Chapter 2
"Kakashi, it's been almost two years. All of our searchers have come back empty handed again and again. It's time to face facts, Naruto is dead. He's gone." Tsunade said softly and looked down to hide the tears gathering in her eyes.
"But we can't just give him up for dead!" Sakura exclaimed.
"You know what happened to him here, what we found out, Sakura. If he survived that, he probably didn't survive Itachi." Kakashi said quietly, his face and voice expressionless.
Sasuke didn't say anything. It wasn't that he didn't care. He just knew how powerful that man was.
"Tsunade! Tsunade!"
Everyone turned to the door in shock as Shizune, the Hokage's long time companion, ran through the door, slamming it open in her rush and nearly hitting Sasuke as he stood near the door.
"What is it?"
"A message! You have a message! From Naruto!" she cried as she skidded to a halt in front of the massive desk and brandishing the letter at the shocked woman.
Snatching the letter from her hands, Tsunade ripped it open and began reading.
Hey obassan,
I'm just writing to say I'm alive. I know I should have done so earlier, but things were pretty bad for a long time. Now, I'm finally better than I was, thanks to a new friend that saved me. They don't want people to know about them, so I'm not going to name them.
Anyway, I'm not coming home right now, or anytime soon. Probably not for a few more years. I'm tired, so very tired. Tired of what those people there do to me every time I defile their good and pure city with my filth. I'm tired of being the whipping boy for the whole fucking town. I'm tired of being treated like shit by the people I consider family.
You aren't included in that, and neither is Shizune.
I need to straighten out my life, build something new that I can be proud of where people won't look down on me for shit that I can't control.
I'm giving up on being Hokage. Maybe when I'm not so bitter that I would rather kill them all, I'll try that dream again.
I'm giving up on being a shinobi for now. Now don't get all upset, I'll still train and all, but I need a break from that life. I'll keep up my skills, but I need to separate myself from all of that shit. I know that you will understand that as you did the same exact thing. Different reasons, but you left for a while, too. Years in fact. The only difference is that I will keep in touch and I will visit and I will be back someday.
I know that this sounds stupid, but I'm following a new dream now.
I'm going to be a singer.
A producer heard me singing and grabbed me. I'm so content right now; it's just what I need. Something completely different. I'm even writing my own songs. When I finish my first album, I'll send it to you.
Don't tell the others, they'll only try and come after me and drag me back, wither I want to or not. I only told you so that you don't worry, and for the fact that like I said earlier, you would understand.
Naruto
P.S.
I'm currently in the Fire Lord's capital and I'm going by the name Kino Daisuke.
Lowering the letter in shock, she looked at the others. Sasuke was still leaning on the wall next to the door, his arms crossed in front of his chest, watching her intently.
Kakashi was standing where he had been as well, though his eyebrow was arched, waiting for her to tell them what the letter said. Sakura, though, was right in front of the desk, a scowl on her face as she clenched her fists repeatedly.
"Well?!" Sakura finally exploded.
Tsunade glared at the girl for a moment, sending the girl a few steps back in surprise. Clearing her throat, she said, "Naruto is fine. He's taking some time off. That's all that you need to know."
"Hokage-sama, we need to know a little bit more than that." Kakashi said calmly.
"No you don't. He specifically asked that I didn't tell you anything."
"Why?" Sakura shouted, he anger bubbling over again.
"Because he knows you to well. What would you do if I told you where he was?" Tsunade asked archly.
"Go after him, of course!"
"Exactly, that is why I'm not telling you anything." Seeing the comprehension dawning in Kakashi's visible eye, she nodded.
"He wants to get away from this place and the way that everyone treats him. Quiet frankly, I don't blame him either. After seeing how this village treats him, and what happened to him here by our citizens, I would do the same, only I wouldn't come back."
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked quietly into the silence that followed her bitter words.
"What I mean is that everyone in this village detests him. There were celebrations when word got out that he was gone. You three were out searching for him, so you didn't know, but they were so joyful that a shinobi of Konoha was gone and maybe dead. And everyone of you treated him like he was a burden that you couldn't get rid of." Tsunade snapped angrily and Shizune nodded.
"Out! Get out! I understand him better than any of you and I knew him for less time! He's going to keep in contact with me so don't concern yourselves with this. You two are chunnins now, you don't need a third member on team 7."
Bowing, Kakashi ushered the protesting Sakura and the quiet Sasuke out of the office and closed the door.
"So the brat is ok." A voice said from the window.
"Can't you people ever use a door!?" Tsunade shouted as she threw a paperweight at her old teammate.
"Where's the fun in that?" Jiraiya said as he calmly caught the projectile, though it nearly sent him flying backwards through the window he had just entered through. "With how hard you throw those things, you could have hurt me." He said with a playful pout.
"If I wanted to hurt you, I would have thrown it harder." She snapped as she settled back in her chair.
"So he's ok?" he said again, his face somber once more.
"Yes, and he's going to be a singer, if you can believe it."
"Oh, I can. He has a wonderful singing voice."
"Oh? How would you know?"
"I've come across him a number of times over the years. Training, doing his wash, anything, if he was alone, he was singing." Jiraiya said. And then a smirk crossed his face. "And his female's voice was even better. There is nothing like a naked woman with a great voice to attract any hot blooded male."
"So he has a great singing voice in either form? He should do really well than." Tsunade said as she calmly seated herself once more behind her desk while Jiraiya whimpered in pain from where she had pounded him into the floor. "Here, read his letter for yourself. I don't think he would really mind if he knew that you have watched over him over the years."
Taking the letter, he moved back a couple steps before saying nervously, "Well, I was gone most of the time so I never really got a chance to watch him all that much."
His admission only earned him another paperweight that smashed him right in the forehead.
"I can't believe you! You were asked to watch over him by his father's dying wish!" Tsunade shrieked at him.
"I know but I couldn't exactly take him with me when I went to recover information about our enemies from my network!" Jiraiya shouted back, causing the blonde Hokage to blink at him in shock. Never in all their years of knowing each other had he ever shouted at her. Yelled playfully, yes. But never with such pain and anger as was present now.
"Don't you think I wanted to stay here and raise him for Minato? It was the last thing he ever asked of me! But it was either that or loosing all the information that kept Konoha afloat in the years after the kyuubi attack. I had to decide if he was more important than this entire town and he wasn't! He wasn't and I hate myself for it. But it doesn't change that fact that Konoha is more important than any one person, even the Hokage."
The women started at him for a long moment before Tsunade approached the obviously grief stricken man and wrapped him in her arms, something she hadn't done since they were genin together.
For once not taking advantage of being that close to a massive set of breasts, he hugged her fiercely before releasing her and stepping back. Knowing he needed a moment to compose himself, she returned to her seat and started working on the paperwork that littered the surface.
Reading the note, he paused on the mention of the new friend, and glanced up at the two women. "You don't think he means Itachi, do you?"
"What?! Where did you get that idea?!"
"Well, we know that Itachi was the one that took him out of here when he disappeared, and obviously the Akatsuki didn't rip the kyuubi from him, or else he wouldn't have been able to write us. They would never bother with something like this, there's no reason to." Jiraiya said as he started to pace.
"True, but why would a bloodthirsty missing-nin save his target and then let him go be a singer?" Shizune asked quietly.
"There has always been something that bothered me about the whole massacre. He was never the type as a child to do things to test out his own strengths. But he would do something extreme for revenge." Jiraiya said with a frown.
"Maybe you should look deeper into the Uchiha family. Especially during Itachi's childhood up until he killed tem." Tsunade ordered. Receiving a nod, she continued. "If it was revenge that brought it about, I want to know what it was. He was just a child when I left, but I remember he was such a happy child."
"I'll find out what I can. But first, I'm going to go check up on our favorite knucklehead."
"Report to me when you get back then." She said as she took the letter back and placed it into a drawer, which was promptly locked and sealed.
OOOOOO
Naruto sneezed as he entered the large recording studio. "Hm, someone must be talking about me." He said as he headed towards the office his producer was waiting for him in.
"Dai! Right on time." Maskati Tenchu smiled as he gestured for him to sit across from him at the desk.
"So what did you want to see me about?" Naruto, or Dai as Tenchu liked to call, him asked as he plopped down in the comfortable leather chair.
This teen was much different from who had lived in Konoha his entire life. Dressed in baggy black pants with a black wife beater that looked like it had been painted on, spikes around his wrists and throat, heavy black eyeliner that brought his blue eyes into sharp relief and red streaked hair, few people would have recognized him but for the whisker marks on his cheeks, and even then they weren't as noticeable as before among the scars he now had.
A long slash crossed his face from above his left eyebrow, which was pierced, across his nose and down through the whiskers on his right cheek, and then even furthers down the side of his neck to disappear under his collar. Another scar curved from his left ear to the corner of his full lips in a perfect crescent. He had a number of others that littered his arms back and chest, but they weren't as noticeable or dramatic as the others were.
"I've put together a few prospects for the band." Tenchu said with a grin as he tossed a number of files on the desk.
In his late twenty's, he was a successful music artiest who had retired from the limelight to run his own production company, finding and helping young singers to make it big. At 5'11 with short spiky black hair and deep green eyes and a whipcord thin frame, he was handsome and dressed to impress, much as he had when he was a singer.
"Who are they?" Dai asked as she scooped up the files.
"The first is Mokito Seto, drummer. Awesome player; 19 years old, he's played in some local bands, but is currently trying to find a band that fits his style better." Dai looked at the pic attached to the front of the file, which showed a tall red head sitting behind a massive drum set twirling a drumstick in talented fingers. The forest green eyes half hiding behind long bangs twinkled with a hint of mischief.
"The second is Niwa Misato, synthesizer genius. She's twenty and is fairly new though you couldn't tell from her music. She also plays guitar and keyboard." Her pic showed her playing the keyboard, fingers flying as she literally jumped around, her long, waist length black hair held back with just a headband that left just one long length of hair to fall across the left side of her face, concealing one deep blue eye.
"Third is our main guitarist, Mitsuke Shinji; 17. He's the best of the best around here."
Looking closely at the pic, Dai blinked in surprise. The teen had blue, red, green and black hair and violet eyes. The hair was one long plait that reached nearly to his knees. He was wearing a pair of huge black jeans that were snug at the waist and could fit at least three legs in each pant leg. Chains were attached to them so that they draped around his hips and legs and a tight black T-shirt with the words "Ass-Bandit" across the front in blood red letters completed the look.
"Interesting look." He said with a grin as he looked up at Tenchu, who sported a matching one.
"That he does. Now our final player plays the bass. Tuskino Mokoto, age 16. I found him playing in a bar with a terrible band. He was the only reason anyone went to see them. He's very stoic with a very dry sense of humor when he decides to talk, which is rarely."
This pic showed the teen standing against a wall looking off to the side. Short spiky brown hair and dark brown eyes, he was the sort to disappear into crowds with nary a ripple. He was wearing a pair of wide legged blue jeans and a loose black T-shirt.
"Well, the certainly seen diverse." Dai aid as he closed the last file and put it in his lap with the others. "So when do I meet them?"
"I've set up a meeting for tonight for al of you a bar the Mokoto suggested." Tenchu said as he passed a paper over with an address scrawled on it.
"Thanks. Any quirks I should know about?"
"Well, Misato was raised in a civilian family, but when she was 12, her family was attacked by missing nins. She was the only survivor and since then she has had a huge problem with shinobi. She doesn't trust them and wishes that they were all dead." Tenchu said quietly, a sad expression on his face.
"All, not just missing-nins?" Dai asked, troubled.
"All. I don't now why, but she's very vocal about it when it comes up. Just seeing a shinobi in passing makes her so upset that she has been known to lash out at them. She's been arrested a few times for attacking them, but none have pressed charges as many of them understand. Most stay clear of her so that she doesn't get upset. Her family was close friends with a lot of the Clans and she can't even be near them, despite knowing them for years."
"That's terrible." Dai whispered, pain visible on his face. After a moment he spoke up again. "I don't think she is going to work out."
"Why?" Tenchu asked, surprised.
"I was trained as a shinobi where I grew up. I'm still counted as one, even though I'm not working as one." He said quietly and the producer's eyebrows went up in surprise.
"You're a shinobi?"
"Yes."
"Damn. I don't know what to say. Meet with her and keep it yourself. She's really excited about this, so see if you can work though it before you decide."
Nodding, Dai stood and left the office, the address clenched in his fist.
"Well shit." Tenchu muttered and picked up the phone in the corner of his desk.
OOOOOO
Daisuki paused in front of the doors to the Green lotus and gazed at the line in surprise. It stretched down the block with two bouncers standing guard at the door. Shaking his head he stepped up to the bouncers and said, "I'm here on Tenchu's orders to meet with a Mokito Seto, Niwa Misato, Mitsuki Shinji, and Tuskino Mokoto."
The two bouncers had looked like they were going to send him away, much to the delight of the people waiting in line, until he mentioned the last name, and then they snapped to attention. "Oh course, sir. May I have your name?" the man on the left asked as he picked up a clipboard.
"Daisuki. Kino Daisuki."
"At once, Kino-san. Tuskino-sama said to expect you. Please follow me."
Much to the anger of the people watching, he was escorted pass them and immediately into the club.
The club was dark and smoky, bright lights highlighting the jammed dance floor, subdued lights at the tables and the bar. The music was loud and full of bass, making each small table unable to be heard by a nearby one. He was lead to a booth in the far corner where four people were already seated.
Nodding to the bouncer, who left with a small bow, he approached the table, matching the people to the files he had looked through earlier that day.
"Welcome to the Green Lotus, Daisuki." Mokoto said as he gestured for the teen to take to last seat.
"Thanks." Dai said as he settled himself.
"So you're the great singer Tenchu mentioned." Shinji said as lifted a shot of something red off the table and to his lips. Knocking it back quickly, he tossed the shot glass back on the table, not taking his eyes off Dai.
"I don't know about great." Dai said as a waitress approached the table to get his order. "I'll have a snakebite, a slippery nipple, two shot's of vodka and a bottle of sake."
Nodding, she hurried away.
"Quiet a tall order for a teen." Seto smirked as a sipped on a beer.
"I have an insanely high tolerance for alcohol." Dai said as the waitress returned quickly with his order.
"You're only 16."
"And you're only 19. Your point?" Dai asked with an arched eyebrow. Knocking back the snakebite and the slippery nipple, he looked at the others. "So Tenchu wants us together."
"Yup, but I don't think you can handle this as well as you think." Seto said with a cocky grin, which Dai answered with one of his own.
"We'll see."
"So how do you want to do this?" Misato asked coldly.
"I say we just hand out and see how we mesh. Then we can go from there." Dai said calmly. Knocking back the two vodkas, he reached for the sake and the small cup when the room began to blur. Shoving himself back from the table and to his feet, he demanded, "What the fuck did you put in my drinks?!" he swayed for a moment, then hit his knees as the strength went out of his legs.
Seto, Shinji, and Misato were on their feet, concern written all over their faces as the leaned towards him, trying to figure out what was wrong. Mokoto, however was still sitting there, a tiny smirk on his lips as he sipped at his own drink.
As Dai collapsed finally all the way to the floor, the last thought in his mind was, 'I knew it was to go to be true.'
OOOOOO
He awoke to find himself hanging from a wall, shackled to it with thick metal bands wrapped around his wrists and ankles. Thick metal sheaths covered his hands, immobilizing them and making hand seals impossible. The entire set up was designed to make escape impossible for shinobi prisoners.
Looking around, he saw he was in a 10x10 stone room that had bars making up the fourth wall. It was easy for him to see the three men on the other side the first was Tenchu, looking cool and calm in the face of his treachery. Next to him was Mokoto, a cold smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.
The last person was a shinobi. Wearing taped down black pants and a fishnet long sleeved top, he was obviously an interrogator. His forehead protector held his spiky hair back from his face. The symbol was that of the Fire Lord's though, shocking Dai greatly.
"Kino Daisuki, do you know why you are here?" the man said in a soft, but deadly voice.
"Let me guess. It has something to do with those two assholes ." Dai said flippantly with a glare at the others before turning back to the interrogator.
"You have been charged with being a missing-nin. Now there is no record of a Kino Daisuki anywhere in our database, nor the bingo-books." The man said coldly.
"Oh course there isn't, you dumb-ass." Dai snapped, glaring at him.
"What is your name?"
"Fuck you. Let me out of these."
"Even if we let you out of those, you still have chakra suppressors on. There is nothing that you can do." That man said calmly.
"Suppressors? You put suppressors on me?!" Dai shouted, horror obvious on his face, causing Tenchu to frown as the horror quickly transformed straight into terror.
"NO! Not again!!" Dai screamed as he began to thrash his body about, trying to free himself. The three men watched as blood began to flow freely down his arms. The feel of the pain only seemed to spur him to even greater struggles. The men clearly heard the sickening crack as something in his wrists broke, but it didn't slow his struggles down a bit.
Quickly the shinobi threw a senbon needle, hitting Dai in the throat and mercifully knocking him out.
"What the hell was that all about?" Tenchu asked harshly.
"I'd say he had a traumatic experience with chakra suppressors that dealt with massive amounts of pain." The interrogator said, frowning at the blonde thoughtfully.
"What on earth could have happened to him?"
"I don't know, but I intend to find out. That isn't a normal reaction even for prisoners that were tortured."
Opening the cell, he unlocked the shackles and tossed the teen over his broad shoulder. "We'll send a message when we find out about him."
"Thank you, Shinta." Tenchu said with a nod before departing, leading Mokoto out the door.
Shaking his head, Shinta headed in the opposite direction towards the medical rooms to get him some treatment for his wounds. Placing him on one of the beds, he called for a med-nin.
"So what's the problem? Where you to rough on the prisoners again?" the woman who came in the door said with a grin. Seeing all the blood still flowing from the still figure on the bed, she rushed over. "What happened?"
"He freaked out about being restrained with chakra suppressors. It was bad, he did this to himself trying to escape from them." He said with a sigh as he leaned against the wall, watching her as she preformed a diagnostic jutsu on him.
"Well, he's got about three broken bones in his right wrist and even more fractured in his left as well as both ankles. There are some pulled muscles and lacerations where the shackles were. Besides that, he's under an immense amount of stress, but he should be ok after I heal him." She said and he nodded.
"Thanks Suki. Do it and we'll find out what this was all about."
Nodding, she placed her hands over his wrists and began pushing green chakra in to her patient.
OOOOOO
Groaning, Dai opened his eyes slowly, blinking in an attempt to clear them. "Wha…"
"Oh good! You're awake." A bubbly female voice said from a short distance away.
Turning his head, he looked in the direction that the voice came from and blinked to surprise to see a woman, not that much older than him with long green hair and red eyes wearing a nurse's uniform approaching him with a clipboard in her hands.
"So how are you feeling?" she asked as she smoothed some hair off of his forehead gently, feeling him finch minutely.
"Ok." He muttered as he attempted to it up.
"Oh no, you need to lay down. I don't want to restrain you, but I will if I have to." She said firmly and noticed that his eyes widened in panic slightly at the word restrain.
Speaking calmly she said, "You seem like a nice boy, so why don't you just lay there and I'll ask you some questions, ok?"
Nodding tensely, he looked at her warily as she pulled up a chair to the bedside. "Now, what is your name?"
"Kino Daisuki."
"Where were you born?"
"Konoha."
"Really? I always wanted to go visit there. I heard the Hokage Monument is wonderful and that you can see the entire village from the top." She said as she looked at him with a smile.
"Yeah, I used to sit on the fourth's head. It's the highest one."
"Really? That's cool!" Suki blushed at his blank stared before quickly looking down at the clipboard and clearing her throat.
"Ok, how old are you?"
"16."
"Height?"
"5'11."
"Why did you freak out in the interrogation cell?" she asked calmly, like she was asking what his favorite color was.
Shaking his head, Dai stared at the ceiling. "It's none of your business."
"Yes it is when I'm the one that has to heal you!" she exclaimed crossly.
"Listen. Just send a letter to my Hokage, and everything will be cleared up, but I'm not answering anymore of your questions, understand?" he said coldly, glaring at her.
Paling, she nodded before hurrying from the room.
OOOOOO
"So he wouldn't talk?" Shinta asked quietly as Suki approached him.
"No, and he's scary!" she exclaimed.
"You were ANBU before you became a med-nin, and you're saying he was scary?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
Blushing, she nodded. "I don't know why, it's not like he threatened me or anything, but it was just a feeling that I got. But he did say to write to his Hokage and everything would be cleared up."
"Well, I'll put him in a cell until I can get someone from Konoha to identify him. There is a team coming within the week escorting some noble from Konoha to the Capital. We'll just ask them to identify him and if they don't know him, we'll send a letter to the Hokage." He said as he stood up.
"Ok!" she said happily as she turned around and bounced out of the room.
Shaking his head, he entered the room where the blond was still laying on the bed. "Come on. You're going to a cell until we con get conformation on you."
Nodding, Dai stood up and left the room, Shinta right behind him. They walked for a couple minutes in silence until the entered a door that led to a long hall, cells on either side. He was lead to a cell at the very end of the right side and was pushed roughly in.
"Enjoy your time with us. If your information doesn't check out, you will be with us for a long time." Shinto said and slammed the door shut.
As he was left alone, he moved over to the single bed on the far wall and laid back. "Kami-sama, I hate my life."
Well, here is the next chapter. It's a little rushed as I'm leaving for over two weeks for a child support arrangement. I have to bring my kids to PA to see their father. It really sucks. I'm so stressed right now, I'm not to happy with how this chapter came out, but I wanted to get it finished because it will be at least two weeks before I can work on this again.
But anyway, REVIEW!! You know you want to!
Shinigami-chan