Damaetas

Thanks to the reviewers. I appreciate your reading and commenting. :) To twisted: Oh man, I've lost track of how much I've tweaked this fic. I think I took out some of the problems with the ff.net version - or at least I hope I did, heh. Aside from that, not much is different, alas. Same old boring story. :)

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"So, how are your genin?"

Naruto shrugged and spoke around the sherbert in his mouth. "Ehhhmmm. They're not too bad, I guess. I thought the-"

"Naruto, ugh," said Sakura, lifting her nose. "Swallow first."

"Sorry," Naruto said, catching a mouthful threatening to dribble down his chin. "Mm. Heh. Anyway, I thought the Aburame in the group would be the best, but I don't think so. She's fast, and single-minded I think, but there's another one who doesn't look half bad."

"Who?" Sakura widened her eyes, spoon halfway to her mouth.

"Ino's cousin, you know? Kaiki." Naruto tapped the counter with his spoon, resting his chin in his hand. "I dunno... he just looks like he's got potential."

"Hmm." Sakura shrugged and finished the bite, closing her eyes briefly. "This is good. What do they think about having someone like you for their teacher?"

"Whaddaya mean by that?"

"I mean-" She raised her eyebrows at him. "You're lazy, Naruto. And uneducated. You like to sleep in the sun all day, when you're not practicing. You don't know the theoretical, just the practical. Did I mention that you're lazy?"

"Saaakura-chaaaan!" Naruto protested. "You're gonna make me cry."

"You know you're lazy, Naruto."

"Nyeh heh." Naruto flashed her his teeth. "Well, I learned a bunch of stuff already. I trained so hard for years, now I'm takin' a break! And I get a suntan when I sleep in my window, see, see?"

"Naruto." She lowered her voice, leaned in. "Look, you're the best jounin in the village, even though no one will come out and say it. Except me, of course. And Shikamaru, but no one listens to us. What I'm saying is... look, Naruto, if you actually try, really try, you could teach a lot to these kids."

Naruto dug his spoon deep into his sherbert and pulled it out with a huge hunk. "Hey, Sakura-chan," he said, sucking on the spoon. "You ever think maybe I don't want to teach these kids? It's competition, right? Maybe I like being the best for once in my life."

"No one in this village is going to get better than you." Sakura looked like it was hurting her to say these things; she sucked on her spoon quickly. "Now you're just being irritating."

Naruto leaned back in his seat and sighed. The booth was busy, crowded full with people; they were lucky they were being ignored, for the most part, by civilized society. He reached up, picking absently at a loose thread in one of the banners. "Sakura-chan, I don't have time for this crap. I've gotta...."

"Oh, bullshit."

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto pulled a miserable face. "Sakura-chan hates me."

"A year. That's the most you're going to be training these kids," Sakura said, leaning close again. "Just take a year off, Naruto. And focus on something that will actually last."

Naruto leaned back in his seat and regarded her. She'd grown up, had Sakura-chan; gone was the little girl in red and pink, frilly and impeccable. She'd kept the short hair, barely even bothered to maintain it now; just hacked it short enough to pin behind her ears and go. Gone was the red dress, replaced by a black shirt and black pants; but she was still beautiful to him, in that vague, wistful, unattainable way. He admired her spark melded into resolve, the way she tried to take care of everyone, even her dropout, delinquent, hated ex-teammate. He dropped his eyes to the wedding band on her finger; leaned forward, rested his chin on the counter and sighed. "I'll try for you, Sakura-chan. But soon I'll be leaving again. Tsunade-sama gave me permission."

"I'm coming," said Sakura, but Naruto straightened and shook his head.

"No," he said firmly. "I go alone. That's how I work now anyway." Foxes don't travel in pairs, and those were in the know in Konoha understood that about Naruto. Sakura still didn't.

She pursed her lips, gave her head a little toss and reached for her drink. "Fine, be selfish like that. ... Are you good for dinner tonight? You have food?"

"Yup, yup. Ramen all the way. I just got paid, so it's Ichiraku tonight!"

"Don't stay up too late tonight. And don't drink! Your genin *would* beat you if you had a hangover."

"Right, right, Sakura-chan," he grinned.

She smiled and plucked his braid out of his lap, giving it a tweak. "Just," she said, eyes and mouth becoming serious, "be careful, okay, Naruto? I hate what you're doing."
Smiling, Naruto hailed the owner and asked for the check. "Me too, Sakura-chan. Me, too."

Naruto started leaving the village when he was fifteen. Still an ANBU member at the time, the tattoo fresh on his arm, he'd taken every holiday and every day off as a chance to hop from town to town, sometimes disguised, sometimes not, milking information from the townspeople. He went through forests, checking for familiar scents. He stopped where it looked most promising, and moved on when it proved his prey had escaped again.

Once he had come close. He was sixteen, on vacation in a gambling town; it was festival time and somebody had decked him out in a fancy robe and a fox mask. He hadn't even been looking for information, had just been messing around - winning prizes for girls, blowing his money - when he smelled it on the wind, a hint of something dark and cold. He had followed it to the lake, where in the moonlight somebody was walking into the water, bare skin lit by and shining in the silvery light.

He crouched in a tree, watching the roll and dip of muscles as the person bathed, bending his neck back and forward and to the side, rolling his shoulders, cupping his hands and pouring water on his head to trickle down his spine and linger on his skin. Where the water touched black, dark marks, it evaporated instantly, leaving a sheen of steam enveloping the silver-touched body.

Then they turned, and it was - funny, really, how peaceful his face was. He'd never looked like that as a child, always malcontent and brooding and unhappy. Even in the sunshine, even after a joke, a day of tussling and good-natured insults, that face never stopped looking a bit hunted, never turned its eyes from the focus. Now... now Naruto wondered if that was the face of someone finally at peace.

He'd stepped out then and made his way to the shore; and stood there, no weapons or anything, to stare at the boy in the water. The face was startled, at first, but had caught itself and a small smile lifted its lips.

"My my, Naruto-kun, it's been so long."

That was the worst thing about it, Naruto decided, and nothing would ever change his mind. It wasn't that Orochimaru walked in Sasuke's body, used his mannerisms, even; it was that he used his voice, and even though Naruto knew it wasn't true - sometimes he wondered, even when he knew it was Orochimaru saying these cruel and strange things, whether Sasuke was saying them, too.

"Orochimaru," he said back.

Sasuke's eyes skimmed him up and down, as if Naruto were the one naked in the lake. "And we've grown, haven't we? Still so little - so little for such huge chakra - but I am surprised to see it, Naruto-kun. You're almost a man." He smiled, slowly, and stretched out his tongue to run over his lips.

Naruto said nothing, and Sasuke's smile grew wider. "Do you want me to say what he would, Naruto-kun? Do you want me to call you an idiot, a no-good loser? Do you want me to tell you to shove off and die? I can, you know, and it would be just like Sasuke-kun is here with you. Perhaps he is; how would you know?"

"What I want," Naruto said, voice tightening along with his body, "is for you to leave him."

Sasuke chuckled. "You want that, Naruto-kun. You want that, and the girl, and everyone in Konoha because you all want his charm, his beauty, his talent - these eyes...." A blink, and his irises were red, three Sharingan pupils wheeling slowly as those eyes studied Naruto. "But that's not what Sasuke-kun wants. Ah, it's so wonderful," he sighed; "it's even better than having this body sexually... *being* in this body." He ran his hands over his shoulders, then smiled again and dipped one hand into the water. "Do you want to see me jerk off, Naruto-kun? Did you and Sasuke ever do this together, as boy friends do when they're young?"

"Fuck off!" Naruto clenched his fists, put all his anger at Orochimaru into his glare, into his words. "Fuck off... don't do that to him. Sasuke would hate me seeing him like this. You're disgusting, you gross pervert."

"Ah, Naruto-kun, you're so funny." Smile spreading, Sasuke lifted his other hand to tap his lips. "How would you know how Sasuke wants you to see him? Perhaps Sasuke just wants you dead. Don't worry - I'm not going to tell you that he's trapped in here, that he wants out and that he wants you to save him. Quite the opposite, actually."

He hated this - the word games. The mind games. You know I can't keep thinking straight, you bastard.

"But I will tell you that he wants to fuck you," said Sasuke, as if they were talking about the weather; "and you wouldn't know if I was lying or if I wasn't. Although... I wouldn't be lying if I said, *I* would like to fuck you, Naruto-kun. It would be quite exciting to taste all that power." His lips curved, tongue flicked out; then he began walking out of the water, a naked silver body coming towards Naruto, who suddenly wanted to run away but wasn't quite sure if he could.

"Ah-h," Sasuke breathed when they were close together, close enough to touch. There was no heat coming from him, not like Naruto was used to; he was cold, like his voice and eyes. "You're like a rabbit, Naruto-kun. The rabbit knows it should run before the snake eats it, but it's always too damned frightened to move. A wise choice, in this case, because if I were to eat you it wouldn't be so bad."

He reached out a hand and let it linger, lightly, almost but not quite touching Naruto's cheek. Naruto could almost feel the cold touch, felt it send a cold spike down his spine.

"Don't worry," said Sasuke, "it's just play between boys. Things happen when you're young... confused... it's natural to have strong feelings for a friend. Do you have strong feelings for Sasuke, Naruto-kun?"

His fingers were almost touching now, and Naruto wished he'd stopped. "Yeah, I do," he said, trying to keep his voice from shaking, even his voice seemed cold. "I really strongly wanna rip you out of this body so I can take Sasuke home and beat the shit out of him."

Sasuke chuckled against his cheek, cool breath gusting over his skin. His other hand came up, settled on the back of Naruto's neck, sifted through the soft hair there. "Well, Naruto-kun, I'm sure that would be quite erotic but it's not what I have in mind." His lips ghosted over his face, from his cheekbone to just next to his lips; that tongue flicked out, touched his bottom lip, and then his lips were fastened over Naruto's. Still chaste, just a brushing of mouth over mouth. "This... is Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun. This is Sasuke-kun touching your body. This is Sasuke-kun kissing you."

Naruto hissed and started to struggle when a cool, dry tongue touched the line of his lips, but Sasuke's hand on his neck suddenly had an iron grip; he couldn't move away with snapping his spine. He pressed his lips together, but Sasuke chuckled at his efforts and just slipped his tongue in, effortless, to taste his mouth. That tongue touched his teeth, then touched his own tongue, and Naruto trembled in fear.

Fear. This isn't Sasuke. I know this isn't Sasuke, touching me like this. He'd rip my dick off before he'd touch it.

A few moments inside his mouth and Sasuke was warm now, sucking at his tongue almost gently; his hand pressed Naruto closer so their jaws bumped together. He pressed his eyes shut and tried to keep his tongue from moving, but it was hard... Sasuke's tongue had a strange metallic taste to it, like the first time Naruto had tasted his own blood. That tongue was wrapping around his, probing his mouth to his tonsils, teasing and dancing deep inside of him.

Then Sasuke pulled back, lips leaving his with a wet sound, and the smile on his face was pure Orochimaru. "Next time you spy on me, Naruto-kun, you can be sure that will happen."

He left, and Naruto found that even if he had wanted to, he couldn't move. Every hair on his body was standing up, and he was colder than he had ever been, even colder than in winter with no family.

"You'll always wonder," Orochimaru had said before he'd left, "what is me and what is Sasuke."

That was why Naruto left the village whenever he could. He wasn't a fox, but there was a large personality skulking in his belly that was, and it had found prey.

The next morning Naruto-sensei was late again, but only by fifteen minutes or so; it gave the team time to eat breakfast, sharing their food with another. Even Hikaru let them each have a roll, and accepted their food in a grudging sort of way. When Naruto-sensei appeared in front of them, they were just finished eating their fruit pastries.

Kaiki narrowed his eyes. "He look a little sick to you?" he muttered into Nagi's ear.

Nagi, disinterested, said, "I think he's as nasty-looking today as he was yesterday."

While Naruto-sensei was rummaging in his pack for something, Kaiki spoke up. "I asked around about you, you know," he said.

Sensei's hands didn't pause; he seemed completely unconcerned as he said, "Yeah?"

"Turns out you *are* a dropout. You failed four final exams - four years of ninja school - and only got promoted to ninja because you beat up some teacher or other."

"Mm-hm," said Naruto-sensei. "Anyone have a kunai handy? I left mine at home." After a pause, Hikaru tossed him one, which he caught by the tip. "Thanks."

Kaiki continued now out of pure principle; even if the bastard ignored him, he'd still have his say. "Your instructor was Hatake Kakashi. Didn't know the name, so I looked it up. Turns out he was killed about five years ago." He still didn't know how old Naruto-sensei was; he could have been as young as thirteen. "I found out about one of your teammates - Haruno Sakura, she's a med-nin here in Konoha, and she's also a friend of my family. I didn't know she was your teammate. Anyways, it was harder finding out about the second one 'cause no one wants to talk about him. I guess it's hard to admit that a kid from our village went traitor, huh? That was–"

Naruto-sensei threw the knife, and Kaiki almost didn't catch it. That would have been a skewer in his eye; he breathed out deeply, holding it in front of him.

"You're a kid, so you wouldn't know," said Naruto-sensei with a sunny smile. "So I'll tell you. Do me a favor, and don't say the name around me. Is that cool?"

They nodded their heads, murmured Yes, sensei. Naruto-sensei smiled again, gave them the slightest of bows, and turned around.

His teammates looked at him. "What's the name, so I don't say it," Nagi muttered.

"Uchiha," he whispered back. "Uchiha Sasuke." It sounded normal to him, a typical kind of guy name; funny the things that could set people off. He reminded himself to never, never say that name again anytime soon - he'd like to remain unmaimed at least until he became a chuunin.

"Now," said Naruto-sensei, turning back around and holding up one hand. He'd gashed his thumb; blood pooled from it, and glinted on the kunai Hikaru had given him. "This is my test. If you pass this, you become genin and you receive my instruction. Ready?" He grabbed his wrist and made to touch his bloody hand to the ground.

"Wait!" Nagi said. "Shit! You didn't tell us there was a *test*!"

"Of course there is. What, ya think I'd let you waste all my time right away? You could all be a waste of body space, for all I know." Naruto's teeth glinted brightly. "If you die - not my fault. So do whatever you can to stay alive. Here's my test: If you stay alive on the back of this frog for two hours, you are my genin team. Here we go–" His fingers flashed together and he slammed his hand onto the ground, shouted: "Summoning no Jutsu!"

Oh, shit, Kaiki thought as his summoned creature appeared. I didn't want to die this fucking young.

There was a huge frog looming over them, and he did not look happy. Naruto waved to it, then disappeared faster than Kaiki could see; and he didn't re-appear anywhere. He had left them.

"Hey, brats!" the frog thundered.

Kaiki dared a look at his teammates. Nagi looked like he felt - wide-mouthed and wide-eyed - but Hikaru looked calculating, like she was sizing that monster up. She felt his gaze, and looked up. "It's Gama Bunta," she told them. "The Frog King. This isn't going to be easy." Sunlight glinted off her shades as she adjusted them. "This isn't a normal fight. My insects won't help; your mind control techniques won't work, Kaiki. The name of this game is that we work together to stay on that frog."

Gama Bunta laughed, and it was like thunder rumbling. Even when he bent down, a posture of servitude, Kaiki had a feeling that he was the bug, Gama Bunta the kind foot that shied away from squashing him. Hikaru nodded at them, and was the first one to dash up his back. Nagi followed, Kaiki on his heels.

They were on his back, and Gama Bunta reared up and tossed his head, laughing again.

"Are you ready, brats? I once had a boy stay on my back for a whole day, but I have a feeling you runts are going to have trouble for two hours."

"I already can't stay on!" Nagi moaned, clutching Kaiki's shoulder.

"Don't freak out," Hikaru said. "That's what Gama Bunta and Naruto-sensei are expecting. The moment we all get afraid, that's the moment we're all off his back and we're back to the academy. I don't know about you, but I want to be a ninja."

"Stand up, Nagi." Kaiki let him catch his balance before shrugging of his hand. "Hey," he said, catching Nagi's eyes. "Look, we gotta work together. If one of us is falling off, the others have to catch him."

"Nagi knows Kage Bunshin, and he can separate into a lot of clones," said Hikaru, stumbling as Gama Bunta stretched. "Five or ten is enough if we're all falling; they can catch us and pull us back up. It's enough if we're all up in the air - they can be a ladder to bring us back down."

"Nagi," said Kaiki. "Looks like this is your show."

"Ready or not, brats," Gama Bunta thundered, a thread of laughter in his booming voice. "We're running!"

Kaiki fell straight away. It was a long plunge down, he realized, when you were dangling off the edge with only your teammate's hand keeping you from taking that trip down. If he fell, he was going to die - Naruto-sensei had been right about that, and unapologetic. This wasn't just about receiving his tutelage. This was about dying or living.

Nagi yanked him back up and they all huddled together, hands linked, feet wide apart and digging into the Frog King's back. And then Gama Bunta leaped; they were in the air, free-floating, and Kaiki looked down and knew that if they fell now, they would not land on his back.

Nagi put his fingers together, shouted: "Kage Bunshin!" His clones extended all the way down to Gama Bunta's back, all linked together by grabbing each other's hands. Kaiki grabbed a clone's hand, Nagi grabbed his, and they both reached out and grabbed Hikaru. Gama Bunta hit the earth and they fell, landing against his side hard enough to jolt Kaiki's spine. The clones pulled them back up.

"Here," Hikaru said, scrabbling backwards. "I'll at least try to hang on to his shirt. It probably won't do much good, though." Kaiki saw that she had a death grip on the cloth, white-knuckled. It sank his heart a little more: as cold as she was, as unemotional, even Aburame Hikaru was scared.

"How the hell can we do this for two hours?" Nagi shouted, a vein in his forehead standing out. "It's only been ten minutes and we've almost fallen three times! I can't use Kage Bunshin for two more hours, it's impossible."

"We'll think of something else then." They had to raise their voices against the rushing wind. Kaiki wiped some sweat off his face, adding, "We'll burn the damn bridges when we get to them - Shit!" Gama Bunta leapt again, and they fell down his back until a bridge of clones caught them.

Again, and again, and again; each time Kaiki saw the ground rushing up to meet him, he thought he was dead, until Hikaru or Nagi caught him or a chain of clones pulled him back up. Each time he rose into the air, higher than he'd ever thought possible, he thought about dying and death and his cousin who had died, what it meant to die - and then he was caught, and back on Gama Bunta's back, and he was really freaking tired.

"I can't do much more." Nagi was panting, face white with blotchy spots of purple. Kaiki knew that face. He had enough chakra for maybe one more Kage Bunshin - maybe not even that.
Kaiki swore. "Shit, why don't we just go down to his mouth and sit on his tongue or something? It'd be hard to get thrown out of that."

"But Naruto-sensei we had to stay on his back."

"Naruto-sensei," said Hikaru, "also doesn't care whether we live or die. He said it himself. *I* care whether we live or die. I'd rather live and go back to the academy than die here."

"Screw that!" Nagi ran a hand through his hair, more blotches appearing on his face. "I don't care about that shit of a teacher, but I'm not going to let him sit back and laugh at me for being a coward!"

"Then what, Nagi?" Even Hikaru was losing her patience; even she was sweating. "Then we die here?" She half-stood, still holding onto Nagi's hand and Gama Bunta's shirt.

"I'm not going," said Nagi. He looked at Hikaru, then at Kaiki. "No way in hell."

"Shit-" Kaiki closed his eyes. Just a few seconds, Kai, that's all you've got and then you're off his back - "Hikaru," he said, "I can't leave Nagi."

There came a long pause - Kaiki counted and knew it was only five seconds, but it seemed that Hikaru stood there for a full minute, just staring at the both of them. Her eyes and thoughts were encased in a wall of black, behind her sunglasses.

Then she sat down. "I can't leave either of you," she said. "I know what it means to be a ninja, even if I do die here."

Gama Bunta stopped.

They were thrown forward, a little, but Hikaru quickly dug her heels in and pulled them all to a stop. "Hey!" Nagi shouted down at him, a little hysterically. "What the hell'd you stop for, frog? It's only been thirty minutes!"

"I told him to stop."

Nagi nearly fell, and Kaiki slipped in startlement to see Naruto-sensei next to them on Gama Bunta's back. Arms crossed, braid lifting in the breeze, he was smiling. "Frogs are my summon," he said, "have been since I was twelve, and I'm the servant of this Frog King. Still, he does do what I want occasionally. And this time, I asked him to stop when you all had come to a conclusion."

"A conclusion?" They all said it, but it was Hikaru who said, "We'd come to a conclusion even before we got on. That we had to be a team, and work together. That was our conclusion."

"True," Naruto-sensei allowed, "but you made that before the heat of the moment. And promises - things you'd thought were sacred - are almost always easy to break in the heat of the moment. When you're seconds away from death and all you wanna do is live, that's when people run away. You almost ran away. But you didn't. And you stuck to it - that you were a team. You stayed with them, Hikaru, even when you thought you were going to die."

His face was more solemn than Kaiki ever thought it could be, and his eyes pinned them heavily. This guy, Kaiki realized, knew what he was talking about. He wondered briefly if Naruto-sensei had ever run away.

"That's what being a ninja is. That is your ninja way, and you kept it. You stayed strong. And you passed my test."

Kaiki closed his eyes. He felt Nagi relax next to him, adrenaline, terror going out of his body. Kaiki couldn't relax quite like that now, but he still felt a sort of giddy joy building in his head.

"Naruto-sensei?" Hikaru said suddenly. "Would you have failed us if we'd gone into Gama Bunta's mouth?"

Naruto-sensei grinned. "Actually, I wasn't planning to fail you at all. I was gonna stop this when it got too serious. And I wouldn't have let any of you die! Jeez, how cold do you think I am?"

Dammit. He knew he'd hated this bastard for a reason.

"But you did really well," Naruto-sensei said, laughter in his voice. "Better than I thought you would. So! Congrats! Real training starts tomorrow. Let's all get off Gama Bunta now - he needs a drink. Thanks, Boss."

"Shut up," the Frog King grumbled. "You impertinent brat." When they were all on the ground, shaking out their legs, Gama Bunta reared up, bowed his head to Naruto, and disappeared in a huge puff of smoke.

"Ahh-hhh," Naruto-sensei sighed, stretching out his arms across his neck. "It's been a long day, we're all tired - and we're probably a bit cranky too, huh?" He put his hands on his hips and smiled widely. "Well! See you here tomorrow morning, eight o'clock! We'll officially start the training."

"I hate that disappearing thing he does," Kaiki said.

"I think I need some udon," Nagi said.

"I agree, I think we should all go thirds on some food."

"I like chocolate," Hikaru said. "I think we should get some chocolate."

"All right, all right, chocolate too."