Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, [insert funny joke here]…but that's not happening, so I guess I don't own Naruto.
Author's Note: Sorry for the long delay in chapters. This was kind of hard to do because I had to rewrite a lot (it really sucked before). It went from 2000 words to 5000 words, and I like the way this came out. Without further ado, I give you…
Chapter Eight:
Jiraya had agreed to teach me how to use fire to enhance a jutsu of mine. It's hard to do a fire release, since I'm naturally a wind release, but it's possible. I need to concentrate my chakra at my fingertips, and continue concentrate until fire is made. Then, I produce a rasengan and combine it with the fire, for a fire ball rasengan.
I almost had a hang on it, but I couldn't quite combine the two jutsu. I trained for three days straight, but I still had no luck. I was getting extremely frustrated, and I went back to my apartment and went straight to bed, too tired to eat dinner.
The next morning, I woke up to see Sasuke outside my window. Shit! I forgot we had to meet Kakashi and Ino at the bridge this morning! I was so late.
"Hey, loser!" he yelled. "Are you getting ready?"
"I'm almost ready," I lied. "Wait for me, I'll be out in a minute." I raced like a madman to get ready. It took me more like five minutes, but Sasuke stood waiting for me. We walked to the bridge talking about random stuff. I was so lost in our conversation, I didn't even focus on his feelings for me. For the first time, I wasn't fretting over it.
We got to the bridge first, and we continued our idle chit chat. About a minute later, we heard our perky teammate's voice. But it wasn't the shriek of 'Sasuke!' that we would expect. It was more of a growl. And it wasn't his name at all, actually.
"NARUTO!" she yelled. Sasuke and I stopped laughing at the joke he'd told when Ino came to the bridge. "What the hell were you thinking, you selfish, jerk!" She hit me over the head.
"Ow!" I yelled. She was really pissed, and I knew what this was all about. Sakura must have told her. But I had other problems than worrying about Sakura, namely the blonde girl who was eyeing me with intent to kill.
"Ino," Sasuke said, stepping between us.. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about how he stomped all over Sakura's heart!" she yelled. She pushed Sasuke to the side to get to me, but I had gotten up. Sasuke grabbed her arm and pulled her back to prevent my murder.
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked. She tried to pull away, but he kept a solid grip on her arm. I stood up and brushed myself off. I looked at Sasuke and decided he needed to know the truth.
"I broke up with Sakura yesterday," I said. "After I had seen you." He must have been really shocked because his eyes widened a fraction – which for an Uchiha is like his eyes bugging out of their sockets. He was so shocked that his grip loosened and Ino pulled her arm away from him. She sent me a glare before turning to Sasuke.
"Sakura told Asuma and Shino that she was too sick to go on their mission with them. They accepted it until Shikamaru told them that your friend," she spat with disgust, "broke up with her yesterday. Apparently, Shikamaru witnessed it all."
We were quiet for a few seconds, but it felt like forever. Sasuke was making sure not to betray his Uchiha mask. I saw him struggle to keep control. I wondered momentarily what was going through his mind. I was immediately reminded of his feelings for me, and I silently wondered how my life could get any more complicated.
I had always had a crush on Sakura, who'd always had a crush on Sasuke. I hated Sasuke. So naturally, the three of us were on the same genin team. When Sakura finally grew to like me and we started to go out, I didn't have the same feelings for her. Add to that that Sasuke was now my friend and he wanted to be more, and we have all the essentials for a soap opera. This kind of stuff only ever happened to me.
"Naruto," Sasuke said. "You...broke up...with Sakura." I saw his face, and he was shocked, even if it wasn't apparent to the naked eye. I learned how to read his body language a while ago.
Ino took a step towards me, remembering her anger. I backed away, but she had me cornered against the side of the bridge. I would probably have been hit another time or two had Kakashi not appeared to save me from my fate.
"Sorry I'm late," he said with an obvious smile behind his mask. "I was just lost on the road…of…life," he slowed down, seeing Ino's glare at me. "What's going on?" he asked as he turned to me.
"Naruto broke up with Sakura yesterday," Sasuke said, keeping his voice level and emotionless. "And Ino's pissed at him for hurting her." Ino balled her hands into fists, but Kakashi grabbed her wrists.
"What is it with men and grabbing my arms?" she huffed.
"Ino, stop!" Kakashi ordered. "If you can't be professional about this, then you will just have to stay behind with Sakura."
Ino pouted, and gave me a glare, but she stopped trying to hurt me, so I guess I made out well. Kakashi briefed us more detailed about our mission and told us to have a big breakfast, and we'd meet him at the gates to the village at noon.
Kakashi left the three of us alone. Ino sent me a glare – not as deadly as before – before turning on her heel and walking off.
"You wanna have breakfast with me, Sasuke?" I asked. I really wanted to know what was going on inside his head. Was he happy I broke up with Sakura? Did he care?
"Hn," he grunted. "Fine, but none of that ramen garbage that you constantly insist on shoving down your mouth." I crossed my arms with a huff, but he just rolled his eyes. "We can eat something at my house."
Throughout breakfast, he was quiet, and obviously deep in thought. He barely spoke the entire meal, a harsh contrast to him joking on the way to the bridge. I realized then that that wasn't the Sasuke I met a year ago. The Sasuke I met a year ago was very reserved, never showing emotion. I somehow broke his shell, his wall, and his mask (he had all three layered on top of another, or at least it seemed that way sometimes), and I saw the real Sasuke today. And I didn't even blink twice. It was as if he was normally that sociable and talkative. But once reality hit him, he hid behind his trifecta of barriers. When I finished my meal, I decided to drag him out of his little world.
"Hey, Sasuke," I began tentatively, "what do you think of me breaking up with Sakura?"
"Why'd you do it?" he asked.
"You know why," I said. "We talked about it."
"What I mean, dumbass, is why don't you have feelings for her anymore?"
"I…I don't know," I admitted. "I just don't feel about her the way I knew I should."
"You've been going out with her for a few weeks," he said. "How far did you two go?"
I blushed. "That's none of your business, asshole!" I yelled. "That's private."
"Really? That far?" he said with sarcasm. "So I guess that means it wasn't because she was bad in bed." To say that his talk wasn't causing me to stop blushing was an understatement.
"Why do you have to do that?" I asked. "How come every time you show yourself – you're real self, like this morning – you always crawl back into your shell? Why don't you want people to see the real Sasuke?"
"That's not the real Sasuke," he said.
"That's bullshit, and we both know it. I like the real Sasuke a whole hell of a lot more than the Sasuke that you hid behind – the one that shows no emotion, and doesn't open up to anyone. That Sasuke is an asshole, but the other one is pleasant to be around."
"There aren't two of me, dobe," he said.
"Yes there are," I said. "There's the one that you normally show to the world, and then there's the one I've only seen a few times. Like when I almost died fighting Kisame and Itachi. Why can't you show that Sasuke more often?"
"Because if I show that side of me, I open myself up to pain, and I'll never do that again." He rose from the table and turned away from me. I could tell I got the real Sasuke to slip through the cracks. That was a total slip, and he knew Sasuke would never have said that to him if he hadn't pushed him.
That's it! He's just afraid of being rejected, kind of like me. He's afraid to fail. He thinks that if he opens himself up and admits his feelings or shows emotion, he'll be rejected, and he'll be all alone, just like when Itachi killed his parents.
I wanted to tell him he was wrong, but I realized that he wasn't too far off. If he ever told me the truth about his feelings for me, I would have to reject his advances. He'd never be the same around me. I was part of the problem – if not the whole thing.
"I think you should leave," he said, just as emotionless as before. I stood up and left without a word to him, knowing that nothing I could say would change the facts about the situation. He loved me, and I didn't love him – I couldn't…could I?
OoOoOoOoO
About an hour later, we met each other at the gate and headed off toward the Land of Grass. I know Kakashi sensed the tension between my teammates and I. Ino still hated my guts for breaking up with Sakura, and Sasuke was pissed because of what happened when we were at his house.
At about one in the afternoon, we stopped for lunch. We had made great time, so Kakashi told us we could take our time. The meal was pretty much silent with Kakashi trying to start up conversation with the three of us individually. He'd ask Sasuke how his training was going, and Sasuke would grunt an answer. He'd ask Ino how Shikamaru was (I had no idea what that was about), and she blushed. But I didn't care. I was too absorbed in my own mind.
"Naruto!" Kakashi yelled, shaking me from my thoughts. "Spacing out like that could be dangerous."
"I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei. What?"
"I asked if I could talk to you in private," he told me.
"Uh, sure," I said. Kakashi and I left Ino and Sasuke alone to find a place to talk.
"What's up with you and Sasuke?" he asked when we were far enough away.
"I'd rather not talk about it," I said. "Let's just say we had a fight this morning."
"About Sakura?" the jonin asked with his eyebrow arched. I knew what he was getting at, but he didn't know I knew.
"Not really," I said. "About him."
"What happened?" he asked, all of a sudden deadly serious.
"I told him that I liked him – the real him – better than the act he puts on for everyone."
"How did he react?" Kakashi asked.
"As well as expected," I said. "He exploded, and then asked me to leave."
He nodded, and we returned back to Ino and Sasuke, who were having a quiet conversation. I guess it must have involved me or Kakashi because when we got back, they shut up pretty quickly.
By dinner, we hit the border between the Land of Grass and the Land of Fire. We decided to make camp in our own country before leaving. Dinner was quiet, and the three of us fanned out to train for a little bit. Sasuke and I returned to camp a few hours later, with Ino nowhere in sight. At about 10 pm, Sasuke approached me.
"So you really broke up with Sakura?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"Why?" he asked. This confused me. He knew why I wanted to break up with her. I had told him on our last mission, not to mention earlier.
"But you know," I said. "Remember that night at the hotel? And at your house this morning? I told you that I didn't feel anything romantic towards her." He was acting weird, so it shouldn't have surprised me when he gasped.
I looked at the way he was standing - Sasuke would never stand that way. And he already knew the answer to the questions he was asking. Not to mention the fact that he should have been so pissed that he let down his wall earlier to talk to me – you know, his Uchiha pride and stubbornness. That's when it hit me.
"Ino!" I yelled. "Is this a transformation jutsu, or is it your mind transfer jutsu?"
She appeared as Ino again. I guess that means it was a transformation.
"Sasuke knew?" she asked, appalled. I guess that means they weren't talking about Sakura and I earlier while Kakashi and I talked.
"He's my best friend," I said, "Of course he knew!"
"What's all this yelling about?" Sasuke asked, appearing behind me.
"Ino transformed into you to find out why I broke up with her," I said, turning around to face him.
He looked at Ino with ice in his eyes. "Don't...ever...transform into me." He walked away, ignoring me. I guess I shouldn't have really been surprised.
"Sasuke!" she yelled. "I'm sorry!" she screamed, running after him.
"Naruto," another voice said, coming out of the shadows. "We should talk," Kakashi said.
We walked towards a small pond in silence. I couldn't tell whether this would be about Sakura or Sasuke. Maybe both?
"Naruto," he began, "why did you break up with Sakura?" Again with these questions! Wasn't my relationship with Sakura our business? So far, I've been harassed by Sasuke, Ino, Shikamaru, and now Kakashi, too. My response was so easy because I'd said it so many times in the past week.
"She felt more like my sister than anything else. I just didn't feel very attracted to her." We stood in silence for a minute, and I could practically see the wheels turning in Kakashi's head. Finally, he broke the silence.
"Naruto," Kakashi began, "are you gay?"
"NO!" I yelled. "What is this! First Iruka sensei, now you! Do I seem gay?" What was it with these people? I didn't give off a gay vibe…I hoped.
"Iruka? Why did Iruka ask you?" Shit shit shit.
"I...um..." I didn't know what to say. I guess I'd have to tell Kakashi about my eavesdropping.
"Back in the Land of Sound, after our battle with Orochimaru, I heard you and Sasuke talking. About me." I didn't want to press any further. If he didn't know what I was talking about, then I wouldn't help him any further.
"You know," he said. It wasn't a question, it was a statement.
"That Sasuke loves me?" I asked. "Yeah, I know."
"Listen, Naruto," he began, "I only asked you if you were gay because of him. If you broke up with Sakura because you didn't feel attracted to her, then I'd tell Sasuke to get over you, but if you broke up with her because you're gay, then he might have a chance."
"Sensei," I said. "I'm not gay. And what do you mean about him having a chance? You want us to be together?"
"You could do worse," he said. "You both could." I blushed.
"As nice a talk as this was," I said with sarcasm, "I'm tired."
"Alright, then" he said. We began to walk back to the tents "Does Sasuke know?"
"That I know about him, or that I'm not gay?"
"Both."
"I hope he knows I'm not gay, but he doesn't know that I know."
"How do you feel, knowing that your partner, teammate and friend loves you?" Ah, that was the million dollar question. The truth is that I didn't really know.
"It was hard at first, but now I guess I accept it now," I said truthfully. "It's kind of weird, but I'll get over it. I have to, right?" He smiled at me.
We went back to camp, where Ino was fawning over Sasuke. Of course, he didn't return her affection. I felt bad for Sasuke, and for a second, I wondered what it would be like if we were together. I realized that it wouldn't probably be that bad. Kakashi was right – there would be worse people to spend the rest of my life with than Sasuke Uchiha. But I shook the thought from my head, and I went into my tent. It was also Sasuke's, but that didn't matter at the moment. I was so tired. I wasn't in bed for two minutes before sleep slowly began to settle on me.
It was about midnight when I heard the tent open. I kept my eyes closed, but I knew that it was Sasuke going to bed. As he lied down beside me, he sighed, and whispered in my ear.
"I love you, Naruto." He kissed my lips before turning over and falling asleep. I'd be lying if I said my heart didn't skip a beat. It just made me more confused. Why did I care? Combine that with my earlier thoughts about Sasuke and I spending life together. I seriously didn't know what it meant. The last thing I remember thinking before drifting back into sleep was that maybe Iruka and Kakashi were right - could I be gay?
OoOoOoOoO
We woke up the next morning like we usually did. We ate breakfast, and began to pack up camp. We traveled in silence, and arrived in the Land of Grass after a few minutes. When Kakashi said we were on the border, he wasn't kidding!
We continued in the same uncomfortable silence of yesterday until we stopped for lunch. I finished early, so I decided to train a little bit. While I was practicing my rasengan, I saw a little kid out of the corner of my eye. He was all alone, and he was crying at the base of a tree.
"Hey, kid!" I called out. "What's wrong?" He looked up at me before looking back down into his hands.
"I...sniff...ran away...sniff...from home," he cried.
"Come with me," I said. I couldn't do anything about this kid, maybe Kakashi could. I held out my arm, and he grabbed it, pulling himself up. We started to return to the campsite, where everyone was packing up. They turned around and saw the crying boy with me.
Ino's maternal instinct must have kicked in, as she ran over to the little boy and put an arm around him. "How did you get those bruises?" she asked. It was the first time I noticed the bruises. He had brown hair and big, matching eyes, but one of his eyes was blackened. Not to mention marks on his arms and wrists as if somebody had grabbed him roughly. I noticed a cut on his cheek and there was some dried blood on his shirt.
"Daddy...sniff...was upset...sniff...because I told him...sniff...that I didn't want to be a ninja."
I wasn't very good at this kind of thing, so I just watched and let Kakashi and Ino try to get the boy to tell us what happened. We learned that his name was Aniko and he was eight. I was so wrapped up with the boy, that I almost forgot Sasuke was there until I heard a low grunt that was too soft for anyone else to hear. I looked up at him, and saw him eyeing the boy suspiciously.
"Sasuke," I said. "What's with the look?"
"Those bruises he has," he said, "they aren't in places that are easy for another person to attack and leave a bruise. The way the bruises are on his wrists, they look self inflicted And a cut on his thigh looks too deep to be real. If it was really that deep, he'd be dead by now. It just doesn't add up to me."
"I think Kakashi would know if something was up," I said, and I walked over to Aniko, Kakashi, and Ino. We decided to take Aniko with us to the first town we found. As we were walking, I heard a whisper from Sasuke.
"Sharingan," he whispered. I turned in his direction to ask him why he activated it, but he turned around. Then, he jumped swiftly right behind me, holding a kunai. The clang of metal was all too familiar. Someone threw a kunai at me, and Sasuke knocked it away.
"Ino," Kakashi said, taking notice. "Take Aniko somewhere safe."
Kakashi, Sasuke and I turned to our attacker. I wasn't surprised to see that it was Ishichi – he did say he'd come after us again.
"You little brats got away, last time," he said, pulling out three senbon. "You won't be so lucky this time. I took notice of your skills – you're no match for me." He ran at me, and threw the three senbon at me. Sasuke jumped in front of me, taking the hit in his arm. He pulled them out.
"It'll take more than a few senbon to get me," he said. Then, Kakashi and Sasuke both begun their chidori and charged at Ishichi. Ishichi turned himself into mist, and reappeared behind me. He took out a few more senbon and threw them at me. I dodged out of the way.
"Wind Style: Shuriken Tornado!" I yelled. I spun in the air, minus creating the tornado around me, and threw out shuriken. A new trick Jiraya taught me was how to increase my accuracy using chakra. The shuriken flew towards Ishichi, who jumped to dodged them.
"Fire Style: Roaring Flame Sphere!" Sasuke yelled. The orb wasn't nearly as big as it had been with his curse mark, but it was bigger than it usually was. The orb exploded, but I guess Ishichi used his mist technique to disappear. The three of us faced him again after he appeared behind us. I began to build up my chakra in the form of fire in my hand. It was working! In seconds, with the Fox's chakra, I had a flame coming out of my palm. I just needed to do the rasengan and combine them now.
"Fire Style: Flaming Rasengan!" I yelled. It took a few seconds to gather up my chakra, but I was able to do it. Instead of the light blue color, it was an orange color. I charged at Ishichi, and I hit him! He flew back into a tree, which then caught on fire.
What happened next was a blur. I turned around to face Sasuke and Kakashi, and I saw Aniko standing behind my sensei with a kunai. He aimed and threw.
"Kakashi sensei! Look out!" I yelled. The next thing I saw was Kakashi spitting out blood. Aniko smiled, and transformed into Ishichi.
A Mist Clone! Sasuke was right not to trust him – he was Ishichi in disguise.
Kakashi fell to his knees, and Sasuke threw a shuriken at the clone, who evaporated. We turned back to the real Ishichi.
"Now that your sensei and the bratty girl are out of the way, I can take care of you two," he said. He did a hand sign. "Hidden Mist Jutsu!" A thick fog covered the area. The fire in the tree appeared to go out.
What did he mean the 'bratty girl'? Wait, Ino was with Ishichi's clone. What did he do to her?
"Naruto!" I heard Sasuke yell. He ran towards me, and found me with his sharingan. We stood back to back. "He's to your left, Naruto. Duck!" I did as told, and was rewarded with the sound of a kunai flying above my head. Then, I felt something grab my ankle. I looked down to see a wisp of mist holding my ankle. The mist itself was attacking me?
"Mist Seal Jutsu!" Ishichi yelled. The fog thickened around me, but Sasuke was nowhere to be seen.
"Naruto!" he yelled again. "He's blocked me off from you. I can't see a thing! I'm outside the fog, but you two are trapped! I can't get in to help you!" That meant Sasuke was powerless to help me, and I had to face Ishichi alone without my sense of sight.
I felt power welling up inside of me, and then I heard an eerie voice. Let me out to help you, kid. If you die, we both go down.
The Nine Tailed Demon Fox wanted to help me. I didn't know what to do except let him. My body made a hand sign without my mind telling it to. Then I spoke with the Nine Tails voice.
"Nine Tails Release: Scent of the Beast Jutsu!" I yelled. I felt a surge of power as the best let itself out. In all sixteen years of my life, I'd never experienced this power! I felt the sense of smell of the beast become mine. I felt a surge in chakra, and I knew I could fight now. I could tell exactly where in this sealed off battlefield Ishichi was. "Wind Style: Nine Tailed Tornado Rasengan Jutsu!" I didn't know where these jutsu involving the fox came from. It was like it was just in my nature to do it.
I rose to the air, the mist and air circling around me. I was raised into a tornado like in my shuriken tornado jutsu, but then, the tornado condensed into a ball in my palm. It was an extremely condensed rasengan, which must have been at least fifty times more powerful. The mist that was stopping me from seeing was all trapped in the ball with the air, allowing me to see my opponent. I ran at Ishichi with the rasengan.
"I see I've lost this, Naruto Uzumaki," Ishichi said as I came at him. His body started turning into mist. "I will find you again. And I will kill you. Someday." By the time I reached him, he was gone, and my attack hit the walls that kept our battlefield sealed away from the outside world. As the rasengan hit it, it felt like the world shattered around me. I saw nothing but light.
I woke up just minutes later, without a scratch on me. The healing power of the fox never ceases to amaze me.
"Naruto, watch Kakashi," Sasuke said. I didn't have time to ask him why before he left. He came back two minutes later with Ino's body, just as limp as Kakashi's.
OoOoOoOoO
Apparently, the mist clone had stabbed Ino before killing Kakashi. It was official. Kakashi was dead. I couldn't believe the sensei who trained me for a year was gone. He was so strong. How could this happen? He wasn't watching his back. He let his guard down, and now he lost his life. Ino, however, was still alive, but barely. She needed medical attention immediately.
Sasuke and I brought her to the Village Hidden in the Grass, which wasn't too far away. We were at first, told to leave, but we explained to their leader about the attack, and he allowed us, as allies, to let their hospital take care of Ino. They sent an envoy of the Grass village to the Leaf village to send word to Jiraya about Kakashi and Ino.
Jiraya sent Gama to us to tell us to stay here as long as we could until Ino was fully recovered. We knew he meant that we should collect as much information as possible until we had to leave. Kakashi's body was sent back to the village to be buried.
We knew Shikamaru, Asuma and Shino were somewhere around here, too. Shikamaru and Asuma would definitely want to see Ino. Sasuke found them while I was checked out at the hospital. Of course, I was completely fine, but he wanted to make sure. My chakra was kind of low, but that was the worst thing they found.
That night, Sasuke and I went to our hotel room in the middle of the village, and went straight to sleep without talking. He was taking Kakashi's death extremely hard – I understood because he was the closest thing to a father Sasuke had since his parents died.
I knew Ishichi wasn't done with us. He'd keep coming after us until we killed him or he killed us. He had already killed Kakashi, and Ino might still die. I briefly wondered if he'd go after Sakura, too, since she was with us when we fought with Kisame and Ishichi the first time.
In the middle of the night, I woke up to him crying. I got out of my bed and crept into his, wrapping my arms around him. All I could think about was how I'd feel if I watched Iruka die in front of me. He tried to knock me off the bed, but I told him that I wasn't going anywhere. He told me to leave him alone, but I hugged him tighter. He eventually gave up, and we fell asleep like that, and I woke up with my head on his chest in the morning.
Author's Note: There, I gave you some fluff at the end . I wanted to ask you to review. Whether they're to give me constructive criticism or to tell me the story's great, I love reviews. So please, give me more. I feed off reviews like Naruto feeds off ramen. You guys are my Ichiraku. Please feed me.