A Darker World

Sneakyfox thanks for the encouragement.


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Naruto awoke early the next day, his mouth parched. Glancing out the window, he could see that the sun was already up. Turning over to his side he saw Konohamaru had sprawled out in his sleep. He smiled to himself and slipped out from beneath the covers before remembering he had not pulled his boxers up after last night's activities. Pulling them up, he stood prepared to go in search of something to drink.

Just as he was about to leave the room, he heard Hanabi call out, “Naruto?”

He paused and looked down at her and said, “I'm just getting a drink. Go back to sleep.”

“I'm not tired,” she said defiantly, “but I'm thirsty too,” she added crawling out of the child size sleeping bag. Unlike her sister who had been wearing a dress, Hanabi had been wearing a simple tank top with shorts. Now she was just wearing the tank top and panties that were practically see-through.

“Fine, but be quiet. I don't know if anyone else is sleeping.”

She nodded and they went downstairs as quietly as they could with their bare feet slapping against the wood. Last night, they had been served tea from a thermos and this morning it was full, so someone had filled it once they'd gone to bed. Naruto poured both of them a cup full and they headed back upstairs.

He didn't want to leave Konohamaru alone because he still wasn't too sure about these guys yet. They seemed nice and he sort of trusted them, but, well, people could change. He had learned that lesson repeatedly.

When Naruto had left the room he hadn't bothered to close the door. He was trying to be quiet and not wake the other two, so instead of going back into the room, he just sat down in the hallway with his back against the opposite wall. Hanabi followed his example and they quietly sipped at their bitter tea for a minute.

“I heard you two last night,” Hanabi said abruptly.

Naruto smiled, “Sorry, did we keep you awake?”

She shook her head and brushed her leg against Naruto's, “No, but I wanted to ask if you wanted to do something with me? I've always liked working with you.”

He watched her foot slide up to his knee and then back down. It felt nice, but he really wasn't in the mood. “I'm kind of tired.”

“All right,” she said with an overdramatic sigh as she withdrew her foot. “Why did you pare off with Konohamaru anyways?”

“I like him,” Naruto said defensively. He was suddenly reminded of what Sakura had told him only two days ago. Then he frowned, had it really only been two days? It felt like a week had gone by. Pushing that aside for now, he asked, “Are you friends with Konohamaru?”

Hanabi shrugged, “Yeah, most of the time. Why are you asking?”

He frowned at that answer, “I was talking to Sakura and she kinda told me that he didn't have any other friends besides me.”

His companion frowned at this as if she was scouring her memory. “I don't know,” she said finally.

That was not the answer he had been expecting, but before he could even think about it that long a voice called out, “Oh, you're up.” He turned to see Kakashi’s head sticking out from around the stairwell. “I thought I heard someone downstairs a moment ago. Why don't you get dressed and come down for breakfast?”

“Yeah, sure,” Naruto said.


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Several minutes later, the four of them came down for breakfast dressed in the clothes some of them had been wearing for two days now. The breakfast was quiet and when they finished Jiraiya cleared his throat and said, “I guess we should tell you what's going on. Now you know about Danzo and his takeover of ours and your home village.”

“Yeah, he's the bad guy,” Hanabi chimed in.

Jiraiya smiled at this and said, “That's right and we want to get rid of him. If we can get rid of him we could very well prevent war and,” he paused for a second before adding, “shutting down the place you were at.”

That caught Naruto’s attention, but before he could comment Hanabi said, “But where will we go then?”

“Don't worry you'll be taken care of you and everyone else there. Konoha’s orphanage is a really good place for you.” Jiraiya answered.

“What will we have to do their?” She asked suspiciously.

The smile that had been plastered on Jiraiya’s face fell and he said in a very serious tone. “You won't have to do anything. No matter what we will keep you safe and you won't have to um, entertain anyone like you used to. However, we would like you to do something if you're willing.”

“Which is?” Naruto asked.

“I went to that place looking for the two of you,” he gestured towards Hanabi and Hinata. “Do you remember the branch members of your family?”

“Not really,” Hanabi said.

“Yeah,” Hinata answered.

“Well, the branch members of your families are strong supporters of Danzo. They are not really bad people, but as long as they support him they could make things difficult for us. When we take Danzo down, we want there to be a minimum of bloodshed and you two girls can help us with that,” he said.

“How?” Hanabi asked.

“You can incapacitate them,” Kakashi said. “I can teach you how.”

“What does incapacitate mean?” Hanabi asked again to Naruto's delight because he didn't know the word either.

The cyclop's single eye wandered up to the ceiling and said, “It means they won't be able to hurt anyone for a while.”

“Oh, okay,” Hanabi said grinning.

“Wait, what about us then?” Naruto asked.

Jiraiya turned to face him, his expression was unreadable to the blonde. “Naruto, I knew your father and your mother for that matter. They were both great ninjas and I'm sure you inherited some of that talent. I want to train you to be one like them, but if you don't want to, at least let me teach you enough so you can defend yourself.”

“Hey, what about me,” Konohamaru spoke up from Naruto side.

The white haired man seemed surprised by the question. “Well, I'm not sure if you would be able to handle the same training. You are a lot younger than Naruto Konohamaru.”

“If he can do it, I can do it,” Konohamaru said.

“Yeah,” Naruto said coming to his friend’s defense.

Jiraiya shook his head, but in defeat and not disagreement. “Fine, but it's not going to be easy.”

Naruto felt two little arms wrap around him and he turned to grin at Konohamaru to celebrate their small victory, but instead he suddenly found himself in a kiss. It was brief and hardly more than a peck, but when he turned back the three adults were looking at him. “What?”

“It's nothing,” Kakashi said breaking the silence. “It's just were going to have to split you up into two groups and were not sure how to break the news to you,” he said with his eye turning upwards in a smile.

“What! Why?” Naruto demanded.

“Well, it's simply that we have to go in different directions. Remember Danzo knows what we want to do and he is trying to stop us.”

“But-”

“Naruto,” Hinata spoke up for the first time since the conversation had begun. “We can trust them. I know it.”

He looked at her and she was smiling in that small way of hers which he always knew was genuine. He leaned back and said, “Whatever you say.”

“All right then. We'll get going in a few minutes then,” Jiraiya said.


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Naruto’s second ride on an oversized toad was not as exhilarating as his first, although Konohamaru seemed to enjoy it. They rode for most of the day heading north and he only occasionally caught a glimpse of a village or a road, but the fact that the world was that big was a bit disorienting to him. Part of him had just wanted to lay down, but the desire wasn't that strong and the changing scenery was nice.

A few hours before dark, they dismounted and walked along a road into a town. Jiraiya had told them not to mention anything about riding a toad and then he treated them to a large dinner. He reserved two rooms at the local inn, and as they walked to the rooms he told them, “Be sure to get a lot of rest. Tomorrow I'm going to take you shopping and then we can finally start your training.”

“Shopping?” Naruto questioned, “But we don't have any money.” He looked down at Konohamaru as he said this, but his friend didn't seem to be paying attention as he craned his neck to look at a painting they passed.

“Don't worry. Surprisingly, Ryo is not one of our problems. I'll cover everything and you need more than one change of clothes plus some decent footwear.”

Naruto looked down at his feet and admitted that his sandals had seen better days. Still, part of him was expecting there still to be a catch. Most people were not nice without expecting something in return. Mitate was the only exception he could think of and people like him seemed to be rare.

Jiraiya held out a key in front of Naruto’s face and said, “I'm just one room over so if you need anything just knock. For the record though, we will be camping most of the time, so enjoy this because it won't happen again for a while.”

“Yeah, sure,” He said stopping at the door with the same number the key had on it.

“Oh, Naruto can I talk to you for a minute privately,” Jiraiya asked walking to the next room.

“Okay,” he said opening the room door for Konohamaru and saying, “I'll be back in a minute.”

His friend grinned and said, “I'll try to wait up.”

Naruto slowly walked over to Jiraiya half expecting that catch to show up right now. The man fiddled with the door for a moment before it opened and said, “Come on in.” He followed him in, and when the lights flickered on Jiraiya sat on the corner of the bed and asked, “Konohamaru kissed you earlier today didn't he?”

The blonde actually had to think for a minute before answering, “Yeah.”

“And you are fine with that?”

Naruto frowned; this was not what he had been expecting. He folded his arms and leaned back against the wall as he said, “Yeah, I like him.”

“Your friends then?”

“Of course,” he didn't know why but this line of questioning was starting to make him angry.

The man paused before asking, “Is that all you do?

A lot of clients would ask him what he had done in the past with other people and he always answered before in general terms. This time, though, he was asking about Konohamaru specifically. “Why the hell do you care?”

The older man actually seemed too wince at those words and he raised his one hand to rub his temple. “Naruto, I'm sorry. I don't really care what you two do as long as you're both safe. It's just if you and Konohamaru kiss each other when we're in a village, it will draw attention to us. We're trying to avoid that so just keep it private okay?”

He glared at the older man and snapped, “Fine. Is that it?”

Jiraiya let out a sigh and said, “Yeah, go get some sleep.”

Naruto turned and left the room, slamming the door behind him. Unfortunately, the sound wasn't very satisfying and he felt the urge to punch a wall. His fists were clinched, but there wasn't anything that looked like it would break. Instead, he tried to open the door to his room, but the lock was a dead bolt and he had to take out the key.

Storming into the room, Naruto was about to let out a scream of frustration when he saw Konohamaru. The boy was laying on one of the twin beds naked with his hands behind his head and his knees in the air. He was smiling, and as sudden as Naruto's anger had come over him, it left.

A smile creeped across his lips and he jumped on to the bed next to his friend, laying a hand on his chest and giving him a kiss. The other boy rolled into the kiss and as the blonde's arms wrapped around him, the smaller boy, he felt himself become hard.

Konohamaru broke the kiss and said into his ear, “I want to try the lazy boy position.”

Naruto pulled back and looked at his friend in shock. “Where did you learn about that?”

“Before the last poker game,” Konohamaru answered, “we were waiting for you and Kiba told me about it.”

Naruto wondered how that topic of conversation had come up. “Well, I can try, but I'm not sure if you'll like it that much.”

“No, I want to try doing it to you.”

“Really?” Naruto asked. He had never been on the receiving end before and if Konohamaru was willing to try he wouldn't turn it down. Then he remembered, “Wait we don't have anything for lubricant.”

His young friend rolled over and leaned over the bed. He rolled back grinning and said, “Look at what I found.”

Naruto glanced at the plastic bottle in his friend's hand and winced. “Konohamaru, soap doesn't really work.”

The younger boy's expression fell and he protested, “But it is really slippery.”

“Yeah, and it really burns too,” Naruto answered, smiling at his friend's inexperience.

Konohamaru threw the bottle onto the other bed, and in a huff puffed out his cheeks and said, “They don't have any of the other stuff.”

He didn't like disappointing Konohamaru and he leaned over and gave him a peck on the forehead. “Let me take a look.”

Rolling out of the bed, he darted into the bathroom his erection leading the way. On occasion he had used other lubricants besides what they were told to use, but that was more of a client preference thing. Then his eyes fell on a small bottle of complementary shampoo and he grinned. That would work.

Grabbing the bottle, he was about to run back to Konohamaru when he remembered he was still wearing his clothes. Quickly solving that problem, he left the bathroom with bottle in hand. “I found something, but it's not as good as the usual stuff.”

“All right,” Konohamaru said kneeling on the bed.

Lying on his back, Naruto bent his knees into the air and gave the bottle to his friend. Konohamaru applied the shampoo liberally and then stood up on the bed. Stepping over him, he slowly lowered himself using his bent legs to guide them to his destination. Naruto helped a little with the final aiming, but his friend was surprisingly adept at this part.

It took Konohamaru a minute to take Naruto's entire length, but when he bottomed out they were both panting. Naruto’s eyes had slid shut at some point and when he opened them he saw his friend had his own erection sticking straight out.

His hand started to drift toward it, but Konohamaru snapped, “No, I want to do this right.”

Naruto smiled and diverted his hand, stroking his friend’s calf as he said, “All right.”

A moment later, Konohamaru started to squeeze his butt cheeks together which made the already tight passage even tighter. Naruto resisted the urge to thrust upwards which was almost impossible as Konohamaru let his muscles relax only to tighten again.

Naruto wanted to stroke something and he allowed his fingers to trace up and down his friends calf as Konohamaru moved his own hand to provide himself with relief. It was quiet in the room with only the occasional grunt or groan from one of the two boys. Konohamaru's orgasm struck first, and as every single muscle tightened in his body Naruto followed with a wordless cry.

The younger body collapsed onto the older as they both panted with the ecstasy of their relief. After a moment, Konohamaru questioned, “Did I do okay?”

“Amazing,” Naruto said breathlessly.

“Good,” Konohamaru answered. “I like making you happy.”

He pressed his lips against his friend’s cheek which was warm and said, “Next time, I'll make you happy.” Konohamaru's response was a snore.


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Kaede’s office was only illuminated by a single desk lamp. She had returned from her hunt several hours ago only to find yet another disaster. Both of the Hyuga sisters had vanished. Supposedly, a client had requested both of them for a honeymoon. That was fairly normal, but after several hours of no meals ordered, they had become suspicious and sent someone upstairs to check on them. They found the room empty. She supposed there was the off chance that someone had abducted them from here, but given what had happened in the market, she suspected the rebels were involved here to.

At least those were her conclusions that she had stated in her report to Konoha. Now, she waited for a response. Considering her primary objectives had been to keep those four out of the hands of Danzo, and by extension Konoha’s enemies, she would be most likely recalled from her post. Part of her mind knew she should be preparing for such an event, but she found herself unable to get out of her chair.

Her thoughts instead dwelled on what would become of this place and the children still here. She was bringing in a lot of Ryo, but if she was replaced the next person might decide they could make the children work even harder and make more. She didn't want that to happen. Maybe she could still find a way. Damn, she wanted a drink.

Her office door swung silently open just wide enough for a man to sidestep into the room. He wore a mask and trench coat. She had met a few of Danzo’s most trusted people over the years she had operated this place, but it took her a moment to put a name to this guy.

“Hyo,” she finally said.

“You have failed in your mission.” The man said without any preamble.

“Yes,” she answered. There was no reason to dance around the truth.

“I checked with the police in Kobukai. They are quite confused about the whole situation, but did you stick around to get a description of the man?”

She frowned, not sure where this line of questioning was leading. “No, the police were understandingly hostile as they didn't know who to believe. There was no purpose in me sticking around.”

The man nodded, but whether it was in understanding or just acknowledgment she couldn't tell. “Barring some superficial differences, he fits the description of Jiraiya in passing. When one of the officers was shown a picture of him, he said that they did look alike, but couldn't be positive which considering he's is an intelligence expert should only be expected.”

Jiraiya, she thought, he was a living legend. It was probably best that she had not found Naruto and Konohamaru before he had. Then she felt ice grip her stomach. It was too much of a coincidence that all four of her charges would disappear so close to each other. The puzzle pieces quickly fell into place. Jiraiya had been the one to rent the Hyuga sisters and they had, of course, known Naruto and Konohamaru weren't there anymore. He must've tracked them down from there. If they weren't talking about Jiraiya here she wouldn't think it was possible.

“Which bears the question,” Hyo continued, “how are you positive that Naruto escaped on his own or more precisely why was he able to access the demon’s power?”

It took Kaede a second to pull out of her thoughts and answer the question. “Naruto is extremely empathetic. For him, someone else's pain can be worse than his own. I put Konohamaru in a situation he would not have wanted to be in and the fact that they had grown close fed Naruto's desire to protect him.” She paused for a second, but decided that she had answered truthfully enough.

“I see. It seems there was a series of unforeseeable events.”

‘Unforeseeable events’ she thought wryly. The phrase she would've used involved the word cluster. “Am I being recalled?”

Hyo paused for a second, which was odd, but said, “I was given discretion to either recall you or keep you in place depending on what I found. You did make errors, but they cannot be fixed by replacing you nor can they be compounded by not replacing you. Giving your success in running this brothel it seemed you made a better merchant then a ninja. You are to continue in your post until ordered otherwise.”

“I understand,” she said feeling both relieved and not at the same time.

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Authors Note: I'll be honest and say I never tried the shampoo thing myself, but I've heard it from someone who has. Either way I wouldn't suggest trying it.