Chapter 6: The Storm

Naruto stared up at the large wooden mast of the ship he was about to board. It was a big step: if he got on this ship he would be gone for months, if not longer. There would be no turning back. If he wanted to return to Konoha, it would be now or never. That's when the sudden realization hit him. A realization that he had been doggedly refusing to face. If he wanted to go back it had to be now, but that was the problem.

He didn't want to go back.

He didn't want to go back. He didn't want to tell Sakura that he'd failed, or that he'd broken his nindo. He didn't want to put up with her yelling, hitting, and crying. He didn't want to explain to Tsunade that he had decided to abandon the village because some stupid flowers told him to. He didn't want to deal with Kakashi always being late. He didn't want to beg Jiraiya and Kakashi in order to get any kind of training done. He didn't want to deal with the looks and snide remarks of the villagers. He didn't want to do any of that.

He didn't want to be Hokage anymore.

Naruto let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding and clutched his chest. It felt like something had sunk deep into his gut and turned sour, yet it also felt like some colossal weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He didn't know it was possible for him to not want to be Hokage. That was just, heretical, or something. He had always wanted to be Hokage. He couldn't remember a time where being Hokage hadn't been his end goal, yet here he was. Getting on a ship to a faraway land he had never been before because he didn't want to go home, if he could even call it home anymore. He almost felt sick, but at the same time, he was completely fine.

"Hey, Hige-san!" Someone shouted near Naruto. "Who's the kid with the funny whisker marks?"

"That's Haku-kun," Hige responded from far away. "he's got a strong back and an even stronger work ethic. He's coming along too. Don't worry, if he gets in the way just point him in the right direction, he'll learn."

Naruto was immediately drawn out of his introspection.

'I'm an idiot!' Naruto yelled at himself internally. 'Who cares about orange clothes when you have fucking whisker marks! How am I supposed to keep a low profile with whisker marks on my face! Quick, think of some bullshit!'

"Actually," Naruto explained. "they're tattoos my parents gave me as a child. It's a family tradition thing, don't worry about."

'Please buy it, please buy it, please buy it-'

"Oh, yeah I guess that makes sense." The man said with a shrug. "I've seen people do weirder things. Did you know there's a clan in Konoha that's obsessed with getting as fat as possible? Bunch of weirdo fetishists if you ask me."

"Hehe, yeah, sounds weird." Naruto chuckled before walking up onto the ship, breathing a sigh of relief. 'Thank the gods! Still, I'll need to find a way to hide my face in the future.'

He was carrying everything he owned in his jacket-turned-bag at his side. He had tied the bottom shut, zipped it up, and shoved everything he had down the neck of the jacket and carried it by the sleeves. It probably looked weird, but it was functional for now. His stomach grumbled a little; he had forgotten to get dinner last night, and the small rice-ball he had for breakfast wasn't enough to keep him full for long. Hopefully, Hige wasn't kidding when he said food would be provided. Speaking of Hige...

"Haku-kun!" Hige shouted a bit too loudly as he slapped Naruto on the shoulder. "Good to see you made it, I was afraid you'd chicken out. You are just a kid after all, and working on a trade ship is hard work."

"Heh, yeah don't worry about it. I said I would come, so I did!" Naruto chuckled nervously. "That and I really do need the money."

Hige nodded "Aye, I understand, you don't need to explain yourself to me." The large man let go of Naruto's shoulder and stepped away "Here, let me show you your quarters. You're the new guy so you get the barf bunk."

"Barf bunk?" Naruto asked, his head suddenly filled with images of a vomit-covered bed. "I didn't bring any cleaning supplies."

"Ha! Don't worry, it's clean… for now." Hige said as he led Naruto down a set of stairs on the ship as several men hustled about. Once under the deck, Naruto was lead to the forward of the ship, on the second floor. Opening a door Naruto was shown his 'room.' The thing was barely large enough to hold a bed, which was a small, simple mattress on a wooden frame. Although he supposed he should be grateful he had 4 walls and a door. He had been expecting to sleep in hammocks surrounded by 30 men.

"So why is it called the barf bunk?" Naruto asked, not entirely wanting an answer.

"Because it's right near the bow, meaning you're gonna feel every wave and bump as we sail, and if you don't have a stomach of steel," Hige shrugged. "well... barf bunk."

Naruto frowned but nodded, tossing his stuff onto the bed. "Nice." He said sarcastically. His stomach wasn't weak, but it didn't know how he would handle sleeping on a roller coaster.

Hige laughed and clapped Naruto on the shoulder again. "Don't worry, Haku. You'll be fine! You ready to get to work? We're about to head out."

"Sure," Naruto nodded. "But, how are we gonna set out when there's no wind? It's not like you want me to row is-" Naruto looked at the man who simply smiled in return. "Right, guess I'm on it, just point the way."

"Just head right down those stairs. You'll see a guy in a funny hat. Tell him you're new and ask him where he wants you. Just follow his orders and you'll be fine."

Naruto just nodded. '20 thousand ryo a day Naruto,' He thought to himself. 'just remember, you're getting 20 thousand a day.'

UN:PoA

Tsunade stared down at the report on her desk with unseeing eyes. Her mind preoccupied with what she had just learned. Naruto's body was gone.

'Who could have done this?' She thought to herself. 'Iwa? No, they hated the Fourth but that's no reason to take Naruto. Besides, they wouldn't have left Minato's grave untouched. Akatsuki? That doesn't make sense: the Kyuubi died with Naruto. There's no way they would be stupid enough to try and still extract it. Oto? Orochimaru is a right bastard, but he already has Sasuke, there's no reason for him to want Naruto as well. Unless he's after the Uzumaki's famed longevity? Surely Naruto couldn't have been the last of the clan right? It would be far easier for him to simply find another Uzumaki. Not to mention Naruto wasn't even a pureblood Uzumaki, only on his mother's side.'

"Knock-knock." A voice came from the window nearby.

"Why is it that the only times I see you anymore is when something terrible has happened?" Tsunade asked her former teammate.

"Because we both know that you're never actually going to fall for me and I can only waste so much time trying before I get depressed?" Jiraiya answered as though he was asking himself a question. He was being surprisingly honest. Although given the events that had taken place over the last month or so, Tsunade supposed it was only fair that the man's usually jubilant persona had faltered. "With my work keeping me out of the village, the only reason I have to return is with bad news or to make sure you're ok after you inform me of bad news."

"So, you're here to check up on me? That's surprisingly sweet for a legendary super pervert." Tsunade responded raising an eyebrow and smirking.

"Thank you! I still get up enough gusto to try and win your heart occasionally." Jiraiya laughed. "How's the search for the 'Newkage' going?" he asked, chuckling at his terrible pun.

Tsunade's slightly improved mood at being distracted by Jiraiya left the second the conversation returned to business.

"Terribly. Kakashi turned the position down as I'm sure you know, and I simply can't find any other Jounin that could handle the job. Gai is certainly skilled enough, but he's too… shall we say 'unique' to handle sitting in an office making political decisions all day; he'd turn me down to continue training his team as well. I've looked into several ANBU members but you know them. They can't go two weeks without the adrenaline rush of a near-death experience; let alone going months, or even years, without combat."

"What about Shukaku? He's handling most of the logistics right now anyway, right? Surely he would be capable of handling the title." Jiraiya offered.

"He's more than capable, but he would never accept the position." Tsunade rebutted. "The only person I can think of that could have both the ability and the desire to be Hokage would be Hyuuga Hiashi."

"Hiashi? Are you sure that's a good idea?" Jiraiya asked.

"No," Tsunade responded immediately. "that's why I haven't asked him. Hiashi is too focused on his clan, he would only use the position to further the goals of the Hyuuga, not Konoha as a whole."

The room filled with silence for a few moments. The awkward pause was only broken by Tsunade's sigh.

"How long are we going to talk about things that aren't Naruto? We both know it's why you're here." She asked. "I haven't thought of a single plausible theory, and Kakashi's tracker hounds haven't managed to pick up even a hint of a trail of the grave robbers. It's like they were never even there."

"All I know is what was in the message you sent me. Who found out he was gone? Give me a timeline."

"A Hyuuga by the name of Hinata discovered he was missing last evening. She found Naruto's hitai-ate at his grave and realized that it shouldn't be there since he was buried with it. Using the Byakugan she discovered the absence of his body. Another Hyuuga was brought in to confirm that the body was gone, and he did so. Naruto's hitai-ate has been confiscated and now you know just as much as I do."

"Why leave the hitai-ate behind? To send a message?" Jiraiya speculated.

"Well, if it was then it was a pretty shitty message considering we don't know who sent it or what it was supposed to mean." Tsunade replied taking a bottle of sake out of the drawer in her desk.

"And you said there was no scent of the grave robbers, but what about Naruto? Any scent of him?" He asked

"None, there was a lingering smell on his hitai-ate, but no trail. Meaning-"

"-That they took his body a while ago." Jiraiya hummed to himself, scratching his chin. "How has everyone reacted to this?"

"They haven't, I've made this whole situation an S-class secret. The only people that know are you, me, Shizune, Kakashi, Kurenai, the Hyuuga girl, Shukaku, and the Hyuuga that was called in to confirm Naruto was gone," Tsunade responded. "The citizenry has continued to deify Naruto and would demand war if they so much as suspected Iwa or Oto took his body. If it was just people that mourned Naruto's death against people who didn't care, things would be more reasonable. Unfortunately, the arguments are between two groups that both claim to care for Naruto, so it's not 'how much should we care' it's 'which of us can care the most.'"

Jiraiya frowned. "That's… worrying."

"There was even a vote to have his face carved into Hokage Mountain."

"Did it pass!?" Jiraiya asked, eyes wide as he suddenly realized just how insane the situation had become.

"Of course it didn't pass, and I would have vetoed it if it did!" Tsunade berated him as though he were an idiot. "But the fact that it was brought up is worrying enough! I can understand ignorant civilians getting carried away, but we're talking jounin that are doing this too. We need to find a way to deescalate the situation and fast. I want to leave Konoha, but I prefer it stand for more than 15 minutes after I've left."

Another awkward quietness filled the room. Seconds turned to minutes as the two of them sat in silence.

"Well, it sounds like you've got things basically under control," Jiraiya said happily, abruptly changing the mood of the room.

"What? What are you-"

"I'll still be in town for a few days if you need me, I'm gonna go do some 'totally not peeping.' See ya!" Jiraiya laughed as he fell backwards out of his perch on the window sill. Tsunade knew that if he would already be gone if she went to chase after him.

She frowned and took a giant swig straight out of the bottle before doing some her breathing exercises. "…Asshole."

UN:PoA

Every muscle in Naruto's body ached. He didn't know that rowing took so much effort. After several hours of rowing, the wind had finally picked up and the oars had been retracted. The whole situation was made slightly easier thanks to the row-master's singing voice. He sang as the men rowed and it was quite frankly beautiful. The purpose was supposedly to help the men synchronize their rows by matching them with the rhythm of his song, but Naruto suspected the secondary reason was as a morale booster.

He laid face down on his bed as the jerky rhythm of the ship rocked him. He had received about 15 minutes for his lunch break which consisted of rice with some oily fish on top. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he figured he should be upset at such a lackluster meal, but he had been too hungry to care and gobbled it down greedily before returning to rowing. He was slightly regretting eating as much as he did though as the waves rocked his sleeping quarters.

His shift was supposed to be 14 hours but after having a look at him, Hige had decided to let him have the rest of the day off after 12 hours While most of the other men rowing had swapped out to take a break and handle the rigging up top, Naruto had stayed in the lower deck and rowed. He didn't know about rigging after all, and according to Hige the first day or two after setting off were always the most hectic. He promised to teach Naruto later, but for now, he was stuck rowing until things calmed down.

Naruto let the sheets on top of his bunk soak in his sweat as he lie face down on the mattress. Hige and all the other men had agreed that Naruto did some have crazy endurance for a 13-year-old, but he was still a 13-year-old trying to do a man's job and Naruto could feel it.

Closing his eyes Naruto snored softly, letting the not-so-gentle back and forth motion of the ship rock him to sleep.

UN:PoA

"So what do you think?" Kakashi asked Kurenai as he poked at his food. The two of them sat across from each other at a small table in the jounin lounge. Contrary to popular belief however, the jounin lounge had more in common with a school cafeteria than some kind of fancy bar.

"I think that you're asking a rather large favor and offering nothing in return. I have more than enough to deal with with Hinata after-" Kurenai looked around and saw that the lounge was rather populated at the moment. "after you-know-what happened. She was just about to start healing when she saw you-know-what. If she was unstable before, she's insane now. She's thrown herself headfirst into training. When she showed up for today, she was covered in so many bruises I couldn't tell where her skin ended and the wounds began. She's kept her Byakugan active at all times in what I can only assume is an attempt to either increase chakra efficiency with it or to increase her reserves. She got so tired she passed out mid-spar with Kiba. And now you want me to help you train your student as well?"

"Yes." Kakashi held up a hand to stop Kurenai's retort. "However, I never said I would offer nothing in return. I only have Sakura now as you know, so if you're training her that means I can help train your team. I can use my dog summons to help train Kiba, my Sharingan will help Shino learn how to deal with opponents that can keep track of his bugs, and Hinata..." Kakashi paused. "I'll think of something to do with Hinata. I've dealt with loss in the past, and I can help her deal with it now. Even if it's only to focus her energy into a more productive route."

Kurenai shook her head. "You're still asking a lot, Kakashi. Yeah, you can help with Kiba and Shino, but they're mostly capable of taking care of themselves right now. Hinata is what I'm worried about."

"I don't know her well enough to be able to guarantee that I can help her. Honestly, I don't know if anyone can. The Hyuuga have been pushing out emotionally shattered shinobi for years; I can't promise I can reverse the damage they've done, but I can try."

Kurenai took a pickled plum off of Kakashi's tray and popped it in her mouth, savoring the sour but sweet flavor for a moment before she swallowed and spoke. "I know you need help with Sakura, but Hinata is my priority right now. We'll give it a one-week trial run. If you can convince me you're helping Hinata then I'll continue to help Sakura. Deal?"

Kakashi reached out and shook Kurenai's hand. "Deal." He replied before stealing a dumpling off of her tray. She didn't see him do it, but he had managed to gobble it down and smiled at her from behind his mask as he chewed the savory treat.

UN:PoA

Naruto clung to the sheets as he suddenly woke. He knew that the 'barf bunk' was supposed to be bumpy, but he wasn't sure it was supposed to be this bumpy. He blinked rapidly to clear his eyes of sleep before being flung up off of his bed and into the ceiling of his small quarters by a particularly violent bump.

"Ok, this can't be normal!" He shouted to himself before crawling off the bed and out of the room. "What's going on here- oof!" Naruto grunted as he was suddenly tossed down the hall and into the wall near the staircase, hitting his head. Taking a moment the rub his head and make sure he was ok he stood back up and made for the stairs. He quickly climbed up and looked around. The scene on deck looked like something out of a play or a movie. Large, burly men in white undershirts ran about pulling on levers and ropes while a man up top frantically turned the ship's wheel erratically. The sky was a dark blue-ish gray with sporadic rays of light shining down, and harsh salty wind flew about them like a hurricane. Naruto was struck by the thought that if it weren't for the sense of impending doom, it would all look rather beautiful.

Spotting a familiar face amidst the crowd, Naruto shouted out as loudly as he could. "Hige-san!" The man didn't reply, too busy yelling orders at various men and unable to hear Naruto's voice above the roar of the winds and waves. Naruto used chakra adhesion to stay stuck to the ship's deck as he made his way to his employer and friend.

"Hige-san!" Naruto shouted again. This time the man heard and turned to the young boy.

"Haku! Get below deck, it's safe there! You can't help here!" Hige yelled as he moved to usher Naruto back below deck, suddenly they were both knocked over by another wave striking the ship and flooding the deck. They were both flung apart to separate ends of the deck and several voices could be heard crying for help from the ocean below, many men having been thrown overboard by the wave.

Naruto coughed as he tried to wipe his eyes, the salt water making them sting and making it hard to see. Naruto looked around for Hige, wanting to make sure the man was safe. Finally spotting him near the center of the ship. Just as the large man tried to stand, a sickening crunching, cracking sound emanated from the mast. The base of the mast suddenly snapped dancing off of its post and grinding across the deck, directly towards Hige.

"Hige-san! Move!" Naruto shouted but it was too late. Just as Hige wiped the oceanic brine off of his face he was pinned by the mast as it slid across the deck, dragging him with it. Naruto's eyes widened in horror as he watched the closest thing he could call a friend slowly crushed into a chunky red paste across the ship's deck. Cries of agony and pain pierced the harsh winds. Tears came to Naruto's eyes and he was going to scream but was suddenly struck across the back of the head by a piece of unseen debris. Another wave hit, the briny water forced its way into his mouth and up his nose. The last thing he thought before falling unconscious was that Sakura being upset with him suddenly didn't seem like that big a deal.

UN:PoA

Another short chapter this time, sorry about that, I couldn't think of a way to add more content without breaking the pacing.

Before you comment, yes Hige's death was short and brutal. This fic is rated M for a reason. 9 times out of 10 people don't have time to utter their final words before gently slipping into the next life. 9 times out of 10 people's deaths are sudden, horrifying, and tragic.