Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Duality ❯ Open Up Your Mind ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter Six: Open Up Your Mind

They met the next morning in their old training ground once again. For Team Seven this was significantly important since this was the first time in three years they had all been together in this place.

It was not too early, though all of them looked more or less tired. They had also arrived in the pairs they had stayed in the night before—Sakura and Yume, Naruto and Sekai, and Sasuke and Sai. Kakashi had left on his own, though he had promised he would be spending the night with a friend. He had not said who.

Kakashi was also a few hours late.

“That idiot sensei,” Sakura grumbled irritably. “He can’t even be early when he knows we’ll be worried about him!”

“I do hope it’s just his normal habitual lateness,” Sekai murmured before biting his lip and looking at Yume. “You haven’t seen anything, have you, Yume-chan?” he asked, referring to the girl’s powers.

Yume shook her head. She sat cross-legged on the ground with a pink umbrella (borrowed from Sakura) propped up beside her, keeping her pale skin out of the sun. Even so, beads of sweat were appearing on her forehead. “I have not. But I have confidence that if he were in danger, I would see it, even awake.”

Naruto smiled reassuringly, putting an arm around Sekai’s shoulders. “Yeah, he’s probably just reading porn and lost track of time.” He looked around at their assembled group and suddenly noticed someone else missing. “Eh? Where’d Sasuke go?” The Uchiha had been standing next to Sakura a minute ago. Now he was gone.

“Over there,” Sakura announced, pointing behind him. She had noticed Sasuke quietly walking away from their group but had not commented. She did not know how to handle Sasuke these days—even less so now than she had before he’d left. Sasuke would never be the same as before and still had yet to show any interest in her (or Ino or anyone else for that matter). Naruto may have brought Sasuke home for her, but Sasuke had come home for Naruto. She was certain of that.

Naruto turned and saw the Uchiha prostrating in front of the memorial statue a few yards away. “I’m gonna go see what he’s doing,” he announced to the others before walking over.

Sasuke wasn’t doing anything interesting though, merely sitting in front of the monument with his eyes closed. Naruto watched him for a few minutes, because his expression was peaceful, though still terribly blank. The wind was started to pick up and calmly swayed his dark bangs to and fro. The whole effect was very fascinating to Naruto, who stood and watched for a long moment.

“What do you want?” Sasuke asked eventually, not opening his eyes.

Naruto jumped, his daze broken. He flushed when he realized he had been admiring his friend’s looks. (Not for the first or last time.) “Um, just seeing what you’re doing.”

“Paying respects,” Sasuke stated plainly, not seeing a reason to lie.

“Eh?”

That made Sasuke open his eyes, though he did not look up at Naruto. “I don’t regret what I did. I sacrificed a lot to get the powers I have now. But it doesn’t mean I’m completely heartless either.”

“I know,” Naruto said, because Sasuke had sounded a little defensive. “You have a good heart, I believe that.”

Sasuke closed his eyes again, his hands tightening into fists. “I wish I did.” There wasn’t enough left of him to be considered “good.” How could he be? Just a month ago he had tried to kill the person he loved the most in the entire world! Granted, he hadn’t gone through with it, and sealing the Kyuubi had actually done Naruto a favor, but that was beside the point.

Naruto felt his chest tighten at that confession. He glanced back at their friends and saw they weren’t looking, but it wouldn’t have mattered too much if they were. He knelt down on the ground and threw his arms around Sasuke’s neck, pulling the dark haired boy close to him.

“Naruto?” Sasuke stiffened and opened his eyes in surprise, but he could not see Naruto’s face from this angle, only fuzzy, bright blond hair.

“I’ll believe it enough for both of us!” Naruto told him firmly, tightening his arms in case Sasuke tried to pull away.

And Sasuke relaxed, deciding to enjoy this offered touch once more. It was far more than he deserved and it probably wouldn’t happen again. He melted against Naruto’s warmth, resting his cheek against his friend’s shoulder and simply breathing. The knots in his stomach and thoughts whirling in his mind all ceased for the moment.

Naruto grinned when he felt Sasuke relax and, shyly, reached up to run a hand through his soft hair. Sekai had done that to him on occasion and Naruto thought it was very soothing. He was rewarded with a quiet noise of contentment.

Sasuke did feel rather content. His penis was also twitching in interest, but he willed it to relax as well. Nothing would come of this. Naruto wasn’t interested, and even if he was, they were in public, and—fuck, how long had he been sitting there, letting the blond hold him? Was he that starved for affection?

Yes, when it’s from him, a traitorous voice in his head answered.

Kakashi didn’t catch sight of them until after he’d walked around the memorial, and even then, he couldn’t believe it. His mind would not quite process what it was seeing and he stared at them for a long moment before his memory of Sasuke’s behavior from the previous night returned.

They couldn’t… No way…

But it made a twisted sort of sense, Kakashi had to admit.

Don’t tell me that all this time, their rivalry was really sexual tension? That’s just… That’s just so… cliché…

“Ohh!” Gai said when he caught sight of them. “Two rivals surpassing their antagonism and embracing as brothers—it does my heart good to see this!”

Kakashi wanted to scoff. Rivals? Brothers? I don’t think so…

The two boys had sprang apart the moment Gai had spoken. They looked wide-eyed up at the teachers before looking back at each other. As one, they flushed deep crimson and looked away.

Damn it, Sasuke thought because they had been caught.

Damn it, thought Naruto because it was over too soon.

Not far away, they had been watched, but Sekai was surprisingly not angry at the interruption. Normally he would have been, if the man did not fit the description of someone else he had been waiting to meet. “Ne ne, Sai-kun? Could that man with Kakashi-sama—Could that be Maito Gai?” he asked his new friend excitedly.

Sai nodded. “Yes, that’s him.” He hadn’t even gotten the entire sentence out before stars figuratively appeared in Sekai’s eyes and he was running toward the two men.

“He seems… rather excited…” Sakura remarked unsurely.

Yume giggled. She recognized the sound of Gai’s voice from her visions. “Sekai loves Gai-san and Rock Lee-san. They never fail to make him laugh—and laughs were hard to come by back then.”

“Hello, Gai-sama!” chirped Sekai happily, hopping to a stop in front of the green leotard-wearing man.

Gai blinked at Sekai. “I’m sorry, young lady, do I know you?”

Kakashi sighed. “That’s a boy, Gai-kun, and no, you don’t know him.”

“Eh? But he’s wearing a dress!”

“You’re wearing a bright green leotard.”

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?!”

Sekai giggled. “I think you look very nice in it, Gai-sama.”

Gai beamed. “It’s good to see some young people have good fashion sense these days.” This made Sekai beam widely. “But if you’re a boy, why do you wear a dress?”

“It’s my goal in life to be as effeminate as humanly possible,” Sekai offered cheekily.

“Ohh… Well, you do it very well.”

“Thank you!”

Kakashi rubbed his forehead. “Gai-kun, I’ll see you later. Thanks again.”

“No problem! What are rivals for? Just be sure you’re not late tonight.”

“Yeah. Want me to pick up some curry on the way home?”

“Please!”

After being introduced to Sekai and Yume properly, and saying hello to the other teens, Gai bid his farewells and left.

“Don’t tell me you have a crush on him too?” Kakashi hazarded to ask, though he really did not want to know. His brain couldn’t take much more of these little wanderings out of his comfort zone.

“Why? Are you jealous?” Sekai winked.

“No,” Kakashi told him flatly.

“Hmm, so mean…” Sekai pouted playfully before his smile returned. “No, I don’t. At least, not in the way you think. Gai-sama makes me laugh. That’s all.” Perhaps it was being simple-minded, but he liked people who made him laugh…

“Ah… Well, are you ready then?”

“Yes!”

Last night, after Sekai and Sai finally exhausted every sexually-oriented topic they could think of (which were quite a lot as it turned out), they had begun discussing what was to be done. Kakashi had seen the sense Sasuke’s earlier suggestion had—that Sekai be trained as a ninja. So that was what they were here to do today.

Though Sekai knew some basics, his training had been very different from what shinobi were used to (or so Kakashi figured, Sekai was unnaturally tight-lipped about what exactly his training had entailed). And they would all be participating in the teaching—Sakura was a Chuunin after all, Sai was ANBU, and Naruto and Sasuke were nearly Jounin level—despite the fact that they had yet to participate in a second Chuunin exam. (Kakashi supposed he should talk about that with them at some point, but lately there had been too many things going on.)

Sakura showed Sekai some rudimentary hand seal exercises she remembered from the academy—since he had little to no technique or seal forming knowledge. Though he was slow at first, he learned quickly enough after about an hour of practice. By now, Yume was sitting underneath the shade of a tree with Sai to keep her company. Sai watched and explained to the blind girl what was going on.

“Alright,” said Kakashi, “now let’s move along—but first, remove your talismans. We wouldn’t want you to accidentally use them and cheat now, would we?”

Sekai flushed a little and the talismans gathered from around his body into his hand and he pocketed them in his dress. Then he was taught his first technique.

Sasuke snorted when a deformed clone appeared beside Sekai. He eyes gleamed as he smirked at Naruto. “Déjà vu.”

Naruto glared at him. “Lay off, you jerk. He can keep up with you when he’s using his talismans—you said so yourself!” And keeping up with Sasuke in a fight was hard. He knew that from personal experience.

“That reminds me.” Sasuke turned to Kakashi. “I get to teach the deviant taijutsu.”

Sekai paled and murmured, “I have bad karma…”

Sasuke smirked as though he agreed.

This just made Naruto angrier. “You asshole, don’t beat up my brother!”

“Oiya oiya, Sasuke-kun,” Sekai said, glancing between them nervously and feeling as though all that ‘hugging’ progress was flying out the window, “pissing him off won’t help you any.”

Sasuke glared at him darkly, the strength of which made the older blond shiver. “Shut up. Just shut up.” If he told Naruto he’d kill him.

“Don’t tell Aniki to shut up!” Naruto yelled in his face.

“Boys!” Kakashi interjected as lightly as he could. “If you can’t behave, mommy’s going to have to ground you.”

Naruto turned his back on Sasuke, still glaring but attempting to calm down. Sasuke rolled his eyes and went to stand beside Sakura. Sakura let out a sigh of relief, never having enjoyed their fights from the beginning.

Kakashi looked back at Sekai. “Alright, let’s try that again,” he said and began to inform the older Uzumaki what he had done wrong.

Having been dependant on the talismans for so long, Sekai had very bad chakra molding skills for someone his age. Thankfully Sakura was there, who had always been extremely talented in this area and had even managed to teach Naruto a few things back when they were twelve. She would kindly (because she was growing fond of the older boy even though he tended to make Sasuke angry) give Sekai advice.

Though with every failure Sai could tell he was struggling to keep smiling.

Something told him this was not just fatigue however.

He said as much to Yume.

The girl’s lips tightened in a frown. “You’ll have to ask him about it. I don’t have the right to say anything on that subject. I recommend you not ask around Naruto though—he doesn’t want Naruto know about any of it.”

There was something about that that bothered Sai more than he could describe.

-

They took a break after lunch, but soon after they finished Sai asked if he could talk to Sekai alone.

The blond smiled, though he was obviously confused by the sudden request. “Of course.”

Sai led the way a short distance away, so that they were still within the group’s line of sight, but enough so that they would not be overheard.

“Is something wrong?” Sekai asked, leaning back against a tree with his arms folded over his chest. From the serious look on Sai’s face he could tell something was bothering the ANBU.

“Did Kain berate you when you made mistakes?” Sai asked bluntly, not seeing the point in hedging around the subject. He felt a little guilty when his question made the blond flinch however.

Sekai looked away from him and did not answer. Shame filled him—he did not want any of them to know about that.

“Did he hit you?” Sai prodded. He knew this was hurting Sekai, but he needed to know. He did not know why he did, he was still not used to letting his emotions guide him like this, but he just knew that was how he felt.

Sekai took a deep breath. “Not when I was little.” He looked at the dark haired boy pleadingly. “Please don’t tell Naruto.”

“I won’t,” Sai promised, and felt relieved when Sekai smiled a little. “I only bring it up because you seem to be losing confidence. If you do that, you’ll never progress. Kakashi is not Kain. You won’t be punished for making a mistake and none of us are expecting you to be perfect on your first day. You must relax and focus.”

Realization dawned on Sekai’s face as he spoke. “Sai, were you…?”

Sai did not answer, carefully keeping his face expressionless.

Sekai somehow seemed able to interpret that. Sadly, he put his arms around the taller boy and held him close. “Thank you,” he said, for the veiled confession and for the words of encouragement.

Stunned at the contact, Sai tensed at the feel of arms wrapping around his bare waist. The last time anyone had hugged him was his brother, and he had been a child then. Eventually he found himself relaxing, because Sekai’s body was warm and inviting.

He had read that hugs were a way to give comfort to someone you cared about. He supposed that was what Sekai was doing.

But why was his heart suddenly beating so fast?

Slowly, he hugged the other boy in return, feeling decidedly awkward about it, wondering if he was doing it right. “You’re welcome,” he returned, though he felt he should be the one thanking Sekai. The blond felt… good in his arms.

When Sekai pulled away he was decidedly brighter. “Okay! I’m ready for another round of training!” He thrust a fist into the air as he said this.

Sai smiled, glad he had helped.

-

Naruto watched his brother embracing his friend and was confused. “What do you think they’re doing?”

Sasuke glanced at them before snorting. “Probably less than the deviant wants to.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Naruto asked with a scowl. “And stop calling him that!”

“I will when he stops calling me ‘evil kitty.’”

“Well, I could call you ‘evil duck’ instead, but it doesn’t have the same ring to it,” Sekai quipped as he and Sai came walking back.

Sasuke felt his eye twitching uncontrollably. “Evil duck?”

Sekai beamed and made a queer upward motion behind his head before pointing at Sasuke. “Your hair looks like a duck’s backside.”

Naruto burst out laughing at the imagery, looking at Sasuke with delight. “Yeah, yeah, he does!”

That was it. That was absolutely it! Sasuke stood up, abandoning the rest of his lunch, glaring at Sekai with enough force to scare him.

“I guess it’s time for our rematch?” Sekai asked quietly, and his eyes gleamed with the same anticipation from when they had first met.

Only now it pissed him off much more than it had then, because the face he glared at wasn’t a dark-skinned girl’s. At that moment, Sekai had never looked more like Naruto. Sasuke hated him for that. “Yes.”

“Sasuke, wait!” Naruto tried to intervene. “It was just a joke, you don’t need to get that mad!”

Sekai smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry, Naruto-nii. Sasuke-kun and I are merely going to have a friendly training session.”

“But…”

Sasuke smirked, but his eyes stayed on Sekai. “Don’t interfere, Naruto.”

Naruto stood and moved in front of Sasuke, face set in hard, disapproving lines. “If you hurt him, I’ll never forgive you.”

Sasuke knew he meant it. He nodded once to acknowledge his words. I won’t hurt him… badly…

“Yes,” remarked Sekai softly, eyes still gleaming. “We wouldn’t want that, would we?”

Sasuke growled threateningly. Naruto moved out of the way just before the fighting began. He had never seen his brother fight before and soon found himself unable to look away. As someone who had fought Uchiha Sasuke more than once, and had barely lived to tell the tale (three times), Naruto knew how difficult it was. But even though Sekai did not know much about ninjutsu, he knew enough about hand to hand combat to keep Sasuke from killing him.

Sasuke was on the offense, as was his usual style, putting Sekai on the defensive. Every blow that Sasuke delivered was either blocked or evaded entirely.

Naruto watched in awe.

“Kakashi-sensei, can’t you stop them?” Sakura asked, turning to the Jounin pleadingly.

Kakashi shook his head soberly. “I gave up trying to give Sasuke-kun advice a long time ago…”

The dark haired fighter swung his leg with incredible speed at Sekai’s head, but somehow the blond saw it coming and he caught the limb, quickly sending his own at Sasuke’s head as though to mirror him. Sasuke caught it easily and jumped up to send his free leg toward Sekai’s waist. Sekai brought up his own leg and kicked back. The impact sent them both tumbling to the ground. There was a mad scuffle between them, with their limbs tangled as they were, and in the end Sasuke was the victor, sitting atop the blond, holding him down bodily.

Sekai struggled, pulling at the steel-like grip on his wrists before going still. He looked up at Sasuke and waited to see what he would do next.

“If you tell him, I’ll kill you,” Sasuke seethed in his face, low so the others wouldn’t hear him.

Sekai gave a small smile, head quirking to the side curiously. “Like you did Orochimaru?”

-

Panting from exertion as much as from the adrenalin and increased chakra burning through his veins, Sasuke could feel his hand-like wings flexing up and down as he breathed. Even with the curse seal fully activated, he could barely keep up with Orochimaru, but they were winning. Kakashi, Sakura, and Sai were tangling with Kabuto and the other Sound ninjas, leaving the legendary one-third to them.

Beside him, Naruto was slowly getting to his feet. Sasuke spared him a glance to be sure his wounds weren’t life threatening before quickly turning his gaze back to Orochimaru. The old man was bleeding as much as they were, and the skin was pealing away from his face, revealing the last carrier’s.

Orochimaru laughed in that creepy manner that was solely his own. “Sasuke-kun… You both surprise and disappoint me, turning against me at this last moment.” He had been so close to accomplishing his goal of attaining the Sharingan and Sasuke’s body. He would not fail now. But Sasuke had learned well in the past three years—more secrets than Orochimaru had meant for him to know—and he knew he had little time left in this body. If he did not make the transfer soon, it would be over. He would not let it be over.

Sasuke knew this, of course. But there were still things he was not yet willing to throw away completely. It had taken him a long time to realize it. Now he knew—even after being apart from Naruto for so long, fighting beside him now—it felt right. “I follow my own path. Not Itachi’s—or yours.”

Orochimaru smirked. “Do you really think you can defeat your brother on your own?”

“I will. I don’t need you, nor do I belong to you.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Naruto smiling at him brightly.

“If so, then why do you use the seal’s power?” The older ninja’s gleaming yellow eyes turned to Naruto, smirk turning nasty. “Are you that much in lo—?”

Sasuke was in front of him in a flash, fist connecting with his former master’s jaw before he could finish. Then the wings disappeared from his back, his eyes returned to normal, and the black flames rolled over his skin before crawling back to the mark on his neck.

“I don’t need it to defeat you,” Sasuke told him and activated his Chidori just as he saw Naruto perform the Rasengan.

-

Sasuke’s hands tightened on Sekai’s wrists, causing the older boy to flinch. “Is that how you know?” he demanded sharply.

“No,” Sekai said, and his expression softened. He looked up at Sasuke with the same fondness he normally reserved for Naruto. “I knew when you threw yourself between Naruto and Haku to protect him—and not knowing why. But I knew. The two of you are meant to be together. I believe that.”

That took Sasuke aback. He wasn’t sure what to think about it really.

Sekai grinned and wiggled his hips a little. “Wish it was Naruto down here, don’t you? Writhing beneath you wantonly…”

He couldn’t have said anything better to diffuse what he’d said before. Sasuke’s fist collided with his jaw.

In the next second Naruto was on him. The two tumbled and somehow the blond ended up on top, in much the same way Sasuke had had his brother pinned down. “You asshole, I told you not to hurt him!”

“Naruto! Sasuke-kun!” Sakura cried worriedly. Beside her, she felt Kakashi tense and could tell the Jounin was ready to jump in. He did not have to, however.

“Naruto-nii, it’s alright!” Sekai said immediately, scrambling over to them and putting his arm around his little brother. Blood was smeared on his cheek but he was otherwise unharmed.

“Why did he hit you?!”

“I said something he didn’t like.”

Sasuke glared at him. “You have a fucking death wish.”

Sekai grinned at him crookedly. “Even so, you’re going to have to face it sometime.”

Naruto blinked. “Face what?”

“Sasuke-kun will tell you when he’s ready,” Sekai told him contentedly, tugging Naruto gently off of Sasuke.

Naruto blinked at Sasuke with wide, confused eyes. “Tell me what?”

Sasuke looked away from him. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” He saw Sekai looking at him with a pitying gaze and his glower returned full force.

“I’m not going to tell him,” Sekai answered the unsaid threat with a grin. “It’s more fun if you do it!”

And that was how the first training session went.

-

Later that night as they were getting ready for bed, Naruto asked, “What were you and Sasuke talking about earlier?”

Sekai slipped his borrowed black t-shirt over his head before pulling on the borrowed boxer shorts. Both were a little big for him, but the contrast between this nightwear and his normal attire was strong. It definitely made him look more masculine. “I said it already—I’m not going to tell you. It’s up to him.”

Naruto sighed loudly and fell back onto the bed, feeling emotionally drained after this afternoon. Then again, everything dealing with Sasuke was usually exhausting. “Why does he hate you so much?” he asked softly.

Sekai smiled gently and ran his fingers through Naruto’s short fuzzy hair. “I think it’s because he knows how fond you are of me, and it makes him a little jealous.”

“Jealous?”

Sekai nodded. “For two reasons mostly. Firstly, he might feel that the closer you get to me the further you are from him. Secondly, he has an older brother too, as you remember—one that he used to love as much as you love me. The reminder angers him too.” Sekai laughed a little. “That and I think that he thinks I look like you.”

“Well, you do,” Naruto responded with a grin, but he sobered as he thought about what his brother had said. “But I haven’t been pulling away from him. I’ve been trying to get closer to him! He’s just so frustrating and stubborn—and I never can tell how he really feels about anything, and every time I think I’ve made progress the next second we’ve gone backwards again…”

Sekai stretched out beside Naruto, pulling the other blond close. “The two of you really just need to sit down and talk about things.”

Naruto bit his lip. “I want to… But I don’t know what to say…”

“Tell him whatever is in your heart.”

“It’s not that easy, Aniki…” Sekai didn’t understand the conflicting feelings Naruto had for Sasuke. “I don’t know what’s in my heart exactly.”

“Do you love him?” Sekai asked bluntly.

Naruto blushed. “Y-Yeah… I think I do. No, I know I love him. I love him a lot. I just… I don’t know if… I love him as a friend or…” Or as something more.

Sekai rubbed one of Naruto’s flushed, whiskered cheeks with his thumb. “Are you attracted to him?”

His flush deepened. “Erm… Well, yeah…”

Thinking his brother looked adorable, Sekai kissed his cheek, giggling softly. “Sounds like potential to me. Are you worried he doesn’t feel the same?”

Naruto nodded, looking thoroughly morose over the fact. “Yeah…” Among other things.

“This is why you need to talk to him. You don’t have to do it right away—do it when you’re ready.”

“But what if he doesn’t feel the same?” Naruto asked worriedly. “What if I ruin everything by telling him?”

“The two of you are bonded by a force stronger than anything on this earth,” Sekai told him kindly but firmly. “Nothing can destroy that. Just believe it.”

Naruto turned over to hug Sekai back, needing the comfort the other’s body gave right then. “I guess…”

Sekai kissed his forehead gently. “Get some sleep. It’ll be another long day tomorrow.”

“’kay.”

Naruto drifted off after only a short while. Sekai held him close as though he could somehow protect Naruto from the future by doing so.

Sasuke… if you hurt him, I’ll kill you.

TBC. Remember, kids, reviews help me churn out the chapters faster!