Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Flamethrower	By : LostinThought8 Category: Naruto AU/AR > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 1349 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I make no money off of writing this fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
Author’s Note: This chapter took a lot longer than I thought it would. By the time I reached a place where I felt it would be good to stop, I’d already hit around twelve pages according to Microsoft Word. Sorry for the delay, everyone!

This story is still being cross-posted to my FF account, Light Within Darkness. The link can be found in my profile.

WARNINGS: In this chapter, language and very mild references to sexual activities.

And now, without any further ado…

Naruto felt about ready to fall over from a combination of extreme heat, thirst, and exhaustion when he first saw the man. As it was by now very late afternoon, Naruto at first thought that the patch of darkness lying on the otherwise dry and dusty ground was just an oddly-shaped rock, cast into shadow by the setting sun. But as he and Sakura got closer to it, the blond was able to pick out certain features that definitely did not belong on a rock. Such as arms and legs splayed out from the torso and streaked with reddish dirt; dark-colored hair framing the person’s head, and the hem of a shirt stirring ever-so-faintly off of his back…Naruto stopped dead in his tracks, unwilling to get any closer.

   “Sakura,” Naruto hissed, just loud enough for the pink-haired girl to hear him but hopefully not loud enough for the man lying in the dirt a few yards away to pick up. If he was even still conscious, that was. Sakura had seen the man as well, stopping next to Naruto and fixing a narrow-eyed, suspicious glare at the unmoving body. “What do you think we should do?” Naruto asked.

   “Keep moving, obviously,” Sakura answered, voice barely above a whisper. Her hand moved towards her right pants pocket in a move that could be interpreted as casual, if Naruto hadn’t known that Sakura kept her pistol in that particular pocket. “This is obviously a trap. He probably has a group of people nearby waiting to jump us if we stop. As it is, we’ll probably need to fight.” Sakura bit her lip, obviously not liking the idea of the two of them having to fight what was quite probably a larger group of people.

   Naruto knew that Sakura was probably right. Now that people traveled between towns and settlements in armed groups, it was becoming more and more difficult for bandits and thieves to find easy victims. As Naruto and Sakura had overheard a few people discussing in the places they’d stopped in to get more supplies, many bandit groups had resorted to tricking people on the roads. One of their number would wait by the roadside and pretend to be injured, or a victim of robbery themselves, while the rest hid nearby. When any travelers stopped to help, the rest of the bandits would come out of hiding and proceed to rob these unwary Good Samaritans blind, oftentimes killing them in the process.

   Still…Naruto couldn’t stop the uneasy feeling in his gut at just leaving someone who was potentially in trouble at the side of the road. What if this time it wasn’t a trap? The blond knew that he wouldn’t be able to sleep easy at night thinking that he’d just passed a person by on the road who desperately needed help, who might die if nobody else came this way. An image of his now long-dead father came into Naruto’s head unbidden, shaking his head in disappointment at his son. That mental image was what decided it for Naruto. Pulling his handgun from its makeshift rope holster at the side of his leg, Naruto made his way towards the unmoving figure.

   “Naruto, what the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Sakura cried, catching the blond’s arm and making him pause in his tracks…pause, but not stop. “Have you lost your mind?”

   Naruto turned to look at the pink-haired girl, and Sakura gasped at the look in her friend’s eyes. Naruto’s eyes had always been a startling shade of blue, a strange fusion of sea and sky that seemed to go on forever. Even though it sounded cliché, Sakura felt that someone could quite easily get lost in those eyes. And right now, Naruto’s eyes clearly told her “I am going to go help this person, and nothing you can say or do will stop me.”

   “What if it isn’t a trap, Sakura?” Naruto asked softly. “This guy might actually be in trouble…I’m not willing to take the chance that he’s faking.”

   Sakura could only nod once and release Naruto’s arm. The pink-haired girl wasn’t without protest, however. As she fell into step beside the blond, pistol in hand, Sakura muttered, “We keep our guns on him until we’re sure he’s not dangerous, OK? This heat must have made you crazy…”

   By then they had traveled the last few yards to the body, and there was no time for further conversation. Sakura, who was the one with medical training, knelt by the man’s body to check it over. Naruto crouched nearby, aiming his handgun at the man’s forehead and taking the time to observe this new development.

   The man was lying on his back, his eyes closed. He was wearing a loose, white shirt that was open at the chest, revealing firm and toned muscles. The guy was obviously in shape, at least, more so than the average traveler. What were you doing out here that got you into this mess, dude? Naruto wondered. The man’s eyes were closed, and his limbs were messily splayed out away from his body, showing that he had indeed collapsed here at the roadside. The man’s hair was long for a guy’s. It went down to his chin, and was black as a moonless night. Save for some unruly spikes that stuck up from the back of his head, the man’s hair was plastered to his face, head, and neck with sweat. His skin was flushed a bright red, though if it was from the sun or something else Naruto couldn’t tell.

What looked like a long, purple rope was wrapped and tied around the man’s waist, over a pair of dark grey pants. A knife, easily the length of Naruto’s forearm, hung from this strange belt. It looked quite sharp and well-maintained, so Naruto decided to take the weapon away. There was no need for this stranger to suddenly wake up, decide Naruto and Sakura’s help was unwanted, and then try to attack them. The man’s black hiking boots were coated in a fine layer of dust, so he’d obviously walked quite a ways before collapsing here.

Sakura was in full on Nurse Mode. She’d put her pistol at her side and was now running both hands up and down the man’s body, making small noises here and there as she touched the man’s chest, opened his mouth, leaned in to listen to his heartbeat. Naruto noticed Sakura’s face flush as her hand skirted around his crotch area, and he had to bite back a snigger. This strange man was rather attractive, with his aristocratic face, lean, muscular chest, and angular chin…

Naruto had to shake himself at that. What the hell did he think he was doing, ogling an unconscious man in the middle of nowhere?! What was he doing ogling a man to begin with, anyway? It wasn’t like Naruto had much experience with either sex, seeing as how he’d spent his formative years having his body poked and prodded at, torn apart and put back together again by those bastards at the Research Facility. The blond had suspected for a while now that women didn’t really do anything for him, due to the lack of attraction he felt towards Sakura and any other woman he’d been around for longer than a few days. Yet on the other hand, Naruto had picked up from snippets of the doctors’ conversations back at the Research Facility that it wasn’t considered normal for men to have feelings for other men. So why was he now looking at some stranger by the side of the road as if he wanted to see and touch the body beneath his clothes?

Naruto was jolted out of this train of thought by the stranger’s abruptly coming back to consciousness. Sakura had gone to pull back one of his eyelids, but the second she’d brushed her finger against it, both of the man’s eyes had snapped open. Naruto and Sakura jumped in surprise, Naruto nearly dropping his gun and Sakura actually letting out a soft yell. The blond found himself staring into the stranger’s eyes, which were the same dark, intense black as his hair, for several long seconds before the man spoke.

“Water,” he rasped out, his throat sounding worse than Naruto’s felt. “I…I need water.”

Sakura nodded. She was once again all business. “You’re displaying the classic signs of dehydration,” she explained. “Flushed and dry skin, dry mouth, a rapid heartbeat…here. Drink.” Sakura held her canteen up to the man’s mouth.

The dark-haired stranger gulped the water down greedily, and Naruto found himself fascinated by the movements of his throat as he swallowed. “Slowly, now, or you’ll make yourself sick,” Sakura said sternly. The man obeyed, taking slow, deep swallows of the precious liquid.

When Sakura took the canteen away and did not offer it again, the man sat up straight and wiped the back of his mouth with his hand. “Thank you,” he said quietly. His voice, Naruto noticed, was much less hoarse now. It was deep and authoritative, the voice of a man who was used to people listening to him. Naruto found himself leaning forward slightly, becoming more interested in this man by the second. Before the blond could stop himself, the questions came flooding out of him.

“What happened to your water? What are you doing out here? Why are you traveling alone? What’s your name?” Naruto almost clapped a hand over his mouth to stop the sudden outpouring of words, feeling suddenly embarrassed for talking so much.

The stranger turned to really look at Naruto for the first time. His dark eyes flashed briefly with an expression the blond couldn’t quite catch - Annoyance? Excitement? – before returning to a flat, emotionless stare. “You certainly ask a lot of questions, don’t you, dobe?” The man drawled.

“H-Hey!” Naruto cried, the insult catching him off-guard. “We stopped here and helped your ass when we didn’t have to. We even gave you some of our water! There’s no reason to go around insulting people.”

Another man might have apologized, but the dark-haired stranger just continued to stare at Naruto, unruffled. “If you must know, I was robbed during the night,” he said. “Bandits took most of my water and food. I was hoping to get to the next town or find a trader or settlement in order to restock on supplies when I collapsed here. May I have my knife back?”

Naruto’s eyes widened in surprise. The man had regained his lucidity surprisingly fast. Normally people took more than a few minutes to become fully conscious. Naruto should know, he’d seen plenty of people in various states of consciousness at the Research Facility. The blond’s eyes narrowed in suspicion at this strange man, but he didn’t want to start a fight with someone he and Sakura had just gone to the trouble of saving. So Naruto tossed the knife towards the man, who caught it easily and tucked it safely back underneath his rope belt. The stranger then got to his feet, and that was when Naruto and Sakura saw it.

“It” was a cylindrical container, about the size of a knapsack and made of metal. This was odd in and of itself, as metal was becoming increasingly rare these days. Any available metal almost always went towards making weapons or reinforcing structures. Coiled up against one side of the container was a long, thin piece of rubber, like a makeshift hose. The hose had a metal tip as well, which glinted dully in the light. The stranger had been covering this mysterious object with his body up until now, which explained why Naruto and Sakura hadn’t noticed it. Besides, they’d been more interested in the dark-haired man himself, anyway.

“What is that thing?” Sakura asked.

“A weapon,” the man said shortly, lifting it onto his back with a thick leather strap. “It’s called a flamethrower. It aims controlled blasts of fire at opponents.”

“Yeah, right,” Naruto snorted. “That thing’ll shoot fire the same day it snows in Fire Country. Why don’t you just tell us the truth? You’re an illegal metal trader, aren’t you?”

Trading in metal was becoming an increasingly profitable business that was largely controlled by a few, powerful people throughout the world. These powerful people threatened anyone who wasn’t affiliated with them, but persisted in trading metal anyway, with a gruesome and painful death. Still, the metal trade was profitable enough that an especially brave trader would risk smuggling a few scraps to a town in order to make some quick money.

The dark-haired stranger, however, gave Naruto a stare that would have caused a lesser man to cringe and scurry away for fear of imminent pain. Naruto, however, met the man’s gaze head-on. His own blue eyes met the man’s black ones and held them, until the air seemed charged with energy from the quiet clash going on between the two.

Sakura looked nervously between Naruto and the stranger. The way the two of them both looked now, it seemed as if a fight was going to break out any second. The last thing Sakura wanted was someone getting hurt over a hunk of metal. She cleared her throat loudly, causing the two men to stop their staring contest. Now they were both glaring at her instead. Just peachy.

“Uhm…I think we should make camp for the night,” Sakura said. “It’s almost nighttime, after all, and it won’t be safe to travel then.”

Naruto nodded. “Good idea, Sakura-chan,” he said. Without preamble, the blond dropped his knapsack on the ground and began rifling through it for the camping equipment.

Sakura then turned to the dark-haired stranger. He had gone back to glaring at Naruto, but the pink-haired girl thought that his glare held something else besides anger this time…interest, perhaps? She cleared her throat again to get his attention. “Would you like to make camp with us tonight? I want to make sure you’re really all right before you go on your way. Besides, you should have a light meal soon. It’ll help you regain your strength…” Sakura trailed off as the realization hit that she and Naruto had no idea what this man’s name was.

Apparently, the same thought had just struck the dark-haired man. He closed his eyes, as if praying for patience, and then sighed loudly. “Sasuke,” he said. “My name is Sasuke.”

    Sasuke privately thought that this was the worst mission he’d ever been sent on. Normally, he was sent out to gather intelligence (a.k.a. spy), or eliminate any potential threats in a given area (a.k.a. go out and kill a bunch of people). But having to put up with this blond dobe and his pink-haired friend was enough to set Sasuke’s teeth on edge, especially since the dark-haired man had never exactly been what you’d call a “sociable person.”

   Well perhaps, Sasuke had to (grudgingly) admit, he was being a little unfair. The girl – Sakura, she’d told him as they gathered dried animal dung for the campfire – wasn’t exactly a bad sort of person. But it was starting to drive Sasuke crazy, the way Sakura stared at him and then turned quickly away whenever he happened to glance in her direction. The way she blushed and looked away every time their eyes happened to meet over the campfire was especially infuriating to Sasuke. The dark-haired man had no time for relationships, and only ever found it irritating when girls were attracted to him. But Sakura wasn’t nearly as bad as the blond.

   Ah yes, who could forget that infuriating blond dobe? Sasuke had been given very little information about his target before setting out on the mission. He only knew his target’s name, Uzumaki Naruto, and his face, via an old photograph of the blond, which was currently tucked away in Sasuke’s backpack. Other than that, the black-haired man had been told that he was to return Naruto to Sasuke’s employer, from whom Naruto had run away. Nothing had prepared Sasuke for meeting Naruto in person.

   Uzumaki Naruto was, to put it simply, unlike any other person Sasuke had ever met before. He was tall – Sasuke estimated the blond to be only about an inch shorter than himself, and Sasuke was 6’3” – and his body seemed to be made entirely of lean muscle. The blond moved with an easy grace that told Sasuke he knew how to fight. His hair was an interesting shade of golden blond, and was a short, spiky mess atop Naruto’s head. Naruto was dressed in a pair of orange and black pants, black sneakers, and a plain black T-shirt, with an orange windbreaker tied around his waist. The three symmetrical scars on each of the blond’s cheeks, shaped uncannily like whiskers, were what marked him without a doubt as Sasuke’s target. Sasuke had been told specifically to look for those odd scars, as well as the spiral tattoo around the blond’s stomach. Not that Sasuke thought he’d get a chance to look for that, however. Normally, people didn’t take it well if you asked them if you could take a casual look at their abdomens.

   Naruto’s eyes, however, were what really fascinated Sasuke. It was rare to see a person with blue eyes in this part of the world, and Naruto’s eyes were such an interesting shade. As light from the campfire played and flickered over the blond’s face, his eyes would darken to an almost violet, or get lighter until they shone a bright azure in his tanned face. Naruto’s eyes seemed as if they could suck a person in and leave them staring forever, captivated by that strange color and the depth behind it.

   Sasuke privately thought that if he’d run into Naruto in a town, he probably would have seduced the man, and then taken him somewhere private where they could fuck. It wouldn’t be the first time Sasuke had done so with someone who caught his fancy while out and about. But this was different. Naruto was no average citizen, he was a potentially dangerous runaway. Beyond that, he was Sasuke’s target. There was no point getting attracted to or getting involved with a target, Sasuke reminded himself harshly.

   Sasuke’s attraction to his target was somewhat lessened, however, by the fact that Uzumaki Naruto had to be one of the most annoying fucking people on the face of the earth. The blond never seemed to shut up, not even when he had food in his mouth. So far, he had yelled at Sasuke for “making Sakura-chan feel bad.” He’d asked even more questions than Sakura had about what Sasuke was doing out here and where he was going. When all of Naruto’s attempts at getting under Sasuke’s skin were met with silence and glares of an intensity that could kill small children, Naruto had called the dark-haired man “the worst fucking teme I have ever met in my entire life.”

   Inwardly, Sasuke was warring between his strange physical attraction towards Naruto and a strong desire to tear the blond’s fucking head off. Knowing that his employer wanted the blond alive and as unharmed as possible, Sasuke settled for furiously glaring into the half-empty bowl of instant rice Sakura had given him for dinner that evening. At least Naruto seemed to have stopped talking for the moment, in favor of noisily eating the last of his own rice. Disgusting.

   “So Sasuke-kun…” Sakura said, her voice trailing off almost immediately. The girl seemed to be walking on eggshells around Sasuke, even besides the blushing. She tripped over her own sentences half the time when she spoke, and with the added influence of Naruto, it was annoying Sasuke far more than it should. “I suppose you’ll be going your own way after tonight then? I mean, you seem to be much better now…but in order to make sure, I should check you over one last time before you go…if you want me too, that is.” Sakura blushed furiously at the end of this, quickly busying herself with tucking her empty bowl back into her knapsack.

   “I’ll be glad to see the back of him,” Naruto grunted. He burped loudly before tucking away his own empty bowl. Sasuke winced. It wasn’t as if he’d never been around people who were rude or ate poorly…but never for more than a few minutes at a time. Naruto’s eating behaviors were almost too much, on top of everything else that had happened today.

   As much as Sasuke didn’t want to spend another second with either of these people (well, that wasn’t quite true - he wouldn’t be averse to spending more time with Naruto. Alone. And only if the blond was firmly gagged beforehand), but he had no choice if he wanted to complete the mission. The dark-haired man bowed his head, trying to look the part of the desperate traveler in need of assistance that he was supposed to be. “Actually,” he said, “I hoped I might be able to travel with you.” At this, Sasuke looked up and met Naruto’s and Sakura’s gazes. The both of them were now looking at him intently, and Sasuke tried to make his face as honest as possible. He didn’t want to use his Sharingan contact lenses unless he had to. He’d only just gotten them after all, and didn’t want to risk screwing something up.

   Naruto opened his mouth, probably to complain, but Sasuke swiftly cut in. “I’m sorry I haven’t told you who I was and what I was doing earlier. I wasn’t quite sure if I could trust you. You see, I was traveling with a party of three other people. We were making our way through Fire Country in the hope of finding some work, when, as I explained earlier, we were robbed one night. I woke up the next morning to find all of our water and most of our supplies gone.”

   Here, Sasuke bowed his head again and was silent for a few moments. Make it convincing, he told himself firmly. He had to act as if he really was mourning for lost traveling companions. “I don’t know where the rest of my group is. They were gone that morning too. I walked around our campsite for a mile in each direction, and there was no trace of them. I only hope they made it away from the bandits…” Sasuke silently thanked his employer for sending him out on so many intelligence-gathering missions. The man might be a lousy son-of-a-bitch, and a disgusting pedophile to boot, but at least all those missions had helped hone Sasuke’s lying skills. He could now spin a cover story like the best of them. Admittedly, he’d never had to come up with one on the spot like this before. The best cover stories were thought up in advance, but Sasuke honestly hadn’t thought he’d need one for this mission.

   Sakura’s eyes were wide and sympathetic now, and the set of the dobe’s jaw told Sasuke that even he felt a little bad for him. Sasuke would have smirked, but instead he continued his tale. “So I kept walking in the direction of the biggest town on my map, but the heat was really getting to me. I sat down to rest at the side of the road…and I don’t remember anything else until you guys came along. Again, I want to express my most heartfelt thanks to you for stopping to rescue me. I might have died out there if you two hadn’t come along.” Sasuke bowed down until his head touched the dirt at his feet. “Arigatou gosaimasu.”

   Naruto and Sakura glanced at each other. A silent communication passed between their eyes, one Sasuke couldn’t quite decipher. From their expressions he could tell that Sakura was leaning towards having come along. She sympathized with him and obviously was attracted to him as well. Naruto, judging from his furrowed brow, was feeling less sure. Sasuke decided to add a bit more to his story to help convince them.

   “I know I don’t have many supplies with me, but I’m willing to share what little I do have among the three of us. I also can provide us with some extra protection from bandits. I’m not too shoddy at self-defense, if I do say so myself.” Sasuke shifted a little, allowing his knife to catch and reflect the light of the campfire. The blade gleamed wickedly in the flickering light, looking every bit as wickedly sharp as it actually was.

   “I think that Sakura-chan and I are going to have to talk this over,” Naruto said, taking his pink-haired friend by the arm and leading her away from the fire. The two of them were soon shrouded in darkness, and Sasuke could only see the dim outlines of their bodies. The two of them talked in low voices, so that even Sasuke’s sharp ears could only pick up bits and pieces of what they were saying.

   “-doesn’t have any water-”

   “So? He’s more likely to kill us in our sleep than any actual bandits…”

   “But he has a map…”

   “-we did go to all the trouble of rescuing him, after all…”

   “Just because you have the hots for him, Sakura-chan, doesn’t mean that I should put up with his bullshit until we get to the next town. Don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you’ve been acting around him.”

   “Shut up-”

   “-promise I’ll find some more instant ramen and make it for dinner…”

   “If it’s only until we get to the next town, I guess…”

   Finally, the two of them returned to the campfire. Sakura’s left eye was twitching slightly, and Naruto looked extremely put out. For one brief moment, Sasuke was worried the two of them would tell him to hit the road…but then Sakura said, “We’ve decided to let you accompany us, Sasuke-kun, but only until we reach the next town and restock on supplies. Then we go our separate ways. Agreed?”

   “Agreed.” Sasuke bowed his head once more, in a mock show of relief and gratefulness.

   “Now that that’s settled,” Sakura said, taking up a seated position around the fire once again, “could we see that map of yours, Sasuke-kun? Naruto and I lost our map awhile back, and we’ve been traveling based on directions from traders and people in settled areas ever since. It’ll be good to get a sense of where we’re actually going for once.”

   “Of course,” Sasuke searched through his knapsack for his map of the area, careful not to reveal the hidden compartments where he’d stashed most of his food and all of his water. He spread it out on the ground near the fire, where it was in the best light, and Naruto and Sakura crowded around him in order to see. Sasuke had to suppress a slight shiver as the blond’s warm breath tickled the fine hairs at the back of his neck. Dammit.

   “I would estimate that we’re around this area, here.” Sasuke pointed. “And look,” the dark-haired man’s finger moved along the map, two pairs of eyes eagerly following it along. “It looks like the next town is close by. We should be able to get to it within a day and a half’s travel…maybe a day if we push it. It’s-”

   Here Sasuke stopped, his finger hovering just above the town’s symbol on the map. This was a place that was well known to him, and not just because it was the largest settled area in Fire Country. Shit. Oh fuck. Not there! Anyplace but there!

   Naruto, oddly enough, was having a strong reaction as well at seeing their destination. He’d gotten up and was now staring at the campfire with an intensity Sasuke hadn’t thought him capable of. “I…I can’t believe it,” the blond murmured, so softly that Sasuke almost didn’t hear it. “Konohagakure…”

   “Oh, Naruto…” Sakura got up as well and went to her friend, putting her arms around him in a comforting hug. “We’re going towards your home.”

   This bit of information caught Sasuke by surprise. He stared openly at Naruto, though the blond and Sakura were too caught up in having their moment to notice. You lived in Konohagakure, dobe? Well, well…isn’t that interesting…

   “It’s been so long since I left,” Naruto said. “So much has happened, and I’ve changed so much…I don’t know if I really want to go back. What if no one there remembers me? What if they don’t want me there anymore?”

Sakura hugged her friend more tightly. “It’s not like we have a choice. We have to get more water, especially with Sasuke-kun along. Besides, I can’t see how anyone would be unhappy to see you after so long. They’ve probably wondered about what you’ve been doing all these years, and now you can finally tell them.”

   Naruto looked down at the pink-haired girl and smiled brightly. “Thank you, Sakura-chan,” he said quietly, hugging her back. “I’m so lucky to have a friend like you.”

   Gag me, please, Sasuke thought, a bit embarrassed at watching such a flowery display. This was why companions were useless. They were constantly following you around, proclaiming their never-ending love and loyalty even when you wanted them to leave. It was much better to be alone, in Sasuke’s opinion, and he ruthlessly squashed down the part of himself that secretly wished for someone to accompany him on his journeys.

   The dark-haired man cleared his throat loudly, causing Naruto and Sakura both to jump slightly and turn to face him. “I think it would be a good idea if we went to bed for the evening,” Sasuke said. “It’s getting late, and we need to be up early if we want to make it to Konohagakure in a day’s time.”

   “I guess I’m kind of tired,” Naruto said, around a yawn so huge his jaw cracked, and it sounded as if he were saying “Ah gesh ahm kaaaaannnndddaaa tah-rrrrddd.” The blond stretched, causing Sasuke’s throat to momentarily go dry. It had to be illegal for one man to have such lean, wiry muscle in his arms like that. “I’ll take first watch, then?”

   “No,” Sasuke said, perhaps a little too quickly. Silently cursing at himself, he continued in a calmer vein. “I’ll take first watch. It’s the least I can do, since you and Sakura saved my life, after all.”

   Naruto just shrugged. “Whatever, teme.” And with that, the blond busied himself with getting out a few old blankets to make a bed with.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

   Before too much longer, Naruto and Sakura’s breathing was steady, meaning that they were sleeping soundly. Sasuke fed a few more chips of dung to the campfire, then sighed deeply. He couldn’t put it off any longer. It was time for him to report in to his boss.

   At least Phase One of Sasuke’s plan was complete. He had made contact with the target. Now all that was left to do was lose the girl, secure Naruto, and hightail it back to Sound Country. Then, Sasuke could continue his search for the one target he really wanted to find.

   Sasuke dug a small, sleek black communicator out of a hidden pocket of his knapsack and put in the earpiece. After a few minutes of fiddling with the buttons, the dark-haired man heard a voice come in.

   The voice was smooth and masculine, belonging to someone of intelligence and good breeding. It was a voice belonging to a person people felt they could trust and tell their deepest, most personal secrets to. The voice had an air of belonging to someone who was quite friendly, and could be relied upon to never, ever let a person down.

   This person’s victims always died with a look of the utmost shock and surprise on their faces. They never saw the knife in their back until it was too late.

   “Ahhh, Sasuke-kun,” the man practically purred through the communicator amid brief bursts of static. “I was wondering when I’d hear from you. Orochimaru-sama in particular was starting to think that this mission would perhaps be a bit too difficult. Report on your status. Do you require back up?”

   Sasuke grit his teeth against the impulse to smash the communicator to bits in a fit of rage. Hearing Yakushi Kabuto’s horrible voice for even the briefest of moments never failed to anger him. The dark-haired man forced himself to be calm. “Actually, Kabuto, my mission is going very well. Here’s my report…”

Author’s Note: A few things in this chapter might seem a bit confusing to readers right now. Such as why Sasuke has water on him, yet was dehydrated when Naruto and Sakura found him. Please bear with me, dear readers. I promise that all will be explained as the story goes on.

Fun Fact: The symptoms Sasuke was experiencing when Naruto and Sakura found him are in fact actual symptoms of mild dehydration. The best treatment for dehydration is to drink something with electrolytes in it, such as Gatorade, or Pedialite for children. However, I figured that Naruto and Sakura wouldn’t have Gatorade on them, since they’re traveling through the wilderness. So I had Sakura administer the next best treatment to Sasuke: Water, followed by a light meal to replenish lost electrolytes.
REVIEWER RESPONSES:
Mija: Thanks so much for your kind words! *blushes* I tried my hardest to put an original spin on this, and I was really pleased to hear that this was like nothing you've ever read. Hopefully this story will be able to keep you interested and guessing right up until the end. I definitely have a lot of interesting things planned, plot-wise. ;)
Zeroday: The first chapter of this story was, for me, a way of "setting the stage." I wanted to explain where Naruto and Sakura were, lay out their end goal, and give a broad reason as to why they were traveling out in the wilderness in the first place. Perhaps that was why you didn't find it so interesting? I am glad to hear that you're coming back for this chapter, though. Hopefully you'll find it more to your liking. :)
Reviews are, as always, much appreciated.
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Flamethrower