A/N: Don't you love how the content I want to put in always gets pushed to the next chapter? Lots to be explained and I'm slow paced when it comes to writing so there's bound to be confusion. I apologize for the shorter chapter. Exams made me tired this whole week and all I wanted to do after them was roll around, reading fics. Also, how do you guys prefer Kurama's dialogue to be? I've seen people use bold, and italics.
"I can't believe he's making us clean graffiti off some old lady's place," Naruto grumbled as he scrubbed the walls of the shop they were given to clean.
Sasuke made a noise of acknowledgement and Naruto had to pause to make sure he heard right. There was a tinge of playfulness mixed in the noise. It could have been his imagination.
"I'm not happy about it either, but the faster you work, the faster we can leave and sleep."
His friend wanted to sleep rather than eat first? Had Sasuke become lazier the last time he saw him? Naruto stared at Sasuke and he must've stared too long because Sasuke eyes were on him.
"What are you looking at?" he said lowly.
"I was no…" Naruto almost responded on reflex. This was where he should be denying the accusation, should be giving a snarky remark about how Sasuke wanted attention or something, but he stopped himself. He'd had countless arguments with Sasuke in the past and most of them started from nitpicking on petty things like this.
"What're you staring at?"
"I wasn't, pay more attention around you," a spiky haired boy said.
"What'd you say? I am paying attention!" a blond dressed in all orange shouted and whipped a finger at the other. He blurted random curses and rambled on and on about how he was a better shinobi with better senses who'd detect if something was coming at them before Sasuke could. He faltered when Sasuke started running at him.
"What? You looking for a fight?" Naruto took a defensive stance, arms up as a guard. It was a little too easy, he thought, to rile up his teammate to fight him. His face scrunched in confusion. He started, a tap behind him made him jerk his head towards the unknown presence.
Naruto turned, his eyes catching Sasuke's dark blue shirt blurring past him and saw the boy swing a leg out. He heard a pained groan just in time to see the enemy ninja fly backwards. His eyes darted forward.
"That's why I'm saying you aren't," Sasuke said. A sharp clang of metal on metal rang in his ears and Naruto's back thumped against his.
"The same goes for you too," Naruto spat, smirking. With a hard push, he forced the missing-nin away. The man stumbled, glaring at him.
Sasuke pulled a kunai from the holster strapped to his right thigh. He crouched, leaning back to back with his teammate. A smile crept onto his face and he closed his eyes, reopening them in red once the two of them separated in opposite directions to fend off the enemy's reinforcements.
A sense of nostalgia spread throughout Naruto as he remembered those moments when they were a genin team—him, Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei, and Sasuke. The thought warmed him and the knots in his muscles loosened. He smiled.
What he would do to return to those days.
"Never mind," he said. Scratching his cheek, he turned away and went back to cleaning the persistent patch of graffiti marks that wouldn't disappear. Naruto could feel Sasuke's gaze still on him and he slowed his hands.
"You know, this reminds me of when we were still doing D-rank missions with Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said. His tone was fond, sounding soft and quiet—in contrast to his usual boisterous self. He heard a wet cloth smack next to him, indicating Sasuke went back to work and had stopped paying attention to him at some point.
That wasn't right. It was that Sasuke couldn't think of anything to say. Maybe Sasuke was revelling in their past memories as he was right now. He closed his eyes, basking in the chilly breezes that blew by.
"Hey, don't stop your hands," came Sasuke's annoyed voice.
"Bastard, don't interrupt my thoughts." Naruto huffed and continued scrubbing.
The two men stood watching the children clean the assigned storefront from their spot on the other side of the road, leaning against the walls. Madara had his hands in his sleeves where it was shielded from the cold while Tobirama had his arms crossed over his chest.
Seeing the children carry out a routine-like chore like scrubbing the walls, light bantering between them, exchanging glares and hushed whispers as if they were telling a secret made it seem as if the village was peaceful. As if the rising tension of a possible war around the corner didn't exist, as if the two children hadn't been running for their lives, traumatized even, by ninjas trying to take advantage of orphaned nobodies. They seemed like normal children in a normal village like this.
"How is it with Sasuke?" Tobirama asked and it sounded louder than it actually was in Madara's ears. He took moments to form a response. Surprised, neither in a good or bad way, Tobirama hadn't snapped already just because they were close by, although they weren't in each other's personal bubble.
"He's a good kid," Madara said. His features relaxed without him noticing at the thought of Sasuke, releasing the unnecessary tension that tightened his jaw, brows and eyes. Tobirama noticed, feeling an uncomfortable sensation settle in his chest. He didn't like it. Madara wasn't supposed to give that kind of face, he wasn't allowed to look like that.
"How is Naruto?" Madara's gaze followed the blond boy's movements, watching him shake a little in laughter and Sasuke ignore him. Then, Naruto grumbled and mumbled something under his breath that made Sasuke frown.
This time it was Tobirama's turn to startle at the returned question. Madara was talking to him and not yelling.
"He's a rude and noisy brat…" he started, lolling his head to the side. He saw Naruto scoot closer to Sasuke, whispering he didn't know what with the way he angled his lips.
Was a proper conversation taking place between him and Madara?
Madara waited for the but in Tobirama's statement. Surely he had realized the similarities the boy held with a certain someone they both knew very well.
"But," he paused. Glancing at Madara, Tobirama exhaled slowly, deciding to take his brother's and Mito's advice to be as nice as he could. "He reminds of how Brother was when he was younger."
He shared his thoughts with the Uchiha and he couldn't believe it.
"Hopefully he isn't as much of a fool as Hashirama was," Madara said, dread dancing across his neutral expression. He wouldn't be able to handle another mini Hashirama if Sasuke brought Naruto over to play.
"Brother may appear foolish," Tobirama replied automatically, temporarily forgetting who he was talking to. "However, he can be quite cunning when he wants to."
It wasn't too difficult to talk to him.
"Agreed."
The conversation ended there and Tobirama felt like he was the only one to find the silence awkward. He shrugged. He tried his best to make truce and a short exchange was more than sufficient in his opinion for one day.
Tobirama kept his gaze straight ahead as Madara's eyes were on him.
"You…If you lay a finger on Sasuke, I won't hesitate to beat you," came a harsh growl.
Beat you until you're by death's door.
His head bowed and he let out a breath, finding the threat amusing. The cement wall absorbed the heavy blow of Tobirama's fist, a dull thud sounding instead of shattering wood. His hand slid down, revealing a shallow crack.
He glared at Madara and snarled, "I could say the same to you. It seems more likely to me that you'd attack Naruto."
"Baseless accusations are shameful."
"You mean what you're doing."
Madara looked him in the eye and there was no apology there.
"You know what I mean. Don't think I'll let you use him," he said and curled his fingers into his palm.
Tobirama did know he was referring to. However, he'd never use a child whether they were an Uchiha or not. He had his morals.
"I'm not going to," he said through his teeth. Madara opened his mouth to retort when a movement from the corner of his eye grabbed his attention. Seething still, Tobirama followed the man's gaze.
Naruto had his hands positioned to perform a ninjutsu.
"Hey," Sasuke began after a few minutes.
"What?" Naruto answered without raising his head.
"Did the Nine Tails say anything to you?"
Naruto stilled and looked at Sasuke. He rolled his eyes to the sky. Now he asked.
"I've been trying to talk to him days ago when I remembered he might know something about Madara's jutsu, but he hasn't responded," he said, pursing his lips. Just what in the world was Kurama doing? Where was he?
"What about the other Tailed Beasts?" Sasuke asked and Naruto shook his head.
"Their voices were quieter than Kurama's in the first place. If I can't even hear Kurama right now, that's…"
He wouldn't say impossible.
"Difficult," Naruto finished. An urge to drop everything and find his friend hit him and he threw the rag in his hand to the ground. He messed his blond locks furiously, groaning in frustration.
"Let's hurry and clean this stupid graffiti." He huffed, reaching for his rag. An idea popped in his head that would make the job easier and he stood, forming a hand seal with his hand.
"Hey," he heard Sasuke call. He poured chakra into the seal and concentrated harder when nothing happened.
"Hmm…What's going on?" he mumbled to himself. He put more effort in and finally a poof of smoke appeared next to him.
"Yes!" The triumph died down when he saw one shadow clone of himself.
"Listen to people when they'r—"
Sasuke flitted in front of Naruto and drew his blade halfway out. A kunai hit Kusunagi's edge with a ting and bounced into the air. A couple more kunais were thrown their way and Sasuke swung his sword, easily blocking them.
As if watching in slow motion, Sasuke's eyes left the man leaning against the wall, trailing over towards the kunai beginning to fall. He could foresee it with his sharingan, what would happen, yet his mind didn't register anything.
Naruto froze. Why was Tobirama throwing kunais at them? He looked up to where Sasuke was staring at and his eyes widened. Suddenly, Tobirama appeared, replacing the kunai that was knocked into the air.
Naruto's reflex arc kicked in and he yanked Sasuke's arm, numb to his own actions. That shocked Sasuke back to his senses and the two of them leapt to the roof. Naruto's shadow clone landed beside them, frowning as it stared below.
"What do you think you're doing?" It was Madara. He glowered at Tobirama, standing in the spot where Naruto and Sasuke had just fled.
"I thought I warned you."
Naruto blinked. What was going on? Sasuke on the other hand looked on in masked amusement.
"Sorry, it's a bad habit of mines," Tobirama said. He scratched his head and gestured the children to come down.
Wearily, they did, stepping next to Madara.
"Hey, hey. Saying it's a bad habit is not even an excuse." Naruto started complaining, "Don't throw those weapons at us all of a sudden! If you wanted to spar say so and we can get on it. I won't lose."
Laughter erupted from Tobirama and the man walked towards him. He reached a hand and pat Naruto on the head, pushing down.
With a smug look on his face, he said, "You're twenty years too young to beat me."
"Am not. We'll settle it right here right now since you wanted a friendly fight," Naruto retorted, cheekily.
"Were you never taught to listen until the end?"
"Sasuke's gonna help me," Naruto said. He didn't hear what Tobirama said, too wrapped up in his thoughts.
"I refuse," was Sasuke's answer. "Don't drag me into your pointless fights."
"They aren't pointless," Naruto argued.
"By bad habit I mean it's instinct that I attack shinobi who aren't Konoha's. Especially when they're performing a hand seal like you were. I believed the Uzumakis rarely used ninjutsu and when you made a shadow clone, it caught me off guard," Tobirama explained. Partially as the truth and partially to see the boy's reaction.
The one-sided cussing between the two boys stopped and Naruto looked at him. He wondered what he would say.
"I don't know sealing techniques," Naruto said, shrugging.
Unknown to the boy, his response confirmed that he wasn't a civilian Uzumaki. Confirmed that he was a ninja. It raised the possibility that he could be a spy for some other nation or stray clan's attempt to sabotage Konoha's military defence. Someone could've picked the children up as they were wandering around without a home and Tobirama couldn't rule out anything until there was concrete proof. He'd keep an eye on them as he had been doing the day he met the children.
Sasuke elbowed Naruto when Madara and Tobirama shared a glance.
"What?" he hissed.
That's what he got for making Tobirama even more cautious. He had an idea of what was going through the man's mind, but the question was how he should act accordingly to the knowledge he had.