Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Antitype.	By : silversound Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 704 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction and is not being written for sale or profit. Characters and elements of the original plot from the series "Naruto" that appear in this work of fiction do not belong to the writer.

Chapter List
- 1-Lower Chislev[1]: Contact.
- 2-Lower Chislev[2]: The way that should be.
- 1
- 2
Opening Comments: This story contains graphic descriptions of a violent and sexual nature. That's probably why you're reading it, but just so we're clear there will be graphic language the whole way through.

Carry on.

Lower-Chislev [1]: Contact

“Cough it up!!”
Crack!

There was a sickening thud as Naruto's body was hurled against the unforgiving pavement for a third time. He could feel excruciating pain running up and down his side, and knew that he would probably come away form this with at least one broken rib.

“F-...Fuck you...” he rasped, spitting blood.

There were leers and smirks all around at his choice of words, and the boy suddenly felt a wave of fearful understanding settle over him.

“Shit...” he moaned as he looked around himself with unease. He was outnumbered and surrounded on all sides by males around his age and older. They sported various expressions that ranged from rage, to sick amusement, to scornful indifference at his situation

“W-wait! Please!” he cried, reaching into the pocket of his shorts to hurriedly to dig for the item that had initiated this whole mess, “I'll give it back, so please!”

Another vicious kick met his side as the leader of the 'hunt', a boy in his late teens or early twenties, with flyaway auburn hair and more than a few scars and bruises attesting to his violent demeanor, rejected his offer.

“Too late for that,” he sneered, “You'll see what happens to dirty thieves who mess with the Hounds you little shit!” Said boy signaled his followers to come forward and about twelve of them obliged, the rest hanging back out of disinterest or distaste for what they knew was going to come next.

Upon seeing the number of his aggressors headed in his direction Naruto panicked, scrambling away as far as he could until his back met with the wall of a crumbling, long abandoned warehouse, one of many that lined this alleyway. His messy blonde hair fell forward into his eyes a bit, partially obscuring his vision as his attackers encroached on him, and Naruto knew that it was over.

Rape wasn't at all uncommon in this, the lowest layer of the Underground, and considering that the population was predominantly male, the fact that he was a boy had little bearing on the chances that he too could become a victim. However, he had rarely, if ever, heard about incidences like what was happening to him now.

Usually if any one of the five or so gangs that roamed the streets of Lower-Chislev had a problem with someone, especially someone they considered a thief, they would waste no time in killing them. It was just his luck that he had gotten caught up with a gang like the Hounds. Not only were they one of the larger gangs in this part of the underground, but their leader, Toshi, was known to have a true sadistic streak. Even though it should have been good enough just to beat him to a bloody pulp or even kill him for what he had done, with Toshi in charge the situation had already turned into something much more sinister.

“You'll make for some pretty good amusement,” the boy in question drawled with a vicious twist of his lips, “Morale's been pretty low lately, you know.”

Naruto's eyes widened as the older boy approached and snatched at his chin, forcing the blonde to look up into his leering face.

“Don't touch me!!” he screamed, pulling out of the other's grasp, “Just take it if you want it so fucking bad! Ge-Get the fuck away from me!!!”

“You're a real weakling punk of a thief, you know that?” Toshi spat, pushing him back against the wall roughly with disgust, “Laying hands on other people's stuff and then complaining about the consequences!!”

There were sounds of agreement among those who had chosen to participate in his defamation as well as those who hadn't. Some even laughed at his predicament.

Despite his position, white hot indignation licked up Naruto's back and all of his protests came out in an uncontrollable rush.

“I'm not a thief!!! They were mine to begin with!” he yelled vehemently, “That son of a bitch made me sell my treasure to him for almost nothing, and then you bastards--!”

All of his breath left him in one sharp wheeze as the leader's shin connected with his stomach, forcing the air out of his lungs. In the next instant he was up on his knees, held viciously by the hair at the back of his head.

“Got a big mouth on you, haven't you?” leered his aggressor, briefly shooting a knowing look back at his accomplices, “It's time you put it to work.”

“N-no!! Stop!” the blonde pleaded, latching his fingers around the hand that was now twisted into the fabric of his shirt, pinning him against the wall painfully. He looked on in terror as the hand in his hair was relinquished only to head for the front of the leader's jeans, yanking down his zipper in one easy motion, then his underwear. Toshi wasn't hard yet, but with horror Naruto could see the color rising in the limp organ before his face. The asshole was probably getting off on watching him struggle. The lighter haired boy opened his mouth to protest, but shut it quickly when the other boy suddenly grasped his own penis and without warning smacked it right against his cheek – not hard enough to sting, but definitely enough to twist Naruto's guts with a sharp twinge of humiliation and not a small amount of fright.

This was really, really happening.

“Suck,” came the pitiless command. All traces of sick humor seemed to have left the older boy's face and he stared down with nothing more than scorn in his eyes.

“You should know what to do, right blondie?” he added with a cruel snicker.

The younger boy felt tears leaking from the corners of his eyes before he could stop them, but his mouth slowly opened nonetheless, shallow breaths coming out in ragged shudders. For a moment he just stared at the other boy, not sure what angle he should approach from. His mind raced with thoughts of what he could do to get away, --bite, kick, scratch, fight -- but the prevailing thought was that there was no escaping. He was going to be raped and die here.

Naruto's knees involuntarily clenched together as he struggled to keep from pissing himself in fear.

This was it.

“Stop.”

Everyone froze including Naruto as a foreign voice intruded on the nightmarish scene.

“The fuck?” Toshi demanded irritatedly, turning his head to see where the new voice had come from. A round of agitated curses filled the alley for a moment as the gang's amusement was suddenly intruded upon. There was little short of a Hunter raid that would stop the group now that they had the scent of blood in their noses, but Naruto knew all too well that such a thing was very unlikely in a place like Chislev. He looked for the source of the voice too, feeling incredibly nervous rather than relieved.

There was no way anybody would ever go out of their way to help him. Not in this hell called Deep Underground.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Naruto followed the gang members' gazes up until his eyes landed on a small dark figure up on top of the roof of the building directly adjacent to where he knelt. He couldn't make out the person's features, but he could see a fringe of longish dark hair fluttering in the weak artificial breeze created by Chislev's failing ventilation system overhead.

“You know this little whore?” Toshi demanded. Naruto's gaze snapped over to the young gang leader, eyes unbelievably wide with shock and hurt.

The newcomer's stance shifted slightly as he seemingly directed his gaze toward the kneeling blonde boy for a moment.

“Let go.”

“Sure,” the leader said with an ominous chuckle, and Naruto's brow furrowed deeply as he looked up to see his tormentor's eyes take on a cruel glint as he tucked his cock back in and zipped up, “He can wait.”

At last Toshi obliged by shoving his captive boy back hard, causing Naruto's head to knock against the wall behind him with a painful crack. The last thing he saw clearly was the Hounds' leader's back as he turned to head for his newest target. His eyes rolled skyward briefly as he slid down with his back against the wall, fighting the muzzy darkness that loomed on the edges of his eyesight and threatened to engulf his world.

Everything seemed to be spinning out of his control faster than he could follow.

Naruto realized that if he wanted to get away now would be the time, but his body just wouldn't follow his commands. His thoughts flitted hazily from one image to another as he wavered between watching the exchange between his attackers and his possible would-be savior, and struggling to keep hold on his consciousness. He managed to pull himself up into a slightly hunched sitting position after several attempts, watching the action unfold around him from beneath heavy eyelids.

As Toshi and his gang approached, the shadowy figure wasted no time in coming down to meet them. There was a soft noise as the newcomer leaped nimbly down from the rooftop on which he had stood, and then a solid thud as he landed heavily, causing the ground to indent a bit and tremble on impact.

For a moment there was stillness among the Hounds, who were clearly a bit startled by the abrupt movement. A normal person would have probably been injured by such a drop, but their adversary seemed entirely unshaken, staring them down calmly as if awaiting their approach.

But as suddenly as it had come the silence broke and time began to move again in the alleyway. Toshi's boys wasted no time in falling upon their new prey, again gathering up their makeshift weapons, mostly pipes, chains, knives, and other things that they had brought with them from their base when attempting to chase down the blonde not too long ago. Their movements were accompanied by whoops, growls and various noises and gestures meant to intimidate their adversary and psyche themselves up for the kill.

Naruto closed his eyes painfully, afraid to watch what he knew was going to follow. He had been able to make out his would-be savior's form now that he had come down from the rooftop – the boy was around his age, lean and perhaps average height, with glittering black irises that seemed to reflect no emotion as he calmly stared down the surrounding gang. His hair was a fringe of black which, although no longer buffeted by the air currents up along the rooftops, was spiked dramatically in a way that seemed to suggest movement all on its own. He appeared capable but all in all seemed out of place in the giant abandoned slum called Chislev.

It wasn't clear where the first attack began from – likely one of the more impatient gang members made a movement and the motion was picked up on by others. The result was that the entire circle seemed to contract and descend upon the dark haired youth en-masse, launching their attacks with no regard for the concept of a fair fight.

But before the first attack could even breach his personal space, the new boy's body seemed to blur momentarily out of sight. Naruto's eyes widened as the boy suddenly shimmered out of existence only to appear directly behind his foremost attacker, easily using the other's forward momentum as a catalyst to propel him into another gang member directly opposite him. The two collided awkwardly, and a hideous howl was raised as the first man's arm was clumsily severed at the wrist by the machete that was being brandished by his comrade during impact.

From there the alleyway became a whirlwind of movement and further bloodshed. The dark haired boy weaved easily between his attackers at a rate which made Naruto's vision blur and become strained as he tried to keep up with his eyes. He was felling most of the Hounds that he encountered with one solid blow each to vital points.

The dark haired boy's movements seemed somehow perfectly calculated as he struck swiftly and without regard to his victims' cries of agony. Naruto watched in something akin to both fascination and horror as the living shadow twisted himself between simultaneous attacks, one from in front and one from behind, using the narrow pole that was thrust at at his upper back to run through an oncoming attacker who was barely even in his range of vision. At the same time his left leg lashed out to viciously twist aside the head of the man directly beside him, resulting in a sickening crunch that probably signified a broken neck.

The blond closed his eyes and cringed as the rate and severity of the outcries that he heard increased exponentially. The boy-devil literally tore through the Hounds. It seemed like his every motion was accompanied by hideous cracks and sounds akin to what one might hear in a butchery – the noises of one-sided slaughter.

Bones were broken and bodies heaped as Naruto realized that somewhere among the mass carnage he had lost track of the gang's leader altogether. There were only a few members left standing now and, finally realizing he fate of their fellow members, they hesitantly dropped their weapons in surrender and made to escape.

However they were quickly felled as well as the boy summarily pursued them and struck them down as well, seemingly indifferent to the fact that they had essentially thrown up the white flag by discarding their weapons. By the time it was over the ground was littered with four more motionless figures, and with mixed emotions, Naruto realized what the abrupt calm that had settled over the alleyway signified -- all of the Hounds were dead.

It seemed he had little time to contemplate the swift demise of his attackers however, as the gaze of the boy whom he had just watched effectively slaughter an entire gang suddenly shifted over to him.

Naruto shuddered and clumsily tried to force energy into his limbs, even knowing that he was still reeling from having his head bashed against the wall, feeling scared and fatigued and nauseous in all the worst ways.

Something felt... wrong.

The strange boy's eyes were focused intently on him now, and they seemed different from before. Not sure what to expect next the blond lifted his gaze a little bit to meet wide red eyes that swirled madly with flecks of black, almost as if to hypnotize him. Though he searched briefly he found no trace of humanity in those eyes, only single minded intent.

The boy took a step toward him as if in some trance and somehow Naruto knew that he was not going to be saved.

But strangely, even though he could sense the killing intent in the way that the other boy looked at him, Naruto felt a familiar warmth that did not stem from fear beginning in at the back of his throat and between his eyes. In his gut and slowly spreading to his limbs like wildfire leaping from one clump of dry material to another. He closed his eyes as he heard the other boy's pace pick up from down the alley, heading back in the direction of the his prone form.

In a moment he would end up just like the fallen Hounds that littered the ground before him; He was sure of it. But still that burn crept up the back of his throat until it reached his forehead, and then it burned that too.

He knew this feeling...

It was something like anger, not at anyone in particular, but at his own fate.

What was the point if he somehow managed to avoid the awful fate that had almost been dealt to him by the Hounds, only to instead meet his demise at the hands of a total stranger against whom he'd committed no crime whatsoever?
Was that any better? To be killed by somebody he didn't even know?

Simply put, it filled him with intense rage, sadness, and indignation to think he'd never even know who his attacker was or why he was being killed. He hadn't asked that asshole to interfere in the first place!!

He would never see what was beyond this awful place...

He would never know who he was or where he had come from...

And most painful of all...

He would never be able to keep his promise.

At the instant of that final thought, the itchy heat that had been building at the back of Naruto's throat and eyes could no longer be contained.

“NO!!!”

All of his pent up frustration at his circumstances surged out of him in a horrible wave.

But by that time the demon-boy had already advanced upon him, his fist raised high to strike down the already injured youth. Naruto's eyes were clenched tight with the force of his terror, waiting for the blow that would end his intolerably short and altogether dissatisfying life.

Haa...Haah...

Haaa...Haa...

Slowly, the blonde haired boy's eyes peeled open as warm, moist air misted over his nose and eyelashes.
Naruto looked without really seeing for a moment as his mind took time to register the fact that he was still alive. He could feel himself still respiring albeit shallowly, his breath hitching often, but before his eyes was nothing but inky black.
He felt a little bit warmer than he should in the drafty alleyway.

When his brain finally caught up to his situation, the battered boy's eyelids fluttered a little and his eyes attempted to roll back in his head, shoulders sagging of their own will in relief.

The dark haired boy's fists were planted at either side of his head, and Naruto noticed from the corner of his eye that the already pale knuckles were painted stark white due to the force with which said fists were clenched. The other boy shuddered violently, his somewhat narrow frame appearing fragile as he shook with some unknown exertion.

It was almost enough to make Naruto feel irritated.
Shouldn't he be the one shaking and freaking out?

But slowly he raised his own trembling hands to rest themselves tentatively on the shaking boy's shoulders in what he hoped was a soothing gesture, shaking him lightly. He wasn't sure what had just happened, but it wasn't in his nature to watch others suffer – even half-crazed killing-machines.

And surely from the look of it, suffering was what the other boy was doing right now.

In response the other leaned forward heavily until his forehead rested almost right under Naruto's chin. If he leaned forward any farther, the blonde boy's mouth would be buried against the crown of his head. As it was, the back of his neck was flushing brilliantly at the feeling of another's warm breaths tickling his throat. Naruto was not used to being so close to other people.

But even though the other boy's closeness was making him feel a bit uneasy, the blonde did not attempt to move him, unsure if the vicious killing intent he had sensed a minute before had truly abated.

“Uh...”

He wanted to say something to alleviate the strange tension that had settled between himself and his strange rescuer, but nothing concrete came to mind.

“You...” the other boy whispered suddenly, causing Naruto's shoulders to jump in surprise. Despite their closeness he hadn't expected the low voice that emanated from the other boy to rumble through him so deeply.

“Did...haah...I hurt...you?”

“What? Uh...n...no,” Naruto replied, unsure of his own words. “Just scared the shit out of me, that's all.” he thought.

And then glancing carefully down at his savior, “But...no harm no foul I guess. I am alive thanks to this guy after all...”

“Good...I didn't want to,” the other boy said between gasps. He was shaking less now, but still shaking, which unnerved the blonde a great deal. He was starting to get the impression that this kind of thing was a recurring problem for the boy who was currently resting against him with no reservations.

Ah...!

Naruto gasped as the other boy's narrow arms suddenly came around him, encircling his lower back lightly.

“Sorry. You're frightened.”

“N...not really,” he managed, flushing all the way up to his ears now. What was with this guy?

“You're a crappy liar,” came the response, half murmured as if he might be talking in his sleep, “...Could sense your fear.”

“...Ooh...kay?” When no more words were forthcoming, Naruto looked down at the boy who now rested heavily on top of him.

“Hey, you can't possibly be...”

He nudged the other boy's head a little with his fingertips...

“...Asleep?”

It had taken a little while, but eventually Naruto had managed to carefully pry the arms of the strange dark haired boy from around himself and shift him enough to get out from under him. Unsure what to do with his rescuer-almost-turned-killer, he had finally elected to rest him against the wall and sit watch over his prone figure until he awoke, lest anybody stumble across his unconscious form and decide to do him harm.

He still wasn't sure whether he should run away from him as soon as he was awake again, but it somehow didn't feel right to leave him unconscious in an alley by himself. This was Deep-ground after all.

So in the end, Naruto had stayed near him for nearly an hour until he finally heard the other boy moan lightly and stir into wakefulness. When he sat up, the dark haired youth slowly looked in his direction, easily finding his eyes and locking gazes with him.

It made Naruto feel a little bit uncomfortable to be stared at so openly, but he managed to hold the other boy's gaze.

“What a strange guy,” he thought, swallowing dryly.

“Feeling better?” the blonde said at length, deciding to mask his uneasiness with a concern, “You were sleeping for a while.”

He received a nod in response, but that was all. After looking at the ceiling, his hands, and once again the ceiling, Naruto finally met the other's eyes again, realizing that his new acquaintance had no intention of breaking the ice.

“So...Um...I was just wondering...,” Naruto started slowly, “Why did you do that? I mean you didn't have to. I'm a stranger and all.”

“Because I wanted to,” came the other's answer, sounding remarkably expressionless considering that a little while ago he had viciously torn through almost thirty people on behalf of someone else's welfare.

“Yeah, but why?” the blonde demanded, growing impatient, “You don't even know me! You could have just passed right by and nobody would have faulted you for it. Nobody's stupid enough to pick a fight with any of the gangs down here, let alone the Hounds.”

“It looked like you were going to be...hurt. You'd prefer if I'd left you?” asked the other, cocking his head slightly in question.

Even though the other boy sounded completely serious with no hint of mocking in his tone, Naruto's back stiffened and he stood stock still for a minute, his face tinting to an unhealthy pallid shade as he struggled for words.

“Wh-wh-what!? NO!!” he shouted at last, completely unprepared for the blunt reply.

“You seemed upset that I helped you. Or is it that hard to believe that I really helped you just because I felt like it?”

“I'm not upset!” Naruto insisted, searching for an explanation to his own feelings. It was as if the universe was playing some sort of cruel joke on him. Why would anybody want to save him, of all people? It made him feel something unfamiliar that he couldn't quite identify, having no previous experience to compare it to.

“I'm not!! I'm just...confused!”

When the other boy continued to watch him quietly, he felt himself getting warm with embarrassment but also a separate feeling. He felt like he wanted to get up and leave, but then again doing so would make him feel even more dissatisfied with the situation. If felt as though he...owed something to the other boy. Naruto searched the dark haired boy's even darker eyes desperately.

“Look, I don't even know you!”

The boy shrugged as though to indicate that he wasn't bothered by that particular fact.

“I...!!”

Whatever he was going to say suddenly didn't seem good enough.

But he had to say something!!

“Um...”

“I...”

Patiently the other boy watched emotions flit across Naruto's face as he struggled to figure out what he was trying to say. The blonde's eyes inadvertently wandered to his savior's face again, and when he took in the calm look that he was being given, unfamiliar words finally began to creep into the forefront of his mind.

“Th...”

“Hm..?” the boy noised softly.

“Th...Thank you?” he said abruptly, well aware that he was now blushing outright. But strangely he felt relieved to have gotten the words out.

“You're welcome.” The stranger said quietly. His lips perked up almost imperceptibly at the corners.

Naruto wasn't sure why, but when he saw the other boy smile his embarrassment slowly began to dissipate and he felt himself smiling back slightly.

“...Thanks,” he said again, letting the words roll around his tongue a little bit as he got used to them, “Thanks ...a lot,--...uh...What's your name?”

The other boy looked genuinely surprised, as though he had never been asked that question before.

“I don't know.”

“Well that's a stupid name,” Naruto teased, and then narrowing his eyes in concern added, “But seriously, you mind if I give you a better one? You don't have to keep it or anything, it's just...it's hard to talk if you don't even have a name for me to call you by.”

The nameless boy cocked his head to the side again at the suggestion. He hadn't expected to hear that from the blonde.

Taking his silence for acceptance, Naruto tilted his head back and pondered the ceiling up above while he thought about what kind of name would suit his new...friend?

“Well, you really saved me today, so I think I oughtta call you something like...suke...ta...sa...

“Sa...suke. How's that? Sasuke.”

“Sasuke,” the boy said quietly, trying out the word for himself. It didn't sound bad. Actually, he didn't think he would mind responding to that name at all, especially if that was what the other boy wanted to call him. The easy way the name rolled off of the blonde boy's tongue made it sound...pleasant.

“You can call me Sasuke if you want to,” he answered at last, frowning at himself slightly afterward. That wasn't exactly what he had meant to say. But his blunt words didn't seem to bother the other boy, who smiled at him again and then offered his hand.

“Okay, Sasuke, you can call me Naruto,” he said amiably, seeming to gain confidence as they exchanged words. The suppressed fear that had been in his tone and motions was rapidly melting away.

“Naruto...” Sasuke uttered to himself softly. He liked that name even better. It came off of his tongue easily and seemed to fit the other boy's friendly personality rather well, “You seem to be feeling better now.”

“Oh...y-yeah? Well I've been living down here a while now,” the other boy assured him, “Stuff like that... I'm used to it. Kind of comes with the territory, y'know?”

That was only half true. Before Sasuke had shown up Naruto had really been thinking that his meager luck had finally run out this time. He had done a pretty good job of keeping himself out of trouble up until then, and it was true that he was rather used to the dangers associated with living so far Underground, but he still felt deeply shaken by the encounter in a way that he wasn't sure he would be able to forget with a good night's sleep like usual.

“A-anyway...if you're alright now then I guess I'm gonna head home,” the blonde told him in a gruff tone, looking around a little bit warily, “I didn't find their leader, so I'm thinking he got away. Besides, I already checked most of them for anything good while you were asleep; There's no reason to stick around here any longer.

“Oh yeah, sorry!”

So saying he dug deep into his pockets and pulled out a fistful of cash and a slightly scratched up but otherwise new looking butterfly knife.

“None of them had much on 'em,” Naruto said with a small frown, “But I'll give you most of the cash I found if you'll let me have the knife. Doesn't look like you'd need it anyway.”

Sasuke looked down at the boy's meager offering and then back into his eyes again. He didn't mean to stare so much, but Naruto's eyes were rather nice – a riveting soft blue, deep and yet clear enough that he could see right through to their depths. It was hard to look away.

“Keep it,” he said, curling his pale hands closed around Naruto's slightly rougher ones, “All of it if you want.”

The blonde seemed surprised at this, as he sat back on his heels then, staring at Sasuke quizzically.

“You're really not from around here are you.”

Sasuke merely sat there, staring back at him in silence.

Naruto heaved a sigh, then carefully rose and turned away.

“Well, I gotta go,” he said brusquely, “Maybe I'll see you around some time.”

And with those words he began to head towards his home, walking a little bit faster than normal.

But for some reason he stopped before he had even gone a hundred paces. Briefly he glimpsed back and there was Sasuke, looking after him quietly but making no move to shift from his place on the ground. Narrowing his eyes, Naruto turned around again and made to keep going, but somehow he could feel the dark haired boy's gaze on his back, unwavering. Not accusative or plaintive. Just watching.

The blonde shook his head as if to clear it, but he could still feel the other boy's eyes. And then, as if his body moved on its own, he turned back and beckoned for Sasuke to follow as he made his way down the alleyway and away from the final resting place of what had once been the third most powerful gang in Lower Chislev.

Easily falling into step a little bit behind him, Sasuke watched Naruto look around and get his bearings for a moment before heading off decisively in the direction of one of the less derelict seeming sections of town. In his mind the blonde felt as if he had completely lost his bearings in terms as his life's philosophy – Keep your head down, stay out of trouble, don't invite any unnecessary burden. Suddenly he was traveling the streets with a guy who stuck out like a sore thumb and seemed to have some kind of psychological issue. For somebody who was necessarily pragmatic in the way he went about his life, Naruto suddenly seemed to have lost his reason.

“So...” the blonde boy began slowly, deciding to break the silence more to calm his own nerves than anything else, “You're not afraid of gangs, you went out of your way to save me even though I've never met you before in my life, you fight like a demon...and you're not interested in money?”

Sasuke made no noise, but Naruto knew without looking that the other boy had nodded. The slightly shorter youth frowned to himself, earnestly baffled by the strange turn of events and by his new friend's odd circumstances.

“No name either, huh. Just where did you come from exactly?”

In response the other boy merely shook his head from side to side and looked down contemplatively. In truth he was as clueless about his origin as Naruto was. The farthest back he could remember was a couple of days ago, when he had first awakened in a heap of debris at the bottom of what seemed to be some kind of abandoned tunnel or mine shaft. From there he had wandered for what must have been hours until he reached this place – a thoroughly deserted looking city whose long abandoned structures all seemed to be crumbling slowly into oblivion, a thick yellowish haze coating every and anything to the point where at times it was like he was walking through some kind of fog.

He didn't know much about himself either besides the small amount of information he had gleaned in the past couple of days while wandering. The first thing he'd noticed was that he didn't seem to ever grow tired. In the two days since he had awakened he had only taken a break once, not because he needed to rest, but because he had decided to sit and think about his situation for a moment and see if he couldn't remember anything about himself before moving on.

Coincidentally, that had been exactly what he was doing when he had heard a commotion coming from the streets below and had gone to investigate. It was then that he had watched a large group, which he now knew had called themselves the Hounds, ruthlessly chase down a single boy and beat him viciously before one boy, obviously the leader, emerged and pinned him to a wall.

Even now Sasuke couldn't quite say why he had chosen to intervene. But something deep within him had stirred when he watched Naruto stare down his attackers that time, and all of a sudden he knew that he didn't want things to end the way that they would if he didn't step in.

Somehow, he really didn't want to see anything bad to happen to the blonde boy.

However, he had not expected to lose control of himself the moment he attempted to step in. The sudden loss of coherence and subsequent emergence of 'another self' within him had taken him completely by surprise. All at once his world had become nothing but violence. He couldn't remember why he was fighting or who the enemy was, only that he sought destruction – as much of it as he could manage.

It was frightening.

“You've gotta be from somewhere up top,” Naruto said after giving it some thought, cutting him from his reverie, “Lower Chislev is as far down as you can go, and you're way too...well...pretty , I guess...to be from one of the other Deep-ground layers like Iyyal or Tammuz...Maybe you came down from Tishrei?”

“Still doesn't explain why you've lost your memory though...” the blonde mumbled to himself, lost in thought.

Again Sasuke could only listen quietly and continue to follow, not quite sure what it was that Naruto was talking about. Although he had seemed wary of him at first, it was clear that the blonde boy enjoyed having some one else to talk to. Whether or not his dark haired companion responded was nothing more than a technicality.

As they walked Sasuke thought he caught glimpses of human figures through the haze, skulking through alleyways as though beaten and clearly doing their best to avoid being noticed by other denizens of this...place...he had found himself in.

“Don't know why you'd wanna come down from there either,” the boy muttered softly, “This place is like hell compared to the higher layers. The ventilation's shit for one thing, not to mention the lighting. Hell, the life-support system barely even functions anymore down here.”

They turned a corner suddenly, and Sasuke found himself looking at what seemed to be the back of yet another disused building. It seemed fairly sturdy considering that it hadn't crumbled in on itself quite so much as the other buildings around it, having been built from concrete molding on top of a strong brick foundation. There was a good sized hole about two meters up from the ground that seemed to be covered over with some kind of cloth from the inside.

“This is my place,” the blonde boy said, gesturing toward the hole, “If you gimme a hand up I can probably pull you in.”

“And just so you know, I can usually get up there by myself!” he added a quickly, “But...you know...I'm still not feeling so great right now.”

He looked away sheepishly and Sasuke saw that Naruto's legs were shaking a little bit just from the walk they had taken to get there. He must have been injured more severely than he had let on to be straining so hard.

Sasuke looked up at the entrance to Naruto's home and then back at the boy himself who had now moved to stand under said opening, grinning encouragingly.

“Sasuke? You gonna--...a...ah!”

Naruto cried out sharply in surprise as the dark haired boy came over and without warning lifted him up to place him over one shoulder as easily as though he were a sack of potatoes, wrapping one arm around his back and the other around his waist to secure him.

He was about to protest when suddenly the ground disappeared below and they sailed smoothly through the entrance to his home, the meager covering that shielded the entryway swishing in their wake. As soon as they were safely inside, Sasuke looked around for a moment until he set eyes on Naruto's makeshift bed in the corner, upon which he strode over and roughly sat the blonde boy down on top of it.

When he stood back to carefully examine the smaller boy's condition, Naruto stared at him wide eyed in disbelief, not quite sure what had just happened.

“N...Nn...?”

“You shouldn't be walking around so carefree,” the dark haired boy said seriously, still eying him with coolly, “You're pretty badly injured right.”

If he weren't already feeling like he was about to pass out with exhaustion, Naruto was sure he would have been blushing up and down with shame. Not only had he been saved by Sasuke once today, but here he was looking like a complete weakling again. He rose a shaky tanned hand to the back of his head in his habitual gesture of humility, but pulled it back right away in surprise. It came away slightly warm and sticky.

“I...guess you're right,” he conceded, letting the issue drop. He had meant to sound indignant at having been carried around so easily, but instead he found himself slightly surprised by how much consideration the other boy had shown him. It was a little bit unnerving for somebody like Naruto who was used to living by his wits, but also...comforting.

Naruto was further baffled at how easy it had been for the other boy to get up into the room with him in tow. Even when he was in tip top shape, getting through that raised entryway usually left him breathing a little hard, but Sasuke seemed to have had no problem with it at all. The difficulty of getting in was one of the things that prevented him from being robbed of his meager posessions while he was away.

A strange sense of understanding was starting to settle over Naruto as he pieced his meager observations about the other boy together, but he wasn't entirely sure what any of it meant yet. Only one thing was clear in his mind, and that was that Sasuke was definitely not an ordinary amnesiac.

“Sorry, I've been nothing but a burden so far,” he said by way of apology, trying to put himself at ease more so than the other boy, who seemed untroubled.

“I don't really have any place for you to sit down or anything like that either,” Naruto told him a bit shamefully, “This place is kind of thrown together with whatever bits and pieces I could find, so...”

And indeed it was. Naruto's home was actually little more than a large recess in the side of a building, which might have at some point been some kind of storage facility. It was originally one fairly large room, but had been partitioned into two separate chambers using various bits of drapery that he had found over time, pieced together as best he could, and then suspended from the ceiling with bits of twine.

The area they were in now was where the blonde boy spent most of his time – a smallish space that was dominated by his bed, which was made up of two fairly serviceable futons that he had managed to squeeze inside and buffed up with a few salvaged comforters and other bedclothes to make them more comfortable. All of this he had propped up on top of a huge old wooden coffee table in order to prevent rats from chewing on him while he slept, and then hemmed in using a bit of soft netting that he had fashioned together himself, effectively forming a human sized nest of sorts.

Besides that, the only other things of note in the little room were the small heating stove that he had constructed in the center of the room for when it got cold and a small crate in one corner, on top of which sat a large basin full of water that he used to wash up in.

“I'm fine like this,” Sasuke assured him, sitting down with his back to the wall directly beside Naruto's bed. This way he could see the entryway, but was also close enough for Naruto to talk to him comfortably if he wanted to.

“Yeah but...you don't even know me and you've helped me this much in one day...”

“I don't mind,” Sasuke told him honestly, looking at him out of the corner of his eye, “You're kind. I like being with you.”

Now he really was blushing. Who said things like that? And with a straight face no less?

“Nope, definitely not normal.”

“Ah...you too,” he replied. And only a moment later he was surprised to realize that he had actually meant that. Strange though he was, Sasuke had actually been a rather calming presence since the trauma of his run in with the Hounds. In spite of the rough start, he was turning out to be pretty good company.

“Rest,” Sasuke told the other boy, when he realized that he was still sitting up and watching him surreptitiously.

“Aren't you tired?” the blonde asked him suddenly, and Sasuke could just barely detect a suppressed yawn in his voice.

“I don't get tired.”

“Oh.”

Silence reigned for a few more moments and Sasuke might have been convinced that the other boy had finally drifted off to sleep already if it weren't for the soft uneven breathing that reached his ears though the half-dark of Naruto's room.

“Sasuke?”

“Mm?”

“What...are you?”the blonde boy questioned, voice shrinking to little more than a tiny whisper on the last two words, “I mean...why would you bother to help somebody like me?”

“Because I felt like it,” he answered after a moment of thought, not even attempting to answer Naruto's other question.

He had known it would come to this eventually. How could he have expected the blonde boy not to notice?

Besides his outward appearance, Sasuke was very different from the other people in the Underground it seemed.

“I don't really know anything besides that right now”, he said earnestly.

Then in a little lower tone he added, “You should really go to sleep.”

Rather than listen to him, the other boy shifted around in his bed suddenly, shuffling over so that he hung half in and half out of the makeshift nest of covers. Without warning, he placed his hands firmly on Sasuke's shoulders before he leaned in and stared into his eyes forcefully, searching for something.

The dark haired boy flinched a little bit, but did not pull back. Instead he returned Naruto's look motionlessly, entranced by the blue gems that glittered at him thoughtfully through the darkness.

“I'm not afraid of you,” Naruto said decisively after a moment, blissfully unaware of the heat that bled through his fingertips and into his companion's arms, causing sudden warmth to suffuse the dark haired boy's entire body, “You seemed...strange...before when you took care of those guys, but...I know you won't try to hurt me, Sasuke. So I won't be afraid of you from now on. I promise.”

He was a little bit surprised by the sudden declaration, and not quite sure where it had come from, but Sasuke had a feeling he understood what Naruto was really trying to say with those words.

So he nodded in agreement.

Satisfied with that, Naruto nodded as well and finally receded back to his bed, where he fell asleep so swiftly that it would have been comical if Sasuke hadn't known how truly exhausted the other boy was.

Content that his companion had finally succumbed to his obvious fatigue, the dark haired boy settled in with his back to the wall again and stared up at the ceiling, thinking over the unvoiced but urgent request that he had heard in the blonde boy's words just now. In all honestly he was a little bit surprised. It must have been really hard for Naruto just to say those few sentences to him; Sasuke had already seen first hand that relying on someone else was something of a difficult task for the other boy.

In spite of himself, he smirked a little as he thought about the earnestness of Naruto's voice and how desperately his eyes had shone.

“I'm not going anywhere, Naruto,” he thought, as much a promise to himself as to the other boy.

Comments & Questions:

So this is the first chapter. It was originally about twice as long, but that seemed a little ridiculous so I split it and made two chapters. Not much of note in this chapter except for the reason Naruto chose to call the mysterious boy “Sasuke”.

“Sasuke” is kind of a generic-ish ninja name that can be spelled with the characters “help” & “assist”, so it's rather fitting that Naruto would want to call him that.

Also, this is somewhat unrelated, but I tried something different with the spacing of this story's paragraphs to see if I could add some extra suspense and a sense of time passing. So if anybody chooses to review I'd like to know if it was effective or not.

Next chapter: More about the Underground, and the first hints of the real story.
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Antitype.