Hey! Sorry about… yeah, about updating. I've been bad with it a lot. Anyways, about the chapter, it's sort of short and fast pace. There was only so much I could write. . But, please enjoy and let me know what you think!
'Thinking'
'Kyuubi_talking'
"Talking"
/Naruto Talking to Kyuubi/
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Just my own characters.
Relaxing Until the Big News Arrives
Sun filtered through the small window on the left, waking an exhausted blonde man up from a dreamless sleep. He left his eyes closed and yawned softly while stretching his limbs like a cat. Arching his back from feeling the stiffness that rested there, he opened his eyes a little, taking in the scene around him.
As soon as he and Sana arrived in a village a couple of days away from the Leaf village, the two passed out with so much as a word to one another once they found a hotel. The two had fallen asleep on one of the beds, neither of them wanting to leave the other. After being separated from one another for so long, the thought of even sleeping in separate beds was left out of mind.
Speaking of not wanting to leave one another's side, Naruto's eyes flashed opened all the way in alarm. He was aware of being the only person on the bed. Sitting straight up in a fluid motion, his blue eyes scanned the small room. Everything seemed left untouched from when the two had first arrived in the room. One of the beds was still made; the chairs at the table were still untouched. Everything in the kitchen hadn't been moved yet either.
'Where is she?' He thought, feeling a slight tug of panic swell inside of him.
Before he could jump out of bed and tear the room apart, let alone the whole village, a soft click caught his attention. His eyes found where the sound came from; the door that led in and out were across the room. And walking slowly away from the door was said missing person. She didn't even realize her brother was awake since she had her eyes cast downward, shifting through a pile of clothes in her arms. They must have been hers, freshly washed since she was wearing a white, soft looking bathrobe around her frame and her long, brown hair was damp and hanging loose down her backside.
"Sana," Naruto gently said, grabbing her attention. She looked up from her arm full, a little surprised. Slowly, he released all of the tension in his shoulders that had gathered. He crossed his legs on the bed and motioned for his sister to come to him.
At first, the teenager hesitated but she quickly covered it up with a small, shy smile. She resumed her walking and came over to the bed. She sat down in front of the blonde on the edge of the bed and kept her clothes in her lap. Her forest green eyes gazed at him with curiosity and she remained silent.
Naruto closed the distance between the two and he pulled her into a gentle hug.
"Hey, sweetie," He wanted to bury his face in her damp hair but managed not too. It felt good to see her again and with everything finally calm and collected, he could lower his guard and give her that warm sensation that nothing was going to happen to her anymore. He could feel arms wrap around his waist and from the motion, he tightened his grip on her just a little before releasing.
Pulling back, he tucked a stray stand of brown hair behind her ear and grabbed her cheek. "Are you alright?" He asked, keeping his voice light. He went in slow circles with his thumb against her skin, knowing it was a technique used when she had nightmares or was stressing out. It always seemed to calm her down.
Sana nodded. She leaned in against his chest and said, "I'm fine." Her voice continued to be soft but it was no longer hoarse. "What about you?"
Naruto shrugged, "Better now that I've rested and got you back." He then took a deep breath and the words came pouring out of his mouth before he could stop it, "Sana, I am so sorry about everything that had happened. If I hadn't been so self fish, you wouldn't have been there and Orochimaru wouldn't have -," He was cut off mid-sentence by his sister putting her hand on top of his.
She shook her head and gazed deep into his eyes. Pain and sorrow clouded his vision, along with regret. She just simply smiled and said, "Kyuubi told me everything. I understand why you did what you did and I just want to tell you that I am not mad." Naruto looked ready to object but she quickly went on, "I understand, Nii-sama. You don't have to make any excuses. Deep down, I've known how badly you've wanted to see your friends. I'm glad you got to see them again." She smiled. "I just wish it was under different terms, you know?"
The blonde stared at her for the longest time, wondering how on earth she could forgive him after everything she went through. He was expecting her to be disappointed, to be furious that he was self fish and didn't come to her aid right away. But no; here she was, forgiving him about his own actions.
"I'm so sorry," he muttered and leaned forward, leaning his forehead against hers. He felt tears wanting to well up in his eyes but he managed to keep them back and closed his eyes.
Sana closed her eyes. "Already forgiven."
XxxxX
"Um… Naruto?" Sana's voice drifted towards Naruto, breaking their moment of silence a few moments later.
"Yeah?"
"Is… there any way we can get this off now?"
Naruto open his blue eyes and pulled back. He watched his sister awkwardly tug at the leather collar still around her neck. They had both been so tired when they got to the village that they simply fell asleep. Sana didn't even mention her collar and Naruto completely forgot about it due to his lack of sleep.
He nodded his head and placed a hand on the leather. Surprisingly, it was cold, not at all taking the properties of the material. He frowned. "Don't move." He said. She nodded and obeyed his command, keeping her hands at her side and straightening her back a little. She moved her neck so he would have better access to it.
Naruto felt all along the collar, trying to see if there was another way to get it off, like a belt or Velcro or something. But he didn't find anything like that. All it was, or looked like, was a simple piece of leather material wrapped around her neck, and somehow sown together. There was no way of getting it undone.
Deep in concentration, the blonde pulled out a kunai from his pouch (yes he still has it on) and pressed the blade against Sana's skin. She flinched but he was quick to reassure her, "Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you. I just…" He trailed off, letting the sharp metal slip through the material. What should have easily split, the material didn't and stayed intact.
"The hell?" He spoke under his breath. He tried to cut it, but even that didn't work.
"Try your chakra…" Sana suggested, keeping aware of the knife still in his hand.
Naruto blinked and nodded his head. Placing the kunai back into his pouch, he kept his hand, palm touching the material, on her neck and pushed some of his chakra into the leather. At first, nothing happened, but then he pushed more chakra into it. The leather started to get warm and before long, the leather snapped, falling off from around her neck.
Sana winced and her hands went immediately went to her neck, rubbing the sore skin that was slightly red from the collar. She looked down at where the material fell scrunched her nose at it.
The blonde picked the material up and examined it. "How did you know to use chakra?" He asked and flipped it over in his hands. It didn't look anything special, just ordinary leather.
"I don't know…" She answered and stopped rubbing her neck. "That man just told me it was special and left it as that. And since you couldn't get it off with a knife, I just thought chakra would work."
Naruto nodded and threw the material away, hating it at the same time being curious. Quickly, it left his mind as he looked his sister up and down. "Has Kyuubi's healing ability taken affect on you yet?" He couldn't see any wounds because of the robe she was wearing. But just in case, he had to make sure.
"Yup." Sana answered. "While we were asleep, it seems everything was healed and restored. The gash on my leg is gone, reduced to a simple scar." She pulled her leg up for him to see. Along her slightly pale skin, a thin pink scar went up her leg. It was about a foot long and looked like it had really hurt.
The blonde nodded, feeling anger well up inside of him at the man who had done this to his sister. "Do you know why he… did this?" He asks and gently ran his fingers over the scar.
The teenager slightly flinched at the contact but answered him, "He was trying to get me to use my chakra." Naruto tensed but remained quiet so she could continue. "But I kept refusing him. Every time I did, I was punished. Some were harsher than others, but I managed."
Before anything else could be said, Naruto was on his feet, walking away from his sister. Rage now started to boil inside him and he was afraid something would happen to Sana if he stayed next to her. He could control his anger pretty well, but there were still those rare occasions he had trouble, especially if it had to do anything with his siblings being hurt or in danger.
"Naruto?" Sana asked, watching him walk across the room and stop. His head was bowed a little and from where she was sitting, she could see his frame slightly shaking. His fists were clenched tightly at his sides and she knew blood was about to spill from his palms from his nails digging in too deeply.
"I…" He began to say but never got to finish as his vision swarmed and he stumbled forward. Black dots appeared in his line of sight and if it weren't for the chair to his right, he would have fallen flat on his face. But he managed to reach out and use the back of the chair for balance.
"Naruto!" Sana squeaked and rushed over to her brother's side. She appeared on his left side and helped support him, noticing that sweat started to drip down his face.
'Don't worry, Sana,' Kyuubi's voice filled both of their minds. She sent soothing thoughts over to the younger and continued to speak, 'He's still exhausted. Even after sleeping for three days, he still has a little bit more of resting to do.'
"I was out for three days?" Naruto questioned, his voice coming out in small pants like he had just run a marathon.
Sana nodded. "I was out for two."
Naruto shook his head in disbelief but wished he didn't. The dizzy spell washed over him again and a headache appeared.
'You also need to eat. Both of you. But first, Naruto, you need to go wash up and get all of that dry blood off of you.' The fox instructed and then wrinkled her nose. 'You reek.'
XxxxX
After an hour, Naruto was finally refreshed in his appearance. His body felt a lot better after the hot bath in the springs and he smelled a lot better too. His clothes were washed and sewn back up from all of the tears. And besides his stomach feeling empty and his body a little tired, he felt better than before.
He walked out of the small bathroom in their hotel room fully dressed and looked around. He spotted his sister sitting on her bed gazing out the window. She was fully dressed too, and even had her hair pulled back into its natural high pony-tail. When he cleared his throat, she perked up.
"Feeling better?" She asked and gracefully got to her feet. She smiled at him and at first, Naruto wondered if anything had actually happened. She looked and was acting the same before everything happened. But then he caught sight of the scar on her leg and everything came crashing back. For now, he shoved all of the thoughts into the back of his mind.
Naruto curtly nodded his head. "And yourself?" He ran his hand through his still damp hair and then checked his pockets for his money.
"Better than before." Sana said. "Just really hungry now. I think I could eat a whole life-size Kyuubi and still be hungry."
'I heard that…' The fox muttered, not to happy.
Both siblings cracked a smile and it felt good.
"C'mon," Naruto said and started to walk towards the door. "Let's go calm that appetite of yours."
XxxxX
After a couple of minutes walking around the small town, the two found a small café with tables on the outside. Naruto ordered the biggest bowl of ramen they had while Sana ordered two sandwiches. She also got a side bowl of some fruit. As they ate, they made small talk.
"So, where exactly are we?" Naruto asked, getting through with his third bowl. "He looked around the place, not really recognizing anything. It seemed familiar, but he couldn't place anything.
Sana finished her mouthful and answered, "It's a small village a couple of miles from The Land of Snow."
Naruto choked on his noodles and a coughing fit took place. But Sana heeded him no attention as she popped a piece of fruit into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully.
When the fit seemed to calm down, Naruto managed to muster, "What?"
The younger blinked her eyes and tilted her head at him, playing the look of innocence on him.
"You teleported us… six days from …?" He didn't have to finish his sentence, shocked that his sister managed to get them this far. As far as he was concerned, this was her greatest distance.
She nodded. And a smile formed on her face. "I knew you wanted to go somewhere far and I wanted to see how far I could go."
'And if she went this far with barely any chakra and being exhausted, how far do you think she could go being fully rested?' Kyuubi put in, her voice full of admiration.
Sana heard the compliment and a light blush appeared on her face.
Naruto nodded his head, still shocked about the distanced they covered. "But you're still not fully recovered, are you?" She shook her head. "That's still a pretty damn good distance you managed." He gave her a thumbs up. "Proud of you, sis." And he truly meant it.
"Thanks." She responded back. "Though I'm still not sure how I even did that. It seems like I'm improving without even training."
"Hey now," Naruto intercepted, "Don't think you can get out of your training so easily." He raised an eyebrow at her as she gave him an innocent grin. "You're just lucky right now. For the next few days, let's just relax and gather our strength back and maybe, maybe do a little shopping." A twinkle appeared in the teen's eyes at the mention of shopping. Curse Temari and her influencing.
"I'm up for that!" Sana agreed.
Naruto nodded. "Just give me today to relax."
XxxxX
Within the next two days, the two siblings managed to gather the rest of their strength back and a little shopping to top that off. They spent most of their time being with one another, whether that be stay in the motel room and relax, or out taking a nice walk. No training was done just so the two could have a vacation. As of now, the two were out eating a light brunch before they began their journey back home to Gaara and the others.
"Now don't think you have another vacation once we get back," Naruto said. He sipped quietly on his first cup of herbal tea. He wasn't as hungry, but knew he needed something in his stomach. He had a bad feeling, his insides feeling like they were squeezing rather painfully. It was usually a bad sign but he didn't know why. Something bad was coming, but what?
Sana nodded her head, eating a bowl of fruit. "I know, I know." She said.
"And training will come first before Tristan." Boy did her face turn beat red. Naruto smirked and said, "I know you miss your little boy friend but training comes first."
"Yeah, yeah. I know that already." She muttered under her breath, her face still red. She tried hiding it by looking down and playing with her food.
Having the time of his life, Naruto leaned back against his chair and raised one leg to prop it on his other leg at the knee. He took another sip from his cup and listened to the surrounding sounds. Little kids laughter and the playful screams were all around him, followed by the normal activities of the village that goes on day to day. He could hear the leaves rustling from the wind and the birds and squirrels chattering. To his right, also sitting at the café but a few tables over was a group of men. They were gossiping about the latest news.
Naruto closed his eyes and listened to them clarefully, wondering what sort of new news was going on.
"Did you hear about the villages in the Fire Country?" One man said, instantly alerting the blonde man.
"The ones being slaughtered, right?" Another said.
"I heard there were so far six villages no longer on the map; that's how bad it's gotten." A third added.
"Who do you think is doing it?" The first man asked.
"I don't know, but whoever it is, they're set on one goal." The third said.
And that was all Naruto heard before he stood up from his chair, gaining Sana's attention, before walking over to where the three elderly gentlemen were sitting. There was a fourth chair, left unattended and he took it without asking, sitting on the very edge. The three men were surprised but as soon as Naruto spoke, they kept straight faces.
"What villages were slaughtered so far?" He asked.
One of the men, the one who spoke second was sitting on his right. He nervously scratched his balding head and said, "I don't really know what villages; they're too small to really know."
Naruto frowned and his bad feeling grew. "If I showed you a map, would you be able to point out which villages."
The one sitting on the right looked across the table to his other fellow mates and looked uncertain. The one sitting on Naruto's left also looked uncertain. But the one sitting right across had more of a for sure look.
Without words being exchanged, Naruto quickly looked through his magic bag on his hip, being careful on what was being said. He rummaged around his bag until he found a neatly folded map and pulled it out. He laid it out on the table before the three and smoothed out any wrinkles.
"Which towns?" He asked.
The man leaned forward and rubbed his chin, looking carefully over the paper. His eyes scanned the part where it said 'Fire Country' and thought.
"Um… there, there, ... there and there." He pointed to four of them. He rubbed his chin some more and then pointed to the last two. "And that one and that one."
Naruto didn't even give the man a chance to lean back against his chair before he snatched his map back up and stood up with so much force, his chair toppled over. He didn't say a word to the men as he left in a hurry, only going towards Sana.
"We have to leave." He said.
Sana popped the last piece of fruit into her mouth and stood up. "Why? Where are we going?" She could tell from the tone he was using that they were going back home, not just yet. She grabbed her bag laying against her chair on the group and rushed to keep up with her brother's long strides as they made their way quickly out of the village.
Naruto didn't take his eyes off of the road in front of him. He stuffed the map back into his bag and he now knew why he was having a bad feeling. As he spoke, a feeling of dread swelled inside of him. "We're going back to Konoha. Orochimaru is almost there."
XxxxX Until next time.
Now before you question the last sentence, don't. That part will be explained in the beginning of the next chapter. So please, don't ask me about that. Just go along with it.
Until next time!
