Chapter Text
Sasuke fucked up. Oh boy did he fuck up.
Of all the terrible, idiotic, stupid, fucked up things he’s done in his life, this feels disgustingly high up on the list.
And that’s saying something for him.
What was he thinking? What is he kidding, he wasn’t thinking at all. It was so unlike him, to jump into a situation without at least giving the consequences a half thought.
The ceiling above him was cracked and slightly water stained, but he was unseeing of it all; too focused on the steady, heated puffs of breath against his shoulder; the smooth skin of a perfect arm draped across his chest.
It was never his intention to do any of this. To act on this feeling he had long since buried deep in his chest. He had been doing everything in his power to let Naruto go, and all it took was one coaxing smile from the former blonde to send him falling right back into the pit of longing he was trying so hard to claw his way out of.
And now he’s ruined it all. Now that he's heard her, tasted her, felt her. It was all over for him; there was no going back from this. He was a changed man; a man who was now never going to be able to convince himself that he wasn’t in love with his best friend.
He could already feel its influence sinking its way into his very bones. He wanted to do it all again, wanted to pull Naruto—His Naruto, the man who chased him, who found him—into his arms. He wanted to taste him, feel him, stay with him. But he knew he could never do that—could never be what Naruto needed.
He was broken. A ragged doll left to soak and decay in a pond of thick, bubbling, infectious rage and disgust. Abandoned and forgotten by all except the little kid who still looked for him in every toy chest and closet in his home.
He needed to go. He had to leave—get out of here. He couldn’t do this, everything was crumbling. Every wall he built shattered to the ground with the earth shaking release he shared with Naruto right in this very bed; and on the floor over there; and against that wall.
He slipped silently out of the bed. The moment his feet hit the floor, Naruto rolled onto her stomach, her arm reaching out as if to look for his warmth it had previously been wrapped around. Sasuke froze, waiting to see if she was going to wake up. She grunted, sounding a bit displeased, before curling into a tight ball and puffing out a sleepy sigh.
Letting out his own relieved breath, he grabbed his things, and he left.
____
The dirt crunched underneath Naruto’s feet as she walked, the village growing smaller and smaller in the distance. She wanted to put as much space between her, and that damned bed as possible; she had a mission to focus on, she couldn’t let herself get distracted.
She had another three or four days of travel until she reached her destination. Three or four days to get her head back on straight.
Uhg! She was still sort of pissed at Sasuke for ruining her chance. She could have had this mission wrapped up early if it hadn’t been for the bastard interfering like that. She could only hope that she ran into the guys again on the road; and hope that they were even the right guys.
She guessed that wasn’t something she had considered, actually. Not like she wouldn’t have been able to beat her way out of the situation if she needed to. Still, it was probably better if she waited until she was actualy in Koiyoto to get captured. That way, there would be a better chance that the next time someone tried to take her, it would be by the actual people she needed stealing her off the streets and not some randos.
She hoped it happened fast, and she could wrap this mission up quick and easy, and maybe beat a few butts on the way. Kami, she could really use a good fight, just a few hours, or even minutes of battle to get the blood flowing. Just another reason to be mad at Sasuke for not being here. He was always her best fight, even when they were just kids.
Dang, she really needed to get her head back on straight. Just complete the mission; then she could get back to the village and do her best to not think about the super mega colossal mistake she made with Sasuke.
She bet Lee would give her a good fight, or even Sakura if she pushed her button hard enough; she could maybe even convince Shikamaru to go a few rounds.
‘I bet you could,’ Kurama said with a laugh.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Naruto huffed in her head.
Even she wasn’t stupid enough to go talking to herself out loud in the middle of the street, even if there wasn’t anyone around.
‘I’m pretty sure that friend of yours has a thing for feisty blondes’
‘Stop being gross, Kurama!’ Naruto chastised, her face pinching in disgust, ‘Shikamaru’s my friend, I’m not going to try and sleep with him!’
‘Last I checked, the Uchiha was your friend, too’ Kurama said sarcastically.
‘That’s different!’ Naruto yelled at the big dumb fox inside her mind, ‘Sasuke’s different!’
‘And why’s that, kit?’ Kurama hummed.
‘He just… he just is! Ahh just shut up! I don’t want to talk about this anymore! Stop saying weird things to me!’ Naruto metaphorically covered her ears with her hands in an attempt to drown Kurama's pleased-sounding laughter.
She really needed to just focus on the mission.
____
She finally made it to the village, thank Kami. She had run-ins with three different bandit camps on her way, and not a single one of them was associated with her target. A waste of time that was. Her life would have been so much easier if Kakashi had just let her sprint here like she originally wanted too.
It’s official, Kakashi sensei was not getting a souvenir.
She plucked the pretty pink Sakura flower keychain off the rack and headed for the pay counter. Sakura would get a souvenir, but only because it would drive Kakashi-sensei crazy that she got one when he didn’t. Maybe she would grab something for the other rookie nine too, just to really rub the dirt into the wound.
She was only in the small shop because she was trying to have herself be seen by as many people as possible. Increasing her odds by also frequenting more touristy shops to really solidify her person as someone unfamiliar with the area. Thus, the souvenir shop she found herself browsing.
She was to stay in the village for a month. If nothing happened by the end of the deadline, she was to report back to the Hidden Leaf in order to regroup. They may need to adjust their strategy, or even Naruto’s Henge if nothing happens. But, until then, she was to frequent the streets of the town as much as possible, and do her best to make herself as desirable a target as she could.
Two weeks. It took two weeks for something to finally happen. She was beginning to lose hope.
This time around, she was wearing an olive green, mid calf length skirt, and a tighter black tank top style wrap shirt that left the sight of her disabled arm completely viable. She was walking just outside of the village, a stones throw from the nearest building, visiting a pretty creek one of the serving girls from the local bar had recommended to her.
She felt their presence behind her almost the moment she stepped foot off the main path. Three– no, four of them were advancing on her. She ignored them, continuing her leisure walk to the creek and sitting delicately on the waters edge.
One instant she was enjoying the pleasant view of the breeze stirred grass and softly rumbling water, and the next she had a blindfold covering her eyes and a hand over her mouth.
She struggled, trying to pull away from the grabbing hands with as much fight as a common civilian would be able to muster. Screaming and moaning and crying muffled behind the tight grip of the hand pressing down on her lips.
“You’re a feisty one. And a pretty one” one guy began to say—he sounded close, and Naruto suspected he was the one holding his hand over her mouth.
“Too bad about the arm, though. Could have gotten a decent price for one as pretty as this” another man said, this one standing somewhere vaguely to the left.
“Maybe, but the boss definitely isn’t going to be complainin’” a third guy said, this one standing directly behind her.
“Best be getting a move on then, wouldn’t want someone from the village to spot us” the fourth and last guy said, sounding like the leader of the group if Naruto had to guess, “quick, get her tied and loaded up”.
Naruto felt her arm get wrenched back behind her, letting out a ‘pained’ gasp at the rough movement.
“Shut up” one of the men spat.
“How do we tie up a girl with one arm?” The guy holding her wrist asked.
“Just, wrap the rope around her wrist and tie the other end around the opposite shoulder, we’ll just keep her close to make sure she can’t escape,” the boss-sounding guy answered.
Naruto struggled and the guy pulled her arm tighter against her back, a rope slipping around her wrist as he did exactly as the other guy described.
The guy holding her yanked her against his chest, “Oh, I’ll keep her close,” he whispered seductively into her ear and neck, just loud enough for the others to hear as he stroked up and down her sides.
Naruto felt a shiver of disgust recoil through her. This guy was gross, and his breath was awful, like unbrushed teeth and rot; he also smelled pungently of smoke, clearly a man who enjoyed the pipe. It almost reminded her of Jiji.
“Don’t get too comfortable with the cargo” one of the other men chastised.
Naruto wanted to push the man’s hands off her waist, wanted to punch him so hard in the stomach that even Kurama would be impressed. His touch, it didn’t feel anything like Sasuke’s.
‘Do you ever think of anything else, kit?’ Kurama bitched.
‘Shut up you over sized bag of obnoxious cotton’ Naruto hissed.
“Come on, this way. The carts just up there” boss man directed.
Okay, they were taking her, good; and from the sounds of it, these were the people she was looking for. Perfect.
All she needed now was for them to take her to their boss, preferably with no funny business.
She put up a struggle as they corralled her forward, towards wherever the cart was. Kicking, muffled screaming, wiggling. You name it.
“Shut up! Quite struggling, or I’ll plunge this blade straight through your throat, and I’ll enjoy myself while I do it” one of the men threatened, a cold blade touched her neck to emphasize the point.
She froze, a small whimper leaving her as she submissively followed where they where leading her.
Maybe she should be doing more infiltration missions; turns out she’s really good at this whole acting thing. Screw Sasuke and his little faith, she was great at this!
‘This is just getting ridiculous’ Kurama groaned.
‘You’re ridiculous’ Naruto spat.
Suddenly she was lifted off the ground, a shocked squeal leaving her before she choked it off. She was tossed onto something hard, and wood by the smell of it. The cart.
Things were finally progressing.
_____
They put a bag over her head, which honestly was a benefit in her opinion, because it meant she could easily enter Sage mode without being seen. She could sense Koiyoto village growing distant behind her, they were heading further west, the opposite direction of the Hidden Leaf.
There were others in the cart with her. All women. Three of them. She hated that she couldn’t do anything to help them without jeopardizing the mission. She’d just have to try her best to keep them safe while she was here. Keep the focus of the men on her and away from the weaker civilians. She was a ninja, the strongest ninja, she could handle whatever came.
The carriage pulled to a stop a few hours later. She sensed the men round the thing toward the back before the carriage door slid open. She quickly released Sage mode and began making whimpering sounds with the rest of the captured women.
One of the men grabbed her by her bound arm and pulled her roughly from the storage cart.
“Get a move on” he hissed, pulling her up off the ground where she fell from the rough treatment.
Naruto could hear the others being pulled from the cart, same as her. They were all crying, muffled by the thick cloths they all had shoved into their mouths under head coverings.
These men were sick. She couldn’t wait until they took them all down—set these women free, and returned them back to their friends and family.
“Move!” One of the other men yelled as her back was pushed and she was forced to walk forward blindly.
They took her and the others through a series of corridors; eventually, the others were pulled off in another direction and it was just her left, being led by the man still holding her tied arm. He was a wonderer, his hands periodically sliding up and down her sides in a manner that had her fighting between wanting to rip his teeth out and wanting to think about that night with Sasuke.
“On your knees!” The man demanded when the came to a stop, presumably in a room now instead of a hallway.
He gave her shoulders a push, and Naruto landed with a grunt and a whimper.
“You stay put, you're about to be a very special gift” the man gruffed, slipping out of the room and leaving Naruto kneeling on the floor, her face covered; her hand bound, and her mouth gagged.
She’d bet money that she was about to be given to the big boss. Maybe, if she was lucky, she could have this wrapped up by tonight.
It had already been nearly four weeks since she left the village. And nearly three weeks since she had seen Sasuke… she wondered if Sasuke was thinking about that night too.
‘Focus!’ Kurama spat angrily.
‘I’m focusing!’ Naruto spat right back.
It wasn’t very long before someone entered the room again, multiple someone’s, three to be exact.
“Check her out, boss. We thought of you the moment we saw her” One of the men said, ripping the bag off her head.
She had to blink away the eye strain as she readjusted to the light. She was greeted to the sight of two men standing slightly off to the side, and one man standing directly in front of her. He wasn’t on the tall side; older, maybe around mid thirties; with black hair and brown eyes. Overall, he wasn’t anything extraordinary, but he did match the pictures she had been shown in the dossier to a tee. Hori Mitsubishi, the man she’s been looking for.
Naruto grunted into her gag, keeping her demeanour scared and intimidated.
“Oh my, she really is a beauty. You did a wonderful job bringing her directly to me” Mitsubishi praised, grabbing her chin and tilting her head this way and that as if he needed to get a really good look at her face, “those eyes are magnificent. Mmm, and her arm…” her hummed low, trailing off at the end as he stroked a slow finger down the length of her stump arm, before circling around the base of the healed skin.
Naruto shivered in disgust. It didn’t feel this gross when Sasuke touched it. Actually, I felt like the complete opposite, like Sasuke was meant to touch it. To worship it. To love it. Because it was her and Sasuke who did it; and it was Sasuke who shared that scar and burden with her. It was a reminder of all their struggles and the battles they’ve fought; of their understanding of each other; and the deep bond they share.
This man shouldn’t be touching her like this. Shouldn’t be focusing on her scarred skin like it was his to praise. To Worship. To love.
“Oh she will do just fine” he said, sounding disgustingly pleased as well as a few other things Naruto chose to ignore.
He pulled her up from the ground, his hands wandering, cupping one of her beasts in a motion that she would compare to scratching nails on a chalkboard.
Damn Sasuke, she was totally prepared to do whatever she needed to do before she ran into him. But now, for some reason, letting anyone else touch her like this felt so unbelievably wrong. Like she was betraying something. Someone. Herself. Sasuke, maybe.
‘Hmm’ Kurama hummed deeply, his voice thick and his essence feeling slightly worried inside Naruto’s mind.
‘What, what is it?’ Naruto questioned in confusion, choosing to focus inside herself as opposed to the hands roaming her skin in her reality.
Mitsubishi was giving her some pseudo version of a pat down. Running his hands down the length of her arms, chest, stomach, back, and legs. Luckily, he didn’t seem to be going further than that.
‘It’s nothing, brat. Focus on the mission’ Kurama answered before shutting himself away in Naruto’s mind so she couldn’t ask any follow up questions.
Stupid fox, she thought they were past the whole brat thing.
“Take her to my room, I believe we’re about to become very acquainted,” he said with a perverse smile.
They began to shuffle her towards the door, only stopping when Mitsubishi called out.
“Wait, what is your name?” He commanded.
One of the men pulled the gag out of her mouth, and she used the opportunity to glare daggers at her target.
“Where are the other women you took? Where are you taking them? Who are you?” She asked in a pleading and desperate tone.
“You don’t need to worry about them, pretty girl. They’ll be well taken care of, I’m sure, by whoever feels fit to purchase them” Mitsubishi said with cruelty, gripping her chin in his hands once again, forcing her to make eye contact with him as he asked again.
“You name”
“Izumi” she answered, voice hard with fear and rage.
“Well, Izumi, I think we’re going to have a wonderful time together when I see you in my bed later” he said with a sultry, slimy voice, “take her away”.
The gag was shoved back into her mouth before she could respond.
____
It couldn’t be this easy. It Could Not Be This Easy!
They actually just threw her into the room. Sure her arm was still bound, and the gag was still in her mouth, but she was completely alone. Not a single guard watching her; and everything was just sitting there, waiting for her to snoop.
She didn’t waste any time. She shot to her feet the moment the guy closed the door behind her and promptly ignored the bed on the far end of the room. There was a desk that was covered in papers; she might actually be able to get what she needed and get out of here before the creepy boss even stepped foot in the room. Kami she hoped so, she was feeling kind of homesick for some reason.
She could very easily get herself out of the binds, but she decided it was probably best if she didn’t in case she wasn’t able to get out of here before Mitsubishi showed up. She stood before the desk, and wasted no time reading over every paper she could see covering the surface.
Ledgers, product lists, employee records—nothing incriminating yet, but she was only a fraction of a way through the visible paperwork. There were a few draws too, if she was a gambling gal, she’d bet the stuff she was looking for was sitting in one of those draws right now.
She glanced around, ensuring that there was no one to witness her. Once positive that she was alone, she entered kyuubi mode and used her chakra arms to rifle through the draws.
There! She can’t believe it! The drawer wasn’t even locked. A second ledger, a product list of women’s names, and a bunch of other incriminating paperwork just sitting there ripe for the taking. Kami these guys were dumb.
No point in sticking around now that she’s gotten what she needed. The sooner she gets out of here, the sooner she can save those women, the sooner she can go home and curl up in her own den—she meant bed.
She didn’t hesitate in removing the binding from her arm and spitting out the gag. She quickly entered Sage mode so as to keep track of any potentially approaching people.
‘This is lucky’ Kurama said easily from inside her mind.
‘Heck yeah! The hell with Sasuke and his doubts about my ability to do my job’ Naruto cheered back.
‘Brat’ Kurama huffed.
She ignored the fox, summoning a toad she had pre-prepared to hold some supplies she might need. She began storing anything and everything that could be used as proof of Mitsubishi’s crime network into a large sealing scroll that she then gave back to her toad.
“You go ahead first and get this to Kakashi-sensei as soon as possible. Tell him that there are women here that need to be top priority for rescue. I would do it myself, but I don’t think the village would be able to get people here to take care of Mitsubishi’s people before they would escape if I did that. I’ll stick around from a distance to watch them and trail them if they decide to move along before we’re able to take care of them” Naruto instructed the toad.
“Roger, boss” the toad saluted before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
Naruto rolled up her metaphorical sleeve and got the heck out of there.
____
She let out a cackle as she watched Mitsubishi’s people run around the area like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off searching for her. Jokes on them, she’s watching them from above, in the trees, like a ninja.
‘You are a ninja, brat’ Kurama grumbled.
“Exactly, that’s why I’m acting like one,” Naruto said matter-of-factly, “and what’s with the whole calling me a brat thing? I thought we were past that?” Naruto whined.
‘Don’t worry about it, brat,’ Kurama said smugly.
“Dumb fox,” Naruto grumbled as she hunkered down into a more comfortable position in her tree.
She was in for a long night— a long few days, actually.
____
She could sense them coming, thank Kami. She’d been camping out in this tree for the last four days and she did not want to be here anymore. She was bored; and she missed her den— she meant bed and apartment deeply; and she was very annoyingly missing Sasuke more than usual which was just exceedingly embarrassing; and for some reason, Kurama was being incredibly tight lipped with her, which just increased her drowning boredom.
So the familiar chakra signatures of Shikamaru, Lee, Shino, and Tenten were welcome. She jumped down from the tree she had been camping out in to meet them on the ground.
Dang, she was excited to see them approaching.
“Miss!” She suddenly heard Tenten yell from the steadily closing in group, “are you alright? Have you gotten away from that compound over there?” She yelled in concern as she landed in front of Naruto.
“Tenten! It's me” Naruto yelled in exasperation, her singular hand finding its way to her hip.
It was as she did that motion that she finally realized how haggard she sort of looked. She was still dressed in the clothes she had been kidnapped in, and had basically been living in the forest for the better part of a week. Yeah, she kind of did look like she just escaped a kidnapping of some kind.
“Naruto?!” Tenten gasped in surprise.
“You look like a beauty draped in the very colours of the sky!” Lee said extravagantly, shooting Naruto a cheesy grin and a thumbs up.
“Why are you still in disguise?” Shikamaru asked carefully, always the one to make sure he’s not missing any important information.
“Hmm? I guess I just forgot” Naruto shrugged, “here, one sec” she put her hand in front of her face in concentration and channeled the chakra for the familiar jutsu.
With a puff of smoke, Naruto felt herself change… though, not as much as she had expected?
“Huh?” Tenten hummed in surprise.
“You look even more lovely than before,” Lee said enthusiastically.
“Naruto?” Shikamaru asked carefully.
Shino said nothing.
Naruto looked down in confusion. She had breasts still? Smaller, but still clearly there. And a waist? And she definitely felt taller. She looked at her arm; muscular. She pulled a lock of hair in front of her face; blonde. She was in her regular female form.
“W- What?” Naruto sputtered in confusion, “Kurama?” She asked hopefully.
‘Don’t ask me, brat’ Kurama said carefully before promptly cutting himself off from Naruto.
“What the hell, Kurama! Don’t just hide!” Naruto said in exasperation.
“Maybe you’ve been in a henge for too long?” Tenten wondered out loud, “it’s been almost two months since you’ve put on the henge, right?” Tenten asked carefully.
“Yeah, but that’s never been a problem before,” Naruto quickly denied.
“You have been henged as a woman for such a long time before?” Lee asked.
“Sure,” Naruto answered easily, “it’s- it’s probably fine. I’ll just talk to baa-chan when I get back to the village” Naruto tried to say with a semblance of confidence.
“Kakashi said to release you right away, and send you home. He also said you would probably insist on getting the women to safety yourself, and not to fight you if you did” Shikamaru said tonelessly, never one to beat around the bush.
“Abso-“ Naruto began to shout excitedly before promptly cutting herself off.
She did want to make sure those women were safe, but she also had full confidence in the team Kakashi sent to do the work. And, if she was being totally honest with herself, she had this itch under her skin where she just really really really wanted to be home. She didn’t think she had it in her to refuse the option to leave it all to her trusted comrades.
“Actually, I think I’ll leave it to you guys. Here, I drew a map of the building from what I could gather while I was in there and from what I could scope out over the last few days. The women are being kept in these two rooms. Children in this one. Mitsubishi’s room is here” Naruto directed, pointing to a few areas of interest on the hand drawn map, “there have been a few carts that have been sent out over the last few days, but I stopped them and released the prisoners and captured the drivers when they got far enough not to be seen. I’ve sealed the bad guys in here” she held up a sealing scroll as she continued to explain, “I’ll give it to Kakashi, or T&I”.
“Sounds good” Tenten said happily, “you head home Naruto, you look like you could use the rest”.
“Hmm” Shikamaru hummed in agreement.
“Do not worry, Naru-chan! We will save those poor women and children right away!” Lee said with another one of his blinding smiles.
“Thanks guys, I’ll leave it in your hands” Naruto shot Lee an equally enthusiastic thumbs up and smiled back.
Without wasting a moment, Naruto went into full Kyuubi Sage mode and blasted off in the direction of the village with incredible speed.
At this rate, she could reach the village in a day or two.