Just to Survive

By: Xzotic

Chapter 2: Still on Hard Times

By the time school let out for the day, Naruto was emotionally exhausted from the combined efforts of old man Sarutobi, Mr. Iruka, and Mr. Himura to probe into his thoughts, his feelings, and his 'life at home.' Mr. Himura had vouched that the conflict hadn't been entirely his fault, but further than that he'd had nothing good to say about his quick temper.

Mr. Iruka in his usual fashion had tried to get him to answer personal and embarrassing questions: were his legal guardians aware of his anger problem, did they ever hit him or touch him inappropriately, did he feel safe when he slept at night, was he always angry when he was at home…. The questions went on and on and on. Naruto hadn't answered a single one of them.

Out of pity, old man Sarutobi excused him from detention for the day and Naruto wasted no time in racing out the back doors of Green Leaf High. He wanted to avoid as many people as possible so he decided to take the shortcut through the woods in back of the school to get to his hideout on the south side of town.

As he cut though the overgrowth, heading for the trees, the blond heard a sharp cry of pain and turned in the direction of the noise. Hearing nothing else, the blond curiously crept over to a cluster of low-hanging evergreens and peered around a trunk to see what was going on.

There, standing in a small clearing, was Kabuto and two of his lackeys facing off with a red-haired guy. One of Kabuto's lackeys was keeled over, nursing a swollen wrist.

Kabuto calmly stared at the red-head. "Gaara, I can't help it if prices have gone up on this stuff. You only brought enough cash for one bottle this time. If you want more then you'll have to give me more money."

The one named Gaara calmly moved closer to Kabuto and despite his confusion, Naruto was delighted to see the fear enter the spoiled brat's eyes. Gaara grabbed Kabuto by the front of his shirt, effortlessly lifting him off the ground despite his smaller stature.

"Kabuto Yukushi," the strange boy spoke in a deep, menacing voice. "I see someone has already had the pleasure of pounding that insolent face of yours. If you don't give me the pills that I asked for, I'll give you another black eye to match."

Despite his position, Kabuto smiled down at the red-head with the heavy dark circles around his eyes. "I really can't do that Gaara. You see, my Dad could only get me one bottle this time. It's getting harder and harder for him to steal supplies which is why the rates have almost doubled. It's only business, Gaara, beating me up will really just be a waste of your time."

Naruto watched as Gaara slowly returned Kabuto to his feet, showing excellent control of his impressive strength. As soon as Kabuto was on his feet, he smiled and seemed about to say something pleasant when a swift fist collided with the side of his face. He went flying back to crash into his two lackeys, the three of them falling into a heap on the floor.

Gaara turned his back on them. "Have my pills by tomorrow or you'll be dead by sunrise the next day."

Naruto shivered at the coldness of his voice and decided it was time to go. He'd learned something he was sure someone could kill him for. Kabuto was dealing drugs to students at other high schools and whomever Kabuto's father was was the source.

Naruto silently turned away and took off through the woods.

***

Teuchi was more than happy to see his favorite customer walk into his small restaurant after a whole week of absence. "Naruto! How's my favorite little delinquent?" he grinned, pointing a butcher knife at the strapping youth.

"Hey old man! How ya been?" Naruto was wearing his infamous fox-grin, the scars on his cheeks giving the impression that he really did have whiskers and all.

Teuchi eyed the duffle bag over the lad's shoulder pointedly. "The sharks are sitting at their usual table in the back, kid. That what you here for?"

Nodding, Naruto turned to head straight over but stopped when a knife flew past his nose and landed with a shi-nk in the wall. He turned warily to see Teuchi with his hands on his hips and his face stormy. "I thought I warned you about those guys, kid. You don't want to be mixed up in that life!"

Blue eyes downcast, Naruto deftly removed the sharp butcher knife and tossed it back to the old man. "Thanks, old man, but I've got to do this. I'll be more than careful, I promise."

With that, Naruto walked over to the booth in the back of the restaurant and set his duffle bag on the table in front of the three men. Naruto stared at the two that he recognized and tried to school his features.

"Itachi, I've got a few things to pawn off," he stated.

"That's what a pawn shop is for, brat," the second guy scoffed.

"No one asked you fish-face!" Naruto snapped angrily. If Itachi wasn't willing to give him money for the stuff that he'd pilfered from his foster parents, he'd never make nearly enough from the pawnbrokers. Itachi was his highest paying source.

"Kisame, that's enough." Itachi turned to Naruto and looked at him as if he were an interesting puppy. "How have you been, Naruto? You haven't come to see me in a while."

Naruto grit his teeth and tried not to let his disgust for the man show. "I've been pretty busy."

"Ah, but when you want something you do come crawling back, don't you… Naruto?"

Naruto could feel his temper rising. The man loved to play games with him. Itachi knew that he hated coming to him. Resolutely unzipping his duffel bag, Naruto pulled out the watch and computer games from the side pocket. "I want to pawn these."

With feigned interest, Itachi slowly took the offered items and looked them over. He finally smiled and looked up at the boy. "I'm sorry, Naruto, but these are of absolutely no interest to me."

Naruto felt his heart stop. "But you've taken less expensive items than that before!" he exclaimed, "that watch should at least get me a hundred bucks!"

Itachi carelessly tossed the items at Kisame who eyed the watch critically before slipping it onto his wrist with a feral grin.

"Kid, let me tell you a secret," Itachi said, leaning forward in his seat. "All those times I bought all of those useless items from you? I wasn't pawning those worthless things… I was buying your trust."

Naruto felt his eyes burning as he watched Kisame leaf through the objects that had been meant to pay for his livelihood for the next few weeks. How was he going to eat tomorrow if he didn't make any money off of these items? Why couldn't Itachi just give him the money one more time and warn him that there wouldn't be a next time? Why wait until he'd gotten desperate enough to come see his ugly mug again?

"Now, if you want to make money that's not a problem at all. We have plenty of jobs that you could perform for us that would put a sizable chunk in your wallet." Itachi smirked evilly and Naruto knew immediately what kind of 'jobs' he was talking about. He felt a sudden weight in his chest and he tried not to let his distress show.

Itachi turned and regarded someone else. "What do you think Kakashi? The boy could be used as an excellent partner. Our clients would not suspect a teenaged boy, after all?"

Naruto hadn't even taken notice of the third person at the table but when he turned to look, he was surprised to see a man with silver-white hair staring intently at him. The man wore a black mask over the bottom half of his face and had creepy mismatched eyes. One eye was a normal, obsidian color. The other had a vertical scar over it and the iris was a blood red color with black specks. The man looked downright scary. Just the sort of man that Naruto expected to consort with the likes of Itachi.

"I don't know, Itachi, he looks a little green," Kakashi lazily commented.

Naruto sputtered and angrily pointed a finger at the strange-looking man. "Who're you calling green you red-eyed freak!"

Itachi chuckled and slapped a hand on the table. "It's settled then. Naruto, you will meet with Kakashi at noon on Friday to make the tradeoff. I'll give you two hundred dollars and a chance to call the debt you owe me even."

Naruto wasn't stupid. He knew he hadn't been asked whether or not he would do the job. The threat was implied. He would do the job or else.

"Kakashi, why don't you escort young Naruto home to his family. Wouldn't want something bad to happen to the kid before he can be of use to me."

Without a word, Kakashi lazily rolled himself to his feet and clapped a heavy hand on Naruto's shoulder. Quickly zipping up his bag and swinging it over his shoulder, Naruto tried not to snap at anyone as he was unceremoniously led to the exit. Before he was shoved out the door, Naruto peered over his shoulder to see old man Teuchi shaking his head disappointedly at him.

***

Naruto wasn't sure if Kakashi was really planning to follow him all the way to a house or not but the man had stayed five steps behind him for 30 minutes now. Naruto was only a few blocks from his hideout and he was getting nervous.

Finally, he stopped and turned to face the strange man with the mismatched eyes. "Um, thanks but, y-you really don't have to follow me all the way home. I'm a big boy, I can handle it from here!" he tried one of his fake smiles and scratched the back of his head nervously.

Kakashi blandly stared back at the youth and gave nothing away. "Orders are orders," he replied simply. "Stop wasting my time and keep walking."

Naruto's smile faltered and he immediately turned to continue walking. "Well, the thing is Kakashi… Mr. Kakashi… I wasn't really going to go home, you see."

There was silence and then Naruto heard a sigh behind him. "How old are you kid?" he heard the man mutter just above a whisper.

"Uh… 16?" his answer sounded more like a question.

"And where are your parents? Do they know you're out running around with people like Itachi?"

Naruto paused mid-step and angrily swung around to face the man again. "I don't have any parents, you giant scarecrow! What makes you think I'm running around with that jerk Itachi anyway? And what would a parent be able to do against someone like him that I can't manage on my own?"

"Alright, alright, calm down kid. Yeesh," Kakahi rolled his eyes lazily. "I figured as much anyway. So where do you live? An orphanage? Foster home? What's the deal?"

Naruto raised his chin defiantly. "None of the above."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Then where are you going?"

"What, are you going to report this back to Itachi? He doesn't need to know where my hideout is!"

Kakashi looked shocked but innocently raised his hands. "Listen, kid, Itachi doesn't need to hear it from me that you're a runaway. I'm sure his only plan was to find out if you had any family that he could blackmail you with. I'll be sure to report back that I escorted you to an orphanage but I do need to say with confidence that you're going somewhere safe."

Naruto's eyes widened a bit. This Kakashi guy sort of reminded him of Mr. Iruka. "I'm going somewhere safe," he replied evasively. "It wouldn't be that safe if I told people where it was, though, now would it?"

Kakashi's eyes closed in what looked like a pleasant smile but Naruto didn't know how he could tell without being able to see the lower portion of the man's face. "Understood, kid," he answered jovially, turning to head back the way he'd come.

Naruto watched him go cautiously until he could no longer see his bright silver head. Then he turned and took off at a dead run.

So many things had happened that day that it was hard to catalogue it as a good day or a bad day. He'd gotten into trouble at school again but he'd been able to punch the snot out Kabuto (plus). Old man Sarutobi seemed to be losing his patience with him but he just might have made his first friend at school (another small plus Naruto thought as he pictured the cute pink haired girl). He found out Kabuto was drug-dealing on school property but he wasn't sure how dangerous that knowledge was (maybe a plus but definitely tricky). Itachi wouldn't buy his goods but he would pay him double if he could pull off whatever job he had to do with Kakashi on Friday (minus, he thought as he realized how trapped he was in the situation). Naruto remembered the look on old man Teuchi's face and deflated as he looked up at his hideout (definite minus).

Teuchi had given him plenty of free meals when he'd been in desperate times. The old man seemed to have a lot of expectations for him despite his pitiful past. It wasn't his fault if he was constantly letting the old guy down. Why should he expect so much out of someone as disadvantaged as he was anyway?

Naruto hopped onto the old dumpster at the side of the abandoned building and kicked off the brick wall to jump high enough to reach the fire escape. He was an expert at this now, he thought with a grin. He shimmied up the fire escape, picked the lock on the automatic-locking window and threw his duffel bag inside before turning to jump down into the four-story tall building. As he turned, Naruto's heart leaped in fright as he swore he saw a glint of silver hair across the street.

Had that scarecrow followed him home?

A/N: So I've just been thinking about posting the second chapter all morning so I said forget about waiting for a certain amount of reviews, I'll just post the next chapter anyway. Thanks to my first three reviewers who gave me excellent feedback! I promise that I will definitely jump back into the world of writing with much gusto once all this schoolwork is out of the way. As it is, I have two tests this week and lots of homework so I won't be uploading another chapter for anything until the weekend.

Please, to everyone else, don't take the fun out of the writing process by not giving me feedback. I love feedback. And I'm really hoping that the scope of this story starts to interest people.