Hey, Hi, Hello.

I still really need to come up with a new greeting, this one is getting annoying and repetitive...

Welcome to the third chapter of 'Scarred'. I don't have much to say, besides giving an apology for the time this chapter took to have out. Other than that, not much. I hope you enjoy it! Song is 'Proffessional Griefers' by deadmau5 ft. Gerard Way. Thank you for picking out the song, Laine ^/.\^

DISCLAIMER: I stillllllll don't own Naruto. And I don't own this song, either.
WARNINGS: Cussing, a bit of blood, and, le gasp- mentioned/hinted SasuNaru! :D

Anything in bold is important or with emphasis.
This is what memories look like.
This is what thoughts or letters look like.
'This is what song lyrics look like.'

~SCARRED~

'Gimme the sound, to see
Another world outside that's full of
All the broken things that I made
Just give me a life, to plea
Another world outside that's full of
All the awful things that I made...'

~SCARRED~

Overture to everlasting peace...

That is what I feel is happening to me now. Or, rather, what I should be feeling, to an extent. Rain pours down upon the ground, clouds purging themselves of all rain within. The sky looks as dark and violent as Masao's eyes used to when he was in his moods. The shading is so exact, so fucking close to them that it brings me back to the scar covering the distance between my left shoulder and the tip of my right middle finger. The scar wasn't made entirely by him, but the majority of it was. So why, if I was thinking of something that normally upset me, was I feeling like I should be rather...euphoric?

Because they were back.

It's around six thirty in the morning, and I am standing on my front porch, staring out into the world. A cigarette dangles from my finger, wisps of smoke escaping into the early morning air. I raise it to my lips, take a deep drag, and lower it. I hold my breath for a few minutes before exhaling slowly. The cigarette is done, so I toss it into a small trash bin on my way back inside. The air is warm within my home, my skin adjusting to the temperature change as I cross the floor to my bedroom. I reach the door and pull it open, closing it behind me. If I got dressed now and woke the boys up we'd be able to have breakfast before leaving.

~SCARRED~

I wasn't surprised to find Sasuke and Naruto cuddled together.

The room is dark and the only light comes from the one in the hallway. Sasuke's arm is circling Naruto's hip, the latter's arms folded together between their chests. They look adorable together, I marvel, simply observing them. They were already stirring, Naruto's blue eyes slipping open. They flicker over to me, his cheeks quickly burning with a blush and eyes lighting up with fear. Like he thought I wouldn't accept them. Did he not trust me anymore? Sasuke's own orbs are now open too, gazing steadily at me. Gauging my reaction.

I smirk at them, murmuring, "Wake up, you two." Then I turn, closing the door behind me. My heart sinks a little bit in my chest, a bittersweet happiness filling me. At least they had each other, right?

Right.

~SCARRED~

Dear Team Seven,

I must admit- I'm confused and a bit hurt.

It's been two months. This is the fifth letter I've written, and I haven't received a single reply. I don't know what to think, and why I haven't. Are you guys okay? Are you hurt? Have you not been getting these letters? Do you think I'm not sending them and don't care about keeping contact with you? Or, worse yet, do you three not care?

All of those possibilities make my head hurt. My stomach gets a strange, heavy feeling and my heart sinks in my chest. Is this feeling dread? Emotional pain? I don't think either of those words are quite right to describe it. I'll tell you when I figure it out.

Anyway, I have an interrogation to do. I didn't intend for this letter to be too long, so I only gave myself a handful of minutes to write it. So goodbye, and all that. Please write back soon, if only to ease my mind and keep that feeling at bay.

Kimi.

~SCARRED!

Promptly at eight o'clock that morning we arrive at the appointed training ground. It took quite a bit of underhanded tricks and convincing Kakashi-sensei it was an entire hour later than it actually was to get him out of the house, but Naruto, Sasuke and I managed to get him out and going at a reasonable time. Tsunade-sama is already there, with Shizune-san and Tonton. When we arrive Tsunade-sama smirks and states, "Surprisingly enough, you four are on time."

"Ne, ne, Tsunade-baa-chan! What are we gonna do?" Naruto asks, unnaturally happy for how early it was.

"Simple," she says, "you're going to fight against Kimi, so I can see how you have developed as ninja. Your goal is to get the bells."

These words are directed towards the three boys. I smile briefly, catching the three silver bells Shizune threw at me. My eyes follow them as they sail through the air, flying in a smooth arc and landing in my palm. They jingle in the early morning air. Naruto's grinning brightly, jumping up and down and rocking on the balls of his feet. Sasuke is as cool and confident as ever, looking pretty badass in his outfit. He wore a gray, high collared zip-up shirt with black pants and sandals. He carried a katana with him and the Uchiha symbol was emblazoned upon his back. Naruto's own outfit was an offensive orange and black ensemble, fitting his exuberant and orange-loving personality perfectly. Kakashi-sensei looked the same as before.

"Do your best not to cause too much property damage," Tsunade-sama warns. With those words she's disappeared, along with Shizune and Tonton. The four of us look at each other. Kakashi has his last issue of Icha Icha still in hand. He snaps it close and puts it in his pouch.

"Well," he states, "Are you four ready?"

I almost roll my eyes. "You're putting the book up this time?"

"Yep," he tells me, cheerily. He was serious about this, now, it seemed. Not serious enough to get the Sharingan out, though, which upset me a bit. Oh well- he will see that he'll need it. I glance at my teammates. Sasuke is still smirking, while Naruto has that same determined look he wore all the time, back when we were put onto Team Seven together.

I let a little bit of chakra stream into my palms, creating an invisible edge. The edge was razor sharp and, if I released more, would be glowing brightly with lightning. This would be at least a bit enjoyable.

Naruto is the first to move, diving to attack me. I lift my arms up and form an 'x' with them, successfully catching him and stopping the kunai from hitting my face. I use leverage to push his arms away, letting the chakra flow to my hands increase. I smirk to myself and dip under the path of his foot. I grab the ankle of the clone and throw it into a tree. It dispels, a plume of smoke appearing.

Another one appears rapidly, throwing kunai. Those are dodged easily, my body moving fluidly. Yet another clone appears from behind, moving to hold me in place. I let more chakra flood in, my palms now glowing with lightning. I hit Naruto's clone across the face with a heavy punch and it fades. Naruto jumps back to stand next to the other two boys.

"Impatient as ever, Naruto-kun," I mock, smirking. He's gingerly touching his cheek, the phantom pain from the electrically charged punch to his clone's face clearly bothering him. I don't have time to say anything else, because Sasuke is drawing his katana. It swings in a smooth arc, heading straight for my face. At the last second I duck easily. My surroundings flicker almost imperceptibly, the Sharingan generated jutsu taking place rapidly. Did he take me for stupid?

One handseal later and I'm moving again, just barely dodging a shuriken heading for my stomach. Sasuke, his eyes growing wide for the smallest second, relaxes his stance and moves to his place back at Naruto's side. They share a glance and disappear into the trees, their chakra signatures rapidly fading as they ran south, away from Konoha. It was like they were testing me- first taijutsu, then a little bit of taijutsu blended with genjutsu. So it was Kakashi's turn now, and for ninjutsu. This would be fun.

I am the first to move this time, my hands almost blurring as I made the proper and very well rehearsed seals. Ox, rabbit, monkey. Raikiri, one of the jutsus created by Kakashi himself. Within the space of seconds I am across the field and pushing Kakashi into one of the trees, one hand knotted on his vest and the other pressed to the tree itself. Raikiri crackling away in my palm, a refined mass of chakra that was a centimeter from damaging: him. On purpose, of course.

I finally let part of my pure fury free, it bleeding through and poisoning my words. "You'd better take me seriously, sensei," I mutter. This last part is mockingly stated, an emphasis placed upon the final word. I release his vest and swing my fist upwards, clipping his jaw. He twists in my grip, sliding out of the space between me and the tree upon being released. I pull all the chakra from Raikiri as I possibly could back in, shivering slightly at the feeling. Then I duck under a few kunai Kakashi sent my way.

I turn to face him, feeling fury build up in my chest. This was fucking ridiculous, the shocked look on his face- I wasn't the same damned weakling I was two and a half years ago. I would be taking up the position of jonin within days, and I was definitely ready for it. Quicker than most could follow I have dashed forward and punched my 'sensei' in the stomach with a portion of my power behind it. His eyes widen in shock at the force and the lack of hesitation I had when it came to hurting him. I knew he could have dodged that. But because he doubted that I would try to hurt him he didn't even fucking bother.

He would be regretting that.

A taijutsu battle ensues. He's yanked his hitae-ate up, his Sharingan blazing the color of blood. I am fueled by anger, at everything he has done. I owe him much, but somehow at the same time he is the one who has to make things up to me. Like not being there.

I hit him straight in the stomach and don't stop, hitting and punching and kicking at him until he has to withdraw. When he does, jumping backgrounds and landing crouched, one hand pressed to his stomach, I still feel like I am filled to the brim with fury. A quick once-over of his form reveals he had few injuries, bruises only, and the majority of the damage was to his stomach. I was blocked most often, as was he, only a few blows on either side breaking through. That makes me feel proud of myself, of all the training and missions I survived. I withstood one of the people I sought to defeat, even managed to cause some damage. And that in itself was something amazing for me.

~SCARRED~

I have been participating in this game of cat and mouse for quite a while now, and it seemed to finally be coming to a close.

We started this test almost an entire day ago and we have yet to completely stop. The three of them are before me quickly, preparing to attack. I remain blank-faced and form five hand seals. Tenka- a jutsu I created, lightning combined with fire that burned with such intensity that anything it touched sustained extreme damage. It was easily my most destructive stand-alone jutsu.

The three of them are all shocked. They seem to be doing that a lot lately, being visibly surprised at one of my actions or a characteristic I've developed. We all had changed so much, the two groups (me on my own and those three with Jiraiya-sama) evolving so far apart and with no contact between us that when we came together we had problems acting like we were actually on the same team before. No, they were so heartbreakingly close knit with me feeling like I was on the fringes, intruding, and being so incredibly angry and hurt and denying myself of showing a large part of that emotion. Because I didn't want to disrupt them or break apart what they had even more than I was by simply being here.

I could really use a mission far away from here for at least a couple of weeks, or preferably overseeing the interrogation of some poor fuck. Interrogations generally smoothed my feelings out, helped me think, so if I had ample time after this I would go ask Ibiki-sama if he had anything for me. But back to the fight, yes?

Tsunade-sama and Shizune-san were approaching at a relatively leisurely pace, and would be arriving on scene within a few minutes. They had been watching carefully from farther back. The boys knew this- that's why they were increasing their efforts. They thought they could get the bells, which were secured carefully to my vest, within their allotted time limit.

Not a chance in any hell would they be getting the fucking bells from me.

I could easily recall the fight so far- the mini battle with Kakashi, another between all of us (during which I used the same sort of dirty tricks I did when training with Neji, like throwing up mental blocks in their heads), then just Naruto and Sasuke, and then the three of them individually before where we were. I inflicted my fair share of damage. I hit Naruto in the face so hard he bled from the mouth, the shoulder of Sasuke's was burnt from hamukau, and my Tenka just barely grazed Kakashi and took off some bandages and a bit of skin on his leg. I had bruises and a cut on my stomach from kunai. That was it.

My gaze flickers between them. Naruto is tense and determined, his expression similar to those of the others. "You have one minute before they arrive," I verbally note, watching the muscles in Naruto's fingers flex. They twitch lightly, as he wants to take the bells. "Now forty five seconds..."

A blurred shape darted forward and I raised my hand, my entire fist looking like fire and lightning swirling around, a molten violet in color. As he dodges another of them attack and I am suddenly surrounded by the three of them. It's like fighting with Neji when he is using Gentle Fist, twisting and turning and moving my body in such positions that if I weren't so flexible, as ninjas are, I would have broken approximately half of the bones in my body. Except for triple the stress of it, even more incredible ducking, avoiding and attacking maneuvers. I can't hold up for long, not in this state of chakra expenditure and with all three of them attacking. Good thing I don't need to, not for more than the next five seconds-

"Alright, you four, time is up."

We separate instantly, the boys standing together and me on my own. I unhook the bells and toss them to Shizune-san, relaxing my posture carefully. I keep my gaze flickering between all of them, from Tsunade-sama and Shizune to Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi. Tsunade-sama turns to me first. "Kimi-san, you performed exceptionally well and showed your skill level to be that of a jonin. Do you have anything to say?"

"Arigato, Tsunade-sama. And hai, I do. If Kakashi hadn't held back, for whatever reason he did, he very well could have obtained the bells. But he did. Honestly, it's highly offensive and insulting to both me and my abilities to know he did hold back when engaging in combat with me. Why he did, which I suspect was because he felt that it wouldn't be necessary or he was underestimating me, I don't know and I don't want to. As for Sasuke and Naruto, they did attempt, to the best of their abilities that the situation called for, to retrieve the bells. And if all three had been doing such and attacked at the same time one of them could have secured them."

~SCARRED~

Done!

There you go. Please comment and vote.