The Sound of Dreams

AN: I hope you all like the chapter! Lot of angst here, but it is all in the name of plot!!

I wanted to thank you all for the awesome reviews that I have been receiving! I don’t want to clutter up the story too much (really wish Aff had a system where I could reply like LJ does), but I wanted to say that they are lovely and I appreciate every single one of them!! And a big welcome to my new readers!!!!

A couple of new fanarts that I think are just fantastic!!

First is by Kimmiko16 on deviantart! This is the link to the black and white pic, but it is in color as well! It is the picture that Sai drew of Sasuke when he was making fun of him several chapters back! http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/60697610/

The next is by Glorial on deviantart and is just stunning! http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/60981534/


Chapter 65


Tsunade stared at the report in front of her with unseeing eyes. She knew that she should hear word one way or another from the teams she sent to intercept Orochimaru very soon. She could only pray for the best, fear for the worse and hope that she got something in between.

A hurried knock on her door interrupted her brooding, bringing a small frown of worry to her features.

“Enter,” she barked.

Kotetsu stuck his head in the door. “Gai and Kakashi’s teams have entered through the main gate and are headed towards the hospital with casualties,” he relayed without embellishment.

Tsunade, knowing better than to inquire whether they were successful or not, nodded and immediately stood to meet the returning shinobi. Although rather unorthodox for the Hokage, she took to the rooftops and sped her way to the hospital, burning with the need for answers.

She found Hinata waiting just inside the entrance for her. “Report,” she snapped as she walked up to the Hyuuga.

“Hokage-sama,” the timid girl began, “Sakura-san has moved the wounded down to sub-level one to tend to their injuries. We have three severely wounded, one that has been unconscious for the last several days and some minor injuries. No fatalities. The remaining team members that are not guarding the patients are in one of the waiting rooms.”

Tsunade was already on the move down to the next floor after Hinata had started her account. As their heels rang out on the stairs, she finally let herself ask the question that she most wanted answered.

“Did you bring him back?” It was unneeded to say who she was inquiring after.

The smile on the girl’s face was answer enough for the Sannin. “Yes, Tsunade-sama. We brought him back with us. Kakashi-sensei said that he was back in control.” The smile faded. “He is the one that has been unconscious however.”

Tsunade nodded, concerned but not inordinately so. There could be many possible reasons and she didn’t want to borrow trouble until she had her facts.

Hinata led her past the waiting room where the others were to the cluster of medical rooms.

“Lee-kun is being tended to by Ino-san, Hiroki-chan is in Sakura-san’s care, but Sasuke-san needs to be seen by you. He has multiple broken bones, some internal bleeding as well as having a … limb removed. Kiba-kun and Shino-kun are in the room with him, although I don’t think he is in any condition to try to leave. Naruto-kun seems uninjured but in a coma. Gai-sensei and Kakashi-sensei are watching over him,” the quiet, pale-skinned teen continued as she stopped in front of the room containing Sasuke.

Tsunade wanted to go check on Naruto first, but realized that medical concerns came first over a potentially dangerous but comatose brother-figure. As long as he was under observation by two powerful jounin, there was no valid reason for her concern.

As Tsunade opened the door, Hinata handed her a scroll. “Sai made this on the battlefield. It has Sasuke’s wing on it.”

The Sannin was briefly confused until she remembered Naruto’s description of Sasuke when they had fought at The Valley of the End. He had mentioned the Uchiha having some kind of strange wings.

The Hokage nodded curtly, took the scroll and went in to evaluate her patient.

*********************
It was a few hours later that Tsunade walked tiredly from the room that contained the now-sleeping Uchiha. She had been able to heal all of his injuries except for a rather bad laceration running down his left shoulder blade. The wound had resisted healing and would reopen even after she had mended it.

She had then wrapped him up as best she could so that he could recover from the healing that he had already endured. Tomorrow, when he was stronger, she would have him activate his cursed seal so that she could reattach the wing. She had a feeling that the severed appendage was what kept him from healing completely.

He had groggily demanded to know how Naruto was doing and she could only answer that she merely knew that the blonde hadn’t regained consciousness yet. She had then put the teen to sleep so that he could recuperate better.

Tsunade walked to the other two rooms that contained patients to see both sleeping quietly in their beds. With the wounded tended to, she quickly moved down to the last occupied room.

Opening the door, she saw Gai and Kakashi watching over a still figure on the bed.

“Hokage-sama,” Gai greeted respectfully.

Kakashi nodded his head, but remained quiet, his eyes immediately going back to the bed.

“Where is Yamato?” Tsunade asked, knowing that the man would be best to handle any surfacing of the Kyuubi.

“He took a pretty bad backlash hit from the Kyuubi. He is resting in the waiting room. He wasn’t willing to leave until he had been debriefed,” Kakashi murmured quietly.

Tsunade nodded as she walked up to the bed. She looked down and gasped at the features that met her eye.

“What happened?” she demanded angrily.

Kakashi let out a small huff that was his form of a sardonic laugh. “Where to start?”

“How about the part where Naruto looks like some kind of demon hybrid rather than the teenage boy that left his village almost a year ago!” she said through gritted teeth.

“While I was inside of his head, I found him literally tied to the Kyuubi with hundreds of chakra strands. I think they are probably the reason why he looks like he does now. Someone actually bound him to the demon.”

To prove his point, Kakashi lifted the side of the blanket up and pulled out a sleek, red tail.

Tsunade closed her eyes in despair.

“There’s four of them,” Kakashi informed her, causing the leader of the village to shudder slightly in reaction.

There was no way in hell the counsel would ever see past this.

“We’re going to need to move him,” Gai said hesitantly. “We trust him, we know him, but we have to demonstrate that we think of the village first and a friend second.”

“You’re talking about moving him to the sealed room,” Tsunade said without inflection.

Gai reluctantly nodded. “That way no one can claim that you are not impartial.”

“I’m afraid if I move him there, they may not let him out again,” she whispered.

“If they see him like this and he is not in that room, they may take him out of your most competent hands,” Gai said gently.

Tsunade moved the blanket down, lifted Naruto’s shirt and gazed at the seal which was plainly noticeable. Usually the markings only surfaced whenever the young man molded chakra, but there it was, visible for the whole world to see.

“What about Orochimaru?” she asked as she slowly lowered the shirt back down.

“It seems as if Kyuubi killed him,” Kakashi stated with a half chuckle. “In a fit of lover’s rage.”

Tsunade looked at him strangely.

“I guess what they say about a woman scorned applies to demons as well,” he added rather blandly.

“Why am I afraid to ask what you mean?” she drawled slowly.

“Even supernatural creatures are not immune to love’s powerful sway,” Gai intoned emotionally, his eyes holding a suspicious wetness.

Tsunade sighed. “Okay, I want a full report on what happened. Every detail.”

*************************
After Kakashi and Gai had relayed the entire account of the fight against both Orochimaru and the two Akatsuki members, Tsunade gathered everyone in the waiting from to address them.

“I am sure I don’t have to tell you that the details of this mission are completely confidential and are not to be discussed with anyone other than myself or with the Jounin present,” she announced sternly. Both her stance and expression lightened as she gave them all a small, but warm smile. “You all did an excellent job and have much to be proud of. Now go home and get some rest, you deserve it.”

“What about Naruto? How is he?” Sai asked from his perch on the edge of the single coffee table in the room.

“I don’t know yet. He is still unconscious and I have yet to fully examine him,” Tsunade answered honestly. “I will need someone to stay to guard Sasuke. Someone who isn’t a medic-nin,” she added after seeing Sakura and Ino perk up.

“Have Sai do it, it isn’t like he wore himself out during the fight,” Kiba groused.

“That sounds like an excellent idea,” Tsunade agreed, overriding anything that was about to issue out of Sai’s open mouth. “Neji, Hinata, if you two are up to it, I would like your assistance in examining Naruto.”

“Of course, Hokage-sama,” Neji answered in his smooth, quiet tone.

“Anything for Naruto-kun,” Hinata said with a small blush.

“Sakura, how are Lee and the runt?”

“Both are doing well, Tsunade-shishou. They should be ready to leave after a few days of rest,” Sakura answered happily.

“Excellent. Go home and get some sleep. I will expect to see you back here in eight hours to check up on everyone as well as assume your regular duties upstairs,” Tsunade informed her.

“Everyone else is dismissed then. Guards will be set up in this area both to keep people out as well as a precaution for our patients. You will be informed when you are needed,” the Hokage said in closing.

With both bows and murmurs, everyone took their leave excepting Sai, Hinata and Neji.

After everyone had left, Tsunade led the way down the hall, dropping Sai off to stand guard inside of the Uchiha’s room. They rounded a corner and continued until the hallway ended by circling a round room.

In the walk area surrounding the curved walls, kanji and seals were engraved into the concrete floor, which were mirrored on the ceiling above. The continuous wall was heavily inscribed as well, completely sealing the room and whatever was in it off from the rest of the building. All of the symbols glowed with an eerie blue light, indicating that they were active.

Tsunade walked up to the only door that broke the smooth surface of the wall and made a hand seal to unlock it. She pushed the door open and led the other two into the room itself.

Neji couldn’t help but notice the thickness of the walls. There would be no way that someone could break through them without a large amount of chakra at their disposal, which would be impossible with the seals, nor would much noise escape thus leaving the rest of the hospital in peace.

The lines of blue light were also inside the room along the base of the walls on both ceiling and floor as well as up on the walls themselves, mimicking the sealing done outside of the room.

There was a small curtained partition that hid a metal commode and sink from view as well as the small, tiled stall that held a showerhead and drain, but it was the only area that was afforded any privacy. A medium-sized futon mattress was spread out in the middle of the floor, upon which was the still form of Naruto. Otherwise, the room was bare.

Tsunade led them over to the unmoving figure and pulled the blanket away from his body. “There doesn’t seem to be anything medically wrong with him. There isn’t any reason why he shouldn’t be awake. What concerns me most however, is what Kakashi said about him being somehow tied to… what’s inside of him.”

She looked up at the two pale faces wearing almost identical looks of concern. “I need you to look at his chakra pathways and tell me if anything is wrong with their flow.”

Neji nodded and immediately activated his bloodline limit to examine his friend. He had seen Naruto’s chakra system on more than one occasion and was relatively familiar with it. His eyes widened in horrified amazement as the hopelessly tangled chakra threads came into view. The purplish cords were wrapped around the pathways, some snarled in knots, some broken and trailing off and yet others seemed to be almost melded into Naruto’s own network.

“Oh gods,” he whispered without realizing it.

“What is it?” Tsunade asked, fear making her tone sharp.

“Someone has attached numerous threads to Naruto-kun’s own chakra system. It might have been neatly done at one time, but it looks as if it has been mangled beyond all recognition at this point. Some of the threads are burned out, some are torn apart,” he shook his head in disbelief. “It appears as if it should be choking off his chakra, but instead it looks as if it is feeding into it.”

He studied the threads, trying to find a point of origin. “It is a wonder his own pathways haven’t burst under the strain of the excess chakra,” he murmured.

Tsunade shifted a little uncomfortably. “His body is used to channeling large amounts of power,” she explained uneasily.

“Most of these threads seem to lead back to the seal upon his stomach,” Neji finally announced. “From there, I cannot tell where they go.”

“Is there any way to detach them?” Tsunade asked hopefully.

“I can see them but it will take a while to trace down where each ones goes and to be able to remove it without hurting Naruto-kun,” Hinata spoke up. “They are wrapped around his organs and twined throughout his body. Some are even threaded in his brain. It will take a while to do since we will go through chakra pretty fast by keeping the Byakugan up and injecting just enough chakra to disrupt the threads to break them without harming the system that they are attached to.”

“How long are we talking about?” the Hokage asked warily.

Hinata and Neji looked up at each other, seeming to communicate silently with each other for a moment.

“Weeks,” Neji finally replied. “And there is no guarantee that we will get them all. Some might not be removable.”

“What about the eyes?” Tsunade asked after a moment of absorbing the prognosis.

“Oddly enough, they are clear,” Neji informed her. “Nothing needs to be done to them.”

“Can we remove them and give him back his own eyes without disrupting what you need to do?” she asked while gazing down at the relaxed, whiskered face.

“Just any delay that he might need for recovery. Otherwise, it shouldn’t be an issue,” he replied thoughtfully. “If nothing else, it will help because it will be one less thing that is drawing upon his chakra.”

Tsunade stood up, brushing non-existent dust from her hands. “We will do it tomorrow then while I replace Uchiha’s wing. After that, you can start to untangle him.”

“I just hope that we can reverse his physical abnormalities,” Neji said quietly. “I would not want Naruto-kun to live with even more prejudice than he already does.”

Hinata nodded in emphatic agreement.

While Tsunade didn’t say anything, she couldn’t help but hope for the same. Now she had to somehow let the counsel know that both missing shinobi were back in the Leaf without them wanting to storm down and take a look at them. Perhaps if she placed emphasis upon Sasuke, they wouldn’t think that much about Naruto. After all, they still didn’t know all of the details surrounding his absence.

Tsunade only hoped that she could keep it that way.

*************************
Naruto walked through the cage door, leaving the Kyuubi behind to rest fitfully. Of all the things that Naruto thought he might have to do in his life time, comforting a heartbroken demon hadn’t really been on the list. Had he not cared so deeply about Sasuke, it might have been enough for him to swear off falling in love completely.

He gave a stretch then allowed his conscious mind to surface once more, to once again take control of his body and find out what in the hell was happening.

Naruto blinked open red swirling eyes, frowning as everything presented itself in sharp clarity. It was almost an information overload for his unprepared mind. He could see everything in his room from the weave of the curtain around the privy to the dust motes that floated in the air.

He pushed the blanket off of his lap, freezing when he saw the sharp claws tipping his fingers. His acute eyesight immediately picked up the excessive hair on his forearms, making his eyes widen in shock. His hand went to press against his face without him being aware of it as he tried to deny what his eyes were showing him in gruesome detail when he became aware of another facet of this nightmare.

His face felt strange.

Slowly running his hand over his skin, he felt how his lower facial structure was now somehow even with the tip of his nose.

In a fit of panic, he finished flipping the covers off and rushed to the toilet area where there was a polished metal mirror mounted on the wall. He stared in stunned horror at the animalistic features that gaped back at him.

He started pulling and tearing frantically at his clothes, anxious and yet afraid as well to see what laid beneath them. Tatters of orange and black cloth fluttered almost gracefully to the floor to his strangely perceptive vision as he frenetically searched for other changes in his body. Other than his toenails being sharper and his pubic hairs being more fur-like, it seemed he was spared any other indignity.

Something red flickered in his peripheral vision.

He spun around quickly; not catching sight of whatever it had been that had teased his senses. He almost relaxed when he saw it again, once more causing him to spin. He growled in frustration and tensed, ready to pounce if he saw it again. A few moments passed by before he saw the telltale flicker of red.

He lashed out and grabbed the furry appendage, yanking hard on it to capture it. A corresponding yank at the base of his tailbone caused him to yelp in surprised pain. His eyes were once again wide as he stared at the fur in his grasp. He tugged gently upon it, feeling the pull where his back met the crack of his ass.

As he stared, he saw another flicker of red.

“What the fuck!” he exclaimed as he reached behind him, feeling for additional tails.

He found four of them.

He had tails.

Four fucking tails.

He had four mother fucking tails growing out of his ass!

Shock slowly gave way to despair. He was a fucking freak now. He would never be accepted, never be acknowledged except as a demon. He would never be allowed out of here. They would chain him down like a dog in a kennel and he would never see the proverbial light of day.

Despair quickly gave way to anger, but he had nothing that he could vent it upon. Catching his reflection once more, he let out a strangled yell and immediately tried to put his fist through the image.

The metal dented, distorting the view of the beast within it. He raked his claws down the surface, wanting to destroy the picture that seemed to be burned into his mind from his accursed, too perfect vision. Strips of metal curled under his nails, falling in glittering ribbons to the floor.

A shard of metal jabbed into his finger, the pain bringing him back to himself, making him aware of his heaving breaths and the need to cry burning in his eyes.

Oh gods, what would Sasuke say? Would Sasuke turn away from him? It was one thing to have a demon sealed inside of him; it was something completely different to look like one.

His gaze lifted to the mangled remains of the mirror once more, wondering how anyone could truly love him now. He met Kyuubi red eyes in the reflection, feeling his chest tighten in anxiety when his new, superior vision picked out a detail that he had previously overlooked.

Instead of the expected black slits, he was faced with a pinwheel which was currently spinning furiously. His breath froze in his chest and a chill numbness seemed to spread throughout his body.

Both Itachi and Sasuke had been on that battlefield when Orochimaru had surfaced and he tried to convince himself that they could indeed be the elder Uchiha’s eyes. But something deep inside of him knew better. Something deep inside of him recognized the small lingering essence of the tissue. The something told him without a doubt, without an iota of mercy, that those eyes rightfully belonged to his lover.

If those eyes were Sasuke’s, then… Sasuke was… then Sasuke was…

No.

…then Sasuke was…

NO.

…then Sasuke was…

“NO!” Naruto screamed out, unable to finish the sentence, unable to contemplate the idea, unable to comprehend the loss.

Surges of emotion boiled up and then out of him, blinding him to everything but the pain gripping his chest, strangling him in agony.

Metal shredded like paper under his hands, metal from the mirror, metal from the bathroom fixtures. The cloth of the curtain ripped and tore until it was mere confetti drifting to the ground.

…then Sasuke was…

Ceramic busted and broke under claws, raining dust and debris down on his head as he repeatedly slashed at the mosaic tiled walls.

Eventually his rage ran down and he was left gasping and sobbing as he fell to his knees amidst the shards of fired clay. Wounds opened and sealed almost immediately as the sharp edges cut into skin, but he didn’t feel them. He was numb. Numb and cold and hollow inside.

If Sasuke was no longer here, then he didn’t want to be either.

He allowed himself to fall, his mind already turning inward, seeking comfort from the only one that could possibly know how he felt right now.

TBC