Naruto, The Chase - 5
HANG IN THERE EVERYONE, SHIT'S GETTING REAL.
This chapter contains: Timeline confusion, more things that made the author cackle gleefully to herself, a cliffhanger oops.
First chapter.
Previous chapter.
jump off the end
"Sasuke?"
The name he had never spoken was heavy and familiar in his mouth.
"Now you remember me," the stranger said, still struggling to break Itachi's grip. "Go ahead and take my eyes if you need them so badly, I'll kill you when I'm blind if I have to -"
"I don't want your eyes," Itachi said (there had to be an excuse) (and he wasn't going to think about it right now, he had a mission). "Just calm down, please - I'm not sure what's going on here, but I don't know you. I've never met you before. Is that your name? Sasuke?"
"This isn't funny, Itachi!" The stranger - Sasuke - managed to wrench one hand free, and Itachi let the other one go and stepped back, ready to pull a kunai if necessary. Sasuke didn't reach for his sword; he stood still, breathing hard and glaring, and said, "I don't know why you're doing this, but when the illusion breaks I'll -"
"Niisan! Hey, Itachi-niisan, are you okay?"
Not now. "Naruto-kun, I told you to stay out of sight."
"Naruto?" Sasuke's glare softened a little as he looked past Itachi, but Itachi couldn't risk taking his eyes off Sasuke to look for Naruto. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be - you should be taller." He laughed harshly. "What, did you use too many shadow clones and turn back into a kid?"
"Dude, you're weird," Naruto said, and he suddenly appeared at Itachi's side. "Anyway, Niisan, you okay? I heard yelling and I called Aunt Mikoto and she said she was gonna send someone, but I'm already here so I figured -"
"Don't talk to him like that!" Sasuke yelled, with impressive energy considering that he was swaying on his feet. "Since when are you his friend? He tried to kidnap you, dumbass! You know what he's done!"
"Huh? Uh - when did I get kidnapped?"
"Please go back to the house, Naruto-kun," Itachi said, "you really shouldn't be here. Sasuke-san, if you'll come with me, we can -"
"Sasuke-san?"
The radio in Naruto's hand hissed. "Itachi? Are you there? Please answer me, and tell Naruto to get back here right now or he's going to be in deep trouble!"
"Mother?" Sasuke's legs finally gave out and left him kneeling in dead leaves and thin grass, staring at the radio. "But she's dead. They're all dead. It was just us... That was reality."
Itachi took the radio from Naruto and spoke into it. "Everything's under control." (This wasn't in the plan.) "Our guest is somewhat confused, once he's calmer I'll take him to the hospital."
"Well, if you're sure... I just don't want you taking too many chances. Oh, I've sent -"
"You killed her."
"Naruto, go home," Itachi said. "That's an order from your temporary captain. And take the radio in case you run into trouble."
"Aww, man, just when things were gettin' good... Hey, weird guy!" Naruto waved at Sasuke. "Feel better soon, okay? I wanna talk again and find out how you know Niisan and me and stuff, yanno, so don't die or anything!"
He ran off with the radio just as Sasuke launched himself at Itachi again. Itachi vanished out of the way and grabbed Sasuke's right arm, twisting it up behind Sasuke's back, but Sasuke somehow tore himself out of the hold and drove his fist into Itachi's side, then dove for his fallen sword. Itachi caught him by his belt and pulled him away from the sword, and Sasuke turned and lashed out at Itachi's throat with a kunai that Itachi leaned back just in time to avoid. "You killed her!" Sasuke screamed. "You killed them all for being weak and now you're using them to -"
"Whoa there, let's not get too hasty, huh?" and Shisui was suddenly between them, pulling Sasuke away from Itachi and twisting the kunai out of Sasuke's hand. Shisui's clothes and hair were singed and there was a bad burn along his right shoulder and arm, but he was alive and grinning and both of his eyes were in his face where they belonged. "Whoever you think got killed, why don't we talk it over first like reasonable shinobi?"
Sasuke stared at Shisui in disbelief. "But aren't you - you're Shisui. You're dead."
(bloody eye sockets washed clean in the river)
"You know, that's the second time someone's told me that tonight," Shisui said, "and I don't think I like hearing it any more now than I did the first time. If you promise to be good and stop trying to kill my friend here, I'll let you go and we can talk about -"
"He killed you! He killed you just to get stronger and now you're - you're -" Sasuke staggered and nearly fell, only held upright by Shisui's grip. "This isn't right. He only left me for my eyes but you're alive - my mother is alive... Are they all alive? Is everyone still alive?"
"Shisui, let him go," Itachi said. "Sasuke-san, I understand that you're confused, but -"
"What the hell is going on?" Sasuke said.
He collapsed.
---
Shisui caught Sasuke just as he pitched forward and carefully let Sasuke down to the ground. "Out cold," he said. "I can't believe he was alive, let alone yelling his head off at us - he's barely got the chakra to keep breathing."
Itachi knelt beside Sasuke and brushed his bangs aside. He could see the Uchiha blood in Sasuke's face when he looked, not just Uchiha but his own family: Mikoto's cheekbones and fine eyebrows, a jawline that would eventually firm into Fugaku's, Itachi's straight nose...
(forgive me, Sasuke)
His mind whirled around bloody memories of things that he'd never done, and he said, "Shisui, tell me what happened with the other target."
"Shouldn't we get this kid to the hospital first? He doesn't look good, and neither of us are exactly medics."
"Not yet," Itachi said. "He'll be all right for now, and I -" (if I explain) "- I want to talk to him before anyone else does, if he wakes up again."
Shisui shrugged his unburned shoulder. "All right," he said, "but you're coming up with your own excuses when the higher-ups get pissed. We can do some first aid, at least, I have some bandages and things. Maybe a soldier pill... Nah, the crash would kill him. Plain first aid it is - help me out here, my arm's kind of sore."
Itachi took the roll of bandages that Shisui handed him and began to dress the worst of Sasuke's injuries with mechanical thoroughness. He knew the cause of each one, but not the reason for them. "About the other target," he said.
"Right, yeah..." Shisui left Sasuke to Itachi and started wrapping up his own arm. "Well, like I said on the radio, the guy recognized me before I'd finished saying 'Nice night for a walk,' and I didn't get halfway through claiming I was an Inuzuka before he went after me and Kuromaru. He's got a sharingan eye, I don't know how, and he's good with it and fast as hell - even with my sharingan on I thought I was toast for a second, and then of all people Maito Gai showed up and distracted him. I don't know what Gai was doing out there at this time of night, but I'm telling you, I was never so glad to see green spandex in my life."
Itachi decided that tomorrow, he would find Maito Gai and offer him - something. Anything he wanted, for saving Shisui.
"Anyway, then Tsume-san showed up with a couple of ANBU she'd grabbed on the way," Shisui said, "and we all played tag for a few minutes - none of us could land a hit on him, Itachi. Nothing connected. It was like he wasn't there at all, except his hits sure hurt... Then Kakashi-san and some other jounin Mikoto-san called jumped in and the target just vanished. Poof." He waved his left hand around in a vague gesture apparently meant to represent something disappearing. "Gone. I don't know if he stole the Fourth's techniques or what, but that guy can move. Oh, and Tsume-san slapped me in the head when I asked her if she kissed her dog with that mouth - she was cursing up a storm, it was beautiful - and told me to go home and tell your mom what happened, so I left them to see if they could find the guy's trail again. Mikoto-san told me you'd found your target and sent me out here, and you can figure out the rest."
Itachi finished bandaging a shallow but long cut on Sasuke's side.
"So," Shisui said, after a minute of silence, "find out anything about this one, besides the fact that he thinks you're the worst Uchiha since Madara himself?"
"Nothing that makes sense." Itachi didn't look up at Shisui. "He seems to know me, but I've never -"
(I'm here to protect you, no matter what happens)
"- never met him. He claimed that we were brothers."
"I can see the family resemblance," Shisui said, completely deadpan. "I mean, besides the fact that he looks like he might have gotten a decent night's sleep once in a while. And the screaming rage fits. And the chicken-butt hair. Otherwise? Total twins."
"Shisui, this isn't -" Funny, he almost said, but it was too much like Sasuke's earlier words. "This is a genuine problem. He thinks I want to steal his eyes, that I killed you, that I killed -"
(to test my capacity)
"- but I haven't - I would never -"
"Hey, whoa, calm down," Shisui said. He reached over Sasuke and clasped Itachi's shoulder. "I know all that, it's okay, stay calm - someone must have put him under an illusion or something. We'll take him to the hospital in a bit and let the professionals there figure it out, don't let it get to you."
Itachi shut his eyes. He didn't want to talk about it, but if he couldn't tell Shisui... "I'm not sure he's wrong."
"Okay, now I'm really getting confused."
"Since this started, I've been remembering things. Events that I know haven't happened. I keep thinking things, seeing images that aren't real, but they're similar to the things that Sasuke has said. I know his name when I've never seen him before, and -" Itachi took a deep breath in and forced himself to relax, trying to ignore the bright burn of Shisui's chakra across from him and concentrate on the faint energy left in Sasuke. Drained to the bone and scarcely there, but just enough for Itachi to sense; just like -
(that's going to be your little brother)
Itachi had always had an excellent memory.
"Itachi? Hey, you awake?"
"He is my brother," Itachi said, opening his eyes. "The one that wasn't born. I remember his chakra from before Mother went to the hospital; it's exactly the same."
For once Shisui didn't have a joking answer ready, and Itachi looked down at Sasuke, who remained unconscious, his chest barely moving as he breathed. Everything unreal is real, he thought, and the reality is... His little brother who hadn't lived was as old as Itachi. Shisui who was sitting across from him had died. Something had gone wrong with the clan, with the entire village, and Itachi had made a bargain for Sasuke's life and -
"This isn't a police matter," Shisui said, and Itachi remembered blood leaking from his father's mouth onto the tatami floor. "Hell, this isn't even an ANBU matter. We have to take this straight to the Hokage, I don't think anyone else gets paid enough to deal with a situation like - like whatever this situation is."
"Actually, I'm pretty sure no one does," a new voice said.
Next chapter.
Naruto, characters, etc. © Kishimoto who OH OBITO NO D: OBITO WHAT HAPPEN
This chapter contains: Timeline confusion, more things that made the author cackle gleefully to herself, a cliffhanger oops.
First chapter.
Previous chapter.
jump off the end
"Sasuke?"
The name he had never spoken was heavy and familiar in his mouth.
"Now you remember me," the stranger said, still struggling to break Itachi's grip. "Go ahead and take my eyes if you need them so badly, I'll kill you when I'm blind if I have to -"
"I don't want your eyes," Itachi said (there had to be an excuse) (and he wasn't going to think about it right now, he had a mission). "Just calm down, please - I'm not sure what's going on here, but I don't know you. I've never met you before. Is that your name? Sasuke?"
"This isn't funny, Itachi!" The stranger - Sasuke - managed to wrench one hand free, and Itachi let the other one go and stepped back, ready to pull a kunai if necessary. Sasuke didn't reach for his sword; he stood still, breathing hard and glaring, and said, "I don't know why you're doing this, but when the illusion breaks I'll -"
"Niisan! Hey, Itachi-niisan, are you okay?"
Not now. "Naruto-kun, I told you to stay out of sight."
"Naruto?" Sasuke's glare softened a little as he looked past Itachi, but Itachi couldn't risk taking his eyes off Sasuke to look for Naruto. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be - you should be taller." He laughed harshly. "What, did you use too many shadow clones and turn back into a kid?"
"Dude, you're weird," Naruto said, and he suddenly appeared at Itachi's side. "Anyway, Niisan, you okay? I heard yelling and I called Aunt Mikoto and she said she was gonna send someone, but I'm already here so I figured -"
"Don't talk to him like that!" Sasuke yelled, with impressive energy considering that he was swaying on his feet. "Since when are you his friend? He tried to kidnap you, dumbass! You know what he's done!"
"Huh? Uh - when did I get kidnapped?"
"Please go back to the house, Naruto-kun," Itachi said, "you really shouldn't be here. Sasuke-san, if you'll come with me, we can -"
"Sasuke-san?"
The radio in Naruto's hand hissed. "Itachi? Are you there? Please answer me, and tell Naruto to get back here right now or he's going to be in deep trouble!"
"Mother?" Sasuke's legs finally gave out and left him kneeling in dead leaves and thin grass, staring at the radio. "But she's dead. They're all dead. It was just us... That was reality."
Itachi took the radio from Naruto and spoke into it. "Everything's under control." (This wasn't in the plan.) "Our guest is somewhat confused, once he's calmer I'll take him to the hospital."
"Well, if you're sure... I just don't want you taking too many chances. Oh, I've sent -"
"You killed her."
"Naruto, go home," Itachi said. "That's an order from your temporary captain. And take the radio in case you run into trouble."
"Aww, man, just when things were gettin' good... Hey, weird guy!" Naruto waved at Sasuke. "Feel better soon, okay? I wanna talk again and find out how you know Niisan and me and stuff, yanno, so don't die or anything!"
He ran off with the radio just as Sasuke launched himself at Itachi again. Itachi vanished out of the way and grabbed Sasuke's right arm, twisting it up behind Sasuke's back, but Sasuke somehow tore himself out of the hold and drove his fist into Itachi's side, then dove for his fallen sword. Itachi caught him by his belt and pulled him away from the sword, and Sasuke turned and lashed out at Itachi's throat with a kunai that Itachi leaned back just in time to avoid. "You killed her!" Sasuke screamed. "You killed them all for being weak and now you're using them to -"
"Whoa there, let's not get too hasty, huh?" and Shisui was suddenly between them, pulling Sasuke away from Itachi and twisting the kunai out of Sasuke's hand. Shisui's clothes and hair were singed and there was a bad burn along his right shoulder and arm, but he was alive and grinning and both of his eyes were in his face where they belonged. "Whoever you think got killed, why don't we talk it over first like reasonable shinobi?"
Sasuke stared at Shisui in disbelief. "But aren't you - you're Shisui. You're dead."
(bloody eye sockets washed clean in the river)
"You know, that's the second time someone's told me that tonight," Shisui said, "and I don't think I like hearing it any more now than I did the first time. If you promise to be good and stop trying to kill my friend here, I'll let you go and we can talk about -"
"He killed you! He killed you just to get stronger and now you're - you're -" Sasuke staggered and nearly fell, only held upright by Shisui's grip. "This isn't right. He only left me for my eyes but you're alive - my mother is alive... Are they all alive? Is everyone still alive?"
"Shisui, let him go," Itachi said. "Sasuke-san, I understand that you're confused, but -"
"What the hell is going on?" Sasuke said.
He collapsed.
---
Shisui caught Sasuke just as he pitched forward and carefully let Sasuke down to the ground. "Out cold," he said. "I can't believe he was alive, let alone yelling his head off at us - he's barely got the chakra to keep breathing."
Itachi knelt beside Sasuke and brushed his bangs aside. He could see the Uchiha blood in Sasuke's face when he looked, not just Uchiha but his own family: Mikoto's cheekbones and fine eyebrows, a jawline that would eventually firm into Fugaku's, Itachi's straight nose...
(forgive me, Sasuke)
His mind whirled around bloody memories of things that he'd never done, and he said, "Shisui, tell me what happened with the other target."
"Shouldn't we get this kid to the hospital first? He doesn't look good, and neither of us are exactly medics."
"Not yet," Itachi said. "He'll be all right for now, and I -" (if I explain) "- I want to talk to him before anyone else does, if he wakes up again."
Shisui shrugged his unburned shoulder. "All right," he said, "but you're coming up with your own excuses when the higher-ups get pissed. We can do some first aid, at least, I have some bandages and things. Maybe a soldier pill... Nah, the crash would kill him. Plain first aid it is - help me out here, my arm's kind of sore."
Itachi took the roll of bandages that Shisui handed him and began to dress the worst of Sasuke's injuries with mechanical thoroughness. He knew the cause of each one, but not the reason for them. "About the other target," he said.
"Right, yeah..." Shisui left Sasuke to Itachi and started wrapping up his own arm. "Well, like I said on the radio, the guy recognized me before I'd finished saying 'Nice night for a walk,' and I didn't get halfway through claiming I was an Inuzuka before he went after me and Kuromaru. He's got a sharingan eye, I don't know how, and he's good with it and fast as hell - even with my sharingan on I thought I was toast for a second, and then of all people Maito Gai showed up and distracted him. I don't know what Gai was doing out there at this time of night, but I'm telling you, I was never so glad to see green spandex in my life."
Itachi decided that tomorrow, he would find Maito Gai and offer him - something. Anything he wanted, for saving Shisui.
"Anyway, then Tsume-san showed up with a couple of ANBU she'd grabbed on the way," Shisui said, "and we all played tag for a few minutes - none of us could land a hit on him, Itachi. Nothing connected. It was like he wasn't there at all, except his hits sure hurt... Then Kakashi-san and some other jounin Mikoto-san called jumped in and the target just vanished. Poof." He waved his left hand around in a vague gesture apparently meant to represent something disappearing. "Gone. I don't know if he stole the Fourth's techniques or what, but that guy can move. Oh, and Tsume-san slapped me in the head when I asked her if she kissed her dog with that mouth - she was cursing up a storm, it was beautiful - and told me to go home and tell your mom what happened, so I left them to see if they could find the guy's trail again. Mikoto-san told me you'd found your target and sent me out here, and you can figure out the rest."
Itachi finished bandaging a shallow but long cut on Sasuke's side.
"So," Shisui said, after a minute of silence, "find out anything about this one, besides the fact that he thinks you're the worst Uchiha since Madara himself?"
"Nothing that makes sense." Itachi didn't look up at Shisui. "He seems to know me, but I've never -"
(I'm here to protect you, no matter what happens)
"- never met him. He claimed that we were brothers."
"I can see the family resemblance," Shisui said, completely deadpan. "I mean, besides the fact that he looks like he might have gotten a decent night's sleep once in a while. And the screaming rage fits. And the chicken-butt hair. Otherwise? Total twins."
"Shisui, this isn't -" Funny, he almost said, but it was too much like Sasuke's earlier words. "This is a genuine problem. He thinks I want to steal his eyes, that I killed you, that I killed -"
(to test my capacity)
"- but I haven't - I would never -"
"Hey, whoa, calm down," Shisui said. He reached over Sasuke and clasped Itachi's shoulder. "I know all that, it's okay, stay calm - someone must have put him under an illusion or something. We'll take him to the hospital in a bit and let the professionals there figure it out, don't let it get to you."
Itachi shut his eyes. He didn't want to talk about it, but if he couldn't tell Shisui... "I'm not sure he's wrong."
"Okay, now I'm really getting confused."
"Since this started, I've been remembering things. Events that I know haven't happened. I keep thinking things, seeing images that aren't real, but they're similar to the things that Sasuke has said. I know his name when I've never seen him before, and -" Itachi took a deep breath in and forced himself to relax, trying to ignore the bright burn of Shisui's chakra across from him and concentrate on the faint energy left in Sasuke. Drained to the bone and scarcely there, but just enough for Itachi to sense; just like -
(that's going to be your little brother)
Itachi had always had an excellent memory.
"Itachi? Hey, you awake?"
"He is my brother," Itachi said, opening his eyes. "The one that wasn't born. I remember his chakra from before Mother went to the hospital; it's exactly the same."
For once Shisui didn't have a joking answer ready, and Itachi looked down at Sasuke, who remained unconscious, his chest barely moving as he breathed. Everything unreal is real, he thought, and the reality is... His little brother who hadn't lived was as old as Itachi. Shisui who was sitting across from him had died. Something had gone wrong with the clan, with the entire village, and Itachi had made a bargain for Sasuke's life and -
"This isn't a police matter," Shisui said, and Itachi remembered blood leaking from his father's mouth onto the tatami floor. "Hell, this isn't even an ANBU matter. We have to take this straight to the Hokage, I don't think anyone else gets paid enough to deal with a situation like - like whatever this situation is."
"Actually, I'm pretty sure no one does," a new voice said.
Next chapter.
Naruto, characters, etc. © Kishimoto who OH OBITO NO D: OBITO WHAT HAPPEN