Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Boku no Sendatsu Keiro ❯ Boku no Sendatsu Keiro ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Author's Notes
- Thanks so much to everyone who read and reviewed Boku no Akaaka Hoshi !!!
- I don't think this is as pulled together as some of my other pieces, but hopefully it will be enjoyable, too. :) Hopefully...

Story Notes
- This is a companion piece to Boku no Akaaka Hoshi, which is set within the Tolerant Intolerance story. You don't have to read BAH or TI, but this story might make more sense if you did. And it would make me happy, of course :D
- Oushi- Bull or Ox. ANBU designation for Genma.
- Ohitsuji- Ram. ANBU designation for Raidou.
- Boku no Sendatsu Keiro- " My guiding path". Wikipedia article translates Raidou as " to follow blindly" and Namiashi as " at a walking pace", so I twisted that into a sappy title, the same as BAH ( which translates to " My bright star") .

Warnings: Coarse language, shounen-ai, sad stuff, sexual situation ( no details) etc.

Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto.





Boku no Sendatsu Keiro



I'm his best friend. I should have been paying attention all this time... 11... 12 ...13... Genma flies through the forest canopy, counting each leap as he goes. It is 31 leaps from the secret ANBU training ground to the public training grounds on the western side of Konoha. His breathing is loud in his own ears, echoing off the porcelain Oushi mask and bouncing back in harsh pants. The run is not difficult; Genma is panicked. He tries to push the fear and guilt and desperation to the back of his mind as he jumps from branch to branch, zori hardly touching the rough bark before launching again. Bright afternoon sunshine trickles through the thick foliage. It is a beautiful autumn day. I should have been prepared for this.

He remembers seeing Raidou at the academy when he was ten-years-old and Raidou was twelve. Genma had been staring out the window during class, completely uninterested in the lecture on shuriken safety, when the dark headed boy appeared on the school's training field with the rest of the third year class. The twelve-year-olds were practicing defense skills, separated into groups of four; two attackers, one defender, one client. The brunette was the defender. Genma watched in awe as the pre-genin gracefully deflected every attack made on himself and his client. The boy far outmatched everyone in his class. Genma mentally vowed to outdo him.

Several shinobi are at his heels, silent as ghosts in the shadows. A jounin on lunch break with his civilian girlfriend, two chuunin working on summoning jutsus near the lake. The three shinobi left their previous activities and followed Genma as ordered, the civilian girl running back to the village to alert the hospital. The small group runs swiftly towards the training fields. Massive explosions rock the ground, vibrating through the roots into the trunks and along the branches the shinobi are traveling. Already Genma can feel the heat and small debris blowing on the wind, his mask blocking most of the irritants. He is the only ANBU member present and he hopes the other three ninja have cloth masks or bandanas or something to filter the air to their noses. If it's this bad so far away from the source, he knows when they reach the scene the air will be nigh impossible to breathe properly. ... 16 ... 17 ...18...

He remembers when Raidou was fifteen and he was thirteen. The honey haired teen had had way too much sake to drink and he couldn't remember how he'd gotten into the bar in the first place, or how he'd managed to end up in one of the back rooms with a woman who was easily ten years his senior. He did remember the mind blowing sensations. And to use a condom. Afterwards the woman had given him a peck on the cheek and a pat on the crotch before disappearing back into the dim throngs of drunken revelers. Genma fled the bar without even properly fastening his pants. He made it to the Namiashi resdidence without incident, sat on Raidou's bed and delighted in the older boy's obvious discomfort with his story, giggling whispers until the sun broke over the horizon.


I shouldn't have let him train without me. I should've been there with him. Maybe I could've sto- Genma nearly trips over a blur of reddish brown fur as he lands on a thick branch of oak. He looks down through the narrow eye slits and just barely identifies a squirrel tail streaking between his legs. It is the first of many. Genma is suddenly bombarded by a variety of woodland creatures; squirrels, chipmunks, birds of every size and description. He can see deer, rabbits and other small animals running fifty meters down on the forest floor. They are fleeing the chaos that is still several kilometers away. The senbon shinobi dodges the wildlife scrambling to escape and pushes more chakra into his feet, quickening his pace. He silently chants Raidou's name in prayer. It helps to tune out the shrill cries and rough screams coming from up ahead, mingling with the deafening explosions.

He remembers when Raidou hadn't quite turned seventeen and he was fifteen. Genma was pulled from a D-rank mission and sent to the Hokage's office. He was given two letters, two sets of dog tags and Sandiame's condolences. The two weeks that followed were a blur of well wishers and official meetings and long hours of staring silently out Raidou's bedroom window that ended when he found himself in front of the memorial stone on a rainy morning. He had sex with Raidou the next day, on the brunette's birthday. Genma gazed blankly at the ceiling while his friend's hot tears rolled across his bare chest. He spoke softly to Raidou until the older teen fell asleep.


The training field is coming up, partially obscured by clouds of dirt and smoke that rise to make a hazy sun then settle to coat everything with a thick layer of grime. Genma can smell charred timber and burnt ozone. His path has almost cleared of small mammals, only a few birds flapping by his covered face. ...26...27... The next leap will place him on---. Genma claws frantically for a branch to keep him from falling very very far to the ground below. His fingers catch on a fir limb and he saves himself from a headlong plunge. Long emerald needles scratch his mask. Where's the rest of the forest? Like every Konoha shinobi, Genma knows these woods like the back of his hand and he knows that there should be another three jumps before they reach the training field. Should be, but is no longer.

He remembers when Raidou was twenty and he was eighteen. Kyuubi attacked Konoha and Genma had made tokubetsu jounin rank on the battle field. He stood beside Raidou when he identified his older brother's body, a hand on the broad shoulder to support him when he handed the dog tags to his mother. Genma had readily taken to the idea of joining ANBU. He wanted nothing more than to stay close to his friend and become a better shinobi in order to protect him and his village. The tattoo had been painful. Genma had wondered if he looked as strange in his Oushi mask as Raidou looked in his Ohitsuji.


Genma motions for the others to halt and crouches on the limb to take in his surroundings through the dirty air. The trees are gone. The undergrowth is gone. He tries to locate the rocky outcropping that edges a rather large pond and delineates the southern border of the training field, but realizes that that is what the swath of muddy wood chips and pulverized stone two jumps away is. The entire area has been flattened within a kilometer radius with only a few piles of broken limbs scattered here and there. However most of the flora has been wiped completely from the landscape. The ranking shinobi can hardly believe that Raidou has done all this.

He remembers when Raidou was twenty-three and he was twenty-one and Namiashi-san kept hounding them to settle down with a couple of nice girls. Genma laughed at the thought of himself in anything that resembled a stable relationship, either with a male or female. He stayed out every night that he wasn't on or preparing for a mission, finding his way into one or more beds before the sun rose. Raidou had made a bit of a fuss over his wild ways, but Genma simply told him he was living in the now and seizing the day and whatever idiom his inebriated mind could come up with. Secretly, he liked the older man's concern, craved his attention. His newest best friend, Iruka-kun, quickly became a favorite with everyone, guys and gals, at the bars and clubs. The kid had latched onto Genma, and Raidou in turn, and seemed to thrive on the time shared between them. Genma had created something of a little family unit for himself.


There are two lighter spots amidst the rubble, slightly behind a tripod of uprooted tree stumps. A high pitched cry issues from the smaller spot. Genma recognizes them immediately; Nara Yoshino-san and her four-year-old son, Shikamaru. He has absolutely no idea what they are doing out here. Genma leaps from the tree to land with a soft thump in the debris and sprints towards the fallen pair. The small child huddles over an immobile body, wailing pitifully into the woman's flak vest. His once dark hair is now frosted with sawdust and weak sunlight. Genma and the jounin take up positions at either end of their temporary shelter while the two chuunin look after the mother and son.

The female chuunin, Genma met her at the annual jounin-chuunin party and he's fairly certain her name is Bachiko, checks Nara-san for injuries. The male chuunin, Bachiko's twin brother whose name Genma knows is definitely Benjiro, cuddles Shikamaru to his chest and tries to comfort the child. The jounin he's never spoken to but knows is a Hyuuga due to his pale eyes activates his Byakugan and peers through the twisted roots of the stump barricade. Genma peers over the stumps. He is momentarily blinded by a blast of soil and bedrock. Genma ducks back down in time to see the twin shinobi lifting the Nara family members. The twins have traded cargo, Bachiko taking Shikamaru while Benjiro has the mother draped over his shoulder. Genma jerks his hand towards the village, the chuunin dart off.

He remembers five and a half months ago when he and Raidou were ambushed and captured in Grass Country. They were separated and Genma's interrogator used a large variety of poisons that caused everything from gut wrenching nausea to intense agony flaring just under his skin. He didn't find out until later that Raidou's interrogator preferred more traditional methods.

The Hyuuga jounin turns to Genma, opalescent eyes staring over his hitai-ate that has been shifted and pulled down to protect his nose. Genma notices just how long the man's black hair is as it hangs to his chin and is whipped into his eyes. The man gives another glance through the dead wood, eyeing the disaster on the other side, then gives a series of hand gestures; his communication is clear, " He's draining his chakra. What do you want to do?" . Another shudder of the earth. Another cloud of silt raining down on them. Genma counts the heartbeats until the next explosion, his stare focused on a bare limb at his feet; it is blackened and gnarled, like dead fingers trying to claw their way up his body.
Two and a half beats later the ground rocks again, confirming the jounin's assessment. He's draining his chakra. He'll die if he keeps this up. This last thought has Genma standing straight up, exposing himself to the stinging cuts of flying rock and timber.

Genma sees nothing, the air fills with more opaque particles of dirt, the stumps vibrating. He wishes he had an ocular kekkei genkai, like the Byakugan. He is able to hear, however. Horrible broken screams that are seemingly torn from a bloody throat echo on the filthy air. He remains motionless as the clouds billow over him and away, pulling the curtain of haze from his view of the clearing. His breath stalls in his chest at the sight. A dark figure is just visible over the top of an enormous crater that lays at the epicenter of the destruction. He catches sight of chocolate colored hair before another wave of chakra and litter blocks his view.

He remembers five months ago when he and Raidou were brought back to Konoha. Genma stationed himself outside the brunette's observation window in critical care despite the protests of his own nurses. He was still recovering from the poison cocktails and the de-tox. Namiashi-san took his side. Once Raidou was moved to a recovery room Genma refused to leave. Raidou's burnt and bandaged body laid motionless amid the brightly colored flowers and get well gifts. Iruka-kun came by each day when his academy classes let out. The sixteen-year-old would sometimes bring his bag of papers to grade, sometimes he brought little Naruto-kun to play quiet games or to fall asleep in his lap with his fingers curled in the chuunin's shirt front. Sometimes Iruka came empty handed to drape himself over Genma's shoulders before he slid to the floor and rested his head in the tokujo's lap. Genma was thankful for the teen's presence, it made Raidou's silence seem less hopeless.


It is clear again and Genma motions to the jounin to stay put. He wants to do it himself, the jounin will step in if he fails. I can't fail. I can't fail him. Genma sucks in a steadying breath and abandons his secure spot. He runs across the decimated field, spying a crushed dandelion and a few blades of glass poking out of the litter. As he approaches the crater the dark figure gains more detail. Raidou! Genma pauses at the edge of the crater, stunned, as the world slows to a horrific crawl in his mind's eye. Raidou kneels in the center of the ruin he is causing, arms raised above his head, fists clasped together. Even without the Hyuuga clan trait Genma can see that the brunette is forcing what little chakra he has left into his fists to continue pummeling a hole into the earth. Genma thinks Raidou is trying to bury himself alive. An anguished grimace twists his new scars, wrinkled skin only recently healed enough to be called scars and not wounds. Autumn leaves in glorious shades of yellow and orange and red fall thickly around him, choking the very air he is trying so desperately to drag into his lungs. Raidou is surrounded by shreds of yellow and orange and red. The color of flames.

He remembers three months ago when Raidou put his feet on the ground for the first time since he came to the hospital. Genma had made sure he was there, not even showing up at the missions office that day. Raidou's mother, older sister and younger brother all stood around the walls of the small room while a male nurse arranged Raidou's tubes and wires and revealing hospital gown so the brunette could get out of the bed. Genma slid his arm under the man's unscarred shoulder and watched the tears form in Namiashi-san's eyes as her son stood on shaky legs. Genma felt like crying ,too, because he knew Raidou wouldn't. Raidou cried for others; never for himself.

The image of flames snaps Genma from his stupor. He braces himself with his own flow of energy, strengthening his resistance to the raw power pouring out of the brunette. One leap lands him directly in front of the distraught man. Genma catches the joined fists as they are on the down swing in one hand, the other hand grips a tattered sleeve. Up close, he sees the superficial damage done by flying debris; dozens of cuts and scrapes and bumps cover every bit of Raidou's exposed skin. One particularly nasty gash following the line of the man's facial scarring is spilling blood at an alarming rate down his chin. Raidou's neck is a waterfall of crimson. Genma feels the warm liquid seeping between the fingers wrapped around the other man's fists. " RAIDOU STOP THIS!!!"

Genma watches as Raidou's eyes flutter open at his verbal assault. The chocolate orbs hold no recognition for the honey haired man and Genma remembers that he is still wearing his ANBU mask; Raidou's mind is unable to place the red and white bull. With utter disregard to the rules forbidding the removal of his special face plate, Genma takes his hand from the man's arm and slides the porcelain to rest atop his head. " Raidou." His whisper is lost on the wind, but the dull glaze lifts from the watery dark eyes and Raidou silently mouths the other man's name in return. Chakra flow halts. Raidou collapses. Genma catches him and holds him tightly.

He remembers this morning when Raidou met him on top of the Hokages' Monument for a quick breakfast. The darker man had smiled freely at Genma's jokes. They made plans to go drinking that night, to celebrate Raidou's progress on the road to full recovery. The brunette swallowed the last of his juice, packed away the apple he couldn't quite finish, and the two men stood to leave. Genma put a hand on the back of the taller man's neck, tugging him forward for a kiss on the cheek before releasing him with a warning about overdoing his taijutsu training for the day. Raidou had leaned in for a kiss on the lips before pulling back with a brilliant smile. Genma could only smile back and wave as the other man teleported in a puff of smoke. His lips were warm for quite a while after.

I'm his best friend. I should have been paying attention all this time.