Thank you again to all kind reviewers: Hunter Hatake and Roxxi Uchiha, Sharingan Hikari, FirieGurl, Joan Mistress of Magic, misty's mystic rose, and devil-speaker.. To Empress-Dragon: I guess I never wrote a good description of Akira. I added a short description to chapter 1. To misty's-mystic-rose (helluva name, btw) – a Nancy boy… is like a euphamism for a guy who's gay, or metrosexual. It's very old-timey.
xoxoxoxoxo
Naruto spent the next several days trying to avoid Kabuto, and avoid being felt up by Akira, by turns. Both were difficult to do in an environment of very little cover. Akira seemed intent on letting Kabuto 'scout' a little ahead so that he could hang back with 'Kumiko-chan'. Kabuto seemed intent on asking pointed questions to Kumiko. Naruto was sure that Kabuto knew he was a spy – thankfully, he did not believe Kabuto had guessed his real identity – which, if he did, would surely spell the end of things.
Contrary to popular belief, Naruto could be serious, especially when it came to missions. He knew his own bad points – that he was a talker, that he was impulsive. He knew that pretending to be a girl – pretending to be anyone other than who he really was, basically – was not his strong point. The more he talked, the more likely he was to get found out, eventually. His best defense, he had decided, was just to keep his trap shut.
The effect this was producing on the two former sounds members, was, as it happened, just what one would have hoped. Akira, who had more or less coerced or kidnapped all his former girlfriends in the same manner as Kumiko, was used to girls who were nervous or scared and spent a lot of time shifting around, trying to figure out how to either escape from or appease him. Naruto's behavior, odd under other circumstances, appeared quite normal to him. Similarly, Kabuto, who initially have been almost sure Kumiko was a spy, and was still watchful, was given very little become suspicious about again.
Naruto watched him from a guarded distance as he made their fire for the night. That afternoon, as the sun had begun sinking in the sky, they had caught their first glimpse of a low ridge of rock, far away on the horizon. No one spoke, but he had known, from the way both the Sound nin increased their speed, that this must be their destination. Surely they would reach it before the end of the next day.
Kabuto had changed since their last fight with Orochimaru. His hair, formerly pulled back into a short ponytail, had been chopped shorter, and his arms and face were covered by an impressive array of scars. Surely a ninja who knew as much about poisons and healing as Kabuto could have made the scars disappear – he must have chosen not to.
Naruto had never quite understood why Kabuto had stayed loyal to Orochimaru for so long. He must have recognized, as Jiraya and others had often mentioned, that Orochimaru, while brilliant, was insane as well, that he used people only while he had a use for them, and killed, casually, those whose purpose had been served. Orochimaru had lusted for power – Kabuto, while working for Orochimaru, would only always have been a tool, forced to show absolutely loyalty, and given little room to breathe on his own. Why, then, had he stayed for so long? Had there been no way to escape? Did he have some secondary goal that being with Orochimaru had helped him to fulfill? Kabuto had not seemed the type to take on the role of a servant forever, willingly. Sasuke would have known the answer, but speaking to Sasuke on the subject of the Sound, or his time away from Konoha generally, was a taboo subject, especially after he had gotten so angry with a few chuunin who had made careless comments. Naruto was not afraid of angering Sasuke, but he realized that some subjects were best left alone.
Kabuto had built the fire to a small glow, and removed loaves of bread from his sack, which he proceeded to put on stones by the fire, to warm them. He was humming slightly, as if he was pleased about something. Something Akira had told him had made him happy. Naruto dearly wanted to know what that was. He was sure that, once he could get Akira alone, he could make him tell Naruto everything.
"Tomorrow" Akira said, coming up behind him, "We will reach the new Sound. You'll like it there."
"Ok," Naruto mumbled, not sure what an appropriate reply was.
"I have a nice room," Akira said. "You can put up pictures, if you like, and decorate things. The other guys can be dangerous, but I won't let them mess with you." Sneakily, he had moved his hand to Naruto's knee, and began massaging Naruto's leg lightly.
Bletch… Naruto thought. He looked, instead, pointedly, at Kabuto. "Not when he's around…" he whispered.
This was getting awkward. Akira was becoming more and more persistent, and now it seemed pretty clear that, once they reached the new Sound, he was expecting to seal the deal. Naruto avoided sighing while the ugly fish-man looked at him.
xoxoxoxoxo
He had discovered easily that, of the two Sound, Kabuto was a very good watch, and it would be impossible to sneak away on his watch. Akira, on the other hand, was lazy. On that night, Akira had second watch, which was generally a good thing, because it meant that Kabuto would be tired enough to sleep heavily after his own shift was over. Naruto waited until a half an hour after they had switched and then slipped away. It was a moonless night, and luckily, as they were approaching the large rock face, a number of boulders had begun to dot the landscape.
He had moved only a few hundred feet away from the camp when he heard the soft crunch of Sasuke's footstep in the sand.
"Dobe," said the voice. "What are you doing?"
"Asshole," said Naruto, by way of returning the greeting. "I wanted to tell you that that rock wall is our destination. The village is somewhere around there. Do you know it? Where are Kakashi and Sakura?"
"Only I am following," Sasuke said. "Kakashi thought three would be too noticeable." He paused, "I don't know the village, but I heard rumors in Sound… of a place Orochimaru had discovered, a very large cave that he was making into a base. He never told me the location, but perhaps…"
"Should be." Said Naruto. "When we reach there tomorrow, we will have the location. But what will you do?"
"Kakashi suggested I might return to Sound, pretend to want to rejoin them."
"Kabuto knows you betrayed Orochimaru."
"Kabuto…" Sasuke sighed. "It wouldn't work. I'll wait somewhere away from the village, and hide. See what information you can get in a few hours and then escape quickly, once night comes."
"Why?" Naruto asked. "My identity is still hidden. I can stay undercover longer."
"Dobe!" Sasuke spoke more sharply than he intended. He calmed himself. "We already have Kabuto's identity, and soon we will have the location of the Sound as well. That is enough."
"What about the secret weapon Akira spoke of? What about judging their strength, their members?"
"Just from seeing the place, we'll be able to tell a lot." Sasuke's voice grew lazy. It was his way, he knew, of dealing with a difficult topic – act as though it was very unimportant. "Anyway, dobe, haven't you realized the other reason why you can't stay in Sound?"
"What?" Asked Naruto, sharply. He was afraid that he had forgotten something obvious, that Sasuke would bug him over.
"The whole world's not as naïve and innocent as you. Can't you see the way Akira's been leering over you? He has a bad track record with women, and if you go to Sound he'll definitely want you to…"
"…sleep with him?" Naruto cut in. "I thought of that."
Sasuke looked at him coolly. "Dobe, so you see why it won't work."
"Why not? Do you think he'd be able to tell I'm not a girl?"
Sasuke felt like hitting Naruto. "No, moron, do you think you'd be able to go through with it?"
Naruto shrugged casually. "Why not? It's not really my body. Granted, I'm not an expert, but I think all I've gotta do is lie there."
"Are you an idiot?"
"Geez, why are you getting upset? Is there really a problem with the plan?"
Sasuke rubbed his head. "Yes… it's crazy."
"Oh, that's rich, coming from you."
Sasuke felt himself getting angry. Sometimes arguing with the dobe was like hitting your head against a stone wall. If Naruto hadn't already made his mind up, he could be easily influenced, but if he'd already come to a decision, you couldn't sway him, no matter how stupid or pig-headed the choice he'd made… in the back of his mind, Sasuke realized he should be grateful for the dobe's ability to stick with decisions everyone else thought were wrong. After all, how else would he himself have been saved? Even so, now his decision was definitely wrong.
"I'm telling you this is a terrible idea."
"Well, luckily, it's not your decision."
"Moron!" He felt his voice getting louder, and hastily brought it back down. He didn't want to wake up the camp, after all. The two boys glared at each other, and Sasuke felt his blood rising, felt an urge to activate his sharingan and knock Naruto and drag him back to Konoha, if that was the only way to dissuade him.
"I'm not gonna change my mind," said Naruto, calmly. "And you can't defeat me, especially not here when a fight would alert the enemy to our presence and ruin the mission."
"Fine!" Sasuke said, rudely.
They stayed quiet for a moment. Then, Naruto spoke. "I don't know why you're getting so pissy over this. After all, Kunoichi do seduction missions, and they're sacrificing something real… this body is just an illusion, like I told you."
"You'd be able to feel it, won't you? And, anyway, Konoha stopped doing those kind of missions years ago. Plus, the kunoichi who did them had special training."
"Well, I'm improvising… excuse me."
Sasuke groaned. "God, you're a moron." He thought for another moment. "Ok, dobe, if you really want to do this, you want me to sleep with you first?"
"What?" Naruto gapped. "No!"
Sasuke felt his eye twitch. "Isn't that what they used to do? If the kunoichi was a virgin, she'd have a close friend or comrade take her virginity before she went on a seduction mission. Unless…" he looked at Naruto. "You aren't a virgin?"
"Ugh, Sasuke, I hate you! Fine, I'm a virgin – I can't believe I have to have this conversation with you – and no, I absolutely do NOT want to sleep with you first. God, I think that would give me more nightmares than that creepy guy."
"Oh?" Sasuke said coldly. Propositioning Naruto hadn't been exactly easy for him, either, and he thought the dobe could have refused a little more graciously.
"I mean, don't get me wrong, you're a good friend, and everything, but I kinda don't want to do this more than absolutely necessary, you get it?"
"Kumiko... –chan?"
From the direction of the camp, Akira came towards them, walking carefully. Sasuke could see well at night, and Naruto had some benefit from the kyuubi's eyes, but Akira, with neither, was relying on a flashlight to see. The beam fell across Naruto's face, and then Sasuke's, and Akira let out an audible gasp… "Sasuke-sama?"
"You know him?" Naruto asked.
"No." Sasuke said, curtly.
"We never spoke..." Akira said, "but of course I know of you… Sasuke-sama, who was being personally trained by Orochimaru-sama…" His eyes narrowed. "You betrayed us."
"Eat shit," said Sasuke, who suddenly found the tension of the previous few days too much and wanted badly to take it out on someone. He rushed at Akira, who Naruto suddenly felt a kind of sympathy for- the man barely had time to sink his body into a good fighting stance before the Uchiha was on him, slitting his throat so quickly that he didn't even had time to scream before his body collapsed to the ground, and blood began to spread in the sand.
"Shit, Sasuke!" Naruto hissed. "Was that really necessary?"
"Dobe," said Sasuke. "Give him time to yell, and he would have blown our cover."
"Too late," came a playful voice from behind them both. Turning, they saw Kabuto walking out of the shadows. His hood was off, and he smiled evilly at both of them. "Long time no see, Sasuke-kun."
xoxoxoxoxo
They turned to face Kabuto. Sasuke and Naruto spread themselves so as to cover the greatest area.
"Be careful," Sasuke hissed. "He's not that strong, but he has poisons… and weird jutsus…. And I don't know how many of Orochimaru's jutsu's he managed to learn…"
"Oh, don't be like that, Sasuke-kun," Kabuto said, still grinning manically. "Why do we have to fight?"
"I think," said Sasuke, speaking through clenched teeth, "that is fairly obvious."
"Oh?" Kabuto tilted his head. "You killed Orochimaru. I could take revenge for that. But I'm not a vindictive person. Sasuke-kun, why not return to the Sound? There is still the opportuntity to grow, to increase your power. I have a feeling Konoha must be boring for you, these days."
"Shut up!" Said Naruto. Sasuke thought he heard a note of desperation in the blond's voice – did Naruto really believe he could be convinced by such weak arguments?
"Oh? I don't think we've been properly introduced, 'Kumiko-chan'." Kabuto turned towards Naruto. "Konoha must be getting pretty desperate, to go back to those seduction missions the Third so self-righteously put an end too. You're a brave girl, I guess, trying to help your village." He turned back to Sasuke. "In fact, Sasuke-kun… what I could offer you… is a partnership. What do you think? You can even be Otokage, if you like. Leader of your own village, even a ruined one like Sound, isn't bad. There are still nins loyal to Sound, and others as well, mercenaries who are hoping to gain something from joining our cause. We can come back."
"I don't think so," Sasuke said, quietly.
"Oh? But you haven't even heard the best part." Kabuto's eyes flickered wildly, and Naruto, watching, wondered if had only recently gone mad, or if he had been so for a long time. "I have information, you know… information that would die with me, if you killed me now… about Itachi…"
He saw, just barely saw, Sasuke's body flinch, when Kabuto uttered his brother's name. Oh no, Naruto thought. How easily that name could ruin everything…
Sasuke cast a quick glance at Naruto. He caught the blonde's eye, and then looked away from him. It looked as though Sasuke was trying to tell him something. But what?
"Itachi?" Sasuke said, lazily. Dangerously lazy. As he became only when he was very serious.
Kabuto nodded. "Would you like to come with me to the village? I will tell you more once we arrive."
xoxoxoxoxo
And so Naruto found his hands firmly bound, and tied with a short rope that Kabuto held at all times. They traveled through the night (though what the reason for this urgency was, Naruto could not be sure).
The village seemed to be, as Sasuke had described, a vast cave that had been carved and chiseled into a web of tunnels and rooms, doubtless an ideal place to hide even a medium-to-large sized operation. The entrance was nothing more than a small hole, which, after a time and a few turns, opened into a large room, with a door at it's end guarded by two strong men.
"Put her in a cell," Kabuto said to one of the guards, and Naruto was left, tired and frustrated, as he watched Kabuto and Sasuke walking away. What should he do? The look in Sasuke's eyes, he thought, at that moment, had seemed to say, 'trust me'. Therefore, Naruto had not resisted being captured, and did not now resist being locked in a cell. I have believed in Sasuke for a long time, he told himself. I can believe in him a little more. In any case, it seemed that Kabuto had not realized who he was, and therefore the cell, while sufficient to hold an ordinary nin, did not look so strong to him. He could probably escape easily, should he need to…