First Lead

Sasuke and Naruto were famished when they finally reached the closest village and settled into the first and only restaurant they saw. But when the long awaited food came, they only sat there quietly.

"Remember?" Naruto cracked a tiny smile.

Sasuke returned it with a slight upward curvature of his lips. "How can I forget?"

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[Mother would always cook but she would let us go to Ichiraku whenever her food didn't turn out right. And we ate ramen every night until that one time…]

"Mother! Wait, don't go into the kitchen!" Sasuke tried to stop her, but it was too late.

As the kitchen door flung wide open, little Naruto standing atop a wooden stool was adding a few extra foreign spices into the curry. Frightened by the unexpected discovery, Naruto dropped the metal ladle and slipped off the tiny spool.

Mother quickly ran to embrace her child, holding him so tight that he began to feel nervous. After confirming he was unharmed, she got up and took off her apron.

"Why don't you and Sasuke head to Ichiraku. Head there early, you guys know there's always a line," was all she said and offered a smile.

It made us happy at first. We raced down and got the best seats. But we returned earlier than expected.

Mother was sitting alone at the dinner table. We carefully tiptoed to surprise her, but when we appeared before her, it startled her. And it startled us.

[It was the first time we ever saw mother with such a sad smile.]

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"I promised that it was the last time she would eat alone," Naruto said, shoving another spoonful of curry into his mouth. He didn't care that it was soaked with tears. It wasn't like the flavor was anything new.

"I used to think she talked too much." Sasuke snorted. "She'd bring up these stupid things to talk about. They were so stupid."

Naruto let out a brief laugh. "They were pretty stupid."

"But I rather have that than this silence." Sasuke meant it.

"Yeah…" was all Naruto managed to choke out.

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"Sakura-chan is pretty cute." Baby Naruto picked up a pink crayon to color his picture.

"I think she'd look better with long hair." Mini Sasuke picked a blue one.

"Really? I think I would like to see that too."

"But I like her pink hair," Sasuke added.

"You've been talking about this Sakura-chan for a few days already." Mother placed a plate of watermelon on the table and invited herself.

With lightning speed, both Naruto and Sasuke rolled up the scroll paper and slid it under the table.

"Ehh? Are you drawing Sakura-chan? Let me see it!"

[Mother could be very childish.]

"Maybe." They both grinned their toothy grin. They knew that always made Mother laugh.

"Hmm… Do my boys like me more or Sakura-chan?"

"Sakura-Chan!" both yelled.

"Maybe I should dye my hair pink?"

"Ew!"

And she chased us around the house until the neighbors complained.

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There was a ruckus going on in the other half of the room and both Konoha ninjas turned to see the source of it.

A frail girl was grabbed by her long black hair and yanked across the room. By the looks of her tattered clothes and bare feet, she was most likely a capture.

The drunk man stopped in the middle of the room and pushed his body right on top of the anorexic girl. Some shinobis whistled while the others looked away to ignore the obscenity.

"Naruto," Sasuke warned in his low husky voice. It was painful to see it happen and not do a thing.

Naruto knew too. They were hundreds of thousands of miles away from Konoha. It wasn't wise to act recklessly when all of the surrounding customers were ninja opposing the Leaf.

"Sasuke, if I lose, you don't know me," Naruto muttered before dashing towards the man with kunai in hand.

"If you lose, there's a major problem."

Getting down low, Naruto spun on one hand and knocked the drunk man off of his feet. Within seconds, a bunch of other ninja pounced onto the blonde, who he held back with six of his shadow clones. A few more ninja charged, but before they could even get close, were paralyzed and sent into a genjutsu by the Sharingan user.

After defeating about the majority of the customers, Naruto and Sasuke took custody of the girl and everything went bustling about again—as if such occurrences, fighting over a girl, were common enough to not even bat an eyelash.

Naruto smiled at the girl as she sat, head down, across from him and Sasuke. She looked hungry.

"Eat," he urged.

The girl remained unmoving, only shifting slightly in her seat in embarrassment.

"Does she not understand us?" Naruto turned to Sasuke.

Sasuke, on the other hand, couldn't help but notice the girl's distinguished features which resembled Mother's much too closely. It wasn't just her long black hair, it was her pair of electric blue eyes. Had the stranger's skin not been sunburnt and her lips of a more deep red, he wouldn't be too far from accepting her as a sister of his missing mother.

Suddenly, the bartender walked over, bringing a cup of water with a drinking tube sticking out of it. The hungry girl quickly scooted closer to the table and put her mouth to the stick and sucked.

Naruto and Sasuke were shocked before regaining composure. Naruto watched as the poor girl used the palms of her hands to move the cup. Her fingers that she kept underneath the table until now were all distorted, most likely from having the bones broken a repeatedly. His heart ached, immediately struck with guilt for urging her to eat without fully understanding that she lacked the ability to eat by herself.

Sasuke too, watched in discomfort as she opened her mouth slightly to press her lips to the tube. It was in that split second that he registered that she was without a tongue. She couldn't speak!

The two brothers exchanged eye contact before turning to the stranger who so kindly brought the water. The middle-aged man, assuming correctly that the two Leaf ninja were clueless, sat down on the wooden bench across from them.

"These girls have it tough," he sighed, pouring himself some sake. "Whenever I see one, I can't help but pity them."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"You don't know, do you?" the stranger shook his head in pity. "Girls like her are rare specimens. You see," pointing to the girl, "black hair, blue eyes, pale skin, are quite popular with folks around here. And because they don't come by often, they sell for a high price. The younger, the better. The prettier, the higher price."

Naruto turned to face Sasuke to get a second opinion, but his brother's grim face did not relieve the atmosphere.

"So human trafficking?"