Wonders and Miracles
Disclaimer: I still have yet to find the legal papers necessary for me to own Naruto. Darn.
Author's Note: I'm so glad everyone's enjoying the story so far and thank you so so much for all the reviews. I'm gonna try to update this story at least twice a week.
Warning: Religious stuff is gonna be all over this story, so if you're gonna get offended, don't tell me about it or don't read it. And if you do tell me about it, don't yell at me.
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"Curiousity killed the cat, but for a while, I was a suspect." Steven Wright
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Naruto sped through the streets. The others always told him he was way to easily spotted. Really, blonde hair, blue eyes and a complexion as dark as his was? He was the oddity that people liked to ogle and leer at. And that was in the best cases. In the worst cases, people would stick him up on that damnable pedestal and torture him. Naruto only laughed. He knew the streets better than almost anyone and he was almost impossible to catch with his lithe speed and ability to squeeze into small spaces that no one would ever think to look.
That wasn't helping him this time. It was broad daylight, a little after noon, the perfect time to earn or steal money from the light people. The guards had been a little smarter this time and had disguised themselves. Naruto had felt something off the entire time and had realized too late that the guards were coming too close and had set off down the alleys. The gypsies had two safe places-their own hideout and the church if they claimed Sanctuary. The church was closer so he turned a sharp corner and burst into the pew-filled room. The priest looked at him, not with disdain like all the others, but with a curious and expectant expression.
"Sanctuary." Naruto smiled at the priest. He liked the church. The priest was always fair and had let him hide out here more than once. He began to climb the stairs, knowing that the guards were going to be outside that door for a while.
-?-?-?-?
Sasuke sat leaning against the walls of the church high on the balconies, book in hand and his eyes continuously scanning the pages. He had two other books with him, because he knew he'd probably finish this one long before nightfall.
"Itachi always told us you were smart!"
Sasuke had been unable to get the gypsy from his mind, even more than a week later. There had been no anger in his eyes, simply calm and a strange understanding. No one had ever looked at him like that. Itachi had a little, but even he hadn't looked at him so carefully, like he was looking through him into his soul. Sasuke's rational mind told him that that was impossible; A person's eyes could only see what was in front of them. A soul wasn't even a physical thing, so how could you see it? Sasuke's rational mind scoffed, while the smaller part of his mind, the one that loved to read these myths and lore and wanted to believe them to be true, told him that the gypsy was one of those psychics.
"Pretty place. It's quiet too. Is that why you like to read up here?"
Sasuke whirled to see the blonde gypsy, leaning on the balcony ledge casually, smiling at him.
"Why are you here?" Sasuke felt more than a little guarded in his presence.
He shrugged offhandedly and took a seat opposite Sasuke, back against the ledge and facing away from the sun. "Guards chased after me, so I came here for sanctuary. I might've come here anyway. I like it here. Don't you come here because you like it too, Sasuke?"
"Don't treat me like we're friends." Sasuke told him coldly.
The blonde held out a hand. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I'd ask for your name, but I'd feel a little foolish."
"You are a fool." Sasuke pointed out, not taking the offered hand.
A laugh bubbled from Naruto's lips. "So everyone tells me."
"Everyone?" Sasuke was never one for conversation, but Naruto had something about him that made him easy to talk to.
"You didn't think that gypsies were without friends, did you? We laugh and joke around with each other just like you do. Probably more."
"You have a lot of friends?"
Another half-shrug. "Yeah, I guess, but some of them are more family than anything."
"What would you know of family?"
The sparkling blue eyes hardened into icy cobalt. "Why is it that you always have to automatically assume things? You think simply because we call close friends that we've known our entire lives family, we don't know about real blood families?"
"You're just like everyone else. Blind and prejudiced."
"I've never seen a gypsy with a family."
"I've never seen any of your servants, or God or any of the hundreds of things in those books of yours," Naruto nodded at the book in the pale hands, "But does that mean they didn't exist?"
"Try and think about these things once in a while."
"No."
"Then why should gypsies be any different?" Naruto had a fierceness to his expression, one of loyalty and pride. Sasuke had never seen a gypsy ashamed of his race, but they never showed any particular signs of pride in who they were. His father's voice teaching him the seven deadliest sins came to his mind.
"Sasuke, there's seven sins that God believes are the worst and most common of mankind and are the cause of everything in this world. They're Lust, Pride, Wrath, Sloth, Gluttony, Envy, and Greed."
Pride had been in that list. Did that mean Naruto was a sinner? But if that were true, why would the priest, who had surely seen him, he was impossible to miss, let him in? Sasuke's family had a lot of pride as well. Were they sinners?
Naruto smiled in that knowing way again and Sasuke felt a slight rush of anger. "Are you getting it, Sasuke?"
"There's nothing to get." Sasuke lied. He knew what Naruto was talking about, but he wanted to know how Naruto knew.
"And before you ask, I'm not a mind-reader or a psychic. I just pay attention." The smile widened a little.
Naruto glanced over his shoulder to see the sun setting and he looked down and saw the guards still there. He sighed and leaned his head back comfortably. "Looks like I'm spending the night up here."
"What'd you steal?"
"Nothing actually, although I can see how you came to that. I like to earn my money. I hate cheating people." Naruto's lips were still upturned as Sasuke stood up, grabbing his books. "Although I think Sakura has a bit of a crush on you. She and her friend Ino were talking about you after they saw you in the crowd."
Sasuke wondered how Naruto could witch from subject to subject so abruptly, but there must have been some sort of connection in his mind that made him do that. Shaking his head, he left Naruto at the balcony.
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"You alright, Naruto?" Shikamaru asked from his position on the bottom step at the entrance to their hideout. Naruto wasn't one to come late very often.
The hideout really was no more than an underground alcove lit with dozens of lamps and the occasional flash of daylight. It had been part of an abandoned castle's dungeon, but Shikamaru had helped take the bars down and they'd built walls from plaster stolen from the city and spare loose bricks to make rooms. They'd covered it in blankets and cloth, all brightly colored and had scrubbed at the filthy floors until they shone. The gypsies were all very proud of their work.
The girls had taken a separate section of the dungeons, and had found mirrors, placing them along the walls. They found flowers to take away the terrible smell of rot and had reluctantly helped them clear out bones and skin from the cells. Sakura had helped figure out how to get water into their hideout and had made their own little canal that had once been intended for torchlight that was no longer as necessary. All of them could see better in the dark.
The blonde nodded to his friend as he sat beside him. "I'm just thinkin' about stuff."
"God deliver us. You're thinking." Shikamaru smirked as Naruto scowled playfully at him before they started wrestling on the stones. Shikamaru always won among the boys, but Naruto was always a challenge. He was small and flexible, making it easy for him to get out of Shikamaru's arms.
"Another victory for Shika." Kankurou called from his room and they could hear the grin in his voice.
"Shut up!" Naruto yelled in return, failing to roll away from Shikamaru and ended up pinned.
The smirk never faded from the genius's lips. "Good thing you didn't call a bet."
Naruto stuck out his tongue and Shikamaru allowed himself to be pushed off.
The blonde headed into the room both Gaara and he shared. The others didn't really share rooms unless they wanted to, but although they accepted Gaara and treated him as one of their own, no one really wanted him watching them while they slept. Naruto hadn't found a problem with it and had let the redhead stay.
"You lost again." Gaara said from his position on the bed. It wasn't a real question.
Naruto nodded and collapse onto his cot. "I almost got caught, but I called sanctuary."
"Something else happened."
"Mm. I found Sasuke there. I think he's getting a little better, starting to think about things a little more. I think we're at 'acquaintance' status."
"And what status are you going for?" the redhead enquired.
"Friend. But he doesn't seem that interested in friendship."
Gaara didn't know very much about people. He couldn't read them like Shika and Naruto could, but he had a feeling that Sasuke wasn't looking for only friendship.
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Author's Note Pt 2: I realized after I finished this chapter that I'd been listening to Sanctuary by Utada Hikaru the entire time. Weird.