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Prologue
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There was a rustling sound coming from the bushes to their left, a clash of metal to their right followed by a groan from their sensei. Sakura sat mostly useless before them as the unseen fight continued.
A silent chant was spoken from atop the trees as the body, or clone of the enemy disappeared in a puff of smoke. The wind decided then to pick up and play with the four shinobi’s hair when the chanting stopped.
“Are they gone?” whispered the pink haired girl to no one in particular.
As the wind settled, Kakashi came from behind them holding his upper arm, blood staining the fabric of his shirt a dark violet color. Sakura shot up to her sensei and almost immediately a pale green light surrounded her hands as she worked to heal his wound.
“We should stay here for the night.” Kakashi said looking towards the two boys staring at the ground blankly.
After the tents were put up, Naruto and Sasuke walked off to gather firewood.
“Sensei, what was that?” asked Sakura.
“…I don’t know…”
“Do you feel different?” Sasuke asked the blonde once he was far enough away from the camp. Ever since that mysterious enemy disappeared, he felt something like a weight in his stomach.
“How different?” Naruto glanced at Sasuke picking up a fallen branch from beside him and breaking it over his knee to make it smaller.
Sasuke looked at Naruto contemplatively before looking at his stomach placing a hand over his abdomen. “Like something in your stomach, eating away at you and making you feel heavier.” He looked back up at Naruto searching his eyes for any kind of understanding.
Though he was giving him a ‘what-are-you-on?’ look, he said “Yeah. The only other place I’ve ever felt this before was in my heart, but that stopped when I became a gennin.”
A snarl was heard from in front of them. They both looked up to stare into far off yellow eyes gleaming in the moon light. Growling could be heard from their sides and they slowly backed away towards the camp.
More yellow eyes appeared and a wild bark was heard before the trampling of paws came their way. Naruto was the first one to bolt towards the camp. Completely forgetting that he could defeat them on his own, Sasuke followed hot on the blonde’s tail.
The image of Kakashi resting against a rock reading his orange book of erotica became more clear and closer until the scarecrow looked up. Seemingly, the image began to recede as their sensei rose from his sitting position with wide eyes, a concerned look on his covered face. The world became lopsided before turning completely to its side and blurring before going black, the last thing they both saw was Sakura coming to see what the problem was, their names being called into the night without a response.
TBC…
This story takes place before the valley of the end. Sasuke has gotten the curse mark from Orochimaru.
The feeling Sasuke tries to describe, if you’ve never felt it before, is that of one of what you feel when you’ve been put down or someone says that they despise you when they act all friendly to you as if they’ve loved you, like you’ve been used. Naruto says he’s only felt it in his heart before because he’s never been used and despised but always been lonely, if you know what I mean…
It’s a horrible feeling, you can feel it best when you have had the best day ever then you hear something that makes the world crumble all around you, and it can happen with just one word too…