The Cost
of Vengeance
By Ami-Chan
Chapter II: Young Fears
Flames swirled in the air and Sasuke walked through them plainly. Looking straight up he could see it, the castle which his brother Itachi had been hiding out through the smoke of his fire attack. All of Itachi’s servants were dead now, so it was his turn. Sasuke threw the double doors open with great force before he made his slow steps inside. It was odd; Itachi was nowhere to be found despite having the rumors of him being a hermit around all the villages. Was he dead, or did he flee his own castle? It was much different. He could tell that now, as he could hear faintly, the sounds of kunais hitting the walls.
“Someone’s trying to finish him off before me, huh? I’ll have to stop them,” Sasuke thought.
-Next Room-
“This is the end for you, Uchiha Itachi! Take this, Rasengen!” Naruto was at the last of his nine-tails chakra, and his strength. This was his last shot.
“You’re foolish,” Itachi muttered.
The Rasengen’s impact began to take effect on Itachi and it started to cut his flesh away. Yet he made a straight rush through it without a serious injury, and before he knew it, he was right in Naruto’s face. Naruto couldn’t react. He was frozen in fear and surprise that his greatest jutsu was so easily shielded. Without warning, mercy, remorse, or speech, Itachi thrust his kunai hard into Naruto’s heart. The door flew open with an angry Sasuke suddenly going into shock as he watched Naruto’s pale, lifeless bloody body slump forward to the ground. Itachi wore a twisted satisfied grin on his face holding the kunai in his hand. Sasuke made slow steps, his reason beginning to give out as he knelt at his dead friend’s side. He placed his fingers over his face, and he couldn’t feel the warmth of life he could sometimes feel on himself. His hand clenched into a fist and his sadness turned to anger. Itachi would definitely pay.
“Itachi…how could you? How could you…involve him in this?” Sasuke stammered in between bursts of anger.
“My dearest Sasuke…you should be ashamed. You were so busy seeking out power from Orichimaru that you weren’t in time to stop him. Wasn’t he a member of your new clan? Didn’t you care deeply for him?” Itachi mocked him.
“I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!” Sasuke shouted as his chakra went wild.
“What the…his chakra is…greater than the nine-tails,” Itachi said astonished.
“Goodbye, brother. It’s the end for both of us,” Sasuke said latching on to him.
“Naruto, I will join you soon,” Sasuke thought as his eyes welled up in tears.
A white light emitted from Sasuke’s body and it exploded throughout the room. Itachi and Sasuke were burned to ashes, and the castle lit up in flames. Everything went black. Sasuke gasped and awakened, looking all around him. Was he still alive, was what he saw real? He looked at his hands. He was solid enough, and he was still back at the cave. Everything he saw was just a nightmare. It seemed as though it was actually happening, and it could. Sasuke was having second thoughts about going to Orichimaru, but who else could give him enough power to win against Itachi? He was going to head east for now, to see what the spirits of his mother and father thought he should do. After all, this quest was for them.
-The Leaf Village-
When one sees dreams, they wonder if they are real or could possibly become real. Sometimes dreams are merely telling a person to change whatever it is they are doing with their current life, but they also tell fates. Destinies are foretold in the only place where the subconscious of a person’s mind can portray these images, within one’s sleep. Sasuke wasn’t the only one whom fate revealed itself to. Naruto too saw what was to be not too far from where he is now.
“That guy right there is Orochimaru…I remember him, and the curse seal. What’s he planning to do with Sasuke while he has his hand grasped in his?” Naruto thought, just letting the images play like a rolling movie in a theater.
“Do you feel satisfied with your power, Sasuke?” Orochimaru asked. “Or do you hunger for more?”
“I feel I don’t have enough…without enough power, I will never have enough hatred,” Sasuke answered greed-filled and power thirsty.
“SASUKE YOU-
“My voice…it won’t come out! What is this?” Naruto thought as he could feel his vocal cords locked within his throat.
A cut suddenly appeared on Sasuke’s chest right below his heart and blood spurted as he rushed backwards to the floor. Who struck him became visible after slowing their speed. Naruto couldn’t believe it. It was Kabuto. Sasuke rose and held his wound with just one eye open. He gritted his teeth to bear the pain and kept himself standing with pride.
“You tricked me by hitting my weakest spot, huh? I should have expected it,” Sasuke said calmly.
“Sasuke,” Naruto thought nervously as he clenched his fist.
“Do you think that I’d give you, a gennin of my most hated village my power? Your naivety is unbelievable, Uchiha Sasuke!” Orochimaru laughed aloud.
“You son of a-
Sasuke’s speech was interrupted as he vomited blood and knelt on one knee in his own blood pool. Naruto reached out, and the image shattered. Black was all around him until he could faintly hear a voice. It got louder and louder. Now it was familiar. That voice was his sensei Iruka’s, and he was only having a bad dream.
“Naruto, wake up!” Iruka called as he shook him.
“Huh…? What? Sensei, is it morning?” Naruto said as he wiped the sleep from his eyes.
“It’s almost noon, Naruto. I had no idea you slept on the windowsill all that time…Why were you staring outside that window?” Iruka asked curiously.
“I got carried away…I was staring at the moon,” Naruto gave a not so clever excuse to mask his feelings.
“So, are you setting out on a mission with the others to get Sasuke back?” Iruka quickly changed the subject before angering Naruto again.
“I can’t take anyone else with me. In the end, Sasuke will only listen through me beating it into him,” Naruto answered.
“Whatever you say,” Iruka sighed.
“See you later!” Naruto waved goodbye as he opened the door and raced out.
“I can sense Sasuke’s chakra now…he’s not too far. The Uchiha Shrine, huh?” Naruto thought as he charted his short course.
-The Uchiha Shrine-
Long ago, after the bloodshed of the entire Uchiha clan, there was a great shrine erected over their former home. There were many memories that Sasuke shared there, with his parents, his aunts and uncles, and Itachi. He could see the ghostly images of his past start to come alive in flashbacks. Sasuke sat cross-legged in front of the shrine and folded his hands. He rested his chin on his folded hands and stared blankly at the names on the shrine’s gravestone. Uchiha Yakuro and Uchiha Henika, those were his parent’s names etched in the granite slab. Sasuke clenched his hands together tightly. At this time of need, he hungered for guidance.
“Mother, Father…I’ve sought out revenge just like I know you wish me to. I am uncertain whether or not to accept an offer from a man named Orochimaru. Help me if you can,” Sasuke begged as he kept his head bowed to their grave.
“Uchiha Sasuke…your plea falls upon deaf ears,” A sinister, shady voice said behind him.
“You are-
“Yes, it is I, Orochimaru,” he answered, grinning.
“It was honestly too easy to find you,” Kabuto commented.
“So, will you give your power to me, Orochimaru?” Sasuke turned around and faced him after he stood on his feet.
“Oh yes, Sasuke, you’ll receive it soon,” Orochimaru answered. “We can’t keep you waiting on your vengeance, so that means I must give it to you right now.”
“I’m ready,” Sasuke willingly offered out his hand. “Get it over with.”
“Don’t be so hasty, Sasuke. You’ll get it right now,” Orochimaru reached out his hand and took Sasuke’s.
“Right now, he feels a surge of power, like I’m draining mine to him, but it’s only a false feeling I can create with just my immortality alone. Hah, Sarutobi. Even though I can’t use jutsu, that won’t last long…not when my real plan comes into play,” Orochimaru contemplated in sick pleasure.
-Near-
Naruto jumped from tree to tree drawing nearer to Sasuke’s chakra. Something bad was about to happen, and he could feel it with his sixth sense. What did Orochimaru have in store for him anyway? There had to be a price to this great power Sasuke was supposedly receiving. There’s no way a wicked freak like him could be trusted. When Naruto met up with him, he was going to show him what it meant to endanger his comrades. Naruto landed in a tree not too far from the shrine now. Everything was right below him. He could see Kabuto dipping kunais into a strange green liquid. It seeped into the kunai until it didn’t even appear. What was he up to? Naruto turned his attention to the entranced Sasuke. He seemed in rapture as the fake power surge traveled through his body. Naruto’s fox eyes detected swift movement. It was Kabuto. He was in the right direction to attack Sasuke with the daggers tainted in poison. Naruto gasped and called to him.
“Sasuke!” he cried.