Surface Flaws: Chapter IX
Title: Surface Flaws
Author: xinexpressiblex
Rating: 14A for swearing and violence.
Warnings: Shounen ai, spoilers for anyone not keeping up with the manga, & AUish. Alternate timeline.
Disclaimer: Yeah, I don’t own.
Thank you: goheh_remix & amain
Summary: The invisibility started with one silly wish upon a star. Good thing Sasuke's doormat personality, Sai's attempts at matchmaking, and a mission gone wrong were all quite normal in the life of Naruto Uzumaki... Wait. What? SasuNaru
Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI, Chapter VII, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX, Chapter X, Chapter XI, Chapter XII, Chapter XIII, Chapter XIV, Chapter XV + Epilogue
Previously:
And when he came through to the other side, Naruto was all too aware of a pained yelp and the sound of body hitting the floor with a dull thud.
Surface Flaws
Chapter IX
"Coz I’m under the weather
Just like the world
And I need somebody to hold
When I turn out the light
You’re out of sight
Although I know that I’m not alone
Feels like home"
- Under the Weather (KT Tunstall)
The way his limbs shook, the way his stomach churned, the way his shirt had become soaked through with sweat - none of that mattered as Naruto pushed himself up from hiding behind the bed and… froze.
There was Sasuke, rigid and already prepared for a fight, standing above Sakura’s unconscious form. A light circle of red showed through her shirt. Her face was scrunched in pain and her breathing was quick. There was a sense of morbidity in the way she lay. Her body looking as if it had been laid out.
Her hands were around her stomach carefully and her head fell to the side, enshrouded in a wash of pink. Long thin legs crooked at the knees and her skirt managed to cover her thighs, preserving her modesty in a way that seemed almost planned.
Striking Sasuke with his searing gaze, Naruto waited. He would give the boy one second to try to explain how Sakura had ended up on the floor unconscious and bleeding. One second only.
Sasuke opened his mouth, about to say something - jump to his own defence - then stopped and glared at Naruto because he didn’t need to explain himself to anyone.
’Second’s up, bastard,’ Naruto thought savagely as the dark-haired boy opened his mouth again; he stormed over to Sasuke, every step brisk and silent upon the carpeted floor. Through his eyes, he saw nothing but red. Red hatred, red blood, red fury, a streaming red need for vengeance...
Naruto clenched his jaw tight and stepped into Sasuke’s space, staring up into the dark eyes that didn’t care.
He could feel the heat emanating from the other’s body and it did nothing to console him, rather it fanned the flames of his anger, unleashing something almost primal in the blonde. He grabbed the front of Sasuke’s shirt in a jerky movement he hadn’t planned, and drew his fist back, prepared to send the arrogant, asshole into next week - but he stopped.
He wanted so badly to hear an excuse. He needed to hear an excuse. Maybe he just wanted Sasuke to admit it was because he had been worried for Naruto, and he couldn’t help himself from removing the only obstacle between him and his goal. However, this didn’t mean he wasn’t still ready to rip the bastard’s throat out.
“What the hell, Sasuke?” he demanded in a quiet snarl, his face inches away from the other’s - eyes livid, teeth bared, nose crinkled in disgust.
He looked down at Sakura - crumpled and red and pained. “Just…what the hell?” His voice rose and he pushed against the other boy’s chest, sending him into the wall with a deadened thump.
It wasn’t enough. There had been no pain.
No deafening crash.
He pushed the bastard again, this time hard enough that the picture above the bed fell to the floor and shattered.
Impassive black eyes stared down at him. Enveloped him in their lack of existence.
“She’s injured! Look at her?” Naruto’s palm slammed into Sasuke’s chest hard enough to bruise and he felt like his jaw was going to crack. “You fucking bastard. She’s bleeding! Fuck!” He growled low in his chest with a deathly sneer on his face. Before him, Sasuke’s expression bloomed into a scowl of irritation and he blinked at Naruto, uncaring. He looked awkward, pressed so tightly against the wall, Naruto thought absently.
But it wasn’t enough.
“What the hell were you thinking?” The blonde’s voice broke off in a strangled roar and he placed his hands on the beige wall, one on either side of Sasuke - pressed so close to the boy he spit on him when he spoke. “You know that she’s injured… Fuck- You saw her go down. You saw all the blood. You know-- Fucking bastard. Fucking absolute bastard!”
Naruto pushed away from the wall and stalked in a small circle, pacing to work down his anger. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides, his nails clawing into the palm of his hand relentlessly. He felt that the action was wasted on himself - Sasuke’s face would have been a much more preferable target.
And then he stopped pacing and looked at Sasuke - suddenly remembered a speech he’d heard from the boy earlier that day - and asked viciously, “What about the team Sasuke? Huh? How does this-” he gestured towards Sakura with an uncontrolled flail of his arm “-help the team? I can’t believe you!” he spit and turned away, kneeling beside the girl and staring at her helplessly, because he couldn’t very well remove her dressing and reapply a new one.
He sighed, trying to stop the shudders of anger that were pulsing through his body. It would do him no good to rip Sasuke a new ass hole and claw his eyes out. He needed the boy in one piece for the mission - regardless of how badly he thought the Uchiha deserved to be severely injured.
“Feel better then?” Sasuke’s drawl sounded too loud in the tiny room. It sounded like a taunt - and Naruto knew it was - and he couldn’t help but turn around and rise to the bait - eye Sasuke as the boy watched him warily, still pressed against the wall of his own accord.
“No I don’t feel better!” he snapped, pushing Sasuke so the boy’s back bumped against the wall again. “Because my best friend,” he saw Sasuke flinch at the declaration and hoped it hurt the boy as badly as he had intended it to, “is unconscious and bleeding and in a hell of a lot of pain. I wouldn’t expect you to understand what it’s like to care about someone. I mean, with a fuck up like your brother as a role mode--” Naruto paused, eyes widened at what he’d just said and he snapped his mouth shut, eyes still steely.
“Finish that sentence,” Sasuke spat, voice hard and dripping with intent.
“I don’t answer to you, Sasuke,” Naruto hissed, crossing his arms over his chest. The fear for Sakura bubbled and his anger at Sasuke wouldn’t fade. Maybe it was because he was disappointed that Sasuke still didn’t care about anything but his own goals and motives, which he supposed he was now one of. Another of Sasuke’s fucking goals.
Naruto stopped that train of thought - brought a halt to the sudden pain in his chest before it could really start - and looked at Sasuke with vicious expectation. He deserved an answer.
Sasuke took a step towards his blonde teammate - away from the wall - and hissed, “No, you don’t answer to anyone, do you Naruto? Even if you’re probably dying. You’ll still lock out the only person that has any ability to possibly help you because you don’t answer to anyone.”
“I’m not dying,” Naruto snorted, turning his head away from the intense gaze Sasuke had fixed upon him. “Get out of my space,” he added darkly, pushing Sasuke away - ignoring his own hypocrisy, for he had just been invading Sasuke’s space mere minutes ago.
There was a pulse in his stomach and the blonde stumbled slightly, falling into his dark-eyed comrade.
“You’re almost at the point where you have no chakra left to lose,” Sasuke commented, his suddenly red eyes meeting Naruto’s solemnly - furiously. “So would you quit being a stubborn idiot and tell me what’s going on?”
Naruto bit his lip and stepped away from Sasuke - glared at him and swallowed around the fear in his throat. “Nothing’s wrong,” he told the other boy weakly, and turned back to Sakura. Lowering himself to the ground, he added, “’Sides, I still have tons of chakra, bastard,” in a low mumble.
Now seated beside the girl, Naruto reached out a hand and pushed her hair from her face, his eyes trapped in the pale complexion that betrayed her blood loss. His anger started to rise again and he pulled his hand away, eyes turning to the carpet he was sitting.
“I have a theory as to what might be happening,” Sasuke said in a cool voice as he sat down beside Naruto, leaning comfortably against the wall.
“Don’t wanna hear it,” Naruto mumbled, moving away from Sasuke a bit. He didn’t like the clean smell the other boy released. It felt so familiar - like home - and that scared Naruto. He was too young to find home, never mind the fact that he was finding it in the person he probably trusted least in the world to not break his heart. Not that he could be heart broken, he thought, sitting up straighter.
Sasuke glanced at him from the corner of his eye with a dry look. “You’re going to risk your life because you have too much pride to let me know what’s going on?” he asked; his tone sceptical and kind of like the Sasuke that Naruto had grown comfortable with over the last three months.
“Would you stop?” Naruto sighed. His exhaustion from the change between invisibility and visibility was catching up with him and he didn’t know if he could fend off Sasuke’s insisting questions. The blonde turned his attention to Sasuke and saw that the other boy was staring at the wall before him unwaveringly. His jaw was set resolutely.
“Remember telling me that you were my best bet at finding Itachi?” Sasuke asked, his voice small but somehow filling the entire room.
Naruto didn’t look over at his companion, but instead focused entirely on Sakura. “Yeah.”
All the while his mind was screaming for Sasuke to stop - an overwhelming chorus of ’No no no no no no no…’
There was a pause and Naruto looked to see Sasuke’s face breaking into a frown. “I can feel him,” he said, voice completely blank. The blonde ninja felt a spark of pity for Sasuke. He was trying so hard to be apathetic in the face of this, and his expression was relaying his every thought.
“That’s your theory,” Naruto assumed aloud. He could taste the worry thick on his tongue as he spoke, coating his words and tainting his tone. He looked at Sasuke, his eyes squinting to keep the terror from showing on his face.
“Yeah.”
“Well maybe it’s just a coincidence, because there’s nothing really wrong with m-”
“Oh would you shut up?” Sasuke sighed, his voice clipped both with aggravation and exhaustion. He leaned into the wall and let his head fell back against it with a hollow sound; his face closed off. “If Itachi’s really after you like you say, Naruto, then your best bet at surviving whatever it is he’s doing to you is me.”
“And why would that be?” Naruto demanded, taking Sakura’s hand in his own because even unconscious, she was a sturdy support line for him. The delicate form of her hand was soft and small. Not calloused, or rough, with big strong finge-- And Naruto wasn’t actually comparing their hands…
“I’ve spent the last three years training so I could kill him.” Sasuke’s eyes flicked to Naruto and Sakura’s joined hands and he tensed. “Do you have to do that?” he asked annoyed.
Looking at Sasuke and jumping at the chance to avoid the awkward conversation that had almost arisen, Naruto allowed a small smirk to his face and said with little hesitation, “Jealous?”
“Not really,” Sasuke replied just as easily. He noticed that Naruto dropped Sakura’s hand and his lips lifted minutely. “I know competition when I see it.”
“Oh stuff it,” Naruto said with a playful scowl, “You were pretty intimidated by Sai. ‘Sides, what makes you think I actually want you?”
And how they were talking about this so civilly was beyond Naruto.
“I just know these things… And you undress me with your eyes so often it’s almost embarrassing.”
Naruto blushed. This just had to be some weird quirk to their relationship. They could fight and joke about the same subject from one minute to the next.
“And I’m always disappointed with what I see,” Naruto retorted.
Next thing he knew they would probably be making jokes about Orochimaru and his obsession with ass bows.
Sasuke snorted. “That’s because you haven’t seen the real thing…yet.”
Naruto briefly wondered if Sasuke ever thought of those silly ass bows as ass pretzels too…
“I’d probably puke at its grossness or laugh at the Uchiha bloodline’s ‘legacy’,” Naruto informed Sasuke with a smug grin.
Although he supposed that was probably unlikely considering how far the proverbial stick up Sasuke’s ass was wedged.
“You are immature like that, aren’t you?”
Naruto stopped his train of thought so he could turn all his attention to glaring at Sasuke. “I don’t get you,” he informed the Uchiha.
“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Sasuke said in automatic response. He was staring back at Naruto, who wanted to ask the bastard why he couldn’t just make up his mind. He wanted to scream, ‘Do you want me or not?’ But he couldn’t. Not now. Not ever.
Sasuke would have to choose without any outside help.
“I know you don’t,” Naruto said quietly. “I guess I just feel like I should… I always used to…” He couldn’t finish that thought because it was too close talking about Sasuke leaving. Naruto swallowed with some difficulty, his throat suddenly constricted.
A light sigh sounded beside Naruto - lost and helpless. “I don’t anymore either,” he said quietly, refusing to look at Naruto, who was now openly staring at him with a sympathetic expression.
At a loss for words, Naruto leaned into Sasuke and wrapped his arms around the boy, giving him a loose hug. “We’ll get there eventually,” he promised before pulling away and sitting back to watch Sakura.
It didn’t strike Naruto that he’d just made a promise that completely conflicted with his previous one. There was no way he could help Sasuke find himself without growing closer to the boy. But as Naruto didn’t realize these contradictory promises, he simply grabbed Sasuke’s hand and gave it a comforting squeeze, eyes fixed on Sakura.
-----
When Sakura’s eyes flickered open, Naruto and Sasuke were both sitting in silence, watching her with sober expressions. She let out a small breath and turned her head to the side slightly, taking in the scene. “Naruto,” she said, smiling gently at the boy ad began to sit up as delicately as possible. “You’re okay?” she asked, careful to keep her gaze away from Sasuke.
She winced, a hiss of breath passing through her clenched jaw, and felt her side with tender fingers. Then her eyes met Naruto’s, urging him to answer her question. Telling him she was fine.
“Yeah,” he said. The boy felt his gut wrench and he leaned forward, putting his hand on her shoulder comfortingly. “The fall reopened the wound,” he told her, gesturing to the pink-haired kunoichi’s side with a nod of his head.
Beside him, waves of tension rolled off Sasuke and Naruto couldn’t help but look at him. As he did, he felt Sakura stiffen under his hand.
“Naruto,” Sakura said, unnerving the blonde with the way she stared at Sasuke while addressing him, “Could you leave?”
“What?” The boy removed his hand from her shoulder and frowned, turning to look at Sasuke, questioningly. The Uchiha was meeting Sakura’s stare, even as he nodded and said, “Go.”
A sense of discomfort washed over Naruto and he slowly stood, his gaze flicking between the pair in concern. “Yeah, all right… I’ll go pack my stuff so we can get out of here as quickly as possible and keep going.” He paused, his hand on the door handle - waiting for someone to ask him why he needed to pack when all he had with him was his backpack, which was always packed anyway - No one said anything. “It’s only about two days’ journey to there from here, right?”
When Sasuke said, “Yes Naruto,” in an irritated tone without looking at the boy, he knew they weren’t going to relent. So, without looking back, he left.
If they wanted to rip each other to shreds that desperately, that was their business.
-----
Twenty minutes later, the trio exited the hotel, each silent and lost in themselves. Naruto found himself standing between his teammates, who both kept glancing absently in the other’s direction. Their movements were anxious and jerky. Each step was accompanied with a flit of the eyes or a nervous frown.
Naruto wondered if they both thought he was too stupid to notice or if they were simply too caught up in fretting about whatever they’d talked about to realize they were acting so oddly.
When they’d reached the edge of the town, Naruto found himself just as wound up as them. He kept seeing flickers of black in the corner of his vision. But every time he looked, there was nothing there.
Sighing, the boy picked up the pace, starting off ahead of Sakura and Sasuke because he swore if Sasuke glanced in his direction with that stupid worried expression or if Sakura twisted the front of her shirt between her fingers and bit her lip, eyes locked on him just one more time he was going to punch something. And he couldn’t promise it wouldn’t be one of them.
Though he admitted, snidely, he’d punch Sasuke first - he wasn’t injured.
It wasn’t until they’d made their way deep into the forest that Sakura and Sasuke caught up to him, calling out for him to stop.
“Something wrong?” Naruto asked, turning back on himself and meeting up with the pair in a small clearing, where they’d both ceased their steps - refused to follow him further. Sakura’s face was concerned and she stepped closer to Naruto, visibly swallowing.
“Naruto, I need to see the seal,” she told him - ordered him. Her eyes were pleading for him to not put up a fight. But her behaviour, matched with the strange look in Sasuke’s eyes, put Naruto on edge and the blonde took a step back - increased the blessed distance between him and her weirdness.
“Uh…why?”
Sasuke frowned and gave Naruto a dry look, as if he’d expected such a question but said nothing. Naruto noted that Sharingan was activated and turned back to Sakura, wondering what the hell they were up to. The sentiment showed clear on his face.
“Naruto, we’re worried about you.” Sakura stopped and bit her lip, glancing at Sasuke, pleading with him to back her up. The dark-haired boy shrugged as if to say, ‘just force him to show us’.
The looks… her nervousness… Naruto paled, his gaze bolting and locking onto Sasuke as he realized Sakura must have told him. The boy was watching him impassively. There was no respect in his gaze. It was so blank.
Just like when he’d come back.
Naruto felt his breathing quicken and he tried to replace his fear with anger. He had to.
Turning back to Sakura, Naruto all but snarled, “You told him?”
The reaction he got wasn’t one he expected. Sakura furrowed her brow in confusion and looked at him incredulously. “You think I would go behind your back?” she asked softly. Her voice was laced with pity and the blonde felt his anger rising. He felt trapped with both Sakura and Sasuke standing before him urging him to show them the seal.
“I thought you were okay, Naruto,” Sasuke said, his voice somehow vacant and accusing at the same time.
Naruto flinched. “Would you shut up?” he growled, turning to glare at Sasuke. “I don’t know what the hell is going on right now with you two, and I’m not going to bother trying to figure it out.” He turned to leave but paused as a flash of black flitted along the edge of the clearing. It was during this moment of distraction that Sakura and Sasuke lunged forward in unison.
Sakura pulled both his arms behind his back in one quick movement with her right arm then lifted up his shirt with the other. Sasuke stood before him, tense and ready in case Naruto decided to knock her away, even though they both knew he wouldn’t. Sakura was too physically strong to throw off and she was injured. Naruto was far too noble to take advantage of that.
“Fuck. You,” he spat at Sasuke as the boy reached forward to touch the seal with his finger. The touch was light and impersonal. Purely experimental.
“You’re chakra’s being drawn in the direction we’re headed,” Sasuke informed the reluctantly passive boy, his eyes following a line that was invisible to both Sakura and Naruto.
“Do you know any seals you could place on top of the existing one to lock in the draining chakra or perhaps slow down the rate at which it’s being drained?” Sakura asked from behind Naruto. He frowned at the suggestion and shook his head ‘no’ to Sasuke, his expression ominous.
“Don’t you dare,” he warned in a throaty growl.
It seemed Naruto wasn’t that threatening because just as soon as the words had finished grating their way through his clenched jaw, Sasuke’s palm was securely placed over the mark on the boy’s navel. “I know of one that may work,” Sasuke said to Sakura as he began creating the secondary seal - completely ignoring Naruto.
Naruto’s eyes bugged and he began to squirm. “This is my body! You can’t put a seal on it without my permission!” He was tempted to scream at the Uchiha about how this was an outrage, but then he felt bile rise up to his throat and a familiar dizzy feeling passing through his body.
“No, no, no, no,” he suddenly said in a breath of anxiety. His struggling began to increase until he was flailing against Sakura - needing to get away - nobility be damned.
As he fought, his breath began to catch and hold in his lungs, only releasing when he thought he was going to die from lack of air. His face heated and stretched - felt like someone was tugging his hair so hard it was pulling his skin, and he groaned softly in pain.
This shouldn’t be happening, Naruto thought desperately, grinding his teeth together as he fought against the pull at his navel - willed himself to stay exactly as he was.
Suddenly, Sakura let out a tiny cry of pain and released his arm. She came around beside him and Naruto could see a bright red welt on her hand where she’d been holding him. A burn.
He should run, he thought, but there was another tug on his body and he felt his stomach throb in resistance.
Sasuke pulled his hand away too, flinching and staring at the bubbles and welts that began rising from his skin. “Naruto,” he said in a tight voice, “What’s happening?” His eyes were bright with terror and he reached out a hand to touch Naruto again, but Sakura slapped it away.
“Don’t touch him, he’ll only burn you more,” she told Sasuke, though her voice sounded muted and far away. Naruto felt himself flicker into invisibility and cursed.
’Naruto… oh fuck what the hell is wrong with you? Why won’t you let me help you?’ A loud demand echoed through his mind and suddenly became an enraged yell of, “What is going on, Sakura?”
“Sasu--”
Sakura’s voice cut into thought and Naruto nearly keeled over and puked in his state of invisibility. His legs trembled beneath him as he was once again tugged back into visibility.
“Just fucking te--”
The world hazed red and as Naruto’s head wearily turned to the side, he saw two glowing scarlet eyes watching him from the brush. They were surrounded by nothing but black, but Naruto knew what they were - whose they were. He shuddered and was pulled back into visibility again.
This was too much; he could feel his body breaking under the strain. His bones creaked with tension and blood pounded in his head so loudly he thought he might go deaf.
He was visible for a second.
“I can’t. I made a promi--”
“Naruto!”
And then he was gone, still staring at the brush. But the eyes were gone too - had disappeared in his brief encounter with normality and remained away when he returned to their world.
Pulling back into visibility one last time, Naruto fell forward. He felt a strong pair of arms catch him and hold him tight as his eyes slid shut.
“Naruto?” Sasuke’s voice was soft and worried. Naruto sighed and buried his head into the boy’s chest, feeling his eyes tearing up under the exhaustion.
He had seen Itachi.
“Are you okay, Naruto?” that same terrified voice inquired.
And he couldn’t tell Sasuke because there were too many loose ends…
“I’m sorry,” Naruto whispered and fell into the blissful oblivion of unconsciousness.
-----
AN: YEY!!! Look at that, two chapters in under a month BITCHES!!!! Boo ya! Okay, that said, thanks for all the support on the last chapter. It means oodles and caboodles to me!!! I love you all! Anyways, I love reviews almost as much as I love writing this monster of a story, so please, feel free (wink wink) Thnx!
-TJ
Next Chapter
Author: xinexpressiblex
Rating: 14A for swearing and violence.
Warnings: Shounen ai, spoilers for anyone not keeping up with the manga, & AUish. Alternate timeline.
Disclaimer: Yeah, I don’t own.
Thank you: goheh_remix & amain
Summary: The invisibility started with one silly wish upon a star. Good thing Sasuke's doormat personality, Sai's attempts at matchmaking, and a mission gone wrong were all quite normal in the life of Naruto Uzumaki... Wait. What? SasuNaru
Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V, Chapter VI, Chapter VII, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX, Chapter X, Chapter XI, Chapter XII, Chapter XIII, Chapter XIV, Chapter XV + Epilogue
Previously:
And when he came through to the other side, Naruto was all too aware of a pained yelp and the sound of body hitting the floor with a dull thud.
Surface Flaws
Chapter IX
"Coz I’m under the weather
Just like the world
And I need somebody to hold
When I turn out the light
You’re out of sight
Although I know that I’m not alone
Feels like home"
- Under the Weather (KT Tunstall)
The way his limbs shook, the way his stomach churned, the way his shirt had become soaked through with sweat - none of that mattered as Naruto pushed himself up from hiding behind the bed and… froze.
There was Sasuke, rigid and already prepared for a fight, standing above Sakura’s unconscious form. A light circle of red showed through her shirt. Her face was scrunched in pain and her breathing was quick. There was a sense of morbidity in the way she lay. Her body looking as if it had been laid out.
Her hands were around her stomach carefully and her head fell to the side, enshrouded in a wash of pink. Long thin legs crooked at the knees and her skirt managed to cover her thighs, preserving her modesty in a way that seemed almost planned.
Striking Sasuke with his searing gaze, Naruto waited. He would give the boy one second to try to explain how Sakura had ended up on the floor unconscious and bleeding. One second only.
Sasuke opened his mouth, about to say something - jump to his own defence - then stopped and glared at Naruto because he didn’t need to explain himself to anyone.
’Second’s up, bastard,’ Naruto thought savagely as the dark-haired boy opened his mouth again; he stormed over to Sasuke, every step brisk and silent upon the carpeted floor. Through his eyes, he saw nothing but red. Red hatred, red blood, red fury, a streaming red need for vengeance...
Naruto clenched his jaw tight and stepped into Sasuke’s space, staring up into the dark eyes that didn’t care.
He could feel the heat emanating from the other’s body and it did nothing to console him, rather it fanned the flames of his anger, unleashing something almost primal in the blonde. He grabbed the front of Sasuke’s shirt in a jerky movement he hadn’t planned, and drew his fist back, prepared to send the arrogant, asshole into next week - but he stopped.
He wanted so badly to hear an excuse. He needed to hear an excuse. Maybe he just wanted Sasuke to admit it was because he had been worried for Naruto, and he couldn’t help himself from removing the only obstacle between him and his goal. However, this didn’t mean he wasn’t still ready to rip the bastard’s throat out.
“What the hell, Sasuke?” he demanded in a quiet snarl, his face inches away from the other’s - eyes livid, teeth bared, nose crinkled in disgust.
He looked down at Sakura - crumpled and red and pained. “Just…what the hell?” His voice rose and he pushed against the other boy’s chest, sending him into the wall with a deadened thump.
It wasn’t enough. There had been no pain.
No deafening crash.
He pushed the bastard again, this time hard enough that the picture above the bed fell to the floor and shattered.
Impassive black eyes stared down at him. Enveloped him in their lack of existence.
“She’s injured! Look at her?” Naruto’s palm slammed into Sasuke’s chest hard enough to bruise and he felt like his jaw was going to crack. “You fucking bastard. She’s bleeding! Fuck!” He growled low in his chest with a deathly sneer on his face. Before him, Sasuke’s expression bloomed into a scowl of irritation and he blinked at Naruto, uncaring. He looked awkward, pressed so tightly against the wall, Naruto thought absently.
But it wasn’t enough.
“What the hell were you thinking?” The blonde’s voice broke off in a strangled roar and he placed his hands on the beige wall, one on either side of Sasuke - pressed so close to the boy he spit on him when he spoke. “You know that she’s injured… Fuck- You saw her go down. You saw all the blood. You know-- Fucking bastard. Fucking absolute bastard!”
Naruto pushed away from the wall and stalked in a small circle, pacing to work down his anger. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides, his nails clawing into the palm of his hand relentlessly. He felt that the action was wasted on himself - Sasuke’s face would have been a much more preferable target.
And then he stopped pacing and looked at Sasuke - suddenly remembered a speech he’d heard from the boy earlier that day - and asked viciously, “What about the team Sasuke? Huh? How does this-” he gestured towards Sakura with an uncontrolled flail of his arm “-help the team? I can’t believe you!” he spit and turned away, kneeling beside the girl and staring at her helplessly, because he couldn’t very well remove her dressing and reapply a new one.
He sighed, trying to stop the shudders of anger that were pulsing through his body. It would do him no good to rip Sasuke a new ass hole and claw his eyes out. He needed the boy in one piece for the mission - regardless of how badly he thought the Uchiha deserved to be severely injured.
“Feel better then?” Sasuke’s drawl sounded too loud in the tiny room. It sounded like a taunt - and Naruto knew it was - and he couldn’t help but turn around and rise to the bait - eye Sasuke as the boy watched him warily, still pressed against the wall of his own accord.
“No I don’t feel better!” he snapped, pushing Sasuke so the boy’s back bumped against the wall again. “Because my best friend,” he saw Sasuke flinch at the declaration and hoped it hurt the boy as badly as he had intended it to, “is unconscious and bleeding and in a hell of a lot of pain. I wouldn’t expect you to understand what it’s like to care about someone. I mean, with a fuck up like your brother as a role mode--” Naruto paused, eyes widened at what he’d just said and he snapped his mouth shut, eyes still steely.
“Finish that sentence,” Sasuke spat, voice hard and dripping with intent.
“I don’t answer to you, Sasuke,” Naruto hissed, crossing his arms over his chest. The fear for Sakura bubbled and his anger at Sasuke wouldn’t fade. Maybe it was because he was disappointed that Sasuke still didn’t care about anything but his own goals and motives, which he supposed he was now one of. Another of Sasuke’s fucking goals.
Naruto stopped that train of thought - brought a halt to the sudden pain in his chest before it could really start - and looked at Sasuke with vicious expectation. He deserved an answer.
Sasuke took a step towards his blonde teammate - away from the wall - and hissed, “No, you don’t answer to anyone, do you Naruto? Even if you’re probably dying. You’ll still lock out the only person that has any ability to possibly help you because you don’t answer to anyone.”
“I’m not dying,” Naruto snorted, turning his head away from the intense gaze Sasuke had fixed upon him. “Get out of my space,” he added darkly, pushing Sasuke away - ignoring his own hypocrisy, for he had just been invading Sasuke’s space mere minutes ago.
There was a pulse in his stomach and the blonde stumbled slightly, falling into his dark-eyed comrade.
“You’re almost at the point where you have no chakra left to lose,” Sasuke commented, his suddenly red eyes meeting Naruto’s solemnly - furiously. “So would you quit being a stubborn idiot and tell me what’s going on?”
Naruto bit his lip and stepped away from Sasuke - glared at him and swallowed around the fear in his throat. “Nothing’s wrong,” he told the other boy weakly, and turned back to Sakura. Lowering himself to the ground, he added, “’Sides, I still have tons of chakra, bastard,” in a low mumble.
Now seated beside the girl, Naruto reached out a hand and pushed her hair from her face, his eyes trapped in the pale complexion that betrayed her blood loss. His anger started to rise again and he pulled his hand away, eyes turning to the carpet he was sitting.
“I have a theory as to what might be happening,” Sasuke said in a cool voice as he sat down beside Naruto, leaning comfortably against the wall.
“Don’t wanna hear it,” Naruto mumbled, moving away from Sasuke a bit. He didn’t like the clean smell the other boy released. It felt so familiar - like home - and that scared Naruto. He was too young to find home, never mind the fact that he was finding it in the person he probably trusted least in the world to not break his heart. Not that he could be heart broken, he thought, sitting up straighter.
Sasuke glanced at him from the corner of his eye with a dry look. “You’re going to risk your life because you have too much pride to let me know what’s going on?” he asked; his tone sceptical and kind of like the Sasuke that Naruto had grown comfortable with over the last three months.
“Would you stop?” Naruto sighed. His exhaustion from the change between invisibility and visibility was catching up with him and he didn’t know if he could fend off Sasuke’s insisting questions. The blonde turned his attention to Sasuke and saw that the other boy was staring at the wall before him unwaveringly. His jaw was set resolutely.
“Remember telling me that you were my best bet at finding Itachi?” Sasuke asked, his voice small but somehow filling the entire room.
Naruto didn’t look over at his companion, but instead focused entirely on Sakura. “Yeah.”
All the while his mind was screaming for Sasuke to stop - an overwhelming chorus of ’No no no no no no no…’
There was a pause and Naruto looked to see Sasuke’s face breaking into a frown. “I can feel him,” he said, voice completely blank. The blonde ninja felt a spark of pity for Sasuke. He was trying so hard to be apathetic in the face of this, and his expression was relaying his every thought.
“That’s your theory,” Naruto assumed aloud. He could taste the worry thick on his tongue as he spoke, coating his words and tainting his tone. He looked at Sasuke, his eyes squinting to keep the terror from showing on his face.
“Yeah.”
“Well maybe it’s just a coincidence, because there’s nothing really wrong with m-”
“Oh would you shut up?” Sasuke sighed, his voice clipped both with aggravation and exhaustion. He leaned into the wall and let his head fell back against it with a hollow sound; his face closed off. “If Itachi’s really after you like you say, Naruto, then your best bet at surviving whatever it is he’s doing to you is me.”
“And why would that be?” Naruto demanded, taking Sakura’s hand in his own because even unconscious, she was a sturdy support line for him. The delicate form of her hand was soft and small. Not calloused, or rough, with big strong finge-- And Naruto wasn’t actually comparing their hands…
“I’ve spent the last three years training so I could kill him.” Sasuke’s eyes flicked to Naruto and Sakura’s joined hands and he tensed. “Do you have to do that?” he asked annoyed.
Looking at Sasuke and jumping at the chance to avoid the awkward conversation that had almost arisen, Naruto allowed a small smirk to his face and said with little hesitation, “Jealous?”
“Not really,” Sasuke replied just as easily. He noticed that Naruto dropped Sakura’s hand and his lips lifted minutely. “I know competition when I see it.”
“Oh stuff it,” Naruto said with a playful scowl, “You were pretty intimidated by Sai. ‘Sides, what makes you think I actually want you?”
And how they were talking about this so civilly was beyond Naruto.
“I just know these things… And you undress me with your eyes so often it’s almost embarrassing.”
Naruto blushed. This just had to be some weird quirk to their relationship. They could fight and joke about the same subject from one minute to the next.
“And I’m always disappointed with what I see,” Naruto retorted.
Next thing he knew they would probably be making jokes about Orochimaru and his obsession with ass bows.
Sasuke snorted. “That’s because you haven’t seen the real thing…yet.”
Naruto briefly wondered if Sasuke ever thought of those silly ass bows as ass pretzels too…
“I’d probably puke at its grossness or laugh at the Uchiha bloodline’s ‘legacy’,” Naruto informed Sasuke with a smug grin.
Although he supposed that was probably unlikely considering how far the proverbial stick up Sasuke’s ass was wedged.
“You are immature like that, aren’t you?”
Naruto stopped his train of thought so he could turn all his attention to glaring at Sasuke. “I don’t get you,” he informed the Uchiha.
“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Sasuke said in automatic response. He was staring back at Naruto, who wanted to ask the bastard why he couldn’t just make up his mind. He wanted to scream, ‘Do you want me or not?’ But he couldn’t. Not now. Not ever.
Sasuke would have to choose without any outside help.
“I know you don’t,” Naruto said quietly. “I guess I just feel like I should… I always used to…” He couldn’t finish that thought because it was too close talking about Sasuke leaving. Naruto swallowed with some difficulty, his throat suddenly constricted.
A light sigh sounded beside Naruto - lost and helpless. “I don’t anymore either,” he said quietly, refusing to look at Naruto, who was now openly staring at him with a sympathetic expression.
At a loss for words, Naruto leaned into Sasuke and wrapped his arms around the boy, giving him a loose hug. “We’ll get there eventually,” he promised before pulling away and sitting back to watch Sakura.
It didn’t strike Naruto that he’d just made a promise that completely conflicted with his previous one. There was no way he could help Sasuke find himself without growing closer to the boy. But as Naruto didn’t realize these contradictory promises, he simply grabbed Sasuke’s hand and gave it a comforting squeeze, eyes fixed on Sakura.
-----
When Sakura’s eyes flickered open, Naruto and Sasuke were both sitting in silence, watching her with sober expressions. She let out a small breath and turned her head to the side slightly, taking in the scene. “Naruto,” she said, smiling gently at the boy ad began to sit up as delicately as possible. “You’re okay?” she asked, careful to keep her gaze away from Sasuke.
She winced, a hiss of breath passing through her clenched jaw, and felt her side with tender fingers. Then her eyes met Naruto’s, urging him to answer her question. Telling him she was fine.
“Yeah,” he said. The boy felt his gut wrench and he leaned forward, putting his hand on her shoulder comfortingly. “The fall reopened the wound,” he told her, gesturing to the pink-haired kunoichi’s side with a nod of his head.
Beside him, waves of tension rolled off Sasuke and Naruto couldn’t help but look at him. As he did, he felt Sakura stiffen under his hand.
“Naruto,” Sakura said, unnerving the blonde with the way she stared at Sasuke while addressing him, “Could you leave?”
“What?” The boy removed his hand from her shoulder and frowned, turning to look at Sasuke, questioningly. The Uchiha was meeting Sakura’s stare, even as he nodded and said, “Go.”
A sense of discomfort washed over Naruto and he slowly stood, his gaze flicking between the pair in concern. “Yeah, all right… I’ll go pack my stuff so we can get out of here as quickly as possible and keep going.” He paused, his hand on the door handle - waiting for someone to ask him why he needed to pack when all he had with him was his backpack, which was always packed anyway - No one said anything. “It’s only about two days’ journey to there from here, right?”
When Sasuke said, “Yes Naruto,” in an irritated tone without looking at the boy, he knew they weren’t going to relent. So, without looking back, he left.
If they wanted to rip each other to shreds that desperately, that was their business.
-----
Twenty minutes later, the trio exited the hotel, each silent and lost in themselves. Naruto found himself standing between his teammates, who both kept glancing absently in the other’s direction. Their movements were anxious and jerky. Each step was accompanied with a flit of the eyes or a nervous frown.
Naruto wondered if they both thought he was too stupid to notice or if they were simply too caught up in fretting about whatever they’d talked about to realize they were acting so oddly.
When they’d reached the edge of the town, Naruto found himself just as wound up as them. He kept seeing flickers of black in the corner of his vision. But every time he looked, there was nothing there.
Sighing, the boy picked up the pace, starting off ahead of Sakura and Sasuke because he swore if Sasuke glanced in his direction with that stupid worried expression or if Sakura twisted the front of her shirt between her fingers and bit her lip, eyes locked on him just one more time he was going to punch something. And he couldn’t promise it wouldn’t be one of them.
Though he admitted, snidely, he’d punch Sasuke first - he wasn’t injured.
It wasn’t until they’d made their way deep into the forest that Sakura and Sasuke caught up to him, calling out for him to stop.
“Something wrong?” Naruto asked, turning back on himself and meeting up with the pair in a small clearing, where they’d both ceased their steps - refused to follow him further. Sakura’s face was concerned and she stepped closer to Naruto, visibly swallowing.
“Naruto, I need to see the seal,” she told him - ordered him. Her eyes were pleading for him to not put up a fight. But her behaviour, matched with the strange look in Sasuke’s eyes, put Naruto on edge and the blonde took a step back - increased the blessed distance between him and her weirdness.
“Uh…why?”
Sasuke frowned and gave Naruto a dry look, as if he’d expected such a question but said nothing. Naruto noted that Sharingan was activated and turned back to Sakura, wondering what the hell they were up to. The sentiment showed clear on his face.
“Naruto, we’re worried about you.” Sakura stopped and bit her lip, glancing at Sasuke, pleading with him to back her up. The dark-haired boy shrugged as if to say, ‘just force him to show us’.
The looks… her nervousness… Naruto paled, his gaze bolting and locking onto Sasuke as he realized Sakura must have told him. The boy was watching him impassively. There was no respect in his gaze. It was so blank.
Just like when he’d come back.
Naruto felt his breathing quicken and he tried to replace his fear with anger. He had to.
Turning back to Sakura, Naruto all but snarled, “You told him?”
The reaction he got wasn’t one he expected. Sakura furrowed her brow in confusion and looked at him incredulously. “You think I would go behind your back?” she asked softly. Her voice was laced with pity and the blonde felt his anger rising. He felt trapped with both Sakura and Sasuke standing before him urging him to show them the seal.
“I thought you were okay, Naruto,” Sasuke said, his voice somehow vacant and accusing at the same time.
Naruto flinched. “Would you shut up?” he growled, turning to glare at Sasuke. “I don’t know what the hell is going on right now with you two, and I’m not going to bother trying to figure it out.” He turned to leave but paused as a flash of black flitted along the edge of the clearing. It was during this moment of distraction that Sakura and Sasuke lunged forward in unison.
Sakura pulled both his arms behind his back in one quick movement with her right arm then lifted up his shirt with the other. Sasuke stood before him, tense and ready in case Naruto decided to knock her away, even though they both knew he wouldn’t. Sakura was too physically strong to throw off and she was injured. Naruto was far too noble to take advantage of that.
“Fuck. You,” he spat at Sasuke as the boy reached forward to touch the seal with his finger. The touch was light and impersonal. Purely experimental.
“You’re chakra’s being drawn in the direction we’re headed,” Sasuke informed the reluctantly passive boy, his eyes following a line that was invisible to both Sakura and Naruto.
“Do you know any seals you could place on top of the existing one to lock in the draining chakra or perhaps slow down the rate at which it’s being drained?” Sakura asked from behind Naruto. He frowned at the suggestion and shook his head ‘no’ to Sasuke, his expression ominous.
“Don’t you dare,” he warned in a throaty growl.
It seemed Naruto wasn’t that threatening because just as soon as the words had finished grating their way through his clenched jaw, Sasuke’s palm was securely placed over the mark on the boy’s navel. “I know of one that may work,” Sasuke said to Sakura as he began creating the secondary seal - completely ignoring Naruto.
Naruto’s eyes bugged and he began to squirm. “This is my body! You can’t put a seal on it without my permission!” He was tempted to scream at the Uchiha about how this was an outrage, but then he felt bile rise up to his throat and a familiar dizzy feeling passing through his body.
“No, no, no, no,” he suddenly said in a breath of anxiety. His struggling began to increase until he was flailing against Sakura - needing to get away - nobility be damned.
As he fought, his breath began to catch and hold in his lungs, only releasing when he thought he was going to die from lack of air. His face heated and stretched - felt like someone was tugging his hair so hard it was pulling his skin, and he groaned softly in pain.
This shouldn’t be happening, Naruto thought desperately, grinding his teeth together as he fought against the pull at his navel - willed himself to stay exactly as he was.
Suddenly, Sakura let out a tiny cry of pain and released his arm. She came around beside him and Naruto could see a bright red welt on her hand where she’d been holding him. A burn.
He should run, he thought, but there was another tug on his body and he felt his stomach throb in resistance.
Sasuke pulled his hand away too, flinching and staring at the bubbles and welts that began rising from his skin. “Naruto,” he said in a tight voice, “What’s happening?” His eyes were bright with terror and he reached out a hand to touch Naruto again, but Sakura slapped it away.
“Don’t touch him, he’ll only burn you more,” she told Sasuke, though her voice sounded muted and far away. Naruto felt himself flicker into invisibility and cursed.
’Naruto… oh fuck what the hell is wrong with you? Why won’t you let me help you?’ A loud demand echoed through his mind and suddenly became an enraged yell of, “What is going on, Sakura?”
“Sasu--”
Sakura’s voice cut into thought and Naruto nearly keeled over and puked in his state of invisibility. His legs trembled beneath him as he was once again tugged back into visibility.
“Just fucking te--”
The world hazed red and as Naruto’s head wearily turned to the side, he saw two glowing scarlet eyes watching him from the brush. They were surrounded by nothing but black, but Naruto knew what they were - whose they were. He shuddered and was pulled back into visibility again.
This was too much; he could feel his body breaking under the strain. His bones creaked with tension and blood pounded in his head so loudly he thought he might go deaf.
He was visible for a second.
“I can’t. I made a promi--”
“Naruto!”
And then he was gone, still staring at the brush. But the eyes were gone too - had disappeared in his brief encounter with normality and remained away when he returned to their world.
Pulling back into visibility one last time, Naruto fell forward. He felt a strong pair of arms catch him and hold him tight as his eyes slid shut.
“Naruto?” Sasuke’s voice was soft and worried. Naruto sighed and buried his head into the boy’s chest, feeling his eyes tearing up under the exhaustion.
He had seen Itachi.
“Are you okay, Naruto?” that same terrified voice inquired.
And he couldn’t tell Sasuke because there were too many loose ends…
“I’m sorry,” Naruto whispered and fell into the blissful oblivion of unconsciousness.
-----
AN: YEY!!! Look at that, two chapters in under a month BITCHES!!!! Boo ya! Okay, that said, thanks for all the support on the last chapter. It means oodles and caboodles to me!!! I love you all! Anyways, I love reviews almost as much as I love writing this monster of a story, so please, feel free (wink wink) Thnx!
-TJ
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