BLURRED SOUND

Sasuke Uchiha met Naruto Uzumaki when he was seven years old; a twist in the time line, and he meets her again five years later during the Chunin Exams – as an Otogakure Genin. SasuFemNaru. AU/AT. Dark Naruto.

CHAPTER ONE
- - I WILL RUN TO YOU - -

'As we grow older together, as we continue to change with age, there is one thing that will never change. . .
I will always keep falling in love with you.' - Karen Clodfelder

Sasuke kicked his legs over the edge of the pier, staring down into the water of the lake; the quiet was one of the worst things. Ever since his brother had... Ever since the massacre, there was a thick, heavy silence all over the compound. It was barley two months since that awful night, but it was the silence as much as the memories that gnawed at him.

He did not like this silence at all. If he had the choice, he would stay at the academy all day and night, just so he could listen to the noise; the meaningless gabble of his classmates, the yells of the teachers, the dull monotony of the lessons, the clang of metal as they practised with their dull-edged kunai in the practice grounds was a symphony compared to this awful quiet.

There was no such thing as a night class at the academy though – he had heard rumours of that being the case in other villages, but not in Konoha, so he had to endure the silence at night. He had been moved into a flat on the edge of the compound instead of his old home, which was closer to the noises of the village, but that still quietened in the later hours of the night.

He threw another rock onto the still surface of the lake, shattering the reflection of his own face and the sunset; there was nothing here. That was why the silence was so horrible; noise meant there was life. Even breathing could be heard, even in an explosion there was the screams of the injured, or the glee of the explosion's puppeteer. There was always noise somewhere.

There was no noise in the Uchiha compound any more; watching as the reflection returned to the still glassy image, he noticed something that had not been there before.

There was a girl on the hill behind him, one that he recognised immediately from her short, blonde bunches tied either side of her neck, red-swirl marked black shirt, orange skirt and mesh leggings poking around her calves from her sandals; Naruto Uzumaki.

He didn't keep rack of the names of the girls in his class, but she was notorious for being one of the slackers, loud-mouthed, constantly causing pranks, being friends with the girl with the huge forehead, skipping class, being on bad terms with almost all of the teachers, and still managing to scrape a decent pass.

If she put as much effort into her class work as she did into trouble she could be top kunoichi, or even be a decent rival for rookie of the year in his opinion, but she didn't seem to care one way or the other. He hadn't seen her outside of school before, so for want of something to distract him, he turned his head to glance over his shoulder at her.

She was just walking on the path, kicking a stone with her feet in boredom, and then she seemed to feel his eyes on her. looking up from the path, she stared down the hill towards him, before abandoning the stone and trotting down the hill, feet rustling through the ling grass before her black sandals clopped onto the wooden boards of the dock.

Wherever she went Naruto made noise, and she thudded down beside him on the end of the dock, curiosity written all over her face.

"What are you doing all the way over here at this time of night?" she asked.
"I'm throwing rocks, and I live here. You're the one in a weird place" he retorted, throwing another rock.

She stared at his piled of rocks, before picking up one for herself, and skimming it across the surface of the water; the number of jumps was an indicator of just how much accuracy she could have if she put some effort into her lessons, jumping at least seven or eight times before sinking into the water.

"I guess, but I didn't want to go home yet... I don't like it much." she replied, taking another stone and mulling it over in her hands, considering it, before throwing that one as well; only six jumps that time. Her melancholia had edged into her swing.

"You should go home; your parents won't like it if you're out late" he muttered, a little enviously.

"I don't have any – I live by myself. Ji-ji sorts out all my bills and food and stuff though..." she replied, snatching another of his rocks and standing up with it; she stared at a log quite a distance out into the centre of the lake.

"You think I could hit that log?"

He shrugged, contemplating the new information she had just given him; he did not know that she didn't have any parents. She was always yelling or laughing about something in class, from what he remembered, so he had just assumed she was like everyone else.

Apparently, he had been wrong; he considered asking how they had died, but he knew how that unpleasant that question was. A few people who didn't know about the massacre had asked him, and it had been awful having to answer them. He was curious though, and he didn't really want the noise of conversation to end yet.

"How'd they die?" he asked, carefully.

"I don't know – I never met them. Ji-ji says they were nice, but he won't tell me who they were or what. He won't tell me much about anything actually..." she replied; she was taking careful aim at the log now.

He tried contemplated it, trying to imagine what life was like without having anyone but this mysterious Ji-ji she kept mentioning; he couldn't really think about it. His parents were gone now, but he did have them for most of his life. He could understand the physical realities a little bit, but the emotions in that were beyond him.

"Is that why you don't like going home?" he asked, picking up a stone of his own, and standing up beside her to take aim for himself.

"Some of it is, but... I don't like all the stares, so I wait till everyone goes to sleep" she finished, hurling the rock towards the log; one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen – thonk! It hit the wood and splashed into the water.

"Stares?" he asked in puzzlement.

Her face fell into a frown as she bent to pick up another pock, thick, chunky, nothing like the rocks that she had been using to skim the water. She turned her gaze back to the log, raising her hand and taking aim.

"Most people have this look on their faces... like they hate me for something. I don't like it, so I wait" she explained bluntly, taking aim and hurling the rock through the air; she seemed to use the throw to release a little penned up anger, because the rock fiercely broke through the wood of the hollow log, stirring it in the water.

"Is it too quiet for you too?"

The question jerked him away from the moving log, and after a moments pause he nodded. She picked up another rock, and started skimming again, aiming for other floating tree branches, or grassy floating islands beyond the first target.

He didn't know how long it lasted, but when she had left, and he had started walking back home, thing didn't seem as quiet any more.

There were a few more meetings between them, brief, unmentioned in the faces of their peers, but if examined closely there was a tiny personal smile on their faces during the three months of private interaction.

It was only three months, because three months later, Naruto Uzumaki disappeared from Konoha.

Sasuke was beginning to wonder if he shouldn't give this whole ninja thing up as a bad job as he sat on the roof of the academy with his fabulously skilled new teammates and their 3-hours late Sensei.

"Why don't you go first Kakashi-Sensei? To give us an idea?" Sakura asked in response to the grey-haired man's introduction question.

How in the gods of fire country did this idiot girl get the top kunoichi ranking? It was hardly a hard thing to introduce yourself! God, he wished Naruto was still here – she would have been a decent teammate as opposed to this pink-haired... thing.

Sai wasn't that bad he guessed, he didn't know how to keep his mouth shut, but at least he was going to pull his weight. He would rather have Naruto on his team if he had a choice in the matter but, unfortunately, he didn't, so he was stuck with pinky.

There was also the small matter of Naruto being 'dead' to contend with; he didn't believe a word of it when Iruka-Sensei had him that Naruto had been killed when he told them five years ago, and he still didn't believe it.

He had only really known her for three months, but he knew her pretty well; Naruto was one of those people who refused to let themselves die on sheer stubbornness of will. She was like him. She survived. He just wished he knew where she was.

"And what about you broody?" the grey haired man who was supposedly their new teacher asked.

Oh yay, it was his turn to share now? How fun...

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha; I don't like much, but there are some things I don't mind... "He started, his hand slipping into his pocked to grasp one of the rocks he had kept there for the past five years – he always used them.

They weren't as aerodynamic or as immediately wounding as kunai in a heavy fight, but he liked the hold of them; they did do some damage when thrown correctly, and he didn't have to buy them. His accuracy was also constantly improving when he threw them because their odd unregulated shapes.

"My goal is to revive my clan and to kill a certain someone" he finished, privately adding the private note to find Naruto.

He knew she wasn't dead – no way could a collapsed building kill her. She had cut her hand on a rock once when they were throwing them, and they had both stared wide eyed as it healed within a few seconds in front of their eyes.

If memory served him rightly, she had disappeared a few days later. Now that he was old enough to analyse things, he'd bet his entire tomato drawer in the fridge that the weird healing was part of the reason she had disappeared.

He didn't care if people told him if he was grasping at straws – people muttered the same thing about Hitachi behind his back, but he would succeed in killing him too. He knew that Naruto wasn't dead.

Sakura made some sort of strange irritating noise, and Sai made some sort of weird comment. Sasuke ignored them both – despite the noise of Sakura's angry retort to him, things were still as quiet as they had ever been for the past five years.

Naruto woke up to her dark gloomy room with a start; it had been a long while since she had that dream. Maybe it was a sign?

Orochimaru had always said to listen to her gut about things like that, just in case they had a purpose, but all that she felt now was sleepy. And achy; she glanced at the snoring white haired boy beside her and frowned. Damn Kimimaro, he didn't have to be so rough. Stupid bony Kaguya git.

If he wasn't already dying, she'd have kicked him in the nuts. Damn it, why couldn't he have been Gaara? Gaara would have been so much nicer... Then again, the guy was dying, and she kind of liked Gaara alive, so maybe not... Kimimaro had better be gone by the afternoon though, or she would hunt him down herself.

Naruto had woken up at her usual time, and needed to start getting dressed, if she didn't want Kabuto to start bitching to old snake face about being late for training again.

She wrapped her bandages over her thighs and chest, pulled one her forearm-length mesh gloves, calf-length mesh leggings, her black sandals, grey and black camouflage skirt, and her high-collared short-sleeve orange zip-up shirt (which she left unzipped).

After tying the stupid headband around her neck, she headed down the halls of Otogakure; she didn't really like medic training, but orders were orders, and Orochimaru kept saying the control she would get from it would be beneficial later on. She didn't like it much, but he did have a point, and it was somewhat useful sometimes.

The Kyuubi made her control horrific, and if she wanted to get the knack of her father's techniques properly, she needed control. It was a good thing she was practising on cadavers instead of the people in the labs though, or Orochimaru might have skinned her for hashing up his experiments.

She had helped as an assistant in a few of them (cue vomit), but she hadn't actually taken part for fear of blowing a capillary that wasn't supposed to be or mixing up her poisons again. They were disgusting, but she justified them with the knowledge that most of the discoveries in the ninja world had been formed thanks to similar experiments, especially the medical ones.

Opening the door to Oto's main autopsy room, she was surprised to see the snake himself standing there; the man was usually sleeping until about ten, what was he doing up this early? Why was he here anyway? He was supposed to be playing Kage in Sunagakure right about now wasn't he?

"Ah, there you are Naruto, Kabuto was just wondering if you were going to be late again"
"I can't help it Sensei, it always dark down here – you want me up on time, get some damn windows" she bit back – mornings always had her in a testy mood.

"More like Kimimaro kept you up all night..." Kabuto muttered.
"That's more than you're getting isn't it?" Naruto snapped waspishly – she not in a good mood this morning.
"You still have your usual morning temperament I see, but that's not what I came here to talk about; I have a job for you." Orochimaru half laughed.

That... was a new one. She didn't get jobs, well she did, but the ones he had planned for her she wasn't skilled enough for yet. She needed more control on her chakra, more training with the Kyuubi's chakra for those. She did odd jobs from time to time, but only little things.

From the looks of it, this wasn't a little thing; his mild sadist amusement wasn't as obvious in his voice, and that meant he was being deadly serious. Or as serious as a crazy s-class renegade with a snake fetish could get. Naruto stared at him in blank confusion until he noted he had her attention and continued.

"You know that the Chunin exams are going to be held in Konoha this time don't you?" he asked, getting right to the point.

Naruto nodded – everyone in Otogakure knew. They were going to be attacking the damn place in the middle of them, so it was sort of hard not to know about the Chunin exams.

"Good – I want you to enter; I need someone to bring Sasuke over to our side of the fence, and you'll be the one to do it. He knows you, so it'll be easier to coax him away from Konoha. Sarutobi is suspicious of Suna's activities right now, otherwise I'd do it myself, but the job will be left to you..."

Ah, so that dream had been a sign! Sasuke had been on the man's mind for about half a year now. Ever since he had caught wind that the last Uchiha had become a Genin, he had been drooling at the thought of having a chance at getting the Sharingan.

"You want me to mark him...? But my sealing for that is still a bit shoddy... I can do it, but there's a good chance that you won't get him in time for the next transfer" she replied.

It wasn't a total lie, but Orochimaru was anything but stupid; he knew she had her own motives in joining him. He hadn't made the offer, she had asked to join him, and he knew she had links with Sasuke too. Wasn't he worried about that getting in the way? Why was he giving her the job?

"I do, and I can wait if I have to – it's better if he's older when I transfer anyway. Transferring into young kids is always more complicated for some reason..." he replied, mumbling something incoherent to himself towards the end.

"Fine, but who am I going with? I can hardly enter by myself..."
"Kabuto is already entering, but you will be entering with Dosu and Zaku" he replied.

Dosu and Zaku? Dosu and Zaku? That was lame! Those idiots were useless! They were barley usable as pawns... Oh! They were going to be the test bait! That made a bit more sense, but still, she wasn't looking forward to working with those idiots.

Dosu was just a bore, and Zaku was a cocky moron with an irritating attitude. Maybe she could get away with bludgeoning one of them with something while she was in Konoha? It wasn't as if Orochimaru would mind loosing one of them...

"I don't care what you do with them Naruto, just make sure at least one of them runs into Sasuke at some point..." the man replied, reading the irritation on her face.

The irritation morphed into utter delight, and Naruto did something she only did when she was truly ecstatic; she hugged the slimy snake fetish.

"Thank you Sensei!" she whooped, clamping onto his waist and whirling around a little, before dropping off and heading over to the cadaver she had been working on the day before.

"Oi, Bug Head! Hurry up and show how to do that neutralisation technique!" she yelled, pulling on a pair of gloves over her mesh ones – she didn't want them getting all soaked up with blood.

"You should let her kill someone more often sir; maybe then she wouldn't be such a nightmare in the morning..." Kabuto grumbled to the man beside him, before heading over to the autopsy table and pulling on some gloves of his own.

Sasuke watched his two teammates as they conversed with the Suna Genin.

God, those two were so irritating. Well, Sai didn't say much, and when he did, it was usually so stupid that it wasn't worth listening to, but at least he was useful. Sakura was a useless idiot though, kunoichi of the year or not.

Things were starting to get out of hand though, so he pulled one of the ever-present pebbles from his pocked and hurled it at the cat-suited weirdo. There was a few moronic retorts, and some squealing from Sakura (gods of fire, she was going to burst his eardrums), before he became more interested in the sudden appearance from the boy above him.

Talk about no presence – he couldn't even feel the guy's chakra. How had he sneaked up beside him so easily?

"Temari, Kankuro, quit messing around – we have to hand our travel registration in..."
" But Gaara! We were having fun!" the cat suit complained.
"Shut it Kankuro! Gaara's right, we should get going or Baki-Sensei is going to skin us for being late..."

The red-head appeared between the two of them in a swirl of sand, and Sasuke followed as Sakura decided to start asking why they were in Konoha; he could really care less, but then the girl with the fan mentioned the Chunin exams. His interest roused, he jumped down from the tree branch.

After the inquires about names had been exchanged, the three of them started to walk away; Sasuke was about to do the same, and then the redhead stopped and turned back towards the tree, with an amused smirk on his face.

"If you hadn't wobbled and disturbed your chakra like that you would have had me fooled; get your arse down here," he stated to the seemingly empty tree.

There was a flicker, and the illusion disappeared; standing only inches from where he had been sitting was a girl with an irritated pout on her lips. She barley took a step from the branch before she appeared by the red head with her arms around his neck as if they were old friends being re-united; by the looks of things, they were.

"Gaara! I haven't seen you for months! I was so bored! Sensei's too busy to train, and everyone else runs away from me!" she complained, loudly.

Sasuke stared at her, taking in the orange shirt, camouflage skirt, headband, and blonde hair; she looked familiar. Very familiar, actually... he activated his Sharingan to enhance his eyesight a little bit, and caught sight of the whisker marks on her cheeks long before the red head had whirled her around and he had seen the red swirl on her back.

"Naruto...!" he mumbled, positively shocked that she had appeared in front of him.

It was the general assumption that she had died, but there she was right in front of him wearing a foreign headband and hugging a red-headed foreigner. It really was Naruto. He had never believed she'd just up and died the way they had been told, but to actually see her in front of him? That was a shock...

"Sasuke, that can't be Naruto! She died years ago!" Sakura said, catching the mumble on the ever Sasuke-sharp ears.

Naruto must have heard her, or she had recognised him at first sight, because she said something to Gaara, then turned towards them and the Suna Genin headed off with a grin on her face.

Yaaay! First Chapter! Always so happy when the first one goes up. My first attempt at an OtoNaruto ficlet.

Chapter Title comes from 'Run To You' by The Rasmus. All the titles in the upcoming chapters come from songs that both fit the chapter and inspired it. They are highly recommended for anyone interested in hearing them.

Hope you like – Rate and review if you do!
Nat.
xxx