Notes: I'm SUPER sorry, everyone! OMG I am such a horrible writer! DX A whole hell of a lot has gone down irl for the past half-year I was out. I tried writing more, but the only things I could produce were little one-shots, and I couldn't fit myself back into Naruto and Sasuke's shoes. Well, after getting a review out of the blue asking me if I was going to finish this story, I decided it was time to go back and struggle through it. So, I'm really sorry if my writing seems off or the characters seem totally OOC. I tried my hardest to immerse myself back in Naruto's world: listened to music, re-read both stories, watched some of the anime, looked at pictures, the whole shebang. XD Hopefully, it works and this pleases you guys. Again, I'm REALLY REALLY SORRY it took so long to updade. Feel free to tell me it sucks.
Oh, btw! This is the last chapter of the story, and it'll be followed by one Winter Bonus chapter--kinda like an epilogue! Don't forget, please refrain from coming after me until I've posted up that bonus chapter, please! XD
8
"She's here!"
Sasuke hurried over, fumbling with his hip pouch as he tried to pull out the lockpick he carried. Naruto, who had been pressing his ear to the door, stepped back and let the Anbu do his job.
"Glad I tagged her," he sighed, wiping his brow, "or else this would have taken twice as long!" Sasuke managed to get the picks out without dropping them and leaned forward in the almost-non-existant light to have a look at the lock. His brow furrowed as he inspected the work on it.
Only two? he thought bemusedly and began to work at them.
"Man, I wonder if there's anyone alive to call for backup," Naruto shifted his weight from one foot to the other, glancing around them nervously. "I mean, it would really suck if we managed to break her out and then we just got caught again." He laughed nervously and Sasuke tried his best to ignore the blond as he jiggled the picks in the first lock. It popped open with a light click.
Now for the harder one, he bent over to inspect it more closely.
"Do you think someone called for backup?" he babbled on. "How many reinforcements do you think they'd call? How many are close enough to reach us before we get out? Maybe I should have told Baa-chan to send some units to the border just in case they decide to bypass us and attack Konoha directly. Do you think they'd do that?" he continued to talk without pause, not even giving an opportunity for Sasuke to answer any of his questions even if the other man had been listening. He wasn't. "Do you think they figured out where we're from? I didn't wear my headband, you know. I don't think they'll know who attacked--"
The second lock gave with a much louder CLUNK than the first one. Sasuke stood up, glaring impatiently at his partner.
"Naruto, I know you're anxious but can you please shut up?" he sighed. Naruto ignored his friend, running into the dark room. It was small and lit with only a single dull orange-yellow bulb in a little wire cage dangling from a cable attached to the cieling. When the air in the room shifted, the caged bulb began to sway, casting strange shadows in the bare room. The Raikage was tied to the only other thing in the room: a hard-looking splintery wooden chair covered with dark stains. Her head was thrown backwards, as if she had been hit and knocked unconscious and left in that position. The blonde approached her quickly and knelt,starting to undo the ropes binding her legs to the legs of the chair. He stood to untie her arms and then he took her head in his hands and touched her cheek gently.
"Definately unconscious," he nodded as he tilted her head and saw the huge bleeding gash from her cheek to her right temple. He dipped his hand into his hip pouch and yanked out his remaining gauze roll, then held out a hand to Sasuke. "Piece of cloth, folded quadruple if you can manage."
Sasuke had one better. He rummaged through his own pouch and withdrew one of the thick sterile gauze pads from the med kit Sakura had gifted him with a while ago. Naruto raised an eyebrow and a look of guilt passed between them: We should have brought her along.
"You carry her, and I'll take the lead," the black-haired man stated as Naruto finished up the emergency binding.
"No way!" the blond shot back quickly. "I still have my kagebunshin out there! If anyone should take the lead, it should be me!"
"There isn't any time to argue about this--" Sasuke growled but Naruto was already up and out of the small room. Sasuke let out an exasperated sigh and went over to their charge.
"Everything's clear! Let's go, before reinforcements really do show up!" Naruto hissed from the hallway. Sasuke lifted the Raikage into his arms and followed him out.
It was in this cave, she was sure of it.
Haruno Sakura pu her map away and stepped a little ways into the abandoned cave, one of her cold hands pressing against the freezing rock.
"Naruto?" she called into the darkness. "Sasuke?"
There was no answer, but her eyes caught the reminants of a little camp: a fire circle with nothing but ash, a spill of dried blood off to one side of the small cave space, and a tin cup, dented and cast to one side as if it was left there purposefully. Even though she was in Cloud Country and her brain told her that this could be the meeting place for some of their travelling units, she knew in her heart that Naruto and Sasuke had been here. She could feel them in the small cave's air, smell their sweat and blood and almost hear the echoes of their conversations--a fight over what to have for dinner maybe. She could almost see it, that's how certain she was.
"I'm close," she sighed in relief, a little smile tugging at her lips, and then she turned and left to follow their freshest trail. "I'm really close."
They made their way quickly and quietly out of the building and through the deserted, blood-painted courtyard, stepping around bodies and over dismembered limbs. Naruto whistled softly.
"I really pulled a number on them, huh?" he sounded only half-joking.
"You did what you had to do," Sasuke grunted, shifting the Raikage's weight in his arms. He stopped to set her down and re-arrange her and the pack he was carrying, wanting his arms free if absolutely necessary. If I put my pack on her and then carry her on my back I can get away with using at least one arm, he thought, moving to do just that.
"Uh, Sasuke?" Naruto called from ahead.
"What is it?" he called back, slipping his bag off his shoulders and lifting the Raikage to fit it to her torso.
"Let's say, hypothetically, we were completely surrounded. What should we do?"
"Well," he answered, securing the pack in place, "being chakra depleated, with an unconscious person, and in foreign territory, I'd say our best chance would be to run for it." He picked the Raikage up again and hoisted her onto his back, gripping her thighs to keep her in place. He came to join Naruto. "Why do you ask?"
"Oh..." Naruto glanced back at him, then faced forward again. Sasuke stood beside him and finally got a good look at the dozens of reinforcements armed and surrounding the only exit. "No reason," Naruto grinned wearily.
"I can't believe you lost the trail!" Jun threw her arms up. "After all that bragging, Mr. Uber-Tracker? You lost the trail!"
"I didn't lose it," Haiyu grumbled, pushing his mask up over his head and letting out a sigh. "I just...misplaced it."
"Oh, right," his wife snapped, "because trails can get up and walk away!"
"What about you? I don't see you putting in any effort here!" he shot back.
"Guys," Naori interrupted them. "Do you hear that?"
"What? The sound of bullshit?" Jun glared over at their leader. He made a face at her.
"No, listen," the medic placed her hands on either teammate's shoulder and willed them to be still and calm. They quieted, opening up their senses to the nature around them.
"I don't hear anything," Haiyu frowned at her.
"Exactly," Naori nodded. "Now, do you feel that?"
The other two paused again.
"It feels like...there should be noise," Jun said slowly, contemplating. "There's so much presence..."
"Like a bunch of people grouped together," Haiyu continued. "Or animals. A bunch of somethings nearby."
"I don't think we need the trail anymore," the medical nin dropped her hands and stepped deeper into the skeletal forest, "do you?"
Wordlessly, the three of them speared forward into the darkness.
"I'll distract them," Naruto cast a sidelong glance in Sasuke's direction. "You take the Raikage and make a break for it."
"No way," Sasuke shook his head ever-so slightly, tightening his grip on the Raikage. "If you're staying then I'm staying."
"Sasuke, this isn't the time to debate about this," the blond growled impatiently. "When you see an opening, just run."
"I'm not leaving you by yourself," the black-haired Anbu snapped back.
"Who said I was alone?" Naruto grinned thinly and that's when Sasuke noticed the faintest presence of Naruto's chakra behind the main forces. His kagebunshin.
"How many are there?" he asked.
"Plenty," Naruto replied in a tone that told Sasuke it was actually much less than that.
"Naruto, I don't know if I can just leave you by yourself," his brow furrowed deeply.
"Place the Raikage on the ground and step away from her!" someone near the head of the larger group called to them.
"That's your cue, Sasuke," Naruto nodded toward the Heaven's Guard reinforcements. "I'll be fine, I promise."
"Naruto, I don't like this," Sasuke shook his head defiantly. "You're plotting something, I can feel it."
Naruto sighed and lowered his head, as if going into a state of deep thought. His shoulders straightened, he stood to his full height, and he turned away from the large group of attackers to face the other man directly.
"Uchiha Sasuke," Uzumaki Naruto spoke in an authoritive, unwavering voice. "Your mission is to escort the Raikage back to the village of Konoha safely and unharmed. Do you understand?"
Sasuke ducked his head, averting his eyes from the Hokage's piercing gaze.
"Uchiha, I won't repeat myself," the Rokudaime said in a low voice, laced with impatience. "Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes..." the Anbu Captain turned back, his eyes cold but his tired eyes rimmed with tears that threatened to fall. "Yes, Hokage-sama. I understand."
"Go," the blond nodded his head and the raven-haired man nodded back, swallowing hard. Carrying the Raikage, he began to come forward. Sasuke closed the distance between them, trying to stop his hands from shaking. The Heaven's Guard readied their weapons and Sasuke lowered himself to a crouch, his hands coming up to suuport the Raikage's extra weight. He paused.
From the dead trees behind the twelve dozen soldiers there came a low, threatening growl that reverberated up and down the length of the confined valley. Some of the soldiers looked around fearfully. Without any more warning, eight kagebunshin sprang out and lunged into the crowd, red eyes and silver claws blazing. Naruto himself ducked into a crouch and fire-red chakra poured out from his body and surrounded him, giving him extended ears, claws, and even a tail. Nine Kyuubi-Narutos tore into the soldiers. Sasuke saw several men fall over screaming as one of the Narutos blasted past them, tearing each of their sides open. He gripped the Raikage tightly and shot for the opening, ducking the Kyuubi's fire and leaping over the weapons of some soldiers still intent on stopping him. Nine chilling howls pierced the air and made a shudder rip down Sasuke's spine. He made it into the trees, glancing back over his shoulder, trying to find the real Naruto before he disappeared from sight. He was there, and it was as if he had swelled in size. Sasuke realized that Naruto had two firey chakra tails and that one of the kagebunshin was missing and then the battle was lost behind the trees.
The ferral howls rose and twisted into the sky, echoing angrily against the snow-covered ground. Sakura jumped and stumbled to a stop, looking around for what had made the noise. Snow wolves? she thought, but that hadn't sounded like a normal wolf. Rabid snow wolves? She was still uncertain. And then she heard a large thing crashing through the dead branches ahead of her, coming closer. Alone and terrified, she stumbled backward, lifting her arms defensively, her wide teal eyes darting this way and that, trying to see it before it saw her. And then Uchiha Sasuke spilled out of the trees, looking wild and scared.
"Sasuke!" she shrieked and he almost threw a kunai at her, but he saw her and nearly fell over with his relief.
"Sakura..." he panted and she ran over to him as he fell to his knees, letting the Raikage slide off his shoulders and onto the snow. "Naruto..."
"Naruto! Where's Naruto?" she glanced around quickly, holding her hands on his shoulders and trying to let her healing chakra pour into him. He grabbed her hands and held them away, stopping her. He tilted his head toward the Raikage.
"She needs it more than I do," he stood and Sakura rose to, helping him steady himself.
"Please, Sasuke, you're disoriented," she begged him. "You're exhausted. I can't let you go anywhere until I--"
"If I don't go back, Naruto will die!" he shouted and she trembled at his words. This can NOT be happening...!
"And if you go back in this kind of state, you won't be able to help him at all!" she placed the flat of her palm against his chest, right over his heart, and murmured a few words. Her healing chakra burst into him like a flood, sweeping up and down his body, filling him with adrenaline and energy. He blinked, his head clear, and stared questioningly at her. "It's kind of like a shot of adrenaline," she explained, ducking out from under his arm. "Medical nins use it on themselves when they're exhausted so they can perform longer."
Sasuke paused, feeling the blood pumping hot in his veins. He nodded at her: "I'm sorry."
Sakura shook her head. "Just go help Naruto. Bring him back here."
"I will," he promised, and turned back the way he'd come. He ran into the forest and Sakura knelt beside the Raikage to see what she could do to help.
A twig snapped behind them and Haiyu and Jun pulled out their swords and whipped around, lining their blades against Uchiha Sasuke's throat. He had two kunai clenched in his fists, aimed at their hearts. They froze, and then:
"Sasuke!" Haiyu grinned, sheathing his sword. "I'm glad we finally found you--"
"No time," Sasuke tucked his kunai back in his belt and Jun retracted her blade as well. "Naori, Haruno Sakura is in a clearing a few yards from here with the Raikage. I want you two to carry her back to Konoha right now. Haiyu, Jun, you two need to come with me: the Hokage's in trouble."
"When is there not trouble with the Hokage?" Haiyu scoffed and saluted Sasuke.
"On your command, Captain," Jun saluted as well.
"Right away, Sasuke-san!" Naori nodded and ran in the direction Sasuke had come from. The three remaining Anbu turned and headed to the Hokage's aid.
His breath rolled out of his lungs in hot, low rumbling growls. His tongue lolled out from between his fangs, dripping thick burning spittle onto the muddy ground and his large sharp eyes scanned the ruined terrian for survivors. Not one. He lifted his head and howled loudly in satisfaction, swishing his nine thick tails in exalted joy. Three figures came out of the trees and stared up at him; he could smell their confusion and fear. He growled threateningly, flattening his ears back and lowering his angular head to the ground, his thick mane of golden coppery fur soaking in the mixture of mud and blood he stood in. One of the figures pulled apart from the group and stepped closer. His growl intensified, his lips pulling back over his long sharp teeth in a threatening snarl.
"Naruto..." the voice carried up to his ears. "Naruto...?"
And the sadness and sorrow in that voice was like a finely-bladed surgical knife: it sliced through the single persona and seperated he from it.
Give me back my body. It's over.
Like I said: I've been waiting for this way too long. It's my body now.
Don't make me do this.
You wouldn't. You care too much about those people. Your "friends".
I will do it. I promised that I'd go back with them. Either you cooperate and go back into the seal, or I shut down our joint consciousness and the two of us stay trapped in here and go nowhere.
If you've figured out how to lock down your consciousness, I'llfind a way to unlock it again.
I doubt it; like I said, it's my body and it'll do what I want it to.
It's MY body now! It's MINE!
Sasuke, Haiyu, and Jun skidded to a halt as soon as they burst into the clearing and saw the dismembered bodies, the thick red-brown mixture of mud and blood painting the landscape, and of course, the enormous fox demon with nine tails swaying in the sky. It lowered its head and growled menacingly at them and Jun and Haiyu began to tremble in fear.
"Oh my god," Jun breathed.
"Holy shit, it's going to kill us," Haiyu shook, no trace of humor at all in his voice.
Sasuke shook his head: "No, it won't kill us." Then he strode forward into the clearing.
"Sasuke!" the other two hissed in terror.
He ignored them, stepping closer to the fox and opening his arms. "Naruto..." he sighed, not knowing what else to say, not knowing if his friend could even hear him at all. "Naruto...?"
And then the Kyuubi visibly paused, and Sasuke could actually see that it was turned in on itself, it was thinking to itself. Did that mean...that Naruto had heard him?
"Let's go back, Naruto," Sasuke said to the demon fox. "Let's go home. Everyone's waiting for us."
The fox's eyes flickered. Sasuke stepped even closer and it growled, but the sound was uncertain and held no trace of intent.
"Sakura came," he said softly, as if coaxing a child. "She must have been really worried about us. Don't you think we should both go back and meet her?"
Still the demon hesitated, it's eyes gleaming, rolling back and forth in their sockets. The next growl was more of a rumbling sigh. Sasuke took three more steps and he was there, in front of the mouth of the huge beast, and his head didn't even reach the tip of its quivering black nose. His arms came around to hug the monster, and he lay his head against it, and he hugged the Kyuubi.
"Please, don't leave me, Naruto," he begged. "Please, don't go. I need you here with me, so please, come back. Fight it and come back."
The Kyuubi inhaled, sniffing Sasuke. It made a low rumbling sound in its throat that wasn't a growl at all, it was a purr. The yellow eyes finally stopped roving, they settled on him, they saw him, and then they closed.
Now I know for certain, a voice spoke in his head and caught Sasuke completely by surprise. You'll wait for me, no matter what.
And the Kyuubi Kitsune fell asleep. As soon as the last tail hit the ground, its entire body lit up with flames, making Sasuke jump back. Then as quickly as it happened, the flamed stopped and the Kyuubi Kitsune was nowhere to be seen. Only Naruto lay sprawled out on the ground facedown.
"Naruto!" he rushed back over, throwing himself to his knees beside the blond. "Naruto!" He scooped him up into his arms and lifted him out of the blood and mud. "Naruto?" He quickly passed a hand over his nose and mouth and then down to his neck, checking for vitals. His breathing was very soft but regular, and his heart pulsed steadily. He was sleeping. Sasuke sighed in relief and then let out a weak laugh. He looked back over his shoulder at Jun and Haiyu, who were standing back with identical looks of surprise and relief mixed on their faces. "He's okay," he said breathlessly. "Naruto's alive."
And then Sasuke's eyes rolled back in his head and he knew no more.