On the run
Just a monster, nothing more
Naruto wakes to Mika's panicked whispers shaking him from his sleep. "Wake up, get up, we need to go."
"What's going o-"
Mika, in a surprising show of strength, lifts a confused and somewhat scared Naruto off the ground and takes him to the cave entrance, pressing an ear to it and listening as muffled footsteps make their approach. He looks at Naruto with a determined but scared expression and weaves three hand signs that he doesn't recognize. A second later and a burst of flame pours through the cave entrance, singing the air outside and inciting various angry curses. Mika takes Naruto by the arm and flickers away into the forest. Naruto looks back, Mika's grip digging into his skin, seeing a pair of irritated Leaf shinobi right behind them; just close enough to recognize their faces. Mika whips him around, holding him tightly to his chest and launching off of a branch that snaps under the force of the sudden acceleration, sending the two shinobi tumbling to the ground. Naruto opens his eyes, not realizing he'd closed them and sees Mika's arms had turned dark red and two sharp, curved horns had grown on either side of his head. His black pupils had turned a deep blue and short fangs jut up on either side of his mouth, adding to his otherworldly appearance. 'Who is this guy?' Naruto thinks as the two of them land on a hill covered in thick grass and old trees. Naruto regains his footing and Mika leads him to one of the trees just big enough to hide them both. He looks over to Naruto, his eyes red and face covered in barely visible tears. Naruto holds him for a while as he cries, the sound muffled by his shirt; a dark patch left on white fabric by Mika's tears. The occasional ,"its okay, you're okay" manages to calm the pale boys nerves and they sit and gather their thoughts while Mika steadies his shaky breathing, his body returning to what it was before. 'Now what?' Naruto asks, hoping Kurama could give some advice.
"I'm not entirely sure. But-" He growls. "You've gotten this boy into far more trouble than he was already in. You should've listened to me-"
'That's not important right now! We need a place to go, we can't stay out here forever!'
Kurama's voice becomes cold and laced with suppressed anger as he puts emphasis on each word. "Watch. Your. Tone. I told you to leave him and you didn't listen and now you're both being hunted down by-"
Naruto tunes him out as Kurama continues, going on his typical angry rant whenever Naruto did something he didn't like. Even after all their years together, he could never get the fox to calm down; he always had something to say, always a remark when he felt it appropriate. Naruto takes Mika by the right hand, leading him over and down the hill and giving him a warm smile, or at least trying his best at it. He'd found it hard to, especially now. His years in that hell had taken his happiness and a few other precious things. It didn't make sense; his father, savior of the Hidden Leaf, his mother coming from the same clan as the Founder's wife and he gets treated like shit for no reason. The way they looked at him, a kid, like he was some sort of disgusting monster. The kids at the orphanage and most of the caretakers were terrified of him, Kurama had let it slip. They were always on edge, always too nice but keeping their distance just in case he did flip and kill everyone. None of the kids talked to him; fear, confusion and hatred was all he ever saw in their eyes but there was one boy, dark hair hanging over sad eyes; Kurama thought him a brat but he could tell there was something wrong. He didn't seem to care about anything and spent most of his day wandering aimlessly and most of his nights crying himself to sleep and trying his damnedest to hide it. He'd been kicked out once he turned seven (Hokage's orders) and given his own place to stay. The ANBU escort didn't seem too happy to be around him; he asked one question and got a glare that said, 'shut up or I'm going to stab you.' His new home was spacious enough, he was a kid after all and he did get a weekly allowance but still ended up wandering the streets looking for someone who'd let him buy something. Most people just avoided looking at all, others tossed things like they were feeding a stray. The only person that seemed to give a shit was the gray haired old man in that ramen shop but after that night in December that he can't remember no matter how much he tried, he was terrified of him. He would ask Kurama about it but he always hesitated and tried to change the subject or just went quiet. Mika lets out a small, pained moan, snapping Naruto back to reality. He lets go of his hand with a shocked and worried expression as he realizes that he'd been squeezing it like he was trying to juice a lemon. Mika gives him a betrayed look before turning his gaze to the grass and watching as the blades swayed in the wind.