Chapter 28: The Not So Great Escape
"In this very real world, good doesn't drive out evil. Evil doesn't drive out good. But the energetic displaces the passive."
~William Bernbach
Pain's eyes flicked between Itachi and Naruto as he appeared to calculate the situation. The woman Naruto had seen pushing his wheelchair before was beside him, her calm gaze watching, awaiting orders like a silent sentinel.
As the stand-off lengthened, Pain finally spoke.
"Itachi...What are you doing?"
A muscle in Itachi's jaw twitched almost imperceptibly.
"I'm taking Naruto out of here." He replied in a calm voice.
Naruto shot him a glare of shock and anger.
Way to stick to your story, Itachi. He thought. Now we're both dead.
He looked up with longing at the skylight as a hollow feeling sank in his stomach. So close to freedom.
"You would endanger…the entire operation?"
"I will stop the entire operation." replied Itachi. "Paradise is not a solution. I know you have your doubts as well, Pain. "
"And what would you recommend in its place?"
"Reality." Jumped in Naruto quickly, snapping his attention back to the corpse-like man before him. "A better one."
Pain's wizened lips quirked into a tired smile.
"There is no reality left for me, Naruto Uzumaki. Look at me." He gestured with a frail hand at his sunken body. "There is nothing left here but a shell."
Naruto frowned. "So you're telling me you have no friends, nothing left here that you care about, nothing left to live for?"
The woman beside him shifted slightly, and Pain sank back in his wheelchair, his bony fingers gripping the armrests.
"You haven't felt real pain, Naruto...Endless, cruel, unrelenting pain...It seeps into every orifice, fills your mind at every waking moment...It takes you over."
The man had a point. Despite the horrific things Naruto had experienced, it had never been without some respite, tiny breaks in the storm. He had even thought he was coming out the other side before these criminals tore it all away from him. And yet...
Anger boiled up in him. They were monsters, these so-called men. It boggled his mind how they could justify ending the world simply because it hadn't been enough for them.
He shook his head.
"Maybe I haven't felt what you feel, or gone through whatever shit it is you've been through. But I can tell you this. I won't go away and hide just because the world didn't become everything I wanted it to be. I will fight you with every last breath in my body. I will never give up the way you have."
Pain arched a single black brow. Small patches of skin were visible through the wiry hair where it had thinned.
"You think…I have given up?"
Naruto folded his arms.
"What else would you call it?"
Pain's cracked lips quirked into a half-smile.
"There was a time when I had the same fire you had, Naruto…a time when I was going to change the world."
Pain looked down at himself.
"You see the result."
He said nothing for a moment as he considered the young man in front of him. Then he gave a sad smile. "Perhaps you will have better luck than me…although I highly doubt it."
Pain gestured towards the woman next to him who lowered her gun.
"I'll give you a chance. See if you can prove me wrong…Naruto Uzumaki."
Naruto hesitated and looked uncertainly at Itachi, who took hold of his arm.
"He will have help, Pain." He said before guiding Naruto away from the two Akatsuki and out of the warehouse.
They reached the other side of the building without a problem, threading in and out amongst the machinery that towered well over twice Naruto's size. Perhaps because it was night or to keep a cover of normalcy, there wasn't as much security topside.
"This way." said Itachi disappearing behind some crates.
"Wait up."
Naruto ran after him, but Itachi was fast. He could barely keep him in sight through the maze of storage. He turned a final corner to find him waiting at some double doors marked "Fire exit."
"Out here." He said. "There may be security guards patrolling the perimeter, so keep your head down and let me take care of things."
Naruto swallowed and nodded. He heard the scraping and scratching of metal as Itachi fiddled with the lock. Then the man opened the doors into the cool night.
It was pitch black outside. Floodlight from the rooftop of the building shone out across a sprawling industrial estate and a virtually deserted parking lot – virtually because there were a few cars still parked as well as two security guards patrolling the outskirts. A third sat in a tollbooth at the parking lot entrance.
Itachi shut the doors behind them in one swift motion, closing them with a soft click. There were no handles on this side. No way back.
"That's where we need to go." He whispered, pointing at a black SUV at the closer end of the parking lot. Access was blocked by a high chain-link fence.
"This parking lot is lit up like a Christmas tree. How are we supposed to get over that without anything noticing?" asked Naruto.
"We don't". replied Itachi. He took hold of Naruto's arm and shoved him behind a large skip.
"Hey." protested Naruto as he almost fell over into the gap. The fabric of his hoody snagged against the rough, brick wall of the building in the small space, and the stink of trash assaulted his nostrils.
"You wait here." said Itachi. "I'll be back for you, and when I give you the signal, you run for the car, do you understand, Naruto?"
He didn't wait for an answer as he strode away.
"Wait, what signal?" whispered Naruto poking his head out after.
"Stay out of sight." was Itachi's reply as his outline disappeared into the darkness.
Naruto hugged the hoody tighter around himself and sighed.
"Fine. Guess I'll just have to wait and see."
Naruto hid in the shadows of the huge bin. If someone came out of those double-door fire exits and looked to their right or even just came walking along this pathway, it was game over for him. He watched as Itachi appeared in the lamplight farther away, walking with calm, sure footsteps around the perimeter of the chain-link fence towards the tollbooth. The guard inside exchanged a few words with him that Naruto couldn't hear from that distance before letting Itachi through.
It seemed to take forever, but finally Itachi was driving the car out of the parking lot and stopped a short distance away. Naruto saw him wave his hand at the window.
"Guess that's the signal." muttered Naruto grumpily.
He crept out and slunk towards the car as quickly as he could while avoiding the light as much as possible. The next moment he was in the car on a warm, leather seat beside Itachi.
He let out a long breath as Itachi drove away.
"That went surprisingly well."
He had just finished speaking as a piercing alarm sounded across the industrial estate. Itachi pressed down on the accelerator and the tires screeched as they shot away into the night.
AN: Ugh, I suck. I know. Never thought I'd be one of those authors that never updates. As an apology, here are two chapters. I'll add a 3rd one tomorrow probably. Not too happy with these ones, but oh well!
One note: I completely forgot Itachi's eyes are meant to be black in this story, not red like I put in a previous chapter. I'll fix it, so please ignore that. Thanks to Apple for pointing that out. Sorry, but there's no special significance of his eyes. That was just an author mistake. XD Thanks also for your constructive criticism. It helps a lot and I have a thick skin, so no need to hold back. I'll keep that in mind if I re-write. In my mind, he was too busy trying to escape that the adrenaline kicked in, but I think you're right and there should be a broiling mess of emotions - doubt, worry, adrenaline, etc. I think the main problem is I wasn't feeling it so much. XD I find exposition and running around a bit hard to write. There's a lot of scenery changing, not much dialogue and so on, and I find that tough. Got to work on that. Thank you to everyone for your feedback!
Arw165 Haha, I gotta admit it gives me so much satisfaction to have surprised someone with that twist. :D And yes, I think Naruto was just super-stressed and then too drugged to take in Kabuto's statement. ;)
