Chapter eight is finally here!

Arc I: The Direction Of Home

As The Years Pass
Chapter Eight

-Timeskip-

Lightning clashed overhead, a volley of angry thunder tripping on its heels. Naruto stood in the rain that poured down around him, disregardful of the fact that he would soon be drenched to the skin. At his feet lay a figure, still and sodden with blood. It pooled about their body and seeped into the tarmac they lay upon. He was dead; and in Naruto's hand was grasped the kunai that killed him.

Dimly, unaware of anything else around him, Naruto's gaze bored into the man's cold body (not quite seeing it), and wondered how he had gotten here; how he could bring himself to end a human life, just like that. He could remember the first time as clearly as if he was still living it; it had been raining then, too:

It had been an accident. He hadn't meant to kill the man, the thug, but it had just — happened. He stood over the body, strangely (acutely) aware of the sharp hail upon his skin. The storm pounded in his ears. Blood was staining his hands, and he gripped the kunai impossibly tight, shocked and shivering to the bone. He felt sick.

He couldn't stop staring at the man's body, haphazardly toppled over some discarded crates, face upwards. The man's coal eyes were locked with his own, inanimate and unfeeling; dead. And all Naruto could think was: he'd done that. He'd killed that man. He couldn't look away.

A while later, (maybe only a few short seconds, or a few long minutes, he couldn't tell), he was brought out of his stupor by a soft tug on his trouser leg. He blinked a few times, as if waking from a disconcerting, hazy sleep, and shifted his gaze to the small child half-hidden behind his frame.

"Did you— did you kill him, mister?" Her voice was small and innocent, and her eyes were wide with fear, two glassy orbs, as she gazed anxiously up at him. Hesitantly, shaken by what he'd just done, Naruto placed a hand atop her rain-soaked hair. He couldn't tell if she was crying.

"Yeah," he spoke, in quite disbelief. "Yeah, I did."

The child gave a small, shrill whimper, and hid her face in his trouser leg. She couldn't look at the body, still twisted and stabbed upon the crates, leaking blood. Gulping back a queasy lump in his throat, Naruto wiped his hands upon his opposite leg, and then bent low to wrap his arms about the small, rain-drenched girl. She sobbed into his shoulder for a few minutes, the sounds smothered by the hail, before pulling back and scrubbing pitifully at her eyes.

Then, fixing him with a wide, naïve stare, she asked as innocently only a child could, "Did you really have to kill him?"

The Jinchuuriki felt a painful, guilt-ridden tug at his heart. He'd just killed a man. Glancing over, almost fearfully, at the body of the thug, Naruto replied. "Hai. I— I think I… did."

Suddenly, repelled at hearing the stammering, the doubt, in his own voice, he felt a surge of white-hot determination. (Later, he realised it could've been a delayed adrenalin rush, but he didn't care. It felt epiphanic, and a welcome reprieve from his uncertainty.)

He straightened up, his mouth set in grim stringency, and when the small child asked tearfully, "But why?" He replied simply, but not without empathy, "I'm a ninja, kid; it's my job to protect people." He placed a gentle, blood-specked hand upon her small shoulder, and turned her to the mouth of the alley, breathing in, as he did, a deep sigh of resignation. "Now, go on, run home. I'll… clean up this mess."

There was a moment where she paused uncertainly (what if there were more men? She didn't want to leave Naruto's safety), but then nodded, and started to scramble hurriedly off. As she reached the puddled, deserted street, however, she turned back, and called through the rain, "Thank you for saving me, mister!"

Despite himself, Naruto felt a soft smile spread over his weary face, hiding his unease. "You're welcome." As she turned her back to him, however, Naruto suddenly called after her, "Wait! What's your name?"

She kept running, but twisted her body back. "I'm Akemi!" Without another word, she scurried on home, her white dress plastered to her from the rain and pattering against her pale knees. Naruto was left alone in the alley, being peppered by hailstones, and the man's blood seeping dangerously close to his feet.

Catching sight of the body again, Naruto promptly retched onto the flagstones, feeling the shock claw at his stomach again. Regaining his breath after a few seconds, the blonde wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and, after composing himself, he approached the dead man.

With a look of melancholic sadness in his eye, he was silent for a long time, before tugging a tarp from one of the discarded crates. With remorse, he covered the dead lowlife respectfully, and then simply walked away, not looking back.

Brought back to the present, Naruto found himself gazing down upon his fresh kill with a similar, empty regret. Sighing, cleaning his kunai on his jacket, he turned and walked away, making sure to place the scroll he'd recovered safely into his pocket, and leaving the body for the rodents.

As he walked back to his lodgings in the town not far away, he found himself hoping that Akemi, the innocent girl with the bright, startled eyes and the white dress whipping at her knees, hadn't run into any more thugs.

Later that night, Naruto sat upon the bed in his tavern room, counting out his pay, the blankets still folded neatly at the foot of the bed, as testament to his lack of sleep. The notes rustled against the bare mattress, and the few coins that made his amount round jingled as they fell from his hand to join the rest of the nest egg.

Summing it up, Naruto made a note of the total, put some aside for the room's cost, and then slumped over the now-tided mattress. Not for the first time, he wished he had someone to talk to on nights this long. He wished he was still back in Suna. Unfortunately, he and Gaara had agreed that his time was up.

...

Naruto wasn't really surprised when Gaara summoned him to his office with a sombre face. He'd been in Suna for a while, so he'd started to guess that he'd have to move on soon – after all, Akatsuki couldn't stay oblivious to his location forever.

"Naruto," Gaara sighed, motioning to the swivel seat (now, thanks to Naruto, a permanent fixture in his office), "we need to talk."

Naruto gave a (slightly strained) grin, and tried to lighten the foreboding mood. "That line! Are you breaking up with me, Gaara?"

The Kazekage raised an invisible eyebrow at him, but gave a half-smile nonetheless, even though it was somewhat rueful. "Sit down, Naruto."

Naruto sat, and immediately felt uneasy. Gaara leaned forward seriously in his seat, adjusting his Kage robes. Gravely, he began, "Naruto, we've just received word from our patrol; Akatsuki's been sighted moving through the desert." Naruto felt an unsettled lump in his throat; he knew how serious that could be.

Gaara seemed to sense his unease, for he paused before continuing. "Even though they did not seem to be heading for Suna, intelligence indicates that the two members we saw are on their way to meet with Konoha's spies. Taking into account their speed, and how long it took for the patrols to give us warning, that doesn't give us much time before they learn you're gone."

Naruto nodded sadly, thinking frantically as his stomach began to wriggle into knots. "They don't know where I am, at least. That should buy us a week, maybe."

Gaara hmm'ed in thought, lacing his fingers. "A week's optimistic at best. It's quite possible that they'll be meeting with spies in the Land of Wind as well, and we haven't exactly been keeping you out of sight. After meeting in the Land of Fire, everyone who's in cahoots with Akatsuki will be put on the lookout for you."

Naruto groaned, and reasoned, "Then is there nothing we or Tsunade-baachan can do about the spies in Konoha?"

The young Kage sighed, and passed a hand over his eye. "I'm afraid not. It involves a lot of manipulation to flush out spies — good ones like Akatsuki's have probably been stationed in their countries for years. Getting one up on them so quickly is too risky, and could simply alert Akatsuki faster."

"Bugger," the blonde replied, flopping forward onto the desk, chin-first. "So, Akatsuki will find out, in a day or two at best, that I'm gone from Konoha, and then they'll alert all their spies here — possibly in a matter of hours, the quick, sneaky bastards. Of course, those spies'll then instantly tell them where I am."

Gaara nodded. "That's the nutshell."

"Just great," Naruto sighed, rubbing his eyes. "And I was having such a good day."

They both dwindled into silence, both knowing what had to be said, but neither wanting to say it. That meant, of course, it was down to Gaara. Clearing his throat quietly, he sat up straight. "You know, Naruto, it wouldn't take a genius to figure out that you've come to me," he said. "There's the highest probability that Akatsuki won't need the middleman, and will simply come straight here to look for you."

Naruto pushed himself upright off the desk, sighing. "I know, Gaara. I know what you're going to say." He fixed the redhead with a serious look. "At best, I have a couple of days before Akatsuki arrive. That's as good a head start as I thought I'd get."

He stood, and dusted himself down, and it seemed to Gaara he was brushing off his carefree nature, his happy-go-lucky attitude, and suddenly realising just how severe the situation was. "Gaara," the blonde shinobi said, "I think it's time I left."

The Kazekage stood also, moving round the desk. He held out his hand, and Naruto shook it. "Thank you, Kazekage-sama."

Gaara nodded and, motioning to him, moved out of the office. "It's no doubt that any spies who're here will be monitoring the gates. If they see you leave, Akatsuki will side-step the village."

Naruto nodded in agreement, and was led down onto the streets below, lit just as brightly and as welcoming as they had been when he'd arrived. Gaara said, "I'll wait for you at the gates while you gather your things. I'm afraid there's no time for goodbyes."

Now every minute counted if Naruto stood a chance of evading Akatsuki's closing net. If he didn't get away from Suna soon enough, he'd have them hot on his tail, and wouldn't stand a chance of finding a place to lie low next.

A mere five minutes later, Naruto walked swiftly up to the gates of Sunagakure, where the Kazekage stood waiting. In his hand, the Kage clutched some papers.

"I received these a few days ago," he explained. "I would've given them to you sooner, but I haven't had the chance. I thought we had at least a week or two more than this before they found you." Gaara sighed, "I miscalculated, I'm sorry."

Naruto gave a small smile. "It doesn't matter, Akatsuki can be very unpredictable."

The redhead nodded, and held the papers out to him. "There's not much time to explain, but this is the official certification of your mercenary status. Read through the papers when you get the chance and you'll understand. The last sheet is the documentation you show to each employer as proof. Don't lose it, and always make sure you get it back from your boss immediately, if possible."

"If possible?"

Gaara nodded grimly, explaining, "Some employers keep the document until the mission is complete or they release a mercenary from their service; blackmail of sorts, so they ensure you have to get the job done properly before moving on, or so that you can't go around getting employed by others at the same time."

Naruto groaned. "What have I gotten myself into?"

"I never said it would be easy," Gaara chided hurriedly, "Now quickly, take them."

The blonde nodded, taking the papers and folding them neatly away into his jacket. "So this is it?" he said tentatively, scouring the horizon with a weary eye. "Where do I go from here?"

"Anywhere," Gaara replied, his hand patting reassuringly on the blonde's shoulder. "Just make sure to dodge Akatsuki for a while before starting to look for work, and get as far away from here as you can."

"There's nowhere really far enough away," Naruto said desolately, realising it for perhaps the first time. "They'll find me eventually, again and again. The world's starting to seem so small."

Gaara nodded sadly, but said, "They're spread out, and are few in number, and you're just a single person. The world probably seems all too big to them — it may be months, or even years, before they can find you again if you chose your countries well enough. If you avoid countries that you're too familiar with, for a long time this could be the last they hear of you."

Naruto contemplated for a moment, before breaking into a soft grin. "You're right. I'll escape them somehow, and disappear."

In tandem with his vow, he stepped forward with an air of finality, and turned back to Gaara from the other side of the gates. "Thank you, Gaara. I won't forget this."

Gaara smiled back, before saying seriously, "Just don't get yourself killed."

Naruto nodded, and with a last smile, he turned his back on the Kazekage, opting instead to face the wide, wide world before him. With a final wave over his shoulder, and a promise to repay the favour one day, Naruto disappeared with the wind, Shunshin-ing from Gaara's sight.

Gaara was left standing at the gates to his village for a long time, lost in thought. A while later, a shinobi approached and asked him if he was waiting for anything; after a moment, Gaara replied, "A sign."

...

That must've been weeks ago by now, Naruto mused, possibly months; he couldn't really remember. He slipped out of the lodgings at daybreak, leaving the paid bill on the front desk; he went silently, just as the sun was beginning to rise, so no attention was drawn to him. That's the way it'd been ever since he'd left Suna; quietly, stealthily, passing from one town to the next as a ghost.

He started taking missions as the miles between him and Gaara had lengthened; only small ones at first, trying hard not to attract any suspicious interest, but now his money was running thin, and small missions just weren't cutting it. He decided it was time to take it up a notch, and start moving towards the larger villages.

It was after he'd taken on a few of these larger missions that Naruto began to realise just what it mean to be a mercenary — expendable. Sometimes, more often than not in the larger towns and villages, he was given missions that were too risky for a village's shinobi, whether because of a possibility of war, or there were no other ninja to spare, or it was simply a dangerous, foolish mission. Still, the pay was good, so Naruto couldn't really complain when he returned successfully with his life (only just) intact.

It was after one such mission, given to him by a lesser-lord of the Lightening Country, that Naruto had a curious run in with a stranger.

The blonde cursed, for perhaps the fifth time in the last half hour, as he stumbled on another rock. Right now, Naruto was the furthest North that he had ever been, and he hated it. The highlands of the Lightening Country were a mountainous region, and the paths through it were twisting, hazardous, and scattered upon the foothills of the mountains; that meant rocks, lop-sided paths, steep slopes, more rocks, and unsteady cliff faces with plant-obscured warning signs.

Naruto cursed again and he tripped and twisted his ankle. With a cry of exhaustion, irritation, and pain, he flopped to the dusty ground. "Kuso! Damn you to hell!" He didn't really have anyone to blame, but yelling seemed to lessen the throbbing in his ankle.

After a minute, the pain seemed to disappear, and Naruto hopped to his feet. However, the pain shot back as soon as his injured foot took any weight, and the Jinchuuriki toppled over with a flailing arm and a string of curses. Flat on his back, staring up at the blue sky, Naruto sighed grumpily. There was a rock digging into his back.

Twisting an arm beneath his frame, he pulled out the offending sediment. "I hate you," he said to the rock. Weirdly, though, the rock replied.

"I should hope not!" The rock said. "We've only just met!"

Naruto gaped, and raised an eyebrow. "Huh?" He shook the rock disbelievingly, and there came a low chuckle. Into his line of view appeared a young man, smiling humorously as he bent over Naruto's flopped form.

"You must've been out here a while if you think that rock was speaking," the youth said, holding out his hand for Naruto to take. Naruto obliged, and was pulled securely to his feet. He scratched his head sheepishly.

The stranger smiled warmly, holding out a hand for Naruto to shake. Naruto took the offered gesture and returned it; the young man's grip was firm and secure, his hands slightly calloused from wear.

"My name's Hitoshi," he greeted, jabbing an indicating thumb to his chest.

The blonde mercenary grinned in return, replying in kind, "I'm Naruto! Good to meet you!"

"I should say so." Hitoshi laughed, "If you're looking for the nearest town, you're going in the completely wrong direction!"

Naruto blinked, gazing round the mountain path. "I am?"

"Yeah," the youth grinned, "up!"

"Dammit!" Naruto glanced round at a loss, scratching his head. "I thought this path was getting steeper."

Hitoshi smiled, and turned back the way Naruto had come. "Come on," he said, "I'll show you the way to the nearest town."

That was how, a while later, Naruto found himself wandering down the streets of a small town, located at the base of the mountains. He and Hitoshi walked side by side, the latter pointing out things of interest. Naruto nodded along, happily listening to what the other man was saying.

Eventually, they stopped outside a small café, and bought some drinks. Sitting down at an outside table, Hitoshi brought a map out of his inside pocket, and laid it smoothly on the table's surface.

"You," he said, "are here," and tapped the small settlement sign with his index finger. Naruto nodded, listening intently. Hitoshi carried on, "If you're wanting to head back to Kumo, the quickest route would be to head along this road here; it's a well known path as its various branches connect Kumogakure to many important places."

"Like what," Naruto asked, intrigued.

Hitoshi moved his finger. "Like here, this large estate belongs to one of Lightning's Feudal Lords. It's only slightly off road from this main path."

"I see," Naruto said, following the path's branches across the page with his eyes. As he did, something caught his attention. "Hey, what's that?" He jabbed his finger softly at a large estate, bordered off and isolated from the rest of the country. It was a few miles south of where they were, and removed a long way from Kumogakure's reach, over the other side of the Lightning Country.

Hitoshi gave a small smirk. "Ah," he said, "that place is actually not part of the Lightning Country."

"It's not?" Naruto blinked.

"No. It's a standalone; it uses the Lightning Country and Kumogakure's presence for protection, but it really has its own jurisdiction."

"Really?" Naruto asked. "What is it for?"

Hitoshi smiled knowingly. "It's a small village of its own, set apart from the control of every other country. It has to be, because it handles business that's outside of the shinobi villages' authority. We call it the Central Admissions Office."

Naruto cocked his head to the side, impressed. "You know a lot about it, Hitoshi-san." But then Naruto frowned. "I can't remember where, but I think I've actually heard that name before."

Hitoshi nodded. "You may well have, if you've come from a shinobi village. We handle all the paperwork for mercenaries and other unpinned ninja. We take in status reports from every village, and catalogue the number of mercenary missions a village has taken that month, as well as filing the mission's success or fail, along with details, into a folder on each mercenary."

Naruto blinked. And then blinked again. "You have a folder on me?"

Hitoshi began to laugh. "If you're a mercenary, then yes! Only, we don't keep folders by name, only number. Security, you know."

Naruto nodded slowly. "I see…"

"You must be a fresh one, though, ne?" Hitoshi carried on kindly, "Because, no offense, but you don't seem to know your way around a country yet."

Naruto laughed awkwardly, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "Well, yeah. It's that obvious?"

"Just a tad," Hitoshi chuckled. "So, you've only been taking the smaller missions so far?"

"Yeah."

"No assassinations, then?"

Naruto shifted in his seat awkwardly. "No, not exactly."

Hitoshi nodded sympathetically, guessing correctly that Naruto had killed before. "I see." A small silence fell before, Hitoshi leaned in. "You seem like a good guy," he said, "and I don't know how you came to be a mercenary, but I'm going to help you out."

Naruto straightened in his chair. "How?"

Hitoshi grinned. "Working in the AO, I know every village's mission status. Therefore, I know which are the best to hit." Naruto raised an eyebrow, interested. Hitoshi carried on, "Take, for instance, Kumo. They're taking on a lot of missions at the moment, left right and centre; but not many mercenaries. For you, that's not going to be a good place to start reeling in the big fish."

Naruto nodded, understanding. "So, if I'm going to start—" he paused, rolling the next words round his tongue. "Reeling in the big fish—" Hitoshi laughed. "—to get experience, Kumo's not going to be the place I start."

The other man nodded. "Exactly. They've already got enough shinobi to handle it all."

"So where?" Naruto asked, completely at a loss, his plan of finding missions in Kumo shot.

Hitoshi smiled. "Now, see, I know that Iwa, on the other hand, aren't taking on many missions. They're short of shinobi right now; it's just the damn Tsuchikage is too proud to start appealing for mercenary aid. Still, no Kage in their right mind would turn down an offer of help if the… opportunity presented itself to them."

Naruto nodded thoughtfully. "So, Iwa?"

"Iwa."

Naruto grinned. "Alright! That's a plan!"

Hitoshi laughed. They sat like that for a while more, and they talked about this and that, and the missions that Naruto had had to do since he first started working his new way of life. After a short while, though, Hitoshi stood.

"I should get going," he said. "New reports aren't going to file themselves." He held out his hand for the Jinchuuriki to take. "Good luck."

Naruto stood as well, and started to fold the map and give it to him, but Hitoshi stopped him. "Keep it," he said, smiling. "So you don't get lost on your way out of Lightning."

Naruto grinned, chuckling. "Great. Thanks."

"Oh," Hitoshi said, "Take this. If you ever need a hand when you're in the vicinity, drop me a line."

Naruto looked at what he had been handed. It was a business card, an address scrawled hastily on the back. Naruto smiled, and thanked him again. They parted ways soon after that, and Naruto was once again left alone, but this time he knew exactly where he was going.

Disclaimer: I Don't Own Naruto