Chapter 20
The next couple of weeks were busy enough to compete with when they first arrived. Everyone seemed excited and was running around like crazy. The teachers at the school started more advanced chakra meditation and jutsu like cloning are being introduced a little early. Since there weren’t many students anymore, they could all zoom through material like history and math.
On that last note, Naruto made leaps with math and was leagues ahead of Sasuke. Still, it would take months to get everything ready yet everyone was acting like it had to be done yesterday.
“Sure is busy lately.” Naruto mused as he munched on his breakfast.
“Hnn.” Naruto would get mad at him again if he didn’t say anything. The blond was sensitive about being ignored even after being with Shisui for so long. They had an unspoken agreement that Sasuke would try to say something, even when his social battery was running low.
They swiftly navigated the streets and made their way to school. Before they entered, Sasuke made sure to invite Naruto. “Mom said she was sorry about delaying our conversation and you should come over for dinner tonight.”
Naruto lit up at the idea. “Yeah! We can go after we finish exploring,” They had made sure not to go back towards THAT room but everywhere else was fair game. Aside from the two seals, they didn’t find anything else interesting.
“I talked to the others, they said they would leave the hideout to us.” Sasuke grinned. They were going to try a dry run on the summoning seal after school and had been practicing drawing it for the last few weeks. Now they only needed to practice making it the right size. It didn’t even take much convincing to get the other children to clear out for the afternoon.
They both went into the same classroom now that Naruto was more or less caught up in lessons. Although there were still some surprises like when Naruto started talking about the extended education he received from the red light district, everyone was on the same page, for the most part.
Sasuke took his regular seat in the front row while Naruto gave a cheeky wave and situated himself next to the window. He told Sasuke once it helped his concentration but the other figured it was more because it made a good exit during breaks. The teacher then called the class’s attention for the lesson and, despite having trouble sitting still, Sasuke made sure to dutifully take his notes.
The first period passed in a blink and the two went to Naruto’s house for lunch since it was closer, their break being spent on filling plans for after school. Sasuke almost felt guilty for lacking his normal focus in class.
When they were finally released, Naruto grabbed him by the arm and started running before he was ready. Already used to the sight, nobody batted an eye at the pair as they zigged and zagged through the crowd towards the cave. With all the expansions to the village, the school had been moved further from the cave so the two were out of breath when they arrived. “Alright, ready for this.” Naruto seemed way more excited than Sasuke even though it was his plan.
“Let’s go,” he ran ahead and into the cave. It took no time at all for them to make it to the hideout but it took significantly longer for them to stop wrestling long enough to get started.
“Who do you think should go first?” Sasuke asked, as he erased his soot line to redraw it straighter. Since the cave was stone, they decided soot would be the best way to make the circle because it was easy to erase when they were done and fix it if they mess it up.
“You?” Naruto said while looking at him thoughtfully. “I mean, It’s your scroll and your idea, so you should get to try it out.” Here he smiled mischievously, “And if it blows up, you’ll be the one to explain your missing eyebrows to Aunt Mikoto.” Sasuke shuddered at the thought of his mothers wrath.
Naruto continued, “Hey, we’ve got time to figure it out and we’re only doing a dry run today anyway.”
“Yeah, I guess you're right.” They both stopped and checked their work against the scroll that Sasuke had smuggled from his house in his backpack. “It says here we need to mold our chakra with an element to make it easier to read.” Sasuke tried to decipher the scroll. Naruto squinting behind him.
“Does it say what hand signs to use?” Naruto asked and Sasuke looked at the scroll, stared for a moment, read over the beginning again, turned it around, and looked at Naruto in confusion.
“It doesn’t say. Maybe that means we can use a basic focusing seal.” Naruto held his hands as they showed them in class.
“Like this?”
Sasuke looked critically at his friend and held up a more advanced seal, “Maybe more like this?” He really should have known better than to compare chakra seals with Naruto because they soon forgot about the seal as they formed more complex hand signs.
It was hard to forget it though when the entire room lit up. Including the seal on the stone near the entrance. The seal they discovered on the stone near the entrance lit up to match the one on the ground. Even Naruto’s own seal on his stomach was shining through his shirt so brightly Sasuke thought it would burn.
Sasuke felt his Sharingan whirl to life as he and Naruto became weightless. He reached out to Naruto and felt a pressure in his stomach before his entire world went black. He didn’t think he passed out but there was only black all around him. “Naruto!” he cried out but didn’t get a response.
After several attempts with the same results, he put the scroll he managed to hold on to in his bag and started walking in a random direction. That plan only worked long enough for him to smash into a wall. The surface was clearly made out of stone.Ow. A few test kicks to the ground let him know that it was made of the same stone material. With at least something to keep track of, he felt his way along the wall, calling for Naruto every 20 feet or so. No answer but after what was definitely hours of walking, he found a light ahead of him. Assuming it was the mouth of the cave, he quickened his pace and almost tripped when the sunlight hit his face.
“Uh oh,” This was not the cave he entered. For starters, the village was completely gone and replaced by an unfamiliar forest. Even though it was winter at home, it was almost hot here. “Something must have gone wrong with the seal,” Sasuke mused out loud.
“Or maybe right,” an unknown voice corrected him. Sasuke spun so fast towards the sound, his vision swam for a moment before it settled on a tree. “Not quite but pretty close.” The voice teased from the other side of the clearing. Whoever it was didn’t sound threatening but since Sasuke wasn’t supposed to be sucked into magic seals, he figured he shouldn’t take his chances.
“You shouldn’t tease him so much,” another, older voice chided the first. Sasuke heard the branches overhead rustle. “Hello, young one,” a very large bird was talking to him. Sasuke held his ground and looked it in the eyes.
“What is an Uchiha doing here of all places?” The first bird jumped down where Sasuke could see what he assumed by her voice, was a female bird. While she wasn’t as large as the older one, she looked just as intimidating. Her feathers were bright red with orange undertones and she had wicked looking talons. Sasuke thought he saw a light glint off a blade hidden in her wing.
The male didn’t look older to him but he was much larger and sounded older. His feathers were a darker red with a yellow starburst pattern on his neck. Sasuke didn’t know what kind of birds they were but the scroll said they would be helpful to him.
“Seal?” Sasuke managed to get out. He felt like his mom caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. “Where’s Naruto?” Now that he found his voice, he was determined to use it.
“I don’t know who Naruto is?” The older bird answered, sounding amused.
“My friend, we were looking at a seal and it accidentally activated. I guess it was supposed to take us to the place where we would find a summoning contract?” It came out more like a question.
“Then I guess your friend isn’t compatible with us.” The female bird said conversationally. “It’s been a while since anyone has come to our humble little forest.” She stepped closer and Sasuke tried to step back.
His back hit a tree and he realized a little too late that the birds led him into a corner. A voice at the back of his mind reminded the warning about finding unfriendly summons and he pulled out a weapon. It looked like a toothpick compared to the great spirits in front of him but he wasn’t going to end up being someone else’s lunch.
The female laughed at the meager threat while the male looked concerned and turned his head around the clearing before settling his gaze back on the boy. “Ohhh! Don’t worry, I won’t eat you or anything like that.”
“People don’t taste very good anyway,” Sasuke stuttered. The two animals stepped back and gave him pointed looks. It took a moment for him to figure out what they wanted and he put his weapon away. Not that he believes he could win in a fight that didn’t seem to want to happen. He forced himself to relax and looked around a bit more. There were other birds of different sizes in the trees surrounding him. Great.
“Why don’t you sit and make yourself comfortable so we can talk for a while,hm? After all… It really has been some time since we’ve had guests.” The male bird from before gestured to a stone in the middle of the clearing and flew over to it. He settled on the ground as Sasuke gathered his barings and walked over with as much dignity as he could muster.
He settled on the rock and introduced himself. “Hi, I’m Sasuke. How did you know I was an Uchiha?” His curiosity was getting the better of him again now that he was a little more assured of his safety.
“Hard not to tell with eyes like those!” Someone called out and there was a cacophony of laughter around him. Sasuke blushed when he realized he never deactivated his Sharingan.
“Oh, sorry.” Some people were really nervous when the Sharingan was activated and he didn’t mean to be rude.
“Don’t mind them. I’m Fushii and these are my children. It was very dangerous for you and your friend to mess around with unknown seals.” The male bird chided.
“Well, it wasn’t supposed to work yet,” he sulked.
“Well, it did,” the female from before mocked with mirth.
“What seal brought you here? We never gave the humans a way to summon us.” The weight from how he looked at Sasuke made the question feel more like an interrogation than a friendly chat. He carefully pulled the scroll from his bag, deciding he would not risk his life trying to socialize with this bird. He could barely tell human emotions apart most of the time so to trust the words of a magical bird isn’t a step he's willing to risk after the stroke of luck he’s had so far.
“Here,” He spread the scroll out and waited while several colorful birds surrounded it and started squawking at each other. He didn’t know what they were saying but was content to watch the different colors swirl together. He had never seen so many on wild animals before. His mother told him once that birds could come in pink but he hadn’t fully believed it before today.
They didn’t seem to calm down after a few minutes and even started arguing. The young boy really tried to keep track of how they were speaking but it was hard not getting bored since he couldn’t understand them. “Soooo,” the female was next to him now, watching and waiting. “What’s your name?”
The bird seemed to mull something over before answering. “You can call me Kaja.” Sasuke waited for her to continue but she didn’t volunteer more information. If it wasn’t for Sasuke’s diplomacy training, he would be fidgeting under her gaze.
“Are you not going to join in?” He gestured over to the others that were trying to break up a fight two of the smaller birds were having.
“Nah,” she declined and settled on the ground next to him. Even with her sitting, she came to about eye level with Sasuke sitting on his perch. “I don’t do politics very well.”
“Where are we anyway?” Might as well attempt to make conversation with the less scary one.
“We don’t really have a name for this place. It faded when we refused to give our summoning scroll to humans generations ago.” She looked almost sad. Sasuke didn’t know what to say, so he rested his hand on his lap and waited for her to continue.
“Your kind called us Basan once upon a time.” She was pensive now. Sasuke knew how to help his father and brother be distracted when they were pensive but he had never tried it on someone he didn’t know very well.
“I didn’t know summons could give you their scrolls?” It was apparently the prompt she needed.
She snorted “How else do you think they get in your world? Every 50 years or so, summons meet from different worlds in Hikoboshi to decide. There, it’s decided which scrolls get given to the shinobi villages.”
“I think some of my family has contracts with cats and Shisui has been teaching Itachi about crows. Did they come from the village?”
She was patient as she explained. “No, some larger clans are gifted summons to use separate from the village. It is rare though. The Uchiha has dwindled since its glory days.” Now it was Sasuke’s turn to grow pensive.
It wasn’t the first time he was told the clan was becoming smaller but it didn’t register how small until they left the village all together. There was a reason they only had two class groups at the academy and even then, everyone was able to get individual help. There were many more adults than children.
“I’m sorry to say if you came looking for a summon, then this scroll brought you to the wrong place. You would not know by looking at us now but we are still recovering from a great betrayal.” Sasuke looked around. Everyone there looked fierce.
“But you're all so strong.” He could tell even without the Sharingan activated.
“Yes, but the problem is the contracts. After they are given into the village, they cannot be taken back. We must help the one who holds our contract, even if it costs us our lives. It’s a terrible thing when a contract gets gifted to a rotten human. The cats and crows are very lucky to have such loyalty given to them. We lost our mother to the shinobi. She was used as bait. After that, we fought until we destroyed the contract so no other person could use us again.” She almost whispered the last part. Her pain and anger burned brightly.
Just the idea of losing his mother was making him tear up a bit. “I’m sorry for your loss.” He couldn’t imagine losing his parents or itachi. Even Naruto was becoming like a brother to him, even if he was more annoying than Itachi.
She looked at him strangely. “I am surprised that I believe you.” They sat in silence for a while.
“If you guys aren’t willing to make a contract, why did the scroll bring me here?”
“I think I can explain that.” He almost fell off his rock as Fushii interrupted his conversation, he was surprisingly stealthy for his size. He was so engrossed with talking to Kaja that he didn’t realize the squawking had calmed and they were all looking at him. Fushii returned him the scroll.
“This seal is very old. I didn't think they existed anymore. It is made to read the needs and compatibilities of both parties before teleporting you to an agreed meeting place. How you ended up so close to us is a mystery though. Did something happen while you were activating the seal?”
Sasuke thought for a moment. “There was a stone related to Naruto somehow. It started glowing while we were doing some chakra molding exercises. Next thing I know, I’m in a cave.”
“What did the seal look like?” Sasuke settled onto the ground and tried to recreate it. It was difficult to remember it but he managed to draw a general shape.
“Ah, I see.” Fushii looked content with the answer but Kaja was impatient.
“Well, I don’t. What happened?” She shuffled her wings at the look the older bird directed at her.
“You’ll have to forgive my oldest daughter, she can be a handful at times. The seal looks like it’s from the Uzumaki. You kids should not have been able to activate the original seal but if you pooled your chakra and used this.” He pointed to the seal Sasuke drew, “It might be possible. That’s why you didn’t make it to the meeting ground. This is a concentrator seal.”
“Concentrator seal?” Sasuke asked.
“Yes, it makes chakra more potent and magnifies it. Only an Uzumaki can use it though. From what I remember, they placed them in safe houses so that one person could easily defeat an army.”
“Whoa!” Sasuke didn’t know it was that important. “Is Naruto going to be okay after using it?” He learned in school that some family jutsus hurt the person that cast it.
“Not to worry. You two managed to obtain the one scroll that reads both sides of the contract. Neither of you should face anything too terribly violent.” He laughed but there was something serious in his eyes. “That doesn’t mean you should ever repeat this. You got lucky and could have very well died. Not many summon worlds would have a warm welcome to humans.”
Sasuke swallowed hard at the thought. “Enough about that though. What do you think brought you here?” All eyes turned to look at him and Sasuke felt like he was just asked to do an oral report that he hadn’t written.
“Uhhh?” He looked to Kaja for help and found her smiling. No help there then. It was hard to tell with her having a beak but he got the feeling she was laughing at him. Deciding honesty had suited him well before, he shrugged his shoulders, “No idea?”
The silence broke in an instant and everyone started chattering at the same time. Some in outrage and others in curiosity. There were many questions pointed at the young Uchiha and he tried to answer them but he couldn’t keep up. Kaja, just to be contrary, did come to his rescue this time with a shrill whistle. It reminded him of his mother.
“Let him talk,” she flapped her wings. Her father looked at her knowingly. Sasuke didn’t know what but apparently he knew something. She settled back down. “Why don’t you just tell us about yourself and we can go from there.” It was as good an idea as any so Sasuke started talking. It felt like hours but the sun wasn’t setting so he couldn’t have been too long before he was finished.
He told them about his family and how much he wanted to protect them. About them leaving the village and the nine tails attack. He told them about building a new home and their plans for the spring. Usually he wasn’t chatty but when he pretended he was just talking to Kaja, it wasn’t so scary. One of the others would interrupt with a question every now and then but for the most part, they let him speak.
He hesitated after he was finished and they offered him water. He waited for Fushii to confirm it was safe before he drank it though. He didn’t think they would poison him on purpose but he heard horrifying stories about accepting food from other worlds.
“I am sorry, young one. It seems you came all this way for nothing. You are stronger than you realize. It must be the age of the scroll. My flock was once fierce warriors to be feared and respected but as of late, we are weak. I am growing old as well, not much good in a fight.”
“You shouldn’t say that about yourself. You seem like you're really smart.” Sasuke corrected the older bird. “You said it yourself, the Uchiha are weaker too. We were also betrayed by our home. Don’t make excuses. You can get stronger.” He didn’t understand why Konoha betrayed them but the truth was easy to see. Konoha was the betrayer. He was breathing harder when he finished his tirade.
Embarrassed, he turned red and sat back down. For the first time since he arrived, Kaja didn’t laugh at his response. She was the one who broke the silence anyways. “I think he’s right father. We can’t just hide away until we fade away. We are warriors and should act like it.” She looked away and into the trees. Sasuke could relate. He would be worried about talking to his father like that.
She took a breath before she continued. “I want to grow stronger with this one. I don’t think the scroll brought him to us for him to use us. I think it brought him here to help.”
Sasuke stayed silent as the two had a twittered conversation. He didn’t understand the words but he could tell Fushii slumped in defeat while Kaja beamed in victory. Fushii looked at her once more before turning to Sasuke. “If you still want to form a contract with us. We would be honored to work with you.”
Sasuke’s smile lit up the clearing. His resounding yes got cheers all the way around. Fushii taught him how to draw the circle for their contract and what it would entail. Sasuke could tell they were nervous as the last of the contract was drawn and given to him. “Keep this somewhere safe at all times. You don’t have to have it on your person so you're free to lock it away. Anytime you call on us, we will answer.”
Sasuke held tightly to the scroll. He swore he would not abuse the trust that was given to him. He felt terrible about what happened to them and would never let history repeat itself. He looked around after everything was done and asked the most important question of the day.
“So… How am I supposed to get Home?”