Back at it again, so sorry everyone, this past year has been insane for me, took me away from this fic for a bit, but i'm still dedicated to seeing this fic through to the end! Happy new year everyone!

On their way out, the innkeeper greeted Sasuke and Maigo. She smiled sadly at the two.

"How'd you two sleep?" she asked sweetly. The two travelers exchanged glances.

"Well enough under the circumstances," Sasuke answered.

"I'm so sorry you had to see that," the innkeeper said. "This is a peaceful village, but every now and again, something bad ends up happening." She shook her head. "It those damn drugs, causing nothing but trouble."

"Drugs?" Sasuke repeated.

"Oh, I shouldn't tell you this, but every once in a while, newcomers will drift into the village and linger. Some stay the rest of their lives, and some depart, but these people were former ninjas."

"Ninja, you say?" Sasuke said.

The innkeeper nodded. "Perhaps it's to ease their minds after living such a dangerous life, but they take the plant the village is famous for and use it, well, in a way that's not intended. When they take it to extremes, they end up overdosing like that man did yesterday. We locals here tend to just stay out of their way, so they don't bother anyone. So I'll tell you both right now, you keep your distance. For everyone's sake."

The two young men nodded and were off to their new jobs. Returning to the farm, all the workers appeared to whisper about the man who died the night before. While they spoke in hushed murmurs, Maigo and Sasuke overheard slight phrases like junkie and addict and shinobi and rumors of what country the man came from and the sort of man he was. There was no foolproof way of knowing what was valid, as shinobi were secretive folk. In their world, giving away everything about themselves was a death sentence.

Look underneath the underneath. A whisper popped up in both the raven & the blonde's heads. The voice was one of a man who had the aura of a sensei. They shook their heads and focused on their work. When they finished for the day, they joined the line to get their payment. Since they were two of the last people on the line, they began to overhear more of the gossip on the dead man.

"I heard he was from a land of water."

"I heard he had to kill all his peers to become a ninja."

"I heard he fled here after undergoing a harsh mission."

Natsuo rolled her eyes as Sasuke and Maigo approached. She handed them their envelopes, which contained their day's pay. "Man's probably isn't even cold yet, and people speculate like madmen. Shameless. You two are the only two decent people in this place. Like me, you don't give in to gossip like these sheep."

Sasuke smiled softly. "Did you know him?"

"Nah, not really. The guy drifted into town about a year ago," Natsuo said. "Kept to himself like they all do in that little band. Mostly everyone keeps their distance. They'd rather watch them and point their fingers and judge like hypocrites. There ain't much I know of shinobi-folk, but the one thing I do: the life of a shinobi ain't easy. Whatever it is they're trying to escape from with them plants, let 'em. Who knows how bad their lives were before now?"

Maigo was also peeved. "You'd think they'd talk about something else. For fuck's sake." He murmured crossly. Sasuke put his hand on the blonde's shoulder to placate him, a nonverbal reminder. Don't make waves.

Maigo's stomach grumbled. Time to eat. It was becoming a routine. They wake up in the inn, head over to the farm for their day's work, and dine in the small restaurant (one of the few in town).

The cook once again greeted them. "You two come in here one more time, and you'll become my regulars," she said cheerily.

"Do we get a discount?" Maigo asked shamelessly. Sasuke elbowed his side, but the restauranter laughed.

"Same as before?" she asked. Sasuke nodded, and Maigo agreed. "Coming right up!"

On their way back from the restaurant after having their supper for the evening, the two walked by the area where the man had died the night before. There was no hint of anyone perishing there when just hours ago, someone did. It left a horrible sensation in both young men. Aside from the gossip, there was also no further indication that someone died in town. No mourning from anyone in the village. Everyone just went on about their business, giving no second thought to the person who croaked the night before.

That upset the blonde more than anything else.

Sasuke noted his sour mood. "Hey," he said, catching Maigo's attention. "You okay?" The blonde neglected to reply. Maigo merely shook his head.

"Is it about that guy, the one who died last night?" Sasuke chanced.

"I just," Maigo sighed out of frustration, "I can't believe how little people give a shit about him. Just cuz he was a junkie, suddenly he doesn't fucking matter." It was something the blonde could identify with himself like he wasn't a person anymore. Like how people think I'm not a person. There was something horrifyingly familiar about it too.

"Hey," Sasuke said. "There is at least one person who cared enough about the guy, and that is you. He would have appreciated that you tried to get him help." Maigo simply shrugged at that.

"You're a great person," Sasuke added.

"I don't know about that," Maigo said in turn.

"I do," Sasuke maintained.

"You barely know me," the blonde pointed out. Sure, it was true. The two had only known each other for a short time.

"I know enough," Sasuke countered, "we may not have known each other long, but we've been through some shit together in the short while we've been on the road together. A lesser man would have run or betrayed me, but you haven't yet."

"What about my –" Maigo wanted to bring up the entity that lurks inside him, but he wasn't even sure of how to refer to it at this point. Was it a demon, a spirit that took hold of his body long ago?

"Like I said," Sasuke put his hand on the blonde's shoulder to placate him. "A lesser man would have turned against me by now." The raven tried to give his friend a reassuring smile. While it couldn't fully erase his worries about the being inside him, Sasuke's faith in his friend did lighten the heaviness weighing on Maigo. It was nice to have someone in his corner, on his side. It made him feel safe in a way that no matter what occurred on their adventure, if Sasuke was there, everything would be okay in the end.

Nonetheless, that familiar sense of being disrespected and disregarded lingered. It wouldn't go away.

Ugh, it's that kid.

What a nuisance. Why does he have to live here in the village? After everything we lost…

He should just disappear. I don't care where.

I don't want that boy anywhere near my kids.

I can't believe we have to live near that thing.

Listen to me, son, under no circumstances are you to be near that boy.

You can't play with him. He's dangerous; stay away from him.

Get outta my store, brat! And don't come back!

So many voices, so filled with resentment. It made his stomach cold with anxiety.

"Hey," Sasuke snapped him out of his worrisome trance, "you okay?"

"I was just…remembering things," Maigo replied slowly.

Sasuke's eyebrows raised, the raven remarked, "Oh, anything good?"

"Not exactly," Maigo wouldn't look him in the eyes, his expression a solemn one.

"What is it about us?" Sasuke remarked. "I wonder if we're cursed or something."

"Yeah," the blonde said wistfully. "Maybe we are." Between the amnesia and the dislocation of themselves, it would explain why so many unfortunate events befall them in such a short amount of time. "It'd be easy if that were the case."

"Oh?"

"You can always break curses, but you can't outrun fate," he mused sadly. "Maybe our lives, at least my own, is nothing more than an exercise in misery."

"Oh c'mon," Sasuke nudged his shoulder with the blonde's tan one. "I don't believe that. Maybe our lives are bad, or at least they were before. Maybe some circumstances were out of our control, which is why I ended up being a wanted criminal, maybe I was pushed into it somehow, or I saw no other way out of the situation I was in before. But we shouldn't give up, no matter how hard it is. Life is hard, it's always been that way, and that probably won't change, yet it's on us to make the best of it."

"And how do we do that?" Maigo asked, "make the best of it? Of any of it?"

"We do what we've been doing," Sasuke said, squeezing the blonde's shoulder. "Traveling around, working odd jobs, eating good food. Whatever bad happens, we'll weather through it together. We're in this together after all."

Maigo couldn't believe how lucky he was that this man was so willing to stay by his side. He hoped that nothing would tear them apart in the future. If they somehow regained their full memories of their lives beforehand, he hoped they could stay in each other's lives as friends. The longing in the blonde's heart felt somewhat familiar as the image of a small blond boy and a small raven-haired boy staring across one another, forever distant, never seeming to get close enough.

Later that night, he dreamt of a slightly older blonde boy and a somewhat older raven-haired boy. The distance was still there, yet the two were closer in proximity. The blonde chased his friend, and while the raven ran, his pace slowed. The darker-haired boy stopped running and turned to face his friend for a moment. Just as they were about to close the distance, a snake slithered its way at the raven-haired boy's feet, sliding up to bite the boy from behind, sinking its fang into his neck. The boy's eyes changed, and a dark cloud formed its way around, blocking the blonde's eye of sight. Suddenly they were at odds with one another. The raven-haired boy advanced on his friend, piercing his chest with a fist of lighting. Maigo watched from afar, but he could feel the sharp pain in his chest and the warm blood coat his skin as if it were oozing out of a wound. The heartbroken blonde had an intense ball of wind form in his own fist, ready to retaliate against his friend. They charged at each other a final time, and an enormous swarm of energy formed all around, blinding and overwhelming.

Maigo woke up, covered in sweat. He heaved and turned to look upon a slumbering Sasuke. His companion didn't rise from sleep at all, utterly undisturbed from Maigo's nightmare. Just as well, Maigo thought. He didn't know how he would have explained what he saw in his mind. Was it a memory? The blonde placed a shaky hand over his heart, sensing a sort of phantom pain where a piercing wound might have been if the nightmare was, in fact, something that happened in his past. It felt so authentic, so intense.

These dreams and recollections were also violent and depressing. Was his life so miserable? Was he hated? Did he have no one in his life from before that cared for him? He despised these feelings of helplessness and confusion, unsure of what to believe in, what to trust, and not knowing his life, memories, and self.

Then a thought occurred to him. The spirit inside him, would it have been there before his memories were lost? Was he always there inside his body? Maybe he could tell him the truth of his past, but at what cost? Surely the entity wouldn't do it out of kindness. And if he did tell him something, would it be the truth?

Then he recalled the last time he nearly lost total control to the beast within. Sasuke had been the one to pull him back. His eyes had changed into some intricate pattern of blood-red and onyx, and he felt the spirit's influence ebb away as Maigo was able to regain control himself again. Perhaps Sasuke could do that again if necessary so the blonde wouldn't become lost to the entity that lived within.

At some point, he'd have to explain what was going on inside himself. As afraid as Maigo was of being abandoned by Sasuke out of fear, there was no guarantee the strange entity inside of the blonde wouldn't find a way to take over and hurt people. Sasuke could end up getting hurt. And after everything that they had been through together, Maigo didn't wish to see his raven-haired friend get hurt. He…cared about Sasuke.

Something about that sentiment was familiar to the blonde as well. But how could it be familiar if Maigo and his companion were strangers? What was it about Sasuke that was comforting while also heartbreaking?

More to come, thanks for the patience everyone! Next chapter is currently under way!