Chapter 3 : Shadow of the Day
Sometimes solutions aren't so simple,
Sometimes goodbye's the only way.
And the shadow of the day will embrace the world in grey,
And the sun will set...
And the sun will set for you.
"Do you smell any of them Kiba?" Hinata asked softly as she crouched down to her friend who was currently on all fours. His nose was practically touching the ground as he took deep whiffs, trusty Akamaru doing the same next to him. Hinata was glad that Tsunade allowed him to sniff a several straw hats and scraps of cloth at the short briefing at the town gates before they went out on the mission so that he knew at least some of their scents. She also held down a smile as she was once again reminded of how much Kiba was like a dog, this having always oddly comforted her rather then be appalled like most girls might.
"No, but I DO smell poisoned human blood around a couple hundred miles away from here that's maybe two...four days old." He stated as he looked up at Shino and Hinata, breaking the dark haired beaut out her reflective thoughts. She slightly jumped as she heard Akamaru bark a little too loudly in agreement with his master.
Two days ago, when the entire nine of them had meet at the gate, Neji had been the one to suggest that they break up into their original teams so that they could cover more ground. Although they knew that the lead had narrowed it down to only the Rock Country, it was still one of the largest countries in land mass as it went deep into the mountains. The other eight had agreed as it seemed like the most logical way of dealing with things, even if they did lose the aspect of safety in numbers to an extent. They had decided to meet up again in a four days, and so two more days, on the outskirts of a town in the middlish area of the country, so that they could report to each other as to what they had or hadn't found. Team 8 had been assigned to go straight through the middle, while the other two teams went to the left and right. They hadn't been having any luck in picking up any clues to track, even though it was their speciality, until now. Kiba had just stoppped the trio and declared that he smelt the faintest whiff of something that didn't exactly belong in the deep woods.
"We should follow it. May have been a fight that could give us some clues." Shino said through his high collar as he adjusted his dark glasses that hid equally dark eyes.
"It should only take a day and a half to get there if we only rest once for four hours." Hinata quickly calculated as Kiba got up from his down position, dusting his slightly clawed hands on his black pants.
"Then what're we waiting for?" The dog nin asked with a feral smirk towards Hinata, his long and sharp canines brushing his bottom lip, before he was off with a spin.
Hinata sighed as she watched Kiba go into the forest with her pupil-less lavender eyes before she too rose from her crouch and followed in pursuit with Shino.
X - X - X
Years of experience kept Naruto from moving or opening his eyes when he woke. Always check if the area is secure before letting anybody know you were awake was one of the first rules he'd ever learned when he'd first joined, even though the action was at the bottom of his things he liked to follow. The first thing he sensed was how a soft wind kept caressing his face and going through his long hair, then how there were birds cheerily chirping like there wasn't one evil thing in the world as the sun warmed his wounded body. He stayed still for at least a half hour as he kept discretely sniffing the air for signs of a person and straining his ears to find anything other then sparrow song. Finally, he groaned as he tried to roll over in his down position before groggily opening his eyes. He starred out to find numerous green shoots of grass that hid his body, the stalks stretching into the deep blue sky that had a few clouds passing by. He sat up and noticed with a groan that at place where he'd been stabbed, the blood was now old and dried, cracking with his movement.
Stretching his head as close as he could get to the wound, he smelled it, the almost rotting scent making him rear his head back with a grimace. He took his fingers and started rubbing away the old blood, finding that the wound had still yet to heal up completely. In addition to it still not fully closed, the stab from the poisoned encoded katana had an outring of some greenish substense. When Naruto took a finger and flicked some off to smell in closer inspection, he blanched and found that the gross scent wasn't coming from him but from this.
Sighing as he rolled his eyes, he lied back down into the tall grass. Blinking as the midday sun hit his crysal blue eyes, he remembered that the grass wasn't as tall as it was now when he had blacked out, this fact making him wonder just how long he'd been asleep for. Not being able to take the hot sun in his eyes anymore, he sat up in Indian style and placed his hands on his slightly propped up knees, getting in a comfortable position to meditate. He closed his eyes slowly as he tried to empty his mind and think back to what had recently happened in his life.
Usually his memory was extrememly sharp and he could remember the finest detail, so it was no doubt that the unknown poision had not only affected his physical being but also his mental, making his memory ever since he'd gotten stabbed and ran away one big blur. His closed eyes twitched as he tried to focus with more zeal…
Running…falling…sun in the eyes...contemplating death...
Blinking his eyes open again, he was actually glad that the poison hadn't killed him. He had thought about how he'd die a few times when he had thought he'd been stabbed beyond healing back up by Hidan, it being very similar to how he felt before he had fallen asleep from the poison except in a more drugged and heavy way. He had decided a while back that if he had to go, it'd be in a big boom, something that people would see for miles and remember for centuries. Something that would be concidered an act of an angry god, an immortal action. Thinking of how lame it would have been if he'd died from a sword stab from one of his former teammates in a forest where his body would probably rot away without being found, he allowed another breath of relief and thanked his fast metablizing body yet again.
But as he breathed in deeply again, he caught the scent of the unappetizing poison, causing him to gag again and deciding it needed to go - now. Getting up and stretching his hands over his head, arching his back in a satisfying way, he sniffed the air again and opened his ears more in search of a river. It only took a few seconds before he detected one not very far off, and one running at a moderate level just right for washing. First starting out with walking, his hip bone area still sore, he pushed himself after a few paces into a jog and then into full out running and then leaping through the tree branches, finding that if he kept the wound moving it didn't seem to keep that dull throb.
X - X - X
"I can't believe this." Tsunade breathed as she looked down at the two bodies that laid before her, one with a head and the other without.
"You are both IDIOTS!" The Fifth Hokage snarled as she turned around to glare at two of her best shinobi group in the village, her exclamation not only shocking the duo but Tsunade for having to say it.
"Kakashi, did you even bother to examine the bodies?" Tsunade grit out between her straight white teeth that were currently being ground together as she held down the urge to punch a hole in the nearest wall.
"Excuse me?" Kakashi asked as his visible eye blinked. He didn't want to admit it, but it seemed unnecessary as he'd seen Sasuke die right before their eyes and with Orochimaru not having a head...well, self explanatory at it's finest.
"Do it now." Tsunade snapped as she pointed a dangerous finger towards Sasuke's body.
As the copy nin leaned down, Sakura chewed her plump bottom lip in aggravation. She really didn't see anything that they'd done wrong. After two days of constant travel, they'd finally arrived back at Kohona. They'd immediately taken the bodies of the two rouge shinobi to the Hokage building so that Tsunade could see it with her own eyes like they'd know she'd want to do. Yet when they'd laid the bodies on a brought out table, and Tsunade had starred at them for a few minutes in silence, she had then yelled at them, and was now intently glaring at the equally pretty Sakura across of her while Kakashi leaned down with an ear to Sasuke's chest.
"I…don't understand Sensei." Sakura voiced her current thoughts, fumbling with her fingers that she hid behind her back as she stood straight.
"No way…" Kakashi's whisper interrupted anything that Tsunade was about to snap back at her five year prodigy student.
"I'm glad to see that you notice it NOW, Mr. Excellent Shinobi." Tsunade said as her eyes focused with Kakashi's wide one.
Hazel eyes moving from black to green, Sakura forced down a shiver. Although she was considered a (strong) woman in her shinobi status who shouldn't be afraid of anything, whenever her mentor gave her a glare of such scale it still made the hairs on her neck prickle. It was as if she could already feel the broken rips and punctured organs. But the blond didn't open her mouth or raise her fist to express her clear displeasure this time, but instead simply waved her hand towards Sasuke's body.
"Tsunade…" Sakura choked down, not wanting to get close to her deceased teammate. Hadn't it been enough that she had to carry him all the way back?
"It's alright Sakura." Kakashi encouraged as he put a gloved hand on her thin shoulder, making the pink haired teen sigh before taking a small step towards the body of her long time crush. The one who she had worked so hard for...the one she would have given her life for...
Holding down a whimper, she did what she had been taught to do when checking if someone was alive or not, and that was placing a hand near the mouth to see if they were still breathing and an ear to their heart to see if it was still pounding.
Sakura bit her swollen lip again as she knew she wasn't going to feel something. Yet she stayed for longer then necessary…she still didn't grasp that he had died. His peaceful face was still too much for her to take. And then it happened.
The faintest heartbeat reverberated.
The slightest exhaled breath passed through her slim fingers she knew she wouldn't have felt if she hadn't been waiting for it so expectantly.
So shocked from the sudden noise that seemed to vibrate in her ear and barely warm breath that tickled her hand, Sakura jumped back and almost fell, if it was not for Kakashi who caught her by the arms.
"It's…not…" Sakura tried to say but found that words refused to form.
"Yes." Tsunade affirmed as she placed a hand over his stomach to heal the wound from his sword, first taking out the tinted green poison to place in a nearby bowl.
"He's alive." Kakashi finally voiced out.
Sakura couldn't say anything as she slowly pushed away from Kakashi to take Sasuke's cold hand in her own smaller, warm one.
"It's a miracle…"
X - X - X
With his wound, Naruto's running was seriously impaired and this only added to his list of annoyances. Not that it took an extra two minutes to get to the river, but the fact that it would take longer to get to Pein's base in the mountains.
When he did finally arrive at the river, Naruto put a hand to his wound to find that it had reopened with his running. Now slightly limping as to not agrivate it anymore, he started to hop on one leg along the large river rocks worn by water over hundreds of years until he found a nice collective pool that was of moderate size. Not thinking twice, he stripped out off all his clothes. First, he washed those since he didn't want to smell old blood for longer then neccessary and then grabbed a few sticks nearby to hang them to dry. When that chore was done, he finally jumped fully into the crystal clear pool and resurfaced with a gasp. Getting to work right away, he started scrubbing the dried blood that he hadn't gotten off yet, using his claws to try and dig out any poison that was still in the open wound. When he felt like he was about finished, he got out of the water and sniffed his wound again, finding that almost all traces of old gore and poison had left. He lifted his head again to smell the fresh air in clear his nose, but he suddenly picked something up that wasn't usually found in this kind of remote forest.
Another shinobi.
As his body tensed, he knew he only had time to make a grab for his clothes before they were upon him. So, lunging for his pants and coat, and so gang ring, he dived back into the pond to create no splash, going to the side where there was a small indention and he knew that he could hide from view and the water would wash away his scent, especially since he'd just bathed.
It didn't take ten seconds when he'd gotten into his position before he heard someone land just above him with a light thump on the rocks.
Growling in amusement, he knew that he could easily take one person and was just about to leap out, since he'd managed to get his pants on, but was stopped when he heard another thump, this one louder as signaling that it weighed more then the first. As his eyebrows furrowed, two more thumps could he heard and this caused him to surpress a groan at his bad luck.
"Is it the smell?" An obviously male voice asked, the voice causing the hair on his neck to rise which made Naruto want to growl all the more. This hair standing reaction wasn't one of fear, but it was as if...he didn't even know.
"Wait. It's here, but..." A different male voice said as Naruto couldn't keep it in anymore. He had to get out of this cold water and stop acting like a coward. As he thought this, he grabbed the ring from the pocket in his jacket and jammed it onto his pinkie finger, not caring if he had permission from Pein or not. Right now, he didn't want to lose the one thing that had actually gone fine and without incident for him. Taking his other hand away to expect the sight, he found that the ring was almost a little bit too loose only to find in the next second it tightening to fit his finger comfortably. But his eyes were torn from the ring to the face of a big white dog the size of a bear as it bared it's teeth at him from the opposite side of the bank, it having a clear sight of him.
Now not having a choice, he dropped his useless cloak into the fast moving water and jumped out from the pool, showering the three people with the cold river water as he flew over and then behind them. But in midair, one of the three had jumped up too and grabbed Naruto's ankle, causing him to plummet back to the ground with a sickening crack as his head hit stone.
Blinking to try and get ride of the fogginess, the blond found himself starring into the smirking face of Kiba.
"Don't touch me." Naruto growled out as he flipped up, consequently hitting Kiba square in the jaw with his foot and causing the feral face of Kiba to contort into an expression of pain.
Feeling his pent up anger start to resurface, he sprung forward and tackled Kiba into the a boulder, causing the older teen to cough up a little blood as he'd no doubt now had a few broken ribs.
"Were you attempting to tickle me when you hit me against that stone? Because it didn't work." Naruto asked as he flipped back a good twenty feet to give Kiba and the other two space. As he landed, he saw that the other two personas were that of Shino and Hinata, making him snort. How predictable.
"Kiba!" Hinata cried in worry as she appeared at his side, placing glowing hands over his chest to heal his broken insides.
"Y-You should save your chakra for yourself." Kiba stuttered, although couldn't stop her as her healing touch felt too good.
"Please stop. You're going to make me puke." Naruto scoffed as he noted that Shino had started to gather bugs around him in preparation for a swarm.
As Hinata turned from Kiba's tattooed face to look at Naruto's whiskered ones, her lavender eyes widening before starting to tear up.
"Hinata...?" Kiba asked as he looked up from his healed chest to Hinata's distressed face, her first tear falling. His slanted black eyes moved from her face to Naruto's as his eyes too widened, before narrowing and he started growling and baring his fangs. Naruto's eyes focused back from Shinto to on the pair and growled right back as he curled his lip back in retort.
"How DARE you impersonate Naruto!" Kiba asked as he stood, pushing a still shocked Hinata behind him. It seemed that seeing his face after years of not had utterly shocked her to the point where her legs couldn't hold her.
"Who says I'm impersonating?" Naruto sneered as his snarl turned into a smirk.
"Why do you look like Naruto?" Shino finally voiced in a hush, Naruto now openly wincing as he watched bugs crawl out of his jacket collar to crawl around the small visible part of his face.
"God, you guys are SLOW." Naruto scoffed as he took his hands off his bare hips to crack his knuckles. He was going to have at least a little fun with the two, and three when Hinata decided to get off her ass.
"You CAN'T be Naruto. The Naruto I know would never become an Akatsuki member." Kiba snarled out, letting his mind reflect back to his fight with the blond all those years back during the Chūnin Exams.
"Ask your stupid dog." Naruto said, as he allowed his left hand to feel over his wound to see if it was still bleeding, finding that it thankfully wasn't, or at least not yet. He surpressed his growing annoyance as he knew this would confide his sporatic fighting to at least a little. He usually wouldn't pay so much heed to a wound but if it was right by his hip which was essential to running, which is what he needed to do to get to the base in as little time as possible, he might want to pay attention as to not antagonize it further.
Kiba gave one final growl before he leaned down, Akamaru leaning his muzzle closer to his master's ear to whimper something to him.
"See?"
"You are Naruto." Kiba said in astonishment as his black eyes widened, Shino's own widening too although it was hidden by his glasses.
"What happened to you Naruto?" Hinata whispered as she felt her heart break. "What have they done to you?" She continued as she leaned on Kiba for support, who in response wrapped a hand over her thin waist to further support her.
"I wanted this wench." Naruto spat as he gave her an icy glare that made the tears in her eyes finally start to really cascade down her pretty pale face.
"Animal." Kiba growled feeling his anger rise at the sight of a falling apart Hinata.
"You're one to talk."
But Naruto's snap only ruffled Kiba's fur more and, finally having taken enough, lunged out at the blond with his own claws. Naruto easily dodged, only to be advanced on again by Shino. Tsking, he couldn't dogde in the air before the bugs were suddenly upon him, covering every inch of his body.
But Naruto didn't panic, only grin widely as he started to heat up his body temperature. After the second time he'd morphed more with Kyuubi, he'd found that he could successfully change the body temperature without using any intentional chakra output, it was as simple as blinking his eye. The only problem was that if he kept it too hot he started cooking from the inside out and that if he made himself too cold, those same organs would start to shut down and his musceles would freeze and crack. But for this task of getting ride of bugs, he only had to elevate his skin so that they soon started bursting into instant combustion.
Not feeling the fire on his skin since it was hotter then it, he continued his fall and when he landed, bolted across for Shino, deciding to get ride of him first by grabbing him around the neck. Relinquishing in the feel of him struggling for breath, Naruto had to crinkle his nose as to try and prevent the burning scent of Shino's neck from his overheated skin from getting in.
"SHINO!" Kiba bellowed before he barked at Akamaru and they swiftly did their Fang Over Fang that had been perfected and strenghtened over many years of harsh practices. Naruto glanced with bored eye at the attack and sighed before jumping up at the last second, relinquishing Shino from his strangle.
"Oh...three more seconds and I'd have suffocated him...or burned his head clear off." Naruto said with a shrug of his boney shoulders as he watched Kiba crouch down to his teammate that was having a hard time breathing since his neck was now burned to an extreme.
"Did he really think that those bugs could affect me?!" Naruto laughed out bitterly as he grabbed one of his bugs that still hovered weakly in the air between his thumb and index finger, easily squishing it before it started burning from his heat.
"Kiba! Is he alright?!" Hinata said in a paniced rush as she approached Kiba's side, seeming to have finally gotten a hold of herself, using her healing justus again to heal Shino's wounded neck which was almost burned beyond repair. Even as she healed it up, there would still be a scar that would never heal.
"Urgh, with you healing everyone this is going to take some time." Naruto sighed as he ran a hand through his long blond locks, grimacing at the pretty Hyuuga before looking up at the sky, finding it to now be at least two with the position of the sun. Damn it, time was running out. Even if he ran at his fastest pace-
"Pay attention demon!" Kiba barked out just as he decended on Naruto in his transformed two headed, massive dog with Akamaru. Naruto had been so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed the transformation, and was now lightly amused at the sight.
"Interesting." Naruto laughed as he started a number of hand signs in a flash, designed to create fire in the form of a dragon to bloom from his mouth to burn the two headed dog away, but found that when he ended, nothing but smoke formed out of his fanged mouth. Biting his lip in frustration, causing the metalic taste of blood to be in his mouth, Naruto chose to simply jump above the huge animal before landing on it's neck, successfully bringing it down on it's stomach in pain.
"That FUCKING Uchiha." He cursed as he jumped over the animal, realizing the poison must still have trace amounts in his body that were now affecting his chakra control. "Is there one thing that his damn poision doesn't affect?!" He continued to mutter to himself as he dodged a 64 palm strike from Hinata who had suddenly advanced. He'd known enough from Neji five years ago that it actually stung.
"What's the matter? You're not trying your hardest." Naruto said as he appeared at Hinata's back, easily taking her arms and twisting them to pin against her back, causing her to cry out. "Are the Hyuugas really that weak?" Naruto said as he brought the other hand that wasn't holding her thin arms in place to run a few fingers along her jaw line, making her shiver and whimper.
"Get your hands OFF her!" Kiba yelled as he once again charged. Naruto only shrugged before throwing the female at the huge animal who caught her in one of their jaws, making sure their giant teeth didn't hurt her.
"I would just love to stay here and play with you, but I have some important stuff to do and places to be, so I'm going to end this now." Naruto cheekily said as he flicked some bangs out of his piercing gaze that Akamaru and Kiba, even in their transformed state, could only growl at since they couldn't advance with Hinata in their mouth and yet couldn't put her down as it'd make an opening.
Without another warning, Naruto took the offense and appeared in front of the body in the blink of an eye before being at his each of his legs, landing a decisive kick or punch to each and causing the animal to crumple once again. He then ended his attack by doing a double kick to both heads. There was a giant poof of smoke, it clearing in a few seconds before it revealed Kiba lying over Hinata, as if still trying to protect her, as Akamaru whined a few feet away.
"Human emotions just make you pathetic." Naruto scoffed as he realized Kiba intended to protect Hinata down to his life.
"They make you vulnerable." He continued to rant as he grabbed the Inuzuka by his neck, hoisting him to dangle in the air as he'd done with Shino not five minutes before, but this time his body had gone back to normal and so wasn't burning the brown haired teen.
"You're wrong." Kiba managed to struggle out as he rose his hands to try and pull away Naruto's iron grip. It was all in vain.
"You know the feeling...fucking hypocrite. You're...strongest when...protecting...someone." Kiba growled out as he actually had enough strength, even in his lack of oxygen, to kick Naruto in his wound. He put a hand to his now open again abrasion, thinking of how he'd been so careful in no opening it during the fight and still...
"That time it DID tickle." Naruto growled out as he flew Kiba against a boulder nearby, the teen hearing with a smirk a sickening crack as his head banged against the hard rock.
"I've already had my fill of killing weaklings lately with Kabuto and Sasuke...so I think I'll let you live. Someone has to go running back to that accused village with his tail tucked between his legs to tell them about me. Put some fear into that rotting village." Naruto said as he went over to Hinata, grabbing a good ten kunai and shuriken from his pouch. He crouched down to her unconcious form, running the kunai lightly across her pale face and causing a few drop of red to spill at the shallow cut.
"Don't you dare..." Kiba growled as he struggled to stand, wiping blood that had been coming down from her head to run into his eyes.
"What-EVER are you talking about?" Naruto asked as he threw the kunai he'd just used on Hinata's face at the older teenager, causing Kiba's arm to be pinned against the boulder as it went straight through his forearm. But the black eyed ninja refused to cry out in pain, he wouldn't give Naruto that satisfaction.
"Shall you take them all then?" Naruto asked as he threw three more, one going into his other forearm while the other two went into his tighs. Kiba didn't voice his answer as it wasn't needed. Naruto chuckled darkly as he threw the remaining metal into his once fellow shinobi.
Kiba's head lowered as blood dribbled out, now in too much in pain to scream out.
"But you know..." Naruto said as he made his way to Hinata again, grabbing one last kunai.
"I wanted to smell her sweet blood...you don't mind, right? Females tend to look the best in red...or at least to me." He said as his tongue licked his canine fangs that protruded out from his lip, longer and sharper then Kiba's.
"No...don't..." Kiba struggled out as his eyes widened in fear, but found that with no strenght left, he couldn't break away from the weapons that held him to the slate of rock.
"Too later." Naruto said as he brought down the kunai to pierce the Hyuuga's flesh just between her breasts, causing her to wake with a scream.
"Until later." He saluted before he was off.
As he left the river behind, entering the forest of green again, he lightly sighed as he thought of how great a reunion that had been. And also of how he'd just gotten the reacking scent of blood off of him only for it to engulf him again, making his head slightly dizzy and his nose to burn.
First thing to do when he got to Pein was taking a shower.
X - X - X
Kakashi blinked his uncovered eye as he looked at Sasuke's sleeping, tranquil face that was illuminated in moonlight. He, along with ten other ANBU members, were keeping watch on him even as he slept. Although the thirty one year old was the only one visible in the room, the other ten were outside and holding various positions.
"Has he changed at all?"
At the soft voice, the masked man turned to see Sakura at the door frame, still wearing a stained white apron and hat as she'd just gotten off of her hospital shift in the ER section.
"He's the same." Kakashi answered with a hidden smile behind his mask, thinking of how she'd no doubt saved a handful of lives with her skill tonight.
"I see..." Sakura said as she walked up to the side of the bed where Kakashi sat on, hesitantly lifting a trembling hand to place on his heart. It had been two days since they'd found out with Tsunade that he was still alive. Sakura still couldn't believe it, even as she felt his now strong heartbeat. She gasped as she felt a hand being placed over hers and found it to be Kakashi's. She glanced down at her teacher, his head down as he seemed to find the hospital's checkered floor more interesting then her pretty face.
"You don't need to worry Sakura. He'll wake up." He encouraged gruffly, not really used to dealing with someone who had a broken heart just as bad as him. They'd both been one, of many in the entire shinobi's history, to lose people who were very precious to them. But Sasuke was still alive...maybe Sakura could be the blossoming, happy youth that she used to be.
"I know." Sakura breathed out shakily as she turned her hand to tightly grasp Kakashi's, causing him to look up at her. He grinned again as he saw the same spark of fire he'd first seen years ago that had died out when her two teammates had left.
But their self-strengthening moment was cut short as a machine that Sasuke was hooked up to in the room suddenly beeped loudly. Taking her hand away from Kakashi's, Sakura hurried to the monitor as Kakashi stood up.
"What was that?" Kakashi asked as he looked at the freaking out machine that had it's lights flashing as if it was having a seizure.
Sakura couldn't say anything as she grabbed Sasuke's hand in her comforting ones.
Kakashi's eyes moved from the beeping machine lights to see with alarm that Sasuke's eyes had started to twitch. Finally, after what seemed like years to the standing two in the room, Sasuke opened his pure black eyes to look around in a daze before his lips moved to whisper one word...
"Naruto."
X - X - X
Branches nicked the bare chested teenager as he leaped through the forest, but Naruto didn't pay much mind as he knew in the next second whatever scrape that had been inflicted would heal up. The blond cursed as he tried for another ninjutsu. Still no use. Hopefully, he wouldn't get into anymore frays as he couldn't use any ninjutsu for one, but more importantly it would take up more time and he needed to get to Pein as soon as possible, each second counting as one lost until he was there.
He growled in amusement as he noticed that he was catching up to his normal speed but when he felt a pang, he looked down to see that his wound had reopened even more and it was now bleeding more then ever - again. Groaning in annoyance, he stopped with a thud on a thick branch and ripped off the bottom cloth of his pants, making them shorts now, to make a haphazard bandage to tie around his thin waist to stop the leaking of blood that would give away his position and trail.
After a good hour of going at beyond break neck speed, he had to stop to reexamine the wound to find it now seeping through the dark cloth. Snarling in annoyance, he finally intentionally focused the creation of new cells in that area but found that he couldn't as the poison avoided this task from being completed. Naruto full out roared as his frustration couldn't be pinned back anymore. As he felt his throat vibrate and his lungs constrict, he thought of how he wished Sasuke was still alive so that he could kill him all over again, in the worst and most painful way possible too. Then he'd keep him alive, just so he could do it all again.
But as his outcry ended and he dropped his head to look at his feet, he knew that this wasn't possible as he was sure he'd die from that wound in the stomach as he'd intentionally pierced through three organs that were essential to live, his stomach being the main one and the one that would hurt him the most as it's acid would leak out to destroy his other insides.
Knowing he couldn't use ninjutsu to help with his travel, he pushed his long leg muscles to the max so that he could go even faster even if it made his wound pang even more. Smirking through the pain, each leap causing him to break through the canopy and fly about five hundred feet before landing and then taking off once again, the long periods in the air making him feel like he was flying.
Finally, after five hours of constant leaping, he stopped as he lightly panted, lifting his head to smell for any other scents, now being precarious from his meeting with Team 8. If they were here, he was pretty sure that they wouldn't be the only ones as he knew the new Hokage wouldn't be that stupid, even if she was blond (and a woman to boot).
As he broke through the canopy once again, he blinked as he saw something flying next to him.
"What're you doing, un?" Naruto heard Deidara say as he had a long enough flight to hear it all before he disapeared into the green again before jumping up again and saying, "More like what are YOU doing here?"
Having to wait until Naruto went through another leap, the fellow blond answered "I was doing my patrol duty when I spotted you here, un."
"Why are you doing patrol here?" Naruto asked through another leap.
"Come up here, un." Deidara was obviously annoyed with the choppy speak from Naruto's non-constant position in the air. Shrugging, the shorter haired blong landed a final time on the top of a pine before angling himself so that he landed on the back of the bird behind Deidara.
"Like I said, I was doing patrol duty."
"But this isn't your assigned place right now." Naruto argued with furrowed eyebrows as he rechecked his wound, finding it'd finally stopped bleeding.
"Well, seems like YOU haven't been informed of anything lately, un." He snorted as he took a sharp turn, causing Naruto's arms to grab onto the clay animal to steady his body and not fall off.
"What're you talking about?"
"Leader will explain it when we get the the base, un." Deidara didn't answer the teenager fully, making Naruto loll his tongue out in distaste.
"Alright." Naruto shrugged as he started to heat up his body again slightly, not liking how the fast moving air around him was making his bare chest start to tingle with cold.
After getting a good degree that was toasty warm, not noticing how it was slightly melting the clay, Naruto actually sighed as he felt the wind through his hair. He allowed his legs to hold him on the bird as he lifted his hands to let the air go through his fingers. He glanced up at the pinkie ring and frowned as he thought he should now take it off. But when he tried to, he found that he couldn't. He must have started grunting in annoyance, for Deidara looked over his shoulder to see what was up with the shorter haired blond.
"It's not going to come off, un." He informed.
"What?" Naruto questioned between grinding teeth.
"It doesn't come off until death. Or you get your hand chopped off, un!" He laughed, obviously the ending statement meant as a joke to Orochimaru.
"And did you manage to kill the snake?" Deidara continued on from his previous thought on the ex-member.
"I'll explain at the base." Naruto grumbled, not wanting to have to repeat himself even if it was a simple yes or no. Turning away with now a frown, Deidara stayed silent.
Turning his eyes from Deidara's long flowing hair, Naruto looked down at the ring. He closed his cerulean eyes in hope that Pein wouldn't scold him for it. Physical pain was one thing, but when you were shut in a eight by eight room for a week, almost dying of boredom and stiffness, that was a different story. The leader had created this unique punishment for only Naruto since simple pain didn't work since his special body healed it right up.
But leaving those disagreeable thoughts aside since he knew there was nothing he could do but explain his story in truth, the blond could only look up at the afternoon sky and wonder what was to become of him next.
X - X - X
"Tsunade! TSUNADE!" Sakura screeched as she flew through the door frame into the large room of her mentor who didn't even bother to look up from the work on her desk.
"What Sakura? You know I have pa-"
"Sasuke's awake!" Sakura interrupted, Tsunade finally looking up to see how the pink haired teenager's eye were alight, shining in happiness that Tsunade had never seen before.
"When did he wake up?" The older woman asked as she stood, throwing her jacket on as she calmly walked to her pupil who seemed to be seven, not seventeen, as she was so excited she was bouncing in place, the grin on her face almost looking painful to make as it stretched over a good portion of her face.
"Just now, a minute ago." Sakura said breathlessly, her heart beating so fast that it almost hurt.
"Alright, calm down now. Remember you're a shinobi." Tsunade said as she gave a pointed look up at Sakura as the younger was taller by a half inch. Sakura's eyes widened before she blushed in embarassment. She had been so caught up with it all that she had just shot away all of her composure.
"I-I'm sorry." She lightly stuttered to apologize as her heart finally started to calm.
"It's alright. It happens to all of us." Tsunade sighed as she approached Sasuke's room. Her hand held the copper door knob in hesitation for a second before opening it up and gracefully walking into the room. She noted that nothing seemed out of wack as Sasuke sat on the side of the bed, his legs dangling off the edge of the high bed as he looked up at the two females.
"Lady Tsunade." Kakashi said as he nodded his head, alerting her of his presense that was just accross of her from the doorframe. Tsunade nodded back before going to the Uchiha's bed, bringing a chair to sit in front of him.
"Alright, I have a lot of questions that you better have answers to." She growled out as she cracked her knuckles. Sakura's face paled a little as she stood behind the chair with Kakashi. Was Tsunade going torture him? Sure he was a rouge ninja who had betrayed the village but...but......what? She blinked as she suddenly realized he had done almost nothing good in his life for the village. He had only hurt everyone around him. She winced as she further realized he had done nothing to earn her respect, her trust. He had only just ignored and hurt her too. Green eyes that used to be so lively just seconds ago suddenly glazed over as she wondered how she hadn't realized this sooner. Was love really that blind?
There was silence as Sasuke only smirked, switching his eyes from the current Hokage to Sakura's down head, and then to his former teacher who only glarred back just as hard with his own unfeeling onyx.
"I see the welcoming party hasn't arrived yet." Sasuke finally scoffed as he leaned back on his palms on the bed.
"Just answer our questions." Kakashi answered sharply with a growl hidden underneith. He once held the older man's respect and place in his heart as a student, but no more. He considered the Uchiha even more dead then Obito.
"Actually..." Sasuke drifted off as his eyes once again focused on Sakura's partially hidden face, "I think that I have something that will interest you."
Tsunade only grit her teeth as she starred at his dangerously handsome face. She knew that there was nothing that could really be more important then her questions, but she would just bare it.
"Naruto is still alive."
Tsunade hadn't ever been so wrong.
X - X - X
"Why has Team Eight still not reported?" Neji voiced out. The other five heads nodded in recognition, all thinking the same thing. It had been a few days since the six had meet up. They had first not been worried about the aspect of the third team but, seeing as so much time had passed, it had started to worry the teens.
"You don't think that anything happened...?" Tenten asked with a slight undertone of worry. She wasn't exactly friends with the younger three, but they were fellow shinobi of the same village non-the-less.
"What was that?" Ino suddenly asked in panic as she heard a twig snap close by. The five stayed silent as they heard another twig snap, and then another. Then labored breaths and sluggish steps could be heard as it vibrated through the mysterious forest.
"What..." Shikamaru dwalded off as his cigarette hung loosely from his mouth, the smoke curling around his face that was now on alert.
When they saw a gasping Shino carrying Hinata and a barely conscious, heavily bleeding Kiba who was heavily leaning on a limping Akamaru, they couldn't have been more shocked.
"Help..." Kiba stuggled out while letting go of Akamaru's stained fur to drop to his knees, covering his mouth to try and muffle a dry cough. He took his hand away to find that he had coughed up even more blood.
"What happened?!" Ino said in fright as she crouched down to Hinata who had been her close friend for a few years now.
"N...N..." But Kiba wasn't able to say anything before he was finally gave into the darkness and he went unconscious, Shino quick to follow since he still couldn't breath properly and so hadn't been able to say anything at all.
"Ino, you need to heal them right now. It's amazing that they're already still alive." Shikamaru instructed as he crouched down at Kiba's side, starting to take off his jacket and shirt, finding in disgust all the gashes that were obviously inflicted by kunai and shuriken.
"But..." She whispered out as she unzipped Hinata's jacket to find in horror the stab wound in her chest.
"You can do it." Shikamaru encouraged as he grabbed her smaller hand and squeezed. Ino sniffed as she took her hand away from his to rub at her nose, refusing to cry.
"Of course I can." She said as her hands started to glow as she started with Hinata. She then moved onto Kiba, finding all ten gashes and his massive head injury. She was deeply surprised that he hadn't died of blood loss, deeming he was only able to continue out of pure stubborness and refusal to let him and his team down. That damn loyalty made her heart twinge in praise. Finally going through Shino who was not as bad as Kiba thanks to Hinata's previous healing, and finally Akamaru who had several broken bones, she slouched down in utter exaustion. She knew that she had used up too much of her chakra and was now running dangerously low, but it couldn't be helped as she needed to do that if she wanted the four to survive to see tomorrow. It was the least she could do for her friends.
Gasping as black started to creep into her eyes, she followed Team 8 into unconciousness just as Shikamaru caught her so that she didn't fall on the hard ground.
"Good job." He whispered as he arranged her to comfortably lay down next to the other wounded three.
"This is what I was dreading would happen." Neji said as he put a hand to his chin to try and think of the next step in this crazy goose chase for the Akatsuki.
"What are we going to do, we're now three down." TenTen voiced too as she crossed her arms, sitting down on a log that they'd dragged over.
"We're not heading back." Shikamaru finally asserted his leadership in a steady voice as he started getting a fire ready since it would be dark fairly soon.
"I agree!" Lee finally spoke as he shot his hand into the air.
"We're not going back, don't worry. And we're not three down just yet, they'll recover in a day, enough time for us to think of a plan." Neji said as he looked over to Shikamaru who nodded in agreement.
"Then lets all go to sleep and talk again in the morning." TenTen said with a serious nod.
The fellow shinobi ate a fast dinner, complementary of Chouji, before they all undid their mats and tried to sleep, although none really got much as they were too wired from Team 8's attack.
As morning finally dawned with bright sunlight and twittering birds, Ino was the first to awake.
"Whoa..." She groaned as she raised a hand to her pounding head since she'd sat up too quickly.
"Take it easy, drink this." Chouji offered a hot beverage to the blond that she took with a smile and thanks.
Not far after, Kiba awoke with a yelp and jolt, as if coming out of an exorcism.
"Hey! Take it easy, your youthfulness is unneccesary right now!" Lee exclaimed as he was at Kiba's side, steadying the younger with his strong arms.
"Where is he, WHERE IS HE?!" Kiba bellowed in such a feral voice that it made Ino wince behind her steaming cup.
"Calm down, who are you talking about?" Shikamaru asked as he stood infront of Kiba.
"That damn, fucktarded, ass wipe of a demon..." Kiba overly swore as he shrugged off Lee's grasp a little too roughly, causing Lee's bushy brows to furrow.
"That is not the flowery talk of usual youths." He chided.
"Yeah, well if you'd been royally fucked over and almost FUCKING KILLED by a former shinobi you would understand." He growled in the older teen's face, his statement causing everyone's curiousity to spike.
"Explain." Shikamaru commanded and just as Kiba opened his mouth to start, a wail filled the air.
"Hinata!" Kiba gasped as he turned to his female teammate who had gone into the fedal position, yet her cries could be easily heard.
"It's alright, everything's fine now, he's gone." Kiba tried to comfort as his arms went around her shoulders and forced her to rest in his chest. Not resisting, actually accepting the dog-nin boy, Hinata desperatly grabbed onto his thin chest and used his torn shirt as a absorber for her tears.
There was silence for a good five minutes as she kept crying before her loud bawls turned into quiet snivels.
"What happened Kiba?!" TenTen couldn't hold back the bewildered question that had plauged her mind for a good twelve hours now from first seeing them.
"Naruto is what happened." Kiba whispered as he buried his nose into Hinata's silky raven haired that smelled so much better then his own blood, which had over powered his senses for the past few days.
"What does-" But Shikamaru was cut off as Kiba continued on with, "He's alive and he's joined the Akatsuki. He's totally fucked up, did all this to the three of us plus more since Hinata had healed me and Shino before."
"Wait...Naruto?!" Chouji questioned in disbelief, finding the chips in his hands to be suddenly unappetizing.
"Yeah, dumb, bubbly, cheerful Naruto? Well aparantly now he's a cold blooded, sadistic killer." Kiba laid it all out, the statement causing Hinata to give a loud whimper.
X - X - X
"Naruto..." Pein said as his unique eyes trailed up and down the blond's lanky body, lingering a little too long on the wound.
"Yes, Leader?" Naruto answered, those two words being packed with feignted respect. Naruto had gotten so good at putting on the obedient face that it was practically true, even in Itachi's and Pein's special eyes.
"Why have you come back injured?" He answered the second most important question he needed to ask Naruto, wanting the blond to get into a comfortable feeling until he stuck him deep with the most important question and, depending on his answer, the consequences.
"There was some troubles with retreiving the ring, Leader. Sasuke was cowardly and stabbed me when I was engaged in a fight with Orochimaru. I didn't know it at the time, but his katakana was encased with a special no-sense poision. Not only did it take down my chakra flow so I couldn't do ninjutsu, it also made my body cells slow down with their reproductive aspect. Because of that, it is now just beginning to heal." He explained in length, yet as short as he could make it.
"Sasori, come here." Pein ordered the puppet member to come. Almost reluctantly getting up from the chair he had been sitting on, having been working on another puppet model, he made his way over to the orange haired leader.
"Yes Leader?" He asked like Naruto, eyes glassed over in boredom as he stopped his short walk.
"I want you to look at Naruto's wound. Extricate the poison from Naruto."
"What will I do with it after?" Sasori asked quietly, eyeing the still angry wound on Naruto's bare stomach.
"To enhance and use for your weapons of course. If what Naruto says is true, it will be another handy asset for you, yes?" Pein didn't exactly feel like he needed to say the explination as he knew the puppet master was already thinking about it.
"How thoughtful of you Leader. Thank you." Sasori said before bowing to show further gratitude.
"My mistake, I didn't know that you wanted this for research, but I've already washed and cleaned it. I don't think there's any more poison left." Naruto voiced after Sasori's shallow bow to Pein.
"I bet there's some deeper in. I'll just have to...open it up and see, if you get what I mean." Sasori said in his same monotone, yet Naruto held down a growl as he could have sworn he'd head a light trace of amusement.
"Now, onto more pressing issues." Pein put them back on track, "Why are you already wearing Orochimaru's ring?"
Naruto stayed silent as he looked at his bare footed feet. He'd forgotten he'd left his sandals at the river. He was just glad that he'd put his headband into his pant pocket or else he would have forgotten that too and it was the only thing he didn't want to lose. But finally looking up the most powerful person in the room and his ringed eyes, Naruto rubbed a knuckle against the cool and reassuring metal in his pocket.
"I was afraid of it dropping out of my coat and so I put it on my finger so I wouldn't lose it. It's so small, ya know?." Naruto offered with a crooked smile.
"That's the worst fucking excuse I've ever heard in my whole fucking life." Hidan offered from his place as he scratched his mass of white hair, vivid eyes narrowed at Naruto.
"It's true. Just look at me now, I was bathing in the river and was forgetful of my coat so it washed down stream. And while my stuff lay on the bank, my hat blew away and deer started eating my sandals." Naruto shrugged in partial truth.
On his way here on Deidara's bird, he'd chewed on the idea of telling Pein about Team 8 and the high probability that they weren't the only ones out there. If he told the truth, he wouldn't get in trouble because it wasn't his fault, but he also wouldn't benefit from it in any way. In the end, as the cutting air whipped at his smirking face, he'd decided that he wouldn't tell Pein or the others about the incident. It would be overly entertaining to see how they would react, and Naruto hadn't had anything entertaining happen in his life anytime soon. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had some genuine amusement and this had scenario had some promise. Would they panic and flee? Stay and fight, maybe a few of them dying off or would they slaughter all the enemies? Naruto thought he deserved at least something to lift his mood since he'd been fucked over numerous times recently.
"Still, that is not nearly enough of a reason to put it on without my permission." Pein brought Naruto back from his sting-pulling thoughts.
The blond chose to stay silent, his pride not allowing him to say those two words of 'I'm sorry.' He hadn't in a few years, and like hell was he going to now.
"You will receive punishment for this heedless action, that of which I have yet to determine. For now, go with Sasori."
/'Because being dissected by him isn't enough...'/ Naruto wryly thought while supressing a shiver and past memories of waking up in mid-operation because Sasori had forgotten to put in more anesthesia. And it didn't help that those incidents, Naruto wasn't told of them at all. All Sasori did was wait till he fell asleep and then he would start, while a laughing in amusement Deidara would watch.
But those thoughts were pushed aside as Naruto gave a side-long glance at Sasori who now had a reserved smile on his unchanging face.
"That is all. You are free to return to your rooms." Pein finished the meeting as he got up himself, Konan silently following him. But she glanced back to look at Naruto, and with the flick of her thin wrist propelled something at him. With fast reflexes, Naruto caught it before it hit him in the head, lowering it to see it was a paper rose like the one in her hair. He looked up, intending to give her a disparing grin, but found that she'd already left.
"Shall we?" Sasori asked with that smile that was still plastered on his eternally handsome face.
"We shall." Naruto held down the groan in his voice as he followed the shorter member, ignoring the snickering from Deidara and Hidan.
X - X - X
As Naruto looked up at the blinding light above him, he closed his eyes to try and get ride of the light, but it still filtered through his thin eyelids.
"Are you ready yet?" The blond asked in irritation to the light red head, at to which Sasori's eyebrows lightly furrowed.
"Be patient."
"Says the most impatient person I know." Grumbled Naruto under his breath, but Sasori heard it and it only caused his eyebrows to furrow more.
"I'm taking this time because it seems that I have run out of anesthesia. I haven't had a live patient in countless years so it would be unnecessary." Sasori informed after another good minute of searching around his large workspace that he'd set up here.
"So you mean..." Naruto blanched as he stuck his tongue out as if he'd tasted something extremely sour.
"Yes. You'll have to do it without it." Sasori said as he turned aorund, all signs of being irrtated gone as his face was now fixed in impassiveness like usual.
"Hell no." Naruto snapped, "I'm not a fucking masochist like some people around here." He continued on as he sat up from the table and hoped down. He turned his head to the door, thinking he'd heard someone curse on the other side in the hallway, but was broken from that as Sasori spoke up again.
"You don't want to irritate Leader-sama any more, do you?" Sasori asked innocently. Cursing under his breath, the teen thought about how Sasori knew how to manipulate people just as well as his puppets sometimes.
Naruto ground his teeth before getting back up onto the table and lying down again.
"I can always knock you out with a hit to the head." Sasori offered.
"I think you'd accidentally kill me." Naruto tried to joke, trying not to think about the shiny sharp knife in Sasori's hand which was getting closer and closer to his wound that he'd finally thought he could put behind him. Naruto really hated how fucked up life was for him sometimes.
With a easy shrug of understanding, not denying his assumption, Sasori finally brought the scalpel down to make the first incision.
And as Naruto tried to push the pain out of head, the teen could have sworn he'd heard now laughter form behind the door in the hallway, but it could have just been the grinding of his own teeth from the searing torture from Sasori who was lightly humming in his haven, thinking about how Naruto would make a pretty good puppet when the time came. He would have to ask Leader-sama about it soon...
Glossary/Notes:
If you're like, 'Suck it up Hinata', just...give her a little time. It'll get better. And hey, her longtime crush just tried to kill her. Give her at least some props.
The part about Naruto being dissected by Sasori in the middle of the night (countless times) came from the series Soul Eater, specifically from the partially-insane character who is just SO awesome
Some things you should know about my writing/opinions (should have done this sooner) -
1. I don't like Sasuke (if you couldn't tell). I'm not going to outwardly bash him, but I'm not going to give him glory either.
2. I am a shipper. I like pairing people, whether it be love interest or family ties, but know that this will not take away from the story line or main focus which I like more action/adventure for Naruto like the original manga/anime. If nothing else, love always helps with drama and is a good backdrop.