Blue Skies

Chapter Two

"Something in the air. Something's coming...A storm's approaching." -The Tenth Doctor, Doctor Who

The sound of voices broke through Naruto's muddled consciousness the next time he grew aware of his surroundings. A warm wind brushed across his cheeks, and for a moment the blonde could almost believe that what had transpired between himself and Sasuke was all a simple dream; he had to have fallen asleep. The surroundings were too similar.

But that unstable hope was broken when Naruto's eyes fluttered open, and he saw great towers of steel and glass above his head. A yell rising in his throat, Naruto leapt up onto his feet with his hand flying to his right thigh to pull out a kunai from his weapons holster, only to find that the pouch was not taped down to his leg. Glancing down in shock, Naruto saw that even his typical orange pants were missing, replaced with black denim jeans, white tennis shoes in the place of his black shinobi sandals.

Whipping his head up, Naruto tried to make sense of where the hell he was. It seemed he was in a park of some sort; he stood in a clearing lined by small trees and gravel paths, along which walked families, couples, or just single people jogging. "The hell..." The Jinchūriki whispered and looked down at his chest, which was covered by an orange tank top.

"...Way to draw attention to yourself."

Naruto spun on his heel at the voice and saw Sasuke standing about four feet away from him, arms crossed over a blue tee shirt and a smirk on his features. Naruto scowled. "What sort of genjutsu have you put me in!" Naruto shouted and pointed an accusatory finger at Sasuke. The raven glowered at the obnoxious blonde. "I have nothing to do with this," he growled. "Bullshit," Naruto spat and stalked forward, clenching his fist around the collar of Sasuke's shirt and pushing him back.

"Want me to prove it to you?" Sasuke asked scathingly. "Yeah, actually, I would," Naruto replied. Sasuke ripped his clothing from Naruto's grasp and stepped back, forming a seal with his hands. "Kai!" The raven demanded, and unlike Naruto expected, the area around them didn't waver back to the forests of Konoha. Blinking in surprise, he watched as Sasuke slowly let his arms fall to his sides. "Whatever this is...it's real," Sasuke explained and narrowed his eyes.

"Maybe you just don't have enough chakra to get us out," Naruto said, panick seeping into his voice as he copied Sasuke's hands from earlier. "Kai!" He shouted. Nothing. Looking down at his hands, Naruto suddenly noticed how...empty he felt. "My chakra," he whispered in shock. Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Now you get it?" He asked mockingly. Naruto glared at him. "But wherever we are...this means the Kyuubi isn't...inside me," he said, half talking to himself.

Sasuke arched an eyebrow as Naruto began to pace in front of him, arms crossed behind his head. "What does that have to do with anything," the Uchiha asked in annoyance. Naruto was being an idiot as always, but even he could see Naruto was worried. "Jinchūrikis...we, uh...we can't...live without our Bijuu inside of us," Naruto explained slowly, and Sasuke blinked. "What is that supposed to mean?" He asked.

Naruto stopped pacing and turned to stare at him. "If I don't have the Kyuubi with me, then how am I still alive," he demanded loudly, and Sasuke looked over his shoulder to see people staring at them oddly. Looking back at the blonde, who was breathing heavily, Sasuke sighed. "Shut up for a second," he growled and turned. "We have to get somewhere more quiet so we can figure out what the hell is going on."

Naruto begrudgingly complied and walked behind Sasuke as the Uchiha turned and made his way towards a gravel path, noticing with distaste the boy somehow had the Uchiha crest on the back of his shirt. The raven's grey pants almost blended into the walkway as the two reached it. Unbeknownst to Naruto, even Sasuke was slightly worried about the absence of chakra in...wherever they were.

It just made killing Naruto that much more difficult.

"Hey, Sasuke," Naruto asked as they walked and, much to Sasuke's annoyance, quickened his pace to walk at the raven's side. "What," he muttered back. "Why didn't you just leave, if you woke up first?" Naruto continued. Sasuke kept his eyes focused on the ground in front of him and shoved his hands into his pockets. "None of your business," he replied. In reality though, Sasuke hadn't left because, for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to do that.

Plus being all alone in a place he didn't know, much less understood, sucked. So he had taken the option of sticking with Naruto despite how annoying the blonde was. Naruto scowled and turned his eyes forward as well, then looked up at the sky. Neither boy talked after that, but Sasuke noticed Naruto was almost twitching by the time it seemed they had reached the exit of the park, and were met with an all new challenge.

A black asphalt street lay before them, covered in white and yellow paint while great metal...things hurtled down the road. Horns blared and screeched as light reflected off of the metal beings, almost blinding Sasuke. Slight fear rose in him when he couldn't recognize what the hell these things were. Likewise, Naruto seemed to shiver and bent low as if anticipating an attack. Scanning the road, Sasuke noticed a metal pole on the other side with a yellow box in it, a red hand glowing inside of it.

Then the hand switched to a white man, and people around the pair began to cross the road as the unknown machines stopped. "Let's go," Sasuke demanded and grabbed Naruto's fist, which was clenched tight by the blonde's side, and dragged him behind himself across the road. Looking inside each machine as he passed, Sasuke saw people sitting inside and waiting impatiently to go once more, and then he turned his eyes back to where he was walking.

Once the two had safely crossed the road, Sasuke dropped Naruto's hand and looked around, trying to find where to go next. He had left the park to find somewhere more quiet, dammit! But this city-like place was easily ten times louder than the enclosed grassy expanse..."Oi, what now," Naruto asked when he noticed Sasuke was just standing by his side, staring up at the metal buildings with a scowl.

"I don't know," Sasuke growled turned to the left, looking down a strip of concrete that people were walking on. "This way," he said and walked that direction, knowing Naruto would follow him. And as Sasuke looked over his shoulder, he did see Naruto trailing behind with his head bent, like he was thinking about something serious. Sasuke snorted. Naruto never thinks about what he's doing, he thought in amusement as they approached a corner and turned left.

Strange, yet enticing smells flooded Sasuke's nose as he rounded the corner, and he saw advertisements for all sorts of restaurants lining the walls to his left. Fenced off eating areas crowded the walkway and people carrying plastic bags approached the pair. Picking out a restaurant at random, Sasuke pointed at it. "Over here," he muttered and began to approach it. Naruto, clutching his stomach unconsciously, followed the raven through a pair of glass doors and into a dimly lit room.

A man in a black shirt and a white apron quickly approached the pair. "Table for two?" He asked, and Sasuke begrudingly nodded. He never was good with this whole "social interaction" business. "Right this way, sir." The man quickly turned and entered through an open archway, and Sasuke led Naruto through a barrier of tables until their waiter paused right next to a maple table with two chairs on either side of it, a low lit stained glass lamp hanging above their heads.

Naruto immediately plopped himself into his chair with a sigh, spreading his legs under the table while Sasuke slid into his seat more gracefully, clenching his fists together over the table. The two stared at each other for a few moments, Naruto trying to find something in Sasuke's blank gaze while the raven found himself annoyed with how easily he could read Naruto's emotions. Then he finally decided to speak. "What did you mean earlier," he asked quietly.

Naruto blinked once. "Huh? Oh, about the Jinchūriki thing." The blonde laughed quickly. The emptiness of his mind felt strange, but there was a strange scratching in his throat that would not go away..."I learned this from Granny Chiyo...when a Bijuu is sealed inside of a person, their chakras meld together sometimes. My seal was...designed, I guess, to allow some of the Kyuubi's chakra into my system at all times. So it's in those instances where if the Bijuu is extracted then...the Jinchūriki's is as well."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "So, without the Kyuubi, you'd be dead," he summerized slowly and leaned forward. Naruto nodded. "But you're still alive," the Uchiha continued in confusion. Naruto looked away and crossed his arms. "Yeah, that's why I'm...worried," the blonde stated. Sasuke leaned back in his chair as a waiter approached them. "What can I get you two to drink today," the woman said politely, her blonde hair tied back into a high ponytail and a pad of paper with a pencil in her hands. "Water," Sasuke said. "Uhhh..." Naruto stared at the laminated menu in front of him.

"What's this...Sprite stuff?" The Jinchūriki asked. The waitress smiled, and Sasuke closed his eyes. Naruto was as stupid as always..."It's a soft drink," she explained. "A soda." "Oh, okay. Yeah, I'll have that Sprite thing," Naruto said, and the waitress wrote it down on her pad. "Have you decided what you want to eat yet?" She asked, and Naruto looked over at Sasuke quickly while the raven replied. "Not yet," he said stiffly. The woman nodded and smiled at Naruto before turning and leaving the table.

Sasuke sighed again, and noticed Naruto staring at him curiously. "...What," he snapped. "How're we gonna pay for this?" The Jinchūriki asked. Sasuke smirked. "When I woke up I had some weird green paper slips in my pocket," he said and pulled the stack out to show the blonde. "I'm assuming this is the money here." "And if it isn't?" Naruto asked. Sasuke shrugged. "Then we just get out. It's not like they know who we are...or that they can even catch us," he said.

Naruto scowled but didn't have a chance to rebuke as the waitress returned with a water and a Sprite, the latter drink seeming to fizz in its glass. "Decided yet?" She asked aftre she had set the glasses down along with two straws in paper wrapping. Sasuke stared down at his menu, reading a bunch of foods that he hadn't even known existed. "Oh, this "Steak with Tomato...Gorgon...zola sauce' sounds good," Naruto said and pointed at a picture on his menu to emphasize his point.

The waitress wrote down on her pad and returned her attention to Sasuke. "And you?" She asked kindly. "...Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup," he muttered. "Any sides?" The waitress asked as she wrote down his order. Naruto started to open his mouth to speak, but Sasuke cut him off. "No," he said, and Naruto scowled as the woman said "We'll get that right out to you" and walked away. "If this green paper is money then we need to hold on to it," Sasuke hissed as soon as the woman was out of earshot. "Whatever," Naruto muttered.

"We have to figure out how to get back," the blonde said under his breath. "You think I don't know that," Sasuke growled. "Wherever we are, it's a place without chakra. I don't like it." Naruto nodded. "But at least you don't need that chakra to survive," he snapped, and then breathed deeply through his nose. "A little while ago, Sakura-chan and I were sucked into a gen-jutsu world by Madara. We couldn't escape it, but it was almost an exact replica of our world...except for a few changes. Maybe he did something similar this time."

Sasuke thought about the idea. "I doubt he could come up with something this elaborate though," he countered. "This place...it's entirely different from our world. There's no simalarity." Naruto scowled. "I'd like to hear your brilliant idea then," he said. Sasuke stared at the blonde. "Maybe we simply got teleported somewhere," he offered. "There's a lot of villages and cities that could look like this." "But who would do that," Naruto rebuked. "There was no-one around us for miles." "I don't know," Sasuke snarled and leaned forward.

"All I know is, I'm stuck in some strange place with you, the last person I want to be be with. Because you're just going to spout some crap about how I should come back to a place that ordered my own brother to kill my entire family, including me, but he didn't! He left me alive, and look where I am now!" Naruto narrowed his eyes. "At least you had a family to begin with," he hissed, a rare display of anger in his blue eyes. "I don't give two shits about how long you had them. At least you did get to know your parents. I met my dad right before the Kyuubi was about to kill me!"

Sasuke blinked. "How did you meet your father?" He asked suddenly, changing the subject so rapidly Naruto felt dizzy from the anger he had released. "Apparently when he cast the seal on me for the Kyuubi, he stored some of his chakra in it," the blonde muttered. "In case the seal got close to breaking, so he could stop me and talk to me." "Wait," Sasuke said as Naruto began to continue. "I thought the Fourth was the one to..." A spark seemed to go off in his head, and Naruto smiled smugly. "Now you got it?" He asked, mocking Sasuke's choice of words from earlier.

"...Your father was the Fourth?" The raven asked in barely concealed surprise. Naruto nodded. "...Damn," Sasuke breathed out. Naruto chuckled. "You know, for a guy who wants to kill me...you're not the total bastard I thought you would be," the Jinchūriki said. Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Don't think I won't kill you when I get the chance," he warned. Naruto sighed and rolled his eyes. "You didn't kill me at the Valley of the End," he said. "You didn't kill me at Orochimaru's lair, and you didn't kill me at the bridge where you killed Danzo. I see a pattern, and that's surprising, since I'm me."

Sasuke scowled as he realized Naruto had a point. "Shut up," he muttered and noticed their waitress approaching with the food. "Here you go," she said and put a plate of steak covered in red sauce in front of Naruto and a bowl of dark soup in front of Sasuke. "Enjoy," she said and smiled at Naruto again before leaving. "Mmm...Choji would be so jealous if he could see me right now," Naruto said as he breathed in the scent of his food. Sasuke snorted and picked up a spoon that was set on his napkin and began to eat.

The clanking of silverware filled the silence inbetween the boys until each had finished their meal.

"...So," Naruto said and noticed the itching in his throat was getting worse. "What do you think we should do now." Sasuke looked up at the ceiling. "...I guess we should get some hotel rooms..." He muttered. "I'm suspecting we'll be here a while." Naruto nodded and took a drink from his cup, finding the Sprite to be very nice. Except it didn't help the burning of his throat and now lungs. "I think we should go back to the park too and see if there's anything there," Sasuke continued as the waitress approached with the bill.

Hoping he had picked out the right amount of cash, Sasuke signed a fake name onto the line at the bottom of the paper set in front of him, then stood and waited for Naruto to follow him. "So, let's go find somewhere to-" Sasuke cut off as Naruto suddenly stopped behind him, just inches away from exiting the restaurant. "...Wait a sec," Naruto wheezed as the itching in his throat came to an all time high, and he bent over with his hand covering his mouth as he began to cough.

Sasuke watched impassively as Naruto heaved in front of him; he suspected the blonde just drunk his drink too fast and was now suffering the consequences...

But that thought was driven away when Naruto's hand came away from his mouth with drops of blood in his palm.

Hey everyone!

So this is obviously a new story, and it's an idea I've had for a long time, actually longer than the one I had for Crimson Eyes, but I didn't want to write this until I got better at making an AU storyline. So just to explain some things, in this fanfic the actual manga and anime "Naruto (Shippuden)" does not exist, so no-one knows who Naruto and Sasuke are. And them appearing in normal clothes and Sasuke having money is something I'll be explaining later on in the series. :) I decided to start this now just to get away from Crimson Eyes for a bit, and to get some inspiration back for it.

So until then, enjoy this story! :) -Astridelta