Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Sector Five	By : FlairForTheVeil Category: Naruto AU/AR > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 2303 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor its characters. Rightful ownership belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I make no profit of this fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
Chapter 10: Disrupted Formation

Something in the back of his slumbering mind snapped its fingers and pulled on a thin thread. It yanked at his consciousness and pulled him into the recesses of his mind, filled with few memories and most of the few being Sasuke. Naruto was standing in a completely white, endless room with a standard window allowing a view of black in front of him.
He blinked heavily and glanced around him, surrounded by different volumes and colors of smoky and solid white to eggshell and cream white. He glanced down at his tanned hands. They looked the same size as they were when he was awake, with long fingers and wide palms and nubby nails. Then he bent over looked down at his bare feet, his left big toe with a scar that looked like a walking person. His eyes traveled higher over his calves and knees with the fuzzy blond hairs on them, gradually turning to a dark blond as he reached his upper thighs and – oh shit, he was naked. How had he not noticed that before?
He stood straight up and looked around, making sure that he was alone and setting his hands on his hips. What was he doing here? And why the hell was he naked?
Suddenly, the window in front of him jerked and he nearly screamed when he saw his own reflection in it. No, it wasn’t a reflection, it was actually himself. Another completely solid copy on the other side of the glass, in the same nudity but with scarlet irises.
It dully stared at him, appearing apathetic but contradicting itself when its knuckled turned white on the latch of the windowsill. The window shook again and expanded like rubber, like a rock had been thrown at it but the glass didn’t crack, only morphed around a sphere and reverted back to its original shape. It shuddered under another invisible pressure and screeched when the biceps of his copy rippled underneath his skin and pressed harder on the sill, keeping the window from coming out. A few more dings and scratches echoed from the glass of the window, some of them gentle and some harsh. The other Naruto blinked slowly and the pangs and squeals behind the glass only got louder and more frequent. The glass was morphing around invisible objects, some obviously rocks and some too intricate to identify. It flared his nostrils and a loud bam! engulfed the area around him and another face was pressed against the window. Naruto scrambled to cover his own nudity, but-
It was Gaara. He was clothed, but in a sand-colored tank top and military pants. He shoved against the other Naruto, but he didn’t budge, only put more of his weight on the opening of the window and kept it shut. Gaara shouted something at the copy, so infuriated that his eyes squinted and his neck flushed red. The redhead shoved at its stomach, punched at its arms and face, even attempted to strangle him but the other Naruto stood his ground and didn’t flinch a single time. Gaara turned to the real him, pointed, and yelled something violently at him that he couldn’t hear. Glass morphed around him like raindrops falling sideways and he only turned redder and redder, a vein popping out in his forehead and matching his sea green eyes. He was shoved to the side and sobbing Sakura pressed her face into the glass beside him, also pushing at the copy and yelling what he could read as obscenities and trying to elbow her way to the other side. Both her and Gaara were banging on the window, but it only allowed the deep thumps of their effort. Sakura shook her first at him, appearing to take a violent approach at first but leaning against the window to beg him for something that he couldn’t hear. A girl with long, black hair and slanted eyes materialized behind the three and stood calmly. She only smiled at him and moved to the side when Jiraiya and Tsunade appeared, looking grim and concerned. They mouthed something to him that he couldn’t read and gestured gently, Tsunade widening her arms and slowly wording, open.
Naruto’s eyes widened when long knives were thrown at the glass, as well as bullet rounds and some kind of gold material. The copy’s jaw clenched and a sheen of sweat had formed on his face, shaking his head no, no, no and panting through its gritted teeth. Neji appeared behind Tsunade and shoved her out of the way to punch the window’s glass and yell something at the Naruto on his side. Neji’s forehead filled with bright blue veins and he obviously cursed the copy out, trying to elbow him out of the way and failing. He only clenched his eyes shut and kept shaking his head no, visibly groaning and settling more of his weight on the window opening. Neji clawed at his wrists and the copy spat in his face.
Something different began behind the window. Before it was desperate, now it was… violent. Person after person appeared, Kiba, Chouji, Ino, men and boys he didn’t recognize, but never Sasuke or Kakashi or anyone of his recent group. All of the figures were shouting at the Naruto of their side, scratching his back and smacking his face when a fine tear of pain ran down his cheek. They were trying to yank him away from the window, shove him into it, anything to get them through. But he only shook his head and silently shouted No! No! No! as his face turned purple and the veins in his arms jutted out and his torso muscles clenched painfully.
And finally, finally, something came through the window. It was the copy’s gravelly voice, his own, in despair.
“Don’t remember!” he screamed and opened watery red eyes, piercing him with his gaze and holding him in place. “No! You don’t want to! Fight it!”
In the background of his words, screams could be heard from the others. Sakura was screaming and clawing at the rubber window, trying to kick and punch her way through it but to no avail. It was a painful sight, and even more so because he didn’t even understand what was going on.
“Naruto!” she sobbed, raw and wretched.
“Stop it!” his copy yelled and let out a short, painful scream that made his Adam’s apple protrude dangerously and bob. “Don’t! Get out!” His face was dark red and there were fresh, hot tears rolling down his cheeks, hitting his arms and pooling around his slipping fingers, “Leave, dammit! Don’t think about it! Naruto, go!”
It was then that Gaara reached his hand through a pane of the glass, morphing around his wrist and his forearm. Everything behind the redhead went silent and everybody behind it stood still as the copy of him slumped against the window. His bicep fit through the pane, as well as his shoulder. He held his hand out to Naruto, pained and pleading. He clawed his hand and stretched the glass around his fingers, clenching again so that it thinned around his nails. He fisted his fingers three more times before the glass seemed to melt around the protruding nail of his index finger. Gaara pointed the small amount of his free finger at the blond, nostrils flared and growled one word:
Remember.
Naruto shot up in his sleeping bag, nearly falling to the side because it was still zipped. His hands frantically searched for the zipper and almost ripped it off when he found it, throwing it off of him and kneeling.
His head was aching and spinning and the backs of his gums were tense like he was going to throw up. He did feel nauseated, but set his sweaty forehead on the tent floor and wheezed his breaths in. The blond only slept in his boxers and a long sleeved shirt, and that he peeled up to his shoulders to cool his heated flesh in the cold winter night air. It was obviously the time of night where everybody was in the middle of their sleep. He waited for his head to stop spiraling and his limbs to stop cramping, concentrating on breathing. The blond’s sweat had dried on his back and neck, and his breathing was normal now, though he sighed weakly.
Naruto pushed himself up on shaky hands and wavered in his standing position. His limbs were shaking and his side of the tent was a mess with tangled blankets and his sleeping bag thrown to the side. Sasuke was sleeping peacefully on his back, face illuminated by dim moonlight, whispering something in his sleep. He stared at the raven for a bit, watched how his chest rose gently and slowly under his blankets and how he would subtly shift every few moments.
He managed to reach his sleeping bag and lay it out right next to Sasuke. Naruto dragged his four heavy blankets beside it and shimmied into the bag, shrugging the blankets on top of himself and turning on his left side to face Sasuke. The blond put the crown of his head against the boy’s shoulder and gripped his blankets closer to him, watching the shadows of his fingers against his hip and biting his lip.
He spent the rest of the night listening to the sound of Sasuke’s gentle intakes of air and sighs when he let them go.
When Sasuke’s eyelids inched open, they were assaulted with warm sunlight. He shut them closed again and wished for another gloomy day so that his irises wouldn’t ache. The tent was warm, nearly overbearingly so. He shifted away from the ray of sunlight that had decided to shine in his face and shoved a blanket over his head.
Pale eyelids slid shut again and attempted to surrender to dreams, but something nudged him in the arm and stayed there. Sasuke dismissed it as Naruto’s foot in one of his weird sleeping positions and scooted father away from him, wishing he could sleep on his left side and sighing heavily. He wondered how his bones were doing.
Naruto’s foot nudged him again and seemed to rub his shoulder. Sasuke growled and ripped the blanket off of his face, sitting up and bracing to snap the other boy’s ankle. He was surprised when he was greeted with a head of mussed blond hair and tired cobalt eyes buried into his side. He still had that habit of sleeping in his boxers, Sasuke noted, and a shirt that he had never seen before.
“Hi.”
The raven studied Naruto’s face and tightened his lips. “What are you doing?”
Naruto rolled onto his stomach and looked to the corner of the tent, smashing his cheek against the ground and shrugging. “Couldn’t sleep.”
Sasuke felt the warmth of Naruto leave him and noticed that the tent wasn’t warm, just the blond. He was still numbly staring at a stray sock hidden in one of the tent’s corners and had delicate bags under his eyes. Maybe he had a nightmare, or even Itachi had given him a scare?
Sasuke lowered himself back onto the ground and faced Naruto, relaxing into his plush blankets. “What’s with you?”
“Nothing,” the blond replied, perhaps a bit too quickly and harshly. “I just… got cold.”
“Got cold,” Sasuke deadpanned and gave him a tired glare. “You were head-butting me so hard that it scooted me over because you got cold.”
Blue eyes traveled over to him and pale eyebrows lifted. “Yes?”
This time, Sasuke didn’t say anything. He just narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips into a glare and waited for the other boy to crack under the pressure and spill every single thing that had bothered him, like he usually did. Naruto was an open book, and if he refused to open, he read most of his pages within a few seconds of a glare that Sasuke wondered if he was just planning what to say the whole time.
Naruto clenched his eyes shut and inched his way closer to Sasuke again, slamming his head into his side again and grumbling, “I had a nightmare.”
“You want me to be momma bear?” Sasuke mocked and harshly tugged at a blond lock.
“Don’t make fun of me, dammit!” Naruto said, muffled into his side and slightly tickling him when his voice rose and vibrations could be felt. “It was scary.”
The raven hummed and let his heavy eyelids shut, sighing and resting his hand atop the blond head. “What was it?” he murmured.
Naruto played with the loose ends of his cotton sleep shirt as he retold his dream, whispering the whole way through and appreciating it when Sasuke’s nails would gently dig into his skull.
“Why did it scare you?” he questioned.
“Because,” he started and slightly fumbled with his words, “I told me not to remember.”
“I like your English,” Sasuke chuckled and raked his fingers through golden tendrils.
Naruto allowed the corners of his lips to quirk up.
“But, I think you’re supposed to listen to your dreams, or take them seriously, or something like that,” the raven groused and rubbed his eyes. “Can we go back to sleep?”
“Am I not supposed to remember?” Naruto wondered aloud and poked his friend in the side to keep him awake.
“I would say no,” Sasuke replied and turned to face him. “Everything behind that window looked pretty painful, hm?”
“Yeah.”
“Can we go to sleep now? I’ll gladly strangle you so that you can sleep, if you want me to. Correction. If I want to.”
Naruto snickered into Sasuke’s stomach. “I didn’t ask for this sass, Sasuke. Where is this coming from?”
“Sleep deprivation.”
“But wait, I wanted to talk-“
“Oh, Kami,” Sasuke groaned and turned his head. “All you do is talk.”
“Hey! At least that’s not the only thing I can do!” Naruto yelled and propped himself up on his elbows.
“You-“
“Shut the fuck up!” Kiba slurred from the tent beside them, followed by a drowsy bark from Akamaru. “It’s too damn early for this, get your panties outta that twist!”
The raven sighed into his pillow and wished to roll on his stomach. “Go to sleep, Naruto.”
Said boy sighed. “Will you share a blanket with me?”
“No,” Sasuke snorted and leaned on his elbow. “I told you I wasn’t playing-“
Naruto shoved his blankets off of him so that he was only in his unzipped sleeping bag, sweatpants, and sweater. Sasuke was just about to gripe at him before a new set of thicker blankets were wrapped around him and the blond nudged his head under his arm.
They were both silent for a few moments. It wasn’t that bad, Sasuke considered, roasting in the warmth and discreetly curling closer to the other boy. But something else caught his attention.
“This isn’t ‘sharing a blanket’,” he grumbled. “This is sharing blankets.”
“Was that a snake?” the blond deadpanned. “I heard a hiss.”
Sasuke rolled his eyes and shifted his cramped legs. He always got damned body cramps in his sleep, he thought, and gritted his teeth at a rather nasty one currently in his calves.
“Just shut up and sleep,” he grumbled, rested his head to the left and stretched out his legs. Naruto was heavenly warm and his eyelids felt like they weighed tons in his presence.
“I think you need it almost more than I do,” the blond whispered, right by his ear.
As another couple of hours passed by, Naruto memorized how pale fingers would clench and grab during sleep, cold feet strongly kicked at his legs every once in a while, pale lips would part and move. There were many failed attempts to roll onto a left side and after those would be heavy sighs and frustrated rolling, hogging of blankets and unaware punches thrown if he tried to get them back. There was even a point where Sasuke had sat straight up, gazed at him through half lidded irises, and then flop back down to curl closer to him. The sneaky bastard (sneaky sleeping bastard, he thought) would pretend to shift in his sleep and somehow icy cold heels would be pressed under his shirt. At one point he gave up trying to get rid of them and let the raven leech at his body heat.
A different kind of dim light filled the tent, the silvery winter sun. It had to be nearing noon now, and Sasuke was still breathing as deeply as he had been all night and sighing just as heavily. He knew the boy had a bit of things to do, or not, and if he didn’t do them his brother would, without complaint.
Naruto poked his friend’s belly. A dark eyebrow only twitched.
“Sasuke,” he whispered and set his hand on a pale forehead. His eyelids stopped in their fluttering and both brows twitched, tried to shrug his hand off. The raven yanked his head away from his hand and hogged the blankets once again, nuzzling into his pillow and wincing.
“Wha’?” he groused and kept his eyes shut.
“Wake up,” Naruto bit his lip to hold back a snicker.
“No,” he moaned and scooted away from the blond, hid his face in a blanket and tried to go back to sleep.
“It’s almost noon.”
“I don’t care. Let me sleep.”
“But you’ve slept for too long! It’s had to be, like, over twelve hours now!”
“Naruto!” a female voice screamed from their “living room” in the camp. He frowned and turned to the voice, then looked back at Sasuke.
“If you don’t leave, I’m going to snap your neck.”
Naruto timidly shrugged his legs into his jeans and tiptoed out of their tent, setting his finger in front of the zipper as he closed it so that it wouldn’t make noise. He struggled to gather his boots in the disarrayed order they were in from the hurried and exhausted manner he and Sasuke had come home in. Jiraiya had cackled away when Naruto explained what had happened with the buck and Kakashi had cuddled the rabbit and praised him. The others seemed to be lazing around at that time, with an empty plate on their laps and their heads lolling and eyes drooping. Naruto had yet to see the boy named Shikamaru actually awake, only having seen him on cloud nine by the fire, on cloud nine by the tents, on cloud nine leaning against a tree… Kami.
Karin beckoned him over with a granola bar wrapper by her side and leaning against Juugo. Sakura stopped chattering at her when she caught sight of him and gave him a small smile.
“Good morning, ladies!” He stretched his arms behind his head and grinned. “What brings to call me on this fine d-“
The blond was cut off when he received a sharp smack to the back of his skull and cradled it in his hands. “What the-“
“Knock it off, Naruto,” Sakura scolded and set her small hands on her hips. “I grew up with you, you fucking idiot.”
“Hey! Why is everybody-“
“Is Sasuke still sleeping?” Karin interrupted and scrunched her nose.
“Oh, yeah!” Naruto crossed his arms. “I tried to wake him up, but he doesn’t want to! It’s been half a day-“
“Good. Let him. He always needs to sleep in like that whenever he gets injured,” she informed and poked him in the chest, giving him a stink eye. “You leave him be. You two follow each other around like lost puppies, but Sasuke needs to heal and you’re only slowing him down if you pester him.”
Part of Karin’s lecture had stung and he only pursed his lips in offense. Bummer that Sasuke would sleep most of the day. Actually, kind of upsetting that he wouldn’t have his smart friend around to poke conversations with and ask questions. “You didn’t need to be so snippy,” he grumbled.
“You’ve always been a big baby,” Sakura teased and squeezed his bicep. “Always eating nearly half of the camp’s reserves.”
He frowned down at her. Was it Blame Everything on Naruto and Make Fun of Him While You’re At It Day? He had thought it was just Sasuke being dramatic and Karin being a girl! Now he just felt like sitting in silence with Juugo for the rest of the day.
Now a small congregation had formed around him, chattering and flipping their hair. The girls! He had gotten stuck in the middle and they were all poking at his body and commenting on how he had slimmed out, complimenting how good-looking he had come to be and prodding him with a few questions here and there. The blond glanced over to the group parallel to them, consisting of most of the younger guys, minus Shikamaru and Gaara. Even Itachi had managed to inch his way near them, turning through a book and constantly brushing his shoulder-length hair out of his face. Kiba pointed to him and snickered to Chouji, who in turn nudged Konohamaru and soon created a whole group of chortling guys making kissy faces and pretending to flip their hair.
Naruto cringed and awkwardly gaped when Ino asked a rather personal question about Sasuke. That triggered a whole new string of questions being fired at him, centered on his aloof friend.
“What’s Sasuke’s favorite color?” Sakura screeched.
Naruto grinned and yelled back, “Pink!”
Tenten scolded him for lying and rolled her eyes when he tried to convince her that he wasn’t.
“Sasuke seems like the sensitive brooding type,” Sakura analyzed. “It sounds pretty true to me.”
“Just tell us the good stuff,” Ino scoffed and held a hand in the air dramatically. “Just tell us how big his-“
“Kami, Ino! Have you ever heard of boundaries?!” Tenten cried.
“Shut up! I was going to say feet! Feet!” she screeched and flushed red.
“I’m so sure,” Sakura rolled her eyes and shifted her weight to one foot. “You already know what they say. Shoe size equals-“
“That’s a lie!”
“If you must know,” Naruto pretended to cough into his hand to hide a smile. “His shoe size is five and a half!” He kept his face straight but his shoulders shook in betrayal.
“What?!”
“Are you serious?”
“No! He’s lying! He hasn’t changed at all. Look at him, with that stupid grin he always has when he-“
“My, my, what is going on over here?” Kakashi crept over them like a scarecrow and smiled. “Sasu’s shoe size? If you’re in dismay… you must know that it’s a fourteen.”
“What the hell is this? All you men tell is lies!”
Naruto was full out laughing now, clutching his stomach and throwing his head back. He earned a few (rather harsh, damn, did Sakura work out?) punches to his chest and arms for it. Kakashi chuckled beside him and rubbed his head as the blond winced and rubbed at his sore spots.
“I’m asking you to be honest, Naruto,” Sakura growled. “What’s his actual shoe size?”
Karin pushed herself into their little circle and set her hand on her propped hip. “He’s an eight,” she announced.
“That’s so cute!” Sakura giggled. “What are his-“
Naruto took advantage of the girls’ distraction to slide out of their circle and tiptoe over to the guys, grinning when he succeeded. Kiba grinned crookedly and nodded his head back, “Gettin’ pampered by the girls, eh?”
“No,” the blond scoffed and rolled his eyes, started a bit when Lee jogged by and created a ruckus in the woods. He plopped down next to Konohamaru and rested his arms on the log he was leaning on, stretching his neck and legs.
“Naruto,” Konohamaru timidly started. “Do you remember who we all are?”
The question took him by shock and he felt slightly guilty to think about it. Sure, he could name the members of this camp with a bit of difficulty. He struggled to remember the plump boy’s name sitting across from him, and the dude with the sunglasses next to him. He had only remembered Shikamaru’s name when he had tried to make Sasuke laugh and had ended up laughing at his own joke. “Sleep-amaru!” he had whispered, then started cackling to himself when the raven only narrowed his dark eyes at the blond. In Naruto’s defense, it had been pretty damn late and he was tired. That was his excuse for his cracky jokes.
But, answering it was a bit more awkward. What should he call them, his friends, or his comrades? He had only recovered a vague memory of a much younger Kiba and Gaara, someone who looked like Sasuke and a vivid one of Sakura. It was difficult to rekindle relationships with people you had apparently already had one with.
“Uh,” the blond swallowed. “You’re my old comrades?”
Silence. Everyone in the pit stared blankly at him, some sympathetic, and some angry, like Neji. Even Itachi had looked up from his beat up collection of written plays and raised an eyebrow. Shit, wrong thing to say, should have said friends. Why did he have to add “old”? His palms broke out in a sweat and his brow furrowed. Kami! He really was fucking things up around here.
“I’m sorry,” he tried to clean up the mess he had made, but he didn’t know how to use words correctly. Naruto played with his fingers in his lap and discreetly wiggled his toes, the back of his neck burning.
“It’s okay, Naruto,” Shino broke the awkward silence. “We don’t blame you.”
“Actually,” Neji stood with a wide stance and let his defined and handsome features align into a sneer. “I do. I don’t believe a single word that comes out of your mouth, Naruto,” his voice rose steadily. “or any of the other’s mouths from that group of Kakashi’s. They’re untrustworthy and you’re corrupted, Naruto, whether you know it or not. That makes all of you untrustworthy.”
Naruto’s jaw worked and he openly gaped at the brunet, standing tall and stuck up before a bunch of crumpled food wrappers. “Woah, what the hell is your problem? We haven’t even done anything that’s ‘untrustworthy’,” he imitated Neji.
“It’s in your best interest to keep your ignorant mouth shut,” Itachi had thrown his book off to the side and risen to his full height, standing nose-to-nose with Neji, just taller than him by a mere centimeter or two. “None of us need a vagrant around here. A child, to be exact.”
“It’s in your best interest to remember that you’re a guest here,” Neji spat and locked his pale eyes with the dark ones of the Uchiha. “As well as the rest of your group.”
Itachi didn’t reply, but he didn’t falter from his stance. In a way, Neji was almost like a mirror of him had he not asked Sasuke to cut his hair, their color schemes switched a bit.
“Neji,” a smaller voice too delicate to be one of their gender, “please stop.”
Said boy’s eyes widened and he turned to look down at Hinata. His cousin looked ashamed and maybe even disappointed in him, clasping her hands together and pursing her lips.
“Please apologize, Neji,” she whispered to him and tucked a long lock of black hair behind her ear. “You’re talking to Naruto the way you’re talking to Itachi-san.”
The brunet’s strong jaw clenched and he remained silent, locking his gaze with his cousin’s and fisting his hands. She waited patiently for him to apologize. When Neji held his ground, she shut her eyes and meekly turned her back to him, shaking her head as she walked to greet her friends. Hinata was just about to breach hearing distance.
“My apologies,” he deadpanned and stared straight at Naruto with icy gray irises. “To any member of your group I may have offended.”
Neji’s a douche, Naruto thought to himself and pursed his lips. Maybe he really should have slept in with Sasuke this morning. He would have avoided a shitload of drama. Actually, he just might sneak back into the tent and catnap like his friend. Naruto needed rest, too!
The brunet stalked away and Itachi tilted his head to the side. From a side angle, Naruto could easily mistake the man for Sasuke, had they been the same size and had the same hair length. The only differences in their looks were, of course, Itachi having slightly darker skin and lighter hair.
An awkward silence hung over their group and Akamaru barked some distance away. The girl’s chatter created a soft hum in the background and Konohamaru coughed lightly, slowly rising and trudging into the woods. Kiba made an excuse about having to talk to Tsunade about something, Shino and Chouji following him when the boy walked away. Now the blond stood awkwardly with Itachi, who was still staring in the direction that Neji had stormed off into.
“You,” Itachi said, tilting his head down when he addressed Naruto and shuffled in closer to him. “Watch my little brother when I am not around. A few members of this group are suspicious…”
Naruto waited for the man to finish, but he never did. “Well, okay,” he replied. “Who’s fishy?”
“That doesn’t matter right now. What only matters is that their hunter is returning tonight, someone who can easily be a spy,” Itachi spat. “He’s gone for periods of time that he can use to travel to a Sector and relay our whereabouts.”
“Well,” Naruto raised his eyebrows and squared his shoulders. “I will.”
The man only narrowed his eyes at the blond and walked away.
That night, the whole group minus Jiraiya huddled around the fire to share dinner. It was the first time Naruto had seen Shikamaru awake, and the boy looked exhausted despite how much he already slept. His head lolled over his plate every once in a while, but then he shook himself awake and lazily chewed on rice.
Sasuke had resurrected from his death-like sleep, cranky and hungry. He got bombarded with questions from Sakura as he chewed on a piece of chicken, glaring into the fire and ignoring every single one.
“Sasuke, can you hear me?” she asked him and moved her hand dangerously close to his thigh over the grass. Sakura had a friendly smile on her face, clean and with her hair brushed straight down her jaw.
“No,” he deadpanned and shoved a spoonful of stale rice into his mouth.
Naruto pursed his lips when he overheard this, sneaking a few pieces of chicken off of the raven’s plate when he looked away. He had his body turned to his friend, shielding himself from the burning rays of Gaara’s stare. What the hell was that guy’s problem? Naruto understood that they had been close during their time as a group, but that wasn’t a reason to stare at him whenever he possibly could. He should have taken an approach like Sakura, awkwardly rekindling a relationship they already had.
The blond watched Chouji wolf down a frightening amount of chicken and Akamaru steal some pieces from everybody’s plate. Ino screamed when the dog swallowed her paper plate whole.
Naruto slumped over his plate and played with a few pieces of artificial carrot. He felt like, in this camp, it was too crowded, and unorganized unlike Kakashi’s group. Their small group had been cozy and in order, supervised and close-knit. This group was loud, prone to internal arguments with pricks like Neji and vulnerable with their large number.
He was interrupted from his thoughts when Jiraiya whooped from the entrance of the camp and dragged forward a small figure, a wide variety of animals in his wake. Naruto couldn’t see the man’s face from where he was sitting. The majority of the group yelled and huddled around him, thanking and congratulating him for his hunts and catches and audibly clapping him on the back. The voice it belonged to murmured something and the group around him roared in laughter.
“Man, is that part of a cow?” Kiba wheezed and eyed a lump that Naruto could only see part of. “Haven’t had a burger since I was a kid! Where the hell have you been, dude? You got the mother load!”
“Thank you,” the deep voice replied and some of the group moved away to allow the blond a partial view. “I found them on the outskirts of Two and Three.”
Since it had turned into a casual conversation with Kiba, people returned to their food and rejoiced the new meat. Naruto took in what he could see behind the bright glare of circular glasses. Ratty gray hair in a short ponytail, small in build…
“You’re saving our asses out here, Kabuto,” Kiba clapped the man on the back and grinned crookedly. “Don’t know what we’d do without ya.”
When Kabuto turned to lock gazes with Naruto, his blood turned to ice.
The glare wiped itself from his glasses and he stared into the empty onyx eyes behind them. The man made something in his gut itch and the fact that he had a generous assortment of knives on his back didn’t help one bit. Kabuto smirked lightly and tilted his head back, giving the blond a view of his grimy and blood-crusted neck.
“Naruto,” he drawled. “Fancy having you back.”
He swallowed dryly when the man let his eyes inch over Sasuke and Juugo, Karin and Suigetsu, Kakashi and then Itachi. The men locked eyes dangerously and a different kind of tension stretched over their gathering.
“Hello,” he droned and slung his pack of knives to the ground. “I am Kabuto, this group’s hunter.”
Sasuke ignored the man in favor of paying attention to his rice. Suigetsu hollered out his own and Juugo’s introduction, chugging his large water bottle and belching. Kakashi politely shook his hand and complimented his gathering skills.
Kabuto smirked again and rested his gaze on the empty one of Itachi’s. “I believe,” he started and sat in front of the crackling fire. “That we were in the same rank at military ed, back in One.”
Sasuke stopped chewing to focus on eavesdropping into the conversation, finally hearing something from Itachi’s own childhood besides what he vaguely disclosed.
“I don’t recall,” Itachi droned and set his elbows on his knees, letting his silky hair fall from behind his shoulders. “Must have been in a different class.”
“We were both in class A, Itachi Uchiha,” Kabuto set his fist under his chin and smirked. “Defied the rule of short hair, number one in our rank… and certainly one for the ladies.” He chuckled.
Sasuke raised his brows and set his fork on his plate, letting Naruto continue taking pieces off the plate that he pretended to not notice. He wasn’t very hungry in the first place. When he was little, he thought that military ed had allowed Itachi’s long hair. It felt odd to know that Itachi hadn’t obeyed, and their parents had let him. It wasn’t surprising to know that Itachi had been first in their rank, though, but being a “ladies man” was. Sasuke couldn’t even imagine a twelve year old Itachi flirting with his female classmates and reciprocating flirtatious actions. Itachi really had changed a lot, he thought.
Itachi snorted and didn’t move. “I don’t recall that either.”
“It’s hard not to recall the famous Uchiha brothers, six and eleven,” Kabuto nodded to Sasuke and barely smiled. “Always hearing about their success… it was tiring. Shame such a large family had to be exterminated.”
Maybe, in another situation, what Kabuto said might have been considered as dry humor. But the way the man said it made goose bumps run down the back of Sasuke’s neck. Maybe, had the man cut out their ages and observations of Itachi and the jab at their family, it wouldn’t have been creepy. Maybe, if Kabuto wasn’t looking at Itachi like a scientist at a virus through a microscope, Sasuke wouldn’t have felt in danger.
But Itachi said nothing. He stared past Kabuto into the woods behind them and stayed silent, the fire flickering and pronouncing the bags under his eyes. Kabuto’s face grew from a small smirk into a smile, hidden from the rest of the group who couldn’t even tell that anything was askew.
“Nice talk,” Kabuto mocked and stood. The man kicked a pebble that landed at his brother’s feet and slowly turned to join the rest of the group.
- 10
- 11
- 12
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Sector Five