Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Backwoods	By : Ljiljana Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 981 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Naruto manga and anime do not belong to me and I make no money writing this.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
Chapter Six

It was no use. The hall was just too long. Naruto�s lungs
couldn�t get enough air any longer. He was tired and panting heavily. There was
no point, anyway. It was as if there was no end to it.

Naruto stopped and propped his hands on his knees to get
some air and much needed rest. He needed a better strategy. Running just wasn�t
working. The hallway hadn�t changed a bit from the beginning. It was tiled like
a bathroom � or more like a public toilet. The tiles were white but disgustingly
dirty, smeared with something suspiciously brownish. The endless rusty pipes,
fixed just above Naruto�s head, were occasionally letting out long, low
rattling sounds.

Nothing was giving Naruto any hints on how to get out of his
situation. With the blood and adrenaline inside him quieting down after the
short rest, his fear returned. Sasuke was in danger. Sasuke was back there,
back at the inn and�

�� Too late. He is mine now.

The memory of the words was so violent Naruto thought for a moment
that he was hearing them again. But there was nothing. There were no voices,
not from inside of his head or out. He was all alone.

He was all alone because the voice was busy back at the inn
with Sasuke. What did that incomprehensible asshole think he was doing anyway?
One moment he�s cold and as bastardly as they come, and then he wouldn�t leave
when he knew he was in danger. That was another thing, how did he know? Why
didn�t he think Naruto was just insane?

But then, he might have. Maybe he was just going along with
Naruto�s insanity. But regardless, he was scared. Sasuke should have run away.
Now Naruto wouldn�t have to die trying to help him, die from the helplessness
and the pain in his lungs. Damn that asshole! Couldn�t he make some sense? Any at all?

There was nothing else to do but hurry forward. The shitty
hallway had to end somewhere, so Naruto straightened up and prepared to run
again. Something caught his eyes before he could get very far. There was now a
door just a few feet away where he was sure there had been empty wall not a
moment before.

Just a simple door, there was nothing remarkable about it.
Dark wood, a normal brass doorknob� Still, it hadn�t been there just a moment
ago.

Naruto walked towards it. He had no idea how the door
appeared out of thin air, but he wasn't going to look for a hair in the egg, so
to speak. There was no use in trying to point out a flaw he couldn't find, not
in a realm where doors were suddenly there and then not. Especially if it was,
buy chance, a way out of this strange place.

Behind the door there was nothing but a hard, strong light,
as if the sun was hidden behind an opaque glass wall. Naruto shadowed his eyes,
blinked and tried again. The light shrunk, shifted and when it wasn�t glaring
directly into his face, Naruto was able to see.

It was a classroom, a classroom full of kids. They were
talking loudly, but mostly sitting in their chairs, probably waiting for a
teacher.

�Just listen to me!� A child�s strangely familiar voice
snapped from somewhere at the back of the room. �You will never understand if
you won�t even listen.�

�But, Saaaasuke . . .� Naruto
flinched when he recognized his own voice, whining pitifully. �It�s too hard.
It has three numbers in it. I can�t do that.�

�Well if you don�t learn it, you�ll get a bad grade again,�
Sasuke answered.

Naruto stepped further into the room to look at them because
even though there were a lot of kids in the classroom, their voices were
nothing but a buzz.� Little Naruto and
little Sasuke were sitting in the back, sharing a desk. Little Naruto had an
adorable pout on his face � and it seemed to be working on little Sasuke
because his hard, adult�like face was softening.�

�If you don�t learn it your mom will keep you in the house
for the weekend, you know she will. And I can�t move those boards on my
own.��

Little Naruto bit into his lip and shifted. Sasuke obviously
had a great argument there � though Naruto had no idea what boards had to do
with anything.

�It�s too hard,� little Naruto said, but he was leaning
forward. �You know I won�t get it. I�m not smart like you.�

Little Sasuke had already opened the thin book in front of
him, not willing to waste a moment of his reluctant victory.

��You�re not stupid either,
Naruto.� Naruto smiled. Little or not, Sasuke sure wasn�t awkward with
compliments. But he was giving his away carefully. Naruto watched his own
little face light up as if Sasuke had just said that he was the smartest person
in the world. �I�ll go slower this time, okay? Just listen. When you add two of
these numbers, you will get a result��

They were really cute. Little Naruto was leaning to see
better over little Sasuke�s arm with an adorable frown on his face. He was
confused. It was stupid and hard and he hated math so much, but he didn�t want
his mom to keep him in the house. That would be depressing, to know Sasuke was
out in the woods. Not that he could do anything, there was no one too keep a
look out so he couldn�t do anything�

Naruto let his mouth fall open a little. It wasn�t that
little Naruto was reading well. But he was feeling it all, thinking it as if �
as if � as if it was real and he was remembering it.

He glanced around. In the first line of desks there was a
little Sakura sitting with a little Ino. He recognized several more faces �
Kiba, Lee, Chouji . . . With every face, with every moment, he was more
convinced. This had happened. It had happened back when he was a kid and living
in Konoha with his parents. This conversation between him and Sasuke, it was a
real memory.

But the classroom was fading. Naruto stepped back once, then
twice � and even though he never went out through the door, he was in the
hallway again. There was no door anywhere else but what he had just seen was
still in his mind, clear and warm.

Naruto moved forward. Maybe there were more doors further
down the hall. Maybe some of them contained the memory of how to get out. Or
some clue, something to hold onto, maybe about why this was happening to him.
Or what Sasuke was hiding.

As if the thought had summoned it � which just might be true
� Naruto had to stop running when two small figures appeared in the hallway. He
almost ran over them, but neither one of two very small boys noticed he was
there.

It was Sasuke and him again, but this time even younger,
maybe around five. They were both in pajamas, and little Sasuke was leading a
tiny Naruto down the hall, carefully peering left and right as they went. He
opened a double carved door with some effort. Tiny Naruto followed swiftly,
grin plastered all over his face.

Naruto frowned at the door left ajar. It was doubtful this
memory contained any clues for getting out if they were so young in it. He was
better off moving further down. But the hallway didn�t seem to offer anything
but his played-out childhood memories. And if he was right and his thoughts
summoned this particular one, maybe there was something he should see behind
the door.

The room was huge and lit only by fire from a large,
ornately-carved fireplace. Blinking a few times helped Naruto�s eyes get used
to it a little, so he squinted around. The place was full of books, with a nice
round window in the center. His mind, when Naruto tried to label the place as a
library, informed him that the place was familiar to him as Sasuke�s library.�

There was another boy inside. Using that weird space in his
mind that was able to connect with things he�d never before been able to
recognize, Naruto realized that it was Itachi, Sasuke�s older brother by five
years.

�We were quiet. Neji didn�t hear us.� Sasuke announced
proudly and got a smile from Itachi.

�It wouldn�t be that bad if he did. He was very nice the
other night.�

Little Sasuke didn�t seem to like his brother defending Neji
at all. He frowned. �He asked you a lot of questions. I don�t like it when you
stop reading to answer him.�

Tiny Naruto let go of Sasuke�s hand and ran clumsily to
where Itachi was sitting on the floor near the fire with a heavy book in his
hands. He climbed into a large armchair, only to have Sasuke drag the blanket
from underneath him and push him so he could also sit in the chair and cover
them both with it.

When they were both tucked in, tiny Naruto announced, �I ask
many questions a lot.�

Sasuke ignored him and his brother�s questioning look. If
there was a reason he didn�t mind Naruto asking questions when he didn�t like
when Neji was doing it, he certainly wasn�t explaining it.

�Read.� He demanded instead.

Itachi smiled, opening the book. �The story is called �The
Fox and the Cat�. It happened that the
cat met the fox in the forest��

Near the door, Naruto blinked and snapped out of the scene.
Sure it was sweet. Itachi was reading them a story, Sasuke was cute and
amusing, but it just wasn�t helpful. He started to retreat, yet couldn�t help
but take another look at the sight in front of fire. Itachi leaned in to cover
one of Naruto�s little legs with the trailing blanket a little better.
Something thin and shiny fell out of his shirt.

Naruto froze. It was too late. The library melted into the
dirty hallway again. It didn�t matter, though. He recognized what he�d seen.
The necklace Sasuke had wanted so desperately in the forest was Itachi�s.
That�s who he was trying to protect.

He moved down the hall again. So, was Itachi the murderer,
then? Was he the one who killed that man in the car? And anyway, Naruto only
had Sasuke�s word that it wasn�t the same person who killed his godfather.
Maybe he was lying.

But still, from the impressions of the memory of Itachi
covering his foot, Naruto couldn�t really believe Itachi had killed anyone. It
was the only suspect he had for now though. And once he was out of this fetid
place Naruto would explore it further. But for the moment, deep in his heart,
he couldn�t believe it.

Frustrated at himself for letting his emotions get in the
way of a perfectly reasonable suspicion, Naruto sped up. Sasuke promised he
would tell him about the necklace and everything he knew. He just had to get
out, get to Sasuke. No more stopping, no more memories. It wasn�t as if he
would find the killer in his memories.

There was something at the end of the hallway, something . .
. red. Naruto, focused on it
entirely, almost got hit in the face when another door suddenly appeared and
opened on its own in a wide arc. He changed direction at the last moment and
smashed into the opposite wall.

The red thing at the end was a constant glinting
distraction. Naruto dared to glance through the opened door across from him.
That place, he recognized it. It was the bathroom of his first apartment, just
as small and horribly blue as he remembered it. Across from the door he could
see the bathtub. Someone was inside of it, though Naruto couldn�t see their
head despite looking at it from a higher position. He could only see a leg that
was hanging over the edge of the tub.

And just like he recognized the memory earlier, Naruto knew
this too. It was his roommate in that tub. It was poor Bee, the huge guy with
unrealistic ambitions who had answered Naruto�s ad for a roommate. He
disappeared a few months later without a trace, leaving all his things behind,
and without paying for the rent. Only he didn�t really disappear. Because,
right now, Naruto was looking into his memory, all the suppressed feelings and
fear was reaching out through the open door to remind him, to tell him�

His roommate somehow ended up in the tub of their bathroom,
dead.

And Naruto had no time to deal with it so he turned toward
the red glint at the end of the corridor and ran again. Whatever that was, no
matter how real it felt, couldn�t be true. Not in the same way as Sasuke
teaching him math or Itachi reading him a story was. Naruto had his first
apartment when he was eighteen. He remembered that year well. There were no
lost memories from that period. Therefore, it couldn�t be true.

Naruto barely managed to break the sprint fueled by fear and
disbelief when he noticed that the hallway was behind him. He was deep inside a
large room illuminated only by a bizarre red light that was coming from an
indefinable source. His heavy panting was coming back to him in an echo.

Naruto squinted, looking around. The room was empty, aside
from the bars that were splitting it in half. They reached higher then his gaze
could, and from wall to wall. There was no way for him to continue on from
here. It was a dead end unless he found a way to get past those bars.

They were thick and just far enough away from each other so
that Naruto couldn�t slip through. He tried, pushing hard against them until
his chest hurt. There was no way. He would have to go all the way back down the
hall and try the other side. It would take forever, but if there was an ending
on one side than there should be an end on the other.

Before he could completely get out from between the bars,
though, his eyes caught something. On the other end of the room, there was his
old bathtub. The leg was still awkwardly hanging out at the foot of it and it
looked just as it did back in the memory-room. But here, the rest of the
bathroom was gone, leaving just the bathtub . . . and the corpse inside of it.

�It�s your fault he ended up that way, of course.�

Naruto turned to face the source of the voice coming from
the other side of the bars. He was not very surprised to see himself there,
even if the smile on his face was tainted with red and looking like he was
having oh so much fun. It was logical, after all, to see yourself in a place
that was full of your memories. Wasn�t it?

The other . . . Naruto,
cocked his head as if listening to Naruto�s thoughts. �You realize that this
place is not real, don�t you? It is just how you imagine your mind is working.
A long dirty hallway � how fitting for a one-track mind � and enough rooms to
hide everything that is not your momentarily goal.�

�If it�s just my mind, I should be able to get out anytime,�
Naruto said, watching his reflection carefully.

�No. You are unconscious.�

It was almost funny, how this other self was fixed up to
look like a stereotypical bad guy from a movie; tight black clothes and a lot
of dark make-up. His eyes were startling, almost a fluorescent bright blue. And
the voice was Naruto�s, but deeper, silky and appealing, like it had been
borrowed from a stage illusionist.

�How can I talk to myself if I�m unconscious?�

The question was reasonable enough. And Naruto couldn�t
think of a better, more useful one for the moment.

�Hmm.� The deeper variation of his
voice hummed. Naruto felt goosebumps forming on his
skin. �Maybe there is a better term for the state you are in now. I don�t have
a use for knowing such things � the important thing is that it means you are
stuck in your head, and I am outside, having fun.�

Having fun? What kind of fun would someone who looked
exactly like Naruto imagined he�d look if he was evil, or acting evil, have out
there with Sasuke? Naruto didn�t want to know. He wanted out, so he could stop it.

�Who are you? What
are you?�

�Another mental manifestation.� His
reflection said, shrugging. �So you might as well stop making fun of my
appearance. It�s your imagination.�

It seemed like the other him could read his mind � well,
seeing that he was inside of Naruto�s mind, that made sense. It also made sense
that he might know the way out of here.

�How do I get out?� Naruto asked.

�Why would I tell you that? You regaining consciousness
would mean nothing good for me.�

So technically, he was asleep? Naruto, not really believing
it would work, pinched his arm harshly. It hurt, but he was still looking at
the emo-boy variation of himself through the bars.
There had to be a way for him to get out, though. If he was aware, and he could
fight it, then he had a chance. And then he could get out and help Sasuke.

Naruto looked desperately around again. There was nothing,
nothing but the bathtub. Why was it his fault that his roommate had ended up
there? He hadn�t done anything.

�Of course not, I did. Not that he knew the difference.� The
other Naruto answered to the thought
without a vocal prompt. �What I meant was, he ended up
like that because you provided me with some bad information. I was under the
impression his body would melt if I put it in a bathtub full of a few
chemicals.�

Naruto frowned. �I don�t know what chemicals would do that
to a body. It�s just a movie thing.�

�Yes, yes, I know that now. I was too rushed for details at
the time � he was rotting away quickly. I had to get rid of his body because of
the smell. And it�s not as if he was of any use in that condition, anyway.�

What, exactly, could a corpse be for . . . ? No. There would be time to think about
that later.

Naruto glanced at the tub again. That visible leg didn�t
look rotten. This � this thing he was talking to, it was lying. If his roommate
was in the apartment for so long after he died, Naruto would have seen it. He
couldn�t have stayed unconscious for that long. He would have noticed if that
had happened.�

�No, not really. You conveniently
suppress everything that has anything to do with me. I have been in control for
days, at times.� Naruto put his hand
on his neck, and stroked the skin there. �Ahh, that was fun.�

�What do you mean,� Naruto asked slowly, carefully while
chanting inwardly lies, lies, lies, lies,
�I suppress things?�

�The city is a wonderful place. Much better than these woods
here, where there�s nothing but space and greenery and more space. The people
here are too careful. They know too much. Out there . . .�

�I don�t suppress things! You�re lying! Bee ran off so he
wouldn�t have to pay his rent! I didn�t kill him! I didn�t!� Somehow, the exasperated look he got at the outburst
reminded Naruto forcefully of Sasuke, and that he was in danger. He closed his
eyes for a second, resting his forehead on the cold metal of the bars. It was
so cool, so calming. Naruto swallowed, remembered how thirsty he was and
gritted out, �How do I get out of here?�

His oddly mirrored face smirked on the other side, and
winked. �I�ll inform you when the good time for you to get out is. Be patient. Trust me.�

He � it - was
clearly amused with its own wittiness, but the smug grin flattened quickly,
turning thoughtful. Or patiently mocking . . .

�I wasn�t making a joke earlier,� It said. �You�ve never fought this hard before. I don�t know what
it is about that guy, but it is making me curious. So curious that I might even
let him survive today.�

�What . . .� Naruto started, and then hesitated. Did he
really want to know what this � this demon, or whatever it was, had been doing
to Sasuke while he was helpless here?

Sasuke, who was on the outside or on the faraway end of that
long, endless hallway, could be about to die and left to rot with one leg
hanging over the edge of a bathtub.

Naruto looked up just in time to see the wink. �How about I
show you?�

The bathtub popped out, just like it was a TV picture. It
left behind nothing but complete darkness. Naruto squinted into it anyway and,
predictably, it stayed that way.

�Over my other shoulder, kid.� The
mocking voice told him.

Naruto blinked and looked where he was directed. A huge
mirror, embraced by a pair of what looked like life-sized eagle wings appeared
there. The surface of it was just like the moonlight on water, not completely
smooth, and a very dark blue. It had a light of its own but Naruto couldn�t
tell where it was coming from, only that it was pretty and dreamy.�

The surface of the mirror stirred and then stilled
completely, solidifying brown and yellow smudges into a picture. The yellow
part, Naruto realized, was him even though nothing on him was, exactly, yellow.
The brown smudges became the carved wooden wall of the inn.

Breathless from the anticipation and the cold of the bars
that he was again pushing hard against, Naruto demanded, �Where is he?�

His alter ego - or whatever - smiled a little and shook his
head, not looking away from the mirror. His unnaturally blue eyes darkened
against the light from the mirror.

In the mirror � back at the inn - Naruto moved across the
floor. Like a four legged mammal, he was only using his hands and toes. The
grace of an animal was making him seem light, and quick. The picture moved with
him, like a camera, until Naruto leered at Sasuke and put his head in his lap.
It was silent, that movie, but there was no need for them to hear it to know
Sasuke was telling Naruto a story about . . . something. Some fox that that had
possessed a kid and . . .

Naruto unglued his gaze from the mirror picture, which was showing
him holding his head on Sasuke�s chest, to meet the startling blue eyes this
thing had borrowed from him. It almost blinded him, the shine and the smirk.
Naruto blinked several times. When he looked again the variant of himself on the other side of the bars had huge fox tails
laying lifelessly all around him.

�What? You had to know he was talking about me.�

Naruto couldn�t breathe. He broke out into a cold sweat;
heat was crawling against his insides, making him want to move, or cry. The
bars were too hard, squeezing him like a live trap that just waited for him to
slip so far into it. And the things he remembered Sasuke saying felt like they
were burning out the little oxygen he was managing to take in.

With effort, he glanced at the mirror again. The last part,
when he had climbed into Sasuke�s lap and begun licking his neck, was foggy but
Naruto could still feel the taste of hot skin on his tongue. He could still
feel Sasuke�s heart beating, so strong, so close. And he remembered, with a pang
of sickness and overwhelming guilt, what a thrill Sasuke�s fear was.

Forcing more air into his lungs, air that threatened to fuel
nothing but panic, Naruto managed, �Show me what is going on there now.�

Body parts, blood, screaming, so much pain and then more
pain; Naruto saw it all. The fire burned him, the yelling was deafening him and
he couldn�t, he couldn�t��
�
�Um, no.� The thing answered
lightly and snorted. Startled out of the panic attack, Naruto inhaled harshly.
�It�s not as if you�d like it.� And after a moment, it added, �Want me to help
you with that?�

Naruto froze when the other him stepped closer, grabbed his
sleeve and pulled him forward. The bars seemed to tighten even further. They
weren�t just cutting off his breathing, now they were also hurting his stomach.
But he slipped a little bit more to the other side and that helped to widen
them.

It helped to widen . . .

Suddenly, the impact of what had just happened struck him
fully. Naruto pushed again in the opposite direction. The bars instantly opened
for him, let him breathe and get back to his own side of the room.

�You,� he gasped, because there was instantly too much air,
�you wanted me to walk through the
bars!�

His sleeve was still caught in the hand of the thing wearing
his face and those tails, but Naruto was not afraid. The thing couldn�t get
out. It wasn�t even willing to go near enough to touch the bars. Naruto yanked
his arm away.

Those intense blue eyes narrowed in anger. �Don�t you want
to see what happened to Sasuke?� It asked.

Naruto glanced at the mirror. The picture of him biting into
Sasuke�s shoulder, like some fucking vampire, was frozen. He wanted to know
very, very much what had happened to Sasuke, but he stepped back anyway.

�I can see very well from here.�

The mirror vanished. There was nothing now, nothing but huge
dark space and the Naruto-look-alike just behind the bars and, of course,
Naruto himself.

�Suit yourself.� The figure, fading into darkness, shrugged.
Naruto turned away from it. The other end of the hallway was suddenly there.
The voice boomed behind him, still his own, but deeper, older, finally sounding
like it had before in Naruto�s head. �Do me a favor,
will you? Tell him I know what he�s up to. It won�t work.�

Naruto didn�t turn, he didn�t ask for clarification. The
bastard was just stalling him. He hurried back to where the room was narrowing
into the hallway, the sound of his steps louder than his heavy breathing.

As if the line separating the rooms was a magical border,
the blinding light from the other side made Naruto close his eyes as soon as he
stepped over it. He tried to open them after a second, but it was still too
bright. His nose was itching; his knees were kind of cold and sore, and there
was a faint but definite taste of blood in his mouth.

Naruto took a deep breathe and recognized the hammering
against his chest, and also the familiar room around him. Sasuke�s fear,
violent as it was, awoke in him an urge to puke after all that, and the traces
of blood on his tongue weren�t helping.

Sasuke moved beneath him, using Naruto�s stillness to push
him off. Naruto let him, ending up on the floor. He could feel more than see
Sasuke rising up on his knees quickly.

�Naruto?� he asked. Or maybe tried, and failed, to demand,
so Naruto concluded that he was fine for the moment. He leaned over more
without even trying to stop the heaving.

Nothing came out. The urge went away, leaving Naruto feeling
tired. His nose caught the smell of the chicken Sakura had probably prepared
before going out. His stomach whined and growled, but there was no pain in his
head. There was no fuzziness. He knew where he was. The wood in the inn was
triggering a special, welcoming feeling.

Sasuke was kneeling not too far away, wiping a thin stream
of blood off of his arm and shoulder and waiting for him to answer. Naruto�s
ears were still full of his own heartbeats. But he was calming down, obviously
able to tell that he was himself.

�What,� Naruto finally asked, perfectly aware there were
more important things for him to ask. �What were those boards we were dragging
into the woods for?�

There was about six feet of hard floor between them. Sasuke
was kneeling, but his every muscle was tense. His shoulders relaxed a little at
the question, though. There was curiosity in his eyes.

But he didn�t ask if Naruto remembered anything. �For the tree house.�

Of course it was for the tree house. Of course they would
have a tree house. Of course, because that was just so normal.

Naruto took a moment to mourn that he had asked the
question. He was so tired, but he had more impotent questions, damn it.

�What is that thing inside me?� he asked. Sasuke opened his mouth
and ended up just wetting his lips, frown firmly in place. Naruto changed his
mind. �No, fuck that. How did it get there? I�m a � am I possessed?�

�No. That implies the thing inside of you stays there
willingly, and it doesn�t.� Naruto took a long, silent moment to soak in that
he was not crazy. He couldn�t hear Sasuke�s heart any longer. But his voice was
still shaky. �It�s trapped there.�

Naruto thought about the bars, about how you unlock a cage
that has no lock. He wanted to ask who had made it and how, but there was a
more important thing he needed to know.

�How do I get it out?�

It came out more forcefully than he had intended, but Sasuke
didn�t seem upset as he shook his head. �I can�t tell you that.�

�Why not?�

�Because everything you know, the demon knows as well.�

Naruto felt the word �demon� as a wave of icy water crashing
on his chest. �He said to give you a message. He said he knows what are you up
to and that it won�t work.�

Sasuke actually smirked. �I�m not up to anything. You are
delivering the message to the wrong person.�

Well. The demon had not specified who the message was for.
It made sense to Naruto that �it� had meant Sasuke, but it hadn�t actually said
so. Which brought up another question . . .

�So why did you stay with me?�

This time, Sasuke hesitated with more purpose. He seemed to
be picking his words carefully.�

�The demon is known for going after the nearest person dear
to the host. And in Konoha . . .� Sasuke looked away. �Sakura had just left. I
wanted to distract it.�

The nearest person dear to the host?
Naruto thought about five year old Sasuke covering them both up in the library
armchair and wondered if closeness had anything to do with his memories, or
would the demon go after Sasuke instead of Sakura any day?

He also wondered why the answer Sasuke gave him stung so
much.

�How do you know so much about it?�

Instantly, like he�d been expecting it all along and was
ready for it, Sasuke said, �Because that � thing, you have inside of you� My family
sealed it there.�

Naruto opened his mouth wide. Not to talk, but to take in
more air. He needed to ask more� but Sasuke already knew that.

�It was supposed to be me.� The words were quiet, almost
ceremonial for the unwavering gaze Sasuke was holding on Naruto. There was
nothing apologetic in his voice or in his words, but it felt as if he was
apologizing anyway. �Have you heard about my brother? How he... ran away from
home on the same night you disappeared?�

Numbly, Naruto nodded, even though he wasn�t sure he had
heard that it happened on the same night.

�He refused to go along with it.�

Which was good, very good. Naruto
had been right. Itachi was not a bad person.

His chest burned with pain, still.

�So how did it end up in me?�

Sasuke was still looking at him with the same steadiness.
Naruto wanted him to stop that.

�You were a convenient replacement, the only person around
when my father announced my aunt was supposed to arrive the next morning, so
they can do the transfer from her to me. She was getting rapidly sick, they had
to do it sooner then they thought � not that it was meant to help her. But Itachi wasn�t done researching,
so he did the best he could.� Then, with a hovering little smile Naruto felt
was inappropriate, Sasuke amended. �Well, he did the best he could for me.�

Again and again, inside of Naruto�s head, Itachi leaned to
cover Naruto�s foot. He let the silence stretch. It was Itachi�s fault he was
stuck with that . . . thing, inside
of him. It was Itachi�s fault he was an orphan, homeless and alone, something
he would think about in a minute, as soon as he managed to cross this flaming
bridge. It was all because Itachi couldn�t make it in time to help his little
brother properly.

Fuck it. He was a ten year old boy who hadn�t done anything
to deserve such a fate.

Naruto glared up at Sasuke. �Your brother stuffed it inside,
so he�s gonna get it out. Where is he?�

Ignoring Naruto�s anger completely, Sasuke said, �That was ten
years ago. Itachi didn�t stop planning on how to get rid of that thing for
good, you know. And now� He�s ready. That�s why you�re
here.�

The photo; Sasuke had been talking to Itachi on the phone
yesterday, from what Naruto had overheard. But, what did the photo have to do
with anything? He still hadn�t showed it to anyone. What was it that Itachi was
planning? Was the demon�s message for him?

When Naruto opened his mouth, even he wasn�t sure what would
come out. Nothing did, though, because the door of the inn opened and steps
echoed down the hall before a figure looked down on where Naruto and Sasuke
were still sitting on the floor.

Sasuke jumped to his feet. �What are you doing here, Neji?�

How? Was probably a better question to start with. Naruto was
pretty sure Sasuke locked after he had pushed Sakura out.

Neji � a tall guy with long hair and a very beautiful,
although slightly feminine, face � sneered at Sasuke�s dirty clothes. He was
the cousin? The one people all around Konoha were talking about would be the
heir instead of Sasuke. The one Sasuke hadn�t wanted to interrupt Itachi while
he was reading.

�Your father sent me, of course,� Neji answered. �To pay for your stay in this place. He believes it is about
time for you to return home.�

Sasuke made a little frustrated sound in his throat and
turned to climb the stairs without a word. That left Naruto sitting on the
floor between the inn�s hall and restaurant, looking really stupid when Neji
turned his disapproving eyes down on him.

After a moment of awkward silence, Naruto said dumbly. �Er.�

Neji narrowed his eyes further.

tbc
- 6
- 7
- 8
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