Don't forget that this is fan fiction, hopefully giving justice to the characters from the Naruto series, which is given to us by the masterful Masashi Kishimoto-sensei. Everything aside from the original characters are created from the wonderful mind of Kishimoto-sensei.
Most of the following unrecognizable are original characters of mine.
Comments, suggestions, criticisms, even just simple messages are welcome, please feel free to message me anytime.
Thanks for reading!
Chapter 43:
Sasuke glared at the ground where the portal had closed before looking back at Misaki who was still kneeling on the sand where she landed beside him.
For a moment they stared at each other, not that they had nothing to say to each other, the things needed to be said between the two of them alone could fill an entire library. So many things left unsaid, so many questions left unanswered, so much has happened between them and to each of them, so many thoughts, so many feelings.
Misaki mentally berated herself for even broaching the subject of talking in this very moment, when the fate of the world depended on their success.
"Sasuke, we-"
"We need to find them" Sasuke cut her off, turning his back at her and began trying to use his teleportation ability to try and find a way back to the others.
At least now I know I'm not the only one dreading the silence. Misaki rolled her eyes at Sasuke's antics.
For a while Misaki sat on the sand content to leave Sasuke to his own devices, surely he wouldn't be that stubborn to exhaust himself just to avoid a conversation…
Right?
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After Kaguya sent Sasuke in another dimension, dragging Misaki with him, Kaguya merged with nature and attacked Naruto relentlessly, leaving him with only enough time to evade.
Damn it, I need to get to the others Naruto thought, Misaki's kunai still in his hand. Split second later, Kaguya created an avalanche, Naruto did his best to stand his ground and weather the attack.
Now!
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Sitting on the ground in silence proved to be impossible for Misaki. She thought Sasuke would have at least the common sense to stop acting childish and conserve his strength.
But she could not have been more wrong, not only is Sasuke exhausting himself, he was over using his eyes to the point of bleeding.
"Sasuke, stop it, you need to conserve your strength" Misaki called out from where she was meditating, well trying to meditate. Sasuke's shuffling rendered her unable to concentrate.
"We need to find a way back to the others, if Naruto dies then its all over for us" Sasuke stopped to turn to her and answer, before turning his back to her once again. Misaki sighed and dusted herself as she stood.
"Trust me, no one wants to get back to Naruto as much as I do. I know how you feel, but sometimes doing nothing is the best way you can help" Misaki reasoned, chasing after Sasuke.
"Don't you understand! We fail and the world ends! We need to find a way, no matter what it takes" Sasuke snapped, still choosing not to look at her.
"Hey I am not the enemy here! Stop snapping at me and calm down" Misaki grabbed his shoulder and pulled at him forcing Sasuke to face her.
"Is that your solution to everything, calm down, and take things as they are?" growled at her.
"What, compared to you jumping to conclusions, so eager to finish things off, cut things up, you're impatient, you're stubborn, you're insufferable, you're so full of yourself, and despite being a know it all you're rash and you think you're better than others, where did that get you now?" Misaki ranted her face red as she enunciated every syllable with her left index finger poking his chest,. When all of a sudden Sasuke grabbed her wrist and closed the distance between the both of them, nothing but his hand holding on to her wrist between them.
Misaki did not expect when Sasuke zipped towards her, unused to someone surprising her, she stood there speechless, breathing ragged from all the ranting she had done. His touch felt like lightning and his breath, like fire, it's like every fiber of his being embodied his affinity. Standing so close like this, the height difference between them became even more apparent as the top of Misaki's head levelled to Sasuke's nose, forcing her to crane her neck back so she could look into his eyes.
Nose to nose, nearly just as breathless as she was, Sasuke stared down at her with his mismatched eyes, deep, piercing and conflicted. In that moment Misaki wondered how someone can change so much yet still feel the same.
"Are you done?" Sasuke asked, leaning his head lower so they were closer to eye level.
"That's not even half of it" Misaki glared, whatever was happening between them, it was strong, and it only served to amplify other emotions in them, pain, longing, anger, passion, sadness…
Desperation…with each moment spent in each other's touch is a thread of control torn.
Despite her best efforts to dissuade herself, Misaki gave into her more basic instincts, and raised her free hand to wipe the blood off his cheeks like a moth drawn in by fire.
Misaki's touch sent a tingle in Sasuke, one he had not felt before, even as he recalled the touches exchanged between the two of them when they were younger.
All at once he felt everything and nothing…
Time seemed to stop and speed up at the same time…
Something burned hotter and colder than the dimensions they traveled.
Sasuke, reached his free hand towards Misaki's hand on his face with the intent to remove it. Yet as his fingertips grazed across the back of her hand, something took over him and his hand encased Misaki's caressing and tight. In that moment he knew all he wanted was to touch her, even just a little more of her, for even just a little longer.
Like the world doesn't exist at all.
The World.
Snapping out of their trance-like state Sasuke gently lowered both of Misaki's hands from his hold turning his back on her.
"This isn't the time for this, if we fail now the world we know will end" Sasuke said.
"Then what if we do fail?" Misaki asked, slumping down on the sand, more exhausted than she has ever been during the entire war.
"We won't fail…" we can't Sasuke continued wordlessly, he couldn't after seeing Misaki, sitting on the sand, hugging her legs close to herself, utterly defeated, but regardless of that, the message was well received.
If they fail, the world will end. Grabbing a handful of sand, and how the sand disappeared faster the harder she strangled. Leaving her only a handful of sand in the palm of her hand when she finally let go and let the wind take it in due time, slow and gentle. With a sigh, Misaki pulled out a sealed scroll and took out a canteen of water.
"Here, we don't know how long we'll be here, right now dehydration is our worst enemy" Misaki raised him the canteen after taking a reasonable gulp. Sighing, Sasuke decided to give into Misaki and his exhaustion and sat next to her, a reasonable arm's length next to her.
"You still wear the necklace Itachi gave you." Sasuke remarked out of nowhere, surprised by his response, Misaki looked at him in shock before looking down at the necklace around her neck.
"Itachi was my first friend you know, he was even the one who introduced us,"
"How do you do it? How could you trust Itachi after what he did, what he was made to do, what we were made to believe. Even when the world, even when I thought the worst of him, you wore the necklace, you never stopped believing in him" Sasuke continued. Sasuke frowned, staring at the sand as it was blown by the wind before them, hands clenching tight.
Misaki had a choice, she could berate Sasuke for all that he has done, make him suffer, however her heart tells her that he was already suffering for his actions, his mangekyou is proof enough of how much he is suffering his decisions. She can choose to pour her anger on him, or she can choose to listen to her heart, for the first time in years since he left.
"I should have known something was wrong, I should have trusted him, I should have helped him…I was his brother" Sasuke raged, the jerky in his hands submitting to his fist. Misaki stood up, and knelt beside Sasuke, small hands, gently holding on to his, so he can calm down and ease his clenched fists.
"Itachi loves you so much, do you think he would have let you help him, and doom you into the bath of crime and exile. He would have given everything just to make sure you were safe."
"The reason it was easy for me to still trust in Itachi is because of you, he left you alive, and I knew that whatever he had to do, he was doing it out of love for you"
"You never even doubted him? Not even once?" Sasuke asked.
"No, because if I was in his shoes, I would have done the same thing if it meant saving Naruto" Misaki answered.
"You didn't have to do that." Sasuke said his voice barely above a whisper.
"Do what?" Misaki looked to him with confused eyes. Before answering Sasuke raised his free hand and caressed the necklace around Misaki's neck, the necklace she received from Itachi.
"When Kaguya grabbed hold of me, you didn't have to hold on to me"
Why did you? The question lingered in Misaki's head just as much as it did in Sasuke's. Misaki sat up straight, making them both remove their hands on each other. Still deep in thought Misaki sat down next to Sasuke recalling the memories of earlier.
"I-don't know" was Misaki's only response. He was right, she could have not reached out to him, everything happened so fast that …
Her body moved on its own
There's just times when your body moves on its own Sasuke remembered what Naruto told him during their brief stay in the lava world while facing Kaguya. Silence settled between them once more, only making them more aware of each other's presence.
I should have sat farther, Sasuke thought, looking away from Misaki and into the endless distance before them.
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Kakashi was checking on Obito, his vitals have miraculously stabilized thanks to Naruto's efforts. The three of them keep to their location, unsure of how to proceed until they can gather whatever they can of their new dimension and their god-like foe.
Kakashi felt the chakra reacting to the kunai Misaki left them, and just like that Naruto, or a copy of Naruto joined them.
"Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan"
"Naruto. Where is Misaki… Sasuke?" Kakashi asked.
"They're…not here, not anymore, Kaguya-"
"What do you mean they're not here anymore?" Sakura added, but before they could get more answers, Obito gained his consciousness.
"Kakashi, is that you? What happened? I thought I died" Obito wondered.
"I healed, you but-" despite not vocalizing his words, Obito knew what Naruto meant.
Borrowed time…
And he was going to make it count.
"What happened to Madara, did you take him down?" Obito asked.
"Not exactly, it's much more complicated than that, I'll explain it simply" Naruto began.
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"You know, Obito is with them, if anyone is going to figure out Kaguya's time-space technique, it will be him" Misaki smiled at him, her usual warm comforting smile, the one she used to give him when Fugaku had compared him to Itachi once again, or when Itachi was to busy to spend time with him.
It could have been minutes, or hours, that the two sat there and Sasuke had not moved an inch from where he was sitting. Somewhere between the silent treatment, the blistering wind and the scorching sun, Misaki decided to pitch a tent to keep the shaded and shielded.
The shuffle and shifting piqued Sasuke's interest enough to make him look back to Misaki who had set a small makeshift tent beside him, and a blanket under the shade. Misaki didn't ask him to join her, she simply looked at him and the empty seat then proceeded to sit on hers.
"Here" Misaki outstretched her own homemade beef jerky tucked away in one of her scrolls.
"You seemed well prepared for this" Sasuke took the jerky and sat on the prepared seat. Misaki chuckled, contemplating in her head if she should address what Sasuke said or not.
"You know I left Konoha not long after you left to go train with Orochimaru" Misaki began prompting Sasuke to stop mid chew to look at her, however, this time, it was Misaki's turn to avoid eye contact.
"Akihiko revealed that I was the daughter of the late Hokage, that my are parents died on the day Kurama attacked Konoha, the day I was born with my twin brother, Naruto," Misaki held out her hand to show the key inscription left to her by Minato.
"That day, the fourth hokage, my father sealed Kurama inside Naruto, and entrusted the key with me. The more I learned the more confused I got and I needed some answers. I didn't know where to look, or what I'm even looking for, all I knew is that I wasn't going to get them staying so I resigned as Tsunade-sama's apprentice and left Konoha."
"I searched everywhere, for anything that I can trace back to my parents, found the Uzumaki hideouts, learned their secrets and their techniques, trying to figure out what caused the rampage on the day of our birth. And I also learned why my father died. Along the way I made some friends, people like me who have jinchuriki loved ones, trying to look for answers. Ayako taught me how to survive living in the desert, Natsume taught me how to keep warm in almost any weather, Yoko taught me how to siphon water out of anything as Kazumi taught me to scavenge food from basically everywhere. All of us learned how to prepare for anything the hard way" Misaki chuckled, a sad smile on her lips remembering the good times, trying hard not to think that the very same people she speak fondly of are trapped in a euphoric mind controlling dream.
"We also learned about the Akatsuki, but at that time we weren't sure why they were targeting jinchuriki so we searched, searched why they needed the jinchurikis, and how we can protect our loved ones from them, but by the time we all met, Kazumi's uncle was already long gone."
"When this is all over" if this will be over "don't forget to thank Kazumi and Kaede-kachan were really the ones who saved Itachi" Misaki said lightly but the mention of Itachi's name only made Sasuke even more somber.
For a moment Sasuke stared at her deep in his thoughts, to the point that even if she wasn't looking she could feel Sasuke's gaze upon her. Hotter than lava, colder than ice. Without pausing to think over his actions, Sasuke stood up and knelt before Misaki, his physique covering her small frame. With a gentle hand, Sasuke touched Misaki's cheek and delicately guided her gaze to his.
"When this is over, I swear to you, I will become the hokage, I'm going to fix this world. I will make sure, none of what happened in the past that led us here happen again"
"You're going to have to get through Naruto first," Misaki joked lightly as she leaned into his touch. The longer they stayed there the more precious time became, the more wasted the years they spent apart became.
And if the world is bound to end, I'd rather spend this precious time in your arms. A time where we can just forget about anger, and pain, the past and the rest of the world. If the world is bound to end, I know that I'll regret not having this time with you.
Sasuke took the sight of her, the color of her eyes, how wide her pupils were in this moment, the touch of her skin, the small of her hair, the blush flush on her cheeks, he drowned himself in her breath, like a man indulging in a vice he had denied himself for so long. He raised his free hand to push back the hair hiding her face behind her ear, at first, with little resistance his hand caressed her hair, combing his fingers through her locks, fingertips hot on her scalp.
How long has it been since he had allowed himself to look at her, much less to feel her, hold her, …so close….
Ever so slowly lowered his head, and with second's hesitation he let his lips graze against Misaki's, a fleeting connection, barely challenging the strength of the wind breezing past them. Gathering his restraints, Sasuke pulled away, but did not let go of Misaki, who was staring at her with wide eyes. His heart stopped abruptly, had he made a mistake? His mind goes into overdrive, thinking of something, anything that would take time to turn back, even for just a couple of seconds. Without breaking eye contact,Misaki used her arms to push Sasuke's hands from her, and knelt up before him. Misaki stared at him, this time their eye levels closer with her kneeling up. With uncertain shaking hands, Misaki placed both her hands on Sasuke's shoulders before she closed her eyes and pressed her lips against his.
Without a second to lose, Sasuke was instantly all over Misaki, his left hand resting on the base of her nape, fingers tangled in her long red hair while his right hand caressed her jaw, his thumb, running back and forth on her chin. Misaki's grip on Sasuke's shoulders tightened, her fingers bunching his shirt on the palm of her hand. Their breaths were hot and heavy, as their bodies pushed closer, desperate to feel each other, trying to make up for lost time, their lips connected in a feverish and passionate dance.
The world could have ended there and none of it matters, in that moment, in this world it was only the two of them.
Reality crept in when both of them noticed the fast and fleeting glimpses of Obito's presence.
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Fun Fact: The paragraph in this chapter " For a moment they stared at each other, not that they had nothing to say to each other, the things needed to be said between the two of them alone could fill an entire library. So many things left unsaid, so many questions left unanswered, so much has happened between them and to each of them, so many thoughts, so many feelings. "
This literally explains my feelings for this chapter, and the whole fanfic.