Binding Loose Ends

Warnings: mild, short, and Sasuke/Naruto-centric


“You’re sure the reason he went down for a moment was Sakura’s strike?” The dark haired boy on the other side of the camp fire nodded dumbly. This was the second time in four years he was returning with one team mate badly injured and another, two others this time, lost perhaps for good, Kakashi though. He forced himself not to brood. Brooding would do his team no good.

Sai’s injuries had fortunately not been truly dangerous, so while Yamato stayed with Sai he’d risked searching the hideout, hunting for a trail to follow. The compound was smaller than the one Sakura and Naruto had described entering a few months ago. There had been nothing to indicate where Naruto and Sakura might have been taken, and no hint of what might be in store for them.

“It’s not much to go on, Senpai,” Yamato noted glumly.

“Hmmm…” Kakashi mused. While Sai’s story was no help in deducing the current location of the two young ninja, perhaps it could shed some light on their fate. The ending puzzled him. Sakura had grown a great deal in the three odd years he had known her, it wasn’t that he doubted her capabilities. However, for Orochimaru himself to be so easily disabled, even temporarily, by something that sounded like it came straight from a training session with another Sannin stretched credibility. It was possible that it had to do with adjusting to, Kakashi grimaced beneath his mask, to his new body, but Sai hadn’t described any other instances of clumsiness or slow reaction speed. He was easily cruel enough to let her get the hit in just to toy with her, to force her to strike against a familiar face and to let her think she was winning, but why do that if he was planning to do something that knocked her unconscious before she could see how quickly he shrugged it off? In the end, the most reasonable explanation was that he had gotten sloppy, too intent on getting his own strike in to guard himself reasonably. This was surprising, because while Orochimaru was certainly arrogant, he wasn’t sloppy. However, Kakashi could think of a certain someone who did get careless when he was confident of victory, particularly against an opponent he underestimated… How much did the personality of Orochimaru’s host effect him, anyway?

“Kakashi-sensei?”

“Mmm?
”
“I…I’m sorry I failed them. I was trained better than this. I guess it’s true that emotions cloud the judgment and lead to failures, and I…I let my feelings for them build so much that I froze when they were in danger. I don’t know what else to say, except I’m very sorry” The boy was curled on his side, his hands clutching a book convulsively.

Kakashi’s one visible eyebrow rose. “Oh? So in retrospect you see something you could have done something differently to change the outcome? Please share it with me, since I guess I’m too slow to think of it myself.” Sai opened his mouth, but said nothing. Kakashi’s voice gentled. “Sai, having no feelings for your teammates wouldn’t have led to a different outcome today, but those feelings are the reason you’ll care enough to search for a way to help them tomorrow, right?”

Sai finally lifted his chin to look Kakashi in the eye. A tentative smile appeared on his face, small but rare in how genuine it was. Kakashi smile in return, visible only as a crinkle of his eyes. “I know it seems hopeless, but try not to worry too much. There’s some parts of your story that I find very…interesting.”
……………………………………………………………………………..
“We’re almost home.” Sakura-chan turned to Naruto and smiled.

“Don’t get too excited. We’ll probably head out to deal with the rest of Akatsuki very soon,” a voice said behind him.

“Oh, stop being so negative, bastard.” Naruto replied, not bothering to turn around.

“Yeah, stop being so negative, Sasuke. Naruto is right. Also, he is sexier than you,” Sakura-chan tossed back dismissively.

“Hnn. Well, you’re right I guess. If I wasn’t so suspicious of being happy, I wouldn’t have made the mistakes I did, although maybe I still wouldn’t have been able to resist Naruto’s amazing sexiness. I’m sorry Naruto. Can you really forgive me?”

“Well, you are a complete bastard, and I am irresistable, so I guess it’s not that surprising. I forgive you; I’m just glad I beat some sense into you before you did anything worse.”

“I’m glad too,” Sasuke replied humbly. “To prove my gratitude, I insist you have my cool sword. It is made of ramen.”

“Wow, I didn’t notice that before! Thanks, Sasuke.”

“I’m just glad that weird seal thing changed when you came to your senses, Sasuke, Sakura chimed in. “Now our necks grow strawberries instead!”

“I like strawberries,” said Sasuke.

“Your strawberries are the sweetest, Sakura-chan,” Naruto offered gallantly.

“You’re so wonderful, Naruto. Let’s get married.”

“What about my strawberries?” asked Sasuke anxiously.

“They’re ok,” Naruto allowed, “but sometimes they turn evil and eat people’s heads.”

“Well, you should try one because they aren’t evil right now.”

“Really?” said Naruto, turning.

“No.”

“Argh, get it off before it eats my head! Help! Evil strawberry! Evil Strawberry!”
……………………………………………………………………………….
Naruto awoke with a slight headache and a bad taste in his mouth. Reluctantly, he opened his eyes. He was lying curled against Sasuke’s chest, his head pillowed on Sasuke’s shoulder. The room was dark, but he could make out Sakura’s still form the other side of Sasuke. He stared at her with numb horror, his whole body stiffening. He hadn’t protected her. He began to pull away, but Sasuke’s grip tightened implaceably. “Don’t start a racket here; let her sleep,” Sasuke murmurred into Naruto’s hair. He looked up at Sasuke, his expression bewildered. Sasuke sighed. He needed to establish the ground rules with Naruto anyway. “Wait here a second.” He nudged Sakura gently, and she rolled over. He deftly climbed over Naruto and padded over to the closet to grab a robe for Naruto. He tossed the robe to Naruto, who had by this time sat up. “Bathroom. Let’s go.”

Naruto wrapped the robe around himself and stood up shakily. Wordlessly, Sasuke wrapped a supporting arm around Naruto’s waist. The idiot had fought the seal so hard his body was even more weakened than Sakura’s despite his greater stamina. Unfortunately, that hadn’t stopped him from throwing off the effects of the sleeping pills in about half the expected time. Sasuke walked Naruto into the bathroom and left him leaning against the sink. He closed the bathroom door and turned to face Naruto.

The bewilderment was gone from Naruto’s face, replaced by hard-eyed anger. “I’ve put up with a lot of shit from you, Sasuke, but you went too far when you involved Sakura-chan. You don’t need her as bait, and she’s never done anything to you but love you and try to help you at every turn. How could you do this to her? Goddamnit, are you just determined to do something so…HORRIBLE…that I have to try to kill YOU for once? Is that it?”

“Oh please. She’s been obsessed with me since before we were gennin. How much would you really object if Sakura held YOU down and had her way with you, Naruto, and how traumatized would you really be afterward?”

“If she were only doing it for…I mean...afterward I’d… don’t talk about Sakura-chan like that!” Naruto sputtered, deflating slightly as he thought about it. What was he going to do?

Sasuke eyed Naruto coolly. He’d known that Naruto was more easily swayed by Sakura than himself, but it still nettled him to hear Naruto admit it. “Considering she’s mine, I will talk about her however I want. There’s not much you can do about it, either, since you are too. You seem to have forgotten that. I’ve been too nice.”

“Nice!?!”

With blinding speed Naruto found himself shoved to the ground, his head hitting the floor with a dull thud. “You want to see not so nice?” Sasuke questioned, his hand on Naruto’s throat squeezing not quite hard enough to cut off Naruto’s air supply.

Naruto glared back. “Fine, so you’re winning for now, but seals can break. The only thing that really ties me to you is that I care about you, and that’s what you keep saying you want to throw away, you stupid bastard.”

Sasuke smirked. “Seals can also be reinforced, moron.” He released Naruto’s throat, deliberately brushing his hand against the seal as he did so. Naruto shivered. “As for the rest of it, believe what you want. You’re still going to follow the rules. You will not attack me unless I specifically state a sparring session is underway. You will not leave Sound. You will not leave any room without my permission. You will not create Shadow Clones unless someone other than me is threatening your life. You will not attempt to convince other people to do any of the things I’ve forbidden you from doing for you. You will not attempt to contact Konoha. You will not lie to me. Understand?”

“No. I don’t understand why you’re doing all this crazy weird stuff when we were COMING TO HELP YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE!”

“I want your obedience, not your help.”

“Well too bad!”

“Hnn. That’s my line, idiot. I already warned you about what happens when you resist the seal, but you always did learn everything the hard way. Do you understand my orders: answer me.”

“Argh-I understood, you jerk,” Naruto growled, shaking his head to clear it from the effects of the seal. The way it made him want to obey Sasuke freaked him out, particularly with the bastard still sitting on top of him. The seal was definitely going to make things more difficult, Naruto admitted to himself, but he’d dealt with handicaps before.

Sasuke stood up, hauling Naruto to his feet. “Back to bed. Are you going to go to sleep or do I have to drug you?”

“A choice! Where does this amazing generosity come from, oh great Sasuke-sama?”

“You woke me up raving about evil fruit. I’d prefer to avoid a repeat,” Sasuke replied, one hand on the door handle.

“I-no, I don’t want the pills,” Naruto replied, suddenly subdued. Sasuke could feel him stiffen again as he got within sight of Sakura.

“She really is fine.”

“I guess I’ll see in the morning,” Naruto replied distantly. It wouldn’t have made you happy if she wasn’t going to be fine, but it might not have actually stopped you, Naruto thought. I don’t know if I can let that go.

Sasuke glanced sideways at Naruto, deciding not to press further, or make an issue of the way Naruto huddled at the far end of the bed. He’d pushed Naruto far enough for one night, and the idiot would probably role over here as soon as he fell asleep again anyway.