I HAVEN'T UPDATED THIS FIC SINCE FEBRUARY! I feel horrible! Absolutely horrible! I'm sorry. I meant to update on the 24th of June as a one-year thing… and I meant to update before then, but I never really had any ideas… BUT IT'S JULY! I have no excuses. So I can only beg your forgiveness! (kneels and begs forgiveness on this poor author's soul) Please don't be angry with me.
I Bleed Black
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Assembling
Jiraiya looked at the student before him, eyes narrowed in thought. He couldn't believe what this boy had just informed him of. Naruto had disappeared. Sasuke had went to the first teacher that he could think of and that was Jiraiya.
The man now sat at his desk in complete silence, trying to think about what to do next. He wasn't entirely sure. He didn't know what he could do for Sasuke, who looked as though Naruto had died or something.
Sasuke sat in silence as well. He was angry, hurt, confused and unsure. Had Naruto really not felt safe around him? Was Sasuke helping the boy too much? Did Naruto hate him?
The mere thought of Naruto hating him sent a deep pain into Sasuke's chest. He tried to keep his face emotionless, but it was getting harder and harder as the seconds ticked by. He just wanted his blonde idiot back.
But he didn't know where he was. He didn't know where Naruto had run off to. He didn't know what he had to do. He just didn't know anything anymore, it seemed. His mind was in turmoil. He wanted to find Naruto, but he didn't want to know why Naruto left. What if Naruto really did hate him? What would happen then? Would that just be the end of all they came through?
Sasuke didn't want anything to end. He wanted everything to continue as it had been going lately and would be damned if he had to spend eternity alone. Maybe he just wasn't cut out for friendship. There were so many doubts and horrors running through the Uchiha's brain that he didn't even hear Jiraiya call his name.
"Sasuke?" the man yelled, having already tried to get the boy's attention at least three times.
Sasuke started, looking blearily at his teacher. He didn't say a word, merely waited for the older man to continue.
Jiraiya sighed. "I can't say I know exactly what to do here," he murmured softly. Sasuke could hear him, though, could hear the regret in his voice.
"There has to be something," he protested in a panicked voice. He couldn't just leave Naruto out there. What if Akatsuki found him? What would happen then?
Sasuke didn't even want to think about such a thing at the moment.
"Don't think I don't know that, brat, but I'm not sure what to do."
"Then I'll go, I'll search for him. I found him last time. I did. He was really cold and…" the boy's voice caught in his throat as he remembered that day. He could remember everything. Naruto had run away from the hospital and ended up in a park, and Sasuke had found him after searching for a while. He had been so happy when he had found him. He wanted to find him again – not to say he had discovered the boy twice, but because he didn't think he could go on without his Naruto here.
"Dammit!" he growled, slamming his fist onto the desk that Jiraiya was sitting at. "Just god fucking dammit!" He sank slowly to the floor.
Jiraiya looked at him. There was nothing he could say or do at this point. He couldn't dissuade him from this point of view, this conviction that he had goaded himself into. All he could do was offer his support for the venture that he wanted.
Jiraiya wrote something out on a piece of paper in front of him before turning back to Sasuke. "I will get all of your teachers to excuse you from classes on three conditions," he told the boy.
Sasuke looked at him, hardly believing what he was hearing. Was Jiraiya just yanking his chain or was he actually going to let him go. "What conditions?" he asked.
"Number one, and this I think is most important," the older man began. "I want you to take Hyuuga Neji, Nara Shikamaru, Sabuka Gaara and Sabuka Temari with you."
"Why Temari?" Sasuke asked.
"If we are dealing with Akatsuki, it is likely that Temari will know what to do. She's smart, she's strong and she can cook."
Sasuke stared at him for a moment before nodding. After all, Temari could be a good asset to the team. Shikamaru was a genius, as much as he liked to hide it and Sasuke knew that he was, so he could get Shikamaru to get them out of sticky situations. From what he heard, Temari was almost as smart as Shikamaru, and that could be very helpful. Gaara and Neji were both strong and he had worked with them before, so he would welcome them in this little expedition of his.
"Number Two, you will maintain frequent contact with me. If I do not hear from you every other day, I will send someone out after you, understood?"
Again, Sasuke nodded. Here, Jiraiya was covering his own ass, seeing as how he was sending a bunch of teenagers against Akatsuki, it was only natural that he be able to keep a close contact with them to ensure that they don't die. And if they did, to ensure that they don't blame him for it.
"What's the third condition?" Sasuke wanted to know as he stared at Jiraiya, standing up straight once again.
"The third condition is a time limit. There's only so much weight I can through around this campus. I need you back here within two weeks."
"T-Two weeks?" Sasuke yelled, slamming his hands onto the desk in disbelief. Was Jiraiya off his rocker? How could he establish a time limit? "What if we don't find him? We have no clue where he could be!"
"Then I suggest you move quickly," was all the other told him. He handed him four slips of paper. "These will explain the situation to the others, as well as tell you where their rooms are if you don't already know."
Sasuke thanked the man before rushing out. If he only had two weeks, then there was much to be done before he could set off and he wasn't going to waste any time. Naruto couldn't get too much of a head start or else they would never catch up to him.
And Sasuke was going to find him. He swore to that in his mind. He would find his love. He would bring him back, even if he had to beat sense into him to do so.
Sasuke arrived at Shikamaru's dormroom first. It was his old one, and this boy was his old roommate, so he figured that it would be easiest when working with negotiations.
Shikamaru stared at him when he answered the door. "Huh?" he asked, wondering why the Uchiha was there but too lazy to say anything other than that to express his curiosity.
Silently, Sasuke handed him the slip of paper that was for him from Jiraiya. "I need you help," he said softly as Shikamaru skimmed it.
Shikamaru glared at him for a moment before sighing. "You're too troublesome, but I'm not the type of guy that would just leave a friend hanging. Who else are you bringing?"
Sasuke, happy enough that Shikamaru was agreeing without too much fuss, immediately complied in telling him who else was coming. "Neji, Gaara, Temari and the two of us. At least, I hope for the other three. If they decline, I don't know what to do."
Shikamaru shook his head. "They won't, you idiot. Now, let's go before you piss your pants."
Sasuke nodded hurriedly and they made their way to their second stop, which was Neji's room.
Neji answered the door and looked at the two of them before him. "Why am I being disturbed by you two this early in the morning?" he wanted to know.
"Naruto's gone, we need your help to find him. You're the best tracker in the school. At least, the best one I know of, and here," Sasuke babbled for a moment before handing off the slip of paper that Jiraiya had given him. The two in the doorway were silent when Neji just sighed and shook his head.
"He's an idiot," he told the two and Sasuke clenched his fists. "Down, bulldog, I said he was an idiot, but I'm not going to deny that he's our idiot."
Sasuke broke out into a relieved grin. "Come on then, we have to speak to Gaara and Temari."
Neji blushed lightly at the mention of his secret crush, Gaara, but he hid it quickly as he followed the overzealous Sasuke and the normal Shikamaru.
Gaara just stared at them after hearing the news. His eyes reflected something that they had never seen before and were unable to identify. In truth, Gaara knew what it was like to be too afraid to get close to people, to be too afraid to find himself friends. He would run whenever someone became to close to him. It was safer that way. Maintaining distance was safer for both himself and the person he was distancing himself from.
Naruto had been different. At first Gaara had been reluctant to believe that he was part of Akatsuki, even though he was an abandoned experiment. The boy was too innocent, too happy. It was hard to believe he had had any past besides the one with parents, siblings and a dog. But Naruto had gone through the same hells that Gaara had.
And Gaara was not about to turn his back on the only person that was like him. He didn't want Naruto to abandon him. After all, the failed experiments that Akatsuki didn't want had to stick together. Thinking about it now, they were lucky they had failed. If they hadn't, they would just be machines and dogs of Akatsuki. Gaara would die before that happened to either one of them.
If that was what had happened to Naruto, though, then he would do his best to get the boy back.
"I shall come," he said in a soft voice. Neji nearly had to hold Sasuke back from glomping the poor redhead. No matter how homicidal he looked, Sasuke was overjoyed to find that everyone he had asked so far was going to help him search for his boyfriend.
He needed Naruto, after all, and nothing would ever change that.
His father would be displeased.
Don't think about him, Sasuke thought to himself. He's dead. Focus on your objective. We just have to convince Temari, prepare for the worst, hope for the best and leave. Then we'll find Naruto.
The last stop was Temari's room. She answered the door, and noticing the somber company that was outside, ushered them inside.
"Well, what can I do for you?" she asked them.
Sasuke wordlessly handed her the last slip of paper. She pursed her lips together as she read what was written there.
"So he finally cracked?" she asked, staring straight as Sasuke.
Sasuke shifted uncomfortably. "I suppose," he said, not meeting her eyes. He didn't want to see the penetrating gaze that was accusing him of something that he could have prevented. But he didn't, and that's why he was here with the others.
"Well, I promised him that he was my little brother, didn't I?" she said brightly. "And if there's something I've learned, its that I don't leave my family behind."
Gaara smiled slightly to himself when he heard that. He knew that he was true. After all, the reason that he was here was because she refused to leave him behind. He owed his life to her, and to Kankarou, but mostly to his elder sister.
Not that he would ever tell her such a thing.
"So, when do we leave?" she asked.
Sasuke stared at her with the stoic expression he was infamous for. "As soon as possible," he replied, a hard edge to his voice that promised pain to anyone who tried to hurt his Naruto.
"Then we'll leave tomorrow morning," Temari said.
Sasuke glanced at her in confusion. "Why tomorrow, why not now?" he wanted to know.
Temari shook her head. "Have you looked outside?" she asked steadily. "It's nearly dark! We won't even be able to see anything that Naruto might have accidentally left behind, let alone ask people if they've seen him." She ruffled Sasuke's hair as he glared at her. "Get your things together, money, weaponry, clothes, food, and we'll leave first thing tomorrow. We'll all come to your room, agreed?" She looked around at the others.
Gaara nodded.
"I suppose, if that's what is desired," Neji told her.
"This is too troublesome," Shikamaru muttered, but they had hung around him enough to know that "troublesome" usually meant a consenting reply while "bothersome" was a fifty-fifty chance. Since he had said the former, it was obvious he had agreed to the demand.
Sasuke nodded. He made his way to the door. He was about to exit when he turned around, bowing to the other four. "Thank you, so much," he told them before turning around and making his way back to his dormroom.
Temari stared at where he was standing a moment beforehand. "He's hopeless," she told the other three. "Utterly hopeless. All that's on his head is Naruto this and Naruto that. It's no wonder his fanclub didn't have a chance."
Shikamaru chuckled at that remark.
Gaara looked at his sibling. "At least Naruto will know what it's like to have someone care for him," he told her.
She nodded. "If everything works out as it should, he should get that into his head by the time all of this is over."
"And then what are we going to do?" Neji asked, feeling as though there was something more to her acceptance of this mission than meets the eye.
"You're really too intuitive for your own good, Neji," she laughed. "Are you sure you're not a girl?"
Neji turned red. "I'm positive. Now, why don't you share with me what you really mean?"
"Well, if we recover Naruto from wherever the hell he's gotten himself off to, then I suppose that the five of us might be strong enough, with Naruto that would make six, and we would probably be even stronger."
"Strong enough to do what?" Shikamaru asked.
Temari gave a little half-smirk. "Take down Akatsuki, of course."
Kyuubi-kun's Korner!
Aargh! I'm so sorry once again for my extreme lack of update. I have no excuse. But I'm happy that I finally got this chapter done. The first page has been sitting under my ass for months, I just never got around to finishing it. So now I'm happy that I was able to do so.
I hope you enjoyed. I wonder if there are people who are still reading this fic. I wouldn't be surprised if their weren't.