Chapter Text
Naruto tried to act normal around Sasuke at training sessions afterwards. Honestly, he did.
It seemed that this time, though, his efforts weren't enough.
Naruto caught himself staring at Sasuke in a way-that-just-friends-shouldn't-look-at-each-other more times than he'd care to admit... and though he'd promised himself that he and Sasuke would remain friends, their relationship now seemed stilted, unnatural.
Sakura was quieter, too. She no longer yelled at Naruto or hit him so much (though that might've been because he had stopped asking her out), and she seemed subdued, in a resigned way, around Sasuke. Kakashi looked the same as normal - if you didn't pay enough attention to see the way he was "reading" Icha Icha upside down the other day.
This wasn't how things were supposed to go.
...
Naruto and Sasuke were dancing around each other, which was normal now, one D-rank mission. Sasuke explained the plan to them: "All right, Sakura, you take the south side. Naruto, you take the east. I'll take the-"
Suddenly, Sasuke's communication broke off, and there was static for a few moments - and then silence.
"Hey, you there?" Naruto spoke into the receiver. "Sasuke? Stupid-" Naruto fumbled for Sasuke's location tracker. "Sakura, I'm going to go see if Sasuke's all right."
"Okay, Naruto," came Sakura's small voice. Naruto was already following the beeping red dot on his locator, cursing under his breath.
He stopped abruptly at the location. "Sasuke?" He called out, just to be sure - then saw Sasuke's tracking device on the floor. His communicator, mangled and fizzling, lay a few feet next to it.
It was only a simple mission: map out the distance around the village for a possible irrigation project that would improve water flow in the- Naruto had stopped listening after the first couple seconds. Put in some stakes, measure the distance between them and BAM: mission accomplished.
How could this have happened? Naruto couldn't breathe. Sasuke would never leave his communicator behind. That was a rule, even on D-rank missions.
Naruto's mind flew into a frenzy. Was he kidnapped? What had mangled the communicator? Why had Sasuke been cut off mid-sentence? Was he all right?
"-Naruto! Can you hear me?"
Naruto snapped back to attention. "Yeah! Sorry, Sakura. Something's seriously wrong. Sasuke's communicator is here, but it's all messed up and - "
Naruto froze. He hadn't seen it until he had knelt to pick up the tracking device, but there, on the ground, were spots of blood.
"Naruto? Are you okay?"
"Yeah... there's blood here." Naruto felt woozy. If Sasuke was hurt... something inside him was writhing in agony at the thought. The idea of Sasuke, injured, lost and alone... or worse, not alone.... Was there a trail? Knowing Sasuke, there would be a trail Naruto could follow. Sure enough, he could spot some droplets of blood leading into the forest outside the barriers of the village.
"Sakura," Naruto interrupted Sakura's panicked exclamations. "I'm gonna follow the trail."
"What trail? Where are you going? Don't do anything without backup! Naruto, what's going on?"
But Naruto had already removed his headset, and was racing into the forest.
...
"Naruto?" When she got no response, Sakura cursed loudly- then took a deep breath. She would be calm. And mature. About this. Calm.
Hand shaking, she dialed Kakashi's number on the other communicator - the one Kakashi had said only to use for emergencies.
"Sakura? What's up?" Kakashi's voice came in.
"I- Sasuke -Naruto - they - communicator- left-" Sakura choked out. "Sorry. Sasuke just- stopped talking randomly, and Naruto went after him, and now I can't contact either of them, and-"
Sakura felt a tap on her shoulder, and whipped around - it was just Kakashi.
"Sakura, calm down." Kakashi said, normal playfulness gone. "We have Sasuke's last known location." His eyes crinkled in a smile. "Let's go find them, okay?"
Sakura nodded.
...
Sasuke blinked his eyes open. His head was pounding, but when he tried to lift his hands to investigate, he discovered they were tied behind his back.
His eyes widened with shock. Where was he? His surroundings were dark, but he could hear shuffling sounds. If he squinted, he could barely make out a faint outline...
Pain spiked through his leg. Glancing down, he could see a large, jagged cut on his thigh. "Great," he grumbled, and discovered that he was gagged.
"Well, you're awake, I see."
Sasuke furiously strained at the ropes binding him as a figure emerged from the darkness. It was a man, walking with a pronounced limp. He shuffled in front of Sasuke, and stared down at him.
Sasuke leaned forward. The man looked familiar... suddenly it hit him. "Mhhhwhhrph!"
The man leaned forward and tore off his gag. Sasuke gasped before shouting, "Y-you're the janitor! I recognize you!"
"I should hope so," grumbled the man. "I've been cleaning up after punks like you for years! And I have a name, you know. It's Daichi."
Sasuke struggled with his bonds. "Did you... kidnap me?"
"Of course I didn't, you dolt," snapped Daichi. "Do you think I have the skills to take out a shinobi-in-training with this useless leg?" He gestured toward his twisted foot. "My son did all the work. All I did was explain who to capture."
Sasuke shook his head. "It-it doesn't make any sense. Why would you want to kidnap me? I never did anything to you."
Daichi's eyes glinted. "Oh yes you did. You were helping to build the irrigation system! That foolish idea will only make my job harder." He frowned. "The old ladies will have luscious gardens, yes, but what about me? Do you know how difficult it is to clean without proper water pressure??"
As Daichi ranted about having to mop the boys' bathroom, Sasuke slowly slid his kunai out of his pocket.
The ropes binding Sasuke fell down around him like shedding a second skin. Quick as lightning, Sasuke spun around, threw his kunai at Daichi, tried to make a break for the exit -
only to be stopped by a boy maybe a few years older than him, with purple markings around his face.
Sasuke froze. He turned around to look at Daichi, only to see his body unravel and crumble away. What? What was going on? "Who are you?" he asked guardedly of the boy.
The boy sneered at him. "Guess it's only polite to introduce myself, since I know who you are, Uchiha Sasuke. I'm Kankuro, Puppet Master." He sighed. "I don't even get why they're so interested in you," Kankuro said, giving Sasuke and up and down appraisal, "You don't look like anything that special to me. Whatever, orders are orders."
Sasuke didn't move yet. He didn't know what other tricks Kankuro had up his sleeve. "So... Daichi was your puppet."
Kankuro rolled his eyes. "Tch. Obviously. I mean, janitors are stereotypically crazy, so why not?"
Before Sasuke could decide what to say, two other people appeared behind Kankuro in the doorway. One of them was a girl with blond hair in two spiky buns, and the other one was a boy with red hair and the kanji for "love" written on his forehead.
Kankuro addressed them without turning around. "Took you guys long enough. Now," he gestured at Sasuke, "shall we make the delivery?"
…
Naruto stumbled through the woods. He felt like he'd been walking for hours. His mouth tasted like he'd been eating sand, and his feet were blistered and aching. He had lost the trail of blood a long time ago, but he was too exhausted to know how far back it had been. "Damn you, Sasuke," he muttered under his breath. "Why'd you have to go and get kidnapped, huh?"
His fingers were clenched so tightly, his nails had bore half-moon cuts into his palm. "If you had been there with him, he wouldn't have been taken," whispered a small voice at the back of Naruto's skull. "It's your fault."
"S-Shut up!" Naruto pounded at the side of his head. There was nothing he could have done.
"But if you really believed that, you wouldn't be so determined to find him on your own, would you?" hissed the voice.
Naruto was humming now to silence that voice. But with every fruitless step, it grew louder.
...
Sakura clung to Kakashi's arm like a leech as they followed the trail of broken branches and torn leaves through the forest. Naruto's path had grown more haphazard and clumsy as the droplets of blood became fewer and spaced further apart ("They must have tried to stop the bleeding when they realized it would give them away," Kakashi explained). So far, there had been no other clues to indicate where the kidnappers had taken Sasuke. The only real evidence they had to go on was the path Naruto had blazed before them. "Naruto may know something we don't," Kakashi had told Sakura, "and at the very least, we'll find the knucklehead before he gets into the same trouble as Sasuke."
What Kakashi didn't tell Sakura? He was worried about Naruto. Any decisions he made would be based on emotion, not logic. Kakashi had acted on impulse himself too many times in his youth to be unaware of the danger.
Naruto needed to be found. His feelings for Sasuke made him reckless, and Kakashi knew better than anyone that Naruto was reckless enough already.
"Right," Kakashi thought to himself. "When this is over, Naruto and I need to have a talk."
For a shinobi, emotions can be deadly. And that was what Kakashi would teach Naruto, at any cost.
...
Kankuro had the other two tie him up again - from their conversation, Sasuke deduced that the blond girl was Temari and the redhead was Gaara - then hauled him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
They hadn’t gagged him, though. Sasuke beat at Kankuro furiously (as much as he could while being tied up), and Kankuro shifted his weight, allowing Sasuke’s head to hang limply over his shoulder. “Stupid kid. Doesn’t know when to stop,” he grumbled. “Maybe we should’ve put him to sleep.”
Sasuke, seeing his opportunity, twisted and bit down hard on Kankuro’s shoulder, leaving a thin outline of blood and saliva. Kankuro cursed, trying to somehow flip Sasuke off without letting go of him - “Gaara, give me a hand, would you?”
Temari said cautiously, “Gaara, you don’t have to if you don’t want to, Kankuro can handle it by himself-“ but she broke off at the sight of sand rising in the room.
The sand wrapped around Sasuke and pulled him into the air off of Kankuro. Sasuke felt it squeeze like a vice around him - tighter and tighter until he almost couldn’t breathe anymore-
“Yes,” Gaara hissed, the first word Sasuke heard him speak. Sasuke made a strangled noise somewhere in the back of his throat. “Yes....”
Sasuke twisted around in his sand prison so that he could stare Gaara in the face. He met his eyes, which were wide with crazy delight. Gaara grinned at him then. “You have the same hatred in your eyes as me, Uchiha Sasuke.”
Temari grabbed Gaara’s shoulder. “Gaara, enough! We don’t want to kill him, you know? We were told that it would be preferable if he was alive.”
Gaara tilted his head, contemplating. Sasuke thrashed around- I can’t - breathe....
Just then, the door burst open. “SASUKE!”
...
Naruto was in no condition to fight. He'd lost track of how long he'd been wandering around in the forest, wishing desperately for a glass of water and cup of ramen. He was exhausted, starving and sore all over. But the moment he heard voices and spotted the small hut, almost hidden in the leaves, he felt energy rush into his body. At a sprint, without stopping to think, he launched himself forwards, slamming the door open.
"SASUKE!" The first thing that met his eyes was Sasuke, eyes wide with the same shock that they had held when Naruto had pinned him. He was on the floor and covered with sand. This would have certainly seemed strange to Naruto, but he was distracted by the dark stain soaking through the cloth around a jagged tear in Sasuke's thigh. Naruto felt himself stiffen in horror. He was hurt.
"Hey!" Naruto jerked his gaze away from Sasuke. A girl with puffy blonde hair was glaring at him. "What do you think you're doing here?"
"Uhhh..." Naruto glanced around the room, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. A man with purple markings on his face and a redhead with an enormous gourd on his back were also giving him the evil eye. He was outnumbered. "Ummm... looking for the bathroom?" he tried.
Sasuke facepalmed. If Naruto hadn't been terrified for both his and Sasuke's life, he would have aimed a punch at the dark-haired boy. As it was, he had to be contented with a nasty look in Sasuke's direction.
The redheaded boy grinned in the darkness. It was a chilling sneer that sent shivers down Naruto's spine. "Yes, Mother..." he hissed under his breath.
Naruto reached for his kunai. "Sorry, I'll have to meet your mom another time. Because you're going down right now!" He held up his fingers. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Naruto's shadow clones formed a bright sea of orange. His hair made it kind of look like a field of dandelions with orange stalks.
"HRAH!" The many Narutos leapt as one. Temari took out a giant fan dispassionately, and, with a mighty swing, blew the clones back with the great gust of wind - they went poof in little clouds of smoke. As the air cleared, one singular Naruto was left, coughing.
Temari sheathed her fan. "Give up, boy. You can't beat us. This is pointless."
"Usuratonkachi..." Sasuke, from his limp position on the ground, choked out. He murmured something else unintelligibly.
But Naruto gritted his teeth. It was Sasuke! How could those dumbos expect him to abandon his best friend/rival/love? "Again! Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Temari sighed, and took out her fan again. She was interrupted before she could use it, though.
...
Two newcomers arrived in a whirlwind of leaves and wind. "All right..." Hatake Kakashi said, one eye trained on Sasuke. "Let's get this over with, shall we?"
Gaara's eyes widened slightly. It was only a hint, but it was enough to show that he recognized Kakashi.
Kakashi grinned beneath his mask. That was good - he liked it when his reputation preceded him. "Release the boy." he ordered. "And no one will get hurt."
Temari was the first to swing into action. She moved swiftly, and before Kakashi could blink, she was holding a kunai to Sasuke's neck. "Let me offer you a better deal: tell the doofus to put away his doppelgängers, or we'll separate pretty boy's head from his shoulders." She smirked.
Kakashi was close enough to hear the air escape from Naruto's lungs. Unfortunately, so was Temari. She clucked her tongue and pressed the blade harder against Sasuke's neck. "My my, you seem awfully concerned for his well-being. Are you two brothers?"
Kankuro laughed. It was a mean laugh, and Naruto flinched at the sound of it. "Are you blind, Temari? They look nothing alike. I'd bet they're real good friends. Like, share-the-same-chopsticks friends."
Temari was watching Naruto carefully, and she saw the way his face was growing redder with every passing moment, and the way Sasuke refused to meet his eyes. "Oh no, Kankuro," she drawled. "I think they're much closer than that."
"Naruto," warned Kakashi. "Don't rise to their bait."
"In fact," continued Temari, her grin widening, "I'd say they're the kind of friends who share a lot more than chopsticks."
"Don't listen to them. They're trying to make you mad," Kakashi noticed with increasing panic that Naruto's hands were clenching and unclenching in anger.
"I think they would prefer to be alone here," Temari went on, seemingly oblivious to the rage burning in Naruto's eyes. "Alone and ... tied up together, perhaps. For a looong time. Don't you think so, Gaara?"
Gaara was silent for a beat longer than necessary, and Temari held her breath - then Gaara nodded, almost imperceptibly. He followed this up with a half-eye roll, like he couldn't even be bothered to do a full one.
Temari shot Kankuro a victorious smirk. "See? Even Gaara agrees with me! These two useless chibi shinobi are sooooo-" she winked, "platonic, am I right? Makes you wonder why exactly the Uchiha clan died out."
Two things happened at once-
Naruto growled so loudly it could almost be considered a scream, and launched himself at Temari.
Sasuke, taking advantage of Temari's distraction, got up, knocking her hand with the kunai to the side.
The kunai skittered away and came to a stop next to the wall. "All right, Blond Pom-Poms, I'm not dealing with you anymore." Sasuke hissed.
Naruto stopped mid-lunge at Temari to grin brightly in Sasuke's direction. "Sasuke!"
Unfortunately, this loss of motion caused Naruto to fall to the floor rather ungracefully, and Sasuke, eyes widening, tried to make his way over to Naruto -
but again, unfortunately, this caused his not-yet-healed-wound to spurt blood rather unappealingly, and Sasuke stumbled and fell to one knee.
Kakashi heaved a long-suffering sigh. "All right, my cute little genin, it's time to go!" And with that, Kakashi scooped Naruto and Sasuke up - one in each arm - and blurred away.
...
Temari blinked in shock as the four shinobi disappeared.
"Wow," muttered Kankuro. "He is as good as everyone says."
Gaara said nothing. He was squinting at the bloodstain the dark-haired genin had left on the sand. Kneeling, he touched the blood and looked over at the doorway, where Kakashi and Sakura had burst in - there was no lock on the door.
Straightening up, he turned to his companions. "Everything is going according to plan. It's time for Phase Two." Without waiting for a response, he disappeared just as suddenly as Kakashi had.
"See you later, I guess," Temari said sarcastically. Kankuro snorted.
"Come on. Let's get going."
"Sure." Temari adjusted her hairdo before glancing back at the spot where Sasuke had lain. She sighed. "It's really too bad. That genin was pretty cute."
Kankuro rolled his eyes. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll find someone to replace him in two seconds."
Temari smirked. "Hah. You know me."
And just as silently as Gaara, the shinobi melted away into the forest.
...
Kakashi burst through the gates of Konoha, genin in tow. Where was the hospital? He had inspected the cut on Sasuke's leg a bit, and it didn't seem deep, but it wouldn't hurt to make sure.
Kakashi skidded to a halt, and was preparing to let Naruto and Sakura down and take Sasuke to the hospital, but a voice from behind cut him off. "Naruto! Are you all right? You're all dirty and scuffed! And-" Kakashi turned around. "Umm..." Iruka stopped bashfully, cheeks coloring. "Sorry... Kakashi, I just wanted to see if Naruto was alright."
Kakashi smiled at Iruka. "Nah, no problem, Iruka. You can have this orange bundle of madness-" (Naruto let out an indignant "Hey!") "and I'll take Sasuke to get checked over."
Iruka nodded. "All right. Naruto, do you want to get some ramen?"
"Yes!" Naruto pumped his fist in the air. "You're the best, Iruka-sensei! Sakura, want to come with?" He turned his blinding grin on her.
Sakura wilted under the force of his gaze. "Um... sorry, Naruto, I think I'm going to go home so my parents aren't too worried about me." She turned to leave, but not without adding, "Thanks, though, Naruto. See you tomorrow at training!"
Naruto nodded, waving at Sakura, though he didn't seem too disappointed. Rivaling Rock Lee's speed, Naruto dragged Iruka down the street to Ichiraku's. Iruka tried waving halfheartedly at Kakashi, which Kakashi returned with a small chuckle.
"All right..." Kakashi hefted Sasuke into his arms. "Let's take you to get checked over with, shall we?"
...
"Uchiha Sasuke?"
Sasuke sat up on the hospital bed. "That's me." The sun was shining, the birds were chirping- ah, it was a lovely day, thought Sasuke. He loved the world, and the world loved him back.
The nurse - a young lady, probably not out of college yet - blushed when she saw Sasuke. She's not bad looking, Sasuke mused, it's too bad that I like someone else. "Okay, so... we inspected the cut on your leg, and it's not life-threatening, but..."
"But?" Sasuke prodded, smiling gently at her.
"But... it has a rare kind of poison in it." At Sasuke's horrified stare, the nurse quickly backtracked, waving her hands in the air. "No, it's not dangerous or anything! It just... you're... your personality is going to be completely flipped for about a week or so, until we can get the antidote."