Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Secret Love ❯ Home ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: All original Naruto characters, settings, plot etc. are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. No copyright infringement is intended and I make no profit from this story. … Home

"Excuse me, teme?" I ignored his outburst, it's not as though I hadn't dealt with his nonsense before; this was no different. Besides, I'd predicted that he would have this reaction once I told him returning to Konoha was impossible…but honestly – to act so childishly – it was to be expected from someone like him. In any case, he would never make it there since Akatsuki were bound to be heading in that direction already, and even if he did manage to get there, he'd only bring the group down on the whole village. He'd never do something like that. Which brought me to my next unnecessary annoyance; he thought it was all my fault.

"If you go back, you'll kill not only yourself, but half the village too, when Akatsuki comes for you." I spoke calmly, sure to keep myself apathetic; it wouldn't do to show him how much his whining irritated me. This whole situation irritated me. He panted where he stood, outrage clearly etched onto his face. What did he expect me to do? He should be more grateful; he'd be dead if it weren't for me.

"But! But everyone will think I'm dead! Where will we go? And I need to become Hokage; I can't go running off with a missing nin! You're just lying to me, you bastard, and I know it! You just don't want to come back home!" I snorted at that, but he didn't seem to notice as he continued his angry rant. Whatever, he could suit himself; I didn't care. It's not as though Konoha was my home, it hadn't been home for a long time and never would be again – when would he accept that? And how long would I need to deal with him until then?

I sighed minutely, he wouldn't notice, too caught up in his panic…hn, idiot. Why had I saved him again? Oh yeah; the whim. You don't decide whims, they just occur. I suppose though, at least I'm not bored now. He keeps things interesting, that's for sure. But where would we go? I don't know why I'm staying with him – it just seems a waste to save him and then leave him for dead…I might as well have spared myself the trouble if I did that. I'm not that stupid. And like I said; he was entertainment.

So…now came the difficulty of where we could retreat to. We weren't going to hide; I don't think I could stand him for any length of time so it was completely out of the question…besides – I wasn't going to hide like some weakling. I frowned when dirt was kicked onto my leg. It was my fault – I should have expected it – what with Naruto pacing on the forest floor and me sitting by a tree trunk; of course with all his dramatics he'd manage to kick dirt onto my leg. I brushed it off without a word; he hadn't noticed anyway and I wasn't going to give him another reason to rant.

We couldn't go to any hidden village – all ninja would recognise us and our cover would be dead before it had even breathed the air of life. Hn…what if we didn't go to a hidden village…what if we went to a 'normal' village. It would be so much less likely that we'd get caught, but it would be much harder to mask ourselves; to act as we were expected when we knew little of what was expected. I don't think Naruto could do it. I could, of course. But he's a dobe and would probably ruin our plan on arrival.

He was right in front of my face, I noticed, his large blue eyes staring intensely into my own coal irises. What did he want? A picture? It probably would last longer since if he didn't back off he was sure to get himself punched. Sadly, he moved away so I lost my reason to hurt him. Oh well. He sat beside me, resting his back against the thick mossy bark as I was.

"We have to contact them. I can't leave them thinking I'm dead. I just can't." His eyes were pleading when he turned back to me, only for a moment though, as his small mind was quickly distracted by the wood chips on the ground around of us. We were in a small clearing where light reached from a space high above us and it bounced off his forehead protector and right onto his hand in strange patterns. He seemed enthralled by it. Simple minds… I sighed again; this was ridiculous. I really don't know why I saved him; I'll never get rid of him now.

"I'll send something when we decide where to go from here." I hadn't been expecting an intelligent remark to come from his mouth, let alone for him to drop that subject so immediately, so I was a mildly surprised by his response;

"I went a lot of places with Ero-sennin…I have a good place we could go to and be safe." I didn't look at him as he spoke – he never did what I wanted, why should I look at him when I knew that was what he wanted? He's always wanted my attention. Hn, idiot. There are more important things in life than being noticed. But he continued to stare into the side of his face so I growled low in my throat; a warning to stop. He didn't heed it.

Just as I turned to tell him what exactly I thought of him, he smiled. Great; I'd just given him the attention he craved. I made sure to look at him with the disgust I felt; he was nothing. But he smiled and then that damned feeling pooled in my stomach, it clawed and scratched, begging to be acknowledged. I ignored it.

Instead I said "We need to be somewhere without Ninja." Best to tell him things straight, otherwise he might not understand. I raised an eyebrow when his bright grin didn't flicker; he's such a freak.

"You're really here…talking to me!" I snorted, well duh, I hoped he wouldn't continue to point out the obvious; it annoyed me. "I mean, I've wanted this for as long as you left. I just wish…that I could take you home." He reached out to touch my hand with his grubby, earthy fingers. I snatched it away before he could contaminate me. Annoyingly, he still didn't look disheartened. He was talking like I was some girl he wanted to screw - ridiculous.

I ground my teeth and snarled as I spoke; conveying my message clearly "Don't touch me." This time he had the decency to stop smiling, but he still stared at me, so I figured I'd leave him be. It was my fault after all – I wouldn't be forced to deal with his nonsense if he were dead.

"Um…yeah, it's a little civilian village on an island we once went to. I don't remember how to get there, but it was kind of near Taro Island…it's at the bottom of…" I knew where it was; it was above Haha Island* and just a little bit away from the tea country. If this place he spoke of was of any use then it had to be secluded from the Ninja villages that would notice us most. Going somewhere south sounded good - it wasn't a bad idea.

I stood up, brushing the remnants of chipped bark and dried mud off my clothing. Still feeling Naruto's eyes on me, I didn't turn to look at him as I began walking. If we had been in the mountains between Oto and Taki when we were at Akatsuki's cave, then we'd be up north of Fire country; in the forest near the valley of the end. I toyed with passing by, just to make Naruto uncomfortable – that might make him shut up. He was still talking. Babbling on about something unnecessary I'd bet. I didn't even bother listening. Everything he spoke was of no interest to me now. How else would I stand him other than ignoring him when he wasn't asked a direct question?

I decided not to pass the valley of the end. If we cut straight down through the Fire countries middle then we'd get to the tea country faster, however, that would mean crossing Konoha and Otafuku Gai which wasn't really an option since we were trying to lay low. Our best bet was probably to cross the fire country straight south till the ocean from here, and then following the beach all the way around until we got to the tip of tea country. Crossing the water would be another obstacle but I would deal with that problem when it arose.

In the mean time we continued forwards through the dense forest, walking at a casual pace until the boredom began to sink in again and I had to change something; no way was I going to start listening to Naruto's pointless blabber, so I hastened my speed and took to the treetops – just as I thought, the dobe followed close behind, no doubt still rambling on.

I wasn't very sure how long passed before I just had to listen to him, maybe minutes, more than likely hours, either way I didn't give it much thought. It seems that Naruto had finally caught onto my ignoring him; he must not have liked it. He always did strive for attention, especially from me. Still, I was a little startled when his voice cut through the acrid silence. I was almost thankful for the action; it would probably entertain me for a moment. I should have taken the detour to the valley of the end.

"Hey, teme! Are you even listening to me?" I wanted to ignore him, but with the tedious boredom looming over my head, I just had to say something. So I snorted and said "No, are you surprised?" An indulgent huff was my reply before a booming voice yelled out to me from my right; I didn't turn to look for him, for all I'd see were the trees flying by between us. My predictions told me that he was nearer than he should have been though, since he'd always been weaker than me, Hn, I must have been slacking. I picked up speed.

"Why the hell did you save me then, asshole?" It was strange, not only did he sound only half as angry as he had a moment ago, but I also found myself needing to answer. Not just for the annoyance, but also for myself. The question swam around my head, faster and faster – even when I silenced the consistent wailing, it continued to beat at my skull – my pride – my answer.

"It was a whim." I had no need to divulge any more useless information because there was none; it was as simple as it sounded. The question in my mind was not satisfied.

"Like hell it was!" the anger was back with a vengeance, it seems Naruto wasn't satisfied either. "A whim is something you do, like…just because! Randomly! You went out of your way to save my life…why? And at the risk of your own? Just like with Haku…" He trailed off, his voice thick with something I didn't care to place; my anger smouldered too much for that. I didn't care what he thought, or felt, all I wanted to do was rip his head off his orange-clad shoulders – I wanted to hurt him, I wanted to kill him!

He'd made that awful feeling come back! I didn't understand it – this thing that pulled at my chest and squeezed at parts of me I didn't even know existed any more – and whatever I don't understand has to be bad; this was very bad. I turned my head towards him - the one who was obviously causing this weird and absolutely hated feeling inside me - a piercing glare tearing through the distance separating us. I could see him now, he was in clear view; his form seemed to glide through the primitive movements as he jumped from tree to tree, as if he didn't look like an animal, as if he wasn't just an idiot. The way he was looking at me, though, stopped my glare dead in its tracks.

I could feel my face fall automatically back into my neutral – emotionless – mask. Only it wasn't a mask, as hebi had come to call it, it was just my face; just me showing the only feeling I really had any more – nothing. It used to be my defence, a long time ago, before I'd lost my purpose. Not any more, not until now. But I couldn't defend my mind, no matter how hard I tried. That was the only defence I ever needed now…protection from my nightmares…my memories…this craziness that had corrupted my sanity so suddenly. Everything was piling up in my head, I couldn't think properly with everything whirling around like a tornado, destroying all sense of reason; the question, the feeling, the memories…I had to get away.

Naruto didn't stop looking at me as I sped off ahead, for I continued to feel his gaze searing my back, in fact he seemed to slow down slightly, as if letting me take the lead; hn, as if he needed to; I was far superior. I didn't continue to dwell on it though. Thinking more on that would only ignite more flames in my inferno of confusion, so I let it go. I fell back into my boredom, but I didn't need to tune out Naruto's insistent blabber this time. He didn't speak again.

We broke free from the trees late the next day, the sun was on the verge of setting but we hadn't rested at all. I wouldn't let us rest – not that the nuisance had suggested it. If we continued at the speed we were going then we'd reach the south coast by mid day tomorrow. I wouldn't stop then either; we had no time to loose; we couldn't get caught. We wouldn't.

The open plains were so familiar to me…they brought a sense of nostalgia that I wasn't comfortable with…In the distance mountains roamed – though they were too far away for even my eyes to see – and I remembered the nights I'd spent there back before I left Konoha. A sigh fought for freedom from my throat, but I pushed it back behind bars, it wouldn't do to express just how annoying I found Naruto's pursuits. Why did he want to force my return 'home' so badly anyway? Isn't it clear that if I left for a reason, then it would be nothing but foolish to go back…And no I did not just quote my…brother…I was not foolish, and I didn't have a home to return to.

I once loved the feeling of running through these open plains, feeling the wind rush through my hair until it was so tousled I couldn't run my fingers through it. But now, as I ran at full speed through the barren lands, I couldn't bring myself to feel anything. So the thick, cool air stuck to my sweat covered body and refreshed me in a way much different to a shower – though I'd had to make do with less of them these past few years – and the wind whipped at my face, my hair, my clothes, just like I used to love. So what? It's just wind. It's just air. I just don't care.

I felt that way about Naruto too. It was something I could never let go of, for some reason I just couldn't allow him to be gone, and yet his presence brought nothing to me. Other than a few weak moments when he'd cause that…feeling…to consume my mind, I couldn't care less what he was doing, where he was, or who he was with. Yet I had saved him; though on a whim, it was not the first time I'd done it. The third in fact. So I did not care, but wouldn't let him die. Like the air I breathed, I couldn't stop; I couldn't let it go, even though it meant nothing to me. If I did, I would die. Hn, what a stupid thing to think…

I was just causing myself more hassle in the long run. I shouldn't bother with him. For instance, if he wasn't here with me right now, I'd be doing something far more productive than running through dead plains. Yet I'd also be thinking of something much different than this…which wasn't necessarily a good thing, as I'd probably be bored out of my mind. Either way; I didn't give a damn, because I had saved him and I was running through these dead plains so there really was no use in thinking any more on the subject.

I wouldn't deny that I'd expected Naruto to attempt a conversation in the time we'd spent since yesterday. Yet he'd said nothing, and I found that strange, in a nagging, almost foreboding sort of way. I felt as though this trip to an unknown island would lead to something more than just safety. I felt as though things were going to change. I didn't know what to think of this apprehension so I put it behind me. The dobe might just feel awkward after his little rant, hn, I smirked, serves him right.

For the rest of our travels across the plains and past the mountains I thought of hebi. It was boredom that drove me to it. I just had to wonder if they were dead yet. I could imagine their outrage as they'd realized, along with Akatsuki, that we were gone. Karin might have cried for my loss, she might have begged for her life, but I couldn't imagine it. Just like I couldn't imagine them being alive at this point.

No matter how useful they had been to me as tools since I'd left Orochimaru, they were nothing to Akatsuki; just nuisances that insisted on following me. There would be no reason to keep them alive…and letting them go was not an option; they knew too much. But I couldn't resist thinking of finding them one day – once all this was behind me, would I stumble upon them in years to come and marvel that their lives had been spared? Would I care then? I doubted it, if I didn't care now, why would I care then?

When had I become so heartless? Even when I was with Orochimaru I still cared to spare the lives of anyone I could. I still felt hatred towards him and Kabuto. I was still horrified by the looks he would send me sometimes, though I knew he would never act on his lecherous thoughts; my body was too valuable to damage. If it were now, I don't think I'd care, I don't know if I'd even care if he did act upon his desires. See? Thinking about it doesn't even disgust me.

I do feel horrified sometimes, but only at myself. At what I've become. But no matter how hideously twisted I am, I do still wish it was different. I catch myself sometime, dreaming about a life other than this one; what If I'd let Itachi live; what if I'd let Orochimaru have my body; what if I'd let Naruto take me back to the village he called home; what if I'd let myself call it home too; what if…what if they'd never died. What if my family were still alive, what kind of person would I be? Surely not this hollow existence. But I don't know, and I'll never know, and because things aren't that way, I'll probably never care. And I wish I did…I wish I could.

"Hey, bastard!" A hand reached out to grab me, but I slapped it away with a snarl. I saw the well concealed hurt flash through Naruto's eyes, but I didn't want him to touch me. We stood for a moment, doing nothing but staring at each other. Once I'd stopped moving I realized how far we'd come. We were standing on a beach; so we'd finally reached the coast. Had we been travelling along it? I wasn't very sure. It was strange for me not to notice such a thing, but sure enough, as I cast a look over Naruto, his clothes were blotched with grains of sand, his shinobi sandals covered in the creamy, almost silver sand of the fire country. Fire country had creamy coloured sand, while the wind country was more red-orange, and the tea country had a silver tone to theirs. It was my way of telling where we were.

I disregarded my clumsy observation skills as I noticed that it was day. Trying to calculate where we should be since we'd clearly been running along the coast for some time, I came to the conclusion that we must have slowed down. After Naruto's outburst the other day, I'd planned out that it would take until noon the next day to reach the beach, and that was at our current speed, but we'd ran far more than that. I almost sighed when I realized we were a day behind. We should have been in the Tea country, and though, by the colour of the sand, it didn't look far off, we should have already been there. How had I managed to let myself slip up?

"We should rest, Sasuke." I was startled that he'd used my name, but I felt the feeling – as I'd taken to calling it - swell inside me so I tried not to let my mind focus on that. My eyes swept over him again; although his clothes were tattered and blood stained, messed by the wind and sand, dirty from our trek through the mountains where mud was abundant, the boy looked fine to me. There was nothing in his face or the way he held his body to show that he was tired.

"Why would we rest? You look fine to me." But he shook his head at me, creamy flakes of sand falling onto his shoulders with the movement. A look that seemed almost like humour flickered over his features but before I had time to consider it further he spoke again.

"I wasn't talking about me. You look like a zombie, and you're getting really slow. I don't want you to collapse on me." Even as he said such a thing, though, the humour stayed on his face and seeped into his voice. It made me angry. I was not tired. I counted how long it had been since I'd rested…the last time I slept was before we left to set up the trap for Naruto, two days before the confrontation, I'd stayed with him three days in the cave, and then we'd been travelling for little under four days. So all in all I'd not slept in about nine days. Perhaps my body was feeling somewhat exhausted. It didn't mean we had to stop.

"We're not stopping." I made sure my voice was as firm as it could be, but the dobe was never one to catch on to things like that. "Nah, nah, teme. We should rest up. Maybe we could go by some hotel somewhere…" My anger flared; a hotel? Sure the beach wasn't the best place to camp but, what the hell did he think this was, a holiday?

"Does it look like there is a hotel around here we can just drop into? We don't even have any money." Which was true, I had no need for it any more, and Akatsuki had striped Naruto of anything he had on him.

"I'm just trying to help! You should see yourself! The bags under your eyes couldn't get any darker; you look like you're going to drop dead any moment. You look ill…" All humour was gone from him now and I noticed that he was worried…great. At least he had the decency to look offended at what I'd said. I really couldn't be bothered arguing with him, not when the feeling was approaching again. So I sighed and told him we'd rest a bit when we reached the border to the Tea country. He didn't seem completely satisfied but we began moving anyway.

This time when he spoke I couldn't even be bothered to tune him out. His worthless comments didn't entertain me in the slightest, and I never once pretended they did. I didn't respond to anything he said, not even when he addressed me. Still, he kept on talking, seemingly undeterred by my nonchalance as he acted as though I was interested and I was responding. It was really sad to see, and I didn't understand but I wished he didn't care about me, because I knew I didn't deserve it. The feeling didn't show itself again though, and I was thankful for that.

It seemed I hadn't miscalculated this time since we reached the border to the tear country before dark. There was a small patchy circle slightly inland that I took him to, it was really nothing but a small sand dune but it would be better for sleeping than out in the open, at least here we were surrounded by ferns. I lay myself down on my back, closing my eyes and letting the comfort of just resting sooth my muscles. It didn't last long until Naruto interrupted me.

"Hey…uh, Sasuke. You still haven't sent any word to Konoha, and we're about to leave the fire country. I need them to know I'm alive." I peeled open my eyes and looked at him; he wasn't even lying down. Man, he was so annoying. And persistent. Hn, well if I sent a clone I knew it probably wouldn't even get passed the gates, not like I hadn't thought of that earlier. He was bound to want to contact his 'home' at some point after all.

I didn't even get up when I formed my clone and transformed him into a bird, let alone did I speak to the nuisance. Only when my raven slouched down beside me did I bother to move, I took the paper he had in his mouth - he was my messenger raven - and propped myself up on the side of our dune. Funnily enough there was a small rock at the side where I scrolled my neat Chakra-formed handwriting into the paper. Tsunade,   Naruto is with me. He isn't with Akatsuki any more.I took him from them a few days ago, so there is a chance that they will come looking for him at Konoha. I won't tell you where we are going, but if you use my raven clone here then you can contact us whenever.
Don't worry, I won't kill him.   Sasuke.

With that, I rolled my small letter up and gave it back to my raven, he took it, as a well trained bird would, into his beak and then he was off. I had no need to tell him where to go; I'd transferred that information when I created him.

I turned my eyes to Naruto; he was at least lying down now. Good, it wouldn't do for him to keep me from sleep any longer when it had been him who'd insisted that we rest in the first place. Hn, damn that fox for keeping his energy up. I heard a rumble and closed my eyes tighter, if he complained about hunger I'd seriously consider killing him, regardless what I'd written in the letter.

"Saaaasuke…" Oh god. "I'm kinda…hungry. Do you think I could get something from a town in tea country or something?" See, he is selfish. He never thought of my health at all. Wanting to go to a town – hotel - was only so that he could get food to fill his own needs. Hn, whatever, he can do what he wants.

"I'm not hungry. Haven't you learned to go without food for long periods? You're a ninja." It was true; Ninja were expected to survive much longer without food than any civilian could. But Naruto never was much good at stealth. His stomach grumbled again.

"Sheesh, stingy or what! No wonder you're so skinny." Now he was really getting on my nerves; I am not skinny. I'm lean. And I was sure to let him know that.

"Pfft, yeah right. You've always been skinny. And I'm catching up to you in height. Soon, I'll be bigger than you in every way." I opened my eyes again; they'd closed of their own accord, and took a good look at him. I hadn't really studied his build in the times I'd seen him since leaving Konoha. He was right, in a way. Because he certainly wasn't skinny. Neither am I! But he had clearly toughened up since our younger years. He'd stripped himself of the bloody orange jumper and now lay with it covering him as a makeshift blanket, his destroyed shirt served as something to lie on. But where I could see, I knew had well defined muscle, I'd caught a glimpse of his abs and they were nicely shaped. It didn't make me jealous, not really, but it made the feeling threaten me again, so I pulled my gaze away.

"I'm not skinny." I turned away from him, facing the side of the dune in favour of having his eyes rake up and down my chest, it didn't help that these damned clothes left me in such clear view either. Thinking of clothes though, we'd need to go into one of the towns after all. Because we couldn't even think of approaching a civilian village with these clothes on. I didn't know much about civilians but I knew that what they wore was much different than us. Ours were designed more for combat and stealth purposes after all. Well, perhaps Naruto could get away with what he wore, but his were completely covered in blood and tears so that was out of the question.

I didn't respond to his next ignorant retort at my build; he could think what he wanted, just because I didn't have a six pack and my stomach was flat, did not mean I was skinny. I had a high metabolism and my speed covered for my lack of muscle. I could still beat him any day. Idiot.

After a while lying there in silence, Naruto seemed to drift off, while I still lay awake in the dune, dreading when my mind would slip into slumber. I always dreamt, and they were always nightmares. I liked to put off sleeping as much as I could, but when it was necessary, it was necessary and in this case, though I didn't like to admit; it was necessary.

Turning over to face the skies I studied the clouds and the patterns that stretched out across my vision. It was…beautiful…I knew that, I could see that. The mix of colours, the separation of dark and light, it was extraordinary. But even though could acknowledge it, I could see it; I couldn't appreciate it. I couldn't see why it was pretty, or magnificent. All I could see was something that I knew, but didn't understand.

But…the way the sky was split in a way, a blue hue spread over half of my vision, clouds were scarce and the moon sat in the middle of it all. While on the other side was the sun, setting and surrounded by colourful hues of red, orange, pink, purple, gold…the clouds spiralled around the sun, making almost a celebration in the sky for it.

My attention was completely on the moon though, sitting there, alone in the sky, a plain blue background, darker and lonelier than anything I'd noticed before. Though the clouds moved around it, the moon was avoided, almost purposely, while the sun was its opposite, colourful, bright, and accepted by all the clouds and the glowing background.

It made my eyes sting in a strange way. It made me think of myself. Because the higher the moon got, and the further it reached towards the sun, the further away the sun went, disappearing slowly behind the burning horizon. Out of the moons reach, forever. Because, not matter how much the moon wanted to be with the sun, no matter how much it tried, it would never reach the happiness, the brightness, because it was the moon, and the moon is alone, small and insignificant amongst everything else. Ignored.

I wanted a sun; I wanted something to save me from the desolate darkness, the loneliness, the emptiness. I wanted a sun. I wanted a home. I wanted what the moon wanted. And I'd never get it. Because I didn't know what it was. I didn't know what the sun was. I didn't know…what was it? Where was it? My sun…

The morning came far too slowly for my liking. My night hadn't been any different to all the others I'd had over the years. It had been so long since I'd slept without a nightmare that I'd forgotten what peaceful slumber was like. Naruto was watching me as I opened my eyes. He seemed distracted in staring at me. Ch, at least he'd put his shredded jacket back on, I didn't need the feeling to bother me today. I was in a bad mood.

Getting up, I straightened myself out immediately, not bothering to tell him about our detour, I left. It took Naruto a moment to catch up, but we stayed at a brisk walk for the rest of the way to a small beach town. It looked basic, the same design as most of the tea country's villages had - just simple houses and small buildings. I didn't waste time and headed straight for the main district where there was sure to be fashion stores, it was a purely civilian village, like the one we'd be going to, so I presumed there would be clothes to suit our purpose.

"Go get clothes. We'll need to fit in with the civilians when we get there." I told him, he looked contemplative for a moment and I seriously worried for his brain…he wasn't good at thinking.

"Should we get lots of them?" He asked me, his voice so serious it made me want to hit him. "You know…for a change when we get there, 'cause we might be dirty?" I shook my head at his stupidity, I didn't need this today.

"No, you fool, that would mean extra baggage. We can easily buy more once we get there if we need. Just go. I'll meet you at south end." I replied, he looked slightly upset by my words, and I was glad; serves him right for being so stupid. Honestly, goes to show what happens when he uses what little brain he has; trouble. I walked away, ignoring him as I focused on the task at hand. I just had to smirk a little; I used to like shopping, so Naruto might have a while to wait.

Sure enough, it was a few hours later when I finally found Naruto, already dressed and waiting by the exit. He didn't look to happy, but he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut. Well, his mouth was busy with other things, but I didn't care to contemplate how or where he'd stolen the sandwich from. We hadn't paid for anything, since we had no money, but this was a civilian village and we were Ninja. They didn't stand a chance.

Naruto was dressed in something hideous, as expected. My eyes trailed over his form, marvelling at the…sheer…I don't even have words to describe his fashion sense. I'd say pretty much non existent. He was wearing knee high boots, a weird silver and black colour, from which brown trousers emerged. I don't know where he got them from but they are hardly sensible wear for any form of human. They were brown and baggy and had strings of fabric connecting each leg together loosely…moving on, he was wearing a torn white top with splatters of red on, which I have a feeling I've seen before. So much for new clothes. And over that was a long hooded jumper, and I mean long; it reached to his thighs, orange and black striped.

I didn't say anything. I wasn't in the mood to even criticize him. He could do what he wanted. Idiot. I had gone for a more sensible and fashionable approach. Plain black slacks and a striped black and grey button up shirt over a blue shirt was what I was wearing; Naruto made a face that I assumed meant he'd expected me to wear something like that. Well, I didn't want to disappoint; because this was all about fashion wasn't it. Honestly…he frustrates me to no end.

Moving further south, we kept a steady pace, we couldn't go too fast because Naruto's trousers were tied together, yes it was loosely, but I wasn't going to take the chance of having him trip up and ruin his clothes because then we'd have to spend more time getting new ones. I'm not going to comment on his stupidity again, I don't think I need to. Nevertheless, Naruto seemed happy at his attire so I kept my mouth shut; I preferred him talking about whatever was going on in Konoha than him screaming at me about how much of a 'bastard' I am. I don't need told and frankly, it gets a little repetitive.

By the next morning we'd reached the tip of the Tea country. This was where I'd need to consider how to cross the water. I didn't want to go by boat, though that was an option. But I wanted there to be no proof that we'd crossed at all, and to do that we'd need to walk. I was perfectly okay with that. It was the best idea. But I didn't know quite how far it was to this Island, and walking on water used chakra. I wasn't sure if Naruto could do it; he'd never been good at chakra control.

Hn, great. So it looked like we didn't have much of a choice. Perhaps Naruto wouldn't be such a pain that he'd lose control and fall in the water whilst we were in the middle of the ocean. I thought I could trust him with that. If he fell I wondered if I'd save him again. Probably…I would have wasted my time otherwise.

"Hey, Sasuke-teme! Are we crossing by boat or what? 'Cause the harbour town is over that way." He gestured wildly in the other direction; it was pretty far in the distance, only a dot to our eyes. I didn't answer him, just stepped out onto the water. The sea was calm with little waves and I hoped it would continue in that way. It would be far easier to cross if the water stayed level.

"I take it we're not getting a boat then…" I heard the dobe mumble, I wasn't sure if it was directed at me so I didn't answer. If he didn't like my company then he shouldn't have insisted on dragging me back 'home' all the time. But then again, some people never learn. And this idiot was not going to grow a brain anytime soon, it seemed.

Though…that was a lie, something I knew was not true, and yet it seemed wrong to admit otherwise. But I just had to think of it as we continued across the water, the days passed and yet again we grew tired, and I had to admit…Naruto wasn't an idiot. He was when it came to me. But I knew for a fact that when I wasn't involved, the boy trailing behind me could actually be quite strategic. He could think things through and be rational, but for some reason he couldn't do the same when it came to me.

I'd be an idiot myself if I couldn't admit that. I'd never say it aloud though, but I could admit that small fact to myself. It made me wonder though…there were times when I couldn't think rationally when considering Naruto either, I didn't know why, but perhaps it was the same with Naruto. Perhaps, these whims that kept occurring regarding Naruto weren't whims at all. But that was foolish to think and I shouldn't be considering this in any case, because I didn't care about these things and therefore it was nonsense to me.

"Well…I guess we should greet the unknown island as it's named!" Was it just me or did Naruto's comments grow more and more unnecessary as they came? I looked up though, and sure enough, we were there. The island didn't look like much from here. Just a small patch of beach in a vast forest, but we both knew that behind the forest was a small village and as the broken, dirt-covered, deserted sign Naruto was pointing to read, that village was called 'Riera':

"Okaeri Nasai; Riera" …

Okay…so both Taro Island and Haha Island exist in the Naruto world…the map's here: http://www[dot]leafninja[dot]com/country[dot]php.

And 'Okaeri Nasai' means 'welcome home'. The name of the village also happens to be my name in Japanese! Yay! Sorry…thought I'd include a little of myself in the story.

Oh yeah, and those new clothes that they are wearing, they'll be keeping those clothes for mostly the entire story, because in Naruto they never change their clothes hardly ever. So…yeah. I thought I'd keep it vaguely the same because that's how I imagine the Naruto world being.

Um, if you notice contradictions in Sasuke's thoughts, know that this is the way I pictured his mind being, undecided and confused, but not aware of it…just thought I'd let you know lol

Hope you enjoyed!

Xx..xX