The Road Of Life

by Krasimer

Summary:

He wasn’t stupid.

Okay, sure, he was missing a lot of school. He had Iruka for that. He was learning and catching up and making sure he knew what he’d missed when he’d been locked up in a basement. His parents tried their best not to treat him like he was made of glass, and his cousin and Konan tried to stay sane and normal when he talked to people.

But he knew when something wasn’t right.

Naruto sat at the dinner table, listening to the vampire talking to his parents, and lifted his head when something felt different. Something in the air shifted, the sounds muting for a second.

Sasuke decided to run away from his soulmate. Turns out, his soulmate has something to say about that.

Chapter 1: Why Doesn't He Want Me?

He wasn’t stupid.

Okay, sure, he was missing a lot of school. He had Iruka for that. He was learning and catching up and making sure he knew what he’d missed when he’d been locked up in a basement. His parents tried their best not to treat him like he was made of glass, and his cousin and Konan tried to stay sane and normal when he talked to people.

But he knew when something wasn’t right.

Naruto sat at the dinner table, listening to the vampire talking to his parents, and lifted his head when something felt different. Something in the air shifted, the sounds muting for a second.

‘He left,’ Kurama whispered.

Glancing around, Naruto nodded. Nobody was watching him at the moment. Nagato and Konan were still upstairs, probably working on their homework. Iruka was still talking to his mom. His dad was listening to Sasori and the werewolf, Deidara. Sasuke was gone, disappeared from the room so quietly that no one had noticed. Easing himself back from the table, quietly thankful he hadn’t been ordered into a wheelchair for recovery, Naruto slipped out of the room. Kurama did something to keep his exit quiet, making sure none of the others noticed.

Naruto made it upstairs without anyone saying anything.

Peering out the window in the direction of the path from the front door, he didn’t see anything. “Anything you can tell me?” he asked Kurama quietly, his hands curled around the windowsill.

‘I cannot see any more than you can,’ he snarled, on edge and annoyed at the sudden absence of Naruto’s soulmate.

That had been the biggest surprise, after coming out of the hospital: The very thing that had been sought to be recreated so it could be destroyed? Naruto had one. Danzo had been helping to recreate a soulmate bond so that he could split Obito and Zetsu apart. He’d been working on it so he could learn how.

“Okay,” Naruto nodded, pulling his window open. “So, we go.”

‘You are an idiot, sometimes.’

“Yeah, well,” Naruto turned and grabbed a bag from his closet, one he remembered from when he was a kid. It was a backpack, still in reasonably good condition. In the time since he’d gotten home, his parents had bought him a new wardrobe, everything in colors he liked. He only felt a little guilty about stuffing some of it into the bag, along with the wallet they’d given him with a card and cash. The phone that had sat, charging, on his desk went in too – he wasn’t about to be out of contact again, not for anything.

He just needed to go find some clue about his soulmate, even if that meant sitting in his bedroom and waiting.

Before he could do anything else, a hand wrapped around his elbow. “What, and I mean this in the nicest way possible,” a voice asked. “The fuck are you doing?”

The werewolf.

‘I forgot he might be able to scent you past the tricks I pulled.’

Naruto stared at Deidara.

With a wide eye, Deidara stared back. When Naruto didn’t say anything, Deidara shook his elbow. “Answers. Now, yeah.”

“I’m…”

Deidara looked at the bag in his hands, at the bundle of clothing and everything inside of it. With a sigh, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, please don’t tell me you’re running away, that is the worst possible idea for you.”

“I’m not running!” Naruto shook his head. “Sasuke is.”

Freezing in place, Deidara’s jaw dropped, his eye darting to the window. “Oh, fuck, he—” he let go of Naruto’s arm, opening the window to lean out and stare into the darkness. “Shit,” he hissed. “He did, you’re right, yeah.” He pulled himself back inside, a hand going to his mouth as he considered something. “His scent is gone.” Looking at Naruto again, Deidara glanced at the bag. “So what—”

“He lives with the rest of the Grouping, right?” Naruto gestured at Deidara, then towards the door. “Sasori and Itachi, his older brother, and then the other one…Uh…Hidan? I think?” he watched the werewolf nod. “So, I figured I would pack for a few days, take my lessons with me, and go sit in his room. If nothing else, it would poke at his instincts.”

“And invoke his urge to protect his territory and everything in it,” came the rest with a soft sigh. “Okay, see, that’s a better plan than I thought you had.”

Naruto lifted his chin. “I’m not stupid.”

“Never said you were,” Deidara patted his head. “Just was worried you were going to go off without a fully formed plan like he does, sometimes.”

He grabbed Naruto’s hand, heading downstairs with him. “Sasori, Sasuke is a coward, yeah!”

All of the adults looked up at that announcement. Sasori frowned, his eyes narrowed at being interrupted mid-sentence, but his expression changed when he saw Naruto. Or maybe when he understood the words being said. “Oh no,” he groaned. “He—”

“We have a missing vampire,” Deidara nodded. “And a surprisingly well-thought-out plan from a demon vessel.”

His mom moved closer to the two of them, taking Naruto’s face in her hands. “Do I want to know?” she asked, softly, almost teasing. He could hear the worry in her words, though, the way he vaguely remembered her sounding when he’d sprained an ankle as a kid. The memories weren’t clear, yet, uncertain and sometimes just out of reach, but he knew they were there.

“I was going to take my homework with me,” Naruto muttered. “And call Iruka for tomorrow’s lessons.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see his teacher beaming.

He’d apparently once been Naruto’s babysitter, ages ago. The two families had stayed in contact as the years went by and Iruka had become a teacher – he’d been their obvious choice when Naruto and Nagato and Konan had needed someone to help catch them up. When the three of them had returned from what a lot of people had thought was a permanent loss. Naruto almost wanted to smile back at him, but something felt heavy in his chest, pulling away from him.

Sasuke was leaving.

Whatever else he was doing, wherever he was going, Sasuke was leaving. Naruto whined at the feeling of it, the way it felt for his soulmate to be going so far away from him. Kurama thrashed in his chest, his power seeping through the edges and changing things.

The two of them had faced danger and fear for so long, together.

In the darkness, in the basement, they had been all each other had, sometimes. Kurama had done his best to keep Naruto amused and safe, happy in the dark. He’d pushed his way forward when Naruto was terrified and unable to keep watching what was happening to the others. The worst of it all had been when the two running the experiments were down in the basement. He had seen people die, bleeding out and tortured to death. Sometimes they had died screaming.

His only constant was Kurama.

So when things went wrong, they reacted the way they always had. They looked away, and Kurama took over, kept Naruto shielded in the back of his mind.

In his mind, it was quiet.

Naruto sat against a wall, his hands to his chest, as he stared up at the lanterns hanging above his head. Even further above them, leaning down, was Kurama. His eyes were bright in the soft lighting, his teeth sharp, but Naruto knew he was safe. He always was, when Kurama was watching over him, and he’d learned to let himself be protected.

“Your soulmate is an idiot,” Kurama muttered. He settled down next to Naruto, nudging him with his snout. “Move your hands.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

Because if he did, he’d bleed. If his hands were moved, his heart would pop out of his chest, and he would die.

Naruto leaned his head against Kurama. “I can’t.”

The two of them sat there, silent, for a while. “We are not in danger, here,” Kurama lifted his head. “Are we?”

“I don’t…I don’t think so.”

“Then move your hands.”

“What?”

Kurama huffed, lifting his head to stare down at Naruto. “If they are safe, if we are safe with them, then they are not going to let you die. They are your family,” he scoffed, yawning. “Even if your memories are scattered, they are still your people.” He bumped his nose against Naruto’s chest, against his hands. “So move your hands. Let them know what you are dealing with. Let them know what pains you and what scares you. Stop smiling all the time like they will reject you if you do not.”

Naruto clenched his teeth, shaking his head. “But I’m different.”

“And you are still their son,” Kurama hissed. “They came to find you; they cried when they did – do you understand that? No matter what was done to you, no matter how you were changed, they wept when you were back with them once more.” He nipped carefully at Naruto’s sleeve, yanking on it for a moment. “Show them what lies hidden.”

He moved his hands.

There wasn’t any blood.

His hands shook as he moved them away, trembling as he put them in his lap, but he wasn’t bleeding.

“See?”

“But what about my memories?”

Kurama lifted his tails, spreading them like a fan. “Undoubtedly due to my placement,” he grumbled. “Unsteady hands, unsure of what was being done. A soul possessing a body he did not align with, performing the ritual to seal me away. In time, they will be fixed. Or if not, you will make new ones.”

He smacked Naruto in the face with one of his tails. “In the meantime, stop thinking you will be rejected due to what has been done to you, especially if you act anything but happy.”

He could do that.

Maybe.

Taking a deep breath, then several more, Naruto closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, he was on the floor of his home, his mom’s arms around him, his dad sitting in front of him. Iruka was off to the side, holding a glass of water. Just behind him was Kakashi, his eye wide as he watched what was happening. He could catch the scent of Nagato and Konan on the stairs, both of them staying where they were but being close by in case anything happened.

In case he needed them.

Naruto felt his eyes burning as he turned in his mom’s hold, burying his face in his shoulder and curling up smaller. One of her hands buried in his hair when he started crying, holding him tighter. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s okay, let it out.”

“Sasori went to check in with the rest of his Grouping.” Naruto heard his dad speak up. “Deidara is here as a point of contact so that when they find something out, we’ll know right away.” He put a hand on Naruto’s back, rubbing softly. “And your mom is right – it’s okay. I was wondering if something like this was coming. What you went through…” He made a small noise Naruto couldn’t understand, his hand pausing for a moment. “If we had been able to see more of what happened at the hospital, I think there would have been intensive interviews about excessive use of force for both of us.”

Naruto snorted, still crying, his hands curling in his mom’s shirt.

“It does make me feel better to get to know your demon a little,” his dad continued. “Kurama seems like a decent guy once you start to understand he just wants to keep you safe.”

“That’s what he did,” Nagato spoke up. “In the dark.”

Naruto listened as all of them spoke, silence falling occasionally as someone pulled out their phone or did something else. His mom never let go of him, however, her hands refusing to leave his back or his head. Kurama was right, Naruto realized.

They were his people.

And he wasn’t going to be abandoned by them.

Chapter 2: I Will Follow That Light (Yours)

By the time he could breathe normally again, had made his way through at least four cups of water, and had his mom rubbing his back for twenty minutes, Naruto felt better.

Iruka sat next to him, tapping out a pattern for him to follow. He didn’t say anything when Naruto messed up, just waited for him to start again, his fingers going back into the original position. His other hand had the glass of water again, refilled once more by a nervous-energy-filled Kakashi, who seemed to be twitching in place as he crouched across from them. Naruto’s dad sat next to him, a hand on his shoulder, patting gently.

His mom kept her chin on top of his head, breathing softly, a calm presence in the middle of everything.

Naruto breathed in and out in time with her, his hand tapping out the rhythm Iruka set for him, and he let himself just exist as he waited for news. Deidara sat at the window, his chin leaned on his palm as he waited, his eye narrowed as he peered out into the darkness. It was supposed to be a happy night, Naruto thought – he and his soulmate were supposed to be discussing the terms of their situation. A way to keep the vampire side of the bond from burning up as he was drawn to Naruto’s side during the daylight. Instead, his soulmate didn’t seem to really want anything to do with him.

Sasuke had disappeared when everyone’s back had been turned.

“Did he just not want me?” he muttered.

He hadn’t really meant for it to slip out, hadn’t really meant for it to be said out loud – it was more the sort of question he’d have asked Kurama, really. Instead, his mom leaned back to look at him with wide eyes and her eyebrows drawn down. His dad turned to look at him with something like anger brewing in eyes that looked so similar to Naruto’s eyes. Kakashi’s spine went stiff, his hands balling into fists.

Iruka’s hand clenched on the glass he held, even as he kept smiling, still tapping out the rhythm for Naruto to follow along with. Naruto could see the clench of his jaw, the way his teeth ground together.

“He’s a moron, yeah,” Deidara’s voice called across the room. He stood up and padded over to Naruto, settling down next to Iruka. He smiled at him, shrugged, then sighed. “Sasuke doesn’t always think things through the same way the rest of us do. When he came back and told us you had a demon in your head, he said he was glad because it meant you were probably going to be safer than a lot of people would be in your position.” he paused, glancing at Naruto’s parents. “Sorry, yeah.”

“No, you’re right,” his dad sighed, rubbing his chin. “It does mean he’ll heal. And he’ll have a lot of power if something goes wrong.”

“Minato,” his mom whispered his name. “It does also mean we need to get this settled. Demon vessels and immortality…”

“I know,” he swallowed, his eyes closing. “I know.”

His mom held him close again, and Naruto listened to her heart beating in her chest. He’d known, ever since he’d woken up with Kurama, that one day he’d still be here while every mortal person he knew wouldn’t be anymore. One day, he would still look young and be bright and energetic and –

And his parents, only recently regained, would be gone again.

Clenching his hands into fists, Naruto held onto the edge of his mom’s shirt. She pressed a kiss to the top of his head, both of them sighing in unison. He didn’t want to lose them again, especially not with his memories still a blur. Some things were right there when he closed his eyes, bits and pieces in focus while the rest faded out. He remembered a dog, about the size of his hands put together, yipping softly. A bowl of something steaming and warm, served while everyone sang.

Puddles of rainwater breaking apart under his feet, bright orange boots with frog faces on them.

The way Nagato’s nose crinkled when he smiled, and how his cheeks turned pink when Konan laughed.

Even in the darkness, trapped in the basement, he’d remembered what his mom’s perfume smelled like. That had been part of why he’d been instantly comfortable when she’d found him at the hospital – she’d smelled so familiar, even from before he’d had Kurama, that he’d known she was safe for him.

A handful of little things, all barely there, but enough to focus on.

He’d been nine when he’d been taken away.

“But it’s not me,” Naruto looked at Deidara, who jerked back around to look at him again. The older blond nodded. “He’s just…Like this?”

“He probably thinks he’s being stupidly noble in some way,” Deidara grumbled. “So, he ran off, and I’m guessing he’s making assumptions based on what happened to you and how they treated you and what was done to you. I’ve known him for a while now, and he just goes for the dramatic option a lot.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Not to trivialize it, yeah, just…”

Naruto giggled. “I’ll have to make fun of him for it when we find him.”

“When?”

“We’re going to,” Naruto knew it, somehow, felt it in his chest in a way he couldn’t explain. “And when we do, I’m going to make fun of him for being dramatic.” He nodded, then propped his elbows on his knees. “I…I need to go to where his brother is. I think. There’s something there. Something that needs to happen.”

His dad shuffled forward on his knees, his eyes bright. “Is this a guess or something from the bond?”

“The bond,” Naruto said it without hesitation, the answer already on his tongue.

At his side, his mom stood up, then helped haul him to his feet. “Come on, then,” she laughed. “Let’s go get your idiot, ‘ttebane!” She took his hand, leading him towards the door as his dad hurried to grab a set of keys. Nagato and Konan stayed on the stairs, content where they were as they called out good luck wishes. Naruto watched the way Kakashi inched towards Iruka, his eye focused singularly on him, and silently wished his tutor good luck in dealing with the man. 

Deidara followed them.

The car smelled familiar. It wasn’t the same one they’d had when he was a kid, he could tell, but it was the same scents. The same air freshener and the same perfume his mom wore, the same deodorant his dad always had on. Everything was the same, the clear-but-blurry memories in his head insisted.

Naruto buckled himself in, holding onto his seatbelt. Deidara sat in the backseat with him, leaning forward to give instructions and an address.

When that was done, he leaned back.

“What’s got you in a rush, yeah?” he asked, finally. His eye was an electric blue color, his eyebrows raised.

“The family graveyard,” Naruto turned to look at him. “There’s a glimpse across the bond, even if he doesn’t want there to be, and I know it’s there. It gave me an idea. Something I know can be done. Something I know I can do. Or if I can’t, though I think I can, my dad can do.” He picked at his nails, taking a deep breath. “There are ghosts there.”

“Ah,” Deidara nodded. “The Uchiha ghosts don’t always like being talked to.”

“There’s one Sasuke talks to.”

“Oh, he messed up, didn’t he?” Deidara cackled. “He ran away, but gave you a little too much access to the bond somehow. Dreams, or when he was running away?”

“I don’t—” Naruto bit his bottom lip, chewing on it as he thought about it. He really didn’t know. Shaking his head, he shrugged, turning to look out the window. “I don’t know,” he managed to say eventually. It felt like an incomplete thought, like something he shouldn’t have said, in some way. Deidara stared at him, he could feel it, but he ignored it as he watched the scenery pass by them. The drive didn’t take all that long, the tension in the car ramping up as his parents stayed quiet in the front of the car, their hands clutched together across the console between them.

When they pulled to a stop, Naruto fumbled his way out of the car, only pausing when his dad whistled for him to.

Instead of a warning or a speech or anything like that, he got a packet of incense, a candle, a burner, and some matches. “For the calling of a spirit,” was all he said, following along when Naruto nodded and took off again. All four of them moved through the darkness, ignoring the rain that had started falling at some point. Naruto held the items close to him, his eyes feeling strange in a way he knew meant Kurama was helping him see in the dim lighting – up ahead, he could see the gravestones.

He closed his eyes for a moment, grabbing for the image that had come to him, the one that had convinced him of this in the first place.

That one.

With his head held high, Naruto waited until the rest of his group was behind him, in a line, able to find their footing in the dark. He approached the right grave, kneeling in front of it, feeling more than seeing his parents on either side of him, Deidara at his back. Setting out the incense and the candle, Naruto’s hand shook as he lit them.

The candle had seals and markings carved into the sides. He remembered, vaguely, his mom’s hands working on something like that when he was little.

The smoke surrounded the grave, wisping into the air in soft shapes.

A pair of pale hands folded over the top of the grave, covering the top of the name, a soft whisper of a voice hissing from the darkness as a Yūrei leaned forward. The spirit wore death’s clothing, a white kimono folded right-over-left, and a blindfold over his eyes. His long black hair was pulled back into a tail with a white ribbon, his pale lips mouthing something over and over again as he waited. “You ask for me,” he managed to whisper. “For what reason?”

“My soulmate ran away,” Naruto swallowed the instinctual panic, looking up at the Yūrei. “His name is Uchiha Sasuke, and I know, somehow, that he speaks with you sometimes.”

The Yūrei didn’t really smile, his lips barely twitched, but Naruto got the impression he was amused.

As amused as a lost spirit could be.

One of those pale hands lifted from the gravestone and curved under Naruto’s chin, lifting his head up until their eyes would have met if the Yūrei’s eyes were uncovered. It took everything in him to hold still and keep from struggling. “Follow him,” came the whisper, the crackling of wintry trees and the cracking of ice. “In return, find me someone. Mine. My own,” he retrieved his hand, putting it to his chest, joined by the other. “The space between two doors, the closing of the gap,” he hissed out a soft laugh, his hands parting to reveal a soft white light. “Follow. Return. Find.”

Stepping back and away from the gravestone, the Yūrei dissipated into the darkness once more.

A hand touched Naruto’s shoulder, a flashlight lighting up the graveyard just as the candle fizzled into darkness from a fat droplet of rain. Itachi, Naruto assumed, stood there. His hair was slicked down from the downpour, his eyes wide as he stared at Naruto. “What…What?” He glanced at the grave. “What did you just do?”

“Spoke to the Yūrei,” Naruto explained, shrugging.

“Sasuke has been trying for years,” Itachi’s eyes were wide, panicked, before he glanced at Deidara. “He has never been able to get even a word out of him.”

“He knows how to find Sasuke,” Naruto reached up to touch the white light, plucking it like a string. “And he asked me to find someone for him. I think once I do, he’ll be better off. Once that’s done, there’s probably going to be a lot more options to help him.” He glanced at his dad, who nodded. “But in the meantime, I need to find Sasuke.”

He stepped away from Itachi, only to be stopped by his mom.

The only thing she did was hand him the bag he had packed, then kiss his cheek, stepping aside after that was done. He glanced at his dad, who nodded, then at Deidara, who shooed him away.

Naruto took a breath, gripped the straps of his bag, and took off.

Notes:

Look who it is! If you can guess, I will be excited. I have been waiting to bring him in for a while -- Madara is about to be in Some Trouble related to who will follow in connection to all of this. Madara is still a spirit sealed in a jar because they're trying to figure out what else he might have done while running around in Obito's body in this AU.

Hope you guys liked this chapter!

Chapter 3: Stubborness (A Particular Trait)

It was only when he had started running, a distance away from the Uchiha house, that he realized he had company.

Familiar company.

Naruto almost laughed when he recognized the werewolf bounding across the grass to be at his side. Sai whuffed at him, ears back against his skull as he ran alongside him, then jerked his head towards the trees. It was enough of a reason to slow down, Naruto decided, though he did keep moving faster than just a walk. His stupid soulmate was a vampire who was trying to run away from him. He needed to catch up to him somehow.

“I don’t suppose you would be willing to allow us to stay with you on your journey?” a voice called, pleasant and out of breath, just before a shape formed from the roots of a nearby tree. Naruto grinned, stopping to wait for him.

He knew that one, too.

Yamato.

It had been a while since they had seen each other, since the hospital, but he was glad to see him alive and well. “I probably should,” he nodded as he started walking again. “I don’t want to go alone, but my parents aren’t the people I need on this trip.”

With a laugh, Yamato moved to his side, patting his shoulder. “Then allow us.”

“I allow you to journey with me,” Naruto put it into words. He remembered the rules about fae: things had to be spelled out. Invitations had to be explicit. Yamato was one of the good ones, and he still needed to be invited specifically. “You and Sai are allowed to come with me on this trip while I make sure Sasuke isn’t being stupid and he knows he’s allowed to be near me.”

“Oh, he’s—” Yamato sighed. “I had heard something about that; there was some yelling earlier in the evening. I had not heard all the details.”

Naruto nodded, groaning. “He found out we were soulmates, and he decided on something and ran away. Apparently, it’s not because it’s me, so at least I have that to comfort me, but he still ran, and now I have to chase him.” He shifted his bag on his back. “And I got some advice from a Yūrei in the Uchiha graveyard, so I have something to follow. I figured it would be a good place to start,” he tapped the white line of light, extending over his shoulder. “I’ll have to help him find something, when this is over, but that’s a while from now. I need to find Sasuke first.”

“Something?”

“Someone,” Naruto corrected with a shrug. “He said his. His own. Didn’t give me a name, I don’t think he remembers one.”

“Yūrei often don’t,” Yamato fell in line with him, keeping pace. Sai walked between them, trotting along happily. His sides were no longer bony and emaciated, his ribs able to be counted at a distance. “They lose track of time and names and everything except meanings. I would be willing to help with that, as well. But first, Sasuke.” He shook his head. “He ran off to get away, and it has nothing to do with you?”

“That was what Deidara said.”

Yamato nodded. “And Deidara does know him the best of the four of us. I mean, you, me, Sai, and him. If he says that’s not why Sasuke ran, then that’s not why he ran.”

“Yeah,” Naruto watched the light glimmer and dance above his shoulder, the way it reflected the rain falling around them. “You were sleeping in the trees, weren’t you?” he pinched his lips together, his shoulders rising up as if he could hide in them. “Sorry about waking you up.”

“No,” Yamato reached out a hand, touching his shoulder gently. “Don’t worry, you did not. Ever since what happened and our return to the outside world, I have slept lightly. Sai and I were exploring the forest on the Uchiha property when you came through. Not a thing you have done is to blame for my current state, Naruto, do not blame yourself for anything to do with me.” He smiled, the expression awkward but warm. “The only ones who have anything to do with what has happened to me are the ones who kidnapped me and took me from my trees.”

“Madara and Danzo,” Naruto muttered, feeling a lump in his throat. “My memories from before them are still…”

“Still broken up,” Yamato nodded. “Some of mine are as well.”

Naruto smiled.

He’d been held captive with these two for so long. They knew a lot of what had happened to him, even if that tied them into his bad memories, and it felt easier to just talk to them sometimes. Yamato had been held captive almost as long as Naruto had, after all, and that meant they knew each other even when their memories were wrecked. He’d gathered all of the people held with him as family, and he’d decided on that as they’d been pulled from the basement.

The plan had always been to go back and strengthen the connections once he’d been in a place to talk to them and be better. Once everyone was in a better place and could breathe without breaking down.

Reaching down, Naruto gently patted Sai’s side, smiling when the werewolf huffed at him. “Is he still healing well?” he asked, directing the question at Yamato. “I would ask him, but you’re the one who can talk and has opposable thumbs, between the two of you. If he could talk, I’d ask him, but…” he shrugged, then grinned when Yamato nodded. The fae followed Naruto’s example, petting gently between Sai’s ears.

“His healing is going extraordinarily well for one who was so damaged by what was done.” Yamato’s voice was soft. “Would you like me to tell you what has been happening?”

“Yeah,” Naruto nodded. “I would.”

They passed the time like that, wandering through the forest. Yamato told stories about everything – about himself, about his old forest, the trees he’d once had, about growing up with his grandfather, about his parents disappearing. Hunters were a problem in every age, it seemed, and his parents had fallen to them. Their forest had become his. He’d go back to it, one day, but he trusted that his grandfather was still out there, keeping things maintained until then. His spark of life wouldn’t have vanished from the main tree of his grandfather’s forest, the one with the deepest roots, so he wouldn’t worry until a full century had gone by without contact.

“Well,” Yamato hurried to correct himself. “He will worry, but he will not fully panic until then.”

The white light did not waver as they walked along, the trees growing thicker and darker around them, then suddenly thinning out.

A city appeared ahead of them.

Naruto stared into the buildings ahead, chewing on his lip for a moment, then nodded as he started walking again. “I can do this,” he muttered. Yamato put a hand on his shoulder again, and Sai pressed close to his leg as he walked. Sunrise had come and gone, mid-morning starting to peek out through the clouds as they moved through the city streets together. It was the one advantage Naruto knew they had, really, and he wasn’t ashamed to take it.

Vampires had trouble moving in daylight unless they had a Dark-Box.

Sasuke would have had to find someplace to wait out the day. Naruto could keep moving, day or night, and Kurama would keep him awake and energized. His soulmate was literally unable to be more stubborn than him.

“That would be a hotel,” Yamato murmured, tugging Naruto’s sleeve. “I do believe he has checked in for the day.”

Naruto stared at the sign. There was a rate for humans, a rate for vampires, and different amenities offered for both. The line of light the Yūrei had created led into the building, angling upward, and he knew he would find his soulmate in one of the rooms upstairs. Sasuke was used to dealing with his brother and the rest of his Grouping, who would leave him alone if he wandered off on his own. Naruto was not one of them. “That’s cool.” He headed for the door, watching as it opened automatically, a cool breeze tumbling out from inside to greet him.

Air conditioning, a telltale sign of a hotel that catered to something other than humans. It was not necessary for humans when it was heading towards winter.

Approaching the front desk, Naruto took a deep breath and waited until the clerk turned her attention towards him. Once she had, he smiled brightly, all teeth and hopefully charm, and he put his hands on her desk. Kurama leaked through at the edges, peering through his eyes, and Naruto let him. “You have a guest registered,” he spoke, the two of them speaking together. “A vampire named Uchiha Sasuke. If not under that name, I don’t know what other name he would be under,” he watched as she leaned back a little, doing her best to remain calm. “I need to see him.”

“I cannot just give out guest information, sir—”

Taking another deep breath, Naruto shook his head. “He’s panicking about a soulmate bond because he thinks there’s something wrong with him,” he told her. With a pulse of magic, he let the bond show, focusing on it until it crackled to life between them. He remembered seeing Obito and Zetsu in the hospital, the line that had connected them. Something like that had to exist before a bond was fully connected, Naruto thought, so he had reached for it.

It was a weak thing, but it was there.

The line of it looked like Sasuke had been chipping away at it, weakening it from his end. Naruto wanted to throw up, his hands starting to shake as he looked at it. Yamato stepped closer, a hand on his back again. “We have been traveling all night to find him,” he explained, his voice softer. “They were arranging details between their families when he decided to run away.”

“Oh,” the clerk looked at Naruto again, a hand covering her mouth. “And he—Oh. Okay. I can’t…I can’t tell you what room he’s in, but…” she looked down at her computer, hurrying to type something.

In seconds, a square of plastic slid across the desk.

Naruto took it.

“If you know where he is, you’ll know which room that goes to,” her voice trembled as she kept her eyes on her computer. “And…I cannot help you more than that.”

“That is more than enough, thank you.” Yamato bowed his head to her, guiding Naruto away from the desk. The three of them followed the faint line of the Soulmate Bond, fractured and unfinished as it was, as well as the light of the Yūrei’s line. He nudged Naruto down the hallways, towards the elevator, and held him upright as they stood in the corner. This close, Naruto felt his entire body shaking.

Despite the assurances he’d been given, it was starting to feel like it was his fault.

“He doesn’t want me,” Naruto muttered. “What…What am I doing?” He looked at his hands, his eyes burning. The entire trip had been a spur-of-the-moment thing, hurried on by annoyance and anger and spite, and now it felt like regret and nothing more than a doomed plan. The vision that had crept across their barely-there bond had been Sasuke’s memory, not his, and he had used that tiny bit of information to track him down. He had…

He was…

Naruto sat down on the floor of the elevator, drawing his knees to his chest. “He doesn’t want me.” He repeated.

Sai curled up on one side, Yamato kneeling on the other. “We could sit here for a while,” the fae offered. “That’s an option. We could go back the way we came, drop the key back off at the front desk, tell her we were mistaken, and go back to the Uchiha estate. Your family is likely to still be there, waiting for you, so they can welcome you home again. That is another option.” He leaned back on his heels, looking around the elevator. “I have never known you to give up, however.”

“…What?”

“I have known you for over ten years,” Yamato said, meeting his eyes. “And not once have I known you to give up. Even when you fought Danzo, not too long ago, you did not give up. Even when he tried to kill you.”

“I’m not—”

“You seem to be,” Yamato raised his eyebrows. “Your soulmate is an idiot who ran off and, I suspect, his low moods are leaking across from his dreams into your waking moments. I want you to get to your feet and find him, Naruto, simply so that you can demand he make a better decision.”

He stood up, offering his hands.

Staring at them for a moment, Naruto uncurled himself, then took them. He pushed the button to reopen the elevator doors, having watched them close, and strode out into the hallway. The Yūrei’s line led him to a door, his anger flaring again, Kurama’s voice a whisper urging him onward. When the light disappeared into a door, Naruto pulled out the door key and slid it into the lock, clenching his jaw when the light turned green and the door opened. Inside, the room was pitch black and cool, the subtle scent of some sort of spicy incense filling the air.

Kurama helped him pick his way across the room to the bed.

Sasuke lay there, curled up in the blankets, his hands clenched in the pillows. His face was tensed up, even in sleep, and he looked uncomfortable. His body trembled, his jaw occasionally grinding, his face turning to find the pillow to hide in it. Yamato had probably been right, Naruto realized.

Whatever his soulmate was dreaming about, it was probably leaking over to Naruto while awake. He glanced at the door, seeing Yamato and Sai slipping inside and shutting it quietly.

He could work with this.

There were blackout curtains and shutters on the windows, standard for a vampire-friendly space, and he could use some sleep. Naruto crept over to Sai and Yamato, guiding them to the couch, before he stripped off his shoes. Wandering back to the bed, he nudged Sasuke over and settled in next to him. As soon as he made contact with him, he felt the vampire’s body go still, relaxing in sleep, and Naruto smiled.

He wondered if their bad dreams would go away entirely.

He hoped they would.

Notes:

Important to know: In the real world, no front desk person is going to allow this. Naruto, however, is being guided along by both a Soulmate Bond and a Yurei's light. Front desk lady is going, "Oh, he has a legitimate reason to be searching for him," in a world of magic and supernatural creatures. If he hadn't had either of those, she wouldn't have given him a key.

Also, Sasuke has anxiety, and it is leaking over to Naruto. Even canon Sasuke has anxiety, in my opinion, and probably over half the Uchiha Clan could benefit from medication, therapy, and naps. I think a lot of them have anxiety, and probably a lot of them have some more serious mental health issues that just aren't getting seen to in a world full of ninja and wars. Yes, I am staring hard at Madara in particular.

Chapter 4: Anxious Warmth

He couldn’t remember being that warm in a long time.

Even when wrapped in a thick blanket, it was hard to capture warmth like that. Dreams sometimes brought back the warmth of living, of sunlight, but it was hard to keep it when he came back to the realm of consciousness. When he opened his eyes, the lights of the room he’d rented on a timed dimmer, Sasuke knew something had changed. He also knew something might have gone a little wrong with his plans.

A head of blond hair greeted him, tucked under his nose, pressed against his chin.

It took him a few seconds to understand what he was seeing, to even figure out that it was hair. The warmth was an arm thrown over his waist, a leg tossed over his own. The absolute heat from the body next to him made him want to lean in and hold onto it for the rest of eternity, his hands suddenly aching to do so. Sasuke blinked a few times, then jolted back as he recognized the hair and who it belonged to – someone who absolutely should not have been in his bed. Not when he had packed up and run away to save him from having Sasuke as his soulmate.

A clawed hand reached out and grabbed the front of his sleepshirt, however, pinning him in place. A single eye popped open, bright orange and furious, and Sasuke met it, unused to feeling like prey.

“We will be talking about this,” Kurama rumbled, all sharp teeth and slit pupil.

Naruto was clearly still asleep, Sasuke realized, from the way his hand fell slack and his mouth hung open, his eyelid slipped shut again. His soulmate was not the only one in the room, he could tell that much, and he knew the other two scents – the fae and the werewolf that accompanied him everywhere. Two of the others rescued from the basement. The three of them had to have traveled by foot, Sasuke knew that much. None of them could drive.

Oh.

Oh, he was an idiot.

He settled back down, careful not to shake the bed too much. While he wasn’t sure how Naruto had gotten in, he wasn’t going to question it. The demon vessel had dark circles under his eyes, his leg still slung over both of Sasuke’s, limp and heavy with sleep. His parents had to know where he was, right?

Right?

Sasuke sighed, his head dropping back onto the pillow, across from Naruto’s face. He hadn’t really been thinking clearly when he’d run away. There had been a lot of panicking, and he hadn’t been able to stop it – he had only been able to think about how far away he would need to get for Naruto to live a normal life. Naruto needed to live a normal life, he’d lived thirteen years hidden away from the world in a dark basement while Madara went insane and focused on experimenting on souls and how they worked with him and the others around him.

The guilt of his relations ate Sasuke up from the inside.

“Mm,” the soft mumble of noise came from somewhere around his collarbone, annoyed. “Thinkin’ too much.”

“…Sorry?”

“Should be.”

Sasuke tilted his head, looking down until he could see Naruto’s eyes. Bright blue. His own color, not Kurama’s. He was speaking on his own behalf, not the demon. Naruto stretched out slowly, groaning as he raised his arms and gave a jaw-cracking yawn, rolling over until he was flopped across Sasuke’s chest. “Wasn’t done talking to you, yet.” He grumbled, frowning. “Rude.”

“Yeah,” Sasuke looked down, avoiding his eyes. “I was.”

A gentle fist against his chest dragged his gaze back up, narrowed blue eyes staring at him. “We walked all night to find you, bastard. And a little bit of the morning.” He settled in a little more firmly, his hands clenching in Sasuke’s shirt. “The bond isn’t even fulfilled yet, and it looks like you’ve been chipping away at it. I remember what Obito and Zetsu’s bond looked like at the hospital, and ours looks like it has been falling apart for twenty years in some backyard shed somewhere compared to that.”

He felt the pulse of magic, saw the line between them flicker to life.

Naruto wasn’t wrong.

His end of it was strong and unbroken. Sasuke’s end was chipped and damaged, as if he’d taken a sharp object to it repeatedly. Constantly. It wasn’t the sort of damage that happened overnight, either.

When he said as much, Naruto nodded. “Yeah,” he huffed, rolling his eyes. “Jerk.”

He dropped his head to Sasuke’s chest again, refusing to look up anymore. “That’s why my parents started looking into who it could be. It’s why they started trying to figure out what was happening with the nightmares and the constant almost walking outside thing. Once they caught wind of you almost walking into sunlight a lot, it started making sense, and I think,” Naruto stopped, took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “I’m not stupid, you know.”

“…I know.”

“Then why did you run away?”

“Because I didn’t think it was a good idea to seal the bond,” Sasuke swallowed against the lump in his throat. Naruto’s weight on top of him was more than enough to pin him in place. With the magic he possessed and the way Kurama could step in at any moment, he was certain he wouldn’t be able to get free. “You’re…Naruto, you’re thirteen years behind. On everything. Sealing the bond…”

Two warm hands moved to his shoulders, holding on tightly. “I’m not, though.”

“What?”

“I’m thirteen years behind in school,” Naruto grumbled, his hand balling into a fist and thumping Sasuke’s shoulder a few times before falling flat again. “Math and history and social studies and stuff like that. Sex and how it works? That was something we all learned. Not because they made us do anything with it, but because a lot of us went through puberty down there.” He snorted, shaking his head. “You’re an idiot.”

“Hey,” Sasuke frowned, taking a moment to glance down at him.

Naruto dug the point of his chin into Sasuke’s chest. “Nope, you deserve that one. You really ran away because you thought I didn’t know what sex was?” He rearranged himself, propping his chin up on his hands as he stared at Sasuke. “Between puberty in a mad scientist’s basement and a demon fox in my head who wanted to make sure I knew what my body was doing so they couldn’t teach me the wrong things – I probably know more about it than you do.”

Sasuke stared at him, his mouth hanging open in shock.

He honestly…Hadn’t thought about that. He’d been so caught up in his personal ethical dilemma that he hadn’t thought about just treating Naruto like a normal damn person and asking him what he might want to do about the situation.

“Think about it this way,” Naruto sat up, leaning back on his heels. “I helped kill Danzo. I know my body and I know my mind. I’m a little behind on school, yeah, okay, sure, but I know the rest.” He jabbed a finger into Sasuke’s chest. “So maybe don’t treat me like I’m some stupid kid. Maybe just ask me for my opinion on things instead of being a dramatic idiot and running off into the night like you’re saving me from some terrible fate. I also pick things up quickly. Iruka already has me in higher grade curriculum, my focus just sucks.”

“Your focus? Is that something left over from—”

“No,” Naruto snorted, rolling his eyes. “Pretty sure that’s just ADHD. My dad has it too. We’re waiting to see what things look like, medically, before we go after a prescription. Or even if I’ll be able to get one with Kurama. Medication doesn’t always work right on me.”

“Oh.” Sasuke blinked a few times, then tucked his chin down, wishing he could find something less obvious to say. He’d run off without thinking beyond the immediate panic.

He hadn’t even thought about talking to Naruto about it, and now it all seemed so…

Stupid.

“Come home,” Naruto whispered, rubbing at his cheek, his eyes watery. Sasuke had made him cry, oh, there was something that had to be illegal about that. “Your brother was worried about you, and your Grouping was upset, and I don’t remember all of what was happening because Kurama had to take over for a bit, but I know that was going on when that happened.” He dropped back down again, resting his head on Sasuke’s chest. “Don’t run off. We can figure out how to make the bond less stressful without messing up your life.”

He needed to talk. He needed to be able to tell Naruto things without hesitating. When he opened his mouth to speak, the words wouldn’t come out, and Sasuke wished he could reach in and pull them out by hand.

What did come out, instead, was a question. “How did you find me?”

“Oh!” Naruto rolled his head around to meet his eyes, grinning. “We went to the graveyard. My mom carves candles to speak with spirits for a lot of reasons, and my dad keeps them in the car, sometimes, along with funeral incense. You let an image slip across the bond, I guess. A grave you spend a lot of time at. I went and spoke with him.”

“Uchiha Izuna doesn’t talk,” Sasuke frowned again, leaning up on his elbows. “How did you talk to him? He’s a Yūrei. He’s stuck in between everything, and he’s permanently lost. I’ve been trying to figure out how to get him free for decades.”

“The candle my mom carved.”

He said it like it was obvious, and maybe it should have been. Sasuke waited, staring at him, for more information.

Naruto sighed. “Okay, so, my mom helps spirits. Both of my parents do. Magic-users. Powerful ones at that. The candle she carved? It helps by acting as a focus. It brings a part of his mind back. It only works as long as it is lit, and it only works as long as he can stay in one place, so it depends on him, but,” he shrugged. “He was able to tell me a few things. He created a line of light that led me to you.”

“He sent out a Guiding Light,” Sasuke would have felt less startled if Naruto had slapped him. “That’s how you got here?”

“Yeah!” Naruto’s smile was bright, his eyes shutting from the strength of it.

Sasuke stared at him again, then breathed in slowly through his nose, letting it out through his mouth. “Naruto, Izuna is a Yūrei. He isn’t whole enough to be able to do that on his own. Did you give him something?”

“I told him I would help him find someone.”

His soulmate was going to be the death of him. He should have known, that day in the hospital, when he’d taken the hit that had been aimed at his head. He should have known. Sasuke blinked a couple of times, staring at Naruto, as if that would make what he was seeing any easier to accept. The way he had said it was so simple, as if he had said he would bring someone something easy. “A Yūrei’s lost person is not someone so easily found,” Sasuke knew his voice was raspy, the lump in his throat building as he thought about what might happen to Naruto if he failed in his task.

“There you go again, assuming things,” Naruto grumbled at him. “He told me something about them. I’m not working with nothing.”

His soulmate was going to surprise him at every turn, wasn’t he?

“What is it?”

“He said, ‘The space between two doors, the closing of the gap’, and I figured that had to mean something. Once I got you home, I was assuming the Uchiha library would have some research I could look through. Or records I could look at.” Naruto stuck his tongue out, his nose scrunching. “I figured I could look through records of his life and find a place to start.”

With a soft laugh, Sasuke nodded. “Smarter than I think,” he muttered. “I need to remember that.”

“Damn right you do,” Naruto butted the top of his head against the bottom of Sasuke’s chin.

Notes:

Behold my idiot son and his anxiety attacks, leading him to run away from his soulmate.

Naruto has some things to say about this. Sasuke isn't getting off that easily.

Chapter 5: The Softer Edges (Getting Used To You)

Sasuke was, strangely, relieved beyond all measures to find out that Naruto had brought a bag with clothes and some supplies with him.

Having sent Naruto in to take a shower and refresh after he’d spent a long time walking to look for him, he turned to the other two, still sitting on the couch. The werewolf was awake, staring at him with dark eyes, like a dog that knew something was coming but didn’t care enough to even sit up. Sasuke stared back at him, frowning, before he sighed and kneeled next to the bundle of fur. “I am fairly certain you heard at least some of that, earlier,” he sighed again, rubbing his hands along his thighs. He was still just in his sleep clothes, unwilling to change out of them in front of Yamato and Sai. He would have to wait until Naruto was done with the bathroom. “Despite everything, thank you for coming with him.”

Sai huffed at him, lifting his head a fraction to snort.

He deserved that, he was sure, and much more. Sasuke glanced at Yamato, taking in the way the fae looked. The circles under his eyes were dark and heavy, undoubtedly not made better by venturing this far into a modern city. Guilt stabbed at him for that, tugging him back and away from the two of them.

“I can rent a car to get us back home,” he offered to Sai, gesturing to Yamato as he stood up. “They make ones without iron in them, so he won’t have such a rough time of it.”

Another huff of sound, another snort, and Sai rolled onto his side, his paws in the air. He nudged his snout against Yamato’s cheek, whining until the fae’s eyes opened slowly, his hand coming up to hold Sai still. From the way the two of them moved, it was clearly a common occurrence between them. “Sai,” Yamato murmured, ducking to nudge his nose against Sai’s forehead in return. “Good morning.”

When he looked up and spotted Sasuke, he dipped his head, offering a quiet greeting to him as well.

Yamato sat up carefully, adjusting Sai across his lap. With affectionate fingers, he scratched under Sai’s chin and between his ears, patting with a soft thump at his side. There was a level of trust there, Sasuke knew, to be able to touch a werewolf’s stomach. Sasori had taught them that in his time as a rehabilitator. Yamato had managed to gain Sai’s trust in the time they had spent together – he didn’t know if that process had begun before or after they had been freed from the experiments being run on them.

Sasuke knew some of the other stories so well; not knowing some of them felt like he had missed something major.

A hole in the world.

He knew Obito’s story, now. His cousin had been born a few centuries back, forced to become immortal with Madara in his head, his grandfather disapproving of his soulmate. He and Zetsu had been split apart because of that disapproval. No one could get Madara to explain why he had disapproved; his spirit trapped in a jar and held tightly within a room in Itachi and Sasuke’s home. Ever since he had been removed from Obito’s head, after the failed attempt at killing Sasori and Deidara, they had been trying to communicate with him.

Unsuccessfully, of course.

“What has you distracted?” Yamato’s voice was quiet, but it still pulled Sasuke from his thoughts. When he looked at the fae, Sasuke noticed the glimmer of something in his eyes, the brightness that seemed to be recovering the longer he was free.

Sasuke looked at his hands, then at Sai. “I’m trying to understand a lot of things,” he started, the words slow and awkward on his tongue. “And a lot of them have to do with my family.” He shifted on his knees, glancing over his shoulder when he heard Naruto humming from the bathroom. “There are stories I do not fully know, legends I do not understand. Naruto bargained with a Yūrei to find me. He,” Sasuke stared at his hands, as if the freckles on his skin, marks from sunlight he had not been out in for centuries, could be of some use in divining meaning for him. “He gave a Yūrei a voice and asked him for help and managed to make that work, somehow.”

He looked up at Yamato. “That should’ve been impossible.”

“I have known Naruto for over a decade,” Yamato’s smile was small, barely there, but strong, nonetheless. “And he is often like that.”

He stared at the fae, then.

With a soft sigh, a flash of light spanning his palms, Yamato adjusted himself in his seat, leaning against the back of the couch. “Naruto almost always surprised us in the basement. If they were putting us into starvation measures to see what would happen, he would find a way to make our food stretch and last, even when it logically should not have done so.”

“His magic?”

“Yes,” Yamato nodded. “But carefully. I do not believe they ever caught on to who it was that made it possible.”

Tilting his head, Sasuke studied the two of them carefully. He should have known, really. Naruto had, from the stories he’d heard, been one of the ones keeping the other survivors together. The Seer, the Hyuuga, had been by to visit them – he had mentioned that Naruto had been the one to keep him warm and make sure he got food when his abilities overwhelmed him. Between Naruto being fairly intact, unlike what had happened to some of them, and his powers being unchanged despite what had been done, he had been a good and stable option for if someone needed to be looked after.

More than before, he felt like an idiot.

Of course Naruto could make a decision for himself. He’d been doing so his entire life, locked away in the dark, while making sure everyone he’d come to care about was safe. Sasuke hadn’t seen him at the Uchiha estate, but that was because he’d probably been immediately buried in thirteen years of remedial lessons and the worried love of his parents. He wasn’t one of the unfortunate ones who had lost everything while hidden in the dark.

He had, thankfully, managed to return home in the end.

Home to parents who loved him and wanted him back. From what Sasuke had heard, his parents had both refused to give up searching for him and had been able to afford to keep looking. Unlike Deidara’s parents, they’d had the money to keep up the search, even when they hit constant dead ends.

A different roll of the dice, just a matter of different luck. Naruto’s family had been able to keep looking.

“Sasuke?” Yamato’s voice caught his attention again.

“Hm?”

“What was the Yūrei’s name?”

“Uchiha Izuna,” Sasuke looked at him, glancing at Sai. The werewolf whuffed, his tongue sticking out as he splayed across Yamato’s lap like a particularly ungainly dog. He seemed happy where he was, however, so Sasuke was not going to be the one to say anything. If Sai and Yamato were happy with whatever arrangement they had come to, he was not going to try and change it. “A cousin of mine. Madara’s younger brother. According to the portraits and paintings we have of him that survived, we could have been twins.”

“Strong family resemblance, then?”

“Stronger than most, yes,” Sasuke nodded. “He kept his hair long, however. In a tail—”

“He had it tied back,” Naruto’s voice came from the bathroom door. When Sasuke turned, he was still damp, drying his hair, but he was dressed. Barefoot and rosy-skinned from the heat of the shower, but presentable. “When I talked to him in the graveyard, I mean. There was a white ribbon in his hair, tying it back into a ponytail.”

“The style was uncommon even in his era,” Sasuke shrugged, arranging himself so that Naruto could sit next to him. “Shorter on top, all the way around. A long tail below that.”

Something sparked across his skin when Naruto did.

He let the towel fall across his shoulders, his legs crossed at the ankles in front of him, and Sasuke studied the way he sort of curled in on himself. “He didn’t say a lot other than giving me a hint and asking me why I was talking to him,” Naruto pinched the inside of his cheek between his teeth, rolling the skin around, his eyes taking on a faraway look. “But I think there were other questions he wanted to ask. Even with my mom’s candle, he would have had to focus a lot to get that much out.”

Sasuke nodded, letting his eyes drift over his soulmate’s face. He didn’t say anything, didn’t interrupt.

“My memories aren’t clear,” Naruto looked down, closed his eyes, then nodded. “But the training my parents gave me seems to be. Everything they made sure I knew as a kid? Yeah, all of that’s still in here,” he tapped the side of his head, shrugging. “I don’t know why it wasn’t disturbed when Kurama was put in here, but it was left intact. The ADHD and the trouble I had reading as a kid were why they were looking into someone who could train me better. They wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to be held back just because my brain was working against me.”

Dyslexia.

He could have sworn out loud, angry and annoyed, if he wasn’t intent on holding it in as Naruto spoke. Sasuke had made the same stupid assumptions that a lot of teachers had probably made about Naruto before.

“The point is, though,” Naruto continued, huffing in exasperation. “That I think he was going to try and tell me more, but it takes a lot out of even a basic-level ghost to communicate. When you’ve got a Yūrei, you’re talking about a spirit that’s stuck in between everything and lost. They don’t know when or where they are, and he had a blindfold on. I don’t know if you’ve even managed to see his face when trying to communicate with him,” he paused, waiting. Sasuke shook his head. “Alright, see, that makes sense. The candle brought him into focus. He can’t even see!”

“I think that might have to do with his funeral rites,” Sasuke rubbed his eyes, groaning quietly. “We’re going to have to talk to Madara again.”

He stopped, then lifted his head slowly. “I. Me. I’m going to have to talk to Madara again. You do not have to go anywhere near him.” Sasuke looked at Naruto, shaking his head as he shuffled on his knees, a hand moving to steady whatever imaginary tide lay between them. “I would not insist that you go anywhere near him. Even as an isolated spirit, sealed within a jar, he is still volatile. With your history, I would not make you approach him—”

“Sasuke,” Naruto smiled. He took Sasuke’s hand in his, dipping his head to brush his lips over the knuckles. “I’m going to have to, if I want to help Izuna.”

Sasuke shuddered, warmth filling him from the point of contact. He stared at Naruto, trying to make his body react as he felt several false starts to his next sentence stutter and die on his lips. His soulmate closed his eyes and kissed the back of his hand again, turning it over to kiss the center of his palm. “So, we go back to your house. We talk to Madara. We make him tell us things about Izuna. Did he care about his brother at all?”

“By the records,” Sasuke choked, cleared his throat, tried again. “By all accounts, that’s one of the only things Madara cared about.”

Naruto smiled, and Sasuke felt his chest go tight. “You’ve been working on this all alone for a long time, huh? Don’t worry,” he bumped his head against Sasuke’s shoulder, sighing. “We’re working on this together, now. We’ll get it figured out. Izuna won’t be a lost spirit for much longer. No more Yūrei in the Uchiha graveyard.”

He wanted to lie down and stare at the ceiling, wanted to pull his heart from his chest, wanted to scream.

Anything to deal with the feeling of confusion he was confronted with when Naruto made contact with him.

Soulmates were strange.

Notes:

My idiot son continues to be my idiot son and I love him but that doesn't stop me from wanting to smack him upside the head.

Chapter 6: Research (Finding Out)

Renting a car to get back home was easy.

With the three of them along, it felt simple, even. Yamato and Sai sat in the back seat, buckled in – the rental place even supplied a harness for Sai, in compliance with the laws around shifted werewolves and their safety. Since it was a non-iron vehicle, for Yamato’s sake, there was a lower threshold for damage in the event of a crash. Sasuke had driven one of them before; he’d had to drive fae around before, and he knew how they worked. There were always faint spells worked into the materials, to keep the iron and modernity of the city around them from making the fae passengers from feeling sick.

Naruto sat in the front seat with him, scrolling through his phone slowly, frowning. When Sasuke glanced over, he held it up. “Some of the lessons I’m supposed to be going over,” he stuck his tongue out. “Math.”

“Ah,” Sasuke nodded. “Are you…Do you want help?”

“I’ll get it eventually,” Naruto shrugged. “And if I get home soon, I can have Iruka help me with it.” He smiled at that. “I don’t remember everything, my memories are all blurry, but he’s been around since I was little.”

“Family friend?”

“Yeah,” Naruto’s smile grew a little. “Been around for a long time. He’d have been about…Twelve when I was born?”

Sasuke flicked on the turn signal, nodding. He glanced in the mirror to check on Yamato, who was reading quietly to Sai. They had picked up a few books for the two of them when they’d stopped for breakfast, just so they would have something to do instead of sitting silently in the backseat for a couple of hours. Sai’s head was settled in his lap, so he seemed happy with the arrangement. “So, when you came home, and he was a teacher…” he glanced at his soulmate, who was bright-eyed and grinning. “Makes sense.”

“Right?” Naruto turned back to his phone. “The things I was taught before stayed in place, but the memories are foggy. We’re still working on that, and we’re trying to find someone to help me with it.”

There was an unspoken, ‘but we don’t trust just anyone with me, these days,’ that Sasuke could hear, clear as day.

Not after he’d been signed up for lessons and stolen away. Not after Danzo and Madara.

“I think Kakashi might be trying to flirt with him, too,” Naruto made a face. “He keeps staring at him and following him around when they’re in the same room together, and he looks like he wants to talk to him, but then he doesn’t,” he flopped his head back against the headrest, rolling his eyes. “And I don’t want them to be old men and all sad and alone, y’know?”

Sasuke glanced at him for a moment, following the directions his GPS gave him. “Oh?”

“Kakashi says he smells nice. Like…Like when you open a new book. And the way the first summer breeze smells.” Naruto’s lips were pressed together, his cheeks pink, as he stared at his phone. “And I hope it works out for him. I don’t remember him ever having anyone.”

There was something in that statement, something in the way Naruto was staring at him—

Oh.

Sasuke swallowed, took a deep breath, then tried his best to keep his focus on the road. “I think it will work out,” he told Naruto, feeling his hands shaking a little. He had a feeling his soulmate was discussing them in a roundabout way. Talking about the two of them without talking about them. He wanted to ask what he smelled like to Naruto.

When they were alone, he decided. When they didn’t have an audience. Even if the audience was currently just Yamato and Sai, it still felt like too much.

Taking a chance, he reached across the console and touched the back of Naruto’s hand, his chest finally feeling normal when their skin made contact.

Centuries of feeling like he’d been pinned under a rock lifted, and he could breathe normally again. Itachi had told him, before, that he had anxiety that he just shoved down until he didn’t have to think about it, and Sasuke had ignored him. He’d ignored that anxiety too, because Itachi was right – it was there, and it ate at his mind until he couldn’t ignore it anymore. It always did. When it exploded and he ran away, it followed him and was always there when he stopped running, even when he pretended it wasn’t.

He could have cursed himself for the way he’d run off, now, with his soulmate at his side. Naruto had followed him immediately.

He wasn’t in this alone, now.

The trip home was uneventful, really, and he should have expected it to be. There were no monsters to run from, his anxiety worn out by his soulmate’s arrival and determination to not be ignored and pushed away. Sasuke pulled up to the Uchiha estate and got out of the car, pocketing the keys, then turning when he felt the thrumming of the Grouping Bond.

Itachi slammed into him, dragging him close with a soft panicked noise.

One hand on the back of his head, the other on his shoulder, Sasuke felt his brother shaking as he hugged him. He was always going to be the little brother, he was pretty sure, the one who had survived the disaster with Itachi dragging him away. They had watched everyone die, blood spilled, their family destroyed, by people of the nearby village who had decided that their clan held too much magic. Too much power. Four survivors had made it out alive. Itachi had been only seventeen when he had pulled Sasuke into his arms and run away, shielding him from the mob that had come for their family.

The light of the morning had dawned on the guilty, Sasuke remembered, and they had been sentenced to death.

Ten years later, both he and Itachi had been turned, and life had changed for them. Over the centuries that had followed, they had slowly gathered up their Grouping and become less lonely. Sasuke still missed cousins and friends he had grown up with, still had questions he wished he could ask his parents, but he’d eventually accepted the small family they’d built. They had never exactly found out who had urged on the mob, who had started the flame that had burned into a wildfire.

He knew there were a few secrets Itachi kept from him, kept from the Grouping. His brother’s eyes no longer changed the same as his did – they stayed red at all times.

Sasuke did not know why, exactly, but he knew Itachi did.

The others did not.

“We need the family records,” Sasuke muttered when Itachi finally let him go, his eyes wide as he looked Sasuke over. “We have to help Uchiha Izuna.”

“Already pulled out,” Itachi nodded. “The moment Naruto was able to speak with him, I figured something like that would be needed.” He glanced at Sasuke’s soulmate, a flicker of a smile on his lips for a moment, shaking his head. He pulled Naruto into a hug as well, still shaking his head. “Insane and perfect for each other, I swear,” he muttered. “Your parents are inside, currently, as well as two men who I do believe refused to leave their side. One of them smells like lightning.”

“Oh! Kakashi and Iruka,” Naruto laughed, then squeezed him tightly for a moment. “Thanks.”

He slipped out of the hug. Grabbing Sasuke’s hand, he ran inside, only pausing long enough for both of them to slip off their shoes and hurry to the living room. They stopped in, said hello to those sitting inside, then took off again, Sasuke in the lead this time.

Naruto followed along, trusting him so easily.

Sasuke’s hand was still held in his, warm and safe, and it made him feel almost fragile. “When you were in the graveyard,” he began, finally slowing down as they made it to the library. After the destruction of their family, the loss of all the others, he and Itachi had stayed away for a long time. They had returned fifteen years later and started rebuilding, renovating where they could, to help smooth over the worst of the bad memories. Not in an effort to forget, but in an effort to keep themselves from breaking down. Their other two cousins, the ones who had escaped along with them, had refused to return to their home.

And by the time the renovations had begun, they had settled down and started families of their own.

That was how Madara and Izuna, and later Obito, had come to be.

They still had no idea what had happened to that fourth line – the last of their cousins had disappeared ages ago. They had been chased into non-existence by people who had wanted things from them, it seemed. Whether it was someone like Danzo, who had wanted their eyes and the magic that surrounded them, or others who wanted something else.

“Yeah?” Naruto prompted, eyes wide.

Sasuke shook his head, realizing he’d trailed off and stopped talking. “When you were in the graveyard, was there anything else?”

“He showed up,” Naruto arranged them across from each other, blocking out the sequence of events with his hands, putting Sasuke in Izuna’s place. He told the story quickly, precisely, and with a focus Sasuke hadn’t seen from him before. When he was done, Sasuke nodded, pulling out a chair for him to sit in. Itachi had, thankfully, grabbed every piece of paper with Izuna’s name attached to it. There was even a journal or something like it, at the bottom of the stack, and Sasuke picked it up first.

“Even I feel overwhelmed,” he held it out to Naruto, looking down at the contents of the table as he sat next to him. “So would you mind reading through this with me?”

Naruto looked at the journal, then back up at Sasuke, before he took it with shaking hands. He wasn’t stupid, as he had pointed out, and he knew what it meant to be handed something so sentimental and family-related. Sasuke was trusting him, and Naruto knew it. “I will,” Naruto breathed the words out, nodding slowly. “I’ll keep it safe, too.”

“I know you will,” Sasuke said it before he was aware of doing so, blinking a couple of times after the words left his mouth. He didn’t take them back, though.

He knew they were true.

They worked, side by side, silent and diligent. They had very little to go off of, only scraps of hope and a phrase or two that Naruto had managed to get out of a Yūrei that had trouble clinging to one moment in time.

“Could it have been,” Sasuke looked at Naruto when he broke the silence between them, his hands splayed out to keep the journal supported between them, a layer of orange magic resting above the pages – from the looks of things, Kurama appeared to be helping Naruto read, just so that the words would stop jumping around. His eyebrows were drawn down; his mouth twisted in a concentrated shape as he read and re-read something. “Could the phrase have been the meaning of a name?”

“A name?” Sasuke set down the list of battles Izuna had been in and seen, recorded by Uchiha Hikaku, and shifted closer to Naruto. “The meaning of a name?”

“Yeah,” Naruto turned, the haze of orange magic shifting so that Sasuke could see the pages without it. “Kurama is telling me that name,” he pointed at the page. “Means ‘the space between two doors’, which is what Izuna asked for. And he’s telling me it can also mean the other phrase Izuna told me, too.”

Sasuke stared at the name written on the page, Izuna’s neat calligraphy spelling it out, the ink a little faded but very clear.

Senju Tobirama.

“I think that might be it,” he nodded. “So how do we find him?”

Naruto lifted up the journal, narrowing his eyes as the orange haze spread out again. “His journal calls him a dragon, but not a fire one. A…Water dragon?” He pursed his lips, then nodded. “I think…I think I know who we need to talk to. Is Orochimaru still here?”

“The Naga?” Sasuke looked towards the window. “I believe so.”

“Good,” Naruto stood up, closing the journal gently. “I think he might know where we need to go.” He took Sasuke’s hand in his again, heading for the door once more, the journal in his other hand.

Sasuke couldn’t do anything other than follow.

Notes:

My idiot sons are working together! Woo! Also, you will take ADHD and dyslexic Naruto from my cold, dead hands. He's not stupid, he just has trouble with reading and focusing. In this universe, Kurama can cast a spell to help his brain and keep the words from jumbling up while he's reading.

Also, I still maintain that every single Uchiha is Anxious. Every last one of them.

Orochimaru the Naga returns!

Chapter 7: An Old Friend (Useful Information)

Naruto felt like hope was a bouncing ball inside his chest, vibrating between his lungs, as he held Sasuke’s hand and ran.

He had Izuna’s journal in his hands. Sasuke had trusted him with that, while probably knowing the answer would be in there, and he had turned to the harder research while letting Naruto handle the more intimate secrets of his family member. Kurama had been considered, Naruto was sure of it, and Sasuke had still handed Izuna’s journal over without worrying about it.

The two of them practically fell into the living room, toppling over each other in a wild scramble of limbs as Naruto cradled the journal against his chest protectively. “I think we found the answer,” he called out, half-squashed under Sasuke.

He heard his mom laughing.

“It means we’re going to have to talk to a few of the other survivors,” Sasuke added, helping him up.

“Mmhm,” Naruto nodded, holding up the journal when Itachi moved closer to look at it. “Uchiha Izuna wrote about a relationship he had in secret. He kept it from his brother, because apparently Madara would have lost his absolute mind over it.” Naruto let Itachi open the journal to the page he’d bookmarked, watching the older vampire reading quickly. His eyebrows shot upward, his eyes wide as he stared at the pages in front of him. “And Kurama was telling me, when I was reading, what the meaning of the name I found was. Apparently, it’s a match for the phrase Izuna gave me.”

“And Yūrei remember meaning,” his mom came to stand with them, reaching out to brush Naruto’s hair out of his face. “Not always exact details.”

“Yeah,” Naruto leaned into her touch, letting his eyes close for a moment. “I think we need to see if we can find the guy. Orochimaru used to tell me stories about a couple of people he knew, after he’d been there for a few weeks, once he figured out that we’d all heard the stories we knew a thousand times. One of the stories he told me was about a water dragon. I don’t think he ever mentioned a name, but I doubt there’s a lot of them out there.”

“That’s my boy,” his dad half-cheered from his seat, smiling. He stood up, stretched, then walked over to join them. “Do you want us to come with you?”

“I think…” Naruto stared at them both, then glanced at Sasuke. “I think I have to do this with him.” He swallowed around the lump in his throat, the panic at leaving them behind. “I – I don’t want to go away forever, it’s not about leaving, I just…” he stopped, feeling his soulmate squeeze his hand. Itachi put a hand on his shoulder, his mom’s hand still on his head.

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “We will be right here, waiting, while you help them.”

Naruto let go of Sasuke’s hand, throwing his arms around his mom so tightly he heard her squeak, the hug returned just as fiercely. He buried his face in her shoulder, breathing in the scent of her perfume. Even when the rest of his memories of her had gone hazy, that had remained – the perfume and her humming a lullaby, pieces of home that had stayed with him in the dark. His dad’s magic had stayed with him as well, he thought, remembering the way blue light had lit up his dreams.

“I’ll be back,” he told them both, reaching out for his dad to take his hand.

Instead, his dad swept them both into his arms, spinning them around for a moment. “Yes, you will be,” he said it like there was no other conclusion, so certain of it that Naruto felt sure of it too.

When he finally let go of his parents, Naruto wiped his eyes dry on his sleeve. His mom swept her thumbs across his cheeks, smiling as she helped dry tears there. “We brought some more clothing and supplies,” she offered, clearing her throat, her own eyes watering. “We had wondered if there would be more needed. We figured things would be in hand and under control when it came to Sasuke,” she glanced at him, smiling. “So, we had Iruka and Kakashi pack a few more things and some more clothing, then drive it over here.”

His dad turned and grabbed a bag, handing it over.

Naruto could smell Nagato and Konan all over the bag, their scents wafting towards him when he held it close. He slung it over his shoulder, grinning. “Thanks,” he nodded. He nudged the top of his head against his dad’s shoulder.

Crossing over to Kakashi and Iruka, he did the same to both of them.

Kakashi caught ahold of him for a moment, holding the sides of his shoulders, as he pressed the bottom of his chin to the top of Naruto’s head. A spark of lightning passed between the two of them, a young god and his first believer, and Naruto lifted his head to see his adopted big brother’s eye wide and worried. That was the position Kakashi filled in his life, he’d been told, unofficially adopted by his mom and dad after his parents had passed away. “I’m going to come home,” he whispered. “This time, I’m not just going to have people with me from the start, we’re all going to know what we’re doing with our powers, and I’m pretty sure he’d kill to help keep me alive.”

“Good,” Kakashi nodded. “Come home safe. Both of you.”

He glanced at Iruka, who had stayed close after Naruto butted his head against his shoulder, and stepped back. Iruka sighed, taking a moment to straighten out Naruto’s hair. “Your workbooks are in that bag,” he murmured, a hand on Naruto’s chin as he examined him. “I won’t hold it against you if not much of it gets done while you go and do this. I know this is important. Your schoolwork is, too, don’t get me wrong, but a Yūrei needs help, and they often don’t get help when they need it.” He smiled, slow and soft, and Naruto grinned. “You always were like this when you were little. No one who needed help went unnoticed by you, and you shared your snacks with everyone, even if it meant you got a lot less of them.”

He hugged Naruto for a moment, nodding. “I am glad you are still yourself, even after all this time,” Iruka whispered before stepping back.

Sasuke and Itachi stepped forward again.

“Orochimaru is in a shelter that was built specifically for him, in the forest,” Itachi explained as he led the way out the door. “He needed a bigger space than we had on hand, and he tends to prefer his privacy. We take him deliveries of books and food every other day or so, just so he can work on rebuilding his stamina and strength again,” Itachi hummed, guiding them on a careful path through the trees, away from the main house. Naruto walked at Sasuke’s side, the backs of their hands touching, and stayed quiet. His other bag was still in the car Sasuke had rented, which was probably a good thing. Wherever they ended up going, they would probably need it.

The structure came into view after just a few minutes, and Itachi knocked on the door, waiting until Orochimaru’s voice called out for him to come in before he opened it.

Inside, the Naga was wrapped around a heater, the end of his tail disappearing under a kotatsu that took up a good portion of the floor plan. He had a blanket thrown over him, wrapped around his shoulders, and he looked decently comfortable. When he lifted his head, he blinked a few times before his eyes focused. “Oh,” he smiled, his golden eyes curving, “Hello Naruto.”

“I have questions I need to ask you about the stories you told us,” Naruto hurried to sit down next to him, dragging Sasuke with him.

Orochimaru didn’t like it when people hovered around him. Naruto didn’t know if that had come from being trapped in the basement or if that had come from before, but he wasn’t going to mess around with it. When the Naga looked at him, head tilted, Naruto held up the journal. “We found mentions of a water dragon named Tobirama, and I need to know if that’s someone you know or not.”

The reaction was immediate, Orochimaru’s face drawn into a wince. “I do know him, yes. He has been…Well,” he hesitated, his hands gesturing a couple of different ways as he tried to find the right words.

“Difficult?” Sasuke guessed.

“Not quite,” Orochimaru sighed. “Though that is close. There came a loss in his life, though he never spoke of who it was that he lost. Ever since then, it was as if his heart was torn from his chest. He resides with his brother, traveling between forests to see to their health. I have never seen a more different pair of siblings in my life than those two, before,” he sighed again, a hand rubbing down his face. “Hashirama and Tobirama are fae, the heads of their family, and long-lived at that. Hashirama controls the trees and the flowers; he sees to the growth and health of them. Tobirama controls the waters; he sees to the life of all that lies within them.”

He hesitated, then frowned. “Yamato is related to them, I do believe. Hashirama may be his grandfather, or so – I know Tsunade is, though she is a more human descendant. The bloodline interbred with humans as it went through her line of it. She is his great-granddaughter.”

“Yamato had a forest,” Naruto remembered, laughing. “He told me about it.”

Orochimaru stared at him for a moment, then nodded. “His forest has already been without him for some time, which is why he was fine with taking time to recuperate here and help Sai recover as well,” he wiggled a finger, nodded again, then turned to rummage through a pile of papers. “I have been writing down as much information as I can remember, what I was told and what I heard while captive,” he held out a stack of papers to Sasuke, glancing at Naruto’s full hands.

Sasuke took them, frowning.

“There is information in there, some things that came out of the mouth of the man named Obito, but with Madara in his mind,” Orochimaru leaned on his elbows again, drawing his blankets back around himself. “Ask Yamato for help with locating his grandfather, but last I heard, he had switched forests for the year and was staying in one place for the moment.”

“Thank you,” Naruto got onto his knees, bowing to the Naga, his head almost touching the floor. “For your help, for your information, for everything.”

With a soft laugh, Orochimaru reached out and patted the top of his head. “You helped me, too. I am not going to forget that. His scent matches yours,” he gestured at Sasuke. “And the two of them look nearly identical.” He moved his hand again, gesturing at Itachi. “On top of which, the Uchiha brothers are the ones who are so kind as to help house us survivors while we recover.”

There was a pause before he smiled. “I should be thanking you, Naruto,” Orochimaru met his eyes, looking almost lost for a moment. “Because without you, I do not know what would have happened to me. Either in that basement or after, panicked and locked away. I was a danger to myself and others during that rescue.”

Naruto grinned, shrugging. “This is my soulmate,” he held up Sasuke’s hand, watching as Orochimaru studied Sasuke for a moment. “We’re going to make it work. Right now, we’re trying to figure out something he’s been working on for decades.”

“Good,” Orochimaru nodded. “A mystery or two solved together never hurt.”

He couldn’t have agreed more, honestly. With every bit of information they gained, it felt more and more like Sasuke was drawn into his side. Sasuke hadn’t even seemed to mind the way Naruto refused to let go of his hand, and that felt a little like a victory, out of everything that was happening.

Now they just had to figure out where the Senju brothers were.

Notes:

Orochimaru is back! Good Naga man in this universe. He's going to go back into his warmer climate soon enough, but that's going to require some help first. That'll be its own little side story in this series.

Chapter 8: The End Of A Cycle

Naruto hurried out of Orochimaru’s house in the forest, back towards where he could feel Yamato’s magic.

It felt like the roots of a tree, like when he helped his dad in the garden and it was time to plant the new seedlings. They needed to gently shake the roots loose, out of the compacted ball, and Yamato felt like that. He’d helped his dad a lot since he’d come home, the scent of the dirt and the grounding aspect of it all had made him feel more at home than a lot of other things had. Naruto still held onto Sasuke as they moved through the trees together, both of them staying close and quiet.

Yamato was easy to find again.

He and Sai were curled up at the roots of one of the bigger trees, a book in Yamato’s hands as he continued reading to the werewolf. The fae looked up as they approached, his eyes wide. “We hadn’t finished the story on the drive home,” he explained, sliding a bookmark into the pages. “Is everything alright?”

“Your grandfather is someone we need to go see,” Sasuke spoke up before Naruto could, holding up the papers he’d been handed. “And I think you might need to go see him, too.”

Naruto watched as Yamato’s shoulders relaxed, his entire body shivering for a moment. “Ah,” he breathed out, blinking a few times, tearing up. “Grandfather Hashirama.” One of his hands drifted to Sai’s head, scratching between his ears gently. The werewolf had his head on Yamato’s knee, looking up at him almost plaintively, dark eyes big and worried as he leaned into the attention. “My apologies, I have not…”

“It’s been a long time,” Naruto finally let go of Sasuke’s hand, crouching down in front of Yamato. “And from what I remember, he raised you.”

“He did, yes.”

“Are you scared he will be angry at you?” Sasuke moved to be next to Naruto, frowning. “Or is it something else?”

“Oh, I never could believe he would be angry at me for being held captive,” Yamato laughed, nervous and anxious at the same time. “But…Going home again is a concept that comes with no small amount of panic. My forest will be recoverable, once I am within it, I know that as well as I know the way my body works,” he looked at Sai, smiling. “But there are things I need to see to, things that I wish to do.”

Naruto stared at the two of them, his head tilting slowly.

Their scents were mingling in a way he should have noticed before. He felt a little slow on the uptake for not noticing, really – they were close. Not as close as his parents, not as close as Deidara and Sasori, but close.

Yamato and Sai had refused to leave each other alone for a long time, he was pretty sure. Probably since they’d been rescued.

He could remember them being close, that day. And at the hospital.

Everything had happened so fast, but he remembered Yamato holding onto Sai and refusing to let go.

‘They found something to hold onto,’ Kurama murmured. ‘Good for them.’

Naruto nodded, then glanced at Sasuke. “Would you two like to come with us?” he asked, still looking at his soulmate. “As a guide for our journey, so we know where we’re going.”

“When I rented the car, I did make sure to rent it for a month,” Sasuke added. “I figured if I needed to end up in stranger places, I might as well take a vehicle that wouldn’t upset any local fae.” He shrugged when Naruto smiled at him, his cheeks turning a soft pink color. “Naruto had already told me he wanted to help Izuna, and I didn’t know what that would mean at the time, so I wanted to be prepared for anything. I would appreciate someone coming along who knows more about speaking with fae than I do, as I do not want to insult them.”

“Kurama knows some, but he’s not an expert,” Naruto added. He watched the way Yamato looked at Sai again, still petting softly at the fur between his ears.

He saw Sai’s ears twitch upward.

“I think we shall,” Yamato nodded. “I need to speak with my family. I will need my grandfather’s help with my forest as it stands, at any rate.”

Naruto reached out, pressing the palm of his hand against the fae’s forehead, smiling. “Thank you,” he sighed. He moved his hand and did the same to Sai, going slow so he didn’t startle them. He’d watched Sasuke nearly jump out of his skin when he’d grabbed his hand, so he’d made a mental note to start being touchy with people gently.

Slowly.

Carefully.

If he didn’t make a big deal of it and he moved cautiously, they’d probably get used to it over time.

Probably.

When he stood up, Naruto grabbed Sasuke’s hand again, happy to see his soulmate startle only a little bit. The four of them headed back towards the car, Yamato keeping his hand tangled in Sai’s fur. He’d tucked their book into his pocket, Naruto saw, kept for later so he could keep reading it to Sai.

“From the familial connection, I can tell you he is not as far as he could be,” Yamato whispered. “May I ask why you need him?”

“We need to speak with Tobirama, mostly,” Naruto held up the journal. “And I’m pretty sure he’s – Yamato?”

The fae had stopped moving.

Sasuke turned to look at him, too, an eyebrow raised. “Now what?”

“Tobirama is…” Yamato looked uncomfortable. “I prefer to think of him as he was, and Orochimaru brought stories of his youth when he was brought into the basement with us. I remember him in his younger days, when he was happier.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I have never gotten the full explanation as to why he was suddenly so angry with the world, but I do know he was.”

“We think we have the answer,” Naruto wiggled the journal at him. “This is the journal of Uchiha Izuna. Tobirama’s name comes up in it. Kurama told me that his name means what Izuna asked me for.”

Yamato stared at him, his eyes darting to the book in his hand. “What?”

“We think—”

“No, I heard him,” Yamato shook his head, waving Sasuke off. “At the time of everything happening, the Uchiha and Senju Clans were fighting. Some argument, possibly about territory, encroaching on land, something along those lines. I was too young to fully understand. Possibly connected to…” he stopped, his face going pale. “Your cousin. Obito. Almost two centuries ago, Obito was engaged to be married to his soulmate, yes?”

“A marriage only his family would recognize, and only because of his soulmate,” Sasuke stared at him. Naruto looked at both of them, something churning in his mind. Kurama rumbled, a soft growl, as the idea took shape.

Two families, one already in a chaotic disaster.

Madara, who, by all accounts, had loved his little brother more than anything. Who had ditched out of his own body, dying and old, to possess Obito’s body. Danzo had been involved somehow, had been the one to give him advice on how to do it. There was something else there, something important, something…Something else. Naruto took his hand back from Sasuke, covering his eyes as he thought.

‘The eyes,’ Kurama added. ‘The Uchiha Clan and their eyes. Immortality of a sort, allowing them to come back and wield a bloodline-specific magic.’

Danzo had been covered in red eyes when Naruto had helped take him down. Kurama had helped make sure a lot of them had been made useless. “Sasuke,” Naruto cleared his throat, his voice cracking a little. “When an Uchiha uses their eyes, do they go permanently red?”

“Yeah,” Sasuke sounded almost confused as he answered. “Itachi won’t tell me what happened with his.”

The few times he’d seen Madara in the basement, he’d been faced with red eyes. Naruto nodded, going back to the pieces he had in front of him. Madara hadn’t been doing what he’d been doing for no good reason, he was pretty sure of that. It wasn’t a good reason to anyone else, but he was pretty sure the man was able to justify it to himself. If Obito had a soulmate that Madara was able to control, he might have felt more in control of what happened to him—

“How did Izuna die?” Naruto spoke up again, before any of the others could go back to talking.

“He got attacked during the peace talks,” Sasuke’s hand landed on his arm. “Naruto?”

“Specifically, during a peace talk the Senju Clan was present for,” Yamato added. “One my grandfather and his brother were present for.” He paused, a frown on his face when Naruto opened his eyes. “Is everything alright?”

“I need to talk to Madara,” Naruto looked at the journal in his hand. “I need to talk to him now.”

He turned on his heel and sprinted back to the main house.

Without pausing to look behind him, Naruto still knew that the other three were following. Sai’s steps were nearly silent, but he was the fastest of the three of them as long as Sasuke just stuck to a more human speed. He caught up first, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he bounded along at Naruto’s side, excitement contagious between them.

“Naruto, what is going on?”

“I think I know what happened!” Naruto called back, laughing as he took a corner and barely managed to stay upright. Sai helped him, nudging at his knees until he was stable. All of them clattered back into the house, barely pausing long enough to take off their shoes, only doing so to avoid Itachi’s wrath. Sasuke caught up to him, then, his hands on his shoulders. “Okay, so,” Naruto huffed the words out, pausing for a moment. “Madara watches Izuna die. His little brother, the one he loves more than anything, right?”

“Right,” Sasuke nodded. “And?”

“And Tobirama was courting him. Openly. Here,” he opened the journal, flipping through it quickly. “Madara knows, now, and I am free to ask Tobirama to seek me out publicly – So they were open about it. Izuna and Tobirama were going to be a couple.”

Sasuke stared at the pages, his eyebrows drawn down. “Wait, hold on,”

“Don’t you get it?” Naruto glanced at Yamato, who stared as well. “Look, okay, so…So Madara lost his little brother. He went insane. He couldn’t control it at the time, and he started to look for somewhere to place the blame. It’s the outsider, right? The person who didn’t belong to his family.” He watched the way Yamato’s eyebrows shot up, his eyes going wide again. Sasuke’s eyes did the same, his mouth dropping open. “And then Obito’s soulmate shows up. An outsider. A person who didn’t belong to his family.”

“…What?”

Naruto turned to look, seeing Obito standing there. His eyes looked wet, his hands shaking. Zetsu stood immediately behind him, a hand on his back – the two of them had probably come to check on the noise they had made when they’d come crashing back into the house.

“I think,” Naruto turned to offer him the journal. “That Madara lost his mind trying to protect you, and it turned rotten because of Izuna and the way he lost him.”

Zetsu’s hand shot out, his arm curling around his soulmate, steadying Obito as he swayed on his feet. “But everything he did, everything—” his breathing sped up, uneven, and Naruto winced. “Those experiments…” Obito looked at Naruto, at Yamato, at Sai. “I remember some of them, the memories are leaking over a little. They aren’t good memories, I’ve seen some of what he did to you.”

“And the basement had a higher survival rate than upstairs did,” Naruto nodded, keeping his voice soft. “He mostly just tried to figure us out.”

Obito kept staring at him.

“I need to go talk with him,” Naruto looked at the journal. “Because I think Izuna’s death is where all of this started.” He took a deep breath. “And I think I can help it end.”

He watched as Zetsu curled Obito up in a tight hug, helping him hide his face in the vampire’s shoulder, a hand in his hair. The other rubbed gentle circles on his back, his mouth to Obito’s ear as he whispered soft things to him, their eyes closing as they stood together. Even with Madara in his head, keeping him from being locked in the basement, Obito had still been held captive just as much as they had been.

Naruto needed to help him, just as much as they needed the help.

Notes:

Madara wasn't insane without a reason, in all of this. I have been planning this for a long, long time. It's not an excuse, certainly, but it is an explanation.

Also - Hi Obito! Glad you're recovering in this AU. You and Zetsu. : D

Notes:

Did you think I would leave Naruto out of the decision entirely?

Also -- I switched medications and now my brain is Back with the writing but the biannual Naruto obsession has hit and so I am writing out all the Naruto fanfic in hopes of being able to get back to my other fics sometime this decade. I hope someone is enjoying this series, because I am, but I know some people are probably waiting around for my other ones.

We'll get there, I promise! Eventually.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 7 of Laughter In The Night