Chapter 2. Title from "On/Off" by Snow Patrol.


I Let On Like I Was A Little Deaf

- 2 -

Naruto lay face-down under a tree trunk, various bits of nature poking him in the stomach and the ground cool and damp beneath him. The fallen tree was a mammoth sized redwood, easily nine feet across, and provided total cover from visibility. Hidden in a crevice between the mossy ground and the dead tree was a blond boy of thirteen years. A thin slice of light allowed him to see from underneath the massive trunk to watch the feet of children go by. He was waiting patiently for the chosen child to come walking past, after which Naruto planned to scramble out and make a run for base before he got tagged. Under most circumstances Naruto was not a patient child, but hide and seek was different. Hide and seek was the ultimate game of showing how clever one could be and how fast one could run. Naruto would endure a cramped space patiently, knowing it meant upholding his 2 year record of never being caught and tagged.

After waiting under the tree for what Naruto guessed to be about 5 or 6 minutes, he heard a rustling sound, and crouched lower into the darkness. Before his eyes three pair of feet landed, though Naruto couldn't tell from where. Had they jumped from the trees? Not many people could get into the upper branches of redwoods. He squinted, vision sharpening. They wore boots, all the same, all well-worn and dirty.

Ninjas!

Naruto almost gasped, but caught himself. His body went stiff, and he listened as they began to converse. The one farthest from Naruto spoke first, her voice gravelly and rough, but distinctly feminine. The next speaker, male, sounded younger, a few years older than Naruto at best.

"This is it. The coast and the village proper are less than half a mile south east of our position."

"That sounds right. I can already smell the ocean. And my hair's starting to curl."

"Are you two ready?" This one, a mere three feet from Naruto's motionless and terrified position, sounded somewhere between the other two in age, also male. His coolly authoritative tone, exactly how Naruto always imagined a ninja would sound, sent a shiver of excitement through Naruto. He knew he should be scared—they might kill him if they found him. But that didn't seem to matter in the face of the simple fact that ninjas were here, in their tiny fishing village. None of his neighbors could afford to hire ninjas, so they had to want something the village had.

"Yes."

"Just say the word."

"Good. One more time: we've seen now how close the enemy is, but nothing's changed as far as we're concerned. We enter the village, get the container, bring the guardians along if necessary, and get out. We stay in that village no longer than two hours. If forced to split up, whoever has the container heads straight for Leaf territory, and doesn't stop till inside the walls."

"Right."

"Right."

"Let's go."

All of a sudden their feet were gone, and the forest was quiet again. Naruto let out a breath, and closed his eyes in relief. Closing his eyes didn't make the shivers stop, however. Ninjas, there were ninjas heading toward his village. And they wanted something, possibly were going to take it by force. They were Leaf nin.

Like most citizens of Wave Country, Naruto could tell you that his village was about equal distance between the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Mist territory, though of course only ninjas themselves actually knew the locations. What it meant that Leaf Nin were here Naruto didn't know. Ninjas passed through Wave Country often, especially when escorting caravans to the take to the coast, but his village was off the main trade routes and ninjas were rarely seen. Naruto had never seen one in person till this day.

Naruto frowned and pulled his body cautiously out from the crevice. He got to his feet and tried to brush some of the dirt and twigs from his clothes and hair. None of the other children seemed to be around anymore. Naruto began to run toward home, adrenaline and curiosity surging through his veins.