Chapter 14
Sasuke knew something was up when he first opened his eyes. Yesterday, after the talk, he remembered Mikoto telling him today was special because of Shisui’s mission so they wouldn’t have class. Even though his parents almost never let him sleep in like this. According to the sun outside, it had to have been at least eight. Fearing that something might be wrong, he turned around and nudged Naruto.
The blond still had red rimmed eyes from last night, between his crying and the stories they heard. Sasuke didn’t have any time to ask his mom about the second rule. He figured he would just ask later when Naruto was feeling better. “Hey, Wake up.” He started poking his friend and when that didn’t work. He got more creative.
“Wakey, Wakey,” He knew he was acting a little childish bouncing on the bed, but it was working. Naruto grumbled and started pulling the blanket closer to him. Getting an idea, Sasuke got out of bed and pulled open the curtains completely, letting the morning sun bathe the room. “We got things to do.” He walked back over to the bed and jerked the blanket off of Naruto.
“Hey, go away!” Naruto was curling up and trying to run.
“Uh-uh” Sasuke said petulantly and started bouncing on the bed again until his friend grumbled a curse and got up to wash his face.
Feeling a little bad about it, Sasuke started a conversation. “Those stories were pretty cool, huh?” Sasuke had never heard about these adventures between their parents so he was just as enthralled as Naruto last night.
That made the other boy perk up, “Yeah, I had a mom!” He still seemed stuck at that part but his enthusiasm had Sasuke smiling as they washed their faces and brushed their teeth.
“Hey, you know the best part about getting up early?”
Sasuke could hear the gears turning in Naruto’s head before he asked. “What?”
Sasuke's grin was downright evil. “Waking everyone else up!” Naruto bolted to Shisui’s room to jump him and Sasuke headed downstairs where he could already hear his mom cooking something. There weren’t any eggs yet, unfortunately. It was decided they would wait on the daimyo approval before they would buy livestock so they wouldn’t waste the resources if they had to run.
The rest of it smelled amazing though. There was bacon and oatmeal with some dried fruits. Sasuke loved fruit but his mom was insistent on not wasting it until after Shisui returned with the daimyo's response. Sasuke was raised as his parent’s son so instead of pure happiness at the treat, his mind filled with suspicion. Itachi was already sitting at the table and his father was nowhere to be seen but this was particularly late to be cooking breakfast.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” He asked his mom in what he hoped was an innocent way. The way Itachi turned his head to hide his smile, he figured he failed to completely hide his suspicion.
“No reason,” Mikoto said mildly. “We had a lot happen yesterday so I figured you two needed the morning off is all.”
It made sense to Sasuke so he felt his shoulders relax, remembering his question from last night, he started to ask. “What was that second…..”
His question was interrupted by a grunting Shisui with Naruto on his back banging into the kitchen. Shisui was never a morning person so he was really fun to mess with this early. Sasuke put on his most innocent look and said “Good Morning!” By the stink eye he received, his cousin knew who sicked Naruto on him.
It was hard to stay mad though as he gently disentangled the younger boy and went to sit on one side of Itachi. Sasuke quickly claimed the other. They had to add chairs from storage for the two additions but being the leader had some perks. One of them was a fairly large kitchen with a big round table. It was a bit intimidating for Sasuke not to see his father at the head of the table but his father said the shape was important and he would get used to it.
He didn’t mind too much because he got to sit between Itachi and Naruto and across from his mother. “Any plans for the day?” Mikoto asked the table in general. Itachi and Shisui just muttered some excuses and focused on their food. Not that it was awkward.
“Don’t we have to get things ready for today?” Sasuke asked and Naruto pouted at the extra work.
“Well, Well.” Mikoto answered. “You boys have been working so hard, I figured you could take the morning off to explore a bit.” The offer was tempting but Sasuke knew how much work could be done.
“Are you sure?” he trailed off. His mother almost looked sad before Naruto answered for her.
“Of course, auntie’s always sure. Let's go play in those caves a bit more.” Naruto hinted and Sasuke knew he wanted to go hang out in their hideout of sorts. After the attack on their first day, the kids did a remarkable job clearing that hole out and none of them told the adults where they hid. Sasuke was pretty sure his mom knew anyway but was keeping it a secret for them.
He didn’t get much time to hang out with all the running he did, so the idea of doing nothing but playing was appealing. “If you’re sure..” He trailed off again, looking to his mom for approval.
“That sounds like a wonderful idea!” Mikoto enthusiastically replied and Sasuke became more confident.
“You guys could be adventurers, looking for treasure or something.” Shisui added. Even Itachi piped in about making a map. That sounded pretty fun to Sasuke so he agreed to go with Naruto after breakfast. They ate quickly and Naruto all but dragged Sasuke out the front door and off to the edge of the village. Mikoto wasn’t too worried. The older kids had been exploring the cave between chores and aside from a few small critters scuttling about, there wasn’t anything dangerous so far.
“How far could two kids actually get,” Shisui commented when he saw Mikotos face. “We have a lot of work to do before they get back.”
Shisui and Mikoto went to the village center where Fugaku was already setting up the party while Itachi went to follow the boys in the cave. It wasn’t like Mikoto didn’t trust them but the two of them have found trouble more than once after going off on their own. Besides they needed to know when the two would be headed back so they didn’t spoil anything.
Sasuke was feeling a bit bored after doing some training in the hang out. There was one or two other kids in there so they didn’t do any big jutsu for fear of bringing down the walls. They talked for a while, or more like Naruto talked and Sasuke listened. Sasuke didn’t mind though. Naruto didn’t bug him near as much as he did in Konoha.
It might have been because the only thing the blond seemed to do in Konoha was being loud. He was still wide but in Usushio he seemed less annoying. Less like he was pulling Sasuke down and more like climbing to him. It was hard to explain but just made sense to Sasuke.
“We should have brought some paper or something.” Sasuke complained when they began exploring the rest of the cave. With the Sharingan activated, Sasuke was easily able to tell the path they took and he even taught Naruto the jutsu to make light so it wasn’t scary.
Sasuke gave up trying to map out every tunnel pretty quickly and that devolved into an odd game of marco polo where Naruto would run ahead and try to ambush the other boy. He was good at traps but Sasuke knew he was coming. They ran around for a while and before he realized it, they had gone quite deep.
“Hellloooo!” Naruto yelled and they both listened to the echo coming back. They spent a few minutes yelling whatever they could think of and listening to the return. They were going through a smaller tunnel when something happened.
Naruto slipped on some loose rocks next to a hole and grabbed at the first thing he could hold, which happened to be Sasuke’s arm. They both tumbled about 10 feet to the bottom of said hole.
“Whyyyy?” Sasuke would never admit to whining as he untangled himself from his friend.
“Owww,” Naruto added his own voice. The two of them scuffled for a minute before standing up. The light was out from the fall but Sasuke was able to pat himself and Naruto down. He didn’t feel any blood and Naruto didn’t gasp when he touched him.
“Are you okay?” He asked just to be sure. He waited for Naruto to relight their jutsu because they discovered during the school curriculum Naruto had some major chakra reserves.
“Yeah, Yeah.” Naruto pushed Sasuke’s hands away from him and started searching the walls for a way up. Sasuke gave up and started looking at the same wall. He realized there was no use and started looking around the hole instead.
“Hey, look,” He pointed to a tunnel going down.
“Wonder what’s down there?” Naruto was inching closer to the opening. “Want to check it out?” He was already walking that way so Sasuke didn’t have much of a choice.
The two walked quietly for about half a minute before Naruto started talking again. Sasuke wasn’t really worried yet. They were pretty deep in the cave but with a village full of Sharingan, even if they couldn’t get back up the hole. Someone would come looking for them at lunch and find them pretty quickly.
The tunnel had straighter walls than the others they had explored so far. They looked almost cut out of the stone. There also weren’t any other tunnels going any other direction. It went downward until Sasuke was sure they had to be in the middle of the mountain. They walked about 20 more minutes before Sasuke saw an opening.
“Hey, Its the same as my shirt!” Naruto pointed to a spiral etched on the arch in front of a wall. It looked like a dead end to Sasuke. He squinted at the spiral and looked at Naruto’s back. It was the same symbol. Getting closer to the wall, Sasuke touched it and looked for anything but didn’t see anything. He flared his Sharingan and clenched them shut just as quickly with a hiss.
“Hey, What happened?” Naruto was by his side in an instant.
“I don’t know, it just…hurts?” He blinked the spots away from his now deactivated eyes and rubbed them. He couldn’t decide if it really hurt or not but he never heard of a Sharingan acting that way. To be fair, his real training wouldn’t happen until after his ceremony.
“The wall?” Naruto reached out and touched the same wall. It rippled like water. Even with his Sharingan deactivated Sasuke could feel the energy coming off of it. One moment he and Naruto were watching, the next the two of them were 10 feet further down the tunnel with Itachi’s arms around the two of them and Naruto staring ahead. When the rippling stopped, there were a bunch of symbols on the wall.
“We should probably tell mom and dad about this.” Itachi stated simply and set down the two boys. Sasuke didn’t even question why he was there. He always seemed to show up when Sasuke was thinking about getting into trouble. “It’s about time we get back.” Itachi said simply. They had been exploring for close to two hours so Sasuke agreed.
“Yeah, I’m starving.” Naruto exclaimed like he didn’t just cause the earth to spit out some secret passage.
“Okay,” Sasuke thought it best to simply agree and the three of them headed back up the tunnel. Itachi carried them one at a time up the hole by STICKING TO THE WALL. Sasuke was so going to bug him until he taught him that.
“Maybe next time.” Itachi smiled but that satisfied both boys for the time being. Itachi didn’t say much else on the way to the entrance but he did point out oddly shaped rocks.
“Oh, yeah. Hey Sasuke, tell Itachi about that weird rock in the hideout.” Naruto spoke before he put both hands over his mouth.
Itachi’s eyes focused on Sasuke as he asked simply “What rock?”
Sasuke tried to explain but words were not his strong suit. “There is a big clear rock in the hang out.” He figured Itachi was young enough to know, even if he was with his father a bunch. He could keep good secrets. “More like a crystal. We found it when we first got it. I covered it with mud but everyone kinda forgot about it.”
“Can you show me?” Itachi seemed interested so Sasuke was quick to accept. Sasuke showed Itachi the rock.
“Naruto,” Itachi asked. “Try touching it.” Naruto reached forward and ran his hand over the stone to wipe some of the mud off.
There wasn’t a ripple this time. It was more like the stone was smooth one second and had more symbols on it the next. Unlike the other symbols though, these faded after only a few minutes.
“Interesting,” Itachi commented and they found their way out of the cave.