47

154Chapter 42

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Naruto or any of it's characters. Kishimoto Masashi does. I do not make any type of profit from writing this fanfiction. This is strictly for my and my readers' pleasure. The Japanese language used in this fanfiction is translated by Google.

CLAIMER: I OWN Yami Uchiha. Do NOT steal.

RATED: R and is subject to change.

WARNING: This is going to be an YAOI/MALE+MALE story.

BETA READER: None; so there will be errors that I miss.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The scenarios involved in this fanfiction are fictional. The main character may also strike readers as a Mary/Gary Sue. If this fact bothers you, turn back now. Construction criticism is welcomed. No flames.

A/N: I also have this story posted on my Mibba account titled Kumo no Su De.

"Speaking"

'Thinking'

Hand Signing

~oOo~STORY START~oOo~

Setting into a hotel room for the night, Yami insisted on sitting up in the futon set out for him instead of lying down like everyone wanted him to. He lost count of how many times the other five in the room kept staring at his exposed scar. Eventually, he had Sakura hand over a roll of bandages she kept in her hip pouch so that his scar would not be the center of attention.

"Oh yeah! Yami-sensei, if you could talk, why did you only ever sign to us?" Naruto asked, breaking the silence in the room.

Yami scratched the side of his face, his eyelids heavy.

"I hate the sou—nd of my vo—ice," Yami stated hoarsely, voice breaking like most of the other times he would speak.

"No way, Sensei! You're voice is very nice. Is the scar the reason for the breaks in your voice?" Sakura asked, scooting closer to the oldest Uchiha.

"Aa."

Naruto, Sakura, and Jiraiya deadpanned at the typical Uchiha response. The corners of Sasuke's and Itachi's mouth quirked up in a barely noticeable smirk at their cousin's response.

"Um…if you want, Sensei, I can have a look," Sakura stated, already lifting a glowing green hand.

When Yami stayed silent, Sakura took that as permission and set her chakra coated hand over Yami's throat. Her brows furrowed and she closed her eyes in concentration. All eyes were on the pinkette. At the warm and gentle sensation of his sole female genin's chakra entering his body, Yami's eyelids slid closed. He could feel her chakra focusing on the scar tissue near his voice box and wondered if she had learned this from reading books or from her teachings at the hospital. A solid fifteen minutes passed by before Sakura canceled her chakra and leaned back. Swiping the back of her other hand across her sweaty brow, she nudged Yami's knee for him to say something.

"I knew you would do well in the medical field," Yami told the pinkette, earning a blush from her.

His voice sounded just like it did before that fateful ANBU mission. He had almost forgotten how he sounded; only being reminded whenever he pulled someone into his world of Tsukuyomi.

"Does this mean no more hand signing?" Naruto questioned Yami, looking hopeful to not have to think about what his sensei was telling him.

Not likely. I would hate for you three to become rusty. Yami signed just for the purpose of watching the blonde's face scrunch up.

Jiraiya clapped his hands together once, gaining everyone's attention.

"Alright, now will someone explain to me what exactly is going on here?" Jiraiya demanded, face set in a serious manner.

Yami shared a glance with Itachi before his eyes wandered over to the youngest Uchiha.

"Itachi was tricked by Shimura Danzo with a fake order from the Hokage. When Itachi appeared to report his completed mission, Hokage-sama was shocked and explained that he had given no such order to Itachi. My cousin then begged for Hokage-sama to protect his precious ototo from becoming Danzo's tool. He fled the village and became a rogue nin in an effort to collect important information for Konoha," Yami spoke calmly, having the time to keep his emotions in check for when he would have confronted the Hokage.

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed at the revealed information, his frown deep. Naruto and Sakura were gapping at their sensei's words, both looking over at the man in question. Sasuke's fists were balled up, digging into his knees. Obsidian orbs locked onto pitch black, anger evident in the younger male's eyes.

"You knew and you never told me? You let me think that all this time, that my brother killed everyone in an act to test his power?!" Sasuke's voice gradually rose in volume.

Not once did Yami blink, expecting this kind of outburst.

"Sasuke—"

Sasuke's head whipped around to glare at his brother.

"Shut up! You don't get a say in this! You tortured me inside of a Genjutsu, forcing me to relive our parents' death over and over. I hate you! I hate both of you!" Sasuke shouted, climbing to his feet and rushing out of the hotel room.

Half of Yami's face was hidden behind his newly wrapped bandages, but his eyes expressed all the hurt caused by Sasuke's words. Itachi looked crestfallen, his murky black orbs staring blurredly down at his lap. Naruto shot up to his feet. The blonde was confused earlier, but know he was just as angry as his raven haired teammate. But that anger had nothing to do with Yami or Itachi and everything to do with this so called Shimura-teme.

"Come on, Sakura-chan. Let's go make sure the teme is alright. We don't want him to do anything I would do," Naruto said to his pink haired teammate, trying to smile but failed.

Sakura nodded, sending a sad look to her sensei and her crush's older brother. The two then quickly left to find their friend.

"He's made some good friends. Thank you for taking care of Sasuke for me, Itoko," Itachi said quietly.

"…Aa," Yami voiced softly, finally laying down and turning his back to the other two in the room.

Pulling the top blanket over his head, Yami squeezed his eyes shut to stop the moisture from escaping.

~oOo~

It was only by mere chance of catching the hurried banter between two frightened civilian that Kakashi found out the Yami and the others were somewhere in the area of the small town he was passing through on his way to Tanzaku Gai. After asking around for any clues on where anyone of his teammates could be, he found himself entering a hotel described by a shop owner who had spotted a pink haired young girl entering with a blonde haired boy, two raven haired males with one supporting the other's weight and an older gentleman carrying another raven haired male over one shoulder.

"…against Yami-sensei, okay teme? He was only trying to protect you. I'm sure he would have told you when we became Chunin or something. Well, that's what Hokage-oji-san told me when he mentioned my parents."

At the sound of his blonde student's loud voice, Kakashi looked around the hotel lobby to find an extremely upset Sasuke before comforted by Sakura and Naruto.

"Naruto, Sakura. Sasuke, what's wrong? Did something happen to Yami?" Kakashi asked, closing the distance between him and his genin.

The silver haired jonin was shocked to see the drying tears on his raven haired genin's cheeks. His heart dropped into his gut as his mind raced with every bad scenario possible.

"Did you know about my brother's innocence too?" Sasuke asked, not having the energy to be angry anymore.

Kakashi's face shifted from worried to a blank stare.

"He was going to confront Hokage-sama after the exams, but then the invasion happened and Hokage is in critical condition. Not to mention the encounter with Akatsuki," Kakashi tried to explain, listing off all of the reasons why Yami had not told the young Uchiha. "There is also the possibility that Danzo had his men watching."

At that suggestion, Sasuke contemplated what to do.

"You mean…"

"Danzo is the leader of a secret organization within Konoha. No one knows who is a part of it and Yami could not risk your life telling you about your brother" Kakashi stated. "He didn't keep it from you to hurt you. You were actually the reason why he chose to wait so long. He wanted you to be strong enough in case some of Danzo's soldiers paid you a visit in the middle of the night."

"They used their existence to threaten Yami with my life?" Sasuke asked, fighting for control over his trembling.

Reluctantly, Kakashi nodded.

"But that's completely wrong! Why hasn't Hokage-oji-san done something about that guy?" Naruto questioned loudly.

"There's no evidence against Danzo is there, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.

The genin did not like the nod that followed Sakura's question. Wiping his face clean, Sasuke stood up. He hid his embarrassment for crying by looking away from the others.

"I need to go apologize to Nii-san (brother) and Itoko (cousin). I said some really harsh things." Sasuke confessed.

Sasuke had not taken two steps before he was pulled into a hug by Itachi who had been eavesdropping to make sure his brother was okay. Kakashi spotted Jiraiya standing near the stairwell entrance. The Sannin motioned with his head for Kakashi to come over.

"Yami-san is in room 29 on the third floor," Jiraiya told him.

Kakashi left the Sannin in charge of watching the four others. He vaguely heard Jiraiya mention food before the stairwell door shut behind him