Band on the Run
Summary: Their latest gig did not go so well, and the after party was even worse. Now, the two man band is in the run enemies in high places while going on a world tour trying to collect members for their group. Dealing with back alley business, insane fans, haters, henchmen, gang fights, old ruins and near death traps just how will this infamous group survive as they try to place their names in history.
Note: I don't really know anything about how rare or expensive guitars and the like are so I'm just going to go with what kinds of guitars and such I can find but I think it would be better if I included the names and make of the instruments. If there are any complaints I'll remove the instrument names.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from the manga "Naruto" which are used in this story, they were created by Misashi Kishimoto. I am not the inventor of any of the instruments mentioned in this fan fiction, credit is to the inventors of these instruments. I do however own this story plot and any original characters that appear.
Chapter 1: What happened?
"Ugh, I feel like shit."
"Shut up Naruto, I'm trying to sleep." Naruto lifted his hand to his spiky blond hair and scratched his head before rubbing his forehead.
"Teme, what smells so bad?"
"I said shut up Naruto!" Naruto opened his eyes to look up and see two towering brick walls to either side. The sun's rays barely entered through the gap between the two walls. Naruto blinked twice. Before looking to his right and seeing that he was lieing in a dumpster. Naruto panicked and rolled to his left only to fall out of the dumpster and fall onto a motionless figure lieing face-down on the floor, with messy raven-black hair covering it's face. It figure lifted it's left arm and rolled to around to cause Naruto to continue rolling for another couple of feet. The figure then sat up straight.
"Get off dobe!" Sasuke yelled at Naruto. His hair was a mess making his black eye barely visible. "I'm trying to sl- Suddenly noticing the area they were in and the state of each other, Sasuke momentarily stopped his complaint's. He lifted his hand to his head and crossed his legs. "Uh, this is one bad head-ache. Where are we dobe." Naruto looked both ways before saying:
"An alleyway." Sasuke picked up the nearest thing he could get a hold of with his free hand and threw it at Naruto.
"Isn't that a bit obvious?!" Naruto brushed the old French fries off himself and stood up. "Where are you going?" Sasuke asked.
"I'm going to figure out what happened to my gui-" Naruto stopped in mid-sentence as he saw his personally styled Flying V guitar lieing broken in the dumpster. Naruto started to feel tears well up in his eyes as he looked at the guitar his dad gave him only a couple of years before he passed away. He clenched his fists and looked at the ground.
Sasuke looked at Naruto's guitar and knew how much it meant to him as a memento of his father. Sasuke got up and placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder.
"I'm sorry for your loss Naruto. We'll try to get it fix-." Sasuke then looked and saw that his Gibson EB-3 bass guitar broken at the neck and with large cracks on it's body. Sasuke looked at his bass, his eye twitching non-stop. He reached out and picked up the instrument only for the body to fall to pieces. Sasuke and Naruto looked silently at their instruments.
"I'm gonna kill the ass hole who destroyed my bass!" Sasuke shouted in pure rage.
"Calm down Sasuke. If they hear you then they'll probably run away." Sasuke looked at Naruto. He sighed.
"OK, let's see what happened last night." Sasuke started. "We went to play at the gig. And I remember seeing a few bottles flying at us..." Both Naruto as lifted there hands to feel lumps from the bruises on their heads. "Well that explains something."
"Then when we were done we went to that cheap restaurant down the road." Naruto added. "Then I don't remember anything past that though."
"I guess we better find that restaurant then, but first." Sasuke walked towards the street and looked out to see old, crumbling buildings, garbage littered all over the street, rats rummaging through the garbage and an old newspaper flying about in the wind.
"Where the hell are we?" Sasuke asked. Naruto walked into the street and looked at the messy area.
"Maybe we should try down the other way." He pointed his thumb behind him.
"Hn. Only in a world where you can walk through a fence." Naruto looked back and, indeed, there was an old, rusty fence that was bending forwards.
"Just watch me. I can get over that." Sasuke started:
"Naruto stop-" but he was too late and Naruto was already making a bee line for the fence, clutching the remains of his guitar as he ran. As he was about to leap over the fence, he felt a tug on the back of his t-shirt and was thrown back onto the floor in the alley. He looked and shouted:
"Teme! I could've made-"
"Then what would you have done about that!" Sasuke pointed behind him past the fence where lay some razor wire in the waiting. Naruto looked dumb-founded and realized that his friend had just saved his life. "What would you have done if you were caught in that huh? We don't know where we are and there's no way I'm going to get caught in the mess with you while trying to save your sorry ass dobe." Naruto only looked up at Sasuke and then towards the lethal trap of razor wire that could ensnare anyone who dared to tread on it.
"Thanks teme." Sasuke offered his hand to help Naruto up. Naruto took it and Sasuke pulled him up.
"Let's go dobe."
--------------------------------------------------
They looked about themselves. They had walked for roughly an hour since they left the alley way, carrying their broken instruments with them as they walked along. The sun was high now and it's heat bared down on the two of them and they continued walking through the streets around the old buildings. They were both tired and hungry
"I'd give anything for one of Ichiraku's pork ramen right now."
"You'd always give anything for ramen."
"Shut it teme."
"Make me dobe."
"Maybe I will."
"How, your tired and don't look like you could throw a punch, let alone hit me."
"You wouldn't be able to dodge."
"Shut up dobe."
Silence took place and they kept walking. One step at a time. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right.
"Are we there yet?" Naruto said after a few minutes.
"No Naruto."
"Are we there yet?"
"No dobe."
"Are we there yet?"
"NO WE"RE NOT THERE YET. NOW WILL YOU SHUT UP!" Sasuke exploded.
Suddenly, Naruto and Sasuke heard a growling and looked behind themselves to see a thin, mangy dog that drooled over the sides of it's mouth as it stared at them with a look of hunger when the hunter finds the hunted. Naruto and Sasuke stared at the dog and it stared back. The dog receded into a pouncing position before bounding towards it's prey in an insane, uncontrolled, wild manner. They both widened their eyes and turned around to bolt off around the old, ruined buildings. Their tiredness and hunger completely forgotten as their minds scream: 'Run, run for your lives!' and their bodies complied seemingly as if they said 'You don't have to tell me you blood filled moron! I'm out of here!'.
They both ran and ran as fast as they could until they reached a dead end with one turn round the left corner. They skidded, arms occupied by their destroyed instruments. Using their feet alone, they scrambled to their feet as the dog came skidding around the corner, a rapid look about it as it's tongue hung out of the side of it's mouth and it's sharp teeth were bare, glinting in the sunlight. As the hound tried to turn side-ways, it's skidded and crashed into the decrepit wall. It's head turning upwards as it's body smashed against the wall and cracking sounds of destroyed bones echoed and shot through the air to make any man's hair stand on end. It's legs scratched away at the old brick wall to try and catch up to the two fleeing humans.
"Don't :pant: look :pant: back :pant:" Sasuke tried to say between gasps of breathing and inhaling air.
"No :pant: shit :pant: smart ass!:" Naruto sent back as he jumped over a bin laying on it's side.
The dog had sacrificed enough and wasn't going to go down until it had it's fill of flesh. It's ran. It chased. It felt the pain of the shards of bone laying beneath it's skin. It's leapt over the tumbled bin and made it's way towards it's hopeful salvation.
The duo turned a corner and stared through a fence, standing high and tall, into an alleyway and at the end of this alley way lay the sunlight shining upon civilization. They ran up to the fence, placing the straps of their guitars around them selves and shoving the smaller broken pieces into their pockets. They jumped and soared at the fence and met it with a crash and small clangs of metal at the fence and they clasped onto it with their hands and started to scramble their feet against the fence as they hurriedly climbed up it. The hound was desperate. It charged at the fence and crashed into it, causing it to shake back and forth wildly. The two had to hold on tight until the shaking stopped before they could climb further up the fence. The dog jumped up. It snapped it's teeth wildly. It's saliva crawled towards it's neck and flew as droplets all around the beast. Sasuke reached further up and pulled himself to the top.
"Ow!" Not looking, he grasped a hold of barbed wire that pierced his hand and caused ugly wounds.
"ARGH! THAT HURT YOU DAMN MUT!" Naruto screamed at the hound and Sasuke looked to see wounds where the dog's teeth had bore into Naruto's ankle as he climbed to the top. They were safely out of reach, if positioned correctly, of the hound's relentless attacks.
"Any last words teme?" Naruto asked only to have Sasuke look at him with a look of 'What the hell are you on about?'.
"Hn. You think we're going to die pathetically here?"
"We may." Sasuke eyed at Naruto as if he expected to be thrown down as a decoy. Then he smirked.
"Al right, I hate your favourite band and your singing voice is awful."
"I slept with your ex." Sasuke looked at Naruto with a look of hatred.
"You what! Al right that's it, we're getting out of here so that I can kill you myself!" Sasuke carelessly reached over the barbed wire, causing multiple cuts and scratches on his arm. He then threw himself over, feeling the metal as it tore at his skin as he moved over it. He landed less than gracefully and looked back at Naruto. Then he saw how the fence started to falter with the weight of Naruto and the force of the dogs as it crashed into the fence trying to bite Sasuke.
"Your turn." Sasuke said as he looked a Naruto.
"What do you mean 'my turn'?!" Naruto retorted.
"Just jump already." Naruto could have sworn he heard his friend mutter 'Dobe' after he spoke.
Naruto chose to climb over instead and felt the wire strike at his skin as he crawled over. After Naruto landed, he felt nothing but pain throughout his body. He was scratched from head to toe and the bite on his leg was not looking good. The dog barked through the cage as it continued to try and reach them. Sasuke bent down and put Naruto's arm around his neck as he helped him to his feet. Sasuke started to walk slowly, supporting Naruto as they walked out of the alley. Hearing the dog's barks behind them.
--------------------------------------------------
"NANI?!" Naruto screamed over the counter towards the shop attendant.
"I've told you already, sir. These instruments are damaged beyond repair, the body needs to be completely replaced, the strings are breaking, the nut is worn out, the headstock is on the verge of breaking off, the knobs are missing along with the pick-guards from both the guitar and bass guitar. What did you do to these instruments? The electrics alone are damaged so much that the only option would be to replace them. Cost-wise, your only other option is to buy different guitars."
Naruto slamed his bandaged wrist on the counter and then clenched his teeth so that he would let out a yelp of pain. Sasuke merely sighed, but Naruto knew tat he was just as sad and pissed off.
"The hospital bill already took most of our money." He said. "There's no way we can buy instruments any time soon." The shop attendant eyed the two of them from top to bottom. The loud one who was on the verge of losing it had spiky blond hair, a neon orange t-shirt, jeans and a pair of white skateboarding shoes on. He also had blue hair and barely tanned skin. He seemed to be going for an over-reactive image that caught everyone's attention. The calm one had jet black hair that stuck up at the back and was more downy at the front and onyx-dark eyes. He wore a white t-shirt, jeans and a pair of white running shoes. He was even less tanned but that only added to the dark aura and image he was letting off. Personality wise these guys were almost polar opposites.
"So do you know where it is?" The shop keeper snapped back down to Earth.
"Sorry, what did you want to know?" He asked.
"Do you know how to get to the ramen restaurant on 5th street?" The attendant thought for a minute.
"Ah yes, that place, yeah, you just go down the road for 3 blocks and then take the first left."
"Thanks." Sasuke said. He then stopped as he was about to grab his instrument. "Do you have a couple of plastic bags we can use?" The assistant rummaged around behind the counter before producing a pair of plastic bags.
"Here you go."
"Thanks." Sasuke said as he placed the pieces of his instrument in his bag. Naruto did the same.
-----------------------------------------------
They were walking down the road, holding their bags in their hands. The strode in silence as they turned the corner onto 5th street and proceeded to walk up to and stand in front of the building where someone may be able to tell them what happened to land them next to a dumpster, in one in Naruto's case, with completely destroyed instruments and cuts, bruises and black eyes. They opened the door and entered the restaurant. When they entered everyone turned silent and stared at them. As they looked at the crowd before walking to the owner of the restaurant. As they walked, they heard mutterings and whispers from the crowd.
They sat down at the counter and looked at the owner who stared back at them, worry written all over his face.
"I'll take a coke." Naruto said.
"Orange juice here." Sasuke said.
"Take it and leave." The owner said harshly as he served the drinks.
"Not yet, we want some information." Sasuke said before drinking his juice.
"What do you want?" He asked.
"What exactly happened last night?" Naruto asked. The owner looked at the sceptically.
"You mean you don't remember? Well I suppose you wouldn't after a fight like that."
"That explains this." Sasuke said holding his right hand over his black eye. "I don't think I got drunk though."
"Of course you didn't, your under age."
"How do you know?" Naruto asked. The owner held up a couple of ID cards. "Oh."
"The guys checked to see who you were after they beat the shit out of you."
"So what happened then?" Sasuke asked after he finished his drink."
"You want the bare details or the whole thing?"
"Enough to work with." He nodded.
"Well you came in looking pretty down, sat down, had a couple of drinks. There were a couple of guys trying to make a deal at the table behind you and then you started to tell them to f-off when a couple of goons asked you to leave." He said pointing at Naruto. "After that you all got into a fight, they took your ID cards and then drag you off to who-knows-where."
"Any idea who these goons were?" Sasuke inquired.
"No, but a friend of a friend of mine does dealings on the black market and underground and gave me pictures of who to look out for." He dropped a couple of photos down showing a young man, roughly their age, with long brown hair tied in a ponytail with lavender eyes and the other photo showed a young man who wore small black glasses to hide his eyes and had some kind of a brown afro.
"You two had a run in with Neji Hyuga and Shino Aburame. Both of them have strong connections all over the world. If you ask me, your both dead if they find you alive."
The two just looked at the photos, memorising them, before Naruto said:
"Shit."
--------------------------------------------------
So what do you think for my first Fanfic? Sorry for the grammar, I'm slightly dyslexic (Praise the spell checker.). Sorry if the chapter is too short but I'm only going to get things rolling from chapter 2 onwards.
I'll except any criticism and complaints. Stay tuned for the next chapter:
Chapter 2: First leg of the Course