Being and Belonging
The Mission
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
A/N: This is my first Naruto story and I'd appreciate any feedback that I can get. Thanks for all the comments and feedback; I appreciate every one.
Summary: When Itachi leaves town on the eve of his parents' murder, he doesn't go alone. Can Naruto handle what comes next? "Ano sa…Ano sa, where are we going?"
"So Naruto," Kabuto started, "What would you like to do today?"
Naruto ignored the question, staring out the window. "When are Itachi ni-chan and Kisame san coming back?" he asked.
Kabuto sighed internally. "It'll be a while still Naruto."
"That's what you said last week…" Naruto said plaintively. "What if they're not coming back?" he asked worriedly.
"They're coming back Naruto, I promise you." Kabuto said patiently.
"But how can you-"
"Naruto!" Kabuto said a bit forcefully, "They're coming back. Now that's enough. Lets do something else today, something other than staring out the window. You don't have to stay in bed all day; we can go out."
"I don't wanna." Naruto said sulkily.
Kabuto clenched and unclenched his fingers. "Well, too bad." he muttered, grabbing a protesting Naruto. "Sometimes we all have to do things we don't like."
Itachi unrolled his bedroll, watching Kisame unfurl his own out of the corner of his eye. They had lit a fire earlier, but they were a little too close to sand country to keep it lit all night.
"Have you thought about our assignment?" Kisame asked, breaking the silence.
"Gaara of the Desert;" he recited, "age: 7; family: Temari, Kankurou, and the Kazekage; assassination attempts since age six: 5."
"Fuck! What the hell is wrong with this kid?" Kisame muttered.
"He was an experimental attempt to try and catch up with Leaf." Itachi answered.
"How so?"
"Leaf had there very own demon trapped in a body. Sand tried the same thing, only the boy's completely mental. He can't sleep because every time he does, the demon ravages his mind. The entire village's scared of him. The Kazekage's ninjas haven't been able to kill him, so he asked Orochimaru for a favor." Itachi said, hopping to a nearby tree to take the first watch.
"He wants to kill his own son?" Kisame asked, placing his pack next to his bedroll and lying down.
Itachi shrugged. "People are like that. You shouldn't be surprised."
Kisame's face hardened. "I'm not." he said shortly, rolling over in his bedspread to face the other direction.
Itachi too looked in the other direction, keeping an eye out discreetly for nighttime wanderers. This mission was to be done in absolute secret. Apparently, the Kazekage didn't want anyone in his village to know that he wanted his son dead.
"Itachi?" Kisame asked.
"What?" Itachi asked, a faint note of surprise in his voice; he had thought Kisame had gone to sleep minutes ago.
"Doesn't he remind you of Naruto?"
"Who?" Itachi deadpanned.
"The kid. Gaara." Kisame added.
"No."
"But-" Kisame started.
"Go to sleep Kisame."
Kisame frowned, but rolled over and closed his eyes, at least feigning sleep if not actually sleeping, while Itachi stared into the darkness and tried very hard to keep his mind off subjects that were not only stupid, but worthless too.
"Naruto? Naruto? Naruto, come out now. This isn't what I had in mind when I told you we were going to get some air." Kabuto called out, trying to frighten Naruto back into the clearing.
When they had finally gotten outside, Naruto had proposed playing hide-and-go seek. Then before Kabuto could object- he did have more important things he could be doing than watching some kid, as cute as he might be –Naruto ran off, darting into the woods.
"Naruto!" Kabuto yelled again, shaking a tree branch to see if the small boy was hiding in it.
Sighing, Kabuto bent down to examine the small, half smudged footprint in the ground. It looked like the boy had some ninja training after all. He had stuck to the grass in many places, left few footprints and had already misdirected Kabuto twice. Orochimaru sama had said that the child could be tricky when he put his mind to it and Kabuto had spent enough time observing his pranks back in the village to realize that he had some aptitude in stealth, but if the boy wasn't misleading him again, it looked like he was-
Kabuto turned away from the footprint and sprinted towards the main entrance of the village.
Kisame had just settled in for the last watch of the night when he saw a flash of hair in his peripheral vision. They had been closing in on the village, but so far, they hadn't seen any shinobi. Eyes narrowing, Kisame jumped silently out of his crouch on a tree branch. Slipping a kunai out of his pocket, he glanced at the resting Itachi before stalking towards the hair that was bobbing along the edge of the campsite.
Turning so that he came up from behind, Kisame grabbed the body by its blonde hair and swung it into the air, putting the kunai to its throat. Suddenly it yelped and yelled, "Kisame san!"
Kisame dropped the boy. "Naruto?" he asked.
"Yes! Yes! What were you doing to do?" Naruto asked wide-eyed.
Kisame shook his head and slipped the kunai into his pocket. "Nothing Naruto. I thought you were someone else."
"Oh, I-"
"Naruto!" Kabuto separated himself from the shadows and grabbed the boy by the arm. "You don't just run away like that. You weren't supposed to leave the village."
"He left the village and you were following him, but weren't able to catch up until now?" Kisame asked Kabuto incredulously.
Kabuto glared at the older man. "Orochimaru sama didn't let me leave the village until just a day ago. I was needed there and Orochimaru sama refused to believe that Naruto chan would actually make it all the way to sand country without turning back. He's had a four day lead on me."
"Now that you mention it," Naruto piped up, "I am kinda hungry." As if to emphasize his point, Naruto stomach grumbled. Loudly.
Kisame grinned at him and ruffled his hair. "Well come on, I'll get you something to eat."
Naruto smiled dazzlingly at him and snuggled into his pants. "I missed you so much." he said softly, "Where's Itachi ni-san?"
"Uh…" Kisame paused, "Naruto, maybe it would be better if we didn't wake Itachi until morn-"
"Too late." Itachi said, appearing behind Kabuto, his eyes glowing red and angry. "I'm already awake."
"Itachi ni-san!" Naruto shouted, causing Kabuto and Kisame to wince, "I've-"
"I don't care." Itachi hissed sharply. "What I do care about is why you're here endangering our mission by yelling as loudly as possible."
Naruto cringed and scuffed the ground with his toe. "But…" he started, "But I've been practicing." Naruto reached inside his small pack and pulled out the book Itachi had given him. "I read the first part of the book you gave me. I even know what I did wrong. I wasn't con- concentrating on releasing my chakra into…into, oh yeah, one spe- specific point. Instead, I-"
"Naruto." Itachi interrupted again. "Do you see my bedroll?"
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, it's-"
"Go over there and read your book."
"Is that my new training?" Naruto asked, eyes shining hopefully.
Itachi silently pointed at the bedroll and waited until Naruto trotted dejectedly towards it until speaking. "Get him out of here." he snapped at Kabuto.
"Where are they going to go?" Kisame argued. "They should just stay with us until the mission's complete. It's safer."
"Oh yes, it's much safer to travel into enemy territory, than it is to stay at the village."
"I agree with Uchiha san. I would rather take Naruto back to the village with me." Kabuto concurred "I assure you that I'd take good care of him on the way back." he added.
"But it'll be almost impossible to avoid sand nin this close to the village. Naruto was lucky he didn't already meet some. I doubt he'll be that lucky next time, no matter who the escort." Kisame's voice left little to question in regards of what he thought of Naruto's escort.
"Kisame," Itachi started, "we-"
"It doesn't matter now." Kabuto broke in. "He's already asleep."
Itachi and Kisame looked over to where Kabuto was pointing. Naruto had curled up around Itachi's pillow and was snoring lightly.
"Fine." Itachi groused, "we'll just decide in the morning."
Walking over, Kisame leant Kabuto his bedroll as he leapt back into the tree to take the rest of the watch. Itachi, on the other hand, knelt over the sleeping Naruto and pried the book he was using as a pillow from the small boy's hands. Then he draped a blanket over the child who murmured quietly and proceeded to drool all over it.
Itachi rolled his eyes, which had receded back into a coal black and ran his hand through Naruto's thick blonde hair watching as the boy sleepily pushed back into hand like a cat. Itachi stroked his hair several more times listening to Naruto's barely perceptible mewls of happiness. Then the child momentarily turned into someone else and Itachi's hand stilled, but…no, Itachi blinked away black hair and a pale face, concentrating on Naruto's smaller stature and cat-like appearance. Relaxing again, Itachi let his questing fingering feel through Naruto's hair.
Finally satisfied, Itachi sat back and inspected his hand. He hadn't found any tracking or listening devices in the boy's hair. This didn't seem to be some sort of trick played by Orochimaru. The boy had actually made it here on his own. Naruto could travel through wilderness, foreign land, and rogue nins without a scratch, but he couldn't hold a kunai properly.
Dunce.
Itachi picked up the book that he had dropped earlier and turned towards the fire, missing Naruto's frown and subtle shifting towards the lost warmth. Sitting at the fire, Itachi flipped open the book. Naruto had gotten about half way through it, but seemed to have only read a page today before falling asleep. Itachi was going to have to make that little slacker read at least sixty more tomorrow to make up.
Miles away, as Naruto slept peacefully; Kisame kept watch; Kabuto stared at the stars; and Itachi planned, a small red haired boy also slept, but someone was trying to creep up on him. Someone dangerous. Someone who was caught up in a storm of sand before he could even utter a despairing cry.
Someone whose blood seeped into the ground and mixed with the settling sand as he died.
To Be Continued…