Hooray! Finals are over! That means exactly what you all hope it does. I have way more time to focus on this story, which means faster updates. "Schooooooool's gone for the summer..."
Thank you to everyone who reviewed and/ or sent me a PM, they were all great!
Aaaand...Thanks to Rikado, my Beta. You da man!
So, here we are...
Chapter_22: Hope or A Fighting Chance
He slipped through the shadows like a fish glides through water, making less sound. The flashing neon lights all around him touched on his ebony leathers with ghostly fingers before he slid past them and into the night.
No one saw him.
It was past midnight. Everyone was far past the point of caring even if they did see him. But no one would. He was a phantom, easing his way through the bright lights and pulsing bass that had become Konoha at night.
Eat, drink and be merry. That's what the benefactor said. The city had been choked with misery and despair. In this place, it was just as dangerous to be successful as it was to be poor. The only constant was struggle. No one was exempt from fates' crushing jaws.
But now was different. They had a leader now; one who kept his promises and didn't want glory. They loved the benefactor, worshiped his chosen face: Konan. Because she was as wonderfully unassuming as their mysterious new chief. At last they had the leadership that they deserved.
They were safe…
…From everything but themselves…
Naruto felt a pang of mixed empathy and anger strike his chest. He slithered past the crowded club, watching a few straggling figures stumble away from the brightly lit building. Those were few and far between. Most of these people would be here until morning came.
Benefactorism was the preferred lifestyle nowadays.
Part of him knew, understood the desperation with which they clung to this newfound hope. But part of him, the part that had grown up in an orphanage, refused to believe that anyone, no matter how desperate they had become, could idolize such blatant evil.
He perched in a shadowed doorway. His eyes roved the crowds, searching in vain for a sign of hope. Six months worth of nights had given him none. It stole away what little remained, leaving only the hollow maw of despair.
They had stopped fighting. They had all stopped asking, 'why'? They loved who they were, what they were. They marveled at every gift their chosen god had given them, turning and worshiping him all the more for his benevolence.
There seemed no end to the benefactor's kindness or his money.
Hokage tower was nearly rebuilt; the Northern side of Konoha slowly being breathed back to life. It would have been miraculous if Naruto hadn't been aware of the price tag attached.
The city was growing. Families had begun to move into Konoha. For the first time in nearly four decades, jobs were plentiful and lucrative. And once they were inside the city limits, they weren't allowed to leave, not that anyone wanted to.
It was all too good to be true.
But this was the new reality.
No one wanted the benefactor to go away. He had heard rumors of terrorist pockets in the early days, but those had quickly died as support for Konoha's anonymous backer grew. Now it seemed that he was the only one left.
He didn't know what to do.
Uzumaki Naruto was only one man. Even as Kyuubi, he was not strong enough to defeat the Akatsuki in open rebellion. But he had run out of options. He wasn't going to lay down and die, that wasn't who he was. But he wasn't going to run away, that wasn't who he was either. So he would stay and fight by himself. And if it was his fate he would die for Konoha. But he'd take as many of those bastards with him as he could.
This was the first stage of his plan. He was going to let the 'Benefactor' know that there were still people in Konoha who weren't taken in by his money and false claims of good-will.
A middle-aged man stumbled past, on his way home or to the nearest trash can. Naruto let him pass. He prepared himself to step into the circle of light.
"Get him!"
The blond crouched. His eyes roved the shadowed street, landing at last on a growing crowd some distance to his right.
They moved with single-minded purpose, not typical of your standard drunken masses. But there was more than that.
Individual movement was jerky, violent, nor was it focused in his direction. He could hear cries of encouragement, satisfaction and aggression.
"That's what you get."
"Filthy pig."
"How much of their money did you take? Was it worth it?"
"Dirty Cop,"
Naruto felt his pulse jack-hammer. They were beating a cop.
He was in the middle of them between one heartbeat and the next. He heard the gasp. But they weren't backing away…not yet.
He bared his teeth and roared, crouching low next to the cop's still form. This time someone did scream, the drunken multitude scrambling to get away from the monster. Tripping and stumbling, the alcohol that purified the terror Kyuubi burned in their mind slowed their escape. But the blond was not here to destroy. They would have all been corpses.
Quickly, he slung the slowly stirring body up and across his shoulder. He didn't have a lot of time before the people recovered and decided that they could take him and a half-dead cop on.
He sprinted through darkened alleys, melding back into the shadows like a wraith.
Footsteps pounded the ground behind him, dozens of individuals bolstered by the intoxicants thrumming around in their brains.
Yells and curses confirmed his pursuers were not here to help.
Naruto shifted his burden and glanced around. He found what he was looking for.
"Hold on." He murmured to the groaning man.
And then he jumped, the soles of his boots ticking almost noiselessly against a garbage cans lid. Naruto crouched, the muscles of his calves and thighs bunching. The shouts and threats were coming closer. Out of the corner of his eye, the blond man could see the glow and flash of lights. Wonderful. He needed to get out of here now.
Naruto lept straight up, pushing as hard as he could against the trash can he could without rattling it. He could see the building's lip rushing closer. He had to hook his arm over the edge and haul both of them over or he would have to fight the crowd. The prospect wasn't all that attractive.
He latched his fingers over the top. The full force of his weight combined with the pounds of the fully grown man over his shoulder jerked his arm painfully.
His boots scrabbled for long seconds, at last finding purchase on the moldering brick.
He pushed his body up and over, hitting his head and spilling his burden onto the rooftop. Naruto lay still, his heartbeat drumming thick and loud in the quiet. It was so loud that they must have been able to hear it. But the crowd never paused.
Naruto waited until the last echoing footsteps had faded before he moved.
A groan to his left had him crawling to the down policeman.
"It's all right. We're safe enough for the moment. Take your time."
The older man coughed and clutched his side, hissing as he rolled over to face his rescuer.
"Kyuubi, well, well. It's good to see a friendly face in Konoha."
Naruto chuckled. It was a dry, humorless sound. "Kakashi, I thought you were smarter than this. Were you trying to get yourself killed?"
The former Konoha detective winced again. "I could ask you the same thing."
They stared each at the other, neither backing down.
At last Naruto snorted and turned back to look into the ally. So far there was no movement. But how long would it take their attackers to realize they were chasing nothing? Hopefully a long time. Maybe they would just get bored and go back to their drinking. That seemed more likely than anything else.
That didn't mean that he wanted to stay out in the open for the rest of the night. Naruto glanced back at Kakashi.
The former detective had eased himself up and it looked like he was doing a self-assessment. Naruto had to give the old guy points. For an ex-model, he was one tough dude.
"So," He said. "What were you doing out here?"
Kakashi didn't stop his probing, or look up. He merely sighed. "It seems that you have a little catching-up to do, Kyuubi."
.:xXXx:.
The headquarters for 'Konoha Liberation Front' was nothing more than an underground bomb shelter. Once used for very exclusive witness protection, the building had fallen into neglect and disrepair. Thankfully, its lack of use meant it was, as of yet, unknown to the Akatsuki.
Naruto bounced the older man up in an effort to get a better grip on the man's arm. Kakashi grunted but didn't protest. After the thorough beating he had received only hours before, he had needed a little help making it back to the hide-out. Neither man mentioned it.
Gingerly, Kakashi rapped five times on the turf-covered metal dome. The man waited and knocked twice more, this time slowly.
Naruto didn't bother hiding his chuckle. The detective shrugged and winced.
"Sometimes, it's better to keep things simple."
The dome popped open and a face Naruto never thought he would see in Konoha again emerged.
"Kakashi," Worry etched itself into every line of Iruka's face. As the two men eased Kakashi down into the hideout, Iruka was berating the cop for going out alone and getting beat up and having him worried sick the whole time.
It wasn't until Kakashi was sprawled out on the ancient couch that the brunette realized who had brought his lover back home.
"Oh, N…Kyuubi," They stood in awkward silence for long moments before Iruka elected to finish his sentence. "…Thank you for saving my bonehead of a boyfriend. He…probably wouldn't have made it home if you hadn't intervened."
"Don't go jumping to conclusions." The white haired man on the couch protested. But Iruka was having none of it. He turned on his lover in full temper.
"I didn't have to be there to know you would get yourself in too deep. You think that you're invincible and you're not. I'm not going to lose you to your stupid pride."
Naruto felt a jab of guilt, but pushed it away.
"So this is it." The question was unspoken.
"Yeah," Kakashi nodded to the hero. "This is the resistance."
A series of taps echoed from above.
Iruka sighed in relief and hurried up the steps to the entrance. In a matter of a minute, three men were standing on the threadbare carpet in front of Kakashi.
Asuma, Yamato and Shikamaru looked terrible, their clothes were dirty and torn in places. Their skin was covered in dirt and here and there, traces of old blood. But they were alive, which was a good deal better than Naruto had assumed a few minutes ago.
"You made it back, good." The former detective eased himself up on his elbows. "You're just in time to meet the newest member of the resistance. You all should remember this gentleman here."
Four pairs of brown eyes rested on Naruto. The blond refused to shift self-consciously. He had an image to maintain. He was a super, scary, ominous bad boy who seriously rocked and never felt weird about anything. Yeah…right…
He bucked his chin up once in a show of false bravado. "Yo, Shikamaru, I see you managed to keep yourself alive long enough to get underground. I didn't think you had it in you."
The brunette shrugged and muttered something that sounded distinctly like 'troublesome'.
He shook both Asuma's and Yamato's hands with the stiff formality one would expect from colleagues. Iruka held on a little longer than was perhaps necessary. Their eyes met for the briefest of moments and Naruto couldn't help himself. He had to look away.
"Well, now that the pleasantries are over. It's about time that I got your report."
The three men pulled up rickety looking garden chairs to Kakashi's 'bed-side'.
It struck Naruto how oddly natural this whole business of joining the underground had been. He hadn't thought there would be a cavity search for wires of anything like that, but still, joining a rebel organization should have been more monumental…right?
"It's too heavily guarded." Asuma was saying. "There's no way we could get half-way in before Akatsuki was on top of us."
"Then what about the munitions depot?"
"Same problem." Yamato shook his head. "We're only five…oh…" He nodded at Naruto before correcting himself. "…six people. Even if we got all the ammunition and weapons we need, it wouldn't matter. We don't have enough people to wage a war with the Akatsuki."
"Shikamaru," Heads turned to the superhero. But Naruto wasn't paying them any attention. His fiery orbs were focused on the man who was sitting hunched in his chair, his eyes closed. Naruto knew that look; the brunette was using his incredible mind. The man had something. "What do you think?"
The Nara didn't respond for a moment. But at last he opened his eyes.
"The answer seems straightforward. We need more pieces to maneuver across the board. After that, we can build a sound strategy for bringing down this regime."
"But we've been looking." Yamato said. "We're the last of the good guys in Konoha."
Shikamaru's smile was bitter. "Then we need to find ourselves some bad guys."
"Excuse me?" The former police captain coughed. But Asuma nodded slowly, digesting the idea.
"That's right. We never considered that there might be a small remnant of the gangs running around with a grudge against Akatsuki. And after all, 'The enemy of my enemy…'."
Iruka looked doubtful. "But would they fight for the 'good guys'? What happens after this is over? It might go back to gang war all over again."
"Better that then what's going on right now..." Kakashi murmured. "And we haven't won this yet. We don't even know if there are any gang members still alive."
Naruto felt his gut clench painfully. No, all the gangs had been put down too, in the name justice. He didn't want to think about…Sasuke...but the man might be dead. Naruto was torn between hoping that the raven hadn't survived the purge and praying that he had. If the latter were true, then at least he wouldn't have to face the raven in the end. But he couldn't wish the man death, no matter how much Sasuke wished it on him.
Through the weeks and months that had followed their first and last passionate lovemaking, Naruto couldn't seem to let go. It was an unmanly thing to hold on to memories and feelings, but that was exactly what he had found himself doing. Even now, six months after Sasuke, the first and only man he had ever fallen in love with, ripped his heart from his body, Naruto felt a stabbing pain. And that was just when he thought the man's name. Sometimes he would lose himself for hours, remembering, cherishing the image of Sasuke stretched out above him, his face as open as Naruto had ever seen it. He had seen love in those beautiful black eyes and that he would never doubt. And then he would wake up and realize that Sasuke wanted to kill him and the hurt in his chest only sunk in deeper.
He was so stupid.
"What's the alternative? We either sit here, wait for the Akatsuki to find us or we start looking for a little help."
It seemed decided then.
"All right," Asuma stood. Naruto could practically hear the man's joints protesting the action. "There's no point sitting around when we've got a job to do. We'll check in tomorrow night Kakashi."
"Don't be idiots." Naruto blurted out. All the men froze. The blond could feel Iruka's eyes on him, but he pushed on. "You guys look like you couldn't fight your way out of a wet paper sack. Just let us superhero's do the heavy lifting."
"You can't go by yourself." That was Yamato.
The blond man shrugged. "I work alone, it's less complicated and I don't have to worry about anyone's butt but mine."
"He should be fine." Kakashi nipped whatever arguments might've arisen squarely in the bud. He locked eyes with the hero. "The same rules apply to you. I expect you back here tomorrow night. It's not up for negotiation." He said when Naruto started to protest. "We need to know that you're still alive. Tomorrow night, Kyuubi."
"Fine." The blond man ambled towards the stairs. "It's the same nerdy knock you used to get in right?"
He heard scattered chuckles behind him as he stepped out into the night, confirmation. But before the hatch closed behind him, Naruto heard a footfall behind him.
"I didn't know you were back in Konoha." Naruto said evenly.
"I didn't know you were still alive." Iruka answered from behind him.
The silence stretched, long and loud. At last Naruto sighed. "What do you want me to say? I asked you to get away from here. You're a school teacher, not a soldier. You're place is in a class room with a dozen bratty junior-highers."
"My place," The brunette's hand came to rest gently on Naruto's leather-clad shoulder. "…is by the side of the man I love, fighting for what I believe in."
"Freedom…" The blond murmured.
"You" Iruka's fingers tightened.
They stayed that way for long moments, neither saying what they truly wanted to, but taking comfort in what remained unspoken.
"You and I have already hashed out the 'do's and don't's'." Iruka said. "I know I could come up with a hundred reasons why you shouldn't go out there. And I know that for every single one of those reasons is going to just be ignored."
Naruto felt himself smile.
"So really, the only thing I can do is wish you luck." Iruka took a deep bracing breath. "Good bye Naruto, be safe, be swift and come back home to me."
Naruto felt his foster father's hand clench one last time on his shoulder and then it was gone.
A second later, so was he.
A/N: I can feel the story winding up and holding it's breath. I know you all could probably guess what's going to happen next chapter. 'Grins evily' But then again...maybe not...
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