Chapter Text
It was nearly twelve at night on what should have been an ordinary evening, and Naruto’s best friend Sasuke had not come back to the care house they were forced to call home.
Sure they were both seventeen (nearly adults in the eyes of the law) but he was still worried. Sasuke hadn’t been at the care home as long as Naruto had, having grown up there after the hospital he was born in was attacked during his mother’s labour and both she and his father were killed. An old doctor had saved his life and Naruto spent his early years resenting the unknown man and wishing he hadn’t. Nowadays, he wasn’t really sure how to feel about it. He never knew his parents, never got to know the life he should have had, so what was there to miss?
Besides, that wasn’t really as bad as it could be.
Sasuke’s entire family was brutally slaughtered by an unknown killer, still on the loose to this day. Sasuke at the young age of ten was the only life known to have been spared. His older brother Itachi had vanished that day and the lingering rumours were he was the murderer, even if he’d barely been a teenager at the time. On that fateful night, Sasuke lost everything. Whoever he had been before that event was gone. He became bitter and twisted to the point where he was almost unreachable. He snapped at the other kids in the care home, and lashed out at the staff who worked there. Only Naruto had been able to get through to him. They were making progress.
Or at least, Naruto thought they were.
Sasuke was currently not in the room they shared. And that was bad. It was the anniversary of the massacre of his family, and he had persuaded Naruto to cover for him so he could go out and let off some steam. He’d always dropped hints to Naruto to make him believe that he was going to one of the nearby wildlife reserves or a gym, but Naruto knew the truth. This happened every year on the same day. He’d followed Sasuke twice, the first time out of curiosity and the second out of a strange penance. He knew what his friend was doing.
Sasuke was out getting drunk.
Completely smashed actually. Drunk to the point that it was borderline dangerous. But he always, always came home around eleven. And now the clock was minutes away from chiming twelve. And his bed was still empty.
Naruto didn’t want to get worked up over nothing but he had this horrible feeling that whatever was holding Sasuke back, it wasn’t nothing.
Just then, Naruto’s battered second hand phone (a privilege he had only recently been given but had latched onto with a fervour) began to ring. He scooped it up and took note of the familiar caller ID.
Jerk
He answered it quickly, holding it up to his ear while his heart pounded wildly in his chest.
“Sasuke, where the hell are you?”
There was no reply for a moment and Naruto panicked, his overactive imagination kickstarting into gear. Was this the beginnings of a ransom call? Had the illusive murderer finally come back to ensure all the Uchiha’s were gone? Just as he was mid-deep in his panic-induced train of thought, he heard some background noise.
There was some music playing, a current song Naruto was somewhat familiar with. And then there were voices. One of them rose above the rest, loud and somewhat aggravating.
“Seriously, we don’t just live in some just dumb home and try to pretend we can be one happy family It’s a school for people whose families were murdered. And our leader trains us to avenge their deaths. You have to be a part of it.”
He was about to call out to Sasuke again before it clicked. This was an accidental phone call. Sasuke had probably sat on the call button or something. This would’ve been immensely funny if not for the seriousness of the conversation Naruto was now privy to.
“You mean it,” Naruto was able to pick out Sasuke’s voice, slightly slurred and less loud than the others speaking. “You’ll help me find out who killed them.”
“Sure, you can come with us right now. Forget the other dumb place. You think playing nice with itsy bitsy kids is going to make your family proud. You need to get out there and save their tortured souls or whatever.”
“What…what are you?” Sasuke said slowly.
“We call our school The Sound. And we’re the Sound Five. We’re the closest to achieving our goal. A few more rounds on me and then we’ll take you there. Orochimaru will be excited to see you.”
Naruto hung up on Sasuke with a definitive click of the button. He could barely move. He knew what the Sound Care Home was, and who ran it. The infamous Orochimaru had always been in the news for some sort of scandal. His so-called orphanage (who called them orphanages anymore?) used to be in the slums of town and never seemed to try and help kids get homes. It was reported to be a violent and unsanitary place with some children there not even being orphans, or at least, not until Orochimaru got his hands on the family. Authorities tried to raid them once and after that, they vanished off the map. There was still talk that the place was up and running but the police just couldn’t find it. Naruto had used to have nightmares as a kid of being sent there, if he’d annoyed one of the staff or failed to appeal to a foster family. It had hovered over him sometimes more than the deaths of his parents did.
And if Sasuke was truly going with them, then Naruto wouldn’t be able to find him. Like the infamous care home, he’d vanish without a trace. Naruto needed to get to Sasuke’s usual pub and pick him up right now. But he didn’t have a car or a licence, or even an Uber account.
His mind was racing at a million miles per second, trying to formulate a plan as he scrambled for his clothes.
The best plan- the most sensible plan- he decided, was to wake up Iruka, the man who ran the care home. He had a car and Naruto could lead him to where Sasuke was. Plus, having an adult on his side would give him more of a chance against the Sound Five or whatever the hell they called themselves.
But if he woke Iruka, then he would know what Sasuke had been doing since he was eleven (Naruto would never know how he got the alcohol at that age nor did he particularly want to) and admit that he’d been covering for his friend all this time. And then they would both be in trouble, Sasuke especially. After everything he’d been through, he didn’t deserve to be punished for his grief.
The second-best thing to do was call one of his friends from his support group.
Naruto had recently begun attending a support group for children and teens dealing with familial issues such as divorce, abuse, losing their loved ones, and a whole range of other problems. A few of them had bonded really quickly in that easy way you did when you were young and liked the same things and shared the same feelings. Sometimes they could be snappy when they were forced to talk about things they didn’t like, but they were definitely nice enough to lend Naruto a hand. If he got a whole bunch of them together, they could swoop in and grab Sasuke with plenty of backup in case it came to a fight.
It did occur to Naruto to call the police, he wasn’t that stupid, but he knew the mostly likely outcome would not be that his friend would get in trouble, but that they’d use Sasuke to get to Orochimaru and put him in danger. Naruto couldn’t afford to take that risk. Not only that, but Naruto had been in trouble with law enforcement plenty of times for stupid things like supposedly loitering, and he had a bitter mistrust of the supposed protectors that trawled the streets.
Second option it was.
He decided to call Shikamaru Nara first. The exceptionally smart yet lazy teen had been placed in the group because his parents constantly fought and were now getting divorced. The custody battle they’d entered into was still ongoing, with no one bothering to ask the teen what he wanted amongst it all. His best friend’s mum had decided that he should go to the sessions to help cope- perhaps sensing a turmoil underneath the surface that he carefully kept hidden at his own expense- and he’d been too lazy to complain, a quirk of his personality that was all too clear from the moment you started spending time with him. He was someone you could trust in a jam though and he had a car that he drove to each session, battered as it was. He almost seemed proud of the thing, in his weird ‘I don’t care about anything’ way.
“Seriously?” the boy said once Naruto had called and explained the story. He paused briefly and fear flashed through Naruto. What if Shikamaru thought Sasuke wasn’t worth it?
He shouldn’t have worried.
“Okay you’re right I guess,” Shikamaru said, voice flat as always even as he destroyed Naruto’s fears. “Probably easy to just go and grab him. We’ll need some more people though. Listen, I’ll bring Choji, yeah, that Choji. He’s pretty big and kinda intimidating if he wants to be. Let’s see…I’m thinking five people is good. I’ll call Kiba, you get someone else. Seeya soon.”
He hung up before Naruto could say anything else, which would have been surprising if Naruto wasn’t used to it.
Kiba was a good choice for the rescue party. He was in the group because his dad had walked out on his mum when Kiba was pretty young, and they hadn’t heard from him since. She’d taken forever to get over it and at times, had taken out her misery on Kiba. She was working on it though- the whole family was- and Kiba was an amicable enough participant in the program thanks to her pleading. He loved her, he always said. She’d just had a hard time of it and sometimes that had meant she’d yelled at him, and sometimes she’d hit him. His older sister had looked out for him though, and because of this protection, Kiba was extremely protective and loyal to his friends- which apparently now included Naruto- and a good person to have on your side, even if he never went anywhere without his puppy Akamaru who sometimes forgot he was toilet trained.
A group was slowly forming but it wouldn’t be enough just yet. They needed more if they wanted to actually achieve their goal- the quick in and out ‘mission’ Naruto was envisioning.
Lee, Naruto decided. Good ol’ fellow orphan Lee who Naruto had bonded with in the first session. He was perfect, what with his intense knowledge of martial arts and constantly cheery behaviour that kept almost everyone optimistic even when things got serious during talks. There was no way Naruto wouldn’t be able to convince Lee to help.
He was on the phone in seconds, his hopes rising like evaporating water.
“Naruto, my operation is tomorrow…well today now,” Lee said apologetically.
And the rain fell.
Right! Of course. Naruto was so stupid. Lee was having a knee operation after doing his ACL and there was no way he could go gallivanting around town at night to rescue stupid, drunk, mourning Sasuke.
“Sorry Lee, I completely forgot,” he said regretfully. Four would have to do. The name Sound Five gave off the impression that there was five of them (duh) but Naruto was sure they could manage. They weren’t actually going to be engaging after all. They just needed a show of force.
“Listen, I’ll call someone for you. They’ll meet you at your place,” Lee said cheerfully.
“Who?” Naruto asked, trying to tie his shoes with one hand.
“Neji.”
Naruto paused.
Neji Hyuuga was not the nicest person in the world to be around at first. He was apparently Lee’s best friend- if that could be believed- but he never really spoke up at the sessions unless he was mumbling about fate and how this and that was destined. He snapped and snarked when asked to open up, and never wanted to hang out with Naruto and his group.
One day though, Naruto had bugged him to the point where the two were ready to fight. They’d even started to before they’d been pulled apart by their respective friends- Naruto by Kiba and Neji by Lee. And then the story had poured out.
Neji was part of a prestigious family -a clan even, which was apparently still a thing- and he was born into the lower section of it with his mother passing away during his birth. He’d ended up being cut out of her, the doctors having been told to save him instead of her. When he was but four years old, his clan tattooed his forehead with a Buddhist symbol (which had explained his silly head band, rendered no longer silly in hindsight) to show how he was a minority of the clan- their property. He still had somebody who loved him though. His father. Even with the miserable life they led, subservient to their own family, Neji’s father had made sure he gave his son the best upbringing he possibly could.
But then his father was killed.
He had then lived with his uncle, the head of the clan who also happened to be his father’s older twin brother and head of the clan. The man abused him mercilessly. He’d eventually been removed by social services and sent to live with a foster family along with his cousins Hinata and Hanabi, his fellow victims to his uncle’s ruthlessness.
He was nicer now, and he and Lee got along because of their shared love of martial arts. Apprehensive as he was (Neji could still be really stuck up) Naruto reluctantly decided that with Neji added to their team, the Sasuke retrieval plan would go off without a hitch.
How very wrong he was.
When Shikamaru finally arrived, he had someone who was obviously Choji in the passenger seat of his car, with Kiba crammed awkwardly in the middle of the back seats and Neji behind the passenger. They’d obviously spotted the teen on the way over to pick up Naruto. Kiba greeted him with a high five, while Choji waved politely, and Neji shrugged off Naruto’s thanks.
“What pub Naruto?” Shikamaru asked as he fiddled around with the portable GPS in his car. Naruto watched the previous address vanish as the machine awaited its next destination.
“K Forest,” he said clearly, forcing any potential tremors from his voice. “Sasuke always goes there on the anniversary. Apparently it was their favourite pub.”
No one needed to ask about who Naruto was referring to. Sasuke never stopped talking about his parents and finding out who killed them and the rest of his family.
“So it’s just in and out. We’re here to look threatening,” Choji said as Shikamaru keyed in the location. “Right?”
“Pretty much,” Naruto said. “Shikamaru told you the story, right?”
“Yeah,” Kiba was rugged up in his usual huge coat with its furry hood. Akamaru was probably hiding in the hood, resting on Kiba’s head while he was still small enough to get away with it. “I can’t believe Sasuke’s dumb enough to agree to go with some of Orochimaru’s scum.”
“He’s not dumb, he’s drunk,” Naruto protested. “Come on Kiba, you’ve got drunk before.”
“Once or twice,” Kiba admitted. “But not out in public on my own. Mum found me once and I…I haven’t since.”
“Oh…” Naruto wondered if he should apologise for touching on a sensitive issue.
“We’ve probably all gone a bit too far before,” Shikamaru said, eyes on the road. “But Sasuke should know better than to get drunk when he is underage and alone in town.”
“Sasuke is upset,” Naruto defended his friend. “We just need to get him back home safely.”
“Well we’re here, can you see him?” Shikamaru pulled into a free park across the road from the pub where music was still blasting despite the loud hour, and people were milling around the door.
“No,” Naruto peered out the window. “I hope he hasn’t left, we might have to go in.”
“How? They’re checking IDs,” Neji pointed out. “Does anyone have a fake?”
Everyone shook their heads apologetically. Sasuke clearly had to have one, but he’d never shared his knowledge with anyone else.
“Just ask for him at the door,” Shikamaru suggested. “With any luck, he’ll come out to us.”
“Out we get,” Kiba said cheerfully and the five seventeen-year-olds poured out and headed across to the club. As they walked, Naruto spotted Akamaru on his friend’s head as he’d expected, sleeping even though Kiba was moving around and the street was noisy and bright.
“Let me do the talking,” Shikamaru said. “Just stay behind me and look nice.”
Naruto looked at Choji’s swirled cheeks (either tattooed or exceptionally good face paint) and Kiba’s red triangles (starting to fade as his was definitely just paint) and his sharp pointed teeth (apparently a genetic issue). Then there was Neji’s abnormally long hair, bandaged limbs and pale eyes that made him look blind. Finally, there was Naruto’s six scars, three on each side of his face, giving the appearance of whiskers which would have been cute if it wasn’t linked to such a traumatic moment.
They looked anything but nice.
“Hello,” Shikamaru said to a bouncer standing at the door sporting a lazy look on his face that mirrored Shikamaru’s. “We’ve come to pick up a drunk friend of ours. Hair looks like a duck, probably been here all night, might be hanging out with the wrong crowd.”
“Where are we going to put Sasuke?” Kiba whispered to Naruto suddenly as Shikamaru described Sasuke to the man. “Shikamaru’s car only has five seats.”
“He’s drunk,” Naruto shrugged. “The boot I guess.”
Kiba gave a delighted laugh. It was no secret that none of the people helping Naruto particularly liked Sasuke. To them, he was self-absorbed, ridiculously selfish and a total asshole. Naruto admitted all of that was true, but there was also more to Sasuke then that. Everything that pushed people away was a front he put on to stop himself from being hurt again. Deep down he was caring, and brave. He could be funny, and sharp witted. He looked out for people despite claiming he didn’t, and despite how many times he and Naruto clashed, they were friends. And it meant a lot that his other friends were helping someone they did not care for.
“The bouncer’s gone in to get him away from those Sound jerks,” Shikamaru turned back to them. “I told him to just drag Sasuke out, had to show him some photos on my phone though so he could see who Sasuke was and to prove we were friends. The bars are the best place for people like Orochimaru to pray on young teens and I bet they don’t always take a front on approach like the people in there.”
“What?” Naruto said, momentarily confused.
“I’m saying a lot of people probably get taken advantage of by people pretending to be their friend,” Shikamaru explained.
“No I kinda got that. Kinda…but you have pictures of Sasuke?” Naruto burst out. “You hate him!”
“Well…yeah, maybe, but he’s a part of the group,” Shikamaru said, looking uncomfortable. “He’s been through a lot. I’m not going to shove him out of pictures or leave him behind at a pub, drunk out of his mind and at the mercy of a bunch of thugs just because he’s a bit of a dick.”
“Can I see the pictures?” Naruto asked eagerly. The lazy teen reluctantly handed over his phone.
He quickly found the album labelled ‘Dumb Therapy Group’ (a definite front for Shikamaru’s fondness for his friends, considering he’d cared enough to make an actual album in the first place) and began to flick through. The first were various pictures of the group leader Tsunade, a somewhat aggressive yet kind and protective woman, flashing a peace sign at the camera each time the camera was pointed her way. Then there was one of Lee and Naruto pulling faces. Kiba taking a selfie on the phone, a picture of Neji looking grumpy as Lee did his best to try and hug him. A silent boy named Shino standing next to Kiba who was brandishing Akamaru. A few selfies of Shikamaru with everyone that had come to rescue Sasuke bar Choji. There was a large group one that had Shikamaru in it, obviously taken by someone else. Sasuke was almost impossible to pick out as he lurked behind Naruto.
And then there was the picture of Sasuke in full focus, laughing with him. With Naruto. They both looked happy, ridiculously happy. Naruto didn’t bother to look through the other pictures. He’d seen enough. He was determined to get Sasuke home safely.
“Here he is,” the bouncer came out the bar with Sasuke draped in his arms. “Though those guys in there are right behind me. They obviously want to take him home as well. Better be quick about it.”
Naruto peered past the huge man to see four people heading their way. So the Sound Five only had four? They didn’t look so tough. If need be, Naruto was sure his friends could take them. There were three boys and one girl, each looking slightly drunk as they stumbled across to bar to the door. Guess they’d managed to get a few more rounds in while Naruto gathered everyone.
But suddenly, a fifth one appeared out of nowhere and they seemed much more menacing. This new person was wearing a fancy white robe that was utterly out of place amongst the other bar patrons, and walked with confidence that came from years of totally owning a room. He sent shivers up Naruto’s spine, running through his arms and setting him on edge.
“Let’s go,” Kiba said nervously. He could obviously sense the new threat too. Akamaru was awake and whining.
“Yeah,” Neji said. “Quick.”
The small group rushed across the road, dragging Sasuke with them who was by now, practically asleep on his feet. They had no choice but to go with Naruto’s suggestion and put him in the boot. Luckily Shikamaru had some blankets to wrap him in and removed the boot cover (divider, whatever it was, Naruto didn’t have a car of his own to draw reference from) so that he wasn’t cut off from the rest of the car and had plenty of air.
The others climbed back into their exact seats from before and buckled up, all satisfied that they’d saved Sasuke and could go home and sleep away the rest of the night.
“The road’s closed,” Shikamaru stared at the way they’d came. “What the fuck? We were literally just on it. We’ll have to go the long way now, the ravine path.”
“What happened?” Choji wondered aloud.
“Maybe a car accident.” Neji suggested.
“Bet it’s late-night road works,” Kiba said.
“What’s the ravine path?” Naruto asked as Shikamaru turned the car on with a deft flick of his wrist and started out the opposite way.
“It’s the long way out of town. There’s a road that goes past a really steep drop off into the Moko Forest, so it got nicknamed the ravine path. It’s basically a valley surrounded by roads. People even live down there, in the forest,” Neji explained in his know-it-all voice. “It’s pretty dangerous at night so we all need to be quiet and let Shikamaru concentrate when we get to it.”
“Hey guys, this car’s following us, I think. And it’s going really fast,” Kiba twisted in his seat to look out the back window. “I can’t be sure but it kinda looks like those guys that were following Sasuke.”
“Fuck,” Shikamaru swore again. “It was too much to think it was over and that they were going to give up on Sasuke, wasn’t it?”
“They’re gaining fast,” Neji reported. “I don’t want to break any speed limits but…” he was cut off as they entire car jolted.
“They hit us!” Choji gasped. “Well, bumped us. Shika, you might wanna speed up.”
The typically lazy teen seemed panicked, putting his foot down and picking up the pace despite his obvious distress at having to drive so fast.
“That sign, what did it say?” Shikamaru asked as they sped past a bright yellow display that lit up under the beam of his headlights. The roads were mostly empty as their vehicle struggled to avoid the Sound Five, an indicator how just how late it was.
“Ten kilometres to the Moko Forest Road,” Neji said. “We have to slow down.”
“They’re speeding up,” Kiba said angrily. “We can’t slow down.”
Another jolt ran through the car as their pursuers once again made contact with them. Naruto put a hand out to steady himself on the seat in front of him.
“Oh my god, we should call the police,” Choji struggled to grab Shikamaru’s phone.
“No!” Naruto shouted. “What good are they?”
“Naruto, they’re going to kill us.” Neji said, strangely calm despite the situation. “The police are our only option.”
“Choji, make the call,” Shikamaru ordered as he struggled with the wheel. “Kiba keep me updated on the Sound Five, Neji look out for turnoffs, Naruto, look after Sasuke.”
They were in this together. For a moment, Naruto had been worried that they were going to give Sasuke up. It would be the safest thing to do, all things considered. But nobody made any such suggestion, even with the Sound Five unafraid to use violent measures to get what they wanted. Neji was right. The police had to be called.
“About to hit Moko road, they keep bumping us…” Choji’s conversation came to Naruto in dribs and drabs, muffled by the blood roaring in his ears as adrenaline flooded his system. “…Orochimaru…”
“Still right behind us,” Kiba informed Shikamaru. “With no signs of slowing down.”
“No turnoffs, we’ve hit Moko road,” Neji said. Naruto peered out his window and saw a cliff wall. He couldn’t see anything out of Neji’s side as he and Kiba were mostly in the way, and the road was poorly lit, but he knew it was the drop off into the forest.
“They’re millimetres away from our boot again!” Kiba was nearly yelling. Akamaru was barking short, loud yips that filled the car.
Naruto turned to look at Sasuke, still dead to the world with no idea what was going on and what they were going through for him. Seemingly content and strangely innocent looking, he slept. They were going to save him. The police were being called. Everything would be alright.
And then he saw the teen on the bonnet.
It was the intimidating guy, his white robe fluttering in the breeze. He had somehow climbed onto the bonnet of their car and was reaching for Shikamaru’s boot.
“Are they crazy?!” Kiba yelled, seeing the exact same thing Naruto was.
“They’re gonna grab Sasuke!” Naruto screamed. “Lock the boot!”
A click echoed through the car. Naruto relaxed slightly. At least the jerks couldn’t get to Sasuke now.
“Speed up,” Kiba urged.
“Are you mad?” Choji was off the phone now and fully back in the conversation. “We’ll go right of the edge if we do.”
SMASH
Glass bit into Naruto’s cheeks as the boy on the bonnet smashed the back window with what appeared to be a baseball bat. He heard Akamaru whine and Neji yelp in startled pain. They were this desperate for Sasuke? What the actual hell?
“Grab Sasuke!” Shikamaru all but screeched as he tried to keep the car on the road. “We just need to get past the ravine.”
“The police are coming as fast as they can,” Choji reported.
“It’s not fast enough!”
The words meant nothing to Naruto at the moment. He, Kiba and Neji were trying to drag Sasuke into the middle section where they sat whilst the boy in the white robe tried to drag him out.
“Give up!” the teen yelled over the rushing wind that was entering the car and whirling around. He had the exact dramatic tone Naruto expected for someone willing to stand on the bonnet of a car speeding down a dangerous road. “He will be a gift for Orochimaru!”
“No!” Naruto yelled back. “I won’t let you!”
The boy gave an almighty tug that shouldn’t have been possible with his precarious perch, and Sasuke was ripped from their arms and out of the smashed window, glass scratching at his limp limbs. Naruto cried out as his hands grasped empty air. Only Kiba still had a grip, and Sasuke’s limp body briefly hung between the two vehicles.
It was at that moment that Shikamaru did the only thing he could think of. He swung the wheel violently and sent them jerking away from the other car, disturbing both Kiba and the bonnet boy’s grip, and letting the road have Sasuke. Miraculously neither car hit Sasuke, and the drunk boy was soon gone from their sight as the cars continued to whizz along. Dead or alive, who knew. For the moment though, he was out of the fight. Naruto barely had time to worry about his friend, too caught up in everything that was going on behind them.
The boy on the bonnet was wobbling as what little balance he’d had was disturbed, and then he fell. But he didn’t fall onto the road like Sasuke. He fell the opposite way, down into the ravine.
“Oh my god!” Choji screamed.
And that’s when the car increased its speed even more and drew alongside theirs, beginning to force them off the road.
“This is for Kimimaro!” the driver rolled down her window to yell, the words having barely any meaning to those remaining in the car. “We’ll kill you and then go back and get Sasuke. You’ll have died for nothing.
“Faster!” Kiba yelled again and this time no one was complaining. This was no drunk pick up now. This was a matter of life or death,
Again and again, the car rammed into Shikamaru’s. Each time they were forced closer and closer to the edge. At one point a wheel was hanging off.
Wind howled in their ears thanks to the large hole in the back windshield, challenged by Akamaru’s yowling and Naruto’s loud sobs for Sasuke as things began to sink in.
“Oh god, oh god,” Neji was staring out his window into the inky blackness that hid the trees of the ravine from view. He and Choji both had a perfect view of the darkness that potentially awaited them.
And then the car hit them a final time.
And they were teetering on the edge.
Blood roared in Naruto’s ears.
He saw the antagonising car flip abruptly, skidding like an overturned beetle until it hit the cliff wall and stopped.
“Fuck!”
“Shit!”
“Oh my god!”
The vehicle coughed weakly as though Shikamaru was wearing it out, trying to coax the huge part of it that was over the edge back onto safe ground.
“Die!” a scream came from the crashed car, as cliché as an old movie and yet as threating as a gun held to your head was.
And then they fell.
The world turned upside down on them as they fell. Naruto felt his head crack against the window as he became weightless in the car. They hit the ravine wall before bouncing up again to resume their free fall. The car became a total mess on the inside, bodies flung everywhere, smashing into each other. Broken bits of glass pierced them as they jerked against their seatbelts. There was yelling and screaming as they fell and fell and then…
An ultimate crash…
A slight tilt…
A final scream dying away…
They fell to their last resting place…
And then…
…dead silence.
All that welcomed them at the bottom of the ravine was greedy darkness, sucking them down into its abyss.
His last thought wasn’t Sasuke though. It was…
It was…
…
…
…
When he woke up, he was cold and he couldn’t see a thing. He knew exactly where he was though- even through the fog clouding his head. He was in a car at the bottom of a ravine and incredibly lucky to actually even be opening his eyes.
There was light coming from somewhere but it was dim and did nothing to help him see.
“Hello?” He called. There was no reply, just a calm quietness that settled over the car, except for a steady ‘drip’ that wormed its way into his brain.
Drip
Drip
Drip
It was coming from somewhere but he just didn’t know where. It was only because of his sense of smell that he soon came to realise it was not a cracked water bottle or rain just starting to fall. It was blood.
From the overload of coppery tang that invaded his nostrils, it had to be everywhere. He could imagine it now coating the windows and creating horrific images that would haunt his dreams.
The shock was wearing off and the pain was coming in, sharp and evil, ready to tear him apart. Along with the pain, there was a rush of emotions flooding through him. There was one that stood out though, one that threatened to consume his entire being above all else.
Naruto was scared.
He couldn’t see his friends, he didn’t know if they were alive or dead. He wasn’t sure if help was on its way, he didn’t know if he was going to live.
And what about Sasuke? Had the Sound Five survived their crash? Had they looped back and grabbed Sasuke. Was all of this for nothing.
In the dark, afraid and in pain, Naruto found himself bitterly agreeing with his friends. Sasuke was an idiot. Drinking himself into a stupor without any care for himself. He should have known better. And Naruto shouldn’t have dragged his other friends into this whole mess. He should have done it on his own, if he was so desperate to help.
Naruto reached out with trembling hands to see if he could feel anything. He was still in the car, he knew that much, but he felt as though he was hanging in a sense- like his seatbelt was the only thing keeping him in place.
His fingers brushed something warm and he let out a squeak. He felt fur and realised it was Akamaru. He kept his hand there, hoping to feel the rise and fall of his flank, proving that Kiba’s beloved dog was alive.
For a horrible heart stopping moment, he felt nothing.
Akamaru no!
Then he felt it. There it was! His hand was rising slowly with the weak breathing Akamaru was doing to keep himself alive. Oh thank god. Thank anyone. Akamaru was alive.
Reaching out again- past Akamaru- Naruto tried to feel for his friends. He brushed something almost artificially fluffy but mattered in places -Kiba’s coat maybe- but his hand didn’t make contact with anything resembling human skin. He gave up and just drew Akamaru into him, determined not to be alone. The dog let out a small whine but quickly went silent again.
He craned his head awkwardly to work out where the light was coming from. If it was a torch or something portable, he could use it to find his friends. After some wriggling, he spotted the source of the dim light.
A phone was lit up. It looked like Shikamaru’s. It was open to the picture album Naruto had been flicking through, the screen’s perfectness marred by long cracks that distorted the image shown. It was a picture of the five of them, not including Choji as he didn’t go to the group. Neji was on the edge, turned half away from the camera with a slight smile on his face. Kiba was on the other end, flashing a peace sign at the camera with a wide grin on his face, Akamaru perched on his head, mouth open in a silent bark. Shikamaru was next to Neji, hands resting behind his head as he smirked at the camera. Naruto was next to Shikamaru. He was positively beaming, so happy to be with his friends. And Sasuke was on Naruto’s other side, his smile small but there.
Stupid Sasuke. They’d sacrificed so much for him and he look what had happened. And what’s more, stupid Naruto. He should have told Iruka what Sasuke was doing. He should have stopped him much sooner. He should have been a better friend.
Naruto scrabbled for the phone and managed to get a hand around it. It illuminated his palm, covered in sticky red blood that coated the phone. He spun it around so he could work out what was going on.
And he screamed.
His first image was of a tree smashed right through the front windscreen. Its branches reached right into the back of the car where two sharp ones had driven themselves right into Kiba’s motionless body. Blood was soaking into his jacket, seemingly spreading rapidly.
He saw Shikamaru, pinned into the front seat by the crushed dashboard, eyes closed and face pale. He looked okay for what they’d just been through but there was blood everywhere. It coated all of the boy in dizzying arrays of sick, twisted art. The pattern of the splatter though…it couldn’t be Shikamaru’s.
Of course not, Naruto thought grimly as he turned his head slightly and was met with a horrific sight. It was Choji’s.
Choji’s door had buckled inwards, metal and steel slicing into the boy’s body. Blood and flesh sprayed the broken windscreen and interior of the car. It was one big horrid mess. Bile rose in Naruto’s throat but he held it in. He did not need to add vomit to the horrid smells attacking his senses.
Was Choji even alive? Surely, with all the bits of his body spread everywhere, he was dead.
But he couldn’t be dead! Choji couldn’t die! He didn’t even know Sasuke, he was just Shikamaru’s friend. And he’d seemed so nice and willing to help. He just couldn’t be dead. He had to still be breathing, he just had to.
Trying to ignore the wild panic roaring inside him, Naruto stroked Akamaru and moved his head to find Neji. When he saw his friend, he couldn’t help it.
He screamed again.
Another tree had driven itself through Neji’s side of the car. Two thick branches had not only stabbed the teen but impaled him, one through his stomach and one through his shoulder, entering from behind and coming out the other end. His body hung limp in their grip, his clothes soaked in coppery blood.
All his friends were dying!
He dropped the phone face down, the light cutting off abruptly as it was smothered.
“Help!” Naruto summoned up the strength to yell, suddenly unable to keep his fear inside him. “Somebody help us!”
A bird chirped in reply before a flutter of wings signalled its departure, but that was the only response he got.
“Help!” he called again. “Please! Can anybody hear me?”
“Na…ru…to,”
“Hello?” Naruto was losing his strength, the blackness was beginning to take him.
“Naruto…shut up…”
He summoned the last of his strength and screamed.
“HELP US!”
The echoes of his plea died away and with it, the last of his courage and power. He was going to die down in this ravine with his friends, all because he didn’t do the sensible thing and ask an adult for help instead.
“Naruto, why would anyone be down in the ravine? You should have saved your strength,” a weak voice, so quiet and small, spoke up.
“Shikamaru?” Naruto asked the darkness.
“Yeah,” Shikamaru confirmed, gasping out his reply. “Oh shit, we’re in so much trouble, aren’t we?”
Naruto didn’t reply, sensing this was one of those rhetorical questions his friend was so fond of. He just let the silence hang in the air as his entire being throbbed and Shikamaru’s harsh breathing got louder and louder.
“Naruto, the others…are they…alright?”
“No,” Naruto whispered, almost afraid to say it and yet knowing he had to. “I think…I think they might be dead.”
Another bird cried out as if mourning along with him. Shikamaru’s breathing rasped painfully, laboured gasps that spoke to how much pain he was in. Naruto thought he might have passed out, but then he spoke.
“No…I refuse…to give up…on them…” Shikamaru rasped, each word quieter than its predecessor.
Drip
Drip
Drip
“Choji called the police before we fell,” Naruto said softly- a small amount of hope amongst this raging ocean of despair. “They’ll work out what happened. They’ll come for us.”
“Of course…they will,” Shikamaru’s voice was nothing more than a breath now. “I need…to rest…now…”
“No, Shikamaru, stay awake!” Naruto cried. People like them, people hurt badly and disorientated, they weren’t meant to go back to sleep. All the medical shows agreed on it, and more importantly, so did the doctors Naruto had met before. “You have to stay awake, Shikamaru.”
Fading breaths answered his begging and the blond teen knew it was hopeless. Shikamaru was once again unconscious. At least…at least he wasn’t dead.
For now.
Naruto let himself go limp as the sharp wolves of pain ate at his body, stripping away his hope that had stayed strong even after his courage and strength had worn away. Bit by bit, they tore at him, ridding him of every naive thought he’d had.
The police are coming…
Everyone is still alive…
Sasuke is alright…
We’ll be alright…
We’ll be okay…
We’re going to make it out…
We have to…
Help me…………………………