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Disclaimer: The characters, the settings and any other content of Naruto used in this story belong to the original author, Kishimoto Masashi. The writing, plot, original characters and additional details of this story belong to me; thus, shall not be reposted and publicized elsewhere without my expressed permission.


Chapter Three (Part I) – Thief and Mischief


It was a cold night, with chilly air of the steep hills trapped around the valley further cooling the atmosphere as the dusk gradually slipped away to nightfall. The droplets of rain from earlier that day clung to the edges of leaves, wooden branches and trees lining the sides of the road. The sun had long since disappeared over the western horizon, giving way to the light of the moon to illuminate the land in its soft glow. Silver beams of light filtered through the gaps of the foliage from up above, an echoing sound of the crickets and occasional twittering of the birds from the corners of the forest set the surroundings into a state of peaceful serenity.

All save for the stomping and the constant string of grumbled curses of one decidedly grouchy Uzumaki Naruto.

"Goddamn it, geezer, you're a lot heavier than you look…" muttered him, kicking a random stone out of his way on the road to the side. The ground littered with dried, golden leaves and small pebbles scrunched under the weight of his every step.

He paused in his walk – stomping, to be precise – and hefted the slouched additional weight slung across one shoulder up as he huffed. He was starting to regret on deciding to carry the man along with him. He should just haul him over to the nearest inn and be on his way after. He was already spent on his four days' journey all the way from Uzushiogakure, and even with a brief respite at the town's square, he was definitely not well-rested enough. His back was stiff, his fingers numbed with cold and he thought that his feet could use a little bit of a nice, warm massage right about now. And just he got to make it all worse by adding an extra little passenger gloriously carried over his poor, sore shoulder – with a bonus kink to his neck – for almost two hours already.

Really, now, he was already well behind the schedule locating the town in the first place, courtesy of the blessed little map, thank you very much. Now he was even further delayed by at least an hour trudging through the forest and along the road with this drunken geezer slowing him down. The only credit to this old man was that he had not yet spilled his guts – or sake, in his case – all over him, or else he would be sorely tempted to make good of his threat earlier; that was to just leave the man on the road side and hope for the best of whatever fate to befall him.

Naruto scoffed, and a smirk grew on his face. It was highly unlikely he would actually have the heart to do so to the poor drunkard ignorant to the younger man's musings, though he'd admit that entertaining such thoughts was doing a good job at lifting up his spirits considerably. He snickered at the image of an unmoving messy lump of an old drunk, stunk of sake and vomit, laying face-first on the dirt ground in the middle of the road, muttering gibberish crap and scaring the hell out of unfortunate traders and villagers passing by. Maybe he would add a bit more doodles on the man's brows and moustache – and maybe some emphasizing on his dark eye bags, too – using some black and red inks, just for the fun of it.

Yup, that would be a fun sight to see, indeed. Serves the man right, collapsing on him – right after mentioning his ties to Lord Nobugaki, on top of it all – at nightfall when he was expected to be on his way back to the estate. And what was he thinking, getting tanked the whole day, he assumed, with no one entrusted to look after him all the while and afterwards?

"Huh, you called me a kid, geezer, but you're the one who acted so irresponsibly here," Naruto sighed, just as he was about to reach a fork in the path ahead of him.

He reached over with his free hand to unfold his map. Despite its proven unreliability for the most part of the journey, the directions were clear enough for him to make out even in this dim moonlit night. His eyes scanned across the sketchy lines and childish scribbles. He could see from the map – along with Jiraiya's directions from earlier – of his next route from here should be on the left. He looked over to the left fork, and focused his eyes to see the faint glint of lit lanterns up ahead, barely discernible from this distance.

"Alright, geezer, we're almost there," he said to the unconscious man, patting him on his broad back.

Readjusting the man and the pack slung over his other shoulder, Naruto briskly made his way along the path gently sloping up towards the estate. He could already see the faint silhouette of a few men at the front gates, flanking the entrance on both sides with lit wooden torches. He picked up his pace, mentally engaged with an internal monologue.

Just a little bit more… First I'm gonna dump this geezer to them, then I'll hand over Ero-sennin's scroll to their lord, and maybe he won't be too stingy to offer a nice dinner… preferably ramen… or maybe just a steamed bun or two… but, oh well, feudal lords these days are so cheap anyways, so I guess I'll just put up with anything he offers to me… that is if he even so wishes to offer anything in the first place…

Lost in his thoughts, Naruto barely noticed the movement of a figure covered in the shadows near the far end at the base of the fort's stone walls, gradually gaining height as the seconds ticked by. Slowly, he turned his head to the side without stopping in his stride, craning his neck to see better from his current position. He could hardly make out the details over the distance in the darkness.

What was that?

Preoccupied with his observation, his foot got caught in a jutting root near the side of the path. Losing his balance, he stumbled forward with a yelp and struggled to regain his footing.

"Whoa – ah! Geezer!" he exclaimed, as the older man slipped from his hold, dropping him face-first on the damp dirt path with a solid thump – and stayed still in that position, unmoving.

Horrified, Naruto frantically scrambled over to the older man and turned him over his back. "My bad, geezer! Dammit, are you okay?" Getting no response from the man, he tried again. "H-hey, answer me!" He lightly slapped the side of the man's face and poked on his ribs. How ironic it was, as just a short time ago he was having fun imagining the man somewhat in this situation, and now he was the one gotten scared the living wits out of him in concern for the older man's condition. He felt his guts lurched to his throat. Sweet Kami, what if he was injured somewhere? What if he was not going to wake up? What if the man was dead by his own clumsy hands?

Just as he was very, very close on the verge of freaking himself out, the man stirred and mumbled groggily, "Mm… shtop pokin' 'round… tickles…" And with that, he drifted off back to his sleep.

With a long, relieved sigh, he released the pent up breath in his lung and let the tension coiled around him ebb away. Thank goodness, he silently prayed his gratitude to the deities for saving him from going around a guilt trip.

Shifting his weight on one knee, he apologized to the prone man on the ground. "Err… sorry about that, geezer. That was careless of me, and, uh…" Scratching his neck, he continued. "You're not mad at me, are you?" Taking the low, lazy grunt from the man as an affirmative, he brightened. "That's great! Let's just put the past behind us, and move on, right?"

When he reached out for the man's torso and hefted him up across his shoulder again, he noticed that the gates were some yards away from them, and he could see two guards moving from their post to them. He turned around to the stone walls again and, with a grimace, saw nothing out of ordinary there. Must be a trick of the light… or maybe I'm just too tired I'm starting to hallucinate things, he thought, shrugging off the matter out of his mind.

As Naruto covered the short distance between him and the guards, one of the guards took on a steady stance and stopped his further advance towards them. "Halt! Who goes there?" demanded the guard, eyeing him suspiciously.

Naruto straightened his back and faced the guards, remembering Jiraiya's teachings to never reveal his real identity and true purpose until he had made sure that he was contacting with the right people and arrived at the right place he was supposed to be. Thus, he responded back to the guard with a question. "Sorry to bother you, sir, but this is Lord Nobugaki's place, isn't it?"

The guard's eyes narrowed further. "State your business with our lord, boy."

He pursed his lips to stop the loud and possibly rude retort to the guard's address of him. Instead, he answered tartly. "I got a message from my master to your lord, guard-san."

"Then just hand it over to us and we'll take it from there."

"Nope, that won't do. I got a clear instruction from my master to hand it over to Lord Nobugaki personally." Well, that wasn't entirely true, but he did not trust these stubborn guards to carry the message scroll to their master. As tired as he was due to the long journey days before, he'd like to see his mission done with his own eyes.

Apparently one of the guards did not seem to be inclined to agree with him. "Damn brats these days never listen, huh?" he sneered. "Listen up, brat. Leave the message here, or else."

Naruto gritted his teeth and eyed the guard warily. He'd almost forgotten of the old man slung over his shoulder when the other guard spoke up.

"Kenta-san, isn't that…" he narrowed his eyes and pointed at the slumped man, "Isn't that Tazuna? The builder Nobugaki-sama hired?" He stepped forward with cautious steps, and exclaimed with a mixture of incredulity and concern, "What the hell is he doing out here, knocked up like that?!"

The other guard, Kenta, turned his attention to older man in question, his wide eyes confirming his partner's assessment. Furrowing his dark brows, his persona turned from mildly threatening to outright hostile, taking up a full offensive stance as he started to unsheathe his katana. "You! What have you done to him?!"

Stricken with the realization of the guards' assumptions, Naruto hastened to explain in his defense. "W-wait! It's not like what you think it is! You see, I met him back in town –"

He was cut off by the other guard's impatient grunt. "Cease your lies and put him down this instance!" He demanded, as his partner Kenta advanced forward.

Instinctively, Naruto took a few steps back, and gripped his unoccupied hand on the hilt of his katana. This is not looking good, he thought grimly. He was just about to curse at this unfortunate outcome, when another voice, deep and commanding, interrupted them from beyond the gate.

"What is with this ruckus?"

Kenta stiffened visibly, halting his movements, and the other guard hastily stood at attention to face the source of the demand. A middle-aged man with shaved head, neatly trimmed beard and lines of wrinkles marking his age on his weathered, stern face stood tall with both of his hands on the handle of his cane. Two more men appeared on his sides, their faces deceptively calm, contradicting their firm stance of seasoned samurai warrior, ready to intercept the fight at any given moment.

"My lord," the guard bowed. "Our apologies. But this boy," he gestured to a scowling Naruto, "claimed to have a message for you, while he carried along with him an unconscious Tazuna-san, hence we cannot help but to be suspicious of him, my lord."

Naruto snorted, and spoke. "Oh, give me a break. If there's anyone who is mistreated here, it will be me. First by the awful weather Mother Nature's apparently decided to dump on my poor head recently, and then by that drunken geezer, falling off over the kind, unsuspecting me with no one around to take him back here. I'm actually doing him and you guys a gracious favor to haul his ass up all the way here, along to finish my task given by my master." He added with a jerk of his head to the two other guards. "But then, these two knuckleheads refused to let me in and finish it," he finished, earning two glares directed hotly at him.

The man hummed in response, and moved closer to them, his retainers staying close to his side. "I see. Please pardon my fellow men's ill treatment." He turned to Kenta and commanded him to cease his offensive stance. As the guard started to protest, he cut him off mid-sentence.

"Nevertheless, he is but a young man, don't you think? I doubt he will bring us any harm, if that is even his intention in the first place."

"But –"

"And does resorting to immediate violence may solve the matter at hands, Kenta? He might be truly carrying a message for me, and if he is knocked out of commission, how could we know of his true purposes?" he asked pointedly.

Kenta clamped his mouth shut, and reluctantly complied with his superior's orders, sparing a non-too-discreet glower at the direction of Naruto's smug face. With a deep bow, he apologized stiffly, and retrieved Tazuna from Naruto.

"Now, young man." The bald man shifted his attention back to Naruto. "Reveal yourself and your purposes, if you will."

Naruto hesitated at first, before he inwardly shrugged and decided to just go along with it. Better get this over with before it got the chance to turn for the worse, he thought.

Taking off the jingasa from his head, he bowed before the older man, and answered. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto of the Whirlpool Country, sir. I am here as a disciple of the Ero – err, I mean, Jiraiya of Mount Mōbyoku, sent here by my master to deliver a message scroll for the good Lord Nobugaki of the Bird Country."

"Uzumaki?" the man echoed. With furrowed eyebrows, he observed Naruto's tanned skin and blond hair with intense concentration. Feeling uncomfortable under the man's strange scrutiny, Naruto fidgeted in place and ducked his head lower. Then, the man suddenly asked, "Does your father happens to bear the name of Namikaze?"

"Eh?" Naruto felt his eyes widen in surprise. "Ah, yes sir, he did." How did he…?

Then, the man smiled widely, breaking out of his stern countenance as easily as cracking open an egg. He heartily patted Naruto on his shoulder – his poor, sore shoulder – with a laugh, nearly having his knees buckled under the sudden impact. "My, my! Then you must be the son of Jiraiya's first disciple! I knew I wasn't imagining things! Those unmistakable features of him, dear Kami. Oh, how time surely flies!"

It was no surprise then. His father was a famed samurai hailed from the Namikaze clan under the guidance of the legendary yamabushi Jiraiya himself during his apprenticeship with that old toad. But this baldy seems to know them personally… he inwardly mused, hope beginning to swell inside his chest. Could he have any knowledge of him?

Catching his bemused look, the man chuckled and apologized. "Ah, right. Where are my manners? " He cleared his throat and introduced himself. "You have come to the right place, young Uzumaki. I am Ōkawa Nobugaki, lord of the Ōkawa estate, and a lesser daimyō of this region. And do not worry, lad. Any friend of Jiraiya's is a friend of mine as well." He smiled, and gestured eagerly over for Naruto to come along. "Come inside and make yourself comfortable here – we have much to talk over the dinner!"

How could he deny any offer with a promised meal from the other end of the deal? With a wide grin, Naruto saluted and followed him inside through the gates, all thoughts of his father momentarily forgotten in favor for his empty stomach.

"Yes, sir!"

Well, maybe just this one particular lord is not so stingy after all…


The merry laughter from the occupants of the main dining chamber echoed out through the closed sliding doors. Inside the chamber, seated on the floor in front of a dark, wooden low table across each other were two men, one a seasoned warrior clan leader doubled over in his laughter, the other younger one in much of the same condition as the former, with his mouth full of his meal.

Wiping a tear with one calloused finger, the older of the two spoke up. "He's unbelievable. Ero-sennin – is that what you call him? Why is that so, Naruto?"

"That's because that old toad is a big pervert despite his age and the position he claimed as an 'honorable' and 'respectful' mountain hermit."

Nobugaki laughed again, this time even harder than the last one. "It suits him well! Good one, kid. Kami, that man never changes from the last I met him," he said as he shook his head, settling down with a few chuckles.

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, as Naruto finished his meals. Then, Nobugaki coughed, and asked, "How is your father faring, Naruto?"

Naruto felt the last of his mirth faded away, as the food in his mouth suddenly tasted bitter and his spirits sunk with disappointment. With visible effort, he forced down the lump in his throat before he answered. "I… I don't really know myself, old man Nobu," he admitted. "I'm actually hoping that you would know something about him better than I do."

The lesser daimyō's eyebrows shot up in bewilderment, uncomprehending the younger man's admittance. With a wary sense of realization, he carefully asked, "What do you mean, Naruto?"

"I…" Naruto cleared his throat, and looked down. "You look like you know him, so I thought…" He cleared his throat and rephrased his words. "I wanted to know more of what actually happened to him. It's been years, and my mother rarely talks about it, if she even talks about it at all. So…" He scratched his head and smiled a false, cheery grin. "So I just thought that maybe, since you seemed to know my father, that you got something about him! But, well, yeah… I guess, it's my bad…" he trailed off and laughed weakly.

Empathy filled the older man's heart, fully understanding Naruto's disappointment loss. It wasn't uncommon to see the children of a samurai warrior to be orphaned even at their young age. "…I see. I'm sorry that I could not be of much help for you."

Crestfallen, Naruto slowly nodded, hiding his dismay beneath his downcast eyes. Setting down his rice bowl, he asked, "You've really met my father, then?"

Nobugaki finished his tea before he answered. "I sure did, Naruto. He's Jiraiya's first apprentice before you, after all."

Catching Naruto's curious gaze, he sighed. Apparently the boy had not had much in his knowledge about his father. "I know Minato as a great man," he started, earning an interested look from Naruto. "Both in his skills and at his heart. I can hardly say that I know him better than Jiraiya or his family ever did, but I can tell you of his vast potential and leadership even from his earlier age." He stared ahead, picturing the distant past in his mind's eye.

"So you're really familiar with him."

He chuckled. "Why, yes, I suppose you can say that. In my younger days years back, Jiraiya and I were quite close – with a few other peers, we trained together, went on missions and battles together, and rose up in our ranks through time and dedication of our current profession at the time. After some time, Jiraiya then quit from his rank and went into his nomadic life as a yamabushi for years afterwards – for whatever reason that I could only guess on. Despite that, though, when I've retreated myself from the ties of the served clan, and went off to lead my own, Jiraiya still continued to visit me at times."

Nobugaki put down his own cup, and went on. "Jiraiya often took Minato around and brought him along whenever he came to visit, even since his earlier days as a chūgen. I helped him in his training of yarijutsu to hone his bow skills during their stay here. He was an exceptional one, you see, and by the time he has reached the Kyūnin level, he was already around here occasionally, helping my men in their training."

Naruto listened to the older man's recollection with rapt attention and interest. Other than the general knowledge of his father's position in the Uzumaki household, he had only heard bits of this and that about his father, either from Jiraiya or his mother – in those rare times that they, especially the latter, felt inclined to talk about it. But still, he may have inherited his mother's facial features, but aside from that, nothing about his appearance possessed the usual Uzumaki traits – particularly his mess of a blond hair. "But… how did you figure it out? I mean, I told you my surname is Uzumaki, so…" he mused.

He laughed. "Well, if there is one more thing I remember about him aside from his exceptional skills, it would certainly be his constant infatuation with a certain Uzumaki beauty." He chuckled. "It was not glaringly obvious, no, but from what I heard from Jiraiya's complaints – Minato always declined his offer to come along to an 'entertainment' every time after each completed missions and battles – and his commitment to one of the Uzumaki clan's heiress, one could only easily deduce the cause. Even I have witnessed such notion with my own eyes one time when I came to visit Jiraiya at the Uzumaki household – and Kami, he would never left her side unguarded at most times. Completely enamored he was." He shook his head.

Naruto couldn't agree more. His mother – he thought with unrestrained pride – was definitely beautiful. It was not much of a surprise that nobles and bachelors of great clan houses from most corners of the continent had tried their chance for her hand at the news of her lost husband. They were either shunned away by him or Kushina herself; often resulting with either of them getting in trouble with their clan's elders. They would always share victorious snickers after each successful attempt in their mischievous act of discouraging those men, but he had witnessed the silent tears of hidden grief and longing of his dear mother late into the night when she had thought no one was around.

If only he is around…

He was snapped out of his dark reverie by Nobugaki's tentative question. "What actually happened, Naruto?"

He sighed. "I don't really know myself, old man Nobu." Running his fingers through his short, spiky locks, he rambled on. "All I know is that he's been gone for a long time. Some said that he's dead, but as far as I knew, his body was never recovered back to home. Heck, I can barely even remember his face. I just hope that…" He scratched his neck, feeling hopeless. "At least she'll have some sort of closure, if it comes to that…" he finished weakly.

A heavy silence settled over them, as one mulled over the younger man's words, and the other caught in a sense of hopelessness.

After a few tense moments, Nobugaki spoke up, breaking the prolonged silence. "I believe you have come here to deliver a message for me, yes?"

Grateful for the change of subject to a more pressing matter, Naruto flicked his fingers and nodded. "Ah, that's right!" He dragged his pack closer and rummaged inside, taking out Jiraiya's scroll and handed it over to the lord. "Here it is. And Ero-sennin told me that I should expect a return scroll from you, too."

Nobugaki took the offered scroll in his hands, rolling it open and began to skim over the words written inside, humming thoughtfully as he read. A few minutes passed before he finally snapped the scroll close and called over for his retainer.

The door slid open to reveal a dark-haired samurai kneeling in the hallway with his head slightly bowed in respect. "You called for me, master?"

Nobugaki nodded. "Take this scroll to my private chambers, Saburo." Then, he added, "And get Yuuko-san to come over here as well, will you?"

"Yes, Nobugaki-sama."

They waited for the retainer to leave the room before Nobugaki spoke up. "We may have not been acquainted for long, Naruto, but I can already see the hints of Minato's best qualities in you." He looked at Naruto in the eyes, and smiled kindly. "I wish you well in your search for him."

Moved by the man's words, Naruto felt his eyes stung as his heart swelled with a bittersweet sense of delight and pride. He opened his mouth to speak only to be interrupted by the sound of the door sliding open and a feminine voice greeted them.

"Ah, right."Nobugaki gestured over to the elderly maid standing by for her orders by the open doorway. "Yuuko-san here will lead you to your resting chamber, Naruto. She will manage any of your needs and commodities."

"Eh?" He turned to the maid, and said, "But I thought I won't be staying here…?"

"Nonsense. I'm not having any of that." Nobugaki waved off his feeble attempt to decline his offer. "Like I've said before; any friend of Jiraiya's is a friend of mine as well. Retire here for the night – surely your travels here all the way from another country have exhausted you to the brim, doesn't it? Take a dip to the bathhouse, and eat as you wish. Take this as my way of repaying you for your troubles."

Well, that actually sounds pretty good, he thought. How could he refuse it? Jiraiya would have to wait for him for just another day longer. Serves him right for annoying the hell out of him in his last training, too, that old toad.

"Well, I guess I can't help it then…" he grinned sheepishly, inwardly cheering with joy.

The maid bowed and asked for him to follow her. He stopped just before the doorway, and turned to bow deeply at the older man before him.

"Old man Nobu, I… thank you."

A faint smile graced his features, softening the lines of his face. With a single nod, he dismissed them and waved him along.

"Have a good rest, Naruto."


"Sheesh, they sure are noisy this late at night…"sighed Naruto, tucking his hands into the pocket of his sleeves. Huh, like I'm not one to talk about such a thing, he berated himself with a snort. Well, maybe he was noisy in general, but even he had the right mind to keep it down at such ungodly hours like this.

Now that he thought about it…

Where the hell was he again, anyway?

He cursed out loud, running his fingers along his slightly damp locks. For Kami's sake, it seemed like getting lost in the woods was just not going to be enough for him. He should have let the elderly maid assigned to him to tag along when he'd decided to soak himself for a nice hot bath at the bathhouse. With depressing thoughts weighing down on him, he had politely refused her assistance and company to wait for him, knowing he would spend a good time loosening his body and mind up in the bath. And with another moment and space that he had needed to sort himself out, he had decided to take a brief late night walk instead of heading straight off to bed. He'd been sure then that he would find his way back to his room – how hard can that be, right?

It seemed that with that last thought in his mind before he set off, he had inevitably jinxed it.

And look where it had gotten himself into; some kind of a barren, still-under-construction sort of building, with little to no light aside from the beams of moonlight from between the wooden planks of the unfinished roofs ahead to guide him around.

He was lost – again.

Well, he couldn't blame it all to his poor navigational skill, right? It was just that he hadn't expected the layout of this fort of a lesser daimyō to be way more complicated than usual. And he had meant to ask around for directions as well, really. And that was only after he'd been walking around aimlessly until he'd realized that he was more lost than he thought.

It was not like he had found anyone around for now, too. It seemed that most of them are rather preoccupied with something on the other side of the fort, what with all the guards herding off towards the opposite wing as far as he could tell. If he listened closely, though, he could tell that the noises were actually getting louder now –or rather, maybe it was getting closer? And what is with all the commotion, anyway?

Nearing the turn of a corner at the end of the hallway, he craned his neck to inspect the ruckus, curiosity getting the best of him.

"Huh?"

He did not expect, however, to see a dark figure emerging directly in his line of sight, speeding off alarmingly close to his direction at that very moment.

"What the – oof!"

He barely had a moment to grasp the situation at hand when said figure collided heavily onto his middle, knocking the wind out of his lungs. Something hard – a head, maybe? – slammed him right along his lower jaw, cutting off the curse word from his mouth. Unprepared for such sudden impact, his legs promptly gave away beneath him, his arms spread out at just the last second to break the fall.

Just when I thought things couldn't have turned for the worse…

Groaning out, he laboriously shrugged off the warm weight splayed across his torso and attempted to sit upright. With one hand supporting his body on the floor and the other rubbing his sore jaw, he glared up at whoever it was that had picked the unfortunate time to barrel over him that night.

"Watch where you're going, will ya?" he grumbled, letting his annoyance seep into his tone.

In the darkened hallway where the shadows kept most of the stranger's face in hiding, he could barely make out the lines of his form – the folds of his hooded cloak and the dark material covering most of his visage save for his eyes.

When the stranger lifted his eyes to meet his impatient ones, he could almost swear that he could actually feel that Time had screeched to a halt as his eyes were hopelessly locked into this stranger's gaze, leaving his dumbstruck mind in a confused state of momentary standstill that he just couldn't put his finger on.

"Everyone, he's over there! Don't let the thief get away!"

Before he could even start to make sense of it, a distant shout, steadily growing closer to their position cut in through the silence that had been encompassing around the two of them. With a start, both of them whipped their heads at the same time towards the direction of the approaching voices and yells. He surreptitiously peered at the darkly clad stranger from the corner of his eye just in time to see his eyes widen apprehensively, as his own narrowed in consternation. A cursory glance to the rather large pack at this person's side confirmed his suspicion.

For once, his mind caught up with him, and he quickly connected the dots here.

"You –!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger to him, but, moving with surprising speed, the thief landed a quick blow to his face with the back of his hand – eliciting a sharp grunt from the young man – and climbed to his feet, scurrying a little unsteadily at first before he briskly regained his footing and made a beeline for the long, narrow hallway where Naruto had come from earlier.

"Son of a…!"

Mentally cursing himself for his own lapse, he clutched his nose with a hiss. For the love of Kami, this bastard had come at just the right time to make his already foul mood turn even worse.

Growling under his breath, he ignored the stinging pain on his nose and the other men already filing in the hallway. With gritted teeth, he quickly scrambled to his feet and followed suit, breaking out onto the narrow space with every intent and purposes to hunt that bastard's ass down and give him a piece of his mind – or rather his knuckles, given this particular situation.

Oh yes, he's gonna pay.

He stretched out his legs and poured on his fuel as he raced down the hallway and turning at each corners, never taking his eyes off his assailant's back for too long. Steadily he gained on the thief, even as he ran at full tilt, trying to make ground with the pack of stolen items slung over his back. A furtive glance over his back revealed the intent young samurai hot on his heels, apparently hell-bent on getting him busted. With his breath stuck in his throat, the thief quickened his pace even more, trying vainly to outreach Naruto in the chase.

But Naruto was not one to give up. Hell, this thief would be sorely underestimating him if he thought he could just loose him by picking up his speed. Naruto pushed on even more, and, soon enough, the cloaked thief was well within his reach. With renewed vigor and a burst of speed, he sprang from the ball of one foot and leapt forward, using the momentum to tackle the thief to the floor, drawing out a cry of shock from him. The collision sent them both tumbling downwards in heaps and tangles, stopping with an abrupt bump at the side wall. Shaking his mind off the jumbles, he took advantage of the thief's currently stunned state lying prone under, and seized the chance to constrain him. Realizing his attempts, the thief quickly struggled from beneath him, trying hard to push away the heavier weight of the man pinning him down on the floor.

Boy, he sure is relentless…

Grunting, Naruto wrestled with the squirming thief with more effort, bringing forth his grappling skills to his benefit. Spreading his legs on both of the thief's sides, straddling him in place with his thighs pushed firmly against his smaller hips, Naruto linked his arm through one of the thief's flailing hand, locking the elbow joint straight under his armpit. His other arm shot out and wrapped around the thief's neck in the crook of his elbow in a chokehold; arching his back slightly with just enough pressure applied to constrict his movements without strangling the thief too much – effectively rendering him defenseless.

"So…" he said in between his panting, sweat beading across his forehead and sliding down along his temples, his damp bangs sticking on the sides of his face, "I gotcha now. Why don't you just give it up, eh?"

"Get off me, you… you brute jerk!"

"Takes one to know one," Naruto snorted. It's not like he'd completely forgotten the slight swell of a bruise he was sure already forming by now on his nose, anyway. "Where's all the stuff you've gleaned off this place?" demanded him, adding more force to his hold.

His eyes roamed over the form of the seething thief beneath his hold, clawing fruitlessly at his arm around the slim neck, noting his rather slender – no, more like scrawny for a guy, he assumed – and smaller figure. Now that the thought about it, this guy was at least a good half a feet shorter than him as well. Not to mention the oddly high-pitched tinge to his voice, too, despite his growl and the not-so-hushed string of profanities about a certain 'goddamned blonde samurai' muttered harshly under his breath.

Don't tell me he's just a kid? Pursing his lips, Naruto lessen the pressure upon the thief slightly and shifted to take a better look of him. One eyebrow disappeared into his hairline, staring incredulously at the peculiar sight of a… steamed bun peeking from the mouth of the small pack.

Taking a chance his current preoccupation with his perusal and reduced constrain over him, the thief tugged down his cloth mask using his free hand, ducked his head down and bit down hard on Naruto's arm. With a pained yelp, Naruto reflexively pulled his hand away and lifted off from him briefly. However, skilled as he was, Naruto admitted begrudgingly, a brief moment of momentary lapse was all the thief had needed, as he chose that moment to land a hit to his jaw with his elbow, and wriggled free from his constricted position on the ground. Quickly snatching his pack as well, he leapt to his feet and sprinted away, leaving a dazed Naruto nursing yet another sore spot on his face.

"Damn, he's good…"


End of Chapter 3 (Part 1)

Note: I've decided to separate this chapter into two (because of its original huge size), so that it'll help the readers better as it will be less confusing now. I've also noticed that I didn't include the term clarification section before, so here goes. Enjoy!


More terms to be clarified:

Yamabushi - Japanese mountain hermits. Also often referred to the monk-warrior wandering around the mountains, and usually associated with local temples (I personally think Jiraiya makes a perfect fit to be one)

Chūgen - very low-ranking retainers that fell above the basic level of samurai, but still one level higher than a normal commoner. They're typically assigned as the samurais' attendants instead, and are not allowed to carry their swords with them.

Yarijiutsu - literally means 'the art of the spear', hence it was the combat art of wielding spear.

Kyūnin - A general classification of the noble's military class. Usually comprises of the higher officers in the hierarchy. This includes the samurai and daimyo.