Naruto fic: Seraphic Cemetery ch. VII
FF7 goodness within the week, artimusdin. ^_^
Title: Seraphic Cemetery
Series: Naruto
Pairings: ItaNaru, SasuNaru<
SC: Ch. VII
The lone shinobi darted through the wilderness, dripping blood already drying on his skin. The mission had been an ambush. Nothing in his information had even prepared him for this. If not for the very senses that had gotten him chosen for this assignment, it would be more than his side and face bleeding.
Does this count as an A-rank? Uzumaki Naruto wondered, never before so thankful for his endurance. Only that and his will kept his exhausted legs moving. They had been chasing him for over an hour. They had not fallen for a single one of his tricks. Even his esteemed shadow doppelganger technique did nothing.
It didn’t take long for Naruto to find out why: They had a rogue Hyuga in their team.
Damn them.
Naruto huffed and darted into the thicker trees. His body was beginning to tire. Several of his more powerful techniques and seemingly endless running at top speed guaranteed that. He had few techniques left that weren’t demonic. He was running out of options.
Damned bastards! Naruto snarled inwardly, weaving into the trees. Shadow techniques wouldn’t work. Duplicating and disguising abilities wouldn’t work. He couldn’t think of any defensive measures that would work against that damned technique!
A shuriken sliced into the tree beside his head, and he dived behind another tree. He couldn’t hear them, but his hypersensitive ears could hear more shuriken whirling in the air. The shuriken weren’t the threat. They were simply tracking him, cornering him, distracting him. Naruto gritted his teeth.
There has to be something that works! There has to be something I can do!
More shuriken rained down from the sky. Naruto cursed and dodged. Flipping over a fallen tree, he focused chakra to his feet and headed for the treetops. He felt the wood shift under him and leaped away right before two hands tore from the tree and grabbed for his feet. They missed by centimeters, and he darted for another tree. Kunai flashed, but he simply spun in midair and attached them to his feet, throwing them back at his attackers. None of them hit, but it gave him time to move.
Konoha’s not that far away! he thought desperately. I can make it!
Abruptly, telling white eyes were in front of him, and Naruto barely moved away from the renegade Hyuga’s strike. One palm annihilated the tree behind him. Naruto didn’t have time to think. He simply focused his chakra into his palm.
Mine can beat yours, you-
He didn’t have time to finish the thought, sensing another shinobi behind him. Naruto released the chakra in his hand into an explosion of energy, letting it sear the air around him. It threw the two shinobi off balance, giving him space to duck and roll.
It was just supposed to be some info gathering. That was it. Just some information. Was this all really fuckin’ necessary?!?
He heard more kunai fly and threw himself to the side. Naruto hissed as one nicked his shin, making him stumble. Enemy chakra closed in on him. Gritting his teeth, Naruto gathered chakra into his worn palm again. He had to-
Then, one by one, the enemy chakra vanished. Gasping faintly for breath, Naruto sat on his heels. He looked around, but only empty forest met his eyes. He held the gathered chakra in his palm. He couldn’t sense anyone, but that didn’t mean much.
Oh.
Oh!
Taking a deep breath, Naruto allowed the chakra to dissipate. “Come out, Itachi!” he snapped. “What the hell are you doing out here?”
The slim figure stepped out of the trees. His dark eyes studied Naruto. “You looked like you needed help,” Itachi replied mildly.
Naruto glared at him and dusted himself off. “It was a B-class mission! I could take care of it by myself!”
I’m not a dunce anymore! I don’t need some damned Uchiha saving my ass!
Huffing, Naruto whirled and started stalking towards Konoha. Great. Just great. Now he had to make a good explanation on how he got away. In other words, he had to lie. That was all right. He was a shinobi. Lying was part of the biz!
…Damn Itachi.
He stiffened when he saw Itachi out of the corner of his eye. The Uchiha had his head down and was walking silently beside him. Naruto straightened his back. “What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded indignantly.
Itachi stared at him. He didn’t deign to answer the question. Naruto growled and kept walking. “Do you think I can’t handle myself?” he asked sharply. “For all that bullshit you threw at me about my own power, it didn’t stop you from coming up and ‘saving’ me.”
“Even the Akatsuki work in pairs.” Naruto flinched minutely at the soft retort. But that was all right. He had one of his own.
“To make sure no one turns traitor.” Now it was Itachi’s turn to nod in admittance of the strike.
Naruto felt his various wounds healing, slower than usual but healing nonetheless. He felt his side pulling a little, but he ignored it. His shin hurt, but he could ignore that, too. It hurt the same way a bad papercut hurt. The cut on his face was already healed. He blamed that on the fox’s vanity.
However, the fox had not cleaned the blood. Naruto blanched a little as Itachi fingered the blood on his face. “Has the fox already healed you?” he questioned. Naruto heard the silent inquiry behind that and turned away. Are you all right?
“Are you going to start following me on missions now? What are you going to do if I’m working in a team?” Nice sidestep, Naruto congratulated himself.
Itachi didn’t respond, and when Naruto sneaked a look at him, he saw Itachi walking beside him, no change in expression. Naruto assumed he could safely take that as a yes. Sighing, Naruto stuck his hands in his pockets and trudged on. No point worrying about the freak at the moment. He had to figure out what to say on his report. The old hag was smarter than most of the people in the village. Most of them couldn’t see through his subterfuge. She saw through it the first time she met him. Since then, her knowledge of him had only increased. He would have to be clever about it.
Itachi stopped beside him, and Naruto obligingly stopped as well. Placing his hands on his hips, he glared at the Uchiha. “What no-”
Itachi’s lips silenced him. Eyes wide, Naruto didn’t resist as Itachi simply pressed their lips together, gentle, chaste, his light chapped mouth moving over his. Then the soft pressure was gone and so was Itachi.
Naruto fingered his lips, gaping. Only after the situation sank in a little more did he react.
“YOU SONUVABITCH! THAT WAS MY SECOND KISS! DAMN YOU, UCHIHAS!”
After it sank in a little more, Naruto bolted for Konoha.
xoxoxox
When Naruto returned to Konoha, dirty, exhausted, and wide-eyed, Tsunade quickly ushered him onto the couch and tucked a blanket over him. Then she vanished. Naruto assumed to reference her notes on his mission. He didn’t really care at the moment. He curled up on the couch and tried to will himself to sleep. He failed miserably.
He kissed me! The bastard kissed me! The whole damn clan is freaks and perverts!
Naruto stared at the inside of Tsunade’s blanket. He couldn’t even close his eyes.
What does he want? First it was the fox, then “my own power” or whatever nonsense, now he’s kissing me!
Reflecting on the situation, Naruto felt a little dumb for not assuming it was going to happen. Itachi almost did it before, but Naruto had run away. This time, Itachi hadn’t given him a chance to run away.
All right, he felt a lot dumb, but now wasn’t the time to worry about little stuff like that.
Well, what do I do? Hey, Itachi, I’m a little focused on other matters at the moment. I really can’t afford to date serial killers at the moment. It kinda messes with my plans on becoming Hokage, y’know?
He groaned. Oh. Yeah. Plans for Hokage. Dammit!
“Naruto? Are you all right?” He cringed inwardly as Tsunade gripped his shoulder through the blankets. He sighed to himself. Time to get this over with.
With another soft groan, Naruto sat up and tossed the blanket off. “I’m okay,” he grumbled. “I thought it was just information gathering!”
Tsunade’s eyes were worried, making guilt burn inside Naruto.
It’s for the best! She’s happier not knowing!
“I checked it over,” she admitted, “and the original sources were a little suspicious. I didn’t think too much about it at the time. It was a good opportunity.”
Naruto huffed and crossed his arms. “I never even saw it coming! They just started attacking me!”
Tsunade lightly squeezed his shoulder, increasing the guilt inside of him. Then she stood and gestured. “Why don’t we sit in the office and you can debrief? We need to prepare so this doesn’t happen again.”
In the end, Naruto didn’t lie too much. He told the story as it happened, glossing over Itachi’s involvement and hinting that perhaps the shinobi had fought each other. It wouldn’t be the first time with rogue shinobi. She accepted it without blinking, making Naruto consider where he could find a good hole to hide in, and excused Naruto to go home and rest. It took all of his willpower not to sprint out of the office.
Sasuke met him as soon as he walked out Tsunade’s door. He fell into step beside Naruto. Naruto mentally congratulated himself again. He didn’t run away earlier, and he didn’t bang his head against the wall now. Surely, he really deserved some ramen. Lots and lots of ramen. Yum.
“I heard you encountered an ambush,” Sasuke commented. “Did you get the A-class mission you wanted?”
Are you all right? Why couldn’t any of the Uchiha say it aloud? Why?
Naruto grunted and shoved his hands in his pockets. “The old hag said it was,” he grumbled. “It better have been! After all the shit.”
Sasuke nodded, and Naruto was struck by the similarities between the brothers as Sasuke walked with him out of the building and down the street. Both were quiet and painfully straight-faced. Both asked a hell of a lot of silent questions. But there was something different between them. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it at the moment. Frustrated, Naruto glowered and growled, oblivious to the usual snooty people that were quickly distancing themselves from him. He wasn’t sure what was worse: The differences he couldn’t quite put his finger on or the similarities he definitely didn’t want to put his finger on.
Naruto yelped a little when Sasuke touched his shoulder. Their touch was certainly the same. Yep. Yep it was.
“Are you all right?” Sasuke demanded, swinging Naruto around. Naruto was tempted to swing back. “How bad was it?”
Naruto hated his treacherous cheeks as he felt himself blushing. Humiliated, he pulled back. “I’m fine,” he replied tensely. “Just thinking about the mission.”
Sasuke studied his face, and Naruto was painfully aware that they were just standing in the middle of the street. The crowd flowed around him, and he glared at anyone who bothered to stare at them. He felt like he was in some odd alter-dimension. Sasuke was concerned, and he was snarly.
He wanted to go home and get some sleep.
As if sensing Naruto wouldn’t divulge more, Sasuke nodded a little and resumed walking. However, he didn’t move his hand from Naruto’s shoulder. The touch was disturbing and comforting at the same time, and Naruto didn’t shrug it away. At least the older boy was touching him non-violently. Considering this was Sasuke, that was definitely surprising.
Nap, then see if Sasuke’s niceness will continue into ramen. Mmmmm . . . ramen. . . .
Sasuke’s silence would have bothered anyone else, but Naruto was used to it. Between Sasuke and Neji, and now Itachi, he was painfully used to it.
Sasuke walked Naruto to his door, and for one delirious moment, Naruto wondered if the brunet was going to kiss him good-bye. Instead, he simply squeezed Naruto’s shoulder. Naruto decided that, for Sasuke, that was close enough.
“I’ll be in our usual spot when you wake up,” was all Sasuke said before he left. Naruto nodded tiredly.
“Later.” When he opened the door, Itachi’s dark eyes greeted him. Naruto barely nodded at him before walking into his bedroom. He thought Itachi was following him, but he just plopped on his bed and closed his eyes. Itachi hung around his house a lot when he slept. What was one more time?