[Fic] "Troy in Reverse" -- Naruto
I was going to write Sakura fighting Kabuto and pulling off his trick of healing herself mid-battle, which is something that would happen in my vague and shapeless idea of the proper sequel to Tides (...technically the second proper sequel to "Tides," since my old outline got adjusted to take canon revelations about Itachi into account and now ends when Team 7 leaves Konoha a second time), but I didn't get to the actual fight, even though I ran twenty minutes over the time limit of a 15-minute fic.
Oops.
So you get Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto heading to Hidden Sound several months after the events of Undertow, with the intention of confronting Orochimaru and Kabuto for a final time... only to find that they've been expected. This would be the opening of chapter 1 of... well, the first story is called "Tides," and the second is called "Leaves," so maybe the third should be "Swords"? Or no, wait, the second should be called "Sparks" so the third is still "Leaves." Yeah. (Or maybe the other way around? *is indecisive like an indecisive thing*)
Anyway, Sakura POV, 775 words.
[ETA: The edited and notably expanded (by 300 words, ye gods!) final version is now up on AO3!]
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Troy in Reverse
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Sakura is perfectly happy to let Sasuke and Naruto fight Orochimaru on their own. She trusts them, and she has the wrong skills for a battle between three ninjutsu specialists. She fights close-in, not at mid-range.
Besides, someone has to keep Kabuto occupied. And she wants him to pay for everything he's done to her friends, and every time he's twisted his healer's oath in the name of whatever madness he's pretending to call a worthy cause.
"Are you sure you don't want me to leave you a few clones?" Naruto asks yet again as they leap through the winter-damp forest on a zigzag approach to Hidden Sound. "Just to provide a distraction?"
"I'll be fine," Sakura tells him. She smiles and pats him on the shoulder. "Worry about yourself, not me. You don't have enough attention to risk splitting it."
A tiny smile flickers across Sasuke's face, and then widens when Naruto catches a glimpse of it and sputters in wounded fury. It's mostly for show, and they all know it, but they're about to walk knowingly into a village built as a giant trap, to confront two of the most dangerous people in the world. (Not the most dangerous -- there's a reason Orochimaru quit Akatsuki, after all -- but definitely up there.)
When they act as if nothing is serious, it's a promise that they'll survive.
Long before they reach the walls, it's obvious that something is wrong in Hidden Sound. The village is eerily empty. The gates stand half open, as if in invitation.
Orochimaru's stronghold is more a fortress than a proper town, but according to Sasuke, there should be several hundred support personnel in residence at any time, plus at least a few dozen ninja, chuunin-rank and above.
"What the hell?" Naruto says, pointing at the open gate as if it's personally insulted him.
Sakura shrugs, as confused as he is. "Maybe someone else already attacked?" But there are no signs of forced entry, no cracks in the wall or residue of ninjutsu attacks.
Sasuke frowns, Sharingan spinning eerily red and black as he studies his former prison -- or his former home. He still won't tell Sakura and Naruto anything about the people he met there, aside from the two they already knew. Sakura wonders if he made any friends. Probably not. Sasuke doesn't like letting people close.
There's something very sad about knowing he won't hesitate to kill anyone they meet within the walls, ninja or civilian, despite spending three years in their care.
"Sometimes I got an impression that Orochimaru was worried about some enemy he never named in my presence," Sasuke says eventually. "But he seemed to think he'd taken adequate measures to track and neutralize that threat. And there are no signs of violence. This is a trap. He must have expected us."
"Obviously he expected somebody," Sakura says. "But we're only three people, not even officially chuunin. I don't see why he'd go to such lengths for us."
"Because we're awesome?" Naruto suggests.
"He doesn't care about you," Sasuke says witheringly. "He did this for me. He doesn't want me damaged."
Sakura scowls and punches a maple at the side of the dirt path. It sways dangerously, but she didn't put enough force behind the blow to knock it down, and eventually the tree stabilizes with only a few dead branches shaken loose. She hates thinking about what Orochimaru wants to do with Sasuke's body. She hates thinking about the chance that he'll win, that she'll see someone else looking out from behind Sasuke's eyes and laughing at her.
She'll kill Sasuke herself if that happens. He asked her to before they left Konoha, and she agreed. (They haven't told Naruto about that plan.)
Naruto is still staring suspiciously at the gates, but now he shakes his head, claps his hands, and grins from ear to ear. "Right, he's a pervert and he wants your body -- I keep forgetting. Whatever! If snake-face isn't going to try tiring us out with goons before we find him, let's take advantage. Last one in the door buys the others dinner!"
He charges forward in an orange blur.
Sakura looks at Sasuke. He turns away.
"...Watch his hands, not his eyes. He never changes his face unless he wants to and he doesn't always look where he's aiming. But he has to move his hands," Sasuke says, as if talking to the silent forest. "And be careful of genjutsu."
"I'll win," Sakura says. She touches Sasuke's arm, just a fleeting brush of fingers against the bare skin above his arm guards.
Then she follows Naruto into Hidden Sound, Sasuke at her heels.
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Inspired by the 4/26/10 15_minute_fic word #136: disbelief
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...I kind of want to write more of this story now, except I don't want to go back and write ten chapters of the middle story explaining how Team 7 got from killing Tsukimaru in River Country, to confronting Itachi and Kisame in Wave Country (inconclusively), to going back to Konoha and prying through classified archives for information on the Uchiha massacre (while Sasuke sits around under house arrest and possibly fends off some plot from Danzo...?), to saying, essentially, "Fuck this noise," and running off to be missing-nin again because they can't get the council to let them do anything they think is productive.
So just, you know, take that all as read. Okay?
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)
Oops.
So you get Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto heading to Hidden Sound several months after the events of Undertow, with the intention of confronting Orochimaru and Kabuto for a final time... only to find that they've been expected. This would be the opening of chapter 1 of... well, the first story is called "Tides," and the second is called "Leaves," so maybe the third should be "Swords"? Or no, wait, the second should be called "Sparks" so the third is still "Leaves." Yeah. (Or maybe the other way around? *is indecisive like an indecisive thing*)
Anyway, Sakura POV, 775 words.
[ETA: The edited and notably expanded (by 300 words, ye gods!) final version is now up on AO3!]
---------------------------------------------
Troy in Reverse
---------------------------------------------
Sakura is perfectly happy to let Sasuke and Naruto fight Orochimaru on their own. She trusts them, and she has the wrong skills for a battle between three ninjutsu specialists. She fights close-in, not at mid-range.
Besides, someone has to keep Kabuto occupied. And she wants him to pay for everything he's done to her friends, and every time he's twisted his healer's oath in the name of whatever madness he's pretending to call a worthy cause.
"Are you sure you don't want me to leave you a few clones?" Naruto asks yet again as they leap through the winter-damp forest on a zigzag approach to Hidden Sound. "Just to provide a distraction?"
"I'll be fine," Sakura tells him. She smiles and pats him on the shoulder. "Worry about yourself, not me. You don't have enough attention to risk splitting it."
A tiny smile flickers across Sasuke's face, and then widens when Naruto catches a glimpse of it and sputters in wounded fury. It's mostly for show, and they all know it, but they're about to walk knowingly into a village built as a giant trap, to confront two of the most dangerous people in the world. (Not the most dangerous -- there's a reason Orochimaru quit Akatsuki, after all -- but definitely up there.)
When they act as if nothing is serious, it's a promise that they'll survive.
Long before they reach the walls, it's obvious that something is wrong in Hidden Sound. The village is eerily empty. The gates stand half open, as if in invitation.
Orochimaru's stronghold is more a fortress than a proper town, but according to Sasuke, there should be several hundred support personnel in residence at any time, plus at least a few dozen ninja, chuunin-rank and above.
"What the hell?" Naruto says, pointing at the open gate as if it's personally insulted him.
Sakura shrugs, as confused as he is. "Maybe someone else already attacked?" But there are no signs of forced entry, no cracks in the wall or residue of ninjutsu attacks.
Sasuke frowns, Sharingan spinning eerily red and black as he studies his former prison -- or his former home. He still won't tell Sakura and Naruto anything about the people he met there, aside from the two they already knew. Sakura wonders if he made any friends. Probably not. Sasuke doesn't like letting people close.
There's something very sad about knowing he won't hesitate to kill anyone they meet within the walls, ninja or civilian, despite spending three years in their care.
"Sometimes I got an impression that Orochimaru was worried about some enemy he never named in my presence," Sasuke says eventually. "But he seemed to think he'd taken adequate measures to track and neutralize that threat. And there are no signs of violence. This is a trap. He must have expected us."
"Obviously he expected somebody," Sakura says. "But we're only three people, not even officially chuunin. I don't see why he'd go to such lengths for us."
"Because we're awesome?" Naruto suggests.
"He doesn't care about you," Sasuke says witheringly. "He did this for me. He doesn't want me damaged."
Sakura scowls and punches a maple at the side of the dirt path. It sways dangerously, but she didn't put enough force behind the blow to knock it down, and eventually the tree stabilizes with only a few dead branches shaken loose. She hates thinking about what Orochimaru wants to do with Sasuke's body. She hates thinking about the chance that he'll win, that she'll see someone else looking out from behind Sasuke's eyes and laughing at her.
She'll kill Sasuke herself if that happens. He asked her to before they left Konoha, and she agreed. (They haven't told Naruto about that plan.)
Naruto is still staring suspiciously at the gates, but now he shakes his head, claps his hands, and grins from ear to ear. "Right, he's a pervert and he wants your body -- I keep forgetting. Whatever! If snake-face isn't going to try tiring us out with goons before we find him, let's take advantage. Last one in the door buys the others dinner!"
He charges forward in an orange blur.
Sakura looks at Sasuke. He turns away.
"...Watch his hands, not his eyes. He never changes his face unless he wants to and he doesn't always look where he's aiming. But he has to move his hands," Sasuke says, as if talking to the silent forest. "And be careful of genjutsu."
"I'll win," Sakura says. She touches Sasuke's arm, just a fleeting brush of fingers against the bare skin above his arm guards.
Then she follows Naruto into Hidden Sound, Sasuke at her heels.
---------------------------------------------
Inspired by the 4/26/10 15_minute_fic word #136: disbelief
---------------------------------------------
...I kind of want to write more of this story now, except I don't want to go back and write ten chapters of the middle story explaining how Team 7 got from killing Tsukimaru in River Country, to confronting Itachi and Kisame in Wave Country (inconclusively), to going back to Konoha and prying through classified archives for information on the Uchiha massacre (while Sasuke sits around under house arrest and possibly fends off some plot from Danzo...?), to saying, essentially, "Fuck this noise," and running off to be missing-nin again because they can't get the council to let them do anything they think is productive.
So just, you know, take that all as read. Okay?
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)