Six Years After (book 2)

Chapter 9

Third person pov

For once in his life, Naruto's honestly got no idea what to say.

The silence is borderline awkward, tension seeming to rise with every rock of the boat. What do you even do in a situation like this? Are there truly any words to encompass it? If there are, Naruto is completely open to ideas. Absolutely nothing else is coming out of his mouth otherwise.

He taps his fingers against the wood edge of the boat, staring out at the seemingly endless body of water in front of him. Idly, he turns around to look behind him, but nope-- it's endless that way too. They are officially in the middle of buttfuck nowhere. 

The sun rising over the murky horizon is the only tell of what happened. Well, aside from the obvious fact that he's in a boat and not passed out on the floor of Tazuna's home, kicking Kakashi in his sleep and making his injury ten times worse. Naruto had only been sort of serious when he talked about "accidentally" making his way to Uzu.

Funny how that works out. Naruto peers up at the sky, squinting slightly. He can't see Kurama, but he can vividly imagine the face he's probably making right about now. Lips curled inwards, ears laid flat, eyes narrowed slightly. Barely holding on by a thread.

"...Did you sleep walk to Tazuna's fucking boat and take off?" Kurama asks after a length silence, even though they both know that's definitely what happened.

"And neither of us noticed a thing." Naruto nodded. They'd been too busy squabbling and debating more about cursed seals. Go figure. "You think it'll rain? Or is dehydration going to be what takes me out?"

The ocean was remarkably calm for supposedly being too treacherous to risk sailing. A point in their favor. A very, very small point, but still a point. Naruto's willing to take what he can get, even if the sky is looking suspiciously dark. 

There's nothing on the boat, sustenance or navigational wise. Not that a map would be much help at this point. Naruto's got no fucking clue where they are. The sun is a small indication, but nowhere near enough for Naruto to pin down even a relative guess as to where they've drifted. How long have they been out here? 

"You've never sleepwalked." Kurama had the barest hint of hysteria in his voice, clearly driven a step closer to insanity by the situation. "Never! This-- you're not even coordinated enough awake to unmoor a boat from a dock, even one as pathetic as this one. You're seriously telling me you did it unconscious?" 

"Hey." Naruto protested half-heartedly. He was kind of right. It's a miracle he didn't drown and wash up downstream somewhere. 

Kurama continued to ramble on. Naruto figured it was probably best to just let him get it all out. He could totally see where the fox was coming from. He has no idea what's going on, or how it's going on, or where they're even going. Though he does have a vague idea.

Honestly, he should be panicking. Naruto's not typically one to freak out, but this is like, some next-level what the fuck, you know? He's literally in the middle of nowhere, stranded on a rickety boat with nothing but Kurama, his jumpsuit, and some vague hope that maybe the ocean will take him to where he needs to go before he starves.

Naruto squinted at the waves. He could probably find a way to cook a fish on this tiny, super flammable boat without killing himself, right? Totally. Naruto is like, super capable when it comes to keeping himself alive. Kind of. Mostly.

Overhead, lightning flashes across the sky, thunder booming loud after it. Naruto purses his lips slightly. Inside his head, Kurama gives a slightly hysterical laugh. 

"This is it. This is where you finally die." He sounds absolutely disbelieving. This must've been his last straw. "Out on a boat. In the middle of nowhere. And I'm going to have to listen to you whine about it every second of the way."