Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ To Find Warmth In The Snow ❯ Chapter 12 Once Upon a Dark and Stormy Night ( Chapter 12 )

Chapter 12

Once upon a Stormy Night

 

 

I sat in a small spare room that had been made into my spare room at the hospital. I didn't go to the Hokage's tower tonight on purpose. Id made a promise.

I'd said that I would protect Sasuke and I would keep my word.

I'd made him stay for more than the one night. Threatening to permanently cripple him did the job.

It was less out of necessity and more just to keep him out of trouble.

I sipped my cup of tea still upset that I was drinking it in the first place.

I longed my familiar sake bottle but to protect someone I couldn't be even slightly tipsy. Especially if the person I might have to protect him from was who I thought it'd be.

I glanced over at the window and saw the rain falling in sheets and the occasional flash of lightening followed soon by thunder. I would never forget that stormy night almost three years ago.

It would stay in my mind forever. And that's why even though the Uchiha was a brat I still would take care of him. Because I knew that beneath that icy veneer was a very sad person who just needed a little help. But the thing was Sasuke wouldn't accept help from anyone.

My mind wandered back to that night so long ago.

It'd started that afternoon …

 

 

 

 

“Tsunade-sama.” Kakashi called walking down the hallway to me carrying one of his students while the other two walked behind him.

“What is it?”

“It's Sasuke. He just…passed out.”

“Well what was going on?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary. We were doing some training when he just collapsed.” He answered a worried look crossing his face.

“Bring him in here.” I said motioning for them to follow me into another room.

Kakashi laid the pale boy down on to the bed and I placed a hand on his forehead.

I paused for a moment trying to see the extent of his injuries. There were none that I could sense.

“It's probably just fatigue. But none the less let him stay the night here.”

Kakashi nodded and it was then that I noticed the blond starring at Sasuke.

“Naruto?” I asked. He didn't answer his eyes locked on Sasuke.

“Naruto?” I still received no reply.

Sakura hit him on the head with her fist.

“Baka! Hokage-sama is talking to you!”

“OW! You didn't have to hit me Sakura-chan. You could have just said my name.”

“She already did that!”

And they proceeded in their bickering.

My eyes narrowed.

 

*Why would he look at Sasuke like that? * I thought but decided to disregard it for now.

 

“You three can stop by again tomorrow if he's still here but you should leave for now.” I said.

“Yes.” Kakashi answered turning and taking his two noisy students with him.

 

XxX XxX

 

Later that evening I was sitting in a spare room waiting for the news on a patient with three broken ribs when I heard the most terrifying sound in my life.

A blood-curdling scream echoed down the halls and I was immediately brought out of my dreary thoughts.

A second scream drew me into action and I ran down the corridor following the sound to room 207. (Can you tell what's gonna happen? Room 207…Ring a bell!)

 

*Sasuke's room?*

 

I opened the door to see Sasuke wrapped in his blankets but struggling fiercely against some unseen force.

I walked forward and grabbed his shoulder calling out to him, hoping this was just a nightmare but as I suspected it wasn't.

His eyes were open and he was seeing. But it wasn't us.

He was trapped in some sort of genjutsu.

A group of medical ninja including Shizune ran inside having also heard Sasuke's screams.

“Tsunade-sama? What's going on?” Shizune asked.

“Shizune. Bring a Byakugan user. Now!” I shouted.

“Yes, ma'am.”

He looked to be in a trance like state but not really suffering from the true affects this genjutsu could bring.

Who was the controller of this and why were they waiting?

Two questions that needed answering immediately.

“I need two of you to search the premises. The rest of you get this boy to a sound proof room now!”

 

XxX XxX

 

“Hyuuga Hiashi! Open up!” I heard as I was trying to sleep. I sat up groggily in my bed and rubbed my eyes.

I heard Oji-san go and open the door.

“Yes. What is it!?”

“We are in urgent need of your skills. Hokage-sama has summoned you.”

“Yes. Let me get dressed.”

“Sir, we don't have time to-”

“I'll only be a second.”

I stood pulling on my clothes as well.

I'd probably end up following them anyway.

I went to my door, once I had finished hastily dressing, and slid it open a crack.

There was Shizune-san and two medical ninja behind her. Shizune had a sheen of sweat that had broken out on her forehead she was tapping her foot and her eyebrows were furrowed as she waited impatiently for Hiashi-sama.

Finally he showed back up and they left together.

When they were gone I opened my door completely and stepped out of my room about to go and follow them but as I did so someone called my name.

“Neji-san… you shouldn't…”

“Hinata-sama, it's okay. I'll be back soon.” I said turning around to see Hinata-sama standing there a light blush on her cheeks.

I walked over to her and kissed her forehead lightly. I heard her gasp.

“I promise that I'll be back soon enough.”

And with that I turned and left.

 

XxX XxX

 

I chewed my nails nervously pacing back and forth.

We'd found an empty surgery room but it was one used for serious injuries so it was dark and we all stayed in the small observer room.

It was an extra room with a large pane of glass as the wall so that observers such as apprentice medical ninjas or if a Hokage had wanted to watch this is where he (or she) would stand.

Finally Shizune and Hyuuga Hiashi ran into the room.

“We've explained everything to him on the way here.” Shizune said still gasping for breath slightly.

Very suddenly Sasuke screamed again. He'd been quiet for a while and I was beginning to hope it was over but apparently it wasn't.

“Please. Tell us what's going on.” I said to Hiashi who had already begun the use of his Byakugan.

“It's a form of genjutsu. But who ever is doing this wants us to see it.”

“How can you tell?”

“It seems this is a reliving of a memory or maybe an illusion that is actually happening right now in his mind. And I can see everything clearly. It's almost like watching a movie.”

“Is there a way that we can all see it?”

“There is one way. It's a screen made by the Byakugan. It can be however large you'd like to make it and it can see just like the Byakugan but it is rarely used because it only works with a radius of 5 to 10 feet at the very most. And it uses up chakra very quickly.”

“Do it.”

He touched four dots on the glass and did a few hand signs that went by too fast for me to remember all of them.

The four dots connected and I we could all see the screen.

It was a Room.

He was right. It was like watching a movie.

But I wasn't sure of what would happen.

The door busted open and Kakashi came in I glanced at him but didn't say anything to him.

Not that I needed to, one of the medical ninja began to explain.

Our eyes all fell upon the screen as we stared at Sasuke walking down the hallway a glass of tea in hand.

His eyes were only half open and had a slightly glazed look as if he were picturing something very far away.

He took a sip of the tea absent-mindedly before he sat it on the corner of the rather large maple desk in the otherwise near empty living room.

He was still lazily walking over to a chair by the window.

He sat and stared out the window with almost no interest before he sighed and closed his eyes.

Without warning he took a kunai out of his pocket and threw it at the wall opposite him.

He turned and looked at it a slightly sour look on his face before he stood and went to examine more closely,

A beetle that had been directly next to the place where the kunai had struck scurried away.

“Damn, I missed.” He muttered.

He sighed pulling the kunai out of the wall

He took the kunai and carved a deep “X” into the wood before turning and taking a few steps.

He concentrated and then threw his kunai but he still missed the center by about a centimeter or so.

“Damn it.” He muttered again with slight more amounts of anger.

 

 

“This doesn't seem so bad…” Shizune whispered.

“Shhhh!” I said in response.

 

 

There was a small shuffling sound and Sasuke whipped his head around quickly staring in the direction of the sound though there didn't really seem to be anything.

He was just about to turn back around when a shuriken came whizzing out of the hallway.

He jumped to dodge it but a torrent of both kunai and shuriken came at him.

Each pinned his clothes to the wall that was behind him.

And though he struggled his clothes wouldn't rip.

Then one last kunai came out of nowhere and hit the wall right next to Sasuke's face. At first it seemed as though it hadn't cut him but a line of scarlet suddenly appeared on his cheek.

“You're lucky.” Said a deep and menacing voice, “If I were like you and missed by even a centimeter, you might be missing an eye right about now.”

And just as I suspected from the voice, Uchiha Itachi came out of the shadowed hallway.

“Let me down bastard!” Sasuke screamed struggling more than ever against the weapons that pinned him to the wall.

“I don't think I will just yet. And don't talk to me so disrespectfully, itoto”

Itachi walked closer and stood right next to Sasuke.

“I've got some things to talk to you about.”