The only way that they could tell that time was passing was through the silvers of light through the boarded up window fading and brightening as day turned to night and back again. The cycle had happened twice now; meaning that they had been stuck in the room for at least two days. As time passed, Sasuke began to get just a little bit desperate. He and Naruto had quickly discovered that they would be able to wriggle out of the ropes quite easily, but the problem was they had no idea what to do after that. The best plan they had at the moment was to try and see if they could pry the window open and sneak out that way, but what if they had some sort of watcher outside? Should they risk it? Usually Naruto would be the one arguing that they should just take the risk, but he had been unusually quiet ever since the harsh revelation from their captor about the creature sealed inside him. Even though Naruto denied it being true, Sasuke could see that Naruto was perhaps the one most convinced by the story.
To be totally honest, Sasuke wasn't quite sure what to think of all that himself. On one hand, he had the story that they had been told in history class about the night of the Kyuubi attack, the story that all of them had been told for as long as they could remember: the story of the heroic Yondaime and his sacrifice that killed the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, saving the village from certain destruction. Everyone repeated that version of the story. That's what his parents told him about the Yondaime. It's what his brother told him about the Yondaime. Never had they given him any reason to doubt that story.
So why did this version of the story make so much more sense to him? The source of it was so unreliable it was a joke: who actually believed anything that a foreign ninja currently holding you captive might say? Yet... the more Sasuke thought about it, the more he realised that things added up better when he believed his kidnapper. The way that the villagers treated Naruto was weird. They whispered about him behind his back, spreading rumours and grossly exaggerating stories about his stupidity and misbehaviour. People were hardly ever violent or overly hostile, but passive aggressive staring was all the rage. Snobbish shopkeepers that could afford to turn away paying customers without feeling the pinch threw Naruto from their stores. Those that desperately needed the patronage of any customers they could get gave him the barest grudging of service. No one seemed to want anything to do with him.
Why?
Was it true? Was the Kyuubi sealed inside Naruto? Was that why everyone treated him like he had some sort of contagious disease? It would make a lot of sense. The fox did a lot of damage when it attacked nine years–
Sasuke's eyes widened as he stared at Naruto.
"October Tenth..." He whispered.
Naruto turned to stare at him sharply, distracted from his fiddling with the ropes for now. "What?" He whispered, a little hoarse.
"October Tenth... it's your birthday..." Sasuke repeated numbly. Now he felt really stupid. The truth had been staring him in the face this whole time. Itachi had practically told him that night that he slipped to Sasuke when Naruto's birthday was... everything made perfect sense.
"Yeah... I know..." Naruto's voice was quiet and calm, but Sasuke could see that panicky fear jump in his eyes. Naruto was probably coming to the same sickening conclusion that Sasuke had just come to moments ago.
There was no such thing as coincidence. Naruto was born on the day of the Fox attack, just over nine years ago. The whole village hated him, for reasons that no one ever seemed to be able to articulate. The Hokage paid special attention to Naruto's well being. Perhaps the most damning evidence was one brief lesson in chakra theory class where they skimmed over tailed beasts. Iruka-sensei only told them that the beasts were beings made up entirely of chakra, and left it at that. Chakra, as any beginning academy student could tell you, was a form of energy. It cannot be destroyed. Human chakra moves on to a different plane of existence when the body dies, then is reincarnated into a new body after a time. If a tailed beast was made up entirely of chakra, without the killable body that humans possessed, how could anyone seriously believe that it could be killed? Sasuke suspected that there was probably a way to inflict enough damage upon a tailed beast in order to get it's collective chakra to dissipate, effectively 'killing' it, but if it followed the rules of human chakra, then it would only reincarnate later and reform into exactly the same dangerous being. There was no way the Yondaime would be stupid enough to kill the nine tails in a suicide attack; not if there was any risk that the beast would only reincarnate and come back for revenge.
No. Sealing it away was a much better plan.
Fuinjutsu was not something Sasuke had any skill at, so he had no idea why the beast had to be sealed inside a human and not an inanimate object, but there had to be some reason. Surely the man that the whole village looked up to, that he and Naruto had looked up to for most of their lives would not be so cruel as to seal something so evil away inside a human being when he didn't have to... Right?
Sealed inside a human being.
Sealed inside Naruto.
"Sasuke?" Naruto's voice cracked, and Sasuke looked up to see that Naruto's expression looked nothing like the face of the happy-go-lucky moron that he'd spent the past few months hanging out with. It was like the happy veneer of his everyday face had splintered and flaked away, leaving only fear and desperation in it's place.
It was not hard to imagine what exactly Naruto was feeling right now. Not with his face open like the pages of a book like that. He was frightened. Scared out of his wits at having to come to grips with this life altering news. Sasuke would never know what it's like to wake up one day and realise that he had an very unwelcome tenant in his gut that most people agreed was evil personified. But he did get what it was like to wake up one day and realise that things were not as happy or perfect as they were on the surface. He never thought the clan was perfect. But he never thought that they were traitors either. He was wrong.
Tears welled up in Naruto's eyes, even as the other boy tried desperately to blink them away. They reminded Sasuke of his own tears, under the covers at night when he woke up and Itachi was not occupying the bunk above him. They were tears of panic. That made sense, Sasuke would panic too if he found out that he had a demon sealed into him.
"Sasuke... I... I..." The words choked up inside Naruto, and Sasuke tried to focus on guessing what the other boy was trying to say.
Could he...?
Sasuke was still reading fear on his face, but the desperation threw him. Why was Naruto so desperate? What could he possibly be so afraid of in that way...?
Oh.
I'm an idiot. Sasuke thought. He thinks I'm going to be like the rest of the village.
"Naruto." Sasuke said quickly. "I don't care."
Naruto blinked more tears away, taken aback at his blunt answer. "...huh...?"
"I don't care." Sasuke said quietly. "The Hokage wouldn't let you run around the village like a normal kid if you were dangerous. Nii-san wouldn't have let you near my little cousins if he thought you were dangerous either." Sasuke nodded firmly. "If the Hokage and Nii-san both believe you're safe, it must be true." Everyone else could go suck it, because the highest seal of approval in his mind (the only seal of approval needed, really) came from his older brother.
"But... what if... I mean... it's the Kyuubi, Sasuke..." Naruto spluttered. "And it's in me." he took a deep shuddering breath. "No wonder people hate me. I'm evil."
Sasuke couldn't help it, he barked out a harsh laugh.
"Sasuke!" Naruto moaned. "I'm serious!"
"Naruto. I know you. You're obsessed with ramen. You want to be the Hokage. You can't do algebra to save your life, yet you refuse to cheat off me in tests even though we're training to be ninja. You like to prank people, but you're always careful to make sure that no one gets hurt or humiliated. You can actually put up with the twins being annoying without blowing your top, which is better than anyone other than Nii-san or Matsu-nii can do. You own seven different house plants, all of which are the happiest looking green things I've ever come across." Sasuke took a deep breath. "You're my best friend. Now shut up about being evil, or I'm going to have to beat you up for implying that I have bad judgement in picking friends."
Naruto's mouth was open in a round 'o' of astonishment. They just lay there, trussed up like turkeys on the hard floor of the room, staring each other down. Sasuke willed himself not to flush in embarrassment. That was most likely the most words he had ever strung together in one speech in his entire life. He'd probably used up his entire allotment of words for the week now. He was going to have to communicate in nothing but 'ah's, 'un's and 'hn's for days.
"But... even if... even if I'm not... not... evil..." Naruto said miserably. "It is. And it's in me! What if I screw up? What if it takes over? Maybe it's only a matter of time before I do go bad and hurt someone..." Naruto trailed off as Sasuke fixed him with his best 'are you stupid?' glare.
Maybe... maybe he should...? Naruto's greatest secret was out in the open. It seemed only fair that Sasuke help him out by revealing his own.
"I don't think anyone goes bad just by association." Sasuke said quietly.
"Huh?"
"People don't go bad just because the people around them are bad." Sasuke said firmly. "It's more complicated than that. I think... as long as you don't want to go bad... as long as you like who you are and don't see a reason to change... then you won't ever be in danger of going evil like the fox..." Sasuke trailed off with a shrug. "... or something like that."
Naruto looked at him sceptically. "But-"
"Look. If a kid's parents turn evil, do you think the kid will turn out evil too?" Sasuke asked bluntly. His heart rate sped up, but he had an excellent poker face, so hopefully Naruto didn't pick up on that.
Naruto blinked. "Dunno." He said thoughtfully. "People don't give kids much credit, yanno? If the parents raised him to think a certain way, then it would probably be unavoidable that he'd turn out like them. But I don't think parents are really enough of an influence to really make a kid evil... I mean... he'd have friends outside of his family to show him what's right and stuff, even if his parents weren't teaching him... and there's teachers at school..." Naruto rambled away, thinking Sasuke's question through. "So... no... I guess... A kid isn't evil just 'cause his parents are." He looked at Sasuke suspiciously. "Are we still talking about the fox? Because I don't really think a demon living inside me is quite the same as having a parent, to be honest."
"Do you think I'm a bad person, Naruto?" Sasuke's voice was barely a whisper.
Naruto's eyes widened to the point that they almost bugged out. "What?! No! Where did that come from?!"
"Because my parents were the worst." His voice was tiny as he looked away from Naruto. "My parents were traitors. They were planning to turn on the village... before they died..."
Never before had silence felt so heavy to Sasuke.
"Why?" Sasuke looked up to see Naruto's blue eyes fixed on him, gazing at him with that piercing stare that Sasuke hardly ever saw, but was no less powerful or sincere each time he did get to see it.
One look from Naruto opened the floodgates. Everything he knew about the coup d'etat that the Uchiha clan was planning. How he found out it was because the clan felt trodden on by the village, blamed for the Kyuubi attack even when they were blameless. He told Naruto of how things got so bad that it looked like civil war was going to break out. He told Naruto of that night that Itachi tricked all eighteen of them into sneaking into the secret room under the shrine for the night. He kept talking, unable to stop, describing the feeling of terror and guilt as he heard those people die in the shrine above him. The feeling of utter helplessness when he realised that his parents were probably already dead, and he couldn't do anything about it. The feeling of confusion that came after Itachi properly explained everything to them. About the moments when Sasuke woke up in the middle of the night in tears over nightmares about his parents dying, even though he shouldn't mourn the death of traitors. That even though they were planning on destroying the village and starting a war over stupid clan pride, he still missed them, and that made him feel a bit like a traitor too.
Naruto was quiet as he listened to Sasuke lift everything off his chest, blurting out the biggest secret of his entire life. It was the shameful secret that every surviving Uchiha now had to bear. They were the children of traitors... and worst of all... they still loved those traitors.
Finally he was done, and the silence still felt heavy and uncomfortable.
"I think it would be weird if you didn't still love them... you know..." Naruto said at last.
Wait...
"Huh?"
"Well... they were your parents!" Naruto wriggled around in his bonds uncomfortably. "I don't really know, seeing as I never had any, but just because they did some bad things didn't mean they didn't love you." He hesitated. "... and you'd kind of be inhuman if you could just get over people loving you like that."
Sasuke just gaped at him. When did Naruto turn into such an emotion guru? Ten minutes ago he was having his own emotional crisis! One of these days he was going to get whiplash from Naruto and his abilities. One minute he was a blithering idiot, the next he was like a wise old sage doling out advice. Instead of saying all this out loud though, like Sasuke kind of wanted to, he just decided to let things go. They'd said enough.
"Thanks." His smile was bitter, but the thanks was sincere. He wiped away a gathering tear by nudging his face onto his shoulder and took a moment to try and screw his head on straight.
"So..." He asked Naruto. "What's the plan for getting out of here?"
When most people think of a daring escape from captivity, they seem to think that it would happen at night. Sasuke thought that was stupid. Granted, night escapes did have their perks. It was easier to hide in the shadows, plus guards tended to be sleepy at night, thus making it easier to sneak past them. But when you compared those advantages to the multitude of advantages in daytime escapes, there really wasn't much of a contest.
They had already figured out from the sounds coming through the window during daylight hours that they were being kept in some sort of city somewhere. That meant that the streets had a good chance of being packed during the daytime. If they managed to get into the crowd, they would be able to disappear much easier than they would travelling through deserted night streets. Things would be open during the day. They could duck into shops to hide, or even go through stores and out the back to throw people off their tail. A daytime escape would mean that they could see their pursuers coming too, unlike at night when there was a good chance that the ninja chasing them could pop out of the shadows and grab them. Being all of nine years old, they were practically civilians in terms of this fight. Their best shot was keeping the ninja off balance. Speaking of, a night escape would be what their captors would expect, meaning that a daytime escape would take them by surprise and make them just that much slower to respond.
Yup. A daytime escape it was.
They timed it perfectly. They had no way of knowing if the ninja holding them captive were pulling shifts watching the outside of the building to make sure they didn't escape, but they did know exactly what time every day that they came into their little gloomy room to give them a drink of water and stuff a few mouthfuls of bread in their mouths. The plan was to wait until after they were fed and watered. Not only would it give them strength for running away, but if they were lucky it would mean that the ninja might not notice they were gone until they came to feed them again that night. Just after lunch time would be the best time for escape as well. Crowds on the streets would probably be at their peak at that time, making it easier for them to disappear.
It would work. It had to work. It was the only plan they had.
Damn it. And it was working so well. Sasuke thought bitterly.
It had been laughably easy to wriggle out of their rope bonds. It had been stupidly easy to pry the boards away from the window and slip out onto the roof. There hadn't even been a guard watching for an escape attempt, which almost made Sasuke actually laugh out loud. It didn't take them long to dart across the rooftop and shimmy down a drainpipe to street level.
Then the shout went up from within the house and all hell broke loose.
Naruto and Sasuke didn't really have much of a choice but to leg it at that point. From the moment that they stepped out onto the roof, they realised that they were going to be kind of conspicuous in this crowd. For one, they were too young. The ninja's hide out was smack in the middle of some kind of red light district – not the kind of place that many nine-year-old boys frequented. For another, they stuck out because of their clothes. Sasuke was wearing the distinctive Uchiha collar as well as the gaudy clan crest on his back. Naruto was wearing bright orange with the Uzumaki spiral on the back. The only people in this crowd that wore colours that bright were the geisha and courtesans that beckoned from the doorways of shops. Then, perhaps less noticeably, there was the fact that both Naruto and Sasuke were wearing sandals; clear marks of coming from shinobi origins. It was hard to remember when you spent your time living in a hidden village that the things they took for granted as normal were actually a bit strange to the rest of the world. Footwear was just one of those things. Ninja wore sandals. Civilians (unless they lived in a hidden village and were along for the cultural ride) wore geta, boots or the like.
So their plan to just disappear into a lunchtime crowd was utterly ruined at this point, and it was all they could do just to keep ahead of the ninja that were now chasing them down the street. At least the sheer number of people between them slowed their pursuers enough that the two of them at least had a chance of getting away.
Sasuke had to growl as they pushed their own way through the throngs of people though. Didn't anyone know that they were running for their lives here? Even though he knew he was as fit as he could possibly be, he felt his breath start to quicken as the toll of pushing through the molasses that was the lunchtime crowd got to him. Naruto didn't look a whole lot better, even though Sasuke knew the idiot could run rings around him while he was gasping for air. It must be the stress of knowing that their lives were probably riding on this escape that was getting to him.
Naruto led the way, with Sasuke hot on his heels. Neither of them could actually see the shinobi chasing them, seeing as they were too short to see over the crowd, but they could hear the cries of anger and dismay as their captors pushed their way through the people behind them. The only reason they weren't eliciting such cries themselves was because the two of them were small enough to slip through gaps in the crowd that adults wouldn't be able to fit through. Sasuke was careful to stay within sight of Naruto; the last thing they needed now was to lose each other. It was lucky that Sasuke's chakra sensing skills were just good enough to keep tabs on Naruto and follow close behind.
Then, all of a sudden, the crowd thinned. Naruto barely hesitated to keep running, but he flicked a look of dismay back at Sasuke. Now that there were less people around, it would be easier for the ninja to chase them. They needed to find a way to disappear from view. Now.
Naruto took a sharp right into an alley. It was a smart move. Hopefully their pursuers weren't out of the thick of the crowd yet, and wouldn't see them make the turn. The two of them jumped over a stack of crates blocking their path, bouncing off the tight walls of the alley as a man smoking in a doorway stared. The two of them burst into the sunlight of another crowded street, and Naruto skidded to a halt, unsure about which way to go. Sasuke couldn't stop himself in time and pretty much smashed into his back.
"Keep going!" Sasuke cried frantically. He had no idea if they had ditched their captors, but they couldn't afford to wait around.
"Right!" Naruto dove right into the crowd, burrowing his way through the thick masses of people. Sasuke had to reach out and snatch the other boy's sleeve, knowing that if he didn't grab hold of him then he really would lose him this time.
They kept running and running until the crowd thinned out again. Sasuke's breath rattled around in his chest, and he allowed himself a small measure of hope that the worst was over and that they had successfully managed to disappear.
"There they are!"
Um... nope...
Naruto grabbed his hand and Sasuke was yanked forward into a sprint again as they followed the curve of the street, feet pounding against the cobblestones. To Sasuke's horror the shouts of their captors only grew louder, and the crowd around them was only growing thinner. If something wasn't done soon, they were going to be caught.
With one last desperate lunge, Naruto took a left, barrelling around the corner and pelting down the new street, dragging Sasuke behind him. Sasuke could barely think straight at this point. He could hardly breathe, blood was pounding in his ears and he felt more a little dizzy.
If he could speak, he probably would have told Naruto to ditch him and keep running on his own. Sasuke knew he was just above dead weight at this point. He wanted Naruto to get away if they both couldn't make it.
"Don't even think about it!" the strangled cry seemed to rip from Naruto's throat like the crack of a whip. Somehow, Naruto knew what he was thinking. Maybe the other boy had felt his hand slacken in his grip?
"Don't even think about it!" Naruto almost chanted the repetition to the sound of their footsteps. "We're gonna be fine. We're gonna make it. We're gonna get awa-"
BANG!
And Sasuke was lying flat on his back, thoroughly dazed and winded. The cobblestones of the street dug into his back, and he knew that come tomorrow his back would be one big bruise.
"-brats! Why don't you watch where you're-"
"-'cuse me? You were in the way you-"
"-and now all my winnings are everywhere! You brats better help pick-"
"-can't even read the mood! You're in our way so just-"
"-do you think you're going? You two owe me-"
Sasuke blinked away his shock and yanked himself upright. Naruto had already scrambled to his feet and was yelling at the purple faced woman that they had unfortunately run over in their desperate attempt to get away. The other boy's knee was skinned rather badly, but he didn't look that much worse off for their tumble. Carefully Sasuke lurched to his feet, frowning at the slips of paper that blew away as he removed his weight from pinning them down.
"There!"
Sasuke's blood ran cold, and he turned to stare in horror at the street behind them. Standing there were two ninja in plain clothes, one of them he recognised as the guy who gave them food and water. Both of them looked furious as they stormed forward.
"Great." The purple faced woman said tartly. "Who the hell are you clowns?!"
"Shut up." One of the ninja told her. "This has nothing to do with you."
The woman narrowed her eyes at the two ninja in front of her and snorted. "Yeah, fine, okay." She huffed. "I don't care what you guys are mixed up in. I just want compensation. These kids belong to you?" She waved a hand at Sasuke and Naruto, glaring at the ninja.
"Yes." The ninja who fed them said quickly.
"No!" Sasuke interjected desperately. The woman's sharp brown eyes fell on him, and for a minute he thought she might help them.
"Well, if they belong to you, cough up." She said tartly, holding her hand out to the ninja. "I lost all my winnings when they crashed into me. It blew away: gone. You lot owe me 100,000 ryo."
"We're not paying you 100,000 ryo." One of the ninja scoffed. "Get lost lady."
The woman scowled. "If you don't reimburse me the money that these kids lost me, then I'll just take the brats as collateral: I can sell 'em on the black market or something. Whatever." She grinned toothily at the two of them, and Sasuke realised with sudden horror that this woman looked to be drunk. So much for rescue. Mentally he resigned himself for a beating and being shoved back in that gloomy little room.
"Look, don't make us get rough..." Their feeder took a threatening step closer to the woman. "Leave, before we make you."
Naruto looked between the two in alarm. Neither of them wanted any civilians to get hurt and it looked like this drunk woman was going to end up collateral in their ill-fated escape.
"Make me, moron." The woman flicked her light blonde hair over one shoulder, staring down the ninja in front of her. "If you think you have enough balls to take me on."
He lunged forward, grabbing towards the woman's neck as Sasuke flinched. But the woman didn't get caught in a strangle hold, like he was expecting. She expertly dodged to the side and drove her knee into the tender flesh of the man's belly. Then she flicked her leg out and kicked, sending the ninja flying off down the street like a soccer ball. He only stopped when he collided with a wooden cart with a sickening crunch, smashing the thing halfway to pieces.
Sasuke and Naruto just gaped at her.
"You-!" The other ninja slipped into a taijustsu stance and lashed out at her now, but again she was too quick. She sidestepped his punch and shot one of her own right into his abdomen, throwing him back against the wall of the gambling house across the street with so much force that his body actually formed a crater in the cheap plaster, and he tumbled to the ground like a puppet with cut strings.
The blonde woman resettled her green haori around herself as she sniffed in the direction of the drooling ninja who tried to attack her. "Bastards."
Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a look. Sasuke was not quite sure what was going on. Should they run...?
"Don't even think about it brats!" The woman barked, turning her sharp gaze on them. "You two owe me money!"
The three of them just stared each other down, no one daring to move. Running away was definitely off the table now. Sasuke knew that he didn't want to end up a crater in a wall, if nothing else. But was this strange woman really so much better than their original captors? She mentioned selling them on the black market!
"Tsunade! I managed to find us a place to..." a second woman had joined the mix now, jumping down from a rooftop and into the mess that used to be a rather nice section of street. The dark haired woman's face fell as she took in the carnage. "...oh... Tsunade... what happened?"
The woman in the green haori – Tsunade – rolled her eyes at the other woman. "What do you think damn well happened? My luck finally caught up with me." She sighed heavily. "Let's just take my 'winnings' back to the inn and talk about it there."
"Okaaay..." The other woman trailed off, looking around. "Where are your winnings? Even you couldn't have lost 100,000 ryo in such a short amount of time."
Tsunade grimaced. "It blew away." She looked downright pained at the thought. "When these brats with no manners crashed into me."
"Hey!" Naruto piped up.
Tsunade glared at him, shutting him up, before turning back to the other woman. "So, since they owe me, these two brats are officially my winnings until I somehow manage to squeeze some money out of them."
The dark haired woman looked from Tsunade to Sasuke, to Naruto, back to Tsunade. "These... boys... are your... awww! Tsunade!"
"Just roll with it, Shizune!" Tsunade flapped a hand at her.
"But-!"
"Now, let's get back to the inn, I'm exhausted!" With that Tsunade clapped her hands and gestured for the woman to lead the way. Shizune, sensing that she was fighting a losing battle, just sighed and started to walk off down the street, heading in the direction of the inn that she had booked for the two women. Tsunade set off after her, a slight spring in her step.
Sasuke's eyes immediately sought Naruto's. "Do you think we could-?"
"Maybe she won't notice-"
"Don't make me drag you back to the inn, brats!"
Naruto and Sasuke scrambled to follow.
A/N:
It's been a decent wait between chapters for this one, hasn't it? I'm really sorry about it, but stuff happened, and what can you do?
For the record – I'm a little pissed off with Tsunade, she totally just barged into my fic without asking, and I've had to come up with all sorts of new stuff in order to deal with that. On the upside, that might mean there could be a part three of this little saga to look forward to after I finish 'A Different Goal', but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Thanks to davycrockett100, superguest, Simon de Escorpiao, Lamelinam, Dulemina, AndIwannabesomeone, Old Girl Lost, sakuzi-chan, matchynishi, PAVeY14, Wise-wren-owl and the two guests that reviewed the last chapter. So many reviews! I feel so loved!