Naruto, The Chase - 7 + coda
The end, at last. ... time to get my nose back on the AU grindstone! But damn, this was fun to write. Thank you for reading!
This chapter contains: a hospital room, possible sappiness, a final fuck-you to Tobi.
First chapter.
Previous chapter.
clear and innocent
Thump.
He managed to open his eyes, but it took considerably more of his energy than it should have. He was lying on his side in a bed; there were white walls around him, a single large window, and two blurry figures in black and orange at the bed's foot, arguing. "- be more careful, Naruto, honestly, what if it had been something fragile?"
"I didn't mean to drop 'em, yanno, they just - hey! Niisan's up!"
"Itachi!"
He blinked, and the larger of the figures approached and resolved into Mikoto, who leaned over him. "Oh, thank goodness you're awake," she said. "It's been two days, we were frantic - Naruto, run and get Shisui - you'd nearly bled out when the patrol found the two of you."
Only two. "Sasuke," Itachi said with some difficulty; his throat was dry and rough. "What about Sasuke?"
"There was no one else," Mikoto said, sitting next to the bed and gently brushing Itachi's bangs out of his face. "Just you and Shisui, both of you out cold. Most of the Inuzuka have been out looking for whoever attacked you, along with anyone else with half-decent tracking skills, but there's been no trace of them."
Itachi let his eyes close, a dull ache in his heart despite the fading immediacy of his alternate memories. Not even the most skilled tracker would be able to find Sasuke or the masked man, wherever they had gone.
"Was that the injured one's name? Sasuke?"
He nodded.
"How funny," his mother said thoughtfully. "If it had been a boy, I would have named - oh, that's old history, now. Strange, though."
Itachi couldn't imagine telling her how strange. He couldn't imagine telling anyone, although he would have to, eventually; the Hokage would require a full report of the events. He opened his eyes again and watched his mother fuss with the sheets on the bed. "Your father should be back this evening," she said, "we've been trading off shifts while you were sleeping so one of us could always be here. Don't let him fool you if he starts yelling about letting down the clan name, he's just been so stressed - for a moment there I thought he'd kill Tsume for leaving you on your own, and he's already demoted Yashiro-san for concealing -"
"Niisan, I'm back!" Naruto burst through the door and flung himself onto Itachi, sending jolts of pain through Itachi's side and ribs. "Dude, I've been super worried! I brought you some oranges and they're fine even if I kinda dropped them, do you want one? Was it that weird Sasuke guy that hurt you? I'm totally gonna find him and beat him up, just you wait!"
"You mean you're going to wait your turn like a good kid till I'm done, little buddy," Shisui said, coming through the door behind Naruto. "All the grief he put us through, I'd say we deserve first crack."
Itachi couldn't look away from the bandage wrapped around Shisui's head and covering his left eye. "Shisui..."
"Oh, don't stare like that, you'll make me blush," Shisui said. He smiled a little crookedly and deftly pulled Naruto off of Itachi. "It's not that big a deal - guess I'll have to start taking fashion tips from Kakashi-san, though."
"As long as you don't pick up his reading habits," Mikoto said severely, but she reached up to smooth down Shisui's wavy hair.
"You should've let me stay and help," said Naruto. "I could've been useful, yanno, I'd've been like - punch! Switch! Boom! And saved the day!" He waved his arms around wildly. "That's what I wanted to do, but no, you had to make me go home instead and now - now you're all - it's not fair!"
Itachi sat up carefully and started to reach out to flick his fingers against Naruto's forehead, then stopped himself and put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "You did the right thing by listening to me," he said. "If you had been hurt, too, how do you think Shisui and I would feel?"
"Pretty damn amazed," Shisui muttered, "considering - ow! Itachi, call off your mom, I'm a wounded man here."
"But I could've helped," Naruto insisted, "I can fight great, who cares about my grades?"
"You -"
(foolish little brother)
Itachi shuddered. He took a deep breath, but the coughing he expected didn't come; instead he felt tears collecting in his eyes and hid them with his hands.
"Niisan? You okay?"
(hate me)
"Itachi's probably still very tired, Naruto," he heard his mother say. "We should let him get some more rest - why don't we go get some ramen and then we'll come back and see how he's doing later?"
"Wait," Itachi said, "Naruto, come here," and when Naruto came back to the side of the bed Itachi leaned over and put one arm around him, resting his forehead against Naruto's. "I'll protect you," he said. "I'll always protect you -"
(no matter what happens)
(never even gave him a chance)
"- within - within reasonable limits."
"Uh, sure," Naruto said, fidgeting slightly. "Sounds like a good deal - um, could you let go now, though? I'm not a baby, yanno, and if you want me to sneak you some ramen you can just say so..."
"I'm sorry." Itachi let him go and made the effort to smile. "I'd like some ramen, if you're sure you can get it past the medics without being caught."
Mikoto sighed, but Naruto grinned and said, "Totally, I'm awesome at sneaking! See you later, Niisan!"
Itachi held his smile until his mother and Naruto were gone, and then he covered his face again.
He heard Shisui sit next to the bed. "Hey, don't take it too hard," Shisui said. He put his arm around Itachi's shaking shoulders. "You did everything you could, but this was one weird case. I promise, if either of those two turn up again we'll - well - if they turn up again, we'll think of something. Right?"
(Niisan, I don't understand.)
"I failed him," Itachi said, tears slipping through his fingers. "I meant to protect him, but it went wrong - I killed my parents, I hurt him, I did all of those terrible things and I still failed -"
"Itachi, that wasn't you. That was some bizarre clone version of you from another world or something, who knows what else was going on there? It doesn't count."
(what you really are)
"It counts," said Itachi.
Shisui didn't argue with him any further; he kept his arm around Itachi and they sat in silence together until Shisui said, "Think of it this way - now you know what not to do if your parents decide they ought to give Naruto a little brother of his very own."
Itachi's laugh was choked but genuine. "It isn't funny..."
"Sure it is," Shisui said. "Just give it some time, and we'll see who's laughing if that masked man decides to mess with either of us again." He squeezed Itachi's shoulder and then let go. "So - you going to share that ramen Naruto's bringing back for us, or do I have to fight you for it?"
"You can have it."
coda
The cold rain running down his face woke Sasuke. He was lying flat on his back, and he opened his eyes to see dark grey clouds above him, then had to squint to keep the rain out of his eyes. Damn rain - it hadn't been raining when -
He turned his head and saw Itachi collapsed on his back next to him.
Sasuke didn't even have the strength to be startled; he could only watch Itachi, and after a moment he realized Itachi wasn't breathing. I did it, he thought, but the thought had no weight. Had he really killed this Itachi, or only the other one? Hadn't half the work been done by the masked man and that other Itachi's own foolish actions? Had he even killed the right Itachi?
(trying to help you)
There were trails of blood at the corners of Itachi's mouth, but the rain was gradually washing them away. Sasuke could see the differences between the two now - the deeper lines under this Itachi's eyes, the thinner cheeks, other traces of illness and stress - but this one had the exact same smile as the other still on his face, as if he'd won their fight instead of dying before he could take Sasuke's eyes.
(this is it)
Sasuke wanted to feel avenged, triumphant, free. All he felt was tired.
He closed his eyes again, only to hear footsteps and urgent whispering, then a deep, solemn voice. "Sasuke? Are you all right?"
"Of course he's all right, you great big idiot! Like he'd lose!" Warm but bony fingers prodded at his chest. "Sasuke! Sasukeeeeee! Do you need a bite?"
"Shut up," he said. "No, I'm just - get off, Karin." The fingers disappeared, and Sasuke opened his eyes and saw Karin and Juugo hovering over him. "Where's Suigetsu?"
Karin rolled her eyes. "Who cares? Still screwing around fighting with that giant blue man, probably. Let's just ditch him already and go somewhere nice and private where you can rest up, and I'll take such good care of you - Juugo, you pick him -"
"No." Sasuke pushed himself upright. "We'll go collect Suigetsu first. I can walk. Juugo, carry his body."
"All right."
"Uh, fine, if you're sure," Karin said, helping Sasuke stand as Juugo bent over and lifted Itachi's body, "but what do you want to take that along for?"
(hate me)
(forgive me)
"He's my brother," Sasuke said. He reached out and closed Itachi's blind eyes, his hand shaking slightly. "I should give him a funeral, at least. To finish it."
"Right, and - what do we do after that?"
Half of his life had been focused on a single moment of time, and that moment was past; it was too easy for his mind to go back to it, circling around it endlessly, tearing it apart for every scrap of possible meaning. What had he considered doing after that one point? Going back to Konoha and the idiots there who wouldn't give up on him? Taking over Sound? Living on the run, traveling through the shinobi countries as a missing-nin? He'd never thought about any of it. There had only been Itachi, standing in the way of every possible future, and Itachi was dead.
(choose your own path)
"I don't know," Sasuke said. "We'll figure something out."
---
In a distant forest of Earth Country, a man in a cracked orange mask stared one-eyed at the giant boulder he had crawled out from under and said, "Okay, this technique is just weird."
Naruto, characters, etc. © Kishimoto and omg what will he do to us this week.
This chapter contains: a hospital room, possible sappiness, a final fuck-you to Tobi.
First chapter.
Previous chapter.
clear and innocent
Thump.
He managed to open his eyes, but it took considerably more of his energy than it should have. He was lying on his side in a bed; there were white walls around him, a single large window, and two blurry figures in black and orange at the bed's foot, arguing. "- be more careful, Naruto, honestly, what if it had been something fragile?"
"I didn't mean to drop 'em, yanno, they just - hey! Niisan's up!"
"Itachi!"
He blinked, and the larger of the figures approached and resolved into Mikoto, who leaned over him. "Oh, thank goodness you're awake," she said. "It's been two days, we were frantic - Naruto, run and get Shisui - you'd nearly bled out when the patrol found the two of you."
Only two. "Sasuke," Itachi said with some difficulty; his throat was dry and rough. "What about Sasuke?"
"There was no one else," Mikoto said, sitting next to the bed and gently brushing Itachi's bangs out of his face. "Just you and Shisui, both of you out cold. Most of the Inuzuka have been out looking for whoever attacked you, along with anyone else with half-decent tracking skills, but there's been no trace of them."
Itachi let his eyes close, a dull ache in his heart despite the fading immediacy of his alternate memories. Not even the most skilled tracker would be able to find Sasuke or the masked man, wherever they had gone.
"Was that the injured one's name? Sasuke?"
He nodded.
"How funny," his mother said thoughtfully. "If it had been a boy, I would have named - oh, that's old history, now. Strange, though."
Itachi couldn't imagine telling her how strange. He couldn't imagine telling anyone, although he would have to, eventually; the Hokage would require a full report of the events. He opened his eyes again and watched his mother fuss with the sheets on the bed. "Your father should be back this evening," she said, "we've been trading off shifts while you were sleeping so one of us could always be here. Don't let him fool you if he starts yelling about letting down the clan name, he's just been so stressed - for a moment there I thought he'd kill Tsume for leaving you on your own, and he's already demoted Yashiro-san for concealing -"
"Niisan, I'm back!" Naruto burst through the door and flung himself onto Itachi, sending jolts of pain through Itachi's side and ribs. "Dude, I've been super worried! I brought you some oranges and they're fine even if I kinda dropped them, do you want one? Was it that weird Sasuke guy that hurt you? I'm totally gonna find him and beat him up, just you wait!"
"You mean you're going to wait your turn like a good kid till I'm done, little buddy," Shisui said, coming through the door behind Naruto. "All the grief he put us through, I'd say we deserve first crack."
Itachi couldn't look away from the bandage wrapped around Shisui's head and covering his left eye. "Shisui..."
"Oh, don't stare like that, you'll make me blush," Shisui said. He smiled a little crookedly and deftly pulled Naruto off of Itachi. "It's not that big a deal - guess I'll have to start taking fashion tips from Kakashi-san, though."
"As long as you don't pick up his reading habits," Mikoto said severely, but she reached up to smooth down Shisui's wavy hair.
"You should've let me stay and help," said Naruto. "I could've been useful, yanno, I'd've been like - punch! Switch! Boom! And saved the day!" He waved his arms around wildly. "That's what I wanted to do, but no, you had to make me go home instead and now - now you're all - it's not fair!"
Itachi sat up carefully and started to reach out to flick his fingers against Naruto's forehead, then stopped himself and put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "You did the right thing by listening to me," he said. "If you had been hurt, too, how do you think Shisui and I would feel?"
"Pretty damn amazed," Shisui muttered, "considering - ow! Itachi, call off your mom, I'm a wounded man here."
"But I could've helped," Naruto insisted, "I can fight great, who cares about my grades?"
"You -"
(foolish little brother)
Itachi shuddered. He took a deep breath, but the coughing he expected didn't come; instead he felt tears collecting in his eyes and hid them with his hands.
"Niisan? You okay?"
(hate me)
"Itachi's probably still very tired, Naruto," he heard his mother say. "We should let him get some more rest - why don't we go get some ramen and then we'll come back and see how he's doing later?"
"Wait," Itachi said, "Naruto, come here," and when Naruto came back to the side of the bed Itachi leaned over and put one arm around him, resting his forehead against Naruto's. "I'll protect you," he said. "I'll always protect you -"
(no matter what happens)
(never even gave him a chance)
"- within - within reasonable limits."
"Uh, sure," Naruto said, fidgeting slightly. "Sounds like a good deal - um, could you let go now, though? I'm not a baby, yanno, and if you want me to sneak you some ramen you can just say so..."
"I'm sorry." Itachi let him go and made the effort to smile. "I'd like some ramen, if you're sure you can get it past the medics without being caught."
Mikoto sighed, but Naruto grinned and said, "Totally, I'm awesome at sneaking! See you later, Niisan!"
Itachi held his smile until his mother and Naruto were gone, and then he covered his face again.
He heard Shisui sit next to the bed. "Hey, don't take it too hard," Shisui said. He put his arm around Itachi's shaking shoulders. "You did everything you could, but this was one weird case. I promise, if either of those two turn up again we'll - well - if they turn up again, we'll think of something. Right?"
(Niisan, I don't understand.)
"I failed him," Itachi said, tears slipping through his fingers. "I meant to protect him, but it went wrong - I killed my parents, I hurt him, I did all of those terrible things and I still failed -"
"Itachi, that wasn't you. That was some bizarre clone version of you from another world or something, who knows what else was going on there? It doesn't count."
(what you really are)
"It counts," said Itachi.
Shisui didn't argue with him any further; he kept his arm around Itachi and they sat in silence together until Shisui said, "Think of it this way - now you know what not to do if your parents decide they ought to give Naruto a little brother of his very own."
Itachi's laugh was choked but genuine. "It isn't funny..."
"Sure it is," Shisui said. "Just give it some time, and we'll see who's laughing if that masked man decides to mess with either of us again." He squeezed Itachi's shoulder and then let go. "So - you going to share that ramen Naruto's bringing back for us, or do I have to fight you for it?"
"You can have it."
coda
The cold rain running down his face woke Sasuke. He was lying flat on his back, and he opened his eyes to see dark grey clouds above him, then had to squint to keep the rain out of his eyes. Damn rain - it hadn't been raining when -
He turned his head and saw Itachi collapsed on his back next to him.
Sasuke didn't even have the strength to be startled; he could only watch Itachi, and after a moment he realized Itachi wasn't breathing. I did it, he thought, but the thought had no weight. Had he really killed this Itachi, or only the other one? Hadn't half the work been done by the masked man and that other Itachi's own foolish actions? Had he even killed the right Itachi?
(trying to help you)
There were trails of blood at the corners of Itachi's mouth, but the rain was gradually washing them away. Sasuke could see the differences between the two now - the deeper lines under this Itachi's eyes, the thinner cheeks, other traces of illness and stress - but this one had the exact same smile as the other still on his face, as if he'd won their fight instead of dying before he could take Sasuke's eyes.
(this is it)
Sasuke wanted to feel avenged, triumphant, free. All he felt was tired.
He closed his eyes again, only to hear footsteps and urgent whispering, then a deep, solemn voice. "Sasuke? Are you all right?"
"Of course he's all right, you great big idiot! Like he'd lose!" Warm but bony fingers prodded at his chest. "Sasuke! Sasukeeeeee! Do you need a bite?"
"Shut up," he said. "No, I'm just - get off, Karin." The fingers disappeared, and Sasuke opened his eyes and saw Karin and Juugo hovering over him. "Where's Suigetsu?"
Karin rolled her eyes. "Who cares? Still screwing around fighting with that giant blue man, probably. Let's just ditch him already and go somewhere nice and private where you can rest up, and I'll take such good care of you - Juugo, you pick him -"
"No." Sasuke pushed himself upright. "We'll go collect Suigetsu first. I can walk. Juugo, carry his body."
"All right."
"Uh, fine, if you're sure," Karin said, helping Sasuke stand as Juugo bent over and lifted Itachi's body, "but what do you want to take that along for?"
(hate me)
(forgive me)
"He's my brother," Sasuke said. He reached out and closed Itachi's blind eyes, his hand shaking slightly. "I should give him a funeral, at least. To finish it."
"Right, and - what do we do after that?"
Half of his life had been focused on a single moment of time, and that moment was past; it was too easy for his mind to go back to it, circling around it endlessly, tearing it apart for every scrap of possible meaning. What had he considered doing after that one point? Going back to Konoha and the idiots there who wouldn't give up on him? Taking over Sound? Living on the run, traveling through the shinobi countries as a missing-nin? He'd never thought about any of it. There had only been Itachi, standing in the way of every possible future, and Itachi was dead.
(choose your own path)
"I don't know," Sasuke said. "We'll figure something out."
---
In a distant forest of Earth Country, a man in a cracked orange mask stared one-eyed at the giant boulder he had crawled out from under and said, "Okay, this technique is just weird."
Naruto, characters, etc. © Kishimoto and omg what will he do to us this week.