Connected   von BlueJey
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                            Kapitel 2: This Is War
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Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters do not belong to me. I make no money with
this.

Summary: When Oto attacks Konoha, Konoha fights back with all its might. With
war raging all around them, their bond seems to fail them. And while Sakura
still hopes, Naruto wonders. And Sasuke fears he knows.

Author's Note: One of my older works, I believe, and while I know that my style
changed quite a lot, I can only hope that my English got better was well... I
really kind of like this one though, it's nicely rough and sketchy. Or shady, I
should say. I tried to leave as much to your imagination as possible, so let's
just see how that worked.

___________


"How are ya, boy?" 

Naruto dives to the left, brings up his katana and another enemy goes down.
Still warm blood hits his face and he quickly brushes it away. It feels horrible
on his skin.

"I'll live through this," he answers truthfully, not bothering to speak any
louder than he usually would. Jiraiya is a Sannin after all, his ears are fine.


Behind him, the noise of a body hitting the ground indicates that his former
teacher decided to join the fight, his sudden appearance creating only a second
of hesitation and uncertainty among their opponents. He can’t help but
wonder...

"Not quite the answer I wanted but it'll have to do for now." There is a bitter,
joyless laugh in his unusually hoarse voice and a shuriken cuts through the air
just inches away from Naruto’s neck, flies past him and embeds itself into a
third attackers throat with deadly precision.

Another swift slash of steel and they are the only ones alive in the small
clearing. Naruto exhales slowly, forcibly calms his heartbeat and breathing. 

"How's everyone doing?" he wants to know, wipes the blood off his blade with his
own sleeve. His voice is even, emotionless almost, except for the sad undertone
he cannot suppress.

Jiraiya crosses the distance between them, his intent stare fixed onto his
student bloodied face, before he even considers answering. Naruto knew him long
enough to know this habit. He knows Jiraiya is scanning him, measuring the
damage done by the few minor wounds he received during the previous fights. For
a second, the older man’s eyes linger on the cut just below his collar bone,
but it’s not a deep one, they both know it’s nothing to worry about.

"No one ever said this was going to be easy,” he finally says, voice firm and
hard and Naruto knows he shouldn’t have asked. “This is war. And war kills
people."

It’s like every word that leaves the grey-haired man’s mouth pushes the
knife deeper into his chest, but he bears it, fights it down to a dull presence
at the back of his mind. He knows that, at the moment, pain is what keeps him
going.

"They're fighting bravely, but this battle will not have a winner,” Jiraiya
continues lowly, seriously, bitterly. Naruto feels the pain in each single
syllable. “In the end, there will be nothing but dead bodies and regret. And
with an awful lot of luck, Konoha's orphanages will be more crowded than ever
before after this."

He understands what his teacher says. He knows that this isn’t a battle for
glory and honor. It’s about survival, purely, and about nothing else.
Konoha’s orphanages... He shivers.

There is another wave of pain and he almost winces with the force it hits him
with. 

"How is everyone doing, Sensei?" he asks again, unable to keep the intensity of
what he feels out of his tone and there, for a tiny moment, he’s the boy he
once was: an uncertain, desperate child seeking the advice of a person who has
been like a father to him.

Jiraiya looks at him with the same emotions, the same helplessness, before he
turns his head away, rebuilds a wall he never intended to let down.

"I'm sorry Naruto, I don't know, but there was a series of remotely strong
explosions along the southern city wall no ten minutes ago," he whispers, shifts
his gaze to the clouds above them, glowing in the silver light of what might be
a fullmoon. It’s clear gesture, everything Naruto needs to understand and he
does as he is told, locks away the child inside, forces himself to go back to
being strong despite the pain.

"Did you finish your mission?" he wants to know, changing his tone along with
the topic.

Jiraiya’s eyes fix on his face once more and the old man nods, serious, hard,
untouchable.

"I found their headquarters,” he says, strong, determined, down to business.
“But I couldn't get close enough to find out whether he is there."

Naruto frowns, disappointment and frustration gnawing at his resolve. But he
knows he cannot allow himself the luxury of weakness in what is about to come.

"We have to try nevertheless. The faster this is over, the better. If we can
kill him, maybe this will come to an end.” It’s childish hope and he knows
it, but it’s their assignment, their mission and maybe, maybe, maybe, his
prayers will be heard...

He’s about to turn around and jump off into the direction Jiraiya came from
when suddenly, the old man’s hand is on his shoulder, holding him back with
just a tad more force than necessary.

"There's something else, boy,” his former teacher tells him and his heart
skips a beat. “Someone."

Naruto tenses, can’t help but tense, can’t fight it. It’s almost like this
tension has always been there, just waiting for a chance to release it’s full
power. His heart aches when he thinks of what the Sannin just said, wonders if
it weren’t better if he just overheard it. He considers it, only to realize
that, no, he couldn’t ignore it. It is impossible. So he stays where he is,
perfectly still, and waits for Jiraiya to continue.

"I sensed him. He's here.” The older man makes a vague gesture into a
direction and Naruto’s senses almost automatically follow his movement, focus
on the area there until he feels it - him. “Up to now, he's not participating
in the bloodshed, but who knows for how long he will wait.” It’s something
between a warning and understanding, knowledge and compassion, and it was meant
to be a permission. “I can take down Orochimaru on my own."

"Tsunade-baachan told us to go together...," Naruto says before he really thinks
about it and the silence that follows leaves him to wonder why a part of him
wants to cry after he wanted to see him again for all the years. 

Then, Jiraiya speaks again and Naruto’s heart almost stops at how heavy his
voice suddenly is, at how the pain returns full force and how fake his wavering
strength suddenly is.

"Tsunade will never know of this."

There is less than a second of pure shock when Naruto understands the weight of
those words. He thinks he will break down. He thinks he can’t suppress the
tears and the heartache and whatelse washes over his mind in that instant. He
thinks he’s dying then and there.

Jiraiya turns away and it’s like the motion creates a wall of glass between
them, blocks Naruto from his almost-father’s raging emotions.

And then, from one second to the next, he manages to turn the feeling of being
torn apart into determination and strength, swallows the bitter taste in his
mouth and makes his decision.

"Thank you, Jiraiya," he whispers, a weak, yet powerful goodbye and
maybe-farewell to one of the few persons he ever thought understood him. He
makes a step towards his former teacher, leans in and, just for a split second,
presses his forehead against the old man’s shoulder. Then, he turns, blinks
away the tears and starts to run.

It’s not far and it doesn’t take him long to get there and when he reaches
his destination, he feels like it can’t be more than a few seconds later, yet
it’s like a different world.

Sasuke looks older, more mature, and in some dark, twisted way, he is
breath-takingly beautiful. But what catches Naruto’s attention isn’t the
change he’s gone through on the outside. It’s the difference in his eyes.
It’s what the years of separation changed inside the dark-haired boy, how
there is something even darker inside him than there has been the last time they
met, and it makes him forget what he doesn’t want to remember right now.

For a moment, he believes his heart breaks. Then, more than ever before, he
knows that he wants nothing more than to save this person.

"Sasuke,” he says with all the force those feelings provide, with all the
honesty he has. “There's still a chance. I won't let you go on like this!”

And right then, he sees the slightest shadow of a grin pull at Sasuke’s lips.
And he restarts to believe in what he used to believe for so long. After all, a
connection like theirs cannot be broken so easily, can it?

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