Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Prices of Being a Ninja ❯ Chapter 8

"Don't you find it odd?" Sakura faltered as her foot slid on the moss-strewn branch. She noted Shikumaru's glance to the tracking dogs. They were no doubt listening intensely. Did it really matter?

 

"That the sky is blue instead of purple? With the exception of today, that is." The rain had not let up, and, judging by the deep gray, it would not for a while yet. He stopped politely, knowing she was kneeling somewhere behind, dripping strawberry red hair plastered down her forehead, knees slightly bent with her eyes trained on his back. Stares were uncanny in their presence on one's nape.

 

"I have yet to see the Godaime since the attack."

 

"That's simple. The council wanted to keep quiet about her condition."

 

"And you know this... how?"

 

"Relayed my story to the new Hokage, you know?"

 

"Right." How stupid of her to overlook that fact as she was staring hard at his back right now. "It's that bad and her best pupil doesn't even know that fact. This whole arrangement is odd... who would take her place if...?"

 

It didn't take much to follow that train of thought. Someone other than Sakura and Shikamaru might have considered premeditation to be on that list. He was thinking of one interesting candidate. It brought the taste of copper to his mouth, disgusting really.

 

"Danzo." He heard her sharp intake of breath and knew she froze, brows furrowed, and stared harder at his back as if the answers were printed there. "Stronger influence over the vote of the whole, simply put. Who would oppose the force holding together the private ranks and keeping Konoha from attack for the span of yours and my life?"

 

"And Naruto's." The way her breathing returned to its former haggardness, he wondered if there was something intended by that statement.

 

"And Naruto's," he acknowledged, feeling a stitch in his side as well. He leaned on the tree for support, suddenly feeling the return of his foreboding headache. He really couldn't think when it came to a sledgehammer beating the inside of his skull. Sakura noticed and slowly slid down to sit against the trunk. He would be damned to let slip his discomfort by voicing like a wimp.

 

"Time to take your medicine."

 

"What?" That statement made no sense whatsoever and if he were more attracted to Sakura he might have taken that a little forward.

 

"Nothing." His eyes studied her gentle face, not quite porcelain but not reminding the male of a typical carved wooden doll either. He pondered at the normality of the porcelain black haired dolls that ninja-free villages gave to their children. Where this thought came from he didn't know and he let it dissipate, following the tilt of her head to the dogs sniffing around. They were notably worn as well, sniffing with tails lowered and an occasional sneeze from the rain.

 

"Anything on him yet?" Her hopefulness hung on a baited breath. It would be a shame to run statistics and dash that hope.

 

"Nothing of significance to follow here, seeing as he made a trail in just about any and all directions possible." Pakkun's voice came from somewhere ahead in the foliage.

 

"If it's not Tsunade, the Godaime... then why would Danzo be sending teams out after Naruto for a forced return?" The affection held by Tsunade for Naruto made it obvious she would not act so quickly or harshly against the chuunin. Dispensing ninjas to forcefully return him was not her style.

 

'Smart, Sakura. That is a grim question but one I have been asking since I was told forces were to leave.' He felt damned if he did and damned if he did not answer that question. He would be condemning his friend either way in her eyes. "Power is all that man has ever been after. Hokage is the highest form, unless the villages are to unite under one ruler, complete dictatorship per say."

 

"That would mean-" Her head snapped to look at the face between her prodding fingers and her eyes brimmed with tears. Shikamaru felt the bastard but only nodded. It would, of course, be to eliminate the possible rivalry. Naruto had never been silent about his ambitions and it was already adversely known that he possessed a kyuubi. That was a whole other light he preferred keeping dimmed. What better way to eliminate one's opponent than take the sudden opportune moment when one's opponent did something to the effect of making himself a ninja on the run? He would be alone and vulnerable, and, not to mention, even those close to said opponent would not stand in the way thinking it all inevitable.

 

Hopefully Danzo was underestimating love. It seemed he had before, and been just as opposed to the idea of soldiers with feeling. Sai was all but a good example of that. Sakura was perceptive but slower. Sometimes Shikumaru found himself jealous in a way of the simpler mind. It was easier to fool into happy bliss. It pained him a bit to think what it would do to her to realize there was more than one motive for someone like Danzo to go after a lone unprotected Uzumaki Naruto.

 

"It looks like a dark road ahead." she whispered, obviously shaken. Her arms trembled slightly and her chin quivered as she tried to hold her facade, continuing to heal his scars. She didn't know the half of it. Perhaps this is what Kakashi wanted... him to keep her sparingly in the dark until, if against all odds, they made it through.

 

***

 

Someone with familiar green eyes was screaming, tearing, ripping at the least healed part of his heart and being... It would not stop. Everything was red, as it always was red. Blood was red, the kyuubi was red, he breathed red. Sakura was pleading something, near begging as her wide doe eyes stared up at him in fear. It killed him because he knew without a doubt it was him she abhorred.

 

There was a difference to the nightmare however. This time there were purple shadows fading to black around the skirts of the licking red flames. He wasn't burning. Everyone else was burning, and it was because of him. He was the flame. Red eyes stared from the recesses. He knew those eyes too, before he saw the face. Sakura wrenched his attention back as she let out a bloodcurdling cry of pain. There he was, behind her with the whole of Konoha dead at his feet.

 

"Sasuke!" He whipped upright with the bellow from his dreams deafening him temporarily. He had lost focus somewhere in his sleep and the shadow clones were gone. It seemed to be midday, but even with light the forest was green. The infrequent autumn rain was still cascading from the canopy. He still felt hot. Wild blue eyes looked about the hollow trunk for the fire.

 

'Damn, not again.' That nightmare had been nagging at him sleep after restless sleep for going on well over a fortnight. Sakura in trouble, Konoha destroyed- which it had been by Pein but there was not a mass casualty list like the one haunting him daily. Sakura had been at the forefront of his mind... he could not shake or suppress it. He had little to no idea just where he aimed to find Sasuke. There was a vague memory that there was to be a meeting of the hokages from the other villages. Somehow, Atasuki left little room in his mind to doubt that they would miss such a meeting. It was to be a remote place. Perhaps Tsunade would be there.

 

His energy had failed to come back in that episode. He felt drunk, the tree seemed to sway a little from side to side. The fire in his blood was not cooling. Perhaps the fox would win after all. He flopped like a rug to the ground.

 

"Damn."

 

Temari's quiet expletive had her two brother's attention immediately. Here was a sight for sore eyes. Her chocolate eyes squinted in concern with a second look. Naruto was lying on his stomach, chin to the forest floor, and soaked through like he was swimming in the ocean. She turned to her youngest brother, Gaara, and saw a similar look on his face.

 

His black leathers moved silently as he knelt beside the fallen ninja. "He has a fever." Gaara removed the Kazekage headdress and set it gently beside Naruto before rolling him over. Temari's breath hitched in her throat as her brother began brushing mud off of the peach skin. She had always given her brother the benefit of the doubt but he surprised her still.

 

"Is he hurt?" Kankuro said, munching around his current travelers biscuit. Gaara simply brushed his ivory fingers clean, standing up.

 

"No." Temari stated. She was sure of it without closer inspection. "Why is he out here all alone though?"

 

"I can spare a few guesses." She sighed, ever the wordy one, Gaara. Her face crinkled when she saw him push his crimson hair back. His black-rimmed eyes searched the forest. Something was amiss.

 

It was bad enough that they had to leave home, yet again, to some self-righteous dictators meeting. Naruto may not be the typical brainiac, but he was not the average simple ninja either. She unconsciously pulled her silver fan closer, draping an arm over it as a head rest. It was not the usual cooling fan either. Her family graced the top of the charts in the Sand Village, not a reward that was paid for lightly. However, when it came to sand, Gaara was the epitome and center of the village. Sand was strong, unpredictable, foreboding, it could be unyielding, but he was simply sharp and dangerous. He was not unguided though. He did have a heart growing compassionate and all thanks to one surprising loudmouth savior. She could not help the slip and smirked.

 

"He needs attention." Gaara's urn silently released sand, swirling about the base of the trunk. A gentle palm separated from the majority of sand, picking up Naruto's slumbering form, and the rest fell to the ground as a carpet over the mud.

 

"Gaara, if we camp here we will be late to the meeting. "We can't treat him ourselves. Besides, if he is on the run from Konoha we could be charged with assisting a fugitive." Kankuro turned at Temari's hiss. "Temari, no ninja in his right way would be travelling alone without a team."

 

"I know, you do not need to speak down to me." She straightened her back to stand full height. Kankuro snorted and set down his wooden case. When she looked back to Gaara he was sitting in the hollow, knees propping up his arms, and staring listlessly into the rain. He was thinking.

 

"And if we were to take him with us for treatment?" She sighed inwardly with relief. He was not going to leave him. "Is it safe?" Gaara's question made her skin turn cold. Why would it be anything but safe? "Kankuro,"

 

He instantly straightened to attention. "Take first watch, I would like to sleep. Temari, you watch over Naruto."

 

"Out here, in the open, Gaara?" Temari sighed haplessly at her older brother. He did not think through his questions before asking. Some things never changed. She swayed her hips, taking in a longer stride with her miniskirt, leaving her feet on the mud as little as possible and sat next to Naruto in the hollow. It instantly went dark as the sand shot upwards, blocking out the light and taking shape of the trunk of the tree.

 

Kankuro could be heard cursing outside. Of course he was the one stuck in the rain.