Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Thanks to LunaticCharm, Yams41, and smartlikeshikamaru for reviewing. : )

Sasuke did not understand why their first stop had to be, of all places, the Kingdom of the Sea

Sasuke did not understand why their first stop had to be, of all places, the Kingdom of the Sea. He didn't care if it was the closest territory or that they might have things that the Moon Kingdom didn't. He didn't want to risk the chance of meeting that insufferable Neji.

"Don't worry about that. Right now we still need to make it out of here unnoticed." Kakashi reminded him.

It was midnight. The moon and its many stars were glowing brilliantly in the night sky. People were starting to crowd the markets and children filled the streets with games and laughter. The Kingdom was the most alive at night.

It was a decent strategy. During they day, most people were sleeping and the streets were bare. By nighttime, it was often so crowded that if a mother didn't keep tabs on her child, they could get kidnapped right in front of her face without her noticing. Many merchants moved in and out of the kingdom to bring in and out goods. If he and Kakashi could pass as merchants during the busiest time of the night, then they might be able to get by without anyone looking at them twice, the guards would be too busy with all of the other merchants.

"Here, put this on, your highness." Kakashi said, throwing a simple cloak at the prince. Sasuke quickly put it on, pulling the hood over his face.

They were in the garden. The mist from the water fountain was creating a light fog throughout the entire area. Naruto was leaning over the edge of the fountain, splashing at the water with his paw.

"Do you have the goods, Kakashi?" Sasuke asked. His servant held up a large leather bag and gave him a thumbs up. He wondered what the silver-haired man had in it, but didn't ask.

"Are we ready to go?" Sasuke heard a voice to his left. He swung his head around to see his brother, Itachi, leaning against the wall.

"Yes, Itachi, we are." He replied.

Itachi pushed himself off of the wall and gracefully made his way over to the nine-tailed fox. "And will you be bringing this creature along, little brother?" He asked as he scooped the surprised animal up into his arms, to Sasuke's dismay. Naruto thrashed in his arms, clearly not happy.

"Yes, I am." Sasuke answered through his teeth. His eyes never leaving the squirming fox. Naruto fidgeted and struggled to no avail. Itachi did not seem to want to let go. Eventually, the fox twisted itself until it noticed Sasuke. The two made eye contact, and Naruto paused.

Come, Sasuke thought. Naruto leaned forward and bit the older prince's arm. Itachi winced, his grip loosening, and as soon as it did, Naruto was jumping out of his arms and running along the fountain before hopping onto Sasuke's chest.

"It seems," Itachi started, rubbing the sore part of his arm, "like the fox is very fond of you, little brother."

"It is, indeed, your highness." Kakashi answered. He had finished all of the preparations and was ready to go. "We must be going now, if you'll please let us pass?"

"Of course." Itachi stood aside. With one last glance at his brother, Sasuke brushed past him. "I'll tell mother and father in the morning." He heard Itachi whisper.

The streets were brightly lit with elegant red lanterns and white wax candles. People were buying and bargaining everywhere he looked. Naruto was cuddled up in his cloak, peeking out from the gap between the buttons. He had to keep the fox from jumping out every time they passed by a ramen stand. He had little difficulty keeping up with his servant, but found himself wondering if they could pull this scheme off the closer they got to the gates.

"Don't worry, your highness," Kakashi assured him, after sensing his unease, "we'll make it through, I promise." And then his eye curved upwards, and somehow Sasuke believed him.

There were two guards and a short line-up of merchants at the gate. Some with huge wagons of merchandise, others with bags similar to Kakashi's. Sasuke carefully hid Naruto under his cloak, not letting the fox peer through any longer, in case anyone saw him. He didn't need people making a spectacle of his nine-tailed fox when he wanted to escape the kingdom.

They were up next. The guard eyed him suspiciously as he and Kakashi walked up, he glared back.

"Names?" The guard asked.

"Ihsakak and Ekusas." Kakashi replied. Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Those names sounded ridiculous, like Kakashi had just taken their names and flipped them.

The guard looked like he thought the same thing, but the man continued anyway. Lots of people these days were changing their names to something 'unique', right? Maybe these guys just took the idea too seriously. "Where are you headed?"

"To the Sea Kingdom."

"And what are you selling there?"

Without answering, Kakashi simply held up the bag, and opened it for the guard.

The man took one look inside, and then leaned back, holding his nose. "I-Is that all?" The guard stuttered, his face starting to go red.

"Yes, that is all." Kakashi smiled, and the guard let them through.

Sasuke could have sworn that the man now had a bloody nose. Could it be that Kakashi found out where he had stashed his novels?

It wasn't until they were far, far away that Sasuke finally let Naruto out from under his robe. The fox let out a pleasant mew and ran about the prince's feet, happy to be free.

"The Sea Kingdom is southeast of here. If we keep along this path then we should be able to get there by dawn. And keep your hood on, people will still be able to recognize you there." Kakashi whispered, leaning down to give Naruto some water from his canteen. He was right, the Sea kingdom was very close to the Moon. He probably wouldn't be able to relax until they were near the Forest, and even then he had to be weary – Princess Sakura lived there.

The black sky was starting to turn into a dark blue. Naruto had to be picked up because he was tired of running alongside the prince. Instead he rested on his shoulder, his nine tails tucked inside Sasuke's hood.

The blue was now getting lighter, with hints of red and orange appearing along the landscape. The walls of the Sea Kingdom were starting to tower over them, and the smell of the sea was evident.

"We're here." Kakashi announced. Like before, there was a line-up of merchants seeking entrance into the land. Also like before, the guard's face turned bright red and he and Kakashi were granted entrance.

"Kakashi, what's in the bag?" Sasuke finally asked when they found themselves resting by the water, watching the residents buy and sell things that he had never seen before. Naruto was sitting on his lap, sleeping.

"These," his servant answered, pulling an orange book out of the bag. Icha Icha Paradise. Just as he thought. "I found them behind the encyclopedias in the library, I'm sure you had nothing to do with it of course, your highness."

"No," Sasuke said, "I had nothing to do with them at all." Dammit.

It was daylight now, the sun shining dully through the many clouds. It was never as bright as it used to be.

Naruto woke up and started whining. Sasuke, I'm hungry. Sasuke...

Sasuke looked down and sighed. "Alright, let's go." He grumbled, getting to his feet and letting the animal slip off of his lap. "Kakashi, I'll be right back. Stay here." He ordered. Kakashi just nodded and flipped open his book.

It wasn't very long before Sasuke realized that Naruto only ate one type of food, and that was ramen. He sighed, resting his head on one hand as he watched Naruto lap up the broth. If he had known this earlier he wouldn't have blown the last couple dollars buying shrimp balls, oysters, and other seafood's, trying to feed his pet.

"If this is all you eat then we're going to have a problem when we leave the kingdom. I don't know if the Forest has ramen." Sasuke whispered to the fox. He gave up trying to hide Naruto's tails. Not many people actually bothered to notice the little animal, and the ones who did barely gave it a second glance.

Naruto's ears perked up, and he turned his head, looking around.

"What's wrong, Naruto?" Sasuke found himself asking, forgetting to feel like a fool for talking to a fox out loud. He looked in the direction that Naruto was staring.

There was a girl – or at least, Sasuke thought that it was a girl – sitting two seats down from him. Her hood was covering her face, and in front of her was an untouched bowl of ramen.

Of course, Naruto took this as an invite to eat her food. The fox immediately bounded over and started chewing on the noodles, surprising the person so much that she almost fell out of her stool.

"Dobe!" Sasuke hissed. He got out of his seat and walked over to the frightened girl, "I'm sorry about this, he's…" That's when the prince saw the girl's face.

Her face was round and cute, with dark purple hair that was much longer than he remembered. She had a pale complexion and even paler eyes, one would think that she was blind if not for the place she was in.

Only the Hyuuga family, the rulers of the Sea Kingdom, had those eyes, Sasuke thought. "Princess Hinata?" The girl looked away (well, he assumed that she looked away, it was hard to tell) and blushed, not answering.

There was a loud yip from the fox in front of the two. Naruto had already that finished the bowl, that greedy dobe.

Sasuke was unsure of what to say. What was the princess of the Sea doing so far from the palace? On the few trips he had made to this place, he had heard that the king and queen never let their children outside the castle walls. The fortress was more heavily guarded than even his own.

Hinata seemed to understand his confusion, "Lee sneaked me out."

"How?" Sasuke asked without thinking. Naruto was pawing at his arm now. Sasuke ignored him, the fox already had two bowls of ramen as big as itself, it didn't need anymore.

"W-well…" Hinata stuttered, blushing even more, "he threw me out of a window."

Naruto stopped pawing to stare at Hinata with wide eyes, jaw open. It seemed as thought the animal knew what they were saying. How smart, Sasuke found himself thinking before realizing what the princess had just said.

"He threw you?"

Hinata nodded, "out of a window."

Somehow, Sasuke didn't think that his first actual conversation with the princess would be about being thrown out of castles.

After a moment of awkward silence, where even Naruto was quiet, Hinata continued.

"Y-you see, every Thursday morning Lee throws the laundry out of the f-fourth story window to Gai, so that he can bring it down to the s-sea to be washed. He was just so into his work today that… he…h-he didn't realize that I wasn't laundry…" he princess was as bright as a tomato now, with her hands drawn up to her chest and pressing her fingers together.

Sasuke wasn't sure if he could even believe what she had just told him. Naruto, however, rolled over and seemed to be laughing.

The only thing Sasuke could bring himself to say was "you can't wash your clothes in the sea, it's salty." How lame.

"You can in our kingdom, we have a powerful wizard," said a voice behind the three, "how do you do, prince Sasuke? Are your parents well?" Crap, he didn't think was so recognizable.

"Neji," Sasuke had to bite his tongue to keep from insulting the other boy, "what are you doing here?" Naruto peeked over his shoulder to sneak a look at the Hyuuga.

"I could ask you the same question," the long-haired boy answered, he then turned his attention over to his cousin, "Hinata, your mother and father are looking for you."

"I-I know but," Hinata pressed her fingers together, refusing to look at Neji, "can't I stay here a bit longer? I've never been outside before…"

Neji's eyebrows furrowed together, he was clearly not happy. "You're not supposed to ever leave the castle, you're a princess! We've got all of the guards out looking for you!" Just as he made a grab for her arm, Sasuke stopped him. He wasn't sure why, it might've been because of Naruto nudging him to do something.

"And what do you think you're-"

"PRINCESS!" Neji was cut off by a funny looking boy with eyebrows the size of caterpillars. Naruto jumped.

"L-Lee!" Hinata stammered, eyes wide. Sasuke was starting to grow weary, these people were insane, and it was only mid-morning. He'd never last the day here, he'd have to get Kakashi and find a way out of here soon.

"Princess!" Lee brought his voice down a little. A little. "Why did you leave the castle? Was it because of teenage REBELLION? Master Gai says that REBELLION is no way to spend your YOUTH!" Everyone plugged their ears, Naruto hid inside Sasuke's sleeve. The prince looked around, people were starting to stare.

"I didn't l-leave on purpose…" Hinata almost whispered, he and Neji had to lean forward to hear the rest of her sentence, "you threw me out-"

"What?! When?!" Neji did not look pleased. Then again, when did he ever?

"This morning, when he was doing the laundry, he…uhm…" She didn't need to finish, it seemed as though Neji knew Lee enough to understand what had happened. Lee himself looked shocked.

Huh, Sasuke thought, these people really are crazy.

"GUARDS!" The male Hyuuga suddenly called out, making Naruto jump again, "ARREST THIS MAN!"

"No!" Hinata yelled (well, sort of). She grabbed Lee's arm and dashed into the crowd just as a group of guards squeezed through. Sasuke took this as a good time to get away, but Naruto didn't think so. He appeared to like the princess, because the fox immediately jumped up and bit one of the guards right on the nose before hopping onto another and tearing at his forehead.

"Dobe!" Sasuke yelled, now they'd be after them too! He ran by and snatched Naruto off of the man's head, then ran off in the same direction Hinata and her servant had gone seconds earlier.

They were followed by a seriously pissed off Neji and his barrage of soldiers.

"I should've just thrown you out of my garden when I caught you!" Sasuke hissed as Naruto snarled at their followers over his shoulder.

They were quickly catching up to the princess and Lee. The two looked to be having a difficult time trying to get through the peasants, who were listening to Neji's yells of "stop them!"

Hinata couldn't push through the crowd while holding onto Lee, who was struggling out her grasp with cries of "I deserve to be punished!" and "I'm so sorry, princess!" until finally, she let go of him long enough to throw a flying hurricane kick.

Sasuke barely dodged the fat fisherman who flew in his direction. Hinata was definitely not as innocent as she looked. He wondered where she learned that from, it couldn't have been from her parents.

As if things couldn't get any worse, Naruto chose that moment to jump out of Sasuke's arms onto the floor, chasing after Lee and Hinata.

Whispering a long string of profanities under his breath, Sasuke vowed never to feed Naruto ramen ever again… assuming he got Naruto back, of course. Which he would.

Neji and his hoard were catching up to them now. Apparently it wasn't very easy to get through so many people when there were more than two of you. Sasuke didn't hesitate to run after the princess now, she had his fox.

Hinata was fast. Too fast, even for Sasuke. He made a mental note to ask her where she got her training from. Ducking behind a barrel of fish as Neji ran by, he searched the area. Hinata was going straight the entire time, and then turned right and disappeared. It could be that she and her servant were hiding like he was…

There was a piercing scream to his right, and he barely caught a blur of purple and green – and a little speck of orange – flying up onto the house rooftops. Not a problem, Sasuke thought as he jumped up after them. A quick glance back and he saw Neji land a housetop behind him with three other guards. Neji mouthed something to them, and one guard threw his spear past Sasuke, towards Lee.

"Hinata!" He yelled. She turned and, upon seeing the weapon flying at her friend, sweep-kicked the still-apologetic Lee. By doing so it flew right over the falling servant and instead pinned the princess's coat to the roof. She undid the buttons to her cloak faster than anyone could see, and was already dragging Lee across two more roofs (with Sasuke not too far behind) before Neji stopped gloating long enough to realize that he was certainly not winning this battle.

Hinata was worried. Sure, she could run for days if she had to, but she had no idea of where to go. If she turned back then Lee would surely be thrown into the dungeons – or worse!

She then felt a tug at her hair.

It was prince Sasuke's fox! Naruto, who was originally clinging to the skirt of her cloak, had pawed his way up to her shoulder and was now yipping in her ear. Lee noticed too, and now changed the subject of his yelling to how lonely nine-tailed foxes must be.

"What's wrong?" Hinata asked, feeling a bit foolish for talking to an animal, but she was desperate.

The fox lifted its paw and pointed downwards and to the right.

"You want me to jump down?" Call her crazy, but the princess swore that the fox had just nodded.

Figuring that things were going downhill anyway, she tightened her grip on her hysterical servant and jumped, landing gracefully on the concrete (as gracefully as she could, anyway). Lee was not so lucky.

A rare moment occurred when a vein throbbed on Hinata's forehead. They were running from the law, her cousin was coming after them, she was now taking advice from a fox with nine tails, and her best friend was still freaking out! She had had enough.

"Lee!" Hinata snapped, whacking the boy upside the head. He was stunned into silence. "This is not your fault, I knew you wouldn't notice me this morning, I did this all on purpose! Now I order you to escape with me!"

"Princess…?" Lee's voice was at an all-time low. Did the princess just yell at him?

"Did you hear me? Obey your princess!" Hinata almost shouted, the crowd was growing, they needed to get out of here fast.

"Y-YES, YOUR HIGH-!" Lee was cut off as both he and the princess were shoved roughly forward.

Sasuke, who landed just a few seconds prior, was not going to let himself be caught by an arrogant bastard like Neji. "Go!"

And so the three teenagers found themselves running for their lives once more through the streets of the Sea Kingdom, guided only by the yips of one many-tailed fox.

It wasn't long before Sasuke realized something, "we're not being chased."

Lee came to an abrupt stop, causing Hinata to run into him, and Sasuke to run into her. They all went crashing. Except for Naruto, who was quite comfortable standing on the dog pile.

Rubbing his head, Sasuke sat up. People weren't crowding anymore. He figured that most, if not all, of the residents had no clue as to what princess Hinata looked like, since she was never allowed out of the castle, which explained why no one was paying them much attention, even with Hinata fully exposed. There weren't anymore guards chasing them, the four of them were just sitting in the middle of the square, looking silly.

At least, that's what he thought.

"Got you." Neji said, emerging from the crowd. Around them, guards came forward, hidden before by the throng of marketplace people. They surrounded the group completely.

Naruto growled, bearing his fangs at Neji. The Hyuuga's expression didn't change, but he shifted his position so that he was no longer in front of the fox. Good boy, Sasuke thought.

"How are you going to escape this time?" Neji asked, a triumphant smirk on his face. Sasuke wanted to rip his mouth right off of his face. Naruto seemed to think the same thing, because he bound towards the boy, almost glowing with rage. Or wait, Sasuke squinted, was he really glowing? The guards moved to protect the royal, but it didn't seem to faze the fox. Naruto jumped on each blade in his way, using it to propel him upwards before making one last jump towards Neji's face.

As much as he wanted to see it, Sasuke knew that leaving a royal without a face was not something he wanted to deal with. So, as fast as he could manage (which was, in all seriousness, pretty damn fast), he pushed himself off of the ground and caught Naruto in mid-air. Forget what he said before about never giving the fox ramen again, he now owed it to him, a year's supply at least for not letting him tear up the male Hyuuga.

Unfortunately, they were all still very vulnerable. Sasuke was now being held back by two burly guards, while Lee struggled with three others and Hinata looking extremely uncomfortable, being dragged away by another two.

"Get that fox." Sasuke heard, and he immediately pulled Naruto closer, under his cloak. He'd be damned if he let them take away his dobe. Then he wondered why he felt so close to an animal he'd met only a day ago, he hadn't liked anyone – or anything – so much since…

"Naruto!" Sasuke hissed as the fox popped its head out from under his coat, snarling at the guards. Geez, when was Kakashi when you needed him?

There was a gust of wind, a very strong gust of wind. One that made everyone in the vicinity topple over, everyone except Sasuke, Hinata, and Lee.

"Your highness!" Came a familiar voice.

"Kakashi!" Sasuke made a mental note that this would be the only time he would be happy to see his servant.

The older man was by a stall selling all sorts of pearl jewelry. He didn't seem at all fazed by the lumps of unconscious soldiers by his feet. Beside him was another man, Sasuke took one look at him and was overcome by a strong sense of déjà vu. He'd seen this man before.

The prince turned to the two people behind him, "Shall we go, then?" and both of them could do barely anything more than nod. Yes.

Sasuke had to say that the journey out of the Sea Kingdom was much easier than he thought it would be, what with the previous chase. It seemed as though Kakashi's friend was the main reason no one asked questions.

As for Neji and his hound of soldiers, they were still immobile by the time they got to the gate. Either that was a really strong gust of wind, or it wasn't really wind at all.

The whole time they were leaving, Sasuke stared at the new man. He knew only two things: that the man was familiar to him, and that the scar across his nose was the reason why.

"What do you think, Naruto? Do you recognize him?" He quietly asked his fox. He gave up trying not to look insane, talking to an animal and all, after watching Hinata turn into some sort of ninja and listening to Lee speak loud enough to destroy his eardrums. Naruto looked over at the person with Kakashi, talking to the entrance guards as if he knew them, and then let out something that sounded oddly like a sigh.

"Guess not." Sasuke then concluded that he must have seen the man for a very short period of time for him not to recall who he was. Then he mentally added another tick to his scoreboard of insanity for asking Naruto's opinion on the matter. Again.

There was a tap on his shoulder. It was so light that Sasuke was sure that, had he been anyone else, he wouldn't have noticed it. He turned his head just enough to see the girl behind him, "what is it, princess?"

"I-I…" The girl stuttered, her long, dark hair now tangled from the wind, "I just wanted to t-thank you… For saving Lee and I…" She pressed her fingers together. Over her shoulder, Lee gave him a thumbs up and a blinding smile, "YES! WE THANK YOU!"

On his shoulder, Naruto winced, some of his tails brushing along Sasuke's neck. Normally, he would ignore thank you's, he never cared for them, but after a short moment Naruto used one his tails to whack the prince rather harshly on the back of the neck. Say you're welcome, you arrogant bastard!

"You're welcome," Sasuke said before he realized it. Thinking it over, he added another two ticks to his scoreboard, one for understanding what his fox was saying, and one for even having a scoreboard of insanity in the first place. This was getting bad.

They were out. Actually, they'd left the kingdom a while ago, Sasuke was just too busy contemplating his mental state to notice. They were walking fast, mostly to catch up with Kakashi and his friend, who were so busy talking to each other that they didn't notice how far they were getting.

"…and that's how to make carrot cake. I didn't even know you liked carrots, Kakashi."

"I don't. I just wanted to hear your voice." Kakashi's eye curved up so much it was almost a line.

"Wha-!" The man then proceeded to turn so red that the sheer brightness of his cheeks caused Hinata to start blushing.

Sasuke's eye twitched. His servant was acting very familiar with the man, enough to flirt with him. That in itself was odd, he had always thought that Kakashi was straight, considering that he had enough porn novels to create a small library. Go figure.

Naruto nipped at his ear. "What?" Sasuke asked. Naruto pointed to the mysterious newcomer, and then to the couple behind them. They might know him, ask.

Huh, Sasuke thought, why hadn't he thought of that? Outsmarted by a fox. Epic fail.

The prince slowed down until he was in pace with the Sea Kingdom residents. "Lee, princess Hinata, do either of you know who this person is?" He asked, keeping his voice down.

"Oh, we thought you knew him," Hinata said, now trying to untangle her hair with her fingers, "he's the-"

"GREAT WIZARD, IRUKA!" Lee finished, his voice reaching a new volume.

"Yes, Lee?" The man now identified as Iruka turned, giving Lee a warm smile, "did you need something?"

Wizard! A flood of memories washed over Sasuke. There was a wizard at the Sun Kingdom six years ago! This was a very important detail, how could he have forgotten? Sasuke cursed himself for forgetting. But then, why is he working at the Sea now? And what did he do to the Sun Kingdom? And how did Kakashi know him? And…and…

Kakashi watched as Sasuke remembered his wizard friend. The prince's face was neutral, but his eyes betrayed him. Naruto, all the while, was eyeing Iruka with interest. Maybe, Kakashi thought, the fox would remember him too.

"I'll explain later," the silver-haired man told his prince, then pointed ahead, "we're getting nearer to the Forest. Stay close, this territory is at least ten times bigger than the Moon."

Sasuke nodded. He was right. Even though, technically, the Sky was the largest Kingdom, and the Moon the most powerful, the Forest owned the most land. Thinking about it, Sasuke was surprised it didn't have more inhabitants, their population was barely any larger than his kingdom. They were just like the Sea, lots of territory, but not enough people.

It was starting to get dark, not because of the time – it was only lunchtime – but because of the tall trees.

"Be careful," Iruka said as they traveled further into the Forest, "we don't want anyone to get lost."