Wrong Again

Chapter 9

So, I just read chapter 1 again and I had said that I would keep it only in Naruto's and Sasuke's point of view but I haven't done that at all! Oh well, it helps me write and explain things that otherwise wouldn't even be mentioned because Naruto and Sasuke are pretty clueless about their new life. Now that would suck for you guys to have no idea what's going on…not that you do anyway. Just kidding, here's chapter 9 and it's dedicated to SolitaryMovement for her review, it really made me happy! This is out earlier than usual just for you, enjoy!

(The first sentence really is a breather, sorry about it, it just wouldn't break down properly).

"Let me out of here you damned stupid fox!" Naruto shouted up at the ceilings of the sewer that made up the prison maze that housed the demon. He had felt the pain fade away when the fox chakra had begun consuming him. Too weak to stop the flow he had been slowly forced into the sewer and held there against his will.

What was worse, he could hear it.

For once in his life, Naruto was aware of what the fox was doing while it took over his body. He couldn't see but the sounds of that double voiced laughter intermittent with screams scared the shit out of him. He could hear what the demon was saying and it chilled him to the bone.

He wasn't sure if not seeing anything could be considered a blessing when his overactive imagination was working overtime letting him know exactly what could be going on. Whatever Kyuubi was doing using his body that man sure as hell wasn't going to die painlessly.

After a while he kept his shouting to a minimum but the moment he heard his father, his screaming and shouting increased once more. He had to get out! He started running once more as if that would lead him to an the fox suddenly stopped. And Naruto slowed to a stop as he realized why. Fear seized at his heart and his breathing stopped. No, don't! Don't come here! He couldn't breathe as his lungs refused to work and his legs stiffened and locked up.

He could feel Sasuke. For the longest time nothing happened. Naruto counted the harsh gurgling breaths of the dying man; he being Sasuke's father acording to the fox. He could sense his own father but no one was moving except for the group that was fast approaching. The boy was close by and before he knew it there was a commotion.

Obito was there and some other vaguely familiar chakra signatures but he couldn't take the time to decipher just who they were. His senses were drawn to the still boy standing not too far away. Oh god, what was going on?

He heard his father telling him to fight the fox. What the hell did they think he was doing? He didn't know of any way to really get control back, it just happened. He shouted at the walls some more and he missed what was said but the next words caught his immediate attention.

Kyuubi spoke clearly.

"For you, Uchiha Sasuke, for the way it really was." Sasuke screamed and Naruto fell forward as his stomach revolted and he lost whatever meager contents there were inside. Clutching at his heaving sides he was so cold. He had heard the fleshy sound and for second there he had smelled and tasted the warm blood.

This couldn't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening! The mantra repeated itself several times in his head before he shouted it out loud to the cold damp walls.

"This can't be happening! Kyuubi!!" His wail fell on deaf ears. Naruto curled up and hugged his knees. He hadn't spoken to Kyuubi yet in this time but from the fox's words he knew that Kyuubi knew. They were connected, intertwined; whatever happened to one happened to the other. The demon must have come back into the past with him as well. How else would he know?

Naruto had to get out. Whatever he did he had to get out of here!

"Let me out!! Stupid fox!!" he shouted and stood up. Determined to get out he started running again. Whatever had happened outside was bad and he needed to get out. The need was so great that he just couldn't think of anything else at the moment. It powered his legs into running. He ran hard and fast and made his way back to the looming gates of the cage where the demon was supposed to be.

The fox was there golden eyes gleaming with amusement. As Naruto entered the chamber it loomed forward of the gates and chuckled.

"About time you came down here," it spoke with a deep rumble. Naruto snarled at it.

"What the hell, you stupid fox! What the fuck do you think you're doing? Let me out!" he shouted at the demon. Kyuubi laughed and regarded the raging smaller human before him.

"I just saved your life, brat. Be a little bit more grateful," it chided. It must have been in a good mood to not snap and growl immediately like it usually did. Naruto didn't care; he didn't give a damn about the demon's moods.

"You don't give a shit about me!" he shouted with an accusing finger at the chakra form. The fox ignored the outburst and tilted its head.

"Don't you want to know?" Naruto crossed his arms over his chest. Yes he did want to know but he'd be damned three times over before he admitted that to the fox. The stupid thing would gloat over this forever.

"Know what?" he snapped. The demon laughed at the boy's pretense. It decided it wouldn't tell unless the human gave in and asked. Then it would see if it felt like telling it what had happened. So instead it changed the subject.

"You and that pesky Uchiha have caused so much trouble," the demon chuckled, "The two of you together caused more chaos and destruction than me." Naruto failed to see what was so amusing. And that wasn't true at all!

"Us!? It's all because of you! If it weren't for you everything would be fine! It's because of you that my father died! That Sasuke went against Konoha! It's you that-"

"Me?" it laughed again interrupting the human's rant, "Of course I was there, and all I had to do was one thing, one thing that I'm good at. And you two did all the rest. I haven't had this much fun in a while. Thanks to you and that brat, I'll actually get a chance to kill that man and free myself!"

"What are you talking about? You can't free yourself!" Naruto didn't like where this conversation was going. Kyuubi definitely had come back to the past with him and it seemed stronger than before. And how the hell was it planning on freeing itself? As if it could read his mind, or in this case the bewildered expression on the human's face, the fox decided to enlighten it.

"Just think; that human is alive in this time. What would he do to keep his precious son when he finds out that he had already lost him in another life?" the demon taunted. Dread filled Naruto; he hadn't thought of that. No way was he gonna let Kyuubi blurt out something like that. He wasn't going to let his father choose again, not if he could help it!

"I won't let you!" That was final; he had to stop talking to the damn fox. He was filling his head with doubts and fears that he didn't need. With a surge of will, he forced Kyuubi back into its cage. It wasn't so much as forcing but Kyuubi drawing back.

The seal glowed briefly in the dark and he could no longer see the red chakra of the demon but Naruto could still hear its haunting laughter.

Stupid fox.

"By the founding of the council of Konoha, you, Uchiha Shisui are found guilty of high treason; for planning and aiding the attempt to overtake Konoha and is hereby sentenced to death…" The trial droned on for numerous members of the clan. This was the third day of sentencing; each person had their own trial, most were shorter than others which lasted hours.

With the evidence stacked against the clan members, there was no case of defense. Minato presided over the trials but otherwise didn't say much other than presenting the charges and punishments. Days had passed and many more would pass before this whole fiasco would be over. So far the ones that were being charged were the ones with evidence of direct involvement. It would take more time to finalize the other trials for those that might have had a hand or played a smaller role.

Even those that knew of the coup but stayed complacent weren't spared. In the end, Minato knew most of the clan would either be executed or imprisoned for some time. Most transgressors were older males; the innocent consisted mainly of children and women.

The famous clan, the co-founders of Konoha, would no longer ever hold its prestigious name any more. The power and place of honor was stripped from them and the survivors would be left in shame.

Minato observed the section that was reserved for first come civilians and other spectators. The looks ranged from anger to disbelief. Konoha had lost one of its strongest clans to shame. He thought back to those late night secret meetings when one of the options was to secretly eliminate the entire clan to avoid this issue of public humiliation and paperwork.

The suggestion had come from an older member; Danzou to be specific. Minato was waiting for that bastard to keel over in his day to day dealings but so far it hadn't happened. The fact that the old man didn't just retire like Homura or Koharu pissed him off to no end but he had to deal with him.

Danzou had wanted to annihilate the clan; the upside to that meant the clan would die with honor. But what was honor to a dead clan than to the village? To him as the Hokage to even allow for such an action was unthinkable! Why lie to his people? They deserved to know the truth. Unfortunately he knew all too well some leaders who would keep their policies and dealings secret from their people.

He looked at the next Uchiha up for judgment and his gut clenched when he saw that it was another teenager. According to the file that he had read and pretty much memorized, the boy was two marriages removed from Obito, a cousin who was only sixteen years old.

The boy stood before the judgment panel with his head held down. He along with those standing just behind the side doors had heard the previous sentence to Shisui. No doubt the boy knew what he faced since he had been quite active in the coup in his eagerness to impress his father.

For those who had a developed a sharingan had their blood limit sealed. The seal had been designed by the clan itself for detaining their own members. Minato had made some minor improvements on the design. This boy didn't have a seal though yet he wore the chakra binding seals like all the others. The lack of the prized eye would explain why he had been trying to please his father.

Minato let of a quiet sigh; he did his best to hide it. This whole thing weighed heavily on his heart. There really was no way around it though. And just like he hadn't been able to avoid this, there was still the issue of Sasuke and Naruto. Ever since that day of Naruto's kidnapping, more questions had been raised about the mystery of the two boys.

The way Kyuubi had acted, what it had said, it made no sense at all. The way things really were? What the hell did it mean? How did it know the name of a seven year old?

After the incident, Sasuke had woken up screaming and hysterical. His words matched up with what he had been screaming at Itachi the moment their father died. The older Uchiha had been confused by the accusation and just more than a little hurt since it had been him who had taken the mission as a double agent for the fall of the clan. Minato had assured him that he would get to the bottom of it.

Sasuke had been sedated but the second time he came around it was obvious the boy had withdrawn from everyone. Minato didn't blame him; he had witnessed the killing of his father in such a gruesome way. He wasn't sure if the boy would recover mentally.

Naruto had been pretty much the same way. His injuries healed up shortly after and even his broken bones had been set and the boy was already sitting up in bed. But that was the extent of his movements. The boy had been extremely quiet. The haunted look in his eyes led his concerned guardian to believe that he hadn't been exactly oblivious when the fox had taken over.

Minato had tried to engage him in conversation and comfort him but Naruto had merely asked if Sasuke was around. He had answered that Sasuke was in the next room. That had been the end of any real interaction between them.

It killed him to see his little boy so withdrawn and damaged. Never before had he'd ever seen Naruto like this. In the past, attempts by villagers to beat the boy hadn't ever brought him down to this level before. It angered him; he despised the fox demon but he hated himself for not being able to do anything, for not knowing what to do.

Despite the story he had fed the council about Naruto's seal he knew that the level of control wasn't supposed to be anywhere near this strong, if at all. Part of the seal would have initially suppressed the demon enough so that it wouldn't be conscious for years to come. His seal had been meant so that the fox would have been awakened not because it wanted to but by Naruto calling it forth.

So how come the fox had taken over? Had Naruto somehow called it? That didn't seem plausible but until he questioned him he wouldn't know for sure.

Speaking of questioning his boy, he had to do that soon. Today's trials would end in a few more hours. It would be over when the list of names scheduled for today were done. So in the mean time he had to sit tight and bear with it.

He gritted his teeth but compromised by sorting out just what questions he would ask those two boys. It really was time for this; he had put it off long enough. Now he just hoped that he wasn't too late and that they would talk willingly.

Konoha, as with any other ninja village, had their own methods of extracting information. Most could be considered brutal and painful and he didn't even want to think about resorting to those but they did have a few non painful methods such as the Yamanaka clan mind reading jutsus. Or there was another mind reading jutsu but that required the person in question to be dead.

None of the methods were any that he wanted to deploy. He just hoped that they would cooperate and speak freely. One thing though that Minato had learned since he was young, hardly anything was ever free, especially information.

It was going to be another long night.

Naruto was sitting up in his bed. It was his usual room that he shared with Sasuke but in this case there wasn't any Sasuke to share it with. According to his dad, Sasuke was in the next room over but try as he might, he couldn't sense the other boy's chakra at all.

He entertained the thought that maybe the walls were chakra proof or something or that his father had lied and Sasuke really wasn't there. Whatever the case, Naruto was concerned. He hadn't seen his best friend for a while now and he was getting damned antsy. It didn't help that he was bored out of his mind. No one had told him that he couldn't leave the room but they didn't actually give off the vibe that he could either.

The boy stared hard at the door; the staring contest lasted only a minute before he shoved his cover aside and threw his legs over the side of the bed and sat up. It was his house he could damn well do what he wanted. And he wanted to find Sasuke right now.

After a few shaky steps from not having used his legs for a while Naruto finally found his balance. He quickly made his way to the door before anyone could barge in and change his plans.

The door to the room next to his was unlocked and to prove his father right, Sasuke was in there. Naruto walked in slowly and closed the door behind him. Sasuke looked sick and extremely pale. He looked skinnier too. Around his eyes there were strange dark markings like a tattoo. Some sort of seal?

No wonder he hadn't been able to sense anything, perhaps his dad had sealed his chakra. The only reason that would make sense was if Sasuke had gone crazy when his father was killed. If so, Naruto didn't blame him, just like he didn't blame him for being such an ass all those years ago when all he wanted to do was kill his brother.

Also Sasuke might as well be dead by the way he looked and acted. The pale boy didn't even acknowledge him when he walked over to the bed. The boy was lying on the large bed, made larger by how small he was, with his eyes staring off into space. Naruto didn't think he was sleeping but maybe he was wrong. Why else would he be so still?

"Sasuke?" he called out quietly just in case he was sleeping. Then Naruto seemed to remember himself and who he was talking to.

"Hey, teme!" he finished crossing the distance to the bed with loud marching steps. At the bed side Sasuke was still too far away so he climbed onto the bed disrupting the calm sea of crème sheets and cover. He leaned over the unresponsive boy with a frown. When a wave of his hand over the hazy gaze didn't even provoke a blink he spoke up again accompanying each of his words with a poke.

"Hey, teme! What's the matter?"

"Go away," the pale boy mumbled so lightly Naruto almost didn't hear him. Nonetheless it was a response but to keep him talking he pretended that he didn't hear him.

"What? What did you say?" Naruto proceeded to lean closer to the other boy. Slightly irritated by the blond Sasuke shifted his gaze to Naruto.

"Don't yell in my face, dobe," he paired his request with a glare. Naruto smiled, finally, a proper response from the boy. Smiling Naruto continued to stare down at Sasuke with no intention to leave. He had managed to get a reaction but he knew he needed to annoy him more if he was going to get anywhere. That was just the way Sasuke functioned; he knew just what the other boy liked and didn't like.

And what Sasuke hated almost as much as incessant jabbering was pointless staring which he just couldn't ignore. Unwilling to be the first to look away Sasuke lasted all of two minutes before he snapped.

"What?" Victory!

"You look like shit," he blurted out. Hell, that wasn't what he was planning on saying but his tongue managed to beat his brain in the race to say something once again. Sasuke wasn't amused; he didn't even deign to answer that comment.

Naruto sobered up and his eyes grew solemn. Sasuke processed the one eighty degree turn in personality but stayed silent as he waited for Naruto to say what he came to say.

"I'm sorry," he started but looked away before continuing, "I tried to stop it. I don't know what's going on but I'm going to stop it." He looked back at Sasuke briefly before he leaned forward and pressed his forehead to the other boy's in an unprecedented move.

The contact was over almost before it began but the barest of touch was felt by both boys. Naruto pulled back and some understanding passed between them like it always did but he had been expecting more confusion from the bedridden boy.

He didn't think too much of it though when he jumped off the bed and let himself out of the room and made his way down to the kitchen for some food, preferably ramen.

Sasuke was left to think of what just happened. Naruto, the unique, one of a kind blond idiot, had managed to somehow get past his defenses of icy aloofness with his annoying ways. And what was worse, or better, Sasuke didn't know anymore, he couldn't bring himself to care at the moment. He didn't care about a lot at all.

When he had seen his father's death it had been like the massacre all over again. He had gotten his family back only to lose them again. Granted he hadn't seen them in a year and they weren't exactly on genial terms but at least they were alive.

Now though, his father was dead, he wasn't sure where Itachi and mother were, if she was alive or dead. In a sense, he was alone again. His father's death reminded him so clearly of why he had outgrown bonds in his last life.

It was alarming easy to fall back into that attitude of avenger and not give a damn about anyone but getting stronger. Yet here Itachi wasn't the villain. He never was in the first place. Sasuke still wasn't sure if he had been there when their father died or if he had merely been part of a hallucination brought about by his overloaded mind.

It was hard to think now that he had been cruelly reminded that he wasn't a seven year old kid but on the verge of manhood. His life from before intermingled and blended so well with the last year that thinking in terms of one or the other was impossible yet thinking with both mindsets was even harder.

He couldn't just ignore his past experiences but the different factors in this life couldn't be disregarded either. But they didn't mix well at all.

The only constant was Naruto. Only the blond seemed to be never changing and forever by his side. He promptly shoved the thought that he had almost changed that twice in his short life span. That was a matter that would be put to the knife and examined another time; maybe never if he had any say at all.

Thinking of Naruto brought the blonde's parting words back to mind. He had apologized. Never in their dynamic relationship of enemies turned rival turned friends and back to enemies did they ever apologize to each other. It was a given like the sky was naturally blue and the grass was born to be green that every action seemed to be forgiven as soon as it was made.

That meant that he wasn't apologizing for his actions but something else. I couldn't stop it. He must have been talking about the fox demon. Had he been aware the entire time? Sasuke recalled his fight with Naruto at the Valley of the End. It wasn't one of his best memories but he clearly recalled with the photographic memory of the sharingan that Naruto hadn't been over taken by the fox. Naruto was in control then.

In comparison, this time it had been all Kyuubi. From the moment those eyes opened that night Sasuke could tell that Naruto wasn't in control.

That issue of the blame of his father's death was something that he had no doubt about. So his vengeance was with the demon. Yet he had learned in his brief interactions with Akatsuki that extracting the demon killed the host. If the host died while the demon was inside, the demon would die as well. It would certainly satisfy him if that damned fox died but that meant he would truly be alone because there was no way to kill the thing without killing Naruto too.

Despite his mind's instinctive need to retreat back to his previous mindset, he had already established sometime in this past year that Naruto was someone that he was going to keep alive. He had never really been able to kill him anyway even when given the chance.

But there was that encounter after three years. In truth during those years he had been conditioning himself to forget the blond. It was surprisingly easy but he refused to let that disturb him. There were plenty of things to distract him from it; training, avoiding unnecessary contact with anything moving or non-moving and other unpleasant things.

So when he saw Naruto, the conditioning had dulled his mind to his friend-turned-enemy's presence and for a moment he actually thought that he could do it; kill Naruto. Thinking back on that, he was glad that the encounter was short lived or else in his developed apathy he might have actually tried.

Sasuke's thoughts ended there at least for that issue. He still couldn't bring himself to think about that last fight without something inside of him hurting.

His eyes wondered the room. All this thinking was giving him a headache. Perhaps it was time to actually sleep. But as he settled his mind to try and sleep the door opened once more to reveal none other than an older vision of Naruto.

This is how Naruto's going to look like when he's older. That thought was promptly strangled since it held a pleased note that he wasn't willing to look into. He must be past exhaustion for his brain to muse so randomly.

"You're up, Sasuke," the Fourth spoke as he entered the room followed by Obito. Those two hardly were ever apart; where one was the other was sure to follow if they weren't there already. He regarded the man coolly but remained silent. He knew that this was coming but for some reason being stared down at by the Yondaime wasn't as easy as he thought it would be. It was like being scolded by a father for doing something bad. Sasuke once again felt how easy it was to fall back into old habits.

"I have some questions for you and I'd like your complete honesty please," the blond started off as soon as Obito shut the door.

A/N:

Ahh! This was really just one long ramble from Naruto and Sasuke's point of view. Plot wise you can guess a few little minor things from what was said but mainly this is just where Naruto and Sasuke become a little bit closer. As for Sasuke's long thought monologue, you all know or suspect that he broods a lot and I just so happened to write it all down.

This is a slight dip in the action before some truths are revealed in the next chapter when the questioning is done. Can you guess what's going to happen? Haha, I don't even know at the moment, we'll see what the two boys are willing to reveal. If you paid attention when you read then you'll have an idea how the two will react.

Thanks again for reading! Sorry SolitaryMovement, this really isn't meant to be a tease but somehow I get the feeling that you're going to think so.