Naruto couldn't believe it. Orochimaru was in Kohona and it seemed nobody knew. Naruto got over his shock quickly; its not like he cared anymore. "What are you doing here?" he asked, wiping his tears quickly on his sleeve.
"Its not just Sasuke who can love you. I can take away your pain, Naruto." Orochimaru said. Naruto simply stared at him, trying to ignore the fact that his eyes were brimming with tears again at the mention of Sasuke's name. 'Take away my pain?' he looked up at Orochimaru expectantly. "What do you mean by that?" he asked shakily. Orochimaru smiled, almost kindly, at Naruto. "I can love you Naruto. I won't hate you because of the Kyuubi." Naruto shook his head.
"You don't love me! I hate you for taking Sasuke away!" Naruto replied.
"I didn't take Sasuke away, Naruto. He came to me willingly and betrayed you countless times. I wont do that.
Come with me Naruto, I will give you a new home with me where you wont ever have to see Sasuke again if you don't want." He said. 'Orochimaru? Could he really love me?'
'Alright, get your head out of the clouds kid! This is Orochimaru were talking about here. It's a trap!' Naruto shook his head and cleared his head of all kyuubi's thoughts. "I won't betray you Naruto and I will always be there." He held out his hand for Naruto to take. The blonde stepped forward shakily. "I don't understand…why are you doing this?"
"Because you have no one else and I want to help you. You will learn to love me as I love you Naruto. Trust me, alright?" Orochimaru hugged the shaking blonde and smirked in satisfaction as he sobbed hysterically into his chest.
Tsunade sneaked a look at shizune. She appeared to be involved with the mission reports she was sorting. The hokage slowly reached for her drawer and pulled out a bottle of sake. Before she could open it, the bottle was wrenched from her hands. "Not a chance, hokage-sama!" shizune replied, filling the hokage's empty hands with piles of mission reports. A jounin burst into the office spluttering about something. The hokage raised her eyebrow; this was certainly more interesting that filing reports, which she pushed aside. "What seems to be the problem?"
"I-its but…you wont believe this…O-Orochimaru…" the hokage instantly sat up in her chair. "What about Orochimaru? Calm down and tell me exactly what's going on!" she ordered.
"Naruto was seen willingly following Orochimaru out of Kohona! We had no idea he was here in the first place…Naruto just walked right out with him!" the hokage cast a worried look at shizune. "What could this mean hokage-sama? Could it be true Naruto left willingly?" she whispered. Tsunade shook her head. "I believe Naruto was under some kind of jutsu because I know for a fact he would not leave, especially not with Orochimaru!" she replied loudly. "Who was the last person to be with Naruto?" she asked the jounin. Kakashi appeared in a whirl of smoke. "It was Sasuke, they were eating together at Ichiraku." He answered. The hokage nodded. "Then perhaps he would have some idea what was going on. Kakashi, I request you find him immediately and inform Sasuke of the situation." Kakashi nodded. "What the hell is that brat thinking?" Tsunade wondered aloud.
Sasuke sat on his sofa tracing patterns on the cool leather with his finger. He made a noise of disgust and wiped his mouth again on his sleeve. "What the hell was Neji thinking? That bastard should know I only like Naruto. Eurgh…" Sasuke decided he was going to wash his mouth out, only to be stopped by Kakashi. "What the hell are you doing here?" he asked.
"Orders from the hokage. We believe you were the last person to see Naruto so we need to ask you, was there anything…strange about Naruto?" Sasuke frowned. Why would Kakashi need to know that? "No…he seemed fine when I left him stuffing his face with ramen." Sasuke replied.
"So he didn't seem any different?" Kakashi asked. The raven shook his head.
"Look, what is all this about?" he asked.
"Naruto was seen leaving Kohona with Orochimaru." Sasuke stared at Kakashi blankly. "This…has to be a joke…r-right?" Kakashi shook his head sadly.
"Apparently he followed Orochimaru willingly out of the village."
"He wouldn't do that! I know he wouldn't… not after everything he went through to get me back…" Sasuke walked past Kakashi. "We have to go after him!" he said quickly. Kakashi followed him as he walked out of the house. "I don't know if the hokage will allow that." He said.
"Nothing is going to stop me bringing Naruto back. I owe him so much for bringing me home…the least I can do is return that favour."