Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Road Less Travelled By ❯ Confusion and Dilemma! Sasuke’s Moment of Weakness ( Chapter 1 )

Confusion and Dilemma! Sasuke's Moment of Weakness

 

“That just leaves you.”

At those words Sasuke's world contracted into simplicity. There was him, the avenger, and this mysterious sound ninja with his face covered in bandages. At his feet lay another sound ninja, body broken.

Justice was done.

“You better entertain me better than him.”

He knew that this was justice because the sound ninja had been attacking someone important to him. Had hurt… someone…

Sasuke searched his mind, but could place no identity on who had been attacked. An impression of pinkness, a woman's perfume was all that his mind could grasp onto.

In the end it doesn't matter. After all this, she will be safe. He started forwards towards the enemy. And she will respect me. So will this guy, once I show my true power to him.

Something about the assertion of `true power' sounded wrong to Sasuke, but a renewed surge of chakra blew away his doubts. Of course this is my power, sleeping within me all along. The genius offspring of… His trail of thought ended, although he knew that he must belong to someone. Another annoying blankness presented itself, just like when he tried to remember…

Remember…

Blankness filled his mind, instead of memory, and still he moved forwards, towards the sound ninja. In the end, it doesn't matter, as long as he respects my ability. My power. Some part of his mind suggested that this wasn't why he was fighting, but Sasuke silenced it, as efficiently as he silenced his emotions in every day life. He will kneel before me. If he won't, then I will force him to his knees, then bend his back in supplication, then make him kiss the dirt before my feet. Another pace forwards, his sharingan picking up the increasing violence of the ninja's shudder.

Fear me.

“STOP!”

There was the shriek, and the sound of running. Sasuke kept walking. It is none of my concern.

There was a flurry of movement in his peripheral vision, and then something warm was pressing against his back and wrapped around his chest.

“Stop…”

Sasuke turned his head to find the cause of this annoyance. Pink… A woman's perfume…

“Please… Stop…”

… Sakura…

She's crying… for me?

Slowly Sasuke became aware of her breath on his neck, and a faint wetness as her tears fell onto his back, soothing the burning he hadn't been truly aware of until the coolness of her tears met the heat of his skin. The burning faded, starting at his legs and arms, travelling upwards until all that remained was an ember at his neck.

Then the ember was gone.

Sasuke slumped to the ground, breathing hard and shaking. Sakura kept a hand on his back, moving her fingers in small, worrying circles, and watched him carefully.

Breathe… Remember what you were taught… just focus on breathing, on the sound of your heart. In… out… in… out...

“Sasuke-kun?”

Sakura's voice sounded dim to Sasuke, next to the rushing of blood and the pounding of his heart. Breathe slowly. Calmly. Get the mask back into place. No fear, no panic, no tiredness. His mind started to clear as his breathing slowed back to its normal pace. But however he tried, he couldn't stop the shaking.

“You're strong.”

Sasuke looked up with Sakura at the sound ninja before them. He held out a scroll of earth to them.

“Sasuke-kun, we cannot defeat you.” He knelt and placed the scroll on the ground. “Let us make a deal. Please let us leave for now.” He stood slowly, leaving the scroll in exchange for his and his team's freedom.

Sasuke looked at the scroll, confused. Why does he feel I am such a threat? I can't stand up, and my chakra is almost non-existent. Why… Something hovered at the edge of his memory, with much the same darkness as Sasuke associated with his memories of that night long ago.

The sound ninja moved to one of his comrades, and picked him up, none too carefully.

Sasuke shivered. His arms are probably dislocated, from the way they are hanging. What happened here? Something about all three sound ninjas was familiar, but the memories kept slipping out of his mind's grasp.

The sound ninja continued to speak. “We might be asking for too much, but we have something to confirm.” He bent and picked up his female team mate. “In exchange, I will promise this. If we are to fight each other in this exam for a second time, we will not run or hide.” He turned, and started to walk off into the forest, carrying his team with him.

“Wait!” Sakura rose to her feet. “Who is Orochimaru?! What did he do to Sasuke-kun?!”

Orochimaru… Sasuke felt pain stab through his neck at the name. He bit my neck… there… where it burns. Felt like I had ice instead of blood. He offered me power. It was his power I used when I… I… Again his memory trailed off into blankness, unable or unwilling to provide a knowledge that was slowly filling Sasuke with dread.

“Why Sasuke-kun?!” demanded Sakura of the sound ninja.

My blood…

The sound ninja turned back slightly. “I don't know. We were just ordered to kill Sasuke-kun.” He waited to see if Sakura would ask anything else, then returned to his slow walk from the clearing.

Sasuke looked down at his hand, his mind making a connection. Blood… In his mind's eye a pattern, the colour of dried blood spread across his hand, covering it in black curls. I don't understand… what happened? Again he tried to remember, only to find blankness. Except… I remember screaming now… someone was screaming before Sakura told me to stop. Dimly he heard Shikamaru barking orders, and sensed the movement of several people spilling into the clearing, seeing to fallen friends he had not noticed before. Other sounds drifted into his memory. The sound of taunting by someone he didn't know, the sickening wet snap of bone and tendon breaking. He started to shake.

“What… what was I…?”

A memory shifted. `You seem proud of your arms.' A voice begging me to stop. And then pleasure…

“Sakura-chan!”

Sasuke's head snapped up to look around as Naruto ran towards them, sputtering and yelping as he skidded to a halt and finally managed to get a coherent thought out.

“Your hair!”

Sakura curled a hand around her hair self-consciously. “Oh… this?”

Sasuke blinked. I hadn't noticed that her hair was cropped short. He shivered slightly as a wave of half-forgotten rage tried to rise up inside him. So her hair was cut in the fight? Why am I so angry about that? Not that someone was that close to her with a kunai, but that her hair was cut?

“It's an image change,” muttered Sakura, half to herself. She then met Naruto's worried gaze and grinned. “An image change,” she asserted more forcefully. “I like long hair, but it gets in my way moving around in a forest like this.”

Sasuke smiled slightly as he saw Naruto's expression brighten. So we're all okay. Whatever Orochimaru did, he could've done much worse. He shivered slightly as Naruto talked with Shikamaru and Chouji, and followed Sakura over to Lee's side, smiling as she and Naruto started to bicker again. It ended predictably with Sakura's fist sending Naruto flying. He listened with half an ear to Sakura thanking Lee for help, which Sasuke guessed had happened while he was unconscious. Her smile almost caused another to escape him briefly, but he held back his response. Keep your emotions hidden, your face still. Or people will use you.

“Sasuke-kun.”

Sasuke looked down at Lee, paying attention once again.

Lee looked up at him with a mournful expression. “You live up to the reputation of the Uchiha clan.” He looked away guiltily. “You drove away the sound ninjas. You truly possess great power and potential. While I lost horribly.” He shifted his gaze away from Sasuke.

Sasuke felt his eyebrows rise in surprise, much to his annoyance. What? He lost? What's going on, were they really that strong? So strong that even Lee could do nothing? And here I stand, as beaten as Lee, yet I drove them away? He turned and walked away from the group. What happened here, while I was unconscious? And what did Orochimaru do to me? The pain in his neck flared briefly, then was still again.

 

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Naruto was bored. After his long sleep that day, he was the only one not battered enough to need sleep. So he got landed with watch duty, while Sakura and Sasuke slept in the small cave they had found in the cliffs.

Naruto was glad for the noise of the forest about him. It meant that no outsiders were disturbing the activity of the forest, and also that he needed to concentrate in case any ninja with better stealth skills than his was making their way through the undergrowth. All he could hear was the gentle rustle of leaves and grass, and the sounds of nocturnal animals going about their business. An unusual sound caught his ear.

Someone was whimpering.

Naruto looked around, trying to spot the source of the sound, before sheepishly realising that it was an echo effect, and that the sound was coming from behind.

Where Sakura-chan and Sasuke are sleeping. Carefully he scooted back into the cave, to find out what was the matter. It's Sasuke…

This confused Naruto, as in all the missions they'd been on together, he'd noticed that Sasuke had a stillness about him while asleep, almost unmoving, except for the flicker of emotions he usually kept hidden during the day. Of course he'd only really seen that once, as he tended to be out like a light whenever he got the chance to sleep instead of work. Even as he watched, Sasuke cringed slightly, and muttered something Naruto thought could have been `No'.

“Oi, Sasuke?” Naruto leant a bit closer, worried about what Sasuke might be dreaming of. After all, he personally never dreamed much, but it was usually pretty bad, so maybe Sasuke would prefer to wake up. “Sasuke?” Even as he reached out, Sasuke shuddered again. That was enough for Naruto to make up his mind. He grabbed Sasuke's shoulder roughly, and shook him. “Hey you, wake up!”

Sasuke's eyes snapped open, fading into his sharingan as he drew a kunai and moved it towards Naruto before hesitating. “Naruto?” He sat up slowly as Naruto drew back, letting his sharingan fade away again.

Naruto tilted his head to look at Sasuke. “Everything okay? You sounded like you were having a pretty wild dream.” He looked at the kunai gripped in Sasuke's hand. “Yanno, I'm not going to attack you.”

Sasuke looked away, but holstered it all the same. “`Wild dream' huh?” He closed his eyes. “Those are the worst.”

Naruto looked at him. Sasuke was obviously hurting about something, and not doing his usual job of seeming that nothing bothered or affected him. “Do… do you want to talk about it? What happened today I mean,” said Naruto, trying to get it all out quickly before Sasuke called him an idiot again.

Sasuke just looked at him, moving his hand to where Naruto had seen a nasty bruise on his neck that was slowly fading from purple to yellow as it healed. “Naruto…”

Inside his own mind, Sasuke was locked in debate with himself. I can't tell Naruto about this. He won't understand. It'll just make him think that I'm about to go crazy again any moment, just like Sakura does. Telling him will make him stop trusting me in combat. He paused. So what if it did happen again? If he didn't know then he might not know to get away, and I might hurt him, like I did that sound ninja, because I'd want his respect or whatever twisted idea gets into my head that time.

Do I tell him, and make sure he's safe and doubts my ability, or say nothing, and have him still trust me?

“Naruto…”

Naruto did the hardest thing he had ever done. He kept silent, letting Sasuke struggle with whatever he wanted to say. If something is bugging that jerk, it's better that he decides to tell me, than I beat it out of him.

“It… it's nothing… I'm sorry I disturbed your watch.”

Naruto just watched him. “Are you sure? I know something is up with you and Sakura-chan, she's worried whenever she looks at you.”

“I told you… it's…” Sasuke paused. He should know. He protected me when I was too scared to move. He should know what might happen if I do the same for him.

While he had been thinking, Naruto was withdrawing slowly. “Hey, it's okay. Why would you want to talk to a loudmouth who'll just yell it through Konoha?”

“Wait.” It wasn't an angry command, or one snapped, but a simple request. Naruto turned to look at Sasuke again.

“What is it?”

Sasuke moved his hand away from his neck slowly. “Ever… Ever had a nightmare so terrible it woke you screaming? And had it repeat itself every night?”

Naruto looked confused, and wrinkled his nose. I've never noticed Sasuke have anything other than peaceful sleep before now.

Sasuke bowed his head. “When that happens, after a while, nightmares have no more power to create terror. But…”

“You're having bad dreams again. Ones that make you afraid?” asked Naruto, biting back the comment about Sasuke being a coward. He didn't think that comments like that would help Sasuke speak.

Sasuke nodded slowly. “Bad memories lead to bad dreams, huh?” He drew a deep breath. “Naruto… I'm returning the favour for yesterday.”

“Eh?” Naruto didn't quite know what favour Sasuke was thinking of. “If I did anything… then… well… thanks I guess.”

Sasuke looked at him. “That ninja… with the snake. You stopped it swallowing me whole. So I'm going to return the favour.”

“Huh?” Naruto looked around worriedly. “Where? Where? Where's the snake?”

“Naruto.” Sasuke's calm voice drew Naruto's attention back to him. “I'm the snake. If you don't watch out, I'll swallow you whole.”

Naruto just blinked, confused. “So… what happened? I mean, I sorta remember the snake, and that guy with the long hair, but…” He rubbed the back of his head. “Sorta misty on the details, like I can't quite remember them so good. Guess I hit my head pretty hard in that fight.”

“Gets misty for me too a while after that.” Sasuke looked at Sakura. At least she wasn't hurt, and I won't have to tell this twice. Once is painful enough. He sighed. “She yelled at me, you know. Called me a coward too. Called you a lot of names, but said at least you fought.” He looked at Naruto. “That was what changed my mind. I stood. I fought.” He paused slightly, looking almost ashamed. “I lost.”

“What?!”

Sasuke hissed for him to be quiet, as Sakura stirred in her sleep slightly. “Not so loud. She needs more sleep than we do. She was watching us.”

“Watching us? Why?”

Sasuke shifted slightly, pulling down his collar to bare his neck towards Naruto. “You've been injured enough, done the first aid classes. What does this look like to you?”

Naruto moved close, squinting in the dim light. Why's he asking me to look? It's just a bruise, had hundreds of those. We both have. He looked closer, and saw while most of the bruise faded between a deep blackish purple, and the yellow of healing, towards the bottom of the bruise was a strange shape, now easy to see. It looks like a tadpole, I guess, or like the marks in Sasuke's sharingan. Tracing out the curve with his eyes, he spotted two more black marks, completing the circle, but not as sharp to stand out against the purple skin of the bruise. As his eyes traced up, he noticed one other thing, in the centre of the bruise. Dents? Holes? He tried to remember where he had seen that form in a diagram before. … It's a bite mark. From an animal with fangs. I can see the bruise marks of the other teeth just about.

“Sasuke… What happened? Did another snake get you?”

Sasuke shrugged and readjusted his collar. “You could say that. The venom in the bite made me pass out, gave me a fever.” I don't need to tell him that it was a `present' from someone called Orochimaru, or that it was he who bit me. He shivered at the memory. “Nightmares have nothing on fever dreams.”

Naruto looked sympathetically at him. “I guess… Hey, so what about the funny black marks?”

“Marks?” Sasuke bent his neck to try to see, but he couldn't bend his neck enough to see.

“You didn't know they were there?” Naruto nodded to himself. “You can't see there. It's like black tadpoles or something. Or Kakashi-sensei's sharingan eye. The bruise covers most of it, but it's healing and leaving those marks behind.”

“Oh.” Sasuke touched his neck again, thinking. Black marks on my neck now… Black marks on my hand before. Maybe it's the same thing. I think I remember the marks going up my arm, so the burning feeling must have been caused by them. “I think this mark is dangerous. A seal of some kind. When I woke up from my nightmare the seal spread over me.” He closed his eyes in thought. Damn, I still can't remember so much. I can remember the power, but not what I did with it. He opened his eyes again. “The seal covered me, and gave me power. Like I was full to bursting with chakra.”

“Then that's a good thing,” said Naruto. “If the seal will help you out like that when you need it.”

Sasuke shook his head. “I don't know how it helped, Naruto. I can't remember. Or at least, I can only remember bits of it. I remember screaming, and the sound of bone breaking, but…” He trailed off and looked at Sakura. “I'm afraid to ask her what happened. Afraid that I did something that was unnecessarily cruel. I only start to remember when she was begging me to stop.”

“That… doesn't sound so good. That why you're having nightmares?”

Sasuke shrugged. “That and the fever dreams. Go to sleep, I'll keep watch. I don't think I could sleep at the moment anyway.”

Naruto grinned at the prospect of more sleep. “Thanks Sasuke.” He paused. “Do… you think you'll be alright? Awake here on your own?”

“Don't worry, Naruto. I can take care of myself.”