Never Perfect

Heya guys, longer chappy this time, hope your pleased. A kitsunes light welcome back a quick update just like you asked lol. Animelover thankyou for saying it’s a new type of plot, that’s why I actually dared to put it up. All my others well, have similar plots out there and I wanted to do something fresh. ItaNarulover, *blush* Your too kind. his eye his beautiful eye. Yes theres a very dark story there but later…much later. Yue the fox king, thank you so much for your interest…read on and watch as it unfolds. Dragon04……updated quickly..enjoy. ONWARDS!!!

Time ticked by, and finally Sasuke knew he had to move. Carefully, he shifted Naruto from his arms, and he was glad when the other man assisted to settle himself in the perfect centre of the room again. There was no sound of protest as he moved away to the door. Did that mean Naruto trusted him that much? Or did it mean that he didn’t care enough to give a reaction? The fear that Naruto was not sane enough for it to be either option struck the Uchiha, but tightened his resolve. At exactly the right time he gave the signal, a uselessly intricate series of knocks. The door cracked open, and the person standing on the other side of the door was not who the Uchiha had expected. That spilt second of indecision was all Naruto needed. In a move almost too quick for Sasuke to see, Naruto, completely nude and snarling like a demon from hell, had Ino pinned against the wall outside the chamber. Sasuke followed him out and came face to face with Team Seven, who stood frozen in the act of drawing weapons.

“Naruto?!”

Sasuke held up a hand, and his eyes locked on Naruto to make sure the forearm he had pressed to Ino’s throat didn’t push any harder.

“Be very still. He’s not completely himself. Do not startle him.”

Ino’s pale eyes stayed locked to Naruto’s face as she let her whole body relax, barely daring to breathe as his snarl settled to a steady growl.

“My God! His eye!”

Naruto tensed and bared his teeth, and Sasuke snapped.

“Shut up woman!”

He fought to gentle his voice as he held out one hand. He let it hover over the blonde in an attempt at reassurance. “Let Ino go, Naruto. She’s not going to hurt you.”

Naruto’s one eye moved to look at him quickly, then at the others, before going back to Ino. Sasuke suddenly understood.

“They’re not going to hurt me, either. Just let her go and come to me.”

Finally, Naruto released the shocked woman and hesitantly stepped back. He pressed his back to Sasuke’s chest in a gesture of protection. Protecting him. When Sasuke had to shift slightly to see the others beyond the broad shoulders he realised for the first time Naruto that had gotten taller than him.

“Kakashi, I have to get him out of here. Quickly and quietly. Out of the village completely.”

“No! You can’t take him away!” Sakura exclaimed in outrage.

Sakura lunged forward as if to grab Naruto, but Sai had enough presence of mind to grab hold of her when Naruto sank down into an attack stance.

“Sakura-chan. Think for a moment. Danzo would just have him locked up again. Really kill him. Sasuke-kun is his only hope right now.” Sai tried to reason with the distraught woman.

Silent tears coursed her cheeks, but Sakura made no further protest. “We thought he was dead. Oh God, we’ve left him down here for months. Alone! Naruto hated being alone.”

“Now’s not the time, Sakura.” Kakashi’s voice was firm. While he was speaking, Ino reached out towards Naruto, towards his scarred eye. Stupidly, she was approaching from his blind spot. Sasuke took notice and angrily dodged from behind Naruto to slap her hand away. His voice was a nasty hiss as he spoke his warning.

“Don’t touch him!”

“But….what happened to his eye?” Ino’s voice wavered as her gaze stayed locked to Naruto’s face.

“I don’t know.” Sasuke replied, his voice still carrying a hard edge.

Kakashi stared hard at Naruto, making the other one eyed Nin lock gazes with him. “Naruto, can you preform a henge?”

A snarl was his only response.

“Eloquent isn’t he? Look, we can’t get him out unless he helps in some way. We pulled strings as it is to get down here, and for Ino to be the one here. They’re not going to let 6 people out when they’re only expecting 5.”

“I’ll stay.” Sai held his hand up with an easy expression on his face. Kakashi sighed.

“You’re not getting it. Naruto can’t or won’t Henge. I don’t even think he can calm his charka signature. We have no other choices, and even together we can’t fight our way out of the village.” Kakashi’s voice held a familiar note of annoyance but the undertone was that of concern.

Sasuke moved in front of Naruto, facing him and blocking out the others. “Naruto, I know it’s hard. I know you are struggling, but try to calm down. Bring your Charka down.”

Naruto’s blue eye zeroed in on his as he stopped growling and took one deep breath, then another. Slowly, that frightening Charka slowed, calmed, then it shrunk.

“Good, now keep it like that Dobe.”

Naruto bared his teeth but gave no other reaction.

“Okay so that proves a point but how can he understand you and not us?” Sakura was struggling to find purchase in this situation. Was this all that was left of Naruto?

“I don’t think he understands me, but more the tone of my voice, and he perceives what I want. His thinking is very animalistic right now.”

Ino’s eyes widened as she drew in a sharp breath.

“Kyubbi.”

Instantly Naruto’s charka spiked and Sasuke threw his body against Naruto’s to pin him against the opposite wall.

“Calm down Dobe, she didn’t mean it. She didn’t know any better. It’s alright. That’s it. Breathe.”

Kakashi almost smiled. Sasuke’s words, his voice, and even his touches were nearly tender. It showed in the way he stroked one hand through Naruto’s hair while the other held him. A gentle touch down one naked flank. Finally, Naruto calmed under the Uchiha’s care while the others were shocked by the demonstration. When Sasuke released him Naruto’s charka was repressed again. Sasuke’s voice was like a whip.

“Do not open your mouth again Ino, unless you have a decent plan, or so help me I WILL let him claw you.”

Eyes fell to Naruto’s elongated fingernails then up to his fox ears. Not once in that exchange had Naruto hurt Sasuke.

“What has that room done to him?” Sai’s voice held a strain that was unusual to hear in the ‘emotionless’ Nin.

“I’m not entirely sure. There was so much in his head I couldn’t understand and I didn’t have much time. The only thing I am sure of is that he held the Kyubbi in check. It cost him dearly, as you can see, but this IS Naruto, and Naruto alone.”

Kakashi knelt and, in an odd motion, crab-walked closer to Naruto, who responded to the animal like approach by also kneeling and watching his old teacher warily. Out of his pocket, Kakashi pulled a scroll and unrolled it in front of Sasuke and Naruto. It was a blank summoning scroll.

“Now Sasuke, try to get him to understand that we need his blood and he has to stay here. We’ll get you and the scroll out and summon him after.”

Kakashi backed off and drew Ino, Sakura and Sai with him as Sasuke hunkered down beside Naruto.

“I don’t know how much you’re getting right now Naruto. I’m going to cut you and you need to trust me.”

He drew a kunai and Naruto eyed it, not flinching when Sasuke took his hand. Putting the blade to his thumb Sasuke checked his face to see if he was panicking. One eye stared steadily back at him, so Sasuke draw the blade across the pad and pressed it quickly to the scroll. When he drew their joined hands back, however, there was no blood. Sasuke stared at Naruto’s unmarred thumb for a moment, pondering how to beat Naruto’s accelerated healing. The blond man impatiently pulled his hand back and snatched the kunai from Sasuke’s other hand. Mercilessly, he sliced through his own palm diagonally and just as quickly swiped at the scroll. The scroll glowed for a moment as the contract was sealed and Naruto held up his hand for Sasuke to see as steam curled out from the speedily closing cut. Sasuke took the kunai back and it disappeared into a hidden sheath, before he rolled up the scroll and tucked it away as well. He was choosing to ignore everything except getting Naruto out; everything else was filed away as secondary. Now came the hard part.

“Naruto, you need to stay here. No matter what. It may take a little while, but as soon as I can I’ll summon you.” Experimentally, Sasuke shifted away towards the group. Naruto moved uneasily but stayed where he was.

“Soon Naruto. Just wait.”

As a group they backed away up the stairs and around the curve. As soon as visual sight was lost, a terrible howl sounded up after them, but Naruto still didn’t come tearing up the stairs. Sasuke turned and began to sprint to the exit and the others followed suit.

“How much time do we have?” Sasuke asked.

Kakashi’s voice was almost smug. “Danzo’s orders were fairly lenient. If we got no response, we were to come back and report immediately. If you were successful, you were to be cleaned up, fed and doctored, whatever you needed, and then report. I think he’s trying to go for magnanimous to show you he will reward success.”

Sasuke slowed as they reached the exit, fighting to keep the smirk off his face. Although the horrible sounds still haunted his memory, they were quietening. When the guards posted outside gaped at Sasuke in shock his smirk was allowed free reign. It was Sai that cleared his throat.

“Uchiha-san, I think we’d best get that blood cleaned off you.”

It was then that the secondary things started to become important. Up his front, where the skinless Naruto had pressed against him, was covered in gore. Thankfully, Naruto hadn’t actually taken hold of him. Red hand prints would have shown clearly on the white obi and Kyubbi had paws, not hands. With a simple nod they ran to his temporary lodgings.
Inside, Sasuke stripped the obi off regardless of his visitors and rooted around for a black shirt before pulling it on.

“Kakashi, you know you’ll all be in deep when we go missing.” Sasuke didn’t look to them as he spoke.

Sakura’s eyes had opened wide but surprisingly it was Ino who spoke up. “We should come with you. For Naruto, the rookie nine and even many others would defy the Hokage.”

Sasuke had an image in his mind of half the village running away at once and snorted. “No, Ino. One, Naruto wouldn’t understand or be able to deal with that right now.” As he was making his arguments, he was grabbing food, spare cloths for Naruto, and weapon summons scrolls and stuffing then into two packs. “Two, we need to move fast. Kakashi, I need something from you. I want a list of people who knew beforehand about what this room would do to him, or what it was supposed to do to him. Also, the names of the council members who authorised the Uchiha Massacre.”

Kakashi’s eye narrowed and his arms folded over his chest. “That would be like giving them a death sentence.”

Sasuke didn’t stop in his packing. The noises he was making were the only sounds in the room.

“Yes.”

Kakashi nodded. “I’ll hand it to Naruto, only when he’s recovered.”

Sasuke tensed. “Naruto is not a god damned insurance policy.” Then, in his mind he remembered and saw again the look in that one eye when he had met Naruto in the cage. The torment, the pain, and most of all…the rage.

“Fine do it your way.”

He had finished and turned back to the others who were regarding him warily.

“And when they torture you for information what will you tell them.” Sasuke’s voice was cold, unsympathetic.

Sakura swallowed, but held her head high. “The truth, damn them to hell. Naruto deserves that much and more. If he can survive all that time down there with the Kyubbi then we can take this.”

One by one the others nodded.

“But Sasuke, was this your plan all along?” Sakura’s eyes held a softness as she spoke.

Sasuke allowed his smirk to return.

“When you told me that the Dobe had been locked up and not killed…yes. I knew there was no way Kyubbi would win. He’s a stubborn ass no matter what. In my original plan there was more killing involved, but that can wait until he’s better. Did you know there were only three tails? Your precious Yamato, with time and out of that room, could probably have done what I did.”

Sasuke knew the last bit was a lie. There were more secondary factors here, but he needed to lash out and hurt these people who had allowed Naruto to be locked away to diminish, and it worked. Tears from Ino and Sakura. Neither Sai nor Kakashi could look at him.

“I’ll be back, remember that. Tell as many as you can about Naruto before you get called in. It’ll mean they can’t be too hard on you before they’re seen in an even worse light.”

Then, he was gone. No, the world wasn’t perfect. People would die. People would be hurt, and the man out to do all this damage would have the Village’s strongest defender at his side. Nobody even knew if he was sane enough to care if this place was burned to the ground…again. No. Far from perfect.