Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Owari Nai Yume ni Tamesarate mo ❯ The Force Known Simply as Destiny ( Chapter 5 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 5: The Force Known Simply as Destiny

Hyuuga Neji was always one who believed that appearance was everything; that people would think less of you if you showed your emotions. As he stood outside of Sakura's door, waiting for someone to let him in, he was waging an internal war against himself while looking calm and composed.

The present matter in question was the latest Sasuke retrieval mission. He still was uncertain if she should know what exactly happened in that mission or if she should be kept in the dark. So far the latter had more logical reasons, but Neji's instinct told him that he should inform her of exactly what happened.

`I'm here, I might as well tell her, and if Naruto, Kakashi, or Shikamaru have a problem with that, they can bring it up with me,' thought Neji as the door opened slowly, to reveal a sleepy eyed Sakura dressed in a baggy pair of flannel pants and a cotton shirt that showed off her midriff.

“Neji?” yawned Sakura as she rubbed her eyes sleepily. “Why are you here so late?”

“Sakura we need to talk about Mission ZH98700; in which we were supposed to retrieve one Uchiha Sasuke,” firmly insisted Neji as he stepped out of the chilling night air and into the Harunos' warm but small house. Sakura frowned slightly at Neji's purpose for being there, but she didn't object when he entered.

“Follow me, and don't talk that loudly, my mom's asleep,” whispered Sakura as she turned around and stalked into the dark house, with Neji following her. Soon she stopped at the very end of the house and opened a door that was painted bubblegum pink, revealing a room with bright pink walls with fluffy blue clouds and wooden flooring.

“Just shut up and sit down,” snapped Sakura when she noticed Neji's cocked eyebrow, no doubt because of the color choice. When he declined and instead leaned against a wall, Sakura decided to go lay down on her bed. “So what is it that's so important about the mission?” exasperatedly asked Sakura, trying to appear unconcerned about the matter, but to Neji's natural psychological knowledge, she was obviously anxious about what Neji was about to tell her.

“As you know Sakura-san, Kakashi-sempai, Naruto-san, Shikamaru-san, and I were sent on an S-class mission to retrieve Uchiha; and it was our last chance too, for rumors were circulating that Orochimaru's present body was deteriorating at an accelerated pace. Originally, we planned on invading Orochimaru's lair and then for the four of us to gang up on Uchiha, knock him out, and then bring him back here. If there was any interference we were to retreat, call several ANBU squads for reinforcement, and then attempt again. However, we never even got past Fire Country borders before we were ambushed by Orochimaru, Kabuto, and of course, Uchiha. Of course, we did have a backup plan in case something like that happened. We would call in for back up from the several ANBU squads following at a distance of twenty kilometers behind us while Kakashi-sempai and Shikamaru-san stalled Orochimaru, Naruto would fight Uchiha, and I would fight Kabuto. Everything went according to plan, until we called for back up that is. When we called in the mission leader on his communicator, we received no answer; Orochimaru had foreseen us bringing reinforcements and had them eliminated, so we were alone against three of the three strongest shinobi in the entire world.

“I was able to seal many of Kabuto's tenketsu, thus mostly preventing him from regenerating his cells, and finished him off with a jyuuken thrust to his heart, kidneys, and liver, causing enough internal damage to almost immediately die. However, the others weren't doing quite as well as I was: Uchiha and Naruto-san were pretty much even, but Uchiha was slowly gaining the upper hand while Kakashi-sempai and Shikamaru-san, albeit both elite jounins, were badly outclassed by Orochimaru, so I decided they needed my assistance more than Naruto-san. Even with my Byakugan, Shikamaru-san's kage jutsu, and Kakashi-sempai's raiton jutsu, we were outclassed. Soon enough, Kakashi-sempai was almost completely drained of chakra; Shikamaru-san was suffering from heavy external demage, minor internal damage, and was struggling to stay conscious; I was the only one able to fight him effectively. I had managed to seal off some of Orochimaru's tenketsu, but not enough to impair him greatly. Meanwhile both Naruto-san and Uchiha were in their demonic chakra states, but still Uchiha held the upper edge. I was able to hold off Orochimaru off for several minutes before his Kusanagi incapacitated me. I was only breathing shallowly and I was paralyzed from the neck down, Shikamaru-san finally fell unconsciousness, and Kakashi-sempai had to step back into the battle despite being almost completely drained. The last thing I saw before I fell unconscious was Naruto-san being impaled by Uchiha's sword and falling to his Chidori Nagashi, which left Kakashi-sempai outnumbered and outclassed.

“When I woke up, the first person I saw was Shizune-san; she was kneeling over me applying healing chakra and welcoming me back to the `living world.' Behind her were several squads of ANBU who were supporting an unconscious Kakashi-sempai and a conscious Shikamaru-san, his internal wounds healed. I then noticed that Naruto-san wasn't with the ANBU and I quickly asked Shizune-san where he was, and her eyes seemed to be the essence of pity, and she pointed over to two bodies sprawled over each other, one was dieing, and the other was on the borderline only around a meter away from where I was laying. As you probably have guessed, Sakura-san, Uchiha was the dieing one. But Naruto-san, Naruto-san was crying Sakura-san; he was crying. I would rather be forced to swallow nails than to ever see that again; he looked so, pitiful and so defenseless, so uncharacteristic of him. And Uchiha, he looked so, peaceful, as if he had been waiting for this moment to come and had been expecting it, even expecting his best friend crouched over him crying his eyes out. He then told Naruto-san that his dieing wish was for Naruto-san to avenge his clan and to kill Itachi-san. And Sakura-san, the part that you need to know is, Naruto-san told Uchiha he would. In fact, his exact words were `I promise you,' and you of all people know how much he values his promises,” narrated Neji. Sakura was quite surprised by Neji's sense of caring for Naruto's wellbeing, seeing as they hadn't exactly had the best of relationships when they were younger.

“Neji, what do you want from me? I know certainly well that you didn't come here in the middle of the night just to comfort me,” skeptically asked Sakura. Neji just smirked in response.

`So she has changed for the better over these past few years; I would've expected the old Sakura to be completely fooled by that cover up.' “As you've probably noticed, I didn't mention how Orochimaru die. And I did so for one simple reason; only two people know how he died: Hokage-sama and Naruto-san. They have refused to disclose any information regarding the subject,” explained Neji.

“And you want me to somehow acquire this information for you?” asked Sakura as she sat up on her bed, boring holes into Neji's head.

“Yes,” concisely answered Neji.

“Then tell me Neji-san; tell me why you of all people need to know,” demanded Sakura as she got up from her bed and strode up to Neji, looking straight up into his eyes.

“I am not obligated to inform you of my reasons, Sakura-san,” coldly denied Neji as he opened the door to Sakura's room. “Will you take the job or not?” Sakura just exasperatedly sighed as she sank back down onto her bed.

“Fine, but instead of payment, I want to know why you want the information and what you plan to do with it,” insisted Sakura. But she received no reply, for when she looked to the door, Neji was gone, and what seemed like a thousand miles away, she heard a door being closed.

As Neji exited the cozy Haruno abode, he found himself being bombarded by freezing pellets of rain, seemingly intent on destroying the indelible sins he had committed as a shinobi. He slowly strode away from the house and to a nearby bar that he frequented regularly. The owner there allowed him to enter, albeit the fact that he wasn't allowed to drink. He usually went there to blow off some steam, but never to drink. No, to drink alcohol would stir up painful memories of his childhood, memories he would rather keep hidden.

`If only I could tell you my reasons, Sakura-san. If only I could.'

It was odd for him to take walks out in the rain, especially in the rain, because the shimmering rain colliding with the dark roads brought back painful memories of his abusive past. But of course, the purpose of this uncommon venture was to avoid the memories that had begun to bombard him while he lay in his futon and glared up at the white washed walls, as if to find the answers to the questions that had been plaguing his mind for the entirety of his life.

“Kit, there's something you need to know about that girl before you go on that date with her tomorrow,” warned the Kyuubi no Kitsune. However, its warning was ignored as the blond haired young man walked throughout the drenched village. “Kit! Listen to me!” bellowed the fox demon. Once again, its call was left unanswered. “Fine then, I'll tell you the hard way,” snapped the demon.

Suddenly, the memory that had been picking at his mind for the last several days came back at full force, causing a large migraine to start in his head and he dropped down onto his knees and clutched at his head in anguish.

“I'm sorry Kit, but you refused to cooperate with me,” itsincerely apologized as it released a strong burst of green chakra, causing the man to cry out in torment as it seemed as if his head exploded.

`What the hell are you doing to me? Why am I in such fucking pain?' demanded the man as his breathing began to grow more ragged and shallow. The only response he received, however, was a sad smile from the youkai sealed within his stomach.

The memory then proceeded to play: the verbal abuse, the beating, the resistance, the begging, and then him being thrown against the hard wall. This was usually where the memory ended, but this time it kept on playing, as if it had received new footage.

This time, he woke up, feeling bruised, battered, and aching, but he was alive, somehow. He had no inclination to move yet from that spot, something told him to stay put and wait to see what happened. A voice whispered one word in his head, destiny. It said that it was destiny that he waits and see what would happen. And as he always did, he listened to this strange voice and waited, and waited, until almost an hour passed before something rolled into the alleyway, a ball. It was red and had white stripes, and it rolled all the way into the young boy's grasp. He examined every aspect of it, for he had only heard of balls through stories and has only seen one once before this a few years ago.

Then a girl came up to him, and she seemed to actually care. The boy was stunned, no one had ever cared about him before, and so he responded in the only way he could think of; by pushing her away. By telling her that she shouldn't care about him and that he should be the only one to suffer. But this just seemed to make her sadder and then, she hugged him. He allowed her too, only because he had never, touched anyone in that way before, and he didn't know how to react. Then the other girl came, and she called for her to leave him and to go play. But she used the kind girl's name; she had called her Tenten-chan.

Naruto then awoke from his painful recollection and thought only one thought:

`I'm sorry, Tenten-san. I'm sorry I couldn't dry your tears so many years ago.'

When he finally brought his eyes up from the ground, he was face to face with onyx eyes, onyx eyes that resembled that of one Uchiha Sasuke. In fact, when Naruto studied the boy closely, he looked almost exactly like Sasuke, except something was missing. It was something that he couldn't, or wouldn't place.

“Mister, you shouldn't be hurting. I'm the only person who should be hurting,” whispered the Sasuke doppelganger as he brought his arms around Naruto's neck, and rested his head on his shoulder.

“Why are you out so late? Why aren't you at home where it's warm?” asked Naruto softly, but he already knew the answer to the question.

“I don't have a house mister,” confessed the boy as the rain pounded down on the two kneeling figures.

“What is your name?” asked Naruto as he brought his arms around the young boy's waist.

“My name is Sasuke,” answered the boy as he buried into Naruto's shoulder. He didn't know why, but he felt at peace with this man; that he was someone that Sasuke could trust. Slowly, Naruto brought his head up and unclasped the young boy's shivering hands from his neck and brought Sasuke's face up to meet his as Naruto smiled empathetically.

“Then, Sasuke-kun, allow me to offer my house to you,” offered the young man as he felt water drip onto his already drenched clothes from his matted down hair.

“But, why? Mister…Mister…” asked the young boy as he searched Naruto's eyeds for any kind of trickery or deception, but instead found only kindness and empathy in the man's blue eyes that seemed to glow dully in the rain.

“Because, Sasuke-kun, I want you to grow up in a home where you are loved and are welcome. And my name is Uzumaki Naruto,” answered Naruto as he broadened his smile.

`Kit, do you realize what you're doing?' asked the Kyuubi skeptically, knowing that his container had no clue how big of a responsibility it was to raise a child.

`Yes, I do. I'm giving this boy the home that I always wished I could have. And it is destiny that I do so, I feel it in my soul,' answered Naruto.

“I accept your offer, Naruto-otou-san,” graciously accepted Sasuke. Naruto then picked him up in a fireman's carry gently, as if with practice, and carried back off to his apartment, where it may not be the best home, but a home it was indeed.

`Tenten-san, I only wish that you could know how much that one display of affection has changed me,' thought Naruto as he opened the door to his apartment and then gently placed Sasuke down. `Otou-san, hmm, I could get used to this, I hope,' thought Naruto as he went to fetch a blanket for his 'son' to wrap himself in.