AN: I've been saying to myself like non-stop "ok THIS is the final chapter" and i've been lying everytime it turns out oops! But for real! Chapter 17 will be the end! And I will do my best to have it out before the end of august!
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The three advanced down the tunnel, Haku had grabbed the box off the table while Naruto clung onto the one of his mother. Sasuke led them further into it, having practiced navigating it in the dark. The two of them stopped when they heard the explosion behind them.
"NO DO NOT STOP!" Sasuke went behind them and started shoving. "THE BLAST WILL ALSO COLLAPSE SOME OF THE TUNNEL."
"WHY" Haku did not understand this ridiculous defense system. "WHY IS THERE AN EXPLOSION?"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP AND RUN!"
Not needing anymore prompting Haku and Naruto began sprinting as Sasuke guided them. It was hard at first with the few bumps the two hit, but as the tunnels only twenty feet behind them started collapsing, they managed. Finally Sasuke saw the threshold for a part that wasn't rigged to collapse and let them rest.
"WHAT" Haku took some heavy breaths. "THE FUCK."
"Kakashi is um, very paranoid. I admit, he may go overboard fairly often."
"What was the first explosion?" Naruto had managed to catch his breath now.
"Oh that was the house."
"Sasuke."
"Yes?"
"Do you mean to tell me, the house we stayed at was rigged to blow up at any moment?"
"Well no not at any moment, just if someone is in the tunnel and someone else attempts to enter the house. Scared the hell out of Itachi when Kakashi was giving me tunnel training one day."
"I'm just going to ignore the fact that your father figure apparently blows his house up for fun."
"Not for fun, for safety."
"I don't feel very safe."
"Neither do I Naruto."
"But, we can't be followed! Which I think is very safe."
"That is a good point, I do feel safer now thank you."
"You're welcome Naruto."
"Can't they just follow the collapsed ground on the surface and then dig down?"
"What no" Sasuke looked upwards at the ceiling of this room. "Well, ok yes someone could do that."
"I feel less safe now Sasuke."
"Let's get a move on" he grabbed a lantern from this room and opened one of the doors leading out of the room.
With a source of light and no threat of impending tunnel collapse the three went at an average pace. Haku and Sasuke hoped their respective father figures would be alive enough to find them, but neither wanted to voice these hopes for fear of jinxing it. Naruto was in his own daze, the whiplash of finding out more about his family and then having to flee kept his mood down. So for the first time ever that the three of them had been together, they traveled in silence. It was hard to tell how long they traveled before hitting another restroom, a downside to the magic lantern. This room was at least ventilated somewhat, offering up more than just the stale air of the tunnels. They decided to take a break from walking for a short while.
"Any chance there's food stashed in here?" Haku had heard Naruto's stomach rumble a little while ago and was a little hungry himself.
"Probably something small" Sasuke began to search the room.
Haku watched Naruto, he was just blankly staring at the photo still. He couldn't fully understand Naruto's current emotional state, not having had a very good relationship with his original parents. Hoping to avoid any kind of complications he just let Naruto sit there as Sasuke came over.
"So I found some food bars, and" Sasuke leaned in close to whisper. "A small thing of instant ramen."
The two looked at Naruto quickly, taking his lack of reaction to mean he did not hear that.
"Great, I don't think we could get him to eat these bars" Haku looked over the one Sasuke handed him, it just said FOOD on its packaging. "Think it'll be ok to make it for him now? It might help snap him out of whatever this mood is."
"Yeah there's some water I can boil for it" he began preparing the instant ramen.
"Hey Naruto" Haku decided to check in on him while the ramen was being made. "You doing alright?"
"Not really, Kakashi might be dead, and without him I can't really learn more about my family."
"We've got pictures now! I'm sure one of them says your parents' names so we can start looking into them."
"Well" Naruto put the one with his mom on it down, Haku could see the small burn on it where he'd held it. "Maybe for my dad?"
"Oh. Well maybe someone who knew him will know her too?'
"Or maybe I just messed up and I'm not going to learn anything else about my mom" Naruto was beginning to spiral. "If I had just, waited and focused I wouldn't have burned the photo. Instead I was stupid and I don't even know her name now."
"Hey don't beat yourself up" Haku pulled him into a hug. "We'll figure it out once we're a bit more safe I promise."
Naruto just nodded before pulling Haku closer. The two had managed to figure out a good temperature range to avoid any steam burns from touching. Sasuke had made them do this since he didn't enjoy getting hit by steam while they all tried to sleep.
"And some good news" Sasuke came over with a piping hot bowl of ramen. "We've got your favorite in stock."
Naruto happily took the bowl and began to eat. The other two watched and grimaced at their food bars, deciding to just eat later. Haku decided to watch the leftover steam from the cooking swirl and go up the vent. After a few moments he realized this might be a very big issue.
"Hey Sasuke?"
"Yeah?"
"How well hidden do you think the vents on the surface are?"
"Pretty well hidden I think?"
"Ok, so if a bunch of steam rose from it no one would see it?"
"You know, I didn't think about that. Might have gone overboard boiling that water."
Before Haku could say anything else the room they were in began to violently shake. The two leapt over to Naruto and Haku began to form a barrier around them. This proved to be a very good idea as the rooms ceiling split open revealing the sky. Before they could react, the ground below them catapulted them into the air. A few moments later and they all laid in a pile together surrounded by shattered ice.
"What the hell?" Haku recognized the approaching voice. "The fuck are you two doing here?"
"Nice to see you too Hidan" Haku climbed to his feet and helped the other two up. "Why are you here?"
"Money" Kakuzu came over as well. "Looking for some demon."
Sasuke gave Haku a very concerned look at that comment. He just grimaced and shrugged in reply.
"And you came here looking for that because?"
"Well Zabuza's been running all over ever since the bounty went up. So I've been following him, no way am I letting him get that reward."
"How much is it for exactly?"
"Ten million."
"So we definitely cannot pay him off" Haku whispered this to Sasuke.
"How well do you know this guy?"
"I used to take jobs with him since he's like three hundred years old and really good at killing people."
"So we also can't kill him?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Hey quit whispering!" Hidan came over to the two of them. "Whatever you're talking about has to be spoken loudly so God can hear you!"
"Just about how crazy a coincidence this is" Sasuke started trying to improv some lies. "I mean what are the chances of you throwing us out of our underground bunker."
"Not high and a waste of time since you aren't demons" Kakuzu grumbled this out.
"That's so right!" Haku followed the lead. "None of us three are demons, no sir."
"But" Naruto began to speak, only for them both to glare at them. "But uh. We saw one?"
"Oh great where" Kakuzu quickly got in his face to question him.
"That way" Haku pointed to where he thought the blown up house would be. "It's why we went to hide underground."
"Great, Hidan let's go. Papa wants that money."
"I hate it when he calls himself papa."
The three watched them rush towards the direction Haku indicated. Once they were out of sight they all let out a large collective sigh.
"Naruto you are doing so much better at these social cues."
"Thanks!"
The three quickly continued their fleeing, not wanting Kakuzu to realize the lie and catch up too quickly. Returning to the underground tunnels was out, but they had to get somewhere that was less open. Sasuke took the lead and started towards the woods nearby, he still knew where their destination was but would have to improvise a new route there. It didn't take long for another wrench to be thrown into their escape. Sasuke threw the two of them aside as a massive snake flew into him smashing him through a tree.
"Naruto take care of the snake" Haku knew exactly what this meant and liked his chances dealing with it over Naruto's.
"On it" he let his arms shift into larger fox ones and grabbed hold of the snake as it slithered on, now taking Naruto with it as well.
"Oh hoh hoh, I didn't take you for such a hero" Orochimaru entered the newly made clearing and stared down Haku. "But this can be a lot easier than you're about to make."
"I'm not giving you Naruto so just shut the hell up and fight me."
"What about Sasuke? Are you really that attached to him?"
"I…" Haku would later on deny hesitating while thinking over this proposition, he would, of course, not deny agreeing to it . "Might not be."
"Then I think we can make a deal, I will help you and Naruto, was it, get somewhere safer, and I get Sasuke."
"Where is this safer place exactly?"
"About ten miles south of here, some strings can be pulled and some deaths faked. Going once."
Haku's options weren't good, he was well aware of that. He didn't know what was wanted from Sasuke by Orochimaru, but Sasuke had certainly never talked about him as a great person before. He was very well aware of what would happen if he refused this deal, and the certain death that would bring.
"Going twice."
He clenched his fists. It left a bad taste in his mouth, but he knew Sasuke would have done the same thing. He opened his mouth to speak, only to pause a flock of crows twisted around Orochimaru.
"Get going" Itachi descended from a nearby tree.
"Ok no" Haku had had enough of people mysteriously finding them. "How did you know where we are?"
"Obviously I followed Zabuza here after giving him directions and then once the house blew I started scanning the area."
"Alright that's good enough for me."
"And give this to Sasuke" Itachi produced a letter. "In case I can't be there to tell him myself."
"Oh well isn't that sweet" the crows surrounding him dispersed and Orochimaru began to advance. "It's been quite sometime since you wiggled your way out of my hands, let's see if you're still as slippery as before."
Haku took the letter and ran after Naruto and Sasuke. If Itachi was telling to book it he wasn't going to stick around for that fight. He soon ran into the two of them from the other direction, Sasuke looked a bit worse for wear.
"No time explain" Haku grabbed them both and went deeper into the woods. "Your brother is fighting snake guy."
"Why is he here?"
"Followed Zabuza."
"Who didn't follow Zabuza here?"
"I really don't want to find out, so less complaining and more fleeing!"
Ignoring the occasional shaking of the earth the three made it to the otherside of the forest after close to an hour of running. They stopped for a short breather and so Sasuke could further figure out their route.
"Ok, we just need to get from here to a mountain range about two miles to the west."
"How did he have a tunnel system that went that far?"
"Well it wasn't going to be a fully underground journey, there's a river boat part of it, a three hundred foot tall wall to scale, and I think half a mile of an underwater tunnel."
"I'm not normally one to judge, but Kakashi has issues."
"Oh so many issues, but at the very least this particular issue he has is helping us."
"I guess you're right, Naruto are you ready to keep moving?"
"Uh yeah" he seemed a little spaced out. "Can either of you hear that?"
"What stage of bad situation is Naruto hearing things?" Sasuke didn't like that.
"It's like someone is whispering my name and then every few moments yelling it."
"Oh that's the incredibly bad stage" Haku also didn't like that. "When did this start?"
"Uh, two hours ago?"
"And you didn't mention it because?"
"There were other more pressing issues."
"I'm giving you this one, you did save Sasuke from a large snake. Any idea why you're hearing this?"
"It might be my demon ancestor trying to talk to me? Since they can apparently do that from the great beyond."
"I thought you had to be all demon'd out for that?" Sasuke had loosely heard this explanation a while ago.
"Maybe it's easier since I talked to them all once already?"
"Ok, solution oriented thinking. Can you ignore it while we flee some more, or do you need to get into the demon zone and talk to them?"
"I feel like it's important so I should talk to them."
"Ok, Sasuke, sidebar" Haku took him a few feet away. "What do we do?"
"Should we let him do it now? I would like a lot more distance between me and Orochimaru before we have to stop for too long."
"That is fair, I also would like some more distance since by now Kakuzu has definitely found out we lied to him."
"Ok, we tell him to hold off on it and move faster then."
"Sounds like a plan, end sidebar" the two went back over to Naruto. "We need you to hold off on it till we're further away."
"I guess I can? How much longer exactly?"
"Two miles, one mountain" Sasuke started off towards the next destination.
"I'll just try and ignore it then."
The three continued their journey, doing their best to stay mostly out of sight. They were of course being watched, this time by two separate beings. The first is a massive fox doing its best to get Naruto to talk to it.
"Dammit Naruto" the fox could easily see the demon following them with its magic scrying. "Talk to me it will take like two minutes to warn you."
The rest of the demons surrounding the fox were doing their best to call out to him as well. Unlike before there were only three other fox demons, as the rest were still searching. The fox cursed to itself, if the others were with it they could pool together and talk to him directly.
"He should be able to feel it too right?" one of the smaller foxes spoke up. "It's one of the only other demons for hundreds of miles."
"Unfortunately he lacks any kind of sensing ability" if he survived the rest of the day the fox would be sure to beat those skills into his head for the future. "And of course the human with him that could sense it hasn't needed to activate that power."
"Five fire gems he bites it here" another fox placed a bet.
"I'll raise you ten he doesn't" the third fox took up the bet.
"DO NOT BET ON THE POTENTIAL END OF OUR SPECIES!"
"Yes boss."
"Sorry boss."
"You should be" the fox growled at them before returning its focus to the scrying. "The kid's going to need a damn miracle."
The second thing watching them did so from much closer. It's body no longer gave off magic a human could detect normally. Every second it saw them the creature wanted to attack, to rip them to pieces right then and there. Yet it didn't. It waited, suppressed those base instincts, and stalked after them. When safety was within their reach, it would shred the hope right form their very souls and feed on the agony. All that remained of Hiruzen within this creature now was his burning hatred. He was assured one thing before control of his body was taken, that hatred would spark a great flame. The creature felt giddy thinking about it, and that feeling only grew in intensity as the group's destination grew close. The foxes were powerless to do anything aside from watch as they were enveloped by this danger.
"Boss!" another fox arrived, out breath from it's sprint here.
"What is it?"
"We found her."
With a renewed determination the great fox took off, it picked up the other to use as a guide. It knew they had one final chance to help Naruto, but their window was shrinking quickly.