La Speranza Ultima

X. Meeting

Mizuki licked the blood from his fingers, staring at the body of the kappa he’d just destroyed. So the stupid creature had seen Iruka, Mizuki’s Iruka, in the company of some lightning demon and the Kyuubi’s brat, and had let them get away. Not only that, the little bastard had tried to take Iruka for himself. That, simply, couldn’t be, so Mizuki had taken care of the kappa and had let the humans following him sate their bloodlust on the nymphs and other tree spirits while Mizuki looked for the direction that the trio had moved off in.

He’d been lucky when he found Iruka’s blood on the trail, even as dry as it was. It just proved he’d chosen the right direction to move in, and now he needed to choose right again. He wanted to pick up the pace, but his companions were only human, and he needed them should he happen upon a group heading for the Exodus. The last thing he needed was to come upon a group of armed demons heading for freedom and recognizing him as tainted.

“Mizuki?”

The silver-blonde haired demon looked over at the human questioning him so and merely pointed in a direction, lips curling into a horrible grin. The grin was matched by the hunter’s own, and the call to move out was given.


Naruto darted ahead of his two guardians, grinning from ear to ear as he chased down the sparrow. He could hear Iruka calling him, warning him not to get too far ahead, but he ignored his brother and kept after the sparrow. He’d always be able to find his way back to his brother and Kakashi, just like Kakashi would be able to find him. So Naruto continued to leap ahead, grinning as he leapt up to catch the bird, trying to get it to stay still long enough for him to actually touch the feathers. Only Naruto missed and came crashing down, yelping as he landed on a warm body that didn’t belong to Iruka or Kakashi. The young kitsune rolled off the boy he’d landed on, crouching on all fours as he studied the black-haired boy, swallowing as he reached out to touch his face. His hand was slapped away, the boy glaring at him as he sat up, black eyes boring into electric blue.

“You’re okay then?” Naruto asked softly.

“You landed on me, you stupid dobe!”

“My name is Naruto not ‘dobe’!”

“Dobe, dobe, dobe!”

Naruto growled and launched himself at the other boy, tackling him down. The black-haired boy rolled with him, both fighting in that playful wrestling that was bound to get dangerous, both younglings growling and hissing at each other amidst the name-calling. And then they were pulled apart by strong hands, both held up by the scruff to stare into menacing yellow eyes. The shark demon grinned at both, and had the black-haired boy a tail it would’ve been between his legs like Naruto’s was.

“Now what’s all this about?” The shark demon questioned the boys. Both younglings trembled in that hold until a pale hand settled on the blue-skinned man’s shoulder. Gently, the boys were set on their feet, instinctively huddling together under the piercing red gaze of the new arrival, the black-haired man looking disappointedly at the miniature version of himself.

“Sasuke-“

“He started it!” The black haired boy burst out, pointing at Naruto. “It’s his fault!”

“What?” Naruto shouted back. “No it’s not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Itachi? Is that you?”

Both boys whirled to look up at Kakashi and Iruka, the smaller of the pair prudently hiding behind the lightning demon all the while glaring at Naruto in severe disappointment. The red-eyed demon blinked, squinting just a little at Kakashi’s face.

“Hatake Kakashi… I heard you’d gotten left behind.” The one called Itachi said softly.

“I stayed behind. I needed to find someone.”

Red eyes flicked to the human standing behind him, but Kakashi shook his head. “Then the boy?”

“The boy.”

Itachi looked down at Naruto, frowning slightly. Naruto only glared back at him, tail curled around his leg in a betrayal of his fear. Those red eyes blinked once and then looked away from the blonde boy to the black-haired boy beside him. “Sasuke, behave yourself.”

“But-“

“Behave.” Itachi looked up then at the lightning demon, head canting. “You’re welcome to join us.”

Kakashi took Iruka’s hand to lead him down to the other pair of adults, letting him go when Iruka moved toward Naruto, taking hold of the blonde boy’s hand to pull him close. Naruto just glared at Sasuke as he clung to Iruka, and Sasuke glared back, clinging to Itachi.

“Are you heading to the Exodus?”

Kakashi nodded slowly. “Are you and Kisame heading there?”

“We’re the last to arrive, as far as we know.” Kisame the shark-demon replied. “I found Itachi and Sasuke by luck.”

“Hunters wiped out the Uchiha clan,” Itachi said, “except for myself and Sasuke, since Kisame was there to rescue us. Madara had gone on ahead to make sure the path was clear for us and his brother died to protect us.”

Iruka shivered. “Everyone is dead?”

“See, little human,” Kisame said, “the hunters don’t want us going to the Exodus because that’ll take away all their prey. But the odd thing is no hunter has ever found the Uchiha compound without help from an Uchiha.”

“So someone helped them into the compound to kill the clan.” Kakashi mused. “And Kirigakure?”

“No Uchiha helped the hunters in. It was another demon entirely. And Kirigakure was completely annihilated. Zabuza and Haku got most of the youngsters out, and Orochimaru and Kimimaru made it out. Tsunade and Jiraya have their hands full with just the wounded. The others are trying to find survivors of the other massacres, but if they haven’t made it to the Exodus by now, they’re not coming.”

“So, in all, how many of us are left?”

“Including us?” Kisame shrugged. “Maybe a thousand, a little less. Mostly children.”

The weight of that statement was heavy on the adults, even Iruka, but the boys ignored the words in favour of making faces at each other, finally letting go of their respective adults to romp with each other, playing as children will do. Kakashi took Iruka’s hand and held it tight, sighing softly.

“Naruto will lead us out of here,” Kakashi said softly. “He is Kyuubi’s son.”

Itachi looked to the lightning demon and then to the boy playing with Sasuke. “He’s young still.”

“More fire in him than there ever was in his dad,” Kisame replied, getting a grunt in reply from Kakashi. “And you’re bringing a human with you?”

Iruka reddened at being mentioned, but Kisame’s gush of air from Itachi’s fist made the blush lessen just a little.

“Don’t mind him,” Itachi said softly. “Humans have a bad reputation among demons.”

“So I noticed.” Iruka replied just as softly, moving just a little bit closer to Kakashi. They walked together for days, it seemed like, and Iruka learned more about demons than he ever would have had he stayed in the village. At night, he curled close to Kakashi, trembling against him, cold, and Kakashi just held him close to keep him warm. When it was time to part ways, Iruka took both Itachi’s and Kisame’s hands in a friendly hold before stepping aside to let Kakashi say his own farewells.

Naruto peeked over the fallen tree he and Sasuke were hiding behind at the adults, before turning back to his friend, holding up his hand, fingers curled over so his pinky finger was raised. Grinning, the kitsune kit canted his head at the Uchiha boy.

“I’ll see you there, and we’ll go together?”

Sasuke grinned back, hooking his finger around Naruto’s. “Promise.”

“Sasuke!”

“Coming!” The black-haired boy threw his arms around Naruto in a hug. “Don’t forget me.”

“Can’t forget you,” Naruto said, returning the hug.

Together, he and Sasuke emerged from their hiding spot and hurried to their respective adults, both staring back at each other as they parted ways. Naruto only lifted his pinkie finger and grinned, getting a grin in return. Iruka took Naruto’s hand then and held him tight, following Kakashi on their own path.