Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Uchiha ❯ Confessions ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3

- Confessions

 

"Naruto?" Itachi knelt beside his youngest brother's bed as he watched the boy struggle to regain conciousness. He'd personally healed the child's wounds, desperatley hoping he was mistaken as to what had happened to his brother. He was no medic-nin, but even he could make a guess as to what sort of torture could inflict the damage that it had.

 

"Itachi-chan?"

 

Itachi looked up momentarily to see his mother standing in the doorway.

 

"You should eat something. It's not healthy to stay in the dark for so long either. You need to rest." She sighed, realising that her eldest son's attention had returned to his brother.

 

Naruto wasn't very sure where he was; somewhere warm and peaceful. Perhaps he had died? He heard a farmiliar voice calling his name and turned towards the source, forcing himself to move. He couldn't see anything save for the darkness pressing in upon him, robbing him of sight. A hand touched his shoulder and he jerked away, Itachi's face coming suddenly into focus. The light blinded him momentarily, as dim as it was, it was still much brighter than his previous residence.

 

"Nii-san?" He managed to croak out quietly.

 

Immediatley, Itachi's head snapped up from where it had rested on his arms. Naruto's eyes were dark with his resceding unconciousness, but where quickly regaining their normal bright shine.

 

"Where am I?" He tried to sit up but the world fuzzed out of focus and the arm he had used to lever himself up with gave way and he fell back onto the bed with a crash.

 

Itachi lay a hand upon Naruto's forhead, feeling for any excess heat. Nothing. His feaver was completley gone.

 

"Naruto, what happened?" He sat on the bed beside his brother and lifted Naruto's chin to look into his eyes. They were dull and empty, almost haunted. Itachi sighed. His brother would be strong, weak and vulnerable now, but in time he would be far stronger than his future team. Sure he could make him physically strong; training and hard work would do that, but there was no way to speed up increase in emotional strength. Like him, Sasuke would gain his strength in time; Naruto would already be emotionally stong.

 

"I don't remember," Naruto said, pulling Itachi out of his thoughts. That wasn't entirely true. He knew what had happened to him, but there was no way he was going to tell his brother something so humiliating. Itachi was perfect and would easily have been able to throw off his own attacker; he would be appauled to discover how weak his little brother really was. "I was training," he said eventually, sensing his brother's impatience. "In the woods where you set up traps for me. I remember setting one off, but then everything else is black. The next thing I knew was you calling my name." He trailed off trying to make his voice sound puzzled.

 

Itachi refrained from glaring at his little brother. He knew he was holding back information but told himself that Naruto would talk to him when he needed to.

 

"I'm here if you need me." He got up and lay a hand on Naruto's head before leaving. His mother was right, he needed to eat.

 

Naruto lay on his back simply staring at the ceiling for a long time after his brother had left before a thought occured to him. He was a monster. That was what the chuunin had called him; a monster. Was he? Was there really a demon lord trapped inside him? He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, delving inside himself like he did when meditating, looking for someting, any form of presence.

 

He opened his eyes and found himself staring into deep scarlet orbs, fire burning in their depths. Was this really the most feared demon to ever walk the lands? There was only one way to find out.

 

"Kyuubi?" He asked hesitantly, afraid that the ginormous fox as about to break throught the bars of its cage and eat him. When it didn't, he watched in facination as the creature stood up, towering above him and looked down its nose at him.

 

"So," it said in a deep rumbling tone Naruto would only associate with ancient gods. "You have finally come, kit." To that the only responce Naruto could think of was not nod, which he did slowly.

 

"I am impressed," Kyuubi said staring down at his kit. "That you managed to find me as quickly as you did, althought I did rather expect the shinobi in your village to tell you of me earlier. Perhaps I overestimated their stupidity." He trailed off and sat back down again.

 

"Overestimated?" Naruto asked, thankful that his voice didn't come out all squeaky.

 

"Hmm." Kyuubi settled back onto the floor and lay his head upon his front paws to observe his charge. "With knowlege of me and access to my power, you are a formidable force. You are already strong without my powers because of your lineage. However, with my power, you could easily surpass the Hokage."

 

"Surpass the Hokage?" Naruto gasped, shocked. The Hokage was the strongest person in the country! With the fox's help, he could be the strongest person in the country, in the world meybe.

 

"Kyuubi?" Naruto asked softly, unsure of how to adress the massive demon lord. "How? I'm not powerful. Sasuke nii-san is far more powerful than me, and even though I train harder than anyone I know I could never catch up with a genius like Itachi nii-san."

 

Kyuubi lookwed down at his vessel sitting in an undignified heap on the floor. Unlike the other Uchihas, this one had none of the arrogance of his brothers, but then, he was only an Uchiha by name only, not by any form of blood connection, but then the boy knew that now.

 

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

"But you'll be alright soon, won't you Naru?" Sasuke moved his head to try and look into his brother's downcast eyes. He didn't really understand what Naruto had told him, but he could tell from the darkness of his eyes that it had been something that had hurt him mentally. Perhaps this was what Itachi had told him about people with damaged pasts being emotionally strong.

 

Naruto looked up eventually and tried to smile for his brother. "I'll be fine soon Sasu, I just need some time to get over this."

 

Sasuke looked up at his older brother who nodded, dark hair undone from its usual pony tail and falling in his eyes as he moved his head. He could see the turmiol behind Sasuke's clear eyes. He was afraid for Naruto, that much he could tell, but there was a further spark of want for revenge which he knew would drive his little brother in adulthood. "He'll be fine. He just needs to rest."

 

Sasuke nodded and squeased Naruto's hand before taking Itachi's offered hand and allowed himself to be led from the room. If Itachi had said he would be alright, then he would be alright. Afterall, when had Itachi ever been wrong?