Sasuke was a warm presence pressed up against his side; a hand resting on Naruto's chest, and when Naruto turned to the side he saw Sasuke's eyes, narrow with tiredness, but his gaze not wavering from Naruto, as if he was afraid that if he looked away Naruto would be gone.
Naruto wished he could stay right here forever, that he could just forget about real life for a moment and keep living in this bubble where it was only Sasuke and him, but he knew he couldn't. He had sneaked out of the room he shared with Sai when the other fell asleep, but he had no idea how long until he would be discovered.
It wasn't that he had been given orders not to leave the room, not explicitly, but there was a part of Naruto that had only gotten a lot bigger since the warning he had received a few days earlier that told him he needed to thread carefully. His relationship with Sasuke had never been a secret, but he didn't want to drag Sasuke into this, not before he knew what he was dealing with. Naruto needed to figure out what the deal with Danzo was, and he needed to figure out a way to get his hands on the suppressants.
"I need to go back," he said, and he felt the hand resting on his chest press down, as if Sasuke was preparing to fight him to stay, but then he pulled it away.
They'd talked earlier, in-between rounds of getting reacquainted with their bodies, never able to keep their hands away from the other from long, and they had come up with the bare bones of a plan. Naruto would go back to Danzo, but he would contact Sasuke the moment he could, would report everything back, and together they would find a solution. There was always the chance that Danzo in fact was a benign benefactor that had always planned on letting Naruto leave as soon as they had perfected the suppressants, but there were too many things that pointed in another direction, too much secrecy, things that didn't add up.
His entire being protested as he pulled away from Sasuke, quickly yanking on his clothes. Sasuke watched him as he dressed, sitting up against the headboard, sheets pooling in his lap. There were bruises along his collarbone where Naruto had sucked them into his skin earlier, and Naruto loved how it looked, a clear mark that Sasuke was his. He pointedly did not look at the scars marring that same skin inches away.
As Naruto shoved his feet into his shoes he saw Sasuke get out of bed, the sheet wrapped around his waist. Naruto knew he had to go, that this was goodbye, but his feet didn't want to move, so he just stood there, watching Sasuke and wishing things didn't have to be like this. Wished he never had left in the first place, wished there hadn't been any reason for him to leave. If he'd been normal he'd never have attacked Sasuke in the first place, wouldn't be driven to find a solution.
He pressed a hand to his abdomen, feeling the faint stirring of the beast, knowing he was due another shot in a few hours. Sai had given it to him two days ago, fetching a vial from Danzo's room, as if they didn't trust it being kept in the same room as Naruto.
"Don't vanish again," Sasuke said, drawing Naruto's attention, before pushing something at his chest. Naruto grasped it and looked down, seeing Sasuke's cell phone. His own had been abandoned when Naruto left, when he had been sure he didn't want anyone to trace him down. He accepted the phone, sliding it into his pocket after making sure the sound was off. He felt like he needed to make sure Sai didn't know he had a phone. It might be overly cautious, but he wasn't going to risk losing it.
"I'll text you my new number," Sasuke said, as if spontaneously giving away his phone wasn't a big deal at all. Naruto remembered the Sasuke he had first met, fiercely private, and that Sasuke would have cut Naruto's hands off with that damned katana if he went anywhere near his phone. He was pretty sure he liked this new Sasuke better.
After a moment of staring at each other Sasuke kissed him, hard and with a desperation that went against his otherwise stoic nature. When he pulled away they were both breathing hard, Naruto's heart beating a fast tattoo in his chest, and he had to force himself to walk towards the door of the hotel room.
He turned back in the doorway, looked at Sasuke a final time and then he left, the sound of the door clicking shut behind him too loud in the quiet hallway.
His feet were heavy as he walked towards the elevator. This was the first time since he left weeks ago he had felt as if things were right again. In Sasuke's arms he had allowed himself to forget his fears and troubles, and just felt happy and content. For that short time he wasn't a Protos, or an agent, or anything other than Naruto, and all that mattered was that the man he loved loved him back.
Of course he had known it couldn't last. Reality was out there, just past the little bubble they'd made for themselves. Only a few floors away were Danzo, a man that promised answers but gave none, and if Naruto thought he could have stayed with Sasuke he would have, but he needed to see this through, needed answers and a solution. At least now he wasn't alone. Sasuke had hunted him down to tell him he forgave him and that he loved him, and had promised that he would be there for Naruto, no matter what, and that was more than Naruto could have ever hoped for.
Sai was still asleep when Naruto came back into the room a couple minutes later, and Naruto crawled into bed, knowing he needed the sleep, but unable to find it. He spent the next hours staring at the dark ceiling, thoughts spinning in his head.
Sasuke hadn't been sure what to do when he came back from the hotel, finding his apartment as empty as it had ever been, his hair still smelling faintly like Naruto, as if to taunt what he had gotten back for a short moment.
Seeing Naruto leave last night had been one of the hardest moments in his life. He wanted nothing more than to run after him, to stop him and get him to stay, but Naruto was so damned stubborn, claiming he couldn't go back yet.
He understood why, but it didn't make him ache any less. They'd talked a little, and Sasuke knew about the suppressants Naruto was taking, and about the councilman, and how he'd been warned, and now he didn't know who to trust any more.
It went against every fibre of Sasuke's being to let Naruto go, knowing he would go back to that cabin in the woods, working for someone they had no idea if they could trust or not, regularly getting his system flooded with unknown drugs. According to Naruto they worked, and Sasuke knew he wouldn't have been able to talk Naruto out of not taking them, not unless he had a better solution, and through his weeks of research Sasuke was still coming up frustratingly blank. He still didn't like the thought of Naruto getting injected with something they had no idea what was.
Naruto had promised him that he would keep in touch when something happened, but for now he needed to be with Danzo, until he could figure out where to go from here. Sasuke knew that Naruto wasn't one for empty promises, so there were no doubt Naruto was going to do what he said, but he was glad he'd thought to give Naruto his phone before he left, because apparently Naruto didn't have access to phones or internet in the cabin. Knowing Naruto he would have found a way to contact him anyway, even if it meant having to learn how smoke signalling worked, Naruto was stubborn enough to follow through. His sheer determination was one of the things that had drawn Sasuke to Naruto in the first place.
Sasuke also knew that he'd need to talk to Kakashi. Apart from Naruto Kakashi was the one person he actually trusted, and he'd need to be informed. Kakashi could decide if they'd tell Naruto's dad, and he'd start looking into the councilman to figure out if he truly was some benefactor or if there was more to the story. Naruto was clearly not sure any more, and Sasuke was not about to let anything happen, so he would be prepared. He had no idea just where the cabin Naruto was staying in was, Naruto had been decidedly unhelpful, having paid zero attention to the road. Sasuke wasn't going to let a small detail like that stop him, he would hunt down the councilman and personally smash his face in if he did anything to hurt his Naruto.
Not enough sleep and too much coffee had left Kakashi with a pounding headache all through the meeting he'd just been in with Tsunade. He was feeling the strain of the job more than ever, and it was weighing on him. His unit was sent out there every night, and he was expecting things to fall apart any time now. He already felt that he had failed Naruto, and every day just made it clearer and clearer that there weren't nearly enough agents to deal with the everlasting stream of demons flooding from the shadows to kill and maim their way through his city. As it was he was just waiting for the day when he'd get the message that someone in his unit had died. They were toying with fate going out there with little other than guns and knives to fend off beings that were capable of ripping them apart with their bare hands.
Kakashi wished there was something they could do, but money ruled, and they wouldn't get more agents and better weapons until the men and women in charge said so. Capitalism at it's finest, money before lives.
He went into his office, sinking down into his chair, long legs splayed in front of him as he sighed. He was about to wake up his computer from its slumber when his phone chirped to announce an incoming message, and he quickly forgot about the computer and the heaps of e-mails that would be waiting for him as he dove for the small device he'd left in a desk drawer.
Two incoming messages were waiting for him, and as he opened them he saw that both were from the same contact. Iruka.
Kakashi pressed his index finger to the fingerprint scanner and opened the phone, quickly pulling open the messages.
He'd sent a text earlier, but had to leave for the meeting before Iruka responded, and he'd forgotten all about it until now.
The first message was sent ten minutes ago.
NO
Kakashi chuckled to himself as he imagined the look of disgust on Iruka's face when he'd read the message from Kakashi suggesting they'd have a movie night and that Kakashi would bring his 50 Shades of Grey DVD. Apparently Iruka was either intimidated by the theme, or he just had a decent taste in movies. Kakashi suspected it was a little of both.
He had anticipated the reaction, suggesting it mostly to provoke it, because in reality he had no need to watch said movie any time soon. He had nothing against trashy movies and literature, but he had to draw the line somewhere.
Iruka had seemingly realised his answer was a little bit too short, so he had sent another message a little while later, the one Kakashi had heard just now.
Just bring dinner, I'll find a movie
Kakashi felt a curl of anticipation in his stomach, at odds with the tiredness that had seeped into his bones.
He had done as he decided a few days ago, he'd reached out to Iruka, purely as a friend, someone to be there for him. Iruka didn't know anyone in this city, and he had no job, so he had apparently been spending most of his days holed up in Naruto's apartment, slowly working on tossing out anything broken and fixing what could be fixed.
It had taken Kakashi a whole afternoon before he got even a small chuckle out of Iruka. He was constantly worried about his son, tense and distracted, but Kakashi knew that this was the one thing he could do for Iruka right now, give him even just a moment free of worry, and the moment he had seen Iruka's face light up in a smile he had known he was doing the right thing.
Thing was, he was pretty sure there was at least some level of interest from Iruka. He had caught the man looking at him a couple of times, red tingeing his cheeks when he quickly pulled his gaze away again, and the knowledge was making Kakashi's heart beat a little faster in his chest, like some teenager with a crush.
The more time he spent around Iruka the more he realised that he liked the man, not just the superficial interest he had first felt when he met him, but something else. He felt calmer around him, relaxing in a way he couldn't remember ever having. Iruka just gave of that kind of calming energy, and it seemed to warm him from the soul out. Iruka was steady and down to earth most of the time, even though there was a fire simmering underneath the surface.
Under other circumstances Kakashi would love nothing more than to go further than the friendship they were building now, but he also knew that right now Iruka was too vulnerable for that.
There was also the fact that Kakashi didn't know if Iruka would accept him if he knew the entire truth about him. Only one time had Kakashi told someone he liked about who he was, and he wasn't keen on repeating that. The reaction he had gotten then had stayed with him.
Besides, Iruka deserved better. He deserved happiness and normalcy in a way Kakashi couldn't give him. When Naruto came home he would let Iruka be alone to get his life back on his feet without the burden of Kakashi, but for now he was ignoring the future for just a slice of happiness.
I hope you don't expect me to cook.
Kakashi smiled to himself as he sent back the reply, putting down the phone and going back to the task at hand. He had reports to read through, assignments to delegate.
When there was a knock on his office door not two minutes later he welcomed the distraction.
"Yeah?" he called out. All of his agents were out for the night, so he had no idea who it'd be.
"Kakashi," Sasuke said as he walked into the room. He looked tired, dark shadows under his eyes, hair hanging limply, grown a little too long to do its usual spikiness. However, his eyes were sharp as ever, filled with determination. Sasuke hadn't given up the search for Naruto even when there were no leads, going out alone, getting into trouble until Kakashi went along, because there was safety in numbers, and because he was afraid what Sasuke would end up doing if left alone. In theory Kakashi should've made him stop going out to the streets at all seeing how Sasuke was suspended from the force, but Kakashi wasn't stupid, he knew nothing short of chaining him to a wall would keep Sasuke from doing what he could to track down Naruto.
"What can I do for you?" Kakashi asked, knowing well that this wouldn't be a social call.
"I found Naruto," Sasuke said, and Kakashi wasn't sure if he should be surprised or not at all. The only one as stubborn as Sasuke was Naruto himself. Of course Sasuke wasn't about to give up until he found Naruto, he'd scour the world if needed, but apparently it hadn't come to that.
"Tell me everything."
A few days after he had met Sasuke again Naruto was back at the cabin, relieved of his security job as Danzo finished up with the string of meetings and moved on to other jobs that apparently meant he didn't need Naruto around any more. Naruto didn't mind, he had felt uneasy walking on Danzo's heels, more so after he had met up with Sasuke again.
Naruto had no idea what he should do. A part of him just wanted to confront Danzo head-on, because that was usually how Naruto dealt with anything, but he knew he had to be more tactical that than for once. If Danzo did turn out to have less than benign reasons for what he was doing it meant Naruto had to thread carefully. He needed to learn more before he acted, but he had no idea how to go about that. The man who had warned him before hadn't been around since Naruto came back, and the other shifters hanging around the cabin mostly scowled at him if he as much as looked at them, so he was pretty sure they weren't the right ones to ask either.
He wanted to go exploring in the basement, but the doctor was always scuttling around in the hallways, and he'd look at Naruto with his beady eyes if he as much as lingered too long down there after getting his shots, so that was clearly not going to happen.
The days back here had passed as they usually did, Naruto doing some chores to keep from boring himself to death, and he worked out a lot, until his muscles screamed at him to stop, and then he pushed a little harder.
He wanted to call Sasuke if only to talk to him, but he had quickly realised that he couldn't. He had a phone, sure, but he didn't have a charger, so the battery was slowly leaking out, and he wanted to conserve it as long as possible, because he wasn't sure if he would be able to get his hands on one. He would've gone to a store to buy a new one if this cabin wasn't in the middle of buttfuck nowhere. Some of the other shifters might have one, but he wasn't sure he was ready to tempt fate by breaking into their rooms, not until it was absolutely necessary.
So for now he waited, not sure if he hoped Danzo would come back here soon or not, because the moment he did Naruto was sure he would have to do something, because this uncertainty couldn't keep up.
In the end the change in his routine didn't come with the return of Danzo, it came with the clearing of a throat as Naruto was in his room, doing push-ups, minding his own business.
He stopped and looked up, expecting Sai, because no one else ever did talk to him, but he was surprised to see that it wasn't a pasty ass face looking back at him at all, it was one of the shifters who used to ignore him, the girl with the reddish hair who he didn't immediately remember the name of. Her arms were crossed as she leaned against the door jamb and she didn't look very impressed with him.
"It's Naruto yeah?" she said as Naruto sat up, crossing his legs as he looked up at her. As far as he could remember she had never once talked to him, so he had no idea why she was doing so now, but he had never really liked her or her little gang, so he was wary.
"Yeah," he said, pushing sweaty bangs away from his face.
"We need some help with a job, Danzo said to bring you."
"What job?" Naruto asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion. He really didn't want to do the bodyguard thing again.
"Just gotta pick up a package," she said with a small shrug.
Normally Naruto wouldn't find the task of picking up packages very intriguing, but that would mean leaving the cabin, which again could lead to him magically finding himself alone long enough to pick up a charger somewhere. It was a slim hope, but it was better than nothing. Also, hanging out with the other shifters might mean overhearing something, which was probably a more likely outcome than getting away long enough to go shopping, particularly since no one should really know about his phone. Naruto had gone as far as asking Sai about the possibilities of getting a cell phone to test the waters, but Sai had just levelled a blank stare and told him that wasn't going to need one, in a way that told Naruto that it wasn't as much that he wasn't going to need one, more that he wasn't going to be allowed to have one. He hadn't pushed, but filed it nicely away in the this place is bad news column of the tally he was keeping in his head.
Naruto rolled to his feet, and the woman glanced down at his sweat-drenched t-shirt, her nose scrunching up in apparent disgust. "Please shower first, we'll be in the hall," she said before turning around and leaving. Naruto just shrugged, grabbed some clean clothes and headed to wash off. It wasn't like he had anything better to do, so he might as well tag along.
A couple of hours later he was walking through a worn-down hallway, two shifters on his tail as he looked at apartment numbers, searching for the right one. The other two were bad company at best, talking to him monosyllabic words and glaring more often than not. Naruto wanted to say that it was nice to leave somewhere without Sai on his heels, but he wasn't really sure this was a good trade-off. Even after two hours in a car he hadn't even picked up on their names, so he just referred to them as Red and Big. He wasn't even sure what kind of shifters they were. She was probably some kind of feline, and he might be a bear judging by his size, easily twice Naruto's width.
The building had looked shabby from the outside, but it looked even worse from the inside, and Naruto had no idea what they were supposed to pick up in a place like this, but he was having a hard time believing it was anything legal. He didn't think asking the other two was going to do much, so he just trudged along the hallway until he pulled up in front of the door that had the right numbers.
The door had probably been bright green at some point, but the colour was dull and cracked, and one of the numbers were hanging upside down by a lone screw. Naruto knocked on the door, eager to get this over with. The two shifters crowded him, so close he could feel one of them breathe down his neck, and he wanted to take a step forward to get away, but they had pushed him right up against the door, so he was stuck for now, at least until someone opened.
There were sounds from inside the apartment, someone shuffling along. Naruto's hearing was easily able to pick up when the person stopped right in front of the door, breathing heavily as he or she probably looked through the peep-hole.
The door finally creaked open, and an old woman peered out, eyes sunken in her face, skin papery and wrinkled.
"What do you want?" she asked in a rough voice, looking like she was ready to slam the door in their faces any moment.
"We're here to pick up a package," Naruto said. He wasn't sure how he was suddenly the one seemingly taking charge considering he had only been pulled along, but the other two seemed content to hang back and let Naruto do the talking.
The woman narrowed her eyes, gaze trailing over Naruto as if she was assessing him.
"Wait here," she finally said, slamming the door shut and shuffling away in her slippers.
Naruto looked back at his companions, wondering if they had any idea what they were picking up. Red seemed bored out of her mind, and the big guy looked to be more brawn than brains, and Naruto had no idea why he had been the one they'd asked to go along. Usually the two hung around with this one dark haired guy and a couple of others that Naruto was pretty sure were twins because they were eerily identical. There had been no sign of the last three when they left the cabin earlier though.
It felt almost wrong to leave without Sai considering he was like Naruto's eternal shadow and he wondered if Sai even knew he was here right now.
Whatever, there wasn't much he could do about that right now. He'd just finish up this stupid job and go back. They had parked right outside the apartment building, and there were absolutely no shops around, so any hope of covertly getting his hands on a charger was thoroughly quashed.
The chain on the door clattered and then the door pushed open, the old woman clutching a small cardboard box, holding it out for Naruto to take.
He grabbed it, noticing that it looked well used. One corner was dented in, there was a stain up along one side, and one of the flaps had been torn off.
"Is it all there?" Big said, voice gruff, bordering on a growl.
"Yeah, yeah, all of it," the woman said, making to turn around.
"Hold on." Big curled one hand around the door of the apartment to hold it open before turning towards Naruto. "Check the box."
Naruto looked up at him and then down at the box again, shrugging as he pulled aside the remaining flaps, peering inside. He had no idea what to expect. This seemed eerily like some shady drug deal, and he was a little worried just what he was being shot up with every other day.
It wasn't drugs.
There were a dozen or so plastic bags in the box, each filled with teeth. The jagged triangular ones of sharks, small sharp feline fangs, and blunt ones that looked very much like that one tooth he had lost once in a fight, chunky molars with long roots.
Naruto recoiled, almost dropping the box.
"Count the bags," Big said, and it was clear the content wasn't surprising to him in the slightest. Naruto wanted to say no, but he was pretty sure they wouldn't be leaving until the teeth were all counted up, and any arguing he did wouldn't stop that.
There was of course the chance that it was all legitimate, but there was a few too many magical rituals that used teeth for him not to think this was a black market business. Was Danzo really dealing with this? If rumours came out that the councilman had dealings with the black market he could kiss the position of governor goodbye.
He quickly counted out eighteen bags of varied teeth and fangs and then closed up the flap, not really wanting to look at them. Most of the animal fangs could easily be imagined being leftovers from slaughter or hunting, but the three bags of clearly human teeth less so. The size made it clear they weren't baby teeth, and he didn't really believe the small hope that it was gathered from dentists.
"You sure there were eighteen?" Big asked, levelling a hard stare at Naruto, who could only nod in assurance, not liking where this was going.
Big growled deep in his throat as he turned back to the woman in the doorway who was shrinking in on herself, eyes shifting between the shifter and Naruto.
"What happened to the last two bags?" Big asked the old woman.
"I… I couldn't get them, the supplier, he never came!" the woman said, voice cracking on a cough.
"And when were you planning on telling us that you were two bags short? When you had fled the state with the full payment?"
"I was going to get you the bags as soon as possible, I swear!"
"You know what happens with people who try to stiff us," Big growled, shoulders hitching up. He looked like he would shift into his animal form any moment, his eyes glowing with the wildness of a predator, and Naruto knew he had to de-escalate the situation right now, before things went completely haywire.
He glanced over towards Red, hoping she'd back him up, but her lips were pulled into a sneer directed at the woman in the doorway.
Two angry shifters against a frail old woman, it was hardly going to be a fair fight.
"Uhm, guys, let's just…" Naruto said. Big's gaze shifted towards him, and in that split second the woman seemed to decide that this was her opportunity. Her hand dipped into her pocket with a speed at complete odds with how fragile she looked, grabbing a small tin. Naruto had no idea what was happening, but the next moment the woman threw the powdery content of the tin at Big, and then Red at Naruto's side dropped down onto four as her human form flowed into that of a bobcat with the characteristic spotted fur and tufts on her ears. In a world of people changing into lions and bears she might not look like much, but when she sneered and used her strong hind legs to jump at the other woman, sending her careening to the floor she showed all of the compact strength in her body, taking the woman down easily.
Big was crouched on the floor, still in human form, hands pressed to his face as he screeched in pain. Between his fingers his skin was scorched red and blistering, and Naruto did not want to know what had been in the powder the woman had thrown at him.
The bobcat was standing on the other woman's chest, paws near her throat, claws curling against her skin in a warning not to move.
Naruto would have thought that was it, that the woman on the floor would stop fighting, because having thirty pounds of bobcat with claws that could easily take out ones throat on top of you would have most people stop fighting.
It was becoming clear to Naruto that there was more to the woman than first met the eye. No eighty-something woman he had ever seen had thrown a shifter as easily through the room, only to flip back to her feet, the edge of the robe she was wearing flapping.
She turned towards Naruto, and with a shake of her head the age seemed to just flow from her like water. Her skin grew smooth and clear and golden, her grey hair thickened into brown curls and her eyes grew sharp.
Witch of some sort, probably not the good kind if she went around dealing in teeth.
She jumped over Big who was lying on his side, convulsing, and before he knew it she was right in front of Naruto, grabbing the box out of his hands. He was too stunned to react, having never actually met a witch before, and not really being very invested in the box to begin with, but as the witch started running Big choked on a breath and grew still, and Naruto was a little too sure that this witch had just killed him. There was no love between him and Big but he couldn't well let a murderer get away, so he took off after her.
He could hear the sound of paws and knew the bobcat was following.
They caught up to the witch in the stairwell as Naruto launched himself over the railing and tackled her a floor down, sending the two of them tumbling down a flight of stairs, small bags of teeth flying around them, one breaking open to spill tiny rodent teeth in Naruto's lap.
He paid little attention to it, grabbing the witch before she could get away, twisting her arms behind her back as he pressed her to the floor with a knee. With her hands incapacitated she probably wouldn't be able to do much. Very few witches could do anything like incantations unless it was fuelled by potions or powders or other remedies, so as long as her hand wasn't able to grab more tricks from her pockets they'd be fine.
There was a faint sound of the bobcat shifting back into human form mid-air as she leapt down the last flight of stairs to join them, landing lightly on her feet with all the grace of the feline she was. There was some blood smeared around her mouth, she'd probably gotten hurt when she'd been tossed into a wall, but other than that she seemed well enough.
"You really thought you'd get away with this?" she spat out as she crouched by the witch's head. She was naked, her clothes left upstairs when she shifted, but she seemed anything but self conscious about it. Most shifters seemed to worry little about nudity. Very few clothes transitioned well from human to shifter form, so they probably just got used to being naked around each other. Naruto wasn't quite there, so he tried his best to look anywhere other than her face.
The witch huffed out a laugh. "I thought there would only be one of you."
"Good for us you were ratted out then." Red smiled, but it was not a happy smile, rather a malevolent smirk. "You tried to betray us, and we don't take kindly to this."
"Shit, I'll get you the teeth alright, I just need a few more days."
"We can get teeth other places, that's not the problem. The problem is that you thought you could get away with this."
Naruto looked between the two, the ominous feeling of something bad about to happen settling in his gut. This wasn't what he had agreed to. He was here only to pick up a package, that was all.
The creeping feeling that he had made a grave mistake when he called Sai those weeks ago was starting to overpower him. He'd been sceptical at first, mostly thinking it was all some scam, but then then suppressants had worked, and that suspicion had shifted to why someone wanted to help him without getting anything in return. Then there was the fey they'd supposedly saved, and the warning from the stranger, and then he was working alongside Danzo, and he saw the shift in the man from when he was in the public eye to when he was alone, how his facade just seemed to drop.
Now it appeared like he was mixed up with the black market, and Danzo's goons seemed like they weren't above some good old vengeance, and this felt more like some bad mafia movie than it did real life, and Naruto had no idea how to get away from this. He could leave the cabin, sure, but he'd watched enough movies to know that people didn't just get away like that, there were repercussions.
Fuck, this was a clusterfuck, but right now he had to focus on this right here. Red looked like she was about to kill the witch, and that was not how the law worked. Witches weren't demons like the vampires he had hunted, they were humans who had connected to the earth, using it to create magic. Some took it too far, took more than they gave back, and it warped their minds, but even if they did evil they weren't inherently evil and should be taken to trial not executed.
"Hey, calm down," Naruto said, and Red turned towards him, glaring.
"Let's just… call the DPA, yeah? They'll deal with her."
"The DPA, really? You think that'll solve anything then? They won't question why we're here or why there happens to be dozens of illegally procured teeth around us? Do you even know the value of all this?" she said, gesturing towards the bags spread around them.
"They're just… teeth?" Naruto started, but the way her smirk was back, as if she couldn't believe how much of an idiot Naruto was told him he had missed out on something.
"They're shifter teeth, idiot."
Naruto looked around at the dozens of teeth, shuddering. If all of these teeth belonged to shifters… that took it to a whole new level of illegal. Something told him that none of those teeth were willingly donated.
"And this bitch thought she could get away with it, and now she's killed Jirōbō, and she well know what the punishment for that is."
Naruto was sure he didn't want to know, but Red didn't give him the luxury of ignorance for long.
"Eye for an eye, death for a death," Red said, the grin stretching over her face shoving that she would have no problem going through with that. "I guess we'll have to make sure to make up for the lacking teeth too."
Naruto swallowed hard, the grip he had on the witch faltering, but she made no move to get away, just sneered at Red.
"I think I'll give newbie over here the honour of being the one to pull out every single one of your teeth," Red continued, levelling a hard stare at Naruto, and Naruto lost his grip on the witch entirely, falling back on his ass in disgust at the implication. She wanted him to yank out her teeth? And then what, they'd kill her?
"No," Naruto said, shaking his head. "I won't do it."
"You really think you have a choice right now?"
"Yes," Naruto said, voice firm and determined. He would not back away from his principles willingly, and Naruto would never hurt anyone intentionally. He had brought enough pain as it was, he would not do it.
"You don't think he'll take away your drugs the moment he learns you've disobeyed?" Red continued, leaning over the witch and locking a hand around the witch's wrist, yanking it away from the pocket she had tried to pull something out of. Red curled her fingertips into the tendons on the inside of the witch's wrist hard enough that she dropped the small tin she'd had in the pocket, similar to the one that he killed Big—Jirōbō Naruto mentally corrected himself to now that he knew his name—upstairs with a cloud of magical dust.
Red palmed it, grin widening.
"I guess the choice is yours, little fox. She gets the powder or you do, what will it be?"
A/N: Sorry, it took me a bit longer than I wanted with this, but apparently eye surgery will make it really painful to look at computer screens, so yeah, was forced to take a writing break. :p
Thanks to all of you for being patient and still reading. It means so much!
