1The sweat that trickled under his mask was driving Naruto crazy, but he didn't dare pull it down now to wipe it away. He was traveling in the most unnoticeable way possible, by foot. Pulling the mask down here was out of the question. The road was thick with travelers, and doubtless the different kages had distributed some kind of wanted poster all over their lands, so people would recognize him. If he went off into the forest on either side of the dirt track he was walking on and tried to journey like he regularly would, he'd probably end up being caught by enemy ninja that would be more happy to turn him over to his destruction back...

No, don't think about that place or them, he thought, shaking his head vigorously before focusing his gaze directly in front of him, think about something else. To distract himself, he looked down at the clothes he'd picked out earlier that day. He'd gone to a nearby market, and looking around, chose the store he would've been least likely to go into back...there. The black bondage pants had been on sale, and since they were so out of character for him, he figured nobody would recognize him at first glance when he wore them. He'd also kinda liked them, but he was too proud to admit it, even to himself.

As he'd gone to the different racks, he'd seen many different shirts, but none would've gone with the pants draped over his arm. Then, a girl had popped out of nowhere, saying, "Dude, those pants are awesome. Do you want me to help you find something to go with it?" She'd read his mind, and looking at what she was wearing, he thought that she would know what to look for, so with a slight nod, they'd gone to it. She'd found a couple shirts for him to try on along with the pants, and as he came out of the dressing rooms with each one on, she'd comment, "Oh, that's fuckin' awesome!" or "Oh my god, that kills the outfit!"

Finally, they'd narrowed it down to a couple shirts, and choosing two or three, he'd gone on to accessories, the girl trailing behind him. Between them, they picked out a couple wristbands, bracelets, a spiked dog collar, and when asking about a mask, she'd led him to another section of the store. He gazed at each one with a critical mind, rejecting some on sight and others he had to try out. But one caught his eye. It was hanging near the top, the last of its kind, and slightly dusty. He'd pulled it down, and while inspecting it, the girl had noticed he was holding, said, "Oh, that thing? I guess it could work."

He fingered the blood red silk, feeling a strange attachment to it already, and he muttered to the girl out of the side of his mouth, "I'll take it." They found him a pair of boots a section down, and thinking he was done, Naruto had started to make his way towards the front of the store when he felt a finger tap his shoulder. It was the girl, and she gestured toward a sign hanging over the nearby register: With Every Five Purchases, You Get A Free Piercing!

"Will you be taking us up on that offer," she said, raising her eyebrow. Naruto felt the edge of his ear, his gaze never flickering from the sign, and with a devilish grin, he turned to her and said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster, "Where do you recommend?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He felt the multiple piercings in each ear and chewed the one in his tongue. She'd offered to pierce his nipples too, but he'd politely declined the offer to get anything else pierced, no matter how many things he'd bought. He almost felt like a new person, walking down that dusty highway. Except for the fact that I'm on the run and I can't reveal my face to anyone because they might recognize me, I'm great, he thought sarcastically. He'd come to a fork, and not caring where he went, randomly chose a direction to walk without even bothering to glance at the signposts that told what lay ahead.

By that evening, he was deep in sand country, dunes rolling endlessly as far as the eye could see on either side of the little more than a dirt trail that the highway had peetered out to. The sun was halfway behind the horizon before Naruto even considered stopping. He found a spot a little ways off the trail made of hard-packed earth. When he found a firepit and a stack of dry wood next to it, he knew it must be a place where people had camped before. Using as little wood as possible, he made a fire and dropped the knapsack he'd been carrying with him. He pulled out half a loaf of bread and a hunk of cheese for dinner, and with the fire crackling merrily away, he ate and curled up in a blanket he had along with all his provisions.

What Naruto didn't know about the site was that it was a place that highway robbers had set up specifically to catch people, a trap. The wood was a special kind that gave off a white smoke, no matter how dry or wet it was, so it would alert the bandits to anybody present in their snare. Naruto had unwittingly looked over the fact that the whole place had looked suspicious in his haste to set up camp, so the robber's lookout had spotted the signal and alerted the leader, who was a mean sand-rat type with many scars, mental and physical, who was feared throughout the group of mercenaries and who had never been challenged for leadership.

As they silently crept over the dunes towards the telltale glow of the fire, they speculated who could have been stupid enough to light the fire. They'd become notorious in that part of the land for their traps and the massacre that would follow when somebody lit the fires, the slaughter that made hardened men turn away. They constantly moved their camp in a desperate attempt to avoid the kazekage's trackers. So far, they had dodged them successfully, but they knew it was only a matter of time before the kazekage became sick of them and sent sand to crush the life out of them. But for now, they were safe.

They gazed down at the snare they had laid and saw a solitary figure lying there, decked out all in black except for a red silk mask he wore across his face. They looked at each other, yellow teeth flashing in the firelight. It was a foreigner, and he was alone. Nobody would miss him, not out here where the dunes would cover the evidence.

They struck swiftly and without mercy. In a second, they were on Naruto, punching, kicking, slashing with knives, beating and bruising him until they thought him dead. His pockets were rifled through, his money, blanket, food, and knapsack that contained the rest of his clothes all taken as the thieves slipped back into the night, leaving the fire to burn out.

As Naruto lay there, bleeding, the sand around him absorbing the blood, turning it a dusky red color. And as the sand soaked up Naruto's blood, hundreds of miles away in the capital of the sand country, Gaara, the kazekage, looked down at his hand, and watched the blood of his friend drip of the ends of his fingers.