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Forever	By : FireSnake Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Shino Views: 1838 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I make no money from these writings.

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I am so happy to be back posting again. I've missed using my computer so much, but it's been hard so I just didn't. But now I'm back and I am so happy to be alive and well! Hope you enjoy this one, it's an important chapter.

Chapter 10

He spent the first half of the trip racing through the trees, enjoying the wind in his hair and the flashes of sunlight on his face. He spent the rest of the trip walking through the desert. The village he was traveling to wasn’t nearly as far as Suna, and it ended up taking only a day and a half to make it there. The town was small and very aware of strangers, and the rogues were easy to spot. There were eleven of them just as the mission report stated, and they stayed together most of the time making them stick out even more.

They didn’t seem to be out to cause any trouble at all. They were friendly and kind to everyone, and seemed only to ask inoffensive questions. He overheard several questions that they asked and they all seemed to be about Suna. One of them asked several different merchants in town a question Naruto was extremely curious about. He asked about Temari’s Diary, where it might be, what was written in it, and when the last time it was that someone had actually seen it. None of the town’s people looked disturbed by the question, but none of them seemed to have an answer to them either. By the end of the afternoon every one of them looked weary and discouraged. Naruto followed them after dinner into the desert. They were camped in what looked to be a small crater surrounded by rocks of different sizes. It reminded Naruto of the craters he himself had created during battles as a young man. He liked the thought of someone making use of the damage he’d done to the landscape in the past.

In the darkness he went over exactly what his mission was supposed to be in his head, but Naruto had never been the patient sort. Waiting and watching just wasn’t his style so he watched them just a bit longer to assess each of them individually for level of difficulty before he struck. His clones had them all accept one tied neatly around the camp fire, and the one he hadn’t caught was lingering just beyond the fire light most likely thinking he’d escaped notice. Naruto sat down across from the ten he had tied up and soaked up the heat from the fire for a moment while letting their predicament settle in.

“So… you’ve drawn attention to yourselves, and not the kind of attention you were probably wanting. I’ve been asked to check you out, but I’m not one for beating around the bush so we’re going to talk for a while.”

Most of them looked fairly cowed by him, but there were two that were obviously angry and didn’t mind him knowing.

“You can start by telling me who you are and why you’re here.”

Only one of them met his eyes. She was obviously the youngest of the group, and Naruto could see the curiosity in her eyes. “We’re just looking for information, that’s all. We weren’t trying to scare anyone…”

“Shut up!” The angry boy next to her all but growled out. Naruto just smiled at her warmly and gave a warning look to the boy that made him flinch and look away.

“I’m not going to hurt you… any of you, unless it becomes necessary. You’re looking for Temari’s diary. I overheard several of you asking about it today, and I need to know why. What’s in her diary that makes it so important to you?”

“We don’t have to tell you anything…” The man on the end said in a low calm voice that made him sound fairly reasonable, but the hostility in his eyes said differently. He was the main one Naruto was worried about out of the one’s he’d caught, and only second to the one hiding in the shadows.

Naruto nodded calmly and tried to keep the impatience he was feeling from showing in his body language. “That’s true, but if you want an answer to your questions, you’re going to have to answer mine.

“So you’re saying you know where the diary is?” Asked the man on the end, his tone skeptical at best.

“I don’t know where the diary is, but I can’t imagine there’s anything in it that I don’t know even without reading it so you answer my questions and I’ll see what I can do to answer yours.”

The man on the end laughed long and loud. It was a mocking sound that grated at Naruto’s ears. “What we want to know is secret and very dangerous information. There’s no way someone like you would know anything about it. Just because you caught us unaware doesn’t mean that you will continue to hold us.”

“That’s true, if I were less aware of my surroundings or if I didn’t have an accurate account of your numbers you might have a chance of overcoming me, but if you think the one chakra user hiding in the dark will be able to take me down you will be disappointed. He may be the strongest among you, but he doesn’t even know how to properly mask his chakra. It was my choice to leave him alone. I thought maybe it would give you some peace of mind, but obviously it has only made you doubt me.”

The clones closed in on their prey quickly and efficiently. The leader was brought into the light with minimal trouble, and all hope faded from the group’s eyes. Naruto did not have the leader bound, he only had his clones walk him to the opposite side of the fire from him. “Have a seat.” Naruto said kindly. His years as Hokage had taught him diplomacy, and he knew leaving the man unbound would go a lot further toward getting what he wanted than it would if he had him bound like the others.

“This was the safest way to get you to talk to me. I really don’t want to hurt any of you.”

“Then why are you here?” The leader spoke. His voice was quiet, but held a strength that did not require more. Naruto was impressed with how steady he was after being so easily overcome, but assumed for the moment that none of them could possibly be aware of exactly how dangerous he was so there was no real need for fear… yet.

“I need to know what you want and why you’ve banded together like this. It doesn’t look good for this many chakra users to be seen together in these small towns. They get nervous, and then they hire someone like me to take care of it.”

“So you’re a shinobi from Konoha?” The leader said as he gazed into the fire.

“You’ll need to answer my questions first.” The fire light danced in those dark eyes as he thought over how much he should tell Naruto. He’d seen that look before many times in his office as Hokage, and it was one he recognized very well… “You can take all the time you like, but sooner or later you’ll tell me what I need to know. Not because I’m forcing you to, but because you need what I can give you.”

“The information that we need is hundreds of years old. How could you possibly know what we need when we don’t even know exactly what we’re looking for?”

Naruto looked around at all of them and saw the truth of that statement. These people didn’t know what they were really looking for. Curiosity and confusion seemed to be there in some amount in each face. “Then how do you know it’s in Temari’s diary?”

The leader took a long deep breath and let it out slowly as if he was giving in, but Naruto knew better. This man was smarter than he was letting on. “I suppose I should start at the beginning then shouldn’t I. Most of us are from different villages and some of us are even from different countries. When I was young my village was attacked by bandits, and with a little natural talent I was able to chase them off. Our homes are all small and unable to afford the price of protection from Konoha so we get together every so often and help each other learn how to use our talent to protect our families.

“We don’t usually travel around though, most of the time we meet in an unpopulated area and train together. This time is different. My village has a seer. She’s very young, but over the last few years we’ve learned that she’s reliable. She doesn’t always see the future. Sometimes it’s the past or the present in distant places. A few months ago she started chanting and her father came to see me. When I arrived she was saying the same five words over and over. ‘The last Jinchuriki has awakened.’ None of us even knew what a Jinchuriki was so I started doing some research and found out that there was one in Suna, the brother of Temari. We were hoping that there would be more in this journal than the fairy tales and stories that the word seems to carry with it. We’ve found nothing so far, but we won’t stop searching. We meant no harm by it, and we will be more careful from now on. I can assure you that we are no danger to the people of the desert we only wanted to understand what’s happening and if there is a threat to prepare for. Nothing we’ve found on Jinchuriki’s is good, and our people are afraid.”

Naruto looked them over for a long drawn out moment and took in their scent. There didn’t seem to be any deception, and this seer was interesting enough to have known about him, but he was no threat to anyone. Telling that to these people right away though might make things seem different so he decided to keep the details to himself.

“The diary won’t tell you anything I can’t tell you so ask your questions and I will answer them, but I would like a promise from you first. After I answer your questions I’d like to meet this seer. I have questions of my own and I think she might be the only one that can answer them for me.”

Their leader’s eyes darkened then and Naruto felt for a moment like he’d overstepped some boundary that he didn’t know about, but it was too late now so he just waited for him to reply.

“Many times over the last few years others have asked the same thing, and then tried to steal her away when they realized she was authentic. How do we know that you won’t try the same thing? You are obviously powerful, and capable of doing what you like. We have allowed no one to meet her for many years because of this and I seen no reason why you should be trusted when you are as much of a stranger as the others that sought her out.”

Naruto nodded in understanding. A seer was rare and valuable to anyone that held her near, but knowing the future wasn’t always what it was cracked up to be, and Naruto had no desire what so ever to see what such knowledge would do to Konoha should it be made available.

“You will know me well enough by the end of your questions if you ask the right ones, but that is not the main reason you should trust me. I myself am an orphan and have been since just after my birth. I would never take a child from their parents or against their will no matter what they were worth. Even a powerful chakra user would be recruited along with their families if possible. I also understand the burden of knowledge and power. I would not wish for her ability to become well known for my own reasons. Seeing the future is a curse that my own sensei had and it nearly destroyed him in his desire to mould and change it. I don’t think any good can come of it. I only have a few simple questions to ask that will affect me directly, and won’t even have any effect on the fates of those around me.”

Some of the younger ones looked convinced but the older ones still looked skeptical. “I still don’t trust you and I can make no promises until I feel like I can.”

Naruto nodded again. “Then only promise me that you will take me to her if you feel you can trust me first, and ask your questions.”

“I give you my word that if we feel you can be trusted and you answer all of our questions to our satisfaction we will take you to meet her.”

When he finished speaking Naruto closed his eyes and performed the signs for the heart link jutsu. He heard them all gasp when the link was locked in place and when he opened his eyes there was fury in those across from him.

“How can you think we would trust you if you would do something like this? You mean to drain us?”

Naruto shook his head, and let the link sing of his intentions as he spoke. “This link can drain you if you run, but I did it so you could feel the truth of my words when I answer your questions. It is important that you understand that what I’m telling you isn’t a lie or simply a way to get you to do what I want. I have something you need and you have something I need. This will provide all the trust you need, and keep you to your word. I will remove it once I’ve been able to speak to your seer.”

“You expect us to travel this way? If we all decided to run in different directions wouldn’t it backfire on you and rip the chakra from you instead of us?”

Naruto couldn’t keep the smirk off his face. “You could run to the end of the land in every direction and never drain me. Now, it’s getting late and you have questions. I think we should begin.”

The man in front of him wasted no more time. “What’s your name?”

“Naruto Uzumaki.” Short and simple, this was hopefully how things would continue.

“How do you know of Temari’s diary and what do you know about Jinchurikis?”

This was going to be a little harder. He had to tell the truth or they would know, and he was afraid it was too soon to tell them, but he had no choice. “Temari and her brother Gaara were my friends. Jinchurikis are humans that house a tailed demon. How the demon is contained is different for each one, but other than that and the number of tails of the demon, there is no distinction between them.”

The man on the end laughed long and loud making everyone look at him. The laugh slowly tapered off and he focused his eyes dead on Naruto. “This link is false. There’s no way that you could have known them, they died hundreds of years ago. That would make you 400 years old, and you don’t look a day over 25.”

The rest of them now had doubt in their eyes and their leader looked down at his hand as it moved over his chest where the link was connected. When he looked back up again there was strength and trust in his eyes. “No, if he’d done it wrong it would have killed us all. The link is true and so is Uzumaki Sama. You are powerful and skilled. We were no match for you though we are all talented. You boast of your endless chakra, but you don’t use it on us. You claim, with truth in your heart, that you are an impossible age and know everything we might ask about Jinchuriki. I think the most important question to ask you now is what are you?”

Naruto was afraid now. He was right to think this man was smarter than he was letting on. He saw things clearly, as a good leader should, and that had led him to the right question. Naruto just didn’t want to have to hurt them if they took his answer the wrong way. He was relieved at his own forethought in binding them, because he was sure there would be panic when he came out and said it. He decided he’d be slightly subdued if only to let the information sink in more slowly.

“What do you think I am?”

In return Naruto got a slight tilt of the head and a raised eyebrow.

“I only ask because you already seem to think you know, and I would like to know how close you are to the truth.”

The man turned slowly and looked each one of his people in the eye as if to convey something, but Naruto didn’t know and wasn’t willing to guess. He hoped they were being told to stay quiet and not panic.

When the man turned he looked Naruto dead in the eye and spoke, “I think you are the Jinchuriki that Aya spoke of. Am I wrong?”

Naruto’s heart was pounding in his chest, and he knew that fear was being fed to the others in bounding waves. “No, you aren’t wrong… will you judge me now or will you allow me to speak to you without the taint of myth and legend. I’ve dealt with fear and hate my entire life. It wouldn’t be a surprise if you treated me the same way.”

It was the girl from before that spoke first. She looked at him with shockingly clear eyes, and Naruto felt warmed by them. “I don’t hate you. You don’t have to be afraid of us at all. I can feel that you are. We just have so many questions, and you haven’t hurt us…” She tapered off and blushed when she noticed the others looking at her.

“Thank you.” Was all Naruto could say. It was uncomfortable being judged like this, but Naruto really did need to talk to the seer so he’d endure it.

“Why did our seer say you awakened?”

Naruto gave a sardonic smile before answering. “My life was never easy, and no matter what anyone might thing, not dying or growing old is hard to live with when the people you love start to grow old and die around you. I was so tired after losing so much so I slept. I slept so long my clothes literally turned to dust. When I woke up I still hurt the way I had before, but I knew I couldn’t sleep again so I decided to see how the world had changed. I’m still adjusting to the changes.”

He answered the rest of their questions with ease and the tension seemed to bleed away as each answer he gave lessened their fear of having a monster in their midst. Naruto had his clones untie them when they were done, and had one fetch his things so he could sleep in their camp. The young girl, Hiroko, laid her bed role next to his and fell asleep almost immediately. The rest of them seemed to be at least a little wary of him, but accepting enough, and he found his own sleep among the soft sounds of their breathing.

The next morning they headed north to the Earth Country. The trip was much slower because of his companions, but after dealing with a gang of bandits with little effort at all, they all started to look at him the way Hiroko looked at him. It took them four days to reach the outskirts of the small village just past the border of Sand and Earth, and Naruto was past due to be home in Konoha, but he put it to the back of his mind as they walked slowly over a small bridge and into the center of town.

There were men and women waiting for them when they arrived, but they seemed less of a welcoming committee and more of a last resort defense. Naruto smiled his most disarming smile and waved, but it did nothing to take the fear and determination out of their eyes.

“We have been attacked several times since you left.” One of them said as the chakra user’s leader, Katsuro, approached him. “She is safe, but they are still close by. Each time they come back they bring more with them, and last time they killed Aya’s brother.”

Naruto immediately set off scouts in every direction as the others looked on curiously. He just smiled at them while the people of the town started to emerge to welcome Katsuro home.

There were weary smiles and welcomes as the people milled around them, but they stayed a good distance from Naruto, he assumed because he was a stranger. Katsuro gestured for him to follow, and Naruto did without question. His clones were still looking for the rogues that wanted the seer, and though he could take care of them easily with his clones alone while no one was the wiser, he decided a show of strength would afford him trust at a speed that nothing else could.

ooOOoo

They ended up in a bakery, eating fresh dumplings while Katsuro spoke quietly to a few of the people from town. He liked that their stares were astonished and warm when they landed on him instead of fearful, and the food sat better on his stomach after that. It wasn’t long before a hush fell over the room and Katsuro came over to sit with him.

“She’s here. I’ve been told she is eager to speak with you. I should have known she would see you coming. She already told most of the people here that you are a hero of your own people as well as ours. I didn’t know you were that Naruto Uzumaki.”

Naruto laughed then, and it seemed to break the silence that had fallen in the room. The door opened slowly and a small girl, no more than 15 years old stepped in and walked straight to him. She smiled and took his hand in hers, squeezing it gently, conveying comfort and care. It was a small gesture, but it left Naruto in awe of her, and that was rare. Naruto knew all too well how hard it was to shock him.

“I have waited for you Naruto Sama. I was born knowing your heart as well as my own. My first prophesy was meant for you, and I have never forgotten it. I will give it to you after you tell me about him.”

Naruto blushed to his toes, and heard the gentle rumble of laughter around him. He glared at them, but it seemed they were now immune. He looked directly at Katsuro when he severed the heart link and heard several gasps around the room. Katsuro nodded in understanding and Naruto turned his attention back to Aya. “What do you want to know?” He whispered, attempting to gain some privacy, but it only made his audience lean closer so he cleared his throat and decided they’d hear anyway so he wouldn’t even try to hide.

“I want to know everything that you can think of. It is your gift to me. Then I will give you a gift in return.”

He didn’t quite understand, but he thought, what the hell, and went ahead and told her. “He’s tall with dark hair and dark eyes. He’s sensitive to the sunlight so he wears shades most of the time. He’s young and impulsive and the total opposite of what I expected.”

She smiled at him with age in her eyes that he was surprised to see. “May I hold your hand while you think of him?” It was a quiet question that made the others in the room turn away in what seemed to be a respect for privacy they hadn’t shown since he’d arrived. He nodded to her and held out his hand hesitantly, and when she took it he was swept away by the images in his mind.

Heat and passion. Skin brushing against him as he pushed forward, desperate need forcing him deeper than he thought possible. The taste and sound was real as if he were with Shino making love to him right then. His skin was on fire, the pressure was building, and the strain in his voice matched his lover as they came together in a symphony of pleasure… but there was more than that. So much more than just the sex, there was comfort and companionship and love… “yes…” Aya whispered in his mind and he realized what was happening then. She was feeling what he was feeling. She could speak to him in his mind and pull out the memories she wanted to see and feel all on her own.

He opened himself to her then and let her know what he felt for Shino. The maelstrom of his emotions for a man who had stolen his heart without him even knowing it. She gasped suddenly after what seemed only seconds and gently pulled her hand away. Her face was flushed when Naruto could focus on her again, and her eyes glowed with shared passion.

“I will never know love.” She said softly with a hint of remorse. “Your love is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and I have seen the universe. My gift is my curse as some would say, and it is all that I will ever have to comfort me in the darkness of the night. Thank you for this gift. Mine is pale in comparison, but it’s all I have to give you.”

Naruto felt a cold hard stone form in his stomach at the thought of this beautiful girl never knowing what it felt like to be in love, but he couldn’t help her. She was a seer, and there was no one on earth that could help her if she chose to follow her fate. He tried to take her hand again only to comfort her in any way he could, but she pulled away and hid them both under the table.

Born of our blood
But not of our land
Far across the ocean
Where structures are grand
Your love for the future
Who holds your heart tight
Will be able to join you
On your long endless night
His life will not end
When you tie him to you
For the future is certain
And from then on there are two

Her voice was melodic as she spoke his prophesy for everyone to hear. They seemed to have already heard it though and were simply watching for his reaction. He tried not to react to those words so strongly, but it was impossible. The tears streaked down his face as he sat there staring at her. His face was frozen, and his hands curled in tight fists that made his knuckles turn white. The other side of the ocean was only land. The eastern horizon was unsettled and wild, but if what she said was true, and he knew it was, he would find someone to spend forever with there.

The nights were endlessly long, and he would do anything to be with someone that would never leave him, but time was his enemy. Waiting wasn’t something he’d ever been good at, and he had Shino here and now. He was going to tie someone to himself, but why couldn’t it be now? His mind was racing, and he couldn’t handle the stress. He needed to go home, but he didn’t want to be rude.

“Thank you.” Was all he could choke out, and her smile was filled with empathy that he knew was sincere. She pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket with the words she’d spoken, written on it and handed it to him. He thanked her again and moved to stand beside Katsuro. “I need to get back now. I’m already late and the trip back will take days. I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve given me. If you are ever in need, just send for me and I’ll be here.” Naruto bowed deep to Katsuro and then turned to bow again to Aya. They rose to bow back but he was already out the door, and leaping through the trees headed for Konoha… home.

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