Two figures raced through the constraints of the Uchiha compound; shrouded in dark clothing they were invisible in the pitch black night; the two of them would make their escape tonight. Heading straight for the exit of the compound they were soon weaving through the back streets of Konoha, silently slipping towards their destination using a cleverly devised route for optimum stealth.
Leading the way was the blonde, well versed in the shortcuts and hidden alley ways of the village, the two hurtled through the village at a speed unexpected of the average seven year old, though not unheard of. Thoughts of a silver haired Jounin being a Chuunin at the age of seven years old ran through Naruto's mind as he wondered if he too could one day be considered a prodigy, however this was left to the back of his mind as he navigated his escape route.
The raven haired boy could be seen closely behind the blonde, the red string the boy had wrapped around his wrist making him easy to follow down the winding streets thanks to his crystal clear vision, his sharingan glowing against the darkness as he swiftly moved towards the nearing escape point, although he wasn't the only one with red eyes at this point.
Naruto's blood red eyes were an effect of being trained by the Kyuubi within him, a 'gift' from the great demon that allowed him heightened sight although that was its only ability, although it was no kekkei genkai it was incredibly useful to have and his vision stretched far beyond that of the average human, its vision could be considered parallel to the sharingan however he lacked the other attributes of the Uchiha bloodline.
The air was cold and the streets were silent, however the two knew that there were definitely ninja present on the streets, this wasn't one of the great shinobi villages for nothing, the tranquil night stars were blinking at the two below as Naruto turned to look at the Hokage building for the last time.
"I wonder what it would have been like…if you actually cared." Naruto thought before steaming on ahead, memories of the Hokage were happy ones he had to admit, however the man was a genius shinobi and the leader of a shinobi village, no matter what concern he had shown, Naruto guessed it to be fake or at least out of sympathy, after all he was just a man, a very busy man at that. He had no hard feelings about it, if anything he was happy that the man at least gave him the time of day and was always kind to him but at the end of the day he was just another shinobi to the blonde.
Sasuke's heart was pounding as he continued on, he was going to do it, after the work had been put in he was finally making his escape from the village that would want him dead, he knew however that it wouldn't be easy. The plan was to escape the village from the slight gap in the patrol that Naruto had shown him; from there they would simply flee, covering as much ground as they could without stopping for as long as they could go.
They had of course in there careful planning considered that if they were to over exhaust themselves in covering ground, then were somehow caught they would be useless to make any sort of attempt at escaping, no they had until around noon the next day before the whole village was aware that they were missing, or so they believed.
As soon as their exhaustion became taxing however they were to rest while being as well hidden as they could be, rest was something prioritized highly, their energy would certainly be needed if they were to succeed. Sasuke couldn't help but feel excited, his new life was about to begin, no matter how hard it maybe, he had someone he could truly consider a friend and equal, but he could only imagine what hardships were in store for the both of them.
He looked over at the blonde in front of him, wondering what they would face together in the near future; he wanted to be prepared for whatever it was and couldn't help but feel like the two of them could face any challenge. For the first time in a long while Sasuke felt as if he could trust another person. Shaking his head clear of thoughts, the raven decided now was not the time to get distracted.
With the adrenaline surging through his body he didn't care about the challenges anymore, he'd never felt such a rush before, he felt alive, he was choosing his own path and making his own decisions, he was escaping! As the blurring streets passed by in his peripheral vision he continued, chasing the red string bound to his friend's wrist as they dashed through the night.
Naruto suddenly leapt, wall jumped three times between the two buildings before he had enough height to land gracefully on the roof, crouching down in an effort to lower his visibility he was soon joined by Sasuke. Naruto smiled to the boy before turning back and looking to the large wall that stood before them, they were just meters away, ready to make the jump.
Naruto took a deep breath, his breath hitching slightly as he looked over the village that would soon become just a distant memory of the life he never wanted, from the corner of his eye he saw the raven looking over the Uchiha compound with hardened eyes. They were ready to move on.
With a nod the Uchiha gave the signal, the patrols facing the opposite way wouldn't even notice them as they landed on the wall silently, not taking the time to even steady themselves after landing, they leapt down the huge wall, the wind rushing through their hooded hair as they made their descend.
They looked at each other one final time to check all was in order after their landing, after the each nodded to the other the rushed into the forest not looking back, the adrenaline still fuelling their bodies from the rush of escaping a shinobi village powered them to move as fast as their bodies could handle, the trees of the forest rustling from their pace as they made their escape.
They ran through forest after forest, the dense trees offering perfect cover for their getaway, even if they were followed immediately it would be difficult to pinpoint their location in such a surrounding. The earthy mud below them offered no sympathy to their aching legs as the varying terrain only served to make running as uncomfortable as possible, they had no idea how far they had gotten, but it wasn't far enough.
Seeing a river in the near distance the boys headed straight for it, rushing through it without faltering, in order to put off their pursuers. The boys hoped that the simple trick would help to buy them even a little extra time, and when escaping from a major hidden village any, any extra time was good time.
Their breathing had become extremely ragged as their bodies struggled to get the oxygen they needed, but the two didn't stop, they weren't tired but simply feeling the strain of testing their limits. They could go on for hours yet, they had to or they would surely be caught and all of their efforts would have been in vain. The two soldiered on past the tempting offer of resting or setting up camp, using all of the techniques that hid their tracks that they could remember in an effort to at least delay whoever was sent after them.
Hours had rolled by and they began to slow, the blurring landscape became more and more visible as time passed, their legs were heavy, their bodies refused to go on until eventually they came to stop. Looking up at the sun in the morning sky they assumed it to be around ten am, they had covered a large distance, and would have to find a monument or nearby town to check their map to figure out exactly where they were.
For now however, they were sat catching their breath in a hidden cave, deciding that the best course of action would be to sleep, being deprived of it would surely have negative effects on them. The boys knew that in the day light the cave could be a suspicious area which would no doubt be checked by a tracking team, they just hoped that by the time they woke up that distance they had covered would make up the difference. They had ran for twelve hours straight and were about to indulge in 8 hours of rest once they had eaten.
The two sat in silence while eating, not quite knowing what to say to each as they enjoyed the sensation of simply relaxing a little, the two finished their meals with thoughts of how to survive the next day racing through their minds. Naruto said goodnight which eased the atmosphere between the two, and soon they were fast asleep only hoping that that their best was good enough.
It was two pm and the third Hokage had just received some shocking news, in fact he wasn't quite sure how to combat the situation at hand. He had just been alerted to disappearance of the last Uchiha and the nine tails jinchuuriki, a heavy blow to the village even if they were but children, the man had an unwavering belief that the two of them would become strong, how strong he was not sure, in fact their escape might have doomed them to an early grave.
The old man sighed, he had the elders breathing down his neck to send out tracking squads, and he agreed it would be for the best, the two would be great assets to the village when they grew older, and as of now they had the potential to be great enemies. Although currently the only strength the village had lost was their tailed beast, their military was not actually affected by the runaways, and for this the Hokage was thankful for.
Still he doubted that he could realign them with Konoha know, he knew what Sasuke knew. It turns out that the head of the Uchiha had far better insight than he had let on, the third nodded to himself as he remembered that Itachi Uchiha was son of the clan head and he shown insight to the degree of it being like seeing the future. No, Sasuke Uchiha would not be fighting for Konoha any time soon and the Sandaime certainly did not believe in brain washing.
As for Naruto he imagined that the situation within the village walls had finally became unbearable for the poor young boy, he felt truly sympathetic to the blonde however he had a whole village to think of and if he was seen to be too friendly with the young jinchuuriki things could quickly go bad, leading to uproars and in-subordination, leaving the leaf village prone to enemy attacks and spies.
He had no choice; he turned to the Anbu within the room.
"Mark down Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto as A rank missing nin. If they are seen, they are to be treated as immediate enemies of Konoha, however do not engage until their motives are known. Send out tracking teams, give them until midnight tomorrow, maybe it isn't too late to clear up this mess." The man said in a hardened tone, as he finished he took a long drag on his pipe before exhaling the calming smoke to fill the room.
"E-Excuse me Hokage-sama…" The Anbu stepped forward, bowing as he did so,
"I don't mean to question your judgement, but don't you think A-rank is a little…far-fetched? They're just kids!" The man passionately spoke, after all there was no way a couple of brats could be considered A rank threats.
The Sandaime closed his eyes letting out a hollow sigh as he did so,
"The reason I have ranked them so highly is not because of their current strength, and technically the two of them cannot even be classed as missing ninja as they didn't even join our ranks." The elder explained.
"T-Then…?" The Anbu questioned, still confused of the Hokages motives.
"Those two are in possession of things that many people would wish to obtain, if they were ranked at their current power they would surely not survive. Which would a person be more likely to attack, an A rank threat or a C rank?" The Hokage explained to the somewhat puzzled Anbu operative.
"Despite being runaways the two of them are still Konoha citizens…not even ninja, they should technically be allowed to leave the village at any time… due to Kyuubi and the sharingan however…" The Hokage trailed off as if not wanting to continue the thought.
"So you wish to protect them from threats? …I see… but Hokage-sama, if I may, what about the time limit given to the tracking squad…it doesn't make much sense." The man nervously offered. The third let out a grumble in his frustration.
"It is as I said. They deserve their freedom, if they can escape a high ranking tracking squad for that length of time they will at least show that they are capable of looking after themselves…if not then…they are not ready. The two of them however, are no longer interested in Konoha. If we bring them back, they will only rebel or attempt to escape again, still if they are not ready at very least we can delay them until they are." The Hokage said somewhat sadly, in honesty he would miss the young blonde dearly.
"H-Hokage-sama…I see…I'm sorry I doubted you." The Anbu operative spoke before bowing low.
"Amazing…to have thought of everything in such a short time…it is no surprise that he's the Hokage!" The Anbu thought to himself before leaving the office in a cloud of smoke.
The ANBU tracking squad were surprised to say the least, the tracks of the boys had been covered completely from their time in the village last night, they had no idea in which direction they had headed, even after asking the guards from the night shift they found no evidence. After fully searching the nearby forest however, they managed to get a lead and their mission began.
Moving at speeds only capable of Jounin they raced through the land of fire in order to capture their objectives, though they were finding it increasingly annoying to find clear tracks of the boys over and over again, it was as if they had someone experienced with them, however all evidence indicated that there was in fact only two people involved in the escape.
However stopping and starting during a hunt was nothing to ANBU and they were soon at It again as they followed the strange routes towards their targets. The Inuzuka member was irritated more than usual, having being rendered an ordinary Jounin thanks to two brats and their ability to remove their scent from the area by travelling through so many rivers. She snarled under her mask, at least they put up some form of challenge.
It was six pm when the boys awoke, they packed up everything before setting fire to the whole cave, this would act as a distraction for sure and any evidence of who was there would be disposed of with the fire, it was a risky tactic but the time that their trackers would spend looking for evidence would buy them some time, as little as it maybe.
"We need to move again." Sasuke stated in which the blonde sat opposite to him nodded,
"They should be getting close by now." Naruto informed, if they had only slept for eight hours like planned they should have a little time left, but not much.
"They'll be expecting us to go to the border…it would be better to do the opposite." Sasuke thought aloud to the blonde who nodded in approval.
"We'll head into the thicker forests…we'll have to be careful." The blonde ordered and with that the two raced off, leaving the blazing cave to be discovered by any pursuers.
"Seems we're going to be doing this the hard way..." Sasuke thought to himself as he imagined living in the wild, they did bring basic camping equipment and they were fairly sure they could survive in the wild for short periods at a time, being constantly on the move would mean that they would also be harder to find.
Naruto looked at the boy deep in thought before him, the two were still on edge, and they had fled one of the major villages. Although it would be perfectly fine for ordinary civilians to leave the village, the last member of a prestigious clan and the nine tailed jinchuuriki weren't considered ordinary civilians.
"I bet they're already plotting to kill us." The blonde thought sadly to himself while following the raven ahead of him.
"We should stay away from villages and main roads as much as possible, I'm not sure where we are right now, but if we try to out run them in a straight line they'll catch us." Naruto spoke wisely, his experience with running away had really helped them but he doubted they had much time before the ANBU were hot on their tail.
"The order will surely have been given by now…" Sasuke sighed unsure how to continue, after collecting his thoughts he spoke again with a deep frown dressing his face.
"I'm not sure what we can do if they spot us, but I'm not going back there." He said with determination, his fists clenched at the thought of being dragged back to the village they had just escaped.
Naruto looked as if he was deep in thought for a moment before nodding to the Uchiha,
"We have no choice but to keep running, we're no match for them." He said in a disappointed tone, the blonde had no intention of being taken back either. Sasuke let out a low growl before answering,
"Let's move." With that the two of them sped up, entering the denser forests, the trees were unimaginably tall and instead of travelling by the ground as they did the previous night they opted to take to the tree tops for speed.
"Have you heard!?" a young blonde bellowed at her friend, unable to contain her emotion, she was really freaking out about the news. The pinkette covered her ears on reflex, Ino could really be loud sometimes.
"Naruto has run away from the village!" the blonde yelled, confused by Sakura's lack of reaction.
"But they'll catch him again won't they? Isn't he dangerous? That's what my parents say at least." Sakura answered calmly; there was no way the Hokage would let them be in danger.
Ino wondered how Sakura could possibly care about something like that in such a crisis and knew that the thoughts would be long gone when she gave her the missing piece of the puzzle.
"I don't care about that! Sasuke-kun has left with him!" the girl shrieked in despair, much to the discomfort of poor Sakura's ears.
"What do you mean he's left with him!? You mean Naruto kidnapped him!? How did he manage to do it, did he use his evil demon powers!?" Sakura shouted back, clearly distressed.
"Please be okay Sasuke-kun! Someone will rescue you soon…I bet you fought to protect the village from whatever it was that idiot was doing! I guess my parents were right!" She thought to herself, imaging Sasuke bravely facing an evil looking Naruto to defend Konoha.
"…Demon powers?" Ino questioned looking at the cherry blossom in disbelief, however shook her head silently which confused Sakura momentarily.
"My parents always say Naruto is a demon and i shouldn't go near him cause he's dangerous…he didn't seem all that bad to me…even if he did act like an idiot." She informed the blonde, who in response just sighed before taking in a deep breath.
"…Sasuke-kun left the village with his own free will, his home was searched and plans and documents detailing nearly every genin candidate and their potentials were found hidden around the house." Sakura shook her head violently in defiance to the information,
"That can't be right!" she protested inwardly, there's no way that Sasuke would just leave,
"why with Naruto of all people?" She questioned, it didn't make sense to her.
"Both of them have been added to a list of wanted ninja that my Dad calls the bingo book. Dad says that tracking teams have already been sent to find them, and depending on their actions they might be classed as true enemies." Ino explained in a solemn tone, when her father had told her about the news she had almost screamed, how could Sasuke just leave like that?
"T-t-that can't be r-right." Sakura mumbled, refusing to believe it,
"T-there's no way that can be right…why would they leave? …Why would Sasuke chose to leave with Naruto of all people? Didn't you say he had information about all of the genin candidates?" Sakura asked, she was having a hard time getting her head around what had happened.
"I don't know much about that…" Ino replied a little down hearted by her lack of info,
"Maybe Naruto was just the best candidate? …None of us have seen him fight after all…" Ino considered but the cherry blossom didn't seem to buy it.
"Maybe he was the only person who wanted to leave." Sakura replied, seemingly happy with the reason she had thought of.
Slowly the information leaked across the village, many of the young genin candidates were among the first to find out, although most were indifferent or even glad that they had left, some were angry declaring them as traitors of Konoha that didn't deserve to live.
"Hmph…how troublesome, the village is making such a fuss over two runaways." Shikamaru mumbled lazily to his friend Choji, the boy was snacking on some potato chips while nodding to his friend in agreement, he really didn't think it was such a big deal.
"What's so special about those two anyway!?" The boy asked loudly in between mouthfuls, Shikamaru just sighed in reply and looked back to the clouds, watching them float by; he closed his eyes and sighed again.
"Oiiii! Have you two heard the news!?" the two heard a boy yell aggressively, followed by the sound of barking from the puppy that was laid atop of the canine looking boy.
"Kiba? Uh…yeah we've heard all about it." Choji replied somewhat surprised to see the Inuzuka,
"How could they just run off like that?! Cowards…no! It's worse than that! They're traitors!" Kiba declared to the group, he couldn't understand why they wouldn't be loyal to the village, it was unforgivable.
"Oi! Shikamaru! What do you think? They should be hunted down right?!" He yelled trying to engage the lazy Nara but to his disappointment Shikamaru just sighed before speaking
"…You're too noisy."
By now most of the Jounin had received word that the two had fled the village, Kakashi Hatake was among those who volunteered to bring back the young Uchiha, there were fears that there could be a rendezvous with Itachi, and other than the Hokage or Jiraiya, Kakashi figured he would be the best option to combat the Uchiha.
Although they doubted the young Uchiha would want to be re-united with his elder brother after the events of the Uchiha massacre, however even a small chance couldn't be ignored, especially after the scroll Fugaku Uchiha had left for the young raven.
For the two boys on the run, everything started now.
Hope you enjoyed it!
