Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, its characters and/or ideas. All rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto.
Summary: Sasuke couldn't move, couldn't think. How he wished he had noticed before. The same whisker marks and sparkling blue eyes belonging to one Uzumaki Naruto, the same kid whom mysteriously vanished months before - the missing boy. AU SasuNaru.
Note: Idea starting out as a one-shot, now it's a multi-chapter story. Enjoy!
Nine months.
That's how long it had been.
Nine whole months to the day since his fourteen year old son had went missing, just to disappear into oblivion.
On a sturdy oak table stood a framed picture of a family of three: a young blonde man, his beautiful redheaded wife, and their infant son - the same boy whom would vanish several years afterward. A blue eyed male wearing the Hokage robes sat behind said table, glancing wistfully at the image.
Namizake Minato wasn't a stupid man by any means. He knew that his child wasn't just missing - he had been taken. By whom? He couldn't say for sure. That's what the distraught father wanted so desperately to figure out. And with that, the blonde man figured that the longer it took for the Konoha Police Force to find the boy, the more of a failure he really was.
The man had always wanted the best for his son, no matter what. It was one of his biggest promises he had made to his late wife Uzumaki Kushina, who had died after she had left him and an eight year old Naruto to fend for themselves.
Now, with him still being the town's hero and Yondaime Hokage, his negative thoughts were - if he couldn't protect his own flesh and blood, how was he ever going to measure up protecting the rest of his citizens?
The Missing Boy
Chapter 1
Sixteen year old Uchiha Sasuke didn't want to seem too eager. If anything, the dark haired youth needed to be poised and elegant.
He had to maintain steady control, after all. He came from a well rounded, wealthy family that all the other clans in the Konoha village admired and respected. There was no way he was going to literally dash down the stairs to greet his older brother who he hadn't seen in over a year because of the other's schooling.
With a quick look in his elongated mirror while running his pale fingers through his dark locks, Sasuke prepared to present himself as diligently as humanly possible.
The raven bounded - casually, he might add - from his heightened room upstairs to the marble entryway where his power driven parents were getting reacquainted with their older son.
Uchiha Itachi regarded his parents with a cool indifference. The other raven had been embraced by his mother warmly, and given a curt nod by his father. As soon as his crimson eyes had landed on Sasuke, the older teen smirked in amusement to his younger brother's concealed happiness.
"Hello, little brother."
"Itachi," Sasuke announced with forced nonchalance.
The boys' father, Fugaku brought the older teen's attention back to him with introductory questions about how his trip had been, and how college was going. Within a few moments, Sasuke brought his eyes to rest on a figure that was a couple of feet away from the conversing family.
The person was wearing all black, a hooded sweater shielding the better part of their face. The raven could fairly make out a few dark locks that had escaped from the upper clothing.
Taking a step forward, Sasuke noticed the person would glance at the front door every few seconds. It was as though they wanted to make a quick escape; at least, that was what it looked like to Sasuke.
"Who's that?" The youngest Uchiha pointed at the figure.
Itachi, along with his parents, ceased talking to stare back at the person Sasuke motioned toward. A frown adorned on the older raven's face momentarily before his usual stoic face came back into place.
"He's...none of your concern." Itachi coolly responded.
"Shouldn't you be introducing him?" Sasuke asked, not taking his eyes off the figure who began fidgeting, "Isn't that the proper thing to do, Aniki?"
The older raven narrowed his eyes at his brother, barely realizing that their mother Mikoto had walked over to the one identified as a boy. "This is him, isn't it?" She whispered uncertainly.
Sasuke was more confused than ever. "What are you talking about, mother?"
The boy dressed in dark nervously stepped away from the approaching woman. Mikoto came to stand in front of him and reached out a hand, only to have it slapped away by her oldest. Itachi practically hissed,
"I said he's none of your concern!"
"Itachi," his pale skinned mother gulped, "how...how could you bring him here?"
"I had no other choice."
"I beg to differ," Fugaku scowled, glaring at the boy who flinched in response. "I want him removed from my home immediately."
The red eyed older teen wanted to scoff at his father. "Haven't you forgotten that I'm still visiting? I promise he won't be a hindrance. Besides, we won't be here longer than a week."
"I don't care," argued the older man, "either get rid of him, or I will." And with that, the leader Uchiha turned away, and headed down to his study, a room he would occupy when he was the most annoyed or upset. Itachi watched his father leave, hissing irritably to the older man's stubbornness.
Mikoto was next to her older son, and lifted her hand to rest on his shoulder. He brushed her off rudely without saying another word, then he grabbed the black dressed boy and nearly dragged him to the family room. Sasuke followed in pursuit.
Stopping to take a seat on his family's beige couch, Itachi carelessly pushed the younger boy down. The black wearing figure tried to stand back up, but the older raven grabbed his arm harshly, and screamed at him to obey him.
Sasuke looked straight at the two with the utmost confused expression. Hesitantly, he strolled over to stand in front of his older brother and the mysterious stranger.
"What do you want, Sasuke?" His brother questioned.
"Who is he, really?" The younger raven asked understandably.
"What did I tell you before? He is none of your concern."
The onyx eyed teen brought his eyes to rest on the younger boy. "Why doesn't mother and father want him here?" He continued to ignore what Itachi had been saying to him. Cautiously sitting down on the other side of the boy, Sasuke tried unsuccessfully to peer into the other's hidden face. "Is he a threat, perhaps?"
Itachi smirked at his little brother's reasoning. "You're very observant, aren't you, little brother?" Sasuke frowned, knowing that his older brother was teasing him. "I'll tell you what - if you do me a favor, then later I'll tell you who he is."
The dark haired youth folded his arms to his chest. "What is it?"
"I need you to keep him in your room until tomorrow. Father will surely search my room for him."
"And how do you know that he might not try and search my room?"
Itachi's smirk seemed to widened into a sneer. "He won't." He said with confidence.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "What if I refuse?"
"You won't."
The younger raven scowled at the older teen's arrogance. The thing was, he knew his brother was right - Sasuke would usually surrender to his brother's whims. For one, he loved him and wanted to be just like him but, in this particular circumstance, the raven was letting curiosity get the best of him.
"Fine." Sasuke stood up, a disapproving frown on his face. "Let's go." He instructed to the mysterious stranger. The figure bowed his head down, letting his obsidian bangs escape a bit more from his hood. "I said let's--" Sasuke was cut off as his brother stood as well, and slapped the said boy.
The raven widened his eyes in horror. True, his brother wasn't the nicest person in the world, but his younger brother never thought he would go as low as harming another human being.
"What the hell's a matter with you?! Can you not hear?! Get up!" Itachi shouted. The figure scrambled to his feet, holding his bruised cheek with his right hand.
Spinning around to avoid his brother, Sasuke began making his way to his the upper floor. The black hooded figure was a few steps behind. The raven clenched his teeth as Itachi called out a casual "Good night," before the two boys leisurely climbed the stairs, and headed for Sasuke's bedroom.
Opening his double doors to enter his bedroom, the raven stalked over to his closed laptop lying on his desktop near the window. The mysterious boy had stopped in the doorway, seemingly looking around the room in morbid interest.
Long fingers clutched the ends of the black colored screen, and lifted the laptop open. He pressed the power button, and the computerized equipment roared to life. The wheeled chair next to the desktop was pulled out so that the dark haired youth could occupy it.
"You can come in, you know." The raven voiced to the other without having to spin around. In a slow stride, the black wearing figure nearly tiptoed his way into the luxurious room. "Do you read books?" Sasuke asked, watching him out of the corner of his eye. The boy nodded his head. "You could go ahead and choose whichever book you like." He then pointed to his book collection on the other side of his room.
Within minutes, both males were silent with the exception of the echoing of the typed keys from the computer. While Sasuke finished up his essay for World History, the mysterious boy sat cross legged on the floor, scanning from one of his chosen books to another.
Tilting his head from one side to another to pop his joints, the raven spun around to look straight at the other boy. Narrowing his eyes in scrutiny, Sasuke figured that if he could get the other to talk, maybe he could figure out who he was without his brother knowing.
"Who are you? Why are you here?"
The figure didn't answer at first; Sasuke thought most likely he wasn't going to say anything at all, but the boy surprised him. "I'm...a friend."
The raven eyed the boy in slight annoyance. "Well, friend, do you have a name?"
More silence. And as the boy brought his hand out to cover more of his face with the clothing, Sasuke was sure he was going to blow a fuse and explode. Finally, after what seemed like ages, a gentle voice whispered. "...A...Aki...hito..."
"Akihito? That's your name?" The boy nodded hastily. "Do you have a last name?"
"No."
Sasuke frowned, but decided to question that piece of information later. "Uchiha Sasuke."
"Nice to meet you." The boy who called himself Akihito muttered. He quickly brought one of the books up to hide behind. The way those bottomless midnight eyes bored into him was unnerving.
"Why do you keep hiding your face?" Akihito didn't answer. Sasuke scowled because of this. "It's rude to ignore someone when they ask you a question."
"Because..."
"Because what?"
"I..." the other boy took a shuddering breath, then continued, "t-to show my face, I have to be able to exist. I...don't think I exist anymore."
Unable to sleep, darkened eyes stared straight at the smooth ceiling that was above. The shadows from the outside would rotate every so often as the night sky continued to move on its axis.
Sasuke turned over on his side on his bed to glance at the sleeping figure that was lying in a sleeping bag supplied by the raven. After Akihito had admitted to Sasuke about not existing, the two boys had went back to what they had been doing previous.
The raven had been very confused, and even a bit frightened by the other boy's words. What was worse, he had a feeling that the other teen was in trouble. He was quite suspicious with his family's attitude towards the boy, especially his brother Itachi.
With his mind set and feeling as though something were wrong, Sasuke carefully removed himself from his heavy blankets, and lowered his body to the carpet. He crawled over to the other boy, frowning when he saw the same sweater shielding his face.
Slowly, as to not alert the other, he pushed the hood out of the other boy's eyes. The darkness of the room was still hiding half of his face; the raven used his hand to bring the other's face closer to his. What he saw brought a startled gasp from his pale lips.
Sasuke couldn't move, couldn't think. How he wished he had noticed before. The same whisker marks and sparkling blue eyes belonging to one Uzumaki Naruto, the same kid whom mysteriously vanished months before - the missing boy.
With a start, it took the raven a few seconds longer to realize that the reason he could see those eyes were that they were looking right at him. The hood that had laid flat on Uzumaki's head had fallen to the boy's back. Sasuke frowned when he saw that the younger boy's hair was black. The youngest Uchiha had seen pictures, even on milk cartons, of this boy - his hair had been blonde before.
"You lied," the raven whispered with a hint of anger, "your name's not Akihito."
The blue eyed teen turned his head to the side, and closed his eyes briefly. After a minute, he turned back to look at Sasuke sadly. "Please don't tell anyone." He whispered back.
"You're Hokage-sama's son." It was a statement, not a question.
The teen identified now as Naruto refrained from saying anything else. Instead, he turned away from those accusing onyx eyes, and felt as the tears escaped from his now closed eyelids. He sobbed silently to himself, as Sasuke stared at his back.
At this point, the obsidian eyed teen didn't know what to say. Even though Naruto had told him not to tell anyone, he knew that he had to. The whole village it seemed had gotten on their hands and knees in searching for this boy, and here he was - right in front of him!
With a firm determination and finality in his voice, the raven spoke softly: "I'm going to help you, no matter what."
Not waiting for the other boy to answer, Sasuke got up and walked back to his bed. He settled in comfortably, and forcefully closed his eyes to slumber. He didn't know how yet, but the raven knew that the Uzumaki kid needed to be saved, and he would be the one to do it.
The Uchiha wasn't too surprised to wake up the next day to find that the sleeping bag was empty. As the morning light had peeked its way through the raven's window, Sasuke had thought over and over on how he was going to go about helping the Yondaime's son.
Because of his parents' reaction last night, the teen figured that they at least knew what was going on. He couldn't well ask them for help. The only other option he had was to find a trustworthy adult at his school.
After a calming shower and dressing properly in his school uniform, the raven headed downstairs to be greeted by the silence of the kitchen. Grabbing an apple from inside the refrigerator, dark eyes landed outside where Itachi's car was still parked.
Although Sasuke was relieved about that, he wasn't so sure that he should be totally at ease. It was obvious that his brother had hid Naruto somewhere else. The teen spun back around, intent on confronting his brother. He didn't have to go far as he viewed with narrowed eyes that Itachi carelessly made his presence known in the living room.
Stomping over where his older brother was sitting down on the couch, the younger raven came to stand in front of him, like he did the previous night. The older Uchiha looked at Sasuke with amusing red eyes.
"Good morning, little brother. Did you sleep well?"
"Where is he?" The other hissed disregarding his brother's question.
Itachi smirked. "Ah, yes. I meant to thank you this morning for letting him stay in your room for the night. I'm sure you two had a lot to talk about."
"Don't bullshit me, Itachi. Where is he?!"
"Is that the kind of language they teach you at that slum they call a school?" The older raven chuckled darkly.
"Where did you put him?"
Standing upward to stretch his arms into the air momentarily, the crimson eyed teen innocently said: "Oh, I'm sure he's around here somewhere. He could be in a cardboard box for all we know."
Sasuke clenched his fists to his sides. "How could you do this, Aniki?" He snapped. "You're holding that boy against his will. This is kidnapping!"
Itachi chuckled at his brother once more, making his way to the front door. "Not true, little brother. He's free to leave whenever he wants to."
"You're lying, to me no less," the raven said seriously. "you're not the man I thought you were. I...I can't let you do this. I'll tell."
The last sentence from the raven's mouth was enough to halt Itachi in his tracks. His red colored eyes were so full of pure fury, Sasuke was sure that if he were anyone else, he would have dropped dead instantly.
With a speed and fierceness unlike no other, Itachi pinned his brother to the living room wall. Sasuke's eyes widened in shock and terror. He was about to yell out for help, but Itachi quickly brought his hand to cover the other's mouth.
"You listen to me, you little brat. If there is one thing I absolutely loathe, it's punks like you not knowing when to mind their own business." The older raven took a second to peer into the other's eyes. "You better keep your goddamn mouth shut, or the Uzumaki kid won't be the only one to be hurt. I would have no problem getting rid of either you or our useless parents."
The obsidian eyed teen began to struggle as he heard the threat. Moments later, Itachi released him, and laughed hollowly as the younger boy slumped to the floor sluggishly.
"You are weak." The crimson eyed teen declared, before walking away. "Have a good day at school, Sasuke." Before he left, he said with mirth. "Oh, by the way, don't bother trying to look for him. As far as your concerned, he doesn't even exist." The door slammed shut afterward.
"I..." the other boy took a shuddering breath, then continued, "t-to show my face, I have to be able to exist. I...don't think I exist anymore."
Shakily standing upright, Sasuke went over in his head that Itachi had said the same thing Naruto had. But could he really do that? Could he just forget and walk away from the other boy even if said boy needed help? Was he really that cruel?
Composing himself as best he could, the dark haired youth walked over to retrieve his backpack, which was conveniently behind the couch, and exited the house to head for school.
Pale green eyes would glance over every couple of minutes to watch the clearly upset Uchiha as he and two others sat down at the lunch table all the way in the back of the crowded cafeteria.
"Would you stop already, Sakura?" A blonde girl said in exasperation as she peered into her miniature makeup mirror. "You're making it so obvious."
The two best friends were seated in a group of other females on a circular table. The chatter and laughter coming from the other teenagers throughout the mess hall still didn't distract one pink haired girl as she looked on dreamily at her dark haired crush.
"I wonder what he's thinking about," the girl name Sakura said more to herself than anyone. "He seems...I don't know, so sad."
"I'd be sad too if all I had were two weirdo friends, and a single fan girl stalker." Yamanaka Ino snickered at her own joke while she also looked at the raven.
The green eyed girl pouted. "I'm not a stalker, thank you very much." She took a pause, before something occurred to her. "Didn't you used to like him?"
"Used to being the key word. Look, if you're that interested, why don't you just ask him out?"
"I-I...I can't do that!"
"Why not?" Ino then smirked in mischief. "Afraid he'll reject you, big forehead?"
"S-Shut up, Ino-pig! I'm not afraid. In fact, I'll show you."
As defiantly as she could, the pink haired girl rummaged her way through the boisterous crowd while Sasuke rested his head on the palm of his hand with a defeated look on his face. After sighing for what seemed the millionth time, his pupil-less friend Hyuuga Neji growled out,
"Stop that."
"Huh?" The raven blinked a few times stupidly.
"Whatever it is that's bothering you, do something about it."
"How would you know something's bothering me?!" Sasuke snapped irritably.
"You're unusual indifferent mask has been slipping all day." Their lazy friend Nara Shikamaru clarified with a yawn. The raven was about to speak up with a retort when a shy voice mumbled. "Sasuke?"
All three heads turned at the source. Standing there in front of them was none other than Haruno Sakura. The girl gave a nervous smile, and scooted closer to Sasuke with a blush on her cheeks.
"What do you want?" He asked icily.
"Well, I...I was wondering if you...wanted..." As the Haruno girl stuttered, the onyx eyed teen's focus went elsewhere as he listened to two other teens bring up an interesting conversation. The two boys happened to be walking past by the three other boys' table.
"...I think that kid was definitely kidnapped. Someone just wouldn't go and disappear without saying a word."
"I don't think it matters either way. The Hokage should just face the fact that his son is probably dead, at least that's what my dad says..."
The raven ignored his friends and the pink haired girl as he nearly jumped out of the table, and bombarded his way through the multiple bodies. Hearing the two teens mentioning the Hokage and his kidnapped son made the teen's stomach tie up in knots. He knew he just couldn't sit around and do nothing.
Sprinting - because Uchihas didn't run - Sasuke was quick to make it to the classroom he directed his body towards. Stopping in front of the wooden door, a pale fist knocked rather harshly onto the surface. He prayed that the teacher he was searching for held his lunch break in said class.
Taking deep breaths to calm his nerves, the teen didn't have to wait long as the door opened gradually, and a young brunette man from behind it smiled warmly at the boy.
"Hello there, Sasuke. What can I do for you?"
"Iruka-sensei, I...have to tell you something."
The English teacher Umino Iruka looked on worriedly at his student. "What is it? Is there something wrong?"
"S-Something bad has happened, and I..." the Uchiha trailed off, and blinked rapidly as he felt liquid emerging from his eyes. Even with his amount of strength, Sasuke began to sniffle; strong arms wrapped around him as he did so.
In the end, he couldn't do it. He couldn't tell. He honestly did want to help the Uzumaki kid, but Itachi's cold words kept buzzing around in his mind. As Iruka rocked the crying teen, who hadn't cried openly in years, Sasuke couldn't help but feel a swell of guilt build up in his chest. With that in mind, the raven believed what his brother had told him.
He was weak.
First chapter complete.
R&R, much appreciated. Thanks!