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Chapter 25: Kyuubi festival

10th of October

The moon was out, a full one, lighting up their bedroom, and everything was silent.

Sasuke turned over, closer to the edge of the bed, pulling the covers closer to his chest.

"GAAAAAH!"

Sasuke actually fell out of the bed, and looked around him in shock, trying to find the reason for the scream as all kinds of things went through his mind. Had they been attacked? Was the fox doing things with Naruto again? He knew that couldn't be true, but at such a moment everything crosses your mind.

He peered over the edge of the bed, his red eyes scanning it.

Naruto sat upright and was holding his left shoulder, shaking.

"Naruto, are you-?"

The door opened and Akira came inside, rubbing his eyes. "What was that?"

"Graah!"

"Naruto?" Akira asked concerned, backing away a bit.

Sasuke climbed up the bed next to Naruto, and pulled him against his chest.

"It's his arm again," Sasuke told Akira.

"Ghgg."

"O-okay." Akira stayed standing in the door, watching Naruto and his father.

Sasuke pulled up the sleeve of Naruto's t-shirt to reveal a complete shoulder and a piece of arm. Naruto now had a complete armpit again, and measured from that he had about 5 centimetres of arm. It was a bit uneven as it was growing again.

Akira could actually see the bone growing, muscles slowly growing, building itself up; blood vessels making their way through the flesh and the skin, tightly wrapping itself around it. He'd never seen anything like it, and strangely he wasn't repulsed by it, but instead fascinated as he remembered what Shizune and Sakura had taught him about the body.

Naruto groaned and grasped the painful stump of arm. "Aah."

"You better get back to bed," Sasuke told Akira, and Akira looked at him before he nodded. He turned around and went back to his own room.

Naruto pushed Sasuke away and moved to the edge of the bed.

"Can I help you?"

"Ghg," was all Naruto could manage for the moment as pain shot up from his arm through his spine.

"I'll get you something to eat," he said as he noticed Naruto's growing fangs and oval pupils in his clear, but pain filled eyes.

When Sasuke was downstairs, his growing arm began bleeding and was rapidly dripping blood on the sheets. He pulled back his sleeve over his arm, and instead that began to get red. The newly forming muscles cramped up and then loosened. This went on along with the bone growing, which was sticking out again by at least 2 centimetres. You could actually see very clearly how hollow it was, and that it actually was just a very dense shell so to say.

The fresh growing tight skin was a bit redder than his normal skin colour, but just as the skin on his shoulder, which had been this red as well, it would regain his own tan colour, as if it had always been like that.

The only thing reminding of the cut off arm was the scar that went all around his shoulder on the place it had been cut off.

Sasuke came back, but Naruto couldn't even begin to think about eating the baked meat as he cramped up in pain again. He thought the food would only get out again if he ate now. First the growing needed to stop, and that was until the flesh had reached up till the bone as Naruto had come to know over the last days.

Sasuke placed the plate on the nightstand and sat down beside Naruto again.

"J-just lay-lay down." Naruto wanted him to go back to sleep, but knew he wouldn't be able to, so lying down was fine.

Sasuke nodded and lay back. Slowly Naruto lay back too, rolling up on his side. Sasuke folded his arms around Naruto and hugged him from behind, laying his forehead against the back of Naruto's head.

"Ghggg."

-x-

In the morning Naruto woke up, lying on Sasuke's chest as he was staring at him.

"Ohayo," Sasuke said when Naruto turned his head to him.

"Hm," Naruto moaned and closed his eyes again. Sasuke knew he hadn't slept a lot because of the pain, and it had actually taken quite a while before the growing had finally stopped.

Sasuke would have let Naruto stay in bed as long as he wanted, especially on his birthday, but this was also the day the Treasure Hunter would probably come to claim his treasure back.

So when Sasuke had finally been able to get Naruto out and get dressed, it was a rather weird view seeing him sitting at the kitchen table like a zombie.

Akira was happily singing 'Happy birthday' to Naruto, and Sasuke saw Naruto was really trying to listen and smile.

"Happy birthday to you!" Akira finished and Sasuke clapped as Naruto seemed to lack that kind of enthusiasm right now.

"Thank you Akira-kun."

"Do we have a cake?"

"Er…" Naruto rubbed his eyes.

"Are you feeling not so good?" Akira asked softly, thinking he might have a headache.

"No," Naruto grunted.

"Hm, Akira, let him be for a while. He'll be fine," Sasuke ruffled his hair.

"Okay… tou-cha~n." He tried to get Sasuke's hand out of his hair and Sasuke grinned.

"So, what shall be do all day? You have any interesting games in mind, Akira?" Sasuke asked.

"To the festival!"

"We can't, we told you yesterday."

"What? Why not?" Akira pouted.

"Because…" Sasuke looked over to Naruto. "Naruto isn't very good friends with the Kyuubi." Sasuke had no idea what to say, and this was all he could come up with right now. He couldn't tell Akira he might be a target.

"But why can't we go? I promised Akane-chan we would go."

"I'm sorry, but we have to stay at home. It's Naruto's birthday, he doesn't want to go out."

Naruto grunted a confirmation.

"But…" Akira looked from Sasuke to Naruto and back. "But… I promised," he pouted.

"Akane will understand."

Akira sulked for a bit longer; he had never been to the festival and had looked forward to it.

"It's probably very boring anyway," Naruto told him as he sat on the couch, looking a bit more alive.

"Is it?"

"I don't know, I've never been to the festival. Only once when I was younger, and I definitely didn't like it back then." Naruto rubbed his face.

And so it was that Akira was sulking for quite a while. Only until Sasuke came told him he would like to look for some animals in the garden, Akira had soon forgotten everything about the festival.

"You know those shiny beetles, with big horns?" Akira indicated horns with his arms.

"Yes, I do."

"They are really beautiful and shiny! I really like those, they are my favourite animal. Along with cats," he smiled.

"I like cats too," Sasuke said softly.

"REALLY?" Akira was a bit too excited about that piece of information from his father, but he always liked it when he had something in common with him. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the high sound, and in the living room Naruto was suddenly sitting straight up, definitely awake now.

"Uh, yes. The Uchiha's had some connections with cats that-"

"Wow." Akira kept wow-ing and be amazed as Sasuke told him all this.

Naruto stood up from the couch and came outside as well, he wanted to do something. So he sat down beside Sasuke and Akira as they were talking about the cats, and started de-weeding the garden.

"Look Akira-kun, a love bug." Naruto held up the weed he had just picked, and showed it to Akira.

Akira turned away from the tree he had been looking at, to look at Naruto's finding. "O~h."

Naruto grinned and yawned.

"Are you still tired?" Akira asked him softly.

"It's okay."

Sasuke stood up to sit somewhere else, but Akira took his action for something else. "Tea-time!" he said as he ran past Sasuke into the house to help Sasuke with making the tea.

"Er..."

Naruto laughed. "I think he wants tea." Naruto yawned again and leaned against the tree he was sitting aside. "Go on, before he comes back to fetch you."

"Tou-cha~n!" it sounded from the kitchen. Naruto smiled at Sasuke in an I-told-you-so manner.

"Coming." Sasuke gave Naruto another look, and then turned to the house to help Akira with warming the water.

-x-

Sasuke came walking to him and hunched down in front of him. "I like cats," he said and a cat tail swirled behind him.

"What?" Naruto looked at the tail and had no idea of what to say.

"Come on, Naruto. You know I like them," Sasuke held out his paw to Naruto.

All Naruto could do was stare at it. Two cat ears wiggled on his head and his yellow eyes looked at him.

"Naruto, come and dance with me, nyaa."

"What?"

Sasuke leaned closer, making their noses touch, and Sasuke started purring.

"Purr with me, Naruto." He kissed him and licked his face, in a manner much like cats do to each other.

"Sa-sasuke?"

Sasuke wrapped his tail around Naruto so he couldn't get away.

"Naruto? Why don't you purr, nyaa?"

"Because beetles are better." Akira came from behind Sasuke, giant horns on his head, and his hair was shining just like the horns.

"At least I can crush things." He held up three walnuts in his hand.

"That's just stupid, nyaa." Sasuke pushed Akira aside. "Come on, Naruto, let's dance." He held out his paw to Naruto again.

Akira stood up, walked over to Sasuke, and tried to push him over. "You're stupid; whoever has paws? They have no use!"

Sasuke pushed Akira away again, still holding out his paw to Naruto. "Naruto, come on?"

"What-?"

"Naruto!"

Naruto sat upright and almost hit Sasuke's head.

"Eh?" Naruto asked confused as he looked Sasuke over. He was hunching in front of him; no tail or paws. He sighed in relief.

"Naruto, Akira has run away," Sasuke said concerned and slightly angry.

"What?"

"You fell asleep in the garden when we were making tea, and Akira said it was better to let you rest. I would wake you up when we finished drinking our tea, but Akira had to go to the toilet. He ran away."

"You didn't notice?"

"He tricked me. He was planning this all along." Sasuke looked really concerned by now. "We have to find him!"

Naruto could feel the emotions running trough Sasuke now, he was feeling them himself as well now. Akira was smart and could fight a little, but he could never handle real ninja's. What if he ran into one of those Hunter ninja's? He had no idea they were after him or what for. Even if they asked him he wouldn't be able to answer to their liking. Or what if Akane got involved?

"Let's go then, I'll go in the direction of Kurenai-sensei's apartment."

"I'll go directly to the festival."

Sasuke helped Naruto up and they quickly ran to the street. "I never thought he would do something like this," Sasuke said sadly. Naruto felt his disappointment and confusion.

"He's just too smart, and he really wanted to go. How can a kid outsmart us?"

They split up.

Naruto stopped in front of Kurenai's apartment. He ran up the wall and stopped at her window, looking inside. He activated his sage-mode, and tried to sense Akira's chakra inside, but found no chakra at all. Then he turned around and tried to locate Akira's chakra on the streets of the festival.

There were so many chakra patterns Naruto actually got dizzy and almost fell off the wall. There were just so many on one single spot that he couldn't separate them. The streets must be tremendously crowded.

He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When he opened them again he looked up to the busy streets, and then he followed the shortest route to the festival. Perhaps Akira had done this as well, but he didn't see Akira on his way.

He pushed people out of the way as he searched in the crowd. His focus was on Akira, but if he found any sign of Kurenai or Akane, he had a good chance of finding Akira as well. Akira and Akane had probably promised to meet somewhere at a certain time.

Naruto looked around for recognizable points on the streets where one could meet.

Sasuke was right; he'd never thought Akira would do something like this. He was always so polite and listened to everything Sasuke told him, but Naruto hadn't noticed (and probably Sasuke hadn't either) how badly he'd wanted to go to the festival, or perhaps just to Akane.

Then Naruto remembered that night when Akira had had a nightmare and had come into their bedroom. He had said to the boy himself, 'A man is no man if he can't keep his promises'.

He sighed. "Shit."

Naruto jumped unnoticeable up to a roof and looked over the crowd. He tried to listen for anything, but there were a lot of sounds, almost driving him crazy as he tried to focus only on Akira's voice. Smelling him wasn't much better as there were a lot of smells, and he didn't have Kiba's range of smell or precision.

As he looked around, he didn't see any small boys with black hair like Sasuke's. Plus if he was so small he could easily be pushed out of sight by the crowd. He could stand in between them without Naruto seeing him.

"Where would you meet, Akira-kun?"

-o-o-o-

Sasuke had no idea where Akira would probably want to meet Akane, except for places close to playgrounds and parks where they played together, so Sasuke searched those first.

Those places were relatively quiet and easy to oversee, but he didn't see his son.

"Akira?" Sasuke called, just in case he was hiding under a bush or something.

Akira had no idea what kind of danger he was in, and Sasuke was really worried. He knew ANBU were stationed all around the festival, but that didn't mean that nothing would happen. It was crowded and a lot of parents were there with their children. A ninja could just drag Akira away without anyone saying something about it, just thinking it was a stubborn child or something.

He quickly went to the next park in range and hunched down in a tree so he had a good view around. No Akira either; nor Kurenai or Akane.

Akira? Where are you?

Calm down, Sasuke told himself. Calm down, you will not find him if you panic.

When Naruto was gone things were different. He missed him so much, he was worried and concerned, yes, but not like this, because he knew Naruto could take care of himself. Because Naruto was strong and could handle a lot, and no one could get him down just like that. It had been very hard going to bed all alone, waking up without him, being around Akira all day without Naruto joking around or snuggling into his chest.

But this was different, he was actually scared. Afraid of what might happen to his son. He'd never thought he was this close to the boy, but they had grown together a lot in the almost 5 months they were together. He wanted to protect him and make sure he was alright.

Perhaps he should have shown some more affection to him? Perhaps Akira didn't know how much he loved the boy? What if-?

Sasuke sighed as again he could not find Akira at the last playground.

No, 'what if's... focus!

-o-o-o-

Naruto was pushing his way through the crowd, searching along the street, where a lot of people stood. Perhaps Akira was here, wanting to see the -whatever these people were waiting for- and as a child he would have been able to get very near the street.

Naruto's ears turned around into every direction, trying to get even the slightest hint of Akira.

I so hope he's not afraid. Naruto remembered the one and only time he'd been to the festival. He'd been around the same age as Akira. Adults were standing over him, all very tall and threatening looking, and he was lost, he couldn't find his way back. Angry voices barking at him and whispering, those stares and-

Akira wasn't hated; he could ask where he was and get an honest and kind answer. Perhaps he was already with a nice lady who was helping him find Kurenai, thinking he had lost his mother.

"Look out!"

Naruto turned around, trying to see what was wrong.

"Oh, no! It is the Kyuubi!"

-o-o-o-

Sasuke ran down the street closer to the main event. He remembered when he'd been young and had gone to the festival with his family. He'd been very excited of what was about to happen. The parade of cars with giant animals and other sculptures had been beautiful and so very huge to him. He'd been looking forward to the festival as well back then, just like Akira now, but Sasuke doubted Akira had been properly informed of what would happen on the festival. He had no idea how many people would be there.

Akira had grown up in a small village where there were no big festivals like this one. He could get lost so easily, not recognizing where he was. He hadn't been to these streets very often. Would he know where he was? Where would they meet?

Sasuke's mind just kept repeating itself over and over. He halted and looked over the crowd. As tall as he was he could easily look over all the heads. This was not a street where they would meet, Sasuke thought, because Akira had never been here. He ran to the next street around a building, and came closer to the main street where everything happened.

His eyes scanned everywhere and everything, and then his mind came up with the most likely meeting spot. He immediately turned into that direction and sprinted to it. Close to a groceries store there was a small fountain Akira and Akane were fond off. They always wanted to go there when they were walking around town.

When he arrived there, his disappointment couldn't be bigger when he found no one even near the fountain. He couldn't even ask around if people had seen Akira.

"Perhaps..." Sasuke closed his eyes sadly.

-o-o-o-

"Oh, no! It is the Kyuubi!"

Naruto stiffened. Had they seen his ears and tail? Were the villagers mad he was here?

"But look, we are safe, for there is our greatest hero... Yondaime Hokage!"

"Eh?" Naruto turned to the street, and saw a villager dressed up as the Yondaime, with an obvious blond wig and an actual hero-like cape around his shoulders. He was standing on a parade cart. On the ground around him were villagers dressed as farmers and ninja in a bit too exaggerated way, making everything look overly fake.

Naruto had never seen the parade before, so he hadn't thought of something like this to happen. The villagers were retelling the event... in their own way.

He shook his head and proceeded his search.

"Don't you worry, my dear villagers, it is I, the great and awesome Yondaime Hokage, who shall save you from harm! I will slay this evil beast!" The voice sounded overly fake, as if the man was reading out loud. "I will kill the evil Kitsune with its many tails!"

Naruto couldn't help but snort. That just sounded ridiculous.

Then he suddenly stopped. That scent!

He turned back to the street and sniffed the air. He was close. That meant he was already in the village! Naruto pushed his way closer to the street. He could smell him much better now, that meant he was getting closer to him.

The blond looked around, trying to pick him out of the crowd while he almost stood on the street by now.

"I will cut each and every tail. I'll make him wish he had never come to attack our beautiful village of Konoha!"

Why couldn't he see him? Naruto went to stand on his toes, but it didn't help much. Someone tried to push him aside.

"Tell me, where is this evil fox, the Kyuubi no Youko?"

Naruto turned to his left. There! He pushed his way through the crowd.

"Great Hokage-sama, look over there! It is the monster! Kyuubi!"

Naruto reached forward, his hand close to the board of the man's vest. He missed and reached again, but he was pushed away. This time he lost his balance and stumbled onto the street.

Silence fell as everyone was looking at him in confusion. He stood probably on the exact spot where the fake Kyuubi had been meant to appear.

Naruto immediately flattened his ears and curled his tail between his legs. He looked up a little, and noticed everyone's attention was on him.

"This can't be good," he said softly. He turned to his right, seeing the fake Yondaime look at him with wide eyes and his mouth hanging open.

"Are you... Kyuubi?" the Yondaime actor asked, sounding very confused.

Naruto swallowed as he heard people mutter and whisper.

"Who's that?"

"It's him."

"What is he doing here?"

"This is no way to credit the boy for what he has done for us!"

"Is that a real tail, mommy?"

Naruto felt uncomfortable and didn't know what to do or say. He seemed to be frozen for a moment.

"Yondaime-sama!" A little girl came running to Naruto and hugged him before Naruto realized what was going on. "Yondaime-sama!"

"No, I'm not Yondaime," Naruto said as he tried to get the girl off him.

"I'm the Yondaime Hokage!" the actor said, looking a bit pissed toward Naruto.

"No!" the girl yelled at him and grabbed Naruto tighter, who began to look around a bit panicky. He needed to find Akira and get out of here. "Thank you, Yondaime-sama!" she yelled at him.

The young girl's mother came forward and smiled awkwardly to Naruto. "I'm so sorry," she said as she tried to get the girl off Naruto.

"Ahaha, don't worry." Naruto laughed uncomfortably. The girl really didn't want to let go, but eventually they were able to get her off, and the mother lifted her up, quickly walking away.

"I got to go now," Naruto waved to the fake Yondaime and grinned. He wanted to get out of here as fast as possible. As he was moving away his tail swished behind him and his ears went back up, so he could listen better again.

"Kyuubi!"

"O, oh." Naruto quickly sprinted away into the crowd. He didn't stop until he was hiding behind a dumpster in a deserted alley. That had been very scary somehow. Memories of his only time on the festival came back.

He hit the wall with his fist hard. "Shit. I almost had him."

-o-o-o-

Sasuke sat on a roof, studying the crowd with his Sharingan. The crowd was excitedly cheering to the parade and the obvious fake Yondaime.

And then everything became quiet, people started whispering. Sasuke looked down the street and saw...

Is that Naruto? Sasuke narrowed his eyes. From above, Sasuke saw the flat black ears between the yellow spikes.

If Sasuke hadn't known Naruto so well, he might have thought he wanted some attention, but that was not the case; certainly not today of all days.

"Naruto! Naruto!" Sasuke turned his head back so quick, he felt something snap in his neck, but he didn't care.

He saw Akira! He was jumping and waving, but not to Naruto; he was looking the other way. Before Sasuke could do anything Akira ran into the crowd, as he apparently thought he'd seen Naruto.

"Akira!" But Akira didn't hear him.

Quickly Sasuke jumped off the roof and landed in the crowd, earning him some shocked looks and a few angry ones as he pushed his way through the crowd.

"Akira!" He was so close now; he couldn't help but feel slightly relieved. His hands were sweaty, and he was nervous.

Who was Akira following?

-o-o-o-

"Are you alright?"

Naruto looked up to meet a single black eye looking down at him.

"Yes, I was just a little... startled."

Kakashi helped Naruto stand up, and Naruto dusted his pants off.

"Weren't you supposed to be at home with Sasuke and Akira-kun?"

"Akira-kun ran away." Kakashi's eye widened. "He really wanted to go to the festival; he'd promised Akane-chan."

"That's not good. I'll go inform the ANBU."

Naruto grasped Kakashi's shoulder before he could walk away, and gave him a serious look. "He's here already, the Treasure Hunter." Kakashi looked at him. "I smelled him, and I almost had him before I was pushed onto the street."

"Hm," Kakashi sighed.

Naruto walked past Kakashi back to the crowd to look for Akira. Kakashi vanished with a swirl of leaves.

Naruto tried to get back close to where he'd seen the Hunter, and tried to pick up his scent so he could follow it.

It took him quite a while, but finally he sniffed the air a bit further away from the crowd, when he found it again. Carefully he followed the trail, afraid he might accidentally lose it when he would go too fast.

Suddenly a second familiar smell joined the first one.

"That can't be good."

-o-o-o-

Sasuke ran towards the empty building as all trails led to this place. It was a few streets behind the festival and almost no one was around here.

Stealthily he walked around it, and found another way in through an open window. Inside he kept sticking to the walls while he slowly moved around in the building. It seemed like some sort of small fabric factory. In a big hall with all kinds of old weaving machinery, he finally found Akira again.

Akira was looking around, a bit afraid now seeing his shoulders were pulled up, and his eyes were scanning the area with quick movements.

"Naruto?" he asked softly into the big open space.

All Sasuke wanted to do was run to Akira and take him in his arms, away from here, but he knew better than that. He needed to know if this person disguised as Naruto was in fact trying to take Akira or get the information he wanted, or knew Sasuke was there as well and wanted to trap him.

He would be an easy target when running over to Akira.

"Naru-?" Akira started again when a shadow moved. He turned around and tried to make himself tall, showing he wasn't afraid, but his eyes betrayed his real emotions.

Sasuke moved closer as well, and suddenly saw Naruto coming from behind some big machine.

"Akira-kun, we were so worried!" He opened his arm to Akira, and Akira hesitantly got closer.

"Naruto? Why are we here?"

Naruto looked up confused. "What do you mean?"

"Why did you go here?" Akira held back a little, looking more afraid then before.

"I wanted you to be safe."

-o-o-o-

On his way to the building he'd found an ANBU, and together they sneaked into the building. They entered the big building and walked into a small hall. There he only saw a lot of smaller rooms.

The ANBU indicated his partner to split up, and Naruto nodded too when he noticed this. He'd told them that the smell of the Hunter had joined with another familiar smell, and later again with another. When those three had joined each other for almost 20 metres they had split up, but all seemed to come back here except for one; though Naruto wasn't sure.

His nose wasn't that great and he didn't use it that often; he wasn't trained to sniff out tracks.

He opened a door and looked into the small room, finding only more doors. This was a maze, not a building.

He sniffed around but found nothing, so he went on to the next room. When he opened the door of the seventh room he smelled something familiar. He walked into the room and sniffed the air. This was not one of those familiar scents.

Cautiously he slid towards another door and opened it. There was a man sitting in the room, his back to Naruto as he sat behind a table. The man sitting there didn't even notice he was there. Naruto could very easily walk up behind him. He wasn't wearing a hitai-ate or other sort of headband, and he had an awfully foul smell. Naruto tapped him on his shoulder, but was afraid of what would happen when he did this.

-o-o-o-

"Why do you have four whiskers?" Akira asked as he looked at Naruto.

Naruto touched his cheek and smiled. "Why? Can't I?"

"Naruto has three," Akira said softly as he backed away.

"You don't trust me?"

Akira shook his head, and Naruto came closer. His hand went for a small sword he had on his back, and Sasuke didn't care any longer if this was a trap or not. Naruto attacked Akira at the same time as Sasuke pushed off the wall.

The sword swung through the air and blood splattered.

"Akira!"

-o-o-o-

The man didn't move at all so Naruto moved around the man. The man slowly began sliding over and fell onto the ground. Naruto jumped aside, so the man wouldn't fall on top of him.

He was dead. A foreign kunai was sticking out of his chest and blood covered his front. His face showed he had been surprised by the attack.

Naruto bended over the man; he was some sort of beggar, probably sleeping inside of the deserted building they were in. He hadn't been dead for a long time, only for half an hour at most. The blood hadn't even dried up yet.

Naruto inspected the kunai, but didn't really recognize it. He hadn't even seen what kind of kunai those ninja of the Hunter used when he had been captured there. He had either been blindfolded or been in a berserker rage/ not in a right state of mind.

He pulled up his nose at the stench of the old beggar, and quickly moved away. He wouldn't find anything interesting here, so he tried to sniff out some other scent.

As he opened the only other door in the room, he picked it up. It was quite an easy scent to follow actually. He ran through rooms, doors and small hallways. This man didn't know the layout of the building either, because he was moving from one room to the next in a very irregular way, not in a manner of someone who knew his way around.

And then he stopped. The person he'd been following was on the other side of the next room. Naruto reached up to his neck where one of the two ANBU had tied a radio around his neck. He softly told the other ANBU he'd found someone, though he had no idea where he was, but that he'd left the doors open; leading to his location.

Then he turned the radio off and carefully opened the door. He knew who was inside, and he very much liked to hit this man very harshly on the head a couple of times (and that was Naruto being polite).

He didn't even try to be silent; the man was already facing him. His shoulder length hair almost hung into his eyes and a grin spread over his face.

"We meet again, fox-boy."

-o-o-o-

Sasuke held Akira tightly against his chest. "Are you all right?" he asked concerned.

"Tou-chan-" Akira said slowly as he reached for his cheek. A thin red line ran across it, and it was slowly bleeding. "I-I'm fine." He turned a bit away from Sasuke's chest so he could see the Naruto, and gasped.

The Naruto with four whiskers still held his small sword in his hands, but it had been stopped by Sasuke's right arm. Blood was rapidly dripping off Sasuke's arm as the sword had cut into his arm and was still stuck into the bone. Sasuke didn't even flinch at the pain or when blood dripped rapidly onto the ground.

The Naruto pulled his sword once, but it didn't give way, and Sasuke grunted very softly as it tugged at the bone in his arm. Another pull and it was free; Sasuke let his arm fall beside him.

"Tou-chan?" Akira asked as looked up scared.

"It's alright; otou-san can handle it." It was the first time Sasuke referred to himself as otou-san. It made Akira calm down somewhat. He nodded and kept close to Sasuke as his father stood up, grabbing his own katana with his left hand. It was a bit more difficult than with the right, but he'd practiced with both hands. This ninja would probably not notice the difference.

"You'll pay for what you did to my son!" Sasuke growled as his Sharingan spun in his eyes.

"Haha," the Naruto laughed uncomfortably. Then his expression changed and became harder and darker, "tell me where it is!" He looked up angry to Sasuke as he tried to ignore the Sharingan as much as possible.

Suddenly his appearance began changing and he became a brown, spiky haired ninja. On his headband was no symbol, but he did have a band around his arm with the curly initials T.H. and a diamond on the background.

Sasuke didn't respond and was about to attack. The ninja noticed this. "He has it, we know! We know the woman with him stole it!"

"He doesn't have it any longer." Sasuke turned Akira a bit away as the air became static.

"I wouldn't do anything if I were you." Sasuke ignored the man and a Chidori sounded as it covered his katana. "Kill them!" The brown haired man shouted in a bit of a panic.

Sasuke swung his katana and the end extended so the electricity cut the ninja right through his heart.

"Nobody will lay a finger on him!" he yelled to the dying man in front of him.

Sasuke turned around, keeping Akira close with his injured arm, as more ninja jumped to them. He began forming the Susano'o, hoping Akira wouldn't get rejected by it, but then a hard, high pinched sound made its way through the air, and both Akira and he fell to their knees, the Susano'o disappearing. Akira covered his ears with his hands.

"You think we would come to take on the Sharingan unprepared?"

Sasuke pushed Akira aside as a metal sphere with spikes landed at exactly that spot. Sasuke stood up, swayed, and tried to focus his chakra into his katana once more.

Kunai and shuuriken came hurling in their direction, but Sasuke countered them with his blade. Another ninja landed behind him, wanting to stab him with a kunai. Sasuke elbowed him with his injured arm.

"Tou-chan!" Akira screamed as he saw once again shuuriken coming to him, and he fell to the ground, covering his head.

Sasuke took in a breath as he saw the projectiles fly toward his son. Quickly he turned around, on his way to his son to deflect the approaching shuuriken, but two hands grabbed his painful right arm, and twisted it.

"Akira!"

-oXo-

I remember this was hard to write, I guess I'm not that great writing 'action' scenes :P But the plot told me to do so! ^^