Enjoy!

The Long Way Home

Part 5

New Territory

Chapter 2/2

Four days after first finding the river, Sasuke and Naruto got their first glimpse of an actual human being that lived in this country.

That afternoon they had found the promised road that ran more or less alongside the river. It wasn't much of a road truth be known Just dirt and small stones that might allow one carriage at a time to pass along it with Tittle room for leeway either side. But Sasuke was glad of the small sign of some kind of civilization after being on their own in the woods for so long.

But he soon found out as they trekked along into the late afternoon that apparently civilization didn't use this road after all. There had been no sight of any other person using the road at all and Sasuke found that surprising. Sure it might not be a huge road but the roads in Adessa had hardly been much better and had been almost choked with people on foot traveling along from one town to another.

Oh well, he figured he shouldn't be too discouraged by the differences because neither of them wanted this new country to have any sort of similarity to the last. The lack of people proved nothing in the end but Sasuke hated not knowing what they were walking into all the same.

Naruto must have been feeling the tension too, Sasuke realized. Most of the way he'd kept up his incessant prattle just like always but once they'd found the road, Naruto's chatter had become a little more hesitant and a lot more forced sounding. Sasuke rarely it ever paid attention to what he was actually saying but he realized he must have been listening to the tone of the one-sided conversation if nothing else because he noticed the change in atmosphere almost immediately. Eventually the sound of Naruto's voice dropped off entirely and the pair walked along in silence for almost a whole hour until the quiet started to grate on his nerves.

Okay so more than three weeks ago he'd been annoyed by Naruto's inability to be quiet but as he'd noticed the day he'd tried to leave Naruto behind. by now he'd become accustomed to it. it was like an everyday white noise to him like the sound of cicadas chirping on a not day and when the noise suddenly went away the mood changed and Sasuke felt himself growing tenser. It was almost too silent and a little too eerie for him.

Dusk was fast approaching when the two spotted a dust cloud ahead that signaled movement on the road and both stopped in their tracks to peer ahead. They stayed completely still for a whole minute staring at the dust cloud before Sasuke started to feel stupid. Naruto's silence and his own concerns about their new environment had made him a whole lot jumpier than he'd felt in a very long time and he'd just started to realize how absurd that was. Even without his chakra, who was he to be afraid of anything?

"Don't stare with your mouth open like that, you look retarded," Sasuke informed Naruto.

Naruto quickly shut his mouth and scowled at Sasuke. "Don't pretend you're not nervous."

"I'm not," Sasuke lied. Well it was becoming less of a lie with every passing moment anyway. "A random traveler on the road is hardly going to start me quaking, dobe."

"Then why did you stop dead when you saw it?"

Apparently age had made Naruto a little more perceptive, which was oddly annoying.

"Because you stopped. You seemed like you needed a moment to find your spine."

"Eat me, teme."

And with that Naruto started off at a brisk pace towards the oncoming dust cloud making Sasuke have to jog for a few seconds to catch up. He didn't say anything when he caught up but kept pace with Naruto till the dust cloud got closer and eventually resolved itself into the shape of an old man sitting astride a tired looking donkey heavily laden with chests and sacks. The man plodded steadily toward them and Naruto's relief at seeing that it was just an old man was evident on his face. He smiled broadly and waved to the man heartily.

"Hey old man!"

The old man raised his head toward the sound and Sasuke could see a mop of unruly white hair covered over by a fading grey cap. The man looked mildly surprised to see them but didn't look afraid.

The man halted the donkey next to them in the middle of the road and looked the pair of them over. Sasuke realized they must look worse for wear. They were tired, hungry, mildly sunburnt and Sasuke was still shirtless having given Naruto back his shirt for the day.

Naruto looked at the man brightly though and gave him a big grin that soon faded when the man spoke.

"So where did you two escape from?" The man asked in a slow but at least semi amused voice.

Naruto looked confused by the question but Sasuke saw the joke for what it was. But on well, they might as well test out the waters now with nothing more dangerous than an old man and an almost dead donkey to bar their path.

"Adessa," Sasuke replied in all seriousness.

Naruto's head snapped around toward Sasuke with wide eyes, obviously surprised that Sasuke had given them up so easily.

But the old man merely raised an eyebrow at him. "Well that would explain why the both of you look half-starved and homeless then."

"Yes, nice catch master sleuth," Sasuke returned snidely.

Trying to be subtle Naruto grabbed Sasuke's wrist and squeezed hard, either warning him to stop giving away their secrets or stop being an asshole. Sasuke didn't know why Naruto bothered. Sasuke would be the last one to give away a possibly damaging secret except when such information might help more than it hurt. Getting the old man's reaction - a native of the new land - to Adessa seemed worth it for the moment.

"Sorry about my friend," Naruto apologized while Sasuke tried to dislodge Naruto's grip without appearing obvious about it. "We've had a hectic couple of weeks."

"Yeah I can see that," the old man replied eyeing Sasuke in a less than friendly way. "But being in Adessa will do that to a person."

Naruto smiled his best charming smile at the man. "Being new and everything to your country we were wondering if we might talk to you. We've never been here before so it'd be great to get the lay of the land from a traveled man like you."

The man shifted his gaze back to Naruto and a ghost of a smile crossed his features. "You mean old man, like me?"

Naruto grinned. "My teacher always told me that age means wisdom."

The old man chuckled for a moment and smiled. "Your manners might need a bit o' polishin' son, but you seem like a good sort. Here, I was hoping to be well off the road by now but with night coming I gotta camp out. There might be some food and wise words in it for you both if you wanna help an old man out by unloading the donkey for the night and keepin' watch for bandits and the like."

Sasuke scowled. "And what makes you think we won't rob you?"

The iron grip on his wrist tightened to a painful level but he refused to even wince. This old guy had only known them both for a minute and now wanted to share his camp with them. It seemed too weird to Sasuke to be on the level.

The old man gave Sasuke the eye again. "Well if it were just you I might have second thoughts right enough."

Naruto's grin turned a little nervous. "Don't mind Sasuke, old man. I think the heat has gotten to him."

Sasuke rolled his eyes but kept silent after that.

Sasuke trailed along after the pair as they wandered off the road to find a spot to set up for the night chatting away like they were old friends or something. The old guy seemed to like Naruto instantly and he could hear the conversation punctuated with occasional laughter as the pair carried on. He found a spot to sit nearby and watched as Naruto went happily about unloading the man's things and setting up the camp while Sasuke watched with an increasing amount of interest.

He was interested because as the time went on he became less suspicious and more aware that the old man really did mean to help them out. He seemed to be honestly content with Naruto's company and by the time Naruto came over to where Sasuke sat with a steaming bowl of food to give to him, Sasuke realized fully that the man simply wanted to help them because he had taken a shine to Naruto.

Sasuke supposed he shouldn't find this so baffling. Well that wasn't true, he always found Naruto's apparently overt likeableness to other people a little baffling. When they had been younger Naruto had always seemed to leave a place with all its inhabitants completely in awe and in love with him. Sasuke only had the vaguest understanding of why. Back then Naruto had not been the most skillful warrior but his resistance to giving up and inciting others to do the same left people with a sense of hope and accomplishment that they associated with his influence. Sasuke never really got it, but he at least understood the basics of it even if he did think it was all a little stupid.

But even back then it had generally taken time for people to warm up to Naruto. However now Naruto had grown out or first grating on people's nerves and went straight for the adoration part. A warm friendly smile, basically polite with an edge of boyish charm and people seemed to like him from the get go. People saw the open honesty in his face and immediately trusted him.

Sasuke found seeing it in action to be both sickening and wholly fascinating at the same time. It was almost like a magic spell. Sasuke just wished he'd used some of that charm while he was being arrested in Adessa and a lot of bothersome trouble might have been avoided.

Naruto handed him a bowl and sat down beside him. The old man was out of earshot of where Sasuke had chosen to sit. And in the darkness just outside the firelight, Sasuke was pretty sure the old man couldn't see him either.

"I don't think he's gonna kill us in our sleep," Naruto told him as he watched Sasuke watch the old man.

Sasuke ignored him and spooned some food into his mouth. It tasted a little gamey but good none the less.

"He's been telling me about the country and stuff. It's pretty interesting," Naruto tried again.

Sasuke continued to eat

"Apparently Arrei isn't like Adessa with the crazy laws and stuff. It seems pretty normal really. Except there's an upper class and a lower class where the upper class is really rich and the lower class is really poor which kinda sucks but at least we don't have to worry about wearing the wrong thing on the weekend. But of course if you do break the law you'll get arrested by the local guy till a group of wandering lawman come for you and try you."

Sasuke paid quick attention to that news. "Wandering lawmen?"

"Sure," Naruto affirmed apparently happy Sasuke had started paying attention. "They're called Hunters and they have the power to put you on trial and give out sentences on the spot. I 'spose it's like a traveling courtroom only the courtroom can hunt you down if you try to escape. Apparently they're really intense about tracking criminals down too. But the old guy, Teruo, says it isn't so bad. They won't try anyone without really good cause and like I said, the laws here sound like the same ones from where we're from so we're not likely to have to worry unless we do something really bad."

Sasuke didn't like the sound of a band of tracker lawmen who could hunt you down wherever you went hanging over his head. But he supposed in the end it was only something to worry about if he actually committed a crime he could be blamed for. And if necessity drove him to break the law, Sasuke always knew how to cover his tracks and leave no witnesses.

"You should come over and meet Teruo properly. He's pretty knowledgeable about the place but I don't think you made a good impression. I told him you weren't a bad guy but-"

"I don't need you to make excuses for me," Sasuke interrupted.

Naruto gave him an odd look. "Huh?"

"'Sorry about my friend, we've had a hectic week," Sasuke repeated.

"Well it sounds better than, 'oh he's an asshole, please ignore the bastard, he's always like this.' Besides, I wasn't lying. I mean you're not always real nice but your mood isn't helped by the situation much."

"We're not friends, that was a lie," he pointed out. "But I guess you aren't totally useless," Sasuke told him without thought.

Naruto gave him a look of mildly hurt surprise. "What?"

"You give the guy a gormless smile and he's suddenly a wealth of information. It's useful."

Sasuke fully expected Naruto to snap back at him but the angry 'jerk' retort never came making Sasuke move his eyes from the old man to Naruto's face. And for once Sasuke couldn't quite place the expression.

He didn't look hurt exactly, he just looked kind of shocked. Sasuke had imagined Naruto would either take offense or alternatively see a compliment in there somewhere that would probably end up with him getting his cheek kissed again but Naruto looked like he wasn't about to do either. Weirdly Sasuke felt at a bit of loss without either annoyance happening.

Eventually Naruto just got back to his feet.

"I'm going to take a leak. Keep an eye on the old guy, kay?"

Without waiting for a response, Naruto headed off into the trees until he was well out of Sasuke's hearing.

Naruto didn't know how far he walked away from the camp. He didn't mean to go very far, he just wanted somewhere quiet where he could sit down for a moment by himself.

He supposed he shouldn't be shocked by what Sasuke had said. Sasuke obviously thought Naruto's contribution to the expedition was minimal at best and was apparently pleased Naruto had managed to get the information from the old man even it he did snipe about the details.

The problem was that Naruto didn't totally disagree. Oh sure, he came up with a plan or two but he was mainly following Sasuke's lead at this point and that bothered him for a lot of reasons. Mainly it was the feeling that he was less of an equal. Getting Sasuke to admit that they were friends in the past had been trying at best. And he'd only admitted it after he'd seen Naruto as some sort of rival and the only close thing he had to a real friend in the entire village. But if Sasuke didn't see Naruto as an equal now it was no wonder he so pointedly reminded him that they weren't friends either. It had hurt a lot to hear it, even if he'd known it deep down all along. But he also knew he didn't want things to stay that way either.

In a fight they were probably pretty evenly matched. But in the here and now, fighting prowess didn't account for much when what they really needed was resourcefulness and planning. The problem with all that was that Sasuke was resourceful, he was smart and he was good at strategizing. When it came down to it, he really didn't need Naruto for that. He'd teamed up with Naruto initially because two were stronger than one. Well perhaps Naruto could even the odds a little more by being the stronger of the two and therefore ready it fighting prowess did once again become a factor.

He sat down on a fallen tree log and tucked his feet underneath him, settling into his meditative state like an old habit. Sasuke's warnings about trying to accumulate nature energy were not forgotten but Naruto didn't really agree on the reasons why it was such a bad idea. well not entirely.

At the least, he'd accomplish nothing. But if Sasuke's theory had any merit, perhaps the energy might be enough to tip the scales a little more in their favor. Perhaps then Sasuke would be forced to see Naruto's worth in their partnership.

it might take quite a few tries, but Naruto figured he could find the odd moment to sneak away as many times as it took to get this right.

When he got back to camp a little later his head was aching a lot. Luckily it looked like the old man had gone to sleep for the night and Sasuke had rejoined the camp and lain down to sleep on the opposite side of their little campfire.

Well Naruto assumed he was asleep. But when he walked past, a hand darted out quick as a snake and curled around his ankle almost making him fall into the fire.

"Sasuke, what the fuck!" Naruto hissed trying not to wake up the old man.

"That was the longest piss in history," Sasuke noted.

"So? What do you care?"

"I don't, " Sasuke informed him releasing his grip. "But your new friend was positive you had been killed by bandits. I spent an annoying half an hour assuring him otherwise."

"Well how were you so sure I wasn't in trouble?" Naruto asked more than a little annoyed himself. After all, Naruto had been gone a lot longer than he'd anticipated and Sasuke hadn't appeared to go looking for him in that time.

Sasuke gave him a strange look. "If I thought you were someone to lose a tousle to a petty bandit group we wouldn't be traveling together," Sasuke told him shortly.

Naruto didn't really have a comeback to that. So while it was true Sasuke hadn't been concerned for his well being, hardly a surprise, he had no reason to be worried anyway because he knew Naruto could take care of himself. It was a form of Sasuke compliment wherein he first verbally slapped you in the face then metaphorically kissed it better. It was a shock to the system of first being hurt then being comforted that never failed to leave Naruto at a loss for words. And even more annoyingly he couldn't even get angry about being slapped after being warmed by the vague praise.

"My head hurts," Naruto said instead sitting on the ground by Sasuke's head and putting his aching head into his hand. Talking to Sasuke had definitely made his headache worse.

Sasuke raised his head and watched him for a moment before ultimately lying down again and rolling over.

"Get over it."

In the morning Naruto's new friend made a mark on their map noting for them the large town he had just come from telling them both that it barely another day's walk away. He and Naruto shared a few more words and laughter before they waved each other on their way and the two groups went their separate ways.

But strangely after the old man left, Naruto didn't start up his usual daily chattering again and Sasuke was without his white noise once more.

"What did Teruo tell you about the town?"

Naruto looked toward Sasuke's unexpected voice obviously a little surprised by the question.

"A bit. It's pretty big, we should be able to get some more clothes there. He goes there to trade for cloth. Apparently they make a lot of it there, it's what the town is known for. There will be a lot of shops, some slums and a few really big rich houses too."

From the way the information was delivered, Sasuke guessed that Naruto wasn't angry at him so Sasuke let the conversation die wondering why he'd even wanted to know in the first place.

Being at odds with each other wasn't uncommon ground for either of them but if Naruto was going to be pissed at him Sasuke at least wanted to know why. He couldn't work out why Naruto had walked off for so long last night but apparently it hadn't been in a huff like Sasuke had immediately suspected. He just didn't like not knowing. But it seemed moot now anyway as Naruto then began to chat away and Sasuke tuned out.

At least things seemed to be back to normal.

TBC in Part 6

See you Monday :)