Your heart is a blood prison
I briefly look between Itachi and Sasuke, glancing at my shoulder to see a raven staring intently at Itachi. I grab it roughly and cover its eyes while avoiding them to prevent getting caught in a genjutsu.
Sasuke grabs the kunai from Itachi, and in a blink of an eye, his own older brother grabs his collar and throws him to the ground hard. Sasuke coughs and groans, grabbing his arm that's broken.
"Itachi, wake up!" Sasuke shouts. "This isn't what you stand for!"
"You should've let me end my own life. You can afford to lose a rogue shinobi of his caliber." Itachi grabs another kunai and stabs it into Sasuke's hand, constraining it to the ground.
"What are you doing?" Sasuke looks ready to fight his older brother, although he looks hesitant to actually do it.
"I have a slither of consciousness left. I will do as I'm told to do but elsewhere." He looks at me. "At the blood prison."
My dad looks as confused as I feel. "How... did he slip past me or any of the sensory ninjas?"
"I used to live here and Konoha wouldn't announce that the biggest asset to their plan is entering the village. I simply walked inside. You didn't notice me because you were too busy holding down a criminal." Itachi says to my dad.
My dad looks at the Hokage and then back at Itachi. He looks upset that the village has resulted to this. "You're a criminal too. You've killed people before. Don't pretend that you haven't. You're in the bingo book."
"Even so, I bet you wouldn't have the same attitude if you were forced to kill your own family for a second chance at life. If your son had to stand over your body, would you still act nonchalant? You say yes, you're as heartless as the Hokage. If you say no, you're lying to yourself. You stand by giving justice to everyone, isn't that right, Minato?"
My dad furrows his brows. "A little mind control and you act villainous, or is it the facade you wear as a spy?"
"Both. Would you believe me if I say that I'm fighting my body to not kill my brother? Currently, someone is telling me to finish him off along with your son in my ear, but you know what?"
"What?"
Itachi points to Kakashi. "He showed me how well he is as a teacher for my brother and his friend. I will do everything I can not to kill them."
"You could just release the curse."
"You would have to kill me to do that." Itachi puts his hand on his chest. "The Akatsuki stood me in front of a mirror and forced me to be like this for their reason. Little did they know I was doing actually what the village wanted."
"What did they want you to do?"
"I already told you. To kill Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto wasn't supposed to die, but then again, Minato, my body is looming with control to kill anyone who stands as an obstacle. How would you know that I'm not lying? Is it the kunai in my brother's hand or the crow perched on your son's shoulder to keep me a bit awake? Who knows?"
"So you wanted to kill yourself in front of him?" My dad looks more upset than ever. "That's not a good way to say goodbye as his big brother. He would've dealt with more than just his murderous past."
"No, I snapped out of it when I stood in front of him. I forced myself to awake up just enough to not kill anyone and used the crow to keep myself awake. It's like a weak barricade, almost."
"There has to be another way to wake up."
Itachi shakes his head. "This isn't a fairy tale where true love's kiss will wake me up, Minato. Only a kunai in my heart can stop me. I can't tell myself to stop because the Akatsuki used someone's chakra to do this. I don't know how to explain it, but it made it possible for only I can stop this curse by dying rather than snapping out of it when the source of the chakra dies."
"I'm guessing it's more complicated to explain so I'll take your word for it. I don't want to fry Naruto's brain with this."
I roll my eyes at my dad. "I was smart enough to be in the top ten in my school."
"There's a difference between book smart and trying to understand what Itachi is saying." My dad chuckles as a shadow stretches on the ground and causes Itachi to stay frozen in place. "Good job, Shikamaru. Here I thought you forgot."
Shikamaru sighs. "This is such a drag. First, Naruto is triggered by Obito to destroy the village, and now Itachi is trying to kill the two lovebirds. I wish I could forget this."
"But here you are being a jonin for us." My dad chirps.
"Unfortunately, Lord Hokage." Shikamaru forces Itachi to walk closer to him, who doesn't bother resisting, and cuffs his hands behind his back. "I see Itachi is not trying to do anything to get out of this."
Itachi looks blankly at Sasuke and then at the ground. "You can say I want to see if you can find a loophole. Be warned. The moment you pull me far from my crow field of view, I'll be resisting your hold on me to reach Sasuke."
"Thanks for the warning." Shikamaru says, ordering a few chunin and jonin to stay close in case Itachi is correct. The genin, however, are required to stay close to their jonin or teachers to stay safe.
Just how strong is Itachi really?
Sasuke yanks the kunai out of his hand and tells me to stop holding the crow like this. He states that the crow can still see, just not as good with its eyes covered.
"We should get rid of it." I suggest, keeping my hand over its eyes.
"Or you should save it. That's Itachi's bird. I'm sure he wants it alive for something."
"Where would I even keep it? In my pocket?" I ask sarcastically.
Sasuke looks confused at me. "No, I was going to say you should swallow the bird. It'll never fit in your pocket."
"And it will go down my throat?" I ask in disbelief. "Sasuke, I'll choke to death if I attempt to do it. This is a living bird. What if it rips out my tongue? I can't say anything correctly by then."
"I'll help you." Sasuke says, activating his Sharingan. "Just look into my eyes."
"I already do that." I grin when Sasuke looks at me with a disappointed look.
"Flirting isn't your thing. No offense, Naruto."
"None taken."
Sasuke helps me swallow the bird whole, making sure I'm okay at the end. I stare at the ground in surprise that I have done that before, but my moment of surprise doesn't last long. A bunch of kunai flies in my direction and I get out of the way, ducking as fire nearly touches me.
Itachi is mindlessly attacking us and he's not holding back. His eyes are bleeding and it's taking Sasuke's multi-tasked effort to keep me out of a genjutsu.
"Itachi!" Sasuke calls out, using his sword to block Itachi's close-range attack. Itachi may be using a kunai but the size difference in weapons isn't stopping him from trying to kill us. "Itachi, think of our parents! Think of me! What would Izumi think too?!"
Itachi kicks Sasuke across the battlefield and then slowly looks at me, panning his gaze to my stomach where the seal is. He almost lurches for it when Kakashi-sensei appears out of nowhere, using a metal rod to choke Itachi.
"He's fighting too?!" A few people seem surprised as Kakashi uses all of his strength on the metal rod, clearly having the intention of killing Sasuke's older brother.
The fact that they were in the ANBU together seems not to matter to him either. Kakashi-sensei is completely absent and his instinct might have kicked in to save us, probably from hearing our voices.
"Kakashi-sensei!" I call out to him, seeing how much it's taking my sensei to fight with us and not against us. I suck my teeth as I run away from the fighting, deciding to target the lousy presences practically glaring at us with bloodlust.
I make the hand signs for the shadow clone jutsu and turn myself into a kunai, hiding in my clone's hand filled with real ones. My other clones grab their kunais too and I'm thrown toward the Hokage office.
In a split second, I can sense someone coming toward me and turn back to normal. I use my clone's shoulder to jump into the sky to avoid the attack and use my Rasengan to counter the other opponent's attack behind me.
I land on my feet on the ground with a loud thud, thinking gravity is shifting around me. I notice the slight change of soil beneath me and quickly move out of the way before the explosion hits me.
Great, the guy with the explosions, Deidara, is here. I should've known he will be tagging along with his comrade, Tobi.
"I expected more of a challenge from the Yellow Flash's son." Deidara says, feeding his hand something as he speaks. "I should've known you wouldn't be any weaker than a genin."
I eye the puppet-like Akatsuki member and grin, thinking of my next move. "Wasting my energy on nuisances isn't what I like to do, just so you know. I prefer to finish things as quickly as possible."
"Well," Deidara hops on his bird, "I'll finish you off as quickly as possible too!"
He aims his explosion at me but I decide to exploit the Flying Thunder God technique, moving behind the puppet-like Akatsuki member to dodge the attack. I take the life source out of the Akatsuki guy so his lifeless body can be destroyed in the blast instead.
I pocket the life source, unable to remember what it's called, and wave hand signs to send most of the Akatsuki guys my clones touched to the blood prison. I'm glad I marked the building in various locations or else I would've had to waste time bringing them there myself.
"Trying to copy the Yellow Flash, huh?" Deidara scoffs, making another explosion to throw at me. But this time, something feels off. He's using a lesser amount than before. "It's a shame you'll never know what it feels like to be as strong as that annoying Hokage."
I make another shadow clone, jump into its hands, and let it throw me into the sky again, using the Rasengan to give them more force to work with.
Seconds later, the entire Hokage building and the ground explodes and Deidara appears next to me, smirking. I try to get out of the way but he punches me to the ground, causing me to fall into the large pieces of rubble.
Sasuke pulls me out of the rubble, looking beaten up more than me. I notice his arms and realize he's injured from Itachi.
There's no time to ask questions. I have to resolve this first.
"Wonderful..." Deidara stands in front of us, dodging Sasuke's sword. "The lovebirds are here together. Now I can take out one of the strongest people in Konoha. Not that I consider you two strong, of course. This is Danzo's words, not mine."
"Do you always run your mouth without Tobi to do it for you?" I say, provoking him enough to keep his attention on me for a few seconds. This gives Sasuke enough time to activate his Sharingan, putting Deidara into genjutsu without effort.
"You shouldn't say things like that to people. They might not like you when the fight ends. That's how enemies grow." Sasuke says, letting me heal his wounds enough to keep standing until the end of the fight.
"I'm not bothered by that." I say matter-of-factly, cracking my neck.
I summon some rope and tie Deidara up with it, making sure his hands are behind his back, away from his pouch, and separate. I cover his hand that has the mouth on it with a ripped cloth and also send him to the blood prison.
"You shouldn't be so confident in your strength. One of these days, someone is going to use that against you. Like use an illusion of me to weaken you in battle. I hope you were trained not to believe in genjutsu off the bat."
I nod, showing Sasuke my scars from how many times I have transformed into a raging beast. "Everyone who was assigned to me trained me and every time, I was uncontrollable. It took years of work to get here. I'm confident because I know what I'm doing now, not because I'm cocky in my strength."
Sasuke rolls his eyes, grinning a little. "Says the one who tried to climb the wall at the blood prison."
"As if you had a better idea."
"Yeah, it was to be patient and wait for a better idea to pop up in my head." He flicks my chin before walking away from me.
I blush from ear to ear and hide behind my hands. "I'm not used to this, Sasuke. Don't flirt with me and walk away as if you've done this before."
"Who says I'm flirting with you, Naruto?"
"You..." I purse my lips at his back. "Fine, but I'll catch you doing it the next time."
"The next time?" He stops walking and turns to me, cocking his head. "You mean, on your birthday, Dobe?"
"Every day, Sasuke."
Sasuke shrugs. "It depends if I feel like flirting with you."
I chuckle softly at the thought of Sasuke flirting with me. "Better yet, don't. I think the world was ending if you became a flirt with me."
"Hey, I can flirt." Sasuke pouts at my words.
"You can't even hold my hand without looking shy."
"I haven't seen or heard from you in years. Do you expect me to throw my arms around you and confess my heart out?"
"Oh, I thought you did already." I smile innocently when he starts to blush too. "Don't tell me you forgot?"
"Naruto, you idiot. Of course, I forgot." Sasuke hides his face with his hand as I burst out laughing. "It's not funny."
"It's kind of funny."
He moves his hand away from his face and smiles. "Yeah... It is, huh?"
"Yeah." My laughter trails off as we smile at one another in contentment.
As if the world can see us laughing carefreely, Sasuke's eyes suddenly look above my head and his pupils disappear. He looks at me and points his sword at me.
"Naruto Uzumaki, I will kill you for Danzo." Sasuke says, furrowing his brows.
I look behind me to see Danzo, leaning against the rubble with a satisfied grin.
"Now, Naruto," Danzo coughs up blood as he looks me in the eyes, "you will have to choose: kill Sasuke or give me your Nine-Tailed Beast to save his life."
I look at Sasuke and then at Danzo, sighing. "What happens if I choose neither?"
"Then Sasuke will kill everyone in the Land of Fire until he's dead or until you're dead."
"Release the jutsu this instant, Danzo."
"Find me in the afterlife and make me." Danzo falls to the ground and in mere seconds, he dies in a pool of his own blood.
I look at Sasuke, trying to stop his sudden attacks, but he grabs my forearms. He throws me into the rubble and uses the Fire-style Jutsu to try to weaken me.
I dodge the fire, only to be kicked in the back and punched to the ground, hard. I plummet into the rubble again, moving out of the way before Sasuke's Chidori can hit me.
He turns me on my stomach like a ragdoll and holds one of my arms behind my back, pining the other above my head. He leans down to my ear and whispers, "this will hurt a lot."
I feel my entire body shudder from the currents of lightning going through me. I feel the world around me going dark as the voices of everyone fill my head before going unconscious.
I wake up to the sound of my mom's voice, shouting at me to wake up. I struggle to pry open my eyes and see my dad holding Sasuke in handcuffs while everyone else looks saddened.
"What's going on?" I rasp, feeling like I've been stomped on by a giant and manhandled by a muscle-weakening jutsu.
My mom throws her arms around my neck in utter relief, sobbing into it. "Oh, my goodness! I thought you were dead, Naruto! This is a miracle!"
I look around confused and analyze everyone's reaction along with my mom's words.
She thought I was dead. Why?
"What's going on?" I repeat my question, unable to hug my mom back.
"Sasuke is back to himself but he refused to contact Konoha for one year after the ambush. He has hired private doctors for you and as much as I want to thank him, he caused us trouble." My dad says, looking at Lady Tsunade. "She agrees with me."
"What will happen to Sasuke?" I ask.
"For almost removing Kurama out of you and refusing to report to the Hokage office, he will be returned to the blood prison for his troublesome behavior. There's a chance Danzo implanted something into him and this is the safest option for all of way."
I sit up abruptly, howling in pain when my entire body hurts intensely. "Don't do that! I'm fine, see?"
My parents look at me with sorrowful expressions. "We almost lost our son. We're not going to let this happen to anyone else." My dad says.
I look at Sakura but she looks away, looking at the floor instead. My attention goes back to my dad, who's holding Sasuke still. "Don't do this..."
"I'm sorry, Naruto. This is the plan to keep all of safe."
I feel my facial expression change to something that makes everyone look worried for me. "You just need an excuse to get rid of an Uchiha, don't you?"
Lady Tsunade looks disappointed. "Naruto, we treat everyone with respect in this village."
"THEN WHY DID ITACHI UCHIHA PASS ALL OF YOU DURING THE FIGHT, HUH? WHY DID YOU RISK OUR LIVES TO ACCOMPLISH A SELFISH ACT OF ELIMINATION? YOU WANTED TO GET RID OF SASUKE AND ITACHI TOO, RIGHT?" I shout, throwing the covers off of me. I'm sweating profusely and the only thing keeping me upright is Kurama's seeping chakra.
"Naruto, that was a misunderstanding..." Lady Tsunade tries to explain.
I get up from the bed, shrugging off my mom's hand as she tries to pull me back into the bed. "MISUNDERSTANDING? YOU HAD EVIDENCE TO PROVE THAT SOMETHING WAS GOING ON AND YOU ALLOWED IT TO HAPPEN!"
"Naruto, please... Let's talk about this after Sasuke is submitted into the blood prison." My dad says, trying to calm me down.
"THE AKATSUKI WERE KEEPING US IN THE VILLAGE AND WE HAD PLENTY OF STRENGTH TO FIGHT THEM! YOU WANTED TO GET RID OF SASUKE AND ITACHI! JUST ADMIT IT!"
"ENOUGH!" Sakura and Lady Tsunade say simultaneously.
"You just woke up, Naruto. You don't know what's going on." Lady Tsunade says, going back to her calm voice.
"You only know what is shown to you." Sakura says, chiming into Lady Tsunade's words.
"I read the scrolls, you know?" I say, tightening the seal on my stomach to prevent another rage mode from happening. "Itachi was a spy and you saw that as an asset rather than me. I could've associated myself with every nation out there and handled things just like him."
"Naruto, you don't know what you're saying."
"I have the privilege from being Minato's and Kushina's son. It's only natural the village wants the trophy to stay alive and doesn't care how he feels."
"Naruto, Sasuke just committed an illegal problem. You can't justify this."
"But what I did was okay?"
"Naruto, that's different."
"I injured people too." I approach my dad, glaring him in the eye. "I killed just as many people as Sasuke did. You should throw me in prison too. It's only fair. I was young, naive, and did what Kakashi-sensei had to do as an ANBU."
"That's different."
"Mission A and S threats go to the blood prison. Why not throw him into the Konoha dungeon? What's the difference, dad? Scared he'll influence your only son?"
"He risked your life for one whole year. He's now labeled a mission A threat."
"I understand you almost lost me, but you have to understand too, dad... I forgive him for what he did. He was brainwashed and nothing you can say will make me hate him."
"I told you that he was conscious for months and hired private doctors to keep you alive. He didn't report to us. It would've been nice if he asked us to let him take care of you alone. At least, we would have been aware of everything."
I look down. "He probably was scared that you would take him away and hide me from him."
"Love is a precious thing to have, but, Naruto, those words will have to convince all five nations that he's safe enough to be in Konoha. Imagine if Sasuke was unconscious and I never told you how he was while taking care of him. Would you still accuse me of hating him if you were Hokage?"
He's right. I'm only thinking about myself here.
I look at Sasuke and then at my dad, frowning. "I'm sorry... Can I please just... Can I have him arrested in Konoha instead?" I look at Lady Tsunade. "Can I talk to the Kages to plead his stay there?"
My mom gently touches my shoulder and sighs. "I will only agree because you'll be in Konoha too and happy. I have never seen you this worked up for someone besides your father, Naruto. I want you to be happy with whatever happens."
Sakura places her hand on my other shoulder. "Sasuke is my classmate and a mutual friend. I will try my best to do what's right for the law and for you, Naruto."
My dad and Lady Tsunade exchange looks, nodding. "He'll be temporarily held in Konoha until the Kage come together along with the elders to discuss his imprisonment."
"House arrest." I blurt out without thinking. "I'm sorry. I was being selfish and greedy without thinking, and..."
My dad laughs a little. "You know what, I think it's alright since I'm Hokage. I'll gather the ANBU and make sure he stays inside until the day arrives."
I feel the adrenaline wear off and rest my head on my dad's chest, crying. My body hurts too bad not to cry. "And I'm sorry for arguing with you, dad. I know you're doing your best for me and mom. I just don't know what to do if Sasuke leaves me again."
"It's okay, Naruto." My dad uses his other hand to caress my head. "I'm not only a Hokage, I'm your father. I have to listen to what troubles you have."
"Thank you, dad."
"And also, you're still impulsive so you would've left regardless."
"You're ruining the moment, dad."
He laughs. "Sorry, sorry... I'm just happy you're alive."
"Me too."
Eventually, dad lets me go after a few minutes so I can talk to Sasuke.
"I hope you're not going to the blood prison." I say to Sasuke.
He smiles wearily. "If I do end up going again, just know: your heart is my blood prison."
"And you aay you're not a flirt."
"Don't ruin the mood, Naruto."
I laugh softly. "Sorry, I'm just happy you're with me."
"Me too, Dobe."