Fox Magic 14: He Had It Coming (Part 1)
Crap, crap, crap, crap. Naruto hurried after the enraged brunet ahead of him, frantically collecting the packages of food that Sasuke had dropped and awkwardly piling them on top of his still-plump bosom.
Upon hearing news of the elder Uchiha brother, Sasuke’s ability to reason seemed to have jumped ship entirely. He’d started yelling at the bandits, pressuring them for details so aggressively that Naruto had been forced to seriously turn up the charm just to keep them from killing him. As it was, the bandits had been grumbling as they went on their way, and Sasuke was so frustrated by the lack of information aside from “He went thattaway” that he was crashing through the forest with all the finesse of a newborn elephant, at least as far as Itachi’s senses would be concerned.
As for Naruto, everything about this situation rankled. The very last thing he wanted was to run into Itachi with Sasuke in tow. The younger brother was completely unprepared, and Naruto was ill-equipped to deal with Sasuke’s lack of preparation. If Sasuke stampeded his way into this fight, bolstered by the knowledge that he had a powerful demon at his side, the Uchiha heir was going to be in for a very nasty surprise. Sasuke didn’t know that the three of them would be a very, very poor mix. Naruto stood a high chance of losing him, which would seriously put a damper on the whole “slavery isn’t sucking much this time” deal. Plus, despite Sasuke’s best efforts lately, Naruto really didn’t want to see him dead, dying, or maimed.
All Naruto had to do was tell Sasuke to stay away from his brother. And not get his face broken while he was at it.
Or worse, get his chocolate taken away.
“Now, Sasuke,” he tried in what he hoped was a soothing voice, “just calm down. Rushing after Itachi is a bad idea, and you know it.” He shook his head to swing a blonde pigtail away from his teetering pile of sweets.
His master snapped his head to the side and glared at Naruto through the corner of his Sharingan-heavy eyes. The currently-female demon smiled nervously, a bead of sweat trickling down his back.
“They said he was heading towards Sand. Towards Sand. We are less than a day behind him,” the Uchiha heir rasped between tightly clenched teeth. Breathing heavily, he whipped his head forward again and continued crashing through the forest. “Less than a day behind that bastard.”
“Yes…” Less than a day isn’t nearly far enough away. Damn it all. With a careful eye on his hard-won goodies, Naruto leapt over a fallen log. “I can understand the temptation, but we really should leave him alone this time. As in, really really.” The demon raised his gaze just in time to avoid a branch that was snapping back towards him. To his dismay, two bars of chocolate-heavenly, divine, exquisite chocolate-tumbled to the ground. “Ah!”
Without warning, Sasuke spun around to face him, fists clenched and teeth bared. Naruto barely managed to keep from walking into him, and reflexively stumbled backwards.
“Why would I want to leave him alone?” Sasuke demanded, a wild gleam in his furious eyes. “I have you with me, don’t I?”
The demon winced. “Well, yeah, but…” Unease crawling beneath his skin, Naruto glanced down at the fallen chocolate bars. How should I break this to him? “You, uh… You haven’t really grown much as a fighter since the last time you saw him. I mean, we’ve only been together for a little over a week.”
With a sharp inhalation, Sasuke paused. Before the younger man could speak, Naruto lifted his gaze and pressed forward. “You said you wanted to fight him on your own. Wouldn’t it seriously tick you off if you lost and ended up needing me to step in and finish him?”
Sasuke scowled. “Of course it would. But the whole reason I released you was to gain the upper hand over Itachi! What good are you if I can’t use you??” Frustration escaped from him in a nearly inaudible hiss of breath. “Even now, I’m standing here arguing instead of finding him! Why are you getting in the way?!”
As the Uchiha heir turned to continue through the forest, Naruto felt a tiny sliver of panic lodge itself in his spine. This was the absolute worst time for this conversation, but he had to stop him.
“Sasuke!” Desperate, Naruto dropped his food, changed back into his male form, and snagged the brunet by the elbow. “You don’t understand. You can’t go after him right now!”
Sasuke snarled, ripping his arm away. The demon’s ring pinched his finger in sympathy with his master’s peaking fury. Naruto gingerly cradled his hand, wincing as Sasuke turned on him again. The demon’s abrupt change of gender didn’t even faze the younger man.
“Why?”
“Because…” Fuckity fuck. Closing his eyes, Naruto let out a slow breath through his nostrils. “If you confront him now, and you end up needing my help…” His shoulders hunched involuntarily as he reluctantly admitted, “I won’t be able to help you.”
A charged silence weighted the air between them. Finally, Sasuke replied in a low, cool voice, “What?”
That sliver of panic turned into a giant wooden stake of worry. Naruto opened his eyes, but he pointed his gaze firmly at the ground. The pair of feet in front of him suddenly seemed incredibly threatening.
“I won’t be able to step in,” he repeated. “I won’t actually be able to go anywhere near you two.”
Another charged silence that was quickly gathering electricity.
“Why?”
Naruto swallowed heavily. Trying to remind himself that he didn’t cook up the rules, he sighed and raised his head.
“Because I never Chose between you two,” he confessed. Naruto eyed Sasuke’s inscrutable expression for a tense moment. “Technically, when you released me, I should have killed either you or your brother. I didn’t.”
Finally distracted from his knee-jerk rage, Sasuke frowned and narrowed his eyes at the demon. “Why should you have killed one of us? And besides, you’re bonded to me. You chose me, right?”
“Um.” Shifting his weight, Naruto placed a nervous hand behind his head and rubbed the nape of his neck. “Not…exactly. You two didn’t do the ritual correctly. I’m supposed to be approached by two rivals, and when I bond with one, I kill the other.” He waved his other hand in a vague circle. “Some ancestor of yours came up with that as a way to keep one line from gaining too much power over the branch families.”
Comprehension flickered in Sasuke’s eyes. The younger man’s jaw tightened. “So you’re saying that you’re only bonded to me because I was present?”
“I…” He hesitated. “That was part of it, yeah. I was also weakened a lot from being confined for so long, and since I was in pain for most of those-” As memories slammed into him, Naruto shook his head and changed tack. “Your brother was far enough away when you released me that I was able to bond to you without killing him. But I didn’t…Choose you.”
Sasuke stared at him. “So what, exactly, are you saying? If you’re forced to meet me and Itachi at the same time, you’ll have to complete the ritual?”
Naruto grimly met his gaze and nodded. “I’ll have to Choose one of you. The other one will die. And to be perfectly honest…” He paused, grimacing. “I don’t know which of you I’ll pick.”
“You don’t,” Sasuke repeated flatly. “You only chose me in the first place because I was closer to you when you were probably desperate for release. Now you’re telling me to avoid my brother, who’s clearly superior to me, and you’re telling me that you don’t know which of us you’d pick to be your master?” His voice rose towards the end of the question, a bevy of emotions sneaking into his tone.
Guilt rose up within Naruto as he watched a hint of fear slip across the Uchiha heir’s face. “That’s not exactly what I’m saying.”
“No?” Sasuke seemed to stare through him, fists opening and closing anxiously. His attention visibly turned inwards as he spat out, “That sounded an awful lot like you were telling me that I’m not supposed to be your master at all.”
“That’s not true!” Stepping forward urgently, Naruto clasped Sasuke’s shoulders and forced the brunet to focus on him. “If you were obviously less worthy than Itachi, I would have Chosen him, and you’d be dead. The fact that I could and did bond with you means that at the very least, you’re evenly matched!” When Sasuke still watched him doubtfully, Naruto gave his shoulders a little shake. “Even if you’re a little less than evenly matched, the bond I share with you now vastly outweighs the bond I share with him. I sure as hell like you more than him. You, at least, are only a complete and total prick some of the time. As far as I’m concerned, that tips the scales in your favor!”
Gradually, Sasuke’s distrustful, faintly insecure expression melted into wry disdain. “So because I was nice to you, I get to keep you?” he scoffed.
Annoyed, Naruto began, “Well-”
“Wait. You share a bond with Itachi, too?” Sasuke cut in, eyes widening.
“Um…”
Outraged, Sasuke slapped Naruto’s hands off his shoulders. “Then you probably knew where Itachi was this entire time!”
Naruto quickly stepped back, raising his hands defensively. “I didn’t! It’s very faint! I could probably tell you if he’s North or South of here, but that’s about it, I swear.” Irritation rose up within him, and he planted his hands on his hips. “Look, Sasuke. I don’t grant him any wishes. It doesn’t matter if he’s happy or sad or ticked off at me. Hell, most of the time, I’m barely aware that he exists. The ring currently recognizes you as my master, not him.”
Shaking his head, the demon bent down and began picking up his treats. “That’s why I don’t want you charging off to challenge him,” he admonished. “I can’t back you up without killing one of you, and even in the best case scenario of Itachi biting the dust, you’ll be pissed at me for stealing your vengeance from you. And the way you are right now,” he continued, straightening up and glaring, “you’ll lose. If you’re dead and he’s nearby, I’ll probably get stuck with him anyway.”
Sasuke glowered at him, but since Naruto’s ring stopped stinging, the demon figured the brunet had finally gotten a grip on himself.
“Only ‘probably’?”
Sniffing a bar of chocolate, Naruto shrugged. “I can’t say for sure what will happen. This is kind of a novel situation for me.” His lips quirked into a smirk. “You’re very unique, Sasuke.”
The brunet huffed dismissively and folded his arms. “Right.” Contemplatively, Sasuke tipped his head back and stared unseeingly at the sun-dappled canopy. “How am I supposed to be able to challenge him, then? I can’t let this opportunity just slip away.”
“Well,” Naruto started, juggling a bag of potato chips in his loaded arms. “I could always train you.”
Sasuke gave him a dry look. “We tried that already.”
The demon scowled. “No, we tried you attacking me like an idiot. We never tried training.” Feeling some relief at getting this uncomfortable news out into the open, Naruto stepped towards Sasuke and gazed at him solemnly. “I don’t want you to lose, Sasuke, and I have no intention of becoming a slave to your asshole of a brother. I want the scales tipped so heavily in your favor that there’s no way in hell I’d Choose him over you.”
The younger Uchiha sibling stared at him for a long moment, then exhaled noisily. His eyes gleamed with determination. “Well then, what do you want me to do?”
Eyes narrowing with mischief, Naruto grinned.
* * *
Sasuke eyed Naruto warily as the demon strode confidently through the forest, humming a vague tune as he craned his blond head left and right. In the past, Naruto in a good mood, especially one that came on this abruptly, led to trouble for Sasuke. The younger man frowned.
“Naruto, what kind of training are you planning to put me through?” he questioned suspiciously. Naruto shot a grin at him over his shoulder.
“I’ve got an idea or two. It’ll be a surprise.” Winking, Naruto followed that eerie statement with, “I just need a clearing big enough.”
“Hmm.” Sasuke shifted the weight of his pack on his back. “I am going to live through this, aren’t I?”
“Killing you would be kind of retarded of me, wouldn’t it?” Even though Naruto’s back was to him, Sasuke could still sense his blue eyes rolling.
“With my dignity intact?”
That caused the demon to briefly pause. “I make no promises.”
“I thought as much.” Sasuke shook his head. He might be a fool to accept Naruto’s dubious “training,” but the demon’s shocking words from before gave him little choice. How could Sasuke expect to defeat Itachi without any new techniques? His brother wouldn’t know about Sasuke’s association with the demon, and since Naruto couldn’t be present-
That thought drew the Uchiha heir up short. Did Itachi know that Sasuke had released Kyuubi? His brother clearly knew enough to search the house for him, even if he’d done it in a far clumsier method than he should have. In fact, Itachi’s efforts were so inept that he might as well have painted a giant arrow on the wall hiding the entrance to Kyuubi’s containment chamber. At the realization, Sasuke came to a complete stop, eyes widening.
Could Itachi have meant for Sasuke to release Kyuubi? Did he intentionally get out of range for the Choosing ritual, or was he hoping that the demon would destroy his brother, thereby going to Itachi with no effort on his part?
“The bond I share with you now vastly outweighs the bond I share with him.”
Itachi had to know. He must have known that Kyuubi was released from the beginning. Why not confront Sasuke when he lacked control? What was Itachi waiting for?
Frustration simmered within his veins, and Sasuke found himself furiously grinding his teeth. His brother’s actions made no sense. Was the man suicidal? Where did he get his information on Kyuubi in the first place?
“Oi! Duck-butt-head! Get a move-on!” Naruto called from somewhere up ahead, snapping Sasuke out of his ruminations. Rolling his eyes, he jogged to catch up.
Hell, for all he knew, Itachi was perfectly aware that he was the proper master of Kyuubi’s fate, and he was just biding his time, waiting for Sasuke to completely humiliate himself before stepping in to finish him off and steal the genie. The idea forced a scowl onto Sasuke’s aristocratic features, but the thought of Naruto’s insubordinate attitude since his release made him tip his head in resignation.
Or perhaps, Itachi knew exactly what he’d be getting into, and realized that he wanted no part of it. Which, as always, left him several steps ahead of Sasuke. The brunet rubbed a hand over the bridge of his nose and sighed.
Inadequacy might as well be Sasuke’s middle name.
A hand materialized in front on him, pressing against the center of Sasuke’s chest and bringing him to a halt. After a moment, Sasuke lowered his hand and locked eyes with the living summation of everything that went wrong in the youngest Uchiha’s life. For his part, Naruto simply lifted an eyebrow and gestured with his free hand.
“Found a spot. Are you going to stay with me, or are you just going to wander off?”
Sasuke glanced around, absently batting away the hand on his chest. Naruto had stumbled upon a large clearing with several large, white boulders dotting the area. The quiet burble of a stream on the far end of the clearing mixed with the whispering, long grass. A few of the boulders were cracked, leaving them conveniently flat on top. It looked like a Zen master’s meditation paradise.
Grunting, Sasuke slipped off his pack and chose to ignore the blond’s provocative comment.
“Now that we’re here…” Sasuke frowned as Naruto bounded over to one of the flat boulders as dumped his treats atop it. The muscles in the blond’s broad back bunched and flexed under his red shirt as he bent over. Although Sasuke hadn’t focused on it in his fit of rage, he vastly preferred the male version of Naruto to the female. Somehow, seeing all of that power wrapped up in a slight, frail, vapid package just struck him as inherently wrong. Kyuubi no Kitsune was not meant to be a woman. Although, he thought, tipping his head, something’s missing. “Where the hell is your pack?”
“Oh, right.” Reaching up, Naruto plucked a small clump of hair from behind his right ear and set it on the ground. In an instant, it turned into his pack. The demon glanced at Sasuke’s blank stare and shrugged. “I got tired of carrying it. It’s the same thing I do to my clothes when I turn into a fox, though that took a couple of tries to get right.”
Sasuke folded his arms over his chest and leveled Naruto with a pointed glare. “And you’ve let me continue carrying mine because…?”
“Um. Because it was the beginning of your training, oh young one.” Naruto’s eyes grew shifty, but before Sasuke could continue his protest, the blond clapped his hands. “So! Shall we get on with it?”
The Uchiha barely restrained a groan. How the hell was he supposed to learn anything from this idiot? Maybe if Naruto switched to his Kyuubi personality, Sasuke stood a chance of learning something, but as it was, Sasuke strongly suspected that his “training” would consist of picking lint from between the demon’s toes. Despite his reservations, Sasuke sighed.
“Fine. I don’t have much to lose.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Naruto replied sarcastically. Hooking a hand under Sasuke’s arm, he drew the younger man into the center of the clearing. “Okay. I’ve seen some of your moves before, so I think I’ve got a good grip on how you do things.” Naruto released him, stepped back, and folded his arms, watching Sasuke avidly. “What’s your best move?”
The brunet frowned, ignoring the impulse to rub the spot Naruto had grabbed. “My best move?”
“The one you’re the most confident in. Your go-to move when things get dicey.”
Sasuke’s brow furrowed as he contemplated that thought. Mangekyou was his most powerful move, but he wasn’t well-practiced at it, and it’d already proved to be disastrous against Kyuubi and useless against Itachi.
In light of that, he replied, “Chidori.”
“Hmm. Alright.” Rubbing a hand under his chin, Naruto took another step back. “Show me.”
Sasuke’s frown deepened. “You saw it when we were fighting those ninjas from Sound. Why do I need to show you? It’ll suck up my reserves.”
Naruto’s eyes got that shifty look again. “Because I have an idea, and I want to see how you do Chidori up close before I go ahead with it.”
Sasuke narrowed his eyes, but when Naruto gave him no indication of what he was thinking beyond awkwardly shifting his weight, the Uchiha sucked in a deep breath, bent his knees, and gripped his right arm at the elbow. Slowly, he forced his chakra into his right hand.
As the chakra collected, Sasuke felt the familiar rush of power that came with his most destructive attack. His skin felt like it was being stung by thousands of tiny needles, the blue chakra dancing and crackling over him like lightning. When the familiar screech filled the air, Sasuke peeled his attention away from his fist and smirked at the watching demon.
“With this,” Sasuke stated slowly and deliberately, forcing his uncooperative jaw to move while attempting to contain the wild chakra, “I could put a hole through you.”
Naruto’s blue eyes sized up the formidable technique. “Yeah, you probably could. What happens when you release it?”
The bones in Sasuke’s right arm were already beginning to sing, vibrating heavily under the strain of the Chidori. Unhesitatingly, Sasuke turned and drove his fist into the nearest boulder.
It exploded, showering the clearing with tiny white rocks.
Panting, Sasuke straightened up and shot a triumphant glance in Naruto’s direction. The demon was frowning, lifting a hand to pick rock shards out of his hair.
“You could have warned me that you were going to do that,” he grumbled. Sasuke simply smirked in response.
“Sorry,” he replied with heartfelt insincerity.
Link to Part 2