Down the Untrodden Path Chapter Ten, a naruto fanfic

Note: No pairings. Alternate universe. Fluffy friendship. Lots of WAFF! You have been warned.

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Down The Untrodden Path
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Chapter Ten

Sasuke felt very tired.

Three years of aimless wandering, searching for a needle in a haystack, hiding from lawful eyes in the light of day, and fighting against assassins in the darkness of the night had certainly been no easy task. He was reluctant to admit it even to himself, but this long mission had tired him down so much, he did not know how to go on anymore.

That man /had/ warned Sasuke that the mission would not be a bed of roses. Set out the terms and conditions, so to speak, before Sasuke on that fateful night. And ultimately, Sasuke had been the one to accept the mission. It had started with the theft of the Sword of Jewels, after which Sasuke knew there was no turning back. He knew he would face up with enemies and challenges beyond his wildest imagination, and he was not disappointed in that aspect. There was just one final term in the contract he had to fulfill to be a free man again. One last condition to freedom.

He had to find the Prince. And now, just a few days before the coronation of the monarch that was not his, he had found his prince. Not quite the prince he had been expecting to find, but he had found him all the same. Even if he was not around, Kakashi would be more than happy to bring the Prince back to the Palace.

So this should mean that he was free.

This should mean that he was finally free, right?

But.

Free from what?

All his life, he looked forward to this one moment. When he would finally fulfill his commission and be free once more. But little did he know, that this mission would become his life. It became the reason he breathed, walked, lived. So if he was free from it, did it mean that he was to give up living as well? Not that he minded. His body was already hurting all over from the many pains suffered through the years. It would be nice to be able to feel no more pain at all. But there was something else that did not fit in. There was something else he was forgetting.

It had something to do with that man. That man who gave him this mission.

/And after you complete your mission, Sasuke/ the voice was clear in his mind, as if he had just heard the instructions yesterday/come home./

"...come home..." Sasuke repeated to himself. "...home..." This certainly sounded new. Suddenly, he could see himself and that man, standing in the backyard of the Palace. That man was talking, and he was listening, young and bright-eyed with wonder and awe. Come to think of it, he did quite miss training in the Palace backyards, where the Uchiha patrolled frequently. If he was still welcomed back, then he supposed it was worth a try to stay alive for a little while more. Just to see how things worked out.

And so he did.

Sasuke opened his eyes.

The ceiling disorientated him slightly, before he realised he was lying on a soft, comfortable bed. He was also feeling physically better than he had been the last time he was awake, and he felt strangely clean. He sat up to examine himself. It was then that he noticed he had been bandaged. Not just at the spot where he had taken the arrow for Naruto, but at the other areas where he had been hurt before as well. He stroked a particular huge wad of bandage curled around his midriff absently, wondering how anybody could have seen through that Genjutsu. Before he could come up with an answer, shouts and screeches from outside the window of the empty room attracted his attention.

Deciding that he had nothing better to do anyway, he tossed the covers off himself and walked slowly to the window. With a hand on the sill, he glanced out. This particular window overlooked the backyard of the building, where there was a small garden with a pond in one dark corner. Wild grass grew everywhere else. Except for a small pavilion and a pathway from the building that led there, there was no other man made object in sight. The yard itself was not very big, which explained why Sasuke caught sight of the source of the noise immediately.

It was Naruto. And he was practicing strokes with a large, unfamiliar looking sword.

Kakashi stood beside Naruto, somewhat hidden by the darkness. He had a watchful eye on every twist and turn the blond made. Occasionally he made a comment that was nothing more than a plain statement, for Sasuke could not hear it from where he was, one storey up. He could tell that Naruto hung on to every word the chief constable spoke like it was a lifeline though, for he would nod incessantly and continue with a new set of moves.

Sasuke just kept staring. He had no idea what to make of this strange scene.

"Sasuke!" A strangled cry noted him to the fact that someone had just entered the room. He vaguely wondered to himself why he had not felt anyone coming in at all. Turning around quickly and getting into a defensive pose, he saw that it was just an angry looking Iruka, so he relaxed slightly. As soon as he did, however, he tensed again. An angry looking Iruka, he reasoned, was almost as lethal as a very determined assassin. He had to tread carefully, lest he be slayed suddenly.

Iruka slithered forward, brows furrowed. "What are you doing out of bed so soon?" He pointed at the bandages on Sasuke, some of which had growing smudges of blood on them. "Look! You're reopening the wounds! It wasn't easy for us to dispel that illusion to tend to you, you know!"

Sasuke took a step back. "/You/ dispelled the Genjutsu on me?" He sounded surprised.

"It was Kakashi-san who did," Iruka clarified, waving his hands about dismissively. "Does it matter who did?" His countenance became sterner than ever. "Now young man, sit down and explain to me why you have such a powerful Genjutsu cast on you, or you'll never be hearing the end of it from me!" He roared, and pointed to a stool by the windowside.

Sasuke gulped, inexplicably frightened. He sat down on the stool almost instinctively, staring wide-eyed at Iruka all the time. "Someone put the Genjutsu on me so that I can mislead Orochimaru's men into thinking I heal faster than normal." He started to blabber, not knowing why. "It's kept me alive from pursuers for all these years."

Iruka scrutinised his face, as if trying to discern if he was telling the truth or lying. Eventually, he gave a tired sigh. Walking up to Sasuke, he put a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder. Sasuke resisted the urge to swat the hand away, knowing it was not supposed to be threatening. "Sasuke," Iruka began, mildly but firmly, "there is a limit to how much injuries a human body can sustain. If they had brought you in for treatment any later, you would have slipped into a coma and even the best doctor in the world would have been helpless to try to nurse you back to health."

Sasuke looked away, out of the window. "It's not like I /asked/ to have constables and assassins on my case," he mumbled.

"Yes, but you could have treated your older injuries before they got so badly infected," Iruka pointed out. "Do you /know/ how long it takes to clean puss out from a sore wound?"

Sasuke looked blankly at Iruka. Evidently he did not know. "But I'm alive, and I don't feel too bad," the boy shrugged, making Iruka remove his hand from his shoulder. "As long as I can still go on, I don't have time to care about wounds I can't see." His eyes narrowed slightly. "...and what is the idiot doing out there at this time of the night anyway?" He looked at Iruka, then out of the window, to where Naruto and Kakashi had paused in practicing to discuss about something.

Iruka strolled over and took a glance out as well. Then he smiled resignatedly. "Well, Kakashi-san's giving Naruto special training before he sets off, so Naruto's making the most of it." He looked at the increasingly confused Sasuke. "It's not everyday he can train in the backyard with Kakashi without getting scolded by me, after all!"

"Where is he going?" Sasuke quipped, a small spark of hope flaring up within him. Iruka smiled warmly at him.

"He's going home, Sasuke," the royal tutor pat the boy on his head fondly. And Sasuke was too bowled over by the import of those words to resist. "He's going back to where he should be."

For a while Sasuke simply stared in disbelief at the tutor. Then he opened his mouth, his voice small. "Really?" He asked, as if fearing that if he were to speak any louder, he would be roused from this pleasant dream. "He's going to return to the Palace?"

"I would think that the fact that he's been practicing with the Sword of Jewels would testify to that," Iruka tilted his head out to prompt Sasuke about the scene outside the window. The Uchiha gazed outside, noticing that Naruto was indeed practicing with a sword he did not quite recognise. As the blond swung the weapon, and the blade caught the moonlight, however, recognition sank in. This was the same blade he had seen in the back alley that fateful day, when he first met Naruto.

Immediately, a lump formed in his throat. He did not know what to say or feel. After all, he had been intending to knock Naruto unconscious and drag him back to the Palace if need be. Who would have thought that the boy would suddenly have a change in heart? "What made him change his mind?" He could not help asking. He glanced tentatively at the guardian.

Iruka looked levelly at Sasuke. "I wouldn't know for sure." He laughed. "Wouldn't it be better for you to ask him about it yourself?" And that was the only thing he would say in reply.

Sasuke frowned slightly. He turned away. "Maybe," he muttered non-committedly, evidently still reeling mentally from the impact of the situation. He leaned against the window sill, observing Naruto as he practiced. Iruka almost laughed again. The young Uchiha certainly needed to learn how to be more honest with himself.

"Sasuke," Iruka was smiling, but he meant grave business. "Now that you're awake, I guess I should at least ask you to make sure." He paused, and Sasuke turned from the window to glance at him questioningly. Iruka took a deep breath. "Will you accompany Naruto on his journey home, just to help me see if he behaves himself?"

Sasuke took less than a split second to consider that. "Hah!" He snorted, turning his head in another direction. "I bet the moron doesn't even know where the Palace is! Of course I'm going with him...!" His bold declaration had a detrimental effect on the wound he had just received, and he exploded into a series of coughing and hackling. Trying to catch his breath, he leaned his head against the window, looking out again at the same time. As his gaze fell upon the hard-at-work Naruto once more, questions began to form in his mind. "Iruka-sensei," he began, when he felt well enough. "You're not coming along with us, are you?"

"No," Iruka smiled. He said nothing else.

A long silence passed.

"You're hiding something," Sasuke observed coolly. He also observed that Naruto had swung the Sword too forcefully and crashed into a tree. Kakashi stood to a side and looked amused. "What are you hiding?"

A pause.

"When someone is trying to hide something, it usually means that he has no desire to let anybody know what he is hiding," Iruka replied, voice equally cool and slightly patronising. Sasuke scoffed.

"Not when it concerns the Prince and his return to the Palace," the boy turned his head slightly to look at Iruka, who was looking upon his feet, bothered by something. They remained like this, each staring at one thing and thinking about another, for a while. Sasuke eventually found his chin back on the window sill. "It's okay, sensei," he mumbled. "We all have our secrets." He let his hands dangle out to feel the cool breeze. "Not that I think that it's ever going to happen, but..." his voice turned serious. "...if you're keeping any secrets that will bring harm to the Naruto, then-"

"If I ever do have such a secret," Iruka's smile was wide, "you can be sure that I would sooner leap into the sea bound and shackled first, than to let it harm Naruto in any way."

"...thought so..." Sasuke slacked, then yawned. "That little moron's a lot more suitable to lead than he gives himself credit for..."

Iruka could feel his eyebrows rising and falling in semi-exasperation. "Sasuke," he began, trying to be cautious, "do you really think you should call your future ruler names like that?"

Sasuke's immediately reply was to snicker loudly. "No matter how well he can fight or how suitable he is to rule, idiots will always be idiots."

"I HEARD THAT SASUKE!"

"Good," Sasuke waved lazily at the raging Naruto, who was jumping up and down on the grass downstairs. His face was turning many interesting shades of red. Steam seemed to pour out from his ears. "You were supposed to, moron," Sasuke continued without let-up.

Naruto leapt about once more, then pointed the Sword at Sasuke. "Damn you!" He swore in a fit of rage.

Then a bolt of stunning white energy shot out from the blade into the skies. Everyone was taken aback at the sudden development. Even Naruto fell to the ground, gaping. They all watched until the bolt of energy pierced through the clouds and vanished into the night sky, twinkling as if it were a star.

"I didn't do that," Naruto declared, sounding a little out of it.

"We can all see that, dead-last," Sasuke concurred.

"HEY!" Naruto immediately got onto his feet and was ready to shout his reply back.

"Children, children," Kakashi, however, got ahead of either boy, waving his hands about in an attempt to diffuse the situation. "You can fight all you want once day breaks tomorrow, but in the meantime, can we concentrate on the task on hand first?" He smiled.

"But he called me an idiot!" Naruto relentlessly pressed on, pointing up at the nonchalant Sasuke.

"Well, would you rather he call you darling?" Kakashi asked, very calmly.

A cold, cold gust of wind swept through the backyard, curling up into the room where Sasuke and Iruka were in.

"No," Naruto's voice was cold as well. He was shivering. "No, thank you." He firmly stated.

"Then get the hell back to whatever you both should be doing before setting off for the Palace!" The constable commanded authoratively, all traces of playfulness evaporated. "Look at you both! Squabbling like little pigs headed for slaughter! If you can't even compromise on small issues like these, how are you going to be able to face Orochimaru and the royal council?"

For a while, the air stilled. Neither Naruto nor Sasuke had considered about the gravity of the matter until Kakashi brought it up. Now, they both hung their heads low in shame.

As usual, it was Naruto who spoke up first. "All right, all right," he sounded complaining, but there was a determined look on his face. "I get it already!"

"Good," Kakashi's eye became an upturned U, to indicate his gladness about both his student's ability to catch on. "Then let's restart our trai-"

"Okay, Sasuke!" Naruto's shout drowned out whatever else Kakashi had intended to say. He pointed at the window sill where the nonchalant Sasuke was slumped over. "You can call me 'darling', if it can get you to stop calling me names!"

The silence that next occurred was unprecedented and would never again be heard.

"But only when we're alone or others'll start getting ideas!" The blond continued, proud of his solution and blissfully oblivious to the turmoil he was stirring up within the others.

Kakashi had walked over to a tree and was now clutching his sides, trying hard not to laugh out loud. Iruka sighed, too familiar with Naruto's sudden and uncharacteristic outbursts to be surprised anymore. Only Sasuke remained outwardly calm and composed throughout the entire ordeal.

That is, until he uprooted a nearby chair and tossed it out of the window, straight at the grinning Naruto.

The night ended with the blond's yowl of pain. And Kakashi's uncontrollable laughter.

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7/2/2005
tougenkyou . net / xd

many thanks for all your support and kind words:3 glad to know that there are fans of the friendship fluff type in the naruto fandom after all! XDD i do not stand alone!