New Comrades
Naruto and Sasuke are staying at one of Orochimaru’s other hideouts for a while since they have people after them from their last mission. With nothing to do, Naruto decides to try something he’s never done before. Cooking.
Sure he lived by himself. But then he only used his microwave to warm up ramen. He never learned how to cook. But Naruto has been so busy lately that now that he has nothing to do he figures he might as well take up a new hobby.
Sasuke and Rio are both great at cooking so Naruto should be too. He enters the hideout’s kitchen and searches around for pots and pans. This isn’t the hideout he lives in so he’s in the dark where everything is but he finds what he’s looking for eventually.
He’s going to learn how to make homemade ramen instead of the instant noodles he usually buys at a store. His stomach growls at the thought of eating it.
He has the recipe for it and he gets out all the ingredients needed. He puts the noodles in the saucepan and puts the water in so it can boil. He has to wait so while he has time he decides to bother Sasuke.
He finds Sasuke in the training room. Naruto ends up convincing the other to spar with him. As always when they fight, it’s intense and they both end up looking a bit beaten up by the end of it. They both know not to go far though lest they end up killing each other.
In the midst of their battle the smoke alarm goes off. The ramen! Naruto completely forgot about it! He sprints to the kitchen. Fire is everywhere. Sasuke yells at him to get out.
Kabuto and Orcochimaru are already outside when they make it outside. No one else was in the hideout. Naruto keeps his head down in shame.
“So how much trouble am I in?” Naruto queries.
“What did you do?” Orochimaru questions.
“...I tried to cook ramen and I forgot about it.”
Turns out Naruto was in a lot of trouble. Several weeks after that incident, Orochimaru sent Naruto on extremely tedious missions alone and he is now banned from the kitchen. At least Orochimaru didn’t kill him.
On one of those tedious missions he happened to overhear a conversation.
“Did you hear? The Mighty Dragon is fighting tonight at the fighting ring!” A man says in excitement.
“It’s never much of a fight when he’s in the ring; he’s always the winner.” Another man replies.
“True. But it’s always fun to see whatever unlucky bastard who goes against him be beat up.”
“Yeah! They always think they’re going to beat him and it’s fun to see the light in their eyes fade when they realize they're going to lose.”
Naruto’s interest is piqued and he follows the men in the shadows. He follows them until they stop at a vandalized building. He sees a sign that said,
Fighting Ring
Join the fight at your own risk!
To the death1
No rules!
To the death? Rather dramatic. There was another sign right next to it that said,
Today’s Showing
The Mighty Dragon VS The Esteemed Prince
Other Showings yet to be decided
Naruto has never seen a place like it so despite his better judgment he enters the building. Inside it’s loud everywhere with lots of different people talking, yelling, and getting into fights. There were bets going on on who was going to win. The majority of people bet for The Mighty Dragon.
The Mighty Dragon must be a scary opponent if everyone speaks of him so highly. Naruto is shoved and pushed while trying to find a seat to watch. People here don’t seem to be the kindest of people.
He eventually finds a seat and waits patiently for the fight to begin. The Esteemed Prince comes out first. A brown haired man with green eyes. A couple people cheer for him and everyone else in the building glares at them.
The Mighty Dragon comes out next. Naruto’s surprised to see that he seems to be close in age with him. The Mighty Dragon has dark brown skin and black curly hair. He has a muscular figure and a scowl on his face.
The arena is closed in sturdy glass so the audience doesn’t happen to be caught in the midst of their fight. However, this means they can’t hear what The Mighty Dragon and The Esteemed Prince are saying to each other.
The battle is quick and in no time The Esteemed Prince is on the ground having accepted his fate. The brown haired man even begins crying and looks as if to be begging for his life. Naruto sees a flicker of guilt in The Mighty Dragon’s eyes that no one else seems to notice. Naruto looks away when the final blow is dealt.
When he looks back into the arena The Esteemed Prince is dead. And The Mighty Dragon looks about ready to cry. No one else seems to notice as the cheering continues on. The Mighty Dragon exits the arena and Naruto gets up from his seat.
He follows the boy in secret. The Mighty Dragon stops before a man and woman with clear resemblance to him.
“Good job, Taro,” Taro’s mother tells him.
“That’s my son,” Taro’s father applauds.
“We made so much money from this match,” His mother comments.
“I can’t do this,” Taro admits. “I can’t keep doing this.”
“Don’t be silly, you’re great at it,” Taro’s mother says.
“The Esteemed Prince wasn’t a bad person! He didn’t deserve to die! Die by my hands no less!”
“He decided to take that risk when he chose to fight in the fighting ring,” Taro’s Father argues.
“Because he needed the money for his little sister who was in the hospital!”
“And how would you know that?” Taro’s mother asks.
“Because he told me before he fucking died!”
“Calm down. We didn’t raise a brat,” Taro’s father scolds.
“I’m not doing this. I’m leaving. I can’t be around you two any longer.”
“And go where? You’re only fifteen, you can’t survive without your parents,” Taro’s mother responds.
Naruto feels sorry for the boy. He has an idea though. He walks around looking for the people who run the show. He overhears them talking too.
“All the people are waiting for who is going to fight The Mighty Dragon next.”
“I’m sorry sir, I couldn’t find anyone to fight him.”
“What?! We’re going to lose so much money if that was the only fight! There’s usually at least three fights!”
“What can I do! He’s The Mighty Dragon! He’s undefeated, it means certain death.”
Naruto interrupts their conversation. “I’ll fight him.”
The two people look towards him in surprise. The woman scoffs at him.
“A scrawny boy like you could never defeat him.”
“Ouch. There are no rules though. I can bring my knives,” Naruto tells her.
She rolls her eyes. The man contemplates it.
“We have no other choice, the people want a fight and two fights are better than only one. What’s your fighting name, boy.”
“Fighting name?”
The woman shakes her head with zero belief in him. “ A name like The Mighty Dragon or something.”
“Oh! Hm. What about The Fox Demon?”
It wasn’t the best name. But Naruto has been called a demon his entire life. He doesn’t particularly like it but it makes sense for a name like this. And his nine tailed demon is a fox so it works.
The people agree to it and Naruto is forced into the arena. No one cheers for him but he doesn’t care. The Mighty Dragon enters with no happiness anywhere on his face.
“Why are you here?” Taro questions. “I thought The Esteemed Prince was my only fight for today.”
“Change of plans,” Naruto smiles.
These people don’t know how well training Naruto is, including The Mighty Dragon. Being underestimated can be useful in this kind of situation. He’s not burly so he doesn’t look strong. But he’s agile and skilled with knives.
The Mighty Dragon holds his own for a while but Naruto ends up having pinned the boy to the ground with a knife to his throat.
“Kill me already. You’d be doing me a favor,” Taro pleads with him.
“I didn’t come here to kill you,” Naruto says.
“Then why are you here?”
“I overheard your conversation with your parents.”
The audience is unsure why Naruto hasn’t killed Taro yet. They’re uneasy because they never thought The Mighty Dragon would be defeated and they definitely didn’t believe it would happen by a newbie of the fighting ring.
“So?”
Naruto got off of Taro as it was getting awkward to talk to the boy like that. Taro doesn’t attack and the audience is even more confused by what’s going on as they can’t hear what they’re saying.
“Come with me. You’ll have somewhere to go and I’ll make sure you never have to kill an innocent person again.”
“Do you want me to kill guilty people then?”
“You don’t have to kill at all if you don’t want to. I will make sure of it. However, I am a criminal. You would likely still have to commit crimes but if you never want to have to kill someone again you can come with me.”
Orochimaru’s missions sometimes means you have to kill someone but Naruto will make sure Taro isn’t given any missions like that.
“It sounds better than this. I’ll go with you.”
“Alright. I guess that means I should introduce myself properly. I am Naruto Uzumaki.”
“Taro Kawano.”
Naruto holds out his hand for Taro to take. Taro lets a small smile slip onto his face. They both slip out of the building secretly so they weren’t crowded by an angry audience and betters who will never get their money.
—
Taro begins to live with Naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke and Taro don’t get along though. But that’s to be expected; Sasuke’s not very good with people in general. He’s great with girls because he’s good looking but with other guys he usually doesn’t get along too well with.
Naruto wants them to get along though. They’re supposed to be comrades. If they can’t trust each other in battle then they will both end up injured. Comrades are meant to look after each other after all.
On the other hand, Naruto and Taro get along great which annoys Sasuke even more. Naruto does his best to get them to spend time together so they can at least get used to one another. They kept getting into arguments with each other and not like the banter friends would have.
Naruto is getting tired of it so he decides to talk to Sasuke about it.
“Sasuke. Can’t you try to be a bit nicer to Taro?” Naruto pleads.
“Why should I? He’s just some guy you brought back here for some reason?”
“I brought him back here so he could become our comrade.”
“Was I not good enough for you or something?”
“What?! No! It’s not like that, I swear! Just he needed somewhere to go and he’s strong.”
“Whatever. I don’t care. You just brought him here with no warning beforehand.”
“Why does it bother you so much?”
“I… I thought it was fine when it was just us two.”
“Sasuke. He’s not replacing you or anything. You’re still the person I trust the most. Please, you don’t have to be overly nice, just be indifferent to him at least.”
After that conversation the arguments decrease by tenfold. Sasuke mostly doesn’t converse with Taro anymore or spend much time around him. It’s not great and Naruto isn’t happy with it but it’s better than the way it was before.
Naruto still has spent an embarrassing amount of time convincing Orochimaru to put Taro and Sasuke on missions together so they can hopefully gain a little bit of trust in each other.
—
“Naruto would’ve been a better fit for accompanying me on this mission. I don’t know why Orochimaru sent you instead,” Sasuke comments.
“Believe me. I wish I wasn’t the one sent here too,” Taro says back.
“Whatever. Let’s get this over quickly so I don’t have to be around you for too long.”
“Why do you hate me so much?”
Sasuke is surprised by the question. “...”
“What did I ever do to you? Cause it seems like you have some grudge against me.”
“This is how I am with everyone. You’re not special.”
“You’re not like this with Naruto.”
Sasuke’s face turns warm at being called out like that. “That’s different.”
“How so? He’s just another guy.”
Sasuke shakes his head. “You wouldn’t understand. But we’ve been a part of each other's lives for years and you just show up one day and he acts as if that means nothing.”
“You’re kidding right? Naruto literally admires you so much. He always talks about you like an annoying amount. Just because I’m here doesn’t mean he’s suddenly forgetting about you.”
“I know Naruto much better than you do.”
“Well, I’m not blind and I can see that he cares about you a lot. Have a little trust in him would you? Didn’t you say you’ve been friends for years? You think he would give that up so easily because of me? No! I’ve only known him for a little while and I know he wouldn’t.”
Sasuke didn’t respond and Taro took that as his victory. This mission of theirs went much smoother than the ones they’ve gone on before with each other. It was as if something in their relationship had changed after their conversation and now they could fight together without struggling not to fight each other instead.
—
Naruto is overjoyed! He doesn’t know what happened in Sasuke’s and Taro’s last mission but they’re getting along so much better. Sasuke has stopped with his snarky comments to Taro and Taro is no longer getting irritated at the things Sasuke does and says.
The next mission only Naruto and Taro go on it, much to Sasuke’s dismay. Naruto and Taro work well together. Although, not as well as Sasuke and Naruto since Sasuke is used to how Naruto fights and what jutsus the blond uses.
“Hey, Naruto,” Taro begins.
“Hm?”
“How did you and Sasuke become friends?”
“Oh! We went to the ninja academy together in the village hidden in the leaves. We grew up around each other. But we weren’t really friends at first. I was jealous of his natural talent when I was still weak. We ended up being on the same ninja team. Team seven. After going on several missions together we started to see each other for who we really were and became friends.”
“That’s interesting. I was wondering how people as different as you and Sasuke could become friends.”
“We’re really not as different as we may seem.”
Taro doesn’t look as if he agrees but decides to leave the subject. “Do you miss your village?”
Naruto is taken aback by the question. Sure, the majority of the people in his village treated him horribly but there were a select few that he did miss. Kakashi and Sakura mostly. Being a part of team seven felt like finally having a family. He knows it’s for the best that he left his village but it’s not as if there aren’t people he regrets leaving.
“Not the village itself. More like a few people who lived there.”
Taro nods. “If you don’t mind me asking, why’d you leave?”
“Take a good look at me. I’m covered in scars.”
“Your village did that to you?”
“Not the village specifically, though they weren’t fond of me they didn’t do this. It was a leaf ninja. I’m a jinchuriki since you’re not a ninja, I don’t believe you know what a jinchuriki is.”
“I don’t.”
“Thought so. I have a powerful tailed beast sealed inside me that has strong chakra and when I lose to my emotions it slips out. I have accidentally hurt my comrades because of it before so I try not to use its power.”
“I’ve never heard of something like that! But what does that have to do with what you were saying before?”
“This leaf ninja’s family was killed by the nine tailed beast that’s sealed inside me. It was sealed inside me after this incident but practically everyone in my village was convinced that I was the beast that killed and injured so many of the people they loved.”
Understanding dawned on Taro’s face. “The leaf ninja wanted revenge?”
“Exactly. And I guess he got it. Kind of. I mean he’s no longer torturing me and I’m living my life just fine but he ruined a big portion of my life.”
“You’re a strong criminal aren’t you. Can’t you kill him for doing such horrible things to you?”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
Naruto is too ashamed to tell Taro the truth. That he was scared of facing the man who plagues his nightmares. It’s true he’s strong in a fight but he’s positive that if he were to see Kichirou again he would freeze in fear and be useless in battle. He’d rather go the rest of his life never seeing Kichirou again. So instead of telling the other boy the truth he makes up a lie.
“I don’t want to stir up trouble with the leaf village. They’re already after me, it’d be worse to anger them.”
“Ah, okay. Then how about I do it?”
“No. I appreciate the offer but that grudge is mine not yours so don’t worry about it.”
“But you’re my friend, that means your grudges are mine.”
“Thank you, Taro, really, but please don’t do anything. It wouldn’t be of my will.”
“Alright. But if you ever change your mind, tell me.”
Naruto is used to getting these offers from Sasuke. Sasuke always tells him that he could kill Kichirou for him but that doesn’t feel right. If anyone were to kill him he would want it to be himself but he’s also scared of him so at the moment he’s at a stalemate.
—
Naruto’s next mission is a solo mission. He doesn’t really like solo missions as he’s a very social person but he knows he should listen to what Orochimaru’s orders. This mission’s goal is for him to kill the boss that’s been an irritating obstacle for Orochimaru.
This boss is also a criminal and runs a big gang. However, when Naruto sneaks into the woman’s hideout all he finds is blood splattered everywhere. It’s odd but piques Naruto’s curiosity more than fear. He’s faced scarier things than this on missions before.
He walks through the halls of this hideout and finds quite a few dead bodies. It’s as if someone has killed everyone in this gang. It makes his job much easier though he isn’t sure what happened.
Out of nowhere a teenage girl about his age pins him to the wall and holds a knife to his neck. Naruto doesn’t even flinch and keeps his composure. He’s not afraid of a couple nicks. The girl has matted brown hair and a bloodthirsty look in her matching brown eyes.
“Who are you?!” The girl demands to know.
“Um…”
Naruto doesn’t know the right way to answer this question. The right answer probably isn’t that he was here to kill the gang’s boss since she has the snake symbol of the gang on her shoulder.
Naruto doesn’t answer, instead responds with a question of his own. “Did you kill these people?”
It was obvious that it was her as she had blood on her hair, face and clothes. Naruto doesn’t understand why she would kill people of her own gang though.
“What choice did I have?! They all treated me like a punching bag. I was raised by the boss, my mother, to be a mere weapon and not a daughter. I couldn’t hold back my resentment anymore and this is what came of it.”
Tears began to well up in the girl’s eyes as if realizing what she’d done. She took her knife away from Naruto’s neck. She fell to her knees and began to sob. Naruto almost gets whiplash at the change of emotion.
“I killed my mother! I know she was a bad person but she was my mother.”
Naruto gets down on his knees and puts his hand on her shoulder. “You did what you had to. Now they’ll never torment you again.”
“But what am I supposed to do now? Where am I supposed to go?”
“Come with me.”
“Why? So I can join whatever gang you’re part of so I can be tormented again?”
“No. You won’t be tormented, I promise. Also, you killed an entire gang of skilled criminals, you think I’d have the balls to bring you somewhere to be tormented again.”
The girl laughed at that. “Okay, I guess it’s better than staying here. I guess since I’m going with you I should tell you my name. I’m Harumi Okazaki.”
“Naruto Uzumaki.”
—
Naruto’s surprised to find that when he brings Harumi back to Orochimaru’s hideout that she doesn’t immediately fall in love with Sasuke. Literally every girl he knew back in the village that was their age was in love. But Harumi didn’t seem interested at all, she focused on training and the missions that were given to her.
Sasuke got along with her a lot better than Taro since she mostly focused on training than anything else and Sasuke respected that. Naruto was glad that it wasn’t a difficult struggle for them to get along like Taro and Sasuke. Although, Taro is a bit bitter about it.
“Why does he get along with her right away?” Taro complains to Naruto.
“It’s because she keeps to herself so she’s not really a bother to him,” Naruto explains.
—
The next few months the four of them go on missions together. Rio joins from time to time to help them a bit but it’s mostly just them. They learn to trust each other a bit better and get to know each other. Naruto knows they’re his friends and knows that they’re Sasuke’s friends too even if he would never admit it aloud.
Naruto is still stuck with Sasuke most of the time and vice versa but occasionally they spend time all together as well. After spending much time together, Harumi has been told of Naruto’s past and that he’s a jinchuriki too.
In fact when they were camping on one mission they took turns telling each other about the trauma they faced. It can be difficult to talk about such topics but it’s also good for people to open up to their friends.
Naruto has begun to forget the past. He has new people here for him. It’s not that he doesn’t miss the rest of team seven he merely is learning to be content with the people he’s with now. He wishes to stay with them as long as possible.
His nightmares have continued. Because of this he mostly sleeps in Sasuke’s room as he doesn’t like being alone with his nightmares and also because Sasuke makes him feel safe. His nightmares aren’t as bad when he’s with Sasuke than when he’s away from Sasuke.
That’s what’s bothering him tonight. Sasuke is away for a mission for a few days and he’s too scared to sleep without the other boy here. This always happens when Sasuke is on solo missions that last over a night.
Naruto barely ever sleeps when Sasuke’s away. Taro and Harumi have expressed their concern but Naruto has always waved them off.
Naruto decides that he’ll get a cup of water and maybe, probably not, go back to his room to go to sleep. When he gets out of his room he runs into Harumi and Taro. They look as if they were about to knock on his door.
Taro holds up a board game. “Do you want to play with us?”
Harumi looks at him waiting for his answer. “It’ll be like a slumber party! We could stay up all night!”
Naruto smiles. He knows they’re only offering this because they know how much he struggles to sleep when the other is away. He agrees to the game and follows them out, abandoning the thought of getting a cup of water.
They play different board games all night and talk about all sorts of things. Missions they’ve been on or embarrassing secrets.
“Hey, it’s not a slumber party if we don’t paint each other’s nails,” Harumi states.
“That’s for girl slumber parties,” Taro replies.
Harumi frowns. “I’ve never been to one but I bought black nail polish and everything.”
Harumi sounded really disappointed that Naruto and Taro ended up giving in and letting her paint their nails. Naruto likes it, he thinks he might keep his nails painted like this. Taro is a little embarrassed by it but he goes along with it since it makes his friends happy.
“I might keep painting my nails like this. It looks cool!” Naruto expresses to the others.
Harumi grins. “Me too! We can be matching.”
“You guys look cool, but I don’t think this is my thing,” Taro tells them.
“That’s okay. It’ll be me and Harumi’s thing.”
Taro smiles. “Our nails are dried so let's finish this game that I’m winning.”
“I’ll catch up to you!” Naruto promises.
Taro chuckles. “I’d like to see you try.”
Naruto smiles to himself. They gave up their sleep so he would have company and wouldn’t be left alone while Sasuke was away. It meant a lot to him.
—
Naruto was thrown a surprise party for his fifteenth birthday. He wasn’t expecting it because he never told Harumi and Taro when his birthday meant that Sasuke must have. They even got Rio to be there too. Naruto’s assuming that’s who made the cake as Sasuke’s is horrible at baking despite being a great cook.
They all got him gifts and he loved each one of them. Honestly, he didn’t care about the presents, he cared that they were there to celebrate him. He’s never felt more loved in his life. He feels his happiness warm his heart.
These people mean the world to him. He would die for any one of them. They were like family to him. He’s ready to let go of the leaf village now.
That’s what he thought until a couple days later when Sakura and Kakashi found their hideout. They’re here to bring them back. They’re both shocked to see the scars on Naruto’s skin and it makes him feel quite self conscious. There’s two new people as well. Someone named Yamato and another named Sai.
Sasuke managed to get most of them to leave but Sai pledged that he needed to join them for a man named Danzo. Naruto finds Sai a bit odd. He looks like Sasuke but they’re really different from him.
Sai makes Naruto curious so he decides to bother the boy. “What’s your mission?”
“That’s classified.”
“That’s boring.”
“...”
Not much of a talker huh? That doesn’t matter, Naruto is a talker.
“You draw your jutsus, right? That’s cool. I’ve never seen anything like it and you paint so fast but so well, it’s incredible!”
“What do you want from me?”
Naruto raises his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“Why do you keep talking to me? What are you trying to find out?”
“Are you not supposed to talk to your comrades? You’re joining us right?”
“You’re Naruto Uzumaki, correct?”
“Hm? How would you know my name?”
Sai gives him a blank stare. “You’re the blond ninja that my cover up mission was supposed to capture. Of course I would know your name.”
“Ah, that’s right,” Naruto gives a light chuckle.
“What’s funny?”
“I can’t believe I missed something so obvious!”
“You’re exactly like your teammates described.”
Sai was expecting that his teammates would hit a nerve but Naruto isn’t bothered at all.
“And how was I described?”
“Talkative.”
Naruto smiles at that. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”
“You’re quite weird for a criminal.”
“Huh? What’s that mean?”
“You’re not very scary.”
“What?! I’m terrifying! I strike fear in my opponents hearts!”
“I don’t feel any fear in my heart.”
“That’s because you’re not my opponent.”
Naruto also isn’t sure how he feels about Sai betraying his old teammates but he reminds himself that he did the same thing when he left the village. Everyone has their reasons. Naruto wonders what Sai’s reasoning is.
Sasuke doesn’t seem to like Sai and keeps pulling Naruto away from talking to the boy. He keeps warning Naruto that Sai is suspicious but all Naruto says in response,
“We’re criminals, Sasuke, aren’t we all suspicious?”
Whenever Naruto speaks with Sai, Sasuke will glare at Sai. At this point Naruto usually talks to Sai when Sasuke is in another room.
“Why do you keep talking to me?” Sai questions.
“You’re mysterious! I want to get to know you!” Naruto answers.
Sai gets up and leaves. Naruto follows behind him much to Sai’s annoyance. Sai walks until they are outside and by a pond.
“Would you give up on following me? I came here to get away from you.”
“Ouch. Fine. I’ll leave you alone when you answer one question of mine.”
“Okay.”
“What is your reason for following Danzo?”
Sai is taken back by the question. “Whatever do you mean?”
“Is he someone you admire? Did he save you from something? Do you want to be like him?”
Naruto has heard rumors about what kind of person Danzo is and is unsure why anyone would want to work for the man.
“No, to all of those. He’s just who I work for.”
“Yeah I know that but why? It’s not like you have to.”
Sai has clearly never questioned this himself and doesn’t know how to respond. “Why are you telling me this? Danzo told me to join you guys.”
“Yeah, to kill me and Sasuke.”
Sai’s eyes widened. “How-”
“How did I know? You left your stuff laying around in your room and happened to stumble upon your book.”
“I-”
“I don’t want to fight you. Please, tell me, why would you follow a man like Danzo?”
“I… I don’t know.”
“Then maybe you should start living your life for you and not him.”
After wrecking Sai’s entire life view Sai left and joined back into the leaf village to officially become a part of team seven. Naruto had told Sasuke about Sai’s plan but tol the boy to wait until he could talk to Sai first. He knows Danzo raises children to be soldiers who blindly follow his every order so he wanted to give Sai a chance to change his life.