A/N: It's been a while so here's a few extra thousand words than usual.
I wake up to a lightless room. The candles from earlier long burn out and warmth on my chest. I look down as my eyes adjust to the lack of light. Luckily I have night vision due to being a jinjuriki. As I stare down I see a sleeping Uchiha in my arms with his face smashed against my chest. I stifle a chuckle and carefully but strategically start to get up. I replace my body with a pillow and slowly change into some clothes.
Before I walk out I kneel beside the bed and look at the resting teen. A strand of hair falls on his pale skin and I sweep it to the side to see his face better. With that, I hear a tired groan as Sasuke scrunches his nose and scratches at his face. When he wrinkled his nose my heart fluttered and I walked away as my face heats up at the thought of the two of us sleeping together like that.
I silently walk out of the room and close the door behind me. As I made my way over to the kitchen I heard a distant voice getting closer. I feel my muscles tense until I get a glimpse of a red-haired Kazekage walking over towards me.
"Naru-chan, the others are worried about you and Sasuke." Gaara said in a slightly irritated voice, " You could have at least told Kakashi or me if you were going to spend the night somewhere else."
I look up over to him and scratch the back of my head and say, "Yeah, sorry about that. We weren't gonna spend the night in the first place. But things kinda... Well, I guess things just ended up this way.
And no matter how I think about it, I can't find it in myself to regret anything about last night.
Even if the brat saw all your scars?
Good morning to you too Onii-chan.
Yeah, whatever. I'm happy you're opening up to someone.
Yeah, me too.
"You done talking to them yet?"
"Huh?"
"Are you done talking to big bro Kura? You blanked out halfway through my speech."
"Speech?" I said while I continued to walk down the corridor. "So, you admit that your lectures are abnormally long."
The teen behind me just grunts and walks beside me in response. I laugh at this making the red-haired leader look at me with a playful scowl on his face. As we make it to the kitchen I start to pull out ingredients for a normal breakfast for two. But before I started cooking I paused and looked up at Gaara. He looks over with curiosity as I ask him whether he wanted breakfast or not. He accepted and sat down by the kitchen counter. I started cooking the eggs and bacon in two other pans along with rice and miso soup in the two remaining pots lying around. By the time everything was done I heard shuffling by the entrance. A tired Uchiha comes walking over in some of my clothes which happen to be one of my old shorts and t-shirt from a few years ago. But since that was tight on me it was tight on him. Which sort of surprised me because he's always been more on the lean side than I am. Nonetheless, I stare. His collar bone sticking out from the rim of the shirt and his abbs chiseled onto the shirt's surface. I look up to meet the raven's eyes and in embarrassment, I quickly look away. I see Gaara smirk and raise a curious and mocking eyebrow. I lunge at him playfully as he raises his arms in defeat.
"Good morning, Sasuke."
I hear Sasuke's voice ring out, "G'mornin."
His morning voice is orgasmic. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!
Be careful, you keep thinking about it and you'll get morning wood~
Shut up, you fox
I walk away towards the prepared plates. I grab two of them while Gaara grabs the other and sets them on the table. Once everyone was seated we all said our thanks and dug in. I hear a groan from the right of me. I glance over and see Sasu scarfing down the food I'd just made. This made me chuckle as I said to him, "Calm down, there's more food in the kitchen if you want some more."
His face turns a shade of pink as he starts to eat at a normal pace. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, I hear a certain black-haired teen talk, "Wow Naruto. How do you do it?"
"What do you mean?"
"How do you cook so well? I've always tried cooking for myself but I never really ended up as good as yours."
"Well, I've always cooked for myself when I can. I always stalk up food before a mission and store it in a scroll.
"Ah- sorry."
"Why say that?"
"Well, you're using your mission stash for breakfast today."
"Eh? It's fine. Really, it is. I could always restalk later on when we head back into town."
I actually have had this food for months since I rarely have food. I eat all of this sparingly. But it should be fine here in the sand village. Here they don't kick me out or make the food too expensive for me to buy.
As we finish up our meal we start chattering about what we would do for the rest of the time we have left on our mission/vacation. Then Gaara suddenly asks, "So, Naru. what do you want to do for your birthday this year?"
I freeze and I feel my muscles tense at the thought of my birthday being soon.
Calm down kit. You won't be in the leaf village this year. You'll be here, in Sunagakure.
I feel my muscles start to slowly relax as I snap out of my momentary freeze and get up. On my way to put the dishes in the sink I say, "I don't know Gaara, I've never really celebrated before."
Then I hear a harsh "WHAT?!"
We both look over to see a stunned duck haired teen look back at me in shock right before saying, "Yeah, I've never really had anyone to spend it with. Well, other than Shuin I mean. And even then, all we did was lounge around and train."
"When's your birthday?"
"What?"
"I said, when is your B I R T H D A Y." The leaner teen said as he pronounced each letter annoyingly clearly. "You know, the date on which you are born."
"Why do you want to know?" I reply playfully.
"It's just- I just wanna..."
"You just wanna what?"
"Well, I-"
Then unexpectedly we hear Gaara's voice ring out saying, "October 10th."
"What?"
"His Birthday. It's on October 10th."
He silently grabs both his and Sasuke's plate and goes over to the kitchen to do the dishes. I look over to the still sitting teen and see that he seems to be in deep thought.
"Then if today is the 5th of October that we have..."
"5 days." I say, interrupting Sasuke, "5 days left until my birthday."
I see the previously loud teen become quiet and deep into his own thoughts. I just let him be with his thoughts and walked away and got ready for the day. When Sasuke caught up to me I asked, "Do you wanna stay here for the remaining time we're in town, or do you wanna just stick to staying at the hotel?"
"I don't mind staying here. It's actually a lot better than staying at the hot springs. It's quieter. More... comfortable."
"I know what you mean, I feel way more relaxed here than I have anywhere else really."
I glance over and I see the other deep in thought for the second time in the last 15 minutes. "What's wrong, Sasu?
"Huh? Oh, I was just thinking."
I gesture for him to continue, so he did, "I was thinking about last night. In the hot springs. It was a night of very conflicting emotions."
I raise my eyebrow in curiosity and surprise.
It's actually kind of cute when he's deep in thought. His nose scrunches up and his eyes become so focused.
Well, you two have gotten a lot closer in the span of 5 days. I'm actually really surprised. You two are the most closed-off kids I know of, apart from Gaara.
Maybe that's why. Maybe it's because we're so similar, we get along so well. Which is kind of weird now that I think about it. Even though he doesn't know about my past he still seems to understand me the best.
Really now?
You don't count Kura-nii. You're literally a part of me.
Hmmph.
With that conversation left in the back of my mind and continue to listen to the raven headed boy.
"Last night I felt... calm and comfortable. But also scared and angry. Happy, sad...... Confused. Tired but restless. I- I don't know. It was just everything and nothing all at the same time and I just feel conflicted."
"Why were you scared and sad? Is there something that's bothering you?"
Sasu stops in his tracks and I follow. He grabs my arm with both of his hands and trails down to my wrist. Standing there and staring at the edge of my sleeve. The slightly shorter teen pushes the sleeve up, revealing all the nasty scars left behind by disgusting memories. He trails his fingers along a few of them just like how he did last night in the moonlit pool and sighs before saying, "These scars didn't come from training."
His smooth silky voice cracking under the strain of intense emotions. "It must have hurt. I don't know who did this to you and the fact that this happened is infuriating."
I gently grab one of his hands with my own and squeeze in the hopes to make him feel better. With that quiet reassurance, he lets one of his hands go and we walk back to my room hand in hand.
We change into our usual outfits and start to get ready for the day. I look over to the mirror in the middle of the room and see him putting gel in his hair. I grab some bandages from one of my drawers and start to wrap up my arms. Once I was finished with my left arm I started to do my right. Then I feel long slender fingers grab some bandages from my own. Sasuke started from my wrist and up to my shoulder. When I was all re-bandaged we both grabbed our stuff and walked out of the room.
We interlock our fingers and stroll down the hallway. When we reach the entrance we see Gaara waiting for us with a boring look. Then he looks up at us and down at our hands then smirks before turning away. Gaara puts his hand on the door and recites, "Accumsan."
The door slides open and we walk out. As we got outside the door shut behind us. We continued to walk at a steady pace towards the village plaza. Me being hand in hand with Sasu and Gaara-nii walking out in front of us. Everything was calm and peaceful until we heard, "SASUKE-KUN!"
Sasu and I quickly let go of each other's hands in an unspoken agreement.
We can't let anyone else find out about us. Us? What even are we? Are we even anything at all? Well, we're obviously something.
The brunette walks on ahead and puts both of his hands above his head. Sakura runs up and tackles him bringing both of them down. I heard a large 'THUD' and a groan from the teens as they tried to gather themselves from the fall. Dakura then squeals before hastily standing up and saying, "Sorry about that Sasuke-kun. I was just really happy to see you since you kinda disappeared last night. I tried to find you last night after dinner but you weren't anywhere nearby."
"Yeah, Naruto and I were out training and crashed somewhere else."
"Where?"
"I am... not sure."
"What do you mean? Did you just fall asleep in the middle of nowhere or something?"
Sasu looks over pleading for help with his eyes.
I might as well help you out then.
I walk over and say, "I have a place outside of the Village where I stay pretty frequently. We just spent the night there."
Before She could ask any more questions I felt a sand nin come over from behind me. He then quietly taps me on the shoulder. Even though I was aware of his presence I jumped to feign shock and quickly turned around. He hands me and Gaara a scroll before bowing. I then nod my head and he vanishes. With that, I look at the name of the scroll to see, "Emergency meeting". I quickly pocket the scroll and look over at the red-haired teen. He nods his head and vanishes as well.
The rookie 9 looked over at me with confused looks on their faces. I felt a sense of panic start to rise as I slowly walked away from the group. I put my back to a nearby wall and saw that the group was staring at me from afar. I sigh and take out the scroll. I subtly looked around me to make sure no one else could see the contents of the scroll before opening it.
There is an emergency pertaining to the group called the Akatsuki. We will meet at 6:30 pm to assure that everyone can attend the meeting.
Information you will need:
Akatsuki
General on the beasts' purpose in the opposing group
Please tell the others if you have any information on the matter during the meeting.
-Roshi
Roshi?! He hasn't called a meeting before. He usually does something before we get a chance to talk about it. Especially when it comes to the Akatsuki; he hates the very thought of their existence.
I walk over to Sasuke and reach for his wrist only to have my hand slapped down by a pink hair banshee. She looks over at me before saying, " What do you think you're doing? You get some secret message and start acting all serious. Then start ignoring us and try to touch my Sasuke-kun!"
Sasuke doesn't say anything but she lifts his arm and hands me his wrist. I smile at him as he grunts in acknowledgment. I twist his wrist slightly to see the face of his watch. I mumble quietly, "9:15 am." before looking up at everyone and smiling.
"Sorry about that," I apologize and scratch the back of my neck, "I have something to do with Gaara later on today. Something about some people who want to meet me since I robed Gaara at the ceremony the other day."
Sakura 'hmmph' and walks away while the others just nod their head signifying that they believed me and would drop the subject.
When the three of us reached the group I heard Ino ask, "So, where were you guys?"
I chuckle nervously while saying, "Well, I actually have a place that I usually stay at when I visit Gaara so we just crashed there."
"Oh, really? That's cool. Where's it at?"
"Like a few miles from the village out in the dunes."
"Really?! That's like, so far away!"
"Yeah, I guess."
I start fidgeting with the end of one of my bandages and I guess Sasuke notices because he grunts and calls me over, "Dobe, come on. Stop being slow."
I run up next to him and say, "Shut up teme, just tell me where we're going!"
"You want me to shut up or give directions? Choose one, not both dumbass."
I hear a pair of footsteps running over. Me already knowing who it is groans quietly enough so only Sasu can hear me. He raises his eyebrow curiously while secretly asking what was wrong. I mouth to him, 'watch'. Then I put up a finger every second, "3...2...1..."
I feel a hand on my face push me away from Sasu while two screeching voices ring out, "GET OUT OF THE WAY, NARUTO"
Ino hurriedly says, "OH, I KNOW! I heard that there is a haunted temple outside the village in the dunes. They say that the spirits of the Tailed beasts' and their past summoners stay there. And if you get too close they'll take over your body and wreak havoc everywhere."
I see everyone but me and Sasuke shiver at the thought of that actually happening.
That is ridiculous. WHERE DO YOU EVEN HEAR ANY OF THAT SHIT?! How would that be even possible in the FIRST PLACE!
Sasu and I share a knowing glance at each other.
Naru-chan. Are they talking about what I think they're talking about?
Yeah, they're talking about the temple where we were a few minutes ago.
The Biju Sanctuary.
One of the only places we're safe.
I look back over to the group and see Sasuke give me the 'we need to talk' look. I quickly nod my head as I feel a sinking sense of dread settle in. Then I hear Sasuke say, "I don't want to go to a place like that. It's stupid and probably falling apart by now."
The two fangirls say, "Okay!" in synchronicity and try to come up with some other things to do. After a few minutes, we decided to walk around the plaza and see if we wanted anything in the small shops and pop-ups. We enter the plaza and we are met by greetings and welcomes. The hustle and bustle of the street soon separated us into groups with our usual squad; Me, Kakashi-nii, Sasu, and Sakura.
We all enter a shop and start to look around until I feel a hand wrap around my wrist and drag me to a secluded part of the shop. I look up to See Sasuke with a confused yet focused look on his face. "So," he started, "the place we went to was the Biju Temple?!"
"Sanctuary."
"What?"
"Biju Sanctuary. It's a safe place for Jinjuriki to stay. Usually, there's one in every village."
"Then how did we get in, only people that have connections to a tailed beast can get in."
"I can't tell you right now."
"You've been saying that this whole trip. And we're already 5 days in! "
"I'm sorry but, just not right now."
"Why not? I was letting it slide this whole time because yeah, I get that you need some time. And I would have let this go if I hadn't found out I just went into the den for the Biju and slept there overnight!" Sasuke says while whispering/yelling the last sentence.
"I know, I know. I'll tell you soon."
"But-"
"I promise. Just not now, not in public."
I see Sasu start to pout and turn away to walk towards the others while saying, "Fine."
I have a good chuckle as I see his strut away like a brat. After that everything continues as if nothing happened and the rest of the day goes by smoothly. All of a sudden it was already sunset and the rookie 9 and I was trying to find a place to have dinner. I get Sasuke's attention and tap my own wrist, he looks at his own and says, "5:40 pm."
I nod my head then run up to the front of the group and say loudly, "I know, I know, I know. There's this one really good kabob place nearby. They have the best meat in the village. If we go now and have an early dinner we can get some. It usually gets sold out pretty fast so we better hurry. The others nod their head and follow me to the small Kabob cart down the street.
When we reach the cart Mr. Kenichi, the cook and cart owner, calls out to me, "Hey, Naruto. It's been a minute. The last time I saw you, you were still wearing those goggles of yours. Look at you now, a ninja already."
I rub the back of my neck for the hundredth time today and reply quickly, "I know right, time really goes by fast. Soon I'll be the Hokage! Just watch, Teme Imma beat your ass and be the strongest ninja around!"
Sasuke goes along with my fanatics, "Yeah right, you can't even write your seals down right. Much less beat me in a fight."
"Bleh." I teased while pulling down my under eye and sticking out my tongue. I turn back to see Mr.Kenichi look at me with a strange look on his face.
Oh, I forgot that not a lot of people in this village know about my mask.
I look back up at him and put a finger to my lips. He nodded in feint recognition of what I meant and said, "Well, since you're here I'll give you a discount! Instead of 150 yen per stick, I'll make it 125."
"No, how about 90 yen per stick."
"125 yen per stick."
"95 yen."
"120."
"95."
"115?"
"I don't want 125 yen, I want 95 yen."
"100 per stick. Take it or leave it, kid."
"Sounds great!"
I present my hand to him and we shake in agreement. He rubs the top of my head and says, "You've gotten good Naruto! I'm proud."
"Hehe, well I did learn from the best."
"Don't think that sweet talk gets you any bonuses."
"Damn!"
Mr.Kenichi chuckles and starts taking orders from the others. Once everyone had their food we went to the benches and started to eat. I sit next to Kiba on my left and Sasuke on my right. And besides Sasuke was Sakura and Ino fighting over the next seat. Kiba starts fighting Akamaru over the meat and grab Sasu's wrist and reads, "6:10 pm".
"Shit," I curse under my breath and say, "I gotta go."
The other teen nods as I get up to leave. I tried to make as little noise as possible and hand Sasuke my half eaten kabob and started to walk away. I successfully make my escape and go into an empty alley nearby. After looking around and confirming that no one was following me, I take out a Seal tag and put it on the wall. I bite my finger and smear my blood on the paper. The paper poofs from existence and is replaced by a portal. Once I stepped inside I was already transported to the Sanctuary.
I put my hand on the Sanctuary door and say the incantation, "Aperta enim ego sum bringer of vita et causa interitus. Et da mihi benedictionem aeternae virtus."
The door shakes open and I see many of the other Jinjuriki walking around and talking in the garden. I walked toward Gaara who happened to be at the koi pond feeding them small pellets of food. When I get there he starts teasing me about the situation with Sasu, "So, you and the emo kid? That's kinda gay."
"Oh, shut it you demisexual bitch."
"And what does that make you?"
"A bitch, duh."
We both walk over past the garden to the meeting room. When we walk in I sit at one of the ends of the table. With Gaara at my right and Killer Bee to my left. Next to Killer Bee is Chomei's (7th tailed beast) human form. Followed by Utakata (6th tailed beast's companion), Han (5th tailed beast's companion), Roshi (4th tailed beast's companion), Isobu's (3rd tailed beast) human form, and then it circles back to Gaara.
Once everyone came in we all stared at the one empty chair that belongs to Yugito Nii, the 2nd beast's companion. Roshi clears his throat before saying, "Yugito has sadly met her untimely demise. I was on my way over to meet her in a secret meeting spot down in the sewers of the village hidden in the mist in the attempts of gaining information. But she had been ambushed by the Akatsuki members Hidan and Kakuzu. By the time I got there they had already been too far from me and had gotten away. I give my condolences to those at the table today. I apologize for not being able to protect her well enough.
I take a deep breath and start to get serious. I wave my hand in his direction and say, " It is not your fault. Due to your circumstances, I see that there was nothing you could have done. What we have to do now is adapt and form a plan with the information that we have. But we can't let Yugito's death be in vain. We will make use of the information she has given us throughout the years and make sure that her companion, the 2nd tailed beast Matatabi is released... in time. Though I bet all of us want to swoop into the hidden mist village and get Matatabi back; but we can't. It would be genocide for us and the rest of the world as a whole. We are not yet prepared."
"Then what do we do?" Utakata says neutrality, "Just sit here and wait?"
"No, we gather information."
I look to the rest of the people in the room and ask, "What information do you all have?"
Beginning of Notes
By the end of the meeting there were several things confirmed:
There are 10 official members in the Akatsuki;
Pain - unknown abilities
Black Zetsu - informant that can travel through its surrounding
White Zetsu - informant that can travel through its surroundings
(both Zetsu's attach in order to become one being with two separate consciousness.)
Orange Masked Man- unknown abilities
Konan - Has control of paper and manipulates them into weapons, etc.
Itachi Uchiha - Mangekyou Sharingan and hell fire Justu
Kisame Hoshigaki- Shark like abilities and appearance, holder of one of the Samehada sword, and he a former 'Seven Swordsmen'
Sasori - puppeteer and puppet maker
Deidara -clay bombs that can be molded, controlled, and manipulated by his will, he also has mouths on his hands in which the clay goes into to put the chakra in that makes it explode.
Hidan - carries a three-pronged scythe, rumors of him being immortal.
Kakuzu - unknown
Yugito was ambushed in the sewers of the Hidden mist village.
We must assume that Yugito has passed away and Matatabi has been apprehended.
End of notes
I was then alone in the room with Gaar waiting for me by the door. I pinch the bridge of my nose in exasperation. As I sigh I feel a sudden wave of urgency and shock. Gaara looks at me and I nod. When I get out of the room I see all of the others rush to the main door. I walk up to them and they make room for me to walk up to the front of the group. Rolling back my shoulders the tension rises. Everyone gets ready to fight when I put my hand on the door and say, "Accumsan."
When the door opens I see a Dark haired teen cursing to the sky with his back turned to us.
"What did that damn dobe say last time?!" the teen rants, "Ap- aperto? enam eso? sum... branger? No that's not right."
What is he doing? He's so cute/stupid!
He scratches his head and turns around to see me dieing. I am currently struggling to keep in my laughter but when I see his eyes widen in shock as if he was caught with his hand in a cookie jar I lose it. I laugh so hard that I actually fall to the ground. I look up to see a red-haired teen laughing along with me as well as a red-faced Uchiha pouting in front of me.
As I start to calm down I dismiss the others who are chuckling at the situation. I invite Sasuke in and he follows along behind me. Gaara closes the door with, "Claudere ac."
With him around, I feel the wear and the tear of the meeting wash away. Man, this is amazing.
It can be more amazing if you just kissed the boy.
That's when I nope out and not go back there for the rest of the day. I feel my face go red and eyes look everywhere but at the teen walking right next to me. Sasu looks up at me and asks, "What's wrong?"
"Wha? Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about some stuff. Come on, let's go grab some extra clothes and jump into the hot spring."
"Okay. By the way, if you always take baths in these hot springs then does that mean you don't take a shower beforehand? Like, ever?"
"Well, the thing with that is... there's this guy named Utakata and he has the ability to clean anything on the spot. And he put these seals on the stones of the bath to ensure that all bad bacteria get killed upon entering the water so I've never really had to worry about that problem before."
"What kind of power is that? I've never heard of a bloodline with that bloodline before."
"Well... it's not really a bloodline."
"Then what is it."
"It's... a benefit from being the companion of the 6th tailed beast."
"WHAT?!"
"Come with me. Let's go have a bath and talk about it then."
We walk into my room and grab some clothes, towels, and soap then walk out and over to the outdoor hot springs. When we get there we strip to our boxers and step into the water. Once we were done washing our bodies we just sat there on one of the underwater stone slabs and chill.
"Are you going to explain what's been going on yet?" Sasu exclaims.
I sigh and lean into the wall of the pool while saying, "Well, let's start with some basic information. You know when my birthday is, right?"
"Yeah, October 10th."
"Yup, and when was the night of the Kyuubi attack?"
"...October 10th. As I thought, you were born the night of the attack."
"Bingo. Basically, Kurama, the nine-tailed fox, was controlled by someone who I cannot specify at this time. But, they were controlled to attack the village. Then the 4th Hokage found a newborn child with no chakra, due to just being born, and put the tailed beast inside of them. That newborn happens to be me."
Sasuke looks at me with eyes filled with horror. The familiar feeling of dread and fear flood my systems. I shut my eyes and tense, expecting something bad to happen. But when nothing does happen I slowly open my eyes. And I am shocked by the sight of a crying Uchiha. He lunges at me and tackles me into a hug.
"I'm sorry." I hear him say, "I used to be so jealous of you and I used to hate you for never having to go through the loss of family like I had."
He pulls away and looks at my torso while tracing a few of them again and starts to say, "And these, these were given to you by..."
"Some bad people."
He looks up at me and asks, "Who?"
"I just told you," I say jokingly.
Sasu glares at me and I put my hands up in resignation, "It was some of the Villagers. If you ever hear about something called the 'fox hunt' run away. It's not something I would want you to be close to."
The shorter teen gasps in understanding. He then grabs my hand from under the water and squeezes as a sign of reassurance. And I return the sentiment to signify that I am okay. Soon we get out of the water and go into the stalls nearby to change. Once we are all put together we walk back to my room down the hall. We get to my room and lay down. His head on my chest and my hand on his waist. Sasu raises his head slightly to look at me and says, "Goodnight."
"Goodnight."