Life Before Life After

A/N: I'm sorry this took so long to update but I've been caught up with Baby Baby Baby and didn't really have the time. =( Luckily I have a lot written already and just need to edit for the next chapter...you can expect it soon.

Thnaks for the comments! They make me want to write...and usually I base which story to update on teh amount of feedback I receive. Comments = love, so if you like this story better than another then let me know!

*Chapter Three*

Sasuke’s new appearance earned him a few odd looks, but did nothing to stem the sneers and scowls. As it was he didn’t fully appreciate the advertisement of his weakness being perched on his face for everyone to witness, but the advantage of being able to see clearly outweighed the possible tactical disadvantages.

And at least Godaime had the courtesy not to make him wear something hideous. The frames were simple, lightweight, and the glass had some sort of sheen that managed not to catch the light in the afternoon sun. The shine of the metal could be easily dulled, but as Sasuke was practically a civilian behind the walls of Konoha he couldn’t really bring himself to take the effort. There were far more important things to do.

He headed to the police station and walked through the doors with a purposeful stride, not even pausing as he made his way to the Captain’s office and picked the lock on the door.

“Um, sir-” One brave chuunin raised a hand but Sasuke just glared, daring him to utter another word. A quick jerk and the door opened. Sasuke slipped in, closed it behind him and cursed in a steady stream as he surveyed the disaster before him. Trash, moldy food, and on the walls…Sasuke’s mouth actually fell open when he read what had been scrawled all over the room in a number of different hands.

When he opened the door again, looking at the nervous shinobi, he hissed, “I’m leaving and when I get back,” Sasuke grit his teeth together, “I expect to see this room how my father left it. And when you are done” A small part of Sasuke was amazed that his voice was able to reach such volume, “I expect you to the shrines of those who have fallen and pray for forgiveness.”

Then Sasuke left before he could gather the rage to kill them all where they stood, wide-eyed with guilty, flushed faces. He left them behind and his feet took him straight to Naruto.

****

Naruto took one look at him, hunched and staring at the ground, turned back to his students, smiled, and said, “Class dismissed.”

Sasuke watched as they all stared, their little eyes wide as they watched their sensei in silent shock.

“Or,” Naruto scratched his head, “You could go train with Iruka-sensei…I’m sure the older kids wouldn’t mind having targets that move-”

The mass exodus took roughly fifteen seconds as the genin hopefuls took off screaming out the windows and down the street.

Naruto stepped in close with a frown, “Please tell me I didn’t just dismiss my class mid-lecture because you’re put out about wearing specs.”

“I don’t care about the fucking glasses, Naruto.” Sasuke snapped, throwing himself into the desk closest to the door.

Naruto sighed deeply and moved to the desk adjacent, leaning against it as he stared Sasuke down.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?”

“No.” Sasuke took a deep breath and closed his eyes, “Will you come visit me in prison?”

After a long silence Naruto said, “Of course I will. Everyone needs a good laugh now and then.”

Sasuke scowled and took his glasses off, keeping his eyes closed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling the familiar pressure starting up behind the more than familiar headache.

“When did you turn into an asshole?”

“When did you become a quitter?”

Sasuke opened his eyes and was not surprised to be seeing the world through a red haze. The smirk on Naruto’s face broke into bare shock as he sucked in a surprised breath. Sasuke took an obscene amount of pleasure as he felt the first fat droplet of blood spill from his eye and trail down his cheek to fall on the floor.

“At least I’m not going blind, right?” Sasuke mocked quietly, keeping his gaze on Naruto’s horrified stare.

“We’re going to the hospital now.” Naruto seemed to shift into a different mode, turning back into the cool, confident instructor as he grabbed Sasuke’s hand and tugged, “Come on, get up.”

Sasuke just batted him away and took a cloth out of his pocket to wipe at his face.

“Don’t bother,” When he was done with his face he got the drop on the floor, no use in making Naruto’s classroom dirty, was there? “Tsunade-sama already knows.”

“What?”

“It’s her solution to my,” Sasuke waved a hand, so frustrated that he didn’t even want to bother with words. “Damn it!”

“Okay,” Naruto’s voice was calm, warm, and ridiculously even, “Please stop yelling. We can figure this out if you calm down.”

Sasuke snorted, imagining that he’d use the exact same tone where he to threaten jumping off a ledge.

Then he laughed, slipping the glasses back on to his nose.

“I’d rather kill those men than help then.” He said, staring at the pencil sharpener on the wall. “They defiled my father’s office.”

“What do you mean ‘defiled’?” Naruto moved into Sasuke’s eye line, his arms crossed and his eyes intent. “It’s an office, not a grave.”

Sasuke glared.

“So if someone went to the Hokage’s office and graffitied the walls, you’d be okay with that?”

For a second Naruto looked horrified, his face going white, but after a long, speculative moment he smiled, pointing a finger to himself.

“You’re talking to the kid who spray-painted the Hokage monument.” Naruto grinned cheekily. “You can’t expect everyone to respect a place because it’s important to you. That’d be great but we all have to live together. To you your dad’s office is a precious place, to others,” He spread his arms, “It’s just an empty room.”

Then he frowned, “But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be punished for it…though death might be a bit much.”

Sasuke ducked his head, and sure that Naruto couldn’t see it, he smiled, threading fingers through his hair.

“You gettin’ headaches even with the glasses?”

Sasuke nodded and closed his eyes. If he had chakra he’d be regulating it but as it was he could only meditate into calm. It didn’t really help the ache, but it helped enough that it was worth taking the trouble.

“Then we’re still going to the hospital.” Naruto said grimly, his hand squeezed Sasuke’s shoulder for a quick moment before he went to the front of the room and started putting things away in his desk. Sasuke opened his eyes just in time to see Naruto go through a complicated series of hand seals and then slam his hands down on the surface with a whisper. The old, scarred wood lit up with a surprising array of seals before fading back into its normal, pockmarked surface.

He nodded and pulled out a few papers and a large notebook out of a nearby satchel and plopped it right on the desks surface with a few battered pens and a cheap looking calculator.

“Some of those little idiots will do anything to get their hands on the grade book.” He shrugged, bright blue eyes lighting up with mischief, “Might as well save them the trouble, right?”

“I hope you fail the idiots who think that’s the real one.”

“Naw,” Naruto huffed a laugh, “It’s way too much fun to see the look on their faces when they get their final grade…minus ten percent for being caught cheating.”

Sasuke stopped rolling his eyes because of the sudden stabbing pain, but from the resulting snicker he was fairly sure Naruto got the idea anyways.

****

It was not overly surprising that Tsunade’s mood altered drastically when it was Naruto standing beside him, but that didn’t make Sasuke loathe her any less.

“Pain you say?” Her smile was poker-straight, but Sasuke could tell that the woman wasn’t over surprised. Naruto rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips.

“Baa-chan,” Naruto frowned, “It’s not fair if you cripple him. There’s no fun in winning a bet you know was fixed, right?”

A bet…Sasuke was starting to see his current situation in an entirely different light. Tsunade scowled.

“You’re a brat.” She said, rummaging through her desk, “You take all the fun out of it.”

Sasuke snatched the bottle of pills out of her hand before it even touched the desk and had popped two into his mouth before Naruto could even suck in a breath in surprised. The relief was nearly instantaneous and Sasuke sighed closing his eyes to soak all of the not-pain up. Just like the glasses he hadn’t quite realized how much pain he was in until it was gone and the world, his emotions, became startlingly clear.

“Whoops,” Naruto laughed a little nervously and Sasuke felt warm arms around him, holding him close as he swayed. “What the hell did you put in this, Granny?”

Sasuke opened his eyes and blinked away the red haze, breathing in and exhaling harshly, fighting the instinct that told his body to drop down and take a nice, undisturbed sleep.

Tsunade looked down at her hands and frowned, a small slump in her shoulders. It seemed that Sasuke wasn’t the only one who hadn’t noticed the massive weight the pain had put on his body. He stood, reluctantly pushing Naruto away, and muttered his thanks. The last thing he wanted to see was Tsunade behaving like a *human*.

Naruto stayed behind when Sasuke left and even going down the stairs Sasuke could catch pieces of the conversation, if you could call the one-sided yelling that, as he went. When he couldn’t hear any more, when Naruto’s voice stopped echoing against the walls, Sasuke found the first shadowed corner, kneeled down and let himself weep, uncaring of the dark red drops staining the hardwood floor.

He was finished when Naruto found him again but Sasuke knew that his face was more than telling, his red fingertips every apology he might never say, and Naruto looked at him with a smile that seemed like it was falling apart.

“We’re going to take a little fieldtrip,” Naruto glanced away while Sasuke found a cloth and dabbed it against his face, “I met someone…I think he could help you.”

Sasuke froze, “I can leave Konoha?”

Naruto winced and turned back, frowning as he took the cloth and wet it against his lips, taking Sasuke’s jaw into his hands.

“As long as you’re with me.” Naruto murmured, trailing the cloth down Sasuke’s cheeks. “It’s close so we’ll leave today.”

“Alright.” Sasuke was tempted to start crying again, anything as long as it would keep Naruto’s hands on his face, the soft warmth cradling his jaw, but he managed to hold onto a scrap of dignity and simply remain still.

“Alright.” Naruto whispered back, pulling his hands away, “Then we better get packed.”

****

Traveling with Naruto was never easy, but time seemed to only have made him worse. Instead of jumping branch to branch he insisted that he and Sasuke walk the forty miles by foot to the nearest tradestown. When asked why he simply screwed his mouth up and looked to the side, and it was Sasuke’s very quiet opinion that the man just wanted to get out of the village and away from his horde of beloved little brats; those little pre-genin horrors who had nearly broken down as their favorite Sensei left the city gates. The two travelers had survived the experience with a messy stack of sub-par drawings indicating how each child would kill Sasuke if Naruto got hurt in any way.

In Sasuke’s experience, none of the wounds were fatal ones, but after looking at himself impaled with various poorly-drawn senbon, shuriken, and kunai, he watched the forest a little more closely. It wouldn’t do for Naruto to trip and fall and come back to Konoha with anything even resembling a bruise.

“This is how we traveled when I was with Ero-sennin.” Naruto said, rays of sun dappling his cheeks, “Unless we were running away or something which, well-”

“He’s a pervert.” Sasuke supplied with a snort. “I’m surprised he was even allowed in half the cities you visited.”

“We walked into the city,” Naruto made a motion with his arm, “And then we sprinted out. Usually being followed by something embarrassing.”

“Like you riding an enormous frog wearing women’s underwear?” Sasuke ducked his head and smiled as Naruto spluttered.

“You know about that?”

Sasuke turned and smirked at him, “Everyone knows about that. The ninja grapevine couldn’t stop laughing.”

Naruto crossed his arms and started to turn red, from his cheeks to the very tips of his ears.

“Well, none of it was my fault.” He finally muttered. “No matter what the old man says about the frog.”

Then, after a long pause after his pressed lips tipped into a smile.

“But you should have seen his face, Sasuke, waking up to see-”

Sasuke just smiled and let Naruto bump shoulders with him, listening to a long tale that started with the old man making some bad choices concerning Naruto’s wallet, and Naruto with a distinct excess of time on his devious little hands.

“Did you ever make trouble?” Naruto ended, his smile only softening a little as Sasuke added up all the commentary and came up with a final conclusion; Orochimaru. Comparing senseis was probably not the best idea but Naruto was actually talking to himwithout that removed, vacant look in his eyes.

“I may have earned a bit of a reputation.” Sasuke murmured, adjusting his pack needlessly. “I know I didn’t make running Otogakure easy.”

“I had noticed you’ve grown a bit of a temper.” Naruto added easily, walking backwards to look Sasuke in the face. “You’re a one-man demolition team when it comes to empty houses, I hear.”

It was a little embarrassing to know that Naruto had heard of his fits, but even more embarrassing to realize where the habit had began.

“It was harder in Oto.” Sasuke muttered, his own blush rising. “Everything was made of stone.”

Naruto laughed and turned again, winking over his shoulder.

“Do what all the rest of us Konoha ninja’s do.” He called out, kicking up the pace, “Take it out on the trees!”

*****

“Do I have to commit a crime to get some attention around here?” Naruto took liberal advantage of a small silver bell, making dents in the counter as he slammed it down over and over again. Sasuke took it out of his hand, ignoring the bared teeth, and set the bell down before gently pressing the button on the top.

‘Ding’ the bell called out plaintively, almost completely drowned out by the crowd around them. Everyone was talking, making some racket while handcuffed to a chair or yelling into some kind of communications device. Two leaf-nin were of little notice except to the few criminals who took one glance at Naruto’s hitae-ate and immediately attempted to become one with the furniture.

Naruto tapped his finger, shuffled his bag, and scowled before dumping it all off onto Sasuke’s foot.

“You stay here.” He growled, “I’m gonna go flash somebody.”

Sasuke grabbed him by the collar as a few people perked up in attention.

“You stay here.” Sasuke challenged. “I’ll go announce my status as an S-class criminal.”

The room collectively shied away, no longer staring attentively at Naruto’s pants. Which was the point, really.

“You ruin all my fun.” Naruto stuck his tongue out, “and here I was looking forward to a night in the pen.”

“You’re as perverted as Jiraya.”

“Yeah, well…you’re as bitchy as-”

“NARUTO!”

A large hand clamped down on Naruto’s shoulder and he froze, his eyes almost comically large as Sasuke felt the weight of the second hand on his own.

“You hangin’ around with degenerates again? I thought I told you to keep that nose clean.” A large man with dark brown eyes looked down at them both. He was almost frighteningly tall, nearly Juugo’s height actually, and Sasuke knew he could fight him and win but the thought was intimidating. His arms were muscled and well-scarred and from the look of his knuckles he at least knew how to brawl.

Naruto’s shock dissolved as Sasuke’s apprehension grew and he twisted in the grip to give the police Lieutenant an enormous embrace. The momentum caused the man to step backward, forcing him to release Sasuke. Sasuke finally exhaled as Naruto smiled.

“Officer Ken!” He yelled, and the room collectively winced. “You’re alive!”

“That’s Lieutenant, kid.” Ken frowned but his eyes radiated warmth, “Why do I have to keep telling you?”

“You don’t.” Naruto shrugged and let the man go, unrepentant. “I just do it to piss you off.”

“Eh, didn’t have to tell me that, already knew, you little snot.” Ken folded his massive arms, “But I see you’ve gone up in the ranks. Chuunin?”

“Chuunin sensei.” Sasuke interjected quietly before Naruto could blow the question off, like he was sure to. A seventeen year old teaching at the academy wasn’t Hokage, but it was close to genius.

“Good job Naruto!” The man beamed after a moment of surprise. “It’s always the troublemakers isn’t it?”

Naruto scratched the back of his head and stuttered something that ended up being, mostly, “Yeah.”

“And speaking of troublemakers.” The man gave Sasuke the eye. “I happen to remember a couple of notices with your face on them, boy. You here to cause trouble?”

“Only if you keep calling me ‘boy’.” Sasuke stared back.

Naruto frowned and started unzipping his pants.

“I’ll do it-” He warned, orange boxers peeping through the flap, “Just keep ignoring me and see what happens!”

Sasuke closed his eyes and failed to will down a blush.

He sighed, “Stay dressed or I’ll tell Tsunade.”

“Stay dressed or I’ll tell Tsunade.” Naruto mocked, “It’s always the same with you.”

Sasuke opened his eyes to see the man looking down at them both with an odd little smile. It reminded Sasuke of the way Kakashi could be when he knew they were doing something wrong but wouldn’t tell them what because it was just too hilarious to watch. The look was annoying as hell.

“Is there someplace where I can get a drink of water?”

“Yeah kid, right down the hall to the left.” Kid was better than boy, so Sasuke just took the directions and failed to hide a snort when Ken brought his massive fist down on Naruto’s head.

“They let you around children?!” His voice boomed. “Why do you ninjas always have to be so damn weird?!”

“To offset the overwhelming terror of our knowledge to kill?” Naruto laughed and Sasuke slipped out one of his pills, taking a swift drink from his canteen. There was no way he’d be drinking foreign water, thank you. “Hey, hey…weren’t you a ninja anyways, old man? No badtalking your own kind!”

“That’s really the only kind you should badtalk.” Sasuke stepped back up to the pair and felt the pill working, once more blessing Tsunade and hating her both as Ken started dragging Naruto through the maw of humanity. Sasuke tolerated the inanity while clinging to the subtle buzz of chakra that began to center around and soothe his eyes. He never quite realized how much they ached until they weren’t hurting anymore.

“Hey, Uchiha…you okay?”

Sasuke nodded to the man and held his hand out, gratefully receiving a small cotton cloth from Naruto’s slim hands before he reached up and pulled the glasses from his face. With the cotton pressed to his cheeks, Sasuke opened his eyes and let the blood tear out, the pressure receding in a rush that was nearly pleasurable considering the pain it was relieving.

“You sick, kid?” Ken asked, peering up in fascinated disgust.

“Nope, that’s just Sasuke.” Naruto was looking through his glasses up at the ceiling, “I show some flesh and he starts weeping blood.”

“Dobe.” Sasuke said, his huffed laugh caught short as he realized what exactly had just slipped his mouth. Maybe euphoria wasn’t as wonderful as it seemed to feel.

“Teme.” Naruto countered automatically before freezing, his hand aloft in front of the lenses.

Sasuke bowed his head and closed his eyes, the red tint of the world fading to black as a familiar silence settled around them both. There was a space to fill between them still, and even as childish antics seemed to make the empty ache more comfortable the familiarity and ease only made the world a little more awkward for them both. Something was still missing, Sasuke could tell, and knew suddenly that Naruto was far wiser to ignore childish nicknames than Sasuke was to insist. Naruto wasn’t being cruel, he was being perceptive, but Sasuke did his best to pretend he didn’t know why.

But Sasuke did, he knew why that echo of companionship was so threatening, but he also knew exactly how to fill all that extra space between them, how to make the void cease to exist and make the world between them seamless.

“-and that’s why we came to see you, Lieutenant-sama.” Naruto finished a spiel that Sasuke had completely lost to the jumble of insights that seemed to serve as emotions.

“You look like you just saw a ghost.” Ken said after turning away from Naruto’s flushed face, where Sasuke’s glasses slid dangerously to the edge of his nose.

“No,” Sasuke told the man, knowing that the Lieutenant would read it as a lie, “I’m fine.”

Sasuke always saw ghosts and the man was keen.

“Tell me why I should help a traitor.” The man asked, leaning back in his seat, as if waiting for a show. Sasuke felt as if he was always doing some damn song and dance, trying to make up for his mistakes in every arbitrary way that the public constantly demanded.

“I have no need for the sort of help contingent on that particular question.” Sasuke replied, taking his glasses off of Naruto’s gawking face. “Clearly, I answer to those more powerful than you.”

“Ano…what he means-”

Sasuke cut Naruto off with a glare and turned back to the imperturbable Lieutenant.

“I’m asking for your participation in a project crucial to the safety of Konohagakure. Will you or won’t you return to village with us?”

“It sounds more like Naruto’s asking, Uchiha.” Ken parried, waving a hand, “What incentive do you give me to leave all this? This is my home, so tell me why I should go.”

“If you are, or ever have been a Konoha ninja then you only have one home. Konohagakure.” Sasuke replied, hating the disappointed look on Naruto’s face, but Sasuke knew this kind of man, unbending and quick-witted. His father had been such a man, his sensei-

Ken pulled open a drawer from his desk without looking, but underneath all the pencils and bits of paper Sasuke could see the gleam of acquiescence; a hitae-ate, battered to a shine. Naruto tensed.

“I want to start a shinobi outreach program to support other precincts. There should be more ninja patrolling Fire country.” Ken said, eyes hard. “And I want to retain my rank as a senior officer.”

Sasuke thought for a moment to let Naruto sweat. It was a fairly good idea, and they were definitely lacking proposals that would look good for the daimyo rather than the old, staid council. Played correctly Sasuke could have Ken as a charismatic envoy that would open pathways in the capitol rather than leaving him chained to the will of the clan heads.

“If your plan has merit we will discuss it. You will not retain your rank-” Sasuke let the silence settle for dramatic effect, wondering just how far he would have to push to make Naruto’s composure snap. “You will have a raise.” Sasuke finally continued much to Ken’s amusement as he watched Naruto very subtly go spastic, killing intent leaking in Sasuke’s direction.

“I need a competent second who isn’t connected to the clans, or the special assassination units.” Sasuke continued, pulling the old hitae-ate out with two fingers and dangling it in front of the man. “We’ll operate on a veto system, and you’ll answer only to me, the Hokage, or,” Sasuke tilted his head in Naruto’s direction, “The Hokage’s pet Chuunin.”

Naruto bristled, killing intent spiking, but Ken only laughed, yanking his hitae-ate back and tying it to his head in a sloppy knot.

“Normally I hate you Uchiha bastards, and you’re definitely Fugaku’s brat,” He said, holding his hand out, “but I have a feeling this will work. I’m in.”

“Then I’m out.” Naruto railed, throwing his arms up. “You two are a pair of chest-thumping pricks.”

“We leave tomorrow.” Sasuke warned, clasping Ken’s wide palm. “I’m on a deadline.”

Ken gave a look to Naruto who snorted.

“Dead,” Naruto smirked, “Is the operative word.”

****

It turned out that Ken’s grudge with the original MP had been the Uchiha’s themselves. You didn’t advance, he said, unless you were an Uchiha or married to one, and before the Kyuubi attack Ken had a young family to feed and no real urge to chance the Jounin exam. So he’d left with the blessings of the Sandaime, and had gone to the outside world to seek gainful employment that would not involve jutsus or killing techniques of any kind.

“Little did I know I’d actually be forced to use the techniques I learned in the academy, the real basic ones and even some jutsus to take down the odd shinobi who stumbled into the city.” Ken talked with his hands, so it was always something of a spar even to converse with him. After only a few miles Naruto already had a bruise forming (and then promptly fading) on his cheek, from the casual force of Ken’s swinging arms. Sasuke couldn’t imagine how he ever avoided the Jounin rank.

“Which is how we met.” Naruto groaned, hand on his face. “Jiraya got caught peeping while he was dead drunk and ken managed to drag him down to a cell, where I found him three days later, tied up and absolutely furious.”

“Do you know who I am?” Ken parodied, his face twisting up as his voice boomed through the forest, “I am Jiraya, the great Toad Sannin, the ladies love me, ninja fear me! And then Naruto walks in,” Ken laughed, more of a giggle as Naruto flushed, “This little kid with dirt all over his face, scowling like a devil in bright orange and starts yelling-”

Ken broke into full laughter then, barely able to stand, but he had caught Sasuke’s complete attention so he continued.

“So you’ve finally been caught, huh? Well, sensei, you’ll think twice the next time you steal my money, but I wouldn’t bail you out if I was a millionaire you dirty, perverted, old man!”

Sasuke could see it, how Naruto’s face would be twisted in his overblown childish rage. How he would pout, sticking his bottom lip out and making his oh so effective ‘I am disgusted and ashamed and you should be too’ look.

“At least it shut the old fart up.” Naruto grumbled, picking up the pace. “And I did get him out.”

“We played cards for him.” Ken explained. “The brat’s got the damnedest luck. Took the night squad for everything they were worth.”

“And bought a new outfit.” Naruto turned with a grin. “That orange and black one that was so cool. It was too big then, but I grew into it…oh, and got Jiraya out of jail. Eventually.”

“Two weeks.” Ken laughed. “Two excruciating weeks.”

Sasuke laughed quietly and looked up into the sky. They’d made good time back to Konoha but the sun was beginning to set, and it would be much easier to find a suitable camp and dinner in the light than it would in the dark. He gave a few curt orders which Naruto, strangely enough, obeyed before heading deep into the forest. Sasuke settled the camp; Ken started the fire with an impressively accurate Katon jutsu, and Naruto emerged triumphant with a few unfortunate rabbits. He skinned and prepared them with ease, pulling out a small package of herbs before setting the carcasses in Sasuke’s capable care.

“Don’t burn it after I went to the trouble.” Naruto scowled, but his voice was soft, and his movements gentle as he handed the animal foreword. In those actions Sasuke read a smile, but when Sasuke looked up he saw that Ken’s sharp eyes had caught something else.

****

There was no great celebration when they returned to Konoha, only a curt greeting from the Hokage as she accepted their mission papers, and a few raised eyebrows from the chuunins manning the intake desks. Even Naruto was passed over with a dull, “Next team, please,” As they were all shuffled out, unceremoniously into the street.

“She’s not usually like that,” Naruto murmured while staring at the slammed door. “I’m sorry.”

Ken waved it off, but Sasuke could see the doubt clinging to them as they moved through the busy streets, as Naruto and Sasuke received abuse and curses from afar.

“They don’t like you very much.” He commented, wide-eyed as Naruto narrowly avoided some piece of rotten fruit.

“I’m a jinchuuriki.” Naruto confessed, a little too casually with tense shoulders. “I carry the nine-tails under my seal.”

They walked in silence for a few moments as Ken stared down into the dust, his hands balled into fists.

“I abandoned the village to train under Konohagakure’s sworn enemy for enough power to kill my brother.” Sasuke continued with a sigh, “Then I killed my sensei and my brother.”

Ken continued to stare, kicking a can out of the way hard enough to make Naruto flinch, but eventually the got to the station and he had to look up. If their confessions weren’t enough to send him fleeing, the look of the dilapidated building might have been enough to tip him over the edge, but as they both watched Ken’s shoulders squared.

“An avenger and a human sacrifice,” Ken laughed and looked down to them both. “At least life will be exciting.”

Naruto smiled one of those true smiles, ridiculously thankful and wide while Sasuke merely nodded, feeling grateful in ways he wasn’t entirely confident about.

And then, Ken at the forward, they all entered the station.


*Next...Sasuke's supersecret plan...*