literature

Down The Rabbit Hole, 1

Deviation Actions

fantasylover12001's avatar
Published:
579 Views

Literature Text

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

AUTHOR: fantasylover12001

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or any of it’s characters. I also do not own any similar plot ideas to the brilliant movie Spirited Away (which has heavily inspired this fic).

PAIRINGS: SasuNaru, KakaIru, mentioned LeeSaku, and a handful of random pairings.

RATING: R to NC-17

AUTHOR NOTES: These chapters might be a little long people. Therefore there might be some longer breaks between updates. I apologize for the massive delay, my computer’s hard drive went on the fritz and so I had to get a new one and do all the stuff that comes with getting a new drive. Fun...;rolls eyes; Alliance should be updated a little while after this so be on the lookout.



CHAPTER 1: THE FIRST WEEK

Sasuke studied the human in front of him with mild curiosity. It had been awhile since a human had wandered into their midst. On the whole, spirits tended to avoid the creatures, although you did get the odd one here and there who found them fascinating. He himself had no opinion on humans, but generally tended to avoid them because they had the tendency to cause him massive headaches, and he got enough of those from working under Lady Tsunade. In fact, it had been a few hundred years since he’d been face to face with a human, Sasuke recalled.

‘Were humans always this colorful?’ he wondered absentmindedly. No, he was pretty sure that the batch he remembered didn’t have that bright yellow wild hair or the brilliant blue eyes. Actually, since he believed they had been monks of some sort, they hadn’t had hair at all. They most certainly didn’t wear the bright orange and black sweatshirt and black pants that this human wore. Nor did they carry around a bright blue bag with odd trinkets attached to the handles...oh, that was a frog. ‘If he likes frogs, he should get along well with Jiraiya’ he thought. But the oddest thing about the human were the whisker-like scars on the boy’s cheeks. Not to mention that he had tan skin in a land that was known for people with pale skin. Sasuke would have thought he was a foreigner if it wasn’t for his flawless Japanese accent.

The boy continued to stare up at him and Sasuke began to wonder if he had heard him and then he blurted out, “You’re kidding, right?”

Sasuke frowned. “Do I look like I’m kidding?” Why on earth would he joke about something like that?

“Are you sure I’m trapped here? I mean, isn’t there a boat or something that could take me across...there?” the human gestured towards the water as if he didn’t know what to call it. Now that he thought about it, it was probably a bit disconcerting for the human to find bodies of water where they weren’t before. The Disappearing Sea did that every time during sundown and sunrise so the spirits were rather used to it.

“Even if you were somehow able to get across the river, the barrier would stop you from entering the human world. How on earth were you able to get through the barrier in the first place?” Perhaps the human had some spiritual powers...that would explain it.

But the blond just stared at him in confusion. “What barrier?”

Sasuke stared at him. “You weren’t stopped at all? Not even by the Guardian?” The ancient dragon was actually just a last resort, but he had been known to awaken from time to time.

The human frowned, “Guardian? You mean him?” He then fished through his bag and pulled out what looked to be a book and held it open. Sasuke leant over and peered at the page only to see a rough, but detailed sketch of the dragon guardian in his statue form. He blinked in surprise.

“Yes...did you do this?”

“Yup,” the blond smiled. “I’m an artist.”

‘That explains the bright colors’ Sasuke thought. “Hn. You better follow me.”

“Why?”

‘Is he serious?’ “You’ll need a place to stay here where you’ll be safe. Working for Lady Tsunade is probably the best way to go. She’s tough, but fair. Spirits respect her and therefore will not try to harm you if you’re under her care.” The smart ones wouldn’t anyway; the stupid ones would be easy enough to deal with.

The blond frowned a bit, “Why would she help me? For that matter, why should I trust you? I don’t even know you.”

It was a fair question, Sasuke admitted. “Tsunade has sworn to protect everyone in this village. Now that includes you. As for me, I’m sworn to do my duty which is basically carrying out her will. Also, to be perfectly honest, do you have any better suggestions?”

The human bit his lip and shook his head. “Good. Now eat this.” Sasuke pulled out an onigiri from his side pack; he had brought along some for a snack on his patrol. “If you don’t eat it, you’ll disappear. Literally.”

Blue eyes wide, the blond quickly ate up the small rice ball. He then smiled at him, “That was pretty good. Oh, I’m Naruto, by the way. Naruto Uzumaki.” He gave a short bow.

“Nice to meet you,” Sasuke muttered. “This way.”

‘A human in the spirit world. The council is going to love this.’ He had a feeling that there was going to a be a mountain of paperwork over this. ‘Damn humans; always making a mess of things’.

SasuNaru

‘How did I get myself into this situation?’ Naruto thought to himself as he followed Sasuke who was leading them around the village’s outer walls. ‘From now on, no wandering around strange places.’ He had learned his lesson. Sakura had always warned him that his curiosity and adventurous spirit would some day get the better of him. Now he would be hearing about it from her forever. If he ever saw her again.

He cast a sideways glance at his companion. “How long am I going to be stuck here?”

Dark eyes looked at him and Naruto suppressed a shiver. ‘God, I’m acting like I’ve never seen a hot guy before! What the hell is wrong with me?’

“The barrier only goes down once a year. You’ll most likely won’t be able to cross over into the human world until next Hallows Eve.”

Naruto stopped walking and stared at him in dismay. “A WHOLE YEAR?! You said I would just be stuck here for a while!”

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. “A year isn’t that long.”

“Yeah, for YOU. YOU’RE DEAD! Do have any idea how much things change in a year for humans? People get married! Have babies! Oh no, I’m going to miss Sakura’s baby getting born! Not to mention the deadline for my art show in July! She’s going to KILL ME.”

Sasuke stared at him. “I don’t know who this Sakura woman is, but she can hardly kill you for something beyond your control.”

Naruto snorted at him. “OBVIOUSLY you don’t know her or you wouldn’t have bothered to say that.”

The man frowned at him. “Let’s move on.”

Naruto fumed silently in his head, but followed him. ‘No WAY am I getting stuck here for a year! I’ll find my own way out if I have too!'

It seemed to Naruto that they had circled the entire village when Sasuke finally led them to a stop. They were now directly under the bridge leading to the tall tower that Naruto had been on beforehand. Now though, instead of rocks, there was water under it and it went out beyond the village too, as far as the eye could see. Over the water in front of them Naruto saw what looked to be stairs at the bottom of the square tower that started from the water and lead up to what looked to be surrounding walled gardens.

Sasuke held out his arm to Naruto and the blond looked at him in confusion.

He sighed impatiently. “I assume humans can still not do magic?”

Naruto stared up at him incrediously. “Hell, no! What, you can?” Honestly, it wouldn’t really surprise him. After all, spirits apparently existed, who was to say magic didn’t?

“Hn.” Sasuke then just gripped his bicep and pulled him closer. Before Naruto could comment on personal space, he was dragged onto the water and to his surprise, neither of them sunk but instead stood on it.

“Holy crap,” he muttered, looking down as Sasuke led him forward in astonishment and awe. ‘I’m walking on water!’ Then as he watched the fish swim under his feet he thought that this would make a great painting. His imagination worked at the oddest times.

The minute they reached the bottom of the stairs, Sasuke let go of him and headed up to the door at the top. As Naruto suspected, they led to gardens. Beautiful, old-fashioned looking, landscaped gardens. Seemingly used to the gardens, Sasuke led him to the back of the tower to one of the many doors that led into the tower. This one opened to a single room that had a gray marble floor and a vaulted ceiling leading to an old-fashion looking elevator decorated in red and gold with a strange spiral symbol painted on the doors. Sasuke pulled the gold lever and the doors opened up and they got on.

After reaching what seemed to be the top floor, the doors opened (behind them, Naruto noticed) up to a large foyer decked out in the same gray marble floor which had the same spiral symbol embedded on the floor in white marble. There were large double doors in gold directly in front of them as well as about six other doors on either side of them leading elsewhere. In between the doors were white marble pilaster columns in a decadent Corinthian style.

Naruto would have stayed to admire the craftsmanship but Sasuke quickly led him to the first door on their right which led them down a hall with other doors. He was led to the end of the hall to a large gold door on which Sasuke knocked.

“Come in, Sasuke,” a woman’s voice came from inside.

The blond glanced at the man apprehensively and noted that he didn’t seem at all disturbed by the fact that the woman on the other side knew it was him before he even said anything. ‘Maybe it’s a spirit thing’.

They entered what looked to be an office. There were dark wood floors and open screen doors on their right that lead to what looked to be a porch and gave a view of the now vast ocean behind the tower. To their left was a marble fireplace with two red plush armchairs in front of it. A little further in front of them was a large desk with two smaller red arm chairs in front of it. Behind the desk sat a young blond woman with amber eyes who was studying him intently. Standing next to her was a tall man with wild long white hair and dark eyes, also eyeing him as well as another gray haired man who had one eye covered and his face half covered by a mask. He also couldn’t help but noticed that they all gave off the dangerous vibe that Sasuke did and his nervousness increased.

“So, I take it this is our wayward human?” the woman said, as he sat down.

“Yes, Lady Tsunade,” Sasuke answered from behind him.

Naruto blinked in surprise. SHE was Lady Tsunade? He eyed her doubtfully. She hardly looked like a lady to him, most of the rich woman he encountered didn’t wear green tunics and pants, nor have ample breasts like this woman. Plus, she looked a little young to be in charge of anything, let alone a village.

As if reading his thoughts, the woman scowled, “Do you have a problem, brat?”

Recognizing the danger signs (he had been Sakura’s best friend for years after all), Naruto hurriedly shook his head. The woman smirked, “This one’s smarter then he looks.” Then she got serious. “What is your name?”

“Naruto Uzumaki.”

“Hm. So, Naruto, how exactly did you find your way to Konoha?”

“Konoha?” He asked in confusion.

“The village, Idiot,” Sasuke said impatiently from behind him. Naruto glared at him from over his shoulder and then told of how he got there. When he got to the part of the dragon statue he noticed that they all looked at each other with a frown when he said he just sketched it for awhile and moved on.

“Was something to supposed to happen?” He asked curiously.

Tsunade hesitated. “Yes. Even with the barrier down, the Guardian should have woken and stopped you. It would have taken your memory of the place and you would have woken up at the beginning of the path again. It’s how we ensure humans don’t wander in here in the first place.”

“Oh. Then why didn’t it awaken?”

“Good question. Continue please.”

He did and when he got to the part where he encountered Sasuke the three of them suddenly smirked at the man in question. The gray haired one said, “Sasuke, helping a stranger? That’s unlike you.”

Naruto blinked and glanced back at the man who was scowling. “Shut up, Kakashi.”

The white haired man chuckled, “Kakashi, you need to teach your subordinate manners.”

Kakashi shrugged helplessly, “Believe me, Jiraiya, I’ve tried. The boy is stubborn.”

“Must be an Uchiha thing.”

“Actually, I think it’s more of a Sasuke thing.”

“I’m right here, you know,” Sasuke said with gritted teeth.

“Can we move on, please gentlemen?” Tsunade asked, massaging her forehead with her fingers. The three of them automatically fell silent. She then looked at Naruto, “Well, we can’t do anything about it now. The human is here. So now the question is, where should we put him?”

Naruto felt apprehension immediately. “What do you mean?”

“I do not tolerate layabouts in this village. You need work until next Hallow’s Eve. Sasuke did tell you that you’d be staying here for a year?”

“I was hoping he was wrong,” Naruto muttered.

“Well, I’m afraid he wasn’t. As I’m sure he also mentioned, this is probably the best place for you to stay.” Then she paused as if the thought just occurred to her. “Do you have anyone that will be worrying about you in the human world?”

Naruto shrugged. “Just Sakura and Lee probably. They’re my friends.”

The woman frowned. “What about family?”

“I’m an orphan.”

“Lover?”

Naruto snorted. “Please. Unless you count Sai.”

“Sai?”

“Colleague in the art world. He has a thing for me and can’t take a hint that I’m not interested. He might wonder where I am but then he’ll move on to the next hot guy he sees.” Sai didn’t have a long attention span, it was one of the reasons he didn’t have serious relationships, that and he had social problems that made Naruto look normal.

Tsunade looked at him with new interest. “You’re gay?”

Naruto scowled. “You have a problem with it?”

The woman snorted. “Hardly. You’ll fine a vast majority of the spirit world doesn’t really care about sexuality one way or the other. We’re dead after all, what difference would the gender of our lovers make?”

It was a good point, Naruto thought.

Tsunade suddenly smirked and Naruto felt apprehension come back to him. That smirk was too similar to Sakura’s when she was plotting something.

“Sasuke,” She said suddenly. “How about you?”

Naruto looked at him in confusion and the man in question frowned. “I beg your pardon?”

“You could use an assistant, couldn’t you? Someone to run errands for you, keep track of your schedule and such?”

Seeing where this was going, Sasuke frowned further, “Lady Tsunade, with all due respect, I’m not so sure that’s the best idea.”

“But you could use one, yes?” Judging from her smile, Naruto had a feeling she wasn’t taking no for an answer. Obviously, Sasuke realized this as well.

“I suppose.”

“Very well, then. He’ll be staying with you from now on until he leaves. We also might borrow him for odd jobs here and there.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Sasuke said, looking resigned to his fate.

“Good. In the meantime, he will be taking lessons from Iruka Umino about our world. That way he understands just exactly what not to say and do. Besides, I’m sure Iruka would like to talk to a fellow human for a change,” She glanced at Kakashi as she said this.

“Yes, I’m sure he would,” Kakashi said, with some fondness in his voice.

Naruto stared at them. “Wait, there’s another human here?”

Tsunade smiled. “Yes. He wandered into our midst about the same way you did a few years ago. But he decided to stay because he felt more at home here then in his own world. Technically, he is a spirit now, but we tend to call him human out of habit.”

“Oh.” Well, at least he wouldn’t be completely on his own here, Naruto thought.

“Well, now that that’s taken care of, you must be tired. Sasuke, why don’t you show him where he’ll be staying?”

“Hn,” Sasuke grunted. He stood beside Naruto and looked down at him. The blond had to once again suppress a shiver. “Let’s go.”

Naruto slowly nodded. He wasn’t really tired, but he had a feeling voicing his opinion wouldn’t help here. Already, he could tell the woman had Sakura’s temperament, and she had certainly never listened to anything he had to say. So he got up, gave a short bow to the group and followed Sasuke out of the room.

Sasuke led him to the elevator again and they went down one or two floors to another level. This time the doors opened to an entry much like the first but on a smaller scale and there were only two doors, one that led to right, and one to the left. Sasuke turned to the one on the right and brought out a key to open it.

“These are my quarters,” the man said suddenly and Naruto jumped a bit because he’d been silent the whole way. “I’ll have a key made for you tomorrow, otherwise you won’t be able to get in without me. The other door leads to Kakashi’s quarters in case you need him for something.”

“Oh. Hey, how come he covers his bottom face?” Naruto asked. It had been bugging him since he saw the man.

Sasuke shrugged. “Never asked.”

“Oh.” Naruto stared at him in surprise. If he had been working with Kakashi like this guy seemed to, that would’ve been the first question out of his mouth.

They entered the door and Naruto found himself in a spacious living area. There was a marble fireplace to the immediate right, with a dark blue sofa and matching armchairs in front of it, surrounding a low coffee table. Across the room’s entrance were screened doors leading to an outside balcony. There were then three doors on the left wall and next to the door was a shelf unit that seemed to hold various weapons.

“I’m afraid I don’t have a guest room for you to sleep in, so you’ll have to sleep on the fold up futon in here.”

“That’s okay,” Naruto said.

Sasuke opened the door in the middle of the wall and it turned out to be a small closet. He pulled out a futon for Naruto and handed the blond some sheets for it. “The first door there leads to the kitchen. The second leads to the bathroom. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” He started to head out and Naruto blinked.

“Aren’t you going to sleep?”

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. “No. I’m technically still on patrol and I have things that need to be taken care of. You get some sleep. Our days are night in the human world, therefore your body will need to adjust to it.”

Naruto watched him leave and sank down onto the mattress.

“Now what?” he muttered helplessly.

SasuNaruSasu

It was midday when Sasuke finally returned to his quarters. By the time his patrol was over and he changed places with Shikamaru all of Konoha had heard there was a human that would be staying with them. Needless to say, everyone had an opinion on this. The noble clans didn’t want the human there. Period. Others were curious about how the human had gotten in the town in the first place and so were voicing complaint to Tsunade. Then there were those eager to meet the human.

Even after that, he had to go and get a key made up for the human (Naruto, he reminded himself). Then he had to set up an appointment with Ino at the clothing store in order to get the blond some proper clothes. The blond woman was all to eager to meet the boy. To her, humans were just fun. Sasuke really didn’t understand her fascination with them at all, but then there were a lot of things he didn’t understand about Ino. He blamed it on her being a woman.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he finally got to his floor but later froze when he opened the door. The human was no where in sight. The bed was still unfolded and the sheets showed that someone tried to sleep on it but he was no where in sight. Getting a bad feeling, Sasuke headed to his kitchen. Not there. He opened the door leading to his study. Not there either. Then he went to his bedroom. Gone.

“Damn humans!” he said irritably and then immediately left the floor.

He searched the entire building quickly as he could to make sure the blond wasn’t just being curious and wandering around. But after a few minutes it was obvious he was no longer in the building. When he got to the bridge he ran into Shikamaru who looked at him in amusement.

“Lost something, Uchiha?”

Sasuke stopped on his tracks. “Where is he?”

“If you mean the human, he headed out of the village just a few minutes ago. Kiba said he was headed towards the forest.”

Sasuke scowled. “Why didn’t any of you stop him?”

Shikamaru shrugged. “He looks like a stubborn sort. Besides, it’s not like he has anywhere to go but back here.”

“More like you just didn’t want to interrupt your cloud watching time,” Sasuke muttered.

“That too,” the pony-tail haired man nodded.

Sasuke threw him one last glare as he took off for the entrance of the village. If Shikamaru wasn’t a brilliant strategist and a valuable asset to the village, Sasuke would have strangled the lazy bum ages ago.

After running to middle of the field Sasuke paused and looked around. Sure enough, there was the blond sitting dejectedly in front of the forest. He cautiously walked up to the human and paused a few paces. “Satisfied?” he asked.

Naruto jumped and looked up at him. “Don’t DO that!”

Sasuke just looked at him. “Are you satisfied?”

The blond pouted at him and looked down. “Yeah. I’ve tried everything I can think of, but every time I go through the trees like I did before, I just end up back here. I really am stuck here, aren’t I?”

“Yes.”

“Sorry. I just had to make sure for myself, you know?” Naruto got up and picked up his bag and looked at him warily. “I’m not going to get in trouble for this, am I?”

Sasuke severely wanted to say yes, just for the fact that the blond made him put off his sleep longer. But Tsunade wouldn’t have stood for it. “No.”

As if reading his mind, Naruto grinned sheepishly at him. “Sorry for making you come after me.”

Somewhat taken aback, Sasuke shrugged and started back towards the village.

As they walked, Naruto glanced around the field. “So, this thing is normal during the day but becomes an ocean at night?”

“Yes.”

“What’s up with that?”

“What do you mean?”

Naruto rolled his eyes. “I mean why does it do that? Or is that some big spirit secret or something?”

“No one knows why it does that. It just...does.”

“Right,” Naruto muttered. “So I’m guessing you all don’t know why there are spirits either?”

Sasuke glanced back at him. “Do you know why there are humans?”

Naruto blinked. “No. People have theories but why we exist, but no one knows for sure.”

“Then why should we know why spirits exist?”

The blond frowned at him and closed his mouth. Sasuke couldn’t help but feel a bit triumphant at that. Something told him that this particular human was not used to being silent or not knowing what to say.

As they got to the entrance of the village they were stopped by a large dog that suddenly barreled onto Naruto and started licking him happily.

“Akamaru, stop that! You’ll scare the poor human half to death!” Sasuke looked up and saw the dog’s owner, Kiba walking towards them, dressed in the black and white uniform of the shinobi. “Hey, Uchiha.”

Sasuke nodded to him and glanced at the dog that was reluctantly getting off a stunned Naruto who was now sitting on the ground. Kiba grinned at him. “Sorry about that. Guess Akamaru smelled something on you that he liked.”

Naruto got up. “It’s okay but dude, what have you been feeding that dog?”

Kiba looked at him in confusion. “Uh...dog food?”

The blond stared at him. “Are you sure? He’s HUGE.”

Kiba looked at Sasuke who shrugged at him. “Dogs aren’t that big where you’re from?”

Naruto shook his head. “No way.”

“Huh. Oh, I’m Kiba.”

“Naruto Uzumaki.”

“Nice to meet you.” He was clearly about to ask more about dogs in the human world but Sasuke glared at him. “Uh...I better get back to patrol. We’ll talk later, okay?”

Naruto nodded and patted Akamaru as the two left. He glanced curiously at Sasuke, “Hey, if you’ve got guards here, why wasn’t I stopped sooner when I first entered the village?”

Sasuke scowled. “You came in during the change of the guard. Apparently there was a block of time that left the entrance unchecked. Kakashi and I’ve remedied the situation so that the entrance is watched at all times now.”

“Oh. Is that what you were doing earlier?”

“Among other things.”

The blond frowned. “You’re not much of a talker, are you?”

“No.”

“Great,” Naruto muttered sarcastically.

Sasuke headed towards the tower again and Naruto followed him. As they rode the elevator up, Sasuke silently handed Naruto the key to his quarters that he had made which Naruto took after remembering what it was for.

SasuNaruSasu

When the sun set, Naruto watched from the balcony as spirits slowly emerged from their houses in the village. The balcony was facing the side of the village so he while looking from the window, he saw the sea that now appeared, but if he turned to his left, he saw a majority of the village itself and the forest and town in the distance.

Sasuke woke up a little bit after the sun fell and proceeded to make food. Naruto wanted to ask him if he had any ramen but had a feeling it wouldn’t go over well with the rather grumpy man. Plus, he had looked in the cabinets in the kitchen anyway and hadn’t found any packages or noodles. Still, he had to admit, Sasuke was a pretty good cook. It almost made up for the fact that the man was a lousy conversationalist.

After that, Sasuke led him into the village to meet with a clothes maker named Ino who was a tall busty woman with long blond hair. She greeted him enthusiastically and immediately set about taking his measurements.

“Oh, your coloring is wonderful! I don’t get many blonds except for myself of course. Oh, you’ll look wonderful in blues! I got this new line of fabric in that will make those gorgeous eyes of yours glow!”

Naruto blushed. “My eyes aren’t gorgeous.”

Ino snorted at him. “What? Sasuke, aren’t his eyes beautiful?” She looked at the man leaning against the wall for help. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her and glanced at Naruto. They stared at each other and Naruto felt his heart start to pound for some odd reason.

“They’re all right.” Sasuke said gruffly, and looked away quickly.

Naruto felt oddly disappointed with that but Ino rolled her eyes. “That’s Uchiha speak for he agrees with me.”

They continued with the measuring and Naruto picked out one or two outfits to get him through the three days or so it would take Ino to make the first few cloths he would need. He ended up leaving the store dressed in a light blue tunic and black pants and after a brief stop at the shoemakers shop, he got sandals as well. During the shopping trip, Sasuke gave him the basic layout of the village which actually wasn’t that difficult, once one learned it. As he figured out during his wanderings, there was a town square that was in the center of it. The four roads intersecting to it led to the one main road that circled the village wall. This divided the town into four districts which were name North District, South District, East District, and West District and were pretty much located in those general directions.

As he was warned, not all the spirits were warm to him. As he and Sasuke walked, he couldn’t help but notice a lot of wary looks being cast in his direction as well as some downright hostile ones. So, he wisely decided to stick close to Sasuke. It actually wasn’t that hard. The man might be a horrible conversationalist but that aspect also made him kind of interesting. Naruto soon found it fun to try and get him to talk, or at the very least show some emotion. Something about having those dark eyes focus on him was starting to become addicting. It may have been less then a day, but Naruto recognized the danger signs of attraction. He wondered how pathetic one had to be when they started to fall for a dead guy.

SasuNaruSasu

The next night Sasuke came home and found his apartment was rearranged In the past few hours, Sasuke had learned a few things already about his human companion: he was stubborn, talked too much and often lacked tact, he also got easily bored and that was dangerous. Because when he got bored he decided to annoy Sasuke. The other night, he had asked Sasuke and endless parade of questions about the most ridiculous things and it was about halfway through when Sasuke realized he was just asking them because he had figured out that lots of questions annoyed him. It was then he realized that despite appearances, the blond actually was a bit clever.

That night he had several meetings with Tsunade and a patrol to do so he had left Naruto on his own. Judging from the state of things, this was a bad idea. The living room was the first clue that something was different. His sofa was no longer facing the fireplace but directly faced the screened doors so one could look outside as they sat. His chairs were then placed where the sofa used to be. His weapons shelf had also been rearranged, he noticed with distaste. There were also now several sketches tacked onto his previously blank walls. They seemed to be landscapes, several were views of the village. They actually were pretty good, he had to admit.

He glanced in the bathroom and noted that nothing had changed, other then one or two more color sketches added to the walls. His kitchen also had art added to the wall and refrigerator. His study, had the blond himself resting on the navy blue sofa in there. Sasuke noticed he had yet to add art to these walls with somewhat relief, and after a quick check saw that his bedroom and bathroom had been left alone.

Sasuke walked up to the sleeping blond and nudged him. Blue eyes fluttered open and the blond grinned. “Hey! Welcome back!”

“What did you do to my apartment?” Sasuke asked bluntly.

Naruto shrugged. “Hey, you left me all alone here! So I drew! Then I noticed you have like no art in this place so I decided to give it some color. Good thing most of my art supplies were in my bag and not my suitcase. You like them?”

Sasuke was about to say no out of spite but he made the mistake of actually looking at Naruto and just couldn’t bring himself to disappoint those hopeful eyes. “They’re fine,” he muttered. “But did you have to go through my weapon drawer?”

“Oh, that. I did that before I remembered I had my art supplies. Sorry.”

“Hn.” Sasuke made a mental note to lock up the drawers next time he left Naruto on his own.

IF he let stay Naruto here on his own again. Heaven knew what he’d come home too if he did it again.

SasuNaruSasu

Naruto had no idea what to make of Iruka Umino but he found himself liking the man when he met him the next night. Kakashi had led him down to the lower levels of the tower where the man lived and worked and the two of them sat in on the last of his class which consisted of younger or newly made spirits. According to Kakashi, Iruka had been a teacher before he got trapped in the spirit world. That was something Naruto could have figured out on his own though, the man just had that certain air about him that some teachers did. Plus, when he looked at Naruto the first time he felt immediately like he was back in high school, particularly after the disapproving look he got when Kakashi told him about how Naruto wandered into the village in the first place.

Iruka was fairly young, he noted. He looked to be in his late twenties/early thirties and was a bit attractive with his long dark brown hair that was held in a ponytail and warm dark brown eyes. There was also something awfully intriguing about that scar that slashed across his nose. He wasn’t Naruto’s type and it was probably a good thing because about halfway through Kakashi’s introductions and after watching the two interact, he realized that Iruka would give the gray-haired man adoring looks when ever the man wasn’t looking.

“So how long have you liked Kakashi?” Naruto asked bluntly when the two were left alone.

Iruka blinked. “I beg your pardon? Who said I liked him?”

The blond smirked and Iruka sighed. “It’s that obvious?”

“Kind of. Does he know?”

“No,” and Iruka looked at him severely. “You aren’t to say anything either.”

Naruto shrugged. It was hardly his business anyway. “So, were you really a human like me when you got here?”

“Yes. That was a long time ago, though. I’ve been here so long, I’m a full fledged spirit now. “You’ll find that the longer you stay in this world, the more you start to pick up some of the abilities of the spirits.”

“Abilities?” Naruto asked. He hadn’t noticed any abilities from any of them.

“Yes. Chakra use, for one. You’ll probably gain that ability in a few months yourself, depending on how adaptable to the place your body is.”

Naruto stared at him. “What’s Chakra?”

“Sasuke hasn’t explained it to you?” Iruka asked in surprise.

The blond snorted. “Sasuke doesn’t talk much in case you haven’t noticed.”

Iruka smiled a bit. “Yes, I’ve noticed that. Well, then I suppose our first few lessons will have to go over the abilities of spirits. You should know exactly what your up against after all.”

That night, was just spent talking. Naruto learned about the village mostly and what it was for. Apparently, Konoha was on the edge of the spirit world and used as a headquarters of sorts for meetings between spirits as well as where new spirits were integrated into the society. Iruka himself taught these young spirits as well as the children of spirits which is what he was doing earlier. There were all sorts of different types of spirits. There were human-like one such as Sasuke and the majority of the people in the village who were the most common. There were also animal spirits, plant spirits, even air spirits. Naruto’s head started to spin when he realized just how many there had to be.

Out of curiosity he asked Iruka, “Just how old are you anyway?”

Iruka smirked. “Counting my human years before and how long I’ve been here?”

Warily, Naruto nodded.

“Well, I was twenty-seven when I wandered in here so add that to the time I’ve spent here I am one hundred and thirty.”

The blond stared at him. “Lady Tsunade said you’ve only been here a few years though!”

Iruka sighed. “Yes, well time passes differently for spirits since they can live so long. A couple of years can seem like a month or so to a spirit. So to her, I’ve only been here a few short years.”

“Oh.” Vaguely, Naruto wondered how old Sasuke was and decided it would be safer for his head if he didn’t ask.

SasuNaruSasu

The first batch of his new clothes arrived for him the next night and Naruto happily tried every single piece of clothing on. There were five tunics in different shades of blue and some with different designs along the hems of the edges. There were also two extra pairs of dark black pants and a dove gray pair as well as three different obi belts to go with the outfits. There was a letter from Ino in the package saying she was going to be sending him some formal wear next but it would take awhile longer. When Sasuke came home he asked what the formal wear was for and the man replied that he would see. Naruto stuck out his tongue at him and went back to trying his clothes.

When he tried on a dark blue tunic with a black Greek fret key along the edges with black pants and a gray obi belt with a matching black fret design on it he felt Sasuke eye him from his place on the sofa even though the man was pretending to read a book.

“What do you think?” Naruto asked him with a grin, and twirled around so Sasuke could see the whole effect of the outfit.

Sasuke put down his book and looked at Naruto up and down for a few seconds. He saw Naruto look at him expectantly and shrugged. “You’ll do.” He then went back to his book.

That was when Naruto decided that before he left, he was going to get a smile out of that stoic man one way or another.

TO BE CONTINUED...

AUTHOR NOTES: Please review.
PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CONSTRUCTIVE critisism would be most appreciative.
© 2008 - 2024 fantasylover12001
Comments1
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
asiangirl2008's avatar
This is based on spirited away! Awesome!