An Interwoven Web Of Deceit

Okay, here is chapter nine. I found it a particularly strange one while I was writing it, purely because of the first part. It came to me while I was at work. Because of this, the main part that I was looking forward to writing is actually in the next chapter.

I hope you enjoy this and I hope you find it nice and confusing.

Please read and tell me what you think.

AN INTERWOVEN WEB OF DECEIT

Dreamscapes And Planning

Usually Naruto dreams in different colours. Vibrant yellow, cool blue and forest green. Usually he dreams of open fields with large streams and fish shoals. Of running through these fields, feeling wind on his hair and thoughts of pure freedom flowing through him.

He knows that this is because of the Kyuubi.

The Kyuubi wants his freedom. To be able to run through these fields again, taste the fresh air and drink the clear water.

But he cannot.

Naruto senses a deep longing during the times that he has these dreams and he knows that it is not him. It seems that, while the Kyuubi cannot influence his waking thoughts, he can interfere with his dreams. That in itself scared him. It was the thought of waking up out of sleep, to find out that the Kyuubi had taken over his body and massacred the village. He had told the Third about this fear a few years ago, but had been comforted by the old man when he was told that it wasn’t possible and that his own will controlled the beast within.

At first, he thought that the new dream he was experiencing was also because of the Kyuubi, but he changed his mind quickly. Oh, he knew that he was dreaming and he knew that it was partly the Kyuubi’s dream that he was experiencing, but there was more to it than that. It also didn’t stop the dream from being any less vivid.

It had started out very simply. He was standing in that same grassy open field, a gentle breeze moving past him on a warm day. The sun was shining brightly in a deep blue sky. It was the kind of day that he would have gladly joined Shikamaru in his ‘cloud watching,’ even though there was not a cloud to be seen. It was so peaceful.

A faint growling then reached his ears and Naruto realised that it had come from his own lips. Then he felt his body move forward, slowly at first, then faster and faster until the countryside became a green and blue blur.

His perspective suddenly changed and instead of seeing the colourful countryside, he was inside a room full of ninja’s. Recognisable as Konoha’s ninja’s, due to their headbands, but no one he recognised. The ninja’s were all seated around a table in the centre of the room. The room itself was quite large, but had no windows and lamplight cast shadows on the walls. Each one long and spider like, looking nothing like whom they belonged to.

“How are we going to stop that thing?” One man on his left asked. “If it gets here, it will destroy the entire village.”

“We know this,” another man, this time on his right said, “but what can we do? It’s a Demon. How do we stop a Demon?”

“In any way possible,” a lady down the table replied, getting to her feet. “Aren’t we supposed the give our lives for the safety of this village?”

Naruto stared, but couldn’t make out any of the features of the surrounding ninja’s. All that he could make out was the rough impression of their clothing, their gender and their shadowed faces. All in all, it was pretty creepy.

“Enough,” a voice said sternly from behind him. A voice that he recognised. Slowly and once again out of his control, he turned his head to stare at the figure behind him.

“Jiraiya.”

The voice that came out of his mouth was a smooth baritone, but commanding. It was not his voice, but that of an older man.

“I’m sorry,” Jiraiya returned, then stared back at the table full of shadowy figures.

“We will do what we can, but our first priority is to protect the villagers.”

The table erupted in conversation and Naruto involuntarily closed his eyes. The noise in the room suddenly vanished and instead, he heard a roaring noise. He opened his eyes again quickly and stared in shock at the chaos and destruction around him. Shops and homes had been destroyed, with debris scattered everywhere. Fires were dotted everywhere and sounds of faint screams were a constant background accompaniment to the disaster around him.

It was then that he realised that he was staring down at the village from a height. With this realisation, came the discovery that he was reliving one of the Kyuubi’s memory’s. This was confirmed when he spotted one of the Konoha ninja’s moving through the air towards him, making hand seals with a very determined look on his face.

“DIE YOU MONSTER!”

Naruto gasped in horror when the man was flung backwards at such a speed, that he hit the side of the Hokage monument with a loud and sickening crack.

Staring down at himself, he didn’t see the fox’s body or claws, but saw only his own, naked body.

He was covered in blood!

One of his hands held the largest quantity of the red liquid, slowly becoming darker with the introduction of oxygen. His hands were dripping it down his arms and the tips of his, now longer fingernails. Small pieces of flesh from the man who had been knocked into the mountain, was trapped under his nails.

“Stop this, stop this,” he began to shake, not really noticing that he could talk now when he couldn’t before. “No!”

Blood continued to drip from his hand in a steady flow, as if it was coming from an open wound on himself, then suddenly everything went black and images of the village and the wind and the smells disappeared.

“REVENGE!”

The word reverberated through his skull.

“REVENGE!”

Naruto woke up at that point, yelling loudly in the dark apartment….

xxxx

The bathroom had become very steamed up, very noticeable when the shower had been turned off. The mirror itself was completely fogged over, until Sasuke wiped his hand over the surface, just enough so that he could see his face.

He had red eyes. That much he noticed straight away. Red rimmed eyes with black shadows. His lack of sleep explained that. He was also very pale and the expression on his face, looked as if he’d come to a conclusion about something but wasn’t sure that he liked it. This was actually kind of the case.

He wanted to kiss Naruto!

Badly!

When Naruto had collapsed due to his headache and had been helped by Tsunade, Sasuke had felt concern and protectiveness for the blonde. When Naruto had trusted him enough to tell him his biggest secret, to comfort him and touch him were the two things that he wanted to do. When these two things were achieved, kissing him was next on the agenda.

That might have happened, had Ino not have come in at that second. He had been both relieved and angry, then scared at how his emotions were getting the better of him again. On his way home , thoughts of Naruto’s lips and how he had wanted to taste them had accompanied him the entire way.

That was when the realisation of what he was thinking had hit him, the reason why he was angry when Ino and Naruto had become close and the intense hatred and jealousy he had felt against Ino when he had discovered them dating.

He liked Naruto. He liked him in the way that he was supposed to like girls.

This moment of recognition had forced him home, to his room and into his bed, shaking in shock and disbelief. After a few hours, when he had calmed himself down a little to actually have a clearer mind, he began to think about all of the things about Naruto that irked him which, when put together, made up what was Naruto.

He had been awake all night and all of that day, trying to get his emotions into order and had finally reached the conclusion that he had fallen for his blonde team mate. Hard. Hence the reason that he wanted to kiss him.

Sasuke wasn’t adverse to liking another guy. He was pissed at the poor timing and the way that he had realised it. Ino was an obstacle that he had to overcome before he could move forward and claim the other boy as his own. But how? What could he do?

Sasuke left the bathroom and went back into his bedroom. His bed was just as he left it. Rumpled from all of his tossing and turning. His clothes lay scattered on the floor and his weapons pouch lay across his chair, discarded absently the night before.

He sighed and grabbed a clean pair of night shorts from his draw and then slipped back into his messy bed, still thinking on what to do.

He did have a slight idea. It wasn’t very good but was the best that he had at that point. Then again, a few modifications, and it might work out quite well.

Sasuke smirked and closed his eyes. Tomorrow. Tomorrow he would arrange and execute his plan!

xxxx

“Are you sure that you’re alright?”

Ino stared at her boyfriend worriedly. After he had woken her up the night before with his yelling, he had been quiet and slightly distant with her. He had told her that he had experienced a disturbing dream but didn’t want to talk about it. He had then promptly curled back under his covers and closed his eyes, muttering an apology for waking her. Now, during breakfast, he was just staring into his bowl, swirling the wood tasting cereal around with a spoon.

“I’m fine Ino. I’m just tired, that’s all.”

He smiled at her them, one of his fake, plastic smiles. When he smiled like that at her, when she knew that it wasn’t real, it was obvious that something was going on that he wasn’t telling her.

“Naruto…”

“You’ve got to see Tsunade-baba today, right?” he interrupted, leaning back in his chair and dropping the spoon into his bowl with a clank.

“Yes,” she grasped her wrist with her other hand. “This afternoon. I promised to go shopping with Sakura this morning.”

Naruto stared at her, dropping the plastic smile much to her relief and placed a hand under his chin.

“Well, if you want me to go with you, I’ll be waiting at the field by the training ground for you. I’m just going to relax this morning.”

“Okay, sure.” Ino breathed a sigh and smiled. She got up from the table and then leaned over and kissed Naruto gently on the cheek. “I’ll be going now. See you later.”

“Er, yeah. Sure.” Naruto turned his head away from her and picked up his spoon again.

Ino wasn’t sure what to think when she closed the front door behind her. Naruto was hiding something and it was beginning to worry her. She thought she knew everything about the blonde boy now, since she had found out about the Kyuubi, but obviously not. He was still hiding.

xxxx

“I truly hate girls bedrooms!”

Sasuke was sitting on a pale blue bed, next to a pale yellow dresser on which an array of fluffy toys were situated. If anyone had walked in at that moment, their first thoughts would have been why was Uchiha Sasuke sitting in the bedroom of Yamanaka Ino. The room that she had left while she had temporarily moved in with Naruto. Truthfully, he didn’t want to be there either, but he needed a few things from her room to succeed with his plan. Things that he couldn’t believe that he was even considering taking

“I hope no one actually sees me with this stuff,” he grumbled, stuffing what he had taken into a small bag. A small bag with kittens etched all over it. “I knew I should have brought my own bag with me.”

He hoped that he had left the room like he found it. Unbelievably clean and tidy. Fortunately, Ino’s parents had been out, so getting in had been relatively easy. He wasn’t one for breaking and entering, but he had known where the spare key was kept. Of course he had to use that to his advantage. Getting in was easy enough. Getting out was going to be the hard part!

He left Ino’s bedroom and crept down the hall towards the staircase, keeping his head low so that he was invisible to anyone outside who would look in that direction. He reached the bottom of the stairs, listening for any noises that could signify that someone was on their way back in.

Luckily for him, he made it outside the house without any error and had managed to lock the door before the sounds of other people made themselves known. He had enough time to duck for cover before Ino’s parents began walking down the main street. Ino’s home had two entrances. The front door which was also the flower shop, or the backdoor which was the main door that the family used to get in and out of the house. It was also the only door that Sasuke had found the key to.

Ino’s parents entered the house and closed the door, making no acknowledgement that they had noticed a strange presence hiding in an alley near their home.

Sighing, Sasuke crept forward and slipped the key back where he had found it, then quickly sprinted away, before anyone caught sight of the bag that he was carrying.

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I do hope that you enjoyed this. The next chapter will be out soon as I know exactly how it will go.

I hope I portrayed Sasuke okay. That part was extremely difficult to do but now, his attitude is going to be totally direct and single minded. I love obsession!

By the way, all that Ino gave Naruto on the bridge was going to just be some of the chocolates they both like, but it seems that I neglected to actually put that into the chapter. Rie Baka!

I’m not really using the honorific in this story. Its more the chan and kun for closeness. I’ve never been exact so I’m not going to overdo them, k?

Thank you for reading and please review.

Rie

xx