Chapter 8
Moving swiftly, Kakashi and Tsunade took a protective stance in front of the younger shinobi while Shikamaru and Sakura both took a position that let them easily cover Naruto's bed from the immediate danger. Their eyes never left the Uchiha, and were wary for any movement. Sasuke, on the other hand, only continued to crouch on the windowsill. None of the occupants of the room moved, their bodies still and tense. Sasuke simply observed the scene, his eyes roaming over each of them in turn until his gaze landed upon eyes of an unusually discolored blue. The eyes were seemingly blank and empty as marbles except for a brief flash of recognition. Sasuke's smirk didn't falter as the empty blue eyes were replaced in his sight with the green of a jonin's vest.
Raising his eyes, Sasuke looked slightly bemused at the nerve of his former sensei daring to use the Sharingan against him. "How amusing."
Tsunade was the first to find her voice. "How dare you show your face here." Her voice was low and held both obvious venom and tension.
Sasuke tilted his head, feigning confusion. "I thought that you despised the dobe? After all, aren't you why he's like this? You allowed him to be slowly killed by that prison and those people because you couldn't deal with the guilt. Ha! If you had truly believed for a second that your precious grandson was innocent, you wouldn't have been so quick to condemn him." Shrugging his shoulders, he continued. "But that's Naruto for you. Always so trusting in his 'precious people'. Always so willing to put his well being in the hands of others." Black eyes looked mockingly at them. "And look what happens."
If possible, Tsunade's face lit up in even more fury. She subconsciously took a step forward. The Uchiha was fucking with them, hoping to use their guilty feelings against them.
Kakashi looked behind the Uchiha and out the window. He quickly noticed that the ANBU that were stationed around the building had yet to make an appearance. He looked at Sasuke. Sasuke sent him a knowing look.
"Oh, don't worry Kakashi-
sensei. I made sure that we weren't going to be interrupted." He paused. "Though, I must admit I find it offensive that you think that a few mere ANBU would stand a chance against me. I thought you would have learned that lesson by now."
Thinking of possible ways of attack, Tsunade inwardly cursed at their predicament. They couldn't fight in a place so public and filled with the injured without severe consequences. She doubted that the Uchiha would be magnanimous enough to put his plans on hold so they could move to a more open area. She was betting that Kakashi was thinking the same thing.
"What do you want Sasuke?" Sasuke's smirk faded and turned into a glare aimed at Sakura. She and Shikamaru stood, kunai in hand, in front of Naruto. The pinkette stared unflinchingly back at him. Her body shook a little but she held her ground and didn't waver.
How very brave of her.
"You are of no value to me. I'm only here for Uzumaki." The smirk was back in full force now. "If you give him to me, I'll leave peacefully."
"Screw you!" The uncharacteristic curse that flew from Shikamaru's mouth surprised the other occupants in the room for a split second before the sound of laughter filled the room.
The crazed sound emitting from Sasuke's mouth sent chills down Sakura's spine, but she held her ground, never moving from her position beside Naruto.
As suddenly as the sound started, it abruptly stopped. The eerie quiet that followed set them on edge, uncertainty flowing through each of the Konoha shinobi.
"How can someone ignore the truth that's staring them straight in the face? You all go around swearing that you will stay with him and protect him from anything that would cause him harm. All of
you are what caused him to need protecting in the first place! I might have set everything into motion, but it was all of you who betrayed that oh so precious "trust" you claimed to have in him! All of you put him in that prison and left him there! You are the ones that put him in that hospital bed! All of
you betrayed him and his trust in you! He could never be in good hands being here with you."
A dark cloud seemed to fall on Sakura and the others as they listened. Sasuke continued on in his crazed rambling, ignoring the changing atmosphere in the room.
"He would be better off in my hands. I have always stuck by the dobe. Maybe not in the physical sense, but he has always followed me, chased after me, thought about me. I was the one who was there for him during his time of need after your betrayal. Of course he would be better off with me! After all, I
am both his rival and his best friend!"
If they couldn't see it before, they could all now definitely see the insanity that lay behind Sasuke's dark eyes. The smile that looked all the more crazed sent chills down Tsunade's spine as everything finally clicked in place.
"You..."
The whispered word was enough for Kakashi to look at Tsunade, his eyes wide in surprise. Confusion flashed over Sakura's face while Shikamaru's held a calculating look.
"Ah, you figured it out. You must feel so proud."
"Kakashi-sensei…" Sakura's uncertain voice seemingly hovered in the air, quavering with uncertainty.
Kakashi's voice was tense as he answered the unspoken question. "There were reports of an unidentified person in the cells. No one knew for sure who it was…"
"Are you telling me that there was a possible threat to the security of our prisons and no one bothered to do anything?" The accusation in Shikamaru's voice caused Tsunade to flinch.
"We…I didn't feel it was necessary."
"How could—?"
Sakura watched the scene in front of her with a strange sense of detachment. She watched as Shikamaru held on to his kunai with a grip so tight that his knuckles had turned white. She watched as her senseis, both new and old, stood stiffly before her in an attempt to protect the one that they had wronged. Like them, her body stood in a position that screamed that she would protect Naruto until her last breath… but her mind was whispering to her.
"What right did they have to protect him? After all, if it hadn't been for them, if it hadn't been for YOU, Naruto wouldn't need protecting in the first place." Her mind felt off balance. She felt like the ground had just been yanked out from under her feet. She felt like she had entered some alternate reality that she couldn't for the life of her understand.
Her mind still addled, she ignored her instincts and took her eyes off of the threat in front of her for just a second. Not even a second, a mere blink of an eye, a puff of breath. Yet that moment would turn out to be a moment that would affect her for the rest of her life.
She watched with that same sense of detachment as the catatonic blonde, her precious teammate and her betrayed friend somehow moved and fell from the bed. The resounding thud that echoed in her mind seemed to still her thoughts and snap her back to reality. She quickly rushed to Naruto's aid, trying to steady him. She was so focused on her teammate that she forgot that she wasn't the only one in the room. She never acknowledged the surprised looks on her comrades' faces or the sick and knowing look on Sasuke's.
Her heart leapt in her chest in excitement. Naruto was finally moving on his own! He was responding to something in the room! For a split second, Sakura thought that it was her presence. Then she noticed that his movement weren't ones of steadying himself after months of immobilization but of an attempt to get away from her.
"Naruto?"
His eyes that were so empty and lifeless only a short time ago now held a hint of recognition in them. Her breath caught in her throat when she noticed just who he was looking at.
No. No. No. Her heart ached. This couldn't be happening. It just couldn't. Not after everything that had happened, not after everything that they had learned.
Stop looking. Stop looking. Stop looking! "Naruto!" Her voice was desperate and pleading.
It was Sasuke! He was the cause of this! He was the reason why her teammate had fallen so far! She couldn't handle this too! She looked up at dark eyes that were ignoring everyone else in the room and trained on the diluted blue eyes across the room. She watched as the traitor moved from the window, raised his hand slightly from his side, and spoke with a tone so soft that if she had not known who had spoken she wouldn't have sensed the malicious intent behind it. She watched with a sick realization that things were never going to be the same after this.
"Naruto."
Several things happened in that moment.
In a fit a rage, Kakashi threw the kunai he was clutching at his former student. The kunai missing Tsunade by an inch as she launched herself at Sasuke, ignoring the danger that she was potentially placing the other occupants of the hospital in. Gathering her chakra, Tsunade aimed a fist at the Uchiha in an attempt to kill the traitor. Sasuke dodged all of the attacks, the smirk only increasing the absolute hatred in them to the point of seeing red. Tsunade paused and sent her leg into the air in a swift spin kick and swung her trailing arm around in a backhand punch when the kick missed. Sakura could only watch with tears in her eyes as she tightened her grip on Naruto when his struggles increased. Shikamaru rushed to help her subdue the blonde.
Sasuke avoided every attack that was sent his way without lifting a finger to attack. With every missed attack, Tsunade's rage grew even more. Kakashi attempted to keep up, but even with the Sharingan, he couldn't match Sasuke's movements. He tried to keep his anger under control, and was successful until Sasuke had the nerve to mention his Sensei.
"My my, failing both to protect his son and defeat the one who caused him harm. What would your Sensei say, Kakashi?"
Kakashi bit the inside of his cheek harshly. While Tsunade was a juggernaut of rage, he couldn't afford to fly off the deep end with her. He understood that Sasuke was just messing with them. He hadn't really come here to take Naruto. He came here to rub the truth in their faces, to make them feel so guilty that it took them off their guard and left them sleep deprived. Already the peace of the village had been disrupted by petty squabbles, and communication between some people had become strained or cut off completely. The relationships between the Hidden Villages were also on thin ice because of their actions. To some people, the guilt was eating them alive.
Shikamaru watched Sakura keep a strong grip on Naruto, even though his struggles had ceased and he was slipping back in to unconsciousness. Whatever the Uchiha had done, it had obviously caused a reaction from Naruto. While it wasn't one that Shikamaru would have liked, more like he hated it, he was sure that the next time Naruto woke, he would finally be back from whatever state he had hidden himself away in. Shikamaru looked up at Sakura's tear stained face and couldn't help but smile grimly.
He was sure that when Naruto did next awaken, he was going to hate all of them.
Sakura knew that the grip she held Naruto in was sure to leave bruises on his pale skin, but she didn't have the heart to let him go. She could hear furniture breaking, the numerous "Get Well" bouquets and presents that had been resting on the various tables and countertops in the room shattering. She vaguely wondered why no one had yet bothered to come and inspect the noises coming from the room but decided it was probably for the best. The last thing they needed was one of the civilian nurses coming in and getting hurt.
Looking up, she saw Sasuke dodge another swing from Tsunade and land crouched back on the windowsill. Tsunade didn't bother to attack him again, instead using that moment to calm herself and simply glare at the Uchiha.
The door swung open and Sasuke watched as Neji stood in the doorway, his Byakugan staring intently back at him.
"Uchiha!"
Sasuke looked at all of them closely, taking in their reactions. "How pathetic. You treat the legacy of the man you view as the hero of your village worse than you treat the dirt you walk on for years, but now you have the audacity to try and reconcile that wrong with some twisted sense of right? None of you should ever call me a traitor after everything you all have done."
Their eyes widened in shock, Kakashi's and Tsunade's for a whole different reason. How did he….
Sasuke's gaze shifted to the unconscious Naruto. "I will be back, and next time I will leave with what I came for." Then he was gone.
Tsunade closed her eyes, trying to calm her shaking body. She didn't bother to send anyone after Sasuke. She knew by now that if he didn't want to be caught, he wouldn't be.
Finally nurses and a few shinobi came running into the room, followed closely behind by Shizune.
'Funny, how they arrive after Sasuke has left.' Tsunade though, but she didn't dwell on it. Turning, she ignored the disbelieving and, in Sakura's case, slightly hurt, stares the three youngest shinobi were sending her. She passed a weary looking Kakashi and knelt beside Sakura to check on the blonde in her embrace. The sounds of orders being shouted by Shizune and the running of feet were muffled in her ears. She could only hear the soft sounds of her youngest student's voice beside her.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
