Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Naruto: The sands of time ❯ Chapter 19 Secret ( Chapter 19 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: SDI Hypervelocity 
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Hentai | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.26.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.6K | Visits: 237 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Hentai | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 01.26.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.6K | Visits: 237 | Status: Completed
Chapter 19: Secret
Konohamaru felt himself on the verge of losing it, he barley got a block from Naruto’s apartment before every person on the street started showing their sympathy for his parents death. “Konohamaru I’m sorry for your lose.” and the always popular “Konohamaru are you alright?” Didn’t he look alright?! Konohamaru thought he did but he figured he must have looked pretty bad if every other person he saw asked him that.
Konohamaru stopped at the window of a restaurant so he could see is reflection. He looked just about the same as usual, only his face had a more forlorn e expression to it. But he looked like this many times before an no one ever gave him a second look besides the usual it’s the president’s grandson one.
“Konohamaru I’m sorry for your lose, are you going to be alright?” A passing woman said,
“Urggh!” Konohamaru clinched his head to hold back anymore of the scream, “I’m fine!” he yelled before running off, maybe if he went fast enough no one would be able to say something to him…
Konohamaru abruptly stopped when he saw Ebisu turn the corner ’No! I’m not ready to go back!’ His mind said frantically, taking a few steps to the side through a crowd of people to avoid being spotted, but he knew that wouldn’t be enough to evade Ebisu who always managed to catch him except for the one time yesterday.
Konohamaru couldn’t imagine the look on his face when Ebisu walked right past him, not seeming to notice him. But he could swear he saw the man glance at him through the sunglasses he wore, Konohamaru sighed in relief and kept running, going into a full sprint when he saw someone else was about to talk to him.
He had to go somewhere…If he went back to Naruto’s house he’d only disturb Sasuke and he deserved some rest after going through 8 weeks of training and entrance tests in two days non-stop. ’There is one place I can go…’
! - ! - !
! - ! - !
“I told you this place is amazing!” Lee said walking down the familiar streets.
“You know your way around this place?” Shikamaru asked, he had to admit that the city from the exact center was an amazing sight. Buildings had large screens on them showing commercials adverting just about anything they could think of showing. Cars were everywhere, people were everywhere, buildings were everywhere. It was overwhelming, even he wanted to see more of it.
“Yeah, Gai-sensei showed me around. This place is great isn’t it.” Lee said excitedly, waving through the crowd of oncoming people. “And I found out the money we used in the past is an artifact here, Gai-sensei had it appraised for me, it’s worth 20 times more.”
“20 times more huh? What are you going to do with it?” Shikamaru asked.
“I don’t know, let’s go find something . I’ve seen some really interesting things.” Lee said grabbing Shikamaru’s hand and leading him along like anxious child, Shikamaru couldn’t help but grin and go with it.
“Lee?”
Lee abruptly stopped when he noticed that he ran past Gai, “Hi Gai-sensei.”
“Hello Lee….from the past right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“It’s so confusing.” Gai said with a small smile. “What are you doing here?”
“Showing Shikamaru around.” Lee said.
“And you must be from the past also.” Gai said.
Shikamaru nodded “Yeah…This place is completely different from my time…yet everything’s the same.”
“That’s interesting.” Gai said, wondering what he meant but finally he just shrugged it off after a few seconds. “Well if you guys want to see the city there’s a much better way of going about it.”
“What is it?” Lee asked.
Gai pointed to a red convertible behind him, “I can show you around, it‘d be my pleasure.”
Lee and Shikamaru looked at each other “I’ve been wanting to take a ride in one of those things.” Lee said.
! - ! - !
With a sigh of relief, Konohamaru laid down across the back seat of a huge SUV, looking up at a 9 in. TV screen hanging from the ceiling in-between the driver and passenger seat. “I can’t take this anymore…” Konohamaru said, he wasn’t just saying that, he was actually to his limit.
“Then why don’t you leave, take a vacation or something.” Kisame said from the drivers seat. He was wearing black pants, black boots and a red t-shirt
“Yeah maybe…” Konohamaru said, looking towards Itachi, he could only help but think of what would happen if Sasuke knew he was friends with his brother… Konohamaru was a little saddened now when he looked towards Itachi, he seemed friendly enough to him. Konohamaru knew both of them could be…mean towards others to say the least. It just didn’t seem like Itachi would do something like he did
“Itachi?” Konohamaru’s eyes were steady on the ceiling, “…Why did you do it?” Konohamaru never knew what Itachi had done exactly until today, he never imaged it would be so bad, and he did it to Sasuke, His Sasuke!
“Do what?” Itachi asked, he was wearing a black silk shirt with dress pants, oddly similar to Sasuke expect for the colors.
“You know…killing your family.”
Kisame looked at Itachi and shrugged “He had to find out sooner or later…how did you find out?”
“His brother told me.”
Kisame immediately seemed confused “You have a brother?”
Itachi sighed, “Yes I have a brother.”
“But why did you do that? Why did you hurt Sasuke?” Konohamaru asked with a saddened tone
Kisame did seem to be paying attention to his last question, “Damn, he must hate you then.”
“Yeah…he dose.” Konohamaru told him.
Kisame looked back Konohamaru as soon as he got to a stop light “What’s with you and Uchihas? Your hanging with Itachi and his brother, one of them hates the other? What are the odds? I mean are Uchihas just drawn to you?”
Konohamaru ignored him for the moment “Why Itachi…?”
Itachi looked back at him with all seriousness, more so then Konohamaru ever seen him use with him “Why do you want to know?”
“Because you hurt Sasuke!” Konohamaru said with angry undertones. “What happened, you just went crazy and started killing people?!”
“That’s not entirely true.”
“Really?” Kisame asked “That’s how I heard it.”
Itachi glared at him for a moment and looked back at Konohamaru “There was a reason for what I did.”
“What is it?” Konohamaru asked, he had to hear this one, and he really hoped it was good because he didn’t want to stop being hanging around Itachi…He’d probably still do it even if the reason was bad, he just like Itachi too much, it was like Sasuke only darker…if that’s possible. But both of them seemed to drop that outer persona when they were around Konohamaru, Maybe Kisame was right, Uchihas just like him.
“If I tell you, you cannot tell Sasuke. Do you understand?” Itachi’s voice cold and hard, making it deadly serous that he meant what he said. But on the other hand, he was telling him his most personal secret.
“Yes.” Konohamaru nodded, sitting up.
Itachi looked over him for a moment and then turned around, keeping his eyes steady on the road ahead. “The Uchiha family wasn’t a normal family, they weren’t normal Konoha citizens. You could even say they weren’t.”
Both Konohamaru and Kisame listened attently as Itachi continued. “Uchiha’s were pushed and trained to be the absolute best from birth, they also made up most of the Police department and a few other positions of authority all security centered. There was a reason the adults pushed me to go to the police academy instead of the Air Force like I wanted.”
Itachi paused and looked back at Konohamaru, debating weather or not he should continue. Finally after a few seconds he decided to keep going. “It was because the whole Uchiha family were Sound spies. They specialized mainly in giving information about The Leaf’s defense and how to get around them.”
Konohamaru held his head down, they all would have been killed anyway of Itachi had revealed his knowledge so it was almost justified, not really though. “But why didn’t you just tell Sasuke that? Why did you have to hurt him?”
“I wanted him to hate me.”
Konohamaru looked up at him with confusion, “Why would you want him to hate you?”
Itachi was silent, so Konohamaru knew he wouldn’t get an answer out of him. He didn’t understand but Kisame did. “Wow, that was complete a bring down.” Kisame said. “Anyway, Were gonna leave town again in an hour.”
“Oh…Where are you guys going this time?”
“Not sure, were probably going to end up in another country though, probably Sound.”
“Well then I guess I have to go back then.” Konohamaru sighed. “It was nice seeing you guys again.”
“You should think about taking that vacation if this place is getting to you.” Kisame said.
That didn’t sound like a bad idea, it may even be the key to saving his sanity, Naruto and Sasuke couldn’t do it alone and with Kisame and Itachi leaving….
! - ! - !
Kisame dropped him off near home, he decide it was time to go back, his Grandfather was probably worried. “See ya Kisame, Bye--” Konohamaru stopped, thinking better than to call out Itachi’s name in public. He knew Sasuke’s fan club would be all over him in a second, Sasuke would have been happy to get away from it but Itachi wouldn’t like the attention. In fact he made it a point that no one knew when he was in Konoha, everyone thought he was a hero that survived the Uchiha family’s massacre. Survived….yeah right, twistedly ironic almost. Konohamaru just decided to close the door and have his goodbye silently understood.
With a saddened expression Konohamaru ran towards the Presidential Palace, a.k.a the White house. Finding Ebisu sitting next to the door waiting for him. “Where were you last night?”
“Nowhere.” Konohamaru said defensively, not wanting to tell him that he had been at Naruto’s apartment. The boy made his way to the office he knew his grandfather was waiting from, security letting him through every check point through out the white house and into the room.
Konohamaru looked up at his Grandfather, both of them silent for a moment. Sarutobi got up from his desk, still looking down at his formerly missing Grandson, who only looked away with his eyes downcast. “Konohamaru.”
Konohamaru clinched his fist, trying to hold anything he was feeling come rushing back. ‘No I wont cry! There’s no point in crying, it wont bring them back.’ He thought, trying to convince himself not to cry but despite what his mind said he was still sad over his parents deaths.
Finally he ran over to the man, hugging him tightly and letting himself cry again. ‘Why do I keep wanting to cry, it just making things worse!’ His mind screamed as Sarutobi knelt down and hugged him back
“I wanted to tell you, but it seems you got away from Ebisu the one time when it was important.” Sarutobi sounded a little different when he said that last part about Ebisu, but Konohamaru couldn’t figure out what it meant exactly.
“I hate this! They didn’t have to die, it’s all because of this stupid war. Why is it even happening?”
“Konohamaru, even if I explained it to you now you wouldn’t understand it. It complicated and I wish it was over too but it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. You have to be strong.”
“I know…It’s just….I can’t take this anymore.”
“…Konohamaru.” Sarutobi could do nothing but shake his head, Konohamaru had been through a lot. He’d seen things…on numerous occasions, it gave him an almost fear of blood and death. Not death specifically, just dead bodies. But he was determined to go to military school and become a good solider, just so he could get out of Sarutobi’s shadow. He’d witness a lot of it if he wanted to follow his dream, so he tried his best to block it out when he did come across it.
Sarutobi knew from past assassination attempts on himself that when Konohamaru came across blood, his own specifically, and tried to block that anxiety he felt out. Things only got worse….
“Forget it, I’ll be alright.” Konohamaru let go of his grandfather and wiped away his tears with his arm.
! - ! - !
“This machine is amazing, how dose it work?” Lee asked, peering up from the back seat of Gai’s car. Just like Gai himself, this car was mostly strength. It was fast and could tow a heavy load up a steep hill, mostly strength all in a nice, slick package. The type of things people bought said a lot about their personality and this summed up Gai completely.
“I’ll show you, I’ll even teach you how to drive it.” Gai said, automotives where his hobby, he knew just about everything about any machine that rolled on 2 or more wheels. He almost went into racing, but he found a job he liked even better. He was a commander in the Air force and went on to enter the Leaf Special forces, opposed to Kakashi who and Air force commander that went on to be in the Bomb squad.
“Really?” Lee said, looking around at the passing city.
“Of course. You know Lee, I mean the other Lee, uses a Motorcycle. I’m sure he’d be happy to teach you how to drive that too. I’m… pretty sure you guys don’t know what that is yet.” Yeah, the legal driving age was pretty low for those who took an extra test when going to get their drivers license.
“Not a clue.” Shikamaru let his hands rest behind his head and looked toward the sky. It was much more comfortable with wind blowing over him and leather seats under his body. It was much better then how he lounged around in the past, this easily topped it. He could get use to this. But it was hard to just be lazy with so much to see around him, so much to learn that he was actually interested in knowing.
There was nothing like a trip to the future to change your outlook on life, at lest temporally.
! - ! - !
Naruto silently let go of the sleeping Sasuke when he heard a knock at the door. Pushing himself off the bed he walked indifferently toward the source of the sound, not like he was doing anything anyway. Just laying around next to Sasuke watching TV, he was reluctant to admit he missed him a little overnight and was happy to just be around him now that he was back.
Naruto opened the door to see Iruka on the other side baring gifts. “Hi Naruto, I brought you some raman.” Iruka said, he’d gotten off work early which had mostly been training drills like usual due to the fact they were in the middle of a war. Kakashi was no where to be found and would show up eventually, so Iruka had nothing else to do, “Is Sasuke here too?”
Naruto barely heard the question because he so busy hugging him gratefully while reaching for the raman wrapped tightly in a bag. “Yeah he’s asleep.” Naruto said, feeling Iruka place a hand on his forehead and pushed him away. Making it clear that Naruto would at lest have to wait until he got it out of the bag.
Iruka sat the food down on the table. “So what have you been up to lately?”
“Nothing.” Naruto said, Iruka could immediately tell something was bothering him by his voice. Call it a parental instinct, go figure.
“What’s wrong with you?” Iruka asked, pulling the contents of the bag out and setting them aside.
There was no use denying it, Iruka knew him to well. “Nothings really wrong with me, it’s more like something’s nagging at me. It’d Konoha, I love this place and all…”
“And?” Iruka asked while taking a bowl out of a cabinet and pouring some Raman into it. Setting it in front of the boy.
He could tell Naruto was serous because he didn’t immediately dive into it. “It’s hard staying in a place that hates you…It’s starting to get to me, I think I need to get out of Konoha for a while. Before I snap.”
Iruka wondered what suddenly brought this up, it made him looked over Naruto questioningly, noticing a few more cuts and bruises on him then he on him saw yesterday. Sasuke was too tired to notice and Naruto hadn’t said anything, he usually didn’t. Iruka frowned, “It happened again…Damnit you should have told me.”
“Hey! I can handle myself! I won this time.” Naruto didn’t smirk like he usually did after a telling someone about a victory.
“Who was it? How many of them were there?” Iruka asked frantically, anger building
“I don’t know, and it’s already over. Not much you can do about it now.”
Iruka shifted his eyes to the wall and glared “I swear if I get my hands on them…”
“Iruka…”
Iruka sighed, beating up a few people wouldn’t stop it in general. It was bound to happen again and no one would probably be there to help him anyway, he won this time against unfair odds. The first time ever, Naruto could handle himself now, he wasn’t a little kid. But still, he didn’t deserve this at all… And if Sasuke found out what happened, as vindictive as he was he‘d no doubt track down those responsible and leaving then next to dead if not kill them for it.
“If you want to leave Konoha for a while I support you, but I don’t think it’s going to be easy with the war. They’re not going to let you go.”
Naruto stood up and slammed his fist on the table “I’ll fight my way out if I have to, I just…” He stopped, realizing how excited he was getting over this and sat down. Iruka could see just how badly he need to do this. “I would come back and defend Konoha anytime, I just need to get away for a while. Just a little while.”
“I’d say…the easiest and maybe only way to take this trip is to talk to the president. He might let you go, but it might be hard…“ He had to rephrase that “It’s going to be hard to get an appointment with him.”
“Maybe I should just forget about it, I’m trapped here.” Naruto said with a heavy sigh, stirring around in his Raman with his chopsticks and still hadn’t eaten any of it.
“You’ve never been the type to just give up.”
Naruto was loosening his will to fight in a mental sense, “What’s the point, No matter what I do--”
Just then a small yawn could be heard from a Sasuke walking in to the kitchen, awakened when Naruto slammed his hands on the table. He stopped and looked at an extremely pissed looking Iruka and a reluctant Naruto. He only shrugged and walked to the refrigerator “You idiot, your actually just going to quit.”
“How did you--”
“I was asleep, not deaf dobe. How could I not wake up, you two could pull somebody out of a coma.” Sasuke emerged with a pop in hand, standing over Naruto’s shoulder. “If you really want to go…” His voice became much softer then usual. “I’ll do anything to help you.” Then his voice returned to normal “And don’t think your going with out me.”
Converting /tmp/phpzsQsTV to /dev/stdout
Konohamaru felt himself on the verge of losing it, he barley got a block from Naruto’s apartment before every person on the street started showing their sympathy for his parents death. “Konohamaru I’m sorry for your lose.” and the always popular “Konohamaru are you alright?” Didn’t he look alright?! Konohamaru thought he did but he figured he must have looked pretty bad if every other person he saw asked him that.
Konohamaru stopped at the window of a restaurant so he could see is reflection. He looked just about the same as usual, only his face had a more forlorn e expression to it. But he looked like this many times before an no one ever gave him a second look besides the usual it’s the president’s grandson one.
“Konohamaru I’m sorry for your lose, are you going to be alright?” A passing woman said,
“Urggh!” Konohamaru clinched his head to hold back anymore of the scream, “I’m fine!” he yelled before running off, maybe if he went fast enough no one would be able to say something to him…
Konohamaru abruptly stopped when he saw Ebisu turn the corner ’No! I’m not ready to go back!’ His mind said frantically, taking a few steps to the side through a crowd of people to avoid being spotted, but he knew that wouldn’t be enough to evade Ebisu who always managed to catch him except for the one time yesterday.
Konohamaru couldn’t imagine the look on his face when Ebisu walked right past him, not seeming to notice him. But he could swear he saw the man glance at him through the sunglasses he wore, Konohamaru sighed in relief and kept running, going into a full sprint when he saw someone else was about to talk to him.
He had to go somewhere…If he went back to Naruto’s house he’d only disturb Sasuke and he deserved some rest after going through 8 weeks of training and entrance tests in two days non-stop. ’There is one place I can go…’
! - ! - !
! - ! - !
“I told you this place is amazing!” Lee said walking down the familiar streets.
“You know your way around this place?” Shikamaru asked, he had to admit that the city from the exact center was an amazing sight. Buildings had large screens on them showing commercials adverting just about anything they could think of showing. Cars were everywhere, people were everywhere, buildings were everywhere. It was overwhelming, even he wanted to see more of it.
“Yeah, Gai-sensei showed me around. This place is great isn’t it.” Lee said excitedly, waving through the crowd of oncoming people. “And I found out the money we used in the past is an artifact here, Gai-sensei had it appraised for me, it’s worth 20 times more.”
“20 times more huh? What are you going to do with it?” Shikamaru asked.
“I don’t know, let’s go find something . I’ve seen some really interesting things.” Lee said grabbing Shikamaru’s hand and leading him along like anxious child, Shikamaru couldn’t help but grin and go with it.
“Lee?”
Lee abruptly stopped when he noticed that he ran past Gai, “Hi Gai-sensei.”
“Hello Lee….from the past right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“It’s so confusing.” Gai said with a small smile. “What are you doing here?”
“Showing Shikamaru around.” Lee said.
“And you must be from the past also.” Gai said.
Shikamaru nodded “Yeah…This place is completely different from my time…yet everything’s the same.”
“That’s interesting.” Gai said, wondering what he meant but finally he just shrugged it off after a few seconds. “Well if you guys want to see the city there’s a much better way of going about it.”
“What is it?” Lee asked.
Gai pointed to a red convertible behind him, “I can show you around, it‘d be my pleasure.”
Lee and Shikamaru looked at each other “I’ve been wanting to take a ride in one of those things.” Lee said.
! - ! - !
With a sigh of relief, Konohamaru laid down across the back seat of a huge SUV, looking up at a 9 in. TV screen hanging from the ceiling in-between the driver and passenger seat. “I can’t take this anymore…” Konohamaru said, he wasn’t just saying that, he was actually to his limit.
“Then why don’t you leave, take a vacation or something.” Kisame said from the drivers seat. He was wearing black pants, black boots and a red t-shirt
“Yeah maybe…” Konohamaru said, looking towards Itachi, he could only help but think of what would happen if Sasuke knew he was friends with his brother… Konohamaru was a little saddened now when he looked towards Itachi, he seemed friendly enough to him. Konohamaru knew both of them could be…mean towards others to say the least. It just didn’t seem like Itachi would do something like he did
“Itachi?” Konohamaru’s eyes were steady on the ceiling, “…Why did you do it?” Konohamaru never knew what Itachi had done exactly until today, he never imaged it would be so bad, and he did it to Sasuke, His Sasuke!
“Do what?” Itachi asked, he was wearing a black silk shirt with dress pants, oddly similar to Sasuke expect for the colors.
“You know…killing your family.”
Kisame looked at Itachi and shrugged “He had to find out sooner or later…how did you find out?”
“His brother told me.”
Kisame immediately seemed confused “You have a brother?”
Itachi sighed, “Yes I have a brother.”
“But why did you do that? Why did you hurt Sasuke?” Konohamaru asked with a saddened tone
Kisame did seem to be paying attention to his last question, “Damn, he must hate you then.”
“Yeah…he dose.” Konohamaru told him.
Kisame looked back Konohamaru as soon as he got to a stop light “What’s with you and Uchihas? Your hanging with Itachi and his brother, one of them hates the other? What are the odds? I mean are Uchihas just drawn to you?”
Konohamaru ignored him for the moment “Why Itachi…?”
Itachi looked back at him with all seriousness, more so then Konohamaru ever seen him use with him “Why do you want to know?”
“Because you hurt Sasuke!” Konohamaru said with angry undertones. “What happened, you just went crazy and started killing people?!”
“That’s not entirely true.”
“Really?” Kisame asked “That’s how I heard it.”
Itachi glared at him for a moment and looked back at Konohamaru “There was a reason for what I did.”
“What is it?” Konohamaru asked, he had to hear this one, and he really hoped it was good because he didn’t want to stop being hanging around Itachi…He’d probably still do it even if the reason was bad, he just like Itachi too much, it was like Sasuke only darker…if that’s possible. But both of them seemed to drop that outer persona when they were around Konohamaru, Maybe Kisame was right, Uchihas just like him.
“If I tell you, you cannot tell Sasuke. Do you understand?” Itachi’s voice cold and hard, making it deadly serous that he meant what he said. But on the other hand, he was telling him his most personal secret.
“Yes.” Konohamaru nodded, sitting up.
Itachi looked over him for a moment and then turned around, keeping his eyes steady on the road ahead. “The Uchiha family wasn’t a normal family, they weren’t normal Konoha citizens. You could even say they weren’t.”
Both Konohamaru and Kisame listened attently as Itachi continued. “Uchiha’s were pushed and trained to be the absolute best from birth, they also made up most of the Police department and a few other positions of authority all security centered. There was a reason the adults pushed me to go to the police academy instead of the Air Force like I wanted.”
Itachi paused and looked back at Konohamaru, debating weather or not he should continue. Finally after a few seconds he decided to keep going. “It was because the whole Uchiha family were Sound spies. They specialized mainly in giving information about The Leaf’s defense and how to get around them.”
Konohamaru held his head down, they all would have been killed anyway of Itachi had revealed his knowledge so it was almost justified, not really though. “But why didn’t you just tell Sasuke that? Why did you have to hurt him?”
“I wanted him to hate me.”
Konohamaru looked up at him with confusion, “Why would you want him to hate you?”
Itachi was silent, so Konohamaru knew he wouldn’t get an answer out of him. He didn’t understand but Kisame did. “Wow, that was complete a bring down.” Kisame said. “Anyway, Were gonna leave town again in an hour.”
“Oh…Where are you guys going this time?”
“Not sure, were probably going to end up in another country though, probably Sound.”
“Well then I guess I have to go back then.” Konohamaru sighed. “It was nice seeing you guys again.”
“You should think about taking that vacation if this place is getting to you.” Kisame said.
That didn’t sound like a bad idea, it may even be the key to saving his sanity, Naruto and Sasuke couldn’t do it alone and with Kisame and Itachi leaving….
! - ! - !
Kisame dropped him off near home, he decide it was time to go back, his Grandfather was probably worried. “See ya Kisame, Bye--” Konohamaru stopped, thinking better than to call out Itachi’s name in public. He knew Sasuke’s fan club would be all over him in a second, Sasuke would have been happy to get away from it but Itachi wouldn’t like the attention. In fact he made it a point that no one knew when he was in Konoha, everyone thought he was a hero that survived the Uchiha family’s massacre. Survived….yeah right, twistedly ironic almost. Konohamaru just decided to close the door and have his goodbye silently understood.
With a saddened expression Konohamaru ran towards the Presidential Palace, a.k.a the White house. Finding Ebisu sitting next to the door waiting for him. “Where were you last night?”
“Nowhere.” Konohamaru said defensively, not wanting to tell him that he had been at Naruto’s apartment. The boy made his way to the office he knew his grandfather was waiting from, security letting him through every check point through out the white house and into the room.
Konohamaru looked up at his Grandfather, both of them silent for a moment. Sarutobi got up from his desk, still looking down at his formerly missing Grandson, who only looked away with his eyes downcast. “Konohamaru.”
Konohamaru clinched his fist, trying to hold anything he was feeling come rushing back. ‘No I wont cry! There’s no point in crying, it wont bring them back.’ He thought, trying to convince himself not to cry but despite what his mind said he was still sad over his parents deaths.
Finally he ran over to the man, hugging him tightly and letting himself cry again. ‘Why do I keep wanting to cry, it just making things worse!’ His mind screamed as Sarutobi knelt down and hugged him back
“I wanted to tell you, but it seems you got away from Ebisu the one time when it was important.” Sarutobi sounded a little different when he said that last part about Ebisu, but Konohamaru couldn’t figure out what it meant exactly.
“I hate this! They didn’t have to die, it’s all because of this stupid war. Why is it even happening?”
“Konohamaru, even if I explained it to you now you wouldn’t understand it. It complicated and I wish it was over too but it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. You have to be strong.”
“I know…It’s just….I can’t take this anymore.”
“…Konohamaru.” Sarutobi could do nothing but shake his head, Konohamaru had been through a lot. He’d seen things…on numerous occasions, it gave him an almost fear of blood and death. Not death specifically, just dead bodies. But he was determined to go to military school and become a good solider, just so he could get out of Sarutobi’s shadow. He’d witness a lot of it if he wanted to follow his dream, so he tried his best to block it out when he did come across it.
Sarutobi knew from past assassination attempts on himself that when Konohamaru came across blood, his own specifically, and tried to block that anxiety he felt out. Things only got worse….
“Forget it, I’ll be alright.” Konohamaru let go of his grandfather and wiped away his tears with his arm.
! - ! - !
“This machine is amazing, how dose it work?” Lee asked, peering up from the back seat of Gai’s car. Just like Gai himself, this car was mostly strength. It was fast and could tow a heavy load up a steep hill, mostly strength all in a nice, slick package. The type of things people bought said a lot about their personality and this summed up Gai completely.
“I’ll show you, I’ll even teach you how to drive it.” Gai said, automotives where his hobby, he knew just about everything about any machine that rolled on 2 or more wheels. He almost went into racing, but he found a job he liked even better. He was a commander in the Air force and went on to enter the Leaf Special forces, opposed to Kakashi who and Air force commander that went on to be in the Bomb squad.
“Really?” Lee said, looking around at the passing city.
“Of course. You know Lee, I mean the other Lee, uses a Motorcycle. I’m sure he’d be happy to teach you how to drive that too. I’m… pretty sure you guys don’t know what that is yet.” Yeah, the legal driving age was pretty low for those who took an extra test when going to get their drivers license.
“Not a clue.” Shikamaru let his hands rest behind his head and looked toward the sky. It was much more comfortable with wind blowing over him and leather seats under his body. It was much better then how he lounged around in the past, this easily topped it. He could get use to this. But it was hard to just be lazy with so much to see around him, so much to learn that he was actually interested in knowing.
There was nothing like a trip to the future to change your outlook on life, at lest temporally.
! - ! - !
Naruto silently let go of the sleeping Sasuke when he heard a knock at the door. Pushing himself off the bed he walked indifferently toward the source of the sound, not like he was doing anything anyway. Just laying around next to Sasuke watching TV, he was reluctant to admit he missed him a little overnight and was happy to just be around him now that he was back.
Naruto opened the door to see Iruka on the other side baring gifts. “Hi Naruto, I brought you some raman.” Iruka said, he’d gotten off work early which had mostly been training drills like usual due to the fact they were in the middle of a war. Kakashi was no where to be found and would show up eventually, so Iruka had nothing else to do, “Is Sasuke here too?”
Naruto barely heard the question because he so busy hugging him gratefully while reaching for the raman wrapped tightly in a bag. “Yeah he’s asleep.” Naruto said, feeling Iruka place a hand on his forehead and pushed him away. Making it clear that Naruto would at lest have to wait until he got it out of the bag.
Iruka sat the food down on the table. “So what have you been up to lately?”
“Nothing.” Naruto said, Iruka could immediately tell something was bothering him by his voice. Call it a parental instinct, go figure.
“What’s wrong with you?” Iruka asked, pulling the contents of the bag out and setting them aside.
There was no use denying it, Iruka knew him to well. “Nothings really wrong with me, it’s more like something’s nagging at me. It’d Konoha, I love this place and all…”
“And?” Iruka asked while taking a bowl out of a cabinet and pouring some Raman into it. Setting it in front of the boy.
He could tell Naruto was serous because he didn’t immediately dive into it. “It’s hard staying in a place that hates you…It’s starting to get to me, I think I need to get out of Konoha for a while. Before I snap.”
Iruka wondered what suddenly brought this up, it made him looked over Naruto questioningly, noticing a few more cuts and bruises on him then he on him saw yesterday. Sasuke was too tired to notice and Naruto hadn’t said anything, he usually didn’t. Iruka frowned, “It happened again…Damnit you should have told me.”
“Hey! I can handle myself! I won this time.” Naruto didn’t smirk like he usually did after a telling someone about a victory.
“Who was it? How many of them were there?” Iruka asked frantically, anger building
“I don’t know, and it’s already over. Not much you can do about it now.”
Iruka shifted his eyes to the wall and glared “I swear if I get my hands on them…”
“Iruka…”
Iruka sighed, beating up a few people wouldn’t stop it in general. It was bound to happen again and no one would probably be there to help him anyway, he won this time against unfair odds. The first time ever, Naruto could handle himself now, he wasn’t a little kid. But still, he didn’t deserve this at all… And if Sasuke found out what happened, as vindictive as he was he‘d no doubt track down those responsible and leaving then next to dead if not kill them for it.
“If you want to leave Konoha for a while I support you, but I don’t think it’s going to be easy with the war. They’re not going to let you go.”
Naruto stood up and slammed his fist on the table “I’ll fight my way out if I have to, I just…” He stopped, realizing how excited he was getting over this and sat down. Iruka could see just how badly he need to do this. “I would come back and defend Konoha anytime, I just need to get away for a while. Just a little while.”
“I’d say…the easiest and maybe only way to take this trip is to talk to the president. He might let you go, but it might be hard…“ He had to rephrase that “It’s going to be hard to get an appointment with him.”
“Maybe I should just forget about it, I’m trapped here.” Naruto said with a heavy sigh, stirring around in his Raman with his chopsticks and still hadn’t eaten any of it.
“You’ve never been the type to just give up.”
Naruto was loosening his will to fight in a mental sense, “What’s the point, No matter what I do--”
Just then a small yawn could be heard from a Sasuke walking in to the kitchen, awakened when Naruto slammed his hands on the table. He stopped and looked at an extremely pissed looking Iruka and a reluctant Naruto. He only shrugged and walked to the refrigerator “You idiot, your actually just going to quit.”
“How did you--”
“I was asleep, not deaf dobe. How could I not wake up, you two could pull somebody out of a coma.” Sasuke emerged with a pop in hand, standing over Naruto’s shoulder. “If you really want to go…” His voice became much softer then usual. “I’ll do anything to help you.” Then his voice returned to normal “And don’t think your going with out me.”
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