Fandom: Naruto
Title: The Other Side
Part: 07?
Genre: General/Action/Adventure
Rating: PG-13
Warning: AU, Language
Spoilers: Manga up to Shippuden (and possibly beyond)
Summary: Sequel to 'Never Ever'. Spending a lifetime in the Sand Village has taught Naruto everything about being ideal shinobi, but upon his return to the Leaf Village, he will learn that there are still far too many things he does not know.

Chapter 07: A Persistent Ache

The return journey was swift and painless, for the most part. A blessed blanket of silence had enveloped his group, even the normally talkative Rock Lee opting to close his big youthful mouth.

Both his teammates appeared to have lost their ability to look Naruto in the eye or address him directly for that matter. Odd, he supposed, but that was the trouble with working on a team in the first place. When he pulled missions solo, excepting the ones he undertook as an apprentice, there was none of the awkwardness, none of this guilt the other Chunnin were so obviously enduring.

What the hell they were feeling culpable about, he had no freakin’ clue.

The mission debriefing with the newly anointed Godaime Hokage (who had a fondness for low-cut necklines) passed by in a blur and Naruto left for his assigned residence the moment they were dismissed without a looking back.

He had work to do.

---

His bags—the two on his back and the one that hung from his shoulders—were dropped unceremoniously on the ground and emptied chaotically around him. His room was clean enough despite his month-long absence. Either someone had hired a housecleaner without his permission, or little spying insects had cleaned up after themselves a little too well.

No matter.

He had no hand in his packing, trusting that Kankurou would at least get the things he asked for and Temari would make sure he had everything else. He had asked for a uniform, a custom design, distinctive from anything found in the Leaf Village, but not too close to the style of the Sand Village. The result, no doubt from the eye and mind of Temari, was a black suit with an orange vest and orange bindings that coupled the otherwise loose-fitted clothing to his body.

He had asked Kankurou to pack his weapons, trusting that his sometimes incompetent, but trustworthy older brother would firstly know where all of his weapons were and secondly that he would’ve had them safe. The look on Kankurou’s face when he had passed them over indicated that more than a few people had been caught trying to swipe them, and that Naruto had inadvertently disarmed a good number of his puppets.

Nevertheless, they were all clean and in working condition. He had an entire pouch of small blades that wrapped around his torso beneath the vest, double-rowed and easily accessed. They were the same size and shape as a standard kunai, but thinner and sharper. The two shuriken he tucked into the hidden folds of his vest; those were slightly larger and more angular than the standard set, and were meant to be held, not thrown.

Last but not least of his equipment was his most powerful and most treasured, a gift from when he had been accepted into apprenticeship.

Like his master before him, Naruto also fought with a blade of wind. He wasn’t as skilled as Baki-sensei just yet, who could channel an invisible edge out of thin air; he still needed a medium to concentrate his elemental chakra through. In the past, they had sliced off a little bit of the blade with each step he mastered. Now, his ‘katana’ was not so much a ‘katana’ anymore as it was the handle of a short sword with about a centimeter length of blade—not that anyone would guess, for the sheath disguised its length.

He had asked Gaara for one thing and, despite the time constraint and inherent difficulty in attaining such an item, Gaara delivered.

It was a cloak. A simple white cloak from the mills of the Wind Country, developed especially for the shinobi lifestyle. Supposedly, the cloth had absorbent fibers that would keep the garment sweat and bloodstain-free. Naruto didn’t very much like wearing the color white, but it drew as much attention as the orange did and was probably guaranteed to raise some shit.

He walked over to a mirror, inspected himself, and took a deep breath. Then, with a critical eye, he slowly and carefully schooled his expression so it was calmer, more benevolent. The end result was even better than expected and he cracked a smile so big it cancelled out the illusion almost instantly.

Oh yes, the resemblance between him and father dearest were almost uncanny—when he didn’t have that big smirk on his face, of course. He could work on that later. The cloak was enough, for now.

Sighing with relief, and maybe feeling a tad giddy, Naruto stepped back from the mirror and stretched. He felt more comfortable now than he had in a long time. He didn’t have a chance to use his weaponry during the Invasion and he hadn’t planned on using them to fight for the Leaf Village, but now that he had them back and ready for use, there was a kind of soothing contentment breathed from the shinobi portion of his brain.

Some things were liable to change. Others, especially the habits ironed in by the fist of Baki-sensei, would never change.

Then, fully dressed and fully armed, Naruto plopped down on the floor and went to sleep. Tsunade already had an assignment waiting for him the next morning. It appeared the Invasion had crippled Konoha’s forces more than they’d initially led on; the thought brought a smile to Naruto’s face as he drifted off to a light slumber.

---

“Haku-san!!”

The sound of pounding footsteps drew nearer before coming to an abrupt halt. Haruno Sakura caught herself just in time; neither of her teammates, she found, reacted very positively to touch.

“Welcome back,” she said with a smile, cautiously reserved again. “How did your mission go?”

“It...” Haku trailed off. “It was a success...”

“Haku and his team were sent to retrieve the Godaime Hokage-sama,” came a calm monotone from their right. “One of his teammates was injured so Tsunade-sama returned without them while they stayed behind for his recovery, isn’t that right, Haku?”

Haku nodded affirmative. The speaker, along with the third member of Team 7, stepped out from the shadow of the a lamppost.

“Congratulations,” Kakashi said, his eye curved up cheerfully. “This calls for a celebration. Dinner’s on Haku’s first paycheck.”

Sakura cheered. Haku rolled his eyes. Sasuke was caught between glaring at Haku and glaring at Kakashi. The two of them were lying, and he wanted to know why.

---

“What was it you wanted to speak about?” Gai asked, all business after he and Lee had performed their customary greeting. “It must be serious if you couldn’t find comfort anywhere else but this pavilion.”

Lee felt tears leak from his eyes—Gai-sensei understood him so well.

“Gai-sensei, my mission left a terribly bitter taste in my mouth and I do not understand why.”

“I guessed it was something like that. Did it have something to do with the Kyuubi-boy?”

“Yes, it involves Naruto-kun, though it’s somewhat difficult...”

“Start from the beginning,” Gai said, motioning for Lee to sit down. “Rest assured, I knew the true target you were searching for.”

“Right! So...we left the village, the four of us...” Lee recounted their encounter with the two men from Akatsuki (Gai-sensei nearly jumped at this news), their subsequent separation, “...Tsunade-sama could not resist the power of my youthful persuasion!”

Two rivers flowed from Gai-sensei’s eyes at his student’s narrative. They quickly dried as Lee transitioned from his side-quest to rejoining the main group, to that indescribable feeling Lee hadn’t been able to shake since his stay at the Sand Village.

“I can’t understand it, Gai-sensei,” he said earnestly, “but after that, I couldn’t bring myself to talk to Naruto-kun or even look at him.”

Gai sighed. Despite all of Lee’s fighting ability, he was still such a child sometimes.

“Lee-kun,” he said seriously, “that emotion you describe is guilt.”

Lee’s eyes widened. Certainly, all the symptoms were there, but—“Gai-sensei, I haven’t done anything I feel guilty about.”

“It’s not for yourself,” Gai explained. “You feel guilt on account of the Leaf Village and their treatment of Uzumaki Naruto. He is a Jinchuuriki whose lived his life being dealt with as if he were a weapon and not a human being. The Leaf demanded his return without any consideration to his wants, as if he were a prize.”

“But he wasn’t a Jinchuuriki when he first came back here. If...if he had not gone after the Kyuubi, he wouldn’t have been a Jinchuuriki...” The gears in Lee’s head were working overtime. “If...if he had refused the mission, he wouldn’t be a Jinchuuriki anymore. He...he went through so much pain to get those things back too...”

Gai sighed. He knew all his students had to grow up some day, he just wished there was a better way to ease the harshness of the truth.

“From what you’ve told me, he’s friends with the Jinchuuriki of the Sand Village, is he not?” Lee nodded. “It’s very painful being the container of a Tailed Beast, people have trouble distinguishing between the human and the sealed demon. By ceasing to be a Jinchuuriki, he wouldn’t be ‘like’ Sabaku no Gaara anymore. The Leaf Village knew that, and they manipulated him completely. That’s why you feel guilty, Lee, because you know he was trapped in a lose-lose situation, because his actions were orchestrated by the village you call home, and because you were touched deeply by his devotion to the other boy who must’ve been very close with him.”

Teardrops fell freely from Lee’s face, not the ones of stirring passion, but sorrow and just a little hint of shame.

“It’s not your fault, Lee.” Gai sensei said, laying a reassuring hand on Lee’s shoulder. “Just know it, and try to change yourself for the better because you know it.”

“Hai, Gai-sensei.”

---

He awoke to the unpleasant sensation of something chomping down on the back of his head. His eyes shot open and his hand immediately fluttered to the base of his skull. It was still intact. The uncomfortable gnawing sensation, however, was still present.

This, he supposed, was the effect of expelling and then assimilating a Bijuu’s chakra. The Kyuubi’s presence was stronger than ever before and when it became too silent, he could hear growling and a snapping at the bars that bound it.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto got to his feet and shook his head like a dog trying to shake off water. It didn’t work, but hell, it made him feel better.

---

“There’s been a disturbance in the town Kainan down in the South, a gang has taken over the town. Nansei is the chief manufacturer of the Fire Country’s textiles; production has shut down since then the incident. Your mission,” Tsunade said, pinning Asuma first before traveling over to Naruto, “is to relieve the town of the delinquents.”

Asuma nodded in acknowledgement. The mission seemed clear-cut enough and his team could probably handle it.

Naruto, on the other hand, didn’t move a muscle.

“One more thing,” Tsunade added, “the people of Kainan are pacifists, and their system of law is quite different from the standard. When you apprehend the criminals, you’ll have to bring them in for trial—“

“What?” The question was asked, incredulously, by the until-then silent and unmoving Uzumaki Naruto. “Why would they hire a shinobi village?”

“They didn’t ask us directly,” Tsunade said, putting her hands together. “The Daimyo of the Fire Country is the one we will seek payment from, but they won’t pay up unless production resumes immediately and if killing occurs in Kainan, the people will set aside time to grieve, even if the dead is the enemy.”

“I have a question, then,” Naruto said quietly. “Have you not read my file?”

“I have.”

“Then why would you send me on this kind of mission?”

“Because a shinobi needs to know more than what you’ve learned,” Tsunade said sharply.

Naruto’s lip curled in disgust, and then he turned to Asuma.

“Is two hours enough?” he asked stiffly.

Asuma nodded. “We’ll meet at the South Gate.”

Naruto made a small noise of acknowledgement, and then he disappeared swiftly out the window. At the boy’s departure, Asuma raised an eyebrow questioningly in the new Hokage’s direction.

“His records are quite impressive for a shinobi who was just promoted to a Chuunin,” Tsunade said, leaning back in her chair with a sad smile. “Only C-Ranks and aboves; all assassination or mass elimination missions. Whatever the Sand Village used him for, it wasn’t what your father had intended.”

“Is that so?” Asuma asked with a false chuckle. “Guess Ino-Shika-Chou generation two has their work cut out for them.”

---

There was a small package with a simple note sitting on Naruto’s coffee table when he returned.

You might need this, the note read. Inside the package was a hitaite bearing the symbol of the Leaf. Upon reading the note, he promptly upended his coffee table in a violent manner and entertained the thought of sending the damn thing back to the Hokage with a line drawn through the center of the metal before he suddenly sat down, hard, clapping a hand to his head.

It hurt. Like an animal’s jaw was clamped around the base of his neck and sinking their fangs, deeper and deeper, slowly and certainly. He didn’t know how much more of this he could take.

He glared at the Leaf hitaite in his hand, willing for it to spontaneously combust. He couldn’t wear it. He couldn’t fight under that emblem...

...but he could compromise. Marveling at his own genius, Naruto untied the Sand hitaite from around his neck, tucked the one bearing the Leaf symbol into the Sand one so they fit like puzzle pieces, and then retied it around his neck. At least then he would have identification if needed without sacrificing his pride.

He was so pleased with himself that his headache magically disappeared.

---

“...and that’s the situation,” Asuma finished. “This is a B-Rank mission, and the delicacy of the circumstances would usually require a team of three Jounin. However, seeing as we have a shortage of able-bodied shinobi right now, our formation has been rearranged. I will be the only Jounin, the three of you should equate one Jounin, and we have an additional Chuunin who will accompany us.”

“An additional Chuunin?” Shikamaru asked with a wrinkle in his forehead. Attaching extra unknown element moments before a mission began complicated his strategy. Complications, naturally, were troublesome.

“Yes,” Asuma said, sounding resigned. “You might remember him from the Chuunin Exams. You can show yourself now.”

“Finally.” Like a switch, the three were jolted by the sudden proximity of a presence they hadn’t sensed before. Naruto smiled at the three of them, and it was not a friendly smile. “If you don’t remember me,” he said “I’m Uzumaki Naruto. At your service, little Genin.”

T . B . C

If the writing bug bites, you should treat the wound, right? Whew, two weeks to three days—something I assure you will not happen again.

For more information on Naruto’s outfit: go to Naruto chapter 248, take what future!Gaara is wearing, remove the skirt, add a white cloak a la Yondaime Hokage minus the flames, and there you go.

If you can figure out what the city name ‘Kainan’ is a reference to, have a cookie.

And now for an entirely different matter:

Despite the fact that ‘The Other Side’ and its prequel ‘Never Ever’ are both AU’s, I feel like I’ve done a pretty decent job at explaining the differences between them and the canon, and providing at least a substantial amount of background information to keep the story consistent. However, I don’t think I can cover everything because my mind’s focused on what’s to come as opposed to what has happened.

So if there’s a part of the story that I’ve left unexplored that you would like to see more detailed, drop me a review or an email or whatever medium you’re comfortable with, and I might consider adding it on as a bonus scene or incorporating it into the story somehow. If that doesn’t clear up any fuzzies, at the very least, it gives me an idea of what you want to read. So, ah...help me out, please?