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isolavirtuosa · 5 years ago

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Starting Over (For Real?) 27-28

[fanfiction] NaruSasu

Read the previous parts here.

- 27 -

“Have you two been having intercourse?” Kakashi asked, shaking his head.

“Get out,” I replied, swirling my sharingan back at him.

“It’s kind of important,” Kakashi said, unfazed.

“Is it worth your life?” I asked.

Naruto kissed my neck sleepily. “Sassy Baby, just let him talk.”

I glared at him and he didn’t even notice.

“Yes, Sassy Baby, let me tell you about how we are getting the fuck out of here,” Kakashi said cheerfully.

Naruto and I didn’t move; me because I didn’t care and Naruto because he was sleeping.

“ANBU!” Kakashi yelled, throwing his arms up in the air and waving them around.

Naruto started awake.

I stared.

Kakashi sighed. “It seems that Lightning’s depleted manpower and resources has led them to make an alliance with Hyuuga.”

“Huh?” Naruto said, rubbing his eyes.

“Konoha ANBU are policing the Land of Lightning and we’re all in their Bingo Books,” Kakashi concluded, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

“What is a Konoha ANBU compared to us?” I snorted.

“Don’t get cocky, love,” Naruto said, kissing my neck again. He seemed to get distracted, kissing it some more.

“Just because you’re an indecisive castrato…”

“I’m going to find out what that word means,” he growled at me, burying his teeth into my flesh.

I moaned. Much more loudly than I intended. Which was to say, that I hadn’t intended to moan at all.

“Well, that makes sense,” Naruto muttered, smooching the abused flesh before sitting up properly and stretching his arms over his head. “Masochistic sadist…”

I didn’t look at him.

“And I’m not indecisive,” he said, retracing the conversation. “I just understand that there are consequences to my decisions.”

“So you don’t make decisions at all.”

“Just because I don’t make the decisions that you want me to make doesn’t mean that I’m not making decisions.”

“Okay.”

Naruto started to frown, then shook his head. “Let’s go, Hot Stuff.”

“You’re going to let some pathetic ANBU chase us out of town?”

“Yeah,” he said with a shrug. “Let’s go back to Suna. They have food and supplies, and Sakura-ch… Sakura got Baa-chan there. Gaara’s there. It’s the best place to set up.”

“You don’t want to charge into Water and take out the daimyou’s anti-ninja forces?”

“Of course I do, but we need a plan first.”

“You are an alien,” I declared, finally getting up and picking the rest of my clothes up off of the floor.

Naruto was clearly annoyed with me, but didn’t say anything else.

I didn’t particularly feel like being chased out of town by some pissant ANBU, but I followed Naruto down to the lobby anyway.

Karin and Sai were sitting there, talking quietly.

I simultaneously wanted to know every word that they were saying to each other and did not want to know at all what those two could possibly have to talk about.

“Naruto,” Karin said warmly. “Sasuke,” she added coolly.

I rolled my eyes. Karin was apparently permanently stuck in her Jekyll and Hyde personality.

“I thought you banged,” Sai commented. “But you look tense and unrefreshed.”

“Don’t say banged,” I said.

“But you told me not to say fornicated,” he protested.

“Don’t say that either,” I said. “Stop talking about other people’s sex lives.”

“But that’s what adult males talk about…”

“He has a point,” Karin agreed.

Naruto stayed out of it, which was irritating.

“Anyway, what are we doing here?” I asked. “It’s our first chance to sleep not on a shitty boat or a shitty forest in weeks, and we’re fleeing from pathetic ANBU?”

“The bounty on your head is the biggest,” Sai said cheerfully.

I tried not to preen. “Oh?”

“Kill on sight.”

Naruto flinched.

“I’d love to see them try,” I hummed.

“Your main charge is killing that Hyuuga,” Sai explained. “Kakashi and I are wanted dead or alive for desertion, Sakura is wanted dead for,” he paused and proceeded to make the most exaggerated air quotes I had ever seen, “kidnapping the hokage, Karin here is wanted dead or alive for crimes related to her exploits with your Team Taka and Orochimaru, and Naruto, well he’s just wanted alive for questioning.”

“…what?” Naruto said.

“They think they can still get you back,” I said, rolling my eyes.

He frowned.

“Maybe we should make a statement.”

“A murdery one?” he asked, not looking amused.

“I was thinking more Naruto-style childish prank, but I see what you think of me.”

“Why do you have to make everything into a fight?”

“It’s what I do.”

“Well, get another thing to do.”

“Okay. So did you want to embarrass the hell out of the ANBU or not?”

Naruto paused. “What kind of embarrassment?” he asked, looking slightly interested.

“Uchiha, I know you’ve shielded us with a genjutsu and all, but is it possible that those gentlemen over there are seeing through it?” Sai interrupted.

I glanced out the window where he was pointing. “Seems like,” I observed as the two men pretended not to be spying on us when they obviously were.

“I’m pretty sure they look familiar under their own henge,” Sai hummed. “So you were saying something about embarrassment…?”

I felt a grin slide across my lips.

“Oooh, Sasuke is scheming,” Karin said, getting interested.

It wasn’t so much a scheme as me being all-powerful and petty.

Sakura and Kakashi hadn’t made an appearance, so they were left out of the plan.

Sai and I strolled out of the inn together, leaving Naruto and Karin behind.

“Well, it seems they’ve taken the bait,” Sai hummed, sticking his hands in his pockets as we walked.

“Are all ANBU this stupid?” I asked him.

“They’re lower down in the hierarchy,” Sai explained. “This is clearly not where Hyuuga was expecting us to resurface.”

“So he’s an idiot,” I said, nodding. “Of course the men following him would also be idiots. How can he possibly not know that we’ve been heading north through the Land of Water?”

“Because the spy network was disrupted in Water due to the daimyou’s war on ninjas and all that.”

I looked at him.

“Hm?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I’m not used to dealing with logical, intelligent people.”

“Am I keeping you on your toes?” he asked, grinning his awkward grin.

“Kind of.”

His grin widened.

I suddenly realized that Sai and I actually were friends.

“What are you frowning about?” he asked, still looking happy.

“We need to get clear of the town,” I said, jumping up to the rooftops.

“Okay, boss,” he agreed, following me.

We hit the edge of town soon enough.

“Have they figured it out yet?” I asked, not bothering to look over my shoulder.

“No, I do not believe they have,” Sai said.

We stopped at the tree line, and finally turned to face the two men who were following us.

They were quite far behind us, and they casually ducked out of sight. ANBU must have had a minimum recruiting standard.

“Should we try and look more vulnerable?” Sai suggested. “Maybe we should undress.”

I let out a very undignified laugh. “You are so fucking weird.”

“I’m creative,” he challenged me.

“I think you just want to see me naked,” I said with a shrug.

“Eh.”

“I’m sorry, did you just ‘eh’ the amazing body that is Uchiha Sasuke?” I asked incredulously.

“You’re so cute when you’re full of yourself,” Sai cooed, pinching my cheek.

“Are you thinking of joining your little ANBU brothers in their humiliation?” I asked, smiling at him.

“You are terrifying,” Sai said agreeably as he let go of my cheek.

That was good to hear since I felt like a neutered dog most of the time. “Do they really think that we don’t know they’ve been following us?” I asked.

“Oh, we knew,” a man said, rising up from the ground in between us.

“What’s the point of the element of surprise if you waste it on one-liners?” Sai asked, kicking the man in the head and sending him flying across the landscape.

Usually only Naruto could make me laugh, but I cracked up.

Sai looked very pleased with himself. “You liked that?”

“I did.”

He beamed.

The other ANBU was sneaking up on us, so I decided to take a page from superpowered Kamenosuke and did a quick seal, shooting fire from my finger.

He leapt out of the way, but Sai already had his brush out, furiously painting a lion that dove from the scroll straight at the ANBU.

I spun around to parry the next attack from the ANBU who had been kicked, only to find Naruto blasting him away.

“Hi,” he said, grinning and leaning in for a kiss.

It was so completely inappropriate to be kissing in the middle of a battle. I sighed loudly before pressing my lips to his.

Naruto grinned into the kiss, and when he pulled away he waggled his eyebrows at me before charging back into battle.

That left me with… nothing to do.

Karin slid up beside me, resting her arm on my shoulder.

I looked at the offending arm.

Karin continued to play it nonchalant. “Well, it seems to be going well.”

I looked at her.

“I really love you, you know,” she informed me.

I raised an eyebrow.

“But you’re a total asshole,” she concluded, moving away.

“Good to know,” I said.

Karin rolled her eyes at me. “You can pretend you don’t care all you want, but eventually everyone’s going to get sick of it.”

“Can’t wait.”

She smacked me in the arm.

I stared at her.

“You’re going to lose everything if you can’t let down your walls for more than five seconds.”

I continued to stare at her, feeling the truth of her words creep along my skin and doing my best to ignore them.

We watched the fights.

“Your boyfriend’s cute,” Karin finally said. “I’m glad you could at least let go of your pride enough and finally be with him.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean, let go of my pride?”

“Okay, do you know how much you used to talk about Naruto?”

“First of all, no, I didn’t. And second of all, what does that have to do with anything?”

“Oh my god, don’t even try that,” Karin said, shaking her head. “If it wasn’t Itachi this and Danzo that, then it was Naruto, Naruto, Naruto.”

“That is not true.”

“See, at first you would try to be subtle. ‘This idiot I used to know’ or some other euphemism. So I didn’t realize that you were always talking about the same person. But then it became very clear that before you came to Sound, there were like three people in your life, and the one you were always talking about-”

“Karin.”

“I was talking.”

“I know, and I wish you would stop.”

“Don’t want to hear the truth?”

“Not really, no.”

“Well, at least you’re honest about that,” she said.

Naruto waved to us from across the field, pointing to the unconscious ANBU on the ground.

I waved back.

“Shall we move on to the next step?” Sai asked, dragging an unconscious body behind him as he approached us.

“Yeah,” I said, no longer as enthused about what was clearly a childish and stupid idea. I certainly wasn’t sulking about yet another person reminding me that my entire life revolved around Uzumaki Naruto.

I did cheer up slightly as the plan went into action.

“I want them to say ‘I’m with stupid!’” Naruto declared to Sai.

“‘I’m with stupid’?” Sai asked, letting his brush fly across the bare chest of one of our chained-up assailants. “Is that like being ‘with child’?”

I took a breath.

“No, no, see, then you draw an arrow that points to the other ANBU!” Naruto explained happily. “Do you get it?!”

Sai painted the arrow and studied the tableaux of ANBU he had created. He tilted his head to the side, then smiled slowly. “Ohhhh, I see. It’s implying that the other ANBU is stupid. Hurk hurk.”

Naruto nodded enthusiastically.

At the very least I’d accomplished my mission of getting Naruto to act his age.

Karin pulled our pictures out of their Bingo Books and replaced them in their pouches with a friendly note informing them that we were not to be followed.

We left the two ANBU tied to trees and stripped to their skivvies with matching ‘I’m with stupid’ inked across their chests. We needed to move on before they were found, which would be very soon.

“Did I miss all the fun?” Kakashi asked, suddenly appearing in front of us.

Then he sucked us into his Kamui.

- 28 -

We were in Suna in almost a blink of an eye.

“Hey,” Temari greeted us coolly.

“Uh, hi,” Naruto said, scratching the back of his neck and looking around.

“Glad you could finally join us,” Sakura said, standing next to Temari.

We appeared to be in a hospital waiting room.

“Come,” Temari said to Naruto, already moving past a guard into the secured ward.

“Just me?” he asked, looking around at the rest of us as he moved forward.

“You and the disgraced acting hokage,” she said without looking back.

“That’s me!” Kakashi said delightedly.

The two of them followed Temari, and the door was swiftly shut behind them.

“Cool, so what are we here for?” I asked.

“Kankurou has rooms for us,” Sakura said, leading us out of the hospital.

“I had a perfectly good room in Lightning,” I pointed out.

“I’m sure you did,” she said, and there was an edge to it.

“No one minds that I’m here, right?” Karin said, looking around nervously as we moved down the stairs. “I mean, I’ve never personally had any problems with the kazekage and his dramatically taller yet still apparently biologically related siblings, but…”

“You’re fine,” Sakura said. “Sasuke’s the one who tried to fight Gaara to the death over Naruto’s hand-”

“That is not what we were fighting about!” I snapped.

Sakura cracked up, and Karin and Sai joined in.

“What the hell is so funny?” I growled.

“You,” Sai informed me in between chortles, “are the color of a tomato.”

“I got too much sun,” I snipped, trying to keep my face away from the hyena horde.

“You’ve been losing your cool a lot lately,” Sakura hummed.

“Didn’t I save your ass from Naruto?” I muttered.

She flinched at that.

“Don’t mind him,” Sai said, slinging an awkward arm around Sakura’s shoulder. “He and I are in human training.”

“Human training?” Sakura repeated.

“Yes, since we’re both emotionless monsters,” he said cheerfully.

I wished I was an emotionless monster. Everyone was starting to see through my façade, starting to realize that I wasn’t so cool and I wasn’t so mature and I wasn’t so together… Starting to realize that my only good point was my relationship with Naruto, which I seemed hell-bent on destroying.

Karin poked me in the stomach.

I glared at her.

She grinned and threw the exit door open, flooding everyone’s eyes with sunlight.

Sakura lead us through a maze of streets until we finally arrived at what looked like a very nice apartment building. “We’re still figuring things out, but for now they said we can stay here free-of-charge.”

“Not bad,” Karin hummed.

“Will we all be bunking together like best friends?” Sai asked hopefully.

“Uh, no,” Sakura said. “We all have our own apartments.” She proceeded to pass out keys.

“Are we really staying here?” I asked, looking the building up and down. We’d been roughing it for so long that it just seemed strange to have a proper roof over our heads.

“Until circumstances change,” Sakura said vaguely.

I found myself alone for the first time in weeks… no, months, even. I just lay on the floor and stared at the ceiling. At some point I fell asleep, only to be awoken by the sound of someone pounding on my door.

I had a door. With a lock.

“You’re fucking loud, Naruto,” I snarled, throwing the door open.

He stared up at me with his puppy dog eyes. I thought it was an affectation at first, but the whites of his eyes were red from crying.

“Get in here,” I said with a sigh.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, sliding past me.

I closed the door and locked it.

Naruto stood in the middle of the small living room, seeming confused.

I sat on the couch.

He looked at me, hesitating.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, trying to look open and welcoming.

“You look like you’re gonna murder me with your eyes,” he sighed, slumping into the couch next to me.

I pursed my lips.

He grinned at that. “It’s cute,” he said. “When you try to be nice but you look like a psychopath.”

My purse turned into a scowl.

He leaned in and kissed the scowl off of my face. “I really like you,” he said, grinning dopily.

Why did he have to be like this? I couldn’t even look him in the eye. “No.”

He laughed. “‘No’ what?”

“Just no!” I said irritably.

“You are completely red, Sasuke.”

“Your eyes are mistaken.”

“At least your body is honest.”

I tensed up.

Naruto caught me in a one-armed hug, resting his cheek against my shoulder.

“Why were you crying?” I asked abruptly. “Did the old lady finally bite it?”

“See, that’s where you cross the line,” he muttered, digging his teeth into my shoulder.

I let out a startled yelp. His teeth were fucking sharp.

Naruto looked up at me, his teeth long and his eyes red.

I swirled my sharingan at him and Kyuubi immediately retreated, Naruto’s eyes fading back to blue.

He looked very unhappy.

“I’m… sorry,” I decided.

His eyes widened a little, but his expression softened. “I appreciate that.”

I waited.

“They’re… they’re saying she’s not going to make it,” he finally said. He swallowed. “But she’s still alive, you know? So why wouldn’t we do everything possible to keep her alive? Obviously she’s still fighting.”

He still hadn’t told me what was going on, but I was good at reading between the lines. The hokage was in a coma. If Sai’s intel was right, she had probably been partially turned into a white zetsu. That would make her a shell of her former self, even if she came out of the coma.

She was like a mother to Naruto.

“Sometimes we have to let go of the people we love,” I said.

That was clearly the wrong thing to say.

“You’re just like them,” he snarled, getting to his feet and stomping off.

Well, at least he could still act like a childish brat sometimes.

Just like me.

I got up and started looking for him. I wasn’t sure which room was his, but it didn’t matter. I could feel him.

He was on the floor below me, and actually answered the door before I knocked. “Sorry,” he muttered, standing aside so I could come in. “I wasn’t ready to hear that.”

“The running away thing is getting old,” I told him.

“Yeah,” he agreed, pushing his hand through his already messy hair. “I don’t… know how to face things anymore.”

I looked at him, and he crumbled. “Naruto?” I said, confused and worried.

He just sat on the floor, his knees pulled to his chest. He shook his head, rocking himself back and forth.

“Naruto,” I repeated more sharply.

“I’m falling apart,” he whispered.

I didn’t know what to do.

Then those eyes looked up at me, and I found myself crouching beside him. I hesitated before curving my hand behind his neck and pulling him into my chest.

His arm dropped from his knees and wrapped around me.

It was a very awkward position to be in in the middle of his entryway. I couldn’t relax, I couldn’t just comfort him, and it made me even more tense.

Naruto sat up, and shoved me in the chest.

I hadn’t expected it and fell flat on my back.

“I need you,” he said, staring down at me.

I felt almost helpless.

“Sasuke,” he said, hurt, tired, and disappointed.

“What… do I do…?” I asked.

“Sasuke.”

“What do you want from me?!” I snapped, feeling the frustration transform into anger.

“I want you to be here,” he said, his own voice rising. “I want you to care.”

“I do care!”

“Then try acting like it.”

“I don’t know how!”

“Then fucking figure it out!”

I sat up. I was seething.

Naruto glared at me with red eyes. He was also seething.

“Fuck this,” I spat out, moving to leave.

Something hit the back of my head.

I whirled around, staring in disbelief at the shoe lying on the floor behind me.

“Why do we always have to go from zero to a hundred?!” Naruto yelled. “I’m sad, so take care of me! God!”

“You… just threw a shoe… at me…” I said slowly.

“Yes.”

“A shoe.”

“Mm-hm.”

“At me.”

“That is correct.”

“Naruto?”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to kill you slowly.”

“Like I haven’t heard that one before,” he said, waving it off like I wasn’t serious.

I was very serious.

“Love, your eye’s twitching.”

“Who the fuck are you calling ‘love’?” I snapped.

He frowned. “You, the person I love.”

Even in the middle of a crisis, he loved me more than anything, and I hated him for it. I opened my mouth to tear him apart.

And then I stopped.

I took in a breath and let it out shakily. I crawled over to him and pulled him into my arm, holding him close and whispering into his ear, “I’m here. I’m right here.”

Naruto burst into tears.

It was unpleasant. I didn’t want to be there. Naruto’s pain was visceral, and I didn’t want to see it, didn’t want to hear it, didn’t want to touch it, but I had to. I held him even though it did nothing. I muttered meaningless nonsense to him even though it didn’t soothe him. I stayed there and suffered with him until it was over.

“Sorry,” he finally said, face still buried in my chest.

I felt impotent, rubbing his back and not knowing how to pull him back together.

When he finally looked up at me again, he was all red-eyed and pathetic, but he gave me the smallest smile. “I needed that,” he said quietly. “Thank you.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Sometimes that’s what I need,” he said, untangling from me and sitting up properly.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to say.”

“It’s better when you don’t say anything,” he said, smiling.

“Isn’t that my line?” I asked with a frown.

“See?” Naruto said, and he even laughed.

I wanted him to be okay, so I stayed quiet and waited.

He scrubbed at his eyes with the hem of his t-shirt, then rolled his neck around. “Sas’?” he finally said.

“What?”

“I don’t know what to do.”

“…about…?”

“Everything.”

“Well, that’s not vague.”

“Yeah.”

I wanted to not be a sarcastic asshole and actually help him. I really wanted to. My complete failings at human niceties had never bothered me before, yet here I was, floundering to be normal for once.

He reached over, smoothing the wrinkle in my brow. “What are you thinking?”

I looked at him.

He waited.

#narusasu #isola starting over #also featuring bbfl SasuSai #that stands for best bitches for life

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gekimayu · 7 years ago

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non-romantic relationships i would have loved to see something/more of:

-tsunade and kakashi: seriously, they seem to have such an interesting relationship and i want to know more? tsunade keeps calling kakashi ‘brat’, did she know him when he was a child? also did she guide him into becoming hokage? i need more.

-tsunade and lee: tsunade learned a whole new technique to give lee a higher chance of survival. we know that lee would be thankful for eternity and i bet he holds a special place in tsunade’s heart for being so determined and she would be so happy seeing him prosper.

-sakura and gai: gai as sakura’s taijutsu coach? hello??

-tenten and tsunade: tsunade was tenten’s big idol, but she gave up on becoming like her because she had no talent for medical ninjutsu. but i would have loved to see tsunade give her taijutsu lessons instead.

-tenten and temari: lee and gaara got to make up, why not those two?

-kankuro and sakura: seriously, she saved his life and looked badass while doing it. i bet she at least gets a card during the holidays or something (do they even have holidays in konoha)

-kushina and mikoto: they were hinted to be (best) friends, but we saw so little of that

-gai and tenzo: please.

-itachi and tenzo: the kohai of the kohai. i bet tenzo was so happy not to be the baby of the group anymore, but was so pissed when kakashi kept referring to him as his junior.

-konan and literally anyone other than nagato and obito: please let konan have friends

-hashirama and tsunade: we saw nothing about that except hashirama mentioning he spoiled her rotten

-kiba and kakashi (and their dogs): we had that filler ep that i’m eternally thankful for, but taking into consideration that i hc kakashi’s mom as an inuzuka, they would be cousins or something and thats funny.

-karin and naruto: ok those two are canonically cousins. why did nobody acknowledge that in-canon?? imagine naruto always greeting karin with ‘cousin’ and she acts all annoyed but is secretly pleased.

-sai and gai: i just think sai needs someone to boost his self confidence.

-darui and shikamaru: those two would just chill allll day (and maybe smoke a few or something yeah)

-kakashi and sakura: NOT IN A SHIPPY WAY!!!! i just think sakura got really neglected in team 7 and thats sad. i would love to see them as equals after sakura becomes jonin. kakashi was never the optimal choice to teach her (that was always tsunade (and gai)), but i think they could be great friends.

-suigetsu and kiba:... ok i just added that one bc i think it would be hilarious. (theyre both bitchy gays, i bet they would gossip about no good men all day)

-anko and sasuke: they can bond over orochimaru being a fucking creep.

-gaara and tenzo and ino: as far as i know gaara takes up gardening? maybe he gets tips from half-tree man tenzo and actual flowershop employee ino.

-tenzo and sai: come on, that relationship was very underused. they were both in root and suffered from danzo taking an interest in them.

-tenzo and suigetsu and jugo: they were all experimented on. please let them form a support group (tenzo can introduce jugo to some.... calming herbs. and if you think suigetsu doesnt own a bong idk what to tell you)

#it was time for another one of my weird list type posts #naruto #its also full of my own very specific hcs so haha #m

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naruto-scenarios-plus-akatsuki · 7 years ago

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Hello! 🙈 Can I get a scenario of being Itachi's and Sasuke's little sister and leaving Konoha to help Sasuke get revenge on Itachi? Thank you very much!

I know this isn’t exactly what you asked for, but as I had said before I like to stick close to the plot line of Naruto as possible. Any thing that seems too outrageous to throw off the plot, I have a hard time writing for. But still I hope you enjoy this and thank you for the request.

The Red Night

What was that sound? You hazily thought as you stirred from your slumber. You didn’t want to get up, but you fought through your drowsiness to figure out what that noise was. It was soft padding of someone’s feet on the hardwood floor. There was a sound of drawers being opened and shut. Then distinctly you heard the sound of a zipper.

You then forced your eyes open to your dark bedroom. There was no sense of danger that you could feel as you groggily got up. You lived alone with your brother and realized the noise was coming from his room.

Looking over at the clock you saw it was only 1 in the morning. Squinting your eyes, you wondered why your brother was up so late or up so early.

He never really slept well and neither did you at certain times.

You were a light sleeper whereas your brother, Sasuke, avoided sleep due to the nightmares he would face. You wouldn’t be surprised if he was up, but were rather curious with all the small noises.

Coming into his room, there was only a small lantern lit.

Sasuke stood by his bed packing his backpack full of items from his drawers. He did not turn when you entered and you were cautious before announcing your presence.

“Brother…?” You softly called to him.

He looked back at you over his shoulder, his eyes dull.

“Go back to bed,” he stated without authority as he continued with his task at hand.

Your face clouded with confusion as you came around to him, seeing his backpack with supplies.

“Where are you going?” You questioned, concerned.

“I’m leaving,” Sasuke mentioned, his tone flat.

“This late?” You remarked baffled, raising your voice. You always got annoyed with his vague statements. “You can’t have a mission this late,” you reasoned, trying to read your brother’s face.

Sasuke simply finished packing and zipped up his bag. He swung it over his shoulders turning from you, ignoring your inquires.

“Hey! Stop! Talk to me. Where are you going?!” You pleaded, as you grabbed his arm.

He shrugged off your arm. He turned off the light in his room as he looked melodramatically into the darkness.

“I’m going to fulfill my dream.”

Immediately you knew what he was talking about. He had been melancholy a lot lately, ever since the chunin exams. Something had been eating at his mind and he had grown quieter towards you. You hadn’t been sure why, but now, you knew this was on his mind. He had plans to kill your oldest brother. Your oldest brother that had betrayed your whole clan. Still you didn’t understand why Sasuke had to leave right now to do it.

“How? Stop giving me the short replies. Tell me straight out,” you requested, firmly.

“I’m going to Orochimaru’s.”

Sasuke didn’t flinch at your tone. He was expressionless.

His mind was already decided.

“What? Are you crazy? He’s the guy who cursed you,” you reminded, appalled at his idea.

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed as he took yours in. “He has power that I seek. This curse mark… is really not a curse at all. It has shown me how much stronger I can be. If I want to get stronger, I can’t stay here in the Leaf,” Sasuke stated with resolution.

Looking into your brother’s dark eyes, you knew you couldn’t talk him out of it. However, you would be damned if you let him go to a creep like Orochimaru by himself. You were going to go to. You needed to protect the last remaining part of your family you had left.

“Alright. Give me a moment. I’ll go get my bags.” You turned to head back to your room when Sasuke caught your arm this time. You looked back at him with confusion and saw the hardness in his eyes.

“No. This is my dream. I need you to stay here,” Sasuke directed with authority.

Your eyes narrowed at him, glaring. You wretched your arm out of his, turning back to face him.

“I’m not letting you go by yourself! You’re all I have left,” you confessed, heatedly.

“That’s exactly why you are staying here,” Sasuke charged.

“No.”

“I can’t make this anymore clearer. You’re not coming with me,” Sasuke declared, the heat of his own glare not fazing you.

You shook your head fiercely, getting upset. “Don’t do this. We have to stick together.”

“Itachi only wanted me to come back and face him. He had charged me to avenge the clan. That’s why I have to do this alone,” Sasuke expressed, his voice even.

“It’s my clan too! I get a right to avenge them as well!” You argued, hating how your brother was shutting you out.

“He spared your life because you are weak. He saw that you would not amount to the pride of the Uchiha. You don’t even possess the sharingan. You can’t fight him,” Sasuke stated, the hard edge of the truth ripping into you.

“And neither can you!” You countered, the hurt in your voice evident.

You didn’t know why you couldn’t awaken the sharingan and many had speculated that maybe the gene wasn’t passed down to you. It had always hurt you when others brought it up. You had tried many of times to force it, but it never came. Now to hear your brother cast you aside because of it hurt deeper than any blade that had pierced you.

Itachi may have overlooked you because of it when he had decided to slaughter the clan. You had hid and ran from him when he appeared before you covered in blood. You thought he had given up the chase on finding you, but maybe he was never interested in killing you in the first place. You had stayed crouched in your hiding spot until morning came and the whole compound was still.

You soon heard murmurs of others investigating the massacre, but you were too scared to even move. Tear streaks were still evident on your face and your body was shaking when they found you. They tried to console you the best they could. You had learned of your whole clan being killed and you were all but joyous when you saw Sasuke again. You clung to him, realizing you wouldn’t be alone. He was shaken up too, but he was your safety net.

You hadn’t gotten over what Itachi had did to your clan, but you were even more upset to learn how your oldest brother had tortured Sasuke.

Sasuke got to see everyone die as oppose to you seeing the lifeless bodies of your parents and running to hide. You were not tortured and only mildly stalked before believing Itachi couldn’t find you. However, you wondered if he ever wanted to find you in the first place.

You had held questions like that back, knowing the topic of the massacre always got Sasuke on edge. Sasuke had a vivid image of your brother. It brought maliciousness out of him and you could feel the dark energy pooling out of him at the thought of Itachi.

Even now, as Sasuke stood glaring down at you, you realized you could sense the same ominous energy exerting from him. You knew you couldn’t take back what you said. Sasuke was no way near ready to face Itachi and that was the sole reason he was leaving.

“I may not be able to fight him yet, but I will be,” Sasuke assured, determined.

He passed you, bumping your shoulder purposefully as he made his way to the door.

It only took you a moment before you rushed to cut off his escape and block the door. However, Sasuke was rather quick and seem to anticipate your move. He gripped your arm, pulling you to him as he hooked his leg behind yours. He made you trip and fall to your back. You landed with a thud, lying on the ground with the wind knocked out of your lungs.

It had all happened so fast that you barely registered the poof, before looking up to see a cloud of smoke in the place Sasuke once was.

Your head hit the floor once again in defeat. A single tear left your eye. You knew he was gone and you wouldn’t have been surprised if Sasuke had left a long time ago and this was his way of saying good bye.

Anger and hurt both filled you as your eyes colored red for the first time.

#sasuke #sasuke scenario #sasuke imagine #uchiha #uchiha imagine #uchiha scenario #itachi #itachi uchiha #naruto #uchiha clan

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barrimyr-adin · 8 years ago

Text

Well here’s the Akatsuki Suppression arc notes

I hope you enjoy it because I sure fucking didn’t.

Ugh, i'm going to have to endure a bunch of Shikamaru bullshit in this arc.

Kishimoto is gonna turn Yugito into fodder, isn't he?

Asuma looked so douchey when he was younger.

I'd also like to know how he's doing all this ninja shit when he's been smoking for like twenty years.

I will admit that the OP music is pretty dope. I really like listening to it.

Is Konohamaru's voice actor also Ino's voice actor?

Part 1 Tsunade > Part 2 Tsunade

How is angrily stamping a bunch of documents while not even looking through them supposed to be taking your work seriously?

So why is Tsunade a princess but Naruto and Asuma aren't princes?

We all know damn well that the reason Kishimoto made Tsunade so "incompetent" is because she was the only female Hokage and Kishimoto fucking hates letting his female characters be good at anything other than being pretty.

I fucking hate these old dudes.

So Jiraiya just ditched Naruto and Tsunade to go on recon and didn't even stay in contact? What the fuck?

Pretty sure Kishimoto just needed him out of the way, because if he was there then he would have solved most problems super easily and Naruto wouldn't have had enough chances to act like a fucking moron.

The fact that Kakashi and Tsunade are encouraging Naruto's obsession with Sasuke is honestly disgusting.

Fuck you, Kishimoto. Just fuck you, you piece of garbage. Why do you hate women that much? You didn't just beat Yugito, you had to fucking disrespect her like that too!? And if you wanted her to lose, then you shouldn't have made her so badass in the first place. Fuck you, you were so damn lazy that you couldn't even give an explanation for how she was beat either!? For fucks' sake Kishimoto, just fuck off. I'm sick of your shit.

If this series wasn't anything other than garbage than Yugito would have fucking demolished Kakuzu and Hidan.

I hate how the Akatsuki can barely stand each other. Making the villains hate each other is a cheap way of dehumanising them.

You'd think Naruto would be more buff after three years of training with Jiraiya.

So is every Akatsuki pair just gonna be two douchebags who do nothing but argue about minor ideological differences?

This monk is dope as hell! Can he be the main character?

For fuck's sake, now we have to deal with these douchebags beating another person who should fucking wreck them.

And of course, we're not gonna get an explanation for how they win again. Because Kishimoto is lazy and has no respect for his story, characters, or audience. And apparently no one told him about the whole "show, don't tell" rule.

Am I honestly supposed to believe that Naruto "there-are-no-shortcuts-on-the-road-to-Hokage" Uzumaki is asking Kakashi to give him another trick to speed up his training? Somewhere along the path, Kishimoto entirely forgot who the fuck and what the fuck he was writing.

How the hell are we back to Naruto wanting to catch up with Sasuke? Wasn't like the entirety of Part 1 devoted entirely to that? And maybe you would be in the same league as Sasuke if you actually fucking did something in the past three years, Naruto.

Yamato is me right before exams.

I fucking love Sai.

So why are Sakura and Sai just sitting around marveling at Naruto instead of training themselves? I mean seriously, Kakashi, Yamato, you guys know they are also members of Team 7 right?

Sakura, why are you being passive aggressive towards your fucking elementary school teacher? If there's a teacher you should be pissed at, it's Kakashi.

Tsunade's plan seems clumsy as hell.

Aren't Ino-Shika-Cho supposed to be one of the closest teams? Why the hell are Asuma and Shikamaru going out with Izumo and Kotetsu instead of Choji and Ino? Does Kishimoto really not give a fuck about them at all? Don't answer that, I already know.

Like I heard about how people got pissed that Kishi pushed aside Ino and Choji to focus on Shikamaru but this is something else, man.

Is Sakura's character ever going to not revolve around another man?

Naruto, not bothering to rest is the dumbest fucking thing you could do. You know what Sasuke was doing when you guys found him? He was asleep. RESTING! Then he whooped your asses. The key to success is rest.

I thought his signature jutsu was the Shadow Clone Jutsu and the Rasengan.

Why do I feel like I missed a bunch of shit in the filler arc before this?

Like, I don't know who this monk dude was, but I'm gonna assume him and Asuma were boyfriends.

That bounty comment is kinda fucked up, Asuma.

How long is this ramen bullshit gonna go on for?

I literally could not give fewer fucks about Hidan and Kakuzu.

The reason I actually liked Kisame and Itachi is because they actually got along, especially in comparison to Orochimaru and his cronies. But fuck, the rest of the Akatsuki are just a bunch of assholes.

How is a change in chakra nature supposed to make the Rasengan stronger? The Chidori is both a change in form and nature but the Rasengan was more powerful (at least in Part 1 before all of Kishimoto's shitty retcons).

So from what I heard about Team Minato, I still think it's bull that Kakashi even knows the Rasengan. I think it would have made more sense if Obito, the obvious Naruto parallel, was able to learn the Rasengan through hard work but Kakashi the apathetic genius couldn't get it as easily as he got everything else, so instead he created the Chidori, something he could get easier. But to be fair, knowing the Chidori and the Rasengan and wielding the Sharingan helps with the whole image of being likely the most versatile ninja in the world, especially since Kakashi really hasn't been living up to his hype.

Are you really going to teach Naruto to create a new Rasengan before he's even mastered the normal fucking version?

I don't really get how a Rasengan with a change in chakra nature is considered unachievable? I mean, that's basically the Chidori.

I'm calling bullshit, Kakashi. You don't actually think that Naruto could surpass the fourth Hokage. If you did, you wouldn't having fucking ignored him for all of Part 1 and then just let him be taken out of the village. The only one of your students you believed in was Sasuke.

Naruto used to be the guy that nobody believed in. The kid that had to do everything on his own because nobody around him thought he was worth helping. Everyone thought he was a hopeless case. And i'm not saying that we still need that. But now we can't even have a single arc pass without like three or four people fucking raving about how much they believe in Naruto. It's like, for fuck's sake Kishi, how could you go so far from the heart of your series? How could you stray so far in the opposite direction from what was working?

You don't actually think you're going to fight the Akatsuki do you, Ino? Kishimoto is just gonna make you get your ass handed to you and then have one of his faves swoop down to save the day.

Choji is a really good friend.

For fuck's sake, Kishi. You couldn't even let Choji use his own fucking words? You just had to have it be about how kewl Shikamaru is. Ugh.

They were fucking, Shikamaru. Their relationship was obviously romantic.

Kakuzu, I really don't think you're allowed to just carry corpses into public bathrooms like that.

If the Akatsuki are known as international terrorists, then how the hell are they able to just go around wherever they want in their very distinctive robes without anyone giving a damn?

When did the Akatsuki become such fucking gimmicks?

Still pisses me off that we have Izumo and Kotetsu here instead of Ino and Choji.

Asuma seems to be overreacting to Hidan and Kakuzu. They've barely even engaged and Asuma's already making them out to be invincible.

I don't understand why Kishimoto is having such difficulty making Hidan and Kakuzu actually seem threatening. He refused to let us see how they beat Yugito, he refused to let us see how they beat the monk, and now Asuma is fearful of them for no reason. Kishi really forgot about the whole "show, don't tell" rule.

I see Kishimoto hasn't fixed Shikamaru's problem of sitting still for an extended period of time to think of shitty strategies while his opponent just fucking stands around doing nothing but watching him for no goddamn reason.

I get that all these shogi metaphors are supposed to make Shikamaru look smart, but they just sound like nonsense. It really just makes Shikamaru seem delusional. The battlefield is not a shogi set and your comrades aren't pieces. If you can't understand the situation without an elaborate metaphor about a board game, then you are a ridiculously limited strategist.

These monk techniques are fucking dope.

Immortal jerk is the only insult you could come up with, Shikamaru?

Asuma's Burning Ash jutsu doesn't make any sense but I'll let it slide.

The new OP shows a bunch of the Konoha 12 but its all lies. Kishi doesn't even remember that they exist.

Hidan went all hammy insane villain. How shocking. I've never seen that before. What a unique character.

I want to die.

I can't take Hidan seriously because he sounds like Billy Crystal.

I want you to imagine every scene with Hidan in it, but replace him with Mike Wazowski.

So Shikamaru was only able to save him because Hidan spent too much time screaming useless bullshit?

Yeah, guys. Shikamaru is such a badass. Such a genius. Incredibly intelligent ninja. Doesn't rely on luck or ridiculously stupid villains at all.

I fucking hate you, Shikamaru.

Thanks for reminding me about Sasori dying, Shikamaru. Still fucking angry over that.

Why would Shikamaru even doubt that Deidara is dead? Is Shikamaru's so-called intelligence ever going to make any sense or at least not be bullshit?

These fucking shogi metaphors are just getting goddamn annoying.

Look if you need to fucking stop time for 10 fucking minutes just to have your character analyse the situation then they're not a very smart character. And it's bad pacing and you're wasting time.

Your character is also not impressive if you need to make one of their opponents stand watching with their thumb up their ass instead of actually doing something for no goddamn reason just so they stand a chance.

So are Izumo and Kotetsu going to fucking do anything?

So how many more people are we gonna have to listen to kiss Shikamaru's ass?

Actually, there's really only one person kissing his ass. And its Kishimoto, who will never miss a chance to insert himself into the story in order to yell at the audience "LOOK AT SHIKAMARU, ISN'T HE SO COOL!?"

I swear, Kakuzu and Hidan are such fucking idiots.

Stitching Hidan's neck back together isn't going to change the fact that his inner organs have been sliced open.

So that super well-animated fight in the OP isn't going to actually happen? It was just for the OP? Man, fuck that.

The only person we've seen use crows is Itachi, so why is he attacking one of his own? Well, besides the bullshit plot twist I know is coming.

So who's this dude with the glasses and how's he going all Aquaman with the crows?

Jfc this taijutsu is horrible, it's only ever worth a damn either in OPs or in the ultimate climactic fights that the studios are saving up all their money for. But even so, this taijutsu is fucking trash to look at. Same with the Team Gai clone fights.

Holy shit, its Pain.

Not the voice I was expecting for Pain.

Where is he though? That is some fucking scenery.

I know I've already said this, but I really hate how the Akatsuki just turned into a bunch of douchebags just waiting to kill each other for no goddamn reason.

Is Shikamaru really trying to make Ino and Choji be quiet and listen to Asuma right after he fucking yelled at Asuma to shut up?

Did Asuma just take his last fucking moments to fatshame Choji?

Man, Asuma really is a fucking dick.

Asuma, shut the fuck up. Shikamaru would be the shittiest fucking Hokage possible.

Man, Asuma. You sure are taking a long time to fucking die.

Asuma, are you going to spend all your damn time fatshaming Choji? It's not like his weight is holding him back as a ninja, in fact it's his strength. Maybe he'd be the super strong shinobi you wanted him to be if you spent some actual time training him instead of fatshaming him and playing fucking board games with Shikamaru.

Thanks for reminding me about how Shikamaru was promoted to chunin first. Still fucking pissed about that.

Is it bad that I felt literally nothing during Asuma's death?

Still think it's fucking stupid that Naruto still needs shadow clones just to make a normal Rasengan.

So in theory, Naruto could make several shadow clones and then then have all of them go through his Nine-Tails Transformation? Dude, no one could stand against him if someone just trained him to control the Nine-Tails' power.

Still think this shadow clone cheat is fucking bullshit.

It fucking sucks that Kishimoto thought making Sakura more violent was somehow actual development. She used to be one of the more intelligent, calm, and rational members of the team. Now she just threatens to beat anyone who disagrees with her.

Pain has been monologuing for so long that he's lost my attention. I know that he's explaining his intentions but it's dragging on for so damn long that I don't even care anymore.

Nevermind, it all just amounts to world domination anyways. So not much to even care about.

So the Wind Style: Rasengan is just a Rasengan with air pressure? How exactly is this superior to the Giant Rasengan? Or superior to making Naruto's training over the timeskip not shitty?

What's with this stylistic change in the Kurenai scene? Felt like I stepped into a psychological thriller.

I feel like we've seen Konohamaru cry at too many funerals. Can someone just give this kid a break?

Why does this lady have an irish accent?

"I'll be here for you" he says as he walks away from his own son while he's crying in agony.

Man, Shikamaru is a dick, Shikaku is a dick. Is there a Nara that isn't a dick?

Why are these fucking shots of Shikamaru's face and hands better animated than the fight Asuma died in?

Okay, I know I've said this before, but using shogi as a device designed to represent Shikamaru's intelligence is ridiculous.

Also why does it feel like the animation and art style have changed?

So why is it okay for Shikamaru to define the meaning of his life by vengeance but everyone gives Sasuke shit for wanting revenge against Itachi?

How the fuck did Kakashi and Tsunade just know to be at that specific place at that specific time? Wouldn't it have made more sense if Tsunade had brought Kakashi along in case they refused to back down? Its just stupidly convenient that the both of them just happened to know that Team 10 would be there at that specific time.

And why the fuck is Kakashi willing to go on this mission!? He tied Sasuke down to a fucking tree just to give him a speech on the futility of revenge, but he's perfectly willing to let Shikamaru go after revenge, even willing to help him? That's fucking bullshit. And yet another instance of Kishi going out of his way to make things go well for Shikamaru, even when all sense would point to everything going wrong for him.

And why not just bring Naruto instead of Kakashi? It's been established that Naruto is closer to Shikamaru than he is to others and he just mastered a new powerful jutsu. Plus you don't have to mess up his character to bring him along the way you have to with Kakashi.

Better yet, why didn't Kishimoto choose Kurenai instead of Kakashi? (the answer to this question is: sexism) At least then it would make sense for her to want revenge. Plus Naruto could continue training with Kakashi and maybe Team 8 could come in as back-up instead of Team 7. Give them some fucking focus.

Also, once again, Tsunade's characterisation has fucking sucked in Part 2. She used to be a very enjoyable character, now she's just an asshole who runs around shouting at people, letting everyone do whatever the fuck they want, and going on about how she believes in Naruto. I'm also sick of how everyone disrespects her, nobody acted this way towards Sarutobi.

Man, Kakuzu fucking dragged Hidan in front of the entire Akatsuki.

Tbh, Hidan is a fucking joke.

Wait, Ino is a skinchanger!? So dope!

That thing with Kakuzu and the bird was dumb in so many ways.

Jesus christ, did Kakuzu and Hidan really fall for that shitty fucking trap.

Shikamaru's new jutsu didn't even make sense. Not to mention that it came out of nowhere with literally no forshadowing.

I can't believe that Kishi is making Kakuzu fucking go on about Shikamaru being a good tactician when that was literally the flimsiest fucking plan possible.

They are really gonna drag out the process of Hidan mirroring Shikamaru's movements, aren't they?

So is Kakuzu a human puppet too like Sasori?

So Choji can harden his hair now? Since when could he harden his body at all?

I don't like how apparently every element is weak or strong against another particular element. It should be about the skill of the ninja, not about whatever fucking element they have. Plus, it just feels like it was shoehorned in right at the end.

To think that for a second I thought we were done with Kakuzu. I got my hopes up, thinking we were almost done with these fools' bullshit but nope. Kishi loves to torture me.

Kakuzu's special attack: getting uglier than usual.

Did Kakuzu just summon a bunch of No Faces?

Or were they hollows?

How the hell is your mask still on after that wind attack, Kakashi!?

Kakuzu named his giant fire attack after a headache?

Did Hidan just scream out "Heeyaah!"?

I feel like the animation has suddenly gotten so much better.

Or maybe not better, just... more fluid?

FUCK YOU, SHIKAMARU! I WAS SO READY TO SEE CHOJI WHOOP HIDAN'S ASS!

So are Choji and Ino gonna be able to do anything?

Oh yay, Kishi ruined Choji's character.

Why are you like this, Kishimoto?

So did Choji just conveniently forget to bring his clan's food pills?

Hidan and Kakuzu suddenly went from zero to badass in like a millisecond.

How did Shikamaru even catch Hidan in that Shadow Possession? Every other time he needed to make the hand signs just to keep the jutsu up.

So I guess of all the Akatsuki we've seen so far, Kakuzu seems to be the strongest. Though it still feels like a bunch of bullshit pulled out right at the end.

And Hidan seems to be the weakest, outside of Zetsu and Tobi who we haven't seen in action yet.

Well this new animation style is much more appealing, only problem is a lack of facial consistency.

So Kakashi has mastered earth style, lightning style, and water style?

When the fuck did Shikamaru become the protagonist of this series?

Seeing Hidan so chill is honestly unsettling me. He looks like me after I've failed an exam. Motherfucker just looks dead inside.

I don't get it. Was Hidan's jutsu connected to Shikamaru or Kakuzu? And if it was connected to Shikamaru, why isn't he finally fucking dead!?

So if it was Kakuzu connected to the jutsu, then what was that bullshit with Shikamaru about "not being deep enough"?

This may be the only time Shikamaru has actually been smart, although I still hate the whole masterplan-that-we-had-no-idea-about-being-revealed-at-the-end trope. It occasionally works with villains, but not with heroes. The protagonists shouldn't be misleading their own audience and in most cases it just feels like an asspull.

Also, even if the concept of Shikamaru's plan was smart, the whole thing would have fallen apart if Kakashi hadn't coincidently, conveniently, and nonsensically been in the right place at the right time and agreed to go with them (I still don't fucking understand why he went with them). Their whole plan would have been fucked if Kakashi hadn't been there, which shows bad planning and a lack of foresight on Shikamaru's part.

There will never be anything in existence as bullshit as Shikamaru splashing Kakuzu's blood onto Hidan's fucking needle of a blade as he's about to fucking stab him. Except maybe the fact that Hidan apparently didn't fucking notice it despite the fact that Shikamaru did it right in front of him. Like, he didn't even try to hide it.

Ugh, Kishi, if you want me to believe that Shikamaru is a genius then stop pitting him against fucking morons.

Did Kakashi just judge Kakuzu for killing without remorse when Kakashi is a fucking ninja?

AGAIN! WHY THE HELL IS KAKASHI OKAY WITH SHIKAMARU TRYING TO GET REVENGE!? He's not just fine with it, he's supporting and enabling it! It's completely out of character. After all that bullshit with Sasuke and the futility of revenge, he's just gonna do all the work so Shikamaru can get his revenge? Why?

Because Shikamaru is Kishi's self-insert, that's why. Fucking hate this character.

Why is Kakuzu even dead? Shouldn't he have three more hearts?

Why the fuck didn't we get to see Choji use that Expansion Jutsu: Super Slam on Hidan!?

Oh ffs, why is Kishi so insistent on not letting Choji and Ino do anything at all

im just so sick of this

Well, Kakuzu's back. When will I be free from this bullshit!?

I'm not complaining but why do all the Akatsuki members paint their nails

Hidan's laugh is depressing.

Did you really need to name each of them, Ino? As if everyone can't see them. And why the fuck did you leave out Yamato?

Sakura, we both know the smartest person in the Land of Fire is named Shino Aburame.

Of course Kishi had to insert a fucking flashback just to kiss Shikamaru's ass.

Apparently Will of Fire means being a lazy ass now.

How inobservant can Hidan be.

How many asspulls is Shikamaru gonna get?

And Asuma's ghost just randomly fucking appears? Yeah, that makes sense.

Why does Naruto have the slitted pupils but still has blue irises?

Ugh, it seems like Naruto has adopted Shikamaru's style of combat. Do almost nothing while your enemy just fucking watches.

Ffs, just let Choji do something!

How the hell does Wind Style: Rasenshuriken befit the Nine-Tailed Fox, Kakuzu?

When I heard about the Rasenshuriken, I imagined Naruto changing the shape of the Rasengan, making it thinner but wider and spinning at speeds high enough to slash through things. I imagined it being his own unique creation, a long-range Rasengan that could be thrown. Which would allow him to cover his bases and make up for his weakness when at long distance. But nope, it's just the Rasengan but bigger. Which is redundant considering he already has the Giant Rasengan.

And of course, Naruto fucked up again. Can you do anything right?

Didn't Kakashi say he's already used the Chidori four times that day? Isn't that his limit? Shouldn't he be fucking dead!?

Even Choji notes that the Rasenshuriken is fucking stupid.

Seriously, what's up with Naruto's eyes?

Ffs, Naruto you can barely do anything at all but you're talking about surpassing the Fourth Hokage? Man, fuck off.

And once again, Naruto is putting his pride before the mission. And somehow this is supposed to be endearing. And for some stupid fucking reason, everyone's okay with it. And for some even fucking dumber reason, Kakuzu hasn't killed them all yet.

Why do these deer look like demons?

He isn't that good, Sai. The author just loves the taste of his ass.

I'd say that I hope Hidan gets out and destroys the whole village one day, but let's be honest, Hidan is such a dumbass he wouldn't be able to get anything done even if he did get out.

A long preparation time is supposed to be a disadvantage to an attack, usually added only to extremely powerful attacks. But in this dumbass series, that doesn't matter because your opponents will always just fucking sit there and watch you do your stupid fucking preparations instead of actually fighting you.

I think the animation went back to its old style.

If Kakuzu is so focused on Naruto, why doesn't Ino just take the opportunity and use her Mind Transfer Jutsu to take control over him? This whole thing could have been fucking solved 10 episodes ago if Kishi gave a damn about his side characters.

God, the Rasenshuriken is fucking ridiculous.

Is it just me or has Kakashi gotten hotter?

Naruto hasn't surpassed you in the fucking least, Kakashi.

This is the fucking fifth time Kakashi has used the Chidori today! How is he not fucking dead!?

Man, Kakashi can be a real savage when it comes to trash talk.

Why the fuck are we seeing Shikamaru interact with Kurenai but not with her own fucking team?

ugh why do i ask questions i already know the answer to

did shikamaru just like.. lay claim on Kurenai's baby? he didnt even fucking ask her or anything

jesus christ even the pieces are the same. just call the fucking game chess

i feel like shikamaru has gotten even more arrogant than he was before

so naruto's body can regenerate the incinerated flesh after entering the four-tailed form but he can't take some extra chakra and wind pressure? that makes a lot of fucking sense

....

i just wanna die

so apparently the rasenshuriken is basically the eight trigrams sixty four palms ghdvuybfdjgfjwkjfdjJUST FUCKING KILL ME

it doesnt even make sense!

thats not how fucking wind works!

and when the hell has naruto ever been precise!?

and why can't he just heal!?

why am i still watching this trash series?

who the fuck is this lady orochimaru wants and why should i even care

how the hell is the rasenshuriken gonna be a last resort when he can't fucking do anything else?

IM FINALLY FREE

IM DONE WITH THIS FUCKING ARC

I DONT HAVE TO KEEP WATCHING THIS FUCKING SERIES

IM FREE

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

#Naruto #Naruto Shippuden #Barrimyr watches Naruto #Akatsuki Suppression Arc #im not even gonna bother tagging this #im fucking numb #notes

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thefreckledone · 8 years ago

Text

Memento Mori

many thanks to @nikkigrand for the commission!

There is something buzzing beneath her skin, something robust and heady. Sakura does her best to ignore the feeling as she has for the past week. It is akin in some ways to an excess of chakra, but different somehow.

She feels energized, alive.

Sakura shivers, forcing her attention back to the documents on her desk. In the years since the war, Tsunade-shishou gradually unyoked herself from her duties at the hospital until Sakura ran it alone. Sakura is proud of it, proud of her proven abilities at the tender age of 21. Still, there is a tedium associated with the hospital that Sakura hadn’t expected.

Honestly, she does more paperwork than the Hokage!

Sakura sighs, skirting around her real thoughts, even in the privacy of her office. Recently there has been something about the hospital that leaves her teeth on edge and her blood singing. It isn’t the normal adrenaline rush that comes of high-stress situations. No, it’s something…more.

“Haruno-sama,” one of the interns calls from her doorway as he knocks. “The hunter-nin have brought in a body for you to examine.”

Sakura sighs, sealing the documents on her desk with a cipher of her own making that only a Nara could possibly crack before heading out after the intern. They head into the bowels of the hospital, past sterile rooms and immaculate surroundings. Sakura feels something bloom within her darkly as they head closer to the morgue. Behind her eyes, a bone-white flower seems to twist and unfold.

Sakura is jolted from the odd thought as the intern presses open the door for her before scurrying off in a different direction, cowed by the death that clings as cobwebs to morgue, sticky and entrapping. Sakura spares a brief shake of her head for the folly of superstition, strong even in the face of science as she enters the room.

There are a pair of hunter-nin, their masks porcelain and garments dark. Sakura recognizes them by their postures and chakra signatures, dampened as they are. However, her gaze and her gut are drawn to the other in the room.

She approaches the dead nin, taking in the brilliant green that runs beneath his veins starting at the hollow of his neck. “I see the new poison did well,” she comments, lifting the nin’s hands with gloved fingers. There is no necrotic damage; the poison did its job of preserving the man in as near a living state as possible. “Report.”

“Wei Daisuke, Iwa missing nin, aged 34, infamously known by the moniker ‘Rabid Dog,’” one says. “We tracked him across the borders of Kumo into Kiri.”

“We put him down like the dog he is,” the other says. “Two days ago, at 19:34.”

“Impressive,” Sakura says, brows going up. Aside from the color running beneath his skin, the “Rabid Dog” could be asleep. “You are dismissed. Report to Hokage-sama. I’ll have an autopsy ready for you in a few days.”

There is a spike of chakra and the others are gone, leaving Sakura with her quarry. Her mouth begins to water and Sakura roughly shakes herself. What is wrong with her?

Her thoughts scatter to the wind as the nin’s limbs begin to twitch. Sakura immediately presses a hand to his chest, feeling for any signs of life.

There are none.

Yet still his body jerks about, grotesque and wrong in a way Sakura is unused to. Something about it reminds her of Sasori and Chiyo’s puppetry yet it’s still different.

There are no strings attached after all.

She watches, wary but not afraid as the dead man sits up and opens his eyes in her direction. There is no light within his eyes, only a glassy green sheen of film over them. Sakura fills power surge through her, clenching her in the lungs, demanding her breath.

This is her.

The nin turns his face her way and, though no words are said, Sakura can feel his anger and hatred. He doesn’t want to be here.

Sakura will not release him, not yet. She studies him intently, poking and prodding at his limbs and organs, figuring out his range of motion and how far her control extends over him. With both, the answer is absolute.

There is a vicious, violent tinge to Sakura’s triumph as she presses the nin back to lay down. “Sleep,” she commands and watches with unabashed interest as her power leaves him. Somewhere, distantly, Sakura knows that she should be worried about this newfound ability. However, there is a hunger that holds her in its grips.

Sakura stumbles back from the gurney, doing her best to shake away the thrall. It clings to her as silky cobwebs, sticky and tacky, refusing to let her go.

Sakura turns tail and flees, assigning a different doctor to do the autopsy.

She doesn’t trust herself right now.

Sand stuck to her in places she didn’t want to mention, gritty and rubbing with friction as she continued to move. It had been a long trip in Suna and Sakura was ready to be home. She blinked at the oasis that wavered into existence before her, the heat making her dizzy. Was this place real?

Sakura paused, uneasy but with the sun beating down across her neck, prickling and searing at her skin. With a sigh, Sakura made her way forward, stepping up close to the bubbling spring. She placed her hands into it, washing away the dirt and grit in relief. As she splashed water onto her neck, she realized that there was a building beyond the spring.

It was poor craftsmanship, leaning in a way that made it look as if it’d fall over in the wind. However, as Sakura looked beyond the open door, the interior looked dark and cool and inviting.

Sakura concentrated, searching out the chakra signatures inside. There were a few, insignificant signatures that fluctuated with life as they puttered around within the shelter. With the heat beating down upon her, Sakura decided to take the risk and take a small detour.

Sakura entered the building, blinking to try to adjust to the sudden lack of light. As she did so, Sakura realized that this was a tavern. Sakura grabbed a seat in a corner, surveilling the room. There were about five people in the room, including the bartender. All sat alone, keeping to themselves as they kept away from the oppressive heat of midday. She gestured and the bartender came running.

“How may I help?” he asked, clothes surprisingly sand-free.

“A water please,” Sakura replied. “And whatever is the house special.”

The bartender nodded, bowing and walking away. Something niggled at Sakura and she looked around, trying to find the cause. She found herself staring at one man in particular.

He was older, face craggy and worn, and dressed in faded, muted tones. He was watching her and there was something about the way his chakra, small as it was, spiraled around that was far too familiar. Sakura glared at him, flaring her chakra ever so slightly to warn him off.

No one else in the room reacted but the man smiled, smirked really.

Sakura was broken from her concentration as the bartender brought her a glass of water and a tall pitcher for refills as well as a glass full of dark purple liquid that gave off a little smoke.

“House special,” the bartender said. “Burns as it’s going down.”

Sakura nodded, watching as he turned his back. Discretely, Sakura checked all the beverages for poisons by running her hand over the glasses. All came back clean.

Sakura took a bracing gulp of the house special and grinned as it went down smooth. She glanced up, meeting the eyes of the man across the room again.

His eyes flickered red.

The hospital is a graveyard, full of shouting pleas and inventive curses.

Sakura’s hands shake as she fiddles with the compound beneath the microscope. There has recently been a demand for more poisons and antidotes made with her signature flair and Sakura is happy for the challenge. She is ever so close…

“Mommy! Mommy why is it so dark?” a thin, reedy voice wails.

Sakura’s hands jerk and the compound is ruined. Sakura sighs, pushing away from the desk as she tries to block out the prayers and supplications that cling to her like grime. She won’t be answering them. She cannot answer them. Besides, they are not addressed to her anyway.

She is no god.

There are people who would disagree. She thinks to Orochimaru, yellow eyes feverish with grasping ambition. How would he respond to her powers?

Sakura feels sick.

Sakura listens to the child’s voice, heart squeezing at her plaintive cries. She bristles as another voice joins the first, a macabre duet of unanswered, unfulfilled questions.

Sakura shucks her gloves, lab coat, and goggles, unlocking her laboratory and heading down the hall. She brushes past the interns and medic-nin, face pale and wan. The voices grow louder, pleading, bargaining, threatening.

Sakura ignores it all and steps outside of the hospital, sighing in relief as the voices grow faint and fade completely into obscurity. Sakura’s stomach drops as she realizes that the hospital is no longer a viable option. Anxiety still claws itself, high and hard in her stomach as she wonders how exactly she will tell Tsunade-shishou.

Who will take her place?

Sakura fell into the all too familiar world of Tsukuyomi and found herself face to face with a smirking Itachi. She was tied to a cross, but she played nonchalant, looking him over impassively.

“Impressive,” Sakura said. “How did you manage to disguise your chakra like that?”

“I have many tricks up my sleeve,” he said, sauntering around her.

Sakura’s skin prickled beneath his attention, but she ignored the sensation. This wasn’t the first time Itachi had accosted her. Nearly every mission spent outside of Konoha he found a way to weasel his way into her presence, pressing, testing, teasing.

Sakura knew that this was his way of vetting Sasuke’s teammates, that he’d done the same thing to Kakashi and Naruto, but he’d relented on them. The only one he kept coming after was her.

Which meant she’d yet to impress.

Sakura scowled, wishing she had the ability to move away from him. “Still haven’t redecorated?” Sakura asked. “The red and the black are very drab; traditional Uchiha.”

“You’ll find that I’m anything but traditional,” he replied.

Sakura realized he was about to start…well, whatever the test was today. It always changed, always varied, and sometimes there wasn’t even a test. They just…talked.

“Why me?” she asked abruptly.

Itachi blinked at her, the only signal of his surprise, red eyes intent. “You?”

“Why do you keep testing me? What’ll it take for me to pass? You leave Naruto alone, Kakashi too. How am I still not good enough to be Sasuke’s teammate?”

“Test?” He huffed and Sakura felt the heat of his breath curling against her ear. She repressed a shiver. “No, I do not do this to test you. Not in the way you think at least. You…intrigue me.”

“Really?” Sakura asked. “I intrigue you?”

Sakura felt the curve of his smile against her neck before he moved in front of her once more. He leaned forward, drawing his fingertips across her cheek before tucking them under her chin.

“Indeed,” Itachi said. “Let’s have some fun.”

His eyes flashed and began to spin and a cool weapon was pressed against Sakura’s throat.

She glared up at him, feeling the frustration of impotence cloud her mind. Something sharp and hot pulsed right behind her left eye and Sakura was surprised to see the sky of Tsukuyomi shift, flaring with green.

Sakura saw Itachi’s face shift to actual, bona fide shock before the world tilted sideways and green.

Sakura pauses in her training, ignoring her teammates as she looks up into the sky, where the voices seem to emerge.

“Whatcha looking for, Sakura-chan?” Naruto asks, watching her with bright, eager eyes.

Sometimes (oftentimes) it is difficult to remember that this man carries the weight of the village on his shoulders. “Nothing,” Sakura replies with a wry twist of her lips, the one that warns against pressing further. “Just enjoying the sun.”

She ignores the way Yamato and Kakashi fix their gazes on her, instead turning back to her sparring partner.

“You ready, Ugly?” Sai asks, expressionless but somehow taunting all the same.

Sakura cracks her knuckles, ignoring the wisps of conversations that she can still hear as she approaches Sai with a thunderous look. She is gratified in the way he pales and flinches away as her fists light with chakra.

They quickly fall into the dangerous dance that is their sparring. Sakura appreciates the way she can vent some of this excess energy that drags down against her skin. She knows that she is being far more aggressive and brutal than usual as Sai’s eyes blow wide. Sakura thinks briefly that she should care but it is so vindicating to let go, to channel her surplus into something productive and meaningful. There is something so satisfying about physical activity, the burn and the tear of muscles, the sweat against her neck.

“Sakura-chan,” Naruto calls nervously, voice high.

Sakura ignores him, dodging around an ink tiger to grab its tail and slam it back in Sai’s direction. Nothing can get to her now, she is in the zone, she is focused, no voices can reach her now.

No voices.

Sakura pauses, heedless of the way one of Sai’s ink birds careens into her. Sakura keeps her feet planted as the ink bird splatters all over her, panic spiking in her system.

Why have the voices stopped?

Sakura looks around, eyes wild. Her teammates, who were so worried about her brutality only moments ago, are focused on something else now.

Three…they can only be called things make their way towards them, shambling and crawling across the uneven ground. They are in various stages of decomposition and all reek with the overwhelming stench of death. Peripherally, Sakura recognizes the way her teammates tense and prepare to attack, but all she hears is a low, wheedling, warbling moan.

Sakura blinks as she realizes that it comes from her.

She can feel their eyes, their soulless, dead, green filmy eyes, slink across her body. She swallows back bile as they make their way to her, bowed over in supplication, completely submissive.

What a joke.

She doesn’t control these things, she doesn’t understand them. She doesn’t want this.

“Sakura,” Kakashi begins and his voice is off and Sakura knows that he is judging, judging, judging—

Sakura flinches as a hand touches her shoulder softly, gripping the wrist of the person warningly. Naruto’s bones creak beneath her hard grip but he doesn’t cringe away. He just watches her with wide, gentle eyes, accepting. “Sakura-chan—”

Sakura shoves him away, eyes burning. No one can accept this, not really. It’s unnatural, freakish, abnormal. As she looks across the faces of her teammates, she can see their wariness, their apprehension. They don’t trust her.

She doesn’t trust herself.

Sakura turns and flees.

“What have you done?”

Sakura had never seen Itachi so unkempt and she found something about his wide eyes and mussed hair very satisfying. She sat up, rubbing her wrists. She was free.

Sakura looked around, surprised at how changed the mindscape was. The sky was a bright green and the ground beneath them flourished with life. On a raised dais, there was a black coffin. The area where it laid was dead and twisted; dark in a way that didn’t seem to belong here. There were strands of flowers attached to the coffin, but they seemed to be fraying, withering.

“This is our domain, Uchiha.”

Sakura and Itachi turned to the voice and Sakura was confronted with a mirrored image of herself.

“Inner,” Sakura murmured. “I thought you disappeared after the chunin exams.”

“Just dormant,” Inner Sakura replied, a sneer curling her lips. “That Yamanaka has some pretty, flashy tricks, but they are just that. Nothing could keep me away for long.”

“What are you?” Itachi asked, pretty pinwheel eyes scrutinizing them both. “You have no kekkei genkai; you have no clan titles. How is this possible?”

“There are realms and powers far beyond your understanding,” Inner said, sauntering up beside Sakura and glaring down at Itachi. Sakura realized that he was now bound and chained in what appeared to be flowery daisy chains. “Just because you are a Uchiha and possess those lovely red eyes, it does not mean you know all that there is to the world.”

“What is this place?” Sakura asked, looking around.

“This is your birthright,” Inner said, taking Sakura’s hand. Sakura felt sparks race up her arm, leaving her bones vibrating and setting her teeth of edge. “You are a Haruno.”

Sakura nodded. “I know. We’re a merchant family.”

“You’re so much more than that,” Inner said, tucking Sakura’s hand into the crook of her arm. She was oddly insubstantial, form shifting and trailing with smoke as she walked with Sakura. “The Haruno clan serves the most ancient of powers, one long forgotten but forever restless and at work.”

“Powers?” Sakura asked, stopping in her tracks. “What do you mean?”

“You know your clan symbol,” Inner said. “The unbroken, unyielding circle. Life and death are meaningless if you have the blood of a Haruno running in your veins. The circle of life is your domain; it is within your control.”

“What do you mean?” Sakura said, suddenly realizing that Inner had led her to the coffin.

Embossed upon the glossy surface was the Haruno symbol, starkly white against the dark wood of the coffin. Dark energy pulsed beneath the surface and Sakura could tell it was older than chakra, something ancient, something primal. Sakura was drawn to it, something in her soul crying out to her.

“This is your birthright,” Inner repeated.

Sakura didn’t—couldn’t—resist as Inner grabbed her hand and pressed it against the coffin. She pressed the lip of the coffin back and that dark energy pulsed once more, this time within Sakura herself. All the flowers, all the life, withered away into black.

Sakura heard a shout as if from far away and the world went dark.

And something new was born.

It wasn’t all that difficult to convince Tsunade-shishou to let her leave the village. Her teammates hadn’t yet told anyone of what happened on the training grounds, perhaps because she ran to the Tower in the fleeting moments after that disastrous encounter.

There is something akin to pity in Tsunade-shishou’s eyes as she lets her leave, all gentle words and soothing noises. She knows something is going on, something terrible, but Tsunade-shishou, forever her pseudo-mother, lets her leave on a cushy excursion to the Land of Tea.

Sakura doesn’t even reach the border of Fire before Itachi accosts her, a warm hand wrapping around her bicep. Sakura fearlessly meets his eyes, remembering their last encounter all too well.

Itachi’s eyes are slate and somehow it makes him seem…less; more ordinary.

“Fancy meeting you here,” Sakura says, taunting, testing, wanting to press him to the breaking point.

His mouth tightens but he just watches her.

“What did you do to me?” Sakura hisses, snaking her hand around so that she is clutching at his bicep instead. She squeezes, a warning in her fingers. “What sort of test is this?”

“It was not I who committed that trickery,” Itachi sneers. “What sort of genjutsu was it? How did you overcome the Sharingan?”

“Your Sharingan is what did this to me!”

“Did what?” Itachi asks.

“I can hear the dead,” Sakura replies. “I can raise the dead.” Her face twists. “Though most of the time it isn’t on purpose.”

Because she is staring at him, Sakura sees the way his face pales and he draws his tongue across his bottom lip, a nervous habit. Then his eyes narrow.

“I don’t believe you,” Itachi says. “Raising the dead…such a thing is impossible.”

“Orochimaru accomplished it,” Sakura replies. “Or, at least, an imperfect form of it. Much is possible with chakra. Though what I do…it’s beyond that; before that.”

“Show me,” he says.

Sakura looks at him, takes in the interest that lights his eyes. There is a reddish sheen to it and she knows he is struggling with controlling his Sharingan. He does not look fearful, not like her teammates did. She pulls him in close with her other hand, oblivious to the way his eyes flare wide as they disappear in a cloud of leaves.

Itachi stumbles away from her as they land, glancing around. They are at a mausoleum, large and sprawling, made of marble shot through with purple veins. The gardens before the building are unkempt and overgrown, ivy twisting and climbing up the sides of the crypt.

“The Uchiha mausoleum?” Itachi demands, glaring at her.

“There’s no one around here for miles,” Sakura replies, stepping up the steps of the mausoleum. “This is the best location for…well, this.”

Itachi frowns, but he moves alongside her, a hair too close for comfort as they make their way to the heavy door. Itachi bites his thumb, rubbing it along the frame of the door and smearing blood across it in streaks. He lines his eye up with the eye upon the door itself and lets the eye spin with pinwheels.

The door creaks open.

Sakura steps inside and finds herself lit with a vibrancy that only comes when she is around death. She inhales the stale scent of decay and earth and finds herself energized.

She walks down row after row of coffins, following the trail lit behind her eyes. There is one person she is here for. Sakura pauses at a bone white coffin, one without any engravings, and tugs the lid free.

Itachi balks and he makes an aborted gesture to stop her before he falls silent once more.

Sakura reaches deep, gathering that energy that is separate from her chakra but just as innately her; perhaps even more so. She looks at the body, dressed in pristine rich clothing. It is little more than bones now, with sunken flesh hanging loosely from its structure.

Sakura feels something growing within her as the body twitches to life. Sakura can see a spirit overlaying the body, a beautiful woman with soft features who, surprisingly, doesn’t pay attention to her. No, her attention is on her companion.

“Itachi-chan,” the spirit calls, reaching out a clacking hand in his direction.

“Oka-san,” Itachi murmurs, clearly able to hear the spirit. He falls to his knees, bowed over himself before her. “I am so sorry.”

Sakura watches, not controlling the woman as Itachi bends over himself before her, muttering apologies as the woman—his mother—places her hands over his back and speaks words of forgiveness. Sakura finds herself caught up in her surroundings, feeling the thrum of so many dead echo throughout her bones. The overwhelming sense of power is electric and makes her dizzy.

She blinks as Itachi grasps her elbow, guiding her out of the tomb and away from the stifling, heady scent of death. Sakura takes a seat within the garden, staring unseeing at the clump of roses. They are being choked out by the ivy and the dearth of the flowers is somehow beautiful. Slowly she centers herself and stares up into Itachi’s grey, tear-reddened eyes.

He holds both of her shoulders and squeezes as he bows his head and says, “Thank you.”

“I didn’t realize that was your mother,” Sakura replies. “It—she called to me.”

Something in Itachi’s expression lightens as he smiles and Sakura finds her heart lifting before pattering into overdrive. “Then it was meant to be,” Itachi says.

Sakura swallows. “How do I make it stop?” she asks.

“Stop?” he laughs and it is a beautiful and terrible thing. “This won’t stop. It’s a gift. It’s as natural to you as breathing; as Sharingan is to me.”

“No,” Sakura says, backing away. “No, no, no.”

Itachi pulls her in close, searching her eyes thoroughly before pulling her into a crushing embrace. “There is no way to stop this. This is your birthright.”

Sakura stares unseeingly past Itachi’s head, eyes on the roses. Like them, she is trapped within the grips of the ivy, being choked out by it. Itachi’s arms encircle her and she is pulled against his warm chest and she can hear his heart beating a staccato pattern.

Like the ivy, she is trapped within a cage.

#my fic #fic commissions #itasaku #itachi uchiha #Sakura Haruno #sakura ends up as a necromancer #obviously not too thrilled by the many downsides

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setaripendragon · 8 years ago

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Familiar Strangers - Eight: Tsunade

One - Two - Three - Four - Five - Six - Seven - Eight - Nine - Ten Bonus scenes: Five-Point-Five - Seven-Point-Five This was supposed to be the last (or second to last) part of this. But then Naruto happened, and now I’m banging my head on my desk, wondering how on earth I’m going to find enough PoV characters to cover everything he’s just put into motion. -shakes fist- So, here goes nothing.

Tsunade had a headache. Massaging at her brow, she reached for a bottle of sake. It said something about the severity of the situation that Shizune didn’t scold her for drinking in the middle of the day. The first gulp she barely tasted, throwing it down her throat purely for the alcohol content. The second burned through both her gullet and her rage. The third was almost soothing. Then she set it down again and fixed a gimlet stare on the two ragged shinobi standing in her office.

“Let me get this straight.” She growled, laying her hands carefully on her desk so she wasn’t tempted to clench them into fists. “There is some form of mental and physical alteration on my student and this village’s jinchuuriki, which has caused them to flee from their allies, which means we have no idea where they are, and as if all that isn’t bad enough, Orochimaru is now after them as well as Akatsuki. Oh, and apparently Naruto can do the hiraishin now, not to mention chakra chains, so we have about as much chance of catching them as pigs flying.”

Sai, the brat, just nodded impassively. “That would be an accurate summary, Godaime-sama, yes.”

Yamato sighed. “On the upside, Sasuke fled from his supposed ally, too.”

“That is conjecture only.” Sai pointed out. “He vanished at some point during the confrontation between Orochimaru and Naruto, and Orochimaru seemed alarmed when he noticed, but there is nothing to suggest he fled.” He paused, then went on, “If the crow summon did indeed indicate that Itachi was there, it is entirely possible Sasuke merely went to confront his brother.”

“So there’s also every chance that Sasuke is dead?” Tsunade asked.

“Yes.” Sai agreed.

Tsunade grabbed for the sake again. When she felt like she could breathe around the crushing weight of being responsible for an entire village when everything seemed to be going wrong, she looked up and tried to work out what they could do to salvage the situation. “Alright. We can’t assume we know anything about their motivations or skills until we know just how much they’ve been altered. We can’t waste resources-”

Someone knocked on the door.

“WHAT?!”

The door opened just enough to let Shikamaru stick his head inside, a deeply wary look in his eye as he watched her, gauging her temper. Then his gaze skittered over Yamato and Sai, and some of the tension left him. “Oh, you’ve already heard.” He said, edging inside and shutting the door softly.

Tsunade stared at him, her mind racing. “Already heard what?” She asked, because she knew better than to try to predict a Nara.

“Something’s wrong with Sakura.” Shikamaru told her. “She knows things only Sakura should know, but she’s behaving atypically to her character.”

Tsunade leaned back in her chair and sighed in relief. “So they’re in the village, at least.” She muttered, and lifted a hand to press her fingers and thumb against her eyes. “That’s one problem solved. Very well. IZUMO! KOTETSU!” The two chuunin arrived promptly, which Tsunade really appreciated under the circumstances. “Send an A-rank summons to Kakashi, Gai, Hiashi, Tsume and Shibi. We have a jinchuuriki to locate.” She ordered. The two chuunin went pale, and turned towards the door…

Only to run into the very boy in question. Naruto’s hand jumped to the back of his head, fiddling with a ponytail that, despite the colouring, reminded Tsunade of Hatake Sakumo in a strange moment of deja vu. He looked incredibly sheepish. “Uh… Located and reporting for duty, Tsunade-baachan.” He offered, eyes darting around the room warily.

“Is Sakura with you?” Tsunade asked him sharply.

“I’m here, Hokage-sama.” Sakura called, sticking her head around the door before coming to stand at Naruto’s shoulder. Behind her came Umino Iruka and Shiranui Genma, both of them looking unconcerned by the drama they’d stepped into, and the potentially compromised shinobi they were escorting.

Tsunade’s office was getting a bit too full for her liking. “Izumo, Kotetsu, cancel that last order. Everyone except Team Seven? Out!” She ordered. Shikamaru sighed and ambled out of the room, edging around Sakura like she was infectious and shuddering when she smiled, sweet and sly, at him. Tsunade could understand, because that smile sent a shiver down her spine, too. She recognised it from a very different face.

Kotetsu and Izumo followed Shikamaru out, too shaken to grumble like they normally would. Neither Genma nor Iruka made any move to copy them, however. She turned a fierce glower on them. Iruka turned to the door, but instead of leaving, he closed it firmly, then moved to stand beside Naruto. A puff of smoke, and suddenly it wasn’t Umino Iruka standing in front of her office door, but Uchiha Sasuke.

Yamato and Sai both twitched towards their weapons. Tsunade rose to her feet, hands balling into fists. Genma, she noticed, didn’t react at all. “Someone had better explain what exactly is going on here, or heads are going to start rolling.” Tsunade growled, fixing her glare on the tokujou, because he was the only one who wasn’t watching her like he was about to flee.

“I’m not certain, Hokage-sama, but I believe they’re from an alternate dimension.” Genma informed her, as unflappable as ever.

Tsunade stared at him in utter disbelief. “An alternate dimension?” She echoed, slowly, with as much patience as she could muster, and all the scepticism she just couldn’t hide.

“It fits.” Genma replied, gesturing at the original Team Seven. Tsunade followed the gesture with her gaze, trying to suspend her disbelief long enough to assess the theory. She studied the three of them, from Sakura’s unassuming appearance, to Naruto’s obnoxiously loud outfit and bare feet. Sasuke was the only one dressed like a shinobi, black trousers and hooded top and shinobi boots, with a midnight blue haramaki and dark steel bracers on his forearms reminiscent of the ANBU uniform. And a Konoha hitai-ate on his upper arm. That was the detail that stood out. That was the thing that convinced Tsunade to give their crazy story the benefit of the doubt.

Before Tsunade could begin to interrogate the dimensional travellers to test that theory, a presence at her back made her turn. Her shinobi were far too comfortable entering her office via the window, but on this occasion, seeing Kakashi slipping into the room with a serious look in his eye, she was willing to let it go. “That’s an interesting theory.” He remarked, in a tone that was so non-threatening it came right back around to being challenging.

Tsunade glanced back at their guests, in time to see Naruto’s expression turn mulish. “What other explanation is there?” He demanded.

“You’re lying?” Kakashi suggested.

“Don’t you think we’d try to sell you something more believable if we were?” Sasuke drawled.

Kakashi shrugged. “The best lie is one people want to believe, because then they’ll ignore any evidence that contradicts it.”

“Who’d want to believe that we’re stuck in an alternate dimension where the only people I can think of who’d be able to help us get home are dead or missing-nin?” Naruto demanded, gesturing wildly in his frustration. “Why would you want to believe your versions of us are in a dimension where they’re probably going to wind up in T&I for losing it and attacking their families?”

“Why would they do that?” Tsunade interjected sharply, shooting Kakashi a quelling look. He subsided with a mutinous glare.

“I was at Itachi’s tea shop when this happened.” Sasuke deadpanned.

Tsunade whipped around to stare at him. Before she could stop it, her mind conjured up all the possibilities of what could happen in that situation. “Uchiha Itachi… owns a tea shop?” She asked carefully, carefully shutting down those images. That was not her Konoha, so it was not her problem.

“Yes.” Sasuke replied.

“You said families. Plural.” Kakashi reminded Naruto, who nodded.

But it was Sai who answered him. “You’re referring to Orochimaru. You called him ‘Orochi-jiji’ when you first woke up here.” He remembered. Tsunade carefully sat down and pressed a hand to her forehead. She wasn’t sure if it was regret, grief, fury, or something else entirely that was making her head spin, but she thought it would be better to sit down before she fell down. It hurt, to think that there might be world out there where Orochimaru wasn’t a missing-nin, was still enough a part of the village to somehow end up like a grandfather to Naruto.

“No.” Kakashi said abruptly. Tsunade looked over at him in surprise. What little of his skin she could see looked even paler than usual. “I refuse to believe that there is any universe where Orochimaru is part of my pack.” Tsunade blinked at him, wondering where on earth that had come from.

Naruto snarled. The sound was animalistic enough that Tsunade was reaching for her chakra before she realised that there was no flare of corrosive red chakra. She glanced over at Naruto just to be sure, and he didn’t look any less human than usual. What he did look was furious, lip curling back from his teeth in a sneer that was almost a grin. “He’s more than just your pack. You call him ‘kaasan’.” He announced with vindictive pleasure.

In the stunned silence that followed that declaration, Genma’s muffled snickering was clearly audible, despite the fist he was pressing to his mouth. Tsunade tried to think of anyone calling Orochimaru ‘kaasan’ without ending up a bloody smear on the ceiling, and failed. “He lets your Kakashi get away with that?” She asked faintly.

Naruto nodded with an irreverent shrug, but it was Sakura who gave her a proper answer. “Well, he usually throws a kunai or two, but he always misses, and if he really wanted to make Kakashi-san stop, he could, so I’ve always figured that’s just his way of showing affection.”

Abruptly and unwillingly, Tsuande was confronted with a memory of a teenaged Orochimaru hissing and spitting like a wet cat at Jiraiya for some semi-mocking term of endearment, flinging a shuriken at their teammate that sheared hair but missed flesh, and then continuing the conversation with a pointed air of normality. “I think you’re probably right.” Tsunade said faintly.

Kakashi choked.

Naruto looked smug.

Genma was still laughing.

Massaging her temples to try and assuage the headache she could feel creeping up on her, Tsunade tried to tune out the insanity in her office and focus on the insanity inside her mind. If she was going to take these three at their word – and she figured she was, since they were right about it being too unbelievable to make a decent lie – then she had just been given an unprecedented source of information. How many other Hokages had been given the opportunity to actually interrogate the results of a ‘what if’ scenario. If it was a world similar enough to have produced the same Team Seven, and Orochimaru was enough like his younger self that Tsunade could recognise him in their stories, what else was the same? And what else was different? What had her counterpart done that she hadn’t, and what had she done that her counterpart hadn’t, and which had the better results?

Then, of course, she had the problem of getting her own shinobi home again. She tried to think of who she could put on the task that would have a hope in hell of getting results, and came up with three names, all of whom were dead or missing. “Sai, find me the closest thing we have to a space-time jutsu expert, then go buy three crates of sake and bring them to me.”

“Yes, Hokage-sama.” Sai agreed, and darted out of the window in a blur.

“Hokage-sama?” Sakura interjected, looking somewhat tentative. Tsunade raised an eyebrow at her. “Considering the fact that whatever happened to bring us here happened in Orochimaru-sensei’s lab-” Tsunade felt a strange pang at the fact that this girl who should have been her student was instead calling her lost teammate ‘sensei’. Whether that pang was regret or envy or a distant sort of joy, she really couldn’t tell. “-perhaps it would be an idea to suggest a truce? Just until our current problem is resolved?”

“We have to consider the possibility that Orochimaru was behind this.” Kakashi pointed out.

All three of the dimensional travellers were shaking their heads. “Orochi-jiji didn’t know what had happened.” Naruto stated firmly. “He’s a good actor, as long as he doesn’t have to act stupid. He can’t do that to save his life, believe it. And he was so confused by us.” At that, Naruto snickered, clearly enjoying the memory.

Kakashi glanced over at Tsunade, his visible eyebrow raised to ask if she agreed with that assessment of Orochimaru’s character, too. Tsunade didn’t even need to think about it. “He’s not wrong.” She murmured, managing a hint of humour through the painful nostalgia.

“So it should be safe to ask for his help.” Sasuke concluded impatiently. “After all, I’m sure he’s also invested in getting… the other me back.” He pulled a face that was mostly disgust, with something a little unnerved creeping in around the edges.

“Yeah! If anyone can figure it out, Orochi-jiji can, believe it!” Naruto enthused. Then he paused, and he sobered up a little. “That reminds me, before we go, I have to punch Itachi in the face.”

Sasuke made a soft, angry growling noise. “Same.”

“We can make it a Team Seven hat trick.” Sakura chirped, looking positively angelic.

Tsunade tried to parse that segue, and failed. “Not that I don’t sympathise,” she began wearily, “but how did we get from asking our most infamous missing nin for help, to punching our second most infamous missing nin in the face?”

“Well, if your Itachi hadn’t killed all the Uchiha, Tobi-nii would still be alive, and then he could just vworp-” Naruto made a whirling, twisty gesture with his hands. “-us home like that.” He snapped his fingers dramatically. “But instead we’re going to have to risk making a deal with an evil version of Orochi-jiji, and that just reeks of Really Bad Idea, believe it. I mean, it’s Orochi-jiji, and he’s scary when he loves you and you make him mad.” Tsunade stared at him, only comprehending half of what he said, but still getting the gist regardless. Apparently there had been, or would have been, an Uchiha with skill at trans-dimensional space-time jutsu. Yeah, she kind of wanted to punch Itachi in the face now, too.

“…Uchiha Tobi?” Kakashi asked, voice strained and carefully, carefully even.

“Uchiha Obito.” Sasuke corrected with a long-suffering eye-roll. Kakashi made a soft sound like he’d been punched in the gut, but Tsunade and Yamato seemed to be the only ones who heard him. “Naruto just has problems talking like an actual adult.”

“He said his name was Tobi! It stuck, okay, you bastard!” Naruto protested.

“Obito’s alive in your universe?” Yamato asked sharply.

All of team seven turned to stare at him. “Yeah.” Naruto confirmed slowly. “All the Uchiha are.”

“Obito didn’t die in the Massacre.” Kakashi said, and now he sounded hollow and blank. “He died when he was thirteen, almost a decade before the Massacre.”

That got a very interesting reaction. Tsunade narrowed her eyes at the three dimensional travellers, because Naruto looked like he’s just had an epiphany, Sasuke looked like he was about to murder someone, and Sakura looked like she was hiding something. “On the Kannabi Bridge mission?” Sakura asked, cautious and wary. Kakashi nodded once, short and sharp.

“Yeah.” Naruto said, rare solemnity on his face as he looked Kakashi right in the eye. “We thought so, too, for a while.”

It took a moment for the implications of that to dawn on them. Kakashi caught on first, and he staggered like someone had taken him out at the knee. Yamato was at his side in a heartbeat, catching his elbow and keeping him upright. Kakashi’s grip on Yamato’s arm was white-knuckled. “Are you saying there’s a possibility he survived?” Tsunade asked, as she caught up.

Naruto nodded, then shrugged. “Well, maybe? I can’t really say for sure, different universes and all, and it’s not like I know the whole story, cause it was over before I was born. Mostly.” Tsunade fixed him with an impatient stare, waiting for him to get on with it. He fiddled sheepishly with his ponytail as he lurched into telling the story. “So, Tobi-nii did nearly die at Kannabi Bridge, but he got kidnapped or something, and then he attacked Konoha with the Kyuubi the day I was born.”

“What?” Kakashi interrupted hoarsely. Without a word, Yamato guided him over to a chair and forced him to sit down. It was harder than it sounded, given that Kakashi looked like he was debating the merits of strangling more answers out of Naruto, or charging off out the window to go looking for Obito.

“There was a compulsion seal on him.” Sakura interjected, giving Naruto a sharp look.

Naruto winced and nodded. “Yeah, right. It was a pretty nasty one, too, believe it. Tsunade-baachan-” He glanced over at her, with a slightly tentative smile of acknowledgement. Tsunade held her breath to see what he was going to say about this other version of her. “-made me study it when she was helping me learn fuinjutsu.” That wasn’t anything close to what Tsunade might have expected, and it threw her enough that she almost missed what he said next. It wasn’t as if she knew any more about sealing than your average high-level shinobi. Orochimaru and Jiraiya probably knew more, if she was being honest, so she couldn’t really fathom why she would have been helping Naruto discover that part of his heritage.

Except, of course, she realised with a pang of grief, that it was part of her heritage, too. As the last living Senju, she had inherited all of her grandmother’s scrolls on seals, and they were almost the entirety of what was left of the Uzumaki Clan’s legacy. Naruto prattled on, oblivious to the emotional turmoil he was causing. “It was really subtle, mostly an emotional binding with a forced loyalty kicker. Applied directly to the heart like it was, it messes you right up. I haven’t managed to figure out a counter seal, but I’m still working on it, believe it!”

“The only way we know of to get rid of that particular seal is to destroy it completely.” Sakura added solemnly. “Of course, most shinobi couldn’t survive a direct blow to the heart destructive enough to vaporise the seal. The only reason Rin-sama survived was because she was a jinchuuriki, and Obito-san had mokuton-enhanced healing abilities.”

Kakashi made a quiet pained sound, and buried his face in his hands. Yamato’s head snapped up, and he opened his mouth, but stalled, like he didn’t know what he wanted to ask first. Tsunade decided for him. “Mokuton?” She snapped, sharper than she meant to.

“He had it when he came back.” Naruto informed her. “But he doesn’t like to talk about it much.”

“Rin is still alive in your world?” Kakashi interjected, sounding pained.

Naruto flinched, and wilted. “Rin-oneechan, too?” He asked, looking quietly devastated. Kakashi nodded without looking up, and Naruto went over to him to lay a hand on his shoulder. And then he wrapped Kakashi in a tight, if slightly awkward, hug. “Sorry your world sucks.”

Kakashi laughed, bitter and hard. “Yeah.” He agreed hollowly. “But now I know Obito might be alive.” Just saying the words out loud seemed to shore him up. He looked less like he was about to fly apart at the seams.

Tsunade watched as Naruto looked up and across the room at his teammates, his expression openly pleading. She watched as Sakura nodded once, and looked to Sasuke, who glared at Naruto for several long seconds. She watched as Sasuke sighed and nodded as well, and when he looked up again, his eyes were blazing with fierce intent.

“We’ll help you find him.” Naruto stated, smiling. “Before we go, we’ll help you get him back.”

Kakashi’s head jerked up in surprise, but Tsunade wasn’t surprised at all. This was Naruto, and whether he was from this dimension or another one, the one thing he could never do is abandon one of his precious people when they needed him.

#Naruto #Team Seven #Senju Tsunade #Hatake Kakashi #Shiranui Genma #Yamato Tenzou #KakaObi #SakumOro #or whatever the ship name is #Familiar Strangers #it feels like so much happens in this part #yet it's mostly info dumping and decision making #poor Kakashi #but still #gdi Naruto you were supposed to be going home!

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setaripendragon · 8 years ago

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Familiar Strangers - Seven: Chouji

One - Two - Three - Four - Five - Six - Seven - Eight - Nine - Ten Bonus scenes: Five-Point-Five - Seven-Point-Five Writing from Chouji’s PoV is really, really hard for me for some reason. I just can’t get into his head properly. I did my best for this part, though, and I don’t think it came out too badly.

Chouji found Naruto just in time to see him disappear in a puff of smoke. He stopped, half way into Ichiraku Ramen, and stared at the space his friend had just been occupying. Or, rather, appearing to occupy, which made no sense, because while Naruto might get the memory of eating ramen through his clone, he’d get none of the benefits, even the memory of the taste would feel second-hand. Sending a clone to eat for you was not only sacrilege – Chouji would fight anyone who said it wasn’t – it was pointless.

A glance revealed that Naruto’s dining companion was a quietly enraged Hatake Kakashi. The company was the only reason Naruto could possibly have to send a clone, but going by the look in Kakashi-san’s one visible eye, it hadn’t been for a simple prank. “Kakashi-san?” Chouji asked, carefully, because there was a lethal aura in the air around the man.

“Mm?” Kakashi-san replied, glancing over at him. The jounin did a tiny double-take, and then the killing intent in the little restaurant tangibly faded.

“Was there something… not right with Naruto?” Chouji asked bluntly.

Kakashi-san’s gaze sharpened on Chouji, curious and intent. “Yes. Do you know something?” He asked, low and carefully not demanding.

Chouji didn’t know Kakashi-san well enough to understand him the way he did his friends, but he didn’t need to be a genius to know that he was fighting back a good deal of rage, and he honestly really appreciated the effort. “Not the specifics. Sakura’s not right, either. Shikamaru and Ino are looking into it. I was looking for Naruto, to see if he’d noticed anything, but…”

“But he’s caught up in this too.” Kakashi-san finished for him, grim. Chouji didn’t need to nod, but he did anyway. “And whoever is pulling his strings, they’re good. I didn’t notice him switching out with a clone, he must have done it just before we got here.”

The idea that whoever was behind this could get past a jounin of Kakashi-san’s calibre gave Chouji chills. He didn’t know what he, Shikamaru, and Ino could do against someone like that, but if they’d done something to Chouji’s friends, he wasn’t going to let them walk away unscathed. It seemed Kakashi-san had the same idea, because a puff of smoke drew Chouji out of his thoughts, and when it cleared there was a small pug in a Konoha hitai-ate sitting on the floor at Kakashi-san’s feet.

“Pakkun.” Kakashi-san greeted the creature, then tapped a single finger on the side of the stool Naruto’s clone had been sitting on. “Can you track the person who was sitting here last?”

Pakkun obediently leapt up onto the stool and sniffed. Then he raised his head to look at Kakashi-san with a very obvious frown on his canine face. “Okay, I’ll bite. Why do you want me to track Naruto, and why does he smell like pack?”

Chouji wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but Kakashi-san obviously knew, because he stiffened. “You’re sure?” Kakashi-san asked carefully. “He was at the compound earlier, he might just have picked the scent up there.”

Pakkun didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t argue the point. He just sniffed at the stool again, and this time he wrinkled his nose even more than it already was as he looked up. “Has he been hunting that Uchiha of his again?” At Kakashi-san’s nod, Pakkun snorted. It sounded more like a sneeze than anything. “Smells like it. He must have been rolling around on your furniture to pick up so much pack scent over the top of Uchiha and Sakura and the snake.”

“Can you find him?” Kakashi-san pressed.

“Of course.” Pakkun replied, all offended dignity as he leapt off the stool, raised his nose to the air, and trotted out of the restaurant. Kakashi-san was hot on his heels, and Chouji decided to follow them. His friends were in trouble, and he wanted to be there, just in case there was something he could do to help. Once outside, Pakkun paused to sniff the air one more time, before bounding up onto the roofs.

They travelled across Konoha swiftly, until Pakkun paused on the roof of a three story apartment building, and stuck his nose over the edge to peer down at the street. “There he is.” Pakkun announced smugly, but his nose was twitching. “When did Sakura start carrying so many poisons?”

“Best guess?” Kakashi-san asked, crouching down on the edge of the roof, elbows propped on knees, looking down at the street below. Chouji hung back from the edge, because he wasn’t so great at stealth, and he didn’t want to give Kakashi-san’s position away. “The same time Naruto decided to investigate my father.”

Pakkun’s head snapped up. “Investigate?” He snarled, suddenly angry.

“Mm. I did tell you I found him at the compound.” Kakashi-san murmured absently. A low growl started up in Pakkun’s chest, and Kakashi-san stretched out a hand to pet the little pug fondly. “What else can you smell?” He asked.

It took Pakkun a moment to get his anger under control, but finally he stopped growling, cleared his throat, and sniffed the air again. “The cute academy teacher is actually the Uchiha?” He offered. Kakashi-san went very, very still.

“What?” Chouji burst out before he could stop himself. He stepped up to the edge of the roof and looked down. There, wandering down the middle of the street, was Naruto and Sakura. They were accompanied by what appeared to be Iruka-sensei, and a shinobi Chouji thought was vaguely familiar, but couldn’t place. Not-really-Iruka-sensei was walking with the shinobi, a few paces behind Naruto and Sakura, and if Pakkun hadn’t said, Chouji didn’t think he would have noticed anything off about the academy instructor at all. It was not a comforting thought.

“Don’t look directly at them.” Kakashi-san said quietly, and Chouji ripped his gaze away to look at him questioningly. “When you’re observing a target from a distance, don’t look at them directly. A trained shinobi will notice when eyes are on them. Look to the side, and use your peripheral vision.”

“Oh.” Chouji tried to obey, but it was very difficult. Every time Naruto made another of his expansive gestures, Chouji’s eyes would track the movement automatically, and he’d realise he was looking at Naruto, and have to force his eyes away again.

“Pakkun, can you smell anything strange on Sasuke?” Kakashi-san asked.

The pug sighed. “Uchiha pack-scent, a lot of pain, his team, bird-scent, tea, forest smells, that Hyuuga girl that follows Naruto around sometimes.” He listed off, sniffing occasionally between items to check the scent again.

Chouji was impressed. Even Kiba’s nose wasn’t that good. “Pain?”

“Yup.” Pakkun confirmed, head bobbing. “Pain, but no blood or sickness.”

“I’m more curious about why he smells like Hyuuga Hinata.” Kakashi-san murmured.

Pakkun chuffed a short, sharp laugh. “Maybe you should ask her, then.” He gestured with one paw off towards his left, and on looking, Chouji saw that Hinata was indeed bounding across the rooftops. She was moving in a fairly straight line, and that line was heading straight for Naruto.

“Maa, I think I will.” Kakashi-san said, in a lazily idle tone that in no way matched the look in his eye. A heartbeat later, he was across the rooftops and intercepting Hinata. Chouji was actually a little impressed that he’d managed a shunshin from his precarious perch on the edge of the roof. It took him a few seconds longer to join them, by which point they’d gotten the formalities out of the way. “-wondering if you’ve seen Uchiha Sasuke about.” Kakashi-san was saying.

Hinata’s eyes dropped, darted from side to side, and she started poking her fingers together in front of her chest, defensively. “I- That is- Yes, I d-did.” She stammered. If Chouji didn’t know her so well, he’d say it was a sign that she was nervous, but he knew that she was nervous all the time.

“What did you talk about?” Kakashi-san asked mildly.

With a start, Hinata glanced up at him, frowning slightly. “I- I didn’t say I had t-talked to him.” She told him warily.

“Maa, but you did talk to him, didn’t you?” Kakashi-san prompted.

Hinata drew in a deep breath, visibly trying to fortify herself, before she nodded. “I- I was out, in the forest, there’s a- a clearing that I like to g-go to when I want some space. Sasuke-san f-found me there. He- he seemed sad, and… m-maybe lost. I thought it would be better to- to treat him like an a-asset, rather than a criminal.”

Chouji whistled under his breath, impressed despite himself. “That was really brave, Hinata.” He said, because Sasuke had been the best in their class for a reason, and he’d spent the last three years training under one of the Legendary Sannin. Trying to draw him in instead of raising an alarm was a bold move, not something Chouji would have expected from Hinata. Except, of course, that Sasuke was Naruto’s friend, and Hinata got surprisingly bold when Naruto was involved.

Hinata went pink and ducked her head. “Th-thank you, Chouji-san.” She squeaked.

“Did it work?” Kakashi-san asked, eyebrow raised curiously.

Hinata glanced at him, then lowered her eyes again. “I think it- it was a good start?” She offered tentatively. “He didn’t s-seem like he would l-leave Orochimaru any time soon, b-but…” She paused, tilting her head a little as she thought. “I think he’s planning to c-come back after he kills Itachi.”

“Ah, and that’s why you were going to talk to Naruto, hmm?” Kakashi asked.

Hinata’s fading blush returned with a vengeance, but her voice was surprisingly steady when she said “Yes.” And she held Kakashi-san’s gaze as he studied her.

“Good.” Kakashi-san said finally, making Hinata blink in surprise, then smile faintly. “But I think he already knows, since Sasuke is with him right now.” He added, tipping his head towards the street. Hinata gaped at him, before abruptly activating her byakugan. Kakashi-san’s eye curled like he was smiling. “What can you see?”

“Th-that does l-look like Sasuke-san’s ch-chakra.” Hinata murmured. “D-do you think he’s come back? For g-good?” She asked hopefully.

Kakashi-san grimaced under his mask. “Take another look at Naruto and Sakura.”

Hinata frowned, but didn’t protest. Then she sucked in a sharp breath, and Kakashi-san’s gaze sharpened intently. “Naruto-kun’s chakra is s-saturated with th-the kyuubi’s.” She announced. “B-but it’s a symbiosis, not p-parasitic.”

“What does that mean?” Chouji asked, worried.

“The- the kyuubi isn’t trying to t-take over. Before, Naruto-kun was h-holding the door shut, and the kyuubi was trying to p-push his way out, but now the d-door is open, a-allowing for bleed through, but the- the kyuubi is s-staying on his side.” Hinata explained, sounding utterly bewildered.

Kakashi-san was frowning, but instead of pursuing that topic, he asked “No seals, other than the kyuubi’s? No other foreign chakra?”

Hinata’s gaze snapped back to focus on what was in front of her, and it centred on Kakashi-san. “Why do you think Naruto-kun is being controlled?” She asked, or, well, demanded, really.

“He’s not acting like himself.” Kakashi-san informed her simply. “And neither is Sakura. I’m beginning to wonder if Sasuke hasn’t been caught up in whatever this is too.” He glanced over at the street, and his eye narrowed. “And I’d love to know what on earth Genma is doing with them.”

There was a beat, then two, of silence, as Kakashi-san got lost in plotting and planning, the way Shikamaru sometimes did. “M-maybe…” Hinata spoke up suddenly, drawing their attention again. She looked nervous under their attention, but she didn’t falter. “Maybe I could g-go down there, l-like I was planning to, and-” She paused, and ducked her head. “I- I know I’m not t-trained, as a s-spy, but I c-could find out s-something.”

“That,” Kakashi-san began, eye gleaming disconcertingly, “is an excellent idea, Hinata-chan.”

Hinata smiled tremulously, then set her mouth in a determined line and turned towards the street. Before she could go more than a step, Kakashi-san caught her shoulder. His eye was curved in a kind smile as she glanced back at him uncertainly. “Try not to look so much like you’re going on a mission, mm? You’ve got good news to share.”

Hinata blushed and nodded. “R-right, y-yes.”

“And take Chouji with you. You ran into him because you were both looking for Naruto, that’s all, okay?” Kakashi-san instructed. They both nodded. “I’ll be up here, watching, and I’ll get you out if things get dangerous. I promise.” He added, in a way that was both reassuring and really, really not. They were inside the village, going to talk to friends. They shouldn’t need an extraction plan just to talk to Naruto.

And it was Naruto, Chouji realised. Hinata and Pakkun had both confirmed that. But he was behaving suspiciously all the same. Chouji really hoped it was just a prank he and Sakura were playing, because the alternative was far more scary. He shared a look with Hinata that showed she was just as unnerved as he was, but then she nodded firmly, forcibly lightened her expression – although she didn’t manage a smile – and headed for the edge of the roof.

Chouji followed, and they ran along the edge until they’d caught up with the small group, then jumped down to the street. “N-n-naruto-kun!” Hinata called, and the four shinobi all turned.

Naruto’s face lit up with a brilliant grin. “Hinata!”

Hinata’s face went red. Chouji tried for a smile, because he knew he would have, if he hadn’t known that there was something really, really wrong here. “Hey, Naruto. I figured you’d be back, if Sakura was.” He nodded to the girl in question. “Hello again, Sakura.”

She smiled at him. “Hello again.” She agreed, like it was a private joke. “Hello, Hinata. How have you been?” She added politely.

“O-oh, I, um… I’ve been g-good. Thank you. H-how are you?” Hinata replied politely.

“Same as ever.” Sakura demurred. Chouji thought back to Ino saying Sakura had been ‘answering questions sideways’ and understood what she meant.

“Did you want something, Hinata-chan? Chouji-kun?” Not-really-Iruka-sensei asked, smiling kindly at both of them. It made Chouji’s brain stutter to a halt, as he realised that it was actually Uchiha Sasuke making that expression with Iruka-sensei’s face. He hadn’t known the Uchiha knew how to smile like that. The fact that he did made Kakashi-san’s speculation that whatever had happened to Naruto and Sakura had happened to Sasuke too seem much more likely.

Hinata bit her lip, her hands coming up in front of her chest in her usual, nervous, defensive gesture. “I- I have s-something to tell y-you, Naruto-kun.”

“Oh?” Naruto asked, brightly curious.

The strange shinobi grinned around a senbon in his mouth, and Chouji abruptly remembered where he’d seen the man before. At the third stage of the chuunin exams. He’d been the proctor. Kakashi-san had known him, and called him… Genma? “Perhaps we should give them some privacy, hmm?” He suggested, eyes dancing.

Sakura giggled, then reached out to lay a hand on Hinata’s arm. “Good luck.” She said, sounding sincere, then turned to follow the strange shinobi off down the street.

Hinata blinked after them, looking uncertain and a little worried. Not-really-Iruka-sensei shook his head with a small huff of a laugh. Because Chouji knew, he thought he could hear Sasuke-san in the sound, but if he hadn’t, he didn’t think he would have noticed. “Don’t worry, Hinata-chan. You’re braver than you think you are. Come on, Chouji-kun.” Not-really-Iruka-sensei encouraged them.

Chouji frowned at him, as confused as Hinata, until he looked over at her, and tried to see what someone who didn’t know what was going on might see. She was blushing, obviously even more nervous than usual, seeking out Naruto with something she wanted to tell him that she couldn’t just out and say without a preamble…

Oh. They thought she wanted to confess. Chouji didn’t know how to salvage the situation, so he just offered Hinata a supportive smile, and followed not-really-Iruka-sensei. As they caught up with Sakura and the other shinobi, he distantly heard Naruto saying “What was all that about…?” before he got too far away to eavesdrop.

“I’m sorry to drag you away when you were looking for Naruto.” Not-really-Iruka-sensei said companionably. “Was it something important?”

Chouji tried very hard not to stare, but he wasn’t sure he was succeeding. “No, no. Just wanted to catch up. It’s been a while since I saw him last.”

Not-really-Iruka-sensei nodded, but his pleased and fond and proud expression looked a little stilted and forced. Before Chouji could say anything else, to try and get him to break character fully, Sakura jumped into the conversation. “So, any bets on whether Hinata actually manages to tell him?” She asked, shooting Chouji a sly, sideways smile.

“If she wants to, she will.” Chouji stated. Then he had to haggle Sakura down from a ridiculously high bet that she wouldn’t. In the end, he managed to bargain for the loser to treat the other – team and all – to lunch. Then she dragged him into a debate about who should get the choice of restaurant. He had a horrible feeling that if she got away with her ‘winner picks the restaurant’ idea, she’d force him to eat at one of Ino’s horrible diet-friendly places.

Before they could settle the terms, Naruto caught up with them, an unconscious Hinata in his arms. For a moment, Chouji couldn’t remember why that alarmed him so much, but then he remembered that Sakura and Naruto were not themselves. Kakashi-san had promised an extraction, and yet he hadn’t stepped in when Hinata had passed out in front of her target. He suddenly felt very out of his depth.

Sakura didn’t seem very sanguine about the situation, either. “Naruto, what happened?” She asked sharply, stepping forwards, a green glow starting up around her hands.

“I don’t know!” Naruto protested. “She just passed out! I didn’t do anything, believe it!” He paused, scrunched up his face as though he was thinking about something very hard. “Okay, so I complimented her right before, but that’s not a big deal! She does have a good heart!”

Sakura clapped a no-longer-glowing hand over her mouth, which did absolutely nothing to cover her snort. Not-really-Iruka-sensei ran a hand over his face. “You told her she had a good heart, and then she passed out?” He asked, his attempt at mild inquisitiveness falling short. Chouji could definitely hear some scorn in there that was nothing like Iruka-sensei. Naruto nodded emphatically.

Genma-san coughed, to cover a laugh or to draw their attention, Chouji wasn’t sure. “Chouji-kun, was it?” He asked, and Chouji nodded warily. “Do you think you could take Hinata-chan home? I’d do it myself, but we’re kind of busy at the moment.” He explained ruefully.

For a moment, Chouji wondered if he should argue, but it didn’t take him long to decide that would be a very stupid thing to do. It was beginning to dawn on him, along with a rather sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, that Sakura had engaged him deliberately to distract from not-really-Iruka-sensei and she’d actually managed to make him forget that she was up to something. They had a tokujou on their side, Sasuke was better at acting than Chouji would ever have guessed, and Naruto had managed to find and exploit Hinata’s weakness in a matter of minutes, even if he was playing oblivious.

Chouji was so very out of his depth, and he was not going to turn his nose up at a ready-made excuse to get himself and Hinata right the hell out of there. Nodding, he took Hinata from Naruto, and set off back down the road, hoping desperately that Kakashi-san had gotten something useful out of watching them, because he was not doing that again.

#Naruto #Team Seven #Akamichi Chouji #Hatake Kakashi #Hyuuga Hinata #NaruHina #sort of #Familiar Strangers

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