Title: Killing Loneliness
Pairings: ItaNaru SasuSai
Warnings: Let's see…we have yaoi and vampires and blood play oh my! Plus some probable OOCness…it just happens okay…oh and some swearing, yep definitely swearing. And cutting though it is very minimal.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor do I claim to own them. So please draw some more yaoi fanservice Kishimoto. That one SasuSai panel was not enough.
A/N:
Shadows: Ya I know it's not December yet and I should be working on NaNoWriMo but……I just really love ya guys?
Twi: What she means that there is no way for her to write the remaining 45000 words that she needs by November 30th.
Shadows: (flails) Don't tell them that!!
Twi: Well at least you got a good story idea out of it.
Shadows: True…Hey where's Ruki?
Twi: Off in her corner sulking about how little Jasper was in Twilight and how he seemed really off.
Ruki: I do not sulk.
Shadows & Twi: …
Ruki: okay maybe a little….but anyways I gotta move on and start cranking out the stories. By the way Broken Sexed Up Bloody Kitten do you want your oneshot AU or in universe? And lemon or no?
Twi: (whispers) she didn't mean that comment about being an idiot last update. That's just how she is.
Shadows: Anyways, we got a great chapter ahead, a little short but you start to find out things in Naruto's past and some Sasuke theorizing. Hope you enjoy!
Chapter IIIA Life of Soundless Screams
In the dark, in the darkness you will find
Dirty little secrets we all hide.
Cause we all have a darker side
A place we keep, where no one else can find
Cuz everybody wants to hide their secrets away
Nobody wants to stand up to the pain
But I will stand up to the pain
Secrets, by Good Charlotte
"Sai!" I called out to my kataho. I searched the darkness for his pale smiling face.
"Yes, Sasu-koi?" I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard his voice behind me. Sai was one of the few people in the world that who could sneak up on me.
"Have you found anything yet?" I turned to look at him.
"Hai," he handed me three bulky manila folders. "Turns out his last mane is actually Namikaze; Uzumaki is his mother's maiden name. I also found some interesting newspaper articles from around the time of his birth and when he turned four."
"That explains one of these folders but what about the other two?" I eyed the folders with suspicion.
"They're his parents' files. Mother is deceased. Father is missing and presumed dead."
"An orphan then?" I murmured out loud.
"It would appear so but I don't believe his father is dead." I looked at him curiously. How could Sai know about the blonde's father? "Look at picture in the father's file. You'll see what I mean."
I opened the father's file not even bothering to check the name on it. I actually gasped in shock when I saw the picture. I looked closely at the date of his disappearance, memorized it, and closed the file. I quickly opened Naruto's file and started scanning its entire contents. By the time I had finished I had come to one conclusion – I needed to talk to Itachi and show him what I found, the sooner the better.
"We'll make a quick stop at his house to see if we can find anything else and then we'll head home." My voice was confident but I couldn't stop myself from shaking from all the terrible things I had just learned. Sai noticed this and pulled me into his arms. I relaxed instantly. "We need to get this information to Itachi as soon as we can."
Sai nodded and released me but kept one of his hands holding one of mine. I was thankful of the comforting gesture that served as a lifeline for me while I tried to sort most of the more difficult to digest information to the back of my conscious mind to be dealt with at a later time.
We left the record hall like that, the files stashed in a durable army-green backpack slung over Sai's shoulder. I wondered how he could stand straight with such a heavy burden.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
I watched the blonde sleep from my spot next to the bed, my hand still placed over his mark. It had taken awhile to appear and it seemed to have caused him great pain, which confused me. Normally the mark should have appeared within an hour of receiving the bite and it shouldn't have caused any pain as great as that.
I took my hand away from the mark briefly to study it. All marks are different, each one including aspects of both the human and the vampire involved. His mark consisted of my can's symbol, the red-and-white uchiwa, surrounded by nine black tamas. I knew the uchiwa was my aspect so the tamas had to be his aspect. But how were they related to him?
I replaced my hand over the mark and my eyes drifted across his shoulder and down his arm to finally stop at his wrist. The pale lines of self-inflicted scars confused me just like they had when I had seen him inflicting the wounds on himself. My eyes left his wrist to move to his sleeping face and examined the whisker-like marks on his cheeks. They weren't scars because they were black lines not silvery. They were most likely birthmarks since they didn't have that unnatural look that comes with tattoos. My eyes drifted back to his wrist as I waited for him to wake up.
I didn't have to wait long.
His arm started to move slowly away from my stare, but I stopped it from moving with a firm grip of my hand. My eyes didn't move from the scars.
"Why?" Such a simple question yet it could be the hardest to answer. I looked up at his face, staring into those dead eyes. I asked the question again. "Why?"
"It's how I scream." Those dead eyes stared back at me with the same blankness as his voice. "It's how I show them the agony I feel."
I remained silent as I tried to comprehend his words. He made it sound like he couldn't scream but I could have sworn that I heard him scream that night he had been attacked…but it had sounded unusual. And most of the scars were faded by the passage of time meaning that the attack the other night hadn't been the first. I felt anger rising in me at the thought of him being hurt so many times.
The soft click of the door being opened broke the silent tension that had gathered. Sasuke's somber face appeared as the door opened, soon joined but Sai's face with his customary fake smile, though it seemed even more faked at this moment. The sight of their faces unnerved me. They had discovered something and from their appearance I could only assume that whatever it was it was terrible.
"Itachi," Sasuke's voice was calm as death. "I need to talk to you alone. Sai can keep him company while we talk."
His words left no option to disagree with him. I nodded my consent and stood up. I turned to the blonde and gave what I hoped to be a reassuring look before I walked toward the door.
"Sai, see if you can find something for him to wear. You can show him around the house if he wishes to once he's dressed."
"Hai, Itachi-sama." His smile was cracking slightly showing the sadness that lay underneath. A sinking feeling settled in the bottom of my stomach. They truly had discovered something horrifying.
I quickly left the room, Sasuke following at my heels. I led him through the corridors until we reached my study. I opened the door letting Sasuke go in before me. I followed right after, shutting and locking the door behind me, not wanting this conversation to be overheard. I turned around to find Sasuke sitting in one of the large leather armchairs by the French doors that led out to a second-story balcony. I noted that the blizzard had passed and that the sun was out as I briefly glanced through the clear glass set in the doors before I sat in the chair opposite my outoto. Only a small coffee table occupied the space between us.
"So what did you find out outoto?"
Sasuke pulled out three manila folders along with a plastic accordion-style folder from the black bag he carried with him. I looked curiously from the folders to Sasuke, silently asking him to explain what they were.
"These are the city records on Naruto and his parents along with the medical records we found in a safe in the rotting pile of wood that we discovered was his home." Small flickers of anger and disgust showed in his eyes. "According to records, he was still-born and his mother died giving birth. However we can clearly see that he is alive." I nodded my agreement with that fact. "Somehow a demon possessed the boy's body and he lived. Once the people of the city found out they tried to kill the boy, saying he was a monster that needed to be exterminated while it was weak and helpless. His father was highly respected, however, and he protected his son. Naruto's first four years were peaceful but then, one day his father mysteriously disappeared and a mob of people went after the four-year-old. He was beaten within an inch of his life and then dragged around the city by a rope around his neck that was attached to the back of an old pickup." Sasuke started shaking, whether from rage or sadness I did not know. "He was barely alive when the mob was stopped by his godparents. Most of his injuries healed completely but the damage to his vocal cords was too extensive. He lost the ability to scream."
The blonde's words finally made sense to me. Each of those cuts was a separate scream. It was his way to show the agony contained inside him. The realization made me feel sick.
"Since that day there has been a near infinite amount of physical and mental abuse done to him. He is thought of as a monster and is not even treated as partly human." Sasuke paused. "His father's identity and the time of his disappearance explains what exactly happened…and connects Naruto to Madara."
"How?" I asked trying to keep a growl out of my voice at the mention of Madara's name.
"His father is Minato Namikaze, Madara's newest underling that he turned fifteen years ago, right around the time Minato disappeared as a human. I believe he became Madara's servant in exchange for Madara implanting the Kyuubi into Naruto to save his life."
I leaned back in the chair and sighed. "Damn, today is not a good day."
"Why?" Sasuke asked with a curious face.
"Madara is coming today to leave Minato here so he can be trained to be a lord. We need to hide Naruto from him." I quickly stood up and headed for the door. An evil chill suddenly shot up my spine, making me stop dead in my tracks.
"It's too late. He's here." I turned to look at Sasuke. He had curled himself into a ball in the chair. His body was shuddering violently and his eyes were full of terror though his voice remained calm. Madara's presence always did this to him and it could last up to a few days after Madara had left. During that time his last human memories would keep replaying before his eyes. I wished that those memories weren't so horrible. "We just have to trust that Sai will keep Naruto out of His sight."
"Yes, outoto, we must." With those words I left my study to go greet the man I hated most in this world.
K.I.L.L.I.N.G.L.O.N.E.L.I.N.E.S.S.A.L.I.F.E.O.F.S.O.U.N.D.L.E.S.S.S.C.R.E.A.M.S.-E.N.D-
A/N:
Shadows: Told ya'll it would be short.
Twi: The next chapter is a lot longer and dare I say some of the best writing Ruki's ever done while not paying attention in class.
Ruki: It's your job to pay attention, my job to write.
Shadows: Anyways until Chapter IV!!! Please R&R! Dontcha just wanna use the new button. I know ya want to.