A Darker World

Naruto and Konohamaru had run until the house they had broken into was out of sight. Once they were sure no one had seen them, they had examined the contents of their single remaining bag. Unfortunately, the bag mostly contained soda cans. Still, there were the apples and a jar of olives, even though it was mostly empty. So the two of them had sat down and had an impromptu picnic.

A few minutes later, they were both still sitting cross-legged facing each other. Naruto was munching on the last apple and as he took one more bite, he looked at the core in his hand. Judging he couldn't get anything more out of it, he tossed it to the side. Glancing up at Konohamaru, who was busily fishing out the last olive from the jar he asked, “Full?”

The small boy popped the last olive into his mouth and chewed it for a second before saying, “Yeah I guess so.”

“Good,” Naruto said not adding that that was the end of their food. He took a swig from his soda, enjoying the cool liquid before saying, “Well let's get going.”

“Where?”

Konohamaru's question was simple, but Naruto really couldn't answer it. Besides away from the House, he really didn't have much of a plan. Then, he suddenly had an idea. “Those people that were coming back to that house we were at. Could you see which way they came from?”

His friend thought for a moment and then he pointed to his right, but added, “I think.”

“Okay, so will cross the stream and get to that road. They were probably coming from someplace like a village or something, so we'll go there.” He wasn't sure what they could do once they were there, but as Konohamaru nodded happily he didn't feel a need to say that.

After a few more minutes of rest they stood back up and went back to the stream. Their luck seemed to be holding as the stream became narrower and the banks became less steep. With one conveniently placed rock, they hopped across, and Konohamaru even managed to stay dry this time. Reaching the road, they headed right.

The road seemed to be well-traveled or at least there were a lot of footprints and wheel tracks in the compacted dirt. They didn't talk much as they walked, but their silence was comfortable and Naruto even managed to push out of his mind what they were going to do once they reached the village. In the back of his mind, though, he knew they couldn't steal forever. Now that his stomach was almost full, he was kind of regretting breaking that window.

Eventually, the forest opened up and they were surrounded by rice fields. More importantly, however, was the sight of the village. Konohamaru broke into a run and Naruto shouted after him, “Hey wait up.”

“I'll race you there,” The younger boy shouted back.

Smiling, Naruto chased after him. He easily caught up to and then passed Konohamaru. The blonde didn't stop running until he entered the outskirts of the village, turning around, he looked back to see his friend still running after him a good ten feet behind, but still running. Then he passed him and spun around before announcing, “I win.”

“What? I beat you by like a mile.”

Konohamaru shook his head and smiled as he drew a line in the dirt with his foot. “The finish line was right here and you never passed it.”

For a moment, Naruto was about to argue with him, but with his friend smiling like that he couldn't. Instead, he just ruffled Konohamaru's hair and said, “Come on let's take a look around.”

Villages were only a vague memory to Naruto. He remembered he had been born in one and then he had spent some time in an even larger village, but those memories were vague. The orphanage he had lived in at Konoha had taken them to the park a lot, but always in groups. It really wasn't until his last year there that he had been able to venture into the village without constant supervision.

The House was what he remembered the most though. Three years was a long time after all. Still, it was almost instinct, though, that drew them to the market. The noise seemed to promise something and when Naruto saw all the different things that were for sale he was kind of excited, even if he couldn't afford a single one of them. Konohamaru seemed less excited by the sight as he slipped his hand into Naruto's as they entered the crowd.

For the next hour the two of them examined the market district. Naruto was really fascinated by everything. There were so many things, so many people and even Konohamaru seemed to loosen up a little, but still refused to let go of his hand. After about an hour of looking around, Naruto felt a pull on his hand.

“Let's go there.”

Naruto glanced across the street where his friend was pointing and saw a small stall that sold toys. It was actually pretty small compared to the other shops. Like all the other stalls, it was open to the air and only had a cloth roof with several tables and shelves stocked with toys. “Sure,” Naruto said kind of curious himself. The playroom at the house had had toys, of course, but not so many as this place did.

Konohamaru pulled him along, still not letting go of his hand and quickly glanced around the tables. Naruto just watched him, enjoying seeing his friend's eyes light up and then something seemed to catch his younger friend's eyes and he finally let go of his hand. Silently grateful, he wiped his sweaty palm against his shirt as Konohamaru picked up a plastic cube divided into nine colored squares.

The younger boy fiddled with it for a few seconds, twisting it around before saying, “What is this?” Naruto shrugged and was just about to say he didn't know when an older male voice spoke up.

“It's a puzzle cube.” They both looked up to see a man sitting on a stool in the shadows. He leaned forward and made a twisting motion with his hands, “You see there are six colors on that cube. You move it around until you have all one color on all the sides. It's only five hundred Ryo,” the man added.

“Cool,” Konohamaru said twisting the sides around for a second before looking up at him and asking, “How many points do you think that is?”

Naruto stomach clenched as he wondered if Konohamaru really didn't understand that points wouldn’t work here. He looked up at the man nervously and said, “We can't buy it.”

The old man smiled and said, “If you don't have enough maybe you could ask your parents? It's not really that expensive and it can provide a real exercise for your brain.”

Before he could make an excuse, a heavy hand landed on the blonde's shoulder and an unfamiliar male voice said, “I don't think their parents will be buying them anything anytime soon. Come on you two your family’s bodyguard has been looking for you.”

Naruto broke out into a cold sweat as he looked up into the face of a stern looking young man wearing a helmet. His eyes drifted down to the man's side where he wore a sword.

“Come on,” the man said pulling on his shoulder, “I'll take you down to the station and then I'll find her.”

Naruto's mind somehow made the connection that ‘her’ was the Madam, and if they went with this man, they would end up going back to the House and he couldn't let that happen. Fortunately, his years at the House had taught him an easy way to disable a man. Without thinking, he twisted around and hit the man in the crotch.

Taken by complete surprise, the man jumped back in pain. Not waiting to see that, Naruto grabbed Konohamaru's wrist and started running. The puzzle cube fell from his friend’s hand as they dove into the crowd.

He pulled Konohamaru behind him, the younger boy stumbling as he bumped into people. Seeing an alley, Naruto headed for it as the man he had hit shouted for them to stop. Before he could reach the alley, though, something hit him in the head. It didn't hurt, but it caught him by surprise and he stumbled over his own feet, falling to the ground.

He reached up to try to pull whatever it was off, but as he grabbed the soft thing it shouted, “Found him,” and then things got really weird.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kaede had found where the two boys had their mini picnic, which wasn't far from the house they had robbed. Unfortunately, she didn't find many other signs of them so she returned to the stream, making the assumption that was the closest thing to a path they had. A little further downstream, though, she spotted half of a small footprint on the opposite bank, so she crossed over too. A little further away she saw a patch of disturbed leaves and cursed as they had apparently decided to leave the stream.

Following what subtle trail the two of them left, she came to a road. She was pretty confident she knew which way they would go from here, but not taking anything for granted, she didn't step onto the road until she examined it. There were many footprints and some were made by horses and others were made by people, but there were only a few that looked like they had been made by a child and they were all going in the same direction.

Trees lined the road and she took to the branches as she set out hoping to catch the two unaware. She jumped from tree branch to tree branch, keeping an eye out for her two charges, but although she passed a small caravan, they had no children with them. When she reached the village, though, she smiled to herself.

The village did look large enough to have some sort of police force and she could turn them to her cause. It didn't seem likely to her that the two of them would just pass through the town. After all, they had no plan, and if they had any supplies left, they probably wouldn't last them the day. It seemed she had finally had a lucky break.

Upon entering the village, she asked the first person she saw if there was a police station, and after receiving a positive answer, she asked for directions. It turned out the village was called Kobukai, which she only learned because the police station had a sign out front announcing that this was the headquarters of the Kobukai police force.

Stepping inside, she addressed the first person she saw. “Excuse me officer, but by any chance did you find two children wandering the streets?”

The man looked up from the report he was filling out with a legitimately concerned expression, “No, are your children lost?”

She smiled and started to spin her story. “Well, they're not mine really.” She tapped her forehead protector with her finger and said, “You see my team and I were hired to guard a convoy. Well it's one of those family-owned ones you see and the head guy and his son had a pretty loud argument last night. This morning the kid was gone with his little brother. Apparently,” she smiled sadly, “this is not the first time they've pulled this stunt. Anyway, his father asked me to go on ahead and bring them back. I was hoping you guys might've already picked them up.”

The man shook his head sympathetically and said, “Sorry, but if they drifted into this village it is not like they would stand out right away.”

She nodded, understanding and said, “All right. Their father said they usually come back in a day or so, but that doesn't mean he's not worried. They're pretty young and a lot of bad things happen to kids you know?”

The man nodded, and as she turned to leave, he said, “If you give us a description we could keep an eye out for them.”

She resisted the urge to smile as she turned back around. “Actually, I have some pretty recent photos of them. Here,” she said producing the two photos she had taken from the registry earlier.

As he took them he frowned and said, “They don't really look alike.”

“Same father different mothers,” she said casually. “They're close, though, if you find one the other one probably won't be too far.”

The man nodded and said, “I'll make copies of these and I'll hand them out to the other officers on patrol. Don't worry we'll find them. I just hope their father doesn't go too hard on them. I got kids of my own so I can sympathize with him, but in the end their kids you know?”

“Yeah, just kids,” she echoed quietly.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Jiraiya had not known many siblings in his lifetime. He knew many people who had siblings, but he rarely knew both of them and he found himself wondering if they were always as different as these two sisters were. Hinata, the older of the two, clearly had wanted to leave, but had been clearly scared of the toad. Hanabi had been the polar opposite. She had not wanted to leave and had to be persuaded by her sister, but at the same time she had wanted to ride the toad.

At first, he had thought that Hanabi's reluctance to leave was out of fear and he had tried to reassure her that he could protect them. However, it wasn't until he had done the math in his head that he had really realized what was wrong. Hanabi had lived in this place for nearly three years, which was only a little less than half her life. This place was her home and she did not want to leave it.

If her sister had not been there he wasn't sure what he would've done. It seemed the younger girl was fond of adventure stories of far-off places and noble heroes. Between the two of them, they had convinced Hanabi that this could be an adventure and she could always come back. That last part was a lie even if he was the only one who knew it.

Ever since his interrogation of that government official, there had been this growing knot of anger in his stomach. Knowing, in theory, what was going on here was one thing, but hearing what that man had done, it made it real. He heard a squeal of delight as the toad jumped into the air, again as it followed the smaller tracker toad. He looked down to see Hanabi smiling even as Hinata held her tight, clearly not having as much fun as her sister. He smiled at the sight. Well, at least these two were out of there.

As the toad reached the apex of its jump, Jiraiya’s eyes spotted a settlement in the distance which caused him to grimace. If Naruto was in the village, he would have to go in on foot, as a man riding a toad with two girls would simply draw too much attention. Of course, he wasn't sure if he should take the girls in there with him. In truth, he didn't have much experience with kids. Sure, he had had a Genin team, but those had been ninjas in training where these two girls were simply civilians.

Weighing the pros and cons, he decided to leave them on the outskirts of the village with the toad to keep watch over them. “Land,” he ordered just before hitting the ground. Sliding off the amphibian, he addressed the two girls. “Forgive me lovely ladies, but it seems as if Naruto has entered the village. This guy,” he patted the toad, “would bring too much attention to it. Can you two stay here and keep him company?”

Hinata nodded and he suspected she understood what he was trying to do. Hanabi frowned and said, “Why can't we come with you?”

Her sister came to his rescue. “Hanabi if we went with him in the toad would be lonely.”

The little girl frowned at this thought before sliding the ground and walking around to look into the toad’s eyes. For a second, they stared at each other and then without saying a word, the toad opened its mouth and licked the girl who emitted something between a shriek and a laugh.

Seizing the opportunity, Jiraiya said, “I'll be back with Naruto and Konohamaru as soon as I can. You three stay here though.”

He beat a hasty retreat and started to jog towards the village. Toads were surprisingly protective so he didn't have many reservations leaving the two girls with one. Reopening the cut on his thumb, he be summoned the tracker toad.

Before the smoke could clear this time, the little purple toad hopped straight up and shouted, “Why-did-you-do-that- I-almost-had-him!”

“That's good news. Is he in the village?”

“Yeah,” the toad said hopping from leg to leg.

“Good, I'm going to have to follow you on foot so don't get too far ahead of me, okay?”

“Fine-fine-now-let's-go,” he said, and without waiting, turned around and started hopping towards the village.

When they entered the village, the toad jumped onto the nearest roof. He tried to match the little purple one's speed, but as they drifted into the marketplace, it became harder as the crowd became dense. If this situation was different, he would've taken to the roofs himself, but on account of the civilians that there were, it would just draw too much attention.

“Stop!” A voice shouted from somewhere up ahead.

There was a commotion up ahead and when he tried to look over the crowd he saw a purple streak darting from a rooftop and into the streets. The toad had found Naruto. Realizing that he wouldn't be able to do this quietly, he jumped onto the roof of the building to get a better look at what was going on.

Jiraiya had only seen Naruto once before when he had just been a baby, but even then he had blonde hair and distinctive whisker marks on his face from his tenant. The kid who was on the ground was blonde, but the toad was blocking his face. Another kid younger than him was leaning over the blonde trying to pull off the frog. Jumping forward, he landed next to the two boys with the toad shouting, “Got-him-got-him.”

Reaching down, he pulled the purple toad off of Naruto and smiled down at him. “Hi, you're not an easy one to find.” The expression that flickered across the boy's face was one of terror which caused his grin to falter.

“Out of the way, police coming through.”

Jiraiya turned just in time to see a police officer pushing his way through the growing crowd. This was not at all going as he had hoped, but in a way that was good. Things seemed to turn out better for him when he improvised.

The officer pushed his way through the crowd, and as his eyes landed on Jiraiya, his hand went to his sword, “Who were you?”

“My name is Jiraiya and I've been hired to find these two,” he said with all the confidence he could muster, which was considerable.

The officer stared at him suspiciously and said, “I was told it was a female ninja looking for them.”

“Well of course she would say that. She's the one that kidnapped them.”

Their audience, which had been silently watching this drama unfold, suddenly broke out in numerous conversations. The officer gestured for silence with a wave of his hand. “That is not how the situation was described to me.”

Jiraiya held up his hands, trying to appear reasonable. “Listen my job is to make sure these two are safe. Why don't we all go to the police station and we can sort the situation out there.”

“All right,” the officer said with a tinge of relief in his voice.

He smiled and turned to face the two boys, who had by this time climbed to their feet, and with nowhere to run, pushed their backs up against the wall. Naruto had pushed Konohamaru kind enough in what had to be vain effort to protect him. Jiraiya had to smile at as he took a step closer to them and lowered his tone so only the two of them could hear him. “If you don't want to go back to that place grab a hold of my arm now.”

He couldn't read Naruto's expression, but he could see Konohamaru had a tight grip on the older boy. Then the blonde must've decided to trust him, he grabbed his forearm and a second later the three of them Body Flickered away, leaving behind only a puff of smoke and an extremely angry officer.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

About a day ago, Naruto had been giving an old guy who liked to be called grandpa a blow job. At that time he had not expected the next day to be much different than that day or even the hundred days before it. Since then he had run away, broken into a house, gone to a market, had somehow been teleported, rode a giant toad and had met a trio of strange people.

Jiraiya had been the first of the trio he had met. The man was strange, but he seemed nice enough and he could summon toads large enough to carry five people, which was very cool. He had apparently also helped Hinata and Hanabi escape from the House, which was nice of him. In fact, he seemed like a very nice guy.

The second and third member of the trio he had met after a two-hour toad ride, which ended at a house in the middle of the woods. There was no road or path to this two-story house and it looked like as i,,f

it had been built out of nowhere. Two men had been standing outside. The one named Kakashi kept his entire face covered except for one of his eyes which was quite expressive. The other man's name was Tenzo and he was kind of scary even when he smiled.

Still, they all seemed nice to some extent and none of them seemed to have that look in their eye. He was used to having adults look at him in a certain way, but these three didn't look at him that way or even Hinata. It was strange, but the three of them sort of reminded him of Mitate who always used to take care of them when they were sick or in pain.

After introductions had been made, they had been shown into the house. The inside of the house was devoid of all furniture except for one little table where they had been served a meal. The meal itself was not as good as the food at the House, but none of them had eaten much that day and there was more than enough to fill each of their stomachs.

Once the four of them were filled, Jiraiya asked how exactly he and Konohamaru had managed to escape from the House. He told them what he remembered, but some of the details were vague to him and Konohamaru chimed in occasionally with his own observations like he had looked scary when he punched that one guy. Naruto noticed that the adults had shared looks during that part of his story, but he didn't understand why.

After that, Hinata and Hanabi had filled them in on how they got where they were. Then it was Jiraiya’s turn to tell them what was going on. Naruto knew some of it. Konohagakure was a distant memory, but he remembered the Third, vaguely having only seen him during his entry ceremony to the Academy. He had also known that the Third had died, but he didn't know it had happened in something called a coup. After that part of the story, he sort of stopped paying attention.

Konohamaru had fallen asleep next to him and he had yawned, exhausted from the busy day. Jiraiya had cut his story short and suggested they go to bed. They were each given a sleeping bag, but only one was child size. Konohamaru was nudged awake for the walk to the bedroom and Naruto was relieved to see a window in the room. One of the things he learned was Konohamaru was afraid of the dark and he hoped the light provided by the stars was enough not to upset him.

The two boys took the side of the room near the window and the two girls the other side of the room. Both Naruto and Konohamaru had bigger sleeping bags and without discussing it, they laid one on the floor unzipped so they could use it as a blanket. Laying down, they pulled the other one over themselves and it was like they were sharing a bed.

Lying on his back, Naruto looked up at the stars with his arms folded behind his head. He felt a tug on his side and looked over at Konohamaru. The stars and moon gave Konohamaru’s face a glow and the blonde was tempted to lean over and kiss him. Instead, he just rolled onto his side so they were now facing each other and said, “Yeah?”

“I'm not tired.”

The blonde smiled, “I had to wake you up to put you to bed.”

“Yeah, but I'm awake now. You know how it is.”

“Well what do you want me to do about it?”

A knowing smile crossed Konohamaru’s lips and sliding a little closer, he said, “This always works for me.”

A small hand worked its way under Naruto's waistband, lowering his boxers which were the only clothing he was wearing at the moment. With very little encouragement, he became stiff, and little fingers gently stroked their way up and down his shaft. The caresses were slow at first, but they sped up. It didn't take long for him to start to feel his rising orgasm. It started as a distant tingling sensation and became stronger until he found his hips pushing forward into his friend's hand. Naruto bit his lip to keep himself from making too much noise, and after a few seconds, the sensation slowly started to subside.

After a moment, he reached out to return the favor. When he found Konohamaru's package, Naruto noticed that it had already been unwrapped. The boy must've pulled his boxers down before he had touched him. For some reason he found that cute and he smiled as he evened their score. Holding it like a cigarette, he only used two fingers to bring the smaller boy to orgasm. Even though he was tired, he tried to put as much effort as he could behind it, and seeing the color rush into his friend's cheeks brought a smile to his own lips.

When Konohamaru had come down from his orgasmic high, he moved a little closer to him and Naruto threw an arm around him in return. After a second, his friend said, “What are we going to do tomorrow?”

“I don't know,” Naruto answered truthfully.

“I'm scared.”

“Don't be, I'll protect you.” Naruto said hoping he sounded more convincing than he felt.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Jiraiya closed the door behind himself as he stepped outside to join the other two ninjas. “One of us should've bought some sake. We've actually managed to accomplish something today.”

“Yes, but we seem to have more people than we were prepared for,” Tenzo said pessimistically.

Kakashi shrugged and looked up into the star filled sky. “I can teach one sister just as well as I can teach two to activate the seal. It's better to have both of them anyways.”

Tenzo nodded and added, “It is fortunate you saw it activated once and were able to copy it.”

“Not really. It's a terrible thing,” Kakashi said quickly.

“It can't be helped. We're running out of time.” Jiraiya answered.

The other two men nodded knowingly. Konoha had grown strong under Danzo's leadership and that was becoming a problem. Other hidden villages were becoming resentful of their power and influence. Right now they could easily fight off any one of the major villages, but if two or three of the major ones joined forces then things could become very dicey. No one wanted to see another great war, but that was where things were heading.

“Well, what are we going to do with the other two,” Tenzo said breaching the subject for this late night meeting.

“I'll take Naruto. I'll give him a crash course in being a ninja. If he's anything like his father he'll pick up enough that he might be useful in a few months,” he said. “One of you can take Konohamaru.”

The group was silent for a second before Kakashi spoke up. “I don't think we'll be able to do that.”

“Why not?”

“Well,” Kakashi said drawing out the word, “You may not have noticed, but Naruto has not let Konohamaru out of his sight. He was also the reason he ran away from that place. I don't think he would let us separate them.”

Jiraiya grimaced, not really wanting a little kid to tag along, even if he was the grandson of his sensei. “Fine, I'll take both of them.”

“I hate to disagree with you but, maybe it would be best if they traveled with me,” Tenzo suggested. “The way he described escaping makes me think he was somehow unconsciously tapping into the fox’s power.”

“I have a seal that will work just as well if something happens,” he said dismissively.

“Besides Tenzo,” Kakashi said putting a hand on his shoulder, “you scare kids.”

Tenzo's shoulders slumped, which caused Jiraiya to laugh. “All right, if there's something else then we'll all go our separate ways tomorrow.” The other two ninjas nodded as they went back into the house.