Trade

The events of Naruto's life could not have turned out more different, to have arrived at this point in history in this way.

Disclaimer: I relinquish any ideas or concepts of ownership that may be attributed to me and declare the original owners of Naruto, Naruto Shippuden and all media associated thereof, to be the rightful and legal property of Masashi Kishimoto and any associates thereof.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

There was a time, long past and distant in memory, when a path diverged in life. A signpost, a difficult decision with two choices and not enough time to consider each properly. Uzumaki Naruto had sat at the crossroads with those two choices, in his hand a scroll of infinite value, clutched close and tight. He had considered, with all the logic and wisdom that a thirteen year old could possess, the life changing decisions in front of him.

The scroll had come in the middle of the night, waking him as the window shut and the brief puff of pressured air from it's closing caressed his face. He'd assumed he'd just left a window open, that allowed the cold breeze to wash over his face but all windows were shut tight. But there on a low table sat a scroll, innocuous but conspicuous in the sense that he had already tidied his apartment, put away every book and scroll into it's place. And the scroll itself was not recognisable, something that was not his.

Clambering out of bed, he had cautiously approached the scroll and after going through the simple mechanism of checking for danger, sat down and reached for the small tightly rolled scroll. Opening it, his eyes flashed across the stained parchment like lightning until he had finished it and he stumbled back from the small scroll, anxious anger and worry etched into the youthful frame of his face.

The scroll was from the man they had fought in the Forest of Death, only a few months ago. But signed below it were the names of an organisation whose name ran shivers down his spine. The Red cloud, the red moon, the red dawn.

Akatsuki. The jinchuuriki-hunting, power-seeking organisation that sought to trap the ones like him and do who knows what with them. Break them, down into mindless and heartless soldiers? Suck their powers out? No one knew and if Naruto guessed right, hardly anyone in Konoha would care what they would do to him.

But they were coming, this organisation. They were coming for him, or for the boy Naruto had long declared his brother. Uchiha Sasuke, the apparent scion of the Uchiha family and the only young person in Konoha that Naruto would trust without question, with the exception of his teammates and leaders, But years ago, when the somnolent insects whirred in the summer, when the blood of many stained the ground still and a young boy had crouched in the shadows, stung by anger and betrayal. And it was there that the boy made of light found the boy of darkness but inside each of them, regardless of their appearances, burned the same darkness. The darkness of being alone in the world, of being betrayed and hurt and destroyed in the worst manner possible.

And a bond stronger than either had known before, had formed in the shadows and no matter what the world told them; their water was stronger than blood.

But now, this decision could destroy anything and everything he had worked for in his life, destroy the fragile family he had found among his teammates and the people who cared for him, whom he care for. How could he do this? To choose between the kidnapping and brainwashing and possible death of his best friend, his brother-

Or to be taken by the same organisation that had vowed to destroy him and all who held the demons. He was considering his own death and it was so startlingly obvious that it stung and ached in his chest.

Sasuke would always come first after all. Family would come first, after so many years of being alone and forgotten. Scroll clutched in his hand, he rose from the position he had been sitting in for so long and when he glanced to the digital clock on his nightstand, he was only faintly surprised as the blinking red numbers showed that time was somewhere near 4am. Approximately 3 hours of deliberation, which had now culminated in his heart rendering decision to betray everything he knew and trusted and loved. To leave his village behind, to leave their leader who was like his mother. His family, Teuchi, Ayame…

Even Sakura and Sasuke. But at least he knew that they would safe. They would be strong and grow in the village, protecting it and Naruto knew Sasuke would feel betrayed by him. With any luck, his anger would become determination and he would work with the village, the most logical bet to find him if he were to leave.

Now on his feet, Naruto quickly made his way to the dresser on which sat his collection of sealed scrolls, made primarily for use in missions. As well as several smaller scrolls contained the small library of scrolls he owned himself, which he packed into his travel bag. It was his missions bag, dark in colour and easily blending into the background. He had dressed in a similar manner, in dark but not black clothing, hard to spot against the dark lapis lazuli of the night sky as it approached dawn.

They waited at the border, only two hours from the walls from Konoha and he saw them as the sun rose over the horizon, cloaked and faces shaded. The shinobi and the kunoichi, who will reign over him, train him and break him.

These are the people who own him now, heart and soul and body. He can be destroyed, many times over, to be rebuilt and stacked up again, to be destroyed once again like a fragile house of cards.

But he will never break, not fully.

Because Uchiha Sasuke is back in Konoha, peaceful and safe and if it is for family, there is nothing that will break him.