Categories > Anime/Manga > Naruto > Devotion
Chapter 15: Daymare
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"Seiko...make him remember...tell him what he wants to know...I want him to be able to suffer when we kill her too."
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The girl, Yuu, had quickly left the room, leaving her quiet accomplice alone with the man. He still couldn't manage to get his bearings; where he was, who he was, and how he had gotten there were a complete mystery at that moment. All that he could ascertain was that he was in a cold, brightly lit room...there was a door to his right...and, from the looks of it, a very intimidating young man watching him.
This young man - Seiko - slowly looked down at the floor, clenching his fists, as the man sat up and looked around some more, trying to block out the splitting ache in his head. "So...I guess you're supposed to tell me who I am...?"
Seiko slammed his fist down on the table next to him, rattling the metal instruments there and letting out an exasperated sigh. "She doesn't seem to realize that I can't just make you remember. I didn't inflict that wound on your head, and I don't know who did. I just know it wasn't me. Damned little bitch. I bet she did it and is trying to lay the blame on me...like always..."
The man raised his eyebrow, ignorant to what had stimulated the outburst. Hell; he was ignorant of everything right now. Being stuck in a small room obviously wasn't the best position for a person who was trying to get his wits back.
But there was another piece of information: that he had somehow sustained an injury to the head and that was what had made him forget everything. So...he could recover.
And there was something else! He actually remembered that little fact...he ran through all the things he could think of - small, unimportant facts that had no relevance to who he was or what he was doing here.
He decided to ask again.
"Would you care to tell me who I am now?"
Seiko grunted - the man supposed it was an agreement - and bent down to pick up the pictures that Yuu had so recklessly thrown on the floor, standing again to speak to him and showing him the picture of the man and woman.
"This is you -" he said, pointing to the man in the picture, "Your name is Hatake Kakashi. You are a great ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village. Bring anything back?"
The man shook his head, shrugging.
Seiko continued, frowning. "The girl - her name is Haruno Sakura. She is also a ninja...a medic. You two are close...which I guess you wouldn't understand from how far apart you are in the picture, but you like to keep it hushed up. See, you're fourteen years older than her, which isn't exactly acceptable, if you couldn't remember that."
He pulled out another picture that was lying face down on the table. "This is your team. You're pretty legendary. They call you the copy ninja for your Sharingan eye. This one here is Uzumaki Naruto - he's the vessel of the Kyuubi, a legendary fox demon that lay siege to your village about twenty or so years ago. And this one is Uchiha Sasuke, who seemed to be your personal favorite student until he went off to go kill his brother and...you don't care, do you."
The man looked back at Seiko and shook his head. "Doesn't ring any bells...but I'd like to know who you are."
Seiko stared at him for a moment before smirking. "Well...I guess you wouldn't remember...but we're the two children whose parents you killed right in front of us."
The man flinched. Even with his lack of memory, it was obvious that that was something no humane person would do. There were other ways of doing things...what had he...
"You thought you were being merciful," Yuu's voice said from the door, "Kill the parents, spare the children...you had no idea it was going to come back to bite you in the ass, did you?"
"Our parents were wealthy dealers on the black market - which I guess is not the most honorable thing -" Seiko said, "But you just ruthlessly killed them...no inhibitions because the children were standing right there...I would rather have died."
"If not for the fact that we wouldn't have been able to take revenge on you," Yuu interrupted, "There are many people in this world who hate you Hatake - I was surprised you didn't have more security around you when we knocked you out."
"My village will hunt you down," the man murmured.
"Oh, so you do remember a little...good..."
"It's to be expected," Seiko said to her, "He should remember the basics - head injuries will do that to you. We just have to give him time."
Yuu nodded, looking back at the man. "Well...I guess that if you're conscious we shouldn't leave you in here alone...Seiko, get him."
It was just a few moments before the silver-haired ninja was unconscious again from a swift blow to the face.
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Sakura brusquely paid the cashier and walked out of the store with her groceries, cradling the bag in one strong arm and not looking at anyone as she walked down the street. Ever since they'd found out about Kakashi's death a week ago she had been particularly despondent; she was shut up in her house or out in the forest for most of the time, and nobody knew what she was doing. Nobody had the nerve to ask.
The pink-haired girl had always been a little intimidating when she was in a bad mood, but this was worse than anything anyone in the village had ever seen from her. And the scariest thing was that no one knew what she was up to.
In truth, she had been busy training. Her pregnancy wasn't affecting her much yet, and she needed to get strong enough to hunt down the person who had killed Kakashi.
When she got home she put down her bag on the table and stretched out her muscular body, yawning. She hadn't been able to get much sleep yet; it seemed like every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was Kakashi's hideous corpse.
A knock at the door saved her from the thoughts that she had found herself drifting towards again, Kakashi's image burned into her eyes. When she didn't answer, Naruto's voice pierced through the room. "Sakura, are you OK?"
She smiled grimly, sure that everyone was worried about her health. She was actually surprised and a little bit upset that not very many people had come to check on her...maybe they were just giving her space. It was common knowledge that Sakura was intelligent, and that she wouldn't do anything reckless...right?
"Yeah, I'm fine, Naruto!" she replied, "You can come in!"
The blonde slowly pushed the door open, his blue eyes wide and questioning as he entered the house, surprised to see that nothing had really changed. Sakura didn't know why he would be so shocked...but she supposed that with such a huge change in all of their lives, it was strange for anything to be the same anymore. In truth, Sakura clung to the familiarity of her home - sometimes she could pretend that Kakashi was still alive, but that he was just on a mission and that he would be back soon. She hadn't been able to go to his apartment. It would be too depressing to see the many volumes of his stupid novels that would never be read again, the pictures of he and his teams, the closet that held all of those artifacts from his past...the bed where they had laid together the night before he left.
"What do you need?" she said, trying to smile at her friend. Naruto was really the only true friend she had left.
"I just wanted to check up on you...and I wanted to tell you that the Hokage's organizing a team to find the people who killed Kakashi." He stopped her before she could volunteer. "It's just ANBU, and she doesn't want you going. We're going to bring them in alive and interrogate them..." He clenched his fists. "I'm not allowed to go either."
Sakura's eyes narrowed. "She wants to bring them in alive...?"
"It's...it's infuriating!" Naruto seethed, his anger mounting as he slammed a fist down on the table, "I don't know why...she...of course, I guess...I guess she would want to find out what the Sharingan eye means...what all of this means! But if they're in custody then..." He trailed off, ending the phrase with nothing but a frustrated growl.
Sakura nodded at him, and when she spoke her tone of voice and what she said almost scared him. "Naruto...I want to find them...and make them pay."
He made eye contact with her, his own blue ones wide. "Sakura...you're scaring me...if they killed Kakashi, I don't want you going out alone."
"I can do it, Naruto!" she said, her voice almost crazed, "You have no idea how much I've progressed. I've been training with Kakashi, and for the past week I've been focusing my chakra. I can do things now that could even measure up to Kakashi-"
"That's crazy!" Naruto said sharply, "Sakura, you can't let this drive you over the edge! He...he was just a part of your past-"
"I'm already over the edge, Naruto!" she snapped, breaking her eyes away from his.
They both fell silent for a moment, the quiet seeping into both of their minds.
Sakura finally pulled out a chair and sat down with a loud sigh. "Kami, Naruto...what am I talking about..."
The only sound was her sobs as Naruto sat down beside her while she cried her first tears since she'd first heard about her lover's death.
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When the man - he supposed his name was Kakashi - woke up again he was in a small, dank room with barely any light. He supposed he must have blacked out after that beefy young man had punched him, and now he was here.
Just in case, he slowly got up, careful of his wounds, and checked the door. Yep; it was locked. There was nothing in the room but a mattress and a toilet, and the floor was tile. He had no idea where he was, but he thought he might be in some kind of abandoned house, judging by the bathroom-like appearance of the room and the dust and spider webs coating the windows and corners. OK...that was a start. Now, how to get out...
That was the real question. How was he supposed to get out? Where in the world was he? What world was he in? Who was he?
"Ah...too many questions..." he said to himself, clutching his head and sitting down on the mattress.
A voice from the door startled him. "You awake?"
"Uh...yeah," he muttered, "Is that Seiko?"
The man outside grunted and Kakashi guessed that meant 'yes'. "So...mind telling me any more about myself?"
"You want the pictures?"
"Sure."
It was just a few moments before the pictures that Kakashi had seen earlier were roughly pushed under the door. He painstakingly got up again to retrieve them before flopping down on the mattress and staring at them with his one usable eye.
Wait a minute.
He had two eyes...but he was only using one.
The other was completely blind. He couldn't see anything through his left eye.
Panic surged through him, and the realization dawned on him that his Sharingan wasn't working at all. Knowledge filled his head; countless jutsu that he'd copied from other shinobi, the way the Sharingan worked and where it came from, and a nameless boy staring up at him with Kakashi's own eye and telling him to take it.
"What's happened to my eye!" he said, surprised at how hoarse his own voice was. Seiko didn't reply, but Kakashi had no idea whether it was because the younger man didn't have an answer or because he couldn't tell him. Nevertheless, it didn't do anything to stop Kakashi from having a brief mental breakdown.
It took him longer than he would've liked to recover, and when he did he sat up, taking a few deep breaths. The pictures were still clutched in his hand.
When he'd caught his breath again he picked up the pictures to look some more. They seemed to be from the range of a few years...he was wearing mostly the same thing in every picture. He wondered how long the two siblings, Seiko and Yuu, had been hunting him if they were able to get pictures of him from all this time. The only reason he could tell was because there were so many pictures of mostly two people: a pink-haired girl and a blond boy.
Judging on how old the people in the pictures looked, Kakashi was able to put them generally in chronological order of when they were taken, trying to get a grasp on his life for at least the past few years. In the pictures the girl and boy slowly turned into adults; there had to be about fifty photographs in all. It started off with him with the kids - he seemed to be fighting them, but in some of the similar pictures they had smiles on their faces.
There was an abrupt change at one point in which he was alone most of the time, so he put all of these photos in the middle, where there was an absence of the children. When they returned to this visual story they were grown. The blond boy now wore a black mesh shirt that showed plenty of muscle, and the girl wore a red outfit that made her athletic body a little intimidating. They fit right in with Kakashi's dark countenance.
One strange feeling he got when he looked at the pictures was that there was a boy present in the first pictures that wasn't in more than two or three of the last pictures; a dark, brooding boy that was never smiling. In the more recent pictures he was on the edge, not really a part of the group at all.
Kakashi met with a lot of confusion when he saw pictures of the girl in his arms; in one picture they were even lying in bed together. He supposed that they must be together...but it also seemed wrong that he would be with this girl that he appeared to be so much older than in some of the earlier pictures. He definitely felt very strongly about her. Every time he saw a picture of her as an adult he could feel something stir in the pit of his stomach...but he just couldn't make himself remember.
He puzzled over the pictures for hours, his inability to remember anything frustrating him to no end. Eventually he just put the pictures down on the floor beside the mattress, and exhausted, he fell into a deep sleep.
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The sound of porcelain shattering against a wall echoed through the Uchiha manor. A few smaller sounds of breaking glass followed, and then a tall young man stomped down the stairs, a shredded piece of clothing in his hands.
Uchiha Sasuke flung his fist into the mirror at the bottom of the staircase, not seeming to care as blood dripped from his fist. The piece of clothing was already drenched in the red liquid anyway, although most of it was dried. An ear-splitting, superhuman roar tore out of his throat, sounding more like a hiss than a scream. He tangled his fingers in his hair, grimacing and gripping his skull before falling to his knees and slamming his head against the wall.
"GET OUT!" he yelled.
A voice that no one but himself could hear seemed to drift through the mansion, and he pressed himself back against the wall, fleeing some invisible foe. "Damn it, no...why can't I escape from you, Orochimaru!"
The invisible enemy laughed at him, materializing in his reflection in the dark window. Night had just fallen, and Sasuke was alone in the house. "I'm not Orochimaru, Sasuke...I'm you. You did this..." His reflection lifted up the bloody blue shirt, smiling. "You did this all on your own."
Sasuke shook his head, his voice unsteady. "No...I didn't...I couldn't have done anything like this..."
"Why not?" his reflection asked, flitting to another mirror closer to him, "You did kill your own brother."
"But I don't remember..."
"Only because you're not trying. But just admit that you did the right thing; Sakura will have a family now, a secure home...this will be good for her in the long run-"
"I didn't do it!" Sasuke screamed, "NO!"
"Sasuke?!"
The dark-haired man looked up at Naruto as the blond slowly walked closer, and Sasuke was mortified to see Sakura standing at the door, her eyes wide with shock at the disaster area that had once been the entrance hall and kitchen. It was just a few seconds before Naruto was at his side, quickly followed by Sakura when she caught sight of his bleeding hand.
"Kami...Sasuke, you're bleeding!" she said as she kneeled down next to him, quickly lifting up his hand and running her eyes over it. "Naruto, run upstairs and go get me a washcloth and some tweezers from the linen closet."
Sasuke tried not to stare at how beautiful she was, her sea foam eyes cast down at the cut on his hand as she picked a few pieces of glass from it. He didn't want her to be distracted...this would be the perfect time for him to apologize for how he had acted that day in the woods.
He pulled his hand closer to her, hoping she would look him in the eye, but she suddenly stilled, keeping her eyes cast down. "Sakura...you...you're not afraid to be here alone with me?"
Her eyes narrowed slightly and his heart skipped a beat - maybe this had been a bad idea. Should he really have confronted her? "I...I don't even know why you did this...but I know that...that we're all grieving for Kakashi right now and that we need to stick together...I mean...I was...I was going crazy when Naruto first showed up at my house earlier. And I don't want to do that." She looked up at him for a moment and her hand twitched as if she wanted to put a hand on his shoulder, but something stopped her. "I don't want you to do that either. We need to forget what's in the past and move on."
To say the least, Sasuke was shocked. Just a week ago Sakura had completely refused to even be in his presence, and now it seemed that she was offering him her friendship again. He didn't want to correct her; grief over Kakashi had definitely not been the reason that he had been ripping the house apart.
Naruto got back just at that moment and Sakura had removed the rest of the glass from Sasuke's hand and healed it in a couple of minutes. Sakura began sweeping up the glass from the floor as Sasuke stood up, trying to insist that he was fine and pushing Naruto away from him. "Why are you two here anyway?" he asked, feeling a little aggravated with them for just showing up but also being thankful that they had saved him from his moment of insanity.
"Saving your sorry ass," Naruto said, snorting, "What the hell were you doing?"
Sasuke cast his eyes down at the floor. He had no intention of telling them what had been going on. "I'd really rather not talking about it."
Both of his old friends nodded, a solemn silence suddenly filling the room.
"We understand," Sakura finally said, "Well...what we really came here for is we were wondering if you'd like to go out for dinner. We could all use some relaxation...and...I know that I would like to spend some time with my friends."
It was hard to be awkward with Naruto there as they walked down the street, a light drizzle dampening all of their clothes. Sakura wasn't really listening to the blond as he rambled on about Konoha gossip and Hinata, too wrapped up in her own thoughts of how much she wished Kakashi were there with them and how great of a gap he left in the group. Sasuke also was distracted, doubts about himself chilling him and making the rain seem all the more cold. Naruto didn't seem to notice; he kept on talking anyway.
When they got to the restaurant there were no familiar faces. In fact, the place was almost completely deserted; all but the lonely three were having a cozy night at home. Sakura realized that Naruto probably could have been staying in with Hinata, but had chosen to take care of his friends, and she silently thanked him for that.
Of course, even with Naruto there it was hard to think of conversation topics. Significant others were out of the question; Sakura had just lost a man that she had been madly in love with. And it was really hard to talk about anything with Sasuke. Naruto didn't think that either of his friends was ready to face their problems yet, and he definitely didn't want to bring it up.
"So guys...what have you been up to this week?"
Not a good question. Sakura rolled her eyes and replied without smiling. "I've been holed up in my house trying to get stronger so I can track down whoever killed Kakashi...you?"
Naruto raised his eyebrows. "You actually want to know?"
Both of his friends nodded and Naruto gulped down his drink before continuing. "Well...I've been doing pretty much the same thing as you, Sakura. We've been in meetings with ANBU practically all week. Everyone's freakin' out because there's some unknown nin out there that's strong enough to kill Kakashi, and there are no leads on exactly who it is. I mean, he's in plenty of people's hit lists...but he's stronger than them. There's a reason he's not dead yet -"
"I've thought about that a lot," Sakura replied, cutting him off, "Kakashi is...was...so quick on his feet that even the strongest shinobi couldn't take him out. So why would one be able to now? You would think that he would die from an injury here in the village, and that we would at least have known about it...and the strangest thing is that this person just snuck up on him. They examined his body, and there were no signs of a fight. There is no way they just snuck up on him."
Naruto shook his head, sighing and taking another big swig of his drink. "It's scary is what it is."
Sasuke didn't say a word the entire time, finally clearing his throat and looking at them all. "So...they're sure the body's his?"
Sakura laughed grimly. "No matter how much we all wish that wasn't true...Kami, Sasuke, it looks just like him, despite all the...the injuries."
"They're completely sure? I mean, it seems so strange...why would they remove the Sharingan eye? It's not like another transplant like that is going to work. Anyone who thinks it would is an idiot, and an idiot couldn't have taken him out."
This got Sakura's attention. "You think that he could be alive? But what about the body?"
"I'm sure there's some sort of jutsu that could imitate someone's body. Some sort of cloning jutsu...it could really be anything. And if we don't know anything about the ninja that did that, how do we know what's really going on?"
He stopped when he realized that they were both looking at him as if he were a complete lunatic. Sakura's eyes seemed to sparkle with hope for a moment...and then she shook her head. "It's a nice thought, Sasuke, but we all know that it's impossible."
Both men watched as she got up, picking up her bag. "Well, I'm going to go home," she said, shouldering the purse and smiling vaguely at them, "Thanks for taking me out tonight guys...you're paying the bill."
Naruto attempted to whine, but Sakura was already out the door.
They sat for a few minutes, finishing their drinks, until Sasuke placed his mug down heavily on the table, looking Naruto in the eye. "Naruto...I...I really need to tell you something. And I need you to keep this in confidence; I can't have anyone finding out." Naruto raised his eyebrows and his friend continued. "I...well...Kami, this is going to sound terrible."
"I won't tell, I promise," Naruto said, looking around and then leaning closer.
"Well...I...I think..."
"Go ahead..."
"I think I might have been the one that killed Kakashi."
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A/N: Ah...finally finished! So I am in the car on the way back from my Christmas vacation, and I am FINALLY finished with the newest chapter. I was seriously considering not updating until I got more reviews (you kind of disappointed me after so many reviews on Chapter 13) but I just couldn't wait anymore; besides, it's the season of giving, right?
Argh...I had something I was going to say...
I think that most of the characters in this chapter were WAY out of character, but overall I'm very pleased with how it turned out. This is a major transition chapter; something really huge is going to happen in the next one. The main plotline should probably be finished around Chapter 20, and from there on...well...I don't even know if I'll continue! Everything is mounting up to a big ending where everything connects and all this cool stuff...I am so excited!
I thought this would be a good Christmas present for you, and I'm hoping to have another one up before school starts again on January 4th. I myself am not a religious person, but I do celebrate Christmas (just not the religious part, lol) and I'd really love it if ya'll would give me a gift in return and send in some nice reviews.
Merry Christmas!
--Kat
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"Seiko...make him remember...tell him what he wants to know...I want him to be able to suffer when we kill her too."
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The girl, Yuu, had quickly left the room, leaving her quiet accomplice alone with the man. He still couldn't manage to get his bearings; where he was, who he was, and how he had gotten there were a complete mystery at that moment. All that he could ascertain was that he was in a cold, brightly lit room...there was a door to his right...and, from the looks of it, a very intimidating young man watching him.
This young man - Seiko - slowly looked down at the floor, clenching his fists, as the man sat up and looked around some more, trying to block out the splitting ache in his head. "So...I guess you're supposed to tell me who I am...?"
Seiko slammed his fist down on the table next to him, rattling the metal instruments there and letting out an exasperated sigh. "She doesn't seem to realize that I can't just make you remember. I didn't inflict that wound on your head, and I don't know who did. I just know it wasn't me. Damned little bitch. I bet she did it and is trying to lay the blame on me...like always..."
The man raised his eyebrow, ignorant to what had stimulated the outburst. Hell; he was ignorant of everything right now. Being stuck in a small room obviously wasn't the best position for a person who was trying to get his wits back.
But there was another piece of information: that he had somehow sustained an injury to the head and that was what had made him forget everything. So...he could recover.
And there was something else! He actually remembered that little fact...he ran through all the things he could think of - small, unimportant facts that had no relevance to who he was or what he was doing here.
He decided to ask again.
"Would you care to tell me who I am now?"
Seiko grunted - the man supposed it was an agreement - and bent down to pick up the pictures that Yuu had so recklessly thrown on the floor, standing again to speak to him and showing him the picture of the man and woman.
"This is you -" he said, pointing to the man in the picture, "Your name is Hatake Kakashi. You are a great ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village. Bring anything back?"
The man shook his head, shrugging.
Seiko continued, frowning. "The girl - her name is Haruno Sakura. She is also a ninja...a medic. You two are close...which I guess you wouldn't understand from how far apart you are in the picture, but you like to keep it hushed up. See, you're fourteen years older than her, which isn't exactly acceptable, if you couldn't remember that."
He pulled out another picture that was lying face down on the table. "This is your team. You're pretty legendary. They call you the copy ninja for your Sharingan eye. This one here is Uzumaki Naruto - he's the vessel of the Kyuubi, a legendary fox demon that lay siege to your village about twenty or so years ago. And this one is Uchiha Sasuke, who seemed to be your personal favorite student until he went off to go kill his brother and...you don't care, do you."
The man looked back at Seiko and shook his head. "Doesn't ring any bells...but I'd like to know who you are."
Seiko stared at him for a moment before smirking. "Well...I guess you wouldn't remember...but we're the two children whose parents you killed right in front of us."
The man flinched. Even with his lack of memory, it was obvious that that was something no humane person would do. There were other ways of doing things...what had he...
"You thought you were being merciful," Yuu's voice said from the door, "Kill the parents, spare the children...you had no idea it was going to come back to bite you in the ass, did you?"
"Our parents were wealthy dealers on the black market - which I guess is not the most honorable thing -" Seiko said, "But you just ruthlessly killed them...no inhibitions because the children were standing right there...I would rather have died."
"If not for the fact that we wouldn't have been able to take revenge on you," Yuu interrupted, "There are many people in this world who hate you Hatake - I was surprised you didn't have more security around you when we knocked you out."
"My village will hunt you down," the man murmured.
"Oh, so you do remember a little...good..."
"It's to be expected," Seiko said to her, "He should remember the basics - head injuries will do that to you. We just have to give him time."
Yuu nodded, looking back at the man. "Well...I guess that if you're conscious we shouldn't leave you in here alone...Seiko, get him."
It was just a few moments before the silver-haired ninja was unconscious again from a swift blow to the face.
----
Sakura brusquely paid the cashier and walked out of the store with her groceries, cradling the bag in one strong arm and not looking at anyone as she walked down the street. Ever since they'd found out about Kakashi's death a week ago she had been particularly despondent; she was shut up in her house or out in the forest for most of the time, and nobody knew what she was doing. Nobody had the nerve to ask.
The pink-haired girl had always been a little intimidating when she was in a bad mood, but this was worse than anything anyone in the village had ever seen from her. And the scariest thing was that no one knew what she was up to.
In truth, she had been busy training. Her pregnancy wasn't affecting her much yet, and she needed to get strong enough to hunt down the person who had killed Kakashi.
When she got home she put down her bag on the table and stretched out her muscular body, yawning. She hadn't been able to get much sleep yet; it seemed like every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was Kakashi's hideous corpse.
A knock at the door saved her from the thoughts that she had found herself drifting towards again, Kakashi's image burned into her eyes. When she didn't answer, Naruto's voice pierced through the room. "Sakura, are you OK?"
She smiled grimly, sure that everyone was worried about her health. She was actually surprised and a little bit upset that not very many people had come to check on her...maybe they were just giving her space. It was common knowledge that Sakura was intelligent, and that she wouldn't do anything reckless...right?
"Yeah, I'm fine, Naruto!" she replied, "You can come in!"
The blonde slowly pushed the door open, his blue eyes wide and questioning as he entered the house, surprised to see that nothing had really changed. Sakura didn't know why he would be so shocked...but she supposed that with such a huge change in all of their lives, it was strange for anything to be the same anymore. In truth, Sakura clung to the familiarity of her home - sometimes she could pretend that Kakashi was still alive, but that he was just on a mission and that he would be back soon. She hadn't been able to go to his apartment. It would be too depressing to see the many volumes of his stupid novels that would never be read again, the pictures of he and his teams, the closet that held all of those artifacts from his past...the bed where they had laid together the night before he left.
"What do you need?" she said, trying to smile at her friend. Naruto was really the only true friend she had left.
"I just wanted to check up on you...and I wanted to tell you that the Hokage's organizing a team to find the people who killed Kakashi." He stopped her before she could volunteer. "It's just ANBU, and she doesn't want you going. We're going to bring them in alive and interrogate them..." He clenched his fists. "I'm not allowed to go either."
Sakura's eyes narrowed. "She wants to bring them in alive...?"
"It's...it's infuriating!" Naruto seethed, his anger mounting as he slammed a fist down on the table, "I don't know why...she...of course, I guess...I guess she would want to find out what the Sharingan eye means...what all of this means! But if they're in custody then..." He trailed off, ending the phrase with nothing but a frustrated growl.
Sakura nodded at him, and when she spoke her tone of voice and what she said almost scared him. "Naruto...I want to find them...and make them pay."
He made eye contact with her, his own blue ones wide. "Sakura...you're scaring me...if they killed Kakashi, I don't want you going out alone."
"I can do it, Naruto!" she said, her voice almost crazed, "You have no idea how much I've progressed. I've been training with Kakashi, and for the past week I've been focusing my chakra. I can do things now that could even measure up to Kakashi-"
"That's crazy!" Naruto said sharply, "Sakura, you can't let this drive you over the edge! He...he was just a part of your past-"
"I'm already over the edge, Naruto!" she snapped, breaking her eyes away from his.
They both fell silent for a moment, the quiet seeping into both of their minds.
Sakura finally pulled out a chair and sat down with a loud sigh. "Kami, Naruto...what am I talking about..."
The only sound was her sobs as Naruto sat down beside her while she cried her first tears since she'd first heard about her lover's death.
----
When the man - he supposed his name was Kakashi - woke up again he was in a small, dank room with barely any light. He supposed he must have blacked out after that beefy young man had punched him, and now he was here.
Just in case, he slowly got up, careful of his wounds, and checked the door. Yep; it was locked. There was nothing in the room but a mattress and a toilet, and the floor was tile. He had no idea where he was, but he thought he might be in some kind of abandoned house, judging by the bathroom-like appearance of the room and the dust and spider webs coating the windows and corners. OK...that was a start. Now, how to get out...
That was the real question. How was he supposed to get out? Where in the world was he? What world was he in? Who was he?
"Ah...too many questions..." he said to himself, clutching his head and sitting down on the mattress.
A voice from the door startled him. "You awake?"
"Uh...yeah," he muttered, "Is that Seiko?"
The man outside grunted and Kakashi guessed that meant 'yes'. "So...mind telling me any more about myself?"
"You want the pictures?"
"Sure."
It was just a few moments before the pictures that Kakashi had seen earlier were roughly pushed under the door. He painstakingly got up again to retrieve them before flopping down on the mattress and staring at them with his one usable eye.
Wait a minute.
He had two eyes...but he was only using one.
The other was completely blind. He couldn't see anything through his left eye.
Panic surged through him, and the realization dawned on him that his Sharingan wasn't working at all. Knowledge filled his head; countless jutsu that he'd copied from other shinobi, the way the Sharingan worked and where it came from, and a nameless boy staring up at him with Kakashi's own eye and telling him to take it.
"What's happened to my eye!" he said, surprised at how hoarse his own voice was. Seiko didn't reply, but Kakashi had no idea whether it was because the younger man didn't have an answer or because he couldn't tell him. Nevertheless, it didn't do anything to stop Kakashi from having a brief mental breakdown.
It took him longer than he would've liked to recover, and when he did he sat up, taking a few deep breaths. The pictures were still clutched in his hand.
When he'd caught his breath again he picked up the pictures to look some more. They seemed to be from the range of a few years...he was wearing mostly the same thing in every picture. He wondered how long the two siblings, Seiko and Yuu, had been hunting him if they were able to get pictures of him from all this time. The only reason he could tell was because there were so many pictures of mostly two people: a pink-haired girl and a blond boy.
Judging on how old the people in the pictures looked, Kakashi was able to put them generally in chronological order of when they were taken, trying to get a grasp on his life for at least the past few years. In the pictures the girl and boy slowly turned into adults; there had to be about fifty photographs in all. It started off with him with the kids - he seemed to be fighting them, but in some of the similar pictures they had smiles on their faces.
There was an abrupt change at one point in which he was alone most of the time, so he put all of these photos in the middle, where there was an absence of the children. When they returned to this visual story they were grown. The blond boy now wore a black mesh shirt that showed plenty of muscle, and the girl wore a red outfit that made her athletic body a little intimidating. They fit right in with Kakashi's dark countenance.
One strange feeling he got when he looked at the pictures was that there was a boy present in the first pictures that wasn't in more than two or three of the last pictures; a dark, brooding boy that was never smiling. In the more recent pictures he was on the edge, not really a part of the group at all.
Kakashi met with a lot of confusion when he saw pictures of the girl in his arms; in one picture they were even lying in bed together. He supposed that they must be together...but it also seemed wrong that he would be with this girl that he appeared to be so much older than in some of the earlier pictures. He definitely felt very strongly about her. Every time he saw a picture of her as an adult he could feel something stir in the pit of his stomach...but he just couldn't make himself remember.
He puzzled over the pictures for hours, his inability to remember anything frustrating him to no end. Eventually he just put the pictures down on the floor beside the mattress, and exhausted, he fell into a deep sleep.
----
The sound of porcelain shattering against a wall echoed through the Uchiha manor. A few smaller sounds of breaking glass followed, and then a tall young man stomped down the stairs, a shredded piece of clothing in his hands.
Uchiha Sasuke flung his fist into the mirror at the bottom of the staircase, not seeming to care as blood dripped from his fist. The piece of clothing was already drenched in the red liquid anyway, although most of it was dried. An ear-splitting, superhuman roar tore out of his throat, sounding more like a hiss than a scream. He tangled his fingers in his hair, grimacing and gripping his skull before falling to his knees and slamming his head against the wall.
"GET OUT!" he yelled.
A voice that no one but himself could hear seemed to drift through the mansion, and he pressed himself back against the wall, fleeing some invisible foe. "Damn it, no...why can't I escape from you, Orochimaru!"
The invisible enemy laughed at him, materializing in his reflection in the dark window. Night had just fallen, and Sasuke was alone in the house. "I'm not Orochimaru, Sasuke...I'm you. You did this..." His reflection lifted up the bloody blue shirt, smiling. "You did this all on your own."
Sasuke shook his head, his voice unsteady. "No...I didn't...I couldn't have done anything like this..."
"Why not?" his reflection asked, flitting to another mirror closer to him, "You did kill your own brother."
"But I don't remember..."
"Only because you're not trying. But just admit that you did the right thing; Sakura will have a family now, a secure home...this will be good for her in the long run-"
"I didn't do it!" Sasuke screamed, "NO!"
"Sasuke?!"
The dark-haired man looked up at Naruto as the blond slowly walked closer, and Sasuke was mortified to see Sakura standing at the door, her eyes wide with shock at the disaster area that had once been the entrance hall and kitchen. It was just a few seconds before Naruto was at his side, quickly followed by Sakura when she caught sight of his bleeding hand.
"Kami...Sasuke, you're bleeding!" she said as she kneeled down next to him, quickly lifting up his hand and running her eyes over it. "Naruto, run upstairs and go get me a washcloth and some tweezers from the linen closet."
Sasuke tried not to stare at how beautiful she was, her sea foam eyes cast down at the cut on his hand as she picked a few pieces of glass from it. He didn't want her to be distracted...this would be the perfect time for him to apologize for how he had acted that day in the woods.
He pulled his hand closer to her, hoping she would look him in the eye, but she suddenly stilled, keeping her eyes cast down. "Sakura...you...you're not afraid to be here alone with me?"
Her eyes narrowed slightly and his heart skipped a beat - maybe this had been a bad idea. Should he really have confronted her? "I...I don't even know why you did this...but I know that...that we're all grieving for Kakashi right now and that we need to stick together...I mean...I was...I was going crazy when Naruto first showed up at my house earlier. And I don't want to do that." She looked up at him for a moment and her hand twitched as if she wanted to put a hand on his shoulder, but something stopped her. "I don't want you to do that either. We need to forget what's in the past and move on."
To say the least, Sasuke was shocked. Just a week ago Sakura had completely refused to even be in his presence, and now it seemed that she was offering him her friendship again. He didn't want to correct her; grief over Kakashi had definitely not been the reason that he had been ripping the house apart.
Naruto got back just at that moment and Sakura had removed the rest of the glass from Sasuke's hand and healed it in a couple of minutes. Sakura began sweeping up the glass from the floor as Sasuke stood up, trying to insist that he was fine and pushing Naruto away from him. "Why are you two here anyway?" he asked, feeling a little aggravated with them for just showing up but also being thankful that they had saved him from his moment of insanity.
"Saving your sorry ass," Naruto said, snorting, "What the hell were you doing?"
Sasuke cast his eyes down at the floor. He had no intention of telling them what had been going on. "I'd really rather not talking about it."
Both of his old friends nodded, a solemn silence suddenly filling the room.
"We understand," Sakura finally said, "Well...what we really came here for is we were wondering if you'd like to go out for dinner. We could all use some relaxation...and...I know that I would like to spend some time with my friends."
It was hard to be awkward with Naruto there as they walked down the street, a light drizzle dampening all of their clothes. Sakura wasn't really listening to the blond as he rambled on about Konoha gossip and Hinata, too wrapped up in her own thoughts of how much she wished Kakashi were there with them and how great of a gap he left in the group. Sasuke also was distracted, doubts about himself chilling him and making the rain seem all the more cold. Naruto didn't seem to notice; he kept on talking anyway.
When they got to the restaurant there were no familiar faces. In fact, the place was almost completely deserted; all but the lonely three were having a cozy night at home. Sakura realized that Naruto probably could have been staying in with Hinata, but had chosen to take care of his friends, and she silently thanked him for that.
Of course, even with Naruto there it was hard to think of conversation topics. Significant others were out of the question; Sakura had just lost a man that she had been madly in love with. And it was really hard to talk about anything with Sasuke. Naruto didn't think that either of his friends was ready to face their problems yet, and he definitely didn't want to bring it up.
"So guys...what have you been up to this week?"
Not a good question. Sakura rolled her eyes and replied without smiling. "I've been holed up in my house trying to get stronger so I can track down whoever killed Kakashi...you?"
Naruto raised his eyebrows. "You actually want to know?"
Both of his friends nodded and Naruto gulped down his drink before continuing. "Well...I've been doing pretty much the same thing as you, Sakura. We've been in meetings with ANBU practically all week. Everyone's freakin' out because there's some unknown nin out there that's strong enough to kill Kakashi, and there are no leads on exactly who it is. I mean, he's in plenty of people's hit lists...but he's stronger than them. There's a reason he's not dead yet -"
"I've thought about that a lot," Sakura replied, cutting him off, "Kakashi is...was...so quick on his feet that even the strongest shinobi couldn't take him out. So why would one be able to now? You would think that he would die from an injury here in the village, and that we would at least have known about it...and the strangest thing is that this person just snuck up on him. They examined his body, and there were no signs of a fight. There is no way they just snuck up on him."
Naruto shook his head, sighing and taking another big swig of his drink. "It's scary is what it is."
Sasuke didn't say a word the entire time, finally clearing his throat and looking at them all. "So...they're sure the body's his?"
Sakura laughed grimly. "No matter how much we all wish that wasn't true...Kami, Sasuke, it looks just like him, despite all the...the injuries."
"They're completely sure? I mean, it seems so strange...why would they remove the Sharingan eye? It's not like another transplant like that is going to work. Anyone who thinks it would is an idiot, and an idiot couldn't have taken him out."
This got Sakura's attention. "You think that he could be alive? But what about the body?"
"I'm sure there's some sort of jutsu that could imitate someone's body. Some sort of cloning jutsu...it could really be anything. And if we don't know anything about the ninja that did that, how do we know what's really going on?"
He stopped when he realized that they were both looking at him as if he were a complete lunatic. Sakura's eyes seemed to sparkle with hope for a moment...and then she shook her head. "It's a nice thought, Sasuke, but we all know that it's impossible."
Both men watched as she got up, picking up her bag. "Well, I'm going to go home," she said, shouldering the purse and smiling vaguely at them, "Thanks for taking me out tonight guys...you're paying the bill."
Naruto attempted to whine, but Sakura was already out the door.
They sat for a few minutes, finishing their drinks, until Sasuke placed his mug down heavily on the table, looking Naruto in the eye. "Naruto...I...I really need to tell you something. And I need you to keep this in confidence; I can't have anyone finding out." Naruto raised his eyebrows and his friend continued. "I...well...Kami, this is going to sound terrible."
"I won't tell, I promise," Naruto said, looking around and then leaning closer.
"Well...I...I think..."
"Go ahead..."
"I think I might have been the one that killed Kakashi."
----
A/N: Ah...finally finished! So I am in the car on the way back from my Christmas vacation, and I am FINALLY finished with the newest chapter. I was seriously considering not updating until I got more reviews (you kind of disappointed me after so many reviews on Chapter 13) but I just couldn't wait anymore; besides, it's the season of giving, right?
Argh...I had something I was going to say...
I think that most of the characters in this chapter were WAY out of character, but overall I'm very pleased with how it turned out. This is a major transition chapter; something really huge is going to happen in the next one. The main plotline should probably be finished around Chapter 20, and from there on...well...I don't even know if I'll continue! Everything is mounting up to a big ending where everything connects and all this cool stuff...I am so excited!
I thought this would be a good Christmas present for you, and I'm hoping to have another one up before school starts again on January 4th. I myself am not a religious person, but I do celebrate Christmas (just not the religious part, lol) and I'd really love it if ya'll would give me a gift in return and send in some nice reviews.
Merry Christmas!
--Kat
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