C-Rank - Chapter 02 - 10072009

C-Rank

Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does.
Warnings: Rated M, time-travel, cursing, and possible adult themes.
Pairings: SasuNaru, MinaKushi, other pairings later.
Published: 10.07.2009: HAPPY BIRTHDAY UZUMAKI KUSHINA & HAPPY SASUNARU DAY!

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Chapter Two

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It was so warm and comfy. And so soft too. Where was he? In a bed?

Naruto snuggled into the warm pillow and let out a sigh which alerted the other occupant in the room.

“Niichan?”

Naruto frowned. ‘Niichan?’ Then he remembered what had happened. ‘Oh…’ “Hmm?”

“A-Awe you awake?”

Naruto chuckled and opened his eyes to find a pair of green eyes staring back at him. “Yes, Arashi. I’m awake.”

Arashi nodded seriously. “Don’t sleep again, ok?”

Naruto grinned and pulled his youngest brother under the blanket. “You know otouto, sleep is an important thing. You gotta sleep sometimes.”

Arashi bit his lip. “But not that long… You’ve been sleeping for thwee days, Niichan… No mowe, ok?”

‘Three days? Oh man…’ Naruto thought, his eyes widening fractionally. “It’s ok, Arashi. I won’t sleep that much. How’s everyone?”

Arashi sat on Naruto’s stomach. “Fine. Well… Evewyone’s been weally wowwied and Sasuke’s been sitting hewe again… He sat lots with you when you wewe sleeping big time at the hospital.”

Naruto inwardly sniggered at the baby speech Arashi still had. Honestly, the boy was four, if his speech didn’t turn normal soon; he’d be picked on at the academy if he went there when he was six.

“Aniki’s weally wowwied though…”

Naruto turned all his attention to Arashi. “Kaida?”

Arashi nodded. “Yeah… He had a big fight with you befowe you left and then you came back and he was really wowwied because he thought you could die and you wouldn’t know that he was weally, weally sowwy about it and that he didn’t mean it when he said that he hated you and said that’d be bettew if you just died…”

Naruto jerked suddenly with a gasp as a memory rose to surface… a memory he didn’t think he’d have.

‘Kyuubi? Was that just a memory? A memory from this body?’

It seems you have the memories from this time as well as your own time, kit… Kyuubi grumbled before going back to sleep.

“Niichan? Awe you okay? Should I get Kaa-chan ow Tou-chan?” Arashi asked urgently, his green eyes wide with fright.

Naruto blinked and looked at his little brother, a smile forming on his lips. “I’m fine, Arashi. Don’t worry, okay?”

“Awe you suwe? I can go get them if you want?”

“I’m sure, Stormy. Let’s go get breakfast.” Naruto said as scooped the wide eyed boy into his arms, got up from the bed and left the room.

“How’d you know that?” Arashi whispered.

“Know what?” Naruto asked, tilting his head to look at his little brother while going down the stairs.

“Niichan always called me Stowmy. How’d you know that?”

Naruto chuckled. “I might’ve come from a different dimension but this is still your brother’s body, I’m still Naruto like I’ve always been and it helps a lot that the body still has your brother’s memories.”

Arashi let out a squeal and proceeded to hug his older brother around the neck so hard that Naruto almost choked.

“A-Arashi, not so hard, I can’t breathe!” Naruto laughed as he entered the kitchen but stopped in his tracks as he saw who sat in the kitchen reading the morning paper. The person lifted his gaze and tensed to an unhealthy degree.

Naruto took a breath and let it out slowly, relaxing his tensed muscles and took the time to observe his boyfriend’s older brother who had been trying to assist in killing him in his previous life. Itachi had a standard Jounin attire, dark blue khaki pants, a Jounin vest and his hitai-ate sitting firmly on his forehead, without the scratch across the leaf emblem.

Searching his memory how he usually reacted to the older Uchiha in this dimension he carefully put Arashi into the kitchen chair and nodded slightly warily to the older Uchiha. “Good morning, Itachi-nii.”

Itachi hesitated for a fraction of a second before warily nodding back. “Good morning, Naruto-kun.”

Naruto tensed at the familiar suffix, causing Itachi to tense even further, before, against every instinct yelling him not to, turning his back on the older Uchiha, and proceeding to rummage through the fridge. “Have you eaten breakfast yet?”

“No, I have not.” Itachi answered, his gaze burning the back of Naruto’s neck.

“Would you like to eat then? I was just about to make some for Arashi and I. You’re more than welcome to join us, Anioya.”

Itachi relaxed so fast that it looked like a puppet had had it’s strings cut, the familiar endearment having assured the older Uchiha greatly. “I would like that, thank you.”

Naruto smiled and relaxed as well, concentrating on making breakfast. “Do you know if anyone else might be joining us?”

“Perhaps… Likely your family and my otouto.” Itachi said as he stood up and set the table for eight.

“Do you wemembew what we always eat for bweakfast, Niichan?” Arashi asked from his chair where he had sat and observed the interaction between the two.

“Tamago kake gohan, Tsukemono, Miso-shiru and Nattō. Ryokucha and kôhii. And Hahaoya denied ramen in the breakfast table.” Naruto said, a slight whine leaving at the last part.

“You remember that, Naruto?”

Naruto’s head snapped up and he turned to see his parents entering the kitchen. “Ah, good morning. Yeah, it seems the memories are still intact even if the soul changed. Sorry… about that.”

“Oh Naruto, you don’t need to apologize for that. It isn’t your fault.” Kushina said and hugged him. “You’re still our son, no matter what.”

Naruto hugged his mother back before turning to face his father as his mother started to fuss about the food. Naruto stared at his father and his father stared at him, both of their faces serious, before Minato’s face melted into accepting smile. Naruto grinned and in a flash of yellow he slammed into Minato, crushing his surprised father into a hug. “Thank you. You have no idea what this means to me, Chichioya.” Naruto whispered as his father returned the hug.

“Oi, I feel a bit left out here. Don’t I get a hug, dobe?”

Naruto released his father to look at his smirking boyfriend who was leaning on the door frame.

A smile lit up Naruto’s face and he threw himself into Sasuke’s arms, nuzzling his face into Sasuke’s neck making the raven chuckle. “Good morning, dobe.”

“Hmm… Morning, Itoshii…”

Sasuke tensed for a fraction of a second before hugging Naruto so hard it seemed like he was trying to fuse their bodies together as one. “My dobe. Mine. No one else’s, but mine. Still mine. Always mine.”

Naruto tightened his hold on Sasuke. “Still? Even though…”

“Yes. Even though.” Sasuke growled in Naruto’s ear making Naruto give out a relieved sob and kiss Sasuke’s neck. Sasuke then grabbed Naruto gently by his hair and proceeded to kiss him silly.

†

“Where’s Kaida?” Naruto asked with a slightly breathless voice as everyone settled down to eat, Itachi smirking discreetly as he put food on his plate at Naruto’s slightly glazed over eyes and ruffled hair.


‘Otouto sure know how to treat his uke.’ Itachi chuckled inwardly.

“I supposed he’s still asleep. Would you mind getting him Naruto-nii? Do you remember where his room is?” Amarante, who had just come into the kitchen, asked.

“Yeah, I remember.” Naruto said and left to get his little brother while Itachi chuckled out loud when the blonde swayed on his feet as he left the room.

“You sure scored otouto. Soon enough you’ll have him doing anything just by promising to kiss him.” Itachi laughed before freezing.

“What was it that you were saying, Itachi-kun?”

Itachi gulped. ‘Damn. How could I forget Naruto’s parents were here?’

Sasuke just smirked as his older brother’s misfortune and continued eating.

†

Naruto opened the door to Kaida’s room and frowned when he heard the sobs that were coming from the direction of his little brother’s bed. Quietly he walked to the bed and sat down so slowly that Kaida didn’t even notice the dipping of the mattress. “Kaida.” Naruto whispered, putting his hand down to Kaida’s red hair.

Startled, Kaida jumped, rolling around to see Naruto sitting on the edge of his bed looking worried. “N-Niisan…”

“What’s the matter Kaida?” Naruto asked, looking down on his little brother who was desperately trying to fight tears and losing the battle miserably.

“I… I…” Kaida stuttered, before giving up on trying to be calm and just launched himself into Naruto’s arms. “I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean to kill you Niisan, I didn’t mean to, please Niisan, I didn’t want you to die, I was just mad that you were going on the mission and not spending the day with me like you promised, I was just mad, please Niisan, don’t go, please don’t go!” Kaida sobbed.

Naruto looked at his little brother startled before pulling the frantic 9-year-old red head into his lap. “Shh, Kaida. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Don’t die! Don’t die! I didn’t mean to!”

“Shh… Calm down, otouto. I’m here. I’m not dead, I’m not going anywhere. I can’t bring your Naruto back, but I’m here, I have his memories and they’re starting to merge with mine. Eventually you’ll have your Niisan who played with you when you were a chibi, read you stories before you went to sleep and trained with you.

“I’m not the same soul, but I’m the same person, Kaida. I’ve been here less than five months with nearly all that time asleep, but I can tell you right now that I would die to protect you, rest of our family, Sasuke, his family and the whole village.

“The soul that belonged to you Niisan did just that. Died for this village, for his family, friends, and all his precious people. I can guarantee you, Kaida… Your Niisan died with no regrets and a smile on his lips.” Naruto reassured the read head, not noticing that they had company.

“B-But, what I s-said…”

“You were just angry, that’s all. Your Niisan knew that. It hurt when you said it, but he knew you didn’t mean it. He knew that as soon as he got home, you’d run up to him, throw yourself into his arms and apologize. He knew that, Kaida. It’s happened before, ne?”

“H-How…?” Kaida asked his eyes wide.

Naruto grinned. “I told you. I have his memories. The soul changed, he moved on, I didn’t. See, in my time, my body died, cuz my heart was destroyed. But here, he died because his Kyuubi didn’t have the strength to heal him cuz they were so chakra depleted, and so, with a blow so fast and hard that he didn’t even have the time to notice it, he died. No pain, instant death.

“He always enjoyed the thrill of fighting, the effort it took to win. He was smiling, even with his massive injuries, no regrets, cuz he knew he would eighter win and come home with another successful mission in his file or would die, and if he did, there was nothing that he had left undone.

“He’d told everyone he loved them, including you, he’d ate that last lunch that Okaa-sama made and he’d bought that pendant he’d wanted for Sasuke. The death came so fast that the smile didn’t even have time to disappear from his lips and so it froze there until my soul transferred into his body and my Kyuubi started healing the injuries.

“The soul and the body, both have the memories. That’s why it’s important for an ANBU or an Oinin to destroy the body, so that the memories cannot be viewed. But in this case, while your brother died and his soul moved on in peace, my body died, but I had regrets, I wasn’t ready to die yet. So when we got the chance, I took it. We were transported into your brother’s body where Kyuubi immediately forced the heart to start beating and even with the huge chakra depletion we had, it was still more than what your brother had left and Kyuubi succeeded to keep me alive until the medics arrived.” Naruto ended his explanation and was startled to hear quiet sobbing from behind him.

Naruto turned around and instantly his eyes teared up at the sight of his mother crying in the arms of his father. “Gomen.”

Amarante came in with Arashi in her arms and they hugged both him and Kaida. “It’s okay, Onii-san. It’s not your fault. You’re still our Onii-san.”

“Thank you, Amara-chan.”

†

Later as Naruto was sitting on the backyard meditating he was startled out from his trance by a hand on his shoulder. Naruto opened his eyes and found himself drowning in smoldering midnight black eyes. “Sasuke?”

The youngest Uchiha didn’t say anything but just stood up from the grouch he had been in and offered him a hand which Naruto took and Sasuke pulled him to his feet. Without saying a word, Sasuke tightened his grip on Naruto’s hand and started leading the blonde back to the house.

Naruto couldn’t help but wonder what was on the raven’s mind as he led Naruto back to the blonde’s room, shut the door behind them and suddenly hugged the breath out him.

“Sasu? What’s wrong, koishii?” Naruto asked as the raven trembled against him. He wasn’t crying, and his eyes had showed no anger… but more of… confusion?

“What… what pendant? You… never gave me any pendant…” Sasuke whispered in his neck and Naruto relaxed instantly.

“You’re right. I didn’t.” Naruto smiled. “I can show you the package, but I can’t let you open it yet.”

Sasuke lifted his head and stared into his eyes. “Why?”

Naruto cupped the young Uchiha’s cheek and smiled at him gently. “Because… He bought it for you… for your birthday.”

Sasuke’s eyes widened before he squeezed them shut, tears sliding down his cheeks, his teeth grinding together and Naruto quickly put his arms around Sasuke when the raven’s legs no longer supported him.

“Let it out, Sasuke. Let it all out. It’s alright. It’s okay to cry.” Naruto whispered into the boy’s ear as he helped Sasuke to the bed and laid them down, drawing Sasuke to his chest and slowly stroking the raven hair with his other hand while the other rubbed Sasuke’s back as the boy cried out all his hurt, sorrow and longing until he fell asleep.

Naruto sighed and pressed a gentle kiss on the raven hair before falling asleep as well.

†

It had been nearly four moths now since Naruto had been rushed into the hospital barely clinging to life from a mission near the border of Kusagakure. Sasuke had anxiously sat in the hall with Naruto’s family, his own family and their friends as the medics had done everything they possibly could to save his boyfriend.

After eighteen agonizing hours the doctor in charge had come out. Naruto’s father had stood up and asked for Naruto’s condition to which the doctor had replied that it was a miracle that Naruto alive, that without Kyuubi he wouldn’t have made it. They were informed that he was stable, but with that information had also come the knowledge that the doctors weren’t sure when his dobe would wake up.

The sight of his beloved in a hospital bed with all kinds of wires connecting him to the machines that kept him alive was devastating. It didn’t help that Naruto’s father didn’t have time to support his family because of his position as a Hokage, Naruto’s mother was trying to calm down Kaida, Naruto’s 9-year-old little brother and keep Arashi, Naruto’s 4-year-old little brother preoccupied so he wouldn’t cry over his brother 24/7, while Amarante, Naruto’s 12–year-old little sister, threw herself into training for the upcoming Chuunin Exam. The only one who sat there nearly 24/7 was Sasuke.

Itachi dragged him out from the hospital four times a week to get some fresh air, spar, shower and eat a home cooked meal with the family. Sasuke appreciated his older brother’s efforts, but all he really wanted was for his dobe to wake up. For Naruto’s heart to quit stopping every few weeks to create more panic within the families.

Sasuke sighed and took Naruto’s tan hand to his own pale one. “Come on, Naruto. Fight. Don’t you dare to leave me, you dobe.” Sasuke whispered as he sat in a chair next to Naruto’s hospital bed. A second later his head snapped up as the heart rate monitor started speeding up. “No… No, Naru, baby, come on, come on don’t do this… Naru please, come on, not again, please.” Sasuke pleaded out loud. ‘Oh God, please don’t let him crash again, please…’

Sasuke’s eyes snapped wide as he felt Naruto’s hand squeeze his own tightly. “Naruto? H-Hey… Can you…” The hand squeezed his own again with crushing force and Sasuke’s eyes snapped up to Naruto’s face and that’s when he saw it. Naruto was arching his back, the tan throat moving convulsively as the blonde desperately tried to breathe. “SHIT!” Sasuke pried his hand out of Naruto’s and ran to the hall yelling for the doctor to come and take the medical ventilator tube from Naruto’s throat.

Mere three minutes later Sasuke could sigh in relief as the blonde laid calmly on the bed, breathing on his own, but still in a coma. “Don’t scare me like that again, dobe. You fucking almost gave me a heart attack.” Sasuke scolded his comatose boyfriend. “But I’m glad. I’m glad that you’re still fighting. That you haven’t given up. I’m so proud of you.”

A weak squeeze of Sasuke’s hand, nearly only a twitch but slightly stronger, made Sasuke’s eyes water and he leaned closer to the blonde. “I know it’s hard, love… but you’re not alone, we’re here for you. Fight for us, Naruto. Fight to come home to us.” The raven whispered to Naruto’s ear and kissed gently the blonde’s temple. “I love you, dobe.”

†

Sasuke shot up with a gasp. ‘No! No, he’s awake, he has to be awake, he -’

Pair of warm arms wrapped themselves around him, startling Sasuke from his panic. “Sasu? Wha’ is ’t? Did you ‘ave a nightmare?”

Sasuke froze before turning to face his sleepy boyfriend. “Just… Just a memory is all.”

Naruto sighed and pulled him back to lay with him. “You wanna talk ‘bout it?”

Sasuke shook his head, and buried his head into Naruto’s chest. “Just… It was just about you being in a coma… I was just… afraid that you were still…”

Naruto was quiet for a moment, stroking Sasuke’s silky raven hair before answering. “I could hear you. When I was in a coma.”

“Yeah?”

“Hmm. When… you asked me to fight… not to leave you… I hadn’t seen my Sasuke in a long time. He would never been there… in a hospital… he… tried to kill me after all. But when I heard you… I… All I could think of was that you were there. That… ‘Sasuke’s here… Sasuke’s home… He’s waiting…’ and then it just suddenly hit me… ‘Oh God, I can’t breathe, I can’t… Sasuke… I can’t breathe… Help me Sasuke, help me, oh please God help, I can’t breathe!’…

“But then after a while I could again. And then… I wanted to cry, cuz… you said you loved me. I hadn’t heard that… in such a long time from you. Last I’d heard, you’d wanted to kill me on a whim, and then suddenly you said you loved me… just like old times… it felt like the walls crumbled down and let me breathe again. First time in years.” Naruto said, his voice laced with tears.

Sasuke nodded his understanding and this time it was Naruto’s turn to bury his head in Sasuke’s chest and cry.

After a while they were both just laying there in each other’s arms, talking quietly, when the door creaked open and Minato’s head emerged from behind the door. “Dinner time, boys.”

“Yeah, Chichioya. Thanks. We’ll be there in a sec.” Naruto grinned.

“Alright. Just be quick so the food won’t go cold. We’re having barbeque.”

“Sure thing, Hokage-sama.” Sasuke smirked.

Minato sighed. “Sasuke, how many times do I have to ask you to just call me ‘Minato’?

“At least once more, like always Hokage-sama.” Sasuke said with a genuine smile.

Minato shook his head and disappeared in to the stairs with an amused laugh. ‘That boy is impossible.’

†

Again, Happy birthday to Uzumaki Kushina, and hopefully smutty SasuNaru Day to everyone! xD