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Weakest Link
Waking up, Naruto blinked a couple of times and looked carefully around. He had been put in the corner of a rather shabby looking room; cobwebs, heavy with dust, covered the corners of the ceiling from view. The walls had been built from wooden planks; at one point they had probably been quite pristine, but now they were filthy with grime and some had small holes in them, letting some daylight filter through the gaps. The floor wasn't faring much better with its equally dirty planks, which had been torn up in a couple of places, exposing the earth beneath them.
Nothing that resembled furniture or a lamp was present in the room, which given the condition it was in didn't surprise Naruto in the slightest. The vague noise of leaves rustling in the wind and the chirping of some birds nearby gave away that he had to be in some kind of forest. The one near Konoha? It had to be unless he had been knocked out for way longer than he presumed.
You were only out for three hours, Kurama explained; three of his tails swishing back and forth.
Naruto raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised that he was still able to communicate with the fox. When he had been taken off guard by the unknown assailant, he had thought he would wake up to find his connection with Kurama completely cut off. Instead, he was still able to talk to him and – he tested the restraints around his wrists – he wasn't even completely tied up. Whoever had knocked him out, had simply tied his wrists together with rope. A sturdy one for sure, but nothing that would keep him tied up for long.
The hell was going on here?
"Are they messing with us?" Naruto asked dubiously.
He felt like he should be more concerned considering he had no idea who had knocked him out and basically abducted him nor why they had done so, but it was hard to remain worried when he still had full access to both his own chakra and that of Kurama's. Frankly, right now he was too befuddled to even be pissed off.
That or they have no idea who you are. Kurama's eyes glinted amused.
"Not that I'm arrogant or something, but do you really think there are still people who have no idea who I am?" Naruto questioned sceptically.
He really didn't want to be an arrogant dick, but it was difficult to believe there was somebody out there who didn't even have the faintest clue who he was. Having played a crucial part in ending the war, even the most secluded villages tended to recognise him if he came across them during one of his missions. At the same time, somebody not knowing who he was, could be the only explanation why after knocking him out, they had only tied him up with some rope and hadn't even thought to try to severe the connection between him and Kurama.
Seriously, what the hell was happening?
There must be, considering they didn't do anything else but tie your wrists with some rope, Kurama answered bored. They have yet to show up, but I can't say I'm impressed by them.
"To be fair, are you ever impressed by anybody?" Naruto snorted, sitting up straighter against the wall.
He just needed to twist his wrists a couple of times more and then –
The lone door, almost hidden entirely from sight by shadows, suddenly opened, attracting Naruto's attention. With him having been sedated and abducted, he had expected to perhaps see a criminal he had caught before or somebody he might have wronged somehow at some point.
Instead a man he had never seen before in his life entered the room. He was quite bland looking, save for the jagged scar cutting his nose in two and his brown eyes were narrowed as they regarded Naruto. His shaggy dark brown hair wasn't quite long enough in the front to cover up another scar peeking out from the hairline. He wore a simple black shirt and trousers, but his belt was filled with kunai and the pouch around his right thigh might contain shuriken.
"You're awake," the man commented critically, halting in the middle of the room.
It was on the tip of Naruto's tongue to reply "No shit" but before he could say so, the man continued, "I'm sure you're wondering why you are here now."
Quite the chatty one, it seems, Kurama muttered, laying his head down on his paws. Wake me up when you're ready to let loose, kit.
It was a good thing the man could have no idea what Kurama had just said – if he was even aware that Naruto was a Jinchuuriki, but surely he could not be that oblivious? – because no doubt it would have offended him greatly to be dismissed in this manner. There was no better way for Kurama to indicate how very much of a none-threat this guy was than him actually closing his eyes and dozing off, awaiting Naruto's cue.
Well, he supposed Kurama wasn't that interested in letting loose today then. It was always nice to be able to contain the bloodshed to a minimum.
"I was wondering that, yes," Naruto said when the guy just looked at him expectantly like the dramatic weirdo he was turning out to be. Eugh, did he really have to deal with this? All he had wanted, was to just go home and get some dinner!
"Did we meet before?" Naruto wondered, but he was fairly certain they hadn't.
Even with such a bland looking face – he could give Yamato a run for his money in that regard – he thought his looks would spark some kind of memory, especially with that none too subtle scar smackdab in the middle of his face.
"No, we have not," the man replied calmly. "You are here because unfortunately your choice of companionship leaves much to be desired."
"My choice of what," Naruto said blankly. He was getting really confused now; had this dude really abducted him because he was somehow offended by the friends Naruto had? The hell? What was wrong with his friends? Had one of them somehow pissed him off?
"I really did not want to do this, you know," the man continued and produced some – chalk out of his pocket.
Nothing was adding up here.
"Because aside from your deplorable taste in companionship - "
"Hey now, there's nothing wrong with my taste!" Naruto protested.
No, no, the idiot human has a point, Kurama hummed, still with his eyes closed. I wouldn't say you have much taste when you're keeping Uchiha around.
"Oh hush you, nobody asked you," Naruto said flippantly.
"You are actually innocent in all of this," the man continued before bending down and starting to draw a line from one end of the room to the other.
"So if I'm innocent, why am I here?" Naruto pointed out the glaring hole in the guy's explanation. He really just wanted to get a straight answer and then leave, please. The week had already been tiring enough with one mission after the other without having to deal with somebody like this guy.
The man finished drawing the line and rose up, pointing the chalk at him. "You are here because I need to hit him where it will hurt him the most," he said determinedly and bent down again to start drawing some indiscernible signs across the line.
Got to love the chatty idiots, Kurama commented idly. For how awful he was, at least Madara didn't yap our ears off.
"He was the epitome of a true, classic villain, all right," Naruto said dryly, though frankly, at this point he might actually prefer being faced with Madara again over having this bullshit conversation.
Say what you wanted about Madara, but the man had at least been upfront about what he wanted and he hadn't wasted time with chatting.
That thought made Naruto pause for a second. Hm, perhaps he really was in need of more rest if he was actually considering that battling Madara was more preferable than dealing with this guy. On the other hand … Naruto eyed the signs on the floor. At least Madara had been straightforward with his attacks; one could appreciate that when being faced with … whatever this situation was.
"And who's him?" Naruto questioned, mentally going through the list of men he knew.
There was Sasuke, naturally, Gaara, Iruka, Kakashi, Kiba, Yamato, Sai, Neji –
The door and the surrounding wall abruptly gave away underneath the force of a sudden explosion. Naruto had just enough time to yelp in surprise and duck away before somebody sped past him and grabbed his abductor by his throat, slamming him into the opposite wall hard.
So hard in fact that the wood was beginning to splinter; some plaster of the ceiling breaking off and landing in the guy's hair, who was doing his utmost best to free himself but failing in it miserably.
"Oh, Sasuke, you found me," Naruto said pleasantly surprised and stood up, having just finished freeing himself from the ropes. "I was just asking this guy who the man was he was trying to somehow hurt by sedating me and taking me here." He waved idly at the half destroyed room.
With one wall practically gone, he could see that indeed they were in a forest. Trees surrounded them on all sides, but he thought he could catch a glimpse from some kind of lake a bit further.
"That man would be me," Sasuke responded calmly.
There was nothing calm about the way his Sharingan and Rinnegan were regarding the man almost bloodthirsty, however. Naruto thought he was just imagining the look, but then the man started whimpering, growing increasingly more pale and terrified looking, and okay, yeah, that tended to be the general reaction of most people who didn't have much experience with either of the Kekkei Genkai.
Uchiha is really going to have all the fun here, huh, Kurama commented put out. Should have blasted his head off when I had the chance.
"Nobody's head is going to be blasted off here," Naruto said, rolling his eyes, because honestly, one would think Kurama would have mellowed out since the war but clearly that wasn't the case yet.
Blasted off, no, Kurama said darkly amused.
Right before the guy started bleeding out of his eyes, ears and nose and started frothing at the mouth, looking absolutely terrified. Sasuke carelessly dropped him, staring coldly at the twitching body.
"Did you kill him?" Naruto asked stumped, because he hadn't expected Sasuke to react so violently so quickly! Not even giving the guy a chance to explain himself?
"Not yet," Sasuke said contemplatively. "Thinking about it."
Judging by the blood dripping out of every orifice and the tortured look gradually replacing terror, the guy was probably wishing right now he was dead.
"The hell did he do to you?" Naruto questioned mystified, because this kind of reaction seemed rather overkill given what kind of people they had experience with.
Sasuke turned around and actually had the gall to scowl at Naruto. "Trying to do whatever he was planning on doing to you isn't a good enough reason?" he demanded sarcastically. "What the hell were you even waiting for? For him to finish setting up a ritual?"
"Honestly, I was just trying to figure out how it was possible that he didn't know me well enough to try to severe the connection with Kurama," Naruto answered honestly and glanced at the bleeding guy. "You're saying he was trying to hurt you by taking me here?"
"He was trying to hurt me with a pathetic attempt to kill you," Sasuke corrected; his hand resting on the handle of his katana.
"If you know it was a pathetic attempt, don't you think you went a little overboard just now?" Naruto asked pointedly, gesturing at the guy who currently appeared to be gasping for air.
To be fair, when does an Uchiha not go overboard? Kurama scoffed, wrapping his tails around himself. If they didn't, we wouldn't have had the previous war.
Naruto decided not to try to argue with that point.
Because you know I'm right, kit.
"Just because it was a pathetic attempt doesn't mean I was going to let him get away with it," Sasuke replied irritated. "That fucker clearly didn't appreciate having escaped with his life before. I don't give second chances to scum."
"Clearly." Naruto stared blankly at the twitching man. "What did you do to him, though?"
"Me? I didn't do anything," Sasuke scoffed and turned away from the man. "Idiot here used to be part of Orochimaru's group, albeit a very low ranked one. I had to spar with him once and ended up giving him that scar before Kabuto took him away."
"So technically you did do something." Naruto squinted his eyes.
"He was the one who thought he could take me on," Sasuke said dismissively before landing a vicious kick in the man's side.
Naruto thought he could actually hear a rib break. Make that two, when Sasuke delivered another kick.
"He confronted me a while ago, but I ignored him," Sasuke went on and narrowed his eyes. "Clearly that turned out to be a mistake."
"Well, it's not like he would have managed to actually do something," Naruto said and shrugged. "I'm just still surprised he really seemed to have no idea who I was."
"He knew enough about you to take you away," Sasuke retorted, but Naruto shook his head.
"Nah, more like he knew enough about you to try to take me," he said absently. "I could have handled him myself, though. No need to take down a wall and use your Sharingan on him."
Sasuke shrugged and made his way over to him. "You would have been too soft in dealing with him," he declared and wrapped his arm around Naruto's waist. "I don't have the kind of patience you do."
"That's kind of … sweet," Naruto decided, figuring he was better off focusing on the complimentary part of Sasuke's explanation and less on the first insult. "Still, though, I could have taken care of myself."
"I know, but I wanted to do this," Sasuke replied simply before he captured Naruto's mouth in a sweet kiss.
Well, he supposed there was nothing wrong with letting Sasuke take care of things once in a while, Naruto decided, wrapping his own arms around Sasuke's neck.
To avoid further future bloodshed, however, perhaps it would be better to take a page out of Sasuke's book and deal with the enemy first before starting to ask questions.
The End