Disclaimer: I don't own nor have I contributed to Naruto in any way! Nope! None!
Sky-eyed Kitsune and Gomi-kun blab & Updates
Sky-eyed Kitsune: Only one more week left of classes and I'm free! :D By the way, I am searching for someone to roleplay (rp) with. I have rp'd many times before and am Rping with someone now, but would like to Rp with others as well ^.^ The person I Rp with preferably won't mind violence, angst, or yaoi. (I do NOT do lemon scenes in my Rps, no exceptions, but I will accept some good old shounen-ai action lol). I Rp with strictly OC's and fanfic characters from Naruto and Death Note. Shoot me a note if you are interested. I will not respond if you say you are interested in a comment. Enjoy the chapter!
For those of you just joining the madness now, I have stopped replying to reviewers because I've got so many that it tends to take an hour to do so! X0 But please know that I treasure each review I get, and read them all. In fact when I read them they made me smile in the way that a writer does when they've realized that they have a reason to write! So sincerely, thank you all who take the time and read and review! I will though be answering questions if someone doesn't understand one part of the story or something along those lines. ^^
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Chapter Seventeen: Good Advice…?
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"I'm dying."
Sasuke scrunched his face.
"How long do you think I have?'
Sasuke's brushed his nose with his finger as something tickled it.
"I'm glad my body will get some use while I'm gone."
Sasuke opened his mouth a little, his face contorted in a small grimace, and he shot upward as he sneezed, sending pollen from the flowers and plants around him flying.
"Sasuke-kun!"
Sasuke looked over as he heard his name called, and saw Sakura running towards him with a huge smile on her face. Only…this Sakura was very young. She looked just like she had when she was thirteen.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura squealed as she halted to a stop in front of him. She smoothed out the bottom of her red dress a little before folding her hands behind her back, her grin never dropping. "Sasuke-kun, you're late for the team meeting! Where have you been?"
Sasuke blinked at Sakura dumbly before looking around. To his right was an over stretching field of plants and flowers, and to the left the field ran into a tangle of trees. Konoha's gates could be seen not too far ahead between them.
"Uh…here," he finally said.
"You're acting strange Sasuke-kun." Sakura tugged Sasuke's up by his arm. "C'mon! We can still beat Kakashi-sensei there."
Sakura ran ahead, and Sasuke stood stock still.
"What…what year is it?" He looked down at his hands, much smaller than he had remembered. "Is this a dream?"
Sasuke shook he head as he ran for the gates, easily passing Sakura on the way.
"Sasuke-kun, wait for me!" she whined behind him, but he didn't bother to stop.
"Naruto. Where is Naruto?"
Sasuke arrived at the team's old meeting spot on the bridge a few minutes later. Sakura was no longer in sight behind him. He approached the bridge, and his feet paused in their step as he saw Naruto sitting on the railing of the it.
His eyes were closed, hands clasped in seal. Sasuke squinted his eyes, frowning a little as his sharingan didn't activate. He coiled his hand into a fist as he put more pressure on the chakra points behind his eyes, and finally the sharingan was brought forth.
Sasuke let out a breath of air as he relaxed himself. He had forgotten how hard it had been to summon his kekkei genkai when he was younger and just learning how to use it.
His eyes widened as he saw the immense aura of invisible chakra swirling around Naruto, his hands aglow with it.
Sasuke took a step forward, and the chakra broke around Naruto as his eyes shot open and he jumped off the railing.
Sasuke blinked rapidly and his sharingan dissipated, and he locked eyes with Naruto.
"What teme?" he said, glaring a little as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his ugly orange jumpsuit.
"N-…nothing," Sasuke said.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sasuke rolled his eyes as he heard Sakura's footsteps approaching them rapidly. "Why didn't you wait for me?" She pouted a little.
Sasuke was saved from answering as Kakashi poofed onto the bridge.
"Yo."
"You're late!!!" Sakura and Naruto screamed together. Sasuke looked back at Naruto, the blond's mouth moving a mile a minute as he complained to Kakashi.
Was this the mask Kyuubi had been talking about? The village idiot act? Sasuke felt so stupid that he hadn't seen the difference, but he had never been able to see Naruto so calm and serious as he was when he was meditating on the railing.
"Today we're hunting down Toro, an escaped cat," Kakashi said.
"This is the third time…" Sasuke mumbled.
"Did you say something Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked in a sickeningly sweet voice.
Sasuke didn't bother to answer.
That cat…that stupid, stupid cat…where was it!? Even with his sharingan Sasuke was having a hard time.
He walked up one of the trees so he could get a good lay of the land, when he stopped as he heard a voice below.
Sasuke flipped upside down only to find Naruto sitting against a tree trunk, petting the missing cat.
Sasuke saw Naruto smile a little as the cat meowed happily.
"You're lucky that you get to run away all the time," he said. His eyes became downcast. "I wish I could." He chuckled as the cat meowed again and pawed his nose. He scratched its head and it purred appreciatively.
"Nobody around here understands. Even my best friend can't tell the difference between the real me and the fake one. Then again, I can't really say he's my friend if I'm always my fake self around him, can I?"
Sasuke dug his fingernails into the tree bark and let go of the branch.
He flipped himself around so he would land nicely, but he didn't land. He kept on falling. Naruto's image rushed above him as darkness swallowed him from underneath. He reached his hand up, trying to grasp Naruto's visage as he was sucked down, and he felt his body slam against something.
Sasuke opened his eyes and gasped, his chest rising and falling rapidly as his eyes quivered.
He rubbed the back of his hand against his eyelids before blinking them open again.
He looked around and realized that he was in some kind of medical care room. He scrunched his eyebrows, and hissed when he felt his forehead burn. He sat up and pressed a hand to it, and felt the bandages wrapped around his forehead.
"Quite a spill you took."
Sasuke whipped his head to the left to see Kyuubi sitting cross-legged on a chair beside his bed, grinning.
"What…where am I!?" Sasuke finally burst.
"You're a few doors down from Naruto's office. You were in a set of memories," Kyuubi explained.
"Memories…who's?"
"Yours."
"Those weren't mine. I never saw Naruto act that way."
"See now, here's where I tampered with them a little. I fused Naruto's memories and yours together and basically let you run around inside them. I thought you might be skeptical about Naruto and his idiot mask when you were younger, so I had you experience a few moments of his true self hands on."
"Why did you stop me!?" Sasuke shouted, gripping the sheets fervently, his eyes stinging and jaw curled in a snarl.
"Pardon?"
"You stopped me from confronting him! I was jumping down to talk to him!"
"If you had done that then you would have messed up Naruto's memories. I cannot allow the past to be changed."
Sasuke panted a little for a moment before letting his body flop back down, his head hitting the pillow beneath him.
"All those lost years," he breathed, covering his eyes with his arm as he felt them become wet.
"Naruto likes to think of them as not 'lost years', but just 'lost'. He pretends that they don't exist, and has tried to erase his whole childhood from his memory. But then he always stops himself, and remembers that the past shaped him into what he is now. No matter how painful," Kyuubi said, his wine red eyes following a wayward tear slipping down from under Sasuke's arm.
"Uchiha, you don't have a lot of time."
Sasuke removed his arm, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. "Why not?"
"You just don't, alright!" Kyuubi said forcefully, his eyes shut tightly. He sighed and opened them a little. "Just…do what you think is right. But please, as a request from this old demon, please, do not hurt Naruto anymore."
Kyuubi's head fell forward against his chest as his features began to disappear, and in a matter of seconds were replaced with Naruto's original ones.
Sasuke sat himself up, and reached out for Naruto's hand lying limp on his knee. He grasped the blond's hand in his own pale one, lacing their fingers together gently.
"Not a lot of time…what does that mean? Is Naruto leaving?"
Sasuke dropped Naruto's hand as the blond released a deep sigh, and his eyelids fluttered open. He lifted his head to look at Sasuke. It took him about three seconds to register that he was awake and that Sasuke was too, straightening in his chair immediately.
"A-ah, Sasuke," he said, wobbling a little on his chair. He cleared his throat. "How…how are you feeling?"
"Fine. What happened?" Sasuke said.
"Oh…well I woke up at your house and thought you had kidnapped me and--"
"Oh, it's all coming back to me…" Sasuke chuckled, placing a hand on his forehead. "Did you give me this too?" he asked as he pointed to the bandages. Naruto nodded.
"I'm sorry," he sighed. "I got…a little worked up."
"A little?" Sasuke said, raising an eyebrow.
Naruto glared. "Teme," he growled, and his and Sasuke's eyes both widened simultaneously as Naruto's hand shot up to cover his mouth.
Silence pervaded the room as Naruto and Sasuke's eyes met and held a conversation. What they were talking about neither one knew, but they were both aware that it had to be important since they couldn't seem to look away.
Naruto was the one to break the silence.
"Sasuke. About last night…"
"You don't need to say anything," Sasuke said apathetically as he turned his head away.
"I…" Naruto shook his head. "No. I mean…I want to."
Sasuke looked back at Naruto, caught off by the statement. Naruto wanting to talk with him about the previous night was the last thing he would have expected.
"Kyuubi showed me what happened the night before and…" Naruto sighed and rested his head on his palm. "I meant what I said. Well except the part about remembering everything that had happened this morning and not being angry…" Naruto shifted his eyes and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
Sasuke stayed silent looking at Naruto, and the blond sighed and stood.
"Just wanted to let you kn--" Naruto was cut off as Sasuke grabbed his wrist and pulled him down sharply. He quickly placed a hand on the back of Naruto's head and mashed their mouths together.
Naruto winced as his teeth knocked against Sasuke's and his lips ached from the impact. Sasuke quickly righted their mouths, holding Naruto's chin with one hand as he delved into the blond's mouth.
Naruto knew he didn't have the strength to fight back in his current condition, but he did tug his wrist in Sasuke's grip to display his discomfort to the Uchiha.
Sasuke didn't register the subtle tug, swept up in the fact that Naruto wasn't pulling away. Sasuke pushed pass Naruto's lips easily, finding little resistance. He rubbed his tongue against Naruto's boldly, humming at the soft taste rippling off the saliva slicked muscle.
He buried the hand pressing the back of Naruto's neck in his golden locks, letting the silky tresses weave naturally between his fingers.
Sasuke scrunched his eyebrows when he tasted a saltiness wetness in his mouth, the top of his lips damp.
He opened his eyes slightly, and then immediately all the way.
Naruto's own eyes were half-lidded, sapphire irises sparkling under welling tears. Two more slipped from each of Naruto's eyes, and he closed them as Sasuke released the blond.
"Naruto?" Sasuke probed gently. He reached up a hand and cradled Naruto's cheek, a tear disappearing into his palm.
Naruto smacked away the comforting touch as if it had stung him. He stood up quickly, leaving the room briskly without letting Sasuke get in another word.
The two guards flanking the door to Naruto's office stood at attention as Naruto descended down the hallway.
"Hokage-sama?" one asked tentatively as the saw the blond's head down, blond bangs covering his facial expression from view.
"Please do not let visitors pass unless it is an extreme emergency," Naruto replied to the inquiry. He swept into his office, Hokage robes billowing as he closed and locked the door.
He turned and leaned his back up against it, sliding down into a broken sitting position. He pulled his legs up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them in an embrace and dipping his head down in the small chasm they made.
His shoulders shook as he released a thin, shuddering breath.
"Kyuubi," he breathed. "Where do Jinchurriki go when they die?"
Kyuubi was silent, and Naruto growled and lifted his head swiftly.
"Dammit Kyuubi, tell me!" he yelled, slamming his fist onto the ground with all he could muster. Had he his full strength he would have punched a whole through the floor, but not even a dent was left.
"They go," Kyuubi started, "to a place where their souls are locked forever."
Naruto swallowed, saliva gathering thickly along his throat. "What's it like?"
"I don't know."
Naruto bit his lip and, leaning forward, smashed his fists with all the remaining strength he could muster onto the floor. He grit he teeth as tears poured down his whiskered cheeks. Why was he crying so much? Was he really that weak…?
Naruto could deal with that fact that he was dying, and his soul would never be at rest. What he couldn't deal with was the fact that only person he felt pure, untarnished and unconditional love for, didn't even know the real him.
"I don't…I don't…I don't…" Naruto repeated as he tugged the strands of his hair. "I don't…"
"You don't what Naruto?" Kyuubi asked.
"I don't want to love him!" Naruto shouted, digging his fingernails into the wooden planks beneath him. He breathed heavily, all energy already almost completely spent.
"You don't know, Kyuubi…what it's like to be so in love, and to have that love be returned, but to not be able to accept it because it's not love for the real you!!!"
Kyuubi's eyes grew sorrowful as Naruto's cries and soft sobs echoed in his cage.
"He does love you, kit."
"Not me…no…" Naruto croaked, shaking his head before holding it in his hands as his body quivered from stress.
"He does. You are soul mates, Naruto. Don't you wonder why you love him so much after all the terrible things he's done? How you could never be truly angry at him for the things he did? A soul mate's love is unconditional, like yours. You are connected always. And Sasuke really does want to get to know you. I've spoken to him. He would do anything to know the real you."
Naruto's cries became softer as Kyuubi talked, and Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger as his head throbbed.
"…why?"
"Because he loves you. Passionately. Unconditionally. Always."
Naruto grabbed the doorknob behind him to help heave himself up. He wiped his tear streaks on the top of his wrist.
"It wouldn't make a difference now, even if all of that is true," Naruto murmured, resting his head against the back of the door.
"How will you know if it's true unless you give him a chance?"
Kakashi was an excellent tracker. He could find a mouse ten feet underground with a blindfold on and earplugs in.
Kakashi was an excellent ninja. With his sharingan, experience, speed, and strength, he was a force to be reckoned with.
Kakashi was an excellent lover. He brought Iruka presents, remembered important dates, took his little brunette out every so often, and did some this that and all those things to him.
Kakashi was not a good counselor. So when one Uchiha Sasuke stepped up to him and said the three most hateful words in human language Kakashi knew, he was afraid.
Very afraid.
"Can we talk?"
Kakashi didn't know why he said yes, or why he didn't run when the Uchiha was approaching and practically dripping with angst, and a forehead wound to boot.
So now Kakashi was across from one disgruntled raven in the forest just outside of Konoha's gates, each of them leaning against a tree.
They didn't speak, or make eye contact for that matter. The silence was uneasy, and it didn't help when a frog jumped out from nowhere and began to croak loudly beside Kakashi.
"……so…" Kakashi broke the mold awkwardly, shooing the frog away. "Nice weather, ne?"
Sasuke sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"You and Iruka," he started slowly in an almost painful manner. "You've been together for a while, right?"
"Yep. We got married about five years ago. Why?"
Sasuke grit his teeth and flicked his eyes to the ground as the lightest tint of scarlet brushed across his cheeks.
Kakashi cocked an eyebrow at the Uchiha, and then grinned widely under his mask.
"Oh ho ho! The great Uchiha Sasuke needs my advice? And on dating of all things! Oh boy, this is too-"
"Shut up," Sasuke hissed through his teeth. "If you don't help me I'll tell Iruka that you're gushing about your love life with him to Jiraiya for his porn novels."
Kakashi's grin dropped ten feet into the ground, and the tips of his silver hair turned stark white.
"…fine," he sighed, succumbing to the threat. An outraged Iruka equaled no sex for weeks. "So why exactly are you having trouble courting Naruto?"
"I…" Sasuke sighed in frustration. "I don't know how to, ok? Plus Naruto is still mad at me."
"Duh. I wouldn't be surprised if he never forgives you and spits on your footprints."
"Not helping."
"Truth hurts."
"Anyways, I apologized to Naruto but I don't know what he thinks of me. I don't even know if he harbors any feelings for me at all."
"Has he said anything good towards you?"
Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "Yea…he said that he missed me."
"Really?"
"Yea…but he was drunk."
"That's very good," Kakashi said, smiling beneath his black mask. "Iruka tells me that Naruto is the most honest when he's drunk. So he must feel something for you if he's missed you."
"Yea, but I wish I knew what. What did you do to get Iruka?"
Kakashi sighed nostalgically and crossed his legs. "Well my situation was somewhat similar to yours: I was competing for Iruka, he and I weren't on good terms, and I was utterly hopeless when it came to flirting. Then again I was only up against two other guys, and you're facing every available young adult in Konoha. Also unlike you I didn't leave for several years and almost kill my cherished person. I started off with Iruka by being, now that I look at it, an overall perv. Sneaking up behind him and whispering that he had the most tight, fuckable ass I'd ever laid eyes on wasn't the best strategy to go by. I still have the scars to prove it…Anyways, I observed Iruka and what he did in his spare time, and made small conversation with him. But not longer than fifteen minutes of chatting. This way I gave him his space. Gradually I began to learn from our conversations what Iruka liked, so I gave him gifts and took him places. Soon Iruka and I were over the boundaries of friendship."
Kakashi looked at Sasuke expectantly, but the Uchiha was silent.
"If you want help with the sexual part I can give you some moves to--"
"NO," Sasuke said firmly. He sighed. "But I don't have all the time in the world to court Naruto."
Kakashi shrugged. "That's true, but you and Naruto spent years together as children. Surely you learned some things about him?"
Sasuke was silent once more.
Kakashi took out his Icha Icha book and stood from beneath the tree, stretching his arms. He flipped open to his marked page and walked away.
"Oh, Sasuke," he said behind his shoulder. "For the record, Naruto does like honesty."
Hmm what is our Uchiha thinking? Just in case some of you didn't read the note up top, READ THIS: I am searching for someone to roleplay (rp) with. I have rp'd many times before and am Rping with someone now, but would like to Rp with others as well ^.^ The person I Rp with preferably won't mind violence, angst, or yaoi. (I do NOT do lemon scenes in my Rps, no exceptions, but I will accept some good old shounen-ai action lol). I Rp with strictly OC's and fanfic characters from Naruto and Death Note. Shoot me a note if you are interested. I will not respond if you say you are interested in a comment.
Sky-eyed Kitsune