Sasuke awoke the next morning to find that the spot next to him on the bed was empty. With a look around the rundown room he confirmed that his new queen was not in the room.
Sasuke went down the stairs of the three-story building to find Naruto helping out in the kitchen.
"Ya're awake?" asked Naruto as he noticed Sasuke coming down from the top floor.
"So are you," answered Sasuke.
"Woke up 'bout an 'our ago," said Naruto, "an' when I came down I saw Tsuname-san workin' in de kitchen so I decided ta 'elp."
"He is very kind," Tsuname smiled.
"Mom?" asked a little boy from the hallway as he rubbed his eyes. "Who're they?"
"These are some nice young men from out of town," said Tsuname.
"We've come ta challenge Gatou ta a game'a chess," Naruto smiled.
"Why?" asked the kid.
"Cause we want to get rid'a him," said Naruto.
"That's impossible," the child growled. "No one can beat Gatou. You should just leave before you die."
"We won't die," said Naruto, "and nothin's eva impossible."
"What are you trying to do?" asked the child. "Do you think that if you beat Gatou you'll be a hero? Well I've got news for you. There's no such thing as heroes."
"Inari!" gasped Tsuname.
"It's fine," Naruto smiled kindly. "I 'ave no intention of becomin' anybody's 'ero. I just 'ate it when evil people like Gatou take ova a nice town like dis and destroys it fer no good reason."
Inari didn't even try to say anything. He just turned around and walked right back to his room, but Naruto saw the tears that were coming down his face as he turned.
"Inari!" Tsuname called after him, but he didn't answer. "You have to forgive him," she sighed. "Just before he was born, his biological father was killed in an accident during chess. Then the underground chess sets starting coming here. They took over our village and began to fight over our land. Soon it grew so bad that no one wanted to leave their houses. One day a travelling chess set came to the village. The king was a handsome man and Inari immediately took a liking to him. He became like Inari's father. One day, when Inari was caught by some of the chess pieces, he challenged them to a battle, which he won. For a few years after that we were happy again. We were able to leave our homes without fear of running into a chess piece. It was great. That is, until Gatou came. He challenged Kaiza to a fight, but before the day even came for them to fight he beat Kaiza and killed him. The village fell into despair and Inari lost another father. So, you see, Inari has lost two fathers to chess."
"I understand," Naruto smiled knowingly. "I lost my father to chess as well. I 'ope dat we will be able ta get rid'a Gatou, but ya guys also 'ave ta realize dat we're gonna leave very soon afta dat. If ya wanna stop fallin' inta ruin, ya need ta stand up fer yerself. Ya can't just keep waitin fer some random nice chess set ta come and save de day. If you do, ya'll will die." With that Naruto turned and left through the same hallway that Inari had disappeared in. Sasuke only noticed when Naruto reached out to rub Inari's head, that the boy had actually been there the whole time.
Naruto walked in the streets by himself. He noticed that everyone was avoiding him, but he didn't really care. He hated to admit it, but people had always avoided him because of his father. Even the people who are now his friends had avoided him at first. Sasuke was actually the first person that hadn't thought that he was weird. That was one of the reasons he chose Sasuke as his king.
There were people following him though. Two people to be exact. He continued to walk quietly. They would probably attack him when he noticed them and he didn't want them to attack him when he was near so many people. He walked all the way to the edge of the village before finally turning to face the men who were trying their best to hide. "I know you're there," he said out loud.
The two didn't say anything. They just came out of hiding and went straight towards him. They were fast, he noticed, but they weren't fast enough. He pulled out two kunai and blocked both of the attacks. "So ya must be de demon brothas," he said with a calm smile. "Culd ya tell yer boss dat de Kyuubi chess set challenges 'im ta a game'a chess in two days?" A sharp gauntlet was brought down towards his head and he dodged just in time to only get his hand nicked. "If 'e doesn't show up with 'is chess set dan 'e will forfeit." He said before turning and running back to the inn as he thrust one of the kunais in his injured hand to get the poisoned blood out. Luckily he had heard about the demon brothers from one of the other chess sets from the store and knew that they held poison in their gauntlets. He looked back to make sure no one was following him and was actually surprised to find that no one was. He probably shocked the two chess pieces by running away, but he knew that he hadn't seen the last of them or other chess pieces owned by Gatou.
Naruto walked into the house fully satisfied. He had examined the area, challenged Gatou, and even got some exercise while doing it. It actually felt really good to be able to run like he had just done again. It had been so long since he was truly able to stretch his legs since he was always trapped in the glass box.
"Welcome back Naruto," said Sakura as he slipped into a seat next to her at the long dining table built for the guests. "Where have you been?"
"I went fer a walk," Naruto answered.
"When's the battle?" asked Gaara.
"What do you mean?" asked Tsuname as she looked over to Naruto, who was grinning from ear to ear at each of his friends.
"It's in two days," he said proudly.
"I thought it was my job to make the challenges," said Sasuke. He had always been told that the king always challenged another king. The pieces were never the ones to do anything.
"Nah," said Naruto. "In underground chess any piece can make de challenge and den it can't be called off unless dere aren't enough chess pieces."
Tsuname looked over to Sasuke with a confused expression. She thought that all underground kings knew that, and those that didn't have pieces that knew the underground better than them. "Are you new to being an underground king?" she asked him cautiously.
"We're Sasuke's first chess set," Naruto said proudly.
"Why did you choose to come here when you don't have that much experience?" asked Tsuname.
"I have enough experience to beat this guy," Sasuke answered proudly.
"And 'e's got de best chess set in de whole world," Naruto smiled happily.
"I don't think you guys understand," Tsuname tried to say. "This man is ruthless."
"Dat's why we're gonna beat 'im," Naruto said. "'e won't know what 'it 'im."
"You don't understand," Tsuname cried out. "He's killed so many people. You can't stop him."
"Murder doesn't make anyone strong," was Naruto's only answer before he got up and walked away from the table.
"Please forgive him," Sakura spoke up.
"Has he had a hard life?" asked Tsuname because she knew that the only people who acted like that were either the ones who were spoiled brats or the ones who had had terrible lives and Naruto didn't seem to be spoiled with the meager clothes that he was wearing. He actually seemed to be wearing the cheapest clothes among the whole group.
"You have no idea," Kiba said only to have Ino kick him from across the table. "What was that for?"
"That's none of their business Kiba," Ino answered, "and if Naruto wanted them to know that then he would have said something. You have no right to talk about Naruto's past."
"I have just as much right as anyone else in this room," he answered.
"No one else in this room has that right either," Ino said.
"I'm sorry Tsuname-san," Sakura said, "but what they say is the truth. None of us have any right to talk about Naruto's past because none of us really know anything about what happened to him. We only knew what kind of a person he is and that is all that matters to us."
"Would you mind me asking what kind of person he is?" Tsuname asked. She understood what they were saying and she realized that she had no right to pry into these people's pasts, but there was just something about Naruto that seemed like a man who had seen every possible form of pain that life has to offer and more.
"Kind," said Sakura. "He is the kindest most honest person that you will ever meet."
"I see," Tsuname nodded her head. "Is it really okay for him to be here then?"
"None of us would be here without him," Ino shook her head.
"Why?" asked Tsuname.
"He's the one that picked me," Sasuke answered. "None of us would be here because they wouldn't have a king and I wouldn't have a chess set."
"That's why you're here Sasuke," said Sakura.
"For us it goes much deeper," said Ino.
"None of us wanted to be chess pieces," said Sakura.
"We were chosen," Ino clarified.
"We weren't given a choice on whether or not we wanted to join the Kyuubi chess set and many of us would have probably rather have committed suicide than go through what we had to go through to be chess pieces." All the chess pieces nodded in agreement with what Sakura had just said. "But Naruto encouraged us to keep living. He made us what we are today. If he wasn't there back then than we would all have probably died."
"He's our savior," said Ino.
"I had no idea that the chess pieces had to go through so much," Tsuname gasped.
"They don't," Gaara said. It was a short statement, but it spoke more about what the Kyuubi chess set had to go through than any of the words that the girls had said.
"Oh my gosh," Tsuname said quietly. "I'm so sorry."
"There's nothing to be sorry about," Ino reassured her. "It's over and we all survived. That's all that matters to us."
"Still," Tsuname insisted, "I hope that you guys never have to go through something like that again."
"That's impossible," Kiba laughed suddenly. "Not with Naruto by our side anyway!"
"Kiba!" Hinata whispered next to him. She was so quiet that her words wouldn't have carried any weight if it weren't for the sharp elbow that she dug into Kiba's side.
"Sorry," Kiba muttered.
"I think we should all get to bed," Neji said suddenly. We want to keep up our strength if we are going to defeat Gatou and his chess set, and that means training tomorrow."
"Yes!" Lee shouted. "We must strengthen our bodies so that we can show the awesome powers of youth!" With that Lee jumped up and ran up the stairs to go to sleep so that the new day would come much quicker.
The rest of the group got up as well and, with a groan of disapproval about having to train and a simple good night to Tsuname-san, went upstairs to their own perspective beds. The only one who still remained in his seat was Sasuke. He was too busy contemplating the words that his new chess set had spoken to be able to go to bed quite yet.
"Uchiha-san?" Tsuname asked from her seat at the table.
"I don't know anything about my chess set," Sasuke realized out loud.
"Are they that new to you?" she asked.
"I only got them the day before we came here," Sasuke answered.
"It takes time to get to know people," Tsuname said. "I think you will know your set before long."
"Yea," Sasuke nodded distractedly as he too stood up to go up to his room.
Sorry about the late update guys. This weekend has been very busy.
This was my last prewritten chapter for this story so i'll post the next one as soon as I finish writing it.