Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Sector Five	By : FlairForTheVeil Category: Naruto AU/AR > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 2291 -:- 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
- 11
- 12
- 13
Chapter 11: Restoring Force

Itachi glared at the back of the other man’s heels for a few moments before he rested his eyes on his own hands clasped between his legs.
The hunter only stayed for a few days to every few months he was gaming, bringing home enough meat to last them while he was gone. Itachi looked forward to the day that he was leaving.
Kabuto Yakushi, he remembered, indeed in the same rank as he had been in military ed. Kabuto had been third in their rank, miniscule to Itachi’s first. It was optional to start military school at age eight, or go to medical or tracking school, all clustered in one area. Indeed, he did remember the days when he was given the responsibility to pick up his little brother from the daycare across the street at a certain strict time and bring him back to school to grab his backpack.
Indeed, the few females in his ranking had taken an automatic liking to Sasuke who had been three at the time, pinching his cheeks and tickling his small stomach. He allowed the crinkling of his eyes when he remembered Sasuke’s chubby cheeks and wide eyes and constant giggles. Itachi hadn’t known that he was being “flirtatious” with the girls. He had just thought that answering their persistent questions about himself and offering them tutoring had been polite and normal. Itachi had, rather ignorantly, dismissed their hits as compliments towards the stiff gray military uniform. At the time, he had honestly thought that those girls appreciated how it fit him and fit well around his muscles, they said.
It was only a curse that Sasuke had proven his prestige at age six to be placed in the first year of training. That first year, only terms and a few melee weapons were introduced, but mostly it was about self-reliance and control, resourcefulness and cognitive skills. That same year was when their family had been expelled from One.
Itachi had done the things he had for a reason. Who knew how long this expulsion, alienation was going to last. Who knew how long this war between the Sectors would last, and how many more people they were to eliminate. How many people they were going to replace for the ones they lost. The only thing they knew of were rumors. Like how abandoned military bases were inhabited by peaceful protestors, and how Four was accepting outsiders. Bullshit. This was why he needed to teach Sasuke how to be independent. They lived in an unreliable world, in the streets, off of game and old, processed food. Sasuke needed to know that he couldn’t ever be spoiled. Sasuke needed to depend on himself.
But his little brother never learned. He had constantly leaned on Itachi ever since it was just then. It went from crying into his dirty shirt at seven, to being physically weak at nine and complaining about being dizzy all the time, not tall enough at ten and eleven, emotionally weak at twelve, and reclusive at thirteen. Sasuke had obviously created his own mellow personality at some point or another, but there was no need for one.
Itachi was pleased with how he turned out, though. Resourceful and quick-thinking, responsible and rational. Though he wished his brother could have inherited their ancestors’ height like himself, it was just something that had to be accepted.
So that’s why, Itachi thought as he stared into the dark in his tent, maybe he should be proud of his little brother. Maybe it was time to let him loose from his leash. Not exactly like that, Itachi scrunched his nose and turned to his side. But allow the boy more freedom. It wasn’t like it mattered, anyway, since Sasuke had already gone against his orders and made nice with the blond boy. His name escaped Itachi at the moment. Was it Nagato? No, someone just yelled his name from the bonfire. Naruto. He had trusted Naruto, who was irritatingly always with Sasuke. Trusted him to keep an eye on his little brother and a closer one on the darker personalities at this camp.
Which is how, Itachi thought as he rested on his side and surrendered to slumber, he would keep an eye on both of them.
Sasuke’s eyebrow twitched when Karin roughly threaded out another stitch from his shoulder, the long and knotted thread of it visible from where his head was positioned.
It was a disturbing feeling, actually. Skin shouldn’t be tugged in these ways, and certainly not handled the way Karin was handling it currently.
“Just a few more,” she grumbled and tried to pick them out quickly. “Your bone and your skin have been healing fast with that serum. I think you’ll be done with that sling in two or three days.” Karin patted at his malleable and thin collarbone. She rolled his shoulder a few times for him and Sasuke winced when she turned it up and to the right.
Karin patted him down with -surprise, more alcohol- gauzed and slung him up and shoved him away to talk to her friends. The raven squinted at the small amount of sunlight surrounding their camp and making crystals of snow glisten. It had only fallen an inch or two, and some of it was already suspiciously yellow and covered in footprints. He groggily kicked a chunk of the stuff away from him and headed to take a peaceful, solitary walk in the woods.
Mostly, he was taking a walk to get away from the overwhelming stench of blood at the camp, just circling around. Kabuto had hunted a pile of animals nearly tall as him and left them to freeze overnight. Disgusting. Their blood and various fluids had pooled around them like putrid broth and stained the snow brown and scarlet. Chouji had begun skinning them and laying out their hides like a carpet and setting their feathers on fire, chewing on certain raw intestines and offering some to Sasuke. Sasuke, as well as most of the girls, hadn’t appreciated this one bit and stalked off into different directions of their large camp. Naruto had gone a bit green and said he was going to take a powernap, trudging to their tent and audibly cussing.
Lee suddenly sprinted through his worn path in the woods a few feet in front of Sasuke, barely stopping for a few seconds to yell “Good day, great Sasuke!” before zipping by again in a cloud of snow. Sasuke raised an eyebrow and smashed a clump of snow under his boot, thinking of the things he could do before tensing his neck straight and clenching his jaw as something came to him.
He glanced back to where Lee had his retreating back turned towards Sasuke. The raven glanced back towards to tents of the camp, gun barrel unguarded and its contents shining in the dim sunlight. It seemed that everyone was either asleep or in the front of the camp, and the only way he could get out of here was to maneuver around Lee and make sure that he didn’t wake Naruto up.
Sasuke casually strolled back into the boundaries of the camp, stuffing his hand inside his jean pocket and pretending to observe some melting snow. Lee was sprinting so that he could see Sasuke now, making loud crunches when his feet landed and grumbling something about success under his breath. Sasuke bent over and picked up a stray stick, tossing it into the woods and crouching behind his own tent. Naruto’s light snoring could be heard through the canvas of the tent.
Sasuke waited a few more moments until Lee was rounding the corner of the camp and turned a few times until he was pressed against the left side of their tent, away from Lee. He tucked his legs as close to him as he could and hoped that Lee wouldn’t notice him.
Lee bound by their tent, not looking back. Sasuke jogged to the gun barrel and slipped out a shotgun, unhooking a hand pistol from its edge and ran back into the woods with a triumphant smirk on his face. He jumped into bushes and dirt as often as he could so that his footsteps wouldn’t be visible. Sasuke turned his body and tried to make his landings as quiet as possible, sometimes forced to take an extended step to reach the next green spot.
He continued like this for hours. Sasuke didn’t stop until he noticed the curtain of branches that didn’t allow snow in and offered green land to walk on. Even then, he traveled on top of the roots that protruded from the ground and on top of large, mossy rocks.
He didn’t stop until his instincts told him to turn left. There. The same spot he and Naruto had ran by when they had been chased. Sasuke’s eyes had been glued to this particular spot, a strong pull in his gut telling him to enter the slope of the parted trees and slide down to what was below.
Sasuke glanced through the circular opening of the two trees and studied the gentle slope that went about thirty five feet downwards, covered in leaves and interrupted by thick roots. Perfect. The raven clutched his shotgun to his chest and sat in between the trees, placing his feet against the closest thick root. He scooted down so that his bottom rested against the root and placed his feet against the closest root again, slowly but efficiently tracking down the slightly frozen nature.
When Sasuke jumped onto pavement, he wondered if Tsunade’s group inhabiting an area so close to former civilization was on purpose, or if it was another something they chose to keep from Kakashi. He faced an eight-lane road with skyscrapers visible in the distance, obviously partially destroyed and hanging lopsidedly. The road here was covered in glass. Sasuke hitched the shotgun back over his shoulder and glanced both ways of the road, checking for Katons and jogging to the other side. There was no avoiding the loud crunches of glass under his feet.
Sasuke constantly checked if he was being tracked by Katons or soldiers. He also occasionally glanced up into the sky to see if any government drones were flying by. Really, he knew that going out like this was dangerous, but he just needed to know a few things.
He used his right arm to support himself over the bent barriers of the road, awkwardly landing and smacking his other shoulder with the gun. Sasuke winced and looked at the plaza before him, once with clean marble walkways and a lively fountain in the center. Now there were occasional ribcages decorating areas where there used to be flowers.
Sasuke glanced left to a rusty sign pointing out the subway and restaurants, some of the letters clotted over with dried blood. He turned right to a sign pointing to the city center, shops, and the community library. That was what he was looking for. But being in the center of the city, a higher amount of Katons or scouts were obviously going to be slugging around. He would have to be careful.
Slowly, he walked away from the dry fountain that he avoided looking into. A gruesome aroma was still wafting from it. Sasuke kept his eyes alert and a hand on his handgun, and then started to jog towards a crumbled pillar arch. The marble floor was slippery and he slid a foot or two when he glanced out of the arch.
The small roads were clear. There were tall buildings, rotten and chipped, crammed together and leading to a large white building with many columns and a black iron fence that was beaten down in some areas. Next to it was a slightly smaller building that looked like it was purely made of marble with hundreds of steps to its entrance, titled North Konoha Reference Center. On its roof was a tall column supporting a broken old-fashioned clock with Roman numerals rusting behind shattered glass. It had stopped ticking at six twelve.
Sasuke inched through the roads, peeking through the small gaps of buildings for Katons and squatting in silence to listen for them. Downtown was eerily quiet. He definitely should have seen at least the remains of the robots by now, but he didn’t pay any mind to it. Sasuke wasn’t being hindered. He jogged in the center of the street now, shotgun thumping heavily on his back and a hand on the gun in his belt loop. This was his first time in the open, free. Someone must have cleared out Katons and their spare parts.
Sasuke loosened his grip on his handgun. If he let go, he would take longer to reach it should he run into a scout or robot. If he let go and ran into one, reaching for it might be the fraction of the second it would take for him to die. The raven swallowed heavily and let his grip on the cold metal spasm. Then, he unclenched his fingers so that they weren’t clutching the gun. Sasuke’s hand hovered over the gun now, and he clenched his fist once again and lifted it to move his bangs out of his face. Free.
Itachi wasn’t around to hover over him anymore, and Kakashi wasn’t here to fill in the spaces of time that Itachi left for a while.
Sasuke sprinted through the streets now, his right arm swinging in a fist by his side. The pavement here was clean, no longer stained sanguine, and the gravel under his boots didn’t fly away to reveal remnants of bones. The wind burned his face but the library was right in front of him now, getting closer and closer to those stairs that looked over one hundred.
He slowed to a jog when he reached the first step, breathing heavily but not panting. Sasuke turned and slowly studied his surroundings. There still weren’t any Katons or scouts, and the sky was cleared of Katons’ drone partners. Before Sasuke could dwell on it any further, he traveled up the first step, then the next ten, then the next twenty. They really were pure marble, he thought, still polished-looking but undeniably worn and burned in some places. His feet rapidly danced over steps, sometimes taking two at a time due to his anticipation of the smell of stale pages.
Sasuke glanced up at the fifty or so steps left, now taking them all two at a time. His shoulder stung when it shifted every few moments, but he didn’t pay much mind to the pain. There was a short walkway near the top of the stairs, about five feet long. He skidded over it and rushed up the steps again, grand glass doors surrounded by columns much more visible now. There were a few photos of past historical figures on either side of the doors.
Sasuke reached the top of the stairs and panted, glaring at the foggy glass doors in front of him. He pulled the pistol out of his belt loop now, cautiously inching towards the doors and knocking on them. Their glass was thick, soundproof. Typical for a library. Sasuke eased the gun between his thumb and forefinger and set his hand on the handle of the door, wincing when it loudly creaked as he pulled it open. He jammed his boot through, pressed his back against the opposite door, and waited for the soft hums and mechanical whirs.
There were none.
Sasuke awkwardly shifted his feet so that his right shoulder would be entering the library first. He poked his head through the small space he opened, met with a very dim lighting. Sasuke pushed the door open the rest of the way to let some light in and nearly gasped at the rows upon rows of books, spiraling and leading to a second, third and fourth floor. Inside was one hundred percent silent. It was clear. He let the door shut to a small crack and kicked the stopper so that he had enough light to find the power source. Luckily, a candelabra meant for décor rested overturned to his right. Sasuke picked it up by its golden handle and glanced around the area that was visible for matches. He sighed when he realized that there probably weren’t any and hung his arm, letting the candelabra slide down his palm.
Sasuke rummaged through the box under a table by the door, random pages with underlined sentences and dog ears filling most of it. Knick knacks and souvenirs were in it also, but no matches. He kicked the box to the side and opened the box next to it, finding hope when there were things like batteries and flare guns in it. Sasuke scrunched his nose and threw a cigarette butt to the side. He snorted when he hound a lighter with barely enough juice to flick on two or three times.
He set the candelabra on the golden table, fumbling with the lighter until he managed to open it. The raven held it steadily above a black wick, flicking it ablaze and snorting when the wick caught fire and burned boldly. He gingerly removed the single candle from its holder and lit its neighbor candles, brightly illuminating his surroundings.
Sasuke observed the grand circular room before him, marble floors and bookshelves, murals on the monstrous ceiling with an intricate golden chandelier swinging unlatched on its side. Diamonds lay spread out on the chipped floors from where they had fallen from the appendage. A long row of desks and computers lined the entrance wall, where books were checked out and in. A design too large to identify was carved into the ivory floor and slightly crumbled as Sasuke strolled across it.
He swallowed heavily. Would the books he was looking for be in reference? Sasuke had yet to come across a genre guide where they would usually be posted on the length of shelves. His heart rate picked up as he got deeper into the library, clutching the gold in his hand a bit tighter with each step that echoed throughout the building. Why was he even bothering coming here? It would have been safer to stay at-
No. He couldn’t be chickening out now. Sasuke had come this far, and wouldn’t face himself if he turned back. To be strong is to admit weaknesses, he thought, something Itachi had always said growing up. It was okay to ask for help, when he needed it. He glanced to the opposing side of shelves, sighing in frustration when there were no guides posted on them, either. No guide was an excuse to turn back. He couldn’t stay here for hours looking for a genre just because he couldn’t fucking—
A long white canvas lay upside down under his foot, skidded a few inches from where he had stepped on it. Sasuke bent over to pick it up, turning it around so that it faced him.
History & Geography…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….K180
He sighed and skid his eyes down the list, thinking about what it would go under.
Philosophy & Psychology……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..K351
Sasuke guessed what he was looking for would be under this genre. He eyed the letters and numbers atop the shelves, turning on his heels to walk back where he had started. Sasuke entered a wide row and held up his light to scan the titles of books and author names. He squinted at books about self-image and books titled things like Getting to Know Yourself: The Do’s and Don’ts and Girls and How to Handle Them.
Sasuke walked a few more paces until he came to the shelf he was looking for. Without realizing, he glanced around himself even though he knew that there was no one to witness. He pulled out a few books in general and dropped them to the floor. He ran a hand through his hair and sat down with one leg out and the other by his chest. The raven picked up a novel and swallowed loudly when he ran a finger over its index.
He would try his best to turn pages with one hand for the next few hours.
Naruto sat alone in front of the bonfire, hands clenched between his knees and lips straight. The small amount of sunlight that the thick clouds had allowed was setting, turning his surroundings pink.
Maybe it had been a mistake. An ember strayed from its coals and landed on his boot. He didn’t bat it away.
A few hours ago, he had been casually chatting with Sakura in the spot where he was currently sitting. She had asked him a question that he hadn’t been able to answer.
“What was it like, having Jiraiya train you? We never saw you, but you always ate most of our food and slept until midday.”
Then he had paused, his mouth slightly open. He shut his mouth and stared at the pink-haired girl, who had covered her mouth with her hand.
“I’m sorry, Naruto, it s-“
“Will you tell me?” Naruto whispered. “About my past? You know it, don’t you?”
Sakura sighed and rested her head in her hands, clenching her fingers in her hair. She rubbed her face with one hand and stared at the ground. “Naruto, I’m not sure that you want to know. You’re so happy like this-“
“I’ll ask Tsunade, then,” the blond snapped and rose from the log. Sakura grabbed his wrist and tugged him back down with another heavy sigh, patting the back of his hand.
“Don’t start a bunch of drama,” she said weakly. “Settle down. I’ll tell you what I think you should know.”
Naruto blanched. “What you think I should know? Sakura, this is my past. I deserve to know everything that’s about myself.”
Ah, something he had picked up from Itachi, Sakura thought. Naruto would have never said a thing like that to anyone, but he had always had the fire inside him to. She guessed the time at Kakashi’s camp had ignited it.
“Alright. Are you sure? One hundred percent, Naruto?”
Naruto nodded and stared at the dirt under his boots. It was about time he knew. He needed to know about his friends, past, and most importantly, himself. It was ridiculous not knowing trivial things about himself, like his shoe size or his eye color, and it was embarrassing when someone asked him something that he should’ve known. He was ready.
Sakura sighed, chuckled, and shook her head. “You’ve always been this persistent.”
Naruto was born under the parents of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki.
Minato had been the only five-star general of the Konoha military, the right hand man to Danzo Shimura. His wife of five years stayed at home. Kushina had been a lawyer for only a few months before she retired to devote her time to her husband.
Naruto had been born healthy, kicking, and screaming, puffy-faced and red-skinned. He had been born in Konoha’s military hospital, delivered by Tsunade Senju and Orochimaru Sannin, who had been in the sector as a guest for communications.
He vividly remembered being cocooned in his mother’s scarlet hair, from birth to age four. She had been the sweetest woman he’d ever known. Minato didn’t return home until the latest hours of the night, so Kushina made sure that Naruto’s hyperactive mind was busy. The mother and son had been remarkably close. She had fed him until his cheeks and fingers were chubby and spoiled him rotten.
When Minato would come home near midnight, Naruto would get so riled up that his father had to take him for a run to get the boy to sleep again. Even though Minato couldn’t be around his son that often, he made sure that when he was there, it counted and it was as memorable as moments could be.
They lived a short life together. By the time it had come to reap he Sectors of their overpopulation, Danzo decided to appoint himself with an unbiased military.
Danzo disguised his thoughts with a regular chair meeting, wives invited.
That night, Minato and Kushina left Naruto with a younger Jiraiya who read a porn magazine all night. They kissed him on his small forehead and waved when he pouted and smashed his face against their large windows. His parents promised the blond that they would be back within a few hours, and promised to let him stay up so he could play with them. Naruto watched them climb in their blue car and back out of their driveway, turning the street with their headlights diminishing. The sound of crunching gravel and the hum of the car’s motor still echoed in his head.
They never returned.
Naruto sat, cold and curled up by the door in his froggy pajamas, waiting until it was well past midnight. Jiraiya had tried to convince him to go to bed, but the four year old didn’t have any of it. Naruto had dragged his fox blanket to the front door and bundled in it until Jiraiya had picked him up and thrown Naruto into his bed. The little boy didn’t pay much attention to this, cuddling with his blankets and falling asleep for an hour or so.
Naruto now remembered that he had dreamed of a demon towering over Konoha’s sector, picking citizens out with its claws and throwing them behind itself to be smashed with its nine tails. Naruto screamed when he saw its deformed claws pierce his mother and father, squeezing them in his palm. When the demon opened its paw, all that was left was a shower of blood coming down from it, and strands of long red hair. He had woken up crying and stuffed himself into the corner his bed was pressed against, curling into the tightest ball he could muster and shivering. Jiraiya heard him sobbing a few minutes later, struggling to unlock the door from the outside.
“Naruto? Are you okay?”
The four year old ignored him in favor of wiping his snot on his pajama sleeve and choking on some of his tears. “A-aya!”
“Naruto, open this door right-“ Jiraiya yelped and a heavy thud was heard from the outside, as well as a sliding against the wall. Multiple pairs of footsteps were muffled through his bedroom door. There was more sliding, as well as a few slurs and murmurs. Naruto had stopped crying to listen in, the tears slowing down and replaced with silent hiccups. Everything had gone silent in the house.
The front door’s lock jiggled violently enough for Naruto to sit up straight. The door thumped. Its lock jiggled more loudly now, audibly crumbling and cracking under somebody’s pressure. The door thumped loudly again, the small white blinds on it cracking against their window and shuddering. Something hit the door hard enough for the window to shatter, and this time a metal clang was heard. The doorknob had been kicked out and what Naruto had heard was it rolling to the side. The front door was kicked down and a multitude of booted steps showered in his house, spreading through the rooms like ants to leftovers. Their wooden doors were kicked open and their kitchen drawers yanked out of their sockets and rummaged through, their TV and appliances ripped from the walls in electrical baths of sparks. They were thrown to various parts of the house and kicked around. Naruto hid under his blankets again, quivering wide-eyed and panting under his covers. What should he do?
What could he do?
The nausea grew in Naruto’s stomach each time a door was kicked down, one by one, closer to his room. There were no voices that yelled out to each other. There were just heavy, angry footsteps and grunts.
Naruto’s blood turned cold when the door of his parent’s room, next to his, was kicked down. He could hear the intruders rummaging around in there and a few strange ripping noises. The intruders stayed in there for longer than any of the other rooms, quiet enough for Naruto to think that they had left. He sat up and shakily removed the blanket off his head, setting his toes on the cold wooden floor and shuffling to the middle of his room. Naruto glanced out his window to see hundreds of black figures darting in and out of the neighbors’ home. Was this happening to his dad’s friends too? It was a neighborhood exclusively for high military officials.
He froze when a single pair of footsteps transcended directly outside of his door. Naruto’s eyes widened as much as they possibly could when he saw two shadows, shoes, and parallel to each other under the crack of his door. Every single thought he had was telling his small body to move, leave, and he would be safe.
But there was nowhere to run.
This was Naruto’s own home.
Who runs away from home?
Naruto’s bowels clenched when the doorknob turned slowly in the moonlight his windows allowed. He clutched the blue blanket around his shoulders in his stubby fingers, clamping his lips together and panting through his nose. His heart hurt and his whole body felt hot and cold at the same time and his head was spinning and-
Naruto shrieked when the door slammed open so hard that it recoiled against the wall. So many bodies he didn’t know the numbers for poured in through the door and overturned his furniture, ripping it apart and flinging his toys and blankets all over the place. A larger body, face masked in a smooth black material that didn’t allow a glimpse inside snatched his wrist and attempted to shove him to the door. Naruto yelled – unheard through the destruction in his room - and tried to yank his wrist back, dropping his blanket and beating the figure’s stomach with his other hand. The attacker grabbed his other hand and twisted it painfully, only strengthening its grip when Naruto screamed.
“Stop it!” Naruto fell to his side and hit his head against the attacker’s metal shoe, smacking its ankle with his palm stinging from the force. “Stop it! S-“
Another body joined its companion and grabbed the one slapping hand, Naruto’s right. The figure stopped twisting his arm and they both yanked him up between them, letting his pajama-clad legs dangle from between them. The intruders marched him out into the hallway, stuffing a cloth over his nose when he screamed and thrashed in their grips. The last thing he heard was the sound of something pouring on the wooden floors.
- - -
When Naruto woke up, it was from being throttled around and to the loud noise of a motor. He recognized the sound as one of the military’s rescue vans.
Naruto’s eyes felt like they weighed a hundred pounds. He moaned when he managed to get them open, burning along with his nose and throat. Red spots danced in front of Naruto’s eyes and his mouth felt like it was filled with cotton balls. He could tell that he was packed tight with many other bodies, presumably his age, judging by the small shoulder poking into his own. A few sobs filled the carrier, a few bangs from where small fists were demanding to see their mothers and fathers. Naruto knew some of those voices. His friends and acquaintances, children of his dad’s friends. Sakura was audibly sobbing into her knees, and he recognized the gruff voice of the fat boy and the dominating one of Neji Hyuuga. Neji was the one banging on the carrier’s doors, Naruto thought, the boy cursing and threatening to use his father’s teachings on the driver if he wasn’t sent home soon. Their bodies jumped as the van hit another bump in the road, jolting them to different corners of the van and smacking each other with their small palms.
The van suddenly swerved and squeaked to a violent stop, throwing Naruto’s back into the two opening doors of the carrier. He grunted and took Neji down with him, the boy’s pale eyes looking livid in the sliver of light the carrier doors allowed. Naruto grunted, apologizing and leaning on the carrier doors. He stumbled when they suddenly gave way, replaced with the blinding light of the summer sun and hands grabbing at him by his armpits. Naruto burned his throat with the surprised yell he let out, jerking his shoulders in a weak attempt to get their gloved hands off of him. Each one of the kids in the carrier was hoisted out by their arms, a smooth white wire being connected around their wrists.
When Naruto tried to tug at the wire when he was being escorted into a place he didn’t recognize, it sent bright blue shocks through his bones sharp enough to make him whimper. The man shoving him through gray doors jostled him roughly. Naruto and the other kids were being led to a large room in a single file line, most of them still in their PJs. Some of the girls he knew, who were usually boldly yelling at him for scraping his knees and having dirt under his nails, were sobbing so hard that their shoulders shook with their delicate faces scrunched up and red. They weren’t very pretty criers.
He noticed that some of the escorts in front of them had stopped, facing to the front of the metal room where a large stage was bared. A man with bandages on his face and strange warps and lumps under his clothing was standing on a Katon, the friendly bots that kept their village safe and clean.
The man he knew was his father’s boss was looking down his nose at all of them, jaw tensed and nose scrunched. He whispered something to a pale man with long hair standing next to him.
Naruto’s escort came to a stop. He was one of the last ones, only about ten more kids left to line up. The man set a clear sticker on his cheek, flashing blue for a moment before gently clearing his throat into it, his voice magnified and clear.
“Children of the next generation of military officers,” the man announced, holding his hands behind his back. “You will be assigned in platoons and ranks which you will work diligently,” he paused, waiting for the children to interpret the meaning of the word. “For the rest of your life.”
A confused hum of high voices rose after the man finished his speech. They hadn’t understood half of what he said.
“Where are our parents!” Neji’s even, bold voice spread through the room and he glared at the man. Naruto knew that Neji’s father was in the same ranks as his father, but Neji was two years older than all of them and was placed in military education already.
“They will no longer be with you,” the man’s lips curled and he tilted his head at the boy. “Do you have any other questions?”
This time, Lee, also two years older than all of them, spoke out. “If you don’t mind, Commander Danzo, where are our moms and dads ex..actly?”
“They won’t be with you, children,” Danzo spat and clenched his fists by his sides, draped in an oversized military uniform. “Do you unders-“
“Where are mamas!” Naruto yelled and stamped his foot. “Where are dadas!” His screaming was followed up by a few agreeing ones, some high-pitched cursing and a few grunts from the girls. There had to be at least two hundred children from the ages of four to eight in this room, all trying to outtalk each other and demand the locations of their parents.
Danzo clenched his jaw when the man beside him smirked and crossed his arms. Danzo tried to quiet their voices down unsuccessfully, holding his arms out and pushing them down. Their noise only grew louder when kids tried to move and yelped when they received a shock from their handcuffs.
“Shut up, you stupid fucking children!” the man bellowed and seethed when shocked gasps arose at his profanity. “They’re dead! All of your parents are dead! Now listen to me.”
“Shino Aburame, Platoon six, Rank B. Chouji Akimichi, Platoon four, rank C, special training. Banhe Ame, Platoon one, Rank A…”
Naruto barely knew what dead meant, but he had a pretty good idea of what it did. He didn’t hear his platoon or rank get called out. He only heard his blood humming in his ears and the sniffles of the other children.
The only thing Naruto could remember right now was gagging when Minato and Kushina kissed in front of him. His mother making him terrible pancakes in the morning, but never telling her anything because he loved being spoiled. His mother holding his hand when they crossed streets and went through crowds, Naruto complaining about being a big man but not letting go when they reached the end of the crows and got to the other side of the street. Minato hefting him up and setting Naruto on his shoulders, tickling his stomach until he was dangerously close to peeing himself and bright red. Minato teaching him exercises that he wouldn’t remember to burn off his excess energy.
Before Naruto knew it, he was being shoved towards a door to the opposite side of the stage. He was given a heavy dog tag and filed under the Sector ID program.
Apparently, the blond was in Platoon two, Rank A. For the next two years he would train over his body’s limits with the kids he was placed with, but didn’t know. That was where he had met Kiba and Gaara. Gaara was the smallest of their group, an inch or two shorter than Naruto’s puny size at that age. But he had worked well with him. Naruto and Gaara slowly inched up the military’s ranking, into the highest barracks and slowly earning respect. They were combat specialists at six and a half, trusted enough to be sent on important missions and small enough to sneak around for confidential ones.
That was where Naruto’s short memory of Kiba had been. They had been running through an illegal laboratory, Kiba’s personalized shotgun bouncing against his thigh and yelling at Gaara to hurry up.
Platoon 2A had consisted of nine kids and adolescents. Naruto, Kiba, Gaara, Yagura, Yukito, Utakata, Tall Han, Roshi, and Fu had worked very well together.
Meanwhile, outside military walls, not a single being was informed of the war the Sectors were in. Not a single one of them knew about the heartless manslaughter, leaving men and their families stranded in undiscovered parts of the world. Their once lovely, family-friendly Katons became a death sign to those not a citizen. Katons were just meant to pick up litter and incinerate them in the small flamethrowers they had installed inside of their body. But after Naruto’s fifth birthday, which had gone by unnoticed, their software had been updated so that if they came across an eliminated person, their new weapons would unfurl and terminate that being.
Naruto, Gaara, and Tsunade’s camp had grown up playing with the things inside the isolated walls of the military. They could create spheres of burnt trash so the best friends could pretend they were normal and play catch. Sometimes, the Katons would play fetch with them. They each had their own intelligent software, and it depended whether it would take a pat on the metal back or an inappropriate action to catch the robots’ attention.
Outside those walls, things had gone downhill in Konoha. What was meant to be a purging of unneeded citizens led the citizens allowed to stay feel like they had to reproduce at least two children. Lands were running out, Sectors were getting rowdier and rowdier, bandits were getting bolder, and days were getting harder.
It led to the day where Naruto and his friends were excused under the raised hand of Danzo. At seven and eight years old, they were relieved of their statuses and quietly filed into a government drone. Danzo had seen them off, disappointed with the decision he had had to make. He hoped they would use their military knowledge to survive until a brighter sun would shine.
The flight took hours. How many, Naruto couldn’t tell, but they were hostilely thrown fifteen feet from the ground with a few Katons landing on top of them. They were stripped of their citizen status and filed under the eliminated persons list. The Katons, once their friends, had latched back onto the drone and flew away to shelter.
They had originally started off as one large group. All of them were selfish at seven years old. They didn’t work well together at all.
Neji’s materialism was what had split them back then. Naruto had decided to leave their sad excuse of a camp with his old platoon, seven other boys and girls that later named themselves the Jinchuriiki. Naruto promised that he would be back every few months or so to visit his other friends, cycling between them.
That was how it had been, for nine years. Over the lands of unknown territory and ruins of Sectors destroyed by others. Running into bandits and scouts and Katons on his way to every other group, alone and sometimes thinking that it would be the last few minutes of his life. He would use what Earth had to offer to defend himself; branches, rocks. Sakura would patch those cuts up when he got back. Chouji would make a nice meal to celebrate his successful travelling. Shikamaru would wake up from his naps to greet and bid him adieu. Tenten would have a few new knives to teach him about, and Sai would tell him what the names of colors were and illustrate forbidden objects and locations.
When he went back to the Jinchuriiki, Gaara would nod his approval to making it back safely and they would hunt. The other members of the group would carry on, leaning against their alleys that they called camp. They’d run when Katons rolled by or if a single footstep other than one within their group was heard.
He had spent the majority of his life running back and forth between two different worlds.
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Naruto now remembered the severe anger issues that Gaara used to have. Gaara would have frequent rage attacks at small things, but those things were never Naruto. He remembered that Gaara was always calm around him, memories pushing themselves into his mind and making his head hurt. They came to him very slowly, dimly, but uncovering more and more with time. Naruto had grown up on the tip of his toes, and now he was finally beginning to set his whole foot on the ground. Frankly, Naruto didn’t want to remember anymore. He had been fine, sitting next to Sasuke under the stars and listening to the raven explain how they were created. Naruto had finally settled down for once, felt calm for once.
It was his fault that he had asked Sakura to tell him. Maybe he should have fucking listened like he listened to Sasuke when his group told Naruto he didn’t want to remember.
Always so persistent, Sakura had said.
She was right.
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Sector Five