The boys panicked at the new foes that appeared before them, they hadn't even been in the dense forest for long, yet they were already being confronted by enemies.
"Bandits!" They thought cautiously at the sight of the men lined up to face them, it appeared that the area wasn't as uninhabited as they thought.
"It starts here Kit. Kill them." The nine tailed fox said gently in the boys head, the words seemed intoxicating, he felt the doubt leave him and looked suddenly calm, Naruto could see the raven was on edge, but he'd die before he let it show. This would be the first time either of them had killed, but out here in the wilderness they didn't have the chance to regret it.
Sasuke held his breath as he glared back at the men looking their way, he hadn't activated his sharingan as the fight hadn't started yet, but he could feel it coming, it was in the air, the shivers that he felt down his spine only served to excite Sasuke and soon he was so focused he could hear his own heart beating.
"What the hell are kids like you doin' all the way out here!?" one of the bandits questioned aggressively with a scowl on his face and before the boys could answer the others joined in.
"Oi! They look fit and healthy to me! Looks like we found some new workers!" A bandit yelled enthusiastically, causing the other bandits to break out into laughter.
"You two! If you don't wanna die, get over here like good little brats!" the laughter supported the man's outburst, but they soon became angered when the boys didn't move.
"Kit…the more you fight…the stronger you'll get." The kyuubi purred in the same tone as before, in her miniature form in his converted mindscape that consisted of a tranquil forest clearing in which he used to train, the temperature not to hot and not to cold, a warm breeze would blow frequently and the lazy clouds in the imaginary sky would lazily drift by, as she whispered the words to him he could almost feel her nine tails wrap him in a loving hug like she so often did.
If he hadn't gotten to know the kyuubi he would have viciously denied her, branding her a killing machine, who only wanted to be set free to wreak havoc all over again, but now he felt the wisdom in her words and the loving care they seemed to hold.
"Sasuke…" Naruto said in warm, gentle voice, the raven looked at him slightly surprised by the surreal tone, it sounded incredibly calm and care free.
"…Yeah…" Sasuke replied more shocked when his own voice replicated the blondes, his activate sharingan seeing into the blonde's mindscape and hearing the guiding voice of the kyuubi that had helped them plan and take action in their escape before he gave his soft answer.
They turned to the bandits seemingly in a trance; the men looked confused as the stared at the two.
"I dunno what the hell you're doin' but it looks like you wanna die!" The bandit roared and suddenly he and his eleven companions charged at the small boys with their weapons drawn, out here it was kill or be killed.
The man swung his sword with deadly force aiming straight for Naruto's mid riff, while another bandit aimed to pierce Sasuke with his spear, as if the whole world was slowed down the boys seen the attacks heading for them with slow after images following, there was no way they could be struck by attacks like this.
Then suddenly the rush came, adrenaline flooded their bodies and the world sped up, Sasuke felt a wave of feelings rush over him and before he even knew it he'd knocked away the spear and swept the attackers legs from under him leaving him to fall on his back with a thud, but before he could attempt to get up a kunai pierced his throat.
Naruto saw the sword slowly passing through the air in the position he used to be in, after easily side stepping past the slow attack the world came back to full speed, the rush of battle coming to him in full force as he landed a swift elbow to the man's temple, killing him in a single strike, although the move was a killing blow he was certain it would never work on a trained fighter.
Suddenly the fight was on, the bandits surrounding them five to one, the boys worked hard to dodge and parry the weapons attacks with their kunai, eventually being forced to wield two just to fend of the onslaught of attacks. The bandits unmerciful began to pressure the two boys; it seemed that they really intended to kill them rather than use them as slaves.
"Shit! Shit! Shit! We can't die here!" Naruto raged as his attacks found new vigour, his rage fuelling him as he attempted to knock back his enemies with his strikes, he saw Sasuke doing the same, it was similar to lashing out in a controlled manner.
Sasuke dodged a sword slash from his right, his one tomoe sharingan spinning desperately in order to save him from life threatening attacks, he leapt back to evade two spears from the front and countered a bandits dagger that was aiming for his throat with his kunai. His blade dance continued as he struck and parried and repeated; the high paced action was like nothing he'd experienced before.
"This…fights like these! This is insane…I've never worked so hard before…" Sasuke thought while focusing on the task at hand. As he moved he felt his soaking locks strike his face, the sweat pouring from him, he ducked under one of the attacker's horizontal slashes aiming for his throat, rotating as he did, his grip on the kunai reversed and in one flowing movement he slashed open the man's stomach before rolling forwards to evade a spear thrust.
Naruto managed to evade a spear thrust that would have pierced his cheek, as he leant left he felt the blade graze his cheek feeling the cut open immediately, as the spear passed him by, he thrust his left handed kunai into the throat of the enemy before kicking him free from the blade just in time to parry an oncoming sword crossing both of his kunai in an 'x' formation in order to strengthen his defence, however he was soon forced to leap away to the left as another bandit joined the brawl.
Sasuke was breathing heavily as he downed another opponent that wouldn't be getting up again, fighting five enemies in a fight to the death was definitely something he wasn't used to, he was moving faster than he ever had just to survive, forcing the strength into his arms in order to block, push back and counter, slowly but surely he was winning.
The three bandits that opposed him consisted of the dagger user, and two spear fighters, after leaping out of the way of a quick strike from the dagger he flipped in the air, his sharingan working like a lock on system as he reached into his weapon pouch, shortly after he had thrown eight shuriken in an 'x' formation which rained down on the spear fighters who had no way of parrying the deadly weapons.
"You little shit! I'll kill you! I'll definitely kill you!" The enraged dagger wielder declared and quickly hurled his dagger at an unsuspecting Uchiha, who only just managed to roll out of the way, however as soon as he took his stance the man was upon him, wielding the two swords of his fallen comrades and slashing in a frenzy leaving Sasuke working hard just to counter his onslaught.
Naruto couldn't turn to look over to check on the raven as he had his own problems to take care of, with this kind of pressure he didn't even have chance to use his shadow clones as attack after attacked rained down on him. A sword user slashed for him from the front as a spear fighter tried to pierce his back, relying on his speed Naruto leapt out of the way of the spear only to see it pierce the sword user in the heart.
"…You bastard…" The spear user insulted, packed with murderous intent that Naruto was more than used to, the bandit pulled the spear from his dying comrade, not being given the time to prepare himself, the blonde's other attackers rushed him, leaving him blocking an attack from the left and the right, leaving him completely open to the oncoming spear heading straight for him or so the bandit thought.
Naruto managed to push off the attackers that he was clashing with and with deadly accuracy the kunai in his left hand was soon embedded in the spear fighter's skull. Naruto realised he was now vulnerable on his left side as a sword slashed at him with an attack that very nearly cut through his forehead, without a sharingan Naruto had received a fair amount of cuts that were already healing, and relying on his instincts once more he leapt backwards avoiding an attack that would have slashed open his arm.
Sasuke was gritting his teeth as the constant battering his arms were taking from the constant flow of hits from the dual wielding swordsman, he was only able to parry, the angered man not giving him the chance of a counter. The bandit was thankfully running out of steam however, the attacks were getting slower, having less and less of a force behind them and soon he was sluggishly waving his swords at the boy in hope that he would just die.
Sasuke broke through the weak strikes with ease and using his two kunai the raven lunged forward piercing the man twice, the blood poured from the man and Sasuke felt it, the warm liquid flowing down his hands as stared down at them, slowly he looked up fully aware at what he'd done as he saw the dying man's last breath, the young Uchiha gulped breathlessly as he pulled his blades free.
He turned to look at the blonde fighting off his opponent, it appeared while he had been fighting Naruto had managed to dispose of another one of the bandits, leaving him only with a swordsman who was slashing wildly as he was taking retreating steps backwards trying to get away from Naruto.
Naruto threw his kunai in quick succession, the bandit managed to deflect the first one but the second penetrated his defences and cut through his throat like paper. The man grabbed for the blade as crimson liquid flown down his chest, a useless effort as he fell to his knees before crumpling to the floor, dead.
Naruto looked over at the Uchiha panting heavily, and was happy to see he was in good condition before he caught sight of the bodies that littered the clearing; he was soaked with sweat much like his raven counterpart, but trudged over to the Uchiha, resting a hand on the boys shoulder.
"W-We…did it." The blonde said in between catching his breath as the two leaned on each other for support, the Uchiha just nodded, his eyes closed as the two walked over to a large tree that they decided to sit under while gasping for much needed air.
"O-Out here…l-like this…that was harder than anything …ive ever done." Sasuke spoke while panting heavily, Naruto nodded as response as the two decided to rest before even speaking again, strangely the two had smiles on their faces, after overcoming such a difficult battle of life and death they certainly revelled in there victory for a while.
"The more you fight, the stronger you will get, after this fight you will feel stronger than ever, there is no training that can match fighting for your life." Kyuubi announced to the two who had decided to enjoy the peace within in the mindscape, the warming breeze a relaxing sensation that made them never want to leave. The kyuubi had each of them wrapped up in her tails hugging them like they were her most precious belongings.
"Sasuke, I shall make entering the mindscape easier for you, so you may de-activate your sharingan." Kyuubi spoke softly; the raven looked at her curiously, though by now he fully trusted the great fox.
"There's a way I can enter the mindscape without using my sharingan?" He questioned, it would make things easier he supposed.
"That's right; it will also allow me to bring you into the mindscape when I feel the need to do so. Give me your paw." The kyuubi instructed, earning a look of confusion from the Uchiha.
"Paw? …" He asked incredulously "Hand." He stated correcting her with a frown.
"Hand, paw, whatever. Give it here." Kyuubi commanded a little embarrassed with her mistake.
Sasuke moved his hand close to the fox, interested in what she would do next, to his surprise she gently bit down on his hand between his thumb and pointing finger. A small amount of red chakra flown from her teeth into the wound, then she released his hand from her jaws.
"There, that should do it." She said merrily then looked over at the young blonde who was sniggering at something.
"W-what is it?" She asked a little flustered; it felt as if they were making fun of her somehow.
"Hey Sasuke, you better get a bandage from your backpack, your paw is bleeding!" Naruto joked before erupting into laughter which was followed by a weak chuckle from the raven. The Kyuubi scowled deeply.
"We'll see who has the last laugh when it comes to your training!" The fox huffed angrily causing Naruto to let out a rather audible gulp.
"Training? What's so bad about training?" Sasuke asked feeling out of the loop, the raven then caught sight of the horrified look on the blondes face,
"Naruto? … Are you okay?" He asked, confused by the new situation that was currently unfolding.
"You have no idea…its torture…" He said with mock upset, leaving Kyuubi to be grinning with pride.
"That's right! I'll be training the both of you more severely than you've ever been trained, so you had better be ready, my boys will be strong whether they like it or not." Kyuubi announced happily, seemingly forgetting about the teasing that had taken place.
"Now however is not the time to rest any longer, we don't know how close your trackers currently are, it's time to move." She ordered.
They nodded at her words of wisdom, before opening their eyes, returning to the death filled clearing, blood littered the forest floor and it would be difficult to cover all the evidence in a short period of time. The boys found themselves instantly missing the feeling of being gently held by Kyuubi, it was a lot less stressful than their current problem after all.
"Shit! What are we supposed to do with all these bodies?!" Sasuke quickly alerted Naruto, the blonde looked at the all corpses that decorated their surroundings before stuttering out words like 'erm and um' in a vain attempt to form an idea.
"We set a fire to the whole area! It's the only way, shit we have to get moving!" Naruto panicked, the reality of being run-aways suddenly hit them full force as they realised that while they had been fighting their pursuers had surely been catching up.
"It'll still leave a trace…" Sasuke mused but before the blonde could interrupt, the Uchiha spoke again, remembering one of the basic lessons that Itachi had taught him about clearing up evidence of a battle.
"Collect all of the weapons you used, we can drop them in the river up ahead, they should float downstream and wash off any traces of us." He hurriedly ordered.
Naruto just nodded an affirmative and the two immediately went to work looting their weapons from the corpses of their enemies, they also collected the weapons used by the bandits before Sasuke flipped through hand seals activating his technique.
"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu (Fire style: Fireball jutsu)" The raven announced. A large fireball rocketed from the young boy's mouth and soon the whole area was a blaze with a small fire. Without wasting time looking back they raced towards the river in an attempt to rid the area of their trace, they could only hope that it would be enough though the smoke acted like a beacon, they didn't have the time to worry about it.
"Hmmmm…" the hokage contemplated, he had thought the young boys would have been found by now, it was getting late into the second day of their disappearance, if the tracking team were unable to find them by midnight they were to return to the village.
"Perhaps I underestimated them..." The old Hokage sighed genuinely disappointed that they hadn't been brought back to the village, though he could extend the time of the search, they seemed to be passing his test. If they wished to leave the village he couldn't stop them, he just hoped that they were not threats to Konoha.
"It looks like their missing Nin status will be invoked under the orders not to engage unclear their motives are clear." The smoke from the man's pipe filled the Hokage's office as he thought about the matter at hand.
"I'm sorry Minato…it seems I was unable to fulfil your last wish…the villagers turned against your child and have even managed to drive him away... I should have been more defensive of the boy." The third thought solemnly, he would miss the blonde and the Uchiha too to an extent, though he didn't know the raven anywhere near as well, he liked to believe that he cared for all of the children in the village.
The information that the two had left together had already spread across the village, with evidence that Sasuke Uchiha had planned to leave the village without any mention of Naruto, though all evidence found suggests that the two definitely left together, at least this would stop the council from pinning this whole thing on the young blonde.
The civilians of course were blind with rage, how could the last remaining member of the powerful Uchiha clan escape their village, it was not acceptable. As for the Kyuubi container they were more than happy to have rid of that burden, most had voiced their hopes that the blonde was already dead; the villagers were incredibly malicious towards the boy.
The tracking team however were doing their best to find the boys, their time slowly ticking away, with them being thrown off course so many times, it had become a time consuming procedure, and time was what they didn't have. They came to a clearing that was charred black with ash, the ANBU looked around at the remains of a fire, there was definitely a fight here, it seems that the two had taken out a group of twelve bandits.
"Damn talented brats." One of the ANBU members thought to himself while examining the signs of battle that had been etched into the clearing, the smell of burning flesh had filled the air and dried blood decorated the ground. A loud beeping suddenly sounded, annoying the whole Anbu squad, as they realised, they had failed.
The two boys sat under a colossal tree miles away, the night sky was filled with stars that shone down on them, the moonlight the only thing lighting the dark forest around them. They had ran many miles since their battle but now we're too exhausted to continue.
"If they find us now it's game over." Sasuke commented offhandedly, letting his head slump back against the solid tree they sat against. The blonde simply looked at him as if thinking for a moment then spoke with a large grin,
"At least we gave it our best! We managed to get pretty far, don't you think?" He said with a chuckle, a smirk reached Sasuke's face at his friend's enthusiasm.
"I suppose we have…I don't know why, but I almost feel like the search party won't reach us." The Uchiha though aloud. Naruto nodded his agreeing with the statement.
"Maybe the old man is looking out for us." Naruto said before flashing the Uchiha a foxy grin.
"Hn, I wouldn't be so sure about it after reading my father's scroll." Sasuke replied angrily, why would anyone from the village help him? They wanted him dead; he was an Uchiha after all.
"What do you mean Sasuke? Were people in the village horrible to you as well?" Naruto asked innocently, not fully understanding what the raven was talking about.
"The Uchiha massacre was an order given to my brother. Itachi was innocent; he was forced to choose between letting the Uchiha wage a war or kill his own family. Only the Hokage could an issue an order like that." Sasuke explained while clenching his fists and frowning deeply, that village had almost poisoned his mind, he was nearly turned against his brother.
"Hmmm…" Naruto thought for a moment, as if thinking how to explain something to the boy,
"I don't think old man Hokage would do something like that…he really hates killing, and he told me he's like a grandpa to everyone in the village!" Naruto spoke happily, remembering his time together with the old man.
"If anything I think it was probably the council. They're the worst kind of people, same for the elders too, and that Danzou guy, the council all tried to have me killed lots of times but old man Hokage wouldn't let them. He told me to be careful around that creepy Danzou person; he said that he is a man who loves war. The third also told me that Danzou sometimes gave orders to the Anbu too…maybe it was that guys fault." Naruto explained, he looked over to the raven that seemed to be surprised about something.
"Him! It was him! My father's scroll mentioned that Danzou was a man who was not to be trusted, that he was someone that wanted rid of the Uchiha clan…if what you said is true then he may have had the support of the elders and the council…surely with that much authority even the Hokage couldn't stop them." Sasuke replied as everything began to make sense to him.
"I will have revenge for my clan when the time is right…" He thought aloud. Turning to the blonde he received a nod of support.
"I don't know if we're still being tracked or not, but we should sleep if we plan to move again." Naruto offered, the two of them were unaware that were no longer being followed, they were safe for now.
Hope you liked it!