9Chapter 4: Full of Blood
"Sensei, it's too hot! Can we please take a rest?"
"Okay," Kakashi said with a flat tone and a shrug.
"It's like you're trying to kill us," Sakura continued. "I know that we live a dangerous life as ninjas, but I don't want to be killed by a heatstroke."
Kakashi gave her a look. "I just said it was okay."
Sakura stumbled over herself. "Wait, really? I just expected you to be stricter now that we're on a mission and push us harder."
"I don't mind a decent rest every now and then. If it was up to me I'd be sitting outside my apartment and reading a good book right now. But sadly, babysitting you on your missions is part of the job description." Kakashi proceeded to poke around in the sand with his foot. "Okay, this seems to be a nice place to stop." He cast a look towards Sasuke, and tossed him a heavy bag. the pack on his back. "Will you help me with the tent, Sasuke?"
"Since we're not moving, we should get some sleep. Sakura and I will take the first watch," Kakashi told his team.
"Wouldn't it be better if we split it up in four, so we would all get more rest?" Sasuke asked.
"There is two reasons not to. First, four eyes see better than two. And secondly, what if one of us is a traitor?"
"What if both me and Naruto are traitors?"
"Then please tell Gai that he can move on and find himself a new rival."
"Wake up Naruto, it's our watch." Sasuke said, handing Naruto a steaming hot cup of ramen as he rose to a sitting position. Sasuke was just about to poke him in the side to get him to wake up but decided to not risk being poked back.
"I bet you haven't tasted this before. It's good, right?" Sasuke asked as Naruto had eaten a bit.
"I have." Naruto set aside the cup and pulled back the flaps of the tent. He made special effort to not spill the cup as he did so, and he brought it with him as he stepped out into the crisp predawn air.
Sasuke smirked again. "Oh, I didn't think you got food like that in Root."
Naruto reached for his tanto. "How do you know about-"
"Looking for this?" Sasuke held up the weapon far enough that Naruto couldn't grab it without jumping. "Can we please go a day without you trying to kill me?"
Naruto just stared at him.
"I'll give it back if you tell me about your first cup of ramen." Sasuke never thought he'd have to ask Naruto about something like that; normally he would have to bribe Naruto to not talk about it.
But those memories was just a figment of his imagination.
"I got it as a reward," Naruto said through gritted teeth, his eyes like fire. "can I get it back now?" Sasuke could feel the embarrassment radiating off the other boy like heat from a lamp. Which told Sasuke that Naruto's previous behaviour wasn't exactly genuine; he wasn't the mindless drone he appeared as at first. He was Naruto.
Unless this was just an act, too.
"Reward for what?"
Naruto floundered for a moment, before he huffed and threw himself on the ground, his hand rubbing at his forehead. "My… first kill."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
Naruto didn't respond for a moment. When he did, it was barely above a whisper. "I used to get it as a reward for… for killing." He sighed, and scrunched his eyebrows across his forehead. "But now I've started to enjoy doing it."
"And that scares you."
Naruto said nothing.
"How old were you?"
Naruto turned and glared up at Sasuke. "I don't remember. Why do you care, anyway?"
Sasuke blinked. "I…"
But Naruto had already deflated, his vision returning to the desert floor between his crossed legs.
"What about you?" he finally asked, much to Sasuke's surprise.
"Me?" Sasuke was a bit confused.
"Your first kill," Naruto said, as he ate the last bit of ramen. "More?"
"What?"
Naruto held up his cup towards Sasuke.
Sasuke went into the tent and rummaged through the bag where Kakashi kept the food.
His first kill… had he even killed anyone? The loud blond idiot in Akatsuki blew himself up, Itachi died from his illness in the middle of their fight, and Danzo didn't even give him the satisfaction of delivering the killing blow.
None of it was real anyway, or else he would have been killed all three times. They all were superior enemies.
He picked up another cup of ramen and poured boiling water into it, ignoring the way Naruto was watching him, expecting some sort of answer. He turned and handed the cup to Naruto as soon as he had stopped pouring, certain Naruto was smart enough to figure out how to finish the process himself.
"Here."
"Thanks."
Sasuke frowned. "I haven't killed anyone yet."
"Do you want to?"
Sure. There was little debate about that. Sasuke wanted to kill Danzo, but was it worth the sacrifice? Killing him wouldn't bring his family back. Nothing would. But if he played nice, he could get a little brother instead and a normal life. Killing Danzo would throw all that away.
"No," Sasuke said, without much explanation.
"Are you ever afraid?"
"Of what?"
"That you'll get left behind."
"We're a team," Sasuke responded easily. "I'll never abandon you, no matter what." he paused, [here's a good place to add some environmental reference - show Sasuke looking at something in ponderance for example]. Even... if you betray the village, I won't betray you." He turned and gave Naruto a subtle smile.
"I mean, do you ever fear that the village will abandon you. Betray you?"
He couldn't really claim that the village had betrayed the Uchiha. As much as he didn't want to admit it, his clan had been planning a coup. So what could he call it? Mutual betrayal? Maybe, but they didn't really betray him.
And he would most likely get away with it, too. Naruto was going to become the next Hokage and would not have let anyone punish him. The worst that could happen was that Naruto would force Sasuke to buy him ramen for the rest of his life, a small price for what he had done. A small price to pay back Naruto's sacrifice. But no, he was going to give more back. He would not let Naruto do anything was going to give Naruto a better life. Even if that meant that he had to become Hokage himself.
"Kakashi is going to have our back, so don't worry about it."
"I don't like him," Naruto responded.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow himself, turning to watch his blond companion - who had now strangely become more reserved.
"Oh?"
Naruto fidgeted, but continued. "It hurts," he said. "very time he uses his eyes on me it hurts. I'm not longer in control, I feel…"
He froze.
Sasuke moved in front of him and slid to his knees, watching Naruto's reaction with a frown.
Naruto was shaking. Whether it was from anger or pain or sadness, Sasuke wasn't sure. But his teammate was struggling with something, and it pained him.
Fighting against his urge to move further away rather than closer, Sasuke reached forward and tried to pull Naruto into his chest. At first, Naruto resisted, flinching, but after one more sharp tug, Naruto fell forward.
The blond unraveled.
"Just let it out," Sasuke said, stiffly patting Naruto's head as the boy clung to him, shaking.
"But..." Naruto's voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. "But a ninja is not... supposed to show emotion like this."
His voice was lower now. "I'm a failure."
Sasuke frowned, and pulled Naruto away from him so he could meet his younger teammate's eyes. "What? No. You're not. Strength isn't about being strong. It's about overcoming great challenges despite being weak." He rolled his eyes at the look Naruto gave him. "What's the point of creating a better world if you don't get to be a part of it?"
Team 7 arrived in the Wind Capital the next day. The town was quite peaceful - children ran from market stall to market stall, shinobi watched from the shadows with small smiles on their faces, and the civilians were simply going about their daily lives.
No one could have guessed that someone was about to assassinate their leader.
They stopped outside the palace for a short briefing, Kakashi giving them a bland look as the genin fell into line.
"You're now about to talk to one of the most powerful people in the world, so remember to treat him with respect and remember to bow, all of you," Kakashi told his students. "And remember while the head of security knows about the plan, the Daimyo doesn't."
When Kakashi was sure that they got the message, they went in to meet the man they were hired to protect.
"Yo," Kakashi greeted the Wind Daimyo with his hands in his pockets, while the rest of the team did as they were told.
Sakura's eye twitched.
"Oh, it's you guys. Konoha couldn't spare us any better?"
Kakashi bristled at first, then settled back into his infamous slouch. "My Genin are quite good, actually. They can catch a cat in under two hours." He was, of course, joking. Sakura and Sasuke had never managed to catch the damn cat. But he couldn't let the Daimyo know that.
The Daimyo proceeded to whisper something to his advisor. If Kakashi had to guess it would be about requesting some other ninja, but half the fun of this job was to mess with clients once in awhile.
"Don't worry. Ninjas are much easier to catch than a cat, and I'm not an A-ranked jounin for nothing."
The Daimyo scowled at Kakashi and turned to leave, casting aside the palace doors as if they were playing cards. Kakashi watched him leave, and had to hold back a snicker.
The jounin turned with a sigh and looked down at his team, eyes traveling toward Sakura. "Alright, that went well. Sakura, you're with me. Naruto and Sasuke?" he paused for a moment, stroking the chin underneath his mask. "You two stay out of trouble."
Despite being in the middle of the desert, the area wasn't completely dry. Outside the palace, Sasuke could see a large green garden with a bathhouse in the middle.
"You know, I promised to teach you a new Jutsu," Sasuke told Naruto.
"Is it good?" Naruto answered back, bored. Sasuke was glad that this Naruto wasn't as hyper as the old one, but he had wished that this one was a bit more enthusiastic, just without the jumping up and down.
"Of course, you could knock out a Kage with it." A perverted one that is, but he didn't want to spoil that for him.
"You're not planning to kill the Hokage, are you?" Naruto asked, narrowing his eyes. Sasuke didn't miss the way the blond's shoulders tensed, as if he was fighting the urge to draw his tanto.
Not that it was there anyway.
"You know, you won't last long if you're this predictable," Sasuke smirked, holding the blade just out t of Naruto's reach again. "And you're not planning on assassinating any Kage yourself, are you?"
Naruto gave no answer.
"But first, we need to do some research."
By research, Sasuke meant peeping at women. Something he never thought he'd have to do.
Unlike what one might find in the Land of Fire, the water in the "hot" springs was cool - cold, almost. Still, the result was the same as it was most everywhere else in the Elemental Nations - mostly naked women, a divided bathhouse, and a silver-haired man who was undoubtedly trying to worm his way into the opposite gender's side of the building.
Naruto barely gave the man more than a passing glance as he and Sasuke made their way inside, still fully clothed. "What are we doing here?" He frowned. "Is it a water Jutsu? I'm not very good at those."
"No, you're going to learn how to take advantage of perverted old men," Sasuke responded, casting a sidelong glare at the Toad Sage across the bathhouse.
In retrospect, he wasn't entirely sure how Naruto pulled off the Sexy Jutsu in the first place. Every time the blond had tried to "teach" him the technique, Sakura would beat him to a pulp for "objectifying women" - and Sasuke was always just glad that Naruto had gone away and left him alone again.
Now, of all the things he wished he had done in the alternate world, he was regretting not just letting the idiot speak.
With a sigh, Sasuke resigned himself to his fate. Once again, he found himself emulating something the other Naruto did that once would have infuriated him.
After thinking about it for a moment, Sasuke realized that he was trying to copy a jutsu that an Academy age Naruto could have come up with. More than that - a dead-last Academy age Naruto.
With that in mind, the Sexy Jutsu suddenly made much more sense.
"Alright, let me show you," he said, after he was sure it would work.
He started counting off in his head something that he vaguely remembered the other Naruto explaining, for one reason or another. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Step one, base it on yourself. Step two, go big but not too big. Step three, leave something to the imagination. Final step, good acting."
Sasuke transformed into a girly version of himself, into what could look like a nice and curvy combination of him and Hinata. It seemed to be right from Naruto's many attempts to teach him the 'Jutsu'.
Sasuke poked the pervy sage with one hand and desperately tried to cover 'her' bare breast with the other without them falling out. "Mister, have you seen my top? I seem to have lost it." 'She' turned away, trying to look cute and embarrassed.
In response, 'she' was drenched in blood when the mighty toad sage passed out.
Sasuke ducked under to wash himself off -although he doubted he was ever going to be clean again.
Much to Sasuke's surprise, he found Naruto digging through Jiraiya's bag when he resurfaced.
"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked Naruto.
Naruto didn't answer and proceeded to pocket something from the bag, but Sasuke couldn't see what.
"How does the genjutsu work?" Naruto said, changing the subject. "It didn't seem to have any effect on me."
Sasuke wasn't exactly sure, he had felt no effect himself when Naruto had used it on him in the past. But he had seen the devastating effect it had on others.
"I don't know. I guess it only works on older people," Sasuke said with a shrug. "Now let's go before he wakes up."
Team 7 was gathered at a small dango stand near the palace, ready to step in if something unexpected happened.
"Are you all ready for tonight?"
"Sure, how hard can it be to defend an old man?" Sasuke replied, loud enough that people around could hear.
"The Daimyo is more than an old man. And put the plan down Sakura, you don't read sensitive information in public."
"Oh… sorry, Sensei! It was just something I wanted to ask you about..."
This was all part of their plan, of course: To act like a weak genin team sent on a mission they shouldn't be on and set out the bait.
"Let's talk about that later when we're alone - put it away for now," Kakashi told Sakura with a stern tone.
"Sorry." Sakura put the scroll back in the bag she had placed on the stool between her and Naruto, to avoid sitting too close to him. Now they just had to wait for someone to take it.
"These are delicious, you should treat us to lunch more often sensei," she said.
"W-what? I didn't say anything about paying!"
"Too late! we don't have any money with us." Sakura stuck out her tongue at Kakashi.
"It's gone," Sasuke intervened.
"I didn't notice anything," Sakura said and looked at the empty bag she had the scroll in.
"That just means that they are better than you."
"So why didn't you see anything?" Sasuke asked his Sensei.
"Good question," he answered. "Good question. I fear this will be more dangerous than expected."
Kakashi's catchphrase, 'look underneath the underneath' came to his mind now. They were surrounded by sand. No one would have noticed if someone like Gaara controlled it. Sasuke frowned. That would have explained why no one had seen anything. This was not good at all. Naruto seemed to be depending on taking people by surprise, to have his opponents underestimate him, but none of those tricks would work with the redhead's sand. Should he warn Naruto, or would that just gather Danzo's attention that something was wrong with him?
Sakura and Sasuke were hiding behind a short wall by the main entrance along with several of the Daimyo's guards. There were archers on the roof ready to strike at anyone trying to enter this way. But if everything went as planned, none of them would fire a single shot.
"Sakura, are you OK?" Sasuke whispered to his team mate.
"S.. sure, it's just that I've never done this before.".
"You're not going to do anything either. I'm more worried about Naruto, he's the one that is supposed to handle the attack."
Sakura didn't say anything.
"He isn't as bad as you think, he only does what he have been told is right."
"He tried to kill us," Sakura said with a raised voice.
Sasuke snorted. "And last night he snuggled in my arms."
Sakura blinked, but chose not to comment. "You're sure he is not manipulating you?"
Sasuke didn't want honour her with any response. Of course, Naruto wasn't manipulating him, it might not be as apparent now, but he could see his friend and the babbling idiot inside him.
"Are you sure you're not jealous?" Sasuke said with a smirk.
Sakura outright glared at him. "I've wanted you for years and then you decide to buddy up with him."
"He grew up without any parents, Sakura. Of course he has some issues."
"You didn't. I'm jealous of you two sometimes. No parents to yell at you for being late home, no one that embarrasses you in public."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her, but didn't reply. Sakura seemed to take the hint, and didn't carry their conversation further; instead, they redirected their focus back to the mission at hand.
But a thought at the back of Sasuke's mind continued to scratch away at his sanity. He brushed it off, bristling in anger at Sakura, and himself. - and, to a lesser extent, the world.
No one was manipulating him. And he wouldn't listen to anyone insulting his friend.
It had been a few hours and nothing had happened. Sasuke hadn't talked to Sakura any more that night and had trouble staying awake. The worst was that it could be weeks before the enemy struck against them. Did they notice the trap?
Sasuke didn't have any time thinking about that as the alarm bells were ringing. The only thing in his mind now was Naruto's safety.
Author's Note(s): I want to thank EndoplasmicPanda for help in writing this chapter.
If you have some input or feedback, feel free to leave a review. I'm new to this and I would appreciate some pointers about where to improve.