Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Broken ❯ Misunderstandings ( Chapter 16 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: blackarora 
rumnning in to Neji
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Psychological / Hentai / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.28.2005 | Updated On: 06.28.2006 | Pages: 6 | Words: 8.9K | Visits: 1.7K | Status: Completed
rumnning in to Neji
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Psychological / Hentai / Action | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 07.28.2005 | Updated On: 06.28.2006 | Pages: 6 | Words: 8.9K | Visits: 1.7K | Status: Completed
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16 Misunderstandings.
I do not own him, or any of his friends.
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Neji sat at a small noodle stand, watching people pass by on their errands, enjoying the down time. The soft breeze from the mountains kept the humid weather at bay, and the sunlight seemed to warm him for the first time in over seven months. The war was over with the death of Orochimaru, and he was currently on a lowly B ranked mission instead of the A ranked ones that he had grown accustomed to. More than glad to be taking a breather from the front lines and the shinobi battles, not that he would ever admit that he needed one.
The past months had been hectic for the fire country’s shinobi, and the entire country needed a break from the near constant battles along the northern boarder.
The Sound had expanded in to the countries to the east and west. All shinobi, from genin to elite Jounin, had been fighting desperately to push them back, knowing that as soon as the countries without a shinobi village to protect it were taken over, they would be next. The Sand, Rock, and Cloud villages had all been similarly pressed with the requests of protection from the countries without shinobi villages and to provide back up for the Hidden Waterfall village.
There had been hardly any time for anything but fighting. Mission after mission, and each time he went out, he knew that there was a strong chance that he might not make it back. As the months of fighting pressed on with out reprieve, the death count went up. Leaving gaps in the ranks and making more work for the ones who lived to fill the holes.
Plus, shinobi had been abandoning their villages to seek power with the snake. Sand, mist, rock and grass as well as Konoha had all lost a substantial amount of fighting forces to the bastard. Up until last week, that is.
With the death of Orochimaru, the great expanding nation had collapsed into itself. Kabuto was now the Kage. However, massive internal struggles had quickly stopped all offensives, and the rest of the shinobi villages took advantage of the Sound’s depletion of power. They retook the lost territory, and then returned it to the rightful lords. With out the Kyuubi on the Sound’s side, the land was swiftly taken back with minimal casualties, although everyone was still very wary of the Sound, in case the fox was still there.
The demon had struck fear into any and all shinobi that went up against it. The beast was an unbeatable weapon, and at the rate Orochimaru was going, it would not have been long before a shinobi village was targeted and destroyed.
All but Sand and Leaf where terrified that it would be their village. Gaara was sure that Shukaku could hold off Kyuubi, and Tsunade was sure that Orochimaru would wait until all the other villages had fallen before destroying the Leaf.
That had not comforted the other Kages or the lords who had put out a bounty on the demon in their desperation. An impossibly high amount of money to any shinobi that could stop the beast. Only, no one could do it. The demon was just too strong. It had looked very bleak indeed.
Then word got out that Orochimaru had been killed and that the demon had been taken away. Now the entire shinobi world was waiting to find out who would be the next master of the demon.
“Kyuubi... Naruto.” Neji whispered to his noodles. His pale eyes stared in to the steaming liquid as he slowly stirred the ramen with the cheap little chopsticks provided.
It had been a long time since he had last seen him in the hospital. He had been through a few towns that had been demolished by the demon. There was simply a burnt peace of earth and corpses; there was no way to rebuild after the destruction caused by the fox. The beast’s tails had split the ground and any building would not be structurally safe until the land had resettled.
Neji shook his head, long hair swaying. Clearing the images of carnage from his mind.
He had been part of the search party sent out after Sasuke and Naruto after the demon showed up in Konoha. The beast had cut a path through the forest, so it had been easy to follow. Kakashi had his dogs out and Kiba and Akamaru were following their noses as well.
Jiraiya had not let Tsunade go with them, but Sakura went along with Lee and all of Shikamaru’s team. The Hokage wanted people that Naruto could recognize to go after him. They had been too slow, though, and came across the remains of Shimota. Kiba had said that the scent of Sasuke, Naruto, and Orochimaru were all at the tiny medical center in the remains of the village.
No one was sure what had happened there, but only a week later, Kyuubi destroyed Kimon. Some had said that the Uchiha was the cause of this, that he lured the demon into the grasp of the snake, that he returned only to serve his masters purpose, and to trick Naruto.
Neji could not believe that. He was not fond of Sasuke, but doubted that the bastard would lure his best friend in to a trap like that. Later, reports from a sand spy that had infiltrated the Sound after Orochimaru had killed the Kazekage, had offered mixed feelings about the Uchiha. Yes, he was in the Sound, but reluctantly. He had resumed the position of snake lackey, though, and the reports that he had read stated that the likelihood of Sasuke getting the blond out was slim to none. Orochimaru had some how managed to get control of Sasuke, and the raven haired fool did not have much of a chance to break that control.
The Hyuuga snorted and started to eat the now cold noodles. Uchiha could not escape, and therefore he could not help Naruto. The sand spy had kept them informed on the location of the Kyuubi vessel, but no shinobi could get passed the Sounds defenses. Orochimaru had kept Naruto very well guarded, especially when they were not in the Sound’s territory. Several teams had tried, but none made it. The remains of the teams that did return had horror stories of what was happening in the Sound.
The Hokage never gave up in her quest to get Naruto back and no one questioned her, they all wanted the fighting to end and to get Naruto back as well. Shino was on the last retrieval mission from a few weeks back.
The bug man had told him that the bastard snake kept Naruto at his side, and when the team had been found out, Orochimaru forced Naruto to kill them. By some small chance he had survived and made it back. Shino had said that the blond had been broken. There was no life in his eyes, and that the blond flinched whenever any one came near, especially the snake. He did what ever he was told to do, emotionlessly, silently, and without question. He had also improved a great deal shinobi skill wise. Naruto did not turn into Kyuubi to kill them, he had simply moved from his master’s side and started to slaughter the group of jounins that had been caught with his own kunai and jutsus.
The snake bastard had just looked on and laughed when it was over. Shino, who was wounded and playing dead, had seen the snake come up to the blond and ruffle his hair and say ‘good boy,’ the way it was said to a dog. Naruto had shuddered and looked away, ashamed, but did not move until told to. The report was disheartening, but Tsunade had vowed to get Naruto back.
The longhaired shinobi paused in his consuming of the noodles as he felt a powerful presence pass by. He was on a mission and, regardless of lunch or long lost comrades, he would carry it out. In the wake of Orochimaru’s passing the numerous new shinobi that had joined the Sound had been cut off. Having abandoned their original village, they had nowhere to go, and several had taken up the job of bandit. This village he was in, Ginkakuji, currently enjoying their noodles, had a particularly bad strain of shinobi turned bandit plaguing them, and had hired leaf shinobi to stop them. Tsunade agreed to this mission mostly because the bandit shinobi might have some information on the location of Naruto. So far, though, the shinobi that had been caught were nothing more than stupid punks that had not known anything.
Neji lowed his gaze to the floor and activated his Byaakugan. This village was on the border of Sound, Tea, and Leaf, and had been overtaken by Orochimaru in the first month of hostilities. In the months of control by the snake, the villagers had developed a fear for shinobi. The bastard snake had let his men run rampant, and they had raped, pillaged and plundered at their own liking.
Originally this was a resort town with hot springs and gambling places. They had had only one week of being out from under Orochimaru’s control, and were desperately trying to undo the damage to get back into business.
Neji did not like having to hide his eyes when he used Byaakugan, but after having a woman run screaming from him when he was trying to save her, it was decided that it was for the best if the members of this mission hid there special abilities and tried to blend in. The only thing that made them stand out was that they all wore Konoha forehead protectors. Gai, Lee, and Tenten blended in well, but him with his eyes, and Kiba with Akamaru and the red on his face stood out, Shino had it worst of all. Not only was it getting hot out and he had to wear his heavy coat to cover the holes his bugs used, but also he could not go to the hot springs either. This was their first mission after the failed one to retrieve Naruto. All of them were stressed out after 7 months of near constant fighting, so they had been looking forward to a little down time at the hot springs.
The white-eyed teen set his chopsticks down and concentrated. The powerful presence was just out of the range of his Byaakugan, but he could ‘see’ the gray vest on one, and the shorter one had an odd feel to him. The shorter was clearly out of range, and the taller one was just passing through the farthest edge of his sight. They were definitely shinobi, and since the vast majority of all shinobi were on missions and not on vacations to the hot springs, he could be certain that these two were not supposed to be here. The gray vest on the taller one meant that these two had come from the Sound, and had the rank of at least chuunin, so he might know something of Kyuubi.
Neji stopped the Byaakugan and stood up. He paid for the unfinished meal and turned to go after the two shinobi.
“Neji!!!” The stoic Hyuuga nearly fell over at the overenthusiastic shout from his teammate. Lee came running up to him, followed by Kiba and his dog.
“Neji, the man who runs the Shisengumi hot springs said that two shinobi stopped there. One was very mean and scary, the owner let them use the springs, but got a hold of Gai sensei as soon as they left.” Lee was the only person that could describe a powerful enemy as ‘mean and scary’ and keep a strait face. “We are supposed to go find them.”
‘Well, duh. They probably are the two I was going to follow any way.’ The Hyuuga prodigy looked over the green spandex clad teammate who currently had fires burning in his eyes from the thought of fighting a strong opponent. Lee was still a chuunin, and so was Kiba. Shino, Shikamaru, and he were already jounins, the war had cost a lot of lives, and soon these two would step to Jounin level to fill the space left open by those who were killed. Gai was the only senior Jounin available and was put in charge of this mission, but he was second in command.
“Where are the others?” Neji asked once Lee had finished talking and he had finished thinking things through.
“With Gai sensei.” Came Lee’s over enthusiastic reply.
Kiba growled. His sensei was leading an information-gathering mission with Sakura, Ino and Hinata. One of Orochimaru’s high-leveled men had locked himself in a brothel and only permitted women around him, so only females were on that mission. He was surprised that Hinata went and Tenten had come on this mission, but then again, Tenten did not know the first thing about anything remotely girly, so it kind of made sense.
“Ok, lets go. Spread out and try to blend in.”
Neji turned away from the two and started after the two shinobi he had felt before. Kiba started down an ally way, and was mildly surprised to find a sent he could recognize. It smelled like someone he knew, but only vaguely. Brushing it off, thinking that whoever it was just used the same shampoo as one of his friends, he glanced down to Akamaru who had grown so much that he could run along side Kiba and keep up. The pale dog had a confused look on its mussel but did not sound an alert. Kiba shrugged all of this off as fluke chance and continued to run down the ally way in the same general direction as Neji.
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Sasuke turned left out of the ally way he had used as a short cut. He was acutely aware of the three shinobi presences that had appeared behind him. One particularly powerful one, that could only be described as white, was following directly behind him, the other two were off to each side as if trying to flank him.
As the one to the right of the white one drew closer he stopped all chakra and hid himself in the crowded street. Naruto was oblivious to the shinobi that were following them, and went where Sasuke guided him. The shinobi presences passed by them and continued in the direction they had been going.
The raven-haired teen looked around them, bored. People were pointedly not watching them, and small children where guided out of their path. ‘Odd.’
Naruto was starting to yawn and stumbled now and then. ‘Good. He won’t put up as much of a fight when we get to the hospital.’
Sasuke was not looking forward to dragging Naruto to the doctor. He was sure that the blond would have issues after Shijima. He had planed it all out, what he would do when they got to this town, in order to tire the already weary teen out.
Ginkakuji, he had learned, was on the border of three countries, and had been taken over by Orochimaru in the first months of the war. It had been used as a retreat for the shinobi that Orochimaru had felt did an outstanding job of killing mercilessly. It was originally a resort town, and had a decent hospital at its center.
To get Naruto to it, he had first taken him to get new clothes, and then to a hot spring to clean up after their week in the woods. They had changed into the new clothes and went out for lunch. As he had figured, the blond had eaten a ton. Now cleaned, clothed, and stuffed to the brim with food, the lure of sleep should be too much for Naruto.
As if on cue, the whiskered teen stumbled, and Sasuke caught him before he could fall flat on his face. Naruto wheezed a little and coughed.
“Hay bastard, can we take a break? I’m tired.” He followed the sentence with a huge yawn.
The raven-haired teen set Naruto back on to his feet. “Just a little longer.”
“Mmmmmmmm, OK.”
Sasuke led the tired blue-eyed teen past all the quickly rebuilt sale stalls and to the hospital. It was a small, three story, brick building. The only thing that let you know that it was a hospital was the sign saying that it was, otherwise, it looked like a hotel. There was a mumbled yawn, and Sasuke had to quickly grab the blonde before he fell over in the street. He put Naruto’s arm around his shoulder, and put his arm around Naruto’s waist. Slowly, he walked the barely awake teen into the hospital.
The nurse at the front desk was shocked to see two shinobi coming in. They were shinobi all right. The tall dark and handsome one had a horribly powerful aura and was dressed entirely in black, except for the gray vest he wore. That vest alone scared her, gray vests were from the Sound, and shinobi from the Sound were horrible people. Working here in the hospital had spared her from most of the antics of the controlling shinobi, but she did see what they did to others. The hospital was still full of people trying to recover from very one-sided fights that they had not started. She shuddered at the remembered sight of the girls that had been brought in. It did not matter that they had said no, if the shinobi wanted her, he took her.
Slowly she looked over the smaller one, who looked to be sleeping on the taller one, who was currently holding him up. He had on an orange shirt and the same black cargos that the other was wearing, but a belt was holding his up, and still the pants were threatening to fall off his slender hips. He wheezed when breathing, and started to cough a bad deep chesty sort of cough that suggested pneumonia.
“Well?” The cold threatening tone of the taller shinobi snapped her back to business. “What can we help you with sir?”
“Help him.” The dark haired one nodded to the blond he was holding up.
“Ok. Can you bring him this way please?” The nurse opened a door and led them down a hall; pass several rooms with heavily bandaged people in them. Sasuke had noticed the full waiting room, and the fearful looks the occupants of these rooms were giving him.
‘Why weren’t we told to take a number? They seem to be afraid of me….’ Sasuke smirked inwardly at the thought.
The petite nurse opened a door and ushered them in. Sasuke lifted Naruto and set him on the exam table.
The nurse, whose nametag said she was Yuki, nervously told him the doctor would be here to see him soon. As soon as she stepped out the door, Sasuke grabbed his elbow guard and took deep breathes. They had been led pass a pharmacy where he knew they kept the morphine. Oh god this was so hard.
It would be so easy for him to get some. To feel nothing again. Trying to get his mind off the drugs, he opened his eyes and looked over the sleeping blond.
The orange shirt he had purchased earlier for his friend had a red patch on the sleeve, and Naruto had wanted it the moment he had walked him in to the store. There had not been much of a selection, and the owner had been very skittish, but Naruto had liked the shirt, so he bought it for him, as well as the black pants. The store did not have a size small enough for the blonde, so he had to get him a size to big and a belt. The next store over had weapons so he had replenished their supply of kunai and got a sheath for Orochimaru’s sword.
The sword had survived the ride on the back of the toad and was left in the swamp after Gamabunta had disappeared. The sharp blade had caught a glimmer of sunlight and he had fished it out of the mucky water, knowing that the sword would be useful, before taking Naruto to the thicket in the woods. Sasuke could feel the weight of the sharp blade slung across his back.
The sword was also serving as a reminder that he had overcome the opposition of the snake, so he could beat this. Yes, he could, and would, beat this.
The raven-haired teen put both hands in his pockets and felt the credit card he had in one pocket. The dobe was lucky he had been on his way to re-stock his house with food when Kyuubi had attacked. He had never made it to market, and had not yet returned to his house. Somehow, through the chase in the woods and the stay at the Sound, he had not lost the stupid piece of plastic. It had paid for the clothes that they both had needed and their admission into the hot springs. They had not stayed as long as he would of liked, but Naruto was not too fond of public bathing any more. It had purchased the food Naruto had gorged on as well, and would pay for the blond to get the fluid out of his lungs. Useful, this stupid piece of plastic.
Yuki, the small mousy nurse came back. Her eyes watching his every move, behind her came the doctor. If she was mousy with her short brown hair and small stature, he was ratty. He looked un-kept, had beady eyes, and had buckteeth. Sasuke was tempted to look and see if he had a rat-tail hairstyle. It would be too much if he did.
The doctor moved nervously up to Naruto, very aware of the harsh gaze the dark haired teen was giving him.
As he slid the blonde’s shirt up to listen to his breathing, the sleeping teen’s eyes snapped opened and Naruto gave a terrified scream, and started to scramble to get away from the doctor, thrashed, and clawed at the arms that had reached over to hold him down. Then, punching with all his might in his desperation, he heard an ‘oomph’ as his fist connected with some thing.
Sasuke took the hit to the shoulder and grabbed the blonde, forcing him in to a tight hug that pinned both of Naruto’s arms between their chests.
“Naruto, damn it, look at me!” Sasuke reached down and grabbed the blonde’s chin, forcing him to meet his gaze as Naruto continued to fight. They were almost nose-to-nose, and Naruto could feel the raven hair brushing against his whiskered cheeks. “Who am I?”
The blonde stopped thrashing and stilled as he recognized the one holding him, the dark hair and pale skin. “Sasuke. You’re Sasuke.”
Naruto went in to a coughing fit and Sasuke loosened up the hug, stepping back so the blonde could lean forward to ease the pain of coughing and rubbed the blonds back. When the coughing stopped, Naruto looked up to his friend, choking as he spoke.
“Why are we here?”
“You need to get the blood out of your lungs. They’ll do it, and I’ll be right here to make sure that’s all they do.” Naruto looked over the mousy nurse and the ratty doctor that had moved away from the struggling blonde, not wanting to get caught up in shinobi affairs. Then looked back over to his friend.
“Promise you’ll stay?”
Naruto’s voice was strained and in the softest, most sincere voice Sasuke could muster.
“I promise...” The raven haired Uchiha reached out and brushed a little bit of blood away with his thumb that had leaked out of the corner of Naruto’s mouth when he was coughing. “...I won’t leave.”
Sasuke put his hand on the blonde’s shoulder and motioned for the doctor to come over. Naruto flinched when the cold stethoscope was put under his shirt to the flesh of his chest. The doctor listened for a few moments than told the nurse to go grab a few things. As the nurse went through the cupboards, Naruto took his shirt off.
Both nurse and doctor gasped at the chest exposed to them. The scars looked horrific under the light. Naruto gave a small whimper when he realized he was being stared at, and leaned closer to Sasuke, who was still standing next to the table. Silently, the dark eyed teen returned his hand to the blue-eyed teen’s shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze. He was still here. He had not left. He glanced at the doctor who nodded his understanding.
“Ok, your name is Naruto, right.” The scared teen nodded.
“What I’m going to do is give you something to make you go to sleep, then we are going to drain the fluid out of your lungs so you can breath better. First, lets put this oxygen mask on you. There, no problem. Now this might hurt just a bit.”
The nurse came over and set a covered tray out of the blonde’s line of sight. She had a syringe and was preparing the vain on Naruto’s arm. The blond whimpered as the needle went in and Sasuke gently rubbed his shoulder in, or at least what he hoped was, a comforting way. He was watching the syringe intently.
The clear fluid it held awakened his senses, which were screaming for him to take it from the nurse, to put the remaining fluid in to his arm, to feel it course through him. He watched as the nurse set it on to the tray. Sasuke continued to stare at it as the doctor spoke to the nurse about preparing the equipment as the drug took effect over Naruto. The doctor said some thing directed to him, breaking his staring contest with the inanimate object.
“What?”
“What happened to him? If I may ask sir.”
Sasuke looked down to the now sleeping blonde and removed his hand from his shoulder.
“He was experimented on at the Sound.” Saying that he was the vessel for Kyuubi would defiantly get them kicked out and call attention to them.
“Oh, I figured as much. I’m sorry, but I have to ask you to back away. You don’t have to leave, but we need space to work.”
He needed to leave or he would grab that damn syringe and use it.
“How long?”
“Up to thirty minutes, depending on how much fluid there is.”
“Ok. I’ll be back.”
“You’re leaving? Didn’t you..…?”
The man stopped when he saw the icy glare from the dark haired teen. “Hurt him, and I’ll kill you.”
The doctor and the nurse looked nervously at each other and gulped. Believing that the two would take his words seriously, Sasuke strode from the room and stopped just out side the doorway.
‘Shit, I was so caught up with not taking that syringe; I didn’t notice that those shinobi had come to the hospital. Fuck.’
Silent hands flashed seals at a rapid pace and Sasuke suddenly blended in with the shadows. Silently, he crept, shadow-to-shadow, glad that he was doing something other than watching a syringe, feigning for something he could not let himself have.
The waiting room was well lit, which hampered Sasuke’s shadow skill, though he managed to get to the shadow of one of the chairs behind and to the side of the three shinobi that had just entered.
His inverted vision made it hard to see details about them, but he could make out that they all wore vests and the one with the white chakra had an authoritative air to him. He must be the leader and, obviously, the most powerful. The white chakra shinobi was talking with the head nurse and was directed the way he had just come.
To Naruto.
That surge of protectiveness he had felt when they had first started for this town came back, washing over him and making him snarl in rage at those who would try to hurt Naruto.
He would not let them near the blonde. The dobe trusted him to not let any thing happen to him and he was not going to break that trust.
Sasuke leapt into the shadow of the nearest one and slammed the butt of Orochimaru’s sword to the base of his skull, effectively knocking him out. Before the body could hit the floor, he had thrown several kunai at the other, deftly nailing him to the wall. As the body of the first one hit the floor, he leaped from its shadow, dropping the shadow skill and activating his Sharingan eye. He was fast, and add that to his Sharingan eye and it doubles his deadliness. He charged the back of the white chakra user. The user spun, and had it not for sharingan showing him a moment before it happened; he would of taken Neji’s head. As it was, he could not stop mid swing, and Neji was caught surprised, he jumped back, but the sword tip grazed his cheek.
Sasuke slid on the tiles, the momentum from his charge and swing letting him slid a good 10 feet in a full crouch, ready to strike if he had to.
Neji felt the blood run down the right side of his face from the cut. He had seen him the moment Kiba dropped to the floor, but had spun just a fraction to slow. That slash from the sword should of had his head. There was nothing he could of done to stop the blow from connecting, it was all his opponent’s doing. ‘Why didn’t he kill me?’
He saw the gray vest and black clothes; the face was down turned, the black hair hiding it effectively. The people in the waiting room ran for cover as Neji’s blood dripped off his chin and on to the floor. The Hyuuga sensed the power from this guy, and slowly got in position for his divinity attack. This guy had in less than 2 seconds taken out Kiba, Lee and almost him. This guy was good.
Neji heard the groan from the side as Kiba rubbed the back of his head and tried to stand. Lee was removing the Kunai that had miraculously just pinned his green spandex to the wall. This man was damn good to make shots like that so fast. He doubted Tenten could of made them with out nailing a chunk of Lee to the wall as well as the spandex. Plus the surgical precision of a blow that had only disabled Kiba and not killed him.
Neji ‘saw’ the other two with out turning his head, and ‘saw’ when the man in front of him stood up.
“Damn it, Neji. Just kill him.”
Kiba’s comment was met with a cold, hard, red glare from the dark haired man. He paused, feeling the deadly power behind that glare and gulped. “Sasuke.”
“Why are you here, Uchiha?”
Neji was pissed, the bastard Uchiha had no reason to be here. True, reports had said he had made a break for it after Orochimaru died, but that just meant he had abandoned Naruto to save him self. Or maybe he still worked for the Sound and was on a mission.
“Answer me, Uchiha.”
“Fuck off.”
Lee had freed himself of the blades pinning him to the wall and, upon hearing Sasuke’s response, threw one at the head of the raven-haired bastard.
Sasuke did not move around to face the incoming blade; he just simply put his hand up and caught it with two fingers. He glared at the bushy eye-browed teen and then stopped the Sharingan and slipped the kunai back into the holster tied to his leg.
Sasuke sheathed the sword and stalked passed Neji, who was watching everything with his Byaakugan. The Uchiha slipped through the doors leading to the treatment rooms, leaving the stunned shinobi in the waiting room.
“What the fuck was that about?”
Neji dropped his fighting stance as Kiba came along side of him, rubbing the back of his head where Sasuke had hit him with the sword. “That prick has some major fucking issues.”
Silently, Neji agreed with Kiba, but this was a mission and he did not have time to discuss the mental problems of the Uchiha heir.
“Kiba, Lee, are you ok?” At the double affirmative Neji continued.
“Go get Gai-sensei. I’m sure Sasuke will know something about where Naruto is.”
“Oh you mean where he ditched him to save his own sorry ass. You should have killed him for that alone. He’s the worst kind of scum there is for leaving Naruto at the Sound. Hell, maybe he really did lure Naruto to the snake.”
Kiba was growling, and so was Akamaru, the dog had waited outside of the hospital and had charged in when Sasuke attacked. Neji knew that they wanted to see Naruto again, and was betting on Sasuke to, for once, not be the bastard he was commonly known to be and helping the blond. Seeing Sasuke by himself meant that they were wrong, that Sasuke was a traitor and/or the lowest kind of scum in existence. The attack just now, even though he did not kill them, showed them that he was powerful and not on their side. Perhaps he was on a Sound mission and he just wanted to play around with his former friends before he got serious and killed them.
“Go get Gai-sensei.” Neji spoke in his ‘I am the boss and you will obey me, voice’, startling the two chuunin that stood next to him. He was mad as well, he had hoped that some how Sasuke had Naruto and that he was safe, but now they would have to prepare for another war with who ever now had the blonde in their possession.
“And you will be...…?” Lee asked questionably. He had been around Neji long enough to know his Boss voice and his ‘you’re about to die voice.’ The ‘go get Gai’ was spoken with a borderline death sentence.
“Keeping him here.” In other words, kicking his ass.
“Roger.” The two chuunin ran out of the hospital and Neji started down the hall he had seen the Uchiha go down.
Sasuke went to the blonde’s side as soon as he entered the room. The doctor and nurse had already finished draining his lungs and were removing the oxygen mask from Naruto.
“How long will he be out?”
“Considering that he’s so starved and weakened, the dose should last for quite a while longer. At least 5 hours.”
“Ok. Is there any medication for him to take?”
“Yes. I’ll get you the prescription.”
‘Shit, that means I have to go to a drug store.’
The mousy nurse had cleared away the equipment and the doctor was scribbling on some papers. Needing something to keep him preoccupied so he would not think about all the wonderful things a drugstore keeps in stock, he fidgeted with the elbow guard and thought about the shinobi he had just seen.
Why were they here? Why were they following him? What would they do now that they knew it was him? They had not seen Naruto, but what if he was the one they were looking for?
Sasuke felt the hair on his neck stand up as Neji’s chakra, his very angry chakra, came closer to him.
“You two should get to cover.” He warned the nurse and doctor, because if Neji wanted to fight, he would fight. His eyes turned the blood red of the Sharingan as the doctor crawled under the desk.
Neji ‘saw’ Sasuke with his Byaakugan and went toward that room. There was another person in there on the bed, but since he only could see chakra and not facial features it did not concern him. The one on the bed had hardly any chakra, and was out cold, not needing to be added in to his figurations of what he was about to do. Just as he reached the hall outside the room Sasuke was in, a loud crackling noise erupted and his eyes burned from the amount of chakra that had just formed.
He had to jump back as the Chidori demolished a large portion of the wall. The dust formed a cloud; he could no longer see the red eyes and the fading glow of the chakra in the Uchiha’s hand with out activating his Byaakugan. Then, even with his Byaakugan, Sasuke’s eyes glowed red.
Before the dust could settle, he started his divinity attack. The bastard was one step ahead of him, though, and managed to block all of the strikes. Damn Sharingan. Close combat was not his specialty but was he was not weak in it either. All he had to do was land one hit on the fucker and use Jyuuken to immobilize him.
Sasuke did not give him even a second to recover after the failed divinity attack and launched into a jutsu that sent metal spikes flying toward him. He could not use his spin defense, it would damage the hospital further, so he grabbed the first spike out of the air and used it to deflect all the other in coming ones. The dark haired bastard followed the last of the spikes with a kick that Neji dodged, but sent him stumbling into a trip wire.
Shruiken zoomed toward him and he barely dodged the one coming in for his blind spot. That dodge had made him jump into the hospital room. Looking at the Uchiha he felt a moment of dread. The bastard was in the divinity stance.
Although Sasuke could not use Jyuuken like he could, a pressure point hit was still damaging. In an instant he was thrown to the back wall from the force of the attack. He had blocked most of the hits because he knew the pattern, but he still missed a few key ones. Neji felt his absolute control over his chakra slip. Jyuuken was no longer possible for him to perform.
Sasuke seemed to know this and punched Neji in the face, who in turn kicked the Uchiha in the side.
In a mater of moments, a great shinobi battle turned in to a brawl. Each intently trying to beat the snot out of the other. Sasuke was always a moment ahead and Neji never lost sight of him, so he could not pull any tricks or sneak attacks. It would have lasted longer if Neji had not gotten thrown up against the bed, nearly overturning it.
Sasuke grabbed the Hyuuga’s collar, pulling him away from the bed and slammed his fist in to the cut on the white-eyed teen’s face. The pain from having an open wound punched made the longhaired teen drop the Byaakugan and lose his balance. Sasuke grabbed the collar with his second hand and hauled Neji up close so that they where nearly nose-to-nose.
“Why the fuck are you after us?” Sasuke was snarling.
“What makes you think you are so special that we have to hunt you?” The utter contempt in the voice pissed Sasuke off.
“Because you’re here.” Neji could feel the red eyes boring through his pale ones.
“We re here to hunt sound nins, since your one of them, that includes you.” Neji reached up and tugged on the gray vest Sasuke wore. “We just want to find out if Naruto is alright. Since he disappeared from the Sound, the renegade nins from the Sound might have information on his location. But why would you care? You’re the one that left him in the hands of a psychopath in the first place.”
The pale Hyuuga, in a swift movement, knocked the hands on his collar away and punched the dark haired bastard in the face, making him back up a few steps.
“Did you lead him to Orochimaru as well? Did you come back to Konoha just so you could make him trust you again, so you could get him to the Sound? You set him up from the start. You little prick, you sold your best friend to Orochimaru for power and then abandoned him.”
Neji’s words were full of venom and rage, letting his emotions show in battle for once.
“Is that what they think, that I tricked him? They don’t hate him for being a demon?” The calm, collected voice Sasuke used came off as arrogance and the pale-eyed Hyuuga grit his teeth.
“He’s not a demon, he’s the vessel for one, there‘s a big difference. He was forced to do those things, to destroy those villages. And it’s your fault. He trusted you and you used that to get power.”
The more he spoke the more pissed he seamed to make himself. With a flick of his wrist the Konoha jounin flung flash bombs at the feet of the traitor in front of him. The resulting flash blinded Sasuke. Neji, who was prepared for the bright lights, attacked. His control over his chakra had returned during their ‘little talk’ and the Leaf jounin slammed the raven-haired fool with a bone crushing punch that would of impressed Gai. The moment his fist connected, he used Jyuuken and fried as many of Sasuke’s chakra points as he could with one hit. Only to have the image of Sasuke poof in a puff smoke.
“A clone, you insult him by using his techniques.”
With the Byaakugan working, he saw the kunai zooming toward him and the wires tied to them. Knowing that the Uchiha could use the wires to channel and direct his fireball attack, Neji used his spin defense. The kunai bounced off and were sent in to the far walls, then, to his horror were redirected from the shadows. The wires had a small weight on the opposite end of the kunai and his spinning picked the weight up and was moving it to his body instead of away from it.
The wires, carried by the momentum of the weights, wrapped tightly around him, successfully immobilizing him and the kunai at the ends anchored themselves in to the floor, walls and ceiling, nailing him to the spot.
Neji was waiting for Sasuke to come out and gloat, maybe even to kill him. But he was not quite expecting to see him materialize out of shadows and rush to the over turned bed that had been slammed into the desk and wall from his spinning.
Sasuke pushed the bed away from the desk and two disheveled looking hospital workers crawled out from under it. He seriously did not think Sasuke was really helping them. It would mean Sasuke was being nice, which would be a sign of the apocalypse.
Not wasting any time the leaf jounin started to untangle himself from the wires. He could hear the traitor speaking to the two white coat-clad workers.
“Is he alright?”
“He’ll be ok. Just some bruising.”
Neji had almost extracted himself from the wires; he really did not care if the person on the bed was all right. It was probably some one that the Sound wanted Sasuke to protect. Suddenly, the hospital bed screeched as it slid across the tiled floor and slammed in to him. He tried to doge but the last few wires held him fast and the bed knocked him down.
Sasuke grabbed on to Neji’s shoulder and forced him to his feet, then punched him, again, and again.
“I thought you were out to find him, to help him.” Neji had never seen Sasuke get so worked up. It was kind of scary. The homicidal glint in his blood red eyes, the look of pure loathing that graced his pale features.
It was disturbing to say the least.
“You fucks just want to use him just like every one else. All that ranting and raving about how I was such an asshole and you’re the ones that don’t give a damn about him.”
“About who?”
This just seamed to piss the raving Uchiha off more and he started to further beat Neji to a pulp. There was one wire that was digging quite painfully into him; it was wrapped several times around his arm and twice around his chest. It was the last one still holding strong, all the others he had managed to worm out of. To top it off it was anchored to the ceiling, so when Sasuke hit him and he fell, the wire dug deeper in to his arm. He could not fall all the way to the ground; the wire would only let him fall to his knees.
There was a crunch as the Uchiha’s knee connected with his nose and he could not help but make a pained yelp as his eyes started to water.
“Sasuke stop it. Please stop.”
The voice came from behind Sasuke and Neji was sure he knew it, but that was impossible. The owner of that voice did not sound that broken and desperate.
The raven-haired teen stopped and grabbed a handful of the Hyuuga’s long hair, forcing his head up, blood dripping down his face from the broken nose. Sasuke stepped aside and the Hyuuga saw the occupant of the bed he had dismissed as not concerning him.
Naruto was laying on the floor held by the nurse in a comforting way and sporting a few blooming bruises on his bare, scar-covered chest. He looked more asleep than awake and looked to be about to go back to sleep at any moment.
“Who the hell did you think I was talking about?”
With one final kick, Sasuke let go of his hair and Neji quickly untangled himself from the one remanding wire.
The dark eyed teen grabbed the orange shirt that had been thrown to the side during the fight and strode up to Naruto. He knelt down and tried to touch the blonde hair but Naruto flinched away.
“It’s ok, Naruto, it’s me.”
“Sasuke?”
“Yeah, Sasuke.”
Sasuke grabbed the sleepy teen and held him to his chest in a reassuring hug. The mess of blonde hair tucked under the Uchiha’s pale chin as the demon vessel curled up against Sasuke’s chest.
“Don’t hurt him anymore.” Naruto slurred.
“He's still ......... friend.”
The blonde’s eyes were closed, the drug to knock him out was still in effect and now that there was no more excitement, it was putting him back to sleep.
“Hn.” Sasuke had set his chin on the blonde’s head and had wrapped his arms around the smaller teen, gently rubbing the now bruised arm, coaxing him back in to sleep. As soon as Naruto was out, the dark eyed teen leaned him against his chest and started to put the orange shirt on the him.
Neji had a shocked look on his face as he watched Sasuke get Naruto to go back to sleep. The way he tended to Naruto was almost caring. At that thought, Neji looked out the window to see if pigs were flying. Sasuke cared about Naruto. Holy shit, hell must have frozen over for the black haired ice bastard to give a damn about another living soul. Then, of course the next logical thing popped in to the geniuses head, this one he voiced.
“This is why you attacked us, to protect him.”
“Hn.” The dark eyed teen glared at the white eyed one.
“What do you plan to do now that you have him?” Sasuke continued to silently glare at the Hyuuga, not bothering to answer.
“You should bring him back to Konoha. Tsunade-sama never stopped trying to retrieve him.”
“It’s up to him where he goes.”
“So you’re just going to sell him to the next highest bidder?”
“Fuck off, I never sold him. I followed Kyuubi and got cornered by the freaking snake.”
Slowly, the raven haired Uchiha picked Naruto up and put him on his back so he could carry him. The sword still slung across his back was not helping with getting Naruto in to the proper position to carry him.
“Where are you going?”
“Away.”
“Why?”
“You.”
“I wont let you.” Neji stepped in front of Sasuke, effectively blocking the door out. The raven-haired teen glared at the Hyuuga. The white-eyed teen started to approach the two, but was intercepted by the doctor.
The ratty man held three scalpels in each hand and had struck a rather Gai like pose. “I will not let you harm either of these two.” He punctuated his words with some comical and very fake karate moves. It only took a backhand from Neji to send him in to a wall.
Hoping that was the last of the doctor, the Hyuuga returned his full attention back to the bastard in front of him. Neji felt the blood running out of his nose and down his face. It was the worst of his injuries and that was a bit surprising considering how banged up he was sure he looked. Sasuke was no better, with a split lip and what looked to be a spectacular black eye forming. He needed to keep him here. If he lost sight of them now, he was certain that they would never see either one of them again, and he had about a thousand questions that the bastard would not answer, but Naruto would.
Seeing that Naruto was out cold and would stay that way for a while, and that they were not all that welcome here, they should go somewhere else. He was staying at a nice hotel with the rest of the team on the other side of town; it would be perfect if he could get them there. Naruto could sleep and Sasuke could calm down. But then there was the problem of getting them to go with him.
Sasuke did not seem to be in a very tolerating mood and on principle, never willing to talk things over. Well, there was one way he could think of to get the stubborn Uchiha to go somewhere he did not want to go.
The strained silence that had engulfed the room was broken by loud pops and blinding smoke. The Sharingan did not work if he could not see anything. Quickly as he could, Neji grabbed Naruto off the stunned Sasuke’s back and jumped out the window at a full run.
Cursing, Sasuke went out after him.
16 Misunderstandings.
I do not own him, or any of his friends.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Neji sat at a small noodle stand, watching people pass by on their errands, enjoying the down time. The soft breeze from the mountains kept the humid weather at bay, and the sunlight seemed to warm him for the first time in over seven months. The war was over with the death of Orochimaru, and he was currently on a lowly B ranked mission instead of the A ranked ones that he had grown accustomed to. More than glad to be taking a breather from the front lines and the shinobi battles, not that he would ever admit that he needed one.
The past months had been hectic for the fire country’s shinobi, and the entire country needed a break from the near constant battles along the northern boarder.
The Sound had expanded in to the countries to the east and west. All shinobi, from genin to elite Jounin, had been fighting desperately to push them back, knowing that as soon as the countries without a shinobi village to protect it were taken over, they would be next. The Sand, Rock, and Cloud villages had all been similarly pressed with the requests of protection from the countries without shinobi villages and to provide back up for the Hidden Waterfall village.
There had been hardly any time for anything but fighting. Mission after mission, and each time he went out, he knew that there was a strong chance that he might not make it back. As the months of fighting pressed on with out reprieve, the death count went up. Leaving gaps in the ranks and making more work for the ones who lived to fill the holes.
Plus, shinobi had been abandoning their villages to seek power with the snake. Sand, mist, rock and grass as well as Konoha had all lost a substantial amount of fighting forces to the bastard. Up until last week, that is.
With the death of Orochimaru, the great expanding nation had collapsed into itself. Kabuto was now the Kage. However, massive internal struggles had quickly stopped all offensives, and the rest of the shinobi villages took advantage of the Sound’s depletion of power. They retook the lost territory, and then returned it to the rightful lords. With out the Kyuubi on the Sound’s side, the land was swiftly taken back with minimal casualties, although everyone was still very wary of the Sound, in case the fox was still there.
The demon had struck fear into any and all shinobi that went up against it. The beast was an unbeatable weapon, and at the rate Orochimaru was going, it would not have been long before a shinobi village was targeted and destroyed.
All but Sand and Leaf where terrified that it would be their village. Gaara was sure that Shukaku could hold off Kyuubi, and Tsunade was sure that Orochimaru would wait until all the other villages had fallen before destroying the Leaf.
That had not comforted the other Kages or the lords who had put out a bounty on the demon in their desperation. An impossibly high amount of money to any shinobi that could stop the beast. Only, no one could do it. The demon was just too strong. It had looked very bleak indeed.
Then word got out that Orochimaru had been killed and that the demon had been taken away. Now the entire shinobi world was waiting to find out who would be the next master of the demon.
“Kyuubi... Naruto.” Neji whispered to his noodles. His pale eyes stared in to the steaming liquid as he slowly stirred the ramen with the cheap little chopsticks provided.
It had been a long time since he had last seen him in the hospital. He had been through a few towns that had been demolished by the demon. There was simply a burnt peace of earth and corpses; there was no way to rebuild after the destruction caused by the fox. The beast’s tails had split the ground and any building would not be structurally safe until the land had resettled.
Neji shook his head, long hair swaying. Clearing the images of carnage from his mind.
He had been part of the search party sent out after Sasuke and Naruto after the demon showed up in Konoha. The beast had cut a path through the forest, so it had been easy to follow. Kakashi had his dogs out and Kiba and Akamaru were following their noses as well.
Jiraiya had not let Tsunade go with them, but Sakura went along with Lee and all of Shikamaru’s team. The Hokage wanted people that Naruto could recognize to go after him. They had been too slow, though, and came across the remains of Shimota. Kiba had said that the scent of Sasuke, Naruto, and Orochimaru were all at the tiny medical center in the remains of the village.
No one was sure what had happened there, but only a week later, Kyuubi destroyed Kimon. Some had said that the Uchiha was the cause of this, that he lured the demon into the grasp of the snake, that he returned only to serve his masters purpose, and to trick Naruto.
Neji could not believe that. He was not fond of Sasuke, but doubted that the bastard would lure his best friend in to a trap like that. Later, reports from a sand spy that had infiltrated the Sound after Orochimaru had killed the Kazekage, had offered mixed feelings about the Uchiha. Yes, he was in the Sound, but reluctantly. He had resumed the position of snake lackey, though, and the reports that he had read stated that the likelihood of Sasuke getting the blond out was slim to none. Orochimaru had some how managed to get control of Sasuke, and the raven haired fool did not have much of a chance to break that control.
The Hyuuga snorted and started to eat the now cold noodles. Uchiha could not escape, and therefore he could not help Naruto. The sand spy had kept them informed on the location of the Kyuubi vessel, but no shinobi could get passed the Sounds defenses. Orochimaru had kept Naruto very well guarded, especially when they were not in the Sound’s territory. Several teams had tried, but none made it. The remains of the teams that did return had horror stories of what was happening in the Sound.
The Hokage never gave up in her quest to get Naruto back and no one questioned her, they all wanted the fighting to end and to get Naruto back as well. Shino was on the last retrieval mission from a few weeks back.
The bug man had told him that the bastard snake kept Naruto at his side, and when the team had been found out, Orochimaru forced Naruto to kill them. By some small chance he had survived and made it back. Shino had said that the blond had been broken. There was no life in his eyes, and that the blond flinched whenever any one came near, especially the snake. He did what ever he was told to do, emotionlessly, silently, and without question. He had also improved a great deal shinobi skill wise. Naruto did not turn into Kyuubi to kill them, he had simply moved from his master’s side and started to slaughter the group of jounins that had been caught with his own kunai and jutsus.
The snake bastard had just looked on and laughed when it was over. Shino, who was wounded and playing dead, had seen the snake come up to the blond and ruffle his hair and say ‘good boy,’ the way it was said to a dog. Naruto had shuddered and looked away, ashamed, but did not move until told to. The report was disheartening, but Tsunade had vowed to get Naruto back.
The longhaired shinobi paused in his consuming of the noodles as he felt a powerful presence pass by. He was on a mission and, regardless of lunch or long lost comrades, he would carry it out. In the wake of Orochimaru’s passing the numerous new shinobi that had joined the Sound had been cut off. Having abandoned their original village, they had nowhere to go, and several had taken up the job of bandit. This village he was in, Ginkakuji, currently enjoying their noodles, had a particularly bad strain of shinobi turned bandit plaguing them, and had hired leaf shinobi to stop them. Tsunade agreed to this mission mostly because the bandit shinobi might have some information on the location of Naruto. So far, though, the shinobi that had been caught were nothing more than stupid punks that had not known anything.
Neji lowed his gaze to the floor and activated his Byaakugan. This village was on the border of Sound, Tea, and Leaf, and had been overtaken by Orochimaru in the first month of hostilities. In the months of control by the snake, the villagers had developed a fear for shinobi. The bastard snake had let his men run rampant, and they had raped, pillaged and plundered at their own liking.
Originally this was a resort town with hot springs and gambling places. They had had only one week of being out from under Orochimaru’s control, and were desperately trying to undo the damage to get back into business.
Neji did not like having to hide his eyes when he used Byaakugan, but after having a woman run screaming from him when he was trying to save her, it was decided that it was for the best if the members of this mission hid there special abilities and tried to blend in. The only thing that made them stand out was that they all wore Konoha forehead protectors. Gai, Lee, and Tenten blended in well, but him with his eyes, and Kiba with Akamaru and the red on his face stood out, Shino had it worst of all. Not only was it getting hot out and he had to wear his heavy coat to cover the holes his bugs used, but also he could not go to the hot springs either. This was their first mission after the failed one to retrieve Naruto. All of them were stressed out after 7 months of near constant fighting, so they had been looking forward to a little down time at the hot springs.
The white-eyed teen set his chopsticks down and concentrated. The powerful presence was just out of the range of his Byaakugan, but he could ‘see’ the gray vest on one, and the shorter one had an odd feel to him. The shorter was clearly out of range, and the taller one was just passing through the farthest edge of his sight. They were definitely shinobi, and since the vast majority of all shinobi were on missions and not on vacations to the hot springs, he could be certain that these two were not supposed to be here. The gray vest on the taller one meant that these two had come from the Sound, and had the rank of at least chuunin, so he might know something of Kyuubi.
Neji stopped the Byaakugan and stood up. He paid for the unfinished meal and turned to go after the two shinobi.
“Neji!!!” The stoic Hyuuga nearly fell over at the overenthusiastic shout from his teammate. Lee came running up to him, followed by Kiba and his dog.
“Neji, the man who runs the Shisengumi hot springs said that two shinobi stopped there. One was very mean and scary, the owner let them use the springs, but got a hold of Gai sensei as soon as they left.” Lee was the only person that could describe a powerful enemy as ‘mean and scary’ and keep a strait face. “We are supposed to go find them.”
‘Well, duh. They probably are the two I was going to follow any way.’ The Hyuuga prodigy looked over the green spandex clad teammate who currently had fires burning in his eyes from the thought of fighting a strong opponent. Lee was still a chuunin, and so was Kiba. Shino, Shikamaru, and he were already jounins, the war had cost a lot of lives, and soon these two would step to Jounin level to fill the space left open by those who were killed. Gai was the only senior Jounin available and was put in charge of this mission, but he was second in command.
“Where are the others?” Neji asked once Lee had finished talking and he had finished thinking things through.
“With Gai sensei.” Came Lee’s over enthusiastic reply.
Kiba growled. His sensei was leading an information-gathering mission with Sakura, Ino and Hinata. One of Orochimaru’s high-leveled men had locked himself in a brothel and only permitted women around him, so only females were on that mission. He was surprised that Hinata went and Tenten had come on this mission, but then again, Tenten did not know the first thing about anything remotely girly, so it kind of made sense.
“Ok, lets go. Spread out and try to blend in.”
Neji turned away from the two and started after the two shinobi he had felt before. Kiba started down an ally way, and was mildly surprised to find a sent he could recognize. It smelled like someone he knew, but only vaguely. Brushing it off, thinking that whoever it was just used the same shampoo as one of his friends, he glanced down to Akamaru who had grown so much that he could run along side Kiba and keep up. The pale dog had a confused look on its mussel but did not sound an alert. Kiba shrugged all of this off as fluke chance and continued to run down the ally way in the same general direction as Neji.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sasuke turned left out of the ally way he had used as a short cut. He was acutely aware of the three shinobi presences that had appeared behind him. One particularly powerful one, that could only be described as white, was following directly behind him, the other two were off to each side as if trying to flank him.
As the one to the right of the white one drew closer he stopped all chakra and hid himself in the crowded street. Naruto was oblivious to the shinobi that were following them, and went where Sasuke guided him. The shinobi presences passed by them and continued in the direction they had been going.
The raven-haired teen looked around them, bored. People were pointedly not watching them, and small children where guided out of their path. ‘Odd.’
Naruto was starting to yawn and stumbled now and then. ‘Good. He won’t put up as much of a fight when we get to the hospital.’
Sasuke was not looking forward to dragging Naruto to the doctor. He was sure that the blond would have issues after Shijima. He had planed it all out, what he would do when they got to this town, in order to tire the already weary teen out.
Ginkakuji, he had learned, was on the border of three countries, and had been taken over by Orochimaru in the first months of the war. It had been used as a retreat for the shinobi that Orochimaru had felt did an outstanding job of killing mercilessly. It was originally a resort town, and had a decent hospital at its center.
To get Naruto to it, he had first taken him to get new clothes, and then to a hot spring to clean up after their week in the woods. They had changed into the new clothes and went out for lunch. As he had figured, the blond had eaten a ton. Now cleaned, clothed, and stuffed to the brim with food, the lure of sleep should be too much for Naruto.
As if on cue, the whiskered teen stumbled, and Sasuke caught him before he could fall flat on his face. Naruto wheezed a little and coughed.
“Hay bastard, can we take a break? I’m tired.” He followed the sentence with a huge yawn.
The raven-haired teen set Naruto back on to his feet. “Just a little longer.”
“Mmmmmmmm, OK.”
Sasuke led the tired blue-eyed teen past all the quickly rebuilt sale stalls and to the hospital. It was a small, three story, brick building. The only thing that let you know that it was a hospital was the sign saying that it was, otherwise, it looked like a hotel. There was a mumbled yawn, and Sasuke had to quickly grab the blonde before he fell over in the street. He put Naruto’s arm around his shoulder, and put his arm around Naruto’s waist. Slowly, he walked the barely awake teen into the hospital.
The nurse at the front desk was shocked to see two shinobi coming in. They were shinobi all right. The tall dark and handsome one had a horribly powerful aura and was dressed entirely in black, except for the gray vest he wore. That vest alone scared her, gray vests were from the Sound, and shinobi from the Sound were horrible people. Working here in the hospital had spared her from most of the antics of the controlling shinobi, but she did see what they did to others. The hospital was still full of people trying to recover from very one-sided fights that they had not started. She shuddered at the remembered sight of the girls that had been brought in. It did not matter that they had said no, if the shinobi wanted her, he took her.
Slowly she looked over the smaller one, who looked to be sleeping on the taller one, who was currently holding him up. He had on an orange shirt and the same black cargos that the other was wearing, but a belt was holding his up, and still the pants were threatening to fall off his slender hips. He wheezed when breathing, and started to cough a bad deep chesty sort of cough that suggested pneumonia.
“Well?” The cold threatening tone of the taller shinobi snapped her back to business. “What can we help you with sir?”
“Help him.” The dark haired one nodded to the blond he was holding up.
“Ok. Can you bring him this way please?” The nurse opened a door and led them down a hall; pass several rooms with heavily bandaged people in them. Sasuke had noticed the full waiting room, and the fearful looks the occupants of these rooms were giving him.
‘Why weren’t we told to take a number? They seem to be afraid of me….’ Sasuke smirked inwardly at the thought.
The petite nurse opened a door and ushered them in. Sasuke lifted Naruto and set him on the exam table.
The nurse, whose nametag said she was Yuki, nervously told him the doctor would be here to see him soon. As soon as she stepped out the door, Sasuke grabbed his elbow guard and took deep breathes. They had been led pass a pharmacy where he knew they kept the morphine. Oh god this was so hard.
It would be so easy for him to get some. To feel nothing again. Trying to get his mind off the drugs, he opened his eyes and looked over the sleeping blond.
The orange shirt he had purchased earlier for his friend had a red patch on the sleeve, and Naruto had wanted it the moment he had walked him in to the store. There had not been much of a selection, and the owner had been very skittish, but Naruto had liked the shirt, so he bought it for him, as well as the black pants. The store did not have a size small enough for the blonde, so he had to get him a size to big and a belt. The next store over had weapons so he had replenished their supply of kunai and got a sheath for Orochimaru’s sword.
The sword had survived the ride on the back of the toad and was left in the swamp after Gamabunta had disappeared. The sharp blade had caught a glimmer of sunlight and he had fished it out of the mucky water, knowing that the sword would be useful, before taking Naruto to the thicket in the woods. Sasuke could feel the weight of the sharp blade slung across his back.
The sword was also serving as a reminder that he had overcome the opposition of the snake, so he could beat this. Yes, he could, and would, beat this.
The raven-haired teen put both hands in his pockets and felt the credit card he had in one pocket. The dobe was lucky he had been on his way to re-stock his house with food when Kyuubi had attacked. He had never made it to market, and had not yet returned to his house. Somehow, through the chase in the woods and the stay at the Sound, he had not lost the stupid piece of plastic. It had paid for the clothes that they both had needed and their admission into the hot springs. They had not stayed as long as he would of liked, but Naruto was not too fond of public bathing any more. It had purchased the food Naruto had gorged on as well, and would pay for the blond to get the fluid out of his lungs. Useful, this stupid piece of plastic.
Yuki, the small mousy nurse came back. Her eyes watching his every move, behind her came the doctor. If she was mousy with her short brown hair and small stature, he was ratty. He looked un-kept, had beady eyes, and had buckteeth. Sasuke was tempted to look and see if he had a rat-tail hairstyle. It would be too much if he did.
The doctor moved nervously up to Naruto, very aware of the harsh gaze the dark haired teen was giving him.
As he slid the blonde’s shirt up to listen to his breathing, the sleeping teen’s eyes snapped opened and Naruto gave a terrified scream, and started to scramble to get away from the doctor, thrashed, and clawed at the arms that had reached over to hold him down. Then, punching with all his might in his desperation, he heard an ‘oomph’ as his fist connected with some thing.
Sasuke took the hit to the shoulder and grabbed the blonde, forcing him in to a tight hug that pinned both of Naruto’s arms between their chests.
“Naruto, damn it, look at me!” Sasuke reached down and grabbed the blonde’s chin, forcing him to meet his gaze as Naruto continued to fight. They were almost nose-to-nose, and Naruto could feel the raven hair brushing against his whiskered cheeks. “Who am I?”
The blonde stopped thrashing and stilled as he recognized the one holding him, the dark hair and pale skin. “Sasuke. You’re Sasuke.”
Naruto went in to a coughing fit and Sasuke loosened up the hug, stepping back so the blonde could lean forward to ease the pain of coughing and rubbed the blonds back. When the coughing stopped, Naruto looked up to his friend, choking as he spoke.
“Why are we here?”
“You need to get the blood out of your lungs. They’ll do it, and I’ll be right here to make sure that’s all they do.” Naruto looked over the mousy nurse and the ratty doctor that had moved away from the struggling blonde, not wanting to get caught up in shinobi affairs. Then looked back over to his friend.
“Promise you’ll stay?”
Naruto’s voice was strained and in the softest, most sincere voice Sasuke could muster.
“I promise...” The raven haired Uchiha reached out and brushed a little bit of blood away with his thumb that had leaked out of the corner of Naruto’s mouth when he was coughing. “...I won’t leave.”
Sasuke put his hand on the blonde’s shoulder and motioned for the doctor to come over. Naruto flinched when the cold stethoscope was put under his shirt to the flesh of his chest. The doctor listened for a few moments than told the nurse to go grab a few things. As the nurse went through the cupboards, Naruto took his shirt off.
Both nurse and doctor gasped at the chest exposed to them. The scars looked horrific under the light. Naruto gave a small whimper when he realized he was being stared at, and leaned closer to Sasuke, who was still standing next to the table. Silently, the dark eyed teen returned his hand to the blue-eyed teen’s shoulder and gave a reassuring squeeze. He was still here. He had not left. He glanced at the doctor who nodded his understanding.
“Ok, your name is Naruto, right.” The scared teen nodded.
“What I’m going to do is give you something to make you go to sleep, then we are going to drain the fluid out of your lungs so you can breath better. First, lets put this oxygen mask on you. There, no problem. Now this might hurt just a bit.”
The nurse came over and set a covered tray out of the blonde’s line of sight. She had a syringe and was preparing the vain on Naruto’s arm. The blond whimpered as the needle went in and Sasuke gently rubbed his shoulder in, or at least what he hoped was, a comforting way. He was watching the syringe intently.
The clear fluid it held awakened his senses, which were screaming for him to take it from the nurse, to put the remaining fluid in to his arm, to feel it course through him. He watched as the nurse set it on to the tray. Sasuke continued to stare at it as the doctor spoke to the nurse about preparing the equipment as the drug took effect over Naruto. The doctor said some thing directed to him, breaking his staring contest with the inanimate object.
“What?”
“What happened to him? If I may ask sir.”
Sasuke looked down to the now sleeping blonde and removed his hand from his shoulder.
“He was experimented on at the Sound.” Saying that he was the vessel for Kyuubi would defiantly get them kicked out and call attention to them.
“Oh, I figured as much. I’m sorry, but I have to ask you to back away. You don’t have to leave, but we need space to work.”
He needed to leave or he would grab that damn syringe and use it.
“How long?”
“Up to thirty minutes, depending on how much fluid there is.”
“Ok. I’ll be back.”
“You’re leaving? Didn’t you..…?”
The man stopped when he saw the icy glare from the dark haired teen. “Hurt him, and I’ll kill you.”
The doctor and the nurse looked nervously at each other and gulped. Believing that the two would take his words seriously, Sasuke strode from the room and stopped just out side the doorway.
‘Shit, I was so caught up with not taking that syringe; I didn’t notice that those shinobi had come to the hospital. Fuck.’
Silent hands flashed seals at a rapid pace and Sasuke suddenly blended in with the shadows. Silently, he crept, shadow-to-shadow, glad that he was doing something other than watching a syringe, feigning for something he could not let himself have.
The waiting room was well lit, which hampered Sasuke’s shadow skill, though he managed to get to the shadow of one of the chairs behind and to the side of the three shinobi that had just entered.
His inverted vision made it hard to see details about them, but he could make out that they all wore vests and the one with the white chakra had an authoritative air to him. He must be the leader and, obviously, the most powerful. The white chakra shinobi was talking with the head nurse and was directed the way he had just come.
To Naruto.
That surge of protectiveness he had felt when they had first started for this town came back, washing over him and making him snarl in rage at those who would try to hurt Naruto.
He would not let them near the blonde. The dobe trusted him to not let any thing happen to him and he was not going to break that trust.
Sasuke leapt into the shadow of the nearest one and slammed the butt of Orochimaru’s sword to the base of his skull, effectively knocking him out. Before the body could hit the floor, he had thrown several kunai at the other, deftly nailing him to the wall. As the body of the first one hit the floor, he leaped from its shadow, dropping the shadow skill and activating his Sharingan eye. He was fast, and add that to his Sharingan eye and it doubles his deadliness. He charged the back of the white chakra user. The user spun, and had it not for sharingan showing him a moment before it happened; he would of taken Neji’s head. As it was, he could not stop mid swing, and Neji was caught surprised, he jumped back, but the sword tip grazed his cheek.
Sasuke slid on the tiles, the momentum from his charge and swing letting him slid a good 10 feet in a full crouch, ready to strike if he had to.
Neji felt the blood run down the right side of his face from the cut. He had seen him the moment Kiba dropped to the floor, but had spun just a fraction to slow. That slash from the sword should of had his head. There was nothing he could of done to stop the blow from connecting, it was all his opponent’s doing. ‘Why didn’t he kill me?’
He saw the gray vest and black clothes; the face was down turned, the black hair hiding it effectively. The people in the waiting room ran for cover as Neji’s blood dripped off his chin and on to the floor. The Hyuuga sensed the power from this guy, and slowly got in position for his divinity attack. This guy had in less than 2 seconds taken out Kiba, Lee and almost him. This guy was good.
Neji heard the groan from the side as Kiba rubbed the back of his head and tried to stand. Lee was removing the Kunai that had miraculously just pinned his green spandex to the wall. This man was damn good to make shots like that so fast. He doubted Tenten could of made them with out nailing a chunk of Lee to the wall as well as the spandex. Plus the surgical precision of a blow that had only disabled Kiba and not killed him.
Neji ‘saw’ the other two with out turning his head, and ‘saw’ when the man in front of him stood up.
“Damn it, Neji. Just kill him.”
Kiba’s comment was met with a cold, hard, red glare from the dark haired man. He paused, feeling the deadly power behind that glare and gulped. “Sasuke.”
“Why are you here, Uchiha?”
Neji was pissed, the bastard Uchiha had no reason to be here. True, reports had said he had made a break for it after Orochimaru died, but that just meant he had abandoned Naruto to save him self. Or maybe he still worked for the Sound and was on a mission.
“Answer me, Uchiha.”
“Fuck off.”
Lee had freed himself of the blades pinning him to the wall and, upon hearing Sasuke’s response, threw one at the head of the raven-haired bastard.
Sasuke did not move around to face the incoming blade; he just simply put his hand up and caught it with two fingers. He glared at the bushy eye-browed teen and then stopped the Sharingan and slipped the kunai back into the holster tied to his leg.
Sasuke sheathed the sword and stalked passed Neji, who was watching everything with his Byaakugan. The Uchiha slipped through the doors leading to the treatment rooms, leaving the stunned shinobi in the waiting room.
“What the fuck was that about?”
Neji dropped his fighting stance as Kiba came along side of him, rubbing the back of his head where Sasuke had hit him with the sword. “That prick has some major fucking issues.”
Silently, Neji agreed with Kiba, but this was a mission and he did not have time to discuss the mental problems of the Uchiha heir.
“Kiba, Lee, are you ok?” At the double affirmative Neji continued.
“Go get Gai-sensei. I’m sure Sasuke will know something about where Naruto is.”
“Oh you mean where he ditched him to save his own sorry ass. You should have killed him for that alone. He’s the worst kind of scum there is for leaving Naruto at the Sound. Hell, maybe he really did lure Naruto to the snake.”
Kiba was growling, and so was Akamaru, the dog had waited outside of the hospital and had charged in when Sasuke attacked. Neji knew that they wanted to see Naruto again, and was betting on Sasuke to, for once, not be the bastard he was commonly known to be and helping the blond. Seeing Sasuke by himself meant that they were wrong, that Sasuke was a traitor and/or the lowest kind of scum in existence. The attack just now, even though he did not kill them, showed them that he was powerful and not on their side. Perhaps he was on a Sound mission and he just wanted to play around with his former friends before he got serious and killed them.
“Go get Gai-sensei.” Neji spoke in his ‘I am the boss and you will obey me, voice’, startling the two chuunin that stood next to him. He was mad as well, he had hoped that some how Sasuke had Naruto and that he was safe, but now they would have to prepare for another war with who ever now had the blonde in their possession.
“And you will be...…?” Lee asked questionably. He had been around Neji long enough to know his Boss voice and his ‘you’re about to die voice.’ The ‘go get Gai’ was spoken with a borderline death sentence.
“Keeping him here.” In other words, kicking his ass.
“Roger.” The two chuunin ran out of the hospital and Neji started down the hall he had seen the Uchiha go down.
Sasuke went to the blonde’s side as soon as he entered the room. The doctor and nurse had already finished draining his lungs and were removing the oxygen mask from Naruto.
“How long will he be out?”
“Considering that he’s so starved and weakened, the dose should last for quite a while longer. At least 5 hours.”
“Ok. Is there any medication for him to take?”
“Yes. I’ll get you the prescription.”
‘Shit, that means I have to go to a drug store.’
The mousy nurse had cleared away the equipment and the doctor was scribbling on some papers. Needing something to keep him preoccupied so he would not think about all the wonderful things a drugstore keeps in stock, he fidgeted with the elbow guard and thought about the shinobi he had just seen.
Why were they here? Why were they following him? What would they do now that they knew it was him? They had not seen Naruto, but what if he was the one they were looking for?
Sasuke felt the hair on his neck stand up as Neji’s chakra, his very angry chakra, came closer to him.
“You two should get to cover.” He warned the nurse and doctor, because if Neji wanted to fight, he would fight. His eyes turned the blood red of the Sharingan as the doctor crawled under the desk.
Neji ‘saw’ Sasuke with his Byaakugan and went toward that room. There was another person in there on the bed, but since he only could see chakra and not facial features it did not concern him. The one on the bed had hardly any chakra, and was out cold, not needing to be added in to his figurations of what he was about to do. Just as he reached the hall outside the room Sasuke was in, a loud crackling noise erupted and his eyes burned from the amount of chakra that had just formed.
He had to jump back as the Chidori demolished a large portion of the wall. The dust formed a cloud; he could no longer see the red eyes and the fading glow of the chakra in the Uchiha’s hand with out activating his Byaakugan. Then, even with his Byaakugan, Sasuke’s eyes glowed red.
Before the dust could settle, he started his divinity attack. The bastard was one step ahead of him, though, and managed to block all of the strikes. Damn Sharingan. Close combat was not his specialty but was he was not weak in it either. All he had to do was land one hit on the fucker and use Jyuuken to immobilize him.
Sasuke did not give him even a second to recover after the failed divinity attack and launched into a jutsu that sent metal spikes flying toward him. He could not use his spin defense, it would damage the hospital further, so he grabbed the first spike out of the air and used it to deflect all the other in coming ones. The dark haired bastard followed the last of the spikes with a kick that Neji dodged, but sent him stumbling into a trip wire.
Shruiken zoomed toward him and he barely dodged the one coming in for his blind spot. That dodge had made him jump into the hospital room. Looking at the Uchiha he felt a moment of dread. The bastard was in the divinity stance.
Although Sasuke could not use Jyuuken like he could, a pressure point hit was still damaging. In an instant he was thrown to the back wall from the force of the attack. He had blocked most of the hits because he knew the pattern, but he still missed a few key ones. Neji felt his absolute control over his chakra slip. Jyuuken was no longer possible for him to perform.
Sasuke seemed to know this and punched Neji in the face, who in turn kicked the Uchiha in the side.
In a mater of moments, a great shinobi battle turned in to a brawl. Each intently trying to beat the snot out of the other. Sasuke was always a moment ahead and Neji never lost sight of him, so he could not pull any tricks or sneak attacks. It would have lasted longer if Neji had not gotten thrown up against the bed, nearly overturning it.
Sasuke grabbed the Hyuuga’s collar, pulling him away from the bed and slammed his fist in to the cut on the white-eyed teen’s face. The pain from having an open wound punched made the longhaired teen drop the Byaakugan and lose his balance. Sasuke grabbed the collar with his second hand and hauled Neji up close so that they where nearly nose-to-nose.
“Why the fuck are you after us?” Sasuke was snarling.
“What makes you think you are so special that we have to hunt you?” The utter contempt in the voice pissed Sasuke off.
“Because you’re here.” Neji could feel the red eyes boring through his pale ones.
“We re here to hunt sound nins, since your one of them, that includes you.” Neji reached up and tugged on the gray vest Sasuke wore. “We just want to find out if Naruto is alright. Since he disappeared from the Sound, the renegade nins from the Sound might have information on his location. But why would you care? You’re the one that left him in the hands of a psychopath in the first place.”
The pale Hyuuga, in a swift movement, knocked the hands on his collar away and punched the dark haired bastard in the face, making him back up a few steps.
“Did you lead him to Orochimaru as well? Did you come back to Konoha just so you could make him trust you again, so you could get him to the Sound? You set him up from the start. You little prick, you sold your best friend to Orochimaru for power and then abandoned him.”
Neji’s words were full of venom and rage, letting his emotions show in battle for once.
“Is that what they think, that I tricked him? They don’t hate him for being a demon?” The calm, collected voice Sasuke used came off as arrogance and the pale-eyed Hyuuga grit his teeth.
“He’s not a demon, he’s the vessel for one, there‘s a big difference. He was forced to do those things, to destroy those villages. And it’s your fault. He trusted you and you used that to get power.”
The more he spoke the more pissed he seamed to make himself. With a flick of his wrist the Konoha jounin flung flash bombs at the feet of the traitor in front of him. The resulting flash blinded Sasuke. Neji, who was prepared for the bright lights, attacked. His control over his chakra had returned during their ‘little talk’ and the Leaf jounin slammed the raven-haired fool with a bone crushing punch that would of impressed Gai. The moment his fist connected, he used Jyuuken and fried as many of Sasuke’s chakra points as he could with one hit. Only to have the image of Sasuke poof in a puff smoke.
“A clone, you insult him by using his techniques.”
With the Byaakugan working, he saw the kunai zooming toward him and the wires tied to them. Knowing that the Uchiha could use the wires to channel and direct his fireball attack, Neji used his spin defense. The kunai bounced off and were sent in to the far walls, then, to his horror were redirected from the shadows. The wires had a small weight on the opposite end of the kunai and his spinning picked the weight up and was moving it to his body instead of away from it.
The wires, carried by the momentum of the weights, wrapped tightly around him, successfully immobilizing him and the kunai at the ends anchored themselves in to the floor, walls and ceiling, nailing him to the spot.
Neji was waiting for Sasuke to come out and gloat, maybe even to kill him. But he was not quite expecting to see him materialize out of shadows and rush to the over turned bed that had been slammed into the desk and wall from his spinning.
Sasuke pushed the bed away from the desk and two disheveled looking hospital workers crawled out from under it. He seriously did not think Sasuke was really helping them. It would mean Sasuke was being nice, which would be a sign of the apocalypse.
Not wasting any time the leaf jounin started to untangle himself from the wires. He could hear the traitor speaking to the two white coat-clad workers.
“Is he alright?”
“He’ll be ok. Just some bruising.”
Neji had almost extracted himself from the wires; he really did not care if the person on the bed was all right. It was probably some one that the Sound wanted Sasuke to protect. Suddenly, the hospital bed screeched as it slid across the tiled floor and slammed in to him. He tried to doge but the last few wires held him fast and the bed knocked him down.
Sasuke grabbed on to Neji’s shoulder and forced him to his feet, then punched him, again, and again.
“I thought you were out to find him, to help him.” Neji had never seen Sasuke get so worked up. It was kind of scary. The homicidal glint in his blood red eyes, the look of pure loathing that graced his pale features.
It was disturbing to say the least.
“You fucks just want to use him just like every one else. All that ranting and raving about how I was such an asshole and you’re the ones that don’t give a damn about him.”
“About who?”
This just seamed to piss the raving Uchiha off more and he started to further beat Neji to a pulp. There was one wire that was digging quite painfully into him; it was wrapped several times around his arm and twice around his chest. It was the last one still holding strong, all the others he had managed to worm out of. To top it off it was anchored to the ceiling, so when Sasuke hit him and he fell, the wire dug deeper in to his arm. He could not fall all the way to the ground; the wire would only let him fall to his knees.
There was a crunch as the Uchiha’s knee connected with his nose and he could not help but make a pained yelp as his eyes started to water.
“Sasuke stop it. Please stop.”
The voice came from behind Sasuke and Neji was sure he knew it, but that was impossible. The owner of that voice did not sound that broken and desperate.
The raven-haired teen stopped and grabbed a handful of the Hyuuga’s long hair, forcing his head up, blood dripping down his face from the broken nose. Sasuke stepped aside and the Hyuuga saw the occupant of the bed he had dismissed as not concerning him.
Naruto was laying on the floor held by the nurse in a comforting way and sporting a few blooming bruises on his bare, scar-covered chest. He looked more asleep than awake and looked to be about to go back to sleep at any moment.
“Who the hell did you think I was talking about?”
With one final kick, Sasuke let go of his hair and Neji quickly untangled himself from the one remanding wire.
The dark eyed teen grabbed the orange shirt that had been thrown to the side during the fight and strode up to Naruto. He knelt down and tried to touch the blonde hair but Naruto flinched away.
“It’s ok, Naruto, it’s me.”
“Sasuke?”
“Yeah, Sasuke.”
Sasuke grabbed the sleepy teen and held him to his chest in a reassuring hug. The mess of blonde hair tucked under the Uchiha’s pale chin as the demon vessel curled up against Sasuke’s chest.
“Don’t hurt him anymore.” Naruto slurred.
“He's still ......... friend.”
The blonde’s eyes were closed, the drug to knock him out was still in effect and now that there was no more excitement, it was putting him back to sleep.
“Hn.” Sasuke had set his chin on the blonde’s head and had wrapped his arms around the smaller teen, gently rubbing the now bruised arm, coaxing him back in to sleep. As soon as Naruto was out, the dark eyed teen leaned him against his chest and started to put the orange shirt on the him.
Neji had a shocked look on his face as he watched Sasuke get Naruto to go back to sleep. The way he tended to Naruto was almost caring. At that thought, Neji looked out the window to see if pigs were flying. Sasuke cared about Naruto. Holy shit, hell must have frozen over for the black haired ice bastard to give a damn about another living soul. Then, of course the next logical thing popped in to the geniuses head, this one he voiced.
“This is why you attacked us, to protect him.”
“Hn.” The dark eyed teen glared at the white eyed one.
“What do you plan to do now that you have him?” Sasuke continued to silently glare at the Hyuuga, not bothering to answer.
“You should bring him back to Konoha. Tsunade-sama never stopped trying to retrieve him.”
“It’s up to him where he goes.”
“So you’re just going to sell him to the next highest bidder?”
“Fuck off, I never sold him. I followed Kyuubi and got cornered by the freaking snake.”
Slowly, the raven haired Uchiha picked Naruto up and put him on his back so he could carry him. The sword still slung across his back was not helping with getting Naruto in to the proper position to carry him.
“Where are you going?”
“Away.”
“Why?”
“You.”
“I wont let you.” Neji stepped in front of Sasuke, effectively blocking the door out. The raven-haired teen glared at the Hyuuga. The white-eyed teen started to approach the two, but was intercepted by the doctor.
The ratty man held three scalpels in each hand and had struck a rather Gai like pose. “I will not let you harm either of these two.” He punctuated his words with some comical and very fake karate moves. It only took a backhand from Neji to send him in to a wall.
Hoping that was the last of the doctor, the Hyuuga returned his full attention back to the bastard in front of him. Neji felt the blood running out of his nose and down his face. It was the worst of his injuries and that was a bit surprising considering how banged up he was sure he looked. Sasuke was no better, with a split lip and what looked to be a spectacular black eye forming. He needed to keep him here. If he lost sight of them now, he was certain that they would never see either one of them again, and he had about a thousand questions that the bastard would not answer, but Naruto would.
Seeing that Naruto was out cold and would stay that way for a while, and that they were not all that welcome here, they should go somewhere else. He was staying at a nice hotel with the rest of the team on the other side of town; it would be perfect if he could get them there. Naruto could sleep and Sasuke could calm down. But then there was the problem of getting them to go with him.
Sasuke did not seem to be in a very tolerating mood and on principle, never willing to talk things over. Well, there was one way he could think of to get the stubborn Uchiha to go somewhere he did not want to go.
The strained silence that had engulfed the room was broken by loud pops and blinding smoke. The Sharingan did not work if he could not see anything. Quickly as he could, Neji grabbed Naruto off the stunned Sasuke’s back and jumped out the window at a full run.
Cursing, Sasuke went out after him.