NARUTO © Kishimoto Masashi • Shueisha • Studio Pierrot • TV Tokyo. All
rights reserved. Non-profit fun ahead! Fanfic named by Iruka.
Warnings: Eventual fluffy friendship between the boys. Do not read if thou art not a fan of fluff!
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Crossroads of Life
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Chapter Four
The trip to the chief's house was not fraught with as much danger as Sasuke feared it would have been. Naruto knew all the back alleys and unused routes there were in the squares and public places - he had cultivated the habit of always mapping out his escape routes ever since he began his prankster career. This proved to be handy, for now they sped through the bustling city central at top speed through various nooks and crannies without anyone turning for a second look. Soon, they arrived at the other side of town, near a thatched, humble looking cemented building.
"That's his house there," Naruto whispered quietly to his companion, who nodded and stared at the house. Such poor quality for someone who was apparently of some status. Did anybody even live here at all?
The blond led the way around the walls of the building and leapt into the backyard quietly. Sasuke followed suit, and glanced questioningly at the blond, who had a maniacal grin on his face much like the one he had when he was going to throw the water balloons on the butcher. And Sasuke had never forgotten what /that/ had resulted in. He nudged Naruto rudely and whispered, "Why aren't we going in by the front? We're not here to steal anything or pull a prank - we're here for a mission!"
"Don't be such a wuss!" Was Naruto's immediate response. The boy tinkered slightly with a shuttered window and soon they were letting themselves into the long, empty hallway of the house interior. "We're just going to take the old guy by surprise! He never gets out much! Gotta spice up his life a little!"
"Nothing good ever comes out of any of your bright ideas," Sasuke grumbled, although there was no accuse in his tone. "Come on, let's just get this over with."
They approached a simple looking spiral staircase which obviously led to the upper levels. Naruto turned and put a finger on his lip, warning Sasuke with his eyes. The taller boy unwillingly acquiesced, then noticed that Naruto had shut off all traces of his existence again. It looked like he was serious about 'spicing up' the old man's life. A leer decorated the blond's face, before he disappeared up the stairwell in a blink.
Sasuke shook his head unhappily, wondering if he even wanted to follow. Maybe he should wait for the screams first. Besides, he wasn't as good as Naruto was with chakra control - any seasoned ninja could spot him if he got too close. Sighing at the self discovery, he sat glumly at the foot of the staircase, counting the time left until he would hear screams Naruto's noisy laughter.
He waited.
And waited.
And waited.
For what seemed like an unimaginably long amount of time he waited.
Suddenly, he stood up with a start and widened eyes. How could he have forgotten? The entire village was out for Naruto's life. Despite what the boy himself might say, the village chief could be a shady character himself! What if Naruto was-... ?!
Without really thinking, he dashed up the stairwell, pausing abruptly when he emerged on the other side to find himself staring down another long, dark and lonely hallway. There was just one discrepancy - the golden splotch of hair standing just barely outside a large, wooden door situated on one side of the hallway. There were voices from behind the door that even he could hear from where he stood. Sasuke squinted. He could not really see Naruto from this distance, but the fact that Naruto had yet to enter the room to make his grand entrance bothered him. He had not known the blond to be someone who held back. The scene was worrying.
Although his chakra had yet to fully recover from his medical stint last night, Sasuke concentrated, and to the best of his ability, suppressed his chakra, trying to imitate the way Naruto did it. He doubted the blond would let him off if he simply strode over like that and upset his plans for a surprise entrance. The least he could do was to try to mask his existence.
Carefully, the raven-haired boy made his way over to the blond.
He was surprised to find a look of pure trauma on his companion's face when he came within sight.
There were beads of sweat clinging onto the boy's face, but Sasuke knew it could not have been because of the cool hallway. Naruto had yet to acknowledge his approach, proving to him that the boy's mind was on something else. There was hardly anything in the hallway that proved to be able to induce so much shock, so there could only be one possibility.
"... after all, Naruto did kill Iruka's parents."
The voices from behind the door.
This time, it was Sasuke's turn to be shocked. He glared at the large door, as if it was the door itself which had spoken. Naruto? Kill Iruka's parents? That was impossible, considering Naruto was the same age he was, and could barely pull a punch without using his shadow clones. Was this why Naruto was so shell-shocked?
Before he could reach over and yank the doorknob, the door flew open from the inside, and along with the flinging came two kunai at top speed. Sasuke glanced at the unmoving Naruto and cursed silently to himself. Undoubtedly, he himself was the one to have given them both away. Quickly, he grabbed the blond and rolled them both to a side. The kunai embedded themselves onto the wall behind with loud thuds, making the boy hold his breath in a rush of cold excitement.
Any slower and the kunai would have been embedded in their heads instead.
Two shadows emerged from the brightly lit room which Naruto and Sasuke had been stalking. Immediately, the darker-haired youth snapped into instincts-mode. He crouched in front of the slowly recovering Naruto, who had blinked at him after they had tossed themselves to a side, and held a kunai in a defensive mode. His eyes mapped all the possible objects for Kawarimi and also a possible escape route. Quickly after that he returned his attention to his opponents, who were now fully visible against the splendour of the room lights.
And he gaped like a goldfish out of water.
"Oh," one of the man - the one with the smoking pipe immediately recognised Sasuke. "Aren't you..."
"Ho... Hokage-sama..." Sasuke acknowledged, out of pure reaction. While the old man smiled warmly, he cursed himself for having said that out loud. Now he was /really/ going to get sent back to Konoha. There was /no way/ he could win the Hokage - aging though he may be, in a one-on-one. He gritted his teeth and looked away in despondance. Coming here was a mistake! A mistake!
"Hokage... ?" It was Naruto's innocent question that pulled him back to reality. He glanced behind him slightly and noticed that the boy no longer donned a look of shock and was instead looking like any other confused child would. The Uchiha cocked an eyebrow.
"You don't know who the Hokage is?"
Immediately, the blond narrowed his eyes at Sasuke. Before he could shoot his angered reply, however, the Hokage laughed heartily, attracting all attention to himself.
"Come on, why are we all standing here? Get in and we'll talk," the old man smiled again, and gestured towards the room.
"Of course!" Naruto grinned right back and strode confidently into the room, the complete opposite of the frightened young man that was standing before the door, listening in to a conversation he should not have been listening to earlier. Sasuke stared at Naruto's back, unaware of the concern that was manifesting through his frown. Nobody should have been able to turn his mood around so quickly - especially after just hearing an earth-shaking piece of information like that. He saw from the corner of his eyes the old Hokage staring at him, however, and quickly darted into the room after Naruto, followed by the two old gentlemen.
He knew he was in some real trouble this time.
But somehow, he could not stop thinking about Naruto and how that declaration must have affected him.
"I think," Sarutobi put his pipe down, and looked seriously at the two younglings, "that you both have a lot of explaining to do."
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They took turns to recap what had happened as far as they could remember as regards the event Iruka had wanted them to report, carefully leaving out the fact that they had eavesdropped a single, disturbing statement of fact. Well, that was all Sasuke had heard anyway - Naruto had apparently heard more, having been there longer, and whatever the two old men had been discussing earlier must have been of concern to the blond, seeing how shocked he had been rendered even before Sasuke caught up with him. Out of a mutual, silent agreement, neither Naruto nor Sasuke mentioned it.
The report itself did not take long, since Sasuke was used to giving succint and detailed oral reports, but Naruto's constant interjections made it difficult for him to concentrate. When they had finally finished their delivery, it was already late afternoon, and the birds were chirping back at their nests already. The village chief was looking with pity and concern at the duo before him, but Sasuke wondered how true his expressions translated into actions.
After all, he was the one who had made that bold, lying statement about Naruto, wasn't he?
Sarutobi moved and rose to full height, seemingly absorbed in pondering something. It was Naruto who next spoke up, saying, "Iruka-sensei said we'd get further instructions if we come here. So like, what are those instructions, old guy?"
"Naruto," the village chief shook his head. "Don't be rude to the Hokage."
Naruto pouted, but said nothing in retort. He must have some vague semblance of respect for this old man, Sasuke thought to himself.
"Other than," the Hokage spoke up, having moved to the window to glance at the sights outside, "the problems you boys have highlighted to me just now, I have noticed another strange thing about this village."
He took a pause to turn around and look everyone in the eye. "Since my first step into this area of the village, I have felt an alien, malicious presence. It has the aura of a Kuchiyose, but yet I have never come across a summon of this sort of malignant aura before. There is certainly an atmosphere of strife and contention in this area here."
Sasuke wondered if he was the only one to catch the village chief flinching slightly, before reverting back to the expression of a concerned, eager village chief. "That is very bad, Hokage-sama," the old man was saying. "Is there anything we can do to improve the situation?"
For a short while, the Hokage scrutinised the village chief, and Sasuke was hopeful that he had caught onto something. Soon, however, he turned away and said, "We'll have to seek the presence out, but until we do, we cannot do anything about it. In the meantime, I want to tell you that I will severely punish the people who have disrupted Naruto's life, and will severely punish anyone else who continues to do so. Is that clear, elder?" He shot a narrowed, sideway glance at the village chief, who withered slightly and nodded.
"I... understand, Hokage-sama."
"Good," Sarutobi sighed, then walked over to Naruto, who was staring at him in absolute awe. "And you, Naruto, should stop playing tricks on the villagers if you don't want them on your tail all the time."
"Hear, hear," Sasuke could not help but blurt, earning a death-glare from Naruto.
"But they don't like me whether or not I play tricks anyway!" He huffed up self-righteously and retorted.
"Sad, but true," Sasuke once again, found himself unable to stop himself from interjecting. Naruto's antics were growing on him way too quickly for his own good.
"In that case, why don't I make you a deal?" Sarutobi was grinning when he said this, and Sasuke decided that this was a grin that screamed 'bad idea' in neon pink. "I'm going to send you and Sasuke on a mission to retrieve the Forbidden Scroll. If you manage to get it back successfully, I will consider letting you join the Ninja Academy," he had to pause slightly to hold a hand up to stop the protests of the village chief, who had stood up but had yet to say a word. The chief saw the gesture and sat back down rather dejectedly, a trace of dissatisfaction evident in his aura for a split second. Then he was back to being the amiable, all-smiles village chief. Sasuke decided that he really hated this guy.
Sarutobi continued, when he saw that no one else would attempt to disrupt him, "You've always wanted to be a ninja, haven't you?"
"Yes!!" Naruto nearly jumped out of his seat in joy. "But, who are you, oji-san? You're so cool!"
The Hokage laughed at the innocent pronouncement. "You could call me the principal of the Ninja Academy. Sasuke knows me too. You can ask him for more information later." The old man gestured, ignoring Sasuke's blatant /why-me?!/ look.
"Wow!" Naruto had stood up by now and had his fists balled up with excitement slightly away from his chest. "Does that mean you're the strongest ninja in the world?"
Sarutobi laughed again. "Hardly, Naruto. But I am the strongest in the school." He stated, no trace of brag or pomp in his tone at all.
"All righty!" Naruto now stood in one of his usual poses and pointed dramatically at the old man, "I've decided! I'm going to defeat you and then I'll become the Hokage! The strongest ninja of...-MRM!!"
"If you just shut up for a minute or two nobody'll think you're mute!" Sasuke growled dangerously from over Naruto's shoulder, having clamped his mouth shut with an iron grip yet again. He had lost count of how many times he had to do that to shut the idiot up now, but it was effective, so he wasn't complaining. Naruto, though strong, was hardly as strong as a seasoned ninja like Sasuke, and so while the blond attempted yet again to struggle against the Uchiha's hand so as to get his speaking rights back, Sasuke bowed slightly to a highly bemused Hokage and said, "I'm sorry Hokage-sama. Ignore the idiot. We will retrieve the Scroll at once. Will there be anything else?"
Upon hearing that, the blond momentarily stopped struggling, possibly shocked at the amount of politeness Sasuke was giving this Hokage guy. The raven-haired teen was, in actual fact, just dying to get out of the Hokage's area of reach. There was no way he was going to get dragged back to Konoha like a sorry bug after all the dramatics he had pulled with his family and friends. No way!
Therefore he breathed a huge inward sigh of relief when the Hokage smiled and nodded. "If you succeed in finding the Scroll," he said kindly, "then that will be all my business with you." He smiled, when it became evident that Sasuke understood the full import of those words.
"All the best."
Sasuke quickly bowed, not wanting to linger anymore, for who knew when the Hokage would change his mind? He then vanished from the scene quickly with Naruto via the window.
As soon as he got nearly far away enough, he let Naruto go and let all the air he had been holding out. He still couldn't believe he had managed to run away from the Hokage. Next time he wouldn't be so fortunate. He had to watch his step from now on. And he was about to think the situation through long and hard until, of course, he felt a sharp set of teeth clamp down on his hand.
"ARGH! GODDAMMIT!! NARUTO!!" Sasuke wrenched his smarting arm free and quickly backed away from the insanely grinning blond.
"No! God damn /you/!" The blond was saying, while sticking his tongue out. "How many bloody times do you have to clamp your stupid hand over my mouth? If you didn't want to hear my voice you could have just /asked/ nicely, bastard!"
"In case you haven't noticed, I /did/ ask nicely. It just didn't go through to your thick, retard brain, blockhead!" He saw that Naruto was all riled up to fire a reply and quickly added. "Oh, stop it already! We have to get that Scroll back, you remember? Do you wanna be a ninja or not?"
That effectively sobered the boy up. He grinned with all his teeth in sight and quickly replied, "Of course! Come on and follow me, Sasuke! We'll get that Scroll and prove to that Hokage guy I'm so powerful that I can be Hokage too! Nyeh nyeh!"
Although in disagreement to the latter part of that statement, Sasuke did join Naruto in walking slowly towards wherever he was going to walk to. "I wait for that day with great anticipation," he sarcastically commented, rolling his eyes when Naruto turned around to grin at him again.
There were so many questions he wanted to ask the blond, just as he was sure Naruto must have equally many questions to throw his way.
But when they exchanged a serious look of determination between each other, all doubts were thrown to the back of their minds.
It was action time.
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The man had long since dismissed his guest, and was now travelling down a cobbled, dirty path into darkness, with nothing but the pale light of a small, flickering candle. His footsteps echoed along the pathway, sounding eerie even to himself. But he had much more important things on his mind than fear at the moment. Reaching the end of his trek, he stood face to face with a bolted, metallic door, rusting at the edges.
His moment of hesitation was brief. A wrinkled hand reached out to push the heavy door open with a loud, yawning sound.
The antagonistic aura that filled the air made his hair stand on ends.
But he was far from afraid. His lips twisted into a malicious grin. From a dark corner of the cell he pulled out a familiar looking scroll and handed it to the darkness in the other corner. A slimey hand snaked out and grabbed it, filling the room with a low growl at the same time.
The man then stooped slightly and whispered, "Find the people whose scent has been left on this Scroll...
"And kill them. All of them!"
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Naruto and Sasuke had firstly returned to the dishevelled house to inform Iruka of the updates. The Chuunin had nodded and wished them all the best. He then insisted on making them both ramen. Since the table was not in a particular condition suitable for usage, both boys settled for sitting on the floor while waiting for their dinner. In particular, Naruto was bouncing away in anticipation. Sasuke had simply scowled, especially after Iruka told him that there was no rice in the house to make his onigiri with.
"Ramen! Ramen!" The blond said for what must have been the hundredth time in the three minute wait alone. Not only that, Naruto was so happy, he had began to roll the sleeping Kakashi bandage around like it was a toy. "Aren't you excited, Kakashi? We're gonna have ramen for dinner tonight!"
"Stop shaking the dog, Naruto," Sasuke was looking at the blond with disapproval. He did /not/ want his Tsukiyomi to go to waste. Even /now/ he had yet to fully recover from the complicated Genjutsu, and he was probably going to be in withdrawal for a few days. "He needs all the rest he can get."
"Yes, rest, yes," Naruto agreed choppily, still grinning. He lifted the large, sleeping dog into his lap and craddled him like a bolster instead. "But he needs food to recover quickly too, doesn't he? Isn't that right, Kakashi?" Naruto rocked the bandaged dog gently.
Sasuke decided that he would do better to save his breath and simply let the idiot do what he wanted to. After all, it was not like he was tossing the dog around like a frisbee, so there was no danger yet. He noticed a splotch of black seated regally beside him and turned his head to find himself staring at Itachi, who was casually curled up in a ball of black fluff, staring at Naruto glomp the sleeping Kakashi with something like vague interest in his eyes.
Noticing Sasuke's stare, Itachi turned to look at the younger Uchiha. They stared at each other for a long time, until Iruka emerged from the kitchen and placed two bowls of instant ramen with some vegetables and eggs thrown in for extra measure in front of the boys. This effectively broke the Uchiha staring competition, and Itachi stood up, stretched, and bounded off into whatever dark corner he usually stayed in during this time of the day. Sasuke sighed and picked his food up, grimacing. Why was he always getting into trouble like these?
"Ooh!" Naruto, on the other hand, was thoroughly enjoying himself. "This is so delicious, Iruka-sensei! You make the best ramen! It's been so long since I've had them!"
Of course, he had blathered all of that through a mouth full of dangling noodles, and briefly Sasuke wondered how he had even managed to decipher the words. He prodded his ramen gently and took an experimental bite. The taste of miso lingered briefly in his mouth, and he blinked. The taste wasn't so bad. He could get used to this. Although he could still /not/ see how Naruto could eat it everyday.
Iruka had laughed lightly when Naruto commended his cooking. He sat down beside the boys, ignoring the death glare Sasuke was giving him and patting them both on the head again. Naruto grinned at the touch and Sasuke scowled. "Iruka-sensei, shouldn't you be in bed with all your injuries?" He quickly asked, trying to hide his embarassment. His family was not exactly very pro-touch, and if he did get touched, it usually resulted in pain, therefore his discomfort with the situation. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed that Naruto had looked up from his ramen at that statement.
"That's right, Iruka-sensei!" The blond's voice was muffled, but horrified nevertheless. "You're injured! You shouldn't be doing all these things! Come on, get back and rest already!" The boy made as if he was going to stand up and haul the Chuunin back into the bed, when said Chuunin shook his head and sighed.
"Naruto, Sasuke," he began, voice low and sombre. "I am not a kid, and I know how to take care of myself. Both of you handled the situation last night very well." He glanced up slightly with pride at the duo. "So I'm recovering faster than anyone would, all thanks to the both of you. So don't worry about me. Worry more about your mission. You have a lot at stake too, don't you?"
This quietened the two boys down, and their thoughts began to drift, as they slowly nibbled away at their dinner. Iruka smiled at their pensiveness. It was rare that he could ever motivate his students to think about their lives for themselves, but with Naruto and Sasuke, it seemed like they had it all planned out in their hearts already.
As the silent dinner slowly drew to a close, Iruka stood up and said to the boys, "Whatever it is, I want you to remember just one thing."
He saw a pair of blue eyes and pair of obidisian eyes lock attentively on him, and almost laughed. Instead, however, he continued.
"True strength only comes when you're protecting something precious to you."
A breeze of acknowledgement seemed to blow through the house at that statement. Even Sasuke was caught off guard at Iruka's staunch revelation.
"Something... precious?" The next voice to be heard, however, was Naruto's. His eyes were wide with sincere questioning.
"It may be something you love very much," Iruka continued, still smiling, "like a book, a toy - even plants and animals, anything that you love, and has sentimental value. Or sometimes," he held the word for a while, letting the previous information sink in first, "it may be a person. A family member. An associate. Or," he made doubly sure to look at Sasuke in the eye at this part, "a friend. Whatever it is, when you find yourself fighting to protect something at the risk of death - that's where you'll find true strength. Understand?"
Sasuke quickly looked away, not wishing to answer that. In theory, he understood what Iruka said. In actuality, however, he had no idea how it worked. He didn't think he was able to give his life for anybody, anything, anyone at all. It was just not how his life worked. Stealing a glance at Naruto, he could tell that the blond was moved. He sighed. The little idiot was moved by anything!
"That's kindda abstract, Iruka-sensei," Naruto was saying, still with eyes wide with amazement. "But you know, I think I sorta get it. Strength comes from protecting things dear to me, right? Like, when I get beaten up by the villagers so they don't hurt Kakashi or Itachi, right?"
"Getting beaten up doesn't really seem like strength to me," Sasuke mumbled softly.
"Not really, Sasuke," Iruka turned his attention to the darker-haired boy, smiling gently. "Sometimes, strength is demonstrated in your willingness to suffer for the people you love."
The Uchiha ninja's face twisted into incomprehension, then he snorted and stood up. "I'm putting the bowl away," he stated blandly, before disappearing into the kitchen, leaving Naruto and Iruka staring after his departure trail.
Naruto, in particular, had a pensive, thinking expression on his face.
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A while later, when the moon slowly crept into the inky-black skies, the house descended into its usual chaos.
"But why??" Naruto pointed dramatically and screeched.
"Naruto," Iruka's voice was firm, "Kakashi has yet to recover from his wounds. You /cannot/ ask him to help you out with the finding of the Scroll. /You/ are the one trying to be a ninja here, not Kakashi!"
From the floor, Kakashi woofed in agreement.
"Argh! Not you too, Kakashi!" Naruto grabbed his hair in frustration. "But Iruka-sensei! I don't even know /where/ to start searching! I'd bet even a real ninja would need some tools for something like this!"
"Idiot!" Iruka drove a fist into Naruto's head. "You don't always get to be able to bring tools along with you on your missions! What if you have to go solo, without any partners and communication? What will you do? This is training, Naruto! Training! You can't always depend on others to get things done sometimes!"
From the corner where he had been ruminating together with Itachi, Sasuke let out a loud sigh. "Iruka-sensei," he said while holding a hand over his head, which was hurting with all the shouting that was going on. "You do have a point. But so does Naruto. Sensei, this isn't training. This is a mission. From the Hokage himself. There's something of utmost importance we need to recover and we shouldn't waste a single moment more. We could use a bit of help from Kakashi - and we won't strain him out too much. What do you say, sensei? Anymore time lost and we'll have lost the Forbidden Scroll forever to those criminals who-" He paused here, fire burning in his eyes for a while, before resuming, "... nevermind. Anyway, I think I actually agree with the idiot this time. We should get Kakashi to sniff out the whereabouts of the Scroll."
While Iruka blinked at Sasuke's lengthy monologue, Naruto had growled and yelped, "Don't call me an idiot!", entirely missing out on the other point Sasuke was making, in that the Uchiha was agreeing with the blond. Sasuke rolled his eyes and refused to dignify that with a reply. He looked instead to Iruka for an agreement.
The sensei had stood rooted in surprise for a while. Quickly, though, his surprise melted into a pleasant smile. "I guess you're right, Sasuke." He was saying. "But don't worry about the Scroll getting lost. The village area has been completely cordoned off since the situation. Not a single ant will leave or enter the terrain without Hokage-sama knowing about it. We're taking no chances here."
Sasuke looked vaguely impressed, whereas Naruto looked confused. "What are you guys talking about?" He asked, only to have Iruka waving in his face.
"Don't bother about that now, Naruto. Concentrate on your mission. Everybody else is an enemy now. Don't let your guard down." The Academy teacher warned.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto quickly bounced to his feet and replied with excitement. "Who do you think I am? I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I'm going to become the strongest ninja the world, the mo... mayuge-"
"Ho. Ka. Ge." Sasuke interrupted.
"..." The blond shot him a glare. "Yeah! Hokage! Then I'll kick the asses of all those people who beat you up, sensei! Just you wait and see!"
The Chuunin laughed heartily again at Naruto's declaration. "I'm looking forward to it, Naruto," he beamed at the boy, who beamed back shamelessly. "But the Scroll is secure here, and it's now quite late. Take a rest before you start your mission tomorrow. Better to be fully powered up than to be half dead, and, if it's tomorrow," Iruka wagged a finger, "I'll even let you take Kakashi along."
Naruto's eyes lit up. "YAAY!" He leapt for joy. "All right, tomorrow it is then! I can't wait!"
While the blond danced around the room in joy, Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the smiling teacher. "Are you sure that's a good idea, sensei?" He asked quietly. "I thought it was a really important Scroll that would give us a lot of trouble if it ended up in the wrong hands?"
"It is," Iruka replied, but shrugged. "But I have Hokage-sama's word that the Scroll won't be running out of this area of the village. That's got to say something, right?"
"Why doesn't Hokage-sama retrieve the Scroll himself?" Sasuke probed further, unable to reconcile the facts. "Since he's here and everything..."
"He has some other agenda on his mind, doubtlessly," the sensei glanced away from Sasuke's eyes. "Perhaps he is a little too busy for this, perhaps he needs to do something else first, or perhaps," he laid a reassuring hand on the Uchiha's shoulder, "he simply trusts the both of you to be able to pull it off. Whatever it is, we'll wait and see first. I'll try to compile some information for you about the people who stole the Scroll while you guys take a rest. You'd need that, right?" He watched as Sasuke nodded mutely. "Then you need to give me some time too. That said and done, shall we turn in for the night?"
The raven-haired boy gave his ex-teacher one last, scrutinising look, before turning away and backing into the corner he had taken to, by the fireplace, where Itachi also was hanging out in.
"Good night," he offered curtly, then curled up into a comfortable ball, leaned against the corners, and closed his eyes to indicate that he would entertain no more correspondances. Itachi curled up at his feet and slept as well - not that he wasn't already lazing around doing nothing.
This left the elated Naruto and the bemused Iruka the only conscious beings in the room.
Not for long though, for Naruto bounded up to Sasuke and yelled, "You! Get out of /my/ corner! And give my Itachi cat heater back to me! You have no idea how cold it gets around here at nights-"
Before Sasuke could do something drastic, Iruka smothered Naruto from behind with a blanket, causing him to crash head-first into the wall. Sasuke smirked, still with his eyes closed, and turned onto another side, allowing the blond to slink down the wall into a puddle of goo on the floor. In front of them both, Iruka clapped his hands loudly.
"Keep quiet, boys. You're huddling together tonight. No, Naruto, don't give me that dirty look. A ninja has to be able to survive under any condition with anybody - enemy or friend. This is a good time for you to learn, so be silent! Or no ramen in the morning!"
Immediately the blond bit his retort back. He silently curled up beside Sasuke, back to back and mumbled a string of complaints under his breath. Satisfied with this truce, Iruka made his way back to the bed, stopping before the bundled silver dog to pick him up and toss him over into the huddled group at the corner.
"Don't forget Kakashi!" He jested mirthlessly, and the dog barked in protest. Who /knew/ what would happen if he had to huddle together with a group that consisted of an unpredictable blond and two psychopaths from the same clan - both of whom were stark, raving mad in their own crazy way? He howled continually for Iruka's attention, hoping that the man would give heed to his plight, but it fell on deaf ears.
Naruto, however, turned over and bonked the dog once on the head. "Shut up, Kakashi! Go to sleep! Long day tomorrow!"
Although he stopped howling, the Jounin continued to whine. He was unable to stand up on his feet and walk away from the group because Naruto had bundled his entire body into a ball of bandages. He sniffled again and tried to roll away instead - until Itachi stretched luxuriously and easily blocked the dog from rolling anywhere.
They stared down at each other for a long time.
Then Kakashi swore he saw the cat smirk. Quite literally, the cat gave him a human smirk, before rolling over and draping himself over Kakashi's bandaged body, effectively stopping him from rolling anywhere now.
Despite what Itachi's form may otherwise suggest, the Uchiha was very, very strong.
Kakashi growled. If he could use his paws, he would have delivered Itachi a doggy punch there and then.
But other than that, the night was peacefully spent.
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Sasuke opened his eyes the next morning to find Kakashi lying on his stomach and Itachi draped across his face. He immediately gave a muffled yelp, successfully waking the black cat up and driving the creature away from feeding him anymore fur. Sitting up with a start, he gasped for breath and with annoyance rolled the still bandaged Kakashi away from him. Before he could stand up to confront the situation, he heard peals of laughter from a side, and quickly looked in the direction it came from.
Naruto was trying to stifle his laughter, with a rather sheepish Iruka standing beside him. Upon seeing that Sasuke had bolted awake and was now glaring at them with vehemence, Naruto burst into loud, noisy laughter. Iruka rubbed the back of his head in embarassment.
"Sorry Sasuke," he confessed, "You were sleeping too soundly to be awaken by any method at all, and I couldn't stop him from doing all of that..."
"HAHAHAHA!" Naruto pointed rudely at the still shocked Sasuke. "Hahahah! Three minutes! Three whole minutes with a cat lying across your face and a dog lying across your stomach before you finally woke up! Oh man! That's gotta be a first! BUAHAHA! Sasuke sleeps like a pig!!"
"I do not!" The raven-haired boy protested, clambering onto his feet and gritting his teeth. It was true. He had always been a light sleeper - especially after his ascension to Chuunin rank. Along with the promotion came more and more mission which could mean the difference between life and death by mere seconds of slumber. Three minutes was... unacceptably long. He attributed it to a lack of chakra and a lack of life-threatening missions just before he left the main portion of the village. Slapping a hand over his face, he mulled silently while Naruto continued laughing.
"All right, that's enough, you both," Iruka eventually cut in with a slightly annoyed voice. "Wash up, have your food, and go. Don't stick around here anymore than you should. Ninjas are never late!"
Itachi took this moment in time to pin Kakashi with a steady stare. And Kakashi quite literally stuck his tongue out at the cat.
After a while, when all routinely matters had been taken care of, Sasuke quipped, "Iruka-sensei, how much information about those thieves do we have on hand?"
The Academy teacher fished out a couple of sheets of paper from nowhere and frowned. "Not much. I don't know the people of this village as well as I thought I had. I mean, I can single out all the attackers if I met them on the streets, but I can't remember anything about them - profession, background, etc, save for a few more familiar faces."
Sasuke took the sheets of paper from Iruka and pondered over them while a concerned Naruto looked on in the background. "Naruto, this man... the butcher..." The boy turned slightly and showed the information to his companion, who nodded.
"There's only one butcher in this neighbourhood, and that description sure fits him," his growl slowly evolved into a snarl. "When I get my hands on his slimey, greasy hide..."
"That butcher, you boys are talking about..." Iruka blinked at the gapping entrance of the house, where there used to be a door but now was no more. "Is he of... medium height, with dark, curly hair?"
Naruto and Sasuke both glanced up at the Chuunin. "Yes..." Sasuke replied cautiously, wondering what the man was driving at.
"Was he also... chubby? Like," Iruka drove his fists into his cheeks, eking out a semi-chubby look. "Like this? And this?" He released his cheeks and formed a pot-belly gesture in front of his waist.
"Yes! He's got the roundest beer belly I've ever seen in the village!" Naruto cheerily replied, causing Sasuke to glare in disbelief at how thick headed he was. He, on the other hand, concentrated on observing Iruka's reaction.
"So he's medium height, curly-haired, chubby sized, wears all while, stained with splotches of grease and blood here and there, no?"
"Yes yes, absolutely right, Iruka-sensei! You've met that boar before?"
"Hm," Iruka replied non-committally. It was at this point of time Sasuke realised that Iruka's eyes had never left the hole that was the entrance of the house all this while. Before he could turn his head to find out, though, Iruka provided the reason why.
"Not really, Naruto," his tone was unreadable, "but I'm sure that must be him lying outside the gates right now."
There was a slight pause, as Naruto and Sasuke slowly turned their heads to look in the direction Iruka was pointing at.
A horror stirred in the pits of their stomach, and they were both momentarily stunned to see that Iruka was right.
The butcher, bloodied and battered, laid across the gates to Naruto's house, lifeless and motionless.
"What the-" Sasuke's fear quickly snapped out, as well trained instincts took over. He got quickly to his feet and armed himself lightly, just in case there was an attack. Iruka too had gotten onto his feet, although Naruto was still staring at the unmoving figure of the butcher with something akin to fright mixed with horror. In that pose, they waited for further movement on the part of the collapsed butcher.
But there was none.
Sasuke eventually relaxed, noticing as an afterthought that Kakashi - who had been relieved of his bandages evidently by Naruto earlier this morning, and Itachi were both teemed and ready for action, standing on either sides of the confused Naruto. He almost laughed. Until a sadistic, vicious aura permeated his natural chakra field.
He tensed instinctively, and Naruto shuddered violently in reaction. Naturally, Sasuke thought to himself, since Naruto had much better chakra control and therefore had a much wider and sensitive chakra field. He cursed under his breath. What was going on?
Very quickly, Sasuke got his answer. A low, moaning sound came forth from the forest near the house, and a dark figure slowly stalked towards it. When finally, it reached the glories of the morning rays, Sasuke found himself gulping in sheer surprise and taking an instinctive step backwards, almost tumbling over Naruto in the event. His lips moved to form words, but no sound escaped from his mouth. Even Iruka, arguably the more experienced of the two Chuunins, went pale with shock.
Kakashi growled angrily. Itachi hissed.
And the entity ruefully sang a low tune of woe.
To describe it as a pure statue of disgust was perhaps letting it off a little too much. To say that it would put the most mangled corpse to shame with its revoluntionary new styles of disfiguration wasn't anymore fitting either. There were fresh tears of skin - human or animal, probably no one would ever find out - hanging tenaciously off his every bone and tendon. It reeked of bloodshed that would put Itachi to shame, and it had a texture of bloated grime and impoverished skin.
In short, it was a terrible mixture of the worst things to have ever graced the ninja world, and it looked like it was going to grow into something even worse.
"Scent... people... Scroll," it moaned, when it came into view of the trio. It abruptly turned from it's original intention to walk past the house to stare right at the inhabitants instead, sending shivers up their spines.
"... Kill!"
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Part 5 of 7
27/5/2004
tougenkyou . net / xd
Warnings: Eventual fluffy friendship between the boys. Do not read if thou art not a fan of fluff!
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Crossroads of Life
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Chapter Four
The trip to the chief's house was not fraught with as much danger as Sasuke feared it would have been. Naruto knew all the back alleys and unused routes there were in the squares and public places - he had cultivated the habit of always mapping out his escape routes ever since he began his prankster career. This proved to be handy, for now they sped through the bustling city central at top speed through various nooks and crannies without anyone turning for a second look. Soon, they arrived at the other side of town, near a thatched, humble looking cemented building.
"That's his house there," Naruto whispered quietly to his companion, who nodded and stared at the house. Such poor quality for someone who was apparently of some status. Did anybody even live here at all?
The blond led the way around the walls of the building and leapt into the backyard quietly. Sasuke followed suit, and glanced questioningly at the blond, who had a maniacal grin on his face much like the one he had when he was going to throw the water balloons on the butcher. And Sasuke had never forgotten what /that/ had resulted in. He nudged Naruto rudely and whispered, "Why aren't we going in by the front? We're not here to steal anything or pull a prank - we're here for a mission!"
"Don't be such a wuss!" Was Naruto's immediate response. The boy tinkered slightly with a shuttered window and soon they were letting themselves into the long, empty hallway of the house interior. "We're just going to take the old guy by surprise! He never gets out much! Gotta spice up his life a little!"
"Nothing good ever comes out of any of your bright ideas," Sasuke grumbled, although there was no accuse in his tone. "Come on, let's just get this over with."
They approached a simple looking spiral staircase which obviously led to the upper levels. Naruto turned and put a finger on his lip, warning Sasuke with his eyes. The taller boy unwillingly acquiesced, then noticed that Naruto had shut off all traces of his existence again. It looked like he was serious about 'spicing up' the old man's life. A leer decorated the blond's face, before he disappeared up the stairwell in a blink.
Sasuke shook his head unhappily, wondering if he even wanted to follow. Maybe he should wait for the screams first. Besides, he wasn't as good as Naruto was with chakra control - any seasoned ninja could spot him if he got too close. Sighing at the self discovery, he sat glumly at the foot of the staircase, counting the time left until he would hear screams Naruto's noisy laughter.
He waited.
And waited.
And waited.
For what seemed like an unimaginably long amount of time he waited.
Suddenly, he stood up with a start and widened eyes. How could he have forgotten? The entire village was out for Naruto's life. Despite what the boy himself might say, the village chief could be a shady character himself! What if Naruto was-... ?!
Without really thinking, he dashed up the stairwell, pausing abruptly when he emerged on the other side to find himself staring down another long, dark and lonely hallway. There was just one discrepancy - the golden splotch of hair standing just barely outside a large, wooden door situated on one side of the hallway. There were voices from behind the door that even he could hear from where he stood. Sasuke squinted. He could not really see Naruto from this distance, but the fact that Naruto had yet to enter the room to make his grand entrance bothered him. He had not known the blond to be someone who held back. The scene was worrying.
Although his chakra had yet to fully recover from his medical stint last night, Sasuke concentrated, and to the best of his ability, suppressed his chakra, trying to imitate the way Naruto did it. He doubted the blond would let him off if he simply strode over like that and upset his plans for a surprise entrance. The least he could do was to try to mask his existence.
Carefully, the raven-haired boy made his way over to the blond.
He was surprised to find a look of pure trauma on his companion's face when he came within sight.
There were beads of sweat clinging onto the boy's face, but Sasuke knew it could not have been because of the cool hallway. Naruto had yet to acknowledge his approach, proving to him that the boy's mind was on something else. There was hardly anything in the hallway that proved to be able to induce so much shock, so there could only be one possibility.
"... after all, Naruto did kill Iruka's parents."
The voices from behind the door.
This time, it was Sasuke's turn to be shocked. He glared at the large door, as if it was the door itself which had spoken. Naruto? Kill Iruka's parents? That was impossible, considering Naruto was the same age he was, and could barely pull a punch without using his shadow clones. Was this why Naruto was so shell-shocked?
Before he could reach over and yank the doorknob, the door flew open from the inside, and along with the flinging came two kunai at top speed. Sasuke glanced at the unmoving Naruto and cursed silently to himself. Undoubtedly, he himself was the one to have given them both away. Quickly, he grabbed the blond and rolled them both to a side. The kunai embedded themselves onto the wall behind with loud thuds, making the boy hold his breath in a rush of cold excitement.
Any slower and the kunai would have been embedded in their heads instead.
Two shadows emerged from the brightly lit room which Naruto and Sasuke had been stalking. Immediately, the darker-haired youth snapped into instincts-mode. He crouched in front of the slowly recovering Naruto, who had blinked at him after they had tossed themselves to a side, and held a kunai in a defensive mode. His eyes mapped all the possible objects for Kawarimi and also a possible escape route. Quickly after that he returned his attention to his opponents, who were now fully visible against the splendour of the room lights.
And he gaped like a goldfish out of water.
"Oh," one of the man - the one with the smoking pipe immediately recognised Sasuke. "Aren't you..."
"Ho... Hokage-sama..." Sasuke acknowledged, out of pure reaction. While the old man smiled warmly, he cursed himself for having said that out loud. Now he was /really/ going to get sent back to Konoha. There was /no way/ he could win the Hokage - aging though he may be, in a one-on-one. He gritted his teeth and looked away in despondance. Coming here was a mistake! A mistake!
"Hokage... ?" It was Naruto's innocent question that pulled him back to reality. He glanced behind him slightly and noticed that the boy no longer donned a look of shock and was instead looking like any other confused child would. The Uchiha cocked an eyebrow.
"You don't know who the Hokage is?"
Immediately, the blond narrowed his eyes at Sasuke. Before he could shoot his angered reply, however, the Hokage laughed heartily, attracting all attention to himself.
"Come on, why are we all standing here? Get in and we'll talk," the old man smiled again, and gestured towards the room.
"Of course!" Naruto grinned right back and strode confidently into the room, the complete opposite of the frightened young man that was standing before the door, listening in to a conversation he should not have been listening to earlier. Sasuke stared at Naruto's back, unaware of the concern that was manifesting through his frown. Nobody should have been able to turn his mood around so quickly - especially after just hearing an earth-shaking piece of information like that. He saw from the corner of his eyes the old Hokage staring at him, however, and quickly darted into the room after Naruto, followed by the two old gentlemen.
He knew he was in some real trouble this time.
But somehow, he could not stop thinking about Naruto and how that declaration must have affected him.
"I think," Sarutobi put his pipe down, and looked seriously at the two younglings, "that you both have a lot of explaining to do."
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They took turns to recap what had happened as far as they could remember as regards the event Iruka had wanted them to report, carefully leaving out the fact that they had eavesdropped a single, disturbing statement of fact. Well, that was all Sasuke had heard anyway - Naruto had apparently heard more, having been there longer, and whatever the two old men had been discussing earlier must have been of concern to the blond, seeing how shocked he had been rendered even before Sasuke caught up with him. Out of a mutual, silent agreement, neither Naruto nor Sasuke mentioned it.
The report itself did not take long, since Sasuke was used to giving succint and detailed oral reports, but Naruto's constant interjections made it difficult for him to concentrate. When they had finally finished their delivery, it was already late afternoon, and the birds were chirping back at their nests already. The village chief was looking with pity and concern at the duo before him, but Sasuke wondered how true his expressions translated into actions.
After all, he was the one who had made that bold, lying statement about Naruto, wasn't he?
Sarutobi moved and rose to full height, seemingly absorbed in pondering something. It was Naruto who next spoke up, saying, "Iruka-sensei said we'd get further instructions if we come here. So like, what are those instructions, old guy?"
"Naruto," the village chief shook his head. "Don't be rude to the Hokage."
Naruto pouted, but said nothing in retort. He must have some vague semblance of respect for this old man, Sasuke thought to himself.
"Other than," the Hokage spoke up, having moved to the window to glance at the sights outside, "the problems you boys have highlighted to me just now, I have noticed another strange thing about this village."
He took a pause to turn around and look everyone in the eye. "Since my first step into this area of the village, I have felt an alien, malicious presence. It has the aura of a Kuchiyose, but yet I have never come across a summon of this sort of malignant aura before. There is certainly an atmosphere of strife and contention in this area here."
Sasuke wondered if he was the only one to catch the village chief flinching slightly, before reverting back to the expression of a concerned, eager village chief. "That is very bad, Hokage-sama," the old man was saying. "Is there anything we can do to improve the situation?"
For a short while, the Hokage scrutinised the village chief, and Sasuke was hopeful that he had caught onto something. Soon, however, he turned away and said, "We'll have to seek the presence out, but until we do, we cannot do anything about it. In the meantime, I want to tell you that I will severely punish the people who have disrupted Naruto's life, and will severely punish anyone else who continues to do so. Is that clear, elder?" He shot a narrowed, sideway glance at the village chief, who withered slightly and nodded.
"I... understand, Hokage-sama."
"Good," Sarutobi sighed, then walked over to Naruto, who was staring at him in absolute awe. "And you, Naruto, should stop playing tricks on the villagers if you don't want them on your tail all the time."
"Hear, hear," Sasuke could not help but blurt, earning a death-glare from Naruto.
"But they don't like me whether or not I play tricks anyway!" He huffed up self-righteously and retorted.
"Sad, but true," Sasuke once again, found himself unable to stop himself from interjecting. Naruto's antics were growing on him way too quickly for his own good.
"In that case, why don't I make you a deal?" Sarutobi was grinning when he said this, and Sasuke decided that this was a grin that screamed 'bad idea' in neon pink. "I'm going to send you and Sasuke on a mission to retrieve the Forbidden Scroll. If you manage to get it back successfully, I will consider letting you join the Ninja Academy," he had to pause slightly to hold a hand up to stop the protests of the village chief, who had stood up but had yet to say a word. The chief saw the gesture and sat back down rather dejectedly, a trace of dissatisfaction evident in his aura for a split second. Then he was back to being the amiable, all-smiles village chief. Sasuke decided that he really hated this guy.
Sarutobi continued, when he saw that no one else would attempt to disrupt him, "You've always wanted to be a ninja, haven't you?"
"Yes!!" Naruto nearly jumped out of his seat in joy. "But, who are you, oji-san? You're so cool!"
The Hokage laughed at the innocent pronouncement. "You could call me the principal of the Ninja Academy. Sasuke knows me too. You can ask him for more information later." The old man gestured, ignoring Sasuke's blatant /why-me?!/ look.
"Wow!" Naruto had stood up by now and had his fists balled up with excitement slightly away from his chest. "Does that mean you're the strongest ninja in the world?"
Sarutobi laughed again. "Hardly, Naruto. But I am the strongest in the school." He stated, no trace of brag or pomp in his tone at all.
"All righty!" Naruto now stood in one of his usual poses and pointed dramatically at the old man, "I've decided! I'm going to defeat you and then I'll become the Hokage! The strongest ninja of...-MRM!!"
"If you just shut up for a minute or two nobody'll think you're mute!" Sasuke growled dangerously from over Naruto's shoulder, having clamped his mouth shut with an iron grip yet again. He had lost count of how many times he had to do that to shut the idiot up now, but it was effective, so he wasn't complaining. Naruto, though strong, was hardly as strong as a seasoned ninja like Sasuke, and so while the blond attempted yet again to struggle against the Uchiha's hand so as to get his speaking rights back, Sasuke bowed slightly to a highly bemused Hokage and said, "I'm sorry Hokage-sama. Ignore the idiot. We will retrieve the Scroll at once. Will there be anything else?"
Upon hearing that, the blond momentarily stopped struggling, possibly shocked at the amount of politeness Sasuke was giving this Hokage guy. The raven-haired teen was, in actual fact, just dying to get out of the Hokage's area of reach. There was no way he was going to get dragged back to Konoha like a sorry bug after all the dramatics he had pulled with his family and friends. No way!
Therefore he breathed a huge inward sigh of relief when the Hokage smiled and nodded. "If you succeed in finding the Scroll," he said kindly, "then that will be all my business with you." He smiled, when it became evident that Sasuke understood the full import of those words.
"All the best."
Sasuke quickly bowed, not wanting to linger anymore, for who knew when the Hokage would change his mind? He then vanished from the scene quickly with Naruto via the window.
As soon as he got nearly far away enough, he let Naruto go and let all the air he had been holding out. He still couldn't believe he had managed to run away from the Hokage. Next time he wouldn't be so fortunate. He had to watch his step from now on. And he was about to think the situation through long and hard until, of course, he felt a sharp set of teeth clamp down on his hand.
"ARGH! GODDAMMIT!! NARUTO!!" Sasuke wrenched his smarting arm free and quickly backed away from the insanely grinning blond.
"No! God damn /you/!" The blond was saying, while sticking his tongue out. "How many bloody times do you have to clamp your stupid hand over my mouth? If you didn't want to hear my voice you could have just /asked/ nicely, bastard!"
"In case you haven't noticed, I /did/ ask nicely. It just didn't go through to your thick, retard brain, blockhead!" He saw that Naruto was all riled up to fire a reply and quickly added. "Oh, stop it already! We have to get that Scroll back, you remember? Do you wanna be a ninja or not?"
That effectively sobered the boy up. He grinned with all his teeth in sight and quickly replied, "Of course! Come on and follow me, Sasuke! We'll get that Scroll and prove to that Hokage guy I'm so powerful that I can be Hokage too! Nyeh nyeh!"
Although in disagreement to the latter part of that statement, Sasuke did join Naruto in walking slowly towards wherever he was going to walk to. "I wait for that day with great anticipation," he sarcastically commented, rolling his eyes when Naruto turned around to grin at him again.
There were so many questions he wanted to ask the blond, just as he was sure Naruto must have equally many questions to throw his way.
But when they exchanged a serious look of determination between each other, all doubts were thrown to the back of their minds.
It was action time.
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The man had long since dismissed his guest, and was now travelling down a cobbled, dirty path into darkness, with nothing but the pale light of a small, flickering candle. His footsteps echoed along the pathway, sounding eerie even to himself. But he had much more important things on his mind than fear at the moment. Reaching the end of his trek, he stood face to face with a bolted, metallic door, rusting at the edges.
His moment of hesitation was brief. A wrinkled hand reached out to push the heavy door open with a loud, yawning sound.
The antagonistic aura that filled the air made his hair stand on ends.
But he was far from afraid. His lips twisted into a malicious grin. From a dark corner of the cell he pulled out a familiar looking scroll and handed it to the darkness in the other corner. A slimey hand snaked out and grabbed it, filling the room with a low growl at the same time.
The man then stooped slightly and whispered, "Find the people whose scent has been left on this Scroll...
"And kill them. All of them!"
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Naruto and Sasuke had firstly returned to the dishevelled house to inform Iruka of the updates. The Chuunin had nodded and wished them all the best. He then insisted on making them both ramen. Since the table was not in a particular condition suitable for usage, both boys settled for sitting on the floor while waiting for their dinner. In particular, Naruto was bouncing away in anticipation. Sasuke had simply scowled, especially after Iruka told him that there was no rice in the house to make his onigiri with.
"Ramen! Ramen!" The blond said for what must have been the hundredth time in the three minute wait alone. Not only that, Naruto was so happy, he had began to roll the sleeping Kakashi bandage around like it was a toy. "Aren't you excited, Kakashi? We're gonna have ramen for dinner tonight!"
"Stop shaking the dog, Naruto," Sasuke was looking at the blond with disapproval. He did /not/ want his Tsukiyomi to go to waste. Even /now/ he had yet to fully recover from the complicated Genjutsu, and he was probably going to be in withdrawal for a few days. "He needs all the rest he can get."
"Yes, rest, yes," Naruto agreed choppily, still grinning. He lifted the large, sleeping dog into his lap and craddled him like a bolster instead. "But he needs food to recover quickly too, doesn't he? Isn't that right, Kakashi?" Naruto rocked the bandaged dog gently.
Sasuke decided that he would do better to save his breath and simply let the idiot do what he wanted to. After all, it was not like he was tossing the dog around like a frisbee, so there was no danger yet. He noticed a splotch of black seated regally beside him and turned his head to find himself staring at Itachi, who was casually curled up in a ball of black fluff, staring at Naruto glomp the sleeping Kakashi with something like vague interest in his eyes.
Noticing Sasuke's stare, Itachi turned to look at the younger Uchiha. They stared at each other for a long time, until Iruka emerged from the kitchen and placed two bowls of instant ramen with some vegetables and eggs thrown in for extra measure in front of the boys. This effectively broke the Uchiha staring competition, and Itachi stood up, stretched, and bounded off into whatever dark corner he usually stayed in during this time of the day. Sasuke sighed and picked his food up, grimacing. Why was he always getting into trouble like these?
"Ooh!" Naruto, on the other hand, was thoroughly enjoying himself. "This is so delicious, Iruka-sensei! You make the best ramen! It's been so long since I've had them!"
Of course, he had blathered all of that through a mouth full of dangling noodles, and briefly Sasuke wondered how he had even managed to decipher the words. He prodded his ramen gently and took an experimental bite. The taste of miso lingered briefly in his mouth, and he blinked. The taste wasn't so bad. He could get used to this. Although he could still /not/ see how Naruto could eat it everyday.
Iruka had laughed lightly when Naruto commended his cooking. He sat down beside the boys, ignoring the death glare Sasuke was giving him and patting them both on the head again. Naruto grinned at the touch and Sasuke scowled. "Iruka-sensei, shouldn't you be in bed with all your injuries?" He quickly asked, trying to hide his embarassment. His family was not exactly very pro-touch, and if he did get touched, it usually resulted in pain, therefore his discomfort with the situation. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed that Naruto had looked up from his ramen at that statement.
"That's right, Iruka-sensei!" The blond's voice was muffled, but horrified nevertheless. "You're injured! You shouldn't be doing all these things! Come on, get back and rest already!" The boy made as if he was going to stand up and haul the Chuunin back into the bed, when said Chuunin shook his head and sighed.
"Naruto, Sasuke," he began, voice low and sombre. "I am not a kid, and I know how to take care of myself. Both of you handled the situation last night very well." He glanced up slightly with pride at the duo. "So I'm recovering faster than anyone would, all thanks to the both of you. So don't worry about me. Worry more about your mission. You have a lot at stake too, don't you?"
This quietened the two boys down, and their thoughts began to drift, as they slowly nibbled away at their dinner. Iruka smiled at their pensiveness. It was rare that he could ever motivate his students to think about their lives for themselves, but with Naruto and Sasuke, it seemed like they had it all planned out in their hearts already.
As the silent dinner slowly drew to a close, Iruka stood up and said to the boys, "Whatever it is, I want you to remember just one thing."
He saw a pair of blue eyes and pair of obidisian eyes lock attentively on him, and almost laughed. Instead, however, he continued.
"True strength only comes when you're protecting something precious to you."
A breeze of acknowledgement seemed to blow through the house at that statement. Even Sasuke was caught off guard at Iruka's staunch revelation.
"Something... precious?" The next voice to be heard, however, was Naruto's. His eyes were wide with sincere questioning.
"It may be something you love very much," Iruka continued, still smiling, "like a book, a toy - even plants and animals, anything that you love, and has sentimental value. Or sometimes," he held the word for a while, letting the previous information sink in first, "it may be a person. A family member. An associate. Or," he made doubly sure to look at Sasuke in the eye at this part, "a friend. Whatever it is, when you find yourself fighting to protect something at the risk of death - that's where you'll find true strength. Understand?"
Sasuke quickly looked away, not wishing to answer that. In theory, he understood what Iruka said. In actuality, however, he had no idea how it worked. He didn't think he was able to give his life for anybody, anything, anyone at all. It was just not how his life worked. Stealing a glance at Naruto, he could tell that the blond was moved. He sighed. The little idiot was moved by anything!
"That's kindda abstract, Iruka-sensei," Naruto was saying, still with eyes wide with amazement. "But you know, I think I sorta get it. Strength comes from protecting things dear to me, right? Like, when I get beaten up by the villagers so they don't hurt Kakashi or Itachi, right?"
"Getting beaten up doesn't really seem like strength to me," Sasuke mumbled softly.
"Not really, Sasuke," Iruka turned his attention to the darker-haired boy, smiling gently. "Sometimes, strength is demonstrated in your willingness to suffer for the people you love."
The Uchiha ninja's face twisted into incomprehension, then he snorted and stood up. "I'm putting the bowl away," he stated blandly, before disappearing into the kitchen, leaving Naruto and Iruka staring after his departure trail.
Naruto, in particular, had a pensive, thinking expression on his face.
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A while later, when the moon slowly crept into the inky-black skies, the house descended into its usual chaos.
"But why??" Naruto pointed dramatically and screeched.
"Naruto," Iruka's voice was firm, "Kakashi has yet to recover from his wounds. You /cannot/ ask him to help you out with the finding of the Scroll. /You/ are the one trying to be a ninja here, not Kakashi!"
From the floor, Kakashi woofed in agreement.
"Argh! Not you too, Kakashi!" Naruto grabbed his hair in frustration. "But Iruka-sensei! I don't even know /where/ to start searching! I'd bet even a real ninja would need some tools for something like this!"
"Idiot!" Iruka drove a fist into Naruto's head. "You don't always get to be able to bring tools along with you on your missions! What if you have to go solo, without any partners and communication? What will you do? This is training, Naruto! Training! You can't always depend on others to get things done sometimes!"
From the corner where he had been ruminating together with Itachi, Sasuke let out a loud sigh. "Iruka-sensei," he said while holding a hand over his head, which was hurting with all the shouting that was going on. "You do have a point. But so does Naruto. Sensei, this isn't training. This is a mission. From the Hokage himself. There's something of utmost importance we need to recover and we shouldn't waste a single moment more. We could use a bit of help from Kakashi - and we won't strain him out too much. What do you say, sensei? Anymore time lost and we'll have lost the Forbidden Scroll forever to those criminals who-" He paused here, fire burning in his eyes for a while, before resuming, "... nevermind. Anyway, I think I actually agree with the idiot this time. We should get Kakashi to sniff out the whereabouts of the Scroll."
While Iruka blinked at Sasuke's lengthy monologue, Naruto had growled and yelped, "Don't call me an idiot!", entirely missing out on the other point Sasuke was making, in that the Uchiha was agreeing with the blond. Sasuke rolled his eyes and refused to dignify that with a reply. He looked instead to Iruka for an agreement.
The sensei had stood rooted in surprise for a while. Quickly, though, his surprise melted into a pleasant smile. "I guess you're right, Sasuke." He was saying. "But don't worry about the Scroll getting lost. The village area has been completely cordoned off since the situation. Not a single ant will leave or enter the terrain without Hokage-sama knowing about it. We're taking no chances here."
Sasuke looked vaguely impressed, whereas Naruto looked confused. "What are you guys talking about?" He asked, only to have Iruka waving in his face.
"Don't bother about that now, Naruto. Concentrate on your mission. Everybody else is an enemy now. Don't let your guard down." The Academy teacher warned.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto quickly bounced to his feet and replied with excitement. "Who do you think I am? I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I'm going to become the strongest ninja the world, the mo... mayuge-"
"Ho. Ka. Ge." Sasuke interrupted.
"..." The blond shot him a glare. "Yeah! Hokage! Then I'll kick the asses of all those people who beat you up, sensei! Just you wait and see!"
The Chuunin laughed heartily again at Naruto's declaration. "I'm looking forward to it, Naruto," he beamed at the boy, who beamed back shamelessly. "But the Scroll is secure here, and it's now quite late. Take a rest before you start your mission tomorrow. Better to be fully powered up than to be half dead, and, if it's tomorrow," Iruka wagged a finger, "I'll even let you take Kakashi along."
Naruto's eyes lit up. "YAAY!" He leapt for joy. "All right, tomorrow it is then! I can't wait!"
While the blond danced around the room in joy, Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the smiling teacher. "Are you sure that's a good idea, sensei?" He asked quietly. "I thought it was a really important Scroll that would give us a lot of trouble if it ended up in the wrong hands?"
"It is," Iruka replied, but shrugged. "But I have Hokage-sama's word that the Scroll won't be running out of this area of the village. That's got to say something, right?"
"Why doesn't Hokage-sama retrieve the Scroll himself?" Sasuke probed further, unable to reconcile the facts. "Since he's here and everything..."
"He has some other agenda on his mind, doubtlessly," the sensei glanced away from Sasuke's eyes. "Perhaps he is a little too busy for this, perhaps he needs to do something else first, or perhaps," he laid a reassuring hand on the Uchiha's shoulder, "he simply trusts the both of you to be able to pull it off. Whatever it is, we'll wait and see first. I'll try to compile some information for you about the people who stole the Scroll while you guys take a rest. You'd need that, right?" He watched as Sasuke nodded mutely. "Then you need to give me some time too. That said and done, shall we turn in for the night?"
The raven-haired boy gave his ex-teacher one last, scrutinising look, before turning away and backing into the corner he had taken to, by the fireplace, where Itachi also was hanging out in.
"Good night," he offered curtly, then curled up into a comfortable ball, leaned against the corners, and closed his eyes to indicate that he would entertain no more correspondances. Itachi curled up at his feet and slept as well - not that he wasn't already lazing around doing nothing.
This left the elated Naruto and the bemused Iruka the only conscious beings in the room.
Not for long though, for Naruto bounded up to Sasuke and yelled, "You! Get out of /my/ corner! And give my Itachi cat heater back to me! You have no idea how cold it gets around here at nights-"
Before Sasuke could do something drastic, Iruka smothered Naruto from behind with a blanket, causing him to crash head-first into the wall. Sasuke smirked, still with his eyes closed, and turned onto another side, allowing the blond to slink down the wall into a puddle of goo on the floor. In front of them both, Iruka clapped his hands loudly.
"Keep quiet, boys. You're huddling together tonight. No, Naruto, don't give me that dirty look. A ninja has to be able to survive under any condition with anybody - enemy or friend. This is a good time for you to learn, so be silent! Or no ramen in the morning!"
Immediately the blond bit his retort back. He silently curled up beside Sasuke, back to back and mumbled a string of complaints under his breath. Satisfied with this truce, Iruka made his way back to the bed, stopping before the bundled silver dog to pick him up and toss him over into the huddled group at the corner.
"Don't forget Kakashi!" He jested mirthlessly, and the dog barked in protest. Who /knew/ what would happen if he had to huddle together with a group that consisted of an unpredictable blond and two psychopaths from the same clan - both of whom were stark, raving mad in their own crazy way? He howled continually for Iruka's attention, hoping that the man would give heed to his plight, but it fell on deaf ears.
Naruto, however, turned over and bonked the dog once on the head. "Shut up, Kakashi! Go to sleep! Long day tomorrow!"
Although he stopped howling, the Jounin continued to whine. He was unable to stand up on his feet and walk away from the group because Naruto had bundled his entire body into a ball of bandages. He sniffled again and tried to roll away instead - until Itachi stretched luxuriously and easily blocked the dog from rolling anywhere.
They stared down at each other for a long time.
Then Kakashi swore he saw the cat smirk. Quite literally, the cat gave him a human smirk, before rolling over and draping himself over Kakashi's bandaged body, effectively stopping him from rolling anywhere now.
Despite what Itachi's form may otherwise suggest, the Uchiha was very, very strong.
Kakashi growled. If he could use his paws, he would have delivered Itachi a doggy punch there and then.
But other than that, the night was peacefully spent.
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Sasuke opened his eyes the next morning to find Kakashi lying on his stomach and Itachi draped across his face. He immediately gave a muffled yelp, successfully waking the black cat up and driving the creature away from feeding him anymore fur. Sitting up with a start, he gasped for breath and with annoyance rolled the still bandaged Kakashi away from him. Before he could stand up to confront the situation, he heard peals of laughter from a side, and quickly looked in the direction it came from.
Naruto was trying to stifle his laughter, with a rather sheepish Iruka standing beside him. Upon seeing that Sasuke had bolted awake and was now glaring at them with vehemence, Naruto burst into loud, noisy laughter. Iruka rubbed the back of his head in embarassment.
"Sorry Sasuke," he confessed, "You were sleeping too soundly to be awaken by any method at all, and I couldn't stop him from doing all of that..."
"HAHAHAHA!" Naruto pointed rudely at the still shocked Sasuke. "Hahahah! Three minutes! Three whole minutes with a cat lying across your face and a dog lying across your stomach before you finally woke up! Oh man! That's gotta be a first! BUAHAHA! Sasuke sleeps like a pig!!"
"I do not!" The raven-haired boy protested, clambering onto his feet and gritting his teeth. It was true. He had always been a light sleeper - especially after his ascension to Chuunin rank. Along with the promotion came more and more mission which could mean the difference between life and death by mere seconds of slumber. Three minutes was... unacceptably long. He attributed it to a lack of chakra and a lack of life-threatening missions just before he left the main portion of the village. Slapping a hand over his face, he mulled silently while Naruto continued laughing.
"All right, that's enough, you both," Iruka eventually cut in with a slightly annoyed voice. "Wash up, have your food, and go. Don't stick around here anymore than you should. Ninjas are never late!"
Itachi took this moment in time to pin Kakashi with a steady stare. And Kakashi quite literally stuck his tongue out at the cat.
After a while, when all routinely matters had been taken care of, Sasuke quipped, "Iruka-sensei, how much information about those thieves do we have on hand?"
The Academy teacher fished out a couple of sheets of paper from nowhere and frowned. "Not much. I don't know the people of this village as well as I thought I had. I mean, I can single out all the attackers if I met them on the streets, but I can't remember anything about them - profession, background, etc, save for a few more familiar faces."
Sasuke took the sheets of paper from Iruka and pondered over them while a concerned Naruto looked on in the background. "Naruto, this man... the butcher..." The boy turned slightly and showed the information to his companion, who nodded.
"There's only one butcher in this neighbourhood, and that description sure fits him," his growl slowly evolved into a snarl. "When I get my hands on his slimey, greasy hide..."
"That butcher, you boys are talking about..." Iruka blinked at the gapping entrance of the house, where there used to be a door but now was no more. "Is he of... medium height, with dark, curly hair?"
Naruto and Sasuke both glanced up at the Chuunin. "Yes..." Sasuke replied cautiously, wondering what the man was driving at.
"Was he also... chubby? Like," Iruka drove his fists into his cheeks, eking out a semi-chubby look. "Like this? And this?" He released his cheeks and formed a pot-belly gesture in front of his waist.
"Yes! He's got the roundest beer belly I've ever seen in the village!" Naruto cheerily replied, causing Sasuke to glare in disbelief at how thick headed he was. He, on the other hand, concentrated on observing Iruka's reaction.
"So he's medium height, curly-haired, chubby sized, wears all while, stained with splotches of grease and blood here and there, no?"
"Yes yes, absolutely right, Iruka-sensei! You've met that boar before?"
"Hm," Iruka replied non-committally. It was at this point of time Sasuke realised that Iruka's eyes had never left the hole that was the entrance of the house all this while. Before he could turn his head to find out, though, Iruka provided the reason why.
"Not really, Naruto," his tone was unreadable, "but I'm sure that must be him lying outside the gates right now."
There was a slight pause, as Naruto and Sasuke slowly turned their heads to look in the direction Iruka was pointing at.
A horror stirred in the pits of their stomach, and they were both momentarily stunned to see that Iruka was right.
The butcher, bloodied and battered, laid across the gates to Naruto's house, lifeless and motionless.
"What the-" Sasuke's fear quickly snapped out, as well trained instincts took over. He got quickly to his feet and armed himself lightly, just in case there was an attack. Iruka too had gotten onto his feet, although Naruto was still staring at the unmoving figure of the butcher with something akin to fright mixed with horror. In that pose, they waited for further movement on the part of the collapsed butcher.
But there was none.
Sasuke eventually relaxed, noticing as an afterthought that Kakashi - who had been relieved of his bandages evidently by Naruto earlier this morning, and Itachi were both teemed and ready for action, standing on either sides of the confused Naruto. He almost laughed. Until a sadistic, vicious aura permeated his natural chakra field.
He tensed instinctively, and Naruto shuddered violently in reaction. Naturally, Sasuke thought to himself, since Naruto had much better chakra control and therefore had a much wider and sensitive chakra field. He cursed under his breath. What was going on?
Very quickly, Sasuke got his answer. A low, moaning sound came forth from the forest near the house, and a dark figure slowly stalked towards it. When finally, it reached the glories of the morning rays, Sasuke found himself gulping in sheer surprise and taking an instinctive step backwards, almost tumbling over Naruto in the event. His lips moved to form words, but no sound escaped from his mouth. Even Iruka, arguably the more experienced of the two Chuunins, went pale with shock.
Kakashi growled angrily. Itachi hissed.
And the entity ruefully sang a low tune of woe.
To describe it as a pure statue of disgust was perhaps letting it off a little too much. To say that it would put the most mangled corpse to shame with its revoluntionary new styles of disfiguration wasn't anymore fitting either. There were fresh tears of skin - human or animal, probably no one would ever find out - hanging tenaciously off his every bone and tendon. It reeked of bloodshed that would put Itachi to shame, and it had a texture of bloated grime and impoverished skin.
In short, it was a terrible mixture of the worst things to have ever graced the ninja world, and it looked like it was going to grow into something even worse.
"Scent... people... Scroll," it moaned, when it came into view of the trio. It abruptly turned from it's original intention to walk past the house to stare right at the inhabitants instead, sending shivers up their spines.
"... Kill!"
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Part 5 of 7
27/5/2004
tougenkyou . net / xd