"It's not a silly little moment, It's not the storm before the calm. This is the deep and dying breath of this love that we've been working on."
"We don't want any trouble." Naruto explained carefully, his grip tightening around Moegi's waist.
"Oh really? That is a shame." Yujirou drawled drunkenly through a laugh. "Because I sure do."
"What do you want?" Moegi barked, earning a sadistic grin from the offending male.
"Careful, sunshine. There's a time and place for everything, and this isn't it." Yujirou slurred devilishly while slinking towards them. Stepping back, Moegi turned to recognize a pointed glare in Naruto's eyes that she swore meant something significant. "Wouldn't want you saying the wrong thing."
She felt Naruto's arm slide out from around her waist.
"Hey, if it's the girl you want, you can have her." Naruto commented in feigned terror as he placed his hand on her lower back and shoved her forward. She somewhat gasped in fear, turning to beg Naruto for an explanation on such a betrayal. "She always was a poor substitute for my ex-girlfriend." He explained, and a wave of realization fell over her.
She understood.
"You bastard." She whispered furiously, stumbling as Yujirou grabbed her ponytail and yanked her backwards into him. Her hands instinctively flew to her scalp as she hissed in pain. Her thoughts were interrupted, though, as a flash of silver flew past her right eye and pressed warningly into her neck. Naruto's face remained blank as the grip on her hair tightened.
"How can I be sure?" Yujirou taunted, running the kunai delicately along her throat as a thin string of blood beaded. "How can I know that this isn't complete bullshit?"
"You're just going to have to trust me." Naruto explained factually, though his eyes betrayed his voice.
"I can't accept that." Yujirou laughed. Moegi winced as a crude sawing sound filled her ears as shreds of her hair fell in heaps around her. "You're going to have to prove to me that you and this cute little princeaa aren't conspiring at this moment against me." He chided boredly as he continued to saw through her hair with the kunai. She briefly saw Naruto's knuckles run white as the sickening sound of her hair tie was cut through.
Naruto knew that Sakura had once been in a situation very similar to this.
"What do you want me to do?" Naruto asked tightly, eyes narrowing as her hair rained around her ankles. "I'll do whatever, just spare my life." And with that, Yujirou stopped to briefly considered his next move. As if realizing for the first time that he even held a kunai, a smile crept up his face as he proceeded to toss it in Naruto's direction.
"Cut her throat." Yuujirou said as the kunai landed in Naruto's fingers. "And make it quick so she doesn't scream."
Terrified, Moegi watched as Naruto considered the logistics behind what he needed to do next, and she prayed to any and all of the gods that she understood what he had been trying to tell her. "She always was a poor substitute for my ex-girlfriend." She heard those words ring loud and clear through her skull.
"Fine." Naruto said, and she heard a disgustingly pleased laugh dribble through Yujirou's lips.
"Perfect." He said, wrenching her neck backwards and blowing a piece of hair off her shoulder as if to proudly display the target area. She gulped loudly as Naruto stepped slowly forward with the most withdrawn eyes she had ever seen.
It happened faster than anything she had ever seen, and suddenly she realized how small her world had been - how juvenile and pitiful any and all of her fears had been up until this point. She honestly thought she had seen horror, but she realized with the flash of the moon on Naruto's kunai flying at her that she had never seen anything at all. Ever.
Not even once.
And as soon as the kunai was supposed to rip through the skin of her throat, Yujirou let out a strangled yell as a tree log fell to his feet; smoke billowing and burning through his eyes as the log clattered on the ground.
"Go!" Naruto yelled to Moegi as she braced herself on the roof beside them. He observed her cropped orange hair and silently thanked her for being smart enough to understand what he had been implying all along:
Substitution jutsu.
"Go Moeg-" But before he could continue, the kunai he had previously attacked her with abruptly plunged three inches into his shoulder as Yuujirou tackled him into side of a building. His head cracked against the wall and he hissed violently, blinking the stars out of his vision.
"Naruto!" Moegi screamed, but he sent her a brief and desperate glare.
"Go get Sasuke and Kakashi!" He shouted as the blood from his shoulder dribbled off of his fingers and onto the pavement. "Hurry!" He bellowed as he caught a glimpse of her figure dissolving into thin air as Yujirou kicked him in the ribs, sending him hurling into the ground.
"You're a deceptive piece of shit, aren't you?" Yujirou ground out in fury, but not before placing the heel of his foot on Naruto's face. "Fuckers like you who play games don't deserve to be trained in the art of fighting."
"Bullshit." Naruto commented weakly as he spit blood out of his mouth and stood up. "Sounds to me like I pissed you off. I guess the Akatsuki didn't miss out on much, did they?"
But before he could respond, he whimpered loudly as the same kunai tore into the side of his left thigh.
"All talk and no skill to back it up." Yujirou commented. "Akatsuki wasn't good enough for me, but I don't have to explain it to a bitch like you. Guess I have it easy toni-!" He tried to say as one of Naruto's Kage clones ran up from behind and trapped him in a fatal headlock. He easily burst the clone with one jab of his elbow, but not before the real Naruto kicked his legs out from underneath him and tackled him into the ground.
"Where's his Kekkei Genkai?" Naruto calculated as he struggled to pin him into the Naruto could see was white hair and pale skin flashing wildly across his eyes as he formulated his next move.
Glancing to the side, Naruto spotted the bloodied kunai lying on the ground. Grasping for it as the older man writhed beneath him, he was abruptly shoved onto his back as Yujirou slammed the top of his knee into Naruto's chest. A painful scream ripped through his throat as his ribs shattered under the skin. Rolling to the side, Naruto finally fingered the kunai and, swiping it at the older man's face, tore a deep gash into his cheek.
"I've got to get to a safer place." Naruto thought as Yujirou erupted in fury. He scanned the available buildings and spotted a large, warehouse type building that housed most of the villages spare weapons. It was a building that was only used in times of war, so there was a high chance it would be empty.
"Come and get me, bastard!" Naruto yelled as he spit into the older man's face and bounced backwards. Sprinting towards the warehouse, he inwardly sighed in relief as Yujirou sprinted right after him with an anger and intent-to-kill that Naruto had never seen before. This guy didn't have to have a Kekkei Genkai to be considered dangerous, for his blood-lust and anger were enough to hold their own.
The pain in his chest and shoulder rendered Naruto into a state of breathless nausea, but he continued to sprint forward as Yujirou followed behind. Skidding to a halt in front of the warehouse, Naruto wasted no time in kicking down the door as Yujirou slammed into the back of him. He peered into his face and felt his stomach drop as an inky, black tar dribbled out of his mouth.
"What the...?" He whispered aloud, prompting a smile to curve on Yujirou's face.
"You're going to wish you had never done that."
(SCENE CHANGE - SASUKE, KAKASHI AND SAKURA)
"Where is he?" Sakura asked impatiently as she fiddled boredly with her sleeve. "I know he's usually late, but it's never taken him this long before."
Sakura, Kakashi and Sasuke were currently sitting at the usual ramen stand where they would meet every other Friday. Now, it was customary for Naruto to be late. He was a shining example of how not to be punctual, but he usually arrived within thirty minutes after the designated time. But as she, Kakashi and Sasuke had been there for close to two hours with no show of the wearisome blond, she found her stomach begin to churn with the pain of worry.
...which must have been evident, considering the annoyed expression Sasuke sent her as she nervously tapped her fingernails across the counter.
"What if he forgot to take his injection and something happened?" She tried, earning an annoyed expression from Sasuke and a vacant response from Kakashi who currently held his face into an Icha book.
"He's fine. Probably fell asleep and just forgot to wake up in time." Sasuke commented boredly, though Sakura was no fool to his increasing OCD-ness. In the last ten minutes, he had absent-mindedly torn three napkins to shreds- a habit that Sasuke had come to develop over the past year when he became nervous.
"But you know he forgets to take them. I just..." She stopped abruptly then, earning the attention from both of her male companions. "I just have a bad feeling about this."
"Sakura-" Kakashi began in exhaustion, but was interrupted as she cut him off.
"No, I know I'm always jumping to bad conclusions, but this time I have a bad feeling." She explained, her eyebrows nitting in genuine concern. "It's not like him to be this late and leave no explanation for why. This isn't right. This is..."
But before she could continue, all three of them glanced at each other as the crowds of people walking by began to whisper loudly and move to the sides as someone carved their way through them. She knew it had to be serious when Sasuke stood up and Kakashi put the book down. After all, if the security of the village had been threatened, it was directly dependent upon Sasuke to address the situation.
Turning, Sakura gasped as Moegi burst through the crowd and braced herself on her knees in front of them. She was breathing heavily, and her hair fell in choppy strands around her face as the blood on her neck dried and cracked.
"Moegi? Kakashi asked, his surprise somewhat muffled by the black mask.
"Moegi!" Sakura exclaimed as she stood up and grabbed a piece of the younger girl's hair between her thumb and pointer finger. "What happened?"
"He needs help!"Moegi barked through her labored breaths, and Sakura could tell she was on the verge of tears. "You have to help him!"
"Calm down." Sakura consoled as she braced her arms on the younger girls shoulders and tried to console her. "Who needs help?"
"Naruto! You have to help him! He was attacked!"
Sakura felt her spine run rigid as the breath in her chest seemed to dissolve completely. She didn't dare look at Sasuke, but her ears were suddenly filled with the pounding of her heart-beat and the whispers of the people around them falling into panic.
"We-we were both attacked! In the Eastern training grounds!" Moegi tried to say as the tears began to spill over her mouth and warp her words. "Please, you have to go! He's bleeding!"
"Who attacked you?" Sakura asked as the girl's cries became more audible. She was struggling to keep her own emotions in check, opting instead to put on her most rational persona possible. The last thing they needed was for widespread panic to erupt in the middle of a populated area.
"I don't know! Naruto knew his name, but he told me to come get Sasuke-san and Kakashi-san!" She said, briefly glancing at them before turning back to Sakura and crying. "I didn't want to leave him there but he told me to come! He told me to get help!"
"What was his name." Sasuke interrupted, and Sakura almost flinched at the coldness in his voice.
"I-I don't know, Yujirou or something. Just go! Please help hi-!" Before she could say another word, Sakura caught a brief glimpse of Sasuke's Sharingan flash wildly before his figure shot off into the night sky, leaving the panicked whispers of the crowd behind him as the dishes on the counter shook from the send-off. A puff of smoke beside her indicated that Kakashi had departed as well.
Standing up to face the crowd, she spoke up in authority:
"Alert the Hokage of isolated distress! We have a possible S-Class Criminal in our midst! You all know what to do!" Sakura shouted at the crowd of people who instantly erupted in noise and movement with children being grabbed off the ground by mothers and fathers. Turning to the younger girl, Sakura spoke up softly.
"Moegi, will you show me the way?" She asked, seriousness replacing her previous shock.
"Yes."
"Let's go."
And with that, both girl disappeared into the night.
(SCENE CHANGE - NARUTO)
"You're going to wish you had never done that." Yujirou smirked as the black tar dribbled out of his mouth and onto the front of his shirt. He currently had Naruto pinned to the ground as he sat defiantly on top of the younger boy's aching chest.
Naruto watched a drop of the tar fall onto his shirt, earning a sick laugh from Yujirou that bared a revolting set of blackened teeth.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" He chided, rubbing some of the tar between his thumb and middle finger.
"Like hell." Naruto ground out as he winced in pain from the wight on his broken chest.
"Nice choice." Yujirou commented as he wiped the black tar on Naruto's cheek and scanned the room. "Plenty of weapons to fuck you up with."
Naruto could only whimper as the beginnings of nausea waved through him from the blood loss in his shoulder. His vision was spotty, and he couldn't distinguish the older man's features under the throbbing and pulsing lights. As he turned his face to the side, however, he noticed that the smudge of tar on his cheek had completely hardened.
"Sasuke, where the hell are you?" He thought, trying to come up with his next move. The room was filled with kunai, shuriken, explosives and paper bombs, but his body was failing too quickly to make adequate use of it all.
A small moan escaped his throat, prompting Yujirou to look down at him and smile pitifully. Sliding another kunai out of his shirt, he began to flip the kunai playfully around in his fingers.
"Hm. What should I carve into this beautiful body of yours?" He asked, placing his forearm on Naruto's neck and scanning his eyes across the blond's body. "I'm not going to lie, you are quite beautiful. I'd love to destroy all of this if I could, but it seems I haven't the time, do I?" He chided as Naruto writhed underneath.
Naruto watched in morbid curiosity as the older man seemed to fall into a trance as he ran his thumb underneath his left eye.
"It's the eyes. They're going to have to go." He said as he traced the kunai seductively across Naruto's eyelashes. "Such a striking color. Put's the sky to shame, actually." He remarked as he continued tracing the eye with his kunai. Naruto winced as Yujirou leaned down slowly, laughed, and whispered into his ear:
"This is the consequence called azure." He whispered, and Naruto screamed in agony as Yujirou tore the kunai across his eye, sending spurts of blood into the wall beside them. Naruto's hands shook violently as he placed his hand in front of his eye and saw nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
"Now for the other one..." Yujirou commented factually as he wiped the kunai on his shirt and held it out. "3...2...1..."
"Chidori!" Came a loud voice, and Naruto ducked as the blue static of Sasuke's Chidori slammed into Yujirou, sending him flying into a box of paper bombs on the other end of the room. Craning his head to the side, he felt the blood pool onto the floor from his missing eye as Sasuke's feet stepped over his head and into his field of vision. Someone was here.
Sasuke was here.
Throwing a box out of the way, a series of at least 100 paper bombs slid across the floor as Yujirou fumbled into a standing position.
"Who the fuck are y-!" He tried to shout, but was rendered speechless as Sasuke tore the Kusanagi out of its sheath and plunged it into Yujirou's shoulder. With the sword pinning him into the box behind him, Sasuke stepped in front of Yuujirou.
"Uchiha." Yuujirou commented through a pained laugh as his eyes tracked Sasuke's own. "The single heir to the most tragic bloodline in existence. Eyes that bring pain and anguish to whoever see's and wields them."
Although he could only see with one eye, Naruto caught the sound of Yuujirou whimpering in pain as Sasuke turned the Kusanagi inside of him.
"I hate bloodlines." Yuujirou explained, coughing up blood and tar and cursing violently. "Especially eye techniques. You hate it too. I can tell."
Sasuke was clearly not in the mood for talking, as demonstrated by his response in the form of another half-turn of the Kusanagi. Yujirou whimpered, but continued to hold his grin.
"Your eyes radiate power and fear, but they also scream with the pain of death and destruction."
"Shut up." Sasuke remarked coldly as he turned the sword to the right again, earning a pitiful yelp from Yuujirou. A minute passed before Yuujirou began to laugh quietly until it escalated into a loud, maniacal laughter of the most distrusting kind.
"I can fix that for you." Yuujirou commented darkly, and Naruto suddenly felt realization hit him like a train as he ran his finger across the tar on his cheek.
"Sasuke! Watch out for the ta-" But before Naruto could finish, he was cut off as Yuujirou spit the black tar into both of Sasuke's eyes, rendering him completely blind as the tar hardened into a black film over the Sharingan.
"Dammit!" Sasuke hissed as he stumbled backwards, his hold on Kusanagi faultering.
"Get out of here, Sasuke!" Naruto screamed as Sasuke began clawing at the film over his eyes. Yuujirou, still pinned to the box, began to laugh hysterically in the background.
"Shut up, Naruto!" He spat. "I'm not completely blind!"
Naruto glanced at Yuujirou to find him tugging at the sword in his shoulder. Fatigue, fueled by adrenaline, soon turned into panic as the reality of the situation told Naruto that Sasuke was blind, he himself was losing blood, and Yujirou would soon have the Kusanagi for himself.
"Listen, when he gets the Kusanagi out, I can't help you fight! Leave me here!"
"Fuck that!" Sasuke shouted as he began to charge a chidori.
"You can't help here and you know it! For fuck's sake, Sasuke, go get Kakashi!"
"I'm not leaving you here, you moron!"
"You have no choice!" Naruto called back, and he felt himself begin to cry as the blood pooled around him.
"Get over yourself, Naruto!"
But before Naruto could respond, they both fell silent as the clash of the Kusanagi hit the floor. Turning toward the sound, Naruto grimaced as Yuujirou began sauntering toward Sasuke slowly. Measuring Sasuke's distance between the door and a torch on the wall, Naruto suddenly felt an all-consuming illness at the prospect of what he knew he had to do.
Standing shakily to his knees, he subdued the last of his chakra and hurled himself towards Sasuke. Sasuke was unfamiliar with the area and couldn't see, which meant he had a chance. Grabbing the older boy's collar, Naruto used the last of his strength to shove Sasuke into the hallway, locking the iron door behind him.
"Naruto, let me the fuck in!"
"I'm sorry, Sasuke." He commented as he limped towards the torch on the wall, leaving a trail of blood along the way.
"What are you doing?" Yuujirou asked as his laughter subsided and his eyes bulged in panic. He glanced at the torch on the wall and the boxes of explosives in the corner.
Ignoring him, Naruto reached for torch, pulled it off of the stand, and threw it onto the boxes of paper bombs across the room where it landed with a dull thud.
"Y-You fool!" Yuujirou screamed. "You'll blow us to bits!"
And then Sasuke knew.
And Naruto knew he must have figured it out, because he began kicking and beating on the door violently and screaming through the cracks. Naruto watched as the torch rolled down several of the boxes and onto the stone floor, igniting the wood on the boxes, and he knew it was only a matter of time.
Slowly, he sauntered over to the door and spoke up:
"Sasuke, if I've never said it before, I just want you to know that I lo-"
"Don't you dare fucking say it, Naruto!"
"Okay." He laughed somewhat sadly. "You already know, anyway." He smiled as he leaned back against the door and slid down. Closing his eyes, he watched as the flames tore through the boxes and felt the vibrations from the others side of the door where Sasuke was kicking. Looking to his side, he spotted a big, iron furnace hidden in the shadows that was used to melt metal for the kunai and shuriken. Supporting himself with his hands, he crawled slowly behind the furnace and prayed that this structure would make it through.
"I was given a second chance." He commented through a sad smile. "And I'm grateful."
"Open the door! goddamit, Naruto!"
"Tell the others that I-"
But before he could finish, an ear-piercing explosion filled the room, and Sasuke stepped back from the door as smoke, heat and debris burst through the bottom.