A Scrap of Humanity

A Scrap of Humanity


Part VII


To Ache for Him


Naruto POV


I could not believe all that had happened in the past few days. I had seen my love's face and all in the same instance found out that he was one of the most dangerous s-class missing nin, if not the most deadly. Uchiha Itachi was one of the most wanted men in all of Konoha with the exception being Orochimaru. Sasuke was whimpering in his sleep probably due to the curse seal said snake man had left. Tsunade had already healed Sasuke from his tsukyomi induced coma, but I was sure that it was still causing a few lingering nightmares. I gazed at Sasuke feeling horribly guilty for the secret I was keeping. I'd seen the brutal side of his brother, and yet I couldn't help it. I still loved him.


Sasuke had rolled on his side and opened his eyes while I was deep in my thoughts. I looked at him then almost immediately pushed my eyes to the floor. I felt so ashamed. Sasuke mistook my looking away as guilt for not helping. I could feel his eyes burning into me.

"So that was him... the one you want to kill?" I couldn't believe that I was asking such a question when I already knew the answer.


He clenched his fist tightly and nodded. I gazed at him not knowing how deal with such openly expressed anger. I never will understand why I did what I did, but I climbed onto the hospital bed with him and kissed him softly. His enraged shaking stopped and I felt him relax just the slightest bit. I pulled away and hugged him.


"I'm not ready to lose you Sasuke. I was so afraid for you. I couldn't do a single thing to help you, my best friend." I sighed when I felt his shoulders slump. "I don't know what you consider me, but you're important, more so than just my rival." I sighed and continued, "You inspire me to work hard because I want to be like you. I want to be able to defeat you fairly."


The back of my neck began to tingle as if some one was watching. I moved away from Sasuke and off the small bed. He looked at me questioningly, but I yawned pretending to be sleepy and left with a wave. I moved quickly from the hospital hallways and made a path for the roof. The presence became more noticeable as I reached the top of the stairs. When I opened the door I saw him. My hunter, the murderer of his clan. Anger welled up inside of me at his deceitfulness. That one bit of knowledge that completely changed things, and yet didn't. I charged at him and punched him hard. He merely took the blow as his head snapped to the side. I pulled at his cloak and slid to the ground in a sobbing heap.


"Why? Did it have to be you?" I cried, "Why couldn't it be anyone else?" I felt him moving to kneel with me, "All this time I've been rejecting my best friend for the one person he's trying to kill. God, I'm such a traitor. "


His cloak fell around me as he hugged my sobbing form. "I don't wish to take back my actions since they deserved what they got. A corrupt family riddled with greed and lust."


"That doesn't make what you did right!" I pushed away from him. "Just because there were greedy people in the family, it doesn't give you the right to kill them all!"


"Would you rather it had been Sasuke to do it?" He stood up looking quite formidable. "Would you rather me have just left and let Sasuke suffer the pain of knowing he killed his own mother and father? He would've done it. The Uchiha clan is centered on power. He wanted to be like me, I could see the killer in him even at that age."


His questions surprised me. For the second time in my life I felt afraid of him. He stepped toward me as I backed up. I stopped as my ankles hit the edge of the roof. His had caught the front of my jacket dragging me away from the edge and into his arms. I collapsed into him not quite crying, but just holding him tightly, mournfully.


"It isn't fair! Why is it you? Why?" I kept repeating over and over again.


He pulled me up and kissed me sweetly. The softest of his kisses I could ever remember. I sighed into his mouth and kissed back desperately. The small shreds of hope I had were shattering all around me. I just wanted this to be a dream, I'd wake up and Itachi would still be an ANBU and not the murderer of his clan.


"Go back and sit with him. He'll be looking for you."


"Are you going to kill him?" I asked as Itachi pulled away from me.


"That's for him to decide...." he whispered and then disappeared over the edge of the roof.


Sasuke POV


Up to this point, all I've been doing is playing around. The gap of power between him and I is still so large. He must not be human. And Naruto, he gets stronger every time I turn around. It's like he's some kind of jutsu machine. It's very disheartening because it feels like I'm falling further and further behind. The sad thing is, in some ways, sometimes I don't care. Especially when Naruto does random things like kissing me and telling me he isn't ready to lose me. Then I realize it's all an illusion and he has a secret lover. I shook my head. I couldn't let Naruto get in my way; he was just a distraction to keep me from my ambition.


"He's just a distraction that keeps me weak."


"Who is?"


I hadn't even realized when he had entered the room again. His face was streaked by past tears and his hair a tousled mess. Quite frankly he looked beautiful. I stared at him for a long time not wanting to break my gaze with those beautiful, cerulean eyes. Those broken eyes that bore into me and yet I wanted to hurt him. Hurt him and make it all go away. Make myself remember that I wanted power.


"You are..." I stated, my expression not changing and my stare not leaving his.


I could see all kinds of dark emotions flit through his eyes. It almost scared me. His expression changed from hurt to anger very suddenly. I thought I saw red filter through his irises but it was gone quickly so I must have been imagining it. I expected his annoying yelling to come immediately after, but I was surprised when it didn't. His eyes faded back into a sad expression as if his heart was crushed. He looked down and then back up at me with a soft glare.


"You're the one that keeps yourself weak." He turned from the room and walked away.


I wouldn't take that. How dare he think something like that, think he was stronger than me. He was weak and a hindrance to my gaining power. I dashed after him and slammed him face first into the wall with my own body and held him there.


"Don't you dare call me weak, dead last!" I crushed him more into the wall. "You're the last person that should be calling me weak!"


"You aren't so high and mighty!" I felt an elbow to my gut then found myself staring into his eyes again. They were so defiant. "Caring about people doesn't make me weak!"

He shoved me away and ran off down the hall. I turned and growled. I was tired of being cooped up here. I was staying weak by sitting here in a bed being fussed about. I slammed my fist into the wall as a cough bubbled up inside of me making my world spin. I pushed off the wall and stumbled back into my room. Perhaps some sleep would be ok for now.


Grey skies filled my dreams. Grey skies and Naruto. Naruto was laying in the shade near the practice grounds. He looked happy with one hand stretched out toward the sky. Then his face was sad and in pain. When I looked back there was a person standing over him. Naruto's breath came in short pants as the person continuously stabbed him in the chest with a kunai. As I walked closer to him to try to help I froze when I recognized the face. It was me. I was killing him. I was the one driving my kunai into his chest make him cringe and writhe in pain. He didn't cry out though. His hand stayed frozen pointing toward the sky. I watched in horror as my dream self continued to stab him relentlessly.


I jolted awake to the sun hitting my face. I moaned and turned on my side noticing the presence of an unwanted visitor. I felt the weight of the bed dip as she sat down on the edge and began to core an apple. I grunted and faced away from her and back out the window.


"How are you feeling today, Sasuke-kun?" She chirped in a flirty voice that I just found sickening. "I brought some apples if you'd like them."


I ignored her, even when she sighed in defeat and continued to watch two birds outside the window peck at a squirrel. The shifting of the bed next to me snapped me out of my reverie and I turned to glare at her for invading my personal space. She ignored my glare and placed her hands on my arm. I snapped.


"Don't touch me." I pulled away and stood up. "Go away and don't bother me again."


"Stop being so mean to Sakura-chan. She's just worried for you!" I turned and glanced at Naruto. He was beautiful, and distracting...and he was keeping me from my ultimate goal.

"Why? You're both weak. You don't deserve my courtesies."

Naruto frowned at me for a moment and then started laughing. "Try me bastard and you'll see how weak I am." His expression was deadly serious.


I smirked and motioned toward the window knowing he'd follow me. I was anxious to fight him like this. One on one. I could see his anger flare up inside of him as he landed, but he was smiling. I glared then sneered at him. He wasn't taking me seriously. He came at me with the force of a tidal wave. I dodged and laughed at him, inside though I was amazed. He was only playing with me and yet his power was so massive. It was going to take a Chidori to stop him. Quickly, I charged one up and came after him. I watched in amazement as the flames from my previous katon licked at his body and then dissipated into the energy surrounding his hand. The force of each of our attacks seemed to pull us together until suddenly I found my hand jammed through the barrel of a water tower and Kakashi-sensei holding my wrist. Naruto was sitting on the ground a small pool of water forming from the tiny hole in the barrel he got tossed into. I smirked. He's weak.


Naruto growled when he heard our sensei's voice. His eyes flared up then faded back to calm blue as he stood and turned his back. "It's not worth it anyway." I heard him mutter making me angry. Since when did he have the right to be like that?

I heard him being chastised by an older man then noticed that he was under the tutelage of one of the Sannin. He was talking levelly with this man. I looked at the two platinum haired men and then got annoyed and took my leave. As I leaped from the hospital roof, I notice that the barrel that Naruto had hit had the whole back side of it blown out from his attack. There was no way I was going to let him be stronger than me. I wanted out of this damned village. It was all bad memories anyway. I decided that I would leave tonight. No one would know and I'd follow the path Orochimaru had opened to me. That snake bastard. He'd die once I got what I needed and then Itachi would be next.


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As I walked quietly down the midnight roads, I listened carefully for the sounds of other shinobi. I could not chance getting caught. A noise to my left alerted my attention. I took to the rooftops to get a better vantage point. My vision zeroed in on a couple in a darkened alley. At first I thought it was just a drunk and a whore, but then I noticed a flash of sunny hair. My heart pounded as I sneaked closer. This could be my chance to find out who that man was that had stolen Naruto. I could hear a soft moan from my teammate. The shadowy figure had Naruto pinned to the wall and was kissing him breathless. Naruto looked erotic under the moon. His cheeks were flushed, his lips pink and swollen, and his eyes closed in an expression of bliss, an expression I wanted him to make for me not some stranger. Naruto pulled away slightly to take a deep breath and then wrapped his arms around the man's neck and leaned his forehead to the other's. They seemed to be whispering and completely unguarded. I crept closer, but I was stopped by a silver needle jutting out of the roof mere centimeters from my foot.

The man had known I was there. That made me even angrier. He was just parading how much he owned Naruto. I turned and left before I did anything I might regret. On my way out though, he tried to stop me. It was so annoying. As if he'd think I'd stay for him. The only one who could even have a hope of keeping me here was too enthralled with some strange perverted ninja that was probably much older than him. I wasn't bitter about that at all. It didn't matter now, I was going to leave that life behind me and focus on the one goal I should have been focused on in the first place, the destruction of my traitorous brother. I didn't need that blonde idiot distracting me with false hopes. I was truly alone in the world and I would exact my revenge. Maybe when that was done, I could knock some sense into my Naruto.


The silhouettes of those dumb mutants stood out against the moonlight. They were to be my escorts, but really I wished to be rid of them. They stopped and informed me of the way the snake bastard's seal worked. I agreed cautiously to what they were doing, my want for power pushing away the warning bells in my head. It was so dark, but I could already start to feel the power coursing through my veins. It was a thrilling feeling. All of a sudden images began to come to me. Images of Itachi. His superior smirk as he told me I was weak, the death of my family, and so forth, but the last image was one I had not seen before. It angered me to a breaking point. My Naruto and his mystery lover, but only now his lover had taken Itachi's form. I tried to push the image away, but each kiss I'd seen Naruto share with the stranger was now a treacherous kiss with my brother.


In this darkness it was the most infuriating thing I could see. My mind suddenly latched on to it in thoughts of what if. Was it possible that Itachi was the secret Naruto harbored? How many nights had Naruto whisked away somewhere to meet him? What if Naruto was deceiving us, deceiving me? I pushed it away. Naruto was too dumb and too loud to hide a big secret like that. But yet I still wondered. In all honesty I didn't really know Naruto all that well, and in some ways... Well, it kind of scared me. To not have that familiarity was a strange notion. I wondered if Naruto would even care that I was gone. More importantly I wondered what the future would hold after this bleak darkness.


A/N: Holy hell in a handbasket! I am soooooooooo sorry for the lateness of this! I had wanted it out 4 months ago, but school kept getting in the way and stressing me out. I really wanna thank my Beta AMAI!!!! (grovels) for being so patient and then all of you guys too. I hope you'll enjoy this. FYI: since school has taken up so much of my time, I have scaled out the whole plots to this fic and MbJ so hopefully updating will go much quicker. Thanks for all the response. I love you guys. This is not an update. AFN was missing a chapter so I had to repost things. Chapter 8 will hopefully be out soon.