Master of the Arts
(Minor) Arc 2: Preparation Part 2
Chapter 7: The End of the Beginning
Summary: After Naruto and Sakura lose their best friend, they go to extreme measures to get him back. Shikamaru tries too hard to reach into Neji's past and ends up uncovering secrets about himself along the way. Remember kids, everything is connected and it all leads back to the man who started it all. This is a journey for everyone to bring back the people they love.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. :(
Another short chapter but things are going to take off from here! Enjoy.
Sasuke told himself he'd fix things with Naruto.
And that's what he had been planning to do… until he stepped inside an invisible barrier that permanently trapped him inside.
Surely, Sasuke should have been able to escape such an amateur trap like this. It was basically child's play. But of course he'd been too busy trying to figure out a solution to his and Naruto's problem.
Sasuke concluded that this was indirectly Naruto's fault. It was somehow always Naruto's fault anyway.
Sitting back against an overgrown tree root, he considered his options.
He didn't really have any.
Sasuke left his phone at camp when he went to search for a missing dobe. Calling for help was ruled out.
Although it wasn't as if Sasuke would've called for help either way. That was embarrassing and Naruto would never shut up about how the omnipotent Sasuke was cornered.
Sasuke tried to break the invisible barrier using a shuriken. Nevertheless, it just bounced right back at him and continuously bounced off the walls until it lost momentum and fell to the ground.
This barricade was secure and Sasuke was locked inside.
But that wasn't what was concerning him the most.
Somehow, being caged in this confinement made it impossible for Sasuke to use his nature power which, as stated in the name, relied on nature. Not being able to acquire power from the earth meant that any fire-based attacks were useless.
Activating his sharingan, Sasuke scanned the now visible walls for any cracks or holes that he could use to his advantage. Noticing a pattern in the design of the walls, Sasuke remembered what type of trap this was.
It was a simple, easily avoidable trap but once you were caught inside it was futile to try and escape. These types of traps took hours to create because of the amount of power it used.
Of course, though, it wouldn't be able to withstand the Uchiha's incredible power. Nothing was invincible before the great Uchiha clan. Sasuke smirked and called forth his sacred power.
Blue smoke enveloped Sasuke's hands and he punched the walls repeatedly for a short few seconds. Releasing the energy back into the air, Sasuke looked at the wall expectantly.
What he saw was not what he hoped for. His smirk dropped as he watched the wall absor his power, showing that no damage was done.
This wasn't right. There was nothing that could resist his blue smoke attack (he had yet to name it) besides, maybe, Naruto, but that wasn't the problem at hand. No barrier was this strong. Something was going on and Sasuke had a bad feeling about it.
Using the power boost he received from his sharingan, he took out a kunai and threw it with all his might at the wall. The kunai stuck to the wall for a brief second then was absorbed into a pool of nothingness.
"What the hell?"
Sasuke just stood there in total disbelief. What the heck had just happened?
"Sasuke-teme! There you are!"
Sasuke spun around to see Naruto running and waving at him, a big lopsided grin on his annoying face.
After Naruto finally got home, took a shower, and ate breakfast, he curled up in a blanket on the couch and watched some old school musicals. He really didn't like musicals that much but after getting comfortable on the couch he didn't want to get up and look for the remote. Thanks to that, he now had a bunch of songs stuck in his head. It was annoying.
Naruto checked the clock and noticed that it was already half past noon and Sasuke still wasn't home yet.
Naruto's thoughts came to a halt as he realized that he just thought of their dorm room as… home.
It wasn't weird, was it? Calling their dorm his home? They've lived there for over two months now and it really did feel like home… just with the added bonus of a Sasuke-teme.
Naruto had tacitly accepted that he and Sasuke would be roommates for a long time. He didn't even bother going to Tsunade to try and change dorms anymore. But it scared Naruto that he had accepted it so easily with little to no thought about how strange it was that he was now sharing a room with his horribly perfect rival. It's not as if they weren't rivals anymore- they still had the occasional fight and argument here and there.
Yet, they were becoming more and more like… real friends. It kinda felt good knowing that they were on the right track after being horrible enemies in the past.
Naruto heavily sighed. He really had to fix their problem now. He'd rather just apologize and let the situation diffuse instead of making it worse by talking about it. Even if talking about it could potentially result in a better outcome.
Now noticing that it was 15 minutes to 1, Naruto stood up and pulled his jacket on to search wherever the hell Sasuke had disappeared to.
Walking back to camp, Naruto saw that Sasuke's belongings were still scattered about.
Hm? Two hours had already gone by and Sasuke was still out there sulking in the woods? We couldn't have that, now, could we?
Deciding that searching from higher ground would be easier, Naruto leaped up onto a tree branch and scanned as far back as he could see.
He frowned and continued leaping from branch to branch until he saw the familiar duck-butt hairstyle down below. Dropping down to the ground, Naruto made his way over to the teme whose back was facing him.
"Sasuke-teme!" He called out, waving his arm and grinning, "There you are!"
Sasuke turned around and looked at him but otherwise didn't move. Naruto's eyes comically widened.
"Why is your sharingan activated, Sasuke?"
"Can't you see these walls?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto looked around, turning a full 360 before turning back to his roommate. "What walls?"
"Oh, that's right," Sasuke answered, "you can't see them because you don't have the sharingan."
Was that an insult? Naruto shrugged it off.
"Dobe, are you listening?"
"Ah, sorry. What'd you say?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes but continued anyway. "I'm… stuck inside these invisible walls."
"Invisible walls?" Naruto frowned. "Where?"
"Try to walk next to me."
"Okay." Naruto walked up to Sasuke and stood next to him. "Now what?" He asked expectantly.
"What the hell?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto blinked slowly. "What?"
"How are you in here? I'm trapped inside this barrier."
"Sasuke, there is no barrier. C'mon, let's just go home. You're probably tired or something." Naruto took Sasuke's arms to drag him away but stopped when he noticed Sasuke wouldn't budge no matter how hard he pulled. "Sasuke just come on already!"
"I can't fucking move, you dobe!" Sasuke hissed.
"What?" Naruto walked behind Sasuke and pushed forward. When he didn't move, Naruto took his head and pushed it forward until it met an invisible force stopping it from going any further.
"What the hell? Sasuke what's going on?"
"Naruto," Sasuke growled, "I literally just said that I was stuck in an invisible barrier. Listen for once, would you?"
"I was listening! I just thought you were joking!" Naruto stepped in front of Sasuke to try and observe the invisible wall.
"How on earth would that be considered a joke?"
"In your twisted mind it could have," Naruto mumbled.
"If I weren't stuck here you'd be dead by now."
"Hehe, well you can't catch me now! But how'd you even get stuck in this thing?" Naruto rubbed the small amount of stubble on his chin and looked walked around Sasuke a few times to try and get a hold of the situation.
"Oh gee, dobe, if I knew how I'd have gotten out by now."
"You don't know that."
"Naruto, you know I would have."
"...Yeah, probably. Have you tried jumping out?" Naruto tried to pick Sasuke up but his hands were slapped away and he pouted at Sasuke. "Rude. I was just trying to help."
"You've done enough help, dobe. Yes, I've tried literally everything I could think of without using any nature power."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you use nature power? I'm sure a chidori would have blown this thing to smithereens."
Sasuke glared. "If you haven't noticed, I'm stuck inside a barrier that is currently cutting me off from the rest of the world so I can't use any nature power. It almost feels like I'm fading away right now, actually, which slightly disturbs me. All of my other attacks were absorbed. It might be absorbing me now, too."
"How can you say that so calmly, then?! We need to get you out of here, quickly!" Naruto shrieked.
"Shut up, dumbass, don't you think I know that? Try hitting it with rasengan."
Naruto gathered blue nature power into his hand before it swirled into a ball of wind and power combined. He ran forward and pushed it into the wall, only for it to be absorbed.
"... It… absorbed it."
"I have eyes, dobe."
"I know! I'm just saying. What do we do now?"
Sasuke sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know."
"The great and all powerful Sasuke is at a loss for words for once in his lifetime. Score!"
"This is not the place, Naruto."
"Yeah, yeah. Sasuke, I just wanted to apologize for what happened earlier today. I didn't mean to make you so uncomfortable." Naruto scratched his head and looked at everything but his teammate trying not to seem nervous.
Sasuke took a deep breath and started, "You… You didn't make me uncomfortable. I'm sorry for kissing you without your consent. That was a jerk move."
Naruto blinked and then grinned. "Sasuke, you were born a jerk. Besides, that kiss.. wasn't so bad," Naruto said, getting quieter as he went and rubbed his cheek with his index finger.
Something stirred deep inside Sasuke but he chose to ignore it. "Want to forget about it and start fresh again?"
Naruto smiled, the emotion clearly showing in his eyes, and said, "Yeah, dattebayo!" Sasuke smiled back and deactivated his sharingan.
"Ah what a touching moment between two best friends."
Naruto jumped at the new voice and looked around to find the speaker.
"Uchiha Sasuke."
Sasuke looked up from where he currently stood and was taken aback by the figure wearing a black cloak. He could just barely see the huge lens the man had upon his face.
"Who are you?" Naruto narrowed his eyes.
The man ignored him and walked towards Sasuke.
"Are you the one who trapped Sasuke in there?" Naruto glared. The man turned around and looked at the kunai in Naruto's hand before smirking. Or at least it looked like he was smirking. "That won't be necessary," he said, gesturing to the kunai.
"Oh really?" Naruto asked before running up to the man, ready to injure him. But Sasuke already saw it coming.
"Stop it, Naruto!"
But it was already too late, the man in front of him took a sword, seemingly out of nowhere, and stabbed it through Naruto's chest.
"Naruto!"
Naruto coughed, blood sputtering from his mouth and wound, and fell back against the tree, now unconscious.
Sasuke whipped his head back to look at the man and growled. "How dare you. I'm going to kill you."
"How naive," said the man as he continued walking back to Sasuke. "You're coming with me."
Sasuke activated his sharingan again but before he could do anything, he was knocked unconscious.
The mysterious man chuckled as he pulled Sasuke's body over his shoulder and said, "I hope Orochimaru-sama is pleased with this new fresh meat."
He then disappeared into the trees, leaving the unconscious Naruto on the ground in a pool of his own blood.
AH! I wonder who that was :O
If any of you are wondering why Neji and Shikamaru aren't really making many appearances here it's most likely because there's probably going to be a lot of huge character arcs for them in the future if everything from my notes goes to plan so! If you don't like that, don't read.