The End Of The Line

Chapter 4

Third person pov

Naruto had worked out the going to find Sasuke part. He'd just... go find Sasuke. Easy enough. Simple, really. He just had to go to the Uchiha compound, find his house and knock on the door. It was honestly one of the easiest things in the world compared to what he'd been through. He'd fought bloody battles, and he'd killed countless men and woman. Naruto had befriended a demon fox! And Sasuke! He had wandered aimlessly through a desolate world with a band of misfits struggling to survive on what little food they could find! 

Yet he couldn't find out how the ever-living fuck he was supposed to get into this compound.

"Go away!" One of the guards shooed him like he was a mangy stray cat. The other broke off a part of his muffin and threw it right for the blonde's head. The boy simply sidestepped it, trying to resist the urge to tackle them to the ground and rip out their throats with his bare teeth. Kurama really was an awful influence. Where was the bar? Naruto needed to be better than this. "Shoo!"

"I'm genuinely offended you said that." Kurama responded to his thoughts, which was annoying. Naruto decided ignoring him was the best course of action. "You little bitch."

"I need to get in! Believe it!" Naruto let his old catch phrase roll off his tongue with gusto only a child could possess. Only he wasn't a child, so he guessed seasoned shinobi on a mission could possess it too. The guards didn't seem fooled by his façade. He kept it up anyway. He was getting in this damn compound even if he had to lose a limb to do it. He'd done it once and he'd do it again. That was a threat. Like, a genuine one. That was threatening. Fear-inciting. 

"No! We don't know you!" They totally knew who Naruto was. That's exactly why they weren't letting him in. Not only did he possess the nine tailed fox that had destroyed their village, but last time he'd managed to weasel his way into the compound he'd painted the red parts of their clan symbols pink. The number of houses he'd managed to hit before he was caught and driven out was insane, and quite terrifying to say the least. The paint he'd used wasn't easy to remove either. He was pretty sure they'd ended up having to just paint over it rather than scrubbing it from the walls. Sucks to suck. They needed a touch up anyway. 

"Yes you do!" He shook his fist. "Damn you millennials!"

"You've... You've got that backwards, kid! Go away!" And then the guard ducked out of sight, evidently not wishing to deal with the issue at hand any longer. Naruto groaned. Whatever. He was totally sneaky. He could sneak into any place he wanted to sneak into. This was fine. It was all going to be fine. Surely they wouldn't stoop so low as to kill a child, right? Maybe attack, but surely not completely maim. 

"You're gonna fucking die." Kurama cackled.

"You know, I didn't ask you, okay? Okay. So just.... Go into your little cage thing." Naruto muttered to himself as he began to walk away, right along the side of the wall surrounding the compound. He just had to find the right place to hop over, and all would be well. Where that "right place" was was the real question here. He didn't want to hop into someone's backyard and find himself with a kunai sticking out of his skull. The Uchiha were probably pretty scary. He honestly didn't remember, but one had just thrown part of a muffin at his head. That spoke lengths in Naruto's mind. 

"There." Kurama instructed suddenly. Naruto stopped walking.

"You just told me I was going to die. Why would I listen to you?" Naruto scoffed. Kurama pursed his lips. Fuck. The brat actually had a point, which was rare, but it did happen on occasion. He needed a clever rebuttal. 

"Sense for chakra and you'll see what I'm talking about, you dimwit. You're too used to you and your little friends being the last meatbags on this dying planet. Wake up and smell the roses, kiddo. Welcome back to the real world. I sure hope you're ready to embrace the sunshine, because if not, you're gonna get your ass burned." Kurama said threateningly. Naruto stood there. That was... that was the cringiest thing he'd ever heard Kurama say. No, really. He'd never heard something from the fox that bad in his entire life. 

"...Right." Naruto deadpanned.

~~

"God dammit." Naruto hissed as he finally dragged himself up to what he hoped was Sasuke's door. He could swear he felt his teammate inside. Kurama couldn't stop laughing, his howls echoing through Naruto's head tauntingly as the blonde wiped the sweat from his brow. Kurama had, in short, tried to get him killed. Expected, but still disappointing. Naruto wondered how long it would be before the fox succeeded. Naruto's luck had to run out sometime. One could argue it already had seeing as he was in the body of a six year old. 

"Get you killed? I'd never. I was just trying to spice things up." Kurama said as innocently as he could. Naruto rolled his eyes, knocking on the door as loudly as he could. He was 100% sure he'd lost the men chasing him. It was the woman wielding the broom he was truly worried about. She'd been out for blood. Naruto thought he knew violence before then. Apparently not. She had swung that thing with vengeance. As though Naruto had personally offended her somehow. Who know! Maybe he had. He wasn't going to risk his life to go back and find out. 

There was shuffling, and the door to the home slid open to reveal a woman Naruto vaguely recognized at Sasuke's mother. As a child, he'd seen her only a few times briefly on the street, the rest being in photos Sasuke had shown him much later in their lives. She was tall, with long black hair and dark eyes to match Sasuke's, as well as most of the other Uchiha's in the compound. She was pale. Sasuke took greatly after her. Itachi had too, he noted. That was good. No offense to Sasuke's dad, but that guy was one ugly bitch. 

"Oh, hello. How can I help you?" Mikoto smiled kindly, pushing her surprise back. She wasn't sure what the child of her former best friend, Kushina Uzumaki, was doing on her doorstep, but she sure wanted to know. She also was curious as to how he'd managed to get into the compound again after the little stunt he pulled. That, and why did he look so tired? It was as if he'd just run a race! Quite concerning, but she didn't want to scare him off.

Naruto debated randomly spilling right there all the issues he was currently faced with. He was from the future and was tasked with stopping the world from becoming a war-torn wasteland where laws didn't exist and morals were dead. The look on her face would definitely be priceless. However, the matter of Sasuke was also at hand. Naruto had no doubts he was going to be trying to cut his arm off the moment he realized it was still attached to his body. A concerning response. Maybe they should look into therapy now that therapists like... existed.

"Sasuke... is he here?" Naruto knew he was. He could feel it. Over the years, he and Sasuke had sort of gotten some sort of sixth sense and could always find each other. It was actually sort of terrifying if Naruto was being completely honest about the whole thing. Very irritating too. What if the blonde wanted to be angsty and run off? Maybe go take a good shit in the woods alone and by himself. Couldn't do that, apparently. Sasuke would materialize out of some corner

"Sasuke? You know Sasuke-chan?" Mikoto sputtered, her surprise coming back tenfold. Sasuke didn't have friends, let alone ones outside the clan. When had they met? This was a good thing, of course. She'd absolutely love it if Naruto and Sasuke were friends. But... just how? She literally had no idea as to when they could have crossed paths long enough to befriend each other. Neither were old enough to join the academy, so... just where? Perhaps on one of his trips to the park with Itachi. Though those were few and far between, it was entirely possible they'd met and hit it off. 

"Believe it." Naruto gave a tired thumbs up. He was too tired to laugh at the "chan." 

"Then by all means, come in!"