Welcome to chapter 14 of Underwater. I greatly appreciated the response all of you gave to the invention of the O.C. I thank those of you who submitted a character of your own for my story. Now...to find someone to do the artwork.... Bwa–ha–ha. Just joking. Oh, and someone kindly pointed out to me the actually ages in canon. So, we're going to pretend that Harry Potter thing never happened (I'll fix the chapter later) and just go along with Naruto being 18 and Itachi being 21.
Disclaimer: Naruto and all other characters are licensed to Masashi Kishimoto. The O.C. in this story is licensed to DarkNinjaBunneh. Song lyrics are by Nickleback. The song is 'Savin' Me'
Chapter 11. Savin' Me
'These prison gates won't open up for me
On these hands and knees I'm crawlin'
Oh, I reach for you.
Well, I'm terrified of these four walls
These iron bars can't hold my soul in
All I need is you.
Come please I'm callin'
And oh, I scream for you.
Hurry, I'm fallin', I'm fallin.'
...At an Orphanage in Konoha...Month: March
"Yuuri? Where's Yuuri?!" a sharp-voiced matron practically screamed as she went from one room to the next, searching for a certain dark-haired toddler.
"Yuuri? Come out, please." called another girl, this one sounding much kinder than the other.
"I can't believe he's missing again. Yukirin, you were supposed to be watching him!" the matron said accusingly.
"Gomen nasai. I only looked away for a second." the younger one replied.
The matron tucked a strand of graying hair that had strayed loose from its bun behind her ear and sighed heavily.
"That child is always getting lost somehow. Find him! And for Kami's sake shut the door. The snow is blowing in!" she shrieked.
"Yes, ma'am." the girl named Yukirin replied.
The matron sat down on a spindly chair that creaked heavily under her weight while Yukirin went to close the door. Just as she was about to pull it shut, something navy and white moving around the corner of the building caught her attention.
"Yuuri, is that you?"
"CLOSE THE DOOR!" cried the woman sitting inside.
Yukirin flinched, but went outside and shut the door behind her.
'Oh my goodness, it's freezing out here. I hope that isn't Yuuri. He'll catch a cold in this weather.'
"Yuuri!" she called as she raced around the edge of the building.
Sure enough, a blue-eyed child with shaggy black hair sat happily in a snowdrift. When he saw Yukirin coming, he quickly turned and tried to crawl away, but the young girl bent down and scooped him up.
"Yuuri, what you did was very bad." she said , admonishing the toddler.
"I bad?" Yuuri asked while tilting his head cutely to one side.
Yuuri's early development of speech never ceased to amaze Yukirin. The child could actually speak a handful of singular words though he was only seven months old. Add that to the fact that he could crawl fast enough to drive his caretakers nuts and you got one mischievous child.
"I bad?" Yuuri repeated.
"No, Yuuri. You're not bad. What you did was bad. You can't go off on your own yet. You're too little. Oh, and your soaking wet. Let's get you inside and cleaned up. My manager will be glad to know that you're safe." Yukirin said as she started walking back to the entrance of the orphanage.
"No...won't." Yuuri replied in a voice so solemn and full of understanding that Yukirin actually paused in her steps. She looked at him and he looked back with his serious deep blue eyes.
"Won't."
"Oh, Yuuri. I hope you get adopted soon. I know you don't like this place." Yukirin murmured as she cuddled the trembling toddler close and brought him inside.
The old woman from before was nowhere to be found but in her place was a note that read: I had to leave early for a doctor's appointment. I will be out all next week. Find Yuuri a home or he will be removed. Sincerely, Arisa.
"Oh no... Oh no...Not Yuuri...Yuuri, no." Yukirin's eyes began to tear up as she read the note a second time.
"I bad?" the toddler pronounced slowly.
"No Yuuri. You're not bad. Let's get you cleaned up."
She set about changing his diaper, trying to distract her mind from the letter. She didn't know why it was such a shock to her. She knew the rules. If a child was there longer than six months they were then "shipped" to orphanages in different lands. Yuuri had already been there for seven months, going on his eighth. Arisa had only allowed Yuuri to stay because she had mentioned adopting Yuuri herself despite being single and living alone with only the monthly stipend from working at the orphanage as her source of income.
"I'm sorry, Yuuri. I wish I could adopt you."
"No..." Yuuri replied. "Hi?"
"And there we go." she said as she pulled down a plain black nappy over Yuuri's head and snapped it shut at the bottom.
Yuuri yawned then, gazing up at his caretaker tiredly.
"Time for bed. And no crawling away this time."
Yukirin picked Yuuri up and he leaned against her wearily, exhausted from his adventure into the snow. She placed him gently on his back in a crib decorated with blue protective padding all around the inside and tucked a blanket over his little form. He was asleep within seconds.
...With Naruto and Itachi...
"Koi, it's time to wake up." Itachi reached over and gently shook Naruto's shoulders.
Naruto's only response was a sleepy moan.
"Naru-chan. Kisame is making breakfast."
Normally that got the blonde's attention but today he just did not want to get up. He felt physically ill and he wondered if it had anything to do with the question that he'd wanted to ask Itachi for the past month.
"Mm...Don't wanna get up." came Naruto's soporific reply.
"Naru-chan, what's going on?"
Itachi's voice was stern, yet full of worry and compassion. Naruto felt an old familiar guilt creeping in on him. A tiny voice in the back of his mind urged him to act out on a three-letter word: cut. But he didn't want to do it. Didn't want to let anyone down. He knew in his heart that if he confessed his desire to self-mutilate, he would be watched with unnecessary caution and that in itself would drive him up the wall.
"It's nothing, koi." Naruto said, rolling over with a fake smile plastered on his face that he was sure Itachi could see through.
Itachi gave him a deadpanned look that immediately told him enough was enough.
"I'll talk to you about it later. Let's eat breakfast first. I'm starving because somebody kept me up all night...again." he added, contriving a convenient excuse from the night before.
"Very well then. Let's go eat. I'm sure Kisame will be insulted if we're not at the table promptly. You know how much he loves it when we compliment his cooking." the raven added with a snicker.
Naruto chuckled as well and slid the covers back before setting his feet down on the carpeted floor. Itachi got up and they both went to the kitchen, sneaking in an occasional kiss along the way. The blue-skinned shark man was busy frying eggs, chicken, and rice in a pan. He looked up when he heard them come in and immediately sweat-dropped because Itachi was busy making sure Naruto had a nice dark hickey on the side of his neck.
"Possessive, aren't we?" Kisame asked as his adoptive brother (that was how he thought of Naruto now) let out a childish giggle.
"Mine." Itachi growled, hugging Naruto tightly.
Kisame sighed and went back to cooking breakfast while his companions sat down at the small round table and waited.
"So, what was it you wanted to talk about?" Itachi asked Naruto.
"I said I'd tell you later." The blonde replied, stressing the last part.
The question was fraying at his nerves...had been, in fact, for the past month. But every time he found himself about to ask, something else came out. It was either, "I love you." or "Kiss me." or something sloppy and romantic. And the sad part was Itachi never saw through it. He didn't want to accept what that meant...
'What it means...' he thought sorrowfully, 'Is that I'm still capable of hiding myself from people. I don't want to do that, least of all to Itachi. He's my lover and I should be able to trust him. But why can't I say it...Why can't I just ask..?'
He felt like he was walking through a long tunnel, the Kyuubi-no-Kitsune's tunnel. The smell was horrible, as always. The stench of decaying stone and rotten mold enveloped him thickly, making him want to gag and choke. He made a left, walked, and then made a right, walked, letting his connection with the nine-tails act like a magnet. Eventually he came to the fox's cage.
"What do you want, Kitsune?" he found himself asking.
The nine-tails did not respond. It merely stared at him; its eyes boring into him like two incandescent flames. Then it turned away and lay down, its many tails fanning outward to leak chakra through the cage. The fiery chakra lapped at his feet like a puddle, absorbing into Naruto's chakra system.
"Go...to...Konoha...Rescue...the...orphan...Yuuri." the fox emitted a pause between each word.
Naruto stood in shock, taking everything in. There was an orphan in Konoha somewhere...Someone that the Kyuubi-no-Kitsune wanted him to save.
'What could the nine-tails possibly want with an orphan? I don't understand.'
"Rescue...him...Save...Yuuri," the fox repeated and then Naruto was forcefully thrown away from the cage by a thin tail of chakra. He hit his head on the stone wall and knew no more.
"Naruto...Naruto. Kisame, he's not responding when I call him."
"Naruto." Kisame had abandoned his rice and was over by Naruto, shining a light into his eyes. His pupils didn't react. It was as though he were unconscious but with his eyes open rather than shut.
Suddenly Naruto gasped, as though he were breaking through a surface of icy water. He blinked, looking into the worried faces of Kisame and Itachi.
"Wha–?" Naruto asked; his cerulean eyes were full of confusion.
"That's what we'd like to know." Kisame and Itachi said simultaneously.
"I was..." he whispered. "I was..."
"What is it, Naruto?" Itachi asked softly.
"Spit it out, Naruto." Kisame said, earning a reproachful glance from Itachi.
"I was...talking to...the fox."
Itachi had surprise written across his pale face. Kisame gave him a weird look before turning back to Naruto.
"We have to go...home." he whispered lowly. "To Konoha. He wants us to rescue an orphan named Yuuri...but I don't understand. Why would it want us to save someone? Its...not...it doesn't make sense. Home is..." when he looked up at Itachi, his eyes were full of unshed tears.
The memory of his attempted suicide was rushing back to him, assaulting him with all its force. He remembered the frigid water piercing his skin...the light fading further and further away as he sunk down into the river...the earth-shattering pain as his elbow broke against the rock underwater...being caught by his pants, trapped below the surface...He couldn't breathe...Could...not...breathe.
And then Itachi was grabbing him...shaking him by the shoulders and calling his name over and over. But he didn't care. He couldn't bring himself back to reality. He couldn't let Itachi know that he actually wanted to go back to The Village Hidden in the Leaves. Itachi would be disappointed in him. Wouldn't love him any more. The urge to cut was overwhelming. He had to get out, had to escape!
Naruto focused his chakra and teleported as far away as he could. The key to teleporting, he had learned, was that you could only go where you had been before. So when he collapsed on the outskirts of Konoha, he was surprised to see that he had even made it that far.
He stood dizzily and began running further away from town, trying to escape the nightmarish realm he had entered involuntarily. He was so intent on fleeing that he actually ran into something. He blinked blearily, trying to focus his mind on the thing in front of him.
"Are you okay?" the voice asked; it was echoey, floating down to him.
Naruto looked down at his arms. They were bleeding. The blood. Oh, Kami, the blood. The red stuff was pouring out of him rapidly. He felt himself going weak. What was happening to him? What was going on? Why had he come to Konoha. He couldn't remember.
Dizziness overcame him and he nearly fell flat on his face. The kunai...There was a kunai in his pocket. If he could just make himself feel pain, then maybe he could think clearly. He scrabbled for the blade in his pocket, withdrew it, and plunged it into his arm. A scream of pain...no...shock...rent the air in two, but it wasn't coming from him.
"I know you. You're that boy Sasuke told me about. What's wrong with you, huh?" the voice was becoming clearer now.
Naruto swayed on his knees, disoriented by the swirling light around him. Why wasn't the pain working? His heart was still racing. He could still see himself looking up from the deep blue depth of water. He pulled the kunai out and prepared to stab himself again, but a hand took it from him before he could harm himself anymore.
"Give it back."
Kami. Even his voice sounded strange to his own ears. He couldn't recognize it. Or maybe he didn't want to acknowledge the desperation in it. He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again.
'That's...funny. Why is the ground moving?'
That was his last thought before the ground rushed up to meet him.
'Hurry, I'm fallin'.
Say it for me, say it to me.
And I'll leave this life behind me.
Say it if it's worth savin' me.'
Bwa-ha-ha. I actually updated. Holy crap! And I know, I left a little cliffie for you all to hate me for. He-he. Blame my muse. It was all her idea. (points at the innocent muse). Attack her, not me. (Dodges random flaming objects) All right, all right. I'll update soon, I promise. Take care and thanks for reading. – Bottlecaps.