Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Innocent Illusions ❯ Ignorant of the Obvious ( Chapter 12 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

A/N: I faced some problems while typing this chapter. One, my school decided to be 'unique' and have spring break a week after everyone else. My parents thought it'd be fun to take us on a road trip which meant I'd be away from my beloved computer. Luckily, I was saved when I found out that my laptop was fixed (the recharger was back). So I could bring it and type. Unfortunately, the driving part was kind of a hard place to type in considering all the headaches you would get after being stuck in a car for six hours straight. When we got there, I had some family visits. When there was nothing to do, I decided I should type out the chapter but this one was a little hard to write and the parents decided to leave behind the children for me to watch (they left them behind every time I had some free time). So it was hard typing this already tough chapter to type while keeping an eye on the kids. It was me and my brother against five hyper children. Well, I survived long enough to put up this chapter.

Another thing before you start this chapter, I'm really sorry for making you guys wait so long and then just putting up a short chapter. But now, I have my laptop back (insert whoop here) so you can expect faster updates with hopefully longer chapters!





Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and Co.



Innocent Illusions


Naruto felt... scared. Not the I'm-going-to-die kind of fear. It was the kind of fear he felt when he saw the look on Sasuke's face as he saw Naruto in his true form. He felt as if a hand was squeezing his heart to a tight pulp as he lost the ability to breathe. The fear moved through Naruto's body, entering the fox's chakra. The red chakra spread out into his veins, evading the toxin's senses, and held the form that Naruto wanted as he continued to dream about the fear of Sasuke finding out about his little secret.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Go search for any information about the boy I might need to know."

"Why do you need to know more? He's bringing the boy today." The figure who was clearly the master leading his subordinates turned his cold glare toward the man, who remained unfazed, before him.

"You surely don't believe Sasuke would give up the boy that easily. Even he is not that foolish." The man nodded before leaving with his partner.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Sasuke appeared in front of the cave and deactivated the new complex barrier out in front. He ran through the cave until he reached the usual spot. After placing the girl's body softly onto the damp cave rock. He looked up and glared, waiting impatiently for the man to come.

"Sasuke."

"I brought the girl." Silence filtered into the air as the figure assessed the girl from afar. "What do you think? Good enough for your standards?"

"I... suppose it's good enough. They both have... similar qualities." Sasuke frowned at the sentence, sensing a double meaning.

"You remember our deal."

"Yes. First, I want the girl." There was a flurry of movements that would've been missed in a blink of an eye. The figure flew down to the girl, but Sasuke quickly blocked the attack and threw him off a few meters off. They stood with eyes contacting and their body in battle stance.

"I want to see him dead first!" The man stood up and looked at Sasuke.

"Tell me, Uchiha. How do I know you won't back out of our little deal? We know you're planning something. To let you know, we have something planned if you try to defy us." Sasuke scowled at the figure.

"You're probably the ones who would betray our deal before me!"

"Our word is true. You just have to keep up your side, and I will keep up mine."

"Hn." Sasuke retorted.

"So, will I have the girl or no? That is our deal."

"You have to fulfill your side of the deal before I agree."

"Very well." The figure's 'henchman' dragged out the crippled body of Itachi, apparently they'd been keeping him prisoner for a while now. Sasuke watched as the clear leader of the group went over and commenced the murder scene. Sasuke managed to show a disgusted grimace at the display of gore. "I have to say... it is a big disappointment to see you achieve his death this way. I presumed you would take the matter into your own hands."

"I plan to," He announced before glaring at the figure in front of him. "Your genjutsu doesn't fool me one bit." Sasuke watched as his surroundings shivered slightly before going back to normal. The men and Itachi's corpse were gone.

"Your eyes are sharp," The figure stood to his full height and looked directly into Sasuke's blood-red eyes. "But not sharp enough."

"Who says I was part of a genjutsu, little brother?" Sasuke remained emotionless as he felt Itachi's body behind him, Itachi's finger placed dangerously above a vein on Sasuke's neck. Then, Itachi's grip loosened. "I should've known you would've brought your useless team along." Itachi stated before he turned around and glared at the man who dared to hold the kunai to his neck. Sasuke took advantage of the situation and moved his body to shove Itachi against the wall. Itachi dodged the attack and jumped away.

"So, Sasuke." His head leaned back slightly at Karin's voice. "Who's this girl?" She asked as she looked at the unconscious girl on the ground with annoyance before turning back toward the leader of the group.

"Geeze, Sasuke," Suigetsu boredly called, acting nonchalant despite the seriousness of the situation. "When you placed that summoning jutsu on us, you should at least warn us before you're going to call us."

"He did, you idiot," Karin replied getting ticked off. "You didn't pay attention."

"Shut up, you-"

"You both should pay attention." The two turned turned Juugo, surprised that they were reprimanded by the usually silent member, before looking at their leader.

"Yeah, Sasuke. Who's the girl?" Suigetsu pointed a finger toward the earlier questioned figure.

"Protect her," Those were the only words he gave to the question before he pulled out his sword and faced Itachi before turning toward the earlier figure, also releasing the chakra that controlled the toxin's in the girl's body. "Pein, so is this what you call your 'true' words?" The red-head turned his cold eyes on the younger Uchiha before calmly replying.

"This is. You didn't keep your side of the bargain." Sasuke scowled at the pair before the three other members of the Akatsuki showed up.

Karin and Suigetsu walked over to the girl and studied her for the moment being.

"So who do you think she is?" Suigetsu bent down to get a closer look.

"Probably no one important." Karin gave another annoyed look at the girl.

"I don't know. Sasuke feels strongly about her protection," Suigetsu baited. It was too easy to get the girl angry.

"Then, she's probably another object that will help Sasuke in his ambition."

"I'm still not sure. She's pretty hot." Suigetsu flashed his sharp teeth at the fiery, red-head who looked like she was ready to kill.

"Stop it. We're supposed to be paying attention to the battle, not commenting on looks." Karin glared at him, warning him to stop.

"Yeah, we should. Besides, this is getting fun." Suigetsu's smile became larger as he eyed the large sword weld by Kisame. "You protect the girl. I'll be right back."

"No, you wait-" Suigetsu ran off before she could finish her sentence. Karin sighed before turning her gaze toward the girl. She wasn't... that special-looking. Was she?

Karin shook her thoughts out as she focused on the task at hand. How would her unfocused attitude look to Sasuke? Not good. A small groan put her senses on alert, but when she turned her head, it was just the girl. It appears that she's finally waking up.

Sasuke's eyes scanned the five Akatsuki members, deciding the odds. He heard about Pein's special ability, about the single man somehow evolving into a six-man squad, and his eyes that were even more powerful than the sharingan. His eye moved over to Itachi, the one he wanted to kill. If it were a fight between Itachi and himself, it would probably between the abilities of their ninjutsus or mental attacks, ranging from close combat to far-ranged dives. Then, Kisame was the next person to deal with. Suigetsu would probably take care of that problem. He's been dying to get his sword. Next would be the vegetable-man, Zetsu. Juugo could probably take him. The last was that Konan girl. Sasuke's mind ran through all the possible scenarios. Sasuke, Suigetsu, and Juugo probably won't be able to kill all of them, but they'll still manage themselves out of this problem alive.

"Karin, take the girl out of here."

Karin looked at the battle scene and decided whether she should ignore his direct orders and join the fight or leave. Narrowing her lips, Karin complied with Sasuke's wishes.

She gently looped her arm around the girl and quickly performed the teleportation jutsu. The distinct feeling of floating came as the ground disappeared beneath her feet before reappearing again. She took them out some miles away from the starting point and placed the girl on a piece of flat rock. Before turning back to study the girl, she tilted her head slightly when she discovered something. The girl had been conscious for a while now. Karin studied her a little more before getting her own conclusion. Sasuke had finally used the special toxin's that they had made on the girl. She was probably paralyzed from head to toe but that didn't mean she couldn't understand what was going on before.

By the looks of it, the girl was probably going to be really angry when she woke up.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Karin continued to watch the girl suspiciously. The girl was doing nothing but sitting in deep thought after waking up. Although her face remained emotionless, her eyes told the tale. That was obviously her weakness, the curse that showed her emotions in those eyes. Anger was a huge dominance in the girl's eyes, but other than that, her body language was an empty of any clues.

Karin chose to stand back and not talk to the girl, not feeling the need to. She might act like some of their previous captives and become hysterical, and Karin did not want to deal with another one of those. It was some amount of luck that the girl didn't attack her with her questions of her confusion. She didn't want to push it.

So other than studying the girl's emotion, nothing interesting came up. A couple of explosions from miles away came to their ears, but that was the only amusing or interesting thing that came.

Karin started kicking a piece of rock after another period of boredom. She wasn't really all that worried for Sasuke and the other boys. If things go as planned, they'd probably take out two or three members of the Akatsuki.

A few more explosions boomed through the air. The only thing that alarmed Karin was the fact that her feet was feeling the aftershocks from the battle. It's almost over.

True to her prediction, Sasuke and the rest of the Hebi group showed up a little later. All of them had injuries with them but nothing too fatal.

"How'd the-" Karin watched with some surprise as the emotionless girl sprinted over with surprising speed and punched Sasuke with a huge amount of strength unexpected to come from a girl like her.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Naruto had only been unconscious for probably a minute. For some reason, his transformation held. Maybe that was another improvement he had developed in his technique. With that aside, Naruto had been listening to conversations held between Sasuke and the Akatsuki. If he could, his hand would've tightened into a fist.

So... Sasuke wanted to trade me for his brother? Naruto's mind automatically jumped to the times before that he had with Sasuke. Was... that all fake? It didn't seem that way to Naruto, but maybe Sasuke was an even better actor than Naruto had previously thought.

Naruto crumpled at the thought of Sasuke betraying him and faking everything before. Naruto even lost the annoyance of being observed by the rest of Sasuke's group. He wanted to open his eyes to see everything fully instead of depending on his hearing, but he couldn't move them at all. Suddenly, anger blazed inside of him. Naruto tried with great force to move his arms, legs, and other limbs. Naruto fought the toxins. Then, he felt them weaken instantly until their power over him became nonexistent. He felt dizzy for a moment and groaned out from his pulsing headache.

In the midst of him fighting against his drowsiness, he felt someone pull him up. Naruto was about to push the questioning person away when his body felt a sort of weightlessness. When it was over, the voices and sounds were gone. Naruto opened his eyes to see he was in a rocky terrain. Where's Sasuke?

An explosion sounded through the rocky area. Naruto turned his head toward the source of the sound. Naruto wanted to run toward it, but he knew that the girl behind would probably try to fight him and make him stay. His body was still feeling the after effects of the toxins so it'd probably take most of his strength to reach the fighting point, but how much energy would it take to fight that girl and get to the fighting point?

Good thing Naruto's chivalrous side showed up or the girl would probably be on the floor rolling in pain. Or maybe his 'chivalry' was something Naruto just used to convince himself that it'd be better to stay then go back and face... The thought was killed before it was even brought into view.

Heh, I'm not going to hit a girl. Naruto thought after he made his decision to stay.

He sat there and used all of his senses to guess what was going on. He placed his hands on the ground and sent chakra through it to create a radar, a technique he learned from Yamato. Naruto felt the vibrations from the fight, but he had to guess who was who. Finally, the vibrations ended, and Naruto knew the fight was over. Hopefully, Sasuke and his other teammates would be the ones who came back.

Naruto waited and felt the vibrations becoming stronger and closer to him. Naruto looked up and saw Sasuke. The anger spiked up, but what really blew Naruto up was when Sasuke looked him straight at him, into his eyes, and remained unemotional. No guilt, not anything.

"How'd the-" Naruto charged at Sasuke and hit him with the force that he had been saving up. Maybe it was because he was pissed as hell for Sasuke doing this to him. Or maybe it was because he wanted some emotion on Sasuke. He wanted Sasuke to at least look at him with something after what he did. Naruto thought that Sasuke had shown his emotions before, but was it all a lie?

The rest of the group around him watched like statues at his power before looking toward their leader. Naruto felt the toxin's pushing down his power again. His body fell to its knees, and he scowled at Sasuke for being the one to use the poison on him.

"You fucking bastard," Naruto cursed. His body fell down, and his face was facing Sasuke, who had just gotten up and continued to look at him blankly. "You planned this all along, didn't you?" Naruto continued to shout even though he felt his body weakening. "Was it all fake? Was it?" Sasuke walked over to Naruto and bent down to place a finger to Naruto's shoulder, increasing the toxin's power. Naruto looked up with tired eyes and whispered his last thought. "Why did you betray me?" Some emotion flashed in Sasuke's eyes, but Naruto was already unconscious to even notice it.

Damn him. Naruto thought before he drifted to the blissful land where no harmful thoughts could touch him.

Queasy silence filled the rocky region before it was sliced through by a sarcastic comment. "Nice choice in women, Sasuke."

"Shut up, Suigetsu. He's not interested in her like that," Karin shouted, unknowing an ally of Suigetsu for breaking the tension of the atmosphere.

"How the hell do you know that?"

"Because I can see her fucking chakra! She has... a lot of potential for many disasters so that's what the Akatsuki were probably after."

"Damn, Sasuke," Suigetsu switched his view toward the quiet figure. "You planned on handing over that powerful little thing to the Akatsuki? Those idiots would probably blow up the whole damn world!"

"He wasn't planning to! That's why he called us," Karin yelled, quickly jumping to defend the Uchiha.

"So if he wasn't planning to give up the girl, why would he have her at all then?" Suigetsu smirked when Karin's flushed red with anger after he suggested a romantic figure in Sasuke's life.

"To trick the Akatsuki, idiot. Isn't it obvious?" Their bickering voices started shouting obscenities back and forth. Sasuke watched with no amusement before carelessly brushing pass them causing them to switch their attention toward him as he paced over to the girl. Slipping his hands softly under the light body, Sasuke picked up the girl with all three pair of eyes noticing the unusual tenderness. Glancing in their direction, Sasuke strolled over before turning his head to face the dysfunctional group.

"We're leaving." They all nodded quickly. Juugo trailed after Sasuke as the two annoyed beings stood watching the retreating backs of the group.

"So... you still think that nothing's going on between them?" Karin's quiet pose quickly dissipated as she told of promised gore to come with her eyes toward the man before her.

"Yes! Sasuke's just being a gentleman unlike you!” She humphed before walking away. Suigetsu shook at his head at her choice to walk down the ignorant path instead of realizing what she saw with her own eyes.

"All of us knows he likes her, idiot. Isn't it obvious?" He whispered in a slightly mocking tone with a smirk as he watched the woman walk away before turning his eyes toward the other figure who chose to remain clueless.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Naruto quickly rose from his unconscious state after the toxin's effects were lifted. His arms stretched across the soft bed. Naruto's body shot off the bed at the feel of a new surround. Unfortunately, it caused a dizzy spell to set on Naruto. His hand immediately grabbed the side of his head as if it would stop the pain. Squeezing his eyes shut, Naruto waited until the headache that followed his dizziness to dim down its pain levels before opening his eyes.

He was in a room obviously. Naruto twisted his head to take in the other objects of his surroundings. A second after questioning why he was in this hotel room, memories of earlier events zapped back into Naruto’s mind. The only physical sign of any difference in Naruto was the poor, crumpled sheets being fisted into Naruto’s tight grip. His mind instantly jumped into action as Naruto began to assess-

“Hey! The girl’s up!” His assessment was interrupted. Naruto looked up to see the rather large man in front of him. Naruto raked his mind for a name before finally remembering it. Suigetsu, Naruto remembered him from some experiences that he had encountered with the man that ended with not so... pleasant results. The rest of the team came in causing recognition to flash in his eyes before disappearing. All those years before hadn’t been wasted. Of course, the leaf shinobi had gathered some information on them, but Naruto couldn‘t let them know that. He was going to have to play the role of an unaware girl. Again. “You okay?” Naruto turned toward Suigetsu before nodding. He waited for their leader to come in. For some reason, it was taking him quite a long time to see Naruto.

“Where’s Sasuke?” He asked quietly, trying to put on an emotionless façade.

“Oh,” A smirk appeared on the man’s face causing a sense of foreboding to crawl into Naruto’s mind. “He’s gone. So you’re stuck with us for now.”

Naruto sensed a warning coming from his words. He looked around the room at the members of the group and, based on his earlier hearings of their conversations, felt fear closely related to that of a babysitter facing three evil children.

Oh, god. Naruto thought, forgetting his earlier memories that he needed to think about. But right now, Naruto welcomed the distraction.