Last bit of Chapter 17:

Stupid, stupid, stupid! Teme!

Where are you?

xXx

Chapter 18:

Naruto jumped onto deck with a little red in his eyes.

The pirates dodged him and then Kakashi appeared right in front of him.

'Naruto.'

The blond boy turned sharply and demanded, 'Where is he?'

'Naruto, where's the chain?'

Naruto shook his head impatiently, 'It's off. Where's Sasuke?'

Kakashi looked at him warily and responded too slowly, everything was happening too slowly. 'Would you like some noodles?'

'Never mind that. Do you know where he's gone?'

Kakashi's eyes widened. 'I can guess, Naruto. Sit down. I'll tell you.' The captain spoke with utter certainly, so Naruto sat down slowly and his eyesight stopped vibrating.

He began to notice his surroundings. All the flags, of every ship, were at half-mast.

'Why's the port in mourning?'

'Not just the port, Naruto. The entire empire. The Imperial family has been massacred – the Uchiha family.'

Naruto froze. His eyes darted to the note scrunched up in his hand and mouthed Uchiha.

'Sasuke's an Uchiha.'

'Sasuke is the heir.'

Naruto's head shot up. 'So he's gone back?'

Kakashi nodded.

'Back to Konoha.' Naruto said slowly – his brain seemed to need time to come to grips with all it was receiving. But soon his gaze became fierce again; 'How do I get there?'

Kakashi looked at him for a moment before saying. 'I know a man who's going there. He may take you if I ask.'

Naruto's eyes – still clouded with a touch of red – held the captain in a steady gaze. Then he gave a quick nod.

xXx

The tall, white-haired old man looked at Kakashi, his head resting against the railing, his eyes dozy and heavy-lidded.

'So, where am I going again?'

'Konoha.'

'And . . . why am I going there?'

'The brat's going.'

Jiraiya looked up.

Kakashi raised his hands, 'I don't think I can keep him here. The bloody thing is coming out. So I told him you were going.'

Jiraiya grudgingly sat up. 'Why Konoha? It's bloody far, Kakashi.'

'The Uchiha's headed back.'

Jiraiya sat up straight. 'By himself? Will he make it?'

'I think he has a plan. Anyway, you wake up too late. The Imperial family's gone. Except two.'

'Gone? Who could?'

'Speculation is rife, but I've a theory. You're going to check it out for me.'

'I am, am I?' Jiraiya asked skeptically. 'Uchiha's are not fun at the best of times – now's not going to be thrilling.'

Captain Hatake Kakashi lifted an eyebrow, 'I babysat the brat for months. He destroyed my ship many times. It did not amuse me.'

'I think you made it quite amusing for yourself – the chain and everything.'

'I was making sure the fool didn't fall off the ship.'

Jiraiya made a face.

'Besides,' Kakashi continued blandly, 'It's much more interesting now that the little Uchiha's thrown into the equation I think someone's actually managed to loosed up an Uchiha.'

The old man grimaced, saying, 'Not possible.'

'But he left Naruto behind, didn't he?'

Jiraiya shrugged. 'So he got through your chain?'

'They've both been able to for weeks.'

Jiraiya blinked – then realisation shone on his face – just faster than it usually showed on Naruto's. 'Ah. Is that the case? Clever.'

xXx

What is taking so long?

Naruto was pacing, pacing, pacing, a bag on his back – filled with the clothes he and Sasuke had bought not so long ago, a letter and a chain. His sword and scabbard were strapped to his back, from above his shoulder to below his waist.

The area of the deck was strangely free of pirates. He wondered why, not noticing that tendrils of smoke began to rise from any part of the deck-boards he stared at for too long.

Hisss…

Finally – a millennia later, the captain walked onto deck.

'What took so long?' he almost shouted. Sasuke was getting further and further away as he just waited. He clenched his fists.

An old man with long spiky hair stepped out from behind Kakashi.

He wore heavy brown leather boots which ended mid-calf (1) White pants bulged out above them, disappearing under a dark red jacket. His long hair was held off his face by a bandana with silver polka-dots.

Naruto's eyes narrowed to slits. 'What good's he?'

'This is - '

'He's just the pervert from the hot springs! He was chucked over a wall! You said it was someone who could help!'

'Naruto! Listen.'

'No! I'm going!' the blond boy stalked to the gangplank, his fists clenched painfully – his nails longer and sharper than they had been only moments before . . .

Sasuke's going off to do something stupid and dangerous by himself. It can't happen.

One foot on the gangplank, Naruto felt a hand grip his shoulder strongly.

Kakashi is trying to stop me.

His malevolent, red and blue flecked gaze hit Kakashi before the blond had turned around completely.

For a fraction of a second, the captain was unbalanced by it, and a red smoke-lit tail erupted in the air around the blond boy. It uncurled itself before anyone had registered it was there, and, before he saw it move, it flung Kakashi up into the highest rigging with a scalding touch.

Naruto swung round as if nothing happened. He took the last steps onto the cobbled stones of the port landing before looking up.

And up. And up.

A colossal green . . . surface plummeted towards him.

He felt a searing ache on the skin of his stomach. It eclipsed even the pain of being squashed against the ground by a webbed foot far larger than he was.

'Calm down, brat. We'll go look for your lover-boy soon enough. Let's stop with the heavy-handedness, shall we?'

Wide-eyed and very sore, Naruto frowned up. It was . . . a gigantic toad. There was a man on its head. The old man. The perverted old man.

Curiosity overtook anger at this point. This man was controlling the ship-sized toad. He was going to help him find Sasuke. Hope flared.

But first things first. His wide blue eyes narrowed into a glare. 'Let go of me! You pervert! Ow! Ow! Get it off me!'

The old man smirked as he was lowered by the toad and the massive webbed foot released Naruto.

The blond scrambled up and yelled, 'Who the hell are you? What's that?' He pointed at the huge toad, which was shrinking before his eyes. He watched it evaporate into the older man's chest with a satisfied ribbit.

'You ask me what it is, when you've got almost the same thing. It's a spirit.'

Naruto put a hand over his bellybutton, memories stirring. 'I have a . . .spirit.'

The old pervert cleared his throat. 'Um no, boy. Your case is a little different. You have a demon.'

'A demon?'

'Quite the demon.'

'Why should I believe you?' Naruto was frowning. More memories were surfacing fuzzily, along with a searing headache.

'Look at the rigging, boy. You did that.'

The blond boy craned his neck back to see the captain untangling himself from ropes high, high above.

'But Kakashi was just . . . here . . .'

The man raised his eyebrows, 'Yes, he was.'

Naruto decided. This guy could do cool stuff, and Sasuke was still getting away. 'All right,' he said, 'Let's go.' He heard the man mumbling to himself:

'Urgh, I'll have to train him now. Bloody demon as a traveling partner would scare away my research subjects . . . '

Research?

xXx

Naruto sped ahead in the beginning until he realised he had no idea where he was going. So he had to follow the old man.

Jiraiya walked at a slow, steady pace – much to Naruto's frustration.

And Jiraiya stopped at random places – at the food stall, until the woman told him to stop staring, in the pub, until the waitress told him to actually order something. There was always a woman. Naruto wondered why . . .

So he had time to stare arbly at the buildings, at the food stalls, at the drunken pirates, at the lazy guards and back up at the washing hanging overhead.

Wait . . . he looked at the person making their way along the washing lines, clothes falling behind them. Why were they climbing up the building like that?

The he saw Hinata pushing her way through the crowds. She changed direction the minute she saw the spiky blond hair bobbing above the crowd.

'Naruto!' she shouted, 'Oi!'

When she caught up she asked quickly, 'Have you seen Kiba?'

Something fell into place for Naruto and he resisted the urge to look up again. 'No.'

The girl looked to Naruto's right, then to his left, she even had a hesitant look at the ground, before her eyes sought out his arm, then his face. 'Where's Sasuke?'

'Gone,' Naruto said slowly, his stomach lurching yet again, his heartbeat quickening.

She glanced at the flags of the port before her face froze, 'Right.' She looked down, 'I'm looking for Kiba. See you.' She was off.

As she rounded the corner Naruto looked up. He saw Kiba stick his head around the corner of a building and swing from a washing line to washing line to land on the street in front of him.

The dog boy looked to Naruto's left, then his right. He frowned, squatted down and looked between people's legs. Then he glanced at Naruto's wrist and stood up.

'Where's the smart-ass?'

Naruto's stomach lurched once more. Again, he simply said, 'Gone,' –adding 'We're going to find him.'

Kiba noticed Jiraiya, who was ogling a group of bar wenches. The brown haired boy's eyes moved from Naruto to Jiraiya and back. After a moment of shock he grinned, and said , 'Great! I'm coming with you.'

'What?'

'Yeah. Just feel like going, somewhere, anywhere really.'

'Really? Why?'

Kiba's expression darkened. 'It was crying,' he began in an ominous tone, 'It never sleeps. It's evil.'

'It?'

Kiba carried on, unaware of the interruption, 'And I had to, no . . . I was ordered to . . . change its nappy!'

So, moments later, the three of them rounded a corner and had a clear view of the port and the ship for the last time.

Naruto's face set. 'I'm going to find you, teme.'

xXx

(1) Little pirate said 'ended mid-thigh' by mistake – Big Pirate fell off her chair because of unbidden, unwelcome mental images. Big Pirate thinks that if you've got one foot in the grave it should not be wearing a mid-thigh leather boot

xXx

end of Part 1!

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We've been going for 10 months! ( boo-ya-ka-cha! )

Zee drama! Zee epicness!

Zee suspense!

Vill zee lurvers be ree-u-nited?

E? Oui? Oui? Ou non!?!

Tune in next time . . .