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Hardly had Naruto gotten around the corner than he slumped against the wall, his breathing heavily labored. Itachi…he, Uzumaki Naruto, had just nearly castrated the most feared and dangerous person he'd met save for Gaara. That didn't bode well on his paranoia issues…but at least he had Sasuke. Thank god for the Uchiha. Speaking of the Uchiha….Naruto felt another bout of instant paranoia wash over his nerves like waves on a rock, and he was off like a shot, searching for Sasuke to make sure he was okay.
Obsidian eyes skimmed over the book, aimlessly reading over something he was barely aware of. Sasuke frowned thoughtfully, then thought the better of it, closed the book, and calmly walked over to the bookshelf to put it away. Hardly had his fingers slid the book into its place then he was mashed into the shelf, his neck at an unruly angle as something slammed into the small of his back with the force of a truck. Twisting himself over, he saw Naruto clinging tightly to his waist, burying his face into the crook of his ribcage. Sasuke smiled sadly and turned, fully embracing the blond, rocking him back and forth as Naruto wept silently into the folds of his shirt.
Both of them knew full well of the cause, and both of them knew they had absolutely no way to stop what was coming. Itachi was hell-bent on defiling Naruto, and it was a matter of when it would happen that truly frightened the two. Naruto looked up, interlocking his eyes with Sasuke, and the instant their eyes met, a sudden, desperate surge of gorgeous electric-blue currency flashed between them, holding their eyes together like magnets. Sasuke felt his heart crack and shatter into a thousand tiny fragments at his feet; Naruto's eyes portrayed the very quintessence of hopelessness, despair, and levels of great, unbridled fear that made Sasuke's anger towards Itachi spike to almost maddening levels.
Naruto leaned up and kissed the Uchiha full on the lips, searching desperately for consolation and Sasuke responded fully, fingers tilting up the back of the blond's head to gain more access to his mouth. Their tongues danced briefly in a flurry of desperate sadness before Sasuke let go, letting Naruto shove his nose into the crook of his neck. The blond clung tighter to the Uchiha, and the two stayed intertwined in an embrace of sadness and desolation for long periods of time.
Later
Kabuto looked up, the sunlight glinting off of his wire-rimmed glasses as Naruto entered his room. The butler greeted the blond with a welcoming smile, silently gesturing Naruto to sit. Naruto sat, and instantly buried his head into his arms. Kabuto reached over and stroked his hair in a comforting manner, eyes filled with compassion. Naruto sobbed, his body wracked with fear and worry, then looked up into Kabuto's kind, gray eyes.
"Kabuto-san….I think I'm losing my mind. I think I'm losing more and more of my mind every single day." He said desperately. Kabuto nodded in sympathy.
"It's because of Itachi, isn't it, Naruto-kun?" Naruto listened to his response for a full three seconds before wailing out his worries to the world.
"Why? Why me? Is he really attracted to me…or is he just using me to get to Sasuke? It's tearing me apart, Kabuto-san, and I can't protect him." He exclaimed wildly. The gray-haired butler nodded remorsefully.
"I know it's hard….and I think I should tell you about Sasuke. About why he's been screaming every single night." He smiled wanly at Naruto's shocked expression.
"You…you know that I know?" Kabuto smiled.
"A butler must be aware of his surroundings at all times, my dear Naruto-kun." He flicked his glasses further up his nose and leaned back, a nostalgic expression chiseled on his elegant features.
"You see…Itachi has always possessed a sort of….demonic streak in him. He loves to torture Sasuke. He loves to see his little brother writhe in pain and agony. About five years ago, he came up with the perfect plan to destroy his little brother. When it was about midnight, he snuck into Sasuke's room and injected him with a drug to render him absolutely helpless. That being done, he picked up his body and took him away to his lab." Kabuto swallowed and continued.
"Strapping the unconscious Sasuke to a metal table, he performed an extremely dangerous surgery upon him, replacing important arteries and veins with metal blood vessels. Sasuke was awake during this whole process, and during the time….his face…the look on his face…" A tear slid down Kabuto's cheek and his voice wavered slightly, but he pressed on determinedly.
"The look on his face showed utter horror and desperation. No one in the world has ever gone through what Sasuke has experienced. And the most horrible thing….the most horrible thing….was that Itachi was smiling." Kabuto nodded dolefully at the mortified expression on Naruto's face.
"Itachi was smiling as if this was the most enjoyable thing he'd ever experienced in the world. His eyes smiled along with his mouth, as if he actually enjoyed doing the sick, twisted deed he was doing to his brother. His own. Brother. I had to watch….and I was powerless to do anything at all." Kabuto stopped, then pressed on.
"Sasuke is now a cyborg, half human, half machine. Itachi still uses the metal vessels to his advantage; he had a device planted in Sasuke that would send a strong electrical current sizzling across his vessels should he ever disobey. And that is why Sasuke is powerless to stop him. Itachi has the controller to the device, and apparently he likes to use it during midnight to torture Sasuke, which is why you've been hearing the screams…." Kabuto stopped at the tortured look on Naruto's face.
"From the look on your face, it looks like you're more tortured than Sasuke." He remarked mildly. Naruto dissolved into tears again, burying his face in his arms.
"Sasuke….is there any way….we could disable the device, or pull the vessels out of Sasuke?" He asked desperately. Kabuto shook his head slowly.
"Itachi, knowing full well that Sasuke would do anything in his power to be free, has a constant vigilance over his device. If we tried pulling out the vessels, Sasuke would die, for Itachi has replaced all important arteries and veins with metal." Naruto felt his head drop down hopelessly.
"Dammit…." Kabuto looked down wanly at Naruto's prone form, then hoisted the blond to his feet and gently nudged him out of the room.
"It's way past your bedtime now. Get some rest." He advised. Naruto smirked sadly.
"Like I can, with this shadow over my head." He sighed dejectedly.
"But I'll try." With that, the blond ambled wearily to his room, falling asleep before his head collided with his pillow.
Midnight
He was jolted out of his sleep with a bang, realizing with a sudden horror that his arms and legs were held captive by metal restrictions. Naruto thrashed in mortification at the realization that he was completely naked and utterly helpless on a steel table, and that a shadowy Itachi was standing over him, a sickening look on his face that made the bile rise in Naruto's throat. Itachi himself was also unclothed, and he crawled on top of Naruto with a maddening slowness that completely unnerved the blond. Lowering his head, the older Uchiha pressed his lips to Naruto's jawline, then whispered into his ear.
"Now….shall we finish what we started?" Naruto's eyes widened in petrification as Itachi's shaft probed against his parted legs.
Oh god…this is the end…he's going to rape me, kill me, castrate me, then transform me into a cyborg like Sasuke…
There was an awesome explosion, and the door to the laboratory practically dissolved under the force of Sasuke's shove. The Uchiha burst in, clad in nothing but pants, eyes wild, red, and spinning as he took in the scene before him.
"Sasuke!" Naruto cried happily. Itachi hissed in rage.
"So, little brother, have you come to thwart me?" He growled.
Sasuke roared and threw himself at his older brother, eyes thirsting for blood. Itachi merely twisted aside and helped his brother past him, ramming Sasuke headfirst into a wall. Sasuke twisted in midair and propelled himself from the wall with his feet, lips stretched across his teeth like an animal. Naruto's eyes widened as he saw Itachi flick his fingers, bringing out a small metal box. Instantly the blond struggled, thrashing at his restraints, but he was too late. Itachi pressed a small button, and Sasuke fell to the ground, twitching and convulsing in mortal agony. Naruto answered with a cry of his own, watching Sasuke roil on the ground.
It was then that the blond felt something snap inside of him, unleashing long-sleeping power he never knew he had.
Energy such that he never felt before surged up inside of him, caressing each nerve, each vein, each artery until he was drunk with power. It pulsed inside of him, it sent warmth right down to the tips of his toenails, and it became one with him. It melded with his hearbeat and it gave him strength. It seemed that every single emotion he'd ever felt during his lifetime had suddenly coagulated together in one fell swoop to give him this superhuman strength. With a snarl, he burst free of his restraints, easily snapping them like pieces of wet tissue.
Itachi's head whipped around just in time to see his captive go free, eyes blazing like a full-blown typhoon. Naruto let out a high-pitched shriek, then dove headfirst at Itachi, nails digging into his neck and leaving three long gashes across the pale skin. His other hand fumbled wildly for the device, clawing rashly at Itachi's alabaster hand until it got hold of the device. Wrenching it free, Naruto sprung like a cat to the floor, immediately leaping to the other side of the room where he held the device triumphantly in the air.
Sasuke watched, completely shocked as Naruto did what he did. Itachi's face mirrored his own, though it was mixed in with horror and utter displeasure. It was then that Sasuke saw his chance, in the very instant Itachi turned to look at Naruto. It was going to hurt….it was going to hurt like hell, but Sasuke was beyond the point of pain now that his beloved had given him a chance to get back at his brother. Sharp fingernails tore at his skin and delved into the flesh, and elegant features contorted in pain as Sasuke dug at the metal vessels embedded so deeply into his body. He tore out a great column of them, as well as the source of the electrical currents: a small box located just behind his collarbone.
Sasuke wrenched the metal wires out of his body, tearing his skin in several places as the wires were ripped free. Great torrents of blood gushed out from the broken circuitry as Sasuke continued to rip apart his own body, until the Uchiha was drenched in his own crimson libation. His vision blurred and he staggered, but summoned the last of his strength and hurled the small electrical box straight into Itachi's shell-shocked form.
The older Uchiha shrieked and screamed as the small box sent racking through his body several thousand volts of electricity. Sasuke turned away as Itachi's agonized cries cut through the air like a hot knife through butter. After a long period of time, Itachi convulsed once, then fell to the floor. Both Naruto and Sasuke stood quite still, waiting in anticipation for Itachi to suddenly rise, but when the older Uchiha remained comatose on the floor, they advanced slowly. Naruto spoke first, raising one slender golden eyebrow.
"Do you think he's dead?" Sasuke looked quizzically at his brother.
"No….I don't think so…he's probably out cold. That box contained a lot of electricity, but not enough to kill him." He remarked. Naruto smirked wryly.
"He sure screamed like he was dying."
Sasuke nodded in agreement. Sighing, he staggered over to a small crate lying underneath a nearby desk, then took out some rope. Together he and Naruto trussed Itachi up like a turkey, then slung him unceremoniously onto the steel table and re-snapped on the restraints. It was then that Sasuke realized how critically he was injured; he stopped cold and fell to the floor in a faint. Naruto let out an exclamation as he caught Sasuke's body, dragging it out of the lab and into his own room, hollering for Kabuto while he was at it.
"Kabuto-san, what can we do?" He asked worriedly. Kabuto calmly tore his shirt into strips and used it to bind Sasuke's gaping wounds; the gray fabric immediately turned a dark red.
"We need to get him to medical attention, but the option of hospitals is out of the question. They'd only reject him, for hospitals cannot treat cyborgs." Naruto looked up at Kabuto's remark, pure determination blazing in his eyes.
"I know someone who can." He picked up a nearby telephone and dialed a well-known number. After three rings, a deep baritone answered.
"Hello?" Naruto spoke quickly in response.
"Neji, is Tsunade-baachan still there?"
"Yes….why do you need her?"
"News now, explanations when we get there. Expect me at your place in five minutes." Naruto could almost imagine the confusion on Neji's finely-chiseled features.
"Very well….I shall meet you there." The blond hung up, then whirled and snatched Sasuke's body off of the bed, making a beeline for the garage.
"Come on, Kabuto. We have a life to save."
So now you know what's wrong with Sasuke...oooo, what will happen next?