Insanity's Slip

Chapter Twenty Nine

By Boejangles

-/-

Naruto woke up with a pain in his neck and down his back. Stretching himself out, he realized the reason behind his pain was that he had slept most of the night hunched over the couch. His eyes fixed on his brother and the boy sighed. He had really been hoping that he had been having a crazy dream when he had found Sasuke injured. He honestly had no idea what had happened.

Staring intently at his brother's face, he lifted a finger to trace the deep scratch that rested on the boy's cheek. He had no idea how he was supposed to explain this to the hospital staff. The injuries weren't likely to pass as an accident or training related. Sighing, the blond brought both of his hands to his face. He wondered if this is how Sasuke felt when he had to make up some story for everyone else to believe. Then again, it seemed like the older boy never seemed to notice what he was saying was a story at all.

Moving his hands away from his face, the boy was at a complete and total lost. He couldn't think of a single thing that would explain the wounds. If he knew what it was, he would simply tell the hospital the truth- he didn't mind if he was in trouble for it. One thing was for certain though, the dark haired boy needed to go to the hospital one way or the other.

Standing up completely, he cradled the older boy to his chest and made his way to the people that could heal his brother.

-/-

A blue eyed boy sat on top of the Hokage monument hugging himself and biting his lip. He had ended up chickening out at the last minute and simply slipped his brother into one of the chairs in the emergency department waiting room and took off. He knew that someone would see the boy and he would get care.

However, he was still worried. He had no idea the extent of damage the boy had received. He wondered if waiting until morning had been a very bad idea on his part, what if he had caused further injury. Wrapping in on himself further, he shuddered. He still couldn't believe that his untouchable brother had been injured and everything pointed to him being the one that did it. Again he was forced to wonder if the raven haired male ever felt this exact same way, but his mind pushed the thought away.

The boy continued to worry for the next several hours. It wasn't until he ran into the cause of his worrying that he finally calmed down. He had finally decided he couldn't take it anymore and was heading to the hospital, when he spotted Sasuke walking down the street seemingly looking for something. He realized his older brother was looking for him when their eyes met and the taller boy rushed over. The smaller boy was quick to note that the nasty gashes that had previously marred the other boy's face were gone.

Over the next few minutes, the blond learned that Sasuke had woken up in the hospital with nurses fussing over him, that he had received a concussion and couldn't remember how he had been injured or how he got to the hospital, and that the hospital staff had notified animal control to be on the lookout for a wild best running around the village. It took every ounce of self control to not laugh in relief that his brother was fine and had no idea he was the one that had caused all of this. A part of him had been terrified that his brother would wake up in a rage, hunt him down and kill him. He was very relieved that this was not the case. In fact, the two spent a relatively peaceful day just taking it easy, seeing as the older Uchiha still had the lingering effects of a headache.

-/-

The rest of the week finished with relative ease. The day of the tournament snuck up on everyone. Chunin hopefuls gathered in the arena hoping that they would make it. There were eight in total hoping to make it to the next level. One blond looked around nervously, worried about the fight he was meant to take place in and was glad he wasn't the first to fight.

Looking around the faces standing near him, he was glad to know most of them. There was Shikamaru, Kiba, Lee, Shino, and of course Sasuke. Then there were the demented red head and his female teammate. He wasn't sure who was fighting who; he just knew that his first fight was against his older brother. He was distracted from his thoughts when everyone save Shino and Kiba were asked to leave the arena and wait in the deck above.

Once safely on the deck, Naruto leaned over the banister. He knew the two boys below were teammates, so they must know a lot about each other's attacks. He wondered if that same thing happened to them and they were separated to train for the tournament. Watching as the fight started, he attempted to figure out who was going to win.

Both males seemed to be simply watching the other, and then the brunette took off in a spinning motion towards the other male only to be pushed off. The fight seemed to be at a standstill and both males seemed to be at the same level. Kiba then slipped his dog a pill and suddenly there were two of him.

The fervor of the brunette's blows picked up speed. However, the hooded male continued to just dust off the blows of one while side stepping the other. Suddenly one Kiba changed back to Akamaru in a puff of smoke and the other fell to his knees. Upon closer inspection you could see the tiny bugs crawling over brunette and his canine companion.

The match was called in Shino's favor and the boy retracted the bugs to keep his teammate from passing out. He then helped the boy up and out of the arena.

The sandy haired blonde girl and Lee were called down to the arena and Naruto was reminded that the girl's name was Temari.

"Oh man this is going to be fast," the blond said from where he was perched against the railing. "Lee is gonna lay her out." He missed the glance that was shot at him from the red head on the other side of the balcony.

The fight started out slow with both getting a feel for the other one. Lee did not feel it was youthful to fight a girl, but he needed to pass this round so that he had a chance fighting the male that disgraced the lovely Sakura.

With blinding speed, Lee shot out landed a kick to the center of the girl's chest. The blonde fell back before jumping up with a growl. Snapping her fan open, she sent a just of wind at the boy. However, the green clad male simply jumped out of the way before moving back in to land a solid blow on again.

When the girl was ready to swing her fan again, the male was ready to dodge to the left when his feet refused to move. He had a second to be puzzled before he was flying through the air. Small cut appeared all over his body from the tiny wind knives. Jumping up to charge the girl, he found his feet wouldn't move again. This time he was able to look down before flying into the wall of the arena.

A small cry of pain left his mouth before he managed to land on his feet in a crouch. He could have almost sworn that there had been sand covering his feet, but that didn't make sense. Rushing the girl, he was two feet away when his legs locked and he was assaulted by three of Temari's wind attacks rapid fire before the wind launched him into the air.

Lee was through confused and his body was beginning to ache. He couldn't recall the girl being able to manipulate sand or use a jutsu to freeze her opponents. Spinning while on his decent back to the earth, he managed to kick off of a tree and land a kick to the female right shoulder and send her sprawling.

He ran towards the fallen girl as the blonde managed to get back onto her feet. Pulling back one foot to kick again, he was assaulted with wind and thrown backwards. His body flew before landing back against a boulder. The boy cried out as he coughed up blood. His body was screaming in protest when he attempted to stand back up. Yet it didn't matter since he couldn't get his body to move. He could clearly see the sand around his ankles. Sending a punch to the sand around his ankle, he missed the female's attack and the wind whipped his body back against the rock so hard that the male ceased to move. Blood ran down the rock from where the male's head had made impact.

Medic nin ran into the arena after Temari was dubbed the winner. They were very careful with Lee's body. The mechanism of injury lead a high chance of a spinal injury so that wanted to be especially cautious.

Naruto screamed in frustration as he watched another of his friends be carried out on a stretcher. He was so sick of these sand nins being so brutal.

No one noticed the red head in the corner slowly lower his hand from in front of his face, or the grin that rested on the boy's lips. Smoothing his face to that of impassiveness, Gaara made his way down the stairs and into the arena ready to destroy his latest prey- the Nara.

Shikamaru 'tched' before shoving his hands in his pockets. "Man, what a drag." Slowly making his way to the arena he attempted to think over all the strategies he had gone over in his mind before. He was not at all pleased about being paired against the homicidal maniac. His plan was to show the judges what he had before backing out before the arena was covered with his blood.

Naruto had to fight the urge to close his eyes. He really wasn't looking forward to watching the fight. He knew the red head was a monster and while Shikamaru was a genius, he wasn't sure if that was enough. He watched as Gaara seemed to just stand there impassively as the pineapple headed male was evaluating the situation. The blond almost gasped in recognition when he noticed a shadow creeping up behind the greed eyed male.

A smirk managed to make its way to Shika's face when he locked on to his target. "Shadow possession, complete." He took a step forward and the red head mimicked him and took a step forward.

A wicked green seemed to take over Gaara's face before he began to laugh, which unsettled everyone who could hear it- especially the Nara. Looking at his opponent with wild eyes, the red head mouthed the words 'you lose'. Sand shot out from the smaller male and struck the other boy in the chest so hard it forced him in the air and to break his concentration on his jutsu.

Shikamaru cursed under his breath. It seemed that the sand couldn't be controlled by his shadow techniques. He saw the sand moving in on him and managed to jump away and scream that he forfeited before he became a puddle of broken mush.

The sand nin seemed disappointed at the loss of his play toy, but simply vanished in a whirl of sand before reappearing on the balcony.

Thankful to have only sustained a couple fractured ribs, the pineapple haired male made his way out of the arena and into the infirmary to have his bones mended.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Naruto was glad that his friend hadn't ended up like Sakura had. However, the relief vanished when it dawned on him that it had come time for his and Sasuke's fight. He was once again torn at how to approach the situation; should he give it his all and risk injuring and therefore angering his brother, or should he play it weak and risk aggravating his brother that way. Either way he was going to lose in the end. It was at times like these he almost hated life.

With a deep breath and a gulp, the blond followed his brother down the steps and into the arena. Biting his lip, he looked to the proctor and almost begged that he not start the match yet. Not seeming to get his telepathic message, there was a hollered 'go!'.

Smaller boy attempted to smile at the other. "Let's give them a really good show Aniki"!

The older boy seemed to smile back before launching an easily dodged fireball at his brother.

-/-

Naruto wasn't sure what had happened. They had been sparring beautifully showing off what they had to offer when Sasuke missed a step and received a fireball to the chest. Everything came crashing down from there. The dark haired male got that demented look in his eye and took off after the blonde as if he was out for blood.

The youngest Uchiha was zipping through the few offered trees in the arena and attempting to think of a way out of this mess when he was thrown out of the tree and landed harshly on his back. Looking up into eyes that spoke of pain and suffering, he was caught off guard when the older male lunged at him and wrapped his fingers around the boy's throat.

Sasuke leaned down to the blonde's ear before beginning to whisper. "I am going to set things straight. I should have killed you back when I took care of the rest of them. I thought my last warning would have made you appreciate life so much more, but I guess I was wrong."

Blue eyes widened to an impossible feat. Realizing which Sasuke he was dealing with, he understood the possibility of him actually dying in this fight. However, if he was going to die, he wanted- no, needed to know why his family had died. Attempting to take in as much air as possible, he wheezed out, "W..why"?

The larger male almost laughed at the question before smirking. "You want to know why? I suppose I can tell you before I send you to join them." He let up the slightest bit on the pressure given to the boy's neck so that the blond wouldn't black out too quickly. "You were always so perfect. Cute little Naru-chan, momma's little helper. She loved you so much. Itachi was perfect too, the damn prodigy. Dad only had enough love in his heart for Itachi. Auntie and Uncle would always ride me: why couldn't I be more helpful like you, why wasn't I strong like Itachi. You had mom and dad had Itachi- who did I have? You were both so fucking perfect, so fucking special. I had nothing, no one loved me. So I showed them both how perfect you two really were. Neither one of you were able to save them, so I guess they placed their money on the wrong son. It is all your fault really; if you weren't in the picture mom would have loved me and Itachi would have noticed me. But because of you, they are dead. And I was right all along, if you were so perfect and special you wouldn't be so weak."

A cry of outrage left the smaller boy's lips as he struck out both of his hands causing the pair to roll until he stopped with him on top of his brother. His hands latched onto the older boy's neck as tears streamed down his face and ran along his bruised neck. "You are so fucking stupid!" the boy screamed and cussed, both of which were rare for him. Looking straight into charcoal eyes, the boy lowered his voice as he left his emotions flow off of him. "Mom loved you, she loved you so much. Itachi loved you; that is why he is gone now having run off so that you could live your life. I loved you; I adored you when we were kids, I wanted to be just like you my perfect older brother. Mom didn't even fight back when you killed her, because her heart was broken because she had loved you so much. Itachi killed his best friend for you, because he loved you. I have struggled through these years of constant abuse because I love you. Every beating I've taken because I love you and hoped that someday you'll get better. So don't you dare say that no one loved you." Naruto sobbed as his brother lost consciousness.

Dropping his forehead against the older boy's he was having the hardest time accepting the reason that he lost everyone precious to him. He couldn't figure out how the boy had come to the conclusion that he was unloved or how that led to the slaughter of his family. Taking a shaky breath, the blond moved to stand up and wiped away his tears. The match was called in Naruto's favor and the raven haired male was carried out by the medics who noted that he had only lost consciousness.

Up in the stands, Kakashi was watching his two male students and wondering what in the world had occurred between the two. They had both been so quite that the only part of the conversation that the older male caught was when the blond screamed that his brother was fing stupid.

The blond made his way out of the arena and was heading back up the stairs with his head hung when he was shoved down the few steps he had climbed up.

"Hey there blondie, you just cost us a good bit of money," the male that had shoved him chided. Naruto moved to push the male aside when he was grabbed from behind by another male. "Now, now, we are going to get our money back, you are going to lose your next fight." With that statement the man grabbed the boy's neck and sent a surge of chakara through the boy.

The Uchiha screamed out in pain as his body spasmed slightly. The sound of foot falls coming down the steps caused the two older males to run out of the hallway. Before they had made it all the way out they turned and grinned at each other- mission complete.

Picking himself off the floor, Naruto managed to get to his feet before Temari and Shino walked by and into the arena. As he began his ascent back up the stair, his hand instinctively moved to his neck. It was pulsing in pain; he really hoped this went away before his fight with the psycho red head.

He managed to make it to the balcony before the fight between the two victors of their first match started. The girl seemed to want to get things over with fast and was sending her wind strikes rapid fire at the hooded boy. However, each time the wind made contact the boy would burst into a swarm of bug. The blonde wanted to end the fight so badly, that she missed the fact that each time the swarm of bugs disappeared a few would stay behind.

She was just about fed up with the boy's ability to poof when said male spoke in a clam voice and told her to give up. "Are you stupid? I have no reason to give up."

Shino pointed all around the female. "You are surrounded." When he said this, the bugs that had previously been resting on the ground took to the air with a collect buzz that sounded like deep humming.

Temari attempted to send the bugs flying, but when she struck in one direction, they came in from a different one. She screamed in panic and she started swinging her fan around in an attempt to beat the bugs off of her. She could feel her chakara leaving her and decided to take the lesser of two evil. "I give, I give," she shouted loud enough for the proctor to hear.

Naruto clapped loudly for Shino glad that they had managed to beat the Suna nin. "Yeah! Way to go Shino! That is how we do it"! All of his cheering was rewarded with a simple glance of recognition from the quiet male.

After cheering on his fellow Konoha ninja, the blond shot his eyes towards the red head that was already making his descent down the stairs. This was the fight he had been waiting for. He honestly hadn't thought he would make it past Sasuke, but he had. Now he had the chance to show the male just what he thought about what happened to Sakura. With this in mind, his simply jumped over the side of the banister and landed in a crouch. The cloud of dirt his landing caused slowly dissipated and revealed a red head with a raised eyebrow.

"Finally got tired of following someone weaker than you?" the boy's voice was monotone as he asked the question. The blond wasn't sure if the other male was trying to annoy him, but he was. What happened between him and Sasuke was none of this guy's business.

Wanting to remove the condescending smirk from the other's face, the blond lashed out, but was met with sand. The battle continued like this for several minutes. The smaller boy was beginning to be severely ticked off. He felt his anger was just about at a boiling point when he felt a sharp pain in his neck.

Grabbing the source of pain in frustration, he had to jump back to avoid being struck by sand. That was it; he was really going to show this kid a piece of his mind. He ran in for a hit when he was shoved back again. Jumping up, he ran towards the male again. He refused to give up or back down. The sand shot at him again, however, instead of hitting him it was intercepted by an inky darkness.

Naruto stared in wonder as the sand and inky darkness fought. He knew on some level that the darkness was bad, but right now it didn't feel like his insides were boiling and maybe just maybe he could win now.

Gaara grinned, yes mother was excited by this new turn of event. She had wanted to feed on the blood of the creature that managed to destroy Kankuro's pretty face.

The darkness and sand were locked in a deadly battle each trying to overpower the other. Then as if sensing a bigger threat, the inky tendrils shot past the sand and towards the red head dodging the sand that attempted to stop it. It would have been the turn in the fight if the sand hadn't taken off with the same idea.

The blond had three seconds to prepare himself before sand wrapped around his neck and lifted him into the air. His only comfort came in the fact that the red head across from him was also dangling in the air and struggling to breathe. It seemed they were going to kill each other and for some reason the younger boy was okay with this. He had always thought his death would come from his brother's hands, but dying to avenge Sakura seemed a bit better.

The sand started to tighten around his neck and he was hoping that whatever the darkness was it was doing the same. It would be a shame if he died and didn't take the red head with him. Just when the inky tendrils and sand were about to tighten to a point of snapping the boys' necks a large explosion filled the stadium.

As smoke filled the arena, Naruto's body began a sharp decent towards the ground. On his fall down, he was able to identify the source of the explosion as the Kage booth. Slamming into the ground, the blond feared the nightmare was just beginning.

A/N: Okie there is your next update. How many people do I have shocked at how fast the story is being updated?

Anyways I have started a little guilty pleasure story which I am enjoying writing very, very much. That story received the same amount of reviews in the first few hours of being posted as the last chapter of this story received in three days. So, if you guys want me to focus on this speak up or I will be working on this in between indulging myself on the other story. The plan is still to finish this before school starts up again, so don't worry too much.

As always tell me what you think and feel free to ask any questions you might have! I love to hear from you.

Boe