Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Illusion and Dream
By : djserani
Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male
Views: 1300 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto! I make no money off of this!
Chapter List
- 21
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- 23
When the alarm went off and Kotetsu rolled to smack it into submission, they were both a little surprised that they'd actually fallen asleep. They were a little more surprised to discover that they were, in fact, still dressed and simply curled up around each other. Izumo sat up and rubbed at his eyes, yawning. "Didn't expect to fall asleep," he managed around the yawn.

"Me either. Guess we needed it," Kotetsu said, his own yawn struggling to be let out.

"Guess so," Izumo sighed. "Well, let's get going. If we're lucky, we can be on our way home tonight."

"That would be nice," Kotetsu replied, though his voice sounded like he wasn't quite sure that was true. They stared at each other a moment, then turned at the same time to get their things together.

A few minutes later, they were on their way through town, this time slipping through shadows and back alleys. As they approached the north side of the compound, they found the roof they'd used the night before and crouched in the corner to watch.

"We can leave the bags here. I doubt anyone will disturb them," Kotetsu suggested.

"And its not like there's anything important in them - well, that anyone can get to, anyway." Izumo pointed out.

"Right." They still wore civilian clothes, but they'd both decided that the shuriken holder and back pouch were a bit too important if they found themselves in a fight.

"Okay," Izumo said, glancing at his watch. "We've got about twenty minutes before shift change. We're agreed to go for the house?"

"Only place I've been able to figure would get us in besides that one door."

Izumo nodded. "Alright. We can skirt the wall, staying under the trees. If we do it right, we should only be exposed for a minute or two to get over the iron fence."

Kotetsu's eyes danced over the parts of the compound he could see form there. "That should work. Don't forget, there's about ten meters between the last tree and the fence."

Izumo pursed his lips. "Yeah. But we should be able to get there before the first patrol actually starts. If we have to, we can wait in the shadows until they do their first circuit."

"True." Kotetsu glanced over at his friend. "Hey," he started and waited until Izumo looked over at him. "Um... look, if it looks like it's going to get ugly, just... get out of there, okay?"

Izumo blinked at him a moment. "I'll promise that if you do."

Kotetsu frowned. "I don't want you getting hurt."

Izumo paused and fought the urge to sigh. "Do you really think it would be any easier on me to see you hurt?"

Kotetsu glanced away. "No."

Izumo didn't say anything further, just waited. Finally, Kotetsu sighed. "We'll both get out."

Izumo nodded. "Good." He reached up to touch Kotetsu's face and noticed that he'd never taken the ring off that Tetsu had put on his finger. Had that only been earlier that day? Seemed like a lot longer than that. He shook the thought off and conveniently forgot to take it off again. "Look..." he paused again. "You're important to me. Okay?"

Kotetsu smiled. "Of course I am. What would you do without me?"

Izumo snorted. "Get bored. I wouldn't have anyone to pull out of trouble."

Kotetsu laughed. "See? You need me around."

"Exactly. So, no getting hurt, because I am not carrying your heavy ass all the way home." Izumo said, poking Tetsu in the chest.

"Hey! You weigh more than I do!"

"That doesn't make you any less heavy," Izumo pointed out.

Kotetsu snorted. "Fine. How about we both not get hurt and we both get out. Hmm?"

"See? I knew you'd see it my way," Izumo smirked and turned back to watch the guards. "Heads up, they're getting ready to go in."

Izumo glanced over at his friend to see Tetsu shift from playful to shinobi. It never ceased to make Izumo just a little proud that his friend could put the crap aside when necessary. He turned his attention back to the guards and watched them start their last patrol. "Get ready," he whispered and caught the spikes bounce in affirmation out of the corner of his eye.

When the guards started back along their route, Izumo and Kotetsu slipped off of the roof and landed in the alley. Across the street and up into the tree and they paused. When they were greeted with silence, they slid over the wall and crouched in the brush. After a quick glance around to make sure they were still alone, the followed the dance of light and shadow along the wall until they got to the last tree.

Here, they paused again. The second shift of guards had just come out from the guardhouse and were starting their first patrol. Izumo signalled to Kotetsu and they watched until the one nearest them started walking in the other direction. It took every bit of patience Izumo possessed to wait, but he managed. Once he was far enough, they took off, channelled chakra into their feet and were over the fence.

Back into the shadows of the next tree, they stopped once more to make sure they weren't spotted or followed. Assured, they approached the house and started around. It wasn't until they'd gone half way around that they found what they were looking for.

The courtyard in the back of the house had a garden similar to that of the main compound. Flowers and trees abounded, and right in the center was a pond that was fed by another branch of the stream that came in from the river. At the other end, it emptied into another branch, right next to the bamboo fountain.

Grateful for the noise of the running water and clack of the fountain to mask their footsteps, they slipped through the open shoji door they'd found. The room was little more than an entry way or mud room. A line of pegs was set into one wall, garden hat and apron hanging from one. There were two small jackets and a larger one next to the apron. Below the hooks was a row of sandals - two adult pairs and two that definitely belonged to children. And there, on the opposite wall from the entrance were two doors leading back out. One that obviously led to the main part of the house.

And one that didn't look like it could lead much of anywhere. And sure enough, the other side showed them a stairway down.

They glanced at each other, then took a deep breath and, pushing chakra once more into their feet to help keep quiet, they started down.

The stairwell itself was rather dark, lit only sporadically by dim bulbs. The stairs were wooden and, if they hadn't been using chakra to keep their feet off of them, Izumo and Kotetsu were sure they would have creaked.

About half way down, the stairs turned at a ninety-degree angle and the two of them paused. Izumo peeked around the wall, but all he could see was more stairs. Fighting the urge to sigh, they continued.

Finally, what felt like a ridiculously long time later, they found the bottom. A long hall stretched in front of them, lit the same way the stairs were. There were no doors that they could see, and based on the length of the hall, Izumo had a feeling it came out underneath the main headquarters building.

Casting another glance at each other, they followed the hallway. The walls were made of stone, the floor, dirt, so at least they could release their chakra and save it for a real fight, if necessary. The weak lights hung from an indistinguishable ceiling and Izumo felt a chill run down his spine over the fact that he could see so little of the details.

When they finally got to the other end of the hall -- which could only have taken them a few minutes, but felt like it took an hour -- they were greeted with a simple shoji door. Another exchanged look, and Izumo reached out and eased the door open a crack.

The other side was another hallway, but this one had doors marching down either wall. When no one called out, they opened the door enough to slip through and closed it carefully behind themselves again.

Still no noise and they both had a minute to hope that it was mostly deserted. Perhaps they could get the scroll and get the hell out of there with no one the wiser.

After a quick, silent discussion, they decided to stick together. They'd counted eight doors that they could see in the weak illumination left by the wall sconces in that part of the hallway and both were sure that there were many more. However, the possibility that they'd run into a room full of people was too likely, so they didn't want to risk separating. When it came to a fight, they were much more effective together.

The first door knob turned easily in Izumo's hand. He slowly pulled the door back on silent hinges and peeked into the room.

They were almost - almost - disappointed to discover it was empty. It would have been just a little too much to ask to find what they needed in the first room they came across. It boasted nothing more than a basic cot which both of them wondered about, but then wasn't the time to question.

The second room was much the same. A table, a few chairs and an empty bookshelf was all that occupied that one. Sighing, they moved on.

Two more rooms like the first two and they were waffling between angry and despairing of ever finding the damned thing. It wasn't until they got to the fifth room that anything interesting appeared.

This room had a small bed, a dresser, a small desk and a set of bookshelves -- filled with a variety of books, as well as a chair to use at the desk. Unfortunately, after going through most of the books, digging through the dresser and desk and even looking under the mattress and bed, they came up empty-handed. Kotetsu growled. "I'm starting to think there is no scroll."

"We heard them talking about it," Izumo reminded him.

"We heard them talking about something - they never actually said the word 'scroll'," he pointed out.

"True, but there really weren't many other things they could have been talking about. And we know that the person they were mentioning is a former Leaf nin."7

Kotetsu sighed. "I know. Sorry, let's go."

One more quick glance around and they left as quietly as they'd entered. But three rooms later, they were no closer to the scroll. Just as Kotetsu was about to punch something in frustration, they discovered another door at that end of the hall. "Finally," Tetsu muttered and they approached it.

But this time, there were voices on the other side. Eyes wide, they turned their heads to listen. There were a few words here and there that they caught, but none of them could be understood. Until, that is, the voices approached.

Izumo and Kotetsu slipped into the first door along the hallway and prayed to every deity imaginable that whoever was out there would pass them up. With held breath, they listened as the door was opened, and two sets of footsteps passed by, neither of their owners talking. When they were sure that the other two were gone, Kotetsu and Izumo peered around the door.

Finding an empty hallway, they headed back to the end. The two that had come through had left it open and Kotetsu and Izumo looked through to see a large, open room. This one was made to be comfortable. There were chairs set in groups on a large rug that covered a stone floor, a huge overhead light of some sort and small side tables next to the chairs. On the wall opposite them was another door leading out, along with several along the side walls. No one was in the room, though the lights were on, if still low.

More hand signals and they decided to go right first. These rooms appeared to be offices of some sort. Larger desks, more bookshelves. No windows, of course, but there was art on the walls and rugs on the floors.

This desk was full of correspondence. Mostly between the daimyou and the "Yori" that they'd heard about the last time they were in the building. Plans for an attack on Suna, co-planned with the Wind daimyou were discussed in one. Kotetsu tucked a few of those into his pocket and they moved on to the next set. This one discussed plans for an attack on Konoha. It mentioned a name neither of the two men were familiar with, but one of these letters was added to Tetsu's pocket before they moved on. The rest of the letters were deliberately vague and uninformative.

They left that office and moved on to the next. The second was much like the first, though there was very little in this desk. Apparently whoever used that one wasn't much for writing. Aside from a few dusty books on the shelves and a deck of well-used playing cards, there was very little to find.

In the third office, however, they struck gold. Decorated like the first, it had paintings on the walls, a thick, rich rug on the floor and gleaming wooden furniture. The immense desk was set against one wall, a leather-upholstered chair behind it. The shelves were crammed full of books of all sorts from military tactics to ninja training to fiction. It was obviously a used office.

The desk itself was covered in paperwork. They found more correspondence from the person in Fire country who was promising that they would be taking over as daimyou soon and would be pleased to form an alliance to get rid of 'those pesky ninja,' as letter called them. Izumo and Kotetsu exchanged amused glances at that and turned back to it. More letters, enough to hang this person, the River daimyou and several other key people, were left out like they never expected to be found.

And both of the chuunin realized that they didn't expect it. They really thought, based on the language of the correspondence, that the ninja were stupid and lazy. The guys shook their head at it and set the last of the letters aside.

More drawers, more searching and then finally, in the back of the bottom drawer, they found it.

It was sealed with a complicated series of them and neither chuunin was going to try to force it. They weren't experts in seals, but they knew that Hikaru was, so there was no way they'd be able to get it open. But the Leaf symbol on the outside of the scroll was enough. It was the one they were looking for.

After a brief heated discussion, it was decided that as tempting as it was to continue searching, they needed to get the hell out of there before they pushed their luck. They closed the office up and headed back down the hallway to try to get out the way they'd gone in.

Halfway to their goal, they heard voices again and slipped into one of the empty rooms. Their hearts pounded, skin tingling in awareness until the two had passed. As soon as the voices faded, they took off again.

Neither breathed easily until they hit the night air.

Around the house, they had to wait in the shadows just a few minutes for the patrol to pass. As soon as the guard was out of sight, they were over the fence and dancing through the shadows once again. One more pause in the brush at the base of the tree they'd used earlier and when the guards were yet again out of sight, they cleared the wall and took off for the roof.

Packs on their backs, they wove through the alleys to the gates. The forced themselves to slow down and walk out of the gates. The guards behind the counter barely paid them attention, obviously not worrying about anyone leaving the city.

As soon as they were out of eyesight, they hit the trees and took off.

* * *

"I'm telling you, those footsteps didn't belong to any of our guys," Yori insisted.

"No one can get down here, our guards are too good," Daimyou Toshio maintained.

Yori sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. The daimyou could be a very annoying person. "Overconfidence is going to be your downfall. You pay me to second-guess everything. I'm telling you that it's something to look into."

Toshio waved a hand as he took one of the chairs in the main room. "If you really think it's necessary," he sighed.

Yori nodded. "I do," he assured the other man, opening his office. He stopped dead and stared. Anyone else would look at the stacks of papers on his desk and see the same thing they always had. Not Yori. "Someone's been in here," he growled, hurrying to his desk.

"What? Impossible!" The daimyou stared at him, disbelieveing.

"My papers have been gone through," Yori said, pulling the bottom drawer open. He reached into the back, but when he came up empty-handed, he slammed the drawer back closed. "Leaf!"

"What?" Toshio blinked at him.

"Konoha sent ninja to retrieve it. I told you they would!" Yori stormed from the room, yanking open the door on the other side. He banged on the first door and waited impatiently. A moment later, the door opened to show a sleepy red-head, scratching his side.

"Wha?" He said, yawning.

"Wake UP! We've been compromised," Yori growled.

The man's gaze sharpened instantly. "Compromised?"

"The scroll is gone. Get them moving," Yori ordered and spun on his heel. "If we can't recover that, if we don't stop them, it's over."

Toshio stared at him a moment, lips pressing in anger. "Do what's necessary," he said and turned around, stalking off.

Yori turned to the man next to him. "Find them. Get the scroll."

The man, who was tying his scratched-out Suna headband around his neck, nodded. "Anything else?" He asked, glancing over his shoulder as the other rooms in that corridor emptied.

Yori considered him a moment. "Yes. Kill them."
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Illusion and Dream	By : djserani Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 1300 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto! I make no money off of this!

Illusion and Dream