He woke up with metal pressed to his throat. Sasuki was still as a statue perched over him, her knees on either side of him, just below the shoulders, one arm holding the blade there against his skin. His eyes opened slowly, blinked a few times as he remembered where he was.

"What the hell are you?"

The words were cold, empty, with just a flicker of fear hiding under them.

"Dear God! I-I'm an Imposter Sasuki, that's all, are you seriously going to kill me for that?! After I saved your life?" he asked incrediously, looking up into those dark black eyes, desperately trying to display his genuine innocence.

She said nothing, although she didn't slit his throat, which he was happy about.

"This whole time?" she asked more herself than him, words full of disbelief, a hint of betrayal even. "What will you do if I let you live?"

"Walk you to the nearest civilization, maybe see if I can find someplace better than the mine to earn my bread, I don't know,"

Their eyes remained locked for a long time, his pleading with hers full of determination and doubt. When she stood up he took the deepest breath of his life, and not just because of the weight moved off his chest. Then she said that one simple word and refilled him with fear.

"No,"

"No?"

"You know who I am, even if you were a human I'd be right to kill you," she explained. "Unfortunately you saved my life, and I'm not going to punish you for that, not as the head of a dignified family,"

"So then-"

"You're coming with me, at least until certain enemies are in the ground,"

Without another word about it, she took to her feet and began strolling off, right back the way they'd come yesterday, leaving the body of their local law keeper firmly above the ground. The thought of getting away from it got him to follow without question. Not like there was any particular hurry, it was a long walk to the nearest civilization.

A long walk with nothing but forest on either side of a long, dusty dirt road. The fresh air was damn welcome, as were the sounds of nature, birds chirping and wind blowing through the foliage. Though none of that changed the fact that this was reckless.

It was the whole reason he'd followed Sasuki when she left. Walking the roads alone was dangerous for anyone, but for a young woman with a face like hers? Every traveler on the road or farmhand in the field that she happened to bump into was a potential threat. He couldn't live with himself if he left her to that alone.

Although the new knowledge that she'd had half a decade of combat training made him just a little bitter about his selflessness. That and all the threats she'd rewarded him with thus far. Sasuki had always been a bit stuck up, but never sadistic or cruel, her willingness to kill came as surprise to him. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little curious about his old friend's past, and after a few hours of walking that curiosity outweighed his fear.

"Soooo, since I already know too much and all, what's a highborn lady doing in an orphanage?"

She didn't answer right away. A few seconds passed, then a minute then two, then finally she spoke.

"My older brother got tired of waiting to inherit," she said plainly as if that was the whole story. To be fair he could fill in most of the gaps from that. "He decided to tell King Lukbern that dad unexpectedly died of illness, the same one that killed mom, and the guards, and the servants and anybody else on the massive family estate who might tell of his grievous crimes!"

Her voice wasn't rising, if anything it was growing quieter.

All the same, he'd never heard so much emotion in her voice.

"I'm sorry,"

"Yeah, thanks," she said coldly. "What about you? What the hell's your deal, you can heal people?"

"Suppose so, I really have been at the mine since I was a baby, I don't know much. Hell, I only know that 'Imposter' term from the stories some of the caravanners would tell,"

"Can you do anything but heal?"

"Nothing useful, and the only healing I can do takes hours. I can keep a mortal injury stable but if you can't take whatever wants to kill you down I won't be much help,"

"In that case take the sword," she said, casually shocking him as she unlatched the loot from her dead victim from around her belt. Wait, was she just pawning evidence off on him? It felt heavy in his hands as she shoved it into them. It was heavy on his hips too. It didn't help that feeling of dread, that knowledge that when they reached the next town she could just run to the sheriff and blame the killing on him.

She wouldn't do that to him though…right?

He had a good eight hours to mull that question over as his companion ignored him; right up until the sky started turning orange.

"We need to make camp,"

"With what, do you have a tent in that satchel there?" he bit back, just a little on edge from recent events.

"With your damn cloak!" she hissed back, no less annoyed or exhausted by the travel. "You lay it down on the dirt, we lay down on the cloak, and then we use mine as a blanket," she explained slowly, like he was a small child. He scoffed, but did as he was told. The thought of lying down was enticing, and her proposal sounded nicer than lying down in the dirt.

It was actually quite cozy when they got settled. Physically anyway, mentally Naruto felt like a deer just pre-flight, like a squirrel four feet away from a dog, afraid to breathe. His very female traveling companion had none too gently forced him to his side, and wasted no time shoving herself into him, even draping his arm over like a blanket.

She threatened him with her eyes as she did this, practically daring him to say something.

He kept his mouth shut.

Her body was hard and robust, but each limb had a shell of softness, or maybe that was just her skin. That skin that was only two thin undershirts of fabric removed from his. Keeping 100% still took all o his mental energy, so much so that he jerked when she spoke up near half an hour later.

"Would you fucking relax?" she mumbled sleepily. "God it's like sleeping against a brick wall,"

"Sorry uh…" he trailed off without thinking of anything clever, though he did as she said and finally let his body relax. She let out a breath, then scared the crap out of him all over again by snuggling closer, shimmying until he was spooning her like a lover.

It was a brisk night in her defense.

In his defense, her pert little ass was literately rubbing right against his crotch when it began to harden. This time her body went stiff. So much so that he thought about clamping a hand down over that dagger on her hip before she literately killed him. Or worse.

"Sorr-"

"-don't be a child," she cut him off sharply. "I know what happens to a man's pee-pee when he sleeps,"

Despite her words, she didn't relax for a while. Not until she dozed off he would wager. When a content, happy noise slipped between her lips, with no follow-up reaction, he was certain. Sasuki would put that dagger in her own throat before she admitted that this felt nice.

It did feel nice though.

So nice.

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