Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ I'll Fight For You ❯ The Kyuubi ( Chapter 2 )

I don't own Naruto.

 

This chapter is dedicated to DaemonSyndrome for helping me with computer glitches and errors that I should have noticed before. I'm indebted to you! *Cyber hug*

 

The Kyuubi

 

“Sasuke! I can't believe it, you came—” Sakura slammed through the Hokage's door, jolting to a stop at the state Tsunade was in.

 

Drunk. Wasted. Utterly smashed. Sakura had never seen her so drunk before.

 

“Huh? Oh, whad'r'you doin' in m'office?” Tsunade spit out, her words incredibly slurred. Beside her, Shizune winced in apology.

 

“I heard, uh, that Sa—” Sakura began.

 

“Yes, yes!” Tsunade barked, sitting up suddenly and taking another huge swig out of the nearly empty bottle in her hand. No sooner had she taken the bottle from her lips, before she started to laugh uncontrollably.

 

“I lost my brother, and then my little brat goes and runs away on me.” she mused through fits of giggling. She smashed the bottle down on her desk and slammed her palms onto the table, shooting up out of her seat.

 

“Was I not a good enough mentor?!” she screeched, new tears bubbling in her eyes. “Why, you stupid brat?! Why the hell did you leave?!” she shook her fist at the sky before sinking dejectedly back into her chair. She looked quietly at the bits of glass and last drops of sake scattered about the room before reaching into a cabinet behind her and pulling out a new bottle and laughing again.

 

“And then, not two weeks later, the one person he's been searching for for years shows up at my front doorstep, asking where he is!” she threw her head back and laughed before downing half the bottle in one gulp.

 

“So Sasuke is here?!” Sakura clasped her hands together in hope.

 

Tsunade nodded hugely and hiccupped. “Got'm locked up m'self.” She mumbled before taking another gulp and letting her head fall onto the desk with a loud clunk. “Why did you go, brat?” she sniffed into the wood.

 

“Did he ask for me?!” she blubbered excitedly. Wait… “Sasuke's locked up?” Sakura whispered, pure horror lacing her voice. Shizune nodded before nodding towards the door.

 

“I think you should go.” She whispered. “But he's in cell block 42, restriction cell 52. Tell the guard: `Area 64 is clear for inspection, but I still need to check on Area 122', it'll get you in.”

 

“Don't tell her that!” Tsunade barked, glaring up at Shizune. “What if she's a spy, huh?”

 

“And what if I am too?” Shizune rolled her eyes, looking back to her filing cabinet, and leaving Tsunade floundering around for an answer.

 

Sakura forced a smile of thanks onto her face and dashed out before her real thoughts broke through.

 

Cell block 42? God, that's the highest constraining area in all of Konoha, and cell 52, Kakashi mentioned it. “A cell fit to imprison a demon.” Oh my god, how could they do that to him?

 

Sakura charged through the hallways and down past the sub basement level. Another three flights down were the cellblocks. Block 12, block 32, block 36 and block 42.

 

She nodded to the guard at the gate and continued running, skidding to a halt after passing the hallways for 12, 32 and 36. She could see the blue aura covering the entrance, and turned breathlessly to the guards.

 

“Area 64 is clear for inspection, but I still need to check on Area 122.” She whispered to the one on the right, her eyes flicking between the two on either side of the aura.

 

They looked between each other, clearly surprised that she knew the password, but placed their hands to the aura anyway, waving her through when it turned a lighter blue, never truly disappearing.

 

Sakura dashed through, counting the cells on either side of the hallway as she ran.

 

54, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51…

 

She slammed on her brakes, coming to the last cell in the hall. She gasped inwardly and brought her hands to her mouth.

 

Sasuke might as well have been wrapped head to toe in chains. A band of metal with a small blade on the inside to keep him from fighting hung around his neck and was repressing his chakra. It had four chains coming off of it, each trailing on the floor and lashed to the four corners of the room. His hands, resting in his lap as he sat on a cold and metal bed, were chained at the elbow to a very short chain connecting to the wall, and each of his wrists were likewise fastened to the wall by chains.

 

He still wore his shoes, but his ankles were bound not only to the wall behind him along with his arms, but also to the floor by more chains. Sakura assessed the length, it only gave him about two feet to move, if not much less.

 

“Sasuke?” she whispered cautiously, stepping closer and resting her hands on the bars.

 

His eyes—pure black in the darkness and completely robbed of life—dragged up and eventually met hers, but he didn't even blink. Sakura felt her heart sink, she hadn't changed to him, it didn't even look like he had missed her.

 

“I… why… did you come back?” she whispered, resting her forehead against the bars, staring at the wet and moldy ground.

 

He said nothing, but she'd expected as much, and was actually surprised that he was even still watching her.

 

And then she felt her anger bubbling up inside of her, and gripped the bars of the prison so hard her knuckles turned whiter than snow.

 

“Do you have any idea how much you hurt us?... How much you hurt him?” she clarified. Sasuke's eyes narrowed infinitesimally, but other than that, he didn't even twitch.

 

“It's been hell for him.” Sakura continued, hoping to get more of a reaction out of the raven if she kept up talking about Naruto. “I've never seen him so dead-set against giving up on something, and considering this is Naruto, I'm assuming you know just what that means. He wouldn't tell any of us what happened when he met you again that day, but he came back with some insane wounds, and he ignored everyone of us telling him to get medical attention and went straight back to training.”

 

This time, Sasuke did wince, being the one who'd given Naruto those wounds because the idiot wouldn't fight him for real. Some sort of shit about not wanting to hurt him.

 

“I thought it was for beating you at first, but he trained every day for two months until he passed out.” Sakura went on. “Literally. It got to be so bad that Sai, Kakashi and I picked days of the week to just watch him and carry him back to his apartment after he dropped.”

 

“Two months.” She whispered. “Do you know how long it usually takes to get to ANBU level from Genin? Years… decades. Two months was all it took him to reach their level, and they approached him, he didn't even sign up to take the exam. I watched him kill himself the entire way through. I love you Sasuke, but the pain you caused Naruto, and caused me through him…” she didn't know how to finish that, and what's worse, everything that she had said… not a single word had been a lie, or even a half-truth.

 

Sakura glared angrily at the tears that leaked from her eyes and dropped to the floor.

 

“I know you never cared much for me Sasuke,” she whispered, her voice dropping another notches, “but how could you do what you did to Naruto for the past years? Didn't it hurt? At all?” she asked desperately. “You're the brother he never had, the best friend no one else accepted him as, doesn't that mean anything to you?”

 

She looked up to the sound of clinking chains, finding that Sasuke had risen and was watching her intently.

 

“Sakura.”

 

“Yes?” she asked, clearly surprised that he had said anything to her, let alone her name.

 

“I need a favor.” He said firmly.

 

Her insides leapt. “Anything!” she cried happily.

 

“I need to go find Naruto.”

 

Sakura's smiled wavered, and she prayed for him not to ask what she thought he was going to ask.

 

“I need you to let me out of here.” He said determinedly.

 

Sakura's mouth fluttered for a few moments before she looked back at the floor. “I can't.” she whispered. “I'm sorry Sasuke, but Naruto wanted you back home so much… I can't do that to him, even after he left.”

 

“Sakura.”

 

Her eyes flicked up to find him reaching out to her. Him. Sasuke Uchiha. The Sasuke Uchiha, reaching out for her. Her.

 

Instinctively, her hand lifted and slipped through the bars, brushing against his fingertips. A jolt of electricity flashed like white fire across her mind, and she slumped to the floor, the metals bars dissolving in front of her.

 

Sasuke stared at her limp form a moment longer before scanning the hallway to make sure no one had heard that. The bars that had been over the entrance to his cell were designed to dissolve when someone from the village touched the prisoner contained by the bars. The contact established an immediate connection as if the prisoner was out of the cell, and the bars would disappear, but of course Sakura wouldn't have known that.

 

He had to knock her out, just incase they thought she let him go on purpose.

 

The first chains that needed to go were the ones on his wrists, they had the strongest seals against chakra on them, after that, it would be too easy to break the others. They were like paper trying to hold back a monsoon, he was too strong.

 

His eyes flicked around the darkened floor, looking for anything to use on the lock. It was a manual lock, because anything that touched it that had chakra would be immediately captured by duplicate handcuffs that would bind their chakra.

 

His eyes locked on a piece of broken metal on the floor about three feet from him, it was sharp, about three inches long, and only a few fractions of an inch thick at the thickest part, it would be perfect.

 

Sasuke got down on his knees and reached out, swearing when he barely breached half the distance between him and the shard. He tried his foot next, but the results were even more pitiful. Sasuke bit his lip and braced his hands on the floor, leaning forward. The collar bit into his flesh as the chains were pulled taught against the far wall, and blood stained the floor beneath him as it fell from his skin, but he continued to pull, forcing himself to ignore the pain.

 

He was an inch from the metal, and blood streaked down his front. He bit his lip and stretched again, wincing when the blade on the inside of the collar sliced through a nerve.

 

Damn it! I can't reach…

 

Sasuke closed his eyes, and lunged forward with a single thought. Naruto!

 

His teeth closed around the metal and he whipped back, jamming it in the keyhole on his wrist with his canines, the cuffs falling onto his lap with a small click. His hands shot up and undid the metal around his neck with a chakra release, his senses becoming full again as he was freed of both chakra-repressing bonds. His elbows and feet were just as simple, and fell away with the smallest touch of chakra.

 

He stood and walked out of the cell, healing the slashed skin on his neck as he slipped his sword onto his hip.

 

His eyes turned to Sakura once more.

 

“I'm not going to apologize.” He murmured. “I need to find him.” Sasuke whirled and dashed off without a second thought, calling on his Mangekyo Sharingan. The Amaterasu would easily burn through the barrier.

 

Later

 

“I'm so sorry.” Sakura shook her head, her face hidden by her hands as she sat in front of Tsunade, Kakashi at one side and Sai at her other.

 

“It's not your fault, I should have told you that would release him.” Tsunade rubbed her eyes, the blaring light making her hangover even worse, if possible. “I was hoping that if we held onto Sasuke, we would be able to bring Naruto back home, but I guess Naruto isn't meant to come home yet.”

 

“I thought the cell was supposed to be able to hold demons!” Sakura protested, though it didn't do much, Sasuke was already gone.

 

Tsunade nodded. “It is able to hold demons, because who's going to touch a demon willingly? The seals on the cell are released when the person out the outside touches the prisoner, but they have to be from the village, making it very hard to actually break the seals. We've never actually held a demon there to test it, but with suppressing their chakra and binding them away from everyone in the village, there'd be no way to escape. I should have told you not to touch him.”

 

“We were going to go out and look for Naruto again.” Kakashi stepped forward.

 

“And drag him back by force if we need to.” Sai murmured.

 

“No.” Tsunade stood and closed the shades, grumbling as it did nothing to help her migraine. “It's too dangerous to go near him if he's that out of control. I'm calling off all searches for him today.”

 

“You can't do that!” Sakura's face popped out of her hands, tear tracks staining her cheeks. “Naruto needs us, even if he doest know it!”

 

“He doesn't want us.” Sai spoke up. “If he somehow lost control of his chakra, than he probably doesn't want to be near anything he cares about.”

 

“We still can't just leave him out there!” Sakura argued, facing him with her fist to his face. “How do you know he didn't just go to try and find Sasuke now that he was stronger?!”

 

“He would have told someone.” Sai reasoned easily. Sakura lowered her fist, Sai was right. Naruto tried to act strong, but he always bragged about things like that.

 

“So we're just giving up?!” Sakura snapped.

 

“No, we aren't giving up on him, and as for the searches, we're merely stopping them.” Tsunade replied hardly.

 

Sakura nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes before turning for the door.

 

“I'm going home.” She murmured over her shoulder.

 

Five Weeks Later

 

Sasuke skidded to a halt on the edge of the branch, looking around. He was positive he'd felt it, there was no way he'd mistake Naruto's chakra for anyone else's, it was too much like him, bright and bubbly, but still… there was something that bothered Sasuke about the feeling of the aura.

 

First, he'd been searching for weeks and hadn't come across it once, and then all of a sudden, out of the blue it was there, and second, though it was bright and bubbly, underneath, there was something… ominous lurking, and Sasuke was still trying to convince himself that it didn't match up to the chakra he'd felt on the burned hospital and apartment building.

 

There really wasn't a reason for him to keep looking for Naruto, in all rationalization. He'd wanted to see Naruto once more before he destroyed the village, but now that Naruto wasn't there anymore… well, it kind of killed his reason for postponing his mass-destruction, but for some reason, he couldn't find the want… or the will to stop looking for the idiot.

 

There! He sped towards the familiar chakra flickering to his right. It was so close, he could taste it in the air.

 

He landed lightly on a branch a good hundred feet off the ground, the Sharingan scanning the ground.

 

And there he was. He was wearing ANBU armor and black clothing, a serious difference to his usual orange jumpsuit, a black cloak was draped over a nearby branch, and his blue forehead protector was gone, replaced by a black one that was covering most of his hair, leaving only a few golden locks hanging around his eyes. His hands were draped lightly in his pockets, and his stance was relaxed as he looked over a small, struggling fire.

 

Sasuke lowered his palms lightly onto the branch and swung himself down, just a few feet at a time. Finally, he landed soundlessly on the ground, rising to stare at Naruto's back. It was obvious the blonde had sensed him, though why he didn't turn to confront the raven, Sasuke had no idea.

 

“Oi, Dobe.” He spoke up, the only other sound in the clearing coming from the crackling and popping fire at Naruto's feet. He didn't know why he wanted to talk to Naruto now, originally, just seeing him would have been fine, but now, it wasn't enough. Like Naruto was a drug, and seeing him was just a taste, Sasuke wanted more.

 

Naruto didn't move a single millimeter.

 

“Usuratonkachi.” Sasuke said louder, just incase the idiot had fallen asleep standing up (Sasuke wouldn't put it past him).

 

Nothing moved, and then Naruto laughed. Quiet, deep and sinister, it scared Sasuke almost as much as Gaara's laugh once had. Naruto straightened up, and very slowly, turned to face Sasuke.

 

And red eyes met black.

 

Sasuke's eyes went wide, and Naruto smirked, showing the dangerously sharp canines.

 

“No.” Naruto said simply, his voice deeper than Sasuke had ever heard it, a growl lacing the edges.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I know this chapter was considerably shorter, but it seemed like a good place to leave you hanging. *malicious laughter*