[Fic] (Naruto) Alliance of Fire and WInd, Part II, Chapter 6/10
THE ALLIANCE OF FIRE AND WIND, PART II
AUTHOR: fantasylover12001
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. I am not making any money off of this, please don’t sue. You won’t get anything anyways…
PAIRINGS: SasuNaru, NejiGaara, KakaIru, many others; see first part for full list.
RATING: R to NC-17 for one or two parts.
AUTHOR NOTES: I once again apologize for the massive delay. The good thing is I now know how I’m actually getting to the ending of this sucker so the writing process will hopefully go a lot faster now that I know what I need to put in ahead of time (I’ve got the last chapters of part II all figured out already!) Now it’s not going to be as long as I had actually thought. Now there are only ten chapters for this part and ten for the part III, but they will be a little longer I think. So it evens out. I would say this should now be done by the end of the year but I make no promises…
PART II: CHAPTER 6
Somewhere on the outskirts of the Land of Konoha,
Naruto decided about halfway to their destination that he liked Neji. The man was funny. It wasn’t in a completely obvious way like Kiba, but he had a rather dry wit. Plus, he seemed to enjoy pissing Sasuke off, which made Naruto like him even more. It was nice to finally have someone else get why he liked making Sasuke mad. None of the others understood it. In fact, Sakura had informed him on numerous occasions that this might be a sickness, and he should come see her sometime about it at the hospital. But clearly Neji had discovered the same thing he had: watching Sasuke get mad and try and keep his cool while getting mad (and utterly failing at times) was FUN.
After about the second or third embarrassing story about Sasuke though, Neji decided to take pity on the man and change the subject. Naruto was sorely disappointed. He had hoped for some blackmail material…
“So Sasuke, how is Hinata? I didn’t get to go see her when I was in the village,” Neji asked.
Sasuke scowled at him. “Fine.” He obviously wasn’t going to forget the story-telling for a while.
For a minute Naruto was confused about why Neji would be asking about Hinata then he looked at Neji thoroughly and realized his eyes and Hinata’s were the same. They also looked somewhat alike though Neji’s hair was darker. Then he remembered Neji saying he was a Hyuuga and then felt a little stupid. “You and Hinata are related?”
Neji nodded at him. “She is my cousin. “
Sasuke snorted at him. “How long did it take you to figure that out Dobe?”
Naruto glared at him. “Shut up.” Yeah, okay he sometimes missed the obvious stuff, but Sasuke still didn’t have to call him that!
Neji watched the two of them bicker back and forth for awhile in amusement and finally asked, “Are you two always like this?”
The two broke off their argument to look at him. “Like what?” Naruto asked curiously.
“Like an old married couple.”
Naruto blinked and Sasuke scowled at him. “Shut up, Hyuuga.”
Neji just shrugged and the three continued to their destination.
SasuNaru
By nightfall they reached the meeting spot with Gaara and Naruto found himself staring at the other man as Neji warmly greeted him. He didn’t mean to stare but the man was just so…odd looking. He was obviously a Shinobi, judging from his build and the way he carried himself. Then he also had dark red spiky hair with bright blue eyes that had dark rings outlining them. Then there was the red kanji tattooed on his forehead. But none of that was what Naruto was staring at. It was what he was feeling when he looking at him.
At first he couldn’t help but wonder if he was mistaken, but he tested the red heads Chakra again and there it was. “You’re like me…,” He said softly in wonder and all three of the males looked at him.
There was complete silence and then Gaara sighed and walked up to the blond and held out his hand, “Gaara.”
Naruto, feeling slightly shocked, shook it. “Naruto…you are like me, right?”
Gaara sighed. “If you mean, am I a half demon, then yes.”
“How?”
Gaara raised a brow, of which Naruto now saw had next to no hair on them. “Much in the way you were created, I imagine. My father met my mother, who was a demon, they had sex…”
“No,” Naruto shook his head. “I mean, how are you a SHINOBI? I mean the laws….shouldn’t you have been at the palace with me?”
A dark look came over the red head’s face and Neji put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s a rather long story. One we don’t have time for if we want to find Madara.”
“If it is Madara,” Sasuke scoffed.
Neji sighed and interrupted them before an argument could break out. “Enough, you two. Let’s set up camp for tonight so we can leave first thing in the morning.”
They nodded and proceeded to go about their duties. Naruto was given the task of collecting firewood and as he did he kept darting looks over at Gaara who seemed to be ignoring. He had never met another carrier before and it was baffling that all this time there was one out there besides him. On top of that, he was a SHINOBI! Part of Naruto wanted to resent the red head, because apparently he hadn’t had the restrictions placed on him like Naruto had. But a larger part of him was just plain excited. He couldn’t WAIT to get know Gaara. He was sure the two of them would be great friends.
SasuNaruSasu
Later that night, Neji watched in amusement as Naruto tried to engage Gaara in conversation. He looked over at Sasuke, who was watching the scene as well with a smirk. “Certainly is talkative, isn’t he?”
Sasuke rolled his eyes. “You have no idea.”
“How on earth did the two of you become friends in the first place? I would have thought you’d have killed him.”
“He bugged me to death until I relented. I also did come quite close to killing him a few times.”
Neji snorted and Sasuke glared at him. The man shrugged and then said, “So, how’s married life? I never would have thought YOU would be the first of us to get married.”
Sasuke sighed. “It’s…different. I didn’t ask for it either.”
“I know. Still, it’s funny. When we were together, you were very against the idea of marriage.”
Sasuke frowned. “We weren’t serious, remember?”
“No, we weren’t. But you have to admit, it’s funny.”
“To you, maybe. Did you have to tell those stories to Naruto?”
“No, but I wanted too.”
“Hn, and Naruto calls ME the bastard.”
Neji just smiled. “Consider it payback for the stories you told Gaara when the two of us first got together.”
“Jerk.”
“Asshole.”
They smirked at each other and then returned to the entertaining sight of Naruto telling Gaara stories about the palace and how lucky the redhead was because he didn’t have to grow up there.
SasuNaruSasu
Throughout the next few days, Sasuke kept a close eye on Naruto. It was not because of over protectiveness, but because he was sure Gaara was coming close to strangling the blond. He would have to be there to prevent Naruto’s death. Even if the blond and his big mouth might deserve the punishment.
To his surprise, Naruto was not offended about Gaara being a Shinobi. He was sure the blond would have been mad that another Carrier was given the chances he himself had been denied. But instead, Naruto seemed determined to make Gaara his new friend. Which was good for Naruto, because it kept him occupied on the trip, but bad for Gaara because now the blond talked to him. Constantly.
“So, have you met your Mom?” Naruto asked. “I’ve never met either of my parents, you know. I don’t even know which one was the demon, and which was the human. Though I guess in the long run, it doesn’t matter.”
“No, I have not met my mother,” Gaara muttered.
“Oh. Do you know what kind of demon she was? My parent was a fox demon. At least that’s what the frogs told me. They could tell because of my Chakra signature, though I’m not sure how.”
On and on the questions went like this. Sasuke could tell Gaara was growing irritated but also found himself liking Naruto, even if he wanted to hit him. Sasuke could relate. He had similar conflictions often when he and Naruto had first met. He almost felt like telling the redhead that it was useless trying to stay annoyed and angry at the blond, he tended to grow on you.
But the growing affection part took time, Sasuke thought as he watched Naruto talk to the redhead as he sat trying to meditate. Seeing the redhead’s hand twitch on his knees, Sasuke decided it was time to interfere. He sighed and went over to Naruto and quickly led the blond away by the arm. He didn’t miss the grateful look Gaara sent him. Well, grateful look for Gaara anyway.
“Hey, I was having a conversation, Bastard!” Naruto protested as they walked.
Sasuke snorted. “Constantly chattering at a person while they’re trying to meditate is not having a conversation, Dobe. That’s called making a nuisance of yourself.”
Naruto blinked, and glanced back at Gaara curiously. “That’s what he was trying to do?”
“Yes, idiot.”
Naruto glared. “Well, excuse me! I’ve never meditated before! How was I supposed to know?”
Sasuke rolled his eyes and nudged the blond forward. “Just go get firewood, Dobe.”
“Don’t call me that,” Naruto muttered, but did as he was told. For once.
‘How on earth did I become attracted to such an idiot?’ Sasuke thought, as he watched him go.
SasuNaruSasu
The next day, the group had entered the dense forest that surrounded the village they were going too. Waterfall village was the last known sighting of Itachi and the man calling himself Madara Uchiha. The forest was full of tall wild trees that were close together and the only way through was the main road that led to the entrance of the village. In the distance Naruto could hear the sound of the rushing waterfall that the village was named for.
As they grew closer, Sasuke seemed to get tenser. Naruto had no clue how to talk to him when he was like this. He was sure most of the tenseness had to do with the real possibility that they would run into Itachi. But every so often, he would catch the man looking at him out of the corner of his eye. Naruto didn’t know what to make of these looks; they were strange and made his skin tingle. Though it was probably just Sasuke worrying about his safety, the over protective idiot.
In the next hour they reached Waterfall’s gate and were surprised when no one greeted them. “That’s odd,” Neji muttered, as they cautiously continued. “Usually there are guards.”
“Maybe they’re busy?” Naruto asked. “I mean, it’s a small village, right? They don’t have Shinobi either.”
“Maybe.” Naruto could tell Neji didn’t think so, though.
When they entered the clearing though, Neji was proven right. Naruto gasped as they surveyed the scene.
Waterfall was small, like Naruto had read. It was basically right by the waterfall it was famous for and was divided into two by the river the waterfall was a part of and surrounded by walls to protect it from intruders. It was quiet and with the rushing water, rather soothing. However, from the collapsed walls and buildings, it was clear that it was not as peaceful as it looked. Damage was everywhere you looked, and at the entrance of the gate, you could see bodies of guards. Naruto noticed them last and then took off in that direction.
“Naruto!” He heard, Sasuke shout after him, but ignored the man.
The first person he checked was dead already. In fact, they all were. Naruto kept on checking though. Iruka had taught him first aid thoroughly enough that he could be licensed as a healer if he were allowed to. Hopefully there were still SOME villagers left alive that he could help in some way. But it seemed whoever did this was thorough. He wasn’t finding ANYONE. It didn’t help that with all the collapsed buildings, a lot of the bodies were covered in debris from the wreckage.
He heard Sasuke and the others following him but none of them tried to stop him as he just kept checking for pulses. Just as Naruto was about to give up hope of finding anyone he heard it. The blond stopped, the other three did the same. Naruto stood for a few seconds, listening carefully. Sasuke frowned. “Naruto?”
“Shh.” Then he heard it again. The distinct sounds of someone sniffling.
“Hello?” He shouted. “Is anyone alive here?”
The three looked at him and then they heard the sniffling too.
Naruto frowned when no one answered. “Look, I swear we aren’t the bad guys. We’re here to help.”
They waited a few seconds more until finally a small voice said, “Over here.”
Naruto turned in the direction of the voice and found a collapsed cottage. “I’m stuck.”
The others helped him as he started to go through the rubble until finally, the blond moved a log and found a young boy staring up at him with wide black eyes. He looked about eight years old or so and had wild black eyes and was dirty from the mess of the village. Other then the fact that his foot looked damaged and quite a few scratches, he looked fine. Naruto sighed in relief, happy to find SOMEONE among the wreckage. He knelt down as Neji and Sasuke freed the boys foot. “Hi, I’m Naruto.”
The boy wiggled free and then looked up at him shyly. “I’m Inari.”
“It’s nice to meet you Inari. How about we get that foot looked at, huh?”
SasuNaru
Sasuke was getting nervous. The village was too quiet. Granted, it looked like the whole place was wrecked and the Inari kid was apparently the only one who survived but still…However, he wasn’t leaving anytime soon. Naruto was calming Inari down enough so he could tell them what happened but it was going slowly. The kid was terrified and his wounds needed tending too. So he, Neji, and Gaara stood watch while Naruto patched up the kid and soothed him.
‘He sure has a way with kids’ Sasuke thought, watching the two. Sasuke himself, had trouble relating to kids. He just didn’t get them, and he tended to terrify them to begin with. On the other hand, they seemed to latch on to Naruto quickly. The kids that lived near his house adored the blond already and in the few short months he had arrived had decided he was their new favorite playmate. More often than not, Sasuke had come back from missions to find Naruto engaged in rousing games with them that he had never heard of.
Naruto had finally finished up the foot and was tending to Inari’s cuts when he tried to get the kid to talk about his family.
“So, was this your house, Inari?” Naruto asked quietly at first. Indicating the pile of stone and wood they had found Inari in.
Inari’s face fell. “No. It’s a hotel. I’m not from here; I’m from Wave Village; not far from here. I was with a friend of the family’s when…”
“When what?” Naruto asked gently. Sasuke, Neji, and Gaara all turned to look at the kid.
“When THEY came,” Inari said in a frightened voice.
“Who are they?” Sasuke asked. Naruto frowned at him but Sasuke ignored him. They needed to know who did this.
Inari shrugged. “I don’t know. All I know is that when my friend and I left after breakfast, two men with red eyes came into the village and started to level the buildings. The guards and soldiers that were here tried to stop them but they…” he stopped and Naruto held him as he started to sob.
Sasuke stiffened. ‘Red eyes. It could be anyone. It doesn’t necessarily MEAN that it was Itachi and this person trying to pass himself off as my grandfather. Though, I’m sure Itachi would have no problem doing this.’ His brother had shown that he enjoyed destroying things in the past quite often.
But just as he was telling himself this a dark laugh started and the group froze at the sound. Just then, Kisame appeared on the roof of one of the few buildings that had escaped damage. “Heh. Looks like you missed one, Itachi. Sloppy work.”
Sasuke whirled in the direction Kisame looked at which was the waterfall. His brother appeared right in front of it. “How was I to know that some kid got lucky?”
“Nevertheless, we now have what we wanted,” another unrecognizable voice said and another figure appeared next to Itachi. Sasuke stared in shock at his grandfather.
“Hello, Sasuke.”
AUTHOR NOTES: Yeah, yeah, I know LATE. I’m sorry. Real life sucks. But as said above, writing should go much more smoothly now that I know where I’m going exactly. Please review. Flames will be ignored though.
AUTHOR: fantasylover12001
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. I am not making any money off of this, please don’t sue. You won’t get anything anyways…
PAIRINGS: SasuNaru, NejiGaara, KakaIru, many others; see first part for full list.
RATING: R to NC-17 for one or two parts.
AUTHOR NOTES: I once again apologize for the massive delay. The good thing is I now know how I’m actually getting to the ending of this sucker so the writing process will hopefully go a lot faster now that I know what I need to put in ahead of time (I’ve got the last chapters of part II all figured out already!) Now it’s not going to be as long as I had actually thought. Now there are only ten chapters for this part and ten for the part III, but they will be a little longer I think. So it evens out. I would say this should now be done by the end of the year but I make no promises…
PART II: CHAPTER 6
Somewhere on the outskirts of the Land of Konoha,
Naruto decided about halfway to their destination that he liked Neji. The man was funny. It wasn’t in a completely obvious way like Kiba, but he had a rather dry wit. Plus, he seemed to enjoy pissing Sasuke off, which made Naruto like him even more. It was nice to finally have someone else get why he liked making Sasuke mad. None of the others understood it. In fact, Sakura had informed him on numerous occasions that this might be a sickness, and he should come see her sometime about it at the hospital. But clearly Neji had discovered the same thing he had: watching Sasuke get mad and try and keep his cool while getting mad (and utterly failing at times) was FUN.
After about the second or third embarrassing story about Sasuke though, Neji decided to take pity on the man and change the subject. Naruto was sorely disappointed. He had hoped for some blackmail material…
“So Sasuke, how is Hinata? I didn’t get to go see her when I was in the village,” Neji asked.
Sasuke scowled at him. “Fine.” He obviously wasn’t going to forget the story-telling for a while.
For a minute Naruto was confused about why Neji would be asking about Hinata then he looked at Neji thoroughly and realized his eyes and Hinata’s were the same. They also looked somewhat alike though Neji’s hair was darker. Then he remembered Neji saying he was a Hyuuga and then felt a little stupid. “You and Hinata are related?”
Neji nodded at him. “She is my cousin. “
Sasuke snorted at him. “How long did it take you to figure that out Dobe?”
Naruto glared at him. “Shut up.” Yeah, okay he sometimes missed the obvious stuff, but Sasuke still didn’t have to call him that!
Neji watched the two of them bicker back and forth for awhile in amusement and finally asked, “Are you two always like this?”
The two broke off their argument to look at him. “Like what?” Naruto asked curiously.
“Like an old married couple.”
Naruto blinked and Sasuke scowled at him. “Shut up, Hyuuga.”
Neji just shrugged and the three continued to their destination.
SasuNaru
By nightfall they reached the meeting spot with Gaara and Naruto found himself staring at the other man as Neji warmly greeted him. He didn’t mean to stare but the man was just so…odd looking. He was obviously a Shinobi, judging from his build and the way he carried himself. Then he also had dark red spiky hair with bright blue eyes that had dark rings outlining them. Then there was the red kanji tattooed on his forehead. But none of that was what Naruto was staring at. It was what he was feeling when he looking at him.
At first he couldn’t help but wonder if he was mistaken, but he tested the red heads Chakra again and there it was. “You’re like me…,” He said softly in wonder and all three of the males looked at him.
There was complete silence and then Gaara sighed and walked up to the blond and held out his hand, “Gaara.”
Naruto, feeling slightly shocked, shook it. “Naruto…you are like me, right?”
Gaara sighed. “If you mean, am I a half demon, then yes.”
“How?”
Gaara raised a brow, of which Naruto now saw had next to no hair on them. “Much in the way you were created, I imagine. My father met my mother, who was a demon, they had sex…”
“No,” Naruto shook his head. “I mean, how are you a SHINOBI? I mean the laws….shouldn’t you have been at the palace with me?”
A dark look came over the red head’s face and Neji put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s a rather long story. One we don’t have time for if we want to find Madara.”
“If it is Madara,” Sasuke scoffed.
Neji sighed and interrupted them before an argument could break out. “Enough, you two. Let’s set up camp for tonight so we can leave first thing in the morning.”
They nodded and proceeded to go about their duties. Naruto was given the task of collecting firewood and as he did he kept darting looks over at Gaara who seemed to be ignoring. He had never met another carrier before and it was baffling that all this time there was one out there besides him. On top of that, he was a SHINOBI! Part of Naruto wanted to resent the red head, because apparently he hadn’t had the restrictions placed on him like Naruto had. But a larger part of him was just plain excited. He couldn’t WAIT to get know Gaara. He was sure the two of them would be great friends.
SasuNaruSasu
Later that night, Neji watched in amusement as Naruto tried to engage Gaara in conversation. He looked over at Sasuke, who was watching the scene as well with a smirk. “Certainly is talkative, isn’t he?”
Sasuke rolled his eyes. “You have no idea.”
“How on earth did the two of you become friends in the first place? I would have thought you’d have killed him.”
“He bugged me to death until I relented. I also did come quite close to killing him a few times.”
Neji snorted and Sasuke glared at him. The man shrugged and then said, “So, how’s married life? I never would have thought YOU would be the first of us to get married.”
Sasuke sighed. “It’s…different. I didn’t ask for it either.”
“I know. Still, it’s funny. When we were together, you were very against the idea of marriage.”
Sasuke frowned. “We weren’t serious, remember?”
“No, we weren’t. But you have to admit, it’s funny.”
“To you, maybe. Did you have to tell those stories to Naruto?”
“No, but I wanted too.”
“Hn, and Naruto calls ME the bastard.”
Neji just smiled. “Consider it payback for the stories you told Gaara when the two of us first got together.”
“Jerk.”
“Asshole.”
They smirked at each other and then returned to the entertaining sight of Naruto telling Gaara stories about the palace and how lucky the redhead was because he didn’t have to grow up there.
SasuNaruSasu
Throughout the next few days, Sasuke kept a close eye on Naruto. It was not because of over protectiveness, but because he was sure Gaara was coming close to strangling the blond. He would have to be there to prevent Naruto’s death. Even if the blond and his big mouth might deserve the punishment.
To his surprise, Naruto was not offended about Gaara being a Shinobi. He was sure the blond would have been mad that another Carrier was given the chances he himself had been denied. But instead, Naruto seemed determined to make Gaara his new friend. Which was good for Naruto, because it kept him occupied on the trip, but bad for Gaara because now the blond talked to him. Constantly.
“So, have you met your Mom?” Naruto asked. “I’ve never met either of my parents, you know. I don’t even know which one was the demon, and which was the human. Though I guess in the long run, it doesn’t matter.”
“No, I have not met my mother,” Gaara muttered.
“Oh. Do you know what kind of demon she was? My parent was a fox demon. At least that’s what the frogs told me. They could tell because of my Chakra signature, though I’m not sure how.”
On and on the questions went like this. Sasuke could tell Gaara was growing irritated but also found himself liking Naruto, even if he wanted to hit him. Sasuke could relate. He had similar conflictions often when he and Naruto had first met. He almost felt like telling the redhead that it was useless trying to stay annoyed and angry at the blond, he tended to grow on you.
But the growing affection part took time, Sasuke thought as he watched Naruto talk to the redhead as he sat trying to meditate. Seeing the redhead’s hand twitch on his knees, Sasuke decided it was time to interfere. He sighed and went over to Naruto and quickly led the blond away by the arm. He didn’t miss the grateful look Gaara sent him. Well, grateful look for Gaara anyway.
“Hey, I was having a conversation, Bastard!” Naruto protested as they walked.
Sasuke snorted. “Constantly chattering at a person while they’re trying to meditate is not having a conversation, Dobe. That’s called making a nuisance of yourself.”
Naruto blinked, and glanced back at Gaara curiously. “That’s what he was trying to do?”
“Yes, idiot.”
Naruto glared. “Well, excuse me! I’ve never meditated before! How was I supposed to know?”
Sasuke rolled his eyes and nudged the blond forward. “Just go get firewood, Dobe.”
“Don’t call me that,” Naruto muttered, but did as he was told. For once.
‘How on earth did I become attracted to such an idiot?’ Sasuke thought, as he watched him go.
SasuNaruSasu
The next day, the group had entered the dense forest that surrounded the village they were going too. Waterfall village was the last known sighting of Itachi and the man calling himself Madara Uchiha. The forest was full of tall wild trees that were close together and the only way through was the main road that led to the entrance of the village. In the distance Naruto could hear the sound of the rushing waterfall that the village was named for.
As they grew closer, Sasuke seemed to get tenser. Naruto had no clue how to talk to him when he was like this. He was sure most of the tenseness had to do with the real possibility that they would run into Itachi. But every so often, he would catch the man looking at him out of the corner of his eye. Naruto didn’t know what to make of these looks; they were strange and made his skin tingle. Though it was probably just Sasuke worrying about his safety, the over protective idiot.
In the next hour they reached Waterfall’s gate and were surprised when no one greeted them. “That’s odd,” Neji muttered, as they cautiously continued. “Usually there are guards.”
“Maybe they’re busy?” Naruto asked. “I mean, it’s a small village, right? They don’t have Shinobi either.”
“Maybe.” Naruto could tell Neji didn’t think so, though.
When they entered the clearing though, Neji was proven right. Naruto gasped as they surveyed the scene.
Waterfall was small, like Naruto had read. It was basically right by the waterfall it was famous for and was divided into two by the river the waterfall was a part of and surrounded by walls to protect it from intruders. It was quiet and with the rushing water, rather soothing. However, from the collapsed walls and buildings, it was clear that it was not as peaceful as it looked. Damage was everywhere you looked, and at the entrance of the gate, you could see bodies of guards. Naruto noticed them last and then took off in that direction.
“Naruto!” He heard, Sasuke shout after him, but ignored the man.
The first person he checked was dead already. In fact, they all were. Naruto kept on checking though. Iruka had taught him first aid thoroughly enough that he could be licensed as a healer if he were allowed to. Hopefully there were still SOME villagers left alive that he could help in some way. But it seemed whoever did this was thorough. He wasn’t finding ANYONE. It didn’t help that with all the collapsed buildings, a lot of the bodies were covered in debris from the wreckage.
He heard Sasuke and the others following him but none of them tried to stop him as he just kept checking for pulses. Just as Naruto was about to give up hope of finding anyone he heard it. The blond stopped, the other three did the same. Naruto stood for a few seconds, listening carefully. Sasuke frowned. “Naruto?”
“Shh.” Then he heard it again. The distinct sounds of someone sniffling.
“Hello?” He shouted. “Is anyone alive here?”
The three looked at him and then they heard the sniffling too.
Naruto frowned when no one answered. “Look, I swear we aren’t the bad guys. We’re here to help.”
They waited a few seconds more until finally a small voice said, “Over here.”
Naruto turned in the direction of the voice and found a collapsed cottage. “I’m stuck.”
The others helped him as he started to go through the rubble until finally, the blond moved a log and found a young boy staring up at him with wide black eyes. He looked about eight years old or so and had wild black eyes and was dirty from the mess of the village. Other then the fact that his foot looked damaged and quite a few scratches, he looked fine. Naruto sighed in relief, happy to find SOMEONE among the wreckage. He knelt down as Neji and Sasuke freed the boys foot. “Hi, I’m Naruto.”
The boy wiggled free and then looked up at him shyly. “I’m Inari.”
“It’s nice to meet you Inari. How about we get that foot looked at, huh?”
SasuNaru
Sasuke was getting nervous. The village was too quiet. Granted, it looked like the whole place was wrecked and the Inari kid was apparently the only one who survived but still…However, he wasn’t leaving anytime soon. Naruto was calming Inari down enough so he could tell them what happened but it was going slowly. The kid was terrified and his wounds needed tending too. So he, Neji, and Gaara stood watch while Naruto patched up the kid and soothed him.
‘He sure has a way with kids’ Sasuke thought, watching the two. Sasuke himself, had trouble relating to kids. He just didn’t get them, and he tended to terrify them to begin with. On the other hand, they seemed to latch on to Naruto quickly. The kids that lived near his house adored the blond already and in the few short months he had arrived had decided he was their new favorite playmate. More often than not, Sasuke had come back from missions to find Naruto engaged in rousing games with them that he had never heard of.
Naruto had finally finished up the foot and was tending to Inari’s cuts when he tried to get the kid to talk about his family.
“So, was this your house, Inari?” Naruto asked quietly at first. Indicating the pile of stone and wood they had found Inari in.
Inari’s face fell. “No. It’s a hotel. I’m not from here; I’m from Wave Village; not far from here. I was with a friend of the family’s when…”
“When what?” Naruto asked gently. Sasuke, Neji, and Gaara all turned to look at the kid.
“When THEY came,” Inari said in a frightened voice.
“Who are they?” Sasuke asked. Naruto frowned at him but Sasuke ignored him. They needed to know who did this.
Inari shrugged. “I don’t know. All I know is that when my friend and I left after breakfast, two men with red eyes came into the village and started to level the buildings. The guards and soldiers that were here tried to stop them but they…” he stopped and Naruto held him as he started to sob.
Sasuke stiffened. ‘Red eyes. It could be anyone. It doesn’t necessarily MEAN that it was Itachi and this person trying to pass himself off as my grandfather. Though, I’m sure Itachi would have no problem doing this.’ His brother had shown that he enjoyed destroying things in the past quite often.
But just as he was telling himself this a dark laugh started and the group froze at the sound. Just then, Kisame appeared on the roof of one of the few buildings that had escaped damage. “Heh. Looks like you missed one, Itachi. Sloppy work.”
Sasuke whirled in the direction Kisame looked at which was the waterfall. His brother appeared right in front of it. “How was I to know that some kid got lucky?”
“Nevertheless, we now have what we wanted,” another unrecognizable voice said and another figure appeared next to Itachi. Sasuke stared in shock at his grandfather.
“Hello, Sasuke.”
AUTHOR NOTES: Yeah, yeah, I know LATE. I’m sorry. Real life sucks. But as said above, writing should go much more smoothly now that I know where I’m going exactly. Please review. Flames will be ignored though.