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One country away from Fire was, obviously, not far enough away. Even though he never stayed more than one night in any village, even though he stuck to the large towns where strangers were common, even though he barely talked to anyone and didn't reveal his face whenever possible, five days later Sasuke was eating lunch at a semi-crowded stand when Naruto sat down on the bench across from him.

Sasuke was too cool to choke on his drink, if that was what Naruto had been hoping to see. He just glared at the blond over the rim of his cup.

Naruto was wearing an illusion--Sasuke could see his blue eyes through the long fringe of bangs that Naruto had grown out to cover them, and his fingernails looked normal, and the lines were just six again.

Sasuke berated himself for failing to notice Naruto before he sat down. If his senses were getting this lax, then he would definitely be captured. Or killed by his brother before he even realized Itachi was there.

Naruto waved to the woman moving around in front of the counter, ordered pork ramen, ignored Sasuke's increased glare when he informed her that the other teenager would be paying, and tapped his fingers uncomfortably against the table while waiting for the food.

Sasuke had silently paid for Naruto and began eating faster. He would have just left, but he'd been moving all day and was too hungry to keep going without a meal.

Besides, it wasn't like Naruto was going to let him just walk off; he was going to need energy for the fight.

"The Sound came for you," Naruto said abruptly, still tapping the table.

Sasuke paused for a second, then lifted another piece of chicken tempura to his mouth and didn't reply. But when Naruto didn't continue, he finally said: ". . . And?"

"There was a lot of fighting."

Sasuke gave him another glare, but refused to be dragged any further into admitting that he was interested in Konoha.

Naruto waited for nearly a minute before giving in. He stopped tapping his fingers and folded his hands, looking longingly at the counter where the ramen was almost ready. "Everything is pretty much okay. Kakashi-sensei backed me up and the hag made everyone prepare. A couple buildings got destroyed, and there were people who got hurt, but between Tsunade and Shizune and Sakura-chan, nobody from Leaf died."

Still the 'chan,' Sasuke noted. Even after three years. . . . He tore off another bite of his chicken.

The ramen arrived then, and Naruto dug in more voraciously than usual. Sasuke wondered when he had left, and how fast he'd moved to catch up to him--how long ago had Konoha been attacked? Could he afford to be in one place even for this long?

"We didn't find Kabuto or that snake bastard in the bodies, though," Naruto added through a mouthful of noodles. "They're probably still alive."

And looking for me, Sasuke added. And they'd keep looking until he was either dead or too old for Orochimaru to have any use for him.

But Sasuke didn't like to acknowledge that he'd essentially ruined his life over one decision, so he changed the subject. "How'd you get past the anbu?"

"I waited 'til they were all stuck on cleanup duty," Naruto replied, before swallowing. "The whole area around the Hokage's tower is trashed. They must've figured you were there, 'cause Tsunade said Orochimaru wouldn't be so stupid to try and talk to her again."

Sasuke made a wordless neutral noise in the back of his throat.

While Naruto was looking down, focused on cramming ramen into his mouth (because it hadn't escaped his notice that Sasuke was eating faster), Sasuke let himself glance over long enough to study Naruto's face in the sunlight this time.

Naruto looked up again before he could look away, so Sasuke snorted and said, "Those stupid bangs are a handicap. You'll get blindsided one day."

Naruto tugged on them briefly. "No I won't. 'Sides, I got sick of people staring. And it's easier than a jutsu."

"How did you do that to yourself, anyway?" Sasuke asked, casually so that the words would come out even colder. He glanced surreptitiously over Naruto's shoulder and mapped a path to the door through the places where the crowd was thinnest. "Are they really putting you on missions that difficult?"

". . . Training," Naruto said after a few terse moments.

Sasuke blinked at that, and looked over at him. "Training?"

Naruto was glaring at his ramen. "I lost to you. So I had to get stronger."

Sasuke stared at him. Then he clenched his jaw, but the sharp snicker still escaped through his teeth. He leaned over and braced himself on the table, shoulders shaking with barely suppressed, slightly hysterical laughter.

He heard Naruto hiss something under his breath, and then the other teenager informed the woman behind the counter that everything was fine and his friend was just had a weird sense of humor. And then Naruto was dragging him into the street. When they were put of the crowd, Sasuke's laughter faded to an almost tired exhalation, and he shoved Naruto away.

"Idiot," Naruto snapped as he let go of Sasuke's collar. He rubbed a stray trail of juice off his chin with a hand before wiping it on his pants. "You can't afford to be noticeable like that!"

"Go home, Naruto," Sasuke said flatly. "Missingnins don't become Hokage."

"I know that," Naruto said testily. "But when you come back with me then they'll realize I was just completing the mission. Late."

"I don't want to go back," Sasuke repeated, growing annoyed.

"That's why I'm gonna follow you," Naruto replied. "And wait until you fall asleep, and then tie up your arms and legs and drag you back to Konoha. By your feet."

Sasuke looked over at him.

Naruto folded his arms behind his head, grinning with his mouth closed. Sasuke realized that every smile Naruto had flashed while they were in public had been closed, and guessed that it had become a habit after his incisors sharpened. "You gotta sleep sometime, jerk," he added.

Sasuke gave him a slow, deliberating look, before jumping onto a nearby rooftop and taking off across the town.

--

The idea had been to make Naruto waste most of his chakra racing over the roofs, and then to jump the town walls and lose him in the surrounding countryside. It had been a good idea, up to the point that Sasuke realized he had even less stamina than he'd thought and he wasn't entirely sure where the walls were in relation to his current location. And Naruto was keeping too good a pace with him--he couldn't get out of the other teenager's sight.

Plus, so much for not attracting attention.

He was debating new ideas--Sasuke had had a thought of letting the blond catch him and then knocking him out once they were stopped, but he rejected that as too cheap a tactic to use on Naruto--when, suddenly, that chakra leaked into his senses. Sasuke had to scrabble for his footing when he hit the next roof, and he jerked around to stare.

Naruto had stopped on a sloping porch roof, with two buildings between them. The blond was crouched over so that Sasuke couldn't see his face, one hand on his stomach and the other braced against the shingles.

When he didn't move for several seconds, Sasuke crouched as well, panting and trying to ignore the soreness in his muscles from all the jumping and exertion of chakra, and the heaviness in his stomach from moving strenuously so quickly after eating.

This would be a good time to leave, Sasuke told himself; and just then all traces of chakra disappeared from Naruto. With nothing to hold him on the tilted roof, the other teenager slid off and crashed to the ground, out of sight.

Sasuke automatically shifted closer, then started to pull back, and then hesitated and rested one leg on the scratchy surface of the roof while keeping the other tensed. This would be a really­--

And then that bitter chakra was back, and much stronger than it had been half a minute ago, and it started moving towards him fast.

--shit, Sasuke thought calmly.

He turned and shoved himself off the roof almost at the same time the blond landed on it, and began racing in the direction where he hoped the walls were closest.

The last thing he needed was to be arrested for tearing up part of a city in a fight with the fox-Naruto.