The Real Demon

End of journey

The escape out of the village had been done, but they had to escape the fire nation entirely and into territory konoha nin weren't allowed into.

They sprinted and jumped from tree to tree for hours on end. Naruto was near collapsing, sprinting for so long had put in a massive strain on his body.

Nevertheless he couldn't stop for a single second. The Anbu were still tracking Itachi down. And if at any moment he stopped for even a split second he was putting Itachi at risk.

After a solid 5 hours of sprinting they were almost in the docks and out of the fire nation.

After a short while it became evident that they were almost free.
The air had gotten misty, it was hard to see anything further than 10 meters up front, and the trees were fading. They were nearing the water nation.

They were just a short boat ride away from arriving.

Conviniently enough they found a small row boat at the docks. They got in with very little fucks given about the owner. They needed to leave as quickly as they could.

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Once in the water, Itachi slowed down his speed. They were out of the fire nation by now. And the konoha nin would have way too much ground to cover to be able to find him.

During the entire escape none of them had uttered a single word. Naruto didn't dare ask questions, and Itachi would probably not answer them.

The uchiha rowed slowly through the calm waters of the land. His demeanor was quite somber. His face seemed void of any emotion that wasn't sadness and guilt.

Naruto had no idea what Itachi had done to warrant him turning into a criminal and a deserter. But no expert was needed to tell that it had left him broken.

The little cute sunshine was a person of few words, so he moved himself towards Itachi, sat on his lap facing towards him, wrapping his small arms around him. He looked up at the Uchiha and smiled softly.

His smile bringing glimpses of the beauty of life that Itachi had never gotten to enjoy.

"It's gonna be alright nii-san... you're gonna be alright" The blonde said softly trying to comfort him.

Itachi let the tears freely flow from his beautiful black eyes. He had just lost his entire family. And thrown his entire life away.
Naruto was the only person he had now, and not for long...

The stream of tears slowly dwindled until he had reached a temporary, but quite desirable state of numbness. He suspected emptiness was as close as he would get from happiness, a state of nothingness was the only relief from his suffering.

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After the boat ride, the duo had arrived at one of the small islands that composed the water nation. It was quite chilly and slightly snowing.

"Were safe now..." Itachi said softly, in a distant and bleak tone.
"Let's get something to eat it's been a... tiresome day"

They walked around the island which was a small, empty, and quiet town. The people were few and all turned their necks at the sight of them. They found a small restaurant, the only one that was open at such hours, maybe the only one open as the town looked in a bad economic state.

They walked in to be received by a simple minimalistic white interior with wooden chairs and no decorations except for the white lamps that hanged atop the tables. It was larger than expected on the inside, with four rows of tables, one row of three tables and the rest of four. And a path up to the counter between the row of three and the rest.