that it wasn't being made by anyone in the immediate vicinity. The sound came again, the maker far out in the woods beyond the town, and he realized that it was a roar, that some very large animal was out there prowling the outskirts.

'Good thing I didn't walk here.' He thought, hearing the roar again, feeling it tease over his skin and rub against his spine like a living thing. The sensation made him shiver pleasantly but as he did so the first stirrings of pain began to make themselves known, making him tense up again which, in turn, made the pain more intense to the point that he frowned. For the first time he began to feel uneasy about all that had transpired that evening, that maybe it wasn't all a dream, but the idea kept slipping from his mental grasp before the connection could be fully made. The thought remained fuzzy, vague, something that had no relation to Naruto, and he continued to stare into the direction the constant roar was coming from even as his eyelids began to slip completely shut.

Deep inside him, he felt something low in his abdomen move, felt it stretch in an almost languid movement, and for a second he thought is was the Kyuubi until he remembered that the Yondaime's seal restricted the fox's movement. He frowned, realizing that something else was moving inside him unrestrained, a separate energy that was neither his nor Kyuubi's. He could feel it uncoiling and spreading cautiously, much like an animal exploring a new territory except that its new territory was Naruto's insides. He held still, frowning, feeling this new energy creep up through his chest toward his heat and suddenly the roar that he has been listening to wasn't just noise any longer. What had been a mindless call resolved itself into words, ones he could almost make out, and he strained to hear the message, feeling compelled to listen, that it was important somehow. The blonde felt himself take a step toward it, helplessly entranced, the rest of the world fading away as the urge to go find the source of that message took hold.

A tug on his arm kept him from going any further and Naruto paused, disoriented as he looked back to see what he was caught on, coming face to face with Itachi Uchiha standing in the open doorway. Naruto hadn't even heard the door open or the other approach and this bothered him mildly because he should have; it was if reality itself had hiccupped, one second the inn door was almost shut and suddenly the next it was open, Itachi framed by the door jamb, the light of the inn lobby spilling out into the night with no sense of time passage in between.

"Naruto-kun." The voice was monotone but softer than usual, as if the Uchiha didn't want to risk being over heard, and the blonde had the vague impression that this was not the first time that Itachi had said his name.

Naruto blinked then shook his head, frowning, trying to focus on the brunette. The brunette looked tired, worn out, as if he hadn't slept well. There were dark, faintly blue bags under his eyes and his skin looked almost unnaturally pale, but the hand wrapped around left wrist was firm, the grip strong with no sign of weakness.

Was it him or had Itachi gotten taller? Naruto was five foot eleven and a half, roughly two inches taller than the elder Uchiha, but suddenly Itachi was nearly five or six inches taller than the blonde. That couldn't be right… Right? It had to be the damnably bright light behind the brunette distorting the image… Naruto shut his eyes to protect them, trying to regain some sense of reality, then giggled because finding reality in a dream just stuck him as completely silly.

"I found you." The blonde said when he regained control over himself. His voce sounded funny, tinny and distorted, as if it was coming from further away than it actually was and somewhere in his mind, a very dim warning bell was going off that this was a bad sign but, again, the connection failed to be made. "I was… I was…" He couldn't remember what he was trying to say, distracted by the roaring in the background and the crushing weight slowly settling on his shoulders. The grip on his wrist tightened, the only warning Naruto got before abruptly being pulled forward into the inn and stumbling against Itachi's warm body.

Arms encircled him, trapping him loosely, while hands began roaming his body lightly, pressing him close as Itachi searched him. Naruto didn't know what the other was looking for and frankly didn't care at that point because being this close to Itachi was making him break out in a sweat, the liquid seeming to drench his body and trickle into uncomfortable places, making them sting and ache. The blonde began pushing the other away, fighting him, slapping at the Uchiha for freedom; Itachi was just too warm, the lobby too hot, and Naruto felt as if he was burning up as he stood there. The teenager struggled, trying to backpedal away through the door behind him, dragging the surprised brunette across the floor with him as he tried to get back into the cool night air but Kisame was suddenly there, blocking his path, turning the blonde around and shoving him forward against Itachi again as the missing Mist ninja closed the door.

This time the Uchiha's grip was firm as one arm slipped around the blonde's waist, the other pressing on Naruto's back between his shoulder blades, pulling the blonde forward until he was tucked firmly under Itachi's chin. Naruto flailed, hard, pushing and shoving, kicking out until his thigh- by now a burning knot of agony- refused to hold his weight anymore. Both he and Itachi slid to the floor, the brunette's arm still wrapped securely around the blonde's hips in an almost possessive manner, the hand on Naruto's back still keeping him pinned against the Uchiha and as suddenly as it had come, the energy powering his attempts to get away faded, leaving him to lie heavily against the other as he panted for breath.

"Hot!" The blonde moaned, weakly banging his palm against Itachi's chest, trying to communicate his discomfort and failing miserably. "You're too hot!"

"Ai-sama?" A young voice asked and Naruto rolled his eyes slowly upward until a teenager came into view. Dark, almond tilted eyes stared worriedly back at him from underneath tousled brown hair. He was dressed in the lavender uniform that Ianthe's staff wore, his hands occupied with the shopping bags he held, fingers curling and uncurling around the handles.

The blonde didn't recognize him at all and in fact it took Naruto a long to time to remember that he was being spoken too, that the unknown teenager was using the name that Naruto had given at the restaurant. Blue eyes drifted down to the teenager's hands, sweeping over the bags the youth held and the Kyuubi vessel realized that this solved the earlier mystery of where his abandoned shopping bags had gone.

Naruto tried to work some saliva into his dry mouth for speech, intending to thank the thoughtful teen, but wound up with a mouthful of coppery sweetness. A tickle at the back of his throat was his only warning and the blonde quickly buried his face against Itachi's chest, coughing the liquid out all over the Uchiha's front and, though he would have understood if the brunette had, Naruto was grateful that he wasn't pushed away. When the blonde was through, he slumped against the other heedless of the mess, too spent to move let alone thank anyone- being against Itachi's body was like lounging inside a heated oven, and Kisame's close proximity behind the blonde was amplifying the unbearable feeling to the point that Naruto felt himself shivering, sweat pouring off his skin like rain.

"Oh, God." The words were spoken softly but the note of horror was clearly there. The blonde felt his mind wandering distractedly, thinking that it was an odd phrase to say, especially since Kisame was the one who spoke. Naruto felt his eyelids close. They were so heavy, so, so heavy, as if each weighed a thousand pounds and the sensation spread, creeping through his limbs until he could barely feel his extremities.

"Tired…" He said, unaware that it was not an internal monologue and he was actually speaking aloud. "You're not supposed to get sleepy in a dream, right? I mean, that would be a stupid dream, dreaming of sleeping… isn't the point of dreaming… to escape…? How can I be tired when I'm already asleep? That doesn't make any sense…"

His breath hitched deep in his chest as he inhaled, making him cough. There was activity in the room around him and tension in the air but all of it was remote and meaningless to the Kyuubi vessel. He was still shivering and the room was still too damn hot but even that was beginning not to matter anymore. Stupid as it may be, he decided to give in and sleep off the rest of his dream as he settled more solidly against Itachi; now that he thought about it, the brunette wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as he looked and the red and black cloak wasn't really that stiff…

"Ai-sama!" Someone's hands on his face, patting his exposed cheek, feeling his forehead frantically. "She's cold! Ai-sama, stay awake!"

"Naruto-kun!" It was Itachi's voice in his ear, low and urgent. The brunette's hands stopped pinning him in place and moved to Naruto's front, fumbling against the blonde's stomach while Kisame, behind the teenager, began tugging harshly at both the collar and obi of the kimono. Naruto felt his body jerk backwards but was unable to do anything except remain passive, flopping back against Itachi with a grunt, the Uchiha's hand not stopping as it continued to search and probe.

"Isamu, go get the doctor then get your boss!" A gruff voice ordered. "Tell him they got the wrong guy!"

The hands touching his face disappeared and the sound of cloth tearing filled Naruto's ears, muffling the squeak of the hinges as the inn door opened. More cloth was torn and suddenly the blonde felt warm air against his newly exposed back, against all his skin as Kisame- alternately peeling and pulling at the wet fabric- stripped the kimono off him.

"Wrap her in this!" Something soft was draped over his bare body and he felt himself being tilted backwards, large hands gripping his shoulders uncomfortably tight. "No! No, you idiot- not the floor! Don't you know anything about shock? Open that stupid cloak of yours, big man and keep her warm!"

Then gnarled, weathered hands were shoving Naruto against a broad chest, pressing him roughly against scratchy mesh in their haste and, though some part of him knew that the owner of those hands was simply trying to help, the sensation still triggered an onslaught of buried memories that drowned this knowledge out. A parade of horrors began behind his closed eyelids and the blonde began to shriek incoherently and thrash in the arms that held him as the display continued, blurring together into one long nightmare that made him plead brokenly.

"You're a failure and always will be a failure! You've wasted my time and by doing so, you've wasted the time of someone who was worthy of my training!"

"I'll do better!" He promised desperately, just like he always had, just like he always would.

"I don't want to hear it!" Jiraya had screamed at him, looming over Naruto like some angry giant, one fist raised as if to strike the bleeding blonde laying at his feet. "Wasting my time has consequences, Naruto, dire consequences and I am going to make sure you pay in full!"

The toad sage had reached for him then and the blonde had frozen, confused, afraid, unsure what was happening or what to do about it. Jiraya had grabbed him by his upper arms and Naruto remembered being surprised by how large the other's hands were, how rough they were from training for so many decades, but then he became distracted as the elder began dragging him back to the inn and into their room.

"You're a weak ninja, Naruto." He was thrown across the room while Jiraya slammed the door shut and locked it. He had had a moment of bewilderment, of fear, but then the elder man was on him, tearing at his clothes while Naruto clawed at the other's hands to make him stop. "Weak ninja get captured. They get tortured. You can take a lot of damaged, Naruto, but the Kyuubi can't protect you from some types of pain."

He'd been weak, both then and now; Jiraya had taught him well.

"Don't touch me!" He screamed, striking out at the one who held his hands down, mind trapped by something that had happened over two years ago. "Let me go! Nooooo!"

"Is all that muscle just for show?! Hold her down before she breaks something!"

"Listen you geezer..!"

"Kisame!"

"I can't wait until this mission is over." Another memory grabbed him, dragged him inside of it, and Naruto was suddenly standing outside Iruka's apartment door, frozen in midstep by the soft whisper from inside as he began to walk away. He stared at nothing, his attention focused solely on following the quiet conversation taking place in the 'empty' apartment beside him. "Babysitting that brat is driving me crazy! I don't know how much more of that monster I can take! I hate ramen- if I have to eat one more bowl of the stuff, I'll puke!"

He knew that the person was talking about him instantly and felt his eyes prickle, his chest tighten up. It was Iruka's voice, Naruto would know it anywhere; when things had gotten bad in the village, he'd counted on hearing his sensei speak, had found peace in the comforting tones and words.

There was nothing comforting about it now.

The blonde had fought so hard to stave off tears. If his pseudo-father had only told him how he really felt about the meal they usually bonded over, they could have had something else to eat together, that Naruto hated it too and had only continued to eat ramen because Iruka seemed to enjoy it so much. Then the rest of what his sensei had said sank in and the blonde couldn't keep everything contained any more. It had been a lie- everything had been a lie! He'd sagged against the door heavily and sobbed once before pulling himself upright and leaving.

"Ne, ne, Sasuke," Sakura's voice whispered through his head like poison. "If you had to choose between a girl who loved you and a boy who loved you, who would you choose?" It was the sentence that had begun the conversation that had ultimately ended what had remained of his world.

"Oh no…" He moaned, trying to curl up, as if making himself smaller would protect him from it all. He began to sob. "Not this, no, no, no…"'No, no please! Please! I'll do better just make it stop! Make it stop!' He was screaming the last inside and out, trying to find Kyuubi- trying to find help.

The fox had been his only outlet and, in recent years, he had run to it for a great multitude of things. It had been his friend and shoulder to cry on when he was shunned. It had been his teacher when no one would take him on as a student. It had been the only constant presence in a life filled with upheaval of one sort or another.

The fox was supposed to help him repress these things, was supposed to help him forget so that he could function and be relatively normal. No matter how much therapy one might receive after a traumatic even, there are some things that you never get over, some things that you can only learn skills that helped you cope with it. Naruto had never received counseling and when pretending nothing had happened didn't work, Kyuubi had offered to intervene. The final straw, so to speak, had ironically been a sunny, normal day with nothing out of the ordinary. Naruto had dragged himself out of bed, had sat down to pick at his breakfast and had a flashback to Jiraya's…training method. With no memory of how he'd gotten there or sense of the time in between, Naruto had 'woken up' hours later in his bath tub, having repeatedly cut into his arm with a kunai, crying and shaking with the blade aimed at his throat.

Naruto couldn't deal with his memories so Kyuubi had taken them, locking the most awful ones away from the blonde consciousness. He had argued for them to be given back, that he was weak and he had to learn to live with them because he was a ninja but the fox had simply shaken its head at him. "They were not things he should have had to deal with at all," the demon had reassured him, "forget they had ever happened."

So Naruto had and he and the demon grew close. Maybe it was because they were quite literally trapped together in one body but they both seemed to know instinctively that the other was all each of them had now, the only one who could be depended on through thick and thin. To put it simply, they adopted one another and became family. They bonded, not in a parental sense but in the way that some children adopt other children when they are young. Before blood relation holds any meaning, before a child learns that boys and girls- or, in this case foxes- are different. Before words like 'lover' or 'betrayal' exists and the world is still a big mystery just waiting for you to solve it. You like somebody, you care for them, and at that fleeting age this fact is enough to make a friend a treasured member of the family.

He called for the fox as soon as he appeared in front of the cage and, for several long agonizing moments, nothing in the familiar darkness beyond the cage doors stirred. The darkness seemed to mock him as he peered into it, swallowing his increasingly desperate cries for the Kyuubi, making his voice fall flat. Naruto looked around, panic threatening to consume him as he noticed that closer to the ground, several of the cage's bars had been bent outward to make a massive hole and, though it would be a tight fit, he knew that it was indeed big enough for the fox to fit through.

The blonde sank to his knees, spiritual form shivering as the ever present water covering the floor of his mind slosh around his naked hips. He sobbed, feeling his shoulder's slump, his hands fisting into his hair as despair gripped him.

Sakura had hated him.

Iruka had only pretended to like him.

Sasuke thought he was disgusting.

And now Kyuubi... Kyuubi had abandoned him too.

'Couldn't you have even said good-bye?' Naruto sobbed harder, leaning forward enough to rest his forehead against a section of the door with its bars still intact. Hadn't he even been worth a farewell?

The teenager nearly screamed when a long thick tail shot out from the hole in the bars, wrapped around his waist and yanked him inside the cage, bringing him to the dais Kyuubi usually slept on. The blonde was abruptly released and he tripped over his unsteady feet, falling heavily against a furry side that rose and fell rapidly beneath him. Nine long tails wrapped around him, keeping him warm and safe as he shifted to get comfortable.

"Did you honestly think I'd leave you?" Kyuubi asked, chest heaving, pain clear in its voice. When a trembling Naruto remained silent from shame, the fox merely grunted. "Seal or not, I'm staying with you. Let's face it kid- we're stuck with each other!"

It was clear the demon was trying to make light of the situation but it just made Naruto feel guilty and the blonde continued to shake, clinging to its fur. A spasm passed through the demon's body from head to tails, unsettling Naruto and causing him fall until he hit the dais near the fox's stomach. The spasm passed, and spent, Kyuubi lay against the stone wearily for several seconds before the fox turned his head enough to look down its body at the teenager beside it.

The demon winked but the effect was ruined by its pained grimacing and Naruto stared at it as the thought that something was incredibly wrong finally forced its way through his brain and connected. The teenager stood and hurried toward the triangular head to stroke one large furry ear, asking what happened.

"Don't worry." Kyuubi said, the demon's usually booming voice soft and slurring, its crimson eyes beginning to slowly slide shut as it fell into the torpor like state it used when more drastic healing had to be done to the blonde's body. "We'll be okay. Just need to rest… for a while… just need to…"

Then the fox was gone and Naruto was left sitting alone in the dark.

---

Naruto's body gave one last shudder before laying limply in Kisame's arms. Whatever fit had been possessing the teenager seemed to have passed but the inn keeper and the two ninja held on for several tense seconds longer in case the blonde launched into another one. When the Kyuubi-vessel continued to remain passive, his blue eyes empty and staring at nothing, Itachi slowly released Naruto's small wrists and stepped back, trying to put some physical and emotional distance between himself and the teenager.

Itachi Uchiha- missing ninja of Konoha, an S class criminal guilty of slaying his kin and psychologically torturing his defenseless little brother- felt his heart lurch. The blonde was a mess, there was simply no other way to describe him. Someone had attacked Naruto, had hacked the teenager up, and Itachi felt the blood in his veins boil. He had known that something was wrong the moment he woke up, so much so that he had practically kicked Kisame out of bed and dragged the ex-Mist ninja downstairs.

Despite the admittedly drastic augmentations to his appearance, Itachi knew the second he opened the door that it was Naruto he was looking at. The long blonde hair was stuck to his head in some places, matted and dark with bits of leaf litter stuck here and there. His scarred cheeks were bleeding, the trio of parallel lines on each side oozing small streams of crimson, but it was nothing compared to the blood over the rest of his outfit; there was so much of the liquid that the black of Naruto's kimono was now dark purple in color. The Kyuubi-vessel's hands, smaller than they should have been yet appropriate given his current size, were bloodstained, the nails cracked and broken down to the quick. Someone had tried to strangle him and the hand prints of his attacker were still visible on the pale throat in the form of stark darkening bruises. Naruto had stood in the doorway at a slant, one shoulder dipped as the arm attached to it hung limply at his side, his weight borne mostly on his left leg as his bent right knee poked through one of the longer slashes in the kimono.

Of course, only once they had stripped off the kimono did they find out how extensive the damage truly was. Naruto had been nearly butchered, there was no other way to phrase it. Almost all of the blonde's torso was covered in stab wounds, punctures of all shapes and sizes. Someone with a lot of rage had jumped the blonde and, either by deliberate planning or blind anger, had sliced into every organ system to a devastating degree. Even with the Kyuubi's healing powers, the Uchiha was amazed that Naruto was still alive and able to stand upright, let alone make it to the inn to find the Akatsuki pair.

Itachi's hands began to ache and he realized that he had been unconsciously clenching them so hard that he'd driven his blunt nails well into the meat of his palm. His heart was clawing its way up his throat, screaming incoherently about the blonde; it wanted vengeance, it wanted a payment in blood for all that the kitsune vessel had suffered, voicing it all in one continuous battle cry that rallied the rest of his body behind his heart. Trying to calm the jittery, anxious feelings roiling inside him, he surreptitiously took a deep breath and let it out slowly, simultaneously forcing his hands flat under the cover of his cloak sleeves. He swallowed, forcing his heart back where it should be, concentrating on drowning out the ranting and raving of the impatient organ.

Itachi Uchiha was not a passionate person but in that moment he wanted to give in to his heart's desire, to storm out and hunt down the perpetrators responsible, but he had never been a man ruled by his heart. For better or worse, Itachi Uchiha was a logical creature, a man ruled by his brain and, though it was inconceivably more difficult than it had any right to be, the Uchiha finally did manage to dredge up enough of his trademark icy calm to pull it around his inner self. The cries for blood receded and the rush of adrenaline leveled off as his brain took firm control over his body. He sank into that calm iciness, trusting it as he had trusted no one because it had always kept him alive, allowing him a measure of distance, giving him the ability to step back and evaluate a situation efficiently.

All that careful calm was undone moments later with a word.

"Strip." The inn keeper ordered, looking directly at him with a pointed expression, and, before he could stop it, a blush found its way into Itachi's pale cheeks. He balked, standing ramrod straight in place, the gears of his mind trying to process the idea coherently and failing.

Kisame let out the indignant squawk that Uchiha pride wouldn't allow Itachi to make.

"I'm not joking, young fella! Strip to your skivvies and stop being shy before your modesty kills her!"

That earned the old fart the look he deserved and Itachi leveled a glare so awful the inn keeper should have burst into flames. The Uchiha saw the purpose behind the old man's orders however and stripped down to his boxers, quick and efficient, arms out and ready to receive the blonde.

"Sit first." The inn keeper told him, turning his attention to Kisame once Itachi had followed his command. The elder's gnarled hands briefly touched Naruto's neck and wrist again before rearranging the blanket when he was done. "Now you can set her on the floor, Muscles!"

"You sure give a lot of orders, old man." Though a small portion of the Uchiha appreciated Kisame's attempt to look out for his well-being, the rest agreed that this was neither the time nor the place for it.

"I've also lived longer than either of you." The elder snapped as Kisame moved the blonde as directed. "I may not be a ninja but I have seen my share of the darker side of life, including the evils that some men do to pretty girls first hand."

"What do you mean by the evils…"Dread gathered inside the Uchiha, the foreign emotion increasing as he took Naruto and held him close, shivering the moment the blood splattered skin touched his. The blonde was cold, freezing actually, and so pale that he made Itachi look positively tan.

"The ramblings of a senile old man." Kisame cut in loudly, voice too harsh for the simple dismissive comment. The blue skinned male draped the blanket around them tightly, insulating them against the warmth-stealing air. Kisame continued to fuss with it long after, burning off nervous energy, finally ceasing a breath before Itachi had to tell him to stop.

No matter what he said that may seem contrary, Itachi knew that his partner was smart and could be incredibly intuitive. Much like the Uchiha's, Kisame's mind was beginning to make the next logical leap in the pattern being laid out before them and the blue skinned man was resisting it, fighting against the dark but simple possibility involving the attack on Naruto. It was something that, admittedly, neither of the Akatsuki pair was qualified to deal with right now (or ever for that matter) and so the former Mist ninja was refusing to deal with it, quiet happy to remain in denial about the issue. The odd image of Kisame on the beach with his head firmly buried in a mountain of sand came to mind but Itachi didn't find it amusing at the moment.

"The bleeding's slowing." Kisame grunted, critically examining Naruto's face, manipulating the blonde head cupped between his hands with care. "Where's this doctor that kid went after? Konoha?"

"As if we'd seek help from that arrogant lot!" It was the old man's turn to be openly hostile and he was taking full advantage, as if Kisame's thoughtless comment had been the most derogatory insult in all of human language. The elder was angry, was terribly bitter toward Konoha, and Itachi filed this piece of information away for later. "Too busy perfecting their big secret weapon to help a village in trouble even if it's on their doorstep! High and mighty bastards!"

The old man continued to mutter angrily to himself, putting his energy into tending to Naruto. Over his head, Kisame and Itachi shared a meaningful look, using the opportunity to catch each other's eye and communicate silently, both very carefully avoiding looking at Naruto, acutely aware that one errant look in the blonde's direction could cast damning suspicion on all three of them. If what the geezer said was true and not just some paranoid delusion, it was possible that Konoha had finally decided to actively use the most powerful weapon in their arsenal- the one currently sitting in the Uchiha's lap, surrounded by Itachi's body to keep it warm.

"Isamu will get back here as fast as he can. Right now, Ai-sama's care is up to us. We need to see to her injuries before she bleeds to death. If you won't help, get out of my way!"

'Ai?' It meant love, indigo. Naruto had chosen a name for his female persona, one that obviously had some deep meaning for the blonde. The Uchiha wasn't sure if he should feel happy about this or not and, after a few seconds of analysis, realized that on a deeper level, the name bothered him greatly because he didn't fully understand the reasoning behind it.

The Uchiha shook his head; these were musings for another time and it was too late to try and rename 'her' now.

"Ai-sama?" Itachi murmured, allowing himself to finally look down into the face Kisame's large hands still cradled. "Ai-sama, can you hear me?"

All this time, Naruto had been staring vacantly into space, eyes wide and a paler blue than they should have been. The blonde had remained limp and passive since finally calming down, allowing them to manhandle him as they wanted without a hint of protest. It was disturbing to see and the brunette tried repeatedly to encourage the teenager to respond but, despite Itachi's attempts to get his attention, Naruto remained in his catatonic state.

It was as if the Kyuubi-vessel's mind had completely disconnected from reality and, if that were true, then calling him by another identity was probably not helping the situation. Kisame withdrew his hands from the blonde and Itachi put his lips close to Naruto's revealed ear, whispering quietly, his arms tightening around the blonde. Keeping his voice soft and even, he repeated the other's name constantly while shaking the teenager, telling Naruto to come back, that he was safe.

Maybe it was the sound of his name that finally caught his attention, or the feel of Itachi's body against his. Maybe it was none of those things or all of those things, but suddenly there was a tension throughout Naruto's body that stated loudly some part of the teenager was aware of his surroundings. The brunette didn't care as the blonde turned his head toward the Uchiha and blinked up at Itachi, eyes full of personality and focusing slowly on the other. Then those confused orbs drifted upward and found Kisame, resting on the former Mist ninja for several seconds before coming back to the paler skinned member of the duo, gaze sweeping over the abundance of visible skin.

"Dream?" The blonde asked in a rough whisper.

Itachi studied him before replying slowly. "No, you're not dreaming. This is real."

The teenager began to nod but stopped mid-motion, eyebrows drawing together. A pink tongue flicked out to moisten cracked, blood stained lips as the bruised throat swallowed audibly, the sound painfully loud. He blinked once more before closing his eyes again, the young face taking on a look of concentration, and a second later Itachi felt Naruto place a hand over the Uchiha's heart.

"You don't look so good." Louder this time, Naruto's voice was a hoarse croak and made him wince which made the scars on his cheeks bleed. His eyes remained closed as he swallowed again, leaning his head to the side so it rested on the Uchiha's upper right chest. He huddled against the other, moving until he was hidden from view underneath the flap of blanket draped over Itachi's shoulders. "Did you eat dinner?"

Itachi didn't answer, too taken aback by the question.

Kisame stared at the blonde.

Naruto had been brutally attacked and his only concern was if they had eaten dinner?!

"Young lady," The inn keeper moved closer, sharp eyes glancing from face to face. In one hand he held a medical kit, in the other several towels and for the first time that evening, the old man looked quite confused. "How do you feel?"

For a tense minute the blonde didn't say anything, remaining quiet so long that Itachi began to wonder if the other had passed out. Then finally, as if remembering that someone had spoken to him, Naruto answered, voice soft. "Warm, I'm warm."

"Any pain?" the old man pressed, coming to kneel beside Itachi's left side so he could see the teenager mostly hidden from view.

Against the Uchiha's chest, the blonde shook his head in response.

An awful thought arose in the Uchiha's mind. "Ai-sama, you're hurt. Did you know that? What have you been doing today?"

"I am?" Naruto roused enough to blink up at the other in confusion then quickly looked down again after catching sight of Itachi's intense stare. "I went shopping for supplies… for the trip… Then I went to Ianthe's because I thought you'd be hungry. I left though… I was coming back here but Kana… Kana…" The blonde shifted in the Uchiha's arms, leaning against the other heavily as his voice became more and more breathy. "I had this really weird dream… I was fighting, I think. I fought… Someone… they hurt me…really badly." His eyes had unfocused as he spoke and he began blinking rapidly as he tried to focus. Naruto abruptly frowned and buried his head against Itachi's chest, mumbling. "I'm tired. My head hurts."

Before Kisame could say something scathing, the Uchiha glared at him sternly, clearly communicating the warning for the other to hold his tongue. The brunette then turned his attention back to the blonde in his lap.

"Stay awake." Naruto's hand, still resting on the Uchiha's pale skin, curled into a fist but otherwise remained in place. A part of Itachi noted that the appendage was quite warm, almost hot.

"I'm tired." Naruto whispered again, and something in his voice made the Uchiha look down at him. "Just tired."

The blonde's face was flushed, his eyes only open to half mast, lips taking on a slightly blue tint. Naruto's voice had once again taken on the slightly slurred, dreamy quality that it had had when he walked in and it sent alarm bells ringing inside Itachi, made the stoic ninja's stomach tighten up into a hard painful knot.

"You have to stay awake." Itachi said, grip tightening on the blonde, as if trying to impart strength to the other before repositioning the teenager, pulling him upright before leaning him back enough so that the Uchiha could look down at him directly. "You can't sleep yet."

From his supply satchel, Kisame pulled a small pouch and began pouring its contents out onto his waiting palm. Several different colored spheres appeared against the blue skin and the ex-Mist ninja judiciously chose three of the darker hued ones, handing them to Itachi who took them.

"Chew these." The Uchiha commanded, showing Naruto the pills he held, patiently waiting for the blonde to focus on him. He knew that Naruto was rapidly losing touch with reality, knew that if the blonde passed out it was entirely possible that no amount of pleading or medical ability would be able to wake him up again. The Akatsuki pair needed to stack the odds in their favor against a fatal outcome and Itachi pressed the pills against Naruto's lips, trying to force them between the other's teeth. Naruto, however, shoved his hand away irritably and pressed his lips together, frowning.

"There's something in one of the cuts." Kisame reported, voice coming from close to the floor, nearly startling Itachi. The brunette had been so focused on the blonde that, for a moment, he'd forgotten there was anyone else in the room.

Berating himself, the Uchiha stopped trying to force feed the blonde and simply held him still, gaze trailing down until Itachi could see what his partner had found. There, in one of the larger cuts roughly an inch above the top of the nest of dark blonde curls that trailed lower, amidst the torn flesh and thick, congealing blood that was so hot it was nearly scalding, was something foreign, something metallic looking that was definitely not supposed to be found in the human body.

The innkeeper appeared on Itachi's other side and began peering at the cut Kisame was pointing to. "Don't touch it! We'll pack it with towels but let the doctor handle it."

"Does that hurt?" Itachi found himself asking, gaze flicking back up at the Kyuubi-vessel.

"No." Naruto said faintly, eyes shut, his head beginning to loll backward.

"You can't sleep yet." The brunette reminded him in a harsh tone, barely managing to keep his voice level, the anxiety he felt making him want to yell.

The blonde jerked, startling Kisame and the innkeeper as they secured the object with towels and gauze strips, making them swear. Naruto blinked rapidly and raised his head, clearly straining against his physical failings to meet the Uchiha's gaze. The eyes that looked back at Itachi were focused, burning brightly at the Uchiha with a seriousness and intelligence that so far had been lacking in the blonde. It translated clearly even through the fever that Itachi could feel spreading through the teenager, warning the brunette that the blonde's next words were not to be taken lightly and the Uchiha gave the other his undivided attention, letting his awareness of the rest of the room fade away, trusting that Kisame would protect them.

"Can I sleep through it?" Itachi knew immediately what the 'it' was that Naruto was referring to and didn't need to ask for any kind of clarification.

"Yes." The brunette said quietly, looking straight into those demanding eyes directed at him. He made his already low voice softer. "You can sleep though it."

"Do you promise?" The childlike voice was somehow so much worse, so much more damning than anything before. "You're word of honor?"

No one should be that willing to die, no one should look that happy about their death, and the Uchiha felt his heart clench at the naked hope in those beautiful blue orbs. What had happened to the infamous blonde, the boy who was so stubborn that it seemed as if even fate itself was unwilling to defy him? What had been so awful that the only good thing he could look forward to any longer was a painless death?

"My word of honor." Itachi said, watching Naruto sag with apparent relief back against the brunette's supporting arms. Those blue eyes remained riveted on the Uchiha, searching the other's face for some sign of deceit. "It will be painless; I'll make sure of it."

Naruto began nodding rapidly, too rapidly, his body giving a shuddering breath, and suddenly he was hurling himself at Itachi and sobbing, clinging to the other like a lifeline. It startled the brunette since giving comfort had never been Itachi's forte but he let the blonde hug him tightly, occasionally stroking the teenager's back as he continued to weep. There was a 'thank-you' in there some where, almost indistinguishable from the other broken noises Naruto made, but present if you listened carefully. It was unnecessary, but the brunette heard it, and something in his heart that had until now remained amorphous and ambiguous finally crystallized into something sharp and determinable.

Itachi Uchiha was going to save Naruto Uzumaki.

An important question remained, however, and it nagged at the Uchiha like an irritating insect that would not go away no matter how hard he ignored it.

How much of the blonde was there left to save?

---

More's Moment:

Righty-oh! We have a lot going on in this chapter so, if any one's confused, I highly suggest reading it again when you have some free time. It's long, I know, but I wanted to get this night done and over with and not drag it out longer than necessary. I'm trying to answer some questions and laying the ground work for events later and some of it can only be done through different characters' perspectives. Before the screaming begins, Kana and his importance will be explained later in subsequent chapters (hopefully the next).

I'm not entirely happy with this chapter but I can't find out what bothers me about it- I just know that if I keep staring at it, I'll end up rewriting it again. Or go nuts. Both are equally likely at the moment.

Which brings me to my next point: I have this story planned out roughly to a point but I am welcoming suggestions for scenes involving the characters. As a warning, this story will remain primarily around the events concerning Naruto, Kisame and Itachi directly and we will only visit Konoha when and if necessary. I happily invite people to put ideas involving our trio in their reviews. Feel free to run the whole gambit of emotions- I get inspiration from everything.

Now, if you are still reading this, pat yourself on the back if you are thinking that everyone is drawing the conclusion that Naruto has been raped. If this completely strikes you as a surprise or if you've dismissed the comments of the innkeeper makes during Itachi's point of view, I suggest reading them again before the next chapter because they will come up again.

Thank you everyone for reading (and hopefully reviewing)!