tampered | log; on-going

log; on-going

When; December 21st, sometime in the afternoon
Rating; PG-13(?)
Characters; Uchiha Sasuke [[Bad username or site: cursed_ninja / @ livejournal.com]] & Uzumaki Naruto [

frogonaleaf]
Summary; Sasuke asks to meet Naruto to talk to him since he figures that he has yet to be told about the fact he's joined Akatsuki.
Log;

Sasuke stood outside of the Xanadu purposely wearing the Akatsuki cloak given to him and waited for Naruto to come. It had been a while since he'd seen the other after he left the City before. However, since he'd just arrived recently and didn't have any prior recollection of the City, he assumed that the others hadn't informed Naruto of the fact that he'd joined Akatsuki with his team.

He figured that the others were probably to hesitant to tell him, so he decided to meet him to tell him himself because it was better that Naruto find out now rather than later.

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It was taking Naruto a bit of time to embed a map of the City into his head, so he might've been a little late ambling towards the destination Sasuke picked. Also he was feeling anxious as hell. This would be the first time he actually saw Sasuke since, well, since a clone of Naruto's had bumped into him in the forest and transmitted the information back to Naruto. During that mission he thought was finally going to be a success.

Only to be proven wrong yet again. It surprised Naruto that Sasuke wanted to meet with him at all, and though he tried not to let it get out of control (not forgetting what Sakura-chan had told him) he allowed some hope to flourish at the possibility that they might work together as long as they were both stuck in the same place.

Naruto padded closer to the outskirts of Xanadu (he was equipped with weaponry and dressed in his regular ninja garb just in case) and stopped dead in his tracks when his eyes caught sight of an Akatsuki cloak fluttering in the wind. Those same eyes widening when he realized it was in fact Sasuke dressed like that -- and then narrowing, chakra leaking out in a sudden flush of anger. His fists tightened at his sides and his throat felt dry.

The same organization that had killed --

"Is this supposed to be some kind of fucking joke?!"

Sasuke was caught up in thought about how to deal with talking to Naruto, but his thoughts were interrupted because he sensed Naruto's chakra. From the amount of chakra and his reaction it was obvious that Naruto was angry at him, which he expected since he probably had every right to be given what Akatsuki did. Not that he'd joined it for those reasons, he'd joined merely because it benefited his goals.

A smirk appeared on his face before he responsed. "So I was right, they didn't mention this to you"

OOC: So sorry for being so slow!! Holidays are over now so I'll be on top of this and plz let's backthread forever. B);;;; AHHH

"No," Naruto spat back at once. "Nobody did."

Sasuke's expression definitely wasn't helping matters. All he really wanted to do right now was smash his fists against that face, posture growing increasingly tense. Naruto already knew that Sasuke would do anything in his quest for power -- but didn't he have any limits?! The man who had murdered his entire family had been apart of Akatsuki, for god's sake.

"Doesn't suit you," he scoffed and then downright sneered when he took in the sight yet again. "If what you wanted was my opinion or somethin'."

[ooc; it's okay, I've been pretty busy the during the holidays too! I'm all for backthreading this~ ♥! ]

"I figured as much and it seems like you really are the last one to know" The smirk still on his face as he said that. If Naruto had wanted to hit him, he'd probably have expected it since it seems Naruto was getting even more mad just from the tone of his voice.

"Hn. That's hardly why. Since when has your opinion matter to me, Naruto?" he shrugged "If anything, I asked to meet with you so that you'd know sooner rather than later that my team and I allied ourselves with them for the time being because it benefits my goals for avenging the Uchiha clan"

Edited 2008-12-26 18:29 (UTC)

OOC: I hope you had a nice holiday break! :D

"Has anyone bothered to tell you that I have my own vengeance to carry out against your - your allies?"

Naruto couldn't keep his voice down, so he didn't even bother to try. Rage was contorting his features along with a hint of pain; the realization that they would have to come into conflict more than ever before (when really all he'd ever wanted was--) was hard to accept.

"I won't stop until Akatsuki's leader is dead."

[ooc; I did~ I hope you did too!]

"Of course I know that and that's fine, if you want to kill Akatsuki's leader, then by all means go ahead and do that"

In actuality, he really didn't care about Akatsuki that much, since he'd only joined for personal reasons anyway. If Naruto knew what those were, he knew he wouldn't react any better. But that's fine, he expected as much anyway.

Edited 2008-12-26 20:59 (UTC)

Well, at least that was a relief. Sasuke not being all that loyal to Akatsuki despite appearances made sense, actually, since he wasn't even loyal to his home village.

After a pause and an almost thoughtful glance, Naruto gave it a shot: "So why did you join? I thought you'd already completed your goal."

"Personal reasons. I thought I completed my goal too, but it turns out there's something else I need to do" he responded, while wondering how to go about telling Naruto his true objectives. Sakura already knew so he figured that by telling him, maybe that would help get his point across to Naruto that he wasn't ever planning on coming back to Konoha like the other wanted him to.

"Don't suppose you're gonna tell me what that something else is?"

Naruto eyed Sasuke with some mixture of curious concern and healthy skepticism, since they hadn't been allies or friends in such a long time. It had to be something Uchiha-related that Sasuke probably thought was information too sacred to bestow upon someone like Naruto.

He knew Itachi was alive somewhere in this City, but he also knew that the dead walked around here. Didn't doubt that Itachi was dead back in their world. Maybe Sasuke did.

"Well since you're going to find out eventually, I suppose I'll have to" he said, almostly reluctantly. "I doubt you'd even understand though"

"You were the one who asked to meet with me," Naruto reminded him, frowning. Damn condescending --

"So just spit it out, already."

"Hn. I know that--it's because there was more to it than just my brother, he killed the clan on orders"

Naruto froze in place and repeated that back to himself, mentally, just enough times to come to the conclusion that he probably wasn't going to enjoy hearing the answer to his next question. Still had to ask it: "On orders-- from, from who?"

And his voice softened just a touch, though he didn't notice it.

Sasuke clenched his fists as he spoke, "From Konoha"

He could tell that Naruto's voice softened a bit as he asked the question, but even so, he expected him to react the same way Sakura did when he told her about it.

The words struck like Sasuke had jabbed a hot poker into his gut, fueling anger -- but he didn't know who or what he was angry at. His body tensed, he clenched his eyes shut and dropped his chin down. Rumors of a war going on back home and for some reason he couldn't direct any of that frustration at Sasuke (some part of him screeched call him a fucking liar what are you waiting for) because what if that was true --

Naruto understood his home village better than most, having experienced the good and the bad of it. At its best it was home and he was loyal to Konoha no matter what, but at its worst it was an ugly place, an unrelentingly harsh place and that was the simple truth of the matter.

To learn that, at its worst, Konoha might have played a hand in being responsible for all of Sasuke's pain ...

"Why?" Naruto finally replied, lifting his gaze back up and locking it on Sasuke, eyes bright and wavering -- pained, because he had never quite learned how to doubt someone he considered a friend.

Of all the things Sasuke had expected Naruto to say, he hadn't thought he'd ask him why. Because even thinking back to when he first heard Madara tell him the truth, of course he'd think he was lying. His brother was the enemy, that's what he was getting stonger for and he was his reason for everything. But realizing that it was true, it changed things.

In retrospect, despite how he said that Naruto wouldn't understand, some part of him hoped that he would. Because he did once before, right? Back when he was in the City as his younger self. Sasuke pretended he didn't remember mostly because he felt it was irrelevant because even though some things were kind of vague to him, the things he did remember didn't matter anymore because he couldn't keep those promises he'd made.

"It's a long story...but it all started off with discrimination against the clan. The elders of the village thought that the Uchiha were responsible for the kyuubi attack on the village because the Uchiha's powers are the only thing that can control it. It was a natural disaster, but they became suspicious of the clan and thought they were going to start a rebellion against the village. They were guarded and seperated from the rest of the village because of it. However, the third hokage disapproved of it, his advisors refused to listen to him and eventually from that all the mistrust about the clan became reality" Sasuke paused before continuing, just saying it aloud, his body tensed. He could have continued if he wanted to, but how much of it Naruto would believe or even want to hear was something else altogether.

"...Do you still want to hear the rest?"

Edited 2009-01-01 20:53 (UTC)

As far as Naruto was concerned, nothing would ever absolve Itachi of being responsible for his own very severe actions -- but this, this was almost too much to absorb all at once. With his mouth just slightly parted, his pupils darted back and forth in an attempt to read Sasuke's expression while he spoke. The tension in his frame was visible, at least, and Naruto had a strange urge to take a sudden step forward.

It was a moment before he realized he had obeyed that urge. Leaning back a little bit to counter it, he nodded when Sasuke asked if he should continue. "Keep going," he pressed, if a bit shaken by all this new information.

Inside Naruto was warring with two urges -- one to poke holes in Sasuke's explanation and another that he didn't quite understand, which was to take more steps forward and draw closer still. Except he had no idea what he hoped to accomplish once he was there, so he focused on the facts for the brief while: it was a relief to be able to separate the Hokage from the elders in all of this, at least. For personal reasons it was impossible for him to doubt the village's ability to engage in such blatant discrimination. Naruto kept his eyes focused forward and tried to communicate, if nothing else, that he would hear Sasuke out to the very end.

At one point they'd been friends, so he owed him that much.

As he was speaking just a few moments ago, this was still really hard for him to say even though Naruto was willing to listen to him. When he heard the other tell him to keep going, he did just that.

"Okay. Well Itachi's role in all of this...he was somewhat working for both sides. He was a spy for the village as well as one for the Uchiha clan. He put the village first, before the clan because he wanted peace and the elders used that to their advantage and gave him a mission to kill the entire clan. He did everything like he was supposed to, except kill me. It was the one thing he couldn't do...before he left, he asked the Third Hokage not tell me anything and even threatened the elders that if anything happened to me, that he'd expose the truth to the other villages. He couldn't tell me what really happened so he made it seem like he did it for other reasons and gave me revenge as my goal because he wanted to die by my hand without anyone ever finding out."

He paused for a moment as he waited for Naruto to take in what he just said. The whole situation, he briefly wondered how much of it Naruto would even believe.

"Kind of ironic isn't it? I kill the one person who was trying to protect me up until the very end when he died"

Edited 2009-01-08 06:32 (UTC)

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log; on-going

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