SasuNaru, yaoi, m-preg, OOC , OCs and unbe-read

Standard Disclaimer applies

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Chapter 47: Unmasked

Squirrels paused for a second, their ears twitching in full attention before they scattered away leaving their acorns. A moment later, Kisho burst through the bushes. He didn't mind that some twigs had torn his clothes and had scratched him. Nothing mattered except that his feet would take him to some place that nobody would reach him. With the back of his hand, he wiped what was a mixture of tears, nasal fluid and saliva from his chin.

Stumbling upon a rock, he twisted his right ankle before landing flat on his face. Instead of standing up immediately, he rolled over and screamed at the blue sky before oblivion swooped down to take him away.

Kisho shuffled his feet, excited with his class' first field trip outside the village.

"Hurry up, 'tousan!" he said.

"I am hurrying," Sasuke replied, "a minute more and we'll be done preparing your and your friends' bentou." The 'we' referred to him and his two shadow clones whom he had created to help him prepare lunch good for eleven person.

"I'm going to be late," the boy informed almost in a snap.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "it's still six o'clock and your meeting time is six thirty."

"Chichiue should be here doing that instead at some place attending meeting."

"But chichiue never give you an additional pudding, right?"

The blond boy grinned, "all right! Take your time, then."

The morning had been uneventful, in fact boring as teachers explained to them each plants and animals which could be useful when they become ninjas. What was only interesting was the time children were asked to draw their favorite animal or plant or both. After that was lunch time. There children who had more fun exchanging food and others who were happy to consume somebody's food instead of theirs.

Aside from one hour and thirty minutes lunch break, there was also a one hour rest. But being the kids that they were, they used that time to play.

While some were playing tag and punishment games, others had opted to play a more fun game- ninja. They grouped themselves into two warring team who had five stones. The first team who lost their stones to the other was the loser.

Saburo let out a frustrated groan as another stone was taken away from his group.

"Kisho! Didn't I tell you to watch my back?"

"I'm. I did!" he replied smilingly which frustrate the other boy.

"Then why-"

Kisho was still smiling when he cut his friend off, "it's not good to blame others for your mistake."

Saburo looked crossed at the off-handed comment and shoved the blonde who was still smiling. He pulled his fist ready to slam it into that infuriating face when a slight earthquake occurred. And the protruding part of the mountain that cradled boulders and rocks took that moment to collapse.

"Move Ai-chan!" an older student shouted at her classmate who stayed rooted under the falling boulders. Everybody was frozen at the sight and possible death. Everybody but Kisho. The boy shoved his friend away to free himself from the other's hold then ran towards his classmate as fast as he could. But his fast reflexes had been dulled after pretending for more than a year. And he could only watched in desperation when boulders upon boulders piled upon the girl.

For the first time, Kisho felt bad... guilty thinking that he had in a way killed his classmate. He could have saved her if only... With a sob, he left the place ignoring few friends calling his name, asking where he was going. He didn't know where but he didn't want to see their accusing stares.

Remembering the horrified look of his classmate, he kept on muttering an apology until it was lost in his sobs.

-SasuNaru is love-

He who went by the name Nanashi wasn't a vagabond, fugitive or a rounin. He had a master but he preferred to travel; to see the different sides of the world while continuously improving himself and evolving his sword technique.

He believed among other things, that every encounter had meaning so when his gaze fell on an unconscious boy he had carried him off to a safer place.

-SasuNaru is love-

"How's Juri?" a teacher asked after taking a glance at the accident zone.

"Just scratches. Fortunately, the lower boulders had prevented the rest to crash her. We had rushed her to the hospice the moment we rescued her," he explained. "What about Kisho?"

The younger man shook his head, "We couldn't find him yet. But the other two are still searching but they told me that we should now inform his parents."

The last word made the other man's breathing a bit difficult. God only knew how the Uchiha would react to such bad news. Was there a way to inform the man without risking few of his limbs? The answer came to him through the cries of a crow. No, he won't ask Kakashi as the man made him uncomfortable with his smile. Iruka-sensei would be best for breaking the news.

"C'mon, let's go to Iruka."

"Iruka-sensei has nothing to do with this."

The older man smiled in contrary.

-SasuNaru is love-

The kunoichi receptionist smiled at her former classmate who looked deathly pale.

"Iruka, the summer heat must have gotten you pretty bad," she commented. "What can I do for you?"

"Is Sasuke around?"

"Yeah. He just came back from training. You'll find him in the common room with few people."

Iruka knocked before cautiously entering the room. He found the dark-haired captain at one corner of the room playing shogi with Shikamaru.

The two ANBU captains nodded their head in silent greeting to their former teacher.

"Sasuke," Iruka started after clearing his throat twice, "there had been an accident…" He noticed how tensed and alarm Sasuke was that he immediately assured him, "No. It's not Kisho."

But Shikamaru and Sasuke could hear the word 'but' even when it wasn't being spoken.

"The teachers accompanying the class still don't know why nor could come up with reasons but after the accident, Kisho ran away," he informed and looked at Sasuke directly in the eye. "Kisho is missing, Sasuke. He had been missing for almost two hours now,"

And the shogi piece that had slipped from the dark-haired man's hand cluttered to the floor louder than usual as silence settled upon them.

"Why didn't they inform me of this earlier?" Sasuke asked in a very calm voice.

"They thought they could handle it. They didn't want to give any false alarm," Iruka said. "But they are still out there searching."

"Troublesome," Shikamaru said as he stood up then looked at Sasuke, "I'll get my team ready to go search too."

"Do you want me to send a message to Naruto?"

Sasuke looked at the older man and shook his head. If they would inform Naruto, he knew his blonde would be in a panic mode to think properly and besides Sasuke could handle this. "Let's exhaust everything we have before we'll inform him." It was best that way for Naruto.

Be safe, Kisho. I'll be there to find you.

-SasuNaru is love-

Nanashi gaped as he noticed that all the red scratches on the boy's skin had been gone. He looked at the herbs he had picked few minutes ago and sighed. His effort and time had been wasted.

The boy's stirring told him he was awake. And when those eyes opened and looked at him in dazed, he was shock to find what was on those dull obsidian pools. It was the eyes similar to that of a desperate, helpless and dying man.

Why was this boy at a very tender age looked like this? He wondered briefly before he plunged deeper. As a warrior at the same time traveler, he knew that the eyes were the windows of one soul and as he searched for more he realized that the boy's soul was suffocating not only from the masks the boy was wearing but from the cell that caged him.

"Who are you, mister?" he heard the boy asked quickly.

"I go by the name of Nanashi," he replied. "And you boy, who are you?"

The blonde looked away and muttered, "I'm no one now." He had ran away… thrown everything away because he was afraid; because he was a murderer.

The man arched his eyebrow, "You are someone beneath that mask." He wasn't stupid. Eyes as dark and mysterious as the night itself, blond hair that rivaled the sun and the chakra that was waiting to be tamed and used, he knew who he had saved. He had met his parents once when they were still ANBU members.

"I ran away from home because I killed someone," he explained. And because the man was looking at him with disbelief, he told him what had happened that day.

In the end of the story, Nanashi chuckled. "You didn't kill her, boy but there's someone who's about to die if you keep on pretending- yourself."

Kisho looked confused and silently waiting for an explanation but the man shook his head and thrust into his hands a bowl of porridge.

"I'll tell you later."

"Are you going to send me home?"

Nanashi knew the boy didn't want to go home and sending him back to the village would mean force on his part and rebellion on the blonde's part. "Let's stay here until you want to go home."

"I want to come with you."

"Decide that when your head is already clear. For now, eat and sleep. I'll watch over you. No one will find us."

Kisho nodded and took what was offered.

-SasuNaru is love-

It had been six hours, twenty-seven minutes, 12 seconds and counting and yet there was no sign of Kisho.

Sasuke looked at Kiba who joined them together with Akamaru and the man's face told them that his search was also negative.

"We couldn't even trace his scent. It was like he just vanished after reaching that bush. But there was also another's man scent," Kiba said.

"Just like Pakkun claimed," Lee muttered. "And now that it's about to rain, things would look worse.

"Kidnap is a big possibility then," Shikamaru said, "It's time we should enlist help from special jounin."

"We should continue with the search and wait for ransom," Sasuke added then shook his head when pairs of eyes looked at him, waiting. "No, we're not yet going to send word to him. Not yet." He stared at the dark inky sky.

Where are you, my son?

-SasuNaru is love-

Even in the dark, the man could see the boy was tossing and turning in his sleep. In fact, he was whimpering. Unable to stand no more, he gently shook the boy to awakening.

"No one's going to take you back," he whispered, "I'll kill anyone who does." The shinobi were far more superior over him, he knew that, but he needed to comfort the boy. Besides, he had made to cover their tracks and the rain was also helping him now.

There was conviction in his voice that the boy sniffed and smiled tearfully, "thank you, mister. And my name is Kisho."

Nanashi nodded, "Very well then, Kisho, have a peaceful sleep."

-SasuNaru is love-

When Kisho woke up there was already a simple meal waiting for him. He could hear the sounds of the rain pounding the ground since last night. From the inconspicuous entrance of an equally inconspicuous cave, he watched the gloomy world outside. It seemed it reflected his world or was his world gloomier?

"You look like an old man with that look on your face, "Nanashi commented.

Kisho looked at him. There was a smile on the man's face and his aura… it was not cheerful but it was light. "Do you enjoy living?"

The swordsman chuckled, "And you talk like an old bitter man. But to answer your question, yes, I am."

"Why?"

"Because I am true to myself. I do what I want to do."

Kisho clenched and unclenched his hands while looking at them, "Isn't that hard? People would hate you."

"But to hate oneself is worse."

"I hate myself for being different," he confessed and tears sprang in his eyes. "Why do I have this so much power that even animals hated me? Why do I have to be better than anyone? Why does everything come so easy with me but making friends? It hurts. It hurt too much."

A quiet Nanashi looked at the boy clenching his chest and felt sympathy than pity. He drew closer to the boy and hugged him.

"Those animals are just being wary, afraid that you would hurt them."

"But I wouldn't," Kisho said with insistence.

"But that's what they thought at first. That's basic in survival."

The last statement confused the boy and Nanashi once again reminded himself that he was talking to a child.

"If you'd show them that you meant no harm then they'd befriend you. You need to tell them not to be scared of you just as your parents tell you not to be afraid of the dark, right?"

Kisho nodded. His parents had told him that. Sometimes his chichiue would hum a song and gently pat his hips. Other times, his otousan would read or tell him stories of brave ninjas. His heart felt heavy as he realized that he missed them.

"To be different could be a curse or a gift.-"

"You mean like reward and punishment?"

Nanashi nodded. "Yeah but that depends on how you see it."

"A punishment..."he muttered.

"And yet you felt bad that you couldn't save your classmate."

"I...I"

"Listen, Kisho. To be different is never easy. But if you accept what you are; if you're true to yourself and love yourself people would also love you."

"Really?"

The swordsman nodded, "You have to prove to them that while you're different from them you're still like them- you laugh, you cry, you get hurt and etc.," Nanashi smiled as he saw that the boy was comprehending things quickly. "But despite your efforts, there would still be others who would despise you." At this he saw Kisho frowned. "But there are others too who wouldn't and these will be your friends. Friends accept you for who you really are. No questions ask."

When Kisho's eyes met his, Nanashi saw strength and the fire of his soul was now rising up. "You'll make a splendid shinobi."

"Can you take me home now?" Kisho asked.

"I thought you want me to take you along?"

The boy stuck his tongue out and in a serious tone confessed, "I missed my parents."

The man chuckled, "very well."

Nanashi looked amused when Kisho realized how close they were to the village. In fact, they were hiding behind the village although he had found the boy almost four kilo meters away from Konoha. He knew the ninjas wont be pleased to know they had been tricked into believing that Kisho had been taken farther, kidnap perhaps. He had pissed them more for erasing their scent but it was his SOP. He hoped they'd be forgiving.

Both of them hadn't taken ten steps when five jounins surrounded them. From the way the shinobis looked at him, Nanashi knew he was branded as a kidnapper for keeping the boy for what? for one night and a day. But Nanashi wasn't stupid. He looked at the leader straight in the eye but he didn't draw his sword.

"What kind of a man are you to kidnap this golden bundle of passion and youthfulness?" the leader inquired loudly.

"You're wrong, uncle-"

"It's okay, Kisho. I, one of the two beautiful green beasts of Konoha will punished this man."

At that, three jounins advanced towards Nanashi, grabbed and pushed him to the ground to tie him. All the time, Kisho was screaming to let the man go. When he kicked one of the shinobis who was tying his friend, Lee held him back. When his flailing arms and legs didn't work, he was about to bite one of the restraining arms when a familiar voice stopped.

"What's this commotion all about?"

"Chichiue!" Kisho uttered in happiness, momentarily forgotten that he was a prisoner of Lee's almost crushing embrace. His father would definitely listen to him.

"Welcome back, Naruto-sama," all jounins greeted with a low but respectful bow.

"Despite my situation, its nice to meet you again, captain," Nanashi greeted warmly then added, "or should I say hokage-sama?"

Recognition dawned on Naruto's face a second later and he let out his infamous screeched, "Nanashi-jisan."

The swordsman cringed. First it had been niisan and now jisan? What would be next?

"Fuzzy eyebrows, explain to me why he's being tied like a criminal."

-SasuNaru is love-

In one of the rooms of their residence, Sasuke and Naruto learned from Nanashi what Kisho was going through and how he was coping up. Both of them looked pained, guilty and embarrassed. Pained because their child was suffering. Guilty because they hadn't been able to even guess what was actually going on. 'If only I paid more attention...' was what was on their mind blinking and flashing brightly. Embarrassed because it took a stranger for Kisho to open up. In a way they had failed their role as parents and it was vexing.

As gratitude the couple had asked Nanashi to stay at their mansion as long as he wants and anytime he wants in which he accepted gratefully.

Later at night when their guest had settled in his room, Naruto joined Sasuke in Kisho's room.

Sasuke was sitting on the bed, his back cushioned by two pillows from the hardness of the headboard and his legs stretched in front of him. Sitting across his lap with his head against the older man's chest was Kisho. The boy was concentrating more in listening his otousan's heartbeat and savoring his warmth and scent rather than listening to the story his father was reading.

Even though Sasuke knew Kisho was giving the story a quarter of his attention, he continued reading. Once in a while, his fingers affectionately combed Kisho's golden locks.

"Chichiue," he said as his father sat on the edge of the bed.

"Ne, Kisho," Naruto started. "Otousan and I are sorry for never being there for you."

"It's not your fault," the boy replied what he had told Sasuke when the latter apologized earlier. "It was like a long game of pretension. I had fun. Sort of," he added with a shrug of his shoulders.

"You aren't alone," Sasuke reminded him, "so there is no need to pretend."

The couple shared a look for a brief second.

Kisho immediately clutched Sasuke's shirt when he felt a burst of ominous chakra near him. Still pressing closer, he slowly turned his head then gasped as his gaze landed on his chichiue.

His mind tried to come up with an explanation why his father's scars became more pronounced; why his chichiue's chakra which was usually blue was now red; why his eyes were red and slit and most of all why his father looked like a giant cat. But no matter how he looked at the transformation, he couldn't come up with an explanation yet his mind pointed out that the current of the red chakra was almost similar to his.

"Remember about the story of a ninja who managed to save the village from a fox demon?" Sasuke asked.

The boy nodded then his eyes widened as he quickly connected things, "Chichiue was the baby."

Sasuke nodded affirmatively. Kisho hurriedly scrambled to Naruto, pulled up his father's shirt to see the seal. When he did, he pressed his fingers wanting to trace the markings but pull back because it was as hot as fire.

He remembered all the stories his otousan told him about the fox demon and the boy who carried it. He had laughed when his dark-haired father named the characters after them. Of course he had blushed when the older man named the child who was inside the jinchuuriki when Kyuubi reached its growth stage after him. He had thought it was a fiction and his father was just humoring him by changing the names of characters. But now he realized he was wrong. Everything about the story was true.

However Kisho wasn't the only one who had the wrong assumption. Even Yuuzuki, Akemi and Miki thought it was just a made-up tale to explain why their chichiue could give birth or why they don't have relatives and why otousan never mention or talk much about their uncle.

Naruto and Sasuke wouldn't correct or insist. They'd just let them be. They had already provided the facts through story-telling and it was up to them to realize and comprehend them at their own time and pace. That was the method the couple had agreed and in their opinion it was a good way.

Kisho wanted to lash out at his father for making him different from everyone else then realized that he wasn't so different from him and he find that comforting. And when he recalled from the story how his father struggled his anger disappeared.

When their eyes met, a new bond had been formed- that of kindred spirit. Kisho was more determined to be himself seeing that Naruto was able to do so despite the hardships. From the depths of his determination, a hope took form. A hope that one day he'd meet someone who'd truly recognize him just as his otousan did his chichiue.

-SasuNaru is love-

"Ne, Sasuke," came Naruto's voice in the dark as the couple was lying on their bed, holding each other. Naruto had expected Sasuke to do what he always do when his guess is correctー flaunting the fact that he had been right when he thought that there was something wrong with Kisho. However, when his spouse didn't he was slightly disturbed especially when he had prepared a list of comebacks. In fact, his spouse just apologized to him thinking that he'd be mad for not being informed early about Kisho's disappearance and then nothing else. He would be if Kisho hadn't been found but their child was already with them so it really didn't matter much.

"Sasuke," he gently called out again and this time he received a reply. Although it was just a 'hn' it was as good as any of his replies. "I'm sorry for calling you paranoid. I just really wanted him to be happy; to have good childhood memories of friends something which I never had. So when I learned that-"

"At least from now on things would be fine, hopefully," Sasuke replied dismissively. Naruto didn't have to apologize as there was nothing to apologize. At least to him.

"I-"

"Shut up, dobe! I'm trying to sleep here."

A vein ticked on the blonde's forehead, "Sleep? Then why did your hand just snaked in there?"

-SasuNaru is love-

"Uncle," Kisho called out and ran after Nanashi who was stepping out the Konoha gates. "Don't leave yet. I want you to help me to get strong."

Nanashi crouched down and pat his head. "You're already strong and they're eager and more suited to teach you," he said, giving a meaningful look towards his family who stayed behind. "When we meet again, I know we will, show me your strength."

The boy nodded and beamed, "Until next time, uncle."

"Yes, until next time."

As the man's back became as small as a dot, Kisho looked at his clenched his hands.

Next time...

-SasuNaru is love-

When Kisho went back to school, he never bothered to correct the rumors that he was scared of earthquake and he got lost because he had no sense of direction. It was the first time that he paid no attention to such trifle thing. He had already played the part of a fool and now it was time to be his real self.

"Fifteen point five degrees," answered Saburo confidently to the difficult problem written on the board. And those students who weren't able to get the question 'ah'ed and 'oh'ed to their class' genius.

Payback time.

"Yes, Kisho-kun?" their instructor asked indicating for the child who had raised his hand to speak.

Everybody expected him to ask the teacher to explain how it resulted to that but Kisho had no plans to live up to anyone's expectations. This time, he would follow his own rules.

"Wouldn't it be better if the angle of his elbow is eleven point seventy five? In that way, the konoha ninja could disable some traps or harm other hidden enemies. And if he increased-"

"Wait a minute!" Saburo almost cried out. "The problem didn't say anything about traps and other enemies."

"Not directly," Kisho answered, "but there are hints."

"Really?" the other boy's voice was thick with sarcasm but it didn't affect the blonde who was thoroughly enjoying the situation.

"The problem stated that the Konoha ninja knows the terrain. That alone puts him on a good advantage. Unless the opponent is stupid, brave or stronger, he would set traps to negate his advantage or bring comrades to outnumber him and hopefully win." If only his brothers were listening now, they'd be happy to realize that he was really listening to them.

"That's stupid." His pride as the top of the class refused to accept that his classmate could be right.

"But anything is possible in the battlefield that is why we must look underneath of the underneath," Kisho stated matter-of-factly.

With a growl, Subaro threw his pencil case. But this time, Kisho was no longer deaf to his instincts. With a grace that he hadn't shown before, he leaned sideward and caught the object.

"You missed." Obsidian eyes were full of mockery and arrogance.

Saburo threw his body towards the infuriating boy ready to beat him up but the teacher poof between them and stopped the furious boy.

Their teacher looked at Kisho wondering what was wrong with his blond student. He had never seen him like this or heard of him approaching the problems in a manner similar to the upper graders. It was as if...

"Is there something wrong, Kisho-kun?"

The boy beamed, "just being myself."

Even if the others were giving him antagonistic looks, Kisho never felt any better than before. Was this what a caged bird feel once it gained its freedom and roamed the skies?

-SasuNaru is love-

"I heard that they Uchiha boy caused a scene during their second period," an ash-gray-haired boy said as he joined his two friends during their lunch break.

"What? He became more stupid?" his friend asked, never bothering to look up from the piece of wood he was carving with a kunai.

The third boy with amethyst eyes snorted, "What could be more stupid than hiding behind a mask?"

They couldn't remember exactly when but they could remember why Kisho had them watching and observing him from the distance for a while now. The blonde just stood out from everyone else despite his impressive skills of acting. It was like they could hear his silent cries resonating from his soul wherever he was. They shared the same opinion that he was pathetic and stupid but they watched with abated breath as to when that mask would slip or when his real self would die. It was an interesting way of killing their time in the academy.

"Actually he dropped his mask," came the announcement and the two were pleased to hear it.

-SasuNaru is love-

It didn't take long for Kisho to lose his friends and all his classmates refused to have anything to do with him except when there were seatwork pairings and activity groupings for one reason: he was impressively intelligent. Kisho knew their reason and he didn't want to be used. He even insisted to work alone but his teachers refused because it would defeat the purpose of the activities-understanding the dynamics of teamwork.

Kisho also posed another problem for his teachers. The boy looked incredibly bored during all his classes that he, most of the time, fell asleep. But despite his sudden sleeping habits, the boy managed to get perfect scores. And while Kisho was struggling to stay awake, his classmates were struggling to catch up wit him and impatient to reach whatever level Kisho was. In the end, the class adviser decided to transfer Kisho to the second grade.

Unfortunately, it was still the same. He suffered boredom while his new classmates suffered impatience and saw the boy's rise to the class top as something rude or a crime against them. Again, he was transferred to the third grade. However, he was being isolated by everyone. A lot felt inferior to him while others felt insulted that someone like him could be better than them.

All the time, Kisho remained firm to be by himself. Yes, he was lonely but it felt good to be true to oneself and his hope to have a real friend never dimmed nor wavered.

It hadn't been two weeks before he had ran away from Konoha, when he was transferred again. This time, he was going to join with the fourth graders whose homeroom teacher was no other than his Uncle Iruka.

"Kisho, you're just in time," Iruka said as he led the boy inside the classroom. "We're doing a 4-man team activity for today and one group lack one person." He ushered him to the mentioned group. "Boys, this is your fourth member, Kisho Uchiha.," he introduced.

The three boys nodded.

"Kazushi," the boy with an ash-gray hair said with bright smile.

"Shigure," another one said.

"Makoto," the other nodded, his purple eyes almost piercing him.

"Be good friends, okay?" Iruka said then added before leaving, "Shigure-kun, this isn't the time for carving."

Their activity from what he had gathered was to come up with an ambush plan with minimum damage despite the list of disadvantages written on the board.

"So what do you think, Kisho?" Shigure asked.

It took a moment for the blonde to realize that someone was talking to, no, with him and longer to realize that they weren't waiting for his answer but for his opinion and ideas. And as he started interacting, he knew that these three boys- one with eyes that were too purple to be human; the other sporting a tear-shaped birthmark just below his right eye and the last looking more like a doll than anything else, were going to be his friends. His close friends.

TBC

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That's it but it's not yet settled. More on Kisho on later chapters. For next chapter, it's just SasuNaru fluff on how they spend start and end their way. I throw a carnival festival along the way. Please look forward to it.