Enjoy!!

The Long Way Home

Part 3

Damsel In Distress

Chapter 1/4

New shoes, medicine, a warm bath or six and a good couple of nights sleep made the world to Naruto. It also helped his outlook to have a plan ahead of them. Usually, he wasn't really one for big plans, but he had to admit he felt better that they now knew what they were doing, where they were going and roughly how far they had to go. Of course, the 'far' part was still a worry in the back of his mind but instead of thinking how far they had to travel he instead focused on the positive things.

For the next few months, he had no missions, no one to check in with, no training, no one to berate him when he lapsed on any of those counts. Which weren't necessarily negative things. He loved going on missions and training to become stronger but the idea that after the last few years of hectic grueling toughing it out that he might now have some time to himself didn't suck. That also wasn't to say he didn't already miss his friends and his life in the village but there was nothing he could do about it and besides, no doubt Sasuke would take care of the berating for lacking part happily for the next few months.

He had to admit that being here with Sasuke probably helped him look on the bright side even though it was difficult in some moments to figure out exactly why. The previous nature of his relationship with Sasuke hadn't often been real clear to him in the whole time they'd known each other. In the academy and the early days of team seven they had hated each other, that was clear enough. Later came a grudging respect and something of a friendship. For Naruto a deep bond had formed with the first person his own age who displayed even the most basic regard for him. Then Sasuke had left, and Naruto had spent the next few years obsessively training in the hopes of becoming strong enough to bring Sasuke home for Sakura and get their missed friendship back. To say Sasuke had resisted this was a gross understatement. And it had become only worse after Itachi and died.

Going more than a little insane from his tormenting past, Sasuke had directed his anger from his now dead brother too who he believed was responsible for Itachi's fate, namely the whole of Konoha and a few individuals in particular. It had seemed that Sasuke was on a path he would not be dissuaded from, and it was either allow him to live and lose just about everything Naruto loved or sacrifice Sasuke and most probably himself in an attempt to stop him.

In the end Sasuke had... well he'd stopped himself it seemed. Why, Naruto had no idea and Sasuke seemed most definitely not in the mood for sharing. But Naruto did know this: during their fight he, Naruto, had lost. He hadn't been able to kill him in the end. No matter his determination to stop Sasuke he'd faltered and that was all Sasuke had needed to put him down. But then Sasuke could have killed him, could have gone on to wreak terrible devastation on the village but he hadn't.

Naruto desperately wanted to know why Sasuke hadn't killed him, hadn't gone ahead and destroyed the village but was unwilling to go through another argument just to get told off again and still get no answers. Had Sasuke been unable to continue, or had he decided to stop? The question had tormented Naruto for over a year now and there didn't seem to be a forthcoming answer for him any time soon.

Which was a pity. He had never been so uncertain about how things stood between them. Even when he had resolved to kill Sasuke, or thought he had, it was clear to him what needed to happen. But now he just didn't know. It was easy enough to pretend that nothing happened, that there was nothing unresolved, but Naruto knew that his want to be friends with Sasuke now depended entirely on why Sasuke had stopped himself from fulfilling his plans back then. Of course, Naruto decided to look on the positive side for the moment. After all, Sasuke had had a year to come back and finish the job but he'd all but vanished in the intervening time only to turn up now to share Naruto's lost fate with him.

So, if nothing else, Naruto would think the best, treat Sasuke as he always had and keep doing so until Sasuke broke and gave him some answers, or it finally drove Naruto insane from not knowing and he up and beat some answers out of the tight-lipped bastard.

So, in light of his new optimism, he saw their predicament as an opportunity if nothing else. They were more or less stuck with each other, and he was glad of the company. Sasuke might be a jerk most of the time, but he had a good head for plans and strategy and could think of things that would never occur to Naruto on his own. With Sasuke's guidance, they were already more or less on their way home, however long it took, and it was reassuring to have Sasuke on his side instead of at odds with him as usual.

Well most of the time.

But in any case, their next goal was getting to the town closest to the border they would next need to cross in order to gain some information about the crossing and stock up on supplies before leaving this country behind them. Naruto couldn't wait. This whole place seemed wrong to him on many levels and it chaffed more than a little that he couldn't help out. He didn't like standing by and watching people suffering just because of some stupid laws that governed their entire lives. But Sasuke had made it clear to him that if he tried to help, especially when not at full power, he might just make things worse. Normally this wouldn't bother Naruto who never really thought about the consequences to himself only that he might be able to help others, but Sasuke had gotten rather heated about it. You might say that he had taken the idea rather personally too and Naruto had not missed the meaning behind the words, 'Sometimes people just need to save themselves otherwise it won't mean as much.'

Is that what Sasuke had done by stopping himself back then if that is what in fact had happened to him? Naruto wanted to think so, so for that alone he would heed Sasuke's advice and leave the people of this country to their own devices.

So wrapped up in his thoughts for most of the journey was he that he barely registered it when Sasuke grabbed his arm and all but pulled him off the road and into the soft dirt at the side.

There were a few other people sharing the road with them today and Naruto noticed that all of them had done the same, leaving the road to stand motionless in the dirt, presumably to make way for a large but slow moving carriage, trundling up the road behind them.

At least that's all Naruto saw before Sasuke grabbed the top of his head and forced his eyes down to instead look at his feet. His first reaction was to fight against the treatment, but Sasuke's hand was like a steel grip, fingers laced through his hair so that any movement would pull on his spikes causing eye-watering pain.

"Teme, what the hell!?"

"Stand still and keep your head down," Sasuke hissed to him.

"Why?"

"Because that's what everyone else is doing."

It took Naruto a few moments to see this as being good advice and he nodded in such a way to prevent the least amount of pain to his head. Sasuke let him go and the two stood side by side as the sounds of the carriage rolled ever slowly closer.

Now, unless Naruto was meditating, he found it really hard to just be still and quiet for too long. He'd actually noticed that while doing so he tended to slip into his meditative state without quite realizing it. But Sasuke's warnings about drawing in nature energy was still swirling in his head so he tried to keep himself as alert as he could. He heard Sasuke sigh as he fidgeted in place, but he tried to ignore Sasuke's annoyance with him. Instead, he focused on the sound of the carriage getting ever closer, imagining what it could be that would make every traveler on the road simply stop, make way and avert their eyes simultaneously.

Maybe it was someone powerful, maybe it was someone infamous, maybe it was royalty. A pretty princess perhaps out traveling on some important deed. In Naruto's mind she looked a little like Sakura though with long flowing hair and jewels, dressed up in a fairytale pink puffy dress and sparkling green eyes. All of this wondering was probably why when the carriage came up in front of them, Naruto's head rose of its own accord to lock eyes through the carriage window with what indeed turned out to be sparkling green eyes and a pale though undeniably beautiful face. Her long black hair, not pink after all, framed her faced and Naruto was further disappointed to realize it didn't glitter with jewels at all. But she was even prettier than he'd imagined so the disappointment didn't last all that long.

He smiled before realizing it and he saw the green eyes widen dramatically which is when he realized they looked so sparkly because they were watery from crying as evidenced by her red rimmed eyes and pale drawn features. Seeing such a beauty in distress made him frown.

But the expression didn't last long because a moment later the carriage lurched to a stop and he heard the yell of a man's voice from inside the carriage and a guard jumped down from the back, brandishing a heavy wooden club and advancing menacingly.

Naruto held up his hands and took a step back, jostling Sasuke in the process. He felt Sasuke grab his side to steady himself, but Naruto didn't spare him a glance.

"Uh sorry I-" Naruto began, starting to realize that he had definitely done something very wrong.

"Don't fight, " Sasuke warned him softly just before he grunted, and Naruto sensed his presence gone from behind him. He looked around to see Sasuke in the dirt, his hand to the back of his head. A guard had snuck up and bludgeoned Sasuke from behind while they hadn't been looking. He was amazed Sasuke hadn't seen or heard it coming.

Naruto saw the flash of anger pass over Sasuke's features, but true to his own word he didn't get back to his feet or attempt any sort of retaliation. He just lay half propped in the dirt and tried not to openly glare at his attacker. Obviously Sasuke thought that playing the meek bunny in this situation was the best way to go and he might have been right except for the mere fact of seeing Sasuke restrain himself so much, not to mention taking a vicious whack to the head for something he was not responsible for, made Naruto's head a little hot. And it wasn't until he felt the pain in his hand that he realized he'd hit the man who'd hurt Sasuke before turning to lash out at the man who had first approached him as well.

Both men went down in the dirt but when three more came to their rescue Naruto realized just what a hole, he'd dug himself into. He didn't know what had come over him. But people hitting others for no reason, seeing the effort it took for Sasuke not to attack back, knowing what it cost him to do it and seeing the pain on his face had just made him react. So, when a third man aimed a baton at his head, he merely blocked it, but then he felt something heavy impact to the side of his knee and that leg collapsed under him. After that it was raining painful hit after painful hit till a loud voice called the attack off. Naruto cast bleary eyes up toward a man in a uniform similar to the others but with a definite air of authority. But the man wasn't looking at him, he was looking at Sasuke.

"Do you know this man?"

As quickly as he could Naruto turned his head towards Sasuke, shaking his head minutely, trying to tell Sasuke to lie.

Sasuke met his eyes before looking away quickly.

"No."

"Then leave him," the head guard instructed the others. "This one," he continued emphasizing his point with a sharp kick to Naruto's ribs, "will come with us. Law breakers will not be tolerated."

Sasuke kept his head low and stayed in the dirt as they bound Naruto's hands with a long length of rope, which they then tied to the back of the carriage. Lucky for Naruto that the carriage was so slow moving because he would have had trouble keeping on his feet with his injuries otherwise.

When the carriage had gotten a safe distance away Sasuke got to his feet and glared in the direction it had gone for some time taking stock of the situation he was now saddled with and heartily cursing Naruto in his head for being such an uncontrollable idiot.

Sasuke should have kept his head down by force, he knew that now. Naruto was too inquisitive for his own good and Sasuke should have known that curiosity would drive him to take a peek at the intriguing carriage. But hindsight did him no good here and Sasuke was now left with two options.

The first was to follow the carriage to the town and find out what was going to happen to Naruto. The other was of course to forget about Naruto and leave his stupid ass to fend for itself.

Sasuke did ponder these two options for a long time eventually realizing that the carriage was most probably heading for the town he had been on his way to anyway so he might as well follow.

Naruto's side and head hurt from the beating, so he was actually relieved when it finally pulled to a stop just inside the town. His disappointment was short lived though when the guards came around and before untying his hands laid into him again with the batons. When he was little but a barely conscious bloody heap at their feet, they eventually must have decided to cut his hands free. He felt himself be partially picked up roughly by his arms and half lead, half dragged up a few wooden steps and into a musty smelling building. He was dragged through the building for a while, down a hallway toward the back where he was roughly shoved forward. He barely managed to get a hand up in front of him to prevent his head smashing against the floor and he hazily heard the metallic clang of a cell door closing behind him. Heavy footsteps started walking away and Naruto managed to raise his head enough to try and take in surroundings.

He was in a fairly roomy cell with a heavily stained straw mattress in one corner, a foul smelling bucket in the other and a set of bars blocking his escape. He could hear the faint sounds coming in through a window set just above head height in the wall above the mattress. The window itself had thick iron bars across it as well just in case Naruto could magically make his body the width of his head and somehow squeeze through.

After a few painful moments Naruto managed to gain his feet and he shuffled over to the bars. The cold iron under his fingers felt thick and strong. He could hear an angry voice filter down the hall from the front room and he strained his ears to hear what was going on.

"... Absolutely cannot be tolerated," the angry voice was ranting. "My daughter is not for the eyes on the common scum that litter the road. I demand he be made an example of!"

A somewhat tired voice replied. "Of course. I will see he is beaten my lord."

"Yes, I want him beaten. Afterwards I demand his death."

"Death, my lord?"

"Yes of course. I doubt your overlord Sachio will require anything less either for this slight on his bride to be."

"... Uh, yes. Of course, my lord. I will see to it personally..."

Naruto's head swam. They were going to kill him just for looking at a girl? He vaguely remembered that law about not being able to look at your betters but there had been a small part of him that never really believed they would actually kill someone for doing it.

"Kurama, if you're still with me, this is a real good time to wake up," Naruto suggested softly.

He heard light footsteps coming down the hall and Naruto gripped the bars tightly to keep himself upright. Whatever this was, he wanted to face it standing up.

But this new threat turned out to be a beautiful black haired girl around his own age with bright green eyes and a solemn expression. It was the girl from the carriage. He spent a good long few moments staring before he remembered what had gotten him into this mess and looked down at his hands instead.

He heard the girl move closer and then watched as small pale hands slid over his.

"I don't think it will matter if you look at me now," she told him softly.

Her hands felt warm against his and he looked up at her face once more. She looked so sad.

"I am so sorry about this," she continued. "I cannot believe my father would take the matter this far.

I promise I will try to change his mind. It will be a few days before they will kill you, I think.' What Naruto really felt like doing was having a little rant of his own about stupid laws and even stupider fathers but if he learned nothing else from this latest experience, he could at least appreciate the need not to let temptation get the better of him.

"Thanks. I'm Naruto by the way. I'm uh, sorry I looked at you."

"My name is Amaya," she replied surprised apparently by his reaction. "I am sorry too, Naruto. I will try to help you, my father is... old fashioned."

"Yeah, so I heard."

"Amaya, where are you!"

Amaya took her hands from Naruto's quickly and backed up a step. She gave him another sorrowful expression before quickly leaving the way she had come.

Naruto finally let himself slide to the floor and rested his sore body up against the bars. He really hoped her father was in a listening sort of mood.

On the bright side, this township seemed a lot more relaxed than the last one. There was no gate inspection, no walls surrounding the town and very little guard presence on the street in comparison.

So, Sasuke walked into town with no one to impede him and was only just inside the town itself when he spied a familiar carriage starting away from a squat beige building just up ahead. The carriage seemed to have the same guards hanging off it as before but was minus one blond idiotic dobe tied to the back of it, so Sasuke had to assume that they'd left him in the building they'd just left.

The building itself had a crest on a post at the front that Sasuke didn't recognize but could guess easily enough that it passed for the local guard post or law office for the town. He picked an inconspicuous place to lean and watched for a while as guards went in and out of the building now and again.

The first thing Sasuke noticed was that there was a lot of them. More than he'd first thought actually.

He counted at least two dozen guards going about their business and that was probably only this shift and wouldn't include whoever stayed in the building either. Fighting through that many wasn't a pleasant thought. If Naruto wasn't too injured and he managed to break him out quickly they might stand a chance. But then they were fugitives with no hope of gathering information about the border or being able to gather supplies. At night time he figured he might have more luck but he doubted his odds would improve all that much.

After dusk he watched a pair of guards go out on patrol and decided to follow them hoping that the topic of the moron who had looked at the carriage was top news. Sasuke managed to stay close enough to the pair to hear without alerting them to learn that yes, Naruto's capture was top gossip.

Apparently, Naruto had stared at the daughter of a very prominent lord who was now demanding Naruto be tortured for a few days before they went ahead and killed him. Well, that answered the question of what was going to happen to him but honestly Sasuke hadn't really expected any different after Naruto's small show of resistance. He'd read quite a lot of the law book and knew what passed for justice here.

Another more slightly pressing fact he learnt was that apparently this town had a curfew and that the guards would arrest anyone out walking the streets after a certain time at night. So, to avoid being caught and possibly locked up as well, Sasuke detached from his information source and slipped out of town.

Just east of the town he found a large but not particularly well-used bridge for shelter next to a stream. He decided to camp down underneath it for the night and think over his options.

Basically, he was back to his original two: Try to help Naruto, a task that might do nothing but end up in both their deaths, or: leave Naruto behind and free himself from what was increasingly becoming a troublesome burden.

TBC