Chasing the Sun
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Prologue
The first memory that Naruto has of outside the village is tall trees, branches flying overhead and the wind whistling through his ears. He remembers his hair flying wildly, his body clutched tight against the bosom of a woman. He remembers the smell of her hair, lavender, and the feeling of her nails digging deep into his back as she runs faster and faster through the forests of Fire Country.
Naruto doesn't panic. In fact, he is quite calm considering his reputation as an energetic trouble-maker. Cautiously he looks up at his once-caretaker, a young civilian woman who had lost her son during childbirth. Her name is Shiori, he remembers. She's a lithe, medium height woman with a penchant for origami. She'd been assigned to him by Hokage-jiji, and was to date the nicest care-taker he'd ever had. Yet somehow Naruto knew this wasn't what the Sandaime had in mind.
"Nee-chan, where are we going?" he remembers asking.
The kunoichi, because it could have only been a ninja fleeing from Konoha's ANBU Naruto realizes down the road, takes a ragged breath and responds.
"Far, far away from here Naruto-chan, far away so no one can hurt you ever again."
Naruto remembers the tremor in her voice, remembers the feeling of her chakra, like a warm fire crackling around him. Somehow, he can feel the urgency in it, can feel the desperation as she flees from their pursuers. But he can also feel the truth. He can feel the sincerity and the affection she has for him. It is a gift received from Kyuubi, though he does not know it. The ability to empathize, to feel others emotions, their intentions, simply by being in touch with their chakra.
Shiori feels like a spring day on the river, a wide smile, and a warm embrace.
Never one to doubt his gut feeling, Naruto believes her.
And so he snuggles deeper into her chest, thinking about the angry glares, the cold, mocking taunts of the villagers; everything she is taking him away from. Though he will never admit it, not to the ANBU agent who later puts Shiori down like a dog in front of him, and not to the Hokage who asks if he is glad to be home, in that moment Naruto prays that they will never be caught.
The last thing Naruto remembers about Shiori is her blue, beautiful eyes staring at him as the ANBU lunges for her. She is no match for the silent masked ninja, so instead she locks eyes with a boy she tried her best to save, even as she is about to die, and tries to convey the affection she feels for the small blonde. She wishes that he feels it, hopes that he knows how hard she tried, how she could have lo-
A kunai through the base of her skull cuts off her train of thought. The ANBU is efficient; a clean kill is all Naruto sees.
Shiori's wish comes true though. Thanks to the Kyuubi, Naruto does feel the affection and the desperation and the hope and the loneliness from his, now dead, caretaker.
Because of this, Shiori is the first woman that Naruto ever loves.
The first time Naruto steps out of Konohagakure on his own two feet, it is night time.
The moon is large and full in the sky, white light a soft glow on the earth below. The village is quiet. And so is Naruto. Contrary to popular belief, Naruto is capable of being completely, utterly silent. How else would he have evaded chunin, jounin and ANBU twice his age as a child? But that is neither here nor there, and the important thing is that Naruto is quiet for a reason.
He is following someone.
He has followed them straight through the Naka river bed and out of Konoha, blue eyes never leaving the shadowy figure that is fleeing the city. Downwind, Naruto can smell the blood in the air. And as he follows the figure through the underbrush and over the river, again and again, Naruto can see the shed articles of clothing stained with crimson liquid. He can see the discarded ninjato, caked with dried blood, glinting dully under the moonlight.
Years later Naruto will remember the fear and pain and self-loathing he can feel from this person's chakra as he trails them, and he will become pensive and thoughtful whenever Uchiha Sasuke brings up his brother. Some will mistake this as respect Naruto is giving to his team-mate, as Naruto being aware of how touchy the subject really is to the 'last' Uchiha. In reality, Naruto doesn't care. He is quiet for entirely different reasons.
Naruto is still trailing the figure, his curiosity at an all-time peak when he trips on a root and stumbles to the ground. For a moment, he loses sight of his 'prey', and he scrambles to his feet quickly to avoid losing him completely. As he stands, Naruto is faintly aware of someone staring at him from above.
Tilting his head up the blonde meets the blood red gaze of the Uchiha scion. Tomoe are slowly spinning in his Sharingan, and Naruto, always talkative, is momentarily at a loss for words. So instead he runs a hand through his hair and stares up at the raven haired teen, unsure of what to say.
Uchiha Itachi stares impassively back down at the blonde.
"Go home", he says.
"Why?" Naruto responds. And he is genuinely curious. Why should he go home? What was there at 'home' for him? Home was a sterile apartment. Home was loneliness.
Itachi perhaps, misunderstands Naruto. Why? The blonde couldn't possibly be asking why he should stay in Konoha, thinks Itachi. So the next logical question in Itachi's mind is, 'Why did you kill them all?' He has no idea that Naruto knows nothing of the Uchiha Massacre, as it will come to be called. He has no idea that the blonde has followed him out of the village because he could literally feel the pain in Itachi's chakra from across the village in his apartment. He has no idea that Naruto has followed him because he's in pain too.
The raven haired teen cocks his head and says slowly.
"I killed them to test myself."
Naruto is momentarily confused. He has another question on his lips and then a correction to his previous question behind that. But he never gets chance to say either. Itachi's eyes spin in circles and Naruto is drawn into their crimson gaze. And as if a puppet with its strings cut, Naruto crumples to the ground, forced to sleep by a potent genjutsu.
The last thing he remembers is the feeling of Itachi's chakra and the way it screams liarliarliarliar.
Uzumaki Naruto lives the next five years knowing, somehow, deep down, that Uchiha Itachi is innocent.
Itachi stares down at the blonde and pities him. For a moment he contemplates taking him with, taking him away from a city that will continue to hate him as long as the Kyuubi is sealed inside him.
But those are not his orders. So he does nothing.
Someday, he knows, the village will ask everything of Naruto; will take everything from his as well.
Itachi wonders, as he closes his eyes and turns to run, to flee from Fire Country, if Naruto will have the courage to give up everything.
He wonders if Naruto will have the courage to kill his own heart.
The first moment Naruto realizes he wants more than Konoha, he is sipping sake in a luxury suite in the capital of Fire Country.
"Ne, ero-sennin?"
Jiraiya doesn't look up from his notebook, eyes still glued to the pages and pen still scribbling as he answers Naruto.
"What brat? And stop calling me that, jeez, gonna give me a bad reputation around here."
Here, as Jiraiya calls it, is a multi-story, upscale tea house in the red-light district of the capital of Fire Country, that is in all essence, a whore-house. Naruto snorts, rolling his eyes as he takes a sip of sake. They have their own massive, private room on the top floor of the building, with a magnificent view of the active night life of the capital. It is Naruto's first time here, his first time in a city as large as Konohagakure that isn't filled with shinobi. He is enthralled. The first step into the city is as eye opening as the second, and Jiraiya is hard-pressed to stop Naruto from touching anything and everything. They have business after all, so dammit brat, pay attention and let's get a move on.
Naruto at first, is a bit surly at the lost opportunity to explore, thought his white haired sensei assures him there is time later. So instead, he broaches the topic of shadow clones. Why not let them explore for him? At first, Jiraiya is hesitant. After all, what chaos could unsupervised Naruto shadow clones possibly get into… Yet he relents. As time has gone on, Naruto has matured, changing from a talkative, unscrupulous, and immature brat, to a more calm, more disciplined student, who is a bit colder with age.
Thus, student and teacher find themselves locked up in their whorehouse, relaxing after meeting Jiraiya's contact. Information about Sasuke and Orochimaru has come through the wire, yet for once Naruto finds that he really cannot care. His shadow clones are out in the city and they are popping at random intervals, sending him memories and images of the most amazing, breathtaking sights. So, Naruto has other things on his mind and is naturally silent. Jiraiya is content to let Naruto digest everything he has seen; the older man knows the splendor of the Fire capital has no equal.
After all, Jiraiya is the single most traveled shinobi in the world's history, barring the Sage of Six Path's. For a shinobi Jiraiya is as high profile as they come. Able to move freely from country to country, due to his 'shaky' allegiance to Konoha, his S class status, and more importantly his world renowned series of pornographic novels, Icha Icha, Jiraiya is the single most well-known shinobi in the elemental nations. Part of the reason he's been able to create such an advance intelligence network is precisely because of his high profile life. And it is because of this spy network that the Sandaime, and now Tsunade, allow him to continue.
He's always had wanderlust, so it's convenient that his 'job' allows him to be constantly on the move. As such, Jiraiya has seen almost everything. Almost every corner of the continent. And it is something his apprentice is quickly grasping, and is quickly becoming infatuated with.
"What else is out there?" asks Naruto as they sit in their private suite, the sounds of the whorehouse, the music and women outside blurred out by privacy seals. Naruto is expanding his senses, feeling out into the city with his chakra, picking up the emotions and the taste of the capital. He has long since been conscious of Kyuubi's ability, and along with the beginnings of sage training with Jiraiya, has been able to put the ability to good use. Naruto is a nightmare in negotiations and interrogations.
After a few more moments of scribbling, Naruto's question hanging in the air, Jiraiya finally looks up and pins his student with a curious, if somewhat knowing look.
"Why?" he asks, though he can already guess the answer. Naruto is more like him than he realizes.
Naruto puts his sake dish down, and stares out the window some more.
"I've always wondered", he starts, "What else was out there. What else was beyond the walls of Konohagakure. Of course I've always know about the wilderness and the poverty…but this, this is…"
He trails off, motioning with his hand to the window, where the bustle of the capital's night life is alive, so unlike Konoha. Naruto can feel the people out there, can feel their happiness and joy, and he wants to feel more. From everyone, from everywhere. This is something new to him, something fresh. For once he does not feel hatred and fear, like in Konoha, and he longs for more.
Jiraiya just continues to stare at him, knowing that before their training trip, Naruto has only been on one mission outside Konoha.
"Is there," he starts hesitantly, "Is there more like this out there?"
His voice sounds so hopeful, thinks Jiraiya. The white haired man puts his pen down and leans back into the couch. It sounds to him as if Naruto has been thinking about this for a long, long time. He has no idea how right he is.
He has no idea how many times Naruto has been so, so close to leaving it all behind. Leaving Konoha behind. Leaving behind the hating villagers and the cold stares. Leaving behind his empty, rundown apartment and his lonely life. But he's always been scared. Scared to find out nothing else was out there, scared to come back with his tail between his legs. Scared at first to leave Jiji behind. Then Sakura, because lord knows she needed confidence. Then Sasuke, because the bastard needed a friend. And then Kakashi, because he was so lonely and he needed someone. And then Baa-chan, because she needed her brother back.
But now Naruto knows what else is out in the world. And the allure is suddenly there again, and the world is calling him. Come. Come home. Come to us.
Naruto knows his place isn't in Konoha, despite his precious people being there. That's why he left so readily and so quickly when Jiraiya proposed this trip.
Looking back, Naruto knows it is the best decision he's ever made.
Jiraiya studies his student for a moment longer before responding.
"Of course there is. Did you think everywhere was just like Konoha?" He gestures outside as he continues speaking.
"We haven't even been to the tropics yet, where the water off the coast of the Land of Crabs is as clear as bath water. We haven't even seen the great shrine of Amaterasu, or the jade cliffs and mines in the Land of Earth. We haven't even seen Tojo falls, the largest waterfall in the elemental nations, right here in Fire Country."
Jiraiya pauses in his rambling, giving Naruto a sidelong glance, "Heck Naruto, you haven't even seen snow yet, did you really think Konoha was all there was?"
His student has the decency to look embarrassed. Jiraiya just snorts.
"Look gaki, Konoha is great. But there is so much more to this world than shinobi and ninja villages."
Jiraiya pauses, taking a long sip of sake as he gazes back out over the capital.
"And if you stick around long enough with me, I'll show you it all."
An: This is the 9 year anniversary of me joining fanfiction, and my first story. I hope you enjoy this one. It always struck me as odd that Naruto, an orphan who had nothing and was treated like nothing, was never more curious about what else was out there, what else was beyond Konoha. I think it's more interesting to think about where Naruto went during his trip with Jiraiya, rather than what he learned.