The Moon That Embraces The Sun
Chapter 9:
No Such Thing As Kind Man
Title: The Moon That Embraces The Sun (Previously 'Guilty Pleasure)
Rated: T
Pairing: Multi x Sakura
Plot:
The "thorn bird" of the title refers to Sakura's character, who only brings out her best at the cost of great pain. A thorn bird is a mythical bird who searches for a thorn tree from the day it is born. When it finds it, the bird impales itself upon the sharpest thorn, and rises above the agony to sing the most beautiful song ever heard.
Flashbacks
Thank you for reviews and alerts guys! Really appreciate it!:
Guilty Pleasure Lover- Ah! Thank you for your support as always! :)
Bell Princess- Thank you! Please enjoy this chapter!
Princess m- Aww thanks! Enjoy the chapter!
T-ara- Here you go keke!
Angel Unni- Thank you for writing it in Korean! Yay another Korean! 고맙습니다 :)
Itachi lover- Well here is the update you've been waiting for!
Mermaid Caren- Well, who knows! You gotta read to find out! But who do you want them to end up with?
Yuuki-Hime 2097- Well, I made some changes: SPOILERS! Such as making Tobi as Obito just like the manga has.
withloveagain- Well, the pairing is multi-pairing with Sakura~! Enjoy!
GWaffle- Haha yes! I love Lyn, her voice and her singing is so talented! I made some few changes in the story such as changing SPOILERS: Tobi is actually Obito!
LLuNarEcLiPsE- I am so sorry for late updates! ㅠㅠ Hope this chapter makes it up for everythings I missed!
SasuLovesSaku4Ever- Thank you! Here is my reconciliation gift to you all readers! Hope you enjoy this!
Angelbloodlover- Thank you! I'm so sorry for really late updates but hope you enjoy this!
Hi guys! I am so sorry for like literally late updates! It's because basically I've been obsessed with other manga and animes and lost interest in Naruto although sometimes I do get those interest back and try and quickly to finish the chapter before it's gone. This is my hopeful and sorry gift to you guys who have been waiting for this story to be updated.
SPOILERS:
I made some changes, yes again, I'm sorry for keep changing but from now on it won't be now that I've settled Tobi as Obito which I really liked the idea of and I can't say I wasn't surprise when Tobi was revealed to be Obito! The story line of his is sooo sad! For someone like Obito who was really like Naruto to changed into cruel and callous person really reminded me of Sakura in this fanfic and thought they were rather similar!
HOPE YOU READERS ENJOY!
Perhaps before he met her, like fate, his eyes watched only one place and she had touched his heart that used to be ice in front of the world. She made him sleep deep inside his heart, trapping him inside her; letting him breathe. He called out her name in sadness everyday and he goes back to the day he met her several thousands times and draw the day when he embraces her.
Despite their big age difference, he felt those were only trivial things between two humans. She understood him and he seemed to understand her too. For hundreds of years, he wondered around places. He met so many ninjas and shinobis all different yet same alike and swiped the world with so many identities. One can call him to be the real Fourth Mizukage, the boy was the puppet for display and he was the puppeteer controlling every actions and words the brat said. But one could expect many surprises from others.
"You don't really think she died, do you?" Nine tailed asked and he felt himself frozen on spot in midst of taming the wild beast. His cold Sharingan met feline eyes both unwavering as they glared into each other.
"What does that mean?" He found his patience thinning, war with those damn Senju clan was not far away and he suspected this was the beast's way of buying some time.
"Come on kid." The Uchiha felt his eyes narrow as the beast referred to him as a 'kid'
"Even if you don't know what she is, you at least should have a grip on who she is"
"If this is some trick to buy some time before Senju comes, this won't spear you" He promised. This chakra beast was basically poking his old wound. Just like her. Angered and bitter, he felt his Sharingan swirl; forcing the Nine Tail into submissions.
Satisfied smirk reached his feline face, revealing sharp canines underneath, "How much she wanted revenge even after death...you don't know, do you?" This made him stop altogether. But before he could ask anything, the eyes of the beast was soon mirrored with his own eyes.
He had tamed the great Chakra beast.
For many years, he searched for answers. Building great libraries, in every bases and hideouts that was scattered all over every continent, filled with every knowledges of the world and jutsu itself; he told himself he would find some answers of sort in a book somewhere hidden in this libraries. Sometime at someday, a thought would cross his mind that told him she was not dead. Alive somewhere. Hiding.
Never changing appearance.
Knowledge of unknown.
Weird chakra pattern...
When he viewed Sakura with his newly acquired mangekyou sharingan by accident, he saw her chakra did not flowed like the others. She was receiving it from unknown source. Not from her body...normally, the energy circulates throughout the body in a network called the "chakra circulatory system" and to any of the 361 chakra points (called tenketsu) in the body. But, uniquely her's didn't circulated. It was..just there., was his last thought before the final breath left his lip.
Somewhere in the world, a figure stood. An orange, swirly mask was set in his face hiding any emotions he had as he sat on a luxurious sofa with his thumb thoughtfully rubbing his chin.
"There is no one I wish to thank but the time."
"Don't try to know her secret..."
"Alluring potrait. That's why you can never escape from it!"
"The secret of the potrait that has been passed down for 100 years, it's too late to run from it"
Portrait.
"She always highlighted the portrait." He muttered.
When he first heard about the change of place regarding the soon to be birth of the son of the Fourth Hokage, from one of many spies he gathered, he was surprised when the spies told him of the village's knowledge of some sort of ambush that may come during the event.
He was sure he hid the track perfectly. Maybe he left a trail of breadcrumbs perhaps? Even if they did change the location, it didn't stop him. He already knew where it is going to be.
But like fate, he met her on this day and the words he couldn't say seemed to clog like dust. Anger swelled up, urging his frozen leg to move and his eyes glaring underneath his mask, he set his foot forward to walk toward her but he felt his back painfully colliding with several trunks of trees before hitting rocky surface.
I handed Naruto back to tired Kushina as she cried at the fallen body of the medic and Biwako Sarutobi as Minato crouched in defensive state. I saw Tobi set a foot forward toward us trio before I immediately kicked his abdomen as he flies across the forest, smashing few trees in action due to my chakra filled in attacks.
Chuckles escaped his mouth and using the hard surface as leverage he stood up, in flash he held my neck in brusing grip but it soon softened, "I could never kill you...but I want to hurt you."
Gathering my chakra to my leg, I kicked him in the stomach, he let out a painful 'che' before jumping away in safe distance. His attenton soon shifted to Naruto when frightened cries spilled from his small lip. Knowing the danger, Kushina used her tired body to shield any glimpse of her son from the enemy. I shifted so my body hid the both mother and son, he tilt his head curiously.
"..Hm..I wonder what is so special about that child you regard it more important than me..the very person you saved and lived with for so many years." He put his hand on his chest.
Kushina gasped, looking shocked at the new, discovered information.
"Those ties mean nothing when measured against the ascendancy of his life."
FLASHBACK
Obito opened his eyes, his tongue-no, everything felt numb and even trying to open his mouth was distressful job for his body. The only thing that he could move was his eyes, landing on his arms which was heavily bandaged with clean linens. He could make out thick, black stitches that was sewn in the middle to glue his mutilated body, cut lips that sting more than he could describe, a figure loomed over him.
"You are awake?"
It was feminine, a girl's? No a woman's- from the perfect high pitch soprano he could see and the person had a long hair.
I smiled, "Oh, you are awake?"
Did she saved me..? But wait... His head rigidly jerked to the left and then the right, repeating it several time to take in the unfamiliar environment.
"Where am I? It's dark, I can't see well...And anyway, who are you?" Suddenly he let out a snort, "Heh! Do you happen to be a shinigami..? The ones that take you to either Heaven or Hell..."
There was a slight switch being turned on as the room became more brighter and his eyes widened, for once believing his half-hearted joke as he took in my appearance.
"WAAAHHH! I DON'T WANNA DIE! HEEELLLLPP! YOU'RE DEFINITELY A SHINIGAMI! EVEN THOUGH YOU'RE VERY BEAUTIFUL, IT'S ALWAYS THE ONES WHO ARE BEAUTIFUL THAT HAVE THE DEADLIEST THINGS, YOU STILL CAME TO TAKE ME AWAY! MY MOTTO SO FAR HAS BEEN TO HELP OLD PEOPLE! IT'S TRUE THAT I ALSO DID A FEW BAD THINGS AND BROKE THE RULES, BUT I THINK ALL IN ALL IT WAS EVEN! PLEASE SPARE ME FROM HELL!" He abruptly stood up, letting out sudden yelp of ouch.
A few giggles broke out from my lip, surprising him as goofy smile appeared on his face. Sudden flash of Naruto's face flashed by his and the giggles died down, "You feel pain because you're still alive." I said, a relief look coated his face, "But it's the first time to see such reaction after seeing myself. Many people likes it you know and compare to something like a flower or something, never a shinigami."
"It's a miracle that you're alive. I don't know how that rock didn't crush you. It's almost as if you were able to slip away from it."
"Where was I?" He finally asked, having to calm down.
"You were lying in my underground passage...next to the rock. But half of your body was crushed, indeed. Though it was very complicating and hard, I did treat you."
A grateful smile appeared, "...Thank you."
"It is still early to thank me...because you'll have to repay me this debt. You said that your motto was helping old people, right? Although I'm only 28...hmm maybe little older taking the years I lived into the account."
"Well yeah, that's true it's my motto but...well...what do you need?"
"It has been a long time since I had a company. It's very lonely here, having to break and fix the toys and break them again just so you can forget things for once." I held up a rusty, small children toys that I'd usually play with to emphasise the point.
"Sorry, but I can't stay here too long. If I'm alive then I need to go back to the leaf!" He firmly told, "There's a war going on now. I finally awakened the sharingan..now I'll be able to protect my friends! I finally...finally, got my hands on these eyes! Now I'm confident that we can work better together. I will be able to become a shinobi that can protect his..."
"Fine." He froze in shock at my carelessness, "If you wish to go, go. I won't hold you back. But with that body of your's, it's impossible to become a shinobi."
"It doesn't matter! As long as I can protect the people I love."
"But this is a wonderful world that only remembers the powerful. You won't survive."
Obito blinked, his lip thinned and his eyes soften with sympathy. With his sharingan, he never realised it before, he saw so much agony in that one flash that went passed her face for a second.
I bent down to his level, caressing his bandaged cheek, "Is it a girl? Someone you love?"
There was blush spread across his cheek, his mind instantly went back to Rin and many time he one sidedly competed against Kakashi for her love.
"I see. You are possessed."
He frowned, "Pos...possessed?"
"I will tell you what you are possessed by. Stupid humans call it disgusting word 'love'. I call it nothing. There's no use for it. What can a child know about love? It's something that disappears after few years."
"A-A..I know what I feel for Rin!" He suddenly burst up, falling onto the floor at the opposite side of the bed, as he crawled away, "I can't waste time here! I finally got my eye, I can finally protect her!"
I stood up, strolling the few inches he managed to crawl, "I was just like you once...come on, don't be so stubborn." I held him down with my chakra just in case he rips open the wounds I diligently healed.
"What do you want?! What would you know how I feel?!" His eyes widened when my hand slapped shut his mouth, my eyes glaring.
"If you don't know what it's like, don't talk." Slowly, I removed my hand as his mouth gaped open to say something, "I said...don't talk." before replacing it with a friendly smile.
I heard the cave open and Hana came in with basket full of food and medical herbs.
"Sak-" She quickly covered her mouth, remembering what I warned her, "Mother, I have brought some food and herbs for the guest."
Obito blinked, "Wait, lady you're married?!" I smiled gratefully at his compliment.
I lifted him up to his surprise and put him on the bed again before walking toward Hana, touching her cheek like I did with Obito, "Thank you, my dear Hana.."
What a weird mother-daughter relationship... Obito thought as he saw the look of gratitude, flatter, admired and...fear in the 'daughter's' eyes.
He sighed, "How long has it been since I came here...?" His back hit the bed post as he slumped down, "I think it's been quite some time..." His eyes wondered off to the far distance where I was staring down at an object in my hand while Hana attended to his wound.
"Ne, Hana-chan." He called, "She never told me her name..you're her daughter so you must know. Who is she? Where is she from? Last time, I saw her holding onto a leaf headband. Is she from Konoha too? I've never seen her."
Hana felt a little overwhelmed by the questions but calmly answered it, "Yes, she is from Konoha. It has been a long time since she moved away from the village..her name is.."
The Uchiha tilted his head and spoke in disbelief tone, "You don't even know you mother's name?"
She knew but she find it more harder to address me as mother. It has been a long time since she addressed me in that way.
"..Her name is S."
"S? Who has a name like that? Seriously, what's her name?"
"Her name is S." Hana firmly stated, her grip in his bandage tightening to the point it cut off the circulation and he could feel the wound re-opening.
"H-Hana-chan..the bandage..t-too tight." He managed to choke out.
"Ah! I'm sorry it's just that..Konoha, those are bad memories for my mother."
"Why?" Was his question. Hana looked into Obito's eyes that would bring shock to his expression.
"I couldn't bear to watch while they won't let her live or die anymore."
He took in deep breaths, although he might not look like it but he felt his body was healing. Gradually. He can do this. Using the cave wall as support, he managed to two staggering steps before his legs gave out, his eyes closed; waiting for his body to make an impact with the ground but ironically, it was something soft he landed on.
When he opened his eyes, he saw something black. A material. To be precise a kimono and someone's..chest?! He let out a yell and tumbled onto the floor in undignified way. He felt something soft stroking his hair.
"You really do reminds me of him."
Him?
Was it someone she loved? Maybe that explained the headband she always put onto her chest, maybe it belonged to that person.
I combed out his long, silky hair that have grown during his time here, "Your hair is long."
He smiled, "Yea, I guess it grown quite a bit." He said, fingering the long strand that reached to his shoulder. He was alarmingly panicking inside, for the first few times, the face of Rin was all in his mind but he found himself his mind gradually erasing the face of Rin and re-filling it with...his eyes glanced at me.
"Long hair suits you but short hair is good too." I pointed out, not noticing flattering blush in his cheek.
Was it months? Years? How long has he had been staying in the cave? His head shifted to the clustered table and the empty seats. We were out in a little business, leaving him alone in the cave. In his curiosity, he managed to walk all the way to the table-he never realised what a hard work it is just to walk for a minute.
He slumped down onto the wooden chair, on the table was: a scroll, a letter, and...a picture with a crack where a girl was.
He took the scroll first, opening it he stared in awe. It was a beautiful painting. The woman in the picture was definitely the same person, in her hand held small, luxuriously made gunbai, a long flowing kimono as the person was surrounded by many deer and small furry animals that seemed to adore the woman.
'Moonlight Diary' was the title.
Then his eyes rested upon the bottom corner of the scroll signed as Sai and the person wrote something underneath it.
Boku ga iru... boku ga kimi wo mamotte ageru... Eien..
"I'm here... I will protect you... forever..Sai..." Obito muttered out the word sadly.
He turned the scroll back and saw indeed something written there.
'Sitting near the window which had falling petals, I grabbed a frame of embroidery in red silk. Peonies of wealth and honour were blooming and falling by my hands. But there was no way to console my spirit, which was heading to my lover, so my white tears wet the thread and needle. The face I see through riverside willows. Even though I stare and stare, I cannot get enough. While standing under the bright moon at midnight, his blue shadow enters my backyard, so the beauty remains in my heart.'
Wow, Obito thought, They must have loved each other very much..
He closed the scroll, rolling and tiying them and putting it back as it was before he peeked the letter open, it was very worn out and four square marks adorned the paper as if it was folded open and closed many times. Few tear drops too. Has she been crying while reading this?
He slowly folded open and only manage to see the name of 'Gaara' and 'Sunagakure' and 'fiancée' before he had to quickly put things back where it was before rushing and half crawling, half running back to the bed before pretending he was sleeping when he heard distant murmurs.
If he had looked at the frame more closely, he would have seen a man that was uncanny similarity to Kakashi.
"Please, it is not too late. You do not have to shoulder everything-"
"Do you know what I had to do to come here? This is the part where I gave up being a human being." My hoarse voice filled with tears retorted, "Am I a person? I'm a person? How am I a person?! I am trash, thrown away, called S instead of a name. How is that a person? If I really leave Naruto again, I will really not be a person."
I sat down, unaware Obito was listening with shock, "Hana...dear Hana, the reason I gave you a chance was because you were different from other children. Give me money, give me power, give me decreed... give me revenge."
"I didn't know that humans have so many various desires like that. But then you wanted something different. You just wanted to live like a person. That's right. I asked what is it like to live as a person, right? Living in a warm house, eating a hot meal and living without being ignored, was what you said. And...a mother. It was easy compared to others' ambition. So, due to a pitiful heart, I gave you a chance. Didn't I let you call me mother, which was never allowed to anyone else? I've done that for you, and now you're asking me for the most difficult thing? What an ungrateful person you are! How dare you!"
After that incident, Obito could never challenge me anything.
Obito was awakened by the sound of something musical..melodic..beautiful. He stood up, noticing his control over his own limb was getting better. I could feel his stare at my back as I played the crystal glass harp. The two sticks never missing out on any notes until the last ones.
It was abruptly ended when I accidently knocked over a glass, filling the cave with its screech. My face froze and abruptly put down the sticks next to the glasses.
"Hana."
She stood up, "Yes, mother."
"Seems like the time has come. I'm happy." A true smile reached my lips.
END OF FLASHBACKS
"And you just left me. It took a while to sort out my feelings and the rejections but I managed it." Obito finished, a ridicule laugh escaping his mouth, "It was soon after I found Uchiha Madara and began parading as him. Of course, no one will know because I will kill you all..except you." He pointed at me.
"I laughed when I heard this but I hear you were his wife at the time who killed herself and presented her dead corpse with a note, 'do you like it?'. I admit, those things are one of attractive qualities of your's; do you know he still cannot forget you?" He playfully added, "Even when age overpowered him, the only thing in his mind was his plan of the perfect world and...you. Don't worry, I didn't tell him. Actually, I'd prefer if he didn't know." With that, his mask was in front of my eyes meeting his through the hole as he snatched Naruto from my arms.
"Naruto!" My feet swirled back and clawed my hands in attempt to get Naruto back however, he used the chains to bound me to the wall.
"We will sort this out, I promise! Fourth Hokage… Minato. Back away from the jinchūriki or your son dies at the ripe old age of one minute." He slyly said before using Naruto as a human shield to hide a kunai in his other hand to attack Minato. He realised the plan, catch Naruto before transporting them both onto the wall.
"You live up to the 'yellow flash moniker' but what now?"
The Hokage's eyes widened noticing the hidden meaning behind the masked Obito's word, there was several explosive tags plastered on the cloths that Naruto was wrapped in and quickly cupped the baby out before it exploded and used his yellow flash to hurriedly get away from the explode area.
Using the teleportation jutsu, we were moved to a larger ground area where four large stones shot up toward the sky and in the centre was a smaller rock where Kushina was chained, connecting the four to her. The sealing marks marred her whole body while I was tied to an another tower of rock that was most near to Obito.
"Even so many years have changed yet your face stays the same." His gloved hands careless my cheek almost like the ones I used to do to him.
I disgustedly shrugged his hand off my face by jerking it to the side, "Don't touch me with a filthy hands of yours. I should have just left you to die."
He roughly grabbed my chin with his thumb and his index, eyes narrowing, "Don't you dare regret that! Because of you, I finally can live...as a person, remember? You wanted to live like a person, right? Or did you saved me in tiny hope to use me as a foot solider for Naruto?"
"My everything is Naruto. Whether anyone lived or died is none of my problems, Obito."
He lifted his arms in a surrender posture facing shocked Kushina, "Obito, Madara..I'm nobody, I don't want to be anybody. I only came to rip the nine tails from your stomach and use it to crush leaf. Minato's teleportation technique uses a special marking that let him instantly move one marking to the next. I see he incorporated it into the design of your seal."
The light of the moon shone onto his mask, enabling her to watch the sharingan that swirled ominously behind his mask, "All so he would always be there to protect you...but I managed to get away from him. And the seal has been greatly weakened from the birth...do you have any idea how long I've waited for this moment?!"
Kushina's eyes widened when she felt something piercing inside her and from that moment, she knew he wasn't looking at her but inside what she was hiding for almost all her life. The nine tailed fox.
The fox, who was crucified and chained tightly with large pointy nails onto a circular ball, growled when he saw it was melting. The nails began to move out of his body with painful fractions and the chains liquefied before melting along with the sphere ball he was trapped on.
"Come forth, nine tailed fox." I could only helplessly watch as red, bubbly chakra shaped itself around her like a fox a many time I've seen in Naruto as the chakra beast burst out from the four rocks and shoot out its large, majestic form, with loud howl as if announcing his powerful presence on Earth.
The fox's eyes landed on me, "Sakura.."
"Ah!" Obito commented, "So you also knows the nine tail..so many mysteries you have. Of course, mystery in women is my type."
"Don't comment so lightly!" I finally got myself out of the chain, aiming my leg toward his head. He easily grabbed it, but I quickly rooted myself to the ground, throwing him toward the tree using his grip on my leg as leverage.
"Kurama...I'm sorry. You have to go through all this again."
"Che! This is the reason why I hate human, with their supremacy. They are blight. They should be eradicated-" Suddenly his claw came down toward exhausted Kushina as Obito calmly walked out from the forest, dusting off bits of trees and dirts from his black cloak.
However, my attention was no where near Obito's but Kushina and as the dust cleared I saw Minato has safely got her away.
"Minato-san, get Kushina-san away from here."
He looked at me with a look of confirmation and quickly gave him hurried nod, "I'll be back right away." With that he disappeared once more.
Obito's look of attention was all directed at me, my fist clenched.
"Kurama, hold on."
"Kurama?" He puzzled before his sharingan went over to the nine tail growling toward him, "Don't tell him, you've given him a name?"
I let out a mocking laugh, "You had a choice to discard your name but if you don't know what it's like for your name to be taken away, don't talk." With that, my fist slammed down on the ground creating massive chunks of crates in lines. As the dust was cleared, Kurama saw my hands gripping Obito's neck tight, my legs straddling his waist.
"What would you know about Konoha? They are places drenched in my own blood. The compeers I cherish, the troops, the alliance forces. Still lie in there, not even granted an honorable burial. That is Konoha! The frontier of I conquered. And what would you know? Just as my heart was filled with devotion with Sasuke, I cherish this viillage. As I fervently cherished it I merely wanted to posses it. Allegiance? Compliance? You don't know what I did to protect this dirty village I had to protect." I could feel my eyes water, threatening to fall down my cheek.
I stood up, walking away, "I was like you once." I saw something that resembled hope in his eye before I smoothly crushed whatever it was with mockery.
"Doing all that just because you are crazy for some mere person."
"One day.." I halted, glancing back as Obito lazily got up, running through his hair with his fingers.
"One day, will you tell me everything?"
"You don't think I come all this way for nothing? You take one person's tragedy and force the world to experience it … spread it like sickness. That's what I'm going to do, look forward to it..."
So it's been a LONNGGG~~~~~~~~ time since I updated but here it goes! I'm not sure how many of my readers has been patient for it but...thanks for reading. Really appreciated it :)
