Self Regained

Chapter One - A Quick Start
Pairing: Eventual Sasu/Naru (WIP)
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I own any of the characters. And trust me, I am not making any profit from this. At all ;o;
Summary #1: After losing Sasuke to Orochimaru for nearly five years and only coming face to face with him twice, Naruto'd be damned before he'd let the Uchiha out of his sights again. To uphold his promise, the fox-carrier will go to any lengths to make sure he brings Sasuke back.

Italics Kyuubi (or memories or someone speaking in a dream sequence)
Bold Naruto speaking to Kyuubi in his head

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The fading sunlight glinted off the steel blade, casting an eerie purplish glow into his eyes as he dodged to the left and saved his arm from being sliced off. He pushed himself up from the ground, panting slightly from the fight, and reassessed his current situation.

He’d been fighting for the better part of two hours and he hadn’t made much progress.

Glancing at his opponent, he squinted and made a quick survey: he looked just as refreshed as he had thirty minutes ago.

Damn…and now he was charging again.

Naruto jumped up, landing on a convenient tree branch and then leapt over his attacker’s head and landed gracefully behind him, raising his kunai to ward off another offensive move. At the rate things were going his energy would fail him and since he had refused to allow Kyuubi to assist him…he would not survive this battle.

He needed to find his weakness. Something…anything. Words didn’t seem to penetrate.

Nothing seemed to penetrate.

At the thought a terrible feeling of loss and desperation engulfed Naruto before he could squelch it and for a split second he thought he might just lose this battle.

“What’s wrong Dobe? Scared?”

The blond grit his teeth, pushing back the feeling that was overcoming him. He would not lose. He’d finally found him again. He would not lose. Not this time.

Ducking under the next slash of the long blade, Naruto brought his hand up and slammed it into the boy’s chest, “I won’t give up, Teme! I can go all day and night if I have to.”

With a slight grunt, the boy jumped backwards, dark hair falling into his face as he stood again, his cold eyes looking at Naruto, but revealing nothing.

And this just pissed the demon-holder even more. He growled low in his throat and disappeared, reappearing behind Sasuke and grabbing the boy’s arms in a tight lock.

“I won’t let you leave. I’m taking you back!” He huffed, completely ignoring the fact that the Uchiha was not even trying to struggle in his grip.

“Try.”

Blue eyes narrowed dangerously at the response, “You bastard. We’ve been searching for you for years. You reappear once and then run off again with Orochimaru without even sticking around to hear us out. You don’t honestly think that after five years of hunting for you, I’m just going to let you go, do you?”

Sasuke didn’t respond, he merely stood there, face blank, eyes cold and dark…unblinking. Almost dead.

The blond huffed as he let go, coming around the raven-haired boy’s still form to stand before him, “Sasu--”

He hadn’t even seen the attack coming and in his mind the Kyuubi chuckled about naiveté and betrayal. Blue eyes drifted down from charcoal black and stopped on the blade that was now embedded in his chest. A dark patch of blood spread across his orange vest and he choked back the blood that was rising in his mouth.

Naruto looked back up at Sasuke in confusion as the dark-haired youth pulled the sword from his chest in one swift motion. His knees felt weak, his chest cold, and his hands wouldn’t move as he collapsed to the ground. And the entire time Sasuke just stared with the same emotionless facial expression.

Something deep inside Naruto cracked as unconsciousness claimed him.

This was a battle you couldn’t win, the dark voice cackled as the Kyuubi’s power began healing his broken body. He has his own agenda and Konoha is not in it. Leave it at that and move on.

No. I--I can’t. I have to help him. I won’t abandon him.

Then he’ll kill you.


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“Naruto…”

“Naruto…can you hear me?”

He twitched slightly as his mind began to awaken from its slumber. Who was calling him? Where was he anyway?

He couldn’t really remember much of any--oh, the fight. Sasuke.

“SASUKE!” he yelled as he sat upright, pain jolting through his body at the sudden movement.

“It’s alright Naruto…It’s alright. Calm down,” came that same voice.

Cracking open a blue eye as he was slowly pushed down, he noticed familiar pink hair, “Sakura-chan? W-what happened? Where am I?…wait…this is the Konoha hospital.”

Sakura looked away, sadness evident in her features, “You were badly hurt Naruto. You almost died…thankfully, Kyuubi helped you.”

Naruto swallowed, his voice quiet, “And Sasuke?”

At the question, Sakura’s hands fisted in her lap and she squeezed her eyes tightly, “Gone. I’m…sorry Naruto. I’m so sorry. He was gone by the time we found you…we…it was a miracle we did find you. You’re chakra was so low-- We should have known you were both fighting, you were right outside of the Konoha gate, but no one in the village felt either of your chakras.”

Naruto blinked, confusion written across his face, “What? We…we weren’t anywhere near the gate. I found him on the northern border. I was…three hours from Konoha.”

The girl glanced up quickly, “But then-- how did you? Did the Kyuubi bring you here?”

The blond paused, sinking into himself to find the answer and then opened his eyes, “No. He…said he didn’t have the ability to do that while I was unconscious. He only kept me alive. Who would have--”

Sasuke?

“Sakura-chan, how long have I been asleep?”

“About a week, why?”

“I…I can still find him. I have to go,” Naruto said as he pushed the blankets back and stood from the bed.

Sakura stood up in exasperation, her eyes desperate as she grabbed his arm quickly, “Naruto, please stop. You--You can’t save him. He almost killed you. He’s tried to kill you three times now. He’s not the same Sasuke we grew up with. He’s not the same person we knew. Please…just stop. You’re killing yourself.”

Hearing the desperation and sadness in Sakura’s voice tore him apart inside, but he could not listen to her. He had made a promise and he refused to break it. Turning around, he gave his friend his brightest, truest smile, “Thank you Sakura-chan, but I have to do this. I can’t fail him…he is still the Sasuke we know, he’s just lost. I’ll bring him back to Konoha.”

Tears ran down her pale cheeks at his words and she moved forward, wrapping her arms around him gently, “Be careful. Please. And hurry out of here before Lee finds out I let you leave. He’ll do something drastic, you know?” The last part was said with a little laugh as she let him go and stepped back, wiping the tears away and giving him her bravest smile.

Naruto nodded, winking at her, “Wouldn’t want your boyfriend tackling me down before I can escape, right? Oh, Sakura. Can you do me a favor?”

The pink-haired youth quirked an eyebrow, “Hm?”

“Tell Tsunade…that I’ll be back to claim my spot as Hokage.” And with that he leapt out of the window and shot through the streets to his apartment to pack his things.

He knew Tsunade would be pissed with him for running off and she constantly threatened him with revoking his ninja-status and labeling him a rogue, but he also knew she understood where he was coming from. Entering his apartment, he quickly grabbed some clothes and supplies needed for a long trip and then turned to leave when he noticed something on his bed…

A note?

Stay here Dobe.

The paper fell from his hand as he looked around. Sasuke…had been here? But- how? Why? What the hell was running through that bastard’s head right now?

Never one to obey so easily, Naruto grabbed the paper and crumbled the note up then shoved it into one of his bags on his belt. He quickly grabbed his cloak and headed back outside to begin his hunt.

As he bound from rooftop to rooftop, he made certain to stay out of the sight/senses of any of his friends. He didn’t want to have to explain where he was going again. He knew they’d tie him up and lock him away if they found out he was chasing after Sasuke again.

And before he even registered it, he was outside of Konoha, leaping through the trees and hoping to pick up on Sasuke’s trail once again. Note be damned, he was going to find that bastard and beat his reasoning out of him. He’d tried to kill him more than once now and then he’d carried the blond’s body back to the village and even left him a note?

Naruto fumed at the thought. What the hell was wrong with that teme?

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Sasuke’s eyes narrowed as he spotted his target.

He’d been training for this moment for most of his life and now it was finally in front of him.

And he was finally ready for it.

He would not fail this time.

He’d used Orochimaru until there was nothing left to gain from the snake and now it was time to put it all to use.

Itachi would pay for what he had done to his family.

Sasuke was going to kill his brother tonight or die trying.

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Three days had passed since Naruto had left Konoha. He’d gone back to the place where he and Sasuke had fought the week before and tried to pick up a trail, but had failed to find much of anything but a few dead ends.

Damn Sasuke and his ninja skills.

Naruto cursed again as his footing slipped on a tree and he fell, arm scraping against the rough bark before he caught and righted himself. He let out a relieved sigh and decided walking on the ground might be a little better, given his exhausted state.

He’d been pushing his still-healing body for three days now and he really should take a slight break.

As he leapt down from the tree his eyes caught on something dark sitting in a cluster of bushes. He tried to pick up on some form of chakra, but couldn’t sense much of anything besides his surroundings. Normally he would have ignored something like this, but there was something about it that was nagging at him.

Cautiously he dropped into a crouch and made his way towards the brush, using his kunai to push it back and then diving backwards as a kunai whizzed past his face and nicked his cheek, adding a small slice right above his already whisker-scarred face.

He waited for the next attack, but when nothing came, he frowned. Who the hell tosses one kunai and then sits around? The blond decided not to think about it and instead made a quick dash to the branches above the figure in the bushes and peered down…

…and then practically fell out of his branch.

“SASUKE!?”

He leapt down, landing directly in front of the dark figure and gasping slightly as he realized why he hadn’t been able to tell what was in the bushes. There was blood matting everything around Sasuke, coating the leaves and dripping down the stems. He looked around quickly, assessing the rest of the area and relaxed slightly when no ‘warning’ signals grabbed his attention. He leaned closer to Sasuke, cautiously in case the boy decided to attack him, and then realized the dark-haired youth was unconscious. Probably from the blood loss…

Naruto wasn’t the best at healing jutsus, but he’d been around Sakura and Tsunade enough to have picked up a couple of important tricks…but first he needed to get Sasuke to a secure location.

Looking at the boy’s body he noted that he was covered in quite a few large gashes, mostly down his chest. He had some burn marks around his hands and there were large scrapes covering his shins and back. The Kyuubi-holder decided the best way to get Sasuke somewhere would be to cradle him to their location.

They were pretty close to the bottom of the mountains and Naruto was fairly certain that there was a group of caves around the base of the mountain. With that thought in mind, he gently lifted the comatose boy, noting how light he was, and leapt into the trees to dash back to the mountains.

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It had taken a little longer than he’d originally thought to reach the caves, but Naruto couldn’t say he wasn’t incredibly grateful to see them when they did finally appear in the fading light. He adjusted his arms underneath Sasuke, trying not to jar him anymore than necessary and stopped to pick out a decent cave. There were so many, he’d need to locate one that was easily recognizable to him so that he could find it again….

Ah, there was one near the top left that had a strange swirling pattern on the rock face. It was perfect.

Leaping up the small overhangs, he reached his destination and entered the cave with Sasuke in his arms, still limp and unconscious. His breathing was very shallow and his skin felt like ice against Naruto’s skin, which cause the blond a little bit of worry. He hoped he could remember everything he’d seen Tsunade and Sakura do…

He laid Sasuke down in a darker corner of the cave and quickly set out to find some wood for a small fire and possibly a rabbit for dinner on the way back. He returned about three minutes later and noticed that Sasuke had not moved an inch since he’d left.

Starting the fire, he pulled open his sack and grabbed a small pot to pour some of his canteen water into to boil. He dropped a few bandages into the water and then went over to Sasuke and began to slowly remove his blood-soaked robes. He fought slightly with the large rope around the boy’s waist and cursed Orochimaru’s fashion sense until he finally managed to undo the annoyingly tight knot.

Once he’d de-robed the dark-haired boy, he grabbed the freshly cleaned bandages and a cloth and began cleaning up the wounds on Sasuke’s chest. It was a tedious job, but as he removed the blood he noticed that most of the gashes were not as bad as they had originally looked. The only one that looked to be the reason for all of the blood was near Sasuke’s heart, deep but not deep enough to be instantly fatal…just enough to cause the victim to bleed to death quite slowly and painfully however.

Naruto paled as he noticed that Sasuke’s breathing was getting worse. Closing his eyes, he brought to mind all the different jutsu he’d seen Sakura use and quickly made the motions for one that would bind flesh. He pressed his hands over the large gash and willed his chakra to flow evenly through his palms.

The blond almost leapt for joy as he saw the skin start to mend itself and close, stretching out over the gash as Naruto moved his hands slowly down the wound. When Naruto pulled his hands away, he sat back on his heels and blinked a few times as a dizzy wave engulfed him. Shaking his head to clear it, he looked back down at Sasuke and noticed that there were still quite a few bleeding wounds on his body.

He didn’t have enough energy to heal all of them, so he picked out the ones that looked the worst and healed them as best he could. As his head spun from the loss of his chakra at such a rapid rate, he used the clean bandages to wrap the rest of Sasuke’s wounds.

It was dark outside by the time Naruto had finished and he bit back a yawn as he rubbed a blood encrusted hand against his cheek. Oh great…now he had blood on his face. He let out an exhausted sigh and flopped down beside Sasuke, a small triumphant smile on his face as he heard Sasuke’s breathing: it was stronger and more even now.

Naruto realized it must be pretty late and decided to cook up his rabbit for dinner and save some for later (and for the teme if he woke up). After eating a few bits, Naruto blinked sleepily and pulled out his sack. He took off his cloak and flopped onto his sleep sack and curled under his blanket…then stopped.

Rolling his eyes he kicked the blanket off and sat back up and looked over at Sasuke’s prone form. He was still slightly propped up against the corner cavern wall and was incredibly pale in the dying firelight. Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. It’d be stupid to have worked so hard to heal the bastard and then have him die from hypothermia or something.

Dragging his sleeping bag over to the unconscious boy, he gently lifted Sasuke and lay him down on the mat, then covered him with his blanket. Walking back over to the fire, Naruto grabbed up his cloak and moved to sit across from the fire, back against the wall and his knees propped up. He rested his arms on his knees and pulled his cloak overtop of him to ward off any cold.

Faster than he expected, he was asleep.

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His arm twitched as his muscles tensed in the throes of his nightmare. He was running through the moonlit street again. Running past houses that he’d grown up surrounded by. Running past the corpses of people he’d grown up with.

He could hear that voice, calling to him…telling him to run. It hinted at death and torture and pain and made him sick to his stomach. He fought back the urge to vomit and raced on, trying to get somewhere…he knew he needed to be somewhere…there was somewhere at the end of this road that he had to be.

Darkness began to engulf him as the moonlight turned to a deep red…he was getting closer. Would he make it? It was so close. The end of this road…would it ever end? Did it have an end? It had to…all roads had an end, right? They all lead somewhere right? Where was his end?

A cynical chuckle echoed through the street and caused a chill to race down his spine. He couldn’t go any faster. He had to make it…had to…and then he felt something icy and cold brush against his leg as he ran. He glanced over his shoulder and his eyes widened in shock.

Come back, son. We love you…come back Sasuke.

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“Oi, Sasuke! Wake up, teme!” Naruto shouted, trying to hold down the boy’s writhing limbs and failing completely as he got hit in the face by a waving arm.

Clutching his cheek he bit back a litany of curses and decided he needed to get a little more violent with the Uchiha. He pounced on him, forcing the boy below him to be still as he spread himself across his body and held down the boy’s limbs. With a lot of effort, he was finally able to get Sasuke to stop jerking around so much and lay still. He winced as he felt something wet seeping into his shirt and looked down to see that Sasuke had ripped open one of his gashes. Damn it all.

Looking at the boy in the darkness, he could barely make out the tightly pinched features, but Naruto was able to deduce that the infamous Ice Prince had been having a nightmare. And a damn bad one at that…

The bastard had even hit him!

Shaking his head, he slowly removed himself from atop the raven-haired ninja and then moved to grab some more bandages so he could rewrap the wound.

His heart was still pounding slightly as he finished wrapping up the gash. It wasn’t everyday you were awakened from a nice slumber by someone screaming bloody murder. He glanced down at the sleeping Uchiha and frowned…he’d never heard the boy have a nightmare before.

Naruto wondered what could have happened to put the all-powerful Uchiha into his current state as he moved back to his spot by the now-dead fire. He tossed a few sticks at the fire and then struck his flint stone to start up another one. He’d stay up for a little while to make sure the bastard didn’t have another nightmare and open up anymore wounds.

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A/N: Ok, first chapter out! Hope you enjoyed it! ^__^; Reviews and constructive criticism are much appreciated. No flaming...unless you want me to laugh ^___^ I'll update with the next chapter as soon as I possibly can~ <3