Chapter 31

It was plain as day to see on his face now.

He was pale as a ghost, his pupils had narrowed down into pin pricks, she caught twitches in his fingers. Twitches that she could almost suspect to be quick-draw motions. A reflex.

But...that shouldn't be possible at his age.

"Uzumaki Naruto." She finished, standing up to her full height and keeping her eyes on the boy.

Before she could fully gather her thoughts Sasuke, normally a reserved child stepped forward, oblivious to the myriad of emotions playing behind Naruto's eyes.

"Hi. Uchiha Sasuke."

He extended his hand.

Naruto seemed to snap out of whatever dazed stupor he found himself in fast enough to plaster on a brittle glass smile as he extended his hand to shake Sasuke's. "Uzumaki Naruto. Future Hokage!" He announced loudly.

'Hokage? He's never expressed an interest in such a thing before...' She saw Sasuke opening his mouth to speak when she clamped her hand down on his shoulder, bringing his attention up to her.

"Go." She demanded gently, a subtle genjutsu layered into her words to make him more compliant. "I'll get you the kunai in a bit. But give them back before Ichisu calls the police nin on you."

He nodded, "See ya later then Naruto-san." He called as he walked away.

She was startled when Naruto immediately turned to leave as though there was a lash at his back.

She grabbed at his arm. And when he turned, there was no mistake in her eyes and she saw his fingers reach for a kunai pouch that was not there and his hand strike with empty fingers at what would have been the artery along her left inner bicep.

There was no wild flailing, no wasted movements had that hand been armed and had she been anyone else he would have cut her and made an escape before anyone was the wiser.

That was an assassin's strike.

She gripped his arm harder, now holding him still.

With quick, subtle trickery, she ensnared those within the vicinity in an illusion, forming a clone to take her place as she vanished with her night time charge whomever was nosy enough to keep watching believing that she had just sent Naruto off and turned to buy the goods with her sibling.

In reality, she appeared two blocks away, on one of the higher rooftops for some semblance of privacy as she let Naruto, who'd been tugging against her, go.

The frightened gennin looked around, beginning to hyperventilate as his movements became slightly erratic.

"Naruto. Naruto!" She called twice as he didn't respond to the first. "Can you hear me? Do you know where you are?"

"I-I...we're-"

He pants, his breathing is wild, the blood thunders through his temples, drowning out the sound as his heart pounds and pounds and pounds like its about to burst in his chest.

"We're...in the marshes of Kusa.

Its a skirmish. Wait...was it? Yes...

I'm fighting in the rear guard, a fighting retreat.

Sakura is up ahead, leading the wounded. She is right? Or is she dead already?

No...no she dies...later.

Sasuke's with me, or is it Bee?

…

I can't remember.

We're fighting what was once the shodaime Tsuchikage's elite bodyguard Anbu. We're fighting back to back. But the mud is slick.

Sasuke falls.

Or...was it Bee?

I go to pick him up he gives me his hand.

Someone grabs my arm. I turn, bury the kunai into the artery with an explosive note. It goes off, takes the arm with it.

It doesn't hurt me Kurama helps with that...

And then we're-

"-in Konoha An-chan." He answers, smiling. "I can see Ji-Ji's face!" He points.

Her eyes narrow, leery. "What happened down there?"

"Down where?"

His eyes are still erratic, his heart is hammering beneath his breast so hard it hurts. But he's perfected this mask.

An old well worn friend you could say.

She's not fully buying it though. What she'd seen couldn't just be wiped away.

"Did you...remember something? Or think you remembered something?"

There is screaming...and blood, I remember that! The smell most of all. The sting of iron will never-

"Maybe...I just..." He scrunches up his nose. "What are we doing up here? Weren't we in the market with your little brother?"

"Yes we were." She nods "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Sasuke's his name." He smiled. "I remember Sasuke's his name!

A smile made of brittle, cracking glass.

Naruto's always been a very expressive boy.

She finds it unnerving then...that she can't read him right now.

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