Claymore Fan Fiction / Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ A Red Dawn ❯ It's Your Time, Clare ( Chapter 13 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

"It is too hot…" Clare mumbled to herself as she wiped the sweat off her brow with the cloak her teacher had given her as a present.

It was a white cloak exactly like his red one with almost identical flames at the bottom with the only difference being the flames were blue. She would have been wearing it, but she still was a novice when it came to regulating her body's temperature and even though her core felt cool… Her skin was burning as the sun baked her alive!

Of course she was in a desert, one boarding the southern and western lands even though in technical terms it would be considered the center of the island continent. Most of the land surrounding central was either a desert or a savanna from what Teresa and Irene had told her and were sweltering hot. The only difference was one actually had plant life, excluding cacti.

What also didn't help was that her clothing was rather heavy as both Teresa and Naruto thought it was best for her to wear armor. Thankfully it wasn't the same armor Teresa use to wear otherwise she would have already passed out. It was simple leather armor, built into a brown vest that covered her torso, obviously when it was closed.

Open as it was, you could see the white blouse she wore that reached down just past her belly button and had a small v-cut on the collar to compliment her bust, something that had grown over the past few years. She wanted it to be a little shorter so she could show off her stomach but her mother had thrown a fit until she lengthened it.

Teresa was having a little trouble with her now as she wanted to her to dress properly and not as a prostitute. Truthfully, she didn't think she was showing off that much skin, but Teresa took offense and went after Naruto as he had been the designer of her clothes.

Clare shook her head at her mother. She still thought she was a little girl and had a hard time accepting that she was nearly an adult now. Not that she could blame her; she was still very dependent on Teresa's guidance and thought highly of her opinion. In fact… This was the first time she had ever been on her own, without another to help her.

Still, her mother had liked the pant style she wore. It was rather simplistic, weaved out of the same material made of rope and tied at her hip, to keep them firmly grasped onto her waist. They were rather heavy, but that was due to the thin armor added to them in a chain like pattern.

But all of this didn't really matter to her as she was MELTING! She swore if that cloud above her didn't move in front of the sun for a while, she would become a puddle of flesh and blood before she made the town… But it had been so hot she hadn't even realized that she had made it.

"Oh. I'm already here." Clare nervously chuckled to herself as she was seemingly too self absorbed to have realized that she had made it.

And at that exact moment her eyes twitched as she had found a canteen that was strapped to her back. Instead of chucking it as she have liked to, Clare simply took a swig of water and felt so much better.

Sighing in relief now that was what she had needed, the water being extra cold due to a seal, Clare walked into the town before noting the immediately hostility of everyone there. Yep, she had arrived in the right place. If people were this distrusting of strangers, they had a problem. A yoma problem.

Well, that was the reason she was here. This was to be her first test… To see if she was ready to take the next step in her training and actually apply what she had learned.

Seeing that most people were rather weary of her, she thought about where the best place to get information would be in a village like this. Snapping her fingers, remembering what Naruto had taught her when he took her out on one of Luciela's missions for him, she knew where she needed to go.

The problem was finding the said place as it seemed the sign posts to most of the shops had been withered down by frequent sand storms. Still, the little mug on the wooden plank wasn't too hard to tell and she entered, heading straight to the barkeep. "I would like a small bottle of sake to go if you have any."

"Huh… That's weird. You're the second person that has asked for that drink today and it normally doesn't sale as it is rather expensive. But if you are only asking for a bottle, I can do that. That guy almost swept me clean of the stuff." The barkeep state, scratching his head as it wasn't a drink asked for too often as it was imported from the southern half of the continent.

At this, Clare twitched. She knew of only one man that would buy that much. She could only sigh as she withdrew a few bera from a pouch she kept strapped to her left leg. The said barkeep noticed this as well as he brought her a corked bottle. "So you have one of those too? Are you friends with that guy?"

"No, he is my brother. He's a few years older then me and has been traveling around the land, searching for something. I've been tracking him down as mother has become sick." Clare stated, telling a story she thought on the spot as she couldn't exactly call Naruto her father figure. He only looked a few years older then she did now!

'Damn the ageless freak.' Clare mumbled in her head as she took the bottle from the man before yawning after she popped the cork and took a drink. "I'm rather tired… Is there a good place to stay the night here?"

"…I would recommend you keep going if you know what's best for you, girl. There is a yoma in this town and if you stay, you might be next on its menu." The drunk next to her on the bar stated, somehow being able not to slur his words despite having so many bottles of liquor next to him.

Looking over at him before shrugging her shoulders and taking another swig of the bottle. "Don't worry about me my dear sir, I can handle myself."

With that, she turned back to the barkeep before he motioned to the building across from him. "That is a pretty good place to stay. A few drunks spend the night there, but I would say it is pretty safe. The inn keeper is a retired soldier from Rabona and now with this yoma attack, he has been rather alert."

Nodding as that would at least comfort travelers to know their inn keeper was an ex-soldier, Clare gave him a simple wave before putting a few extra beras on the bar as a tip. She immediately went to the inn before heading to the man. "How much for a room?"

The said man looked at her for a moment, as if she was odd, before he looked through the window and at the bar. As if understanding just by a mere glance, the ex-soldier finally spoke. "I'll only charge twenty. As I'm sure you've heard, we have a bit of a problem and I can't promise you will be safe tonight."

"I'm unworried. I was taken in by a kind Claymore for some time. I know how to defend myself from a yoma if it is to attack me. Killing one, however, I'm not too sure about." Clare responded as she handed the keep the bera needed.

Somewhat surprised, thinking most Claymores were more like yoma and didn't care about human life, the former soldier nodded and handed her a key. "Second room on the left. My wife serves dinner at seven so if anyone else comes in before that… Well, you'll have a good idea about what they are. I will only come in after to pick up the dishes and make sure everyone is alright."

Satisfied as the man knew how to at least comfort those he let stay, Clare walked to her room to take a break. However as she opened it she sighed heavily before closing the door behind her. "Okay… I have to know. How did you know that I would be in this room?"

A certain blonde only chuckled at her before taking a swig of the sake he had bought earlier. "A hunch… Or that is what I would like to say. Truthfully, there are only four rooms in this place and Teresa, Irene and I rented the other three for the night."

Clare twitched. Her mother, her teacher and her guardian were all here as well?! "Do you even trust me? I can handle this on my own?!"

"Well of course we trust you." Teresa stated, appearing in the room just as she was speaking through a swirl of air, liking that version better then the leaf and snow swirl. "But for one, we have to see if you succeed and just in case you fail, one of us will step in."

Turning to her mother, seeing Irene entering in the same fashion having sensed Teresa flickering to this room, Clare was the first to note her wear as she definitely had not been wearing that before. "What the… Teresa, why are you wearing…?"

"The cloak? Oh, I accepted her into the dawn. She is more then strong enough to be accepted and, well… Agrees with and wants to fight for the dawn's purpose." Naruto answered as Clare was obviously stunned by Teresa's new look.

Teresa nodded in agreement as she looked at her daughter. "But that really doesn't matter now as we have to get to his world first. As we were saying… We're just here to watch your examination and to see if you pass or fail!"

Seeing how chipper she was saying that, Clare only twitched for a moment before she gazed at Irene, who simply shook her head. "Can't help you on this one. You have to find the yoma on your own and slay it. And don't even ask me on how it is being graded… Only he knows that."

As she pointed at Naruto, he simply finished the bottle of his sake before standing up and stretching. "There is no grade. No matter how she does it, if she succeeds, she passes. Simple as that… Now, my creator has a prior engagement to get to and couldn't be here for this. I'm simply a clone as he had to get to his destination."

Soon as the clone dispersed into smoke, Teresa began to curse up a storm before flickering away, probably in an attempt to catch him and pummel him for not being formally present for Clare's incaution test.

Sighing as she watched this, as Teresa and Naruto had a weird relationship that involved the one party ticking off the other, Irene flipped a cloak over her head. "I guess it is up to me… Stay aware of your surroundings, Clare and keep an eye out and you will find it."

Watching as Irene flickered back into her room, Clare groaned before heading straight to her bed and collapsing onto it. This was going to be a long day… And it wasn't even noon yet!

"Alright…" Clare mumbled to herself as she watched many of the villagers, mostly the men, head into one building. "Must be a meeting to discuss what to do about the yoma. …The village elder probably called a meeting so he can draw the necessary money to hire a Claymore."

Watching each man enter, Clare attempted to catch an odd glimpse of their presence, hoping that she could detect the yoma through her senses. She wasn't having the greatest luck as that too was a great weakness for her. She had difficulty sensing aura, any kind of aura whether it was chakra or yoki, so it was a rather fruitless affair.

Growling as she needed to find the yoma soon, seeing that most villages gathered money just before a warrior's arrival, she took a deep breath to calm down. She couldn't blow a fuse otherwise she would never find the yoma. Now she just had to think of the tell-tale signs of a yoma possession.

It was almost impossible for anyone but a Claymore to detect a yoma's presence and that was because they could see the yoki. There, however, was one thing that an individual possessed by a yoma that would allow others to know what they are. It was how they walked.

Now normally, this was wouldn't be noticed by anyone and they would just think the person had hurt themselves as they limped every now and then. The reason for that was that a yoma was just naturally bigger and while they could morph, it was still difficult for them to keep such a metamorphous and they would occasional attempt to morph back and they had to repress it, causing the limp.

However… There was problem with using this method in this town. Most of the men were miners and normally came home with some sort of light injury that caused them to limp!

Ready to pull hair out of her head as this entire thing was extraordinarily frustrating for her. She had just wished the damn yoma was pointed out to her so she could slay it! That would have been so much more accurate test of her abilities then this!

Attempting to calm down, an endeavor that was rather difficult on its own, Clare immediately caught two men walking to the building. …No, both were boys. The elder of the two could be considered an adult, but he was still rather young, probably the same age as she was. The other was a young boy, with light brown hair.

Watching as his brother told him to play out here while he went to talk to the village elder, Clare frowned as she watched him walk in. Why in the world would the older brother be looking after the younger and where in the world were their parents?

Her eyes lit up as a thought came to her. They were now orphans… Because their parents were eaten by the yoma. But why would the yoma just stop at the parents? It normally would eat the entire family or possess one of them and leave one other family member alive to make the disguise believable. …So it was very probable that one of the two was the yoma. So the question now was… Which one?

Jumping down into the alley, making sure no one saw her as they could think she was the yoma, Clare headed into the square and noticed the boy was heading to where she was. Part of her wanted to panic, thinking he might have seen her jump, but she kept her poise as he moved by her and into the alley.

Finding this somewhat odd as she watched him sit next to the building everyone was in, trying to listen to what was going on, Clare frown. That behavior wasn't exactly normal… Yet at the same time, if he was a yoma he would simply know that a meeting like this was for hiring a warrior. So was the boy… Just curious?

Walking over to him, tilting her head at an odd angle, she spoke in a rather playful voice in order to lower his guard. "Hi there! What are you doing back here in a dark alley like this? Shouldn't you be out playing or something?"

Seeing she had completely caught him off guard, the boy turned to her, fearful at what could happen. However, after a moment of looking at her he felt mysteriously calmed and could feel that she meant no harm to him. "Sorry… What was that again? You startled me."

"I asked what you were doing back here and not playing with anyone. A kid your age should have tons of friends to play with." Clare smiled at him, asking her question once more.

It seemed her question dampened his mood as his face fell and he curled into himself. "No one comes out to play anymore as they are all too afraid they might get eaten… And they are all afraid of me as my parents were… They were…"

Watching him struggle to say what he was trying to say added with the tears welling and falling from his eyes, Clare had to keep from reaching out and hugging him. It reminded her too much of what happened to her when she was younger… Before she met Teresa.

"It is as I thought…" Clare mumbled to herself, still not entirely bought that the boy wasn't the yoma as they took the human's mind and could act like them. However, she felt it was more likely his brother now that was the yoma, but she hadn't heard his story yet so she couldn't jump to conclusions.

"What was that?" The boy asked, having heard her spoke through his sobs but was unable to hear what she had said.

"It is not important." Clare stated, shaking her head to oust those thoughts. "Well… Do you want to play? I still remember some of the games, so if you want…"

Looking up at her for a moment, as if not believing her at first, the boy suddenly jumped up. "Sure! Do you know how to play Warrior?"

She had to keep herself from laughing as the boy jumped at the offer. She had little doubts now that he was the yoma. "I know a little… Say what's your name? I'm Clare."

"Raki! Now do you want to be the monster or the hero?!" He stated enthusiastically, probably having a lot of pent up energy as he was still just a kid.

This time Clare did laugh before shaking her head. She no clue how this game worked, but she had a good feeling. However, seeing he was looking at her with a funny glance, she took a step back. "What? What's wrong?"

"It's nothing. It is just… You look like an angel when you were laughing." Raki responded nonchalantly as he still gazed at her.

At this, Clare blushed furiously and her entire face became beat red. She simply wasn't use to complements like that!

Watching from above, Irene stood not too far behind where she had been earlier. The girl had pour detection ability otherwise she would have sensed her. However, it mattered not as the platinum warrior grinned. Despite how frustrated she got, she was making head way.

Now all she had to do was confront the yoma before it was too late.

"Whew… That was a work out." Clare panted as she threw away her stick and dusted some of the dirt off her cloak, having to put it on for some padding as she allowed the boy to hit her a few times. And he could her hard with that stick. She just could imagine what he would do with a sword.

Glancing at her surroundings, she was rather surprised that they had moved this far from the central square. They were now near the mines, just inside the village and that was rather startling. Had she really been that involved in playing that she lost track of her surroundings?

Looking for a spot to sit, she leaned up against the arc of the village exit before yawning to show she was tired. Follow her example, Raki joined her and sat at her side before sighing. "It has been a while since I got to play like that… You know you are pretty good! I couldn't see you move at times."

Keeping her face stoic as she refrained from grimacing, hearing she wasn't restraining her abilities as well as she had hoped, Clare only smiled at him to keep from showing what she was thinking of. "I was trained by my master for about six years. I guess it really has paid off."

Giving her an odd look as it was very rare to hear anyone that trained for combat, much less a girl unless they were a Claymore, Raki tilted his head. "Training? What kind of training?"

Giving off a thoughtful look as she searched for the right words, Clare noticed that the boy's older brother in the distance. Narrowing her eyes for only a moment, she sighed as she closed her yes. "My family… They were killed before me by a yoma. The Claymore that was suppose to slay it got there too late…"

"I was kicked out of my village, the villagers believing I could become a yoma, and I wandered the land until yet another yoma found me and decided to use me like a toy. …Yet again I was rescued by a Claymore. I followed her for as long as I could until we finally understood one another. It was then I met my teacher… A powerful man that could slay yoma and even find them while they were disguised." Clare told her story to Raki, her voice filled with sorrow.

"He taught and trained me how to slay yoma so that one day I would be able to take his torch and continue his work saving people without charge. …But he died before he could teach me everything so I don't know if I can really slay a yoma on my own yet." She finished her story and opened her eyes, seeing that Raki's older brother was still out of ear shot.

She could tell the young boy was caught off guard by her story and felt it was similar to his own, at least how it started and it very well could end like hers if she was right. "Please… Don't tell anyone about what I said. …I wish for it to remain a secret."

"Raki!" The elder brother yelled as he finally saw him sitting next to a stranger. "I told you to wait out by the elder's place, not wander off!"

"Sorry Zaki!" Raki responded, jumping up and running over to his brother. "I met this nice girl and I kind of got distracted as we played together."

Looking over at the girl in question, noticing she hadn't moved when Raki jumped up, he frowned for a moment before nodding. "I thank you for looking after my brother for me. He is a handful and at times gets into trouble."

Nodding as she picked herself off the ground, groggily as she acted tired from playing with Raki. "It is no problem and he is a good kid… He reminds me a lot of my brother."

At this, Raki's eyes shot up before his face fell as he remembered her story. Zaki simply nodded as it wasn't too uncommon for a girl around his age to lose her family. It, however, was odd that she had not been picked up by the Claymores as they had a tendency of picking up young orphaned girls.

"We have to get going… I hope your night is pleasant." As he turned to leave, he hesitated to let his younger brother say his goodbye as he could see he rather liked the girl.

"I guess we have to go… It was nice being with you and I hope we meet again." Raki said woefully, upset that he probably would never get to see her again after today.

Clare shook her head as she knelt down and brightly smiled at him. "We'll meet again, I'm sure of it. So until then, stay out of trouble for me."

Standing back up, her gaze fell back onto Zaki and her eyes became deathly serious. "So I am to assume they've called on a Claymore?"

"She's already here." Zaki nodded before he started to head back into town, Raki trailing him.

Frowning as the warrior must have been right in this area to answer so quickly, Clare moved outside the village gates and jumped onto the wall followed by the building beside it. Keeping the two in sight, she traveled silently and swiftly on the roof tops. She would have to act fast and get to the yoma first.

Otherwise she would not be on time to save a life.

It was dark and now Clare sat on top of the house Raki lived. So far there had been no activity as she had not heard anything from below. Her eyes were closed as she focused all her energy into listening to what was going on.

Zaki… It seemed he had not eaten since their parents had died. That was a clear indicator that he was the yoma, but she did not act until he made a move. She would have taken care of him like Naruto would, but… She didn't want to hurt Raki and make him believe, even if it was only for a moment, that she had killed his brother.

No… She would wait until he turned.

"What are you doing up here?" A voice caught Clare off guard, forcing her eyes to snap open as she twirled around with a kunai in hand.

Before her was the warrior that the village had call upon, her claymore drawn and pointed at her. Her face was twisted in confusion as if she was trying to figure something out as she sensed no yoki within this one yet moved like one of them.

Seeing there was no response, she narrowed her eyes and held her sword ready to strike. "I want an answer now, if you would. And put down your blade, you stand no chance against me."

Clare immediately looked at her symbol, making sure it wasn't one of the higher rank symbols she had been reported on. Seeing she didn't recognize it as it was shaped like a cross with a beam bent in a V-shape and two marks on each that pointed upwards yet did not cut through the cross, the two on the outside being slightly longer.

"So you say." Clare responded as before with a twist of her cloak, she disappeared.

Elena looked on in shock at first before jumping from the roof top as she sensed movement behind her. Turning, she saw Clare land where she had been before now with two blades in her hands, looking down at her. Growling as she looked up at the girl, she growled before leaping towards her, her blade arcing for her stomach.

Flipping over her opponent as she reached her, Clare turned in mid air as she fell to the ground below and threw both kunai straight at her opponent. They were simply blocked as the warrior turned and deflected them but their purpose was served. She had landed and with one swift motion, she revealed a katana she hid behind her cloak while her other hand drew three shuriken.

"If you wish to fight, then come. I do not have time to deal with you." Clare stated, holding the warrior's eyes matching her stare with equal intensity.

"Screw you! You might be good but you are still no match for us!" Elena yelled, using the speed and strength she possessed to rocket towards her opponent.

With a single slash she deflected the three shuriken and before she landed, she brought her sword down upon her opponent. Her opponent rolled out of the way just in time and without giving any time to remove her sword from the ground, she struck, attempting to slice through her stomach.

Despite the lack of time to avoid, Elena managed to avoid the blade by taking a step back and sucking in her stomach. It was obvious her opponent wasn't going for a death strike, looking to avoid killing her. She would make her pay as that was a big mistake.

Removing her blade from the earth, Clare avoided the upward slice and ducked under the blade, spun and kicked Elena in the gut. In the same motion, she spun again and cut for her chest. The warrior was able to bring her claymore to defend against it forcing her to bring it back, knowing her sword would break if caught in a struggle with the blades they wielded.

Using this action, Elena used the vacated space to bring her blade down. Clare, however, slipped to her left and stabbed at her and forced her to arm bracer to reflect the blow, making the girl stumble. Seeing an opening, she thrusted her blade to her stomach to end this, but not to kill her.

At the last second, Clare managed to flip over the blade and as she could see her opponent once more, she threw three shuriken she had drawn out.

'What?! When did she draw them?!' Elena screamed in her mind as there was no time to dodge and her only means of deflecting them.

They pierced into the flesh of her left bicep, shoulder and her breast. The two in her bicep and breast weren't bothersome as they were only flesh wounds but the one that hit her shoulder pierced bone. Grimacing as she pulled the three out, she glanced over at her opponent as she gave her time to pick them out… She was toying with her!

"God dammit! Don't fuck with me!" Elena screamed as her eyes began glowing and her face began to distort before she sped towards Clare.

Her speed had almost tripled from what it was before and Clare had almost no time to dodge the downward strike aimed to cleave her in two. She had no choice and used her katana to stop the claymore from succeed in its goal.

Gritting her teeth as in no time she began to buckle from the strength Elena was putting into breaking through her block. Falling to a knee as she gripped the sharp end of her katana to strengthen her hold, Clare gazed up and into Elena's eyes as she searched for anything that would get her out of this situation.

A loud scream from the Raki's house caught both of their attention and they immediately knew what the cause of it was.

In this moment, Elena's attention faltered as did her strength. And with that lapse of focus, Clare reflected the sword and jumped up, grabbing her shoulders and forcing her into eye contact.

"Kanashibari." Elena's entire body froze, unable to move even a finger.

Seeing the jutsu had worked, Clare broke contact and rushed towards the house, breaking down the door and entering. In that exact moment, she was nearly knocked over as Raki ran into her. Instead, she was just able to get the katana away as it nearly had stabbed him.

The said boy realized he had ran into someone, looked up and saw Clare standing before him. He would have been overjoyed if it had not been for the situation. As it was, he was utterly fearful at what he had seen. "Zaki… Zaki… He turn…"

Clare didn't need any explanations. She already knew what had happened and the trail of blood told the story. The yoma probably sensed the fighting and took advantage of the situation to get a quick meal before fleeing. Cursing at her own stupidly for getting caught in such a pointless fight, she snarled as she had let another lose their entire family.

And as the said yoma rounded the corner, he caught Clare's snarl and pushing Raki out of the way. He move towards her to add another meal to his night but failed to notice her hands forming symbols of some sort and the fact he was in a narrow passage way.

"Katon: Gokakyu!"

A great burst of flame came from Clare's mouth as she blew them onto the yoma. An unearthly screech filled the air as the scorching flames only matched the heated rage she felt at the moment. She wished she could make them burn hotter… burn more intensely!

Her necklace began to glow brightly at the ferocity her will and the fire seemingly doubled in size in heat and filled the entire house, everything in its path withering to ash.

It seemed all over as Clare stopped blowing the flames, letting the fire do its work. But as soon as she let the flames go, the yoma burst through them, its green skinned now ashen from the burns it had received. Yet it stopped in its tracks as her arm swept by its neck.

In the next moment, its head fell from its body and the body collapsed soon after, purple blood spewing from the open neck. Without mercy as the head was still alive, Clare put her sword through the head and cut it into two clean pieces before kicking them away.

Watching the flames burn down the house, Clare deeply sighed as she turned to the distressed Raki, looking at her fearfully. Sighing as that was to be expected after seeing what she had just done to the place he had been living in and to the yoma that killed yet another member of his family.

Kneeling down next to him, she gathered him into a tight embrace as she placed her head on top of his and whispered. "It's okay… Everything will be okay in time."

The boy did not responded positively. He jerked back and broke Clare's grip, making the girl wince as she saw his still fearful face. It pained her to see the same face that was so joyful early look as it did now and she wanted nothing more then to make him smile again.

"Clare!" Teresa's voice reached her as she jumped down and next to the girl. "We need to go. Your little show will wake the entire town to see what happened and it won't be long until the paralyzation wears off! We can't be here for that!"

Seeing that Clare wasn't responding and instead looking at the boy, Irene sighed at the scene, having watched the two play earlier just before Teresa came back, her pursuit of Naruto having been fruitless. She knew Clare had felt for the boy, his life had already begun to shape out like her own.

But before she could say anything about it, Teresa grabbed Clare's arm and lifted her up. "Come on! We have to go. He belongs in this village. Someone will take care of him."

This time Clare nodded and followed Teresa and Irene as they used the roof tops to make their escape, but looked back to see if Raki was still there. And there he was… Crying.

Seeing this… Clare's heart called out for him but she was pulled back into reality. "Clare! We need to keep moving! If that warrior sees us, who knows what will happen!"

Once more, Clare simply nodded and followed her mother and guardian. But this time a lone tear treaded down her face as she looked back.

"Raki… I'm so sorry."

"Well… It seems like she succeed. I can't sense the damn thing anywhere." Naruto commented as he moved through the village, checking in on how Clare did before he saw the burnt house. "Well that was a little unnecessary…"

Shaking his head as he didn't know the facts of what happened a few nights before, the blonde sighed and decided to make a quick stop at the bar to see if they had anything good to drink. He was still fine on sake… He just liked to always be in constant stock of certain drinks in case someone asked for a particular kind and to see if they had anything he never heard of before. Most of the time it was Teresa that asked him… They had become good drinking buddies.

As he made his way there, a commotion caught his attention as a young boy was suddenly thrown out a house. This set off many alarms and he immediately moved to get closer as a few elder men walked out behind the boy, the one in the middle roughly grabbing the young boy. "Come on brat. You're no longer wanted here."

Narrowing his eyes as he got closer, wondering what was going on, he watched the young boy break the man's grip and in turn he back handed him, knocking the kid to the ground before he rose his foot, ready to kick him. "Fucking kid! We exiled you so just leave!"

His foot never reached the boy. Instead he felt a tug on his arm before he was suddenly flung into the air and skidding across the ground, almost fifty feet from where he had been moments before.

Standing by the down child stood Naruto, a snarl written on his face. "So I'm safe to assume… A member of this boy's family was a yoma? And now that it is gone, you think he'll become one?"

He dared anyone to speak. He wanted someone to speak. Yet it seemed everyone stood back as they knew there was something off about him… Mainly because he threw the guy fifty feet in the air without much effort.

Glancing over everyone that had gathered, Naruto spat on the ground before looking back over at the men he saw exit the room with the kid. "Disgusting… Is there no one here that wants anything to do with this boy?"

Seeing no one respond, Naruto growled under his breath as this felt so much like his life before everyone began to see him for who he was, he spoke yet again, this time in a more calm but as deathly tone. "Then he is mine. Lay a hand on him, and I will break it."

Turning from the crowd that gathered, he knelt down before offering the brown haired boy his hand. "Can you still walk?"

Looking at the young man that had stood up for him, and claimed him, he was unsure what to say at first. …But after everything that happened, this man was offering to take care of him. "Yes…"

Without warning as he was lifted up, the sand swirled around them and in an instant they were no longer in the village. He looked around him, trying to solve what had just happened when he caught a canteen on reflex. "Better drink some of that. We have a long trip ahead."

Knowing that the man before him was the cause of the sudden shift of scenery, he could only nod. "Thank you sir…"

"Naruto. Just call me that, please." The blonde responded, never having liked be called sir or anything like that. It just always made him feel uncomfortable.

"Naruto… Thank you. I'm Raki." The brunette said, though still in a down trodden voice. "I don't even now you that met yet you already remind me of that girl that came to village a couple days ago…"

Stopping as he heard that, Naruto grinned before he popped a cork out of his bottle of sake, Raki unsure where it had came from. "Did this girl… By any chance have long, brown hair that is a lighter color of yours, where a white cape with blue flames and have dazzling emerald eyes?"

Raki stopped as he heard Naruto's description of the girl. It fit perfectly of the girl he had just met only days before. "Yes…! Do you know her by any chance? …I would like to tell her thanks for what she did for me."

Hiding his grin underneath the collar of his cloak, Naruto took a swig of his rice wine. "Ah, it just keeps getting better and better…"

And with that comment hidden by his drink, Naruto began to head further south, Raki suddenly chasing after him. 'Ah, the wonders of love. They never seize to amaze me.'