Primal
Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
Chapter Notation: As the name of the story indicates, we are going to be dealing with some rather primitive emotions in this one. That may or may not be everyone's thing. There will be some fluff, but there will also be other kinds of love here. Ninjas and demons play rough.
Chapter 2
As the days turned into weeks, Naruto was growing more and more frustrated. They had to find Suki and quickly. That freak was going to take over her body soon. It was driving him crazy.
His dreams were becoming more and more disturbing. The blonde wanted so badly to pin the blame squarely on Kurama, but he knew better. Kurama might have been sculpting the scenarios, but he was providing the clay. The Nine Tails wouldn't be able to torment him like this, if he wasn't giving the fox something to work with.
"This can't be normal. Maybe I should talk to Granny Tsunade about this, but she would freak." Naruto says with a sigh as he remembers his latest dream.
He was running in a forest. Naruto knew that someone was nearby, but not who. Whoever it was, they were fast and they were doing a damn good job covering their tracks.
"Too bad for them, they can't outrun Kurama's nose." He muttered to himself.
He found a trail. It wasn't a large footprint and it wasn't tiny. It was indented harshly into the soil, but lopsided. This person was petite in weight, but running fast. He guessed they were a woman.
Kakashi and Kiba had taught him a little bit about tracking. Now, he could read footprints with a fair amount of accuracy. That and he finally caught the person's scent.
"Damn it." He heard a feminine voice mutter in annoyance.
Naruto had never given much thought to scents before, but he knew this one. It was hard to explain. This person smelled like an oddly alluring combination of pine trees, roses, and lightning.
Idly, he knew that last one didn't make any sense. People couldn't smell like lightning. Did lightning even have a scent? Naruto shook his head and decided it didn't matter. What mattered is that he had to get to Suki!
"Suki!" He called out desperately.
Maybe this time, she'd actually listen. Maybe this time, he could convince her to stay. That's all he really wanted. Naruto just wanted her back in the Leaf where she was safe and hopefully, where Suki could be happy.
Somewhere along the line, this desire had eclipsed everything else. The blonde still wanted to become Hokage, but that was a secondary concern. What mattered most was saving Suki.
"Naruto, just go!" She growled at him, once he finally caught up with her.
The fact that she didn't think she needed saving was irrelevant in his mind. There was no way he was letting Orochimaru touch her! He wasn't going let his best friend die to save that creepy snake!
"Suki, come on. You don't have to do this. You don't have to stay with him. You can come back to the Leaf. We'll find a way to deal with Itachi. I can help you." Naruto said he as he reached out for her.
Her back was towards him. Suki's hair had grown longer. When she left the Leaf, it spilled a few inches below her shoulders. Now, it came to the middle of her back.
Suki's hair had always fascinated Naruto. Well actually, everything about her fascinated him and pissed him off in equal measure. She had lost the midnight blue tint that her hair had when she was a Genin. Now it was as black as a raven's feathers.
"I don't have time for your childish games. I'm going to kill him. Just go back home. You don't belong here. After Itachi is dead, maybe I'll come back to the Leaf. My Clan is buried there." She muttered.
The spiky texture was still the same though. Somehow, it looked spiky and silky at the same time. He had always been curious about what her hair actually felt like. Naruto knew better than to actually try to touch her hair though. That was the fastest way to a Chidori, that he knew of.
Naruto felt himself growl. He knew that his friend missed her family deeply but that couldn't be it. That couldn't be the only reason that she would come back to the Leaf. Did Team Seven mean NOTHING to her? Did HE mean nothing to at?! Nothing at all?!
"Is that really the ONLY reason that you'd come back?!" Naruto practically snarled at her.
He could feel the now familiar sensation of Kurama's chakra lashing around him. His teeth were sharpening and instinctively knew that his eyes were turning crimson red. Damn it! Not now!
"Is there another reason that I should have?" Suki mocked him as she continued walking off.
Damn her! Why did she always do this?! She always tried to leave him behind and ignored him, unless they were fighting! It pissed him off. He wanted to make her acknowledge him for once!
Without thinking about it, he slams the young woman into the ground. Naruto knew that attacking someone while their back was turned was a low blow, but he just didn't care at the moment. He was going to get her to come back! If Naruto had to drag her back, he would!
"Yes! You should want to come back to your friends! For Team Seven! Something! Suki, the Leaf is your home!" He screamed at her as he grabbed her by her pretty throat and shook her.
"Naruto, get off me." She growled at him as she tried to free herself from his grasp.
"No! Not until you listen to what I have to say! You want to kill Itachi, right?! I can help you with that! The Akatsuki want the Tailed Beasts. I have one. They'll come looking for me sooner or later!" He yelled at her.
It was infuriating. Naruto had her pinned by the throat and Suki didn't look like she cared at all. She looked annoyed, but that was about it. He just wanted to get a reaction out of her. He wanted some small sign that she still cared about the Leaf. That she cared about him, even if it was just a little one!
"That's true. Sooner or later, the Akatsuki will come for you. I have no way of knowing if they'll send Itachi or someone else after you though. Oh and Naruto, stop the act. We're adults now. You don't have to Play Pretend anymore." She told him as she radiated Chidori along her body and shocked him off of her.
Suki then slammed him against a tree and kept him pinned with one hand. With her other, she draws her sword. Instead of attacking him, she presses it against his throat and leaned in to whisper something in his ear.
"You don't have to pretend that this is about Team Seven. I'm sure that you are upset that Kakashi and Sakura are upset that I'm gone, but we both know that isn't the real reason why you chase me. You're jealous." She told him with a smirk.
"Jealous?! Jealous of what?! That snake freak?! You've got to be kidding me! Why would I be jealous of him?!" Naruto snapped at her.
"That I went with him. That he can get me the power I need to kill Itachi and you can't. Like I said, I might come back to the Leaf later. Not until he's dead though." She began to say.
Naruto was about to cut her off, but she kept talking. The more that the Uchiha spoke, the more angry he got. Somehow, he had to talk some sense into her! This was crazy!
"I'll do whatever it takes to punish him. If that means giving my body to Orochimaru, then I just don't care. This is MY decision, not yours. If you can't accept that, you should just tell me so. I'll slit your throat and make this easier on both of us." She told him.
That was when something inside Naruto snapped. In the blink of an eye, he freed himself from Suki's pin and got her on her back. There was something very satisfying about seeing the look of surprise on her face.
"I'll help you kill him. You don't need Orochimaru." He growled at her and gave into the impulse to bite her neck.
He bite her hard. Naruto didn't really know why, it just felt right. There was something exciting about feeling her underneath him and hearing her gasp like that. His bite somehow transferred chakra into her. A Mark formed on her neck, overwhelming what Orochimaru had given her.
"Naruto, what did you just do?" She whispered.
"I don't know." He answered as the chakra, fangs, and red eyes receded.
That had been the entire dream. He didn't know why, but now he dreamt about Suki a lot. More often than not, he ended up biting her or pinning her. Fighting her was nothing new, but the desire to bite her was. That wasn't normal.
"Naruto, are you okay?" Sakura asks her friend.
"Yeah. I'm fine. I guess I just spaced out there for a minute. Granny Tsunade is putting together a bigger retrieval team, right?" Naruto replies and Sakura nods in confirmation.
"Pretty much all of the Rookies are going. We have to move quickly. We're running out of time." Sakura says.
Naruto could see it in Sakura's eyes. She was losing hope. The pink haired woman didn't actually think that they were going to save Suki. He was determined to prove her wrong though.
"I know. We'll find a way though. There has to be a way." He whispers to himself.
Meanwhile Suki was still in the Sound Village. She was training and being pushed to her breaking point. Orochimaru had decided that he wanted to see how she would do against a thousand opponents.
She knew that she could have easily won this, if she wanted to use lethal force. Suki didn't though. These people hadn't done anything to her. They weren't Itachi. They didn't deserve her rage. Not really.
"CHIDORI!" She screams out as she sends another lightning attack flying at a group of them.
She wasn't aiming for vital spots, but it would knock him out. It would knock him out cold. Unfortunately, she didn't have Naruto's chakra reserves and she hadn't forgotten Kakashi's warning. There was a limit to how much she could throw around her trademark attack.
That limit was increasing almost daily, but not fast enough to handle this many opponents. She was probably going to have to resort to Taijutsu at some point. That was fine though. She wasn't a cold-blooded murderer.
"How disappointing." Orochimaru murmurs as he watches her fight next to Kabuto.
Suki was clearly making great strides. Sadly, she still held onto some childhood notion of mercy. Oh it wasn't as deeply ingrained in her as it was in her former teammates, but it was still there. It was still there enough to hold her back.
"We're going to have to press her harder. A deal is a deal. When she kills Itachi, we can preserve his body. He can be your vessel after her." Kabuto says.
Orochimaru nods in agreement. Yes, a deal was a deal. Besides, the Sannin couldn't deny that he would enjoy seeing the life leave Itachi's eyes. They had been in the Akatsuki together. This was personal.
"We're going to have to amp up her training. Physical and emotional. Physical she's almost there. She's still too softhearted though. We'll fix that. We just have to figure out what her trigger is." Orochimaru murmurs.
"Her trigger is obvious. It's Naruto. I haven't mentioned this to you before because it was irrelevant. I believe she has feelings for him. Strong ones. That's why he's still alive. If you want to upset her to make her stronger, threaten him somehow." The silver haired medic says.
Orochimaru tries to suppress his irritation at that news. Suki carried a torch for the loudmouthed blonde. It was only natural that she'd be attracted to someone her own age, but he was disappointed. He would have thought that she had better taste.
"You said that these feelings were strong?" He asks.
"It would seem so. What are you thinking, Lord Orochimaru?" He asks as Suki slams her fist into the face of some poor son of a bitch that they had recruited to be fodder.
"Well it seems such a waste to let her die before she restores her Clan and the child would grow up to be a good vessel. That and Naruto Uzumaki is a Jinchuuriki. If we can harness the chakra of the Nine Tails, we would be unstoppable." Orochimaru says with a smirk.
Kabuto raises an eyebrow. He had a pretty good idea where this was going and he certainly didn't like it. Orochimaru was out of his mind.
"My Lord, are you suggesting that we should bring the boy here?" Kabuto inquires.
"Perhaps. The power of the Nine Tails is certainly tempting. He would likely do whatever we wanted, as long as he was assured of Suki's safety." Orochimaru says with a smirk.
"I don't think this is wise. Naruto doesn't think logically. If you offered him the deal, he wouldn't take it. He would just storm into our village and try to take her back to the Leaf Village. You can't reason with a child like him, especially one with his power. He has gotten better at wielding the beast's chakra." Kabuto warns him.
Orochimaru holds up his hand, waving off Kabuto's concerns. The idea did have merit. The Nine Tail's power was almost limitless. Perhaps it was the key to unlocking true immortality. That and he could take Itachi's body. Suki could restore her Clan with the blonde. Thus Naruto would be loyal to him because Suki was. Eventually, their child or children would become his future vessels. It all fit together rather nicely.
"Silence, Kabuto. It looks as though she's done." Orochimaru says as he walks over to a panting Suki.
Her every muscle in her body was screaming at her in protest. Suki's vision was blurred and she was struggling to breath. Surely, this type of training would make her strong enough to kill Itachi. She was pushing herself to her limits.
"Why didn't you kill them?" He demands.
"I didn't have to kill them to beat them and they hadn't done anything to me." She says simply.
"One day, that childish notion of mercy is going to get you killed. I keep telling you that because it's true. Still I can't deny that you have grown much stronger. Itachi's end is certainly within sight. You should rest for the rest of the night. All the strength in the world will do you no good, if you kill yourself of chakra exhaustion." He informs her.
Suki simply shrugs. She didn't have to justify her actions to him. He was a means to an end. While Orochimaru might care for her in his own sick way, the feeling was far from mutual.
"As long as my body lasts long enough for the transfer, I don't see what you are complaining about." Suki mutters as she heads off.
Soon enough she finds the hot spring in the village. After making sure that no one else was around and forming a few shadow clones as lookouts, she quickly strips and gets in.
"Ahhh." Suki sighs in contentment.
The hot water felt so good against her sore muscles. She sighs as she realizes they wouldn't be sore, if the Massacre never happened. She'd likely still be in the Leaf Village right now or on a mission with Team Seven.
Naruto would likely be oblivious, but if things were different she would have confessed her feelings towards her. Maybe he would have returned them. In that case, they would have been a normal couple.
"Walking around the village together, training, kissing, and likely going to the Ramen Shop." She muses.
That was assuming that he saw her as more than just a friend in the first place. Naruto was different than most people. It was entirely possible that he really was putting himself through all of this just because of friendship. No one else would have done that, but this was Naruto.
"It doesn't matter though. Kabuto was right about one thing. It's never going to happen." She says with a sigh.
Unbeknownst to Suki, she wasn't the only Uchiha at the moment pondering what could have been. Itachi was as well. Well he was pondering the matter between bloody coughs.
"Itachi, are you sure you are up to this mission?" Kisame asks.
The blue skinned man had actually grown fond of his partner in a way. Sure, Itachi wasn't much of a talker. He was still sane though and that was a pretty rare trait in the Akatsuki.
"I'll be fine." Itachi mutters as he takes another pill.
The pills were buying him time, but he was running out of it. Itachi was living on borrowed time for several reasons. His illness was running its course. Without proper treatment, he likely had a couple months. It wouldn't be exaggerating to say he might have a month left to live though.
He needed to find Suki. His sister could kill him. Then she would be the hero. The Leaf would accept her back with open arms and his suffering could finally end.
"You know for a ninja, you're a surprisingly bad liar. You don't look fine to me." Kisame says.
How he wished that things had turned out differently. Surely, something could have done. Something could have prevented the Massacre. By the time he came of age though, it was too late.
He had to choose between his Clan and the Leaf as a whole. In the end, he had decided that potentially adverted another Great Ninja War was more important than the love he had for his family.
"I'll manage. I always do. Since when did you start pretending to care?" Itachi asks in amusement.
Peace was more important than his love for his family. It had even been more important than his feelings for Izumi. There was just one thing that it hadn't been more important than.
Suki. He couldn't kill her. She was too young. The seven year old had no idea what her Clan was plotting. Suki had been completely innocent at the time of the Coup and Massacre. So he had pleaded and managed to spare her life and for that, she wanted to kill him.
"Good point. Well let's get going then." Kisame says as the two of them head off.
That was fine with Itachi though. He wanted to die. He would welcome death. Death by suicide was dishonorable though. Death by Suki's hand would be fine by him. Revenge was the only thing that he could really offer her at this point.
He couldn't tell her the truth. The most important thing in his mind was that she would never know the truth. That would be his dying wish.
Meanwhile back in the Leaf, the Suki Retrieval Team was ready. Naruto was excited. For the first time in a long time, he felt really hopeful. Maybe they would get her back.
"Alright! Let's do this!" Kiba says excitedly.
Hinata nods her head in agreement. The Hyuga Heiress was shy, but Naruto knew that she was a good friend. She had volunteered for the mission. He just didn't know why.
"The power of youth is on our side!" Lee chimes in and Naruto rubs the back of his head sheepishly.
He really didn't understand the whole power of youth thing. Bushy Brows and Bushy Brows Sensei were cool. Sometimes, they were just a little too eccentric for most people to understand though.
"Right. Exactly. Shikamaru?" He asks.
Shikamaru wasn't on the team by choice. Well at least Naruto didn't think he was. Apparently, the lazy ninja didn't really care for Suki all that much. He had just decided that she was a Leaf Ninja and thus that garnered some degree of automatic loyalty. He wasn't going to let her die just because she was a prissy princess.
Seriously, that's what the cloud watcher called her. Naruto couldn't exactly disagree with the princess label. She was hardly prissy though. He clearly never seen her train. She was vicious.
"The Sound Village is based in the Rice Nation. We should start there. Though it's possible that they might not be there. Orochimaru obviously has many hideouts scattered all over. If that snake stayed in one place all the time, the Leaf would have captured him years ago." He reasons.
Naruto nods. That was a good point. Well they'd start in the Rice Nation then. It was better than nothing and right now, that is basically what he had.
"Got it. Anything else, guys? Are we good on supplies? Food, water, medical supplies, clothes, weapons, and so forth?" Naruto asks.
"We're definitely good on food. I made sure of that." Choji informs him.
"We've got enough weapons for an actual war. You don't have to worry about that much." Tenten says with a wink
Neji nods in confirmation. Well if Neji thought they were all set. They probably were. He was a genius like Shikamaru, but he wasn't anywhere near as lazy. Really, his biggest problem was that he had allowed that Destiny Crap to run his life. Naruto was pleased to report that that was gradually changing though.
"We should get moving." Shino suggests and the others nod in agreement.
With that, the remaining members of the Rookie Nine and Gai's team took off.
It was a long journey to the Sound Village, but Naruto knew they would get there. He just hoped that they wouldn't be too late. He knew that they were racing towards the end of the three month timeline.
Maybe Jirayia's second guess would be more accurate. If they had six months originally, that would be better. Not great, but better. Either way, they were rapidly running out of time and had to hurry.
"What are we going to do, if they are at the Sound Village?" Sakura asks.
"What do you mean? We grab Suki and go." Naruto replies as if that was obvious.
"It's not going to be that simple. They won't just let us waltz in and out of there. We would have to sneak by them or incapacitate them somehow. That's also assuming that Suki is going to come willingly with us. That's far from a safe bet." Neji points out.
Ino sighs and nods. That was what she was afraid of. Suki was strong and she was stubborn. The only person who might be more stubborn than her was Naruto and even that was a bit dicey.
"What are you suggesting?" She asks Neji.
"If we end up in the Sound Village, Ino should take over one of the Sound Villager's body. Lure Suki away. Then we can grab her and go." The lavender eyed man says.
"That's brilliant! That might actually work!" Naruto says brightly, ignoring Neji's twitches.
The Hyuga man didn't know why Naruto had to sound so surprised that his plan might work. He was a Jonin, after all. Neji Hyuga had lots of good plans! Hmpf!