Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, etc. This story may contain elements similar to Inuyasha.
There was no one waiting for him at home. The apartment sang in its emptiness – the coffee cup left unwashed and the opened pack of unfinished crackers. The signs of someone who had not had the time to finish breakfast earlier that morning.
There was a click and the door of the apartment opened, revealing its owner to be a dazzlingly handsome and icy boy of 18 years. Sasuke placed the cans of juice he had just purchased from the department store on the kitchen countertop and went to clean up the leftovers of his breakfast.
The telltale bruises on the right side of his face and his arm told of a fight he had earlier. For some reason, the college troublemakers could not leave him alone. Perhaps it was his devil-may-care demeanour, or perhaps the way their girlfriends drooled shamelessly over him.
Point was: they knew that Sasuke was an orphan and had no guardian to protect him. The troublemakers had their parents to back them up. But if Sasuke was ever involved in a fight, the college would expel him.
The ebony-eyed beauty wrapped a hot hard-boiled egg in a handkerchief and put it on the bruise on his arm. He wondered how long he would last like this. He still had at least a year of college left. He didn't think his body would hold up to daily beatings from rich snobs.
As much as he wanted to fight back, he knew he couldn't afford it. He needed the college education. He needed it to be someone in life. He needed it to get out of here.
The money his parents had left him with after that freak accident was sufficient for his college fees, tuition and his daily expenses. But nothing more than that. They had also left him with a missing brother, Itachi.
Uchiha Itachi had gone AWOL long before their parents' death. He was the only family Sasuke had left, provided that the man was still alive. Sasuke shifted the hot egg to his right cheek. The bruises would definitely stay for the next couple of days.
Sasuke sighed as his apartment phone rang shrilly again. It soon went into voice mail. "This is Uchiha Sasuke. If it's important please leave a message. If it's Ino or Sakura, please leave me alone. If it's Hinata, please don't bother apologizing for your boyfriend again. It's not your fault that he likes beating me up." BEEP.
"Sasuke-kun," said the caller. "This is your teacher, Kakashi. Please pick up. I know you're there."
Sasuke picked up the phone. "Yes?"
"I heard that you were caught up in a fight again," said Kakashi. "Are you alright?"
"No, it's not. I'm running out of eggs to boil."
"Why don't you ever accept my invitation to come over? I've got a perfectly good first aid kid box."
"Kakashi, I find it pretty sad that the only person I can talk to is my teacher," commented Sasuke as he shifted his egg from his cheek to his arm again.
"…are you going to visit their graves tomorrow?"
"Yeah. Why? I'm not letting you come with me."
"Why not? I was their good friend," whined Kakashi.
"You can visit them when I'm gone," said Sasuke testily. He ended the conversation with Kakashi and threw the egg onto a plate.
He wondered what he should buy tomorrow? Lilies? Roses? Nah, roses were too expensive. Lilies, it was. Tomorrow was the anniversary of his parents' death. It's been three years since they passed away. Every time Sasuke visited the cemetery, he questioned if he was not bypassing Itachi's grave without knowing.
Sasuke stuck a Post-It note on his refrigerator, reminding him to buy lilies. Yes, lilies would do just fine.
Sasuke had intended to visit his parents' grave after finishing his classes the next day. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be. The bullies rounded on him after class, pushing the thought of lilies to the back of his mind.
"Why are you such a wuss, Uchiha?" asked one of the bullies haughtily. "Don't you have any guts? Or do you just suck in fighting back?"
Sasuke took another kick to the stomach and doubled over. Shit, of all days, they had to give him another beating today. Couldn't they wait for him to recover from yesterday's bruises? With a final attempt at getting free, Sasuke pushed a boy away from him and made a run for it.
He jumped several flights of stairs, with no regard to his safety. He sprinted past students almost effortlessly and made a dash for the college gates. Three feet away from the gates, Sasuke dared himself to look over his shoulder. His attackers were far behind him.
At the time, it didn't occur to Sasuke that his athletic abilities were way above the average person. All that mattered to him at the time was that he had a big head start on his pursuers. But he could not run forever.
In his escape, he brought himself to an alley - somewhere along the route from the college to his apartment – and had no second thoughts about lifting the opening of the large garbage disposal sitting at the side, and sliding in.
The rubbish collector had been there before him so there was hardly any rubbish in the disposal. Sasuke slumped against the wall of the disposal and tried to catch his breath. Well, this had been truly unexpected.
His plan had been to buy a bouquet of lilies and speak with his parents at the cemetery. In previous years, he would say in front of his parents' grave that he was doing fine and hoped that Itachi was still alive. Right now, he sure as hell wasn't doing fine and he sincerely could not care less about his nonexistent older brother. What a turnaround.
Sasuke strained his ears. He couldn't hear his pursuers at all. Perhaps they had given up?
Sasuke got onto his knees and nudged the top of the disposal open. To his surprise, instead of seeing the dark grey of the opposite alley wall, he saw green – loads and loads of green. Sasuke climbed out of the disposal cautiously and found himself surrounded by foliage.
By the looks of it, he was in a forest.
Pausing to ponder this peculiarity, Sasuke didn't notice the figure that snuck on him from behind and tapped his shoulder. Sasuke nearly had a heart attack. Feeling absurdly irritated, Sasuke rounded upon the culprit and discovered two blue eyes blinking curiously up at him. "Hm?"
"Um?" went Sasuke, not sure what to say.
The boy stood shorter than him, had light blond hair and clear blue eyes. The expression on his face told clearly of his puzzlement regarding Sasuke's presence. "Who are you? Are you new in the village?"
Village?
"Ah, I'm Uchiha Sasuke."
"Uchiha?! You're an Uchiha?!" exclaimed the boy in a loud and annoying voice.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Did this boy know his family? "Yes."
The boy grinned. It was quite infectious. Sasuke found the sides of his mouth rising for no particular reason.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" announced the boy. "Welcome back to Konoha, Uchiha-san!"
The evening wind sang a song through the leaves on the trees. The melody, however, was lost to Sasuke as he tried to register the situation he was currently in. The alley he had run into had somehow turned into a clearing in a forest.
There was an Uzumaki Naruto standing in front of him, welcoming him back to Konoha – whatever or wherever that may be. And for some reason, the name Uchiha seemed to stand for something to the boy.
"I should take you to the Hokage," said Naruto. "We haven't had an Uchiha in the village in ages. We thought the whole clan was wiped out."
"Clan?" repeated Sasuke. That was an odd word to use. True, he didn't know any of his extended family outside his late parents and the absent Itachi, but surely there must be other Uchihas living and breathing. "By the way, where are you taking me?"
"I told you – to see the Hokage," said Naruto a little impatiently, grabbing Sasuke's hand and dragging him out of the forest clearing.
Wait a minute! Who was this Hokage person? Was he safe? Could Naruto even be trusted? Sure, he had a bright, sunny smile and all but –
Sasuke snatched his hand out of Naruto's grasp and sprinted for the garbage disposal. Without Naruto leading him, he lost his way. There was no track or sign leading him back to the clearing. Every turn he took seemed to be the wrong one.
Stray branches nicked him in the face here and there and one thwacked him in the arm where yesterday's bruise still remained. And finally, as if it had been waiting for him all along, a long tree root that protruded across Sasuke's path tripped him effectively, sending him crashing onto the forest floor.
Sasuke spat the leaves out of his mouth and groaned. All he had wanted to do was buy some lilies and visit his parents' grave. How did it end up like this?
"Hey, are you sure you're an Uchiha?"
Sasuke looked heavenwards and saw Naruto perched on a thick branch of a tree on his haunches as though it was the most natural thing to do. The branch was a long way up from the ground too, but Naruto didn't even show a sign of fear as he rocked back and forth on his heels.
"From what Iruka-sensei told me, Uchihas are renowned for their genius fighting skill and sorry to say but you tripping like that isn't exactly genius," said Naruto.
Sasuke stood up and brushed dirt and leaves from his clothes. "I'm sorry but I have no idea what you're talking about. My family doesn't have any fighting skills whatsoever."
"Then how come you're called Uchiha?" asked Naruto deadpanned.
"Why do you care?" retorted Sasuke. "Why are you called Uzumaki?"
Naruto replied with an easy shrug. "I don't know. My parents died before I could remember and nobody really told me who my parents were or why they named me Naruto and such. Hey, you're hurt pretty badly, aren't you?"
"Well, aren't you the smart one?" said Sasuke sarcastically.
"We have to get you to Tsunade-baachan! She'll know what to do."
No, absolutely not! He wasn't going off with this strange boy to see another stranger! "Just tell me how to get back to the clearing!" demanded Sasuke.
Naruto quirked at eyebrow at his request. "Sure. But I don't know why you'd want to anyway. There's nothing there." Naruto obediently showed Sasuke back to the forest clearing, the very same one. And yet there was nothing. No garbage disposal, no sign of the alley he was supposed to be at.
"What is going on here?" muttered Sasuke.
"There. You satisfied?" asked Naruto. "Now come with me to see Tsunade-baachan!" With a tug of his collar, Naruto pulled Sasuke along with him. It wouldn't have been so bad if Naruto was contented with merely dragging him across the forest floor, but once out of the clearing, Naruto leapt to the trees.
Sasuke felt his stomach plunge lower as Naruto went up, and soon he was bobbing behind Naruto as the blond leapt from branch to branch. The only thing that tied him to safety was Naruto's iron grip on his collar.
Sasuke's final thought as they reached the edge of the forest was that this is a dream. It must be. Why else would he appear in a forest? And why else would there be a village outside a forest? A true Japanese village with mountains on one side and the villagers all wearing commoner's yukata, ones that Sasuke only got to see during festivals, for that matter.
"The only thing missing now is a kitsune spirit to steal me away," muttered Sasuke under his breath.
"What was that?" asked Naruto loudly. "Kitsune? Yeah, people always called me a kitsune. It's probably because I have a kitsune spirit sealed in my body."
Sasuke froze. The kitsune spirit already stole him away.
(kitsune fox)
The aroma of strong coffee brought him to his senses. Sasuke groaned and clapped a hand over his eyes. His head felt groggy, as though he had taken a very long sleep. He looked down and noticed that he was still in the clothes he had gone to the college in.
The sky outside the window told him that it was already nighttime. And the smell of coffee alerted him that he was not alone.
"Kakashi, is that you?"
The silver-haired teacher poured the coffee into two mugs and passed one of them to Sasuke. "Here you go. You're the first person to be inside my new apartment. A bit unexpected. The house-warming party isn't until tomorrow."
"What am I doing here?" asked Sasuke, accepting the coffee gratefully.
"Well, let's see. Here I was, thinking that I should take out the garbage," began Kakashi, looking up as he recalled his story. "And I thought, 'Hey, I should just take the garbage straight to the disposal because there's a cute little cat that lives around there and I have a little milk to spare!' But instead of the kitty, I found you sleeping in the disposal. Now my question is, why would you be sleeping in a garbage disposal? It's not a very nice place to sleep in. Not to mention, you stink."
Sasuke sipped on his coffee contemplatively. So it was a dream after all. The boy Naruto, the forest, everything – it was all a dream, a rather short dream, he might add.
"Can I stay for the night?" asked Sasuke. "I don't feel like walking back to my apartment right now."
Kakashi scratched his cheek with a finger in thought. "That shouldn't be a problem but…you're going to have to share with the other freeloader living here. My nephew is visiting me for the month so he took up the guest room. If you don't mind rooming with him tonight, then everything should be fine."
"Your nephew wouldn't mind?" asked Sasuke, getting up from the sofa he had been lying on and crossing over to the open kitchen. He raided the refrigerator for an egg and began searching for a pot to boil it in.
"Left upper cupboard," said Kakashi helpfully. "My nephew is very friendly. He wouldn't mind."
"Hmm…," went Sasuke noncommittally as he plopped the egg in boiling water. "How old is he – your nephew?"
"He should be around your age. He went out searching for a part-time job today but he should be returning any time now," said Kakashi, taking out the ointment from his first-aid kit box and tossing it to Sasuke. "Before you change the topic again, you want to tell me why you were sleeping in the garbage disposal?"
"Not really." Sasuke touched the bruise on his face. A branch had hit it pretty hard in his dream. Ouch, it really hurt. Feeling a little alarmed, Sasuke felt the entire of the face with his fingers. There was a cut on the bridge of his nose, a scratch above his left eye and chin – how in the world did he get those?
The part where he cut his face while running through the forest – that was part of the dream, right?
There was a turn in the lock of Kakashi's apartment door. "Oh, looks like he's back," said Kakashi. "How did the job search go, Naruto?"
Sasuke's eyes widened and his jaw slackened in disbelief. Naruto? This was a coincidence, right? This couldn't be the same Naruto … the Uzumaki Naruto – the fox spirit bearer?
"I'm home!" wailed a loud, annoying voice that was so familiar that it raised goose bumps on Sasuke's arms. The crack between the door widened and in stepped a boy with sunny blond hair and clear blue eyes.
It was him. Definitely him. Uzumaki Naruto.
Sasuke stared at Naruto without bothering to hide his surprise. Was it still safe to say that it had all been a dream?
Naruto looked surprised at Sasuke's presence too. He grinned and said, "Ah, it's you! What are you doing here, Uchiha-san?"
It hadn't been a dream. There was no way it could have been a dream. Because if it was, there was no way the Uzumaki Naruto in the real life could have ever known that his name was Uchiha.
continued in chap 2.