--: Chapter 05 – Gates of Hell :--
In his whole life, Naruto had always loved the spring. When he was little, he loved to go out into the forest, and take a look at the new beginning life. He could have never imagined that something could change that few entirely.
But it did, for as life can begin in spring, Naruto found out, it could also end in spring. Haruno Sakura had died, right in front of his eyes, leaving him even more heart-broken than he was already. Why did this have to happen to him.
He was sitting on the bed, staring blankly at the wall. Oh how he wanted to have Sasuke with him right now, so that he could hold him in his comforting embrace. But no, Sasuke was gone, where he was nobody knew, except for his abductor. 'Sasuke's disappearance has started this all, if Sasuke hadn't disappeared, Sakura would've never committed suicide.' Naruto's mind kept running in circles. He wanted Sasuke to comfort him, but he was gone and his disappearance had caused Sakura to commit suicide. Sakura had died, and he wanted Sasuke to comfort him again.
The door opened, and Naruto slowly fixed his glance on the person who was entering the room. "Hello Naruto." The voice was light, yet emotionless, and could only belong to one person. Essupa, Tsunade's guest had come to pay him a visit. Why, the reason was unknown to Naruto.
"…" Naruto stayed silent as Essupa sat down on the chair next to Naruto's bed. Continuing his dead pan, Naruto started staring blankly at the wall again.
Silence continued to pass them, Naruto was just staring at the wall, and when Essupa started to get bored, she started to practise the seals of a fire jutsu.
"You said you could talk to spirits." Naruto still continued his dead-pan, while talking to Essupa.
"…" Essupa remained quiet, as her bleached eyes fixed on Naruto, until she let out a sudden, sly laugh, "I already thought you'd ask me that, you want to know how Sakura-san is, don't you?"
"I want to know why she did this to me… Iruka-sensei once told me everything happens for a reason… Now I want to know what her reason was… Now that she has her rest, and she can think clearly, she should be able to tell me…" Naruto's eyes started to fill with tears, but he didn't allow himself to let them go.
Essupa remained quiet, as her mind began to wander to the spirit realm, her eyes closing as she let herself slip into a trance.
--
The spirit world seemed could and empty. Naruto's room was empty, and lacking colours. Essupa opened her eyes, and let her sight glide over the empty room. Her figure had gone astral, and a light white aura high-lightened it.
Essupa stood up, looking around as she sensed a familiar presence, "Sakura, I know you're here." Her voice echoed as she whispered the words emotionlessly.
A young woman walked right through the wall, but it didn't seem to surprise Essupa. The young woman had pink hair, and green eyes. She wore a white, plain dress and a same coloured ribbon in her hair. "You called?" She said flatly.
"Yes, I did I'm-"
"Here because Naruto asked why I committed suicide." Sakura finished, crossing her arms as she approached Essupa slowly. Her voice was light, and echoed just like Essupa's. But, in contrast with Essupa, Sakura wasn't astral. She was just like she was in the normal world, massive and normal coloured.
Essupa's lips curled into a smirk, "Now that you're a ghost, you know everything before it has even happened… I don't know why I'm still talking to you."
A dry laugh escaped Sakura's mouth. It was her first laugh of joy since Sasuke's disappearance, and Essupa knew that Naruto would love to hear that once she returned to the realm of the living. "Silence is gold sometimes you know…"
"Yes, but coming back to the subject, we want to know why you died, since it actually had no particular reason in the other world." Essupa got back to her serious self again, and looked Sakura straight in the eyes, awaiting an answer.
"That's because it didn't really have a reason in the world of the living, I didn't even know the reason why I died myself till I was dead, and was explained by the upper being." Sakura, who had also gotten back to her serious mode, took a ban of her hair out of her eyes subconsciously, as she continued, "The reason why I died is because I'm the one to help Naruto find Sasuke, since even the spirits don't know what his exact location is right now… I'm supposed to find out, and tell you about it, so you can tell it to Naruto."
"I see the upper being somehow made it's focus settle on Naruto… A rare occasion if you ask me…" Essupa said, looking to the left. A small bit of energy formed in her hand, as suddenly Naruto appeared on the bed. "But look Sakura, you see his pain... I'm showing you this to make you see what you did to him…"
"Yes, I know I did awful things to him, things he can't be able to forgive… But I had to, I had to make it less painful for him…" The closer Sakura got to the end of her sentence, the quieter her voice got.
"Less painful? Sorry to break it to you dear, but you made it as painful as it could get for him." Essupa rose an eyebrow sarcastically, she said down on the bed, but Naruto didn't notice, for she wasn't for that world to see.
"The reason why I did this to him, was because I saw things coming that would be way more painful, if I did in a quieter way… to tell you the truth, if I wouldn't have done it that way, I would never have died, and the Akatsuki could use me to make Naruto give up Kyuubi, and then all would've been lost." Sakura said, turning her back on Essupa, "You will understand later, but for now, you have to do it with these answers, I bid you farewell." And with that Sakura slowly disappeared, as Essupa got drawn back into her body, that was still in the world of the living.
--
"…" Essupa slowly opened her eyes, as she awoke from her trance once again. As she looked up, she saw Naruto staring curiously at her, and she could see the hunger for answers burning in his irises.
"How is she…" He simply asked, his answer hungry eyes focused in hers, as she could see that he was impatient to hear.
"… She's fine, she has the peace she needed to get her mind clear, and she'll help to bring Sasuke back." Essupa said, standing up from her chair, "But you should rest, she said that you'd find out later how she can retrieve Sasuke for you."
Naruto wanted to speak up to stop her, but she was already at the door, "You should go sleep, it's getting late… I'll let Tsunade check on you tomorrow."
The door closed, leaving Naruto alone in the room, quite stupefied at Essupa's sudden depart.
--
It was night, a half full moon shone over konoha's forest. It was silent, everybody and every animal was asleep. The only sound that could be heard was a gentle spring breeze blowing through the leaves of the trees.
A twig broke as two figures jumped from branch to branch so fast that only mere shadows could be seen. Suddenly, one of the two stopped, causing the other one to halt as well. "This is a perfect spot…" the shorter of the two said, "Kisame, put him down there…"
The taller one, obviously called Kisame, jumped down from the branch and hid something in the bushes bellow. He jumped up again afterwards, "Done." He simply said.
"Good, now come on, we have to put it into place… knowing my brother, he doesn't have much patience." The shorter one leaned against the tree of the branch he stood on, "tomorrow we can put our plans into action… and by the end of this month, the Kyuubi will be ours, both Naruto and Sasuke will be dead, and we can take Konoha down to its knees and let it stay there." He smirked, though it could only be seen by Kisame, "And all the other counties, with their cities, will join soon afterwards." With that, he jumped to the branch in front of them, continuing their plan.
--
The sun threw her first golden rays of the day over the fire country, and birds hesitatingly started to sing their first song of day.
It was quiet in Konoha, only the ones with early missions were on the streets. The shades of the windows were still down, and everybody was asleep… everybody, except for Naruto.
Naruto was sitting straight up in his bed, still staring at the wall. Though he had a bit cheered up because of what Essupa told him the other day, it didn't really change anything, he was still depressed about the loss of the two dearest persons in his life.
He stood up slowly, walking over to the mirror. He had barely slept, and bags had formed once again under his eyes. He sighed, scratched his bottom, and walked over to the door. Stepping into the hallway, he walked over to the master bathroom, and stepped in.
The bathroom was bright blue. The floor tiles were blue, the wall tiles were blue, though they were a somewhat darker shade than the floor tiles, the bathtub was blue, even the toilet was blue.
Naruto sat down on the toilet seat, and turned on the tab of the bathtub, before putting in the plug. Leaning against the tank of the toilet, he waiter for the bathtub to be filled. Ten minutes passed until the bathtub was fully filled, and Naruto stepped in. Sitting down, the water almost reached Naruto's lips. He sighed.
"Sakura, Sasuke…" His voice was light, his eyes fixed on nothing as he spoke, "I don't know what to live for anymore… I've lost both of you, and been through a lot of pain… Why is it always me who has to suffer?" emotion suddenly gripped his voice, making him unable to speak for a short while. Once he had control over his voice again, he continued, "I have been suffering from the moment I was born, and Kyuubi was sealed up inside of me. You were the ones who saved me from the loneliness, and myself. If it hadn't been for you two, I'd surely have done this years ago…"
"Sasuke… I don't know if you're dead or alive, I really don't know, but I can't live without you this way. I'm fine with it when you're going on a mission, but now, I don't know where you are, how you are, or if you're even alive, and I can't live with that." Naruto looked down at the water, looking at his own reflection, "I hate myself for all this, because I know I get what I deserve, but what I hate even more is that everybody makes mistakes, everybody has sins, but why does it always have to be mine which are unforgivable? Sasuke, I don't know where you are, but what I do know… is that I'm joining you now."
Naruto let himself slide underwater, without breathing. Slowly, the oxygen in his body disappeared. His lungs screamed for it, screamed and urged him to go up to the surface, but he refused. The only thing he really felt was how consciousness slowly slipped out of his mind… until two firm hands grabbed him, and pulled him back to the surface.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!" Tsunade's voice rang in his ears, as his no longer in control mouth opened widely, and his lungs sucked in loads of oxygen.
It took a while for Naruto to be able to answer, all his brain functions were slowly being put on their regular place again. He glared up at the Godaime. "What does it look like, ba-chan?!" he yelled, struggling against her firm grip, but unable to get loose.
"It's a good thing that Essupa asked me to check on you early in the morning the other day, I think she saw this coming… Why didn't she just say what was going to happen, it would have been less of a scare!" Tsunade grunted, her grip on Naruto's arms tightening even more, enough to make Naruto winch in pain.
"Ouch ba-chan, you're hurting me, let me go!" Naruto gave one hard tug, and managed to get out of Tsunade's grasp. Getting a towl out of the closet, he dried his hair. No way he could drown himself now, with Tsunade with him, he bet she wouldn't allow herself to lose him out of her eyesight again. "What's up with you anyways!"
"What's up with me?! Hear who's talking, you're the one trying to drown yourself, not me!" Tsunade fired back, taking the plug out to let the water flow out of the tub.
"Yeah, and I would have succeeded if it hadn't been for you! Can't you understand that I…" Emotion took Naruto's voice once again, as tears appeared in his eyes, which cascaded down his face not too long afterwards, "I have nothing to live for?... S-Sasuke and Sakura a-are, gone…"
Tsunade's anger left her body that very instant, and pitty came in it's place… she knew how hard his was to lose your beloved ones, she had experienced that herself. She flung her arms around Naruto, and drew him against her chest, "Shh… Yes I know how you feel, it's hard… It's hard to lose everybody around you, who made you who you now are…"
Naruto sniffed, "It feels like my heart has been ripped out… I just have an emptiness in my heart where they should have been… an emptiness I cannot fill ever again…"
Tsunade felt tears burning in her own eyes as well now. Naruto's pain reminded her of her own loss in her early years. Naruto was the one, who finally got her over that, and have peace with it, but seeing him mourning, drowned in his sorrow about the loss of his beloved ones, made her go back to that time as well.
They didn't know how long they were standing there, Tsunade pressing Naruto against her chest, both sobbing, tears falling on the wet bathroom floor. When Naruto had finally calmed down a bit, they went back to the bedroom. Naruto changed into a fresh pair of boxers, and laid down in bed. Tsunade went to the kitchen, and came back somewhat later with sedatives. "Here, take these, and go sleep, I'll stay with you…" She said in a kind, silent voice, as she gave the pills, together with a glass of water.
Naruto stared at the pills, at Tsunade, and back at the pills, before taking them, putting them into his mouth, and gulping down the whole glass of water before returning it to Tsunade. He laid down, feeling the pills taking their effect. Feeling sleepily and drowsy, Naruto closed his eyes, falling soon asleep afterwards.
Tsunade watched her little 'gacky' fall asleep, smiling as his expression relaxed to worriless, an expression she hadn't seen on his face for days. A poof was heard from right behind her, making her jump of fright. Turning around, she saw it was just a messenger of the ANBU. She pulled her normal, annoyed expression again, "What is it?"
--
Naruto felt somebody shaking him, trying to get him to wake up, "Gacky, gacky wake up." He heard Tsunade's voice say. He could hear she was kind of exited, though he couldn't find any reason in his memory for her to be.
He opened his eyes sleepily, looking up at Tsunade, "Hmm?" He grunted, instead of answering. He could see a smile tugging at her lips, she was trying to hide it, but she was miserably failing.
"Gacky get up! They found Sasuke!" Naruto shot up straight in bed, Staring at Tsunade wide-eyed.
"They what?!" He exclaimed, jumping out of bed, putting on the first set of clothes he could find.
"They found Sasuke, he's in the hokage tower, hurry up!" Tsunade said, waiting for Naruto to be done, before both going to the hokage tower together.
--
Naruto practically burst into Tsunade's office, and froze at the same spot he entered the room. There he was, sitting on one of the chairs. He looked relaxed, though you could see he had been mal treated by the Akatsuki. "SASUKE!" Naruto exclaimed, practically pouncing his lover. "Oh my god, where have you been! I was so worried about you! I didn't know what to do, you were long for such a long time!" Naruto's eyes welled up with tears, as Sasuke smirked, and let his hand touch his dobe's cheek.
"Does it matter now? I'm back, that's all what matters." Grabbing Naruto's chin, Sasuke gave his dobe a light kiss on the lips, before ravishing his mouth, something he couldn't do for such a long time.
Okay!
I'm here to answer your questions, that:
A) No! I haven't
dropped from the face of the world
B) Yes! I am continuing this
story
C) Yay! Summer break is coming up, which means, I should
have more time to write even though I'm going to work at a rose
market garden (In a glass building… yes, typical Dutch)
So yeah, this chapter is up, I hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to review!