Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ I'll Fight For You ❯ White Fox ( Chapter 15 )

I don't own anything but my ideas.

 

White Fox

 

Sasuke pushed open the door to his room after searching the whole rest of the house for the idiot blonde, confused to find it… dark was the only word to describe his room. No lights were on, and Naruto was lying in bed, which nearly made Sasuke freak. Sure, Naruto was a morning person, but it wasn't that late, it was getting dark outside too, but Naruto never went to bed this early unless he was… sick, Sasuke thought with dread.

 

Sasuke stepped over to the side of the bed and put his hand on Naruto's shoulder, jerking his arm just enough to jostle Naruto and wake him up. Naruto opened his eyes, but… something was odd about him…

 

“Dobe?”

 

“…Well, no… not technically.” Naruto sat up and yawned hugely, scrubbing at his eyes with the heels of his hands.

 

It clicked. A clone. How did I not sense that? And where's Naruto, I didn't feel him anywhere, not even his presence. “Where is he?”

 

“He said you'd know.” The clone flopped back down and rolled over.

 

Sasuke's eye twitched, and he brought his foot up and slammed it down on the bed, shaking the clone roughly.

 

“Hey! What?!” the clone yelled, shooting back up in bed.

 

“Where?” Sasuke demanded in a lower tone, more dangerous. He wasn't in the mood to play games.

 

“He said you'd know!” the clone said incredible deliberately, stressing too many words and making obscene faces at Sasuke on `know'.

 

They stood like that for the next ten minutes, glaring at each other, Naruto with his hands on his hips and staring down at Sasuke, Sasuke's arms crossed as he stared back up at the clone.

 

“The compound's training grounds.” Sasuke tried stiffly, the clone shrugged.

 

“The veranda.”

 

The clone smiled widely.

 

“He's just hiding in the house and he wants me to find him, right? Idiot.”

 

The clone just yawned and stretched again.

 

Sasuke's eyes narrowed sharply as another thing clicked in his head.

 

“He's not in the house.”

 

The clone smiled.

 

“He's not in the rest of the compound either.”

 

The clone flopped back down on the bed.

 

“He's not even on the Uchiha grounds, is he?” it wasn't a question, it was a statement, and there was an obvious growl in Sasuke's voice. The idiot had left the house, where he had been bound for who knows how long, and gone further and risked the possible jailing again and left the grounds all together.

 

…The IDIOT.

 

The clone just smiled again, pulling the covers over his head. “He said you'd know where to go.” It yawned before burying itself in the thick covers.

 

Sasuke refrained himself from hitting the mass of blankets as hard as he could, knowing that if the Naruto the ANBU were watching suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke, they would have the real Naruto behind bars before either he or Sasuke could blink, and this time he'd have to break out, because they wouldn't let him out for the rest of his life if it was up to them.

 

Sasuke grabbed his cloak off the back of the door and draped it over himself, disappearing out the open window just as the clone started to snore.

 

 

 

“He said you'd know where to go.”

 

Sasuke's first thought was the training grounds, it had a lot of good as well as bad memories for them, but that would be too obvious as well as way too dangerous. So many people went there at all times of the day that that it might as well have been grand central station.

 

But where…? Oh, of course.

 

Hokage Mountain.

 

 

 

It was dark by the time he reached the mountain after trying not to be noticed. It was black, but not like his dreams, not smothering, the stars were clear and shining above his head.

 

Sasuke walked up to the edge of the mountain, staring down at the village from atop one of the Hokage's heads, he didn't know or care which one it was.

 

The village looked so… peaceful at night, so quiet with tiny lights blinking or turning off. It looked so happy, quiet…

 

The bastards.

 

Sasuke turned away from the sickeningly lovely village that he'd come to hate so much. First they made his brother turn against his own family, and the framed Itachi so Sasuke hunted him down, leaving Sasuke alone as the last Uchiha besides Madara; it was pretty damn obvious that they were trying to wipe out the Uchiha line. And then, as if that wasn't enough, what they'd done to Naruto after that was just unacceptable. Blaming him for everything the Kyuubi did and then locking him up like a kicked puppy. They still didn't get that Naruto was so powerful he could incinerate the village in three and a half seconds, and he almost had, they'd all seen a taste of how dangerous he was when he burned down his apartment building and almost the hospital. They were all idiots.

 

Speaking of which… Sasuke turned around, reaching out with his chakra. He hadn't expected to be able to find Naruto that way, the Dobe had finally gotten his act together to have good enough chakra control that he could mask it so well it was like he wasn't there, it looked as if finding him would be up to Sasuke's eyes.

 

Sasuke stepped quietly through the grasses and flowers that were now as high as his waist that seemed to glow in the moonlight, and a small stream down at the bottom of the hill caught the stars like a mirror. Sasuke blinked, it looked almost exactly like his dream; he half expected to his younger self and the younger Naruto laying in the grasses and flowers.

 

He pushed through the flowers to the top of the hill, where a small patch of parted flowers indicated that someone else was here with him.

 

He walked over to Naruto's side, looking down at the blonde. “Dobe.”

 

Naruto had his arms and legs spread so he resembled one of the stars, and his bright, sky blue eyes opened slowly and he smiled up at Sasuke. He was wearing his ANBU uniform, with his mask and Ninjato lying beside him in the grass. Although the short and revealing prisoner's robes were skimpy and flattering on Naruto, he looked a thousand times better in the tight ANBU clothing and armor.

 

“You know they're going to lock you up until the end of time if you're caught.”

 

“It was boring inside, and I wanted to see if I could get past them so you wouldn't be able to say that my chakra was bad anymore.” Naruto grinned impishly up at him.

 

“And you know Gaara will come down on the village with ten thousand tons of sand if you get locked up again.”

 

“I have confidence that you'd forcibly break me out before then, you've already done it once before.”

 

“Why the hell are you talking like a tight-ass politician?”

 

“Granny said people listen to you more if you sound like you know what you're talking about.”

 

Sasuke deadpanned. “First of all, that was a jab at you, she was saying that you never sounded smart enough to be taken seriously, and second, you talking like that just sounds weird.”

 

Naruto stuck out his bottom lip and glared up at him. “Well fine then Teme, be an ass.”

 

Sasuke smirked as Naruto looked pointedly away and sat down next to Naruto. He laid down the way he had in the dream, facing the opposite way as Naruto with their heads side by side, and reached up to entwine his pale fingers with the tan ones. He idly wondered if his younger self was watching them as he had to their younger versions in the dream.

 

Next Day

 

Sasuke's eye twitched as the phone rang. Again.

 

Naruto, having nothing else to do, bounded over to the phone and pulled it elaborately out of the cradle. “Hello?” he sang. “Hi Sakura!”

 

Sasuke wildly drew a line across his neck with his hand, shaking his head.

 

“He isn't back yet, sorry Sakura. Uh-huh, I'll tell him, hey Sakura, when my parole is over, you want to get something to eat together?”

 

Sasuke smirked as Naruto jerked the phone away from his ear and Sakura's screaming was followed by a loud slam through the receiver as she hung up.

 

“How many times is she going to call? That was the thirteenth.” Naruto put the phone back in the cradle.

 

“Are you going to ask her out every time?” Sasuke rolled his eyes, unrolling another scroll and setting it on the table.

 

“Her reaction is funny.” Naruto smirked, draping himself over Sasuke's back and wrapping his arms around his shoulders. “What'cha reading?”

 

“I'm trying to find out how to seal a girl so she can't touch a phone ever again.” Sasuke said sarcastically.

 

“No, really.” Naruto rolled his eyes.

 

“Really.”

 

“Fine then, don't tell me.”

 

“I'm just reading over some of the scroll from my family's archives for something to use if the council ever attacks us. So far I know everything, but so do they, so it be safer to find a jutsu or seal that hasn't been used in decades so they wont be expecting it.”

 

“They're too afraid of us to attack.” Naruto went over to the cabinet and took out a bottle of folic acid and a spoon, swallowing three spoonfuls.

 

“Why…?” Sasuke blinked at him.

 

“Gaara said it would help me not get sick again.” Naruto pulled another two bottles labeled calcium and iron out of the cabinet.

 

Sasuke blinked again before shaking his head and looking back to the scroll. Some things were just better not to ask.

 

“You know, if she thought you were already seeing someone, she might stop calling every three minutes.” Naruto said absently around the spoon in his mouth.

 

“We could tell them about us—”

 

Smash.

 

Sasuke shot up from his chair and his eyes snapped to Naruto. The bottle of folic acid—which he had no doubt dropped—was in three million pieces on the ground, Naruto's feet and shins splattered with the liquid.

 

Naruto shook his head slowly, his eyes wide with terror.

 

“You're shy—?” Sasuke began in disbelief before Naruto launched himself across the room and grabbed Sasuke's shirt, shaking him.

 

“Do you know what they'd do to you if we told them?!?!” he shouted. “It's bad enough to them that you're an Uchiha, but they'd hunt you down if they knew about what we were doing!!”

 

“Christ almighty Dobe, fine then, don't flip out!” Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hands, forcing the frantic jinchuuriki back so he didn't get strangled.

 

“We'd have to defect to Suna!” Naruto gasped. “And every other village would attack Suna and Gaara would get evicted as the Kazekage and then we'd be stuck traveling with Temari and Kankuro and we'd both have to be fighting Kankuro off all day because no girl or guy would want to be with him and then we'd be living as whores or thieves in some run down city in the shadows where no one would look and we'd never be able to show our really faces again, we'd all be living in the transformation jutsu like the old hag the rest of our lives—”

 

“The transformation jutsu…” Sasuke said to himself.

 

“—and then Temari will never be able to make a move on any of the other guys and Gaara wont ever be able to find someone and we'd be hiding all of our lives and no one would serve me ramen anymore at anywhere because so few people want to serve a jinchuuriki already, but even less of them will want to after I've started a war all because of me and then we'd be eating off of old food carts like rats and then Kankuro would get caught with the daughter of some really rich person and then he would hunt him down and eventually get led back to us and the we wouldn't be allowed in the city anymore and we'd have to survive in the forest like animals or S-class… we would be S-class ninja! Oh my god!”

 

“Dobe, shut up!!” Sasuke bellowed right in Naruto's face, effectively silencing Naruto. “The regular transformation jutsu exerts a lot of chakra, but what about Tsunade's transformation? She's in that form all day long, and it wouldn't be possible unless she had something supplying that chakra, the way the Kyuubi does a lot for you. But then there's a more permanent jutsu that can last for a much longer time, and it doesn't matter if the person gets hurt or not…”

 

“Teme, what are you—”

 

“So if you could potentially… Naruto, let me talk to the Kyuubi.”

 

Naruto blinked before squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head frantically.

 

“Dobe, I just want to see if it can help you—”

 

“No.” Naruto said flatly. “No bloody fucking way—”

 

“If you can do it, you might be able to go outside of the house in the open.”

 

Naruto opened his eyes, obviously caught by that. “Really?” Naruto asked, closing his eyes again.

 

Idiot, I'm not going to try it right now. “You created a clone of yourself last night and left the house, but if you can do a semi-permanent, or longer-lasting transformation jutsu then you can go out in the open.”

 

Naruto bit his lip. “Well, I guess…”

 

“Look at me.” Sasuke commanded, taking Naruto's shoulders as the Sharingan began to spin. Naruto swallowed before opening his eyes.

 

His eyes really are blue. Sasuke thought before he landed in the knee-deep waters in front of the Kyuubi's cage. It was hot. Hotter than it had ever been when he'd gone into Naruto's mind, Naruto's regular body temperature was about 112 these days, but the heat in his mind was ridiculous.

 

“What now?”

 

Two enormous eyes glared down at Sasuke from behind the bars of the cage. Sasuke's brow furrowed, three complex seals—the most intricate he might have ever seen—glowed toward the back of the cage.

 

“Of course the runt can do a transformation jutsu.” The fox cut him off before he could ask. “He would have to be seriously mentally stunted to not be able to do a simple transformation jutsu with the amount of power we have together. He's stupid, but not that stupid, now if you'll excuse me, I'm very busy trying to improve both of your feeble human lives.”

 

“Both of our lives—?” Sasuke began.

 

“Out!” the fox roared, and the water around Sasuke began to whirl dangerously in a vortex, dragging him under. “I have no reason and no desire to speak to you useless human!”

 

 

 

“Sasuke! Sasuke!”

 

Sasuke groaned and shoved himself up off the floor, rubbing his temples furiously and trying to get his vision straight. He had a hell of a headache.

 

“What happened?” Naruto demanded, kneeling beside him.

 

“Damn fox threw me out.” Sasuke said dryly, forcing himself to his feet. How the hell did it do that? “But he said that you could do a transformation jutsu like that. Try it.”

 

“But if the ANBU sense my chakra even a tiny bit—!”

 

“Well how did you do it last night? And why the hell is your mind so hot? It was 50 million degrees in there.” He threw me out of Naruto's mind… is he that in tune with Naruto now that he can do something like that? He's that synchronized with Naruto's mind and body that he can come out at will and can do things through Naruto…

 

“It was?” Naruto blinked. “Well last night… I did it while my chakra was masked.” He said absent mindedly, tapping his bottom lip with his thumb.

 

“Well then do that now.” Sasuke smacked his hand over his eyes. “Because if you can take someone else's appearance, and the create a clone of yourself, you can go out of the house, but you have to use the fox's chakra, because it would be too risky for you to use your own if you were to accidentally drain yourself.”

 

“…I'll try.” Naruto said slowly, and placed his hands together in the seals he did with the shadow clone jutsu. His chakra, already so low it was almost nonexistent, suddenly seemed to draw further away and then disappeared all together, along with all traces of Naruto's presence. It was weird, Sasuke could see Naruto standing in front of him, but he could feel Naruto's presence at all, as if what he was looking at was just an illusion.

 

Naruto squeezed his eyes shut, and an explosion of smoke filled the kitchen. Sasuke waved it away with his hand, and the cloudy air drifted away to reveal two of Naruto, one like nothing had changed, and the other in his sexy jutsu form.

 

“I said the other one couldn't look like you.” Sasuke rubbed his temples slowly. His head was killing him.

 

“Well then you tell me what you would like, Teme!” the two Narutos said in sync, both glaring at him and putting their hands on their hips.

 

“And you can't do things at the same time like that, it'll be weird if one of you does something out of nowhere that the other one is doing at a different place.”

 

The female Naruto flipped her hair and stuck her nose in the air. “We can't help it if both of us take offence to your damn comments.”

 

“Maybe you should be a little more grateful that I could do this in the first place.” The male Naruto crossed his arms and stuck his nose in the air, facing the opposite direction as the female Naruto.

 

“You can't look like you, people will know it's you if you go out with blonde hair and your scars.”

 

“Well, what would the king care for me to look like?” girl Naruto huffed. “Opinionated.” She muttered to herself.

 

“Some girl people will think I would want.” Sasuke said absently, looking back to the scrolls on the table.

 

“…Like…?”

 

“I don't know, just someone that seems like I would be with her.” Sasuke snapped. How hard is it?!

 

“Any ideas on what she'd be like?” male Naruto turned to the girl Naruto.

 

“Hmm…” she crossed her arms, “emo.”

 

“What?” Sasuke deadpanned.

 

“Oh! And moody!” male Naruto joined in enthusiastically.

 

“Masochistic.” Female Naruto said.

 

“Sadistic.”

 

“Territorial about Sasuke.”

 

“What about chakra?”

 

“Oh yeah… we'd have to mask it so no one would know it was us…” male Naruto tapped his lip with his thumb.

 

“Ok… oh! Abusive!” female Naruto started listing traits again.

 

“Reckless!”

 

“Disobedient!”

 

“Cold!”

 

“Dishonest!”

 

“Humorless!”

 

“Low tolerance!”

 

“Uses people!”

 

“Spiteful!”

 

“She's a killer!”

 

“Wow, this is going to be hard to be.” Female Naruto said absently, meanwhile, Sasuke looked about ready to commit a homicide and save the council the trouble.

 

“Kyuubi could help with the personality, he's a natural at it already.” Male Naruto suggested.

 

“What about clothes?”

 

“Lots of black.” Male Naruto said, nodding.

 

“But it has to be sophisticated enough so she looks from a high enough status.” Female Naruto chimed in.

 

“You hear that fuzz ball?! Ok, I'll here we go.” female Naruto placed her hands into the seals again, and a cloud of smoke exploded around her.

 

The smoke cleared to reveal a dark-haired seductress and dark blue eyes that might as well have been glaring at Sasuke, though she looked very relaxed.

 

“Well?” she asked expectantly, her soft voice like a siren's and suddenly much calmer than Naruto's.

 

Her hair was pulled to the right in a loose side-ponytail hanging over her shoulder, and her long bangs and eyelashes almost obscured her eyes, their color as deep a blue as the night sky. There were no sleeves on her black kimono revealing an intricate seal on the inside of her right arm, and the hem of the bottom of the kimono only went to the top of her knees, matching the short length of her sleeves. Only a single white cherry blossom—about the size of her hand—decorated the kimono at its hem. Her obi in contrast, was white with a single black cherry blossom adorning it. Straw sandals with a two straps—one going from between the toe to either side of the foot—were next to a thin ankle bracelet with a small charm on it that looked as if it were for maximum chakra release. (Note: think flip-flops for the sandals)

 

“Convincing.” Sasuke admitted, rolling the scroll shut. “What about weapons?”

 

The girl blinked slowly, her long eyelashes brushing her cheeks as she seemed to be thinking. “Kyuubi?” she said finally.

 

Black fire slowly wrapped around her leg, morphing and condensing to form a small dagger tied to her thigh, and the fire flared up on her back, parting to reveal sturdy longbow that had been carved out of black walnut with the same white cherry blossom on it, like her kimono. A black quiver was tied parallel to the ground on her back around her waist so it didn't get in the way when her bow was on her back.

 

She removed the dark wood slowly from her back, testing the weight of the bow inquisitively as she held it out—its length almost as tall as she was—and drew one of the arrows from her waist, knocking it curiously.

 

“Good feel.” She said absently, drawing the arrow back to her ear.

 

“That's a lot of black.” Sasuke commented, watching her pull the arrow back even farther and listening to the string of the bow stretching under the pressure.

 

“I just suggested things, Kyuubi called the shots, take it up with him. I also feel as bored as I've ever been because the fox also chose my characteristics, but all I want to do to interest myself is to fight someone, so I'm just going to stay bored until I release the jutsu, I guess.” she stated, relaxing her hold on the bow and sliding the arrow back into the quiver. “But I don't have anything like a name or what village I'm from.” She turned to him.

 

“And what about chakra?” Sasuke asked.

 

“I'm leaving that up to the orange dust ball.” She said, running her finger over the wood of the bow. “Hiding it and changing its feel hasn't been an issue before.”

 

“It is convincing.” The male Naruto clone agreed. He had somewhere along the way mad himself a bowl of ramen and was now slurping it up, the girl who was supposed to be the real Naruto wrinkled her nose in disgust, indicating that traits and hair color weren't the only thing the Kyuubi had changed about her to fit the description Naruto had asked for.

 

“So what now?” the clone asked, turning to Sasuke.

 

“Names, and village.” He answered easily. This isn't going to piss the council off enough, even if her personality is very similar to mine, there has to be something else…

 

“Something that would freak out the council, as long as we're doing this, we might as well have fun with it!” the clone yelled happily.

 

“Myobu means white fox, like a celestial one.” The girl murmured, placing the bow back onto her back.

 

… The Kyuubi will definitely piss the council off, but there has to be something else I can do to even just… oh.

 

“So your name's Myobu, but what about your village?” the clone asked as Sasuke walked out of the room, Myobu watching him curiously.

 

Sasuke leapt up to the third floor balcony from the main room and pushed the door open, walking over to a small chest in the corner of the room. The seal on the front of the chest opened to his touch, and he lifted the lid, searching through the small handful of possessions he kept because he couldn't find a reason to get rid of them, and because they gave him reasons to stay in Konoha for Naruto.

 

Finding what he was looking for, he closed the door to his room behind him and jumped back down to the first floor. Myobu and the clone were standing right where he had left them, the clone on his third cup of ramen and Myobu inspecting one of the arrows on her waist. Not having to worry about the clone getting jealous because the real Naruto was Myobu right now, Sasuke handed her what he had gotten from the chest.

 

She blinked at him before unwrapping the thing from its cloth and holding it up. Her eyes went wide and she cringed visibly, holding the Sound village hitai-ate as far away from her as possible as she grimaced in almost disgust.

 

“No.” Myobu said flatly. “Absolutely not.”

 

“It'll piss the council off if I show up with a girl from Sound one day.” Sasuke smirked triumphantly, knowing that would get Naruto to put it on.

 

Myobu grimaced again before moving it up to her forehead, pausing and tying it around her arm at the last second. “Feels weird on my head.” She shrugged. Sasuke blanched, hair and eye color really wasn't the only thing the Kyuubi changed. Sasuke was essentially talking to a female human version of the Kyuubi's personality through Naruto's.

 

Sasuke twitched again as the phone rang and the Naruto clone bounded off happily to answer it.

 

“Hello? No, he isn't back yet. Hey Sakura, when I get off parole, do you want to get dinner with me?”

 

Another round of screaming through the phone was followed by a slam and then a click as Naruto hung the phone up and walked back in with a huge grin on his face. “She broke the record for most derogatory things yelled at me.” he said as if it was an accomplishment. Meanwhile, Myobu looked about ready to shoot the phone with one of her arrows.

 

“Jealous?” Sasuke smirked. Myobu's eyes snapped to Sasuke, and for a second he thought she was just going to shoot him instead.

 

“I'm turning back.” She snapped. “Because I really feel like killing something right now; the Kyuubi's personality is too dark for long periods of time, tone it down next time you damn fox.” she ran a hand through her bangs, and in a puff of smoke, Naruto stood in her place. He took a deep breath and the clone also disappeared.

 

Naruto put his hand down by his side slowly, and his eyes flicked to Sasuke. With a grin he launched himself at the raven, clinging to his back like a monkey.

 

“Dobe!” Sasuke yelled as he almost fell over and had to grab the counter top to get his footing again.

 

Naruto sighed and nuzzled his forehead into the back of Sasuke's neck. “The Kyuubi's really moody, I wanted to really attack you, like to actually cause damage there for a second, but I think it was just because the fox doesn't like you very much.”

 

“I've picked that up over the times we've met.” Sasuke said dryly, prying Naruto off his back and pulling him into a hug. “Should we go see Sakura?”

 

Naruto looked away unsurely. “Well, I guess… I just have to tell Kyuubi to tone down the urge to kill and to never make me want to attack you.” He growled, suddenly rigid, before zoning out, his eyes going cloudy as he went into his mind.

 

Sasuke resisted following him just to try and ask the fox what he meant again when they talked earlier, but he knew Naruto wouldn't appreciate it too much, so he just moved the blonde to a chair so he wouldn't fall flat on his face the second Sasuke moved away.

 

Later

 

To say that the pair of them were attracting attention would be an understatement, probably the one of the century. Sasuke was dressed in the all black ANBU armor and outfit Naruto had picked out for him with his sword at his hip and Myobu in her black and white short kimono with the longbow on her back; the Sound village hitai-ate didn't help much either. Most people just avoided them, but some people had the gall to gasp out loud or do something else stupid like that.

 

After Kyuubi had toned down Myobu's personality, she had less of a must-kill character and more of an I'm-taking-pleasure-in-your-pain character. It was better than her wanting to seriously hurt anyone that pissed her off in the least. Sasuke had also seen her smile, it was a sadistic smile, but it was a smile nonetheless.

 

They had arranged to meet Sakura at a small café in town at noon, but they were getting there at quarter of, knowing that she would have already been there since eleven fifteen. Sure enough, there she was, sitting at the only outside table at the café with a mug of something in her hands. Ino was sitting beside her, looking as though she was giving Sakura a pep talk. It wasn't a rumor anymore, or even unknown by some of the lesser people in the village that Sai and Ino had been seeing each other for a few months now. Sasuke knew from experience that people often feel for their teammates because you got to know them so well.

 

Ino gasped and touched Sakura's arm, signaling that Sasuke was coming, and Sakura immediately reached up to straighten her hair. Sasuke felt Myobu stiffen by him.

 

“Sakura.” He said when he was close enough.

 

Sasuka jumped up and pulled him into a hug. “Sasuke! I can't believe you called me up! It's great we're finally—who is she?”

 

“…This is Myobu.” Sasuke said, prying himself out of Sakura's arms.

 

Sakura didn't seem capable of closing her mouth. “…Sasuke… she's from Sound!” she gasped, staring at the hitai-ate on her arm as Ino inched away from them. There was horror in her eyes, it was obvious she knew what Sasuke showing up with a girl meant, it was too bad Naruto wouldn't allow Sasuke showing up with him at his side. What the hell was the Dobe so worried about anyway?

 

“Yes, I am.” Myobu said dangerously.

 

“…Sasuke… can I talk to you?” Sakura grabbed his arm and pulled him to the other side of the street.

 

“…D-Do you… want to sit down?” Ino offered.

 

“…No.” Myobu said flatly.

 

“…Oh, ok.”

 

 

“Sasuke, I know you and that Karin girl were pretty close, but how could you bring someone from Sound home?!”

 

What was she for Christ's sake? His mother?

 

“She's not…” Sakura shook her head slowly, “I mean… you and her are just friends, right?”

 

“You know that my goal was to repopulate my clan Sakura. Myobu is very powerful and has also lost her family, she was in Sound looking for more power—”

 

“Sasuke, she already looks pregnant! And I thought you of all people wouldn't do anything like that until after marriage!”

 

Sasuke blinked and turned back to look at Myobu. With her arms crossed as she looked pointedly away from them and the tight kimono, she did look pregnant, about three months, actually… what the hell was that about? Was it just Naruto's malnutrition being carried over into her looks?

 

“…Sasuke… but I… I also…!” Sakura was tearing up. Out of nowhere, her hands shot out before Sasuke could blink and cupped her face, yanking him forward.

 

Milliseconds before their lips touched, something shot out of the air like a bullet, and an arrow glowing with black fire embedded itself deep into the wall behind them, missing both of their noses by about a quarter of an inch as it separated them. The black fire surrounding it dispersed slowly, leaving just a plain wooden arrow in the wall between them.

 

Sasuke blinked. That… was close. And since when could Naruto shoot an arrow?

 

Sakura looked over at Myobu with death in her eyes as she let go of Sasuke's cheeks and clenched her fists at Myobu. Myobu drew another arrow from her quiver and knocked it, the seal on the inside of her arm starting to glow light a black light. The bow was on its side, parallel to the ground, and as she drew the arrow back to her ear, it was engulfed with the fire again, the head of the arrow trained right on Sakura's neck. Sasuke knew Naruto would never actually shoot the arrow, but he was doing a damn good job acting as if he would for the part.

 

The Kyuubi is controlling the arrows. Well that made more sense; Naruto would have killed someone if he'd fired that arrow.

 

The crowds of people around them had frozen, just waiting for the fight to break out, most of them dying to see how a ninja from Sound fought after all of these years, especially after Sound had fallen with Orochimaru so long ago. People half expected her to suddenly start spitting snakes out of her mouth or something. They could feel the Kyuubi's chakra radiating off of her body—though it was being disguised as a human's chakra, giving it a different feel so people didn't think it was the Kyuubi—and it was just putting people more on edge.

 

“Myobu.” Sasuke said firmly. He didn't want to have to fight Naruto, but if Naruto started something, he would have to be the one to end it before the ANBU arrived and they were forced to take them down again.

 

Her eyes still burned with the same black fire that was flaming on her arrow, but slowly, she relaxed her arm and slid the arrow back into the quiver and jammed the longbow back over her shoulders.

 

The second the arrows were out of Myobu's reach Sakura yanked a kunai from her belt and lunged forward, disappearing through Sasuke's fingers as he grabbed for her. In a shower of sparks and a loud crash Sakura and Myobu were locked together, Sakura's kunai and Myobu's dagger almost bending around each other with the force being put on them. Sakura had two hands on her kunai, but Myobu only had one hand was on her blade. The other was wrapped tightly and… protectively over her stomach. As to why, Sasuke was baffled. Especially with Sakura's chakra, which Sasuke knew Sakura released in large bursts so Naruto would have taken some huge force on that one arm from Sakura's attack.

 

“Possessive whore,” Sakura hissed. “We knew him—grew up with him—long before your black eyes ever looked at him! You think you can just move in and act like you have a right to be with him? You think because you're from Sound and have put a few people in the afterlife before their time that you have something in common. If you're the reason he's been kept away from his home this whole time since he broke away from Orochimaru…” there was a clear threat in her voice.

 

Nothing moved except for the kunai and dagger quivering with force in between the two ninja. Sasuke was too worried that if he even breathed wrong Sakura would do something else and Naruto would be forced to fight her.

 

And then Myobu's eyes bled red, a deep bloody crimson, and a wild smile spread over her face. Sasuke watched Sakura's anger fade to horror as the Kyuubi easily forced her kunai back and pushed the pink-haired ninja toward the ground.

 

“You'd better watch yourself girl,” the Kyuubi hissed through its teeth, “you never know who the wrong person to attack is until they put a knife through your throat, and by then, it's too late.”

 

Sasuke shot forward, knocking Myobu back into the wall of the shop and keeping both hands wrapped firmly around her wrist, making sure to hold the dagger at a bad angle so the Kyuubi couldn't throw it. The Kyuubi's blood-red eyes glared at him for a moment before merging back to deep blue and Sasuke could clearly see Naruto's terrified eyes behind the wrong color blue. Shock that Sakura had just attacked him, but terror that Sasuke couldn't place. Almost like terror that he was going to lose something even though Sasuke knew Naruto could easily defend himself against Sakura.

 

“She'll be staying at the compound.” Sasuke snapped to Sakura over his shoulder. Naruto lowered the dagger slowly, letting Sasuke slip it out of her hands once the raven had loosened his grip.

 

“You ok?” Sasuke asked under his breath. The only response he got was a shaky nod, Naruto unable to meet his eyes again.

 

“And if you ever attack her again,” Sasuke snarled, whirling back to Sakura, who was still on the ground, “she won't be the one to put a knife through your throat.”

 

Sakura pushed herself to her feet, brushing her hands together slowly before turning to confront Sasuke.

 

“This is who you chose?” she asked slowly, her fists shaking in anger. “You didn't have to pick someone from Konoha, you didn't have to pick someone who knew you well, and you didn't even have to pick me, though I've known you better than any girl other than your mother.”

 

Tears were now flowing down Sakura's face, but she wasn't about to stop and Ino didn't look like she would step forward to stop her.

 

“You chose someone from Sound!” Sakura shrieked, taking a step forward and Sasuke leaned forward protectively as he felt Naruto grip his shirt. The Kyuubi coming out that suddenly must have really shaken him up…

 

“You chose some bipolar whore from Sound who is probably more desperate than all of your mindless fan girls here! She wanted to tear my neck open two seconds ago and now she's quivering behind you like a leaf! Did you know that he only wants you for your power?!” Sakura jabbed her finger at Myobu, taking another step forward. “And then once you've had his son he can just dump you on the side of the road?! How strong can you even be if you're scared with me just yelling at you?! Are you good in bed?! Is that why he chose you?! Or do you have a Kekkei Genkai too?!”

 

Sasuke turned back to Naruto, half looking for one of his arrows to shut Sakura up with and half looking for her dagger to cut Sakura's tongue out with, but stopped at Myobu's expression. Her deep blue eyes stared at the ground, her lips in a tight line. Sasuke could see easily that Naruto was hearing truth in Sakura's words.

 

Sasuke's lip pulled back over his teeth, and he turned back slowly to glare at Sakura who took a nervous step back in response. Sakura had always been a pain in the ass, but never had he actually wanted to end her life until now.

 

It would be so easy to shut her up. Permanently.

 

Later That Night

 

Sasuke concentrated on regulating his breathing as he lay with the blanket loosely on top of his naked form, his arms spread out. A pair of tanned hands clung to one of his pale hands, holding it against his bare chest.

 

Sasuke's head flopped over and looked at the perfect face, much darker than normal in only the moonlight. He rolled over, wiping the sweat on his face off onto the pillow as he did and tenderly ran a hand through the golden locks.

 

“So when are we going to tell them the truth about Myobu?” he whispered through the darkness.

 

“…After my parole is off.” Naruto whispered back, nuzzling into the raven's chest.

 

“That long?” Sasuke wrapped his arms around Naruto, disapproving in his voice.

 

“Doesn't have to be that long, they might let me off tomorrow for all we know, I just don't want to be stuck in the house when Sakura comes to kill me.” there was no joke behind Naruto's voice.

 

Sasuke tensed and rolled, pulling Naruto with him so he was on his back and Naruto was lying on his chest. “I won't let her do anything to you.” He said firmly. “And even then, we could have years of you being on parole to prepare what to say to her.”

 

Naruto shook his head. “Even if I don't get off soon enough, I'm not going to wait that long… six months at the most.”

 

“Six months? Why that specific?”

 

Naruto shrugged. “No real reason, just… something will be pretty obvious in six months, and then we'll have to tell them.”

 

Sasuke let it drop and pulled Naruto closer against him with one hand. “One more time.” He whispered huskily, kissing Naruto's neck. Naruto immediately tried to scramble away.

 

“We just did it!” he protested as Sasuke rolled over again, so he was on top of Naruto. Sasuke smirked evilly and picked a spot on Naruto's collarbone to bite, grinning as Naruto yelped. He kept going because Naruto's struggling was so weak it was obvious he wanted it too.

 

“Fine.” Sasuke grabbed Naruto's shoulders, hooking his legs around Naruto's waist as he rolled them again, reversing their positions. “You can top this time.”

 

“Really?” Naruto said eagerly, not waiting for a response before diving into Sasuke's lips, their tongues thrashing between them.

 

“One more time.” Naruto agreed, running his hand up the length of Sasuke's thigh and making the raven's eyes roll back into his head.

 

Meanwhile

 

Neji lay eagle spread on his bed, fingering the cut on his cheek absentmindedly. He'd been so dazed from what happened yesterday with Gaara's sand that he'd failed to notice Tenten's kunai coming straight at his face, and she'd left a pretty deep cut on his cheekbone.

 

He wouldn't have thought in ten million years that something like that would have happened to him. Before yesterday, his life plan was to get married to some random girl that was very strong to have kids, because that's what his clan wanted, or just to not get married at all. He was gay, but only in a sense, because only Gaara turned him on; there was no one else that made him feel that way.

 

Neji sat up in bed and pulled his shirt off over his head, remembering that he had also been so dazed that he hadn't changed since yesterday, no wonder Tenten was looking at him so oddly. It was something to do with being a weapons expert, she just noticed everything, like the way she did about weapons. Maybe it was the girl factor too.

 

He dropped the shirt on the floor and moved to pull off the rest of his clothes, when the Byakugan sensed something shifting behind him. He whirled, instantly ready with a kunai in his hand, but only his shirt was behind him.

 

He lowered the kunai again a millimeter before his shirt shifted again.

 

Neji inched forward slowly, kunai poised, and pulled his shirt gingerly off the floor. Sitting there on the floor, hidden beneath the white cloth was a tiny, perfect, black and brown sand raccoon, only the size of his thumb.

 

He set the kunai on the floor and gently lifted the sand figurine off of the wood, holding it in the palm off his hand as a small smile touched his lips.

 

He set the raccoon on his bedside table and stripped the rest of his clothes before pulling on his nightclothes. He climbed into bed, smiling once more at the raccoon before doing a double take at the little animal.

 

Instead of the sitting position it had been in when he'd picked it up, the little raccoon had laid down and now had its eyes closed and its tail wrapped around it as it slept.

 

Is that what Gaara's doing? Neji reached out cautiously and ran his finger down the back of the little raccoon. He smiled again and flicked the light off, watching the little raccoon long into the night.

 

 

 

 

 

Holy long o_O I'm sorry, I didn't intend for it to be this long! Please don't flame!

Hopefully you enjoyed the insanely long chapter, but on a scale of 1 to 10, what do you think?

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