Chapter Text
Naruto quivered, he couldn't Imagine he would ever get to this point. He was submerged in the nine tails cloak, standing on a quaint rock in this deep valley, drenched in the rain that was pouring down. There across from him, the Uchiha who had left their renowned village for all the wrong reasons. Two creatures full of nothing but hatred and relent towards each other up until this point. Yet, they both still had such a strong connection even in these conditions. Sasuke always had so much dignity, always kept to himself. So why was he listening to this Orochimaru all of a sudden? When he first met Sasuke, Naruto never truly understood how much hate Sasuke truly did have for Itachi. What lengths he was willing to go to just to kill him. He would've never imagined him leaving and going to someone as toxic as Orochimaru. Sasuke just looked so visibly out of it. Everything in his mind was a muddled haze of rage, and all he wanted to do at this point was kill. He was so tired and felt so weak. Something someone as hyper as Naruto wouldn't understand.
"Sasuke, why? Tell me why the hell you would do this! Everyone on team seven loved you! I thought we were in this together? You promised you had enough dignity to not leave! We all went through so much effort to stop you, to help you Sasuke. Was it all nothing to you? You're going to die If you go to Orochimaru!"
An empty feeling coursed through Sasuke's veins. It hurt. It hurt so bad, being alone every night and staring at the empty ceiling, in an empty room. Everything is always empty in his life, no one truly loves him. They love his power. He had nothing but Itachi to have resent towards, why was it him that had to suffer like this?
"Die with me, Naruto."
Naruto gave him a confused look,
"Do w-what with you?!"
Sasuke smiled and started laughing,
"The leaf did this to you Naruto! Don't you understand? How can you just be...so accepting of everyone there all of a sudden? They shunned you away for half of your damn life! They just continue to keep you held up there so they can use you as a Trump Card whenever they see fit! You're weak without the nine tail! Just a....weakling."
Sasuke cried out as he put his hand on his neck, his curse mark was fluctuating. Did Sasuke really feel this way? Naruto wasn't weak, and Sasuke knew that. He just wanted to feel like he had power, to feel like he was stronger than everyone else around him.
"Sasuke, what are you talking about? You're so stupid....did you know that? H-Heh..so stupid."
Naruto was actually starting to believe Sasuke at this point, was it really all just a lie? Did they just want to use Naruto?
Sasuke groaned as began shaking and tears started running down his face, he was so submerged in his own pain and didn't know how to cope with it anymore.
Naruto looked deep into Sasuke's dark red eyes,
"Sasuke, I love you. You just don't get it. I think of you as a brother, did you know that?"
"I don't have another brother! My REAL brother is the one I am aiming to annihilate. We're both used as little toys that the leaf would throw away whenever they see fit. With someone like Orochimaru by our side we would be able to show those selfish leaf shinobi who we truly are! Show them what it means to have real power."
Sasuke's skin and eyes darkened as his hair grew scarily long. He had been consumed by his anger.
"Chidori!" Sasuke screamed. He was going to kill Naruto and get the Mangekyou Sharingan. He couldn't stand listening to his reassuring comments any longer.
As Sasuke ran up to Naruto at full strength with his chidori, Naruto looked deep into his eyes. Once he was finally close enough, Naruto used his reflexes to dodge the chidori and hug him.
"It's okay."
Sasuke's chidori fizzled out, he wasn't expecting this.
Naruto grabbed onto Sasuke more firmly as Sasuke let out a loud cry. Not because he was mad at Naruto, because he was letting it all out. By it, I mean the pain. Sasuke had been keeping it in for all of his life, with no one there to be by his side. Yet here Naruto was, hugging him in such a calm and understanding manner. Naruto started running his hand through Sasukes hair as the two boys' anger came to a halt and they both returned to their former selves. They both slowly sunk to the floor still in each other's arms.
"Let's run away together, okay? We will both no longer be used for power. We will become something, with Orochimaru." Naruto smiled. Sasuke nodded lightly.
"Sure."
The sun came out from under the dark previously rain filled clouds and shone warmly onto the valley. The two boys' eyes felt heavy as they fell asleep one after the other.
Sasuke's eyes slightly opened and he pushed himself off of Naruto. They had to go before it was too late, he assumed they had been napping for around 10 minutes. He then stood up and kicked Naruto in the gut so he would wake up.
"Ulp!" Naruto yelped,
"What was that for?"
"C'mon, we have to get going before someone else gets here."
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Kakashi came to a halt as he honed in on the vast valley In front of him. He had felt a surge in chakra coming from this area and had assumed the two were fighting here.
"Any trace of their scent, Pakkun?"
Pakkun raised his nose up into the air and started to sniff.
"They were here not too long ago. " Pakkun barked. Kakashi sighed, he had to find his two students. No, needed too.
"Anything else?" Kakashi asked the small pug.
"I'm sorry, but there isn't. The rain washed away practically any trace of their scent."
"Great, I guess we'll just have to wait and report this to Tsunade-Sama. I don't know where to go from here if we don't have any leads. Naruto might as well be dead."
Kakashi sounded like he didn't care, but it couldn't be further from the truth. He just lost the two students he was entrusted with. What would he do if he never saw either of them again? More importantly, what would all the other leaf shinobi think?
"Sasukeeeeee where are we going? We don't even know where Orochimaru's layer is." Naruto groaned, as his stomach started to growl.
"Heheh- I guess I'm hungry."
"God Naruto, why do you have to be so damn annoying?"
"I'm not annoying you're just full of yourself! Now answer my question-"
Sasuke sighed, Naruto was such a nuisance.
"Orochimaru wants me, so I'm assuming he will be the one to seek me, or I guess in this case us out. So for right now, we're just going to try and get as far away from the leaf village as possible."
The two kept leaping from branch to branch for a while. It was utter silence, they were both filled to the brim with exhaustion, but they had to keep going. After another few minutes of continued jumping Sasuke had come to a quick halt.
"Ouch!" Naruto had leapt right into Sasuke's back because of his abrupt stop. Sasuke had recognized the ominous aura and knew exactly who was near the two.
"O-Orochimaru." Sasuke gasped.
"What!?? He already found us?" Naruto yelped.
A laugh started to echo through the forest as Orochimaru emerged in front of the two.
" I see you have the Jinchuriki with you, Sasuke." He laughed.
"He decided to come with me."
"I'm very disappointed in you Sasuke, I was sure you would've used your new powers to kill him."
"I left the village like you asked, what else do you want from me?"
Orochimaru smirked.
"Okay, Okay I get it. No need to get so hot headed Sasuke-kun. Just follow me."
The three leapt and leapt for what felt like hours, Sasuke and Naruto knew the layer wouldn't be close but they never imagined it would be this far away. Naruto let out a small groan as his stomach growled yet again.
"I could really go for some ramen right now, believe it..." he muttered.
Eventually, as the two boys' legs felt like they were about to give out they had arrived.
Kabuto was standing right outside of the layer,
"Orochimaru-sama, why do you have the Jinchuriki with you?"
Orochimaru turned his back to stare at Naruto, and then back at Kabuto.
"No reason. Now let's go find these boys' rooms."
Naruto looked very confused. He had never heard the word Jinchuriki before, why did they keep referring to him as one?
"Sasuke, why do they keep calling me a Jinchuriki? What is that?" Naruto asked him.
"It's not important, now shut up before I slit your tongue."
All four of them then walked into the layer. It was very musty inside, and looked like no one had been there for decades. While walking down the different halls you also couldn't help but smell a pungent odor of what seemed to be the smell of dead corpse.
"Is this really where we're staying?" Naruto muttered to Sasuke as Sasuke rolled his eyes, and ignored the ignorant blonde boy. After a little while longer they had arrived at a hall with several different branches, that all had different doors placed throughout each.
"I'm going to go. Show them to their rooms." Orochimaru muttered.
Kabuto nodded and walked down one of the many branches, arriving at two doors.
"Naruto your room is there," Kabuto said while pointing to one of the doors,
"And Sasuke, your room is right there."
He finished while pointing to the room right next to Naruto's.
"Sorry, but I'm gonna have to lock you both in because...you know."
Both Naruto and Sasuke emerged into their rooms as Kabuto smiled and walked away. Naruto was miserable inside of his room. It was dusty, and all that was inside was a small light, a bed, and a singular toilet. It was almost like he was a criminal inside of a prison cell. Naruto could only hope they had better rooms somewhere in this place.
"Are we going to get any food!?" Naruto cried as he scratched at the door.
"I could really go for some Ichiraku about now." After groaning a bit more and fidgeting with things around the room Naruto collapsed onto the floor from exhaustion. Unlike Sasuke, who stayed up all night. He couldn't help but wonder what Orochimaru would do to Naruto, would he train him? Or....kill him.
"Not like I care." Sasuke said to himself. Or maybe he did care? Sasuke was so unsure of his feelings at this point. All he knew was he wanted to get stronger, and fast.
"They what?" Sakura screamed.
"Was everyone chasing after Sasuke for nothing?"
Kakashi sighed,
"I'm afraid so. We're not even sure about the whereabouts of Naruto. He could possibly be dead."
Sakura crashed to the floor and started crying.
"T-they're both gone...they're really both gone."
Tsunade got up and walked over to Sakura,
"Calm down Sakura, it will all be alright."
"I don't know what to believe anymore! Sasuke left, and Naruto could be dead! And on top of it all I am way too weak to do anything about it!"
Sakura didnt know how to feel any longer. She felt like a bug squashed on a log. Just sitting there lifelessly while the rest of the world is being productive. Would she ever be able to get stronger, let alone even locate Sasuke?
"Sakura, this may be a long shot but as the only current member of team seven left....I could possibly teach you a new Jutsu." Kakashi exclaimed.
Kakashi was also very distraught. He usally wouldn't want to rack up the effort it would take to train someone like Sakura. More importantly, Tsunade was already teaching Sakura, so he wouldn't have to do a thing right? That was Kakshi's mindset for a very long time. Up until now, that is. He couldn't help but feel guilty. Guilty he trained someone as selfish as Sasuke, and guilty he didn't train Naruto, the kid who could possibly be dead right now because of Kakashi's tactics.
Sakura wiped away her tears and stood up,
"R-really?" She said while hugging him.
"Err, yes. I would advise you to get some rest, this training will have to be pretty gruesome if you plan to get anywhere close to Sasuke's skill level." Kakashi responded while pushing Sakura off of him.
"Yes Sensei!" She said while walking away. She was smiling while pacing herself away from the hokage's office, but tears were still dripping down her face. She couldn't help it, she may never be able to see Naruto or Sasuke again. She could also maybe die while trying to find there whereabouts.
"I...will get stronger. I-I will no longer be just another fallen Sakura petal."