Fair Trade

When Naruto opened his eyes the next morning, he was relieved that they'd already done the bulk of the packing the night before as it took everything in him just to sit up. As he debated with himself about whether he was willing to do anything else at such an ungodly hour, he glanced over and saw that Sasuke was still asleep. Sometime in the night, the Uchiha had turned his back on him and was now curled nearly on the edge, tucked under the covers.

It reminded him of the day that Sasuke had gotten sick but now, he didn't hold back on a compulsion to touch the ruffled hair that peeked out. The dark eyes instantly opened and Naruto didn't miss it when he jumped a little.

"It's just me," he whispered, leaning forward to give a peck within the nest of hair.

Sasuke showed little acknowledgement at Naruto's words, instantly throwing back the covers to walk around the side of the bed. At seeing he was still nude, Naruto blushed and looked away, though he knew he had every right to take in an eyeful if he so wanted. As he headed toward the bathroom, Sasuke called, "We need to get a move on. The boat leaves at nine but we have to drop the box off."

The blonde groaned at the reminder, wanting to instantly get on the boat where he could settle down somewhere and sleep some more. As the shower began running in the bathroom, he finally got up and snatched everything off the bed. As he crammed everything into the washer, another memory drifted to mind. He thought about the night before Sasuke had left the village, the things they'd done…. "Can you think of something other than Sasuke's body?" he muttered. "It's not like we have any time for that."

And yet, Sasuke was right in the next room, taking a shower…that could prove interesting—

He slammed the washer lid down and purposefully stomped past the bathroom door, instead picking up a dust rag to needlessly buffer the coffee table. By the time Sasuke had exited from his shower, the house was nearly spotless. "Wow, looking at this place, no one would ever guess you used to be a slob," Sasuke decided to comment.

Weaving around him to get his own things for a shower, he tossed back, "Yes, the kid raised with minimal adult supervision should know how to keep house. Not doing so just means he's hard-headed!" He stepped into the bathroom, but paused before going back out. At the conflicted look on Sasuke's face, who still stood in the middle of the living room, he gave his mouth a light kiss to lessen the blow of his words. "Your unspoken apology is accepted."

"I'm sorry. There, it's spoken," Sasuke grinned faintly, kissing back for a moment before pushing Naruto away. "Hurry up and get ready. We only have a little over an hour left."

At his words, Naruto scampered. When he came out from his shower, the laundry was hanging at the back of the house to dry and Sasuke was hefting the single box of food out to the porch. As that was the only thing that needed to be dropped off, Naruto went and grabbed their backpacks of supplies. He took a moment to look around the house one final time, but was already making plans to come back in the future as the Land of Snow (or Spring) made a prime vacation spot. Stepping outside with Sasuke, he locked the door, taking it upon himself to carry the box instead.

They'd barely stepped away from the house before he felt a silent brush of wind behind him and a voice in his ear command "Don't move."

Spilling out of the trees and rising from the tall grass were ANBU ninja. Konoha ANBU. A knife was being held to his throat and out the corner of his eye, he saw that the same was being done to Sasuke. "Tell me what the hell the meaning of this is!" he snarled.

Instead of answering him, he heard one of the ninja speak into a device that looked similar to a walkie-talkie, but much thinner and folded. It was another piece of new and rare technology, a cellphone. "We've apprehended them, Lady Tsunade. We'll be bringing them back to the Leaf immediately."

This was on Tsunade's orders?! Naruto hung his head. "Why?" he whispered, beginning to tremble. Then looking up at the one that was talking into the phone, he screamed louder, "Why?! What is it that you want?"

The ninja looked down at his phone for a moment before pressing a button and holding it out closer to Naruto, but keeping it out of arm's reach. This time, the voice that spoke could be heard by everyone. "This has to end, Naruto," Tsunade's voice said, her voice coming in clear as though she were actually there. "Your desertion has reached as high as the Fire Lord himself, who's now worried about treason considering it's Sasuke who you disappeared with. He's threatening…containment. You know what that means, don't you?"

He was seized with a stab of anger and placed a hand on his stomach to calm Kurama, though he wasn't too far from snapping himself. "We just so happened to be leaving to head back today," he informed her firmly. "And how'd you find us? Nobody knew except—"

"Kakashi?" Tsunade said knowingly and Naruto felt his blood run cold. "His phone line was tapped so that I could monitor his calls. I figured out of anyone, you'd likely reach out to him and I see I was right." She paused for a moment and Naruto could hear a heavy breath as she thought. "Never in a million years did I think it'd come to this. Please, just cooperate with me. We'll talk this over once you get back."

Those conflicting feelings about Konoha started to rise again but this time, Naruto couldn't think of what to say to quiet them. Instead, he spoke his honest feelings. "You threaten to put a leash on me and you spy on my sensei and you think I'll just be fine with that?! Tch!" He balled his fist so tightly that he thought his knuckles might crack. "Oh, and let me guess; Sasuke's still not allowed back, is he?"

There was an aggravated noise from Tsunade's side. "Actually, Sasuke's presence is requested before the same council you appealed to from after the war. He'll need to stand trial again for all of this."

"He didn't even do anything!" Naruto screamed, pulling against the ninja that held the blade to him. It began to cut into his throat, but he barely felt it. "It was my decision to leave, Sasuke wasn't even conscious!"

"A suggestion implanted by a Sharingan has no time limit. Such a genjutsu could've been placed long before all of this."

Naruto gasped. "You can't seriously think Sasuke would do that…" he began to shake. "Sasuke would never…" He felt like he'd said those words so many times, but no matter how much, they never seemed to reach anyone else's ears.

"In all honestly, Naruto, I'm aware of this," Tsunade finally said with a note of sympathy. "If Sasuke wanted to do that, he's had years to do so. But the council isn't so easily swayed."

The phone gave a beep and the ninja holding it took a look at the display. "Lady Tsunade, the battery is nearly drained," he informed her impatiently.

"Alright, then I have one last thing to say to both you Naruto and to Sasuke. I'm aware of how this looks and I'll accept your hatred. I deserve it. I've not made the best decisions as Hokage but I do want to protect you—both of you. Sasuke's removal wasn't just for the village's sake, but for his as well, so that he wouldn't have to deal with the condemnation of everyone. It also gave him time to consider if he wanted to come back at all. Sasuke, it if were left up to me and me alone—and contrary to popular belief, it's not—you would never have left. I know these last few months have been hard but please continue to be strong."

"And to you, Naruto, please forgive this heavy-handed approach. I know it's the very thing you worked so hard to change but old policies and mindsets don't change overnight. However, please understand the seriousness of what you did. What you might've thought of as an act of love, the Fire Lord saw as treason. Had I not promised to deal with the situation myself, his own personal ANBU would've been sent…with the goal to kill both of you. You too, Naruto, will have to stand trial but I promise I will be there fighting for both of you. I look forward to seeing you two when you return."

Except there was an almost imperceptible flash and the arm holding the cell phone fell to the ground. The ninja the arm belonged to looked down at it before letting out a terrible scream. Naruto had just enough time to focus on someone in white tacking something to the ninja's chest before they again flashed away. The man looked down at the device that beeped and in the half second it took to realize what it was, it was too late. Naruto stood in horrified silence as a flash was detonated and his face was splashed in blood.

"Naruto! Sasuke! What's going on?" Tsunade's voice shouted from the dropped phone. The other ANBU were now fighting multiple others who had also appeared with the subtlety of a ghost, forgetting about their captives. There were more of the others though and it didn't take long before the ANBU were extinguished. Naruto snapped out of his shock and readied himself to attack, until a strong pulse delivered to his chest dropped him to the ground like a rock. Pain sparked from every pore and he couldn't help groaning at its all-encompassing ferocity.

In front of him, the hem of a white robe appeared and a man with eyes and long hair of equal darkness reached down to pick up the phone. Sasuke had mentioned a man of such features who'd gone by the name of "Takami". He quieted Tsunade's words by closing the phone and then crushing it underfoot. "Much better," he murmured, before turning his eyes to Naruto. "In all honesty, you weren't our initial goal, but in tracking down Sasuke, I realized what luck to have also come across one of the last two jinchurriki."

At hearing that, Naruto instantly began to struggle more, with the result that even more bolts of pain coursed through his body. Seeing him struggle, the man winced. "I'm sure that has to hurt so I'd recommend keeping still. Now, as I was saying, you weren't our intended target as you, Naruto Uzumaki, have actually done an amazing job of creating peace in the world and that too is our main goal. However, you hold something that was never intended to be captured. Once mankind found out that the Tailed Beasts could also be weapons, it set in motion a never-ending cycle of fighting for ownership. I hope that you're not naïve enough to think no one has tried to capture the other seven that were let go after the war. There have been many attempts and you may thank me and my followers for thwarting them."

Naruto had little idea of what the hell he was going on about, but he knew he didn't have time to listen to this. He searched desperately for Sasuke, hoping that maybe he'd managed to escape. Painfully, he craned his head a few inches to scan the fields around the house but he didn't have to look far.

Sasuke likely had tried to escape as the distance between them was further than when they'd stepped out the house. However, now Sasuke was also on the ground but he noticed he wasn't writhing. He didn't look to be in any pain, which meant…Sasuke had gone to the ground of his own volition. His eyes looked upon the group of white robes not with anger or the threat of the revenge he'd promised, but with fear. Sasuke was literally paralyzed with terror.

Naruto was reminded of how he'd had to coax Sasuke to do simple things this past week, things Sasuke should've been able to do without a second thought. Sasuke had mentioned it was a mental block and understood it was due to his time of being captured. It'd scarred him in such a way that even after their week of training, he still wasn't completely back to normal. Now faced with those that'd hurt him so much, the trauma was again taking its toll.

"Sasuke, run!" Naruto cried out, flinching as another wave of pain hit him when he tried to inch closer. "Don't just sit there, fight back! You're stronger than them and they know that, that's why they're scared of you!"

There was a flicker in Sasuke's eyes as he came back to himself, the Sharingan now on the right and the Rinnegan on the left. Realizing their mistake at not incapacitating him sooner, the group began to advance on him and with their unusually swift movements, it would only take a second. A second though was all that Sasuke needed and just as they were about to strike, Sasuke ceased to be of this world.

More accurately, Sasuke opened a time-space gateway and was transported to a new dimension. Naruto cheered that he had gotten away; that was all he was worried about. For himself, he wasn't going to let this paralysis stop him and he began to call forth the chakra from Kurama, who was bristling to go. He felt the energy gathering to a peak and waited for the familiar golden glow but it never came. Instead, he was slammed with even more pain, his body beginning to convulse as he began to go into shock.

Takami shook his head sadly, rolling Naruto over onto his back to put a foot on his stomach to keep him still. "You shouldn't have done that. I'm sure you already know all of your chakra points have been stopped. It's not like a cork in a wine bottle, where with enough pressure, the cork will burst out. If you keep trying to release chakra when it has nowhere to go, you'll literally combust and that wouldn't be fair to the Nine Tails as it would kill him too."

Naruto, don't resist, he heard Kurama growl and in his mind's eye, he saw the massive beast lay down though his hackles were still raised. Sasuke mentioned that he'd nearly escaped by waiting for an opening after he'd been captured. They probably won't kill you now as they're going to need to extract me. This'll give us time to think of a strategy before that happens.

Following his lead, Naruto also laid still though he couldn't quiet the feeling of unease at just giving up, no matter how temporarily. He didn't resist when he was blindfolded and shackled with restrains that emitted a lower pulse similar to the chakra-blocking attack he'd been hit with. Someone pulled him to his feet and threw him over their shoulder as though he were nothing more than cargo. However, the next words almost made him balk completely at the intended plan but it was now too late: "Teleportation jutsu!"

He had hoped it would be a long journey to wherever they were going, but now he realized they had precious little time. Not only that, but a teleportation would leave no trace for anyone to follow. His last thought was of Sasuke, a feeling of relief that he'd at least taken the Uchiha's place, and then he disappeared.

The gentle breeze swayed the thick golden-green grass peacefully, disturbed only by the splotches of red here and there and the fallen bodies of the ninja. Minutes went by of quietness before the hollow sound of a vortex forced open an entrance and Sasuke dashed out, his blade held low and ready to strike.

Instead, he slid to a stop as he realized that he was too late. Naruto was no longer there. "Damn it, I waited too long!" he whispered furiously. The first transportation had left him winded and he'd needed to get his chakra together before he was able to return. Already, he was feeling the tell-tale shakiness of pushing himself too far once more and too soon. He forced himself to ignore it though as time was of the essence to find Naruto.

It only took a few minutes for him to realize that his adversaries were much too adept at covering their trails as nothing was left to suggest where they were going. The likelihood that they'd go back to the Land of Iron was extremely unlikely considering the Konoha nin had already raided the place. That meant he had absolutely no clues.

Panic nearly overwhelmed him as the thought sunk in, but he forced himself to breathe deeply and to stay calm. Okay, so he had no idea where they were going. He had no idea. That didn't mean nobody else wouldn't have any information. He prided himself on usually doing everything alone, but this wasn't about him; he'd be damned if he let Naruto die because of his pride.

After composing himself once more, he set off by flight with his summon to go seek help.


Random info: if my sources can be trusted, Takami is the name of a Shinto god of the sky and the creator of living things. As one who sees himself a follower of the Sage of Six Paths (a man that created many things, from the splitting of the Ten Tails into Nine Tailed Beasts to the creation of Ninshu), I figured such a name was a little befitting for the character…no matter how he executes his beliefs.