A Darker World

Authors note: so sorry for the long delay and sorry for the next longer delay. The good news is I'm going to finish a Rainy Night and the bad news is this will be put on hold until that's done. It's a health thing. You see this story requires a lot of work and thought whereas Rainy Night is a lot easier for me. Sorry if I'm disappointing anyone.

narutolover289- thanks for dropping a review and sorry for the long delay of the previous chapter.

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Konohamaru had been hurt when Naruto had walked away from him, but when he had positioned himself in front of the doorway, his feelings had become a lot more complicated. Part of him had felt safe while another part of him just wanted to be held like Inari was being held. It had been confusing, and when Jiraiya had burst in carrying two people, he had probably been the most relieved.

The remainder of that night had been confusing at best. Inari’s grandfather had been upset that Jiraiya had brought that one-man back and they had one of those arguments that didn’t really involve shouting, and that made it all the harder to listen too. Tsunami had ended the argument by saying they should trust Jiraiya or at least that’s how Konohamaru had thought it ended. He really couldn’t follow the argument, as most of it had been conducted in low tones. Besides, like Naruto and Inari, he had been more curious about the kid Jiraiya had brought along with the man.

He and Inari had been told to go to bed sometime around three or four in the morning. He slept in Inari’s room, and even though the two of them had stayed up talking for a while, Naruto never came up to join them. It was weird to wake up without Naruto nearby. It hadn’t happened in months. Konohamaru climbed out of the sleeping bag and glanced over to see Inari was still sleeping in his bed.

Slipping out of the bedroom, he made his way downstairs, the only sound in the house being his bare feet hitting the wood. He paused at the guest room where he would usually be sleeping and looked inside. The two people Jiraya had brought back last night were still laid out on the floor in makeshift beds. Naruto was sitting with his back against the wall, but he appeared to be sleeping while Jiraya sat near him awake. He was spotted by Jiraiya who raised a finger to his lips and Konohamaru nodded before quietly retreating.

Continuing on to the kitchen, he found Tsunami sitting at the kitchen table reading something. A creak alerted her to his presence and she looked over at him and smiled. “Konohamaru, can I get you something to eat?”

He hesitated for a second, but nodded. “I am hungry.”

“How does hot oatmeal sound?”

“It sounds alright,” Konohamaru answered not really knowing what that particular thing was. Taking a seat at the table as Tsunami stood up, he glanced over what she had been reading. It was handwritten, he could tell that, but outside of picking out a few familiar characters he couldn’t tell what it was.

“So your sensei asked to bring you up to speed on what is happening,” Tsunami said turning slightly to talk to him.

“Uh?” Konohamaru muttered, turning his attention towards her.

She smiled and went back to her work on the stove. “He wants you to take the day off from training. That man he brought in last night was the ninja he came here looking for, while the kid, whose name is Ranmaru was traveling with him much like you and Naruto.”

He remembered the kid with lavender hair and asked a question Inari and he had argued about when they were banished upstairs. “Is Ranmaru a boy or a girl?”

“A boy I think.” She turned and smiled, “I’m not sure though. Anyway, your sensei is going to watch over them until they recover and Naruto will be sticking with them in case they need anything.”

“Oh,” Konohamaru said quietly. It wasn’t that he hadn’t been used to Naruto not being around, but since their escape from the House Naruto had always been there. He supposed he could slip into the room with them, but right now his friend seemed to be sleeping and he didn’t want to wake him up.

“Konohamaru!”

Tsunami said his name in such a way that he realize he had been zoning out again. “Yeah?”

“I said once the bridge is built we should have trade flowing again. Hopefully they’ll be able to start up the school again and I asked if you ever had been to one?”

Konohamaru wasn’t sure how to answer. He got the vague impression that there were things they weren’t supposed to talk about, like how he wasn’t supposed to kiss Naruto when others were around. Then he realized that wasn’t exactly what she was asking. “No, I was going to attend an Academy, but now I’m Jiraya’s apprentice.” He didn’t think any of that was a lie because he had come from a ninja family and Jiraya had told him about the Academy. He was just leaving parts out. Still, it was a bit uncomfortable thinking about that stuff.

“I see. Do you think you would like to go to school with Inari?”

“No,” Konohamaru replied flatly. He shifted in the chair, suddenly uncomfortable. His eyes landed back on the papers she had been reading and asked, “What are you reading?”

Tsunami quickly darted over and turned the pages over so they were all face down. “It’s the beginning of Jiraya's latest book. He asked me to look at it.”

“He writes books?”

“You didn’t know?” She said sounding flustered.

He thought back, “Yeah, I guess I’ve seen him writing stuff down sometimes.”

Tsunami was silent when she went back to the stove, which he was grateful for. A moment later she placed a bowl in front of him and he thought it looked like it had already been chewed. He kept that thought to himself, though, the last time he had complained about the food it had been taken away from him for a day. Inari came downstairs a moment later and he was brought up to speed on what was going on. After breakfast, the two of them went outside to play.

They found the site of the previous night’s battle in the woods and explored it in amazement. Trees were uprooted and they played out different scenarios how it happened with none of them close to the truth. When they became bored with that, Inari took Konohamaru to the water and taught him how to skip stones.

Drifting back in for lunch, they came to a sudden stop as they stepped into the kitchen and heard an unfamiliar voice. Glancing at each other, Inari smiled and shrugged before following the voice into the hallway. Konohamaru followed a bit reluctantly. The voice was coming from the guest room, which meant their guests must be up. The door was open and Konohamaru poked his head around the corner as Inari stepped into the doorway. The man and child were both awake and sitting up. The man was saying something to Jiraya, who had Naruto sitting next to him. Tsunami was there too, having brought tea for everyone.

“There you two are,” Jiraya called out and waved them over. “Come on over, both of you need to hear this as well.”

They both dutifully did as they were asked, Inari going to his mother’s side while Konohamaru circled around the group before sitting at Naruto's side. He nudged the older boy, expecting him to throw an arm around him, but he didn’t seem to get the hint. Konohamaru nudged him again, but he guessed Naruto was too distracted. Then he noticed Ranmaru was staring at him, which he found unnerving. He scooted back so Naruto was between him and the presumed boy.

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Jiraya was not exactly sure what to expect from Raiga and Ranmaru, but they seemed to have some weird combination of father son bond that sometimes seemed more brotherly. They had started to wake up around the same time and he had sent Naruto to get something for them to drink. He came back with Tsunami, who was carrying a tray of tea, they were now both fully awake.

The conversation that followed was surprisingly civil and his respect for Tsunami had gone up several notches. She even had the courage to bluntly ask how the two of them had come to be together. What followed was a sad story that was probably more common in the Land of Water than he ever cared to think about. Ranmaru told his part of the story in such a detached fashion that it would have been easier to listen to if he had been bawling his eyes out.

Tsunami seem to be holding back tears when the boy explained how the village had turned its collective back on him and even Raiga seemed tense with anger. When Jiraya looked over at Naruto, though, he didn’t seem to be paying attention and seemed to just be staring off into the distance. There was something not right with him, but instead of dwelling on it he turned to what they were going to do next.

It’s a rare plan that survives initial contact with the enemy. Jiraya didn’t remember where he had heard that, but it had been thoroughly pounded into his skull. Of course, in this particular case, his enemy was time. He hadn’t anticipated that if he had successfully recruited Raiga that he would have been injured. He had hoped the boys and himself could have slipped away, preferably moments after he had joined them.

That had proven to be an impossibility. Not simply because Raiga had been injured, but despite his wishes he had been drawn into Wave and its problems. He had heard enough about Gato and how he terrorized this country. His successor had been a bit more subtle, but not different.

Watching those men work on the bridge day after day knowing the threats they would be receiving was inspiring. Courage came in many forms and he had been moved by this small, but consistent act of bravery. It was humbling and at some point he had started to want to see the bridge completed too. Those feelings were unprofessional, but now that the deed was done, he could admit it was another reason why he had gone after Kanaye last night.

Even after hearing that, though, Tazuna had not exactly been happy when he had brought Raiga back to his home. Jiraya could understand where he was coming from, but like most civilians, Tazuna did not understand that missions weren’t personal or at least they weren’t supposed to be. With his employer dead, Raiga had no reason to assassinate him. That was the theory at least.

He promised to stick with the man until the bridge was completed. Since the bridge would be hopefully completed today, that wouldn’t be a hard promised to keep. After Tazuna had reluctantly agreed to the situation, Tsunami had made an unexpected offer. She had offered her home to them as long as they liked.

His initial reaction was to decline her kind offer, and when he first arrived he would’ve done so without hesitation. He was, after all, a Missing-Nin and he didn’t want to think what would happen to the boys if they got caught. However, there was one factor that weighed in favor of staying. That was Inari. The three boys had struck up a friendship and Inari seem to be having an effect on the other two. Naruto had not complained last night when the two younger boys had been sent to bed. Jiraya could remember when the blonde wouldn’t let his younger friend out of his sight with others around.

It was a terrible idea to make technical decisions on emotional grounds, but that had never stopped him before. So he accepted her offer and had started to improvise. The problem was there was no covering up last night’s events, but misdirecting was another thing. Outside of hidden villages, ninja's abilities weren’t exactly well known. He decided to use that.

This morning, when Tazuna had left for hopefully his final day of construction an earth clone had accompanied him. When the topic of Kanaye's death came up, and inevitably it would come up, his clone would take credit for it and then transform into a scruffy teenager with a forehead protector from Ame.

The only flaw with this deception was if Konoha intelligence ever started poking around and starting asking why exactly the supposed Ame ninja had taken the form of one of their Missing-Nin. It was an unlikely scenario, but to be safe they should disappear for a little. That reminded him of another meeting he had to handle. He was pulled out of his thoughts when his eye registered Inari and Konohamaru in the doorway. He gestured for both of them to come in and said, “Come on over, both of you need to hear this as well.”

The two boys came into the room, Inari going to his mother’s side and Konohamaru going to Naruto’s. Jiraya noticed that Konohamaru practically crept along the wall trying to stay as far away as possible from the unfamiliar people. Well, this time he couldn’t blame him for his abundant caution. “Well, the situation has changed a little,” Jiraya began. “Originally, my intention was to be back to our traveling ways. However, Tsunami has been so kind to offer us a room as long as we would like.”

He spared a glance over Naruto’s head to judge Konohamaru’s reaction and the forced smile was not exactly what he had been hoping for. He wondered if Konohamaru had ever thought about leaving before now.

“So, Raiga I’m going to give you enough Ryo to rent a small apartment. When the bridge is completed they’ll be a lot more trade and I suspect they’ll be a lot of new faces around, two more won’t be noticed. Just don’t hang around your room all day.”

“I have done covert operations before,” Raiga muttered.

“Sorry,” Jiraya apologized before continuing “Tsunami, I appreciate your offer and we will be taking you up on it, but I have something I have to take care of. It shouldn’t take more than two weeks and I’ll take the boys with me so they can keep up their training.” This was mostly true, he was just keeping some details to himself.

“I wouldn’t mind if Naruto and Konohamaru stay here with me,” Tsunami offered.

He smiled “Thank you, but this is for the best.” Naruto chose that moment to yawn and he seized the moment to end the conversation. “Why don’t you go get some real sleep in Inari’s room, Naruto? You only grabbed about a half hour last night.”

His blue eyes stared at him for a second, blinking slowly. The boy then glanced over at Konohamaru before turning back and saying, “Yeah.”

As the blonde left the room, Jiraya had an inkling that not all may be right between Naruto and Konohamaru. He shrugged it off. Naruto was just tired.

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Konohamaru spent the next several hours trying to pretend he wasn’t waiting for Naruto to come out and join them. Naruto had been tired, he could understand that, but he missed him. It felt like something important was missing.

Inari wanted to talk to the new kid, but he had to persuade him not too. The way the kid had been staring at him earlier was creepy, and just because Inari had proven to be a friend didn’t mean Konohamaru wanted to try to make another. So, instead they played outside and he kept an eye out for Naruto, who never showed up.

Tsunami called them in for dinner and to his surprise Naruto was sitting at the table. Shaking off his surprise, he assumed that Naruto must’ve been woken for dinner. He did kind of look like he had just been woken up and was still half asleep. Come to think of it, he could not really remember seeing Naruto like this before. Usually a few hours of sleep and he would be his normal self. As he took a seat next to him he kind of felt guilty about wishing that Naruto had come out and played with them earlier.

Just as they were about to start to eat Tazuna came into the kitchen with a shout of “I’m home.”

“Dad you’re late,” Tsunami accused, standing up from the table.

He laughed and Konohamaru could tell he was, if not drunk, definitely tipsy. Unconsciously, he slumped back in his chair, not liking when people were like this.

“Sorry dear, but it couldn’t be helped. You see we completed the bridge so obviously we all had to have a drink. Then Jiraya’s clone pulled that little story of his and then left. So obviously since I was the only one who knew him I had to tell the story how we met which required the purchase of more drinks. Well, the news spread and damn if the governor didn’t show up. We were planning on having a small celebration tomorrow to celebrate the opening of the bridge, but he declared there would be a festival.”

“A festival?” Inari repeated excitedly. “A real festival?”

Tazuna smiled, “Well as much as can be done on such short notice.”

“Mom can I go?” Inari asked, bouncing up and down in his chair.

Tsunami seemed to think for a minute and then sighed as if it was a major decision. “I guess.”

Inari immediately launched into a list of things he wanted to do and things he hoped he could do. Between Tazuna being drunk, or at least tipsy, and Inari’s excited ramblings, Konohamaru started to feel uncomfortable. He quietly slipped away from the table without being noticed and went upstairs.

Slipping into Inari’s room, he sat on his sleeping bag and hugged his knees to his chest until the butterflies in his stomach settled down. He wanted Naruto to be here. He wanted to feel his arms around him. It was weird, but the faint smell of alcohol and the noise had unnerved him.

After about ten minutes he was feeling more like himself, but he didn’t want to go back downstairs. Instead he played with some of Inari’s toys. It was another twenty minutes before Jiraya came upstairs to check on him.

“Konohamaru, is everything okay?”

He hadn’t heard the older man’s approach and his voice startled as he turned around to see his head poking around the door. “Yeah, why?”

Jiraya let the door open the rest of the way but didn’t step in. “Well, it’s polite to tell someone when you’re leaving the table. For a while we thought you were coming back and then we were starting to wonder if you might be feeling sick or something.”

“I’m fine.”

Jiraya nodded. “Well, Naruto and Inari are playing a card game with Ranmaru. Why don’t you go join them?”

“All right,” he said getting up and walking past the man without a glance. Why hadn’t Naruto been the one to come up and check on him? Jiraya probably wouldn’t let him, Konohamaru decided.

He ended up standing nervously just outside of the guest room, watching the three of them play a card game until Inari noticed him and gestured for him to join them. He was nervous again, but after he was dealt into the hand of Go Fish he quickly discovered that Ranmaru wasn’t much of a talker. The boy spent most of the time examining his own cards. It wasn’t until the first game ended and he seemed surprised that Konohamaru realized he may not have seen playing cards before.

Inari continued to talk about tomorrow and after a while he just tried to tune him out. A couple of times he tried to talk to Naruto, but he seemed withdrawn too. The game just became something to do, and except for when someone would call out a card they could hear the adults talking in the kitchen.

After a while, they stopped playing cards and Inari brought out a board game. It was a lot more fun than the cards. Konohamaru was close to winning when Naruto said he was calling it a night. Before he left the room Konohamaru added he was going to bed, leaving the other two boys to finish the game. Tonight, Naruto was sleeping in Inari’s room and with everyone busy he was hoping they could mess around a little.

Smiling to himself he gave Naruto a playful push in the upstairs hallway and received a glare. “Sorry.”

“I’m tired,” the blonde said looking away from him.

“Come on you took a nap.”

“Not really,” the boy said looking back at him. “I was too tired to sleep. So unless you really want to go to sleep maybe you should go back downstairs and finish the game.”

Konohamaru studied his friend’s face which was so familiar, but right now seemed alien. After second he ventured, “I can give you a blow job. It will help you sleep.”

“I just want to go bed.”

With that, Naruto turned and went into the bedroom, leaving Konohamaru in the hallway. The younger boy stared at the closed door for a minute before walking to the stairs and sitting down. At that moment he didn’t feel like going to bed but he didn’t feel like going back downstairs and finishing the game.

Naruto had been acting weird all day and maybe he was just tired, but he had been tired before and he had never been like this. The idea that maybe the other boy didn’t want him around occurred to him, but was quickly squashed. He was just tired. Tomorrow everything would be back to normal. Yeah, tomorrow they would go to this festival thing, which if it was half as good as Inari seem to think it would be, should be a lot of fun. Yeah, tomorrow would be great.